#several no context bits of info about this series

[pbpsbff]

wip

[mxcottonsocks]

Reading Like A Victorian

A while ago, I discovered the website 'Reading Like a Victorian', a digital humanities project from The Ohio State University and collaborators.

Since tumblr's been going through a bit of a serial-literature revival, I thought I would share...

Here are some extracts from the website's 'About Us':

RLV is an interactive timeline of the Victorian period. It focuses on serialized novels [...] and adds volume-format publications for context. 

When we read Victorian novels today, we do not read them in the form in which they originally came out. Most Victorian novels appeared either as “triple deckers,” three volumes released at one time, or as serials published monthly or weekly in periodicals or in pamphlet form. Serialized novels’ regularly timed, intermittent appearance made for a reading experience resembling what we do when we are awaiting the next weekly episode of Game of Thrones, watching installments of other TV serials in the meantime. Whenever we pick up a Penguin or Oxford paperback of a Victorian novel today, we are engaged in the equivalent of binge-watching a series that has already reached its broadcast ending [and is] a very different experience from what Victorian audiences were doing with novels. Reading Like a Victorian reproduces the “serial moment” experienced by Victorian readers [...]

More info and screenshots and so on below the cut:

[...] if reading serial installments at their original pace is valuable, it is even more valuable to read them alongside parts of novels and of other kinds of texts that Victorian readers could have been following at the same time [...] [...] a reader who, in 1847, had been following the part issues of both Dickens’s Dombey and Son and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and then picked up Jane Eyre, published in volume form in October of that year, might notice in Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp, and Jane Eyre a pattern of motherless or orphaned girls trying to negotiate a hostile world on their own. While this figure is well known to be a character type in Victorian fiction perfectly embodied by Jane Eyre and Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp does not often emerge among the heroines who fit that type; reading the novels simultaneously foregrounds parallels between Becky, Florence, and Jane that are not at all obvious if their storylines are experienced separately

I find that, for browsing, the website is easier to use on a computer or tablet than a phone, but it's ok on phone to search for something specific.

The timeline:

Here's what the timeline looks like:

It shows 12 months at a time, and using the left and right arrows will move you back or forward by a month. You can use the 'Jump To Date' function to navigate to a different twelve-month period. Or you can use the 'Author Search' function to navigate to particular works if you know the author's name.

In the above screenshot of the timeline, which shows the period January to December 1852, there are several works shown, including:

ongoing serialised works which had at least one installment published prior to 1852;

works which began serialisation during 1852;

works published in three-volume format during 1852;

other works published during 1852

Details about each work:

You can click on the bar that represents a book's publication to get a drop-down that provides information about that book, its publication, and links to help you read the relevant serial parts.

Here's what happens if you click on Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford:

On the left of the drop-down, there's some general information about the work, its publication history, and how to use the links.

On the right, there's information and links to help you experience the book in its serial parts: it separates out the parts, indicates the month and the year they were published, and what chapters of the work were published in that part. It also provides notes on each part where helpful. There is a scroll-bar at the right of the drop-down, so you can scroll down to the later installments of the work.

[I chose Cranford as an example as it helps demonstrate the value of the Reading Like a Victorian website... From what I understand, Gaskell initially wrote 'Our Society at Cranford' as a standalone piece of short fiction, but was encouraged to write more, so further pieces also set in the fictional town of Cranford were published intermittently in the same magazine over the next year or so. While a particularly dedicated Gaskell fan who wanted to 'read along' with Cranford following the original publication could probably search 1.5-years-worth of a weekly magazine to find the 9 issues which included the material which would later be published as Cranford, the Reading Like a Victorian website has already done that work for them... and also for anyone else who might be interested, but not quite that interested.]

The links

You can then click on an individual chapter to get links to various places to read it online:

When available / where possible, the website tends to include links to:

a facsimile copy of either the relevant serial part in the original publication, or in an 'annual' or similar volume collecting together the content of that publication, or a volume-form edition of that work if the work was not published serially or if facsimile copies of the original serialised publication are not available. [Most of the facsimiles are hosted by either the Internet Archive or the Hathi Trust Digital Library, but some are hosted as part of smaller, more specific collections, such as - in the case of Cranford - Dickens Journals Online which provides online access to the journals/magazines edited by Charles Dickens);

the text, usually on Project Gutenberg (this is usually the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be different than originally published in serial parts; the Reading Like A Victorian website will generally explain when this is the case);

audio recordings, usually volunteer recordings from Librivox (again, the recordings are usually based on the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be slightly different than originally published in the serial parts).

So yeah, I just thought it was a cool website and worth sharing. I believe the website is already used as a resource by some University courses and for academic research, but it can also be used by book clubs and to aid personal reading, etc. I'm using it to inform a personal reading project for 2024-26 where I follow along with six or seven novels serialised in 1864-66.

To save a scroll to the top, here's the link to the RLV website again: Reading Like A Victorian (osu.edu)

[If you want to join an already-planned read-along based on the original serialisation schedule, @dickensdaily will be doing Charles Dickens's historical novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty from mid-February 2024 to late-November 2024, to follow along with the original weekly publication of the novel in Master Humphreys Clock from February 1841 to November 1841. I personally found Barnaby Rudge a really engaging, thought-provoking read, and I'm really looking forward to reading it again. (Anyone with particular triggers or other reasons to be wary of the content or language used in older books may find it helpful to look up content warnings for the book before making a decision to read it.)]

[chakotaybodypillow]

sorry yall for not posting about my Chakotay stuff ☹️ even though i said i wanted to get as much out before school started, Ive taken a bit of a turn on that for a few reasons.

I really wanted to start by addressing and sharing info about the Nicarao, but I wanted to provide more information than what was available with a quick google search, and tbh, it has proven to be difficult. I've been able to find some solid research backed with sources so I'm working on summarizing that, but I want to languish over the material so I can fully grasp the historical context being discussed. Its mentioned several times in the book I've chosen to read that the research is a difficult mosaic. So its taking me several reads to digest the series of events listed. It's a lot but not that much a at the same time. Ive had to expand my readings to encompass the entirity of Central America as well as Mexico.

Unfortunately the amount of contemporary ethnographic research of the Indigenous people of the Rivas is also very very limited. Which is disappointing :/ from what I've read the Nicarao as a group are extinct. So I've also had to shift my focus to groups that are still active to get a better understanding of the Native populations.... its a lot and i more than likely will post in chunks as i take in more information. So when i finally do make the first post it will be a small historic break down of theories and studies about the arrival of the Nahuas to Nicaragua :)

Also....off topic i had a discussion with my editor (my mom) after i posted my topics and she told me that i had essentially created an outline for a master's thesis 😅... and that posting it publicly was a mistake 😅😅... bc now it cant be considered my research😅😅😅 ....... She was telling me to consider making this into real academic research and we discussed the different methods of pop culture research and such. Ive considred making this into something bigger, but idk. it would make all of this worthwhile, but im also kinda insecure about this .

But to clarify i use the terms "thesis" or "research" lightly. While yes ive done research, i dont plan to make this a formal thing when i post to tumblr and elsewhere, just to stay on the safe side. I guess I'll make this more of a blog where i discuss my thoughts and address concerns rather than dive into these super academic discussions.

I just want to encourage others to think critically about chakotays portrayal and possibly lay down a framework for his background story. I only intend to speak on things that i feel comfortable speaking on as a poc analyzing anither poc character and will avoid some indigenous specific perspectives.

so yeah school starts for me soon and i'm going to be hemmed up with that, but im excited becasue im taking some classes that will help me with the chakotay topics hehe.

thanks for listening to my yap session! Im almost done with the summarizing and hope to post a little bit soon :D

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Strange Idol [analysis]

A compilation of what we know and what we can speculate about the old “Strange Idol”.

[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]

This is a mysterious statue that has appeared in DA2 and DAI in different contexts. In DA2, we find it in three places:  The Harimann’s house basement, atop of the Sundermount, and inside Dumat’s Temple. Its resemblance in style  [shape of limbs, decoration, lines, material] to the Red Idol is worth noting. I already wrote an extensive post about “DA2: The Strange Idol” but I wanted to make a summary here with brief speculations supported by the knowledge of the recent published comics. To understand the context of the idol in DA2 in detail, I suggest reading that post. As I always repeat, DA lore adds a lot when you have the context in which it appears [and also helps you not to go deep into wild theories].

Where do we find this statue in DA games?

It appears for the first time in Merril’s Quest [read Merril and the Eluvian], inside a cave atop of the Sundermount.

In Sebastian’s Quest, placed in the Basement of Harimann’s mansion which turned out to be an ancient Tevinter Ruin. Thanks to Tevinter Nights book we know that having buildings undergrounf was/is a Tevinter costume that keeps existing in Mintharous.  We also know that Kirkwall, historically, has a lot of ruins and chambers below the city itself. This allowed Tevinter mages to do forbidden research or unsafe magic or have cult activities without the authorities’ knowledge.

In a humble temple deep into the Deep Roads, at the base of the tower-prison where Corypheus is held.

It also appears several times in the Black Emporium of DA2, behind and over the mirror of transformation. 

It appears in a cave that you have access by following the Old Chantry Trail Sign, in Western Approach. In there, we learn it’s warm to the touch and has a pulse.

His face appears in some walls along Din'an Hanin, and it’s the central statue in the Elandrin’s Tomb.

