#so i went into the work of recommend me a visual novel

[junigray]

I have never plotted anything in my life and have no idea how stories work and am getting stupider by the minute.

I think it is time to step away from my computer.

[shopwitchvamp]

Now that we're well past our moving crisis, etc. I'm trying really hard to get back onto any semblance of a schedule. You know, just like.. eating and sleeping regularly and not working 100% of the time? But dang. It's hard. It's past 9pm though so I'm gonna try to like play a visual novel or something and then go to bed at a decent time instead of working on shop stuff all night. Wish me luck. ✌️😭

[aoi1dee]

OLNF Week Day 7: Alternate Universe

@olnfweek2024 more info is down below...

Hi this isn’t a short fic because if I were to try and write a fic for this… it wouldn’t be short. But I didn’t want this day to not have anything to go with it especially since every single day has had a short fic. So… you get a bunch of ideas spilled from my brain. 

Ghost Hunter AU!!!!!

Basically this AU is exactly what it sounds like. In 2016, Qiu, Tam, and Alex go ghost hunting in this abandoned building in Golden Grove. This idea started when Alex saw this movie about ghost hunting so he spent the money from his job at the diner to get ghost hunting equipment and a backpack to fit all of it. When Tamarack got the news of such things she absolutely wanted to go with him. But when Qiu got the news, they weren’t as excited as Tam. I feel like they aren’t the type to believe in ghosts or anything paranormal. But of course they go along because why not? 

When they went ghost hunting, none of them were expecting to get their lives threatened by ghosts. They want their bodies… but not in a weird way they want to possess their bodies to do stuff (idk what yet) like none of them have a way of escaping. The doors suddenly locked and they don’t want to get charged for property damage by breaking the windows (Qiu tried. Tam didn’t let them) So this AU is basically just them communicating with ghosts trying to convince them to let them go or finding a way to help those ghosts move onto the afterlife so they can stop haunting and terrorizing people. 

This is actually probably a shock but I’m more into horror than romance visual novels. I’m currently working on a horror game actually. And I have a completely separate artstyle for my horror games. The artstyle I share is just my normal art style (if you wanna see my horror art style I WILL SHARE IT) also if you want indie horror game recommendations… ask. I have a lot.

But I will also share 2 really good indie game developers right now.

Puppet Combo and Chilla’s Art. 

I LOVE THEM!! They make really good horror games. Puppet Combo does more slasher horror while Chilla’s Art does more ghost horror. Chilla’s art made The Closing Shift if you’ve ever heard of it. It's the game about getting stalked in a coffee shop.

Anyways I can rant about horror games just as much as I can rant about the Our Life games so… if you want to see more OLNF Ghost Hunters AU please let me know… i would love to make a fic about it.

Now here are doodles I made for this.

c'mon alex you're supposed to be hunting ghosts not admiring qiu...

anyways thats it i hope you enjoyed OLNF week just as much as i did and thank you @goldengroovy for hosting it!! :3 byebye!

[cormorant-red]

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

-----

Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

-----

Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

-----

Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

-----

Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

-----

Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

-----

Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

-----

Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

-----

Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

-----

Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

-----

Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

-----

Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

-----

Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

-----

Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

-----

Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

-----

Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

-----

Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

-----

Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

-----

Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

[foxglovegames]

Trouble Comes Twice - the Postmortem

We celebrated Trouble Comes Twice's anniversary around a month ago! We'd hoped to post this postmortem back then as well, but it's taken us a moment to find the right words haha.

Anyway, we hope that this postmortem can give our players and other visual novel devs some insight into what the development process looked like for us. It's also a great way for us to look back at what went well and what went less well.

We'll be taking about the ideation phase, our (lack of) marketing for the Kickstarter, and also sharing (what we can) on our earnings from the game!

Coming up with Trouble Comes Twice

The original tone of Trouble Comes Twice was a lot more comedic and packed to the brim with anime tropes we enjoy. Most didn't make it into the final game, but some stayed and evolved e.g. all of the love interests are based on popular visual novel archetypes - the childhood friend, the tomboy, the shy girl, and the bad boy. 

Some, like Cameron and Zoe, changed a lot from their concept while Adrian and Stephanie stayed quite loyal to our original ideas of them. Cameron's character actually underwent the most changes after the initial reception to the demo, where a lot of people felt like he was too much of an ass haha. (Fortunately, he became a fan favorite when we dropped the new demo!)

The premise with the bet was something we invented to create some drama and establish a common plot thread throughout each route. Honestly, looking back, we would probably have approached the bet differently if we wrote it today and a lot of our pre-planning was... clumsy, at best. Still, it was a labor of love and I'll never forget the fun and excitement we had everyday balling ideas for the characters and coming up with their designs.

As Melli and I are just writers with limited coding experience, we worked with a past game jam friend to code the GUI and set up the base for the game (though the actual scripting was done by us and Melli put everything together in the end). Our biggest expenses pre- and post-demo was the character art and CGs, meanwhile we relied on free music and BG packs to save money.

Why a bisexual romcom?

So, this was sort of a no-brainer to us. We had decided right from the start that both twins could date both the male and female love interests, and (at the time) we feel that a lot of similar games had playersexual MCs rather than established bisexual/pansexual MCs. While playersexual charas are also awesome, we wanted to write a romcom where the main cast are always queer regardless of who you end up romancing. 

At the same time, bi/pan people don't all approach romantic relationships the same way e.g. Cameron is confident and has experience dating people of all genders, while Adrian's demi and Jace still struggles a bit with his attraction towards men. We know that some of our players felt like that made certain routes less romantic than others and we hear you on that feedback and have 100% taken it into consideration for our future romance games. But anyway, that was our thought process behind Trouble Comes Twice's romance dynamics!

Preparing for Kickstarter & the actual Campaign

Our Kickstarter launched at the start of August and let me tell you, we were nowhere near as prepared as we should have been. 😭 We hadn't set up a Steam page yet, we were trailer-less, and we only had a couple of hundred followers across our socials at best. I feel that there's a lot more successful Kickstarter projects to refer to and even a lot of marketing guides and advice now, but mostly it's on us for not researching more. 

