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psyga315 · 5 years ago

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Fixing RWBY Volume 4

Volume 4 is… interesting, to say the least. It is obviously a breather volume, but at the same time, it tries to hammer home that every character is suffering to some degree. It also tries to do a sort of Game of Thrones-style “location-based arcs”, where multiple plots unfold across different areas. The only problem is that not everyone gets that spotlight. I can point you guys to the scene where Ruby sees Jaune training and nothing comes of it.

This is where I was beginning to see the problems of RWBY (dropped out midway through Volume 1 and only picked it back up before Volume 3), but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where exactly. Some critics have pointed to Volume 4 as a place where things begin to fall apart, especially in regards to Blake’s character. Then again, she was drawing pictures of the man who abuses her so…

As such, I’m going to tackle this Volume and try to tweak it so that it’s better. As before, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel or slap unneeded characters around. At this point, the only biggest change was Hazel’s appearance earlier in the show. With that in mind, we should begin with a meta-story first.

Keep Moving Forward

Volume 3 was a success and hype for Volume 4 was at its peak. Because RT managed to sell the idea that RWBY was gonna get dark way earlier than they did, I don’t see them using RWBY Chibi for anything other than training people to use Maya. Although there were plenty of animators from Volume 2.5 that used Maya, the ones RT picked out had experience with Poser and thus, they need to bridge the gap before the big Volume.

Around the same time, Miles and Kerry begin to realize that they’ve undertaken a rather ambitious task. Realizing the limit of their age earlier than they did (no joke, part of the reason the Faunus subplot got ditched was because they considered themselves too young and inexperienced to properly tackle it), they had an emergency meeting to figure out how to handle this Volume.

One solution was to simply keep the girls separated for one or two episodes before they’re reunited, nipping the problem in the bud and allowing the plot to continue. Miles insists that there should be a longer degree of separation. After all, all these girls have been traumatized and this isn’t going to be a simple pat on the back for them. The idea is then extended to one volume, to which Kerry suggests that the girls spend two Volumes separated. One where they’re getting over their trauma and the other where they’re doing something about their situation.

Instantly, the idea sticks and plans for both Volumes 4 & 5 began to take shape. Now comes the question of how to handle the high concept of four, maybe five plots going on at once. I’d assume that, with the Volume 2.5 thing, RT would have a lot of animators they could call upon. And so, a means to tackle the idea was formed: Much like how RWBY split up, so too should their animators. Miles and Kerry would continue to write scripts for the episode (barring suggestions from each animation team) and the four animation teams would handle their respective arc.

We have Team Mistral, the main team that deals with all the RNJR scenes and scenes that don’t involve the other members of RWBY, such as Salem’s Lot and Oscar. Then we have Team Atlas, who handles Weiss’s scenes. Team Menagerie handles Blake’s and Team Patch deals with Yang’s.

M&K also decide, this time, that, if they’re going to get serious, they should at least set up some sort of timeline. This leads to a month of brainstorming between them and other members of the crew to figure out what sort of hijinx would happen in a 6-8-month timespan and more importantly, how the saga would unfold. Should it all be at the same time or split across different points? Miles argues that it’d get too confusing, so at the same time would do.

They also decided to plot out how Volume 4 would unfold. Each episode will have RNJR as a major focus, with the members of RWBY sharing focus each episode. The way it works would be as follows:

· Episodes 1, 11, and 12 would focus on RNJR and WBY.

· Episodes 2, 5, & 8 would focus on Weiss.

· Episodes 3, 6, & 9 would be on Blake.

· Episodes 4, 7, & 10 would be on Yang.

· Some episodes would sprinkle in scenes of Salem’s Lot and Oscar.

This obviously messes up the flow of Volume 4, but at the same time, it would give everyone proper focus instead of randomly across the entire volume.

With the hype of Volume 4 reaching critical mass, it premieres on October of 2017 (remember, they delayed Volume 3 by a year to get the additional animators) and this is how Volume 4 would be tweaked…

Salem’s Arc

The first thing we see is Salem’s group celebrating their victory over Beacon while berating Cinder over getting injured. Salem destroys any vague wording she had given in the original and outright says that the method of which Cinder took her powers was considered unnatural and that she did not expect Ozpin to have a Silver-Eyed Warrior in his academy. Hopefully the audience can put two and two together that she’s talking about the Grimm-

[cue that clip of the audience reacting to the Volume 4 trailer and someone shouting “IT’S SUMMER!”]

… Salem explicitly points out that Cinder used the Grimm and that’s why she got fucked up by the Silver Eyes.

Most of these scenes stay as they are with the exception of Hazel being the new member of the group and thus be introduced to Watts and Tyrian, the latter of which being the one who saved Cinder last Volume. Hazel shows some remorse to the Fall of Beacon (to the point where he takes over Emerald saying “it’s almost sad” from last Volume) but when Salem says Ozpin was killed, he is relieved. At least something good came from the bloodshed.

Another change would be that Salem assigns Watts to Atlas instead of Haven. Her reasoning is that, with the CCT being down, she’d need to find a means to see what’s happening in Atlas. Watts understands and prepares a transport to Mantle, knowing he can hack into it with relative ease. When Hazel gets his assignment to talk with Sienna Khan, he asks if Tyrian would be a better choice, since… Y’know, Faunus. When Salem considers switching Tyrian’s job with Hazel’s (hunt the Silver-Eyed Warrior) Hazel and Tyrian instantly reject the offer. Hazel because he doesn’t want to hurt Ruby and Tyrian because he wants to hurt Ruby. Note that Salem doesn’t mention anything about the Spring Maiden. It’ll become apparent why in Tweaking Volume 5.

Also, I’d keep Salem’s motherly nature in this scene because that was always the nice contrast to Ozpin and considering how I dialed up the untrustworthiness of Oz, having Salem treat her minions like children instead of tools or assets would set up a huge contrast.

Cinder’s scenes are kept the same. At some point, I want to establish that the reason characters seemingly teleport all over the place is that it’s something Salem’s Seers can do. This would be done by placing multiple Seers across Remnant, which his why Watts is also going to Atlas, and then using one Seer to teleport to the other.

Oscar’s Arc

I like to thank Vexed Viewer’s video on how the creators screwed up introducing Oscar, since it gives me an easy means to avoid all the shit they did.

Oscar’s arc begins same as it does, but this time, his aunt (who we actually see) enters his room and asks if he’s okay. This has been the fifth night in a row where Oscar has had night terrors, almost centered around the exact same thing: the Fall of Beacon. Despite living so far away from Vale, he remembers the massacre vividly. More importantly, he remembers fire. Lots of it.

One of the episodes would end with focusing on him, only for a voice to pop up: “Hi! I’m Professor Ozpin!” That’s clearly more of an ending bit than a beginning bit.

Episode 6 and 7 would be where we see a good chunk of Oscar’s story unfold. Obviously, we have Ozpin trying to get Oscar to go to Haven, Oscar wants nothing of it. He has dinner with his aunt where, slowly, Ozpin takes over Oscar and forces him to go to Haven, convincing Oscar and his aunt that he always wanted adventure. Even without a body, Oz manages to find someway to ruin someone’s life to have his way.

Also, we don’t have him take the train. That’d be like if in Lord of the Rings, everyone was walking into Mordor and suddenly some 12-year-old kid flies in on the hawks. He’d be in actual walking distance from Haven. About an hour away. The encounter with Hazel stays the same, but Oscar has a slightly longer conversation with Hazel where he asks him if he’s ever been pressured to do something he doesn’t want to do. Hazel, having no idea about Ozpin’s reincarnation, tells him he has, but the reward would be to have peace of mind. This motivates Oscar to fully commit to going to Haven.

Also, skip the stinger because we’re going to use that for Volume 5.

Yang’s Arc

It’s mostly the same, but Port and Oobleck aren’t in the house since they’re dead. Also, Ironwood states in a letter that he apologizes for DQ’ing RWBY and that there’s no need to thank him for the arm so we can get rid of that meme.

There’s another plot detail, one that I’ll establish in Weiss’s arc, but the long story short of it is that the news plays footage of the ball where the Trophy Wife laughs about Vale lacking proper defenses, setting the already upset kingdom into fury, since those defenses were Atlas’s and as far as everyone knows, they were part of the problem. Taiyang is forced to go out and help quell the demands to go to war on Atlas.

