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anime-grimmy-art · 4 years ago

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What do you do when there’s not much to an AU? You make up your own stuff, ofc. And as is per usual when I make Character Designs, I make up a shit ton of lore too.

The ramblings under the cut, but what I’m really interested in, is what you guys think. Do you guys have any headcanons/ideas for this AU? Let me hear them! Also, if you don’t wanna read on tumblr, here’s the Google Docs link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/151yshHxnb_--P6eMKkwkI2dee9xC_Llb/view?usp=sharing

Before I get into the characters’ roles, here’s some general facts and backstory of their town:

- Basically, it’s Undertale meets Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley. Well, kinda. I at least used that approach for coming up for the jobs for the characters. You know, how there’s always a general store, a doctor, a smithy, etc.

- The usual story of a HM game is that you come to a town that’s way past its glory days and you, as the player/farmer, help them get back to that. The “backstory” of the town is that that already kinda happened. I’ll get into it more in the character description, but basically when Asgore was still mayor, the town got really popular. Then yadda yadda, a certain tragedy happened, two kids died, and the town suddenly got very bad publicity. There was a lot of stuff going on back then, bad reputation being spread and also a lot of law stuff, cos, you know, supposed child murder ‘n all, so Asgore made the decision to shut off the town to ppl from outside. This was in the interest of most monsters living there, because as fun as it is to have a lot of people coming there, most just wanted to live a quiet life. Not everyone was happy with that though, so many moved away from town and some others are trying to get the town back on its feet. But more on that later.

On to the characters:

I’m just gonna start with the skelebros, cos it’s their fault in the first place I got so invested.

Basically, they are what the player is in hm/sdv. They just showed up one day, took over the abandoned farmhouse and began their life there. The two came to town way after it was “closed” and since then a new mayor has opened the possibility for new residents to move in. Their farm helps the economy of the town a lot and the mayor, like usually in hm games, is trying to use that to make the town more known again. The skelebros aren’t really working towards that goal however.

So, now a bit more detail on them individually.

Papyrus:

- The design is mostly based on what’s “canon” in this au.

- He works mostly on the fields and is in charge of the crops. Their fields aren’t spectacularly big, but still big enough to plant a few dozen rows of veggies.

- Paps also helps out a lot in town when he has the time. He helps Asgore with his plants, he goes fishing with Undyne, helps Toriel carry crates around and so on. This is inspired by the part-time job mechanic in HM ToT.

- Unbelievably, in this AU Pap is not an absolutely awful cook. Since he helps out at Muffet’s and Grillby’s a lot, they tend to show him some tricks to cooking. Even though Pap’s not a big fan of the greasy or overly sweet cooking those two do, he picks up a lot.

Sans:

- Again, design mostly based on the “canon” look. Maybe a bit more baggy.

- This is finally an AU this dude gets to rest. Since there are no resets and he doesn’t have to see his bro die again and again, for once in his life, he’s not a sad ball of depression. He’s just a chill and lazy dude that loves to make puns. Though, since he’s not too experienced with the feelings of loss, helplessness or grieving, he still tends to hide behind puns and fakes smiles if he does feel bad.

- Sans is in charge of the animals on the farm. Papyrus begrudgingly gave him that role since Pap’s loud demeanour and hectic movements usually scare the animals. Sans’ relaxed attitude draws the animals to him naturally and even if Pap mostly finds him sleep against a tree, in a stack of hay or on one of the sheep, the animals are always fed, healthy and relaxed, so Sans seems to be doing his job.

- Sans always has a small chic sit inside his hoodie or hat. Is it always the same one? Who knows, maybe.

- Sans also, somehow, can produce eggs out of thin air. Grab into his hoodie pocket, in his pants pocket, in his hat, in his slipper, there’s suddenly always an egg there. On good days he can even make butter or cheese appear.

Gaster:

- He’s literally just a scarecrow in this. Though, if you ask any of the bros why they designed their scarecrow that way, they won’t have an answer.

Frisk&Toriel:

- Frisk is mostly based on what I wore myself as a kid in summer. Just a loose shirt with a cappy. Toriel basically has her ut gown, just with an apron on top.

- Frisk just appeared outside the “magical” forest one day. Napstablook and his cousin found them and brought them to Toriel, who has been taking care of them since.

- Toriel runs the general store in town, but also often takes care of the few kids that still live there.

- Frisk usually helps out in Toriels store, plays with the other kids or sits around at Asgore’s. They’re notorious for nabbing small snacks, mostly from Asgore’s plants. You’ll always find them munching on something.

- Frisk was in town before the skelebros. Since they’d moved in, Frisk often went to spy on their farm. After a small incident with angry chicken, Frisk got to know the two better and now they see them as something between brothers and uncles.

- But Frisk honestly gets along with everyone. Just like in UT, they’ve not only been adopted by Toriel but literally everyone.

- Toriel and Asgore’s relationship is not as bad as in the main game, since, you know, Asgore didn’t kill literal children, but there’s still tension between them. Back when Asriel and Chara died and the whole thing with the bad rep for the town began, Toriel felt betrayed by Asgore focusing more on the town than giving their deceased kids the grieving they deserved. They’re not divorced, but Toriel still moved out and said needed space to think. Now that Frisk is in the picture though, the both of them are slowly coming to even ground and may even be able to talk things out and clear up the uncertainty of their decisions.

Asgore:

-Asgore has his UT Ending / Deltarune clothes, just with a gardener’s belt.

- He’s the previous mayor of the town, but after all the crap that happened, he stepped down from the position. Now he has his own little shop and sells seeds, saplings, homegrown veggies and fertilizer. So, basically what e.g. the Marimba Farm is in HM AP

- His main customer is Papyrus and they’re on friendly terms. Asgore is worried about how much and how hard Pap works, so he often gives him a discount.

- Since his family’s past tragedy, Asgore is kind of nervous around kids. So, when he first met Frisk, he hoped they’d not visit him too often. But to his chagrin, Frisk took an instant liking to him and spends a lot of time at his shop (and steals eats the fresh grown veggies). Now, he’s really grateful for that, because for one, he loves Frisk as dearly as he had his own children, and also because now the tension and mistrust between him and Toriel seem to grow smaller day by day.

Undyne&Alphys:

- I gave Undyne a pretty basic fisher’s outfit. Alphys basically has Elli from HM’s outfit, just a bit more doctory stuff added. She still has her canon lab coat too.

- In essence, Undyne and Alphys have 2 completely different jobs. Alphys is the resident doctor and Undyne runs the fish market.

Two things. Yes, I know Alphys is more a mechanic than a doctor, she fits the aesthetic though, so she’s the doc now. And no, Undyne being a fisherwoman is not cannibalism, think of it more as a shark hunting smaller fish.

- The reason I lump them together is because they act as the local “smithy”. Alphys is still really tech savvy in this (I mean, Mettaton is still part of this AU), so she takes on most problems with electronics and stuff. For Undyne, I didn’t want to lose her Royal Guard’s Captain image, so she’s really good at handling tools (and weapons, but Al doesn’t let her make them anymore). So basically, if there’s a broken tool, you can be sure that either Undyne or Alphys can fix it.

- As for relationships, those two are still an item. Alphys is still really shy and a shut-off, but since Undyne and Pap become best friends, she gets to know the skelebros better. She and Sans especially get along well, since most of the time Undyne and Papyrus are let loose, they sit back and talk about science-y stuff. (no, Sans doesn’t have a background in science but he’s still into sci-fi)

- Alphys has a bit of a strained relationship with both Asgore and Mettaton.

Back when Chara and Asriel died, it was because of “illness” (maybe poisoning?). Alphys feels awful because with her back then limited knowledge on medicine she couldn’t help the two. Asgore doesn’t hold anything against her but Alphys can’t help but feel guilty.

Alphys still built Mettaton’s body in this one. The two had a really big disagreement, because Mettaton hated the fact the town was going to close, and he couldn’t understand how Alphys could feel otherwise, even more so endorse the idea.

Mettaton, Napstablook, Mad Dummy/Mew Mew:

- Napsta and Dummy are pretty self-explanatory, they got straw hats. Mettaton’s outfit is a bit of a joke cos it’s a play on “work at the top and party at the bottom”. The tie has two different sides, one with the yellow red pattern, the other completely red. His “top part” is the business part, because when he’s on tv or in the mayors’ office, you don’t usually see his feet. The bottom is his party/dance part, cos his dancing/entertainment channels mostly feature his legs.

- Mettaton, still a robot, Napstablook and Mad Dummy are all still cousins in this AU.

- Originally, they all lived and worked at the Blook Farm, the Animal Farm of this AU. Mettaton, however, despised that simple live and after befriending Alphys and her building him a body, he left the Farm to pursue bigger things.

- Mettaton runs the local tv network. From weather to game shows, he does it all. He also runs the tailor shop in town that sells his designer clothes and merchandise. After Asgore stepped down, Mettaton also took over the role of town’s mayor and now works towards making the place more known again. Not everybody is happy with him doing that though.

- One of those people is the Mad Dummy. He can’t stand people anyways and he always claims that history would just repeat itself.

- Since the whole family is made of ghosts, they have different dummies and scarecrows they can use to take care of the animals. To mock Mettaton and kinda get back at Alphys for giving MTT such an opportunity, Mad Dummy found the blueprints for the Mew Mew robot and now modelled one of their scarecrows after it.

- Napstablook isn’t fond of taking over obejcts like his cousins do, so he mostly takes care of the snails. Somehow, he can interact with them even when incorporeal.

Muffet&Grillby:

- The two of them run the Inn together. Muffet cooks in the daytime and makes desserts, Grillby manages the bar in the evening.

- The two still can’t really stand each other but working together like this benefits them both because their rivalry just spurs them on more.

- Even though Grillby is a patient person, somehow Muffet is the only person who riles him up enough to retaliate. (Well, maybe except for Sans, he’s a strong second).

So, basically everything between those two is a challenge in some way. Even if Papyrus doesn’t notice, even his cooking lessons are a challenge for them.

- Even though they’re constantly bickering, after working together for so many years, there’s a strange level of respect and trust between them. Even if back when they first started this business, they’d pour salt into an already open wound, nowadays they’d know better and just take a step back from the other or even comfort the other (on very rare occasions only).

Asriel&Chara:

- They be dead. Kinda.

Some Characters that’d live in that town too but that I haven’t made designs for:

- Gerson is the original smithy of the town. He’d grown up in a family of smiths, but he’d always had an appreciation for the sea. That’s why, when the town became more deserted and Undyne had a good enough skill level as smith, he took up the Captains hat and now mostly spends his days out on sea. He also ferries people to places if they need him to. Oh, and just like in canon, Undyne learned most of her skills from him.

- Burgerpants is a poor dude Mettaton basically kidnapped when he was trying to get fame in the city. Now Burgerpants works wherever MTT needs him to, be that as cameraman for the tv shows, cashier in his tailor shop or his slave secretary in the mayor’s office.

- MK is Frisk’s best kid friend. MK’s parents are in charge of shipping the goods out of town and paying the individual people. MK’s the one that usually collects the goods at the end of the day.

- Other than that, there are only a few people in town. I’d imagine the older folks or the really young families stayed in town after it was closed. I think the librarby dude would still run the library. Some Snowdin residents like the stone family or the dogs also might still live there.

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sweetjekyll · 4 years ago

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Writerly contemplation tag!

tagged by the lovely @j-pping; thank you for the tag!

this might end up being long so I’ll add a read more cut ☺️

2020

what was the most challenging part of writing this year?

I guess the most challenging part of writing this year was tuning out the real world. I’ve always used reading and writing as a form of coping and escapism from all the things that were troubling me. Unfortunately there were times when simply reading and writing weren’t helping me and I took so many breaks, postponed so many WIPs I was excited about... I ended up beating myself down for not being able to keep up with an expectation I had for myself and my writing. Considering 2020 was hell for everyone, I came to terms with myself that it cannot be always my fault, I can’t blame myself for not being able to do things I set my mind to do, sometimes there are obstacles that take time for you to cross.

I’m just going to quickly mention stressful anons and hopefully get a point across for all fan fictions writers. WE ARE NOT ROBOTS. WE ARE HUMAN. All of us write for many personal reasons, mine are that I just love writing things which I wish to read! Simple as that. What I wish for some rude people to understand is that the least you could do for us creators is be thankful and be kind to us, give feedback and constructive criticism, share our work. I don’t understand why you are scared of the reblog button. When I go through my notes and take a look at some blogs, they are empty. No one is paying us to contribute creatively to the fandom, you are enjoying our content for free while we put hard work and our free time into it, so why should we “hurry up”, “update faster” and “write more/this/that”? Please, remember that we are people too, and the toxicity some people spread on anonymous asks is just incredibly baffling and hurtful to me. If you, as a reader, believe that my request is nonsense and my words are too harsh, then perhaps you should reconsider how you’re viewing content creators before disagreeing without a valid reason.

what was the most enjoyable/rewarding part of writing this year?

The happiness that came from writing something which I enjoyed reading as well! I have been a writer for years on another platform until I had to take a long hiatus because of writer’s block and depression. For how cheesy this may sound, the most enjoyable and rewarding part of writing is in fact writing something that makes me happy even if I’m torturing my characters and traumatizing them. There is truly no point for me to write things that I don’t feel I am enjoying. As I have said other times before on the blog, I would much rather post something that makes me happy, than post something just to get notes from silent readers.

what piece has left the most impact on you and why?

Given the fact that I have not written a lot because of my constant mental health breaks (yes 2020 had me on rollercoaster mental breakdowns more often than usual), I have to say that Damaged is what really kept me entertained with myself and perhaps sane. It has been way too long since I’ve taken on something so creative as building an entire universe from just a dream, but it’s what reminded me why I love writing so much, it reignited my passion. With this story I really wanted to challenge myself to write something unique, something I’ve never done before with any other work... And I admit it’s quite difficult; the easiest part was taking inspiration from EXO’s lore, but the hardest was incorporating it in a universe and storyline completely different to the original concept. It’s something I’m set on finishing as a complete multi-chapter story no matter how long it takes.

what have you learned about yourself through the process of writing in the past year?

To be completely honest, I learned that I can push myself out of my comfort zone when writing, because every piece is a fictional world of its own, every character can be more than a copy and paste personality. What do I truly learn about myself if I don’t explore things I have not thought about before? I learned that I should not be afraid to write of things that I don’t know or fully understand, specifically about things that I didn’t post but tried for just for fun. It is a good way of finding out whether a certain subjects interests me or doesn’t. I love doing lots of research and gather information for the stories I’m writing, you get to learn about stuff you usually would never think about.

how has your writing changed in the past year? how have you grown?

Well, I don’t really have anything to compare my writing to except my older fan fictions for movies and tv shows. I guess I have changed quite a lot since 2018; my writing style has become more fluid, at least I think it has. I’m also able to write longer chapters without feeling as if I am dragging it out for the sake of the word count, yet now I have to literally stop myself from just writing too much! It pleases me, to be honest. I remember struggling to sometimes put ideas into words and balance narrative, dialogue and descriptions.

2021

ignoring your wips for a second, if you had all the time and energy in the world to write your magnum opus piece, what would it be about? why is that the dream story you’d write, all other things controlled for?

This can go back to Damaged, honestly! It’s something that I haven’t finished writing and it will be a long story. It’s the fan fiction which has gotten me out of a 2-year-long writer’s block with such strength, I feel truly attached to it. As I mentioned in one of my first answers for 2020, this is the WIP I want to focus on the most and be proud of it.

how do you want to grow in your writing this year?

I mentioned this is my first 2021 post after I took a short break, but one of my resolutions for this year is to work on self acceptance when it comes to my projects. (I’ll copy and paste what I wrote there so I don’t repeat myself with other words) One of my resolutions for 2021 is to write more, to not be afraid of beginning something and even if I end up setting the story aside, at least I will have gotten it out on (digital) paper. I punish myself way too much when I’m not able to finish something, and that is truly one of the worst things a content creators can go through, in my opinion. I have many drafted works that may or may never be published and I wish to appreciate them more instead of dwelling on the fact of what they could have been.

what’s one thing you’d wish to see in the fan-writing community this year?

I wish for more love and recognition of the amazing and talented writers that share their content with everyone on tumblr. We are a community, or at least we are supposed to be. I would absolutely love to see more readers actively interacting with writers, share ideas, share art inspired by what you read! As readers, you can contribute as well by sharing moodboards, song recommendations and/or playlists! You are more than welcome to join us in the community as writers too!

As for myself, I have mentioned this towards last year but I still want to compile a list of all the writers I am currently following and read their works. I haven’t been in a good mindset to do that for a long time and I wish to get to know them. I’m a pretty shy person who struggles to start up a conversation, so I hope I get to make some friends on tumblr this year!

name one new thing you want to try doing in your writing this year.

I would like to make a list of aus and experiment with them for either one shots or some short series! I have so many creative ideas and thoughts but I always forget to take a note or maybe I’m doing something else and I end up getting caught up in a stream of consciousness, until I lose the initial spark. Also mentioned plenty of times, I would love to write for other groups, like nct, but for now I’ll focus on exo.