The Kickstarter campaign did surprisingly well despite the lack of promotion and only having a rough alpha demo - we were even able to double our goal! - but we  wouldn't recommend what we did for other devs.

You should invest time into making a good demo, spend time building an interested audience before launching your campaign, and research so you've got some kind of marketing plan. We were lucky with word-of-mouth and that other visual novel devs with larger followings helped share our game, but we should have made more effort reaching out to bloggers, streamers, and game sites. Some crowdfunding successes may seem like they came out of nowhere and were just pure luck, but there's usually a lot of grinding behind-the-scenes that you don't notice.

The post-Kickstarter era, at least for us, was the harder bit. We now had 353 loyal backers who had expectations based on promises we had made and we had to make sure we met those expectations while also staying true to our wants as the devs. It was a learning process for sure, but we're fairly proud that we always did our best to keep our backers in the loop. It's frustrating to write an update explaining that the game has been delayed again, but backers are more open to being understanding than you think as long as you communicate!

A tip we'd give to new devs considering Kickstarter: Don't overestimate what you can do, but overestimate what you need. There's always hidden costs, unexpected taxes/fees, and other unknown obstacles that might eat up your budget. In our case, we made enough to make the game as planned, but had to change CG artists around halfway through development which meant our original budget didn't cut it anymore. Fortunately, we had earned a decent amount from our Patreon and pre-orders that we were able to use to complete the CGs, but that isn't always going to be an option for everyone and that also meant we were unable to use that money ourselves. (We didn't take any money from the original Kickstarter campaign, so whatever was earned through patreon and pre-sales was our only "salary" at the time.) 

Writing the game

Writing is, for obvious reasons, one of the most important parts of a visual novel. Melli wrote Jace's routes and I wrote Hazel's routes, which removed some pressure off our shoulders compared to trying to write over 300,000 words all on our own. 

It's fun working with another writer, but there are also some unique issues and considerations that come up when you're writing a game with two protagonists split between two writers. Especially because at the time, there weren't many visual novels with a similar set up to refer to.

The main things we learned, were:

Consistency. We wanted each couple to have their own dynamic, but the characterization needs to remain consistent between routes. You don't want Adrian in Jace's route to feel like a totally different character in Hazel's route. Additionally, we had to be careful that the tone and writing style of the protagonists' POVs still felt like you were playing the same game. Some routes can be more comedic than others, but we've got a problem if Hazel's routes are all (unintentionally) more serious/angsty in tone than Jace's or vice versa.

Watch out for your word count! Longer does not always equal better and writing eight routes, we had to put some restrictions in place. Even when writing on your own, it can be tough to guess how long your story should be, and it was important to us that the routes were roughly the same length so that none felt more "canon" than the other. However, with two writers who have different writing styles and ways of planning, it was tricky to compare our outlines and we struggled at times when it came to matching each other's word counts. Moving forward, we're probably going to be more lenient when it comes to word counts - some routes have to be longer than others, it doesn't mean that route is automatically more "important". We're also doing more regular meetings and frequent check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. In the future, we hope that should save us a lot of trouble when it comes to pacing! 🙈

Balancing your own wants with the wants of your players. In theory, these overlap most of the time. But making a commercial game (that people had already "bought" through the Kickstarter), there is some pressure when it comes to meeting certain expectations. We can't always just write what we want and assume everyone else is going to love it, but we also don't want to neglect what we personally like. We had a survey for the beta where we were able to get regular feedback and a lot of helpful advice. We definitely want to continue with surveys in the future - they are a great way to gather opinions from different players and figure out what works versus what doesn't! 

We took on too many tasks outside writing that distracted us. This bit is sort of inevitable for indie devs like us. 😅 Working with a limited budget and limited resources, you just end up having to wear a lot of hats! We think we did quite well sharing these duties though, and moving forward (thanks to you guys) we can afford more hands on deck to help us out. 

Marketing

The bane of every indie game dev's existence... although secretly, I kind of enjoy marketing but don't tell anyone that!

Having learned a thing or two from promoting the Kickstarter, we spent more time researching games marketing but in the end, trial and error was the best teacher.

As we got closer to the release date, we were posting almost daily on social media and grew our Twitter to over eight thousand followers. We didn't have any viral posts, but we saw a consistent growing interest in our game and it was such a motivation boost to see comments from potential players being excited for the game. We know a lot of devs have said that Twitter didn't help their game much but according to our stats, a decent number of our players found us through the platform. 

We saw less success here on Tumblr. Perhaps we haven't cracked the code here yet or maybe we're just comparing our numbers from Twitter unfairly! We're not hung up about it though, we love it here because it feels easier to connect with our followers and other devs there, and it's nice because we're able to write longer posts like this one! 💓

Aside from posting on social media, we reached out to several streamers and some bloggers prior to release to send them free game keys. 

We also commissioned some art from other artists to share, as we obviously couldn't reveal ALL our CGs before the release lol and visual posts tend to do a lot better in our experience. It was so much fun to see the characters in other art styles and we hope we can afford to commission guest art pieces a lot more frequently in the future!

In hindsight, we definitely regret not releasing a trailer sooner! We underestimated how much interest a good trailer could garner and delayed setting up our Steam page because of it. Steam was the platform where we sold the most copies and most of our buyers found the game through Steam itself.

Also, posting your trailer on youtube adds another site where you're promoting your game so there's really no reason not to get that trailer done as soon as you can. 

Final Notes

After the initial stress, we were pretty happy with our release! Although there were some things we would go back and change if we could,  that's just the nature of these kind of things. For the most part, we're proud of what we achieved and happy that we have learnt so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can take into consideration for future projects.

