#organic story vs plot nonsense

[bobbie-robron]

History not forgotten but embraced…

[rei-ismyname]

The Phoenix/Phoenix Force sucks

If you're not familiar with Marvel/X-Men's The Phoenix catching you up on the full context is not really possible. I'll summarise the salient bits, but I definitely recommend checking out The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas in Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men. The big dumb Firebird has appeared earlier in the timeline for better or worse, but that's the definitive phoenix story (and very entertaining.)

An abridged Publication History of the Phoenix

- The Phoenix is introduced as a cosmic abstraction, a vital entity that is part of the universe. Jean Grey is sacrificing herself to save the rest of the X-Men and this happens.

And this.

It's wild shit, totally iconic and mostly internally coherent, though it doesn't end well. Jean as the Phoenix eats a star and destroys a planet of broccoli people. A very effective use of girl power. A lot happens and she ends up sacrificing herself again. It was established that Jean is The Phoenix, now and forever.

- Rachel Grey, Jean and Scott's daughter from an alternate timeline shows up and is a phoenix host for years without any genocides or whatnot. There's angst, but it's just a part of her. Rachel was a bit of a Jean expy at times but it still made sense and was exciting. She's Jean's daughter so it doesn't take too much handwaving to accept her as a 'host.' (She still is btw, no idea how this works but I like her.)

- Over the next few decades the Phoenix showed up an awful lot. Avengers Vs X-Men is probably the most well known instance. The bird is a lot less picky about hosts now. Hope Summers is the intended host (another Jean expy at times,) but due to Tony Stark's arrogance the phoenix ends up in five other people - Namor, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, Magik and Colossus. It makes very little sense tbh, but after much needless conflict it ends up in Hope and she uses it for some cosmic magnificence.

- Over the next few decades it's all over the place. The Stepford Cuckoos, Quentin Quire, tean Jean, this Shi'Ar dude with a big sword, a prehistoric woman called Firehair, this utter dipshit called Faithful John, and others. It's become a problem of the week, deus ex machina, and worst of all - the stories are not very good. The lore of the phoenix is nonsensical at this point but Marvel was not showing any restraint. Personally, I'd groan whenever it appeared because it meant repetitive plot points and further muddying of how the thing works.

- The Avengers got hold of it and the less said about it the better. It's the mid 2010s and this supposedly unknowable universal abstraction, a god of sorts, has become frankly silly (derogatory.) The wonder has been strangled through overuse and conflicting lore. I'm actually understating it a bit - if you don't believe me check out the wiki for The Phoenix. This cosmic abstraction, one of the most iconic X-Men concepts/moments/arcs had become cringe and boring through overuse and lack of imagination.

- In 2019 Jonathan Hickman's House of X dropped and it was a great time to be an X-Men fan - the Krakoan age. A decade plus of deeply average stories and nostalgia bait were in the past and the status quo had changed in wonderful ways. The Phoenix received a mention on a data page, but it was in a list of powerful entities to give context to a new and interesting concept. At the time it wasn't necessarily foreshadowing.

- In 2023 Marvel was (unwisely IMO) speed running an end to Krakoa and the aforementioned concept emerged as the endgame threat. The Phoenix found its way into the story in an organic fashion and the X-Men put all their hopes in The Phoenix to defeat the threat. Kieron Gillen, under difficult circumstances and with less time than promised, actually did it! He used the Phoenix in a quality story with appropriate gravitas and wonder - and he cleaned up the lore so it made sense again. That run (and era) ended in a better place than most of us imagined it could. It didn't surprise me because Gillen is the best writer in comics today IMO, but we got lucky. He left it on a high note but Kieron Gillen is not at Marvel anymore and Tom Brevoort is in charge of X Books. I'll come back to this polycule erasing bozo.

Phoenix (2024) picks up where he left Jean and The Phoenix (and some infinity comics but let's ignore those for now) - both lore and characterisation-wise. It's explicitly solicited as a cosmic run and the first issue has delivered on that. It's not hard to imagine an ending with The Phoenix seeing itself out of the story in an entertaining way with clean lore and sense of wonder intact. Hopefully without killing Jean again 😅.

Ideally, Marvel will have the good sense to leave it alone for a few years at least. The books are already milking nostalgia and historically X-Men keep returning to the Phoenix, Apocalypse, and some new hate group/the US government deciding genocide is on the menu again. Apocalypse has had character growth (and if they ever undo that I'm doing violence) and moved on & we've just had an attempted genocide plus past victims resurrected - so I'll be generous and say they're off the table. The X line has all new writers and seems to be looking to synergise with '97 and the MCU while claiming they're going for fresh and exciting.

We might get lucky again. X-Men 97 is way past the OG Phoenix stuff and so far has avoided using bottom of the barrel storylines from that time. The 2000s contains danger, but most instances don't fit the 'greatest hits' style they've used so far. An exception to that could be Avengers vs X-Men, but I think they'd save that for a summer blockbuster if anything. I suspect a lot of people would get hype about a movie called AVX, especially if they never read the comic. The MCU hasn't been shy about reconceptualizing events for movies, like Civil War, for instance. The essence of the premise was there but the film made a lot more sense. There's plenty of other reasons (better ones even, ones that don't feel OOC and forced) for the X-Men and avengers to fight, and they'd have to set it up with Disassembled (kinda already happened, not Wanda's fault,) House of M (please no) and then all the Hope Summers/Messiah events. The Fox Movies already did the Phoenix, too, bad as it was. I don't think they'll go that way.

Secret Wars has a phoenix egg in the comics, but it's not important and it's barely an X-Men story. I don't see The Phoenix menacing our screens anytime soon, thankfully. What I fear most is editorial playing it safe and/or nostalgic (which is why Tom Brevoort concerns me - check out his Spider-Man manifesto and you'll see what I mean) and a writer returning to the well when pitching story ideas. Everyone is confident at the start of a new era bc it takes a while to internalise that Marvel repackages and reskins the same 25 tropes while deliberately presenting the 'Illusion of change.' Once the initial ideas dry up and it's crunch time it's natural to look to the past for ideas and characters to reuse. Maybe sales dip a little, or the comics are in a holding pattern waiting for the MCU to do something. Whatever the cause, it will get pitched again and Brevoort will likely say yes. I don't want to be unfair to the guy, but he's been failing upwards for years.

After all, it's happened so many times already. Metatextually, The Phoenix is a symbol of rebirth. That would be a good thing. It can be easy to mistake repetition for rebirth, but it's the avatar of life and creativity. In universe one of its roles is to destroy stagnant ideas or species. Anything that's static and has stopped evolving. Ironically it's been used in some of the worst instances of creative stagnation in Marvel comics. The Phoenix, recent goodness aside, sucks.

I genuinely hope I'm an old 'man' shaking my fist at a cloud while telling Tom Brevoort to get off my lawn. I love being wrong. Nothing would make me happier than Spider-Man or Magneto hosting the Phoenix being an Impossibility. I know I'm not the target demographic but I don't just hope these things for myself. We all deserve good stories, new ideas, the joy of being vulnerable enough to get invested in escapist media. The Mouse, like all capitalists, does not give a fuck about those things though unfortunately. They care about profit. Eh, there's always Fan Fiction. If it does happen I'll commit to a million words. 💜

Don't even think about it.

[bandtrees]

🛒 tell me about ur themes ollie

I WOULD LOVE TO DO NOTHING MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fanfic writer emoji ask!

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc. - im going to speak these words and you're going to think "HIGURASHI FAN", and you will be correct. generally speaking, a theme i am obsessed with, is perception vs reality. being neurodivergent, in my experience, is like being your own unreliable narrator, not even knowing you're unreliable - so it's a topic that's very near and dear to my heart.

in particular, i love getting into the nitty gritty of it: in particular, outside forces shaping how a person thinks, but they're not aware of it. tttaac mob and crowfic ritsu are biggest examples of this, so is tmtrainer eden, you feel protected isaac, and reanimation technician itadori - the feeling of when you're angry and don't know it's because you're hungry, or depressed but don't know it's because of stress you've been carrying for a long time? that there is my bread and butter.

(^it's also the reason i'm so into um... brain damage? just conceptually? i find it fascinating as someone who, albeit in a neurodivergent sense, has a lot of their perception of the world changed by physical nonsense in their noggin (like autism, adhd, anxiety). it's a specific thing to keep returning to, from my transformers fics to tttaac and beyond, but what can i say. i love the intrigue that comes with someone's entire being being shaped by a physical organ and what happens if you poke at that.)

i also, PREDICTABLY, love gory imagery, i think gore is a constant in my writing, whether it's actually happening or is just used as extended metaphor - cuz, and i tell this story often, i got my start with fanfiction (and writing in general) through grimfics and creepypastas, and one of my biggest fandoms ever, the one i have to thank for a lot both creatively and for the reason i even know my qpp and why i'm on this site at all, was warrior cats - where, to a kid, feeling cool and mature reading about death scenes and gore is awesome. so i'll always gravitate towards some manner of blood and guts, its my favorite

speaking of warriors, in my oc fic, spottedfur's pride... i need to learn to use nature imagery other than going off of what season it is, lol, but for characters living in a forest, it checks out. there's so much season imagery in spottedfur's pride. i put maybe a bit too much emphasis in the first arc on half-melted snow and muddy slush at the tail end of winter, but in my defense, i think it makes for cool visuals, and i'm still kind of struggling to write for characters i cant fall back on human traits, concepts, etc, to describe. so for now, have sooo much season imagery lol.

also i've been told my writing style is very "psychological/out of body introspection -> physical sensation -> psychological/out of body introspection -> so on and so forth" - not as a criticism, just something my friend cyn pointed out to me once, and.. i always notice that lol. it's because i think i'm very good at writing overarching thoughts and broad-strokes feelings and how they change over time (i'm a huge character study guy) but i struggle with scene-by-scene action-by-action Plot Progression(tm), so i cheat my way out of it by using paragraphs of internal monologuing as free timeskips. and granted i think i'm good enough at it lol

tysm!!! i love getting to ramble about my process... if you couldnt tell lolol.

[shadowmaat]

Review: Primogenitor Saga, by Robert M Kearns

I snagged the first book in this series, Smilodon, as a freebie off Kobo. It had an interesting twist to the usual shifter stories wherein some shifters became primogenitors, the extinct versions of modern critters. In the case of our protag, that means he got bitten by a cougar, but turned into a smilodon/sabertooth cat. The shifter community was shocked because the only other primogenitors they knew of were a couple of dire wolves.

Smilodon was pretty good. It gave us our protag, Wyatt, as he adjusted to the shifter world and reluctantly adjusted to the role of leader he was thrust into. The main plot involved an organization kidnapping children- not just shifter kids, but magic-users (Magi) and regulars as well. As a hook goes, it certainly caught my attention.

I enjoyed watching Wyatt coming to terms with his new life, his determination to be Good and Protective vs. bullying, and how the others around him appreciated the change he brought to their community. His determination to help save the kids at all costs was nice to watch, and having his Magi twin sister there to occasionally twist his tail was a lot of fun.

I did have some issues with the worldbuilding. I appreciate that Kearns at least mentioned that real wolves and whatnot don't have an Alpha hierarchy system, but then he dismissed it as "yeah, but it's totes different for shifters." Some great potential for originality was lost there, IMO.

I was also irritated by the indication that shifters, as a whole, tend to value power over everything else. Which I guess fits with the "Alpha" nonsense, but it's so very chauvanistic. Then add in Wyatt building a harem- sorry, a pride- of ladies horny for the kind and easygoing super-alpha and it was... more than a little cringe. I don't think it's the polyamory aspect that bothers me as much as the way the hierarchy works out and how everything is about Wyatt and making Wyatt happy and gee, we sure are lucky that Wyatt likes our worthless little selves. Kearns does try to lighten it up a bit, but that's still the vibe it gives off.

Still, the overall story was interesting enough that I was willing to put my dislike aside and read the next book in the series, Roc.

Roc introduces us to an avian primogenitor who was framed for murder and has been on the run from the Black Ops guys who framed her and want to capture her for experimentation.

