#in fact i like apocalyptic stories i find them interesting

[karda]

irrational fears r so fucking stupid my fear of zombies is always there its ridiculous and ik its dumb and its still horrible. its evwrytime i close my eyes its everytime its dark its everytime its a little too quiet im thinking'there is a zombie outside that window/door/building and i am going to die' its fucking STUPID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alpaca-clouds]

Hayao Miyazaki & Solarpunk

Hayao Miyazaki probably never planned to become this super influential voice for Solarpunk. He did become it though. In fact a lot of his movies are considered to be Solarpunk to some degree, which in a way does make a lot of sense. After all, not only does he generally feature stories about preserving the environment, and stories that are very much anti-war and often also anti-capitalist, but - and I think this is something often ignores - he also is heavily influenced by indigenous Japanese storytelling. There are very few creatives in Japan that outright reference the indigenous cultures of Japan - but Hayao Miyazaki is one of them.

The strongest Solarpunk vibes in his movies can obviously be found with Nausicaä, and with Princess Mononoke. One a post-apocalyptic movie, the other one a historical fantasy piece, which makes this entire thing even more interesting. Laputa, too, is often seen as Solarpunk - a story that is pretty much high fantasy with some scifi elements. And I would argue that you still very much can find Solarpunk themes in both Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro.

Not one of those movies is SciFi. And I very much find this worthy of discussing, because I think it is one of those aspects where a lot of people who would like to write something more Solarpunk could learn from.

One point that cannot be ignored is of course that Miyazaki aside from traditional and indigenous Japanese storytelling also drew heavy influence from Ursula K. LeGuin in some of his works - who also is one of the big influences on Solarpunk. And yes, there might be some essay of mine about LeGuin coming some day in the future - but not too soon.

From the very beginning of Studio Ghibli at least, Miyazaki's movies always had a heavy emphasis on some themes. These included feminism (by showing both women who can fight, and the importance of care work done by women), anti-war and pacifism, and environmentalism.

It should be noted that very much no Miyazaki movie is set in an utopia. Instead the movies are concerned with the idea of finding solutions for the characters - and with the characters empowering themselves.

Nausicaä and Princess Mononoke might be the clearest examples here. In both movies the protagonists take the role of creating peace between nature and those, trying to destroy it. However this ending is never quite a compromise, rather than the destroyers seeing that they are doing wrong and promising to do better. Which is another core thing that is there in most of Miyazaki's movies: They show a big hope for humanity and its ability to be good. Only rarely are we shown irredeemable villains in those movies - most of the times just people blinded by their lust for money and power. Or, at times, there is simply the problem that the two different sides can literally not understand each other.

This is a theme that gets explored again and again. How so many conflicts are rooted in the different sides not communicating - or at times literally being unable to communicate. With the protagonists being the ones who will be able to listen and understand.

The other aspect is that the protagonist in Miyazaki's movies also will empower themselves, while the antagonists do try and depower them. The protagonists have their own wishes and believes and stay true to them. They will also manage to succeed by befriending other people they meet along their way, by meeting them without any prejudice in many cases. Be it Ashitaka, who meets both the gods and the people of Iron Town without hatred, or be it Chihiro, who manages to befriend almost everyone she meets along her way.

The important aspect is, that the movies here offer a hopeful outlook and also show the importance of helping each other and banding up against a greater evil. In fact they do show a heavy emphasis on Mutual Aid in some interesting ways.

Here is the thing: Yes, I really want to see more Solarpunk fiction that is set in possible, but really positive Solarpunk worlds that dare to imagine anarchist and communist worlds. But we absolutely need these kinds of stories. Stories that are about the fight for the environment, for a better word. Stories in which the characters do offer mutual aid to others, work together and find understanding. And stories in which there can be hope found.

And I think we just need to give this more of a chance - and talk more about it.

[ivomartins]

I see many people consider Dmitry a redflag LI but to me he's a morally grey character: he finds a strange girl amidst the rift and assigns her a place in the squad instead of, you know, just taking Lane hostage when she's made it clear she's pursuing her own goals and only compels to the squad's decisions because she has to.

I understand why the interrogation episode is icky for many people but for me the devil is in details: Dmitry stops the interrogation because he doesn't want to hurt Lane further, and the whole situation can be seen as a necessary evil from the squad's pov, given Lane's actions. And at the same time, Lane doesn't deserve that shit either: she's all alone in a trust-no-one situation, and now she sees very clearly that the squad is not her friends.

To me that's what moral greyness is: different interpretations of the situation, when you can see motivation of both parties without whitewashing them.

Dmitry's conversation about turning your weakness into your strength adds another facet to his character, just like the stolen babushka gift 😭. I love the way Alexandra shows that he actually cares about Lane through him wanting to give her a chocolate bar or helping her with the work and sacrificing his sleep.

And the soulmatism of their branch is so well done. It's not "your mc is promised to this LI although you'd rather have her killed him in a cold blood" but "yes the situation we found themselves in is fucked up and bleak but at least we have each other because in another universe we'd pass each other by without looking back"

And I love how you can see Dmitry lashing out in the latest episodes, with more and more people in the squad dying, because he's responsible for their lives, he's the leader. And you, as a player, can choose Lane's reaction to his behaviour.

But the thing that truly made me sympathize with him is him telling Lane "It would be sad to lose my humanity while hunting for monsters and become one in other people's eyes. I hope I haven't cross that line yet?.."

That's how you write morally grey characters! 🙌

P.S. His latest CG fucks

i'm shook tbh that some people consider dmitry a red flag LI 😭 like yeah. the interrogation scene was iffy and lane didn't deserve that. but the world has literally gone to shit and this is a man who's been forced by circumstances to blur the lines of his morality for the greater good and the safety of the people around him ??? when we take that and the post-apocalyptic survival-of-the-fittest setting into consideration, plus the fact that lane was sus from day 1 and didn't really make any effort to prove herself trustworthy, the interrogation makes perfect sense

and like you said the morally grey nature to dmitry is the most interesting thing about him especially when it ties into the development of his bond with lane like !!!! with cain there's affinity in their position as outcasts and the apathetic nature they share, suspended above everything, untouched by what otherwise jars everyone else in the squad

but with dmitry their affinity lies in dmitry having a different nature to lane and still being drawn to her despite that, still accepting her to the point where she points a fucking gun at his head and he doesn't even flinch 😭 and doesn't even hold it against her later on like ??? there's so much devotion and unconditional acceptance to it and for me personally as someone who's on the whisper path it's definitely giving "the hero loving the monster and cherishing their blood-soaked hands" kinda dynamic

like it's "human" organic soulmatism like you called it, to balance out the otherworldly ambiguous soulmatism with cain. ugh i can't enough of it

i also love how he's been lashing out too and that not even lane has been exempt from that because he's just under that much pressure. i just adore how every single character has been written with their own role to play in the story, completely independent from lane, and they all get to develop just as much as she does as the story goes on 🥹

(and yes his cgs have been superior, even to cain, since day 1. i will die on that hill)

[paigegonerogue]

TLOU s2: Behind the Camera

One of the most anticipated shows of 2025, The Last of Us (my favorite show of all time), is likely getting an official teaser trailer this month for the absolutely stacked season 2! If you’ve been keeping up with the news around it, you’ll know the incredible new actors added like Kaitlyn Dever, Isabella Merced, Jeffrey Wright, Katherine O’Hara, and Young Mazino, but they’re not the only rockstars stepping onto the set.

(Super long post)

Directors:

Aside from the amazing returning directors, TLOU has added four prestige legends to the lineup. Thank you for your service, Ali Abassi, if you’re past work directing stories about blonde sex-offenders is any indication, your Trump biopic will be fantastic.

The four directors added to the lineup are Stephen Williams, Kate Herron, Nina Lopez-Corrado, and the legend himself, Mark Mylod.

Stephen Williams, the director who’s known for constantly directing episodes with an 8.7 score on IMDB (that’s not what he’s actually known for). He’s directed episodes of Westworld (one in s1 and one in s2, both with an 8.7 score) and Lost (in which he has two more 8.7s, and I believe over 10 other episodes in the range of .2 points of 8.7), so he’s pretty good with time-skips and flashbacks. He’s also worked on Persons of Interest in which he directed another, you guessed it, 8.7 episode, as well as two more win the .2 range of it. Recently he’s broken out of the “almost nine” range with HBO’s Watchmen, in which he directed episodes 3 and 6. (He’s directed 9s before, but this was the first time where they weren’t surrounded by 8.7s). His work with time shenanigans, and the fact that TLOU is rated 8.7 on IMDB, make this a fantastic match.

Kate Herron is next up, known best for her work on Loki. She directed the entirety of season 1, which includes my favorite episode of the show ‘The Variant’, in which Loki and Mobius go to the location of a disaster in the near future to find a sinister variant. It’s practically a demo real for TLOU, since a lot of it takes place in a supermarket filled with people waiting out a disaster that none of them survive, showing she’s got the skill to pull of apocalyptic. She also delivered us the absolute gold of the salad scene. Other than that, she directed multiple episodes of Sex Education back when it was still beloved and acclaimed.

Third we have Nina Lopez-Corrado. While she hasn’t directed shows quite as high-caliber as some of the other directors, she’s proven she’s good at found family through her work on Agents of Shield, in which she delivered one of the highest rated, and roughest episodes of the show ‘Devil Complex’, in which our favorite characters get put through absolute hell (so she’ll be perfect for TLOU s2!). She’s also shown that she can get Tumblr obsessed with queer ships with her work on Supernatural…

Last and certainly not least is the most well known and acclaimed of the new directors, Mark Mylod. I believe he will be directing the most episodes of this list, but I’m not entirely certain. Mylod is probably best known for his amazing work on Succession, which he won an Emmy for. He’s directed all of my favorite episodes except Panic Room and America Decides. While he’s worked on other projects like Game of Thrones, Entourage, and The Menu, it’s his directing for Succession that gets me most excited for his work on TLOU. He’s proven he can elevate emotional scenes, and his directing is consistently incredible across all spectrums of human feeling. His thematic work with grief, trauma, and the cycle of violence will very much carry over into TLOU, and I can’t wait to see the absolute emotional brutality and heartbreak of his direction paired with Bella’s acting. Actually I can wait because holy shit I’m not going to make it… He directed Kendall’s traumatizing car crash in the s1 finale, Shiv’s self-destructive decisions in Ternhaven, Kendall’s breakdown in s3 when he admits to Roman and Shiv what he did, Roman’s grief and self-harming behaviors at the funeral, the bittersweet bonding in the finale of the show, and obviously Connor’s Wedding. If you’ve seen Succession or know the plot of TLOU part 2 you’ll know exactly how that might carry over…

You thought this was the end? Hell no! Directors aren’t the only ones behind the camera!

Writers:

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann wrote season one. Their brilliant writing elevated the show and led to some truly unforgettable moments, and this season they’ve brought in some more incredible writers to help!

Halley Gross co-wrote The Last of Us part 2 alongside Neil Druckmann. No one was particularly surprised by this news, but it’s still great nonetheless. It’s clear how much Mazin respects the source material, and I love how TLOU brings in the people who wrote the games to help adapt it for television. She also wrote episodes for Westworld s1.

The other writer is more unexpected. Bo Shim joined the writers room of TLOU s2, but we don’t know much about him. He currently has no official writing credits, which either means it’s a pseudonym (which I doubt), or, more likely, they found a young, talented writer who hasn’t made it big yet and decided to give him his big break and use his skills for TLOU. If you’re looking, Craig, I know a film student who’d love to join the writing room for TLOU…. She’ll do it for free… she’ll pay you… please??

Cinematographers:

Cinematographers work with directors to create the look of the show, the shots, the lighting, etc.

Ksenia Sereda, who did the cinematography for TLOU episodes 1, 2, and 7 will be returning along newcomer Catherine Goldschmidt who worked on the always-gorgeous House of the Dragon.

Some of her amazing HotD shots:

Finally, Emily Mendez and Timothy A. Good are returning as editors. Set designers Austin Chuqiao Wang, Kyle White, and Shannon McArthur are returning as well.

There are wild amounts of other crew members who work on everything from lighting to costumes to vfx to storyboards. If I mentioned all of them this post would be as long as the credits, but every single one of them is important to the show and helps make it as incredible as it is!

I can’t wait for season 2!

