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honourablejester · 5 months ago

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Some random pieces of Starfinder worldbuilding from the Pact Worlds setting book that bring me joy:

From the Burning Archipelago, a network of force bubbles holding a city inside the surface of a sun:

“Tethers of energy hold the bubbles in an unchanging formation, but they also serve as the backbone of interbubble transport. Ferries known as linecrawlers hug the tethers, using them to traverse the turbulent solar atmosphere between the bubbles. […] In practice, the senate operates more like a negotiating society than a legislative body, as major trade guilds, especially the powerful Linecrawler Operators Union, can speak freely at senate meetings.”

This little nugget about ferry ships hugging force tethers inside the surface of a sun and the powerful union that runs them. Like. When you imagine that? As if you were a tourist experiencing it for the first time, climbing onto this bus and watching as it heads out of the force bubble that is all that stands between you and immolation inside a star, hugging to a line of force that nobody knows how to repair, and the guy driving the thing knows your awe and your terror so well, because it’s what he and his union bank on to give them a voice in government. Just. Awesome.

From Aballon, the machine-world closest to the sun:

“Between millennia of robotic excavators crafting perfectly aligned subterranean tunnels and the organic “diggers” of the Ice Wells crafting their own networks, Aballon is rife with internal transit routes. Unleashed in the wake of the First Ones’ departure, the excavator robots began work constructing a series of pathways to connect the planet’s various settlements. Sometime during the Gap, these excavators completed their work, and the anacites installed complex, magnetically charged rail systems. The mag-rail network allows high-speed transit beneath the planet’s surface, freeing up the skies for city-sized bulk landers to collect goods from the anacite-run forges.”

I have a fascination for logistics and transport systems, okay, especially in sci-fi, and Aballon’s mag-rail system running underground between massive machine megaplexes, organic undercities hiding in the craters beneath them, and the jungles of the ‘Ice Wells’, deep impact craters that protect from the burning sunlight and allow the presence of water, is just … It’s just the imagery? This machine-dug traceries running beneath the surface of the world.

From the permanently frozen dark side of the tidally locked Verces comes the Fastness of the Ordered Mind:

“A cluster of linked fortress-temples, the Fastness houses the Ascetics of Nar, one of the oldest monastic societies in the Pact Worlds. Within its walls, the ice-obsessed scholars undergo bizarre rituals in order to further their mystical study of the cosmos, seeing in the crystalline structure of ice a blueprint for the inherent order of the multiverse. For some, this means using melting shards of ice to carve magical sigils into their flesh—thus supposedly taking the ice’s order into themselves— while others meditate unprotected on exposed glaciers, letting the cold ravage their bodies. The most aggressive of these allow frostbite to take all of their limbs, and these honored individuals, called the Clarified, are either wired permanently into starships or joined psychically into neural networks with their cenobites in the Fastness’s most secure heart, helping take the order’s research of the universe to new heights.”

Because Verces’ dark side is the setting of the Thing and Event Horizon and Hellraiser, and I love it so much. And the detail of the frostbitten Clarified being directly wired into the heart of starships as their pilots is just exactly the sort of gruesome horrifying science fiction detailing that I enjoy.

From the pirate-and-mystery laden asteroid belt of the Diaspora:

“The ysoki trade frigate Farabarrium is a salvaged ATech Immortal left adrift by the Knights of Golarion after a brutal confrontation with an Eoxian cruiser several years ago. A group of ysoki salvagers called the Shirsask Kaia laid claim to the damaged ship and were able to bring the vessel back online within 2 years’ time. With the significant firepower and space provided by the Farabarrium, the Shirsask Kaia decided to put down roots in the Diaspora and operate as a trade hub and salvage way station. The Shirsask Kaia were quick to negotiate a lucrative protection deal with the Free Captains in return for offering priority maintenance for all Free Captain vessels. Now the Farabarrium is a well-known hot spot of trade activity within the Diaspora and a noteworthy pit stop for travelers scouring the forgotten reaches of the asteroid belt.”

The Farabarrium is easily one of my favourite parts of the setting. There’s a lot of the old school Star Wars book EU in her. A salvaged warship that’s been converted by ratfolk to serve as a mobile salvage and repair station among the pirate asteroids of the Diaspora. She has that blue collar science fiction sensibility that I just delight in.

From Eox, the blasted undead world that destroyed itself in the process of shattering two worlds into what would become the Diaspora asteroid belt:

“The vast, flat, northern reaches of Eox are known as Lacustria Hollow, the basin of what was once the arctic Lacustria Sea. Though no major settlements exist here, the area is littered with the wrecked remains of airships, diving spheres, sailing vessels, submarines, and underwater cities from the time when it was a thriving ocean beneath an eternal ice pack. What appear to be centuries of experimental ships, shattered strongholds, submerged ports, and wrecks suggest that before the planet was devastated, the Lacustria Sea was extremely active and saw trade, naval battles, eldritch wars, and even attempts to settle the seafloor.”

From both an archaeological and also a cosmic horror point of view, Eox is fascinating. They wiped themselves out and literally turned their entire planet undead, but before that, they were apparently already having Cthulhu-esque exploration and wars and attempted submarine colonisation efforts in the icy seas beneath their polar ice caps. There’s a ghostly city mentioned later on called Grim Reach out here that appears to be a pre-cataclysm city at the bottom of this sea, but that isn’t built as an underwater city, but an open air one, so what the hell happened up here?

From the gas giant of Liavara, one of my favourite planets in this system … actually, there’s a couple of things from Liavara, I love this place, so a small sampling:

“The only true settlement on Liavara is the floating city of Roselight, a series of transparent aluminum and polycarbonate domes atop a mechanical thruster platform, built almost exclusively as a carefully managed gas-mining outpost. […] Although it exists solely for Liavara’s tightly controlled gas-mining industry, Roselight is a surprisingly beautiful city—a floating platform of steel and polycarbon capped with transparent aluminum domes of varying sizes that catch the light filtering through Liavara’s peach-colored clouds to shimmer like giant soap bubbles. The tight restrictions on the city result in an environment not dissimilar from a space station, as everything in the city, including air and water, must be recycled.”

“Deep Station. The depths of a gas giant are a fascinating subject for researchers, and this research facility, complete with a tiny shrine to Yaraesa, floats at a depth where the pressure is too intense for most structures to retain integrity. Deep Station was built with a sturdier infrastructure than most vessels transporting staff and supplies to and from the station, so while the station could go deeper into Liavara’s atmosphere, it would then be unable to receive support. The pressure and electromagnetic fields at such depths usually wreak havoc with standard communications systems, but recently transmissions from Deep Station have stopped altogether. Colleagues at Deep Station’s partner institutions would deeply love to find a starship crew with a ship hardy enough to brave the gas giant’s depths to investigate.”

“Old Hulk. Before Roselight was established, gas mining on Liavara was conducted from a scrappy mechanical platform built sometime during the Gap. It had already failed by the time history resumed, abandoned and left to deteriorate within the planet’s depths. Its buoyancy engines, however, retain at least some level of functionality, and the platform bobs between the upper and lower layers of the planet’s atmosphere. This erratic elevation means that sometimes the derelict structure “surfaces” from the clouds below, like the corpse of a mechanical whale, floating for a few hours or days before sinking back into the unbearable pressure of the planet’s depths.”

While the moons of Liavara are fascinating, it’s the installations and cities within the atmosphere of the gas giant itself that fascinate me. Possibly you can blame Lando Calrissian and Cloud City from Star Wars, but there’s just something about the imagery of a gas giant and the flying/floating cities within it. It’s a weird combination of sky and ocean, of clouds and storms and massive winds, but also crush depths, canned air, and resource management. Deep Station being lost to the depths, the ragged ghost of the Old Hulk rising periodically like a shipwreck, the Flying Dutchman, while Roselight shimmers like a soap bubble and bristles with port-slash-industrial city concerns. Liavara is such a fantastic picture of a planet.

From the incredibly turbulent skies of the gas giant Bretheda:

“Eyes of the Ancients. For ages, three cyclones of epic proportions have churned in a symbiotic maelstrom in the southern hemisphere of Bretheda’s turbulent atmosphere. Mentions of these storms appear in records dating long before the Gap, even among societies with only the most basic of telescopic technology, and the violence of each storm is enough to tear apart even the sturdiest of vessels. Yet satellite imagery shows an apparently calm center cradled between the three, with faint signals suggesting that there might be some kind of settlement or structure nestled within the clouds here. Worshipers of Triune, citing the trifold nature of both their deity and the storms, insist that the structure must be a shrine to their deity, while others point to the inscrutable nature of the signal as fitting for a site holy to Ibra. More skeptical voices dismiss both claims as far less likely than the structure being nothing more than a remnant of a starship caught in the storms and eventually swept to the central area— though for a ship to have survived the crushing power of the Eyes would require an extraordinary quality of construction, likely beyond that currently seen in the Pact Worlds. Regardless of which theory, if any, is correct, no pilots have yet managed to navigate the Eyes or succeed at a direct descent from orbit into the center.”

