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sortyourlifeoutmate · 1 year ago

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I'd entirely forgotten about the Krieg book.

I remembered because I stumbled across my half-finished, half-coherent thoughts on it.

So, below the cut, my unflattering thoughts.

I did not enjoy this book.

I did not enjoy it to such an extent I am going to talk about it at length.

There’s quite a lot to cover here, but we should be very clear and open by of course saying that my gripes are wholly and entirely subjective, and what I think is agonising and unacceptable someone else might think is fine or even good.

This is kind of an obvious thing to say, I just felt it would be best to make it explicit and plain right out the gate. I’m talking bollocks, basically. I am hardly a qualified authority on what constitutes ‘good’ writing beyond what I find tolerable to read, and I am (unfortunately) not the canon police for all of 40K.

(Though if GW would like to make me the canon police for all of 40K I am sure I could oblige. There’s been some very strange stuff going on with the Necrons over the last decade or more, and the sooner we get that sorted out the better. Hah. Fake laugh hiding real pain.)

So, making it abundantly clear that this is all just me whining, we need to start with some background.

The Death Korp of Krieg

To the best of my knowledge the Death Korp were first concocted and introduced back during the Third War for Armageddon campaign way back when, for flavour as one of ‘The many regiments involved in the war’ (see also Elysian drop troops, Savlar Chem Dogs, etcetera) and were originally portrayed using Steel Legion painted black, basically. In the beginning they were notable for their martyr complex owing to their planetary rebellion, their artwork depicting them as very “WW1-era Imperial German Army” and the background making the ‘atomic cleansing’ of their planet explicit.

They went on to become very popular, because they’re rad as fuck. Forge World in particular seemed to have got very smitten, as the Death Korp turned out to be a pretty good excuse to make big chunky tanks and neat artillery pieces and whatever. Fluff-wise I think - and I could be wrong - the only real wrinkle added to their background was the addition of the Vitae Womb as their secret, bordering-on-tech-heresy means of keeping their numbers up on a nuked deathball of a planet.

Which makes sense, honestly. But we’ll get to that.

But yes. To sum up. Krieg. Planet. At some point its ‘ruling autocrats’ rebelled against the Imperium and the ensuing civil war resulted in ‘five hundred years of atomic’ cleansing (infamously instigated by a guy called Colonel Jurten) and eventual loyalist victory, thence the Death Korp - the only valuable thing left for the planet to export. That was basically all you had, every detail left ambiguous.

One of the books’ issues is that it seeks to make some of those details less ambiguous, and does so poorly. We’ll get onto that, too.

The book

So. The book is called ‘Krieg’ and has two broad narrative strands: one concerning some Cadians and some Krieg doing their best to retake a hive after Orks crashed a spaceship into it and overran it, and another concerning Krieg’s civil war in the past.

I will be spoiling the plot in here probably, just so you know.

We have a couple of characters to follow, principally a Cadian Colonel and Sergeant in the present, an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor and his interrogator also in the present, and in the past Colonel Jurten, the (nameless) rebel Chairman and also General Krause, right-hand man of the Chairman kind of. Oh, and Magos Greel, I guess, who helps out Jurten.

In broad strokes it goes something like this:

Present, after the Great Rift. Orks crash a spaceship into a hive. Inexplicably this is said to have happened without warning, but let’s not think about how that’s possible. Both the ship and the hive survive this, and enough Orks survive the crash to overrun the hive itself. An Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor and his retinue fight their way clear of the ensuing anarchy and escape the hive, meeting up with an incoming Krieg troop and the remnants of a Cadian detachment that was in the hive but had to pull out after putting up stiff resistance. Now outside the hive, they need to retake it because. The Inquisitor has secret motives that obliquely relate to the Krieg civil war. Kind of. Not really.

In the past, Krieg rebels against the Imperium. Or rather, the ruling autocrats and their Chairman rebel, and it’s up to Colonel Jurten and one regiment of Krieg Imperial Guard to retake the planet from the single hive they managed to hold onto. Stuff happens.

That’s basically it.

Style

Obviously critique of style is subjective, and doubly obviously if you don’t like something you’ll just keep noticing and picking at the things about it you don’t like. With that in mind, the style of this book is kind of like having a sore tooth - it was impossible to ignore, and it was always there.

Orks are forever howling. It feels like every other line some Ork is howling. Likewise people intone a lot. These are personal preferences but things like this either stick out and catch you and annoy you or they don’t, and they did for me. Gah.

Other than that just kind of dull, really. I was unmoved. And no jokes. 40k should have jokes! And then things should get awful! You can’t appreciate how awful things are if you weren’t feeling okay before! You can’t have your hope dashed if you weren’t hopeful to start with!

Boring people doing boring things boringly is boring! And that’s coming from me!

Characterisation

There aren’t many fun characters in this.

In the present you have the Cadians, who are boring, the Inquisitor and co, who are boring and annoying, and the Death Korp, who are kind of arrogant pricks. In the past you have Jurten, who is annoying, and the rebels, who are all flabby and moustache-twirling villains, which is annoying.

That’s a style judgement I’ll admit, and I’m sure some would disagree. Mainly I’m unhappy about the modern-day Krieg, as they don’t come across as flat-affect stoics, but as aloof and superior bastards. Much is made of their body language, but what they say and how they say it makes them come across as

Status quo

This applies to the segments set during the Krieg civil war, and it refers to the odd haste with which everything we know about the Death Korp in the modern setting of 40k is applied to Krieg was it was in the past.

Quick! Make the lasguns like how we know them! Quick! Greatcoats and skull-faced gas masks! Quick! Call them the Death Korp! Quick! Death riders! Quick! Invent the Ragnarok tank! Quick! Get the Vitae Wombs warmed up!

The war lasted five hundred years, guys! Five hundred years! You don’t need to immediately have the Death Korp battling exactly as we know them now. Ease into it! Or - even better - don’t ease into it at all! Have the Death Korp be entirely unrecognisable as they what they turn into!

If you really wanted to spice it up you could have someone who knew Krieg before - hell! Have a Krieg regiment or something off-world! Some survivor! - who, thanks to the vagaries of Warp travel - comes back in time to see the planet totally changed, and have them horrified!

(I can’t remember if they mentioned the other Krieg Imperial Guard regiments from before the civil war. They did exist - Colonel Jurten’s regiment wasn’t the only one - so did they all die off-world? It was five hundred years, I guess they did.)

A lot of this isn’t helped by the very loose way in which the passage of time is conveyed. The civil war segments are meant to be taking place over the course of years, but it really, really doesn’t feel like it. We’re just told about it. Oh yes this war has been going on for years it has, oh my. Rubbish, isn’t it? Ho hum, when will it end. Oh look, another five years have passed. Tempus fugit!

Civil war

The beauty of leaving things ambiguous is that you can fill in the blanks yourself, and this is what I did. Having someone come in afterwards - with GW’s blessing, it would appear - and pour their own blanks over my blanks is deeply uncomfortable, particularly when I find the new answers thoroughly uninvigorating.

Five hundred years is a long time! And I always pictured that it was five hundred years of pretty constant, grinding warfare - the loyalists driven by pious fury, the rebels with their backs against the wall on the nuclear hellball the loyalists turned their planet into. Rather, the book kind of has it that after the nukes fly and the dust settles it’s the Death Korp just kind of picking off the survivors one hive at a time.

This probably isn’t helped by the book having it that the loyalists only had the one hive to start with, with the whole rest of the planet seemingly set against them. I imagined that the split was a lot closer to even, but still tipped in the rebels’ favour, hence nukes. I imagined that the loyalists ran the numbers and saw they’d lose the attrition eventually and no help was coming and Jurten - who wasn’t a main guy, just some guy - seized the initiative and launched all these nukes before anyone could stop him, levelling the playing field by making everything that much more hostile. This followed by hundreds of years of grinding trench warfare across a frozen, radioactive hellscape.

The frozen radioactive hellscape part remained, but now Jurten is the main dude, and the loyalists are just one city, and there isn’t much of a war after the nukes it’s mostly mopping up. Eh.

Ork attack!

On paper, the Orks are the primary threat in the modern narrative strand. In practise they’re just kind of…there. We have no idea what leadership they have or how many there are or if they’re actually planning on doing anything, they’re just…

…there.

Which is a bad thing, sure, because Orks. But the Orks are explicitly just whatever Orks managed to survive the crash, which is apparently enough to overwhelm not only whatever defences the hive had but also the Cadians stationed there. Sure, they got hit by a spaceship, but the Orks were in the spaceship!

Eh, you could argue a good ten or more thousand survived. There’s a lot in those ships. And with all the explosions and collapsing hive there’d big a lot of chaos. You can argue that it kind of shakes out.

They’d still need a leader though, wouldn’t they? The Orks?

Ah whatever. Orks. And after that the Orks serve mainly to be a threat when they try to retake the hive (and fail miserably), and then attack them outside the hive where the guard entrenched because you couldn’t possibly have Krieg and not have them dig some trenches.

The exact distance between the trenches they dug and the hive itself doesn’t help here, because while I think it’s mentioned once prior to the guard making their pitiful attack into the hive (across open ground), other than that it doesn’t seem to be an issue. The hive is meant to be perhaps two kilometres from the trenches, across open ground. So all attacks that do come at them come across two thousand metres of open ground.

Across open ground. Bear that in mind.

Every so often a piecemeal Ork attack will come lurching out towards the guard for a little setpiece. At one point a dozen or so deathkoptas come out and attack them and that’s a legitimate firefight. You know? Deathkoptas? The warbike-sized little flying machines? Yeah, a handful come at them - across a vast expanse of open ground, at a few thousand entrenched guardsmen - and that’s a thing that happens.

Squigs also appear a few times, and are just sort of there, hiding out. The Cadian sergeant later gets her foot eaten by one, which might as well be a thing that happens.

Also at some point a stompa attacks. Just one stompa, busting its way out of the hive to come plodding at the trenches - again, across a vast expanse of open ground - and it somehow manages to avoid being shot to bits and actually gets there and causes some problems before it’s destroyed off-page.

Stompas are tough, sure, but they’re not exactly ‘advance slowly and entirely unsupported as the single available target for thousands of guardsmen and their support weapons’ tough. Also, you can’t target their legs. Felt I should point that out, given that they explicitly do target the legs to take it out. Again, you cannot do that to a stompa.

This is such a weird issue as the obvious, obvious solution is just to have more Orks. One Stompa is threatening, sure, but not in a shooting gallery. Three stompas, say, accompanied by other Ork armour, all at once? Now that’s an issue! Likewise, just some dethkoptas coming in all on their own is, like, not ideal but not exactly the worst thing?

Also the narration seems unclear on how big and heavy dethkoptas are, which is confusing to me. They ain’t that big.

Hives

There is no uniformity in Imperial hive cities. You have kind of the stereotypical hive city where it’s like a big ol’ nightmare anthill a mile or more tall and which also goes underground and houses billions - Necromunda, basically. That’s generally what you imagine, but you also have ones that cling to the underside of tectonic plates and hang into vast acidic seas, or ones that spread tumour-like across vast, inhospitable marshes.

There’s no real rule on them having to look like something, it’s just more a sense that hive cities are: A) Big B) Enormous C) Packed full of millions if not billions of people D) Are built on words that are not exactly suitable for human life, either prior to the building of the hive cities or as a direct result of the planet ending up a hive planet

The hive in the book is nowhere described, really, but it gives the impression of a classic hive city - big and tall. And that’s fine. Crash a spaceship into one of those, it might survive. Fine.

The issues - for I have nothing but issues - come with the basic idea that you could retake a hive with the amount of troops they have, and later someone goes to a spaceport inside a hive.

…ah, actually that’s not so bad. You could have a port somewhere up a hive, I guess, and given this happens at a point in the story where there’s been a huge explosion you could make a point to say that the bigger, higher-capacity out-of-hive spaceport has been taken out or something. They don’t though. Hmm.

Personal preference.

(As an aside I’ve always felt that describing Krieg historically as a hive city even prior to the civil war as a bit odd, as part of Krieg’s deal is that the planet was ruined in the atomic cleansing and you can’t go topside. Most hive world’s aren’t ‘Step outside and die instantly’ lethal but equally your odds of surviving unprotected on just about any of them are pretty slim. Ash Wastes, anybody?

So “Oh, Krieg was made a death world by nukes” is kind of weird when, by rights, it was probably a bit of a death world already. But that’s me. We’ll get back to that.)

Demolishers

This isn’t a huge issue but the book has a strange fixation on having Demolishers bombard things, which isn’t really what Demolishers are for or something they can do. They are, in case we forgot, big, slow, armoured tanks with short-range weapons designed to go into places where range isn’t a factor and support infantry. Urban warfare, mainly, or things like that. That’s kind of the point. That’s always been kind of the point.

If you want to fire a big gun at a wall, use a Medusa. Or a Bombard or whatever. You know, an artillery piece. You can use a Demolisher for this, sure, but why would you? You’d need to park the thing next to the fucking wall, when what it’s meant to be doing is be inside the wall, supporting an attack. It’s weird.

Vitae Wombs

In the background it is never made especially clear what Vitae Wombs actually are or what they do. It’s heavily implied they’re cloning people, and that’s kind of the line the book takes, but ‘Vitae Wombs’ on their own doesn’t really imply anything beyond having a way of artificially growing people.

I’m in two minds on this. Giving Krieg a way of keeping its population up makes perfect sense given their attrition rate and way of making way - spending men like bullets is hard if you only get those men from a radioactive death world, and in a toss up between kind of insinuating there’s a lot of (even for 40k) ‘conventional’ squicky stuff happening in those bunkers or else they fell back on forbidden techniques and forgotten technologies in their desperation to win the civil war and just kept going, well, I know which I’d go with.

What catches me is the clone part. The book surprises absolutely no-one by revealing - what a twist! - that Colonel Jurten got cloned, but isn’t especially clear on whether they’re still cloning him now, or whether they’re all Jurten or whatever.

Either way I don’t like any of that. Just leave Jurten alone, stop making him the main guy. He launched the nukes, and let that just be an act that, over time, became something they celebrated. Stop making him be everything and everywhere. He’s just a guy. Leave him alone.

NUKES

This is a big one for me.

A big part of the story concerns the Inquisitor needing to get back into the hive because there’s something there the Orks shouldn’t get their hands on. Something terrible. Something ancient and powerful and-

Surprise - it’s nukes.

Another part of the story concerns the Krieg loyalists in the civil war uncovering a hidden vault of terrible, forbidden weapons that can possibly alter the course of the war in their favour. Surprise - it’s nukes.

Now I don’t want to sound dismissive of nuclear weapons, because they’re awful. But in 40k it is a little odd to see people talking about nuclear weapons in tones of horrified awe, like they’re something from the Dark Age of Technology and not, you know, something that would surely rank alongside the heavy stubber in terms of “It’s old - but not like archeotech. Just old old.” Nukes aren’t an unknown, forgotten item of dark awe, they’re just not used all that much.

The Rogue Trader RPG (the Fantasy Flight one) - which is probably about as canonical as anything, really - explicitly states that the Imperium just has better ways of destroying things than by using nukes, which it does.

