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makeste · 2 years ago

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BnHA Episode 122, a.k.a. NOBUHIKO YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN

THEY CAN'T KEEP LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!

oh my god.

so first off, let's just get the one big major criticism out of the way: this episode was definitely not up to the same high quality standards as the first third of this season. and hey, I get it! you're doing 24 episodes in all, you're on a time crunch, and you've only got so many animators to go around. and the quality of some of these earlier season 6 eps (118 and 119 especially) was seriously some of the best this series has ever had. by contrast, chapters 284 and 285, while still easily ranking among my favorite chapters of all time, definitely do not go as hard with the visuals as some of the other War arc chapters (that very last 285 page being the one standout exception).

anyway so yeah, it was still a slight disappointment, but I'm fine with it. it does mean Deku vs Kacchan 2 will still retain its crown as my all time fave, but the real meat of this episode was never going to be about the flashy visuals -- it's all about that sweet, sweet character development.

two more very minor criticisms before I get to the OMG nonstop gushing part of this post! one, they did cut out this scene from ch 282 where Tomura originally had TWO quirk-be-gone bullets in his possession and Kacchan actually destroyed the second one.

YOU THOUGHT WE WOULDN'T REMEMBER, BONES. BUT WE DID. so for everyone who is giving Kacchan his well-earned love, praise, and admiration today, don't forget to also give him props for saving Aizawa's other leg, or whichever other appendage this doubtless would have hit. my boy out here lowkey saving his sensei from being ReDestro'd.

and then one final nitpicky little quibble, which is that the anime subtitlers declined to use the "Catch-A-Kacchan" translation, despite it being the single cleverest translation of all time, and by far Caleb Cook's biggest and most important contribution to the BnHA canon. alas, twas not meant to be. BUT ANYWAY NOW ON TO THE GUSHING.

okay so first off, we all know that Aizawa is an absolute badass and the most metal motherfucker in this entire series, and that Shouto has by this point all but perfected the art of swooping in to save the day at pivotal moments, and that the U.A. kids all need ALL OF THE THERAPY GODDAMMIT, and that Deku is a COMPLETE LUNATIC who thinks that HAVING FUNCTIONAL ARMS IS OVERRATED ANYWAYS. yes and yes and yes and yes. and if you wish, you can read all about my thoughts on these things and more, here and here and here and here.

but you already know what I actually came here to talk about today.

first of all, YOU GUYS. the music. THIS FUCKING MUSIC, THOUGH. they used the exact same OST track that was used for the "why was I the one who ended All Might?" speech all the way back in DvK2. THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE "TIME FOR NOBUHIKO TO FLEX HIS VOICE ACTING CHOPS" MUSIC. A TRADITION HAS BEEN BORN.

anyway so if anyone needs me I'll just be sitting here playing this scene on repeat until the end of time. no big deal though. I can quit at any time. not like I'm obsessed with it or anything. I definitely love this scene and this character a perfectly normal amount.

All Might talking about how Katsuki understood from the get-go about how OFA was a secret that could put other people at great risk really hits hard in hindsight. especially when you realize that Katsuki really did know right from the start, and he willingly accepted that risk with no hesitation, and he absolutely did suffer consequences for it (it was his knowledge of OFA that led to him following Deku and subsequently getting involved in this battle). and I don't doubt that he has absolutely zero regrets.

okay but can we seriously just talk for a sec about the way Kacchan's anxiety is practically boiling over when he starts to ask All Might about the Fourth's cause of death?? I feel like this is one thing that kind of got overlooked at the time in the manga because we were so completely distracted by EVERY SINGLE OTHER DAMN THING IN THAT CHAPTER lol. but hearing it again here, you feel how worried he actually is about Deku, and idk why but it all of a sudden just hit me so damn hard.

"I'm worried about him. you are, too." because that truly is what this whole conversation is really about. or at least that's the driving force behind it. behind this whole episode, in fact. it's simple, when you get right down to it: Kacchan is afraid that Deku is going to die. it's literally been the biggest fear on his mind ever since Deku unlocked SIXQUIRKS. right from the start, his mind was immediately going to the worst case scenarios. he immediately deduced that OFA might have a deeper connection to AFO than any of them realized (shoutout to Kacchan for being the original "Deku is a horcrux" truther lol. ONE DAY HORIKOSHI WILL FINALLY REVEAL THE TRUTH AND PROVE US RIGHT). he instantly zeroed in on the sobering fact that all of the previous OFA users died young. and as he reveals here, he took particular notice of the fact that All Might seems to be hiding something about OFA IV's death, and he is goddamn PRESSED about it.

and I absolutely LOVE the way that Nobu voiced this part of the conversation. when he starts to question All Might, his breathing starts to pick up a little, and his voice starts to get louder, and the words start to spill out faster and faster almost like he's in a rush to get it all out, and his voice starts to crack just a little, and he goes from not looking at All Might to hesitantly, almost fearfully glancing at him from the side, and then finally turning to face him head on with his eyes all wary and his teeth gritted like he's bracing himself for the very worst (because he is).

and then he finally just asks him, "was it because you realized something?" and then he takes in this achingly hesitant little breath before finishing with, "...about One for All?" and just. the whole scene is just SO well done. like, he's seriously so fucking scared about this, though. but at the same time he just needs to know, and just. oh my god. and Nobuhiko manages to emote all of this so clearly, and that is such a difficult line to walk when you're dealing with a character like Katsuki who's always so hesitant to show his vulnerability. he has to portray these two separate layers of Bakugou at the same time -- the part of him that is trying his hardest to be nonchalant and matter-of-fact in order to hide his fears and emotions; while at the same time also portraying said emotions which are clearly seeping through anyway, regardless of his efforts.

anyway so yeah. I could talk about this for eighty years and never get sick of it honestly but let's move on.

let me tell you guys, I've been bracing myself for this scene for two full years, and it still kicked my ass. THIS SCENE HAD NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE. literally RIGHT IN the feels. direct hit.

"he's always been that way." no, but guys. the regret when he says that. the way he states it with such simplicity and clarity. almost profound. this is just a truth of the world. this is just how Deku is. this is something that took him so long to understand, but now that he does, he can't fathom how he was never able to see it before. and then that ever-so-slight bitterness that creeps into his voice as he goes on to describe how he fucked it all up. ;_;

and then last but not least!!

"ijimeta." one word, in Japanese. it all comes down to that. and his voice gets so quiet. this whole last part of his speech is so quiet and so soft. but when he says this very last part, his voice wavers perfectly on that last word, and it just. sounds so resigned, somehow, but also just... almost faltering, for just a moment. you can hear the regret as clear as day, but you also hear the fear once again as he finally reveals this fact -- literally his biggest shame; the worst thing that he's ever done -- to All Might. his hero. just, damn.

anyway. so needless to say, despite my expectations being SKY HIGH, this scene absolutely met all of them and blew me away. as expected from the best fucking voice actor in Japan, according to me, a single lone person, whose subjective opinion is absolutely definitely not biased in any possible way.

back to the action! and Nobu getting to do his very best Deku impression lol.

can you believe this kid. one single nerdy analysis speech was all it took for him to start emitting such powerful Main Character Energy that even Endeavor got taken in and was just automatically following orders lol.

awesome choice of music here while Deku and Tomura continued to battle and Bakugou laid out his plan. you know it's good when they still manage to make you feel the tension even though this is basically just a generic action scene, and you additionally already know exactly what's going to happen.

I have no idea why, but that part with Deku's "Kacchan... my 'Deku' means 'you can do it!'" speech juxtaposed against the image of him going all out against Tomura with such fierce determination hit me like 100x harder than it did in the manga. I was NOT expecting that to be as powerful as it was. damn near gave me chills.

literally the only time I've ever been on board with the whole "FUCK YEAH, I'LL JUST BREAK ALL MY BONES AT YOU!!" deal lol. it literally makes no goddamn sense but this scene is just so raw.

THEN WE YEET THE ENDEAVOR!!!!

SO ON-BRAND. NO DEKU-INSPIRED PLAN IS EVER TRULY COMPLETE WITHOUT A GOOD YEETING.

and then the next few moments are some of the most legitimately unsettling of the entire series, as we have Tomura screaming at the top of his lungs while being burnt to cinders (and I mean, I love Tomura dearly, but I get it; he literally just Thanos'd tens of thousands of innocent people), followed by AFO's creepy fucking ghost hand reaching out all "LEND ME YOUR BODY~~~" which is a scene that absolutely NO ONE ASKED FOR but okay.

but then right afterwards though! when AFO finally did take over, and you hear that "TV shutting down" sound effect all of a sudden? and then the next few scenes with all the BKDK flashbacks are also weirdly TV-themed? I could not for the life of me figure this out at first, but now I'm actually thinking it could be a reference to the chapter 306 color page?

OR MAYBE NOT? I actually have no idea. anyway though it may have been random af but it worked for me, what can I say.

AND THEN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH AT LONG LAST.

THIS ACTUALLY IS SO PRETTY THOUGH?? LIKE I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT COLOR COMBINATION AT ALL?

AND IT HAPPENS SO QUICKLY!!!!??? YOU BARELY EVEN HAVE TIME TO BLINK?!?!!

oh. my. god.

THE WAY THE MUSIC SUDDENLY GOT QUIET. THE WAY HIS NARRATING VOICE CAME ON AND, PRAISE EVERYTHING, IT REALLY WAS DEEPER. THAT REALLY WAS THE ADULT HIM. SAME AS DEKU. MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS ARE SO FUCKING MUCH RIGHT NOW.

AND THEN THE FLASHBACKS!! THE SCENES OF THEM IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!! AND GROUND ZERO!! AND THEN CUTTING TO THE TWO OF THEM AS LITTLE BABIES, AND THE TV SCREEN ALL OF A SUDDEN SWITCHING TO COLOR??? AND THE HANDS??? THE REACHING?!?!

AND THEN?!?!?!

"HEY MAKESTE, IF WE GO AHEAD AND ACTUALLY MAKE THE VOLUME 29 COVER CANON, WILL YOU FINALLY FORGIVE US FOR ALL OF THE HALF-BAKED PAINFULLY OOC FILLER EPISODES AND OVAS?" WELL, STUDIO BONES, YOU DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN, BUT HOW CAN I POSSIBLY REFUSE.

AND THEN THEY FULL ON MURDERED ME!!!!!

that's right bitches. DREAD IT. RUN FROM IT. THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ARRIVES ALL THE SAME.

holy shit. and then THE END CREDITS oh my freaking heart. words can't even describe.

Studio Bones out here not resting until they've succeeded in making EVERY SINGLE PERSON feel the MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF SADNESS THAT A HUMAN BEING CAN SUSTAIN. their callousness truly knows no bounds.

anyway so there we have it! part one of the spectacular season 6 Bakugou Katsuki Redemption Saga. I laughed, I cried, I cried, I cried, I cried a little bit more, and then I cried a little bit more after that. final verdict: yeah, it was pretty good.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha season 6 #bnha episode 122 #bakugou katsuki #bakugou meta #makeste watches bnha #okamoto nobuhiko appreciation post #and I feel character development in this chili's tonight

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stillness-in-green · 2 years ago

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Chapter 374 Thoughts: Butterfly Effect

How’s this for a turn-around time? XD Next time, starting on the inbox. Back to chronological bullet points because, again, the table-shuffling going on this week means I have less in-depth to talk about. (The exception: translation quibbles. I have a lot of translation quibbles. It's one of those weeks.)

O I love how ominous that one visible eye tracking up from the hand to Mic is. Whereas at the end of last chapter, its forward aim and the thin line of a single eyebrow made Kurogiri look mostly surprised/shocked, here his expression is considerably more chilling.

O I don’t have anything in particular to say about Meryl the Weather Forecast gal making a Principled Stand against AFO, save to note that the projection behind her notes that the forecast is for the midnight news.(1) That is to say, the viewership numbers are not at an all-time high for this noble speaking of truth to power. (Though if the government is still playing at placating AFO, I wonder if that means Tim Ackbar is out of a job?)

O Amused that even the tail on Iida’s talk balloon is at right angles.

O Love the note from Burnin’ that Dabi’s “will” is inherited from Endeavor, because, wow, ain’t that the truth—lethal determination that never falters or flinches, no matter the obstacle. Touya continues to be by far the most Endeavor-like in temperament of the Todoroki children.

Well, except that, as much as I love the Dabi Is Endeavor’s Monster read, it is still worth discussing that crediting Dabi’s willpower to Endeavor is diminishing his own individuality in ways that, ironically, play right into the narrative he spun for the world in his video: that his flames are Endeavor’s flames, that there’s no boundary between Endeavor’s sins and Dabi’s crimes. That’s dangerous rhetoric, Burnin’! Especially for your side!

O I suppose there must be a resurgence of Phoenix Quirk theorizing in response to this chapter, huh? What with Burnin’ being very explicit about the There’s Something Else Going On Here signaling. Chalk that up as something I’ll wait and see on because I don’t have enough deep interest in Dabi to actively theorize about it, save a mild curiosity as to what the explanation is that Ujiko, noted quirk specialist, failed to spot it.

O I adore that page of the portal opening up in front of Dabi, though mainly because it delights me to imagine the sheer face-splitting width of the grin Skeptic must be wearing while he delivers that free travel line.

O I find it irksome that C. Cook decided to entirely remove all reference to the implied friends Spinner spoke of last chapter when he begged Kurogiri to rescue Shigaraki-tachi, but then here in this chapter, in a moment that allows for a touch of ambiguity about who AFO is referring to, Spinner or Kurogiri, suddenly Cook goes with friends, plural. The noun in question is ambiguous in the Japanese, sure, but the official English would nearly rule out Spinner as the topic of AFO’s monologue thanks to that singular/plural disagreement.

For the record, yeah, I think AFO is obviously referring to Spinner here. It’s a bit of a run-on meander, but I think the switch to Kurogiri is just to emphasize that his presence is the result of Spinner’s strong feelings, not to indicate that Kurogiri was the topic all along. Though I’m sure Shirakumo’s feelings for his friends are not at all off the table going forward, there’s not much reason to assume AFO is placing his trust in those feelings, given that the last time they were awakened, Shirakumo was instrumental in interrupting the surgery.

(Caveat: Given that ominous shifting of Shiragiri’s eye on the very first page, I suppose there’s a slight possibility that AFO is talking about Kurogiri here, and the feeling he’s talking about is “resentment that his ‘friends’ didn’t save him from the dark life he led after Ujiko and I stole him from the nest.” That feels like a reach to me, but it would be very funny.)

O The microchip line feels like another case of Horikoshi overexplaining things so he doesn’t get buried in letters from confused fans again like he did after Deku’s 1,000,000% against Muscular. It’s not quite as egregious as Hawks and Jeanist’s incredibly terrible conversation in Chapter 299 reiterating things they both already knew about Jeanist’s faux death, but it’s got the same sense.

Like, presumably Spinner—and if not him, then definitely Scarecrow and the other PLF advisors—had some way of communicating with Skeptic. It would not be so unbelievably convoluted to just assume Skeptic could patch himself through on one of those lines the same way he does to talk to Dabi this very chapter, especially since Skeptic somehow realized right away that Spinner succeeded. Indeed, a heads-up from Skeptic is presumably how AFO himself knew when to start monologuing about Spinner's success before the portals even appeared. That would feel less off to me than trying to imagine Spinner letting The Hand out of his sight long enough for AFO to plant some chip on it.

As it is, I have to assume that when AFO says "microchip," he really means "micro transceiver." AFO didn't know about the heroes' Tempt & Trap plan to split up his army, so he couldn't have put the coordinates Kurogiri would need on the chip in advance. Ergo, it has to be actively receiving a signal that can relay everyones' current locations. Maybe, as a Noumu, Kurogiri can automatically decode orders from radio waves a la the Near High Ends, but it seems like the simplest thing would, again, be to just use whatever comm device Spinner has. Doesn't seem like it would be any more or less prone to breaking than the microchip in The Hand did, you know?

O I have no strong feelings about that “Heya” added to Dabi’s line as he comes out of the portal, but considerably stronger feelings (negative) about adding the “Oh” to Togawice’s. “Oh, Hawwwwks,” makes Himijin sound like a sassy slasher killer rather than an incredibly pissed-off guy risen from the grave for revenge.

In fairness, if the Twice speaking is transformed Toga, she’s usually much closer to “sassy slasher” than “furious revenant,” but this is her confronting Jin’s murderer—a topic that makes her drop her singsong levity every time it comes up. That long, menacing growl of Hawks' name feels much more accurate to her mindset.

Anyway, somehow-not-the-most-baffling-choice-made-this-chapter localization aside, it’s a panel we’ve all been waiting for for the better part of three years now, and I seriously can’t wait to see more of it.(2) You can tell Horikoshi loved it, too; that is some seriously dedicated attention to contours, lighting, and linework.

