#that other characters could then complicate/challenge etc

[sketching-shark]

Unfortunately for plot-related convenience MK has been retconned into a fake fan (;_;)

I'm sorry but lmk not being clear on what MK knows about monkey king is sooo frustrating. He's some how his biggest fan who knows so much until the story requires him to have never known anything and it's like... why did you set him up as a monkey king fan it then just decide "actually he doesn't know shit" bro grew up to adulthood hearing stories and somehow knows Jack shit about the guy he supposedly fanboys over.

[byunpum]

Safe heaven | Part 4 (final)

Pair: Neteyam x Human!reader (sully family, others na'vi)

Warning: cultural things ,comfort moments, plot twist(sorry), All characters are adults.

AVATAR MASTERLIST | Ko-fi

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4[final]

It had been a week since mo'at had proposed, a week since neteyam had decided to sleep with her grandmother and a week since you had accepted mo'at's proposal. Something that was not easy for you, knowing that you had to present yourself to eywa and that she could not accept you was something that was making you more nervous. You had been with mo'at all morning, she was preparing everything for the ritual, there were only a few hours left for the whole process to start. You felt the nerves start to take control of your body, your hands were shaking a little. As you handed Mo'at some herbs. Mo'at notices these actions, and takes your hand to give it a squeeze. Smiling a little at you. "You need to relax," mo'at says. "I know…but if she doesn't accept me?" you ask, you know that eywa's acceptance was something important to every creature in pandora. "She will do it…I'm sure of it. Then you and neteyam can unite as a mate. And no one will be able to object" mo'at chuckled a little.

She had to admit that she felt bad for not standing by her daughter, neytiri. She was supposed to support her as a mother, but this situation was something she would not support. Seeing her daughter try to put her grandson together with someone he didn't love was something she would not accept. Every being should have the freedom to love whomever they want. Besides, Mo'at loved you very much, she had cared for you so much through all these years. Her greatest wish was for you to be part of her family, of her people. And now that everything was happening…she was going to help you. "Yes… neteyam is everything to me" you speak. "I know" mo'at goes back to work. There was a pause in the conversation, mo'at looked back at you and now you were looking at your feet lost in thought. "I know you are worried about neytiri…but you have to give her space" mo'at says.

"I don't want neteyam to be away from his family because of me, I don't want to be the cause of that" you speak, mo'at could hear the worry in your voice. Somehow this was your insecurity. She comes to your side, wrapping her arms around you so that you lay on her chest. She used to do this a lot when you were little, and apparently things haven't changed much. "Y/N neteyam's choice is made…he chose you. You don't have to worry" mo'at squeezes you tighter. "Besides you should be relaxed, you know you haven't eaten anything since yesterday. I don't want anything to happen to you" mo'at speaks. And yes… the whole process of the initiation ritual was complicated. You remember when neteyam had to do it when you were the perfect age. All na'vi must go through this process. It consisted of fasting for 24 hours, meditating and then a ceremony with a certain group of people. They would present you to eywa, connecting and uniting you with her to be one of her children. Not counting the challenges you had to go through before, like being a productive na'vi. Being accepted into the clan etc. Then the Tsahìk, of the clan, would evaluate if you were worthy to present yourself to eywa. Of course…mo'at was ignoring the fact that neyitiri hate you and that you were human. She was taking a risk.

On the other hand, neteyam had worked all week naturally. Doing his daily chores, meeting his siblings and his father. As if nothing had happened, but he still had no contact with his mother. This worried him, but he wasn't giving it any attention. You were his priority right now. He was even ignoring Leeka's strange approaches to him, he knew that the girl was following her mother's instructions. Ignoring and refusing to let her approach him. Neteyam had already made his choice and was not about to change his mind. This particular day, neteyam was helping her father with the daily hunts, barely looking at him, trying to talk about anything but what was going on with her mother. "Dad…are you going to the y/n ceremony?" nateyam asks his father. Jake drops the piece of meat he was cutting, to look at his son. "Sure…you know I'm supportive," jake says, pausing. The most Jake wanted was for neytiri and neteyam to get back to the relationship they had before. This was not good for the family, they were supposed to be a close family and this was tearing them apart. Jake was aware that y/n was not to blame for this problem, maybe she was at the center of the argument. But the fault was that neytiri didn't want to understand that neteyam was already an adult…and that he chose what he wanted for his life. "Teyam… you need to talk to your mother," speaks Jake. Neteyam makes a grumbling noise. "I'm not going to go talk to her…let her come talk to me. She's the one with the problem…not me. I don't want to talk about it," Neteyam says, focusing on his work. Of course this was affecting him, for Neteyam his mother was important, but he was tired.

After being with his father all day, the afternoon came quickly. Cleaning up and getting everything ready. Half of the hunting this day was going to be for the small celebration they would have for your initiation. Neteyam said goodbye to his father, agreeing to meet later in the evening. Cleaning up to go to the mo'at hut, it was now his turn to help you. Neteyam arrived at his grandmother's hut, entering carefully. Seeing how mo'at was braiding your hair, approaching the women. By now he is kneeling in front of you. "Hello!!!" you greet him, watching as neteyam takes your hand for a quick kiss on your palm. "Hi baby, are you ready?" asks neteyam, seeing you giggle nervously. "Everything is ready…I need you to do the final decorating touches." Mo'at speaks, watching as neteyam climbs up. Neteyam was your host…so he was in charge of preparing you for the ceremony. After a while, and mo'at finished your hairstyle. And you and Neteyam left the hut, to go to where he was going to help you prepare.

Neteyam took you to this place, where few na'vis passed by. A quiet place to coexist. Surrounded by rocks and moss. It was cold and cozy at the same time. Neteyam had carefully chosen the clothes you would wear, being your mentor he had to choose all the details of the ceremony. Sitting in front of you, his hands were filled with a white ink. As he traced lines across your skin, from the tips of your hands to your neck. Drawing circles and a few dots with the paint on your skin. The paint felt cold, and wet on your skin, but you were so focused on neteyam's gaze. He was very focused on his work, touching you gently. While humming some chants. Every part of your body was being gently touched by his hands, with a love and delicacy. "I am so proud of you…thank you for doing this" says neteyam, starting to draw line on your forehead up to your neck. They were small lines, accompanied by a simple design.

"thank you for accepting me as I am" you speak, watching as neteyam's face breaks into a smile. As his index finger slides from your forehead to your nose, reaching your lips. Stopping for a moment, to make eye contact with you. He wanted so badly to have you for himself, to have you as his mate. "I love you" says neteyam, feeling you now holding his wrist. Giving his finger a little kiss. You watch as neteyam laughs, flashing a big smile. It's been a long time since you've seen him laugh like that. He looked so happy and comfortable right now. "Soon…we will be together, and we will have our home" neteyam starts talking. "O…how would you like our home to be?" neteyam was getting distracted talking, not noticing that you had gotten up on your knees, to move towards him. Taking his face in your hands to give him a kiss, pressing hard on his lips. Instinctively neteyam wraps his hands around your waist, pulling you closer to him. While you wrap your arms around his neck.

"Ehh none of that…until after the ceremony" mo'at shouts, moving closer to you. You break away a little embarrassed, but began to laugh as did mo'at. He might be going through some trouble, but this moment was supposed to be one of happiness. And mo'at was in charge of this. She came over to you, kneeling beside you. Adjusting a few pieces of your ornaments that covered your chest. Arranging some beads in your hair. "Are you ready?" asks mo'at. You nod enthusiastically, you wanted all this to happen, the nerves were eating you alive. "Let's go" says neteyam getting up from the floor, taking your hand to follow him.

In the ceremony there were all the people who wanted and needed for this. Jake, kiri, lo'ak, spider, norm, max, tsu'tey etc. They all cared…they all wanted to be a part of it. Mo'at had gone ahead and stood in front of the spirit tree. Raising his hands, chanting. Setting the whole mood. Neteyam was holding your hand, but I could see that his gaze was lost in the small crowd in front of you. He was looking for his mother, he wanted to make things right with her, but she was not able to accept you. Mo'at walks up to you, taking your hands to pull you closer to her. "'y/n…once you join, you will be one of us. And we will be one" Mo'at speaks. Mo'at helps you lie down on that kind of giant log that was in front of her. You are speechless when you can see the tentacles of the tree around you, glowing brightly.

You focus on mo'at's gaze, she places a hand on your forehead. "Honey…close your eyes and good luck." says mo'at, you obey and close your eyes. Taking a deep breath as you felt some stuff go up your hands, feet, back and head. It didn't hurt, it didn't even tingle. You just felt like they were there, telling yourself that everything would be okay. You stop hearing the mo'at chanting and everything goes white.

Out of nowhere you were sitting in a room, much like a laboratory. You look around examining your space, but just as you look to your right side you can see a woman. You didn't know how to describe her, something about her wouldn't let you memorize her…you could only feel her presence. "You've come so far honey" you could recognize that voice, for some reason your subconscious recognized it. "I…" you try to speak, but feel her take your hand. And you could feel all her energy running through your body. "You must not feel alone my child… every being pure of heart, will be my child. Regardless of their descent" says the presence. While you felt all its energy envelop you in a warm embrace. "Welcome" was the last thing you heard when you suddenly opened your eyes.

The gazes of neteyam, mo'at and norm were above you. Looking at you with concern, about 15 minutes had passed, which for you felt like seconds. You had been breathing heavily and your forehead was sweating. Norm had become concerned and even mo'at. This is the first time a human has ever tried to bond with eywa, in his human form. But the worry on his face disappeared, as tears of joy began to flow from your eyes. "She has welcomed me" you speak with a tearful voice, as you see the happy smiles of your new family. You stand up a little, and hug neteyam by the neck. You could hear the shouts of happiness and celebration. "Welcome to the clan" mo'at approaches you and hands you a songcord. Your eyes widen. Mo'at takes neteyam's hand and joins it with the tupara wrapping the amulet. "I hope you can write your new life here… just with the one you love," mo'at says, pulling you close to give you a kiss on your forehead. While wiping the tears from your eyes.

Little by little everyone present approached you. To welcome you, hugging you and accepting you as one of them. You felt a little strange, the feeling was something new, but you felt like you. At all times, neteyam had not let go of your hand, let alone move away from you. At last he had you by his side, at last… he could be with you. And no one could tell him anything, no one. For a moment, Neteyam can see the figure of Neytiri at a distance. You watch as neteyam is looking off into the distance, and you see the woman. You pinch his shoulder so that he goes to talk to his mother. The last thing you wanted was for him to miss an opportunity like this. Neteyam gives you a quick glance, and sees you nod at him to go. You can see him sigh nervously and start walking towards his mother.

Neteyam needed his mother to accept him, for her to be apart of this. "Hello" neteyam says, looking at his mother. Neytiri had her arms crossed and looked a little sorry. "I want to apologize to you…I know sometimes I can be stubborn and I" neytiri starts with her speech, but suddenly sees and feels neteyam hugging her tightly. Without hesitation, she hugs him back. "Mom…I just wanted that. Just this," says neteyam. He hears neytiri laugh, and hugs him tighter. In the distance you were watching the whole scene, jake was next to you. You had already settled down and sat on the floor, waiting for Neteyam to make up with his mother. "Do you think she'll ever talk to me?" you ask, watching as jake laughs. The laugh was something to himself, and hesitantly. "I don't know…but don't worry. Neytiri is a loving woman, she's just a little overprotective of her children. But she will accept you" says Jake. "Mmm I hope so" you speak, turning your attention back to neytiri.

