#if you do not like death or scary stuff or corruption arcs do not read this

[whiteboardartstudios]

Has anyone considered what it would be like if Xingqiu had a villain arc?

[EDIT: If you do not like death, scary things, villain/corruption arcs etc. DO NOT READ THIS like I did not intend for this alternate universe to end up this way but it did so umm yeah sorry about that]

So I was thinking about Christina Vee's cover of Wolf In Sheep's Clothing and thought, "wait what if that was Xingqiu" (Christina Vee is Xingqiu's EN voice actor)

Like, maybe Traveler and co. went into the Abyss, something went wrong, Xingqiu was left behind, and everybody thought that he was dead.

Of course, everyone was devastated. But the Abyss is too powerful for them to be able to do anything to save him, so the only thing they could do is continue on with their journey and defeat the big bad, for Xingqiu, and for all of the other people that had been negatively impacted by said big bad (whether it's the Tsaritsa, Celestia, the Abyss, or something else, you decide). They beat the big bad and restore peace to Teyvat, and everybody begins rebuilding after the climax of the story.

Then time skip to years later, after the main story of Genshin, a mysterious new vigilante-like character appears in Liyue. Dangerous criminals are found dead in deserted alleys in the middle of the night, with reported sightings of a shadowy figure going to/exiting the crime scene (because come on, someone was murdered. Even if said someone is a dangerous criminal, it's still murder) moments before/after the supposed time of the crime. Not just dangerous criminals either; robbers, treasure hoarders, bandits, and other similar groups are attacked as well, by the same shadow.

At first, there were some mixed opinions about this new person; some people think that they are a hero trying to keep the people of Liyue safe, but others are suspicious and think that there's something fishy about all of this.

Then things start to escalate. The murders become more and more frequent, and people begin to get targeted for even the smallest of crimes. The Qixing had been secretly investigating this mysterious vigilante previously, but the new turn of events forced them to take more drastic measures: curfews are set, Millieth patrols increased, and a special task force, led by Lady Yelan herself, was assigned to track down and potentially deal with this new threat to Liyue.

But no matter what the Qixing tried, they couldn't stop the mystery person. They evaded and overpowered everything the Qixing threw at them, and are strong enough to defeat even Vision holders with ease. Witnesses and survivors report that the figure fights with no mercy; and yet they possess an unsettling, otherworldly element of grace and elegance.

Panic and fear are at an all-time high, nearly on par with the effect of the crazy series of events that occurred during the Traveler's time in Liyue. Whispers on the streets told of a vengeful swordsman coming back from the dead, having lost their humanity, returning only to subject the world to their own twisted sense of justice.

Coincidentally, this is when Chongyun decides to visit Liyue Harbor for a little bit and take a break from his training with either Shenhe or Xiao in the mountains (I've seen this in some age-up AUs and I really like it, so it's here now. Also, I feel like the supposed death of his best friend would have impacted him quite heavily, so he might have retreated into the mountains to make himself stronger so that he can better protect the people that he cares about. Maybe we could have some interesting parallels to the Xingqiu Abyss "death" scene as well, maybe Chongyun lost control of his Yang energy or something, and now he's doing everything in his power to make sure that he won't fail anyone else like how he failed Xingqiu. So much angst potential.) (Also it's up to y'all if you want to see this as platonic or romantic, personally I like the idea of platonic soulmates quite a lot, mostly because I'm not the biggest fan of romance haha. But if people want to read this as a romantic story that's fine too :D At the end of the day, we're just all people who enjoy Genshin Impact, and I think that's pretty cool :D). Anyways, Chongyun gets the entire situation explained to him by his friends, and Chongyun being Chongyun, he of course decides to help out (despite everybody telling him repeatedly just how dangerous this mystery person is). In the end, though, they couldn't convince Chongyun to stay put, so they join in to hopefully have a better chance of surviving their investigation. I think some of his friends (Hu Tao especially – she's actually a lot more emotionally mature than what she lets on, and I feel like she would've gotten some experience in how people deal with grief due to her job as a funeral parlor director) might have figured out that he's getting Xingqiu flashbacks from all this, not only because of Xingqiu's whole chivalry and justice thing, but also because of the remaining survivor's guilt and other angst that could have come from Xingqiu's supposed death.

