#it would have been the most cohesion that trilogy had

[tearlessrainart]

"warmup," and I use the term loosely, turned into Fathier Doodle Hours

I'm still trying to find a balance between the canon movie design and something I actually like the look/feel of without completely turning them into horsesand I think this veers a little close to the latter, but we're getting there. it'll be easier once I've got the 3D model rigged. right now my main refs are thoroughbreds and moose.

[riddles-n-games]

Hey guys, I've been seeing another rift going on in the fandom regarding TGG and TIG characters, so I've decided to make a statement that can hopefully make things more cohesive.

I understand that not everyone likes the new spin-off and honestly, I'm considering just stopping after GU. Personally, I don't have anything against the characters of TGG but my problem is that they sound too much like our old mains. However, that's not their fault. It's the author's. There's nothing wrong with JLB wanting to expand the TIG universe but it is problematic when you are repeating the same character arcs of the old characters that are also present and interacting with these new mains. The problem that we face is the fact while even in The Naturals there are similar characters, they are divided by different series. However, that is not going on here with TIG and TGG. TGG is a continuation of TIG and our TIG characters are still present. Heck, one of our old mains is a player and a love interest here to one of the new mains. And therein lies the issue. When you have a connected series, it's important to have distinguished characters with different voices, not carbon copies.

What I expected for TGG characters was that she would move from the character tropes we've seen already in the series and come up with new ones. I mean, come on, she's a psychology major, we bring that up so often but what's the point when she keeps going in circles and never brings up anything new? I pointed a lot of this out pre-read because I already correctly guessed where this was going within just a few pages of reveal. Don't get me wrong, if she wanted to, she could do it but it doesn't feel like she has new plans or plots. Be honest with yourselves and don't just praise because she's your favorite author. You can be a reader, a fan, and a respectful critic all at the same time. Don't lower your expectations just because they can't deliver every time.

The trouble is that when you go back to TFG, in the acknowledgments, she herself wrote she wasn't sure there was going to be a third book. And now look, suddenly two books were announced a month or two after she released the last book of the trilogy which introduced our mains and not the most fashionably. I do believe she had ideas but I don't think they were the best fleshed out. You have to realize that just reading TGG, how many of you recognized the obvious plots, the romantic subplots, the character arcs, and even the semi-hidden plots just getting to the halfway point? And how many of you said, hey, wait a minute, we've had this plotline before? You did, didn't you? I want to give Jennifer the benefit of the doubt but I truly think she is in over her head because I don't believe she quite thought that this is how long the series would go.

In fact, I think that she is making more trouble for herself in trying multi POV for this new series when really I think it should have just been Gray taking over. It would have allowed us to see how he's grown especially after the heartache and mental health issues he's had to go through to get here. It felt like the obvious next step, even the summary for TGG made it sound like that. However, the only thing that seems new to me is the hypersexual atmosphere which also makes no sense to me because teens may go through attraction but that doesn't mean they're horny all the time and anyone who's gone through puberty can attest to that. So I ask again, like one reviewer on Goodreads put, were the romantic moments in the room with us? 12 hours is not love or romance, it's lust, that's it. Couldn't summarize it clearer. If she wanted to make it better, it could have been that she made the book stretch over a series of weeks which is why I wonder what the heck will happen to any character development if this book series is done in like 3 days?

As I said, a lot of things feel very repetitive, the plot, word choice, thought processes, quotes and sayings, etc. We are in a loop. She's in a loop. I think that the best thing JLB could have done is leave TIG alone for a few years after TFG, make a new series or whatever works outside this series she wanted to, give herself time to truly see if she has new stories to tell for TIG by writing a spin-off and then come back to give us that content. Because it's really telling how forced things have been in the last two books, even here with GU and I really think this empire is toppling. As they say, quality over quantity and thoughtful than full of thoughts that are just a variation of one another. That's what makes me think more and more she should have left it at TFG.

Thank you for reading and I hope this gives a new perspective that can help you see some things more clearly.

[casp1an-sea]

I cannot stop Disney from pulling things from Star Wars legends and sometimes when they do it correctly, I do enjoy it. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I have a huge issue with it, when they decide to take the direct name of a book or book series from Star Wars legends, and use it as the name for a movie that is not an adaptation of that book

New Jedi order is a 19 book legends series that I am currently reading. It follows, Han, Leia, Mara, the Solo children, and Coran Horn (plus a few others) fighting a war against the YuZahn Vong.

now, Disney is planning on naming their new Rey standalone movie (which I already have issues with that I won’t get into) you guessed it, new Jedi order. The exact name of the series no changes. Even if they bring the Yuzahn Vong into the movie, which mind you is not even confirmed. It is not meant to be an adaptation of the books. It was never advertised that way so now it just feels like they’re stealing from Legends and it makes it feel like even more of a ret con. I like things from both canon and legends. I like when they can work cohesively together. Obviously that’s not always possible and some of the things I enjoy. I have to keep separately. But when you just blatantly steal from Legends, it just feels backhanded and disrespectful.

it would not change much to just change things around a bit. I’m sure there is a way where you could have the movie title with the same meaning but not the exact phrasing. Also, I am in fandom spaces where we discuss legends and we talk about new Jedi order the series. It just adds unnecessary confusion if both have the same name that could be avoided.

And it just further worries me that Star Wars canon is going to get closer and closer to taking major plot lines from legends books, and turning them into shows and movies, but just replacing the characters. Well, I would love to see these plot lines. I just always feel a little bitter when the characters I love just get written out of the story. I know it’s difficult when the majority of the post return of the Jedi legends books follow the main trio from the original trilogy, and that wouldn’t really be logistically possible for a live action, Disney show or movie, so I’m not going to say it’s terrible that they’re continually leaning towards this, but I’m also not going to say that it doesn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m sure not everyone agrees with all this but this is how I feel and I needed to get it off my chest

(there was also a rumor that Dave Feloni was planning a movie called Heir to the Empire, which would’ve been even worse because it’s named after a specific book and not a series and arguably the most famous legends book. I don’t know what happened with that or even if the rumor had any merit.)

[dynared]

I'm so glad someone else brought up how insular IDW felt, I thought I was insane for thinking along the lines of a similar thing. To me IDW1 felt like a continuity made by the fandom for the fandom, and despite some of its great writing decisions it often felt flat and hollow in a lot of important aspects. The lack of communication between writers and failure to maintain basic narrative and thematic cohesion as well as characterization reminded me a lot of in-fandom arguments over interpretations and headcanons

It took on too much and stretched itself thin resulting in sidelined characters, bastardized character dynamics/relationships or forgotten plots. People praised IDW1's lore and worldbuilding but personally I don't think there was much of it at all and very little of it was to a good enough standard when you consider how long IDW held the licence. It told us a lot and yet nothing at all, which would have been a genius move had it at all been intentional– something I often found myself saying in relation to IDW1 and content inspired by it, which was around post 2010-ish give or take probably

Like I said, I firmly believe that IDW was essentially made by fandom, for fandom, but a very, very narrow cross-section of such. James Roberts, who was arguably the architect for most of it, was a fanfic writer and someone who wanted to make elements of his fanfics canon. Many of the writers were buddy-buddy with TFWiki moderators and the dingus behind Shortpacked, oftentimes parroting their opinions, which was that if you didn't like what they were making, you were a chud or a creep that wanted the entire brand to be Kiss Players. Especially as romance became more and more of a focus on the series, the idea was not "This is boring, I want to see robots punching each other and blowing things up", but "I don't want to see this because it's gay", which is a far easier position to defend. Even when they lost the license, Kit Harrison of IDW insinuated that the complaints were all homophobic in nature.

As an aside, while I think Kiss Players was terrible, it was literally nothing but a side-story manga and some collector's toys. That would be like me saying all the Western-created Transformers media is garbage because of The Car Wash of Doom, Afterdeath, that scene in Age of Extinction where the guy spells out the Romeo and Juliet Law in detail, the complete waste of Sir Anthony Hopkins that was The Last Knight, The Rebirth, numerous parts of Cyberverse, the WFC Trilogy, etc.

Anyway, because the audience was so narrow, it made sense that the audience that it did cultivate was so passionate about the material, but Greek to any audience outside of it, resulting in low sales and general dismissal from a casual audience. Any similarities to how fanfic is written, especially fanfic that has an active follower community and people addressing the work in progress, were purposeful, because that was the world that the writers came from, and the world that they were used to.

And then there were the attempts to integrate those ideas into shows, as shown by WFC not getting a sequel because Netflix said no, as well as Cyberverse and now Earthspark toys rotting on shelves in your local Ollies or Lot Less.

My conclusion remains the same. IDW was overly insular, fanfic-style writing, for people who liked that, and they could not care one iota about anyone outside of that little circle. Especially if you were a fan of super robots, humans that weren't complete jerks, or the mystic elements of the Transformers mythos. And this is why now even Duke's miniseries pretty much outsells anything that IDW published. (To be fair, Duke's miniseries is pretty good).