We can't share exact numbers, but we wanted to open up a bit about our earnings for the game to help other aspiring devs: As of writing this, Trouble Comes Twice has earned close to 85,000 euros. This counts our profits from 2020 to now (the Kickstarter, Patreon, pre-sales, and actual sales). Removing fees, taxes, the salaries of our talented artists and other freelancers, as well as the money invested into our next game, our personal pockets did not see anything close to those numbers. But we're super proud of how much our little game has made and so grateful that it's allowed us more creative freedom with our next title! 

So, what's next?

You might have heard but for the past year, we've slowly been working on the demo and upcoming announcement for our next visual novel:

A 17+ supernatural neon-noir romance game about monsters, love, and other horrors. 

Play as vampire detective Circe (female protagonist) or hellhound cop Dante (male protagonist) and delve into the mysteries of North Haven, where demons, vampires, and supernaturals hide in plain sight among humans.

The game features six routes, with three romance options available to each protagonist. Dante only has male romances and Circe has both male and female romances. 

The game tackles a darker, more angsty tone compared to Trouble Comes Twice. Still, we hope that those who decide to check it out will enjoy it! We plan to announce the game this coming Autumn. Follow our Twitter (we're still not calling it X sorry) or Tumblr to stay up to date.

[maboroshi-no]

Hamefura Manga Vol 3 Animate Bonus SS

Series: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Source: Manga Vol 3 Animate Bonus Card Store: Animate Synopsis: Katarina would like Keith to voice for her the love confession lines of a character in a novel. Translation: maboroshi-no

Translation below ⮟

Katarina: Aaah~This romance novel was so good~

I, Katarina Claes, muttered this while closing the book I had just finished. There was no hit-and-miss with my friend Sophia's book recommendations and this novel too was extremely good. The cross-class love between the noble son and the commoner girl was heartrending, and it was such a beautiful heart-throbbing story that I really got into it. Finding something I could get into was wonderful, but…  I stared at this novel only available in printed format and let out a little sigh.

As someone holding the memories of my past life as a Japanese otaku girl, I couldn't help thinking this whenever I encountered such good work: "I want to see the visual of this character", "I want to hear their lines for real". In my past life, whenever I went with my best friend Acchan to our frequent blue sign shop, we would always get excited. We would each buy different voice drama CDs and lend them to each other.

It would be great if I could get someone to read the noble son's lines with a nice voice.

The noble son was gentle and shy despite being popular with women. His love confession lines to the commoner girl were the best. As I was thinking this, I heard a knock on my door and my younger brother Keith entered.

Keith: Big Sister, I have received some sweets, do you want them?

After he had said this and entered my room, I could see Keith's image overlapping with the noble son I had read about earlier. Gentle and shy despite being popular, this was exactly my little brother in front of me! I immediately asked Keith.

Keith: Say, why do I have to read such a line?

I joined my hands and lowered my head to my hesitant little brother.

Katarina: Just a little! I want to hear it! Please, just a little bit!

Keith would fit the role. He already was a noble son given the role of the heroine's partner. I wanted to hear him say the lines so much. As I insistently asked him, Keith finally gave in and read the lines I specified.

Keith: "Just hearing your name makes my heart pound. It is the first time I have cherished someone so much."

The line and the voice were wonderful, but… the reading was so monotone. There was no emotion in it. I pointed this out and asked him to redo it, but Keith…

Keith: No way, I can't put that kind of emotion into it!

He said this with an embarrassed face and firmly refused to redo it.

Keith was even shyer than the noble son from the story.

Since Keith insisted he couldn't do it, I told him "It can't be helped then. I'll show you how this is done." While fixedly looking at him as if he were the heroine of the novel, I read the same line with plenty of emotions. It was a perfect performance if I said so myself.

But when I smugly puffed out my chest and looked at Keith, his face was for some reason bright red and he went out as if to run away.

After that, Keith never read lines for me again even when I asked him.

[theriverbeyond]

what series scratch the same "itch" as TLT for you? Recently finished the trilogy and feel empty and have found nothing to fill the void in my chest (lol) that TLT had in the weeks I was reading it. I have already experienced homestuck, when thhey cry, and most of the other "big names" of similar media. Any format works as long as its good. I like morally grey characters (Ianthe), well written female leads, character driven narratives and lesbians (in that order.

1. Princess Floralinda and the forty-flight tower (by Tamsyn Muir. excellent audio book narrated by Moira Quirk, same voice actor as TLT)

2. All of Tamsyn Muir's other novellas and short stories (The magician's apprentice, The house that did 16 loops of time, undercover, chew, the deepwater bride, etc)

Next up is entirely my personal and extremely picky and subjective preferences of brain zing, ranked in order of me remembering them

Chainsaw man manga (i read this 5x back to back when I first got into it in 2021. part 1 is complete, part 2 is still updating. part 1 can be experienced as a complete work. the anime is very good but the first episode is not as good as everything after it)

This is how we lose the time war book (feels sorta like fanfiction but the prose is gorgeous)

Interview with the vampire tv show (it's fun, it's camp, there are a lot of gay and bisexual people making really terrible decisions and being very hot)

Gurren Lagann anime (my favorite anime of all time. the women characters are not good, as is typical of many animes. the bathhouse episode can be skipped in its entierty without losing any plot. the overall story is really good and gives me that zing)

Arcane tv show (i watched this in full once and every since have just watched a caitvi + jinx whump clipshow but it did give me that zing. i do not care about the men)

Fullmetal alchemist manga or FMA brotherhood (really good and at this point a classic. royai is the queerplatonic campal blueprint i will not be taking critique at this time)

Revolutionary girl utena anime (watch the sub, do not watch the dub, the dub didn't make them gay. it's really good but heavy TWs and also it is paced like a 90's anime so: slow with a fair amount of filler, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences)

I have complicated feelings about Baru Cormerant and recommend reading up on content warnings if things like violent homophobia and very intimate portrayals of being a colonized subject are things that would upset you. It felt a little too personal to my life for me to like... think it was "fun" or whatever like it felt uncomfortably personal (and also subjectively I didn't super enjoy the pacing of the latter 2 books) but it did make me feel a lot of things and think a lot of thoughts. if the blurb sounds like something you are interested in then I recomend giving it a shot and then you can decide what you think of it yourself

Ancillary justice book (liked this one a lot, but havent felt motivated to read the sequel)

Other fun Studio Trigger animes such as Promare, Cyberpunk 2077, Kill la Kill

Nausicaa and the valley of the wind manga (the movie is good but the manga spanned 10 years, is gorgeously rendered, and goes MUCH more in depth especially wrt climate philosophy and such)

Slay the Princess video game (on steam but also I got into it just by watching letsplays online. It's really good and REALLY interesting, i love how it uses the visual novel format to its story advantage to pull of some incredibly cool story twists. Highly recomend!)