You know in Event Horizon, that ominous first shot of the ship herself hanging above the eye of a storm in the atmosphere of Neptune? I feel like this mysterious object very much has that vibe, to the point where I wonder if it was a direct inspiration. But man, I really want to discover a survivable way down to this thing so I can poke at its mysteries (and possibly die horribly to them).

The gas giants in this system are so fun. And, again, it is probably noticeable that I grew up on the likes of Alien and Event Horizon. And Star Trek, you’d think there’d be more influence from that, but I just … I like cosmic horror and I like blue collar science fiction. I like transport systems and unions and logistics and air recycling systems, and I also like mysterious objects hanging in impassible planetary storms and evidence of Lovecraftian wars beneath the vanished seas of a death world.

This is such a good setting. Such a good setting. I love the worldbuilding so much.

#starfinder #pact worlds #setting #lore #science fiction #horror #worldbuilding #this is such a cool setting

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i-am-a-scholar-of-magic · 11 months ago

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The Emperor’s Relics: Artifacts Of A Lost Time

Among the many positives of “The Owl House” is its rich setting. Though many - including myself - might say we were not given enough detail about the Boiling Isles, there is no denying that the show’s setting is rich and fascinating. Why else would we want to know more?

One such example of worldbuilding that was established but never elaborated on is the relics in the castle’s Relic Room. The artifacts, said to be incredibly powerful, are only seen in “Agony of a Witch,” in which (HA!) Luz tries to steal one to help Eda and Willow and Gus use a few for fun. Though described by Kikimora as “reminders of our great Emperor’s overwhelming power,” Lilith refers to them as “decrepit” and “useless,” implying that they have vastly declined in power over the years and are now used as propaganda.

Curiously, though seeming to intend to have a relic for each major coven, only eight are depicted, and only three of them elaborated upon:

The Green-Thumb Gauntlet: A glove carved of wood, the gauntlet is described as allowing the wearer to grow any plant they can imagine. Willow herself uses the glove to grow trees with fists to knock down an armored door.

The Oracle Sphere: Described by Gus as telling the user how to become their best self, he uses it to conjure a purple-tinted illusion of himself that merely tells him,” You’re always your best self.”

The Healing Hat: Written as able to heal any disease or break any curse, Luz attempts to steal the hat to cure Eda. The hat is destroyed in a confrontation with Lilith, but given her description of the “decrepit” relics and bizarre nature of Eda’s curse as non-native to the Boiling Isles, it is probable that the hat would not have cured her - else Lilith might have tried long ago.

After these, the relics are only shown visually, but it was a fun thought experiment to wonder about each:

Golden Harp: Presumably tied to the Bard Coven. *I like to imagine that the harp intuitively plays music to cast any spell the user might imagine without having to know how to play the harp.

Globe of Abomination Clay: Presumably tied to the Abomination Coven. I imagine it contains an incredibly ancient and very strong Abomination, likely holding far more clay than it seems.

Golden Vial: Presumably tied to the Potions Coven. I like to think that the phial can produce large or infinite amounts of any potion that is poured into it. (This was admittedly based on the White Phial from “Skyrim.”)

Silver Mirror: Presumably tied to the Illusion Coven. I imagine the mirror can capture minute details of whatever it sees, and so aid the user in creating far more specific illusions.

Golden Bell: Presumably tied to the Beastkeeping Coven. I imagine the bell can be rung to influence any beasts within its audible range. Specifically, it can summon them to the user, calm them down and put them to sleep, or enrage them into a frenzy.

These all seem to exclude the relic of the Construction Coven, though there is a faint possibility we see this relic later. Mason, head of the Constriction Coven, is seen wielding a hammer emblazoned with the fist sigil of the coven. Assuming this is the Construction Reic, I like to think it can break down and then reshape any solid material it strikes, in the image of alchemy from “Fullmetal Alchemist” or Overhaul from “My Hero Academia.”

Even a year after the series’s conclusion, it is beyond evident that the setting of the Boiling Isles, with all of the rich details that often act as a framework with more than enough space for us to fill in the gaps ourselves, continues to be a rich mine of creativity in worldbuilding. Who knows what else is waiting to be conceived of that patchwork of glorious setting?

Thanks for reading! More to come …!

#the owl house #worldbuilding #theorizing #analysis #urban fantasy #coven system

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morphimus · 2 years ago

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I know you've probably been asked a hundred times already, I know its tagged as a inside joke and that is most likely nothing more then a very large shitpost collage. But the fuck is dirt world? It has completely consumed my attention span and is causing my worldbuilding brain to fixate on it because I love analysing and trying to pick apart and understand bizarre, weird and unusual ideas, especially if I can borrow liberally from it for whatever hairbrained project I am working on at the moment. I beg of you. This is prime worldbuilding real state.

Dirtworld is an alien world that evolved in such a way that practically everything is simply dirt. No trees, no grass, no mushrooms, nothing of the sort really, perhaps worms, certainly microbes, but not much at all that we would recognise as life like on Earth, one of the sole exceptions being the dirtworldians, an intelligent (and even spacefaring!) species much like ourselves. Nutrient rich dirt for meals, dirt as building material, different kinds of dirt used for every purpose you could imagine, from skin care to space flight.

And being such a world where all is dirt and dirt is all, many words for non-dirt things typically derive from a root word that itself means dirt. For example, the Dirtworldian word for lake might derive from the word for the type of dirt found near lakes. You can stretch this concept to cover damn near everything, from natural features, to technological inventions. If the word for car is derived from both the word for motion and the word for structure, and the word for motion itself is derived from the word for a landslide (dirtslide, really), and let's say the word for structure has its roots in the materials used to make it... then naturally that would make the Dirtworldian word for car translate into something like "dirtdirt."

The key to making this linguistic bullshit work however, lies in an extremely old literary record, with writing invented drastically sooner than it was by humans, comparatively. This allows for the origins of words to be much more well known, and thus much more likely to be known to mean dirt.

This whole thing started as a little improv bit between myself and a close friend, making up funny little details as we went on. Sort of like a more ridiculous and stupid version of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

The meme post itself was something I made on a whim, fashioned after similar other posts like this one for example. "Imagine the memes that would occur if Dirtworld made first contact" essentially.

About the setting though, one might ask what are the Dirtworldians like? How did they evolve among the dirt? What is their culture and society like? What are the fauna of Dirtworld like? The politics? The dirt? Or what about even the dirt dirt? There's plenty more I could say about it, but I think this post is long enough already, and I encourage you to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps.

If anybody out there wants to use the concepts of Dirtworld for their own worldbuilding, borrowed in whole or in part, I give you my blessing to do so. Run wild with it!

#dirtworld #world building #jmc #linguistics #inside joke #dirt

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flambeaufelid · 2 years ago

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Warrior Cats Chronological Liveblogging Masterpost

Edit: this project is no longer active. :/ hope to get back to it someday, but my hopes aren't high.

Hello, and welcome to my attempt to read through all of Erin Hunter's "Warrior's" (AKA "Warrior Cats") books, in the order shown here. I've previously read basically everything released before the third Dawn of the Clans book, so ~half of these wont be blind reactions, though it's been so long since I read these that I don't remember a lot of them well. Still, understand that this blog will often contain spoilers for books other than the one a post is about, as I reference future material!

Dawn of the clans:

The Sun Trail:

Prologue and chapter 1

...And that's all for now. Hit keep reading if you wanna hear why I'm doing any of this though.

Warrior cats means a lot to me.

Growing up, I had a strange relationship with reading. Until I turned about five and really tried to read a book for the first time, I was convinced that I hated reading. Then once I'd tried it, I loved it, but was convinced that I'd only be able to understand kids books or manga.

Of course, I was wrong. I was more capable than I thought. But bigger, more serious books... they were strangely intimidating to me.

So. One day, me and my sister are at swimming lessons, but there's enough of an age gap that we weren't in the same class. We'd both have to wait like half an hour for each other to be done.

I had made the mistake of not bringing anything to do. But my sister had.

Warriors books. But specifically, the manga.

Warriors having manga spinoffs is one of the weirdest marketing gimmicks ever, but it worked very well on me. A more traditional book might have scared me off.

With no other options, I picked up- if I remember correctly- Tigerstar Sasha book three.

For the record, this is an absolutely CURSED way to get into these books. It was so far disconnected from the main series that it was practically it's own thing. Not to mention it was the finale of this little spin-off.

Still, it was mildly entertaining.

And then a kitten fucking drowns.

That's fine. After all, there's no way they would really kill off a literal kitten. I continued reading.

But it never showed up again.

I reached the end of the book. Kitten still dead.

I leaned back on the uncomfortable poolside bench, mind fucking reeling. It was the most brutal thing I'd ever read. I felt a little sick to my stomach.

But, oh how I wanted more.

I proceeded to read every Warriors manga my sister had brought. Then every manga my library had.

This continued to be a cursed way to read this stuff. The clans are portrayed as distant, ambiguously villainous, and almost irrelevant. The characters the manga feature are fucking bizarre. They occasionally do weird things to the cannon.

But I loved it all. I wanted more.

But I didn't get more. I ran out.

There was no other option. If I wanted to read more Warriors, I'd have to read the books.

...I didn't start with the first one. But I got to it eventually. I got to them all.

