#it’s just a fascinating series i think the concept and the characters are amazing and interesting to analyse and think about

[kyouka-supremacy]

I was asked why I like Beast and why I prefer it over the main universe, so obviously I ended up with a 2k+ words essay on why Beast is great. Now I feel like it diverges too much from what the original ask was actually asking for, so I'm leaving it to its own post. Enjoy.

Why do you like Beast? So, first of all you MUST know that this is a question that could keep me talking for days to no end. I'm not kidding. Here there will be some disorganized rambles but trust me, if I had time to actually do so I'd keep going on forever.

Alternative universes are cool I love Beast. I think it starts off at a point when the bsd author was more experienced from having already worked with the main series for many years, and ultimately ended up making an alternative version of the work that is more mature and refined, while still maintaining bsd's core themes (and conservative worldviews at that lmao). Starting off, the “what if” concept is endlessly fascinating, pretty much the entire fandom culture is based on it. It IS unfailingly cool to see what could have happened if Akutagawa sided with the ada and Atsushi with the pm, it is extremely interesting to see what changes out of their personalities and on the other hand what stays the same, what is intrinsically them. About sskk, I find it really compelling how Beast tackles intimate aspects of their lives, pasts and traumas. The café scene is genuinely brilliant in the way it shows, completely unexpectedly and to the reader's full disbelief, them getting along in normal circumstances. Who could have predicted that! Of all things, Akutagawa and Atsushi getting along. But it happened, and nothing before had ever shown to that extent how similar they are, how much on the same page they are, how much they're meant to be– like yeah obviously I mean romantically, but even if you're not particularly into that, it displayed just how deeply connected they are. I'm forever grateful for that scene.

Beast Akutagawa is great But I think… More in general, I just really like Beast Akutagawa and Beast Atsushi, even better than their canon counterparts 😅 Again I do think at the point when they wrote Beast the author had already gathered a lot of experience from serializing bsd for at least five years, and ended up making characters that are more solid and compelling (although please don't get me wrong, I LOVE canon sskk and I believe canon Akutagawa's character arc in particular is amazing. It's just that at least to me Beast sskk is everything I could ever ask for.). I love Beast Akutagawa! It was so so capturing to see him grow outside of the pm. And especially it was infinitely interesting to see Akutagawa grow outside of Dazai. And don't get me wrong, I love the influence Dazai has on canon Akutagawa, I wouldn't have it any other way: it made Akutagawa who he is, and I love reading about his character. But I also found it wonderful and pleasantly refreshing to see how he would be if he had never undergone Dazai's training; I like this Akutagawa who's possibly even more immature and impulsive, wild and untamed than his canon counterpart. Beast is also the universe where Akutagawa gets his chance at being a good person - which is something he desperately strived for but never got to have in the main universe -, and in the end I am a little attached to Akutagawa, so I'm happy for him! His relationship with Oda and the whole ada are wonderful, I like getting to experience a universe where Akutagawa is loved and supported, unapologetically, for who he is.

Beast Atsushi is great Beast Atsushi is AMAZING. Like. Character molded appositely to my liking ahah. He's so cool! He's so tormented! He's sweet and cruel and utterly unstable! I love him so much. He truly is Atsushi at his full potential. I love this Atsushi who's biggest fear isn't the world, but rather himself. He's beautiful and horrible and deathly and kind. He killed his abuser to stop him from haunting his nightmares, but ended up turning those nightmares into his life. He takes his coffee with three sugars. He loves his little sister and would risk the safety of his organization and the boss he's endlessly loyal to for her. The only person who ever understood him is his most loathed enemy. He's one with death and indistinguishable from darkness. His laughter stops rain. He lives in perpetual physical pain due to a choker constantly piercing around his neck and yet even that is nothing compared to the damage of his psyche. He's so, so fucked up. He deserves the world. I LOVE HIM.

Beast Dazai is great Also, I really like Beast Dazai!!! He's always Dazai, but I think his character works out a lot better in Beast for the role he covers. In canon Dazai is this omniscient, all knowing figure, but he's also a protagonist, and him being so perfectly flawless doesn't go well in the long run. You've seen it in the last season 5 episode, it just gets boring after a while– it would be nice to see him face actual challenges and high stakes for once, but he's so overpowered, that never happens. In Beast, it's pretty much the same deal (author really loves Dazai lmao), but the fact that he isn't the protagonist and instead the main villain? I feel like from a storytelling standpoint, it works so much better!! I mean, his being omniscient works a lot better– he's not the one who the reader expects facing challenges and high stakes, the protagonist is. In addition, in Beast Dazai has almost universal knowledge due to his link to the Book, so that makes his being omniscient and even god-like a lot more feasible and easy to contemplate! I think that plot-wise it just works a lot better, there's an actual reason he's so overpowered, and that reason is explained, it's in the text. Oh and I LOVE his utter devotion to Oda. I know it's the same in canon, but still… There in Beast you can see it concretely, you can see it everywhere. That very universe exists how it is because of Dazai's love for Oda, because there's nothing he wouldn't do for him, because in the whole universe, in the whole multiverse, Oda's happiness is the only thing that matters to him. I think such strong feelings of love being put so explicitly is something simply wonderful to read, and makes Dazai infinitely more sympathetic than what he may be in canon. “But I do have one regret, Odasaku— I won't be able to read the novel you'll complete one day.” LIKE YEAH, SURE, ALRIGHT, JUST SHOOT ME TO THE HEAD ALREADY. That line alone is worth the whole novel, honestly. Oh and the thing about Oda harshly repudiating Dazai, the man who literally did everything for him, who dedicated his whole life for him… Man!!! That REALLY made me sympathize with Dazai in a way canon will never be able to. All those factors only contribute making Dazai's suicide in the end all the more emotional– which I believe works really well in the story, he is an enemy and he is a god and he had to die, but still makes for an extremely emotionally charged scene and a wonderful story climax. Imo Beast Dazai had to die so that canon Dazai could live (and, hopefully, find a reason to live!), and it's as bitter as it is beautiful.

The Beast ada dynamics are great And I love the ada in Beast!!! They feel infinitely more of a family than they do in canon. Kenji, Kunikida, Tanizaki, they all seem to love Akutagawa in a way that's hard to be found towards Atsushi in canon? The way they didn't falter to rescue Akutagawa even as he went, against all their advices and pleas, to a suicidal rampage was wonderful and heartwarming. They make it sound unbelievable that when Atsushi was (mind you, unwillingly) kidnapped their first response would be that it was an hassle and that he should have dealt with it on his own (this time I truly believe it was the author learning from their own mistakes, because seriously, who does that. It makes everyone instantly feel a thousand times less sympathetic). As people have said, the ada alone makes Beast feel like the “right” universe on the basis that in it they actually care about their members. All things considered, the ada treats Akutagawa as this kind of rabid murderous gremlin they just adopted who's going to bite everyone but that they still love no matter what, and it's super cute. Beast ada really is the bsd found family if there ever was one.

A cool plot The Beast storyline is just very compelling in general? The introduction chapter is amazing, I mean, The Heartless Cur is amazing. Again, Beast Akutagawa is such a great character, and the description of his struggle to find his own humanity, although in my opinion does fall weak in some points and has flaws, still treats a concept that's very interesting to ponder over nonetheless. I like how there's a series of more light-hearted chapters in the first half, it helps solidify the characters, and those chapters are really nice to read; not to mention having lighter chapters alternated with the strikingly more gloomy and violent pm Atsushi scenes makes the latter feel all the more frightening and disturbing, it's a great narrative choice. And the big crescendo of Akutagawa storming in the pm headquarters! His fight of physics and morals against Atsushi! Them telling each other they're nothing like the other when the reader knows the exact opposite is true! It's all very good, and again, Dazai's suicide makes for a perfect climax to the story.

Sometimes being a seinen can be good I like how Beast is a seinen way more than the main story is? Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with shounen manga - which bsd seems to lean towards more often than not, with only occasionally tackling more adult concepts -, but at this specific time in my life those darker themes are just something I find more entertaining to read about. I feel like the gritty and often gruesome depictions, although maybe a little overused in the manga, really help emphasize the dark atmosphere of the manga and overall effectively convey the whole “beast” imaginary as wild / violent / unpleasant / animalistic.

It's got sskk in it And in general it's just… Compared to canon, Beast is very very sskk centered. It's significantly shorter than the canon manga, and in a way that helped focus on sskk specifically, because it only had space to narrate one story, which is sskk's. And I don't know what to tell you, I'm here for the sskk. Of course I like Beast best.

Beast Atsushi is great (cont.) Back to Beast Atsushi because he's everything, really. I love how when I went into Beast I was like “I mean, whatever Dazai is making of Atsushi under the pm, if can't possibly be any worse than the constant abuse Akutagawa had to experience 😊” AND I WAS PROVED WRONG. I mean, I think the fact alone that the author could come up with something worse is remarkable. Dazai's emotional manipulation and psychological torment is, I believe, the darkest facet of Dazai we ever witnessed, and it's extremely well executed. Beast Atsushi is so so unstable, so on the brim of mental breakdown and psychosis at every second. Him being made unable to let go of the past makes him live in a perpetual nightmare. And I feel like the way his character story is unwrapped is truly masterful, storytelling wise!!!! On the reader's first encounter with him, it's evident how deeply scarred and disturbed he is, but the reader can't tell why. That adds to the mystery and feeling of unsettling surrounding the character: his story is wrapped up by darkness and it's impossible to predict, just like he is– and it's deliciously unsettling, scary, to be unable to tell anything about what made him like he is except from guessing that it must have been something really bad. And yet even then /nothing/ could have prepared the reader to what his backstory really is? And when the traumatic event is finally unveiled, it's worse then any guess the reader could have made. Atsushi's back to the orphanage flashback passage is terrifying! He didn't undergo any harm, like it would have been easy to guess; on the contrary, his torment stems from having killed his abuser. But he did so at a point when he didn't represent a threat for him anymore, when he was proud of him, when he got close to resemble a father to his eyes; and all of this he realized too late; and now he lives in constant regret, constant terror of himself. It's great, really! And even then, Atsushi carries on with being. super cool lmao. Like yeah he's unstable and everything, he's wild and violent, but he's also still very kind. He's timid and blushes easily. He also feels a lot more mature than he does in canon, and it's nice to see. He's more confident and serious, and that's nice too. He REALLY is my favorite character.