That Krieg had its five hundred years of atomic cleansing kind of made it obvious to me that they know about nukes and what they are and they had them. I always imagined they were simply one of the simply one of the weapons they had lying around - anti-ship weapons of some kind, maybe - and they used them because they had them. Not that they dug them out of a secret vault and spoke of them in hushed whispers and had no idea of the powers they’d unleashed.

Just figured nukes was what Jurten got his hands on, and as the war ground on the nukes were just what they had a lot of, and they kept using them. Not a big deal.

With that in mind, the Inquisitor’s subplot of needing to get into the hive because the former governor (who the Inquisitor had previously tortured to death) had a secret stash of half a dozen nukes in the hive and it is imperative that the Orks don’t get their hands on them is a bit ropey to me.

Oh no! Nukes! A handful of nukes! With those you could…

…mildly inconvenience a void-shielded hive. Oh no!

If the governor had, I don’t know, managed to acquire a batch of cyclonic torpedoes or something then you might have had a point. But since his secret stash is, as said, half a dozen nukes, this urgent, secret mission is really kind of stupid.

Remember that bit earlier in the story where the Orks crashed a spaceship into your planet? A spaceship that, oh, has a Warp engine in it?! And you’re worried about them getting a handful of nukes? It’d be bad Orks getting their hands on nukes, yeah, but the book starts talking about how they’re going to exterminatus the planet rather than let it happen. Jesus Christ, guys!

(As an exterminatus-related aside, cyclonic torpedoes are one of those wonderful 40K things where they’re as vague as possible about what they actually are, because all you need to know is that they’re powerful enough to kill a planet. How and by how much don’t matter, and in fact varies depending on who’s writing them at the time. They just can destroy a planet, and that’s all you need to know.)

This subplot comes to a head when a Krieg grenadier, left behind to guard the vault o’ nukes, sets off some krak grenades he’d set up to destroy them when the Orks finally break into the vault. The grenades blow up, the nukes blow up, the hive blows up. Boom.

I’m not an expert, but nuclear weapons - unless they’re armed, and even then - aren’t usually known for their sympathetic detonation. Which is to say if you explode a nuke, it doesn’t usually then explode itself. They’re quite complex devices and if you disrupt them by, say, exploding them, they tend not to work properly. You’ll have the issue of radioactive material spilling out, yeah, but that might be it.

Again, not an expert.

Also, wouldn’t them detonating in a tiny vault under however many metres of solid rock also under however many millions or billions of tons of rockcrete and steel that is the hive kind of take the wind out of the explosion a bit? Nukes are, as said, scary and nasty, but a fair whack of their destructive potential comes from them exploding in the open air where the shockwave and fireball can happen. Deep underground, under a hive city, uh, not so much?

Again again, not an expert.

Presumably the handwave to all of this is “Grimdark future nukes” and fine, sure, but if that was the case why not have some other grimdark future weapon that isn’t a weapon we have now and understand?

Then there’s also all the horror about the radioactive contamination (you blew them up underground! Just stay out of the hive! Everyone else is fine!) and a lot of stuff about black rain melting through armour and burning everyone. Yes, black rain is a thing, so maybe that happened. Just seems a bit ham-fisted to me.

Conclusion

So there you go.

A tide of nibbling little quibbles and issues all adding up to create something I simply could not enjoy.

Which is weird, as Steve Lyons wrote a book years back called Dead Men Walking which is basically Death Korp versus Necrons and that was a lot of fun - it had a bit which sticks with me even now, where Korpsmen are basically being killed one by one and are just systematically picking up the single meltagun they have as it is the only weapon capable of effectively killing the Necrons and anytime the man holding it dies the next one immediately steps in to keep going. It’s metal as fuck.

This book is not metal as fuck. It’s just deeply disappointing. There weren’t even any good setpieces. The battles are all dull and weird because of how bizarre the setup is and nothing especially interesting happens. None of the problems are worth your time, and none of the solutions the characters come up with to solve them are good or tense or anything you might actually want.

The book just happens.

How would I have done it? Well, I wouldn’t have, because I’m terminally incapable of following a plotline all the way through, but I have some suggestions:

Don’t have the guard in trenches outside the hive. Hives are big and if you have a couple thousand guardsmen just decide to dig some trenches across a tiny, tiny, tiny little stretch of the perimeter and then sit there a bit and fire some artillery at the hive, you make them look like chumps. Having such a paltry amount of guardsmen ordered to retake a hive was dumb in the first place, and this just makes them look worse.

Especially given that they fail miserably.

Give the Orks a named leader and have this attack be part of a broader war. They don’t have to meet the leader, but having this be one ship of Orks just feels bizarre. And make it be more Orks. And make it so they’re not at a risk of grabbing some nukes but specifically going after else nasty that they know is in the Hive. Maybe cyclonic torpedoes, like I said! Maybe the governor blagged a couple somehow, and that’s why the Inquisitor killed them! It’s not hard!

But yeah, broaden the scope, have more guardsmen and just zoom in close to follow some Cadians (it’s always fucking Cadians now) and their interactions with the Krieg they’ve been lumbered with as they have to breach this hive alongside everyone else.

And no fucking trenches!

As for the bits that happen in the past?

Don’t have Krieg as a hive city. Have it as a developed world that is on the way to turning into a hive city as Imperial demands for manufacture start to increase. The threat of having their world destroyed gradually would be a fair motivator for the rebels, and would also make the eventual fate of the world more impactful than “Shithole planet is now radioactive shithole planet.”

Have it the loyalists were promised aid, but circumstances change and the aid no longer forthcoming. That lends further depth to their decision to use the nukes. Maybe some of them were considering surrendering when they heard and Jurten went ahead with the nukes in a fit of pique, dooming the planet. It works better!

Don’t have Jurten be The Guy. He’s just A Guy. Not a main character! Have someone else be the main character! Someone with actual character! Someone conflicted! Paint the rebels as sympathetic! Have the main loyalist see their point of view but remain loyal anyway! Then everything goes to shit when the nukes fly and they’re locked into a war none of them want! That’s a bazillion times better than “Jurten was always a dick and he’s in charge and also the rebels are all super-duper ugly and evil” which is what we got! Argh!

Leave Vitae Wombs as some expressly ambiguous compromise between cloning or just growing people in batches, or something. Leave it vague, but clearly unnatural. And don’t talk about it. For God’s sake don’t talk about it. Some things work much, much better if you don’t talk about them.

I’m done. I’m out. That’s it.

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harrison-abbott · 2 years ago

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I’m sure lots of us are obsessed by the theme of ‘greatness’ and we want our craft to be loved and respected. We have dreams, imaginations. Of glory and vindication for all the mayhem we’ve been through. And we’ll have these heroes who we look up to and we wish to be like them.

And then there’s the planet and all its writhing consciousness and the barrel loads of your weaknesses. The heaviness pushes you down and you think that maybe your fantasises of fantastic talent were only trivial, and it makes you stupid to have even pondered these glorious images. A loser instead of a champion. The opposite of great.

I’ve been in writers’ groups in the past. Where we sit down and bring along our stuff and the other people present will give bits of feedback. And I remember asking them (the fellow writers) if they’d read certain authors. And there were a few times where they’d simply never heard of the author. Even though the particular person was ‘super famous’ or ‘well-known’ in the literary world.

This didn’t mean that the other writers in the group were stupid. Or even ignorant. They just hadn’t heard this name before. Simply hadn’t encountered this writer before or read his or her stuff.

Nor had I ever met this ‘great’ writer, who died 70 years ago and who I therefore knew nothing about personally. I’ve read his biography on the internet and I’ve heard his advice on crackly audio recordings and I’ve gone through most of his books, which are quite the impressive opus.

But there were these eight other people in a room who had no fathom of his ‘greatness’.

And, just as a semi-alternative example. I had seen a poll of the ‘greatest soccer managers’ earlier and so I looked on it. [And I understand that lots of people have zilch interest in football – but I’m just making a comparison, here.] The number one manager was the super famous one who has the highest tally for trophies, ever. But the second man in the list: I’d never heard of him before.

Despite being somebody with a huge knowledge of this sport, I didn’t recognise his name. And this didn’t mean that I have a small knowledge of football.

Do you see what I mean?

When it comes to feeling that you have no status: you tend to think way too individually, because there is always something else to learn, or people who did brilliant things that you never knew about.

Quincy Jones said that, “Ego is just overblown insecurity.” And I agree with him. I don’t always feel comfortable with my position in life, and I often feel despondent and lost. But I’m trying to be more wise, to take that sense of panic and desperation to a lower level. To try and think in an international way, if you like.

It’s better to keep learning rather than concentrating on yourself as this image or symbol.

There are many iconic people who have ironical biographies. Or who even gave up with the most basic form of thought … which was to kill themselves. You probably know of the long list of artists who ended their lives intentionally, despite having already achieved that attribute of ‘greatness’.

Writers, it seems, especially.

That’s the ultimate way to quit. And I’m not saying that I haven’t thought about it as well, several times. And I am not saying that I am great. Or am even sure that I’m talented. Maybe I’m not. It’s quite plausible.

I just try to keep writing.

Because what else is there to do? It seems as if the world is heading towards climate disaster. And we have these shocking people in positions in power who seem to use hate only to remain in power, regardless of whether they even believe in what they’re saying. And I stopped buying the newspaper months back just because I find the content so upsetting and grizzly. So I’ve been reading novels and books of poetry instead, every day. And I do value the newspaper of course, for its value of information; it’s just that the innards can be overwhelming and hard to take.

We should choose to be good people, rather than think of our selves first. I know this is tricky. Those people that I just mentioned – referring to politicians or police or kings or whatnot – it can be impossible not to repel them, despise them, wish them the worst.

And this seems the best contradiction of man.

This ideal of battle and contradiction and stress and angst.

But I also believe that most people are good folks. You shouldn’t need to compare yourself to a ‘great’ man or woman, whose name pings up in magazines or the instant you type the letters of the name into a search engine … Try to be a moral person instead. And not stoop to lashing out at people that disagree with you. Be assertive, for sure, but not vengeful.

Read and write, as much as you can.

#writeblr #personal writing #observations #thoughts

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thefoldedbird · 2 years ago

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I like avatar 2. I unapologetically love it.

This is really long.

Visuals are obviously stunning.

The kids were a great addition and I loved their characters -even if that means others got kinda sidelined (Neteyam and Neytiri).

Tuk is gonna end up with PTSD at this rate. Poor girl was in the thick of it so much.

Plot wise the movie does fall a bit short. It seems to set up a lot of future events to be addressed at the cost of itself.

Pacing wise it also gets a little wonky at times. In the theatre there are long stretches of actions and tense moments with no actual relief. Some moments that felt like they were made to break up tension didn’t actually achieve that feeling.

Personally I don’t care about the ocean setting as much as the forest one. I just liked it a lot more.

I’ll say it again, Neytiri gets sidelined heavy in this movie. But she also dominates every scene she IS in. Love the little mental battles her and Ronal have.

The movie suffers from too many characters. I love the characters we got but you sacrifice connection for numbers. I have very little read on Tonowari, Ronal doesn’t develop at all (though that might be the point of her character), we lose 16 years of Jake’s development and got next to no information about the Omaticaya people, and Neteyam was almost completely sidelined in favor of his brother.

I am hoping future movies are able to provide more context/info on the Metkayina culture. It wasn’t the focus of the movie, sure. But compared to the focus of learning on the Omaticaya culture in the first film this one feels starved.

The culture focus was heavily set on the animals. This is not bad but also not what I personally find interesting when discussing culture…though that could just be the writer in me complaining about the lack of material to work with.

However, with all the criticism is some good too.

I loved how they kept continuity with Jake feeling more comfortable with creatures that fly. He still stumbled a little because water is a new territory but he very much picked up Skimwing riding very quickly.

Neytiri DOMINATED her scenes and has not at all lost her teeth. Her mother-rage near the end was delicious. Watching her lose arrows into both people and helicopters? Mwah ✨chef’s kiss✨ she was fantastic.

All the siblings actually FELT like siblings. The banter was fairly natural for their age group.

The scene where all the Metkayina get accidentally sand blasted by Norm’s helicopter is hilarious.

Spider is a great character and I have a lot I could say. Probably in a separate post. Feral fire extinguisher wielding child. Yes. Love that scene so much.

Another point, I’m so glad they seem to have nixed the notion that the ocean is near-acid to humans. I was so worried (for nothing) when Spider jumped in the water. Or at the very least it’s not a heavy plot point (yet).

Very much looking forward to a rivalry between Ao’nung and Lo’ak as the two age given Lo’ak’s attraction to Tsireya.

I audibly gasped when Payakan opened his mouth. I did NOT think it would be that wide. I love that stuff. Immediately made me think of this:

Anyway, plot was weaker but likely in a sacrificial effort to set up a stronger one in the next movie.

Characters were great and I want to know more.

I wish we would have gotten more time to love and learn about Neteyam before they killed him off, knowing so little aside from the impact of him being their first child is a strike against the narrative.

Kiri is going to be more and more important as time goes on (Ronal absolutely knows something).

I hope we focus on the Metkayina culturally a bit more in the next movie now that the Sullys have been accepted as part of the clan.

#avatar twow spoilers #avatar twow #avatar the way of water #bullet rant #me talking about my thoughts #the thoughts need out of my head so I can start doing my chores #long post

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ehbeeseedih · 3 years ago

Note

Greetings!

We wish you a great day as you receive this message.

After the initial reception of the Smuttys, we have decided that the best course of action is to heed advice from you, the creative, for input on managing this year’s ceremony. We realized in our haste and lack of preperation the surprising number of snubs as well as nominees that didn’t win a single award, and for some, we rubbed them the wrong way. We sincerely apologize for our mistakes.

So we would now kindly like to hear from you about what we should do for this year. What changes should we make? What sort of involvement do we add for readers and writers alike?

Our original vision remains the same: to give due props and appreciation to creatives for providing artful content for us to enjoy.

We hope you’ll be kind to us and answer in a sincere, honest manner.

If you choose not to read anything below on why I think there shouldn’t be a Smutty and insist on doing it, Please At Least Respect The Writers That Said They Don’t Want To Participate And Not Put Them In.

And you know what, if you really want to appreciate our writings, don’t make a Smutty, just send a simple “Thank you, I liked your stuff” message to that writer.

With that out of the way, let us go on with why I think the Smutty shouldn’t take place.

As much as I understand your objective in highlighting and appreciating the things we write, the very idea of an award show is to rank stuff, to create a sense of competition and to crown a winner.

You do not need me to tell you that some writers will feel disappointed that their stuff didn’t end up in as good of a position as they thought. So does that achieve your original goal of appreciating our writing or does it inevitably ends up making some of us disappointed?

Even without a special event like the Smutty people are already comparing the number of notes they receive and feeling discouraged because that number was low, either because they wrote a less popular group, wrote in a different style or god knows why did a story get few notes. Having an event like the Smutty just creates another “competition” that makes someone feel sad because they’re lower in the votes or rankings.

Even if you removed the “comparing between different writers” part of the Smutty and keep the “Best story of each writers” part, it’s still a problem.

Sometimes the thing we write and the thing the readers like are different. Sometimes I could be very proud of a story, only for it to be a flop notes wise. Conversely, I could whip out a plotless quickie and have it be the most popular thing I’ve written while the intricate story I’ve planned out languishes in the shadows. You also do not need me to tell you how bad that would feel.