[onwriting-hrarby]

respectful thoughts on concept vs aesthetic in the new kpop generation

[disclaimer: this is a very light opinion article about kpop. i am not dissing any groups mentioned, since i love them all, and i'm straying from bringing any negativity. the fact that i don't like some of the music these groups make doesn't mean i can't acknowledge their hard work. often, my critique falls to the managements.]

so, these last few weeks we've had some 3rd generation comebacks in the kpop community and some debuts and other well-known comebacks for the newer generations. but, mostly, i'm going to talk about how music in kpop has been westernalized to the point of becoming mostly generic, forgetting what made kpop since the beginning: concept.

the reason why i like 2nd and 3rd generation the most in kpop is not because of the music, dance or vocals, although i admit it irks me a lot that nowadays most idols won't sing live (like, ever), but because i think it's the pinnacle of concepts vs aesthetics.

what is concept and what is aeshetic: red velvet

let's take my amazing girls, red velvet, my favourite group, and their last comeback. when the teasers were released, we all thought we were going to go "velvet", this time (although i hope we would go red, and i have an inkling we would go red velvet). but the gloominess of the pictures, the elegance, the way they seemed out of the museum strayed a little bit further from the quirkiness of birthday and they felt more serious, much like "peekaboo" concept pictures or even "feel my rhythm's".

when the song released, we were all surprised. we love it, as we normally do with red velvet, but the problem with the main public was that their expectation of the concept of the pictures didn't correlate with the actual concept of the song.

and that's because the teasers were nothing but aesthetics. the aesthetic was dark but the concept was "red velvet". when the idea of the whole paraphernalia around the song doesn't link with the music of the song, we are not talking about a concept but about a aesthetic. a concept is cohesive in the ways we think the song: from the notes, the rhythm, to the message, the pictures, the way we promote it. aesthetic is taking what we feel "looks good" and putting it into a concept that doesn't need it. aesthetics don't tell a story, concepts do.

it doesn't mean that chill kill wasn't a good album or a good comeback. it means that it was at fault since the beginning, because we were waiting to be told a story how red velvet does, from the music itself, while it felt like they were telling it from the pictures.

(that is also what has happened with the lastest comeback of nct dream).

almost all of the 3rd generation groups, and mainly girlgroups, debuted with a clear concept: red velvet (red and velvet concept), mamamoo ("live" concept), girlfriend (kind of 'magical' sphere), blackpink, dreamcatcher, loona, and i feel like this is being left behind to accomodate more "aesthetics", and music —kpop— feels less genuine. that's why i'm not feeling very tied to the kpop sphere anymore: it's all about consumption.

bts and the consumption of kpop

i love bts, and i'm a long time bangtan fan since they debuted, but i am confident in saying that after "fake love" (maybe let's stretch to "idol") their music wasn't as striking. it wasn't that they didn't have a good production, or didn't do their best, or weren't at their best ("black swan" is still amazing in all senses, for example, and works perfectly as a song), but i think it's because they were "westernalized" in the concept vs aesthetics idea. while before bts used to have a clear concept, not only of what they meant as a group and wanted to tell, but also later as it migrated to the trilogy of "love yourself", after they hit it big in 2019 they started confusing, to my opinion, the concept with the aesthetic: they didn't do albums for the sake of telling a story or concept anymore, but for the sake of milking the cow (not the boys' fault). don't get me wrong: mots 7 still had a clear concept in the CD, but it didn't feel as whole as a BTS project anymore. rm even said something along the lines of "we have to stop because we have lost sight of what we're doing".

that's because in the west we're not used to concepts but to aesthetics: the music is not cohesive with a preestablished idea of storytelling, but with the artist. most of the bands and soloists don't change the music style as to what music their storytelling needs but to what their personal needs as an artist do. take taylor swift, for example: every cd is different, but it's cohesive in what taylor swift does. as a long taylor swift fan too, when we got from "speak now" to "red" we were utterly confused, because that's when she began changing her aesthetic, and therefore, her music, but because the concept was "taylor swift", it was still recognizable. she's not the first one: it also happened with the beatles, "revolver" being the first album to truly differ from the others, only to completely change their music with "sgt pepper's". ariana grande changes aesthetics, but her music is mostly cohesive throughout, so does billie eilish, lorde, dua lipa. we would refer to it as having a "music style".

with bts, they found a huge market in the west. it wasn't the only incursion in kpop: after bts and blackpink, twice did, too, and we also had the jopping and popping of the sm super group—which, come on, it didn't land of obvious reasons—and we have aespa, gidle, and more. but bts was the first group to hit it BIG. we will all probably remember exo, red velvet, dreamcatcher and gfriend being ultra famous overseas, but not like bts and blackpink are.

BTS started changing their music around that time. the comebacks after 2019 didn't feel cohesive with what BTS was in their roots. "boy with luv" is a pop song that took us by surprise. "on" didn't land as well as black swan even though i personally love it. "be" didn't have a clear storytelling (or maybe a pandemic storytelling, too soon, imo). the most flagrant cases of BTS losing their concept to the aesthetic was "dynamite" and "butter", but mostly "butter": when "dynamite" was out, it made our summer. it was truly AMAZING. it couldn't get better. it felt like the song we needed, and it should have won the grammy. but it didn't, so they tried to replicate the same song with butter. really: listen to it. it uses the same rhythm, structure, the same "catchyness", and mostly, the same aesthetic.

blackpink, while we can criticize about the quality of their songs and how they use the same structure too—almost to a boring, predictable result—stood true to their concept since the beginning. if we hadn't been used to BTS management of concepts, we would have found that "butter" and "dynamite" worked well in the same way "how you like that" and "kill this love" too. but blackpink always played more with the "music style" than the concept, because when you repeat a concept over and over, not only in storytelling but also the musical creation, it become your signature music (to the point of a meme, almost).

but since BTS started changing and having their much deserved fame, look what happened to other hype groups: txt released their "disco" blue hour, tried to fit it into their concept (imo, they didn't do it very well). gfriend released "mago", while it's a good song it strays too far from the gfriend we were used to (and no: apple wasn't an incursion to far away lands. it still sounded 'magical', just like gfriend did). seventeen did something similar, too. the playfulness of the 70s/80s spread without regarding the groups unique concepts.

sm stood true to themselves: they had already made songs with "disco" (shinee, 'look' by red velvet...) and in contraposition they tried to westernize the concept of NCT. it hasn't worked, because no male group will ever be BTS, even though i believe exo could have had a huge chance only if they had appeared two years after. jyp went into hybe's direction, but kept it true to their group's concepts (itzy didn't sound the same as twice or stay kids). yg wasn't in their best moments as a business, then.

with bts in the west, the whole point of kpop and 3rd generation shifted: they aren't marketing songs aligned to the concept anymore, but to the aesthetic of the song. twice concept had started radically changing with "fancy" and "cry for me", but now it feels like they are just recycling their music over and over (also because twice concept, in the ageist era we live, is difficult to maintain once the members get old.) nct is a mess, trying to have catchy lyrics that utterly don't make any sense. gidle's english songs pale in comparison to the amazing songs in korean. aespa and itzy's english comebacks haven't hit is big. it feels as if there's a "line" that one has to cross to go to the west, which is leaving all your uniqueness of your concept back in korea to make it. and only bts and blackpink have mastered this (even though "the feels" by twice was a big success). [disclaimer: when i talk about success or failure i'm not talking about numbers, but about quality of the song.]

the case of gidle, stay c and aespa

those four groups are, to me, the ones that have maintained their concept all along. i don't talk about boygroups of the 4th generation because i'm not very familiar with them, but let me tell you about discovering gidle and aespa, and then stay c and new jeans:

gidle: they are a strange case, because they don't have a clear concept. that's because their concept, just like red velvet, changes every comeback while maintaining a concept identity. when gidle debuted, i named them the "red velvet daughters" and they still have to fail me in that sense. they are truly versatile, and it feels like they can do any concept they like while maintaining an identity, even with the loss of soojin.

aespa: when they debuted, i was utterly... scared. i didn't know what sm was pulling, and everyone celebrated them as the 4th gen leaders (when itzy was still doing the best numbers). i knew they weren't going to be, because they would stick to the concept. they are still one of the best artists in the 4th generation girlgroup space, and incredibly succesful, but ive has had more sellings, for example. but: numbers doesn't prove quality. ive's music, although very good, feels like there are other groups that could make it. while aespa's music feels unique to aespa. aespa has stayed so true to their concept much like blackpink does (i truly suffered with girls, because i was demaning a slight concept change, i was getting bored) and i think it's safe to say that the kind of music they do is very impactful, always experimental, like what sm pulls best. aespa will have a longetivity that itzy doesn't have (damn, i love itzy so much) just because sm has understood aespa's concept, while jyp still has to grasp what itzy is truly doing. and if itzy gets it right, aespa and itzy will become iconic to their eras.

stay c: now, my girls. truly underrated! stay c is the reencarnation of old bubbly kpop. they are consistent, both with their concept, aesthetic and music. you don't get the feeling that they release for big masses, even if all kpop does generally. they know what they do as a group and they do it incredibly well while staying true to their concept. they have twice producer and it shows because it definitely has a feel of the early twice. they sing well, they dance well, they cooperate. they are a fully fledge group with a mission and a storytelling.