Some pretty cool scenes are in it Moving on, Beast has some truly amazing scenes. The Heartless Cur is amazing and builds up such an awesome character, Atsushi's introduction is petrifying, the Kenji / Akutagawa conversation is as deeply moving as it is cathartic. I won't be talking about the sskk café scene. Akutagawa's whole assault to the pm headquarters is rich of emotional scenes. I already talked about Atsushi's flashback and Dazai's suicide being wonderful passages both from technical and emotional standpoints. And the manga ending is just so good!!!!!!! Like it truly is the perfect ending– the way it ties up with the main story! How it feels like ada Akutagawa's story has just begun, a conclusion but also hope for what's to come. The “out behind our company's building there are some people of low character hanging about”– I can't stress enough how emotional this line, a final and definite tie to the main story, makes me, how meaningful it is in its quality of being both an ending, and a beginning. The last page showing Akutagawa at the center of the ada, it just moves me so deeply to see him being the protagonist, surrounded by a crowd of people who love and support him, getting his own chance at a life in the light 😭😭😭 “I'm going to live as an agency member. I'll solve cases, rescue the weak, and prove that I'm not evil.” Crying my eyes out 😭😭😭😭😭😭 And don't get me started on when Akutagawa and Atsushi's voices mix up to speak as one; I could never hope to be able to express what that makes me feel.

Siblings dynamics are my jam I also love Beast because one of the main aspects that drives the plot is Ryuunosuke and Gin's relationship, and I /love/ siblings relationships, and I //love// Ryuunosuke and Gin's relationship. I don't think Gin's character was written well at all (because the author literally can't write female characters for the life of theirs), but eh, at least it reinforced the concept that Ryuunosuke loves Gin terribly and would be able to do anything for her. Atsushi and Kyouka's relationship, too, is to die for.

The designs and manga art style slay Besides, the character designs are beautiful???? Akutagawa's Beast outfit is my second favorite out of the whole franchise, it's just such a look™. I love in general how rabid and messy Akutagawa looks in Beast, he feels so much more free? And like, good for him. In my head Beast Atsushi is the most handsome man in the entire franchise and I don't think I can take criticism on this. I find cutting off his longer bang such a witty way to represent not only how this Atsushi is different from the one we know (after all, that's the most remarkable and eye-catching feature of his appearance!), but also to symbolize how the cut with his past at the orphanage was harsh and violent. Characters designs aside, Hoshikawa's art style is GORGEUS. It's hard and rough and messy, it's dark and unpolished and violent and beautiful and exactly everything Beast is. It's PERFECT for the story, it's like it was made to portray it.

Sskk is always great And that's just talking about the canon content but like. Beast means a Beast sskk. Which is basically new and improved sskk. And I like sskk. And I like every version of sskk but especially this version where they're even more violent and fucked up and madly in love with each other and evidently meant to be. So yeah.

And this is like, just the very tip of the iceberg of what I love about Beast. Humbling offering you this Beast love letter in hope we can all give this novel the appreciation it deserves (๑˃‌ᴗ˂‌)۶

[whumpsday]

Uh, hello, hope this isn’t strange at all but I just wanted to say your writing is (not sure if you’re fine with cussing so sorry if you’re not :/) fucking amazing. I can’t express it in any other way that is actually coherent, but yeah. So, here’s an entire little ramble about my general feelings of amazement towards your writing that I haven’t left in comments otherwise because A) I have severe social anxiety and extreme shyness and overthinky tendencies so I am primarily a lurker and B) This is just how I express my kudos to people whose stuff I like (sorry if it’s horribly unstructured and generally unhinged; I am not the best at conveying feelings through words and I tend to just word vomit all my unfiltered thoughts.)

Sifting through my memory, you’re probably the first actual whump series I tentatively got into, like the first series I probably read, and it spurred my realization (self discovery?) from there. Starting off, the Kane and Jim thing is just done so fucking well, I can see all the scenes so vividly in my imagination (the picrews definitely help but also you describe and narrate and whatever the hell English teachers say it is so well. I mean the writing it’s so damn descriptive. That might just be a side effect of my really vivid imagination and also me being a very simple person, but still, I fucking love it), I can tell you put a lot of thought and work into writing the chapters (also with how long it takes for updates.

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, take as much time as you need to make the chapters how you want them to be so they have their fullest potential). The way you write each of the characters, each of them has their distinctive personalities (to me that’s amazing since whenever I try to write, I can never get the words to be like that if it makes sense), the way you’ve built and developed each of the characters and how you portray them in your writing is fucking beautiful. Even the little drabbles are so well put together (hope that doesn’t sound weird, that’s a compliment. My brain is seeing the tone as rude somehow)

I don’t think I have enough words or brain ability to coherent my thoughts to conceptualize to you how amazing your writing is but I swear it’s amazing (really hope this doesn’t come across as buttering you up or anything like that. I genuinely am just trying to express my amazement), but long story short, I hope you continue to work on your series and I can’t wait for whenever you update it!

As for the somewhat unrelated part of the ask, yeah, again, you’re probably the person who spurred on and was the starting point (????) for my self discovery of whump. That is to say, I never realized that it was whump that I liked reading and also in general (finally understand why I have a fascination with torture and putting my brain blorbos and others through hell and then comfort and the like lol), and your series, granted, while it wasn’t the first, was the catalyst for me getting into it. I’m not sure if this would be exaggerating on my part, but if I didn’t discover you, I probably wouldn't have discovered all of the other blogs whom I love reading from or seeing content I like or heck even helping me create and develop some new concepts for characters or worldbuilding (I really like doing that as a hobby).

So thank you for the inspiration (is that even the word?) and discovery, but also screw you because now it’s taking up my brain energy for stuff like learning and trying to get into other hobbies (I’m joking, I don’t actually screw you to clarify. It’s sarcasm, I really want to make that clear, I’m not good at text tone).

I hope one day to be able to get the motivation and push aside my brain doubts to write stuff like you do (and also every other writer out there I lurk on who might be reading this. I hope that doesn’t come off as disingenuous by me saying that and not only saying you, I’m probably overthinking that severely…) and, if it’s not at all an issue, that I’d be able to perhaps ask some advice for writing in the future (if I ever work up the courage thanks to social anxiety.). I have so much more to say but my brain unfortunately does not have the capacity to translate chaotic brain thoughts into coherent words (and the damn thing keeps thinking of more things to add on and agh-) but long story short, I’m very glad you exist and thank you for writing the Kane and Jim story

I hope you’re having a wonderful day/night, are staying hydrated, taking care of yourself, and, if you’re still experiencing it, you get past whatever writer's block you have at the moment (and if you don’t, take it as a little brain break. Or don’t, I’m not your parent) :)

Also I deeply apologize if this comes off as strange or too much or stalkerish or whatever and I fully understand if it’s off putting. Adding this probably doesn’t help, but overthinking and social anxiety is a fucking bitch

aw anon this is so so sweet!! i'm honored my writing has had such an impact for you!! you are def overthinking yourself, there is nothing wrong with this message at all, i love it!! <3

and yes, you can feel free to send more asks if you like! you are braver than i am: for the past several months, i've had an email drafted to my old high school english teacher thanking her for everything she did for me (i'd never have gotten into writing without her), letting her know i'm also working in education now and have some published work, but i'm way too shy... i will try to take inspiration from you and send that email!!

and also finish the chapter i'm working on lol.

[merakiui]

Since you don’t mind being asked for recommendations, do you have any horror or thriller book recommendations to give? I just thought that you must have read a lot to nail the terrifying atmosphere in your fics so well.

Aaaa thank you for saying so!!! I'm glad my fics have scary atmosphere. As for horror/thriller recs, here are a few that I have read and enjoyed!

Definitely the Red Eye series. I can't recommend it enough. orz but my personal favorites from the series would be:

✧ Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell (also the prequel Charlotte Says) - these are amazing. I can't recommend Alex Bell's work enough. I reread Frozen Charlotte every year because it's such a delicious horror story. I may be biased because of the Victorian charm it has, especially in the prequel, but overall it's really enjoyable and I highly recommend it.

✧ Flesh & Blood by Simon Cheshire - THE ENDING. OHHHHH, IT GUTTED ME IN THE BEST WAY. I loved the suspicion in this one. So tangible.

✧ Sleepless by Lou Morgan - this one was great! The concept of wealthy uni students getting their hands on "study aid" drugs and then losing their minds as a result was so fascinating to read about. It's been a while since I've read it, so I can't remember if it was truly horrifying. Moreso unsettling.

✧ Savage Island by Bryony Pearce (also the sequel Cruel Castle) - THIS STORY. OMG IT GUTTED ME IN THE WORST WAY. I had to take a walk after I read the last chapter in Savage Island. Savage Island is such a brutal horror. It made me squirm. It was just so !!!!!!!!!! Cruel Castle was also an enjoyable sequel filled with lots of tension.

✧ Whiteout by Gabriel Dylan - I love novels that confine the characters to a bleak backdrop, especially when it's in the middle of winter. Stuck in a ski resort that's been snowed in... aaaaa what a yummy premise. From beginning to end, I was on the edge of my seat.

As for things outside of the Red Eye:

✧ The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - a gothic classic!!! I love the haunting imagery. It sticks with me.

✧ The Brothers Grimm fairy tales - I can't recommend just a single fairy tale because I think all of them are wonderful. So creepy. orz

✧ The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe - AAAAAA I LOVE TELL-TALE HEART!!!!!! One of my favorite works by Poe. The unreliable narrator, the tension, the suspense, the breakdown at the end when he tears up the floorboards........ so good.

There is so much more I want to recommend, but I can't remember the titles of everything. T_T my brain is scrambled egg,,,, but one day I will create a reading list/favorite fiction list and share it for more recs!!! >w<

[real-life-senshi]

10 (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Reasons to Watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 2003 Live Action

A countdown to the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Reason 5: The captivating story!

Ultimately, I would say the live-action stayed true to the essence and intention of the original source material when concerning the Dark Kingdom arc.