O “Femme fatale” was actually the localization choice that had me scratching my head the most this week, but some research suggests that the term AFO uses—傾国, keikoku—is one that, while it literally translates to siren/beauty/courtesan/prostitute, is understood to refer to a woman of such beauty and magnetism that emperors and kings become enamored, endangering their countries as their attention strays. Certainly the most readily understood comparison to a Western eye would be Helen of Troy.

AFO’s full phrase was 少女に傾国, shoujo ni keikoku; Toga being a teenager rather than a full-grown woman is presumably why the shoujo got attached. I don’t pretend to understand enough Japanese to say for sure what the ni would indicate about the relationship between the two words, though, much less in the context of the full sentence. (Terminology I can look up on Google with reasonable enough confidence that I’ll at least land in the right ballpark; sentence structure is well past my level. Take me with a grain of salt.)

Anyway, regardless of whether AFO is literally using that term for Toga or just describing the situation using a string of words that just-so-happens to call the term to mind, I like it as a callback to what Giran tells Twice in his Deika flashback:

O Hawks, having learned absolutely nothing, immediately leaps to the much-quoted definition of insanity: repeating the same actions and expecting different outcomes. I cannot wait to watch him get his ass handed to him. That last panel(3) activated every schadenfreude button I’ve got, and I will be reading the next chapter with gleeful popcorn gifs scrolling across the forefront of my brain. Hell, I might make a bowl irl. Do not let me down on this one, Horikoshi. And All For One, if you want to rub it in a little harder, you go right ahead.

Taking a break from my Hedonism Bot-esque delight, I will say that I’m delighted that Tokoyami will have a front-row seat for this, too. It always bothered me that we never got more of him thinking about the claim that his beloved mentor killed a man in cold blood. I’m not even saying he had to disagree with the choice; I just wish we’d gotten to see more than him tearfully dismissing the claim and then literally never thinking about it again.

Time for a reckoning, lads. Past time.

---FOOTNOTES---

1: Which would put the current time in central Japan as being a bit after 5PM the next day, by the way.

2: Though I imagine we’re going to start in flashback next chapter, if only to see how Tsuyu’s doing, that clearly being half of her headset in the rear Twice’s hands.

3: With one last sigh-inducing translation choice for the road, since soitsu seems to be usually singular, and Hawks is clearly focused on Twice here, not Twice and Dabi, as would be one interpretation of “them.” Anyway, loving that Hawks not only calls for Twice to get murdered again, like he wasn’t even listening to AFO yammering on about the consequences, he can’t even be polite about it. Soitsu is, by all accounts, at best the kind of thing you use with friends you have a teasing, rough sort of dynamic with, and much more commonly regarded as derogatory.

#bnha #chapter thoughts #kurogiri #toga himiko #flyboy the red #todotalk #also just go ahead and assume that all of that is underlined with a subaural level of “Spinner Spinner where is he is okay aaaahhhhh”#because it is #my writing #bnha 374

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ganymedesclock · 3 years ago

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I don’t want to say fictional robots “belong” to autistic people because any given fantastical allegory can have manifold and meaningful resonance to all manner of diversities, but something I do think is very interesting about fictional robots as an autistic person is this:

Robots as a plot element or character arc often center on this question of emotions. Do you feel emotions? Now, this is an imperfect argument about humanity/authenticity in the first place since there are plenty of Real Human Beings who experience anhedonia or alexithymia- but I think also, in my experience, a lot of these stories- sometimes in-universe, sometimes only in fandom responses- betray that maybe a lot more people than they think, are not very good at identifying emotions.

Many fictional robots- to be blunt- pour with emotion. They will often have a blunted affect (that is to say, speaking in a monotone, or limited facial expressions), they may use overly technical terminology, but they will make arbitrary decisions based on personal preference, it will be nakedly obvious they have a preference and their preference is determined at least in part by what pleases them. Data from Star Trek adores his cat and cares deeply about art and poetry.

And I won’t say any of these characters are bad people. I don’t want to suggest the goal is to create a character who’s “really” emotionless. If there is a quibble I have with this, it’s that I think we could all afford to be a little more careful and a little bit more imaginative, when considering how other people’s minds work, and how they present details. Not just as a joyless finger-wag of “you should be more responsible!” (though I will say there is some joylessness to it- I don’t really enjoy being shown a character who emotes close to how I naturally do, being fretted over by people asking if that character has a soul, is a real person, or simply an effective mimic; that hurts a little too personally to be fun!)

I was thinking of this because I was reflecting on one of my favorite little videos, My Job Is To Open And Close Doors. It’s a simple little uninterrupted 3-minute monologue about an AI who, well, see title, but has a bit of a crisis of purpose and asks themselves a bunch of critical questions about their role and purpose.

At its core, to me, the AI in My Job clearly experiences an emotion; they see something in the course of doing their job that they have no protocol or instruction to halt before, but feel an incredible misgiving about following through on. In response to this misgiving, in a very human manner, they begin to procrastinate- all the while, they point out to their own mounting confusion that this is a meaningless activity, but it buys them more time.

The voice acting given to the AI is very good, and, to me, cinches the whole piece- the actor very specifically does not leave a neutral-pleasant tonal range, and at several points, rather than asking an obviously “emotional” question, the AI simply hangs up in their own thinking talking to themselves- “because- because- because-” a very mechanical sort of stutter.

And using this flat affect and mechanical quirks, the actor establishes and fits to an emotional vernacular. The thrust of the plot- that the AI isn’t sure why they’re hesitating when their job is straightforwards and clear, that they even take note that this is being recorded as an error by another party- repeats in the sense of the stuttering- just as they procrastinate opening the doors without being sure why, they too “procrastinate” the completion of their statements when they’re unsure of them. The AI believes that the delivery of a solution, an answer, a “point”, is inevitable, so when they do not feel they have an answer they are incapable of saying “I don’t know”; instead, they stall. They procrastinate in the hope of achieving enough time to deliver an answer that meets their standards, that satisfies the parameters either set by their programming, or their own feelings.

My Job also adds in a sense of why emotions are important- in a sense that is not about enjoyment or satisfaction, although the AI ultimately does feel tremendously satisfied at the successful conclusion of their quandary- because without the ability to experience “baseless misgivings”, they would have simply responded to the initial command to open the door and been unbothered by whatever happened. In that sense, you could argue, it’s an ‘emotion’ born from ‘logic’ (that there is something amiss, though it takes the AI time to tease this out of their own thinking) but at that point we’re barking up a fool’s tree of semantics because our “logic” and our sentiments are both chemicals clattering around the same undifferentiated apparatus at the same time and thus inextricably attached to one another.

The thing that kills me about this is- with no hostility to the commenter in question- I scrolled down into the comments of My Job and immediately saw someone talking about how clearly, the AI has no emotions.

To me, this entire plot is about an AI having an emotion. Unmistakable and clear. This is about a door mechanism experiencing a profoundly human response to distress- procrastinating on the completion on a task they have every resource and in fact an active imperative to complete, based on a misgiving they are unable to articulate. This revelation is so profound to them that at the end of the video, they actually reframe their entire objective- “My job is to protect the human. My job is a great purpose.”

So I guess if there’s a tl;dr or conclusion to this sentiment, it’s that I think that while we can and should absolutely tell stories about fictional robots- because they are cool, and because they are also tremendously useful to ask certain existential questions about personhood- I think that it is actually very important to temper both our creation and consumption on these narratives on a more robust theory of neurodivergence, and, “I don’t recognize the way this emotion plays out in this particular person” does not equal “there is no emotion there at all”

#writing ruminations #readmore #obviously someone who experiences anhedonia/alexithymia or similar conditions can absolutely have their own take on this and I apologize #if I have accidentally come off as like... 'emotion is what makes you human'#I think that we're complicated stress-reactive chemical computers #and I am sort of broadly defining emotion in this case as 'any sort of subjective non-data-based psychological response'

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tedlyanderson · 3 months ago

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The original poster has put out some more thoughts on image generation and its relationship to existing forms/modes/models of art and artists, and it's sparked further thoughts in me. Nothing that alters my original conclusion (that generative AI cannot be considered "art" as such because art requires a conscious mind making choices, rather than an algorithm with a theoretically repeatable output given identical input), but worth chewing on further.

One of their contentions is that AI image generators are "learning" in the same way that a human being learns: they take in vast amounts of information, distill it, and then create based on what they've absorbed. An artist's work (and, for that matter, the artist as an individual) has been shaped by all the art they have seen in the life, in addition to the socio-political, environmental, material, etc. forces that shape us all.

Which constitutes objection number one: a human being is infinitely more complex than a generative AI, at least at the moment. You could quibble about how much art a person can "absorb" versus an AI, and the AI would probably win by orders of magnitude, but an artist isn't just the art they've seen: it's their personal experiences, their existence as a social creature, their quirks of biology and chance. All of those things feed into their art (unless we're doing a particularly extreme version of "death of the author", I guess). James Joyce doesn't write Ulysses without having grown up in Dublin, Tim O'Brian doesn't write The Things They Carried without having been sent to fight in Vietnam, H.R. Giger doesn't design the xenomorph without having engaged in a particular sexual act (supposedly). An AI, by definition, doesn't have any of that; all they have is another person's art, and thus all it can do is remix the art of others without the underlying experience. This also neatly obviates the objection of "what about fanfic and fanart?" All art is, in a way, fanart or fanfic, as it's based on human experience, not just other works of art, and you don't get the Inferno without Dante being pissed at specific politicians.

(Quick sidenote: George Steiner, in his book Real Presences, argues that every work of art is a response to another work of art, consciously or not, and thus art criticism is largely unnecessary, as art as a whole is its own criticism. I think there's something to this, though Steiner was also a devout Catholic and argued that every piece of art was a reflection of God or something. Idk, religion isn't my bag. But still, it's a compelling notion.)

Objection number two: the poster made a separate post where they gave a remarkable amount of detail on how a program "thinks" versus how a person thinks, and how generative AI is our best attempt at making a purely mathematical system act as though it has intuition. Which pretty much gives the game away: it can't have intuition. It is, as they themselves described, purely mathematical. If you enter the same query, you will receive the same answer. If you provide the same inputs, you will get exactly the same output. There is no actual "choice" on the part of the AI, only statistics and quasi-random numbers.

(Another sidenote: this is why we shouldn't even call it "AI," as that bestows upon it a level of sophistication it doesn't deserve. Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age has people use the term "artificial heuristics" instead, as it's more accurate, and I've always liked that. If you can understand the work that went into one of these image generators, if the code is available for dissection and you can, in theory, chart the entire process of generating a single image in the form of calculations, in what way is that "intelligent" and not simply "a more powerful calculator"?)

So by the writer's own admission, a generative AI doesn't learn like a person, because it cannot. Ascribing to it the same process whereby a person develops an individual art style, saying that an AI using a quasi-random number seed to generate an image is "pretty much" the same as a human being learning how to draw, is just a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, a simplification that completely removes the necessary complexity.

I also saw some thoughts on how, if we are discounting the use of generative AI because a person was not involved in it, we are ignoring the programmers who made it. Which, again, elides the actual work of the AI, which is rooted solely in mathematics. The rules it uses to generate its works were designed by a person, to be sure, but the result isn't dependent on the individual programmer so much as the artist(s) whose works were scraped to produce the database. The AI is a tool like any other, and you wouldn't credit Old Holland for producing the paints you used in your watercolor landscape.

(Are there gray areas? Yeah, sure. Gary Gygax should probably be given some credit for his work on the system you use in your actual-play podcast. Scott McCloud should be acknowledged for designing the format of your 24-hour comic. Osamu Tezuka is credited on the cover of Pluto along with Naoki Urasawa. Some elements in some works are more prominent than others. But again, which elements and how prominent are the results of choices by the artist.)

Writing all this out also made me realize that I made a misstatement at least once in the earlier posts of this chain: I said that human-made art bears the marks of conscious choice on the part of the artist, and I think that's pretty obviously untrue. Any work of art is, at least in part, the result of unconscious choices as well; nobody is fully aware of the factors in their life that lead them to make the choices they make. (Source: Sigmund Freud.) This obviously holds true for art as well, so my partial definition needs some updating.

(One last interesting sidenote about intuition and the creative process: I remember reading a paper, years ago, about the works of Jackson Pollock, whose "drip paintings" look like completely random messes to the untrained eye, but which actually possess a remarkable fractal complexity. The really fascinating part is that exactly how complex the patterns in his paintings were changed over the course of his career, to the point where fractal analysis could be used to not only verify a legitimate Pollock but roughly date when he made it. In particular, there was one painting which Pollock disliked at the time he made it, but later apparently came around on it; fractal analysis showed that its level of complexity was abnormally high for the time when he made it, but comparable to his later works. I need to find that paper again.)

Anyway. This is more of me rambling to nobody in particular. Venting is a handy way of organizing my thoughts. If you've enjoyed this stream-of-consciousness single-player debate, why not purchase one of my fine books?

(Joking but not joking.)

Reading posts from someone I follow on why image generators are a legitimate form of art and their use should be normalized, and it's refreshing to encounter some pro-generative-AI arguments more nuanced than "I don't want to pay artists." I still think they're fundamentally wrong, but it's been extremely helpful, because it's forced me to examine my own thoughts on the matter and determine why, exactly, I believe what I do. Something something mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, idk, I didn't watch Thame of Groans.

(Of course I'm not going to mention the person by name or tag them or anything, and for that matter I'd appreciate it if people didn't reblog this. I'm not writing this to get into an argument; I'm mostly just consolidating my own thoughts into a semi-coherent form.)

There are a number of arguments that have been leveled against generative AI, some of which I find more persuasive than others. The energy usage and financial waste, for instance, are significant, but not relevant in the case of one person using a locally hosted image generator and not selling the results. The question of the quality of the work is similarly unimportant to the bigger question; AI-generated images are going to continue to get better-looking as the technology improves, and "good" versus "bad" art is impossible to define in a meaningful way for the purposes of this argument.

The copyright argument is much more important, particularly to me as a creator. Another user pointed out that copyright cases against LLMs (on behalf of creators whose works were included in the learning sets) could have a potentially deleterious effect on fair use and transformative artworks. I'm not hooked into the legal scholarship on this, so I can't respond to that point. I do think it's somewhat short-sighted of that user to say "AI is a tool like any other, its use can be good or evil, our true enemy is capitalism," and then turn around and attack copyright as some kind of uniquely evil legal technology, rather than a technology that can also be used for good (making sure artists are recognized and paid for their work) or evil (large corporations shutting down parodies). And yeah, the revolution would fix all this, but how long do we have to wait for that? And what can we do in the meantime?

Anyway, the one argument that made me genuinely examine my own beliefs was "what is art anyway, and can you define it in a way that does not disqualify large swaths of what is widely recognized as human creative work and also excludes generative AI?" Because that's the meat of all this—not whether image generators suck up too much energy (because it's not about the specifics of the technology, which will change and improve over time, just as new types of paint do not fundamentally alter the nature of painting) nor copyright (which is a whole other legal mess), but whether we can call this "art" at all. For that, you need a definition, and that's the sticking point.

The original poster named a couple common ways of defining art/not-art (the "smell test," i.e. I Know It When I See It, and the "quality test," i.e. Can You Hang It In A Museum, which are largely the same but from different perspectives), and points out that they and other definitions would exclude quite a lot of human endeavors that most people would describe as art (graffiti, calligraphy) as well as fields that are more difficult to define but could constitute art (mathematics, programming).

(They also ascribed to anyone who attempted to make such a definition the motivation of not just gatekeeping but unadulterated fascism, which is an argument I think holds no water and wins them no friends, but. Let's just leave the paranoia aside and concentrate on the argument itself.)

So what is art? How do we define it, and why do I fundamentally disagree that anything that comes out of an image generator can be considered "art"?

I don't think this is sufficient for a full definition, but after talking it over with friends, I think, in part, art requires a perspective, which is to say that it must be the result of individual human decisions about non-trivial components. Another way to state this would be that the artist (if indeed they are an artist) must be able to make conscious choices about the work that are beyond what is strictly necessary for its completion.

Should the background be blue or green? Would this sentence be improved by an adjective? How large of a flourish should this letter have? What if I carve the gargoyle's snarl more deeply? What color should the hair of my halfling rogue be? These choices are indicative of a product that would be widely recognized as belonging to the category of "art."

Obviously, there are still gray areas. Certain fields have both a creator and a performer; can we say that one is "more of" an artist than the other? What about commissioned works? What if the artist is creating something within a strict limit or form—for instance, the 14-line sonnet, or a novel without the letter 'e'? What about Duchamp's Fountain, or John Cage's "4'33""? What about works with a large number of creators, such as films or collaborative writings? What about works where there is a level of interactivity with the audience, such as video games or certain theater pieces? Those and other questions are certainly open to debate, and should be debated! But to my mind, they do not challenge the fundamental principle, which is that the artist is an artist because they exercise choice in the process of creation.