before moving to illit, the case of newjeans

now, newjeans is known to be one of the best debuts in all kpop history, and i personally have listened to their first EP a hundred times, and "ditto" is one of my favourite kpop songs ever. and the reason why they are so successful is because of min hee jin (we can hate her, but come on, she's fucking good in her job): she's a master of concepts. and new jeans had a CLEAR concept. youthful, bubbly, lovely, catchy.

but it's not going to last, i'm afraid. they are impactful and they will make numbers but i truly think that they won't be as legendary as everyone has made it to be and that's because they've taken the same bts route, but far too early. FAR TOO EARLY. their last EP may have a concept as an EP but it feels somehow disconnected to what new jeans represented the first summer. i don't think they should stick to one concept forever—they would encounter the same problems as twice—but they have changed it too quickly without giving it time to properly experiment all the layers of it. differently from gidle or red velvet, which established themselves as truly versatile from the beginning, new jeans have strayed from their path soon enough but not far enough. their songs feel catered to the commodification of content, now, and frankly, almost all of the songs in their last EP, while experimental (and i love it) sound too cohesive, to the point that you listen to the EP while not paying any attention and it might go over your head. their voices' tone, too, which were part of the concept of "youthful girls" are too similar to each other, which makes it difficult to grasp a turning point in the song. you can have same hair, same clothes, but you shouldn't have the same voices and songs over and over.

and that's why groups like illit have debuted now with much success:

ILLIT and the depersonalization of kpop

illit is, to me, the most flagrant cases of confusion between concept and aesthetic and how kpop is shifting nowadays. of course, i have done my research: i've listened to the album, watched most of the "live" performances. and while doing so, as someone who doesn't have a clue why this group was formed (as will do the 80% of the people who first listens to illit), i thought: oh, this is new jeans.

NO, i'm not saying they are the same or they are copying the girls. it's not illit's fault, as it's not all the groups i have been mentioning (the fault is capitalism): but their debut song sounds too much like new jeans, the 2nd ep. they have the same long hair. same youthfulness. and i thought, oh, well, alright. new jeans 2, it's good. it's okay.

UNLESS! i read that they were going for the "magical" concept. truly?, really? are they... magical? they have magical appearances, fairy-like, the dresses are magical, the way they move is truly magnetic (get the pun?), but their music is not.

and that's the fault of what we've been living with the last kpop nowadays: music is concept-less. they live for the aesthetic of the music, but the music feels generic in itself. because it is not unique to what the group wants to cater. they do what's selling, and try to mask it as something original, while it is not. aesthetic is not the same as concept: someone who dresses like dark academia and brings their books to a fancy library and takes pictures doesn't mean they are living for a concept. they are living for the aesthetic because they like it, but the way they experience the aesthetic will be the same as the other people, because there is only one aesthetic.

aesthetic happens when there's empty concepts, while concepts happen when one thinks about the aesthetic, embodies it to a way of turning it over and make their own thing about it.

[eris-snow]

Deku's birthday series Q n A!

This will most likely be my last post pertaining to the Deku's birthday series for awhile. I'm sorry it came out late! 😭

There are some behind-the-scenes screenshots over on my Instagram if anyone wants to see, so go visit my post after you’re done reading this! https://www.instagram.com/eris.snow/

---

Katsuki, slamming the door open: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Now, I have no idea what you’re—

Katsuki: NO! YOU HAVE EVERY IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING. HOW DARE YOU, LEAVE ME WITH THE NERD AND HIS FUCK-ASS MEMORIES. FREAKING. FUCK. YOU!

Come on, it can’t be that bad—

Katsuki: JUST SUCK FACE WITH HIM ALREADY

No.

Katsuki: I will kill you and make it look like an accident, come here you—

---

Hey I’ve always wanted to do one of these.

---

Question: Is there going to be a part 3? Deku birthday series

Ans: Yes, there’s going to be a part 3, and it will be the last part of this Izuku trilogy of Deku’s birthday series! (Because I’m unwilling to milk this more than necessary)

Question: Why the ending? (Aka, why did you write another cliffhanger ending that’s so unsatisfactory) -Revelation

Ans:

The answer to that is that I felt it was a little unfair to have Izuku have Starlight handed to him on a silver platter. Frankly, I want to see him work for Starlight, because she’s worth it, and we haven’t really seen that. Also, angst.

Question: What can we expect in the next part?

Ans:

Definitely more flashbacks from Izuku’s point of view. Also, it will be a happy ending, confirmed. I think it’ll be a little irritating to see things go nowhere if I make a part 4. I really don’t like dragging things out longer than necessary, but the next part should be more Izuku-centric. Plus, there are a bunch of scenes I wanna write that are now unlocked because Izuku remembers, so stay tuned for that!

Question: How did you come up with the story’s narrative? -Secret

Ans:

Honestly, I have no idea. As I was writing the first two chapters, I was bouncing ideas off with one of my loved ones, and it just clicked. I did a little reshuffling, and then ironed out a cohesive storyline. Secret came at like a odd spot of, should I write a birthday series for him, because I did it for bakugou. On Tumblr, it was a lot more popular than I thought it would ever be, and Secret struck a gold mine with my AO3 audience.

Question: Do you relate to Starlight (Y/n)?

Answer: In some ways, yes. Sometimes, you’re afraid to let go of pain when that’s all you’ve ever known, and I wanted to show that. After all, Izuku and Y/n are teenagers. They have no idea what they’re doing, just working with bits and pieces. Kinda like how sometimes, we have no idea what we’re doing at whatever age we’re at. Also Starlight’s internal debate of whether to accept the offer of removing one of her feelings, and dissociating herself. Sometimes, cutting of feelings seem better, especially when you need to steel yourself. But no one should ever cut their feelings of entirely.

Question: What’s next in terms of your content?

Answer:

Er, a lot. First, I need to finish Anachronism and Juxtaposition, because I’ve been delaying doing that. And request, oh, gosh I’m so sorry to anybody who put in a request recently. But, I’ve still got lots of ideas I want to put out! Thank you for supporting me, and I hope that you’ll enjoy my other series! If you have any suggestions on what my long fic should be about, you can ask me on Tumblr or Dm me on Instagram at eris.snow!

Question: What’s next for Deku’s birthday series?

Answer:

Err, I really want to do an audio adaptation of this (Something like a CD drama), because I’ve had offers from really nice people to turn my story into something like an audiobook. I don’t think that’ll be really good for my work, so I kinda want to turn my story into a script and pull strings together to make it into a CD drama, ASMR roleplay, honestly idk what to call it.

Still working it out though! If you want updates or to ask for more questions about that, you can find me at eris.snow on Instagram and tumblr (I post more on Tumblr, like the freak I am). Looking for VAs interested to voice these people, so if anyone wants look forward to a post coming out somewhere in November ish that will release more details!

It’s going to be my first time doing something like that, so if anyone has any pointers, please tell me, I need all the help I can get 😭

PS: This is only tentative. I’ve expressed interest in doing it, but nothing is set in stone yet! However, if there are people interested in this idea, then I’ll definitely take it into consideration whether or not this will, or will not happen!

---

That’s all I want to address. Hope this clears things up for everyone!

[voidpacifist]

deepdive: sleep token lore

EDIT: This has now also been cross posted on Reddit :] Just a disclaimer before we begin: these are all purely my own theories, I know there are plenty more of them out there that are probably more cohesive! I don't intend to speculate about the man behind Vessel's mask or any real events in his life, I'm only talking about the character that is Vessel. Okay neat, let's get started

We'll start with our key characters: Vessel (protagonist), Sleep (a deity), and Eden (Vessel's speculated partner/interest). I personally haven't dove deeply enough through the older discography to know why the conclusion is that Eden is a person, but here is where I see it mentioned (Lex does a really good job breaking down the lore via a Reddit thread that ties together all of the albums, including EPs One and Two as well. I recommend giving them a follow!).

I'll only be diving into the main trilogy (Sundowning, This Place Will Become Your Tomb, Take Me Back To Eden), but I may revisit One and Two as well in the future. The Reddit thread that Lex mentions is also not something I've had the chance to read yet, so I'm sort of starting off at square one.

The basic lore that we know right off the bat is that Vessel is seduced by Sleep in a dream, that Sleep is an ancient deity, and that in order to worship Sleep, Vessel offers "tokens" to them. The tokens being the different songs in STs discography, ergo the name Sleep Token.

My theory, to begin, is that not every track is actually an offering or "token" to Sleep, but rather some of the songs are simply about Sleep. Many of the tracks are framed the way contemporary worship music is, hence many of the songs are quite literally the worship of Sleep. But these aren't the tokens or offerings themselves. The tokens themselves are the ones where Vessel is pouring his heart out about Eden and the facets of their relationship - physical, emotional, etc. Sleep consumes these tokens and in return, grants Vessel...rest? Peace of mind? Forgiveness?

We'll get into it.

Let's start with which specific songs are about Eden (the tokens), which ones are about Sleep, and which ones remain more ambiguous to me. If we're sticking to the main trilogy, then there's a total of eleven (11) tracks that I know for certain are referring to Sleep, and a total of nineteen (19) tracks that are without a doubt referring to Eden. There's about six (6) in the trilogy that I haven't narrowed down just yet, though leaving them to interpretation does allow for more fluidity in the story. Those last six in question are Vore, Telomeres, The Summoning, Rain, The Apparition, and High Water.

