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longitudinalwaveme · 2 months ago

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DC Comics' Who's Who: Flash Entries

My brother and I recently bought all of the DC Comics Who's Who issues that contain Flash characters in them (except for the ones with Abra Kadabra and Thinker, who I somehow forgot about). These issues were published between 1985 and 1987, and they provide a very interesting snapshot into how the characters were viewed around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

As such, I decided to post the relevant Flash entries and give some of my own commentary.

The most interesting thing about Captain Boomerang's entry, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that it's the first time that we see the name "Ian Harkness" attached to Digger's father. Prior to this point, Digger's dad (who had only appeared once, in Flash vol. 1 #227) had been referred to solely as "Pop" (by Digger) or as "Aussie Green" (by the narrator). Since "George Green" was the alias Digger used to land the Captain Boomerang job at Wiggins' Toys, I think that Cary Bates forgot that Digger's last name had been established to be Harkness, and that his father's last name should therefore have been Harkness as well. As such, I suspect that the writer of this Who's Who entry decided to fix Bates' mistake by giving Aussie Green the more appropriate name of Ian Harkness.

But what's really fascinating about this is that, since this issue was published in 1985, it means that the "Ian Harkness" name predates Suicide Squad #44 (published 1990), the story where Digger's stepfather was called Ian Harkness. I had always previously assumed that Ian Harkness was created for that issue, and that Aussie Green had been retconned out of existence, but it seems that there's an argument to be made that he instead was just given a major personality overhaul, much in the same way that Wally West's father, Bob/Rudolph West, was.

I love that the entry talks about Digger's ability to use his own body as a boomerang, a hilarious feat that only appeared in Flash vol. 1 #227.

The art for Digger was drawn by his original artist, the late, great Carmine Infantino (and Murphy Anderson). I like that it includes Digger shooting the Flash into space on a giant boomerang.

I love the art for Captain Cold's Who's Who entry. Interestingly enough, it was drawn by Bob Smith, rather than by his original artist, Carmine Infantino.

Technically, since this entry is about Alvin, not Albert, his first appearance should probably be listed as Flash #287, since all of the earlier Dr. Alchemy appearances were Albert, not Alvin. But since Showcase #14 was the first appearance of Dr. Alchemy as a costumed identity, I can understand why it was chosen.

I don't think this bio is inaccurate to state that Albert didn't have the ability to telekinetically control the the Philosopher's Stone, since to my knowledge he had not shown that capability up to the point that this issue was published, but for a modern reader it is somewhat odd, since it was established that Albert also had psychic control over the Stone in Flash vol. 2 #40-41 (published 1990), and it was a major part of his powerset during Geoff Johns' run in the early 2000s.

Much like Captain Cold, Alvin isn't being drawn by his original artist, Don Heck. Instead, the art for his entry was done by Mike Vosburg and Dick Giordano.

In speaking of Albert, here's his entry.

Some interesting observations:

Albert is an inch taller and 3 pounds heavier than Alvin. So they wouldn't be physically identical in the costume, as one might assume.

Alvin's parents are identified as Mr. and Mrs. Herman Desmond, a name taken from Flash vol. 1 #288. This is very helpful, as it clarifies that he was the Al born in San Diego, California, and also establishes that Albert was born in Tampa, Florida (as per the backstory given in that issue). Flash #288 states that Albert's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Desmond, but that was a mistake on writer Cary Bates' part, since in Flash vol. 1 #221, Albert's father was named Peter Desmond. This Who's Who entry correctly identifies his parents by that earlier name, which is a level of ridiculous nerdiness that I can respect.

The claim that the Philosopher's Stone is more powerful than the Element Gun does make sense.

There's also an interesting omission in the entry. In Flash vol. 1 #221, it's made explicit that the Element Gun is at most a conduit for Albert's own natural powers. It doesn't work for the Flash, and Albert is able to use his elemental powers even when the gun isn't in his hand.

I am not surprised to learn that Albert has "little strength in hand-to-hand combat". Nor am I surprised that Alvin is more physically adept than Albert is.

Albert was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino.

At 6'1", Fiddler is a bit taller than I expected. And he is a "vile" and "villainous violinist". I appreciate the Silver Age-esque alliteration.

And the Fiddle Car makes an appearance, both in the text and in the artwork. I love the Fiddle Car. It's so gloriously goofy.

I'm not sure exactly when the Fiddler gained weight, but I guess it's good to know that his diet plan worked out for him.

Artists Sandy Plunkett and Joe Rubinstein did a great job on the main drawing of Fiddler for this entry.

I like that Jay Garrick's name is written in the font that was used for the 1940s All-Flash series, of which he was (unsurprisingly) the leading character.

I actually didn't know that Jay was specifically the head of Keystone Research Laboratories, Inc. I knew that he was a research scientist, but not that his place of work had been specifically named.

Artist Eduardo Berreto did an excellent headshot of Jay, and I like that he included the Fiddler and the Three Dimwits (Winky, Blinky, and Noddy) in the background. That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of the main drawing of Jay here. He looks a bit stiff as he runs.

Barry Allen gets a massive two-page spread. The really interesting thing about this is that, while this issue was published in October 1985, after Barry's series had ended, it was published just before Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), the issue where Barry actually died. As such, he's still alive here, but will be dead by the time the Who's Who series wraps up in early 1987.

Weirdly, Ira West (Iris' adoptive father) is described as Barry's stepfather-in-law, which doesn't seem quite right.

Carmine Infantino, Barry's original artist, does the art with help from Murphy Anderson. He does a good job, as is expected, and in addition to the headshot and the main drawing, he includes a picture of the accident that gave Barry his speed, headshots of Iris and Wally, a picture of Barry shooting his costume out of his ring, and headshots of a ton of Barry's villains.

The villain headshots are especially amusing in an oddly-drawn way, and include, in the words of @gorogues, "shampoo ad Digger, movie star Kadabra, middle-aged Roscoe, and ate-too-many-Twinkies Sam".

In most modern DC guidebooks, Lisa is listed at 5'5" and 115 pounds. Here, she's listed as 5'5" and 105 pounds. In case it wasn't clear that she was tiny, I guess.

The issue with Golden Glider's entry was published in November of 1985, and, sure enough, it's noted that the Flash is dead in her entry.

The notion that Lisa's gem weapons were adapted from some of the Top's designs isn't something that was explicitly stated in any of her appearances, but it is an interesting idea, and it does make sense as an explanation for how she was able to build them so quickly.

Golden Glider's art is drawn by her original artist, Irv Novick, with assistance from Dick Giordano, and it all looks amazing. I'm especially fond of the drawing of her with Captain Cold in the bottom right.

I love that Gorilla Grodd's occupation is "Would-Be World Conqueror".

It's also nice to get confirmation that the gorillas of Gorilla City have amplified strength even when compared to normal gorillas, as I hadn't been sure if that was the case before now.

Grodd's art was done by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, alongside Bill Sienkiewicz. He doesn't really look like an actual gorilla, but there will basically be no realistic-looking gorillas in Flash comics until the early 1990s.

Also, while Grodd is usually big and muscular (since he's a gorilla and all), he's especially massive here.

I think the most noteworthy thing about Heat Wave's entry is the fact that it highlights a very important fact about him: namely, the fact that he was the second-ever Flash villain, and first Rogue, to reform (specifically, in Flash vol. 1 #312, in 1982). He reformed some two to three years before the Trickster (James) semi-reformed in Blue Devil, and six years before the Pied Piper reformed in Flash vol. 2 #20 (1988)! Most people seem to have forgotten about this nowadays.

Another aspect of Heat Wave's character that seems to have been forgotten is that Heat Wave's gun isn't just a flamethrower....it's also capable of superheating the air around it and effectively firing "beams" of heat.

Oh, and Mick's suit used to be made of asbestos. So if you're wondering how he got terminal cancer in Jeremy Adams' run on the Flash, now you know.

I've always thought that 5'11" seemed short for Heat Wave. For some reason, I can't shake this mental image of him as this 6'6" giant (even though the artists don't usually make him that much taller than everyone else). Maybe it has something to do with Dominic Purcell's portrayal of the character on the CW Flash show...but even then, Purcell is only 6'1" (so tall, but not enormous). Maybe it's just because he's often depicted as the least intelligent Rogue, and unintelligent villains tend to be very large in fiction.

Heat Wave's art was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, alongside Joe Giella.

Wally's entry claims that his parents have never been named, but his father was named Bob West in Flash vol. 1 #116, so he at least had been given a name by this time. (Post-Crisis, Wally's dad was renamed Rudolph, and his mother was named Mary.)

The issue with Wally's entry was published in February 1986, a month before he would take up the mantle in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986). As such, he's still Kid Flash here, even though Barry is dead.

It's interesting that this entry states that Wally was in high school when he became Kid Flash. This is mostly consistent with what we see in the early Wally stories from the Silver Age (even if the art makes him look 10 to 12 years old rather than 14 or so), but it is a noticeable contrast to William Messner-Loebs' and Mark Waid's takes on Wally's backstory, which both claim that Wally was 10 years old when he became Kid Flash.

Also interesting, and sometimes forgotten about, is the fact that Wally went to college towards the end of his career as Kid Flash, and was even hoping to settle down and start a normal life before Barry died. The events of Crisis on Infinite Earths threw a wrench in these plans. Wally became the Flash full-time, and as a result never finished college.

The art for Wally's entry was done by George Pérez, who unsurprisingly did a very good job.

Mirror Master's entry was published in May 1986, four months after his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths #10 (January 1986). As such, his death is described here. His successor, Evan McCulloch, wouldn't debut for another three years (first appearing in 1989 in Animal Man #8).

The entry underlines Sam's popularity in his day; he's described as "one of the Flash's most formidable and persistent foes", and he is accurately credited with forming the Rogues. This is something that often gets forgotten now that Len has taken the spotlight as the de facto leader of the group.

Sam appears to be the least physically capable of the Rogues described thus far ("only a fair hand-to-hand combatant"), which makes sense, given that he was primarily an inventor.

Something else interesting is that it's only starting in this issue that "the Flash's Rogues Gallery" is listed as a group affiliation for the people on the team. Len, Digger, and Mick weren't listed as members of the group, even though they were definitely part of the team. (Golden Glider is a borderline case. She worked with Len and Roscoe before Crisis, but didn't appear alongside the full group until afterwards.)

Carmine Infantino, Sam's original artist, did the art here, alongside Steve Mitchell. I like the background art, but I'm not a huge fan of the main drawing or the headshot, primarily, I think, because Mirror Master looks way too buff. There are a number of better Infantino drawings of Sam.

In speaking of weirdly buff Rogues, here's the Pied Piper, about two years before he reformed (the issue his entry is in was published in August of 1986, and he reformed in late 1988).

The entry claims that "Henry Darrow" was the alias his parents paid to establish for him, while "Thomas Peterson" was the alias he chose for himself. This is an interesting idea, but it doesn't seem to fully align with the Flash comics of the time. For example, during the interminable Trial of the Flash arc, Digger called the Pied Piper "Henry", which suggests that Piper told gave at least him the "Henry Darrow" name, which wouldn't really make sense if "Thomas Peterson" was his chosen alias. (That being said, Cary Bates' habit of confusing characters' names really doesn't help here. Since he later called Piper "Henry Rathaway" by mistake, it's possible that he was intending to have Digger call Piper by his actual name, but forgot that the actual name in question was Hartley and not Henry.)