If you feel like I’m saying a lot about people being upset about the results, that’s because it’s the core problem I have with the Smutty. We write smuts as a hobby. If a hobby makes you feel depressed and doubting yourself, then it’s probably not a good hobby, and the Smutty would just create another point of disappointment.

So unless the Smutty becomes an encouragement campaign to bombard the writers with Thank you asks where hopefully no one will feel upset about it, then no thanks.

I hope I’ve made my point clear on why I think you guys shouldn’t move on with another Smutty. Thank you.

#asks

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likesrandomstuff · 4 years ago

Text

Avalance Fic Recommendations Part 4

The final part of this series. Thanks to everyone who reblogged and liked, and a huge shout-out to @heywhereisperry who encouraged and motivated me into doing this.

As I said in Part 1, feel free to add any more stories you think should be recognised to any of these posts, and my ask box is open if you would like more detail on anything.

Part 1: Bite Sized

Part 2: Snacks

Part 3: Meals

Banquets (Over 75,000 words)

When you do not have anything you need to do in the next couple of days

You're My Miracle by bihexualmess

My tags: Ava is FBI, Sara is a Private Investigator, Rip brings Sara on for a case

This just got updated the other week and ruined multiple nights of sleep for me. At almost 350k words, still going, I don’t know how to explain without spoiling stuff that happens a long way in. There are so many layers to both Ava and Sara here, and the trauma, and the issues, and the fact they will not talk to each other about anything. I jumped on this a bit late, as the title and description didn’t grab me, but oh boy, I was missing out. I did get to read a heap of it in one go, but that doesn’t help the slow burn. I would start this even though it’s still a WIP, just because it will take you a while, to read, and also the storylines need time to settle in, because they are heavy, but just amazing. It is now the longest Avalance fic with the latest update.

this is the way that we love (like it's forever) by CoffeeAndArrows, moonlitprincess

My tags: College Avalance dated and broke up, five years later they meet again, Ava’s dating someone else

This fic had me crying in the lunchroom during my second week of work because I couldn’t not read during my lunch break, and it was hitting me so hard. That was after starting it at 10pm, reading to 2am, sleeping until 6am, reading until 11am a couple of days before. Warning for major character deaths; the funeral for one is alluded to in the description. If anyone says something bad about Jordan, I will not be happy; one of the best original characters I have ever read in a fic. Sara’s not in a great place initially, but she gets there. And there’s some cute flashbacks to college Legends too.

you make me smile (please stay for a while now) by CoffeeAndArrows, moonlitprincess

My tags: High School Rivals AU, Ava’s class president, Sara is the superstar soccer captain, they have more in common than they thought

I just looked at the word count for this, and it must be the first time I have, because wow! It is a journey! There’s a couple of prequel, sequel and interjection stories in this universe too. Ava has to deal with her family not being super supportive when she comes out. Sara has to deal with Laurel struggling and their mum having a clear favourite (Laurel). Most of the Legends have really great arcs in here as well. Ava’s family is great. I wanna hang out with her little sister. Don’t be like 2018 me who gives up after the first chapter because they are mad about what Laurel is going through. She’s fine, and there’s a heap of great Sara and Laurel moments. I recently re-read the last 10 chapters, and I still couldn’t stop myself from reading like it was the first time.

i am who you used to love (and you are just a memory) by justpalsbeingals

My tags: The Vow AU, but Ava makes some better choices early on, they’re married, Ava gets into an accident and loses all memory of Sara

I hate the movie this fic is based on. The movie’s fine, and it was a delight seeing Tatiana Maslany in it while I was watching Orphan Black, but basically it is my worst-case scenario, losing my memory. The fact that this fic kept me hooked despite that, is a testament to the quality. The fic itself says “light angst”, I say it’s much, much heavier than that, but that’s just me. Warning, there are some intense twists in here, and everyone is a bit OOC to me, memory loss being considered, which might not be your thing.

and i will stumble and fall (i'm still learning to love) by lucylikestowrite

My tags: SwanQueen kid fic AU, yes, I know go with me on this, Ava adopted Sara’s unexpected baby, said kid finds Sara years later

In general, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like kid fics. Fics with future children coming back to meet their parents, or the couple going into the future? Some of my favourites ever. This has no time travel, but I trust Lucy. This story is under 75k, but the sequel is almost as long, so combined they’re over. The sequel is a WIP. I didn’t watch Once Upon a Time, but it’s the plot of the start of that, except the gay actually happens. There are a lot of issues our girls have to work through here, but the kid is so cute.

and we could try by plinys

My tags: it’s a story mostly told on twitter through fake screen shots of social media, Sara drunk messages Ava, Ava doesn’t block her

I’m sure this format of storytelling is not for everyone, and that’s okay! I was so confused by it at first. I would recommend starting with the shorter one, I can be your hero (in Part 2), just to see if you like it, before jumping into this. I read this when the epilogue, the fic, was released, and I was up until 5am because I couldn’t stop. It became part of my personality. Story wise, Sara and Ava are on different coasts, but both know Nate, Ray and Nora. Ray and Nora get engaged, and Avalance have to deal with planning that wedding, and whatever is going on with them.

take my hands now by plinys

My tags: Another Social Media twitter AU, Sara is The Canary, Ava is trying to arrest vigilantes, Nate accidently gives Ava Sara’s number

Another brilliant twitter story. Some of our gang is trying to arrest the other half. Sara knows who Ava is, Ava doesn’t know that Sara is the person she’s chasing. Everyone has public twitter accounts. Sara actually gets [spoiler villain] to stop an attack by sending them money for a drink.

your eyes, they shine so bright by plinys

My tags: Social Media AU, everyone works for not Buzzfeed, a colab series is pitched, Sara and Ava’s teams have to work together

Ava makes factual videos, Sara does not, they are forced to work together. Nate is everyone’s boss technically, but they do what they want. Nate and Ava are non-biological siblings, and Satan Camp is a running gag. Oh, fake dating is in there too!

right to the top, don't hold back by SJAandDWfan

My tags: American Ninja Warrior AU, Sara’s a veteran and the Legends train together, Ava’s a rookie, rivals to training partners to friends to …

I re-read this every year when the new Australian season comes out. It’s so burned into my brain that when I was watching the speed climbing at the Olympics I genuinely thought “I wonder how Amaya would go in this?”. Amaya’s pre-Ninja experience is rock climbing in this fic. I learnt so much about Ninja Warrior and how the show (at least in this universe) works, and it’s fascinating. Would recommend watching some clips if you’re unfamiliar with the concept. The story goes pretty in detail about the courses. For recommendations, either Jessie Gaff, who was a S1 Supergirl stuntwoman, or Australia’s own Olivia Vivian, who is just stages better than our next female.

biding our time (until tomorrow) by TheTruthAboutLove

My tags: Period setting AU, Ava’s too noble for her own good, Oliver’s dad is the villain

This was a really cool experiment. Basically, told in lots of mini chapters like a soap opera. I do not know much about this period of American history, but it did not matter. A lot of different Arrow-verse peeps show up along the way. I’m sure I complained out loud “you’re allowed to want things Ava!” at some point. There’s an attempt for fake dating, and it’s not the homophobia but the second daughter problem that gets them.

Click here to see all the parts

#Avalance fic rec #Avalance #Sara Lance #Ava Sharpe #fanfiction

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kmclaude · 4 years ago

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Forgive me Father, I have no awful headcanons for you, only a general question on comic making. How do you do it, writing-wise/how do you decide what points go where, how do you plot it out (or do you have any resources on the writing aspect that you find useful?) Not to get too bogged down in details, but I attended a writer’s workshop and the author in residence suggested I transfer my wordy sci-fi WIP into graphic novel script, as it might work better. (I do draw, but I don’t know if I have it in me to draw a whole comic—characters in motion? Doing things? With backgrounds? How dare, why can’t everyone just stand around looking pretty)

I was interested but it quickly turned into a lot of internal screaming as I tried to figure out how to compress the hell out of it, since novels are free to do a lot more internal monologuing and such compared to a comic format (to say nothing of trying to write a script without seeing how the panels lay out—just for my own sake, I might have to do both concurrently.)

As an aside, to get a feel for graphic novels I was rereading 99RM and was reminded of how great it was—tightly plotted, intriguing, and anything to do with Ashmedai was just beautifully drawn. I need more Monsignor Tiefer and something something there are parallels between Jehan and Daniel in my head and I don’t know if they make sense but it works for me. (As an aside, I liked the emphasis on atonement being more than just the word sorry, but acknowledgment you did wrong and an attempt to remedy it—I don’t know why that spoke to me the way that it did.)

I thought Tumblr had a word count limit for asks but so far it has offered zero resistance, oh well. I don’t have much else to say but on the topic of 99RM, Adam getting under Monsignor’s skin is amazing, 10/10 (about the Pride picture earlier)

wow tumblr got rid of the markdown editor! or at least in asks which means the new editor probably has no markdown....god i hate this site! anyway...

Totally! So first, giant thank you for the compliments! Second, I have a few questions in turn for you before I dive into a sort of answer, since I can give some advice to your questions in general but it also sounds like you have a specific conundrum on your hands.

My questions to your specific situation are:

did the author give any reason for recommending a, in your words, "wordy" story be turned into a graphic novel?

is the story you're writing more, like you said, "internal monologuing"? action packed? where do the visuals come from?

do you WANT it to be a comic? furthermore, do you want it to be a comic you then must turn around and draw? or would you be interested in writing for comics as a comic writer to have your words turned into art?

With those questions in mind, let me jump into the questions you posed me!

Let me start with a confession...

I've said this before but let me say it again: Ninety-Nine Righteous Men was not originally a comic — it was a feature-length screenplay! And furthermore, it was written for a class so it got workshopped again and again to tighten the plot by a classroom of other nerds — so as kind as your compliments are, I'm giving credit where credit is due as that was not just a solo ship sailing on the sea. On top of that, it got adapted (by me) into a comic for my thesis, so my advisor also helped me make it translate or "read" well given I was director, actor, set designer, writer, editor, SFX guy, etc. all in one. And it was a huge help to have someone say "there is no way you can go blow by blow from script to comic: you need to make edits!" For instance, two scenes got compressed to simple dialogue overlaid on the splashpage of Ashmedai raping Caleb (with an insert panel of Adam and Daniel talking the next day.) What had been probably at least 5 pages became 1.

Additionally, I don't consider myself a strong plotter. That said, I found learning to write for film made the plotting process finally make some damn sense since the old plot diagram we all got taught in grammar school English never made sense as a reader and definitely made 0 sense as a writer — for me, for some reason, the breakdown of 25-50-25 (approx. 25 pages for act 1, 50 for act 2 split into 2 parts of 25 each, 25 pages for act 3) and the breaking down of the beats (the act turning points, the mid points, the low point) helped give me a structure that just "draw a mountain, rising action, climax is there, figure it out" never did. Maybe the plot diagram is visually too linear when stories have ebb and flow? I don't know. But it never clicked until screenwriting. So that's where I am coming from. YMMV.

I should also state that there's Official Ways To Write Comic Scripts to Be Drawn By An Artist (Especially If You Work For A Real Publisher As a Writer) and there's What Works For You/Your Team. I don't give a rat's ass about the former (and as an artist, I kind of hate panel by panel breakdowns like you see there) so I'm pretty much entirely writing on the latter here. I don't give a good god damn about official ways of doing anything: what works for you to get it done is what matters.

What Goes Where?

Like I said, 99RM was a screenplay so it follows, beat-wise, the 3-act screenplay structure (hell, it's probably more accurate to say it follows the act 1/act 2A/act 2B/act 3 structure.) So there was the story idea or concept that then got applied to those story beats associated with the structure, and from there came the Scene-by-scene Breakdown (or Expanded Scene Breakdown) which basically is an outline of beats broken down into individual scenes in short prose form so you get an overview of what happens, can see pacing, etc. In the resources at the end I put some links that give information on the whole story beat thing.

(As an aside: for all my short comics, I don't bother with all that, frankly. I usually have an image or a concept or a bit of writing — usually dialogue or monologue, sometimes a concrete scene — that I pick at and pick at in a little sketchbook, going back and forth between writing and thumbnail sketches of the page. Or I just go by the seat of my pants and bullshit my way through. Either or. Those in many ways are a bit more like poems, in my mind: they are images, they are snapshots, they are feelings that I'm capturing in a few panels. Think doing mental math rather than writing out geometric proofs, yanno?)

Personally, I tend to lean on dialogue as it comes easier for me (it's probably why I'm so drawn to screenwriting!) so for me, if I were to do another longform GN, I'd probably take my general "uhhhhhh I have an idea and some beats maybe so I guess this should happen this way?" outline and start breaking it down scene by scene (I tend to write down scenes or scene sketches in that "uhhhh?" outline anyway LOL) and then figure out basic dialogue and action beats — in short, I'd kind of do the work of writing a screenplay without necessarily going full screenplay format (though I did find the format gave me an idea of timing/pacing, as 1 page of formatted script is about equal to 1 minute of screentime, and gave me room to sketch thumbnails or make edits on the large margins!) If you're not a monologue/soliloque/dialogue/speech person and more an image and description person, you may lean more into visuals and scenes that cut to each other.

Either way this of course introduces the elephant in the panel: art! How do you choose what to draw?

The answer is, well, it depends! The freedom of comics is if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. You have the freedoms (and audio limitations) of a truly silent film with none of the physical limitations. Your words can move in real time with the images or they can be a narrative related to the scene or they could be nonsequitors entirely! The better question is how do you think? Do you need all the words and action written first before you break down the visuals? Do you need a panel by panel breakdown to be happy, or can you freewheel and translate from word and general outlines to thumbnails? What suits you? I really cannot answer this because I think when it comes to what goes where with regard to art, it's a bit of "how do you process visuals" and also a bit of "who's drawing this?" — effectively, who is the interpreter for the exact thing you are writing? Is it you or someone else? If it's you, would you benefit from a barebones script alongside thumbnailed paneling? Would you be served by a barebones script, then thumbnails, then a new script that includes panel and page breakdowns? What frees you up to do what you need to do to tell your story?

If I'm being honest, I don't necessarily worry about panels or what something will look like necessarily until I'm done writing. I may have an image that I clearly state needs to happen. I may even have a sequence of panels that I want to see and I do indeed sketch that out and make note of it in my script. But exactly how things will be laid out, paneled, situated? That could change up until I've sketched my final pencils in CSP (but I am writer and artist so admittedly I get that luxury.)

How do I compress from novel to comic?

Honest answer? You don't. Not really. You adapt from one to another. It's more a translation. Something that would take forever to write may take 1 page in a comic or may take a whole issue.

I'm going to pick on Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo spent a whole-ass book in Notre-Dame de Paris talking about a bird's eye view of Paris and other medieval architecture boring stuff, with I guess some foreshadowing with Montfaucon. Who cares. Not me. I like story. Anyway. When we translate that book to a movie any of the billion times someone's done that, we don't spend a billion years talking at length about medieval Paris. There's no great monologuing about the gibbet or whatever: you get to have some establishing shots, maybe a musical number, and then you move tf on. Because it's a movie, right? Your visuals are right there. We can see medieval Paris. We can see the cathedral. We can see the gibbet. We don't need a whole book: it's visually right there. Same with a comic: you may need many paragraphs to describe, say, a space station off of Sirius and one panel to show it.

