#like. it’s a really well-executed deconstruction of it all

[apollos-boyfriend]

i really love witch hat atelier’s deconstruction of art and what it means to be an artist. because i’m sure every artist i know has gotten the same comments of “oh i could never draw that” or how art “looks like magic” from non-artists. and most artists i know will express how despite understanding non-artists don’t mean any ill will, those comments can undermine the sheer amount of time, effort, and labor that they’ve put into their craft. a lot of non-artists think it’s something you have to be born with, some sort of talent that you have to be predisposed to, or else there’s no way to enter the world.

but every artist will tell you how it’s not. how it may come across as effortless to someone who’s done art for decades, but what you don’t see is the years of practice and training and learning that was put into it. that by summing it up as this unobtainable magic, it can feel as if someone is erasing all your work and effort by writing it off as a talent you were born with, not a skill you honed and labored over. it inadvertently keeps a lot of people from pursuing art because they’ve convinced themselves it has to be something they’re born with, not something that’s learned

and you see that with coco, how she’s held magic up onto this pedestal of effortless beauty—which i don’t think she’ll ever truly stop doing, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing—and how she’s made to face the reality that even for those “born” into it, it’s not something that comes easy. even the other witches struggle with their magic, with drawing sigils, with translating their ideas into paper. they’re not any different than she is, having to train and study and practice as much as she herself does. magic is, theoretically, only unattainable if you think it so. if you don’t think you can do magic simply because you weren’t “born” with the “talent”, then you never will. if you don’t think you can draw or do any other type of art simply because you weren’t “born” with the “talent”, then you never will. it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. and wha does a really good job in breaking down those walls and enforcing how anyone, no matter their origin or education or starting ability, can be an artist as long as they believe in themselves and their work

[meraki-sunset]

This is a long letter of gratitude. Embrace my endless words of pure gratefulness.

Dear Autor of the most amazing thing I've ever read.

I was writing this letter from the moment I reached the middle of your Crow Strider AU fanfiction. There is so many things I want to say and I'm so happy that I can say it to you all here without words limit. Forgive me for exuberance, I'm squeezing out all my abilities to express what I feel in this foreign language that's not of us first language.

Let me list all the things I'm grateful for, because I'm autistic and I love listing:

1. Crow Strider

The arc of Davesprite you created is masterpiece of writing. The process of deconstructing his personality, forgiving and letting his part behind as well as embracing his new identity and new body is written so thoughtfully with such a care of details. I love how you made him so different from Dave as well as still kept his Daveness in full glory of Striderness. You made him happy and more emotional available and open, at the same time it felt so natural for him to be that way because of the proper build up you gave him. Thank you so much for creating Crow Strider and letting us read his well written arc.

2. There's a Dave for everyone

THERE'S LITERALLY DAVE FOR EVERYONE. You have no idea what struggles I went through trying to understand what person Dave ended up with in canon, and then being sad of what happened in epilogues. I wanted Dave for Karkat. I wanted Dave for Jade. I wanted them to be happy. And you did it. You made it possible. You made them all happy. I love it so much. Thank you so much for making them happy. You even gave Teresi one Dave for her. I can't believe it. It's so beautiful it's unreal.

3. More Davepeta

This part is simple, I simply love Davepeta and you gave me a lot of good Davepeta content. Thank you for that.

4. You made me like characters I didn't like

I wasn't big fan of Tavros. I got tired of Vrisca by the end of Homestuck. I didn't really see Hal as an interesting character. I honestly hated Gamzee. And Jasprosesprite squared was so annoying for me

Well, not anymore! You somehow managed to write these characters more compelling for me than Hussie did. Now I love Tavros and Hal, I mean, cat Hal? Is there anything more cute and cool at the same time?

And NGL I genuinely wanted Gamzee to die and I can't believe that now I'm not, because I just read a very good redemption arc of this clown. I also love the way you dealt with Vrisca. Heck I love all characters written by you!

5. God tier Karkat

I've dreamt of seeing a good piece of god tier Karkat. I was so curious how does it even work to be Knight of Blood, we didn't see any version of Blood god tier in canon. I'm big fan of your version, it fits the character and the aspect so well, and the execution of his arc as he is chosen to open the door... Honestly? I prefer that over canon, though it wouldnt make as much sense as in your fanfiction. It just feels like you took a much better care of Karkat than official ending of Homestuck. Don't get me wrong, I love Homestuck an it's ending, your fanfiction wouldn't exist without it. I honestly think that Hussie didn't really have as much time and space to give his characters as extended arcs as you gave them without losing the dynamic of his story. But you could. And you did. Thank you so much.

6. So many people got better, more extended arcs

Like above. You made Jas much better. You gave Nanna much better, more compelling arc than she had in canon. You made Hal and Tavros much more relatable and gave them very well character development plot, even if short. You took your time to write very needed and wanted dialogues between characters than didn't have their time to interact in canon. Like Jake and Dirk (ESPECIALLY THEM OMG). Like Erisol and Feferi. Like Jas and Rose. And I didn't even know that I needed the last one. Thank you so much.

7. You made ships that I didn't know where even possible and I like them????

Seriously, Tavros and Jane?? Erisol and Arquius??? Josh and Dirk??? I love how your brain works

8. You absolutely nailed the delicate topic of transgender

I used to not be a big fan of June, because there were no realistic signs of John having any kind of thoughts or doubts about his gender in canon. You made a very much needed and really great thoughtfully written arc from June and Josh, even caring about the topic of transition and executing it really great. Thank you so much for yet again being so good at writing arcs.

9. Eridan and Sollux

I love them both and their weird toxic rivalty, and I absolutely love that you gave them some attention and let Eridan grow and try to redeem himself while also helping Sollux with hii2 p2iioniic problem2. I download almost every single frame of it.

10. YOUR ARTSTYLE

You're artstyle. I don't know where to begin with that. It's so amazing. Expressive, dynamic, cute, beautiful, colorful. I love every line of your comics. Your style is the way I always wanted to draw. It's just perfect. And also perfect for Homestuck fanfiction. It's just so similar, yet gives it a bit of softness as well as the kind of expressiveness I love, that makes every single shot more appealing. Warm scene are so warm, sad scene are so sad, dynamic scenes are so epic, it's like so delicious. Yes, I just ran out of words. Let me grab a dictionary...

Your style is outstanding. It gives me this feeling of familiarity, it's similar of Homestuck style, yet so different, its fresh and new while also feels like home.

I wish you have a printed version of your fanfiction (but I probably can't afford it sadly). There is something so soothing in this simple colors, it's not too loud, not too many colors, yet so many and smooth colorful lines. I will learn to draw like you, I'm sorry for adapting your style, but I really want to draw like that and you even posted some tutorials how to draw like you.

Thank you so so much that you put so much time and effort into making this wonderful comic and then share with all of us completely for free. You drew so many expressive pages, sometimes even 10 pages per static dialogue, which means you officially outbested the master of overdoing Andrew Hussie himself, that did maximum of 3 pages per 1 static dialogue scene. I noticed you slowed down a bit at the end and drew much more simplified panels as well as you started using same panels many times. Good. It's okay to go the easier way. No one wants you to overwork yourself and burnout. No one wants you to have trauma with drawing and not wanting to draw comic ever again. It's extremely generous of you that you posted for absolutely free such a wonderful and huge piece of art. I'm endlessly grateful.

11. The plot

I love how you started from one simple idea of giving Crow more arc, and then gradually extended it into a whole huge fixfiction. It went so smoothly it looked like really one different decision of one person can change the whole timeline. It went so naturally, it felt so realistic as if I read something that Andrew Hussie wrote as a coexisting canon.

I have to admit, the whole idea of not doomed and not canon timeline is pretty ridiculous, and I love every bit of it. Paradoxally, it sounds so much like something that could actually exist in Homestuck canon. I love it

A few little things I didn't like that much

I wouldnt be myself if I didn't comment on some stuff that wasn't perfect. I'll be bery brief with that, because these things didn't really bothered me that much, I just want to share a little bit of criticism I have.

I hope it won't sound rude when I say that I didn't really felt like you understand the character of Nepeta very well? She didn't felt that like Nepeta in your fanfiction, at least for me. I felt like some stuff were explained a bit too many times. I know that characters needed that, yet we as viewers already know some stuff and didn't need to read it again. Also, I really missed the type styles of characters. I know how hard it is to keep it through entire fanfiction, especially writing some of the characters with quite complicated type style. I just missed it a bit. On the other hand it made a few characters much more comprehensive.

I hope I didn't hurt you with this few words of critics. Now I want to share a few of my favorite pages, I hope you don't mind if I end this letter with fangirling over your drawings. I actually wanted to do a lot of comments during reading your fanfiction, but the website didn't let comments. Sadly. That's why I'm writing here. And now is time I will do what I wanted to do back then:

This scene, my fav scene in Homestuck, got so extended in your fanfiction, I felt so gifted and it wasn't even my birthday

I cried.

This. Made me laugh so hard. And it's even funnier without context.

I just reached photos limit. Sadly. I'm so grateful for your comic. I love it so much. Thank you again for making it. You're a wonderful person

Hey there! Thank you so much for the letter, and for taking your time translating it to English for me to understand. Since it’s in a list format, I guess I’ll answer as list as well! So:

Crow strider

It was challenging writing Crow because I needed to basically write Dave but with a twist in his personality due to living with the Harley-Egberts and their grandma, in a very cozy and caring environment.