I am not surprised that Hartley is a poor hand-to-hand combatant. Even if he had a weird period in the early-to-mid-80s where the art made him look like He-Man's stunt double (and you can still kind of see that here), he's usually drawn as being fairly skinny, and he was also a sheltered rich kid. It makes sense that he wouldn't know how to fight.

Pied Piper is kind of the opposite of Heat Wave in that 5'10" somehow seems too tall for him. There's no good reason for it, but I always picture him as being short and slight. Maybe it's just because he's often so thin?

It's also interesting that Hartley's hair is listed as being blonde here. It swapped between red (as per his first appearance, Flash vol. 1 #106) and blonde all the time before eventually seeming to settle on a light red/strawberry blonde color.

Pied Piper's art was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Dennis Jensen. Like with the Mirror Master, I like the background art, but not the main picture or the headshot. Infantino has drawn better Pipers too.

I did not know that Rag Doll was an "eccentric dancer" in addition to being a contortionist until now.

The fact that he used to work for the circus also makes him one of three Flash villains who can make that claim. The other two are Heat Wave (who worked as a fire eater) and the Trickster (who worked as a hire wire and trapeze artist).

Ragdoll was drawn by Steve Leialoha, and I think his take on the character is really unique and interesting. He makes the character look appropriately bendy and rubbery.

Somehow I never realized that Rainbow Raider's eyes were grey.

I appreciate that the Who's Who entry treats Roy as a legitimate threat. Enjoy it while you can, buddy. It won't last.

Rainbow Raider was drawn by Don Heck, his original artist. I especially love the headshot here.

I think this may be the first time that "Professor Adrian Zoom" was established as an explicit alias. (This name, like Sam and Roscoe's middle names, exists entirely because Cary Bates forgot a character's name.)

Barry, Jay, and Eobard are all 5'11" and 179 pounds, and Wally is 5'10" and 179 pounds. I guess we now know why Eobard is so good at impersonating Barry.

Carmine Infantino, Eobard's original artist, did the art alongside Murphy Anderson. This may be the best Eobard's hair has ever looked (although that's a very low bar to clear). It's also darkly amusing that the two background pictures are of him creeping on Iris and getting killed by Barry.

Rose and Thorn's story is very interesting and tragic, and I really need to track down the issues where it happened so that I can actually read them.

She also seems a lot like a proto-Poison Ivy. They're very similar looking physically, and Rose and Thorn had natural plant-controlling powers long before Poison Ivy did. (Notably, Ivy's Who's Who entry states that her only power is immunity to poison. Her other plant creations are attributed to her scientific acumen, rather than to any inherent abilities.)

Rose and Thorn was drawn by Todd McFarlane.

Moving on to another Jay Garrick villain, we have the Shade, who won't get his natural darkness-controlling powers for another eight years or so. (This issue was published in September 1986, and Shade's natural powers weren't established until he appeared in the Starman series, which began in 1994.) At this point, he was dependent on technology (more specifically, his cane) to control shadows.

At 6'2", Shade is one of the taller Flash villains. He's the same height as Len, but at 170 pounds to Len's 197, he's a lot lighter.

Shade's white hair is probably attributable to two factors. First, he hadn't yet been established to be immortal, and so would have been an older villain during this time period (since he was an enemy of Jay Garrick). Second, and probably more importantly, the Shade actually did have white hair during his first (and only) Golden Age appearance:

Yes, that really is the Shade. He looked different during the Golden Age.

It's interesting that the Shade is stated to have little experience in hand-to-hand combat here, but I suppose that the fact that he's so reliant on his shadows may have something to do with that. (I think I'm surprised because his later appearances in the Starman series gave him a ton of life experience, including experience in at least some athletic endeavors.)

The Shade was drawn by Carmine Infantino and Rick Magyar, who did a great job with him. Both of the background drawings seem to be based on scenes from Flash vol. 1 #151, in which Shade fought both Barry and Jay.

"Presumably the Top's spirit is no longer active on Earth." The issue with Top's Who's Who entry was published in February 1987, almost six years after his last appearance (Flash #303, from November 1981). It would be another three years before he returned in Hawk and Dove Annual #1 (1990), and an additional year before he properly returned to the land of the living by possessing the body of Senator Thomas O'Neil in Hawk and Dove #27-28 (September-October 1991). It took a while, but he did come back!

The entry also states that the Top "could spin at high, but not superhuman, speed". Since we saw the Top spinning fast enough to outpace the Flash and deflect bullets, I have my doubts about the accuracy of this statement.

The fact that Roscoe has blue eyes bothers me irrationally. He really seems like he should have green eyes.

The Top was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Giella. I love the background art, and I like the main image, even if Roscoe is maybe slightly more buff than it seems like he should be. The headshot is one of the vanishingly few drawings of Roscoe without his mask (basically all the others are either of him before he became the Top, or from Flash vol. 1 #219, the only issue where he's out of costume for the majority of the story).

Remember how I said the Top looked too buff? Here's the proof. The Top is 6 feet tall and weighs 179 pounds. The Trickster is also 6 feet tall and also weighs 179 pounds. So either the Top is too buff in his entry, or James is WAY too skinny here. And I'm definitely leaning towards the former, given that having a lot of muscle mass will increase weight.

Trickster's list of known relatives does not mention his mother, who had not only appeared but been named by this point. (She's called Helen in Flash vol. 1 #113, the Trickster's debut issue).

Interesting fact: James actually reformed before Hartley did! James is already listed as being reformed in this issue, which was printed in 1987; Hartley won't be shown to be reformed until late 1988.

I really wish Trickster's brief career as a special effects artist was reference more often.

Trickster was drawn by Paris Cullins and Gary Martin, who were not his original artists. That being said, I love their take on him, especially his rubber chicken.

Both the Golden Age Turtle and the Silver Age Turtle Man share one entry, with the primary art being of the latter. The Golden Age villain only appears in the background art.

I always confuse the Turtle and the Turtle Man, probably because they have nigh-identical names, very similar M.O.s, and don't appear very often. The fact that neither one of them has a civilian name also doesn't help, since I can't even distinguish them that way. I guess the main difference is that the Turtle Man is somewhat more of an inventor than the Turtle.

Also, at 5'6", the Turtle is very short. He's only an inch taller than Lisa (though he's 73 pounds heavier)! The Turtle Man, at 5'11", is a lot taller.

The Turtle and the Turtle Man are drawn by Peter Laird, who was not the original artist for either character. Their drawings of the two characters are still effective, though.

Last, but not least, is the Weather Wizard, who, in a continuing trend, is weirdly buff. It's especially noticeable in his case, since he's usually drawn to be quite slender (although it is in keeping with the way Infantino drew basically all the Rogues during the Trial of the Flash arc).

Weather Wizard's reformation didn't last terribly long, but, due to the fact that he didn't show up very much during the late 80s and early 90s, it lasted a bit longer than you might expect. He reformed in Blue Devil #30 (published November 1986, about 3 months before the issue with his Who's Who entry was published), and wasn't shown doing anything illegal again until Flash Annual #5 in 1992. So he was more-or-less reformed for five to six real-world years.

I love that his entry includes the ridiculous fact that the Weather Wand is telepathically linked to his brain (as established in Adventure Comics #466 in December 1979), and that it makes mention of his habit of riding around on clouds.

Weather Wizard's art was done by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson. I love the background art of him fighting Batman, and I like the art of him battling the Flash, but I think he looks a bit too buff in the main drawing and in his headshot. That being said, that headshot must be the neatest that Mark's hair has ever looked. Usually it's way more windblown than that.

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artsymeeshee · 9 months ago

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Hello! I just found your laundry list of art last week, and I have to say…I LOVE IT! Love the instinct comics, Ford being cool never ceases to make me giggle, and I loved the autumn drawing. I’ll admit, that one had me in tears…made be believe in the what-if’s of my own family. What they…could be like someday. Or what I wish they were. Thanks for the tears, they were much needed.

Anyway! This is what I came to message you about! Although,…I am extremely sorry for the late message. I tend to check back into tumblr at…weird hours of the night. Heck, it’s almost the next day as I type this. I seriously need to sleep more. So! I had a few thoughts on Stan and Ford relationship, and I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Just a disclaimer, I’m kinda basing this off my actual life as I find these characters mirror personal events very closely! I am also a writer and soon to be author! Might post some archive of our own content about these two soon. Also, and this is the most important, I have NOT read book of Bill yet. So plz…no spoilers. Anyway, long introduction aside, let’s begin!

In my personal head cannon of these two, which I don’t imagine is “too” different than how anyone else could see them, Stan and Ford have an extremely awkward and emotional conversation after Weirdmagedon. Why? B/c they’re both, to some degree, emotionally numb. In my opinion, why wouldn’t they? They haven’t spoken to each other in 40 years, properly, and they have repressed a ton of their emotions since then. It’s hard to bring that back up. (Speaking off of experience) I’d say even harder for Ford. Stan, thanks to the twins, has learned to loosen the locks on his heart while Ford kept running away from those emotions to defeat Bill. Just like his ambitions, that was the main priority, and everything else later. To me, this would explain why Ford never bothered to talk to Stan properly since coming back during the show. He wouldn’t know how to. If they were to talk, and this is where the writer in me comes out, I’d write Ford as the one that needs it most. He’s been traveling dimension for decades, running from the past that held him back…but he has no anchor now. Stan becomes that anchor, paralleling what he wasn’t when Ford was lost. And Ford…he just breaks. Like, completely breaks. And Stan is there with him, breaking like he is, but still there for him brother. Finally back after all those years apart. And as someone who has been on the side of neglect from one’s own brother…nothing would be me happier if we went to connect. Just like Stanley and Ford. And eventually, soon to be sailing on the seas to connect even more.

Phew…that was a lot. Sorry for the rambling. Told you I had some ideas! So, what do you think? Do you see Ford acting like this? If not…why? Genuinely, I’d like to know. Anyway, thanks for taking your time to read this. Again, sorry for the ramblings. Oh! One more thing, I know you aren’t taking art request right now, but would you be open to take them in the future? Say in 2 months time? Anyway, bye!

Well first off, thank you! I appreciate it! :D

And to answer your headcanon, I agree on it. Stan is definitely more open to talking, especially thanks to the kids. I mean there's still moments where it's hard and awkward for sure. And Ford would for sure have a harder time opening up, especially with the constant guilt and mistakes that replay over and over. And there's always that lingering feeling of "well, Stan has to hate me for what I've done" and it's always so surprising when Stan tells him differently and he never once hated Ford. Sure, was angry but never hated him. He had too much self-hatred to feel that way with Ford. And as many times as it needs to be said or repeated, it really makes all the difference when they tell each other how much they love and care for each other. As Alex said, "they're both so damaged, they desperately need each other."

As for the requests thing, most likely not. Only because I'm entering the busiest time of year for my work so it's gonna be a miracle if I even have enough energy or motivation for drawing if I'm not completely burnt out.

#ask #water-god19 #long post

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 11 months ago

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Hey, so you seem to be the the All Knowing in terms of twst. With Glorious Masquerade getting a rerun soon, I was looking at the cards.

So what the heck is up with Jamil's freaking hat? I'm sorry but I can't look at it without laughing. It looks so stupid. The closest thing I can think of that matches it is the combined crowns of upper and lower Egypt, but this is the equivalent of France so that can't be it.