On the flip side, you may take one line, maybe two, to say a character keyed in the special code to activate the holodeck; depending on the visual pacing, that could be a whole page of panels (are we trying to stretch time? slow it down? what are we emphasizing?) A character gives a sigh of relief — one line of text, yeah? That could be a frozen panel while a conversation continues on or that could be two (or more!) panels, similar to the direction [a beat] in screenwriting.

Sorry there's not a super easy answer there to the question of compression: it's a lot more of a tug, a push-pull, that depends on what you're conveying.

So Do I Have It In Me to Write & Draw a GN?

The only way you'll know is by doing. Scary, right? The thing is, you don't necessarily need to be an animation king or God's gift to background artists to draw a comic.

Hell, I hate backgrounds. I still remember sitting across from my friend who said "Claude you really need to draw an establishing exterior of the church at some point" and me being like "why do you hate me specifically" because drawing architecture? Again? I already drew the interior of the church altar ONCE, that should be enough, right? But I did draw an exterior of the church. Sorta. More like the top steeple. Enough to suggest what I needed to suggest to give the audience a better sense of place without me absolutely losing my gourd trying to render something out of my wheelhouse at the time.

And that's kinda the ticket, I think. Not everyone's a master draftsman. Not everyone has all the skills in every area. And regardless, from page one to page one hundred, your skills will improve. That's all part of it — and in the meantime, you should lean into your strengths and cheat where you can.

Do you need to lovingly render a background every single panel? Christ no! Does every little detail need to be drawn out? Sure if you want your hand to fall off. Cheat! Use Sketchup to build models! Use Blender to sculpt forms to paint over! Use CSP Assets for prebuilt models and brushes if you use CSP! Take photographs and manip them! Cheat! Do what you need to do to convey what you need to convey!

For instance, a tip/axiom/"rule" I've seen is one establishing shot per scene minimum and a corollary to that has been include a background once per page minimum as grounding (no we cannot all have eternal floating heads and characters in the void. Unless your comic is set in the void. In which case, you do you.) People ain't out here drawing hyper detailed backgrounds per each tiny panel. The people who DO do that are insane. Or stupid. Or both. Or have no deadline? Either way, someone's gonna have a repetitive stress injury... Save yourself the pain and the headache. Take shortcuts. Save your punches for the big K.O. moments.

Start small. Make an 8-page zine. Tell a beginning, a middle, an end in comic form. Bring a scene to life in a few pages. See what you're comfortable drawing and where you struggle. See where you can lean heavily into your comfort zones. Learn how to lean out of your comfort zone. Learn when it's worth it to do the latter.

Or start large. Technically my first finished comic (that wasn't "a dumb pencil thing I drew in elementary school" or "that 13 volume manga I outlined and only penciled, what, 7 pages of in sixth grade" or "random one page things I draw about my characters on throw up on the interwebz") was 99RM so what do I know. I'm just some guy on the internet.

(That's not self-deprecating, I literally am some guy on the internet talking about my path. A lot of this is gonna come down to you and what vibes with you.)

Resources on writing

Some of these are things that help me and some are things that I crowd-sourced from others. Some of these are going to be screenwriting based, some will be comic based.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud: I think everyone recommends this but I think it is a useful book if you're like "ahh!!! christ!! where do I start!!!???" It very much breaks down the elements of comics and the world they exist in and the principles involved, with the caveat that there are no rules! In fact, I need to re-read it.

Comic Book Design: I picked this up at B&N on a whim and in terms of just getting a bird's eye view of varied ways to tackle layout and paneling? It's such a great resource and reference! I personally recommend it as a way to really get a feel for what can be done.

the screenwriter's bible: this is a book that was used in my class. we also used another book that's escaping me but to be honest, I never read anything in school and that's why I'm so stupid. anyway, I'd say check it out if you want, especially if you start googling screenwriting stuff and it's like 20 billion pieces of advice that make 0 sense -- get the core advice from one place and then go from there.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: many people I know recommended this. I think I have it? It may be in storage. So frankly, I'd already read a bunch of books on comics before grabbing this that it kind of felt like a rehash. Which isn't shade on the authors — I personally was just a sort of "girl, I don't need comics 101!!!"

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate: this has been recommended so many times to me. I cannot personally speak on it but I can say I do trust those who rec'd it to me so I am passing it along

the story circle: this is pretty much the hero's journey. a useful way to think of journeys! a homie pretty much swears by it

a primer on beats: quick google search got me this that outlines storybeats

save the cat!: what the above refers to, this gives a more genre-specific breakdown. also wants to sell you on the software but you don't need that.

I hope this helps and please feel free to touch base with more info about your specific situation and hopefully I'll have more applicable answers.

#writing #making a graphic novel #writing a graphic novel #tutorial #writing tutorial

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positivityjediprince · 3 years ago

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Get to Know Me - A Tag Game

rules: tag a few people you want to know better; make a new post, don't reblog!

Favourite colour:

I'm a big yellow fan! I'm such a dork I love buttercups and suflowers and daisies and sunshine. I'm sorry, I know that's kinda cringe but yellow is just so :D you know?

Currently reading:

So much fanfic lmao....

But non-fanfic wise I'm on and off reading this book called "Even More Opera Annecdotes" which I live for, it's all like snippets of opera world drama and moments - like Janet Baker sassing Pavarotti. It makes me so happy because even the great professionals are dumb nerds!

Last song:

Apparently Dolly Parton "Why'd you come in here looking like that."

But I'm my dream I was singing/there was playing "He is an English Man" from Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore.

Last Movie:

Man I had to think hard about this one... Genuinely I think it was this terrible animated film called "The Seventh Dwarf" ...I put it on to traumatise my house mates cause it looked awful ..and it was.

Last Serise:

Last watched its Louis Theroux Forbidden America.

Last finished it's Supernatural Academy (which I do sort of recommend even tho it's stupid it's quite charming - with great rep - and I greatly enjoyed it! The soundscaping is wack af tho cause covid lol)

Sweet, spicy or savoury:

It's gotta be sweet! Especially baked goods! Give me Krapfen and brioche all day everyday!

Coffee or tea:

TEA BABY! Like not to be a stereotype but tea is life, though it has to be non-cafinated versions/herbal because my heart doesn't take caffeine well.

Three ships:

DinLuke is of course my number one and light of my life!!!

Then it's for sure Geraskier! Who I also adore with all my heart.

And third hmm it's probably quite tied it's probably between James Bond/Q (00Q) and Catadora! (embarrassingly my first thought was me and my bf ew what a sap I am)

First ever ship:

This is going to make sense to none of you but Yoyo/Crocky from this Austrian TV show called 'Simsala Grimm' - when I was small I thought they were like married I'm ngl. They're the chaotic bubbly feral himbo and sensible awkward nerdy one (who is very Done TM with the other person's shenanigans) couple - I think that was fundamental to my concept of relationships.

Currently working on:

I'm working on the last two chapter of Heaven knows I've needed someone like you for so long and a REALLY DUMB one shot - both DinLuke ofc!

And also my ever growing drabble drafts!

Favourite piece of clothing:

Probably the show hoodie from the last opera I did at university - it was the first time I got a real lead (and it was a big role) and people believed in me and I realised that I am worth something and that I can become an opera singer - which is big because if been working my butt off to recover my singing from the damage done by my ED. So yeah that means a lot to me even if I don't wear it that much.

Comfort food:

SOUP AND OR GOULASH with sexy Austrian bread.

Favourite time of the year:

Ooooooo summer but the bit of summer where it's the evening and it's still warm and you're outside with your pack and the sun is setting but you know you'll still be out here for a while being silly and having deep convos.

Fave fanfic:

Now THIS is a hard one! I'm gonna cheat a bit cause there's three from different fandoms that spring to mind.

I'm gonna say DinLuke "oh the things we left behind" because it is beyond beautiful and id say it is my number one overall.

Also close is Saoghal Tinn (00Q) which grasped me and never let me go - even if you don't know/ship them I'd recommend it if you like well written and tense zombie apocalypse stuff with gays.

And one I keep going back to for serotonin is Animal Instinct (Geraskier) I adore soft feral Geralt and when he's sad Jaskier won't eat the rats he brought him lives rent free in my head.

Thank you to @thewriterowl and @feralsunspotandtincan for tagging me you cuties!!!

And here we have the tagging dilemma of the DinLuke dorks to double tag or not to double tag!

@veradragonjedi (double tagged bestie I'm sorry!) @mandobogwitch @mando-punk @kriffinjoy @mysticmjolnir ofc no pressure guys!! ❤️❤️

#i had so much fun thinking about all my fave fics lol

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a-snow-decahedron · 3 years ago

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If you're still doing the character stuff, could you do 4?

Of course I am! You guys are spoiling me with these heheheh, I'm glad to share. (lol i wrote this sentence in september sorry for taking too long i hope you like this)

Number 4 is Asriel, and for the sake of this essay, i will not focus too much on the Flowey side of things. (He's got a different number assigned heehee)

So, having cleared that up, let's begin!

Warnings for... implied child death? it's not too explicit but yeah, I prefer to be safe.

Azzy, huh. He is such an enigmatic kid. Asriel is probably the most influential character in the Undertale universe (and perhaps in the Deltarune one as well!).

Asriel is honestly one of those characters that is... difficult to talk about, sometimes. He's Chara's brother. He's Kris's brother. He's a prince. He's a regular guy in college. He's dead. He's just living outside of town. And yet we only meet him in brief instances.

Asriel is Not There, yet he's everywhere and tons of things wouldn't be able to be explained without him. Why did Asgore declare war to humans? Because they killed his son. Why did Chara live with the Dreemurrs? Because Asriel found them. Who broke the barrier? Asriel and every other soul in the Underground combined.

And yet when we meet him he's, not himself, or a god created by SOUL power, or a little boy who wants to let the others be free, even though he doesn't wanna let go.

I think that he is a good kid at heart, and I'll never NOT be moved whenever I listen to his story. The conversation when he breaks the barrier. The hug! And the one conversation you can have during the epilogue are all deeply touching.

He's a wise boy. I'm very sorry he had to learn things the hard way, and had to go back to a world shaped by his actions. But talking to him always felt like closure. Frisk is the only one who can listen to his full story, who he can be honest with. He finally gets the chance to look back, and see the good and the bad as it is. It's very important to me that he doesn't regret what he did, despite the consequences. In the end, there are things he can't change. But it was his choice, and he could see that the boy who made that choice was himself, despite everything. The boy that cries when his dad is hurt, who becomes best friend and family with the first human he ever meets. The boy who refused to use force to get his way.

I'm... honestly glad he got to find some peace. He got the last chance to be himself fully and took it to free himself from regret, in a way. We couldn't "save him", but he got what he needed.

I'm intrigued about Deltarune Asriel. He seems like a good guy too, even if we don't know him. It's possible he's changed a lot over the years, and it would be very interesting to see just who he is when he gets the chance to live. I want to see more sides of him, let him be great, and flawed.

But well we'll have to see!

If you liked reading this feel free to check out my other (disorganized) thoughts or request another number.

. 1 | Amalgamates | 3

. you're here! | 5 | 6

. 7 | Requested | Mettaton

. 10 | 11 | Papyrus

. Sans | Requested | 15

#geometric thoughts #analysis #asriel #undertale #safeutdr #asriel dreemurr #fran rants

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pi-cat000 · 4 years ago

Text

BNHA: Kakashi dimension hops crossover (5)

Summary: Kakashi gets dumbed into the My Hero Academia universe through random plot devise.

Characters: Kakashi Hatake

Fandoms: My Hero Academia and Naruto

WARNINGS: Mentions of violence/injury

START / RREV / NEXT

Ms Iroi always tries to engage him in conversation whenever she comes in, asking questions and chatting to herself in a fruitless attempt at helping him recover his 'lost' memories. Most of the time, Kakashi is indifferent to her presence and always has a magazine handy as an excuse not to talk.

Today, Iroi is in a particularly good mood, humming to herself, greeting him with an energetic, “How are you doing today!”

Kakashi grunts a noncommittal response which doesn’t do much to discourage the woman’s good mood as she runs through a check-up routine.

“You should try watching U.A’s sports festival tomorrow. I hear it’s going to be particularly spectacular this year,” she says as she pulls the blinds on Kakashi's window, blocking out the distant city lights.

U.A? he recognises the name. Kakashi glances up over the pages of HERO!! MONTHLY BREAKDOWN. It is the third time he has read this issue.

“You know, since you like reading those hero magazines, I figured you would be interested in watching the ‘next generation of heroes’ debut,” she continues, noting his attention, “U.A always puts on a good show.”

Kakashi frowns. The problem with his amnesia cover story is that he is still trying to figure out what he can get away with not remembering. So far the doctor’s seem content to chalk up the disappearance of his long term memories to a ‘quirk’ accident but were always more concerned when he failed to recall basic factual information. Something to do with different parts of the brain being responsible for different types of information.

“Watch how?” He settles on asking. U.A. was supposed to be a hero-training academy so whatever this ‘sports festival’ was was worth checking out.

“Oh,” Iori pauses to think, “I, ah, think channel 2 with be covering it?” she hesitates, “You know what. I’ll look it up and let you know later. Sorry, I can’t carry my phone around with me while on shift.”

“Thank you.” He smiles and makes a show of returning to his magazine to dissuade further conversation.

Later the same evening, just before the end of the evening shift, Iori pokes her head into his room again. She is out of uniform, long hair untired, waving to catch his attention.

“The coverage is on channel 2 and starts at 11am,” She holds up her portable communication devise like it means something. It probably did mean something. The frequency by which people checked them suggested it had a function beyond basic communication. He has held off attempting to steal one because, unlike pens, people would notice and care if one went missing.

“Have fun watching! Oh… also, I forgot to ask…”

Kakashi raises a brow.

“I have a bunch of old gossip magazines. Mum used to read them all the time and there are a few hero-themed ones in the mix. I can bring them in if you want more stuff to read.”

“If you want.” Iori must have noticed him re-reading the magazines.

"I'll bring them on Friday!"

Iori had been unsubtly hinting that Kakashi might have had a history in heroics. It definitely wasn’t because reading information on a page just made sense when compared to the barrage of conflicting reports the television gave him. A few weeks with only the television as his information source has him writing off most of its information as useless or propaganda.

…

...

“HEELLLOOOOO, LISTENERS!”

Kakashi stares dully as the video footage, which had been giving him a bird’s eye view of a positively massive stadium, changes to a sweeping shot of what must be thousands of people crammed into seats. It almost makes him claustrophobic just watching it.

“WELLCOME TO OUR ANNUAL U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL! THE HIGH SCHOOL ADOLESCENT RODEO YOU ALL LOVE TO WATCH. CAN A GET A ‘OH YEAH!’”

As if of one mind, thousands of people leap to their feet screaming. The camera angle changes again to show a grinning blond-haired man, seated at a desk and pointing enthusiastically at the camera. All these shot changes are going to give him a headache. Kakashi is already having reservations watching this and its only10 minutes.