Its face appears in the mural the “Removal of the Vallaslin”, located in Elven Mountain Ruins ,  Forgotten Sanctuary

The raw information

So far, details that are worth noticing about this idol:

It has many limbs: two legs and four arms. Other multi-limbered creatures in DA universe are Varterrals [ read DLC: Witch Hunt and The Missing for more varterral’s information], some demons like the envy one, Xenon [ owner of the Black Emporium], and some creatures related to elvhenan paintings [read Nation Art: Elvhen] which in some instance may or may not be related to The Horror of Hormak [Personal Speculation].

Its face is monkey-like or a bit toad-like. Its mouth is open, its eyes a bit squinted. For this reason, it can be related to Elgar’nan through the codex  Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory, [“narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth”] which was analysed in the post Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

Its chest and stomach have swirls. One can associate swirls all over the games with lyrium or, in DAI, with Veilfire/Fade and elvhenan gods [the dragon statue that represents Myhtal as well as the howling wolf statue that represents Fen’harel both have swirls along their body]. For more details on this aspect, read the section “Spirals and branching lines as Fade, magic, and lyrium” in the post Murals in DAI: Basics

Its limbs have long carvings, like canals, from which something red can be seen. Given the context of being perceived as Dumat, or as Elgar’nan who may have accepted blood from his defeated enemies [as his codices imply a ruthless, violent, dominant behaviour], one can suspect it is dried blood drips. It’s very subtle, but the red lines in them have been present in both designs [in DA2 and DAI, in DAI it looks even more like blood]. We also know that the Elvhenan performed blood magic and it’s highly likely that blood magic was originally from Arlathan [hints of this info in Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck]. So, there are several hints that show that elvhenan know how to bind spirits and how to use blood magic.

In Sebastian’s quest, this idol appears in an underground Tevinter ruin, and has a [desire] demon bind to it.

In Merril’s quest, this idol appears inside Elvhen ruins and has a pride demon bind to it. However, given the context, the statue can be Elven or Tevinter, since the battle of Sundermount caused that both sides would “unleash horrors” in the Waking World [the codex is not too reliable, though, since it speaks of a legend, and it’s “recent history” related to Arlathan; details in Sundermount as an elven graveyard]. We also know that a lot of knowledge about Arlathan has been lost or modified due to time and elven mortality, but we also know that these elves were deeply related to blood magic. If we add the binding culture that Elvhenan had according to DAI [for example, read Ancient Elven codices; The Lost Temple of Dirthamen, and The Lost Temple of Dirthamen - Part 2] we can suspect that this demon was bind to this statue for either faction [with defensive purposes if elven or as a gesture of dominance if Tevinter]. Not necessarily it has to be Tevinter-made. What I mean is that we have enough context to know that this may have been Tevinter or Elvhenan doing. In fact, one can speculate that maybe the original knowledge was Elvhenan and Tevinter just took it as its own as it has always done with elvhenan magical knowledge.

In Merril’s quest, Felandaris appears close to this statue, suggesting that the Veil is very thin in the area [this plant only grows around places where the veil is thin and demon presence is expected].

In DA2, this idol is usually close to strange dragon-skull totems  that, due to the lack of codex, is impossible to associate with Tevinter or Elvhenan. In DAI they are used in the ramparts of Exalted Plains, seen as structures that hold barriers around pits where dead arise. So they seem to be related to [demon/undead] summoning rituals that, so far we know in lore, may be Tevinter or Elvhenan alike.

In DA2:DLC Legacy, we find this idol too, but deep into the Deep Roads, at the bottom of Corypheus’ tower-prison in a small structure that has an “altar of Dumat”. Four plates are placed there, where you have to put four items found along the DLC: a sacrificial dagger, a crown, a ritual scroll, and a sacred Urn. If you give the items, a reward is given [chain of the penitent].  If you defile the altar instead, you will fight some shades, which gives us the idea that this idol is related to demons and/or blood magic, thinning the Veil around it [shades are usually the standard shape that demons take when enter the waking world without possessing living creatures].

In DAI, it appears in a cave of Western Approach where you can place your landmark, and it’s called “The Thing in the Dark” [details in  Western Approach: Old Chantry Trail Signs]. The small message we get in it is “This statue is oddly warm to the touch and shivers slightly, as though it might have a pulse”.  In DA2, Merril could feel something in the statue when the demon was bind to it, so this warm shivering effect may be the concept that some spirit/demon is bind to it. Let’s remember that in DAI we found a lot of things that are warm to the touch and have some pulse/shiver/angry feeling to it that may imply a spirit attached to it [read The Taken Shape set for a list of details about warm, pulsing objects]

In DAI, curiously, his face appears in some walls along Din'an Hanin, which is expected since his main tomb is underground of that ruin, but it also appears in the lower section of the mural “Removal of the Vallaslin” in the ancient elven ruins of Fen’Harel. One of these faces appears as the source of Veilfire.

Design-wise may have some distant similarities with Korth, the Father-mountain of the Avvar, which has [dragon?] horns. 

Speculation section

Similarities with the red lyrium idol

When we find similarities between this statue and the red lyrium idol, I’m not saying they are the same, but they may have similar functions in ancient rituals. Among the similarities, we can notice that figures have carvings along the body.

May the red lines inside the carvings of the Strange Idol not be blood but inactivated red lyrium? 

Why would I say this? The Red lyrium idol has shown, specially in the comic Dark Fortress, to look like a piece of wood [as if it were inactivated red lyrium] unless I’ve been understading it too wrongly [the scholar even suspects that the idol, once consumed into the creation of a sword for the Red Wraith, has been rendered useless, and its drawing looks more like a piece of wood/metal than a “red glowing crystal”]. Only in some places we see it red. This visual fact always confused me in DA series. We clearly see that the object is not entirely made of red lyrium, only some parts [specially the roots] look like it. Why so many characters insist in saying it’s completely made of red lyrium?

If we remember, the cinematics in Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer - 2018 Game Awards shows that the idol glows only along some lines, as if the red lyrium is activating from within its metal/wood material. Which is similar to the red lines we see in the Strange Idol, but in a dormant way. We also know that Red Lyrium sounds angry and feels warm [check the red lyrium section in Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore]. Since the Strange Idol is warm to the touch too [according to DAI in Western Approach: Old Chantry Trail Signs] and has these red lines barely seen, could it be related to inactivated red lyrium? I really don’t know what to think about it since we know so little about the red lyrium idol [and I suspect it has been retconned a couple of times even along DA2].

Design wise, the red lyrium idol always looked to me like wood+metal, and only its lower part is made of red lyrium, as if it were roots, implying from a design-point-of-view the metaphor that the horror represented in the figure is “fed” on red lyrium [details and speculations in  Red Lyrium Idol ].

Pros and cons of certain speculations related to the Strange Idol:

Speculation 1: “This statue is Elgar’nan”

PRO

Its face coincides with the codex Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory, which describes Elgar’nan with “ narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth”. The general shape of the Strange Idol may look like a mountain, as it is said in the codex that Elgar’nan statue was made of stone as big as a mountain [metaphorically implying how he defeated Titans and created monuments of himself on or with the corpse of his enemies].

It makes sense for it to appear in the Bastion of Elgar’nan in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, Elandrin’s Tomb as central icon of the tomb of knights that defended elvhen, considering that Elgar’nan is perceived along the codices as a big leader during the Titan war.

It makes sense for it to be in the Sundermount cave, since we can speculate it was a statue used to bind a demon by the elvhen resisting the war against Tevinter. Let’s remember that Elgar’nan was always related to victory and wars against the Titans in the oldest codices we find about him [read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris].

CONS

If this is an elvhen god/Evanuris, I hardly see it worshipped by Tevinter, who allways had an ancient, deep rejection to elves. It would make no sense to use Elgar’nan as a representation of Dumat either [not consciously, at least]. So it makes no sense for this statue to appear in the Altar of Dumat close to the Corypheus’ prison as well as in Sebastian’s quest, in an underground Tevinter ruin.

It doesn’t have any visual similarity to Elgar’nan mosaic, which displays a bestial arm with claws. There is no similar hint of bestiality in the case of the Strange Idol [read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris]. However, this is not a strong counterargument: we can say the same of Mythal, who has two representations, one as an elf in a mosaic, and another as a dragon [in mosaic and statues too]. Read Mythal section in Evanuris for further details.

Neither con not pro: I can’t speculate why Elgar’nan would appear in the mural of “Removal of the Vallaslin” at the Elven Mountain Ruins, Forgotten Sanctuary. Specially if we think that the previous corridor towards this mural doesn’t have any mosaic of Elgar’nan either. I also can’t explain or speculate why the Forgotten Sanctuary, a place to give shelter to slaves, would have images of the Evanuris on its walls, the ones supporting the slavery system of the moment.  

This face, if it is truly Elgar’nan’s, is also presented as a source of Veilfire which can be related to Titans through the mural “The Death of a Titan”, where the source of Veilfire is presented in the heart of the Titan. Linking both symbols, one can suspect that maybe Elgar’nan’s victory over the Titans granted him the power of exceptional magic [divinity?], represented in these murals as the source of this particular green fire.

Speculation 2: “This statue is Dumat”

PRO: 

It makes sense to appear close to Corypheus’ prison in an altar to Dumat or in the underground Tevinter ruins from Sebastian’s quest.

