#i’m missing stuff here but that’s def my main issue

[starfiretruther]

Is there something that you feel people get wrong about Kory or you feel like people don’t really talk about or see when it comes to her character?

i mean other than the perception of her being a ditzy pretty girl cuz of the cartoon, imo people don’t really engage with her character at all. I get the visual appeal like duh but it seems they always do surface level exploration of Kory and her storylines always feel kinda flat. With all the varying aspects of her you could explore, dc (and most fans) just doesn’t care? She’s a warrior princess first in line for the throne, she’s an ex-slave, she’s an openly alien public figure on earth, she’s ruled by her emotions and has different morals than most of the titans. Like you’re telling me out all of these things, the only thing that interests you is her romance with dick? This is a general problem of dc with it’s female characters but kory’s just been reduced to dick’s potential love interest and that in itself is just so frustrating.

(i don’t have a problem with the cartoon starfire but it’s a bit problematic for the tv version to bleed into the comics, in my head they’re two different iterations and should be separate)

[xydamcg]

Hi!! Could you do a young Vi x young fem reader? Maybe just doing dumb teenager stuff, like sneaking out, getting into trouble, etc.

Much love <33

Of course I can lovie! My first request I must fulfill it to my besteesssstt ability! :)

Young love

Pairing: Young Vi x Young fem! reader

Cw: some violence, cursing, angst (can’t help myself seriously!) def gonna get a part 2

Summary: Vi gets in trouble with Vander and told she can’t leave The Last Drop but you have other ideas in mind.

The patrons of the bar were rowdy as usual as you entered. Many not even glancing at your passing form to the main counter where Vander had stood. Upon seeing you he smirked already knowing why you were here. Quickly hopping onto a stool you batted your eyelashes up at the older man who had much been a parental figure for you. “What can I do you for kiddo?” He questioned. You sigh as you tilt your head, why did he always do this. “Vander please.” You waved off his antics. “She’s up top but she’s in trouble, so no great adventures tonight.” Giving you the information you needed you already were halfway across the bar, leaving vander to warn himself and shake his head. He knew you two were always up to no good. And tonight you’d be validating that fact once more.

Climbing the stairs before pushing up to the attic and through a window. You scaled the side of the Bar’s roof before swinging up to the roof finding Vi smashing her fists through already broken wood crates. You stuffed your hands into the pockets of your jacket waiting for a moment to intervene. “Bit of an overkill don’t ya think?” You questioned with a laugh as she went to swing at the crates again. Vi peered over her shoulder at you before dropping her wrapped fists with a huff, kicking the crates as she turned to fully face you. “What did you do this time huh?” You asked as you came closer to her noticing a few extra blemishes on her face and arms than normally. “I got into it with some Rats on the way back from a haul in piltover.” She grumbled with a ball of her fist. “Vanders mad about—wait piltover?” You questioned astonished at her words. Piltover was off limits to the kids of the undercity only because well they tended to stir up trouble wherever they went and they definitely didn’t need to start trouble over there. Vi simply nodded as you pulled your hands from your pockets grabbing her arms in excitement and anticipation, she just had to tell you everything. “You’re going to tell me about it right?” You asked as she looked at you amused, of course she wasn’t. She noticed you got a kick out of piltover getting fucked even though you were from over there yourself.

You were from piltover but you never associated yourself with those self righteous, single celled brain, power hungry manics. You had runaway not even two months ago due to issues going on in your immediate family, they probably hadn’t noticed your absence yet anyways. You had been the middle child, the one that was always overlooked and waiting for your moment to shine. Well you wouldn’t be overlooked anymore and you certainly wouldn’t wait any longer to find your moment to shine because every day passing was an opportunity missed. You never felt like you fit in with your family anyways, you were truly a black sheep. “No I’m not going to tell you about the disastrous mission in piltover. It sucked and it sucked bad, I’ll just tell you another time. What are you doing here anyways Sunny?” She denied before looking into your motives while she still had you present. You smirked mischievously as she asked what you were doing here and she immediately got the hint. “Oh no no no no no. After we got caught the first time Vander had me babysit powder for a whole week! You’re not getting me caught up this time.” Vi refused making you pout. If she wouldn’t come you’d have to guilt trip her into playing your game. “Come on Vi! We won’t even get caught this time I swear! Do you trust me?” You asked knowing she couldn’t refuse you too much. Vi nodded slowly as she sighed. “Yes I do.” She answered. “Do you love me and would you do anything for your bestest sunny in the whole wide world!” You continued clasping your hands together as you batted your fluffy eyelashes at her with a goofy grin. Vi couldn’t help but smile slightly as she crossed her arms lazily. “Yes and yes.” She confirmed causing you to squeal and jump onto her with open arms. “Then we are gonna get us some dough.” You chimed.

You gave Vi a quick run down, you’d leave through the bar the same way you came in so Vander wouldn’t be suspicious. Have powder, Mylo and Clagger cover you two along with Ekko..he tended to crack under pressure sometimes especially if it was Vander or Benzo. You bribed them all with a portion of your allowance, they all immediately agreed. While you were leaving with Vanders eyes on you, he’d never even realize Vi was escaping across the roof of the undercity to meet you at the bridge. She wasn’t all to sure about how well it would go but agreed anyways, because who could ever deny you?

-

“How do you know this place?” Vi asked as she lifted you onto her shoulders to hostler you into the unlocked window of a piltover home. You two crossed the bridge stealthily and walked ten blocks before arriving at the lavish house. “Don’t worry about it.” You comment as you climbed inside the darkened room before you leaned out to grab VI’s hand to help her inside. Grunting softly as you pulled her inside, she landed with a soft thud. Your eyes flickering toward the cracked open door across the room before Vi. She shrugged with a mouthed ‘sorry’, you close the window before tugging your hood down from your head. Creeping to the door you pushed it closed before locking it and cutting in the bedroom light.

Around the room was nothing but the finest of the fine. Silver lined hand mirrors, different perfumes, paintings from the finest artist of piltover, a jewelry box filled with pearls necklaces, ruby rings, emeralds earrings, etc. Don’t even get you started on the closet. The bed was gigantic and the silk sheets looked untouched most of the room did as you did a full swivel of inspection. Vi seemed just as amazed as she looked at the high ceiling that held a painting of its own. You maneuvered around the room stuffing things in your pocket and wrapping jewels around your neck from the box. “Wait wait who’s stuff are we taking?” Vi questioned. This seemed to strike anger in you as you paused turning to her. “Since when does it matter who’s stuff you take Vi. Why are you suddenly asking questions?” You grumble as you grabbed a fist full of a pearl necklace, Vi narrowed her eyes at you before she grabbed your wrist. “Since when you decided it was okay to keep things from me..to lie to me.” She snapped quietly as you looked up at her. “I-I didn’t lie..I’m not keeping anything from you.” You quickly rebuttal. “So what’s this?” She questioned grabbed a flipped picture from the vanity next to you and shoving it into your face. It was a family photo of you, your parents and your siblings at a big business party. Your smile wasn’t real but no one who didn’t know you wouldn’t know that. “They won’t even notice this stuff is gone! They don’t even know that I’m not even here. I’m just a few sentences in their book, a book they won’t ever re-read. They don’t care about me they never did and they never admit it but their lives would be better with out their ghost child lingering around.” You yelled as angry tears pushed at your eyes. You snatched the picture from her and chucked it across the room, it smacked into the wall before shattering to the ground. “Hey Y/N..I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean—“ Vi began as she saw how upset you were now from your normal Sunny personality. “Don’t Vi..let’s just go.” You grumble as you tossed the pearl necklace back into the jewelry box before pushing the window open again. Vi exited before you took one last look at your old room before dropping down into the soft grass and running after Vi.

You jingled and clacked as you ran and leap across streets and railings toward the bridge. You two wasted no time to make your way back into the undercity, your body on full alert as you were lost in your own thoughts. Vi glancing at you every now and again because you had become so quiet she was afraid she had plucked a nerve that was too deep. And she had. It had been past close when you two reached The Last Drop, Vi had been sneaking around the back when Vander was coming from the alley. Seeing you looking inconspicuous he raised an eyebrow on your direction. “Where’s Vi?” He asked peering down at you, you hadn’t met his gaze yet. “I don’t know Vander..inside I guess? Thought you said she couldn’t go on any big adventures.” You repeated his words from earlier. All emotion was void from your tone which Vander picked up on, he sighed before guiding you inside the empty bar. Your hood was still up and you managed to quiet the rattling jewelry and money in your pockets as you sat at the bar with Vander who made you a tropical juice. You tugged your collar to hide the necklace you were wearing but Vander being Vander he noticed already. He hadn’t brought it up of course because he was more focused on how you were feeling currently. Something your actually parents never cared to indulge in with you.

“What’s wrong chickadee?” He asked as you moved your hands from your pockets to the cup in front of you. As you thought about his questioned you clenched your hand around the glass before closing your burning eyes. “Me and Vi were being snappy at each other earlier. And she said something I didn’t like and it hurt me. But I did something she didn’t like and I know it hurt her. Of course I didn’t mean it and she didn’t either but it’s stupid because I don’t want it to be like this. I don’t want my past to be something I keep running from but I’m no good there. I don’t need to be there; I don’t belong somewhere I’m not welcome. They never loved me Vander, they could care less about what I do or where I end up. I could show up there now and they’d go. “Oh..y/n why aren’t you in bed?” They wouldn’t ask why I’m wearing what I’m wearing, where I’ve been, why they haven’t seen me. They don’t care and it hurts even more because there my own parents. You treat me a million times better than they ever had you’re not even blood.” You explained as you stared at the cup of untouched juice, Vander taking a seat next to you.

“Blood or not. You are my family, you mean more to me than you’d ever know. What you and Vi have going on, you two can easily hash it out because you two understand each other on a different level than what I’ve come across in my many years. You two are mirror souls, same soul split in half. All you have to do is talk, it may be heard at first but just listen here and it’ll come out here.” He advised tapping your head before your chin referring to your mouth. You slightly felt better after talking to Vander, you always enjoyed talking to him because you could unload your baggage and he’d just take it with open arms. You pulled your hood down as Vander tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear. “You’re off the hook chickadee, run along.” He said flicking the jeweled earring that hung from your ear. Your eyes widened you grabbed you ear forgetting you had put them in since your pockets were full. “Thanks old man.” You whispered as you dashed out the room to find Vi.

How could you have forgotten the earrings?

[danteinthedevildom]

U know what u right u right, they do really listen to us and I appreciate it.

Got me out here rethinking my approach towards solmare smh.

I think it's really cool and sweet that they went in thinking ab GN MC, I actually didn't know that 🥺🐍

I FOUND IT. It's RAD News No. 1!

So for those who can't read it, it says:

Instead of mainly focusing on a "story" as we had done before, we wanted to try something more innovative by creating characters that felt realistic enough for our players to befriend and interact with. That's how everything started!

Once we had decided on the concept of creating "real characters", we concluded that it wouldn't make much sense to be too specific when deciding on the appearance, personality, etc. [of MC]. After all, if the players cannot identify with or become the main character, it would take away from the gaming experience we were aiming for.

That's why we decided not to specify any gender, skin colour, or hair colour in our scenarior nor illustrations, so that our players can freely imagine their own main character.

This is also one of the reasons we got rid of a lot of narration. There aren't many scenarios written without a specified gender in Japan, which means it must be hard for Japanese scenario writers. But we have noticed in the reviews and comments that players appreciate this aspect of the game, and we have seen so much fan art and fan fiction in which everyone created their own characters! This really made us think that we made the right decision.

The next thing we would like to challenge is for the users to be able to freely imagine the main character's personality as well when playing the game!

I'm not gonna lie and say Solmare is the best company ever, bc they do have some lil issues here and there, and nobody's ever gonna be perfect - and holding them to that standard just is kinda unfair/unrealistic anyway. They're still just a bunch of people doin their best, and sometimes that ends up in a hit-or-miss.

But they are really fuckin good, and they are amazin for genuinely tryin to do smthn that hasn't really been done before - or done well.

The makin MC GN was sorta an unintentional side effect of havin a game with more developed, realistic characters that people'd love (and more focus on buildin realistic relationships with those characters), but the reason why is still fuckin amazin.

Get rid of identifyin factors on MC and suddenly WE are the ones talking to the characters in the Devildom - not some proxy character we're meant to live through, who won't fit like a glove for everyone.

We're not livin someone else's life or playin someone else's story. That's OUR story. That's OUR life. And the bonds we make are OUR bonds.

This is prolly also why we're never given a backstory. If they never mention who we were pre-Devildom, then anyone can just slap their own, normal lives onto MC. Plus why we get questions like "do you have any siblings?" in regards to Beel's convo abt Lilith and Belphie; it's so that convo can appeal to people who DO have siblings and to people who're only children! You get to decide, in that moment, who MC is. Which is fuckin phenomenal, honestly.

It's also, I think, why this game doesn't have set romance routes and lets you back out of most romantic situations. Not everyone's gonna WANT to end the game in a romance, but should that mean they get a bad ending? Or a kinda bland, disappointing neutral ending? Nah. Bc the main focus is the characters, and you can mean as much to them as a friend/platonic part of the family as you can actively dating them.

Solmare went into it with GN!MC to help us connect to the characters, and through seein fan interaction and talkin to fans, realised how much people loved havin the option to be the MC! And they're dedicated to tryina make the experience even more neutral/unique so we can feel even more like we're part of the game.

So it's kinda that balance between intentional and unintentional - at first. Now they're really goin for as much of a GN!MC as they can, and it's bc they took notice of how much it meant to everyone.

It's amazin when you get into it just what a unique experience this is, and how much thought and effort went into (and is still going into) makin the game somethin that everyone can enjoy. It's why I love OM, personally, and why OM's got such a huge followin compared to other otome games on the market rn. It appeals to more people in a more natural, comfortable way.

It def. deserves appreciation! Solmare are doin a hella good job on that front, ngl. But don't feel like you can't hold criticisms, too, bc you absolutely can.

Like sometimes, tho rarely, OM can slip into tropes that feel a little more fem-aligned, and it can be jarrin. But a lot of that's bc of how good the game is on the whole at bein neutral that smthn gendered sticks out like a sore thumb.

(Basically I just wanna make sure peeps still know they can be grumpy/unhappy with things even tho the game/company does some good stuff. Like I said! Nothin's ever perfect. And laudin a company too high can have some hella bad consequences lookin at my experiences w/ Homestuck here ngl, so we just gotta remember to praise them for the things we love and that're good and question some of the things that're maybe not as great, and build a fandom community that's acceptin of criticisin Solmare when it's justified).

[katierosefun]

andddd july flew by, and i’m here to give everyone an unasked for report of...things...i watched / read / listened to this month because why not

kdramas: 

miss hammurabi

aaaah oh my god the way i told myself that i won’t be watching any more legal kdramas because your honor stressed me out so much--but god. i wound up watching this and fell in love with it so fast? miss hammurabi is about a rookie judge (the gal on the right) disrupting the judicial system with her strong sense of justice. i really wasn’t too sure if i’d like her, but oh god. i fell in love with her so fast, with her desire to make the world a better place and her ability to smile even though she’s had a horrific life of her own.

honestly, i really just loved this show, mostly for how it covers so many issues in the courthouse, from working overtime to the emotional fatigue to the frustrations with those brought to court to the actual cases themselves, which are all civil court things (so we get some stuff about sexual harassment, child custody, medical malpractice, etc). this show really demonstrated that each of these cases were important--and also...really hard-hitting. i think i cried at least once per episode just because...yeah. i’m reminded that no one goes to the courthouse because they’re happy or because they’re having a good time, and it really is the job of judges and lawyers to keep a cool head and execute justice the best they can. 

so basically: i loved this show. i loved it a lot more than i thought i would, and that’s always a good thing. there’s also not a whole ton of romance here either, if you’re looking for a show that’s not really too deep into that. it’s def. more focused on depicting the legal field, as well as all of the complications that come with that. as a result, there’s a lot of heartbreaking moments in the show, but there’s also many, many, many uplifting ones that reminded me a lot of why i personally want to enter the legal field. so if you’re looking for a show that might restore your faith in humanity, then i def. recommend this kdrama!

beyond evil 

so.....it’s no secret that i’ve been mildly obsessed with this show. i binge-watched it in the span of...i think four (4) days, so that’s averaging about four episodes (4 hours) a day. let me just say...i was kind of on the fence about watching this, but now i’m really glad that i did because whooo boy, i was in for a ride. basically, this show is about lee dong sik, who was accused of murdering his sister (amongst others) 20 years ago...and han ju won, the young detective / inspector who’s trying to track down the murderer (who he believes is lee dong sik). 

lots of other things happen, but that’s the least spoiler-y summary i can give of this show because....whooooo boy, there’s just so many twists and turns in this show? as soon as you start thinking you have everything figured out, this show tosses in another thing that reminds you of just how clueless you actually are. that said though, none of the twists felt out of place--they all felt very planned and very smart, so kudos to the writers for that! 

overall, i hella enjoyed this show--the plot, the characters (who all want to do the right thing, but they’re all very jaded in their own ways which makes being a 100% good person basically impossible in this monster of a town), and, of course, the relationship between dong sik and ju won. there was just an absolutely fascinating push and pull between their relationship, lots of distrust and mocking each other in the beginning...only to slowly but steadily grow into trust and respect for each other (and in my head, def. something more....but lol i’ll let you guys decide on that for yourself ;)) 

i.....genuinely loved this show. i found this show just incredibly smartly written, and all the characters were incredibly intriguing? and the relationships were all fascinating to me? just. god. this show ripped me apart so many times, and i loved it all the more for it. like. guys. i wrote or started writing about six fics for this show in the span of 48 hours because i love it that much.

movies:

the handmaiden

ohohoho this movie has been on my to watch list for the LONGEST TIME, and i was glad that i gave myself some time to watch this movie at the start of the month, because...whoooo boy, it was so good. this movie is inspired by the book the fingersmith by sarah waters, only whereas i think the book took place in victorian england, this movie takes place in japan-occupied-korea. sook hee, a pickpocket, is hired by a conman to persuade the secluded lady hideko to marry him. the conman plans to later inherit hideko’s wealth and send hideko off to the madhouse. 

many things happen over the course of this movie, and i’m not going to spoil anything, but oh boy...oh boy. i mean, this movie is pretty well-known for the main relationship between the two protagonists, sook hee and hideko. the romance was such a ride, and i thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it. this movie really said “be gay, do crime” in the best way possible. 

as a quick warning though, this movie definitely is erotic. i kinda knew that heading into the movie, and i was still a little caught off-guard. so maybe if you’re a little squicked out by sex/erotica in general, i’d maybe skip over this movie. that said, this movie was beautifully filmed, with beautiful writing, and the cast was just perfect. i don’t think i’ve seen a movie so beautifully or smartly crafted like this before, and i’m very glad i watched this film. 

the meg

let me caveat by saying....i watched this because my brother wanted to watch it, so i sat through this movie and...y’know? it wasn’t awful. kinda predictable as far as shark movies go, but it wasn’t bad! i found myself enjoying it a little more than i thought i would...? but basically, this movie is about, you guessed it, an underwater research facility that was just looking into a deeper part of the ocean and etc. surprise, they found! a megalodon. multiple megalodons! cue the chaos. 

so...there were definitely some more suspenseful moments. i shouted “these people just KEEP FALLING OFF THE BOAT” a few times. there was one character who i was like “oh man he’s gonna be the villain isn’t he :( darn :(” to “oh hey he has a heart” to “oh never mind” to “ooph”. there were some more slightly emotional moments, but?? not particularly thought-provoking or impactful. so like? overall? it was one of those movies where like....it’s not bad, it’s not really good, but! hey, not all movies need to be incredibly deep to be even somewhat enjoyable! (and like, i mostly just enjoyed watching this movie because my brother and i cracked commentary all throughout it, much to my father’s chagrin.) 

music: 

so, apparently my music taste changes when i’m thinking about something that’s not star wars related, and i saw a bit of that when i was making this playlist for lee dong sik and han joo won from beyond evil. as spotify works, it wound up with me adding a few of my songs that i thought fit them, and then i wound up going into the radio part of my playlist and listening to a lot of new songs, and i just have to list some of my new faves here: 

let me follow by son lux: you know when you hear a song that just feels so...strangely cinematic? like, you get all kinds of vivid images in your head and stuff? this was def. one of those songs. it’s quiet, and there’s something weirdly...ephemeral about it? that’s the only way i can describe it. and mildly haunting. and mildly tragic. idk why, but i think big fans of tragedy & the patroclus/achilles kind of feel might like this song. it’s just. god. i spent 2 hours sitting in my bed just listening to this song on loop. 

not in the same way by 5 seconds of summer: this is a public scolding @ 15 year old me who thought it was lame to like 5sos just because they were getting popular. boo, 15 year old caroline and her “i’m a weirdo, i’m not like other girls or other people my age” phase! because 5sos actually slaps, and this was one of my fave songs? idk. another weirdly cinematic song. the refrain is just chef’s kiss, in the kind of rambly way that leads to a shout. i love that kind of stuff. 

start of time by gabrielle aplin. bro...the way gabrielle aplin’s voice brought me straight back to 2014-2016 era caroline...but weirdly, i haven’t heard this song from her before? and bro. bro....i’ve never wanted to run to the top of a hill and watch the sunrise with a loved one so bad in my whole life. god. idk. if you need a song that makes you feel like. things just might get better. this one’s for you. 

sedated by hozier: okay, so i’ve only ever listened to a handful of hozier songs in my whole life (i know, i know, how can i bicon like myself not listen to hozier 24/7? le sigh), but bro.....bro. i get it now. i get why people screech about hozier. i already liked his music before, but...ah. idk. something very powerful about this song. i now understand why people want to lie down in the middle of the woods when they listen to his music. 