[burningexeter]

Since just like with a certain voice actress on a 2000s Cartoon Network show, there's not a lot of information on in this case writer/director Shane Acker, the man behind the dark, twisted, action-horror post-apocalyptic animated film 9 from you guessed it 2009.

So here's all the trivia that I could find on the guy if anyone's interested in reading for yourself:

• In an interview, Acker cut to the chase on why he hasn't directed a movie since aforementioned 2009 and here's what he said — "Have a lot of the movies I've been attached to as director fallen into development hell, yes. But the bigger reason is mainly personal, I've just been living my own life. I would absolutely love to direct another feature or anything really but at the same time, I'm enjoying what I already have in life. I'm kind of a schlub that way right down to the fact that I'd nowadays rather sit back on a nice Sunday, watch football and eat bacon and pepperoni pizza than deal with modern studio executives who probably get higher pay every time they yell and scream in your ear".

• He's already listed The Brothers Quay, Don Hertzfeldt, Jan Svankmajer and brothers Christoph Lauenstein as influences previously however recently he's named Terrence Malick, Edgar Wright, Gore Verbinski, Jordan Peele and Richard Kelly as some of his favorite filmmakers.

• Speaking of favorites, he's given some of his favorite movies — Donnie Darko, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Dredd, The Watcher In The Woods (1980) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (surprisingly).... then he gave some his favorite TV shows — Tales From The Crypt, Bob's Burgers, Squid Game, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Sons Of Anarchy.

• When asked what was it like working with Tim Burton since he was producer, Acker spoke high praise saying "I would work with him again if the time comes. Tim was a phenomenal producer who allowed for so much creative freedom while at the same time contributing his unique voice and view to the project".

• On the flip side, here's what he thought of the other producer Timur Bekmambetov — "He was very, very, very, very, VERY fucking russian as all hell. I'm surprised he was a Hollywood producer..... he was quite the interesting person".

• He does indeed have an idea for a new project that he not only wants to do but intends on having it be his second film as director, describing it as "The Incredibles crossed with Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it's an animated action-adventure with edge we haven't seen since honestly the early 2010s. I'm still deciding on whether it should be another PG-13 or an actual R".

• On modern media, here's his blatant thoughts on it so tough shit to any dope who reads this and gets offended because of stupid reasons — "I think it's been awful. There's barely any genuine storytelling now and instead it's all politics. It's all about representation, obnoxious wokeness, pandering, subverting expectations and shoving as much modern bullshit themes into them than actually telling stories with characters who you care about".

• He's most certainly not a fan of a certain film called Star Wars: The Last Jedi — "I know this is saying quite a lot since I've only been able so far to direct one feature but honestly I wish Last Jedi was never made at this point. Not only is it a truly terrible movie but it's created so much hostility, so much shilling, so much toxicity that it becomes unbearable. If this is that film's legacy than it's a failure".

• There is however one positive about all of this and it's that the one movie that he's excited for and interested in — what is it....

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

Writeblr Summoning Circle Intro

Patreon (you can join for free btw)

Ao3

Taglist sign-up

Hello and welcome to my shrine place of power writing blog. I'm Ceph, they/them, and despite the ghostly username I am, in fact, a regular human adult with a job, college homework, skin, blood, etc. Video games, houseplants, and buying books faster than I read them are just a few of my hobbies.

I write different flavors of fantasy mostly, with sprinkles of horror and romance/spice thrown in for pizzazz. If you're interested in...

Vampires, werecreatures, necromancers, merfolk, and/or passive-aggressive poltergeists

Resourceful protagonists in terrible peril who sometimes make choices that change things forever, for better or worse

Lovers becoming enemies becoming forced allies and maybe more in some cases

Themes of solidarity, the myriad facets of love, and people fighting for a better future

Slow burns

Worldbuilding that I definitely don't make up on the fly

Mortals becoming deities and vice versa

Telepathic monsters that could devour your soul -OR- become your best friend

Liminal spaces like roadside diners at 3 a.m

...you might find my WIPs tolerable. Possibly even fun.

Follow my sideblogs @dysthanasia-series and/or @the-primrose-path-story to get notifications for new chapters and other neat story-related stuff. Check out @coven-archives to see what I'm reblogging from fellow writers. Or just ask to be put on a taglist for a WIP you're interested in.

I welcome asks, prompts, writblr events (Worldbuilding Wednesday, etc.), and any interactions that lead to transmutating Internet strangers into friends. Do tell me about your characters and lore. I want to devour know all of it. Yes, even the obscure facts that never really make it into the story despite hours of research poured into them. Especially those.

That's pretty much it. Feel free to reblog or like this post or invite me into an object you own at the stroke of midnight if you want me to give a follow.

Below the cut you'll find a list of WIPs and links to read them which will increase my power every time you click one. Content advisories are at the top of each work and chapter.

Apophenia

Genre(s): Urban/Paranormal fantasy, vampires, post-apocalyptic

Status: Redraft in progress

Mermaids don't exist. Every agent of the Coven, the organization that researches and governs the supernatural community, knows that. Accepting a classified assignment to investigate sightings along the Broken Coast is just an easy paycheck as far as Isaac Soto is concerned (not to mention another way to avoid dealing with his trauma and relationship issues).

A chance meeting with a charming stranger in a roadside diner changes not only the course of Isaac's assignment but the trajectory of his life. A life now in danger of being cut short unless he figures out how to escape the bloodborn who takes him hostage, a necromancer out to kill both of them, and the corruption at the heart of the organization he thought he believed in.

The Primrose Path

Genre(s): High fantasy, romance/erotica

Status: Rough draft in progress

When his village is taken captive by an enemy nation, Illuminator Ân's priority is to make sure his people survive to fight another day. Faced with everything he's stood against as a priest of Cyanos, god of light and life, Ân prays for the strength to overcome and do what he must. It's not long before he receives signs that his petitions have been heard. Just not by the deity he serves.

Beyond & Between

Genre(s): High fantasy, portal fantasy, whump

Status: Occasional, out-of-order updates

Sail beyond where the seas turn red, until the sky is filled with unfamiliar stars, to the lands between realities. Magic and the power to leave one's old life behind awaits for those brave enough to seek it.

Beyond & Between is a collection of stories set in the strange places settled by ancient people, deities, and creatures from Earth who fell through the cracks.

Whumptober 2022

Each prompt followed by the story series it's set in and the MC. Content guidelines at the start of each story.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

⭐

I'll discuss my latest Sleeping Beauty retelling, "For Love of the Princess."

Watching the first twenty or so minutes of the 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden, the scene where Mary explores Mrs. Craven's dusty old rooms reminded me so much of "Sleeping Beauty" that it made me want to write a retelling of that fairy tale.

One of the available Chesterton Challenge prompts that day was "love", which is ideal for a "Sleeping Beauty" retelling.

Sleeping Beauty retellings are also ideal for short stories--which is what I had to focus on to keep up with the breakneck pace of the Chesterton Challenge--because the fairy tale is focused around one major moment--waking up the princess.

When looking for an angle, I remembered a painting that showed Sleeping Beauty with two ladies-in-waiting asleep on the floor by her bed. I had long wanted to write a story from the point-of-view of one of those handmaidens--how would it feel to sleep for a hundred years because you're caught up in someone else's curse?

Since the prompt was love, I decided that the handmaidens chose to stay with Sleeping Beauty during her curse--an excellent way to focus on female friendship. I envisioned that scene of the court leaving Aurora behind, and I had the opening of my retelling.

I considered having the handmaidens stay awake during the hundred years to assess the princes and find the right one to break the curse, but I didn't see a great way to make that work--the interactions would be between the handmaid and the prince, so it wouldn't be satisfying for her to hand him off to the princess.

I'm also very attached to the idea of the curse being broken by romantic True Love--specifically, true as in "faithful"--so I decided to take that route, despite the fact that I recently wrote a different flash fiction Sleeping Beauty retelling with that premise.

My first inkling of Margaret's personality--practical and protective--came when I wrote the lines: Princess Aurora, who’d been fairy-gifted with grace and compassion, had sweetly said she understood. Margaret, who had no such gifts, thought the queen deserved to have her eyes pecked out by birds. Those are also my favorite lines in the whole story.

I didn't plan to differentiate the other ladies-in-waiting. I didn't even know how many there were going to be. As I wrote, I randomly assigned some names, then in group scenes, I tried to attach certain reactions/emotions to one particular name. This then gave each lady a slightly different personality that I could emphasize in edits.

Since Aurora's only sixteen, I wanted to emphasize that her love interest is young--barely past puberty--but give him some gravitas-beyond-his-years that made him a worthy hero to awaken the princess from a hundred years of sleep. It's especially fitting since Aurora's fairy gifts make her mature for her age.

I love William. He's such a good boy. So proper and considerate. I want to adopt him.

The supper scene in the Great Hall mostly exists to hint at the first sparks of connection between William and Aurora, but it was fun to explore the almost apocalyptic atmosphere of preparing for a hundred-year curse to fall--eating up the food, etc.

The scene where the ladies argue before the curse falls is where I differentiated their personalities. I then went back and wrote the paragraph describing each of them.

The ladies waking before Aurora was my way of giving them something to do to help break the curse without staying awake for the full hundred years. I rather like the simple explanation for why it works that way.

Initially, the girls made their way outside and found William waking up in the guardhouse. Then I remembered I had already mentioned the thorns around the castle. I could have given the girls a tool to cut their way out, but the stakes would be higher if the girls were trapped inside, and then I could give William the classic heroic moment of cutting his way through the thorns to save them.

Yes, William's hesitation over kissing Aurora is my way to directly address the "consent" issue. But it's still cute on a character level. He's such a good boy.

All the girls yelling "Kiss her!' is very cartoony. But in a way that's just fun enough that I'm not totally embarrassed.

I'm not fond of the fact that I end with a hugging-and-thanking scene between Aurora and the handmaids, especially when we already had one earlier in the story. I wish I'd taken the story just a little bit further--let them see something of the world outside and make plans for how they're going to fit into it--because the way it ends right now, with none of them having ventured much further than the tower, it's hard to believe the assertion that they woke up into a better world. But for something I came up with on the fly and wrote very quickly, it's a satisfying-enough ending.

I do sometimes wonder what they did after the end of the story, and consider writing a bit of it, but I also kind of like ending on the promise of a happily-ever-after--implying that everything went so smoothly there was nothing more worth writing about.

[inquisimer]

dragon age fluff fic recs

Part two of my fic rec list series comes bearing the sweetest, most tooth-rotting fluff! It turns out that I....don't actually read a lot of pure fluff, but it was a joy to go spelunking through the tag and all of these pieces made me smile and laugh when I read them.

Check them out! and leave a comment or kudos to let the authors know that you did 💜

Remember to post your fanfic and fanart recs for this week's fan work friday! And if this inspires you to make a fic rec list of your own, tag me in it so that I can read and promote your awesome recs (:

-

floriography by ritualist

Lace Harding/Josephine Montilyet | G | 3001 words | No Archive Warnings Apply Author's Summary: When the Inquisitor asks how Skyhold is treating her, Harding can't help the smile on her face when she says, "Ambassador Montilyet sent me a basket of flowers." Mer's Rec: This one caught me up in Lace's sweet and fluffy personality from the start, and the author's grasp of Lace's voice and POV was so well done that I never saw the cute little twist coming at the end. The story captures many tiny details of Harding's position as the Inquisition's lead scout and beautifully contrasts her earnestness with Josephine's practiced poise. Their interactions make sense and flow seamlessly as the story progresses; it had me smiling and laughing like a dork the whole way through.

Girls Like Braids by Katuary

Female Cousland & Fergus Cousland | G | 1375 words | No Archive Warnings Apply Author's Summary: Elissa goes to her brother for help fixing the disaster she's wrought of her hair. He insists on hearing how the disaster happened in the first place Mer's Rec: Sibling Bias™️and bisexual panic - what more do I need to say? I'm such a sucker for genfic, and sibling fic in particular melts my heart. The relationship between Elissa and Fergus in this piece is beautifully crafted - from their teasing banter to the fact that Elissa ultimately trusts Fergus to help her when she needs it. The other thing that really struck me is how Katuary wrote Elissa's voice. Even though she's young, and her inner monologue reflects that, she never feels dumb or stupid or naive - she reads authentically as a young child and since I know how difficult that can be to capture in writing, I really loved seeing that portrayal in this story.