Here’s how I’d structure it:

Episode 1 would have Yang adjusting to life without the arm. The simple montage of her doing chores which gets interrupted with Adam flashbacks.

Episode 4 has Taiyang giving her the prosthetic. She tries to wear it, only to have flashbacks of not only Adam, but injuring Mercury and Blake leaving her. She gets her signature hand trembles as she remembers the train from Volume 2, Gretchen’s death, and Raven telling her about Summer. It ends with her asking if she should really become a Huntress.

Episode 7 shows her watching the news when the Trophy Wife footage comes on and sees Weiss attacking her with a Boarbatusk. For the first time since arriving in Patch, she feels concern for her teammates. She knows that Ruby would be safe since she has Jaune and the others and Blake can die in a fire for all she cared. Taiyang comes home, tired and even battered a bit, having to stop some people from committing Atlasphobic attacks, which led to a Grimm attack. They have a chat about the state of Vale and Yang asks Taiyang why she even became a Huntress in the first place, to which Taiyang replies that she wanted to be like her mom, Summer. After she left and was presumed dead, Ruby had been menaced by a small bird Grimm (I’m going there) and Yang tried to fend it off. This was the spark that led to her being a Huntress. Yang, however, doesn’t buy the idea and goes to bed.

Episode 10 would bring the Atlasphobic attacks right to Yang’s home as the house is bombarded with people citing Taiyang as “Ironwood’s bootlicker” and “a droid sympathizer”. They want Taiyang’s head because if he’s not with them, he’s against them. The sad thing is that most of them are traumatized people who lost loved ones to the attacks. Yang wants nothing of it, but the moment the group grabs Taiyang and tries to string him up, her anger flares up, grabs the arm, and slaps it on her. She goes in and saves Taiyang from getting lynched but when it comes time to attack the crowd, she flinches and remembers attacking Mercury and recalling the words of doubt Blake casted in her head. She ejects the arm and, realizing she’s fighting people without awakened Auras, fights to knock them a few out before calling everyone out for letting fear control them. This obviously doesn’t instantly resolve the tensions with Atlas, but it does inspire Yang to return to being a Huntress.

Episode 11 has Taiyang, after healing up from the beating he got, talking to Yang about Raven. Because she knows about STRQ in this tweak, we don’t need to do the whole “oh, so now you talk about her” thing, but Yang does ask what Raven meant with Ozpin valuing Summer as a Pawn. Taiyang asks when she met Raven and notes that she would add that little detail. He then explains to her that Summer was special, just like Ruby, and that she was sent on special missions that none of the others were invited to. With Ozpin kicking Raven out, having favoritism placed on Summer and making Qrow his personal Huntsman, he slowly dismantled STRQ and Taiyang has quite a bit of upset over that. Realizing that this is what’s happening to RWBY, Yang decides to head to Haven…

Episode 12 has her using her motorbike, only to be stopped by a Huntress, Heather Shields, who asks for her help in tracking down a bunch of bandits. She isn’t interested until Heather says that their leader is possibly in league with the White Fang as they have a Grimm Mask. This piques Yang’s interest since this could either mean Raven or Adam.

The reason I added this subplot about Atlasphobic attacks is that I really didn’t want that ballroom scene to be in a bubble and I also wanted to emphasise the whole “angry at Atlas” thing.

Weiss’s Arc

Quite literally the same arc, but with a battle between Weiss and Jacques because he didn’t really have any earned comeuppance in Volume 7 and it’d be a better place for “This Life is Mine”’s rock version than battling giant bumblebees.

Episode 1 has Weiss more subdued than her earlier Volumes, showing her father’s leash is well on her neck. She is asked to visit her father, leading into episode 2, which has no actual changes outside of the reasoning for Ironwood’s embargo being more vaguely worded, since we want to illustrate that he’s going 1984 right now.

Episode 5 is Episodes 6 & 7 of the original mashed up into one episode. However, we get a shot of Watts recording the ball, then using the Seer to teleport to Vale and hand his recording to a local news outlet before moving to Mistral with the Seer.

Episode 8 is Weiss mastering her summon and sneaking out… Only to be caught by Jacques. Jacques is well aware that Weiss’s songs were nothing but hate speeches to him and he demands respect. Weiss refuses, telling him that he’s a poison on the family. Jacques remarks that she’d technically be poison too, since the Schnee children share his DNA. It soon leads to a battle in the Schnee manor where Jacques over relies on Dust as he isn’t a skilled fighter while Weiss over relies on her summon. As such, the two are evenly matched until Jacques runs out of Dust. Realizing that her fighting has become sloppy, she goes back to using her Glyphs and uses one to pin Jacques in place in a manner similar to how Watts pinned Ironwood in their V7 fight.

Episode 11 has her try to get on an airship before Ironwood stops her and tells her about the closures in place… Then assures her she has clearance to go, inquiring that she goes to investigate Winter’s findings on Haven. She jumps at the chance because she thinks Winter is there. Episode 12 is her on a private military aircraft with Pilot Boi.

Blake’s Arc

… Oh boy. You can tell why I saved this one for second last. Blake’s arc is by far the most infuriating of the arcs and really sets a bad standard for her. I remembered flipping her off when she said “we’re not going to fight the White Fang” when I was first watching Episode 11 because I had it up to here with her tomfoolery.

So, instead of making the battered abuse victim abuse Sun and chilling at her parents’ place as the rest of her team suffers while being stalked by someone who has a big lesbian crush on her, we’re gonna rehaul her entire arc.

Episode 1 has her secure passage on a boat. It’s not as grand as a liner in the original, but it’s not the rinkydink rowboat she was on in the comics. Rather, a simple cargo ship she had to bribe in order to get on. She has no clear goal in mind and when asked where she’s going, she says “nowhere. I just want to keep running.”

Episode 3 plays similarly to Runaways and Stowaways, but Sun stalking Blake is removed. If he wanted to be a good Samaritan, he shouldn’t dress up like some fucking cultist for no discernable reason other than “le bait and switch!” Instead, he’s there because SSSN need a lot of supplies and money to back to Haven and Sun is just doing his job as a security guard. He plays catch up with Blake whose moody nature causes a Grimm to attack them. The Grimm is defeated, but the ship has taken damage and must make a pitstop. When asked where it’s landing, the captain says “Menagerie” and this fills Blake with fear.

Episode 6 has Sun and Blake arrive on Menagerie, where it’s actually crowded this time. Failing that, the big problem is that they’re intolerant towards humans, since this is their turf. Obviously, the captain is met with tons of scrutiny and forces Blake to do the one thing she’s avoided her whole life: Talk to her mother.

I should explain something before we continue. In this tweaking, Ghira was killed by that group of people in Adam’s short. This explains the sudden shift between White Fang leaders and Adam’s words in Volume 3. In honor of Ghira leading a noble cause, Kali was given the title of Chieftain of the village I forgot the name of (Kua Kuana?) With her status, Kali could grant humans a temporary pass. And so, Blake reluctantly visits her and we get a touching reunion.

We also see Blake get introduced to the Albains, who in this tweaking aren’t telegraphing that they’re bad guys and are genuinely trying to get in Kali’s good graces. When Blake gives the Albains the business of the White Fang killing people, they state that they’re well aware, as they have Adam in custody and will sentence him to exile in the wilds of Menagerie where he’d most likely meet his end at the hands of monsters. Keen eared viewers would notice that Salem said that Adam was meeting Sienna Khan so… what gives? Well, that’s going to be explained in…

Episode 9 has Blake and Kali talk a bit about Ghira, we have that much needed talk, but instead of Sun busting it, it’s Fennec. He reports that Sun had been kidnapped by renegade White Fang members, but not saying that it was their members that kidnapped Sun. This causes Blake to give chase and goes to the outback where we get to see one of the vicious monsters Blake talked about instead of leaving it to the imagination or DC.