Neytiri turns away from neteyam, taking her son's face in her hands. "Tell Y/N that I welcome him to the clan" says neytiri. "Don't you want to come?" asks neteyam, but he sees how his mother answers him with a denial movement, it was still too early to take that step, but he respected it. After all, it was a big step for her to be here. "Thank you mom" says neteyam, watching as neytiri smiles and begins her walk back to her hut. Neteyam stands there thoughtfully for a moment, only to turn around and watch as you were giving him a thumbs up. You were so happy, that this was happening.

After a long celebration, which had been prepared in the common area of the omaticayas. Where there was music, drink, and food hunted by themselves. After dancing and celebrating your joining the clan. Neteyam was desperate to be alone with you, so when you finally leave kiri and were looking for a drink, you see how neteyam approaches you playfully and takes you by the hand dragging you with him, towards the depth of the jungle. "Where are we going, eh?" you say playfully, neteyam just laughs and continues to guide you. You were both giggling, you were already recognizing the path…it was the one to the spitirus tree. You both approached the tree, entering more into its luminous branches. You were already trying to find a place to sit down, but you could feel neteyam standing behind you.

He had already sat down on the ground, taking your hips to guide them into his lap. Forcing you to sit between his legs, as he wrapped you in an embrace. Giving you a quick kiss on your cheek. "Finally…we can be together" neteyam says, he was speaking softly as he cradled you in his arms. You close your eyes, letting yourself be carried away by the moment…just because. This was a moment you would have loved to live with Neteyam. "Together forever" you speak, looking up. To see neteyam's confused face. "Sure, why not?" says neteyam, laughing nervously. "Yeah, why not. Just ignore what I said" you speak, as you settle further into his arms. "I love you so much y/n…I love you" neteyam says, kissing your neck, and breathing in your scent. He just wanted to stay there forever. "I will always be by your side, always."

"Hey y/n, can you hear me?" "Y/n?"

*fingers snap*

You open your eyes suddenly, to find lo'ak standing in front of you. He had a small smile on his face, he could see some tears running down your cheeks. He wipes them away carefully and sits down next to you. "Still not telling him?" asks lo'ak, watching as you remove your hand from the water and release one of the tentacles that rubbed the surface of the metkayina clan's spirit tree. For some reason, a very strange one. You were able to connect to the spirit tree, you thanked eywa for allowing you to join. You were thankful that there were many rocks there, where you could go and sit. "I don't have the courage to do it" you speak, wrapping your feet to your chest. "Yes you are right" says lo'ak, keeping silent. "Hey, how about we go for a ride?" lo'ak wanted to cheer you up, he knew these were very strong for you. And for him too…he missed his brother a lot. "Sure…I could use a good distraction" you say, accompanying lo'ak, but without looking back at the spirit tree.

It was the sixth anniversary of neteyam's death, six years since he left. 6 years since he promised to be by your side. He still doesn't know… he still keeps his promise and you like to create this scenario with him where you could finally be together and create your own safe heave.

p.s Forgive me… but it's been ages since I've done something sad. ahhhhhhh

Taglist <3 : @cardi-bre91 @klowicherry @smolbeanzzz

[ranchstoryblog]

Ranch Story Community Q&A Volume 3: Igusa Matsuyama Returns!

Igusa Matsuyama, the legendary artist behind the Story of Seasons series since the original 1996 game has once again agreed to a Q&A featuring questions from fans from around the world! A big thank you to all the members of the community who helped make this possible.

Some aspects of the text have been altered to match localization people are familiar with. (Japanese names to English names, for example: Bokujou Monogatari (牧場物語) was formerly localized as Harvest Moon and is now localized as Story of Seasons, etc). Images were not part of the original text and have been added as a visual aid. Though we translated as many questions as we could, we did not include questions involving personal information or regarding unannounced releases. Please understand.

If you would like to read our original correspondence (in Japanese), that will be provided in a separate post.

Additional cosplay photo provided by Foxface from our community Discord.

Translations: @artycharmy (correspondence, outline) Editing and Clean-up: Jerome, @artycharmy, and @regularcelery

——— Anonymous asks: What is the relationship between Jamie and the Harvest Goddess?

Igusa Matsuyama: Jamie was treated as a fairy or spirit. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if there's any points that link them and the Goddess.

Editor's note: the term Matsuyama uses is "妖精."

Tomato asks: I would like to ask about what their inspiration was for the outfits designs in the original release of harvest moon another wonderful life. Since I got reminded of the girl clothing brand Mezzo Piano when looking at the I love Kuma/I love bears outfit.

Igusa Matsuyama: I remember the only thing I thought of was using Spring-like colours! (All designs were made with seasonal colours In mind) When I knew that Daachan, who was planned to be used in a lot of events, wouldn't actually play a big role in the game, I put him on the T-Shirt so he could at least get some attention as a mascot-like existence.

Pansy asks: If you were able to create your own game for the Story of Seasons franchise, with no rules or limitations whatsoever, what do you think it might look like?

Igusa Mastuyama: Since I love dogs, I'd like to try making a Story of Seasons that's set in a world just full of dogs. Though that dream of mine probably won't come true.

Anonymous asks: The look of Story of Seasons has changed a lot over the years! What would you say is more challenging to create - simple designs, where you have to work with very little space, or complicated designs, where you have to consider many little details?

Igusa Matsuyama: A long time ago there were a lot of things you weren't able to replicate in video games. There were constraints for things like the number of colours and patterns for hair styles and clothes. It was difficult to work around those constraints, but at the same time a lot of fun. Nowadays, it's the complete opposite. Now we can design anything with hardly any constraints. And unlike a long time ago, now I'm asked to make more complicated designs, like patterns and decorations. However, if it's a big request, sometimes I run into quite a lot of trouble when designing. They each have had their own difficulties.

Anonymous asks: Hello, Matsuyama! Thank you for bringing the worlds of Bokujou Monogatari to life for many years. Your art has had a huge influence on me!

One of my favorite candidates is “Rock” from “A Wonderful Life.” I’d love to know any particular influences for his character design from 21 years ago, and his new design for the remake.

Igusa Matsuyama: I was told that he was a young, wannabe playboy, so I somehow ended up with that sort of design. For the remake, I made his clothes a little looser without changing his design, so he'd look even more playful. I, too, wanted to avoid changing him as much as I could as there are other people among the staff that also like the original for his “Rockness”. So, he got that makeover after everybody shared and checked their opinions with each other.

Jerome asks: On page 130 of the "Special Comic" manga there's artwork of Super Famicom characters that have never been printed anywhere else. Do you or Marvelous still have these? It would be great to see them in more detail in the future some time.

Igusa Matsuyama: They're all characters that appeared in the SNES version of "Harvest Moon." Nina's parents, Ellen's mother, Ann's father, Maria's parents (The mayor couple). I'm sorry. My SNES illustrations have gone missing...

Raven Bloom, Ryan, and Moth ask: How did you feel when your designs for the men in A Wonderful Life were repurposed to be bachelors? What do you think of the changes made to the bachelors in the remake of A Wonderful Life? I miss the “Bruce Campbell” look Matthew used to have.

Igusa Matsuyama: Matthew (マシュー) is Masshu (マッシュ) in the Japanese A Wonderful Life (Editors note: Charmy made a careless mistake when translating the questions, sorry Matsuyama san 🫣) When I first heard this name, the first thing that came to mind was Evil Dead's protagonist, Ash. You're right. I designed him after Bruce Campbell. I still love Bruce Campbell today. When Wonderful Life was under production, I had heard they weren't going to make a girl version, so I designed him not as a love interest, but as a quirky character. Knowing that he'd appear in the remake as a marriage candidate, I redesigned him as a character that would be liked by many. I hope you can enjoy the game for its nostalgia, as well as for being a shiny, brand new release.

Salmon Axe and Anonymous ask: I personally adore Doraemon x SOS game. Are you interested in working directly with or collaborating with other franchises in the future? And is there a series outside Story of Seasons you would like to work with now as a guest artist? (Could it be Pokemon?)

Igusa Matsuyama: I've loved Doraemon manga since I was a kid! Working as a guest artist? Hmm, I'm happier being the main illustrator, so nothing in particular comes to mind. I enjoy a lot of games in my free time, such as Fallout, Far Cry and Border Lands.

Anonymous asks: Even though we never see his face, was there ever a concept of how Woofio would look without his costume?

Igusa Matsuyama: I designed Woofio as the being that is Woofio, so there's no design of him without his costume.

Idris asks: Your style has upgraded a lot over the time to match the trends. Do you think you will ever go for an old school look (early HM) for a SoS game again? What do you think is the secret to your art’s charm?

Igusa Matsuyama: What I'm particular about when designing for Story of Seasons is making characters with head/body proportions and an atmosphere that go well with that release. First, I listen to the client's request then think of a design according to that. These days, game visuals have gotten fancier and fancier, so there's not many opportunities for characters with short proportions to make an appearance. To me, what's important when designing is "playfulness." More so than "pretty" or "cool" and such, I get attached to the character, have fun making the character. I find joy in character creation itself.

MacGyver asks: Yasuhiro Wada has shared some interesting stories about how chaotic the original game's development was. Is there anything interesting you remember from around that time? 

Igusa Matsuyama: Now it's a memory I can look back on and laugh about, but I'm not sure how much I can talk about it so please forgive me. If Wada hadn't been there back then, then "Harvest Moon" wouldn't have become a thing.

Toyberb and Anonymous ask: There’s a lot of different cow designs now, which is your favorite to draw?

Igusa Matsuyama: I've loved drawing animals since I was a kid, so I love all of the cows. Although the easiest one to draw is the cow with the big nose.

Anonymous asks: Were there any games where you made designs for protagonists of genders that did not end up available to play as? (Like a girl protagonist for Save the Homeland/Hero of Leaf Valley or a nonbinary protagonist for any game before A Wonderful Life)

Igusa Matsuyama: There's so many designs that got scrapped, but as far as I recall, there's not really many where that character's setting itself was scrapped. (Excluding Thumbelina, mentioned below)

Koharu asks: Were there ever any character designs made for other older SNES characters like Ellen for 64? Some magazines had Marie with blue hair, like the SNES character, so it made me wonder if she (SNES Maria) was meant to also be there at some point.

Igusa Matsuyama: I'm not in the position to make settings or scenarios where characters from other games appear, so I can't say, but I like the idea of older characters making an appearance!

Amina/k0iisu asks: Hello! I really love Hiro’s design specifically. Could you tell me a few facts about him/his design that might not be well known information? Thank you so much! I love your art :D

Igusa Matsuyama: Thank you very much! Hiro is a future doctor, so I tried to make them look as much like a doctor as I could. Also, to make him look friendlier, I designed him as your average everyday boy you'd see in the neighbourhood. He doesn't have a flashy face or hairstyle, but he's one of my favourite designs, too. I wrote this in the guidebook too, but what I like about him is the Asian flair I added to his clothes and the spot of colour around his feet.

Bunbun asks: I'm excited for the Nendoroid that was announced of Claire! I hope there will be ones of HM64 designs too. Since you have a lot of figures on your blog, how does it feel to be able to add one of your own characters to your collection? Are there any of your other characters you hope will get figures of?

