#meaning their versions of media could be wildly different than our own

[esmeblaise]

It really gets good post season 2 when it becomes anti )(IC symbolism

[mariacallous]

To understand how the American media landscape fractured, one must first understand the brands that forged it. According to Faris Yakob, cofounder of creative consultancy Genius Steals and author of Paid Attention, advertisers created the neutral “view from nowhere” voice in media. In the 19th and 20th centuries, national brands looking to grow customers wouldn’t partner with biased publications. But everything changed when ad tech arrived.

“People started tagging their digital media buys so it wouldn’t appear next to topics like homosexuality, or Covid, to avoid getting into clusters,” Yakob says. “But that means that the news isn’t being funded. If you can pick and choose what topics to fund in news, you can distort what is being reported on, to some degree.”

That distortion, like the US Federal Communications Commission’s abolition of the fairness doctrine in 1987, is part of how America got into this mess. Similar to content recommendation algorithms, audience profiles in digital marketing created micro-targeted ads. Those ads are more valuable on multiple screens. Media executive Euan McLeod recalls growing up when “there was no choice” but to watch what his parents were watching. Now each person in a household might be watching something wildly different, and the shared experience has dissolved. Isolated artists are creating for isolated audiences. Is it any wonder that generative AI seems poised to tailor entertainment to audiences of one?

In this world, we can all be George Lucas, using technology to create special editions. Rick gets on the plane with Ilsa. Jack fits on the door with Rose. Ben Solo lives. As Marvel Comics writer Anthony Oliveira says, Andy Warhol was fascinated by the fact that people everywhere drank the same Coke. But the allure of AI content generation, he says, is the same as the Coca-Cola Freestyle: filling your own cup with someone else’s flavors.

But when everyone can just request the narrative path they want, opportunities to hear other people’s stories greatly diminish. “That is a very sad world to live in, because how else are we gonna be conveying our deepest hopes and wishes, what we think should be a vision of the world we want to live in, what we should worry about?" Yang says. "This is what story and art is for.”

Using AI to sanitize content in regions where certain subjects are banned is already possible, especially if actors yield likeness rights. Generative AI means that studios could edit or change the content of some films without consulting the people who signed a contract based on a script, and the only thing stopping them is the possibility of a defamation suit. It sounds unlikely, until you remember that multiple versions of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse appeared in cinemas.

And animation is an apt comparison: Most changes to entertainment production have made film and TV more like animation or video game development, not less. With current technology, actors can be little more than action figures smashing together, as weightless as they are sexless. With AI, the actors need never leave the trailer. Or exist.

“[Studios will] say it’s for the insurance,” says production designer Blass, suggesting a “Paul Walker scenario” in which a deceased actor’s performance needs generating, because that performance is one of the terms of the film’s business insurance. But in reality, these likenesses could be used to do things that actors would rather not—whether it’s a dangerous stunt or a sex scene.

Generative AI could also be used to edit films in real time, responsive to data-brokered preferences, with algorithms running A/B tests on how much nudity you want based on the customer profile you most closely match.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is: In the 1990s, Blockbuster Video refused to stock films like Natural Born Killers and The Last Temptation of Christ. But that tradition goes back even further. Otherwise known as the Hays Code, the Production Code was an industry standard of self-censorship guidelines for major US studios from 1930 to 1968, when it was replaced by the movie ratings system. The Code influenced everything from the Comics Code to parental advisory warnings to video game ratings. It’s why titles from major studios during that period don’t depict graphic violence. It’s also why they lack out-and-proud queer and interracial relationships. But today, a revived Production Code might have very different guidelines. For example, the Pentagon recently announced it would no longer offer technical support to filmmakers who censor their films for the Chinese market.

When I ask McLeod if he thinks America will ever re-adopt the Production Code, he’s unequivocal: “Absolutely. Everything goes in cycles.”

Hollywood’s Future Belongs to People—Not Machines

[chaos-spectre]

If Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog was cancelled by issue fifty in 1997 and was years later replaced by the Sonic X comic book before that too would be replaced by another Sonic comic title, that being the Sonic Boom comic, how different could the landscape of comicdom (comic fandom) be with Archie Sonic ending it's run? And what if the 48 page Sonic Super Specials were canned too back then?

Honestly sometimes I almost feel like there is a pocket of the Sonic Fandom that is entirely separate to everything else, and that is the Archie sonic fans. There are so many Archie characters and aosth characters that never even made it out into any other Sonic media, and so many story lines and character arcs that are exclusive to Archie that shape the characters into almost entirely different versions than their video game counter-parts. I mean just think of Fleetway too, and how different that Sonic is, and even Fleetway Amy, or Archie Shadow compared to Boom Shadow.

Putting a cut cause I ended up rambling really bad lol sorry

But tbh? If Sonic Team had just let go of archie early on, and smoothly moved on from era to era without any overlap... I wonder, would that have been better? Sort of like my little pony and monster high, how they change up the characters, world, and style with each new generation. But then you have moments where the fans don't like a new wave but are stuck with it, and can't get any new content of the version they already grew up with and fell in love with, so they kind of end up getting left behind in favour of the new generation of fans.

In fact, I think that's exactly why Sonic The Hedgehog has fans that follow the characters for years and years into their adulthood, and is why a lot of the writers and artists are those very fans grown up. It's because they see stories through instead of entirely abandoning them to appeal to the next generation. I remember there was a moment where a new sonic game would come out, and then the Archie comic would tell its own version of the game that included their own exclusive characters and build on their exclusive lore within their world and already-existing plots, just building up and up.

I think even after switching from Archie to IDW, Sonic team still does this. The new movies are wildly different and far removed from all pre-existing sonic media, what with Sonic growing up alone on our Earth and getting adopted by humans. It's clearly a new version of Sonic made fresh for a new, younger audience. I think Prime may also be aiming younger, too. But we still have IDW for older, already committed fans happening at the same time, along with new games like sonic fronteirs and the murder of sonic the hedgehog seemingly made with all ages in mind. I think that's why the Sonic franchise is so successful, because they have so many different versions of sonic and his world. He can appeal to absolutely anyone, any demographic. It does cause a lot of confusion with the lore, and some in-fighting over "what is this character's true personality" or general confusion over what even is canon or not. The whole point, I personally think, is that the sonic franchise has always encouraged fans to engage with the storytelling to spin their own versions or seek out their own preferences, and it shows in their staff selection, how a good majority of them are sonic fans grown up and ready to tell their own versions of sonic. Just like Tails said in that TailsTube episode, there's an infinite amount of Sonics in infinite amounts of worlds.

Long answer but yeah, I think its better that archie stretched on so long and truly explored absolutely every possibility, and that we get so many different versions that overlap with eachother. I don't think Sonic would have been as successful if they did generational waves like every other franchise, or at least not successful in the same way it is today. I think the Fandom would have been infinitely less creative too, have you seen how many Sonic fans are independently running their own Sonic comics??? Like @tatck , @the-heart-of-a-monster , @pandoraaucomic , ghosts of the future, the phantom ruby au, etc. How many fandoms just build their own fully-fledged content like that? I mean, in such a large quantity? There's a whole bag-full of fully illustrated comics I can think of off the top of my head, plus fully programmed and voice acted fan-made games too.

The way Sonic is set up right now, allowing their writers to chase any story they want regardless of clashing canon or overlapping separate versions, I think it really encourages fans to chase their own stories too. It's funny but I think your question sparked such a long answer because it made me realize why I really love Sonic. They just seem to have given their writers so much freedom, especially in the Archie era. It's a shame that staff like Ken penders kinda ruined that and forced them to put more restrictions. Even still, there's so much freedom and variations in the stories to this day. I mean, sometimes you can just like, not have humans exist at all! Or put crazy aliens! Or fast forward into crazy futuristic cities with hoverboards and flying cars, then dial it back to island living animal people with basic engineering. It's crazy and so fluid and nothing is ever set in stone, and you end up with crazy random stories like Sonic 2006, but that just makes it so fun and opens the world up to be so big. It truly is infinite possibilities, and I think that inspires the Fandom to higher levels.

[creativepup]

Going to go ahead and get all my Good Omens S2 thoughts out as a long-time book fan (moreso meta than plot details) - under the cut because this will be long (tldr at the end)

First of all, I genuinely liked the season, for all that I wasn't expecting to. I thought it was all well put-together: the themes were consistent and well-defined, the storylines all intertwined and foiled each other, it was generally consistent with what was previously established, and there were no plot twists that came out of nowhere (no not even the ending - more on this in a moment). There were some parts that I didn't fully jive with, but no more than were in the first season.

(I do think some of Gaiman's personal promotional choices were... somewhat disingenuous, and part of why there's been so much upset. But I think giving the product an evaluation for what it is is more important than what the creator said in some online responses.)

To start: the TV versions of Aziraphale and Crowley are not the same as the book, and they never had been. Even in season one there were already some big characterization divergences - I've already reblogged some other good posts that go into more detail, but I would argue that this even starts with Crowley's red hair (I almost completely avoided watching the initial release because I thought it looked so clownish). If some of these differences continue to be amplified by continuing the TV story then I think that's only natural. I also think they were never going to be the same as the book anyways. How could they be, between the change in format and the absence of one of the book's key creators? At best they are just homages to their original counterparts, and they shouldn't be viewed as more than that. While I am really happy that the new season seems to have encouraged more people to start discussing the differences and compare the two media more thoroughly, I don't think the show should be expected to conform to the book, especially as it starts entering new territory. (And the new season did make some corrections, to keep things from veering too wildly off-track.)

I enjoyed a lot of the bits of world-building we got through the side characters. Jim was surprisingly entertaining as were all the little threads tied to his memory loss. I really enjoyed Shax as our average ladder-climbing demon trying to get noticed amidst the horde (really Shax in general was great, I'm sad I haven't seen more love for her), along with Furfur trying to get a promotion (he doesn't really want to move up to Temptations, but that's what you're supposed to do if you want to advance, right? Really reminds me a lot of how management positions are treated irl), as well as the insight into how Hell is not immune to falling short of its own propaganda. (The zombie implications were fascinating too.) Meanwhile Heaven has its own employee struggles, except there it's sibling squabbles and struggling to get into the 'in' crowd. It was also nice to see a bit more of the neighborhood outside of Aziraphale's bookshop. I wasn't fond of either Nina or Maggie at first, but they did grow on me at least as their roles in the plot became more clear.

Regarding the Ending - it's basically a mirror of what we already saw happen in season one, and it's what the lack of communication all season was building to. And if the question is why would these characters make the same mistakes - why wouldn't they? With all that happened during the Apocalypse countdown, character development wasn't a big focus, and they're two entities on an immortal timescale. Especially with Aziraphale, never changes outfits, took 80 years to change his mind about holy water. The time gap between the two seasons is relatively minuscule in comparison. Other shows like WWDITS also show immortals having a hard time changing long-held behavior patterns; I don't see why Good Omens should be held to a different standard.

I've seen a lot of theories trying to dive into secret meanings or What Really Happened, but none of them really land. The show doesn't do twists like that - even with the body swap in season one the audience was left temporarily in dark to give those scenes more effect, but never left completely out of the loop. (The one theory that was interesting was Metatron formerly being human - that would explain the behavior we see from him in the finale.) The key information we are conspicuously missing, that I think is where the focus should be, is Aziraphale's conversation just before the confrontation - this will probably shed a lot more light (ha) on why he took the job offer (which I agree is pretty strange).

What I actually didn't like about the season - I thought the makeup felt really flat compared to season one, especially for the side angels and demons. I don't know if it was an executive decision to take a subtler approach, but the angels barely looked angelic (I couldn't even see Uriel's gold dust half the time) and most of the demons were similar (Shax doesn't even look demonic at all). I think the only one I was happy with was Dagon, and even their makeup looked more costume-variety than the first season. Beelzebub also fell flat for me for most of the season, though I don't know whether that's from the acting or the makeup issue. They just really lacked the presence and intimidation that made them originally stand out. I also wasn't a fan of the increased focus on Crowley's former life as an angel (and setting their first meeting further back, I don't like recontextualizing the wall scene), although given the number of fan theories that hit the nail on the head I can't say it came out of nowhere. I really feel that the life someone's had for 6000 years defines them more than the life they had for ~7 days, and it's insulting to only focus on who they were before.

I don't have anything good to wrap this up on, so TL;DR: Thought Season Two was the same quality as Season One, if not the story wrap-up we were told to expect.

[scriptlgbt]

I'm wondering about bad tropes/stereotypes when writing an LGBTQ+ character being married to a non LGBTQ+ character?

Helpful term: Lavender Marriage

A lavender marriage is a [usually] male–female mixed-orientation marriage, undertaken as a marriage of convenience to conceal the socially stigmatized sexual orientation of one or both partners.

(Definition edited from Wikipedia)

Do you mean like a beard relationship (eg. a lesbian marrying a straight man for social appearances) or something else (like a bi woman marrying a straight man for love, or a trans person marrying a cis hetero person)?

Those aren't the only options either, this could be a peach fuzz relationship (where a QPR is referred to as a romantic relationship for social appearances).

Each of these things kind of come with slightly different implications. If you send an ask about more specifics, we can hone in on that better.