There, we see Sun and Blake were able to defeat it with moderate difficulty before they see Adam. The three fight, but as Blake’s trauma kicks in, Sun protects her and ends up knocking Adam senseless, revealing that it isn’t even Adam, but Ilia using a Semblance that makes her camouflage as other people (think Neo’s Semblance, but on a smaller scale). Blake and Sun are confused before Ilia knocks Sun out and retreats. I should also mention that in the battle, they also knock the scroll out of her.

Episode 11 has Blake explain to Sun why she ran (without her being a bitch about it) and Sun says why that reason’s bullshit. Kali and Corsac come in and they converse about how Adam is still out there. Kali shows plans for a raid on Haven and Corsac feigns condemnation of Adam’s actions. Blake then states that the White Fang has gone too far with its corruption and must be destroyed.

Episode 12 isn’t focused on Blake, but rather on Ilia, as she reports to the Albains and informs them on why she had to disguise herself as Adam. It’s here we find out that, yes, the Albains were in on Adam’s plans the whole time, but had to keep up appearances. They then explain that their goal is to try and prevent Menagerie from going to Mistral’s aid.

Ruby’s Arc

Finally, we get to RNJR. This is gonna be a long one since they’ll have all 12 episodes, even if they appear in only one scene. Let’s knock these out of the park by saying that Episodes 1 & 2 relatively stay the same, but episode 2 has them arrive in Shion just as Raven’s team attacks. This leads to a battle where Ruby battles her sister’s mom and doesn’t even know it. However, Ren sees the mask and freaks. Making matters worse is that the Nuckelavee appears and forces Raven to retreat. The group manages to hold off the Nuckelavee, but are unable to defeat it, leading them to run with a Huntsman following them, the same one that died in the original.

Episode 3 has Ruby talking to Ren about what the hell was up with his freak out but Ren refuses to talk and Nora isn’t helping matters. The huntsman introduces himself as Shiro Wan and says how he’s been assigned by Lionheart, the Headmaster, to investigate a recent string of bandit attacks. He then says that, if they can help him with the bandit, he can get a good word in to bring the group to Mistral. Ruby later confronts Jaune on his training with Pyrrha’s video as Jaune berates himself for letting Pyrrha die at Beacon, saying that if he was stronger, he would have helped her. We end the episode with him confiding in Ruby something: “Ozpin tortured Pyrrha…” That or he wants to kill Cinder.

Episode 4 reveals that Qrow is not only following them, but is talking to Raven about the Spring Maiden. Raven feigns ignorance, but her wording leads Qrow to confirm that she knows where the Spring Maiden is. Also, I want him to say this:

Qrow: If you don’t tell us, we’re all going to die.

Raven: And who’s this ‘we’ you’re referring to?

Qrow: EVERYONE, YOU DUMB FUCKING EDGELORD BITCH!

… I just want to do that.

Episodes 5, 6, and 7 are relatively the same, but Tyrian kills Shiro. Episode 8 has Jaune lay into Qrow about Pyrrha and Qrow tries to defend Oz by saying that Pyrrha chose, but Jaune brings up how he saw the contrary, even asking Qrow if they informed Pyrrha about Salem and the Relics, to which he sadly says no. Episode 9, 10, 11, and 12 are relatively the same as well, with only two exceptions. The first is that, in the flashback for Kuroyuri, we see that Ren makes friends with a ten-year-old girl before Raven and her bandits attack. Nora is also there and with her depression and the bandits, the Nuckelavee is let loose onto Kuroyuri, the ten-year-old last being seen with Raven and looking at the destruction with remorse. During the Nuckelavee fight, Ruby’s silver eyes act up, freezing the Nuckelavee in place for Ren to hand some final blows, rather than “hold arms down to win”.

The stinger isn’t really plot important, but reveals what will immediately happen in Volume 5 as Jaune, Nora, and Ren, with Pyrrha’s shield (if you’re gonna say she has extras, at least show she has extras), carry it over to a house and knock on the door… It’s clear what’s going on, but as the door opens, we cut to black. To be continued in Volume 5.

DVD Extra

I’d say four extra stories starring each member of Team RWBY. Maybe even adapting a story from the comics?

And that’s Volume 4… The next tweaking is going to be my final one and I’m gonna go out on a bang.

#RWDE #RWBY #RWBY rewrite #rewrite

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nonbinaryresource · 6 years ago

Photo

Captions under the cut!

So I was browsing the nonbinary tag and saw a post by someone bemoaning that there weren’t memes for correcting your pronouns for times like when you’re in a group chat and feel awkward outright correcting others for misgendering you. So I made some! The ones that use specific pronouns were made for someone specific, so they reference ‘they/them’ just as the user who asked does.

I kind of enjoy this idea, so feel free to use these, be inspired to make your own, or even request a specific meme/pronoun set from me. o3o

~Tera

[A series of six memes.

Top left: Marie Kondo “This one sparks joy” vs “This one does not spark joy” meme. The joy column reads “they/them pronouns”. The no-joy column reads “other pronouns”. Top right: Drake “get that away from me” vs “that’s good shit” meme. The no panel reads “using pronouns other than they/them for me”, while the yes panel reads “using they/them pronouns for me”.

Middle left: Grayscale, old-school style picture meme of a man in a suit holding out his hand to gesture to wait. The text reads “It’s they/them, please”. Middle right: Boromir from Lord of the Rings “one does not simply walk into Mordor” meme. The text reads “One does not simply use the wrong pronouns for me and then leave me hanging”.

Bottom left: The car making a hard, uncontrolled turn to take an exit on the highway meme. The text over the car reads “you”. The sign above the car has a forked arrow, with one arrow pointing towards the exit the car is taking, reading “correcting my pronouns when you accidentally mess up”, and the other arrow points towards the rest of the highway which the car is frantically turning away from, reading “misgendering me”. Bottom right is the man holding his offended girlfriend’s hair as he obviously stares at another woman walking by. The man is labeled as “you”. The upset girlfriend is “not using my correct pronouns”. The woman walking by drawing the man’s/”your” attention is “using my correct pronouns”]

#pronouns #misgendering #memes #mod tera

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theemightypen · 6 years ago

Note

eothiriel for 18?

18) Things You Said When the Sun Was Shining

also yikes this took me 18 million years to fill

It is a beautiful spring day in the Riddermark. There is a gentle breeze coming in from the south, stirring up the scent of honeysuckle and lavender in what was once Theodwyn’s garden. Eomund had built it for her in their house in Aldburg as a wedding present, years ago.

Not for the first time, Lothiriel wonders what her mother and father-in-law would have made of her. Never more so than now that she, at Merthwyn’s insistence, has been all but banished from Edoras for a few days, for a much needed reprieve from her duties as Queen.

“You’ve done your duty admirably these past few months,” the housekeeper had tutted. “And we are all very proud of you, but no eorlingas alive would begrudge you a break, nor time with your children. The council can handle the Riddermark and I the Hall. Go, my lady, and spend time with your babes!”

And so she is. Olfete is playing with her carved horse–a much beloved gift from Eothain–under the dappled sunlight of a nearby tree, while Ecwen gurgles happily around a wooden teething ring, one hand fisted in the fabric of Lothiriel’s skirt.

All in all, a perfect day, but for one thing: Eomer’s absence.

He has been away on campaigns before, of course. Sauron’s fall and the dissolution of Mordor’s armies had not rid Middle Earth of evil. After re-swearing the Oath of Eorl, he has had to aid Aragorn numerous times in keeping their mutual enemies at bay, both within Gondor’s borders and without.

But he has never been gone quite so long. Ecwen had been six months old when he’d left, and six months has it been since his departure. To say that Lothiriel misses him would be an understatement. He has been as consistent as he can, with his letter writing, but that is simply not the same as having him home. Of being able to turn to him for help with Ecwen’s midnight tears, to laugh about Olfete’s attempts at making flower crowns, or to be able to press her face into the curve of his neck at the end of a long day. Their bed has been cold, in more ways than one, for six months. Lothiriel is weary of it.

His last letter had said he would be home sooner rather than later, as quickly as Firefoot’s hooves will take him, but there is the well-being of the returning eorlingas to consider, the new treaties with North Harad to solidify, and all the many miles still to travel.

Lothiriel had known what it would mean to wed a man in such a leadership position. How many times had Ada been called away for just as long when she was a child?