There are plenty of aspects about The Summoning that would normally lead me to believe that the track is about Eden, but a few things tip me off that it may be speaking to Sleep as well. Namely, "did I mistake you for a sign from God?" as well as the line, "something you say or something you do, the taste of the divine." Whoever Vessel is referring to, he is deifying them. And as we know, Sleep is a deity.

Vore was harder for me to narrow down until I listened to it again, and it definitely is speaking to Eden, simply because the "you" Vessel refers to has some distinctly, for lack of better terminology, mortal traits - "your flesh and bone welcome me in, welcome me in." He also asks, "Will we remain stuck in the throat of the gods?" which doesn't seem like something he would ask of a god themselves. It's also one of the most poignantly written tracks on Take Me Back To Eden, and offers the listener a new look at how desperate Vessel is to get back to Eden. However, from a more literary perspective, looking at it through the lens of the "you" being Sleep, it's where we can also catch a glimpse of Vessel's first misgivings with the deity. "There's always something in the way, I want to have you to myself for once," he says. If the feeling of this line is familiar, see the opening sentences from the track Gods on Sundowning: "I see the gods avert their gaze from me. My fucking form is but a wreck beneath them."

And if, in fact, all of the gods are averting their gazes from Vessel, that makes Sleep's presence all the more elusive. In The Apparition, he says, "I know that you will disappear just as I awake." It would seem fitting for a deity such as Sleep to be referred to this way, but then Vessel goes on to say, "somewhere in the past, something was between you and I, my dear." And if he's trying to return to Eden, then this track being about her would fit especially well.

Telomeres could very well be about either Sleep or Eden. "And I know as you collapse into me this is the start of something." We can either look at this as the start of Vessel's story with Sleep, or as the start of Vessel's story with Eden.

Rain was another one of those tracks that I was pretty sure could go either way, but the line, "you have got your hooks in me" felt distinctly like something he would say about a non-human being. "You get what you give, you reap what you sow and I can see you in my fate." Giving and taking. Transactional. Tug of war. The conversation that occurs between a being of great power and a being of lesser power. A human and a god.

The "sacred vapour" in High Water threw me for a loop at first, but this is what drew it back for me: "I know you still bear the weight of your own existence, and you'll never bear the weight of two." This doesn't sound like something Sleep as a being would struggle with, even as Vessel desperately begs to be "washed clean" time and time again. No, this track, despite having a lot of deifying language, is written to and about Eden.

Now that those have been looked at, let's look at the rest of the tracks. Those eleven that I believe refer to Sleep are The Night Does Not Belong To God (Sundowning), Atlantic (This Place Will Become Your Tomb), Gods (Sund.), Aqua Regia (Take Me Back To Eden), The Offering (Sund.), Higher (Sund.), Chokehold (TMBTE), Descending (TPWBYT), Ascensionism (TMBTE), Take Me Back To Eden (TMBTE), and Euclid (TMBTE).

The nineteen that I believe are written to or about Eden are Sugar (Sund.), Hypnosis (TPWBYT), Drag Me Under (Sund.), Mine (TPWBYT), Like That (TPWBYT), Alkaline (TPWBYT), Distraction (TPWBYT), Fall For Me (TPWBYT), The Love You Want (TPWBYT), Are You Really Okay? (TMBTE), Take Aim (Sund.), Give (Sund.), Say That You Will (Sund.), DYWTYLM (TMBTE), Levitate (Sund.), Granite (TMBTE), Dark Signs (Sund.), Missing Limbs (TPWBYT), and Blood Sport (Sund.).

If they look like they're in an oddly specific order, it's because they are. This brings me to the second part of the lore as I understand it - my theory is that while every song is meant to be listened to in the order that they're in, that doesn't mean they're in chronological order. We as the listeners are meant to consume it out of order so that it comes together from start to finish in the way that Vessel has methodically intended. Starting with The Night Does Not Belong To God and concluding with Euclid. The order in which I have listed them above is what I believe the order is of events between Vessel and Sleep and Eden respectively, minus the more ambiguous tracks.

Let's take a look at the tokens first, the ones where Vessel writes to and about Eden. Off the bat we know that Vessel is a fierce and insatiable lover, and his descriptions of how he desires for Eden are nothing short of that. Particularly in Sugar and Like That, the physicality of their relationship is just a little more than hinted at. Tracks such as Drag Me Under, Mine, Alkaline, and Distraction all further instill in the listener just how gone Vessel is for Eden. He is in pursuit - all he needs is for her to fall for him back.

"Did you not say we were made for each other?" -Mine

Which then brings us to Fall For Me. It's the first traces of vulnerability we see Vessel giving to Eden, as he implores for her to reciprocate the affection he feels.

"My insecurities surround me like lions in the den, and I feel like I'm losing touch with what I am again. And slowly I remember why I cannot pretend that I never think of you and all this screaming silence." -Fall For Me

But evidently, Eden does not reciprocate. In fact, Vessel starts to see a darkness in her that is referenced in The Love You Want, Are You Really Okay?, Give and DYWTYLM. He desires for her and to know her, but the more he knows, the more it seems like she either doesn't want to give love back to him or simply cannot.

"Too many swallowed keys will make you bleed internally someday, but maybe you believe that in the end you will be better off that way." -The Love You Want

"You woke me up one night, dripping crimson on the carpet. I saw it in your eyes, cutting deeper than the scars could run." -Are You Really Okay?

"If you want to give, then give me all that you can give, all your darkest impulses." -Give

"Maybe not that you conceal your feelings, they just don't exist." -DYWTYLM

In fact, in DYWTYLM, we hear Vessel plead in the background, "Smile back at me." It almost seems like we've come to the end of something with him. He's bargaining with her to give love a chance with him, but along with it, he's lost touch of who she is at all. Already, Eden seems like a contradiction in and of herself, as referenced in Alkaline as "perfectly misaligned."

Then, we come to Levitate. This is a track that I'm trying not to tear apart too deeply, both because it references a death, and because it references a lot of hurt was exchanged between Vessel and Eden in their relationship. I'll try to be frank with how I think it fits into the storyline, but I'd rather not be insensitive. I say it references a death due to the nature of how Eden is spoken about in these lines:

"I can tell you won't remember my cracking bones, the trauma we can't regrow just as you leave again. Will you levitate up where the angels inhabit? Will you levitate where I won't reach you?" -Levitate

The way I see it, this is much more than just grievances tearing apart a relationship - this is something that time cannot and will not reverse. Sure, Levitate seems a little more up to interpretation about what happened to divide Vessel and Eden, but there are other little references here and there that seem more final than simply walking out on someone. In the track order of Sundowning, Dark Signs immediately follows, and it weirdly specifically refers to a car.

"And if you saw the marks on my dashboard, the new scars that I didn't ask for, would you call asking for answers?" -Dark Signs

It's an oddly specific thing to write about. And it pops up again in Vessel and Eden's arc in TMBTE:

"I was more than just a body in your passenger seat, and you were more than just somebody I was destined to meet...Between the secondhand smoke and the glass on the street, you gave me nothing whatsoever but a reason to leave...You only drink the water when you think it's holy, so keep an eye on the road or we'll both be here forever." -Granite

As far as "what" happened to them, or more specifically, to Eden, Granite is a quite revealing track. Combine the contents of it with Levitate and Dark Signs, and it becomes much more than just about Eden leaving - Eden is dead. Even outside of the tokens, her death is referenced.

"Why are you never real? Whenever you appear, you leave me with that grace. I am trembling with fear, but I know that you will disappear just as I awake...this could be the last time you turn up in the reveries of my mind." -The Apparition

"Let the tides carry you back to me. The past, the future, through death, my arms are open." -Telomeres

"The whites of your eyes turn black in the lowlight in turning divine." -The Night Does Not Belong To God

But how does one "turn divine"? Simple: they're either chosen by God or they ascend in death. When Vessel asks in Levitate if Eden will levitate, I don't think he fully knows that she's truly going anywhere after death. Vessel isn't just seeking solace for his idiosyncrasies, and he isn't just seeking rest that isn't haunted by Eden, and he isn't just seeking forgiveness - he's seeking Eden, even after death. Even Fall For Me has some eerie foreshadowing about this, as Vessel screams, "Oh god, I wish you were here!" in the background and as he says, "to the rhythm of eternity, won't you fall for me?" in the chorus.

When he says forever, he means forever. But now Eden has gone where Vessel cannot follow. Who better than to seek but gods themselves to get her back? Thus starts Vessel and Sleep's story together.

In Atlantic, he pleads, "anything to get me to sleep." If we think about that by itself, it makes sense to say Eden is appearing to him in his dreams, but if we think about it in terms of The Night Does Not Belong To God coming first, we can also think of that track as the "falling asleep" before Vessel is seduced. He's not just looking for rest anymore in Atlantic - he's looking for a reverse.