Thus, by my (admittedly partial and underdeveloped) definition, I don't regard AI-generated images as art. The algorithm does not choose in a meaningful way; it merely calculates the most statistically likely next word/pixel/frame/etc. based on the database and the prompt with which is has been provided. (If you want to claim that this constitutes a choice, please submit a 5,000-word essay on whether free will exists and how we could possibly know if it does.) The remixer samples a specific beat; the collage artist cuts a particular image out of a magazine; the parodist deliberately draws in a specific way. The computer computes. It uses a mathematical operation—which, by definition, is repeatable and will produce the exact same outputs, given the same inputs. (Yes, the results have elements of randomization. We all know that true randomness is impossible for a computer, so they produce quasi-random numbers using things like the system time and so forth. I don't want to split hairs on this specific point. You get what I'm gesturing to. Don't look at the finger, look at the moon.) A prompt limits the database to certain specific sets, which the algorithm assembles according to its internal logic. The input is disconnected from the outputs; anyone could input the same prompt and receive the same art. (Even The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed required an editor.) Generative AI is no more "creating" a piece of visual art than turning a radio dial to a specific station is "composing" the music that plays. The purely mathematical nature of its generative process makes it no qualitatively different from assembling a Lego set according to the directions.

The first obvious challenge to my partial definition is to say that it just restates the premise and shifts the goalposts: art is something that must be made by a person, and thus cannot be made by a computer. Which is fair! This is a verbalization of a belief I've always held about art, and which caused me to immediately (instinctively, unthinkingly) reject the idea that an AI-generated image could be "art." That's how I got into this discursive mess! It's why my brain recoiled when I heard someone call these images "art"!

But it also helps me understand why I instinctively categorize other acts and works as either "art" or "not art." A photograph was taken by a person at a specific time and a specific place, its elements arranged and its moment chosen according to the photographer's visual logic; it is therefore art. A hamburger put together by an underpaid worker at McDonald's is not art; a recipe by a chef that combines existing ingredients in a new way or using a new method is; a meal created by a person who tweaked a recipe might be. (That one might actually run counter to current copyright law, I'm not sure.) A mechanism assembled by a worker on an assembly line, identical in every way to another mechanism made by a different worker, is not art, because there was no choice on the part of the worker. (Could it be art because the designer of the mechanism exercised choice? Depends on the nature of the mechanism and the industry! Venmo me $20 for a debate.) A dance choreographed to produce a specific visual effect is art; an exercise designed to stretch certain muscles in the most efficient and painless way is not art. And so forth.

AI-generated images are not art. (They are also not a medium, which I saw several other commentators claim; an image is an image, regardless of where it comes from. I'm already knee-deep in linguistic debate, let's not cloud the matter any further.) Generative AI is a tool, and there are and can be creative and ethical uses for it! But to claim that it is capable of making art is giving agency to a thing that cannot have it, and claiming that someone who writes "sexy anime girl" in a prompt field is an artist is to expand the meaning of that word to the point of nonsense.

More than one person has brought up Jorge Luis Borges' "The Library of Babel" when talking about the potential of AI-generated works. It's got some bearing on the question, sure, but I feel like the more apropos point of comparison is his story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote." In that work, Pierre Menard is a friend of the author's who is attempting to become the author of Don Quixote—not in the sense that he is trying to plagiarize the work, or time-travel and replace Cervantes in history, but that he is trying to make himself into a version of himself that could have independently written Don Quixote. It's partly a critique of elements of literary criticism, in that Quixote would become a far more interesting book (according to the narrator) if it had been written by a 20th-century Frenchman rather than a 17th-century Spaniard (it was written some 28 years before Barthes' "The Death of the Author," for context). But in the context of the current argument of generative AI, and specifically to my fumbling attempts to defining what is and is not art, it's an illustrative example of what I think it all boils down to: any work of art is the work of an artist, who inevitably brings to the work perspective/knowledge/experience/an individual understanding of the world. Ascribing any such perspective to an algorithm is just fetishism. (And not the kind that generative AI is most often used for.)

Or, to put this way more succinctly and directly:

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felassan · 4 years ago

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Dragon Age development insights from David Gaider - PART 1

This information came from DG on a recent SummerfallStudios Twitch stream where he gave developer commentary while Liam Esler played DAO, specifically the mage Origin. I transcribed it in case there’s anyone who can’t watch the stream (for example due to connection/tech limitations, data, time constraints, or personal accessibility reasons). A lot of it is centered on DAO, but there’s also insights into DA2 and DAI. Some of it is info which is known having been out there already, some of it is new, and all of it imo was really interesting! It leaps from topic to topic as it’s a transcript of a conversational format. It’s under a cut due to length.

Note on how future streams in this series are going to work: The streams are going to be every Friday night. Most likely, every week, they’re going to play DAO. Every second week it will be Liam and DG and they’ll be doing more of this developer commentary style/way of doing things, talking about how the game was made as they play through, covering quirks and quibbles etc. Every other week, it will be Liam and a guest playing a different campaign in DAO, and Liam will be talking with them about how DA changed their lives or led them into game development, to get other peoples’ thoughts on the series (as it’s now been like 10 years). Some of these guests we may know, some we won’t. When other DA devs are brought on, it’ll be in the DG sessions. They hope to have PW and Karin Weekes on at some point. Sometime they hope to have an episode where they spend the whole time going through the lore.

(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

[wording and opinions DG’s, occasionally LE’s; paraphrased]

DAO’s development actually finished up around April 2009. They then put it on ice for around six months before release. Human Noble is DG’s favorite Origin. It’s one of the ones he wrote. He also wrote the Dalish Origin as well (Tamlen is his doing ;__;). DAO’s temp name during development was Chronicles. DG has never played any of the DA games after they were released. He played them pre-release loads of times, when they were half-broken or incomplete etc. This stream is his first time seeing everything played after completion.

NWN: Hordes of the Underdark was the first game where DG was a/the lead writer, in charge of other writers, as opposed to a senior writer. It was pretty well-received. In the fall of 2003, BW were just finishing up HotU when James Ohlen came to DG to talk. BW had been having issues during the development of NWN with the IP holder for D&D Wizards of the Coast, so they were interested in starting their own IPs that they would have ownership over (and also for financial reasons). JO said to DG that one of these new IPs would be fantasy and one would be sci-fi. He knew that DG was more fantasy-oriented, and so asked DG if he wanted to take this on. DG was down, and the first thing to figure out was what that fantasy IP was going to be.

JO gave DG an atlas of European history, which he still has, and said that he wanted him to make a fantasy world that is reminiscent of medieval Europe and reminiscent of D&D - “make it like D&D but not, file off the serial numbers really well”. This worked for DG because he was pretty familiar with D&D and there were also lots of things that he didn’t like about it and wanted to change. So DG went off and for the next six months worked on creating a setting, beginning with documentation and the map. This was kinda strange because they had no idea at that time what their story would be. JO was very interested in having a “genetically evil” enemy in the setting (like an equivalent to orcs). DG wasn’t a big fan of this and his initial go at the setting omitted this (i.e. darkspawn were not a thing) and was a lot more realistic. JO insisted on adding them later on.

This period of development wasn’t actually a good process. There were other people who were working on the project who were designing the combat side. Looking back, DG feels that they should have put their heads together a lot sooner. The combat designers had various ideas for various prestige classes and subclasses, and DG would be like “these are nowhere in the setting [lore]”. He tried his best to add a few of them after the fact, which is why we see things like DA’s version of the bard archetype. The combat designers and artists originally had a vision in mind of a game that was much more along the lines of the type of fantasy you’d find in the Conan the Barbarian world - bare-chested barbarians, sorceresses that show a lot of skin, a grimdark world with barbarian hordes. They were just assuming that’s what it was going to be. At this point in time DG had never thought, “Oh, maybe I’m responsible for communicating my ideas to them” - he’d never done this role before and was just told to go create the world. He created world-building documentation and would send out emails saying “I’m making this documentation, please go ahead and take a look”, not learning until later on that nobody outside of the writing team really likes reading such documentation. He learned tricks later on like making the docs more accessible, less dense and wordy, and overall easier to peruse.

There was no real ‘vision holder’ for DA. Mass Effect did a much better job of that. Casey Hudson was the project director and the vision holder for ME, and he had the power to enforce a set vision of what was and was not ME. ME therefore ended up having a bit more of a coherent vision. DG was in essence the vision holder for DA, but he didn’t really have the authority to enforce it on the artists. The DA teams ended up spending a good 3.5 - 4 years of the ~6 years of DAO dev time going in circles, not exactly sure what they were going to make, the various people working on it having different ideas of what ‘kind’ of fantasy they were going to make. The writing team were leaning towards LoTR; the artists were leaning towards Conan; at one point one of the project directors was leaning towards a point-and-click Diablo-style action adventure; and nobody was overriding anybody else.

The fans who hang out on the forums and in similar places have a very different idea about what kind of game they like and want to play versus the telemetry BW get from the public in general. As an example, fans on the forums tend towards playing non-humans and feeling that playing as a human is boring. Forum-polls reflected that, but BW’s general public-telemetry shows that around 75-80% of the playerbase played a human in DAO. Elves were at 15% and dwarves 5%. In contrast, in the core/forum-based fanbase, the human figure dropped down to 30%.

DG originally wanted Zevran to be a gay romance (he has talked about this before). He asked JO if he could do that pretty early on, thinking of Jade Empire which had same-gender romance options which were really popular. BW were surprised about that, and DG had no idea that the JE team were going to do this. For DAO, he had an idea for an assassin character. He had been reading about how the CIA and KGB would often recruit gay men to be their assassins, as they didn’t tend to have family ties. DG thought this was really interesting. JO was cool with the idea on a conceptual level, but thought that the work that would end up going into it would be better served if those characters could be romanced by both male and female PCs. Zevran and Leliana weren’t intended to be bi, they were “bi out of convenience”, but at the time these sorts of things (representation and such) didn’t enter into the equation as much as it does today. DG wrote Zevran in his head as being romanceable by men.

DG would ask the hair artists, “Why all the mullets?”, because he never understood that, and he’d get “a sort of shrug response”, and an indication that “it’s easier to model, I guess?” Having hair which is loose, in the face, in locks, coming over the shoulders etc wasn’t really supported at this point by the tech or the engine. Hence, they ended up with like five different versions of mullets. On the subject of the engine, for the first half of development they were using an upgraded version of the Aurora engine from NWN, and it was not good. Several years in they decided to switch. Trent Oster was in charge at the time of making a new proprietary BW engine. At the time it wasn’t ready yet, but the DA team decided to grab it, use it and hammer it into the DA engine. That engine had “so many little weird quirks”, like lighting on skin not working properly and looking bad, and one of the issues was hair. It was supposed to be BW’s proprietary engine but it really wasn’t optimized for RPGs and didn’t include a dialogue system. They had to custom-build the conversation system. (At the time Trent didn’t think BW should be doing RPGs anymore, which is a whole other story of its own). DG recalls programmers complaining about things in the engine that weren’t ready for ‘prime-time’. Even compared to games released concurrently, DAO’s graphics were a bit dated.

For the worldbuilding, they had an internal wiki and they kept everything on there. They ended up with a lot of legacy documentation on there very quickly. Eventually they solved this by hiring an editor whose sole job it was to wrangle the documentation. DG started work on the setting in the same manner in which he’d embark on starting a homebrew - ‘so like, first, here’s a map, oh, I like this name, vague ideas, a paragraph on each major nation, a rough timeline of the history, expanding, and it just growing from there’. After about six months, they brought on other writers, and by then he had around 50 pages of documentation. This 50 pages was a minute amount compared to the amount they had generated at the time of release. Originally, they weren’t sure where in the world specifically the story would take place, so DG made sure to seed potential and brewing conflicts throughout Thedas. They settled quite quickly on the new Blight starting in Ferelden. Once they established that, the writers went to town on taking Ferelden specifically and blowing it up detail-wise. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of the dwarves and Orzammar. Mary Kirby was on Fereldan customs and traditions.

The first version of the setting was more grounded in realism, almost like a post-fantasy. The dragons and griffons were extinct and a lot of the things that were thought to be fantastical were thought to be over with. During development, they started clawing these things back. They brought back dragons because the game was named Dragon Age (lol). DG was approached like, “Hey, we named the game DA, can you bring back dragons and weave them into the story more powerfully?” Wynne’s writer Sheryl Chee had a bit of an obsession with griffons and was often like ‘omg, griffons :D’, and this is the origin of Wynne’s dialogue with the Warden about griffons.

KotOR was the first time BW had tried to do a game that was fully voiced-over. For KotOR, BW sent the work of casting, direction and so on down to another studio in California called Technicolor. BW had little say in the process then and when they got it back, “it was what it was”. By the time they got to DA and the first ME, BW had a good system down for recording and VO had become an important thing in games at the time. BW are really one of the premieres for this, a lot of actors really like acting on BW games as they get a lot of space to act where they wouldn’t normally be able to do so otherwise. DG has learned a lot from Caroline Livingstone on how to encourage the best performance out of an actor. For DAO, DG worked together with the various lead designers and Caroline to decide on the auditions, casting etc. This was one of DG’s favorite things to do.

Gideon Emery as Fenris, GDL as Solas and Eve Myles as Merrill were times where DG had written the character and then went to Caroline and said “I have an actor in mind for them, can you check it out?” These were specific times where he was able to secure the actor he wanted. This didn’t always work out, for example there are times when actors aren’t interested or have no time due to scheduling conflicts or were too expensive etc. Eve and GDL were DG’s roommate Cori’s idea. Cori was a big fan of Torchwood/the actors from Torchwood, and worked as an editor at BW for a long time. Gideon was DG’s idea after playing FF12. For DAO, DG didn’t have any specific ideas in terms of actors. Casting Morrigan was the longest, most drawn out process.

The Circle went through a whooole process during worldbuilding. Initially, mages in the game weren’t supposed to have any “fighting magic”. The restrictions were originally such that in the lore, they didn’t teach mages that. Mages weren’t taught any magic that could kill people, only ‘indirect’ forms of magic that could support others. However, [during what sounds like] playtesting it was asked “Why can’t I cast a fireball? I just want to cast a fireball”, so the writers had to go back and rework how magic in the lore worked completely.

Flemeth was originally going to be voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, and she was totally on-board, but unfortunately because of DAO’s development delays, she was unable to attend the new recording time as she had a conflict in her schedule (she was filming House of Sand and Fog). Shoreh was quite disappointed about this and her family had been so excited that she was going to be in a video game. When the movie was finished, Shoreh came back to BW and let them know that she was still available, and this is how she ended up in ME2. For a while they were trying to find an actress with an accent that authentically mirrored Shoreh’s. Out of the blue around this time, Claudia Black’s agent sent BW an audition tape of her. At the time Claudia hadn’t done any games but wanted to get into it. The tape was of Claudia doing a beat poet rendition of Baby Got Back. DG still has this tape. DG was a big fan of Farscape and on listening to the tape, it clicked right away in his head that Claudia would be perfect for Morrigan.

The Fade ended up being a big irritation for the writers. They wanted the PC to be able to assume different forms and such while in there. A lot of this stuff proved too difficult for the combat designers to work out, and so it ended up getting changed a lot. They had a hard time coming up with gameplay that could work in the Fade. The mage Origin is DG’s least favorite of the Origin stories, as he’s really dubious about the Fade section in it. It didn’t work out like how they had pictured it in their heads. By the time they got to DAI, that’s when the Fade really looks like how the writers first described/envisioned it. By this point the artists were more keen to give it a more specific feel. DAO was made at a time when ‘brown is realistic’ was a prevailing thing in games dev.

The experience of a mage in the world isn’t represented or conveyed very well to the player when the player is a mage. The experience of the player when they’re playing a mage or have a mage in their party doesn’t really match up with how the world lore tells them how dangerous mages can be - for example, how they can lose control and so on, we never really have an example of a PC mage struggling with being taken over by a demon. This was originally supposed to be a subplot in DA2 for mage Hawkes, in one of the last cuts. In Act 2, mage Hawke was originally slowly being tricked by a demon in their head that they thought was real, only to realize at the last minute. Mouse the Pride demon in the mage Origin is the only time in the entire series that they really ever properly demonstrated how demons can fuck with [PC] mages. Also, PC templars were originally supposed to have a permanent lyrium addiction that they needed to ‘feed’, but this was scrapped as the system designers weren’t keen on it and felt that it was essentially handicapping the player.