That knowledge helps–somewhat. The ache of missing him–of their girls missing him, for surely that explains at least some of Ecwen’s fussiness–will not be eased by anything other than his eventual return.

“Modor, look!” Cries Olfete, pulling her from her melancholy thoughts. “Buterflégan!”

And it is. A handful of them, brightly colored and graceful in the spring sunshine.

“They’re pretty,” Olfete declares, abandoning her play to climb into Lothiriel’s lap for a better view.

“Pree!” Echoes Ecwen.

“They are indeed,” Lothiriel agrees, “thought not as pretty as you, min swetes.”

Ecwen babbles happily as Olfete giggles, leaning her head against Lothiriel’s shoulder. Their oldest daughter looks very much like her. Dark skin, dark eyes, darker hair–hræfnsweartu, Eomer has always said of them both. Ecwen, even at only a year old, has her father’s tawny hair, his green eyes. But there’s no mistaking the House of Eorl in both of them, in the delicate point of Olfete’s nose, in the stormy expression Ecwen makes when she is well and truly displeased. It has been both balm and pain to see Eomer so plainly in them during the campaign.

“But where’d they come from?” Olfete asks.

The butterflies, Lothiriel thinks, and resolves to stop being so gloomy. Being so will not make Eomer arrive faster and will only serve to upset the children. Olfete has always been very perceptive and Ecwen mercurial, so even the hint of a sour mood is enough to make them both less than happy.

“From far away, I expect,” she says, stroking a hand through Olfete’s dark hair. “Perhaps Haruni sent them.”

“Haruni sent them? Why?”

“Let me show you.” At this she reaches out, gently, carefully, toward the flock of butterflies. One–bolder than the rest–inches towards her finger from its safe perch on a bloom. Lothiriel waits, patiently, until it is settled on her finger to slowly bring it back towards them. Olfete is watching in wide-eyed fascination, one fist tight around the silver chain of Lothiriel’s necklace.

“She will not hurt you, Olfete. I promise. Can she give you her gift?”

Cautiously, Olfete nods. Lothiriel brings the butterfly close to her daughter’s cheek where it obligingly flaps its wings. Olfete giggles, wariness quickly giving way to delight.

“It tickles! What is it?”

“A butterfly’s kiss. Our loved ones can send them to us on their wings, no matter where they are.”

“Ecwen should have some too!” Olfete declares.

“Mo!” Cries Ecwen, in obvious support of the idea.

Lothiriel laughs, bringing the butterfly close to Ecwen’s nose. Fearless as ever, Ecwen eyes the animal with fascination–so much so that her eyes cross. Lothiriel laughs, Olfete giggles, and Ecwen grins, even though it is likely she doesn’t understand what is so amusing. She grins wider at the touch of wings to her nose and mercifully doesn’t try to bat the butterfly away with her chubby, baby fists.

Eventually, the butterfly takes flight, fluttering off to rejoin its kin in the flowers.

Ecwen has crawled into Lothiriel’s lap as well, her head on Olfete’s shoulder. They watch the butterflies in comfortable silence for a while.

Just as Lothiriel begins to contemplate gathering them both up for a nap, Olfete stirs, turning a little to fix her with a piercing stare. It is such an utterly Eomer-like expression that Lothiriel’s breath nearly catches.

“Modor, did the butterflies have to come from Haruni?”

“Well, no,” Lothiriel assures her, shifting Ecwen more comfortably into the crook of her right arm. “Any one we love could have sent them. Aunt Eowyn, Mistress Brandybuck, Legolas–”

“What about Faeder?”

Oh, Lothiriel thinks, willing herself not to cry. “Of course. That is who probably sent them, Olfete, you’re right.”

Olfete’s lip quivers in what is a valiant–and heart wrenching, Valar, how strong she is, for one so young–attempt not to cry. “S’not as good as Faeder’s real kisses, but. It would be ok. If he did send them.”

“I am sure he did. And besides, he will be home soon. He said as much in his last letter, remember?”

Olfete sniffles and leans her head back against Lothiriel’s shoulder. “Soon is taking forever.”

Lothiriel cannot help but huff a laugh before pressing a kiss to her eldest’s forehead. “I know. I think so, too.”

“Fa!” Declares Ecwen suddenly, with a very forceful point in the direction of the butterflies.

No, not the butterflies, but rather the broad-shouldered figure rounding the hedge behind them–

“Faeder!” Cries Olfete, launching herself from Lothiriel’s lap with every ounce of her four year-old’s strength. She is down the path before Lothiriel can even draw a breath to urge caution–surely it could not be Eomer in truth, she would have been told if his eored was so close–

But no, it is him, handsome and tall as ever, bending down to sweep Olfete up in his arms with a relieved laugh.

“How tall you’ve gotten, mitting!” He is saying, as if he hasn’t been gone for months. “And even more freckled than I remembered–

“Faeder, you’re home, I missed you–” Olfete cries, wrapping her little body as tightly as she can around him.

“I missed you too, swete.”

“How much?”

“Very much.”

Lothiriel’s heart is in her throat. Oh, Valar, she’s so happy she could burst. And there has never been anything more touching than Eomer with their children. But she also is torn between the distinct urge to throttle her husband, no matter how much she’s missed him, and give Merthwyn a serious piece of her mind, so for so obviously–in hindsight–tricking her into coming here.

“Say hello to Ecwen, too, Faeder!” Olfete orders.

Somehow Lothiriel manages to stand though her legs feel like water beneath her, with Ecwen balanced on her hip. Eomer has shifted Olfete to one side, so that one hand is free to reach out to her and Ecwen both. For once Ecwen is uncharacteristically shy and hides her face in Lothiriel’s hair as they approach. Eomer’s expression shifts–happiness to incredible sadness and regret–in the blink of an eye. Valar, how could she even feel a moment’s irritation with him? It is not as if the separation has been easy for any of them!

“She does not remember me,” he says, voice rough. “I had not thought–I should have expected–”

“Give her a moment,” Lothiriel assures him. Ecwen had not hesitated to pet a stallion the other morning; surely her own father is less threatening than that?

Mercifully, she is proven right, for Ecwen lifts her head from her shoulder with a small–but still sunny–smile. “Fa,” she says, again.

Eomer swallows. “Yes. That’s–yes, Ecwen.”

He reaches out to touch the soft curve of her cheek. Ecwen giggles, pressing her face further into his hand, and Lothiriel gives a helpless sort of laugh. “She was just surprised, I think.”

Eomer’s eyes shoot up to meet hers. “I do not think she was the only one. I–it was meant to be a kindness, Lothiriel, but–”

She steps forward to kiss him, unable to bear the note of uncertainty in his voice. As if she can be anything other than happy to have him back again, safe and whole. It’s much more chaste than the welcoming kiss she’s dreamed of giving him over the course of the past six months, but it achieves its purpose; Eomer relaxes, his hand sliding to grip her arm that’s around Ecwen’s back.

Olfete’s giggles pull them from their embrace. “See? Told you Faeder’s real kisses would be better than the butterfly’s!”

Lothiriel laughs at the confused expression on Eomer’s face. “The buterflégan you sent,” she explains, with a nod in the direction of the flower bushes.

Mercifully, he follows her line of thinking. “Ah. I am glad I can stand up to their kisses, Olfete!”

“Silly Faeder,” she says, wrapping her arms tight around his neck again, “you’d always win!”

The blush that fills his face is so endearing that Lothiriel cannot help but kiss him anew, even as Ecwen gives a sharp tug on her hair. “I agree. And welcome home, Eomer King.”

His smile is no less beautiful than it was the day she knew she loved him. “There is,” he says, nudging his nose against her temple, “nowhere else I’d rather be.”

#eomer x lothiriel #eothiriel #with bonus kidlets!#prompt response #dolamrotha #this took me 18 million years to fill and i'm SORRy #my writing #also i rotted my own teeth while writing this so you're welcome??

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modernlotrhobbitthoughts · 6 years ago

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Merry Brandybuck, Esquire of Rohan - Day Twelve

Today we’ll have a short post about the lovely Meriadoc Brandybuck. Best friend to Pippin Took, loyal companion of Frodo Baggins, and warrior alongside Éowyn of Rohan, Merry is without a doubt one of the great characters in the Lord of the Rings series.