“Thank you! You’re an AMAZING audience!”

It almost reminds him of the final Chunin Exam stages -if the Chunin exams had had three times the audience - which always involved some sort of combat display. There hadn’t been any public Chunin Exams recently for reasons such as a large portion of Konoha being flattened by Pein.

“FIRST UP ARE OUR FIRST-YEAR EVENTS! And what an exciting round of events they are, perfect for debuting our newest students! Give us a shout so they can feel your support!”

Another loud shot as thousands of people yelled in unison.

“Come on! Louder than that! These are your future Heroes I’m talking about! SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!”

More yelling. Kakashi turns down the volume.

“But! Wait just a minute!! We're not only here for our Hero students! As I'm sure you all know, behind every great hero is a hardworking support team! GIVE IT UP FOR our Support, Management and General departments who are also competing for a chance to face off in the finals!”

Kakashi sighs. He is getting the sense that this might be more for entertainment than utility purposes, conforming to the general trend of Hero-related stuff being flashy. Different from the Chunin exam which had deadly consequences if not taken seriously.

“Hey. Hey! HERE THEY COME NOW! OUR STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST YEAR STAGE!”

What follows is an overly dramatized race where the only thing of interest to him are the obstacle types, including robots, - mobile mechanical weapons of some sort that produced a lot of environmental damage but were taken down fairly easily- and explosive devices that acted a lot like explosive tags. Then there was a team elimination round and one-on-one tournament fights after which the coverage shifts to the second year and third year stages.

He uncovers the sharingun only to discover that, while its memorisation function worked fine, the part that translated the movements into muscle memory felt off. Perhaps, the replication and copying component of the eye didn’t work when viewing a technique through a screen rather than in person. Interesting. As there wasn't anything particularly impressive technique-wise during the events he counts the new information as a net gain.

The student-heroes – he is not sure if there is an official term for a hero in training – barely match Konoha’s academy standard in their taijutsu and physical conditioning though there was marked improvement between first, second and third-year groups. These students were what...between 14-18 years old...and yet most had the skill level of an academy students and fresh genuin with only a few notable exceptions?

Sure, there were - honestly ridiculous- versatile and powerful bloodline abilities being thrown around like nothing, but ninjutsu techniques only took a shinobi so far without a strong base to work from. He shakes his head, reminding himself that these kids - because what else did you call combatants who hadn’t graduated yet- weren’t shinobi in training and would be policing civilians and engaging ‘Villains’ of similar skill levels. It was obvious that the students favoured non-lethal takedown methods and put little to no thought into stealth and misdirection during fights.

Different words…different priorities.

As Kakashi has yet to see any evidence that the country, Japan, was at war with another he thinks the skill level displayed might be serviceable. There were also no major conflicts between the country’s large cities over farmland, water sources and the like. Obviously, this place had sorted out the resource and distribution issues usually encountered when supporting such large populations. Or, who knows, maybe everything on the television was a carefully constructed lie to lull people into complacency.

Now he has seen an example of hero-students, he better understands the low combat ability demonstrated by the police. It also gives incite into the blurry recordings of Hero/Villain confrontations which played on repeat across the various ‘news’ reports. They all tended to hover around Chunin or maybe Special Jounin in terms of skill. He knows generalisations are dangerous so, until he saw the combat in person, he would exercise his usual level of caution. There were bound to be outliers after all-the impressive brute strength of the number one hero comes to mind- and there was no telling what advantages a bloodline ability might provide. Absently, he makes testing the susceptibly of people without chakra to genjustu as something to figure out sooner rather than later.

He sighs. This is why he hated the television. Whenever he watched it, he came away increasingly confused, with more questions than he had answers. Not to mention anything useful being constantly interrupted with information detailing one of the many products that he could apparently buy here. It irritated him to no end.

...

The chakra collecting seal is ready before the week is out. Mostly ready...it was ready enough.

Kakashi returns to the roof. Sitting cross-legged, back against the stairway entrance, he works his way through the 100 or so pens, cracking them open and tapping out ink into a large bowl, stolen -like the pens -from hospital staff.

The mix of black, blue and red ink is gluggy, forcing him to add water to thin the solution out. Once satisfied he pulls out an appropriated scalpel – one of a growing collection hidden alongside his pens because having a stash of weapons is never a bad thing- pricking his middle finger, watching the blood drip and curdle with the mixture. The blood would be absorbed into the ink, allowing it to conduct chakra. He mixes everything with pair of disposable chopsticks, taking care not to spill it on the ground or stain his hands.

The whole process reminds him of other insistences where he had improvised fuinjutsu ink in the field. The last time being during his final Anbu missions where he had created a body storage scroll from scratch after unexpectedly losing a squad mate on what should have been a simple intel retrieval mission. Not a particularly fond memory but a memory he was stuck with.

Since his demotion to Jonin-sensei there had been fewer of those sorts of missions. Not that being a Jonin-sensei had been easy – considering all his students had gone off to find other teachers he didn't even think he had been particularly good at it - bringing with it its own special brand of stress, culminating in a stint as Hokage, a fourth war and him stuck here. He is pretty sure his experiences aren't universal. Team 7 was just cursed to fail in increasingly spectacular ways.

He lets out a heavy sigh, leaving his airways open to a sudden gust of cold wind which carries the scent of cleaning chemicals from the hospital and oil from the road straight up his nose. He exhales forcefully and mentally bumps finding a face mask up his list of priorities. It would be good for hiding his features and dulling the artificial smells of a city housing over a million people.

The sound of wind whistling around the building almost blocks out the echo of feet in the stairway, approaching his location. In one smooth motion, Kakashi stands pushing the remaining broken pen back into the vent, nudging the cover back in place with his foot. Carefully he holds the bowl of ink in his injured arm and a scalpel in the other. Kakashi steps back against the entrance so the outward opening door would hide him from whoever came out.

A crying kid comes barrelling through the door.

Well, not completely crying, more like sniffing loudly, eyes all shiny. He even recognises the kid from the U.A combat demonstration, as improbable as that was. It is the first year hero student with the speed-enhancing ability which, seeing him up close, probably had something to do with the strange growths coming out of his caff muscles. High speed movement put enormous strain on the body so he could reasonably conclude that the kid was physically resilient to acceleration stress and similar forces. Not resilient to stabbing though....

Kakashi forces himself to relax, his scalpel lowering ever so slightly. Lucky he had heard the kid coming or he might have accidentally hurt him. A few weeks of reduced sleep coupled with a lot of time to ruminate on past missions and failures has put him on edge. This was exactly why he disliked taking extended breaks.

Maybe, Kakashi should start relocking the stairway if he was planning to make regular trips up here because the young male probably hadn’t had the roof in mind as a destination. Kakashi knows from experience that, unless you were injured or a member of staff, there were few good reasons to wander around a hospital at odd hours.

With the hero-student distracted sniffling into his arm, Kakashi slips around the door and back down the stairs. He hadn’t planned on applying the seal on the roof anyway. Too exposed to the elements and the concrete was too rough for the delicate line work.

He continues mixing while he walks, having mentally mapped the hospital well enough to know which hallways to use and which to avoid. There is a surgeon with some sort of heat-sensing vision who works late most nights that he must be careful around and a nurse with a weak proximity based empathic ability working in paediatrics. Both obstacles force him to take a meandering detour on his way to the ground floor and the larger shower blocks which housed cubicles the size of small rooms. Enough smooth floorspace for the expanded seal design and easy to clean afterwards. He supposes he is lucky, some complicated fuinjutsu required several meters worth of floor space. The containment on Saskue’s cursed seal comes to mind and he is glad that this seal is infinity smaller.

Not one to waste time knowing that nurses and patients regularly used the space even this late in the evening, he immediately slips into a cubicle upon arrival. Flopping onto the floor he pulls out the paintbrush he had had scour the hospital for and eventually to steal from the children’s ward. Carefully, he begins the slow process of application.

…

The final seal design is circular, about the size of his splayed hand, positioned on his uninjured shoulder just above where his Anbu seal had previously sat. The sleepwear provided by the hospital had sleeves that extend just past his bicep. It hid the design, for the most part. The final visible seal is a bit bigger than he had predicted or planned for. If this were a proper infiltration mission, where blowing his cover came at the price of death, he would be in big trouble. If this were a proper mission, he would have waited before applying this. An unnecessary risk. He itches the back of his head, turning from where he is craning his neck to see the seal, gathering up his supplies to be thrown in one of the hospital’s many rubbish bins. Kakashi lets out a breath. Maybe, this whole ‘trapped in a different world’ thing is affecting him more than he was willing to admit and making him sloppy.

He pulls down the sleeve so it mostly hides the design. Not like the doctors here would recognise the significance of fuinjutsu, he reminds himself, even if their questions would be annoying to deflect.

He pumps chakra into the seal and a jolt akin to lightning runs down his limb. It activates without issue and Kakashi grimaces as his chakra is slowly drained and collected. The rate of the drain is pathetically slow. Three years too slow. But, between this and his sharingan - which was always active and draining chakra- he can’t risk making it quicker. Despite the relatively low-level threats around him, Kakashi is, first and foremost, a Jonin in an unknown territory who is already taking risks simply making and applying the seal. He can’t afford to impair himself with poor chakra management on top of everything else.

Kakashi pops his head out of the cubical, scanning the shower block. Nothing of note has changed and he darts out, intent on returning to his room. He is tired and it would be a long, tiresome week as his body adjusted to the strain as well.

#bnha #bnha fanfic #naruto #CrossOver #dimension travel AU #hatake kakashi #kakashi headcanons #cultural shock #Iida makes a breif cameo #fanfiction #my hero academia #plot continues to move at a glacial pace

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ofpineapplesanddawns · 3 years ago

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shit, hope you get well soon and feel alright!! ❤ hopefully writing will be a good distraction. i'd ask for number 8 from the fluff ones with a ship of your choice 🥰

Thank you! I'm actually feeling better than I did earlier this week, but it's mainly just a bad cough and having no sense of smell, which is a huge pain in the neck, honestly, but still, on the road to recovery! :D

Prompt: "Nobody’s ever been so close to me before.”

Hmmm, let's go with Campbell and Joe! I've only written for them once before, and I'd love to do it again! :O

Actually, let's make this a continuation of the previous one, just... a bit later down the line of their relationship. :D

On with the fic!

This was their seventh date, and Campbell had totally been counting.

They were in a park together, it was lovely out, and just the sort of day to enjoy on a park bench with the guy you really cared about, eating 99's together.

Campbell was currently in the middle of telling Joe something that had happened at work, a funny story involving two albums being mixed up and so the wrong song was played, but he had totally made it work. Of course he did, he had a gob on him, he knew how to use it to his advantage to smooth over his mistakes.

Joe sat, listening with a quiet admiration, though he seemed to be a bit lost in his thoughts the longer Campbell spoke. Which was normal, the taller of the two tended to be the more talkative, the one who went from one story to the next.

But the near silence did catch Campbell's attention and he trailed off, before looking right at Joe, catching him off-guard. "You okay?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, fine, totally fine." Joe blinked.

"Well, you look fine, but you've been quiet, normally you've got questions and stuff. Somethin' on your mind?" Campbell smiled, letting Joe know that this wasn't a bother for him, he was just curious.

He had learned in their few times in person together, and over the phone, that Joe was a bit more... skittish, of things, to put it lightly. Of course, Campbell was wise to catch on, to know when to pace himself with his actions so that Joe was comfortable. He didn't want to be a bad boyfriend! He wanted to be the best!

Joe's lip quirked up a little, an embarrassed tint of pink came to him. "It's nothing, really, just something I've been thinking about for a while now."

Campbell raised an eyebrow, before grinning leaning over, bumping Joe's shoulder with his own. "Oh yeah? I bet it is something, come on! Tell me!"

"Well, it's really just..." Joe bit his lip. "Nobody’s ever been so close to me before.”

This gave Campbell pause. "Wait, what do ya mean?"

"You know how my life's been for a long while now, a few years and such, it hasn't been... great, real shit, honestly."

He was aware, yes. Joe had confide in the DJ of what had happened in his life, with Sandor and Nina, of the aftermath. While he was doing better, it had left a dreadful impact on him, and it wasn't exactly an easy thing to move on from.

Joe looked at his shoes, trying to gather his thoughts. "Tilly's been good to me, after everything, but it's just... I don't know, something about you makes things so much nicer for me. Maybe because you're not tied to any of that, you're just so... you. I've let you in, past all the walls and such, and I like that, I like that I've done that."

Campbell wasn't sure what to say, that was such an open and honest confession, and he was sure it took a lot for Joe to say it. "I... well, uh, I'm happy ya let me into your life, to get so close to you, Joe. I'm glad that I got that first letter from you, ya know?"

He smiled a little, it was worn in place, from where Campbell often held it, a bit dog eared in a corner, but he kept it in his nightstand, so he could pull it out to read it whenever it. It was just a basic letter, but it was the first, the start, what got them to where they were now.

He put his hand over Joe's on the bench. "Would it be okay if we, uh, if we kissed? Cause I've been really wantin' to kiss you, Joe."

Joe looked at him, and he laughed. "You've been waiting since we first met, haven't you?"

"I do believe I told you during out third date that I can be a bit of the romantic, yeah?" Campbell's smile turned into a full-on grin.

"Yes, you did." Joe leaned close, a peck on the lips, and it was just the best thing in the world right now for Campbell.

Soft boys are soft, yeah?

#campbell x joe #good omens extended universe #john's drabbles

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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One Year Anniversary: Top 12 Ducktales Episodes!

Happy anniversary all you happy people! Yes it was one year ago today I started reviewing animation and it’s been a ride to be sure. I’d always WANTED to be a reviewer: I love going on and on about stuff I love, really digging into it and picking it apart... but I could never get started. I tried youtube but I didn’t have the money for the equipment nor a proper shooting space to record, so my efforts.. were not great. And while I TRIED text reviews, my own looming pile of self hatred meant every attempt I made was shot down when it got hard as me not being good enough.

But one year ago I finally got past that. I’d already been reviewing a bit, doing invididual issues of comics... but got way in over my head trying to do the current line of X-Men comics as it came out, and wisely bowed out of that. But that left a gap: I had nothing to cover week to week and with a demanding new job, I drifted into just doing in charcter chats, little fan fictions script styles. Not bad work, I should do some more at some point and I even got a comissoin once in a while, but nothing I could really live on and not what I wanted to do with my life.

Enter Ducktales. I’d always WANTED to review the show.. and when the double premire happened, I decided fuck it, and put up my thoughts. And then decided.. hey maybe I can do this every week.. and slowly.. my work evolved, getting better and better, getting more and more likes. I picked up Amphibia when that came by week to week.

And eventually.. this went from a hobby, if one I was passionate about to a career. Not a largely paying one, as only one person was really intrested in paying me for it, friend of the blog and our fincial backer @weirdkev27, but .. it’s money and i’m now making about 30 dollars a month due to a comination of comissions and patreon. Other contributers are always welcome mind you, my patreon is here if your curious and comissions are 5 dollars an episode, but i’ts just nice to have money coming in. To have gone from simply WANTING to review things and make a living off it.. to simply doing it.

