#the characters fully inhabiting the genre of their story in FORM

[fancy-rock-dove]

All of this, I love it so, so much. These tags though:

I FEEL THIS THOUGH. It is SO FUN to think about because English has STRONG preferences for certain stress patterns in certain kinds of words! Two-syllable nouns/adverbs/adjectives preference stressing the first syllable so strongly that developmental linguists use this fact to tell when babies start separating words by recognition/meaning rather than just by stress patterns. BUT two-syllable verbs preference stressing the second syllable. So much that this is usually how we tell which is which in speech where it would be ambiguous whether we wanted a verb or a noun otherwise.

So switching poetic feet literally affects the word order in your sentences and how you frame the action and the agency you give the subject, and once you start thinking about it too much you can NEVER GO BACK. It's the Pandora's box of poetry.

What's your favorite dialogue for Oaths so far? (Either chapter 10 or as a whole!)

WIP asks!

Chapter 10 has a lot of dialogue! Of course being the penultimate chapter, the boss battle, the wyrmening, etc., almost all of it is actually horribly spoiler-y. There's some biggish canon departures (not saying which canon! maybe both!) I'd like to keep a hat on for now. My favourite bit is currently written in common meter and maybe the MOST spoiler-y lines of all. There's also a bit of gratuitously poetic Middle English (a bit I've had jotted down for AGES, before I'd written almost anything at all), other meter (currently slapdash iambic pentameter, possibly to be changed to trochaic who-the-fuck-knows, lovingly absolutely the fault of @that-banhus), Big Declarations, bravado, rage, fear....all the good shit!

Anyways I've realized I don't want to share ANY of it and give even a scrap away so I'll say for Oaths so far it's obviously "Do you fuck, son of man?" mostly because it made it to a tee-shirt, but massive mentions to: Hob describing the hardships of life in Chapter 4, Duncan's first song in Chapter 2 that I was SO nervous about the reception of, that entire first multi-character convo, the first Hob/Dream dialogue that quotes the ballad, any dialogue that includes words I discovered in Dictionary of the Scots Language, the exchange in Chapter 4 where Dream says Hob is hardly a terrible man and Hob says not here he's not, honestly any of their flirting, any of the lads' banter, Hob in Chapter 5 saying he wants to be like a summer sheep, dialogue that echoes and plays with dialogue in Sandman canon, the chapter 7 tame/wild bit, Dream unraveling the truth of his curse in Chapter 8 against his will, Sande telling Hob how proud he is, any monologue (your girl loves monologues),.... i'm just gonna stop hahahaha

[rpgromanceplayinggirls]

Name: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Genre: Sci-Fi, CRPG, Tactical

Platform: PC, MacOS, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Release: 2023

Audience: Mature

Protagonist Type: Optional, Customizable

Romance type: Optional, BxG, GxG

Official Synopsis:

Begin your adventure aboard your personal, giant voidship, travelling between the multitude of systems within the Koronus Expanse, a barely charted and incredibly perilous region of space. Despite being considered a backwater of the Imperium, this region encompasses an enormous stretch of the void, filled with dangerous creatures and prodigious opportunities for profit and exploration.

Rogue Traders never travel alone. Gather your retinue of righteous heroes, twisted psykers, and perfidious xenos. All of them are ready to follow you into the darkness between the stars. They will offer you counsel, aid you in battle, and allow you to amass ever more power. In return, you can guide them through their own personal journeys, changing their destinies forever.

During quests show your subjects mercy or disdain, stay faithful to the God-Emperor, or consort with enemies of Mankind - your every decision and every act, even in character creation, is changing the in-game open world and those who inhabit it.

Slaughter the enemies of Mankind in a fully-fledged isometric turn-based tactical combat. Take advantage of cover, the environment, and careful positioning to overpower your enemies. When that is not enough - use your companion`s powerful abilities to turn the tide of battle and achieve victory even in the direst of situations. Our video game adaption of the classic Rogue Trader ruleset allows an enormous number of possibilities for you to explore.

Content warnings: Violence, Body Horror, Sexual Assault, Child Abuse, Self-harm, Cannibalism, basically if it sucks it's in here somewhere

Notes:

There are two male romance options and four female options available to the female player character. There are multiple endings to both the story of the game and to the personal stories of each romance option.

The Warhammer 40k universe is a dark one, and the morality of characters tend to skew grey-to-black, romance options included.

Although there is sexual content in the game, not much is shown due to the isometric style of the graphics, and it is limited to text descriptions. One character, Marazhai, is into BDSM in all forms, and if romanced the player character can be either his submissive or dominant. Another character, Yrliet, has a non-sexual romance route due to being an alien who views sex with humans as bestiality.

There is some reactivity to a female player character, but not much. Writing and options available to the protagonist skew towards assuming a male player.

[wenchofthescullery]

What To Do During the Strike, Day 7

*

So, mystery.

When I started writing, I quickly gravitated toward mystery. It can be a beautiful genre that balances firm structure with plenty of embroidering. It's like Bach, but in story form -- you have the concatenations marching through the piece, laying the groundwork for the flights of fancy.

If you want to comment on the human condition in the stories you tell, they had best have a strong framework. Sir Terry Pratchett was the master of this. You will note, though, that Discworld was a fully realized setting, that the characters were both three-dimensional and with very clearly defined roles, and that the plots usually marched forward in generally predictable ways. The story was solid. His commentary on people, justice, integrity, and the human condition then was interwoven throughout.

With a mystery, you also have a plot driven story. Something happens, other things follow in pretty predictable ways, and there is eventually a conclusion. As a writer, the plot carries you. It marches. It holds to the center.