I’m choosing to use the word “essence” though, because it is also factual that in multiple aspects, the story does diverge from its source material, but with the intention of further amping up the stakes and angst for drama, and possibly even pulling in elements from story arcs beyond the manga’s Dark Kingdom arc into the one season we (sadly) only have.

Sometimes those differences could be due to limitations of CGI and execution methods in real-life filming, while others could be due to updating the content to appeal to the newer generations of viewers in the early 2000s.

Regardless of what's faithful or not faithful to original source material, I think PGSM did really well striking a balance of making it a kid’s show, and also adding some complexities to appeal to viewers who were kids or teenagers that grew up reading the manga or watching the '90s anime, who would be in their late teens or adulthood or even parenthood by the time the live-action aired.

Warning: Going forward these series of posts will contain minor spoilers to introduce some live-action only elements. It will only be at the introductory level though!

Staying true and delving deeper into source materials

Personally, I can’t speak much to the ’90s anime, but I can confirm the live-action pulls many elements from the manga source material where possible. Here are just a few:

Introducing the Sailor Senshi!

The story of how Usagi and Ami discovered their Senshi power largely follows the same story, while Rei and Makoto's intro episodes heavily reference the original manga chapter and use the same theme behind the attacks that lead to them accessing their transformation. There's no magic bus to whisk victims away in Rei's case, and there's no wedding dress ghost story in Makoto's, probably due to the feasibility of recreating those scenes.

The Forbidden Love & the Past Life lore

The live-action definitely deep-dived into the 'forbidden love' concept when it came to Usagi and Mamoru, and further created a whole complexity of the storyline to justify WHY it's forbidden. In the manga/anime, it felt like the idea of their forbidden love was purely political and mostly glossed over since the past life kingdoms were dead, but in the live-action, there were actual stakes and consequences to consider even for the present.

And the ABSOLUTE MOST AMAZING THING and by far my favourite twist to the live-action storyline is they actually ventured into exploring the impact of making teenagers soldiers of war! There is actually ample screen time and dialogues AND monologues dedicated for us to see individual Senshi AND the team together grappling with the pros and cons and exploring both extreme sides of the need to follow the past life mission to avert tragedy regardless of the sacrifices made, versus the necessity of making one's choice and finding ways to live in the present in spite of the past life lore! Do they support Usagi's and Mamoru's love for each other or not???? Do they know for sure whether their love WILL cause misfortune again or not or can they trust Usagi to know what she's doing????? FASCINATING AND ANGSTY STUFF RIGHT THERE!

Rei’s Personality

More as an FYI, but Rei’s personality is much more similar to the manga Rei’s personality, instead of ‘90s anime Rei. More cool beauty and calm, less aggressively hotheaded and abrasive. And very importantly, NOT boy-crazy.

New, original dramatic elements

On the other hand, here are some live-action exclusive dramatic elements that I'd like to highlight:

Aino Minako the idol

Even many who haven't watched the series would have heard about how Minako's character is drastically changed in the live-action. Indeed, Minako is an acclaimed teenage idol and singer with best-selling songs in the show!

It's basically as if the live-action screenwriter pulled in the Outer Senshi elements from the Mugen arc into Minako's character: she's famous, experienced, and serious. Minako has full access to past life knowledge and is ultimately mission-driven like Haruka and Michiru are in the Mugen arc, which causes some of her decisions to maybe not be as morally white as we'd expect her to be (I think her costume style of white and black is a nice nod to the idea of her double life and her sense of moral).

Now, that's not to say live-action Minako is completely a new character, you can certainly see manga/anime Minako's character traits here and there if you pay attention - pun-loving, prank-loving, mischievous. For god's sake, the girl named her album Venus, and one of her most iconic songs is called C'est La Vie, which sounds exactly like "Sailor V" pronounced in Japanese. Just imagine this girl playing a vigilante life, and having a chuckle every time she sings her best-selling song that basically announces her identity to the world and no one realizes. lmao

Basically, Minako's character embodies the extreme result of what happens if a teenager is burdened with all the knowledge of the Past Life war and has the weight on her shoulders while working alone.

If you can get past Minako's changed character setting in the live-action, you'll find there are still plenty of Dark Kingdom arc manga/anime Minako elements in there, just some more exaggerated while others are more subtle. (Coz to be fair, Minako didn't start becoming Usagi's twin until after the Dark Kingdom arc.) And her relationship with Artemis is absolutely heartwarming to see in the live-action.

Who's in the wrong? Who's an ally, and who's not?

While our Senshi team is clearly the heroine, and the Dark Kingdom the villains, the live-action takes a more interesting take on what's considered "good" versus "evil", and more importantly, who's in the wrong on how things ended badly in the past life. Who is actually the person the Senshi needs to protect the world from? And that drives the story into a direction that is more complex than what you'll ever find in manga or anime, and certain characters react accordingly and act more grey than black or white - from both the heroine side and the villain side!

Shitennou & Endymion

Something we didn't really get to see as much in the manga and anime, while we know who the Shitennou are, we don't really see the Shitennou and Mamoru interacting until after they... became their name-sake rocks (okay, technically, GEMS). And we don't get many hints on what their past live relationships were, so for many years fans have taken to pen/paper/tablets/keyboard and filled the gaps with their amazing imagination and creative work instead.

In the live-action, we get a much more expansive and interesting take in seeing the Shitennou - technically still under the Dark Kingdom's influence, interact with Mamoru as they all grapple with what happened in the past life.

How would the prince's ex-guardians act seeing their master again? How would Mamoru react? Choosing to accept his responsibility for his past life or not? After all, they had such fond memories of arm-wrestling each other! (Spoiler alert: Nephrite won.) :P

I must once again emphasize that I love what they did with the Shitennou's characters and gave each of them a different story trajectory. They are written so well they pull at your heartstrings!

If you want some canon-material for writing the Shitennou in the age of Elysion Kingdom, definitely give the live-action a go!

Power up! The Senshi Needs Training

Because the live-action only gets one arc, there's no room for us to see the Senshi team (conveniently) get upgraded transformation like they do in each arc in manga or anime. Instead, the live-action takes a different, and I dare say, a more realistic approach, where the Senshi learns that their initial access to their transformation isn't the full access to their powers as they expected. They are put through some legit, and some questionable training of the body, mind and spirit, and each of them has to overcome something within themselves across the series to access their power!

This approach highlights and solidifies each Senshi's strengths AND ties in really well into the girls' character development throughout the series. As well, it makes it feel like the Senshi did have to put in work to get strong and gain access to their power, instead of relying on the plot to get them new powers at the right opportune time, seemingly out of the blue.

Remember: THEY ARE IN SCHOOL!

Yep, sometimes in the manga and in the anime, it's so easy for us to forget that the Senshi are kids in school when they are in the thick of a crisis or fighting evil. Somehow, it always seems quite clean and convenient that the Senshi could separate their school life and their heroine life, doesn't it? How the responsible adults in the world may wonder... "Gosh, where did that kid go in the middle of [insert context]????" Or for a fellow peer in school to wonder - "How the hell did this random group of girls come together like an odd band?"

The live-action takes time to make room for some reality checks in their episodic storylines to explore all the different repercussions our heroine's double (or triple) life has on their normal life, and with that ties in personable and relevant topics and themes into their episodic plots:

Family relationship

Peer relationship

Romantic relationships

Moments that remind everyone how awkward and tough it is to be a teenager.

The toll of lying through your teeth to keep a secret, etc

I cannot emphasize enough that the screenwriting is superb in the series! Not one thing is referenced only once and left out the window, everything that happened builds up into a moment of learning or lasting impact for our characters!

To people who've not watched the live-action, PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE! At least give it 6 episodes, and you'll probably be hooked!

You can watch the subbed versions of the series at:

Miss Dream Fansubs

Sea of Serenity Fansubs

The series is also on other online streaming sites, but be cautious to only visit them with good adware and firewall installed.

6 days till the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

[dailycass-cain]

Spirit World #6 concluded the series this past week. Did it end on a high note? How was Cass within it? Well, all answers will be found here...

I love that this series fills the final gaps of questions I have for certain characters in the series. Namely, Wan Yujing's motivations, WHY the Jade Court are so meh due to Po Po's warnings back in #4. and how this ALL ties into the origins of Xanthe Zhou.

But like poetry, it also ties into Cass as into what she was going through in #1. Said issue, Cass was lost, but also feeling awful in helping slay a creature (even dark) and it took a slight toll on her.

Here in #6, it all circles back.

Seeing why Wan's desperation. Seeing the souls she's trapped. Seeing the Jade Court's inability to "want" to save the situation. All it ties into this isn't a simple solution of just slaying the demon.

But this doesn't just tie into Cass, but also the series' central character Xanthe. We get their full origin here. The mystery all pulled back and the scope of their powers revealed.

Writer Alyssa Wong sprinkled teases of Xanthe's origins throughout, and here they are on full display. You can also see why they keep company with John Constantine but also now open themselves to Cassandra Cain.

Why these characters just gell so nicely to each other complimenting it all. With how Xanthe finds the way to end this all.

For now at least.

The ramifications of this issue interestingly bring up new ideas for the DCU at large. Both in the mystical portion and well in Cass (more on that soon).

I find the whole mystical area of DC fascinating because they aren't just bound to one corner. Each magical user always brings something new to the table. Xanthe Zhou is just another character that I hope more tales are showcased with the character going forward.

The fact that well, not everything is tied up at the end leaves me to think that Wong has still so many more stories to tell of Xanthe and Spirit World itself. We've only touched the first layer of that.

To that, I hope allows the creative team to return and tell more tales.

The artist for the series, Haining has been exceptional with the various designs and actions throughout. Like I'm still in awe of the designs used or even how horrific Wan's demonic can be but Haining brings a level of cracks of her humanity through the body horror drawn.

That's not even bringing up the fluidity to the action we've seen throughout the series.

Every bit of the creative team brought their A-game to the table in telling something truly unique. Like I really want more.

And you get that there MIGHT be more.

Clearly, Wong lays seeds at the end of the Verdant Sorcess not at all pleased with the new status quo of Spirit World going forward.

I'm REALLY curious about their origins now with the reveal of the prior ones.

Not only that but in the case of Cass, only one of her subplots is resolved in the series. I mean yeah it's the big one: she gets to go back home.