While I’m flattered that people come to me with their questions, I want to take a moment to remind everyone that I’m just another TWST fan like you are! ^^ It’s stressful to be considered “all knowing” or a fandom authority 💦 That puts a lot of pressure on me to speak on certain subjects or to interact in a certain way (since people might put too much stock into what I say), and then that ends up detracting from my enjoyment. I’d rather not be put on such a high pedestal, please and thank you.

Now, onto the question!

According to Rollo in 1-13 of Glorious Masquerade, the costumes the NRC students were gifted are “patterned after designs that are over 500 years old.”

If we extrapolate this to real life, the implication is that these costumes have roots in Renaissance era (14th century to 17th century) French fashion. Interestingly, Rollo’s own hat is similar to a tricorne, which was primarily worn in the 18th century… so technically, his hat is more “modern” than what the NRC students wear 😂

So I browsed through records of hats from the indicated period and guess what? I couldn’t find an exact match—though I did find a lot of hat designs that I found way sillier than what the NRC boys have. Like… sorry, what is THAT 😭

Some headwear which bears a vague similarity to Jamil’s hat are the Egyptian combined/double crown (the pschent), which Anon has already mentioned, and the French hood, which was worn by women in the 15th century.

The actual closest match I came across was the mitre, a liturgical headdresses worn by Roman Catholic officials. If you look at it from the front, it doesn’t look like much, but it definitely has the height of Jamil’s hat. But then look closer and you’ll realize the mitre does not have one single flap of fabric, but rather two.

If you take the front flap of a mitre and fold it back, you would probably get something very similar to what Jamil wears. (Note that the black part of the hat is NOT his hair, but is fabric that is part of the hat.)

Considering that Noble Bell College is styled like a cathedral and that the Renaissance era from which the Masquerade Dress clothing derives is characterized by the rediscovery of classical literature, art, and philosophy… perhaps it’s not so strange to see a hat borne of religious associations.

… Why did Jamil specifically get this hat? Not sure, I’m not religious myself so don’t ask me to psychoanalyze him from that angle 😂

The golden part securing the front is unusual and does not appear in French fashion of the time (at least not from what I could tell?). It’s styled like pschent but more likely is meant to be turban-like due to Jamil’s inspiration, Jafar, having the same feather sticking up in the middle of a bulbous hat. You’ll notice Jamil had a “feather” too, albeit metal:

To summarize, I think the design of Masquerade Dress Jamil’s hat borrows from multiple inspirations and not just one/old French fashion. Yana has stated before in a March 2023 interview with the Apple App Store that the cultures of Twisted Wonderland are unique and that the clothing that appears in the game are not “reinterpretations of existing costumes”. She seems to incorporate elements from both high fashion and from a variety of cultures to arrive at the final designs. For example, there are elements of many Nordic cultures in the Apple Pom outfits, and the Pomefiore uniform has a Japanese kimono-like silhouette despite the dorm being based on the the Evil Queen (originating from a German tale). I assume something similar happened when designing the Masquerade Dresses; Yana and co. wanted to combine elements and make something of their own.

Final comment I'll make, the shape of Jamil's hat looks like a kind of dumpling... It makes me hungry.

#twisted wonderland #twst #Jamil Viper #Rollo Flamme #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #notes from the writing raven #question #glorious masquerade spoilers #advice #evil queen #Jafar

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it-came-from-an-orchard · 10 months ago

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Wonderland! Bunnydoll

It's secret to nobody that @endomentendo Wonderland AU has been spreading the same way an invasive root does in a garden (Don't tell Queenie) What some might NOT know, is that the Bunnydollers have successfully bullied them with love and pretty art to make the ship part of their canon Heck, Ragatha's mood allignement change! I call that a major victory!

So to commemorate the change and because @kookies2000 has infected half of the burrow with the WonderBug, I present thee with a small little something.

Its not very good but I had fun. And I think that all Wonderland its about

Leaves fall, birds chirp.

Twigs snap, Branches shake.

The grass crumples, dirt and sand raises in the air.

The sounds of idle laughter chimes in, carried by the hollow whistle of the wind. Empty steps mark the ground.

The sensible response is to shake your head, turn around, and go back from wherever you came from.

The sensible and logical thought that pricks at the mind and tells you ‘There’s nobody there’.

So stupid and wrong.

Out of all the creatures in the forest to find, those that find you first are probably some of the worst, and by the very nature of their bodies, this one is the most dangerous of all, as they dont get found out if they don't wish to be.

The laughter echoes around, and if you were to close your eyes— Well, you would be really stupid, because nobody should do that in a forest. Who knows where you could trip going around blind like that?

But if despite better judgment, you still close your eyes, or at least, the one working eye, it's almost like if windchimes were all around the forest.

Such a pretty laugh.

How can people say Chesires are bad when they laugh like that?

“Jax! I’m not supposed to wonder this deep in, you know that!” Little Pretty Red Locks and a smile, you are not angry or mad, yet you try “At least tell me what are we looking for!”

The empty, dusty steps wave off the dirt path, leaving purple prints instead as they go up the trunk of a mighty tree

“Seriously? I have to climb? In this dress?” Only mad people talk to themselves, so this really isn’t that weird of a sight, that is, if there was anyone else with Pretty Red Locks and a smile. “Mother is gonna be upset at me if I return to the party with tears on my dress…!”

She could have chosen not to climb, stay down on the ground, but then the enchanting laughter knew she wouldn’t. Too many a year had passed, at least he thought so, since they first started to play this game. A Cat and a Mouse.

Why would a little mouse be in pursuit of a cat, you ask? Probably to ask for some milk, or to share a cookie.

But there is no cat or a mouse in sight, just Pretty Red Locks and a smile.

Climbing trees is easy, it barely takes a breeze, yet the doll struggles getting around the branches, silly girl, your dress is on the way, Why did you ever think that was appropriate clothing to go tree climbing? Mad idea, indeed.

Leaves fall, branches creak, and the laughter is no more. A low hum bouncing around the canopies of the trees. A nameless tune that has no lyrics, and even when it does, their meaning is meaningless. Still, Pretty Red Locks tries to sing it, no matter how many times she gets it wrong. What a crazy thing to try

“Are we there yet?” She huffs and puffs the lack of air in her lungs, settling in a big sturdy branch. Yeah, they were there. That’s as good as it could get “I know I’m not a kid anymore, but you could try and give me a hand still!”

“Now, why would I do that?” The voice of nobody speaks, much mirth and much mischief in the way they sound. Just like the laughter from before “You got yourself up here without my help! If you couldn’t, why try?”

“You told me to follow you, then disappeared and got me here!” Still airless, still amused. Are you not afraid of being this high up?

“If I disappeared, you got yourself here” Fight a disembodied voice about semantics, if you weren’t mad before, you will be after.

“Well, We’re here-- Or *I* am here now. So what's the surprise?”

“What surprise?”

“I’m not going to start that with you”

“Start what?”

Laughter again, but it's not the voice of the nobody, Pretty Red Locks laughs.

It’s a pretty laugh.

“The view is nice from up here” Again talking to herself, because there was no other voice to answer her “You always like to be somewhere high, don’t you?” Talking to oneself means nobody answers you, but Pretty Red Locks and a smile didn’t seem to be bothered by that, her lips splayed in a wide smile for the empty space right beside her on the branch “I guess it's part of your nature”

The hollow wind carries the small hum of a melody. Down below littles colorful dots dance around unhearable music. It wouldn’t be long now until they realized the missing person among them.

“Having fun on your regular birthday?” The voice of nobody spoke, though it was lacking a bit of that usual charm. Wonder where it had gone

“What other types of birthdays are there?” The doll only got silence as a response, right, she was answering a question with another question “Yes, it’s very fun. I’m glad you came by”

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the end of the world~!”

Swinging her legs over the void of the fall, the doll swallowed the rest of the questions she wanted to ask, her conversation partner wasn’t in a responsive mood and talking to herself wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, even if she did it more often than most

“I’m gonna give you your gift now” The disembodied voice spoke and the doll felt her insides tickle as if full of loose flower petals

“Does that mean I can see you n-” Ragatha wanted to say something dumb, because she was about to answer a statement with a question. A dumb and also rude thing to do

Thankfully, she was saved from the embarrassment by a pressure over her mouth. Her lips. It felt… Warm. slightly moist, a bit fuzzy.

Such an odd feeling

Not only was her mouth covered by something, Ragatha blinked once and she was sure something was holding the sides of her arms. It was firm yet kind, the way she always felt when dancing atop the roof of the castle, or balancing over the railing of the balconies or now, over at the top of the trees.

She pursed her lips and that pressure moved. Ragatha realized now that she couldn’t quite breath with this strange block against her mouth, but just before she could start to worry about running out of air, the pressure left her mouth. The one around her arms remained.

Blinking once, twice. Ragatha notices her eyesight worsening. Just a second ago she could see the party below with perfect clarity, now everything seems to be warped and fuzzy. Like trying to see through an empty glass.

Something invisible in between.

“Jax?” She called to the nothing around her. “Did you do something just now?”

Pretty Red Locks got no answer from the empty air around her. She blinked again, the fuzziness went away, and so did the hold around her.

She missed it already.

The familiar humming of a distant tune came back, and while the sound bounced around, Ragatha’s gaze stood firmly ahead. The emptiness in front of her slowly filling up from the bottom up, stripes of purple and dark blue hues swirling, tangling and knotting among themselves. Forming limbs, a torso, a tail, ears and finally.

Two big yellow eyes and a smile.

“Happy regular birthday, Ragatha” The voice of nobody came from the mouth of this funny looking guy, but Ragatha already knew that. She have known this funny looking man for a long time now

“Happy not-birthday, Jax” She returned the gesture, smiling, not as widely but almost so as the man floating over nothing in front of her.

“Oh! You remembered! How thoughtful!” The colourful man squinted his eyes slightly as his smile broadened even more, making most of his face “Anyway, Ready to go back?” He extended an open, gloved palm to the pretty doll with red locks and a smile, he was, admittedly, a bit surprised that she didn’t immediately take it.

“Jax, My aunt will freak out if she sees me ‘Floating’ down back to the party!” “Not let anyone see you, got ya!” Jax reached out and claimed Ragatha by the arm to himself, pulling her with him into the nothing void.

Most people would freak out, scream, cry. To be so carelessly thrown into no ground at all, especially at such a height.

Ragatha just giggled, barely holding on to Jax as they took step after step, moving slowly, closer to the ground.

“Aren’t ya afraid to fall?” Jax held got tighter to her and she let go even more, slightly annoying. She should be holding onto him as if her life depended on it. What, was she mad or something?

“Are you going to let me fall?” Pretty Red Locks and the gall you had, trusting your life to a cheshire.

“Not unless it’s funny”

They eventually made it back to the ground and Jax lost himself in a puff of color. But Ragatha knew him to be close by. Call it a ‘Womanly intuition’. She just had a gift for this sort of thing.

In truth, watching the scenery from up high and float back down with Jax was something she was really used to, she could quite understand what about that was supposed to be her gift.

That feeling she got around her lips though…

She hoped she could ask Jax about it the next time they got to meet for tea.

She enjoyed it very much

If only a feeling such as that one had a name.