I credit Warriors with making me truly love reading. It's a debt I cannot repay. The Erins are responsible for making me the person that I am today.

So it's a shame that. Uh. The books are...

....................not always very good.

In fact, Warriors kinda sucks sometimes. It's worldbuilding is nonsense, it's characters are idiots, and the books are so repetitive that there are tons of scenes you could take out of context, remove the names from, and then show me... And I'd have trouble telling you what arc they were from, much less what specific book.

I've tried to do this whole "read Warriors chronologically" like five times. I don't think I've ever gotten past sun trail.

The hope is that if I make this blog, maybe I'll be able to keep with it enough to get properly re-invested. Not to mention that one of my motivations for wanting to get back into the series is the distant idea that I'll write some fanfic- so, these posts can act as notes about things I found interesting, that I can possibly refer back to.

Also, I've heard some fucking crazy shit about the newer books I've not read. I so desperately want to know the details.

It's a long road I walk now.

#spoilers #warriors #warrior cats #liveblog #masterpost #warriors spoilers #warrior cats spoilers

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autumnblogs · 4 years ago

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Day 51: Estrangement from The Self

https://homestuck.com/story/5935

I didn’t really take Terezi’s problem with Faygo seriously the first couple times reading Homestuck, but in terms of the way that Homestuck’s different characters mirror each other, and the Trolls’ bizarre alien problems are used to directly comment on human problems, I think it makes sense to say that Terezi’s Soda Abuse should be taken exactly as seriously as Rose’s alcohol abuse.

Rose and Terezi only interact a handful of times, which is a shame, because on a certain level, they share the same basic problem; a lack of faith in the people around them combined with a crippling lack of self-worth. Though they both have strong narcissistic tendencies, Rose and Terezi display over and over again a desperate need for affirmation, and when they can’t get it from their peers, they seek it from other sources; Terezi’s manipulation by Aranea, in this sense, is parallel to Scratch’s manipulation of Rose in terms of the motivation of the one being manipulated.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/5936

(More indication that being on the God Tiers literally elevates characters to exist more on the narrative layer than they did before.)

https://homestuck.com/story/5937

In theory, I want the story to reward Dave’s newfound aloof optimism, but I think he’s still like... going too far in the other direction from where he started. We know he’s been questioning his relationship to Bro’s weird ideology, and he’s clearly less interested in being a Hero than he “should be” - but he’s still coping with his emotions mostly just by not acknowledging them.

He’s in for a rude awakening when he gets to the new session.

I should note that like, while Karkat and Dave’s friendship develops into a romance instead of into a platonic bromance after the reset, I don’t think we’re given much of an indication that their actual dynamic is all that different aside from being more physical.

https://homestuck.com/story/5944

Davesprite’s story is parallel with Dave’s, and as I’ve probably already said, forms a core part of Homestuck’s narrative about the distributed nature of the self, and the way that we can’t ever really know ourselves perfectly.

There are the literal material distributed selves like Davesprite, or sometimes Brain Ghost Dirk, or all the various versions of a character from other points along their own timeline, or from Doomed Timelines.

Anything we learn about Davesprite helps us to learn more about Dave. Anything we learn about Lil Hal helps us to learn about Dirk.

If Homestuck is about alienation, estrangement, then through characters like Davesprite, and Lil Hal, we learn that these people are not only estranged from each other by time and space, they are even estranged from themselves by the partitions in their own head, and by the way in which they are observed by other people, and form idealized versions of themselves to aspire to that they can never be. Other better versions of themselves exist in other timelines, and two different versions of a character both wish that they were the other.

Paul Tillich, a French existentialist philosopher and theologian talks about the idea of estrangement from the self as being rooted in the same problem that estranges us from others in his essay You are Accepted.

Maybe that’s another thing that I need to write about. I shall probably do so once we get to Davepeta’s talk about the Ultimate Self. (Did I already write a companion piece about it? Maybe I did.)

https://homestuck.com/story/5955

Okay; the plot has switched tracks, but the theme is very much still exactly what it was during Davesprite’s ramble. What is the significance of all of the alternate selves? In keeping with her very Dirk-like adherence to the idea that she is a certain person who is a certain way, and needs to be who she is, Vriska’s conception of all the alternate selves is that they are meaningless and have no signifiance.

I think it’s telling that we don’t really see any alternate Vriskas in this undead army.

https://homestuck.com/story/5957

While this seems extremely obvious to me anyway, it’s worth pointing out that Meenah alludes to the reason why The Condesce has latched onto Jane in pretty much exact words.

She yearns to have an Heiress, someone that she can teach her badass ways. In short, Meenah wants the same thing that Dirk wants - she wants ideological offspring!

https://homestuck.com/story/5961

I think with Andrew’s stated disdain for Worldbuilding (don’t quote me on that; I’m just pretty sure he said it once, and the fact that his villains are the characters who engage in long-winded worldbuilding screeds is suggestive of this as well), this is another way in which He is Fucking With Us.

The worldbuilding gives us symbols we can use to think about the themes the rest of the comic addresses, but broadly speaking, it’s not actually all that consequential.

https://homestuck.com/story/5966

Aranea continues to use language suggesting that she views the universe very much like a single organism - it’s an interesting quirk of hers.

https://homestuck.com/story/5982

As we come up on the conclusion of Disk 2, Aranea’s monologuing definitely recalls Scratch’s monologuing. (And of course, the journal entries from Mindfang before that).

The background information here is definitely relevant for one thing; helping us to understand the emotional background of the characters.

https://homestuck.com/story/5986

Long isolation and hardened pursuit of justice sounds like a certain mail-lady.

https://homestuck.com/story/5997

As in her initial conversation with Terezi, Aranea calls attention to the somewhat “fake” nature of Choice, and libertarian free will as it is often conceived of. It would not be in keeping with Caliborn’s character for him to choose the other option; just as it would seemingly not be in keeping with Vriska’s character for her to abandon her pursuit of power.

https://homestuck.com/story/6017

Terezi’s black and white worldview - her view of acts as good and evil, and her view of people as either good or evil - makes her completely incapable of coping with the shame of her bad decisions. Terezi doesn’t know how to forgive, or what forgiveness looks like - she does not know how to bridge the gap between herself and someone else once they are estranged. She has never been able to forgive Vriska. And she certainly can’t forgive herself. Not for getting into a relationship with Gamzee. Not for becoming addicted to Faygo. Not for repairing her vision. And certainly not for killing Vriska.

https://homestuck.com/story/6020

And Karkat brings it around again to the ongoing conversation about the ways characters are estranged from themselves.

https://homestuck.com/story/6043

Tavros’s single emotional triumph in pretty much the entire story.

He finally ditches his abusive girlfriend, and stops putting up with her.

Ironically, being tolerated in their wickedness is probably the last thing people need when they’re involved with it.

Letting Vriska keep on abusing him is a disservice to both Tavros and Vriska.

Really, it’s best for both of them.

https://homestuck.com/story/6050

Vriska continues the pattern of shit-talking herself. She always vacillates between vastly inflated self-esteem, and complete dejection.

https://homestuck.com/story/6054

Vriska’s vastly inflated ego is part and parcel of her nature as a Thief of Light I think.

Because she doesn’t just think the world of herself in the sense of stealing everyone else’s meaning and relevance.

Vriska assigns all the responsibility in the world to herself. If she doesn’t act, or if she doesn’t, as far as Vriska is concerned, everything that comes to pass, comes to pass because she wills it, at least at the moment.

Vriska Serket is a Megalomaniac of the highest order; she conflates herself with Lord English. She conflates herself with God.

Vriska is as alienated from herself as anyone is, and it’s because she thinks she understands who she truly is, and considers living up to the ideal version of herself a matter of ultimate importance.

https://homestuck.com/story/6056

Kanaya’s intervention is parallel to Dave and Karkat’s.

https://homestuck.com/story/6065

Caliborn has graduated from having nothing but complete disdain for everyone who is not himself to having some use for other people, but even his camaraderie only extends to those who prove themselves useful to him; he makes a mockery of friendship, and his attempts at civility are signifiers as empty as his life is of the possibility of genuine benevolence.

https://homestuck.com/story/6071

Meenah’s emotional theatrics are as genuinely disheartening as they are darkly hilarious because, like Dirk, and like Vriska, Meenah is a Dangerous PersonTM; she views the violence she is capable of as being intrinsic in her nature, and something she basically is incapable of resisting. Like everyone else in the story, Meenah is basically uneasy with who she is, but only a handful of characters are like Meenah in that they are basically resigned to that uneasiness. Instead of doing the things Meenah wants to do, she does the things she does not want to do.

https://homestuck.com/story/6241

So here we are at the end of Disc 2, in the same basic predicament we were at the end of Disc 1.

Everyone is miserable. Everyone’s relationships have broken down all but completely.

Everyone is estranged from each other, and everyone is estranged from themselves, and if they think a cute little reunion is going to resolve all of the emotional problems that they have failed to confront over the past three years, they’re in for a rude awakening.

More tomorrow, as we start in on the final quarter of Homestuck.