Desk by faithlessone

Cassandra Pentaghast/Male Trevelyan | T | 3443 words | No Archive Warnings Apply Author's Summary: The armory is unbearably loud and Cassandra goes off in search of somewhere else to work. Mer's Rec: This is a sweet moment in-between the canon for Cass/Trev and I loved how much is showed them as people beyond their jobs. That's something I often find omitted from stories about Cass, but it was really highlighted here to great success. The author also writes an established relationship incredibly well - the affection between Trevelyan and Cassandra is natural and (without giving too much away), the actions they take in the story feel authentic to a real romantic relationship.

if I had you and I could give you your dreams by calypsid

Hira/Miriam | G | 520 words | No Archive Warnings Apply Author's Summary: Miriam and Hira, at the end of it all. Or, how they kept their promise to each other, once and for always. Mer's Rec: what could have been in Absolution, if Dragon Age wasn't the series of Apostates Who Betray You ;-; This fic gives our cheese-farm gays their happy ending, and it also offers a brief but interesting perspective on the apocalyptic events of DAI from the common farmer they buy the land from! Happiness abounds, Hira and Miriam are just so in love, and we're all pretending the finale of Absolution never happened.

known by name by ophryetrash

Female Inquisitor & Inquisition Scouts | G | 2914 words | No Archive Warnings Apply Author's Summary: The Herald is different, but that's a good thing. Members of the Inquisition interact with her and they feel seen. Mer's Rec: Told from the perspective of the Inquisition's scouts, this is a lovely look at what it's like to be in the rank-and-file of the organization, and how it feels to interact with the people at the head of it all. I loved how the awe and wonder in each interaction grew into feelings of personhood, both for the scouts and about the Inquisitor herself. The banter between the scouts and their personalities makes this story shine and (if you're like me) you'll have a good laugh at the surprise cameo toward the end!

[voltstone]

…about the clementine comic (again): why is she illiterate?

I've already written an exhaustive essay about the Clementine comics written by Tillie Walden, and that was before the first book was out. It was more of a discussion of what was already seen from the teaser, Walden being an…interesting choice to write this, but more than that, it was to preemptively stake the claim that no, it isn't canon. Not in the way that's just "ew I hate this I refuse," but more so, "the games (and character) by design and functionality do not allow for single interpretations to adequately continue the story."

These comics can be…a canon. But not the canon.

In the same way as The Walking Dead Game's (TWDG) fanfiction, like my own where I'm writing only my canon interpretation, the others who do the same, and so on.

(This right here is the essay, by the by.)

It has been a couple years since then. I have read both comics, and there is a lot I can say about them. I may one day, but not right now.

Instead, I want to direct attention to how…weirdly anti-apocalyptic it is?? Because it bothers me. A lot. That I'm watching a Clementine as a character get reduced to a kid who doesn't know how to read or write, doesn't know how to dress and care after a wound...

All things necessary for survival—the reading especially within an apocalyptic setting. Which. No. I'm not kidding. I do mean that.

Before I really indulge in my grievances, however, I will start by outlining the world that TWDG has established, and what it actually takes to survive within it.

(And yes, this is another lengthy post.)

[Surviving the Apocalypse]

Throughout the games, we ultimately see the apocalypse under two overarching eras. The initial stage is calamity. The walkers swiftly overrun what people upheld as a stable, and very secure way of life. And the fact that it only takes one factor to destroy the "we're untouchable" notion, it's terrifying. (Which, on that note, though the undead is an extreme, we did maybe learn this post-COVID. Ergo, stories like these may resonate a little bit better than they had before.)

What's different about The Walking Dead (TWD) as a universe is that…, the true calamity arguably doesn't hit until later, because the dead themselves aren't what really destroys the untouchable mindset as before. In most universes, such as The Last of Us, it's something contagious that you don't want. However, it is also something to overcome and fix. Though the dead in TWDG's cousin is far more brutal, if you isolate them, or find a way to vaccinate…, there could feasibly be a future where the fungus is more akin to rabies or the black plague rather than a devastating change in society.

Because that's how diseases like these work. They will never go away, especially if humanity mishandled their responses to them. Rabies is still out there, because it is a violent disease (am also under the impression that walkers is very synonymous with rabies, but I digress). The Black Plague? That whole thing? Yeah, the plague itself is also still out there. The problem was solved by nature, where a fire torched all of London.

But since then, we have vaccines. We know better (…I hope) in how to appropriately respond. And…that's the best we can do. Pathogens will always dictate life.

Of course, this isn't to undermind what outbreaks as seen in those other stories do to the world. They evidently are a turning point, if not the end, of humanity's way of life. The reason why, however, falls more in-line with a society being greatly unprepared, and a virus, fungus, whatever being the perfect amalgamation that spreads rapidly. It's what we as humans have gone through, will go through, to an absolutely extreme. Complete annihilation. That kind of deal.

Here's the thing about TWD, and I honestly could go on and on with this (and why it's my favorite apocalypse I've seen in fiction):

The bite is not what does it. Everyone is infected.

And the longer you think about it, that in itself will not end. I'm in the camp that it would be maternally passed-down given how blood circulation works within pregnancy, so. You know.

The point here is TWD as an apocalypse is very unique in this one change. It fundamentally breaks how people approached these kinds of stories. The walkers are not particularly fast because they don't have to be. They are a looming presence. As they deteriorate, because they're so slow-moving (as apposed to clickers), they manage to tell their own stories in how they died. You can see if they were bit, or starved, or shot… List goes on.

They are representative of nature reclaiming the world, and on top of that, a dangling threat to anyone who has the gall to think they're above it.

Because they're not. So either make sure your head is shot, or deal with walking around like a mangy pile of rot.

It changed how people approached this because rather than a devastating outbreak, this feels like a sort of damnation. There is a very bleak sense of finality to this universe—to the point where… Yeah. They could live on, try to find a cure, but this is it.

This is the true calamity of this world—not the walkers themselves, but the fact that they are there to stay, there is no going back. At least, for a long, long, long time. You can't just isolate them. If someone dies the wrong way, there could be one in the room right with you. Hence…making sure your head is shot.

And as with in the games, it is such a bleak reality that it forces people to just move on.

Which they do. The way to survive this initial era is, amongst a wide scope of things, to accept the fact and carry forth.

The characters that don't, and are simply too rooted in the past, like Katjaa… Well, they don't make it, do they? There's a reason why we don't see that many unable to let go after the first season, because they don't last. If they do, like with Tenn, it's because they got lucky and had a community to fall back on. Regardless, given what we see with Katjaa, Season One (S1) is this time.

The second era of the apocalypse is seeding. Both in the literal sense, and symbolic.

I'm not talking established communities, no. The closest we get to that is the boarding school, given they do have established practices. But, with how many things need to be done, the schoolkids are still within this second era.

Season Three (S3) is arguably the first season of the four solidly within the second era. Sure, there are still scavengers, but there are also several communities at once—enough so that the conflicts between end up being why they fail, not purely the dead. This leaves Season Two (S2) to be the fitting chaos that ensues between the eras, where much of the world is scavenging, they're reminded of how cruel winter is actually, but there are already solid efforts in building communities; then, Season 4 (S4) as well within the second era, with clear signs that there is the gradual chance of establishment.

The second era requires not only what the first proposes—moving on—, but also a sense of ingenuity. They're left with the scraps of the past world, but that past world also grew out of the earth, so they can cobble those scraps and earth together and make something out of it. We have Prescott on the airstrip; that is the epitome of cobbling things together. There's Richmond, and Howe's Hardware as well, where it's making use of the scraps left behind to establish proper farms. Then Ericson's as a meld of both—the kids have their structure, but they needed to feed off the land. (Not quite at the farm stage like the others were.)

All of what I've discussed thus far, however, is on an overarching scale (and isn't exactly exhaustive either). It can be extrapolated and used in reference to an individual's survival, but there are ways to better articulate an individual's survival than just…get the fuck over it, and build a farm.

And what's interesting is there is a vast difference in requirements depending on how they choose to survive.

With a community. Or. Alone.

The benefits to a community is you yourself don't have to encompass the three traits to survive. (Oh, yeah, this essay will have three primary traits of surviving on an individual scale; obviously there will forever be more nuance, but…shush. I'm typing.) Within a community, you can rely upon others that do encompass the three traits—and it doesn't have to be all in one person. The people within a community can specialize in skills.

And the schoolkids best emulate this.

Tenn and Willy, though they have their own skillsets, are example of those who need to rely on others. Both have the school, though they are closest to Violet and Mitch respectively—those, if asked, would likely be considered the closest thing to caretakers that either boys have.

And right alongside them, Louis, because my man…would like to say he's allergic to work, but really, it's the self-doubt. Now, if not a person who is reliant, he is good for raising spirits. He knows games to play. He brings entertainment.

There's Marlon, who's the well-spoken leader. Ruby, who plays nurse. Aasim, who…writes? Writing's important and stuff in the apocalypse, right?

(Yes. It is. Again, we will get to that, so, hush-up.)

Rosie. Dog. (This is also very important. You can pet her!)

Mitch was likely the muscle, or something along those lines. Omar, the cook.

I would say Brody sits near the "needs to rely" camp, given her anxiety, though, she does actually pull her weight, ergo, support. You can task her with anything. She'll likely be able to do it, such as with fishing and hunting.

Violet was also probably another support, though it is difficult to really tell at the beginning because she's withdrawn from the rest of her people. (I've always felt the Violet we meet at the start isn't who she was before the twins left. Of course, Violet is Violet, but… Depression, and stuff. Probably BPD stuff.) Here's the thing though: come to find, Violet is also another thing.

That being deputy. She can step-up and play leader when need be, but will step down because that isn't quite what she is—hence why the leadership ultimately goes from Marlon to Clementine by the end. This has Violet be the ultimate support. She can do whatever, fill in the leadership role, so on and so forth.

As the community develops, the others will find more nuances in themselves like these. Beyond what I've outlined, and the present nuances already in S4.

The thing with this line-up to understand is there's huge variety here. Not only in the nature of each role, but also their complexity. Because…, turns out, there's a lot to living.

Which. I mean. All of that is no shit, Sherlock. Because yeah.

When I go on about, say, Violet, it's to explain a very specific concept that one word is not going to do. There's a specific reason why I say deputy, and not second-hand; there is a thing where roles will and do change depending on circumstance, and time. (As with Willy (and Tenn) when he grows up, and when Louis becomes more confident.) But this doesn't mean it's more important. When I say "Omar, the cook," or "Ruby, who plays nurse," neither are to designate either as lesser roles.

They're actually crucial. Because no fucking shit. You need to eat. You need to learn how to mend yourself.

It's why those roles are so…simple. Because title alone says everything.

Certain roles, like Violet's (which…may or may not be ironic), are very community-centric. Others, like Omar and Ruby's, are fundamental to just life. And what you see is within communities, those fundamentals go from just skillsets to an art or to a science. When you have people who specialize in each, they are given the time and space to truly understand the ins and outs of what they're doing.

Cut to alone.

Those like Clementine.

Surviving alone is difficult because not only are all of these crucial roles in the community on one set of shoulders, there has to be great sacrifice. Of course, a leader or deputy isn't needed because there's just one. The social aspect of a community is not present.

With that social aspect follows specialization of the core fundamentals.

You need to eat. You need to learn how to mend yourself. And defend...

When you are on your own, without the security of a home, you are not given the time nor the space to truly know those ins and outs. So, when you look at those like Clementine, yes. She's not going to know little tricks, or the sciences, in what she does. The stitching for example:

Clean it. Sew the fucking body part shut. Wrap if you can. There you go, you just did stitching.

Which she does. However, S2, part of why the dog bite (oh, and yes, comic people? yeah, there's supposed to be a deep, concerning scar down her left forearm) scarred the way it did is because 1) …um, she was in a shed, dunking-back apple juice in between sutures in my case, getting jumped by a dead dude, and 2) the stitch-work was very rudimentary. Enough to close the wound and have it heal, sure. Then, S3, the same with Javi; Kate upon inspection does mention that she sees it bleeding through, indicating that again, it's very rudimentary. But, we have Eleanor examine it, and she notes that it is satisfactory, so long as it's looked after.

Had someone like Ruby, or better yet Eleanor (who Dr. Lingard complimented this exact skill) done it, they would have known different stitch techniques that not only closes the wound tight, but also leaves minimal scarring. And the other things, like how to adapt the techniques to different parts of the body, because…no, you really can't just stitch a knee like you would a back.