#the amazing digital circus #bunnydoll #ragatha x jax #jax x ragatha #wonderland au #Chesire Jax #tadc wonderland #They smooch #But Ragatha doesn't know #Jax is a lil' shit #edit #not me being called out that Ragatha hair isn't red #frick #im not changing it #I say Red way too much #She change her feeling for Jax #She can change her hair #Paint it red

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mask131 · 1 year ago

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The gods of Gaul: Introduction, or why it is so hard to find anything

As I announced, I open today a series of post covering what some can call the "Gaulish mythology": the gods and deities of Ancient Gaul. (Personal decision, I will try avoiding using the English adjective "Gaulish" because... I just do not like it. It sounds wrong. In French we have the adjectif "Gaulois" but "Gaulish"... sounds like ghoulish or garrish, no thank you. I'll use "of Gaul", much more poetic)

[EDIT: I have just found out one can use "Gallic" as a legitimate adjective in English and I am so happy because I much prefer this word to "Gaulish", so I'll be using Gallic from now on!]

If you are French, you are bound to have heard of them one way or another. Sure, we got the Greek and Roman gods coming from the South and covering up the land in temples and statues ; and sure we had some Germanic deities walking over the rivers and mountains from the North-East to leave holiday traditions and folk-beliefs... But the oldest gods of France, the true Antiquity of France, was Gaul. And then the Roman Gaul, and that's already where the problems start.

The mythology of Gaul is one of the various branches of the wide group known as Celtic mythology or Celtic gods. When it comes to Celtic deities, the most famous are those of the British Isles, due to being much more preserved (though heavily Christianized) - the gods of Ireland and the Welsh gods are typically the gods every know about when talking about Celtic deities. But there were Celts on the mainland, continental Celts - and Gaul was one of the most important group of continental Celts. So were their gods.

Then... why does nobody know anything about them?

This is what this introduction is about: how hard it actually is to reconstruct the religion of Gaul and understand its gods. Heck we can't ACTUALLY speak of a Gaulish mythology because... we have no myth! We have not preserved any full myth or complete legend from Ancient Gaul. The pantheon of Gaul is the Celtic pantheon we probably know the least about...

Why? A few reasons.

Reason number one, and the most important: We have no record of what the Gauls believed. Or almost none. Because the people of Gaul did not write their religion.

This is the biggest obstacle in the research for the gods of Gaul. It was known that the art of writing was, in the society of Gaul, an elite art that was not for the common folks and used only for very important occasions. The druids were the ones who knew how to read and write, and they kept this prerogative - it was something the upper-class (nobility, rulers) could know, but not always. Writing was considered something powerful, sacred and magical not to be used recklessly or carelessly. As a result, the culture of Gaul was a heavily oral one, and their religion and myths were preserved in an oral fashion. Resulting in a great lack of written sources comng directly from the Gallic tribes... We do have written and engraved fragments, but they are pieces of a puzzle we need to reconstruct. We have votive offerings with prayers and demands inscribed on it - and while they can give us the names of some deities, they don't explain much about them. We have sculptures and visual representations of the deities on pillars and cups and jewels and cauldrons - but they are just visuals and symbols without names. We have calendars - but again, these are just fragments. We have names and images, and we need to make sense out of it all.

To try to find the explanations behind these fragments, comparisons to other Celtic religions and mythologies are of course needed - since they are all branches of a same tree. The same way Germanic mythology can be understood by looking at the Norse one, the same way Etruscan, Greek and Roman mythologies answer each other, the mythology and religion of Gaul has echoes with the Celtic deities of the Isles (though staying quite different from each other). The other comparison needed to put things back into context is reason number 2...

Reason number two: The Romans were there.

Everybody knows that the death of Ancient Gaul was the Roman Empire. Every French student learns the date of Alesia, the battle that symbolized the Roman victory over the Gallic forces. Gaul was conquered by the Romans and became one of the most famous and important provinces of the Roman Empire: it was the Gallo-Roman era.

The Romans were FASCINATED by Gaul. Really. They couldn't stop writing about them, in either admiration or hate. As a result, since we lack direct Gallic sources, most of what we know about Ancient Gaul comes from the Romans. And you can guess why it is a problem. Some records of their religion were written in hatred - after all, they were the barbarian ennemies that Romans were fighting against and needed to dominate. As such, they contain several elements that can be put in doubt (notably numerous references to brutal and violent human sacrifices - real depictions of blood-cults, or exaggeratons and inventions to depict the gods of Gaul as demonic monstrosities?) But even the positive and admirative, or neutral, records are biased because Romans kept comparing the religion of the Gauls to their own, and using the names of Roman deities to designate the gods of Gaul...

Leading to the other big problem when studying the gods of Gaul: the Roman syncretism. The Gallo-Roman era saw a boom in the depictions and representations of the Gallic gods... But in their syncretized form, fused with and assimilated to the Roman gods. As such we have lots of representations and descriptions of the "Jupiter of Gaul", of the "Mercury of Gaul", of the "Gallic Mars" or "Gallic Minerva". But it is extremely hard to identify what was imported Roman elements, what was a pure Gallic element under a Roman name, and what was born of the fusion of Gallic and Roman traditions...

Finally, reason number three: Gaul itself had a very complicated approach to its own gods.

We know there are "pan-gallic" gods, as in gods that were respected and honored by ALL the people of Gaul, forming the cohesion of the nation. But... Gaul wasn't actually a nation. It was very much like the many city-states of Greece: Ancient Gaul was unified by common traditions, a common society, a common religion and a common language... But Gaul was a tribal area divided into tribes, clans and villages, each with their own variations on the laws, each with their own customs and each with their own spin on religion. As a result, while there are a handful of "great gods" common to all the communities of Gaul, there are hundreds and hundreds of local gods that only existed in a specific area or around a specific town ; and given there were also many local twists and spins on the "great gods", it becomes extremely hard to know which divine name is a local deity, a great-common god, a local variation on a deity, or just a common nickname shared by different deities... If you find a local god, it can be indeed a local, unique deity ; or it can be an alternate identity of a shared divine archetype ; or it can be a god we know elsewhere but that goes by a different name here.

To tell you how fragmented Gaul was: Gaul was never a unified nation with one king or ruler. The greatest and largest division you can make identifies three Gauls. Cisalpine Gaul, the Gaul located in Northern Italy, conquered by the Romans in the second century BCE, and thus known as "the Gaul in toga" for being the most Roman of the three. Then there was the "Gaul in breeches" (la Gaule en braies), which borders the Mediterranean sea, spanning between the Alps and the Pyrenean mountains, and which was conquered in the 117 BCE (becoming the province of Narbonne). And finally the "Hairy Gaul", which stayed an independant territory until Cesar conquered it. And the Hairy Gaul itself was divided into three great areas each very different from each other: the Aquitaine Gaul, located south of the Garonne ; the Celtic Gaul located between the Garonne and the Marne (became the Gaul of Lyon after the Roman conquest) ; and finally the Belgian Gaul, located between the Marne and the Rhine. And this all is the largest division you can make, not counting all the smaller clans and tribes in which each area was divided. And all offering just as many local gods or local facets of a god...

And if it wasn't hard enough: given all the sculptures and visuals depictions of the gods of Gaul are very "late" in the context of the history of Gaul... It seems that the gods of Gaul were originally "abstract" or at least not depicted in any concrete form, and that it was only in a late development, shortly before the Roman invasions, that people of Gaul decided to offer engravings and statues to their gods, alternating between humanoid and animal forms.

All of this put together explains why the gods of Gaul are so mysterious today.

#gods of gaul #ancient gaul #mythology of gaul #gallic mythology #gallic religion #gallic gods

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rayssyscourse · 9 months ago

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syscourse hot take (more like syscourse tired take honestly) "pro/neutral/anti-endo": for anyone who's endogenic in any way, or even just previously thought they were endogenic, it's really tiring (and not conducive to constructive conversation) to have so many syscourse labels revolve around...an innate aspect of someone's lived experience. Like. We are fully aware that plenty of people who label themselves "anti-endo" don't necessarily think that endogenic systems are fake and/or evil etc, that's just purely a demonstrably true statement. We don't even think that the people using "anti-endo" that way are necessarily Terrible People for doing so. Simultaneously, though, speaking as a system who spent years thinking we were 100%-basic-vanilla-endogenic but still wanted to take part in nuanced discussions around system experiences and offer our perspectives on discourse--seeing 'anti-endo' or even 'endo-neutral' always still...stung a little? Even when someone was conversing in good faith. Like, the idea that it was acceptable for our personhood (which really is what it felt like the arguments were about! whether one of us was 'just a made-up daydream' and not a person) to be up for debate, that it was an acceptable "political football" or thing to be "neutral" about...wasn't a good feeling. And honestly, even though we technically have a DID dx on paper these days, we still get that little flicker of distrust whenever we see 'anti-endo' in someone's bio--because we're still exactly the same system that we were before, and if they wouldn't have believed us about our experiences then...why do they think so much depends on some rubber-stamp diagnosis? what do they think changed? We don't have a good answer to this problem, though. Telling people that they're automatically terrible bigots for not labeling themselves pro-endo doesn't feel like it'll actually solve anything, because crucially I don't think that most of the "doesn't actually believe endos are fake or bad"-anti-endos are calling themselves that for a reason that simply shaming them sufficiently will change. Also, the internet is a big place, and expecting everyone to be up-to-date on every possible niche discourse stance is absurd--and if someone really just wants to stay the heck away from system discourse entirely, they should be able to. But also...yeah, we wish they'd use different words. Don't use "anti-[unchangeable aspect of someone's identity]" and not expect it to feel hurtful to see. "Well, I just don't want people Like That interacting with me..." what if they just thought your art was cool? What if they agreed with your hot take about [insert fandom here]? Who else are you 'anti', not because you disagree with some opinion they hold, but purely because you're 'nothing like them'? Idk. It's frustrating, and I wish we had some kind of easy, magic solution.

thank you!! this is a really well written thought, and i fully agree.

to be honest, this is one of (admittedly many) reasons i dropped pro/anti-endo labels altogether. not only can they come across as denying somebody's existence, but i feel like we just don't fit in simple boxes like that. i mean, "pro-endo" can mean any plethora of things: it could mean the person is endogenic, they support endos, they don't engage in syscourse/just don't care, they just disagree with anti-endo points, etc etc. in the same way, "anti-endo" can also mean a million things. some anti-endos think endos are all faking, some think they're misinformed, some believe they exist but think they're spreading too much misinfo, some think they're doing harm to traumagenic communities, etc. i also just don't like the black-and-white way those labels portray us. somebody being pro-endo doesn't mean they support every single endo, it doesn't mean they necessarily support radqueers (weird misconception i see a lot), and it doesn't mean they have no criticisms of the endogenic community. i know a lot of anti-endos who fully believe and don't hate endos but just have criticisms of the label and/or community, who are often assumed to hate all endos or think all endos are faking because the label is just too broad and comes across completely wrong.

sorry to ramble on for so long in one giant paragraph lol. tl;dr, you're so right, say it louder for the people in the back!!

#syscourse #rayssyscourse #syscourse hot takes

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tired-reader-writer · 4 months ago

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To actually elaborate on the autistic Farangis headcanon thing now that I finally have a couple hours' sleep and a nice refreshing shower under my belt, while I definitely do not think she was supposed to be seen that way by either Tanaka or Arakawa— I'm sure she was only meant to be… *gestures* what she is in canon, I'm yeeting that far, far away from me.

My City Now.