The story was... still good, although I could have wished for a lot more about Sloane and her roc heritage. I'm also puzzled why a feline primogenitor is cause for shock and awe and reactions of "holy shit, there hasn't been a non-wolf primogenitor for centuries!" but an avian is just kind of "sure, whatever, nbd."

There was more politicking, too. Not just with the shifter world, but the US government. It was... bad. I may not like all the political red tape and how slowly everything moves, but for everything to just go whoosh with little to no problems? That's more unbelievable than a smilodon shifter.

More plotty stuff, more rescues, more good and more bad. Still enough to keep me reading for the next bit.

Consular Times is where it falls apart. It sets up a huge plot point: a fae war/invasion on the horizon, but everything is just unpleasant and I began to actively hate the protagonist. For all his claims of hating bullies early in the series, that's exactly what he's become. He actively kills and terrorizes people into compliance, swaggers forth with the belief that "I'm the biggest baddest badass on the planet so we'll do things my way or not at all." He calls up the US president and basically tells her "your plan is shit, so we're going to do this instead" and she just... accepts it. He bulls right over the Canadian contingent that shows up, insulting them in the extreme, and is absolutely uncaring when they take off back North. And no one calls him on it.

Here's the thing. You KNOW there's a war coming; one that no one will survive if we don't all band together. The only reason we survived the last fae war was because of Merlin and because the primogenitors were plentiful. Merlin is still around, but there's only five primogenitors and one of them is brand new. We need the Canadians on our side. We need everyone on our side. Pissing in the face of an ally is a stupid fucking thing to do.

It's already been determined that shifters and Magi will need to "come out" to the world in order to survive what's coming. Having a Canadian consulate or even a "liason" in a small random town in nowhere, Washington would raise a lot of questions that you could control the answers to while also maintaining an important link not only to the Canadian government as a whole, but to the shifters of Canada. But no, we get to have a pissy little power play instead.

Wyatt has become the very image of toxic masculinity and Kearns does nothing to raise any red flags about it or give any indication that maybe Wyatt is no longer entirely in the right, here.

I'm also getting real tired of Wyatt shifting or half-shifting as a dominance display to make others literally piss their pants. It was acceptable the first time or two it happened in the first book, but at this point it's just petty and spiteful, not only on Wyatt's part, but on the author's.

There's also a scene where, at the Canadian government's request, Wyatt and his companions head to Ontario to deal with shifters poaching sheep. He swaggers in, guts the leader, threatens the rest of the pack, and leaves. He doesn't ask why they were poaching, doesn't do anything to learn about the pack dynamics or if they're actually in trouble, and doesn't help the survivors with anything. After all, that isn't his problem. Even if he is supposedly the leader of all North American shifters.

Oh, and then there's the bit where he travels to Chicago to meet with the shifter council and flat-out murders one of them for- *checks smudged writing on hand*- ...disrespecting one of his ladies. He mutilates five others for the same thing. It's incredibly over-the-top and unpleasant to read and he apparently just... gets away with it.

There's supposedly a fourth book in the works, but while I want to know how the fae war thing is supposed to work out and how it connects to the previous storylines that were left dangling, I'm not sure I can stomach reading it. If you're going to model your protag as "I'm different from all the other Alphas because I'm kind and caring" then maybe you should have some fucking consistency so he remains kind and caring. Or have it be a whole story in itself where he's slowly cracking under the pressure and turning into the very bully he hated even as he struggles NOT to be that. But no. Instead we get this whole thing of him ONLY being kind and caring to his "ladies" and to his town while treating everyone else like shit and suddenly acting as if humans are worthless scum is frankly appalling.

It's also pretty rich that he preaches to the President about how "all of us living in Precious, WA consider ourselves US citizens" and in practically the same breath says "I don't answer to you."

Ugh. So much potential ruined.

[darlingkirstein]

what's the difference between u outlining your "acts" vs outlining your chapters? isn't it inherently the same thing?

it's a little different but i understand how they seem like pretty much the same thing!!! not all of my fics have those defined acts/arcs like TC does but every story is going to have sections that divide up the plot. so the acts are going to be a lot broader — they're pretty much categories!

an act/section is going to be something that i summarize with a sentence or two. that section is going to be something that i slot the chapters inside. so there isn't much actual outlining that goes on with the acts — they're a framework!

the chapter outlines are going to get very specific and detail-oriented and are going to spell out exactly what's happening in those scenes. so it's the chapter outlines that really matter — that's what i'll be referencing as i write, crossing off details as i include them in the draft. the sections are really only important for me for TC because of the chapter titles being modeled after a play (act i, scene i, act iii, scene ii, etc.). so really in that instance it's more of a practical reminder for me!

in general though, having "acts" or "arcs" can help with organizing the chapters. so, i could write a chapter outline and then look at my pre-determined acts and see where it needs to go in the overall plot to fit most seamlessly. like if the arc labels a specific conflict, any chapter that deals with that conflict would be slotted underneath that arc. whether this appears in the actual outline or just in my head is completely dependent on the particular story.

so my actual outline might look like this:

ARC SUMMARY

chapter title/summary

— chapter details/specific plot points

chapter title/summary

— chapter details/specific plot points

ARC SUMMARY

.... and so on and so forth. basically,

arcs — big picture

chapters — smaller, detail-focused

depending on the writer, you can probably ignore the whole arc thing if it's unnecessary. i'm just someone that can struggle with organizing my ideas so it's helpful for me :)) i also realize that everyone's process is gonna be totally different so what makes sense to me might sound totally nonsensical to everyone else!

im happy to answer more questions!!!

[kimberlyannharts]

i was re-reading MMPR/TMNT for fun the other day and i had an epiphany that the Tommy/Matt nonsense in the main books is basically the Tommy/Tyler plot in that book but with the actual clarity in the story taken out.  specifically in regards to this scene vs the whole “Tommy tries to connect to Matt but Matt doesn’t listen because he’s a little bitch” scene:

i don’t think the Tyler subplot was perfect but i at least understand his character and motivations here.  a kid unhappy with his family life joining a bad crowd (in this case, an evil ninja terrorist group) in order to feel a sense of stability and belonging and anyone trying to break him out of that will be seen as a threat is unfortunately very realistic.  it also comes with a bonus peek into Tommy’s pre-Angel Grove days, which has barely been elaborated on in the five plus years Boom has been publishing PR comics.  

the Matt stuff is similar, with Matt joining an organization (Promethea) that’s “”””taking advantage of him””””” (which in itself is just character assassination for Grace, but that’s a rant for another day) and Tommy trying to relate to him through his own experiences, but Matt won’t hear it......and it’s like......why?  it doesn’t have this clear instance of character and motivation, it’s just Tommy and Matt having drama because Matt was half-assedly given all of Tommy’s story beats so that automatically makes them foils and rivals without actually making Matt his own character.  also keep in mind this was one scene that explained Tyler compared to the year Matt has been a green ranger in the main books, so maybe Matt just sucks in every possible way    

[autolenaphilia]

Mafia: City of Lost Heaven

The original Mafia from 2002 by Illusion Softworks is a weird and fascinating game. It is a third-person shooter somewhat in the vein of the GTA series.

It is set in the 1930s and is about a Mafia family, the Salieris in the fictional city of Lost Heaven. It focuses on the rise of player character Tommy Angelo in the Salieri organization. It is a standard gangster movie plotline, with the Godfather and director Martin Scorcese being referenced often. The character wants the money crime can give him and is successful as a mafioso, but he experiences conflict between the horrible things he must do and his conscience. This contradiction eventually destroys him and the story becomes a tragedy.

This cinematic gangster tragedy is an unusually ambitious story for an action video game at the time, and it isn’t entirely unsuccessful in those. Mainly it is because the 1930s gangster film atmosphere is so fully realized, more than the actual writing. The writing isn’t terrible, Tommy’s story is a coherent tragedy, but it does not quite reach the high level of its gangster movie inspirations.

And it has many of the problems of the genre, except even more so. The game depicts the mafia in quite glorifiying ways. The mafiosos in these guys wear nice suits and fedoras, drive nice cars and get to have cool gunfights with Tommy guns. And yet the story tries to have it the other way too, with the mafia depicted as ruthless violent people and crime leading to a tragic end. Tommy is himself frequently appalled at the things the family wants him to do and ultimately he ends up badly because of his mafioso life. The contradiction is obvious. It is the same trap the gangster films that inspired this game fall into. Gangster films want to show this cool escapist fantasy of gangsters because it is fun, yet both storytelling logic and any moral analysis demands crime leads to tragedy.

The story also has the problem of this opposition between “good” gangsters and “bad” gangsters that doesn’t make much sense. The plot driving the story for basically 4/5 of the game and especially the middle levels is this rivalry between the Salieri and Morello families that eventually becomes an outright war. And in order to have a more easily graspable “heroes and villains” situation, the narrative is clear that the Morellos are the worse mobster family. Don Morello kills people for bumping into his car and tortures people to death. He is presented as a vile and repellent villain from the first. It is the Morello mobsters which you kill for most of the game, and you kill a lot of them, and this somewhat over-the-top villainization is meant to justify that.

And Salieri doesn’t do these kinds of things, he doesn’t deal in drugs either and fights common thugs who mug and sexually assualt women. He is the “good” kind of gangster. Even his collecting of protection money is presented as actually providing some form of protection. It is an implausible idea to say the least, and the game is certainly aware of it. What drives the plot inthe last four levels of the game is that Don Salieri is becoming morally worse after his final victory over Morello, getting more greedy for money and power. Butthe game depicts him as committing ruthless murders even before that point. This inherent evil of the mafia is what drives the actual main storyline: the tragedy of Tommy.

This Salieri vs. Morello plot feels hollow, the game’s attempts to subvert it doesn’t work because it doesn’t feel credible to begin with. The over-the-top villainy of Morello and Salieri’s softer actionsfeel like sentimental nonsense from the very start. “This gangster is good, he protects people from common muggers OwO, but this gangster is bad, he tortures people >:(“. Salieri’s slide into further villainy after Morello’s defeat doesn’t feel credible either. For a subversion like that to work it must have some plausibility to start with, some emotional resonance with the audience, and it just doesn’t.

It makes the game feel like it buys into the glamorization of crime that is often present in the genre more than most actual gangster films do.

Speaking of that, I should mention the sexism of this game. Most gangster films certainly depict a male-dominated culture. In that, the genre reflects the real-life mafia, which is extremely male-dominated and misogynist, and it is arguable how much those films endorse that sexism as opposed to merely depicting it.

And I would argue Mafiafalls into endorsing it, at least in its storytelling. There are only tworeal female characters, and each only appears in one level each. Sarah is an especially outstanding example, for she becomesTommy’s wife. The level in which she appears Tommy rescues her from a sexual assault by some muggers and they have sex and fall in love. This is said to lead to their marriage, and I do literally mean “said” because we never see her again after that level. Tommy mentions her occasionally and his marriage to Sarah and their daughter is by his own admission his most important motivation.

And that is the purpose of women in the story of Mafia: to provide motivation for their husbands. Two other gangsters are similarly driven by their wifes and children to break with the Salieri family’s obligations, in explicit parallels to Tommy’s situation. And it is not just sexist writing, it is ineffective writing too. Tommy’s marriage is meant to be very important to him as a character, and it is problem in the actual story it is never shown. We never get to see Tommy’s and Sarah’s supposedly idyllic family life, only hear Tommy talk about how it is the most important thing for him, which weakens any emotional empathy we might feel with him.

The level with Sarah at least features a bunch of dialogue between Tommy and Sarah and it is nice I suppose, but it is not enough. Sarah is also depicted as a bit of a bimbo or at least extremely naive, as she doesn’t seem to be aware the Salieri’s are well a mafia family, which seems unrealistic considering how closely connected she is with them. (She grew up as the daughter of the bartender in the Salieri’s Bar and works there, a location in which they literally shoot rival gangsters in at one point).

The writer of Mafia, Daniel Vavra would many years later become a gamergater, probably the most prominent developer to sympathize with the movement. And while it is of course a disappointment, it is not entirely unexpected. He was by far not the worst misogynist in video games or anything,

but just looking at Mafia, it is not strange at all that Vavra as a game writer would feel threatened of the very idea of feminist analysis of video games.