✨✨✨

anyway, that was it for my writerly contemplation tag!

I’m tagging a few fellow writers, but feel free to ignore for any reason! sorry if I forgot someone but feel free to do this even if I didn’t tag you!! @pororodks @velvetsehun @yeoldontknow @yeagerluvr @soos-goddess @shaalk @mooneylooney1 @dewbebe

#tag games #writerly contemplation #happy new year btw!!!

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thewebcomicsreview · 5 years ago

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What’s that? I’m talking about Homestuck too much lately? Well, too bad, it updated and I’m-a livebloggin’ it. This chapter contains a content warning for child abuse and I’m thus putting the rest of this post below a Read More, though I’m live blogging and don’t know what the child abuse content actually is.

Looks like we’re with Jane, so this might be the chapter with Yiffy in it! But probably not, because they’re gonna drag it out. Incidentally, since the rebellion consists of two max-level characters, four god tiers (John, Jake, Rose, and Jade), and now Vriska who is the 8est fighter 8y far, how does Jane even stand a chance? Good thing for her that she pre-emptively took a hostage!

JANE: (I've always been pretty good at crying on cue.) JANE: (Could I try staging an emotional breakdown?) JANE: (That could work; playing to people's humanity.) JANE: (Or whatever is the more inclusive term.)

I do like that Jane, a genocidal human-supremacist dictator, is worried about being “inclusive” in her propaganda. I wonder if she’s starting to drift from Trumphitler into Nancy Pelosi, now. Also interesting: She’s apparently using Gamzee’s death for propaganda value, cool and all, but her superpower is literally raising the dead. I can buy that Jane would rather use her ex-boyfriend for propaganda than revive him, but won’t the people of Earth C have questions?

DIRK: Dude, the bowl. JAKE: Hm? JAKE: Oh, right. JANE: What is it now, Jake. JAKE: I brought something for our guest as well. JANE: You mean the prisoner. JAKE: Y...es.

I realize that Yiffygate made the patreon rocket to the stratosphere, but I hope we’re not actually getting to see her so soon. It’s more fun to speculate. For instance, she’s apparently getting meals in a dog bowl. Is that because she’s literally half dog, moreso than Jade, and is feral in some way? That’s been hinted at a little, but it’s also possible Jane’s just tormenting her to be a bitch. As we saw when she was Crockerfied in Act 6, Jane’s got a bit of a sadistic streak in her.

Well, that was answered pretty fucking fast! Okay, let’s not click next just yet. If we’re only getting one panel to speculate, let’s milk it like a dying webcomic franchise: Preppy bording school outfit, but with cleats, so she’s apparently an athlete. Lots of pink highlights on her outfit (shoes/socks/tie). She’s got a black dog tail, but appears to have light hair? I like this design, actually, or what little of it we’re seeing. I was half-expecting Yiffy to be a full-on Deviantart parody, but I think the angle we’re going here is “a mostly normal girl, besides being part dog, who’s just been absolutely shit on by life and every adult she’s ever encountered”. It’s not her fault her name is Yiffany, y’know? She didn’t ask for this.

Let’s see how right I am.

JANE: Well, go on then. JANE: She's over in the corner. JANE: Don't worry, she won't bite. JANE: I've seen to that already.

The fact that this chapter had a content warning for child abuse makes this read a lot more “Yikes” than it might’ve otherwise.

DIRK: Jake. DIRK: You put the food in a fucking dog bowl. JAKE: (It was all there was, ok???)

I feel like this is actually worse than if Jane put the food in a dog bowl to torment Yiffy.

I told you we’d fall in love with her. I told you dog.

....I don’t know if the MSPA art style lends itself to slightly raised camera angles like this, it looks like Yiffy’s face is 50% forehead.

*Lore hat on*

Okay, first off, dick move electrocuting a child. That out of the way. Yiffy is communicating in wolf howls (she must be a big fan of Toast, from my webcomic Saffron and Sage!), but she’s also literally being electrocuted so lets cut her some slack. What’s more interesting is that her Awoos are in red.

Vrissy shares a font color with Vriska, who she’s trying to emulate. They even use the same CSS class in the site code. Tavros shares his with Gamzee, his abusive uncle (and doesn’t have the same CSS class). Harry Anderson has a unique font color that’s pretty close to his dad’s, but isn’t quite the same (possible to make Harry/John chats more readable, whereas Vriska and Vrissy being hard to distinguish is the joke?). Yiffy, however, does not speak in either Jade’s green or Rose’s purple, she speaks in red. It’s a unique shade of red, I checked, and while it could potentially be in reference to Dave, let’s get real

Obviously, she’s the new Handmaid. This was obvious enough that I was making that comparison even before we learned her red text and rebellious personality. So I’m starting to see what they’re going for here (and, god help me, I’m starting to come around to Yiffany Longstocking Lalonde Harley as a concept). She’s not a one-dimensional joke of a character, she’s just a normal girl having a fucking rough time of it right now and also always. Speaking of time, red is connected to the Time aspect, which isn’t confirmation of anything but a little note to put in the back of your pocket.

Also to put in your back pocket, Jane’s the new Condesce and Yiffy’s the new Handmaid. The Condesce killed the Handmaid.

JANE: You've been a thorn in my side ever since I agreed to enroll you at the academy, little madam. JANE: Back then, I was doing a favor for two old friends who made a disgusting mistake. JANE: I'm no longer going to play nice with you just because of your parents, however. JANE: That truce is over.

That’s some efficient expositing!

Man, I really am coming around to this Yiffy thing, holy shit. I actually think her reveal last chapter was actively designed to get fans to hate the concept as much as possible, and not just from a Controversy Creates Ca$h kind of way (though that didn’t hurt).The entire fandom has been calling Yiffy a disgusting mistake for three weeks, and now here’s Jane doing it, and we’re being asked to consider this from Yiffy’s perspective: Given a stupid name as a joke, shunted off to boarding school by parents who were ashamed of her existence, repeatedly told she’s a disgusting mistake and tortured, even the fans all hate her on sight, and she literally hasn’t said a word yet! That’s....legitimately pretty cool writing, right there. A deft and entirely intentional juking of the fandom’s emotional state to get us to hate a character conceptually so that now when the comic’s trying to get us to sympathize with her it’s an easier sell because we feel a bit guilty. I dig it. Shit like this is why I still read Homestuck, it can be very clever at times, even now.

(Pierced ears, in case the punky aesthetic wasn’t obvious). Also, the page with a gif of everything going dark as Yiffy passes out has a black background, which is a nice touch.

TG: but seriously, do you? AG: Not really. TG: not even about... you know? TG: her? AG: No. TG: ... are you sure? AG: A8solutely. AG: What are you, my moirail? AG: Just leave it, Harry. TG: ok.

Then we cut to a chatlog (with the all-black background, which is just really nice here at selling the mood), and even Vrissy doesn’t want to talk about Yiffany.

AG: It was Cute, 8lright???????? AG: Or, at the very least, a 8*cketload less vomit worthy than everything else that Went Down with our parents.

She’s “vomit-worthy”

I think the update that introduced the Candy Kids was the most enjoyable, but this was, by miles, the best thing to come out of the Homestuck EU. It completely redeemed everything this comic did with Yiffy so far and made it all work. And this black-background-no-image gimmick, while simple, was shockingly effective at conveying the lonely empty mood they were going for (admittedly it probably helped that I was already listening to spooky music), and it’s something Homestuck had never done. This was....

This chapter was great. This was Act 5 great. Like, it’s literally just beating up a child for a whole chapter, but in terms of getting the emotional response they wanted, this is Homestuck at its absolute best. It wasn’t just “here’s a cute girl, let’s beat her up a bit for sympathy”, all the stuff in the last chapter, infuriating the fandom like nothing I’ve seen in webcomics in years, Jade’s dog dick, it was all for this. It was all to get us predisposed to fucking hate Yiffany Longstocking Lalonde Harley so that they could flip the switch and make us love her, make the very fact that we hated her so much part of the reason we love her now. No other webcomic would do that, no other webcomic would have the balls to do that. This is why I read Homestuck, this is why I’m still hanging on to this rock has the wave of cheating dog dicks keeps smacking me in the face. This is avant-fucking-garde, man. I’ve done a full 180 on Homestuck 2. I’m sold. I stan. I’m Homestuck trash again.

EDIT

Oh, and Vrissy suddenly passed out mid-sentence right around the same time Yiffy passed out (hmmm!), and apparently she’s narcoleptic like Jade (hmmm!)

#Homestuck #Homestuck 2 #Homestuck 2 Liveblog

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koffein-art-archive · 5 years ago

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Marble Hornets: Creativity through the static.

What was it that inspired you when you were younger? Was it a tv show? Perhaps a video game or even a series of books? Boundless creativity at your finger tips that led to portals that could whisk you away to different lands. To escape real life.

At the end of the 2000’s, and onto the 2010’s, there laid a piece of media that many would flock to in their time to indulge, engage, and escape through.

A simple web series called ‘Marble Hornets’.

Marble Hornets is, considered to be by the internet as an ARG, (an ARG standing for ‘Alternate Reality Game’), a web series that started on the video sharing platform Youtube. The first upload of the channel was uploaded onto the site on the twentieth of June, 2009. ‘Introduction’, a simple title for something that would grow into much more as time would go on. You never could expect the story to go down the road it did.

The contents of the story is summed up quite nicely in the first video. Jay, the main protagonist and cameraman of the series, explains that one of his old buddies from college, Alex Kralie, was trying to create a student film called ‘Marble Hornets’. His crew complained about his stress and irritability throughout the project, and Alex finally stopped production on the film due to ‘unworkable conditions’. When asked about what would happen to the tapes from production, Alex replied with two simple words; ‘Burn them’.

Throughout the series, several strange, or what could even be described as paranormal, events unfold for Jay and the rest of the cast as he goes about his journey to try and document odd things around him, wanting to know what exactly was going on with Alex after viewing the tapes. Little did he know that by doing so he would seal his fate, as well as the lives of those around him.

Marble Hornets ended on the twentieth of June, 2014, totaling in eighty-seven entries. Or one hundred and thirty-three entries if you include totheark, a separate youtube account that would respond and even sometimes hack the main Marble Hornets channel, contributing videos for the series as a whole. Though the series it self might get a little confusing at times, and it’s elements of storytelling might drag on at points, it’s still a great series to watch when times are a little tough and you need something to focus on. To dip into something out of this world and become immersed in the lore and characters.

Marble Hornets is immersive in the world it brings to the viewer, whether it be a quaint town, a lovely forest with luscious and vibrant trees, and or a strange entity that stalks those that encounter it.

Now to get into the meat and potatoes of this essay, the following topics will now be run down; the creativity of Marble Hornets, the mental illness subplot, and the macabre essence carefully sewn throughout the series as a whole.

To many fans, Marble Hornets is a wonderful piece of storytelling. It can be attributed with inspiring many people within the fan-base. Examples of this being the creation of what is known as the ‘Slenderverse’. The Slenderverse is typically described as ‘a series on the web, usually in the form of online video storytelling, that surrounds the mythos of the infamous Slenderman.’. A wildly popular set of series that took inspiration from Marble Hornets are the two video based web series ‘tribetwelve’ and ‘everymanhybrid’. And as the years pass by, more web series inspired by Marble Hornets continue to pop up.

Another creative aspect of the Marble Hornets series would be the countless fan works; from fans that dress up as the characters, to countless fanart and fanfictions. Some fanart and fanfiction tend to use the source material to create their own headcanons, or rather ideas that they have about characters in the series. While others are deconstructing the entire plot and rearranging Marble Hornets into an entirely new story.

The final point that needs to be talked about would be the visual and audio effects that the series is well known for. It’s no secret that the series didn’t have the best budget, but the crew made do with what they had and created something both wonderful and rather unsettling. From visual effects, such as static or cuts in the video feed itself, on the cameras used in production, to various distortions in audio that could make one's ears bleed.

A fun fact to note would be the use of tapes in the series. The tapes didn’t actually work on the cameras used to film. Instead, they were added in to give that ‘found footage’ staple that is unique for Marble Hornets.

Now let's get into a more ‘sensitive’ subject.

Marble Hornets has a few elements of mental illness. It deals with people who have gone through intense mental health, with their lives constantly being on the edge of danger from tapping into things that they were never meant to see with their own eyes. it’s discussed by the characters or physically shown through one's actions.

One of the major characters, Tim Wright, can be seen as one such character. He’s a clear advocate of mental illness as well as the importance of keeping your mental health in check.

Tim has suffered from intense mental health issues since his early childhood, even being sent to a hospital by his mother when things got bad. He’s constantly seen taking medication, in the form of pills, whenever his symptoms flare up. His symptoms ranging from blackouts, this is most known to be when Masky comes out, a sort of alter ego that seems to have appeared even when he was younger, especially with his bouts of anger issues and violent tendencies that was noted by doctors.

Another character that also deals with some of these symptoms is Jay, caused by prolonged exposure to the Operator. He gets gradually worse as the videos progress, and is even told by Tim to go to the doctor. When he doesn’t and continues digging deeper, Jay loses himself near the end of the series. This is something that can happen to a lot of un-medicated/untreated individuals of mental illness.

For a while now, fans have been able to see themselves through these characters. Either by actions or personality. Marble Hornets has often been used by fans as a means of comfort or even coping when dealing with their own issues.

Seeing a character deal with similar issues that the viewer has been dealing with can be something incredible, and not often seen in other forms for media nowadays, it was especially less prevalent back when Marble Hornets was still updating.

Marble Hornets is most known for it being a horror themed web series. But what kind of horror? The macabre? Something terrifying that makes one's skin crawl? Is it the endless fear of the unknown and wondering if or when you will be caught and killed?

In a way, it’s all of these things, all carefully sewn together to make the viewer want to watch more until the very end.

Various members of the series are plagued with stalkers, threats made towards them through cryptic videos as well as in-person encounters, and are always struck by the unknown. They live each day in paranoia, wondering if or when they will die. Be it from the operator, or by their own undoing.

They are paranoid about when they will be attacked next, or if they'll even survive the next attack. They are paranoid about being constantly surveyed, and fear the vulnerability that their stalkers can clearly see from them, whether it be through a camera feed or by being viewed from windows.

The static and noises that plague their dreams, the thing that stands in the corner of their eye, just there long enough to give them a fright and make them think they are going mad.

No one knows who the operator is, nor do they know its intentions. All that is known is that it wants something from the main cast of characters. Something that will cost the lives of them and others. Destruction, possibly.

The operator is perceived to be a type of entity, or even an eldritch being that stalks people. It controls people, infecting them with the urge to kill and cause mass destruction. It uses the main cast as puppets to do it’s dirty work.

Now doesn’t that sound scary? Something that can never really be proven to be real, or seen as fake by outsiders looking in, and having nowhere to turn to for help? It is scary. And that’s something that Marble Hornets does right.

To wrap this whole thing up as neatly as possible, there are many aspects of Marble Hornets that can still be discussed. The atmosphere, the story-line, even the various scenes that involved trees and forests. Marble Hornets is something so unique to the early 2010’s, something stuck in a perfect loop from 2009 to 2014 that would be very hard to replicate.

Marble Hornets is in no ways a masterpiece, it still has its faults. And that’s where the series shines the most. If it were perfect, it wouldn’t be, now would it? Countless questions still left unanswered, hearts aching at the ending of the series.

The series as a whole is a loop of unhappiness.

That’s what Marble Hornets is.

#marble hornets #slenderman #essay #slenderverse #marble hornets essay #my writing

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miss-horror-art · 5 years ago

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It’s about time I finally share this girl that I made last year. So yeah, not only more TDC fan art but I made TDC OCs as well after watching the series last year. I just keep forgetting to share them on tumblr, but I’ll start with my main girl Talia.

WARNING: Now, as much as I adore the Skeksis, just be warned I might portray them just like how they act in the lore and show. Some of you guys may not like how I may portray your favorites but keep in mind, this is my own take of how things were like before they found a way to cheat death. There may be some triggers of domestic violence, emotional/physical abuse, and sibling abuse. Please do click back if you cannot handle these triggers. I really don't intend to make my TDC stories and headcanons always rainbows and butterflies. Keep in mind, just because I portray some skeksis being terrible does not mean I hate said characters. I just want to keep some in character presented how they are in canon while mixing headcanons of how things were like before the resistance.