Merry, by @purplbirb

Merry is just a genuinely good guy. Like he has no ulterior motives for anything he does, but is still very clever and helps out all of his friends unconditionally. Honestly, one of my favourite moments with Merry is when he talks to Théoden, asking if he, too, can travel with the Rohirrim and fights for the good of Middle Earth. From the Return of the King (film): "But, but, lord, I offered you my sword. I do not want to be parted from you like this, Théoden King. And as all my friends have gone to the battle, I should be ashamed to stay behind."

His exceeding loyalty is one of his best attributes, and it’s displayed so prominently. Everytime he faces danger, he is afraid, but the moment that one of his friends’ lives are at stake, he rises to the challenge and fearlessly attempts to help them. The two best displays of this is during the Battle of Pelennor Fields, when The Witch-King of Angmar (lord of the Nazgûls) raises his sword for the killing blow to Éowyn, but Merry leaps up and stabs him, saving Éowyn at great cost to himself. The other moment is when he and Pippin are the first to run forward to attack the gates of Mordor after Aragorn, to avenge the supposed deaths of Frodo and Sam.

In all these moments, Merry barely thinks of the cost to himself, whether it be the subsequent wrath of the Nazgûl or of Sauron, and simply attacks, hell-bent on protecting the people he loves.

In all honesty, we need more fanart of Merry. There’s not nearly enough of just him. Don’t get me wrong, I love his friendship with Pippin, but they’re often lumped together (I know I’m guilty of it), and he deserves some individual recognition.

Merry, by ???

Merry and Pippin, by solalis1226

Merry and Pippin, by Bohemian Weasel

Merry, by LoonaLucy

Merry, by Sabrina

Modern AU - personal thoughts time: I don’t really know much about modern!Merry. My guess is that he and Pippin were basically the Fred and George of high school, getting along with pretty much everyone, but also causing general mayhem. Merry went to culinary school, to learn how to be a chef, and (despite his frequent decisions to party and smoke weed outside of class) he graduated with glowing reviews. He was welcomed into a short-staffed catering company (The Prancing Pony Catering Company), under head of catering, Barliman Butterbur. He worked hard, quickly moving up the ranks, and even catered for Arwen and Aragorn’s wedding as the head chef. When the war came around, Merry enlisted, but was declined on the count that he was, unfortunately, unable to hear sounds below a certain frequency. Upon hearing that Pippin, along with many of his other friends, had been accepted, he commited a rather heinous act, in lying on his enlistment forms and studying all he could to pass the tests.... And it worked. He made it into battle and fought alongside Éowyn, but ended up being heavily wounded with gunfire. Pippin, scouring the battlefield later, found him and brought him to medical attention. Upon returning home, he returned to his job, meeting a new recruit, Estella Bolger, and the two fell in love and later married. Though he did put a lot of effort into his career, he made sure to leave days out for Pippin, Éowyn, and his other friends.

So, this was a bit of a short one. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please draw more fanart of Merry, and share it with me! We’ll be back tomorrow for another short post on Azog the Defiler...

Merry, by Jerry Vanderstelt

#merry brandybuck #meriadoc #meriadoc brandybuck #merry fanart #merry lotr fanart #merry brandybuck fanart #meriadoc brandybuck fanart #lord of the rings characters #the hobbit #hobbits #lotr #lotr appreciation #character appreciation #merry brandybuck appreciation #lotr fanart #the hobbit fanart #hobbit fanart #lord of the rings

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mild-lunacy · 6 years ago

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What a Heist Should Be

I'm not particularly a fan of heist fantasy and/or YA, though it's certainly popular. I keep trying to-- or meaning to-- give fantasy thieves a chance, but most of the time they're boring, IMO. Perhaps it's my dislike for video game-styled narratives. You know, when you have a pointless/artificial goal that you have to hunt after for no particularly believable reason, and on top of that, endless annoying difficulties get thrown at you. You defeat one level only to face another, blah blah I'd rather stay home, blah. So not only are you the reader supposed to relate to a hunt after some random object, but tolerate increased rates of pointless danger-seeking behavior and frequent lack of basic planning or intelligence. Really unforgivable in a heist story, to be honest.

I suppose I'm unfairly conflating more military/thriller type infiltration stories with heist narratives, but they frequently overlap. Anyway, lack of planning and intelligence is the number one sin and/or reason I get bored. The second thing is the heist crew dynamic. It had damn better work. And not just work a little-- it better be super interesting and fun (and hot/romantic, if applicable) but also work enough as a *partnership*. That means the characters had better have complementary strengths. This is not optional. A duo of shoot first-type covert operatives who only seem to know how to fight hard or harder is a disaster in an infiltration scenario you expect readers to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy. Of course, the writers often don't even expect it, by any means, especially in romance genre books. The point is the video game setting in and of itself, which is just pointless and boring, as I said, like in Anna Hackett's Eon series.

Of course, the genre and length-- as well as the number of main characters-- make Hackett's heist romance novella pretty different from Leigh Bardugo's YA Six of Crows duology. I'm just seeing patterns in what works for me and what doesn't. As far as I've experienced, the video game approach is more common with fantasy heist stories. The other thing Leigh Bardugo does well that's not common is the snappy dialogue. To be clear, Anna Hackett tries for banter as well-- that's well known as a major draw for upbeat action narratives (just ask Marvel). It's just that it's strictly surfacey, whereas Bardugo's banter always works as character development, something that lets the reader see the characters as real people as opposed to Mary Sue props. This goes along with stuff like giving the main characters real flaws and having them suffer real setbacks, not fake video game ones.

I still don't care about the object of the heist in either narrative-- but Leigh Bardugo compensates for that. The narrative doesn't *expect* the reader to really care about the money. You just care about the characters experiencing success and surviving long enough to thrive. The heist object itself is beyond pointless, and that's what makes it work in a world with some degree of emotional realism. Although, I have to say having a *person* to extract is much, much better than an object, if you want readers to at least somewhat care.

Hackett makes the common Indiana Jones-type mistake of treating the object as a MacGuffin-- a thing of mostly unexplained power and importance for the plot, as opposed to just being a way to make money. This makes the endless risks taken with the object(s) during the action sequences nearly unbearable for me: part of the whole lack of planning thing. These characters don't even bother to protect the priceless object they're risking their lives for. Ludicrous. At least Inej and Kaz thought things through and only risked themselves and their friends or valuables when absolutely necessary. Jesper is impulsive, but he also follows orders. There's a sense that there's a *reason* these folks succeed, and it ain't just dumb luck. Pure derring-do doesn't translate well into fiction, especially when that's all the characters use to succeed against overwhelming odds. The fact is, they would fail with the skill set they're stuck with in Hackett's book and many others. Many times over, in fact. As a wise man once said, you do not simply *walk* into Mordor. Or a top secret alien space station, natch.

The sad thing is, contrary to what you might think from my blog, I don't go around overanalyzing everything I've ever read. I'm not a good planner, either. If I see a hole in a plot, it's because it's so big a truck could drive through it. That's just writing by numbers, and it's gross to me, even when I find the results somewhat enjoyable. And of course, I can't judge all the heist books that I mainly haven't read. I'm just saying that what made Six of Crows work was the way it took its characters much more seriously than the plot devices. And this certainly seems rare in a genre trope as gimmicky as a heist story, so far as I can tell.

#ya lit #six of crows #narrative #characterization #me myself and i #pointless rambles #writing

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maddyaddy · 2 years ago

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Orcism

There is a lively and rich tradition, in post-Soviet Russian literature and mass culture, of Orcism. What do I mean by that, you ask? Orcism is, simply put, the identification of oneself and one’s nation with the orcs of J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It is an appropriation of the dehumanizing qualities of those depictions onto oneself, a reclamation of what Russians (usually far-right nationalists) see as industrious and put-upon peoples of “the East” hated by those of “the West”

Orcism first appears fully-formed in the 1999 novel by Kirill Eskov, The Last Ringbearer. This work of what one might call published fanfiction, if so inclined, flips the Tolkien story on its head to tell a different story. Here, Mordor is a peaceful and technologically advanced kingdom, the “the only civilization on Middle Earth to bet on rational knowledge and pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic”. One can easily draw parallels to the state atheist USSR, an industrializing and developing nation, going toe-to-toe in epic combat with the powers of the West. In this framing, The Lord of the Rings as we are familiar with it is a “victor’s history” - propaganda.