But the "missing" time of her being in Spirit World (due to Batgirl Vol. 1 #72)? Why incident is all screwed (Shiva never killed Cass in that particular issue)? What new memories Cass lost in #3? Was Shen posing as Steph?

It feels like Wan found her, that while she was absorbing Cass, THAT's when Shiva brought her back. But it still doesn't answer fully what occurred with Cass during that lost time?

These are riddles still left unanswered, and it can't be coincidental given what next year being. So hopefully maybe THEN they are.

Please let Alyssa Wong cook DC!

Wong truly has an amazing grasp on the character and is the first to really bridge the lingering cracks Batgirl Vol. 1 left and bring it into this modern era.

Regardless, Spirit World was an exceptional series. It was something I truly needed to wash the sadness of Batgirls ending and another event douring the characterization of Cass.

I really hope DC goes all out in collecting this series. Show us all the Haining concept art.

Give me some words by Wong on how this series came to be. How they developed Xanthe Zhou. Give me it all!

.....

I've become Shen. My greed knows no bounds. 😅

Anyway, to those who haven't read this series. You now have the full excuse to read it all in one sitting. It's even BETTER when you do that actually. To those who read it like me keep hyping this and the other new minis DC created this year.

We need more of this!

[linkysmommy]

Well here it is. My Bloodbound review/reactions/essay/idk what.

For some reason, now that it's done most of what I have are critiques 😂 I guess because there were so many amazing things about this book, such great characters and themes, that certain things ended up leaving me... disappointed. But before I get into all that, let me start with what I really, really liked. (adding a cut because I feel like this is going to end up really long lol. also, spoilers ahead. obviously)

THE POSITIVES:

Overall, the vibes, the characters, the themes, and the lore were immaculate. The writers put a lot of thought into the world that they created and the themes they wanted to explore through that world, and I really respect that.

I thought that the vampire council and the clans in NYC was a really cool concept and was a little bummed that we didn't get to do more with vampire politics. Despite hating most everyone on the council, I also loved them. I found them all interesting and unique, and loved seeing the backstories that involved them, such as the scene at the fair or the scene when they all teamed up to take down Gaius. I was actually sad when the Baron and Lester died lol, while it did make for a cool scene, I felt that their deaths left a hole in the story. (oops sorry I did not mean to turn this positives into a half-negatives thing lol)

I swear that the toxic, messed up relationship between Gaius, Kamilah, and Adrian has me by the throat. The concept of a cruel, thousands year old vampire gaining the love and devotion of these two people not through the use of mind control *cough Rheya cough* but through sheer charisma, magnetism, and leadership skills... and then shaping them into tools to be used in his hands. Making them into his queen and his soldier and then forcing them into a cycle of violence while still inspiring them to follow, using them while still loving them... it's one of the greatest pleasures of having read this series to have gotten a taste for this relationship. And now that I've gotten a taste I'm just hungry for more, so this will be rotating in my head for a while yet.

Adrian Raines. My darling. My BABY. There is just something so fascinating, so alluring, about a creature born and shaped for violence, whose heart manages to remain pure. I especially loved how this was explored in Bloodbound 2. You see the heartless, emotionless cruelty that Adrian was capable of at the end of book 1, and then throughout book 2 he struggles with these two sides of himself: the heartless soldier, the angel of death, versus the kind, idealistic, sweet man who's fascinated by the simple things the world has to offer like open fields and sunlight, and the incredible ingenuity and good that the human race is capable of creating. Throughout book 2, this dance of Adrian being the foil to Gaius is clear as day and oh so powerful. Gaius was Rheya's soldier, who was shaped into a killing machine at her side, who was driven to extremes by seeing the way his own people were hunted and killed. Adrian was Gaius's soldier, who was shaped into a killing machine at his side, who had to fight the anger and hatred that tried to pull him to cruelty and snuff out his goodness. Like I said in a previous post, the juxtaposition of this inner warmth and kindness against the person Gaius tried to make him will never not be fascinating.

Kamilah and Adrian siblings bond!! PLEASE they're so cute! I adored how over and over again, we saw them exchange looks and have full on worldless conversations by just their facial expressions. The way they know each other so well, inside and out, and have complete respect for one another, and the way they would die for one another, it just warms my heart and I adore them.

Also, just Kamilah. She's a badass ancient warrior queen, and I really loved seeing how no-nonsense and serious she was. Like she's been doing this for thousands of years, she's seen so much, she's killed so much, I feel that she doesn't think she truly deserves redemption or is as pure as Adrian, but she fights to protect the people under her care. Those who cannot fight for themselves the way she can fight for them.

Gaius Augustine, what a villain you were. I loved how the game never shied away from the nuances in his character. They never painted him in cartoonishly villainous colors with no remorse for his actions. You can see why he became the way he was, and while you can understand that doesn't mean you have to excuse it; it does, however, make him more of an interesting villain. The fact that love and a desire to protect his people is what drove him to extremes makes him a fascinating villain, because his actions, while inarguably evil, are rooted in something that most everyone can understand: love. Although Gaius never knew how to truly love, it doesn't mean that he didn't. He hurt Kamilah and Adrian over centuries, but he never truly wanted to kill them. I appreciated that the various times where Gaius killed someone or almost killed someone with whom he had history (such as Takeshi or when he almost killed Kamilah), he expressed remorse. It wasn't enough to make him stop, because he is a bad man, but the fact that there was remorse in the first place adds more depth and emotion to both his character and the event itself.

I enjoyed the way that MC defeated Rheya. I thought that the twist that Rheya had murdered her own daughter after having given into her anger about the fact that she thought her daughter was murdered was really great. I enjoyed that MC didn't have to physically overpower Rheya; she just had to go back to where the cycles of violence began and show to Rheya herself that was the monster in her own story. I loved that.

It would be remiss of me to not mention Lily Spencer. From start to finish, she was a delight, and I loved how MC was honestly just as geeky as Lily sometimes, she just reigned it in a little bit more. Lily's enthusiasm for life was refreshing for a vampire story, where usually becoming a vampire is compared with death, and yet Lily's take on it was that she had a whole new life to live, new experiences to try out. I really enjoyed her humor, and thought her friendship with MC was both touching and relatable. So have some Lily moments that made me laugh out loud:

Also, the scene where MC died, and then she was Turned, and you woke up in a coffin, and you almost killed that girl in the park... peak cinema. Absolutely delicious, you'd better believe I ate that shit up. I also loved seeing the flashback where you saw how the other vampires reacted to your death. Yes, I enjoyed seeing Adrian in pain, yes, I am an angst fiend and sadist ig.

Sorry I feel like there's more to say but I've been working on this forever so I'm gonna leave the positives at that 😭

THE CRITIQUES:

Let me first preface this by saying that I truly enjoyed Bloodbound. It latched onto my brain, and I enjoyed the journey, and it managed to make me more invested in a Choices book than I have been since I read It Lives. That being said, after finishing it, I couldn't help but feel that many things could have been done better, and a little bit let-down that many of the things that I connected to were not fully explored or expanded upon like I felt like they could have been. So this massive critique going forward is done with love. That's all. ❤️

This one isn't a huge deal, but I was disappointed by the lack of variation that your choices had in the final battle. You had the choice to kill Rheya's vampire guards or leave them, then you had the choice to kill Dracula or leave him. The first time I played I was doing a supervillain route so I was intentionally trying to choose the darker choices and was delighted to see how people were reacting:

I thought that their dialogues were based on the fact I was going on a murderous, merciless rampage, but then when I came back and played and didn't kill everyone, their reactions were all the same. So that was disappointing.

The Jax/Lily death was,,, a choice. I get what they were trying to do. I do. Rheya lost her family, Gaius lost Rheya, Kamilah lost her brother, Adrian lost his family. There were cycles of loss that bred extreme behavior among our cast, and they wanted MC to experience that, too. They wanted to make her a reflection of Rheya, for the moment of losing Jax/Lily to be the trigger that makes her able to lose her humanity and become the very thing she swore to destroy. However, there were a few problems with how it played out! First of all, it's obviously suspect that the two sidelined Black or Asian LIs are the only ones who can die, while Adrian and Kamilah's plot armor protects them. Second of all, they wanted to make this big sacrifice to make MC snap but then they didn't even commit to it. If anything it would've made more sense for the LI to be the one who dies, seeing the impact that it had on MC. Because while my MC cares about Jax, he's probably the person in the crew that she's the least connected to so it felt a little odd for her in particular to lose it while the others were okay. I think that honestly, she would've reacted more like them. Sad, and angry, but without such an extreme reaction. But, the writers simultaneously tried to play it safe by ensuring that your LI doesn't die, while being "brave" and killing off part of the crew, so it just came across feeling odd to me and didn't quite hit the mark of what they were trying to do.

The romantic development was underwhelming. The romance quality skyrocketed in books 2 and 3, but unfortunately by then, the characters were already in relationships and while I enjoyed those scenes, I felt disappointed that we missed a quality relationship arc where we saw the characters fall for each other. I romanced Adrian, and I don't see what was so incredible about mc in the beginning to make him fall for her. She's just some human, and he's a powerful CEO, 300 year old clan leader and vampire council member. That's not say that I don't think he could've fallen for her - in fact, I think it's poetic and makes perfect sense that the man who's so embroiled in his vampire world and vampire politics yet adores humanity would fall for an average human - but the development simply wasn't there. The scene where you first let him drink your blood after breaking him out of jail was underwhelming and there was no emotional weight in the writing of that scene. In book one, it just really felt like the fact that something happened was supposed to be enough for us to believe that it was meaningful, instead of the writing and development showing us how it happened.

The actual plot events were in general... underwhelming. Both books 2 and 3 set up this fascinating potential for scenes and narrative arcs, with Gaius destroying NYC, and then Rheya taking over the city, and both times we just flew away to chase down artifacts and have diamond scenes in pretty places in various countries. I think it was an unfortunate choice to trade the potential of vampire politics for artifact-hunting.

The Order and Xenocrates in particular were woefully under-utilized. The tapestry paintings shed light on a fascinating dynamic between Gaius and Xenocrates, and we see that this anger and hatred has spanned millennia! Xenocrates is the reason that vampires are hated and hunted, he is the reason why Gaius is driven to extremes and decides that his plan to eradicate humans apart from keeping a blood supply for vampires is the only way to protect his people. And then... he just dies in a building collapse, and the Order is destroyed, and this thousands-year-old conflict is snuffed out pretty much immediately. It was disappointing, because there was so much potential in the lore that was created here, it just wasn't taken advantage of in the present storyline.