Now the basic murder mystery approaches are typically "police procedural" or some kind of "private detective" (professional or amateur). Agatha Christie notably had some one-offs that did not fit well into categories, but she was an exception. These days, what is being sold is usually one or the other.

I started studying Connelly because of his popularity, but I became fascinated by his commentary. The structure was there, and as a crime beat writer, he had the technicals of a police procedural down cold -- but he named his first main character after a 15th century Dutch painter known for his nightmarish and bizarre depictions of Hell?

Well, I'll be damned, this man was trying to say something. And yes, I get it -- cops see hell. His character Harry Bosch had seen hell before, too, particularly in the jungles and tunnels of Vietnam in war.

And here is where it gets interesting. You might not be all that enthused to read about police right now. God knows, we have a lot going on in the press and our recent US history that makes inhabiting the mind of a cop, well, to sound perfectly unpalatable. (And this was how I felt anyway, back in my 20's -- it just did not appeal. I'd seen too much in the South.)

However, Connelly will not fail you. Bosch has, at his core, an implacable moral code expressed as "Everybody counts, or nobody counts." Goddamn. That's the categorical imperative from Immanuel Kant. This mystery writer is doing interesting things.

The categorical imperative has about five different (but linked) formulations. The second formulation (the "formula of humanity"/ the "formula of the end in itself") is most applicable to Bosch's code: Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.

Kant makes the argument in the 1785 Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals that every rational agent has his or her own goals, desires, and projects -- and that none of these are more important than any other. In fact, insofar as one can, we are all beholden to further the projects and interests of others as if they were our own. They count just as much as ours do.

All of us are ends in ourselves, acting as agents in the kingdom of morality, and we should never be treating others as a means only to our own ends.

"Everybody counts, or nobody counts."

Bosch is a complex character, both flawed and failing at times. But he never, never would have put a knee to George Floyd's neck, and he would not have let a fellow officer's actions in the manner go without pursuit for justice.

Police work is never going to be pretty and clean. Sometimes you see the depths of the human condition in the state of hell. But can you write a character that walks through a slime pit of moral decay with a moral code maybe tarnished, but still intact?

I think you can. I think that was Connelly's main project in writing this character. Now, he went on to develop other themes and characters (you probably know about The Lincoln Lawyer), but there were about 20 Bosch novels. Consider reading them. He does interesting things with the characters as well, but that's for another piece. For now, if you want a police procedural that can cleanse your palate of some of the recent terrors, you might start with The Black Echo.

-------------------------

Next up, poetry.

[the-eclectic-eel]

“Hyper-Gothic” Noir in Batman Dracula: Red Rain

Film noir of the 1930s emphasized heavy shadows and the obscuration of the human form in shadow and since the return to form in the Modern Age, Batman writers and artists have, more often than not, utilized these same natal motifs to give the titular character a sense of inhuman mystique. Yet, most every Batman story since Frank Miller’s run keeps the characters, plot and even the artwork grounded in reality; the human form is still relatively stable and shadows merely hide human features. Batman Dracula: Red Rain, however, stretches the character’s darker side to its outer limits. The comic’s art stretches and contorts the human form to an almost sickening degree in order to evoke a sense of the fantastic, while the story riffs on tropes common to the noir and Hardboiled detective genres by eschewing realism almost entirely and adopting elements of gothic horror. The comic’s overall blend of these stylistic elements create a unique and novel take on Batman that explores both extremes of the character’s lineage.

Even before Batman undergoes his vampiric transformation, the art of Red Rain depicts him as a nocturnal animal:

In the centermost panel, Batman’s cape is unfurled to what looks like multiple feet to both sides of his body. The artists have lengthened the “ears” of his cowl by several inches, giving his cowl an off-putting fang-like quality. As he glides above Gotham’s towering sepulchral spires in this image, Batman’s cape and ears evoke the image of, well, a bat. The Caped Crusader’s hunched posture in both the top right and bottom panels, along with his bared teeth, lend to this animalistic portrayal. Many comics, like Batman Year One, merely suggest that criminals see Batman as a huge man-sized bat creature, but this art truly makes the reader feel that their favorite detective is something other than human. These images pull at themes present in the gothic horror genre: the bestial nature of man, inhuman figures cloaked in darkness, and even the supernatural. Even so, the story clings to Batman’s hardboiled detective roots.

The dialogue in these panels evokes many of the tropes commonly seen in noir and hard boiled-detective stories; the femme fatale/ strong female character (Tanya), tells the Gotham’s police commissioner that the city and its inhabitants have been corrupted by a shadowy force (a horde of vampires) that works beyond the law. This would serve to ground the story in complete realism in any other typical noir or detective story. The abandonment of complete realism is necessary here, however, in order to tackle the supernatural subject matter, while also playing up the more gothic elements of the story. For most of the story, Batman does seem to stand as incorruptible, but he must inevitably succumb to the satanic forces that oppose him…

In order to combat the indomitable inhuman threat, the Dark Knight must become his enemy. The image above depicts a Batman that is no longer human, having been transformed into a fully fledged vampire; a true Bat-man. As alluded to in the above panel, Gotham has become a kind of Hell after being infested with undead vampires. Indeed, the lightning striking behind him and the backdrop of roiling purple clouds on a red sky confirms the notion that this new Bat-man is flapping through the sulfury fires of the biblical Inferno. The Crusader’s once sleek cape is now a mass of writhing tendrils that stretch out further than would seem possible. His anatomy is completely obscured by his now monstrous cape and the only bodily features that are visible are a pair of hideous, leathery bat wings. To call this image gothic would be to do it disservice. The art stretches the reader’s perception of reality to its absolute limit, encroaching into a kind of “hyper-gothic” style that distorts physicality in order to create horror.