But he cannot find anything to help him, and the frustration of that manifests in Gods, where he keeps saying, almost snidely, "It's all so easy for me." He's getting ready to go to war to complete his goal. Then, all of a sudden, he encounters Sleep.

"These days, I'm a circuit board, integrated hardware you cannot afford. The perfect start to a perfect war, putting down the roses, picking up the sword...Between the pain and the way you look, I'm stuck in a time where the mountains shook." -Aqua Regia

"And you are a garden, entwined with all. You are the silence on sacred shores. You've got diamonds for teeth, my love. So take a bite of me just once...This is a giving, an offering." -The Offering

The offering in question is everything Vessel is now as a result of his story with Eden, because he was all consumed with loving and trying to be loved by her. The tokens he gives to Sleep to bring her back to him somehow are deep glimpses into everything he was with her, and offer the briefest glimpse of who she was as well. Telomeres is, in fact, the start of something. It's double-sided. Because the start of something with Sleep mimics the start he had with Eden, playing with two sides of the same coin: seduction and desire. Eden's story begins with desire, and Sleep's begins with seduction.

"Believe that though we never eat, we still know how to feed. We still know how to bleed. Sugar, I've developed a taste for you, now." -Sugar

"These days I'm a picture frame, screaming at the sunshine, singing in the rain. Sugar on the blood cells, carbon on the brain, out of Eden's vices running through my veins." -Aqua Regia

After The Offering, the true tug of war begins with Vessel and Sleep, as he starts feeding them more and more of himself in an attempt to get them to comply with bringing Eden back.

"I am granting you more than the debt that I owe." -Higher

Similar to how it was with Eden, Vessel becomes obsessed with the worship of Sleep, offering token after token. It almost becomes a game between the two of them, and Vessel's insatiability reappears. Chokehold is evidence of his obsession and his desperation, and we can see it beginning to devour him.

"I've seen my days unfold, done the impossible, I'd turn my walls to gold to bring you home again. So show me that which I cannot see, even if it hurts me. Even if I can't sleep." -Chokehold

No longer does Vessel seek sleep as a form of rest. In Atlantic, it was "anything to get me to sleep." And now, it's "even if I can't sleep." He is fully devoted to Sleep the deity now, at his own expense. And, as his devotion is received by Sleep, as the tokens stack and as he grows restless, Vessel is allowed a vision of Eden.

"Raise me up again, take me past the edge. I want to see the other side. Won't you show me what it's like? My love, did I mistake you for a sign from God? Or are you really here to cut me off?" -The Summoning

Then, just as soon as he is allowed a glimpse of Eden, he realizes this Eden isn't the same as his Eden. It's what ultimately begins him on a path of speculation about Sleep's true intentions with him. Descending and Ascensionism, while both being in the same key, are also sister tracks. If Higher takes him closer to Sleep, then Descending takes him further away, while Ascensionism has him finally addressing just how much Sleep has taken from him.

"Just take it all for nothing, again. Create, release. She just don't feel the same. I asked, and you answered. But you eat your words in frame." -Descending

"Well I know what you want from me. You want someone to be. Your reflection, your bitter deception, setting you free. So you take what you want and leave...And I know what you want from me. You want the same as me. My redemption, eternal ascension, setting me free. So I'll take what I want and leave. You make me wish I could disappear." -Ascensionism

Sleep isn't just a deity that can "bring back" Eden - Sleep is a deity that embodies her. They become her, but they can never be her. The illusion of getting Eden back only breaks down until it's beyond "the path of reason." And in the way that Vessel chased after Eden, he chased after Sleep as well. And Sleep can show him no more than a cheap imitation of the one he loves.

"Come now, bite through these wires. I'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired. Reset my patient violence along both sides of a pathway higher. Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire...And I don't know what's got its teeth in me but I'm about to bite back in anger. No amount of self-sought fury will bring back the glory of innocence."

It's an ultimatum with both himself and with Sleep. Sleep's diamond-sharp teeth are now taking pieces of him instead of eating through his "circuit board," the one he talks about in Aqua Regia. Instead of freeing him, Sleep has kept him in their jaws. They're not taking him back to Eden at all - they're merely continuing to seduce him.

And still, even in the end, Vessel petitions Sleep once more as if they are Eden. Because the night does not belong to God...

"...the night belongs to you." -Euclid

As it circles back to the end of Euclid, we are offered the same words from The Night Does Not Belong To God. The night belongs to Sleep, but Vessel stops asking for Sleep themselves, or for Eden. "You will not be mine" is a double entendre - Sleep will not be his, and neither will Eden. This track is the last thing he says to Sleep-as-Eden. It's the final stage of grief, the start of Vessel's redemption arc, giving in either to the throes of the deity Sleep or choosing to walk away. The beauty of it is its open-endedness.

Personally, I like to think Vessel is the one who walks out this time. Before, it was Eden, who left before she could truly walk away from him. This not only makes Eden Vessel's vice, in a way, but also makes them foils to one another. From a literary perspective, it is more satisfying to see Vessel take back the night, to see him seek true rest without needing to give himself to the ancient god. I also like this ending best because he finally is allowed to choose closure, which he hasn't had since Eden's departure.

The last part of the theory I have about the trilogy lore is how it's structured. The way I see it, this is a frame narrative. Vessel has lost Eden, seeks what Sleep offers, then the tokens begin by telling his and Eden's story. It's after their story has concluded that Sleep uses this to construct an illusion or apparition of Eden, and it's both everything Vessel has ever wanted and his downfall, if he goes far enough with it. How his and Sleep's story ends, if it ends, is still up to interpretation, though.

The themes of these three albums all go together quite nicely, with all of them serving to illustrate two separate cycles of grief - the grief Vessel feels with Eden and the grief Vessel feels with Sleep. They are both entwined, but both of them end in acceptance.

"You will not be mine. So give me the night, the night, the night."

[hauntedhikingsociety]

i finally finished dual destinies. i had fun, but. it's not good. i think most fans agree, the 3d models and colours are ugly, the translation had a lot of basic errors, but the most frustrating part is the story. there's good ideas but they try to juggle too many characters and stories and it ends up being muddled.

so this is my. not how i would 'fix' dual destinies because tbh if i was really trying to fix this game i would simply say it should have been an actual sequel to aa4. but how i would rearrange the pieces to make it a more cohesive game on its own.

should be obvious but BIG SPOILERS FOR DUAL DESTINIES

overall changes:

no more dark age of the law. it's so fucking stupid "the dark age of the law started 8 years ago" does the original trilogy mean nothing to you. you're telling me dl-6 was the glorious age of the law get a grip. this added nothing to the story just say blackquill was wrongly convicted that happens EVERY GAME

no more turnabout academy. i'm sorry turnabout academy fans but it's too mixed up with the dark age of the law and frankly doesn't add anything. i feel juniper should have been playing a similar role to larry in aa1 as the tutorial defendant and a familiar face later

the central problem with dual destinies is that it can't decide if it's an apollo game or athena game or a phoenix game, and that makes the story weaker. so i would make it a game about the relationship between apollo and athena. since that's our central story thread, phoenix doesn't get his badge back until the very end of the game, giving those two more time to shine in court.

let's go case by case:

turnabout countdown

the main change i would make here is that athena is the lawyer the whole time. her having a breakdown because she has to do it alone and phoenix showing up is fine imo, in fact i like that athena has to deal with her ptsd in almost every case. but then it steals athena's moment by having her give up and phoenix take over, and also means that in the tutorial case, phoenix the one who needs to have the law explained to him when there's a rookie lawyer standing right there? honestly bizarre choice from the writers.

i would flip it so phoenix doesn't have his badge and can't take over, but shows up to provide emotional support in a mia-like role, which allows athena to continue defending with his help. the rest can progress as it was.

monstrous turnabout

again i liked this case and i don't think too many changes need to be made. However. trucy was so incredible sidelined in this game she's apollo's weirdgirl but she just dips at the first moment of tension, supposedly to 'look after jinxie' but then we never see her again. i'm fuming. if you want to replace apollo's weirdgirl, at least put some effort into it.

i would have apollo, trucy and athena investigate for this case together. athena and trucy have very different approaches to investigation. i'd like to see apollo and trucy have their dynamic disrupted by how direct and full speed ahead athena is at all times. maybe even argue about it a little. but by the end, they accept athena as the new member of the agency and get the not guilty verdict together, after which, maybe trucy hands the weirdgirl torch to athena and says she'll have more time for magic this way or something. in my vision, this is a game about apollo and athena's friendship, so that friendship has to feel earned, and this was the best place to do that.

turnabout academy

like i said, i would get rid of this one. its purpose in the plot is twofold: develop the character of juniper to how we meet her in turnabout countdown (which i think was unnecessary) and to hammer in the point about the dark age of the law (which i think was actively stupid)

instead. we needed a case where clay was the defendant. the way they introduced clay was so incredibly lazy my mouth dropped open. how is the player meant to feel any emotion about clay's death if he's just a random character? if they created a case where apollo was defending his best friend instead of athena defending hers then cosmic turnabout would have hurt.