But again, Clementine didn't have the time to really learn the specifics. She's busy learning how to cook, and hunt, and defend, and scavenge supplies, drive, shoot, car maintenance, feeding a child, taking care of the child, protecting the child, prioritizing necessities…

Essentially, in terms of community vs solo, it's an argument between the specialized, and the jack of all trades.

Stay with me now. I'm not exactly done going over what is needed to survive, because there are more. There's the three traits I mentioned. But as I babble on, once the discussion over the comic begins, I do hope it's clear as to why I am going through these things as meticulously as I am.

Now we get to why Clementine of all girls would be able to live in this kind of environment. She's a kid, but like…young adult given the context. (I'm sure the medieval ages wouldn't argue.) She's like…stupid, or something. She only went to so much school, and we all know that only smart people graduate from school. I never met a dumbfuck at college ever! No!

…got a little side-tracked.

Genuinely though, what is it about Clementine?

I'll start this with a curveball:

What is the dumbest thing that she has ever done within the games?

There's room for debate, but the majority will probably point to S1, where she goes on to trust the voice at the other end of her radio—the voice being the Stranger's.

It's the decision that we, as an audience, thought Clementine was above doing even at that age. It's also what ultimately kills Lee.

Here's the thing, though:

Clementine putting faith into the Stranger wasn't just a child being stupid. For one, she is…eight/nine. So. A child. But, two, it was an exercise of her greatest flaw:

"She's a puzzle."

Something that is brought up, time and time again. To my mind, it's most notably done by Katjaa, whenever they're beside the train, and Duck is of ailing health. Clementine sits on her own log. Doesn't respond much to Lee, not until Chuck (as a breath of fresh air) comes to join the party.

See, she heard a voice from the other end of this radio—one of two (including the hat) mementos she has of her family—, and the one thing that she had in way of sanctuary. The Stranger said the right things, so she kept to herself with that radio, and let her desperation flourish.

Finding her parents was the one thing she wanted. So yes, through a child's gullibility, and a man's manipulation, she believed the wrong person.

We see this sort of flaw propagate time and time again. Granted, it does depend on the player's interpretation of her for S2 and S4, given we play as her, but in S3 where she's (quite literally, for the most part) out of our hands, what does she do? She keeps to herself. What happened to A.J? was a question on our minds, largely because of her reluctance to open up. Clementine lies to Javi about the New Frontier, then she turns around and explains her lie…, reveals her branding…, purely for survival's sake, not because she wholeheartedly trusts him.

Of course, in S3 it's understandable that she doesn't just open up to Javi. That game covers only a handful of days—short of a week by the end—, with the exception of the flashback sequences. (As opposed to S1, across several months, S2, a few weeks to a month, give or take, and S4, which sits about the same.)

Still, however. This is absolutely a part of Clementine's character: she's reserved. Without the player, her first inkling is to keep herself from the topic of conversation.

The thing to understand about this flaw, and how it bleeds into the comics, is that…I think(?) Walden acknowledged this part of her character. But…half of it.

The reason why comic Clementine pulled away from the boarding school is because she…, as she does…, kept to herself after her leg, got into her own head, and thusly ran off. I will say, I do agree that Clementine would be an absolute fucking mess with her leg gone because she has to rely on people again. (Which is devastating because of her specific trauma: à la parentification.)

Now…, run away…? Um…

(…it's also this specific trauma that… Um. Yeah no, she would not leave A.J.)

Whatever. Not the point of this essay.

The other half of this flaw, the half that the comics blatantly miss, speaks to quite an…insightful aspect of Clementine:

She is a very, very perceptive individual. Because the thing we see in S1 is that she's not just quiet. She's watching. She's observant. Clementine is quiet, not only because she gets into her own head, but because she's taking in the world, and so she notices things that other people don't pick up on.

Throughout S1, there will be moments where Lee can try to sugarcoat things, particularly after Duck's bite, only for Clementine to say it plainly:

"You don't know that."

Those moments speak to a kid who knows the difference between reality and not, and telling Clementine that she won't get snatched or bit is…not reality. It will likely happen, and it does.

Other moments, she'll notice details in the environment. She can point them out. Help Lee, as with getting into the train station. Make a comment, like in Hershel's barn with the "dookie"/shit/manure.

Or, back in the drugstore, where Carley (…not too subtly) outs Lee as a murderer in front of Clementine. …which, of course, Clementine picks up on. (The trigger for this is to pick up the photo of Lee with his family, hence why it can be before or after moving the desk.) To which, upon leaving the drugstore's office, she'll ask about it, and you'll have the option of being open and honest, sugarcoating it, or just flat out lie.

Staying in the drugstore! Lee asks for something to bar the entrance. Walkers are scratching to get a nibble. And? Immediately, she goes to his dad's cane (cuz that man ain't using anymore!).

S2. Same spiel. Because…, oh boy, incompetence is rampant as it turns out, and as I've stepped into adulthood for myself, I've come to appreciate that season as essentially "Clementine learns why the motel family fell apart, adults are grown ass children, she has to babysit them— KENNY, DOWN! STOP IT! STOP BITING THE RUSSIAN!— throughout a winter."

Because. Newsflash. Adults? About as stable of a concept as a table with a missing leg, then another one of mangled-together cutlery. And I will forever adore stories from a kid's perspective slowly realizing this fact.

(…also, parentification's a knocking. It wants in.)

Then, S3, where she gave up being the hero, but still…, somehow…, rattles off exactly what the player needs to do and where to get the tools when stealing a truck because she just can't help herself.

…okay, I think I've done enough. S4 also speaks for itself.

Point being, Clementine is a very perceptive, very resilient, and very adaptive person. It's why she out of all the kids she comes across is the one to survive.

Sarah immediately comes to mind as someone who really struggled with adapting. She can, but the tragedy of it is that it's not in time. Too little, too late. (Circumstances also don't help.)

With Gabe (if he dies), same kind of thing. He always struck me as someone painfully unaware of how good he had it, and how bad everything else was. And he needed to grow up. Fast. But again, that alone isn't what saves him—his uncle, and/or Clementine do(es). If he's saved at all, anyway.

Duck? Same fucking thing. And it was his death, through Chuck, that spurred Lee to start teaching Clementine the basics.

To which she adapts, and she adapts well. Their first outing doesn't go…all that great. Clementine freezes. But, throughout S1, she does shoot her first walker (with Omid, or in Crawford). If Lee cannot fight off the Stranger, she will be the one to kill him. And then, of course, the whole Lee death scene thing.

The second season starts off with Omid dropping because of a neglected gun. (Clementine freezes again.) Change is always on rocky road—despite the season prior, she still had a lot to learn, and she did throughout said season.

Perceptive, and resilient, and adaptive. To be those is the ticket to survival. Those are the three.

So why…does it seem like the comics don't know?

[VANCOMYCIN]

To anyone unaware, vancomycin is not a random string of letters for Clementine to work her mouth through. In fact, she knows how to read it. Had to, in order to inject this medicine into A.J within S3—whether or not she goes through with it is dependent on player choice.

Vancomycin, to give a better idea of the sheer desperation she was in, is not something to treat the common cold or flu. It's to treat Gram-positive bacterial infections—hence why it wouldn't necessarily work for colds or flu, given most are virus-borne—, and is generally synonymous with more serious infections.

Meaning. A.J was genuinely sick.

(My hunch is bacteria-borne pneumonia.)

I don't know what most of the fandom assumed, but it was not just a little bug. It was…bad. And a legit miracle that he survived (whether it be without the injection, or…with the injection where Clementine poked the syringe through his shirt? Game? Graphics?).

What likely happened was, somewhere down the line, he either just caught something on an off chance (the world hasn't been sanitized), or he got too close to danger and got himself sick that way off of one of the walkers/animals around. (If it was pneumonia, he likely inhaled something.) Regardless, Clementine was at a point where she…just did not have the resources to help him, would not know where to look, wouldn't feasibly be able to scavenge for it, and so she joined the New Frontier (whether or not you had her agree initially) because it was just that bad.

It is a heavy drug. Not only does it give insight as to why Clementine chose to join regardless of your choice for her, it also explains why the group threw her out for even handling it. It's not like aspirin that's easy to come by.

And, of course, there's the pronunciation of it. As with every medical term like this, it looks and sounds convoluted, but as you break it down, it's pretty straightforward.

Keep this in mind as I rattle on further. I find the vancomycin to be a very succinct contrast to what I take issue with in the comics.

Speaking of, the comics.

Hello there.

…Clementine.

The Clementine Comics, by Tillie Walden, read as a hard reset on the series, from S1 onward. Which yes, is the core issue. There was no effort in even trying to continue off from S4, it was just a way to have Clementine still run around, while avoiding the whole Telltale-RPG implications of a continuation.

So, if you're somehow out of the fandom and you're reading this, hi? Welcome. This is why people are upset about the comic, and for once, no, it's not just because this fanbase is being…unhinged. (In a bad way.)

On top of the plot decisions, however, there are things that just prove Walden was not the artist for this project. The artstyle is an interesting(?) fit for TWDG, but ultimately is an aside. There's the focus on romance. There's the dull characters.

And then there's Clementine herself. Very out of character, and that's coming from someone whose Clementine has…made decisions in her life.

What this essay will focus on, however, is the choices made to have Clementine incompetent.

Medically so.

In the first book, Clementine is taught how to clean and dress her amputated leg. I can get behind learning how to wrap the thing properly, because it is a different part of the body, and it's a different angle—on herself, not someone else.

But she asks…why she needs to clean it. Like she doesn't know. Clementine has to be taught that.

This kind of ignorance then follows her into the second book, because she fell ill (and slipped into a month-long coma??), largely due to her not cleaning the wound. Her leg had an infection. And it spread.

…okay. Um.

That's very interesting considering Clementine:

(S2) Got bit by a dog, felt like she needed to take care of it herself due to circumstances, cleaned it, sutured the wound with fishing wire, and then went to bandage it (before getting attacked). (By the way, the scar is not on comic Clementine. So.)

(S2; optional) Can sit beside Rebecca during her pregnancy to help, but then does have to assist with the walker/lurker problem.

(S2) Tended to Kenny's lost eye because he was beaten by a walkie-talkie by cleaning it.

(S2) Probably had to deal with that whole wound in her shoulder, you know, from the FUCKING RIFLE SHOT, either with Kenny, Jane, those at Wellington, or on her own (feat A.J). (No, they did not patch it up because time, and it went clean through. When Jane and Kenny fought, Clementine just had an open bullet hole.)

(S2/S3) Had to take care of a baby. With Jane or Kenny or in Wellington, and/or on her own.

(S3; alone S2 ending) Broke her finger on a car door to the point where she (presumably) had to amputate and cauterize the finger herself.

(S3) THE WHOLE VANCOMYCIN THING. I WILL GET BACK TO THAT.

(S3) Cleaned and sutured Javi's arm after he got shanked (cuz Gabe… never mind).

(S4) Twas a great start. Car accident—boo boo head.

(S4) Had to patch-up A.J cuz he got shot by a shotgun. And was in recovery for two weeks.

(S4; optional) Louis/Violet gets their finger chopped off. Probably helped deal with that.

(S4) Um. Her leg? You know. The one she lost, and the schoolkids managed to get her stable. Willing to bet Ruby would lose her fucking shit if it wasn't cleaned properly.

And that's just what we do see, in regards to Clementine personally.

Do I…have to go on and explain why it's fucking stupid that she doesn't know the basic information she had to learn in the comics? No?

Okay. Good.

I will get back to it, because I think this choice is indicative of a larger issue. We'll get to that weird…bias the comics have with Clementine being negligent and ignorant to all things medical.

Because now, we're here.

Not only is Clementine ignorant medically, she struggles to read her way through a dictionary. There's scenes of her sounding out words like she's in preschool.

For what reason?! Because in a world where people don't have higher education, they just don't read and write?! What?!

Okay, so, no, I didn't outline precisely why reading and writing (more so reading) is crucial of a skillset to have within an apocalyptic setting. I will do so now.

Because it's the crux of this essay. Hence why I've given it its own section. (…that's what this is, by the way.)

Why is it, exactly, "so" important Volt? Society's gone!! You don't need to read!

Listen up, ✨ dipshit ✨ This is an apocalypse. Not a nomadic setting.