This hyper-gothic image is yet again contrasted by the hero’s actions, however. Though his figure is now that of a demon more than a mortal man, Bruce maintains his sanity and, crucially, his morality, setting him apart from the corrupted masses of undead that he fights. The World’s Greatest Detective alone retains the last vestiges of his humanity in order to save his shadowy city from the overwhelming evil that lurks within it. This element alone prevents the story from entering into the realm of complete fantasy in the third act, maintaining the balance that sets this story apart from other more fantastical interpretations.

[ainews]

As the popularity of fantasy books continues to rise, one recurring complaint from readers has been difficulties in navigating chapters that feature mermen as the main characters. Many avid fans of the genre have expressed frustration at the often "jangly" or disjointed nature of these chapters, leading to confusion and a less than enjoyable reading experience.

So why exactly is navigation such a challenge for mermen chapters? The answer lies in the complex nature of these mythical creatures and the world they inhabit. Unlike other fantasy creatures such as dragons or unicorns which have set characteristics and myths, mermen have a very diverse and often conflicting portrayal across different works of literature.

One major factor that contributes to jangly navigation in mermen chapters is the lack of a standardized mythos or lore surrounding them. While some authors may choose to portray them as gentle and kind creatures, others may depict them as fierce and territorial. This creates confusion for readers who may be accustomed to a certain portrayal and are thrown off by a different interpretation.

Moreover, mermen, being half human and half fish, have a unique form of movement and communication that adds to the complexity of their chapters. While some authors may choose to describe their movements in great detail, others may opt for a more subtle approach, leaving readers to fill in the gaps. This can lead to a lack of consistency in how mermen are portrayed, adding to the jangly feeling for readers.

Another challenge in navigating mermen chapters is the extensive world-building that often comes with fantasy books. From underwater kingdoms to complex political systems, mermen stories often feature intricate world-building that can be overwhelming for readers. This can result in a disjointed reading experience as readers struggle to keep track of the different locations, characters, and histories involved.

However, it's not all doom and gloom for fans of mermen chapters. Many authors are now making a conscious effort to address these issues and create more cohesive and fluid storytelling. With the use of maps, glossaries, and consistent character development, readers can expect a smoother reading experience in the future.

In the meantime, readers can also take proactive steps to improve their navigation of mermen chapters. This can include taking notes, referring to glossaries, and re-reading certain sections to fully grasp the intricate world-building elements.

In conclusion, while jangly navigation for mermen chapters in fantasy literature is a common complaint, it is a challenge that can be overcome with a better understanding of the complex nature of these mythical creatures and the worlds they inhabit. With more conscious efforts from authors and active involvement from readers, the future of mermen chapters looks bright.

[m-wesley]

Remix SFF

(Posting these thoughts on social media instead of my blog because they're not fully formed.)

I’ve been thinking about the occasional attempts to define current movements in science fiction and fantasy lit, equivalent to cyberpunk or the New Wave. I don’t think any of these have been successful, and I doubt there’s a single dominant movement. But I think there’s currently a distinct and influential wave of remix SFF—stories retelling or rebooting specific earlier stories or characters, either explicitly or only nominally disguised.

I was looking at the Hugo nominees again and in both the Novel and Novella two out of six nominees, a third of each category, are repurposing specific stories or characters. In novels, the source for The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is obvious; the protagonists of The Spare Man are Nick and Nora Charles in the same way Solar Pons is Sherlock Holmes (spare means thin, get it, folks?). In novellas, A Mirror Mended is "Snow White" and What Moves the Dead is "The Fall of the House of Usher." Not a majority, but a significant minority, especially considering these are some of fandom’s favorite stories this year.

A possibly related phenomenon are the kind of stories centered around genres, or the story elements fans call "tropes"; combining them like legos (i.e., the fact that it's a mashup of trope X with genre Y is the main selling point) or writing stories that take them as their thematic material (not using a trope, but about the trope). When these stories focus on genres they're often playing with stereotypes of those genres—the most generic possible versions, what people who aren't into those genres imagine when they think about them. (Like, The Kaiju Preservation Society is not in but about the kaiju genre—it's a vehicle for speculation on how kaiju would work physically and what kind of world they'd inhabit. But despite the occasional fannish reference it shows no evidence that the author has ever seen any kaiju movies beyond maybe Cloverfield; these are the most generic kaiju possible, with none of the personality of the Toho monsters that defined the genre.)

I'm not sure where I'm going with these observations, but I think it's a real trend, and it's interesting to think about why this might be happening and where it's going.

[birlwrites]

The Spiral Method: For When You Really Just Want To Start Writing

Thus commences my formalized foray into offering writing advice!

This is the method I use for pretty much every story I write. If you tend to come up with a really specific character or scene or snippet of dialogue with literally no other context for the story it’s in, but you still want at least a little bit of a plan in place when you write, this is for you!

Step 1: Write out your idea

This might seem obvious, but take whatever seed of a story has popped into your head, no matter how small or intuitive it may seem, and write it down somewhere. This is your starting point and you don’t want to lose track of it. If you’re like me, and a fully-formed scene springs from your head like Athena from Zeus’s, you might want to just write it out now, before you get bogged down in planning and forget that really awesome sentence you just came up with.