See you tomorrow; Same Cam Time, Same Cam Channel

#liveblogging #commentary #paul tillich

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terramythos · 4 years ago

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TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 33 of 26

Title: The Edge of Worlds (2016) (The Books of the Raksura #4)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Adventure, LGBT Protagonist, Third-Person

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 11/28/2020

Date Finished: 12/09/2020

Two turns after The Siren Depths, Moon has settled into life in the Indigo Cloud colony with young children of his own. But when all the adult Raksura experience a disturbing, shared nightmare that foretells the destruction of their home at the hands of the Fell, things are about to change. Soon an expedition of strange groundlings visit The Reaches, claiming they need the Raksura to help investigate a mysterious abandoned city far to the west. Believing the two events are linked, Moon and the others embark on a journey to avert disaster. However, they soon find more than they bargained for when a Fell attack traps them in the deadly, labyrinthine city ruins.

If eyes fall on this, and no one is here to greet you, then we have failed. Yet you exist, so our failure is not complete.

Full review, some spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Graphic violence and action. Some mind control stuff (par for the course at this point).

This is a difficult book to review because it is, for all intents and purposes, part one of a longer two-part story. While the three previous books were all self-contained, The Edge of Worlds isn't, even ending on a cliffhanger. I feel like this duology might have been written as a single book but got split for publishing reasons. As of this writing I have not read the next book, The Harbors of the Sun. So take what I say with a grain of salt, because my commentary assumes the next book will address certain things.

The Edge of Worlds’ core plot builds on threads from the previous book-- mysterious ancestors, bizarre dead cities, the Fell/Raksura crossbreeds, and so on. This book doesn't include any new details about the ancestors, which are just called "the forerunners", but I expect the next book to touch on this more, as it’s been a consistent Thing in the series. There's also another mysterious, ancient ruin critical to the plot. However, it’s pretty different than the underwater city in The Siren Depths, so doesn't seem repetitive. Oddly, it reminds me of House Of Leaves with its vast size, impenetrable darkness, and sentient (?) traps.

The book also explores Fell/Raksura crossbreeds in yet another way. Previous books depicted them as terrifying weapons (The Cloud Roads) or just weird looking Raksura (The Siren Depths). The Edge of Worlds splits the difference, introducing a Fell flight that seems much more sympathetic and reasonable than any encountered thus far-- led by a crossbreed queen. My criticism of the Fell way back in The Cloud Roads is they're basically an Always Chaotic Evil horde of predators, but this new idea adds a lot of nuance. Though I am assuming the next book goes into this more, as they’re just introduced here. It's important to remember the Fell and Raksura are descended from the same ancestor, and even though Raksura are the heroes of the story, there are a lot of similarities between the two species. Overall this is one of the most intriguing threads in the series, and I'm glad we keep coming back to it in new ways.

Another thing this book does differently is perspective. Moon is the POV character in the other main entries. While that's still true, there are several interludes from the perspectives of others. For practical purposes this is to show what's going on outside of the main party, particularly so Malachite showing up at the end doesn't feel like an asspull. Also, certain events really do need to be explained when Moon isn't present. I can respect that.

From a reading standpoint I really like these alternate points of view. They're all minor characters-- Lithe, Ember, Merit, River, and Niran-- which is an interesting choice. Ember's interlude is actually my favorite part of the book. It's fun to see a more "traditional" consort approach an awkward situation, and I like his initial struggle to accept and treat Shade (one of the crossbreeds and a personal fave of mine from the last book) as a regular consort. Ember comes off as very submissive in the rest of the series so it's fun to see him take charge. Also this part features a scene in which two intimidating Raksuran queens, Pearl and Malachite, have the most tense tea service of all time. It's just hilarious.

This book actually has a trans analogue with the Janderan, the primary groundling species, who apparently choose their gender when they reach adulthood. Specifically there’s a focus on a young man named Kalam, who just took that step. This doesn't feel like the standard fantasy/scifi copout because humans literally do not exist in the series. Wells handles trans/nonbinary/agender characters (human and otherwise) extremely well in The Murderbot Diaries so I feel it’s in good faith. LGBT rep in the Raksura series has been great so far, honestly. Moon/Jade/Chime is like... canon, man.

Another general observation I haven't previously noted... I love how many interesting and varied flying ships there are in this world. They're all boat-like (nothing like airplanes) but there has been a different kind in each book. Considering that most of the main cast can fly it's interesting that flying ships are consistently integral to the plot. It would be so easy to cop out and design one ship that every society uses, but Wells really makes them all unique despite serving similar functions to the story. The ship in this one is organic, powered by living, cultivated moss. I dunno! I just think it’s neat.

I do have one criticism for The Edge of Worlds, keeping in mind it's part one of a longer story. The pacing. This book is pretty slow; it takes a while to get going and then there are lots of lengthy travel sequences. As long as there’s interesting flavor to it, I generally don't mind this approach. It allows for breathing room and character interaction. But even I started feeling bored at points and had to power through. It feels like a lot of the travel could have been cut from the book without losing much. For example, the journey to the colony tree in The Serpent Sea took up maybe a few chapters. I appreciate travel in this series from a worldbuilding perspective, but in this case I think some time gaps would have been fine. The action doesn't pick up until the party arrives at the ruin, in the latter half of the book.

Also, this isn't really a criticism, but there are several references to the Raksura novellas and short stories. I haven't read them (yet) so they’re totally lost on me. I can't blame Wells for including references, both as a wink/nudge to people who have read them and because ignoring relevant ideas makes no sense. But as someone lacking context it comes off as awkward to have a character think “WOW, this is just like that one time Jade had to do this one thing!” and I’m just like “...it is???”

Despite this I like just about everything else in the story, especially the second half. It really does feel like a proper finale, bringing back notable characters from throughout the series (not anyone from The Serpent Sea yet... I do have my suspicions here, though). River seems to be getting a mini redemption? The labyrinthine, dark city is creepy, and the artifact they find inside it is super unsettling. All the climactic action is intriguing, particularly regarding the new Fell crossbreeds. The novel ends abruptly, but that’s understandable since the next book leads right off from it. I'm really excited to see how the Raksura story concludes.

#taylor reads #2020 reading challenge #BONUS ROUND #9/10 #me: well that line is foreboding and probably foreshadowing let's use it with no context

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bethygauw · 5 years ago

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Mahoyaku Interview: Tsushimi Bunta (Main Screenwriter) and Kazuma Kowo (Worldbuilding Supervision) + Coly Scenario Director

Released: 28 February 2020

(!) Warning (!): Some spoilers for Main Story chapter 17 towards the end of this post.

TL note: I feel like going by surname-given name in this article;;; pardon the inconsistency Also support the fab fan translation site if you haven’t already: https://mahoyaku-eng.com/

Blurb: This is a world where mages and humans coexist, and this is a story that depicts the journey to save it—brought to you by screenwriter Tsushimi Bunta, known for their subtle writing style that retains a realistic touch, and Kazuma Kowo, who oversees not only character background but also the worldbuilding of each country, among other things. In this issue, we’ve asked what sort of things they were being mindful of during the game’s creation and if there are any behind-the-scenes that they could share. In addition, we’ve also included a few comments from the scenario director, who’s in charge of bringing together all story elements in this game from the Main Story to Training Location stories. We hope you enjoy everything that Promise of Wizard has to offer as you play through it.

Tsushimi Bunta: Freelance screenwriter. Main scriptwriter of Idolish7 as well as the author of the novel adaptations. In this game, they’re in charge of writing the Main Story, Training Location stories, and Event Stories among others.

Kazuma Kowo: Manga-ka and illustrator. Representative works include Junsui Adolescence (Ichijinsha Inc.), Dear Tear (Hakushensha Inc.), and Hinemosu Futari (Takeshobo Co., Ltd.). In this game, they’re in charge of worldbuilding supervision.

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Part 1: Interview with Tsushimi Bunta (Main Screenwriter) and Kazuma Kowo (Worldbuilding Supervision)

Q: How did you get involved in the development of Promise of Wizard?

I got my first offer around five years ago, but I had to decline because I was already working on something else. They’ve continued to contact me a number of times since then, and then finally the right chance came along. There was the worldbuilding, and then the management and creation of character setting sheets that would shape their sets of values et cetera, which seemed to be a lot for me to handle. That’s why I asked Kazuma-san to help us out. We made games together in the past.

Q: Kazuma Kowo-san is in charge of worldbuilding supervision. Together, the two of you came up with the mages’ world as well as the story. What sort of discussions did you guys have when you were creating the character setting for the wizards as well as the world construct?

We decided on the fantasy genre, but it can range from fairytales to light novel stuff to something as massive as high fantasy. We started from discussing what extent would attract the audience’s attention the most. We talked over and over about it, and in the end, we moved forward with the idea of the countries having their own fantasy taste. We had Kazuma-san sort which wizard into which country first, and then we made adjustments over time. Oz was in the North at first, for example, and then there was Figaro in the Central country. Shino was more reserved, Heath was the flirt, whereas Leno was someone ruthless. Then we figured we should be finalising the characters that would be “the face” of each country first, so that people can remember the characteristics of each country more easily. These are Arthur, Murr, Shino, Rutile, and Mithra. Things that have wizards and witches vibe such as precious stones, stars, plants, fortunetelling, incense, books—a lot of these things are what girls usually like, so we tried to be brave and implement as much as we could.