Okay, that was a little mean. If you're asking this, you're not a dipshit.

Anyway, I am being genuine here. To the point where even implying that nomads by nature are illiterate is also…wrong. Because that's not necessarily true either, but assuming so falls into such an ignorant bias that people in 1st world countries have. (The same that the comics have.)

And this bias is the reason why I really, really want to have this discussion because the comics really rubbed me the wrong way with this, and, I'm kinda sick and tired of reading other people implying the same thing.

So let's start here:

What distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom? Why is it we consider ourselves more intelligent?

The answer boils down to one thing:

Our mouths.

We can talk. And in doing so, we can communicate to each other very complex and nuanced concepts that require articulation beyond body language and emotion.

It's why we're able to distinguish things like envy versus just being irritated by someone. Because frankly? They physically feel the same because they are the same emotion. The context is what differentiates envy vs irritability. The why.

"I feel [this] because I want what they have." vs "I feel [this] because they're being stupid right now."

The [this] is the same. The body only has so many ways it can tell you what you're feeling, so it ends up boiling down to very basic emotions, where they can be felt at different extremes, or in unison. So. You know. Think Inside Out. What makes envy special is…you have to take context into consideration. Yes, it is also irritability, but it goes beyond that. And it requires language to communicate such a thing.

When you look at animals, that's why they're "unintelligent." They respond to what they feel the way they do because they don't have a way to articulate it. So they just react. Rather blindly in our eyes. Same thing with babies. They haven't gone through language acquisition just yet—they're in the same boat. It's also why a lot of dog breeds are said to "have the same intelligence as a 3 year old." It's related to language. They feel the same emotions, or whatever equivalent (can't claim I know how their bodies process emotions). However, they physically cannot exercise language verbally. Ergo, they're more or less stunted in the acquisition.

And then you have that we are wired to speak. Our mouths by design are made to verbalize complex sounds. A lot of our brain power is in being able to talk, or at least comprehend patterns in speech if the individual is mute. I for one was a child who rarely spoke for my first ~4/5 years, but I knew what people were saying. (Funnily enough, I was a lot like A.J.)

Beyond emotions, it's also to communicate things rather than [follow me, are you following, I'm looking at you, follow me,] it's "okay, I'm going over here, meet me by this tree." There's immediate clarification. There's a passage of thought between two brains. We don't have to interpret body language as much, we have to comprehend words.

To the rest of the animal kingdom, that makes us already mind-readers. Given that people are honest, and can articulate well, we literally are.

…it's also this emphasis on verbal language that has people be real fucking shit a reading body language, but whatever.

The point here is language is so fucking important. And there's a reason why we started writing things down. Some of the first records of written language, hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, were to keep track of agriculture. We also forget things, so we wrote those down. Heard of the Iliad? The Odyssey? Those were orally passed down for generations, but Homer decided to scribe them so they weren't forgotten. (From what I remember, he wrote those during the Hellenistic era of the mythos. …I want to say the stories come from the Mycenaean times?)

And above all.

Long distance communication. Or. Leaving behind knowledge.

So there would be couriers. There would be scholars who learned from scrolls of scribes decades before them.

(In modern times…, labels on products so that you know what it is, how to use it… Just a thought.)

Language is what makes us different. And by proxy, writing helps us retain that.

It is never something people are just going to abandon when the world goes to shit. If anything, it's going to be the one thing people will grapple onto by the skin of their teeth.

Out of the two, yes, language would come first. There are many cultures that lived (even thrived) without having a true writing system, and did just fine because the culture had such an emphasis on oral tradition, or other ways in cementing their culture to the test of time. A lot of the Native American cultures come to mind. Nowadays, however, there's been an effort to have them written so they aren't lost because…colonialism. I don't really need to explain that, but I do think the history is important to understand (the linguist in me is also morbidly fascinated). In summary, however, the way in which these cultures were torn apart rattled people, and people saw their way of life was evaporating with every person lost. They couldn't leave anything physical behind.

I do bring this contrast to light, however, because there is a detail to understand about an apocalyptic setting, and its relationship with written word: it's reflective of what society fell. If the society before was like a lot of the Native cultures, where their culture was recorded through oral traditions and other practices, then sure, I would expect the people left behind to be "illiterate". …at least, in terms of writing. They're literate in those oral traditions and practices.

But, that's not TWDG. What we have is a society that is reliant on writing. So much of our world is articulated through an alphabet printed onto a surface.

In any case, back to the apocalyptic setting.

Another thing is, yes, we do see language come before writing. In survival, it does land people in situations where it's "I don't have time, I've been starving, I'm going to grab all the food in this place before the books." Of course. Then you have that books are heavy. You're not going to realistically carry a library around. You're going to choose other things that would help immediately.

Like a knife. Or a gun.

Those do better bashing heads in than a book (but a tome wouldn't do that bad).

Here's the thing though. To step back to how reliant our society is on writing, I don't think people realize just how much they read. (Hint: you're reading right now. You had to read in order to navigate this page.) So here's the follow images of things that, in an apocalypse, are pivotal for survival, and requires of you reading comprehension:

Signs. Food labels. First Aid labels. Maps. Manuals. Guidebooks.

You need to know where you're at. You need to understand what it is you're eating, how to cook it, and quality (ex: expiration). You need to understand first aid, what you're working with and how to apply it. You need to know where you're going. If you have equipment (like, say, a car) that you're not privy to, but need it, you need to learn basic maintenance. If you're not familiar with how to do certain activities (how to make jerky, how and where to put your urine/fecal matter), you can learn in a guidebook.

Literacy is about self-sufficiency. And each of these represent different aspects of how to live off of the scraps of a failed society.

Signs are pretty straightforward. They're articulated landmarks, and given how streets are, they're good to follow for navigation. If they're signs for complexes, they're a good way to know where you should scavenge should you be looking for a specific thing. Ex: hardware supplies; you're trying to build a camp. Either it's get lucky, or go over to someone's garage, or go over to a hardware store.

Food and First Aid labels are different things—the way they're organized is very different—, however, they serve the same purpose: those are there to inform consumers how to eat/utilize. Even though each have a very specific language, they are designed so that people not specialized in food or medicine can use them. This also applies to a lot of agriculture. Things like seed packets. Or anything that can be planted. If it has a consumer-base, there's a label on it. If it doesn't have instructions, it will most likely inform what it is.

Maps is where we start to get into more "optional" territory. Do you necessarily need a map to survive? No. It would be a life-saver to know where you are, even away from where the society was established. It would also tell you where the next town vs city is (which, to someone like Clementine who may be inclined to avoid cities, she would know which roads to take).

Manuals and guidebooks, again, are the same. They also fall into the kind of thing where weight now has to be considered.

But. Here's the thing: how many people know how to go camping? How many people were ever in boy/girl scouts? And how many more people didn't have to learn any of that because society promised security and the fact that…we don't need to focus on survival?

Okay sure, go on and on and on about how people who knew those skills already and prepped for the apocalypse would be the ones to survive. Because, uh, don't know about you, that's not necessarily how that works (luck is always a thing, and people surprise you), but also, within TWDG, I can only come up with so many people who would fall into that camp: Lilly, Mark, maybe Larry (military experience), Christa (got the vibe), Pete. Um… …Carver? He talked about, like, sheep and stuff. In reference to people, sure, but like… Uh. Hm. Well shit.

You know all the people who didn't have the experience before the apocalypse? Everyone. Fucking. Else. Including Clementine.

This is the reason why manuals and guidebooks are invaluable. They speak to a luxury because you do have the space and capacity to carry them around, so that you can gather what knowledge they have. And people just don't know this shit. Community helps, because you may meet someone who does, or has read up on it, so you don't have to. But when you're alone? …kinda a really, really good thing to have.

And none of that is going into how important books are in just passing the time. People get bored. Books are nice if you got a bum leg.

Regardless, my point should be quite clear. Sure, reading and writing will not be important in the same immediate regard, and neither will be as prolifically done as it was before. Within an apocalypse, it's not about texting, or emails, or news reports, or essays… None of that. Ergo, they're designated as an investment that weighs heavy (quite literally). It takes time to read. It takes strength and space to lug them around. You may not have any.

However. With all of what I raised, it goes back why it is, actually, so fucking important to be literate to some capacity. And to build upon that literacy. Because these people are not just living in caves. They're not in a place where humans have never gone before—quite the opposite.

Which makes it an apocalypse.

In order to navigate within the carcass of a fallen society, you need to be able to comprehend the very scraps that you're taking from said society. It left behind food, and medicine, and tools, and machinery, and knowledge. To just put that all to waste because you can't read?! Really?!

And what about a life-and-death situation where it entirely depends upon your skills in being able to read and comprehend information given to you?

I'm going to go back to the vancomycin now.

It's not something the game harps upon, but it is significant enough to Clementine's arc in S3. This medicine, regardless of injection, is why she could not see A.J, and why she had such a resentment for the New Frontier. They said they could help. In her eyes, they instead left him to die.

It is also a significant point of interest as far as this essay is concerned. Because this scene alone encapsulates all of what I'm rattling on about:

The medicine itself is a scrap of her past society. They're not making these anymore, and while I can…question how good that medicine would be by this point in time after the apocalypse (shots do have an expiration date; they also need to be stored appropriately, like in refrigerators or freezers), the vancomycin represents a limited, valuable resource.

Clementine's comprehension of what this medicine is, and why she needs it, speaks to something far from an ignorance medically. She is competent. She even knows to ensure there aren't air bubbles trapped in the syringe (hence why she lets some of the drug out before injecting; air bubbles can lead to…really nasty ways to die).

How she actually knows which drug to use, well… Either someone wrote it down for her, or she wrote it down herself. Maybe Dr. Lingard told her, or she found a resource somewhere and realized that's what she needed. It speaks to literacy, despite the challenge medical terms often have—even for medical professionals themselves.

This…is what it takes to live in an apocalypse. You have to be perceptive, and resilient, and adaptive.

Part of that adaptation is being perceptive of your environment. This environment asks you to read it—because it says everything, wears its heart on its sleeve. Ergo, you have to adapt by learning how to read.

Maybe not novels, or scriptures, but specific things. Like signs, or labels. Maps.

But this comic, it falls into a bias that a lot of people have.

And that bias bothers me. A lot.

[Why Does This Hurt Me So?]

There are three reason why this just does not work for me.

First of which, Clementine's characterization. The continuity of it. I really don't have to go on about this, since if I do, I'd just regurgitate all of what I've established before. For the sake of this section, it's just that Clementine is medically competent, just not in a specialized sense, and she knows how to read to get by. (She even starts to teach A.J how to both read and write.)

Now we'll get to the larger points of discussion.

Secondly...

How the fuck did Tillie Walden get this project?

Say what you want about the artstyle, or the characterizations, or the narrative. None of that is really what this essay is on, but are all viable criticisms down this same line of thought. You have the artstyle being very whimsical…, but…since when has TWDG been about whimsy? Or the characterizations? Which…, by now, we know about that—again, I don't need to regurgitate. Then, the narrative too? Why does it read like a romance by the time the second book comes around, rather than a story of survival?

Actually, that last one may be relevant to this after all.

Walden does not write apocalyptic works. Of course, there is no correct way in writing an apocalypse, but I'd argue this is one of the wrong ways. Not only do these comics misinterpret the bulk of Clementine's character, and precisely why she's been able to survive as long as she has—to the point where her playing the games at all is put into question—, these comics also have a strange notion on basic intelligence, and does the thing where people without school are just…stupid, almost, if not plainly illiterate.

It goes against what I've outlined as a mark of an apocalyptic setting—the survival both within nature, and within the rotting shell of the society it once was.

And, it feeds into this bias that I keep bringing up.

That bias is the third reason, and it's not a comment on Walden herself, because she's far from the only person I've seen/heard make the same assumption(s).

The bias I refer to is what I'd like to call the Modern Intelligence Fallacy. I'm confident that I and this essay are far from the first to comment on this…thing people do.

Essentially, it's whenever people judge the past and/or present group of people for being "dumber" than the current society they're based on, solely because "we're modern; we have technology, and medicine, and schools. And we know how to read and write too." It's when people undermine other cultures and/or time periods because they themselves are ignorant to what intelligence actually means.

Going back to Native Americans, and any cultures alike that didn't have a written structure. I've heard people make comments and assumptions, rather ignorant ones. But the fact is, no. The lack of a writing system is not indicative of intelligence, it's indicative of what the culture valued, and how they wanted to express that.