[boomerang109]

hi!! I hope you’re having a a good day and sorry to bother you, I’ve seen some stuff abt your fic twwda and it seems really cool!! I’d love to read it, but I noticed it was tagged w/ disordered eating and I was wondering how graphic it is/gets?? I’ve been in recovery for like a year but I still get kinda panicky when eating disorders are described in vivid detail so like is it possible to skip over those scenes or is a major plot point???

anyway sorry, thank you! <3

hi!! this absolutely isn’t a bother and you do not need to apologize! i’m actually really glad you sent this because i really want my fic to be as accessible as possible and i know how terrible it can be to see something on a sensitive topic without warning. because of that i do have content warnings at the beginning of each chapter to try to help readers out. and i’m happy to answer in more detail as i will here!

basically the main disordered eating so far has been zuko’s and it’s not by choice. everybody’s favorite father, ozai, likes to not invite him to dinner because he’s an abusive asshole. so whenever zuko does get the chance to eat he eats A BUNCH (not unhealthily so, just enough that it gets commented on), but that’s just more cause he wants to be eating and bitch lord isn’t letting him

i’m going to let you in on some spoilers so we can talk about azula. basically so far there’s just been a few lines alluding to her not eating much and i think one section where she judges zuko for needing/relying on food (but it’s like two sentences). essentially what’s going to be revealed later on is that she’s developed anorexic behaviors as a result of watching ozai and zuko. her logic is “ozai hurts zuko by not letting him eat, but if he were just used to not eating much already (like me) then he’d be fine.” (ozai rarely, if ever, kept food away from her, but she was Scared and prepared for the event jic and unfortunately that led to some unhealthy habits). so then she’s going to have to eat lunch supervised but that’s really more a vessel for me to have her talk with my favorite oc more than it is gonna be a focus on her disordered eating (as well as cws, i can keep you in mind and try to write in chapter notes if anything i write in the future can be skipped. i did this for the one excessively violent ozai scene where i denoted it differently and had a summary in my end notes for anyone who didn’t want to read it and i can def do that for disordered eating if that’s something that would help!)

personally the only scene that feels graphic to me is the first scene of chapter five. definitely skip that. (summary: zuko doesn’t admit he already ate dinner with sokka so ozai forces him to overeat). i guess you might also want to skip the first scene of chapter seven (zuko hasn’t eaten all day from stress, katara makes him eat, and then he throws up from stress. sokka is 😱 and tells mx mak who cancels rehearsal and tells zuko they care about him. azula basically tells sokka why zuko’s upset and there’s a great line of her going basically going “i don’t care about you, i just wanna go to the mall” or whatever and zuko thinks to himself azula always lies). otherwise, i feel like it’s generally just a sentence or two alluding to the issue so far? (if anyone is reading this whos read wwda and is like “boom! you forgot xyz,” then please add on cause (a) im kinda rushing cause class and (b) i don’t always realize how messed up my writing is 😳)

also it’s always in the chapter notes whether there’s disordered eating in the chapter or not (although i will say it’s always possible i missed something, people usually are good at letting me know so hopefully the cws should all be accurate) so if you’re in a more sensitive mood or anything, you can always check that to see. (for example, chapter 1 has no cws cause it’s just fun times! so you can read that whenever, but chapter 6 is an example of something i don’t think is graphic but there’s definitely some allusions to it so maybe be more careful when you read!)

anyway this is long but i hope it is helpful (i did write it instead of doing homework whoops ahdhdkslals) i just think it’s really cool you want to read my fic at all and i’m happy to do anything i can to help make that a more positive experience for you <3

[radramblog]

Series 10 Team Tech

Once again there’s another series of competitive VGC ‘mons, and once again I didn’t really get to play it. Because I woke up late and missed the tournament. That one’s on me.

Still, the team exists, and I’m kinda proud of it. The idea was to build an anti-meta team, one that has answers for what I figured would be the top threats of the meta. Since this meta has Restricteds, those were my main targets- particularly what I thought were the ones I was most likely to see.

It probably would have turned out okay? But I guess we’ll never know. But here’s the team anyway.

(I don’t have proper images for the sets since this is on my laptop but I’ll just type out the details)

Xurkitree

Beast Boost, Choice Scarf, Thunder/Grass Knot/Volt Switch/Dazzling Gleam, Modest 252 Sp.A 4 Sp.D 252 Spe

This is kind of where the whole team started. Xurkitree has incredible power at just taking out significant threats, what with its base 173 Special Attack. And that’s not even keeping other ways of boosting it in mind. The idea for this team pretty much stemmed from this idea- I ran some calcs and found a set that could OHKO both a fully invested Groudon with Grass Knot (also useful against the many very heavy Pokemon in the meta) and also OHKO a fully invested Kyogre with STAB, which due to Ky’s insane Special bulk necessitated Thunder as the choice. At the very least, Drizzle means it’ll be 100% accurate.

Unfortunately, both Kyogre and Groudon just outspeed Xurkitree by about 7 base points- curse that prime number stat distribution! This necessitates Choice Scarf, which should be fine provided people aren’t running Scarf Water Spout Kyogre or something (they could have been!). Scarf, fortunately, also makes Xurkitree an excellent lategame cleaner.

What Xurk really falls in is its coverage options. It’s basically stuck with Electric/Fairy (just Dazzling Gleam)/Grass (Energy Ball/Grass Knot)/Normal, which is far from ideal. And seeing as two of my moveslots are effectively taken up by Thunder/Grass Knot, I don’t have that much to work with. Ended up going with Volt Switch, seeing as zipping out of an unfavourable matchup is always good, and Dazzling Gleam, just for spread damage and it’s just kind of a good offensive move. I really wish it could get, like, Ice Beam or something, but it’s what we have to put up with.

 Ho-Oh

Regenerator, Wacan Berry, Sacred Fire/Brave Bird/Recover/Whirlwind, Adamant 252 HP 252 Atk 4 Def

With Xurkitree handling Kyogre and Groudon, the issue game to deal with some of the other big spookies- Zacian, Calyrex-Shadow, and Xerneas. Calyrex is its own little chestnut, but Ho-Oh deals with the other two pretty well, while also being Big and Beefy. Sacred Fire nukes Zacian, and it can live a hit from most things (especially with Intimidate, which we’ll get to) Zacian throws out. The only move the dog has that really answers Ho-Oh is Wild Charge, which is where the Wacan berry comes in- it’s also useful for things like Regieleki or Thundurus.

As for Xerneas, well, it just can’t really damage Ho-Oh, what with the Fairy resistance. In case they do go for Geomancy, Whirlwind is pretty effective, though I’m unsure as how often that’d be useful. Xerneas really doesn’t have a way to break through Ho-Oh, given its coverage options are, to my understanding, even worse than Xurkitree’s.

Ho-Oh also has the advantage of Never Dying. Recover and Regenerator make for a hell of a bulky bird, and the team overall has enough fluidity that switching out isn’t a huge downside. When you’re building a team to counter specific threats, you kind of do need the ability to preserve counters, and Ho-Oh does a great job of doing that on its own. And like… Sacred Fire is a really nuts move.

 Hitmontop

Intimidate, Eject Button, Fake Out/Feint/Close Combat/Wide Guard, Adamant 252 HP 252 Atk 4 Def

Hitmontop is such an incredible support Pokemon. Fake Out. Intimidate. And, a great way to answer Calyrex- Shadow as well as Kyogre and the like, in the form of Wide Guard.

I honestly think I goofed up on this set though, with the brief testing I did. While Feint is going to be great the times you can use it, it’s nigh-useless outside of that, and I’m not great at predicting Protects. I think I would have preferred the extra tempo of U-Turn, frankly, especially since I’m not Speed-invested so going for a non-priority move means the Eject Button is switching me out half the time anyway.

I’m interested to see how a different mon in this slot, like Mienshao, would affect the team’s performance. But I love that Intimidate so much, so I dunno.

 Tapu Koko

Electric Surge, Assault Vest, Electroweb/Volt Switch/Dazzling Gleam/Nature’s Madness, Timid 4 HP 252 Sp.A 252 Spe

I’m a big fan of the Electric-Type Offensive Support, apparently. First Raichu, then this. Fuck Regieleki, though. Koko brings a lot to the table- immunity to Sleep effects like Amoonguss’s Spore or Venusaur’s Sleep Powder, the ability to crack bulky mons with Nature’s Madness, and making Xurkitree hit even fucking harder.

God, I wish it got Rising Voltage though. Considering it’s often led next to Xurkitree, being able to double Volt Switch into itself to reset terrain will have to do. Electroweb is, unfortunately, the only Speed control the team really has, which is a weakness I’d like to work on, though there isn’t really a great place to do so.

 Tsareena

Queenly Majesty, Wide Lens, Power Whip/Triple Axel/Taunt/Protect, Adamant 252 HP 252 Atk 4 Sp.D

This is kind of the most meta mon on the team. Sorta. Turns out when Fake Out and Rillaboom are everywhere, Queenly Majesty is a fucking great ability to have.

Due to the fact that Koko already had the Assault Vest, this queen couldn’t get the most “default” set it gets. Wide Lens, though, is kind of still really good, giving you the ability to get away with Power Whip (even though I still missed it in testing) and Triple Axel, which is great in this format. It also allows for fire moves that you don’t normally get to put on Tsareena- High Jump Kick ended up not being as relevant seeing as I have two Fighting types, and Play Rough the same because of Xurkitree/Koko, so I went with Taunt for all the funky shit it can do, as well as Protect, because, Protect.

It turns out Tsareena just hits really hard, too. Getting a basically free 120BP attack off of 120 base Attack is a lot! And Triple Axel covers most of the things Power Whip doesn’t hit anyway, so it’s not too big a deal only having two attacking moves.

 Urshifu-Single-Strike

Unseen Fist, Life Orb, Wicked Blow/Close Combat/Poison Jab/Detect, Adamant 252 Atk 4 Def 252 Spe

The final mon on the team was one I puzzled over for a bit. Eventually I realised I had a way of stopping Calyrex-Shadow, but not a way to actually, you know, KO it, so in came the Urshifu. Can’t Protect your way out of this one, you idiot deer/horse combo.

Urshifu also handles Trick Room really nicely, seeing as those teams often have Psychics as their setters which it can just KO flat-out. The also often use fairies, though, so Poison Jab gets in, though having it up against one of those is not exactly an ideal case scenario.

I’m still unsure of how this set looks. Like, yeah it’ll kill stuff, but it’s pretty fragile, and very weak to a lot of things. But at the end of the day, Urshifu is always Urshifu: I.E., good.

 That’s the team. It didn’t get to play. Well, I tested it a bit, at least. The biggest issue I think with the anti-meta team is its overspecialization, and in this case that’s heightened by the fact that I made this team before the meta actually started- so the threats I’m answering may not be the reality of the matchups I face. But that’s just Pokemon, isn’t it?

[beyond-far-horizons]

Rhythm of War reactions so far (half way through.)

I caved despite mountains of work and I’m half way through Rhythm of War! So many cool things so much I could scream about, so many cosmere links! Bit right now I’m just gonna throw it out there that I think Thaidakar is a dragon like Hoid’s friend. No idea if this is true (and don’t confirm or deny til I’m through the book please.)

Spoiler reactions for RoW so far and rest of Cosmere Book (poss) so far under the cut. If you do respond please don’t spoil me for the rest of the book!

KALADIN!!! My baby! My boy! Someone help him! Someone give him a hug! But he is doing so well and I love his solo quest/Die Hard in the Tower at the moment. I loled officially at Kaladin Stormblessed the Psychiatrist who discovers group therapy! It’s a little on the nose to be honest but I still liked it.

F*ck Moash #noredemption. Although LOL that Kaladin is officially a thorn in Odium’s side (payback time pal!) and yeah I BET you want to turn him. I admit I loved this section. Enemy/hero connections are always so interesting to me and the metastory with the Shards is the most interesting part of any cosmere book to me apart from maybe Kal-centred stuff. I love seeing the hints of how the emotions/properties of the Shard play out in the narrative/characterisation as it’s one of the main themes in my own WIP and magic systems. Odium seems to break the power of Shards by targeting their main Intent (as someone else suggested). I predict Kaladin will stick with Honor and conquer the Hatred in his heart as Dalinar did. Also ‘Son of Tanavast’...I don’t think Kaladin is physically Tanavast’s son but I think spiritually he is, which is why he suffers so. He’s def key to something, protected from harm but for a better reason than he is led to believe. We’ll see. 

Poor Shallan! This book is heavy on the mental illness although I am glad it is being addressed in Epic Fantasy and Sanderson’s integration of it with his magic systems is inspired. I really hope Shallan can get through this, she deserves it. PATTERN WTF??? Please no.

I’m much more of a Shaladin/Shalladin (official ship spelling please?) fan and tbh that put me off reading this book at first because I felt really betrayed about how things were developed in OB. I felt it cheapened the deep connection they made in the chasms in WoR to have it as a ‘passion’ thing from Veil etc. Having said that Adolin and Shadolin really shine in this book so far and Shalladin would be a bad choice for both of them right now. (WoB states he developed the love triangle as an echo of a previous thing - most likely Gavilar/Navani/Dalinar and rereading WoR, OB and the start of RoW underlined that both Navani and Shallan commenting on Kaladin/Dalinar’s intensity.) That said I’m really warming to Adolin. I really hope he resurrects Maya and the scene with him demanding a trial with the Honorspren was great. PheonixWright!Adolin (Objection!) Nale can be the lawyer for the opposition.

WHIMSY. INVENTION. MERCY. VALOUR!!!!!!!! Also Harmony getting on the scene! Go Sazed. My first thought about the sword he mentions was Kaladin who keeps fighting with the protect/kill thing throughout the book and series but he’s not connected (Connected) to Scadrial (yet). Same for Nightblood and Szeth so I’m not sure. Also I feel and hope that Sazed is a lot wiser a Vessel than many of the originals. Who knows as we mostly haven’t seen them esp in their original uninfluenced selves. Also what’s the issue with Mercy? I get a really creepy feeling from that tbh. It’s interesting how a supposedly wholesome Intent could be twisted.

Talking about that...Rayse/Odium...I like that we are getting hints of more human feelings from him but I’m still not convinced by the whole Passion/Hatred thing. His Shard’s name is Odium - Hatred. That is a very specific emotion. From WoB it’s indicated he might be lying to himself but he doesn’t seem that hateful to be honest and neither do a lot of his forces. I mean I was expecting Dark Lord levels of torment. It makes it more interesting, but I’m a little concerned the concept of ‘Passion’ being tainted by this association in a meta way. Unless Odium used to be Passion and it got twisted by Rayse which is possible but the text at present doesn’t really support that...hmm. Looking forward to the showdown between him and Dalinar/Kaladin and Hoid - yesssss!

Also Hoid....WTF is going on with Jasnah??? I mean I could ship it but...yeah what is going on? Also this frustrates me because Brandon is being very coy with Hoid’s knowledge here and I feel this doesn’t work in the narrative and characterisation. I feel we need a scene establishing Jasnah/Dalinar trying to force Wit to say what he knows and him establishing to them (and us) that he can’t be forced. Because right now he’s just blithely being allowed to waltz around wisecracking with cosmere-saving knowledge in his head that could be vital to Jasnah and Dalinar and...they are just letting him? Bit of a stretch. I know they likely can’t force him and need to keep him on side but we need to see that. 

Ghostbloods!!!! I confess I like Mraize far more than I should. Until he hunted Lift and then I wanted Kaladin to kick him off the side of the tower. That was a shame to me - there are so many possibilities to a book (like Atium I guess) and one I was really hoping for after the shock/horror of the attack of Urithiru was realising there were some seriously powerful people there who could combat the Fused - Kaladin, Lift, Mraize and Zahel. I just really want to see Zahel let go and kick some ass properly and tell everyone his secret. Still it makes sense that Mraize would play both sides and I guess it’s more interesting that way but still screw him! (Pun intended because I still like sexy bad guys.)

Navani - the engineering sections can be difficult to get through but I’m so here for her arc and her scholarly battle of wits with the Lady of Wishes. (Again with the complex enemy/protag dynamics). I LOVE that there are so many multifaceted women (and femalen) characters at all levels and esp a STEM older female character. I hope she becomes the new Bondsmith of the Sibling although it’s again a little on the nose considering she is married to the first one.

The Singer stuff is interesting to a certain extent and Leshwi in particular is cool but I admit I’m just not as invested (lol) in them as I am in the rest of it. Fingers crossed for Venli and Rlain to win the day though (also again I love the genderflip of those two and her having to pretend to want him as love-slave which is usually what happens the other way around. Brandon is getting really good at this stuff and I appreciate it.)

I’m sad we missed some key development in the timeskip but I guess for pacing this was important. Some of the casual language still annoys me esp when Brandon’s worldbuilding is so interesting as it just seems lazy and out of place. I know some people like it but it’s my opinion that seeing things like ‘neat’ and ‘teenagers’ brings me straight back to 21st Century America when I had just been in a world of Stormlight and Greatshells. There’s better ways of conveying those ideas than reverting to our slang developed from a specific subset of our world. Anyway....

Overall enjoying it much more than I though. Onward!