Name: Talia Species: Gelfing Race: Vapra Age: (I honestly am not sure how gelfing ages work, so I'm gonna say she's somewhere either in her early 20s or mid 20s physically) Sexuality: Pansexual Gender: Female Voice Headcanon: Evanna Lynch Occupation: Noble lady of All Maudra and the Skeksis, General's wife Gear: Fencing swords (she used to be a good fencer before her father died and Dar forbid her to ever fence again. Since he made up the lie that noble women were not allowed to fight for battle) Relations: Darg (her older brother), SkekVar (husband) Love Interest: SkekTek (Yeah, I know it says Var is her husband BUT let's just say it was an arranged marriage to show honor to their clan and he's not exactly a good husband to her) Personal Strengths: She is very good at creating medical herbs and would help treat someone's wounds, she was a pretty skilled fencer but after the death of her parents, her older brother forbid her to ever fence again), Personal Flaws: She is a bit time people pleaser and always does favors for others even they aren't part of the monarchy, has a bad habit of constantly apologizing even over tiny mistakes, always hesitant to about opening up to others for her struggles, does her best to impress those that always hesitant her and treat her poorly, tends to have mental breakdowns when she puts up with so much bullshit for one day. So you can say she is a bit of a pushover at points since others always take advantage of her and walk on her like a doormat. Personality: Talia is a very generous and compassionate lady who cares a lot for her close friends, family, and other loved ones. Though, she can be irritated by others when they don't follow her advice and when they tend to get nosey over her personal affairs. Even if some people are cruel to her(like her older brother and the skeksis at points), she always tries to give them the “benefit of the doubt” and would do her best to make good impressions on them. Backstory: Talia is a noble lady of the Vapra that helps Princess Brea stay on tasks, keeps her company, and to make conversations when others are busy with duties. While she is friends with Princess Brea and gets along with others in the Vapra clan, she sadly doesn't have it easy when it comes to her personal life. Her parents had died when they she and her brother were younger, which lead him to watch over his younger sister since it was his duty to be her guardian if anything happened to their parents. Darg wasn't really that caring for his younger sister, he always had this resistant for against her since their father had favored Talia over him. Darg may be her new guardian, but he was very abusive towards her both physically and emotionally. He was very strict with her curfew after she was doing doing tasks for All Maudra and had to come back to their corridors and do his tasks while others sleep. If she fails to do them correctly, he would whip her back as punishment and tell her its all part of "discipline." Talia knew he was never a good brother, but she would often perceive his abusive behavior as tough love. She would do a lot of things for him to fully accept her, but he was never pleased. Talia could never have the courage to speak up to All Maurda, Brea, or anyone about her brother's behavior behind closed doors, since she fear it would cause trouble for both of them. (Darg told her if she told anyone, they would be kicked out from the corridors including her and it would be her fault) It wasn't until there was a day when her brother thought about it more, he badly wanted to get rid of her. He had thought about setting up an arranged marriage. He tried to set her up with gelfing men, and while they were so kind to her, Darg couldn't stand it. He would often dismiss a lot of them and just thought they were too soft and kind to her. Besides, if she married another gelfing lord or soldier, he would see her a lot. He wanted her to suffer somehow, but then he thought about SkekVar, one of the crystal lords. He knew SkekVar very well since he always faved Darg out of his soldiers, he knew deep down he wasn't the most gentle person and has been inside the skeksis castle for duties and that's when it clicked. He decided to have a meeting with SkekSo about an idea of an arranged marriage for SkekVar and his sister. At first, they weren't really for it since golfing were too inferior and below them, but Darg would tell them about the advantages they would have. Not only they can do whatever they tell her to do, but if SkekVar accepts this offer and have Talia honor their clan, it would bring a lot more praise. SkekSo decided to arrange Var's first meeting with Darg's sister before they can have second thoughts. When Darg told Talia about another suitor, she was a bit curious when he told her he wasn't from the Vapra clan but is a crystal lord. She was actually excited because she always wondered what the Crystal Lords were like and she knew the general gave them so much blessings. On their first meeting, SkekVar acted his best to charm her so she can easily be swayed by him. The two of them hit it off very well before the night of their wedding, since Talia had this fixated thought that SkekVar would had been the knight she always dreamed of swiping her off of her feet. Sadly, after they got married, she saw more of the dark side of the skeksis and Var started to act very controlling and abusive at points. He was no doubt a very terrible spouse to Talia, showed less affections, often scolds her for "screwing things up" (despite its mostly his fault), and mostly enjoys her company when it came to sexual pleasures. Talia tried everything she could to please her husband and to earn his affections, when in reality, he never cared for her due to his nature being a skeksis. Almost most skeksis weren't too fond of a gelfing living with them but they would only make use of her for entertainment or when they need her to do some tasks. For the most part, they could only tolerate her despite how fragile and sensitive she gets at points. She felt a bit too lonely at points since she can only visit her clan once a month, but somehow, she always noticed how they all treat the scientist. Talia always pitied him since she could relate to not being appreciated as others did, mainly from her older brother and husband. Of course, SkekTek was a bit annoyed by her presence at first but that was because he wasn't used to someone being kind to him. The more they bonded for a while, the two started to grow an emotional connection. This would get to a point where she would often sneak out to visit the Scientist during night while the other skeksis were asleep so she could bond with him more. Though sometimes she got to afraid to admit her love for the scientist due to the risk of the adultery behind another crystal lord. Don't want to give away too much, but that's all the info I can share for her right now. I might have her interest with other characters besides the skeksis.

#The Dark Crystal #the dark crystal age of resistance #gelfling #vapra #tw: abuse #age of resistance

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loquaciousquark · 6 years ago

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E45 (Dec. 18, 2018)

Evening, all! @eponymous-rose is off tonight with such silly things like family and events and real life obligations, so I’m here to make bad jokes and have opinions instead.

For those who hadn’t heard, Brian & Ashley are engaged as of this week! Brian is taking both her last and first name to be ultra-progressive. Tonight’s guests: Sam Riegel & Matt Mercer. Matt is here willingly. Sam is not. We’re discussing Episode 45: The Stowaway, sponsored by LootCrate. Brian asks Sam for an impromptu song ad; he rhymes moot and loot and jigs and everyone is a little closer to death than they were a few moments prior.

Tonight’s announcements: Pub Draw & Name Drop are two new shows on the Critical Role channel--check out critrole.com for more details.

This Thursday’s episode is the last of 2018; Critical Role then returns on January 10.

Liam’s oneshot, The Night Before Critmas, airs at 7pm Pacific this Friday night. He’s been planning it for two years, and the VOD will be available December 23.

Talks Machina is also breaking for the holidays and will return on January 8, where they’ll have a cast-wide discussion on the state of the campaign so far. The questions open on Reddit, Twitter, and email on January 4th.

CR Stats: Nott has the most kills of the group with 37. The 45th HDYWTDT occurred in episode 45 as well. Twiggy’s dragon kill was the fifth guest kill of the campaign, and the 2nd guest HDYWTDT. In campaign one, guests got 22 kills and four HDYWTDTs. This was the longest episode of campaign two and the fourth longest of the series.

Matt and Deborah had met extensively to discuss backstory and mechanics, but hadn’t discussed much personality. The only person who wanted to check voice/accent was Khary (with Shakaste).

Deborah was one of the first guests they reached out to when they started streaming all that time ago, but she initially said no because D&D was such a personal thing for her and she didn’t want to share it with the internet. Everyone agrees she was worth the wait.

Everyone’s furious about Daredevil’s cancellation. :(

Sam thought it was fun to play alongside another Arcane Trickster because... “she was very good at it, all that great stuff that I forget to do.” Nott was jealous that many of the things that made her unique were present in Twiggy. However, the jealousy was later reversed because of how excellent Twiggy was in the fight.

The Happy Fun Ball was a narrative device Matt had been planning for a long time--he liked the idea of a pocket dungeon with lore attached. When they realized Deborah’s schedule would put her on a boat in the middle of nowhere, he found a perfect opportunity to bring it in.

Sam asks if Matt intended the device to be a one-use single episode thing, or something recurring, something for the party to further explore at their will. Matt explains very circuitously (and hilariously) that certain DMs may have in the planning of the introduction of the Happy Fun Ball originally intended for such Happy Fun Balls to leave with the guest, and were very surprised when said Happy Fun Ball (and all its hundreds of extraplanar rooms to explore) was left behind with the party instead. He then basically dares Sam to press a button and see what happens.

Nott doesn’t resent Fjord for touching the window or setting a time limit on the library exploration. While it was cool in the library, there were too many things attacking them.

Matt doesn’t necessarily intend his traps for Travis, but he likes having good buttons and bad buttons. “I just want shit to happen. Surprise me!” He admires the player that occasionally gets bold, rather than the one who always sends their minions out to touch all the tiles and trigger all the traps before they ever set foot in the dungeon. He also enjoys the meticulousness of Liam being at the same table as Travis’s impulsiveness.

Sam does not want the fans to send him larger flasks. His current flask holds 128 oz, which is exactly a gallon.

GIF of the Week: @criticalschluck with a hilarious movie-trailer-style GIF of Travis explaining he’s got an intelligence of 6 (Grog), then an intelligence of 14 (Fjord), then pushing buttons and experiencing... consequences.

Nott approves of Caleb’s choice to abandon the books to go back to the party. While she wants as much knowledge in his head as possible, it’s because “a smarter Caleb is a more powerful Caleb, and hopefully a Caleb that can stay alive a little longer.” Matt likes watching characters be put in situations where they have to choose between long-reaching character goals and the people they have chosen as their family. He was fascinated to see the struggle as he was ticking down the time on his sheet. He’s very excited to see what’s going to happen this Thursday.

Brian and Matt both fanboy over Sam’s 1hp decision.

Sam reflects on Jester’s being left behind--”not in a malicious way, you know, but sometimes in a big family someone gets left behind at a mall!”

Matt circuitously explains that the stained-glass window could be used to access other places. This man’s being slipperier than soap suds on wet tile tonight.

Nott was aware that the hit she took for Jester could have been a killing blow, but she was ready--”it was what goes through her head around Caleb a lot: ‘I’ve got to protect my friends.’” She’s very protective and very maternal, and Sam would have been okay if that had been the last of Nott.

Both Sam and Liam (and others) have begun to experience the in- and out-of-game changes that come with finally beginning to really know these characters. They certainly wouldn’t have died for each other at the beginning of the game, even knowing how hard their friends worked on these characters. It was originally a “system shock” (as Matt puts it) which required check-ins after certain blow-ups at the beginning of the campaign to make sure they (the players) were all okay. Now, though, they’re closer and closer to being willing to die for each other for both in-game and meta reasons.

Sam reflects on how both Caleb and Nott hate themselves, but manifest that very differently in how they treat other people. Caleb withdraws and puts up thick walls; Nott is quick to trust and care about everyone.

Nott is least close to Yasha at the moment. She’s still a li’l scared of her.

Matt had a few battle options planned out regarding which parts of which chamber were futzed with. The black tapestry was the one curtain they didn’t mess with that would have led to a “very rough encounter.” Matt had six maps built off-stage, just in case.

Sam’s backup character is a handsome actor named Sam Seagull.

Brian is annoyed that every encounter starts with the chat screaming “TPK.” Matt: “I hope not. That’d be my fault if that happened.”

While the dragon was very powerful, Matt had expectations that the party would understand very quickly that the fight didn’t necessarily have to end with the dragon’s death--he wanted them to understand the challenge was the exit, not the dragon. However, they came in in a different order than he’d anticipated, including party staggering, and that was when he started to get nervous.

Whatever magic had first triggered the first crystal would have been the same magic required to open the second door. It was proximity-based.

Fanart of the Week: @tehsasquatch, with this super-cool portrait of Nott.

On whether Nott feels as if she’s earned her comma: sometimes, especially in encounters like these, Nott feels just for a moment that she can be brave, she can be useful, she can be heroic--and then the moment it’s over the world comes crashing back down. When she’s out of those moments, she feels that she’s still just a goblin.

Is Sam ready for Nott to get the spotlight Fjord’s currently in?

Sam: No. Matt: [very intense face]. There’s a lot of backstory elements that he and Matt know that no one else is aware of, and he’s nervous about those coming to light.

The Traveler’s appearance was complete improv. Matt was reading the situation and the emotions and looking for ways to facilitate a heroic story, and when the dice worked in her favor, he felt it would be a wonderful, dramatic story beat to suddenly include--especially since the Traveler hadn’t responded much recently. Matt: “Yeah, that was really cool.”

The Traveler/Jester relationship has evolved in ways Matt both did and did not expect. He wasn’t sure how seriously Jester was going to take it. It’s the difference between believing in something and allowing that thing to define you as a person. He loves it. Sam: “The Traveler...is Taryon, right?”

Nott doesn’t see Caleb as abandoning her at all. “He’s a weak, puny man who needs to get himself out of danger.” It would have actually been harder if Caleb had been there, because if Nott had had to make a choice as to who to protect, Jester would be dead.

After Beau’s emergence from the orb, she probably for a few minutes would have thought that they were all dead behind her. It wasn’t that hours or days had passed--just a few minutes. Matt found Beau’s and Caduceus’s conversation at the end very fascinating and compelling, especially as a way to end the episode.

Nott agrees that Jester is not as happy and fine as she appears to be, especially after their talk about boys, but doesn’t feel it’s as severe as Caleb’s issues. “Jester’s a functional person.” However, Sam’s excited they’re getting past the “flitty person from the first half of the campaign” to the “core of sadness” as the story progresses.

Matt’s sure Yasha was not happy at all that her friends all disappeared without warning. “She spent six days thinking her friends were never going to come back. She doesn’t cry in a corner; she’s familiar with grief and loss. She hardens herself and moves on.” He’s hoping they’ll get to see some of that this week.

Critmas Spotlight: The Blind Weaver, a really, really cool 3D painting by a lady named Elaine Ryan, which has layers upon layers of polyurethane stained to make an amazing effect. See @elaineryanart on twitter and tumblr for more!

Talks Machina: After Dog

They decide where guests sit at the time of the episode. Matt likes to avoid the edges so they don’t feel like the outlier. Sam requests no attractive guests be placed immediately adjacent to him so that it does not detract from his glory. “That’s why I sit next to doggo Laura Bailey.” Brave man. Brave, foolish man.

Sam likes oatmeal raisin cookies. I am DELIGHTED, WHAT AN OLD MAN WHO SHARES MY TASTE. He also likes Werther’s, which is bringing back so many memories of my grandmother’s house. Matt likes ginger snaps, which are my favorite Christmas cookies also. I would kill for ginger snaps right now. Matt and Sam both are excited about pumpkin pie.

Essential D&D gifts, per Matt: dice, PHB, HeroForge custom minis if you really want to get them excited. He finds that getting in there and making a character can really help hook someone on the visual aspect & get invested in their character. Everything else is fluff. Sam suggests a music playlist for the first game; when he ran his first game with his kids, he liked having gridded paper to draw the maps on.

Matt does not feel that the crew of the ship has been mistreated, but they have been “neglected and dragged through places they didn’t expect.” He does think they’ll talk about everything they’ve done to all their friends and family when they get home in a very “you won’t believe this!” kind of way.

Sam always wears the same tie when he’s voice directing and on the first day of a new show. He’s wearing it tonight and can’t discuss the new show.

Favorite holiday movies! Brian: “Love, Actually” and “Die Hard,” as well as “Miracle on 34th Street.” Matt loves “A Christmas Story” (my favorite also, bless this man). Sam likes “Prancer” and “Scrooged,” but realizes mid-sentence that this is Brian’s first Talks as an engaged man.

Brian on proposing: ”It’s...the best.” They’d been together for over six years & met during the first Last of Us game. Brian describes himself as a former “piece of shit” and a very different person back then. Ashley had no expectations that he was going to propose & was totally surprised. Gah, this is too romantic.

Brian: “I always imagined for years what that moment would be like, and this topped all of my expectations... What more can you really hope for in this life than to feel that feeling with another person? It’s to me the pinnacle of our human experiences to be able to say ‘I’ve been through hell and yet found someone that I can definitely say I want to spend all the days of my life on this earth with,’ and the fact that it happened is fucking cool. It’s like heroin with none of the bad side effects.”

It was extremely stressful--but only the logistics. Apparently Matt’s proposal was extremely logistically intensive; Brian sympathizes.

And on that lovely, quiet note, we’re done for the night. Happy holidays, everyone. <3

#talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts #critical role #critical role spoilers

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mymelancholiesblues · 6 years ago

Note

Just wondering, what your head canon for Leon's family?

Oh my god, I was planning to post this huge compilation of my RE Headcanons soon (starting with what I have for Leon) when I got your ask’s notification. Are you a mind reader? Hahaha. But really, thank you for providing me with a justification to start posting them.

I would like to please invite you to sit because I have plenty – honestly PLENTY – of things to share over this specific matter (Leon’s family). And, of course, to ask you to bear with me through them.

For anyone else whose interest might be picked over this: keep in mind that these are (obviously) my headcanons for Leon’s background and family and in no way is anyone else under the obligation to accept nor fully agree with them.

I wrote them down because I think A LOT about storytelling devices, stories structures, characterization and characters studies, world-building, fiction tropes, etc. and, since I’ve been a Resident Evil fan from age eight to this day, I also tend to spend a lot of time thinking about its characters – and the overall rest of its lore. Furthermore, as a way to help me write them in fanfictions or even in meta-analysis, I’m always thinking of what would make sense within these characters narratives and to their personalities.