Q: How did you develop the personality and other characteristics of each wizard from each country? Was there anything you paid attention to in particular when creating these wizards?

The central country has wizards with heroic qualities, so they lean more towards heroes, leaders, and priests. The Western country’s qualities stress on the eccentricity, the bizarre, and entertainment, so they have themes like the Cheshire Cat and Halloween. The Japanese equivalent would be the kitsune foxes and the shapeshifting tanuki racoons. The East has wizards that are gothic, dark and gloomy with melancholic feel to them. The Southern wizards are like the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. They're good at helping others, honest, and pastoral. The Northern wizards’ image is like a demon lord or great witches who rule over humans—the power type that screams horror.

Q: In this game, wizards have powers that humans don’t have. Because of it, humans rely on them and they adore them. But, there are also occasions where the wizards are feared and detested. You’re depicting not only the “cool wizards”, but also the gap between the wizards and humans. There are also characters who have power but suffer and feel lonely because of it. I think things like that are what makes this game charming, but was there anything you were being mindful of in the process of writing that sort of aspect?

I don’t want to make the loneliness that the wizards feel to be theirs alone. Instead, I want the players to feel something similar, seeing as we all live in a society. I think anyone who lives in a society feels that they “want to be understood” or “want to understand [others]”. But at the same time, they also feel some sort of indignation where they “don’t want to be understood” or want to say “don’t you dare think you’ve understood”. I want the players to take any of these emotions and observe from the wizards’ point of view. I want them to let their imagination expand and enjoy themselves that way.

Q: Many of the wizards’ incantations are phrases that we’re unfamiliar with. I believe a lot of fans have put a lot of thinking into figuring out the meanings and the origin. How did you come up with these incantations?

In regards to incantations, I had Kazuma-san take the wheel. We had it in katakana so that it reads more smoothly in text, but we also adjusted it as we prioritise things like how easy it is to pronounce and for people to catch it. The impression you get from these incantations (sounds powerful, weak, ominous, or it’s still too early for you, et cetera), and how powerful they actually are—we have it all ranked and organised, so it would be nice if it shows one at a time.

Q: Was there anything about the “fantasy parallel universe” genre and the “relationship between wizards and the sage” you find to be the reason why you can deliver particular ideas? Was there anything you found interesting during the writing process?

I actually had to restrain my thinking process because I had to remind myself that I’m writing fantasy, so it’s like I can’t include things that are normal and already exist in the real world. Even if I come up with a good idea, I’ll end up thinking that it’s a little too normal and then it gets scrapped.

Q: The existence of the previous sage who doesn’t put on airs and has an approachable personality becomes one of the attention-grabbing elements in the storyline. In your mind, what sort of character is the previous sage?

A white-collar worker who works at an exploitative company. They can say pretty irresponsible things to the mages and amuse themselves with it. But they also get scared simply from scary things, and they have the boldness to say something selfish.

Q: Please tell us, if there are any, things that seem trivial but it’s something that you were being particular about during the process of writing the Main Story. These can include scenes, specific lines, or portrayal of something.

The same goes for the Main Story and the Sub Stories, but I want people to feel excited and let them imagine all sorts of things. I always have that in mind and that’s why I’ve added lots of details into the setting. “If I were a mage”, “If I were a citizen of this country”, “Which country would my friends come from”, “What does this taste like”, “What are their previous love stories like, and what’s their life been like until now”... I think being able to have so much freedom in imagination is what the real pleasure of the fantasy genre is. I hope it’s become a world that allows the players to indulge themselves in daydreaming.

Q: Lastly, please leave a message to all fans who are out there supporting Promise of Wizard.

Thank you for playing the game! It’s pretty much my first time writing fantasy, so right until it was released, my heart kept pounding thinking if it would really count as fantasy… But I’m so happy that a lot of people are having fun with the story! Please continue your support for Promise of Wizard from now on too!

----- * * * -----

Part 2: Interview with Mahoyaku’s Scenario Director

Q: How did you make this job offer to Tsushimi Bunta-san? What is it about Tsushimi-san’s works and writing style that makes it charming to you?

Right around the early stages of the establishment of our company, Coly, one of their past works touched my heart. Their script writing ability was so mind-blowing that I thought I just had to make this offer. In the end, that also instigated Kazuma-sensei’s involvement, and that’s how we got them to help us out as well. I think one of the things that make Tsushimi-sensei’s work charming is the universally relatable characters, the writing that makes the reader want to cheer the characters on, as well as a whole new world that they bring to the readers. Tsushimi-sensei has the ability to transform unsaid feelings and unwritten motions into breathtaking scenes. Sometimes, trivial dialogues can depict genuine feelings within human hearts, like that of a child’s. You can feel through the writing affection and gentle point of views towards those in a weaker position.

Q: The setting of this game involves the main character who suddenly wandered into another world where mages live. Then, they became the “sage” who gather up the wizards and guide them. How did you decide on what the story was about and which direction it was going?

We had the people in our company come up with several ideas and we went through them to see which ones had and hadn’t already been used in regards to the fantasy parallel universe genre, which was the direction we were going with. From there, we ended up with a story where the sage, someone who wandered into another world, and wizards fight together. We don’t want you to forget reality. Instead, we want you to enjoy it even more. We want to bring a world that gives you courage and positive energy, and we want to deliver the wizards’ world that’s blinding, mysterious, and exciting.

Q: Could you tell us a scene or a line from the main story that’s particularly memorable for you? And why as well, if possible.

Every scene in the main story is memorable for me, so to be honest with you, it’s really hard to pick one. But I was particularly driven in the execution of Chapter 17’s “Rustica’s Request”, so I cherish it a lot. It’s something that Rustica said to Chloe, who was tearing up silently as his feelings were hurt, “That’s because there’s only one of it in this world. This is something that only you can make.” It’s a sweet line, one that will always stay close to you and give you warmth. It may sound cheesy, but no matter how many times you read it, it echoes through in every corner of your heart.

#spoon2di #mahoyaku #staff

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scumerage · 5 years ago

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The Story of One Punch Man Season 3

Aplogies to @gofancyninjaworld this reply was so late, was kinda distracted by the new chapter. Anyway, here is my second response, hope it finds you well!

@gofancyninjaworld (original comment to my original Season 3 post, which in turn was a response to their original Season 3 post) If you’re a punter who got into season 2 enough to fish $300 out of your pocket to own the series, what did you come for? Garou, most probably. What’s going to happen to Garou if the story ends at chapter 108? The first three-four episodes, he’s going to get the crap kicked out of him by monsters and left unconscious in a hole in the wall. Forever. That’s it. The interesting things the story will have hinted around limiters and explosive growth, no visible relevance to Garou. You’re probably going to feel a little cheated. Okay, maybe you’re into the other characters. Well, Genos spends his time cleaning the apartment, Bang is wandering aimlessly through the Monster Association along with Fubuki and Bomb. As is King, who you only saw briefly a couple of times at the beginning and then no more. Suiryu? Oh go whistle – but you were going to have to do that anyway, it’s a shame how much real estate he took up last season. The kid is rescued and the other heroes are doing okay. Tatsumaki is taking on the real big bad and is also doing okay. You’re arguing that seeing Saitama punch a monster that is posing no imminent threat to anyone, and whom he dismissed with less respect than he did Elder Centipede constitutes a profitable end. One that will satisfy people enough to buy in and come back for more. You must be kidding! The storyline has effectively wandered off in the middle and says nothing and means nothing. It’s the other half of the story that starts to land the second shoe and to show WHY there’s a conflict worth following in the first place. The concept of growth through near-death experiences, now it will make sense when we see Garou wake up, challenge Darkshine and complete the tantalizing hints we’ve been given since season 2. While giving us yet more to look forward to – can he truly crush both Hero Association and Monster Association? The carelessly-dismissed Orochi comes back in more fearful form. You want to talk about hype? Here we see the very first monster to survive one of Saitama’s killing blows. The support heroes do more than standing around wondering what’s going on, and we get our appetites whetted by the longest-running mystery in OPM. The other heroes we’ve been following stop cleaning or wandering around aimlessly and do something. The S-Class heroes who had been so impressive until now are in deep shit that runs beyond their ability to do something, now the cleverness of the Monster Association mastermind becomes manifest. And Tatsumaki – why the Hero Association leans on her and how her existence has led directly to the strategic mistakes they’ve made to date will be really great to see. There is literally a Tower of Despair that’s been dragged out of the ruins of what was City Z to counter the Tower of Justice built out of the ruins of what was City A. [ If the production studio is really clever, they might do a little ‘preview’ of what’s coming next season with Metal Bat and the other hospitalised heroes coming out and little snippets of the battle to come. Or they might not – it won’t matter.]

(A) The Second Rise of Garou

First off, to the claim that Garou will disappear after 3-4 episodes in a shorter Season 3 is complete baloney. The end of Volume 19 is 500 pages past Season 2… and from there to Saitama vs Orochi is 700 more pages. Somehow… a 12 episode Season 3 would cram 125 pages or more into the first 4 episodes… then spread the remaining 8 with 90 pages or less? Garou is making it to episode 5, period. Maybe only the first half, with the S-Class meeting covering the second half. So Garou will be the main character for 35-40% of the season.