Before The Last Ringbearer was published, The Lord of the Rings trilogy passed through Soviet-era hands as samizdat - clandestine copies. The very act of its possession was a political one. From this and the return of Western culture to Russia in the 1990s, sprang forth a reading of the works of Tolkien that flipped its almost Manichean worldview on its head. Mordor, the dark, industrial power to the east, became identified with Russia. As an Ivan Sleptsov wrote in a 1997 newspaper article: “The Lord of the Rings is—among other things—a political pamphlet in which Tolkien included an encoded description of the conflict of the political darkness of the East and the freedom of the West, and a prediction of the inevitable fall of Mordor and its analog on the real earth, the Soviet Union.”

This nascent Orcism grew after the publication of The Last Ringbearer. Nationalist writers Maxim Kalashnikov and Yuri Krupnov, writing in their four-volume 2002 text America versus Russia, declare that the “the time has come to understand that, for the West, we have always been and always will be those revolting, savage Orcs”. So too, does fantasy author Mikhail Elizarov invoke the image of the orc in his 2014 “Orc Song”, which exhorts the listener to “remember how we crushed the Elven scum”. For Russian nationalists, the Orc is a symbol.

But a symbol of what? If one examines the corpus of Orcist literature, one will find a picture painted of a strong and inventive people brought down by all their neighbors. To those familiar with fascist rhetoric, the utility of the Orc in this discourse becomes clear. It is the imagined past, the tradition to which we must return to. Far from being an object of unwavering disgust and brutal horror, to the Orcist, the Orc is something to be admired - a super-man, a master people, a divine people.

#Russia #lord of the rings #tolkien #orcs #mordor #sauron #fantasy #fantasy novels

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st33d · 4 years ago

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All These Worlds Are Yours (Except Europa)

It’s been a while since my last CRPG report and I have played quite a lot of CRPGs in the meantime. I’m going to keep it brief. It’s by no means all the games I played over the past year or so, but it is all the games that are worth playing in some fashion or another.

Yet again I didn’t really bother to get decent screenshots so you’ll have to endure some tangentially related Shutterstock photos.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

It’s like Etrian Odyssey but made by horny 14 year olds. Monsters take the form of purple-black eyes that move only when you do. Colliding with them triggers a JRPG battle with your team. You must conquer around a dozen or so dungeons to defeat a mysterious evil whilst learning about your protagonist’s horny hubris.

I like how it automatically fills in the in-game map, only drawing tiles you have stepped in. Stairways also connect perfectly on most dungeons, leading to some detective work to solve them. The combat is passable. The story is PG13 with random suggestions of poop and sex without really showing any. It’s… a good game with a lot of simple mechanics that it layers up over time to make something quite complex. I really enjoyed solving the dungeons but it’s such a multilayered ball of weirdness that I hesitate recommending it.

Dragon’s Dogma

It’s like Skyrim but with less items, less map, and decent fights. Like, really decent fights. You can climb on the back of beasts and hack pieces off of them or shoot magic arrows that do a host of cool things. The story is pretty anime - I can’t get into why without some major spoilers. Safe to say that after the first (and honestly entertaining) chunk of the game you get an overlay of falling ash pinned to your screen and the monsters become hit point sponges. That’s around when I stopped playing because it felt like I’d reached “an” ending and the rest was about beating as many dead horses with whatever sticks I could upgrade enough to hit them with. Last time I fired it up I got in an hour long fight with an off-brand beholder that basically respawned all its limbs eight times because of its egregious hit points.

You’re joined by some enthusiastic AI companions called pawns who have no story and just kinda throw themselves at enemies whilst repeating the same phrases over and over. I’m not really sure if they’re a blessing or curse. The game overall is pretty jank with terrible traversal (don’t explore, the quests will send you to every corner of the map anyway - twice). Despite all my complaints it’s a lot of fun - at least until the 1st ending. It’s cheap and I recommend it.

Sky Rogue

It’s like a lot of aircraft dogfight games but a bit random. I’ve played this a bit on single player and it’s alright. However I have played many, many, missions in the 2 player mode with a coworker. It’s just very satisfying doing the whole Top Gun team thing taking on a bunch of enemy planes whilst working on upgrades.

Disco Elysium

It’s like Planescape Torment but without the tedious combat or problematic writer behind it. There’s a video of one of the devs explaining how the dialogue is laid out like Twitter in tabloid format for easy reading. This is revolutionary. I want every computer text game to use this format from now on.

I cannot stress how important it is to enter Disco Elysium unprepared. To have no grasp on just how far you will be allowed to explore, who you will meet, who you will travel with, or what you are expected to do. It is a game about amnesia and becoming someone new - if that is at all possible.

I have two pieces of advice however:

Don’t start with Psyche or Physique stats below 2, they’re both your health and the game will surprise you with damage to either in the most unexpected places.

Do every quest. Explore every nook and cranny. Not knowing is the very essence of the game. You’ll have lost that feeling after the ending.

I don’t need to tell you how good the game is. Just look at most reviews.

Everspace

It’s like Descent (that 1st person spacecraft game on the PSX) but in space and it’s a roguelike. Everspace has you mine, salvage, fight, trade, and quest - but you do it all from the comfort of a spaceship that has responsive controls and interesting weaponry. I had a lot of fun skulking round wrecks to salvage parts whilst avoiding patrols of hostiles until I had enough kit to take them on.

It has a substandard storyline but great meta-progression, asking you to grind cash from each run to unlock parts for a better ship on the next. I put in a great deal of hours into this game and I’m looking forward to what the studio does with the sequel.

Horizon Zero Dawn

It’s like Shadow of Mordor but good. My only major complaint was how constant use of the bow had the camera staying uncomfortably close to Aloy’s arse and burying itself in grass during frenetic combat. When the camera wasn’t trying to kill me the combat was astoundingly good. You fight lumbering robo-dinosaurs with special weak spots and various attacks. The quests are also good with a surprising amount of cutscenes and dialogue for a lot of completely optional content.

I was also amazed at how they managed to pull off an almost believable backstory for a world full of robot dinosaurs. Despite some frustrating combat encounters I had a good time exploring its large and very pretty world.

Pathfinder Kingmaker

It’s like Baldurs Gate but not as good. Only on my 3rd attempt at playing the game with the newly patched in turn based mechanics did it start to make sense. It uses Pathfinder’s rules which are deep and tactical - as tactical rules go they’re pretty good. However when those rules fly by at real time speed you don’t learn how opportunity attacks work (they’re more complex than modern D&D) or how to utilise charge and positioning.

The story is pretty forgettable and the encounter design is relentlessly dull. A lot of areas are just simply fight after fight after fight. In turn based mode the fights are pretty good but too many of them are identical. The ones that weren’t I found inscrutable and impossible to pass. If you like min-max fighting and little else then have at it - but I warn you that the UI is lagging behind most popular CRPGs. You can’t even check the world map whilst in a town.

Metal Gear Solid V

It’s like an RPG. Despite not having a main character with stats, in this open world game of hide and seek you kidnap soldiers who in turn become your stats. Through them you gain access to new abilities. Through them you are drip-fed the resources you steal, only becoming able to spend all that you’ve stolen by having enough accountants to do your taxes. It is a brilliant work of roleplaying economics and a thoroughly enjoyable open world game. One where I can completely ruin a mission yet chuckle at my attempts to save what’s left of my dignity.

It also fails to stick the landing. At around the 20th mission the game starts committing to its plot and the rot sets in. Bit by bit it becomes worse to play. There was trouble at Konami when the game was made and it feels like the end of the game was hit the hardest. This was the part that was tested the least and had the worst ideas thrown into it. Metal Gear Solid V is still worth it for the 1st half of the game.