[slade-neko]

Monster Hunter Rise ~ My Thoughts

Oh, man, Monster Hunter Rise, where to begin?! I guess I’ll start with the game itself in a nutshell is a BLAST! It’s not without a few issues I have with it personally, but I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it nonetheless. I want to take the time to mention I am a second generation hunter myself. Started playing Monster Hunter in 2008 with Freedom 2 on PSP at the tender age of 13. So its safe to say I’ve got a lot to say about this game! If you want to read the full thing then here it is. 

This review is MOSTLY spoiler-free! There isn’t a lot you can spoil in this game... I mention some endgame stuff and there is a screenshot that contains the final boss’s armor but not focused on it. Just a friendly warning if you are a die-hard spoiler avoider. 

The Weapon Types

I’ll start with the fact that the weapon types in MH Rise are all really fun to play and have very well polished movesets. I haven’t extensively played with all the weapon types, but I’d like to say a few things about the ones I have been using. Long Sword feels the best it has ever been in the entire series in my opinion, ironically this game starts you off with a Long Sword equipped too. 

I went ham with Long Sword throughout the main story, but now have swapped over to maining Light Bowgun. I was a big Heavy Bowgun main in MH World, but shield spreadshot builds don't feel the same for me as they did in World, but the Light Bowgun in this game shreds. Narga Piercing LBG for distance shooting and then Magnamalo Spread LBG for getting up close and personal. Evade Extender 3 makes zipping around the battlefield a breeze and next to impossible to get hit making it a very fun and rewarding playstyle. 

My brother on the other hand has been hitting hard with Long Sword and the new Hunting Horn. He misses the original note playing at times, but the damage on HH is insane and healing constantly with the Rampage Horn is a big plus too for a game with no health regen factors. He’s been building sets for nearly every weapon type, but LS and HH are his two mains. Both weapon types were introduced in 2nd Gen, where we started, so maining those two for him is a bit symbolic. Also the fact that LS has been heralded as the most used weapon-type and HH the least used as of recent games is a neat contrast to use both.

The Characters, Setting, and Story

I know Monster Hunter isn’t exactly known for it’s characters or story, heck most games hardly had a story until World came out. Typically Monster Hunter games follow the simple formula of big bad flagship monster causing problems with local village and ecosystem, hunt it, happy ending?, turns out bigger badder scarier secret boss monster was actually causing the problems, hunt it, true happy ending. Nothing wrong with that, I can roll with whatever story they make, majority of players are here for the gameplay. That said, I still enjoy and appreciate what story the devs put together no matter how it turns out. I liked what Rise offered, nothing too grand like World, more of a simple story following the old games formula. 

Surprisingly I haven’t seen many people talk about the characters in this game and the little fact that this is the first time in the ENTIRE SERIES (outside of MH Stories) characters have REAL names! Hinoa, Minoto, Fugen, Yomogi, Iori, Hamon, Rondine, Hojo, Utsushi, like honest to goodness actual NAMES, not “Blacksmith,” “Village Elder,” or “Fish Mongress.” The characters are fun though, nice and memorable, not really annoying. Also following World’s fully voice-acted characters is a nice touch. I sometimes miss the days of old when characters had simple grunts and you read everything, but I doubt that will ever come back now, just something lost to the classic MH games. 

Then there’s the super Asian-inspired ninja-like theme to the entire game. You’ll either love it, hate it, or maybe you don’t care about how the village is at all. I like the whole ninja aesthetic while it does work for this game in particular, but I will admit its a little bit weird in the entirety of Monster Hunter as a series.

The Hunts, Gameplay, and Everything Else

Ah yes, the gameplay, the heart of the Monster Hunter games... while yes I do think this game is a lot of fun overall, I do have a few complaints with it... I’m going to break this down into mini-sections because there is a lot to cover here.

Quest Preparations Maybe I’m just old school, but I feel like they took away a lot of the prep work for going on hunts. No cold/ hot drinks, access full inventory on quests, refill items, no longer eat for attack/ def buffs, monsters always visible on maps, no random spawning on High Rank quests, little things like that. In the old games you had to prepare for each hunt, it was part of the game. You go after a big monster, you make sure you got everything you need to win BEFORE you depart on the quest. It feels like they are double-downing more so on just the fighting itself. 

Tracking Monsters Monsters aren’t even tracked anymore, they’re always visible on your map. No having to run around and look for them like classic MH games... Though to be fair maybe that’s better off in the old games with the paintball tracking system and individual loaded areas than in a game with a fully open-world setting because I got headaches tracking monsters in MH World’s open-world especially the Ancient Forest. 

The Monsters The new monsters in this game a welcome addition. I don’t really have any problems with their designs or fights. Have to say Goss Horag has a very fun fight, but my favorite new monster is probably Rakna-Kadaki. A pelican spider is a dang neat idea for a monster and there aren’t a lot of Temnocerans. Would love to see the return of the Carapaceons though! This is literally the perfect game for Shen-Gaoren to come back with the new rampage system! Bring back my giant enemy crab, Capcom please!

Monster Behavior/ Minion Monsters/ Herbivores Added this subsection to talk specifically about the monsters’ behaviors in this game along with the minion monsters cause while not very important overall there are still some things to be said. 

Same thing in MH World, but the monsters act more like animals now. While yes, that is more realistic and is mostly a good thing, but it honestly gives me second thoughts about hunting them. In World most boss monsters wouldn’t attack you unless you attacked them first. That made me feel terrible walking up to a calm Teostra just chilling in the dunes and then I start smacking the heck outta it with a weapon... Old games the monsters saw you, the “something’s gonna getcha music starts playing” and then it charges you and your in the fight! Now its like you’re the monster killing a bunch of animals (exaggerating a bit, but still!)

What’s not exaggerated is the minions in this game. The old games had minions that were incredibly annoying and I wanted to kill them. This game however has the sweet little bullfangos, jagras, and other minions just lazing around sleeping. My brother and I were in need of Rhenoplos scalps for some gear, set out on a quest to slay some, find them peacefully sleeping by some rocks and I ask my brother, “Okay, so you gonna bash its skull in with your hammer and pop its eyes out or am I gonna fill it full of lead with my bowgun?” Needlessly violent example, I know, but it still makes the point that it feels more like animal cruelty when they aren’t bothering anyone. I’d rather the minions just start charging me and piss me off as a player, so I wouldn’t feel bad defending myself to take them out. 

Lastly, there’s the herbivores. Not a lot to say on the matter, but I feel like they could’ve given a few more herbivore types. Like no Aptonoth in this game? I thought they were kinda a staple of the series for herbivores. I also feel like the maps could feel a bit more lively with more herbivores placed around. Maybe Mosswines in the Shrine Ruins, especially when scaling the central mountain shrine with the mushroom colonies everywhere. Great spots for mushroom piggies! 

The Maps/ Locales I love them! Well for the most part. They are good and I don’t dislike any in particular. My only problems is that they sometimes feel too big, too open, and too empty. I know they have a lot of stuff in them, gathering points, spiribirds, relics, and many other things, but there is an odd sense of emptiness there. Like I mentioned earlier, I think perhaps adding in more scattered monsters might’ve helped that a bit. Only other thing to mention is that the new locales rely too heavily on the Palamutes to get around effectively. I personally like bringing my kitties with me on multiplayer quests, so I am at the mercy of wirebug zipping to get around and often left behind. 

Oh, last thing I will mention on maps is while its not in the base game, I pray they add back the Tower as a map. Preferably the 2nd Gen version where you start at base camp and scale the tower. A game that’s all about rising and verticality, the Tower is literally the PERFECT map to have in this game! 

Spiribirds Love em or hate them, there’s the Spiribirds. Cool concept, but I don’t think it works very well in my opinion. I don’t care about roaming the map to collect my bird buffs, I just want to eat for Attack Up large like old games and be done. I definitely try to grab them when I can, but I can’t be bothered to chase down all the birds each and every hunt just to get my full Attack up buff. 

Wirebugs On with the title of the game being Rise giving meaning to the new wirebugs feature. Wirebugs are fun to use, zip around the map, super attacks, and what-not, but I can’t help but feel its a little out of place in a Monster Hunter game. Feels like I’m Spider-Man or something. I know I praised this when I played the demo and I’m not dissing it now, I still enjoy using them, but I am also admitting that they do feel very outlandish for a Monster Hunter game. Still better than the slinger/ clutch claw though! Let’s never talk about those accursed items again. 

Silkbinds The Silkbind attacks though are fully great! I love having access to super attacks like Hunting Arts and things like that for my weapons, so I sincerely hope they keep some kind of super attack format in future games.

Mounting The mounting system in this game is weird, but pretty cool! Its a great way to let you control a monster for a change and beat the snot out of other monsters as a monster. I saw someone describe it is as “going full on Ratatouille with the monsters” and honestly there isn’t a better way to explain it than that. 

Palicoes/ Palamutes The Buddy System in this game is great! Palicoes still feel about the same as they did in World, maybe a little less powerful now since you can have two of them at once, still love them though and prefer to bring a Palico with me on my quests. 

Then there is the new doggies, the Palamutes! Super cute and cuddly, but also quite powerful! I love the doggos, but I wish the maps weren’t designed around them. I like to bring my cat with me on multiplayer quests, so I don’t get a dog to ride and the maps are HUGE, very wide-opened, lots of running... Wirebugs help, but still not quite as fast as the puppies. 

Oh and two little pet peeve of mine is you can’t see other players buddy names and you can’t change buddy comments! I want people to be able to see my buddies’ names and I need my Garfield cat’s comment to say “I hate Mondays.” and my Sonic dog to say “Gotta go fast!” and my Courage the Cowardly Dog dog to have “The things I do for love.” Unless there is a hidden menu somewhere where you can edit these, but alas I have yet to find it...

Voiced Hunters Hunters have always been the silent protagonists of the games with attack grunts, hurt sounds, and little to nothing more. Now they are full voiced for gestures and full hunting dialogue. I really like this, its funny to hear them shout things and stuff and having some familiar voice actors in the game is really cool to have them voice my characters. My brother rocking the Xander Mobus voice-type on his hunter is freakin’ cool and hilarious at the same time. I am tempted to make a Zentisu hunter, name him Zenitsu, give him the Zentisu voice-type, and go full Thunderclap maining a Thunder-type Long Sword just for the heck of it. Oh and also there’s the fact that CRISTINA VEE IS OFFICIALLY IN A MONSTER HUNTER GAME NOW AS A FEMALE VOICE OPTION! Still feels weird comparing it to previous games, but I’m okay with it because the fun factor in it outweighs the weird for me personally. Besides if you for some reason decided you hate fun you can just mute them in the options. 

Layered Armor (or lack-of) I love Layered Armor... and there is only two sets in this game. The Deluxe Edition’s “Kamurai” samurai looking layered armor and the Magnamalo amiibo “Sinister” layered set with a few head only layered pieces as DLC in the eShop. I was honestly expecting all armor to be layered and unlockable in the base game after the huge demand for layered armor in MH World and Transmog being a thing in the side team’s last game, MHXX/ MHGU. 

I think a mixed system of both Transmog and Layered Armor would be ideal. Transmog system for in-game armors and then additional bonus themed armor sets made as Layered Armors like the Kamurai set. That way players can be rewarded for crafting all the armors with use of a Transmog system even giving an incentive to make multiple sets twice to Transmog differently. While the devs could still make money off cool unique Layered sets as DLC in the eShop. Literally fixes both issues right there. Feel free to use that idea, Capcom, and you’re welcome.

Multiplayer/ Lobbies/ Scaling Four people lobbies are back! Not necessarily a good thing. I mean hey its not bad either, but I honestly preferred the larger lobbies like World had. Having more people doesn’t make it less social. All they need is to force people to do multiplayer quests in the Gathering Hub. I prefer large lobbies and have people do whatever they want and meet up in the Hub for socials. Mainly what I dislike about 4 player lobbies is everyone will be expected to help each other on their quests within the lobby. I just want to chill and do my own thing, but see and interact with other players in the village between quests. Oh, but the ability to join quests late is seriously great! Dropping into a lobby and seeing people already on a quest and being able to jump in with them is a godsend! 

Difficulty scaling is a very weird thing. It’s basically a double-edged sword. Its good to have because you can beat everything on your own, but that also defeats the purpose of multiplayer. In the past games, Hub quests were scaled higher for multiplayer, so getting more people to help only made it easier. Now, why bother with players when you could just do it yourself scaled to an easier single-player difficulty? I can usually get faster times when I solo things now. Multiplayer is there just for the social aspect to goof around with friends or if you just wanna do chill hunting with people. It’s no longer a requirement or an aid for beating the game. Like I said, its a weird thing, not bad, but not good either? I dunno, I just compare a lot of things to the classic MH games. In the past getting a second player to help makes it twice as easy compared to beating a Hub quest by yourself, while getting four players makes it where you’re effectively doing 4x more damage. Now its like you get 4-players and the monster gets 4x the health too. That might not be the exact scaling, but you get my point. 

One last thing I want to touch on which a lot of people have already mentioned is the fact multiplayer can get pretty chaotic. Especially when you have 4 players with 4 palamutes all smacking away at a monster. Hit effects are EVERYWHERE! Creates quite the mess and can be hard to tell what’s happening. 

Quest Difficulty/ Harder Monsters I don’t care too much about how hard the game is and I know this is a touchy subject, but I do like challenging monsters, without relying on gimmicky crap to fight them. MH World was filled with gimmicky fights like Behemoth, Leshen, even Alatreon and Fatalis to some degree. I still have Extreme Behemoth PTSD. I just want good clean fights, no damage checks, unavoidable one-hit kill moves, crap like that is not cool. I want to cart because I screwed up and made a wrong move and got punished by some wicked strong attack from a big bad boss monster. Not a stupid damage check telling me, “Oh, you not do enough damage, you die now.” To be fair, old Monster Hunter games had some gimmicky fights too though. MH4U with Apex Monsters and Wystones, MHGU with HP tank Hyper Monsters, heck even Freedom 2 was unintentionally gimmicky with outrageous hitboxes haha. Oh, that game was brutal! Deviants in MHGU were amazing though! Some really tough fights there, but incredibly rewarding to beat, that’s what I love!

The Endgame/ Secret Bosses (or lack-of) There is no Endgame, we are stuck in the Infinity War for now (or Affinity War as my brother calls it since the meta is all about those crits!) Okay, so that’s a bit harsh, all jokes aside there is an endgame, but its not exactly what I was expecting and leaves me wanting more. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Hunter games is the endgames and the secrets they hold, which this game had very few! They revealed nearly EVERY monster before this game launched. I get it, they want to sell their game, but leave some secrets please. Only monster that was secret was just the final boss. I love getting to the end of the game and unlocking new quests to fight the big scary endgame bosses. I guess World kinda suffered from that too a little bit. Mostly hanging on to old games like Freedom Unite unlocking Fatalis, MH3U getting Abyssal Lagiacrus, and Molten Tigrex in MH4U was very cool! Could just be the state of games these days like Smash Ultimate where they reveal everything before the game is out since data miners will just leak them anyways... kinda makes me sad. 

Updates and Future Content

I know this game has planned updates that will add a lot of content, but I can’t help but feel those “updates” were part of the game that’s been withheld to make the updates feel like so much more. Its like they ripped out the ending of the game and are passing it of as a big huge update to be released after launch. 

The real kick to this is the fact there is no Hunter Rank in the current game... I’ve done approximately 300 quests so far in my game, its going to hurt me very badly when I see the HR update come out and I don’t get any HR for the hunts I’ve done so far. I know some people could care less about HR and just see it as a number, but for me that number is a nice thing to see. I love seeing it go up as I do more quests and play more of the game. Going hard at launch has been a lot of fun, but less rewarding knowing I am quite possibly not getting any HR points for all my gameplay. 

Only reason I can see they would not want to allow a buildup of HR before this update is because this update will add a bunch of new endgame monsters most likely unlocked through getting high Hunter Rank. I pray for my boy Akantor to finally shine again, I know the side team loves him, so let’s please get him into Rise! AND Please don’t show them off in videos, Capcom! Just stealth drop a bunch of Elder Dragons and Endgame bosses into the game!

Final Thoughts

I’m probably just stuck in the old days some, I guess this is just how the games will be going forward, but a bit of that makes me sad. Feels like the game series I loved so much is losing some character and personality of what made is special and unique. This review might’ve got a bit ranty, but I like to critique a game series I am very passionate about. World was very similar to this. From everything I’ve said, by no means do I hate this game. I still love MH Rise and the entire series and I’ll keep playing it having a lot of fun along the way. Best way I can describe Monster Hunter Rise is it’s the Side Team’s Monster Hunter World. Its fresh, new, and very experimental! 

All in all this game is still great and I stand by what I said at the beginning of this entire post, its a blast to play! I hope everyone can enjoy it and remember, Happy Hunting! 

[whispersafterdusk]

Lost in Time - ch 14

It'd been four days since their tussle with the spy; they hadn't heard or seen any hint of them, and so far the only injury that had turned up at Xu's clinic had been a woman who had fallen on a bit of wood.  Asher had gone into town long enough to get his broken tooth pulled (front right tooth on the top...he looked like a doofus when he smiled now) and had immediately returned to camp to hunker down and wait out the spy's next visit while the Civil Corps members had gone on a manhunt across the marsh and into the neighboring desert area.

So far, nothing.

They'd briefly discussed the suits again; Eli couldn't make up her mind on whether this Access suit thing was an original (less worrying) or if Duvos had figured out how to piece one together (really worrying).  Asher shared her worries -- the thought of Duvos mass producing those things for their soldiers, even if they weren't working like they did in Eli's time, would still pose a huge problem if the continent ever went to war again. ((Continued below cut))

He did know she'd given up on the trail cameras for now but she was still working on something out in the tent; it used a lot of the same pieces that she'd set aside for the cameras but also several new, different ones that she'd sent Petra and Selene after. The centerpiece of these new additions was a detached screen that she'd marked out dimensions on - she was either cutting it down to size and needed the middle-most section or she was dividing it into a rectangle and eight smaller squares that were all roughly the same size.  She hadn't done anything with the screen yet aside from measuring and marking out those squares but there were small piles of nigh identical looking chips, boards, and wires that were already assembled and sitting in a neat little line on the rubberized canvas under her cot that he assumed had to be put together first before the screens could be attached to them.  

It had been a fascinating sight to watch her work with such tiny components; he hadn't had a chance yet to ask her what those things were (interrupting her while she was working on them seemed like a poor idea since it looked so...fragile, in a way) but he was looking forward to seeing the finished product, learning what the gadgets were for, and why she needed so many of them.  It also piqued his curiosity about Old World tech in general; so much of it seemed purposely designed to work with pretty much anything else.  Maybe Old World technology didn't so much depend on the parts as it did the programs to run it...which in turn made him wonder, assuming they ever got to a point where they knew how to read and create new programs, if all the old relics could be made to work again like they did back then rather than being pieced together with spotty knowledge and prayers.  

Behind him Adam, Arlo, and Eli were all asleep inside the tent with the front flaps pulled closed to block out as much of the unusually plentiful sunlight as possible - there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was considerably warmer today than it had been lately; he appreciated the warmth and imagined his sleeping companions probably did as well but found himself going back and forth on whether he was truly grateful for the "sunny" part of this sunny day.  On the one hand, that suit made the spy near-invisible but not intangible so they should still cast a shadow so if the spy was dumb enough to try sneaking in close in broad daylight Asher was hopeful he would spot that before they got close enough to be a danger.  On the other hand he doubted they would actually be that stupid. The constant prickle at the back of his neck - the feeling of being watched - wasn't a sensation Asher enjoyed, and it also wasn't something he was used to experiencing for such a prolonged period of time; he had no proof though that he WAS being watched, and that was probably bothering him more than the prickling was.