I feel like I am forgetting things that made my brain zing. My childhood special interest was CATS the musical (stage play and 1998 recorded production) and i definitely got brain zing from that but I don't think it has a lot of taste overlaps with tlt. this post really went off the rails but in my defense, it is after midnight

[cancan-jpg]

HENLO! currently very bored and sick in bed rn, so i thought i'd give everyone an update on the past semester i had at animation school as Proof of Life, since i've been so inactive on main lately hehe!

Spent this entire past semester working on Building A Guy, through four different assignments - design, modelling, texturing/surfacing, and rigging! Super excited to animate him next term!

Got re-elected to Student Council for the 2nd year in a row - i like to think i'm very good at it! :D

Entered a local game jam with some friends, wrote a (still unfinished, still buggy) visual novel, with the rest of my team on art and RenPy code dev, and we won a prize about it! Crazy for a first game!

Went to art galleries and saw selections of Silly Little Guys

Worked at ComicCon at our school's promotional booth! Spent basically a week rushing with friends between class, the con, the occasional evening student council event, home to sleep a few hours, before doing it all over the next day 😵‍💫 loved it though, an artist i hung out with at the con printed Doom Patrol stickers JUST for me since they weren't sure there'd be an audience 🥺 Met interesting folks there, also chased at least one rude karen-type out of our booth

Got really into co-op TTRPGs - my friends and i have board game nights sometimes, and our fave at the moment is a narrative survival Space Horror game called Nemesis! I'm also a Betrayal at the House on the Hill enjoyer, i'm basic <3

Currently lead writer/production designer in an animatic production team for our storyboard class - I can't reveal details publically in case the pitch makes its way into Graduation Film team selection for next year (in which case it'll be watchable one day! By you! But until then we'll sign NDAs for understandable reasons), but YOOOOO i'm hyped!!!! Excited to hopefully spill the beans one day 👀✨️

Ended the term with a bang before passing out with a cold RIGHT at the start of winter break (our winter is in June). Stuck in bed but catching up on media - i finished reading Legends & Lattes (very cute, very gay), watched Team Starkid's "Nerdy Prudes Must Die!" at a friend's recommendation, and borrowed another friend's copy of "The Hand, The Eye & The Heart", a transmasc Mulan retelling in a fantasy setting!

I think that's mostly everything new! Hope to draw for fun again while I'm still on break, and hopefully get around to posting some animations of my silly little guy!!!

[derekscorner]

Fated Rantings: Where to start Fate

A scary question, believe me I know.

I asked my own self this question over a year ago now after finding myself lured into the series through lore videos like a child being led by candy. I even started FGO just because it was a free way to begin the series.

Would I recommend that for everyone? No. Fate Grand Order (FGO) is a gacha game after all. Unless you have the patience to grind or cheese your battles like me you'll give in fast and I’d never recommend someone giving money to a gacha game.

Although, if you're already into Fate or just genuinely curious about FGO then I can confirm that it has some of the best written stories I've ever seen. I won't claim every singularity (arc) as a banger but there are some that are legitimately good.

I'd also recommend you be wary if you think that watching the FGO anime is enough. That's more of a companion piece to the gacha than a true adaption.

Where to actually begin

So with my warnings of FGO aside where is the best place to begin the Fate series? Where does the story begin and what is the latest entry?

Fair questions but don't let many fans fool you. There is no one starting point to the Fate series. The reason for this is a simple one;

Every Fate story is on it's own timeline

Nasu Kinoko the writer who created the original 'Fate/Stay Night' stated as much.

Now this doesn't mean that some of his works are "not canon". It's actually the opposite, "everything is canon".

Nasu's company, Type-Moon, got off the ground with his visual novels 'Tsukihime', 'Fate/Stay Night', 'Kara no Kyoukai', and 'Mahoyo' among others. With each of these novels have multiple endings to them.

What confuses so many is them lacking the knowledge that these novels and their various endings share a universe. Some event in one could be mentioned in another. For example, "the church" from Tsukihime is very much present in Fate. The magecraft you see used in Mahoyo is the same magic system and society that pops up in Fate and Tsukihime.

In essence, Nasu's stories are sharing the same world but taking place at various points in that world.

Fate Specific

If you're curious about Mahoyo or Tsukihime then I'd recommend the remakes on Steam or Switch. If you're just genuinely curious what a visual novel is I'll leave you to discover them. I brought these things up because they're related.

For the Fate series in particular it was important that I explain them because this universe of multiple endings are all canon to a degree.

The reason many of you will find Fate hard to get into is because several Fate anime are based on these specific story routes from the visual novels.

The "Fate Route" was adapted as the Fate 2006 anime.

Unlimited Blade Works was adapted from the route of the same name.

Heaven's Feel is another route from the novel.

All three of these big anime names are routes from the same visual novel 'Fate/Stay Night'. Each route, and thus each anime, focuses on a heroine that the lead Shirou Emiya falls in love with.

So each show isn't some reboot or relaunch of a series, they're adaptions of a different timeline of events.

It does not stop at 'Fate/Stay Night' either

As I said earlier, some events are shared between them because these stories share a world and some things happened in each. The characters are citing world events from their perspective. For example;

In many version of Fate the 1st to 4th Holy Grail War happened.

In every version of Fate the "Age of Gods" came and went.