It makes sense to appear in Sundermount, so we can assume it was a symbol of dominance from Tevinter when they attacked the resisting elves in this place. They bind a demon there too, and this brings no conflict with the lore; we know Tevinter always had a deep knowledge of binding and using demons in their favour.

CONS: 

It makes no sense for Dumat to appear in the Bastion of Elgar’nan in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, Elandrin’s Tomb. If it would have appeared in the first part of the zone, where we find statues of Andraste as the codex of Emerald Knights upgrades, it would have been considered an assimilation from former slaves, but this statue appears in a central position in a tomb that has been sealed long ago, surrounded by many statues of Mythal in her dragon shape.

Besides, why would Dumat appear in the mural of “Removal of the Vallaslin” at the Elven Mountain Ruins, Forgotten Sanctuary? So far we know the “Tevinter” perspective of the Old Gods appeared long time after the Elvhen and the Evanuris, so it’s hardly a contemporaneous concept to the ancient Elvhenan Gods. 

Dumat, understood as the Old God perceived by Tevinter, is a Dragon in shape. Its will may be something else, though, that may be represented in this toad-like figure?.

Speculation 3: “This statue is an ancient god [maybe a Forgotten One?] worshipped by the Evanuris before claiming divinity, and Tevinter adopted it later, believing them as Dragons or The Old Gods”.

PROS: 

This concept makes sense in both scenarios, Tevinter and Elvhenan. Like I said in the lore sections of the posts related to the comics The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, Until We Sleep, Magekiller, and The Missing; there are some hints that make us speculate that Evanuris worshipped great dragons originally [that may or may not result in the Forgotten Ones]. Mythal should have been one of them as she is a dragon herself, but they stopped worshipping these ancient gods when they took the “divine winged shape” for themselves, claiming divinity. From that moment on, the Evanuris [at least Andruil] hunt these dragon-gods/Forgotten-Ones down, chasing them to the Void [which is more related to the underground lyrium than to a dimensional pocket ala Crossroads]. Mythal stopped her [ and intentionally or not, we don’t know, she protected these entities] by fighting against Andruil and removing her knowledge of how to reach the Void because in the Void there was “Darkness” and madness that Andruil infected with [for a whole detailed analysis of this, check the codex explanation of “Elven God Andruil” in the post Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal].

In this way, it makes sense for Tevinter to end up using similar iconography, ignoring it was the same god that the Elvhenan venerated originally. Tevinter knows that the Old Gods take the shape of Dragons, but they may be something else entirely.

Under this idea, it makes sense for this idol to appear in Tevinter or Elvhenan environments.

CONS:

There are too few hints to support this hypothesis of Forgotten Ones as the original gods that the Evanuris worshipped until they claimed divinity for themselves, and later Tevinter took them in their dragon shape and established the cult of the Old Gods. Most of the hints pointing out this relationship are recent [in the late comics].

We also have a strange potential relationship between the Forgotten Ones and the Forbidden Ones via the Seekers. It may be a red herring done by the devs or a consequence of “unreliable narrators”. Details in “Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck”.

Another con is that this idol has no shape of a dragon when we know that the Old Gods are always represented as Dragons, and we also suspected from the comics that the Forgotten Ones may be dragons instead of elvhen . We also have another potential link with Hakkon as Geldauran, who may be one of them; for more details, read Elvhen Tomb and Ancient Tevinter presence, Speculation.

Neither con not pro but a detail worth noting: this entity has a shape with a distant resemblance to Korth, the Avvar Mountain-Father god [the mouth shape are alike, and the nostrils of the Strange Idol are similar to the Korth’s nose-eyes]. Korth is the oldest and strongest god of the Avvar pantheon. We know the Avvar have always had a much better understanding of the world due to their deep conection with the spirits, whose wisdom is always shared to the Augur of the tribe. With this I mean that this Strange Idol seems to be a very old entity that even the Avvar perceived, reflected later in the shape of Korth. Korth is related to the Mountain, as Elgar’nan is related to it in a dominant way in the codex  Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory. Elgar’nan’s fury [which destroys everything it touches, according to the codex The Judgment of Mythal or read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris for more details] has some distant similarity to Korth’s cruelty when he lost his heart [read codex The Frostback Mountains] and became a force of anger and destruction. According to the relationships I’ve been trying to connect along this blog, these details seem to me that the same entity has been perceived by Avvar, Tevinters, and Elvhenan, but represented with some differences in order to fit their own purposes [as all DA lore has been showing so far].

[thewakingcloak]

The State of Things Past

this post is mirrored from the Studio Spacefarer Patreon! please consider supporting me, and you’ll get access to devlog posts, gifs, and other info before the public!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, The Waking Cloak has been in development for eight years.

ProtoDungeon: Episode III has itself been in development for a few years, pretty much since 2019 (oooof). I've gotten plenty of questions about how the project is coming, as well as the occasional question of whether The Waking Cloak / ProtoDungeon is even alive at all at this point. Thank you for asking this. It means people are still interested in these games.

Okay, but still, what happened? Why are things taking so long? Well, this post is the first in the Christmas Carol series, in which the ~Ghost of Spacefarer Past~ appears to explain things (wooo spooky explanation sounds).

Progress has been made, very slowly, on ProtoDungeon: Episode III. I'd love to have done more, but, well… in the time since I released Episode II, we continued adjusting to parenthood for our first kid, went through the pandemic, had a second baby (who is now almost 3yo), and survived through a series of really difficult events, which culminated in a move to a new house in a new town and the start of a new chapter (but that last bit we'll save that for the Ghost of Christmas Present so he feels useful).

But yeah, it's been a rough ride. My wife and I are intentionally open about what's been going on. At the same time, the internet is an extremely public place, and I don't want to overshare, or worse, trigger anything for anyone, so I'll try to keep this list brief:

Two miscarriages (the first one was late term, and absolutely, brutally devastating)

The loss of our faith community due to the pandemic

Loss of job for my wife due to the pandemic (the pandemic was unkind to teachers)

Loss of a dream job prospect for my wife (same issue)

The great Texas freeze and power outage (us huddling under blankets in shifts through the night with our newborn infant (he's fine now!))

Severe, life-threatening post-partum and post-natal depression

Family covid and two-week cabin-fever quarantines (twice, despite being vaccinated and careful)

The death of my grandma (we were not able to attend her memorial due to aforementioned covid and living on the other side of the country)

Multiple heart attacks for my father despite his active and healthy lifestyle

Autoimmune disease scare for my wife (may still be a thing, just dormant?)

etc., etc., ad infinitum.

A lot of people have had things significantly worse, so this is definitely not an attempt to "compare griefs" as it were. This is just context for, no matter how much I wanted it to be otherwise, the fact that I didn't have the mental or emotional (or temporal) space for creativity. It was one thing after another, and we were just trying to keep our heads above water.

Even when we'd mostly recovered from the hits that just kept comin', we moved away from what my wife lovingly refers to as the "trauma house", and she started a teaching job at a brand-new school. Both were good things, but they were pretty big transitions, and it takes time for the ol' brains to adjust. We love our new home now and have a bit more breathing room.

Okay but also I HAVE been working on ProtoDungeon. Dev was really sporadic, but it did happen. The next post will have more detail on the status of Episode III, but there were kind of two big things I worked on during the past three years, big shifts in the foundation of ProtoDungeon and The Waking Cloak.

First, I switched game perspective. I made a few posts about this a while back, but PD/TWC interiors were originally like Zelda interiors (where you see the insides of all four walls). There are good reasons to do this, but it was also kinda making me crazy. So I switched to a more natural front-perspective, keeping things consistent with the exteriors. It definitely was the right choice for the game I wanted to build, but it took time.

Second, and building on that, I made the game fully faux-3D. You can walk behind or in front of stuff--not something the old Zelda games did, and still pretty rare for 2D games. I was toying with the idea for a long time, but I played through an old PlayStation title, Alundra, and that convinced me it could be done. It's way harder than you might expect, and it was a massive block for me for literally years. I was able to slowly work my way past it and finally resolved it with a 3D z-tilting method, but dev slowed to a crawl.

And that's it for now! The ghost releases you from your vision of Spacefarer Past….

Thanks for reading :)

[missameliep]

for the fic ask game!

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

✄ what’s your editing process?

+ a little something extra: say a particular scene or a fic enlists your main character to do something out of character. Do you go back and change their backstory/traits/that aspect of them so that they match or do you leave it as is?

(Or from a more generic sense, do you develop your backstory first and then write your fics or do you write your fics and let the backstory develop on its own?)

Thanks for the ask! ☺️

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

Writing is usually a difficult process for me (and I cannot blame writing on my second language, because it's also difficult in Portuguese 😂) and it always takes me a long time to write and feel the fic has reached a point when I'm comfortable in sharing with others... So, as for the easiest I'd say From Lovers to Strangers, even though writing Colt Kaneko is not easy for me, the concept of the fic and writing it went smoother than usual and I finished in time to submit to a writing challenge, which says a lot, and was only one scene with two characters 😅

The first part of Love Thy Neighbor was also easy (and I love it dearly), but the rest of the series not so much...

There are so many fics that I could say we're the hardest for several different reasons (multichapter fics, several characters interacting, research etc), but Like Poetry was definitely one of the hardest, because of the themes involved and the narrative choices and tone... I thought about giving up often, and put it aside for a while... But I was so pleased with how it turned out in the end, that it made all the time spent so much worth it ❤️

✄ what’s your editing process?

