#kind of hard to work on this without getting too into spoilers as we're trying to go through the series rn

[splattergai]

i am not too familiar with how the etiquette of this works, so i have asked a few people so far, but i was just wondering if you would be comfortable creating a headmate pack for The End from The Magnus Archives? i don’t mind if they are an avatar or a vessel or the entity itself or anything you’d like! i would provide a link but tumblr eats anon asks with links :( but its the first thing that shows up when you search “the end tma”! thank you regardless and have a nice day

The End (TMA) Headmate Pack!

[ PT: The End (TMA) Headmate Pack! /end PT ]

Note: Headmate may not form exactly as described. Anything can be changed to fit your system.

Dividers by @/astrumaur [ Tumblr ] Left Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash Middle Photo by Mathew MacQuarrie on Unsplash Right Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash

Name (+ Sign-Off): Eternity, Death, Nyx (💀⚰️)

System: Fictive, watcher

Species: Eldritch Entity

Age: Ageless (Immortal)

Pronouns: it/its, rot/rots, dea/death, ve/vir

Gender: Nullgender / Gendervoid

Attraction: Unlabeled

Description: A non-malicious entity that seems to be ever-present, but doesn't actually do anything. Doesn't typically have a physical appearance, but may appear to other headmates as tentacles, skulls, or bones. When close to it, other headmates may feel a sense of fear, calmness, or any emotion that they associate with the concept of death itself. Doesn't front at all, only ever gets as close as co-con.

[the-moon-will-mourn]

now i haven't finished the dream thieves yet (i'm like,,, 7 chapters away from finishing) and i think this may contain spoilers???? but i'm not too sure yet. i'm basically gonna word vomit. i'm sorry for not using any quotes, i wish i could but i only have the ebook version and a very limited storage space on my phone where i can only have ~two books downloaded

like a normal person, i enjoy listening to video essays, see what creators want to explain to their audience and leave with a certain view, try to come to my own arguments about certain points in the videos, see if i can apply some points to other aspects of my life etc etc. (this was the type of shi that helped me with my eng lit essays rip i miss alevels) and like a normal british citizen i looked up stuff about classism in the uk. in the end, i found a video essay about classism in general and how the ultra rich try to mimic being poor to get away from their hard issues that comes with being rich (which, frankly, is probably a lot less compared to someone who is working class).

recently, i was talking to my friend about specifics in the book about certain characters and i remember we went onto the convo of making music playlists for the characters. they said "it's gonna be hard for adam [...] cuz his whole thing is about being unknowable" and it always struck me with how unknowable he truly is when reading his character because his character is intrinsically linked to his working class background. (context: i'm a middle class child of immigrants who built themselves in the uk)

it's very clear the kind of social commentary stiefvater wanted to make using adam's character with how isolating and alienating it can be coming from a working class background trying to assimilate yourself into a society of those protected and privileged enough to not have any problems with accessing opportunities. how class is a huge obstacle between interpersonal relationships and feeling safe enough to be vulnerable with your issues with being working class. how difference in class can cause one-sided shame because of the meritocratic society we're living in. how, no matter how much money you earn or how many connections you can make, your attachment to your working class identity can be enough reason to aim for something supernaturally larger than yourself.

it's evident that other characters overlook adam's social class because he's a "self-made man" (or smth) and mainly because he's their friend: adam. however, when we get a chapter in his pov, class is a driving factor in how he interacts and views everyone. we can see the privilege gansey and ronan have for being able to not even consider class as an intimidating aspect about themselves to a normal person, but it's everything to adam in the sense that he feels like his earned money doesn't give him access to a similar respect.

now that i truly think about it, it was a good idea for adam not to join them in monmouth manufacturing because it just feels like they're... mocking him in an indirect way? they have the ability to choose to live in a nice place and instead chose to live in a random, run-down building because it seemed aesthetic. adam was forced to live in a rundown trailer because that's all they could have afforded. i know gansey had good intentions for wanting adam to join them, but everything that he likes as an aesthetic (monmouth manufacturing, the run-down camaro, eating mint leaves instead of gum) can seem like he's flaunting the fact he can choose that lifestyle without any consequences.

back to the point of the meritocratic society (which we usually assume in books that take place in a similar world as our own) creating shame because of their class: the assumption that because someone has worked hard to earn what they have gives them a right to be proud. but this is the opposite for adam as he fights with the fact that he could have maybe be seen as even more equal to gansey if he had just been born with wealth.

we can frame it as, maybe, despite gansey's desire to appear working class, it only broadens the distance between him and adam. it only worsens adam's difficult relationship with his class shame despite probably wanting to be more relatable or even laid-back.

when reading the second book after his sacrifice, i was confused as to why adam was so un-adam-like. i mean, in the first book i didn't really understand him because of his huge insistance that his class makes him inherently inferior to everyone he surrounds himself with and i don't see class as an issue myself.

however, his sacrifice basically was watering the seed of ambition that was planted when he decided to aim for aglionby. it becamse clearer to me how much this opportunity to be superior, even if it's supernatural and terrifying, is important for him understanding in what he thinks he lacks. by those thoughts of what he lacks, he thought that this chance to be cabeswater's channel could be a way to compensate for his inferior social class. or something.

anyways, thank you for coming to my ted talk. this is not proofread, and my sister keeps nagging at me to shower. also i simp for gansey do not think this is me trying mischaracterising him i'm just trying to understand the theme of class in this series and having gansey as a figure to compare to is literally integral.

[akaikali]

TMAGP EP 18 REACTION (SPOILERS)

TEDDY??? Okay no this man has shown up too many times he's going to end up back at the OIAR.

HELP ME WHAT IS THIS CONVERSATION ALSO TEDDY BISEXUAL??? But also she didn't mention Colin??

"Irritating yet faintly erotic" I LOVE YOU ALICE

"She's really weird but like in a hot way" ALICE YOU'RE DOWN SO BAD PLEASE

"She'll make you forget all about your embarrassing obsession with Sam" GIRL UR PROJECTING SO HARD THE PROTOCULE IS PROTOCULING HELLO?????

Alice my love. You're so. Hhhh. She cares so much but like. Hides it behind humor. I love you sm

Lena is so awkward god I love her she's like genuinely trying to be nice to Sam but she only knows how to be intimidating because of Gwen akdhsjfb.

My God I love Lena too "consider my silence a compliment" GIRL

"Is that it's name" LENA KELLEY YOU ARE THE FUNNIEST MOTHERFUCKER ON EARTH NO ONE KNOWS YOU LIKE I DO

AUGUSTUS???? ITS A JONAH CASE???? HOLY SHIT???? I THOUGHT WE WERE NEVER HEARING THIS OLD PRICK AGAIN

Oh my God shut up. SHUT UP. IMMEDIATELY AFTER ALICE HAD A DROWNED PERSON START TALKING TO HER. This is interesting because that person was drowned but this one seems to be dehydrated???

THE FUCKING CHANGE IN TONE DURING THE TRANSCRIPT????

Wait wait spiders??? And confusing passageway and locked doors??? Hmm interesting. I know we'd classify this as The Web and The Spiral but I don't think those classifications exist in this world?? Additionally, all the talk of "Mother" makes me this of The Web being called "The mother of puppets"

I also see a bit of The Lonely. The weird filter om "laugh" bothers me.

Sam telling Alice about this being same as her experience ALSO YES SAME HES GETTING IT "sounds like she was trapped in her greatest fear which then actually killed her"

Alice come on sweetie you really shouldn't ignore this come on. You know this.

Okay I can see why Alice and Sam didn't work out in the past. Like in a way, I just don't think they could have been compatible during the time after Alice's parents death because Alice does not handle trauma well and lashes out a bit without noticing it. I'm only saying this because I do kind of feel bad for Sam, he's trying to help Alice to keep her safe but she's shutting down every idea he has.

I do get Alice's side though, in her place, she wants to put it behind her and not think about it. But it's not good for her especially not in the genre she's in lol

"Trouble in paradise" there is ALWAYS going to be trouble in paradise with those two IN FACT I highly doubt there IS a paradise.

Oh boy. What's the next monster Gwen is gonna have to deal with.

GWEN IS TELLING THEM SHIT???? OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD I GENUINELY AM IN SHOCK. I NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D TELL THEM.

Oh no. Oh no poor Gwen, she's never going to open up to anyone again. I mean I understand them thinking she's fucking with them but Jesus. She's traumatized from that.

Okay yeah Alice my girl I love you. But you keep ignoring these things and someone you care about is going to really get hurt.

GEORGIE????? OH MY GOD WE'RE HEARING GEORGIE MY GIRLFRIEND GEORGIE OH YM GOD HOLY SHIT HOLY FUCK

JACK SOUNDS SO CUTE (who keeps taking Georgie's face) AKBDKSBF

Oh dear. Okay so I'm absolutely sure Celia woke up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere again and called Georgie to watch Jack but said that it was because she went to grab baby food. Georgie knows she's lying.

Celia I like you??? Oooo????

GEORGIE AODHAKFBSB SPYING ON HER FOR THE GOVERNMENT THATS HILARIOUS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WOULDNT BE SPYING FOR THE MASONS.

Okay interesting interesting I just feel really bad for poor Gwen now. She's never going to trust them with anything again and she's probably going to be even worse to them. Which like they do kind of deserve but also like I get why they wouldn't believe her immediately? But they should have read the room she seemed genuinely distressed. And I think Alice knows it's real which is why she didn't say anything. But at the same time, she didn't stop Sam and I think it's partially because she wants to pretend it's not real.

Hooo boy lots to think about.

[elderemorune]

Beautiful IF.

This evening, my wife and I went to see a movie. This isn't anything unusual, we love the theater, and will take any excuse we can to go when she has time. Last we were able to get out just the two of us, it was to see Lisa Frankenstein, which I wholly recommend by the way. It was great, feminist as fuck, and frankly (see what I did) fun as hell.

But that's not why I'm here tonight.

Tonight, we're here for John Krasinski's IF.

IF is a movie that's part of a rare genre. The Family Film. You know, the kind that came out when millennials were children, like The Addams Family, or Hocus Pocus. A movie made for everyone to enjoy.

Now this is probably confirmation bias, since most of the fandoms I'm in are serious business, or at least they think they are, and such most of what I watch is grim, dark, or otherwise edgy. I won't deny being an edge marquis, I've been one since middle school and I'm not stopping now!