And it’s been one hell of a year.. and not just because 2020 felt like hell or 2021 began with a full on insurrection. I feel like i’ve acomplished a lot in the year i’ve been doing this: I finished what I started with Ducktales season 3, getting better and better as I went. And I didn’t stop there with ducks: I started covering what brought me to Ducks in the first place, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and while that retrospective has slid a bit on the schedule, I intend to get it back on track this month. I reviewed a bunch of Darkwing Duck episodes leading up to the Just Us Justice Ducks.. chronologically anyway. The actual airing order reads like someone took 50 issues of a comic, made it rain with them, then just started reading whatever ones they picked up randomly. I also covered some of Duck Master Carl Barks work with the classics Night on Bear Mountain, A Christmas for Shacktown and Back to the Klondike, with more to come.

And the Duck didn’t stop at just reviews I did on my own: Kev comissioned two MASSIVE retrospectives from me: My first for him was Ride of the Three Caballleros where in just a few short months I covered the boys entire televisied careers together from the movie, to house of mouse, to mickey and the roadster racers, to ducktales (again) and finishing with the wonderful Legend of the Three Caballeros. It has probably the worst Daisy imaginable, but otherwise is really excellent and i’m glad I finally watched it. I also covered Don Rosa’s two stories with the boys as part of it. It was a fun ride and I enjoyed every minute of it... okay most of them again Three Cabs Daisy is the worst. And once that finished Kev started up another idea: Shadow Into Light: a look at Lena’s character arc from start to finish that has gone on to be my most popular series on this blog, and that finishes next week. And there’s more to come as after that there’s a short breather with a look at Lilo and Stitch’s crossover episodes.. folllowed by me looking at all three of season 2′s ducktales arcs. And I fully intend to have covered every episode of the series by this time next year, so stay tuned.

Outside of ducks though I didn’t slow down. I restarted my Tom Lucitor retrospective, covering what i feel to be one of Star Vs’ two best characters, tied with eclipsa, and my personal faviorite as he redeemeed himself, found love and I bitched a lot about the horrible directions the series took and probabably will more as that’s still not done yet. I did what I always wanted to do and started looks at some of my faviorite comics ever, starting with Life and Times and adding in New X-Men and Scott PIlgrim. I also threw in the awesome comic Blacksad. I did pride month for the first time and not only came out publicly, but also did two whole arcs i’m proud of with The Saluna episodes of Loud house and the rednid episodes of OK KO, and generally just had myself a good old fashioned time as an out bi man reviewing childrens cartoons.

I started Season 2 of amphibia with it’s lows of an endlesss road trip and highs of adding Marcy to the cast and giving us more of the silky voiced keith david. And finally Patreon wise Kev’s taken me on a hell o fa journey: In addition to the restrospectives i’ve covered some additional darkwing duck, and a simpsons homage to the duck comics... but also got a bit weird and obscure with detours like the lost animnaics sucessor Histeria, the apocalyptic comedy where Santa dosen’t know how doors work Whoops! and the adventures of Santa’s bratty teen daughter jingle belle. In short.. it’s been a long year but damn has it been fun and there’s more to come. I’d like to thank all of you for reading, thank my Patreons Kev and Emma for supporting me, and thank my family for doing the same. So with that out of the way, I figured the best way to celebrate was to do something i’ve been wanting to do for a long time, something honoring the show that gave me this calling in the first place. And with Season 3 sadly being the last, and enough weeks having passed for me to digest it between the finale and today, I could think of nothing better than my top 12 episodes of Ducktales.

Ducktales is one of the best cartoons of the 2010′s. Brilliantly taking EVERYTHING that had come before, the comics, the original cartoon and every bit of duck media period to craft a masterful, unique and wonderful reboot. It was funny, it was insane, and it had damn good character arcs. By the end every member of the main cast along with major supporting cast members like Fenton, Drake and especially Lena, had changed and signifigantly at that. The show was everything I could’ve dreamed of and more and I miss it terribly, hoping DIsney will do a revivial movie at some point. For now though, Frank and Matt’s run on ducktales, as they called it and I do too since i’m a massive comic book nerd, it’s time to look back on my favorite tales of ducks. So grab your sharks, your number one dimes and your friendship cakes with clear gay undertones and join me under the cut as I celebrate one of my faviorite shows and my anniversary in the best way possible.

12. House of the Lucky Gander!

So as i’ve gone on about before and no doubt will again, Donald kinda got the short end of the stick in season 1. While Frank and Matt had good story intentions, keeping Donald away from adventure since he had no interest in it, in practice it meant a beloved Disney Icon who they and disney HEAVILY promoted as part of the series and whose being here this go round was a big draw for fans of the comics.... was only in a quarter of the season and only got TWO plots centered around him in 23 episodes, with only one being the main plot of the episode. The PIlot and Finale both centered around the family more as a whole if your curious how I counted those so while he got plenty of focus in both, it’s still not a day in the limelight sort of thing.

But unusually for Donald, he lucked out as his one big starring role for Season 1 was both one of my faviorites and one of Season 1′s most inventive outings. A lot of the episodes enegy comes from a one two punch of a great guest star and one of the series best settings. The guest star is of course everyone’s faviorite overly lucky himbo Gladstone Gander. The show adapted the prick perfectly: The original Gladstone from the comics.. was the worst asshole imaginable, utterly insufferable. And for a villian, and Donald’s rival, that’s all well and good.. but his super luck meant he RARELY , if ever, suffered any consequences for being just...

The 87 series simply made him nicer, while Going Quackers simply removed his luck. No adaptation really got how to make this fucker work.. until this one. Here Frank split the diffrence: Gladstone is still smug.. but he’s no longer actively malicious. While he is an insensitive prick to Donald in this one, unlike the comics he’s not constantly bragging about his luck or how great he is or actively BAITING Donald to fight with him or trying to ruin his relationship or a million other reasons he sucks and I hate him.

This version by contrast... is generous. He’s not the most empathetic, because he doesn’t get how life works, but he does share the riches of the casnio with everyone and in a cameo appearance in “Treasure of the Found Lamp” gladly offers his nephews some diamonds. He’s got a nice surface level charm to him that makes you understand why people like him.. but it’s also clear ther’es nothing UNDER that of value, making you equally understand why Scrooge and Donald hate him. Gladstone in this reboot is a perfect example of why we need reboots or new adaptations in the first place: Because sometimes the original got something wrong or something can be done much better by the new writers.

He’s perfectly paired with the setting: The House of Lucky Fortune, a mystical casino with an East Asian astatic based in the country of Macaw and provides two great plots. Donald’s really highlights his character: His understandable jealousy at gladstone earning the boys love through nothing while he struggles to make a living for them, and how he feels like a looser and like Gladstone is simply showing that off instead of just not knowing what empathy is. Having Louie be the one to bond with Gladstone was also just pitch pefefct, as is showing some depth for the boy by having himr ealize his hero is an asshole and be the one to help donald in the end.

The other plot is just pure joy though and is where the setting REALLY shines: Scrooge and the rest of the kids try to leave.. but can’t find the exit. This is where the creative part comes in: The Casino simply morphs to keep people trapped, and caters to them, giving them whatever they want to keep them trapped. In the cases of the kids it’s all hilarious and adorably in character: Huey becomes entranced by a fancy water show, in one of his best bits of the season, Dewey gets a pet tiger who sadly did not come home with him and Webby gets to live the dream we’ve all had of stuffing her face directly in a choclate fountain. Scrooge’s escape is likewise clever: He simply prepares to get a room.. then books it as the check in desk is ALWAYS near the front.

We then find out Gladston’es trapped get the whole mystical contest with absolutely gorgeous animation, i’ll talk about it in full some time but this episode is just a treat to watch, has a great arc for donald and had some memorable gags. I can’t help but smile when I watch it.

11. The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee! As I mentioned before i’m a superhero nerd so naturally Fenton was one of my faviorite parts of the show. Frank and Matt were just damn good at crafting superhero stories, and like gladstone improved fenton turning him from an awkward donald stand in to an awkward peter parker-esque science nerd who just wants to be a good person and the best hero he can be. He got into science not just because he thinks it’s neat, but because he honestly wants to help people and you can’t help but foot for him whenever he pops up. Lin Manuel Miranda is a large reason for that, bringing his incomparable a-game to the character. While we sadly didn’t get a ton of gizmoduck focused episodes, the fatct we got AS MANY as we did and that Lin didn’t drop out for a minute even with his busy schedule was a miracle and I’m acknowledging that.

As for why this one, I feel it builds brilliantly on the previous Fentoncentric episode Who Is Gizmoduck?! which just BARELY didn’t make this list and uses the fact we haven’t seen fenton in a while as both a plot point and to move some things forward without having to spend screentime they clearly didn’t have. By having Fenton be just burnt out on superheroics it finds a way to both explain where he’s been, he’s been busy with his new job, and give us an interesting angle to the old “superhero is tired of the life” thing. He never once complains about saving people or stuff... it’s just like any job it gets tiring after a while. As someone who has his dream job but has struggled with it from time to time, I vastly relate.

Though while I love my boy and Lin is game as always, the episodes real MVP is my other boy Huey. The episode has moved Huey up from being simply Fenton’s fanboy to being his best friend, and adorable as hell relationship. The two clearly respect and appricate each other and Huey is looking out for his buddy the whole episode. His love of love is also just really cute. Added in the mix is Webby, who in one of my faviorite gags of the series, finds out Fenton is Gizmoduck because Huey is incredibly and insanely blatant with his unecessary coverup. But she of course is game to help while Fenton is trying to play it casual. We also just get a waterfall of great gags as everyone overdoes it wingmanning for fenton: Huey sets up an itallian bistro and tries to purposfully create a lady and the tramp situation, and sings opera (With Manny on acordian), the wonderfully 80′s suit from Fenton’s dad his mom gives him to wear, and Launchpad, who gives us a tremendous list of his exes, and plays my favorite song of the series: It’s a Date, a micheal mcdonnel riff.

This episode also wisely ups Mark’s Beaks game as Fenton’s arch enemy, still keeping him hilaroius, with the guy acting like a bored teenager and guzzling so much nanite jucie he turns into a hulk, as well as said hulk mode leading to a ton of great gags from kidnapping the children (”I got your kids.. are they your kids? I don’t know how this family works), to “take that coach dad” to eating a pie with tins and all and wondering about said tins. But he’s an actual threat now, taking on fenton in one hell of a fight, and having an utterly transcendent scene where he hacks his way past gyro’s security while dancing.. and dabbing because of course he does. It’s a fun, well done character piece that’s mostly here for i’ts laugh but Fenton’s struggle with Gizmo overtaking his life, and finding out someone he truly hit it off iwth only wanted him for that.. it’s really good stuff and Lin’s delivery after Fenton finds out, the pure pain and betryal in his voice, is just excellent. Also that opera scene is poetry.

10. Quack Pack!

One of the episodes that started my career naturally landed here. Not for that reason though: Quack Pack is a fun riff on sitcoms, specifically the tgif ones of the 90′s that Disney Afternoon Kids no doubt also watched, the kinds Disney Channel still makes today, and most importanly the kind the Disney Afternoon itself made like Goof Troop and well... Quack Pack.

Riffs on sitcoms are nothing new and the last year has been FULL of them. 2020 gave us this episode, Beef House and the wonderful “The Perfect House” episode of Close Enough, and this year gave us WandaVision, my second favorite MCU project so far, right behind Black Panther, which used the sitcom deconstruction to create one hell of a character study.

So you’d think with a year having passed and this concept happening as an entire mini series would dull this one.. but no. it’s still damn funny, having fun at the cliches while, again like WandaVision, having one of the main cast be responsible by accident but go along with it. The episode pivots from glorious affectionate parody of cheesy sitcoms, to that plus horrifying “Humans”, and a character piece for Donald. This brings Donald’s hatred and fed up ness with adventure to a head revealing his fondest wish is just to have a normal life and not loose anyone again.

It takes one of his best friends to snap him out of it. Look Goofy is my second faviorite of the sensational seven, an episode with him was already an easy sell for me.. but the episode uses him really well. First for laughs as he’s gentically dispositioned to be a perfect sitcom neighbor.. but also for heart. With his family preoccupied and a bit hurt, i’ts Goofy who cuts to the heart of the issue, pointing out NO ONE is normal and even his normal domestic life raising Max, who we see go to prom with roxanne eeeeee, has all sorts of chaos. Normal is what you make of it and pining for some ideal that will never happen was just tearing donald apart piece by piece and by letting go of that.. he finally begins to grow as a person throughout the season. It’s also a great thematic tie in to the season’s overall plot with Bradford and what Makes donald, despite also disliking the chaos his family gets into, different. Donald accepted it and grew as a person.. Bradford clung to his hate and it ate him alive. Or turned him into a non-sapient kind of vulture. Before I close this part out Jaleel White is also excellent and I wish eh’d get back into voice acting. He’s so freaking good at it. Seriously man i’d love to see him and ben in a sonic property together as a mythology gag. Same with Jims cummings and carey. Just think about it whoever owns the sonic movies.. think about it.

9. The Last Adventure!

Look I knew this was coming, you knew this was coming. But it had to be on here. The Last Adventure is not perfect: The lack of a build up episode like the previous two finales had really hurt this one: even at about 70 minutes, it still feels rushed in places and Huey, one of hte main characters of the season, dosen’t feel like he has a full payoff to his character like Dewey and Louie got.

But despite those flaws.. this episode is just a damn good ending. Almost everyone gets a big moment paying off their character arc, everyone in the party that comes to rescue webby and huey, along with the two themselves, gets a moment to show off, and everything comes together to give us one last epic sendoff. There’s just moment stacked on moment stacked on moment from Launchpads heroic second wind and donning of the gizmoduck armor, to Webby’s tearful confrontation with Beakley, to Huey using the greatest adventure of all line to foil bradford in one of the most deligfhully nuts moments of the series, I could go on for days with just how triumphant this finale felt. While it left a lot of doors open.. that feels like part of the design. It’s the end of the fight with FOWL.. but our heroes will never stop adventuring, never stop going and never stop being in our hearts and the curtain call at the end is now my faviorite bit of end credits ever, perfectly giving the main cast and friends one last chance to take a bow in their own unique ways. I will always miss this show but I will never be disapointed by the note it went out on.

8. The 87 Cent Solution!

Look some episodes are show stoppers, some are heartfelt tearjerkers, some are all this and more.. and some episodes are just clever and hilarious. The 87 Solution is the second funniest episode of Ducktales with me and my go to episode when watching the show. It’s just pure fun and with a clever premise: Scrooge notices 87 cents have gone missing, and already coming down with a cold, goes mad with paranoia as the kids slowly don face masks, something that has become even eeerier given everything, one by one realizing he needs to stop.

While David Tennant is an EXCELLENT dramatic actor, his comedy timing is really something that shoudln’t be ignored and i’ts on full display here as his performance gets more and more deranged, to thep oint he thinks an 8th dimensional imp is repsonsible. He nicely balances the disturbing side of Scrooge’s paranoia, his distancing from his family, with plenty of great gags about it too, the standout being when he offers 2 million dollars to whoever took the money like he’s publicly appeasing kidnappers. It’s fucking brilliant.