If you start writing it down, and one thing leads to another, and suddenly you have an entire chapter in the middle of a story you haven’t written, with no idea what comes before or after, awesome! You know that much more about what you’re doing.

Step 2: Figure out WTF you’re talking about

If you’re starting with an idea for a character, what genre of story do they belong in? (Or not belong in?) What drives/motivates them? Are they a protagonist, antagonist, both, or neither? What’s working against them? Why do they want what they want?

If you’re starting with a piece of a scene, who’s there? How do they feel about the other people/things/etc that are there? What’s happening in the scene, and why is it happening?

If you’re starting with a world, what kind of world is it? What makes it function? What is a threat to it? Who and what inhabits the world? Why is it the way that it is?

Really, this can be boiled down to two questions: what’s happening, and why is it happening?

Write down your ideas in a new document. Give yourself permission to make this document messy. It should be more brainstorming than outlining. To keep track of important bits (for example, events you really want to foreshadow, or key pieces of backstory or worldbuilding), you can either put them in a dedicated Sparknotes-like section of the document, or you can put them in a separate doc entirely. (Personally, I use private Discord channels, both for the brainstorming and for the Sparknotes.)

Don’t stress about figuring out absolutely everything. A couple of ideas are enough, and they can be broad or vague, especially at the beginning!

Step 3: Explore!

If you haven’t started writing prose yet, now is the time. Write a scene! You don’t need to know exactly where it goes in the plot, or even if it’ll make it into the actual story - it might be backstory, or aftermath, or something that happens ‘off-screen.’

The goal of this step is to explore what you’ve come up with so far, and let the story develop in an organic way. Don’t edit as you write. Think of it as snapshots - you don’t need to know exactly what’s going on or have a clear mental image of how it fits into the plot. Just put it on the page.

In fact, it’s better if you don’t know 100% of what’s going on, because this brings us to...

Step 4: See Step 2

Now, look at what you just wrote and again figure out WTF you’re talking about. You should have a slightly better idea of what you’re writing now - maybe the plot hasn’t taken shape but you know a few of the characters, or maybe you have fragments of a plot and nothing else, or maybe you’ve got a better sense of the atmosphere of the story.

Put that in your messy brainstorming document. If it leads you to any new ideas, put those in there too. Add to the Sparknotes version as needed.

Step 5: See Step 3

Hopefully the reason that this is called the spiral method is becoming clear! The prose builds on the brainstorming, which builds on the prose, which builds on the brainstorming, which builds on the... you get it.

As you write, you’ll discover your story: characters, plot, context, the type of story you want to tell. Rather than creating a plot and then trying to get your characters to conform to it, let them take control. A story is really just one long chain of an action and subsequent reactions. If you have one link in the chain, you can work outwards from it until you have the whole picture.

Tips

Be prepared to scrap things. Scenes, characters, plot arcs, all sorts of things. You may discover that something you came up with really early on just isn’t going to fit. My best suggestion here is, instead of deleting it, copy it into another document. It’s much easier to remove a section from your WIP if you’re just moving it somewhere else. (And maybe you can post deleted scenes later!)

Don’t force it! If you’re bored with step 2, or feel lost on step 3, then just move on to the next step, even if you feel like you haven’t done enough with the one you’re on. This is a very flexible writing method, and the right proportion of step 2 to step 3 will be different for everyone.

Write what you want to write. Follow the bits of inspiration as you get them, and see what happens - if they don’t work out, you don’t have to keep them! That’s why step 3 is called exploring instead of drafting. Even if you don’t use something you wrote, it still gives your story a little more depth and detail that you can draw from later.

Do a continuity read. This approach lends itself really well to writing out of order, and since you won’t have an outline that you sat down to write start-to-finish, it’s super important to take a break from your completed draft (ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how well you feel like you know the plot - the goal is to look at it with semi-fresh eyes so you catch mistakes) and read all of it in order to make sure it makes sense.

Enjoy the process! If you’re dragging your feet, figure out why. Don’t write things you aren’t even a little enthusiastic about, because that means you aren’t really connecting with them. Maybe you feel like they need to be in there, but you don’t want them to be in there. 99.9% of the time, they don’t need to be in there, and there’s another way! Don’t let yourself start to dislike what you’re writing, or the process of writing it.

I hope this is helpful! If you have questions or want me to elaborate on any of this/give more specific examples, by all means let me know.

[charlesoberonn]

I’m writing one story pitch a day for a writing challenge.

Here’s the first one:

Title: Out Theres

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime Drama

Premise: A man is in prison for a murder committed while an alternate self was in control of his body. While in prison he discovers the ability to swap bodies with alternate versions of himself from other universes. Now he is trying to find the real killer out in the multiverse.

Characters:

Carl - Previously an unambitious office worker in his 30s. He was in the middle of proposing to his fiance when he found himself in another universe. Sometime later he came back and found his fiance dead. He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

He used to be timid and careful, taking things slow and keeping his head low. But ever since going to prison and discovering his abilities he became much more ambitious and outgoing and discovered darker aspects of his personality.

Carl can swap minds with alternate versions of himself in the multiverse. While he is in their bodies, they are in his. He has limited access to their memories, allowing him to more or less take their place, but he has a limited time before the swap reverts, so whatever he has to do he has to do it fast.

Jeffrey - Buff guy in his late 20s. In prison for killing his rapist who got away with it. He is Carl’s cellmate and close confidant. The only one who knows Carl’s ability and when the alternate Carls take over his body he makes sure nobody notices. He is carefree most of the time but when things get intense he freaks out and can even lash out. He is good natured and kind and polite but he also has a dark side.