This movie, simply put, is beautiful. As we start to see more and more art about fighting (or subliminally supporting) fascism, it's like we shy away from beauty and instead want to focus wholly on how dark things are for us. And with a constant barrage of messaging like that, it's hard to stay hopeful, easy to stay mad.

Then we get a movie like IF. It takes a look at life through the most hopeful lens it can, a kid's. I don't want to get too into the story because my roommate reads this and I want them to see this as blindly as they can, but I'll tell you this: IF wants you to know that it's okay to be a kid.

But what does that mean? To be a kid? Is it to engage in wild flights of fancy where you imagine great, impossible things like an elephant made of cotton candy? Is it using play to cope with hard times? To be innocent? What is innocence anyway?

IF isn't trying to answer those questions at all. All IF cares about is that you know that it's okay to be a kid, no matter what.

For a super spoiler-free quick rundown, IF follows the adventures of Bea as she tries to help place imaginary friends (IFs) with new kids and find a new sense of purpose. Imagine (heh) Foster's Home for Imaginary (heh) Friends, but age Mac up a year and have her partner be a big furry purple guy (Hey! Like Eduardo!) named... Blue? Is this possibly an... GASP! AN EASTER EGG RIGHT THERE?! The big difference is that imaginary friends can't really be seen by anyone, except Bea and this other guy, Calvin. We'll talk about him later.

So let's talk about the rest of the movie, because there's not much more I can say without spoilers.

Just look at this man. He's distinct. You know EXACTLY what he's about, who he is, everything you need, just from looking at him.

And the same holds true of every other IF that you see (and don't) on screen. The team that worked on them did an immaculate job, perfectly capturing a child's imagination and how they see the world around them in these funny lil guys. Like how Blue is purple because his kid was colorblind, so he looked blue TO HIS KID, and how the robot IF was the kind of thing that a kid fond of taking things apart might imagine as their friend. Their personalities are all so clear, and when they're on screen they really steal the show.

Speaking of theft, let's talk the casting. Cailey Fleming plays Bea and gosh is her performance just the tops. Her first onscreen part was as young Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which I didn't watch because I just don't care much for Star Wars). This is the first place I've seen her work, and I one hundred percent believed she was actually John Krasinski's daughter.

Who, by the way, plays her dad. A lovable goofball who tries to find the fun in everything, he's sick (though we're never told with what) and is in New York for surgery. It's a big one, apparently, and there's a chance he won't wake up from the anesthesia, but he's determined to make it through. Really, what can I say about Krasinski's acting that fans of The Office haven't already said? This guy is the kind of dad I want to be when I eventually have kids.

Steve Carell voices Blue, the big purple IF on the poster. Sure, I guess if I had A critique of this movie, it's that it's another Steve Carell Funny Voice(TM) but fuck off, I had fun and it was clear he loved the project. I loved Blue, I thought he was funny and so sweet, and he was just so goddamned lovable that I genuinely had no notes.

Last, and he'd probably say least, Ryan Reynolds plays Calvin, a very handsome gentleman who can also see the IFs like Bea can. He started the effort to rehome IFs with new kids, but hasn't had much success at the time the movie starts. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, pessimistic that anything they do will work, and refers to his ability to see them as a curse, but he still does everything he can to help Bea place IFs in new homes. While still your typical wise-cracking Ryan Reynolds character, it was interesting to see him playing a character who's not about diving into things headfirst, instead giving us a more timid person who would really rather be asleep.

The cast all worked exceptionally well together. As I said, I came out of this movie truly believing that Fleming was Krasinski's daughter, and the chemistry between her and Reynolds was amazing. They really felt like friends, and I never once felt like their relationship was weird in any way. Carell and Fleming were also delightful together, with Blue serving as wonderful comedy relief.

Lastly, I guess is the score, right? I'm new to caring about this, so forgive me if I forget an important part.

Music was done by Michael Giacchino, who's score was frankly perfect. He captured the vibe perfectly, and I can honestly think of no higher praise for a film score. In particular, there was a scene that really hit me, and if the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia hadn't been the song used, I'm not sure I'd have cried near as hard.

So that's it. IF. A beautiful movie, a poignant message, and something that I think everyone could benefit from seeing.

Because what IF it's right? And it IS okay to be a kid?

That means anything is possible, doesn't it? What IF you COULD have a cotton candy elephant? Or a small army of Bionicle robots who are fiercely loyal to you as you lead them across Mata Nui to expunge the darkness? (Don't tell me you didn't do this. If you had Bionicle, you did this.)

What IF?

[greenhousethree]

Apologies for gushing but your last fic twenty-two was just so beautiful! I'm wondering how you come up with so many good details in all your fics? I'm working on getting better at imagery and would love hearing more about your process, you just have such way with descriptions!

first off, thank you so so much anon! this made my whole week!

but oof, this one is tough since i'm definitely not an authority on descriptive writing (or any sort of writing, really), and i'm not particularly introspective about the process. and twenty-two more or less fell out of my head in one piece, which doesn't happen very often for me, so i'm working a little backwards here.

so at the risk of sounding incredibly preachy, i've taken a stab at articulating how i tend to think when creating scenes. maybe some of this will be helpful?

for me as a reader, details that tend to stick out are both extremely specific and concise. the specific part comes a little easier for me when writing - picking out little actions and details from everyday life that i don't tend to read about very often - but the language precision takes more work. if a detail requires too many descriptors to convey the full picture, i'll usually revisit and search for more specific words or axe it completely.

i think it's really important to trust our abilities to describe things uniquely! which sometimes means swinging for the fences and missing entirely with an analogy that doesn't work, but i find that so much more interesting than relying on clichés.

i'll add to the choir of advocates for killing your darlings. deep down, you know if something doesn't fit. i keep a "dump now use later" doc as a personal pacifier, because it feels easier to delete an *incredibly clever* bit of wording if i think i can recycle it someday (spoiler: i won't).

i try not to think about this too hard, but syntax is a really helpful tool for flow and for characterizing a narrative voice (she says in full awareness that hermione's inner monologue in her fics sounds a lot like ginny's which sounds a lot like harry's... 😬).

i like to let descriptive verbs do the talking over adverbs an adjectives. again this is based on my preferences as a reader; i find actions to be much more immersive when they can stand alone without modifiers.

a wonderful beta changed my life by ruthlessly trimming the fat from one of my works. this is a little different than cutting out entire ideas that don't fit, more like removing filler from your sentences that dilute the point. i'm not necessarily advocating for a minimalist tone (lord knows we're far from that), but this kind of editing really helps the details pop.

a n y w a y , all of that feels very boiled down to a science, which might go against the point? i think it can be good to consider these things while editing, but i guess the biggest piece of 'advice' i would offer is to try and let your voice and your plot/ideas speak before any of the language mechanics. i usually feel most stuck when i'm too focused on phrasing something that doesn't serve the bigger picture, and zooming out to "what is this scene even doing here" often helps me realize that (ahoy, we've circled back to killing our darlings).

maybe some of that made sense, and if not i apologize, but thank you so much again anon for this humongous bit of flattery and for letting me ramble!

🌱

[rubylarkspur22]

Questions and answers below the cut. All questions for Mirrored Sunset(🔄). Manga spoilers.

1: To the Hashira, what are your crows' names, and your hobbies?

[I don't have any names picked for the Kasugai Crows, so I won't be answering that one]

Michikatsu: I usually meditate, or work on strategy. Or train. That's when I'm not wrangling Nezuko and her friends.

Douma: If I'm not training, or wrangling the kids, then I try to relax. Meditating, the occasional hot bath, whatever I have time for. On certain days, like birthdays or anniversaries, I'll visit Kotoha and tell her about whatever updates I have.

Hakuji: I mostly focus on training, especially with Keizo. But I'm also spending a lot of time with Koyuki and we're preparing for the baby.

Nakime: I usually write music and practice with my biwa. Both for my fighting techniques, as well as to play in public. The extra money from my music is certainly not unwelcome, according to Master Kibutsuji.

Gyokko: Of course, I'm working my hardest as an artist in my spare time! Those pots won't make themselves, and I can never turn down an opportunity to release my creative juices!

Gyutaro: I usually train, and I had a chance to teach Inosuke some of the skills I learned when Ume and I were in Yoshiwara.

Ume: Well, I've been learning how to sew, thanks to Nezuko, so I practice that. And I also like to try new hairstyles, on myself or Nezuko. If it's not that, I'm usually with at least one of my brothers, and maybe training, if I feel up for it.

Enmu: I usually work on perfecting my techniques, or I check in with Master Kibutsuji.

Rui: I'm usually having bonding activities with my family. We like to play games, and stuff like that.

Tamayo: I tend to spend my free time experimenting with my various drugs and poisons. Trying to create the most effective serums I can, and I'm hoping to create something we can use to kill Ubuyashiki.

2: To the Twelve Kizuki, what are your Blood Demon Arts?

Gyomei: Namu Amida Butsu. My blood, when spilled on the earth, allows me to control it.

Sanemi: I control wind. It's easiest to control the currents I create from my wounds, but I can still control normal air currents. Makes it kinda hard for those Slayers to fight when they can't use those breathing techniques of theirs...

Giyuu: Hydrokinesis.

Kyojurou: I have the ability to construct and control flames! I most often use a sword of flames, especially against Slayers!

Muichirou: I create mist... I can't remember what it does, though... [OOC: It has varying effects]

Obanai: I create snakes. Aside from Kaburamaru, of course. They're venomous, and so am I.

Mitsuri: I have so much love for everyone, that I just draw them in! And they're all so sweet, too![OOC: She has a hypnotic aura that draws people to her, and makes them incapable of attacking her.] I can also control my flesh as needed, and I've had little kittens for companions since I became a Lower Moon! They're so cute, and they let me see through their eyes, too!

Tengen: I have the flashy ability to create and use sounds. Mimicking voices, releasing sound waves, though I prefer the latter.

Shinobu: I create butterflies from my blood, and I have complete control over them. When they bite someone, they secrete a deadly venom. It's far from a quick death, if I so desire. And I do quite enjoy watching the effects from time to time! It's so fascinating!

Genya: It's kind of weird. I can get the powers from certain flesh I eat. So I can copy Blood Demon Arts, or use the elements of Slayers' breathing techniques.

Kanao: My Blood Demon Art is similar to Shinobu's, that I create butterflies. Though, mine act differently. Anyone they bite falls under my control, and will follow my orders without question. I've even made Slayers slaughter their allies, and they can't help but follow my command.