If I'm making a list of my Biggest Beefs with rep for this stuff in general, here's some no-nos:

allocishet characters using a partner's identity as a bargaining chip for something/otherwise weaponizing it against them. This can ofc be done if you want to make an easy villain, but it's wildly over-represented in media. I even see it depicted in relationships between two LGBTQ+ characters way too often. "Are you ashamed of me or something? People should know" is just so... Done. It's toxic. And usually closeted folks in relationships find ways to live as their true selves separately from people they want to be closeted to, at least if they have any privacy from those folks. This may be my own biases as someone whose parents aren't a part of my life anyway, but it doesn't actually seem like, at least in my experience, we deal with the same "meeting the parents" social obligation, at least overall. It might be important to a given individual and that's totally fine and normal and valid, but domestic tenderness and family is different for me.

referring to bi women in relationships with men as having "straight passing privilege" I know this is controversial for a lot of people: but this is just biphobia. (This is not up for debate here.) Hypervisibility and erasure are both shitty things with a lot of drawbacks. Even if there are situations where one acts as a variable in a good way, it's not the same as real privilege, because that variable will snap back into oppression in a different circumstance. For example, domestic violence rates against bi women are astronomically higher than both lesbians and straight women. I'm not saying this in order to say that there's any kind of WLW that has privilege over a different kind of WLW. I'm just saying that it's ignorant to call one group privileged over another just because of their relationships. We are oppressed for who we are on a fundamental level, for our desires, wants, needs, for our identities. A lesbian who never dates is still a lesbian. We don't gain privilege when we become single. It just doesn't work that way.

chasers and other fetishizers of LGBTQ+ people being treated as a good thing, or in any way condusive to a healthy relationship. [a chaser is a term for someone who fetishizes trans people. The term is sometimes heard as "tr*nny chaser" -- but I rec avoiding that version of the term unless you're reclaiming the t-slur for yourself and are qualified to do so.] It's okay to be attracted to trans people, but fetishization is subhumanizing. I wrote this article in 2016 a few years after a relationship with a chaser, covering red flags that indicate when a partner is fetishizing you. I haven't read the article over in a few years, so take it with a grain of salt, but I remember it as having some good examples of that. If you want to depict this kind of relationship as a problem, there are ways to write it responsibly. But I would strongly rec a sensitivity reader who has experienced this kind of thing, since it's easy to fuck up.

There's also just a Lot of complicated stuff around trans people in relationships with allocishet people. For even the most well-meaning, there's stuff to learn.

There's also just something different about the ways that being connected to queer culture impacts the way our relationships are carried out. I've heard a lot of bi cis + binary people talk about how their relationships with other bi people feel different on a fundamental level to relationships with straight cis binary people. (I've never dated a straight person so I can't speak to comparison, but if anybody wants to add on their own experiences, please feel encouraged to do so!)

- mod nat

[black-mesa-slut-voice]

THE ERRANTEL

[ More info below the cut! ]

Due to popular demand, I finally made a ref sheet for the species my Swap Benrey’s belongs to- the Errantel. 

Their name, originally, had no human translation, since they are not from Earth. Benrey himself describes it as loosely translating to “Unkillable hobo”, though Tommy thought it was too long, and seemed... rude, almost. So, with the help of his friend Forzen, they came up with the term Errantel; a combination of the words for “immortal wanderer” in french. 

Biologically, Errentel are very interesting species, as they’ve earned their reputation for being “unkillable”. They’re essentially the equivalent of giant, interdimensional tardigrades. They can withstand nearly all conditions- the vacuum of space, temperatures hot enough to usually make things combust, and temperatures nearing true zero. This grants them safety when they manage to worm their way through dimensions and travel to different planets that might be otherwise inhabitable. 

Not only that, but they are also proficient at rudimentary “shapeshifting”- they can compress and expand the mass of their form, ranging from very very small to extremely large; rivaling skyscrapers. Their average size is normally a healthy in between- the size of a two-story house (the size that Benrey took during the final battle). 

They can also shift the amount of limbs, mouths, eyes, and other features they possess, with some restrictions mentioned above. This allows Benrey to take an arguably very humanlike form to better fit in with his coworkers.  Their diet is extremely varied. Their near unkillable state and rapid healing is because of their physiology. In short- their body is made of completely different things than ours, so they need a wide range of nutrients and minerals to stay healthy and unkillable. This is what causes the most competition amongst them- sometimes even eating other Errantels for the specific nutrients in their bodies. 

Socially, they’re sapient; generally human-level intelligence, sometimes slightly above (mostly due to their outstanding lifespans). How they are seen, however, varies wildly between dimensions, planets, species and societies. In some places, they’re considered normal people. They could, arguably, wander into a space McDonald’s and get a job, and be treated as a normal person. In other places, they’re considered wild beasts, to be avoided or even hunted for sport. 

Amongst their own species, they’re pretty extreme. Honestly, because of their extreme lifespans and nearly unkillable status, the only thing keeping their population in check is... well, their own species, and the fact that they’re so widespread. 

When an Errantel meets another (or honestly, any species they see as ‘equals’), they see them as competition. Rivals, in a sense. One of the few things that can truly threaten them. And so, their main goal is to remove that competition by any means necessary. This can go one of three ways:

Put enough distance between them that they don’t have to compete. This is pretty easily done, considering they can worm through dimensions and travel through the void of space to reach entirely new planets.

Kill each other. Errantels are, unfortunately, highly cannibalistic. The can and will eat other Errantels if they see them as threats, or even as weaker. Some of them will even eat their eggs and young in times of duress or if they simply don’t want to have any at the moment. 

Become partners. And I don’t put that lightly- Errantel ‘partnerships�� are almost complete codependency; putting their full trust, safety, heart and soul into each other. They’ll trust each other with their lives, share their food, young- and even other partners. It’s not unusual to have a group of 2-5 Errantels all in a polyamorous partnership. This eliminates the competition and threat of death through a much more friendly way.

So, a meeting between two Errantels usually starts as a long winded display at a distance, dancing around each other and judging whether or not they’re going to partner up, fight, or flee. There are no half-measures among them- you will almost never see two Errantel hanging out together for fun. Though, of course, in a social situation, most of them can behave long enough to share a space in a formal environment (think about having to go to a meeting with your ex. Sure, you don’t like it and there’s tension, but you put up with it for formalities). 

When communicating, Errantels use a communication system composed of a high-dense light, sound, and color they can expel from their mouth, which can help communicate emotions both visually and sensually (”Sweet voice”). My guide for Sweet Voice is the same one I use for the Errantels.  They’re very intelligent, however, and commonly learn other languages as well. 

When it comes to reproducing, Errantel can go two ways. They can reproduce both sexually and asexually! All Errantels have both bits, so any Errantell can reproduce with another. When done sexually, it’s pretty much only ever with those they’ve partnered with- there’s very little ‘infidelity’ amongst partnerships, or even one night stands for single Errantels. The children produced are just like humans in where they can have features of both parents, though other mutations are pretty common. 

When done asexually, it is something they can choose to do if they want a child but either don’t have any partners, or their partner can’t reproduce for some reason. Young produced this way are usually very similar to the parent- if not identical- but not always! Due to variations in DNA and self-alteration of sexual cells, as well as mutations, asexually produced young are usually slightly-off versions of the parent. Joshua, for example, was created this way- he’s almost identical to Benrey in every way except for a slightly different skin tone, and different colored eyes. 

Also, because they don’t differ at all between what’s in their pants and travel so many dimensions, Errantel have little care for gender or how they’re perceived. Most will go by whatever neutral pronouns a language has, or will simply use any pronoun- though of course, some do enjoy being gendered and are free to do so. 

Errantels also lay eggs. They’re usually in batches of 1-3; any larger and you risk the parents eating the extras to save resources. They’re usually the size of chicken eggs, and Errantel will often shift down smaller during this to hide away and go unnoticed. 

A freshly hatched Errantel simply looks like a very small adult- except for the fact that their ‘fur’ is white instead of black, and they’re usually much more covered in it. As they become juveniles, their white fur quickly starts molting away into the signature black color. 

Once their fur is molted into being fully black, they’re technically able to survive on their own. However, good parents often keep them around much longer than this, until they’ve reached full and true maturity. Once they’re old enough, they usually voluntarily leave to go find their own territories and partnerships!

 Errantels can continue to breed throughout their whole lifetimes, and so their territory will often be surrounded by the territories of their children- and so each child reared often has farther and farther to travel to reach an uninhabited space. This can be quite dangerous, but most make it. And thus,  the whole cycle starts again!

FAQ

So this is what your Benrey is? Sort of. Mainly just my Swap AU Benrey and Joshua- my other Benreys are all completely different, really.

What the fuck is your Swap AU? It’s my Roleswap AU for HLVRAI. Benrey is the scientist and Gordon is the guard, etc etc. You can find out more about it here, and this is the tag I have for it on my tumblr!

Can I make an OC of this species? Fuck yeah! Go nuts, dude! The only thing I ask of you is that 1) You give credit if anyone asks what they are, and 2) send them to me! I’d love to see them! 

If I do make an OC/Use this species, does it have to be HLVRAI? Nope. Because they travel dimensions, they can arguably appear in any media- if you want you can use them for anything. Original universes, other fandoms, other AUs of any sort, etc etc! Same rules apply as above- credit, and I’d like to see them!

Can they be albino/melanistic/piebald? I’m gonna say yes because it’s cool as hell. Love that shit.

My question isn’t answered here! Help??? I have an ask box and you are 100% welcome to use it! I’d love to talk more about these guys and anything I didn’t cover.

[sunnydeviant]

Yearning (Reed900)

This fic is on AO3!

There was one thing in the Zen Garden he had created on his own, started from scratch with each line of code carefully written by the android himself. It was the thing that made him look forward to stasis.

(Inspired by the song "I Wanna Be Yours" by the Arctic Monkeys and the Detroit: Evolution Reed900 edit with the same song by Octopunk Media. In addition, I took Zenvin from DE but this isn't a DE fic)

Nines, nowadays, is almost always eager to enter stasis.

As an android of the RK line, it was seen as necessary to do. Connor, an RK800 and his predecessor, had to do it. Markus, an RK200, had to as well. As advanced prototypes, they used stasis to process information the way humans used dreams. However, in stasis, androids were fully aware of their actions and environment.

Nines, an RK900, had a Zen Garden waiting for him in stasis. For the other RKs, they had created their own environments. However, Nines stuck with the setting given to him by CyberLife. It was familiar and comforting.

Although, there was one thing in the Zen Garden he had created on his own, started from scratch with each line of code carefully written by the android himself. It was the thing that made him look forward to rest.

It was a version of Gavin, his work partner. He was a detective and human who worked with the android at the Detroit Police Department.

Initially, the Zen Garden version of Gavin, or Zenvin, as Nines liked to call him, was created as a way to cope with the real Gavin’s vile behavior when they were first partnered. Gavin was a cantankerous man when they first met. He was almost always raising his voice at the android and belittling him when they had met. Nines, in his frustration, created Zenvin. He was kinder, for the most part. Although, he served the purpose of teaching Nines how to interact with his partner. The AI had helped him greatly.

Now, Gavin and Nines were as close as an android detective and his human partner could get, considering their rough start. They were close friends now, after having taken the time to attempt to understand each other after their endless amount of misunderstandings. They were on good terms.

Although, something in Nines itched for more. He wasn’t sure when it had started. Like a flower, the feeling bloomed a while ago, and had continued to grow. At first, the feeling was painful and emotionally burdening. After, he began to come to terms with the fact that he had fallen in love with someone for the first time. Someone he had a work and platonic relationship with. The acceptance helped, but the pain was still there regardless.

It was only during stasis he could ease away the pain and disregard the unrealistic aspects of the pre-constructions he had made, all involving the detective.

It was only during stasis he could satisfy his own feelings.

Zenvin was made to help Nines learn how to deal with his human, but he eventually was used to help play out the scenarios he had only imagined involving the actual Gavin Reed.

Only in his Zen Garden could he hold, kiss, and hug Gavin without the fear of rejection or distrust. Nines knew the human would never return his feelings, let alone touch him, even in a platonic sense.

The AI he had created looked, talked, walked, and sounded exactly like Gavin. It possessed his emerald eyes and playful tone.

The thing was, Nines was fully aware of the fact that the AI was only a simulation; he could satisfy all his wants and needs in this world he possessed, but Gavin would never truly love him back. Although, pretending in his Zen Garden hurt less than having to face rejection by his partner.

The android opened his eyes slowly. His LED spun calmly, glowing pastel yellow.

He looked ahead, confused as he saw no one in sight.

Taking a deep breath, the android began to stroll around his Zen Garden, looking for the AI man he sought out every time in this world.

Zenvin stood at the opposite end of the garden, looking up at the pink of the cherry blossoms blooming on a tree.

“Nines,” He greeted with a pleasant tone, smiling gently.

“Hello, Gavin.”

Admiring the human's serene expression, Nines smiled back at him. He looked lovely.

Zenvin turned to the RK900.

The AI looked calm and rested, rather than disheveled and tired, unlike the human he was based on. He wore a clean white shirt and kept his hair naturally curly. His skin looked bright and clean. Although he kept his stubble and scars, he still looked angelic.

He took the android’s hand in his, interlaced their fingers, and kissed the back of Nines’s hand, making him blush blue.

They began their typical stroll around the garden with a languid pace. Nines always felt relaxed here, as if a deep calm blanketed his body.

He felt the warm sunlight of his skin, the gentle grip of Gavin’s hand, and heard the soft thud of their footsteps beneath them.

Being here with Zenvin never failed to bring him genuine peace. Here, he could slow down for a few moments before committing himself back to his real life. It was always stressful and confusing out there.

The android may have been a deviant for over a year, but his emotions and their effects always felt new, as if he was only converted days ago. It added to the stress of navigating through work and personal matters. The whirlwind of emotions he was always experiencing usually felt overwhelming, besides in moments like this. Everything felt manageable and distant like this.

Only in his own mind could Nines truly relax.

Zenvin brought them over to a bench placed in the center of the garden, facing the old “emergency exit" in the distance. It had no use, now that Nines was deviant. It was meant to be used if an android had to force exit the control of CyberLife or their program. Although, there was no use now that all androids were deviant. There was no programming to escape.

Now, it was kept there for the sake of comfort: he would never use it, but he wanted to keep it there. He knew he would dislike the empty space it would leave behind and would not know what to use to fill its place.

He looked at it for a second, wondering if he would ever have had to use it if the circumstances were different.

“Eyes on me, tin can.”

The android turned to face the man beside him, who stared at him with a fond smile.

Zenvin brought his hand up to the Nines’s neck, gently caressing it. Rubbing his thumb against his cheek, the program human tilted his head to the side in the quizzical matter the RK900 did at times.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing much. I’m just glad to be here with you.”

Nines placed his hand over Zenvin’s. He couldn’t help the smile that bloomed across his lips as he leaned into the touch.

Suddenly, the human’s expression changed into something serious. The smile on his lips had disappeared and his brows were slightly furrowed in what seemed to be worry.

“Nines, I need you to wake up. Wake up, Nines,” Nines heard.