This one is small, but. Where the heck did MC's mom go 😭 we see one memory of her and then never hear about her again. Did she die? If she's not dead, why is MC not concerned about her while Gaius and Rheya are trying to destroy/take over the world.

This one is also small but worth mentioning - I was so annoyed that MC was forced to speak up and voice her opinion all the time in situations that really didn't involve her. It was just odd to me that Adrian's assistant thought it would be a good idea to speak up in a vampire council meeting after only having known about vampires for like. A few days lol. There were many times where I cringed at having to choose something to say because I, frankly, would have just remained silent because it wasn't my place to speak.

Maybe this is just me but... I definitely felt like Jax was done dirty by the writers. Not just in that he was sidelined and had fewer scenes and plot relevance apart from "being part of the crew", but I think his development as a character was weaker than the others. By book 3, I do feel like he came more into himself, and it was nice to see him have a character arc regarding his relationship with Takeshi, but for books 1 and 2, I personally felt like the writers didn't really know him. He was sort of just... bland, left vaguely blank aside from the "rebel vampire leader" for a while. The writers themselves said that he was the hardest character to write, which makes sense because I could tell that it took them a while to figure out who he really was.

Now for my biggest critiques, mostly centering around the handling of Gaius's character and missed potential.

First, Gaius's character development and thing with Rheya. I... was not a fan at all of the brainwashing plot point. I found that it made Gaius's character far less interesting and seemed to be almost incompatible with previous portrayals of his character and who they had been creating. For example, Rheya supposedly severed his compassion for humans, yet we see a direct contradiction of that when he had empathy for Kano, a dying child who'd lost his parents, and decided to Turn him in order to save his life and give him a chance to avenge his family. What made him so fascinating to me originally was the fact that DEVOTION was what ultimately turned him into a monster: first, devotion to Rheya, and second, devotion to his own people. By book 3, he was reduced from a terrifying vampire leader who would put his life on the line to protect his own people (as seen in crypt scene where he risks his life to save other vampires instead of running to safety) to a mindless zealot of Rheya whose only purpose seemed to be "Obey the goddess!" While the devotion to her is fine, it saddened me that his role as a leader who let fanaticism guide him as he sought to protect vampires was overshadowed by this interpersonal conflict between two individuals. I think there was a hugely missed opportunity to pit his two devotions against each other when he learns that Rheya doesn't actually care about him OR the vampires as a whole, and would happily take their lives if it meant gaining more power for herself. To watch him wrestle between his devotion to Rheya, his beloved goddess, and his devotion to his vampire progeny... now that is a character arc I'd love to dive into. Imagine if, in addition to being angry that Rheya used him like a tool, he was also angry that she wanted to hurt vampires. Just imagine something like this: "While you were asleep I was building a kingdom for our people, while you were gone I was the one who stepped up to protect them! And now you think you can come back, and use them, and kill them, and that I'll support you?" The vibes... immaculate.

Going along with the topic of Gaius being responsible for his own actions vs the concept of brainwashing, if Gaius hadn't been brainwashed and simply turned against Rheya because he realized she didn't care about the well-being of vampires and saw them as tools in her quest for power, I feel as though it would've made the alliance between Gaius and MC's crew all that much more interesting. A fragile alliance between people with a common enemy, but Gaius is still not an ally because he still disdains humanity, and once Gaius helps you get Rheya out of the way, you know that you'll have to deal with him next... mmm delicious.

As an add on, learning that it was all the result of brainwashing opens up a whole can of worms of "okay this man still committed war crimes but how much is he actually responsible for?" that I frankly don't feel was necessary, because Gaius was fully fascinating all on his own without needing to add the element of brainwashing to it. I just felt like it had the result of turning a fascinating, layered, nuanced character into "black-and-white" to make his redemption easier for lay readers to stomach.

Even after having bought every single tapestry diamond scene and plenty of diamond scenes with various characters, I was still left with lingering confusion about what happened in the past, namely: what did Gaius's empire look like and how did it work, what exactly were Kamilah and Adrian doing to spread his empire and enforce his rule, and what about him made them choose to swear fealty in the first place? They talk so much about all the people they killed and yet we really only saw them kill people who weren't exactly innocent? Iirc we only saw Adrian kill confederate soldiers, a British soldier who tried to kill him first, and a rogue vampire that had just drained a man of blood. And yeah, there was some sketchiness about it because the confederate soldiers weren't attacking him, and there was a young kid with them, but at the end of the day they were enemy soldiers fighting to maintain slavery and this is war - hardly the same thing as ruthlessly murdering strangers. Anyway the point is that I would've liked a clearer picture of what they did, to truly see them at their lowest points. And then, to see what was the catalyst that started pushing them back up again. I would've liked to know who they were sent to kill, and why, instead of vaguely "I've killed so many people." Give me the details!!

Like Part 1, I am Tired now and I feel like I've said most of what I want to say. So I am finished with my critiques section.

If you made it this far, you are the best and I appreciate you being interested enough in my thoughts to read this long, rambling review ❤️

[semi-imaginary-place]

discord naruto rambling

How can naruto be such a mess yet sooo good. Naruto has so many story problems I cant recommend it to people yet there's something special about. The world is so alive and vibrant. Kishimoto is a good designer. Naruto has so many good characters and designs. Character creation is definitely kishimoto's strong suite. Like I think Madara looks super cool between the plate armor (? reminds me of ceramic armor)and the giant fan and spiky hair. the story is executed poorly but there's a lot of good to Naruto, the characters and their dynamics, the way everything feels. And it's generally a fun battle adventure series but the emotions are very real and it does a pretty good job with a narrative about war trauma and grief.

The powercreep tho 😭 naruto breaks all the narrative guard rails and starts performing miracles growing limbs raising the dead. It destroys the narrative tension what a mistake.

When i first stated reading naruto when I was like 10 or whatever i though he was really annoying. And it's only after i dropped and then picked up Shippuden again that i started to appreciate naruto and i ended up really liking him as a character. his emotions felt so real. As much as talk no jutsu gets a bit ridiculous i do like that in the battle shounen manga the most powerful technique is empathy and talking to people. I do respect naruto for that. There's also something compelling about how hard he tries for other people. It was also pretty amusing in shippuden watching him obsess over sasuke. Bro has a panic attack over the thought of his friends going after sasuke. He swears a double suicide pact with him. Naruto's crying begging in the snow for the raikage to spare sasuke. The entire final valley of the end fight was really good and then these idiot blow off each other's arms. Insane.

the series was better before shippuden overall. Og Naruto had this charm that shippuden lacks. Because conflicts were on the smaller scale, more personal grounded stories were told. The fights were less powerful which let them be more complex, strategic and intricate instead of how in Shippuden it was about chakra blasting (the power leveling curse). Shippuden was more about nuclear explosions battles where as og naruto got to explore more normal people and convey worldbuilding and interpersonal dynamics. But i liked naruto as a person more in shippuden which is totally personal preference.

Naruto and sasuke are so stupid. It's funny how in part 1 sasuke is built up as this smart rival character but come shippuden there is not a thought in that boy's head. he has 0 plans he just keeps shifting targets of who to kill. He really is just lashing out

Obito's fascinating. The parallels to sasuke and naruto yeah between the hokage dream and underdog status to the deranged emotional unstability. obito's attachment to rin his preteen crush works narratively much better for him than it does sakura. With obito it shows how out of touch with reality he is that he is still living 20 years ago abd was never able to let go of rin he doesn't see the present. With sakura i get the impression kishimoto genuinely sees it as romantic when it is actually super cringe that sakura is chasing this guy who doesn't remember she exists. 1 pair of sharingan split between 2 people is also such an amazing concept

I do think sometimes about how orochimaru was probably the last to leave konoha. Like tsunade quit during the 3nd (?) ninja war. Then jiraya chased after her.

I wonder about the trio parallels. On one hand they create this sense of continuity and legacy. On the other hand i wonder if it implies that konoha is stuck repeating the same mistakes. or is it about naruto's generation breaking the cycle (boruto isn't real)

Edo tensei is really plot breaking (and if i think about it my head hurts) but it did allow direct contrasts between the old hokage and naruto himself. I think tobirama and sarutobi are some of the most interesting characters as they are both well intentioned and genuinely work for the betterment of konoha while each being deeply flawed and causing or contributing to some of konoha's worst problems. And 3rd hokage'# problem is that he trusts too much on the good of humanity which is so ironic. He believes that everything will work out and people will become better on their own so much that it makes him passive, believing he doesn't need to intervene when there are serious problems. And he forgives people that really shouldn't be forgiven like wow he enabled so much of danzo. And then there's hashirama who i could write an essay about. Psychologists could case study him. But in conclusion i think most of the problems in the naruto series could have been solved if hashirama married into madara's clan

[letstalkwhump]

Let's Talk Whump No. 19

Welcome to Let’s Talk Whump, a series of interviews that spotlight the amazing people in our whump community! I’m Izzy and I’ll be your host today. 

On this segment, we will be rumbling around with the one and only @justplainwhump!

Welcome to Let’s Talk Whump! Why don’t we start off with an introduction to let folks know a little bit about you? Perhaps something not whump related from the start?

Sure! Hi everyone, I’m Sara, in my thirties and from Germany. I love long rides on the train, otters and playing with words. 

Trains and otters are positively spiffy! What does whump mean to you?

Characters challenged by traumatic events out of their control. A chance to explore the bare essence of a character under duress. Finding out what stays, when everything is breaking apart.

How did you find the whump community? What made you want to join?

I’ve started as a writer with some original stories, and realized some of the things I wanted to put into my main character Alicia’s backstory were darker than the content I would post to my writing blog. I went to look if other writers on tumblr had gone down that road, and I found a story by whump-tr0pes that hit all the right buttons and vibes. It blew my mind to find out that there in fact was a space and a community for this sort of content.

I hit some bumps after that, having to acknowledge that however welcoming the whump community is, the gender of the protagonist mattered a lot more than I expected, and as a writer of female protagonists I felt estranged for a while. 