I talked about the story far more than I wanted to when I started writing this, and it is actually not the most interesting thing about this game, it is actually the city of Lost Heaven itself, the attempts at realism in the gameplayand the cars.

The city of Lost Heaven is one of the more fully realized cities in video games, and it is clear a lot of effort and thought was put into its design. Even the map of the city which you use to navigate it showed a lot of effort. It has (printed)creases, stains and pen markings drawn on it just like a real map would. The original box(that I owned) came with an actual physical copy of the map, which was very fun to have,although bringing up the map in-game by pressing tab was certainly the more practical option.

It is perhaps not a huge world compared to modern open-world games, but it was huge for 2002 and it is varied in a semi-realistic way. Lost Heaven is divided into various distinct areas just like a real city would. There is an industrial area, a working class housing area (“Hoboken”), a detached housing area for the upper middle class on the outskirts (Oakwood), an area with mansions for the rich (Oak Hill), ethnic ghettos like Chinatown or Little Italy. The basic idea seems to have been is to recreate an American city from the period in miniature.

And the areas have been given a lot of effort to make them appear more tangible. The building models and textures are different of course, but you can also detect a difference in the pedestrians. People in working clothes walk around in the industrial area and the working class area of Hoboken, whereas you can primarily see the nice looking suits and dresses in the richer areas of of town. It clearly took great effort to program and it contributes greatly to the mood. Even the cars seem to vary slightly, with the older and cheaper cars more abundant in the poorer districts, but the difference I think is lesser compared to the pedestrians.

The care with which Lost Heaven was constructed creates this compelling atmosphere. It feels like you are driving around in a 1930s American city. The aesthetics and atmosphere make the gangster story work better than it otherwise would. Lost Heaven simply feels more real than most video game cities do. And this is despite the dated graphics.The textures might oftenbe very grainy, shop signs especially are a blurry mess, but even they were made with some effort.

Let’s talk about the cars too, because they encapsulate this game in both aesthetics and gameplay. The cars are all based on real cars of the period, even if the names are all changed to avoid any claims of trademark infringement. Fords are called “Bolts” and Chrysler Airflows are called “Ulver Airstream” for example. If you know anything about older cars, you can however easily recognize many of them them under the changed names. an early game car is unmistakeably a Ford model T for example. Also some cars are far more common than they should be, like the concept car Pierce Silver Arrow of which only five were built is a common rich man’s car in the game under the name “Silver Fletcher”.

The cars driven by the NPCs are used to show the passage of time in the game, which goes from 1930 to 1938. As the years go by in story, older cars get more uncommon (but don’t disappear entirely) and new models are introduced. Your access to cars in gameplay also improves as you progress in the story. You go from slow, fragile cars like the aforementioned T-ford to fast, powerful and sturdy cars. The effort put into the cars from the research to the NPC programming is another thing that helps create the compelling mood of Mafiaand the city of Lost Heaven.

The cars are a good example of how the game often prioritizes atmosphere and verisimilitude over fun and accessible gameplay. The driving in this game is not a side-thing like it would be in most action games and cars in this game handle fairly realistically for this type of game. It is still arcadey, but far less arcadey than you would expect from a non-driving simulator. And most importantly, cars are period accurate in that they are both slower and more clunky to handle than modern cars.

Damage to the car also has more consequences than you might expect. A crash might damage the engine causing the car to go slower, a bullet rupturing a tyre makes the car far more difficult to handle, a shot to the gas tank will cause the fuel to leak out(fuel is never really a problem in the primary story mode, but it is there as a game mechanic and can be relevant in the free ride mode). The early-game cars are more fragile and vulnerable to crashes and the like, but none (outside a special car in the game’s free ride mode which not available in the regular story) are immune to these problems.

So this game prioritizes realism over player enjoyment, practically the only obvious concession to the player is that you always have automatic gearchanges available, but you can also choose to change gears manually if you want to. It is frankly oftenfrustrating, even the best cars in this game can be difficult to handle.

Car chases in this game are brutally difficult because of this, and the game’s most infamous level is the fifth one where you have to compete in a car race, driving a fairly period-accurate racing car. It has perhaps the best speed and acceleration of all the car’s in this game, but handles terribly. It is perhaps the most difficult level in the game, and even the developers seem to have realized how unfair it is. You could cheat in the original box copy version of the game which I played as a kid and the GOG version has an easy mode for the race.

A lot of the game is actually about this car hierarchy mentioned before. Typically at the beginning of each level you are given a new car by the Salieri’s mechanic Ralphy, and it is usually better than the car he gave you last level (he also teaches you how to steal it, which isn’t that useful in the story mode, but gives you that ability in other game modes). At the end of most levels, you are also given the opportunity to do an optional side-mission for another mechanic, Lucas. If you succeed, Lucas teaches you how to steal a really capable car. Typically the car you can get from Lucas will be better than the ones Ralphy will give you for the next 2 levels at least.

So the clunky car mechanics both give period verisimilitude and a sense of progression throughout the game.

And it does certainly add to the atmosphere and sense of realism. Mafia’s cars feel more real than most video game cars, but they are also oftenfrustrating to use in gameplay.

But Mafia priortizing its verisimilitude over player enjoyment doesn’t stop there. In each level you are given an objective, typically somewhere else in the city than where you start (which is usually Salieri’s bar). And you have to drive from the starting point to where the actual level starts. After the level is over, you have to drive all the way back.

You can’t just speed your way through the city either, because Lost Heaven’s cops will notice you breaking the speed limit or running a red light and fine you. The fine doesn’t actually cost you anything in the story mode, but it takes up time and negates any time you won by speeding. You can run away but the cop cars will follow and try to arrest you (which is a game-over), and if you try to kill them they will shoot back. The police will usually radio in for back-up too, so you will have to evade or kill the cops (including the back-up) to escape, both of which are fairly difficult.

So the best idea is to keep to the speed limit of 40 mph and don’t run any red lights. You can toggle a speed limiter with the F5 button which caps your car’s speed at 40 miles. It adds to the realism the developers are going for, but in order to play the actual level you have to have this bit of tedium with the drive both before and after. It is basicallya commute except with a varying destination.

The developers was probably aware of the tedium on some level. During the first half of the second level you get to play Tommy during his pre-gangster life as a taxi driver. It is literally just driving from point A to B under a time limit, and the customer will get cranky if you crash the car, and getting a speeding ticket is game-over here of course. The customer dialogue is often rude and theydoesn’t even thank you for most of the time. It is super-tedious and clearly intended to get the player to understand why Tommy became a gangster, since this boring dead-end job is his alternative. The problem of course is that a lot of his life as a gangster consists of driving from point a to point b in a similar fashion.

The game’s obsession with verisimilitude also extends beyond the driving to the action. Without being entirely realistic, Tommy is on the flimsier side of shooter game protagonists and can’t take a lot of bullets before dying. It is like in Max Payne, where a point-blank shotgun blast can practically kill the player character in one hit. You can find healing in first aid boxes boxes, but they are rare. Reloading before your magazine is empty also means you lose any bullets left in the magazine.

And unlike Max Payne, there are no quicksaves or manual saves whatsoever. Saves are done automatically at certain checkpoints and you have to re-start at those if you die. This save system makes this game extremely difficult, since you have to sometimes practice entire segments in order to progress. It is a lot of having to memorize where an enemy mobster pops out so you can shoot him before he shoots you.

The combat is certainly well-made and sometimes quite fun. There are like the cars some weak weapons, but overall weapons feel powerful and the environments and set-pieces are often enjoyable. But the action like the rest of the game is frustratingly difficult.

And that is the game, pretty much. You have a tedious drive to have a big spectacular shoot-out that is frustratingly difficult and you have another drive back. Sometimes there is a car chase, but that’s it. There is a stealth level that tries to change up the formula where you break into a villa, but the game is not really built for stealth so it is frustrating and very much not fun. Then there is the side-missions from Lucas on your drive back, usually a timed fetch-quest of some kind. They do add variety and have some interesting story ideas but can be frustrating in their own right.

There is also the free ride game mode, where you get to explore Lost Heaven freely and do whatever you want, although there is not that much to do, except get into car chases/fire fights with cops or random gangsters you can aggro if you want. The oddest game mode is “free ride extreme”, where you get to do various bizarre quests to unlock equally bizarre cars. It is a weird mode, especially for this game, as you have this usually serious aiming-for-realism game letting its hair down and going for outright comedic surrealism.You get to chase down a super-fast npc named Speedy Gonzales, that sort of thing. The mission certainly have surreal imagination to their credit, even if they can be as frustrating as the rest of this game.

So is Mafia a good game? It is hard to say. A lot of my fond memories of this game comes from playing an already old by that point box copy as a teen when I didn’t have access toor had played many other games, so nostalgia plays into my fondness for this game.

Replaying it now, the game’s faults are more apparent. When it comes to story, the game certainly stood out back then, and the tragedy of Tommy Angelo the unwise still broadly works, but its re-telling of gangster movies has not aged that well. Gameplay-wise the game is difficult in a way that feels frustrating rather than fun, and there is a lot of tedious driving from point A to B. Some of the action set-pieces are exciting, but the high difficulty and limited save system essentially means replaying large chunks of them almost to the point of memorization.

There are many other games like the GTA series that have a similar mix of third-person action with driving which have more easily enjoyable gameplay. Mafia seems to care more about making its world believable than any kind of player enjoyment.

And it is probably its world, the city of Lost Heaven that still fascinates about this game. A lot of work and love went into Lost Heaven, and it shows. Lost Heaven is an atmospheric and memorable place. Mafia makes a lot of strange gameplay choices just to make Lost Heaven seem more real, choices that not many other games would have made for good reason, because thatlevel of realism is not that fun.

The result is that this is a game where you play a badass 1930s gangster not just during daring shootouts in mobster wars, but also during his slow drive to and from hisgangster work, and youhas to follow the traffic laws so he isn’t ticketed. It is 1930s Gangster simulator 2002, or an approximation there of.

Mafiaisn’t alwaysa fun game, there is a long stretchesof frustration and tedium here, but it is frequently interesting and a clear labour of love, atmospheric, weirdand fascinating.

[quesadillabitch]

pb's recent (?) issue with character motivation, consistency, and pacing

we've all noticed it tbh. they've all become particularly badly done lately, with prime examples being distant shores, witness, the nanny affair, the royal heir... like here i go rambling again but like?? idc

start with distant shores... issues with pacing, consistency within characters and their motivations. mc's a hot mess, and seeing as they are who we are playing through, this makes it all the more glaring. wtf is this character? they don't seem particularly bright or determined, they just go with whatever current plot the book is telling us to pay attention to. one second they are like 'oh no my crew n boat!' but then five seconds later they can be like 'oh oliver ;)' and like you can't even chalk it up to the half-assed actor background of mc because none of that is referenced in a way that would at least partially justify this bizarrely inconsistent mc (sans any motivation to get home of course).

and then oliver?? tf is this idiotic character introduction? what could have been a fairly interesting romance with the mc fell flat immediately when everything was thrown on the table within hours of meeting them/all within the same chapter. pb now has gotten to a point where it refuses to acknowledge that there can be subtlety and pacing in an mc's relationship with an li - it's all or nothing, no tension or slowburn. same thing goes with witness and the nanny affair and friggin baby bump. pb *tells* you that there is this undeniable attraction between mc and the li a billion times, and then by the end of chapter two they've already made out with each other or hooked up. things can't actually be taken slowly or organically because pb thinks we'll... what? abandon ship (haha) or get bored?? i mean a good example refuting this is mc x ethan... it was what? eight chapters before it let them kiss?? bruh that was some goooooood romance pacing AND character consistency - it made sense with Ethan's character to wait so long and then react the way he did... speaking of character consistency/motivation, back to Oliver...

why lmao? why would he tell mc, a veritable rando in his books, all this stuff about his top secret mission? isn't he supposed to be a highly capable navy officer? And yet?? nothing we've seen has proved this? introducing him the way he was just shows us that he's just highly incompetent and boringly instantly whipped by the mc for no overtly discernible reason (like every li... every book 🙄). his motivation to tell mc instantaneously is... because they're ~dreamy~? he's jeopardizing this entire thing he's been tasked with because mc's cute? hello????