Igusa Matsuyama: A nendoroid of Claire! I'm looking forward to it too, but when is it going to be released? If it's possible, I'd like one of Woofio.

Editor's note: Preorders are open for Nendoroid Claire now!

Chickee asks: A purple-haired princess character was rumored to have existed in Harvest Moon 64, but she didn't make it to the published game. Did you create a design for this character?

Igusa Matsuyama: That's probably Princess Thumbelina. Wasn't she Incredibly small? What I designed didn't end up being used. Speaking of HM64 characters, I pushed for them to include a pet turtle, but in the end it only appeared as an ornament. For A Wonderful Life, I asked for a turtle to be included again and designed a tortoise with a scarf, but it didn't make it as a pet and appeared only as a wild turtle that walks around the pond. I'm waiting for the day they finally include a pet turtle in the game.

emery flower147 asks: omg  I saw the pics where the AWL girls are in a team and Muffy has a shotgun and stuff? Do you think any other characters would work in a cool team like that?

Igusa Matsuyama: For the Friends of Mineral Town guide book, I had the five girls, Popuri, Marie, Ran, Elly and Karen work hard as Harvest Sprites. Also, for the guide books, I drew Pete (The old male protagonist), Sarah (The GB version female protagonist), and Claire doing whatever I wanted them to. I don't know if you can call it cool or not, but it was fun being in charge of that.

Ixur asks: A lot of the PoOT character designs for the regular villagers seem more popular than the marriage candidates in my region. Is that something that's been noticed by you/Marvelous in Japan? Lars, Clemens, Beth, and Misaki for example.

Igusa Matsuyama: Marvelous doesn't really talk about that sort of thing so I'm not sure if they're aware of it or not. I don't do social media so I'm also not sure which characters are popular. I'm happy as long as the characters are liked. The design on Lars’s shirt is modeled after my beloved dog, so I’d be especially happy if you like his shirt too.

Anonymous asks: What do you think about people cosplaying your designs?

Igusa Matsuyama: It makes me very happy! I'm no good at sewing, so I really admire people who can make their own clothes. It's an honour having the designs I made be made into real clothes, and I think it's great to have fun acting out the characters.

Afro Fae asks: When creating designs for characters, how do you settle on a specific color palette? Do you take color meanings into account with a character's personality or do you go purely off of feeling?

Igusa Matsuyama: I keep in mind the overall colours the client asked for while designing. Sometimes I propose a new colour when I think there's one that fits better. I'm also careful when choosing colours and everyone's traits to make sure it's easy to tell which character is which when seen from a distance. However, in the cases of families and such, I do the opposite and give them all a common colour to give them a sense of kinship.

———

From all of us at Ranch Story, we'd like to thank Matsuyama from the bottom of our hearts for answering our questions again! Whether a fan has only just discovered the series or has grown up alongside it, so many people have loved these characters and worlds that Igusa Matsuyama brings to life, so it feels truly special to be able to have this opportunity. We'll end this article with Matsuyama's own words, as well as a parting gift.

Igusa Matsuyama: I'm so glad I could answer your questions again. I'm the one that should be saying thank you. It means the world to me knowing that everyone enjoys my illustrations! I added an illustration as thanks. I'll keep up the hard work!

[yuurei20]

Hi!

I was wondering what the book 5 bonuses were? I know they were originally in the JP server, but cut out of the EN server. Are you able to touch on this topic?

Thank you 💜

Hello hello! Thank you for this question!

Were maybe the Book 5 bonuses in question the “Clear Main Story: Book 5 with extra bonus" gifts? 👀 (Here is a YouTube video about this!)

These "extra bonus" gifts for clearing Book 5 were what EN players would have received in exchange for clearing all the challenges associated with the "Everybody Yaho!" rhythmic that was removed from the EN server, seen below!

As EN players did not have the rhythmic they could not earn the bonuses, so EN server instead provided the bonuses to players all at once at the conclusion of Book 5 as extra rewards ^^

(I hope I did not misunderstand the question 💦 my apologies if so!)

And it was not just the rhythmic! Neige's song plays in the background of that entire scene in the original game, replaced with common background music for EN server, and there is a scene of all the characters singing together at the end that was also removed.

Tumblr only allows for one video per post, so here is the Rhythmic and Missing scene together on YouTube!

Note:

It is a common theory that the rhythmic was removed due to copyright issues, but this rumor is unfounded: it has never been confirmed by Aniplex USA (or anyone), and it is always better to not repeat unofficial information as fact.

I have also seen rumors that it may be related to usage rights outlined in Neige's VAs contract, or to a disagreement between Disney JP and Disney HQ, etc., but at the end of the day we do not know the real reason and it unlikely that we will ever be told ^^

And this connects to the official OST: It has, pointedly, 149 tracks instead of 150, and Everybody Yaho! is not there!

There is not a "Japan release" and "Overseas release" of the OST--it is all the same product, with overseas buyers even receiving the lyrics booklet in Japanese!

Was "Everybody Yaho!" originally supposed to be a part of the set, but ultimately removed due to whatever reason it is that that song is being kept from EN speakers? 🧐

We do not know and probably never will, but it is most interesting to think about ^^

Another interesting point we saw with the OST: Most of the song titles were updated to reflect EN-server's changes! (Spectral Soiree, for example, was originally "Endless Halloween.")

So JP players are buying songs with new names written in a foreign language, with one exception: Wish Resound 👀

(While EN fans are left to wonder "Why is there a song here in a language I do not know?" about 1 song, JP fans are possibly thinking the same thing about the other 148 ww)

Unlike every other song on the OST the name of Glorious Masquerade song "Wish Resound" was not translated into English and instead intentionally left in Japanese!

The lyrics of "Piece of My World" that appeared on JP server were infamously removed from EN (during the audition scenes of Book 5), and the lyrics to "Wish Resound" were also removed from EN's Glorious Masquerade, replaced with "*singing*"!

Are the removal of the lyrics and "Everybody Yaho!" somehow connected? Related to a complicated web of usage rights and copyright laws, perhaps, that do not allow them to be published outside of JP server? 🧐

Any explanations you may see (including the ones in this post) are all conjecture and unfounded rumors invented by fans looking for answers, but it is most interesting, for sure! ^^

[retributory]

Can you talk in detail about LBH and what your favorite things are about him?

second go at this because tumblr nuked it the first time. lol. sorry this is so long and unorganized and only a little answers the question this is more of a stream of consciousness nico inner monologue sneak-peek that is binghe themed.

1) just the concept of binghe is very funny and appealing. 2014 edgy mary sue half-demon big dick op sex guy emperor of the whole world domesticated by loser 20-something with a 10k karma reddit account. really good no notes.

2) i think a lot of people (even binghe fans) tend to unintentionally flatten him because it's actually a little hard to write him. the fact that for most of the novel you have a misinformed opinion of him based off of sy's meta-contextual knowledge of events that have not happened and will not happen within the current timeline means that it's hard to actually know binghe's deal the first time around. even after that you have to grapple with the meta-meta-contextual facts of binghe being an alternative version of a character within a character within a novel within a novel that is being affected by a 'real person' within the first layer of meta, but of course svsss being very much a story that is often about being a writer/creative that second layer is played with often . . . to put it lightly i think it's probably a contributing factor to both the fact that he's really controversial and to the fact that a lot of svsss meta can get really, really existential LOL. this is before getting into the fact that you're at minimum actually talking about two characters anytime you're talking about him, so . . .

3) the thing is that i think binghe (both) fans are often incorrect about him because he (bing-mei) isn't actually a puppy crybaby, he's just acting like one. but haters are also incorrect, because similarly he (bing-ge) isn't really a domineering evil emperor. putting aside the very complicated ideas we could get into re: are fictional characters the executors of their own actions when viewed meta-contextually, the fact is that binghe spends most of the novel playing some sort of role. which makes sense! at the time of sy transmigrating, (nominally) 14 year-old binghe has already lost his birth mother, been found in a river, lost his adoptive mother, been ritually abused by his peers in all settings, lived on the streets, managed to get into cqms just to be a scapegoat, been ritually abused by his shizun, etc . . . when sy uses the term 'white lotus,' it's not actually a compliment. it should be noted sy also knows that ultimately binghe is acting nice because he wants adults to treat him nicely, and he does not (yet) have any kind of power or authority to do anything about being treated wrongly. i think probably the first hint of binghe's real personality is when he leads off lmy because he thinks sy is staring at her - i don't think binghe is mean, but he isn't nice either. he's very jealous, he gets upset easily, he doesn't take issue with manipulating others to get what he wants.

(aside: even as a child, he has already very much formed the worldview that existence is transactional, something that is informed even more by sj's treatment of him. even though sy challenges that worldview, he doesn't get rid of it. all of binghe's love language is based around the idea of doing something for him; cleaning his house, making him meals, keeping him safe. naturally i think that's informed by the only affection he's received being at the hands of a woman who couldn't do much for him other than acts of service in the first place, but i also think that usefulness is a core tenet of what binghe believes that he and other people need to be.

i don't think it's controversial to say that bing-ge does not actually love any of his wives. i'd go so far as to say i don't even think he actually enjoys having sex with them - he is purely doing so to fuel xin mo, and would otherwise either not bother with them at all or kill them. being the wife of the Emperor of Both Realms is the transactional reward for providing him with no-questions-asked xin mo-feeding sex, of which he textually will just rape them if they don't agree. because bing-mei actually does love sy, i think he has to consistently challenge the idea of 'usefulness as a core tenet of a relationship,' which is one of the bigger problems they have to navigate).

very much a core part of svsss is that both of these people (sy and binghe) are. hmm. not the best people. bugfuck crazy actually. binghe puts on the waterworks because sy likes fussing over him like an overbearing mother, and while the underlying thing that he's having crocodile tears over really is bothering him a lot of the time, he's playing it up for puppy baby points. but that isn't his actual personality. his actual personality is when sy starts soothing him automatically when binghe gets the idea that sy may have been sexing lqg up in those caves. lmfao

4) speaking of, he's very easy to read as having bpd. i think other people are fully entitled to have their opinions on the matter but binghe's quote-unquote bad personality is majorly explained if you simply operate under the assumption that he has a cluster-b personality disorder (which are caused by childhood trauma, dontcha know . . .). it's easy to view his xin mo-induced catastrophic meltdown in vol 3 as splitting, and his constant back-and-forth of "shizun is the best person ever, shizun is an angel, shizun is incapable of wrongdoing" to "shizun is the worst person ever, shizun is cruel and unrelented, shizun hurts me on purpose" is easy to see as the sort of black-and-white thinking that bpd is characterized by. of course you can just think whatever, but i like to see it that way, especially because binghe is still seen as desirable despite his flaws, while any character that has or is implied to have a cluster-b disorder is usually treated as some sort of inhuman monster.

5) of course, backing off that, did you know i actually rarely like romance? for years i made a habit to intentionally avoid all romance novels because i disliked the genre out of principle. despite being largely into the shipping scene of any given fandom i was in, i both generally did not interact with other fans and also generally avoided anything romance-centric. i avoided mxtx's works (tgcf specifically) for years because i was quite convinced all romance was the same as the very very boring sort of stuff i had unfortunately read, where both the main character and the male lead are completely and utterly perfect and the only conflict is the fact that they aren't currently together. the only reason i read svsss . . . was because someone on my twitter tl at the time was complaining about it, and their complaints sold me on it because they (bq) sounded so weird. i read the entirety of it extras and all in 3 days. it sent me cartwheeling down a rabbithole of a genre i had FOOLISHLY written off. thank you binghe's terrible personality for saving me.