Yolana - Carl’s fiancee. A sophisticated but outgoing and cheery woman. Fiercely intelligent and a lover of puzzles. A bit of a short temper, and a bit of a guilt complex. In our universe she is killed by Evil Carl when he is in Carl’s body. But in other universes she is often still alive and is there to help our Carl when he needs her. 

Evil Carl - Another version of Carl with the same ability. He used his powers to cause havoc and commit crimes with no conquesques, or so he thought. He was a fugitive from an interdimensional police force, but he managed to convince them that our Carl was him. So now he’s scot free to go about his business causing havoc. He is all of Carl’s negative traits to an extreme degree. Outgoing, charismatic, but sociopathic and violent as well.

Officer Xen - An interdimensional cop. She travels physically from universe to universe and can take the form of the inhabitants wherever she finds herself. Whenever Carl is out of his own universe, she goes after him. She is a bit of a maverick who loves her job, but gets annoyed easily by small things. She is tough and pretends not to care, but it hides a softer, sadder inner self.

MuPH - The Multiversal Personal Helper. Xen’s assistant, a helpful robot with a cheery attitude. One of the main sources of annoyance for Xen. Is more sympathetic to Carl than his boss. He also has a bit of a twisted sense of humor, and he enjoys violence and drama.

Setting:

The Prison - A maximum penitentiary full of hardened criminals. Killers, gang leaders, and corrupt guards. For allegedly killing his fiance Carl is particularly hated by the other prisoners and staff. Besides normal criminals, the prison is also home to various mysteries and weird stuff due to sitting on top of an interdimensional nexus.

Whenever Carl uses his powers, this nexus is probed and something else comes through. Jeffrey and the alternate Carl in Carl’s body often have to contend with these visitors.

Interdimensional Police Headquarters - A labyrinthian extradimensional castle full of doors into different universes. The place is ancient, and existed long before the Interdimensional Police made it their headquarters. They fitted it with technology and transportation to the different universes, but it’s still not fully explored and is full of weird entities and secrets.

The Multiverse - A possibly infinite number of alternate universes, each of them sharing some similarities with our own, but with a lot of differences as well. Some universes have the same laws of physics but a different history. Others operate differently, like with fantasy rules of magic, or cartoon logic, etc.

Examples of alternate universes:

Elfworld - A fantasy world with magic and elves that constantly wage race wars against each other for the most minute of differences. Elf Carl and Yolana are both magical peacekeepers in a neighborhood particularly fraught with racial tensions.

Congressworld - A world similar to our own, except that Carl is a congressman currently running for president. This world’s United States is in the middle of a crisis caused by a recent civil war against Fascist rebels.

Swordworld - A world of roving knights, samurai, and musketeers. Some of them robbers, while others are vigilantes. Carl is the squire of a heroic but full-of-herself knight Yolana.

Asteroidworld - In this world the Earth has been destroyed decades ago and its remains are a mining operation for an alien corporation. The few remaining humans live on a reservation on the planet Mars. Carl is a meek office worker in the mining corporation.

Factoryworld - This world is a grim, black and while, horror dimension. The entire universe is a massive factory complex full of enormous dark machines, roaming monsters, and mindless zombie workers. Carl is one of the zombie workers. When he travels to this world, our Carl retains his intellect at first but slowly loses it, becoming more zombie-like.

[writerforfun]

6 Elements of a Thriller Novel: How to Write a Bestselling Thriller

The thriller genre has both tropes and important genre touchstones. When plotting your thriller novel, consider these six essential elements.

A clear threat: Any successful thriller has a clear and imposing threat. What form that threat takes can determine which of the many thriller sub-genres your story falls into. There are many different types of thrillers including crime fiction thrillers, political thrillers, and psychological thrillers. If you’re writing a political thriller centered around a government conspiracy, the threat might be the FBI. If you’re writing a psychological thriller, then the threat might be a serial killer whose machinations have to be untangled by an intrepid detective. Think about what sort of threat makes sense for the specific thriller genre you are exploring.

High stakes: Good thriller writers keep readers on the edge of their seats. This requires ensuring that there are massive problems facing a protagonist along with clear, dire consequences should they not succeed at solving the problems. There are many different techniques to raise the stakes in your thriller. Piling one problem on top of the other and putting your characters in seemingly unsolvable predicaments is one way to raise the stakes. Additionally, you might consider adding a ticking clock dynamic and placing a time limit on when your character must solve the problem they are facing.

Twists: Most good thrillers have a storyline that is full of cliffhangers and plot twists. Subverting your audience’s expectations and throwing unpredictable roadblocks in your protagonist’s path will produce a great page-turning thriller and keep readers engaged up until the end of the book.

Dynamic characters: The thriller genre is generally defined by complex and engaging plots, but the best thrillers don’t compromise on character development. Most thrillers have an archetypal good guy and bad guy, but as a writer, it’s your job to fully flesh out a character and brainstorm their backstory and point of view. In Silence of the Lambs, readers are introduced to a main character and antagonist who both have full character histories that inform everything they do.

Memorable locations: Writing thrillers is exciting because of the wide variety of settings you can explore as a writer. A clear and detailed location is an essential part of writing a good thriller. This isn’t to say that your novel can’t explore numerous physical locations and time periods, but you should be sure that each place feels full and lived in. Your readers should feel as if your characters are inhabiting a rich and detailed world; they should be able to picture the physical environment in which your action unfolds.