Zenitsu: I'm fast, and I also emit electricity. And I can control the output, so I either stun or kill someone.

[infinitestarsdev]

Devlog 2023-06-02

It's Friday, and not just any Friday, it's a PUBLIC RELEASE Friday! That means that EVERYONE gets to play the new public release!

If that wasn't exciting enough, we're also running a cross promotion with Llamagirl's Bastard of Camelot. We've added a new unique portrait of Galahad, one of the LI's in Bastard of Camelot and Llamagirl also created a small little short story for her fans where Merlin speaks of the things he sees in the future. (Spoiler Alert: He sees Infinite Stars!)

If you love the lore and interactions in Infinite Stars, you'll love the story of Bastard of Camelot. If you like what Llamagirl is doing, please consider supporting her on Patreon. <3

The Bastard of Camelot is a text-based interactive story wherein you play the infamous Mordred of Arthurian myths, born under an ominous prophecy heralding them as the undoing of Camelot. The player has the opportunity to shape Mordred - from personality to gender to appearance - as they grow up as a squire and become a Knight of the Round Table at King Arthur's Court. Embrace the prophecy, or try to defy it!

In addition to the cross promotion, I've also switched the Patreon billing service to subscription based, meaning if you sign up on the 15th, you get billed on the 15th of each month! That means you can now sign up to be a Patreon on the 29th of the month without worrying about being billed again on the 1st! (Existing Patrons aren't affected <3)

I've also enabled Patreon Trials for our promotion with Llamagirl, meaning you can now try 7 days of patronage for free! It's currently on the Lieutenant tier, and depending on the results we'll either discontinue the trial entirely or downgrade the access to the Ensign tier once the promotion concludes.

Now, on to Infinite Stars! We've been hard at work, with a lot of new story content dropping soon. Sadly, there isn't too much new Patreon content from last week's update to show yet, but stick around! The new build does however include three new portraits for your MC, and we can share a small teaser of some of the new crew members you'll meet soon! (The new Public build has a lot more content that Patrons have already seen, with more coming soon!)

[The image in the header is the spoiler <3]

Our Patrons have voted and the polls have closed, with a new NSFW shower scene with Commander Lochem being added to the game soon. The new poll cycle will start on Monday, where you can choose which scene we should work on next! As a side note, this is in addition to the usual content we're adding each month.

We'll also share the newest surprise pinup next week. (Alright, it's Khalil. A very VERY sexy Khalil! So don't go anywhere!)

All of you can get the latest version on Itchio.io or on Steam, and Patrons can get the latest Patreon build here: Win|Linux|Mac or Android.

Have a fantastic weekend, stay safe, and be kind to each other.

[mdhwrites]

Star Rail 2.1: Rising Like a Phoenix (Spoiler Free)

This is one of those sorts of drops for a franchise that makes the bad content look worse. I dislike 2.0 MORE after 2.1 and for a pretty obvious reason: I like Aventurine now. I know for a lot of people that might be a non controversial statement but I did an almost a scene by scene breakdown for how much I didn't think he worked in 2.0. That anything they were going for was entirely flawed.

But they got back on track and now gave us arguably one of the best main content drops in all of Star Rail... But definitely not the best to me. I still have issues with this patch but compared to where I thought Penacony started, the fact that it's now well surpassed the Loufu already as a story is miraculous.

Admittedly, it's probably rivaling starting to try and rival the Loufu and Belobog separately in cutscene length at this point. There are definitely times during this patch where they could have used the FF 14 "Multiple cutscenes are about to play in a row" warning because BOY does this patch talk a lot. It has a lot to say which is good but...

Well, unfortunately without spoilers, I'm going to sound very negative about this patch. I swear I do like it. It has interesting character work and world building to it, some of which would have been hard not to run into these sorts of problems with, and the topics are good enough to warrant real discussions of them. There's just one major problem with it.

Their engine and the fact that this still needs to go on a phone.

Presentation is the death of this patch. I want to do a whole blog on this but I've once heard a reviewer say that one of the hardest things to make interesting is "Two people talking in a room." I actually disagree with that statement, almost anything done entirely alone (which ironically is one of the parts the game tries harder with when that eventually happened) is harder but... It's not a bad supposition. After all, if all they're doing is talking, not even arguing, you can end up just having it feel like an exposition dump. Even if it's entirely character work, it can still feel like we're being told a lot instead of being shown it.

And this patch has a lot of moment, especially early on with Aventurine, where it would get thrown back with "Show, don't tell." Not just because it's character stuff but ANYTHING to break up what is going on in these scenes. There's way too many, that chain into each other, that are just people standing in environments we've already spent time in (or are just not that visually interesting in general) just standing there, talking. Some are better, even great at this in the patch, but not enough of it is. I actually had to take a break midway through it because it was all coming in as a tiring drone that was giving me a headache from how much it was just getting on my nerves for being boring.

And I kind of have to assume part of that is a concession to the mobile market which admittedly, I'm not a part of. Star Rail is literally the first gacha game I've EVER stuck with for more than a week. I play it on my PC which runs almost anything that hits the market at top graphics even four years after I got it. So I probably feel this weird disconnect of Star Rail both being a AA game and it being a mobile game more than some might.

But it also begs the question of how much could they do in scenes? How much does their engine support that? The majority of cutscenes in the game are pre-rendered after all. There are VERY few gestures built into their dialogue system, at least as far as I can tell, which mostly come down to "Arms crossed, arms dropped, maybe a couple small facial expression changes." It all makes for a very monotonous presentation that can only be saved so much with the writing.

Even in a book, this would be most unacceptable. You'd still expect breaks from the dialogue to get into a character's head, detail their fidgets, their thoughts, show what others are doing and giving character flairs to add personality to scenes. Just SOMETHING to make it feel less boring and monotonous.

Which is the weird Catch 22 of this patch. It is the sharpest Star Rail has ever been with its writing... But it's also potentially its most boring. Again, not all of it and the climax is heck of a thing, but it's still one of the few times where I just wanted the game to shut up and let me do ANYTHING. It's one of the few times I've ever needed a break during main story content besides when the Loufu pissed me off in 1.1. Being angry would still have been more of a reaction than a lot of what this patch was causing out of me.

But the boring elements will also fade and I'll be left with the best moments in my memory so I suspect that unlike 2.0, where I actually keep forgetting about how good the Firefly stuff is because the bad felt more important to me and stuck with me more, I'll forget the bad and keep the good. You know, like the fact that Welt probably gives his best performance in the entire game in this patch, or the fact that I think the game is genuinely good at some of its politicking. Its mystery is still not great by ANY means but its leaning more into the strengths of Penacony at this point which is good.

It is a patch that has resold me on the game, both for why I'm bothering to stick around and more literally in that I'm DEFINITELY pulling for Aventurine when he comes around and getting Topaz to go with him when she comes around. Helps that losing my 50/50 and my 75/25 on Acheron got me both Clara and her Lightcone finally, giving me one of the best follow up attackers in the game.

And I do think I should mention that this patch just continues the fact that Star Rail is still one of the best turn based RPGs out there right now, let alone for the price, and this patch doesn't disappoint on that front. But I'd need to get more into spoilers for that so for today, thank you all, good luck on your pulls and see you next tale.

======+++++======

My UID, because I'm trying to include this on Star Rail posts more often. 601902728

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[yaoi-yaoieverywhere]

Cale Henituse (nee Kim Roksoo- god that is so funny to say it like that) and his experience with love is undeniably Queer.

I mean that in an extremely positive way as part of the Queer community. LGBTIA+, if you use that acronym. I'm not going to specifically assign a specific gender, sexuality, or romantic leaning to Cale during this conversation either. As a character in a novel he is made by and of the author and the reader's meshed experiences.

So let's visit the beginning of his story. (Spoilers for the novel, if you haven't read it.)

Kim Roksoo was a (so far unnamed) kid whose body was stolen as a very young child by The White Star and 'infected' with his curse which was maintained by the God of Death. His mother, clearly depicted as loving him, is not enough to save him. His soul then traverses into another universe and is born again. His parents love him there too. They die too.

Kim Roksoo grows up in a world where everything he loves falls away. Something about his being is unexplainably repelling those he thinks of with love in whatever way it can manage. Simple job opportunities as seen with his social workers all the way up to stripping others of joys until they abuse Roksoo as seen with his uncle. If nothing else works, death is their end instead. Similarly, it can be read further that even things he loves are taken from him via a deliberate lack of worldly possessions and later marveling at the taste of food once he transmigrates. This is not just Beacrox being an excellent chef- even a simple fruit he picks has him drooling at the taste. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Roksoo has yet to become Cale.

The apocalypse happens. This doesn't appear to be Roksoo's fault, exactly, but it certainly trails all the damage it can after his specific place in it. By the age of twenty, whether he admits it or not, Roksoo is clearly under the impression that this lack of love is his fault. Something about him has made this happen. His love. His thoughts are shaped by this guess, and for some reason, it works. It works until he can't help but feel safer and settled with Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo.

And then the curse sees he has loved again, that he has BEEN loved for so long, and decides they have to die. At this point, GoD has noticed and decided to nip the problem in the bud. Not by removing the curse from a child long abused by it. Not in fixing the system when it would cost him something he doesn't want to spend.

Instead, he offers Choi Jungsoo and Lee Soohyuk a chance to live... If they let Roksoo die. But, of course, they love him. You don't just let death come for someone you love if you have a say. They say no. And they both die for it. Roksoo carries that weight without crying but is unable to ever forget. To forgive himself. Not even as Cale. Not even when he knows they chose it.

Team One is the team that has never had a single death under Kim Roksoo's watch, isn't it?

At this point, you may be asking what in the fresh hell any of this has to do with being Queer. Being Queer is to have society put a crowbar between you and everything you love. Especially those that love you regardless. It can feel like loving yourself is a stigma that follows you your whole life. If left alone, without support? It shapes the very way you think about yourself and others. Love comes at an unbearable cost unless you throw yourself through three different hoops of obscurity and try not to look too hard at it. And fixing that way of thinking takes years and miles and each kind touch you could ever give.

Any reader would at least eventually agree that the way Cale thinks is intentionally contradictory and even deceitful... but to who? He is absolutely certain that Choi Han is the protagonist. There is no one who should be reading his thoughts at any point. He doesn't know yet that there was a curse, especially not that it's gone now. But subconsciously, it protects him.