The grumpy sigh he huffed out whistled a bit as it exited through the gap his missing tooth had left behind; that annoyed him to no end too. Asher didn't consider himself an overly vain person but damn it he'd liked how he looked; it had taken a couple years to be at peace with the sunken in scar across his nose but at least that made him look...adventurous.  Dashing.  Daring.  A missing tooth made him look like a drunkard, and it would be a long trip to Seesai to get a replacement that wouldn't prematurely discolor.  Adam was right in that he could easily get a tooth closer to home but, again, discoloration was a problem -- whatever that woman in Seesai did to keep the false teeth from coloring was a closely guarded secret...no one knew what she did or what recipe she used, not even her family if they were to be believed.

He supposed it was a question of if he wanted to look stupid with his tooth gap or look stupid with a yellowed tooth in a few years. Neither thought was especially attractive and brought with it a sort of helpless frustration that, coupled with the prickling feeling of having eyes on him, made him want to get up and move around to burn off the pent up energy and emotion.  

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rustling grass; before he could truly react to the sound Eli came into view and he relaxed slightly.

"You're up - uh, early.  Or however you want to consider it."

She shrugged as she sat down on one of the rocks ringing the firepit.  "Eh, it happens.  Sometimes you just don't sleep."

"Any new ideas?"

For a time she didn't respond; silently Asher surveyed their surroundings - everything still seemed to be as it ought to be.  He still felt twitchy though...he was ready for action, or for anything that wasn't sitting here keeping watch.  Maybe with Eli awake he could exercise or something.

"Not really," Eli finally responded.  "I can think of twelve different ways to disable that suit but they all require tech that doesn't exist anymore.  And it's not something I could put together from stuff that's left here."

Asher nodded, then glanced back toward the tent; when she'd come out she'd left the tent flaps open and he could barely detect movement inside -- Arlo shouldn't be up for awhile yet but it was looking like Adam was waking up.  "So what's all that stuff you've been working on then?"

"Hi-Defs."

"I've no idea what those are."

"They're wrist-mounted computers.  A lot of their functionality isn't going to work right in this day and age but back in mine they were onboard guidance systems with maps of all the regions, could make and receive calls, they kept track of addresses and your appointments and bank accounts and whatever else you wanted to track, they could project 3D images, take pictures... They could do a lot of things depending on the model you had."

He blinked at her; only half of that had sunk in as he'd gotten a bit hung up on the concept of a wrist-mounted computer.  "Really? Why those then?  If they're not going to work right, I mean.  What will they even be able to do?"

"I want them mostly for communication and maps of this region. I'd need signal transmitters in some strategic areas but once I get it all tethered to the facility they should work.  It's going to take a lot of footwork to get maps updated since it'll have to be manual scanning rather than satellite surveillance...or, hmm.  Maybe some satellites survived."  She paused for a moment, then shook her head.  "Nah, shouldn't rely on that.  Arlo mentioned there's a space station segment out in the wastes but even if there's enough left there to scavenge I doubt I could get a link going with anything that might be left up there, and even if I managed it I still wouldn't have a way to issue orders or anything like that." There was another pause and a sigh, and a wistful glance toward the sky before she returned her attention to him.  "Mine will be the sort of central control for them all outside of whatever computer station I decide to run them off of. My aim is to give them to anyone involved with the security of this facility."  

"Huh." Him with a high tech device...not something he'd considered before.  The idea was...kind of exciting, to be honest.  "So maps and talking to one another.  Is that all we can hope for?"

"Communication and map display is, bare minimum, what I'm aiming for, with maybe a basic calendar and clock function.  I'll have a look at what I can immediately do once I've server-flashed Pauline and get at least one transmitter up for testing."

"...and you've lost me.  What's a server-flash?"

She laughed quietly.  "-right.  It's hard to determine what terms survived the years and what didn't - with Petra and Merlin it's at least a 50% shot that I don't have to define something for them.  So!   Server-flashing.  I take the main operational files for an AI and do a sort of...quick copy of their foundation.  Pauline's an AI but not a living AI so I don't need to worry about her personality or anything, just the uh...the semi-intelligent framework she runs on."

"Yeah, going to need that taken down a few degrees still.  Pauline seems just as smart as Stewart but she doesn't have personality?"

"Nope.  She's just a regular assistant AI -- a sort of input-output response machine with just enough programmed intelligence to appear sentient but she can't learn or grow as a...uh...well, not as a "person" exactly but she  -- she won't ever change.  She just is what she is.   AIs like her you could make infinite copies of and they'll never, ever stop being identical copies unless something on the outside alters them.  Stewart on the other hand, if I were to make a copy of him, that copy would develop its own personality if given enough time to learn and live and the same would happen with a regular living AI."

That...sort of made sense.  At least, it was simple enough that he could grasp it without her needing to explain it more in-depth.  "And you're going to use her to run the Hi-Defs."

"After some minor reprogramming yes."

He nodded slowly; having a little, easily accessed map right on his wrist would be neat, even if it was just of Portia.  And if it worked well here maybe it could be expanded out into the other cities and nations too...and, oh man, would that make mapping the Peripheries way easier too if all they had to do was walk through it with the Hi-Def recording or whatever it did to create the maps -- suddenly he could think of all sorts of possibilities and perks to having one of the things.  "What would be the range on these things?  How would they figure out and store maps?"

"Range depends on what kind of signal strength I can get.  Hi-Defs have their own localized signals so they'll all be able to 'talk' to one another within a certain range, and also interface with the signals coming from the transmitters at a much wider range.  I'm pretty sure I'd only need sixteen or so at some key points to cover all of Portia and a bit of the outlying areas.  As for updating or creating maps it'll have to be manual scanning -- someone is going to have to start from an already mapped point and then let the Hi-Def scan the territory as you travel through it.  It'll take awhile but the program that runs a Hi-Def is robust enough to piece it all together without too much extra work needed.  And they have their own onboard storage to hold it all."

"Neat...and amazing."  As a more comfortable silence fell Asher tossed a few thick branches onto the fire and nudged them into place with a blackened, straight branch he'd purposely kept as a sort of log poker.  If Adam was stirring too then he should probably get the fire's heat evened out so he could start cooking. "Did you end up camping a lot as a ranger?"

"Yeah.  I went camping for fun too."

He carefully poked at the fire for a moment.  "...do you miss doing that?"

There was a long pause before she answered.  "I miss a lot of things."

Asher winced a bit.  "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."

She shook her head and flashed him a strained smile.  "Nah, don't be afraid to ask things.  The funny thing with pain is the more you experience it, the easier it is to tolerate."

"I don't think it works that way with this kind of...you know."

With a shrug she turned to pick up the cooking kit (which was in a large leather satchel that had seen better days) that was off to the side of the firepit.  "Works well enough for now.  I don't want you guys walking on eggshells around me, and I can't hide from it forever.   Hell, I can't hide from it even if I wanted to."

Asher was quiet as she handed the satchel over; he pulled the kettle out and stood to go fill it from the water barrel they'd installed just inside the tent flaps, then came back and sat it among the coals to start boiling.  A feeling of guilt had settled like a rock in his stomach -- that had been such a stupid thing to ask her.  "If you ever want to...talk, or something.  I'll listen."

The smile she gave him this time was less strained.  "I know.  It's appreciated."

As he bent to re-arrange a few half-burned logs she got up and walked out of his immediate line of sight; behind him somewhere he heard Adam's low voice and then the man's plodding footsteps as he came over and took Eli's place on the rock.  Asher just managed to catch the sight of Eli disappearing into the tent as he glanced back but she quickly came back into view a moment later.

"I'll be back in a bit - I need to grab a few things from town."  She had her pack slung over a shoulder but it hung limp and empty.  "Don't bother cooking for me."

"All right.  If you're sure," Asher replied.

"I am." With that she began to jog toward the path that, eventually, led back into Portia.

Asher watched her go and then sighed heavily, looking over to Adam.  "You ever feel like a massive idiot sometimes?"

"Sure," Adam grunted.  "Then I remember I'm not you and feel better."

Asher rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to whack the man with the fire poker stick; when he didn't rise to the man's banter Adam gave him a strange look.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing.  I think.  How do you want your eggs this time?"

------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Xu had acquired a wooden chair with a really comfortable cushion and a small wooden table for Harrison to work at; it sat in the corner near the front doors so it would be out of the way of everything else in the clinic but its position did mean that usually, when someone walked inside, Harrison was the first thing they saw.  Already several tourists looking for headache or muscle ache cures had approached him at the table to ask after the medications, even when Dr. Xu was clearly within view at his desk further in the room.

He kept telling himself to find humor in the situation but it was starting to get a little annoying - especially after someone actually moved a stack of books out of the way to "speak to him" with Xu staring on in surprised confusion.

It was enough to have him dreading the sound of the doors opening, and so today when they slid open he actually flinched and carefully peered over the top of the book he had propped up in front of him.

To his surprise it was that girl from days ago - the one who had fallen on the driftwood and gotten it through her arm.  She looked bright eyed and chipper, with no other obvious injuries, and he inwardly groaned as she looked around, spotted him, and came right over.

"Hey there!"

"Hello.  How's the arm healing up?"

She smiled and slipped her coat off, then pulled her sleeve up to show the bandage there.  "It's all fine and dandy - itchy, but doesn't seem infected or anything."

"Well, that's good." He went silent as she pulled her sleeve back down and got her coat back on, then cleared his throat awkwardly.   "So...what did you need then?"

"Ah, hello there -- how is the arm?"

Harrison sat up a bit straighter as Xu came over; the girl gave the doctor a smile.

"It's all good.  A bit itchy but seems to be healing."

Xu nodded.  "Excellent to hear.  Now, what brings you back to the clinic?"

The girl's smile faltered a bit and Harrison swore he saw a tinge of pink appear in her cheeks.  "Ah...well, uh, I came to um.  Talk to him, actually-"  

She pointed shyly to Harrison, and he blinked at her in confusion.  Talk to him?  Why?

Xu seemed just as confused as he was.  "Oh?"

"Yeah...um, private matter."

"Huh?" Harrison blurted out.

She turned her attention back to him and rubbed at her injured arm awkwardly.  "Um.  If you have the time, anyway."

"S-sure, I guess."  

He stood up and came out from behind the table; the girl took a few timid steps toward the door and when he followed along she headed outside into a much brighter day than Harrison had been expecting.

He raised a hand to shield his eyes and looked over to her.  "What did you need to talk to me about?  Did I do something wrong with your injury?"

She shook her head, hard; it was hard enough to dislodge a few wisps of hair from the messy bun on top of her head.  "No no nonono, nothing like that.  I was just um, wondering if you'd...like to go get coffee or lunch sometime?"

With that the woman stood there, lightly scraping the toe of her shoe into the mud; Harrison felt like someone had abruptly switched off all the lights inside his brain.  She wanted to go get coffee, with HIM?

"Uh..."

"It's ok if you don't want to," she went on in a rush.  "I don't mind.  You're probably busy.  I shouldn't have asked."

"N-no, no, it's-" Harrison interrupted.  "Ah - no one has ever asked that before.  I think my brain shut off." He offered her a weak, slightly sheepish smile, and to his surprise she returned it.   "But...why me?"

"I...dunno.  You're from Lucien, like me.  I don't meet a lot of Lucien natives when I travel around.  And, you're.  Um.  You know...cute, so I thought, why not?"

Now it felt like his ears were on fire.  "A-ah," was all he could say.

An awkward silence fell and it went on entirely too long for Harrison's liking; he was hoping she would say something...he wasn't sure WHAT, but he wanted to hear SOMETHING, anything, that would take the burden of this conversation off him until his brain caught up.

"So..."

"Ah, uh, yeah, um, sure," he said finally.  "I-I mean, if you're sure."

The girl's face brightened and she bounced on the balls of her feet for a moment.  "Hee!  Yay!  Ok, so when are you next free?"

"Later this evening?" he offered.

She nodded.  "All right then - later this evening.  Down at that restaurant in the square?  The knight one?"

Harrison nodded, feeling lightheaded; he completely missed what she said as she waved and then headed off down the hill.  Too late he returned the wave, and then leaned against the clinic doors behind him.

"What...just happened..." he muttered, rubbing at his forehead.

He, Harrison, had a date tonight.  

...wait, did she ever even give her name?

"Oh boy..."

---------------------------------------------------

"Haven't seen you in a bit," Django said as Eli walked through the door.

With all the afterimages swimming around (it was REALLY bright outside today) Eli could barely see him, and somewhat stumbled her way toward the counter.  "Been helping the Pigs out at the facility."

"Ah, that'd be it."

She managed to find a stool and sat down.  "I had to come back for some supplies and I'd like to take some treats out to the them as a surprise."

Django nodded.  "I see, hmm.  I just pulled an apple pie out of the oven, and I've got some Black Forest cake made just this morning.  Won't take long to whip anything else up either," he said as he flipped open a menu to the dessert section and slid it over to her.

"Thanks."  She picked it up and held it in front of her; with the afterimages it'd probably be another minute or two before she could clearly read it.  "Do you know if they've established any favorites?"

"I know Arlo doesn't really like sweets in general.  I haven't talked to Asher or Adam enough to know about those two."

Eli frowned; good thing she'd asked.  "All right, no sweets for Arlo then.  I know he likes spicy things at least.  How about...an order of vanilla pudding, some of that apple pie, and that spicy spaghetti stuff?"

"Sounds good."  

As Django headed off toward the kitchen Eli folded the menu properly and returned it to the pile, then leaned forward to brace her elbows on the counter and put her forehead in her hands.

Every idea she'd had so far to disable that suit all required things that weren't around anymore; the easiest would be a localized EMP to overload the projector circuits and force it into a reboot cycle where it wouldn't be able to disguise its user until it fully restarted itself.  A sliver shot would do similar in that it would disrupt the projectors by confusing its sensors with a quick burst of hard light mirror shards.  Or she could use a taser overload, or a bolt drainer, or a sys-dis (a system disabler - it would scramble all the circuit signals), or even a battery overcharger.  So many things she COULD do, if she was in her own time period...

But she wasn't, and simple ideas like trying to use water or some sort of paint or even dirt to try and short out or otherwise mark their target probably wouldn't work -- Access Suits had built in miniature shield generators evenly interspersed among the projector sensors that pulled double duty at repelling water as well as dirt, dust, or mud-like materials.  She couldn't safely rely on the hope that those generators were as damaged as the faulty projectors; if they were working correctly they might get two seconds, tops, of visual assistance if they were to try and douse the spy in something...two seconds could seem like forever in a fight but since there was no telling what else that spy might be armed with by now Eli was not about to risk anyone around her with so many unknown variables (it was as much for the spy's safety as well as their own that they be able to clearly see what they were doing the next time they clashed - she'd hated firing blindly at the spy and it'd be a really simple matter for someone to accidentally kill someone else).

"Something the matter?"

Eli jumped at the sound of Django's voice just over her shoulder.  "You walk really quietly when you want to."

Django chuckled as he moved back behind the counter; he had a few containers in hand that he neatly lined up on the counter in front of her.  "Old habits I guess, haha.  It'll be a few minutes on the spaghetti."  

She slid her pack off her back and pulled a cloth bag out of one of the front pockets, then sat it on the counter; before she could say anything Django picked it up and began to slide the containers inside.  

"It was an honest question though - something on your mind?"

Eli paused, then huffed out a sigh.  "Just trying to figure out how to hunt down a ghost, is all."

Django's eyebrows raised a bit.  "Wasn't aware we had a ghost problem outside of our haunted cave."

"Not a literal ghost," she replied, laughing quietly.  "More like someone pretending to be one."

"I see.  Not exactly your run of the mill problem to have."

With another sigh Eli rested her forehead on her hands again.  "I'm not exactly a run of the mill person."

Django nodded slowly, rubbing at his chin.  "...you know, how about we have a quick dart game while we wait on your spaghetti?"

There was something...odd, about his tone.  Eli eyed him but couldn't detect anything other than his usual smiling demeanor -- he sounded off but looked fine.

"...all right," she answered, standing up and aside as he shuffled out from behind the counter and led the way toward the back game room.

There were a few others in the restaurant; Eli found herself waving at folks as she went and narrowly dodging Toby who was waving a report card at her (she made a mental note that there were only two more months for Toby to prove he'd kept his grades up enough for training) and then she was in the game room with Django already retrieving the darts from a drawer in the prize counter.

He didn't say anything at first as he handed her the three green darts while he kept the red ones. "So.  Looking for a person pretending to be a ghost, you said?"  Django lined up a dart and then tossed it a breath later; it landed right on the border between a bullseye and the next ring out.

Eli huffed then laughed quietly.  "I feel like I'm about to lose.  Terribly."

Django tossed another one and it landed squarely inside the bullseye.  "I've had a lot of practice.  Where's this ghost person lurking?  Out at the facility?"

"...yeah," she answered after a pause.  "We have an uninvited visitor out there."

The third dart he threw, to Eli's surprise, flew well off to the left and embedded itself into the thick safety backboard that the dartboard was mounted on.  "When did this ghost show up?"

"Recently."

She watched silently as he went over and slowly took the darts down; when he was out of the way she took her first throw and it barely stayed within the board, embedding itself into a bottom right section that wasn't worth any points at all.

"Humor me.  Was it someone you think is on the smaller, lighter side?"

"I...guess.  Couldn't really get a good look at them, obviously."   Rather than taking her second throw she turned around to face him; he'd moved over to lean against the prize counter's front, arms crossed over his chest and a somewhat brooding look on his face -- seeing something other than his usual cheerful expression immediately made her forget all about the dart game. "All right, spill: what are you getting at?"

Django inhaled and exhaled slowly.  "Did Arlo tell you about that Rogue Knight we had, not too long ago?"

"Yeah, I've heard about it.  He said you were the one who was able to drive them off too.  You think this knight guy came back?"

He shook his head.  "No, I don't think your visitor is the same Rogue Knight I fought that day.  But you mentioning a ghost brought back some memories, from when I was younger.  Of a different, more dangerous knight, in her own way."

Eli walked over and dropped her remaining darts onto the counter.  "Are knights just a common thing now?"

"Not anymore.  In the older days - meaning, the older days of our current era, between the Calamity and when humanity was finally recovering - folks took up the title of knight as they fought to protect their homes and people from both man and monster alike.  Humanity didn't have much left back then...just a lot of old stories and memories of how things once were, but the legends that were even older than the Old World still managed to survive.  Such stories helped keep the survivors alive, and while it's a tradition that's been mostly overwritten by the Civil Corps and other law enforcement nowadays, there's still a fair few of us who stick to those old stories and the honor that comes with claiming the title of knight."

Eli watched him as he spoke; the brooding look had given away to something more resembling a thoughtfulness - a softer, more introspective look, and as he talked his chin was slowly dipping down so his gaze ended up on the floor just in front of his feet.

"So..." she said quietly into the pause that followed.  "Why did me mentioning a ghost make you think of another knight?"

Django finally lifted his gaze and flashed her a grim smile.  "I drove that Rogue Knight off with the belief that he wouldn't dare step foot here again.  I still believe that, in fact.  But I've been on my guard for any hints of other troublesome knights that might show up to try and finish the job he left undone.  It just so happens that I know of a woman who called herself the Ghost Knight -- I knew her when I was a younger man.  We even fought together a few times to clear out monster nests or drive off bandits."