In most Fate stories there is a Rin Tohsaka or a Shirou Emiya somewhere in the world even if they do not appear in the narrative.

In every Type-Moon story the "Clocktower" exists.

Dead Apostles and vampires exist in most Type-Moon stories.

This may seem silly to some of you but I have pointed it out because there will be someone see something said in a Fate story and be confused because it doesn't quite line up with a Fate work they've previously seen.

Or they'll see things stated that makes them think two Fate stories are intrinsically linked when they aren't. If you still find that confusing then allow me to show you the famous Fate/Zero.

Fate/Zero

Many are told to "start here" because Fate/Zero is a prequel to 'Fate/Stay Night' which isn't entirely true.

Yes, Saber will reference the 4th Grail War and her hazy memories of it. She even remembers Shirou's adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya.

But don't be fooled, that's where Nasu's statement comes in. He did not consider Fate/Zero canon to his novel.

However, that does not mean Saber is lying either. What this means is that the 4th war that Saber remembers in Fate Stay Night is a different conflict than what you see in Fate/Zero.

This is the best example of shared events not being the same per work. The anime of Fate/Zero is it's own timeline while the 4th war Saber mentions in the novel or anime adaptions was different.

We do not know what the exact differences are between Fate/Zero and the 4th Grail War Saber mentions in Fate/Stay Night but we know they existed.

Then you have stories in which the timeline diverted far earlier

These stories are much easier to dive into since their timelines diverged more drastically. In Fate 2006 or Heaven's Feel the point of divergence is the choice in love interest but for these stories the timeline diverges much earlier. For example;

Fate Grand Order actually takes place in a timeline in which there was only one Holy Grail War.

Fate Extra takes place in a world where there's a super computer lodged in the Moon that's been recording Earth's history for nearly 4 billion years.

In Fate Apocrypha there was only three Holy Grail Wars before someone managed to steal the Greater Grail during World War II.

Despite these three in particular being entirely removed from 'Fate/Stay Night's various routes they still fall back on the same world history. They just happen to diverge much earlier for various reasons.

This is relevant because they too will reference similar things but they're much easier to start with because their settings are more unique.

Though, you'll still will see Rin Tohsaka in Fate Extra. Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero also appears in many stories as his older self.

Actual Sequels or Prequels

Now before you have a heart attack with that sub title let me explain. Yes, I do still fully mean that each Fate story is essentially it's own thing.

However, I would be doing you a disservice if I did not warn you that a few have true sequels. I do not know every sequel across Type-Moons gallery of novels but I can warn you about Fate/Hollow Ataraxia.

Ataraxia is a true sequel to the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. You don't need to play it to enjoy the FSN novel or it's anime adaptions but do not mistake Ataraxia as a solo story. This is the one time I will give you that warning after my long post arguing otherwise.

Granted, I am not sure where'd you come across Hollow Ataraxia but just be warned. This visual novel is a true sequel to Fate/Stay Night.

As for the various anime that's been adapted over the years, as I've said, many are just adaptions of a particular story route from the novel.

That said, if you came to view the anime as it's own pocket universe I could see why. Heaven's Feel, the movies, will even flashback to Fate/Zero scenes.

The character Velvet Waver from Fate/Zero has his own novel series and animes based on those novels. What does this knowledge mean for you my dear reader?

Nothing. I can see why someone would think this way but that doesn't mean you need to heed it. If someone gives you an anime list to watch in a particular order then I'd argue it's fine to either take that advice or ignore it.

At best, watching Fate/Zero will help you appreciate the El Melloi series more but it's also not necessary.

What I am telling you is that it can confuse many but you can start with any anime you're able to get ahold of.

Conclusions

I'm afraid I may have confused many of you more than I helped but I bothered to explain all of that just to say one thing;

"you can start wherever"

And I truly mean that. No matter what some insistent person tells you any Fate work can be your first Fate story. Where you go from there will be up to you.

The only two warnings I will over is that Hollow/Ataraxia is a true sequel so definitely don't start there assuming you can even find it. Secondly, do not start the FGO anime because Babylonia does not adapt the full FGO story.

The FGO anime is worth watching but it won't supplement it's source.

Now then, hopefully I've convinced you to try something. I'd personally recommend you watch Fate/Zero or Apocrypha to feel out the series but you can't quite literally start near anywhere.

So enjoy and bye~

P.S. yes that last image is an official timeline. It's not actually needed but it's neat. :D

========================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

[blysse-and-blunder]

In lieu of a long weekend

sunday, may 19, 2024 ~ 11:30pm

technically tomorrow is a day off but the nice thing about grad school is that means essentially nothing for me, and tonight still feels like a sunday night—but it was a beautiful, mostly work-free weekend up until now

reading i forget now whether i mentioned this in my last ilcb, but last month i listened to the audiobook of jenn lyons’ the ruin of kings, which means that now it’s time for the sequel! started these huge fantasy epics on the recommendation of @booksmithereens, who has yet to steer me wrong—but i will say that upon first getting started, I didn’t especially follow (or care) all that much about most of the world building, especially since trok starts in with a lot of slavery and physical / sexual violence. upon second read-through, because i did go back with the ebook as soon as i finished listening to trok the first time, i think i was able to take more pleasure from the characters’ dialogue—there are very funny moments—and from the originality of certain features of the series’ take on deities and magic. i’m 28% through the audio book of the second novel, the name of all things, and i adore that we’ve got a new snarky editor leaving footnotes and editorializing comments, and that we have a new female pov character who really adds to the (intentionally) one-dimensional view of her we were given in the first one. these are good companion books for when i’m toiling in the hollow knight mines (have i explained how i have hacked boss fights for myself by turning off the game sound and instead relaxing, listening to an audiobook, and just getting to focus on the visuals—the flow state this induces can last for. hours. and has yet to get old), and they are another worthy entry in the dragons/magic/demons/swords/prophecy type fantasy canon.