But while David is awesome as ever what really, truly makes the episode is my boy, one of my faviorite characters on the show if not my single faviriote FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Keith Ferguson is ALWAYS a dream as the character but this is his best performance by far. Part of this is the addition of Zan Owlson, Kev who I mentioned earlier’s faviorite Ducktales character. She’s not only throughly likeable in her own right, but provides the one thing Flinty was missing; a straight man.. or woman in this case. Scrooge wasn’t TERRIBLE in the roll, but can easily step away from his shit or foil it. Owlson has to put up with Glomgold’s nonsense while desperatly trying to stop him from undoing all her hard work with sheer force of jackass. The two jut play off each other brilliantly, Glomgold not getting sh’es not his employee but his equal and Owlson constnatly snarking at him.

And of course both things hit their peak in the climax with the family staging a fake funeral (Though no one told donald it was fake), and we get the funniest scene in the entire fucking show as Glomgold burts in in a white suit, money shades and full dance number to “All I Do Is Win’, which when first watching this I was convinced the song was somehow accidnetly on in the background but nope. They got it after using it in the test phase and the scene is better for it. Glomgold twerking on Scrooge’s casket, trying to get on it to dance, and having to be placated like ac hild is the icing on this very rich cake

And the reveal scene is also gold as Glomgold gets into a YEARLONG staring contest with a baby, fails to steal more than the 87 cents and, in my faviorite touch, put on an imp costume just to make scrooge seem crazier... then keeps the damn thing on the rest of the time for no explicable reason. The episode is the show at it’s comedic peak while giving Glomgold a chance to be a genuine threat and that’s Glomgood.

7. Let’s Get Dangerous!

Frank’s Rebooted Version of Darkwing Duck is probably his greatest achivment with the show. While this show is a team effort, something I slowly realized as I reviewed the show, it’s very clear from the way he talks, how well he knows the show and how much effort was put into porting Darkwing into the reboot that this was his baby. While redefining ducktales for the 2010′s was clearly a huge dream of his... doing the same for the master of suprise was an even bigger goal. And as a huge fan of superheroes i’ve seen my fair share of half assed takes on laired and complex characters. The XCU alone is one giant grab bag of missed opportunities for me.

So i’ts no exageration when I tell you Frank.. nailed it. In one of the most brilliant moves i’ve seen for a superhero work Frank worked his love of the show into the reboot.. by having Darkwing have been a show, one Launchpad loved.. and so did Drake, who was inspried by the show to become an inspriation himself and while his attempt to do that through a zack snydery reboot failed, Launchpad encouraged him to do it for real. Drake was still himself, but the meta aspect and the toning down of some of darkwing’s more obnoxious traits that didn’t work in a universe that, while patently rediciulous still took it’s characters seriously, he made a BETTER version of the character.

This is where all that comes to it’s peak, and hoppefully convinced Disney to let Frank , and possibly matt, run the reboot. And no, even if Point Grey is producing that dosen’t stop that: Thanks to Invincible i’ve now realized that Seth and his friend Evan producing the show dosen’t mean it’ll be RAN by them, nor unrelated to this. It just means their helping make it and if anything given how lush and gorgeous invincible’s animation is, it’s a VERY good sign their helping out with it if it’s true.

But wether this versoin continues or not, Frank gave it his best shot. Part of his diffrent angle is having Drake as a rookie here and as such here we see him truly struggle: he’s had his origin, he ahs the cape, he has the gadgets (in a brilliant turn thanks to fenton, who he actually likes... but is so far the ONLY person to not get he’s Gizmoduck), and the city.. but no crime to fight and no real idea how to go about his lifelong dream. The events of the episode slowly shape him: WHile he already had the spirit for darkwing, never giving up, looking good in a cape etc, this episode gives him the heart the same way it gave his original it: With Gosalyn. Dimantopolis and Beatriz just play off each other perfectly, as the two go from neimies to slowly bonding as Drake realizes this kid needs him and that he needs to fight for more than just filing the ohle inside, and goes to hell and back to help her get her grandpa back, with one of the best moments of the episode to me being when Launchpad helps her realize how hard he’s been working at it, an exausted drake refusing to acccept that he can’t get her grandpa back because he promised. He grows from simply trying to live the dream.. to surpassing the original. We also see more from Launchpad, who grows into his new family and helps push his boyfriend and newa dopted daughter in the right directions. The episode really evolves these characters from the simple disney afternoon versions, who while awesome were made into fully fleshed out characters. Gosalyn still has her edge but now has a hard lesson to learn about doing the right thing, forced to give up someone she loves for the greater good but finding a new family in the process.

Part of what makes the episode work though as while it is funcitonally one big darkwing duck reboot pilot that’s awesome, heartrending and a joy to watch... it’s still a ducktales episode in parts without either part hurting each other. Huey plays a vital role, figuring the ramrod is too good to be true.. and discovering just how it is, then when captured, slowly unravling why Bradford’s there and being at least in part responsible for outing him as a FOWL agent. While this is largely Drakes story the rest of the cast is still vital to it: Scrooge trusting in huey, Louie serving as his logical counter and Dewey meanwhile bonding with team darkwing and helping Gosalyn, knowing exactly where she’s been and providing a nice foil. The episode is just one long and impressive love letter to the original show while creating it’s own thing and that’s really this reboot in a nutshell. It also has some of the best fights of the series, with the first fight between darkwing and bulba, where our hero, unlike his original counterpart, easily troucnes bulba using his speed and skill, is the standout.

6. Woo-Ooo!

I covered this one recently so I won’t go on for too long.. but I will say I hold this one up as the gold standard for first episodes. In one hour, hell even in jus the first half we get a sense of the whole cast, the tone of the show, and the world we’ve been thrust into. It gets all the table setting out of the way by weaving it into a compelling story of Scrooge getting back in the game, finding a reason to get back to what he does best in those he loves most and setting up the season long arc effortlessly in the process. The worst I can say about the episode is it sets the bar a bit high for Season 1 and a lot of the first half really struggled to reach these heights. This episode is a masterwork and the perfect showcase for what the series would be at it’s height.

5. Moonvasion!

Speaking of Golden Standards, Moonvasion is one of the best season finale’s i’ve seen. it’s not THE best.. but that’s a really high bar to clear and that spots currently taken in my heart by “The Crossroads of Destiny” from Avatar the Last Airbender. But while not the best of it’s kind, it’s sitll the best the series put out and is an utterly satisfying epic that ties up season 2.

While I love the Last Adventure, it had a LOT to tie up and was really hampered by having to do all of that with no direct lead in. Moonvasion by contrast hits the ground running with the Moonlanders arriving on earth and all hell breaking loose, and the episode itself breaking into two stellar plots. Scrooge leading an army of every ally he has against the invaders, and Della seemingly going for reinforcements.. but really just trying to keep the kids safe from it, to their anger once they find out.

Both sides end up going badly: Scrooge looses most of his army as Lunaris was one step ahead of him and is left iwth Beakly and Launchpad, while Della ends up marooned.. and finds Donald. The reunion between the two is the highlight of the special, as the two argue as you’d expect (And Dewey cutting in seemingly to stop it.. only to rant at Donald for costing him “ten years of turbo” is the best gag of the episode), before embracing.

Our heroes naturally find ways to bounce back though. Louie, capping off his growth for the season, convinces his mom they can’t just hide.. and in the second best scene of the episode sings the lullabye she wrote.. one Donald sung them every night

And no sooner than Della gets her step back and realizes that dangerous or not she and her newly reunited family have to get back in there, do the cousins show up on Fethry’s giant shrimp/girlfriend Mitzi, and our heroes head back.

Scrooge’s plot hits i’ts peak though as he’s forced to accept the help of an unlikely and unwelcome ally: Glomgold, who turns out to be exactly what they need: While his plan is as stupid, short sighted and insane as you’d expect, complete with forcing Scrooge to dress up as santa just to piss him off and dressing his sharks in parkas (”I call them sharkas”), the sheer lonacy throws Lunaris off as he dosen’t know how to deal with this and Glomgold not only gets the better of him but gets his company back as part of his scheme. “You were prepared for our best but not our dumbest!” “And i’m the dumbest theirs ever been! Muahahahaha! Wait...”

And of course our other heroes arrive just in time to save things.. and the episode still manages to pull off what many works struggle to, something tha’ts very hard to: a SECOND climax. Lunaris decides to just say fuck it and blow up the earth and i’ts up to our core family to kick his ass in space. Epic space battles, Della’s girlfriend meeting the family and more insues and an emotoinal, action packed and fully satisfying finale is had by all... and it’s all topped with one of the best sequel hooks i’ve ever seen as FOWL makes themselves known to us.. and prepares to strike.

4. How Santa Stole Christmas! This one will also be short as i’ve talked about this one.. a lottttt. The initial review, my best christmas specials list and my best of 2020 list. I stand by all of that: this is a unique and wonderful christmas special, i’ll be watching it every year, and i’ts full of charm, humor and gay subtext. In short it’s this series but on christmas footing.

3. Last Crash of the Sunchaser!

Another one I covered very recently, this episode is a master piece of suspense, slowly building tension as our heroes get closer and closer to the truth about Della.. and to death, the simple but deadly stakes making this an absolute nailbiter from start to finish. This is some of the series best pacing bar none... but what seals it is the ending: the masterful flashback finally explaning whatever happened to Della duck, our heroes lashing out at each other.. all cumilating in the best Scene of the show. I said it might be in the review but no I can confirm: Scrooge bitterly ruminating over things while we find out just how much he’s lost... ending with him tearfully and angrily sitting once again alone in one hell of a powerful shot echoing Scrooge’s first apperance. Damn fine stuff.

2. Escape from The Impossbin Only one episode not only matches Last Crash in mounting tension and atmosphere but suprasses it. With FOWL and Bradford’s true nature now out in the wind, this episode uses that to create tension and rattles it’s two most unshakable characters: SCrooge’s normal boundless confidence is shot, not sure he can win this time against an opponent who knows him as well as he knows himself while Beakly slowly unravels, pitting Webby against the boys.. and pitting herself against Webby when Webby sees her terroizing them is only dividing them. Both plots start out funny enough but slowly escalate in tension and stakes until by the end your on the edge of your seat. The Beakly plot is the standout of the two, giving Bentina the starring role she badly needed, having gotten even better in light of the finale. Everyone is at the top of their game and everything builds up to one hell of a twist ending and one hell of a badass boast from our heroes: Their down.. but their far from out and this is far from over.

1. Nightmare On Kimotor Hill!

I”ll be reviewing this episode in full later this week as part of my Lena retrospective, but I stand by putting it up top. This episode is ducktales in it’s purest form and focuses on it’s best original character as Lena grapples with her self hatred and her past. That core helps anchor an amazing concept: going into the Kid’s dreams and finding out their greatest desires. The results.. are all gloriously rediclous and are easily the best gags of hte series as a whole: Dewey’s high school musical santa claus is going ot high school nonsense from getting a’s in Dewology to running away from the abstract concept of a love intrest, to not getting the sybolism of himself crying a moon made of his own tears. Louie quite literally becoming garfield, and my faviorite scene of the show: Huey, wanting to be the tall older brother..g iving himself horrifcly long leg. While everyone else is just understandably baffled, what makes the scene is the banter between Dewey and Huey, with Schwartz and Pudi at their best as Dewey first freaks out and then asks what the hell man, while Huey defends his weird decision (”I”m not good at imagination stuff okay!”), and then tries to get a jar of pickles. Each dream is just so oddly and wonderfully specific to each kid and each one of the triplests dreams, as well as violets being color coded down tot he backgrounds is a very nice touch. The visuals here are just peak ducktales, using the setting for all it’s worth and the climax is utterly emotoinal and heartbreaking... and Lena’s break from her abuser, finally realizing she has the power now is not only a wonderful metaphor... but also just so damn cathartic. And that’s why this one’s the best to me personally: it just packs so much into 20 minutes: some of the series best and most creative jokes, a gripping emtoinal arc, and so much more. It’s just that damn good and tha’ts why it’s the best... that and starting Huelet for me. Seriously that LIbrary scene is so fucking cute.

Thank you all for reading. If you liked this artcle, join my patreon and help me get to my stretch goal for monthly darkwing duck reviews, a review of super ducktales and more after! Until the next rainbow... it’s been a pleasure.

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tundrainafrica · 4 years ago

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Hi, i saw some time ago you compared Royai to Levihan, would you mind elaborating more on their similarities? I ship both and looking at they compared blow my mind

YES. Beautiful ask anon! As always, sorry for only getting into this now, my inbox is still a mess I am currently trying to make sense of. But legit, I could talk about this for hours. Cause I’m that fucking simp who just randomly goes on Youtube and watches the Riza breakdown vs. Lust scene just to see some GREATTT acting and some great crumbs.

So anyway, will be moving on now to this really long and--mind you--uncurated rant.

Disclaimer though: Although I have watched all the fullmetal stuff, from the first anime, to brotherhood to the manga and have lurked in the fanfiction sites long before (like fam, this anime is literally my childhood it’s such a big part of my life that when I hear ‘mustang’ I think of roy mustang not the car), but at this point, the main story line for me is a blur and I probably just remember only the Roy scenes and the Royai scenes well.

I was not a big fan of Edwin for multiple reasons.

Warning: Spoilers abound for FMA so read at your own risk. And for people who watch FMA but not AOT, spoilers abound for AOT is well.

So there are a lot of similarities between Levihan and Royai and I think this is the reason why Levihan definitely appealed to me a lot as a couple. Royai after all was my OG ‘I think I wanna be in this type of relationship’ type of couple.

Military Setting

I’ve always found these types of relationships interesting cause I like to think, you’re in such a high stakes and very stringent atmosphere where you could die at any moment and you’re constantly doing such morally grey things. And with that, people have the tendency to either close in on themselves and just keep to themselves or just go crazy over time. Yet you have people who find the time to form CLOSE and almost ROMANTIC bonds with your fellow soldiers

And I just like the process of exploring how this happens. And you know what makes it juicier?

2. The commander to the subordinate dynamic (with a twist)

The boss to the follower dynamic because Royai and Levihan are both incredibly healthy and stable relationships but they both come from something taboo right? A commander to subordinate relationship? So we ask ourselves? How did they both make it work?

Well, what I notice is despite the implied respect Riza and Levi both hold for Roy and Hange respectively, due to their positions in the military, do you notice Hange and Roy still have respect over Levi and Riza’s opinions. I cannot remember all the scenes in both shows but remember that scene where Riza would just stop Roy half way into fighting when it’s raining because sometimes he does forget that he can’t do his fire thing when it’s raining? It shows obviously that Riza could undermine his decisions if she finds them completely idiotic or out of the blue. Or that scene where Roy was curbstomping Envy when he found out Envy killed Hughes?

So, the thing is Levi and Hange worked like this too. Even before Hange became commander, I think there was an already implied hierarchical difference between being ‘squad leader’ and being ‘team captain.’ Squad leader’s are generally in a higher position and command a much larger group and do you see how Levi approaches Hange? Like when telling her off about risking her life when trying to capture the titan?

And even when she was commander, that telepathy scene?? Can we appreciate, that when Hange became commander (compared to when Erwin was commander), Levi took the reins of a lot of the leading in the survey corps, as if he understood his job wasn’t just to follow Hange but to take care of her?