6) i also . . . am eternally enchanted by binghe's borderline horrific body. the satire of 'what does a perfect harem lead power fantasy stallion actually look like' kills me. when sy feels his abs and they're uncomfortably hard all the time . . . his actual literal horsecock obliterating sy's stupid insides . . . i think binghe has body dysmorphia but the opposite way around people usually have it. he wants a smaller dick and a less sexy body. i think he is trapped in his perfect stupid sexy body and it really kills me.

7) this is getting too long i think i have to shut up. my FAVORITE THING ABOUT BINGHE?? his personality. if you put a gun to my head. but he is so cutiebaby anyways. i understand sy completely; i also want to coddle and baby binghe when he does awful things. binghe would have loved puppygirl posting online . . .

[thetypedwriter]

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Book Review

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Book Review by Gabrielle Zevin

This book fell into my lap. I usually don’t put much stock into other people’s opinions on books, but I had sooooo many people tell me to read this book—people I admire and look up to. So, of course, when my fiance procured a copy for himself, I decided to join him. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a book by author Gabrielle Zevin about a boy and a girl who make games together. That’s it, that’s the whole plot. It always amazes me when authors can take such a simple narrative and turn it into a beautifully crafted tale. 

The book itself is exquisitely written, with elegant prose, tasteful pacing, enchanting characters, and a rich timeline that starts with the characters’ childhoods and follows them well into their late thirties. 

The two characters are the creative, yet self-deprecating Samson Masur and the lovely and brilliant Sadie Green. The two meet as children in the hospital where Sam is recovering from a horrific car accident and bond over playing video games.

Little does Sadie know that Sam hasn’t spoken to a single person since the accident. Not one word—until Sadie. 

Following these two characters well into their adulthood makes you feel like you really know them. They’re complicated and messy, traumatized and hopeful. They have likes, dislikes, annoyances, flaws, struggles, and dreams. 

The gift of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is getting to know these two characters as well as you could know a real life person—an almost unimaginable task for a writer to do.

Because the plot is so simple (albeit still fascinating to see the progress and evolution of video games from the 1990’s to the 21st century) Zevin can focus wholeheartedly on Sam and Sadie’s characters, a literary choice that pays off in droves.

The way Sam and Sadie’s relationship changes over time makes the reader reminisce on their own friendships, especially childhood ones. As a book, it highlights the beauty and nuances of having someone you can call a best friend–emotions and ties that can mean more than romance.

The way Zevin portrays their relationship is nothing less than art. That isn’t to say that Sadie and Sam don’t fight or have their issues because oh boy, do they ever. But that’s life. Life is messy and unpredictable and as human beings we are vulnerable to insecurities and mistakes. 

Having double POV’s isn’t always my favorite, but in this case it was crucial. Seeing both sides allowed you, as a reader, to see how perception plays a role in us all.

A situation from Sadie’s POV points Sam as uncompassionate and unfeeling. From Sam’s POV you gain understanding and empathy—you piece together why he is doing what he’s doing, altering your omniscient perspective on the whole situation. 

It was splendidly crafted. 

As I’ve stated many many times before, I am a character driven reader. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a character driven narrative all the way through.

More than magic battles or surprising plot twists, I found myself moved by the daily lives of two individuals trying their best. I was encouraged by their success and heartbroken by their losses. I felt like Sam and Sadie were my friends and I loved their story as if it were my own. 

If I were to have any criticism of this book it would be that all the problems could have been avoided if the characters just communicated with each other.

This isn’t a new issue. I have this problem with TV shows, other books, movies, etc. If people properly communicated, you wouldn’t have the challenges that arise (you also wouldn’t have a plot). 

While in some cases I can understand why Sadie and Sam would keep things from each other, for two people who spend an inordinate amount of time together you would think that they would…you know, talk more about their thoughts and feelings. 

I do think that Zevin took some liberties with how often Sadie and Sam kept each other in the dark while still proclaiming the other person to be the only soul on the planet who “really knows them” but it’s a forgivable error and one easily forgiven. 

Recommendation: If you like character driven stories as much as me (and video games to boot), then Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow will be your next addicting read. Like a video game, you’ll start it up, hit the next level, and be consumed until you reach the boss fight at the end. 

Score: 8/10

[homestuckreplay]

she seems like a pretty regular girl to me!

(page 651-663)

9/17/2009 Wheel Spin: Captchalogue Lore Verdict: ????????

9/18/2009 Wheel Spin: Parent Bad :( Verdict: Well I’d take Dad over Big Imp any day and I think John would agree.

9/19/2009 Wheel Spin: being silly :3c Verdict: John, Mid-Ogre Ambush: 'haha where are my trick handcuffs?'

3 days’ worth of pages here because work has been eating me alive and time to write about Homestuck has been tragically limited. I will keep this so so short and focus only on what’s really important.

Currently, John is facing down two adversaries. One is the Crude Ogres, the physical challenge, and the other is GG, the mental challenge. I am delighted to learn that these higher level enemies are called ogres so that I can stop referring to them as Big Imp.

‘Hanging from the tree is your TIRE SWING. In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL.’ This is from page 27 (!!) and now on page 663, one of the ogres has stolen the swing and equipped tireswingkind. I guess any semblance of this still being John’s yard and John’s house is gone. The other ogre has taken Sassacre’s, while the imps have plundered the magic chest. I guess I’m thinking about how everything in John’s home that means something to him is now being used to hurt him, how he doesn’t get a place of respite or even a safe place to keep his possessions, which only highlights the need for the captchalogue system – for John and as a part of the story.

I’m so excited about Dark Kingdom Politics based on how the small imps are scared of the big imps. Thinking of them as chess pieces, it would not be correct to say that pawns are scared of rooks and bishops, as in chess no piece can threaten another piece of the same color. But seeing them as soldiers from a ‘kingdom entrenched in darkness’ (p.424) engaged in a war against the light, this fear does make sense, suggesting a more complex social order and NPCs with an inner life and a motivation beyond ‘grab object and attack.’

With that in mind, ‘You stop being the imp because that was stupid’ (p.657) is too hasty, I think that command giver was onto something. Your name is PAWN #413. As was previously mentioned you are AN IMP. A number of your SIBLINGS are scattered around this house. You have a variety of INTERESTS. You have a passion for SILLY HATS. etc. I am being silly but I really would like to get their perspective, especially if it complicates the binary of light and darkness in ways that might affect John’s choices further in the game.

But the real star of these ogre pages is the visuals. The ogres are comically big, to the point where it’s hard to get a scale of how big in comparison to John. Seeing John’s house from a bunch of different vantage points, and then seeing a single toe curling in through the window or a hand slamming down from the roof as imps react in terror. I really enjoy quickly flicking through all these different angles of the house. I think this section would be cool as an animation too, like a faster paced version of the one on page 250 – I don’t know which version I’d like better but it’d be fun to compare.

The Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff on page 663 suggests we’ll cut back to Dave now, who, like John, is preparing for a dangerous rooftop encounter. Goodbye for now John <3

On page 651 we are treated to the LONG AWAITED GARDENGNOSTIC REVEAL!!!! We just get her silhouette (and pronouns, on the next page) so while I think the spikes on her head are just messy hair, it could also be a fun hat. This is a low bar to clear I’ll admit, but so much media has a lot more male characters than female, so I do appreciate Homestuck keeping things more balanced among the leads.

John’s dreams are represented in clouds. The two other places we’ve seen clouds are above John’s house before he was transported to the Medium (for example, p.82) and surrounding Skaia as it is described by Nannasprite (p.422-423). So it’s kind of like John is able to see all the way to Skaia in his dreams, and he sees his dad, a birthday cake, a box of Gushers, a harlequin emblem, Slimer, Harry Anderson, and finally his friend gardenGnostic. We then get a quick flash through the Sburb installation screen, a pumpkin, and a spirograph, as John suddenly wakes. Seeing the installation screen is especially wild – it’s like Sburb is reloading in his mind as he wakes.

Getting the GG sighting almost felt like a ‘be careful what you wish for’ moment, because John’s conversation with her on page 652 is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever read. If someone tried to message me like this I would block them. In past conversations GG has seemed mysterious, now she’s just obnoxious, and I don’t know if she’s reacting to John saying she ‘seems like a pretty regular girl’ and is trying to prove him wrong, or if there’s another reason.

For example, there are definite inconsistencies in how she talks about the meteor that might have been near her house, and possibly other things too. In the first Pesterlog we see between GG and John (p.169) she says ‘GG: there was a loud noise outside my house!! GG: it sounded like an explosion!!!!’ and also asks John what Sburb is, and if he got her package. On page 293, GG reports back and says that she ‘went to investigate the explosion’ and confirms that it was a meteor, describing it as ‘pretty big’ while not being allowed to get too close.

Then things start getting weird. On page 382, GG tells Dave about her present for John, saying that ‘GG: he will not open it GG: he will lose it!!!’ Based on timezones this conversation takes place 49 minutes before the earlier one with John. On page 442, GG gives Rose the tip about Sburb’s ability to resurrect Jaspers the cat, although does not mention Sburb by name.

Both of these stand out, but have plausible explanations. But what really tests the limits of possibility is this new conversation on page 652, in which GG says she ‘was confused’ about the meteor, ‘fell asleep for a while’ and ‘lost track of time’, that the meteor is ‘hard to explain’ but she ‘know[s] what it is now’ and strangest of all, ‘and now i know everythings going to be ok!!!’

????????

So originally I was wondering if GG might be two people, twins perhaps, one who has a psychic connection with a god or other powerful entity and one who doesn’t. That doesn’t explain how an explosion (that could be confused for a meteor) could prophesize good fortune, though. What might explain it is a UFO crash, manned by aliens who were somehow able to share some knowledge with GG. Given John’s movies, it is about time we got some aliens in this story. Honestly I’m pretty lost and don’t have a solid theory that explains everything even after sitting on it for a few days, but Rose and Dave are right. There’s something weird going on with this girl.