i could harp on distant shores being a massive disappointment for a while but i don't really care so I'll carry on to other stuff. i haven't played the royal heir for weeks because it was starting to hit terminal stupid at that point but I've seen many a post talking about pb completely ruining maxwell's character and somehow dumbing down everything even further so absolutely no one in the book has the brain cells to figure out what is going on...

i think im just mostly tired of he insta-love for mcs and the rushed ass romances with no actual basis for chemistry. it's BORING. we all know nothing about witness makes sense in regard for cassian being in love with the mc... she treats them awfully but cassian is like "YES BAE ANYTHING FOR YOU!!!!"?? or even the nanny affair (which so far i actually generally like), like this shit would be so much more convincing if pb could wait more than two chapters and hold off on the need to smash the mc and li together like two barbie dolls the second they lay eyes on each other. stop telling us about electric touches and lingering stares three clicks in and actually focus on constructing believable chemistry and tension without forcing it. like, again, we've seen this stuff work really well before in past books. we know it works, pb knows it works. it demonstrably does. it's okay to wait five or six chapters before the mc and li kiss. they don't have to be ******* and **** each other within the first chapter lmao

idk i know a lot of this instant gratification stuff and loose pacing and character crap is about money vs. quality but overall it just makes me sad because we know what pb is capable of, how great their stories have been and how great they can be. but the majority is just so... meh now :/

i don't feel like carrying on anymore and i know this is all very rant-y and nonsensical but i at least partially got my thoughts out, even if they are disjointed af lmao but uhhh yeah don't take this too seriously, these just be my opinions and if you love the books that I'm ragging on, that's all well and good ✌🏼✌🏼

[queenofeden]

okay so look, i wasn’t going to make a post about this because i genuinely didn’t think it was anything worth making a post about “publicly” but apparently some people disagree and i’m petty enough about this to not want there to be any confusion on where i stand.

i really enjoyed the new prologue update, and the changes made to the routes (minor ones, and i’ve only play tested nadia and julian so far to see them but they are there) to reflect them. i really enjoyed the last update they made to it as well. i always enjoyed the prologue, clearly it’s what got me into the game in the first place. i found it engaging and fun to play and i enjoyed the characters immediately off the bat. 

however that prologue was written a long time ago. 2016 if i remember correctly, and a lot about the game has changed since then. the prologue, even up to yesterday, was still full of what i would consider hanging plot threads and characterizations that simply no longer reflected or suited the game that we have today. a game which i love very much and still actively enjoy the direction of.

i really want to thank @raquellle-arcana for their post on the matter (linked here) because it was the first one i saw that reflected my same excitement amidst and field of far more negative feedback, but especially for this quote, 

“I love that they went back & changed it, like that to me, shows how much they still care, & that the creators genuinely want to improve & nurture their game”

this is what it comes down to for me. as a creative and a creator, i think it’s really important to be able to look at work u have made, work you’ve been proud of, and still acknowledge that it can be improved. this is not a published novel that lives in perpetuity, this is an interactive narrative game. as the narrative progresses and matures and expands, things that used to be priority no longer are and that is okay. looking back on where the characters and the story were based on the information given in the art book vs where they are now is fascinating to me, and i love seeing how the game has evolved and grown. i agree wholeheartedly that it does show a genuine love and care for the game on their part.

it shows that they want and continue to want the game to be relevant and enjoyable, that they want the “new” routes to have more substantial representation, that they wanted to integrate the new plot lines into the prologue in a way that made them make more sense as potential outcomes as opposed to “well they just had to make them different from the original 3″. i don’t know a single writer or artist or any creator that doesn’t look at their old works and wish that they could change things or, if they had known then what they know now, go back and adjust for it. the devs have the opportunity to do that, and i’m glad that they continue to take those opportunities to make their game, a living document if u will, the best version of itself that it can be.

(cut for length bc i continued to ramble and also potential spoilers for the new content)

i love that asra and mc’s relationship is well established now, i love that so much of the story and lore feels organically given and much more show and not tell. i love that asra’s characterization feels more consistent with how he is in his and other routes instead of the hinted but never actualized “ominous, dark, and vaguely spooky” angle (which don’t get me wrong, is a really valid and interesting version of asra that i do love to play with but tonally it just didn’t work with where he’s ended up now). 

i love that julian is no longer so bent on a revenge angle that is never concluded in his route bc it was no longer relevant. i love that his background and involvement is more well integrated. even so far as his acknowledgement of malak, not as his magical familiar obviously, but just in that he’s clearly important to julian specifically. the wanted posters were one of the things i loved best about the first prologue update, just that little bit of information felt like the sun parting the clouds so far as world building and i’m glad that kind of thing was expanded upon even further with him.

i love that nadia’s motivations are much clearer, and that her characterization is much more in line with her morals given in the text. truly, i felt that she read as so much more competent in this newest version, something i never doubted about her, but really seeing it so early made a huge difference to me. i’ve always been a nadia main and i have loved her from the moment i set eyes on her, but i i’m well aware that many people do not feel that way and never get to her route where many of the criticisms no longer hold water. i’m hoping that this is no longer the case. it makes me happy to see her relationship with lucio cleared up, that thirst to prove herself is made very apparent, but at the same time so is her genuine compassion and kindness. the explicit statement that the masquerade is no longer a celebration hinging specifically on the murder of julian makes SUCH a big difference. nadia states over and over in her route that that is not the kind of ruler she wants to be so it’s lovely to see that reflected. she is a woman searching for the truth, no matter what it is, something that the high priestess would be proud of i think. 

i could go through and itemize everything that i loved about what they’ve done, but we would be here for 12 hours and nobody wants to read a post that long, i know. to mobile users, i’m already sorry lmao.

but listen, much as i am excited about the new stuff and the updated stuff, i do understand being disappointed at things that have been taken out. i do, i really do. i also loved feeling julian up, but on the whole i also acknowledge that scene as deeply fanservice-y. that’s not a problem by any means, but it’s also something that i think shows the devs and their growth as writers to potentially be able to look back on that and say, “this was fun and we liked it but it doesn’t actually serve the story in an appropriate way anymore”. that takes a lot of maturity, and i think that maturity is reflected by the state of the prologue now. it feels much less at times like a “silly, horny otome game” and more like a proper visual novel with a lot of meat to it. and there’s still plenty of room for the fun horny stuff. it’s littered throughout the routes and not at all absent in the prologue, just, i think, integrated in a far more natural, gracious way.

i felt, on the whole, at least so far as my MC’s personal characterization, that in the old prologue i was much more wont to pick paid scenes bc i had bought them and i wanted to see them over whether they actually made sense narratively in my version of the story, or whether my apprentice would actually do them. i didn’t feel that conflict anymore, anything i wanted to do, i felt i was able to do and with a level of choice i was comfortable with. not only did the canon characters feel more “in character” now, but i would argue that MC feels more like a real character far more quickly than they used to.

i’m sorry to the people who feel disappointed by the new updates, or that in some way the game has been “ruined” for u. your opinions are yours, and your decisions with what to do next are your prerogative. media consumption and how someone interacts with it is a deeply personal thing. i only wanted to speak my mind and make this post if only because these attitudes were all i was seeing, and i was suddenly inundated by the negative reaction and it was upsetting to me. it made me angry. i’m still a little angry, and i could certainly cite and quote a bunch of the nonsense i’ve seen spouted off in just the last few hours alone but honestly, i’m too tired for it and i’m liable to get catty and petty.

what it comes down to is this, the new update made me excited about the game again, it made me want to replay everything with fresh eyes, it made me want to dig my fingers into the lore again, it made me want to talk and play and enjoy canon for what it is after being very much more consumed with aus lately. i want to openly thank NH and @thearcanagame for continuing to make a game that is fun to play, a story that is engaging and keeps me on my toes, and for sharing something that they’re clearly proud of and want to continue to be proud of. that level of responsibility and dedication to their work is inspiring to me as a creator and as a fan, and it makes me proud to be even a tangential part of the whole of it. i hope that over the months and years, the game continues to update and improve and build upon itself, even if for whatever reason i’m no longer around to see it.

[glassvines]

Thoughts on 2020 Favorites

Thoughts on all my favorites from 2020! Sadly, I witnessed what is most likely the demise of one of my favorite hobbies: going to the movies. I hope all my local theaters don’t close up for good this year, and I start going more regularly again in 2021 but. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be the same again. TV Shows 1. Battlestar Galactica (2004) - Getting into this one rather late, but I just discovered I can watch it for free on Peacock haha. Absolutely loving it. Been meaning to finish it ever since I watched the 2003 mini series a few years ago. Stylistically brilliant, and I love that the theological-laden dialogue appears to have a plot-driven point to it. 2. Evil (CBS) - I love this show! Hope it gets another season. It manages to pull off that fine line between silly and creepy most of the time, and all the actors come off as sincere. Also Michael Emerson is there which makes everything even better. Also, also a plus: I'm used to the media portraying Catholics in two different ways: lapsed or bigoted. Muslims? Devout and spiritual or terrorists. It's nice to see a series centered around a devot Catholic, a lapsed Catholic and an ex-Muslim who are all the good guys. Fantastic central characters dynamic. Animation 1. Hilda, season 2 - One of Netflix's best imo. The new season was gorgeous, and even got me to shed a tear at one point. I want to read the comic it's based on. 2. Infinity Train, seasons 2 + 3 - Excellent follow-ups to a great first season. Both were good seasons, but I really enjoyed s2 for Jesse and MT's instant chemistry. 3. Castlevania, season 3 - This show is going to end up breaking my heart but damn if it isn't a really fun watch. Fight scenes continued being top-notch in s3. 4. Bee and Puppycat, season 2 - Yeah, this isn't getting an offical Netflix release until 2022 (what the fuck), but I watched the leaked episodes and enjoyed them a lot. The show feels un-polished and the plot is surrealist nonsense, but those aspects of the show also make it creative and original. I'd like more seasons in the future, but given how disorganized to the point of incompetence the s2 release is, I'm not counting on getting anymore. I don't like seeing the popularity of this show squandered so it's a huge shame. 5. Amphibia, season 2 - Best Disney show airing right now. Characterizations and animation continued being great and I'm looking forward to s3. 6. Wolfwalkers - We all needed a beautiful Cartoon Saloon movie in 2020. It did not disappoint! Hope it has a bluray release soon so I can rewatch it somewhere other than Apple TV+ :/. 7. The Willoughbys - More Kris Pearn directed films please. This movie's character design style was so charming and cute. Loved the Ricky Gervais Cat Narrator. I watched this one with my family after having been separated from them for some time due to the lockdown. It was probably one of the happiest evenings of this year for me. 8. Soul - I enjoyed Onward quite a bit, but Soul hit me in that old-school Pixar feels way. A film about inspiration and finding purpose, so it had a message very similar to Ratatouille. Only Soul ponders on one's worth if they are "not doing what they're meant to do". This movie really knocked that message out of the park.

Video Games 1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I played this rather religiously. Definitely kept me from moping during those times when my work hours were cut. 2. Creaks - Amanita Design is offically one of my favorite indie game studios at this point. I adore the atmosphere and music in this game; it's one of the most chill puzzle games I've ever played. 3. Hylics - This game is so bizarre. I've never seen anything like it. Really want to play the sequel.

Films 1. Emma - May officially be my new favorite Emma adaptation. I loved everything about it. The stylized look to the cinematography, the costumes, the music, the actors. Everything. 2. Doctor Sleep - Was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, as I completely missed it in the theaters. An excellent sequel to a classic, and a well-done good vs. evil story. 3. The Vast of Night - Fun little sci-fi/indie/1950s period piece. I hope streaming services start distributing more films like it. 4. Prospect - My dad recommended this one to me and we watched it together. I was blown away by the dedication to detail; how everything worked in this future setting. Pedro Pascal's character was constantly surprising me too. (Also see: very handsome.)

Podcasts This is only here so I can mention that my favorite new thing was 100% The Magnus Archives. I listened to a lot of new stuff in 2020, but it all paled in comparison to TMA. Good spooky times, great characters and character dynamics, interesting plot direction. The lore is so, so good; I'm impressed with how thorough it is with explaining the seemingly unexplainable, without fully taking away the air of mystery.