Anyway. Back to Leon and his family!

There’s a very solid theory in RE Fandom that Raccoon City is set in Missouri. I really take this into account when I think about RE Characters because it helps me “placing them” before Raccoon, since not all of them were originally born/living there. Leon, for example, according to canon material, only decided to apply to be a police officer in Raccoon because “he was intrigued by the bizarre murders cases in Raccoon City” going in the news.

Because of this, *my* Leon S. Kennedy:

– Was born in small Galena/Illinois. His parents moved to Chicago/IL when he was around 8;

– So, huge fan of the Chicago Bears (and the Chicago Bulls);

– Leon was lovingly raised by a very Catholic couple, Liliana and Isaac;

– Since Kennedy and Scott are, respectively, an Irish surname and a Scottish name and Leon is not an unusual name in Polish (check out about Polish Americans in Illinois and you’ll have a more proper comprehension of my thought process) and German cultures, I think Isaac would be a man of mixed Irish and Scottish heritage, and Liliana of Polish and German heritage;

– Although, his biological parents were actually Roberto (Italo-American punk) and Abigail, Liliana’s youngest sister;

– Robby was a drunken deadbeat, while Abbie was an airhead obsessively in love. Leon was conceived when they were both very young – his mom had sixteen and his dad eighteen;

– Liliana had three daughters (ages 10, 13 and 15) by then (1977), but she and Isaac always dreamed of having a little boy. They even tried to, but the attempts led to miscarriage after miscarriage, so when Abbie gave birth to Leon, the couple was pretty much devoted to their nephew, always visiting to see him and make sure he was properly being taken care of;

– Robby took note of all that and when Leon was only barely one year old, he packed his and Abbie’s stuff and imposed that he was leaving and that she should go with him, leaving the baby behind, telling her that surely Liliana would raise him as if he were hers;

– Indeed she did, albeit feeling distraught by her sister’s complete negligence;

– Isaac adored the boy, and Leon’s three cousins always treated him as their little brother;

– Also: Liliana decided she wanted to erase Abbie’s true connection to Leon, so she got rid of all the photographies that led to those deductions, leaving only the ones that showed baby Leon alone or the ones with the rest of his relatives, but not with his biological parents. Isaac never agreed with this, though. He believed that once Leon got older, he had the right to know his origins, believing that if their love for the boy was true he’d love them back and recognise their role in his life, so there was no need to lie. Thus, he kept a photo that featured Robby resting a hand in Abbie’s shoulder while she was breast-feeding Leon;

– Isaac was very ill when Leon was nearing his eighteenth birthday, and passed away just five months prior to Leon turning nineteen (Isaac was sixty-three years old by his time of death). Leon found that hidden photo after Isaac’s death since his dad left most of his personal belongings to Leon;

– Leon never confronted his mother on it, putting together two and two and realising his biological parents haven’t thought twice before abandoning him, so he shouldn’t bother with them either as he was raised in a genuinely loving and supportive family;

– As I said, Leon has three older sisters: Lydia (born 1962), Meryl (born 1964) and Olivia (born 1967). Two nephews from Lyds’ side, and a niece from Liv’s;

– Parents personalities: I picture Leon’s dad as a mixture of both Jonathan Kent (DC Comics) and Eddard Stark (ASoIaF). A firm, caring, kind, upfront and sincere man with high moral values, strong ethics and unwavering sense of justice, who valued honesty above all else and always believed in the best of people and in helping others, true to the “love your neighbour as yourself” commandment. Liliana was the more stern parent (especially with Lydia, always wanting and expecting her to set out a good example for her siblings), so I picture her as a fierce, proud and honest woman, passionately protective and supportive of her family, that dedicated herself entirely to whatever she put her mind into (domestic activities, city projects, EVERYTHING);

– Lydia would be the “Patricia Arquette’s character in Boyhood (2014)” kind of woman. Kind-hearted, hardworking and amazing, but guilty as charged of the serious flaw of always being romantically involved with scumbags. A Geriatric Nurse, divorced twice, mother to Kilian and Luke – both kids from her first marriage;

– By the way, Kilian is a problem-child and Lucas is the emo kid. Leon has trouble dealing with both;

– On top of it, Leon have several difficulties dealing with Lydia. Being the most distant from him in age terms, Lydia always came off as a bit distant to and unnecessarily strict with him;

– Meryl is Leon’s lesbian best buddy. Confidant, a bit arrogant, always open to give advice, prone to bluntly point out faults in her loved ones and to get angry with Lydia. She graduated in architecture and is a state employee, working as an Urban Planner. Has cleaning OCD;

– Olivia is the sister Leon was closest to since it was with her he had the “smallest” age difference. Driven, headstrong, empathetic and an introvert, she’s actually the one who inspired him to join Law Enforcement and is now a detective in Massachusetts. Liv has a long-time relationship with Peter, whom she met during her childhood in school, and they have a daughter, Harriet (any coincidence with Olivia Dunham from Fringe (2008-2013) is on purpose since Olivia would be Leon’s perfect older sister, ok);

– Leon’s sense of humour takes much after his brother-in-law’s one, Peter, considering he spent a lot of time with him as he would be a frequent guest to their house;

– He fell in love for the first time when he was in middle school in his seventh grade with an eighth grade girl, Allison, who was an exceptionally good basketball player and would kick his ass in all the practice games;

– Allie has very evident native-American heritage, skin and eye colour, hair;

– It was Allie the long-time girlfriend who broke up with him right before Raccoon. She felt he was being distant even prior to his decision to be a cop in Raccoon City. In truth, what happened was that Leon feared his future being set stone too early in his life the way things were going. His wishes to have more agency over the shaping of his own destiny started driving him further and further away from Allie as he felt she was expecting their relationship to progress over time to the building of a family etc.;

– Meryl and Olivia both loved Allie and to this day they don’t get over the fact that Leon didn’t marry her;

– Leon unwillingly distanced himself from his sisters, though, only contacting them for birthday calls and holidays alike because of all of that government recruitment stuff and classified shit and also dealing with a heavy emotional load after surviving Raccoon;

– The only reason Hunnigan found out that Leon had living relatives was that Lydia called to give Leon the news of Liliana’s death in 2010 (by seventy-two years of age) on work-time. Leon, of course, was very shaken with the news;

– While Leon only knows what Ada herself lets him about her past, family, childhood and the circumstances that put her precisely where she is now, Ada knows everything there is to know about his past, family, childhood and the circumstances that placed him precisely where he is now because she’s very competent at her job and did her homework as a spy (this will die with her, but for countless times she fantasized about him confiding all of those mundane details of his life and backstory in her);

– I’m very convinced that in one of those nights Ada visited him for some hoochie coochie after like, six to eight months without seeing or talking to him at all, Leon had to break up the news that she came in in a bad time since he already planned for a Thanksgiving dinner with his sisters. Ada accepts the challenge because she’s been REALLY missing him (horny on main). Ah, and he’s quite upset with her because of that “six to eight months with no news at all” “little” issue. So, picture that. Please.

And that is all I have for “Leon’s family” headcanons. For now. As I warned: PLENTY. Hahahahaha, sorry! Hope this can provide some entertainment and delight to you.

#Leon Scott Kennedy #Leon S Kennedy #Leon Kennedy #Resident Evil #rebel-the-way #OTP: like a part of me I can't let go #レオエイ #Aeon #Leon x Ada #♥#[games]#[mine]#//#golden puppy #///#asks and answers #Aeon fandom #my headcanons

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years ago

Text

RWBY Remarks: Debunking Some of the Negativity Surrounding the CRWBY Writers and RWBY V6

keyenuta asked “ Based on the crews recent track record what do you expect the next volume will be like? Do you think itll disappoint people like the previous volume or will it exceed our expectations. Or is it gonna be mediocre. Also I am curious, why is it that there are so many, I wouldn't say rwby bashing videos. But rwby videos that seem to just say that the characters are bland or they already ruined a character etc etc. I was curious if I could get your opinion on the subject because I've enjoyed rwby “

@keyenuta

Hello Keyenuta. I’m sorry I took so long with this response. I had planned on answering you since last weekend however between finishing my second semester of school and being down with the flu last week; I didn’t get the chance. But I’m doing better now so without further ado, let’s get into this =D

“…Based on the crews recent track record what do you expect the next volume will be like? Do you think itll disappoint people like the previous volume or will it exceed our expectations…?”

Well…contrary to what other fans might think, personally I don’t believe the CRWBY Writers did as poor of job as others have expressed. While I admit that the Mistral Arc wasn’t as well put together as its predecessor in the Vale Trilogy, I will also admit that the Mistral Arc wasn’t entirely a train wreck. I have been recapping all five seasons of RWBY in preparation for my own full review of V5 which will also discuss my thoughts on the Mistral Arc as a whole. And in doing so, I recognized that where the writers truly fell short wasn’t really in their ideas but mostly in the execution of those ideas.

I have no doubt that Miles and Kerry have zero problem in coming up with good ideas for stories to be added to the full narrative for RWBY. My concern is how they chose to go about portraying those ideas especially if they are meant to be continuous plot points to be progressed or delved further on in other consecutive seasons. Not to mention their ability to tie into plot points that date back to the Fall of Beacon storyline where Monty was a still a part of the writing team.

In my recap, I noticed that there were certain ongoing stories, particularly for certain main characters that have been ongoing since the Beacon Days that were completely, for lack of a better term, retconned or worse, completely forgotten/erased for the sake of progressing the Mistral Arc.

It is because of this why I was left concerned for the writing for RWBY. Not for the writers’ ability to write a good story but how they are able to tie everything together.

To me, a good story, specifically a good long story, is like a jigsaw puzzle. No matter how many plot points are created to expand the story, you have to make sure that everything is lined up properly and fits together in a way that not only makes sense according to the established lore of the story but additionally answers any and all questions that the audience might have regarding that particular plot point. You understand?

Because just like a puzzle, if you have one too many faulty plot point out of the place, then you really can’t complete the story you were trying to tell and instead you’re just left with a whole bunch of unfinished parts that mostly leaves the audience confused and dissatisfied.

That was the defining difference between the Beacon Arc and the first 2/3 of the incomplete Haven Arc for me. Though you can say it’s more or less almost finished since the major part, which was the Battle of Haven, has been concluded as of last season. Anyways, the Vale Trilogy was a textbook jigsaw puzzle where all the plot points that represents its pieces that were set up during the course of the first two volumes leading into the third lined up and fit together flawlessly to create the perfect masterpiece of a storyline.

The Mistral Arc, so far, on the other hand has been the opposite. Though the writers did a decent job of setting up its plot points in V4, where it failed was in the season after. As much as I hate to admit; though I initially enjoyed V5, it is the season that was responsible for the most of the complaints from the fandom and in my recap of the seasons, I can understand why.

I haven’t finished recapping V5 as yet. However, my memory of the events of the season is still fresh enough in my mind to comment that V5 did not do a good job in expanding on the plot points introduced in V4.

On the contrary, I could say it pretty much forgot, rewrote or worst killed---like legitimately killed off any and all chances for stories from V4 and in some cases, V3, to be progressed further.

One of example I can give off the top of my head is what they did for Yang’s story with Raven. I did not particularly enjoy how within the span of one season, the writer’s completely ‘changed’ Yang’s motives. Part of Yang’s story as established from previous seasons has surrounded her learning truths and answering questions about her mother she wanted to ask. Throughout V1-V3, you felt Yang’s desperation and need to understand why her mother chose to leave her and her father behind.

Not to mention that you felt a sense of appreciation and respect from Yang for wanting to hear her mother’s rationale for leaving from her mouth rather than getting upset and angry at the thought of her mother leaving before hearing her out. It was a different perspective that I quite liked from Yang. I always got the impression that Yang was never resentful of her mother. She was confused, maybe even a little angry at her mother leaving but never to extreme levels. She always expressed more of curiosity and honest understanding at wanting to hear her mother out first before judging her actions entirely which is something I really liked.

Which is why I was so pissed when the writer’s decided to change this in V5. So, it honestly felt like a slap to the face when the writers decided to throw that aspect of Yang’s character out of the window to give us an alternative that just felt rather…uncharacteristic of Yang; despite the scars left on her personality by the events of V3. I’ll elaborate more on this in my view but you get what I’m saying here, right?

In the end, instead of feeling like a good story, the Haven Arc left us with a story that felt lacklustre especially when compared to its predecessor. Then again, it isn’t fair for me to judge the Mistral story as yet because, in hindsight, we still have one more chapter in Mistral Arc to complete.

If there is one thing I’m hoping for in V6 is that it provides a proper conclusion that ties in everything introduced for the Mistral story between both volumes 4 and 5. So I’m anticipating V6 to be the official end to the Mistral Trilogy/ Haven Arc while simultaneously commencing the Atlas Arc/Trilogy.

That’s why I have been advocating passionately that the writers take time to properly wrap up the story in Mistral before heading towards Atlas. To me, V6 is the Writers’ chance to renew the fandom’s faith in them by giving us a story that’s, not perfect, but at least feels complete y’know what I mean. There are still storylines to be wrapped up in the Mistral side of the story and I really hope that V6 focusses on them above anything else.

I’m not looking forward to V6 because I want it to be a masterpiece of animation with better fight scenes or what not. I mean if we get improved fight animation that that’s a nice plus, yes. However what I truly want for the new season is a better written story that in hindsight not only set things up for what’s to come for the Atlas Arc but most importantly, gives a proper conclusion that at least tries to fix the mess that was created from the two earlier seasons.

I want a better written story that gives us more focus on character who haven’t been properly fleshed out while finally tying back into plot points left forgotten from past volumes. Pineheads like me have been aching for more, better, Oscar development. Give us that. The reason why I keep bringing up Oscar is because of all the characters in the hero group, he has the most tied to Mistral.

Sure Lie Ren also has ties to the kingdom. But Ren’s story was given a good conclusion back in V4. Now it’s Oscar’s turn. Oscar’s story began in Mistral and of all the characters; his part of the story deserves a proper conclusion. We need to learn more about him while simultaneously learning more about Ozpin so it doesn’t feel like Ozpin’s story is constantly eclipsing Oscar’s.

I hated how that was handled in V5 so I hope the writers find a better way to balance that out for V6.

My fault with V5 was that there were plot points introduced in V4 that was supposed to be progressed in V5 but just wasn’t. The pressure that V6 has is that not only does it have to continue the plot from V5 but it also has to tie up areas that were introduced in V4 that was supposed to be done in V5 but never happened. I’ll give you an example of one: Oscar’s individual character development!

Sorry if I keep bringing this up. It’s just that…after V4, I was really expecting V5 to out Oscar’s character a bit more but instead he ended up taking a backseat to Ozpin for most of the season.

Disagree with me if you will but I do not think it will be a wise idea for the writers to leave the story the way it is. They need to fix the puzzle.

As for any concerns or opinions I might have for V6. Wellll….

Listen, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my own fair share of worries for V6 coming out of V5. My worry is that the writers will make the same mistakes they made V5. V4 wasn’t a problem. The zinger was in the last volume, sadly to say. That being said, I do want to stay positive and hope that V6 will be the season to give the Mistral Arc a fitting conclusion while moreover giving us a really great season.

At RTX 2018 back in August, Miles and Kerry promised the audience that they had acknowledged their mistakes from the last two seasons and are working on correcting them for V6. To me, I saw that as a positive sign. It tells me that not only did they acknowledge their shortcomings but they also started trying to fix them. This led to them getting feedback and input from trusted CRWBY members outside of the writers’ room. Not to mention that Kerry said that he’s also getting assistance with the directing of RWBY because he now has a co-director. Again, as a fan, I took that as positive note. At least, I want to look at these changes as positive and no words can describe, how much I really want V6 to be a good season.

Not just for my enjoyment but purely because, I sincerely want the FNDM’s faith in the CRWBY Writers to be restored. I want to return to a more peaceful time where the FNDM praised RWBY for its writing and colourful cast of character rather than picking it a part like corbeaus to a carcass.

Talking about Miles and Kerry specifically, I understand that the writing for the last two seasons was not their best. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that the writers aren’t doing they’re doing their best. From what I’ve seen between V4 and V5, the CRWBY Writers are trying. I get it. Things aren’t the same without Monty, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah…

But y’know what? Miles and Kerry, a.k.a Monty’s friends and co-writers, are trying. They are still trying to keep the story that they made TOGETHER with their old friend alive. It pains me when I can acknowledge that they’re trying and see the good in what they’re producing but there is that one special fraction of the FNDM family that just focuses primarily on all the bad and therefore, continues to beat these two guys’ names into the dirt for it. I guess you could say it comes with the industry but that’s not gonna stop me from saying it’s messed up.

Not only did I see the good in the story but also the greatness in the group of creative minds that season after season, pour their heart and soul into making this series a reality. I guess my next point ties into my answer for the second half of your question.