Final Fantasy 8

It’s like the other Final Fantasy games but poorly paced and balanced. The junction system is incredibly interesting in that it tries to sidestep the whole issue of items by gluing your characters to guardian angels. It’s built in card game Triple Triad is simple and engaging. The story is kinda interesting with some time travel shenanigans going on...

But it’s pacing is dreadful with endlessly copypasted rooms. The magic draw system is miserable (and yes I know you can get GFs to convert items to magic but then it’s more tedious busy work to upscale all the magic into something work attaching). The world map is shockingly empty. And the characters are just yawn, yawn, yawn.

Pick it up on sale.

Torchlight 2

It’s like Diablo 2 but not quite as good. Still worth playing though. I got it on the Switch and found that playing it with a gamepad was a pleasant experience.

It has a few balance problems with the Engineer class being ridiculously overpowered compared to any of the others (and way more fun). And there’s some annoying bugs that prompted a few reloads. Still pretty entertaining however.

Pokemon Shield

It’s like every other Pokemon game (surprise surprise) but easier. As much as I like how they’ve removed a lot of busywork from this entry, it makes it feel like the only challenge in the previous titles was the busywork. When really it was the busywork that held you back from just kerb-stomping everything in your path.

It’s not until the final DLC that you’re given some pokemon that are needlessly tedious to catch and some group battles using randomly selected pokemon that test your knowledge of the game’s systems. The only real challenge in the game is in the online multiplayer against humans where your pokemon level is normalised and encyclopedic knowledge of the title’s history is required.

My internet is terrible so the online gameplay is dead to me. It’s a very fun game, but also a very disappointing one.

Burnout Paradise

It’s like a sandbox game for cars. Except that you’re not really driving a car, it’s more like you’re driving a bobsleigh with a rocket attached to it. Unlike most driving games you aren’t given terrain that slows you down. Even if you hit a wall you’ll skate off it so long as you collide sideways. The game just wants you to drive like an arsehole and go faster and faster - to the tune of Epic by Faith No More (literally).

I mean yeah, it’s not an RPG by any stretch but it’s one of the best sandbox games I’ve played. Even when you’re not doing a “mission” you can just drive around the city finding back alleys and ramps to fly off of. It’s just a massive playground with very little negative feedback.

Cyberpunk 2077

It’s like a bunch of different games you’ve played before but not quite as good. The story is the best bit. I really liked the characters I got to hang out with. I guess I would have enjoyed the gun fights if I hadn’t been playing Doom 1 before I played it. And I would have enjoyed the stealth if I hadn’t already played Metal Gear Solid V with its superior A.I. It has cool Obra Dinn style brain movies to explore for detective work but I enjoyed the spectacle of them more than the execution (though I did enjoy them more than Obra Dinn which I found tedious to navigate or understand).

I saw one review say it was the most backwards view of the future. Not imagining what could be but endlessly paying homage to cyberpunk stories of the past.

I see other reviews say play it when it’s fixed. When the myriad of bugs (and I experienced enough to impact gameplay) are solved.

I say play the sequel. It’s worth experiencing but there’s too much going on that’s playing catch up to other titles.

Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate

It’s like Rogue. I first played Shiren 2 on the Nintendo DS and was amazed by its deep systems and story meta progression - various tales progressing in the game only after each death and subsequent replay.

This entry is technically Shiren 5. Holy shit the content in this thing. There are 15 optional dungeons with different rules. Over a hundred block pushing puzzles using various mechanics of the game that you can just walk up and play in the 2nd village you enter. A minesweeper minigame. Loads of tutorial levels. All of these give you rewards which you can take on your main adventure which is a wholly different set of dungeons. I’ve unlocked several companions to adventure with and the game is hinting there are even more later on. It is obscene the amount of value there is packed into this title. And it’s fun. A little unfair at times, but as with all roguelikes the later depths require knowledge and a lot of caution. Strong recommendation for roguelikers.

Dicey Dungeons

It’s like Dream Quest but with dice. I played the prototype of this at the 7DRL after party. Terry was quite bashful about his creation and didn’t want to submit it. I honestly didn’t see why he shouldn’t as many of us had made far worse in the past.

I put off playing this until it finally landed on the Switch as complete as any roguelike can hope to be. It’s quite different to Dream Quest in that it requires a bit of math to do well in. If you’re not prepared to do basic sums then it’s hard to make progress. Also unlike Dream Quest it’s very balanced. There’s definitely some cheesy tactics you can pull off to get cheap victories but not without some thought and planning.

In a sea of deck building roguelikes, Dicey Dungeons is quite simply refreshing. There’s a lot of good ideas in here you won’t see elsewhere - give it a go.

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letsanalyze · 7 years ago

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Lessons Learned: Monster Hunter World

A little over three weeks, and well over 80 hours in, and Capcom’s Monster Hunter World (2018) is still serving up excitement, surprises, and delicious looking digital meals. Here I’d like to talk about some of the things that I’ve found make this game so endlessly compelling, and what can be learned from where this game succeeds. (Minor spoilers to follow)

Meaningful Rewards

This is easily the core that gets talked about the most in the Monster Hunter franchise, and its certainly present in World. The idea behind this is that Monster Hunter offers the player a system focused on loot, rewards and rare item drops, sans almost all of the randomness those systems often come with. This means if the player wants rarer items, they simply need to fight rarer, harder monsters. Should they want to increase their odds of getting more of a rare drop, they’ll have to further master the game beyond simply killing the monster. A good example of this is getting monster tails, which can simply be done by cutting off the desired monster’s tail (which is easier said than done) or perhaps getting a certain monster’s horn by destroying said monster’s horn (horns which are by no means weak-spots, and put the player in a vulnerable position). Another example is a brilliant piece of mid-game Palico gear, that allows the player to swap out one of the Palico’s many support items in favor of an item that steals more monster parts, mitigating grind but also increasing the challenge. At its core Monster Hunter is a game that will make you work for whatever loot you want, but gives you clear non-random routes to get those rewards. It’s this hard work that makes those rewards meaningful; every piece of gear the player has tells stories of their hunts and achievements, rather than a single story of when they got lucky and a boss dropped the weapon they wanted from a randomized number on a predetermined table. The game also rewards the player in a variety of other ways, by rewarding story progress by slowly opening new mechanics, by rewarding their exploration with new camps to spawn at, by rewarding mastery of weapons by offering an ostensibly simple combat system with surprising depth. Nearly every other category I’m about to mention ties back to rewarding the player’s time and effort in meaningful ways.

The Player Skill vs Gear and Preparations Balance

This is another staple of the Monster Hunter franchise, that the player needs to juggle three important aspects to succeed in a hunt: Being skilled with their weapon (i.e. getting “gud”), having appropriately durable and deadly gear, and making sufficient preparations (i.e. eating food, and packing the right items) before hand. What’s brilliant about this triad is that the player is able to supplement one if they’re lacking in another. Did you totally forget to prep for your hunt, but are well geared and quick on the dodge rolls? You might make it out alive. Do you want to tackle a big monster, but don’t quite have the damage numbers or armor to make it work? Prepare well, bring lots of potions, and put your skills to the test and you might end up beating that fire-breathing T-Rex a whole lot sooner than the story intended you to. By offering the player a number of keys to success, players aren’t nearly as obligated to follow any particular one. Unlike many gear-based games, such as Bungie’s Destiny 2 (2017) , you’re not as limited by how much you’re willing to grind for competitive gear, and given there’s no real level-up system, your skills only improve by you as a player getting better at playing the game (see also: Meaningful Rewards).

Meaningful Player Choice

When we talk about Player Choice in games, we often think of karma systems, picking factions, and deciding what color lightening you want to shoot. They’re choices that are baked into the narrative and often draw from the rich tradition of “Choose Your Own Adventure” games, sometimes without keeping any of the spirit, flavor, or depth. However, Player Choice can apply to more than BioWare’s fantastical operas and Lionhead Studios’ hero simulators. In Monster Hunter World, the question of Player Choice boils down to time, style and preference. What monsters does the player want to hunt? Do they equip their Palico with the item that’ll help them get more loot or the item that might guarantee their survival? Which weapons, elements and gadgets suit their play-style the best? And which hat do they think looks coolest or offers the best bonuses? Monster Hunter World opens the flood gates on these questions by offering the player a cornucopia of choices in how they’ll spend their time hunting and what kind of hunter they want to be. It’s a kind of player choice that lends itself well to emergent story telling, and a more personal connection and pride of one’s avatar. This is emphasized even more in multiplayer, where one is allowed to essentially show-off all the choices and routes they’ve taken, while cooperating with others who have done the same. World does this particularly well as a result of the sheer volume of customization options. Whereas many previous Monster Hunters favored set-bonuses and more rigid builds to fight certain monsters, World seems to outright encourage the player to make their own build in the same way the franchise as a whole has encouraged players to pick the weapon that feels best to them.