Honorable Mentions 1. The Mandalorian, season 2

Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2021 1. Hopefully we'll finally be getting that PacRim series?? 2. The French Dispatch 3. I just want to go the movies again sighhh

Some Creative & General Goals for 2021 I actually managed to do a proper job this year with the journaling and taking more photography! I've started serveral journals, as well as a digital one. So, at least I managed to keep up with one of my creative goals. Managed to have a fairly successful deck garden this year too. My sugar peas didn't die on me haha. Hope to expand on it more this spring/summer. Moving forward this year: 1. Continue to keep up with journaling: drawings, gardening, travel (fingers crossed) and tv/film commentary. 2. Seriously organize my photography this year, as well as post online more often. 3. Help my brother this year with some of his own creative projects! He's always asking for art and I'm usually too busy, but this year I want to get more serious and contribute to his projects. 4. Maybe get back to an old goal of learning how to play the guitar. I want to drop some cash on one this month so I can practice at home.

[takemybodynotmysoul]

plotttttt

You and Berry go to the lake in order to try to catch the legendary Pokémon. You meet Prof. and Dawn, and just like in Diamond, they leave their case.

Then, Cyrus appears out of there. Saves you from some wild Pokémon and choose a starter. His attire his much more science-like, and the team is not called Team Galactic, but Galaxy Corporation. 

Then, we get a cutscene of going back to your house to tell your mother about what happened, and Giratina is seen on the reflection on the lake. 

You get to Sandgem Town, and notify Dawn/Lucas and Rowan about everything. You get the starter you received, and then get to name it

Side note: Rowan has been tweaked slightly, and he is written as a much more grumpy character, and Dawn/Lucas is his grandchild, who is unsure about what they want to with their lives. They will be your secondary rival.

By the way, there are three Pokédex entries for each Pokémon in The New Pokémon Platinum. You will be able to unlock them if you catch a certain amount of Pokémon, and for the first time in the series, completing the Pokédex has actual consequences. As you complete it, you will find brand new Pokémon habitats in both Snadgem and Twinleaf town, that the Professor was able to construct thanks to the data you collected.

So, you start your journey. By the way, THERE IS NO MANDATORY CATCHING TUTORIAL. A slide will pop on the screen, and if you are interested in the catching tutorial, it will indicate you to talk to Lucas/Dawn.

_______________________________________________________

There are no changes in the camera angle when encountering important characters, only normal angle (from behind) and full-on cutscenes.

In Jubilife City, you will be acquainted with Looker. It’s not as tedious as the originals, the dialogue is quick and you are only warned of shady people. You are given the VS. Recorder by Dawn, and then you can have your battle with Barry by the school. The clown-clock situation is completely optional, and will fuction by popping on the right side of the screen.

On the route on your way to Orebough City, you will find a static Shroomish that is there to start the Mew event that will be distributed in the game’s release.

Once upon arrival, a kid will point to the gym, but not force you to get there. You are still supposed to find Roark by the mine, and once you get there you will see that it has been expanded. After getting the badge, the new ways TM’s work will be explained: one needs a rock type Pokémon that knows a rock type move to break down the boulders, and once you break them, they will STAY broken.

After getting the badge, you will be explained (by Dawn/Lucas, after a battle) how the side-missions go. They are little missions you can take part in, and after completing them, you will either be given an Egg of a Pokémon that cannot be found in the wild, or that are from another region. There are, at the very least, five of them to do in every town. They are not big, but they will 100% expand on the region and offer some extra events with the Galactic corporation.

When leaving Jubilife to get to Eterna City, there is an event with some scientists like from the GC (Galaxy Corporation) get confronted because they are exploiting a Magnemite on the street. This event helps begin to explain how they work, much more differently than they did in the OG’s.

Basically, they are a scientific corporation that works in the region and has, overall, a pretty bad reputation: they tend to overwork their employees, as well as receive complaints because they bother the wild Pokémon. Cyrus is their leader, and his fascination with Giratina and the others is tweaked to seem much more believable and much less end-of-the-world type of ordeal. 

Giratina senses Cyrus is one fascinated with Myth, and tries too hard to find out the truth behind everything. His passion for history is borderline insane, and he has, like previously mentioned, a pretty nasty reputation. He will put anything at risk if it means getting the data he needs, his research is more important to him than anything else.

Giratina, as we all know, was banished to the DW by Arceus, and it begins to sense that Cyrus is its way out. What better way to get out of the DW than have a clearly unstable man try to break you out of it? Therefore, it starts to show itself on mirrors or reflective surfaces, which greatly affects Cyrus’ mental health, making him believe he is either insane or chosen.

His ultimate goal is to get the legendaries, Palkia and Dialga, to open the world and let him be the one to explore the Distorsion World. So, he must find a way to get the Red Chain. Therefore, he starts to hunt the Lake Trio.

He is, however, not written to be completely insane. He is manipulated by the brand new antagonist of the game (inspired by the anime) Hunter J. She’s a merciless hunter that sells Pokémon to an association that hides in the Battle Frontier. In the encounters with officer Jenny, she’ll mention how they have been suspecting her for a while, but her status as a Frontier Brain is too powerful, plus, they do not have any substantial leads.

She is aware of how twisted Cyrus’ plans are, and she is the one to push him over the edge:

After you save the old man’s Clefairy from the Eterna building, she will convince Cyrus that the only way to get what he wants is to go after it. From that moment on, the GC work together with her and they start to become more of a criminal organization, as they are escorted out of their numerous headquarters, but not arrested.

Obviously, J isn’t stupid, she’s just using Cyrus to find legendary Pokémon and then sell them. She is far mroe antagonistic, and meets her demise at the DW, when she her trusty Salamance gets tired of her and lets her falls into the deep end.

She is the one to move the plot along, alongside the commanders. She is the one to set off bombs on two of the lakes, and you fight her several times.

Some important information that will be expande upon later on is tht, after Gardenia’s badge, you can go anywhere you want to in Sinnoh except for Canalave City and Snowpoint (including the brand new cities of Alamos, Hillwater, Greenstation and Senders Town). The only roadblocks are ones you can get rid of with TM’s no ‘YOU CAN’T PASS’ nonsense. The only one that is kind of like that is, actually, not annoying at all. You are unable to get to Celestic Town before badge number 6 so, after you do, to make sure that you do not skip the event with Cynthia’s grandmother, they add Whirlpools before Canalave. To get the ‘TM’ you must deliver the Charm to her.

How it works:

REGARDING GYMS

They are scaled, and depending on which one you decid to tackle first, the leader will ahve one or other Pokémon at certain levels. Also, you are obligated to use only as many Pokémon as the Gym leader uses. This is not an issue, because after the fourth badge, they all get 6 Pokémon.

Volkner is now no longer the last gym leader, that honor is Candace’s. He is instead, the sixth. After defeating Fantina, Wake, and Maylene at the order you please, you will be able to use STRENGHT. This will let you go on a little extra quest where you have to find Volker (he’s at the Jilted Park). After defeating him, you finally get the ability to Surf, and can go to the expanded Canalave City. After that, you will be given the ability to Waterfall, and be able to go on your Snowpoint journey.  

REGARDING PLOT

You will have some optional encounters with the (now fugitives) GC, and they will be on some of the routes between Alamos City, Hearthome Parish, and Veilstone (there is also a small event here), and have to be driven off because they are abusing the wild Pokémon.

However, after you finally get the 5th badge, the explosion on the Great Marsh goes off. You fight Junter J, and she flies away. Then, can go on to your next badge.

After defeating Volkner, there is an issue with them violating some rules regarding the energy of the city, but the next big event is after you get your seventh badge. The explosions on all of the three lakes go off. Instead of being sent there to fix it (insanity), Rowan simply encourages you because the cities nearby are in need of volunteers to help them with the damage. When you get to Valor and Verity, the reason you fight the grunts and commanders is because you catch them trying to escape. Then, you are still encouraged to go to Snowpoint because Lake Acuity’s wildlife has been threatened by the bomb, and they need help from as many trainers as they can get.

After getting there and getting your eight gym badge, you are able to access the Lily of the Vally conference, and go to the Lake to give help. There you find out that ANOTHER bomb was just inmediatly set off, and that they now have, succesfully, caught the guardians.

You get to infiltrate the Veilstone HQ next. There, you find that they have turned it into some sort of nightmarish base, and they are keeping the guardians. Berry actually goes alongside you here, as it benefits his story arc, which I will touch on later. After busting their operation, they manage to get away thanks to Hunter J, and go off to Moun Coronet. 

Then, Cynthia reveals (and Palmer of all trainers) join and send a message to the region, encouraging all of the trainers to head to Mount Coronet in order to fight Cyrus. Once again, there is no end-of-the-world nonsense, she just encourages trainers to help the Lake Trio, some legendary Pokémon that have helped humans and trainers since the beggining of humanity. It’s much more engaging this way, and MUCH less preachy.

On your way up the mountain, you run into some of the stat trainers you have been meeting before, and it is quite moving to see how everybody is trying to help the Lake Trio.

Once you get up, after fighting a 12 on 12 battle with Mars and Jupiter, and Cyrus uses The Lake Trio, Dialga and Palkia to open the portal, Giratina swallows you, Cynthia, Hunter J and Cyrus into the Distortion World. 

There (it’s all in a fish-eye camera, very much atmospheric), you solve the puzzles and get to fight Cyrus who, after some dialogue with Cynthia and J, gets a redemption.

After J’s falling, you fight Giratina (are unable to catch it yet though) to let you all out of there. Once you emerge at the Sendoff Spring, you get the conclusion with the last Giratina-reflection-sighting in the fourth lake, but instead of menacingly looking at Cyrus, it looks at you.

Then, you get to Lily of the Valley island, go through Treebove Path, and fight in the Lily of the Valley conference. You fight the stat trainers, and Lucas/Dawn in the finale, and are finally able to go through the Victory Road and challenge the League.

After the Barry fight and the Elite 4, you fight Cynthia by the ocean. After you win, the credits roll. Overall, with the expanded routes, brand new locations, revamped plot, and new rivals, the story is the most complete of any of the games, and is, without a dubt, the longest main campaign of the Pokémon games. Will continue with the side-missions and non-Calaxy plot, and post-game later. 

[ambitionsource]

Hi, I am so here for all this ambition content right now. I check this page every day! I remember u guys mentioning about a rl and dasher road trip and I was wondering about that! Thank you!

hello pal!! literally so honored and happy that you’re enjoying ambition and the fact that you check our page every day... ugh you’re too sweet. hopefully the nonsense we do around here is entertaining! very happy to have you in our fandom community <3

so yes, rl + da road trip! i hope it’s okay that i took a bit to answer this, bc i wanted to ruminate on it for a bit before typing it up. so as y’all know we refer to the summer between s1 and 2 as “cruel summer” (thank u tswift), and similarly we have a code name for the summer between s2 and 3 which is “summer of love.” this is admittedly mainly because of rl, but also because a majority of the characters are in such a better headspace this summer than they were last.

boppin the rest under a read more, because i just go on... and on... and on............. (i really love rl & da)

-- Maggie

one facet of this summer is that around... july sometime, dylucasher decide they want to take a trip down to virginia beach (or the beaches in that general vicinity) because they want to check out a beach that isnt grey and cold like the ones close to them in ny, and because a trip before their last year of school together seems like a fun and Classic idea. originally they plan it for just the three of them, but somehow riley comes up and all of them agree -- especially dylan -- that it would be way more fun if she came along too. so they try to convince her to come along, which doesn’t take much convincing, it’s more so about figuring out how she’s going to get around cory because if he knew she wanted to go on a like week long trip with her boyfriend (who he doesn’t really trust) and two other boys he would probably have a heart attack.

you know, it would be like “you can’t go on an overnight trip with three boys!!!” “dad, you know dylan and asher. they’re gay. they’ve been dating for three years. they’re GAY. i do not think i’m at ALL at risk in that scenario???” fsdfSDKGDL

so riley devises a plan / cover story that involves like “going to stay with mom” for a few days, maybe a lie about staying over at isa’s or yindra’s for a couple days in there, you know, she lays out the whole lie and then bribes maya to go along with it and help cover her tracks (rl have very inverse influences on one another -- where riley sort of tames lucas and helps calm him and make him less feral, she develops a bit of a rebellious streak from him or just better identifies the nuances of which rules should be followed vs which were meant to be bent or broken..)

the good thing about this road trip is that it’s what truly cements riley’s friendship with dylan and asher. they’ve been toeing the line of friendship for like two years now (as riley said in cruel summer, she regretted not taking the time and establish a friendship with them in sophomore year before everything fell apart), and it’s kind of like it’s bound to happen. riley and asher takes a little more time to grow and develop just because of the kind of person asher is, but on this road trip dylan and riley just Click. like they were basically made to be best friends, dylan is the first person who kind intrinsically Gets riley and they match each other in terms of enthusiasm / personality / brightness. again, a friendship that’s just been Waiting to happen, and this trip really brings that to the forefront.