Oh, my! Editing process? I'm not ashamed to admit my editing process is a bit chaotic, and I frequently edit while writing (which is bad, I know 🫣) and even after posting (I might have twitched more than one fic after posting it). After I finish writing the main parts and dialogues, I focus on correcting the pacing and making sure the characters' voice and dialogues fit them and, grammar and other mistakes are also part of the editing process since English is my second language I have to make sure words really mean what I think they do and check if the metaphors or references apply to a different cultural context than mine lol

+ a little something extra: say a particular scene or a fic enlists your main character to do something out of character. Do you go back and change their backstory/traits/that aspect of them so that they match or do you leave it as is?

Normally I say I would not. Most of my characters have established backstories and traits before I start writing and I keep documents and info about them. So, sometimes something that seems out of character for them may improve the story, show what they would do under a different or adverse circumstance, and it might be okay to keep it that way. So it could be an interesting narrative choice to not change anything in this case.

But sometimes it happens, I start writing and them I have to come up with a backstory or something changes drastically and doesn't fit anymore. For instance, one of my favorite series Second Chances, my OC Elizabeth was supposed to share similar traits with the MC in Desire and Decorum, but half way through writing notes for the second half of the story, I kept thinking "what if I made her Brazilian?" "What if she's a Law student instead?" and so many other things that made more sense to the narrative... So I changed the backstory and many many of the things I've written, but most people don't even know because I posted the first chapters after I've already changed it all.

And I have already created a complete new character to a story, because I didn't want to mess with the backstory.

Thank you for the ask! ☺️

_____________________________

From this fic writer asks

[whoredmode]

The never ending frustration in trying to acknowledge that there's a lot of neat shit about the writing throughout the series on occasion. But then you get bonkers-ass stuff like "hey so here's a little bit of lore info that we don't even elaborate on in a random convo you might not even hear".

i’ve been saying like there’s sooo much fascinating lore that gets left for things like homie conversations or NPC dialogue which, on the surface i don’t mind and actually enjoy to an extent bc i think it’s a good way to add depth when done well—this type of shit is done great in the first two games imo. the problem lies in the direction the series went afterwards and the context under which we hear this really interesting stuff. like cool we get to hear about what happens to killbane. we get to hear about the relationship between the syndicate and ultor. we get to hear about how several characters have known of each other for years, even prior to main events of the series. you get to hear about this longstanding, intricate lore.

no you don’t get to play any of this or actually experience it yourself. we blew the earth up. you get to fight aliens in a worse version of steelport.

[marvinthemillennialmouse]

How Do You Imagine Me? (Specific Context)

I'm not entirely sure what spawned this thought, but it's been bubbling away in my head for a little while, so might as well put it here.

Based on what you know of me, what video game do you associate with me most?

This can mean: What game do you imagine I play the most? What game do you imagine I would most likely appear in? What game do you think best fits my personality?

My personal tastes in games:

I'm a very big fan of the Mega Man X series (the first three are GREAT, 4 is alright, 5 and 6 are... well they sure are).

I'm also a very big fan of older Zelda games (Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Link Between Worlds). Breath of the Wild blew my mind during the first couple of years, but it's slowly kind of faded. Tears of the Kingdom was lots of fun at first, but it's faded a bit faster than BotW. They're still good... they just... don't hold my interest the way the older games did.

I played the SHIT out of some Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. Probably the best games in the entire franchise (though Metroid Dread is also way up there too, but it just doesn't quite meet the same level as Super and Prime 1 for me).

Kerbal Space Program ate up A LOT of my time several years ago, need to get my hands on KSP2 and give it a whirl... maybe once it's closer to full release though.

Hollow Knight is excellent, though I end up needing long stretches between playthroughs because of how it makes me feel.

Star Fox. God damn did I eat up the original Star Fox and Star Fox 64. I had some fun with Star Fox Zero, but aspects of the controls were kinda frustrating. I wish they'd just make a good, clean, well executed Star Fox game like 64, but with maybe an update to the look and a new story... rehashing the same story is... well... you're gonna lose a lot of people because they're going to assume it's just a retread.

Mario's alright. It's not my favorite, but did play a shitload of 1, 2, 3, and Super Mario World. I played a lot of Mario 64 as well, but never as much as the three NES games and World. When you get the feel of the controls down, it's just really satisfying.

Sonic--classic Sonic--like 1, 2, 3, Knuckles... those were great. I played the hell out of them. Once it transitioned to 3D, it kinda lost me. Sonic Colors was okay, but... I just... I really liked those classic originals. Sonic Mania really recaptured that vibe but... weirdly... it didn't hold me the way the originals did. Not sure why. Maybe I need to go back and replay it.

My video game experience is pretty limited. Some of it is because I wasn't really allowed much access to games when I was young. Some of it is needing to be careful how I spend my money (I don't have just a whole lot so I need to be sure if I'm buying a game, I'm gonna get a pretty decent amount of enjoyment out of it).

So there ya go... that's some info about me and gaming.

Where do you think da mouse might fit in?

[extraskully5]

Ask box: Open

Ask blog info and etiquette

Chrono link for the series:

https://extraskully5.tumblr.com/tagged/askblogs/chrono

Summary/Context:

Fever is a trainer from the region of Hisui who adores pokemon with his whole soul, even if other trainers of the region still fear them. Hisui still hasn't caught up to the rest of the world and modernized, but Fever prefers it that way. He prefers the pokemon to have as much space as they can to be their true, wild selves.

While out on a supply run with his team one day, Fever finds quite the strange pokemon who's in horrible shape. This encounter will put Fever's skills as a pokemon rescuer and healer to the test.

Antimony is one of several lab-born pokemon created for the sole purpose of being weaponized. When he finally manages to escape, he's chased down and blasted out of the sky by a fellow creation for his disloyalty and cowardice. Feeling satisfied with the results of the encounter, the other leaves Antimony to die on the forest floor. Antimony will need to learn how to adapt to his new life with Fever and that maybe not all humans are so bad afterall.

Ask etiquette:

Please try to keep asks relevant to the story and characters. You may make predictions and ask about the future of the plot, but do be aware that I'll likely be pretty vague to avoid heavy Spoilers if I do answer those questions.

You can interact with characters by offering them things such as hugs, pats, food, etc. But please don't be upset if they react negatively as I will make sure to answer mostly in canon. This will be especially prominent with Antimony for a good portion of the story. He's an edgy boi

Do not try to push your ideas for plot onto me and expect me to implement them. I'm more than willing to read your ideas, in fact I love reading others ideas, but that doesn't mean I will always implement them. This is especially true since I have a large chunk of the series decided

This should be common sense but; don't ask anything inappropriate. Those types of questions/interactions will be deleted and ignored.

Feel free to send ocs or other characters if you wonder how they'd get along with my ocs, I may even draw them! I do ask that you try to send me some info about the character though so I can learn a bit more about them to give you a proper answer, especially if I've never seen them before.

[rubykgrant]

I've babbled about it before, but I shall do it yet again! Here is why it would so absolutely perfect and HILARIOUS for Grif and Simmons to win-

They're from Red VS Blue, so right from the title you can see why "color-coded characters being enemies" is the whole theme. They are both on Red Team, and have personal armor that is mostly considered to be "maroon" (a variation of dark red, sometimes leaning more toward magenta, and one time hot-pink) for Simmons, and ORANGE for Grif. Even within the series, him being orange and NOT yellow is a joke.

Several other characters misjudge his armor to be yellow (within the mind of one character, Caboose, he is literally yellow. just a total change in the armor color). At one point, his sister Kai shows up, is in ACTUAL yellow armor, but because she is color-blind (evidently only sees the world in shades of gray), she accidentally joined the Blue Team. So, there is an Orange Grif and a Yellow Grif, but only one Grif knows the difference. The joke of Caboose remembering a character incorrectly as yellow continues; he imagines another character, Church, has a "brother" named Sister, who is in yellow armor (both a confused combination of Grif's sister, and the fact that an "alternate Church from another time-line" had yellow armor. this isn't even the weirdest thing about Church, trust me. anyway, back to GRIF!)

Because RVB uses the Halo game models for characters, they use whatever color settings are available... for a short time later in the series, the orange color wasn't vibrant enough, so they just made Grif yellow. He was genuinely YELLOW for a little bit, but because no other yellow characters were there, it wasn't noticed. Later still, when several of the characters were put in a situation where they trained new teams, Grif's group was named Team Gold, and he was VERY INDIGNANT about that, thus causing his now famous rant-

He doesn't want to be the leader of Team Gold, or Team Yellow, he's the leader of TEAM ORANGE!

Little bonus joke; in a PSA, Church mocked Grif's armor, saying it was "like if somebody threw-up and decided to call it a color", as if ORANGE doesn't even exist. He gets confused for being yellow, his sister is yellow, other characters get rotated into the "yellow spot", and even when he was supposed to be in a position of respect, he STILL wasn't properly called orange.

Now, some info about Simmons; he takes being a member of Red Team MUCH more serious than Grif. In fact, he cares more than most of the other characters in general. Simmons is always trying to impress their superior Sarge (the Reddest Red to ever Red), and his catch-phrase is basically "Suck it, Blue!" whenever they try to defeat the other team. Sometimes Simmons tries so hard to succeed, he goes on a whole ego-trip in which he'll try to take charge (even going along with an incorrect message about their leader being "killed", and holding a funeral where he buried Sarge alive. just because paperwork said so. It's OK, they got him back later).