However, it didn’t come from Zenvin’s lips.

Nines looked at him with sudden confusion. His LED spun a violent red and began to flicker wildly.

“Gavin?”

Nines blinked forcefully a few times, his Zen Garden and the real world replacing each other every time he opened his eyes. After a few more times, he was finally completely out of stasis, displeased to have left his Zen Garden so suddenly.

“I leave for maybe, about 3 minutes and you’re already nodding off on me. You sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine, Detective.”

“Sheesh, I didn’t mean to interrupt your beauty sleep. No need to pull the ‘Detective’ shit on me.”

Gavin eyed the android suspiciously, who just went back to scanning files on his tablet. He turned to his computer and sipped his coffee.

With no new cases of their concern, the duo didn’t have much to do besides look at old cases or, in the android’s case, upload hard copies of information from the evidence archive to the police department’s online database.

The lack of action was unusual for them, as they could usually be found on active scenes or researching their cases. However, it was excruciating, especially for the human. Everyone in the station knew that he lived for his job, so seeing him so agitated over the lack of work was expected.

“May I suggest ending our work day early? I’ve already updated the department’s database with case files from the 1970s to the 1980s and I’m sure you’re sick of staring over the same closed case for 3 hours.”

Gavin stared at Nines with a cocked eyebrow.

“You’ve read my mind,” he sighed, grabbing his keys and turning off his computer.

“Let’s grab something to eat, yeah?”

“Sure, Gavin.”

Gavin walked toward the back exit of the building as Nines tidied his desk, numerous pre-constructions, which would never be played out, running through his HUD.

[betterversion--ofme]

Rebecca Black's Search for Identity

Rebecca Black's unabashedly sapphic bop 'Girlfriend' came onto my radar recently. "Holy shit," I thought to myself, thrilled, "She's grown up and got a Carly Rae Jepsen meets Katy Perry sound? I need to hear more of this!"

Well, not exactly... 'Girlfriend' is that, but Rebecca Black isn’t that. Not yet, at least - out of a dozen or more releases, it’s just that one song.

The truth is, Rebecca has been trickling out songs for years, throwing things at the wall, looking for the style that will make her take off.

As I hopped from song to song in the Youtube recommended links, each song was different. They could have each been from a different singer. I was so excited after hearing Girlfriend, but each song I listened to left me more confused.

Skipping past the series of regrettable cash-ins while she was under management of Debra Baum right after 'Friday', then a handful of forgettable EDM pop tracks, are a few more recent interesting songs with -wildly- different vibes. So who IS Rebecca Black?

Welcome Back (she never left)

Every piece of press that Rebecca gets has the same lede: Remember the Friday girl? Well she’s BACK, she’s GROWN UP, and she’s a REAL MUSICIAN now!

But apart from a 3-year hiatus between 'Saturday' and 'The Great Divide', Rebecca has actually been consistently releasing music every year since 'Friday'. There's no comeback to speak of, she's always been around, just not gathering much attention.

It's the kind of PR move that works once and only once: that was then, this is now, and then you stand on the quality of your work and move forward. But every bit of press I could find, at the release of every song coming out almost every year, has taken this stance, not even mentioning the prior songs. She keeps trying to break out, but the viral fame is too comfy to leave behind.

The lead single off her one and only EP ‘RE/BL’, 'Heart Full of Scars', feels like an intentional callback to her viral phase and the cyberbulling she experienced. And I don't doubt that the bullying and harassment she went through left some deep marks. And the biggest thing that’s put her in the headlines lately, of course, is a new version of Friday.

So on the one hand she is trying to move forward with a pop career, but on the other hand she keeps leaning on her prior name recognition and winking back at the past.

She also has a pretty large presence on Youtube. I admit, I have not done a deep dive of her Youtube, Tiktok, and other social media presence. As I understand it, she is friends with a group of LGBTQ Youtubers and makes appearances in their work as well. Most of the recent vlogs on her channel, though, once again are themed around 13-year-old Rebecca.

I mean, those viral-fame-milking videos have double or more the amount of views compared to her other videos, so I guess do what the algorithm commands you to do, girl.

A short history of Rebecca Black the artist

I want to start out by saying I'm not going to consider 'Friday' as part of her career. I want to judge her current work on its own merits: would I be listening to it, if it didn't have any name recognition?

Directly after 'Friday', Rebecca was signed to DB Entertainment and released a string of awkward songs and videos. The less said about them, the better. Then was 'Saturday', dipping from the one-hit-wonder sequel song well with the best of them (see Kung Fu Fighting's Dance the Kung Fu, and The Devil Comes Back to Georgia).

The one cohesive work she has released is the EP ‘RE/BL’ in 2017. Other than that, everything has been released in one-off singles or pairs.

She’s got very safe EDM pop in Foolish and Anyway. She’s got some sweet but dark, Melanie Martinez vibes in Sweetheart and Do You. (She’s even worked with Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas on Satellite). Every time she seems to be heading in a certain direction, she releases something completely different.

As of yet, though, she hasn't settled on any genre or general identity that I would expect from a pop artist. Not that I'm expecting every song she puts out to be the same, or that I don't love some experimentation, but the things she has put out simply don't feel cohesive, and it's like each song is aimed at a different audience.

Who Is Her Base?

So, having listened to all the songs she’s put out to date, I’m at a loss with how to describe Rebecca Black as a pop artist.

Is she a mainstream pop idol? Is she retro-inspired and glittery?

Is she cute but a little dark and edgy? Or a boundary-pushing hyperpop queen?

She's a chameleon, becoming a different artist each time she works with a new collaborator. And I think this is hurting her chances at building a devoted base of fans.

February was big PR moment for our girl Rebecca. Just a week after 'Girlfriend' dropped, so did the hyperpop remix of Friday.

Unfortunately, hearing the phrase 'Friday hyperpop remix' gives you just about everything you need to know, and you barely need to listen to the song. I'm not saying that because of any distaste for hyperpop - Simply, the actual execution of the idea was unsurprising and unexciting (IMO).

It's not completely out of left field, though, as Rebecca is honestly dipping her toe into hyperpop. She had a feature on Dorian Electra's latest album, and her main 2020 release "Closer" has some light Sophie/Charli-esque touches (albeit in a much safer and chiller way than the Dorian track). Her Fantano interview does imply this is something she’s interested in pursuing further.

If Rebecca goes full hyperpop, I am totally behind that. It's a ripe niche, people will appreciate her meme appeal rather than be driven away, and 'hyperpop star' is a rather more achievable goal than 'mainstream pop star'. If she can do that and do it well, it could be the perfect career move for her.

I do hope Rebecca finds her identity as a musician. It’s a tough step for any artist deemed a “one-hit wonder”, and doubly difficult for her unique situation. I think she’s got a lot of potential, and someday we’ll stop saying “Oh, the Friday girl?” and start saying things like “Oh, I loved her latest album!”

[ammocharis]

Writing Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @cleverblackcat and @tejaswrites!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

12 as of now, though some of them are parts of the same story and I might weave them all in a single work one day, but I decided to split them due to time skips and changes in tone. I don’t know when I’ll be able to bridge all the gaps but I still wanted to share what I wrote, so I ended up creating a series with a couple of installments.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

140 699 words

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Watch the Skies - 125 kudos

Vatna of Two Falcon Hold as a companion in Dragon Age - 8 kudos

Mirrors and Braids ex aequo Rattle the bars if you like, but I chose to enter this cage - 7 kudos

Aval'var, it means - our journey ex aequo Avvar History Reconstruction - 5 kudos

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, I do respond to almost every comment and I really appreciate receiving them. When someone comments on certain aspects of the story, I usually try to explain some of my choices, like why I decided for that character to react in such a way, why I deviated from the canonical storyline, or why I included those lore tidbits. It allows me to share my perspective, my reasons for writing the story in the first place.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Well, I have started writing an alternative storyline for my Avvar Inquisitor, Vatna, in which she becomes a part of the Jaws of Hakkon, which ought to be super angsty, but it has no ending yet.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Do limericks count? They’re fun but each is five verses long.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I had, in fact, the first fic that I wrote was a crossover between Dragon Age and Puella Magi - it’s just not published on AO3 and probably never will. It's pretty crazy, that’s for sure, given how wildly different those two pieces of media are, though strangely, I found a few of thematic parallels that compelled me to explore them for a while.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, and I hope I’ll be spared from it. My writing is not perfect by any means, and I do welcome constructive criticism and corrections, but I probably wouldn’t deal well with hate comments. Mustering motivation to write fics is hard enough as it is.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

No, not really. I have written some scenes that focused on sexual interactions, but they weren’t quite smutty, if that makes sense, as the POV character is a sex-indifferent asexual.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I write in English, even though it isn’t my native tongue, so I could probably translate my own fics if I wanted, but I didn’t feel like it so far. If someone approached me with an offer to translate my fic into a language I don’t speak, I’m not sure what my reaction would be, as I’d like to know how they present my characters in the translated version. Translation is a tricky craft, and there are many ways to express a single concept. Sometimes, a translated work has a completely different tone from the original.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah, I wrote Fool's Gold with Toshi Nama as a part of Discord server collaboration, in which her Warden, Farin Brosca, and my Inquisitor, Vatna Einarsdotten, meet up to investigate a red lyrium smuggling operation in the Frostback Mountains. It was a fun challenge!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I’m not sure, I don’t focus on shipping that much.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I probably won’t get back to finish my unpublished crossover xD But I enjoyed thinking about the possibilities, and I did have the general storyline thought out, but I don’t think I could finish it. For one, it would take a lot of time and motivation that I don’t have, and if I ought to pick a project I would like to see till the end, it’s the story of my Avvar girl.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I’ve been told my worldbuilding is well-thought out. I do have the benefit of writing fanfiction, so there’s no need to built a world from ground up, but I do expand upon what’s presented in the original work, and I greatly enjoy it. I wonder a lot about the unexplored details, like when I’m writing about the Avvar, I imagine what kind of holidays they could celebrate, what cultural taboos they might observe, what is their main source of food, how their families could be structured, little things like that, which, hopefully, create a compelling picture together.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

My pacing is probably not that great, when I think about what I’d like to write, I don’t really ensure that each story beat is nicely spaced out, that there are no sudden accelerations or decelarations of plot. I do have a general plotline in my head, for the most part, but when it comes to writing, I focus on individual chapters. 

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it has its time and place, but I believe it should be done sparingly. I wouldn’t be excited to read a super long dialogue in a language different from the one that the work is written in, and I won’t include such things in my fic. It disrupts the flow and doesn’t benefit the story very much, in my opinion. If it’s necessary for the plot or characterization to show that someone speaks in another language, I think it’s enough to use a foreign word or a phrase from time to time, hint at its meaning through context, and describe how the communication barrier affects the characters.

My main character, Vatna, does alternate between her native tongue (Avvar, which is I represent as Icelandic/Old Norse) and a second language (Common Tongue, which for all my intents and purposes is equivalent to English) so I do include some lines in a different language, but I keep them short. Usually, it’s just a single word whose meaning can be easily inferred from the surrounding text. More often than not, I signify the language barrier through other means. Sometimes, Vatna slips into her native tongue for a longer moment, and she may even have conversations with her fellow Avvar, but the actual dialogue remains in English (i.e. Common) - instead, I use the narration to show that the language barrier is ever present, like describing the reaction of accompanying characters.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

My favourite is Mirrors and Braids, a part of the Saga of the Avvar-Daughter series, which focuses on Vatna’s reaction to the loss of her arm. Though it’s not really a “fun” story by any means, I am quite fond of it. It was somewhat cathartic to write.

Tag list under the cut

@samuraisaucefrites @dreadfutures @crackinglamb

[gffa]

I think the thing with fans opinions on the Jedi is they tend to be one extreme or the other, with both usually claiming there are far more people on the opposing side (which makes them defensive over their opinions). It's not bad, or that they're wrong, but people who feel like the Jedi are praised too much tend to ignore any time they were right or doing their best even if they fail, and people who feel they are criticised too much tend to ignore any valid criticism and make any issues (1/2)

not their fault. And even when people say they acknowledge things, a lot of people have a but after that statement, which seems contradictory to such a claim. Also, there’s so much Star Wars media that has different opinions on those things, so even just depending on what media you’ve consumed, your opinion will be different. (2/2)