watching finally finished (screaming, cringing, laughing, etc) season one of the white lotus with g and @hematiterings. all things considered, an easier ending than i feared, weirdly? i lost count of full-body cringe reactions (from sheer gut-churning dialogue, not the way kids use ‘cringe’ these days) at like 10, and then we started season two (which we’ve all seen the first few episodes of) and the counter had to start over at the beginning. still fun though. still fun.

also watched the first three-four episodes of dungeon meshi! which i thought were excellent, but i now have just enough context to be really actually affected by casual spoilers, so i may have to blacklist it here on the blue hellsite for now, and watched episode 4 of house of the dragon this evening whilst folding my laundry. i am holding out for when this show introduces the new lead actresses because I have seen their interview in gifs going around and i would like to see it. so far though, i’m distressed by the politics and bored by the action, as is to be expected from a game of thrones show.

listening hmmm chappelle roan Hot to Go has been stuck in my head for a while now so let’s go with that. initially I thought the lyrics to most of her new album really didn’t live up to pink ping club (see my 2021?2? Ilcb where i went on at *length* about how good that song is) but you know what, we’re capable of admitting when we’re wrong and this is one of those times. H! O! T! T! O! G-O!

playing i got the sharp shadow charm in hollow knight today! Nosk and the enraged guardian have been kicking my ass by turns. i had so much geo I had been carefully carrying around and reclaiming every time i died because millibelle had her career pivot and closed my account 😝 and i finally lost it today. Alas. but since there was nothing i could buy at any of the three vendors i visited, it was all going to end up in the fountain anyway.

making this was a little while ago now, but i finally did it, i made a recipe following a b. dylan hollis video! the coffee loaf from 1959– surprisingly, i had all of the ingredients on hand (including powdered milk?!) and i was so excited by this that I didn’t stop to ask whether i *should* make this caffeinated baked good. recipe worked well, the consistency was great and all, but a single square inch of it and i feel like i’ve single-handedly drunk a pot of strong coffee. this is a me problem, i’ll grant you, but it is amusing to me that i’ve made a cake I physically cannot eat too much of in a single sitting. it is drying out in the fridge as we speak. heart palpitations aside, i am proud of it though.

working on it occurred to me today to look back at the timeline i made for myself at the beginning of the month, and i’m four days past the first deadline on it without having even really touched the chapter itself. blargh. sent two emails yesterday, and two that had been worrying me the day before, and worked a bit on the newsletter today. chipping away at things.

[spareparts-vn]

me and a friend have been playing through spare parts together, and we really adore it! im curious if you have any other favorite visual novels, or ones that you can recommend - i feel like i see a lot of higurashi inspiration, but that might just be because ive played it recently!

thank you!

thank you! i've definitely taken a lot from all of ryukishi's works. i probably wouldn't be making a vn if it weren't for umineko.

the flowers series is really great. the first volume is maybe a little awkward in some ways, but after that it immediately hits its stride and keeps going. lots of messy nuanced relationships and feelings, fun dynamics btwn characters, and some moments that punched me in the stomach very hard (emotionally).

mamiya has a lot of great stuff in it. i like how it's structured and how it lets you see different sides of all its characters, where they struggle and where they have the strength to support others. my only caveat is that there's some trans stuff that has some substance but spills into eye-rolly imo

the house in fata morgana is an easy recommendation. kindred spirits on the roof is a classic. i'm the resident danganronpa v3 defender but that's a whole can of worms. i can never remember everything i've read so there's a lot others i'm sure but that's what comes to mind. i've been so busy i haven't found the time to read much this past year but i want to do some catching up soon.

also when i went to grab the link for mamiya i saw that the followup dlc for that finally released a few months ago and i didn't hear about it so now i need to make time to read that!!!!! aaahhh!!!!!!!!!

[enteragoodnamehere]

omg you got so far in corru already... how're you likin the game ?

it’s really really good so far!!! I went in completely blind and I was a little confused at first but all the worldbuilding/terms/“lore” stuff is explained so nicely and comprehensively. I’m a big fan of speculative biology and similar worldbuilding in video games (*gestures at rain world and even maybe ultrakill*) and I especially love how corru approaches it!! im so glad it has a lot of info on how quo society/ecology/technology works it’s so cool and it scratches a particular itch in my brain <3

also it’s just a super fun game?? It’s just the right mix of visual novel with point and click adventure with puzzle with rpg to be super entertaining to be like the perfect game for me! im not a big fan of combat but I don’t actually mind the “combat” portions in corru! (although I did have to turn on the skip combat thing for the last two bosses in golem maintenance lmao, I just could not get past them by myself </3)

overall it’s probably the most invested I’ve been in a piece of media since I listened to the magnus archives for the first time, and since that’s stuck around in my head for as long as it has I imagine corru probably will too!! 10/10 very good highly recommend but do take in mind the epilepsy/motion sickness warnings

(edit: actually adding a link to the game too lol sorry im on mobile rn)

[arcann]

related: i finished tavern talk.

i went in with the idea that it wasn't for me because i'm not too into pure and raw dnd but i liked the art style a lot. i didn't vibe with some of the important characters but most of them have their unique charm and turn out to be endearing.

the innkeeper, the character you inhabit is on this ambigious state where they have a set past and relationships and only pick the result of each mission depending on what drinks they prepare. i didn't like it at first since you discover that this isn't your character as you progress but it serves the story and the twist is nice so i changed my mind.

the music is reaaally nice.

kinda sucks that A Lot of the worldbuilding seems to be placed apart in a lorebook dlc and you only get a bit of it inside the game. dragon age type of antics.

there are multiple endings and i accidentally got the best ending. don't know how i feel that there are good and bad results for each mission (it seemed to me like there were just different paths to solve a problem at first) but i guess it works in favor of replayability. may repeat it but mostly for achievement hunting and repeating one (1) scene.

I'd recommend it, it's a neat visual novel.