So we know Farangis was very likely ostracized by fellow priestesses before the start of the story. After all, she says:

“...At any rate, it was likely just a way to get rid of a nuisance. My fellow priestesses are jealous of me for being so beautiful, talented, and skilled in both academics and in battle. I'm certain that they have used the last wish of the deceased as a pretense for throwing me out of the temple.” —manga, chapter 12

“A woman of talent, who like me is graced with beauty and proficient in arts both scholarly and martial, shall be begrudged by her peers. Using the fulfillment of the deceased’s will as an excuse, they chased me away from the temple. I wonder if you understand, Sir Minstrel.” —novel, chapter 4 part 5

(Interestingly, novel!Farangis also says, “Those who leave such wills never consider what trouble they may cause for the people they leave behind.” and is that a hint of resentment/exasperation she expresses here? It's completely absent from the manga version but ANYWAYS—)

So there's very definite evidence of her not fitting in with her peers, but it's the reasoning I take a little issue with. Nothing wrong with a confident woman who knows she's Hot Shit, but the framing does bother me juuuust a teeny little bit. Her temple peers feel less like shitty but ultimately realistic people, and more like caricatures? It felt like an “all the other jealous bitches HATED her for being too awesome and pretty” thing, which… I mean, Farangis being shunned for her autistic behavior wouldn't make those peers better people or god forbid justify their treatment of her, but I thought it would be interesting to reframe the situation a bit and also project my own experiences on her. (After all, what are blorbos for if not projecting your trauma and issues upon them?)

We've seen how blunt she is, and how little of a shit she gives towards societal and formal conventions. She certainly doesn't seem like it at first glance, especially not next to Gieve, because in comparison to him she just feels like the epitome of rule-following formality. Buuuut. There's nuance to that.

We see her bluntness in the way she gives Bahman a dressing down before the expedition to Sindhura— judging from Bahman's reaction (“why should I, a marzbān, be scolded by a kahina from the countryside?!”), it suggests a status discrepancy that societal norms should dictate that she not have the right to speak to a marzbān that way. But she does. Because she doesn't give a shit.

It is a common perception of autistic people that they're either extremely rule-following or that they “don't understand” rules and instructions, and… okay, this is gonna be a lot of spitballing since for a number of reasons (mainly how I was constantly compared to my officially diagnosed and very detectably autistic brother as the “normal” one by my family, mainly where it concerns me being disallowed from autistic behavior where my brother was allowed since I was the “normal” sibling and it's been stuck with me my whole life and I'm… still in the process of unpacking everything and I still feel very disconnected from autistic communities and I feel like an imposter anyways that was one heck of a ramble) I am still dealing with much uncertainty in wading through my very own autism, it's very anecdotal, so. Yeah. Anyways— from what I've experienced and what I've seen of other people's anecdotes, while it is true that rules and routine can help us interact with and make sense of the world around us, autistic people will straight up reject some rules they feel are hypocritical or inconsistent. I've seen autistic people say that they do see the rules, they just go “well that's stupid I'm not doing that” and refuse to follow. Of course, I don't mean to say that there's no difficulty in understanding because gods know I'm terrible at catching social cues. And end up being extremely rude on accident. It's a complicated thing.

So how I see a younger Farangis is that, as a child, she finds it difficult to care about some things, her bluntness pisses people off even if she well and truly didn't mean anything bad by it, just pointing out something she thought was obvious, or calling out unfair things. Her difficulty in parsing social cues and such creates a rift between her and her peers in the temple. (I swear, growing up a neurodivergent child, it's like everyone could somehow tell I was some sort of Different Freak™, and I constantly felt like I was playing a game whose rules everybody except me knew. It was as though I was constantly emitting a Neurodivergent Miasma™ or I had a neon sign blaring from me that I was “Not Normal™” that alerted people and allowed them to exclude me at every turn, it was such an experience.)

I want to emphasize that this would not put Farangis in the wrong, and under no circumstances would she have been deserving of such bullying, in case anyone takes this the wrong way. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just trying to project and relate to a character I like because I thought this made sense.

There is also the factor of grief. She was at the very least eight years old when she was sent to the Temple of Mithra after her parents' death, so it's very likely that she was a tiny little child who was actively grieving her parents and the life she used to have. And children don't have the experience and emotional maturity to process their feelings, so they can lash out or act in “undesirable” ways since they have Very Big Feelings and very little way to express them maturely. I don't think her time in the Temple was a particularly good experience, even setting aside the whole Aghriras debacle (which isn't making it into the manga, I'm pretty sure, and never has the chance to happen in my AU, so I'm not gonna be discussing that).

So imagine a young child who has just lost her parents being put into this unfamiliar place, where perhaps rules that are not explicitly stated but which everyone is nevertheless expected to follow. Hierarchies that are entirely unfair. I recall novel part 2 spoilers that detail how Alfarīd and Farangis infiltrated a temple for some investigative work? And I recall how it detailed that priestesses get harassed and apprentice priests/priestesses get heaped with chores and stuff just because of their junior status. I might be remembering wrong though, so do tell me if that's the case! But anyways, for a young child, an apprentice priestess, to be exposed to that kind of nonsense, I believe Farangis would've pushed back against it one way or another, and generally being not a fan of what she sees as nonsensical, arbitrary, and unfair rules. Neurodivergent people tend to have a stronger sense of justice and fairness, after all. And her “rebellious misbehavior” as a child could've given people an excuse to pick on her or shun her. I think she dedicated herself to her training and studies as a sense of routine, to cope with… everything, basically.

Here is another quote from Farangis that stood out to me:

“Let us say that Mithra's will and my own thoughts are in agreement.” — from that same conversation with Bahman

I think they showcase her relationship to rigid norms quite well. She is devoted to Mithra, genuinely and wholeheartedly (I do have to wonder if Mithra being a yazata of covenants, light, oaths, justice, contracts, and friendship played a role in her connection to the deity aside from the fact that she was raised in a temple of Mithra, maybe she felt more of a connection because she had a higher justice sensitivity and wanted something she could actually make sense out of), but she isn't devoted to her patron deity for the sake of it, the way she framed and phrased that is so interesting to me. I've seen someone say, “Rules are good if they are fair, reasonable, sensible, and easy to follow, and enforced uniformly by someone who is capable of being a fair and discerning judge.” and I think that's at least in part what's happening here, at least how I interpret it in a way that I can connect with. Your interpretation might differ!

Anyways, this post is such an incoherent mess, maybe I didn't get enough sleep as I thought I did, but let me know what you guys think! Farangis is a character I've kinda seen myself in (and admire, because she's awesome) but I hadn't put my headcanons and interpretation of her character into words before, especially not in a lengthy post like this. This is a headcanon that is very dear to my heart! I wish we got more insight on what her life was like before the start of the story, I felt like it just got mentioned and then dropped— never to be seen or mentioned again— but I guess it means it's Free Real Estate for me to draw whatever kind of picture that I want.

#it's also iirc a novel detail that she gets sensory overload from the djinn's voices? I'm not sure #anyways I headcanon that she's sensitive to noise and hates loud sounds because of it #little baby Farangis accidentally pissing people off and not understanding why because she didn't mean anything bad #:(#anyways I think this post would've been better if I actually had some damn confidence in the fact that I'm also autistic #being raised as “the Normal one” in comparison to my brother did me no fucking favors thanks mom #(as a result I struggle with being able to perceive myself as autistic because I'm “not supposed to be” hahahaaaaaa *sobs*)#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #heroic legend of arslan #wolfpack au #winds of wolfsong #farangis #anyways she gets a nice found family in Wolfsong because she deserves it

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otakween · 4 months ago

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Digimon Next (2005) - Volume 1

It's been awhile since I've read a digimon manga that didn't have an anime attached to it. This one came out around the same time as Digimon Data Squad/Savers. Manga is definitely not this franchise's strength, but I always enjoy reading them nonetheless. Since they're aimed at kids they tend to be pretty cozy and lighthearted (even if they're talking about world destruction haha).

This one seems derivative as heck, but hey, digimon loves repetition.

Ch. 1

Damn, this has almost exactly the same premise as the V-Tamer manga. Tsurugi is into digimon battling (v-pet style) but, oh snap, he has a super special digimon that no one else has ever seen before in the game! Deja vu much?

To be fair, this manga is the reverse of V-Tamer in that the digimon get sucked into the real world instead of Tsurugi being isekai'd into the digital world. (Edit: Nope. That is not what happens). That's kinda fun. I think I prefer this option because I've always found the digital world to be pretty lame tbh (sometimes they get creative but a lot of the time it's just barren emptiness).

Aggressively generic character designs so far. I kinda liked how they referenced goggles making Tsurugi "look like an anime hero" and how they were a choice he made for his video game avatar.

Tsurugi giving major Daisuke vibes with the soccer and being kinda dumb.

Interesting that the in-game partner digimon were non-speaking (like in Digimon World) but then started talking in the real world. Not sure what the logic is there...

So this has nothing to do with Savers other than coming out around the same era and using digimon introduced in Savers (as seen in the cover art above). I'm intrigued to see what manga-exclusive shenanigans we get up to here.

Love the horror-esque panel of the Kuwagamon. Didn't expect something with that vibe here.

Ch. 2

Ah yes, the Digimon human character archetypes of "rival" and "girl."

Ami calling Digimon babyish but then specifying it's the battle part she objects to was pretty funny (yet then she's excited to watch battles?) Very 5th grade behavior.

Why is everyone so desperate to get their friends to play arcade-style digimon in this world? lol. They're like "STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, DIGIMON SHOULD BE YOUR NUMBER 1 PRIORITY AT ALL TIMES!" Again...5th graders. It's no wonder they're demolishing 20-somethings with all this free time.

Shou is (was?) Tsurugi's childhood friend but is a total asshole towards him. Not sure if we're just supposed to accept that as his dark persona or if they're actually not friends and had a falling out...

I guess focusing on raising digimon is a valid play style, but it's kinda funny because all of the parameters you get from raising digimon are for battling. Like they even tell Ami, "you don't have to battle, you can also shop at the equipment store!" Like...what do they think the equipment is for?

Ch. 3

Wait, so the train station wasn't the real world? I'm kinda disoriented now. I guess there's the real world, the VR world, and the digital world. But also...the VR world and digital world are connected.

The writing is so cheesy. The "reveal" that Knight was Shou all along was so underwhelming. They haven't even told us a single thing about Shou, so why should we care? They just keep saying "Tsurugi's childhood friend" over and over. At least give us a flashback or something to get more emotionally invested in.

It feels kind of weird to call something that can naturally occur in a game "illegal." Also, were there no admins trying to stop the hacker? I guess this is one of those "adults don't really exist" worlds

Ch. 4

Some weird tonal whiplash going from peepee poopoo humor to Piccolomon getting violently stabbed (complete with blood!)

Jesus...is EVERY digimon villain going to have the same motive? Guess what the motive is this time? Barbamon wants to restart the digital world and awaken some mysterious digimon 😑😑😑 Groundbreaking stuff.

On the plus side for originality, for once the villain isn't a sexy effeminate dude but an ugly goblin man instead. I actually really like his design. It feels like some thought went into it at least. I like his poncho and giant beard.

Of course we gotta collect the MacGuffins (digimemories) to save and/or destroy the world. What else is new? I was interested to see if the digimon types lined up with the Digimon Story games and I think they mostly do (except for maybe mutant?)