Hi!  One of the biggest problems I’ve found is that one person’s valid criticism is another person’s unfair criticism.  What you might consider as me dismissing a valid criticism, as someone who is a fan of the Jedi, may be me going, “I disagree with that being a valid criticism.”  My disagreement is not the same thing as a dismissal in that case.I’m not beholden to anyone else’s interpretations of what is or isn’t valid criticism, just as no one is beholden to what I say is valid and what isn’t.  We can only make our cases, respect each other, not make ad-hominem commentary or treat each other poorly over fictional stories and characters, other than that, we have to make our peace with others disagreeing with our approaches on things.  Or at least we should be doing that!I do find that things get pushed into extremes and it’s incredibly hard to meet back in the middle–for a variety of reasons (again, as I’ve experienced, no part of fandom is a monolith, I can only speak on what I’ve personally been through!), like how even the slightest flaw I talk about tends to get amped up into “Yeah!  The Jedi are terrible!” responses and I have to go back to going, “No, that’s not it.” and defending them.  (In addition to the “I disagree that that’s a valid/invalid criticism.” aspect.)And I do find that it’s usually only Jedi fans who are being scolded for ignoring criticism–where is the same attitude when it comes to Luke or Ahsoka or Leia or the Mandalorian?  So, it gets really hard to take calls for more Jedi criticism in good faith when it only ever seems to be the Jedi fans who get this.  (And maybe Ahsoka fans are being asked to be more critical of her, maybe they are being criticized for dismissing valid talk about her flaws, but I’m genuinely not seeing it.  This doesn’t mean that you’re not being genuine, I believe that you are!  But my experiences come with different associations than yours, I suspect, which means my approaches are going to be different.)For me, I’ve found that there’s an expectation for Jedi fans to meet in the middle and admit to a list of flaws that someone else wrote up, and if we don’t, we’re dismissing valid criticism, and I just very thoroughly disagree with that entire framework.  (Again, not everyone is putting that out, no part of fandom is a monolith, only that this is something I’ve experienced multiple times.)  It’s fine if you don’t!  We do experience fandom differently and register various things differently–I register the expectation to agree to someone else’s interpretations otherwise I’m being a terrible, awful Jedi stan, probably way more than you do, as someone who aligns more towards the middle ground, for example.  I see it constantly and maybe you’ve hardly seen it at all.  Both of these experiences can be true for each of us!So, for me, I don’t see a need to adjust my lenses (in the sense of adjusting to someone else’s specifications, I adjust my own all the time) or come down from someone else seeing me as being extreme, because my framework is my own and I’ve given it a lot of thought and I have my reasons for why I’m in the position I’m in.It’s funny, because I came to fandom as extremely Jedi-critical, that just a few years ago, I did the whole “they were kind of a cult” and “they died because they didn’t adapt to the galaxy’s needs” and “they kind of brought their doom on themselves” and “they suppressed emotions” and “they did a lot of fucked up things” and “Obi-Wan didn’t support Anakin at all, who was desperately seeking help” and “that was the POINT of the prequels that the Jedi were stagnant and corrupt”.  That was my starting point and I slowly started moving towards the middle ground once I got deeper into the canon, and started writing more meta as I watched/read more of it, and started reading more of George Lucas’ interviews, and thought a lot about this stuff, and eventually ended up here.It’s not that I can’t ever fathom a world in which I would be more critical of the Jedi, because that’s where I originally was.  And after all that, I just really thoroughly disagree with a lot of what I’ve seen presented as valid criticism of the Jedi.  It’s fine that others don’t, this is a fictional story and it’s far more important how we treat each other as actual human beings, I get along fine with plenty of people who see things in a different framework than I do, who think different things are valid/invalid!There’s also a ton more that goes into this (including “which version of SW are we talking about here? Legends? Canon? George’s SW?” or women have expectations placed on them by society to soften everything they say with a ‘oh, but that’s just my opinion!’ or trail up their voices at the end of a sentence to make it a question rather than a statement of theirs or how fiction is really not a 1:1 to reality, that fiction is an extension of reality, not the other way around) that we could be here all day to just lay out the complications, not even actually talking about how to approach them!Ultimately, we all have different views on various aspects of SW and of course we can talk about them, as long as we’re genuinely respect of others’ boundaries and their experiences as real people over the emotional investment we have in a story.  I’ve said this for years and I WILL SAY IT AGAIN [holt.gif] – fandom is like an entire group of us watching a movie and drawing a picture of it afterwards.  Every person is going to draw a different picture–some are going to use purple to color the clouds in the sky, some are going to use blue, and some are going to use bright green.  Some people are going to use colored pencils, some are going to use markers.  Some are going to draw a picture that is wildly different from your own, in ways you can’t predict.  But it’s their drawing and your drawing is yours, what they do with theirs doesn’t affect your drawing, so long as they’re not yelling at you for the colors you chose to use.(The metaphor is about lenses of interpretation, not about how you behave towards other fans, etc.)

[fanexus-dot-net]

The Philosophy of Fanexus

As Fanexus comes together, we want to provide you with an outline of the philosophy that underlies the platform. The features and TOS that we are currently working on all aim to align with the following principles. 

A Social Media Platform for Fandoms and Creators

Fanexus is a social media platform and wiki that aims to meet the needs of both fandoms and original creators. We were inspired to create Fanexus after following online fandom and creative communities to various platforms over the years, only to find that most of these sites failed to meet our needs as fans and as creators of both fanworks and original content. While using these platforms, we started to come up with ideas for features that would enhance our experiences. Eventually, we realised we had the skills and the means to take these ideas and use them to create a social media platform that could meet these needs.  

Organised and Accessible Fan and Indie Content

One of our core principles is that fanworks and indie content have just as much value as official and mainstream material. The emotions evoked by these works can be just as profound, the ideas they explore can be just as engrossing, and the overall importance they have to a person can be just as significant. As this content often doesn’t aim or need to have the same broad appeal as official and mainstream works, it can venture into places that mainstream media won’t tread, thus having the potential to explore more daring ideas, and elicit more powerful emotions in some people.

Despite fan and indie works generating as much personal value as official and mainstream material, they lack the same degree of organisation, accessibility, and permanency. If someone is looking to track down a piece of mainstream media or find information about it, they will generally find a record of its existence, a way to access the media itself, and information that helps put it in context with any related pieces of media. By contrast, if someone is seeking out a piece of fan or indie work they once enjoyed, it’s common to find that it’s been deleted, or has simply been buried under so much subsequent content that it’s impossible to find again.  

Another common experience is discovering a piece of fan or indie content that is part of a larger set of works, but lacking information explaining the context of the content with respect to the larger collection. Picture finding an image of an original character from a story crafted by multiple roleplayers and wanting to learn more about the character and story. Different parts of the story and information about its characters and lore may have been provided by each of the different roleplayers on their own blogs, across a mixture of platforms, and may have each used slightly different tagging conventions. Some posts explaining vital things may have been mistagged or deleted. The lack of centralised organisation that can give people an easy starting point and order in which to consume some fan and indie content presents a significant barrier of entry for people who might tremendously enjoy certain works.  

A similar experience can occur when a newcomer enters an old fandom that has developed a vast collection of fanon characterisation, worldbuilding, and terminology. Many of these conventions were likely established years ago on platforms that may not exist anymore. The newcomer may feel completely lost when encountering this fanon material, and unless there’s an up to date and easy to locate fanon wiki providing explanations for all of these concepts and terms, or a seasoned fan is willing to provide a full explanation, it can take a significant investment of time for them to figure out what all of it means. As a result, entering such an established fandom can be more confusing and inaccessible than it needs to be.

Fanexus endeavours to give fan and indie content a level of organisation, accessibility, and permanency that elevates it to a level closer to that of mainstream content. One of the means by which we seek to do this is by including wiki functionality. Creators will be able to make wiki pages for things such as their OCs, AUs and roleplays, with summaries containing key points, and guides linking to the relevant content, while explaining the order in which it should be consumed. Fandoms can also work together to create wiki pages explaining fanon concepts and terminology, and the number of different ways they are interpreted by the fandoms. As Fanexus grows, we seek to find ways to make fanworks and indie content increasingly organised and accessible.

Promote Creative Diversity and Enable Tailored Experiences

Fanexus cherishes variety – the more differing fandoms, interests, creative activities, interpretations, preferences, and styles that we can cater to, the better. We stand in opposition of homogenisation in fandom, especially where only particular interpretations and preferences are favoured, while whatever doesn’t comply with these dominant readings and tastes gets pushed to the margins or is attacked for daring to stray. We don’t want any fan to feel they have to alter their headcanons or style to better conform to whatever is preferred by the majority or vocal segments of their fandom. If someone doesn’t enjoy the ideas and creative styles that are predominant in their fandom, we want them to be able to avoid this content, and instead find material that does appeal to them.  

We promote the idea of fandom as an infinite multiverse of possibilities, where each interpretation is equally legitimate, and no reading invalidates any other, because in an endless multitude of fictional realities, all ideas and desires can co-exist. We hold that even canon doesn’t have more legitimacy than the vast array of fan reinterpretations and reimaginings it inspires. We think that it’s important to financially support canon content as it helps the generation of more of what we all love, but we believe that fanworks are just as real and just as enjoyable. By extension, we hold that fanworks that stray far from and wildly contradict the canon that inspired them are no less important than fanworks that fit in seamlessly with that canon. It’s helpful to have a fandom in agreement over what’s explicitly canon so that fanworks can be labelled as either canon-compliant or canon-deviant, to let content consumers know what they’re in for – canon is a point of reference for fandom. However, labelling something as canon-deviant isn’t an admission of inferiority, it’s simply another way of contributing to the rich variety of the fandom experience.

In order to help promote this variety we desire, we endeavour to facilitate the creation of subcultures within broader fandom cultures, so that people who don’t vibe with the predominant interpretations and preferences in a fandom can form communities with like-minded fans. We provide fine-tuned filter features to help people avoid content they dislike without missing out on what they do want to see. The tagging system enables the creation of tags for very specific concepts that are connected to tags for related concepts; for example, a character from a franchise with many continuities can have a main tag for that character, but also have subordinate character tags for each continuity they appear in. A tag can also be created for a specific fanon characterisation of that character which ignores certain canon developments. Through this, fans who only enjoy certain versions or interpretations of a character, even if those versions are fanon, can choose to follow tags for only those versions that appeal to them. The relationships between the tags also mean that people who enjoy certain things can investigate the related tags for those concepts, and find new things that interest them.

We hope to foster diversity in creativity by promoting an atmosphere that celebrates variety; by allowing people to pursue their niche interests without getting in each other’s way, and by creating a map of concepts that makes it easy to navigate a vast range of branching ideas. We want to be home to fanworks ranging from those that perfectly replicate the themes, characterisation, and tone of canon, to those that go completely wild by throwing in every indulgent and out-there idea, thus creating something entirely unique and far removed from the canon that inspired it. We want people to analyse canon through a vast range of different lenses, arriving at all sorts of wildly conflicting but fascinating theories and interpretations. We want for fanworks to inspire fanworks of their own and to be the basis of analysis themselves. We want to be home to a dizzying collection of original works. We want people to use Fanexus to build their own little universes that reflect their own set of interests and ideas, and then be able to find like-minded people to share them with.  

Combat Toxicity and Promote Respectful Discussion  

People deserve respect, compassion, and the freedom to pursue whatever makes them happy, as long as they’re not harming others in this pursuit. No one should ever be seriously threatened or dehumanised – especially when it comes to traits outside their control such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc., or over interests and lifestyle choices that aren’t causing harm to others, such as taste in fiction and ships. Over the last few years, toxicity in fandom has risen to truly alarming levels. Countless fans have been degraded, threatened with violence, and doxxed over things as benign as the characters, ships, and tropes they enjoy in fiction. This is completely unacceptable to us.  

We stand firmly in opposition to this bullying, and we will strive to make Fanexus a place where fans and creatives are free to express themselves and enjoy their passions, without fear of becoming a target of harassers. By giving people the ability to form private communities where they can carve out their own spaces with like-minded fans, and by providing more fine-tuned privacy and filtration features to make it easier for users to avoid content they don’t want to see, we hope this will limit the germination of toxicity. However, we want Fanexus’s commitment to combating fandom bullying to extend beyond simply providing better privacy and filtration features; an anti-bullying stance will be written into the Terms of Use and will be actively promoted by the administrators and staff. Anyone seeking to bring the cruelty and toxicity that festers on other platforms to Fanexus will not be tolerated.

Our stance on bullying does not mean that we are opposed to criticism of behaviour, ideas and works, as long as the discourse is respectful. We ask people to understand that there is a line between critical discussion of a person’s behaviours, ideas, and works, and personally attacking someone because of beliefs they may hold or something they have created. A user expressing a view that constitutes hate speech or harassment should be reported, and can subsequently be dealt with by our moderators. If someone publicly expresses a view you feel to be disagreeable, you are certainly free to engage in debate with them if you can do so in a constructive way. If you don’t feel that you are able to criticise their behaviours without making personal attacks, we ask you to block them instead of generating unnecessary conflict.

We believe that a loss of nuance and the rise of absolutist thinking bears much responsibility for the surge of toxicity in fandom, and we want to combat it by promoting critical thinking. We understand that many people use fandom as a form of escapism where they can switch off their brains, and we welcome fans and creators who come for indulgence without any deep thought behind it. However, we also value users who contribute thoughtful and rational analysis and discussion, and we seek to encourage and promote such engagement for those who are interested.  

Harm Reduction Without Censorship

Fanexus should be an environment that is both enjoyable and safe, but we also want it to be a liberating space where people are able to freely express themselves artistically, indulge in the things that make them happy, and be their authentic selves. Many people desire lives that are enriched by a variety of experiences, from serene to thrilling, from comforting to confronting, from pulp to profound. Art and fiction can be one of the best ways to live out the full breadth of the human (and inhuman) experience without harming oneself or others. We believe that so long as they’re not causing harm, people should have the right to live the lives they want to live, and we support their right to use art and fiction towards that end. This doesn’t mean that there is no risk in using fantasy as a way of exploring some experiences – some people can struggle with the separation between fantasy and reality, or be misled into thinking some behaviours presented in art and fiction are normal or acceptable in the real world. We don’t believe that censorship is the solution to this problem.

We seek to reduce harm while limiting as few freedoms as possible. We don’t permit malicious behaviors that actively intend to cause harm, such as bullying, while we aim to remedy the harms of other behaviours by addressing their cause. If harm stems from naivety or misunderstanding, we seek to remedy these factors. When harm is caused as an unintended side-effect of an activity with a neutral or positive aim, then instead of banning the activity, we first endeavour to find if the harmful side-effect can be separated from the activity and its benefits. If there is a way to satisfactorily reduce harm without limiting freedoms, that is the path we will take.

We hold that censorship is a poor method for addressing the potential harms caused by art and fiction, not only because it limits freedom, but also because it doesn’t address the underlying problem. If a person isn’t exposed to any art or fiction that could potentially give them harmful ideas, they are still vulnerable as they can acquire those ideas from many other sources. Rather than attempting the impossible task of shielding people from ever encountering difficult or confronting concepts, we maintain that it’s more effective to assist in their education to help prevent them from taking the wrong messages away from these concepts when they do encounter them.

Fanexus endeavours to allow as much artistic freedom as possible (excepting content made with malicious intent as a form of harassment), because we understand that art and fiction are not reality, and things that would be unacceptably dangerous or harmful in real life don’t carry the same risk in fantasy. We know that many people who enjoy harmful and taboo things in art and fiction do not endorse these things in reality, and that vicariously experiencing these things through fantasy is extremely different from experiencing them in real life. We seek to promote this understanding of the distinction between fantasy and reality, so that it’s clear that something presented as enjoyable in fiction is not necessarily something that would be enjoyable or safe to partake in personally.  People should know to think critically about things they encounter in art and fiction before they decide to emulate them in reality.  