The group gets in contact with the Qixing, and since they already know some members (like Ningguang, Keqing, Yelan, and Ganyu) from their adventures with the Traveler, plus the fact that they are all Vision users and therefore have a higher chance of surviving an encounter (I'm imagining Chongyun, Xiangling, Hu Tao, perhaps Xinyan and Yun Jin, or even Yanfei. Normally I would include Xingqiu as well, but...well...yeah.), the Qixing allows them to assist the special task force in charge of investigating the mystery person – but not without warning the group repeatedly about the dangerous nature of the assignment, to which Chongyun replies by saying that they know what they're getting themselves into, and that they want to help protect Liyue.

Que a bunch of investigation scenes where they try to track down the mystery person with the other Qixing officers. Strangely, after they narrowly escaped a run-in with the shadowy figure, the number of new murder cases dropped significantly. Instead, their opponent started leaving messages at the scene of the crime, containing threats, taunts, and riddles, all elegantly worded in a way that is... very familiar.

(The messages were also almost illegible to the average person. The Millieth had thought the messages were some sort of special cipher at first, but the friend group, having experienced Xingqiu's dreadful handwriting on multiple occasions, managed to decode it.)

What's more, the messages seem to be targeting Chongyun and his friends in particular.

It is never a good sign when such a powerful foe takes notice of you.

Despite the many dangers, they press on, and eventually, the messages led them to an old, run-down warehouse.

It had once belonged to the Feiyun Commerce Guild, but was abandoned after repeated reports of spirit sightings and strange happenings around that one specific warehouse, a few months before the mystery person arrived in Liyue Harbor.

It didn't help that the warehouse was originally used to store special strands of silk flowers, as well as the various other silks produced by the Guild. After Xingqiu's death, another member of the Guild had been assigned to oversee the silk trade... but it had never been the same since.

All this time, the squad had been slowly connecting the dots between the many clues left behind by the mystery person. A swordsperson, with enough skill and power to best Vision holders, enacting their own view of justice upon wrongdoers? The gracefully composed messages, written in barely decipherable script, and now the warehouse?

This can't be purely coincidental; their opponent had carefully laid out a web of connections that only a few select people can understand.

There is only one person that could be behind all of this.

...But even if he is alive after all these years, why would he do this?

Cut to the group arriving in the warehouse. They knew very well that they are very likely walking directly into a trap, but this investigation has become about more than just protecting Liyue from a new threat; there are now personal stakes involved.

Of course, they were ambushed. Pieces of the roof fell in at random intervals, support beams collapsed of their own accord, and the air was filled with dust and smoke. All that stuff.

Chongyun was separated from the rest of the group and was trying to find his way back to them when a familiar voice rang out from behind him.

This is where the Wolf In Sheep's Clothing cover comes in; I just imagine Xingqiu singing that angrily while Chongyun just freaks out over what the heck happened to his best friend, because not only is he alive and very much not dead, also went on a deadly rampage throughout Liyue just murdering people???

So the story from Xingqiu's side goes like this:

Back when he followed the Traveler and co. into the Abyss and they thought he was dead, NOPE he's actually still alive, trying his best to survive and hoping that someone would come looking for him. But they never came.

The Abyss has a way of changing people, twisting their minds and turning them into something much more dangerous. And to Xingqiu, it appeared as if his friends had abandoned him, left him to fend for himself in the dark, unyielding Abyss. It corrupted his sense of justice, and despite his best efforts to stay true to his past ideals of chivalry and valor, not even the strongest of mortals can resist the power of the Abyss.

When he finally emerged from the depths, he returned to a world that had moved on without him, forgotten him even. Wiped him away like an insignificant speck of dust.

He slipped back into Liyue Harbor in the dead of night, and scared away the workers in the warehouse. At this point, I'm not sure if he's even human anymore. Childe was in the Abyss for 3 Abyss months and look at him. He's Childe. Need I say more? And in this alternate universe Xingqiu was in there for like at least a year? Or more?

Anyways, Wolf In Sheep's Clothing is just Xingqiu being angry and stuff at Chongyun (who was actually there when Xingqiu was separated from the others in the Abyss, so Xingqiu's like extra angry at him and probably the Traveler too). As of now I can see two ways this could end: one is that Evil Xingqiu gets "Magic of Friendship"ed and gets a redemption arc, and the other ending is while Evil Xingqiu and Chongyun fight, Chongyun is eventually forced to come to the realization that the person that he is fighting is no longer Xingqiu, and that his best friend isn't coming back. So in this ending he defeats Evil Xingqiu (maybe using his Pure Yang thing or a cool exorcism trick he learned from Xiao/Shenhe), and maybe he exorcises the Abyss energy out of the ghost or something, and the spirit passes on in peace (perhaps helped along by Hu Tao).