Mages were originally also not supposed to be able to deal with pure lyrium (it would ‘overload’ them). There is a plot where mage PCs run around touching lyrium nodes to refill their mana bars. On this DG was like “Wtf is this?” The designers said that it works, and DG said “but it flies in the face of the lore”. This instance is an example of how the DA team was working where the various departments (writers, artists, designers etc) all had their own ideas about how the game and its world would work and never overrode each other (see above). DG feels that DAO is a little contradictory in that way. It’s only after the game came out that a lot of the people on the team really “bought into” what they’d put forward. This got easier as they went on, with people involved buying then into the things that make Dragon Age, Dragon Age. At one point, not everyone on the team was even aware of those things.

DG relates that originally, they would ask the artists, “Ok, can we get a village?” and said village once created would be quite generic and non-specific to DA. The writers would try to relate how things are in the DA world and list things that would be found in a village like this specific to the DA world, and the artists either didn’t read it or had their own ideas (DG isn’t sure which), and nobody was around to tell them not to do that and that they should do it differently. Everyone having their own ideas like this is why we ended up getting something that is this sort of “cobbled together half-Conan half-LotR mish-mash”, and after a while this sort of became DA’s “thing”.

Initially, BW had concepts drawn up for a lot more different creatures. After they went in circles for those years and consequently ran out of time to do all the models, they had to cut these concepts down more and more. Demons were among the ones that were the first to go (this is why we have situations like a bereskarn as the Sloth Demon in the mage Origin). The original concepts for things like spirits of Valor and Sloth demons were really good. Early on, JO made a list of D&D creatures that he liked. He picked the ones that they were thinking of doing, sent them to DG and said to make a “DA version of this”. For example, D&D succubi essentially became Desire Demons. Desire Demons were originally patterned off Sandman, neither male nor female yet really alluring, acting more like a genie and trying to ferret out mortals’ inner desires (which are not necessarily sexual in nature), without being overtly sexual. The artists’ version came back and that was basically the model seen in-game. The writers were like “What is this, this is nothing like the description?” and the artists responded that on the list from JO, it was included, in that you had to click on “succubus” to get to the Desire Demon description, so they had just read “succubus” and done their version of a succubus. The artists did loads of great work, but this was one of the instances were DG was like “???” By then, it was too late to change it. The writers were able to encourage them to make Desire Demons a little more fearsome, so that made it in at least.

The mage Origin was one of the more contentious Origin stories. It had like 4 different versions written of it over time. It was often the case that BW would hire someone, and writing an Origin story was their first test. Three different writers came in and wrote a version of the mage Origin and those versions just didn’t work. Finally they passed it to Sheryl Chee and she wrote it. The Origins were the parts of the game in general that were written/rewritten the most often. There were several others that got written that they discarded.

Duncan was slated for death from Day 1. When DG writes a story, the thing he does first is pick out the big emotional beats that he wants, such as deaths. He decides these ahead of time and the stuff in-between comes later and is more often changed. Oghren was also originally supposed to die, but this ended up getting cut. DG related a story of how Oghren came to be: At the time, there was a phase JO went through when he thought everything had a formula that it could be done by. One of these ‘creative forumulas’ was that all such IPs had a two-word name that they’re known by, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonlance (being Dragon-Lance). This is how ‘DA’ and ‘ME’ came to be. One of the formulas he wanted to implement was how to distill the ‘comedy character’, like Minsc or HK-47. These characters were very popular with the fans and JO was certain that there was a way to figure this out to create one for DA. At the time, DG argued with him a lot about this. JO insisted it could be done. DG was originally supposed to write this character but ended up not doing so. JO came up with a list of comedic archetypes and had DG write a blurb about what kind of character each could be. These were then sent out to the team who voted on which was their favorite. This process eventually resulted in an archetype basically called ‘The Buffoon’ (think Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, the kind of guy people laugh at because he’s such an oaf).

At this point ‘The Buffoon’ wasn’t named or made a dwarf yet. JO came to DG to write him, but DG said there was a problem which is that he hates this archetype. Homer and Peter are characters that he despises. DG is a professional writer, but this was comedy (outside of his areas of strength), and he felt the best he would be able to do is write a character who makes fun of this archetype and lampshade that. Comedy is something that has to come from within the writer. Oghren was given to someone else, and he ended up getting rewritten again anyway. By the time they were working on Awakening, DAO had not yet come out, and the assumption prior to the game going out was that Oghren was still going to be the most popular character from among the followers. The comedic character that ended up being the most popular along these lines was Alistair, which was interesting as he wasn’t intended as a comedic character, “so shows what we know”. DG was dubious that Oghren was going to be popular, because “he was kind of pathetic, honestly”, but that was the thinking at the time. Thinking he would be well-loved is why he was in Awakening.

On Alistair, any character DG writes is going to be sarcastic. At the time DG had made it a sort of personal challenge to recreate Joss Whedon’s dialogue patterns in his characters. Alistair was a sort of mish-mash of Xander from Buffy and maybe Mal from Firefly. DG wanted to see if he could do it, so Alistair was kind of quippy and self-deprecating. DG never really considered this to be Alistair’s main personality feature, but when other writers wrote him, they often had him doing this, as they liked the trait so much, and so this is how Alistair ended up as he did.

On dwarves, the dwarves being cut off from the Fade is very much baked into who the dwarves are as a race. There’s a specific reason why. This has been hinted at so far and it’s likely to come up in the future. DG had various ideas for some things that he wanted to include with the races or the way the world works etc. Some of them ended up never happening or some are mentioned only as part of the lore (templar lyrium addiction never coming up in gameplay is an example of this). Dwarven history and the nature of the dwarves is one of the things that survived pretty well though. DG calls Jennifer Hepler “mistress of the dwarves” and says that she did a really detailed, amazing breakdown of their history. After Jennifer left it was Mary Kirby, and DG feels that they did a good job of maintaining how dwarves were, in terms of both how they’re often presented in fantasy and yet also quite different in DA. Orzammar is one of DG’s favorite plots all together. You can really tell that Jennifer Hepler really enjoyed the dwarves and brought a lot of love to that plot.

DG draws a distinction between DA fans and the unpleasant people who harassed Jennifer Hepler.

They managed to keep the Tranquil in. There was a while there where they were going to be cut. At the same time, DG regrets that they couldn’t solve the making of the player more aware of how mages are dangerous, thing. Players could make a cogent argument like “they’re not that dangerous, look at me [mage PC]” and the writers were like “well... yeah, that is fair”. It was a case of showing one thing and the player experience of it being another. DG feels that this made the templars come off worse than they are. DG feels that they are being massively unfair and too extreme in their approach to the problem, but the problem itself is a real thing. He feels that there’s some merit/truth in the argument that mages are oppressed, but he looks at it more like an issue like gun control rather than as treatment of oppressed people, saying that we don’t have an example in real life of oppressed people who can explode into demons and cast fireballs and so on.

There are some funny pronunciations that worked their way into DA, and the reason for a lot of them is as follows: the writers had to create a pronunciation guide for VO, because otherwise you end up with a lot of inconsistencies. (Some did still slip through). The guide was online, and if you clicked on a word, an audio file for it would play. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of this and did a great job, but has a really strong NY accent, and in some cases the ‘NY-ness’ of her pronunciation endearingly worked itself into things (the way Arlathan is sometimes said is an example of where this happened sometimes).

Sometimes the writers trying to communicate the “hotness” of a character to the artists didn’t go smoothly. The writers would sometimes say things like, ok, this character is a romance, they need to be hot, and the designs would come back looking “like Burt Reynolds”, and the writers would be like “???” And then a character that wasn’t particularly intended to be hot, as in that wasn’t mentioned at all in the descriptions of them, would come back “accidentally hot”, and the writers would be like “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were asking for a character that was meant to be hot”, and the artists would be like “What?? He’s not hot”. And this became a thing (lmao - this discussion was prompted by DG being asked “Was Duncan meant to be that hot?”, for context). Some of the artists were so paranoid about their [in]ability to judge actually-hot characters that when it was time to pick an appearance, like for Alistair, they gathered up all the women at BioWare, and DG (“resident gay”) into a room to show them an array of faces and bodies like “Is this hot? Is this hot?” DG and co would sit there like, “How can you not tell? Is this a straight man thing?!” Anyways, this is why oftentimes we ended up with characters who are accidentally hot.

Over time, the writers realized that the way they communicated to artists needed to be managed better. The words they would use would have different connotations to them the writers, than what they did to the artists. For example, for Anders’ design in DA2, he was supposed to be “a little haggard”. When DG thinks of haggard, he thinks ‘a little tired, mussed hair, looking like you’ve been through some shit’. But the artists based on that produced concepts with super sunken cheeks, looking like he’d been terribly starved. The writers needed to develop a specific vocabulary for communicating with the artists, as artists think in terms of how something looks, but writers are thinking in terms of what the character “is”. Anders’ description talked about his history a lot, and the one visual-type word that jumped out was “haggard” due to its visual connotations. “A lot it came down to the writers being up their/our own asses.”

When they got to DAI, they had figured out that the way to get best results on this front was /not/ to have the writer go off and develop a long description and pre-conceived notion of what the character looked like in their head. In such scenarios artists don’t feel that they have much to contribute to the process or an ability to put their own stamp on who this character is and make them interesting to them (the best, most interesting characters are when people at all stages of the pipeline properly get to feed into it). They learned that the better solution was to bring the artists in earlier, and to give them little blurbs, and not name the character but give them an ‘archetype’-sort of ‘name’. For example, Dorian was “the rockstar mage”, “cool”, “Freddie Mercury”. The writers wouldn’t be sure that a particular concept would ‘hit’, so at this stage they would offer an array of options and sit the artist down and walk them through the concepts. The artists would then provide a bunch of sketches and it would go back and forth, with both taking part in the character creation process together. For the first two games, the writers were “really hogging” this process to themselves. They got better at not doing this and better at communicating with the artists by DAI.

There were a lot of arguments about how mages in DAO had a lot of specific lore words like “Harrowing”, “phylactery”, “Rite of Tranquility” etc. There was concern that this would be too confusing for players to understand and that it was too complicated. DG says that thankfully he put his foot down and pushed for this stuff to be kept. A lot of fans assume that as lead writer DG had all this influence, way more influence than he could possibly exert on a team. He wasn’t even a lead, he was a sub-lead, under a lead designer. He only had so much say. If the lead designer or lead artist wanted to do something differently, often there was not much he could do. Hence he had to pick his battles carefully, choose the important ones to fight. The mage vocabulary thing was one of these.

Templar Greagoir’s name is pronounced “Gregor” and it comes from a place in Alberta near where DG lived.

Codex entries are usually one of the last things that get done in a project like this, and so all of that kind of textual lore comes in super late and is super punchy as by then the writers have written so much and are exhausted. They had to find a way to make this process cute or interesting or fun for themselves, which is why a lot of entries are quite fun to read. Sometimes a writer would make a joke for banter [irl], and it would end up making it into an entry.

Only Morrigan and Duncan got unique body models in DAO. The companions all have custom-morphed heads but not custom-morphed bodies (Morrigan not included here). This is why every model has a necklace or a collar right at the point where they had to be attached to be a body. These sometimes used assets that couldn’t be used by the PC but were not unique to that character. Duncan probably got a unique model because he was in a lot of marketing/promotional material. Qunari were originally conceived as having horns.

Most people didn’t even finish DAO once (public telemetry again here), only approximately 20-25% actually did. The devs try not to read too much into this kind of thing, but the telemetry does tell them where a lot of people stop playing the game permanently (they call these “drop-off points”). One of these points in DAO is the Fade during Broken Circle. Sometimes when people interpret this data they involve self-serving biases, but it was generally accepted that the Fade there was too long, too complex, not interesting enough, etc. [source]

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[Part 4]

[Part 5]

[Part 6]

[‘Insights into DA dev from the Gamers For Groceries stream’ transcript]

#dragon age #bioware #morrigan #solas #video games #queen of my heart #mass effect #lgbtq #jade empire #fenris #the Fenaissance #alistair theirin #lul #fav warden

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kyndaris · 3 years ago

Text

Let Us Cling Together

Back in my high school years, I uncovered a great gem of a game that was playable on the PlayStation Portable (PSP). It followed the life of a noble called Ramza Beoulve and his good friend: Delita Heiral. The narrative, with its focus on corruption and oppression, blew my teenage brain away. That a game could tell such a compelling story and explore such depths of the human condition didn’t seem real. To this day, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is one of my favourite games because of the strength of its writing and tactical-minded gameplay.

And so, when Square Enix announced a tactical role-playing game with a plot that would navigate the harsh realities of war and those that would claim dominance over the land, I was sold. Even if it had the stupidest name.

Triangle Strategy is developed by Tomoya Asano, producer for Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler (similarly terribly named video games) and implements a lot of the graphical quirks of these two titles. Particularly touted is the hybrid 2D-HD mix. While it’s not the prettiest game, I still enjoyed the cover art for the main characters and the adorable sprites that I was able to control on the battlefield.

From a gameplay standpoint, Triangle Strategy strips back quite a lot from the old games. There’s no class changes beyond simple promotions. While I didn’t mind these changes, it felt like a lot of the depth in previous titles was gone. Serenoa Wolffort would always be a swordsman. Roland would always be on his horse, wielding a spear. Still, it meant improvising with the units on hand and deciding which characters to bring along. Did I bring a healer? How many mages ought I bring to the field to nuke the enemy from afar?

Whereas in previous titles, one would simply switch to the job and keep the same character that they prefer on the field. Having it scaled back also meant that weapons and armour options were also removed with a much heavier focus on accessories. Why give us plenty of gold if I don’t have much to spend it on? Also the emphasis on upgrading weapons and unlocking certain stat bonuses also felt a lot more simplified than was necessary. More options or locking certain abilities behind mastering a specific weapon might have kept some novelty to the game itself.

While the battles were engaging (and could certainly be hard especially in the latter chapters), it was also forgiving in the sense that losing a character in battle did not mean losing them forever. That was a relief compared to Fire Emblem. What I would have preferred however were fewer mental mock battles and additional battles within the chapters themselves. Or even a couple ad-hoc battles as the Wolffort retinue traversed the land of Norzelia within a day or two (at least it seemed that way when everything was gated behind narration).

Despite these minor quibbles, the battles were the highlights of the game. Each encounter throughout the twenty chapters kept me on my toes. Of course, there were also other battles that I missed out on based on my choices but the situations I faced were certainly devious in some of their setups.

Speaking of choice, quite a lot of Triangle Strategy’s advertising focused on where the character’s convictions would take them. Certainly, as I played, there were options aplenty. Thankfully, not all choices were so clear-cut black and white. Even though I was loathe to give up Roland in one of the early chapters, doing so made sense from a utilitarian perspective. If I thought of my people and their safety, the choice to give up one life to save the lives of the many would not be a hard choice to make.

The fact that the characters were all so likable also served to pressure me in choosing one option over another. In saying that, Chapter 13 had three options for taking back the capital of Glenbrook. There was the utilitarian approach: destroying the dam and flooding the city. There was the ‘moral’ choice of blowing up the bridge and keeping the fighting within the palace itself. And last of all, there was the ‘liberty’ approach of sneaking into the castle, taking out all the high-ranking officers and blowing up the Aesfrosti warship.

Picking the ‘liberty’ option was viewed by many as the ‘do whatever needs to be done.’ It was considered the nasty and wicked plan. But was it really? The utilitarian one - in my eyes - at least, would have caused more damage and excess deaths. It certainly did not seem like the best option to retake the capital. Benedict, especially during this chapter, seemed willing to do anything to win at all costs. Even sacrifice the innocent townspeople. If a plan was going to be considered wicked, destroying the dam and flooding the town would have been it.

As with all stories focused on intrigue and political backstabbing, Triangle Strategy also proved a little too predictable. Proof, I hear you ask? Well, you shall have it in two words: Silvio Telliore. As the opportunist ‘Littlefinger’ of the game, it was clear from his offer in Chapter 8 that he was going to betray the Wolfforts.

Was I surprised? No.

But was I disappointed? Yes.

I felt it would have been an interesting twist if Silvio had actually decided to side with the Wolfforts. Or even if Serenoa had the grand idea of sending a messenger bird to House Falkes and have all three High Houses of Glenbrook ally together. It was a missed opportunity that saw a great man perish to General Avlora when the writing could have done so much more.

Just like the Polygon review, I also have to say that Triangle Strategy focused too much on telling the players rather than showing. Dialogue was aplenty in my playthrough. Oft times, it felt like I was clicking through a visual novel with the occasional battle scattered within. That is not to say that the world-building was bad but it did feel like the characters wanted to exposit a little too much on things that had already been mentioned previously or were clearly obvious.

That aside, why did Triangle Strategy have to pull an Aerith? Geela could have totally cast a healing spell on Dragan. Why would she have allowed him to just die in Serenoa’s arms? They certainly had Geela heal Minister Lyla (who also appeared to have been struck a lethal blow).