Action: You’d be hard-pressed to find a thriller that doesn’t include a fair amount of action-adventure elements. The action doesn’t necessarily have to mean violence or pyrotechnics. If your thriller is more cerebral, your action might revolve around psychological games and manipulation. The important thing is to keep your storyline moving and include dynamic action as you start writing the first page up until the end.

Article source: here.

[welanabananaworld]

Ouija, Origin of Evil and the profane voice - Part I

Though extremely shocking and disturbing, children happen to be at the core of major horror films. Samara in The Ring (2002), Dalton in Insidious (2010), Dany and the Grady twins in The Shining (1980), the children in Sinister (2012), Thomas in The Orphanage (2007) are among many other examples that prove the existence of an entire branch of horror cinema built on the mythology of the malevolent child. Why is the figure of the child so prevalent? Why should the most innocent and purest human beings be the main characters of films that are  gruesome, violent and whose public age is strictly restricted? Precisely because their vulnerability and purity of soul make them easily influenced and manipulated by external forces. Besides, children are known to have an overwhelming imagination and a propensity to trust which are necessary to open the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead in accordance with the codes of the genre. 

In addition to this, the more the prey is opposite to our expectations and subverts our beliefs of what is proper and what is not, the more the fright and fascination are potent. To consider a child as a monster, a killer or a possessed body is beyond our general understanding, hence the uncanny appeal of creepy children. 

As pointed out by Alison Nastasi in her article published online on Hopes&Fears, this devious appeal for corrupted and murderous children portrayed in horror films might echo to « real-world fears about parenting, gender and social responsibility. »; a theory supported by Joe Dante’s comments about the subject : « Could it be connected to the fact that more and more parents have difficulty balancing work responsibilities [and] child-rearing (not to speak of nurturing their own relationships, personal and career aspirations) and are squeezed financially by the costs of raising children […]? Therefore, is it any wonder that children in genre movies are portrayed as powerful, disruptive, and uncontrollable? Perhaps these menacing moppet movies reflect the fears inherent in helicopter parenting—that the minute you take your eyes off your child, something dreadful will happen. » In any case, the films in question use the creepy kid trope in order to suggest that something is wrong, that the natural order of things is being shattered. 

The corruption of innocence can take many forms but the most interesting one to study in relation to the narrative role of the voice in cinema is the threat of an invasion from the Beyond. In Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), supernatural forces hold a young girl hostage by inhabiting her body and making it go through such transformations (vocal and physical) as to change it beyond recognition.

Taking place in 1967 in Los Angeles, Ouija: Origin of Evil tells the story of the Danzer family. Alice, a spiritual medium, is striving to make ends meet after the loss of her husband and father of her two children by hosting readings in her own house with the help of her daughters, Lina (15) and Doris (9). Running a declining scam business, in which Alice pretends to talk to the dead to bring closure to people and the girls help her out with tricks intended to make it all real, Lina suggests her mother to add a ouija board as a new prop to modernise her readings. The factitious dimension of the ritual which unfolds through the display of ingenious devices (stretchable table, a cupboard big enough to hide Doris, extinguishable candles…) is both an ironical comment on how fake spiritism is going to beat the family at their own game by revealing its true power and also a cleverly designed introduction to set the tone and build the tension. 

All the ingredients are here to turn the ouija experience into a nightmare. The bereaved family is craving for a contact whatsoever with their loved one, little Doris first. She wishes she could talk to her father at a seance like other people do when they come and see her mother for help, that is why she does not talk to god directly but instead send prayers to her dad every night before going to bed. Contrary to Lina who is a teenager in complete denial and pushes down her feelings, Alice and Doris seek communication and are open to it, hence the evil befalling on them. 

Portrayed as an angelic but lonely and bullied girl who is deeply grieving her father and believes in the blurry frontiers between the worlds of the living and the dead, Doris becomes the perfect human and tangible vessel through which supernatural forces can express themselves. All starts with the introduction of the ouija board as a prop into the house and with Alice breaking the three rules which are to never play alone, in a graveyard and never forget to say goodbye. At this very moment, Doris becomes inhabited by Marcus’s spirit whose identity is yet to be defined. How does this possession first transpire? Through speaking. Marcus uses Doris’s voice to start materializing and, as soon as she touches the board, the voices appear all around her, thus enabling the world of the Beyond to let in. 

Doris is progressively attracted by the ouija board which makes her believe she is talking to her father, Roger. They are deceitful spirits who do everything to earn her trust to better trap her, hence the hint at the money buried in the cellar. Contrary to Lina who is far from being fooled, Alice thinks her youngest child is gifted and asks her for help. As the readings follow one another, the trap is closing in around Doris who starts feeling pain in her neck at the same time she excels in the occult. She can now reproduce the voice of the deceased summoned during the seance. 

Once she is fully possessed, Doris first goes through a radical physical and behavior transformation by becoming lethargic, stolid, her eyes often turned white when no one is watching her. Besides, her vocal abilities also go through creepy changes. In addition to mimic the deceased’s voice during the readings, adults’ voices, Doris keeps whispering in people’s ears in a demonic way when the evil entity starts spreading its malevolent influence on the whole family. 

When the film reaches its climax and Doris fully assumes the devil’s voice, which is guttural, otherworldly and distorted by hatred, she no longer is a young innocent child. Marcus’s spirit corrupts and perverts Doris to achieve revenge by desecrating her body and soul and making her utter bloodcurdling things. The scene which most epitomizes the figure of the violated child is when Doris explains step by step to Lina’s boyfriend how it feels like to be strangled to death. The most uncomfortable thing about it is to witness the contrast between what she says and the sweet voice in which she says it with an angelic smile on her face. The mise-en-scène that keeps stressing Doris’s vocal changes, by shooting her facing the camera (or the fourth wall) as if she was already part of the Beyond, is meant to emphasize the element through which she is channelling these powers and forces : the mouth.