(on that note, i once joked that when dylan and riley get really into chatting about something and lucas zones out, they start sounding like the villagers in animal crossing to him. like if he stops paying attention for even a second suddenly dyley sound like this. and i stand by that claim.)

as for the trip itself, its not like i have the whole thing perfectly plotted or anything like that, more just... musings and ideas. oh and a playlist, of course i have a playlist. obviously they’re really good about swapping around drivers and sort of organizing their time since they only have a week, and i think it’s mainly funded by dylan’s youtube vlogger coin. asher helps and riley chips in her fair share, but dylan basically covers lucas because obviously he can’t pay but they all want him there. he makes up for this by driving the most even tho the other three insist its not a big deal.

when it comes to sharing space, the quartet of them are pretty good at it. obviously when they stop for the night they just share beds by couple, but it is interesting to think about how different these two relationships are in terms of like... you know, where they’re at. like its super easy for da to share a bed because they basically do that all the time now, but for rl breaking that boundary would be a kind of unspoken big deal and lucas would be so cautious about it. like they spend most of the summer in riley’s car (can’t hang out at her place with cory there and no one is going to lucas’s) and so theyve probably like fallen asleep together there once or twice and maybe napped ONCE at riley’s place when maya and cory were both gone in the 2.5 months they’ve been together, but it’s still... not the same. so at first lucas would be really nervous about it, but after the first couple of nights he’d relax and realize its really not that big a deal -- esp since riley seems pretty confident and comfortable with it. by the end of the week, lucas wakes up in the middle of the night and riley has cuddled up next to him and he’s like... okay MAYBE sharing a bed with someone makes points. perhaps.

one of the nights on the way down the coast, what truly breaks the ice for dylan and riley is that they break out a SMALL amount of alcohol and both get tipsy (which for them is just like. giddy and giggly and very chatty. they’re both happy drunks without a doubt). lucas and asher don’t indulge bc lucas doesn’t trust himself getting intoxicated and asher is just wary of it in general, but they figure dyley can do it as long as they’re both supervising. so dylan and riley talk A LOT that night and truly form their Kindred Spirit bond and also lucasher end up regretting letting them drink bc for like a half an hour dyley do this thing where they just pretend to share secrets with one another. like they theatrically whisper in one another’s ears and look at lucasher while they’re doing it and then start laughing and they’re literally not saying anything Important (like it’s probably like riley being like “psst... i think lucas is... hee hee... lucas is hot”) and then dylan cracking up and agreeing but bc lucasher don’t know what they’re saying they’re like ha ha very funny........... but y’all aren’t talking about us doe right. wait, what did you say. hold on --

a lot of the trip is also based around being in nature and the outdoors, since they don’t get to do much of that day-to-day in manhattan. considering one of their favorite spots to hang out as a group during senior year is at central park, they’re all definitely fresh air outdoorsy kind of people to a degree. so like, stopping at parks, going on hikes, and of course the beach itself. i made an instagram edit of one of said hikes when i was testing a template i made:

naturally, and i swear this happens at least once on a long road trip whether it is with family or friends or any combo of people, but you hit a point where you get irritable and start to get a little sick of one another. i think in this case that mainly starts between lucas and asher, because although they’re Best Friends i think lucas has a knack for finding ways of irritating him. and also lucas probably gets irritated by dylan’s high energy after too much time with no breaks, so he’s also snappy, and as they’re on the way back up to nyc people are spatting at one another or getting snippy over stupid things so riles is like. here’s an idea! how about we split up for the day when we get to philadelphia. this is an excellent idea and none of them are opposed, so when they arrive in philly, dylan and asher split off to go explore the city + historical sites.

what do riley and lucas do? well, riley takes lucas to meet her grandparents, of course.

at first lucas is like ummmmmmm no because he’s SUPER nervous about meeting her family -- the only family he’s met is cory and we know that’s... unideal, and eric, both of whom have a completely different perception of him bc of school and his behavioral record. he’s yet to meet topanga or auggie yet or anything like that -- but riley assures him that her grandparents are chill and she has no doubt she’ll like them. they’re also meeting lucas with a completely blank slate (i.e. no preconceived notions about him like those who work at aaa), so it’s not hard for lucas to make a good impression since he really is like... a good guy. not to mention no way is he snarky or deadpan in situations where he doesn’t feel comfortable or like he has the right lmao, so he’s on his BEST behavior around amy and alan.

the good thing is that alan himself kind of had a similar background and run on the wild side that lucas does (kind of like jack, altho jack was never as troubled as lucas), and so i think he would kind of... inherently Get him. like he’d strike up a conversation with him and at first lucas would be like omg why is this man speaking to me please i’m invisible pretend i’m not here... but after a bit he’d find it’s surprisingly easy to talk to alan. and they’d talk for like an hour and get on pretty well. meanwhile, amy is talking to riley and is like so... let me guess. cory does not know you’re traveling with your boyfriend???? and riley is like... perhaps. maybe don’t tell him? pretty please? and once amy convenes with alan and is like how is he and alan is all “he’s fine, we can approve,” then they agree not to rat riley out.

riley and lucas also climb up into the matthews tree house and take a look around and they comment on how strange it is that cory and eric once used to like, hang out in there and in that house and were once teenagers (lucas: be careful this is humanizing your father too much for me). and i’d think they’d sit up in the treehouse for a little bit and just talk and riley would talk about how nice it must’ve been to grow up in the suburbs like this, and she’s surprised when lucas agrees and he admits he fucking hates living in manhattan. and that kind of prompts this subtle internal thinking in both of them of like hmm well... maybe in the future when things are different and we can make our own rules maybe we’ll move out of the city and into a quieter life... they don’t say any of that out loud, but they’re both thinking it. and at the tail end of that conversation riley kisses lucas which turns into a Really Good Kiss... but then they’re interrupted by amy calling for them to come down for dinner and its kind of like lmao, they’re both a little bashful but in a casual silly way

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Carnival of Souls: Genre and Themes

A Haunted Heroine drawn to an Amusement Park of Doom, while being pursued by what appears to be The Grim Reaper?  Can Carnival of Souls be anything but horror?

Every story ever created, no matter how unconventional, has to fall into at least one category of something we call genre.  Put simply, genre is the sum of similarly themed parts that come together to tell a story.  It’s shorthand, giving the audience a clue as to what kind of story they are about to see.  And in almost every case, it’s never as simple as it seems.

Characters, storylines, settings, and even themes often correspond to different genres.  As we’re seeing in our science-fiction study, a common theme is man’s relationship with technology, his own creations.  With fantasy stories typically comes the central idea of ‘good vs. evil’.  It’s actually rather helpful to evaluate the categorization of stories, in this case, film, as it not only sets up our own expectations of the story, it also helps us expand the boundaries of genres as their limits are tested.

All of this is to say that today, we’re looking at the elements of Carnival of Souls to decide, very simply, what genres it is, and what genres it is not, and more importantly, why.  Let’s take a look.  (Spoilers below!)

To start, let’s see how Carnival of Souls fits in with the genre most people seem to put it in: horror.

The story of Carnival of Souls is one of surreal horror.  Our protagonist, Mary Henry, finds herself narrowly escaping death (she hasn’t, of course, but she doesn’t know that), and spending the rest of the film pursued by a haunted amusement park, creepy organ music, and visions of ghouls determined to chase her down.  Stalked by a Silent Antagonist with a Slasher Smile, Mary is overwhelmed by nonsensical encounters.  She doesn’t know what’s going on, and as a result, the audience is on edge too.

The horror element also has a lot to do with the ending.  The Dead All Along trope is typically seen in horror films, occasionally in horror-comedies such as Beetlejuice or Topper.  Traditionally used as one final, horrifying twist, this plot point is most effective in storylines that have kept up a sense of unease, which Carnival of Souls excels at.  The entire story feels uncanny, the protagonist (and all the other characters) just a little bit off, rendering the mystery just that much more intriguing.

The protagonist, the creepy setting, the ghoulish antagonist all certainly render Carnival of Souls a horror film, but a horror film alone it is not.  Remember that ‘mystery’ I mentioned earlier?  That plays a part here too.

Throughout the film, there is a definite feeling of aforementioned unease as various unexplained things happen that draw the audience’s curiosity.  Mary survives the car wreck alone and unharmed, with no sign of the car or the other passengers.  She can’t remember what happened, and never seems to want to, but that doesn’t mean that there is no mystery.  Mary’s storyline serves as clues to the audience, for them to piece together what has happened and why.  How did Mary survive?  Why is The Man after her?  Why does she keep popping in and out of reality?

As the ending explains to those who had not already figured it out, the answer to the mystery is that Mary is already dead, again, despite the fact that neither Mary, nor any other character in the film are concerned with solving it.  The puzzle is never addressed in the narrative itself except once in passing by the doctor Mary goes to see, it is there for the benefit of the audience, a rather curious styling for a mystery, but a mystery nonetheless.

The two genres, horror and mystery, blend together seamlessly, with the horror feeding the mystery and vice versa throughout the entire plot.  This would be enough for categorization in and of itself, and indeed, Carnival of Souls is typically classified as a horror/mystery, but there’s a little more to it than that: for example, the genre that best bridges horror and mystery: Thriller.

The thriller’s purpose is simple: to get a reaction out of the audience.  As such, many horror films also fall into the category of ‘thriller’, as do many mysteries.  Their goal is to surprise, to startle, to intrigue, to build anticipation and anxiety.  All of this, Carnival of Souls does well.  Extremely well, in fact.

Whether it’s the slow, subtle sense that something isn’t right that extends through Mary’s organ practice or the jump-scare sudden appearance of The Man, or the edge-of-your-seat terror that comes with the horde of Undead chasing Mary from the Carnival, Carnival of Souls keeps the reactions coming.  Through clever camerawork, music, and overall mood, the film keeps the audience jumping, even though the actual violence and scares within are fairly tame.  The ‘thrills’ are not of a visual nature, they are mostly psychological, the uncertainty of Mary’s fate.  Even if you are not outright frightened by the film, the tension is still there.

All of these genres are fairly obviously displayed within the film itself, and weave together perfectly.  However, there is one more genre, one that Carnival of Souls could technically fall into, that doesn’t seem to fit at all: fantasy.

When we think fantasy, we tend to think of films closer to Ladyhawke, or The Wizard of Oz (both of which have already appeared on this blog!).  Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Labyrinth all seem much more like fantasy stories than the grim, real-world Carnival of Souls.

However, fantasy does not automatically mean sword-and-sorcery style stories (say that five times fast!).  As a matter of fact, boiled down to basics, fantasy is merely a story with an element of the extraordinary, and in that, Carnival of Souls seems to fit.

Right alongside with that ‘surrealist horror’ angle of before, there is an almost mystical element to Mary’s haunting.  Unlike examples of science fiction, the haunting is never explained.  Only the audience’s inference gives meaning to the pursuit of Death.  It is never stated why The Man chases Mary, or why she sees him at all, it is our own interpretation that explains that it is because she has died, and no longer belongs in the world of the living.

All the same, does that make this film a fantasy movie?

Well, sort of.  To be honest, this film is rather hard to figure out.