Part of why writing is such a core element in many European cultures, for example, is because…colonization. Look at English, and why it's such a patchwork language. They had to find ways to communicate long distance, because have of them were separated be countries between. Ergo, they wrote. Nowadays, there's telephone, or video. Then, there are other contexts which beckoned for writing, but I digress.

With a lot of these Native cultures, they valued community. That's why so many of their traditions fall within that, and that's how they communicated and passed down their history. Essentially, they just found other ways to do what the other cultures around the world were doing, and it worked for them, so what of it?

The attitudes behind this fallacy doesn't care, however. This bias does put value on the presence of language in written word in regards to intelligence, and an overall sense of superiority.

Yes, I've gone through and maintained that I do not believe, for a second, that Clementine is illiterate, and I've been defending that tooth and nail. I also do put value in language—I'm a writer, and I love linguistics. Of course I do.

And that's the awkward bent in this essay.

So, I must say, the thing to understand is…it's not really about the language itself. It's the attitudes behind the bias.

You here to argue that Clementine isn't as competent reader/writer like a girl her age would be now? (…present issues with the school system aside,) yeah. Probably.

But then why…does the comic have her be negligent with medicine? To the point where it comes across as, "Yeah, Clementine! Clean your wound! Everybody should know that! And that's just the basics!

"Silly kid in an apocalypse! She needed a grown adult to carefully explain it to her!! Oh boy, we would be so lost without our society now!"

This is why I've also taken note on the medical throughout all this. Because the medical practices aren't really related to literacy. You can be told, like Clementine was in the games, and go from there.

In the comics, however, the moments where she's told about how to take care of her leg, and the moments where she is learning how to read… They read the same. Because they are the same. They're commenting on this weird idea that humans would be stupid without our current advances, which is ridiculous because in order to have said advances…, we needed to be learning this shit before in order to create them.

These moments come from this Modern Intelligence Fallacy, and it bothers me because, let's face it, we're just as smart as we've always been.We have more knowledge. Whether it's we pass them down through specific traditions, or we've written them down to share beyond time and distance. But in terms of intelligence… No.

Do you know how many stupidass people there are out there?

There's tons of them. If anything, there's more of them now because they can rely on their communities to do the heavy lifting. And they saddle themselves right beside the people who need to rely on others, and not by choice.

I'm talking as though I'm not one of them. I don't know. I might be.

I did accidentally melt two plates in microwaves on two separate occasions so. If you want to take my words with a grain of salt, fine.

With that, though, hopefully my point(s) came across well enough.

[Conclusion]

And now I am left here. With…this.

I'm not as resigned as I was of TWDG since the comics came out, because quite frankly, there's so much to these comics where…it just feels like I'm not watching Clementine. Whether it be I'm on a couch silently judging someone else play the games, but nodding along to play nice, or just…this isn't the character at all… Yeah, I'm still stewing on it. But, I have my fanfiction, and I have the games. It is easy to ignore the comics.

The reason why I've decided to write this is 1) I find it interesting, 2) the bias people have is SUCH a pet peeve of mine, and 3) I am BAFFLED by Skybound. I honestly don't know what qualified Tillie Walden to write this, to the point where I'm frankly impressed.

It's one thing to hire someone who's unfamiliar with the franchise in hopes of an objective and new perspective, or an artstyle to try something new and unique...

And entirely another to hire someone who either isn't interested in writing, or doesn't know how to write, the genre. There are so many ways to go about writing in an apocalypse, but at its core, it will always be "no matter what, humans are going to human." This is how you can have stories of hope in an apocalypse. Or have them be bleak. And so on. With TWD, it's always been a meld of both.

Because it's human are going to human, this…bias towards any scenario where people are not traditionally educated gets in the way. Because "traditional education" is not traditional, actually. It's societal. What is traditional is people learning an array of skills to survive, much of which is medicinal, and with writing… That's dependent on the environment. Way back when, in times where the world didn't rely on literacy, absolutely not many people would be literate. But in eras where so much hinges on at least being able to navigate?

Or or, in times where you are relying on a recent past that did write and read as much as it did for survival? Um. Yeah. You do need to be able to at least read, if not write as well, for communication's sake. Which I didn't go much into, but oh well.

And this right here is what TWD is set in. This universe isn't a hard reset. You're effectively just going back a couple hundred years. All the infrastructures and scraps left behind are still there, just not maintained.

So… Yeah. I don't get it. The most I can fault Walden for is being negligent, but this is just…Skybound, not caring enough about this story to the point where they'll hire anybody for some reason.

I also don't get the bias people have about intelligence, and stuff, but I really…, really don't want to go on a spiel again. It incites violence within me. I've already gone and done a mini spiral over the comics themselves, and they were kinda but not even the point.

Ah well. I'll just crawl back to my hovel now. The links to some of the linguistic concepts I raised are below, if you want to do any additional research. The specific articles are more generalized to give a broad picture, but can be used as a jumping off point should they pique an interest.

I'm just gonna continue to write about my alcoholic Clementine.

Hope you enjoyed.

:)

Linguistic Articles:

History of Writing Systems (1), (2) ; Language Acquisition (1)

Native American Language History (1), (2), (3)

[centrally-unplanned]

Gonna try to do some seasonal anime takes, lets start with:

Heavenly Delusions

Episode one of HD has a shot that I really liked in episode 1, where main girl Kiruko is getting undressed for the first time (giving off a great impression out the gate aren't I?), and scars that riddle her body are revealed:

So, for one, the cracked mirror is just cool ya know, she is scarred, her world is scarred, good shit. Its also clever though - like sure, her shirt is covering her nipples, but sans that crack this would be a very risque shot. But we don't want it to be, this isn't meant to be a risque scene - she needs to be unclothed to show us her damage. So the crack is arranged to cover the breasts and make the scene work to organically highlight what its supposed to. It does double duty, and that is a sign of good directing.

Now, what isn't a sign of good directing is the entirety of the somber tone is undone by the following scene being a classic someone-walks-in-oh-no-I'm-naked moment and you get some minor but full-on fanservice...but its anime, its gotta hit its quota, whatever. And I will credit the show that jumping between comedic and extremely serious is what it does on the daily, it is being consistent here.

Yet it turns out I was a little bit wrong on the double-duty thing; this is more like triple duty. Because we learn in episode 2 that our girl Kiruko kindof isn't a girl - she is dysphoric:

There was even additional events during that original bathroom scene that suggested this too, so the foreshadowing intent is clear. Now I really like that original shot - the cracked mirror now cleaves his actual body, a split to mirror his own fractured identity. The fact that it downplays the sex organs is probably just a coincidence due to the others factor mentioned, but it still works thematically even better now!

But before you scramble to tune in to watch this egg hatch, its not what is going on here. This is an apocalyptic sci fi story, and Kiruko is actually Haruki, the brother of Kiruko, who died in a monster attack and had his fading brain swapped into Kiruko's body for mysterious reasons. Haruki/Kiruko is now questing to figure out the mystery of how that happened and why his sister died while he was saved. Its a dysphoria born of aberrant circumstances over identity.

Now that isn't the slam dunk it might come off as - using ~plot dynamics to create a new context for metaphorically exploring a real-life issue is a classic technique. It allows distance from the petty minutias of reality to apply focus on the author's own interests, allows the author to push boundaries intellectually with their creative freedom, and generally allows people who don't experience the issue in real life to relate via making the experience more universal. A show could absolutely do some interesting stuff with how someone copes with a body swapped and sex-swapped reality.

Here however is where genre rears its head; its just not going to do that. With its action-comedy premises and modern shounen-adjacent sensibilities (even if it is Seinen), its not interested in that kind of story. The premise reveals that - the 'origin story' for Haruki's swap is all about violence, betrayal, mystery, revenge. These concepts externalize the problem, placing the cause of them in other people and therefore the *resolution* of the problem in the hands of external interactions. I'm not saying there will be no complications, and hey, its episode 3, maybe I will be wrong! But when you have scenes like her male travel partner having his confession shot down this matter-of-factly:

To me all signs point to this being a plot device for drama or even comedic shenanigans than a vehicle for metaphorical identity & gender explorations.

Not helping is I looked into interviews with the author Masakazu Ishiguro, and while I find a little bit on gender exploration I what mainly found was a whole segment on his brother-sister complex, which really makes you think that might be the greater focus for the show.

This may came off as harsh, and its a critique for sure, but overall I am enjoying Heavenly Delusion's great art & character designs, fun setting, and mystery plot. I am just saying that the mirror shot I was so fond of is likely not going to deliver thematically on the meaning its directing imbued it with, which is disappointing to me.

But maybe we will at least get some fun genderbending flirting with the main duo along the way!

(We won't, sigh, this isn't even a good translation, HaruKiri is using the word bishounen, which you wouldn't translate as good-looking, its more specific - 'getting that pretty-boy look young girls favor', something like that. The tone is way more specific, and therefore less flattering. Anyway...)

[focusontheheart]

Meet the Team - Meliko, Audio Lead

Say hello to our Audio Lead, the incredibly inspiring Meliko, who is composing all the music for our game! You can find them on: tumblr @melikochan twitter: @melikomakes instagram: @melikomakes

Hey! I’m Meliko, and I can never decide on just one thing to do. I’m an artist, musician, and writer, with most of my fanworks belonging to the Horizon fandom. I’m doing interface design, sound effects, and music for the game.  I remember being immediately drawn to Horizon when it was first announced. Lush, vibrant, post-apocalyptic landscape? Check. Robot dinosaurs? Check check. Badass redheaded protagonist? Yeah, there was no way I wasn’t going to love this series. I played Zero Dawn, took a deep breath, and then immediately replayed it. Then again.  Though my love of the series started early, and I would occasionally reblog Horizon posts I found on Tumblr, I didn’t seek out and join the fandom until Forbidden West came out. The series resparked both my interest in writing fanfic and drawing fanart, which I hadn’t really done in years. It’s been a blast!

Q&A

What is a favourite piece of work you've done  (i.e. completed, working on, in concept), OR what is something you’ve always wanted to create for fandom? 

My recent multichapter Aloy/Alva fic, By the Love of the Ancestors. It ended up being twice as long as I’d scoped it, but I’m very happy with how it came out and the emotional depth I was able to build.

What are some of your favourite tropes (to read, write, draw, etc)?

I can’t resist a good enemies to lovers, or better yet—best friends divided by fate, brought back together in the end. It's probably my favorite kind of story across all mediums. I’m also a sucker for hurt/comfort, and smut with feelings. When it comes to writing, I like exploring characters through my work and their relationships, and I tend to obsess over expanding on the overall worldbuilding.

What is an unexpected thing or fun fact about you?

I’ve had this nickname since kindergarten!

What has been your favourite thing about working on this project so far?

Collaborating with so many fantastic community members, and getting to bring my music into the fandom as well.

[ruthlesslistener]

I never watched ONS, but I always see you grieving what became of it, so I am interested. Can you tell me what first got you into it, what is it about and why you fell out of it? I don't mind any spoilers because I don't intend to watch, I am just madly curious ^^

[takes a long, deep breath] oh boy where do i even start with this one.

Owari no Seraph is a textbook example of a series with amazing characters and great concepts that then gets completely dicked over by the author's own incompetence with writing. Pair that with blatant queerbait and the guy realizing halfway through that he's lost interest in his own main characters and vastly prefers his mary sue self-insert (Guren) instead, and you've got a recipe for a disaster. Which fucking sucks, because I cannot overstate the fact that the series starts off really strong with really good character and plot concepts, before devolving into an absolute goddamn disaster. Let me try to recount it for you, but keep in mind that it may be inaccurate because I dropped the series in like, 2018 so it's been a Hot Minute(tm)

Alright angry rant incoming. Putting this under a readmore bc it gets long

Basically, the story takes place after a cataclysmic apocalyptic event occurs where almost anyone over the age of 13 drops dead, leaving only a scattered handful of people and a whole fuckload of children behind to survive. After this mysterious event occurs, the vampires that inhabited the world came out of the shadows to round up the survivors and turn them into human livestock to ensure their own survival.