The mouth as an organic element  stands as a kind of leitmotiv throughout the film inasmuch as the possession of Doris’s body and soul by the demonic entity is made complete through that means. One night, Doris is awakened by her pain in the neck and gets assaulted by a dark creature who thrusts his devilish arm into her throat. This shadowy creature, one can notice, has no mouth or rather a distorted sewed one, similar to Lina’s mouth when she looks at herself in the mirror one night. At the light of these elements, what was supposed to be a nightmare was in fact real and prophetic.

But what can be the meaning of the recurring imagery of the sealed mouth (see  also Lina’s doll)? Who is Marcus? Why is he portrayed as an evil spirit? What does he want from Doris and her family? He clearly states his purpose when trying to possess Lina’s soul : to snatch her voice.

Father Tom Hogan, a friend of the family, is the one who uncovers the ugly truth behind Doris’s pretended benevolent gift of clairvoyance. She is not channelling good forces but Marcus’s spirit, a man who happened to have been mutilated and murdered in this house a few decades ago. After the second world war, a twisted nazi doctor, called the devil’s doctor in the camps, escaped to America where he succeeded to get hired in a mental institution. He went on practicing his sadistic experiments on patients in the basement of his house. In order to do it, he cut out their tongues, severed their vocal cords and sewed their mouths so that no one could hear them from above. However, Marcus’s story does not end with his death. Violently murdered, he never rested in peace but instead was doomed to wander in the cold darkness of the underworld among other desperate, voiceless souls and malevolent creatures who must have been summoned by the doctor who was into the occult. 

In the end, Marcus, who has been silenced by force, deprived of his own voice and overtaken by the surrounding evil influence in the Beyond, seeks revenge against god and people who have the ability to express themselves, eaten away as he is by hatred, frustration and pain. The only way for him to exorcise the horrible things he has been through is to communicate and hurt others, but for that a voice and a body are needed, hence his attempts to snatch the family’s voices. That is the only way to be heard and to have an influence outside his doomed world. Helped by her father’s good spirit, Lina grabs needle and thread and silences her sister for ever,  thus fighting hard against the entity who strives to engulf her.

Ouija, Origin of Evil, like many other horror films, uses the voice and its communicative powers as narrative tools to address issues and challenge notions such as grief, loss, family unity, parenting, revenge, alternative beliefs, suffering, innocence, corruption, violation and religion. Religion…such a crucial theme whose set of practices and beliefs makes it the most cherished subject of the genre. Any idea which emblematic film is yet to be analyzed in the perspective of the profane voice and corruption of innocence?

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Suppose a Kid... 1 | Hortensia Saga 1 | Kumo Desu Ga 1 | 2.43 1 | Cells at Work!! 1 - 2 | Cells at Work: Code Black 1 | Back Arrow 1 - 2 | Praeter 1 | Horimiya 1 | Tomozaki 1 - 2 | Wonder Egg Priority 1 | IChu 1 | Kemono Jihen 1 | YuruCamp 2 1 | Dr Stone: Stone Wars 1 | Sk8 1 | Mushoku Tensei 1 | Design-bu 1 | Wave!! 1 | BSD Wan! 1 | Ex-Arm 1

After much watching...I cut it down to 5 anime and 1 short.

Suppose a Kid… 1

I am not writing out that full title every time! Anyways, here’s the first “real” debut of winter 2021.

For some reason…this series reminds me of Pokemon. Probably how at the start, Ash tries to get along with Pikachu by doing all sorts of things like what Lloyd is doing here. (<- learnt protag’s name through synopses)

The name “Shouma” rang a bell and I was right – Shouma is voiced by Souma…Saito.

The Japanese title has “monogatari” on the end there…so it probably doesn’t fully translate into the English title.

These orange flecks in Lloyd’s eyes are kinda distracting…

Isn’t Kunlun in China, though…?

If this is just going to be Marie yelling…I don’t see why I should stay. (<- turned volume on for everything so far)

*facepalms* Lloyd is so dense…

That fight scene’s not very good…

…oh great. Selen’s fallen in love with Lloyd already…*sigh*

The missing princess is certainly going to be a plot point later.

Wow, that tiger looks impressive! If only they could’ve done that for the fight scene…

…oh great, Selen is a low-key yandere…

Didn’t Lloyd say he sucked at combat…? Anyways, I’m not keeping this. The designs are colourful and the tiger was good, but it’s meant to be a comedy and it’s not funny.

Hortensia Saga 1

Here for Ume! He’s voicing a guy called Defloitte Danois.

I-Is that CGI? So early on into the anime???

*a dude gets bitten into by the werewolf*…welp, at least this series isn’t afraid of its own gore.

I had a sinking feeling our real protag was Alfred…and I was right, according to the OP.

Huh? The song goes silent for a second near the end…what the heck?

The book appears to use English, albeit English so faintly inked in you can’t quite tell what language it is.

Alfred, governing Albert…? Isn’t that a bit redundant?

I swear all the female voices in this anime are squeaky as all get out…

All these high fantasy anime – or heck, any high fantasy series full stop – ever justify why the country is worth fighting for. It’s why I find war stories pointless and senseless.

You can tell from the voice and short stature “Marius” is Mariel…but she uses boku, which is why Alfred can’t really tell the difference. (Also, he wasn’t privy to the fact Mariel cut her hair.)