Piccolomon said "Trailmon don't work like real trains, they go where they want" but then he said "Trailmon move based on the will of the rider." Which are kinda contradictory ideas, but okay. Maybe it's like, they go where they want if the rider is weak willed...

Ch. 5

It's been awhile since there's been a "little brother" (I was gonna say shota but that feels creepy) character in this franchise. I guess Tomoki in Frontier would be the most recent. (Ikuto feels too independent to count). I like Yuu's oversize outfit, but why is it kinda giving Chinese military uniform?

All the minions in this manga are butt ugly. Also, why are they called "commandments?" I thought maybe it was just a mispelling of "commandant" at first, but I guess not.

Being able to manifest food out of a digivice is new I think...reminds me of Spy Kids food lol.

Pretty weird that they neglected to draw GeoGreymon's bracers in his intro panel, considering that's what I use to tell GeoGreymon and Greymon apart lol.

The deaths in this are pretty violent! Seeing a crying Wormmon being torn in two made me sad :<

Ch. 6

I rolled my eyes a bit when Ami was like "I can't believe they got sucked into the game!" and then there was immediately a panel of her booting the game up. GIRL! I can't tell if she's dumb or did that on purpose to save them.

I wasn't crazy about Waspmon's design but CannonBeemon is amazing (kinda looks like something out of Evangelion or something).

In this chapter they reveal that there are "natural" digimon and "artificial" digimon. Not a new concept really. In the past we've seen synthetic digimon and digimon springing from human imagination like Guilmon. I don't think they've ever been called "artificial" before though. That feels a little mean lol.

So I guess Yuu is sickly IRL but not in the digital world. Have we ever seen the digital world "heal" people like that before? Closest I can think of is Koichi but that was different.

#digimon #digimon next #manga

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stgosupremacy · 2 years ago

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HI SO TODAY WE R GONNA ANALYSE EVERY OFFICIAL SATOGOU POSTER (ok i couldnt get my hands on them all but)🥰

heres the thing no one asked for

there's hearts. 💯❤

honestly pretty chill but THERES HEARTS-

ok so theres not much else going on here but this is rlly cute of a poster lmao of the boys all cosy and cute <33 and ash drinking this cool soda lol

pikachu looks so cute omggggg

(@skyecrystal pointed out this was released on valentines day hehe) 😏

MORE HEARTS MWAHAHAHHAHAHA ok but like all their pokemon are clearly routing for them (esp lucario look at him)

ALSO random but i love how it's gohs pokemon looking directy at the present in gohs hand lol like theyre just waiting for him to fess up....AND GOH DEFO GAVE THAT PRESENT TO ASH AFTER THE SHOOT 💖😊😊

ehhhhh 4 gays 1 picture, keep scrollinggg....

(theyre all literally like 2 inches apart bahhaa)

OK BUT IM SORRY HHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH WHY THE WEDDING SUITS LMFAOOOOOOOOOO 🤨

love how ash is just totally sweetly oblivious and just smiling...

...gary is just acting chill and cool as always...

and goh is....just blushing and is internally screaming we can tell ok

I LOVE THIS ONE SMM LOL LOOK AT MR MIME HE KNOWS BAHAHAHAHHA 😏😏

and goh l i t e r a l l y getting distracted by ash- look at him !! 💖🤨 so distracted in fact that the ICING IS COMING OUT THE PIPING BAGGGGGG UGHGHGHHGH

and then chloe just being adorable ofc awh lmao

ah then we have to appreciate sobble and pikachu looking down at their trainers like 'we know what you guys are' 🥰

iLOVEEEE this one but the ones to come knock it off the bar holy heck 😤-

they literally couldnt be any close in this BAHAHHAHA AWWHHH teyre so cute <33 and ash's arm around him 🥺 I love how are just squashed up together while iris has the spotlight but they happy ^^

wait but we have to appreciate iris tho- LOOK AT HERRRRRR 💜💜

so uhhh...

still speaking of iris, she's so cute feeding pikachu right omg <33 💜🥺

andddddddd as much as i love and adore iris i couldn't help but notice something elseeee....it's not even that obvious idk if yall saw but

ash is feeding him.

he is literally feeding him-

ANDGOHISBLUSHING

wow

also love goh's red socks theyre slayin

BUT ANYWAY gosh i love iris OBVS but everyone was like aww iris and pikachu cute aww-

LIKE HELLO?? have you seen this over here omg. the little cherry blossoms falling on them too (i cant help but notice some are shaped like hearts but they normally are anyway 🥰)

so yeah this one was defo anipoke being bold but uh

yall know which one is last 🙂🙂🙂

....

so i was like wow that is some REALLY good fanart dam-

BUT THEN

NO WAY THIS IS ACC REAL??????????????? NO IT RLLY IS OMG I LITERALLY CAN'T HOW IS THIS OFFICAL LMFAO look at them 😰

GOH IS FULL ON BLUSHING WITH ASH BEING PAINFULLY OBLIVIOUS AND WINKING????? AND THEN LOOK HOW FKN CLOSE THEY ARE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 🥰🥰🥰🥰 his cap is all squahed upwards bc of how close they are LMAO and ash is casually feeding himm...

again.

c'mon you can't tell me this isn't hinting at SOMETHING HERE 🙂🙂 WHOEVER IS DRAWING THESE OFFICIAL ARTS THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART <33

no like seriously combined with the gay shit from pokemon journeys they HAVE TO BE CANON LOL 🤩

THIS WAS SO FUN 😍 considering to tag this as satogou week 2023....which wasn't even my intention anyway but...HEY LETS DO IT!

#satogouweek2023 <3

(me considering if anyone is acc gonna read all of this 😀😀 )

#goh pokemon #ash ketchum #satogou #pokemon goh #pokemon anime #firstfriendshipping #ash x goh #pokemon journeys #anipoke #fatedencountershipping #journeyshipping #rant post #pokeani #official art #satogou week 2023

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drchucktingle · 1 year ago

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Where is the best place to preorder Bury Your Gays? What is of most benefit to you?

i know other types of media have given the trot of preorders a bad way, but for publishing books i cannot even begin to tell you buckaroos HOW IMPORTANT PREORDERS ARE WHEN SUPPORTING AUTHORS YOU CARE ABOUT. i mean HECK preorders are so important i even wrote three dang tinglers about it

basically preorders are what publishers use to determine how much financial backing they will give a book for advertising and book tours and all that, but that is only PART of this way. BOOK STORES also use a preorder equation to determine how much shelf space to give a book. your preorder does not just mean YOU get a book for yourself, but basically means you are making room for someone ELSE to get the book in a store by putting another copy on a shelf

that is why it is better to put in a preorder instead of just saying 'oh i will just remember to buy myself a copy on the day it comes out'

LASTLY preorders are how books get onto bestseller lists because all the orders leading up to your book release date COUNT AS FIRST WEEK SALES. something like new york times bestseller list is close to impossible trot without preorders

think of it like a handsome surfing bigfoot trying to ride a wave. it is one thing to actually ride on the wave, but what matters most is that initial moment when you GET UP THERE and actually have the strength to pull yourself up when the wave starts. PREORDERS are the climbing up part

NOW LETS GET DOWN TO YOUR SPECIFIC QUESTION

first of all ANY preorder is great. what matters most as far as bestseller lists is actually FORMAT. the best thing you can order for an author is not ebook or audiobook, it is HARDCOVER. personally i am an audiobook buckaroo myself so please understand you should order whatever format you want, but technically speaking the answer is HARDCOVER

next is WHERE do you order. this answer is pretty dang cool actually. the best place to order for the sake of author is your LOCAL INDIE BOOKSTORE. if you MUST order at a big timer website that is fine, but many bestseller lists are weighted towards indie bookstores

so to sum it up. the technical BEST WAY to support chuck with 'bury your gays' is to PREORDER a HARDCOVER from an INDIE BOOKSTORE.

thank you for your question but before you go trotting along i would like to add one more thing

all art is important. when we create things they serve as stepping stones for us to move along our journey as artists and creators on this timeline. i have so much love for every book i have made, from POUNDED IN THE BUTT BY MY OWN BUTT to CAMP DAMASCUS

but i have to say with deep sincerity in my way, BURY YOUR GAYS is something special. i absolutely believe that if you care about fandom, or creation, or love, or fanfiction, or supernatural, or the future of media, or asexual buckaroos, or gay buckaroos, or bi buckaroos or any queer buckaroos, you will love this book. i promise buckaroo

it is the best thing i have ever written, and i think it is going to bend this timeline in incredible ways. i would like you to trot with me into the future, since we have already trotted this far together. i cannot say this enough: this one is special, and the timelines we create from here are going to make the whole dang world look up in surprise and say 'where the heck did that come from?'

so if you are even CONSIDERING preordering, take a moment a do it.

if you are one of those buckaroos who says 'chuck tingle is my favorite author ive never read' then now is your moment

lets trot buckaroos. thank you for reading and thank you for constantly proving to me that love is real

preorder BURY YOUR GAYS here

#love is real #bury your gays #buckaroo lifestyle

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blue-grama · 1 year ago

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The Sign finale probably should have disappointed me, but... didn't?

It's been a heck of a run lately with Thai BLs that haven't quite stuck the landing, and it's got me pondering why The Sign worked for me despite sometimes feeling like a storyboard for a longer, better show.

I don't think they pulled off the emotional payoff they needed, despite that last reunion scene being so pretty and well-acted, simply because too much happened offscreen, from Khem's recovery from a gunshot wound to the entire multlifetime Tharn/Chalothon dynamic getting resolved without us seeing any of it. But somehow I wasn't that mad about it? And ultimately I think it's because this show did so many things well and so many things I'd love to see more of that I'm just like, yep, I enjoyed that ride sirs, please show me something this gorgeous again. In that sense it's joining something like Manner of Death or Kinnporsche where it's like, plot holes? Yes. Bizarre tonal shifts? Absolutely. Occasionally insane writing choices? Uh-huh. Love it anyway? You betcha. So here's what really, really worked for me:

Premise

I am always going to be onboard with QL that isn't solely coming-of-age or coming out. I'm not against those stories, of course, but give me gay romance with adult characters who know themselves and are doing adult things. I'm also a partisan for romances with high external stakes, so the mixture of crime and reincarnation was catnip to me.

Do I care that none of this training makes any sense? No.

2. Setting

Listen. Is The Sign the reason I have a document on my laptop titled "Imaginary trip to Thailand without ever seeing a beach?" Not exactly. But it's also not not the reason.

I am being willingly manipulated by the Thai Tourism Authority.

Kidding, kidding, but I do love when my Thai shows feel Thai or my Korean shows feel Korean, etc etc. I want to be driven to Wikipedia to learn more! Half the fun of watching stuff from not your own country.

3. Chemistry

I think @biochemjess covered what was underwritten about the romance in The Sign. Billy and Babe carried it on their backs and it was hard to dislike their romance, even when the series skipped over key beats.

Any time the pink lighting came out, you were gonna be in for a good time.

4. The camerawork

I don't know enough about film to speak intelligently about this, but the camerawork and aesthetics of this show were just so lovely to watch. It was really doing a lot. @chaos0pikachu wrote about it better than I ever could.

LOVED THIS. LOVED IT. So good.

We had some really lovely storytelling and visual parallels, too, like the first episode and finale both having a big action warehouse scene, or the multiple times that Phaya and Tharn ended up overlooking the Mekong river.