Honestly I don’t think I managed to portray enough Daveness, his personality is very particular and difficult for me to replicate, but I did the best I could and my friend and editor will help me reach the right amount of striderness in the epilogue

2. A Dave for everyone

Indeed, there’s Dave for everyone. The homestuck epilogues made me realize how lonely Jade ended up, and I always loved Davesprite and jade, but with one being human and the other one a Sprite the relationship was bound to fail, and even tho I wasn’t fond of JadexDavepeta, still i would’ve prefered it to jade being all alone and Davepeta dying fighting Lord English. So now, not only Jade has Crow, and they’re happy, but the Karezi – davekat – daverezi mess all got fused into one, because I love them and their trip was a Little different from in canon. And also Davepeta is around, I don’t think they’ll end up with anyone, but they’ll vibe on EarthC.

3. More Davepeta

They’re alive, and I like showing the craziness that comes from them knowing all timelines but being above them and detached from them. 

4. The characters you didn’t use like

I like exploding underused characters. Because with them, you’ve only seen the Surface, but at the same time you have info about them that can be used to make them more profound. If Tavros got revived, why isn’t he mad at Vriska? What was he doing those 3 years in the bubbles? If Jasprose is a seer and has knowledge of all timelines due to being ultimate self, doesn’t that make her the ultimate clairvoyant? Doesn’t that mean she’s the key to winning? Does she miss the mother like rose does? If there’a already an Arquius, why make another? Why not have just Hal as a Sprite and have him figure out what being alive is actually like?. You get the Surface of the characters and knowing what you know about them, you dig deeper, until you find their humanity and write about it.

5. Godtier Karkat

I love Karkat on Homestuck, but I feel like the character lost weight towards the end of the story, he stopped being the leader and while everyone went and fought someone important like the Condesce, the jacks, the dogjack, or Lord English, he was just somewhere else doing whatever. I wanted to give him his hero moment that closes his development.

As for the door, I feel like in canon john was the right choice to open the door, he’s the hero and the leader, not to mention it’s a human session, it makes total sense and I wouldn’t change it

Every story has things that don’t get to be explored, because that would make them too long and cut the flow, making it unreadable. That why we love fan fictions and AUs so much, they take the pieces and reassemble them into something new, filling the empty spaces.

What makes the events on AUs fun is that they didn’t happen in canon. So if John opened the door in canon, and it was right, then Karkat can open this one, and it can be right on this specific timeline. He gets closure from the door he never got to open, and takes back his role as a leader, even if it’s just for a moment, since the battle is over by now. He’s the leader once again, but this time he understands the weight of it in a way he couldn’t grasp when he was 13, claimed he was in charge and let everyone down. He now understands it’s not just something you ask for, it’s something you earn, he’s now the Knight of blood, god of bonds, he took down the Condesce in the name of his species, and will open the door for his peers to enter the new universe they created together where they’ll create a free society, he became what the signless predicted, his rightful successor. His arc is completed.

6. Extended arcs

Jas was planned since the beginning to close crow’s arc about his rose and his regrets about leaving her behind. It’s only when he’s made peace with losing her, has left his old self behind and is ready to face the battle and his future, that he gets his reward. He gets her back, in the strangest way

With Nanna, i just though nobody ever focused that there was an actual adult around during the whole adventure, Nanna would’ve spent a lot of time around john and jade, them being each others remaining family. So I tried to give her the role of a guardian, breaking a Little with this “orphaned children on their own” that all characters have.

Honestly I tried to make it as interesting as I could, sometimes I would take characters that didn’t have any screen time and think, what can they do? What’s in their mind at this moment that they could tackle in conversation? And with whom? Who else needs screen time?. And that’s how you get, Jake and Tavros bonding, Nepeta, Fefeta, Davepeta and Feferi ship-chat, Arquius telling Terezi and Karkat about Erisol, Hal comforting Eridan, ect.

It’s actually a really cool writing exercise I do sometimes. I grab two characters that have nothing in common, and write a conversation between them. What’s the common ground? Are their stories alike in some way? Do they have a common hobby or worry? It’s really cool because you find stuff about the characters you never paid attention to before

7. Unlikely ships

Tavros and Jane came from me wanting Tavros to be more assertive. In canon Vriska instructed him to not interact with the Alpha kids during those 6 months, but since this Tavros doesn’t listen to her because he took self-esteem lessons from Rufioh, I felt like he probably spent that time actually being a guide to Jane and then becoming Friends while solving puzzles, Jane being a fan of mysteries and Tavros probably missing his flarp days. Also theres a funny thing about Tavros and Jane, and it’s Tavros is supposed to represent Peter pan, while Vriska is supposed to represent both Tinkerbell (she dressed up like a fairy for him and later became an actual fairy) being attracted to him but being short fused when rejected, and also represent Captain Hook, Peter pan’s enemy (with her flarp persona and her ancestor being a pirate), but she’s not Wendy in any way, and I feel like Jane is, she’s the homeschooled girl, with blue eyes who looked through her window waiting to be free because her father wouldn’t let her out (also Wendy’s brother was named john who used big glasses). She’s a normal girl coming in contact with this fairy boy from a world of only children. Idk, makes sense to me. (besides, Wendy darling’s daughter, who Peter pan later takes on adventures too was named Jane, who also has blue eyes)

Erisol and Arquius was a crack ship that suddenly made sense, because it’s one-sided, and I feel like arquius is a caring person, he just has a difficult time socializing like a normal person. He’s just really happy to be a sprite and is pissed by Erisol’s insistence on wanting to explode.

Also, Arquius promising Fefeta that he wouldn’t break Erisol’s neck unless he had a good reason ( he kinda wanted to) and eventually having to break his neck for the good reason of god tiering him (he now doesn't want to and feels bad about it) was something I planned for months

Josh and dirk, i think it’s funny. Dirk wouldn’t have dated jade because she’s a girl, but Josh is a boy so it’s good, AND, he’s like a more direct, version of Jake who takes no bullshit.

8. The topic of transgender

Originally the second spaceship post retcon was supposed to arrive empty, or with only Davesprite, but I saw an opportunity to solve a division in the audience. Some people were interested in John remaining as he was, while others wanted to see June. Since John never showed any doubts about his gender in canon, it wasn’t in my original plans for June to make an appearance during CSAU, because the comic only covered the same period of time as canon. But when it came time to write the retcon I realized I had an opportunity to make them both coexist, making a shift in the timeline, but said shift being there both since the beginning and for the purpose of surviving the recon. Making June and Josh a reality since the beginning, so the timeline would survive the consequences of the two Egberts crossing paths post retcon.

It’s nice to hear you liked it, I know not everyone did. I tried to be respectful but at the same time be true to the nonsensical nature of canon Homestuck that makes timelines twist and change to the story’s convenience, making the events real but chaotic. Also since i knew John’s dad wasn’t coming back and Jane’s dad wouldn’t make it, June would be the last remaining conection to John’s old home and so John would be June's, relying on eachother for comfort when it comes to the loss of their father and home.

9. Eridan and Sollux

I want to cover Eridan’s redemption in the epilogue, since all we know is he grew as a person during his time in the bubbles, leading to his change of heart interacting with Sollux and Kanaya

10. Art style

Thank you! I like to give the characters a full range of emotions and for the surroundings to accompany that

No need to be sorry for learning through my art, in the end my style, like everyone else’s, is bits and pieces from other artists we’ve seen, admired and/or learned from. Just make sure to add your personal touch to make your artstyle trully yours

It’s true that by the end I reused more static panels for dialogue, both because there was a lot for the characters to say, not that much action left, and my battery was running low haha

11. The plot

I tried my best for the story to be a big butterfly effect steaming from crow’s decision to ascend, working towards the most possible outcomes like Crow getting grimdarked by the Condesce too, the sprites surviving because of Nanna and so on

I wanted this timeline to coexist with canon because I don’t like the idea of overwriting it, canon happened and was important, CSAU just happened to be taking place close by

12. Things you didn’t like

I do in fact not understand the character of Nepeta very well, I reread Homestuck in order to get the original troll's personality better, but Nepeta is a character I don’t get. On top of that, she doesn’t appear much in CSAU so didn’t have much time to develop her.

I do struggle with over explaining, I think is stems from not wanting the reader to be confused (it has happened on discord that people come and ask me what was going on in the story when i thought I had written it in a way people could understand with no problems), which leads to me explaining everything too bluntly sometimes, so the characters sometimes ramble TOO much, and I wish I could go back and reduce the dialogs, but that would involve going back to the page’s codes to delete certain pages and replace others, and also changing the programming for the page’s backgrounds, not to mention my computer crashes when I try to modify pages too far back, since they’re 4000 of them. It’s one of those things I can only learn from and try to do better in the next project

The character’s typing was a core part of Homestuck because it was mostly portrayed as blocks of texts and the quirks made it easy to know who was talking even with people having the same typing color. The reason I didn’t use them it’s simply because I could barely write good enough in English, let alone add quirks. My friend offered me to add the quirks at some point when we were revising the dialogs, but I declined because some people found it easier to read without them and I didn’t want to add another step to the render of the pages.