“…Also I am curious, why is it that there are so many, I wouldn't say rwby bashing videos. But rwby videos that seem to just say that the characters are bland or they already ruined a character etc etc. I was curious if I could get your opinion on the subject because I've enjoyed rwby…”

If I had to guess then it’s probably because, hating on RWBY is surprisingly more popular than liking RWBY over on Youtube, believe it or not.

I don’t fully understand it myself but I guess that’s how it is on the internet, I’m afraid fam. I honestly don’t have an opinion of why there are so many ‘RWBY Bashing videos’ because that would be like justifying why these fans have that kind of opinion of RWBY which I can’t do because I can’t speak for these fans.

A fan’s opinion is their own. I can only speak for myself and justify my own rationale for things while respecting the opinions of other fans whether I agree with them or not.

I’m just like you Key. I’m a fan of RWBY. I’ve been watching the series since its very first season and I still continue to watch it til this day. To be honest, I first started watching RWBY because like many, I was a big fan of Monty Oum. I’ve been a fan since I was first introduced to his crossover fan-animation series: Dead Fantasy and I absolutely loved how he was able to sell a story purely on amazingly choreographed and animated fight scenes alone. So when I later discovered that Monty had his own original series with RoosterTeeth, I definitely jumped onto the RWBY bandwagon.

But I’ll let you in on something. Something that I didn’t even realize until now. When I first started watching RWBY, I mainly watched it for the fight animations because I knew that was Monty’s speciality and that’s what I mostly came to RWBY for. Back then, my mind-set was, it didn’t matter what the story of RWBY was, I just wanted to see the fights. I mean yes, I did like some aspects of the story like the characters and the soundtrack. The OG V1 theme will always be my favourite (but I think it might’ve been dethroned by V5’s theme). I remember liking Team JNPR more than I did Team RWBY actually. I was just always more interested in them because I liked their personalities over the main four girls. You can almost say that back then, I didn’t care much for the story of RWBY. Not like I’m saying it was bad. I just didn’t focus too much on the story and just enjoyed RWBY for what I liked seeing most from it, which were the awesome fights.

It just dawned on me that I never truly focused on RWBY for its story or its characters. Admittedly, V5 was the first time in my entirety of watching RWBY where I actually paid the most attention to the story and the characters. I guess that’s one positive I have for V5. In a add way, it revived my interest in the lore of RWBY and its world building in respect to the stories and characters.

That’s why I had to go back and rewatch the entire series---something I’ve never done before. Before, I always just watched the newest season and didn’t return to RWBY again until the new volume premiered. I’m not really one to go back and rewatch episodes of shows I’ve watched, not unless I really enjoyed it.

The first time I watched RWBY, I fell in love with it mainly for the fights. However in my second viewing of the series, I realized that there is a truly amazing story with a cast of great characters to be loved from this show.

And this isn’t something that only happened in the early seasons of RWBY. It’s something that’s been on-going for years and still continues to progress even in its later seasons.

I guess what I’m trying to say overall is that I’m still here for RWBY. Again, I can’t speak for the haters or the disappointed fans who talk ill of the show. The people who shit on RWBY and I’m not talking about the people who constructively critique RWBY, I mostly referring to the ones who literally pick it apart and burn everything there is to do with the show---I cannot speak for these people, at all. I can’t even speak for the peeps who share in my enjoyment of RWBY. This squiggle meister can only speak for herself. And as I’ll repeat again, I’m still with Team RWBY. I’m still very much interested in following the adventures of Team RWBY and Team JNPR as they travel Remnant combating the Grimm and Salem with her forces of evil.

Yes; I acknowledge that the show has changed since the days of Monty, both for the good and the not-so-good.

Yes; I acknowledge that the writing for the last two seasons was not the best. Yes; I acknowledge that the two most disliked seasons of RWBY by the FNDM just so happens to also be the two seasons that Miles and Kerry primarily worked on without Monty. Yes! I see all of these things.

But y’know what? …I’m not even mad.

That’s right. I’m not mad. I am not mad at the CRWBY Writers. I don’t hate the CRWBY Writers for the direction they took the show after V3. SHIT, I DON’T EVEN THINK THE CRWBY WRITERS DID AS A BAD OF A JOB AS OTHER FANS MAKE THEM OUT TO HAVE DONE.

This is only my opinion but even though I have my issues with V4 and V5′s story, that doesn’t mean I resent the CRWBY Writers. I may have my concerns for the story going forward based on the execution of the last season. However, that doesn’t mean that I’ve lost fate in the CRWBY Writers.

As a matter of fact, I have more reason to believe that they’ll do a much better job since they said they are working on things. Whether they’re telling the truth or blowing smoke up my ass, I can’t tell that for now. Not until V6 comes out. The age ole saying is that proof is in the pudding and I can’t judge the pudding if the pudding is still being cooked. I can’t even eat the pudding right now and thus give my honest opinion of how the pudding tastes if it’s still on the stove, y’know what I’m saying.

It’s for this reason also why I can’t give my opinion of how I think V6 is going to be. I can’t be one of those fans who are already starting to bash the CRWBY’s efforts for V6 before the season is even out. How am I supposed to judge something I haven’t seen as yet---again going back to the pudding analogy.

All I have for now are the promises from the CRWBY that they are going to do better job and to put it bluntly, I’d have to be a complete asshole to bash someone or a group of people who realize that they didn’t put their best work into something beloved by others before and rather than acting arrogant and deflecting blame, these people chose to do the just thing: keep moving forward using their mistakes as a learning opportunity to improve and work towards those improvements.

I don’t know about ya’ll but I can’t bash that. I can’t hate on that. All I can do is hope that the CRWBY live up to the promises made and wish for the best.

Saying something is going to disappoint me before I get a chance to see it, that’s not fair now is it? Never mind that previous outcome of the thing wasn’t the best. I get it. RWBY V4 or V5 or whoever was not the best. The writing has not been the best for the past two seasons---yada, yada! Whatever negative remarks has been said about RWBY within its past two volumes, I’ve heard it before. But you know what? That’s in the past. A wise animated character once said ‘You gotta put your past behind you’. Or as I’ll put it ‘Put your past in your behind and then shit it out therefore relieving thyself of the constipation of the past’.

In spite of the mess, RWBY is still going. Ya’ll realize that even though the Mistral Arc didn’t give us the best story, that even though Monty isn’t around in the flesh to oversee the progress of his creation, the series is still moving onward.

Why? Because there is still more to be told about from RWBY. A lot more and I don’t know about you, but I actually want to see how this continues.

To the people still singing that song about the story not being good without Monty and all that jazz, ya’ll need to be like Elsa in Frozen and please, PLEASE, let it go.

I get that folks were disappointed. However, like I said, the story is still going. The saga still continues which means that there will be more opportunities for the story to get better. And y’know what? I want to stay positive and believe that the story is going to recover going forward.

There is still a lot more to come from the main RWBY-verse and I’d actually like to watch and hopefully enjoy what the story has next in store for me going forward.

Do you know what’s even more disappointing? Regardless of whether V6 is genuinely good or not, thereos going to be that percentile who will be there to rip it apart and spew the same nonsense we’ve been hearing all along. Not to give bad press to the FNDM community but I wouldn’t mention these fans if I’ve never heard them myself. The ironic part is that these types of fans are the most vocal, not only in the FNDM fam but in others fandoms as well.

At the end of the day, despite the faults in the past two seasons, the CRWBY Writers still managed to achieve the penultimate objective that every ongoing story is supposed to do. Keep me as the audience member tuning in invested in the story.

Through all the mess, I admittedly am still interested in RWBY. I still want to know more about story. I still love the characters and most importantly of all, I am still very much on board with the plot that Miles and Kerry continue to create together.

Miles and Kerry have always been an intricate part of crafting the plot for RWBY. That’s sometime that some of the more negative FNDM fam seemed to have forgotten. Miles and Kerry are as much the writing gods of the RWBY-verse as Monty, the show’s creator, was. And since Monty’s unfortunate passing, they are the two flames that continue to keep this story alive and burning bright.

And for what it’s worth, I’m still invested in the story that they have built thus far and continue to build. I want to know how this story ends and so long as I still have that curiosity, I will remain on the RWBY train.

I will continue to support the show because I honestly think it’s still great and hasn’t lost its spark. Y’see what I did there.

But it’s hard to feel hyped for what’s next to come in RWBY when there is negativity coming from the FNDM. The hate I’ve noticed within the FNDM is literally like being at an amusement park, excited to get on a fun new ride but also feeling uneasy about it too because there are some people in line already complaining about the ride before they even get on it.

And at this point, it has nothing to do with the ride itself. It’s on the people thinking those thoughts. Yeah sure you may have had a horrible experience the first time on the ride which left you feeling those thoughts. But this brings up another curious question. If you’ve been on a ride before and you realized that you didn’t like it because you didn’t enjoy it , then why return to get on it again?

It’s an honest innocent question I would like to toss out to the same FNDM fam I’ve seen shitting on the show and its writers. If you’re upset with the way RWBY has been these past two seasons then…why are you still talking about it? Nothing offensive just curious to understand why.

Why continue to follow the show if you’re constantly expressing your disappointment in it?

Because that’s another odd thing I’ve noticed about the so-called ‘haters’ in the FNDM. Despite voicing how much the show has disappointed them in the recent seasons, they STILL continue to follow the show as loyally as they ever did before, returning to rip apart some of the newer content the show puts out.

…That’s some weird love-hate vibes, for lack of better words. I don’t get it but like I said, I don’t speak for the haters.

All I know is that there are fans who have been so distraught with the treatment of the last two volumes that right now, they’re already starting to bash the upcoming season before it’s even out yet. This to me, is not a fair way to go.

To the fans who are like this, again I hear ya’ll. I understand that you guys are concerned for how the writers will handle V6 coming off of V5. I get that you’re worried. But in light of that, please be fair.

Don’t start spreading negativity for the new season before it’s even premiered. That’s not right.

Let V6 come out. Watch V6 and then give the final verdict. If the season turns out to be good, then awesome. Rejoice and give it the praise it deserves as your faith in the CRWBY Writers is restored.

However, if the season turns out to be a mess then…ok. Feel free to give your critiques and voice all the areas where the new season and the writers went wrong til your hearts’ content.

But for now, keep the negative vibes to a minimum please because for now, we really don’t know what’s to come of the new season until it premieres next month.

So for now, this squiggle meister would love to stay positive. I want to remain on the side that hopes the writers learnt from their mistakes and that they are indeed prepared to give us a season that is either really good or at least better than the season before. I want V6 to do well.

But until such a time comes, give the writers a chance guys. If you love RWBY and want the series to get better then believe in the people who are working to keep it alive. Give the CRWBY; ESPECIALLY THE CRWBY WRITERS; a chance and let’s hope for awesomeness.

And for what it’s worth, please for the love of all that is good and decent, STOP BLAMING Miles and Kerry for everything that went wrong with the past two seasons of the show.

I’ve seen a lot of that circling around too and it’s…not nice.

To get mad at Miles and Kerry is the same as getting mad at the entire CRWBY because at the end of the day, a lot of work goes into making an animated series. Take it from someone who has a little bit of experience working in the production of an animated web-series, the whole process is a team effort and to insult one aspect of the pipeline is to discriminate and neglect all the hard work put in by every member of the production team which is…a lot…definitely a lot more than people even realize especially if you haven’t worked in the industry before.

I’m just saying…it’s a lot easier for someone to single out one person or a pair of people, pointing fingers and blaming them for everything that went wrong than it is to understand and acknowledge that the thing they’re fighting for is a collaboration made by a team of people who utilize their talents and pour their heart and souls into the project at hand. So when you critique, criticize and to some worse extent, insult one part, you’re also collectively insulting the other parts too.

So what I’m saying here is, if you’re a disappointed fan who insists on blaming the writers for everything wrong with RWBY, the next time you decide the voice your disdain for the writers, please also take into consideration that by bashing the men who wrote the story, then by extension you are also bashing the folk who design the characters for the story that the writers wrote, the people who use animation to bring to life the world and characters for the story that the writers wrote and anyone else who works on RWBY. Because like I said, Miles and Kerry may write the story for RWBY but they don’t make RWBY by themselves.

RWBY isn’t just a by-product of Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross alone. It’s not even just Monty Oum’s brainchild anymore.

Don’t get me wrong. Monty will always be known as the artist who created RWBY and no one can ever take that title away from him as he continues to rest peacefully. But what’s hurtful is that there are people, claiming themselves to be fans, who have come to downright disrespect the two gentlemen who were originally his brothers in bringing his story to life. Like I mentioned just now, Miles and Kerry or even Monty for that matter, did not make RWBY alone.

The series is a collaborative effort made by its creator, all three original writers and the talented people who make up the CRWBY within RoosterTeeth.

It’s alright to judge and be disappointed with RWBY as a series. As viewers we’re all entitled to give our opinions on the content we consume as entertainment. No fault in that. However when the disappointment goes so far and becomes so heinous that you literally start to attack two of the people who are helping to keep the series you claim to be a ‘diehard fan for’ alive, you’re not just insulting them and their efforts.

You’re also insulting the whole team and the work they contribute to RWBY which…in itself, is quite bad since you’re pretty much taking a dump over several months of hard work put together by a group of very passionate people who love and continue to do what they can for this series even with the recent hate it’s received.

Just saying.

Anyways, that’s pretty much my full $10 bucks on that topic.

I hope this answers your questions Key. Sorry it took so long and thanks for asking.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#keyenuta #rwby #oscar pine #rwby volume 6 #roosterteeth #rwby remarks #squiggles answers: rwby

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ingloriousbi · 6 years ago

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thoughts on sylvanas’ short, they’re long, ignore me im ranting and really wish blizzard would give half as much of a fuck as I did about their stupid fucking game and had any more than 0.1% understanding of their characters

im pretty sure that whoever is/are in charge of writing world building premises for world of warcraft are not the same people writing the actual character motivations and dialogue for the characters enacting stuff. i get it. the dude who writes “sylvanas burns teldrassil” is not the same guy as the person who wrote for sylvanas’ warbringer short, and that might also be a team of writers who share motivations, dialogue, and storyboard

but minor irritations aside (sylvanas dies in a mission called “the fall of silvermoon” but its the sunwell map, where kelthuzad is resurrected, and the mission BEFORE that is the mission that attacks ghostlands/eversong altho presumably not silvermoon, and at the time the sunwell wasn’t on quel’danas yet so i GUESS the geography changed, which is fine since its been almost 2 decades since wc3, but the short should’ve more accurately reflected sylvanas’ place of death since she died at the very end of the elves’ bitter campaign and no where near the beginning, which the short implies since she dies outside of the city with the golden fields and a civilian outside, and i know im a die-hard syvlanas stan and lore purist but imo what this short reflects a severe mis- and under-representation of sylvanas’ death, especially since she becomes a named banshee unit that participates in killing the last of her people and what remains of her kingdom)

this was bad writing. which ever fucker said “sylvanas burns teldrassil” that couldve been written in many ways, without making the alliance responsible (even tho they lowkey are and should be), that doesn’t portray... this. whoever wrote this dialogue+motivations wasn’t just someone who knows nothing about WC3, it was someone who hasn’t paid attention to ANY of sylvanas’ dialogue over the years; not her click speech, her quest dialogue, her part during the Northrend campaign such as the Horde halls of reflection or the battle for the undercity. its hard to swallow ‘sylvanas is evil/misunderstood/warmongering’ but its not like theyre trying to make it easy to swallow or a worthwhile, interesting story put already in canon

sylvanas wants to kill the concept of hope? sylvanas EMBODIES the concept of bitter, bitter hope. she literally freed herself from arthas and continued to bide her time to hunt him, even during the halls of reflection she maintained determination, patience, and desire of vengeance. this desire for vengeance EMBODIES hope lmao. it was the only thing driving the forsaken - it wasn’t a ‘positve’ hope that we typically associate with the word, but the desire for vengeance in not only arthas’ demise, but through rebuilding a society (both pre and post cata these were the forsaken’s motivations) embodies a level of ‘hope’ that isn’t really seen anywhere else except in MAYBE thrall, pre-cata jaina and pre-legion anduin (honestly, even post legion anduin; i dont play alliance and can only judge from his dialogue at varian’s funeral)

the idea that sylvanas wants to kill all the living is not only antithetical to her modus operandi for the last 16 years; its an incredible misunderstanding of her character on a fundamental level. even if that wants/needs to change we can argue and argue and argue for a potential lore reason/character development behind that (which would probably boil down to “old gods” but w/e) and we argue post-wotlk sylvanas changes significantly from pre-arthas’ fall BECAUSE of arthas fall through char development and lore we never saw becuase blizzard hates women and they want to put that out NOW, FINE

but “wants to kill hope”? ... oke

look one misunderstanding? from blizzard? onto their female characters? dissapointing but not surprising. but wow fans have for a very long time been actively ignoring canon or twisting lore to have it make some sort of sense, because a lot of people very deeply care about this game and its story and its characters, and a lot of lore/timelines/character motivations have been twisted over the years and have been dissapointing but can arguably make sense within what semblance of lore we have (im not a fan of new jaina, but theres definitely enough lore+character building to have it become plausible for her to be who she is now, even if i dislike it, that fundamental change in her values didnt come out of nowhere even if it was horrifically orchestrated because blizzard wanted to see her suffer and portray her like this lmao) but sylvanas’ character is being utterly decimated on a level that even jaina hasnt experienced, and to be frank im fucking furious and genuinely hurt

say what you want abt chris metzen but of all his dumb shit he wouldn’t have pulled this. at least he KNEW sylvanas, even if that meant he never used her or wrote for her a ton.

in the quest dialogue, sylvanas says that the campaign starts as a preemptive defensive strike against the alliance re:azerite in silithus, and while i disagree/think thats kind of questionable we know that garrosh’s unwillingness towards preemtive strikes led to death of a lot of innocent tauren in the barrens, and led to the bombing of theramore as a reactionary result, and sylvanas has canonically been known to be bitter, practical to a fault, and morally “grey” so saying “burn this tree down lmao, we’re gonna have to do it anyway, at least now we prevent innocents dying first and we get the lumber in ashenvale, hope the warsong are happy” is... alright. acceptable to a degree within the confines of the narrative they’ve forced upon me, even if the narrative itself is shit. but this? kill all the living? kill “hope”? this fundamental misunderstanding of her character. her lack of remorse at the ranger, these were moments that could’ve significantly foreshadowed a redemption arc but ten bucks on a fucking reworked siege of orgrimmar =)

anyway fuck blizzard

#personal #warcraft

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kindabraveandlittlestupid · 6 years ago

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It seems Disney underestimated the power of the Dark Side of its fan base with the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It shows a fracturing among viewers and how future movies will be received (or not received) by audiences around the world. The major issue with the fans isn't that people outright hate the new direction of the series but many are upset that the universe they know and love for long is changing before them. Some of those changes are for the better with new stronger female leads in the movies (which was needed) and then there are changes that for the worse such as changing the established lore of the force and cutting back the extended universe, which ironically took dozens of strong female characters with it. So yay! Progress?