I just realized that a lot of this is like REALLY out of character (even for Abyss-ed people), and honestly, this turned out to be WAY darker than I originally imagined. Like, the original plan is just "Xingqiu gets Abyssed and now he is angry and decides to become evil batman and Chongyun is confused" and we ended up with this. How has this post gone so far off the track. Like, what.

IDK I still spent like 2 hours writing this tho so I'm still gonna share it

If there's any trigger warnings or content warnings that I missed in the tags please tell me this is my first time writing/posting anything that comes even close to warranting a tw or a cw so help would be very much appreciated. Like especially if you compare this to my last Genshin post which is literally just "what if Alhaitham insults Kaveh in flower language and Kaveh has no idea and just puts the flowers in a vase".

I sincerely apologize for the word wall that I have unintentionally summoned.

[EDIT: Also while I was tagging this I just realized that I left out an important point from the main post so here it is:

If anybody is like SERIOUSLY uncomfortable with this post, I WILL take it down (please tell me if that happens). It doesn't matter if I spent two hours writing this, I would rather not make anybody uncomfortable. Honestly I'm also quite scared of what would happen if I post this (if you read the tags you'll see me panicking over this lol), because while I know the fandom likes angst or something, I don't know if there's any underlying themes in this story idea that will seriously unnerve some people. This is not proofread or betaread, so I don't have a second opinion on this post. So yeah please tell me if there's something I need to say. But please don't be toxic in the comments or anything because words can hurt a lot (even when it's not directed at you) and if you hate this post just like block me or something instead of making a long rant in the comments. Thanks :)]

I have no idea if I've gone overboard with that edit up there (most of it is probably just me overthinking lol) but idk this is my first time posting something like this so I just want to make sure we can still maintain a safe space in this little corner of the internet ig. And I think it's also because the Genshin fandom is very big and I have no idea who would see this, so... yeah.

That said, have a nice day/night and I hope that this post does not offend anybody or make anybody seriously uncomfortable in any way because holy heck am I scared to post this–

Like, this started as a "Oooo what if villain arc??" to whatever THIS is.

[chemicalarospec]

hold up guys I am being plagued with visions of Magical Girl L

okay so everyone's heard of talking cat Ryuk, but now get ready for: talking cat Watari

he's actually a wizard who's been trapped in this form and there's a whole arc about breaking that spell

but at the end he decides he likes being a cat better (to the great exasperation of L) so he only turns back into an old man when L needs him to

he's got his Wizard Realm Tower (of books and knowledge)

yeah Prince of Darkness Light Yagami is cool and all but personally I feel like high-concept AUs that cast Light as an Open Villain miss the whole point of him being a liar in plain sight

so you know have most Magical Girls have a team of friends? L has NO FRIENDS

also idk what like his powers are. Magical Girl is just a category of its own, right? I'm between a girl outfit and a prince outfit (like one in a fic I read) tho.

well, he has no friends... until he meets Light!

and they start vanquishing The Forces of Evil or whatever it is Magical Girls do together

until Light gains a black Book of Forbidden Knowledge

yes that's right I'm creating a new plot of Magical Girl (I think) and there's gonna be BETRAYAL.

Ryuk is NOT a cat btw. I think it's really funny if the scary shinigami are just there in this magical girl aesthetic. they're probably the Evil being fought

it's not the Death Note btw it like teaches him Black Magic and Ryuk tries to convince him to come over to the Dark Side and stuff

oh maybe Misa and Matsuda can also be Magical Girls. I haven't really thought about the other characters.

anyways from here we have two choices: he's just evil and they fight and stuff or

Light CORRUPTION ARC and we return to a more typical Magical Girl plot by having L save him from the corruption of the Evil Black Magic and stuff.

also I think Light's Magical Girl costume should become increasingly black during this arc and when L asks why he's like. "I spilled a pen on it."

it's important to note that in Show Form we see Light's POV as this happens but if I were to write a fic (which. so sad! I don't think I'll be able to) it would only follow L's POV -- one would only have hints of what was going on with Light up until the Big Reveal

maybe a flashback then? I like a big villain monologue though while L sits there thinking "damn! my one friend!"

but yeah speaking of turning this to prose... still working on my last big fic project, so not gonna happen on my own. It'd be cool to work together with someone on it but if you want to do something with this idea just make sure to send it to/tag me! (& credit, but only as much as I have here that's original -- I'm kinda hoping if I search there's already a fic of Magical Girl L because it seems like an easy idea to have lol)

oh update-edit: had the wild messed-up idea that after Light turns to the Dark Side once, L and the gang pull the most effed up move that would never be in a Magical Girl show, and erase his memory.