Simmons is his own worst enemy, almost too anxious to function, but also very petty, and desperate to impress authority figures. He would LOVE to be chosen to represent Red Team as the Red Guy. Simmons would write himself a whole RESUME about why he deserves to win, like this is a job interview. He would prepare several acceptance speeches (some full of false modesty and attempting to be classy, some just ranting about HE PROVED HIS DAD WRONG). Simmons would stab the competition if it meant making Sarge proud of him as the Winning Red. Simmons would also cry if he lost, and run away to join the Blues (again. he does that sometimes)

Last little bit of this rant; Grif and Simmons are literally the introduction to the whole series. They have the opening lines, a conversation regarding the question "Do you ever wonder why we're here?", which became a repeating theme through the show, eventually used again with new context, turning it into a genuinely dramatic and intense line.

At one point, when Grif got injured and needed some skin-grafts and organs, Simmons shared his, and got a cyborg up-grade (why not just give Grif the cyborg parts? well, there's a reason, and yes, it's stupid). So, underneath the colorful armor, they have a few things in common. Concerning their personalities, they are the definition of opposites that attract and bickering best friends; Simmons is up-tight and worries too much, Grif is lazy and sarcastic as a default. They have almost constantly been glued at the hip for 2 decades, and whenever they spend a significant amount of time apart, it gets turned into a whole dire situation. Grif and Simmons even had a scene where one of them starts to fall off a cliff while the other desperately tries to hold to them. They can talk, and argue, about ANYTHING. They annoy each other to death, and they'd die without each other.

They aren't just two characters from the same series who happen to fit the color scheme, they are duo. You can't have Grif without Simmons, or Simmons without Grif. It just doesn't work. They are a pair, do not separate! On top of that, Simmons would be endlessly honored to be Red, and Grif would be just beyond irritated to be Yellow. He's always getting confused for being yellow, but he's ORANGE. This is perfect and HILARIOUS

SEMIFINALS

[allqrcoded]

early concept art of the protags in the game. some of the info here (especially in shan daxing's aka jen yichen.. as his old name was) are very outdated, so i didn't feel the need to censor as much in the bullet points. i changed so much in the story for it to fit in a game context, it's pretty ridiculous. the lore i included in public rkgks in my art blog is also ..severely different from today's. let's just say that most of the stuff i put in there are shaky at best.

in all honesty, i found beta sdx's hair .. really hard to draw. and something about it didnt really click with me. a couple of doodles later, i decided that i liked it better when his hair was half-parted, like the one where i drew him but water-clogged.. it just kinda evolved the more i sdxs i drew .

other than sdx's hair.. geng xiangfeng's (protag) had some drafts before landing on the definitive version we have today. i wanted to make someone who looks like they're struggling and in a bit of a pot hole... but also make them a wagey., specifically, an office worker. i drew him with short, slicked back hair in the beginning, but it was too "neat", so i lengthened it a bit + made him have messy bangs. he also used to have a side part ?? well, that's gone.

i forgot the real reason why i wanted to make sdx (or a third character), but i'm sure it's something along the lines of "it would be painful if gfx, would experience his story alone and with little to no support", so i made him. i'd like to think this game as sort of a letter to myself. it has all the things i enjoy in media..: angels, introspection, office men and situationships with a lot of hugot.

more on sdx.. thinking of a possible character trope he would fall into was also pretty difficult. i was wondering: what sort of person would gxf get along with? i had the mindset that the guy who he had relations with in the 1st place was already good, but i wouldn't want another one of him,... especially in the same story because variety and all. the first guy i drafted in the road to sdx was cute, so i kept him on the page and not scrapbooked over him... sooner or later, i ended up with the definitive sdx! cool. i might use beta sdx somewhere in a separate series. who knows.. he's just there, i guess.

[spookyheaad]

New KenUno AU!

@p-riama @girlwiththepapatattoo

Ok, my fellow Kenpachi lovers, I need you to read this because I’m about to pass on (context: I’ve convinced my parents to watch The Mandalorian with me & I got them hooked):

Then read the caption here:

I lost my fucking mind.

I became very enamored with Mandalorian culture after finally getting towards watching season 2 of Mando, and I’m actually kinda shocked as to how much it is reminiscent of the whole Kenpachi lineage in Bleach (Much less severe tho).

So yeah, KenUno Mandalorian!AU

Mandalorians aren’t a species, they’re a creed, so anyone can be a Mandalorian. Their lifestyle revolves around combat, I just got more info abt this stuff the other day and I’m actively looking more stuff up. Admittedly as I grew up watching the clone wars animated series, I wasn’t too interested in the arcs that dealt with Mandalorians (mainly Pre Vizsla & Death Watch. Thought they were cool & all but I was still in grade school and wanted to see cool lightsaber fights).

But now that I’m older and much more interested in the lore of SW, I’m fascinated by them; I’m also going to rewatch all Mandalorian centric episodes because there was a lot that was put into both clone wars & rebels (for research, and because I still need to watch Rebels, this might give me my reason).

I’m still thinking on solid designs for Unohana and little Yachiru, I have an idea of Kenny’s armor and what he looks like.

My whole idea is that both Kenpachi & Unohana have been longtime Mandalorians, have followed the creed for years; found one another through the creed. They follow a branch of Mandalorian belief that allows them to remove their helmets (compared to Din Djarin, who was raised in The Children of the Watch, who refuse to remove their helmets to any other living being unless necessary). Bo Katan even Tells Din that The Watch is an old Mandalorian belief system, bordering on cultists. Zaraki & Unohana adhere to a more lenient form of Mandalorian lifestyle in that sense.

Of course, Unohana found Zaraki (not as a child, though, he’s an adult when they meet.) and she offered to show him the ways of the Mandalorian creed; he accepted. They grow an incredibly strong bond both on and off the battlefield, wandering the galaxy together. Eventually they fall in love, and declare themselves a clan of two (Mandalorians refer to family units as “clans”).

Then, they find a lost little girl, that being Yachiru. Knowing what this entails, they both accept that the child is their responsibility, and must take it to more of her own kind or raise her until she may choose her path. So then, they become a clan of three.

I’m still trying to determine what faction they both belonged to & some other AU related things but, uh yeah, I could cry rn at how perfectly this fits.

I’m probably going to stick to the short hair for him because it just makes it easier. With Unohana I plan to give her a typical pulled back braid; she doesn’t really have a need to wear it in the front, and also it would restrict her head movement if she wore her front braid and her helmet. Much more convenient.

More head studies for Kenny

Started planning his helmet design. I gotta give his helmet horns, that’s just a given. Not sure if I want to add any sort of designs, and I’m also unsure of what color both of their armor sets should be, I have to look up if the colors have any connotation.

Final head study. I plan to do more variations in expression digitally.

Very basic head study with helmet on

Mando Kenny defending his foundling, Yachiru!

I’m also gonna change what Yachiru is wearing, I just wanted to do something full body for Zaraki & I gave Yachiru the typical robe since it’s easy and drawing kids is a bit of a challenge for me (they just end up looking like small adults lmaoo).

[shihalyfie]

Kizuna itself vs. the two versions of the novel

Written on request from a friend who wanted to remain anonymous. This is more of an editorial than a meta, and while I usually have a policy of “this is an analysis blog, not a review blog” it goes into more of my personal impressions and opinions than usual, but it’s something I write hoping to be helpful.

There are basically three “official” full versions of Kizuna: one being, of course, the movie itself, one being the Dash X Bunko version of the novel, and one being the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of it. While it’s certainly not to say that any of the three is an “incomplete” version of the narrative, if you really want as full of a picture of the story as possible, somehow, each of all three versions of the story happens to have really important information that the other two do not. If I had to pick only one of these three versions to recommend to people, I would of course pick the movie itself; it’s obviously the base story everything else is based off of and was the one the production centered around as a priority, but the novelizations have a surprising amount of info that provide a lot of insight into the movie’s story and themes.

I get the impression that the creation of Kizuna involved making a lot more story and background details than could fit in a 95-minute movie, so these novelizations, which were based directly off the original movie script, ended up being an outlet for a lot of these details (and as much as I could be harsh on the movie itself for being a bit “reliant” on extra material, I have to admit that Adventure and 02 were both like this too -- a lot of our current understanding of the series comes from the Adventure novels and drama CDs -- so frankly I’m thankful we at least got this with a 95-minute movie instead of a yearlong series). On the flip side, while I'm not going to say that the novels are completely and utterly inaccurate representations of the movie, in a perhaps too-close approximation of Adventure and 02's writing style, this is a movie where even the nuances in a single line or split-second moment carry heavy implications, which become much blurrier or harder to identify when they’re presented differently (or not even presented at all) in the novel’s context, especially when they emphasize very different things from what the movie itself was emphasizing.

The short version of this is that I believe the Dash X version contains the greater amount of “plot and story” information but significantly misses out on the emotional themes and presentation, whereas the Shueisha Mirai version abridges and cuts chunks of content but is much better at conveying the intended message. More on this below the cut. (Note that the following post spoils Kizuna’s plot events.)