5. It was always kinda off the rails

I know some people felt this show started out with a strong premise and didn't live up to it, but I gotta say, I didn't have that experience. It was always kinda a bonkers watch for me. There were long training montages, random bodies in the shallows, missing genitals, extended performance art, that comedy flashback to Khem and Thongthai's college years... I never knew what I was going to get each Saturday. And I kind of loved that? I'm into unhinged. I was comparing this in my head to Last Twilight, which did disappoint me in the end, and I think it's because Last Twilight was NOT always bonkers and DID set itself up to tell a straighforward story, then dropped the ideas it had been juggling in the last episode. The Sign always felt chaotic to me, so a chaotic ending was par for the course. This is where I'd compare it to KinnPorsche, which had the weirdest fucking ending, but like, okay??? Why not!

End result? I see the flaws, but I'm giving this show tender forehead kisses anyway. Here's hoping for more like it.

#the sign the series #the sign #the sign meta #the sign bl #phayatharn

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thecourtscorkboard · 4 days ago

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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review - Court is in Session!

As we move on to a new story, it's time for us to look back at the three that started it all!

I'm not exactly sure how to format this, so I think I'm just gonna let it ride.

When it comes to overall consistent quality, I think the Trilogy is the best Ace Attorney has to offer. There's really no other collection in the series that comes close. The first three games are usually regarded as the best in the series for good reason: they're classics! There's a reason why the series became so popular so quickly, and it's because of these original three games and the stories they tell: not just the individual ones, but also the overarching story of the entire Trilogy. It's a story of tragedy, of a family warring against itself, and of justice falling into the hands of those who seek to manipulate it.

The Trilogy does work when it comes to character development. Not a single character, even our defendants, are left unchanged by our cases. The Trilogy does more than any other collection in the franchise to really focus on how these stories impact our cast: Phoenix matures into a veteran unafraid to risk his own life to save the people he loves, Edgeworth shifts his focus and becomes a true agent of justice against the criminal, Maya comes to peace with her heritage and takes her place as Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, Franziska pushes her father to the side and focuses on living for herself, and so on.

I think the Trilogy also has beautiful art direction. Visual novels have to be good to look at—looking at you, Danganronpa—given that there's only so much gameplay that can be put into them. The Trilogy manages to do this without sacrificing its own unique, hand-drawn artstyle, and actually shows massive improvement when compared to the original GBA and DS releases.

Case in point.

The Trilogy's music is also the most iconic in the franchise and for good reason. The original Pursuit theme is a classic, and I still hum Swimming, Anyone? and The Detective From the Wild West daily. Heck, Phoenix's ringtone is actually my ringtone! Speaking of JfA's music, even if its OST isn't the strongest its Pursuit theme is one of my favorite in the series solely for the bombastic percussion beats. I wish it went on for longer! The general quickness and audacity of JfA's music is countered by slower themes like Shelly de Killer's or its recollection themes, namely 2-4's. It's only fitting, then, that T&T comes in with the quintessential Phoenix themes: its Objection! and Pursuit themes. T&T also gives us Larry's, Godot's, and Dahlia's themes, more of my favorites! The Trilogy has incredible sound design all across the board but its music really takes the cake.

Finally, the Trilogy had the hardest job of any AA game: creating and perfecting the formula. And you know what? It does it! The Trilogy pushed through all the growing pains and laid down the foundations for Ace Attorney: creating one of the greatest mystery and visual novel franchises of all time.

The Trilogy is one of my favorite game collections ever. Most of my criticisms of the Trilogy are aimed at its dated humor and general inconsistency, especially in regards to its later entries. All those aforementioned growing pains were really just that: growing pains. Weirdly-paced cases, strange writing choices, dated humor... all of these things are really secondary when it comes to the quality of the Trilogy as a whole. Could I keep pointing out my problems with 2-1, 2-3, 3-1, or 3-4 and use them as criticisms towards the Trilogy as a whole? Sure. But I don't think that's fair. They're exceptions that prove the rule: the Trilogy could have been poorly written, but these cases really make the best cases like 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-2 shine even brighter.

Before we finish, I'm going to take a page from my game reviews and list my top five characters from the entire Trilogy before we end this review!

Number Five: Damon Gant

I'm never going to the pool again.

Damon Gant is one of my favorite culprits in the entire franchise and one of my favorite villains in all of fiction. I already gushed about him to death in my PW:AA review, so I'll try to touch on a few other things here.

Gant is the logical conclusion of Edgeworth's worldview. He has sacrificed his own innocence to put a criminal he just couldn't quite catch to death. Much like a veteran video game player, he had something denied to him just one too many times: and decided to cheat to get the victory he felt he deserved. He had done everything in his power to get Darke convicted, and when that wasn't enough decided to bend the rules to get his victory even if he had to sacrifice a family to get his way. I think Gant's constant claim that he only looks out for himself is a bit of a lie: he's a narcissistic power-hungry manipulator, sure, but I think he also genuinely wanted to find justice for all the people that Darke had murdered.

Gant is unique when it comes to all other finale villains in the Trilogy in the sense that he doesn't have a plan. The murder that brought him down was spur of the moment, unpremeditated: in contrast to literally everything else around him. He's a masterful planner and brilliant strategist, but his fall is due to an unexpected variable and something he simply did not plan for. It's a fitting outcome. For all the control Gant held over Lana, the SL-9 investigation, the courtroom itself, and the police system, everything came crashing down when one thing slipped out of his grasp.

I love Damon Gant to bits. He's a brilliantly-written character with a lot of fun dialogue, and his shift from "funny cooky police guy" to "I'm going to beat you to death" flows so naturally. Shu and Janet did a wonderful job writing and localizing him, and to top it all off he's got one of the greatest breakdowns in the Trilogy. We love Damon Gant here.

Number Four: Maya Fey

Nothing says "absolutely normal" like dressing up as a yippie.

Maya has one of the strongest character introductions in the series. We're introduced to her crying over Mia's body, being abandoned by the one person she thought she could trust, and eventually rooting for us when we're taking the fall for her sister's murder. Even in 1-2, her core character traits really shine: she never gives up hope, even when she's at her lowest. Throughout PW:AA she slowly comes out of her shell, and by JfA she's become best friends with Phoenix and is willing to put herself in danger to see Matt Engarde thrown in prison.

Maya is a super complex character. There's nobody else in the Trilogy as perpetually optimistic as Maya: and this optimism isn't sacrificed even when Maya's mentally and emotionally exhausted. Even in 1-4, when she's questioning her self-worth, Maya still manages to put her insecurities aside to help Edgeworth and put together the final pieces we need to nail Manfred for Gregory's murder. She's a rare, enduring spirit, and an anchor for much of the Trilogy's most heartfelt moments.

She's also just funny! Maya manages to be consistently funny without ever falling into just being comic relief, always willing to crack a joke at Phoenix's expense or let her scatterbrain get the better of her. Maya's happiness and optimism never fades away, and that's incredibly important to both her and the people around her. She knows people very well and uses that to make them feel better—whether they be people she's known for years or clients she's just met. Maya's grown up into a fine young woman.

Number Three: Miles Edgeworth

Get your bangs cut. Jeez.

Miles is a very interesting character. If Phoenix is the embodiment of a defense attorney and Franziska is the embodiment of a prosecutor, then Miles is in a weird middle ground for much of the Trilogy. He's stuck between two fathers, one who he looked up to as a child and one he followed as an adolescent: all combining into a burning hatred for criminals and a desire to protect the innocent. This hatred and desire is warped under layers of trauma and Manfred's influence. His arc from PW:AA to JfA is very well-written, even if most of it happens off-screen, and 1-5 just really did everything in its power to make it more interesting.

He's an excellent foil to Phoenix, but he's also a lot more than that. He's representative of Ace Attorney's themes of a failing justice system: the police failed to catch his father's killer and the court system let the person they arrested go on a plea of insanity. Miles, through his mentor, has become desensitized to dirty tricks and tampering with witnesses to make sure the defendant—the criminal—is declared guilty by all means within his power. This is further compounded upon by Damon Gant praising Edgeworth as similar to him in many ways.

This makes his development all the more satisfying. By the end of JfA it's clear that Edgeworth is a changed man, having gone through a Zuko-esque metamorphosis that challenged his ideology and philosophy. Sure, he still badgers witnesses, but he also cooperates with the defense and tempers his conduct in pursuit of one thing over all else: the truth. His hatred for criminals has been refocused into finding true justice for the bereaved. Miles is a really excellent example of a character's core values not changing even if their role in the story and relationships with other characters do. He's one of the greats.

Number Two: Franziska von Karma

she's so pretty ahhhhhhh

It's really unfortunate that the Trilogy is Franziska's best showing. Her first two games are her best appearances, meaning that we can only go downhill from here: but let's focus on what she brings to the table. Franziska is a perfect adversary for somebody like Trilogy-era Phoenix. She is brash, she is confident, she is mean, she's willing to bend the rules to get what she wants, and she will manipulate witnesses and evidence alike to get her way.

As the games progress, though, we get to see a softer side of Franziska slowly emerge: and I think her change symbolically begins when she throws away her whip in 2-4. Franziska's whip is a symbol of independence and self-preservation—of control over her own life. Her throwing it away is a rejection of her father's ideals and control over her life, something I'll talk about once we get to the AAI games, and Edgeworth returning it to her is a really sweet moment that gives her back that control: now to be used for herself rather than her father's legacy. She then teaches Adrian how to use the whip, giving up her sense of protection and independence for a moment to give it to somebody she can empathize with. I love Franziska's story so much.

In 3-5, she's even on not-hostile terms with Phoenix, having moments of friendly banter during their investigation. Her development from JfA to T&T is probably my favorite arc in the Trilogy, and seeing her come to terms with herself is really nice. As someone with a lot of issues around being emotionally vulnerable and my fair share of anger issues, I relate to Franziska a lot. She's by far my favorite prosecutor in the Trilogy, and it felt wrong to place her any lower. I love her.

Honorable Mention: Ema Skye

This will be a slightly shorter section than the others, given that she's just an honorable mention, but I can't not talk about my favorite character in the series. Ema is wonderful. Her role as Phoenix's assistant in 1-5 fits perfectly, and in many ways she's Maya taken to extremes: she's more impulsive, scatterbrained, and zanier than Maya, but she's also more calculated, more in-line with her emotions, and more focused on the investigation at hand. Her relationships with Lana and to a lesser extent Gant define the emotional core of 1-5, and she manages to fit in without feeling like she's trying to take Maya's place. She brings a lot of her own jokes, personality traits, and mechanics to the game, and that's very welcome.

I just wanted to talk about her for a bit. I love Ema very dearly.

Number One: Phoenix Wright

Who else?

Phoenix is an icon and the Trilogy is why. No other character is given the care and focus that he is, which makes sense: he's our protagonist, after all. His development is all about maturity and independence, striking his own path through the legal system while also trying to uphold what Mia taught him. He cares deeply and honestly for the people around him, yet at the same time the developers weren't afraid to give him serious flaws: he's secretive, never quite sharing exactly what he knows or what he feels, and is unafraid to manipulate the people around him to get the information that he needs. His relationships with other people are complex and varied, but even under his straight man persona there's elements of zaniness and wackiness that get accentuated by his shared moments with Maya and Edgeworth.