[stardustdiiving]

What popular familial headcanons do you not like? If you're willing to share, of course

This post was specifically about parent / child interpretations of Zhongli & Xiao and Nahida & Wanderer ! which r my favorite genshin character dynamics and also involve my two category 5 genshin blorbos . Like obvious disclaimer I don’t have a problem with people liking said hcs but I have kind of a bad grudge against both bc I’m a bit polarized out of people just Really Really insisting on them whenever I talk / make fanworks about the characters ☹️ along with just really not liking the characterizations attached to both dynamics esp in how they handle Xiao & Nahida

Elaborating on both for fun & how I like to characterize them under the cut

I like Zhongli & Xiao as a form of character study where you kind of lean into the god/follower power dynamic and the way Xiao’s idea of duty/devotion blends with his internalized dehumanization. The idea is Xiao gives Zhongli a lot of power over him bc he wants to be devoted to Zhongli as a weapon more than a person while Zhongli is, used to being in a position of power but trying to navigate around this bc he wants Xiao to learn to exist outside suffering

Its not a very actively destructive dynamic for either of them but it’s kind of challenging Xiao’s dehumanization of himself and willingness to die/suffer for Zhongli out of a deeply engrained loyalty and devotion to him. I like zhongxiao (their ship) in the sense I think it can be fun to throw in very unbalanced complicated romantic feelings into this for added drama/ambiguity because I had my brain chemistry rewired by Pearl & Rose from Steven Universe when I was 11. I was so captivated by the idea of Pearl having such an intimate and tragic and self destructive devotion towards another woman it single handedly made me comphrend the fact I could gay

I’m just really not into the father/son portrayal bc I feel it’s just really awkward and weird to do any of the complicated emotional introspection or w/e I’m interested in doing w the dynamic through that lens. Also there’s only so many times u can draw zhongxiao and have people insist on interpreting it as father/son (?????? Soemtimes even while acknowledging i specific my work as romantic omg) before you just get kind of uncomfortable with it….im not a fan of the characterizations either…I feel ppl infantilize xiao a lot and EURFH idk it just makes me uncomfortable to think about bc of how I view the characters personally yk

Nahida & Wanderer I do enjoy exclusively platonically / even as found family, but I am a rare case of being a Nahida fan over a Scaramouche fan so it doesn’t do much for me when Nahida is reduced to being his mom/therapist/etc especially when a big reason I love hat radish is the way both characters compliment each other and make the dynamic a fun ground for mutual character study

I specifically don’t like her as a maternal figure because well. Nahida is a 500 year old child and I think this is important to her character & how she furthers the themes of Sumeru. The entire reason she’s neglected her entire life is bc she’s a child and the sages disregard the idea a child has any “useful” wisdom to offer them and feel emboldened to mistreat her because of that. Its that kind of mindset that we’re in conflict with throughout Sumeru. To have the Archon be a child who is still really smart and full of wisdom is like. Thematically sound to the story when the message is essentially don’t use wisdom/knowledge as a way to disregard people and seek only power/control. Its that exact mindset that Scaramouche, as an antagonist, is the cumulation of in the AQ

So to have him come to respect Nahida and listen to her is really sweet, and I think it’s additionally sweet when you lean into this kinda duality of Nahida being really wise and in a position of authority but also a kid, and Wanderer 100% rolls with it. (Especially given the fact Wanderer is established to have a soft spot for kids, I like imagining Nahida’s more childish qualities put him at ease and r something he actively likes about her—which is sweet when it’s her childishness that she was disregarded for yk) I think ppl struggle to grapple with that kind of contradiction of Nahida being a child on some level but not the same as an average human child, which is a shame bc that’s something I like seeing interpretations on

So with all of this in mind if I am viewing a character as a child where a big part of her character is it was wrong to disregard her as a God of Wisdom bc she’s a child, I don’t exactly find it really appealing or cute to have her dynamic with a character who is absolutely treated like an adult man in the writing be her parenting him and tending to all of his emotional angst 😵‍💫 the way it’s done esp with Scara being likened to an immature edgy teenager son here (which is kinda ooc to me) while ppl insist on Nahida being the mom feels very. Well. I am not really a fan of the idea of a female character being reduced to the mom friend and people being more willing to view a fictional adult male character as a “teenager” than the girl who again I feel is on a certain level written as a child? I and unfortunately it makes up maybe 70% of Nahida showing up in fanon NSJNDJCKDNND

[isfjmel-phleg]

August 2024 Books

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (reread)

Reread in preparation for a visit to Orchard House.

Finch House by Ciera Burch

I read this one in its entirety on the plane. An atmospheric and heartfelt example of the middle-grade spooky-mysterious-house subgenre that I find myself drawn to over and over, but I was left with some unanswered questions in the end that could have been more thoroughly resolved.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubraker Bradley

I wanted to like this one more than I did, but there were some content concerns for me. Similar thematically in some ways to Good Night, Mr. Tom, but takes the POV of the evacuee child rather than that of the adult who takes them in.

The Pinballs by Betsy Byars

A slight book but featured the development of a very genuine bond among three mismatched foster children with a variety of painful histories, which made it memorable.

Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever

Found among my library's collection and read as part of my pre-Orchard House research. Cheever tends to get a bit too swept up in setting the broader historical scene to get too close to her subject, which felt unfocused to me.

Fox Farm by Eileen Dunlop

Ostensibly about caring for an abandoned young fox but in fact about a boy with abandonment issues learning to bond with his foster family. Dunlop (in other works as well as this one) writes complex family dynamics well, and I enjoyed this one.

The Treasure Bird by Peni R. Griffin

Clever middle-grade mystery set around San Antonio (an area I've visited a lot, which made it extra fun for me).

The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman

Middle-grade intrusive fantasy. I'm trying to remember why it didn't do much for me. It was probably characters or themes.

Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson

I enjoyed this one more than I expected to. The mystery and spelling bee aspects were fun, but I really liked the exploration of the family dynamics and how the protagonists' assumptions about the rich relatives who have been absent from her struggling family's life (including her late father) are challenged and complicated. Also lots of Jane Austen references. The father and his siblings are all named for Austen characters, etc.

Drowned Amnet by Diana Wynne Jones

I'm not completely sure how I feel about the Dalemark series so far, but Jones as ever has a gift for striking characters and worldbuilding and Twists.

Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante

A descendant of Abigail May Alcott's family writes with an emphasis on Abigail's background, character, and accomplishments, and I came away with a new appreciation for her and her impact on her daughters (and, indirectly, through her inspiring one of the most beloved mother figures in literature).

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson

On the other hand, I would like to go back in time and fist-fight Bronson Alcott, but he would probably just lecture me on my moral failings.

The Curious Vanishing of Beatrice Willoughby by G. Z. Schmidt

Interesting premise but I didn't warm up to the execution.

Ivy Larkin by Mary Stolz

I didn't warm up to this but can't remember why.

Comics

Wayne Family Adventures Volume 4

Read originally in webcomic form but reread in the print edition.

[shockyeahmiguelohara]

Hello! I love your blog and find your posts really insightful I was wondering, what do you think is a key aspect of Miguel's character that makes him challenging for writers outside of Peter David to write? Some people told me that the key part of Miguel’s essence that ATSV failed to portray is that he’s a rebel is that true? I hope I'm not bothering you with the question I'm just fascinated by your perspective

what do you think is a key aspect of Miguel's character that makes him challenging for writers outside of Peter David to write?

The short version: I think a lot of writers try to make Miguel O'Hara a version of Peter Parker that works for them or that they grew up with. It falls in line with the idea that there is only "one true Spider-Man" of the franchise that fuels the backlash to Miles Morales. But instead of overt racism, you end up with a milquetoast version of Miguel that's closer to Peter Parker than a genuine iteration of Miguel.

Some people told me that the key part of Miguel’s essence that ATSV failed to portray is that he’s a rebel is that true?

I think Miguel is a collaborator by nature, but rebels when something directly opposes his principles' and moral compass (and usually after he cannot ignore it any longer).

Take for instance, the catalyst that led to his becoming Spider-Man. Alchemax experimented on a human being without any real authorization, and Miguel's cooperation led to the senseless death of Mr. Sims.

The only way he felt he could hold himself accountable for his part was quitting and putting distance between himself and Alchemax. Tyler Stone undermined that by spiking his drink with an addictive drug that would eventually kill him. The aftermath of an deliberate attempt to murder him basically gave him the means to fuck up Stone's corporation and make some kind of amends for his complicity. But it also left him with disabilities (extreme sensitivity light being one of them).

So, in general, I think Miguel is a team player when it counts, but prefers to do things his own way (which, I guess is a rebel depending on the context).

Other elements that make Miguel 'difficult' for other writers is

1): Generation Gap and the Passage of Time

In particular, Spider-Man 2099 came around the time of the much derided "extreme era" of Marvel Comics, and comics in general. Which was nothing, if not a reaction to the Comics Code Authority and its particular brand of censorship (ah-la BS&P), and the desire to cater to a much older audience of readers.

So, the end result was overcompensation and a lot of antiquated ideas that remain fairly prevalent within the modern industry's of comic book publishing (see: Ultimate X-Men, Ultimatum, One More Day, Dan Slott, Comics Gate, etc.).

Spider-Man 2099 is very much a reflection of that "extreme era" ethos, from its character design, writing, and particular depiction of the future. It's Robocop or Judge Dredd flavored, so to speak. I also think it's easy to forget that Spider-Man 2099 was apart of a larger comic book series that included Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, Punisher 2099, and etc. It was beta Ultimate Comics.

The original Spider-Man 2099 debuted in 1992, and ended in 1996, officially putting the character on ice. Even as one of the better received titles of their 90s catalogue, with a cult following, it's hard to ignore the fact that Marvel treated their 2099 titles like damaged goods, something they had to run away from to recuperate their image.

As a result, they intentionally never did anything else to really promote Spider-Man 2099 so that he'd become a household name.

A similar thing happened to May Day Parker and the Spider-Girl franchise. Despite being relatively well received, Marvel as a company did its best to basically make sure she'd never become a household name.

So, by 2014 you've got 22 years of nothing happening with Miguel O'Hara. Then Dan Slott's Spider-Verse title debuted, and introduced a bunch of a Millennial and Gen Z era readers to all of these Spider-Mans they've never heard of, or only knew in the vaguest concept.

Almost immediately after, Peter David gets to write two more volumes of Spider-Man 2099. Except this time, he more or less does away with original continuity and all its narrative ties to cater to newer readers.

2): He's treated like a novelty or an aesthetic

The cancelled Spider-Man Unlimited series from Fox Kids, a reaction to Batman Beyond (Kids WB), was initially shopped around as a Spider-Man 2099 series. But because the general audience didn't know Miguel O'Hara (a consequence of the lack of promotion), Marvel decided to use the trappings and ideas of 2099, and created another Spider-Man series with Peter Parker. They treated the series like a spiritual sequel to Spider-Man: The Animated Series (a show they cancelled).

Prior to Spider-Verse, we got things like Timestorm 2099, Shattered Dimensions, and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Like an extension of Unlimited, with instances like Marvel's Spider-Man that uses Miguel's costume as an alternate skin to unlock in the PS4 game. It's why The Amazing Spider-Man production process wholesale lifted the design scheme of Miguel's costume as a possible final costume for their version of Peter Parker (see: the film's concept art), but never considered, maybe, making Miguel an actual character. (But honestly, given that its TASM, that's probably for the best.)

Thirteen years after the original comic, Timestorm 2099 was some kind of an attempt to introduce Miguel O'Hara to another generation of readers (Ys and Zs). I guess, to see if they could turn a profit with him. It's one of the few SM2099 titles not written by PAD. It solidified my belief that no one at Marvel, except PAD, really considers Miguel a unique character, just a reskin of Peter Parker.

Timestorm 2099's Miguel is a really bland version of teenage Peter Parker, whose dad is a genius scientist, and no elements of his family and life from SM2099 vol 1 (Gabri, Conchata, Xina, Dana) exists in different/alternate forms. The story basically exists just to get Peter to meet teen Miguel, and not much else. It's a less entertaining version of Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man.

Exceptions to the rule are Edge of Time, a story co-written by PAD. It treats him like a whole and fully realized character, it uses an iteration of his universe as part of the stakes for Miguel and Peter, whose futures are altered by Dr. Sloane. It builds on their back and forth through dialog that doesn't just fill game-time space, but informs their character. And they do this with, arguably, the most recognizable Peter Parker voice actors of their time (Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Josh Keaton).