Now to his relevance… what happens to Garou?

The offer of 3rd in command at the Monster Association and his mission to kill his first hero

Betrayal of the monsters and fights in defense of Tareo

Dr. Genus’ Limiter monologue during his fight specifically to hype him up as a potential second Saitama

A bloody warpath through the monsters ranks, only stopped by the monster executive

Gyoro Gyoro’s plan to make Garou the new monster King, culminating in a duel between Garou and Orochi himself.

That… that is all irrelevant? People will feel “cheated” by Garou leading his own personal assault on the Monster Association, being singled out by both man and monster as having unlimited potential, and growing far more than he ever did in Season 2? If that is “cheated”.... then adding 12 more episodes just for Garou vs Darkshine is grand larceny.

(B) Season 3 without Garou… who will be watching?

But yes, you do make a crucial point, similar but different to Season 2: Garou will be non-existant for the second half of Season 3 (while he dominated the first and last third of Season 2). So anyone who enjoys Season 3 must care about characters other than Garou, such as Saitama or the other heroes.

Saitama fans?

Many people were drawn to One Punch Man specifically for the revolutionary character of Saitama. Presumably why the Orochi “fight”, the refereeing of the Phoenix Man battle, and Flash and Baldy’s Bizarre Adventure were added at all. So it’s no small thing to end a season on Saitama (Boros/Orochi)…. As opposed to not Saitama (Psykorochi) or barely Saitama (Elder Centipede).

The Dine and Dash, Hotpot, Limiter, Phoenix Man, and Orochi far from reduce Saitama to a gimmick… but even if they did…. does adding 12 episodes, which includes the Flash teamup, magically fulfill his character or give Saitama meaning in the story? No. “Saitama ditching his tab on Blizzard, the source of his power, saving a child hero from despair, and killing the Monster King was quite disappointing.. but Flash and Saitama running around? Finally, the anime is saved!”

Saitama Gang fans?

Of course the Saitama group will be sidelined… no matter what. Even pulling 24 episodes would just give them one fight each. Nobody will ever, ever buy the entire Season 3 blu-ray for them alone. “Aw, sucks they do nothing but eat hotpot in the first 12 episodes… but hey, they get one fight each in the next 12! Worth it!” That individual is a fantasy.

Side Character/Worldbuilding fans?

Who will be enjoying either version of non-Garou Season 3, the Saitama group hardcore fans? After the hotpot, no (two fights < a second cour). The Saitama hardcore fans? Until the hotpot, sure, but after that it’s just Phoenix Man and Orochi (and Flash for 2 cour), solid, but not enough to carry the season. Only one groups is left: the people willing enjoy side characters, just as they did after Season 1.

Amai’s Mask reentering the story and war by force

the support team contrasting the S-Class

Flash’s duel of the fates

The battle for the soul of Child Emperor

Zombieman’s slasher flic

Atomic’s Pupils’ S-Class potential

Tornado’s first onscreen “fight”... against the monsters’ 2nd in command

Those are the Metal Bat/Suiryu/Blizzard/King of the next season. Anyone too narrowminded would have left after Saitama/Genos/Mumen/Tornado/Sonic took a heavy hit in screen time for Season 2.

Now for the finale: Orochi is the second character in series after Boros to both “fight” Saitama… and instantly respect him as a god among men. The Monster King recognizes the bald hero as the world’s strongest hero, the victor over two of Orochi’s strongest warriors, and the mystery monster of City Z… sounds a lot like a certain alien finding Earth’s strongest warrior, the killer of his two generals, and the fulfillment of a prophecy? Yes, of course, Orochi dies in one normal punch, he is but a shadow of Boros… but that shadow is less respectful and threatening than one giant bug who has no character whatsoever? Also a reminder: Murata said he would redraw the fight, so presumably it would be a better finale in the second version.

Yes, I’m not kidding, that is best ending for a season of One Punch Man since Boros… and will be until the end of this saga. Even Elder Centipede or Psykorochi’s defeat are obvious stop gaps (unlike the fakeout ending of Orochi), ending simply after big battles in the middle of a still ongoing war. Is it an ideal ending? No, it’s a worse repeat of Season 1’s ending… but is actually is an ending. Want to know what isn’t an ending? Cutting off at the start of two character facing off…. While other characters are being dragged up in energy bubbles… and while the main character is digging rocks. And you argue that “constitutes a profitable end… One that will satisfy people enough to buy in and come back for more”? That is far closer to “effectively wandered off in the middle and says nothing and means nothing.” It’s not even a bad ending…. Because it’s not an ending.

(D) The Unnecessary Additions to Season 3… that don’t lead anywhere:

Garou’s growth was already addressed with Genus and Orochi, it is merely 100% confirmed with Darkshine. Orochi was the first monster to dodge a punch from Saitama, even Boros never did that (though Boros did survive a direct normal punch to the chest). The Organization, the support team, the Saitama group, they aren’t necessary, the hero vs monster war works fine without them. The S-Class actually losing, Orochi returning, and Tornado nearly dying is great…. but it doesn’t lead to any sufficient result, at least not until after Psykorochi is defeated. Paralleling the monster’s tower to the hero’s tower is just a nice touch… but it adds no impact or conclusion to the story whatsoever.

#One Punch Man #One Punch Man Season 3 #OPM Season 3 #OPM S3 #OPM #Saitama #ONE #Murata #Garou #One Punch Man manga #manga #one punch man anime #anime #Orochi #Monster King Orochi #Limiter #Monster Association #Monster Association Arc

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rp-dreamland · 7 years ago

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love rp but have a really messy schedule and in need of someone way too lenient with time?

Then I gotchu. What up, I’m Wells and I’m barely alive these days. RP is stress relief of a sort for me, something to unwind through or pour some restless energy into. Right now, I’m seeking a few long-term partners for email rp.

If you prefer relatively quick replies and/or become anxious/impatient/ irritated with long waits and gaps between them, we may not be too compatible. I’m a full-time student with other things on my plate. I’ve reached up to 2 weeks of inactivity at my worst times. I try to make it up with my response content, though! if you’re willing to put up with my wild ass schedule, you’re a godsend and I’ll cherish the hell outta you. I’m just as willing to do the same (promise, I won’t hold a grudge over a long wait), because I know how much things can get in the way or how those days where you just aren’t feeling up for anything come up. Like you can probably come up to me a month later and I’d probably be up for starting something up again lmao.

I’m always open for OOC talk too! Honestly, don’t ever be hesitant to just chat about whatever, and don’t feel bad hitting me up even if you haven’t responded for awhile. I also draw, so expect sketches and doodles from time to time. In terms of fandoms, I’ve got some that I follow, though if I had to pick the most significant ones it’d be Mr. Robot and BNHA.

In short, if you’d like someone very flexible with time and always willing to play around with ideas, I might be your guy.

8 years of on and off rp experience

I write 3rd person multi-paragraph exclusively. Semi-advanced or advanced lit I think? My replies are typically 300+ words depending on the situation, while my starters are pretty damn lengthy

I *try* to go for a reply frequency of 1-3x a week, though I’m on practically daily during the holidays/summer

I’m able to double or rp multiple characters. I’m pretty good at with NPC’s/side characters to help move things along when it’s convenient, though I do enjoy working with multiple especially if it works well with the plot.

Timezone is EST. I live in the American east coast, but I’m definitely not picky about time zones.

I do email + GoogleDocs, though email is preferred for me since I can work with it on mobile. But I may be persuaded towards Docs if we end up with a something that works better with a collaborative writing/novella style, which I’m curious to try out.

For any romance, I prefer m/m or f/f

Preferences:

For the most part, I’m better off doing original rp. I really really love plotting, character development, and worldbuilding!! Throw me your oc’s and playlists. Hit me up with those AU’s and plots. I particularly like designing societies and imposing norms and rules (hint: they’re usually shitty/bizarre) and seeing how they affect the inhabitants/members. Though I can’t say I’m good at it yet, fictional politics and social issues + how they shape the characters are really fascinating to me. Exploring characters, building relationships, and making them fight interact is so much fun.

I’ve got an appreciation for anti-heroes, flawed characters, and contrasting personalities/people with different goals being forced to work together!

As far as plotting, I prefer establishing a setting and a plot direction before doing anything. Something based off an existing movie/show/book is pretty fun too (etc. our oc’s taking the roles of the canon characters).

Genres:

Crime

Sci-Fi (space operas are the shit)

Drama

Dystopia

Adventure

Apocalyptic/Post-Apoc

Historical

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics. I don’t think this is really a genre but? I dig this not so much for the smut aspect (though hey nothing wrong with that,,) but for the worldbuilding. A/B/O stuff is fascinating to me b/c I see a lot to work with~.

Plot Ideas:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ojUVh8Jv-pgqExs1fTUNR3yu8rMsS1Nf4sGemrDuoNc/edit?usp=sharing

Limits and nahs:

*For the most part, I’m not squeamish and have no triggers. Vulgarity and sexual content are fine for me and I’m down with exploring darker themes and harsh realities, especially if they’re being used to explore a character.