There are far more dangerous things on the internet than just morally complex and darkly indulgent fantasy, and Fanexus seeks to provide education to help protect against these threats as well. We intend to create a repository of resources to educate people about the risks they can encounter online, such as predators, scammers, hate movements, and dangerous misinformation. Our aim is to protect people by empowering them with knowledge that will help them in many spheres of life.

Evolve in Response to User Feedback  

Fandom and technology both evolve, and we acknowledge that a platform like Fanexus must evolve with them. We intend to seek direct feedback from our userbase in order to discover what features will assist them in creating and maintaining the content Fanexus is dedicated to. However, while our platform will evolve over time, we pledge to remain committed to the philosophy that motivated its creation.

[roswelldetails]

RNM 2x06 - Sex and Candy

EPISODE SUMMARY:

Maria’s (Heather Hemmens) investigation into her mother’s disappearance leads her and Alex (Tyler Blackburn) to the home of a mysterious boot maker named Travis (guest star David Anders). Meanwhile, on her journey of self-discovery, Isobel’s (Lily Cowles) night out leads her into the arms of someone unexpected. Finally, after making some major scientific strides, Liz (Jeanine Mason) is dealt a devastating blow. Geoff Shotz directed the episode written by Rick Montano & Vincent Ingrao (#206). Original airdate 4/20/2020.

DETAILS:

Max and Isobel's fight:

Lights start flickering when Max starts getting aggressive and then get brighter as he gets more worked up.

The first attempt to expel it seemed like he was causing an earthquake.  He blew out all the windows in the gym, knocked Isobel down, and there was shaking.  But it didn't seem to go beyond that room - no damage is seen when Michael arrives or around town.

Note, after the earthquake thingie the lights go out 

His hands are doing the electric power thingie and THEN he also grabs the lightning.

I think Isobel used her telekinesis to stop it and then push it away, which seemed to work...but if so then why couldn't Noah do that last season? 

Was it the sheer volume of electricity? There was definitely MORE than with Noah.

Michael uses his telekinesis to manually reset Max's heart.  This is very smart of him. Note that he's using his own heart/pulse to get it right.

They are using the antidote to Liz's serum to try to heal Max's mind. 

Michael says that they've been giving him antidote injections for three days (time jump).

Three days of antidote and no new memories for Max.

Isobel remembered her blackouts within a few hours of getting injected with the antidote in 1x10.

Note: Liz hesitated using the antidote this way in 1x10 because Isobel could still be dangerous and they didn't know about the 4th Alien yet.  There doesn't seem to be a similar hesitation with Max. Because Liz trusts him more? Because him forgetting her is more personal? It's not like there isn't a chance that Max is still dangerous…

Maria arranged a Mexican market in the Pony parking lot to subsidize her income.

Buffy the Beagle is Forrest's dog!

Maria comments that the meteor shower makes animals act strange. And humans too.

Forrest and Maria are organizing an open night mic at the Wild Pony.  Free drinks for performers.

Maria clearly approves of Forrest and Alex getting to know each other.  She smacks Alex for his awkward flirting.

The bootmaker's farm is about an hour outside of town.

The Science:

Kyle and Steph are watching a "surgical separation of craniopagus twins".

Craniopagus Twins = twins attached at the cranium/head. (Aka not a heart surgery).

"Did you know, ever since 1947, twin births in Roswell are higher than the national average? Maybe it's aliens."

Speaking of awkward flirting…. "You're just my favorite person I can't stand."

The Spanish:

Le cambio una bolsa de chiles para mi papá...for the free fries next time you come to the Crashdown.

Liz is bartering.  She says basically, I'll trade you a bag of chiles for my papa for free fries next time you come to the Crashdown. 

Note, the captions for this are wrong and use the Spanish word for grasshoppers instead, but you can clearly hear Liz say chiles. Thanks to @rosaortecho for pointing that out to me.

Max says:

I'm trying to eat clean. Uh, tiene carne seca sin como se dice, preservativos.

He's trying to say, basically, does the jerky have preservatives. 

Quiere carne a sin preservativos?

Basically, you want meat without condoms?

Lo siento. Uh, no lo entiendo.

I'm sorry, I don't get it.

Él quiere decir conservantes.

He means preservatives.

Gracias. Estoy embarazado.

Thank you. I'm pregnant.

Michael asks Max who he's texting. Max says everyone has been messaging him but Cameron is the only one who hasn't responded, which isn't like her.

Wildly curious who he was texting though.  It's not like he's a social butterfly. His mom? The sheriff? Who? As I pointed out to some friends the other day, he spent his 21st birthday getting trashed with his SISTER. This is not a trait of a guy with lots of close friends.

Just as another note, Michael says he ghosted her. When exactly was that? Yes, Max ran out on her in the middle of a handy in 1x03, but they addressed that the next day.  She "broke up" with him in 1x07, but they were still good right up until she left town. 

Isobel:

"Does he seem different to you?"

Alex and Maria playing "Never have I Ever" in the car. Good way to do background on characters.

Maria has never cheated on a boyfriend

Alex has never been in a real relationship. Not even "Kellie Sommer-something".

Alex says that whenever he was with a woman he was trying to disappear.  Except for Sophomore year after Battle of the Bands. Seven Minutes in Heaven in Haley Moore's hall closet. Alex and Maria kissed and it was Maria's first kiss (and boob graze).  She always thought she'd marry Alex. Had to come up with a new plan after he came out. 

Alex says "I did too."

"Kissing you in that closet was the first time in my life that I enjoyed touching someone."

Max picks up Liz for their first date…

Just as a note, Save Tonight was the opening song in the pilot of OG Roswell. During the "oh, Max Evans is staring at you again." exchange between Liz and Maria.  So, it might go well with new beginnings or something ;-)

The Science:

"Psychogenic amnesia limits retrieval of stored memories, but if we light up your limbic system and gustatory cortex with some familiar signals…"

"Your milkshake might bring all my memories to the yard?"

**Note, second reference to this song in the context of Liz bringing Max milkshakes. First was in 1x06 by Isobel. Hmm. 1x06 and 2x06… maybe they should crack this joke in 3x06 too.

"Sometimes when people wake up from comas they have different personalities, different tastes even…"

Everything you ever wanted to know about psychogenic amnesia:

But, my main takeaway is that it's a specific type of amnesia where there's abnormal memory function but no brain damage or other clear cause of it.

Limbic system:

Basically the part of your brain that stores emotion, behavior, and long term memory.

Gustatory cortex:

Basically the part of your brain that processes taste.

Maria compares Michael to Chad because he starts fights and lies.  Alex disagrees and lists ways that he was doing good things:

He lied to protect his family from Alex's family.

He shouldered the burden of a murder he didn't commit for ten years so that Isobel didn't have to.

He pushed Maria away to protect her - which might be a good thing too because of all his baggage. 

First Date:

Max went to Ranch camp one summer and dislocated his shoulder while trying to read Lord of the Rings on horseback. #nerd. 

Liz references the gala as not their first date, but there was also the desert in high school.  I guess she doesn't count that either. 

Side note: Cam and Liz talked about him peacocking in 2x03, but that kinda felt out of character at the time to the Max we knew.  This Max DOES seem like he's peacocking a bit. Got dressed up, taking Liz horseback riding. He admitted to trying to one up whatever they did together before. Just an interesting (to me) observation.

Liz looks panicky when Max suggests truth serum (because Science!Liz probably could make truth serum), but once she realizes he means whiskey she's like, "oh yes, that's fine." Oh Liz… 

Diego details:

They were engaged just last year

Liz left without saying goodbye

Bioengineer 

They were working together on the Denver study

They would come home and keep talking about work

He had ideas to help improve it

They both spoke The Science

He pushed her to get better at The Science

When the funding was cut she realized she loved the work more than him

Liz couldn't figure out how tell him that so she packed her things in the middle of the night, hit the road, changed her phone, and blocked him on Facebook.

**This is the first time LIZ has mentioned social media. Interesting given the crap Maria keeps giving her about it!

Travis and fresh warm milk. What is up with it??

"Nice ring. Does it keep you from burning up in the daylight?"

David Anders introduces himself as Travis.

Just as a point of interest, Maria researched enough to find the bootmaker, figure out where he lives, but she didn't get his name??? 

Vampire Diaries/Originals reference.

Travis says he can't help with car stuff.

The milk was from a cow named Jennifer.  He milked her for the last time today. (Creepy).

Weird contradictory statements from Travis:

"You're the best thing I've seen in a long time."....

"Mm, I'm sorry. So many customers and all their ugly faces get all sewn up and stitched together in my mind."

"Yeah, that's the woman that bought them boots. While back. Nice lady. She paid cash."

Second reference to animals behaving strangely during a meteor shower:

"Meteor shower's got my girls singing a bit off key tonight.  Jennifer, she likes a good lullaby."

"Okay this guy is going to turn us into skin suits." (OG reference? Or just general sci-fi?)

Meteorchella at Planet 7 (Coachella-style party during meteor shower?) with any excuse to add sparkles!

Kyle says he's at Planet 7 because he's trying not to hang out with people from high school.

Isobel says she's trying to have fun without feeling like prey.

Don't think the details of Kyle/Isobel dancing matters all that much, but as a point of amusement I'll share that in the panel on Tuesday night they shared that Lily whispered something different to Trevino on every take...And they got progressively dirtier to the point that she finally felt like she crossed a line and profusely apologized.  Also the lick was a Lily addition. 

Max's confession about killing the drifter:

Kind of an interesting thing, comparing the first version of the drifter story in 1x06 to the 2x06 version. 1x06 was more dramatic, but 2x06 was more personal, I think. 

1x06

"There are moments that define our lives, and there are moments that divide our lives. Incidents that separate us into two different people: who we were before and who we will be after. Forever…One day we were children and the next we were something else. I was a killer. Michael an accomplice.  And Isobel...Isobel was broken."

2x06

"I killed a man once, on a camping trip. This drifter came out of nowhere, attacked Isobel.  I wasn't even thinking. I killed him. With this. I arrest people who kill people. Most of them usually regret what they did. You know, you can just tell that they're forever broken. It's like a piece of them dies with their victims. So when I could feel that darkness, like I had to kill, I wanted Isobel to let me die. Because I couldn't risk hurting even one innocent person. Cause life just wouldn't be worth living."

Kind of an interesting narrative choice to confess to murder on a first date and then have the girl just brush it aside. 

"No, it just hit me why you're so happy and idealistic, and I feel like an idiot. You are that way because you don't remember me. It's a clean slate.  It's like when you got out of the pods with whatever memories you had erased it's probably for your own good."

"Last I heard you were the love of my life."

"Your cohorts, they left out some details. Cause if you had your memories I'm positive the worst thing that's ever happened to you is connected to me. And I can't bear the weight of making you remember that again."

**Note, second time this has been implied.  Last time was by Michael in 1x08 regarding the alien symbol.

"...it's gotta have some connection to us right? Maybe it was something we saw somewhere before the crash."

"Sorry, are you, Max Evans, acknowledging that we must have had lives before we hatched out of the pods? You never want to talk about home."

"Hey, Roswell is home. Look, I'm sorry man. You're right. I've spent a lot of time not talking about where we come from or why we're here.  Keep thinking I can pretend the past away and just be normal. But if Isobel's blackouts are some alien thing, then I need to know more. Okay, and this symbol? That's all I have to go on. I mean don't you think it's strange that we don't have any memories? I mean, no parents, no language. We weren't infants, man. We were seven."

"I just figured our memory faded. Over 50 years in those pods. Maybe it was just time. Or maybe whoever put us in those pods doesn't want us to remember."

Travis and Trevor's house...with added bonus of his ring that Alex comments on.

Leather ribbons/strips on the wall are for (from?) Hayley and Gertrude. More cows, I presume. 

There's also a framed Purple Heart on the wall next to a photo of Travis?

"War really messes with a man's mind.  Gets it all twisted up.

Timeline issue!! Alex says Mimi was missing for 3 weeks, but according to the clearly established timelines in 201-203 it was 4 weeks (or a month ish).  I wrote about this here:

Maria put her jacket on a scarecrow to trick Travis. And did she leave it there?

(Answer: yes. She doesn't wear it for the rest of the episode. Smart of her, actually).

Michael sees Trevor come out of the house and is about to shoot him. Maria immediate knew it wasn't Travis and threw herself in front of Michael's gun

Trevor shoots Travis.

A bullet from the Crashdown shooting falls out of Max's journal.  Does it look like it has blood on it? Or maybe just ketchup? If it's THE bullet it would make a lot of sense that he kept it hidden - evidence that Liz was shot. See this comparison between one of Wyatt's bullets in 1x02 and the one Max finds in 2x06

"Sorry about my twin here. He's had a rough go."

"Combat does not make you an axe murderer."

"No, it wasn't the combat. It was the R&D. If a paramilitary group ever asks you to take part in a study, you run the other way. He showed up a few weeks ago. Locked me up out back. Lucky y'all showed up when you did. Gave me a chance to escape."

R&D is a military acronym for Research and Development. (Aka...The Science.)

Priscilla - the cow Mimi's boots were made from.

This is literally the only direct information gained about the boots from this little sleuthing excursion. 

Well, and that Mimi paid cash, which isn't like her.

Side note - I didn't really know what Paramilitary meant, so just in case any of you are also not good with military stuff, Paramilitary groups are like private armies. Like, I dunno, the private security firm that Jesse and Cam discussed in episode 2x04. 👀

Male doctor operating on Steph clearly states:

"All right we're approaching an arterial junction."

A female doctor replies and its less clear.  What I hear is...Blood gasses are back? Anyone else hear something that makes more sense than that?

He replied something like...the stint through here

She says something about pH levels.

Max admits that he didn't know what would happen when he decided to bring Rosa back.  He just wanted to fix the worst thing that ever happened to all of them.

"I can't believe we were Shyamalan'd by an evil twin."

I think Alex is referring to the twist ending? Or maybe just the insane axe murderer stuff.

M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed the Sixth Sense, Signs, Split, etc…

During this scene is the first time we see Michael's tattoo… it's on his arm. I struggled with getting a cap of it, but I know there are gifs going around.

I had every intention of detailing the dialogue in the trailer scene, but before I could get to it, Carina posted the script, so I didn't think it was a good use of my time. Here's the script:

The next morning, Alex calls the Sheriff from outside the trailer for an update.