The protagonist of the story is a young orphan boy called Yuuichirou, who- alongside deuteragonist Mikaela and the rest of the orphans in Hyakuya orphanage- are captured and turned into vampire livestock, which the hotblooded and angry young Yuu hates, leading him to swear that he's going to become a vampire hunter and kill them all as revenge. Mika- who at the time was a sort of parental figure to the rest of the younger children and always trying to be sweet to Yuu, who rejected his affections bc both boys were severely abused and traumatized as children- finds a map to escape the underground vampire city that they're trapped in after essentially selling his body to a vampire noble, Ferid. But as it turns out, Ferid was fully aware of their plan to escape, so when them + the rest of the orphans attempt to escape to the outside world, he shows up right before the tunnel to the exit and slaughters them all, leaving Yuu as the only survivor. Yuu runs out, sobbing, and runs facefirst into Guren (the ACTUAL protagonist, apparently, even though he sucks), and a squadron of adult vampire hunters who ~mysteriously~ escaped the apocalypse. As it turns out, these vampire hunters have formed soul-contracts with demons in order to manifest the cursed weaponry required to true-kill a vampire.

(OH AND THERE'S MASSIVE FUCKING MONSTERS THAT MANIFESTED AFTER EVERYONE GOT KILLED RUNNING AROUND RIGHT. THE PEOPLE WITH THE CURSED WEAPONRY HUNT THEM TOO. FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE BECAUSE THEY BECAME BASICALLY IRRELEVANT LATER. YES IM SALTY ABOUT THAT AS WELL)

That's episode one. The rest of the anime series is basically centered around Yuu trying to become a vampire slayer after a 3-year timeskip, him forming a bond with a demon to get his own cursed weapon, and then getting wrangled into a squad with a bunch of other 16-year-olds to go running around learning how to be a team and murder stuff. This works as well as you might expect, because Yuu is an edgy lone wolf who spends his days crying himself to sleep at night because he misses Mika and is horrifically traumatized by what happened. Then, ding ding ding! As it turns out, Mika WASN'T killed in the attack, but got turned by the vampire queen herself, and spent the three years he was turned trying to find Yuu again so that they could run away together and escape the whole disaster. Except Mika refuses to drink human blood, the catalyst to complete his transformation, and so he's on a timer, too- he's been drinking the blood of his progenitor, but it's been less and less effective at satiating him. And this is a fuckin' problem, because as it turns out, vampires turn into demons when they die. So Mika is basically in full suicide mode trying to save Yuu, then when Yuu realizes that Mika is alive and a vampire he does a 180 on how he thinks about them and goes into full 'no, I'm going to save YOU' mode about Mika, and so on and so on.

Anyways the true hinging point of the series and the greatest strength is centered around Mika and Yuu's love for each other, because when I say these boys were in-love destined-soulmates, I fucking MEAN it. Like, it's straight-up canon that Mika is in love with Yuu, and Yuu is pretty much outright in love with Mika in return. The problem, however, is that this is a shounen manga, so it's heavily heavily implied that Yuu is actually going to end up with Shinoa (a female character who is actually REALLY FUCKING GOOD SO IT REALLY SUCKS SHE GETS SHAFTED SO HARD LATER), despite him talking to her like. twice. And her only ever sending him longing glances and blushes. And then the aforementioned thing of the author getting more interested in Guren than Mika and Yuu comes into play and that's when I dropped it because Guren is the MOST mary-sue a character can get in terms of him being a sheer boring asshole who fucked the whole world up and has zero redeeming qualities and yet everyone in-story (but mika) loves him and follows him for no fuckin' reason.

As for the rest of the plot- It's later shown that the reason why this event occurred was because of a deal struck with a trapped seraphim, and that Guren was the one who caused the whole fucking thing to happen in the first place because he was sad that his squad died (or something like that) so he sacrificed the entire rest of the world to save like, 5 people that get zero character development. There's a really heavy message about found family through the series that felt really great and poignant in the beginning when it was Mika trying to convince Yuu that he was a family group with the other orphans after their own parents both tried to kill them, but then gets twisted later on to be meaningless because Yuu eventually just starts calling fucking EVERYONE family, and Guren uses it as a means of manipulating him. I dropped the manga after this started to happen because the focus turned almost entirely to Guren and everyone else's characterization went out the fucking window to simply 'trust guren he knows what he's doing' minus Mika, who has come to hate all humans left for Very Good Fucking Reasons. Because, as it turns out, the demon-bound vampire-slaying society have the only adults left who survived because THEY were the ones who trapped the seraphim in the first place, and THEY were running experiments on people with certain genetics/affinities to these seraphs to try to turn them into seraphs and harness their near-godly powers. Yuu and Mika and the rest of the kids in the Hyakuya orphanage, as it turns out, were very strong candidates for this type of experimentation, and the reason why Yuu got snatched up by the humans and Mika got turned by the vampires was because they're the human equivalent of nukes in the human-vampire war. Also, the progenitors of all the vampires was a fallen angel and vampires turn into demons when killed because of it. Which is actually really cool.

So it really fucking sucks that the author started neglecting all the other characters to obsess over his beloved Guren and to excuse all of his shitty selfish actions right when he got to the part explaining the whole seraph project thing. And like, the most frustrating part is that Guren as a complex antagonist works really really well, but the author wants nothing more than for him to be the sad, dark, brooding protagonist everyone loves, so that's the treatment he gives him. It's like he decided midway through the story that he's actually really fucking tired of Mika, meh on Yuu, but loves Guren and wanted him to be protag all along, so that's the point where the story goes down the drain. Luckily, this is after season two of the anime ends, and I haven't heard anything about a potential season 3.

That was only half of my problems though- it also had like, the worst fandom I've ever been in by far, and that's saying something because I was in some pretty fucking bad fandoms in my life. It was just full of the most needlessly hostile shit, with my main issue with it being the fact that it was full of ship wars...over the same damn ship. That being Mikayuu. Or Yuumika. Because, as it turns out, fucking NOBODY seemed to be able to get either Yuu or Mika in-character, they had to slap seme/uke stereotypes onto them and the whole war was raged over whether or not someone was mischaracterizing them because Mika was actually the top, not the bottom, or visa versa (I cannot drive home enough that both sides horrifically mischaracterized them either way. And also that Yuu and Mika were 16- not too young to fuck, but certainly too young to know what the fuck they were doing). There were death threats sent and harassment campaigns over this. You were branded as either being on one side or the other and nobody would accept the fact that both views were wrong. And that's even if you were a shipper in the first place- you also had the Yuu/Shinoa shippers who were overwhelmingly homophobic straight men who thought people were stupid illiterate yaoi fangirls for thinking Mika and Yuu were in love (tbf, most of them were weird yaoi fangirls who were simply another flavor of homophobic), or there were the people who thought that Mika and Yuu were adopted siblings because they took the last name of the orphanage they were in (hyakuya) to abandon their abusive parents/called each other 'family' and that EVERYONE who shipped them was an incest apologist (got hit with this one myself). And even if you weren't interested in shipping either, you weren't safe- I've made some of my best friends in that fandom, despite everything, and one of them didn't ship Yuu and Mika, opting for a QPP/adoptive siblings approach. And they got the MOST rancid shit thrown at them for it by the shippers, despite them not caring that other people shipped them. AND there were Mika haters/lovers who thought he was a 'yandere' for being ''''obsessed'''' with Yuu and running off with him despite the fact that it was shown over and over that Mika was severely traumatized by losing everyone he loved and that Yuu was being psychologically manipulated by the army to be a complacent experiment. Granted, this was all my experience in the 2016-2018 fandom cycle, but still. Nasty nasty nasty.

(oh and also Ferid, aka the guy who murdered everyone in the orphanage but Yuu and -partially- Mika, was heavily implied to be vampirically raping Mika bc he was straight-up a pedophile who only drank blood from people under 16 and getting your blood sucked was apparently orgasmically pleasurable/a sex metaphor, was treated as the 'fabulous gay uncle and best mika/yuu shipper supporter' by most of the fandom because after Mika was turned, he continued to emotionally and psychologically abuse him via his love for Yuu. Nasty!)

((Oh and yes, when Yuu finally gets Mika to bite him and drink his blood, that was used as 'proof' that Mika tops and is actually a smirking hardcore seme dom for blushy subby Yuu. Despite the fact that Mika was dying, sobbing hysterically and yelling at Yuu for making him survive as something he despised, and Yuu was stubbornly yelling back about how he'd love him and accept him no matter what and how he'd find a way to save him and thrusting a bleeding arm in his face to try to force him to drink. Nuance and appreciation for characterization was lost on this fandom.))

Anyways. It really really sucks, because the anime is actually very good. I genuinely would reccomend watching it- the animation is amazing and beautiful, the soundtrack gives you chills, and it covers the story right up until the next story beat and it starts swerving down the gutter, so you can feasibly watch it and then stop right there, mentally tallying it as an open/ambiguous ending. But I wouldn't suggest anything other than that, because ohhhhh boy it. it just isn't worth it. believe me. Everything else is worth it for Yuu and Mika and the Shinoa Squad, but that's where it ends

(ofc i could be wrong and the whole thing is looking up by now but i have zero faith thats the case.)

[frostybearpaws]

TO TALK ABOUT MY LITTLE GUYS

(and the post-apocalyptic nightmare they find themselves in) :3

SO!

What is their world like?

I find parasites that take over hosts to be FASCINATING and make such good inspiration for stories because there is delicious body horror aspects that I can’t say no to

Hair worms that eat the cricket’s fat stores and force it to walk into a water source (the parasites eating the fat is actually not fatal to the cricket. BUT the signals telling it to go into the water leads to many of these afflicted crickets to drown)

the rat lung worm which takes control of its snail host and makes it climb to the tops of trees or grass stalks and makes its eyestalks do this

which is actually the worm itself inside the eyestalk (ouch) acting like a beacon to attract birds to eat the snail so it can reproduce in the birds digestive track

there is the T. Gondii that infects rodents and makes them attested to the smell of cat pee and cats in general. The mouse then gets eaten and like the rat lung worm it reproduces in the cat’s digestive tract. (Fun fact this parasite can get into humans and has the same effects on the brain making some people cat lovers, though (warning) it can be bad for developing fetuses)

there are several parasitoid wasps that lay eggs on caterpillars that eat the butterfly larva alive while still keeping it alive. A more specific example are the braconoid wasps and horn worms. Whats really interesting is that the wasp larvae make the caterpillar protective of them and won’t eat it drink water as it slowly wastes away.

in many ways Rabies is like this too. It infects the hosts brain and makes them aggressive and afraid of water to the point of not being able to drink water without the throat closing up. There is not cure and it can sit in your system for years until it gets triggered by something. (Which is a terrifying though)

Massospora cicadina is a fungus that infects 17 and 13 year cicadas (and funnily enough it’s an STD) it effects the host by living inside of male cicadas and makes them hypersexual AND act female by flapping their wings causing other males to try to mate and then become infected themselves. For fungus hollows out the cicada and also suppresses the pain.

If you look at this gif you will notice that the cicada is missing its abdomen entirely and still crawling around.

AND FINALLY THE ONE, THE ONLY (there’s actually a bunch of different species) THE CORDYCEPS FUNGUS! It’s actually very fascinating how this fungus can affect the insects it manages to infiltrate. Some species of this fungus only infect one type (even species: moths, flies, stick bugs, caterpillars, spiders, etc) of insect/arachnid. Sometimes it’s not that picky. But the one that most people are familiar with is the one that infects ants. The fungus makes the ant crawl to a high place above the colony and latch onto a branch in a death grip (all while it’s consuming the ants tissues) and then the fruiting body emerges. (Ants that are seen exhibiting odd behaviors that indicate infected-ness are actually taken out of the colony to keep the rest of the workers safe)

So I like this infection thing that’s going on, The Last Of Us made cordyceps fungus famous, but there’s also a book called The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R Carey which follows a group of survivors and a new age human whose body has formed a symbiotic relationship with the fungus making them super human (and also insatiably hungry)

Both are very interesting concepts and feel like a fresher snip on an old zombie narrative. And then I went in and added anthropomorphic animals into the mix, and there's a bit of an issue doing on.

This fungus, like rabies, can sometimes sit in a person for years and year before it "wakes up" and starts to infect them. There is a general sense of paranoia that is within this community of people (they use the word 'bipeds' when referring to groups of anthro-sapient-animals and humans)

Secondly globalization is a thing of the past and even the idea that cities a few hundred miles apart working together seems laughable now because technology is fucked, fuel is practically non-existent and everything is either steam powered, hydro-electric, or manual.