Were it not for the game's less than stellar performance, I'd argue that was a solid selling and starting point for newcomers to Miguel that Marvel could've really pushed. If I can say anything about Dan Slott, he kept trying to make his "fetch" idea (Spiderverse) happen, and it was, in part, the reason why we ended up with more PAD-helmed 2099 stories for Miguel.

But even with that in mind, the novelty aspect of Miguel's universe as one that Marvel constantly reinforces. It refuses to give 2099 its own space to exist outside of sporadic moments. To a large degree, Across the Spiderverse is very much a representation of how Miguel is treated like a niche or kitchy idea.

And you'll notice, with Miles (the one alternate/legacy Spider-Man they're capitalizing on, however disengeniously), the way they legitmized him is by keeping him trapped within the sphere of Peter Parker (specifically, alternate or cloned versions of Peter Parker).

[sixstepsaway]

i've had some thoughts bouncing around for a while about ofmd s2, and in light of the news, i'm going to brain dump some of them. if you don't feel like listening to me complain about HBO and would rather just go cry about OFMD not getting season 3, that's chill, go ahead, no hard feelings

so.

season 1 was absolutely the definition of lightning in a bottle. it had great acting, great writing, gorgeous set and costume design, it was great, and not only that but it was unabashedly queer

jim had a whole episode dedicated to "actually i'm not a woman i'm just jim" and then everyone - even the bad guys, even the antagonists, even their nun nana, everyone - referred to them as they/them after that, no questions asked

the main character went through an arc that was basically figuring out his sexuality and going "oh shit, i love a man" on a show that was not directly advertised as "OUR QUEER MEANS DEATH" like a, y'know, Queer Show would be

and stede and ed's romance felt like it was important. It felt like the pirates of it all was mostly incidental, background, filler, just fun to pad out the situation and give them things to be challenged by (the badmintons!) while also being fun on its own. it's the kind of show where if you pulled all the characters out and slapped them into a whole other situation like space agents or time travellers or everyone lives together in a loft runs a bakery... it'd still work. sure, the badmintons would be less murderous and run a competing bakery or something, but it'd still work, because the focus was on the characters, and on the romance between stede and ed

the first three episodes of season 3 felt that way too. the love between stede and ed was paramount and if you swapped to a mafia au or a bakery au it'd still work (with some gentle adjustments for ed's Behavior™ to be fair)

but.

season 1, they kept saying it was a rom com, and it felt like one. it was just a rom com that was set at sea! how fun!

now, rom coms have tropes. they have genre-specific things that you kind of expect from, well, a rom com. you expect mess. you expect things like ed fucking off with jack because he doesn't feel good enough

(i've recently been rewatching new girl and although some of the humor makes me cringe, it's still a great show, and one of the main things about it is that everyone is messy. no matter how much schmitt loves cece, he's going to make mistakes. no matter how obviously nick and jess are going to end up together and belong together, they're going to sleep with the wrong people, make mistakes, break up etc. it's as much a rom com as ofmd.

one of the things that makes new girl so good and makes me love the main couples so much is how hard they work to be together, how they fight adversity and the mess of their own flaws and toxicity and still get together because they love each other most, in the end)

i remember in s1 thinking how if stede had been a woman, jack would have been too, and ed would've had at least one romantic/sexual scene with jack when he ran away with him

but i also remember thinking, "yeah, but the show hadn't explicitly done the his name is ed reveal and the kiss on the beach yet, and the reveal hits so hard, it makes sense not to do that earlier", and tbh i stand by that

which brings me to s2, after the first three eps, where they tried to go back to rom com and it just felt... forced.

rom coms usually have adversity. they have other characters that directly and truly threaten the main pairing by being interesting to those characters! no matter how you feel about izzy, he was framed as a love interest or as an ex that was still complicated, but the show very much tiptoed around that

does "i have love for you" and "i loved you best i could" make sense for the characters? yeah.

do i feel like if ed was a woman, she and izzy would've had a messy rebound relationship for stede to have to contend with, for the two of them to come out the other side of wanting each other from? yeah.

ofmd s1 felt unabashedly queer. s2 felt like they didn't want to be too gay.

they put olu with a Woman™, they put jim with a woman almost like it was less queer and more acceptable this way than queering olu, they completely waved off olu and jim's relationship and dropped any concept of polyamory because that would've made it even queerer, not less queer

(i'm using queer here as a definition more of breaking boundaries and being outside of the norm to the extent it makes cishets deeply uncomfortable and the queer in question aren't conforming to society's standards. and this reading of s2 (and s1) is entirely subjective, it's just what's been bubbling here for me)

pete and lucius went from "we don't own each other" to marriage, with no footnotes of what marriage meant to them specifically, whether they were, in fact, conforming with the 'norm' of marriage (exclusivity, labels, definitions etc) or whether they were still chill about these things or whether this now meant no more penis drawings

the queerest episode was probably the party episode (which was so good), but even that was especially queer because some cast members fought to make it so (con wanting izzy's drag to be beautiful not funny has HAUNTED ME, because that means it was originally supposed to be played for laughs!!) not because it was that way naturally

the fact i read somewhere that the party and the drag was originally lupete's wedding makes so much more sense to me because yeah, they WOULD have a wedding like that, but instead they got a lame final episode wedding because it would have been way too queer to do it at calypso's birthday with drag and queer joy everywhere

it also would have been more realistic to the lucius and pete we got in season 1.

there were a lot of things in season 2 that felt... weird. we've talked about it. we have all talked about it.

the final episode, even outside of the thing i hated most, was just horribly written imo. there's big sweeping gestures and no kind of real emotional pay off for the main relationships (lupete included), and everything got tied with a neat little bow at the end

i remember when we were told s2 was 8 episodes and how much the budget had been chopped thinking, "ha, we're so not getting a season 3"

i remember when i realized how weirdly rewritten most of season 2 had been thinking, "yeah, there's not going to be a season 3"

i remember when bitching about ed's arc being totally truncated and handwaved thinking, "mm, we're not getting a season 3"

and i remember when the Revenge sailed off into the sunset with everyone but ed and stede on board thinking, "oh yeah, we're done."

just enough was left open that a season 3 could happen.

just enough was left open that if a miracle happened, there'd be something to do with season 3.

but i genuinely, 100%, hand on my heart, think djenks knew he wasn't getting a season 3

and don't get me wrong, i'm not absolving him of the poor writing choices he made in season 2, but i am saying it makes a lot more sense if you think of it from the perspective of corporate meddling and having everything taken away while he was actively trying to make season 2

we already know HBO cut the budget a ridiculous amount so they just had to make everything work with what they had. we already know HBO cut the episode number.

season 2 plays out like they prepped a good chunk of it, ready for 10 episodes, and then HBO cut the budget and cut the episodes

and so things had to be changed and chopped about. ed's arc got lots of screen time and focus for three episodes (before the cuts) and then things got quicker, and fast

characters were cut for time and for budget reasons.

and then i think towards the end of production and the end of writing, djenks learned the odds of season 3 were minimal at best, and he panicked

i think the original plan was probably for ed's arc to go for the majority of season 2. maybe a middle piece where he and stede tried but it still wasn't Right (last night was a mistake) because ed had so much to work on and so much to heal

i genuinely wonder if the finale was completely rewritten at the last minute because to me it makes way, way more sense from a narrative standpoint for things to have been more staggered out. let's consider ten episodes instead of 8:

episodes 1-5: same as they were when aired, including the gravy basket giving us set-up for what ed's dealing with internally, giving us something to latch onto and prepare for his redemption. NO KISS AT THE END OF EPISODE 5. episode 6: ed is still wearing the bell. he's sort of done his amends with lucius, but now he needs to do amends with the rest of the ship. stede is still learning his piratey ways, so there's hijinks in the background. jim and archie and olu try to decide what their relationship is after the garlic and all, and debate room arrangements. lucius and pete announce their engagement. stede and ed nearly kiss. episode 7: more ed redemption arc. he's still working at things, he's shying away from violence because violence is what took him down this dark path to begin with. maybe we get some discussion of his father. stede, blind to ed's flaws, insists he's nothing like his father! ed tries to make amends with izzy but somehow this is the hardest of all because he hurt him the most of all. izzy gets chance to apologize for what he now sees as his part in pushing ed down into the darkness (trying to drag blackbeard back) and izzy's apology makes ed feel worse somehow and gives him some absolution when he finally figures out how to return his own. ed kisses stede but says he wants to take it slow. episode 8: wedding episode!! calypso's birthday!! ed uses his loot to bankroll lupete's wedding. stede reacts with violence to ned and we know from everything before that ed is actively trying to distance himself from the violence of piracy because, yeah, of course he is. is it a good idea? nope. does it make sense to his character for him to still be putting a good chunk of the blame on piracy for his actions, rather than accepting the parts of his whole and learning how to regulate those parts healthily? yes. anyway, stede reacts to his own violence by clutching for ed, ed feels after like his boundaries were pushed. same as show. episode 9: ed is having a meltdown. he and izzy have started to heal, so izzy watching him stare at fishing boats and just chatting to him like nothing happened actually makes a lick of sense. lupete are on their honeymoon at jackie's. olu gets to hook back up with zheng and archie and jim want to go along because they're not super happy on the ship still because although ed is doing better, the past of what he does still hangs over everyone. olu, zheng, jim and archie do not discuss the poly of it all properly, and it's hilarious and a mess, and gives us something to look forward to handling in season 3. ed freaks out about stede being violent when he's the one thing he felt like wasn't violent (and thus safe for him to be with), and about taking it not at all slow, breaks things off and runs away. izzy gets stede to come back to the ship. stede gets into a fight with zheng, the bombs go off, whatever (not a fan of this for her sake but if it has to happen, it can happen) episode 10: ed is off fishing but it's not going well and he's pissing pop-pop off all the time because he's not good at fishing. stede and co are handling the ricky of it all. the episode is mostly the same at the start, but instead of ed immediately going "omg, i gotta save bae" he doesn't find out about the attack until right at the end of the episode. stede and co make it back to the revenge and escape safely, and when ed retrieves his leathers and returns he thinks they're dead! he threatens/tortures/whatever some english and they say no, stede escaped! they all escaped! the season ends with ed, all decked out in his leathers, with his sword, now in the position stede was last season: staring out over the water, planning to find the man he loves.

this sets season 3 up for ed to be on his own for a little while, for him to handle and figure out how to channel his violence into something 'good' (wanting to find his love, wanting to protect his crew etc).

maybe season 3 flashes back to baby!ed again and the fact his first act of violence against his father wasn't motivated by anger or spite, it was motivated by wanting to protect someone he loved: his mum.

then season 3 they find each other again, and maybe they meet in the moonlight for the parallel to hit even better, they finally get back together properly, for good, with maybe some comedic issues along the way, and ed finds his place in the world to be less "blackbeard, the terror of the seas" and more "ed protects those he loves."

i honestly think this is probably how the show was originally meant to go, or at least something close.

i think midway through season 2, djenks heard it was over and he (rightfully) panicked and threw together a finale that tied up as many loose ends as he could because he knew.

and i dont think there's anything that could've been done about it. i think it was dead in the water (no pun intended) the moment all the MAX/HBO/whatever reshuffles happened, I think it was too queer and I genuinely think executive meddling made a lot of the more queer elements go away, possibly right down to trying to wipe away the exes/love interests of it all with that whole father figure thing

and, again, i'm not absolving djenks of some of his more baffling writing decisions. he's a grown man and he makes his own choices. but i am saying i think it explains a LOT about why the finale we got is what we got, and i'm not sorry stede and ed ended the show together rather than apart or with their lives hanging in the balance or something

anyway these are just a bunch of thoughts i've been having, tied together by the cancellation.