i can't be bothered to come up with a whole plot but i would say the case wouldn't be space related, and would have a situation where someone confesses for someone else, as all the major cases do. we finish with a successful not guilty verdict and clay inviting them to his space launch (this would give athena a more concrete reason to be at the space centre and make her a more plausible suspect later)

cosmic turnabout

okay. here's where i start rearranging things. the first change i would make is instead of skipping straight to trial, keep the investigation segment for this one. it wouldn't have to be long, but i think instead of waiting until right at the end to reveal why apollo quit the agency, it would have been way more effective if the player sees athena lie.

think about it. by ace attorney convention, the defendant's always innocent. as players, we know this, and i never doubted athena's innocence for a second during turnabout tomorrow. what an insane metagame would it be if the player also doubts athena's motives. if we have to do the same mental gymnastics that apollo does. it would actually introduce something new in this game that's a fresh and interesting take on the ace attorney concept.

first trial can proceed the same way, but during the next investigation segment i would split it in two- in one half we play as athena and phoenix, and in the other we play as apollo and trucy, while they discover stuff like the footage of athena leaving the space museum for example. again, this makes the player suspicious of athena along with apollo.

but then you might think, okay but when athena gets accused who is going to defend her?

turnabout tomorrow

this is where there would have to be some mixing things around and a good dose of ace attorney bullshit but in turnabout tomorrow i would remove edgeworth entirely (i'm sorry i also thought the wrightworth banter was entertaining but in the interests of sticking to our core theme) and have apollo be the prosecutor. aura likes him and he has a reason to think athena did it.

then athena has no lawyer friend left to defend her (insert line about her being all alone and having no allies) but i would have blackquill act as her defence attorney. yes he's a prosecutor but we've had a prosecutor do the defence before and it's not even a real trial. because athena and blackquill are both suspects in metis' death there would have to be some shuffling while they work on defending each other. i would also have phoenix as the hostage in this situation rather than trucy, so he can offer support to the defence over the phone or through a robot, but this is still athena's case, and her moment to shine.

i'm aware this is a wild shuffle, but if i stick to my idea of this game being about the relationship between apollo and athena, the last trial should be apollo vs athena. it's not just about the truth of the case, it's about them breaking and repairing their trust. all those lines about how prosecutors and defence attorneys work together to discover the truth would be so sick if they were about the friends who we've been watching grow apart as they mend their relationship by discovering the truth.

after the fulbright reveal they can still swap out. blackquill becomes the prosecutor and apollo and athena take down the phantom together on the defence, reaffirming their friendship once again.

yes i mostly removed phoenix and completely removed edgeworth. that's because their presence was extraneous to the game's plot and themes and every time either one of them made a comment about the dark age of the law i was seized by the urge to punt my computer into a wall.

i did enjoy some parts of dual destinies and from what i hear the production was a bit rushed and all over the place- if capcom really did want to leave aa4 behind i really wish they'd put more thought and time into making this a good standalone game, instead of. constantly bringing back OT characters to overshadow the ones we already had.

[scifimagpie]

Writeblr Q&A

So, both @palebdot and @dyrewrites were kind enough to tag me, and I finally had a minute to answer this!

1) What motivates you to write?

It's more of a compulsion, really. Things get stuck in my head; characters stroll in and start saying stuff, or going through scenes, and then I get that electric buzz that makes me absolutely have to scramble for either my notebook or my laptop.

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

From a recently completed work, the Prairie Weather trilogy, which I want to shop around and see if I can get published traditionally:

Before him gaped the yawning gulf of his own fuckup. It was dizzying. He’d heard of staring into the abyss, and the abyss staring back, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite so mortifying.

I tend to be at least a bit more poetic usually, but this line just kicks so hard.

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

Right now, probably Isabella from the Hell Saga - she's just so good-natured, down for anything, and fundamentally kind and hopeful. She really goes through the ringer in book 2, which I'm working on now with my coauthor, though. This is another series we're hoping to go trad on, so cross your fingers for this irrepressible, bisexual Latina and Hispanic counsellor with a strong socialist streak!

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

The first draft can be really fun, but there's something to be said for that second-draft, "all the pieces are in place, now I just have to tweak them" experience. Finishing a book is also a hell of a rush. But that real, fixated feeling of being in the thick of it, often while listening to a playlist I've made specially for the project - that's definitely the good stuff, too.

5) What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Characters, dialogue, worldbuilding, and description - in no particular order. I'm really good at making up little people, making them friends and lovers, and then putting 'em through the wringer.

6) What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

The community and enthusiasm are really winning me over, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the relative skill of my friends, too!

7) A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

My Youtube playlists are absolutely required tools for my writing, a lot of the time. Sometimes I can write without them, but boy do they help. Some of them are also related to my D&D campaigns, but I'd like to think all of them are pretty well-curated.

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

The Underlighters series' underground city setting is probably one of the coolest things I've ever come up with. I was somewhat inspired by The City of Ember, but that book frustrated me so much that I vowed to write a much better version. Hopefully, I did. I tried to make it reasonably cohesive and somewhat scientifically justifiable.

However, I always tell a story about Underlighters - when I was trying to figure out the pollination situation for crops, I was doing research at about 2 in the morning one day on various pollinators and getting nowhere. Can bees live underground??? Some bees and wasps nest in the dirt, but that's not necessarily helpful. What about solitary bees and pollinators?

Startling my then-boyfriend (now husband) from his game, I threw my arms in the air and yelled, "Fuck it - cave bees!"

And so I decided that underground apiculture was an acceptable solution.

9) What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Try some different strategies and don't be afraid to rotate between projects. Try writing in point form, using different software, doing voice dictation - it can take a long time to figure out the exact right hacks to make your story flow.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters:

Well, that's easy!

@pinkchaosart @nattheauthor and the chaps above have been wonderful; also tagging (in no particular order): @ventela1 @omokers @nethilia @whalleyrulz @chicorybones @zillanovikov @sabotabby @nic0thecreat0r @chiefwritesbook @eldritch-selachii @holdmyteaplease @koala2all

[guardianspirits13]

do you have a favourite rrverse character? out of the series within the rrverse that you may have read which has been your favourite?

Hey! I can't believe I missed this!!! I have a lot of favorites, haha.

Thalia's a badass and I lowkey had a crush on her as a kid, Nico is one of the best written characters as is Reyna, and I relate to Lester in the depths of my soul because he's simultaneously a tragic hero trying to make a difference and a loser nerd with no social skills.

Also Hearth from MCGA is my SON and I would kill to see more of him, it would be really cool to have a book narrated by a deaf protagonist- I'm sure it's out there somewhere but I would love it was him :)

As far as RR series, they've flopped around in my mind quite a bit as to which is my favorite. I think ToA is the closest to my heart, it feels rather niche compared to the other more popular series. Heroes of Olympus is the most fun, there's constantly things happening and new characters and funny quips. Percy Jackson shines in its minimalism, the books pack so much into such few pages and the themes carry very strongly from beginning to end. As a collective series, PJO is the strongest because of the plot cohesion. ToA has some of the best writing I've encountered from Rick, and HoO is packed to the brim with fan service (and I am not complaining!)

MCGA is a solid trilogy (again blitzstone is so based), and I don't remember much of Kane Chronicles... it's been a while but I do remember having a hard time visualizing their concept of magic. I wasn't as familiar with Egyptian myths as a kid so it was pretty foreign to me.

Thanks again for asking, I'm nothing if not opinionated 😆

[chaifootsteps]

Ok so, I wanted to approach Halloween Ends from the lens of what (I believe) it is trying to be-- elevated horror. Now admittedly, I have not so much as even glanced at any of the interviews with David Gordon Green, so if any of what I speculate on has been previously proven false, you are free to let me know. I am currently coming off the tail-end of a very big rush from Talk to Me (2023), what is most definitely the best horror movie of 2023, which has got me thinking of elevated horror as a whole. (I highly recommend Talk to Me. It's disturbing and freaky and so, so good.)

Halloween Ends seems like it wants to do this big-brain storyline about, broadly put, the cycle of abuse. Something traumatic happens to the town, and so they need to have a scapegoat to pin it on, which becomes Laurie and then Corey. It can either be read as physical (Michael Myers's evil is leaking into the town which has grown around him like a tree), or metaphorical (the town's paranoia causes them to eat themselves up from the inside). This was touched on a bit in Halloween Kills, where the parasol guy was killed in a vicious case of mistaken identity. Everyone takes the tragedy of Halloween and makes it about themselves. You also have the part where one of the band kid's parents is shown abusing them after the same kid helped beat up Corey.

So yes, the film IS trying to say something. I wouldn't say that it failed at saying something, as long as I am understanding it for what it intended to be. It's cohesive and a well-made film, I'll give it that. The director clearly knows what he is doing. And in a different franchise with a different brand, untethered to the story of Michael Myers, it might have been good.