(He has, in some way, just lost his whole world again. And he is convinced if he can't bury the love deep enough, it's just going to keep happening.)

But this is where the change that makes this far from a doomed gay narrative kicks in. Also, the real beginning of the novel. Roksoo wakes up as Cale. He wakes up healthy, well-off, and beautiful. Loved, as well, not that it is communicated well by any party at that point.

"It's worth a try."

To Cale though this is clearly more than 'worth a try'. This is his new Life. He loves being here. While burying his love under the layers of contradiction in his mind he grabs every opportunity at friends and family with both hands.

His story is a long one full of ups and downs as he tries to heal. Slacking, I believe he calls it, undisturbed peace where he can pretend to coalesce. But his heart only mends when he is surrounded by people who have grown to trust and love this frankly pitiful man who works himself to the bone for peace. And love. And acceptance for all. And pixie dust.

There is so MUCH about Cale that can reflect anyone in the queer community that has nothing or little to do with his misery. The transition from a body that made him viscerally uncomfortable even though many would view it as peak manhood to a body he quickly and gladly labeled as Making Anything Look Good (even himself) and promptly losing all muscle mass to maintain this idea of his ideal presentation to the world? That's body euphoria gang. It's also bucking gender roles.

The ability to categorize so many people as beautiful and lovely and good while not once hitting on or thinking of them sexually or romantically gets him in the aro and the ace community's back pocket. Hell, it can also slip him right into the bi and pan groups too. And of course, many people love the idea of him being in love with Lee Soohyuk and Choi Jungsoo at the same time, happily adding Polyamorous to that list of possible roles. (Especially considering Gender Anarchy Polyamory, which is invested in the idea that you love how you love and live with who makes you happy even if it's never more than a strong platonic bond. Even if you don't ship the three sexually, they were planning to spend the rest of their lives together on a farm. Without anyone else. That's love too.)

He just... His experiences are so lived by the community once you remove the dragons and the demonic army. Especially the way he has held on for so long in a world that just seems to hate his love. Even when clearly the people in it, individually, want him to stay and be loved back. And the fact that one day he finds himself waking up to a world that while still full of hate and vitriol in places, clearly loves him back? Learning how to trust that. Isn't that what we all want?

So yeah, I said at the start of this I wasn't assigning Cale an identity, but you know what? Cale is Queer. Even if you believe or the author believes he is straight and cis and romance inclined, he has lived this experience of love being punished, so he is ours.

[tiredassmage]

Well, I think Friday night attested enough to the fact that I'm back on a swing of Tyr brainrot, so I think it's about time I get back up on my little dynamics soapbox and talk another area of his possibly logic-defying loyalties. I miss Ardun Kothe, dude. I miss that old man.

I was gonna save this until I got far enough in... whichever number playthrough edition I'm on at this point, I've lost count, but. I'm in my feelings too much to wait.

Kind of the short of it is there's... quite a bit he pulls from his relationship with the Minister that also shows up in his relationship with Ardun. Which does put Tyr in a pretty interesting position at the end of the Agent campaign, so with that said, we're naturally in pretty decently big Agent storyline spoilers for Chapters 2 & 3, so newer friends and wanderers, that will be under a cut if you wish or need to avoid those until a later date.

I almost wish I had some eloquent way to build all of this up, but I don't really feel like I do. Because what I do have is that I think Tyr's forgiveness of Ardun for the entirety of the Castellans starts almost the moment Ardun finalizes his orders.

Of course, in the moment, his entire life's just gotten upended and his priorities are... shaken, to understate. But under Castellan orders or not, Tyr's mission orders from Imperial Intelligence were to find out Kothe's plan and only then eliminate. Standing on Nar Shadaa with a blaster leveled at the man on their first meeting was thus never part of Tyr's plan to begin with.

But Ardun says enough here that will setup the rest of their relationship. "With the lives we've saved.., maybe we'll both find forgiveness."

So, what Tyr learns about Ardun here that then tracks through the rest of his time as part of his SIS team is Ardun's respected and trusted by his team - with the same kind of trust that Tyr affords the Minister of Intelligence [that is, Tyr trusts he'll never be asked to do anything unduly harmful to himself, without very good reasoning]. What Tyr defines as "unduly harmful" is... not exactly the layman, reasonable person's "unduly harmful," as pretty much evidenced by how he responds to the introduction of the Castellan Restraints and why they were used on him, but that's it's own post and more on that with his relationship with the Minister.

More than anything, I think it's that even one second at a glimpse of some sort of remorse that Tyr gets in this initial conversation that makes Ardun Kothe a man Tyr's still willing to trust, despite this being their introduction.

Because Ardun goes on to be the kind of leader Tyr's willing to follow. Kothe trusts his team, and it's hard to trust Tyr as this would-be defector because it would backfire on his team first. One of Ardun's hard-set orders is not being able to harm the team.

Then Chance is pulled off of Taris and looked after. Chance might not be able to rejoin them, but he's getting treatment. He's taken care of. In general, broad strokes, when Tyr offers trust to Ardun, Ardun responds. They've already spoken on I wouldn't trust me, either, so there's no use dwelling on it.

In the end, Tyr's takeaway - his assessment, if you will - of Ardun Kothe is that he's a man with regrets. He's another leader trying to do his best for the people reporting to him when his hands have been bound by undesirable circumstances. Unlike the tensions that develop pretty much from the start between Tyr and Hunter, Tyr never quite finds Kothe delighting in the use of the Castellans, even if he does continue to use them. And that's enough of a difference in handling for Tyr to notice and respect.

So, Ardun Kothe survives the trip to Quesh and the Shadow Arsenal - for a mix of Tyr's respect of his leadership of his team and the absolute harrowing nature and exhaustion of the last several months of work, trying to survive acting as a double agent, trying to unravel the story behind the Castellans and their use on Intelligence operatives... Tyr lets the entire SIS team walk. [Excepting Hunter, in the end, but Tyr's not particular counting the one that was playing them all against each other for bloodsport, and that's, again, not exactly for this post lol.]

And then they run into each other again on Corellia. It's for the best for both of them that Ardun believes his story when he lays out the setup of the Star Cabal. It's one interaction that could've hurt them if Ardun had insisted on taking him in - because Tyr had a job to finish, and no amount of his dissatisfaction with the Sith and the dissolution of Imperial Intelligence was going to change that Tyr believed the Star Cabal was a threat far greater than all of it. Ardun trusting his judgement.

And that leaves us with the Black Codex and the interesting... you could call it 'betrayal' of Tyr caught between his loyalty to the Minister, to Imperial Intelligence specifically, rather than the Empire as a whole, and his loyalty to his ideals, to himself - to everything Ardun is, in essence, offering by suggesting Legate stick around. Especially after the Minister just got done reminding Tyr about the difference between ideals and goals, and how theirs is a society that relies upon authority to make changes - progress.

Because there's a part of Tyr that already knows he risks the people he just spent the last several years fighting for by handing over that Codex to Ardun Kothe. Everything Tyr just spent trying to make the last gasp of Imperial Intelligence mean something, to prove their worth in their final hours is still at risk if this final proof isn't produced. If he doesn't deliver this to "safe hands."

But for all their talk of ideals... What both the Minister and Ardun Kothe have done is shown Tyr to fight for what's important to him and hang onto it with both hands, bloody knuckles and all. Because it's never guaranteed. Because someone else will always find it a risk. There's always the threat of non-conformity. The line between obedience and ingenuity, as Lokin calls it.

In a sense, choosing the Minister or Ardun, if he's able to continue working directly for either, offer him the same kind of protection: the same faith in his abilities. But behind them is still the Empire and the Republic. Neither are perfect. Tyr might be a man who's more fond of his ideals than he may realize, but he isn't naive. But the ideals of those sides on paper are not the same, and so the question becomes just as much about what are you willing to fight for? Who do you really want to be?

Ardun won't be able to magically pull him out of the precarious position Tyr ends up in by accepting Ardun's offer to maintain work as a double agent. Some might've been inclined to argue if Ardun would've ever actually pulled him out of the Empire because that wasn't even part of their original verbal agreement. In the end, the galaxy got far more messy than either of them could've predicted at the time and such musings no longer matter in an era of the Alliance.

But Tyr ultimately decided to trust the man with his life. A little remorse was enough to tell Tyr there was some recognition of the whole situation. Ardun he trusts did not do what he did out of direct malice. He looks up to him, respects him. A bit of a supportive authority and even parental figure that... Tyr didn't exactly have growing up. In this kind of work, someone like Tyr will hang on to the few people he feels he can trust and respect. There's not a lot of them. I think even just... having a connection where the openly-stated goal was to work together for something better did a lot for Tyr. There was a lot about his career in the wake of Imperial Intelligence's downfall that was isolating - and yes, some was in part because of his position as a double agent, because of that decision made with the Black Codex. But it was a reminder that it was worth it. It was possible to fight for something better. Ardun gave him that chance.

And, of course, they played a fair few hands of Centran Sabacc, by the end. Tyr will never say where he learned, but a fond, nostalgic smile will usually accompany those memories of evenings spent between missions playing cards with the SIS team, checking weapons with Saber and Wheel, wresting with Chance. Those were the kind of memories, the kind of friends worth fighting for.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World: Chapter 1: An Empty Road

Welcome back to my reread! As will always be the case but isn't usual yet because we're just getting started, this post has spoilers for everything ever and should not be looked at if you don't want to see those. In fact, just telling you that spoils this very post, so it's already too late!

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

A comfy paragraph that feels like home. Someone could literally plagiarize this and I wouldn't care because it's such a good way to start! More book series should try and have very consistent beginnings, it really adds a lot.

Oh, and I should probably mention chapter headers. This guy has the "Wheel and Snake" motif, which is a generic Plot kind of deal.

Note that I am skipping over a second prologue that was added to these books when they were (for some reason) trying to make a YA version of the series that cut each book in half. That prologue, "Ravens", is one I've never read (or maybe I have but only once) and features Egwene al'Vere a few years before the series begins. Maybe I'll circle around to it someday, but I'm very big on only accepting works as they initially were (barring fixing typos or outright plot holes) and not with a whole bunch of doodads attached.

...the wind blew east, out across the Sand Hills, once the shore of a great ocean, before the Breaking of the World...

Interestingly, the most likely body of water for this to be is actually the Mediterranean, not any of the oceans proper.