Eli's eyes widened.  "You're kidding."

"I wish I were.  You mentioning you were looking for someone pretending to be a ghost brought her to mind."

"Who is she?  What's she look like?  Why would she be here?"

"I don't know.  I never learned her real name, and she never learned mine.  I never even saw her face - only the strange suit of armor she wore.  As for why she's here-"

"Is she a mercenary for hire?" Eli interrupted.  "What - how did - how do knights function?"  At his mildly surprised look she slumped her shoulders a bit.  "Sorry - didn't mean to interrupt you."

Django chuckled and pushed off from the counter, moving to line up to throw his darts again.  "Not a problem.  I can only guess at why she'd be here -- same reason the Rogue Knight was, I wager.  I wouldn't call her a mercenary...that's not what we did.  But, it's been over a decade since I last spoke with her, and people can change."

Eli shifted and leaned against the counter almost in the same spot he'd just vacated, putting him and the dartboard at her back as she stared a hole into the wood in front of her; if this person was this Ghost Knight that Django had known years ago then that meant it was a good chance that this spy's having an Access Suit was just...a one-off. One person who got their hands on something that actually still worked.  That was one fear off the list, at least.

"Django... How did this woman fight?  What did she do as the Ghost Knight?"

"Scouting," came his answer, quicker than she'd expected.  There was the sound of the dart thunking into the board before he continued.  "No one was better at it than her.  And in a battle she was the best flanking attacker you could hope to have on your side."

"Flanking...  Does that mean she didn't take people on in a direct manner?"

"She avoided that as much as possible but she was still capable of defending herself if she had to."  Another thunk of a dart.  "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure."

She turned around from the counter in time to see Django turning as well, flicking his wrist and sending the dart at the board without looking or aiming; the dart stuck into the bullseye.

"If you find this person, and manage to capture them, I would like to speak to her."

"I... I mean, I'M willing to let that happen, but I'm not a Civil Corps person.  That's not likely up to me."

Django nodded, slipping his hands into the pockets of his colorful coat.  "If you can make that happen, I'd be indebted to you...  Excuse me, I should go check the spaghetti.  It ought to be done by now."

"Yeah, sure thing.  I'll head back up to the counter."

He disappeared through a small door into the kitchen and, as she said, Eli walked out of the game room and back to the counter where the rest of her order was sitting packed neatly into the cloth sack.

She looked over a shoulder at the restaurant's patrons; there were considerably more people here now than had been when she'd first walked in, and Django had purposely wanted to talk to her about it away from others.  She really, really wanted to ask him more about how this Ghost Knight woman fought, or where she'd come from, or--

'I'll come back when it's not busy, or maybe I can catch him at home.'

That he'd admitted he'd been on the lookout for any other trouble-making knights worried her...maybe she should also split her history lesson time between Isaac and Django.  

------------------------------------------------

"Bye, see you tomorrow!"

Django gave Sonia a small wave and a smile as she headed out the front door; there were a few spots left to sweep and then he could put out the lights and head home himself.

Normally he enjoyed the absolute silence of the restaurant late at night - it gave him time to daydream, or plan for the next day's operations.  Tonight though... He couldn't help but think of that Ghost Knight.  Everything he could recall about her had come flooding back in a rush when Eli had mentioned someone pretending to be a ghost; any other time he would have dismissed it as silly old memories but now...

He bent and swept up dirt into the dustpan, and then moved to carry it over to the waste bin.

Ever since he'd driven that rogue knight off he'd been constantly vigilant for any hint, no matter how small, that someone else had arrived to plunge Portia into chaos.  He imagined most people would think he was being paranoid without reason and so had kept such worries to himself...maybe he shouldn't have done that.  Portia's residents had been panicked at first and demanding more protections from the Civil Corps folks after the knight incident but, as time wore on, they'd fallen back into their lives without fear of outside threats; would anything be different now if Django had shared his worries with Gale?

"Too late for that," he muttered to himself.

He swept up the last little dust pile and dumped it into the bin, then went to put the dustpan and broom away.

Once everything but a single lamp was powered down he dipped behind the front counter; for the most part he stored napkins, silverware, and small dessert plates behind here but after that Rogue Knight had left he'd started stashing a small box out of sight behind the formal cloth napkins that were only used during holidays.

The box was about the length of his hand from fingertips to the heel of his palm, and was just barely shy of being perfectly square.  Django popped the latch open and lifted the lid to reveal a delicate-looking pair of gloves made of silvery wires, each with a single wire that was much longer than the others that ended in a tiny plug; they were very hard to see among the loose cloth that padded the inside of the box, and he knew from experience that even when worn they were difficult to spot.

As he looked the gloves over he had his usual mixed feelings about them; hidden beneath his shirt and jacket were a pair of matching armbands hugging his biceps that had very small charge generators on it -- wearing the gloves with the lead wire plugged in allowed him to charge up and release a controlled shock that went off with a bang, a bright flash of light, and repelled anything he hit along with delivering a strong sting to his target.  

Much like the memories of the Ghost Knight now all his memories of having found these relics came rushing back; he'd once been a young, stupid man, with lofty ideals about what it meant to be a knight without truly understanding anything about knighthood.  He'd thought that finding these gloves had been the ultimate stroke of luck -- something to make him an unstoppable force of good in the world.  He'd been hilariously proven wrong, over and over, until he began to treat them as tools to compliment his own skill, rather than relying entirely on them.  

When he finally understood what the gloves true purpose ought to be he began to win more often and eventually they had earned him the title of Storm Knight; when he'd realized that his dependence on them had basically shaped his reputation he had almost thrown them away. The fear that someone else would make the same mistakes he did (or worse - that someone would use them to harm others) had made him keep them, and steadily he relied on them less and less over the years until he'd mothballed them five years before he retired. The Rogue Knight had been threat enough that Django had felt the need to take the gloves out of storage and thankfully with them - and with his reputation - that had been enough to scare the knight off.  

The problem with this Ghost Knight was Django knew reputation alone wouldn't drive her away.  She had fallen into the same pitfalls he had: thinking that Old World technology made her invincible, or at the very least better than everyone else.  Rather than learning and improving she had stagnated...and he'd watched it happen.

"You could have been one of the best..." he sighed, closing the box and tucking it under an arm.

She really could have been...maybe he should have fought her harder on her reliance on that suit.  Maybe she would have listened if he'd fully explained his own mistakes with the gloves.  Maybe he could have trained with her to show her there was a more honorable way of living. But then again, maybe there wasn't some magical combination of words that would have swayed her to his side and stopped her from getting mad and literally stabbing him in the back.

As he headed to the front door he reached his free hand around to rub at a spot on his lower back.  That old scar ached and itched when it was cold or wet outside but it was an old wound he'd learned to ignore; tonight it was a dull throbbing pain - probably exacerbated by the sweeping, or so he told himself before pausing to really examine that thought.

There used to be an old wives tale about how an injury caused by a mortal enemy would burn and ache when that enemy was nearby.  The Ghost Knight had been his companion once...he didn't think for a moment that they could be friends again but he could spare a bit of hope that the old tale was true and that he would know exactly when he was needed if it was truly her in the region.

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: The Usual Suspects

Hi, folks! Back when I used to work at TSSZ a lot of people really enjoyed reading my articles where I’d talk about various games at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE), and I’ve gotten more requests in the last month and a half to continue doing those types of articles than I think I’ve ever gotten about anything else I’ve ever done before. So, here we are!

But I also need to be real with you: there are a lot of games at SAGE. It was exhausting enough when there were 70, 80, or even 90 games. Heck, the one year I wrote about 85-something games by myself, I sort of felt like I was going to die. This year, there are over 220 games at SAGE. It is physically and emotionally impossible for me to talk about everything, and it may even be impossible for me to play everything. Things will fall through the cracks. Most things, probably. Though I am responsible for basically inventing SAGE 20 years ago, I am also a human. I have my limits, and I am sorry it has to be this way.

Structurally, we’re going to be doing things a little bit differently, and you should expect this to be a little fast and loose. Since I’m not talking about every single game on the show floor, articles are going to be broken up into types:

��Usual Suspects” will be for games that either appeared at previous SAGEs or that I’m at least aware of.

“Fan Games” should be obvious, and it’s whatever doesn’t fall under Usual Suspects.

“Indies” is the same deal, but for original games.

And finally, there will be a “Honorable Mentions” article for whatever random leftovers I don’t cover in the first three articles. Looking forward to me talking about your game, but I don’t mention it? Tell me about it and maybe it’ll end up here.

Without any more delay, let’s talk about those Usual Suspects...

Sonic GT

Sonic GT has always been kind of a difficult game to control, but usually it just took a little bit of getting used to. There was always a period of adjustment, where you had to learn the game’s quirks. But, over time, I feel like the game is also just getting… quirkier. Every time I come back to this, I slam head first into the Sonic GT’s learning curve, and it always feels just a little bit steeper. This is one of those games that tries to fit a lot of abilities into a tiny amount of buttons. It works, but it feels like you have to memorize an operator’s manual. It’s all about figuring out which button to hold when to get what state. But, man… when it clicks into place, it’s still kind of magic. And, at the very least, the levels have all been reworked to take better advantage of Sonic’s high-flying, death-defying acrobatics. You’ve just got to be willing to learn. The real downside of this new version is the inclusion of a proper story mode -- I don’t have anything against having cutscenes in your game or whatever, but for the purposes of reviewing these games, some ability to fast forward through the talking heads so I could get back to the gameplay would’ve been nice. You can skip ahead in cutscenes you’ve already watched, but that doesn’t help when it’s your first time through. Oh well. So it goes. (Update: in the process of getting this article posted, Sonic GT has been patched to make cutscenes always skippable.)

Project SXU (Sonic X-treme Unity)

Another year, another Sonic X-treme recreation. This one’s interesting because it seems to be the most “complete” yet, offering the four most famous levels: Jade Gully, Crystal Frost, Red Sands and Death Egg. Intentionally or unintentionally, this also seems to replicate quite a few quirks we’ve seen in Sonic X-treme’s controls in the videos that have been released of the in-development build. Which means that it, uh, kind of sucks to play. I realize that’s kind of rude, but I’m sort of allowed to say that. 15 years ago, I was basically the only person on the internet that cared what happened to Sonic X-treme, so... I started contacting developers, starting with the game's producer, Mike Wallis. He lead us to Chris Senn, and that broke the dam on information about this game. Now, I don’t claim ownership over everything that came out of this, I’m simply saying I was the one who got the ball rolling. I watched the mystery of Sonic X-treme slowly get uncovered with as much intent as one could possibly have. It is a fascinating piece of lost media, but as a game… well, I think it got canceled for a reason. SXU shows us a clear vision of that, with a game that’s disorienting to look at and hard to control. Heck, if you’re using a controller, you can’t even use the analog stick -- you have to use a d-pad, leading to controls that feel frustratingly twitchy. But that's true to the experience. I probably spent almost as long in this demo accidentally slipping into bottomless pits as I did exploring its levels. Again, this more or less feels accurate to what we’ve seen in videos, though I do think Sonic probably feels a little too sensitive, here. Regardless, it’s still absolutely fascinating.

“Sonic Infinity Engine” Games

I’m cheating a little bit, here. This is technically three entries, but it’s in “Usual Suspects” because there’s been Infinity Engine games at SAGE for a few years now. Listen, it’s my site, my rules, and we’re playing fast and loose, baby!

Adventure Pack 2

This claims to be a “pack” of multiple levels, but the one level I played went on for over 25 minutes without showing any signs of ending. The level is… well, it’s the kind of stuff we’ve seen at SAGE for years and years and years, a space previously occupied by SonicGDK and BlitzSonic before it, where somebody is clearly starting out learning 3D level design, has some prefab assets, and goes to town creating a huge, intricate environment… that doesn’t fit a Sonic game at all. Too many tight spaces, too much enemy spam, and too much labyrinthine pacing. This is “Sonic Visits Anor Londo,” and while it looks interesting visually, it’s easy to get lost, or worse, killed because something isn’t functioning right. Like a lot of Infinity Engine stuff, it’s a bit hit or miss.... And now, also cramped.

Infinity+ Colorful Combat

The primary goal of this seems to be to update the Infinity Engine with extra features, something that I think is pretty welcome. The Infinity Engine is okay, but it’s missing a little bit of polish that the original developer neglected to give it before abandoning the project. This helps tighten some of that stuff up, while also introducing Wisp powers and more playable characters. Some of the new characters could still use some work, yet, but given the project is still in active development, that’s pretty much a guarantee. This could end up being the defacto version of the Sonic Infinity Engine.

Sonic Reforge: Red Ridge (Blockout)

This is what’s called a “Grey Box.” Rather than build out a fully-detailed level, you get a rough estimate on how the stage will flow before you put all the graphics in. What’s here is okay, I guess, but the level loops back on itself in ways that can be kind of confusing. There are a few places where it’s not really clear where you’re supposed to go next, and I spent several minutes running in circles. I’m also not a huge fan of the changes to Infinity’s physics; jumping off of ramps is a key part of the Sonic experience, but there are several places here where that doesn’t work -- to get the height needed to progress, you just need to roll really fast. It works, but it doesn’t feel like the Sonic I’m familiar with.

Sonic World DX

I have a bit of history with this game. Or, well, with a different version of this game. I wasn’t kind to some of the original entries at SAGE many years ago, but over time, they’ve cleaned the game up and streamlined it a fair amount. Now we have the “DX” release, a further cleanup effort splintered off from the main project, but to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what’s different from the previous release. The main version of Sonic World supports an absolutely gargantuan amount of content, with 50 playable characters and at least that many levels. It was big, and weird, and impressive. This demo ships with three or four playable characters and eight stages. Beyond that, there’s not much else to say -- it’s still Sonic World, though this release doesn’t work right with my controller. It picks up the controller binds from the main version of Sonic World, correctly assuming I’m using a DualShock 4, but none of the buttons are correct. When it asks me to press the X button, I have to press Circle for it to properly register. Not only that, but the right stick camera control is completely broken. Switching to an Xbox controller fixes the camera issues, but now the face buttons have the opposite problem: when it asks me to press A to jump, I have to press X. Throws my whole vibe off, like wearing your shoes on the wrong feet. The menus are bizarre, too -- while adjusting the volume, you can’t push left or right to adjust the levels, you have to use controller face buttons for some reason. This whole thing feels like I stepped back in time to 2013 in a bad way.

Sonic Freedom

I feel like I’ve been waiting to see a major development from Sonic Freedom for half a decade at this point. The art considerations for this game are no joke, and I do not envy anyone trying to make a proper high-def 2D Sonic game that looks this good. But, well… it’s another year, and there’s not a lot here. It plays fine, I guess -- the controls are decent, at least. The problem is the level design. Does this level even end? I’m not sure. I know previous demos for Sonic Freedom have had more than one level, but the stage you start out in here is a confusing, empty labyrinth with respawning enemies and a finite number of rings. You climb up and up and up, but eventually I reached what felt like a dead end. Visually it will always look incredible, but I’m wondering if it’ll ever actually become a game at any point in the future.

BraSonic 20XX

Here’s a strange blast from the past I wasn’t expecting. BraSonic is an old fangame from probably more than a decade and a half ago. It was so long ago that I can’t even actually remember if I played the old version of the game or not, but I definitely remember the name. What really throws me for a loop playing the 20XX version now is how much it feels like a game from back in the early 2000’s. The artwork, the sound effects, the locations, all of it makes me feel like I’m 19 again. Thankfully, this doesn’t play like a fangame from 2004; physics seem pretty solid, level design flows pretty well, and it generally seems to be fun, weird, and most importantly, unique. There aren’t many fan games here at SAGE that open with their first boss fight being against Sonic the Hedgehog. If you find yourself getting burnt out from so many Sonic fan games feeling same-y, this could be a good change of pace.

Sonic Frenzy Adventure

Maybe it’s the fact that this is the 20th Anniversary of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo, but here’s another very old fangame coming back out of the woodwork for an enhanced modern re-release. This game was a mainstay of the mid-to-late 2000’s SAGE events, after which it disappeared before being finished. Well, maybe it was finished. Again, a lot of this stuff was so, so, so long ago that this poor old man’s memory just can’t recall it. Seeing Frenzy Adventure back warms my heart, though. It’s an old friend in what has proven to be a very challenging year. Admittedly, parts of it still feel a bit mid-2000’s, but I consider those charming quirks. Throwbacks to a simpler era. At the very least, controls have been improved, so it does play better than the old releases did. Good stuff. Glad to see you again, dude.

Sonic Speed Course

This was a game that turned up last year, but in the kerfuffle I didn’t get around to trying it, even though I really wanted to. This is clearly a game inspired by Kirby’s Dream Course, but instead of Nintendo’s pink puffball, we have Sonic and friends. Whereas Kirby gained abilities by bowling through enemies, this adapts a more traditional Sonic gameplay structure of item boxes filled with shields and other powerups. But here’s my deep dark secret: even though I love Kirby’s Dream Course in concept, there’s a part of me that feels an intense hatred for that game. I have distinct memories of renting Kirby’s Dream Course as a kid and getting really far into the game, but trying to play it as an adult I’m baffled at how difficult it is. The main problem I have is that every stroke you take subtracts from your health, meaning you can only hit the ball so many times before you just… die. This makes for a very, very steep learning curve that discourages play and experimentation. Every shot truly, deeply matters and eventually I find myself caught in a death spiral and staring at the game over screen. All of this is replicated in Sonic’s Speed Course, which, much like with Kirby, I find myself drawn to like a moth to the flame -- only to come away feeling dejected and like I’m just not good enough. For fans of Kirby’s Dream Course, this is undoubtedly good news, as this means Sonic Speed Course is faithful to the tone of that game. But I find myself wishing there was a practice mode or something that let me play these courses without the punitive health system, because I’m ready to love them.

Sonic: Triple Trouble 16-Bit

When you write about so many games at SAGE every year, things start to blur together... a lot. I seem to recall that Triple Trouble 16-Bit last year was good, but had room for improvement. Well, this year, this demo feels… really quite good. I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical about remaking this game. Sonic: Triple Trouble was among the first batch of Game Gear games I ever owned as a kid, and while I liked the game, in my adulthood, I feel like I’ve come to appreciate Sonic Chaos more. But so much has been added to this game that it’s really come into its own. It uses Triple Trouble more as a jumping off point to become something fresh and interesting, and on top of that, this demo is pretty polished. This game was kind of always on my radar, but it’s really turning into something special.

Battle Cross Fever

Every year, I download this game hoping for some kind of single player offering, and every year I’m let down. Battle Cross Fever is a fighting game that plays a lot like Smash Bros., but contains elements that pull it closer to traditional fighting games like Street Fighter. It’s the kind of game that can check with the server to make sure you’re playing the latest version, but doesn’t have true online multiplayer -- instead advertising that you should use a piece of screen sharing software like Parsec to accomplish online multiplayer. In their defense, the few times I’ve used Parsec, it’s basically been magic for how well it works. But I just want, like… anything that I can play by myself. Even if it’s just a super basic arcade mode with brain dead AI, anything is better than nothing. But, I suppose, I am an outlier. Judging by the horrific character select music I landed on, Battle Cross Fever has enough of a community that they could get fans to sing along to “Ghost Town” from Sonic Forces -- which is a fun idea, don’t get me wrong, but when you have loud voices over cheap microphones, well… I hope you aren’t wearing headphones like I was. Anyway, this game’s always seemed solid, but I’ve also never played it with another human being, so really, I’m speaking from the perspective of admiring the diverse roster and all of the fun arenas they’ve ported in. Maybe someday it’ll get some single player content.