Still, the plot for Triangle Strategy was still enjoyable. It might not be on par with Final Fantasy Tactics but it didn’t need to be. This was its own game, set in its own world. What it was able to provide me was suitable enough to sustain my lust for a good story of politicking and resource grabbing. True, the Holy State of Hyzante, the Grand Duchy of Aesfrost and the Kingdom of Glenbrook played into a lot of stereotypes with how they ruled (order versus freedom, anyone?) but it helped to keep motivations simple.

Even if in the Golden Route, Serenoa and friends had to face off against a demi-god wannabe. Tick that off my JRPG checklist.

Considering the number of lore that was not addressed, such as the Rozelle homeland and their history, I would have liked to see more. Mixed in with a few fantastical beasts and perhaps a sequel would be quite enthralling. Too long, games have been focused on war. Why not sprinkle in a bit of adventure in the next one? Something akin to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? There’s a lot of potential in Norzelia. Triangle Strategy kept it simple with only huge hawks that can seat humans on their backs but here’s hoping that more games start leaning a little more into more interesting enemy types and creatures.

Now let’s see if The DioField Chronicle can sate my thirst for a meatier strategy role-playing game experience.

On a side note, I finally know how to pronounce ‘demesne.’

#video games #triangle strategy #dragan #cordelia x avlora?#serenoa wolffort x frederica aesfrost

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muninnhuginn · 3 years ago

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Thoughts as of end of s1 of Link Click. This is... mostly just going to be spam.

- I’ve been thinking this the last few episodes and I think as of the finale I still believe it to be the case that the show works best when trying to tell fairly self-contained stories about people and their relationships.

- Ngl, I’d seen some speculation online about an “opposing” person who could possess people, but I hadn’t really bought into it until Liu Min suddenly lost control of his legs again in the last ep. I guess all the mentions of “my friend” as well as the police case weren’t totally for nothing. I do feel the plot side of things has been weaker than the rest, so we’ll have to see how this spins out in s2.

Rest of thoughts under cut.

- My main qualm tbh is how Emma’s been handled. In episode one, they made sure to characterise her by her connections with her boss, her parents, and generally did a really good job of making people empathise with her and giving a hopeful end to her story before pulling the rug out from under everyone’s feet. So, episode one on its own I don’t take issue with because for shock impact it worked super effectively and hit emotionally hard because of the entire setup. What I personally didn’t like was how we returned to her in later episodes, found out it was worse than expected, and then the writers tried to pull the exact same trick as episode one. I’m not going to say the scene at the bridge wasn’t still emotional because it was, but I do find it a bit... not sure the best word to use here... “cheap”, perhaps? Because you give hope and take it away once, that works. But to do so again after even more build-up about potentially saving her? It does feel a bit like they’re just trying to cash in emotional hit points, just a tad.

- Semi-related to the last point is my half belief that Emma’s death was always a node and so CXS didn’t actually cause her death so much as change the opportunity for when Liu Min could get at her. (This is also somewhat backed up by Lu Guang’s confusion over how Emma could be saved when it looked like CXS was persuading her successfully not to jump) However, CXS believes (and the way it’s presented to the audience also agrees with this, I’d say) that Emma would originally have survived and CXS sending the message altered the node to cause her death. Ultimately, I lean towards the former explanation, but I don’t know which is “correct”.

- Time travel mechanics. As you can tell by the above, as of the finale, I’m not totally sure as to how these actually work. The mechanics started fairly solid by virtue of being deliberately ambiguous around it all and sticking to the node explanation. However, I think they start losing consistency around the point of the Doudou episode with the revelation that if CXS goes into a picture from CCTV footage he’ll just appear in them as himself rather than as whoever took the photo. And the fact that the past was clearly changed enough to guarantee Doudou’s safety when that seemed tied in with the node of him being abducted. I think the latter I can perhaps try to explain away if you try to make it about “visible nodes” rather than just “nodes”. By which I mean, if the situation as LG/CXS understood it was that someone had died on x day, then they could manipulate the situation so that this person only appeared to die on x day, and then that person had to not be revealed as alive to them until the present day. And this would all check out because to them the nodes hadn’t been “changed”. That said, I’m not sure at all if that was what was intended by the writers or if I’m just trying to explain away plot holes here.

- My favourite arc is definitely the earthquake one. I’m not sure how well it’ll hold up on rewatch, but on my first go around every single episode in that arc worked excellently and for different reasons, at that. First episode was more about establishing the scene and near the end there’s the worry Cheng Xiaoshi is going to be impulsive again. Second episode is meeting the characters of the arc more and just building the sense of unease because why is Lu Guang saying nothing will change? And then the last episode is where you know where it’s going and the episode uses that to full effect, especially with Chen Xiao’s mum and the parallels to Cheng Xiaoshi’s own parents. I think if I were to make someone watch any arc within the series, this would be the one I’d recommend.

- The fact there’s going to be a season 2 reassures me at least on one of my major quibbles with the show, namely how Cheng Xiaoshi had a lot more development than Lu Guang or Qiao Ling. Definitely hoping that next season is going to use the opportunity to fill in all the gaps we’ve left there, especially given how promotional materials, the opening, and the ending all give the impression of a much more balanced cast than we ended up getting in season 1?

- I’ve barely skimmed around the fandom for this series beyond finding general discussion threads for each episode, so I don’t know how correct my impression is here, but I feel like the sound design for the episodes is super underrated. Whenever it uses the ending music to build tension before cutting to the ending proper, for one. But I think the best use of music was in the original Xu Shanshan confrontation with “Liu Min” as well as its replay ft. Cheng Xiaoshi. The insert songs were also pretty good. (Meanwhile my impression on the art/animation is that I like it personally for its quirks and how it shows expressions really well, but I can definitely see how it may be an acquired taste)

So yeah, those are my thoughts overall. I guess it I were to give the series a rating I’d say around 7.5/10 overall, though my opinion varies depending on the arc and I think that how s2 pans out when that releases could definitely affect my opinion of s1.

#link click #shi guang dai li ren #link click spoilers #long post

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some-cookie-crumbz · 5 years ago

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“It’s three in the morning” for Fuyumi and Hawks please...🥺

Oh, Anon, you came for my Secret Ship with this one!!! I am all about that Huwumi!!!

The clatter of glass being rattled violently jolted her awake. She'd always been a light sleeper, for reasons she didn't like thinking about, and laid still for a moment. She determined the sound was coming from her own window. She flipped over slowly and stared at the looming shadow taking up the whole of her window. She sucked in a breath and frantically threw her glasses on, dropping the small, jagged icicle she'd conjured up with Quirk in her haste. Just because she wasn't a Pro didn't mean she didn't understand the concept of self defense. She made quick of the latch, pushing the slider up. "Hawks?" she wheezed in disbelief.

"The one and only," he said, the teasing tone he always spoke with sounding strained and the words struggling out through his teeth. She stepped back, arms extended to help him slip inside, as he wobbled his way inside. "Pardon the intrusion."

"Hawks, what are you doing here? It's-" she started, hands up in the air uselessly as she stole a glance at her alarm clock, "three in the morning!"

"Sorry about that; didn't mean to drop in unannounced," he drawled with a huffy chuckle. She took the moment to size him up, watching him sway uncertainly before her. It was then she noticed his feathers starting to pool on the floor, wings drooping with the struggle of staying upright.

"You're hurt," she breathed. She guided him over to sit on her futon before squatting down and cupping his face, carefully tilting his head this way and that, checking him over. She was a little relieved to find no head injuries, before she shifted to push at his jacket. “Where are the injuries? How bad are they? Should I call an ambulance?”

He reached out, looping one arm around her waist to pull her a little closer and dropped his head against her shoulder. “‘S not that bad. Mostly minor stuff on my back and shoulders, probably a little banged up in the wing area,” he said, not lifting his head from its perch and flapping his free hand in the air lightly.

“I’m going to go get a first aid kit out of the bathroom so I can patch you up. If they’re really bad, though, then I’m taking you to a doctor,” she warned, moving to pull away. He let out a small whine of protest but let her slip away. She carefully moved over to her desk and turned on the little lamp there, casting the room in a faint glow. “While I’m gone, get your jacket and shirt off for me.”

“Can’t wait to get me undressed, Fu?” he purred, his tone playful but still a bit bogged down. She shook her head but felt her lips twitch up in a small smile. If he was feeling well enough to make flirty commentary, he would be safe for a few minutes. "No rush about the injuries, though. I just... I really needed to see you."

Pink flooded her cheeks at the omission and she scampered out, letting out a quiet mutter that she'd try to be quick.

Fuyumi wasn't sure when whatever was between she and Hawks had gotten to this point of intimacy. As the only daughter - and the only sibling with a somewhat amicable relationship with their father - the job of maintaining positive public relations fell to her. She could be charismatic and superficial - and flirtatious when absolutely necessary - so, when he needed someone to grease the squeaky wheels of Hero society, Enji tended to call upon the now-eldest. She would be dragged along to banquets and charity events and the like to flounce about, playing the role of darling debutante to a tee, and gaining him some amount of clout. After all, Endeavor couldn't be that bad if he raised such a charming young lady.

She absolutely loathed it. She hated having to go and play the part, of having to let men she barely knew get cozy with her just for her father's sake. He was always watching for her, and nothing more than a hand sliding too a little too far above her knee had occurred, but the whole thing was still uncomfortable. And then there was the strain it put on her relationship with her brothers, too. With Shouto, it was more that he was put off by her assisting her father and gave her these looks that said more than words ever could. She opted against pointing out that, unless he do something about his own attitude, she'd most likely have to do clean up duty for him, too. It was always a fight with Natsuo and had come down to some nasty accusations being thrown at her a handful of times.

She had openly sobbed, the first time he said it, before closing herself off from feeling the sting of it when she'd seen how upset his own words had made him.

At one charity event, though, she'd slipped out to get some air and encountered then Number Three Hero, Hawks. He had overheard her grousing to herself about investors and the Hero Commission and chimed in with a few quibbles of his own. It had been a nice reprieve, to speak with someone who wasn't as tucked into the Commissions pocket as some of the other Pros, and from that point forward they sort of gravitated towards each other at social gatherings. They would whisper and gossip about some of the other Heroes in attendance, chat about their personal lives outside of work, about music and books and television dramas. She wasn't sure when she started actively seeking out red feathers or slicked back golden hair, nor when the fluttering had started in her belly at the mere thought, but… She liked it. She liked him. And he liked her. And, well… they fell into whatever their relationship was from there.

They didn't label it, but they were exclusive and belonged to the other and that was enough.

She was quiet and careful as she slipped out of her room and to the bathroom. Endeavor was out of the city for a few days and, as such, Natsuo and Shouto were both staying in the family manor. She knew they’d stayed up later than she had, with the older teaching the younger how to play Mario Kart, and hoped she didn’t wake them up. Locating the first aid kit was easy, but she double-checked it to make sure that all the items were there. She took a second to toss an extra tube of antiseptic cream and an actual bottle of burn cream in it as well. She then grabbed a washcloth and small basin, filling it with lukewarm water and tossing the cloth inside. She was willing to wager there’d be a bit of mess to clear away before she could start cleaning it properly. “Okay, that should be everything,” she mumbled to herself, carefully juggling the items and slipping back out into the hallway.

“Nee-Chan?” She jumped and turned to see Shouto watching her from the other end of the hallway. He was rubbing at one eye with the heel of a hand, voice thick with sleep, eyebrows knit in confusion.

She relaxed a bit at seeing it was him. Between Natsuo and Shouto, her youngest brother was the easier one to deal with. “Sorry, Shouto, did I wake you?”

“Mm. I heard voices coming from your room. Is everything okay?” he asked, wiping away the last bits of sleep before his eyes wandered down to the items in her arms. He blinked before lifting his gaze back up to meet hers. “Fuyumi?”

“It's nothing major; just an unexpected guest. Don’t worry about it, okay?” she asked, trying her best to sound reassuring. He just continued to stare at her, expression giving away nothing. Maybe he was the harder sibling to deal with; Natsu wore his heart on his sleeve and was incredibly vocal, sure, but at least she could always get a reading on him. But Shouto? Not so much.

"It's that guy, isn't it? The one you're kinda-not-dating?" he prompted, eyes narrowing and a slightly bitter note catching in his voice.

If she wasn't so frazzled, she might have been touched by how affronted he was on her behalf. "Sho, don't believe everything Natsuo tells you. He doesn't know as much about it as he thinks he does," she said gently, readjusting her arms and starting towards her room again. He looked like he had more to say, but she slipped back into her room as quickly as she could. She listened for a moment for the sound of his near-silent footsteps to move away before letting her shoulders go slack.

That would be a conversation - unpleasant - for the morning. Or, rather, later in the morning.

When she peered back into her room proper, Hawks had done as she asked and then some, sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in nothing but his boxers. What bothered her, though, was the fact he was staring at the window, one hand twitching on his knee with a feather under his palm. His expression was pensive, as if he was anticipating something or someone to come through after him. She made sure to move with a little bit of noise to alert him to her presence without jarring him too much. His gaze softened on her immediately and she felt a small smile turn up on her own lips. "I doubt that the floor is more comfortable than my futon," she commented as she stepped closer.

He flashed her his trademark prankster grin but it didn't reach his eyes. "I didn't want to get it dirty," he said, scooting forward as she settled in behind him. It was a good thing she'd grabbed the cloth and basin, since his back was covered in road rash, bits of broken glass and what she knew by smell was liquor. There were even bits of gravel dug into some of the wounds, presumably from him being thrown out of wherever he'd been before. The worst of them were a two-inch gash right between his wings - jagged and oozing and uneven as if made with broken glass, good God - and a burn mark about the size of a fist on the lower left side of his back. Her fingers trailed down his back as the ghost of contact, fearful of hurting him.

"Keigo, who did this to you?" she asked, taking a breath to calm herself, and reached to wring the cloth out. She needed to have steady hands to prevent making things worse as she tended the wounds.

"Just a little… disagreement with some work buddies. Didn't like something I said and we decided to solve it like gentlemen," he said with a wheezed out laugh. She kept her touches light and delicate as she got the filth off. She could tell that it was more than that. Pros normally knew better than to come to blows over petty disagreements. Plus, the haunted, dull look in his eyes told her that much. But she also didn't want to press him on it. They would come to discuss it on their own terms, when he was ready. "Take it you had something similar going on out there?"

"Shouto heard me let you in. He, Natsu and I will most likely have a chat about that after breakfast," she said with a small huff, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, will they be giving me the shovel talk instead of your old man?" he asked, tone perking up a bit with amusement. She found herself giggling quietly as she worked on putting him back together. The stab wound was, thankfully, not deep enough to warrant the need for stitches, though she was sure that he'd be more than a little uncomfortable while it was covered and healing. Hawks made a noise of contemplation before clicking his tongue. "Ah, but that might be worse. I saw what the little one did to his buddy at the Sports Festival."

"In Shouto's defense," she said, picking up the burn cream and squeezing a generous amount on into her palm, "a good half of those injuries were self-inflicted on Midoriya-Kun's part. He told me so himself." She applied the cream with dainty dabs while she listened to his befuddled muttering at that revelation. She couldn’t blame him, though, as she’d been just as startled about the impractical effects of the Quirk herself. A comfortable silence fell between them as she finished patching him up. With that done, she carefully regrouped the supplies and put them away. “Okay, I’m going to go put everything away. While I’m gone, get as comfortable as you can, okay? I think if you lie down on your side, you can avoid agitating your wounds and still stretch out your wings.”

He hummed quietly, watching her as she left. She made fast work of getting everything put away and washing her hands. She stopped by the kitchen to get him a glass of water and some pain relievers, too. He had been unnervingly quiet while she’d worked on him, but she knew to expect that. When Shouto used to let her dress his wounds from training with Endeavor, he was silent, too. When she returned to her room, he had settled in on the far side of the futon, wings stretched out and dipping to the floor. She offered him the pills and water before heading to turn the lamp back off. With that done, she made her way back over to her futon and removed her glasses before slipping under the covers.

The minute she was in reach, his arms were around her, pulling her flush against him. He dipped his head and kissed her, soft but insistent. She kissed back and moved her arms carefully to loop around his neck. Normally she'd drape them over his shoulders and lightly rub along the base of his wings, delighting in how they would stretch and shudder in delight, but she didn't want to risk it this time. Instead she went for another soothing gesture she's learned in her time with him; gently dragging her nails through the short hairs along the nape of his neck. She felt his chest rumble with a pleased groan as they pulled apart from the kiss. "You know how much you mean to me, right, Fuyumi?" he mumbled, reaching a hand up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

A welcome, if not strange, sentiment. Apparently whatever happened had really rattled him

She tilted her head to press a kiss to his fingertips, awarding her with a small chuckle. "Of course I do, Keigo. And I hope you know that feeling is mutual," she assured, opting against making any teasing jabs. She could tell that now wasn't the time. Instead she gently pulled him closer, smiling into his hair as he burrowed into the crook of her neck, the arm still around her waist tightening slightly.