Luckily, however, with time I found more and more like-minded and super supportive writers and friends, and I’m proud to be a member of this community.

Would you say your view on whump changed since you joined? 

I’ve always been an OC whump writer, and still like to focus on female protagonists. Something unexpected I’ve come to love however is the collaborative, dystopian universe of the BBU. I am not an enjoyer of pet whump or highly conditioned protagonists, so at first I wrote this setting off as “not for me”. But while these elements are surely something present in some BBU stories, there is so much more behind it - stories on capitalism, on rebellion, on ethics, on what makes us human in the very core. And due to the collaborative sandbox concept of it, it’s perfect to connect to other writers, be it in roleplays, shared stories or just extended worldbuilding discussions. 

That’s actually an interesting perspective to see that in! Now, you gotta know this question was going to come up during this interview, so let’s have at it: You got any favourite whump tropes?

Too many. If I have to choose one, I guess it’s intimate whumpers. 

A whumper, knowing their whumpee, getting into their private space, testing out their limits and breaking through them. A thumb on whumpee’s cheek, gently wiping away a tear after suffering torture from those same hands. An off-handed comment about a secret nobody should know. A hand wrapped around whumpee’s neck, tender now, but a lingering threat.

Oh my, I can feel the whumperflies already from here!!! Would you care to honor us with a favourite piece you've written?

My favorite longer story is “Mark and Gemma Get A Pet” (Mark and Gemma get a pet), a short novella set in the BBU about a “normal” middle-class couple being gifted second hand human pet Ira, and the wild downward spiral this sets in motion. It’s written from all three POVs, and focuses on the mundane evil of the BBU. What I love about it, the depiction of how easily the narrow line between a perfectly normal life and becoming the villain of the story can be crossed. Especially Gemma has been a fascinating character to explore and I got the feedback that I’m not the only one enjoying her character arc. 

As a short story, there’s “Match”. Another BBU story about a villain thinking he’s just a dude, until the circumstances make him realize he isn’t - but he could’ve been. I am very proud of the setup of this story, the pacing, and the absolutely devastating gut punch in the end. It’s just a very neat and round thing; and if one is vaguely familiar with the BBU it perfectly works as a stand alone. 

What's your writing style like on average?

I write when inspiration strikes. And even then, I’m a very slow writer, and tend to be so glad when the words are finally out that I post them right away. 

I’d like to get to a more regular schedule or to writing longer pieces with some planning in advance, but my life doesn’t allow for it. So my followers need to live with random streaks of creation in between seasons of drought. 

Toolwise, I do write everything on my phone. It’s horrible for my eyes, and given the weird autocorrect of my phone keyboard, it’s also horrible for my sanity. But it’s also just so practical… 

Hey, you know what they say about inspiration. You gotta write when the spoons are there and when the mind is going brrrrr. Is there an easy thing for you to write?

I enjoy giving my characters a voice, both in narration and in dialogue, and often these are the elements of my writing that just flow.

I *would* probably struggle with description - but I just don’t write a lot of it and leave that to the readers, and as of yet nobody complained.

When I really struggle with writing, it’s usually because I’m too fast and I myself don’t know what it is I’m going for; and a signal that I’ll need to figure that out. Sometimes I *do* figure it out. Sometimes I just pause that project. Writing is what I do for fun, and if stops being fun, I stop to write.

I can absolutely respect your struggles as it’s not always so plain and simple to know where a story is headed, let alone not getting stressed at times. Is there anything you're working on at the moment? 

I’m hosting an event at my sideblog, bbu-on-the-side, to bring together the BBU whump community! It’s going to start next week and has a mixture of prompts, most community based, and I hope to bring together many lovely and inspiring creators! If you’re a BBU writer, roleplayer, or plain enthusiast, I’d be glad to see you there: 

Ooooh, that sounds like a wonderful event and I do hope that those interested in those tropes/genre join in with you! Do you have a joke or pun you would like to share to spread some smiles today?

Knock knock. Who’s there? UUuuuuuh. Kn… knuckles? [Seriously if you want to smile, watch Kung Fury, it’s a 31-minute short film, for free on youtube, and it’s absolutely hilarious. I’m a simple girl. And I melt for barbarian ladies on giant wolves fighting laser-raptors.]

Knock knock jokes are the pinnacle of comedy, and I already got the movie queued up to watch. Is there anything you can impart on us in terms of advice?

Writing is a craft, and you get better by practise. 

That’s kind of a bland advice, I know, but it works for me. Just write. And you’ll find out what works and what doesn’t. And if it’s hard for yourself alone, get someone you trust, and talk it through with them. 

But never forget - your story belongs to you, and you’re the one to tell it! Writing the story you want to tell will always end up being way way better than the one you think somebody else wants to hear.

Well said and I concur. This is now the time to give a shout out to those you hold dear and close!

Honestly, there’s too many. I have many recommendations on my blog and always forget someone and then feel horrible about it. Just one - @whumping-newbie, my first whump friend who I had the honor to meet several times in real life in the past years and whose support and encouragement are invaluable!

Anything you'd like to add?

Happy Whumping everyone, and: be excellent to each other.

Well thank you so much for taking the time to get interviewed with us, @justplainwhump! 

*As a quick discretionary note: @justplainwhump is an 18+ blog only, so minors please do not interact with their works or with their blog please.*

And there you have it, folks! Another segment of Let’s Talk Whump may have ended, but we have more to show next time and it’s coming to a hellsite near you! Have a Whump-tastic day/night!

[hungergameshyperfixation]

So, Hunger Games cosplay…

I have been seriously thinking about doing THG-related cosplays since last year, but this year I’m actually going to do one (or two!)

This is a little bit more of a personal project post rather than a general Hunger Games post, but I still wanted to share it here. Maybe I can make it like a mini project series of sorts, idk. I’m considering this more like a personal log of my thoughts and the process, rather than anything super helpful. Maybe at the end or along the way I can provide something useful for others/those reading along!

I would LOVE to do a movie-based cosplay, specifically Effie. She was admittedly one of the top contenders last year, considering I love her very standout and recognizable looks; I like playing around with color and wigs, so I thought she would be a great character to play around with.

But I have really been thinking about doing a book-specific cosplay. Ever since SOTR was announced, I got the idea to do a Maysilee Donner cosplay before we (hopefully…?) learn more about her through the book/see her onscreen. So, as tempting as it is to go into other cosplay ideas, right now I wanted to focus on the most interesting cosplay concept I have…

Maysilee Donner…

Despite thinking about this cosplay on and off for nearly four months, I still feel like I haven’t made too much headway. Maybe I’m just a little bit of a ruminator (although to some of y’all I’m probably on amateur hour), but there was a lot of thought going into this concept. Admittedly we’re about a month away from Halloween as I am starting to write this, so I’m kinda running low on time if the goal is to have this done by “socially acceptable time to dress up in costume” season LOL.

Maysilee Donner is a character currently only canonically present in “Catching Fire,” and it is almost guaranteed she will be present in SotR, unless the novel/film takes a completely different route. Still, even if the novel focuses on a character other than Haymitch or Maysilee, I still think there is a high probability we will see Maysilee Donner in at least the film, even if only briefly. We know she is blond (CF, page 196), we know she is a “merchant’s kid.” She is described by Katniss as brave, and we see her demonstrate her intelligence in the arena. She looks similar to Madge. She is only briefly in the book.

Here’s the more interesting thing about her in terms of the fandom. The (in my opinion iconic) YouTube fan made short film, “HUNGER GAMES: THE SECOND QUARTER QUELL,” showcases a depiction of Maysilee Donner. This actress, Stefania Barr, is (at least from my perspective) WIDELY used as the ‘image’ of Maysilee. From fan edits and fan art, I have seen her likeness (and the hairstyle) as the blueprint for Maysilee. Call me a little odd but I find this fandom behavior pretty interesting! I know it’s probably not super unique to THG (see also: “the Marauders fandom” something I’m admittedly not a huge part of), but I find it so fascinating that collectively I’ve seen people use her likeness as the most accepted fan cast for Maysilee. Which by the way, that’s so amazing for her LMAO I think it’s really cool.

But all this to say, tying this little deep dive back into my cosplay ventures, I’m debating on HOW I want to portray my Maysilee cosplay. There will be a lot of creative liberties taken, I’d say. From wig color, hairstyles, and the outfit, there’s a lot to consider. I wanted to specifically do Maysilee BECAUSE she is as of right now only in CF, and she’s very likely going to be explored more in some capacity by SotR. I kinda feel like this is the perfect window in time to cosplay Maysilee and other pre-74th/50th Hunger Games characters, since we are about to be getting a lot of new information about them!

It is kind of like a time capsule and a way to show off our personal interpretations of the characters pre-SotR releasing. And it would be fun to look back on!

So, since I’m indecisive and I also LOVE seeing other people’s insights, I was kinda thinking of doing some polls related to the cosplay building process. So, hopefully more to come!!

[the-owl-tree]

okay

I for some reason have a very strong feeling that I am gonna poke the bear by asking this

and I am very scared to

but

considering you like xenofiction and manga

what are your opinions on Beastars

runs away

you know what that's fair because i had to do a little circle around my chair when you brought up beastars because of how many feelings i have on it.

tldr: beastars first half is an original and immaculate story that grounds its issues in its world before metaphor, but falls so flat on its face for the finale that it essentially doomed its own fate to die with a pitiful whimper

spoilers for beastars

I adore Beastars (the first half at least). It is such a strikingly original world that roots all of its problems IN ITS WORLD - which is my biggest problem with allegorical works of art. Beastars takes every step to show how these issues manifest within its world and how people would respond BEFORE it tries to lean on the metaphor and that's what I think separates it from Zootopia. Beastars is a world before it is a metaphor. I love her artwork and I love the character design, her expressions and the way she draws teeth and claws are my favorite. Paru Itagaki is an amazing artist, she has this very sketchy style reminiscent of Q Hayashida that I adore and much like Q, she knows how to make scenes weighty and bloody and PAINFUL. You will FEEL IT when these characters bit and claw at one another.