The Sheriff tells him that Travis and Trevor burned their home and ran...weren't caught by the sheriff.  Which means we may not have seen the last of them.

The Spanish:

"Oh my God. Dios mio, Max. I took off your pants before I even said I love you. I'm some kind of zorra."

Dios mio basically is Oh My God! So Liz really was spiraling. She went, "Oh my God, Oh my God..."

Zorra - female version of Zorro. Basically a vixen, bitch, prostitute… the internet has all sorts of fun words that it translates into. 

"I call this one Visceral Werewolf Part 2, dedicated to my boy Chee Chee, may he rest in peace."

Can we have more Bert? Bert is the best. Also kudos to his goofy friend who is wayyy too excited about this.

Forrest's slam poem:

Locked up for days,

Time slipping away,

On my knees I would pray to break free from this cage.

But bargaining for keys, you forget hidden fees.

And wishing for what you’re missing ain’t the same as living the dream. 

And now I’m fighting to stay on this side of the cage.

Even though I know a part of me wishes I’d stayed. 

Ain’t no prophet or rebel or savior or devil

Could have predicted, fought, cheated or leveled. 

A life with potential that’s squandered, 

A comfortable cell is a question I ponder. 

Am I a free man or a prisoner wanderer?

Max's memory flash:

Young Max, chained to the ground as described in 2x03. 

Max looks scared.

He's dressed all in white like the 1947 aliens after the crash (As shown in 1x12 and 2x03).

He's in a cave or something like a cave. 

Holes in the wall are glowing an orangey red color.

The ceiling is like the alien ship material with the alien symbol in it.  

A figure approaches from behind him, bends down, and places a hand on his shoulder.

It mirrors the figure approaching Nora in 2x03 and touching her shoulder before burning the military men...probably the same person? Noah? The stowaway? Someone new?

After the figure touches Max, he looks at the hand, and then a red glow lights his face.

MUSIC:

1. Xocoyotzin Herrera "Esperanza"

2. Jose Luis Lepe "La Carreta"

3. Eagle Eye Cherry "Save Tonight"

4. Lousiana Red "I Done Woke Up"

5. Whissell "Magnetic"

6. Stop Dead "Alchemistress Dance"

7.  Orville Peck "Turn To Hate"

8. Kim Petras "Close Your Eyes"

9. Orville Peck "Queen Of The Rodeo"

10. Moontricks "The Fall"

11. Years & Years "Hypnotised"

12. Jordan Critz Feat. Birdtalker "Through Your Eyes"

This time I couldn't find the Whissell and Stop Dead tracks on spotify - however the Stop Dead track is referenced at being by Chelsea Dawn in the closed captions.  Which I did find. Trying to confirm this. Let me know if anyone else had better luck!

[jeremy-88]

Shin and King: Godzilla’s Two Halves

My time as a fan of the Godzilla franchise goes way back, to some of my earliest memories. I recall watching reruns of the old Hanna Barbera cartoon with my younger brother, and from then on I was hooked. I saw the 1997 film in theatres, as well as the subsequent spin-off animated show, and virtually every other piece of Godzilla media that I've stumbled across, be it VHS copies of the classic Japanese films or even newer films, I've attempted to see. Bottom line, I love the guy, and as such you can bet I was hyped as Hell for the recent King of the Monsters film by Legendary. And sure enough, the movie didn't disappoint me. As someone who grew up hoping there would one day be an all-out monster mash of a film with the G-Man and all his classic fellow kaiju, it was a dream come true. And with Godzilla vs Kong on the horizon, it looks as though my childhood fantasies of seeing these larger-than-life characters in exactly the way I'd always imagined them to be isn't going to be ending anytime soon. However, while big spectacles are all well and good, we mustn't forget that this kind of exciting portrayal isn't how the big guy started out, as his origins are, to be frank, pretty sobering.

Because of course this most famous of kaiju was created not to excite youngsters with epic battles against other monsters, but as a grim and serous allegory for the horrors of nuclear power gone wrong. And of course who better to make such an allegory than the nation who, for now at least, are the only ones to have ever been on the receiving end of it? But, as you can probably expect of such a dark origin, that kind of depressing idea doesn't exactly put bums in seats, even as highly-regarded as it was, which is likely why so few of it's sequels and remakes have ever touched on it. Those latter films, while certainly more entertaining and popular, have never managed to really capture just how terrifying Godzilla is supposed to be. That is, until 2016, when Toho Studios released Shin Godzilla. This film, essentially a modern remake of the original, brings Godzilla back to his roots in making him a symbol of a horror the Japanese people have personally experienced, those being the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Like the original, Shin Godzilla is a powerful and serious film, making it abundantly clear just how bad things got for the people who had to deal with the tragedies this monster represents.

However, even though I greatly respect Shin and consider it among the best Godzilla films I've ever seen, something interesting occurred to me as I was watching it. Because while it's true that it does a fantastic job of recreating everything that made the original movie great, as well as ably putting a modern spin on it, there's no getting around the fact that the majority of Godzilla films are worlds apart from the grim and gritty ancestor they all shared. That's not to say either type of film is bad by any stretch, but Shin is, sadly, not going to win many fans among those whose only interest in Godzilla comes from him being a hero who helps humanity defend itself against other kaiju. For those fans, it's pretty clear that the American film, King of the Monsters, is much more their cup of tea. And as stated previously, I adore that film. In fact, I'd consider it my personal favourite film of 2019. And thus we get to the main point I wanted to talk about. Shin and King are polar opposites in their respective tones and goals, yet both of them are made out of a love of Godzilla, the only contention being the kinds of Godzilla films they have a love for.

Take these two films together, back-to-back, and what you're essentially left with is a perfect capsule of the Godzilla franchise as a whole, and more importantly, a good look at the two sides this character has shown during his sixty-year-plus history. On one hand we have Shin, which honours the origins of the character by making him a danger to the world as a whole, with humanity just barely scraping by a victory against the destructive terror that he symbolizes. And on the other, we have King, which puts Godzilla in the role of a heroic saviour. Still dangerous and destructive, sure, but nevertheless on our side against a greater danger than himself. Evil and good, destruction and salvation, villain and hero. Godzilla has, over his exceptionally long film and TV career, has been all of these things and more. He's been a face for the terrible things wrought by humanity's own hand that we must overcome, and he's been a defender against a variety of other and more malevolent forces. Shin and king together are Godzilla, in his entirety, and all he weight and spectacle and meaning that come with him. And when you look back, no other movie monster has ever managed to have that kind of narrative weight behind him, even though there are likely many other household creature names out there.

It almost seems nonsensical when you stop and think about it, doesn't it? That a single character can have such wildly different interpretations yet still be thought of as the same person. And it's especially impressive when you consider that there's hardly any other characters in fiction that you could do this with. If one were to, for instance, take the Emperor from Star Wars and turn him into a goodie, or take Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and make him into a baddie, people would rightly call you out on that choice because it would go against everything that their characters are and what role they're supposed to serve in their story. But Godzilla? With him you can have a champion of humanity, an abomination wrought by people's misuse of scientific power, or anything in-between and nobody would bat an eye. It's a versatility that most likely contributes to why the character has remained as popular as he has over the decades. Because with this kind of varied characterization there's literally no end to the kinds of stories you can tell with him. In many way's he's like the modern pop culture equivalent of a fantasy dragon. A beast who, over countless retellings of stories has a whole world of meaning and importance behind it.

But of course, as with any long-running franchise, there are the points of contention between different fans. To those who prefer the original Godzilla (and subsequently the films that try hardest to emulate it, like Shin) the more numerous movies that depict Godzilla as a kaiju-fighting antihero are often scoffed at, regarded as "not real Godzilla films" because they lack the seriousness that the character was originally conceived with. On the flipside, we have those who find great enjoyment with the other films, arguing that while they may not have the great and weighty allegory behind them they're still fun movies that have kept the name Godzilla popular throughout the latter half of the 20th century and beyond. Go to extremes and those same people will even say that, since those types of stories make up the bulk of Godzilla's appearances, that this should be considered the canonical interpretation of what a Godzilla film should be, with the serious original more of a case of early-installment weirdness. Needless to say, this viewpoint has not sat well with those who consider the original film as gospel to be help up on a plinth. Bottom line, there has been division between fans of this kaiju over whether the smarter or more fun outings are the objectively better versions, and like any audience dispute, its not likely to be an argument that'll end anytime soon.

But, speaking as someone who has had his fair share of experience with fandoms, this kind of division is something I just can't help but shrug my shoulders at. There's room in the world for multiple types of incarnation of the same character after all, and there's no reason to be at odds with one another over our film preferences, even though we may feel strongly over what truly counts as a better film. As for me personally, my love of both Shin and King should make it pretty clear by now that I absolutely adore both faces this character has had. Both the villain and the hero. Shin is a truly engaging and horrifying movie that had me glued to my seat from start to finish, and was rightly deserving of it's place as the winner of Best Picture of the Japanese Academy. King of the Monsters, by contrast, is just pure entertainment, bringing me a massive smile whenever the title character or one of his equally-famous fellow kaiju appeared on-screen. I said before that this was the kind of monster movie I'd always hoped for as a kid, and it didn't disappoint. Both films are tremendous regardless of what it is you're looking for, and both of them do brilliantly at holding up and honouring the legacy of cinema's most iconic giant beastie, and all the history that comes with him 🥰

[paulisweeabootrash]

2020 mini-review pack

Di Gi Charat (1999)

Episodes watched: 7

Platform: VRV (Hidive)

Di Gi Charat (pronounced like “carrot”) is a series of fast-paced 4-ish-minute shorts nominally about Dejiko and Rabi-en-Rose, rivals trying to be Earth’s greatest idol.  Who are, respectively, a catgirl and a bunnygirl.  Oh, and also they’re aliens?  That’s... uh... certainly a premise, I guess.  The actual show consists of self-contained gag-filled episodes with no ongoing story, in almost a sitcom kind of way, throwing the characters into situations without context, but with a stable “baseline” situation (unlike, say, Pop Team Epic, where the characters serve more as stock personalities playing different roles in different sketches).  Dejiko is a snarky schemer.  Rabi-en-Rose is a snarky schemer whose main activity seems to be bothering Dejiko at work.  Puchiko is a small and quiet child and behaves accordingly.  And Gema is... something?  I have no clue, honestly, and neither does the fan wiki.  Other recurring characters fill stock roles such as “manager” and “otaku”.  A lot of the humor centers around poking fun at fandom.  It’s a show by, for, and about otaku from an era before our current internet culture, and since I’m a millennial and not from Japan, that makes it unusually hard to evaluate.

W/A/S: 8/2?/5?

Weeb: Chibis.  Catgirls.  Idols.  Kappas.  Kawaii verbal tics.  Akihabara.  Low-detail background characters who look like blobs or thumbs with faces.  Kanji left on-screen but untranslated.  Particular sorts of highly-exaggerated facial expressions we may have become familiar with through emoji, but which still haven’t made their way into American media generally.  This is ludicrously Japanese.

Ass: This really isn't that kind of show.  Although it is certainly designed for adults, as evidenced by the presence of phrases like “naughty doujinshi”.

Shit: The art is fun.  It has style shifts from comic strip to watercolor painting to mainstream 90s anime, and looks better than some of its contemporaries that were, uh, “real” shows.  The opening takes up about a quarter of the total runtime and gets annoying quickly (but that's because it’s clearly designed for being part of a broadcast block, not binge-watching).  Still, unless I’m missing hidden cleverness on account of not having the background knowledge, there’s not much to it.  It’s just okay.

-----

First Astronomical Velocity (band, active 2011-present)

Platform: Spotify, surprisingly

Okay, this one is a bit different, and I’m jettisoning the whole format for it.  Remember how I said the music-centered episodes of SoniAni were actually pretty good, even though the modeling-centered episodes were so offputting I never finished the show?  Well it turns out that First Astronomical Velocity, Sonico’s band, has released several IRL albums.  Physical copies may be a little hard to come by, but official uploads of a lot of their music can be found on Youtube and Spotify.  Do your musical interests include at least two of: string arrangements that would be at home in a particularly sappy movie soundtrack, 90s-00s alternative rock, synthesizer beep-boops, and that constricted cutesy Japanese women’s vocal style (you know the one I mean)?  Then this is for you.  They’re a pretty good... uh... alt-pop-rock band, I guess is what I’d call them.

-----

Interspecies Reviewers (2020)

Episodes watched: the entire 12-episode season

Platform: I plead the 5th.  But it’s getting a video release soon, so it will finally be legitimately available in English!

I started this year with a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show, and now I’m ending the year with... a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show.  But unlike Nekopara, this show had me cracking up, eagerly clicking “next episode”, and not complaining about the premise.  I’m sure a lot of people do have a problem with this show’s premise -- which centers almost entirely on various forms of sex work -- and I understand and respect that they will want to skip this show.

But for the rest of you: Interspecies Reviewers is a wildly-NSFW comedy about a group of fantasy world adventurers who gain fame and fortune reviewing brothels of different species.  I expected excessive nudity and fantasy tropes, but I didn’t expect to also get serious thoughts.  Like showing, in the golem and Magic Metropolis episodes, some of the unsettling problems that are looming IRL as deepfakes and sex robots are in development -- note especially the contrast between consensually and non-consensually basing automata on real people in those episodes.  Or the discussion in the last episode of how much riskier sex would be in a world without magic (i.e., ours).  This is a much smarter and more interesting show than you’d expect, considering that it has so much sexual content that it got dropped by two of the networks airing it and even its US distributor.

W/A/S: 5/10/4

Weeb: Although heavily influenced by the Western fantasy media canon of European mythology and Tolkien and tabletop RPGs, familiarity with the tropes of fantasy anime will help you “get” this too, as will familiarity with the -sigh- character dynamics and censorship practices of hentai.  Especially because it’s a comedy, there are probably also instances where I have completely missed topical references or wordplay that a Japanese person would get, but I can’t think of any specific instances right now of “there was clearly supposed to be a joke but I missed it”.