Gusts plastered Rand al’Thor’s cloak to his back, whipped the earth-colored wool around his legs, then streamed it out behind him.

Rand has a lot of associations with wind (Loial even notes it in-universe) and also the land, so it's appropriate that we get both here with the wind blowing through the earth-colored wool. Note as well that while the earth is protecting him (though not especially well), the wind has been turned by the Shadow into something hostile.

He felt a little foolish about wanting to reassure himself that Tam was still there, but it was that kind of day.

Considering his later thoughts about wolves and bears, it doesn't even seem that foolish. Take it from someone who just a few weeks ago was dealing with being separated from family on a Canadian highway that definitely had bears.

Without thinking he touched the nock of the arrow; it was ready to draw to his cheek in one smooth movement, the way Tam had taught him.

Tam's influence on Rand looms large over the series, which does set up the reversal in TGS and the breakdown it causes quite well.

Wolves raided the sheep pens and chewed their way into barns to get the cattle and horses. Bears had been after the sheep, too, where a bear had not been seen in years.

It's rather interesting to imagine what might have happened to Perrin if Moiraine hadn't taken him away. The wolves would likely worm their way into his head by about the time he met Elyas in canon anyway, only he'd be in such a different context it's not hard to imagine him going really off the rails. Someone who actually finishes what they started should write a fic!

With his thick chest and broad face, he was a pillar of reality in that morning, like a stone in the middle of a drifting dream.

And Tam's being a metaphorical pillar of reality is of course set up for the fact that by the end of the series Rand himself will be a literal one. It's really impressive how clearly Jordan saw the ending of the series; the Slog in my opinion is likely a product of his uncertainty in how to get there.

[Rand's mother] had been an outlander, and Rand remembered little of her aside from a smiling face, though he did put flowers on her grave every year, at Bel Tine, in the spring, and at Sunday, in the summer.

It's terrible being a mom for a protagonist, even an adoptive mother. Death is the best you can hope for.

But Tam had given his word about the brandy and cider, even if he had waited to make delivery until the day before Festival. Keeping his word was important to Tam.

"Belief and order give strength." If Tam had accompanied Rand on this journey, the whole thing would have been over in five days tops.

As Rand watched his side of the road, the feeling grew in him that he was being watched. For a while he tried to shrug it off. Nothing moved or made a sound among the trees, except the wind. But the feeling not only persisted, it grew stronger. The hairs on his arms stirred; his skin prickled as if it itched on the inside.

This is of course Rand's channeler sense for Shadowspawn. Does this mean he's already channeled at some point this winter, or do sparks like him get the various gifts before they start because it's inevitable that they will anyway? I wonder if Nynaeve (and maybe Egwene if sparks do get the spidey sense before channeling) has spent the last few days being itchy as all hell and not having a clue why. It would add another reason to her bad temper over being asked about the weather.

Not more than twenty spans back down the road a cloaked figure on horseback followed them, horse and rider alike black, dull and ungleaming.

"You're in the wrong franchise! Hobbiton's on the other side of the shelf, between Rosewater and Sounis!"

I get that Jordan had to channel a bit of Tolkien because it was the 80s and that's how you got published, but I have to say that sometimes I think he leaned a little too far into it. At least Myrdraal get weirder as we go.

There was only shadow to see in the hood

If Sanderson had been writing the series from the start, he would have rationalized that a Fade being able to step out of any shadow means it could step out of the shadow of its hood and then repeat the process to gain altitude rapidly, allowing the Shadow to orbitally bombard its enemies when the Fades stopped and fell back to Earth.

Abruptly a stone caught his heel and he stumbled, breaking his eyes away from the dark horseman.

Rand was a shy, awkward, inwardly beautiful teenage girl, just like you.

(Seriously folks, plot-convenient clumsiness is not gender specific and we should call it out in our boy protagonists too!)

Tam shook his grizzled head. “If you say so, lad. Come on, then. A horse leaves hoofprints, even on this ground.”

More proof of Tam being a good dad that even though Rand's talking nonsense, he checks it out. Of course, it wouldn't be surprising if Tam had experience with Shadowspawn somehow. Probably not though, since he was mostly involved in Illian and the Aiel War.

The wind that beat at Tam and him had not so much as shifted a fold of that black cloak.

More on the earth/air duality, with air being the masculine half tainted by the Shadow.

once he had even gone to the very foot of the Mountains of Mist, him and his closest friends, Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara.

Two complete nobodies who we'll never hear about again, naturally.

Today, though, the Westwood was not the place he remembered. A man who could disappear so suddenly could reappear just as suddenly, maybe even right beside them.

Maybe even fall on you from orbit!

Though I suppose the earth half of things being unfamiliar now does cut against the symbolism I'm envisioning, but I'll leave resolving that as a Freudian exercise for the reader.

Rand managed a weak smile. Of all things he might want to think about right then, the Mayor’s daughter was far down the list. He did not need any more confusion. For the past year she had been making him increasingly jittery whenever they were together.

18 seems a little late to be hitting puberty, Rand. Seriously, if it weren't for the narration earlier calling him and Tam "two men", I'd assume he was supposed to be 14-16 at this point.

“Remember the flame, lad, and the void.”

This technique actually does kind of work! I've used it a lot during painful dentistry and stuff. Sadly, I'm no good at remembering it when I'm in an emotional state, which is when it would be most useful, but maybe someday I'll learn.

(Probably not.)

Some said the land was too rocky, as if there were not rocks everywhere in the Two Rivers, and others said it was hard-luck land. A few muttered that there was no point getting any closer to the mountains than needs be.

Having recently been exposed to the "The Two Rivers is contaminated with radioactive fallout from the Trolloc Wars" theory, I have to note that this feels a bit like evidence for it even though I don't believe it in general - in particular, the cats having a weird number of toes happens all over the place in real life when they start getting too inbred.

goodwife

This is an interesting word choice! Goodwife (masculine "goodman"; abbr. "goody", from which we get "goody two-shoes") is an archaic form of address that started in the 1300s and died by the 1800s, with the English and Scots using it first and the Puritans later. It referred to women of high social status but non-gentry in Europe and in America we have no clue what exactly the Puritans meant except that it was respectful. Here in EF, the term likely either descends from the days when there were gentry to talk about, or has arisen in the Puritan sense.

Whether or not leaves had appeared on the trees, no woman would let Bel Tine come before her spring cleaning was done.

And here we come to Jordan's worldview again. The Two Rivers folk are meant to be pretty gender egalitarian, but here we see that they have the exact division of labor that the idealized American town does, with women doing interior chores and men doing exterior ones. This is treated as being inevitable, even though of course it doesn't have to be and in most real societies gendered division of labor is only ever a sunny day ideal and abandoned in part or in whole in rougher times like we're supposed to be in now, with spring a month late. Hell, even in a culture with similar gender norms to the west, ("Women care about the house, men do rough work"), you could easily see them ending up dividing things the other way, with women expected to thatch the roofs to maintain their nes- I mean homes and men beating the shit out of carpets because their big manly muscles let them get it done faster. See how easy it is to use sexist logic to justify the exact opposite of what western sexism usually does? (Fun fact: That's because sexist logic is almost completely arbitrary.)

It would be rather nice to see a generic Arcadian farming village that has radically different expectations for men and women while still being superficially similiar to the ideal homestead, really. Jordan missed an opportunity.

Tam spoke of damage from winter storms, each one worse than the one before, and stillborn lambs, of brown fields where crops should be sprouting and pastures greening, of ravens flocking in where songbirds had come in years before.

As a big corvid fan, seeing them always be associated with evil when they're really quite social and intelligent makes me sad.

[Wit] never seemed ready to start over, or to finish what he started the first time. Most of the Coplins and Congars were like that, those who were not worse.

Kind of odd to transition from "Life is hard out here and people who aren't willing to work hard can't cut it" to "Meet the Shithead and Lazyfuck Clans, the inbred hicks." It's realistic to have shittier families in communities, but usually these families in the real world at least have something going for them.

“What are we going to do about Nynaeve, al’Thor?” Congar demanded. “We can’t have a Wisdom like that for Emond’s Field.”

Wait a few days and the problem will take care of itself, Wit. Ten whatever-kind-of-coins-are-legal-tender-here says that he was probably the first to bitch about their village not having a Wisdom the second Nynaeve crested a hill and disappeared from view.

“You try meddling in Women’s Circle business, and see how you like eating your own cooking. Which you won’t do in my kitchen. And washing your own clothes and making your own bed. Which won’t be under my roof.”

Guess Daise married from outside the clan, since she seems like a relatively decent sort. Also note again the 1950s division of labor; plenty of dudes knew how to do "women's work" across history because even if you were lucky enough to always have a mommy-wife (yes that's exactly how icky 1950s-lovers are) on hand and never had to go to war or a logging camp or spend a few years in early adulthood fending for yourself, sometimes Mrs. Mommy would be bedridden from all the exhaustion of being a brood mare with unrealized aspirations and then you'd have to learn how to keep the household going anyway because hiring (or enslaving) a dark-skinned maid to do everything for you wasn't an option.

When they saw Tam, the goodwives of Emond’s Field went on point like hounds spotting a rabbit.

I feel like this is another bit of Jordan's local culture being mistaken for human nature. There's definitely gals who will try to set you up if they know you're single, but there's guys who'll pull the same stunt and neither gender has a 100% attempt rate unless compelled to by their society. Then again, for all of it being presented as the ideal, the Two Rivers community is definitely all about meddling in each other's business and assuming you're too stupid to breathe because you don't have the right kind of genitals, so I suppose it makes sense the women feel like they have to.

Worst of all were those who paused thoughtfully at about that point, then asked with elaborate casualness exactly how old he was now.

Based on later books, Egwene would have been pissed to hear about this. It's probably not canonical in later books though, since the exact details of their relationship change quite a bit in the first three.

Outsiders sometimes found it funny that the road had one name to the north and another to the south, but that was the way it had always been, as far as anyone in Emond’s Field knew, and that was that.

I struggle to think what rock these outsiders must have been living under to find the idea of a road changing names funny. It's the sort of thing that happens when two separate roads are brought together, and I know that the west is slowly decaying, but still.

No one knew when the custom began or why—it was another thing that was the way it had always been—but it was an excuse to sing and dance, and nobody in the Two Rivers needed much excuse for that.

It's a dick joke, ya hicks!

Or possibly a reference to the queen blowing herself up. That seems more dignified.