Beastars justifies its high school setting because it is specifically about how this world informs the development of its characters. Them being in high school is a great way to show their growth between young people trying to figure out their place, their self in their understanding of their school only for them to change as they grow. It's fantastic! The rich way the characters interact and perceive one another, interweaving both animal urge and emotions is fascinating to read. Paru Itagaki's strength is in her character writing and interactions, I adored the high school romance because I understood WHY these characters did things the way they did and I loved all the care that was put into making sure that every aspect of themselves informed their actions.

Legosi is such a kindly and endearing protagonist. I like that's he's a little weirdo and proud of it, I like that he's consistently making an effort to understand others. His relationship with Haru is my absolute favorite and, well, that's why the second half was such a let down.

In a stunning first half with enjoyable character arcs and fascinating character development, the sudden plummet into shounen battle arcs with the I'm InSaNe Melon was a huge let down. The second half, I firmly believe NEEDED to focus on Haru and Legosi's relationship. It is the ANCHOR of the story, it is the complete heart of both character's and it is so firmly enjoyable because of the dynamic that Itagaki has written. But instead, the finale stumbles on half-baked concepts (they made jojo stands?? and did NOTHING WITH THEM?????), unfinished plot lines (louis was in the mafia and didn't go to jail, his father is still cartoonishly evil and its never resolved), and antagonists so boring and unoriginal that i was begging for the manga to just put me down. Not to mention the whole predator and prey thing is just....resolved? all of a sudden?? not very well explained? Oh yeah! The great whale says we can eat fish now, glad that elaborate building up of the market and its cultural importance in the city can be resolved! What a way to go!

It is such a horrendous finale for such an intriguing and original series. I can only be at peace knowing the final chapter was the date we deserved WAY EARLIER. I loved Legosi working as a delivery guy, I could've had an entire slice of life series around that but nope! Boring pointless battle arc time. Sucks ass.

It sucks because the first half is so so good and I highly recommend it! I don't want this series to go out with such a whimper but goddamn....the ending is soooo bad. If you're interested in it, dip out as soon as Melon appears I mean it. You'll be happier, just go read Beast Complex it's so much better than the finale please just trust me on this.

[mysticmonkiebusiness]

ISSUE 69 BLOCKS MAGAZINE PAGE 32 + 33

[ID 1: A magazine page, on the left is text and on the right is two pictures. The first is digitally painted concept art of the Demon Bull King, behind him are flames, flags, and silhouetted bull clones. Under it is a photo of designer, Chris Perron showing Simon Lucas a work-in-progress LEGO build of DBK. Below the text is a picture of six LEGO designers sitting at a table with several Monkie Kid s] 

[ID 2: A splash page of the set 80010 Demon Bull King. The Bull King is brick-built out of LEGO. He has two black cannons mounted on his shoulders, and a flame-thrower replaces his left arm. His chest is flaming and his legs are robotic. He wields a large axe. A minifigure of Princess Iron Fan sits atop his right shoulder, she wields a fan. ] 

Transcript:

Researching Monkie Kid

Simon and his core crew of LEGO designers flew to Shanghai, where the LEGO Group has an international hub office. 'I really relied on my colleagues in China to tell me everything they think of when they think of their home and their culture. That was a great brainstorm, because you realize how much culture there is; how much creativity. Also, the mix of old and new is fascinating - China's an amazing place that embraces newness like nowhere else."

The design team sat down with their China-based colleagues to get that feel for where they should go next, which led to a number of different potential sparks. 'At the beginning we explored multiple ideas - we had nine directions that we tested with children. We filtered that into three really strong themes,' Simon explains, but keeps the two ideas that didn't make it this time around under wraps. 'They actually tested really well, so there is huge potential there.

In August 2018, the testing was conducted with children and families across China, with the team visiting Chongqing, Xi-an, Beijing, Manjing and Nanjing as well as Shanghai. There was something special about how children responded to LEGO Monkie Kid. 'It blew me away, just how iconic and recognizable the characters from Journey to the West and the Monkey King were. I can only compare it to how when testing in America children recognize the Avengers, they know all the backstories. In China, when they saw this line-up of concept art that Xiaodong made of these characters we recreated, they were like, "That's Pigsy, that's Sandy, that's Sun Wukong.

'While it is a 500-year-old novel, Journey to the West has been brought to life in many different ways over those years and it is still so relevant. I learnt that everyone has their own connection to the story, whether their parents read it to them, or they studied it at school, or they watched a cartoon version of it that was made in 1968. But I realized that everyone I met had a universal love for the 1980s TV series that they made in China.

"CAN YOU MAKE A FANTASY PLAY THEME FOR CHINA THAT IS ROOTED IN CHINESE CULTURE? THAT WAS THE BRIEF - A WHITE PIECE OF PAPER"

Thanks to still being repeated on television during the summer holidays today, different generations all have a fondness for the show. To pay homage to that we have been allowed to use a couple of the sound effects in our animated TV series,' Simon explains. "You hear it, and I think you are only going to know it if you are familiar with that, but it sounds fantastic."

Testing with children; ensuring that Chinese designers worked on the theme; visiting the country to brainstorm - more consideration for local sensibilities has been taken than ever before. 'Authenticity has been our goal. We do take a risk here in reinterpreting a classic that is so dear and is part of the Chinese culture.'

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

There are such amazing female villains in the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld. Trying not to spoiler, because its sadly not very well known anymore.

There is Dr Cable, the no nonsense cyborg mad scientist leader of the Cities secret service, who regularly outsmarts the heroes and has a super fun sadistic sense of humor. She seems like our typical YA dystopia villain at first, but while she has a lot lesser scenes than I remembered (reread recently) you can always sense that there is more to her. She believes she just prevents humanity from destroying itself again by fairly horrible means, and sometimes you are so close to being on her side. Her schtick is also that she deliberately surged herself to look scary, with eerie grey eyes and a crooked nose and a very angular face, but just conventionally attractive enough to still respect her, which is a cool concept.

Then there is Shay, the main character Tallys rebellious best friend, who is so angry and desperate at the system, and also has this very messy, homoerotic, jealous friendship with Tally, and ends up on different sides to her again and again. Her mental health also nosedives over the course of the series, and she becomes more and more ruthless and unhinged. I wish I could write more about that, because Tally/Shay is the most fascinating aspect of this series, and IMO it is a similar dynamic to Catradora, though its sadly only implied, not canon, and it also shows the scars this leaves a lot more and how long it takes the girls to fix it at the end.

And Tally Youngblood herself. Wow. She already starts out as an anti-hero; and many fans hate her for that, but I personally find it refreshing, trying her best but also being terrified and naive and an immature 16-year-old and having a knack for accidentally hurting her friends and ruining all her relationships. But in the third book she becomes a villain protagonist, and its amazing. And she never fully gets back to being a hero, she always stays slightly... unhinged.

(I have to warn you though, the second and third book majorly include depictions of self harm and eating disorders, and its not particularly well handled; while IMO the author does not glorify it, the characters very intensely do)

Ah, the Uglies Series. The book covers always grabbed my attention, but I never gave this series a shot. I should remedy that; the characters sound interesting! An anti-heroic protagonist who remains morally complicated after turning away from villainhood? Hell yes!

There's an Uglies movie coming out sometime this year. Don't think I'm gonna wait for the film adaptation to check out the story. The books are right there!

[tuxedaaron]

This was me, drawing a pic of what, at the time, had become a new obsession of mine, a French cartoon called "Zig and Sharko", which I'd drawn in my Danny Phantom style (the show itself, having a bit of a DP art style going on). The basic gist of the series revolves around a mermaid named Marina, who spends a lot of her time just hanging out by this island, where a hyena named Zig lives. Day after day, Zig can think of nothing else but trying to find ways to EAT Marina. Zig's problem...Marina just happens to have a pet shark. I caught this show on Netflix recently. Not being a big fan of French cartoons, my first reaction was naturally to just pass it by. But eventually, my curiosity shouted down my better judgement and I gave it a look. And for some reason, I was HOOKED. And even now, I still don't know why. I mean, on its face, the concept just SHOULDN'T work. But the presentation just hits all the right notes. Essentially, the series takes a lot of cues from classic silent cartoon shorts of the day (even the classic Warner Bros. and Disney shorts). There is no dialogue in this series. Any time someone does speak, it's either through sound effects or nonsensical babbling. Which is probably one of the things that makes this series work as well as it does. Since the point of the show is simply to watch the wacky events as they unfold, trying to accompany it with witty dialogue would only get in the way. It's amazing how this series can keep coming up with ways for Sharko to pummel Zig and still make it seem fresh every time (few things are more amusing that watching Zig smash into something and then just blurt out, "EEK!"). But truly, the glue that holds this series together has GOT to be Marina, who is fascinating as this instantly likable character that can turn the world on with her smile, yet whose brief moments of sadness can just as easily break your heart. She is also infinitely complex, yet gloriously simple. When we're first introduced to her, she really doesn't appear to be all that bright (although, since this is predominantly a silent cartoon, it's not as if we need her quoting Aristotle or Nitsche, here). But over time, you quickly discover that she does, indeed, have a brain in her head. She just doesn't go out of her way to turn it on unless she HAS to. And then we come to Bernie, the Hermit Crab, who is definitely the odd man out of this bunch. On the surface, Bernie is Zig's best friend and often serves as his sidekick in his efforts to put Marina on his dinner table. But behind the big baby eyes and impish squeaks lurks the mind of a genius, who will often be seen indulging in his own little side projects whenever he can manage to tear himself away from Zig. Of course, not all of his projects turn out the way he'd prefer, either. Well, that's the basic gist of the show. If you can, I definitely recommend you check it out. At roughly seven minutes per short, it doesn't take much out of your day. And besides Netflix (as well as certain Nickelodeon and Disney Channel stations), you can also catch several of the shorts on Youtube. Like I say, don't judge this series by its concept. It's the presentation that make this work. In the meantime, though, I hope you enjoy this pic. ^_^

[whispering-radiance]

I've been going through and then decided to follow your account for a while. First, can I just say your content is amazing? I've been very much in awe over your Glow of Amber comic and fanart, it's made my day so many freaking times and I keep going through it over and over again but I also did have a question: how did your AU begin? Meaning, what inspired it? It's so intricately fascinating-

First of all — WAAAAAH THANK YOU !! — Knowing that someone out there enjoys my art automatically brightens my day 🥹🥹