[applestorms]

who do you think is smarter: l or light? without any sort of external help (supernatural forces, $$$)

L. ez. i actually already talked about this in my little ramble on intelligence in DN (in response to another ask) but to elaborate on those two in particular a bit more...

ok first of all, to reiterate: intelligence is a difficult thing to really Measure. not only could there be considered to be a lot of different areas/types of knowledge, but there's also a lot of different ways in which that understanding/informational backlog can be utilized or acted on. (plus the whole thing about how IQ tests only determine how good you are at doing IQ tests, etc. etc.)

that being said, i don't think we have to say that intelligence is entirely relative, or that there is absolutely no objective basis under which we can judge how smart someone is, particularly in the case of fictional characters. SO,

let's begin by setting up the parameter that "without external help," specifically refers to circumstances throughout the show itself, if only because it's a lot more complicated to try and figure out who light and L even are if they aren't connected to their canon backstories. this basically just means that they are beginning with whatever strengths/weaknesses they gained throughout childhood and their early teenage/adult years, like we're judging between who they were right at the start of the series pre-lind l. tailor and before they met.

of course, this means that immediately, L has an advantage over light purely by the fact that he is slightly older and has had more direct experience testing the limits of his knowledge through his detective work. while light has also seemed to receive a decently bougie education, he has not had a wealthy man looking over his shoulder to specifically give him everything he wants/needs to Develop His Mind-- he's top of his class, top of everyone in the country, but even that seems to not be particularly challenging to him. thus i don't think it's too out there to assume that light's logical reasoning/pure book & experience knowledge is somewhat stifled.

that being said, he does possess one distinct advantage over L, which is demonstrated quite extensively throughout the show-- his ability to manipulate and understand people. because L is catered to so specifically in such an isolated environment, he never quite gets the chance to have to Live Around People in the same way that light does, meaning that he is a lot less inclined to have the same kind of Instinctive Knowledge as light about how to mask his emotions or fit in with a group. also, the autism. his approach is kinda just to (white) lie a lot-- you could perhaps view this as L being able to understand other people and their motivations/emotions/etc. in the context of a kind of detective case/puzzle, but not quite knowing or realizing the importance of covering his own ass, in the way that light does. the closest he gets with this is when he pretends to be a misa fan right before yotsuba, but even then that's a pretty minor case and clearly planned to some degree beforehand.

thus: L's strengths are in his logical reasoning and ability to puzzle out all the pieces together, pay attention to minute details in evidence, and understand people in terms of base motivations and personality, particularly with regards to crime. his weaknesses are in his ability to understand people in the moment, particularly the ways in which his own actions/presence may influence them in minor ways outside of his few intentional moments of manipulation.

light's strengths are in his ability to respond in the moment (so long as his temper doesn't get to him first), to manipulate people and mask himself so thoroughly n so regularly that he can be under surveillance 24/7 and still manage to murder a few people in secret while keeping up the Sweet, Dedicated Boy Persona in the privacy of his own bedroom, and also his Pure Dedication when it comes to sticking with one plan (KIRA), especially when his own emotions/view of himself is at stake. his weakness is in his ego/reliance on people due to his need to be Seen as someone good and just, as well as his logical reasoning, which really isn't quite up to par with L.

i think people sometimes forget that in the case of both light and beyond, their ability to "reason out" the logic of these cases is specifically because they are the ones perpetrating them, and planning them out in advance. L trips light up time and time again because L is able to think through the evidence more cleanly and consider more potential paths than light, who is always biased towards his own reasoning/justification by nature of the fact that he was the one who came up with the damn plans in the first place.

throughout the series, again and again, light fails to account for the multitude of ways in which people catch on to him-- it's part of the reason why his getting naomi is such a significant moment, because it really was Pure Chance that he stumbled across her right at the time that he did. he simply didn't account for the possibility that raye may actually have close family and loved ones he would talk about his work with, much less someone intelligent enough to put the pieces together about KIRA, despite the fact that he specifically threatens raye about a loved on in the first place. idiot lmfao

in the case of the anime specifically, i'd also like to add that i think L is a bit more emotionally intelligence/mature than light, to some degree, or at the very least has more of handle on or acceptance of his own emotions (and fucked-up-ness). both are pretty childish and self-centered, yes, spoiled little brats in their own particular ways-- but, particularly as demonstrated in the rain scene, L seems to both know what he is and Accept the extent to which his morals are actually quite gray in a way that light just. can't. part of this may be due to L's lack of connection to other people, that he doesn't hold himself to their standards quite so highly, though part of it may also just be again that L is a bit older and therefore less in the throes of teenage Image angst or whatever.

additionally: if you would really like to even out the playing field, and consider 24 year old L versus 24 year old light... honestly i still think L wins LMFAO.

i've mentioned this before, but light post-time skip really isn't all that inventive with the Sick New Schemes he comes up with. honestly, a lot of what he ends up doing in the latter half of the series is exactly the same as his plots throughout the first half, just with slightly different pieces in place. he uses takada and mikami in place of misa in some cases while still refusing to get the eyes (even his father at one point), he switches the notebooks around a whole bunch to ensure he isn't caught due to the lifespan/DN owner thing, he fights a couple snarky geniuses whose names he Desperately wants to find out for a truly stupid amount of time... really, post-timeskip light comes across as very high-functioning depression to me in this half of the series, to some degree going on autopilot with the plans that he Knows will work because he's sunk cost fallacy too hard to give up on KIRA now, despite the fact that his heart really isn't into it as much by this point. kinda like L during yotsuba, though their reactions are quite different, with L going the opposite way to intentionally drop all his shit and give up to the annoyance of everyone around him cuz he's salty that his "intellectual partner" or serial killer boytoy or whatever has disappeared now.

so... yeah. i really do think L is just a bit smarter. light is certainly intelligent, yeah, he can keep up with L just fine throughout the series, but he also uses his intelligence in really fucking stupid ways sometimes (coughcough using his Stunning Reasoning to logic himself into a corner where he has to keep killing people to be a good person. make it make sense, yagami) and is much more heavily influenced by his emotions and Especially his temper and ego.

[breathingxspace]

This may be the series end, but it’s also the /season/ end...

This may be the series end, but it’s also the /season/ end, and while I don’t have words big or expressive enough to talk about the whole show, I /do/ have words for the writers/editors who made this season happen.

So. A thread about the people behind S4

S4 was weird both b/c we came in with so much existing world/lore/etc & also b/c we knew it was the last, so wanted to get EVERYTHING on screen, b/c it was the last chance.

That put a /lot/ on the writers, in a bunch of ways. But damn did they deliver.

Ep1 was mine, but I'm going to yell about Erik at the end, so for the time being, I just want to say thanks to Thomas for letting me play with some of his toys. Putting the two couples together for a heist was a joy.

Jordan took on one of the most ambitious challenges of S4. His pitch was excellent, but too big to fit in 1 ep. I came to him late in the game & asked how he felt about writing A Miniseries, & for some unknown reason he was willing to do it for us, & I'm so glad.

The Spaces In Between isn't a story for me, which is why I'm so glad it's part of this season. B/c it IS a story for a lot of other people, & more than a few have told me how much it meant to them. Jordan did /so much/ work, & made something beautiful. Thank you.

Mel-- adf;l/;adfsladfs;l My adoration of Cee & Molly knows no bounds, & this storyyyyyyy. This was one that had to carry a lot- get all the necessary info from backstory across while still being stand alone, & it NAILED that. & is funny, & sweet, &....

if I remember correctly, I came to Mel & @interiority w/ a suggestion they do a little collaborative creation b/c one of Interiority's pitches had strong overlap with Mels, & seemed like they'd work well together. They humored me, & made a work of art.

SJ & Kasha Mika need to get yelled about in concert. THESE two eps were /logistically/ complicated on top of narratively. They independently pitched a jail break out & break in & once again humored me in attempting to connect them. & obviously succeeded.

I love that the stories on their own are so distinct. It's NOT just telling 2 povs of the same narrative. Gospel & This Thing are their own stories, they just run parallel & overlap. But each story is richer & fuller for the other existing.

Last season, SJ made my month by wanting to play in the Terminal Station sandbox. This time, Jack did by wanting to write about Diatoma, which is one of my pet setting elements.

Something I love about these eps is how firmly in-genre they both are.

This Thing is a mob story, done to perfection. Gospel is a Western, & knows it.

Watching the two of them puzzle out where & how the stories met, & split, what you would hear in one vs the other, what could be left out or implied... it was excellent /technical/ work.

Scott 's Fable of the Family was similarly ambitions structurally, on top of narratively. It would have been easy for the series to get confusing, w/ the shifting time periods, but between writing & editing it's instead this gorgeous, sweeping saga.

The Peregrination stories are also ones that are not generally for me, but I got very invested in more than a few of the FoF ones. & again, the /mechanics/ of telling 3 stories in 3 times concurrently are fascinating, & excellently done.

Kale wrote what might be the most powerful ep in S4 to me. The characters & their struggles are intensely, almost brutally real & the sheer /weight/ of what it means to exist... The episode tackles really rough shit that's often overlooked (deliberately or not)

and it does that while still having a sense of humor. Almost all of our eps give me Emotions, but this one especially hit hard. I think it covers a slice of human experience we hadn't yet, & I'm very glad they wrote it, & it's part of the show.

Hang on for Chasing a Ghost yelling, going to do that at the end too.

Interiority has what might be my favorite brand of humor of all the BSFF writers, & There's a Design is no exception. He pitched a few eps (& I think I might have encouraged them all to get written in one way or another? Can't remember) but this one was, to me, the funniest

Except, see, he's not content making something that's /just/ funny. At its heart, this ep is... sad? sweet? deeply resonant with human nature? I don't know. I do know that Interiority can blend dry humor, over-the-top humor, empathy, & hope all into the same scene. It rules.

Again skipping my ep, but I do want to thank Daisy for her portrayal of Clarity. You Can Hear the Whistle Blow is. A very personal story. For me. So much so I had serious second thoughts about making it & I struggle to re-listen. Thank you for being gentle with her.

I could yell about Amy pretty much all day. She is one of the kindest, most enthusiastic, most /observantly/ encouraging people I've had the joy of working with. But this is about eps, so, we'll do that instead.

Blue Noon is the PERFECT final ep for BSFF.

Reading it, I knew it would need to be either the 1st or the last ep, & will not lie, I felt really bad making it the last. It was /so good/ I didn't want to make the audience (or the cast!) wait to release it. But I'm glad I did, b/c it's the ideal end note.

Going out with a Western, pistols-at-dawn narrative that's ALSO a heist and ALSO a gay panic love story? Yes. Yes, please. I am /really/ looking forward to more Amy content in this setting, and others. : )

CHASING A GHOST. James just. Keymash forever. This and Delta Vee Dining remain my favorite content of the show. CaG is /exactly/ what it should be. It's the best of public radio, delightful characters, excellent writing, and THE MUSIC.

I am in awe of composers, lyricists, & arrangers, & there's so much beautiful work in the miniseries. I just...