I’ll be back with another article… uh, eventually. In truth, I was only going to feature five games here, but it ended up being ten, so we’ll see how many are in future articles when we get there!

[threecheersforinking]

Manga Review: The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland manga finally ended this month! I watched the anime when it was airing last year, but a few days ago I ended up reading the entire manga in 3 days because of how fascinated I was with the world; I wanted to know how it would develop beyond the first season, but was way too impatient to wait for the second season to come out!

Because I read it so quickly I’m kind of feeling information overload right now and just want to get all my thoughts down as fast as I can. So obviously, this post is gonna have major manga spoilers. If you aren’t caught up or aren’t a manga reader, I suggest you stop reading now, but if you want to read my commentary on the anime’s first season (spoiler free!) here’s the link to that. Thanks!

Once I got past the first arc that was covered in season 1 of the anime, I was a bit nervous about what would follow. Something I worry about with series like this with a huge genre shift or huge unknown world/mystery is that the story won’t live up to what I imagine it will be. And while I wasn’t able to predict much about the world, I really liked how the story ended.

Overall, I enjoyed how they chose to end the story with all the cattle children going to the human world, and I’ll talk about that a bit later, but one gripe I had was that there were way too many loose ends for my liking. I prefer when all the loose details of a story get wrapped up at the end of a series (which explains why I didn’t like EVA lmao sry) and I still had a lot of questions at the end, some questions that I had since the first arc.

Firstly, what the fuck is the significance of the hydrangea? They did briefly explain that it’s used to show whether the gods will give you their blessing to eat something you killed or whatever, which is kinda nice but they didn’t explain what happens if it doesn’t bloom, or why it’s important... more knowledge of this world’s ‘gods’ or religion would’ve been cool.

I also feel like the way children were produced in Grace Field (or hell, any of the plantations) was unclear; like, where do they get sperm from, or was there another way they got the Moms pregnant? What about in the factory farms? Is Carol supposed to be Emma’s biological sister, because they obviously looked hella alike but they never even mentioned it?? I also wanted to know way more about the Moms’ schooling and how one becomes a Mom. I would love if there was a prequel short story or one-off focusing on Isabella in Mom-training.

Also, I think we could’ve seen more of Phil. He was without a doubt the 6th most important Grace Field kid (behind Emma, Norman, Ray, Don, and Gilda ofc), plus what happened when that scary guy interrogated him?? I straight up thought he killed him lol.

I also wish we had more background on Musica. There was no real explanation for her powers and she had hella Deus ex Machina vibes.

Despite all these unanswered questions I had, I still consider this series enjoyable and well written. I really don’t think knowing any of this stuff would’ve changed the way I thought about the story, and none of them would have really impacted the conclusion of the story itself.

And yes, I’m so glad it ended the way it did. Maybe some people weren’t expecting or wanting a ‘happy’ ending, but come on, don’t these kids deserve a fucking break??? And I don’t consider it unrealistically happy, either. These kids know what they’re doing, and they have a plan for everything. Emma is not naive, she is hopeful. Every time she tried to resolve an issue with positivity, kindness, and forgiveness, she was still prepared for her enemy to turn on her. That’s the only way she was able to convince cynical Ray and skeptical Norman to ever go along with anything she did.

I  also loved that romance wasn’t really a thing in this story at all. Familial and platonic love are what kept the protagonists motivated more than anything else. I’m sure people have their ships, but personally I was just enjoying a series without any explicit romance.

Ray was my favorite character throughout the series, but I did kind of feel like his development was pushed aside in the later arcs. This def could’ve just been because his main development was in the first arc, but compared to Emma and Norman there wasn’t a lot of focus on my boy Ray. Yes he was by Emma’s side almost the entire time, but still.

I absolutely loved Isabella’s redemption. I can see why some people might not have liked it but i thought it was extremely fitting; every one of the Moms was once a cattle child, and they were just doing what they could to survive. This obviously does not justify their evil deeds, but it explains both their initial complicity and their willingness to change sides. And based on her reaction when Emma & friends escaped at the end of the first arc, I did suspect that if Isabella appeared again she would be on their side. I cried when her kids said they still loved her and she still loved them. It just reminds the readers of the innocence and unconditional love that children have.

While I do really love The Promised Neverland as a whole, my biggest qualm with this series was honestly the portrayal of Sister Krone... I immediately read her as being a racist stereotype. It’s a shame because upon her introduction I was actually really surprised and happy that they featured a Black person with natural hair. I didn’t mind her personality/character; in fact, I think she was a really nuanced antagonist for the first arc, but the way her facial features were exaggeratedly drawn made me uncomfortable. As an American, I’m familiar with how Black people have been portrayed negatively in our country’s media throughout history and it was just a little too close to that for my comfort.

 I was concerned with how the manga would continue with racial portrayals after Krone’s death, but it did kind of seem like an isolated incident. There are kids with a variety of skin tones featured, in fact Emma mentions it in one of the first pages of the manga; not to mention, human races don’t really seem to be a concept in the demon world (presumably because race is irrelevant to the demons, who only care about brains). It is possible that the creators weren’t thinking this way at all, and just wanted to make her a scary adult; for instance, Isabella’s facial features are sometimes exaggerated for effect as well. But intentional or not, it made me uncomfortable, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Anyway, those are just my immediate thoughts after finishing the manga. Something I forgot to mention was that the illustration is absolutely hauntingly intricate. The demons in particular were wonderfully terrifying, and really helped me visualize their world. I’m really interested in how the anime series will continue to adapt the material; looking at the first season, the difference in art style between the two is slight, but noticeable. I’m especially curious about how they will handle the intense action and detail of the demon fight scenes later on. I also read this super fast like I mentioned and I definitely might have missed some stuff lol so if any of my ‘unanswered questions’ were actually mentioned and I’m just a big dummy please lmk. And if anyone has any other thoughts or comments I’d love to hear them!

Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

[praphit]

BAMFs of 2019

Here's last year’s CHAMP -

THANOS

(Thanos: ”WTF did you just say?” #Mood)

Let's see if he made it back.

But, first, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions, as well as some people who were trying too hard:

Rey - 

Of course she is a total BAMF. So, why isn't she on this list? 3 REASONS: 1) She looks like a racist ex that I once dated. How can someone who decided to date you (a black man) be racist? Did y'all see the movie "Get Out"? You didn't know that the story was based off one of my relationships did you? So, yeah, she ain't ever gettin on this list.

2) The force is cheating - their I said it.

3) This last movie sucked. This rap she did didn't help her cause.

ALSO - there’s this - her rapping. I repeat, she ain’t ever getting on this list.

Nic Cage - cuz he's Nic bleepin Cage

Cardi B - cuz she’s Cardi bleepin B

Hooded Justice - if only he had been in more episodes. A black man disguising himself in a hood, as well as white, to fight evil in his neighborhood, that the police force (of which he is a part of) refuses to stop. Hell yeah! I love "Watchmen".

Lupita! - her brilliantly scary performance in "Us" is def BAMF material.

The Rock - honestly, The Rock is so awesome, and has been for so long, that he needs to be extra awesome to make it.

Trying too Hard. Please STOP:

Batwoman -

I like Ruby, but she's like an elf. She's an elf model. It's not bad to be an elf model, but... If a villain in Gotham, let's say "Bane" 

has me cornered, and Batwoman shows up to "rescue me", Imma start praying. He'd swing her around by that red hair of hers until her head pops off.

Rambo - He’s like 80! C’mon, Sly. Please STOP.

Dark Phoenix - a movie about her temper tantrum 

Joker -

 - not with all of that awkward dancing he was doing

NOW, finally, the top Bad Ass Muthas of 2019!

12) Greta - 

Say what you will about climate change, but you can't deny her passion and dedication, and how inspiring it is (unless you're Prez Trump or Fox News) to see and hear a kid like her do her thing. I admit that her winning the honor of "Person of the Year" is too much. But, we all wish our kids would be this dedicated to what they believe is positive change. Plus, she has a kickass soundtrack. Gets me hyped every time!

11) Dave Chappelle

Back in the day, comedians used to be brought on stage, tasked with the difficult job of making a room full of different types of people laugh. Now, it's not just about the job of jokes, but you have to do so without offending anyone, and with clean living. When did we start holding a comedian's behavior to a higher standard than we do elected officials? Dave saw this, and kept doing what made him popular anyway. In a world where most comedians are running scared from difficult topics, Dave plunges right in. BAD ASS. 

10) Linda Hamilton - 

Old as bleep! We have what's-her-face here, 

who is kinda badass herself, but despite being a badass cyborg (or whatever the hell she is), she still felt the need to ask for help from Linda bleepin Hamilton. LH traded her Hospice bingo card in for some guns and went to town on some machines! It'd be like if your home was being surrounded by aliens, and despite you having some fire power in your home and 911 at your disposal, everyone's first thought is to call grandma. That'd have to be one BAMF of a granny!

9) Masvidal - 

Allow me to describe this brotha to y'all who might not know.

Some guy was talkin smack to Masvidal, and that guy got kneed in the face by Masvidal (fastest knock out in UFC history = 5 secs). Some guy was arrogant enough to say he was the baddest mofo around, and Masvidal scheduled a fight with this dude for a literal baddest mofo around belt. Plus, that same night of the fight, when he was talking to the media after he had won, he started mocking Conor McGregor, talkin bout Conor don't want none of this. He was talking trash, publicly, about Conor, while people were feeding him pizza. BADASS!

If there is ever a fork in the road, and on one side you see The Rock, Jason Statham, and Will Smith chasing after you, and the other you have Masvidal sitting down, eating a slice of pizza, you had better take your chances with the three action heroes over this BAMF.

8) Nunes - 

If you don't know who she is, I wouldn't be surprised. The UFC botched her marketing before and after she fought and beat (badly) Ronda Rousey - yeah, RONDA ROUSEY; remember her? Nunes pretty much ended her career.

The UFC was so certain that Ronda was going to win, and so shocked when she lost, that they missed an opp to get behind a fighter who is better than Ronda (though mad respect for Ronda), and is currently holding TWO belts (first woman to do so). ALSO, she's the first openly gay UFC champ in history. She's so sweet too! - well, unless you're locked in the octagon with her, then she turns into a werewolf.

7) MANDO

I don't know about you, but all of this talk of teamwork from comic book movies can be a bit tiresome. The Avengers, The Justice League, The X-Men. Everybody wants to form a band. What happened to solo acts? What happened to lone rangers? People may say "There's no I in TEAM." Yeah, that's the prob! What about I?! Sometimes, you're Justin Timberlake, and the rest of the group is simply holding you back. That's Mando. He's Disney's updated (non-racist, unless you’re talkin drones) Lone Ranger. He doesn't need teamwork (maybe a weekly cameo, and a baby tag-along, but that's it!). He has beaten up gangs of robots, burnt people up, taken people out Jason Voorhees style, cut people in half, blown people up, blown off heads, BUT because it's Disney, we haven't seen any of that good stuff. He'd be higher on this list if they gave my man an R-rating.

6) Capt Marvel -

Captain Marvel is definitely the most powerful person on this list. She is probably also the fiercest person on this list. In Endgame, when she saw her black daddy (Nick Fury) on the screen, talkin bout Thanos snapped him away, and then something snapped inside of her, and she said "I'm going to go kill that mofo." The Avengers accompanied her, but I don't think she would have needed their help. She didn't really need their help in the final showdown with Thanos. He threw her aside, but you know she was coming back, until Tony got in her way. She is so fiery that it wouldn't surprise me if in her sequel, she goes back in time in order to rematch Thanos by herself, to prove her dominance. The reason that she's not higher on the list is because she's so damned destructive. She's just like The Hulk in the fact that she shows up to destroy everything. Now, she's a lot more focused than The Hulk, but she's so powerful that she does more damage. And she doesn't have much of a personality (so far), so it's hard to gauge her badassery of attitude, you know?? Like, if you're a villain, and you get in the way of a gorilla, that gorilla will destroy you in a very spectacularly badass way, but... it's a gorilla, you know??

I’M NOT CALLING HER A GORILLA. Don’t go snitching on me to her.

I just don’t know if she’s a hero or simply has anger management issues. Is she badass or too powerful not to do badass things?

Either way, RESPECT... or she'll come for that ass.

TIME FOR A BREAK - 

Let’s break from all of this badassery with some cuteness

Look how cute it is - I CAN’T TAKE IT!

Ok, back to action.

5) Iron Man - 

Look, Iron-Man started this shit! Who knows what would have become of the MCU had Robert Downey Jr. blew it. Tony Stark assembled the team (granted, he was partly the reason for the break-up), he gave us Spider-Man (with that suit) (he also gave us Ultron, but let's not get bogged down with details), he held his own against Thanos in "Infinity War",

Dr. Strange thought HIM worthy of saving, and no way time travel would have worked in "Endgame" without him. Plus, in the very end, he out-smarted Thanos, and countered Thanos' one-liner ("I am inevitable.") with his own ("And I... [five minutes later - I swear that's what it felt like] am Iron-Man.").

Paid the ultimate sacrifice. Hell yeah, he's on this list. I felt kinda bad for his wife. After IM3, she was barely around. And when Tony died, she was barely comforted... cuz nobody knew her. Oh, well.. she be aiight.

4) Thanos - 

This dude saw his demise coming, and still went straight ahead towards the foes who cut his head off. BADASS! He was exceptionally crafty in playing The Avengers and blowing up their base. Then, he was just sitting around waiting for the main Avengers (Capt, Iron, and Fat Thor). He wanted to gloat a bit first. BADASS! And had Gamora not betrayed him, and had given him the gaunlet, he would have beaten The Avengers AGAIN!

He even died with a cool pose (he took a knee and got his "Thinking Man" on). BADASS!

3) Arya Stark - 

This young lady scared the bleep out of me. She has my fear AND respect. I was actually scared for whomever her current target was... I was like "Run, fool! She gonna get ya! Damn, Arya, you didn't have to do them like that!"

Now, I know I talked about Ruby Rose being a ridiculous choice for Batwoman, but if Arya Stark left on a voyage to Gotham and became Batwoman, I'd buy that. I can see her killing Bane very slowly. This woman is a frickin psychopath, and I love it. She's fearless! She also went up against the top cheese of the white walkers. Y'all remember that badass move she had at the end!

YES! I only wish she had said something cool when she took him out, like... "You've been Starked." No, that's terrible, but something like that. I wish she was the one sitting on the throne, but they... you know... did what they did.

2) Capt America - 

I think that it's fair to say that Capt America was the rock of The Avengers After the snap, he was the only one to keep his shit together; he actually worked to help others keep their shit together.

Meanwhile, Widow is crying in the dark every night while having a PB sandwich and bourbon dinner. And she just gave up on her hair.

Thor became an alcoholic.

And you could say Hulk was ok, but... was he?

I mean, that ain't right. This is avoidance behavior if I've ever seen it.

But, Capt kept it together. Then, that fight with Thanos at the end was one of, if not THE best one on one fight of the series. Using both Thor weapons, meaning he was both badass on a fighting level and a righteousness level - which ain't easy to accomplish. And when he straped tight his shield in that trailer, and gritted his teeth - hell yeah!

Chills. Capt to Thanos: You motha bleeper"

1) John Wick - 

Three movies with no time in-between to shower, sleep, take a piss, brush his teeth, NOTHING! His life for the last few years (it seems like) has been running, lurking, hiding, beating ass.. and beating ass some more. Lord knows what this dude's kill count is up to. His nickname is "Baba Yaga" Have y'all seen what the actual Baba Yaga looks like?

Terrifying. And yet, not as terrifying as John Wick when he's angry at you.

The amount of endurance and focus that has gone into this long stint of murdering (only fueled by rage and a few shots of bourbon from time to time) is uncanny.

In JW3 he makes a guy eat a book (imagine what must be done to a person's jaw for that to happen), he gets shot, stabbed, hit my two cars (seconds within each other)... Nah, y'all ain't hear me! TWO CARS! The people in the cars were trying to kill him! He fought two super ninjas - like IP Man caliber, he beat up an army of soldiers, crawled through a desert, got shot by a friend who betrayed him, fell off of a building (bouncing around a few times before hitting the pavement), and was somehow still good to schedule a fourth movie after all of that - which I assume will pickup right there.

He doesn't have any superpowers (though you wouldn't know), but his tenacity is to be envied, and outdoes everyone else's on this list.

BAMF!!!

[springday-aus]

College!AU with BM [Matthew]

moodboard link

Group: KARD 

Member: BM / Kim Matthew

Genre: fluff, romance 

Type: Bulletpoint AU 

Word Count: 2k 

fun fact: college!Matthew is a psych major 

despite looking like a buff ass gym trainer 

like all psych majors, he was interested in the human mind and how it works 

it’s just so…. complicated... iT’S cOOL 

in high school, he was thinking about sports, like physical education because that’s… what he’s been good at…… 

but then one intro to psych class in junior year totally blew his mind away 

Matthew: “think about it…. we’re all so different from one another, but we’re all actually the same because of the way we all think” 

Taehyung: “bro, it’s literally 3am, I am tireD” 

for real though, he’s really excited about learning new things about how our minds work 

lowkey probably does social experiments on all of his friends once he learns about it 

(small things like taking off his hat first on purpose to see if anyone else does it too—he ain’t about to traumatize them like Little Albert) 

some of his friends think the whole psych major suits him because he likes to talk to other people 

but like he’s part of the rehabilitation psychology route…… 

…….. not the whole therapist counselor route lmao 

plus he doesn’t have the voice for it because we can all hear him before we see him 

anyways, he wants to help patients that are suffering disabilities that include the psychological impact of their problems

rehabilitation suits him though, because he cares about the wellbeing of others, physical and mental

basically Matthew is just a big ass softie and it shows 

other than the whole psych major thing, he’s actually part of the dance team 

he was gonna join some sport since he did it in high school 

but then he was like 

DANCE TEAM 

so there he is 

speaking of fitness, he goes to the gym often 

like…….. almost everyday 

if you ever need to find him, 9/10 times he’ll probably be at the gym 

all y’all knew this was coming: GYM SQUAD 

basically, he met some dudes who all like to go to the gym and now they’re friends—there’s even a group chat 

Matthew: bro, y’all got some big tiddies  Matthew: forget gym squad, we the Big Man Tiddie Team  Wonho: why do I feel that it’s directed at me  Matthew: <3 Seungcheol: istg Matthew just wanted a Wonho fan club  Hyunwoo: …… how do I leave a group chat?  Jungkook: I need new friends 

anyways

Matthew’s got a real frat boy aesthetic

‘cause like he’s friends with almost everyone and bro and dude are part of his main vocabulary

ironically enough, he ain’t an actual frat boy tho

he’s got this whole image on campus that makes him look like he’s some type of suave player who doesn’t care about anything but his bros

it’s probably due to the fact that he’s a big dude and that’s….. real intimidating

and also the backwards hat and… tank tops…..

he knows what people say about him…. and he just tries to ignore it

**cue Jiwoo ready to throw hands EVERYTIME**

but like….. that’s not him

again: he’s a big ass softie—he’s a big dude with a mushy inside

and it’s just a shame that only his friends know how genuine he is

he’s got this thing where he’s constantly supporting others and sometimes he forgets about himself

actually for a while now, he’s had some….. sleeping issues…..

it makes no sense because his physical health is like up

so it could be a mental health thing

but, for almost every night this week, he’s just been walking around campus from like midnight to around 4am

it’s actually how he meets you

he’s been doing random stuff since he hasn’t been able to sleep

like he’d go to the campus gym, walk around, hang around the open dining halls, or like walk around his dorm hall because he’s got nothing else to do

the thing is, you’ve been having some sleep issues too

it’s probably because of stress and all the assignments caught up with you and now you’ve found yourself lying in bed awake for hOURS

so you’ve been up and about during odd hours as well

one night, at like 2am, you decided to go down to the kitchen of your dorm hall

according to google, tea or milk is a good way to get some sleep

so you decide to get yourself a lil cup of tea and as you wait for the water to boil…….

someone……. just……... shows up………

….. it’s Matthew :))))))

and like despite how hot this dude was…….

you…….. were startled…….

not without good reason, because it’s like……. late at night and this mysterious dude shows up outta nowhere

you kinda thought were gonna die because he def looks like he could kill you

until…….. he just smiles at you

Matthew: “oh hi”

you: “....... hello…….”