And to top everything, if the rumors could be believed, a grand display of fireworks was planned for the Green—if the first peddler of the year appeared in time, of course.

Another moment that feels a bit too Tolkien, with the book opening on a celebration graced with fireworks, but hey at least the Illuminators end up having a lot of plot relevance in this story, so it builds well.

At the south end of the inn, away from the stream, stretched the remains of a much larger stone foundation, once part of the inn—or so it was said.

I would guess that the foundation was once the local garrison in Manetheren, or at least a more prominent building for the village mayor. Maybe even a place where Andorians of import might stay, since it would have to be relatively recently ruined to have not been torn apart by the tree roots in the last few hundred years.

“An ill omen,” a scratchy voice announced, “no storks nesting on the rooftops at Bel Tine.” Cenn Buie, as gnarled and dark as an old root, marched up to Tam and Bran and leaned on his walking staff, near as tall as he was and just as gnarled.

Narrative doesn't treat Buie kindly either (and not unfairly), but he's not wrong here. Things are only going to get worse, especially here in the Two Rivers.

Ask the Wisdom when the winter will end, and she walks away. Maybe she doesn’t want to tell us what she hears on the wind. Maybe what she hears is that the winter won’t end. Maybe it’s just going to go on being winter until the Wheel turns and the Age ends. There’s your point.

It's interesting that while Cenn thinks Nynaeve is too young, his fearmongering here is based on the assumption that she is perfectly competent. This double think is quite distressingly common in certain circles.

Rand’s smile broadened; it did not sound as much like fun to him as it would have a year or two back, but Mat never seemed to grow up.

Again, this sequence feels like it works better with Rand and Mat being 14-16, with badger pranks seeming like something more fun at 12-14. I wonder if, a bit like GRRM, Jordan assumed he'd have some time skips in his story that would get Rand into his 20s from a younger age, and then abandoned the concept as the plot continued to demand immediate action.

“Funny how being scared takes you. You think strange things. I actually thought—just for a minute, mind—it might be the Dark One.”

Mat's not too far off!

“The Dark One and all of the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, beyond the Great Blight, bound by the Creator at the moment of Creation, bound until the end of time. The hand of the Creator shelters the world, and the Light shines on us all.”

Note that it's not quite true: not all of the Forsaken are bound, none of them were bound by the Creator (arguably not even the Dark One), and the Forsaken are all about to break free. Over the past few millennia the Forsaken have really had a glow-up.

“My mother always said the Forsaken would come for me if I didn’t mend my ways. If I ever saw anybody who looked like Ishamael, or Aginor, it was him.”

Considering that Ish is currently serving flaming looks and Aginor is decayed as all hell, this is again not all that wrong.

Now his name came up whenever a washline dropped the laundry in the dirt or a loose saddle girth deposited a farmer in the road. Mat did not even have to be anywhere around. His support might be worse than none.

While I do think Nynaeve and Egwene are too hard on the boy, it's important to remember that this is Mat's reputation at the start of the series: his own best friend doesn't want his public support on a major issue.

Rand stared wonderingly. No one traveled beyond the village by night, not these days, certainly not alone.

Why did Thom come in the dead of night? Taren Ferry should have been a perfectly good place to stop, and with things being like they are you wouldn't think him in much of a hurry to wander among the wolves even though he can take care of himself. Do we get an answer to this?

That alone is worth the expense of bringing him down from Baerlon.

Oh and Thom's been close enough that he'd know all the environmental dangers quite well, so that really just makes me all the more curious.

“You have a head on your shoulders when you choose to use it,” Bran said. “He’ll follow you on the Village Council one day, Tam. Mark my words. He couldn’t do much worse right now than someone I could name.”

We can see here that Rand really is a political thinker, though of course he's going to rise far beyond a simple village council.

“Oh, why not?” Mat said resignedly. “Like your da said, the quicker it’s in the cellar. . . .” Picking up one of the casks of cider in both arms, he hurried toward the inn in a half trot.

And we can see here that Mat really is good to his friends, even if he is a rogue.

And that's pretty much chapter one! Rand and dad walk down a road, Rand sees an incarnation of evil, dad gossips throughout the village, local crotchety old man and scheming youth spread rumors. Like the prologue, this sequence wasn't really particularly adapted by the show. We instead have:

Moiraine giving us a really awkward summary of the plot thanks to executive meddling.

And it's here I should point out how many different reasons season 1 needed to make changes from the book. There's executive meddling, there's plague, there's the inevitable changes from page to screen, there's stuff that is clearly about appealing to the director, there's stuff that seems to be about keeping Rosamund Pike onboard, there's... a lot. And Rafe gets the blame for all of it which is really unfair because properly speaking we should only blame him for the stuff that's about appealing to himself. Blame Jeff Bezos for this one, folks. Anyway then we get:

Liandrin (who isn't even in this book!) and her posse of Rad Red Bad Bitches hunting down... let's pretend it's Gorin Rogad even though the timeline doesn't line up at all, and also Gorin's imaginary best friend. Moiraine and Lan watch from above and decide to go to Two Rivers.

Lots of people who want to make everything about culture wars complain about Obviously Evil Witch Liandrin being Horribly Misandrist In Ways That Sexism Has Never Been Done Before in this scene and I don't have patience for that kind of nonsense either. The scene's kinda rushed I think, and I am even more flummoxed by there being rumors of anything out of the Two Rivers, let alone four ta'veren, but whatever, plot's happening.

Egwene gets her hair braided for the first time (a practice mentioned in this chapter) and then Nynaeve tries to kill her to prep us for the saidar metaphor.

Frankly this is also rushed - a real problem in this episode because they wanted extra time for the premiere but were told to go feed their mothers to the Myrdraal while Jeff Bezos swam in a bathtub filled with 50 dollar bills - and because of all the cuts this episode had for time it feels a bit weirdly out there, but again we really needed to make surrender as literal and visual for TV watchers as possible so I know what's up.

Our closest scene to the books is Rand and Tam taking the old road to town and Rand freaking out about something that he assumes is wolves.

It's very abrupt and Rand is kinda douchey with his "I used to be a sap" line. It also used to be the first scene in the episode (I remember the outrage when people found out they were skipping the prologue) but the execs clearly forced it to be shuffled around. Probably would have been longer too.

Cut to town. People are setting up for Bel Tine and the air is generally happy instead of nervous like the books. Rand and Tam unload in the tavern and then Rand drinks with his friends, Mat, Perrin, and somebody else! She beats Mat at dice, Mat begs his friends for cash to keep carousing while bitching that Perrin is a good husband and accusing Rand of being a sheepfucker, and Egwene arrives with everyone very happy that she lived after the murder attempt.

Generally I think it's smart to trim down the parts of this chapter after the rider even in an episode that isn't desperately trying to fit into an hour, and introducing Perrin alongside Mat is something that works well for TV because it's easier to have interweaving conversations in real time. It also isn't a bad idea to age the characters up some (Rand and crew have to be about 20 now, per Moiraine's comments while watching Gorin get gentled) and abandon kiddie activities like badger pranks.

That said, the generic wholesomeness of the town is gone and that one lady who has spilled booze all over herself needs to slow down, like geez, you don't even know if Egwene is alive yet so why are you clearly already sauced? Hell, why is Rand carousing if he should be worrying whether or not his girlfriend was dashed against the rocks? Why is the mayor just chatting with Tam like nothing is up? That river initiation ceremony cannot possibly have a 100% survival rate and I suspect very strongly that its initial placement in the script was very different and only patched together like this because they didn't have time because seriously.

Oh and this is as good a place as any to talk about the elephant in the room to clear out the wrong sort of people before they get any ideas: no, the Two Rivers is not the bastion of Racial Purity it is in the books (we'll discuss that more in the reread when it starts coming up beyond a single acknowledgement that Rand doesn't look like most other folk here), and fuck no that is not remotely a problem. Even ignoring the sheer difficulty of getting enough extras of any ethnic group (and guess what people, "white" is too broad a group in this context and does not constitute a distinct "look" like the Two Rivers people have, you'd have to do "Polish" or "Irish" or something and then you're still making casting everything else a pain in the arse), the simple fact of the matter is that Zoë Robins is perfect as Nynaeve, Madeleine Madden is perfect as Egwene, Barney Harris was perfect as Mat, and maybe someday Marcus Rutherford will grow on me as an actor or at least get a subplot that isn't stupid or both! Together they cover a very broad range of human ethnicity and getting rid of any of them (let alone *most* of them) for racial reasons would be pathetic and would hobble the show even more than Amazon and COVID already managed to do. Shame on you for suggesting it and good day - good here being a word meaning "I hope you achieve some semblance of enlightenment about how wrong you are, which would be very good indeed, now begone!".

And on that note, I really want to go and play video games now, so I'm off as well. See you next time with chapter two: Strangers!

[isekai-crow]

Doctor Elise Ep 3-4

I cannot express enough how fun of a potato chip this show is. I had a fever this week and this was a great lil show to watch that didnt require me to think.

As a self proclaimed shonen bro whose not normally into shojos, I enjoyed the manga, and the anime is doing a good job despite not being one of the "big names". It might also be my love of medical dramas from the early 2000s peaking in. I can turn my brain off to watch it and just have fun by going "WTF w h y", and poking fun at how broken some aspects of this world are while still thoroughly enjoying it.

It's definitely the kind of show that probably won't hold up to scrutiny for the world building, so. Just. Don't think too hard about the specifics of what's happening! Then the power fantasy pieces won't break through your suspension of disbelief! Because IV bags did not exist during the Crimean War in the 1800s which seems to be where this fantasy setting is taking place.

But I'm gonna go and point out all the broken bits below because its so much fun (not bashing at all!).

Also my favorite boy shows up! Doctor Graham!! We love a boy whose not there to be a rival or love interest, and respects the Lady and they get to be bros!

Look at this silver haired ponce of a bishonen, he's delightful, ascot and all!

He's voiced by Hosoya, Yoshimasa - Rainer Braun from Attack on Titan, Nezumi from NO.6, WOLFWOOD FROM THE NEW TRIGUN STAMPEDE!! Tokoyami from BNHA, and Sousuke from Free!

DAMN THEY PICKED A GOOD VOICE FOR MY BOY.

More spoilers/screen shots below the cut!