So I plan to make the case for being critical of the new movies. I plan to also chastize those jerkoffs who decided to attack female actresses for being role models for young girls. I plan to make a rational argument for the removed content cut away by Disney writers. I also plan on talking about how we can bridge these divides and bring everyone back together. You might not agree with everything I say or maybe you will. Most people almost never share 100% of their opinions with another person which was kind of the problem in all this... dissent was widdled down to either or and those fans with legit criticisms were pushed into the camp of those assholes who hate women and the concept of social justice/equity. Because there was no discourse or room for dissent, Disney Ultimately gambled on that disgruntled fanbase not being as influential as it is and they were wrong.

No Room For Dissent

This is a common problem in society these days, where we view things in absolutes; be it politics, movies, religion and so on. Perhaps we have always been like that (I only been around since 1985) but it feels pretty bad these day especially in regards to politics being so divisive or movies that look to present more female roles and ethnic roles in their casts taking so much flak. While I might make some political parallels to create examples, I intend on focusing on the cultural divides taking place in these popular movies.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the tribal mentality that comes when critiquing a movie. Studios benefit from having a cultural high ground because it's easier to say “You’re being sexist or racist” instead of handling a critique and having to answer for poor choices they made while making the movie. I imagine this is what happened in the case of the Ghostbusters reboot, some people asked why the black character wasn't the scientist and the studio reacted with “Why don't you like women?” A kind of deflection mentality that avoided a valid critique of the movie and shames the critic from raising his or her voice again.

The blame also falls at the feet of the very worst patrons of our society. On one side you have the army of trolls of the web who are by far the worst people the interwebs (and the world) has to offer. These are the sort of guys who see any female lead role as an insult and seek out to harass them in the real world forcing the said actresses to abandon social media. These sort of people (most of them male) leave me gritting my teeth because this isn't so much a passion of a fandom they want to protect as it is a lifestyle of attacking people who are not them. Everything is a fucking battle and anything that progresses or enhances another race/gender/sexuality beyond their own is considered a threat to their manhood.

On the other side, we have people who you would call PC and they are sometimes PC to a fault. I tend to find myself agreeing with people on this side more often than not but even then we have our moments where I am wondering what the fuck the objective is. They become advocates for a worthwhile cause but become blinded to valid points or arguments. Back to Star Wars, I wondered why Admiral Holdo was even in the movie because she was killed right away and Akbar or Leia could have had the noble death. The response is defensive of the female role simply because it's a female role. Studios obviously love these advocates because they still don't have to answer the questions and its a private army of people to protect their franchise.

The last group is fans which is a wide spectrum of people from little girls who see Rey and get excited to see a girl kicking ass on the screen to long-term fans who have questions about the lore of the movies being changed or questions why the movie changed directions. Most of us reside here between the two extremes; the PC movie defenders who see the film as a tool to improve society and those little troll fuckers who want to see the world burn.

The failing in this discussion about the movie is the fact those two polar opposites dictated the discourse for the rest of us. You either accepted the movie as it was and enjoyed being on the moral high ground or join the trolls if you have any small critiques of the movie whatsoever. Perhaps we more moderate critics failed a bit by letting the trolls become the loudest voice in the room and let them write letters where they basically bashed women became the only thing people could see. Much like a peaceful protest where 97% of the people are there to say their piece with civility and clarity but its those 3% (the Trolls) throwing trash cans thru the window that get the cameras on them and they define the protest with the media coverage.

I blame also the Directors and Disney for playing this absolutist mentality where they say anyone who is complaining about the movie is a baby, sexist, racist or some other insult. They didn't seem to want to have any criticism and why would they?! Having a golden franchise that can basically prints money and where you can say anyone who dissents against us is a bigot of some sort, is a hell of a defense. No one wants to be with the trolls and be labeled as chauvinist or racist but because there was no spectrum or room for dissent they ultimately pushed critics and concerned fans to that side.

Respecting The Lore/Establish A Vision

Disney may not realize this but they fucked up pretty bad by cutting away the extended universe. I understand WHY they did it; thousands of characters, hundreds of worlds, dozens of stories to consider compiled over 40 years? I imagine the collective writers of Disney who saw the scope of what other people had built together and collectively shit their pants. It's a massive undertaking to try and apply the lore in a way that fans might enjoy or explore plots that we would love to see executed. The problem is instead of looking at this expanded universe as a foundation to build their movies on, they decided to slice it away and leave nothing but the core movies and a cartoon. I will try and break down why that was a mistake.

Fans Invested Most of Their Time Into The SWEU

What they may have not realized is the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy was not where fans invested most of their time. Yes, we loved those movies for being the gateway into this great fictional universe but ultimately watching the 6 films would take only 13 hours. Knights of the Old Republic a single game of that Star Wars Universe (that they cut away), takes at least 28 to 48 hours to complete. Then you add on other games Knights of the Old Republic 2, The Old Republic MMO, Shadows of the Empire, Battlefront 1/2, The Force Unleashed, Rogue Squadron, Empire at War, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy, Republic Commando and so on you are now looking at hundreds of hours invested to a single play thru or more likely THOUSANDS of hours for true gamers play each game a few times.

This is where the true long-term fans who buy Star Wars merchandise over a lifetime instead of a holiday season reside. It stays fresh in our minds as books, comics, games, and yes the movies become part of regular media diet. Disney perhaps felt overwhelmed by it or perhaps wanted to reboot the universe decided to take the vast majority of where our love resides in the Star Wars Universe and scrapped it. Like it or not this is where they lost most of their following and since they did it just before the release of the The Last Jedi they have since been dealing with the fallout of loyal fans who feel betrayed and I am not talking just about the bitchy trolls from online either.

Removal of Strong Female Roles

I like seeing Ray as a strong female character and we all, of course, we all love Leia as well. There is no doubt the Star Wars movies while centered around some strong female characters have been pretty much been male-dominated for those first six films. So the change is not only warranted but welcomed.

What is a shame as while that was true for the movies it was far from the truth for the SWEU content where there were literally dozens of strong female leads they could have been explored by Disney.

Meetra Surik

Mara Jade

Bastila Shan

Mission Vao

Juno Eclipse

Iden Versio

Jaina Solo

Maris Brood

Visas Marr

Jan Ors

And so many more...

These women come different walks of life being the daughter of Han and Leia (Jaina Solo), plucky engineers who travel with a Wookie (Mission Vao), former Sith turned to the Light Side (Mara Jade), former Imperial Pilots and Soldiers fighting for the Rebellion (Juno and Iden), or even one of the most powerful Jedi’s in the Galaxy (Meetra Surik). I suppose what is best about them being fictional is that they still exist and if Disney wants to start mending bridges they should star readapting these characters into the canon universe.

The Best Stories Exist Before And After The Movies

I suppose for some the story of Skywalker family struggle was enough for them but the bigger stories existed long before the Empire/First Order and greatest conflict took place years after. The Mandalorian Wars, where warriors raider world after world forcing the Galactic Republic to step in. The Great Galactic War pitting the Sith against Jedi across the galaxy. The Invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong leaving trillions dead across hundreds of worlds and nearly destroying all life.

These stories are part of that extended universe and far more compelling than the recycled Death Star plot we saw in 4 of the 10 Star Wars movies. The audience craved to see the Jedi at their peak when they maintained peace across the universe, or they wish to see the Sith exist not in pairs but as an Empires themselves. If Disney wants to explore this franchise than embrace the stories that have not yet been shown on screen.

Establishing A Vision

Disney has enjoyed great success with the MCU and dozens of movies its created. They also managed to get their mittens on the Star Wars Universe and seek to milk it much the same. The problem is they don't seem to have a clear idea where they want to go with the movies or what they should do with it. I already discussed how complex the universe is with all its lore but you (Disney) have control over the movies. The rights to the toys, games, books, comics and films an like it or not we are at your mercy of where you decide to take it.

I suppose I am advocating having a vision for the future of this series. Marvel Cinematic Universe works because the stories were planned out with a sort of climactic point to be explored (IE the Infinity Wars) so we know you can practice good foresight. On the other hand... John Carter, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the Lone Ranger display a carelessness of other franchises. Not trying to be mean, just stating a fact. We saw it happen with other movies like Batman in the 90′s where the objective was selling toys and not making a quality film that could encourage people to buy merchandise for decades. I guess what I am trying to say is Harry Potter this franchise, treat it with love and care that the fanboys and fangirls so we can go with you on this adventure into a galaxy far far away.

A Letter to You Troll Douchbags

Some of us critics truly love movies. We see the flaws as they are and we want to be able to say our views with other people around a table. I had my issues with the magical properties of the heart-shaped herb in Black Panther. I wish they continued Ghostbusters 3 with Oscar (Jason Gordon Lovitt) taking over and having some young black scientists (played by Donald Glover and Jessica Williams) being the Ghostbusters (and Role Models) in the movie. I have some issues with The Last Jedi and how they changed the flow of the movie from one director to the next but you little bitches keep making these debates about race and fucking gender every fucking time. You see a woman on screen and you write up a review of a movie that isn't even out yet because you’re somehow afraid of the 50 movies released over the year you somehow won't be represented.

Cut your fucking shit out you little pricks. We cant make honest critiques now because you’re the first fucking twits to review a film and all you spew is the vial fucking hate raging against everything that isn't you. Honestly, the rest of us just want to enjoy ourselves, we are grown up enough to know white isn't the only skin color in the seats of the movie theater and male isn't the only gender of a hero (we call them heroines) in movies.

I picked these movies on purpose because they were topical and I had my issues with them (and I have my issue with every movie save Shaun of the Dead which is fucking perfect). I wanted to write reviews that were balanced because I want to believe we can have that discourse again where we can chat why a movie works or doesn't work without the risk of having labels like sexist or racist applied to us because you want to act out. So please for the love of god either commit to shoving your head further up your ass so we can't hear you or pull your head out and join the rest of the world. Either way, I am tired of having to apologize and denounce your rhetoric... it's honestly fucking exhausting.

Regards Michael California

#Star Wars #Disney #The Force Awakens #The Last Jedi #Star Wars Expanded Universe #Personal Rant #MovieReview

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sweetdreamsjeff · 7 years ago

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Remember Me? - Extract from Dream Brother Part 1 of 2

Jeff Buckley drowned three years ago. He’d seemed on the brink of a brilliant rock ‘n’ roll future. Yet he had never shaken off his obsession, part anger, part yearning, with the father he had barely known - Tim Buckley, legendary singer-songwriter. David Browne on their lives and destiny

Friday 15 December 2000 19.17 EST

Although dusk was in sight, the moist, breezy Memphis air still felt mosquito-muggy inside and outside. It was May 1997 and Jeff Buckley, who had turned 30 about six months earlier, emerged from his bedroom in black jeans, ankle-high black boots, and a white T-shirt with long black sleeves and “Altamont” (in honour of the Rolling Stones’ anarchic, death-shrouded 1969 concert) inscribed on it. Though officially out of his 20s, he remained a rock'n'roll kid at heart. As he and his tour manager Gene Bowen stood outside on the front porch, Jeff said he was heading out for a while. Generally Bowen would accompany Jeff on expeditions while on tour, but tonight Bowen needed space. Some mattresses would be delivered shortly, and the last thing he needed was Jeff bouncing around the house when they arrived.

So, when Jeff told Bowen he would be leaving with Keith Foti, Bowen was mostly relieved. Foti was even more of a character than Jeff was. A fledgling songwriter and musician and a full-time haircutter in New York City, Foti had accompanied Bowen from New York to Memphis in a rented van, the band’s gear and instruments crammed in the back. Stocky and wide-faced, with spiky, blue-dyed hair, Foti, who was 23, could have been the star of a Saturday morning cartoon show about a punk rock band.

Jeff told Bowen that he and Foti had decided to drive to the rehearsal space the band would be using during the upcoming weeks. Bowen told them to be back at the house by nine to greet the band. Jeff said fine, and he and Foti ambled down the gravel driveway to the van parked in front of the house.

Suddenly it dawned on Bowen: did Jeff and Foti know where the rehearsal space was? For non-natives, Memphis’s layout can be confusing; it wouldn’t be hard to get lost or suddenly find one’s self in a dicey part of town. Bowen bolted through the front door, but the van was already gone. Oh, well, he thought, they’ll find the building. After all, they had been there just yesterday.

Cruising around Memphis in their bright yellow Ryder van, past weathered shacks, barbecue joints, pawnshops and strip malls, Jeff and Foti made for an unusual sight. Foti was in the driver’s seat, which was for the best; Jeff was an erratic driver. They cranked one of Foti’s mix tapes, and the two of them sang along to the Beatles’ I Am The Walrus, John Lennon’s Imagine and Jane’s Addiction’s Three Days. Foti and Jeff both loved Jane’s Addiction and its shamanesque, hard-living singer, Perry Farrell. It took Jeff back to the days in the late 80s when he was living and starving in Los Angeles, trying to make a name for himself.

It wasn’t Jeff’s fault that he shared some vocal and physical characteristics with his father and fellow musician, Tim Buckley. Both men had the same sorrowful glances, thick eyebrows and delicate, waifish airs that made women of all ages want to comfort and nurture them. It wasn’t Jeff’s fault, either, that he inherited Tim’s vocal range, five-and-a-half octaves that let Tim’s voice spiral from a soft caress into bouts of rapturous, orgasmic sensuality. In the 60s, Tim wrote and sang melodies that blended folk, jazz, art song and R&B; he had a large cult following himself, and some of those songs had been recorded by the likes of Linda Ronstadt and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

When Jeff had begun writing his own music, he, too, moved in unconventional ways, crafting rhapsodies that changed time signatures and leapt from folkish delicacy to full-throttle metal roar. None of this, he insisted, came from his father’s influence. His biggest rock influence and favourite band was, he said, Led Zeppelin. To his friends, Jeff talked about his bootleg of Physical Graffiti out-takes with more affection and fannish enthusiasm than he ever did about the nine albums his father had recorded during the 60s and 70s.

Tonight, for once, Tim’s ghost was not lurking in the rearview mirror. If anything, Jeff seemed at peace with his father’s memory for perhaps the first time in his life. Whenever Jeff had mentioned Tim in the past, it was with flashes of irritation or resignation. He sounded as if he were discussing a far-off celebrity, not a father or even a family member. In a way, Tim was barely either: he and his first wife, Mary Guibert, had separated before Jeff was born, and Jeff had been raised to view Tim’s life and music warily. But in the past few months, Jeff seemed to have begun to understand his father’s music and, more importantly, his motivations.

Jeff’s years in Los Angeles hadn’t been fruitful, but when he moved to New York in the autumn of 1991, a buzz began building around the skinny, charismatic kid with the big-as-a-cathedral voice and the eclectic repertoire. Many record companies came calling, and he eventually, hesitatingly, put his name on a contract with one of them, Columbia. After an initial EP, an album, Grace, finally appeared in 1994. A brilliant sprawl of a work, the album traversed the musical map, daring listeners to find the common ground that linked its choral pieces, Zeppelin-dipped rock and amorous cabaret. Certainly one of the links was Jeff’s voice, an intense and seemingly freewheeling instrument that wasn’t afraid to glide from operatic highs and overpowering shrieks to a conversational intimacy.