Honestly, this is one I've yelled about so much I am kind of out of new and excited things to say. So I'll leave it at thank you /so much/

To the editors (Aaron, Kale, Scott, Amy, Erik, Jordan, Maddie, & Sam) are our not-nearly-shouted-about-enough heroes, but I especially want to thank Sam for handling MANY eps AND finale stuff on top of his busy life. You're wonderful.

And again, we come back to Erik I love you so much, & everything I get to make with you is a delight and a joy. Your raw /skill/ as a sound designer & editor is just astounding, but lately I've gotten to see your experimental creativity, & it /rules./

Quite frequently lately you've messaged me with basically "I'm trying a thing, what do you think?" & it's inevitably something interesting, technologically complex, & cool as hell. I love watching you grow into the /art/ element of sound design as an artist. Thank you. Always.

Alright. I have now spent over an hour drafting this (on Oct 17, so I don't have to try to do it day of release when I am In My Emotions) and while there's absolutely more to be said, this thread is very long.

Thank you, S4 people-- actors, editors, writers, fans.

🚀💖🧈

-ash

[megabuild]

I'm rooting for an etho-gem-scott team personally. mainly because i can't see scott and etho willingly teaming but i can see both of them teaming with gem and i think it'd be really really really funny to see scott have to 'yes, go girlboss' and 'women are never wrong' through teeth clenched so tightly he's about to pop a vein as Gem hangs out with her favorite mormon

this is about the only way i can see it happening yeah, scott and etho are likely not going to team together unless forced, and honestly even with gem in the mix it still feels too much but definitely more likely.

i can't decide if this fucks with my original vision or not though because the entire point of scott-etho team to me is that forcing of a mirror up to itself- scott has no ally to wholly commit himself to and take on a role that he perceived as beneficial because etho is too distant to let that form, and etho has no ally to seek a role from because they're both just feeding into each other asking "what do YOU want?" and the answer is neither of them know, so either they have to force themselves to get really cool about a lot of trauma real fast or just crumble completely.

adding gem into that mix complicates things (full disclosure: i am not a gem analyser yet so if anyone smarter wants to add onto this feel free) because i think she doesn't have that same challenge of identity- she's a character with a lot of deep set anxiety but i think she knows who she is, or what she wants to be, her understanding of that is just inherently flawed. eg. i would say the two people she looks up to the most in life series are etho and pearl, but specifically for both of them she's looking up to a fracture of themselves. her adoration of etho almost comes off as false sometimes with the consistent insistence of being an ethogirl but also switching up and committing to whatever the popular view is (bullying him for being washed up and lame, teasing him for being obsessed, etc.), like she's more interested in the surface level concept of what etho is instead of who he actually is. while with pearl her treatment around scarlet pearl, a persona literally formed through intense trauma, isolation and degradation, flattens it down to "you're so cool go girlboss!". again i don't really know enough about gem to say anything about this (not least because a good chunk of this comes from cc actions and saying whatevers popular and will get laughs and clips- no hate to her irt).

so yeah- cgem not only doesn't have the awareness to notice etho and scott's respective masks, or if she does, she isn't interested in challenging or counting them, but she also provides a base point for the two of them to rely on. as you said scott would fall into his usual go girlboss pattern and probably kill himself at the end with little to no character development. etho might manage to get something out of being in an alliance where he's constantly being fawned over (as in, become extremely uncomfortable and be forced to shed all of his masks in an attempt to push the spotlight off himself- in the same way it could cause fun conflict between him and scott as scott repeatedly tries to drag the spotlight towards himself) but more likely he'd just distance himself entirely. absolute net zero gain of an alliance unless an astronomical level of coincidences force them to actually behave like human beings. fun either way

[blaithnne]

I guess I never posted this here so… here’s Lauren in the style of The Troll comic!! The first in what I hope will be a continued series of style explorations >:O

Check under the cut for me rambling about how she fits in narratively and design wise!

Narrative

The narrative in the show is very different from the comics, not just in terms of the plot but in how the story is told - it’s a different medium so it does stuff differently! In short, the comics are a lot more rapid fire and comedic, The Troll in particular is so quick that it’s TV adaption was literally just the cold open of the first episode. Even Johanna only appears very briefly in this comic, so fitting in another character was already going to be a challenge lmao. But what made it even harder is the fact that Lauren was, obviously, designed to be a character that fits within the series, so there’s a lot about her character that just can’t translate into the comics. For example - one of her main uses in the show is to make the audience ask questions - “Hilda has a big sister? How old is she? She’s an adult, why is she still living with her family? Do she and Hilda share a dad? If she’s an adult then, did she know her dad? Why doesn’t she talk about him? Why does she take on so much?” Etc. This helps get the audience invested! And from everything we can tell these are questions the show wants to answer, but the comics…don’t. The comics don’t want you to question why Hilda lives in the middle of nowhere, they just want you to have a fun adventure with a little blue haired girl! Lauren being there in all her regular show glory makes that more complicated.

SO I had to work backwards, and try and think about what purpose a character like Lauren could serve in the comics, and why she would have been made in the first place, and this is what I ended up with -

Lauren is younger in the comics than she is in the show - she’s somewhere between 15-17, and the basis for her character is “a teenager from the viewpoint of a young child”. You know how you view teens when you’re a kid - they’re scary! They’re like adults except with no responsibilities, they’re aloof and want nothing to do with you but they seem so cool! Like they can do whatever they want! And you have no clue what that even is. I think this age makes more sense for the comics, as it means the audience doesn’t have to question why she’s still living at home or anything like that lmao - she’s just a kid!

Lauren seems very aloof and irresponsible, she’s always wandering off and doing random bits and bobs around the house. Even from Johannas perspective, she sees her as a bit of a liability. She’s kind of a gag character at this point - since there’s really no other way to fit her in at this point. I like the idea of her appearing when Hilda opens the front door, and she’s this terrifying silhouette holding an axe and staring down at Hilda, who screams in terror. Only for the next panel to reveal it’s just Lauren

I’ll get into this in more detail a the comics go on but, the idea with Lauren is that as the comics continue she’ll become more and more similar to the character we see in the show. Not really because she’s changed all that much - but because the other characters (and by extension the reader) start to see her differently. Once she gets more of a spotlight outside from being a one off gag character, she stops being the misunderstood teen and starts being…understood!

So, whilst Lauren seems irresponsible and reckless, she doesn’t mean to be. I think one of the reasons she comes off like this is bc she’s got heavy autism coding in the comics - she takes things very literally. Like, if Johanna tells her to watch Hilda - she will! She’ll watch her walk right off a cliff. Because Johanna never told her to keep her safe, just to watch her!

She still does chores and stuff around the house but, there’s not really any opportunity to showcase that in this comic lol

Design

The biggest challenge design wise was her body type. In terms of human characters, The Troll features just Hilda and Johanna - who appears for as a half body for three panels. Both of them are very skinny and noodle, which was an issue because Lauren…isn’t lmao. She’s buff! That’s her thing! Soooo here’s the solution I came up with -

I decided to make her as noodly as the other characters, but to lean really into the buff aspect of her character despite that. I drew her holding big ol axes and rocks to show that - she’s comically strong! I think that adds to both the gag and kind of mysterious part of her character - this Lauren isn’t intriguing in a “makes you question hildas family history and important elements of the show” way, she’s intriguing in a “what the fuck” way

Another thing I played with was her hair - the art style and character designs change a lot throughout the comic, it takes a little bit before certain characters core features are figured out. So I thought it would be fun to show that through her hair, which is just slightly off from her show design!

Uhhh what else - oh I gave her freckles like Hilda! I think that shows that she’s younger than Johanna quite well :)

I also just tried to use simplistic shapes, and give her an easily recognisable look. Just….tried to make her the kind of character I could imagine appearing alongside some other simplistic Hilda doodles from the concept art pages

OH ALSO ALSO I tried to lean into a 2010s influence with her design, mainly in her hair, by having one eye be fully covered

I thiiiink that’s all I have to say lmao! This was so much fun to make, I love imagining how my girl fits into stuff and this art style was a joy to draw in - it’s so fun! Really grew on me as I drew in it more, I def wanna return to it someday :)

[miscreantahead]

Tbh I've seen a LOT of people saying they don't think Chester and Norris are Jon and Martin in any way but the way I see it the other possibilities just don't make sense with what we have. (Not talking to people who just don't want it to be them because I see your point there but... well anyway.) Possibilities I've considered are as follows, let me know if there's some other thing I didn't think of:

They're completely unrelated to Jon or Martin and Alex and Jonny are just using their voices for new "characters". The reason I don't believe this at all is simple: is because it feels cheap and like a bad storytelling decision, and that may be a matter of opinion but I've listened to enough Q&A's between the two of them to feel like they wouldn't go that route. I could absolutely accept this if they were on a constrained budget and short on VA's, but the kickstarter suggests otherwise. I'm not saying they couldn't have cameos were Jon and Martin not in this, but large cryptic parts after the ambiguity of what happens to these two at the end of TMA would be a tasteless bait and switch that I feel like I trust them not to do. I'm using my Reasonable Typing Voice but I honestly think this take is borderline impossible and it would blow me away if this was the case.

2 is under the cut.

2. Something else simply pulled their voices from all of the statements they read that the web collected and is imitating them while reading new material. This one is *possible* but still feels entirely unlikely but the why is more complicated so I'm going to break down why this doesn't add up to me:

• The cases are being read by something sentient enough to understand and apply strong emotional tone to the human "speech" in each case. The contrast of the introductions and headers/filing information makes this even more apparent which suggests it was a conscious decision (blatantly, IMO, and after an explanation was provided for all the statements sounding like the same writing style in TMA, I'd be extremely surprised if this had no bearing on the narrative and is just a choice of execution.). So there's no way this is just a computer program, even if it's influenced by beholding, we know from TMA that beholding doesn't have that kind of understanding of human emotion either. Something with a deeper understanding of language and humanity than a computer program could have is reading these. Unless they're actually taking us down a sentient AI route, but that seems unlikely. So it has to be something in some way human.

• We consider it could just be Freddy (I forget how it's actually spelled, FR3-DI?) using their voices and that Freddy is the individual in question with human level sentience, but I have no explanation for why it would use their voices separately, why it wouldn't include others who read statements like Melanie, Basira, Tim, Daisy, etc. Yes, there's still Augustus, but that can only cover one of the other characters who read statements, and only Jon and Martin read a significant enough amount of them to set themselves aside from the others who read. The ONLY thing that would make this theory work for me is if Augustus turned out to be Gertrude, and honestly I wouldn't put it past Alice, trans legend, to call a quite seemingly older woman's voice by a masculine sounding name just for the hell of it. But, again, seems unlikely.

• We could consider that they are to only some small degree themselves, but they've lost a significant enough portion that they aren't truly, and are simply extensions of this universe's "Eye" (saying eye because I think the motivation would still have to be voyeuristic to bother?), to the point where who they used to be won't even be a concern. But this one is still challenged by the first bullet to some degree, I think. This one is possible, albeit a little boring in my opinion.

I'm willing to accept that none of the characters we know and love will truly be present in this new narrative. I actually went into it with that expectation and was jump-scared by AJN's voice 10 minutes into the first episode. But with everything in episodes 1 and 2, I don't think it's far-fetched at all to hope we're going to get some jmart again (I think the other direction is more far-fetched). I do think it's perfectly likely it's going to be miserable and painful the whole fucking time, though.