In many of the other genre articles on this blog, we discuss how to determine the genre of a film with elements of several.  Usually, it boils down to two questions:

Question 1: What type of story is this?

Question 2: What type of hero/protagonist is this?

With that in mind, Carnival of Souls is…..hard to pin down.  As I mentioned earlier, the basic story elements would make this film a Horror/Mystery/Thriller, but as for character?  Mary is very hard to pin down.

Like I said in a previous article, Mary has very little personality to speak of.  She is a loner, taken in bouts of hysteria due to the fear of being pursued by The Man.  She has no drive, no motivation, and we know very little about her personality because her story has already ended.  She is already dead.

She is alternatively cold and hot, intense or distant, as she fades in and out of reality.  As such, we as an audience never get a good handle on her character.  However, due to the way she is played, and the way she is framed within the narrative, it’s a little easier to tell her place in the story and how it affects the genre.

Her part in the story is to be haunted, to run, to be frightened, to be drawn to the carnival.  Her part in the story is passive, reacting to the horror of her situation.

All of that is to say, Carnival of Souls is an effective horror/mystery/thriller, with a dash of fantasy, unique and memorable enough that this film stands out as something different nearly sixty years later.

Thank you all so much for reading!  Stay tuned for next time, when we’ll be discussing the character(s) of Carnival of Souls.  I hope to see you all in the next article!

[danwhobrowses]

My Hopes going forward with the DCAMU

Spoilers for Apokalips War Below, you have been warned

So this weekend I finally got around to watching Apokalips War and it was pretty good, lots of good ideas thrown about there, but the ending resolved that we are entering another Flashpoint meaning that the whole universe is about to reboot again. I do know that the first in this Reboot is a Superman movie called Man of Tomorrow but there are a list of things I do hope we’ll see in other DCAMU movies.

Less From the Trinity Look we get it, the Trinity are the big 3 when it comes to popularity. This doesn’t mean you have to shoehorn them in all the time, JL Dark did not need Batman’s presence for instance, it’s a bit of a spotlight hog and it undermines the characters around them. So in Apokalips War, Wonder Woman manages to just barely be bested by the combined efforts of Mera, Martian Manhunter and Hawkman and that is just nonsense, you know how fucking powerful J’onn is? Or Carter Hall by that matter? The disrespect. Same can be said for Bats, sits on a chair for 2 years but he’s still in peak condition to fight Damian who leads the League of Assassins and basically have him at his mercy. In fact Bad Blood he gets mind controlled, beats Dick whose whole arc is about being a worthy successor and just snaps back out, less of this LOLBATSWINS stuff, Bruce is not a Mary Sue, he’s allowed to be beaten. Seeing less of the Trinity can also open doors to more movies about other characters; the Lanterns (ALL of them, not just Hal and a Jon and Jade cameo, talking Blue Lanterns, Star Sapphires and whatnot), J’onn, Hawkman, Nightwing, Dr. Fate, maybe even some more obscure characters too like Spectre and Jonah Hex. I mean, Etrigan was a blast in Apokalips War, even if he lost to Wondy it was a salivating fight to have. More AU Stories May be a little contradictory to the prior but most of the alternate universe stories were pretty good; Red Son, Flashpoint, Gotham by Gaslight, All-Star Superman and importantly Gods and Monsters - gimme that sequel DC! - the self-contained stories can provide some good palate cleansers or some unique scenarios, like Gods and Monsters they don’t have to all be existing, try with some original concepts. You could even try doing some Batman Beyond movies if the licenses are there, Justice League Beyond? Get a little crazier, but a tad less gory Sometimes the key part to enjoyment is just riding the wave on how something is so crazy that it supersedes all manner of sense, DC does have a lot of places where there can be wackiness and fun, look at Lobo for one. I could also suggest DC’s favourite spawn Damian having his own solo adventure, could introduce Nobody, Cassandra Cain (Not the shitty Birds of Prey one) or Damian’s gigantic red steed Goliath into the picture. I may not have been a full fan of his relationship with Raven, but testing out new things is good, the aforementioned Etrigan vs Wonder Woman for instance was great, Trigon-Supes vs Darkseid was some spicy stuff as well. The other side of this though is to tone it down on the gore, like Apokalips war was like Days of Future Past made by the ones who did Castlevania, so many organs...not saying you can’t have gore, but less is more. Provide an Array of Stories One of the movies did alright with highlighting Jade’s PTSD and the mental challenges she was facing in general life, it was nice to see a film highlight that. Comic Books are not all about showy fights after all, some have deep messages or are purposed to show awareness for things. Mister Miracle could be a good avenue to go for the more emotive plot angles, tragic angles could also be done by using Emerald Twilight to The Final Night, being both an AU story and one that focuses heavily on Green Lantern, potentially being a Flashpoint ripple from the Reign of the Supermen movie. Don’t be afraid to go backwards either; some Year One or Origin stories wouldn’t go amiss, could even go further back and introduce the JSA. Build to another End-Phase Movie DCAMU are doing well with a similar MCU formula, but they can go a bit harder with it. Instead of a Phase-End reboot this time though we simply have a big arc finale involving an original concept or an existing large event such as Blackest Night or Dark Nights: Metal. Building to a bigger film can open the door for other characters to be introduced and plot angles to work, so for instance if you were building to Metal you’d need to introduce all the metals Bruce gets exposed to for Barbatos to open the gateway, this also will require Hawkman to have some explanation of Nth Metal, Cyborg for Promethium and the Court of Owls for Elecrium, as well as Dionesium and Batmanium. Having an end goal does help with making stepping stones to the next bit. But here’s to the next saga!

[neoneidolon]

one year - 1/ 2/20

It’s been a year since I started this blog!

Most of you probably know that this blog holds the OC continuation of the story I started as a canon character on cubicscubedemon. The history hasn’t changed; Morpho uses what used to be their nickname back on the old blog, and they reference things that happened back when they were Amorphous Shape, so they are definitely still the same person, but they were such a tiny presence in their old canon that I feel comfortable calling them my OC now.

So! We’re basically in the epilogue, I think! After a series of huge pushes, they left their Boss and started a new life in hiding. They had a run-in with their homeworld, picked up a sibling by accident, reconnected with an old friend, made some new ones. The nature of their relationships is different now. They’ve come a long way. So what now?

Well, first of all I want to say I’m not planning on quitting yet. There are still things I want to do, or at least lay down the groundwork for happening later in the unwritten bits of Morpho’s life. Because I know how their story is going to end. I probably won’t write it here, because that’s at least a few decades in the future we’re talking about and this blog operates on sorta kinda real-ish time, but it’s a nice bittersweet ending I keep in mind. It was never going to end the way Morph *wants*, but they’ll be happy regardless, I promise.

More Things That Have Happened:

-- they started living on Earth! exactly what the version of me who ran the old blog swore up and down would never happen in the default “verse”/timeline. Past me is eating their words right now

-- on a semi-related note, wow, this blog has been running for a year and still hasn’t gained any alternate verse tags? that’s kind of impressive

-- so now when I read through the old blog archive it’s going to be an organization nightmare figuring out if the version of Morpho in a given post is the same one as in this blog or not

-- I straight up forgot that Morpho already knew their timeline’s version of their Boss was dead. In the kidnapping event, Bill told them that and they reacted like it was new information. It wasn’t. I’m just an idiot who doesn’t read the archive enough.

-- Morpho is now: 10-20% more honest! 40% more emotionally open! 4% more humble! 80% deeper into their destiny as the local eldritch witchy grandma/eccentric uncle who has seven dozen other dimensions on speed-dial!

-- they’re still working on letting go of their need to be the “better version” of their ex-Boss, but what happened in Hyperspaceland went a long, long way in proving to them that the Multiverse can have wildly unlikely good things happen in it, and that they can make a positive difference without having to do it the way they had impressed upon them for years.

-- plus, they now have friends and acquaintances who are “weird” like them, who have managed to make good lives for themselves without having to be subject to dimensional power struggles and other unwanted cosmic nonsense. They didn’t think being able to “retire”/live quietly was really possible for people like themself, so seeing otherwise is really good for them. They don’t think directly about this, though, it’s subconscious.

-- but they still have a long way to go and a lot of deep-seated issues to unravel, and now they have to raise their time-clone twin sibling and pray they don’t mess the kid up.

Things I’d Like to Happen, Either Written Here or Not:

-- Morph letting go of their instinct to manipulate situations to their favor, and also their tendency to make things more difficult by lying

-- Morpho letting go of the assumption that most people have ulterior motives, even if their history demonstrates that they have a good reason to believe that

-- Beta growing up, working out how they are and are not Morpho, simultaneously

-- Morpho reaching a point where they can be trusted to not (usually) try using people for their own personal gain, so they can finally go back to their real calling (teaching) properly this time

I worry a lot about whether I keep things consistent here, if Morpho’s still the same person they were two years ago or one year ago. They seem happier, anyway. I don’t think they would be as happy if I was just shearing off unpalatable parts of them out of misplaced fear. At the same time, they are always going to be a little bit awful!

And what about Beta? I keep saying we’re near the end, but just as Morpho’s coming in on the close of their development, Beta’s is just beginning, under totally different circumstances as her elder twin. Life as the soul of a magical alien spirit thing, in the body of an earthly creature, isn’t going to be easy for her. If I wanted, I could lean all the focus on her and get a whole new narrative out of it.

That brings me to something else I wanted to talk about. So if you’ve followed me for a while, you know this about me: for better or for worse, I always have a narrative arc in mind. There are good things and bad things about that approach, and it’s pretty easy to screw up, especially where other people are involved. And the problem with characters who develop is that it is totally possible to develop them too much, to extend their story so far that they become somebody who doesn’t resemble who they were originally. I’m worried about this happening with Morph. I’m also worried about this blog just becoming an endless series of me coming up with some arbitrary new conflict or danger or drama every time I get bored of describing their mundane life. I don’t want to bore anyone. (I know, the wisdom is to RP for yourself and your own fun, but it still involves other people and also, I need to entertain, otherwise what is the point of my story?)

This blog is... might end before this time this year. I say might, it’s not that I don’t enjoy anymore and want to quit. After that? I don’t know. Starting an art blog on Tumblr feels kind of pointless now since the platform is dying, and RP is one of the major reasons I stick around since I don’t really use my personal blog much anymore. If I don’t write here, I feel like I’m going to slip away from a lot of friends. I don’t want to lose you all. I could start a new muse, Beta or someone else, but...

I want to do something different, too.

And that brings me to the last (I think) thing, which is what form Morpho’s story might take next. Because if I DO end this blog before the beginning of next year, I wouldn’t be done with Morph by a long shot. I love them too much and there’s too much of me I sunk into them. So what would I do?

Well, I was hoping to spin a web thing with words and pictures. ...I think I’m just going to call it a web serial. No intention of ever formally publishing it. It would be the same basic arc again, but more polished and with all the Gravity Falls filed off a backstory and setting that is more original to me, plus additional new plot things and side characters. Definitely taking place in a Multiverse, though, how could it not?

coming up with a villain to replace Bill Cipher has been basically impossible but Morpho’s story can’t function without somebody in that role

Maybe this is misguided of me, maybe it will fail to launch, or launch and then fail, and attempting to run it alongside this blog is an almost guaranteed terrible idea, but I want to do it. Morpho is never going to get a book series or a TV show, so this is what I have for them. It could be pretty interesting if it works. They feel ready. And most importantly I know I can tell this long rambly story and finish it, because I’ve already done it, here with the help of a bunch of writers--friends-- that I admire. Morpho wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

When is it coming? I don’t really know. Work on the first installments is happening, but it’s slow, and there’s key things I don’t know yet. Most of it is going to be flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go (but y’know, making it up better, with slightly less improvisation than I usually employ here). I’m graduating from community college in mid March of this year, which is going to be a major life change that is probably going to turn my life completely upside down. Maybe I will suddenly not have any time for creating anything, be it an RP blog or a web serial, much less both! haha I’m terrified 

But with luck, I’m hoping that what I am tentatively calling Amos vs. Everything will be out soon. Like, really soon. Some point between late January and when I graduate. (Now I just have to A. figure out where I’m hosting this thing and B. graduate. It would be really embarrassing if I flunked out of my last semester of school.)