Beyond being simply one of the most moving albums of the 90s, Grace branded Jeff as an actual, hype-be-damned talent for the age. The record business was always eager to promote newcomers in such a manner, but here was someone with both a sense of musical history and seemingly limitless potential. Like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison before him, he appeared to be on the road to a long and commanding career in which even a creative misstep or two would be worth poring over. Comparisons with Tim were inevitable, and a disturbing number of fortysomethings had materialised at Jeff’s concerts to ask him about his father. But, much to Jeff’s relief, the comparisons had begun to diminish with each passing month.

Grace hadn’t been the smash hit Columbia would have liked, but worldwide it had sold nearly 750,000 copies, and it was talked up by everyone from Paul McCartney and U2 to Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Fans in Britain, Australia and France adored him even more passionately than those in America. To his managers and record company, Jeff was a shining star, a gateway to prestige, money and credibility. A very great deal was riding on the songs he was testing out on the four-track recorder in the living room of his house in Memphis. Jeff didn’t like to think about those pressures, which is partly why he moved 1,000 miles away from New York. Here, he could think, write, create.

The drive from Jeff’s house to Young Avenue, where the rehearsal room was located, should have taken 10 minutes down a few tree-lined streets. But something was wrong. Before Jeff and Foti knew it, nearly an hour had passed and there was still no sign of the two-storey red-brick building. They found themselves circling around a variety of neighbourhoods, past underpasses for Interstate 240 and pawnshops. To Foti, everything began to look the same.

Jeff had an idea. “Why don’t we go down to the river?” he said. It sounded good to Foti, who had brought along his guitar and felt like practising a song he was writing. Having a talented, well-regarded rock star as an audience wouldn’t be so bad, either.

The Wolf River did not look particularly wolfish; it barely had the feel of a river. The city government had passed an ordinance banning swimming, but no signs indicated this restriction. According to locals, there didn’t have to be, since everyone in Memphis knew it was far from an ideal swimming hole. The first six inches of water could be warm and innocuous-looking, but thanks to the intersection with the Mississippi the undercurrents were deceptive. All day long and into the early hours of the morning, 200ft-long barges carrying goods from the local granaries and a cement factory hauled their cargo up and down the Wolf. With their churning motors, the tugboats that pulled the barges were even fiercer and had been known to create strong wakes. Local coastguard employees had once witnessed a 16ft flat-bottom boat being sucked under the water in the wake of a tug. Memphis lore had it that at least one person a year drowned in the Wolf.

Even if Jeff had heard these stories, he either didn’t care or disregarded them. Hopping over a 3ft-high brick wall, Jeff and Foti strode across a cement promenade strewn with picnic tables. Then Jeff hiked his black combat boots on to the bottom rung on the steel rail that ran alongside the promenade and jumped over. Foti, gripping his guitar, followed, and they found themselves barrelling down a steep slope, swishing through knee-high brush, ivy and weeds.

On the way down, Jeff shed his coat - just dropped it in the brush. “You’re not gonna leave it here, are you?” Foti asked, stopping quickly to pick it up. Jeff didn’t seem to be listening. Carrying Foti’s boom box, he continued down to the riverbank. The shore was littered with rocks, soda cans and shattered glass bottles, and it quickly sloped into the water just inches away. As gentle waves lapped on to the shoreline, Jeff set Foti’s boom box on one of the many jagged slate rocks on the bank, just an inch or so above the water. “Hey, man, don’t put my radio there,” Foti told him. “I don’t want it going in the water. It’s my only unit of sound.” Jeff didn’t seem to pay particular attention to that request, either.

By now, just after 9pm, Foti had strapped on his guitar and started practising his song. Looking right at Foti, Jeff took a step or two away, his back to the river. Before Foti knew it, Jeff was knee-high in the water. “What are you doin’, man?” Foti said. Within moments, Jeff’s entire body eased into the water, and he began doing a backstroke.

At first, Foti wasn’t too concerned: Jeff was still directly offshore, just a few feet away. He and Foti began musing about life and music as Jeff backstroked around in circles. “You know, the first one’s fun, man - it’s that second one … ” Jeff said, his voice trailing off as he continued to backstroke in the water.

With each stroke, Jeff inched more and more out into the river. Foti noticed and said, “Come in, you’re gettin’ too far out.” Instead, Jeff began singing Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. “He was just on his own at that point,” Foti says. “He didn’t really observe my concerns.” Jeff had an impetuous, spur-of-the-moment streak. Many of his friends considered it one of his most endearing qualities; others worried that it bordered on recklessness. Like his father, he liked to follow his muse, to leap into projects passionately and spontaneously, even if they weren’t fashionable or appropriate. Take that night in 1975. Tim was on his way home from a gruelling tour. His record sales were in freefall, but lately he had tried to cut back on his drinking and drugging, and was attempting to get his music and even a potential acting career on track. On the way home from the last stop on his tour, he stopped by the home of a friend, who offered up a few drugs. What was wrong with a little pick-me-up after some exhausting road work? No one knew if Tim realised exactly what he had snorted that late afternoon, but it ultimately didn’t matter; he died that night of an overdose at the age of 28.

Although Jeff had experimented with drugs, he steered clear to avoid his father’s fate, both physically and artistically; he had learned from Tim’s mistakes in the matters of artistic integrity and handling the music business. Onstage, Jeff would often make cracks about dead rock stars, pretending to shoot up or breaking into spot-on mimicry of anyone from Jim Morrison to Elvis Presley. Once this new album was completed, he was planning to dig deeper into his family heritage and unearth the truth behind the seemingly ongoing series of tragedies that haunted his lineage.

Tonight, as he backstroked in the water, Jeff appeared to feel freer than he had in a while. The mere fact that he was in water was a sign of change. Although he had grown up near the beaches of Southern California, Jeff was never a beachcomber.

It was now close to 9.15pm, and Jeff had been in the river nearly 15 minutes. His boots and trousers must gradually have become more sodden and heavy. He began swimming further toward the centre of the river, circling around before drifting to the left of Foti. Then he began swimming straight across to the other side, or so it appeared to Foti. Directly across from them, on the opposite bank, was a dirt road that ran right up from the river. It looked so close - maybe Jeff felt he could reach it and take a quick stroll.

The tugboat came first, moments later. “Jeff, man, there’s a boat coming,” Foti said. “Get out of the fucking water.” The boat was heading in their direction, up from Beale Street. Jeff seemed to take notice of it and made sure to be clear of it as it passed. The next time Foti looked over, he still saw Jeff’s head bobbing in the water.

Not more than a minute had passed when Foti spied another boat approaching. This one was bigger - a barge, perhaps 100ft long. Foti grew more concerned and started yelling louder for Jeff to come back. Once again, Jeff swam out of its path, and Foti breathed another sigh of relief. In the increasing darkness, the speck that was Jeff’s head was just barely visible.

Soon, the water grew choppy, the waves lapping a little more firmly against the riverbank. Foti grew worried about his boom box. The last thing he wanted was to see it waterlogged and unusable. Taking his eye off Jeff for a moment, he stepped over to where Jeff had set the stereo down on a rock and moved it back about five feet, out of reach of the waves. Foti turned back around. There was no longer a head in the water. There was nothing - just stillness, a few rippling aftershock waves, and the marina in the distance. Foti began to scream out Jeff’s name. There was no answer. He yelled more. He continued screaming for nearly 10 minutes.

On the other side of the river, Gordon Archibald, a 59-year-old employee of the marina, was walking near the moored boats with a friend when he heard a single shout of “help”. Concerned, he looked out on to the water. But he saw nothing, nor heard anything more.

The folk singer Tim Buckley, who was to become Jeff’s father, married Mary Guibert in 1965.

It was spring 1966, Mary Guibert was three months pregnant, 18 years old, and Tim was out of town. Even before Tim left for New York, his wife suspected he was spending time with other women. “By no stretch of the imagination was this a marriage made in heaven,” she says. “He hadn’t been faithful to me for very long. And I thought that was perfectly acceptable because, after all, he was so wonderful, and I was so nobody.”

Mary says she told Tim about the pregnancy before he left for New York, but that he told her he had to leave town and that she should move back in with her family in Orange County, near LA, get a job, save money, and “maybe get an abortion or whatever you want to do”, she recalls him saying. Even then, Tim made no mention of another woman. “I just had no idea,” Mary says. “A lot of denial going on. Tons of denial on both sides, because he wouldn’t bring himself, to the very end, to say, 'You know, I really don’t love you very much’.” She sent Tim letters to various addresses in New York; his replies came fitfully and were pointedly vague. Finally, a mutual friend gave her the news: Tim was in New York with a new girlfriend, and would be back in Los Angeles shortly.

Lee Underwood, guitarist in Buckley’s band and a great friend, recalls the situation being a topic of discussion while he and Tim were in New York that summer. Given the choice of returning to Mary and Orange County or following what Underwood calls “his destined natural way”, Tim “decided to be true to himself and his music, fully aware that he would be accepting a lifetime burden of guilt. Tim left, not because he didn’t care about his soon-to-be-born child but because his musical life was just beginning; in addition, he couldn’t stand Mary. He did not abandon Jeff; he abandoned Mary.”

Finally, some action had to be taken. Tim came to meet Mary at a coffee shop near her home. What exactly happened remains unclear. Tim never talked to his friends about it, while Anna Guibert, Mary’s mother, recalls Tim giving Mary an ultimatum: divorce or abortion. According to Mary, she asked Tim what they should do about the marriage and pregnancy, and he replied, “You do whatever you have to do, baby”, and hung his head.

Afterwards, Mary, who was by now many months pregnant, walked home, told her mother the news and cried. As Anna Guibert remembers, “I said, 'That’s the best thing, honey. If he doesn’t want you, be free.’ She was crazy about Tim. But he wanted his career. There was no place for a baby in his life."Mary, however, did want her baby.

He was born on Thursday, November 17, 1966, at 10.49pm, after 21 hours of labour. The issue of identity loomed even before the child left the hospital. Mary named her son Jeffrey Scott - "Jeffrey” after her last high-school boyfriend before Tim (“my last pure boy-girl relationship, my last pure moment”) and “Scott” in honour of John Scott Jr, a neighbour and close friend of the Guiberts who died in an accident at the age of 17. Yet because Mary preferred Scott, the child was instantly called Scotty by his family. Tim was not available for consultation, since no one knew his whereabouts.

At school, Scotty was the eternal clown, making jokes, craving attention and being more interested in music (including cello lessons provided by the school) than grades. His second-floor bedroom became a rock enclave, his most valuable possessions being a Hemispheres picture disc by the prog-rock band Rush and all four of Kiss’s solo albums.

He had a guitar given to him by his grandmother, and although he hadn’t learned to master it, he would sit and cradle it, “like Linus’s blanket”, according to Willie Osborn, his childhood friend. Although Jeff had taken his father’s name, his music tastes reflected none of Tim’s influence. He was just eight years old when Tim died; they had had their only proper encounter just months before.

The meeting between Tim and Jeff Buckley, April 1975.

Mary Guibert was flipping through a local newspaper when she saw a listing for Tim Buckley’s upcoming show. It was, she says, “an epiphany”. It had been six years since she and her first husband had seen each other, and nearly as long since they had spoken. Mary and Jeff took the hour-long drive to Huntington Beach, an oceanside town 10 miles southwest of Orange County, and arrived at the Golden Bear just before Tim walked on-stage. They took a seat on a bench in the second row.

Jeff seemed enraptured, bouncing in his seat to the rhythms of Tim’s 12-string guitar and rock band. “Scotty was in love,” Mary says. “He was immediately entranced. His little eyes were just dancing in his head.” To Mary, Tim was still a dynamic performer, bouncing on his heels with his eyes shut, but she also felt he looked careworn for someone still in his 20s.

At the end of the set, no sooner had Mary asked her son if he wanted to meet his father than the kid was out of his seat and scurrying in the direction of the backstage area. As they entered the cramped dressing room, Jeff clutched his mother’s long skirt. It seemed a foreign and frightening world to him, until he heard someone shout out, “Jeff!” Although no one had called him that before in his life - he was still “Scotty” to everyone - Jeff ran across the room to a table where Tim was resting after the show.

Tim hoisted his son on to his knees and began rocking him back and forth with a smile as Jeff gave his father a crash course on his life, rattling off his age, the name of his dog, his teachers, his half-brother and other vital statistics. “I sat on his knees for 15 minutes,” Jeff wrote later. “He was hot and sweaty. I kept on feeling his legs. 'Wow, you need an iceberg to cool you off!’ I was very embarrassing - doing my George Carlin impression for him for no reason. Very embarrassing. He smiled the whole time. Me too.”

Tim’s drummer, Buddy Helm, recalls. “It was a very personal moment. The kid seemed very genuine, totally in love with his dad. It was like wanting to connect. He didn’t know anything personally about Tim but was there ready to do it.” The same seemed to be true of Tim; after years of distance from his son, he seemed to feel it was time to re-cement whatever bond existed between them.

Shortly after, before the second set began, Judy, Tim’s new partner, asked Mary if it would be acceptable for Jeff to spend a few days at their place: Tim would be leaving soon on tour, but had some free time. It was the start of the Easter break, so Mary agreed. Next morning, she packed Jeff’s clothes in a brown paper bag and drove him to Santa Monica to spend his most extended period of time with his father.

Tim and Judy lived a few blocks from the beach. As Jeff remembered it, the following five days - the first week of April 1975 - were largely uneventful. “Easter vacation came around,” he wrote in 1990. “I went over for a week or so, we made small talk at dinner, watched cable TV, he bought me a model airplane on one of our 'outings’ … Nothing much but it was kind of memorable.” Three years later, he recalled it with much more bitterness: “He was working in his room, so I didn’t even get to talk to him. And that was it.”

Mary recalls Jeff telling her that he would dash into Tim’s room every morning and bounce on the bed. At the end of his stay, Tim and Judy put Jeff on a bus out of Santa Monica, and Mary picked him up at the bus station in Fullerton. When Jeff stepped off, she noticed he was clutching a book of matches. On it, Tim had written his phone number.

By his teens, Jeff was exhibiting impressive musical skills, as another school band member, drummer Paul Derech, discovered when he visited Jeff in the Guibert home in early 1982. Sitting on his bed, Jeff played songs from Al Di Meola’s Electric Rendezvous and the first album by Asia. Even though Derech had to listen closely to Jeff’s guitar - Mary couldn’t yet afford an amplifier for her son - his dexterity was so apparent that Derech literally took a step back.

Once, Jeff pulled out a picture of Tim from his closet and softly said, “I’ve spent a lot of time looking at that picture”, before moving on to another topic. Derech, like other kids, sensed immediately that his father was a sore point. Instead, they talked music. Although punk and new wave were the predominant rock styles of the moment, Jeff had little interest in them. He preferred music that challenged him and transported him to imaginary worlds. In the late 70s and early 80s, that music was prog (short for progressive) and art rock - bands such as Yes, Genesis and Rush that revelled in complex structures, science-fiction-themed lyrics and virtuosic, fleet- fingered guitar parts that only a few teenagers could hope to master. In a friend’s garage, Jeff and Derech soon began jamming on versions of Rush songs. Jeff declined to sing, though; he told friends and family he wanted to be a guitarist, plain and simple.

The reason, some felt, was because he didn’t want to be compared to the musician father he barely knew. “He had exactly the same speaking voice as Tim,” recalls Tamurlaine, the daughter of Herb Cohen, Tim’s one-time manager. She befriended Jeff when he and Mary would visit the Cohen family for dinner. (Cohen and Mary kept in touch after Tim and Mary’s break-up.) During those meals, Jeff’s vocal and physical resemblance to his father led Cohen often to mistakenly call Jeff “Tim”.

Jeff moved to New York City in 1990.

Often sporting his black Hendrix T-shirt, Jeff immediately took to New York, hauling his guitar into the subway to play for change and roaming the streets. “I talked to him right after he got to New York and he was loving it,” recalls his friend Tony Marryatt, a fellow student at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. “He said it was just like a Woody Allen movie.” To support himself, he took a series of day jobs, from working at an answering service (for actors such as F Murray Abraham and Denzel Washington) to being an assistant at a Banana Republic clothes store.

#jeff buckley #remember me? part 1 #dream brother: the lives and music of jeff and tim buckley #david browne

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sparda3g · 7 years ago

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Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 131 Review

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Making a decision is often seen as a difficult task. It all lies on one person and whatever he/she decides, the responsibility now rest on that shoulder. It can be an ultimatum and it can lead to a large amount of pressure. It's not easy to declare if it's the best or worst decision until the effect passes through, and it can take a while. This chapter clearly reflects the notion and it's only matter of time to see where the path leads to.