When it comes to my AU — hmmm — i don’t know if I can pin point it just right

First of all,

Ive been making characters for a really long time, but I always felt scared to show them to people— But with this one…— I think what helped me is the fact that I finally feel confident about my art and my skills : D

It may sound silly, but for me to enjoy something, I have to make my own original content for the series— thanks to this while watching the show I think to myself “what would my character do in this moment?” And I get 300% more enjoyment out of fixation

When it comes to writing,

Everything snowballed after I made Eiko — her concept and story was fun to play around so I started expanding it — eventually making more characters and giving the show ones some rewrites — Since I saw that people were enjoying things that I post, it made me feel motivated to continue working

There are few things that inspired the overall tone and themes of my characters, like: Blue eyed samurai; Okami; Kubo and the two strings…

Well— the easy answer for why my AU began is…— well it’s simply because I enjoy playing with characters, and making things —

I may add more to this post later — because I just woke up :3

[thebleedingeffect]

Ok you seem to the the assassins creed mutual ™. I've been playing AC 4 black flag on the switch (got the rebel collection when it was on sale) and have been loving it, looking to get further into the series. What games do you recommend? (also take this as an invitation to infodump if you want :) ) (I am going to bed after sending this so if i don't respond i'm just snork mimimimi)

I LOVE ASSASSIN'S CREED SOSOSSOOSOSO MUCH I'M SO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE ENJOYING IT AS WELL !!!! I've legit been following this series ever since I was much younger and I played ac1 and just absolutely fell in love with the entire concept <333 honestly it's such a fascinating series and it has such a place in my heart that I'm just so happy to hear more people being interested in the series.... but as for game recs!!!

Assassin's Creed 1, I know, kinda cliché to recommend the first game, but I still think this game is a fantastic introduction to the main themes of the story and atmosphere. I will warn you, it is the first game of the series so it isn't super polished as the later games, but I still think it's a wonderful introduction and Altair is still, hands down, one of the best ac characters out there. If you're okay with a bit more dated graphics then I think you'll really enjoy it :]] it was made in 2007 so like, it does NOT have the amount of graphical polish that blackflag has lmao.

Assassin's Creed 3 - not even joking, probably one of the absolute best games in the entire series and Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor and Haytham are two of the absolute best characters that ac has to offer. It's basically a tragedy between a father and son, the turmoil of colonial America, and just how hopeful yet damning the entire story is. The game is also fucking amazing as well thanks to the modern side plot which I still was at its absolute best in this very same game. There's just so much to say about this game, but it has an marvelous story, atmosphere, characters, and the sheer amount of tragedy going on in this game makes me want to cry sometimes. It's still so wild to me that this game is still one of the best in the series, it's that fucking goooooddddd GOD !!!!

Assassin's Creed Syndicate - okay, so, this game is so fucking fun it's unreal. I did not expect just how fun this game would be and Evie and Jacob are such wonderful characters as well!! You might've noticed that I've gotten especially attached to Jacob, which I did not expect at all when I first began the game!! The conflict between the twins is probably one of the highlights of the entire game and just how much tragedy, misunderstanding, and love is between them makes me want to sob. I've written entire meta pieces on the both of them, but Jacob in particular makes me want to burn down the world for him and him alone- okay actually add Arno to that list. This game also has one of the cooler templar villains! Crawford Starrick was such an unexpected bonus to the game, but I very much loved his presence :] but yeah I'm . totally normal about this game . very very normal. This game is everything to me . JACOB !!! JACOB !!!!! MY BOOOYYYYYYYY !!!!!!! Play it for Him......

Assassin's Creed Unity - AHHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!! !!! OKAY UNITY IS SO GOOD I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THE UNITY HATE ITS ONE OF THE BEST GAMES IN THE SERIES DO NOT LISTEN TO REDDIT !!!! Deadass probably one of the best stories in the entire series and Arno is so :( he's so :( honestly one of the most human assassins we ever see and just watching his struggles, the turmoil of the French revolution, his struggles with loss and redemption... how he fights so hard for justice, peace, and hope, only for it to be endlessly snatched from his hands... Arno being the emotional core of the story and it's such a fucking tragedy because he couldn't have done anything to stop it, not really, but god he tried and he blames himself either way. Arno's section with the French brotherhood and Bellec is EXTREMELY GOOD btw ^-^ there's this one part of the game that I got so excited about I paced in circles for literal hours !!!! Arno ..... My boy ..... My Everything .......

Honorable Mention: Assassin's Creed Revelations - honestly? I think the entire Ezio trilogy is pretty solid, but all of the above games are better imo. I really liked revelations though! ^-^ the only issue is that to understand revelations you need to play the two other games before it to understand what the hell is going on with Ezio LMAO. Still! If you're willing to dedicate the time to the entire trilogy, I think you will not be disappointed :] the Ezio trilogy also has subject 16 and the glyphs which are SOOOOOOOO fun and spooky, I miss them alot...

I haven't played all of the ac games, not yet at least, but I'm planning on playing all of them!! Rn I'm playing rogue and it's pretty fun so far! :D but yeah, these are my top recommendations!! This series is just so dear to me, I love it alot... and if you're curious, my favorite characters are: Jacob Frye, Arno Dorian, Desmond Miles, Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor, and Altair! But yeah <333 I really really hope you have fun if you decide to play any of these games <33 they're all so . yeah . chews on them .

[freckolocation]

a post about signalis, a game i haven't finished, and how it feels to be haunted by a piece of art

(no spoilers save for a few quotes from the first hour or so)

the other day i asked a friend of mine if they'd ever felt like they'd been haunted by a piece of media. they told me about some experiences they had but nothing quite matched the way that signalis has affected me. this post is an expanded version of what i told them

i had heard whisperings about signalis around its release last year, and in march or so of this year, having recently finished the dead space and resident evil 4 remakes, i was itching for more horror. i picked signalis up in mid-april of this year and according to steam i have not played it since the 17th of that month. i played about five hours total

the first few hours were amazing, and with the exception of the dead space remake a few months prior, i don't know how long it's been since a game has sunk its teeth into me that deeply. everything about it was immediately fascinating to me--the world, the art, the design, the atmosphere, the soundtrack, the characters, the themes, the writing, the gameplay, everything

but the latter few hours were extremely frustrating, as someone not familiar with the more classic survival horror style. the combat is relentlessly punishing and the inventory system is brutally restrictive, and i wasn't approaching the game in a way that made it anything less than infuriating, as i didn't know how else to play

by the end of those five hours i didn't understand why it was garnering such universal acclaim. despite the world and atmosphere being unlike anything else i had ever seen, so uniquely tailored to my tastes in science fiction and horror and visual style, i found it incredibly laborious to play

ultimately, i assumed it just wasn't for me, and i decided to drop it entirely

but those first few hours were so gripping i couldn't stop thinking about it

there are a fair amount of literary references in signalis to works such as those of h.p. lovecraft, as well as an explicit reference to robert w. chambers' short story collection the king in yellow, a copy of the book sitting on a desk in the introduction. the collection is named after a fictional play mentioned within several of the stories, the second act of which would drive the reader to madness, the very first lines so captivating that the reader would feel compelled to continue

such a concept feels a bit too familiar, in retrospect.

i read what other people had to say about signalis. what their thoughts were on the things that frustrated me. i watched an entire half-hour review of it, and i began to understand that others found it just as enthralling as i did, and were simply approaching the gameplay differently, with more care and patience

and only a few days after deciding to give up, i decided that i hadn't given it the fair shake i thought i had, and that i would give it another shot

...but i still haven't opened it since i first decided to give up on april 17th.

a few days ago i came across a song: "no station" by the band 65daysofstatic, from their 2005 ep hole. the song prominently features a sample from the lincolnshire poacher numbers station, which operated from the mid-1960s to 2008. the transmissions, like those from most other numbers stations, began with something called an interval signal--in this case, a few bars from "the lincolnshire poacher," a traditional english folk song. a synthesized voice then recites a formatted string of numbers, purported to be encrypted messages for intelligence officers operating in foreign countries

there's a specific station that i think of any time i hear a transmission from a numbers station--one believed to have operated out of hungary from at least the cold war until 2005, known as the three note oddity. like the lincolnshire poacher, the three note oddity was named for its interval signal: a series of three rising tones, after which a synthesized voice would state "achtung! achtung!"--german for "attention! attention!"--and proceed to recite the numbers, also in german

a transmission from the three note oddity plays in the main menu and during the end of the intro to signalis, and it was the first time i had heard it.

a few days ago i rewatched blade runner 2049 with a few friends. it's one of my favorite films, and like the first, it deals with aspects of humanity in synthetic beings created by humanity, in humanity's image, to serve humanity

signalis has a similar concept, and similar themes.

when you are made aware of things in relation to a piece of media that affected you, you begin to notice things you may not have paid attention to otherwise

now i'll see a youtube video about the king in yellow, or hear the sound of a numbers station, or watch a movie about replicants, and i'll think of the book on the desk, of the three note oddity, of replikas.

i often say that there is too much art in the world i want to experience for me to dedicate too much time to the art i don't enjoy, and yet somehow this game i decided i was done with took such a hold of me that it only took mere days for me to decide it was still worth my time, despite my frustration

...and yet, i still haven't returned to it since the day i gave up, even though i said i would go back.

i think of the tones from the three note oddity and my memory repeats like the station itself

"achtung! achtung!"

as if this game i somehow couldn't bring myself to keep playing is calling me back, compelling me to finish it

there's a line from lovecraft's story the festival near the beginning of the game, an excerpt the protagonist quotes from the necronomicon: "great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl."

holes have been dug into my brain, and thoughts that ought to have dispersed have instead invited themselves in

despite the poetic yet haunting nature of the lovecraft quote, the penultimate line at the end of the intro is perhaps the game's most memorable:

"remember our promise."

signalis has dug itself into my head and latched onto my brain, and while it isn't a constant itch, it never completely goes away, and unrelated things keep guiding my thoughts to return to it, as though the game itself is haunting me

the game wants me to finish it, it needs me to finish it

and until i do, every time i hear those three notes, i will feel that calling and the hairs on the back of my neck will stand up

"achtung! achtung!"

attention, attention, it calls

i said i would go back to finish it, and yet i haven't.

but the game itself insists i keep my word.

REMEMBER OUR PROMISE