Please let me know about your own limits!

I won’t do m/f. I don’t hate it, but I’ve had too many smut seekers blowing up my DM at the slightest mention of tolerance towards it lmao; not to mention it’s typically boring and monotonous in dynamic from most of my experiences.

No RPing as real people (e.g. celebrities, youtubers).

Please don’t hit me up seeking smut. I’m not against it, but I’d rather do that sort of thing on my own terms with someone I know/am comfortable with.

I don’t do pedophilia, bathroom shit, mutilation, mpreg – y’know the like.

Excessive, plain guro violence that’s done purely for the sake of it

I don’t really like 1st person pov.

Partner preferences:

Someone in the 16-21 age range

Someone who is comfortable with m/m, f/f, queerness in general.

Please please please be willing to work with me and throw ideas right back. I’ve been in a lot of rp’s where I’m the main one pushing the plot and providing obstacles and such to spice things up.

Can double/write multiple characters. i’m not talking like an enormous cast, but 2 would be just fine! Not an absolute requirement of course.

Can match my content/writing for the most part? Don’t feel too pressured by length, as the saying goes quality over quantity! I always enjoy reading replies, especially if I’ve been given something to thing about and really work with.

Has a decent grasp on grammar and punctuation. Ofc we all make mistakes and nobody’s gonna penalize you for using the wrong ‘your’, but ya’ know.

Made this far and are still interested? An introduction and brief rundown of your preferences would be preferred rather than, “i saw your ad let’s rp i only bottom lol”. Plot ideas are even better. You can contact me at [email protected]. See ya’ around ✌

#rp partner search #rp partner needed #rp partner wanted #original #oc #fantasy #drama #angst #mystery #supernatural #varying schedule #long term #email #submission #male x male #female x female

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years ago

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Decay of Logos Review

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/decay-of-logos-review/

Decay of Logos Review

There’s an old Wile E. Coyote cartoon where he gets in a racecar to chase after the Road Runner, and as he’s speeding along the car begins to fall apart piece by piece until he’s left holding nothing but a busted steering wheel. That’s what it feels like to play Decay of Logos, an open-world action-adventure RPG that strongly invokes The Legend of Zelda but is missing the crucial pieces that make the genre so beloved.

Drawing inspiration from Dark Souls as well, Decay of Logos places emphasis on challenge and exploration, though it rarely sticks the landing. Across its roughly 10-hour campaign you’ll travel through haunted battlefields, crumbling castles, and mysterious woods – all while fighting the same handful of generic enemy types over and over again in one of the most infuriatingly repetitive and buggy games I’ve seen in a long time. Whether it’s the choppy framerate, equipment that disappears from your inventory, the world not loading in time for you to step foot on it, or the whole thing crashing entirely, you’re only ever a short time away from something that will hinder or completely shatter your enjoyment of a game that otherwise has a lot of potential.

You play a bland, white-haired silent protagonist named Ada, who looks like an off-brand version of The Legend of Zelda’s Link. Accompanied by your equally silent companion, a white elk of unknown origin, you’ll set out on a cliché and low-stakes quest for revenge after your village is burned to the ground. Despite the generic plot, the worldbuilding in Decay of Logos is expertly done, making heavy use of environmental storytelling that gives you a taste of a dystopian fantasy setting and asks you to fill in the gaps. The colorful, Breath of the Wild-esque art style shows off some pretty stellar areas that beg to be explored, though doing so almost invariably ends in touring samey dungeons, filled with repetitive monsters and puzzles that you quickly become all too familiar with.

The Breath of the Wild-esque art style shows off some pretty stellar areas that beg to be explored, though doing so almost invariably ends in touring samey dungeons filled with repetitive monsters.

“

At the best of times, Decay of Logos simply runs poorly: The framerate bounces up and down wildly and makes gameplay choppy during combat encounters that require precise timing, and some nasty screen tearing can make the world look like a piece of abstract art. But where Decay of Logos really suffers is in the frustrating, intermittent critical glitches and bugs that completely halt progress. Traveling across long stretches of the open world without resting usually results in the framerate going from bad to nearly unplayable. Oftentimes areas of the world took too long to load in under my feet, resulting in me falling through the map and dying due to no fault of my own. Sometimes dying or resting to restore my health had the side effect of causing all my potions or one of my weapons to disappear without explanation.

These kinds of glitches were so commonplace during my playthrough that I had to come up with workarounds, like not pausing for more than a minute or two to avoid an inevitable crash that always seemed to follow. In another particularly maddening instance, I began to recognize that an extreme drop in framerate was a warning sign that the floor was moments away from disappearing – in moments like this I would race to a save point to avoid losing progress, often only to fall through the floor and die mere seconds from salvation.

And unfortunately, even when everything technically works, many of Decay of Logos’ design troubles rear their heads. The RPG systems that govern the world and its characters are vague and aggravating. For example, your character’s level, which greatly impacts how powerful you are and your ability to compete with enemies in certain parts of the world, can be found in the menu, but there’s no information on how much XP you have, how to get more, or how much you need to the next level up. This is particularly annoying because most enemies in the world arbitrarily become much stronger once you accomplish certain milestones, like killing a major boss, which leads to some really frustrating encounters.

Even when everything technically works, many of Decay of Logos’ design troubles rear their heads.

“

At one point I powered through an army of the undead and killed one of the major bosses without so much as a scratch on me, only to be killed by those same low-level minions on my way back to base, because the act of slaying the boss had leveled up every enemy in the world. This means that every time you beat a chapter, you go from powerful badass to near-useless dreg and have to grind until you level up a few times and become strong again, relative to the rest of the characters in the world. It’s a routine that’s far more irritating than it is fun, and made me feel cheated out of my hard-won progress at precisely the moments where I should have felt most accomplished.

Combat in Decay of Logos is also deeply flawed in that it pits you against the same handful of enemy types for hours on end. Each area has just one or two unique types of enemies that appear in large numbers, and in most cases they can’t be realistically dealt with in groups greater than two or three at a time. So victory becomes a matter of drawing the attention of a few enemies at once, killing them, and repeating. And because the leveling system often artificially makes enemies much stronger than you, combat can drag on for long stretches of time as you whittle down the health meter of an enemy that you might have been able to kill in a few seconds just a short time ago. The dynamic here is even worse when it comes to the world’s optional bosses, all of which are carbon copies of one another, and have predictable movesets and obnoxiously large health bars that make for tiresome encounters.

Last week, after publishing our original review of Decay of Logos, the publisher informed us that they had mistakenly provided us with an Xbox One copy that was two months out of date. We retracted the review to make sure we fairly represented the developers’ work and began again on PlayStation 4, using a new code provided by the publisher. But after playing through the entire game a second time, the experience was only marginally improved in stability and bugs. We are told further patches are on the way, including one on launch day, but it’s unclear what issues will specifically be addressed.

Of all the design issues I have with Decay of Logos, though, the elk is what enrages me the most. As you play, you’re frequently reminded about the importance of the bond between Ada and her elk companion, especially the need to cooperate in order to overcome obstacles. But that promise is never delivered on, chiefly because the elk is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine and has the AI of a refrigerator magnet. For starters, one of the main uses of the elk is the ability to ride it to get from place to place, but doing so is frustrating and inefficient. Not only can you run faster than the elk, but directing it is treated more as a suggestion than an order, and the beast mostly wanders around aimlessly and gets caught on everything in its path.

But the worst instances involving the elk are when you’re asked to solve a puzzle in tandem with it. Simply put, this dumb thing just doesn’t follow orders. You have the ability to call it by blowing a whistle, but most times it doesn’t show up or gets caught on something on the way to you and has to be manually guided out. In one instance, I spent several minutes trying to find the elk, only to find it undulating bizarrely on the side of a cliff, and I had to jump off said cliff to restore its sanity. In another example, I spent over an hour trying to guide it out of a spiral staircase that it’d gotten itself lodged under. They say if you listen closely, you can still hear my screams of rage to this very day.

Source : IGN

#Game News #Game Reviews

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babycharmander · 8 years ago

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I finished reading the unofficial novelization of Grim Fandango last night. (I’d link it, but then Tumblr wouldn’t let this post show up in the tags--just google “grim fandango novel” and it’ll be the first result). It’s a full novelization of the entire game, and not the kind of novelization that just copy-pastes the dialogue and writes out word-for-word what happens.

It’s over 200 pages long, though the last 10 pages or so are two short stories (one amusing one featuring Manny and Glottis getting drunk during New Years between year 2 and 3, and one from Domino’s perspective that fills in some of the gaps at the beginning of the book). If you’re a fan of the game, it’s definitely worth checking out.

You can read my review under the cut.

Quick disclaimer: I don’t know if the author of this novel is still ‘round the intarwebz, but I understand that this novel was written nearly 10 years ago. My criticisms in this review are toward the story itself, not necessarily to the author, whose skills as a writer have doubtlessly improved since he wrote this story.