Like I’m sure Riza saw her job more as a caretaker to Roy more than his subordinate and seeing this in Levihan was just fantastic.

And another thing I love about both of them...

3. They were just the two competent level headed people

This is such a trope for me. I cannot handle couples where someone is just not competent or is so obviously underpowered compared to the other. Like I want them to be able to handle themselves without the other. And even when they’re alone they’re doing shit and you just find out later, by the way I have this bf/gf/partner who is equally competent. But when we’re together we just share one brain cell because we can practically melt when we’re safe with the other.

And the thing is since they’re in a military setting we don’t see them ‘practically melt,’ we can usually just pick out the crumbs (ehem 126), and the fact that these crumbs are such rare gems, makes it all the jucier.

And here’s the thing, in animes and in stories, this ‘competent people’ couple is usually supporting cast cause I dunno? Nobody wants to hear about the competent couple who just figured out they like each other and they just like hanging out with each other for some reason?

And most adventure stories are underdog stories where we watch people start of as dead weight and get stronger which is not boring per se but I dunno, these couples usually dont’ appeal to me fsr because I’m all for the power couple dynamic and the protagonists always have something going on making them doubt their strength so yeah. And there’s usually this token love interest who’s not as strong and tries not to be useless but is kinda dead weight.

4. Their special abilities?

Levi and Hange are a power couple the way Roy and Riza are. When these two couples were introduced into their respective stories, they were all well established as bad asses. We have humanity’s strongest, humanity’s smartest then in FMA we have the flame alchemist one of the strongest alchemists and we have Riza who’s crazy good with a gun.

5. They were never that in your face couple

As said above, I really love competent people ships but nobody really likes reading about people being competent and having their level headed shit together so these characters end up with more of supporting character energy who have their ‘big damn heroes’ moments where they swoop in and save the protagonist.

And the thing is, since they’re supporting characters, there’s so much more room to move when contemplating such couples because the crumbs are there? But at the same time they’re not there? And since I like exploring my own headcanons about those ‘boring’ yet incredibly stable and mature relationships, these tend to be my favorite characters to shoehorn into my spotify playlists.

Edwin and Eremika respectively have more ‘in your face’ crumbs and I dunno, their crumbs for me always seemed to be too obviously there where I was like ‘okay cute relationship’ but ‘I wouldn’t wanna be in a relationship like that’ kinda way.

And since main protagonist romantic subplots crumbs are already ‘in my face’ I end up thinking to myself, what’s there to headcanon?

And like they go through so much more problems romance wise since obviously they are the protagonist. But I guess for me, I never liked those couples who were so obviously together and go through problems that bystanders are aware of. Because I dunno, people might not agree with me but it doesn’t sit well with me when EVERYBODY knows about the problems between two certain people in a relationship.

I always liked those couples who just start off as two people hanging out together and then like five years you find out, they live together and have five cats and it turns out they’ve been married for two of those three years.

And power couples just make it work? Because the stories tend to focus on them being competent people more than being in love so when the coupling actually happens it’s like:

“Wow you live together and have five cats, you worked so hard for it, I’m so happy for you.”

Instead of you know, watching people go through like 3456 instances of miscommunication drama just to end up in a still seemingly doubtful relationship.

6. Iconic scenes for Levihan and Royai?

And here’s the beautiful thing about the crumbs of both of these ships, they are incredibly apparent when the stakes are high and this is *chef’s kiss.* This is literally the climax, the peak to such subtle crumbs. Like okay, fine it’s satisfying to see the main protagonist and their main love interest doing shit and loving each other when the stakes are high like in Season 2 of AOT with Mikasa thinking she’s gonna die so she confesses to Eren or maybe that Naruto and HInata scene in the Pain Arc where Hinata just pops in and saves Naruto and kinda dies in the process

But can we all agree that there is something very very very satisfying about seeing two people who are probably not or are probably dating just going crazy for each other when the stakes are high? Like yo, come on.

My favorite scenes for Royai: The Lust fight scene, the Envy fight scene and lastly, the scene where Roy opens the gates to save Riza and goes blind. Can we just appreciate the fact that Roy risked his Colonel dreams to save Riza by going blind??

And for Levihan? I’m sure Levihans are tired of hearing the chapter numbers but 115? That’s fucking iconic, Hange ltierally jumped into the river with Levi and please tell me that is not a parallel to Roy opening the gates for an already half dead Riza. Mind you, Hange did not even know if Levi would make it or not and she probably didn’t know if she would make it or not either. Any of the soldiers could have literally just shot into the river and nicked them with bullets. She just literally abandoned everything and wooshed to the river.

And I had this convo with a few other people and we were thinking about what if it was anyone else who found Levi. And we came to the conclusion that IT HAD TO BE HANGE. Because somehow, I feel like Hange would have been one of the only few, if not the only one who would have gathered up the courage to jump into the river and risk their own life to save Levi.

And for the next part... Disclaimer: This is just my opinion, please let’s not start a ship war.

Like with the war on twitter “Levihan vs. Eruri,” I started to reflect as well on whether or not Erwin would have saved Levi if he was there instead of Hange but I think it is less likely that Erwin would have saved Levi. Erwin probably wouldn’t have agreed with the rumbling definitely but I cannot help but think, Erwin approached his commander position like a chess master and with this, approached Levi as a superior while Hange approached Levi as an equal and a best friend.

So if, saving Erwin was just going to mess with plans let’s say to manipulate the Yaegerists for some greater purpose, would Erwin have just let Levi die?

7. The magic is no one fits Roy or Riza perfectly.

I had these same thoughts with Shikatema vs. Levihan and now Royai vs. Levihan. So comparing their dynamics, I just have to say, that none of them fit each other perfectly. Hange has Riza and Roy crumbs and Levi has Riza and Roy crumbs too.

Like Roy is some ridiculously strong (Levi) superior (Commander Hange) with a seemingly goofy personality (Hange). Riza is the subordinate (Levi) who’s equally reliable but not as overpowered (Hange) with a very strict but very obviously emotionally constipated personality (Levi)

Like if you put Levihan in some of the token Royai moments. Like the Lust fight? I think Levi would have done something similar to Riza. Okay, he wouldn’t have broken down right then but he would have done something similar to what Roy did when he found out Envy killed Hughes.

I’m convinced Hange would have had a breakdown which is more of an in between between what Roy (Envy fight) and Riza (Lust fight) had in their respective fights. I mean 115 is proof enough that Hange ain’t playing when her bebeluvs is in danger.

8. And towards the end of the series?

Okay this is where the comparisons just kinda diverge because this part makes me sad. In the end game, Royai worked together. Riza became the eyes of Roy when he was making shit explode in the final battle coz he was blind.

And Hange and Levi were completing each other towards the of the AOT end right? Not just with the jian bird references with having parallel injuries. In the final battle though when Levi was out of commission due to the explosion, Hange was the one fighting with the crew until 132. And the moment she died, Levi stepped up and fought right?

Like they had something similar going on, where these two were covering for each other and taking care of the kids. It’s just that compared to Royai who were explicitly working together, we have Hange covering for Levi right after he got injured and Levi stepping up to cover for Hange after she died.

AND I can’t help but think, literally post time skip just could not handle Levihan working together huh? Is that how competent Levi and Hange are as soldiers that Yams couldn’t let them work together just one last time? Like he knew it would mess with the story if he lets Levi and Hange lead at full power?

Which brings me to last point, and the point that makes me saddest.

9. About them being endgame?

Okay, so it wasn’t confirmed that Roy and Riza ended up together because Roy still had his fuhrer goals but AT LEAST THEY HAD A CHANCE? Like their last scene in the show was still them together? And Riza still at least got to follow him?

Levihan… They just… shit just happened and we all know what happened and now I’m reading fanfiction and crying over fcitoonal characters to pass the quarantine.

Anyway, if you reached this point, thank you for reading. And thank you for the question anon!

#levihan #meta #royai

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imaginesandinserts · 4 years ago

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Hey there! I have a cold and it got me thinking, how do Hotch and Reader deal with sickness? How do they help each other and how do they help Jack?

Oof, I am so sorry. I hope you feel better soon!!! Sending lots of good wishes for a quick recovery.

Also...this is almost 2K words of an answer. I got a tad carried away.

*SPOILER ALERT for Irreverent*

Hotch

Aaron will not admit that he is sick. Ever. The man would literally rather collapse on the job than admit that he's sick and get some rest.

She didn't know this about him until she sees him sick for the first time during her first couple of years with the team. He'd gone and caught a cold and was nursing a cough and sniffles that he was trying to hide in vain during a case. His nose is all red and worn dry from the hotel tissues he's using that are stuffed into his jacket pockets and the man is running purely on coffee. It wouldn't occur to him to go and get medicine for himself. That's time away from the case.

Everyone on the team noticed - it was hard not to. However, they're all trying not to say anything because he's Hotch and it would likely be wasted breath. Rossi tells him to go rest once and is ignored so he lets it go because Aaron is a grown man.

She makes Morgan stop at a pharmacy on the way back to the precinct from witness interviews, saying she needs some girl items and buys the Day Time and Night Time cough syrup, cough drops, the nice tissues with the lotion so his nose won't be all dried out, and some cans of soup because they're in the middle of nowhere on this case and she wouldn't trust the local restaurants much.

They get back to the precinct and its late so the team is wrapping up for the night and they all head back to the hotel. Hotch is a little surprised to see her following him to his room instead of going to hers and asks what she's doing. She just says she needs to talk to him about something, knowing he'd protest at her trying to take care of him, especially in front of other people.

They get into his room and he'd really just been looking forward to a hot shower and going to bed, so he's actually a little annoyed that she wants to talk about something right now, especially as he can feel a migraine coming on.

She tosses everything out onto the bed and practically orders him to go shower and tells him if he wants her to leave, he's going to have to do it himself, because she won't leave on her own until she's seen him take the meds and have some soup that she's already pouring out into a bowl and heating up for him.

Hotch isn't quite used to this level of aggressively being taken care of and is ready to tell her off but she's looking at him so entirely defiantly, as though daring him to even try, and she's doing it because she cares and it's nice. She's doing something nice. Also like yeah, soup sounds kind of good…

So he goes and showers and comes back to a hot bowl of soup that she watches him finish, while pretending not to be and acting like she's just looking at something on her phone. She knows he doesn't really want to talk right then and the silence with Hotch isn't really awkward silence so they just sit there while he drinks soup and she sits on top of the desk and pretends she's ignoring him with the TV on in the background. He's letting the soup warm him up and tuning out the news anchor while wondering why she can't sit on normal surfaces - like what is that even about? Would it kill her to use a chair or just sit on the bed like why is it on top of the goddamn desk? He has half a mind to ask her about that but that sounds like it's going to turn into some sort of argument and he hasn't the energy for it.

"I'm done," he'd say, showing off his empty bowl of soup for her inspection. She tells him good job and it gives him an odd fuzzy feeling inside even though he tells himself she was only saying it jokingly. Except her tone wasn't joking and why did it feel good to have her say that to him? He didn't need her approval. She worked for him, not the other way around. He's a little too out of it to really think more about that particular thing though.

She pours out the Night Time cough syrup for him, way past the line on the little plastic cup and hands it to him to take. He's too tired to question it and allows himself to be essentially roofied into a deep sleep. The last thing he hears before he knocks out is her whispered "Good night Hotch" before she slips out the door. He ends up having a bit of a lie in the next morning and wakes up to a blueberry muffin on his nightstand and a poured out dosage of the orange colored Day Time syrup along with a note telling him that the team went ahead and when he's ready, to give her a call so she can come pick him up.

After that, he knows better than to try hiding that he's sick from her, but he'll pretty much only let her baby him a bit, while still being scary boss man around everyone else. He also will now only buy the tissues she got because wow the lotion really did make a difference and there's a couple of the travel pack versions that sit in his go bag always, just in case.

Babying him became a whole lot easier once they were actually together and after that Aaron really does openly just tell her that he's sick because she'll brush her fingers through his hair and just make him all comfy and cozy as much as possible and yeah he doesn't like other people doing stuff for him, but she does it so well and she really truly enjoys taking care of it and will get mad at him if he tries to hide it from her, so really its just easier to be upfront about it. Or at least that's what he tells himself.

Reader

She hardly ever does get sick, but when she does it's awful. She's miserable and she'll be the whiniest little baby about it, falling asleep on just about anyone. She doesn't want to be coddled and she doesn't want soup. She just wants to sleep the sickness away.

Before they were together, she was sick during a case once - it has literally only happened one time that she's been sick while actively on a case and it was after their fight and subsequent resolution but prior to them getting together.

Unlike Hotch, she's not resistant to medication and is more than willing to just drug herself and knock out and she recovers much faster than he does because she'll start taking the medications immediately.

Hotch was seriously concerned that she had narcolepsy, from the number of times he found her simply passed out when she didn't actively have something to do. He kept her with him at the precinct the entire time, deciding (wisely) that maybe handling a firearm in the field wasn't the best thing for her or anyone else at the moment.

She's a lot more touchy than he is, even prior to them dating and especially after they make up, they were so far along in their relationship as just friends that her simply sleeping leaned against him just does not phase him anymore (mind you, this is after they basically spent a night on his couch together - after that nothing much could phase him).

The team comes back to the conference room with Hotch sitting on the couch that's there, and her laying down with her head in his lap and his one hand playing with her hair as his other is holding one of the case files. He's painfully aware of how intimate it all looks and she's asleep so only he has to deal with everyone's reactions, so before they can say anything, he quickly shushes all of them and tells them to only talk if they have something important to share. He suffers through all of their little whispers and snide comments and side glances while she sleeps peacefully, blissfully unaware.

The team as a whole has this odd agreement to not mention any of this to her. They all know - they can tell how easy it is for her and Hotch around one another. However, they all think she needs to come to the realization herself. Hotch wouldn't appreciate the meddling and she's still the baby of the group so they're all just a little protective - Hotch is great and they all trust him but she's also young and they're careful to not push her towards something that maybe wouldn't occur to her otherwise. She's not the kind of person to pine and sit on information of that nature if she's aware of it, so they all know that she doesn't even know yet. This is evident by how quickly she initiates after the realization does hit her. She definitely goes after what she wants.

Jack

Jack loves sick days because that means one of them will stay home with him and coddle him and he's a kid that loves to cuddle so he'll easily climb into either of their laps and just snuggle because that feels safest when he's not feeling great.

Aaron is the exact opposite with Jack than he is for himself. He's very much like her taking care of him - all the meds and tissue and soup. Aaron handles it all wonderfully and makes sure that Jack is comfy and recovering well.

If Jack is lucky, he gets them both in which case Aaron runs logistics and she cuddles him and they'll read together or watch movies. If it's just Aaron on his own, Jack is a little clingier and will want to go with him to the kitchen and stuff while the soup is made and when he was younger, Aaron would balance him on one hip while handling everything else with the other hand. Once he's older, he's set on the island and watched carefully to make sure he finishes his food and if his symptoms show any signs of changing.

Much like her, Jack doesn't need much while he's sick, content to just doze off to something gentle while sprawled across either his father's chest or her lap.

#aaron hotchner #criminal minds #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x you #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds reader insert #irreverentseries #hotch x you #hotch x reader

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