13. Favorite pages

I also cried with that Gamzee panel, I planned it for months and i waited a long time to draw those last panels, I’m glad they made people laugh

Haha, also yeah, the Strider reunion got really extended with so many extra striders. Davepeta, Crow and Hal making the reunion complete

Thank you for this message! i'll do my best to write a good epilogue (which by now is actually a secuel) and i hope you have a great day🌻🌻🌻

[barrenclan]

i think rainhaze is one of my favorites characters ever genuinely, issue 37 was AMAZING and i really loved how rainhazes arc finally ended. I feel rlly happy bc this was a very poingant way of putting that rabid dog down but also i mean. I am a little sad. I pity rainhaze but in a way you pity a cocroach or something... He had it coming, his death was soooo well executed!! rain and all of defiance see killing as a divine right, and seeing that turn on rainhaze was very cathartic.

The casual way he spoke about asphodels murder was genuinely sickening. As if it was all a favor to HER, instead of rainhazes cowardice and trauma and brainwashing and selfishness making him kill his niece im cold blood. The way his own death dragged on and on, how painful and terryfying and gruesome it was - this is what asphodelpaw went through. Her death was not like falling asleep and neither was his. It was scary and painful and cold. So cold.

The way this comic completely subverted audience expectations with rainhazes character is sooo so good... At first he was just a chilli dead guy. then he turned into a classic winter solider type - morally dubious but still symphatetic, a 'poor little meow meow' who was stuck in a horrible situation he had no way of leaving. and then he killed asphodelpaw in cold blood. That moment, when he chose to embrace the violence, the damned coward, was such a delicious and twisted reaveal - forcing the reader to reconsider the whole story and character from an entirely new perspective.

i think we as people well versed in fandom tend to woobify and water down characters like rainhaze and make them into 'poor little meow meows' - removing their agency in the situation entirely to make them more personable and toned down - and rain feels to me like a purposful dissection of that. he IS sympathetic, to a degree. the shit he want through was undeniably awful - and it broke him and molded him into a monster.

rainhazes character was always about choice, i think. about decisions you make and the decisions made for you, and how you respond to the latter... about the question of autonomy. where does your choices end and other peoples influence begin? and does it really matter, in the end? does it matter whether or not rainhaze did what he did out of his own will or under rangers influence? he still did it. even if he were sorry, and hes not, would that matter? he killed her. there is no bringing her back and he had to deal with the consequences himself. abandoned by his family and his tormentor alike.

his death was pathetic and slow and pitiful, and above all disturbing - just like rainhaze himself. i think thats the word that describes him best - pathetic. rest in pieces, you cold bastard. ill miss you.

sorry this is so long..... i tried to put my thoughts into words here and i still fell short, i hope at least some of it makes sense

So, so many people have wonderful, intricate and moving thoughts about Rainhaze in my inbox, and I want to share them all with you. So here is the first one.

Rainhaze really did make for a great deconstruction of the "poor little guy" trope that I was interested in exploring. Shellspring also did, to an extent, but with Rainhaze I wanted to get really deep into it. How much of this is his fault? What could he have done differently? Is his death cathartic, satisfying, triumphant, painful, tragic, or anything else? It was a lot of fun to write and I'm glad so many people seem to have enjoyed it.

[genericpuff]

I was kind of curious: What do you think of Persephone's therapy scenes in episodes 160-161?

I personally liked them, but you and many other LO critics always seem to see things that totally flew over my head (I mean that in a positive way).

I think the idea behind them was fine, just the execution that felt really half-baked. Rachel doesn't like scenes to sit too long so the therapy scene, of course, wound up being rushed in the course of 2-3 episodes (meaning she had to have Persephone dump everything all at once) and while Persephone's dialogue is handled relatively well, the direction of the scene itself feels entirely mismanaged (which is both a side effect of Rachel's directionless writing and the fact that she clearly doesn't want to do more than one of these kinds of episodes so she needs to speedrun it).

TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion concerning sexual assault ahead!

Like, let's start with Persephone's intent in going to therapy. Wanting to pursue therapy doesn't just happen suddenly, there's usually a "trigger event" to make someone realize "I need help", whether it be hitting rock bottom or even just going "I feel like I don't have the skills or tools necessary to deal with what I'm dealing with, I need a professional opinion".

Despite Eros advising her to go to therapy all the way back in S1 to address her assault-

-she actually finally goes to therapy in S2 not to address the assault, but to address... how she feels insecure in comparison to Hera who she just found out Hades had a long-term affair with??? At least that's definitely the implication.

And then of course the therapy session itself segues immediately into "Persephone is a high achiever and it's because of her mom being overbearing" which Rachel doesn't connect at all to either the SA or her feeling insecure compared to Hera (which, by the way, barely even has anything to do with her, but she didn't - and still doesn't - have the emotional maturity or self-respect to realize that Hades is a serial cheater-)

That's where the first therapy episode cuts off, and then the next episode immediately opens with Persephone writing her entire backstory on a whiteboard, so we can assume time has passed and she's talked about everything from her childhood up until this point.

Then we get Chiron asking Persephone... what could go wrong if she leaves TGOEM??

Even though we never saw any of the actual sequence so it just feels like a question that's coming out of nowhere? Like did Persephone say during that schpeel that she wanted to leave TGOEM? Isn't that something we should have seen to connect these two trains of thought?

Ah, right, because we have to get into Hades. Because this comic fails the Bechdel test so hard it can't even have a character talk about their trauma or childhood without it seguing into "well there's this one specific main character guy I just really wanna sleep with-"

Don't get me wrong, if Rachel is trying to "deconstruct purity culture" here, I can get her angle with this, if Persephone has been "groomed her entire life" to be an eternal maiden then there's clearly some thought processes about sexual attraction there that are being challenged by her attraction to Hades. But it just feels so rushed purely for the sake of getting her through her trauma and childhood problems and everything that Rachel tacked onto her backstory (in an attempt to make her seem more than just a self-insert) so that Rachel can get her back on track to sleeping with Hades, the one and only man she's clearly ever felt sexual attraction to enough to want to leave TGOEM and question her entire childhood.

And then we get this and I just-

Like first of all, again, Persephone being a complete airhead and not realizing that it has less to do with her possibly being an inadequate partner and more to do with Hades being a serial cheater who also used her as an emotional affair partner;

but ALSO the fact that the conclusion is some "eureka" moment of "you're a bad decision maker" ??? I was a fan of the comic still when this scene happened and even I went "huh?"

Like she doesn't bother to try and connect it to everything she just learned and said about her childhood and how she wants to be the "perfect daughter" who will make everyone happy, Chiron just reduces it to "oh you just suck at making decisions". As if "sucking at making decisions" isn't like, a reactionary extension of deeper problems. She's treating it as if Persephone is some "puzzle" to be solved and her being a "bad decision maker" was the answer when it's undoubtedly just one of many side effects of her upbringing. It feels like she's addressing the cough and not the virus.

Also a little off topic but-

Gotta love how we've never seen Persephone actually employ this homework from her therapist because she's constantly stapled to Hades and the only thing she cares about is his happiness. Literally, I don't think Persephone could possibly answer that question because she's never been independent enough to even learn what makes her happy - she's jumped from wanting to make her mother happy to wanting to make Hades happy but we're supposed to condemn the former and celebrate the latter.

Buuut of course we don't get her answering that question because again, Rachel can't spend more than 30 seconds on a single scene because that would demand too much writing and thought from her. So we cut to Hera having a discussion with Asclepius regarding her scars re-opening, yadda yadda.

By the time we cut back to the therapy session at the start of the next episode (that's three episodes that have been spent basically accomplishing nothing because none of the thought threads tie together in a meaningful way beyond what the audience has to assume) Chiron is conveniently wrapping things up and it's then and only then does Rachel try to actually incorporate the SA plotline that was Persephone's ORIGINAL MOTIVATION in going to therapy.

Now, the scene for the most part is fine, I don't really like how the therapy session was written leading up to it, but her describing her freeze response and how she feels guilty she couldn't "fight back" is a very real feeling that I can definitely say was well written.

My one gripe with it though - and sure, this might be nitpicky, but here me out - is this:

I don't particularly like that Chiron the therapist just found out about her patient being a rape victim - someone who's also said she doesn't like people grabbing her / touching her without her consent - and then decides the best course of action is to comfort her... while touching her.

Now I want to make it perfectly clear, it's not against the law or even the code of ethics to make physical contact between a therapist and their patient. Loads of patients have made breakthroughs with their therapists that have called for hugs and while some therapists may not be okay with it, there are definitely therapists who are who fully understand that hugs in those moments are the best thing for a person. But it's still a general boundary that is there and even with patients who aren't victims of SA, consent needs to be asked for / given.

So Chiron just... coming over and touching Persephone on the knee, while undoubtedly seen as a "warm and comforting act" by those who have had similar sessions with their own therapists or even just those who have no clue and see it on the surface level as being "sweet", really irks me, because it just seems so tone deaf to do with a character like Persephone who is supposed to be a victim of having her bodily autonomy taken away from her.

Again, it's a small criticism, and undoubtedly a nitpick in the eyes of some, but a simple "can I give you a hug?" from either Chiron or Persephone would have gone a long way in accomplishing Persephone's need for consent and bodily autonomy a lot more than just having Chiron come up and touch her leg without her consent. Please, for the love of god, let Persephone have some autonomy, asking for consent doesn't ruin the moment.

And that's pretty much it, Persephone talks about how she feels like she's tethered to Apollo, and Chiron assures her that's not the case, session over, Persephone goes outside to Hades aaaand notice how we never actually tackled that "I feel insecure because of my partner having former partners?" thing? Notice how the best we got was her talking about her fears of being an "inadequate partner" which focused entirely on her not being "enough" for Hades and being a "bad decision maker" rather than pointing out 1.) Hades' own faults in being a serial cheater that would undoubtedly contribute to her insecurities and 2.) what Persephone could do for Hades rather than what Hades could do for Persephone? It's always "I don't know if I'm good enough for him" and never "I don't know if he's good enough for me."