I’ve been reading fics for 20 years now, and I’ve read my fair share of (attempted) novelizations, both official and unofficial. Of what I’ve read, most novelizations have the same problem: they very stiffly try to stick to the script, resulting in very wooden writing that leaves the reader wondering why they’re reading the novelization instead of watching/playing the source material.

This novelization did not leave me with that feeling.

Not to say that the writing isn’t stiff (more on that later) but the writer adapted the game in such a way that it does not at all read as a direct copy-paste of the game’s script that was clumsily edited into novel form. Rather than trying to add each conversation and write out every puzzle, the author took the whole game as more of a rough outline for his book. Some scenes and conversations are adapted more directly than others, but for the most part, the author does a pretty good job of keeping the story flowing more naturally than a direct, word-for-word adaptation of the game would.

One of the things I liked most about this novelization is the way different parts of the story were fleshed out. We see a lot more of what Manny’s time in the Eighth Underworld was like before the events of the game, how he came to terms with his own death (which is not pretty), what Manny and Glottis’s trip to Rubacava was like, and nearly everything leading up to Year 2. An enormous chunk of the book is spent in Rubacava, as you would imagine.

The author spends a lot of time detailing the specifics of what life is like in El Marrow and Rubacava, Manny getting his casino started, his relationships with Carla and Lola, winning over other souls to the cause of the LSA, and so on. A lot of this is really fascinating to read. But some of it is... not.

Here’s a quote from the website that currently hosts the novel:

Now, a thorough revision of the novel has been completed to be hosted here. Many plot points are developed more fully and the entire text has been tweaked to become more textured, more adult. If the game was intended to reflect film noir, then the novel is meant to key off of the writings of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald.

I have to admit, I do not know a lot about the noir genre. I had little interest in it before playing Grim Fandango (though Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of my favorite movies, if that counts for anything?), and I’ve never read a novel written in the noir style. Perhaps the style the book was written in is closer to the noir style--I don’t know.

But I have to say, if you’ll excuse the pun, the book is dry as a bone.

I prefer character-focused stories, and while the novel does give some good insight into Manny and the other characters and their feelings at times, other times it feels like the author was more caught up in the plot, the schemes, the worldbuilding, and the politics. There were times when I really, really wished I could see more of what the characters were feeling or thinking, but the author was more concerned about showing the impact this or that event had on the Underworld as a whole--which is still interesting to see, but not what I was hoping to read. Sometimes you get a good character-driven scene (there’s some nice moments between Manny and Meche, and Lola’s death is as shocking as it should be), and that’s one of the main things that kept me reading.

The website pointed out that this version of the novel is a revision, which makes me wonder how much of the original was revised. Given how the novel seems to inconsistently go from more character-driven scenes to dry-as-a-desert exposition, my guess is that the more character-driven stuff came later, and I wish the whole novel was written that way.

I’ve mentioned I’ve read other novelizations, both official and unofficial, before, and another thing I’ve noticed with them is that you can usually tell what parts and what characters the author liked the most. The same holds true for the Grim Fandango novelization. While no major characters are really skipped over, to my memory, the novel really skips over a lot with Velasco, Lupe, the sea bees, and Pugsy and Bibi, which was a bit disappointing, since I like all of those characters. And, bizarrely enough, it spends a lot of time with the communists in Olivia’s bar. (In fact, a huge part of the Rubacava portion is dedicated to Manny and those guys talking about communism.)

While some scenes from the game were elaborated more, others were cut entirely. We don’t see Glottis getting smashed at the cat track, for example--that whole subplot is nixed. Some of the more humorous scenes are cut as well--for example, I was disappointed to find the scene where Manny walks into the fog and falls into the ocean was absent, which makes Velasco’s “are you going to make this a tradition?” line a bit nonsensical. The thing that shocked me a lot though was that, of all the dialogue that was cut or altered, Manny’s character-defining quote--”Love? Love is for the living”--is gone.

I feel this is a good time to point out that Manny in this novel is a bit different from Manny in the game. In the game, Manny goes from “I’m getting out of here even if I have to STEAL a lead and break all the rules” to “I’m not leaving this world until I can save EVERYONE.”

In the novel? He starts as the latter.

I’m not really sure what the purpose of this was. I didn’t really notice the difference in Manny’s character until he got to Rubacava and was already talking about bringing Hector to justice and saving all the lost souls. Maybe this was an attempt at making Manny more sympathetic, but it felt the opposite for me. It makes scenes that would have been more character-developing and emotional more frustrating than anything. I don’t like the “oh woe is me, I’m ruining everyone’s lives even though I didn’t actually do anything wrong” shtick, especially since the game avoided that because Manny is a jerk in the game.

Some of the other characters got a weird treatment as well. Velasco somehow comes off as even more harsh and mean than he is in the game (or maybe that’s just me?). I think next to Manny though, Glottis is the one who got changed the most. As I mentioned before, a lot of the humorous stuff from the game was cut (probably in an attempt to make the novel more “adult”), which necessitated a change in Glottis’s character. As a result, he reads as more mature and responsible than he is in the game, which makes him feel more bland than anything. Lines kept from the game that make him seem silly tend to be reinterpreted as sarcasm. He does, however, get some character development in one scene that was drastically altered from the game, and I won’t spoil that for you. Unfortunately while there is a buildup to this part of Glottis’s character development, it’s mostly dropped a little after that scene, which makes the scene feel more like it was added for shock value.

Not all characters got this treatment, fortunately. Salvador, Eva, Meche, Carla, Olivia, and Lola were written pretty well from what I remember (I read through this slowly and I’m still feeling kinda messed up due to unrelated stuff so I can’t remember everything right now), and I don’t really remember having any objections to the way the villains were written (other than wishing I could have seen a bit more of them).

Among other criticisms, I will say that I feel the novel has a bit too much swearing. There’s language in the game, yes, and that would have been fine, but characters drop the f-bomb with more frequency than necessary in the book. While there’s some suggestive stuff here and there in the game, it’s taken a little bit further in the novel (including one weird scene where Olivia gets a bit closer to Manny than is necessary, and a few alarming comments from Domino in his bonus chapter). It’s not too much like the language is, but the added stuff does feel a little weird.

While yes, I have a lot of criticisms for the book, I didn’t feel like it was a waste of my time. It was interesting to see a different look at the story (even if I disagreed with the author’s interpretation of some scenes and characters), and some of the ways the author interpreted and expanded on the story were genuinely cool and interesting.

If you’re willing to put up with the dryness of a lot of the writing and willing to put up with a very different interpretation of Manny and Glottis, I feel it’s worth a read.

#grim fandango #fanfic rec

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sharkiegorath · 8 years ago

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Salty asks: 4, 19, and 23. For any fandom of your choosing.

Thank you! :D

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

The O/A: The O/A/Homer. Because they’re a popular OTP. I like both characters and I passively ship it within the current story but I’m full of aimless salt. Maybe I’ve seen it called stuff like “the only pure het pairing” too often, idk, really, they’re cute together and they’re nice people but the main thing they have in common is being held in captivity and abused for 7 years and they were each other’s strongest options for romance-as-a-coping mechanism in a group of four.

The protagonists of Another Earth and The East choose to give up the guy at the end for selfless reasons and it’s presented as part of personal growth instead of tragic or a big sacrifice. I’m 80% sure that’s where The O/A is headed but I’m still meh at it. So it’s a NoTP purely because it’s treated as a plausible ending in the first place, and as a legitimately good ending if it’s plausible.

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Ehhh I’m touchy about fanon species-worldbuilding in any fantasy/sci-fi setting. I feel like a lot of well-meaning fix-it is actually reductive and linked to real-life postcolonial issues. Usually, the problem with marginalized species is how clumsily the writers portray the flaws of their cultures, not the fact that they have flaws. Including big ones. Anyway, I don’t hate it when people make questionable decisions, I dislike the air of superiority I perceive. In particular the fanon for Twi’leks+Ryloth bothers me sometimes.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Go/od O/mens: Aziraphale is like an unpopular popular character in the sense that he’s often treated as an unimaginative second fiddle or the Straight Man to Crowley. Crowley has been one of my faves since 2010, but I recently realised how cool Aziraphale is. He gives the just-banished humans a big flaming sword then lies to God’s face (maybe figuratively) without Falling because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. He’s the one who comes up with the plan to find Adam after the first attempt fails, then he’s the one who figures it out by himself. (I mean, what was Crowley doing that entire time? Threatening his houseplants and watching TV?)

He’s sometimes pigeonholed as endearingly boring and old-fashioned, but his attitude is really as bizarre as Crowley’s, if not more: he’s behind the times yet ‘the times’ is probably a weird concept for a supernatural being who saw the start of mankind. In the book, the gap between the present and where his mind is stuck ranges from 40-100 years - from his perspective, it’s fairly recent. And he’s drawing from a history and culture that aren’t even ‘his’. I think there’s a vague fandom impression that Crowley understands humans better and he’s influenced Aziraphale more than the reverse, but I think they already had similar worldviews/habits then brought it out in each other, it’s just that Crowley is more open about it. (Which makes sense, since he’s a demon.)

#hoamer critical #there's a tag that probably hasn't been used before #ghoulishmalady #meme things

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