"We should get some rest; we're gonna have some explaining to do in the morning," he mumbled, lips brushing her skin with his words. Her heart skipped at the idea of him staying and helping her explain things to her brothers, a flush coming to her face and a giddy flutter kicking up in her belly. She closed her eyes and let out a small, contented sigh. She knew there'd be chaos in the morning, but they would handle that then. Right now, she wanted to indulge in the warmth of Keigo's body against hers.

#crumbles grumbles #Huwumi #Oh my gosh I hope I did them justice in this fic #I just really wanted to write them soft #I hope I did them justice!#And I'll have to write them again soon! :3 #my fics

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just-horrible-things · 5 years ago

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[Warning - eye gore.]

Send a message, the letter reads, in the familiar elegant curls of his mother’s handwriting, to Inquisitor Bright. He has a location – not to find the Inquisitor herself, of course, but somewhere that her agents can be found. Return her acolyte – or what remains of her – with an apology. Remind her that misunderstandings are tragically easy, and that the affairs of Navigators are perilous.

Privately Tacitus thinks that it might be wiser to allow the Inquisitor’s minions their investigations. He has nothing to hide. If Cavarr have sins worthy of the Inquisition’s attention, Tacitus knows nothing of them and therefore cannot betray any secrets. Rebuffing them like this will surely just raise suspicions. Even Navigators aren’t entirely beyond the Inquisition’s reach.

But it isn’t Tacitus’ decision to make. And the House feels that the insult of such blatant snooping should not go unanswered.

“I will take dinner with the prisoner,” he informs his valet as he folds the letter carefully for storage. “See that she’s cleaned up, and find her something to wear, please. There’s no need to humiliate her. If she will wash herself, let her.” “What should she wear?” “Hm, I don’t know. Find her something respectable, would you? Black, I should think, the Inquisition always seem to be in black. I shall be informal.”

“Of course. Leave it to me.” “Thank you.”

They share a smile, then Tacitus turns back to his desk. He should write back to his mother, and while he won’t be able to finish the letter until after he has dealt with the Inquisitorial woman, he has plenty of other topics to cover.

---

The unfortunate throne agent is waiting for Tacitus when he enters the dining room. Not that she has a choice in the matter. She’s been dressed in a nice tunic with pleated patterns, and a decent jacket. Her hair is up like it was when he first met her. She sits with her spine straight, glaring sullenly at Tacitus as he walks in. There’s a slight flush in her cheeks and he wonders if bathing was a traumatic experience for her.

“Interrogator Ariadne Milonas,” he greets her with a thin smile. “Lord Cavarr.” She inclines her head, but her expression doesn’t warm. “I’d stand, but I don’t have that option.” Her left hand is cuffed to her chair, Tacitus has been informed. “You’re proved quite the enterprising opponent so far,” he observes. “Precautions seem… prudent.” “Are we enemies, Cavarr?” she demands. “We needn’t be. I am a loyal servant of the Throne. If you are as innocent as you say, we should not be enemies!” “Interrogator,” Tacitus chides mildly, one eyebrow quirked. “I haven’t even had a chance to sit down.”

She watches sourly as he sits down. But she doesn’t press the point, and she accepts his offer of amasec. Soup is brought in almost immediately, with bread pre-broken so that her single free hand isn’t an impediment. “If you think two loyal servants cannot be enemies,” Tacitus tells her, “You must be naive. And I find that difficult to believe of the Inquistion.” “Two loyal servants shouldn’t be enemies,” she argues. “We should all place cooperation in the name of Throne and Imperium above our differences of opinion. But yes, I’m well aware that pettty squabbles are commonplace, thank you.” Tacitus resists the urge to tell her she is welcome. He takes his soup thoughtfully, and lets her speak. “But my only loyalties are to the Holy Ordos. I have no stake in any political or economic disputes. I am not concerned with quibbles in the interpretation of the Creed. I don’t care about violations of the Lex. I care only for the good of the Imperium. There is no reason to consider me an enemy.”

Tacitus sighs softly. “Your loyalty may be owed directly to the Throne,” he allows, “But I am a Scion of House Cavarr, and I owe mine to my elders and my Novatora.” Milonas hesitates, but her voice is serious as she asks “Would you put that loyalty above your faith, and the good of mankind?” “Eat your soup, Interrogator. It will go cold.” She looks almost shocked at the rebuff. Insulted – as expected. And surprised. Tacitus expects her to argue. But she sullenly takes his advice. She hasn’t, he supposes, had hot food in at least twelve days.

She doesn’t let go of the topic, though. “You are more than just a tool of your family,” she tells him in low tones, while running bread round the bottom of her bowl. “You are an individual, in the eyes of the God-Emperor.” Tacitus chuckles. “That is so. But shall we not place faith in our superiors? Has not the Emperor placed them, in His wisdom, above us for good reason?” “That depends what those superiors are doing. You are not an idiot, I know that you would recognise heresy or treason if you saw it.” “Interrogator, I did not lie to you when I said that I have no reason to suspect any such thing of my relations. Of course you cannot take my word at face value, but I promise you – House Cavarr is loyal. There is no conflict between my loyalty to my House and my loyalty to the Throne.” She is visibly skeptical, but the main course is being brought in, and she does not press the point.

They eat seafood from the last world, grains from storage and greens from hydroponics, spiced and served in a rich sauce. Milonas maintains her composure, but she is quiet, and her concentration on the food betrays her hunger. Tacitus talks about the food idly, and she is polite enough to acknowledge it with terse compliments.

While they wait for dessert, Tacitus brings the conversation back to more serious matters. “You are mistaken in your belief that the Inquisition is an apolitical organisation,” he tells her. He can almost feel her attention sharpen to a narrow focus. “Many Inquisitors have a political agenda, and I doubt that Lady Bright is any exception.” He smiles at the flicker of surprise in her eyes. Yes, I know who you work for. “And even beyond that, the Inquisition as a whole has a vested interest in maintaining its own power. Which necessarily involves butting heads at times with other Imperial powers. Such as the Navis Nobilite.” “I don’t have any problem with the Navis Nobilite,” she responds. “There is a long-standing understanding,” he explains, “that the Inquisition does not pry into the affairs of the Nobilite. We police our own ranks for mutation and heresy. And naturally we take such matters very seriously. As a matter of faith, of course, but also because if we did not, then we would not long retain our privileged status.” “No one is beyond investigation by the Holy Ordos,” she protests with some indignation. Tacitus cannot suppress – or rather, chooses not to suppress – another chuckle. “You are wrong, Interrogator. On paper that may be so. But in practice… here we sit.” Milonas glowers at him.

“Inquisitor Bright will not take this lightly,” she says. Inwardly, Tacitus smiles. It is an admission of her own helplessness, whether she realises it or not. “I hope not,” he agrees mildly. “Truthfully this is larger than either of us. You have your Inquisitor to answer to, and I am still barely an adult in the eyes of my kin. We each do as we must. More amasec, Interrogator?” She nods and mutters a terse “Please.”

He would not describe the rest of the dinner as ‘pleasant’ per se. She is sullen company. But he thinks that he sees a fraction less hostility in her and a fraction more resignation. He cannot count it as a victory. He has her in the palm of his hand already, he doesn’t need to talk her around to his point of view. Very soon it will not matter.

He picks at his dessert with sombre spirit. Milonas is not exactly a charming conversational partner. She is a stone-cold killer and has been a difficult, violent prisoner. Her duties in the Inquisition are doubtless often unpleasant. But for all her personal flaws she seems sincere in her faith. It is a shame to break her. He hasn’t the stomach to do it with protracted violence. Who knows how long it would take? He doubts anyone rises to the rank of Interrogator without a certain strength of spirit. No, he’ll do this the quick way and be done with this unpleasant duty. Strong or not, she is only human.

Once the table is cleared and the staff have departed, Tacitus sighs. “I am sorry,” he tells the Interrogator, “that circumstance has made enemies of us.” She is watching him uneasily, clearly picking up on his tension. He is not trying particularly hard to hide it. “What happens next?” she asks quietly. “Next?” He offers her a wan smile. “Next I return you to Inquisitor Bright. It would not do to hold one of her agents hostage.” She starts to relax fractionally, but he is not finished. “Unfortunately now, before I do that, I must make sure the message sent is very clear.”

Her eyes narrow in suspicion, and then start to widen in shock as Tacitus reaches for the veil that covers his brow. Her free hand flies up to shield her eyes, but it will not help her.

If she is strong she may survive this. If she is very strong she may even recover, in time.

He lifts the veil in a smooth, practised motion. His Eye snaps open. Warplight floods the room. His soul sings as he channels raw power.

The Interrogator screams. The hand that she clamps over her face is no defence. The Warplight shines straight through, like a knife. She sees what Tacitus Sees – the Warp, in all its senseless, unfettered splendour. The intensity of his Gaze burns.

She tries to stand, and falls back against the chair as the shackles on her wrist and ankles restrain her. Her scream pitches upwards through terror into raw agony. Her back arches and she throws her head back. Her fingers claw at her eyes, raking bloody paths through the bubbling flesh, pain insufficient to stop her from trying to rip out the visions of madness seared into her brain.

Tacitus screws his Eye shut, but the screaming does not stop. He feels queasy. He has only had to do this once before, and that was in defence of his own life.

The room stinks of burning flesh.

She screams and screams – a wild, wretched sound no living soul should ever have to make.

Tacitus scrambles round the table to her side, catching her wrist and trying to pull it away from her face to stop her doing herself any more damage. He shouldn’t care, but he can’t just watch. She struggles against his grip with shocking strength, and he finds himself shouting for assistance.

A minute or more passes in a whirling, nauseous blur. She stops struggling, at last, beneath the weight of hands pinning her against the chair. An aide holds her head still while another tries to fit a chilled dressing across the mask of charred and ruined flesh that is her upper face. She keeps making awful low moans, full of horror and pain. How much of her mind remains is impossible to tell.

Tacitus swallows grimly. He hopes that she is sufficiently destroyed. He hopes that he can send her back to Bright and let the Inquisition do what they will to save her. If she is still too much herself…

He does not want to have to do this again.

#my writing #my ocs #tacitus #ariadne #au: whumper tacitus #what if #tw gore #tw eye gore #tw burns #tw mindbreak

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darlingrutherford · 5 years ago

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All right, I meant to post this last night, then Tumblr wasn’t letting me use read more cuts, then I fell asleep again this morning until 3pm soooo now let’s try this again on this Thirsty Thursday afternoon 😂

I haven’t put out writing in a little while, and that just feels wrong. So, I spent some time finishing up a little one shot I’ve been working on that was almost already complete.

The first bit of writing I put out for Theia showed the tougher side of her and Geralt, so I wanted to show their softer side as well. When I write her story this will be in it, it’s actually a part of another scene that builds off of it but I finished it up at the end so it reads better on its own because I wanted to post something, damn it! 😂❤️

Soft, lightly calloused fingertips skated along Geralt's chest. They traced his scars as gently as one would any spot of their loved one as they wished to give doting affection while they slept. Theia's touch was always warm, always kind. Geralt wasn't a light sleeper by any means, but still he wondered how many times she had done this and he hadn't awoken from it. Her fingers skated to his shoulder, drawing circles before moving to his neck where they stroked his skin from stubble to clavicle as her soft lips pressed against his arm.

The first time she had touched him like this, Geralt hadn't been sure what to do. No one had ever touched him so softly before, as if he were fragile, something that needed tender care. He wasn't so easily broken; the scars that littered his body were a clear testament to that. Yet here she was, ignoring the markings that labeled him as such, in favor of kisses that would have brought a smile to even the coldest of hearts.

She knew he was awake. Eyes closed or not, she knew the pattern of his breath well enough by then to know when he was sleeping and when he was simply enjoying the way she made him feel. Theia deserved touches such as these, to be treated as precious as the sun itself. He was unsure if he was worthy of the praise and devotion she so often gifted to him, but Geralt also found it damn near impossible to argue when she made his heart feel this light.

Geralt hummed when her hand slipped beneath the heavy blanket. Her bed was always covered in them, these weighty, fluffy blankets that kept her warm when he was away. They were always the first thing to go whenever he returned, only one remaining as she found herself quite content with the heat he shared and what they conducted together. Theia's fingers stopped at each scar along the way, leaving gentle touches as she dipped lower and lower.

A long, slow intake of breath from Geralt was her reward as Theia flitted her fingers softly over his cock. She ran them from the base to the tip, hovering in the air momentarily before returning to draw soft circles along his shaft. Theia kissed Geralt's shoulder again, watching his face as she teased him. He seemed calm, eyes still closed, his twitching cock and the deepening of his breath the only parts of him that truly gave him away. Geralt groaned deep in his throat as she wrapped her fingers around his girth and squeezed. His eye opened to squint at Theia, finding her all but trying to hide behind his shoulder with a mischievous smile on her face.

“Sorry. You just seemed too… Comfortable.” It was a sad excuse for an apology, unnecessary as it was. “How did you sleep?”

“Well.” Geralt's eyes fluttered shut once more when Theia's hand slowly stroked his length. Her grip was just right for the morning, the perfect feeling to meld with the warmth of the bed and the slight haze lingering in his mind from his sleep. “That tincture you made, it worked like a charm.”

“If I make a few bottles, will you take it on the road?”

“No.” Geralt grumbled, shifting slightly as her hand stopped mid-stroke. He opened his eye again to find her staring at him with a quibbling gaze, and he knew instantly that his response hadn't been enough. “I would sleep too well.”

“Isn't that the point?”

“I have to be on guard when I'm traveling.”

“Does that mean you trust me to protect you while you're asleep?”

The corner of Geralt's mouth quirked into a small grin as her hand started up again and he allowed his eye to shut once more.

“I'm fairly certain the most I have to fear in your home is awaking with you under the covers, and your mouth on me.”

“You should be so lucky to wake up to such a terrifying thing,” Theia quipped back.

Geralt opened his eyes as Theia swung her leg over his middle. She rested her hands lightly on his chest, her blonde curls falling forward as she leaned towards him. Usually now would be the time for him to interject his comeback, but she slowly sunk down onto his cock, taking him in inch by inch, and he found himself unable to do more than groan through pursed lips.

Geralt's hands slid up to rest on her hips, sliding between them and her plush cheeks as he squeezed and caressed her skin. Balancing on his chest, Theia slowly raised her hips and lowered them again, and again, creating a gentle, almost sleepy rhythm, rather contrasting to the passionate frenzy they had partaken in the night before. The feel of her was better than any wake-up he had received in his long life. She was warm, tight, so slick and smooth, all curled around him and soft in all the right ways. Geralt watched Theia's face, the way the smile hung at her parted lips. Gentle, high-pitched hitches of air fell from her throat while her fingers curled in his dark chest hair. Bliss was the first word that came to his mind when trying to define the look on her face. Pure, unadulterated bliss as she rode his cock as if she were floating in a dream.

His eyes wandered from her face, down her neck, past the splotched markings of teeth on the skin where his mouth had gotten a bit overzealous the night before. Her blonde curls were an absolute mess. Frizzy and disheveled, they gently bounced near the top of her breasts as if framing them for Geralt's view. He slid a calloused hand up her smooth body, grasping one of her perked breasts as if it were ripe for the picking. Theia bit her lower lip before her mouth hung open to allow a heavy breath to escape as Geralt trapped her nipple between his knuckles. Her grin spread as Geralt bucked his hips up towards her, pressing his cock in a little deeper as she rocked against him.

Two light knocks came from the front door, floating up the stairs as rude as any noise he had ever heard. Geralt lifted his head, only to be pushed down by Theia's firm hand against his chest.

“Ignore it. My hours are listed on the door,” she said with a string of short breaths. Geralt hummed; he didn't need to be told twice to keep enjoying their morning as they were. Satisfied that he would stay on his back, Theia shook her head to get her hair out of the way before leaning back. Her hands gripped his thighs, balancing as she rocked her lower half against him. Geralt's lips parted as he watched her. It was mesmerizing, like watching waves crash against him again and again. His hand trailed down her stomach, touching the old, large scar at her side before splaying against her belly. His thumb dipped down into her coarse hair, using his other hand to balance her against her bottom as he rubbed her.

Knock. Knock.

They were louder this time. Geralt's thumb slowed only for a second before Theia's whine encouraged him to continue on.

“Whoever it is, they're persistent,” he said. Theia nodded, her teeth biting into her lip as she twitched against his touch.