Matthew being Matthew just chats you up because he likes talking to people: “can’t sleep either?”

you: “yeah, tea is supposed to help though”

Matthew: “maybe it’s just me because it didn’t work that well for me”

you: “well, maybe it’s the amount, size does come into play”

Matthew: “I guess size matters huh” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

you: I barely know this man but why is he like this

so, that’s just kinda how it goes

y’all just continue talking and swap some secrets on how to get some goddamn sleep

and…... you think that’s it

like it’s just a one time thing…..

but then

the next night, you run into him again

except it’s like 4am

the tea didn’t work last time, so you head down to get some milk instead and….

you run into him again…….

and like…….. he all sweaty….. from the gym……

Matthew: “oh hey”

you, underneath your breath: what the fu c k

the same thing happens again and y’all have a nice conversation about your lives and all that stuff

you get to find out some pretty cool stuff like

how his friends call him BM

and that he’s in dance because he’s interested in music and rap

he also loves BoA

and he is a protester of pineapple on pizza

he gets to know you too

like your major and how you got into it

your hobbies and interests

and your friends all seem really cool

the more you two talk, the more he likes you

so this whole meeting up at the kitchen at odd hours became a thing

it didn’t happen like every time, but it happened rather frequently for like a few months or so

you did see him once on campus in broad daylight, but like

he didn’t see you

because ……. you kind of avoided him

like, what if this is just like a night kinda thing

Matthew is super chill, but like you know…. what if you got that wrong idea and stuff

anyways

one day… you just stop showing up

IT’S NOT BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANNA SEE HIM

it’s just that…… you really need actual sleep because you can’t keep barely functioning like this

so your friend is like, ever heard of melatonin?

and gives you these pills that really do the fucking trick

you slept for a literal day

like 24 hours

a full ass 24 hours

since then, you’ve had a decent sleep schedule

but it meant not seeing Matthew

you didn’t really think about it because he’s got a lot of friends

why would he care about some person he meets at night

that sounds wrong but y’all get the picture

here’s the thing though

he’s worried like

maybe you are getting the sleep you need and deserve, but like

he misses you

(even though it’s literally been like a week or two)

Somin: “looks like somebody’s got a crush~”

Matthew: “your point?”

so when he spots you on campus, he can’t help but to yell your name across the quad

….. and dramatically run to you to give you a hug

Matthew: “how’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in like a couple of weeks?”

you: “have you noticed that my eye bags have lightened?”

Matthew: “gimme your secrets”

and like…. Matthew’s friends are like, hello, we are here

they actually invite you out to go eat with them

so y’all go to the dining hall and end up there for like three hours

and Matthew walks back with you to your dorm room

Matthew: “so today was fun… but maybe…. we could go out on our own next time….?”

you: “...... like…… hang out???”

Matthew: “a date”

you: “o h… uM yEA H—I mean, sure, whatever’s cool bro”

he waits for you to go in and then when you’re sure he’s gone….

“I HAVE A DATE WITH A HOT ASS MAN. HOW THE F UC K.”

**cue your startled roommate**

after your first date, it all kinda pieced together

so…... first of all, gym dates

whether you’re for them or against them, you gonna get pulled in eventually

if you work out, y’all can work out together

couple exerciSES

if not, he gonna use you as gym equipment—kinda joking but not really because he can and WILL lift you

oH and because y’all have sleeping issues, you’ve been helping him out

y’all can actually sleep when you sleep together

noT LIKE THAT GET CHA NASTY ASS OUTTA THE GUTTER

(but lowkey sleep and sleep sleep, ya know ;)))

okay but actually he’s like a giant, warm heater—you’ve been able to sleep a bit more lately thanks to him

turns out Matthew’s a cuddler…… whether it’s sleep related or not

because Matthew’s real touchy

like no shame touchy

I’m talking arm around the waist or shoulder, hand-holding, lots of kisses all over your face, or just flat out hugging you from behind

you know… one of THOSE couples

Taehyung: “y’all look like penguins waddling in the cold”

Matthew: “penguins are cute, this is good”

you: “let’s just hold hands like normal people”

Jiwoo: “Matthew isn’t normal people”

I’m joking

but like, his friends all love you

because you make him really happy and take care of him

and vice versa, obviously

you’re always prepared to fight someone for him

some asswipe: “he’s probably just a fuckboy”

you: “AND YOU’RE IRRELEVANT YOU BIG PIECE OF SHIT SAY IT ONE MORE TIME ASSHO—”

Matthew, tosses you over his shoulder: “babe calm down”

you: “I REFUSE TO. THIS BITCH WANNA THROW HANDS. I’LL FUCKIN—”

………… yeah, Jiwoo and you get along real well

even though you have those fight instincts

he’s real protective of you 

he won’t hurt a fly until it does anything to harm you

anyways, it’s just a beautiful relationship

you can bet he’s bragging about you somewhere…. or everywhere……

Matthew: “my partner is the cutest”

Seungcheol: “....... and what does this have to do with the weights?”

Matthew: “it has everything to do with weights”

oh um, by the way, Big Man Tiddie Team

Matthew says he loves you but like……. you suspect Wonho is your competition

Wonho: “hi, it’s nice to finally meet you”

you, narrows eyes: goddamn it, I understand why now

I don’t know why, but I see him interpreting your dreams…. or at least attempting to

it might just be the whole psych major thing

ayyways, you probably are gonna get spammed with odd messages from Matthew at some point

but it’s cute—he’s like a child

Matthew: look at this dog  Matthew: can we get one  Matthew: SMOOTHIES  Matthew: I got these couple hoodies by accident  Matthew: I have an idea—you, me, road trip, beach  Matthew: this reminded me of you  Matthew: it’s cute Matthew: like you

even though you’re dating, he’s probably gonna use pick up lines on you 

especially the psych ones….. because he thinks they’re funny…….. 

Matthew: “can I buy you a shrink?” ;) 

Matthew: “wanna teach me about interpersonal relationships?” 

Matthew: “can I get your number in my Long Term memory?” 

Somin: “if you’re being held captive, send me a signal” 

it’s okay though because he’s cute 

y’all are cute 

you: “you know, I almost thought I dreamt you up because I haven’t slept properly in so long” 

Matthew: “I guess you can say, I’m the man of your dreams” 

you: “............... you’re lucky you’re hot”

[comicteaparty]

February 26th-March 3rd, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from February 26th, 2020 to March 3rd, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What generally makes the pacing of a comic too fast or too slow for you?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

My favourite comic style are those large sized, panel and dialogue heavy European comic books, line Blacksad and Asterix. Since every 80 page book tells a complete story, every page is progressing the plot significantly, and the whole thing is pretty compressed and the rate splash page has an impact you don’t get in a more lose, decompressed comic. I love that kind of stuff and I look for similiar pacing in webcomics - heavier on the dialogue but without choking the art, low on wordless scenes (they tend to make me skim), taut and tight story-telling, every page asks and answers a question. I know it‘s a matter of taste and got told more than once that I am too dumb for comics because I don‘t have the patience to read through six pages of wordless, plotless mood-setting; but eh - that kind of stuff just doesn‘t work for me. I firmly believe comic‘s big enough a field that mood pieces and tightly plotted stuff can happily co-exist and find their own readership. I‘m just gonna be in the „plot, all the time!“ corner.

sagaholmgaard

The a comic starts focusing on minor characters that don't hold much importance for the plot I'll find it to be wayy too drawn out. While One-Punch Man is one of my favorite comics, some fights are pretty unimportant for the overarching plot, focusing only on random small-fry heroes fighting random small-fry monsters and it's just... a million action panels for be too read through while waiting for the main cast to return (this turned out to be pretty specific, oops!)

Ash🦀

Honestly, coming from a writing/literature background, I feel that most comics are too fast-paced for me;; I love the slow build up, it makes everything much more rewarding at the end, and the mood-setting that just lets you breathe and stare at the page, yes, a thousand times yes. I guess this is why I don’t like reading or writing actions scenes... so fast-paced and they feel more like “this is action for interesting action and the hero needs exp and not because it’s a necessary battle” ;; but this is more of a personal preference than anything, and... yeah, I definitely blame the books I used to read xD

Capitania do Azar

I'm a little confused with the filler concept introduced here, given that most webcomics are made by individuals (not teams)... What would they even be filling for? I think it's fair to talk about less interesting b-plots or when the scenes are focused on characters we don't like as much, but I would hardly call anything a single artist decided it was worth enough to spend hours drawing by their volition "filler"

As for the pacing question, it is sometimes hard to combine the two facets of webcomics: that they're published on a page-to-page basis but they are often read in bulk, when digging through archives. I don't know if it's possible to find the perfect balance between these two, which makes it possible to think that certain scenes are too slow (oh no, we've been at this wedding for three months now!) but when read in the archive are suddenly too fast... I think breathing room is necessary every now and then, even for faster-paced comics.

RebelVampire

I think you need to consider that just because an artist doesn't see something as filler, doesn't mean readers won't. I've known a lot of comics where the creator created a scene that they loved, but in the bigger scheme of things it served absolutely no purpose to the plot and felt super out of place

So while the filler wasn't intentional as a "I need filler", to the readers it comes off as filler

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I like long paced, slow- burn type stories where there is an obvious carefully crafted plot with each stitch placed intentionally for a bigger reveal and payoff. Much how i like any relationship shown in stories, i love it when an author almost makes readers work for that payoff. It makes the re-read value go way up, and to catch on to the subtle nuances of plot reveal on the second or third go at the story is very rewarding both as a writer and reader!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

You can easily have slow burn relationships in a faster paced comic. I actually like that better, because that usually requires the characters to have actions and interests outside of the relationship of interest, which leads to more well rounded characters.

A good example is the novel Clockwork Boys and it‘s follow up - slowburn romance, and while the characters figured THAT one out, they solved a huge mystery.

renieplayerone

Im a big fan of stories that are able to turn the pacing up to 11 on a dime without it getting old or lowering the stakes at all. It takes such talent to be able to tell compelling stories with high flying action at the same time, so I appreciate anyone that can manage that balance

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

My personal approach to writing pacing is that each page has to do at least two of three: further the plot, introduce/deepen story-relevant world building, deepen the characterisation. I aim for all three at once; if there‘s only two, there better be a good reason to keep that scene around, if there‘s only one, it gets cut and/or merged with another one. Eg. I have a scene where the character cook (food‘s relevant because there‘s a famine) and a scene where they argue about their plans, those can easily be combined.

Some scenes are still slower or faster than others, but they all matter to the story.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Def agree with Renie on that point too!

Ash🦀

Chalcara makes a good point too, and it’s something I definitely try to keep in mind in my own pages. I try to answer a question and ask another with my pages and pull as much double duty as I can wrench out of it. Now, whether I succeed every time? Absolutely not. But this is a good reminder when I’m going back to edit issue 3- keep the push and pull of questions and answers in mind.

RebelVampire

Ok so at this point I do want to jump in and remind people that as per Rule #1, this chat should mostly be about your experiences as a reader vs. your experiences as a creator. So just want to make sure the convo doesn't delve too far into that realm.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

My answer to this question is very much based on specific situations in comics. Pacing is SUCH a complex thing, and it's not always easy to see the impact in the grand scheme of things. To make a story seem too slow to me, a few things have to happen: the pages/ panels don't further the plot, don't deepen the characters/world-building, or the tension remains consistent for too long. Coming from a theatre background, I sometimes like to refer to this idea as beats. I focus a lot on the importance of every line having purpose. If a character says something, and it doesn't add anything to the experience, then perhaps the dialogue shouldn't be there at all. Or if a panel without dialogue doesn't add anything to the reader experience, the same thing applies. There should be no wasted space. Honestly, I am kind of a sucker for slow build-up (as long as there is actually build-up at all). So I'm not against slow-burn stories. To me, slow-burn shouldn't feel like it's dragging along, or like "nothing is happening," which is a common trap stories fall into. But we as readers need to see those slow moments in order to understand the fast moments too. Which brings me onto pacing that is too fast... Honestly, this is a much bigger problem to me personally. There is this influx in fiction of wanting to have the quickest jump into the action at the beginning of the story, and it always makes me want to stop reading. If the writer doesn't want to have ANY exposition at all or introduce the characters in any meaningful way, how am I as a reader going to give a shit about the characters? That's pretty much an instant story-killer to me. I don't mind if characters are introduced as we go, but completely glossing over them in favor of the biggest explosions never keeps my attention. All in all, I read comics (and fiction in general) for the human experience (which doesn't mean that your characters must be human, lol, fantasy and sci-fi writers).

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] Thank you for mentioning that comics are big enough to accommodate all kinds of tastes. What I find to be too fast might be just right or even too slow for another person, and honestly, it's all valid.

FeatheryJustice

I like a coherent story. It doesn't matter if it is slow paced because I get to absorb the information. I don't mind if it is fast paced as long as I can understand it. If the story itself doesn't make sense because you want a slow paced story with weird inserts in the middle, you have lost me. If your story is too fast to the point of skipping scenes and details you lost me.

spacerocketbunny

I love slow building stories with larger payoff. Making sure that characters are fleshed out and given the chance to breathe while still facilitating the plot is a tricky thing to pull off but I've definitely seen it happen in comics like Shaderunners, TINF and Tiger Tiger for example. Shaderunners does an incredible job of showing a multifaceted inner conflict with characters while never missing a beat with super fun and high stake heists. TINF is one of my favourite romance stories that carefully builds up and constructs the characters and their feelings for each other while still maintaining that significant information on every page. Tiger Tiger is a slower paced story but keeps me on the edge of my seat every update. Petra utilizes space beautifully and I never feel like there's a need for condensing on pages. I boost these comics a lot but I personally find that pacing is a huge factor in my enjoyment for a comic, and I love these ones so much bc they suit my preference quite well!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

There was a Korean professional webcomic (on Naver, though I don't think it ever got officially brought over to Webtoons) that I read, that had this interesting situation: seemingly fast pacing, very high tension, yet slow. It was a thriller that pitted a serial killer against the surviving wife of his latest victim. Once she got an inkling who the killer was, the tension skyrocketed, and it was a big game of chase. Problem was the chase part. It LOOKED fast paced if you just looked at like, one chapter of it. But they kept repeating the same scenario, just flavored differently. It was a rinse-and-repeat of this: "the wife found a new evidence; now everyone will believe her!" "oh no, the killer is about to catch her!" "the new evidence is lost" "wife finds another new evidence" etc. (It's been a while and my memory may not be accurate, but the idea is there) Nothing really changed throughout the repeated cycles. So yeah, repetition can be a problem.

Capitania do Azar

Haha, @keii’ii (Heart of Keol) I understand your frustration, but I feel like that kind of story is just aimed at a different audience... It almost feels like watching an episodic Tv show where everything has to come back to the starting point by the end of each episode

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That is certainly a type with its own audience. Though if that's what they were going for, they probably could've benefitted from a different way of starting the story so readers would've known what they were in for. And there were lots of things that really felt like could have gone somewhere, but never did.

Hmm, I guess that's another thing that could affect how pacing is perceived: loose threads?

RebelVampire

IDK I think there's a difference between something being episodic and something being annoyingly repetitious. For example, Detective Conan is arguably episodic. Each situation in the larger scheme of things is largely the same: Crime happens -> There are red herrings and twists -> Conan solves it. As a mystery comic, it's never gonna deviate from that formula. But if literally every crime had the basic same plot flow, like if the red herrings and twists were the same everytime, then it ceases to be episodic and just becomes bland and repetitive.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

OH and speaking of Korean webcomics, I wanna talk about a pacing-related concept that gets brought up a lot in their comment sections: yam vs sprite (they call it "cider" bu they really mean sprite/ 7-up). Baked yam is a common wintertime treat. It fills you up, it's delicious. But it's notorious for making you thirsty. It kind of clogs up & dries up your throat. Whereas sprite is a thirst quencher. So, the idea is you can't eat yams forever. You need sprite to balance it out. Yams are a metaphor for frustrating build-ups. There is a sense that you (and/or the protagonist) are being wronged. e.g. It's a sports comic, and the leader of the opposing team keeps trash talking, even cheats and gets away with it. Sprite is a metaphor for satisfaction. In the same sports comic example, the arrogant, cheating leader finally gets what they deserve. Most stories need its share of yams. But if the yam portion of the story goes on for too long, the comment section will be filled with "where's my sprite!!!" "I feel like I ate 1,000 yams and now REALLY need some sprite" etc.

spacerocketbunny

Ahh that's an interesting concept!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

There are certainly stories that are big piles of yams by design. But I think when done well, readers who like a lot of sprite can tell what it is, and walk away pretty early on. So those comics attract readers who are into piles of yams.