And finally this is a world of sapient animals and people (kinda like bojack horseman) in the past they had all been united because they were able to sustain themselves with (non-sapient livestock, think like regular cows, pigs, chickens, wild game, etc). Now it's getting harder to farm, so people are reverting back to their more primal instincts and eating each other. :D

This is the world they live in, riddled with infection, paranoia, and people desperate enough to kill for even a scrap of food.

Now with that all out of the way

Meet The Characters

Shaya Jacks: A human with blue hair. When the world went to shit, Shaya was taking an apprenticeship to become a welder. Then the world caught on fire and suddenly she found herself with a bunch of tools and a dire situation. Shaya quickly found out she was really good as using these tools to quickly shorten the lives of people for a hot meal and a warm bed at night and this is what she did until she was able to find a more stable environment to live. Once a person who fixed things, she was now a person who broke things, her morals went out the window and she became ruthless with her only goal in mind keeping herself and those she cared about safe and fed.

Solis Young: A lion with black hair and a yellow mane. Solis was halfway through high school when the infection took over. Previously he had been living with his sister who was looking after him after the death of their parents. He had dreams of becoming a professional chef one day and was on the school wrestling team. He managed to escape "judgement day" as they call it by the skin of his teeth. Solis has a intimate partnership Shaye, they met when she was on the road, she agreed to keep them safe from roving bands of raiding parties, in exchange for living with them and eating their food, she was the one who got them to safety when it became clear that their home was no longer safe.

Rhea Young: A pink lionness with a white mane. Rhea was working as an EMT when the end of the world rolled around. After the death of her parents she looked after Solis who was several years younger than her. Rhea always wanted to do good, she always wanted to help people, this is why she became and EMT. Having to kill infected peoples probably hurt her the most. For this reason when they found safety in walled off zone, she joined the militia keeping the walls guarded believing she was bringing order to a world that dove headfirst into insanity. She has a strained relationship with Shaya which in turn can cause some tense moments with Solis.

Molly Eisenhour: A dark blue, big horn ewe. Molly is Rhea's wife, they met when Molly was donating her wool to charity for it to be knitted into blankets during a harsh winter before power was restored. Rhea is extremely protective of her, because there had been a rise in the murder and consumption of other prey species such as sheep, cows, and even horses in their community. Molly is a capable ewe but like many sheep this is anxious and feels safest when tucked into the arms of her lioness.

Ben Hart-West: A newfoundland dog. He works with his husband Tony to provide fish for the community. He's protective but he's also a massive teddy bear (and soft too, he gives the best hugs)

Tony West: A Bull Shark. He is a spear fisher that dives down to collect the fish, he feels most at home under the sea as many of the fish do, but he also wants to drown in his husband's fluff.

[arbitrarygreay]

Great iyashikei requires loss. A lot of examples are self-obvious, by being post-apocalyptic (Girls Last Tour, Sora no Woto, Kemurikusa). The central character exclaiming "suteki~!" at everything manages to not be insufferable because the audience knows how much better these characters could have it. It brings peace/joy by putting the audience's first world living into perspective. Some of those "living in the countryside" type iyashikei (Flying Witch, Tamayura, Non non Biyori) is kind of doing a contrast with urban living, but I nonetheless have a harder time connecting to those shows, because they often feel more like papering over the cracks than having it as underlining subtext. From that angle (advertising rural living), a more energetic TikTok Shenanigans approach or a more nonfiction nitty-gritty approach catches my own interest better, whereas the iyashikei approach doesn't land. Another category would be supernatural beings: Natsume Yuujinchou, Konohana Kitan. Their stories involving spirits and such are full of mono no aware, keenly aware of the passage of time when juxtaposed against the inhuman. It's a horseshoe of the very long-lived and the very short-lived entities and phenomena, always mismatched against human time-scales. There's K-ON, which stands out from other CGDCT by dint of its lush KyoAni Yamada Naoko execution. The dedication to atmosphere in the day-to-day lends it the "keen awareness of the passage of time" as the previous paragraph, both in the audience and in the characters. Everyone knows that graduation is relentlessly incoming. The care paid to the liminal scenes (such as the opening to S1E13) emphasizes to the audience the careless adolescence they will never experience again quite in the same way (or never experienced in the first place). Tamayura tries too hard to have the characters verbally point these things out, which ruins the immersion. But the way to sidestep that slight unreality of the characters is to inject more of the unreal into the world. And thus, some of Tamayura's shortcomings work perfectly fine in Aria. Aria is a curious case, threatening to stubbornly counterexample my theory. Sure, some of its episodes do follow the third "tales of the supernatural" category, but much of the rest is just post-scarcity paradise living. So what allows Aria to retain its "greatest iyashikei" title? Where is the loss? Well, for one thing, I do actually find some of the most "suteki~!"-centered episodes to be a bit too fluffy, and rarely rewatch those. I've heard that the manga is stronger on that point (as is Konohana Kitan), because they can go harder on drawing the luscious settings, which therefore creates that "and you will never quite have this experience again" feeling you can get in real life from exploring a location at your own pace. So again, what makes Aria the greatest iyashkei? Simple, really. Aria's strongest episodes are when the characters actually go through with meaningful turning points in their lives, or when the characters are being openly nostalgic about the past stages of life behind them (which is reinforced by the generational structure of the cast). And finally, the whole premise of Neo-Venezia underlines everything with the fact that the author and everyone in that world are striving to re-create a lost time and place. tl;dr iyashikei that fails to land is probably because they tried to create peace via pure paradise. As with using salt and/or acid in cooking, you gotta have lack as a contrasting palate cleanser and taste enhancer, even if you're going for a qingdan style.

[hux-and-gay]

Okay which AU should I make first? I will get To them all eventually, but I want to know which ones you guys are interested in the most. (some of these Jokes some of these are serious)

I don’t Blame you guys if you don’t read all of this

A. An AU based on H2O Just add water (if people don’t know this one I would be shocked, also yes this a joke one)

b. An AU based on Wolfblood: Basically people born with the ability to turn into wolves if you want the simplified version, kylo would be the wolf. Hux would be (shh secret lore stuff)

c. An AU based on Alien Surfer Girls: Kylo is an alien that has come to earth for some reason. The shows reason was surfing but I might change that bc why 😭 (this is another Joke one)

D. An AU based on Thunder Stone: A meteor destroyed life on earth so now the survivors live underground in a high tech society, and then one of them will discover time travel and go to the future where everything’s a desert and there’s like nomad rebel people that get captured by the dictator people and forced to work the mines and stuff, and also all the animals are just dead (i haven’t decided who is the traveler and who is from the future, also fun fact the show was made in the 90s but set in 2020, the meteor supposedly hit in 2003)

E. An AU based on Girl From Tomorow: Ben is from a post apocalyptic Utopian Future where everything is peaceful and they have these devices that allow to use what is basically the force. And Hux is from the past just before the apocalypse took place in a war torn world run by a dictatorship. Ben accidentally travels back to that time and has to figure out what to do because the apocalypse is getting closer and closer. he probably gets arrested by Hux or some thing.

F: an AU based Ocean girl: (I haven’t decided if they will be adults in this one or if it will be BenArmie) Kylo is living and working in an underwater, marine research facility as a marine biologist, and he comes across an island where he meets Hux an alien prince, who crash landed there when he was a child and Can like swim really well and talk to Whales

G. An AU based on Sparticle Mystery: A BenArmie story where all of the adults have been teleported into another dimension, leaving the children to fend for themselves (a lot of them end up creating dictatorships) anyway while traveling around Ben stumbles into a military school (that is one of those dictatorships) where he meets Armie. (I wish people would get the reference for this because the character I based Hux on is like so funny, also that character does have a romantic relationship in the show and has a child by the end of it 😂) in season two of the show, the kids parents get returned as teenagers. I don’t know if I will do that, but it would be pretty funny 😭 (this is like a semi joke one)

H. An AU based elephant princess: basically, Kylo finds out that he’s from a different dimension and is actually heir to the throne of that dimension, and has a whole bunch of magic powers. And he stuck between going off and living as a prince or continuing to be in his rock band, and also he’s distracted by the guy he has a crush on at school who just joined the band (this is a joke one, he’s literally going to be adopted by snoke. Also fun fact, young Liam Hemsworth is in this show.)

I. An AU based on spellbinder in the land of the dragon lord: this one is going to be more loosely based they just have a dimension traveling boat, and I just wanted to mess around with that. Like I remember, there was one of the universes where, like all of the adults could not have children, so they made children out of robots and then captured the characters because they realized that they could have children and we’re like “make us children!” Also all dressed like they were part of Victorian France, It’s a really weird show.

J. just a parody of Doctor Who but with Kylux.

(I wanted to do one based on house of Anubis but unfortunately, I don’t remember enough of the lore and I can no longer stream the show for free :( . If I somehow, miraculously, remember, I will update this.)

feel free to tell me why you’re interested in the ones you’re interested in, or list your level of interest for each one in the replies or tags, infact I encourage you to do this

—————————————————————————

@lessdenied @fives-ren @jaynesilver @thegeneralorder @diabollicallyangelic

@existing-sadly

@theosb0rnway

@dragonflies-draw-flame @hpdmism @fridayincarnate @tomatette

@transmasc-vampire-is-tired

@bostarsky

@rommonoch

@not-so-allegiant-general

@lessdenied

@hpdmism

[parcy-anda-but-with-actual-posts]

Phew, okay - so pending shadows and highlights, and colors are likely to be tweaked at least a little (except for the baby in the middle; heckin' PERFECT!), but this is the first new ground broken in a while for my Fakemon project (with redesigns of old concepts being the art-production focus up until now). @v@;

Part of the excitement of revamping an old project is embracing new possibilities... and with that creative liberty, things have entirely spiraled out of control and now the region is based on a mashup of concepts (including but not limited to Post-Apocalyptic Cottagecore) rather than any real-world location.

In addition, the player is the only human in the setting — and to avoid drawing unwanted attention — can disguise themselves as a 'mon! These are your 3 options, which each align with a given "deity" (read: Mythical/Lesser-Legendary) you choose.

Rambles under the cut if you're as interested in the concept/process as I am!

Aside from signature accent colors and modified/added features of your chosen savior and one personal apparel-item, these are based on mutated variants of canon single-stage Pokémon. While these are super-derivative, I had fun with the concepts!

Each base is changed in type which the new designs reflect. Kecleon took on a Bug-Psychic typing; Indeedee became an Ice-Fairy type; and Heracross became an Electric-Ghost type.

Heracross changed the most of the 3, shrinking considerably and "hollowing out" to an extent, with the flakier texture of its altered carapace allowing for friction/contact-electrification to help generate current. Heracross was also the most-thought-out in terms of a Pokemon mutating to survive in a post-fallout setting; the others were just designed around reinforcing the themes/motifs of the deities I associated them with. ^^;

That said, the deities each have a theme that is reflected in the 'mon-avatar you can adopt through them. Let's go over each, respective to their avatar above, from left to right:

~ Celebi is coded as "The Illuminator", which is why a Psychic type is attributed to you as a mutant-Kecleon, and is the ideal choice if your priority in the "game" is exploration, discovery and mystery/problem-solving. ~ Suicune is coded as "The Protector/Rescuer", and I chose Fairy because out of the supernatural-leaning types, it felt most thematically appropriate. Despite mutant-Indeedee's primary ice-typing, the path associated with Suicune is about the gentle, cozy vibes, warmth and compassion, rewarding those who want to find comfort in rebuilding. ~ Victini is coded as "The Champion", and Ghost-typing was assigned via process of elimination, as I knew I wanted a "mystical" secondary typing for each (though that did make the conceptualization extra fun - deciding that mutant-Heracross attained this 'ghastly' subtype out of sheer tenacity, refusing to 'properly' die. XD). Even though the Heracross species is a tiny shell of its former self, it has lived to fight another day with newfound power, so it follows that this is the primary option if you prefer combat in gameplay!

I'm kind of invested in the hypothetical story now... as even though you assume a Pokémon form (at least while you're awake), you can still befriend a "starter" Pokémon out of 3 options (this is decided when you pick where in the "region" you want to start the game, with your options being the Cottage Zone, the Meadow Zone and the Twilight Zone); this First Friend will likely eventually find out that you're NOT a Pokémon, and that's when things will get interesting — because there's a reason you're hiding the fact that you're human, and there's a reason there are no other humans around...