Ass: Look, this could not possibly have more sexual content without unambiguously becoming porn.  Genitals are (almost) always carefully hidden by viewing angle or conveniently-placed glowing (something lampshaded in one episode as an actual feature of one of the species they review), but otherwise, expect lots of nudity and almost nonstop crude humor.  Do not watch this with children.  Do not watch this with your parents.  Do not watch this with friends you don’t know well enough to know how they’ll react to something like this.

Shit: This show is better-made than it deserves to be.  It’s pretty dumb at points, but it’s fun enough to make up for it.  The art is consistent and pleasant, and the opening and ending themes are extremely fun, but it’s not a serious standout in any of those departments.  Also, I swear the background music is stock music, but I don’t remember what other show(s) I’ve heard it in before.

Stray thought: Crim is a precious and relatable cinnamon roll and I love them.

-----

OreSuki OVA (2020)

Platform: Crunchyroll

So, I know I didn’t cover the whole season in my initial review, but I still want to mention the hour-ish-long finale of this show, which was released straight to streaming.  Short version of the rest of the season: Joro starts to actually fall for Pansy, but a new challenger, Hose, appears.  He is irritatingly attractive and effortless at maintaining the right persona for the situation, leading Joro to describe him as “the main character”.  Hose is the sociopathic manipulator Joro wishes he could be, and Pansy, who has a bad past with him, clearly wants nothing more than for Joro to stand up to him.  But, since this is OreSuki, it’s not going to be handled simply.  No, instead, strap in for a grand finale of Joro and Hose competing in, and trying to manipulate through rules-lawyering, an absolutely ludicrous competition to win the right to date Pansy.  And, on top of it, we also get to finally see how Sun-chan got to be the way he is and what happened at that pivotal baseball game that set off the whole plot.  What has Joro learned from the experiences of the past season?  You’ll see!  And you’ll facepalm about it!

Really, you must watch this if you watched the regular season.

W/A/S: 6/5(!)/4ish

Weeb: Basically the same as I said before.  Gags referencing other Japanese media, anime and otherwise, and it's better if you’re familiar with the high school romcoms and harem comedies Joro thinks in terms of.

Ass (and slight content note): -sigh- Why does the camera need to be there?  Also, Joro, you just committed a little bit of sexual assault for the sake of this contest.  Stop.

Shit: I want to rate this overall better than I did the regular season because I think it’s an excellent finale overall because, even though it ends in a very “let’s leave everything unresolved” way that’s common in media that rely on absurd relationships to propel the plot, it does so in a way that makes sense in character.  I personally think it would’ve been stronger if it had, well, confirmed its title, and at least some of the other “challengers” had lost interest in Joro, but I guess they probably want a Season 2, since they have so much more source material to work from.  There are... oh god 14 light novels?!  That is too many.

-----

Your Name. (2016)

Platform: DVD

Two high schoolers -- small-town girl Mitsuha, from Itomori, and big-city boy Taki, from Tokyo -- find themselves in each other’s bodies for a day.  They both think at first it must be a very vivid dream, but when it happens again, and they start finding clues like notes they don’t remember writing and comments by friends and relatives about their out-of-character behavior, they realize the body swap is real.  This begins a relationship of mutual understanding that nobody else can really understand -- or would even believe (except Mitsuha’s grandmother, who is... familiar with this phenomenon) -- and the plot then pivots to a tense adventure where they use their connection, some crucial information Taki has, the skills of Mitsuha’s friends, and the intervention of Itomori’s patron deity, to save the town from an impending disaster.

And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I really do think this is something you should go into blind.  My only remaining comments are that (1) the red string of fate is critically important imagery, and is particularly interesting to me here because, if I took a particular scene correctly, Mitsuha made her own red string of fate from sheer necessity, which is a very different twist on that trope, and (2) I am now curious about the history of the body-swapping phenomenon in-universe.

W/A/S: 4?/2/2

Weeb: As mentioned above, symbolism of the Red String of Fate shows up throughout the movie, as do the occasional distinctly Japanese quirk like a wildly out-of-place vending machine or a café with dogs, and but for the most part it’s a cross-cultural story of understanding and dealing with someone else’s life, and of forming a connection other people don’t -- can’t -- truly understand, and to some extent of divides between urban and rural and modern and traditional that I think could play out in any country with just the local symbolism tweaked.  The significance and content of Shinto beliefs and practices depicted, particularly kuchikamizake, are made pretty explicit, so although foreign to the vast majority of the non-Japanese audience, I feel like this movie also has nearly no barrier to entry for people not familiar with the cultural context, so I don’t want to rate it very high on this scale.

Ass: Look.  It involves teenagers switching bodies.  What do you think they do?  Especially Taki?  But it’s played for laughs, not titillation.

Shit: This movie is beautiful and punched me in the feels and was very satisfying.  The closest I have to a complaint about any aspect of it is that the musical breaks that I guess are supposed to mark acts of the movie almost make it feel like binge-watching a short series instead of watching a single self-contained movie.

[c-is-for-circinate]

A while ago you mentioned really hating the Persona 4 protagonist as Yu Narukami (from the crossover games and possibly the animation) but liking him as Souji Seta (from the manga, I think?), which is also the name you seem to use most regularly. If you don't mind, could you explain the difference and why you prefer one over the other?

FUCK YES I CAN

(there are Persona people on my dash, that’s so fucking exciting, I have many things to say about these video games and the fandom is small)

Okay so I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the protags from Personas 3, 4, and 5 in general, and about the various versions of them that show up in various media.  It has to do with names and gender and how the very specific conventions of being the silent protag of a JRPG translate into creating character, and I could ramble about this forever, so it’s going behind a cut.

Step one: all Persona Wild Card protagonists are genderqueer and neurodivergent.  Period.

A persona is, theoretically in game lore, a reflection of your soul–specifically, a reflection of the part of you that you choose to show the world, because it’s strong and powerful and keeps all the weak parts of you safe behind it.  In early Persona games, every PC had a couple of different masks they could switch between, and that makes sense, but starting in P3 our party members each get one mask that eventually evolves into another one, and we-the-protag get more than a hundred.

We switch between masks constantly, at the drop of a hat.  We learn to level these personas up, we figure out how to be these other people, by watching and learning to understand our friends.  And there is something intensely queer about the fact that the masks we put on, with no pause or hesitation, can be male, can be female, can be both, can be neither.  Sure, it’s possible to argue that the protag has any certain specific gender identity underneath/behind those masks, but then we’re heading straight towards a complicated discussion about what it means to pass as one gender, vs what it means to model yourself after individuals of one gender while passing or identifying s another, vs what it means to model your actions after a theoretical version of yourself that has a different gender than your own, and like, let us be honest, just having to get that deep into the weeds on that discussion is pretty inherently queer to begin with.

Add to that the essential nature of who Persona protags are as people, based on their reality as video game characters, and we get someone who really does not fit a ‘straight cis neurotypical’ frame.  The entire scheduling system in Persona just speaks to every single part of my brain that understands executive dysfunction.  You do exactly one thing per unit time.  You can wander around town forever, but as soon as you stop to talk to another person, that’s it, that is your One Thing, that is all of the spoons you have for this time period, you can maybe do another thing later.  This really hit home in Persona 5, where your protagonist has a goddamn talking service cat without whom he can’t remember how to start any task up to and including going to bed (and people bitched about Morgana so hard, but also #RELATABLE oh my god), but it’s there in 3 and 4 as well if you look.  The P4 protag does favors for every single person in town.  The P4 protag stands out in the rain fishing for hours.  The P4 protag can accidentally spend an entire afternoon petting cats.  The P4 protag tries to make tomorrow’s lunch and has to think for a while over whether to add soy sauce or sugar.

So: the video games give us these characters who are intended to be hollow so that we can fill them with our own self-projections (and maybe I am self-projecting here, why not, everybody else gets to do it), but that very hollowness is also a shape, do you see what I mean?  You can extrapolate a person based on assuming the dialogue options the protagonists get are actual things that run through their minds, based on what choices are even available for them to make.  You can ask questions about what it means to be so hollow in the first place, what it takes to be the sort of person who can switch masks in the blink of an eye when everybody else around you makes do with all of one.  It’s really interesting to ask those questions.

Step two: the naming of Persona protags is complicated, and is as much a fandom question as it is a canon question.

In general, persona protags starting with P3 have gotten two names: one in the official manga that starts coming out right around the same time as the video game, and one in later animes and tie-in games.  What this means, at least in Western fandom (I don’t know a ton about Japan-only fandom!) is that for the first year or more of having a protag, the only name we have for them is the manga name, and so that’s the name 99% of fandom jumps on in those first several months.

When we explore and extrapolate and do all of that extremely transformative fandom work, looking at the empty spaces around a protag and figuring out who he has to be to fill them (or she, the P3 FEMC is all of this dialed up to a hundred), we at least start doing that work under the manga name.  To me–and, in my experience, to most of fandom, whether they think about it or not–the name has relatively little to do with the manga itself.  It’s the name fandom had to hand when they first played the game and began to figure this person out.  It’s the name for thousands of different interpretations that can fit inside the shell of a person the video game gives us.

I find that transformative labor, and those thousand different interpretations, wildly fascinating.  I enjoy doing it myself.  I like seeing what other people come up with.  Figuring out how to fill the outline of a person who can be anyone (figuring out the difference between Minato Arisato, and Souji Seta, and Akira Kurusu, and learning who they are as individuals by picking out their contrasting spaces) is one of my favorite things about Persona.

The characters from the tie-in animes, then–and from P4 games like Arena and Dancing All Night, which are as much visual novel as video game, where the MC has an extremely distinct personal voice–each present one version of that infinitely-variable character.  They’re a single interpretation.  They’re a specific interpretation, separate from the many open options of the game itself, they just happen to come with a specific name.

Makoto Yuki, from the P3 anime, is a very different person than the character I played when I played P3, and they’re both very different than the person I write when I write Minato Arisato, the human I extrapolate when I look at all of canon and put my analysis goggles on.  Now, I happen to love the P3 movies, and their interpretation of Makoto Yuki, who is a giant ball of severe depression and whom I consider an excellent exploration of the game’s themes of despair and mortality, but I love them like a really, really good fanfic.  They don’t trump the ‘canon’ of the game for me; they’re an outgrowth of it.  Likewise, I don’t know Ren Amamiya particularly well, but he’s a quiet guy with an inner well of sheer rage that really works for me in what I’ve seen of him.  Not my Akira, but a cool dude.

In general, when I’m talking about Persona protags, I use the anime or tie-in game name to refer to the specific version of that character written in that game or anime, and the manga name to refer to that earlier, slightly hollow character of infinite possibilities and fandom interpretations.  Which leads us to Souji and Yu.

Step 3: Yu Narukami is a fucking jackass

I think the big thing for me about Yu Narukami, the specific interpretation of P4 Protagonist as seen in the anime and tie-in games, is that he isn’t genderqueer or neurodivergent.  Yu Narukami is perhaps the straightest character in all of Persona with the possible exception of Junpei Iori.  

I don’t actually hate him in the anime all that much, but thinking about Arena-Yu…he’s a dude.  He’s a fucking bro.  He screws around with Yosuke over the suggestion of dirty magazines and he’s vaguely uncomfortable about Kanji.  It’s been a while since I went through any game LP’s, but I remember the attitude Yu took towards his friends and Labrys, and it was authoritative.  Certain.  Of course Labrys can overcome her past, now that she has us here to be friends.  Yukiko isn’t talking like I expect Yukiko to talk, so of course something is wrong with her.

Yu Narukami, as presented in the Arena games (and I’m pretty sure P4DAN, though it’s been even longer since I’ve seen that) is an In Charge kind of guy who Knows What’s Best for people, and doesn’t particularly need to listen to what they have to say to do it.  He shows no sign of ever having molded himself around someone else; he does not present himself as a man (as a boy) who would or even could switch up who he is at a moment’s notice, because he doesn’t seem to be somebody who ever thinks there’s anything wrong with exactly who he is in the first place.  Yu Narukami never had a shadow because he just thinks he’s Exactly That Cool all the way down.  He pops the collar on his polo shirt not because he doesn’t know any better, but because he is actually that guy and always was.

Needless to say, that is not my Seta Souji, who spends hours petting cats, and rarely speaks up to bring order (let alone authority) to his rambunctious bickering friends in any discussion.  It’s an interpretation, sure–and it’s even an interesting one!–but he is not a guy I particularly like.

So how do those two people, Yu and Souji, even fit together at all?

And this is where we go from me having opinions on various actual versions of characters as-written, and start diving into themes, theories, and mythological parallels.  There is a way to tell the story where it all makes sense, where Souji (and even the Yu of the anime, who’s got more shades of asshole than my typical headcanon but still sits far closer to my personal version of the protag than any of the douchebro versions of Yu in the sequel games) ties into later-Yu and it’s a graceful, interesting, thematic choice.

I don’t think it was intentional on the part of the writers.  But it does work.  And here’s how.

Step 4: I go on a digression about persona protags and sacrifice

I have spent way too much time thinking about themes and parallels between Personas 3, 4, and 5 (someday I’ll watch some decent LPs of 1 and 2, but today is not yet that day, so we’ll stick to the Wild Card trilogy for now).  One of the things that I love is the way each protag interacts with the big major theme thing of their game, losing it and gaining it and sacrificing it only to gain it yet again, and it happens in all three games.

In P3, the thing at the center of the game is life, in contrast to mortality.  You’re in a car crash at age 6, your parents die, you carry Death Himself in the space behind your heart, you spend all game struggling to survive and also trying to figure out why you even care to bother.  At the end you die so your friends can live, but also you’re not, quite, entirely dead–you are asleep, and at the end of all the world you’ll wake up and still be there, just you and Aigis and Elizabeth at the end of all things, alive and mortal.  In P5 it’s freedom, and you start the game in chains, flash forward and flash back, breaking bonds and forging them right up to the point where you turn yourself into the police, only to eventually be found innocent of even the original crime that bound you to begin with.  There are metaphors and angles to the whole thing, the way becoming Satanael is in its own way both a defiance of Yaldabaoth in front of you and a surrender, complying with the will of every furious desperate angry follower-believer-worshipper in the Tokyo streets, but what we care about most right now is how this shows up in Persona 4, where our thing is identity.