Yet another F-- on Lore Olympus' Bechdel test. Every single thing tacked onto Persephone's backstory is meant purely to get her with Hades - TGOEM is just an obstacle preventing her from having sex with Hades, the assault is just a framing device to show how much "better" Hades is for Persephone than Apollo, her overbearing childhood is just to show how much more "free" she is now that she's not living with her mother and is living with Hades instead, etc.

No agency, no autonomy, no character, even when it tries.

[ewingstan]

On the End of Claw, pt 1.

So this is gonna cover my thoughts on Claw's final three chapters. I don't think Claw's ending was especially bad, but I do think it picked an odd note to end on, and had to contort itself awkwardly to even reach that note in the first place in a way that really hurt its execution. In this part, I'm gonna talk about the structural problems around Claw's ending. In the next part, I'll focus on the last chapter and Mia's "trial."

Its been noted that Mia has some character similarities to Taylor in terms of a willingness to act ruthlessly and without apparent remorse. Perhaps as a result, it seems like Wildbow wanted to give Mia a similar ending to Taylor: a space where she attempts to explain herself, confront everything she's done, and consider whether it was worth it. It feels like a dark echo of Taylor's talk with Contessa; giving her an unfair audience rather than one who acted much the same way, but similarly wanting the ending note to be her concluding that she her ruthless actions weren't all worth it to her.

But if that was the intent, the surrounding structure of Claw ensured that it wouldn't land nearly as well. Worm's ending is such that its climax perfectly sets up its Taylor's conversation with Contessa. After all, the climax was Taylor doing something truly awful to a lot of people for the greater good—what she'd been doing the entire book, but brought to its most extreme point. It made sense to follow that up with an exploration of whether it was worth it—the book had been asking if what Taylor was doing was "worth it" the whole time, and it was an especially relevant question when applied to Gold Morning.

Compare this to Claw, and the way the ending focused on Mia asking whether or not she was monstrous. That had certainly been a question brought up by many characters throughout the whole story. But unlike Worm, it wasn't a question that was a relevant consideration in the wake of the climax. As the story presented us with the final confrontation of our leads against Davie Cavalcanti, we'd largely moved past the question of whether Mia was monstrous. Sure, Natalie was still concerned with it, but that was framed as a flaw that was preventing her from helping Ripley.

In fact, the thematic stuff surrounding the treatment of Ripley had really superseded anything surrounding Mia's "essential nature" as the key thing to explore. Ripley getting taken by Natalie and ripped away from her happy life got framed by the narrative as the same sort of violation as her later abduction and mutilation by Davie. Natalie's development all centered on her considering Ripley's needs as a person over her status as Natalie's daughter. Ben's chapters had largely been about how his worldview, a belief in the necessity of preserving the parental role, requires him to ignore incongruous observations about how children are harmed when that role is exercised. The permissibility of Mia's actions are still floating around as a theme, but its only a small part of the now much larger theme of deconstructing the parent relationship, and the moral weight of Ripley's agency. Addressing those themes directly (which 6.5 is partially concerned with, if not 6.6) would thus better serve as a satisfactory cap to the climax.

Mia's moral character, in contrast, was not a particularly relevant aspect by the time we reach the end. That becomes clear when you see how much 6.5 had to redirect things to make the question even relevant. In this regard, that penultimate chapter feels like the real weak point in the execution of Claw's finale. Its little substance, all connective tissue, and suffers a lot from none of those connections getting fleshed out. Natalie's revolving heel-face-heel positioning is a big part of this: It's strange to go from her characterization in the second half of 6.4—recognizing that hasn't been prioritizing Ripley's well-being and making a big sacrificial play in response—to her characterization in 6.5, where she's threatening to damn Ripley's chance at a normal life simply to get at Mia. Its a beat that's needed to push Mia towards making the mistake that gets her caught, but because of how it seems to contradict her earlier growth, it doesn't feel like anything more than a a plot-necessity.

The frustrating thing is that I think Natalie's "regression" could have been executed well. After all, its one thing for Natalie to decide to selflessly help Ripley and make a sacrificial play. But after unexpectedly surviving, the difficulty of continually making the smaller everyday sacrificial plays of working with Mia—that's something else entirely. The singular grand gesture is always easier to make than the prolonged effort.

But to sell that Natalie couldn't handle this larger, continued sacrifice, you'd probably need another chapter in her perspective. Let us stew in Natalie seeing that she was still losing Ripley even after everything, see how its more difficult to sacrifice something if she has to live with it missing from her life afterwards. Without that—without anything to explain the jump in her attitude from 6.4 to 6.5—it feels more like Natalie is just behaving however she needs to for the story to reach the intended conclusion.

(Which you know, she is. They all are, that's what characters do in stories. Its not bad for them to behave in ways that serve to drive the plot forwards rather than be perfect simulations. But their behavior still need verisimilitude, dammit.)

Mia, meanwhile, gets the almost self-parodying beat of going for one last child-napping. Again, I think this could work if it was built up more—have her ask herself whether she'd made things worse by helping Ben use the Civil Warriors against the Cavalcantis, wonder about whether she has a responsibility to do anything about it. Have her worry about the kid she rescued from the gunfire—was it wrong to just return her to her parents, when they'd brought her to a race riot? Isn't that much more irresponsible than leaving her in a hot car? Instead, we learn she was doing this only after a chapter of seeing her worry about Ripley drifting away, its explanation coming in conjunction with her explaining her plan to get Ripley away from Natalie. The framing implies that she only acted in order to retain the image of herself as a mother saving children from dangers. It makes sense to position that as a non-trivial part of her motivation, but framing it as the main motivation honestly feels like a disservice to her character.

Again, both these plotpoints could have worked if executed better. But then, what were they executed in service for? Clumsily delivering Mia to her character trial, when the themes driving the story had developed past such a trial feeling relevant.

Still, we have the trial. And there were parts of it I thought were very well-executed for what it was. But the "what-it-was" has issues even above what I covered here.

Continued in part 2.

[theotterpenguin]

I really like the nuanced take about Zutara and why it makes some people uncomfortable and I can see both sides of it. I ship Zutara now but at first I didn’t and it made me really uncomfortable but I think it was just because of certain fan content I was coming across. Some people do portray Zutara in an extremely fetishized & creepy Stockholm syndrome way that makes Katara come off like some helpless damsel stereotype. It made me feel really gross thinking about as a young WOC but rewatching the show and seeing the true dynamic of these characters made me fall in love with them again. So I guess my feeling is that in canon i really love the dynamic but I hate the way *certain fans* twist it and refuse to acknowledge the racism & misogyny in what they’re doing

this is a complicated topic with many layers to it but first - i am sorry if you have ever felt unwelcome in the zutara fandom due to experiences with racism/misogyny.

it would be ignorant to claim that the zutara fandom is somehow uniquely unaffected by systemic racism or sexism, but it would also be disingenuous to claim that these issues only exist in certain parts of the atla fandom. racism, sexism, and general bigotry exist in every fandom due to institutionalized inequality in social structures. and to make it clear, i'm not directing this criticism towards you, anon, you are entitled to your own personal experiences, but i have seen a broader trend of people attempting to use fandom racism to moralize their position in ship wars, which is diminishing from the actual problem - the focus should be on acknowledging the existence of fandom racism/sexism, combatting implicit biases, and creating spaces that can uplift marginalized voices, rather than focusing only on optics in an attempt to gain moral high ground in a silly *fictional* ship war.

however, given all this, the reason that i am still in the zutara fandom is because i appreciate how many people in the fandom are dedicated to unpacking issues of racism and sexism and cultural insensitivity in atla's source material, which i personally haven't seen in many other sides of the fandom (that often sanitize what actually happened in the text to avoid acknowledging these issues in their favorite show). of course this is a broad generalization, but that's generally why i stick with the non-canon shipping side of the fandom because fans that are willing to stray away from canon are often less afraid to engage in critical analysis.

i also do think the zutara fandom has come a long way from the early 2000s when the show first aired. for example, when i first joined the fandom i had mixed feelings on fire lady katara, but i have since read some fanfics that have done an excellent job deconstructing some of the problematic ways that this trope could be interpreted and balancing respect for katara's cultural heritage and autonomy with the political and personal difficulties of being involved with an imperialist/colonialist nation. the fire lady katara trope, capture!fic, and other complicated topics/tropes are almost never inherently racist/sexist, but rather, their execution is what matters. and all this is not to say that issues of systemic racism/sexism do not still exist in this fandom, but it personally has not significantly negatively impacted my experience in the zutara fandom due to the wonderful content that so many other fantastic people produce, though everyone's mileage may differ with what they are comfortable with. anon, i hope that you are able to find a place in the zutara fandom for you! but i also know many people that have stepped back from other fandoms due to experiences with racism/misogyny, so i understand that decision as well.

on a final note, i think it's important to acknowledge that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum and broader issues of racism and sexism are rooted in the media, the entertainment industry, and mainstream societal norms. while i do sometimes focus on fandom dynamics/discourse in my criticisms, i think it is equally as important to acknowledge how issues of prejudice and inequality are perpetuated through larger social structures, which is why it frustrates me when the atla fandom refuses to acknowledge the flaws of the original show, which has far more influence and social power over the general public than discourse over fandom tropes ever will. personally, i don't understand the phenomenon of holding fan-made material to a higher standard than mainstream media.