Elise shows up for work as Rose at the No Cultural Touchstone For Mother Teresa Hospital, the genius young doctor Graham is supposed to take care of her but he's busy and assumes like everyone else that a young well-off lady will run from the sight of blood soon enough, and so sticks her in the HOSPICE WARD.

HHMMMM I WONDER WHY ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE ON THEIR DEATH BEDS???? COULD IT PERHAPS BE... UH... SANITARY REASON?? SHOULD HOSPITALS BE SANITARY??? NAHHHH THE DIRTY ROTTING BANDAGES ON THE FLOOR AREN'T MAKING THINGS WORSE, NO WAAAAAAAAY.

These poor overworked shift nurses seem to have no idea what they're doing, but thankfully we have a returner with concepts of modern day sanitation who cleans the place up!

She then finds a dude with bed sores and realizes no one knows what SEPSIS IS, and is like. Get me a scalpel, it's my first day, I've never held a scalpel in my read:this life, I'M DOIN' A SURGERY TODAY. I'VE GOT GALAXY BRAIN TO HELP ME.

I love these shots they're great.

SHE PROCEEDS TO CUT INTO THE DUDES BACK LIKE SHE'S DRAWING FREE FORM SELECTION ON MS PAINT AND THEN JUST HITS CTRL-X DELETE.

That's not A tissue, that's HIS (necrotic) tissue! I sure hope this dude has pain killers or is drunk off his ass with vodka because DAMN.

All the other in-patients are so happy she's here, they feel better already with her bright and happy personality! Normally this would feel really creepy and sexist, but this juuuuuust squeaked by as not coming off that way.

Jump cut to the King! Only 12 people in this world know what diabetes is! How is Elise going to get away with having known about it?? Probably more hand waving!!

Now, we either get a time skip, or she's literally been working all night, but Dr. Graham walks in on her dozing, thinks he's got the wrong place, and proceeds to scold her for performing surgery without permission. But then he takes her on rounds and we're in a medicial show!!!!

IS THAT A FUCKING IV BAG?

IT IS!!!! THOSE WEREN'T INVENTED UNTIL THE LATE 1800s!! At least its a glass bottle, and not a plastic bag like I initially assumed?? But I guess the Crimean War was in the 1850s and this type of open glass bottle IV was from the 1900s so... Wooo Fantasy Europe!! -waves hand rapidly to shoo you on-

This man is having a time trying to figure out what the fuck. But he's pretty.

It takes him a bit to come to terms with her abilities but then he's just so happy to have another Doctor Bro who Actually Cares that he's behind her with full support! Which yay! But also becomes a tool of sorts, to kind of hand wave away the concept of sexism in the medical field to the point where it doesn't seem to exist. Which is also what makes this such a light show, because it doesn't even try to handle said topics, it just erases them completely with regards to medicine.

Equal numbers of men and women as doctors! The women aren't relegated to nurses! Yay! No critical thinking needed here.

My favorite part of this though, is that they DO tease at it. When Elise makes a different call from the doctor she's following in Ye Olde ER, he kind of stutters and is flabbergasted and panicked, while the female doctor is immediately like, I GOTCHU SIS, and steps in to help her as she proceeds to STAB A DUDE IN THE CHEST WITH A SYRINGE.

She's so pretty with blood on her face.

We're in episode 4 by this point, and its the "Festival Episode" common to many isekai romance manhwas, but of course, Elise is a doctor and so she's working the ER instead of attending.

However this is the episode that proves there is magic in the world, and WE GET A SECOND VA FOR THE PRINCE. He transforms into "Lord Ron". We also get a glimpse of his tragic back story!

His bodyguard gets a knife pulled on him and THEN A GUN. New Technology Discovered: Guns! I should hope they had those figured out before IV tech, but you think they'd know about general sanitation being important as well.

Dude's been shot in the SPLEEN!!! OW MY SPLEEN! They don't have a splenectomy in Fantasy Europe, oh no!

Elise puts up such a persuasive argument, and the dude is dying, so they might as well let her try to save him. And look, the prince Lord Ron has field surgery experience and offers to help!

SUDDENLY THERE IS ELECTRICITY. WHAT WERE THOSE OIL LAMPS IN THE GRIMEY DEATH WARD???

MS PAINT SCALPEL FTW!! It's not bad for the limited time they likely had to anime each episode, and the fact that they're putting more emphasis on the conversations. For comparison, this scene in the manga ↓

Surgery is a success! Yay! Elise is asked to write up a report abotu the surgery as it will be the first ever recorded splenectomy.

and then. Blushing Prince is Adorable, even in disguise. Love us some blushing boys.

But by far the most accurate part of this show so far...

Even in a Fantasy Europe Hospital the doctors have shitty handwriting lmfao

[sketching-shark]

Im kinda am getting annoyed how much they r avoiding saying swk actual name. Like whats the point of him having a name if the show is not gonna refer to him with his name besides having moments of characters chastising him using his first name. Ie: just yelling out wukong.

Liek i want to here his various other titles besides monkey king. Its pretty weird how they’re solely just calling him monkey kings when hes just 1 of many monkey kings :/

Sometimes, i wonder if they knew that they could have kept swk w all of complex characteristics without having to downplay any of it so they can uplift mk. (Mk is such a amazing character dont get me wrong i do adore him. But it suck that in a equivalent exchange of a good character we get a frankly a worse vers of sun wukong.

Like not even other versions of swks ever acted(or granted made such repeated mistakes) like how lmk swk do. Like theres no one defending him within the shown(mk doesn’t count bc literally thats his teacher. But even he himself doesn’t realize he’s afraid of becoming like swk.) and as much as lmk writers, producer etc etc. want, they have to actually have to show swk’s side. Bc by the time lmk is over, its going to v hard to give him justice when almost everyone have a right idea of keeping him away bc how much hes a danger to everyone.

I also am a lmk LEMH hater forever. i just think he shouldn’t of have that type of importance to swk when hes just a dude w a pent up superiority/inferiority (he can have both bc yea)complex thats in a parasocial relationship to swk. Like sure he died and all but so did all the other demons in jttw. Hell he didn’t got the vore kill treatment like other demons like azure lion did.

Monkie Kid spoilers below

AWETTHGRFRWETETFGDSD THE VORE KILL TREATMENT THAT'S A PHRASE THAT WILL STICK WITH ME FOREVER ANON.

But YEAH this is a pretty good summary of many things said before anon...in particular it's genuinely disheartening how Qi Xiaotian's experiences have brought him from a state of being excited at the thought he could be like Sun Wukong to now being terrified that he's destined to be like the Monkey King...but then again how could be not be. We're now 4 seasons in and everything just gets worse and worse for the little monkey lego man in large part because of the things his shifu did or failed to do. At this point even with the hints of the torture headband making a significant appearance, trying to defend or even understand SWK's actions in the present kind of seems like a fool's errand, and I genuinely am worried that no backstory Flying Bark gives their version of the Monkey King will provide a satisfactory reason for why he acts the way he does. As it is there's been a pretty consistent flow of popular fan works about the Monkey King getting punched & yelled at & portrayed as completely in the wrong, and well I do not see that ending any time soon given the events of canon material :(

As always I want to note that I'm fully capable of being too negative and pessimistic & forgetting the good sides of SWK's lego show character and that yeah obviously there's a lot of other characters running around with more antagonistic intentions (including perhaps this mysterious person who may be behind Azure Lion being freed as part of some greater scheme). But between this already firmly established characterization of SWK as a liar who's ideas routinely end in nothing but catastrophe for even those he loves and the show itself pretty clearly having little interest in including SWK in the story's adventures outside of an explodey ending or being a problem that needs to be dealt with because of his disastrous decisions (given how much he keeps getting shoved out of the plot), well...you can see why many people think this could easily end with even Qi Xiaotian thinking Sun Wukong is a lost cause.

[bakafox]

Veilguard critical critical rant, be warned

TLDR:

For personal mental health's sake, and society's sake, and also if we even want some franchises to keep being franchises outside of fanfiction- I think it's a peace we have to all make with any media franchise we love that's going to last longer than a couple of years, that it is going to change, and not all the ideas and ideals whether story or based in the technology or (especially) the amount of work needed to pull them off will stick.

We're not going to like all the chapters the same way. We might even really dislike some chapters. And maybe we'll decide we don't even want to give certain chapters a chance because the vibe or early critiques of it are off- but it's something to maybe do without seeing it all or acting and speaking as if it is some kind of personal attack or personal affront, or by claiming the people who worked on the project were ignorant or didn't love it.

Mild VG general storyline spoilers are late in the rant.

I know that even though I love the game, others do not, and tastes vary so hey, it's cool. A mutual of mine thinks the combat is a slog, that's a totally fair opinion. An artist I started following for DAI stuff feels it's "MEH".

But I feel like a lot of the DAVG critical stuff I wind up seeing is from people looking at past games through rose-tinted glasses in terms of what sorts of choices there were or how things were integrated in from any previous game, which leaves me confused, maybe a bit salty because I am confused, but ok, not what super bothers me.

I'm equally baffled and so a bit salty about an expectation of more southern Thedas stuff being brought into northern Thedas when northern Thedas had so little to do with southern in previous games beyond, well, the cult and elves getting sold out of Denerim. Or how some criticisms seem to forget how much time has passed as well as geography between the different DA games. Still not my worst frustrations, though.

What super bothers me is I feel this sense of entitlement mixed with the worst-faith takes on why maybe Veilguard *is* more simple than previous games, and why they reneged on the idea that 'your choices matter'.

What I see in Youtube comments and so on are people talking about Bioware 'forgetting their lore' or 'deciding we don't matter', often because of that DAI era 'your choices matter' thing, and some just take the more reasonable view that it's frustrating, while others are acting like it's Bioware deliberately shitting on them in some way but like...

Devs have been very open about how hard they found it to keep that stuff up with the Mass Effect franchise at least that I am aware of, and I assume it's just as difficult to do it in Dragon Age. I think the idea was a fun one that they underestimated the difficulty of with the changing technologies and also just budgets and time tables game developers have to work with.

It isn't because the devs hate or don't know the franchise, or are dismissing fans and players, it's very likely because honestly, trying to fit in a lot more choices as cameo content would have just stretched things entirely too thin.

Just the choices leading to who would be the Warden you meet in DAI tripled their workload for that quest in certain areas- and yet also, it had no bearing on what happened in the quest beyond me feeling less guilty if it was Loghain being left in the Fade because I despise that toxic motherfucker. You still left either him or Hawke in it. It was a nice nod to player choice, but not an intrinsic part of game storyline. They could have thrown a dart at a dartboard with different possible wardens, gone with whatever it landed on, and it wouldn't have been as cool for them to announce some choice as canon, but it wouldn't have altered the outcome.