The Persona 4 protagonist, whoever he is, shows up in this small town with no identity at all.  He had a life where people knew him, but the people in this small town don’t even have rumor and hearsay about dead parents or criminal charges to go on.  And sure, every protagonist starts out on a train to a new town, but the P4 protagonist goes even farther than that.  You show up in Inaba, and one of the very first things that happens to you, something that doesn’t happen to any Persona protag in any game I’ve ever seen, is that you lose your persona.

The starting persona in P4 is Izanagi.  Based on the fact that Adachi’s persona is Izanagi, too, based on the fact that Izanami is the one who granted you access to the TV world and presumably a working persona to begin with, based on every theme and implication in the game–Izanami gives you your starting persona.  She chooses who you are.  She declares that you’re ‘hope’, and maybe you had some qualities that suited you for that role to begin with, but anyone you’ve ever been is gone now in service to your part in Izanami’s play.

One of the things I really liked in the P4 anime was the protag’s terror of being alone and empty.  Now, I enjoy my Souji Seta as someone who’s a little bit hollow and empty–not in a bad way, but like a clear glass that can be filled with anything, and takes on the color and nature of whatever it holds–but right, in a story whose main theme is identity and accepting yourself, being infinitely transformable is both ideal and terrifying.  If the P4 protag can be anyone, how can he be someone?  In the end, the only identity that’s really his and not copied from one of his social links is the one that Izanami gave him.  His final persona, Izanagi-no-Okami, has more to do with her than anything that comes from inside him.

Loss and gain, sacrifice and victory–the P4 protag goes back to his old life, sacrificing the person he’s created for himself here in Inaba to reclaim the person he theoretically used to be.  Depending on how you read the ending, he gives up his infinite adaptability in order to fill himself with a final persona that is chosen for him, sacrificing his innate capacity to be anyone (which is in its own right a key characteristic of his self) in exchange for becoming someone, specifically a someone who was chosen for him.

(This is more my interpretation than anything I’d consider strictly canon, but–in my head, the P3 protag achieves that final moment of apotheosis, and the god-binding power that comes with it, from the sacrifice of his own life and also the fact that after Death lived in his heart for ten years straight he’s explicitly no longer entirely human to begin with.  The P5 protag achieves it by sacrificing his own individual freedom to the collective belief and prayers of literal hordes of desperate people, which we know is full of power because that’s how cognition works.  The P4 protag, I have always suspected just a little, gets it from the actual Izanagi–because if the actual Izanami is the source of all of this trouble, the actual Izanagi must exist too, and to trap a god you must be a god, in some small way.  Our protag is given the tools of power to seal Izanami away, and in return he must become a tool of that power.)

There are a lot of ways to interpret the themes and echoes and actual events of P4 vs P4 Golden vs P3 and P5, and this isn’t necessarily Objective Truth, but this is very much where my head goes when I think about Souji Seta and Yu Narukami.  Souji is the empty, unflappable chameleon boy who spends his time becoming whoever the people around him need him to be, whether that’s a silent confidant or a valiant hero.  Yu is the bold, self-assured young man who has discovered or decided exactly who he is, and knows deep in his heart that he never has to hide or change for anyone, ever again.

Step 5: Yu is a dick because Izanagi is a dick, and okay, fine, I kind of love it that way

All of Persona 4 is about retelling the myth of Izanagi and Izanami, and changing the ending.

This is true for P3 and P5 too, of course.  In P3 you walk into Tartarus with everyone you love already at your back, and you set them free to do their own thing (they make their own moves in battle, you don’t turn back to check on them, you trust them to follow or not follow on your own and every member in your team makes their greatest moments of personal growth without you there), but eventually one of you has to stay behind so the other can leave–so you fix Orpheus’s mistake, you stay in the underworld yourself so Eurydice and everyone else you love in the world can go home and live.  In P5 you tell Satanael’s story backwards and forwards, the rise and the fall and the rise again; you start at the very bottom of your own pit (you start as the God of Control’s very own chosen one and don’t even know it), and eventually you climb so high that you’re the one who gets to cast God down into perdition instead.  Start with one tale, end with another.

The story of Izanagi and Izanami is: once upon a time, through no fault of her own, Izanami was sent to the underworld, and Izanagi loved her so well he ventured down after her.  But she was changed down there, her own darkness grown gross and rotten, and though she tried to hide her ugly parts Izanagi did see them.  And then he didn’t love her any more; he fled, and trapped her there in darkness forever, to protect the whole world from her flaws, and never ever looked at his own.

You spend all of Persona 4 doing exactly the opposite: venturing down into another world to find people trapped there, and facing their ugliness, and embracing them and drawing them up into the light anyway.  Namatame is Izanagi-who-dooms-them, though his intentions are good (Izanami died giving birth to Izanagi’s child in the first place).  Adachi is Izanagi-corrupted, claimed and twisted by the darkness of the underworld and his own power, with no mercy in him.  But the P4 protag gets to play the Izanagi of compassion, who tried to save his wife in the first place–and we get to fix it.  We get to save people.  We get to save everyone.

Until we get to Izanami herself, because Izanami can’t be saved.  This all gets way more complicated in Golden when we add in Marie, but in the end, we’ve still got our protag standing in front of the goddess Izanami, sealing her away with Izanagi’s power for the sake of everyone else in the world, because she’s too dark and corrupted to bring back out into the light after all.

It’s really interesting coming at all of this from a Western perspective, because I…can’t actually tell if, playing through P4, we’re meant to like Izanagi?  Are we meant to be on his side in the end?  Are we meant to feel like we’re on this whole quest serving penance for his ancient mythological fuck-up?  Are we meant to think that Yu Narukami, who’s embraced Izanagi in all his pride and self-righteousness as his own inner self, is the good guy?

Because yes, Izanami was trying to destroy the world.  And yes, we saved it by trapping her, just like Izanagi did in ancient myth.  But the Yu Narukami I see in the sequel games is so very much the guy who thinks he gets to decide who’s good enough to get saved and who isn’t.  Labrys deserves to be saved, and because he’s decided to be her friend now, she will be, just like that, because of course he has that power.

By the time Arena happens, Yu has embraced and accepted Izanagi as his true self, flaws and all.  (Let me not forget to point out the sister-complex kingpin title, for the man whose persona is a god that married his own sister.  Let us literally never discuss Nanako as Izanami, because that gets really uncomfortable so fucking quick.)

And Izanagi is a dick.  Which means that Yu isn’t, can’t be the quiet, gentle person I see when I try to extrapolate a most-probable Souji out of P4 canon alone.  Yu is an asshole because that’s the person he’s chosen to be, the identity he’s claimed to replace the one he sacrificed, and I am on reflection kind of into that.

But also he’s still a dick, and therefore I kind of hate him for it.

[mobius-prime]

166. Sonic the Hedgehog #98

Sonic Adventure 2

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante Colors: Patrick Spaziante and Nelson Ribeiro

Welcome to Sonic Adventure 2, everyone! Now, you would be excused for thinking that the comic would want to handle such a highly anticipated and ultimately successful game in the same manner as it did the first one, but you would be wrong! I'm going to spoil it for you right now - we only get part of the story in the comics. This one issue used to cover the entirety of the game, and as we'll see this presents some serious problems. But let's dive in, I'll save my rants for after we go over everything.

So our story doesn't actually begin where the previous issue left off. Instead, it begins three months ago, right on the tail end of the previous Sonic Adventure, in fact. The comics never really did address exactly what happened to Eggman in between being chased out of Station Square by Silver Sonic, and returning to Robotropolis. Well, as it turns out, he ended up being chased, somehow, all the way to one Prison Island, where Silver Sonic cornered him and blasted the ground out from under him, causing him to fall down a dark hole. Satisfied that it had killed him, Silver Sonic returned to Station Square to resume its defensive protocol there, but in actuality he had fallen into a secret lab with something very interesting hidden inside…

Now fast forward to a mere week ago. In the dead of night within Station Square, a mysterious figure broke into a top-security vault to steal the city's last remaining Chaos Emerald. Silver Sonic tried to prevent the theft, but…

News of the theft soon reached the desk of the city's president, who mistook the figure as the hero who had defended Station Square from Chaos mere months ago, because apparently in every Sonic canon, no one can ever tell Sonic and Shadow apart, not even Sonic's best goddamn friends. Seriously, at least in the anime it's explained as being a deliberate set-up by GUN to cover their own asses regarding the Project Shadow disaster years ago. I know I've joked before about Sonic being an extremely average-looking Mobian hedgehog which is why he's so easily mistaken for other people, but seriously, Shadow and Sonic's profiles and quill style don't even look alike, let alone their fur color.

That is a very bizarre-looking Rouge. For whatever reason, they decided to draw her a lot in this era with like… claw hands, and I don't even understand where they got that from. In the game itself one of her upgrades is called "Pick Nails" and I guess you could extrapolate that to mean razor-sharp nails under her gloves that don't show up on her low-poly 3D model or something, but all her 2D art depicts her with normal-looking rounded fingertips, so I don't even know. Anyway, the comic goes on about how the president put together an elite task force to track Sonic down and arrest him for his supposed crimes, and now they've finally found him just outside Knothole. Man, if some randos from Station Square could find where Knothole was, how the hell has Eggman not figured it out yet? They pull out actual, deadly rifles and start firing wildly at him, and he dances around cheekily, stealing their guns and taunting them. This ends when they shoot an electrified net onto him, and soon he's handcuffed in the back of their helicopter, being taken to the hidden city. Of course, we know how this goes from here - he breaks free inside the 'copter and bursts out its side, peeling off a strip of metal to use as his makeshift skateboard, because even though this isn't the 90s anymore, it's still the 90s.

We're then treated to a short montage of Spaz's interpretation of City Escape - landing on the streets, surfing down sloped roads, soaping on walkway rails and leaping over any obstacles in his way. Honestly, the action is a bit hard to follow - Spaz is certainly a talented artist in many respects, but I think his decision here to move on from his somewhat simpler designs from before hurts rather than helps, as the action and lines become so chaotic that you have to really concentrate to follow what's going on. There's just a bit too much happening, so that your eyes are drawn all over the place without really focusing on a specific focal point of each image. But anyway, we all know how City Escape ends - with the iconic GUN truck chase!

And that's… it! No, seriously, that's all we get for the actual story of SA2. The final text box invites us to play the game itself to see how it all ends, but there's a number of problems with that, the foremost being that the game takes place in an entirely different canon. We've got completely different circumstances that led up to these events. We've got characters missing - Tails still hasn't been returned to Knothole yet, Knuckles is off somewhere else struggling with his newfound powers, and humans aren't even the dominant species on the planet like they are in the game. This would leave any comic fan with a bitter taste in their mouth, as there's no actual resolution provided and no explanation for how the story will play out with so many of the original players out of commission. Many issues from now, Ian Flynn actually addressed this exact problem and gave a condensed version of events to explain exactly what we're missing, so at least we have that to look forward to in the future. There is one more story after this, and I have additional problems with that one, but let's cover the rest of the issue before I give my final opinions.

As the Shadow Awakes!

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So this story actually jumps us back fifty years to see Shadow's beginnings. Professor Gerald, Eggman's grandfather on his mother's side, has been working for a long time on his latest project, which he hopes will see the end of disease and untimely death and even be able to cure his granddaughter Maria's unspecified terminal illness. This project is, of course, Shadow the Hedgehog, who, as an excited and astonished Gerald watches, begins to move inside his pod. The inexplicably-brunette Maria suddenly calls him at his lab, telling him that she can see a military spaceship flying toward the ARK, their space station, and Gerald, in a panic, orders her to come to him. He knows that the military is here to take possession of his project, and believing them to be too simple-minded to understand his intentions for the project, wants to evacuate immediately. He's immediately proven right, as the military men who board the station scoff at the idea that an "old scientist and his crippled granddaughter" could pose any trouble to them as they intend to take the professor's project by force. Gerald sends Maria and Shadow, the latter now out of his pod, to evacuate in an escape pod, but of course, we know how this ends…

I think this is the only Sonic media I can think of that actually directly shows Maria dying. In both the game and the anime, the shot happens offscreen, and Shadow is ejected before Maria actually takes her last breath. I do have a problem with how the scene is portrayed here, however, as a big conflict that Shadow goes through during SA2 is his vast misinterpretation of her last request to him, whereas here she seems to just die immediately without saying another word. The military takes Gerald into custody, and shortly thereafter recovers Shadow from the escape pod, taking them both to Prison Island where they force Gerald to continue his work under their supervision. Gerald, however, is devastated at Maria's death, and thus plans out his revenge in secret under the guise of continuing his work as demanded.

The military eventually caught on to his nefarious plans, and had Gerald executed and Shadow sealed away in suspended animation on Prison Island, where it remained undisturbed and forgotten for the next fifty years. Of course, this is what Eggman found on the island, and now he's poised to use his grandfather's own work to conquer the world. My biggest problem with this story, ultimately, is that it essentially acts as one huge spoiler for the game. Everyone now, almost twenty years on, probably knows the general gist of the story, but this comic was published when it was still very new, and this entire story basically spoils the biggest twist in the game right off the bat. Furthermore, in this story, Shadow literally wakes up, goes straight to the pod, watches Maria - who he knows nothing about - die, and then gets sealed away in his stasis pod for fifty years. There's literally no time for him to even develop a personality, let alone a relationship with Maria, which is the single most important thing in his backstory. I believe this was later retconned, but this is still a huge thing to overlook in an adaption of this game.

But anyway, yeah, that's it. That's all we get for the time being. A few brief glimpses of Shadow, and one whole cameo from Rouge. It will be a while yet before Shadow gets to make his reappearance, since like in the game, at the end of their adventure he falls from space and is subsequently believed to be dead. Honestly, the entire thing kind of gives off the impression that they felt like they had to make some kind of comic tie-in to the game, but didn't feel like interrupting what they already had going with the whole "Sonic goes to high school" thing, which is clearly far more interesting of a story. So they basically went "yeah, something like this happened, but now let's just get back to the real story." It's honestly very weird, so weird that, again, they needed a later fix-it issue to explain everything, but for now, we'll just have to move on.