Introducing Mechanics Slowly

It took me around 60 hours to get to Monster Hunter World’s end-game, and right up into that 60th hour (and even now at hour 82) the game not only had new mechanics to introduce, but new tricks to teach. It reminded me a lot of Monolith Production’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014), a game with a treasure trove of mechanics and systems that were introduced slowly throughout the game’s entire length. Monster Hunter World does something similar, with the player’s hub and crafting options slowly expanding throughout the course of the story, instead of overloading the player with mechanics and options they won’t know how to best take advantage of yet. This lets the player understand and master each new mechanic, from the botanical gardens to palico safaris, before the next one is introduced. This makes the eventual task of juggling each of the player hub’s many vendors and mechanics come naturally to players who have reached end-game.

Cut-Scenes That Teach the Player

If you go back and watch nearly any cut-scene in Monster Hunter World that introduces a new monster, you’ll find that they give subtle hints and clues to the player, either about the monster they’re fighting (weak spots, elements, attacks, etc.) or about the surrounding environment (a memorable example is a cut-scene in the Ancient Forest that points out a cluster of suspended rocks that players can drop on monsters, a cluster I was totally unaware of before that point). This helps to make Monster Hunter World’s cut-scenes more than just flashy intros, but rather clever hints, and helps play into another one of World’s great strength...

Endless Depth

Perhaps “Endless” is an exaggeration, however Monster Hunter has always offered incredible depth and innumerable tricks and trades to learn. Firstly is the way in which each monster has its own ticks, weaknesses, strengths, routes, recoveries, etc, and essentially acts as a beautiful and deadly puzzle that the player slowly unfolds the more they hunt them. Now tack on to that each of the game’s 14 weapon types, all of which play quite uniquely and are full of unique and hidden cancels, combos, timing and tech. Tack on to that each of those 14 weapons’ many permutations and elemental strengths, and the massive list of armors and bonuses the player can take advantage of. This dizzying array of variation and learning is part of what makes Monster Hunter so compelling. The aforementioned balance between gear and player execution, paired with a cast of unique and distinct monsters is what gives this vast quantity equally vast depth. What World adds to this core formula is an equally varied and detailed environment and ecosystem, one that unfolds to the player in its own way. Pair this with the Scout-flies who attempt to make this vast and varied world more manageable, and a slinger full of varied ammo and tech, and World offers players the most elaborate hunting puzzle yet. In essence, Monster Hunter leverages a large number of options, variables and hidden information that all pair with each other in a deceitfully simple way (that is to say, that all of this variation boils down to “there is a monster and you must hunt it by dealing damage to it and not taking too much damage yourself”) to offer the player vast depth to explore and master.

Consistent and Compelling Live Updates

This is nothing new to Monster Hunter World specifically, but it bears noticing, as the excellent execution of things like login bonuses and weekly events are a large part of what sets Monster Hunter’s live features apart from those of games like Destiny 2. Firstly the game rewards you generously for logging in daily, giving you a useful item and Lucky Voucher, which the player can use on any quest to double their rewards. This is particularly helpful in mitigating grind, as players may opt to only login for one hunt per day, but are able to double their earnings from that hunt via the Lucky Voucher. This system is also balanced out by the cap of 5 Lucky Vouchers, to encourage players to use them daily instead of hording them for the end-game. Additionally Monster Hunter’s events are back and as rewarding as always, giving players unique feeling hunts for equally unique rewards. Unlike games such as Destiny 2, these events are literally weekly and give very specific guaranteed rewards for the player to work towards, as opposed to a random roll on a table of possible event items (see also: Meaningful Rewards).

Light-Hearted Flavor

This is something I hadn’t realized was important until a friend had pointed it out, which is that Monster Hunter is an ostensibly quite jolly game. The colors are vibrant, the run animation is still delightful, and the cat puns are omnipresent from the onset. It’s a game that’s deeply committed towards realizing its world, but isn’t concerned with that world being particularly realistic in any grim sense. It’s nice to see a game that manages to balance fun with a cohesive and imaginative lore, all of which is surprisingly grounded in nature. I’m reminded of other games with similarly jolly vibes, things like Insomniac Game’s Sunset Overdrive (2014) or Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series, but even those games either opt to not take themselves seriously at all, or use that jolliness as a preface to later more serious themes. Monster Hunter seems to do it simply because its fun, and it makes the world a greater joy to be in. Its clear from interviews that Monster Hunter as a franchise is built from the ground-up to put a smile of players’ faces, and the lore is merely there as a garnish, an afterthought, thus liberating the developers to make and imagine whatever they think would be fun and engaging. It’s this kind of liberated approach that would be nice to see more often in modern games, as its something fairly unique to the medium and in many ways at the core of what helped games like Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) grow into what they are. It’s a kind of philosophy that doesn’t just put play first, it puts fun first, from aesthetic to mechanic.

The Nemesis

This will probably get its own Let’s Analyze at some point, however the diegetic and emergent introduction and usage of the monster Bazelgeuse is all at once masterful and terrifying. It’s an example of a phenomenon in games of having a ‘Nemesis’, or the thing whose sole goal is to ruin your day. In games, particularly games with fun or satisfying combat, it can become easy for enemies to not truly feel like enemies anymore. Instead they’ll feel like fun challenges, equal competitors, or even fodder to fuel the forges of your fun. The Nemesis breaks this cycle, in part by being incredibly powerful, in part by appearing when they’re least expected or least welcome. The Nemesis isn’t usually what you hunt, it’s what hunts you. Which brings us back to Monster Hunter World, where the Bazelgeuse will often swoop in and begin carpet-bombing your hunt just when you think you have things under control, or worse yet begin carrying off a monster you were hoping to catch alive. It’s a moment of intensity so high that it gets its own theme (even throwing in a light motif from Monster Hunter 2) , that will undoubtedly throw a wrench into any hunt. It’s an emergent way of creating a monster the player will truly loathe to see, and a clever way of keeping players on their toes during High Rank hunts and expeditions, utilizing that seamless world to its fullest.

The Soundtrack

Not only is the soundtrack brilliantly adaptive, and full of endless personality (from the Rotten Vale’s choice of synth and organs, to the brilliant rework of Birth of a Hero) but its call backs to franchise motifs are often subtle and exciting. The choice of theming each area in the game with its own motifs and highlighted instruments isn’t anything particularly new, but is used to exceptional effect here. The winding Wildspire Waste favors jazz and guitar motifs, while the Rotten Vale focuses on fast strings, synth and booming percussion. Add to this the numerous variation of each location’s tune, depending on whether the player is fighting minor or major monsters, and whether they’re chasing, fighting or just arriving, and the music truly becomes as alive as Monster Hunter’s ecosystem. This further reinforces each location’s unique personalities and feel. Additionally, Monster Hunter soundtracks have always been particularly potent as a result of their grand orchestral nature and its a true joy to have those soundtracks shine outside of tiny 3DS speakers.

In Conclusion

Monster Hunter World can best be described as a game that is as fun to play as it is satisfying to master. It’s imaginative, immersive and offers players an masterfully well realized sandbox to tell their own stories in. Easily one of the largest takeaways from a game like this is ways in which you can reward a player, and motivate them to sink countless hours into your world. The central key in all of Monster Hunter is clear cause-and-effect, from learning weapons, to monsters getting into turf-wars, to the eponymous cycle of monster hunting itself. The player is able to clearly understand what they must do to get their desired effect (be it gear, camps or even simply landing a hit) guaranteed, and is simply asked to put in the effort and mastery to cause said effect.

#monster hunter world #game dev #Game Theory

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