But the fact of the matter is-- Halloween, or more specifically this trilogy, is not the franchise to put that sort of story in. I'm not saying elevated horror can't be gory or slasher-y! Talk to Me is bloody, Hereditary is outright disturbing, and even Scream 5 touches on elevated horror a bit. It can be done. I would even go as far as to say that, in a certain scenario, you can make elevated horror out of the Halloween brand. But not in the last movie of a trilogy. Not when you've very clearly defined this story as the very last standoff between Michael and Laurie, as the finale to the story that has followed them both since they were young. Kills was fine, I'd say it was even great for what it was setting out to accomplish! It felt connected to 2018, but not to Ends, despite them having a much closer release date and probably a more defined idea about what was going to come afterwards. Hell, David probably knew about Corey by the time Kills was being filmed-- why not include him in Kills?!

And yes, you can try and peddle this storyline that Laurie is trying to move past everything that happened and reconnect with the only family she has left-- hell, there's that stupid pie tradition that she's probably only had for two years-- but it's just not congruent with the character established in 2018. You can have her try and move on, but hell, it doesn't even feel like she's worried about Michael!

I'm not sure how to end this, I've just been rambling again. But, to put it shortly-- Halloween Ends tries to be an elevated horror film instead of a satisfying conclusion to an already established story. And yet, because it is interjected into a very loaded franchise, it utterly fails at being either.

Agreed, with all of this.

It's not that the idea behind Halloween Ends is a bad one -- whether it's what you've suggested here or something else David Gordon Green had in mind, it's hard to tell because he's been all over the place about it. The problem is that it's not consistent with the trilogy of the story, it's not what we the audience signed up for, and it's not what was advertised.

There is no reason, storywise, for a time skip that sees Laurie baking pies when Kills ended on her ready to suit up and head out to avenge the death of her child. There's no way to make it work. It doesn't fit her character or the narrative we were given.

David Gordon Green should have ended Ends in a thematically consistent way, seeded it with thoughtful, elevated themes the way he did the first two films in the trilogy, and then, with everyone satisfied and the movie a success, found a way to make his big brain, I Am A Very Smart Boy Halloween vision come true. Whether it was another movie or some kind of side project, I'd be very surprised if they didn't let him.

Halloween fans will forgive a bad installment; they're used to them. What they won't forgive, and shouldn't, is being lied to to get their butts in seats of your art school ego trip.

[contentment-of-cats]

A lot of TL:DR about Star Wars

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Mando thoughts:

Cultural appropriation is imperialism. 10/10. Also, Gideon's wanting to create a Master Race of warriors is pretty predictable. The thing is, having Gideon on the Shadow Council is a fucking joke. He's in it to be the top dog and will shaft everyone else to get there.

Brendol Hux is the Fucked Order in nascent phase. Thrawn isn't tied up with these idiots, not with that 'long talk' looming when they zombify Palpatine. God, the fucking Palpatine clones were the most tiresome thing. I can see that they're building this up to support 'Somehow, Palpatine has returned!' nonsense of the sequels.

Also, there is a Shadow Council, but it's composed of competing factions. Palpatine set it up so that none of his top people would ever cooperate with one another unless there was something in it for them that would put them in the top spot. Essentially, when he needs cohesion, he has twelve assholes working on their own agenda. The FO (fucked order, final order, whatever - its sequel shit) was just the last one standing.

Thrawn has been here before in the Ascendancy Trilogy and knows how it ends, and he had a refresher course in the Thrawn 2017 trilogy. Third time is not the charm.

Palps got rid of competent, but not brilliant, officers in favor assholes jerks. The New Republic might not be able to get out of it's own way, but the Shadow Clowncil has a bunch of hairballs who can't even wipe themselves competently.

~

However, Pellaeon?

The thing is, I love that Zahn put his heart into giving us Thrawn, not just the Legends Thrawn, but a backstory. I think that books convey nuance better than television or movies, and that's why I never see movies or shows made from my favorite books. I know I'm going to be disappointed. Likewise, a lot of the Star Wars product just lost me at some point or another. It seemed to go on forever, without a point other than to keep the franchise going. I get that Filoni is probably the highest paid fanfic writer of all time, but ya know I've seen writers on Ao3 who had better plots, better characterizations, and more originality.

I fucked off the fandom again in the middle of the second sequel. I hated it, and I never saw the third. I'm entirely comfortable writing AU and reading fanfic that's better than anything Disney ever paid for.

[dawning-day]

book asks #1-4, and 19 (again)(keep being a hater pls there’s GOTTA be more than just the one)

1.book you’ve reread the most times? definitely dream thieves <3 worth the damages every time. which actually makes not finishing trk even funnier

you get a cut bc i got TOO excited about the rest of these

2.top 5 books of all time?

(1) raven cycle (as a series, as they god damn deserve) (2) soc duology (also as a cohesive unit sry my ask my fuckin rules) (3) the darkest powers trilogy by kelly armstrong (i haven't thought about these books in? probably ten years? but i was trying to think of books and the memory of this series slammed itself into the top three slot that's how obsessed i was with these books as a child. no fucking clue if they hold up. don't care. i stand by this choice.) (4) prisoner of azkaban (if i think about how much they left out of the movie i WILL go insane (derogatory)) (5) looking for alaska (the most shameful thing about me is actually that i fuck with most of the john green books. but this was the one i read in my formative years)

3.what is your favourite genre? i guess ?? YA fiction?? is that a genre?? i like it when teens smoke cigarettes and sit in cars. maybe sometimes there's magic/magic adjacent shenanigans involved. whatever genre that is

4.what sections of a bookstore do you browse? this is such a cop out answer but i'm actually terrible at reading things unless someone's specifically told me it was good bc i do not like to expose myself to HURT so if i do go to a physical store i'm usually just there to browse music. however !! recently (the past like two years rly but i don't go out much) i have been getting into graphic novels so i think those would be fun to browse irl. one time i was in a vintage/antique shop and they had a little stand with comics and they had some issues from the 90's stormwatch run (my favorite dc comic of all very time) and it was the most exciting thing thats ever happened to me i think? so yeah if that happened again i would lose it probably !!

19.most disliked popular books? okay this is actually unreasonably petty of me but whatever we ball. i have absolutely DESPISED ender's game,,with the vital caveat that i haven't actually read it. when i was in high school our english class had to read THE ENTIRITY OF THE FUCKING ODYSSEY. WE WERE LIKE 14. IT TOOK SIX MONTHS. meanwhile the OTHER english class got to read the cool space kids war book. i was SEETHING in jealous rage. i still am actually why the fuck did they do this to us.

[theladyelara]

Could a tv show save the sequel trilogy?

After watching Clone Wars and Rebels and Clone Wars again and getting my heart absolutely wrecked every time, it brought me to two conclusions. One, Dave Filoni is a god and must be protected at all costs, and two, animated shows and tv shows in general have immense power 

So there’s a fair share of prequel hate out there, a camp which I sort of understand but definitely don’t belong to, but it’s pretty much universally accepted that the clone wars is golden. For a lot of people it made the prequel trilogy so much more meaningful and impactful than it was before. Rebels only continued this trend, continuing to give depth to the world of star wars, tying in some of the EU and continuing stories of tcw characters while also simply telling a really good story of a new cast. 

Which led me to the question I posed at the beginning. Could a tv show save the sequels? We’ve seen tcw ‘save’ the prequels, could a new show do the same for Disney? 

Disclaimer, I have not watched Resistance, and I have watched Mandalorian. 

In order to break down the question we’ll have to outline some things. First: Why did tcw ‘save’ the prequels. I think it comes down to these things. They... -- expanded upon and added depth to existing characters -- expanded the world building, and lore -- successfully introduced compelling new characters  -- continued the thematic elements of the prequels and sw as a whole  -- had really good storytelling overall  -- none of these above things contradicted or disconnected from the existing world of the movies

Now, is there a show that could do that for the sequels? Explore the characters more, delve deeper into the world, and tell a compelling and cohesive story? (listen I really am asking, lmk your opinion!) 

I am going, also, to posit some of the base ideas I have as well.

First: The year is before the Force Awakens, and after Ben genocides Luke’s temple. The show will center around one Jacen Syndulla and friends. Jacen is now a young Jedi who survived the temple razing, as he had been studying under Luke beforehand. Jacen is a quick tie in to the rest of the tv shows, being the child of Hera and Kanan from Rebels. He would travel the galaxy, perhaps trying to reach out to Ben, perhaps trying to stay the heck away from him. At some point he’ll find out about Something On Jakku and we’ll see him try to get there, always thwarted at exactly the wrong moment. Rey never meets him and it’s a tragedy. I could see him working with the resistance, and we could see other facets of the ST characters through him that way. The most potential I see with this idea is exploring Ben through a character like Jacen who grew up alongside him, and we could see more of exactly how Ben fell to the dark side, Snoke’s(and ig palpatine’s) influence and Luke’s teaching. It could also be used to salvage Luke as a character and give him better motivation for whatever happened in TLJ.  Of course, if you haven’t noted it already, we come to the stumbling block with this plot thread that FA made possible. It’d be almost exactly like Rebels. And I choose to blame this entirely on the New Hope Awakens episode 4 7 and not on my elevator pitch! 