[bigmeatymudcrabchitins]

A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 10/6/21

SEAN: October! Time for scary manga!

ASH: Ooooooo!

MICHELLE: Scary manga and super creeps?

SEAN: Airship has, in print, Monster Musume The Novel – Monster Girls on the Job!, a spinoff of the popular monster girl manga series.

We also get an early digital release for Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 3.

Dark Horse has the 7th Gantz omnibus.

Denpa gives us a 4th volume of Pleasure & Corruption.

Ghost Ship debuts Do You Like Big Girls? (Ookii Onnanoko wa Daisuki Desu ka?), a series that runs in Takeshobo’s Kissca, and combines ‘volleyball manga’ and ‘borderline porn’… well, OK, the porn is like 5/6 of it, the volleyball 1/6. But at least it’s all consensual, that’s a plus.

ASH: That is a plus!

SEAN: Also from Ghost Ship is SUPER HXEROS 4. This actually jumped from Seven Seas’ main label to Ghost Ship before the last volume, so presumably the sexual content also bumped up.

ASH: Sometimes you don’t know where a series is going to go until it goes there.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has lots of stuff, including 3 titles that should have been on last week’s list, apologies, the month change confused me. J-Novel Pulp’s John Sinclair: Demon Hunter 4, The Magician Who Rose From Failure 3, and Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire 2.

As for actual next week stuff, for manga there’s Der Werwolf 3 and Marginal Operation 9.

For light novels, we get Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend? 5, Cooking with Wild Game 14, Holmes of Kyoto 6, In Another World with My Smartphone 23, Infinite Dendrogram 15, Monster Tamer 6, and She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends! 2.

Kodansha has print manga for us. There’s Boys Run the Riot 3, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card 10, Orient 5, Rent-a-Girlfriend 9, That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime 17, and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku 5.

ASH: Boys Run the Riot has been great so far. I’m really looking forward to reading more of Wotakoi, too; it seems like it’s been awhile.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Wotakoi!

ANNA: Already so behind on Boys Run the Riot.

SEAN: Kodansha’s digital debut is Love After World Domination (Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de), a Weekly Shonen Magazine series about a hero who falls in love with a villainess. I think this is getting an anime.

Also out digitally: Chihayafuru 28, GTO: Paradise Lost 15, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 3, My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought 9, My Sweet Girl 13 (the final volume), My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 6, ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister! 2, Saint Young Men 13, Sweet Sweet Revenge 2 (also a final volume), With the Sheikh in His Harem 6, and Ya Boy Kongming! 5.

MICHELLE: I’m most excited for Chihayafuru, of course, but I did start My Sweet Girl and liked it well enough. Probably I should attempt to finish it.

ANNA: Waves with intention to read one day at Chihayafuru.

SEAN: Seven Seas continues to push out titles after the early September lull. Lots of debuts again.

ASH: Woo! Here we go!

SEAN: DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level (Isekai Meikyuu no Saishinbu o Mezasou) is an isekai manga from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. Based on an (unlicensed) light novel, its premise is the same as any other manga with ‘isekai’ and ‘dungeon’ in the title.

Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! (Salaryman ga Isekai ni Ittara Shitennou ni Natta Hanashi) is an isekai manga from Overlap’s Comic Gardo. Not based on a light novel, it has a salaryman summoned by the demon lord to keep her minions in line. This seems like a comedy.

Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers (Hitomi-chan wa Hito Mishiri) is NOT an isekai manga from Comic Gardo. This runs in Akita Shoten’s Manga Cross, and seems to be their attempt to do Komi Can’t Communicate with the serial numbers filed off.

Time Stop Hero (Jikan Teishi Yuusha – Yomei 3-ka no Settei ja Sekai o Sukuu ni wa Mijika Sugiru) is an isekai manga from Kodansha’s Shonen Sirius, which seems to combine the subtleties of isekai series with the sensitive and caring aspects of the 1982 sex comedy “Zapped!” starring Scott Baio.

MICHELLE: lol.