The movie itself

Since the following parts are more “in comparison to the movie”, I’m not going to go too much into this in this section, but one thing I will say is that the official English subtitle translation for the movie is really not great. Even if you take out nitpickiness about the fact it misses several significant nuances (the difference between “unchangeable fate” and “changeable destiny”, or the fact that Gennai refers to partnership dissolution as a “case” and not like it’s something that happens overall) at really plot-important moments, some lines (thankfully, usually not plot-important ones) are just straight-up incorrect. And worse, there’s evidence the official English dub was based on that translation! (I’m not faulting the people in charge of the dub for this, but whoever handed them that translation to work with.)

The dialogue in the Dash X Bunko version is transcribed effectively word-for-word from the dialogue in the movie (or perhaps vice versa, given that the novel is based on the original script), so I highly recommend checking that version as a reference for dialogue or if you want to do any intimate analysis on it. I don't want to go as far as to suggest not supporting the official version of the movie because of this, but at least please be aware that the translation used there is not entirely reliable.

Dash X Bunko

If you talk about “the Kizuna novel”, this is the one that people usually tend to be referring to, for two reasons. Firstly, it was translated shortly after the movie’s release, and due to the unfortunate circumstances of Kizuna being delayed in accessibility outside Japan for several months, this basically served as the only comprehensive source of info about the movie outside Japan for a very long time. Secondly, in Japan, this one was marketed as “the one for adults” in contrast to the Shueisha Mirai one being “for kids”, which meant that a lot of people assumed that the latter one was just an incredibly stripped down version that was otherwise disposable or replaceable. (This is very, very much not the case, and is extremely ironic when it comes to a movie that partially centers around the dangers of looking down too much on things associated with childhood.)

When it comes to “plot and story info”, this is the one that probably serves as the best reference (especially for fanfic writers or those who need a refresher on certain plot events or to look up something quickly), and probably has the most “comprehensive” listing of plot events surrounding the movie. The dialogue in it is a word-for-word recreation of the movie’s script, and actually includes more scenes than the movie itself does, including two that I suspect to be deleted scenes (a detailing of the specifics behind the initial plan to pursue Eosmon, and a conversation between Koushirou and Tentomon) and adaptations of the first and second memorial shorts within their context in the movie. It also contains some interesting background details and extra context for some things in the movie that you might think would normally be animation flair or something, but take a very interesting implication of story importance if they’re going out of their way to write this in the script. (There’s a scene where Agumon and Gabumon appear in front of their partners when they’d been behind them a minute before, and it’s easy to think this might be an animation error, but not only does the surrounding context make this unlikely, the novel itself actually directly states that their positions had changed.) Given that, I think it was very fortunate that this novel was available to us for those outside Japan waiting for the actual movie to come out, because this level of detail was very important to have on hand rather than fragmented spoilers on social media.

However, the part where I think the novel is significantly deficient in compared to the actual movie (and also to the other version of the novel) is that it describes the plot events in too blunt of a manner and doesn’t bring out its themes very well. (It’s kind of like having a long and very detailed Wikipedia article plot summary; it definitely got all the hard facts down, but the emotion is gone, which is still a pretty significant issue when media’s all about the feelings and message in the end.) While “considering the movie to be more cynical than it’s probably meant to be” happens regardless of which version someone’s working from, I’ve talked to perhaps an unnervingly high number of people who started with the novel and were absolutely convinced that the movie’s message was about adulthood sucking and needing to just accept it, until they saw how the actual movie pulled it off and the surrounding atmosphere and realized it definitely was not. (I think one really big factor here is that a lot of the visual imagery makes it extremely, extremely hard to miss that Menoa’s mentality is completely screwed up and her way of seeing things was dubious to begin with; prose descriptions really just don’t capture the way they slam this in your face with visual and musical cues during the climax of the movie.)

You can figure this out from the novel itself, but you have to really be looking closely at the way they word things, and on top of that it’s hard to figure out which parts you should be focusing on and which parts aren’t actually that important -- in other words, the “choice of priorities” gets a bit lost in there. Even the little things lose a lot of value; it’s theoretically possible to use the novel to put together that Daisuke is wearing his sunglasses indoors during his first scene, but you have to put together the context clues from completely different paragraphs to figure this out, none of which compares to the actual hilarity of visually seeing him wearing the thing in a very obviously dimly lit restaurant because he’s our beloved idiot. (For more details, please see my post with more elaboration on this and more examples of this kind of thing.)

I wouldn’t say that the movie itself isn’t guilty of (perhaps accidentally) having some degree of mixed messaging, but I would say this problem is rather exacerbated by the novel’s way of presenting it due to its dedication to dropping every single plot detail and event without much in the way of choosing what to contextualize and what to put emphasis on (as it turns out, treating practically everything in the movie as if it has equal weight might not be a great idea). So, again, for that reason I think the novel serves as a good reference in terms of remembering what happened in it and knowing the movie’s contents, but I also feel that it’s really not the greatest deliverer of the movie’s message or themes at all.

Shueisha Mirai Bunko

The second version of the novel was not translated until several months after the movie first released, and shortly before the Blu-ray and streaming versions of the movie itself came out anyway, so my impression is that on this end a lot of people don’t even know it was a thing. On top of that, even those who know about it often dismiss it as the “kid version” -- and to be fair, it did baffle quite a few people as to why this version even exists (Kizuna is technically not unacceptable for kid viewing and its plot is still understandable regardless of age, but since the movie is so heavily about the millennial existential crisis, it’s not something kids would really relate to). So a lot of people tended to just skip over it...which is really a shame, because it contains some interesting things that actually aren’t in the other two versions at all. For instance, did you know that, as of this writing, this is the only thing that plainly states the specific explanation for why Yamato decided to become an astronaut, for the first time in 20 real-life years?

While there are still some things that weren’t in the movie proper (mainly the Eosmon initial plan and the adaptation of the second memorial short), for the most part, the actual events are somewhat abridged compared to the movie and the Dash X version, and other than a few stray lines, there’s not a lot of extra information that would be as helpful for referencing the events of the plot. The version of the novel here is rather broadly interpretive of the scenes in the movie, so several things are condensed or taken out (and, amusingly, because it’s assuming that the kids reading this don’t actually know the original Adventure or 02, it has to describe what each character is like in a quick one-liner).

However, interestingly enough, it’s because it’s so heavily interpretive that it illuminates a lot of things that weren’t really easy to glean out of the Dash X version. For instance:

Some scenes are described with “other perspectives” that give you info on someone else’s point of view. (For instance, we see more of Yamato’s perspective and thoughts when he has his first phone call with Daisuke, or a bit more detail in the process of how Eosmon kidnappings work.)

We get a lot more information on what’s going through everyone’s heads during each scene, and what emotions they’re feeling at a given time. (This is something that you could at least get to some degree in the movie itself from facial expressions and framing, but would often be a lot blurrier in the Dash X version; here, it’s spelled out in words.)

When things are abridged, you get a clearer idea of what the intended point and theme of the scene was because it’s stripped down to include only that part. In one really interesting case, the scene with Agumon finding Taichi’s AVs has a “censored” equivalent where Taichi’s pushed to a corner because he can’t find anything non-alcoholic in his fridge -- so when you look at the two versions of the scene and what they have in common, you can figure out that the point isn’t that it was a lewd joke for the sake of it, but rather that Taichi’s forcing himself into boxes of “adulthood” that are actually meaningless and impractical.

Some of the descriptions of the characters, scenes, and background information make it a lot more obvious as to their purpose in the narrative (it outright confirms that Miyako being in Spain means that her personality is getting overly enabled there).

The scene where the circumstances behind Morphomon’s disappearance are revealed makes it significantly less subtle what the point is. In the actual movie, a lot of this involved visual framing with Menoa seeming to become more and more distant, but in this version of the novel they basically whack you over the head with the final confirmation that Menoa is guilty of neglecting her own partner, which contradicts her own assertions that “they were always together” (maybe not emotionally, it seems!) and helps clarify the commonality between her, Taichi, Yamato, and Sora in what exactly led to their partners disappearing.

Bonus: this version of the novel really wants you to know that the ending of the movie is about Taichi and Yamato fully having the determination to turn things around and lead up to the 02 epilogue. (The movie’s version of this involves the extended version of Taichi’s thesis and the credits photo with Yamato obviously next to a rocket, while this novel’s version involves more detailed fleshing out of how Taichi and Yamato decided to use their experiences to move onto their eventual career paths and what kind of hope they still have at the end. The Dash X version...didn’t really have a very strong equivalent here.)

In other words, while this version of the novel isn’t the greatest reference for plot or worldbuilding, it does a much more effective job being straightforward about the intended themes and message of the movie, and even if the scenes in it are much more loosely adapted, it’s much better at adapting the emotional nuances of the things that would normally be conveyed via visuals, expressions, and voice acting. (Although I would still say that the movie itself is the best reference for that kind of thing, of course.) If you just want lore or plot ideas, I don’t think it’ll help you very much, but since this series is so much about characters that had their ways of thinking fleshed out in such incredible detail, and about strong theme messaging, this is all still very valuable information in its own way.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi I’ve been wrestling with smtg for a bit( aka several years) and I honestly wasnt sure where to even start a convo for this and then I saw a brief mention in the comments so here I am. Im like a big Cassandra Clare fan(i am starting to outgrow her stuff but i still read for like past me’s sake) havent gotten into reading fanfic (for another fandom) until lets say recent years like a year ago, and then well like any person who obsesses over smtg i also learned stuff about the author that sounded well, like she wasnt exactly the nicest person. Especially when it came to how she started as a fanfic writer. Im confused though: the way people kinda like say, oh supporting her is bad ya know cuz of how she was kinda shitty (im being vague cuz any time i tried to look up actual like proof i just got angry sounding articles and i wasnt sure if that was like good enough??) and I look at her material now that I personally find relatable(Izzy was the first character I looked at and thought: oh its okay to be feminine AND badass? More context: my part of the world was/ is INCREDIBLY sexist) and I found so much joy in and very much like all the lgbt rep I found in it, people are still referring back to how shes horrible and im just like: i feel like i missed out on smtg everyone knew once but idk where to look to even get more info.