Phoenix isn't a perfect guy. He holds secrets and grudges, perhaps unfairly at times. He doesn't tell his friends everything that they should know, and he's scared to be emotionally vulnerable and honest with other people. But all of those flaws just help him feel like a real person: especially with the context that T&T provides. He's not just distrustful and closed-off: his relationship with Dahlia was traumatizing. This trauma is slowly but surely broached in 3-5 and retroactively helps explain his secretive, protective, stubborn nature.

Even if I don't think he's at his best in the Trilogy, Phoenix is still one of the best-written and most important characters the Trilogy has to offer. Sure, he's not consistently the best, and his quality can vary from case-to-case, but at the end of the day Phoenix is the Trilogy. He's the only character that appears in (nearly) every single case and this is never a bad thing. He always feels like Phoenix.

I remember when I first played the Trilogy. I was around 9 or 10 years old, fresh off of completing AJ:AA (with a guide of course). I was hooked instantly, even if I didn't know what I was doing. I was stuck with the shitty iOS port from way back in the day, but that was still more than enough for me. Without the Trilogy, I wouldn't be here today gushing about my favorite video game franchise. The Trilogy is my favorite overall collection in the series, even if none of its games individually are my favorites.

I'm not sure what else to say here: I feel like I'd just be rehashing the same points over and over. I think I'm going to end the review here, starting a new tier list. Let's start ranking the games and getting ready for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. See you then!

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright: ace attorney #review #mystery

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purrgiri · 14 days ago

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So i finally got around to finishing lies of p overture and now im gonna ramble about it of course spoilers ahead

Praise that's most of what i have to give this dlc i love the environment design (the rose estate is my favourite) the Enemy design is cool the new weapons are mostly awesome (the bow was a lot more ass then i thought it would be but i guess that's a given since it's a ranged weapon in a melee centric game and it also doesn't help that without the fable arts it does ass damage literally the only thing it has going for it is effectively infinite ammo and having way more range then any other weapon in the game) the bosses are ups and downs but we'll get to that the quests are also neat even if there are some issues

Speaking of which starting my criticism with the quests

These two felt like they amounted to nothing

I know i know it's expecting to much from them to change the main game to include alidoro by allowing us to save him but it still kind of crappy that we can't even give ominous warnings about his death especially when he downright acknowledges we speak of the future as if it already come to pass

Heck we don't even see or hear about parrot in the end despite wanting to change things we ultimately don't even get a chance to influence his fate or anyone fate really

there is absolutely no excuse for Rosaura we literally just find her again next to a tree and she dies she doesn't even look damaged and if she's running out of battery we could have just given her ergo again and brought her to the hotel with us it's not like she significantly alters events

And that's the second time this happened that emote puppet is still stuck in the swamp with his weird glowing unexplained heart the poor bastard you could have at least had the decency to smash her to bits as a reason as to why we can't help her

But as it stands Saving them should be easy why can't we do it!?

There is absolutely no reason to kill her off

Anyway rant over time for the next one the bosses

Im gonna say it

Arlecchino was the easiest main boss in this entire dlc maybe even the entire game and considering he is supposed the final challenge especially after some of the bosses that are worse then the base game it's disappointing as hell

His first phase is so laughable lea destroyed him damn near herself

And the second one was honestly more annoying then anything but still not challenging i only died once because i lost track of my health bar blocking attacks and went to attack without healing

Compared to others like the sweeper leader Veronique or Lumacchio this guy was a joke

I struggled more with the giant ass crocodile at the start then this guy some of the mini bosses put me on my ass more then he did

Literally all he has going for him is aura which granted the dude has absurd aura

Even before you meet him he apparently violated the rose estate so badly the carcass at the start are to mentally broken from the sight to actually fight

Considering they are zombies with nothing but murder on their mind it's impressive as hell

And of course his second phase with all the blood looks cool as hell

Bro is aura farming nearly as hard as laxasia and he looks rad as hell doing it

That aside if i had to pick a favourite boss in this dlc I'd probably say Markiona Puppeteer of Death with Lumacchio as close second

Veronique was annoying as hell with how little room she gives you to breath and an issue with honstly a lot of the bosses they can cross the room damn near immediately to catch your ass lacking

Maybe i just have a skill issue but this is absurd compared to the base game how fast they are

There's also the guardian and his stupid laser that i still don't get how your supposed to avoid

Now anyway moving along Talking about the new gear

my favourite is definitely lea sword it's quick it's effective and the fable art makes me full of motivation

And cataclysm is my favourite legion arm it's practically better version of the canon arm that is less clunky also has the benefit of being able to charge up and leave for a bit while continuing the fight normal unlike other legion arms where you have to commit or bail on use

The story now besides the grievances i already brought up for the quests i actually like the main story of the dlc

There's probably something symbolic to say about P chasing after his old mentor footsteps as we travel across krat and i like that

The conclusion was bitter sweet although admittedly that was expected even in the main game every ending is bitter sweet since even when we won krat is still in ruins with most people dead

I also love how lea truly lived up to the legendary stalker name even with the petrification disease making her a dead women walking she's a one women army i wish we could have seen her at her peak

I also loved how she realised P although not quite is carlos and transcended death and time to save her and romeo

I also want to add

FUCK THIS DAMN BASTARD AND HIS STUPID HAT

I don't care about his letter we find in the dlc where apparently he abandoned carlo because he thought he was to broken to give carlo what he deserved this asshole is still a bastard in my book he makes the ending even worse

P and lea won they saved Romeo admittedly now with robot limbs but alive only for ghepeto to pull up and ruin everything

Made even worse because P thinks he won that he saved them both

Only to get back to the present not realising that in truth him taking lea sword and leaving might have actually condemned them both to death when ghepeto pulled up with nameless

The entire thing was a self fulfilling prophecy by trying to change the future P is indirectly the one who set everything in motion

Arlecchino he helped dismantle which leads to him to be the riddle king still killing people

He indirectly helped ghepeto kill lea and take romeo leading to the king of puppets by disarming lea and clearing the rose estate allowing ghepeto to get in and out without a fight

Fuck ghepeto

I also have to adress the weird plot holes which i mean

Not surprising a lot of lies of p Lore makes little sense but come on you didn't even try this time

How did Arlecchino end up on the alchemist Isle behind a locked door where seemingly no one knew he was there if we beat his ass in the rose estate That's a whole different isle away from the alchemists did bro swim?

I doubt someone brought him there considering he was in some random closet hijacking phone lines so what gives?

Where is the hotel crew?

A lot of equipment lying around so where is venigni or eugine or ghepeto?

Where is antonia it's her damn hotel and she's not even mentioned?

What happens to Klaus? I liked the guy he better have escaped

Although considering he has all of parrot inventory on him parrot probably got him

Also the hotel lair where did the elevator leading to the gold coin tree go?

Heck how did no one think the fact they had a black rabbit safe house in the backyard a safety issue?

Did venigni just block one of the potential escape routes for his models since the train can't be accessed because of him?

(man no wonder they all die in the bad ending lousy with security)

How did ghepeto even know where romeo is?

Did he just happen to pull up on the rose estate and was like "might as well use him I guess?"

Where is Sophia?

She's the entire reason P can travel across time to begin with it but makes no comment about him travelling to the forgotten time period

And many many more weird things

I don't know maybe i expected to much but it bothers me now

But anyhow even with some of my grievances with it i still had a great time a solid 9/10 dlc would recommend

#lies of p #lies of p overture #lies of p dlc #lea lies of p #p lies of p

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scraplette · 10 months ago

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This is random but I noticed you mention you were a big Rung/Skids shipper and I'm curious about something. I wasn't active in the fandom where MTMTE/LL were coming out and I feel like I missed huge discourse or something, because I'm really confused about why I have always seen Rung/Fort Max and Rung/Whirl and MegaRung everywhere but nobody seems to ship Rung with the guy he was super close with from the beginning and committed suicide thinking about and coughed up crystals over? I know it's not because it's wrong for therapists and patients to date because all of those people were Rung's patients. Do you know why this is?

Hello there! Sorry for the late response, I wanted to do this on desktop and just hadn't found the time.

You've sent a really interesting question but, I'm sorry, I'm not sure I have an answer for you. Heck, even at the time the comics were coming out I was always surprised by the lack of content for the ship. There was some discourse about Rung dating paitents but, funnily enough, Skids was never really a part of it. He wasn't really considered by the fandom as one of Rung's paitents so it wasn't an issue. The storyarc we the readers found out that Rung was treating Skids, was also the same arc where Rung quit. You did have some folks producing some excellent content for it(@littlestowl is still hands down my fave writer for this pair and @herzspalter did some hecking good fanart!) but never to the same extent as other ships. Not gonna blame people for that, we all have our preferences! Live and let ship and all that! So, since I had no anwers of my own I decided to counsult THE COUNCI(my friends who like Transformers) for their opinions and they came up with the excellent points. We even gathered DATA(we looked at Ao3 XD) Nothing definitive, of course, because obviously we're just a group of robot fans and can't speak for every TF fan on the net. These are just our thoughts and general vibes. 1) Rung is just so darn shippable. He potentially works well with a lot of characters and was pulled in lots of diff directions. Speaking as the main Rung/Skids shipper of the group I sort of get this(stupid sexy Rung) but even with all the diff ships sailing Rung/Skids still seemed oddly small in comparsion. 2)Another friend brought up a good point, Rung/Skids are a lovely ship but they're very wholesome and nice. Now, there is nothing wrong with that but you can't deny that spicy ships oozing with, as they put it, DRAMA just get folks excited. Lots of the other ships had this in spades. 3) Another friend had a lovely thought to add to this and I agree with it 100%. I'm just going to quote them directly "Which is kinda a shame because they have other kinds of cool drama - Rung basically compromised his position for Skids! Skids revived Rung's memory! The non-goodbye! But not conflict -drama." 4)Perhaps the venn diagram of Skids fan and Rungs fans didn't neccisarily crossover. Looking at the DATA, we can see that the most popular ships for Skids(in order) were SkidsSwerve, SkidsGetaway, and SkidsRung. I'm not sure if the Getaway fics were written pre or post betrayl.

5) Not really important but something I thought was a cool detail. Rung/Skids was really popular in the Japanese side of the fandom. I even own a physical doujin anthology for the pair! I can't remember any names of the top of my head, it's been years, but there were lots of lovely pieces of Rung/Skids fanart on the JP art sites.

I'm always a little sad about Rung/Skids. I always thought here were always lots of hooks throughtout the story that could lead the pair to more. Lots of little quiet personal moments just for the two of them. Like, Skids defending Rung against Getaway's snide comments. Ratchet sending Skids to Rung because he things the little chap is lonely. That final weirdly tense exchange between them will always sit a bit oddly with me. I know at the time there was a theory that Skids might've been into Nuatica at the time but nothing seemed to come of it, so I geuss we'll never know. I think I remember reading that Alex Milne didn't realise that would be their last interaction together, otherise he would've done the panel differently* Thank you for your ask! It was lovely to look back on old fandom memories ^_^ I hope I gave you some insights. As for myself, I'm hoping to get back into fic writing so no doubt I'll be adding to my collection of Rung/Skids drabbles.

*IMPORTANT UPDATE EDIT THING! I couldn't drop the final goodbye between them and the Alex Milne thing(it was nearly a decade ago so I was worried I'd misremembered) so I hunted down the original tweet and I've misremembered!

Sigh, what a shame that the final on-page interaction of my fave ship is forever off key and weird because of Writer/Artist miscomunucation :<

#Rung #Skids #MTMTE #Rung/Skids #Skids/Rung

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