MELINDA: I also lol’d.

SEAN: And we have ongoing series. The Ancient Magus’ Bride 15, The Demon Girl Next Door 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 12, Kageki Shojo!! 2, Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero 2, the third and final volume of Rainbow and Black, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 2.

ASH: Oh, there’s a few ongoing series here that i’m reading; I better get ready!

MICHELLE: I could go for some The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

SEAN: Tokyopop gives us Laughing Under the Clouds 4.

Viz gives us one debut, a Shojo Beat title from Betsuma. My Love Mix-Up! (Kieta Hatsukoi) features a new author but the artist is the one who did My Love Story!!. Guy likes girl, but she seems to like another guy. What’s more, the other guy now thinks that HE likes him. Bisexuality ahoy!

ASH: My Love Story!! is a favorite of mine, in part because of the artwork, so I’m definitely planning on giving this one a try.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

ANNA: Unsurprisingly, me too!

SEAN: Viz has a new My Hero Academia: School Briefs light novel, the 5th in the series. It seems to take place right after the My Villain Academia arc (though is about the heroes, of course).

We also get Blue Exorcist 26, Chainsaw Man 7, Jujutsu Kaisen 12, Moriarty the Patriot 5, One-Punch Man 23, Seraph of the End 22, Spy x Family 6, We Never Learn 18, and Yona of the Dawn 32.

ASH: Solid showing from Viz this coming week.

MICHELLE: No kidding!

ANNA: Yay for more Yona especially.

SEAN: Lastly, there’s Yen Press, who moved a lot of September stuff to October. Yen On’s debut is The Undead King’s Reign of Peace (Fusetsu no Fushiou no Saiseiki), the story of a girl saved by the undead king, a powerful skeleton. (See, more skeletons in light novels.) Sadly, while he wants peace for all, most everyone wants him dead.

ASH: I don’t mind the skeleton trend, honestly.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 3, Date a Live 3, Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 2, The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious 7, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! 5, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 12, No Game No Life Practical War Game, Strike the Blood 19, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town 7, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina 6, and Woof Woof Story: I Told You to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch, Not Fenrir! 7.

No debuts from Yen Press, but we do get Adachi and Shimamura 2, Bungo Stray Dogs 20, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 11, I’m the Hero, but the Demon Lord’s Also Me 2, Im: Great Priest Imhotep 11 (the final volume), Love of Kill 4, Plunderer 8, Sunshine Sketch 10 (which, like Yotsuba&!, also had its last volume come out in 2018), The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions 4, and Yowamushi Pedal 18.

ASH: I’ve actually been binging Yowamushi Pedal lately to catch up to this volume.

MICHELLE: I really need to catch up, too! Maybe singing “hime, hime” will help me to do so.

ANNA: My kids are into Yowamushi Pedal so I gotta order that.

SEAN: I think the scariest thing is how big this list is.

ASH: It is pretty big.

By: Sean Gaffney

[just-book-addict-things]

Soul Seeker by Kaylin McFarren: Book Review

Image Source: Google Images 

Today I will be reviewing the book 'Soul Seeker' by Kaylin McFarren which is a horror thriller/ romance/ Fantasy novel and also the first book of the Gehenna series.

I got the chance to read this book as a reviewer for the Online Book Club where I have submitted an official book review for the same and the link is given below, do check it out. But, here I will be providing a very informal review which might turn into a rant because I have many, many complaints against the book. So let us start with the first impressions.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Honestly speaking, the only reason I did read the book was that I was asked to and I probably wouldn't have picked it at a book store on one of my many book-buying expeditions. If I were to give a reason for why I chose this book out of all the other options, it has to be because of the synopsis of the story. The concept, of course, was very unique and that was probably the reason why I got excited to read the book. Also, there is a beautiful poem before the book starts, and I mean come on, no one can resist a book with a poem. Now, I would love to tell you guys the entire story. But since no one likes spoilers, I will be providing a quick summary of the book in the next section.

QUICK SUMMARY

The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 and Part 2. Now, the issue here is that both the parts have completely different contexts, so I think it would be wise if I provide a summary for both of them separately.