Anyway I mentioned how recently I got into fanfic because until I started following your blog I didnt know all the history behind it and that started to help me figure out some things about how some authors started out.

I dont expect anyone to like gimme a list or smtg like: oh this person is bad bcuz X. Im just wondrring like: why am i constantly told I shouldnt like cassandra clare? when they’ve done so much good for me. (I dont mean to think my experience is the only one or anything either ofc)

I dont mean to come off like im in denial or maybe I am idk i really just dont know where to go for this convo cuz i absolutely want to have it

--

You want my honest answer? Butthurt.

Cassie has gotten many, many chances that other people would have liked, and she has gotten them on the basis of whom she knows, from her publishing contract to her film and tv deals. People don't feel she earned those chances, and they are bitter as fuck. For example, her books got made into a film. It bombed. And then, unlike in most other cases, they went on and made a tv series of the same material. I think a lot of people look at her and see a charmed life, and it disgusts them either out of pure jealousy or because she was always kind of a douchbag.

Cassie's an asshole, but her "crimes" are so incredibly minor compared to Hollywood creeps or even compared to JKR. If you want to keep liking her books, you do you.

--

Now, as for what her "crimes" actually are, they boil down to fandom interpersonal drama, gross e-begging (kind of), and plagiarism.

She got her ass kicked off of FFN for copying lines and even whole chunks from other media and putting them in her HP fic without attribution. She later tried to excuse this by saying her fans were playing 'spot the reference', but I saw fans quoting 'her" lines all the time and not realizing they were borrowed.

She did actually plagiarize. Whether you think this is the crime to end all crimes is another story.

"Laptopgate" and the time fandom bought her an iPod are probably second most serious. CC's apartment was burgled, and she and her roommates lost some computers and things. She didn't directly ask her followers for money, but she didn't have to. A little crying on social media and some active organizing by her friend, and fandom coughed up a whole bunch of money. Something similar happened when she wanted an iPod.

This really doesn't seem like a big deal, does it? The reason it bugged people was that it was pretty obvious she had a lot more resources than many of the people donating. She could have asked her family for help replacing the laptops. I found the whole thing a bit tacky in both cases and thought she sounded like she was fishing for the iPod even if she didn't directly ask her fans to buy it for her, but this is hardly the stuff of undying scandal.

The real reason people remember laptopgate is that a fan with a medical fundraiser tried to get CC's friend to signal boost them, and the friend was dismissive. I do think she handled it poorly. It was also a time when e-begging was a lot rarer than now and when signal boosting was more than just clicking reblog. How much any of that was CC's fault is open to interpretation.

CC was also the unwitting dupe of fandom's most famous con artist, Msscribe, a bully who went after whole swaths of Harry Potter fandom. CC wasn't directly at fault, but her fame and popularity helped this other asshole operate unimpeded. It left a lot of fans disgusted with that whole social circle.

Beyond that, there's a vast list of minor bullshit. CC acted like a celebrity and lorded it over her fellow fans. She pitted her sycophants against each other. She was--and as far as I can tell stayed--an entitled, self-important whiner. Her crying about Shadowhunters not following her derivative biphobic trash books more closely was hilarious, for example. Cry moar about how your boring self insert got sidelined for a better character!

She has some one-off story I remember people being pissed about that is basically her pulling a Not Like The Other Girls and shitting on fandom nerds--or at least, that's how people took it.

CC has also spent a lot of time talking behind people's backs and being a catty bitch--possibly even a bully. But that kind of thing is hard to prove. It's all down to how different people remember and interpret various incidents, and a lot of the people she was shitty to are also major drama queens who don't always inspire much sympathy.

If you stopped reading every author who was rude or self-important at some point, you wouldn't have much left to read.

--

OTW, which runs AO3, also runs a fandom history wiki. You can look CC up there. I think it covers most of the major stuff, including a rumor I had totally forgotten about about her ~doxxing a minor~. (That was Flourish who explains the whole thing themself, and CC did nothing of the sort.)

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Cassandra_Claire

CC's major crime has always been being a privileged jerk. People see her as a Rich Mean Girl and one of us who thinks she's somehow too good for the rest of us. Except, now, she's also a famous author and not really One Of Us anymore. That's why it's so difficult for people to articulate the problem.

I think her work does have some shitty messages, but for me to engage deeply with them, I'd have to go read the whole thing instead of just chortling at a few horrible metaphors and reading other people's salt. Life's too short for that!

Go forth, nonnie, and read the teen books of your heart. CC isn't problematic in a way where you should refuse to give her money.

[bookwyrminspiration]

oh i absolutely understand the ‘searching for one small thing and you just can’t fucking find it’ feeling. i hyper fixated on creating an aesthetic for a ship’s wedding today and ended up spending 3+ hours looking for my cousin’s wedding venue because it would fit perfectly. i finally found it and it felt amazing so i hope you find your thing soon as well

!! I am thrilled for your finding it! That moment of satisfaction is so good--I get it a lot when I'm going through the books looking for specific quotes I vaguely remember and then find them.

Also because you've given me the space I'm going to ramble about the thing you were responding to. Who knows, maybe another mind will pick up on something I've missed and be able to cover the one hazy part of my timeline! Context: I've been working on a complete timeline of the keeper series, and there was this one spot that was more vague than the rest that I would be able to work out if I had one detail/bit of information. But the thing is as far as I can tell, that one sentence I was hoping for doesn't actually exist.

So here's the situation: Shannon doesn't specify the exact amount of time that passes between book 6 and book 7. Every other book I know the exact amount of time (though 1->2 is a little less certain) that passes between them, but all Shannon says is "weeks." More than once, she says "weeks" have passed.

Which. Isn't great. BUT. She also gives us the very valuable information that Foxfire is in session. It's not about to start, they're at least a little ways into the semester (as evidenced by Sophie's comments about school in the healing center).

Based on the timeline of book 1, I've mathed out that a Foxfire semester lasts about 4 months. There's two semesters and a 6 week break in between, so reasonably that's 9 1/2 months of the year right there.

So why is this important? Because five days before the end of book 6, the school year ended and they entered break--not the 6 week one, the summer break. So based on the 9 1/2 month model (if it's accurate), then at least 2 1/2 months have passed. A little more, since they're in the swing of Foxfire, but there's no mention of midterms or anything so they're not too far in otherwise it'd be on their minds.

If there was one mention of midterms, like that they were three months away or something, then I could backtrack that based on the timeline I've assembled and figure out exactly how many "weeks" have passed between books. However, no one's been thinking about midterms recently, so no ones mentioned it! (at least that I saw, though I may have missed something).

I've reasoned together a sensible amount of time, but ultimately that's the big haze in my timeline. There are a few other less certain places because Shannon used descriptors like "few days," "a couple days," and "several days later." But if my math holds, aside from that one gap I think. I've figured everything out.

Who knows! Maybe book ten will have that glorious one sentence mentioning midterms or finals and I can finally rest easy with the info I need :)

[binderclipdocs]

Interview w/ Breathless345 for Facebook - July 5, 2020

Interview by Boris Landa 

1. Can you tell me about yourself? It seems like you are keeping strict anonymity if you've asked to call you Breathless and not by some real name :) Are you Paul McCartney by himself? :) And why do you keep that anonymity? Anyway, I'll be glad to briefly get to know you as part of the interview. What's your profession and so on - cause not every day a person creates a 10+ hours long series.

Hello!  Yes, I prefer anonymity mainly because I don’t enjoy the spotlight, but also because I don’t wish to draw attention away from the work.

I have had a variety of work experience and was trained in filmmaking, specifically documentaries.

2. How did you come to the decision to make the "Lennon/McCartney" series? What brought you into it?

I heard an interview with Ron Howard in 2016 about his film “Eight Days a Week: the Touring Years” during which Howard explained that McCartney’s only request was to highlight the John/Paul relationship (particularly their closeness) and that Paul mentioned seeing a Lennon/McCartney fan video on YouTube.  That struck me for a number of reasons.  

First, it reinforced an idea I’ve held for awhile now: that the public perception of John and Paul’s relationship remains very distorted and that Paul McCartney alone cannot fix it.  It needs to be remedied by an independent third party.

Second, Paul’s mention of YouTube is what inspired me to create and publish my own documentaries.  Prior to hearing that interview, I had been trying to pitch film projects about John & Paul through the traditional routes.  But suddenly I realized I could just make a film about them myself, without anyone’s permission.  Because my series is unauthorized I don’t have to answer to studio execs and I can tell the whole story without being censored.  It’s total freedom, which I think is required to tell the story truthfully.