[charcubed]

I'm curious, what are the main reasons why Dean is your favorite canon bisexual in media? Love your meta and that video btw

Ooooo, anon, thank you for the kind words and for giving me an excuse to talk about my love for bisexual icon Dean Winchester <3

I'm going to be really annoying (sorry) and quote part of my meta first. It summarizes and articulates many of my thoughts on this. And then to further answer your question I'll add a bit under it!

From the very beginning, Dean Winchester has been a character tied to classic elements of American masculinity. He was introduced with a superficial veneer involving those elements, but almost immediately the early episodes provide a look at the complexity of his character underneath it. Over the years, that complexity was further explored, and he came to embody a study in things society would often have us think should be incompatible contrasts: the gruffness and grit of hunting life and its associated masculine iconography, paired with his open and deep emotional care for the world; unabashed love for classic rock, superheroes, and horror movies, as well as unabashed joy connected to TV dramas, chick flicks, and childhood favorites like Scooby-Doo; life on the road with a muscle car, but the desire for a home base with creature comforts he can make his own; motivation to always help people, but the clear longing for balance with personal domesticity and relaxation so he could save not only others but also himself.

As a whole, his character functions as an effective deconstruction of toxic masculinity and stereotypical American heroism. And while much of Dean’s most masculine traits and interests are said to come from his father’s influence, part of his journey is loving those parts of himself on their own merit not because he ever had to but because he wants to. He is not his father, and he redefines those valued parts of his identity so they are his and his alone. He also crucially learns to recognize and joyfully embody that those masculine traits were never all that he had to be, working through and overcoming shame and hesitancy along the way. The result? He’s “good with who he is.”

He and the audience are encouraged to see that there are no rules his identity and interests must subscribe to, on a micro or a macro level. The message is to disregard predetermined destiny or duty. Free will means his life is his to determine, his family can be what he makes of it and how he defines it, and what he needs and wants do not ever have to be mutually exclusive. Dean’s journey is about freedom from outwardly-imposed limitations–whether those limitations come from his father’s example and the God altering his story, or from the pervasive societal ideals and network/executive interference outside of it. Dean can and should contain multitudes, all at once.

In this way, Dean’s story is a powerfully queer narrative that acts as metacommentary. In the fullness of its execution, it is also specifically a deeply bisexual narrative.

The not-so-hidden truth is that Dean is canonically a bisexual man. His story was afforded something that’s rare for most characters and almost nonexistent for queer ones: fifteen years of lengthy, nuanced development.

[...]

Again: Dean’s identity journey is about how he can and does contain the capacity for multitudes, and it’s part of what makes him such a compelling character. He can like “this” and “that.” He can be attracted to women and men. Or, as writer Ben Edlund and director Phil Sgriccia said in a DVD commentary, Dean has “the potential for love in all places.”

I wanted to include the above verbatim because it spells out something specific: Dean's narrative is bisexual in its bones. Supernatural evolved to become a queer text, but the specific ways the show and Dean as a character evolved are very intertwined with and informed by the fact that Dean is a masculine bisexual man. SPN is a story that was not meant to be about being queer, but as it became about freedom through free will, those themes were then leveraged and emphasized in connection to queerness because of Destiel. And by the end, the free will narrative and Dean's journey as a bi man are utterly inseparable, because Dean's fight for true freedom is tied to his love for a man and their untraditional family in a way that higher forces are trying to hinder.

You cannot cut out or edit or remove Dean's bisexuality from the story, or several narratives and plot lines (not just Destiel) would at minimum be misunderstood or at maximum fall apart. And yet, simultaneously? Dean's bisexuality is also far from being the sole important thing about his character because he is written with such nuanced complexities and across so many years of material.

Of course, add onto this the overall unique situation that surrounds Supernatural as a piece of media. People talk at length about how there will never be anything like it again, including me; that's obviously true from multiple different angles and for multiple different reasons, with Destiel being prime amongst them. But a related yet distinctly significant branch of that topic is there will never be another bisexual character who is written and evolves quite like Dean.

Was Dean supposed to be bisexual from the very start, out of the mind of Kripke? Who can know for sure, but probably not. Were certain writers and members of production deliberately putting more queercoding and subtext into Dean's character/story from the very start? Who can know for sure, but potentially yes, and certainly the answer becomes unarguably definitely yes the farther you get into the show. That's part of my love and passion for him too, because all of that is deeply unique and incredibly cool.

Dean's bisexuality evolved in a way that (against all odds) actually feels organic, seamless, and like it's simply a part of his character that's been there all along. The effect when you look at Supernatural as a whole body of work is that Dean's always been bi, and his expressions of and acknowledgements of that part of him ebb and flow depending on situation–which is a very relatable notion for many queer people. And as those writing the show became more committed and certain about that piece of who Dean is, so did he, in nuanced and subtle ways skillfully embedded into his story by design. It's bafflingly, impressively cohesive; gives him an incredibly realistic feel; matches his overall character growth; and rings true to his demographic, age, personality, and experiences.

Dean and his story and the situation(s) surrounding both are simply incomparable, and that will be true forever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

...also. Well. I simply love him, y'know? For even more reasons unconnected to this. How can you not, right? :')

Thank you for asking, and thanks for reading this bi Dean manifesto!

Putting my video that you mentioned here for anyone who's not watched it:

My new magnum opus, please stream, etc.

(or watch on Tumblr here)

[classygreydove]

5 Naruto Fic Recs - ♀ character POV

Here are five of my favorite fics written from the POV of a female character (90% Sakura), that just give feminism

to love what is mortal by 100demons - COMPLETE, 8K

T, No Archive Warnings Apply, Multi, Sakura/Sasuke/Naruto, Kakashi/Obito, Team 7, Post-Canon, Road Trip, Team as Family, POV Sakura

Team 7 takes the long way home after the war.

“Change of plans!” Sakura cries out. “We’re going to get lost on the road of life, sensei!”

[dove's notes: this was so, so good characterization. The writing was incredible, as were the messy learning-how-to-be-together-again team dynamics. Sakura and all her teammates are Feeling Many Things and working them out. And it starts with a Mary Oliver poem! I love Mary Oliver.]

2. Fireworks by hes5thlazarus - COMPLETE, 8K

M, Chose Not to Use Warnings, No Warnings Apply. F/F, F/M, M/M, Sakura/Hanabi, Sakura & Sarada, Sakura & Naruto, Sakura & Sasuke, Hinata/Naruto, Sasuke/Naruto; Romance, Feminist Themes, Motherhood, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Boruto Fix-It, Family, Deconstruction, Divorce & Post-Divorce, Bisexuality, Infidelity, No Bashing, Canon-div, PTSD, POV Sakura, BAMF Sakura

Sarada takes one look at the Uchiha legacy and decides she wants no part of it. Sakura, who has built herself a life independent of the husband who abandoned them, tries to reckon with how her daughter cannot actually decide the path her life takes. And Hanabi is happy to offer advice and consolation, as Sakura tries to talk her best friends into letting Sarada be a civilian.

A feminist deconstruction of Naruto, where everyone is taken seriously and treated with the same love Sakura offers to all her friends. No character-bashing, just contemplating what could have happened if, when Sasuke left Sakura and their baby the second time, Sakura decided to file for divorce rather than wait for him to come back. Of course they still love each other. Of course it's not simple.

[dove's notes: This fic is so underrated, and I highly recommend it. It's exactly what the summary/tags say. Beautifully written, and an honest look at the flaws these characters bring with them into adulthood. Not really for HinaNaru or SasuSaku fans, as the relationships are portrayed in a dysfunctional manner (Which is pretty Boruto canon tbh) I really like that Sakura was able to find happiness with Hanabi, and Sakura's evolving and loving relationship with her daughter. The feminist deconstruction and themes were amazingly well done.]

3. before you by theformerone - COMPLETE, 149K

M, Graphic Depictions of Violence, MCD, F/F, F/M, M/M, Sakura/Mito, Hashirama/Mito, Sakura & Sasuke, Hashirama & Mito, minor TobiMada; Time Traveling Lesbians, Warring States Period, Fix-It, Canon-div, Grief, Angst, Survivor's Guilt, Arranged Marriages, Ninja Politics, Slow Burn, BAMF Sakura, Slow Burn, Suicide, Assisted Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Reincarnation, POV Sakura

When she is somersaulted back in time to Uzushio before it was Uzushio, with Kurama's yin chakra folded into the seal on her forehead, heart bursting with loss and the weight of her burden, she tells them her name is Tsubaki. Uzumaki Mito looks at her like she is an enemy.

[dove's notes: If you have ever looked for a long naruto fic with a main sapphic pairing, you have probably found this fic. I must include it in this list (despite its popularity) because it is my Favorite. Mito and Sakura have so much chemistry, and the time travel aspect is a really fun and well-executed trope here.]

4. The Remaking of Things series by Jemsquash -ONGOING, 295K

T, M, E (Work rated E can be skipped); No Warnings Apply, MCD; F/M, Gen, F/F; Kakashi/Obito, Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, Jiraiya, Uchiha Clan, so many naruto ocs, POW recovery, Grief, Worldbuilding, Always a Different Sex AU, fem!Obito, disabled character POV, POV Obito, Trans themes, Feminist Themes, Gender Issues, Ableism, Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator, Canon-div, Canon-Typical Violence, Politics

In which Obito does not get found and brainwashed by some really old also-brainwashed dead guy, but gets grabbed by other Iwa shinobi and spends a year in a Prisoner of War camp until after the war. Then limps her sorry self home to Konoha, about 3 months after the Nine-tails attack.