[6okuto]

HI THIS IS THE ANON WHO SAID SHE LOVED UR POST AND i just realised u also write for cove holden ilysm do u have any romance visual novel recs?? so far i've only done cove's one & two demo ones (a celtic mythology one whose name i cannot remember & touchstarved the loml)

have the bestest day and thNk u

was the celtic one the good people (na daoine maithe) because i played that one too 👩🏻‍💻🫶 RLLY GOOD in typical nia fashion when my Type type isn't there i'm going 4 keagan and flannan

i saw u say error 143 in ur other ask UR REAL!!! ofc i must recommend blooming panic if u haven't played. xyx and toasty r genuinely just. Funny. i rlly liked toasty's va they did a great job. FIRST TIME I HEARD HIS LAUGH I WAS LIKE WOAH. i rlly liked how nightowl's route went w. Anger. u don't see it a lot and i appreciate it i was like WOWWW? AT ME? he's real. robo has answered a Lot of asks on tumblr so u can get loads of content after u finish!

https://gbpatch.itch.io/our-life-nf ... :) No words. Demo. i will build the audience for the 2nd game myself.

DEMO obscura is also vry good,, i haven't played in a Long time but i keep up w reading tumblr asks abt the LIs LOL. love the art and vibes. he isn't my type but iirc cirrus offers a rlly interesting dark romance route + aftercare/safe word system :)

DEMO online @ the perfect time is just,, i love the vibes and concept so far I LOVE WHEN CHARAS R FUNNY. HAVE MY HUMOR. rlly excited to see where it goes it's quite short so far BUT I WANT PPL TO PAY ATTENTION 4 THE FUTURE. PLEASE!

cryptid coffeehouse IS SOOO CUTE I LOVE ARTEMIS ☹️☹️ queer slowburn coffee shop romance BE SERIOUS no one fucking TALKS ABOUT MY ARTEMIS. WHY. so so many cute moments i was kicking my feet and giggling like WOWW

3 seasons is also VRY vry cute i don't usually play games w an mc visual but ivy is so pretty so IDC!!! u can play all the routes pretty easily they're all lovely like... it isn't super often i come out liking all the LIs pretty much on the same lvl. mamma mia!

....the persona 5 vn. IMCRYING I'm so fucking serious like. the characterization is REAL it's super well made. i'd like to say u could enjoy without playing p5 but um. probably not to the full extent. i played out of principle as a p5 enjoyer and for goro bc he's one of summer's fav charas ever and his route was so awesome actually. Epic Major Spoilers obvi. akira slayed also (my good ending completionist side..☹️)i won't say much abt him bc i'll ramble on and on but summer after finding out i had a crush on him yrs ago was like Yeah that makes a lot of sense he is so loz link.. like man

$30 gilded shadows (free demo) which i need to play again I WAS SUPPOSED TO FINISH ARI'S ROUTE MONTHS AGO rika said he was so my type and i trust them fundamentally. caissa my beloved. like the world building + charas it's just,, well done y'know

$12 when the night comes haven't played but rika rlly likes it so i'm putting it here anyways. LOL

NOT VNs. they are IFs...like there's Literally no visuals. read in browser. but i stand by the night market (1st book finished!) which i've rb'ed a bit + speaker . both fantasy,, love both casts i love everything they're doing i'm genuinely so so excited to see where they go!!! PLEASE!!!

YANDERE DEMOS separated for if they aren't ur thing which is obvi Valid. i erm. went down a bit of a rabbit hole. pls read their warnings! always read game warnings. but like. ok anyways

DEMO 14 days with you yeah. ren. i like when mc notes that smth is Off abt him. lots of asks answered on the tumblr! I can fix him.

DEMO something's wrong with sunny day jack jesus Christ . some of the best vn va work i have ever come across like Genuinely wtf. and the concept is rlly cool. was put off for a long time bc of.. jack's appearance.. sowwy. but wow it is just. really well done.

bitter/sweet blythe orange masc blythe va ?? did such a good job?? like srsly what. sorry wow that's the main thing i just rlly wanted to applaud them a bit. also I LOVE THE PARTIAL OST??? i want it so bad i was humming it for a couple hours after like

DEMO our dollhouse I'm so serious when i say i didn't realize it was for yanjam so when i came to my own realization of Oh Shit He's Sus and checked i was like FUCKCKDJ 😭😭 OBVIOUSLY... but srsly love the art and i'm excited to see how mc figures it out and what happens. did a good job at making a pretty Understandably oblivious(??) mc. like yeah i can see why u wouldn't expect him.

DEMO favor Z Intrigues Me. had to try so hard for the secret ending but now i am more intrigued like OKAYYY WHAT HAPPENED BROTHER 🤨 i like the tail animation also. also when u say u like possession horrors woah hey. hey. pal

[mitchipedia]

“The Hucksters:” A sitthroughable 1947 romcom and satire starring Clark Gable

Clark Gable is a veteran returning home from World War II eager to resume his pre-war lifestyle as a playboy ad-man, but ultimately finding the life empty and unsatisfying. He takes a high-paying job at an ad agency, in the course of which he meets beautiful war widow Deborah Kerr, which causes him to change his values.

The movie was ok, but not actually good. Plenty of close-ups of Gable’s face, which reminded me that he was actually a homely man, with big fleshy lips and bad teeth. He was often on the phone with Deborah Kerr’s character, and it was unsettling to see close-ups of his lips doing air kisses.

On the other hand, I can also see why he was a huge sex symbol. He had charisma.

Deborah Kerr’s character was a blank cipher, an empty receptacle for Victorian views of chastity and virtue. She had no discernible personality, ambitions or thoughts other than attaching herself to Clark Gable. Gable and Kerr had zero chemistry together.

Clark Gable’s character was also pursued by an ambitious lounge singer played by Ava Gardner, the only really interesting character in the film. In addition to being smokin’ hot (on account of being Ava Gardner), she was also funny, smart and charming, and made it very clear that the main character could have her anywhere and at any time, for a quickie, lifetime commitment, or anything in between.

Clark Gable’s character, of course, rejects Ava Gardner in favor of Deborah Kerr. Because Ava Gardner’s character was a Bad Girl I guess.