(Of course, there's always gonna be That One Person who walks into a yam party and loudly demands a 5-gallon bottle of sprite... )

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

In that case, I definitely avoid yams! No matter how much I love a character or cast, I tend to go crazy if we stay in one location too long, or in one slow storyline for too many pages, or if I find myself going "COME ON, DO IT, DO THE THING, WE KNOW YOU'RE GONNA." To me, something new should happen on every page, even if it's a tiny plot progression or a tidbit of character info. I very much appreciate when a story takes time to breathe - and I find it's those quiet, cute, or slightly-unnecessary moments that are most memorable when I think of a comic - but too much of that will make me fidgety. I really need alternating paces to be happy.

kayotics

I think for me, it’s easier for a comic to go too slow than too fast. I’ve definitely seen comics go too fast, but the slow pace is more frustrating for me. What makes a comic slow for me are a few things: too MUCH focus on atmosphere (like multiple hand shots that don’t have dialogue), repeated events, too much buildup for an event, and the last thing is technical ability (like speech bubbles that are too large or in vertical scroll comics the panels being way too far apart). I’m pretty ok with letting things breathe, and I actually love that, but I need something to keep my interest, and those things above don’t do it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't think yams are about repetition, though it can certainly involve repetition. It could be a new level of frustration on every page, revealing something new about the characters. But those would still be yams.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm also of the mind that its way easier for comics to go too slow than too fast. However, I think that its also really easy for a comic to introduce too many things too fast, without giving me the time to get to know anyone (contradictory, I know, hear me out) I think a lot of comics will start in a boring setting, before the initial action. It takes a very long time to ramp up to the ACTUAL story, because they want to get me to a baseline of knowledge before we get to all the action. This is really slow though because essentially nothing is actually happening, plot wise, and I think that the creators know this and so they try to do it all as fast as possible, so by the time we get to the action there are 10 characters and a ton of lore I don't actually know.... So I think there are two kinds of pacing, the actual plot/events of a story, and the introduction of new ideas. For me, the plot/events need to be relatively fast, but the introduction of ideas needs to be slow. I can't start a story with 6 people, it will feel too fast no matter what, and I can't start a story with slow action or it will feel like it's dragging. I don't know if this makes sense or not

kayotics

I think I agree with that pretty wholeheartedly. I want a comic to get me into the action pretty quickly, but introduce new characters and concepts slowly. Give me, like... 3 characters tops to start with.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, too slow AND too fast is definitely a possibility!

kayotics

Fantasy and sci-fi are both genres that can fall into that trap easily, and I think the comics that bring me into the world building best is the ones that don’t explain things IMMEDIATELY, but explain things over time as I need to know them

Deo101 [Millennium]

^ yes I feel this too. I think there is also a certain respect for a readers ability to suspend their disbelief that is oftentimes not taken into account... I think that, for the most part just being told something exists is fine, and learning how it works is what needs to take time. But, a lot of stories may try to justify things existing, which feels like overexplaining

kayotics

It’s like explaining why trees exist. Sometimes they just... do. I don’t question why they’re there

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Agreed, I think stories set in the real world have the advantage of starting with a bang, without much need for explanation - there's always a need for some explanation upfront in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, even if it's done through visual shorthand. You don't need to overexplain, but you definitely have to explain... more. Or at least make it abundantly clear that A) this is a different world, B) this is the general event that's happening, and C) this is how you should feel about it, even without living in that world.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yes exactly I feel like I see it most commonly in scifi/fantasy, like you said, where someone wants to explain why their magic exists immediately. This will sound rude but at this point I don't care why it exists, maybe way later you can tell me but I don't care when I'm only just starting .. it feels like reading someone's worldbuilding essay idk

kayotics

Yeah... that’s definitely a thing that can affect pacing negatively. I don’t need a world building essay on how the magic works right away. As long as the logic is consistent in magic I’ll figure it out as a reader. Then you can explain details later and I’ll be into it.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah cause later on it feels like connecting dots, almost like revealing the answer to a mystery

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yes yes! I love that sense that as a reader, you're being trusted to learn - not so much that you're being fed information, but that you're given enough to put the pieces together. Even done slowly, it's very satisfying.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like my storys with some unexplained mysteries. I mean, how many people know exactly how the internet works, and yet we use it daily? Dumping down a dissertation on how x works more often than not kills pacing for me.

kayotics

I think it can be done well to keep the pacing going, but it needs to be combined with something. Sometimes you need to provide that info dump so the story keeps working

I can’t pinpoint any exact scenes but I seem to remember Gunnerkrigg Court doing that pretty well. There’s a lot of unusual concepts in that story that need to be explained, but it usually doesn’t feel like a slog

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah for sure. I do think it can also be used either in tandem with or as an instigator to moving things forward, if done right. Its not illegal to reveal information about the world

I think people tend to do this kind of thing better with Characters than the world. Because with Characters, we want to get to know them and this comes more naturally, but with worldbuilding... It often feels like worldbuilding should be a baseline knowledge rather than also a storytelling element I guess

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

One thing that really annoys me with pacing is when a single story beat that should be relatively simple takes way too long in real time. Like in one comic I read, the villains tell the heroes to urgently meet them at some location. And, like, the heroes are talking back and forth, deciding who they should send and such. But, like... it's been six months, and they still haven't left the house yet. I guess the urgency feeling is probably there if you're binging the comic? But, it really doesn't encourage me to follow along with the comic if it's such a slow read. I'm not saying that these sorts of authors need to update faster, but if your update rate is to the point where it takes months to finish an urgent conversation, maybe some things should be cut out? Or they should at least be walking out the door while they're talking? I guess it's just sort of a general "something should happen each page" thing though. Like if the conversation is just going in circles, there's really no need for it, and it can be annoying to follow along when it's seemingly so urgent.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I know it's not the same thing, but that reminded me of all the gaming comic strips out there that poke fun at "it's final dungeon time, the stakes are higher than ever, and the player spends the next 80 hours completing the minigames"

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I have a rule that if any piece of dialogue isn't either directly advancing the plot, giving the reader new information about the characters speaking, or is funny, it should be cut

Definitely agree with what people have said, that big infodumps right off the bat are not enjoyable. I honestly don't ever want the author to sit me down and explain something to me. It's much more interesting to see parts of the worldbuilding in action, or to see things that arent explained and have to theorize about what it is or how it works before the mechanics behind it are shown

Capitania do Azar

I very much second that notion, @sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD) , that's my rule of thumb when I'm writing

Deo101 [Millennium]

I have a similar rule with my pages, but with dialogue I like to have more fluff so we feel like we're spending a bit more time with them

Capitania do Azar

if the info is not something I need the reader to know (and character development is) then what's the point of forcing myself to draw more stuff

but @Deo101 [Millennium] , fluff IS character ;D

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah! But it's not always new information is all

You gotta reestablish stuff, let some things marinate, and repeat things for them to really settle in I think, so it can't ALWAYS be new stuff, even if the page as a whole is introducing something new. I mean usually you can do it alongside other stuff but yeah

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think sometimes it's the same for the characters. e.g. The same characters can have multiple conversations about the same topic, but their understanding/ feelings toward the topic can change as things marinate.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah for sure

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Meaningful conversations where you get to know the character’s personality would fall in the 2nd category

Sometimes its hard to judge whether dialogue will be interesting to someone who’s unfamiliar with the characters

Shadowmark Productions

Someone once told me that dialogue should reveal character and action reveals plot. If done correctly, both work in tandem to advance the story without exposition. I’ve found that to be very useful.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Ooh. True!

mirandalorian

That's a good way to put it. And it seems like that idea is pretty important in comics.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think it's 100% fine if dialogue isn't interesting to people unfamiliar with the characters -- as long as it's compelling to people who have been reading from the beginning?

I live for the kind of scenes where like... character A just smiles... it's an ordinary smile to people who don't know A, but it means the world to people who know the context and the character

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Action can reveal character too

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I‘d say it‘s even more important, I for starters love characters that say one thing and do another; it‘s a good way to show conflict!

(Inner conflict, I mean)

RebelVampire

For me whether I think the pacing is too fast or too slow are actually two different things. In regards to finding the pacing too slow, I generally base this on a character's progress for their goals. While I like to see characters face setbacks and don't expect everything to be solved immediately, I expect some progress to be had. So if I wind up reading a comic and it's basically taking more than 100 pages for any progress to be made in the protagonist's goal and growth, that's just way too slow for my personal tastes. It kind of just ruins my investment in their goal since it doesn't feel like they're actually working on it, and that kind of defeats the point of a goal. In a similar but different vein, pacing is too fast for me if the comic never stops to breathe to exposit or showcase character emotions. Obviously, expositing a whole bunch is bad, and you don't want to take 20 pages to show a character crying. However, these moments where you take a step back and say "Hey look this character is struggling and here is a hint of their backstory" are super important for creating a bond between the reader and the characters. Without them, it just feels like you're sprinting from Plot Point A to Plot Point B. In relation to this, another element that would make it too fast is if characters are getting over things way too fast because plot is to be had. When something emotional happens, such as a character dies, I should still be able to feel those affects much later even if its not at the forefront. Of course, these are clearly just to my personal tastes, which pacing generally is a subjective thing in most cases.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

For sure that thing about needing space after emotional events

not a webcomic but some of my favorite parts of One Piece are the crew goofing off after ever major arc

I feel like webcomics can fail at this sometimes, because things that feel tediously slow when writing week -by-week can feel fast when read back all at once

[roominthecastle]

I can't help but think you're being a bit too hard on Eleanor because of ship bias. I mean, why would you called her 'her worst self' and 'selfish' when she's always been one to throw stuff to get in heaven (even with the character development)? But suddenly she's being sappy and depending on someone who isn't Michael and the whole M/E fandom is at her throat. I'm as unconfortable as the next shipper with all the C/E scenes but is it really Eleanor and her characterization that's at fault?

Yes, of course I am biased (to a certain degree). When the show caters to my preferences, I’m more docile and much less likely to nitpick and complain, when it doesn’t and it drops the ball to boot, I get grumpy. So I’m your garden variety fan, basically. But I don’t believe I’m “at Eleanor’s throat”. Her and Chidi being together doesn’t make me uncomfortable bc it’s her and Chidi and not her and Michael (+ I often see things popping up in the C/E dynamic that can have potentially interesting implications for Michael’s development and for M/E, too. Generally speaking, the three of them make up a curious whole for me).

I know the chances of (2-sided) M/E happening are somewhere btw zero and never, so I’m not exactly eyeballing C/E as some kind of obstacle to my personal shipper nirvana, jumping at any chance to “punish” Eleanor for choosing the “wrong” partner. But I do feel uncomfortable with the way the C/E romance is written this season. “They are sidelining my no. 1 dynamic”, while frustrating, is not the reason for this, it’s not why I’m not crazy about Eleanor’s behavior and Chidi’s OOC-ness.

Eleanor + character development always resulted in stuff like her being emotional and vulnerable w/o getting aggressive and demanding, her accepting it when Chidi turned her down w/ dignity despite feeling heartbroken, and her being considerate of others to the point of volunteering to go to the Bad Place to save them. This is where she was a year ago and the year before that at the end of each season. This is not where she is now. I’m not saying being selfish and throwing stuff is not in her character make up or her problem-solving toolbox. Her overcoming these impulses, however, is the very point of her character development (made blindingly obvious last season when she lied about passing the Judge’s test and refused to go through the portal to TGP). What we have (currently! so it can change any time) in S3 is the opposite (see the in-your-face door to TGP that won’t open for her), it’s her completely giving in to these impulses to the point of seriously endangering everyone, meaning that she has, in fact, regressed. I suspect it is a point the show is trying to make but we’ll have to wait and see.

In “Janets”, all Janet asks is that they stay put until she and Michael deal w/ accounting. Eleanor works herself into a state over Chidi not opening up to her on command, putting Janet through hell and almost erasing her friends from existence while her own self is also disintegrating. Despite the serious consequences, this harmful behavior carries right over into the next ep where all Michael asks is that they lay low bc folks in TGP are so rule obsessed, they can send all of them right back to TBP. Eleanor immediately smashes stuff at the door to TGP bc it doesn’t open up for her when she demands it. It’s her bullying of Chidi from the previous ep all over again, only in a vase-meets-door form. Even Chidi has to be all about her now as he magically turns into a grossly idealized version of himself (see in S2 how she rejected a similar “fake Chidi”), spending the entire ep trying to prevent her from blowing up again while the rest of the team is cleaning up the mess in the mail room and Michael is away trying to fix the calculation issue. Despite the crazy-intense circumstances, everybody is trying to do something for somebody else except her - she is still hyper-focused on herself and it stands out to me bc this is a version of her I’ve never seen before and it’s def not the best one.

Again, it’s not because she is w/ Chidi but the issues become especially apparent within that dynamic since the second Michael showed her those memories, she just latched onto Chidi, expecting him to fill the void left by her screwed up upbringing that’s been freshly dredged up thanks to her not-dead mother. They made her lurch from “I’m incapable of love” to “I’m madly in love and nothing else matters”, hand-waving determinism while failing to provide any other reason why these 2 are suddenly together again. They are trying to play it as romantic/funny but it’s not romantic when someone’s whole identity has to be propped up by another person and it’s not funny how that other person has to repress his own identity/issues to be able to do this. It’s a suffocating, unsustainable interplay. Or if it’s meant to be interpreted as “love cures mental illness and erases every character flaw in 5 minutes, so you can finally be the proper romantic partner”, then it’s even worse. You don’t have to be a shipper of another ship or look too deep into this story to see these (imo) legitimate problems (but it helps, yes, since it’s natural to be more critical of sth you’re not emotionally invested in and gloss over stuff to preserve the fun potential when it’s your OTP or sth, I do give you that).

Eleanor having to coerce love and attention out of Chidi will never be cute, either, or proof that those feelings were there all along. People pushed some quotes from WJH into my face about how Chidi calms down bc he finally has what he always wanted - interesting choice of words, btw, given the pin Michael gave Eleanor - but 1) an actor’s opinion will not automatically replace my own (no, not even if it’s Ted’s or some other big fave’s) and 2) how exactly were we supposed to glean that Chidi wanted to be with her so much in this reboot? Was it when he went steady w/ another woman despite Eleanor being an option all along? was it when he refused to give private lessons to her bc he was just too busy? or was it when he - despite witnessing her meltdown - sent her packing bc they already had enough material for his study? For some reason the writers missed every opportunity to build this up properly and make this extremely syrupy display stick, but I’ve already said everything about that in another post.

This whole idea of “he felt this way all along, he just didn’t actually show it, so we can skip actual development” is a lazy, corner-cutting approach which reminds me of the worst kind of fanservice attempts I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing with several of my favorite shows recently. I have very low tolerance for that stuff now bc it never ends well. I did not expect to see this particular brand on this particular show, but here we are, I guess. Or if it’s a case of creative exhaustion/boredom where this billion times rebooted couple is concerned, then maybe it’s time to park them and give a not yet over-explored dynamic some attention instead to keep things fresh and fluid as opposed to stale and forced - again, not an unreasonable request, even if it comes from someone who is invested in another dynamic, given the lack of care that was apparently put into developing C/E this season.

I don’t like not liking things on this show (and it’s not Eleanor I don’t like, it’s the way they deconstructed her in order to write her back into a relationship as if she couldn’t exist w/o it), and I am sorry if I disappointed or offended bc it was not my intention. I hope they flip things or introduce a new angle that will make me re-evaluate. I am always open to that whenever new material arrives and I honestly hope they will make me eat my words soon. I will merrily absorb the suckerpuches. But for now, this is my opinion and “you just don’t like that she is not with your fave” - while a natural factor - is not the main reason why I made my comments.

[japanessie]

hi! idk if you've heard oor's new album yet but what do you think abt it?

Hello 😊

Sorry for not replying earlier. I went on a holiday and took a long break from Tumblr.

Kept this one in my draft for a long time just hanging.

I need to make clear that I’m not exactly running an OOR blog though 😁. I do MY FIRST STORY and SWANKY DANK here. I do write about Taka or OOR only when it concerns Hiro or MFS 😊.

Anyway, I’m open to any questions 😁.

My Thoughts on ONE OK ROCK’s Eye Of The Storm

I did listen to the Japanese version of Eye Of The Storm at the listening station when I walked into Tower Records during my vacation.

Here’s the funny thing. To prepare myself for EOTS, I actually got myself to listen to some selected Ariana Grande’s stuff on a daily basis. What better way to adapt myself other than listening to arguably the biggest Pop singer in the world at the moment, right?

© Photo by Japanessie

That ONE OK “POP” thing

To me it IS a Pop album. While some OOR fans took issues with some fans calling the band ONE OK POP, I, on the other hand don’t find it offensive as I am personally not opposed to Pop music as long as it’s done well. I grew up listening to lots of great Pop music. But then, the Pop singers in my formative years were Michael Jackson, George Michael, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston etc. High quality Pop there. The 80s was awesome!

I noticed that the fans who were excited over EOTS tend to be those who like the current Pop music. The ones who enjoy putting KPop idols as their profile photos or the ones who discovered the band from 35XXXV onwards. The old rocker fans generally panned it.

Having said that, I find EOTS to have some fine moments but for the most part, it’s …. hmm ….. vapid.

Generic sound

It does sound like it came out from a “hit factory”. I don’t mean that in a good way though. After listening to EOTS, I went over to another booth listening to Avril Lavigne’s new album. Guess what? The music felt the same.

I’m familiar with how the music industry works in America. It’s always been that way. Besides always separating the “star” from the rest of the group, the record execs would always aim for getting as much airplay as possible and sure sales. Thus, getting the “hitmakers” a.k.a outside songwriters to work with preferably the “star”.

To be fair, I’m guilty of “falling” under the “spell” of the hitmakers from my generation myself. Heaven knows how many songs I had faved that had been written or co-written by Diane Warren, Desmond Child, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, John Shanks etc. Oh, for my Backstreet Boys fangirl side, of course there are Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson LOL.

I totally understand why OOR, particularly Taka, is doing what they are doing BUT my main gripe with today’s music production is it doesn’t allow the individuality of the artist to come through. Things are way too cookie cutter now.

The highs and the duds

The title track Eye Of The Storm is the strongest song on this album to me. I don’t have a problem that this is a Pop album but this song is also the one that belongs to the “Power Pop” category. If you want some traces of what OOR used to be, that spirit is here. Oh, bear in mind, I said “spirit” and not “sound”. I mean, that raging feeling OOR used to exude when they wanted to shout out their hearts’ contents to the world back in the days. THAT spirit. The genre is not Rock but Taka’s vocal delivery on this one can bring back that picture of that energetic band with a shaggy-dog-haired singer who commanded the Livehouse stages like they were stadiums.

Change may not be as strong as Eye Of The Storm but it still belongs in that Power Pop category. Though it became the 1st OOR song ever that made me shake my booty when it was first released as a single, I had been accepting this song as a Pop song from the start that I could enjoy it as it is. Booty and all LOL. It sounds like what Michael Jackson would have approved. Regardless of whether you like MJ or not, I find it to be high quality Pop fitting for the King of Pop himself. Except OOR is performing it instead. For the record, I did buy both versions of Change from iTunes.

Head High is also another song I would put as another high point on EOTS. It’s different from anything they had done before but it still turns out strong.

Push Back is pretty interesting. I can see what their intention is with this one. They wanted their take on that “stomp-your-feet-and-sing-along” song like QUEEN’s Radio Ga Ga or We Will Rock You. The drum beats remind me of Def Leppard, which is a good thing.

Generally I’m not turned on much by most of the songs. Some are OK to listen but my world isn’t really missing a thing if they don’t exist either. Like I said, it’s … hmm… vapid. At least to my ears.

In The Stars is the absolute DUD on this album! This song is the epitome of creativity getting sucked out dry in today’s music scene. Taka is a talented songwriter and in the past, he was often able to come up with hook-laden melodies and soaring choruses that stayed in your head from the first listen. But all that this one does is meandering on and on. This song is the opposite of everything OOR was. Again, the genre isn’t the issue to me but the deteriorating quality of the songwriting is. Seriously?? Listen to that chorus! “Up … up …up”. “Down … down … down … ”. LAME. LAME. LAME. Sorry not sorry.

Thankfully the ending track The Last Time isn’t a dud. After going through more than half of the album, I was a bit apprehensive to go all the way, constantly questioning myself what if this ended on a low note? So grateful that didn’t happen. Thank you for putting this song as the last track. At least, EOTS ended with kind of a bang.

© Photo by Japanessie

EOTS has to rely on Taka’s charisma

The thing is, with the rock genre, each member of a band can have their own place to shine but once you switch to this kind of music, with their instruments getting somewhat surpressed behind all the electronics and effects, Toru, Ryota and Tomoya lost their “instrumentalist voices”. Only Taka’s voice and delivery that are left to somewhat differentiate EOTS from what are already out there.

My Verdict

Not something I’m crazy to spend my money on, at least for now. I think I’ll just pick the few songs I like from iTunes but I’m not in a rush for it either. There are many smaller bands out there producing the kind of music that excites me more and they deserve my support. Having said that, who knows I might soften up later on and pick up a physical copy 😊?