Kakashi deals with it about as well as can be expected…

The Uchiha however, while still being their usual stoic, antisocial, really-messed-up selves; do manage to somehow get their kid back into one piece mentally and physically.

At which point Obito takes a long hard look at Konoha, it’s dubious goings on with sanctimonious Sarutobi and backstabbing Danzo and decides to not put up with this shit.

[dove's notes: I haven't finished this series yet as it is very long, but I have had a great time reading fem!Obito's POV. She's well-written, as is the rest of the cast, with comple emotions and motivations as the storyline develops. She's very Obito. As dark as ninja verse is, these characters manage to find what happiness they can and support each other.]

5. most girls, or, the one where sakura grows up and gets a fangirl along the way by theformerone - COMPLETE, 6K

G, No Warnings Apply, Gen. Sakura, Inner Sakura, Naruto, Tsunade, Shizune, Rookie 9, Moegi, Konohamaru, Udon; Sakura-centric, girls solidarity, Sakura/Character Development, Canon Compliant

In the years between Naruto’s departure and return, Sakura develops. Aggressively. She also gains a second shadow.

[dove's notes: this is actually on my TBR list but I've skimmed over it and it looks so good.]

[utilitycaster]

…so I decided to check out Polygon’s D20 coverage, and frankly I think you were entirely too kind to them. Good. GOD, some of that stuff read like they’ve never watched AP that *wasn’t* CR, D20 or the first season of TAZ. And have somehow made it thru the 2010s without encountering urban fantasy…

Anyway, to further nudge you towards your destiny of AP journalism (and with the understanding that you have a Real Job and a life outside TTRPGs and the internet); can you please expand on what you think D20 brings to the table?(pun unintended, but I stand by it) Because speaking as someone who has watched a handful of eps and enjoys the concepts, the praise PG were offering was damningly faint.

Hi! Thank you, and for what it's worth I don't think most of them have listened to the first season of TAZ either, given the way they talk about WBN as inventing the actual play longform podcast. I do want to note: I like writing longform stuff about actual play but I am adamantly not a journalist. I am not investigating or interviewing or reporting; I'm doing analysis and editorial. Amateur critic is the most I can claim to and that's a stretch (and even there I have a particular privilege in that I'm writing all this for free, anonymously, by choice, and don't need be be nice or maintain relationships with actual play performers within the space because I could burn every bridge and still make rent.)

Anyway. I think a major flaw of Polygon is that it's so focused on novelty and subversion that it forgets a well-worn concept, executed with skill, is actually great and for many people, preferable. Brennan, from everything I have heard him say and from how he actually runs games, has a deep respect for fantasy as a genre, and the stories he tells in D20 are ones he is clearly familiar with and loves. I also think to subvert things you must be a fan, and when D20 does successfully subvert or twist a genre, it's coming from a place of respect and understanding.

Anyway, just covering a few Intrepid Heroes seasons: I think Fantasy High (and I haven't gotten to the latest episode of Junior Year) is actually increasingly a brilliant deconstruction of D&D as a game by making the world aware that it's in a D&D game. What does it mean to be in a D&D party and be an adventurer and have that be a significant part of who you are? What does it mean to be a commoner in this world? What do you do when you're sort of a broke teen in generic suburbia but also you need the loot that an adventurer would theoretically get from dragon hoards? Why do you have to know what your life's calling will be when you're 14? One of my personal favorite things, as a lover of mechanics and TTRPGs as a system of storytelling and more generally as someone who believes that your medium of choice should be informing the story you tell, is when people engage with character roles and classes instead of treating them as just a set of cool things you can do, and Fantasy High very much pushes the players to do this. I also mentioned elsewhere that the downtime stress mechanics are a brilliant addition to one of the genuine gaps in D&D, namely, while downtime is a time for open RP, there's not a good way to handle things like stress or crafting or prioritizing well.

The Unsleeping City is one I like, honestly, just because I lived in New York for a few years and Brennan lived there far longer (as did much of the cast, though not all) and his love for it is apparent. I don't think it's groundbreaking; I just think it's really good. The characters are excellent and the story is fun. It's true that, for example, it allows you the satisfaction of making Amazon's and its attempted move into Long Island City the BBEG and smiting its ass instead of having to harangue your senators and councilpeople (as I did, and I wasn't even living in Queens) but really it's just a good story. It doesn't need to be more than that. It did not invent urban fantasy or the idea of a secret magical version of a real city or "most myths are real"; it's just a good story!

I think A Crown of Candy is also just a fun setting and, by making everyone food, emphasizes how petty and arbitrary the alliances in a Game of Thrones-esque milieu can be. It casts a scathing eye on religious interpretation as a tool for conquest without clumsily proclaiming the mere concept of religion is the problem. It has one of the best explorations of character death I've seen and Brennan's acting as Caramelinda remains a tour de force for him. Bringing the entire story of succession and war down to a final choice between two half-sisters remains a brilliant decision, the setting is supported by the mechanical limits Brennan imposed upon character creation, and it's overall beautifully done.

Even Neverafter, which I think have openly said didn't live up to its initial promise, had that promise with the fantastic handling of the TPK; I have a love for metanarrative and honestly my issue is that it was the wrong place to do metanarrative, but it was a bold choice to do in the unpredictable medium of actual play.

That's really only covering a fraction - I think some other standouts are Mentopolis, A Court of Fey and Flowers, Coffin Run, and Escape from the Bloodkeep, and while Shriek Week is just not a genre I'm personally super drawn to, I think the Mythic system is a great system for the story being told and Hicks does a great job running it.

Really what it comes down to is that D20 falls in between what a lot of shows are. It doesn't have the freedom but also the burden of a very long-running campaign (indeed, WBN exists because its performers, all of whom have featured in D20, wanted to be able to do longform actual play), nor is it quite as rushed as an all-miniseries or one-shot show. It has space to explore one or two things really well without having to carry a thousand different threads (and believe me, Brennan tries to put in as many as he can in that space - I actually wonder if the reason Fantasy High Junior Year feels a little more streamlined to me is that WBN was by that time in full swing). But it's not the first edited actual play, it mostly uses very widespread systems, the production values are high but not unheard of elsewhere (and I think that production values in AP beyond the basic 'can you hear and, if relevant, see things clearly and does the set look nice' are overrated though that's a personal preference), the cast is strong but not the first group of professionals or even comedians, and they didn't invent the concept of filming remotely or scrims or having an anticapitalist message.

My issue with the journalists, to reiterate that, is that they're not really doing much journalism, actually; and that their bias is horribly apparent. There's little analysis - just shallow reviews that show little understanding of actual play as a medium, fantasy as a genre, or TTRPGs as a system. And while being entirely free of bias is unavoidable - we are people, and we will bring our own interpretations and experiences in, and there are people who will love D20 and dislike Critical Role without doing so in bad faith - the fact that several of the journalists have openly crowed and preened about their special access to the D20 cast really makes it apparent that they like D20 because Dropout gives them early access and says nice things about them. And it's a feedback loop; Critical Role is going to keep saying "well, you constantly shit on us, so no, you don't get early access" and they'll keep writing bad reviews because they don't get early access.

But to return to the point, D20 is legitimately great and yeah the bias in my mind is only hurting them because, speaking only for myself, if there's two things I like and people heap fawning and inaccurate praise on one and nitpick the other? I'm going to start looking into that praise and find more flaws, and I'm going to start defending the nitpicked one. I really love Fantasy High Junior Year but the Polygon article is so bad I have to remind myself that it's just because the person who wrote it is an idiot. I probably would have gone into Kollok much more neutrally if people didn't act like it was the fucking invention of television. Do give D20 a try if you can! Don't read the articles.

[peoplesrazor]

Stop trying to make fetch happen, Lily.

First, you don't just get to decide that, Lily. Sure, you can say, I think of this as a thriller, but you can't just say it is a thriller no matter what genre the creators put it in. It's classified as a Shonen and marketed as such, because that's what the people behind it intended it to be. The quality of the creations, as per your personal standards, doesn't matter, either.

Just call a bad show, a bad show. No need to blame a whole genre. If you didn't do that, you wouldn't have to pretend Spy Family was a different type of show then it is.

This is the same thing as you asking who would call BG and Dragon Age dark fantasy when that's what the people who made and marketed the games called them. You don't have to think of them this way when you engage with the media. You should acknowledge it, however, if you are going to talk about it with any authority.

Secondly, you really should engage with genres you don't necessarily like, more often. The more media you consume, the better you will be at critiquing media in general. It's just learning through exposure and experience. You may even find other things you like.

For instance, to use myself as an example; I'm not particularly fond of gore, even in horror films. I'm not squeamish necessarily, but I do find it's more often done just to be gross for the sake of shock value and I'm usually not shocked. Generally, it's just not an effective way to get my attention the way it's intended.

Yet, I consider the following one of the most enjoyable, fun, interesting, well-done and well-executed sequences in all of cinema. It's an absolute masterpiece. And it's one-hundred percent pure, unadulterated over-the-top, glorious carnage and gore:

As great as that four minute clip is all on it's own, I promise you it is so much better if you've seen the whole film. Sort of my point. Even if you don't like slasher/ teenagers being offed in the woods movies, and I usually don't, you'd miss that glorious scene if you didn't give this film a chance.