The movie features a hell of a cast doing great work despite a lackluster script and story: Sydney Greenstreet as an evil soap company magnate, Adolphe Menjou as Clark Gable’s unscrupulous boss, Keenan Wynn as a talentless, shameless comedian who’s desperate for work, and more. Truly, the entire cast was great—not a dud in the lot—they just didn’t have much to work with.

And the movie has great midcentury design, direction, and dialogue. It’s visually very nice, except for too many close-ups of Clark Gable.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I can’t say I’d recommend it.

According to Wikipedia, the movie was adapted from a best-selling novel, which was considered raunchy and racy in its day. Even Gable said it was “filthy” and “isn’t entertainment.” The story was toned down for the movie—as far as I can see, they removed nearly all the spice from it and made it bland and uninteresting.

One storyline involves a fictional talent agent named “David Lash,” played by Edward Arnold. In the novel, he was based on a real agent of the time, Jules Stein, founder of MCA, but the filmmakers were afraid of Stein, so they had characters repeat several times that Lash is an honest man.

In a pivotal scene in the movie, Clark Gable’s character threatens to spread gossip about Lash that will cause people to think Lash is dishonest. Lash is portrayed as heartbroken, not for himself, but because he got in trouble when he was young, went straight and succeeded, and he fears besmirching the reputations of all troubled kids. Gable’s character is disgusted with himself afterward.

It’s an odd scene that doesn’t really work.

But in the book, Lash is presented as Jewish, and Clark Gable’s character threatens to fan the flames of anti-Semitism, which would have been a more powerful scene if the filmmakers had gone through with it.

Also this:

As the start of production neared, Ava Gardner grew nervous about appearing with Gable, an actor she had idolized since childhood. [Producer Arthur Hornblow Jr.] asked Gable to call her, and he told her: “I’m supposed to talk you into doing this thing. But I’m not going to. I hated it when they did that to me. But I hope you change your mind, kid, I think it would be fun to work together.” The two remained friends for the rest of Gable’s life.

Gable also sought to make a nervous Kerr feel relaxed when shooting commenced. He sent her six dozen roses on the first day, and “the two hit it off beautifully from the beginning, on and off the set.”

I don’t know anything about Gable but he sounds like a true gentleman.

[kitsaystransrights]

Okay I’m starting a new series on here called “I just finished this game” where I gush about a game I just finished.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of musicals, visual novels, or Greek mythology, you NEED to play Stray Gods.

If you haven’t heard of it before, Stray Gods is a visual novel with branching story routes, but it has the twist of also being a musical! Many of the game’s major choices take place in the songs themselves, and the songs will actually changed based on your decisions! Each song has numerous different permutations based on around 3-5 choices in each one. I recommend checking out Challenging a Queen, one of the early game songs that’s relatively light on spoilers, to see how some of the choices really add some spice to the game and weave through the songs.

The game’s story just follows Grace, a 20-something girl who witnesses the death of Calliope, the Last Muse, and to make matters worse, she has inherited her powers and role. The Chorus, leaders of the remaining Greek gods (known as Idols), give Grace one week to prove her innocence before she is executed, and the line of Calliope is gone forever.

Accompanying her on this journey are a variety of gods, monsters, and her mortal (strictly platonic… strictly) roommate, Freddie. The cast of Stray Gods is easily its best aspect, full of lovable and complex characters, leaving you laughing a lot, sobbing sometimes, and sometimes not knowing who to trust. And when it’s backed up by a fantastic voice cast, and nearly every character getting their own song if not multiple, I’d be astounded if you managed to get through the game without getting attached to SOMEONE lol.

(For the record, my favorite characters are Freddie, Persephone, and Aphrodite hehe)

And of course, what’s a musical without its music? The soundtrack of Stray Gods is absolutely incredible, even beyond the incredible amount of work and dedication it took to integrate so many variations of all the songs in the game. Lots of variety with the genre, sometimes even changing in the middle of a song! If I haaad to pick a few favorites, I suppose it’d be The Ritual, Look Into Me, and If Only. I’m a sucker for the emotional songs, but Look Into Me is suuuuuch a banger, it feels so threatening and I LOVE it.

OKAY now I’m gonna gush about my favorite parts of the story and get all spoilery so if you don’t want to be spoiled, DON’T KEEP READING! Go play the game yourself! Iirc it’s on all current platforms. Enjoy :)

So HOLY SHIT APHRODITE’S SONG HIT ME LIKE A BRICK??? I love the moral dilemma her whole cycle of rebirth puts you in, deciding whether to honor her wishes and let her die again or to convince her to find peace in life rather than trying to forget. I tried SO HARD to save her without forcing her and she ended up passing on anyways.

Persephone’s character is also SOOOO well done here, the reinterpretation of her story where she kills Hades is a fantastic direction to take her character. She ended up being my main investigative partner for the game and I did NOT regret it. I almost ended up romancing her, and I definitely will on my next playthrough, but I didn’t this time because of…

Freddie!!! Freddie absolutely rules and is my favorite character in the whole game. Mortal Greek mythology nerd who is super gay and wears a cool hat, how could I NOT love her??? My heart was completely torn to shreds when she died, and even though I knew she had to be able to come back somehow because you could romance her, the fury it raised in me made me blaze through the last four hours of the game and finish it in one sitting XD.

And JEEZ the way they let you bring her back is so well done. It’s not outright good or bad, it’s complex! Freddie and Grace are both traumatized by her death and resurrection, and the fact that you went against Freddie’s wishes and passed the line of Calliope onto her just makes it even more interesting from a storytelling perspective. It’s part of what makes If Only one of my favorite songs in the game. And of course, I’m a sucker for stories of unrequited love like Freddie’s is for Grace and now I’m gonna feel so guilty romancing anyone else 😭. Freddie is so relatable istg.

Anyways uuuuuh that’s all I have to say, maybe I’ll do a full review on my YouTube? Thanks for checking this post out tho! Okay bye :)