3. Can you tell me about the process of creating the series? How long did it take, how the research was conducted, and so on - your series is a huge testimonial to a creative dedication, an example of how a personal project of such caliber should be done - so it'll be very insightful to understand how it was constructed. 

Thanks very much!  

Because You Tube kept removing the films (for music usage), I was forced to re-edit them several times until I found out a workable loophole.

Initially I wanted a pure Cinéma vérité style, and was extremely wary of injecting any sort of narrative. I was much more interested in creating a sensory experience.  However, I had a friend who kindly reviewed all my (later) drafts and encouraged me to be more explicit, to give a bit more context and info to better tell John and Paul’s story.  So subsequent edits became less impressionistic and more like traditional documentaries, not to push any particular agenda but because the story needed structure.  My friend and I had long discussions about John and Paul, deciding what pieces of info to flag, trying to figure out the trajectory of their relationship.   Once I decided to make a real documentary series, the research came from a variety of sources.  A lot of information was compiled through the internet, particularly BeatlesBible, the Beatles Interview Database, and a Tumblr blog called Amoralto (all the Get Back audio, for instance, came from Amoralto’s site).  Of course I also have a hefty collection of bootleg audio and a huge library of Beatles books (Hunter Davies' was the most helpful, but I probably pulled information from 20 books or more).  After that came the time-consuming labor of reviewing and logging hours and hours of interviews and performance footage.

With this project I was obviously limited by the preexisting material; I couldn’t just write a script and fill in the blanks with narration or my own interviews.  I had to find a way to tell the story using only original images, quotes and music.  I actually appreciated those constraints because they forced me to think creatively.  I think one of the biggest strengths of the series is that it doesn’t rely on talking heads or peripheral people with competing agendas to tell the story.  The focus is always on John and Paul and their own experiences.  

Although I couldn’t do it 100% of the time, I also made an effort to stay “in the moment” as much as possible by using contemporaneous quotes and interviews.  That’s partially why the films have such an authentic feel.  They aren’t told in retrospect; we’re watching John and Paul experience the events as they happen rather than listening to them reflect back on them in hindsight.

4. What did you want most viewers to find out or understand when creating the "Lennon/McCartney" series? Was there any agenda or narrative you wanted to promote through the series? That people will come out of watching realizing that .......... Cause it seems to me, it was quite a balanced way of showing facts and pieces of evidence and you've left a lot of room for subjective insights. So it will be interesting to find out if you indeed had a certain agenda you've wanted to promote.

Mainly I wanted to show what a close and loving relationship the two had when they were together.  That’s really the foundation.  Once you understand that, you begin to demand a better explanation for their demise than the standard answers: they grew apart, John was “bored,” it was Yoko’s fault, etc.  

One difficulty is that people often want a simple explanation of Lennon/McCartney: Did they love each other or hate each other?  Were they friends or rivals?  But when you look at the totality of their partnership over the years (and even how it extends beyond death), you realize how reductive those questions actually are.  They were all those things: friends, rivals, creative partners, business partners, army buddies, spouses, soulmates.  None of those labels are mutually exclusive and they’ve used all of them at one point or another to describe their relationship.  That alone is a good indicator of how incredibly deep and complicated it was.

To understand Lennon/McCartney, I believe we have to accept a few things- that they deeply loved and respected each other, both enhanced the other’s work, and that they mutually desired each others’ approval and affection.  I’ve read several books that either imply or flatly proclaim that McCartney loved Lennon but that Lennon was basically indifferent to McCartney.  My research revealed something much, much different and I think that is shown in each film, at pretty much every turn.

5. What is the most surprising/unbelievable or unknown insight you PERSONALLY made out of the series? Something that struck you that most about their relationship?

Their musical dialogue was fascinating to trace, and although I loved every bit of it, I sometimes felt like Paul and John were having different conversations.  That was heartbreaking.  

Before I made the series, I tended to empathize more with Paul, largely because he has been alive for the past 40 years.  For fans like me who didn’t experience John’s death in real time, we’ve experienced it mainly through Paul which adds a visceral layer of loss to Paul’s role. But this also tends to distort things because it magnifies his suffering.  

When I researched their story, however, I started to see things from John’s POV and the story became more of his emotional journey: falling for Paul, pursuing Paul, negotiating with Paul, trying to get Paul’s attention, pushing Paul away, slandering Paul; becoming smitten,  jealous, angry, obsessed.  It became easier to empathize with John’s hurt, outrage and longing.  

We all know John’s feelings for Paul could be bitter and complicated (especially in the later years) but personally I was struck by how idealistic and pure they could be too.  And the deeper I dug, the more transparent John seemed.

McCartney on the other hand, became more of an enigma.  Making this series actually increased my curiosity and fascination for Paul (which could be partially why I made a whole additional documentary series about him).

6. So what is your personal opinion, as the series creator and someone who dug deep on research, about Lennon/McCartney relationship? Was it just a deep and platonic love story? Was Lennon a bi-sexual that could never fulfill his romantic love for Paul? Something else?

Maybe all of the above?  Maybe none of those.

Sometimes it seems patently obvious that John fell in love with Paul and that the fallout of this realization is what set their break-up in motion.  The details are where things always get murky.  Did Paul know how John felt?  If so, did he say or do something to shut John down?  Did something bad happen or was it all below the surface?  I never have a clear sense of any of that.

We can’t assign a label to John’s sexuality; only he can do that and at the risk of sounding cliche, I’m not really hung up on those kind of definitions.  Whether John was straight, bisexual, bicurious or whatever… I think it was his overwhelming love for Paul that drove his (occasionally out of control) behavior.

7. When creating a series of that kind - when quotes and different real events and facts appear on the screen and they create a sort of full story - there is also a significance that given to what left out of series. So how did you decide what to left out?  Eventually what's left out affects the series narrative no less than what is included…

Some quotes/events were omitted due to time, others were left out because they were repetitive.  When you’re making a movie, you  have to cut scenes or segments (even ones you might love) if they don’t move the story forward.  I was lucky in that some things I skipped in the linear story I was able to circle back to in later episodes. Some things, like the details of 1969-70 before the official break-up, were just too messy to untangle in this particular series.  I had to focus on things that specifically shed light on their relationship, which meant other details (like their legal/financial battles) sometimes got sidelined.

Like everyone, I had some preconceived ideas about their relationship before I made this, but I was very mindful to let the research dictate the narrative instead of vice verse.  Having a documentary background was helpful in this regard; sometimes the story went places I didn’t expect.  But I was adamant about letting John and Paul tell the story themselves.  

I think the trick, when two people split up, is to listen to both accounts and find the common ground.  What are the consistent themes? problem areas? recurring issues?  What do both parties agree were their strengths and weaknesses?  We have only John's and Paul's accounts with which to faithfully construct this story because no one besides them knows the true nature of their relationship.  So I tried to highlight and emphasize the themes that kept recurring in my research:  John’s hurt, disappointment, frustration and longing.  Paul’s sadness, regret, compassion and desire to reconcile.

8. What connects you personally to the Beatles story? Are you just a fan, or is it something more thorough?

I am a fan, of course.  Loved the Beatles music (and John and Paul’s solo as well) from adolescence and was drawn to their personalities as well.  But I always suspected there was more to the saga of John & Paul than the official story suggested.

I always assumed someone would conduct a proper examination of their relationship but since no one ever did, I stepped up and tried.

9. A bit of cliche, but, are you a Lennonist or McCartnist? :) and why?

Well, I guess I wouldn’t use either of those terms.  They were both uniquely talented.  Some qualities I admire about both:

PAUL:  eclectic, experimental, visionary, expansive, inclusive, fearless, restless, prolific, spirited, soulful, authentic, determined, full of life and light.  Definitely marches to his own drum!  I admire his approach to art, his faith in humanity, his kindness, his strength. JOHN: tender, raw, philosophical, contemplative, inspirational, lovable, emotional, vulnerable, witty, extraordinarily charming.  A true romantic and gifted storyteller.  I admire his ability to self-reflect, his desire to grow, his ability and willingness to “put himself out there.”

10. Didn't you think that George and Ringo should get more presence in the series? Of course in a relation to their observation of John & Paul connection.

Not really.  The Beatles were notoriously close-knit and Ringo and George never commented much about them publicly.  Whatever they did say that was insightful, I included.  

But this isn’t about the Beatles; it’s about John & Paul’s relationship.  If I made a film about the Beatles it would be radically different.

11. Can you tell a bit about "McCartney" series? What was the reason and personal incentive for that series   Well, I’ve wanted to make a film about Paul for a long time. I wanted to both know him better and share that information with the world.  The only way to really do that was to share insights from people who have actually collaborated with him, and to showcase his music in a way I hoped was illuminating.  I was overwhelmed by his music, of course, but also by how dearly loved and respected he is by virtually everyone in his life.

It was also important for me to show how Paul’s image and reputation has been shaped over the years by outside forces.  His critical standing is obviously much better nowadays, but I still think he is under-appreciated in many ways.  I honestly think it is difficult for most of us to truly comprehend how incredibly special he is.

12. Any future plans for similar projects (as a teaser to anticipation...)

Nothing that I can talk about yet.  

13. OK, final question: Did Paul or any other Paul/John related person see the series? Do you somehow trying to make Paul aware of the series?

I'm not aware that Paul (or any of his people) have seen it, but I REALLY hope he has! ---

Understanding Lennon/McCartney volumes 1-5 are currently streaming on YouTube.