By the way, that's not the genre that movie is in either, but you wouldn't know that if you didn't watch it. Despite the fact that they marketed it as a Science Fiction Comedy Horror, if you only saw clips, you are going to think slasher movie. Myself, I consider it more of a satirical deconstruction of the slasher and eldritch horror genres.

But if someone asked me I'd include the sci-fi comedy horror elements as well. Because, yeah, it's that, too. I just appreciate the deconstruction elements more.

[cryptovalid]

The politics of Operation Zero Tolerance

If you've followed X-men '97, you know that's it's more than competently executed nostalgia-bait. It's a deconstruction of the original ideological framework of the X-men. I'll be riffing off of the way that Operation Zero Tolerance mirrors real world alt-right ideology and where the show might lead this theme. Spoilers ahead up to episode 8. It's a long one.

So the reflections of the January 6th insurrection, Great Replacement conspiracy and stochastic terrorism are pretty spot on. But what do the Prime candidates actually believe?

Mutants are constantly referred to as 'the next step in human evolution'. This frightens some non-mutants, who see themselves being replaced. Their solution is to subjugate mutants.

I want to focus on some of the ways this doesn't make sense first.

1. Evolution doesn't have well defined 'next steps': every new generation is slightly different from the previous, so that over time new traits will emerge and become common, and others will become less widespread. In the comics, this is not why mutants exist: the are the result of alien tampering with human dna: the Celestials implanted the X-gene in some humans. So 'mutants' are demonstrably just a strain of humanity, and the main reason humans have mutant babies is that their own genes are getting expressed in a new way.

2. No amount of control or violence can stop this. The rate at which mutants appear isn't even dependent on their own reproductive success since most mutants have human parents.

We don't know why more and more mutants are being born now, but OZT will not stop this. It's not even their goal. When they say human being are being 'replaced', they actually mean replaced as the ruling class of the planet. Bastion's 'utopia' doesn't have less mutants being born, just used as slave labor.

This really puts the anxiety of OZT into focus: they want to maintain privilege. They aren't really being 'replaced', any more than older generations are always 'replaced' by younger generations. They are primarily afraid that mutants will render them obsolete in the labor market. But if mutants can be forced to do unpaid labor for their benefit, that doesn't threaten them.

The way this parallels the rhetoric of the alt right is striking. Obviously, the reasons why jobs are moving overseas are different: colonized populations are more exploitable by capital. But the fears are the same: my children are different from me, and if I'm not valued for my labor, I will become poor. Like OZT, the alt right also chooses to enact violence even though it won't solve either of these issues. the MAGA-crowd threatens non-conformity and asserts its dominance to maintain its relative privilege over other groups. This is why it's all culture war stuff. The alt right isn't interested in striking to improve conditions for workers, it will attack immigrants and minorities they perceive as competition. Never the bosses that make the hiring decisions. It's scapegoating.

Even child and slave labor are on the table. Because again, this 'economic anxiety' isn't triggered by other people doing the work, just by other people getting money, care and respect that they feel they are owed.

It's not the solution that matters to OZT or the alt right: it's the catharsis of violence and control. It's interesting that OZT actually has a better point: mutants are inherently better at some jobs, some mutants ARE inherently dangerous. Their anxiety is way more warranted.

And I think that is what makes OZT hit so hard as an allegory: it is a steel man version of every bigot's rhetoric, and it is horrifying.

Where might the show take this theme? I don't think the show will end with the X-men fighting Magneto, as that would undermine the show's thematic support for his ideals. Magneto might be defeated, but that will not be the finale. I think the institutional support for OZT will be the closing statement.

The events of episode 8 will be blamed on the X-men. There's just too many ways that a sleeper that Wolverine cut to ribbons can be spun and Bastion has stated multiple times that he understands the optics of martyring mutants. In my opinion this explains how the primes failed to kill a single X-man, even though Trask could take down the whole team.

This twist will (I think) be used to set up the Avengers as the final threat: the X-men try to reason with Magneto, the Avengers attack him, and maybe Xavier erases Magneto's memory as a prelude to Onslaught.

Onslaught can then lead into Heroes Reborn; when Onslaught threatens to kill the Avengers and Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards creates a parallel universe, where they live out their lives in blissfull ignorance of mutants. I believe this could explain why the MCU does not have mutants: it's the Heroes Reborn Universe (The FF could live in a separate universe).

So how to put a button on OZT? I don't think that they will end as a political force (these ideas will remain relevant in the fiction as in the real world). I think the show will obviously set up a fight with Bastion, but the ideological refutation will have to come from Mrs. Da Costa. She is the poster child of an apathetic liberal, who will only support mutants in fashionable ways. If she ends the series giving up her social status to save her son, perhaps even dying, it will thematically reinforce the need for allies to be traitors of their own privilege.

This ties in with my final speculation. This is a weird one and a reach. We have not seen Roberto Da Costa's father. We also don't know where Bastion's father is (who is essentially Nimrod). Is it possible that they are half-brothers? Emmanuel Da Costa is a prominent anti-mutant member of the Hellfire Club, and it's strange he hasn't shown up yet. Honestly, this could possibly explain why Roberto is so light-skinned. Which I do not want to make excuses for otherwise.

[eichisnewgroove]

i was saying this to @xenospects but one of the big reasons behind why eichi "can never get bored of wataru" is because he has no idea how to copy him. eichi is used to basically just being able to acquire any skill he admires. in circus he teaches himself how to do challenging circus performances without having to do much actual practice by obsessively watching videos of how they're done, carefully memorizing the details, and doing them over and over and over and over in his mind so when he is able to physically practice he's already done the bulk of the mental work. in milky way, after shu really rattles him and bests fine, eichi sits on the rooftop going over everything shu did in his head, deconstructing it, learning it. he can't mimic the process of shu's creativity (which is why he's jealous of him) but he can learn to execute the kind of routine shu can come up with. he talks about this with tori in dance time as well. eichi isn't "creative" but in terms of acquiring skills he's confident that anything he puts his mind to he can learn to do. he's always drawn toward people who can do what he can't do, like leo and his ability to compose music, but he can still learn to play leo's songs.

and that's where wataru's tricks become limitlessly fascinating to him. wataru isn’t just a genius, he's highly specialized in a way that completely fuses his genius with his execution. his tricks are unique, advanced, and mechanically complex. eichi frequently complains that no matter how much he thinks about it he can't figure out how wataru does his tricks. wataru's physical skills are also really difficult to replicate; even the twins who have been pulling off complex physical performances since they were children find it difficult to keep up with him. wataru is complex on every level: his execution is so flawless that it leaves even eichi, who is extremely attentive and scrutinous, and actively trying to figure out the mechanics, completely clueless as to how he pulls things off. second, his methods are very advanced and complex, so even if he were to explain it it may be too difficult to understand. third, the skills wataru has and makes use of to pull off the tricks are also very complex, difficult to understand, and difficult to replicate even by other geniuses and experts.

wataru's magic is something eichi would never be able to do. trying to make sense of how wataru does it is a fun but ultimately futile exercise, and this really frustrates him but also keeps him forever enchanted and intrigued. this is why when wataru tells him in diner live, it's not real magic, it's all sleight of hand, eichi says, well i have no idea how you do it, so to me it's the same as real magic. eichi isn't just a regular fan who can't figure out wataru's tricks; he's the kind of person who can normally figure out how anything works. imagine his shock the first time he saw wataru do magic as part of one of his shows broadcast to the TVs, when after rewinding it several times, looking up special effects, watching hours of magic how-to tutorials trying to figure out how the hell wataru did it or at least get a hint, he was still completely stumped. but that's the kind of person eichi is and the kind of effort he'd go through to make sense of it.

what balances out eichi's frustration with and jealousy of wataru is wataru's kindness. wataru is truly, to the bone, everything eichi idealizes in an entertainer. he has a loving heart and doesn't look down on his audience but wishes to please them. he smiles at eichi when eichi feels completely useless, and it's not a pitying smile but a genuine one. for all of his show offy antics, wataru is very much not all about himself. he's genuinely interested in and attentive to the happiness of his audience, and once eichi has his attention, he turns that impossible talent directly into making eichi smile. for all of his frustration and jealousy it's impossible for eichi not to love wataru, and his respect for wataru as an artist is unparalleled. eichi finds himself thoroughly enchanted by him because wataru has something so unique to offer the world both in terms of what he can do and the kind of person he is.

that's why wataru will never stop surprising him. that's why eichi will never get bored of him. wataru is everything eichi finds loveable in the world and he inspires eichi to think of others, like tori, who admire eichu for what he can do, and to hone in on his own uniqueness he has to offer to the world. even if it's "not real" like the geniuses he admires, it may still be magic to someone he loves and wants to inspire.