So now- how much work would it be for them to work in some quest where you get to see your Hawke if you spared them there, or one of the three Wardens if you didn't? Getting the voice actors back, and everything, on top of all the code or writing switcheroos?

I think they sadly overhyped the idea with DAI, before realizing they just could NOT keep it up on what is, to EA, a niche series with niche fans. Yeah it's a AAA game, but EA had to be convinced to let it ride as a single player RPG to begin with, because they'd been wanting the 'future' of multiplayer and online services. It isn't a game EA is counting on to keep their lights on, and certainly EA isn't going to hesitate to shut down Bioware and toss the DA IP into a closet forever if this game doesn't give enough profit margin.

Since I still like the game and franchise, that'd make me sad, but this is not me saying people who don't want it should buy it, or people who don't like it need to like it. But the enemy if there even IS one, when it comes to scaling back on ideal planning is the capitalism and the crunch, is not the developers who worked personally on the game and tried to incorporate things they definitely did love about previous DA games into it.

And the changes weren't made out of ignorance, much less malice. They're just... changes, and not signs that someone up there hates or scorns us or didn't do any homework before making the game.

And I think it's the kind of changes that fans of any franchise have to get used to happening, because they do happen in pretty much every franchise I know of, and in most of the ones I know of some people are constantly exploding about the changes in exactly the same ways. Treating whatever's disliked as if it's some manner of deliberate attack being made at worst, or still a bit meh, claiming that the people involved never loved the source material, never cared about the setting. (Which is true sometimes some showrunners outright say it! But not all the time, and there is no actual sign of this being a problem with any Dragon Age game to date.)

For personal mental health's sake, and society's sake, and also if we even want some franchises to keep being franchises outside of fanfiction- I think it's a peace we have to all make with any media franchise we love that's going to last longer than a couple of years, that it is going to change, and not all the ideas and ideals whether story or especially if based in the technology or amount of work needed to pull them off will stick.

We're not going to like all the chapters the same way. We might even really dislike some chapters. And maybe we'll decide we don't even want to give certain chapters a chance because the vibe or early critiques of it are off- but it's something to maybe do without seeing it all as some kind of personal attack or personal affront, or claiming the people who worked on it were ignorant or didn't love it.

[illgiveyoumygavichal]

Uh kinda datv spoilers here cause I need to be excited and my gf doesn't appreciate my enthusiasm.

I'll probably always save Terviso because, measured up to Dock Tock, it has distinctly less defenses.

This game is weirdly long and short... like, it's shallow and relies heavily on big lore reveals so it's alot but it's also like... we're barely tipping our toes in it. Everything happens so quickly it's kind of a 'blink and you'll miss it' but trying to build up your companions relationships takes so long... idk maybe it's been too long since I marinated in a bioware game.

I do feel cheated (which is cheapening the story for me) over the lack of carry-over from the previous games. Sure, the characters from Origins outta be old fuckers by now but I still wanna see the things I worked hard for to be the big, notable, in-universe events they were! Sure it's to encourage new comers to join the franchise but they could've done a cool artsy narrative portion at the start to introduce newcomers and provide an in-game section to shape your world without needing the keep. Kinda like an interactive film. It doesn't help that, in this game, they're tying off so many loose ends and big mysteries that they aren't gonna have much left to build future games off of.

Also am I a freak for wanting a more casual, longer winded dragon age game where I actually get to experience my character and companions building lives around each other? I'm craving for some hard slice-of-life from fantasy games lately and idk if that's my biological clock or what.

Oh yeah, and I kinda noticed something about the four races which ties into the revelations from solas and harding in datv so... yeah, it'll be the last portion of this rambling so skip it if you don't want anymore kinda-spoilers.

So, each of the four races can be represented by elemental affinities that likely hint at their origins. With lyrium being the blood of the titans, and the titans being stone, then dwarves are earth. Then we learn that the elves are spirits made solid by the stone, making them air. We've already assumed the qunari to be descended from dragons, and even the qun is enough to say they're fire as fire is also the heart and body and the qun involves a lot of self-discipline and training of the body. So that leaves humans with water, ever flowing and can find a place to fit in almost anywhere. Makes you wonder if dragon age will ever tackle the mysteries of the ocean or any nations far beyond the waters of thedas. Maybe there'll be Leviathans.

Edit to add: i just miss my boy cole, i fucking loved him and wished we could kinda romance him... also when can we have an mc who isn't immortal or is possessed or something fantastical???

[k--havok]

Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write?

Air: What’s the easiest part of writing for you?

Shadows: What’s the darkest theme you’ve ever written about?

Lightning: What’s the most shocking plot twist you’ve ever come up with?

Rain: Have you ever made yourself cry with your own writing?  If so, what was it?

Grass: What’s the biggest change you’ve made in your WIP since you started it?

So many!!

Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write?

Oh gosh a scene? As in one? I have so many scenes I want to write that I haven't tackled yet! Let me see if I can pick one that doesn't have too many spoilers...

There is this scene I want to write from Waking into Divinity where Rylie goes to Gehenna (the demon world) for the first time in Book I. Humans are incredibly rare in Gehenna so the majority of demons have never seen one, making Rylie an instant interest to pretty much everyone there.

There's a lot of stuff I plan on writing about here, such as the celebration that gets to be had, Rylie learning about demons, demon culture, and the politics going on at the same time. But the scene I really want to write about here is this pivotal scene where Casrath takes Rylie to the magical center, or leyline, of his realm, which is located deep beneath the ground.

In Waking into Divinity, there are two types of demons; Demon Lords and then just demons. Demons are born from Demon Lords mating with each other, other demons, or when two demons mate with one another.

But Demon Lords are not born, but created fully-formed as adults from a point of magic. And their magic is dependent on the type of magic found in each realm. Casrath was created from the leyline of light, making him a demon which can control light. This is what he shows Rylie as these wells of power are intrinsic for the realm to continue to flourish. Without the leyline there, magic will cease to exist in the area, and become basically wastelands where nothing and no one can survive.

I love writing about magic and landscape descriptions which is why I am so ready to write this scene. Plus the worldbuilding too. Love that as well.

Air: What’s the easiest part of writing for you?

Sitting around day-dreaming scene/story ideas if we're keeping it real. But if you mean like. Sitting down and actually writing-writing, I really love doing action/chase scenes. I feel like I'm usually good with banging them out in one sitting compared to dialogue or description heavy-scenes for whatever reason.

Shadows: What’s the darkest theme you’ve ever written about?

I've answered here but I'll go ahead and give another answer too!

Currently, the darkest story I've been working on-and-off again is Osiris' Trials, a story I share with my bestest friend @ademariel

The first three chapters PLUS a 16k word smutty one-shot is on my AO3 if you want to read it.

The story is about a snobby assassin who is tasked to kill a billionaire named Renenetmos. Except, he is captured by said billionaire and gets sucked into a dark world all the while trying to both A) kill Renenetmos B) survive Renenetmos and C) find out who hired him in the first place

It doesn't help that his target isn't human.

The story features: Ancient Egyptian Gods and Mythology, murder, inhuman characters, rape, human trafficking, drugs, torture, violence (of all kinds), major character death, and unlikable main characters. All of the above are graphic and on-page.

If you like gay murderous husbands who want to kill each other as hard as they want to fuck each other then you'll probably like this story.

Lightning: What’s the most shocking plot twist you’ve ever come up with?

Well, if I share the most shocking plot twist I've come up with, it won't be the most shocking plot twist anymore haha!

I will share a tidbit but I am not going to explain the characters or even what story it belongs to.

Most of my stories have some form of Major Character Death. In one of the series I am working on, there is Major Character Death where one protagonist is coerced to kill another protagonist by the main antagonist. This single death basically forms the turning point for the rest of the series, and the fallout of this one death touches not just the rest of the ensemble cast, but changes the course of the future permanently as well. Every other decision, both good and bad, stems from this one death.

This act of amicicide (friend killing a friend) changes everything.

And the murderer is still one of the protagonists after. He does not become an antagonist in the story due to this. But he does suffer major consequences due to what he did.

And the antagonist who basically put the gun in his hand? He gets his own consequences too. hehe.

Rain: Have you ever made yourself cry with your own writing?  If so, what was it?

I've answered this one here too~ I don't really cry from my own writing so I don't have another answer to give unless crying from frustration counts lol

Grass: What’s the biggest change you’ve made in your WIP since you started it?

This is another hard one as I feel with most my WIPs that they either don't really change too much from the original idea or they do a complete 180 with no in-between.

For what I am currently working on, I think Waking into Divinity is going to have the largest of changes due to the fact that I am not happy with the first draft of the first book and am thinking about scraping what I have and completely redoing it. Thing is, I am not certain how I want to go about this.

Currently, the first draft is about 40k words long. It is... slight portal fantasy? There are two worlds in the story, Earth or the Human World, and the Demon World known as Gehenna.

The main character is a human named Rylie. They are nonbinary, work an average 9-5 job, and is living a typical depression-fueled lifestyle in the modern age. The monotony is endless until they meet Casrath, a Demon Lord from Gehenna who claim Rylie is his soulmate, also known as tal'rith in the story. Casrath wishes for Rylie to go back with him to Gehenna to live with him but despite hating their life, its hard to uproot everything you have to live a completely different life. So Casrath is trying to convince them in the meanwhile

If that description kinda sounds boring, its because it is boring. At least, 50% of writing this has been boring as the meat of the story takes place in Gehenna, but its hard to force Rylie to get there as they are stubborn and get overwhelmed easily.

I love reading portal fantasy/romance of this nature but always find the beginning to go to fast in most of those stories and the protagonists to act so weird regarding trying to get home. I feel they usually "get over" trying to go home way too quick in a way that's not very realistic. But now I think I'm leaning too hard in the opposite direction.

Thing is, Casrath is a gentleman (gentledemon? I never want to read the word "gentlemale" ever again sorry) and would not force Rylie to go to Gehenna. So I'm still trying to figure out a way to get Rylie there quicker ahaha.

If I do end up changing the beginning of the story, it'll really change the rest of the first book I think. I don't think the second book will change much as I know how the first book ends, its just, you know, the first 90% that is giving me issues.