The first part of the story describes the sad life of Benjamin Poe, a firefighter living in the small town of Lochton, Illinois. Now, Poe did not really get along with his family, because apparently his son Gabriel was a complete sadist and he had done some pretty terrible stuff that he used to get away with. Poe, of course, did not want his son to be found guilty of anything, but he was still sceptical considering that Gabriel may have been involved in his own sister Riley's death. Poe's wife did not want to believe that her son could do anything like that, so every time he made an attempt to investigate and find out the truth, things just blew up. Talking about blowing up, the actual story starts with a fire in their College Inn. The fire was reported by Gabriel, who then fled from the scene before the authorities even arrived. And when he came home, he started behaving 'differently', if that's the right word. So, Poe became suspicious and he tried to ask him what happened. And, I mean, you can guess how that went, right? But wait, this gets more exciting. There is a Demon on the loose, Hell's best 'Soul Seeker', the reaper of all corrupted soul, Crighton Daemonium (Pretentious much!!). Now, I may not like his name, but I loved his character (only in the first part). Crighton is after Gabriel's soul and he decides, why not have fun while we're working. He starts playing these mind games with Poe, threatening and confusing him, relishing the pain that he is causing. Now, Poe has only one choice, he must fight this demon with all that he has to protect his family. Interesting right? Well, guess what, as soon as this part ends the story just takes a sharp turn to Fifty Shades.

So, I don't even want to talk about the second part, but I guess I will give you all a short and sweet summary. Crighton is now an angst-ridden bad boy who has this innate goodness hidden inside him, which can only be revealed after he finds his true love, who is, *Drum rolls Please* Ariel, the purest angel in all of heaven. She is beautiful and naive and innocent and gullible and blah blah blah blah, just your perfect Damsel-in-Distress. They have this whole forbidden romance trope, and I actually do like forbidden romances, but this one was just annoying. There are a lot of other things happening as well, but they weren't really that important. Anyways, let's move on to the next section.

MY THOUGHTS

So, here we have this amazing plotline, the concept is unique and it is executed to perfection. And suddenly it just turns to a complete mess. In the first part of the story, we have these two beautifully written characters, Poe and Crighton, clashing with each other in a fight where no one knows who is wrong and who is right. And you are rooting for both of them, which just leaves you so devastated because there is no way both of them can win and the thrill, the adrenaline of it all is just such a wonderful experience. Poe's struggle with the guilt and shame that he feels because of the ongoing situation in his family, along with his determination to save them from a vicious demon hellbent on destroying his entire world, is just so interesting. Crighton's character has so much depth, a morally ambiguous demon whose job is to collect the souls of the corrupted and take them to hell. He may be scary and sadistic, but he is not exactly wrong, especially considering that he does save a lot of good people from terrible fates.

And then what? Suddenly Crighton is a Christian Grey/Edward Cullen hybrid (No offence to anyone who likes them). It just doesn't make any sense. How did this morally grey, genius demon turn into the stereotypical Mr. ' I-hate-myself-but-I-love-this-girl-who-will-save-my-soul'? And don't even get me started on Ariel. Now, does it make any sense that this guardian angel, who protects humans from all evil in the world, just decides one day that she is going to give up everything for this abusive, sadistic demon who maybe, kind of likes her, and she's going to just 'Swish and Flick' him into being good? Sure Jan!

You know, the problem here is that people are so into redemption arcs, they just decide to ignore the beauty of a morally grey character. And redemption arcs are nice and all, but they aren't always required. Crighton isn't actually doing anything wrong, so he doesn't really need 'Redemption' per se. He isn't out there killing people without rhyme or reason. The only reason he goes after people is if they are bad, and there are others who have suffered because of them. I mean, does Batman need redemption? No, right! And even if morally grey characters aren't good people, they definitely are great characters. Aren't we all tired of reading the same cliche characters again and again?

Tell me in the comments if you think people need to stop sleeping on morally grey characters. I have added the links to the Amazon website for the book, in case you want to check it out. Please like and follow my blog for more book reviews and recommendations. Currently, I'm reading this amazing book called 'Faye and the Ether' by Nicole Bailey which I will be reviewing for my next week's blog. Till then, Bbye!

[ninthfeather]

Voltron S3 Reaction Post!

Because I can, and I wanna write all of this down before I wake up tomorrow with possibly blurry memories of plot points (now with some next day additions thrown in).

Just in case anyone’s reading this half asleep, don’t click if you don’t want spoilers for Voltron Legendary Defender Season 3:

My favorite thing, I think, about the season was all of the new characters.  I loved them.  I loved Sven and Alt!Slav, I loved Lotor and his Quirky Miniboss Squad, I loved ye olde Paladins. I didn’t love the the Alt!Alteans because that would imply affection instead of deep unsettled fear, but dang were they a great concept.  I want all the fic about these people.

My Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle-loving soul is just basically rolling around in the fact that alternate universes are a plot point.  Also, kudos to the writers for using Slav for foreshadowing.

I was really worried I was gonna hate the lionswitching but they pulled it off in ways that felt true to the characters and their arcs.  I am a little worried about the whole leadership dynamic with Keith and Shiro though.

If Shiro’s not piloting, I’d like to see him leading from the bridge, maybe?  I wish it was possible for him to pilot the castle ship but he’s not Altean.  I wonder what they’re gonna do with everyone, in the end.

That said, I am not a shipper but they are doing good things with Lance and Keith’s dynamic.  I am pleased.

I am Concerned about what they did to Shiro.  I’m like, 90% sure he’s a walking Trojan Horse now and I hate it.

Ohmigosh the backstory.  So they’re not even really evil they just got corrupted by quintessence and....Haggar.  Just...Haggar.  She’s always been the power behind the throne, hasn’t she?

Also, yeah, I’m pretty sure that Lotor is in fact her kid and is half-Altean.  He’s even drawn with her face-shape.  Voltron’s not that same-facey.  Does he know?  Is this why his Quirky Miniboss Squad is entirely halfblood?

That first fight scene with Lotor had me feeling all of my old Zechs Merquise feels until the very end, when I realized he is not in fact Zechs, but Treize.  Unfortunately, I still have a weakness for suave, pretty, ruthless villains with skill at Xanatos Gambits, particularly ones who believe they have a moral imperative.  And Lotor is operating as though he does.

I don’t remember all the Miniboss Squad names but the one with the rainbow head-tail (I wanna call it a lekku because, I mean, close enough?) reminded me of Ty Lee, just a bit more consciously vicious.

Also, the blind one, who uses the cat to see and can do mind control?  First of all, cool powers,  second of all, terrifying powers, third of all, this really does follow a theme of disabled Galrans being promoted highly as long as they have a sufficient adaptive device and are more lethal than others around them.  Which is cool.

 I specifically want fic about the alternate universe. I want Sven and Alt!Slav buddy stuff; I want epics about their struggles against Altea and the story of how they eventually pick up a bunch of Earth kids and know they’re important because of the interdimensional visitors.  (I want Sven not to die in fic.  But I’m choosing to take Sven’s canonical implied death as an indication that they’re not going to kill Shiro quite yet, and not foreshadowing.  So there.)  Also, like, the tech the alternate Alteans had, to keep their slaves under control? Scary as heck.  Like, again, I need fic.  But also I love that the showrunners did that; that they deliberately showed the ways in which Altea’s outlook could be twisted into something as bad or worse than the Galra. (Not gonna lie, if I had to pick between the two universes, not even taking into account comparative resistance strengths, I’d still pick canon.  Evil Altea is terrifying and widespread mind control scares me more than violent oppression.)

The planet from the first episode, that Lotor took?  The paladins still haven’t noticed that it happened, to my knowledge.  That is gonna come back at them, mark me.

I have every feel about the brief period when Voltron was in the alternate reality and Coran thought he’d lost everyone he had left of any importance save the mice.

Next day Additions:

I have now skimmed the tag, and I admit the whole Clone!Shiro thing didn’t occur to me.  While I knew Shiro looked off I couldn’t put a finger on how and since my memory’s crap I dismissed it as my brain being weird, and while he was acting oddly, I put that down to his additional trauma.  The clone theory is certainly compelling though.  There’s a fair bit of good evidence for it, though I really don’t think it’s absolutely the only explanation.

Also, just putting this out there: I saw a weird and disconcerting amount of hate for “Fake” Shiro. First, if he’s real people will regret it. Second, hate the showrunners for this, sure, but in the words of like six different fictional clones, he didn’t ask to be made.  In fact, nothing in the narrative indicates he even knows.  Even if he’s a mole, even if he actively injures or kills one of the protagonists, unless he makes some kind of conscious choice to do so, I am firmly on team “Clone!Shiro is a victim too.”  If indeed he is Clone!Shiro, and I’m still not absolutely sold on that.

As a final note, I’m a little disappointed by the little spaceship Lotor made out of the comet.  It’s clearly fast as heck, and nice and maneuverable, but it’s not an incredibly extra robot and I feel cheated.  I am hoping it turns out to be another transforming robot a la Gundam Kyrios.