[carlyraejepsans]

When did you watch pmmm?? :0 i dont think i ever saw you mention it before!!! Did you like it? :3

LMAO that's because that was literally yesterday, commenting it live on call with @metanarrates.

i liked it a fair bit! solid 8/10 for a series, it was really engaging and it wields its tonal shifts like a knife. i think it constructed a REALLY good tragedy with the puzzle pieces it had on hand, but ultimately fails in its attempt to be a deconstruction for the simple reason that it doesn't... actually engage with the tropes and characteristics of the magigirls genre it's trying to deconstruct on any level other than superficial.

which isn't bad! i mean, it is far from optimal for a deconstruction, but it doesn't necessarily take away from the story (specifically, the tragedy) it presents, which imo is pmmm's main appeal. it just kinda leaves this hollow feeling where you can tell the story would've benefited greatly from a more cohesive message. it wears the clothes of a magical girl story, without actually understanding how the seams hold the fabric together before ripping them open again.

i think the visuals and artistic vision in madoka is nothing short of phenomenal, the blending of digital and traditional, bricolage and collage, the psychedelic effect they produced to build the liminal nature of the witches' labyrinths. this might be my utenapilled bias showing through, but i SO wish those visuals had been accompanied by an actual plot relevant pattern behind them? madoka is a very visual story, but not so much a symbolic one. and i think establishing some recurring meanings behind its imagery would have elevated the series to a whole new level.

also not to get pretentious but like. a story whose worldbuilding rests on young teenage girls being targeted specifically for their emptional volatility, hopes, and inevitable helplessness against the weight they try to shoulder individually out of compassion... the textual comparison to cattles brought to the slaughter... you coulda made some REAL interesting anti-patriarchal critique there. like, i get that it's not what the series was trying to do, but man. what a missed opportunity.

but still, like i said, REALLY good anime despite it all. masterfully executed tragedy where you can see the inevitable end from the moment the tone shifts in episode 3. madoka as a mostly passive protagonist was used REALLY well, and. i mean you know me. doomed yuri + timeloops as a metaphor for grief are my bread and butter, so. solid 8.5/10 once again

[skippygiraffee]

So I've been on a Raileon kick lately and I saw one of your posts in the tag, and your takes are so incredibly based that I wanted to hear more. Please tell me, why do you personally ship them? I feel like hearing what you have to say will only make my love for them stronger.

well thank you, and thank you for the ask!!! <3 genuinely glad you enjoy the posts I make on those two :3 putting it under a Read More to spare the dashes of people and the tag, because frankly I know I'm long winded when I start talking sdkjsklf

so I'll be honest, I'm a chronic multishipper, so usually I look at a group of characters I like (such as the SWSH characters) and in the true spirit of a kid who played with dolls for many years, I like to move them around and ship them in various ways. like, I'm also a huge fan of Leon/Piers, Piers/Raihan, Sonia/Nessa, even my rarepair of Sonia/Piers as just a few ways I'll slam them together skdjflksf. which is how Raileon fell into my lap

that being said, I'm exceptionally compelled towards Raileon for a few reasons :3

I just find Leon and Raihan to be fascinating characters on their own. I think if I delved into the ways in which I adore them as characters we'd be here a while, but SWSH in general has some amazing characters, with some pretty well executed character arcs. and I'll admit I didn't like Leon at first, but god did he grow on me (to the point he's my fav SWSH character). Raihan grew on me slowly when I started reading the manga and looked at his character a little closer. and when I looked at him closer I started analyzing his and Leon's relationship in game. and then --

I love characters at odds with each other who learn to overcome the thing(s) keeping them apart. because sure, they're rivals, but they've been rivals for so long? and Raihan can't beat him? and he feels inadequate because of that? and then there's Leon who feels the weight of the world on his shoulders? keeping the world at arm's length, all so he can be Champion? holding onto the one thing that shaped him since he was a child? that holds so much potential. you can do SO MUCH with that. the amount of fanfiction, and stuff I've made in my own mind palace/written in chunks, about them overcoming their insecurities and moving forward through Rose's influence and the Darkest Day is just so good. also Leon being taken care of after the Darkest Day, by Raihan, his rival? it makes me feel like I'm going to start gnawing through my wall, if I'm being real

another thing that really compels me towards them is the idea of deconstructing norms. both norms set by Galarian society in what they envision these two as, and the norms they impose on themselves. learning how to shirk those norms, be more and more comfortable in their own skins, and then loving each other more because of it. unmasking certain things about each other, letting their hair down, and breathing. there's something personally compelling to me, for reasons deeply personal, that I find very comforting. and I think for all the ships that I attach myself to there's an element in there of raking through the muck and grime of one's soul and still loving what is found there. that might be my own personal projection speaking, but I see in fanfic and headcanons too, so I think we're all seeing something here in that regard sdkljslkjfs

without recycling talking points from my other posts, at the core of it all that's really why I ship them. and I truly love these guys, I have Leon and Raihan plushes and the bag with their faces on it that was sold sdkjfdflk. above it just a fancy way of putting like *holds up Leon and Raihan* "I just think they're neat" essentially <3

[animebw]

So The Woman Called Fujiko Mine feels like an argument against itself.

I don't mean that in broad metaphorical terms. I mean that this show quite literally looks into the camera and tells you that the very concept behind it is bullshit. It's a grim and gritty re-imagining of Lupin III that seems to regard grim and gritty re-imaginings as little more than contrived nonsense, something hastily slapped onto a perfectly fine piece of media with no regard for what makes that media work in the first place. I don't think I've ever seen a more purposefully self-defeating work of fiction in my life.

What do I mean by this? Well, the basis of this show seems to be explaining the backstory of Fujiko Mine, the Lupin franchise's resident femme fatale cat burglar. What kind of experiences, it asks, would lead someone to sleeping and stealing their way through life? And this being a supposed grim and gritty re-imagining with Naked Titties and Fucking, the answer it comes to is, of course, horrific sexual trauma. The final arc descends into this ludicrously overcomplicated conspiracy involving hallucinogenic drugs, human experimentation, possibly actual magic, all to explain how Fujiko was horribly abused as a child and repressed those awful memories through a life of cheap sex and fancy trinkets. Even the OP screams this point at the start of every episode: "The act of stealing lets her forget everything and keep her memories at a safe distance." She covers herself in jewels and men as if they can hide her shameful, scarred body from the horrors it was forced to endure, a lifetime of cheap thrills to escape the pain of her womanhood.

Except just when you think the whole conspiracy justifying this backstory can't get any more complicated, it overcomplicates itself even further to reveal that none of this actually happened. Turns out, Fujiko's repressed trauma memories were false memories implanted in her when she was already an adult as part of some roundabout cry for help from the actual victim. And in fact, Fujiko was already a sex-loving, treasure-grabbing femme fatale by the time those false memories were put in her. Not because of trauma, but because she just likes having sex and stealing things. And I'm not exaggerating when I say she all but looks the audience in the face and outright says, "See? Isn't it stupid and condescending trying to force a contrived rape narrative onto a female character just because she likes sex? Why can't I just be a bombshell who loves what she does without having to feel ashamed of it? Or does it only count as feminism if characters like me have to suffer for our sexiness?"

It's a genuinely wild subversion that feels a decade ahead of its time. But therein lies the problem: you still have to sit through a mostly straightforward grim and gritty deconstruction to get to the point where it points out how stupid most grim and gritty deconstructions are. And if the point was to criticize those kinds of stories just by being an example of one, well, all I can say is that it succeeded. It absolutely feels at times like a pointlessly dark and edgy paint job slapped on top of a story for the sake of feeling "mature" when all that really means is lots of rape and uncomfortable sexual hangups. Did I mention there's a Class S episode where Fujiko becomes the teacher at an all-girls school and proceeds to have affairs with multiple of her students? Because that happens, and I could feel my skin trying to crawl off my body the entire time.

Like I said in an earlier post, this isn't fanservice in the traditional sense. In fact, with the ending reveal in mind, the presentation and execution is almost maddeningly confrontational, as if daring you not to see it for the cheap shock value it is. You can almost hear Yamamoto and Okada laughing behind the scenes as you scramble to find an explanation for why all this misery porn needed to exist, only for the show itself to say "Actually, yeah, this was all pretty tasteless and crass, who would actually want Fujiko's story to be like this?" But it's still a frustrating fucking show to watch in the moment because all that possibly intentional metafictional subversion just reads as straight-up boring edgy grimdark before you're shown the man behind the curtain. Or, woman behind the curtain. Whatever.

I dunno, I don't think I can give this one a proper score. 5/10, I guess? Ask me in a few months and see if that's changed at all. For now, I'm more than happy to polish off my Yamamoto back catalogue and move onto something else. Which 2013 show will take its place, I wonder?

[bismuth-209]

Trias Politica and Doctor Who

in the English speaking world, i believe trias politica is usually called separation of powers

The absolute basics of the theory of the trias politica is essentially: it's not good when 1 guy does everything, it should be different guys who hold the power to make laws, the power to enact laws and the judicial power (so like, to interpret laws?)

A large part of the 10th Doctor's arc was going from "THE LAWS OF TIME ARE MINE AND I DECIDE THEM" to, like, "they're not actually"

A large part of the 12th Doctor's arc was grappling with his Identity as a general, who fashions people into weapons and commands them, you can see this especially well in the interactions with Danny Pink, but it also starts being a theme during 11, and continues after Danny dies, in my opinion. But he too finds a way to leave it behind him, starts being a madman in a box (again)

And then 14 now. as these posts by @sarahwatchesthings and @rearranging-deck-chairs have described, the Doctor has always been like how he was during that scene where he put on the Judge's wig and cited intergalactic law

First the Doctor is sort of explicitly a law-maker. Then that is deconstructed and refuted

Then he's rather explicitly a general, and a president too even (though the presidency is mostly silly), which i'm choosing to represent the executive power, and he slowly learns to let that go

and now, they've made his position as a judicial power explicit with a literal wig and brief mock court.

you see where i'm going with this

i'd appreciate other people's thoughts on this meta (preferably not just. "hm don't like this", but like. nuance), especially as it's been a while since i watched 10's era, like, i wasn't even really thinking about themes when i did, and a shorter but still long amount of time since i watched 12, and i barely watched 13 at all so i cannot judge how these themes show up in 13's era