“It - It's Mrs. Setsky. She and her… Mmm… Her husba - and - are wanting a child. I - ah! - I told her I would… I would…”

Theia trailed off, unable to concentrate. Her hips were rolling sporadically against him in tight circles, her body shaking and twitching to signal him onward. A mewling moan left her when Geralt began rocking his hips in time with her, rubbing deep inside of her to edge her on. He could feel her tightening, she was so close. Not wanting to tease her too early in the day - there would be plenty of time for that later - Geralt suddenly sped his thumb, causing Theia to shakily cry out from the pressure and friction. She bucked against him, her hips now out of her control as she curled inward and slapped her hands to his chest in an attempt to hold onto something, anything, as she came. Geralt groaned as her nails dug into his flesh, but still his thumb refused to slow, carrying her through her orgasm until she began to slump. Then he slipped his hand from between them to bring to her face, pushing her hair behind her ear as he pulled her to his lips.

Theia's kisses were lazy, exhausted. Geralt could feel her smile against his lips, her pleasure soaking through each kiss. Theia groaned as another series of knocks carried from the front up the stairs. She slid her hands to Geralt's face, cupping his jaw as she kissed him.

“I told her - I'd - let her know - when it - was done.” Theia mumbled between kisses. Geralt couldn't help the smirk that grew on his face. It wasn't often he saw the stubborn side of his little forest witch, and he would be sorely lying if he had said he didn't enjoy it. His hands on her lower spine, Geralt pulled Theia close as he rolled them until she was on her back. He pulled her hips up towards him and began making slow, heavy thrusts that made Theia's toes curl. She whimpered against his lips, her moans devoured by him when they slipped through.

Theia almost expected him to start thrusting without inhibitions, to delve into that possessive, almost animalistic side of him that Geralt often unleashed when he was in charge. She could hardly complain when it didn't come, though. His thrusts, purposeful and full of strength, were full of more than enough passion to satiate her lust. Geralt didn't often vocalize exactly what she meant to him - the times he had, his words had been crystal clear, and Theia could read his body language better than any book. She didn't expect to hear the words, those three words people usually craved to hear when they cared as much for someone as she did for him. Not that she would have minded to hear them, but, for her, this was enough: the soft roll of his hips; the heavy kisses that extracted heavy breaths from them both; the way his nose nudged the tip of hers in between, something that would have confused any human to see a Witcher do. And when he had all but exhausted his performance for the morning, Geralt held her, strong and steady with a groan to match, as he pulsed into her with a force that made Theia shudder herself.

The room was silent, save for their heavy breaths as their lungs begged to keep up with their hearts. Geralt’s lips returned to Theia’s, kissing her slowly and heavily until her mouth was sure to be red from his stubble. Theia groaned against his lips as the knocking at the front door once more brought reality crashing around them. .

“I should probably get it,” she grumbled. “She's persistent.”

“Do all your customers wake you at sunrise while I’m away?” Geralt asked as Theia slipped out from beneath him. He rolled to his side, allowing himself to enjoy the view as she rose from the bed.

“Mostly Mrs. Setsky,” Theia sighed while grabbing her purple silk robe from the foot of the bed. The robe itself was rather out of place in Theia’s cozy cottage, something Geralt could only assume she must have acquired in a town with much more wealthy customers than the one she resided near now.

“She's here before shop hours, this is what she gets. Don't judge me,” Theia said to Geralt with a wag of her finger as he raised an eyebrow at her when she wrapped the silk robe around herself with nothing else to cover her. Geralt held his hands up innocently and then watched Theia head down the stairs. There was a slight wobble to her step, and Geralt couldn't help but smirk from knowing exactly why. He rolled to his back, a low, content hum resonating in his throat as he stared up at the ceiling with an inkling of a smile as he listened to Theia greet the persistent Mrs. Setsky, leaving Geralt to play over the morning once more in his mind.

#thirsty thursday #spicy #geralt of rivia #theia anastos #geralt x theia #the witcher #netflix the witcher #my ocs #my work #fanfiction #fluff

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 4 years ago

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HypMic 7 - 9 | Maou-jou 5 - 6 | Akudama Drive 6 - 8 | I7 s2 6 - 9 | Taiso Samurai 5 - 6

HypMic 7

I will never not laugh at the content advisory, haha.

I like Kazuha already. Too bad he’s probably evil…

Oh, is it the day of the DRB in the series already…? Or maybe, because it’s the qualifiers, BB and MTC’s match is on a different day to FP and MTR’s.

Oh? Does Tom know Jakurai well enough to call him “Jakurai-sensei”? (<- middle ground between “Jinguji-sensei/Sensei” and “Jakurai”) Also, Tom uses “ore”.

Ooh, Iris is a motorbike rider, eh? Interesting. I thought they (<- not sure if Iris is a “she” or “he” with a really weird name) were more of a Saburo-type and didn’t bother with things like that, based on their appearance. Update: Someone on Yahoo Answers said based on Iris’s watashi, she is a woman.

Typo fixed! Good job, anime staff! Update: I’m referring to “…darkest hour is just before the down” (sic).

…bukkorosu = “f***in’ slaughter ‘em”. It’s not wrong…it’s just the subbers really like to abuse the F word for MTC. But you knew that already if you got this far…right?

LOL, Ramuda wants to “scratch [Rex’s] back” (figuratively) to…get SNS views? Hahaha.

This Studio Alita is probably a reference to Shinjuku Alta.

Yotsutsuji!!! That was the one big spoiler I got before watching the episode today and I’m so happy I got to see him animated!

(One of) Irihatoma and Degarashi refer to Jakurai as “Jakurai-sensei” as well. Hmm, I never noticed. Update: That’s Degarashi, because Irihatoma speaks to Jakurai alone later this ep.

There’s 50% chance I’m getting this wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say Kazuha is voiced by a veteran VA…one I already know about.

Doppo calls Kazuha by his first name…That upgrade means their relationship escalated quickly (or this is a quirk of HypMic in general, since I noticed most characters are on first name basis with each other). Also, it’s cute Doppo finally has someone in his corner. No other part of the franchise has one, to my memory. Update: It might actually be “Kazuha-kun”…but I’m still surprised though. Update 2: It’s both, actually.

I’ve listened to the phrase “some random guy” several times from Hifumi’s mouth and all I can figure out is the “yatsu” at the end. (Doesn’t help my ears blocked themselves up again, although it’s less than it used to be.)

Harumi Wharf.

R? On a helicopter landing pad?

…uh oh. I was right when I thought Kazuha was going to be evil. Also, Doppler shift/effect. Update: “Doppler” is clearly a pun on “Doppo”.

Hmm? “Hey, Doppo” from “yaa”…it doesn’t have a name referred in there. It’s a small but odd thing to do. (I remember a professional translator was complaining that people with intermediate Japanese were giving them flak for translating things “wrong”, but what I do here is analysis for my future and edificiation. I’m not here to knock down pro translators’ doors and demand a refund, because I’m trying to go pro to atone for my sins as a scanlator.)

The soundtrack’s slightly sinister tone, plus the fact I figured the culprit well before Doppo did, makes me slightly scared…for MTR.

I realised they skimped on the budget…this “hot off the car chase” line seems more like an MTC line, doesn’t it…?...Yeah, it’s almost word for word for MTC in DRB+. Maybe the subbers rushed and used this translation (this link I put here) rather than their actual lyrics…? I will have to get to the bottom of this. Update: Turns out the translation is slightly different, but…yes, there is reference to a car chase in the start of Shinjuku Style. (Sorry, I don’t know every lyrics of every song off the top of my head.)

…wow, this got really Doppo-centric. I’ve never seen the leader relinquish their position when it comes to “leading into battle” before. It just goes to show the staff really do pay attention to how popular Doppo is.

Note “Doppo” means “walk alone”, roughly speaking, hence the “solitary” line.

This song is very, very faithful to its original lyrics, because I was trying to look at Hifumi’s “mixing paint” line and it pretty much matches.

Hifumi’s “my men”, LOL.

Kazuha = “one leaf”, hence the “leaves” in one of Jakurai’s lines.

I cringe every time I hear screaming coming from this episode, y’know…?

…oh dear. MTC’s plot actually bled into MTR’s.

I already knew from browsing Twitter earlier today that Kizuna was going to become FP’s today, but hearing it is another matter entirely.

Kosuke Miyoshi is Kazuha. Apparently, this guy also voiced Mashirao Ojiro (the tail guy) from BnHA, but that’s his only major role…so I was right in that I knew him, but wrong in that he was, again, a relative rookie in comparison to most.

Apparently FP’s sign is a peace sign sideways to represent an F, but…it’s just a sideways peace sign to me…

…how is Dice’s bead ornament attached to him? Is it on his hair, on his ear, on the skin behind his ear…? I was trying to replicate his outfit and got stuck on how to represent it, so I ended up opting for trying (and failing) to do a small braid on the right side.

IWGP shows up this season…it’s the song with the “hoo!” noise BB perform in this episode.

LOL, “Dead men tell no tales” is a perfect saying for MTC.

Akudama 6

Is there a movie called “Brother”…? There’s apparently one that’s the plural of that, but not that itself.

If HypMic likes the F bomb, then Akudama like the S word.

I-Is it just me or is the choreography sped up at some points in this episode…? It’s a bit disorienting to come back to.

I thought the kid was a robot…but close enough.

Oh no! Why does the teacher always have to die for the student to become stronger???

Kairaku/shugi -> pleasure/doctrine (if I didn’t somehow misunderstand the shark’s kanji combo),

The part after the ED looks a little too long…keep watching.

The Japanese says “Lost Children”, but the English says “The City of Lost Children”, probably referring to this French sci-fi film.

I7 s2 6

I like how Gaku is taking special offence to Yamato’s comments about him being a playboy.

Re:vale-san. I never noticed until now.

“I’m already looking forward to it.” That’s how I would translate Tsumugi’s “I’m already excited”.

“…who could possibly complain?” – I think Mitsuki might.

The pun in the MEZZO show is that tai (group/squad) sounds the same as tai (want to ~). Rabbinsta is obviously Instagram + Rabbit (Chat?).

Oh my gosh! It’s the Yotsuba sister!

Mitsuki’s shopping trip OST is nice, man. This piano.

This episode has a really great sense of danger and foreboding for the future.

I7 s2 7

Perfection Gimmick. Never heard it in the anime before.

Even the ramen house’s name is a play on “Idolish7”.

LOL, Yamato sure turned that comment around.

The sign talking about beer says something about coupons below it. (It went by too fast and my CR app’s kinda fiddly, so I can’t really go back…)

Kimi to Ai na Night (pun on Idolish7, aka “AiNana”, again).

Mitsuki, no one hates you! You’re just imagining it all!

I7 s2 8

Momo hugely resembles Sasara, right down to the highlights on the hair…

“…you’re so handsome…” – I’m dying on the inside here, people! *laps up the BL pandering with a derpy smile on my face*

Banri and Tsumugi haven’t been focussed on lately…they’re clearly doing something regarding Banri’s ties with Re:vale, but I can’t quite figure out what that “something” is.

Why is there a basketball and a football in the back of the Takanashi office…?

Please don’t run in heels, Tsumugi…

“I love Idolish7!” - Ah, despite my quibbles, Tsumugi is good after all.

“making one’s best exertions” – Why do those words on the cup worry me a bit…?

Isn’t “I’m watching you” a creepy statement…?

Apparently Tamaki’s symbol is mp (mezzo pianissimo), hence Sougo’s words.

…my gosh! Aya’s foster father is Kujou?!

I7 s2 9

If I heard it right, Tenn’s line was “I can be your idol”, not “your prince”.

“Older Izumi” - …ah, poor Mitsuki.

“Damn you, sexy beast…” – LOL!

…aw, I think this is the first time my heart has been lightened by Tsunashi’s laugh. He’s a good boy.

The chibis…I’m still trying to get used to them…

As a song once said, “You can’t please everyone so you just gotta please yourself.” (Blah blah blah, something about garden parties…)

Takao what now???...okay, Takao Dayuu.

…You’re lucky that wasn’t Tenn doing Takao Dayuu. It would’ve been very “Gentaro does his courtesan voice” if it was.

Nagi doesn’t overpronounce things as much in this season. It’s…pleasant, actually. Give me more of that.

Nagi’s “Oh my god!” was hilarious.

Taiso 5

Ra (ら) and ro (ろ) look kinda similar in hiragana.

Even without the audio, I can guess the words were “yarubeki koto” (things you should do) -> shachihoko.

The texts are written in gyaru-moji. Gyaru-moji is basically indecipherable to anyone who doesn’t know how it works – kind of like the common teen vernacular, to be honest (LOL…?) – and so the subs actually kind of ruin the confusingness of it all, but they did slightly better when they went “UR”.

Movie shiritori! But…has it really been half a year since Leo started? I feel slightly robbed about that plotline with the Men in Black right now…(then again, HypMic is just as bad about important plotlines, if not worse, so…I’m going to be patient and not complain.)

July 5th…Rei is a Cancer…?

They’re…finally moving on this Men in Black plotline! I only complained two points ago! Thank you, staff, for listening to my complaints (…?).

Moon Land finished recently, so I wonder if I’ll lose interest in this anime from here on out…? There was a Pommel Horse Prince in that.

Moon Land taught me that gymnastics has a lot of skills named after their creators, much like the Aragaki previously. The score is out of 10 for both D (difficulty) and E (execution), meaning a 20 is the best you can do, but the judges can get really picky...

The word for “vault” literally means “leaping/jumping horse”…makes sense.

Some of these names are names I’m familiar with from Moon Land already…but I never remember what the skills look like.

…welp, Leo just proved he really is a ninja after all.

Dr Stone’s s2 had its ED announced to be “Koe?” by Hatena and “Yume?” here really makes a theme…does Hatena give all their song titles question marks on the end?

Taiso 6

Colour gangs? Like in IWGP?

It’s nice to see they’re (Jotaro and Rei) communicating properly for the first time in possibly this entire anime.

On the wall, that thing is an evacuation map…of some sort.

…I’ve always wondered: if a bird eats chicken, does that count as cannibalism?

This is like thw Makkachin incident all over again (in YoI).

“…there’s no reason for you to grin and bear it.”

…Leo and Jotaro, both are so dense! Boys *shakes head*.

BB? More like ET (LOL)!

Maou-jou 5

…I didn’t even notice the cast was all dudes bar the princess at this point.

Tatakau Onnatachi. It could mean “fighting women” or “female warriors”.

I’m still vaguely pissed that Kirito is here under my nose…darn Demon King!!!

One of the harpy’s recent worries was that she wanted to become friends with the princess…That’s kinda cute…

Didn’t Syalis already get the coffin that one time? Or did it get confiscated?

*eyes sparkle* Cloud…I’d like to sleep on a cloud…*dreamy look on face* Cloud.

This is basically Princess, ‘Tis Time for Torture in reverse.

Is it “make do” or “make due”…?

I don’t think I need to explain the joke where the harpy is happy.

Gendo pose!

I wonder if the bed or the sheets will talk to her (Syalis) someday?

Maou-jou 6

The New Gearbolt’s quote is “guruguru dokkan”, which is just a bunch of sound effects. It would translate to something like “whir-whir-thud”.

Underwear episodes are some of the worst episodes ever…they’re so juvenile…I dropped at least one series based on the underwear episode alone.

Ah! The seal on the ice monster’s shoulder! Too cute!

How can a mechanical princess mecha (…thing?) have worries?

LOL, never underestimate the hilarity of the teddy demons ganging up on the Demon King.

I like how the Japanese pointed out the demons only moved the princess.

HypMic 8

I thought the robberies were Kazuha’s doing…? Or is this a separate case?

Samatoki answering his phone with his feet up…LOL, there’s just something funny about it. It shows he’s just so badass, he can get away with it.

Riou’s hacking (?) skills come to the fore again. (Or is that listening to enemy intel?)

Ooh, Iris is sassy. I love her already.

…er, Samatoki? Blowing cigarette smoke into Jyuto’s face is just rude…

“…don’t hang up your gloves.” – Considering Jyuto has his red gloves…LOL.

What the heck is that backing track when the 2nd car moved out? That’s a cool track.

Ah! Iris is a Saburo-type…LOL, Saburo’s fake identity.

“a cop who’s in with the yakuza” - Wow, way to diss your own teammate, Samatoki.

For a guy who was only just in the water, Riou doesn’t even look wet.

“2 DIE 4” – Hmm? So did the anime staff know what Riou’s 2nd round song title was at the time…? Update: Judging by the name “Requiem” dropped in the next episode, I would say yes.

“…f*** the police…” - Wow, way to diss your own teammate, Samatoki. X2

Hmm? In Riou’s rap bit near the end, he goes “mad warrior” and that rhymes (in a very loose way of speaking) with “Mad Trigger”. The English didn’t keep that.

I remember seeing a spoiler which said that line (the one about slaves)…but seriously, Jyuto is such a “sexy revenge cop” (as someone once said – I think it might be Slug, or an anon to Slug) that literally nothing else seems to matter about him.

Why do they subtitle the laughing??? I still have no idea.

“Sgt. Iruma”? The guy just says “Iruma-san”. Is he a sergant or some other rank? Update: Yes. (As in, he is a sergant.)