Second: The other idea I had would be half about the sequel trilogy? It’d be more of a direct sequel to episode 6, basically following the OTs as they set up a new Jedi and a new Republic. But this may be bias talking, as that’s what I’d have wanted to see, and I also don’t know how well it’d work into the ST we actually got. The potential with this story thread again is Luke and Ben and Snoke, figuring out how Palpatine, one, survived, and two, has been pulling strings this whole time. The worldbuilding potential here is also huge, chances to explain what the first order is and why it exists.  However, I don’t know how well this would make for a tv show, and does little to help the characters of the ST, as it’d largely be set slightly before their time. 

Third: Somewhere between TLJ and ROS. This is the only time skip present between the mainline movies. It’s not like tcw, where the showrunners had something deliberate and fleshed out to talk about in their show. So they don’t have much low-hanging fruit to pick up for plot, and I think the time skip is pretty short. Still, this gives the most potential for the ST characters, and expounding upon them. We could see the trio actually work together, discover their relationships together as they go on missions. Rey is trying to learn how to be a Jedi, and is getting increasingly frustrated because she can’t get it. There could be darker hints as to her heritage. Also some proper bloody foreshadowing to the rise of palpatine and the Sith in the next movie. We should see her struggle and grow, go back to Jakku and deal with that, keep confronting Ben and Luke and Leia in more interesting ways. In my head the structure is pretty much like tcw or rebels, but maybe that’s just how I expect star wars shows to be structured at this point. A series of missions, exploring themes over arcs of a few episodes. And again we come to lovely originality problems, because this would be basically TCW with OT flavor and ST characters. But if it works it works, and I think this is really the best option to ‘save’ the ST. We need to get invested into these characters, and their best bet (as far as a tv show goes), is to do for Rey what TCW did for Anakin. 

[blueikeproductions]

New pictures of The Fallen and commentary about Age of the Primes was posted by Hasbro toy designer Mark Maher. In particular, this stuck out:

“All of the 13 primes have never been made as a cohesive toy collection in all of the 40 years of Transformers. They constantly come up in animations, comics, and even movies! This collection is one of my biggest and most bad ass achievements as a designer at Hasbro. The best part of the next 2 years is, you’ll not only collect the 13 primes but theres an amazing plethora of bots that are all descendents of the primes, you can collect them all, finish mini collections, and guess their energon bloodline.”

The idea of familial descendants isn’t new to Transformers, we’ve had sibling and parent-child relationships before.

But with the 13 Primes, it’s a bit of a mess.

When the modern version of the 13 Primes via Aligned came about, Amalgamous, Solus, Micronus, Quintus, Nexus and Onyx were specifically created to explain Triple/Six-Changers/Shifers, Females, Mini-Cons, Quintessons, Combiners, and Beasts.

Modern material is a bit… dodgy about this lately, especially TFONE which never explains this particular role.

The only early incarnation of a Prime that’s described as having descents was, once more, Liege Maximo. He was the first Decepticon, and the one Megatron and the others sprang from. He also seems to have a connection to the Second Generation Cybertronians Jhiaxus was part of, as they were all originally Decepticons.

This is where it gets a bit clunkier, as via the Bay movies, Optimus Prime’s a direct descendant of Prima, … but modern material tends to cast Optimus as being the 13th Arisen Prime, so Optimus can’t be both…

Well, he could be, but I don’t think this toy line wants to do that.

So taking this at face value, what does this imply? Are we getting new characters that are specifically descended from the Primes, or do we just headcanon certain characters?

At face value Devastator and Superion are descendants of Nexus Prime because they’re all Combiners, but what about Solus? Any female character we get in this toy line is just gonna be her descendant? How many times can you sell pegwarming Arcees, Elitas, Shadow Strikers, Strongarms and Windblades anyway? Are they gonna try Glowstrike, Clipper, Nightra, Anode, Lug, Velocity, Cyberwarp, Slide, Pyra Magna or Airachnid this time?

Maybe? I’m skeptical.

Quintus is interesting because it would imply the Quintessons and the Terrans, but I don’t know if they’ll do that so soon after EarthSpark continues to struggle on store shelves.

Though it could be an in for the EarthSpark Quint Executioners, but I don’t know what they’d Transform into. Maybe a sports car as a Bisk pretool.

Also who would be Vector Prime’s descendant be? Time based powers aren’t exactly common.

By process of elimination, Heinrad fits the bill…

But this Maximal is pry even more of a hard sell than Tasmanian Kid or Lio Convoy for western fandom, so hmm.

Mini-Cons will have it tougher because they haven’t been relevant since RiD15 post Unicron Trilogy, and Hasbro cut out the Core size class where the Mini-Cons would fit due to the past Core toys not selling well as pegs full of Rungs, Slitherfangs and Iguanuses here can attest. Were we going to get new toys of High Wire, Sparkplug, Leader-1, Fixit or Sawtooth anyway? I’m leaning towards no atm, so who realistically would be Micronus’ descendants here anyway?

This also implies something I had somewhat feared, as Age is another crossover toy line, so ergo it suggests retroactively that G1, Animated, Beast Wars, and the Unicron Trilogy also make use of the modern 13 Prime mythology… and I don’t know if that works. The Animated series doesn’t even use Primes in that way, wouldn’t that mean they’re all Magnuses? So Onyx Magnus, Solus Magnus, Prima Magnus, etc. Does that mean the 13th Magnus (Zeta Magnus?) was the first to wield the Magnus Hammer?

It’s frankly kind of a mess and with reluctance in making toys of other characters like Thunderblast, Mole Dive, or Ransack, I’m curious how this new toy line will fill itself out.

The toys will be definitely interesting, as while The Fallen is his original Dreamwave design, Prima appears to be a hybrid of his Aligned and Marvel looks.

I mean you’d think using his TFONE form would be easier, but gotta have that ugly, early Aligned flavor I s’pose.

[danimia]

Dropping in to tell you you're so cool!! You have an amazing story idea with a purpose (Up In Flames), and it being a self-insert fanfic makes it extra vulnerable to write, which is really damn hard and respectable!

Who says you can't find people interested in your things! You made me check out your ff on AO3! I don't even read fanfics!

You mentioned as well how you're writing a novel (trilogy) and I would really love to hear more about it if you would share 👀

aaa tysm! 😭 it is so sweet of you to check out my ff! I'm trying to write it as something that's self-contained enough to at least make sense to people who aren't into wrestling and/or aren't familiar with the existing characters. I might file the serial numbers off it at some point, but for now at least, I think of it as my tribute to a couple of the wrestlers who inspired me to imagine a life without limitations 😊

as for the second... well, when I mentioned the "trilogy" I'd actually been thinking of the fanfic! I've got ideas for the plot that span three arcs that are each at least novella-sized, tentatively titled Up In Flames, Down In Smoke, and simply Inferno, and I might try my hand at writing a synopsis-blurb:

Inferno has always fantasized of one day joining the ranks of the professional wrestlers, fighting with and alongside the greats while crowds scream in excitement. Unfortunately for Inferno, they have always known that it could only ever be a fantasy, because they were born with a body that catastrophically overheats any time they push themself to the limit. But when two of their idols, wrestlers Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley, save Inferno from the most catastrophic meltdown they've ever suffered, they surprise Inferno with an offer: they know what is causing the attacks, and they can help Inferno gain control over them, but only if the enby agrees to commit to a grueling and agonizing training regimen. This is Inferno's one chance to grab for the life they've always dreamed of...but can they survive the journey to get there?

Up In Flames is four chapters and around 11k words at the moment, but you know all that because you've looked at my AO3 😅

That said. (coughs)

There is a WIP novel trilogy, because of course there is. It's the novelization of a superhero story I wrote as part of a cowriting/RP community some years back, and the novel form of book 1, How I Became A Hero, was the last writing project I was working on before the pandemic wrecked my mental health. It is the most wonderful story I've ever had the privilege to be a part of and it is precious and dear to my heart, but the raw cowritten text is closer in quality to "chat-RP log" than "novel"—well-written individual sequences, but somewhat lacking in cohesion.

Thus the novelization. At the moment, I have around six chapters and about 32k words of submission-quality manuscript, and the source material suggests that book 1 of the trilogy will probably be around 100k~150k, with books 2 and 3 similarly-sized. And, while I'm not sure I can do it justice off the cuff, I'll try and blurb it:

The Dualist is not the most famous superhero in the Infinity Legion of Earth. The genderfluid swashbuckler in green, blue, and gold isn't the strongest, the fastest, or the toughest. If anything, the one superlative they could be awarded is this: The Dualist may be the most underestimated superhero in the Legion. Before she could slice, parry, and quip her way into the hearts of millions, though, and before he could charm his way into criminal lairs with a cheeky grin; before the stories of triumph and disaster, saving lives and thwarting villains, there was this. This is the story of Amy Zacharias, a depressed University of Wyoming student with an emotionally abusive boyfriend and misguided notions about her own identity. Salvation arrives for her wearing the form of tragedy, when she Emerges paranormal abilities that seem more of a curse than a blessing: from that point onward, everyone who perceives her will always and only ever see her as she sees herself. With her innermost heart laid bare to friends and enemies alike, Amy has a long and arduous journey ahead of her. Follow her as she learns who she can trust, and who she can love; as he learns the truth of who he is and what he can be. This is a story of deepest despair that leads to transcendent joy; this is a story of what is right claiming victory over what is proper. This is the story of The Dualist.