I can see it now: somebody going “who the heck is ‘Amos’? The main character’s name is Morpho!” and I will smile and say ‘wait and see’ because they don’t know, but you. You all know.

And that’s about it! This is but a small and humble blog, and I like it that way. I appreciate every one of you who are here at time of writing. For the ones I don’t manage to interact with much-- I’m useless and shy. Poke me, reasonably. If you’re just here to spectate, that’s cool too. :D For the ones who come write here a lot, or did once-- you built this house.

Okay I should stop now or I’ll be sitting here forever! I can’t believe you read all this! Thank you all for everything and Happy New Year!

[racefortheironthrone]

Thoughts on Powers of X #4

Into the home stretch:

Good Times At Bar Sinister:

In retrospect, this may be the weakest issue of HoX/PoX and the closest that the miniseries come to a filler issue. Partly that’s to do with its role in the overall story: this is a denoument issue after the fireworks of the last two issues, and it’s also there to make sure that House of #5′s big reveal/undoing of the climax wasn’t literally the next week’s issue. On the other hand, it’s also probably the funniest issue in the miniseries, so I’d still call it a pretty good comic.

In this first segment, Magneto and Charles track down Mister Sinister on his ominous red crystal island, which continues the motif of ominous towers. When this is happening isn’t clear. We’re still in X^0, but Charles’ flying chair makes its first (only?) appearance suggests that it’s been a while. I really hope Powers of X #6 gives us a better Life 10 timeline, because some of these ordering questions are confusing.

The Guard Sinister sets the tone right off the bat - as we might expect from someone whose morality was shaped by Victorian England, Sinister is perfectly comfortable with being the “yes we have much” and telling the have nots to go away; but at the same time, being very into Aesthetics (note the first of many punctation for emphasis) and style, so that we’re not so much dealing with a guard as a club bouncer grading their outfits.

The clash with Xavier’s grey businessman’s suit and politesse and the vibe at Bar Sinister is immediately apparent, although Magneto’s similarly aggressive Aesthetic is clearly close enough to get them into the club even if Magneto wasn’t up for hurling Sinisters into rocks for being rude to his boyfriend who he kind of crippled although not in the 616 Charles.

Inside the club, the vibe is a weird blend of Edwardian-by-way-of-Lewis-Carroll and the fantasy medievalism of Melniboné. As we are introduced to Sinister the Capeless, I have to say that I find the version of Mister Sinister we get here really interesting, because what’s happening is a shift from glam to camp that’s been there from Kieron Gillen’s run and which has cropped up in Hickman’s earlier work. None of the Aesthetics have changed at all, it’s just that we’ve subtracted the self-seriousness that was sometimes there with the OG Sinister and added a sense of knowing humor to the whole affair. Doesn’t make it any less terrifying when Sinister the Capeless turns on a dime from “I. Love. That. Cape” to Red Queen murderousness - clearly we’re dealing with someone who is both highly powerful, highly intelligent, but also totally nonsensical.

Incidentally, as lines that would work great as t-shirt slogans go, “I can’t be shamed into changing who I am” has got to be up there. Also, very thematically appropriate for HoX/PoX as a whole.

At long last, Xavier and Magneto finally get to the reason why they’ve come to the Bar Sinister: they want Mister Sinister to build “a comprehensive database of mutant DNA” that is “safe. secure.redundant.” More than anything else, this feels like the (necessary?) evil of the founding of Krakoa. Other villainous mutants can be dealt with on the basis of ideology or self-interest or just dealt with, as we saw in House of X #6, but Mister Sinister is really the only one who has made himself indispensable to the broader mission.

However, this is all being done with the foreknowledge that Mister Sinister betrayed the mutant cause in Moira’s most recent life, so I don’t think this is being done out of typical Xavierian hubris.

The reaction is rather surprising: Capeless Sinister refuses out of aesthetic objections to the inclusion of “that aberrant gene” in his collection, which is not consistent with his previous characterization (although given the “they’re all crazy clones” thing, there’s an explanation right there), but is in keeping with Victorian eugenics. (I like Magneto’s very carefully worded lie about the future.)

And then finally we get the Mister Sinister we all know and love, complete with ribbon cape and everything, but him showing up blowing off another Sinister’s head with a handgun is weirdly jarring, like a sudden intrusion from some violent cartoon universe. On the other hand, “my mutant power is overthrowing tyrants and being absolutely fabulous” feels way more like the Sinister we know, and suggests that the hatchet is not buried with Apocalypse)

I like that Magneto is kind of into all of this, because for all that he can be Serious Business sometimes, he’s also someone who’s deeply into his own Aesthetic of overthrowing governments while being fashion-forward.

So here’s the thing about Xavier mind-controlling Sinister into forgetting why he’s doing all of this: I don’t think this is the whole of the plan to deal with Sinister’s sudden but inevitable betrayal. I think part of the point is to maintain quality control over the database, given the whole business with the deliberately-engineered quality control failures in LIfe 9. But I feel like Moira would insist on more redundancy than just relying on one psychic whammy sticking. 

Red Diamond Blind Items Infographic:

Speaking of comedy...this definitely is the funniest infographic we’ve gotten throughout the series. A bunch of these went way over my head, lots of them ended up as dropped plot threads which we’ll have to wait for Dawn of X to see if they get followed up on, but they were all entertaining.

Sinister Secret #1: this one is kind of vague, and I’m 99% certain it’s just a gossip columnist being catty about shoes. Incidentally, Louis XIV loved red heels so much that he decreed no one other than him could wear them.

Sinister Secret #2: in addition to being a clue about the Resurrection Machine bringing back all kinds of dead mutants, I like how this one continues one of the best elements of Grant Morrison’s run - the idea that mutants start developing a distinct culture - but now with a twist that it’s going to be happening even more that Krakoa is giving that culture a safe space to flourish.

Sinister Secret #3: Especially what with all the hints about Inferno throughout HoX/PoX, this is definitely about Madelyn Pryor. Dunno what she left behind, but it could well be some sort of resurrection failsafe. 

Sinister Secret #4: no idea what this refers to.

Revealed! Of all the X-genes out there for Sinister to use, why John Proudstar? It doesn’t fit with the powers he’s displayed in previous runs, and the only thing I could think of is that Proudstar is the first of the All-New X-Men to die (making it easier to get samples).

Sinister Secret #5: especially in the wake of House of X #6, this suggests that Scott and Jean are in a poly relationship/open marriage of some sort with Logan and/or Emma, and that the new mutant culture is developing its own values on sexuality and family structure, what with the First Law.

Sinister Secret #6: the HoXPoxToX on this issue gives the relevant citation, but I didn’t read the book so I don’t know which of the samples Ernst stole were supposedly destroyed.

Sinister Secret #7: this is a pretty clear reference to the whole messy continuity business about there being a third Summers brother, but also a nice hint that Sinister is completely full of shit and so these blind items have to be taken with a whole salt lick. (Incidentally, we’ve seen Vulkan showing up in promotional materials for Dawn of X, so that’s probably the Summers in question, which means we can finally stop talking about dumb theories about it being random male X-Men).

Sinister Secret #8: again with the pretender talk, but the real clue here is that Apocalypse’s major motivation is getting his original Horsemen back, which is significant for the next section.

Sinister Secret #9: especially with the reveal that Synch has been resurrected, this is pretty clearly referring to him and Jubilee, who are now at very different places in their lives post-resurrection. 

Revealed! As I’ve talked about before, Inferno is a running theme in HoX/PoX, and to be honest, if the new status quo of X-Men is going to involve any nostalgia riffs, it’s a good choice because it hasn’t been over-done as much as Days of Future Past, and ties in well with issues of clones, demons, and Sinister.

Sinister Secret #10: as I suggested above, the fact that Xavier saw all kinds of Sinisters running around suggests that he wasn’t relying on that tactic alone to safeguard his mutant future.

Linguistic Anthropology with Doug Ramsey:

So let’s talk about pith helmets - on the one hand, this is a callback to Cassandra Nova, but it’s an inversion: where Nova donned the helmet to show a Trask the instrument of mutant genocide, Xavier is wearing it to show a mutant a crucial part of the plan to reverse the Genoshan genocide. On the other, it’s a deliberately colonialist fashion statement: namely, that as with earlier attempts at establishing a mutant nation - San Marco, Genosha, Utopia, etc. - the mutant homeland is not unoccupied land and mutants are thus not entirely innocent of this particular sin of nation-states, whatever Magneto might say. Not the first and last time that nationalist projects have made this mistake.

Charles talks a good game about moving from adversary to ally with the land, but as we’ll see in just a bit he doesn’t understand Krakoa as much as he thinks he does, which undercuts his good intentions.

Doug introduces the techno-organic virus to Krakoa,which is significant both for the whole issue of biological vs. mechanical transhumanism and singularity, the potential threat from the Phalanx in X^3, but also is a sign that introducing new species to a habitat (something that’s happened quite often in the history of settler colonialism) is an easy overlooked problem.

I love the idea that the difference between telepathy and hyperlingualism is the difference between pidgin and anthropological thick description. Xavier might be able to hear anyone’s thoughts, but that doesn’t necessarily means that he understands said thoughts.

By contrast, Doug’s greater understanding means that he learns Krakoa’s origin myth, and is thematically appropriate for this series it’s a story of unity and division. The linkage between demonic incursions and Arakko/No-Place suggests Inferno, even as the Twilight Sword points to Surtur and Walt Simonson’s run on Thor. The key thing here, however, is that Apocalypse is portrayed as a tragic hero, sacrificing his original horsemen to seal away the demonic invasion and dividing the land - as Apocalypse wants to bring the OG Horsemen back more than anything, this would suggest that seal will be rebroken, causing a lot of chaos, but ultimately leading to the reunion of a sundered land.

As a reward for his insight, Doug is one of the few people who learn the whole plan, which places his “hopey-changey” comments from the very first issue in a different light.

Current Krakoan Systems Infographic:

I’m going to be brief here, because we already saw these systems in action last issue.

Here, the first thing I want to emphasize is how crucial Doug is to the founding of Krakoa - every single other system relies on his interface system. At the same time, we also learn that Forge is running the Krakoan skunkworks system which creates the biomachinery that all of Krakoa will run on as well. In other words, one founder creates the software and one founder creates the hardware. It’s yet another example of the Krakoan emphasis on accomplishing greater things through cooperation and creativity (and how very much this is a story about nationalism and not cults of personality).

 We Hope for Ascension:

I gotta say, I’m with a lot of other people who don’t get why this particular X^3 plot was chosen. It’s harder to grasp and the characters don’t have anywhere as near as much to connect with as X^2. That being said, I have some guesses, which will probably all be proven wrong tomorrow!

As I discussed the last time we saw the post-humans, the difference between conversion and ascension are much less clear than they first appeared...unless (unless...) we’re talking about the whole issue of the philosophy of identity. As the Elder points out, if your culture already has the idea of a self and a seer-self who’s already uploaded into a machine, are you really dying if your body dies? As I’ll get into way more in House of X #5, the argument that the post-resurrection mutants are clones and not the “real McCoys” rests on a particularly strong case of continuity of consciousness that I don’t think holds up to scrutiny.

At the same time, I do think we see here some signs of cultural weakness among the post-humans: they can’t tolerate the idea of being just short of the next step of consciousness/intelligence and are willing to do anything to achieve the goal of achieving the next schematic stage in machine consciousness development, because “isn’t that what’s next.” Except the problem is that it’s a rigged game - there’s always another level, always another Phalanx using you as a Technarch patsy, and it’s not clear from the outset whether these higher stages are all they’re cracked up to be.

Incidentally, I totally misinterpreted what happened here. Initially, I thought that the “seer-self”/recognition sequence thing suggested a way around losing “ sovereignty “ by introducing a memetic virus, given the way that the Phalanx undergo a sudden physical transformation. This doesn’t seem to be the case based on Powers of X #5.

How are the Phalanx not an empire? All they do is expand, consume resources, and either wipe out or “elevate” other cultures on the basis of their own ideas of cultural worthiness. That is the very definition of imperialism!

And here we see the bedrock incompatibility of biological and mechanical transhumanism/singularity.