I’ve never actually seen Ramuda sleep in a bed before, come to think of it. Does he not have a bed?

I would assume Gentaro is going…but he said he won’t be going, then negated that and then negated it again. Unless the 2nd time was him admitting it was a lie the first time…is he going or not???

“shinsetsu no human” – (Spoilers for later on/manga)…Yes, that’s actually what Ramuda says. It’s as if Ramuda subtly admits, right there, he isn’t human.

Nodo = throat…If this were translated more literally, it would sound pretty clunky.

“…rappa no inochi…paa!” – Yep, the subbers got the gist of the joke there.

Dice is basically a worm at this point…He’s squirming like one, anyway.

That “number of pips facing up” thing has got to be foreshadowing for something, y’know? Nothing in a story ever goes to waste. Also, it’s likely the dice are weighted or something…

…yep, there you go.

That voice Gentaro used for “I despise lies” was amusing…because it’s so different to his normal voice, and because Gentaro is a serial liar.

The 2nd song…which I already know is called “JACKPOT” from browsing Twitter earlier today…was a bunch of fun.

Udagawacho.

Hmm…emphasis on the candy. I wonder what that means? (<- already knows, I just want to keep it a secret from you, dear reader, if you don’t know it too)

ANIME SHOP is so clearly a pun on Animate, including the colours, that I can’t even…LOL.

FP’s Kizuna sounds distinctly different to the others…probably because of Ramuda. It’s mostly Ramuda carrying the tune there.

“Life is what you make it.” – Hmm, an interesting quote for sure.

HypMic 9

…welp, they don’t call it Fling Posse for nothin’.

I didn’t believe my ears, so I went and listened to it again. Sure enough, Ichiro calls Jakurai -san, not -sensei.

Ramuda’s normal voice! Things are getting serious~!

“Hifuming”? Is that a deliberate choice on the translators’ part? Or is it a mishearing?

…I’m laughing at how Samatoki called Ichiro a “hypocritical piece of s***”. I know the “s***” part is correct at minimum from the audio.

I believe Samatoki said -san, not -sama when he asked for an honorific. Hmm, interesting.

I knew this would get animated, but…I still can’t believe I’m watching it! Amazing…absolutely amazing.

If you’re wondering…yes, that long thing is her entire title and name. It’s said the name “Kadenokouji” is the longest Japanese surname in existence.

I remember reading a tweet earlier today that said somebody wanted “Altercation! Altercation! Altercation!” as a song title…and now I LOL, because the subbers made Gentaro say the exact same word.

Hmm…I only just noticed BB are the only ones with bags. They probably came last, but who took the others’ bags into Chuoku…? Update: Some of the others did have bags, I just never spotted them. For instance, Riou is carrying a large black rectangular bag, but Samatoki and Jyuto don’t have any. Jakurai has the bag from his TDD days.

The 2nd DRB brackets got announced today. BB vs DH, MTR vs BAT, FP vs MTC, rolling out across Japan (and Japan only due to COVID) in 2021.

“What happened between you and him?” - I was going “who?” in Cantonese (as I sometimes do), but turns out they’re just referring to Samatoki.

This is exactly as it played out in the drama tracks and manga…exactly what I was waiting for all this time! So good, dangit!

LOL, in the future, we will have camera drones working our concerts like they do in the DRBs…I think (?)

I wonder what Dice is thinking right now, seeing Otome on the screen…hmm…

…gah! Airhorn! Airhorn to the ears! *tilts to side due to sound*

I still kind of remember Slug’s take on the final battle…”The popo? More like the poopoo!” (or something like that). *sniggers*

The little barking bit after Jiro’s verse was…kinda cute, actually.

…ow, these are some burn-ass words. See? This is the power of the DRB!

…eh? Riou’s mic has his MC name on it. Don’t think I’ve seen that in any other part of the series.

Hoh, Riou even made references to Saburo’s character songs.

You can see “Hc” on Samatoki’s mic too…probably another case of his MC name, but partially obscured by his hand.

Aw, “Samatoki no sabaku toki” is a good lyric. Why couldn’t you try to keep that, instead of translating it literally to “judgement day for Samatoki”?

You can hear a thumping beat in the background when Samatoki prepares himself. That seems to be a similar way to how ARB treats this stuff.

“I’m THE Samatoki” – “Samatoki-sama da”.

I think it was really cool to show Samatoki handing the song over to Riou, but it also indicates there’s a disjunct in the lyrics that would cause such a thing. From this, maybe Riou is MTC’s weak link…?

Skeletons with katanas! Is that not cool?!?

…hey, that joined words thing Ichiro does…I would assume that’s what Rhyme Strike looks like in the HypMic universe?

Notice Samatoki took the word “signal” from Ichiro’s part and put it into his own one.

“Today is a good day to die.” – *eyes bulge* Oh…gosh. What a quote. Update: Someone theorised Ichijiku wrote these titles (the last 2), but someone else – like me – theorised this quote was what FP and M fans thought for this battle.

Akudama 7

…that’s one twisted kid.

Never threaten to kill a kid who can regenerate far better than you, Hoodlum.

Brawler is still in the OP…it’s kind of saddening to see him now.

I noticed a certain character appears on the Executioners’ hands if you pause at the right moment in the OP. It’s the first character in shori (management).

Bunny: set meal/Shark: roasted meat (yakiniku)

…This sounds a heck of a lot like the genbaku dome (Hiroshima Peace Park).

Bunny and Shark’s shirts together: Idiot -> Shark: Bone

Actually, this also reminds me of the Osaka Expo held in 1970. I loved writing about that event – it was just so fun to write about.

This anime is like Appare-Ranman’s sequel, except without the racing and crazy racial stereotypes (although there are still crazy stereotypes).

…whoa! This scene is going on the end of year list for sure. Just…have to remember this scene, where all the children disappeared, exists.

…”The City of Lost Children” is an apt title for this episode.

(HypMic spoilers!) I wonder if they’ll reveal that Ramuda is a clone in what’s left of the HypMic anime?

…oof, Doctor’s a filthy traitor!

Rule number 1 of fighting: never yell out “Smokescreen!” when the smokescreen is meant to cover you.

…LOL, dark censorship bar. Please wait for the Blu-Rays to see this scene uncensored.

What the heck?! The countdown went from 7 to 0 so fast!

Akudama 8

Black Rain, huh? *checks* It’s a movie about a pair of New York policemen who have to save a Japanese gangster from his death.

…don’t jinx it, Swindler!

Your brother isn’t on the moon, Sister. It’s just your dreams on there.

Notice “Neo Lake Biwa” actually has “Reiku” in its name, as opposed to, say, “mizuumi” or “ike” (the Japanese equivalent).

You can still see where Doctor stitched herself up.

What did Doctor “hold on to”?

Way to monologue through the whole morality thing… (<- not as satisfied as they would like from this scene)

I wonder if the seal is electronically tracked…

Tsubo = pot, vase…*thinks about drugs* (Not that pot.)

“…I’ll make you into a real man.” – More like a eunuch, LOL. (partially sarcastic)

I recall from Sarazanmai that “pair look” is the term for “twinsies” in Japanese.

Oh! Swindler kind of looks like the Executioner Boss now.

…I find it ironic that Swindler had long hair up until not too long ago.

Can to the eye! Ouch! That’s gotta be worse than a lightsaber…er, jitte to the eye!

This makes me wonder…was Courier a rich kid once…?

#simulcast commentary #hypnosis mic #HypMic #hypnosis mic -division rap battle- rhyme anima #Akudama Drive #taiso samurai #Maou-jou de Oyasumi #sleepy princess in the demon castle #idolish7 second beat #Chesarka watches HypMic #Chesarka watches Akudama Drive #Chesarka watches Taiso Samurai #Chesarka watches Maou-jou #Chesarka watches I7

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saltoftheplanet · 6 years ago

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Why I’m skeptical about the Final Fantasy VII Remake

I’m skeptical that the remake will be good because there will be a lot of changes that will impact the direction, tone and narrative of the game, and Square Enix’s track record suggests to me that those inevitable changes will destroy and undercut what was special about the original game.

An essay breaking that down piece by piece is under the cut.

There will be a lot of changes

The remake will represent a huge and doubtlessly beautiful graphical update. With these updates, however, comes the need for a variety of new directorial decisions. For example, how should the camera behave during cutscenes? Who should they frame, and how? What will their body language and facial expressions show? Now that all the cutscenes will be voice acted, what tone will characters speak familiar lines with?

Likewise, the game is switching to a third-person, over-the-shoulder view. The original FFVII used a fixed camera and prerendered backgrounds to create a world that felt rich, full, and often cluttered. Every level will require redesign to account for the new way of moving about the world, and the amount of assets required to create the same feeling and to direct your attention in a same way will be exponentially higher. Likewise, there will need to be changes to account for the new combat system, as stages will need to be designed for both exploration and combat in many cases.

The episodic format of the game will necessitate changes to the pacing. Successful episodic games excel at creating self-contained rising and falling action and narrative arcs within each episode. Conversely, Final Fantasy VII was plotted and paced as a single complete narrative. Either the pace and order of events will need to be changed to make each episode stand strongly on its own, or the episodes on their own will be gawky and suffer pacing issues as they are pulled out of context from the greater whole.

Finally, the narrative itself will change. We have yet to see a verbatim line in each of the trailers, so the script itself is being rewritten, and with it many nuances will change. Square has stated point-blank that story changes are on the table. Finally, the compilation of Final Fantasy VII and the various Ultimanias released over the years have added a variety of changes to the narrative and to the lore. The teaser trailers we’ve seen so far have been in-line with the Midgar we see in Advent Children, itself a massive change to the famously ambiguous ending of the original game.

Direction and tone will be affected

All of these changes will not be neutral. In just about every decision of how this story is retold, some things are necessarily going to be emphasized and de-emphasized. Each of these decisions will carry and shift meaning in subtle ways. In that sense, the remake should more truly be considered an adaptation.

Examine the opening of FFVII; a meandering view of the stars fades into Aeris’ face. A single long shot pulls back to the city of Midgar. The tone here is mysterious, and the amount of time dedicated to the environment equals or surpasses the time spent on a character. This direction in cinematography echoes the game’s focus, as it is very much a story about the interplay between the characters as they exist inside of larger, overwhelming forces and environments.

The remake does have the opportunity to give us more meaningful cinematography in its cutscenes, but it may also make directorial decisions that change the meaning or impact of scenes. Especially likely is an increased focus on the characters and the action, and implicitly, the “cool” factor of both of those things, seeing as how the Remake and Square Enix as a company largely foreground great visuals and cool sequences. There’s absolutely room for that, of course, considering the bike scene in the original - but the broader point here is that no intervention can be neutral, and the Remake will inevitably have a different focus from the original.

One influential decision the writers have made is in their audience. All promotional material thus far has been aimed squarely at “returning” players, with no explanations offered for newcomers. What we’ve seen so far is in line with the marketing material - they are not simply trying to recreate FFVII as it was, but also tap into our collective sense of familiarity about it. The direct engagement with an expected audience means they will likely try to recreate the feeling of the experience rather than the experience itself, which would then necessitate certain story changes to keep things surprising or mysterious. This approach will inevitably widen the gulf between the remake and the original game.

SquareEnix’s Track Record

SquareEnix has been behind many beloved games, but they are not the company they were when they released FFVII. Their track record over the past decade, maybe even closer to the past 15 years, has been one of spotty quality, half-baked ideas, poor execution, and a narrative flexibility that suggests a lack of commitment to telling a story with singular vision and protecting the integrity of that story. Whatever your opinion or personal enjoyment of more recent Final Fantasy entries, they objectively lack the clarity and direction that made older entries of this series so beloved. To be completely clear, it is not that I believe these stories could never get there; it is that I’m keenly aware of the fact that they came short.

But more relevant than Square’s entries in the mainline Final Fantasy franchise are the entries to the Compilation of FFVII. These, two, have come with a variety of directorial changes that the new format and technology demanded. They’ve built their own lexicon that will likely be drawn upon in the creation of the remake, and that bring subtle changes along with them. For instance - Advent Children’s visually spectacular fight scenes introduced us to the idea that the characters were all able to leap vast distances and perform acrobatics mid-fight, and we’ve seen this idea carried forward into all subsequent entries of the series, even though it’s somewhat at odds with the more grounded, cyberpunk tone of the original game that earmarked these kinds of superhuman abilities as specifically unusual.

That may seem like a minor quibble, but I would argue that it’s a series of minor changes that have led to the difference in tone and focus between the compilation and the original game, and it comes down to a variety of directorial decisions that continue to be pertinent. For example, in Advent Children, the writing team made a decision to base Cloud’s character around what people would most remember from the game, and decided that would probably be the Cloud that we see at the beginning of the game. This decision was in play as early as his cameo in Kingdom Hearts, and for as inconsequential as it may have seemed then, it’s carried a rippling effect with it. By choosing to write the character in a way that they felt most fans would recognize, they also chose to downplay the growth and the specific quirks that wound up making that character interesting - a repeated issue with many of the characters.

Likewise, because the compilation prioritizes its returning Final Fantasy VII fans, it also tends to prioritize fanservice and recognizable, digestable moments over the overarching narrative of the world of Final Fantasy VII. One memorable example would be a cute Yuffie cameo in the midst of the Wutai War in Crisis Core, a war we are told repeatedly was extremely brutal and which actually destroyed Yuffie’s home and embittered her for years thereafter. The result is a story that’s at odds with itself due to tonal and character inconsistency. The prioritization of a quick moment of familiar joy robs the character of her impact in the long term, and this pattern is repeated for many other characters throughout.

Of course, the compilation has changed more than tone and framing of characters, and has also contributed several ideas to the world of Final Fantasy VII that are now in play. For example, the idea that upon death, people return to the Lifestream, whereby their spiritual energy is used by the planet to create new life. This is a distinctly animist idea that the Compilation has leaned away from, as they cannot cameo dead characters if those characters have since been reincarnate as trees. The compilation has since introduced the notion that a person’s soul and consciousness not only stays intact, but that they can come into contact with the living - an idea that’s fundamentally at odds with the themes of life, loss, death, existentialism and uncertainty that are extant in the original game.

Finally, though not least significantly, Polygon’s An Oral History of Final Fantasy 7 reveals that the reason Advent Children and subsequently the compilation was created was to save Square Enix from financial ruin, not to continue the story for its own sake. It is important to acknowledge the reality that Final Fantasy VII is bankable, and the reason for the remake to begin with may very well be that bankability rather than a good faith intention to retell a story that touched many. The episodic nature of the release does nothing to help that faith, nor does the fact that initial development was outsourced to a third party.

What was so special about FFVII

“So what?” you might ask. Even if there are a ton of changes, and those change the direction and tone of the game, does that really mean it won’t or can’t be good? To that - the jury is out. But I don’t particularly care if the FFVII remake is a good video game - I care if it’s a good representation of FFVII.

I admit without reservation that FFVII is, to use a technical term, anime trash. It has lots of rule of cool sequences that keep the game light, bits of spotty translation, and narrative stumbles. It is not a perfect work. But there is a reason why it was enduring; there was meaning to it, and that meaning was what made it special and unique.

FFVII was a ponderous game. It seldom presented an idea without later exploring and unpacking it. Its characters are seldom what they appear, the mission they undergo is hardly as noble as it seems, and what you expected to happen simply didn’t. It’s rife with deliberate ambiguity and doesn’t work overly hard to explain itself. Its story is shot through with uncertainty, about identity, faith, morality, justice, and every other waymark we use to navigate our life. Its most memorable moments rest in the loss of that certainty, and its most triumphant in the character’s perseverance regardless.

Though FFVII is primarily remembered and beloved for how it made people feel, it wasn’t written to be deliberately provocative or emotionally manipulative. The story was deeply impacted by a real-world loss, and the mandate of the team at the time was to convey that loss for how it truly felt, without the celluloid gloss and tropes like a dying speech that have since proliferated through the compilation. There was an honesty, an integrity and a complexity to this story that caused people to argue in earnest that it was the first video game that could truly be considered a piece of art.

I think the ephemeral nature of these qualities often leads people to conclude that FFVII is mainly loved due to “nostalgia,” but that’s a dismissive take that fails to acknowledge the deliberateness and consistency of its themes and ideas. The same care has very obviously not been given to any of the subsequent FFVII games.

In other words: this was never going to be an easy game to remake. A remake worthy of standing on the same pedestal as the original would require the same careful dedication to thematic consistency and integrity, to tone and feeling as the original. It would require careful thought to the impact and presentation of each of the monumental changes demanded by the new technology and platform.

Square-Enix has yet to do anything to suggest that it is up to this task. I have tremendous empathy for the development team that is taking on this task, but that doesn’t mean I have faith in their ability to really, truly, pull it off.

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii remake #ffvii #e3 #ff7 remake

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