The chapter continues to draw out more drama as well as world building with a newer mystery to think over. The mystery aspect goes to what Ayato discovered far underneath the surface and the drama continues off with Touka and Kaneki. It continues to have me more invested with this newly discovered location that can expand the lore further, yet it has me tore up to see where Kaneki and Touka have to go through. It's hard to fault them to make their decision and much like video games, you just have to hope that it's not a bad one.

The chapter clearly starts to push the audience on thinking of what Touka will do. What will Kaneki do? Will they actually risk themselves to save one friend? Kaneki monologues more than usual in here because it challenges his mind on what is considered the right choice. Even when he was talking to the kids, his mind is boggled with the thought of Touka and possibly meeting Mutsuki in order to meet her demand.

Touka on the top of the tower or some sort has me feeling uneasy. I'm not saying she was going to suicide, but it's that mood of depression taking place. It's one of those moments where people outside can't truly tell on what they're thinking; even if you jump to conclusion to suicide, you could still end up not knowing. Kaneki couldn't read Touka exactly; only believe that she's doing fine. It doesn't help that she is great at putting a front, so it's the highest level of poker face.

One of the more unsettling notes is Kaneki is confirmed to be in a bad state and it will continue to worsen; unless in theory, he starts going cannibalism. Nishiki believes that he needs high concentration RC cells in his body. I always thought that Kaneki just needs to eat human and get the nourishment to get better, unless I forgot something. Maybe he's really in a bad state to the point now he has to eat ghouls.

Basing off of the explanation of his body, it interpreted that his body may be aging at a rapid rate. I wonder if this means Ishida is a fan of Metal Gear Solid. I don't know if this is true based on science, but it looks like the repercussion of a human becoming a Ghoul has more side effect than initially said. When Kaneki begins to cry out blood, it puts us the audience in a conflicted feeling. If he really goes out there, who knows that his body will just suddenly give up on him.

I should mention his moment with Kou. Kou is a lunatic that somehow put out a fanboy display. What perplexed me is the amount of info that he knows about Kaneki. I understand that he's from CCG, but it got me wondering if he knows more about him. He said that he doesn't know much about the letter, which could be a lie even said in honesty, but it puts Kaneki on a really tough position.

Taking break from all of that, the interesting aspect comes in with what Ayato is exploring. It's practically a ghost town until three kids come out of nowhere with stronger than first level Kagune. After Ayato essentially stopped them from fighting, the mystery kicks in when they first speak. I don't know if the translation from one site decided to translate it in a normal language or the real dialogues is full of babbles, but if the latter is true, then I like the fact that they don't know the proper language. That or their accent hinders their speech.

There are a lot of confusing yet interesting points coming from this one sit down. These kids believed that they are human. Maybe they are but if true, why they're in that area? They thought Ayato is there to eat them and they make it sound like a traditional part of life. It's even stranger that they said this area is Tokyo itself. I'm confused as Ayato by this point. Lastly, they say "Nagas" destroyed everything. The sight of what appears to a massive size of Kagune is staggering.

I don't want to go to completely on theory level since this is a review, but I want to address this part quickly. I don't know what is "Nagas" but it could be either a Ghoul from above or One-eyed Ghoul from below. Maybe the kids are ghouls and train to act like human. The reason could be that they are made to be eaten up later on, if that is their nourishment. As for Tokyo, maybe since everyone grows up there, they are trained to believe in a made-up area.

On the other hand, there were human remnants back there, so perhaps they are them. But then it only leaves me confused. Perhaps this is Tokyo or rather was. Maybe what's above is the new Tokyo that no one is aware of. How they can even live down there for long? It leaves a lot of questions that could tie in with the history of CCG and perhaps V. I heard that Nagas is an old language name for "Dragon" or something like that. I don't know exactly, but this could be a revelation that may connect to not only Furuta but the Washuu.

The last segment resumes with Kaneki and Touka and this couldn't be more unsettling. It bothers me that all these nice pairing moments are done along with terrifying event. It's not that I don't like them in a writing sense; it's more of uncomfortable feeling that it's done in a tragic way. It's similar to that one recent anime that I won't spoil where it feels like it's nice and charming but the end path is nothing but downhill slope and everything you would like to end on a good note didn't happen. This chapter didn't help.

It begins with Touka and her decision while talking to Kaneki. He believes that she will outright tell him on what to do next. It's not as apparent as you would think, but it makes the moment more effective. When she announces her possible pregnancy, Kaneki wanted to be happy or anything that a guy would react; accident not included. Instead, he is more devastated that Touka reacted like the world continues the same before the memo was read; in other words, it's ignored. This leaves Kaneki to bring it up or it can be ignored completely.

He dismissed it.

The thought of marriage sounds nice in one world, but in this series, it's done more of distraction and dare I say death flag rise. Distraction as in deludes the thought of her best friend being executed and keeps the flow going with the thought of happiness. Let's be sadly honest, marriage is a death flag sign in media, unless it's not battle. Then again, "that" anime did axe one still...

In any case, this is pretty hard to watch with its presentation and the continuous struggle from Kaneki. There are plenty of monologues from him that shares with you on his situation. The last part could be mistaken like they are so selfish for each other, but you have to recall the place they're in. Kaneki is weak, Touka is pregnant maybe, GOAT is not as strong as they were, going up there can risk everyone to be exposed in which leads to extermination, and so on.

If anything, Touka is taking the worst. Just because we didn't see her reaction about her best friend, it doesn't mean she feels nothing. She was at that tower, which is an obvious metaphor. Again, many of their love actions are based on distraction and that is tragic enough. It will be significantly worse if everything becomes a naught such as giving birth. It's the matter of how much they can endure.

This chapter brought in a hard-hitting decision, strange mystery of the newly discovered location, and the ending that continues to bring the worst is underway. It's somewhat an uncomfortable chapter. In another series, it could have been sublime and touching to see them as lovers, but make no mistake, it's going to get worse from here on. Will they survive? I hope so.

#tokyo ghoul:re #tokyo ghoul re #tokyo ghoul #chapter 131 #review

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aurimeanswind · 7 years ago

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Your Emotions in Gaming—Sunday Chats (9-3-17)

Hey! Welcome back to a fun Sunday Chats where I get so ask the audience a question! It was really fun to do this again, and even though this one is a bit more of a lengthy-response time for tweets, I think the turnout was still amazing.

There are a couple of things I want to get out of the way before I get into this first-sunday-of-the-month tradition.

FIRST

Irrational Passions Podcast is switching it’s recording date back to Friday. Yes, it’s a big deal, we have been recording on Saturdays for a little over two years now, but we are going back to our original day of the week that was FRIDAY. It’ll be effective starting at the end of this month! Yay!

SECOND

Irrational Passions is launching a new, seasonal, YouTube Podcast! It doesn’t have a name yet, but the first episode should be recording a week (ish) from today! It’ll be all about Destiny 2! It’ll be our equivalent to Fireteam Chats, and will incorporate a bunch of awesome podcasters from different podcast networks! I am super excited to have a type of show like this, which is more focused on Destiny, for Destiny fans, by a bunch of would-be industry Destiny fans.

It’ll be a bi-weekly show with a rotating cast with a few permanent seats, and be only on YouTube (for now). Currently it will definitely be on YouTube.com/IrrationalPassions, with maybe incorporating other YouTube channels into it as well.

Stay tuned for more details!

Okay, with all that housekeeping done, let’s get into the big editorial of the month.

Games Give You Feelings. Full Stop.

My question today, which I asked my lovely twitter followers and the readers of Sunday Chats, was this:

I like to refer to myself as the “total emotional sap”, which is just the slightly more nice way of saying I’m a bit of a crybaby/emotional wreck when it comes to media, especially video games. I get highly invested in my games, and my stories especially. I’m always perplexed, what with the seemingly constant criticism of video games’ storytelling devices, that people seem to never stop hating on gaming stories.

The recent argument about gaming stories and why they’re more irrelevant than we might think still boggles my mind, and it’s a subject I come back to all the time.

Today I asked you all about the game stories that affected you the most. The ones that touched you in a way that evoked some kind of emotional reaction out of you, whether that be good or bad.

Much like last month, I am gonna post everyone’s answers here, and discuss what folks have sent in. If you’d like to be a part of Sunday Chats like this, just look for my tweets on Sunday Afternoons (Eastern Daylight Time) with the hashtag “#SundayChats” in it. Responding to that tweet with an appropriate answer will pretty much guarantee you a spot on the roster, so with that said...

Let’s get started.

I think Uncharted is a big one, especially Uncharted 4. There is a series of scenes between Nate and Elena that occur very late in the game that just solidify so many things foreshadowed in the very opening of the game. The scenes toward the beginning of Nate and Elena at home, playing Crash Bandicoot, hanging out, sharing dinner, and kind of spacing on each other all have such a natural and organic feel because of 1, the talent of the actors, but 2, the amount of lore and chemistry built up between the two of them.

The scenes where Nate and Elena have that tension of something they really need to overcome together are like, horrifically painful in a way that is hard to describe. It’s such a satisfying end to character growth for Nate, someone we’ve seen struggle with understanding his own faults in the past.

Uncharted 4 holds itself in such high regard to me specifically because of that last third that features a heavy emphasis on Nate and Elena.

I mean, hey, Duke Nukem Forever probably game some people emotions. Like, I don’t think the story had some sweeping impact on the industry as a whole, but there is maybe sense of... Catharsis, when that game finally came out, came to fruition, and ended up being just a bad game. I feel like above most games that have gone through a miserable development hell in the past few years, Duke Nukem Forever was the game that set the precedent that none of these games could ever be good.

I think Final Fantasy XV and Owl Boy are just recent examples that that isn’t always true.

I think frustration is totally a valid emotion to feel from a game. Only I think in this context it’s different. I think being frustrated at a game and being frustrated by a game are two different feelings.

I think of something like Far Cry Blood Dragon’s tutorial screens, which incessantly pop up to make the bit-joke that “tutorial screens are annoying” is a sense where the game is trying to frustrate you on purpose, and that is evoked through humor.

Being mad at Skyrim’s controls and the opening section of it is less some kind of culmination of a story beat, but really a reflection of your relationship with the game. Which is completely valid, I know that game is absolutely not your cup of tea.

Firewatch is really special. I think there are a lot of great feelings that Firewatch brings out of the player that really encompass the emotional journey it illustrates through dialogue. From the story that kind of makes up the suspense part of everything, to the actual relationship with Delilah herself, there are feelings of love, affection, fear, and sorrow that come from it.

The gut punch of the story hits twice too, and it’s something I still think about in games. For as flawed as some of the delivery in Firewatch is, I think it does an excellent job of making a setting, and making you feel in that same setting. God what a banger and worth a play Firewatch still is.

Infamous is definitely a tricky one. It is a very much younger brother game, and I think it does hit some notes there. I think the reason I never bought in too much is because Delsin and his brother just never seemed like they had strong chemistry? Buying into that brothers concept though is a huge part of the battle though. Look at something like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which is all about buying the connection between the two brothers. It’s used and then executed on effectively, and when you can connect with that, you can get those feelings out. Second Son just didn’t quite get there with me.

Gone Home and another game on this list are definitely in my top five as far as really connecting and affecting me emotionally.

Growing up with a gay sibling and slowly piecing together where they were and empathizing with why they wouldn’t want to tell me sets Gone Home up to just hit some relatable notes for me that few games ever get the opportunity to make.

While I love a good love story, Gone Home delivers it in such a video game-y way without feeling forced or disingenuous. It nails what it wants to be, and by doing something first so well, it actually makes it incredibly difficult to follow itself up, something I think is clear with Tacoma, and all the other “walking sim” likes that have followed.

Night in the Woods is absolutely on my list to see through before the end of the year. From everything I’ve heard about its subject matter to the way it’s written like the embodiment of some kind of modern, online dialogue, I am absolutely in. Much like Oxenfree was for me last year, this seems like the kind of teen-y thing that could easily slip through the cracks and get lost in the crowd, but I really want to take the time to play it.

I mean, I know you love dropping those declarative statements, but consider me not so bold, Kevin.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is legendary. I think when I replayed the series a few years ago, and really got to re-experiences the Boss’ death, and for the first time, really understand what she was going through and how that might destroy Big Boss from the inside out, the impact of that ending and its implications still sit with me today.

The Boss’ ideology being based on seeing the entire world from space and seeing it truly as something whole, and one, and deserving of peace, is such a powerful image. It’s the kind of philosophy that makes you feel small, and understand that that’s okay if we all just work together. That imagery being literally the catalyst for the entire events of the Metal Gear Solid franchise is beautiful, and is at it’s core why I think Kojima loved making those games. His image and love for the franchise is as unified as seeing us all together, truly.

The Last of Us is a game that will straight fuck you up. There are maybe four or five just absolutely integral scenes in that game, and all of them are the one on one scenes between Joel and Ellie. The big ones. There are multiple moments in that one story where Joel and Ellie, as a relationship, leaves you breathless.

I think of all the problems with video game storytelling, subtlety is the biggest one. Being subtle in a game is difficult because while things do heavily come down to actors and performances, there is an aspect of technology and uncanny valley to deal with too.

Luckily, Naughty Dog has consistently prove you don’t need to worry about that with them. The final moments in The Last of Us between Joel and Ellie will leave you in bed awake for years to come.

I am totally with you. Mass Effect 3, much like this most recent season of Game of Thrones, is about the payoffs. The trilogy very much sets up the tensions between these major conflicts and events. The Geth and the Quarians, and their war for the home planet. The Genophage and the Salarians delivering it, and how that has created a rift int he galaxy ever since. Those are plot points and arcs that exist, feel like they existed, changed, evolved, and then ending in wonderfully dramatic fashion.

And the Citadel DLC is another absolutely fantastic call out. It was so powerful for my cohost and biggest Mass Effect Fan Brian Nabeshin Jackson that he forced both myself and our other cohost Tony Horvath to buy and play it, and it was absolutely worth it. There is an “earned-ness” to the ME3 Citadel DLC, for it’s just incredible “one last ride” feel to it. It really is the “we’re all about to die so let’s just cut back and be together” story. And it works, because of the notes Mass Effect leaned so heavily into ending on.

Mass Effect is definitely the kind of trilogy that leaves you with an impact, if not only because of taking your character through three games.

Logan Wilkinson reviewed this for our site this year and it’s another with Night in the Woods that I am desperate to see through sometime before the end of the year. It’s an excellent idea and it’s portrayed in a super interesting way.

Rime is one that seemed to go really hard under the radar. This is the first big indicative thing I”ve heard in its favor. I know it reviewed well, but it’s just something that I feel there isn’t a lot of awareness of.

Judging from the vibes you describe here and the ones given off by the trailer, I’m not surprised Steven.

We touched on it above a the top, but yes. The growth is the big aspect of Uncharted that makes the fourth feel like the end of an era. Of a saga. Of course the Lost Legacy is out now (still need to play it) and there is room for more smaller games like that in that universe, but Uncharted 4 is the end of a big story.

The small sections where you get to guide the conversations ever so slightly really do pay off because you feel like you got to make the choice to talk about just one thing, and you can just pick what you want to know the most. It’s something uncanny in the series before, and odd for this kind of “action blockbuster” game. It just works though, setting a tone like this is the last story Drake gets to tell, and you get to make it the kind of story you want it to be.

Journey is the other big game for me personally. Few games have just wrecked me from the inside out. While I’ve only played the game twice ever in my life, I still distinctly remember the tears the game gave me both times in its final moments of just pure bliss and freedom. It’s an incredible story told through visuals and cooperation about the journey of life and death, and it’s visual metaphors are just outstanding.

Few games have made me emotional in the way Journey has, and it absolutely helps to have Austin Wintory’s score on its side. Journey is a full sensory experience, and one I’d even confidently call the Fantasia of video games.

Thank you everyone again so much for participating. These are all incredible and interesting and, even more fascinating, modern examples, that all stand out as real cool ways games can have an affect on you.

The Checklist

Just one this week. And it’s for my boy Roger Pokorny.

IGN Stories https://t.co/kYGdR5dQCx

Roger is making video essays for IGN in a totally new initiative for them, and he is incredible. He delivers fantastic writing and editing together in a sublime series called The Rogformer show on his YouTube channel, and it’s genuinely incredible to see a big outlet like IGN take him under their wing and allow him to bring that format to their site.

Words don’t do justice how proud of Roger I am. This is a long time coming, and no doubt the first success in a string of them, but it’s absolutely worth reiterating how impressed I am with Roger and his growth. He’s a great friend, and a hard worker, and you should absolutely watch his content. It’s worth it.

THat’s my whole bit. I would have written in some more margins, but I am just simply exhausted. It’s off to sleep land for me, but I hope this alternative version of Sunday Chats is still doing you all well. I know the first iteration got a great response, so here’s hoping for round two!

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Cheers.

Goodnight

keep it real.

#video games #gaming #sotries #video game #stories #ign #narrative #emotions #affect

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