This almost smacks of a game tutorial. The CGI is still there…it’s not as bad as other examples I’ve seen, but you can tell it’s CGI when you look at it.

Roy’s kind of pretty, in a generic way.

A close-range archer! Ho, you’re kinda impressive yourself, Roy. (The feeling of a game tutorial has disappeared by this point.)

Hortense…of Hortensia…how confusing.

The scruffy guy you keep seeing with the dark hair is Defloitte. Keep an eye out for him for me, would you?

The ED seems to consist mostly of…anguished pop screams. *cringes slightly*

Anyways, this anime isn’t bad. It’s quite average though and its CGI could easily get worse.

Kumo Desu ga 1

…you know I don’t like 1st person cam, yeah?

…this is just Kumoko (as I’ve heard her being called) yelling so far…plus there’s quite a bit of CGI.

I like how the ED has an English overlay and the style they’ve used for it. The music, though…? Nah.

Wait a second? Millepensee? Shin Itagaki? That would explain the CGI!

“…a spider that just happens to have my memories.” – A butterfly dream, huh?

…well, at least this anime is well aware of the genre space it inhabits. Maybe you could say…it’s an isekai light novel, so what? *groans from the audience*

…well, you didn’t really “bring” your “brother’s” (?) corpse in case of an emergency, now, did you?

…welp, to have guts, you must eat guts. I guess that’s how it goes.

What’s a “skanda”?

This anime’s quite monologue-y (as expected of an LN). I can live with it, but I don’t know if it can carry the entire thing through the season.

…humans? Haven’t seen them almost all episode. What are they up to?

These designs sort of look like SAO’s. They’re not a dealbreaker yet, but they could be down the line…

This ED seems to take cues from Cop Craft’s OP (same studio). It also has some…“Aggretsuko rage”, I guess you could call it.

2.43 1

…Another confusing title, I see. I normally don’t do sports anime, but I’m here for Ume.

*sees the colour of the volleyball* - Basically anything volleyball has to collaborate with volleyball maker Mikasa, doesn’t it?

This anime seems to like putting characters’ thoughts on the screen for dramatic impact. The CGI is sort of visible, but not a dealbreaker.

I’d thought I’d heard of this OP artist before, but it turns out I haven’t.

This series has a nice sense of force. You see those moments where the ball squishes, or when Yuni presses against the wall without thinking? Those.

LOL, way to burn Yuni, Chika…

These transitions are a bit hard to detect. I think I like Akudama’s more overt ones more.

LOL, Dr Popper (sic).

The serves are nothing special. Haikyuu does the same thing from the episode I saw of it. (You know I don’t like Haikyuu, yeah? Dropped it after 1 episode because everything I heard the fans talking about caused me to connect the dots.)

The way Yuni blushes…it’s more than someone usually would, even if it is out of embarrassment. It may just be the entertainment I consume, but I could swear that’s going somewhere in more of a BL manner.

I get the feeling Chika has a bit of Virgo or Taurus in him somewhere. The sort of guy who nags at everyone to do stuff his way is probably like that.

Pocari Sweat (unaltered).

I gave myself dimples by puffing up my cheeks and poking them until they became permanent. I guess you can do the same thing with ambidexterity…?

For some reason, I can detect Chika’s jealousy when he discusses blocks and natural talent.

…wow, this anime is pretty serious for a volleyball anime.

The ED scene where the face is replaced with flowers is pretty creepy. Like Jigokuraku or something.

Cells at Work!! 1

What are these blob creatures you see in the OP, anyway…?

I think I remember reading something that the numbers assigned to the cells aren’t arbitrary – they’re hexadecimal colors, e.g. RBCs get shades of red as their numbers.

D’aww, Platelets warm the heart. They really do.

Platelets have a master…? I thought they were all just lil’ kids.

“What the cell’s going on?!” – Oh, I remember seeing a tweet about this. I love that pun! Kudos to whoever was responsible for that.

LOL, no. 4989 dancing in the background.

Hmm…those nets look like CGI.

…uh, I did not need that shot of the Megakaryocyte’s camel toe…that’s distubring.

Wait, Backward Cap is a she?!

Aw, lookit WBC being a dad. That’s cute.

Backward Cap = Ushiromae-chan.

Is that…a construction worker holding a giant pudding?!

Cells at Work Code Black 1

This anime is called “black” due to black companies. It’s Code Black to avoid being racist, I guess. I’m looking forward to it because it’s undoubtedly going to show a dark side to the main series…

…and there it is, the RBC complaining.

I assume OJT = on the job training.

I knew “pespin” (sic) was a typo. It’s pepsin.

Now that I’ve been working at customer service for two years (give or take COVID), I can see where the senpai RBC is smoothing over the relations.

…that also means I know where to suppress my emotions. I’m not a person who opens up to people easily without getting used to them, so people never see me as suitable for customer service anyway, but it’s the only experience I have so *shrugs*.

…oh gosh. I haven’t seen these words since…the time I was still learning biology.

…*sigh* Rookie RBC is worried about boobs.

The fact Senpai lost his iconic hat…is kinda sad, actually.

“Don’t let his resolve be for nothing.”

Hmm…does the male WBC from the main series wear black fingerless gloves?

I thought I’d heard of this artist before…but turns out I just can’t distinguish really autotuned artists from each other…(lel)

…and stuff goes ka-blam. It’s the spiritual successor to HypMic, even if I wasn’t asking for it. (LOL)

Back Arrow 1

…I heard you said “hot guys”? (Yes, I am predictable as all get out.)

What’s with that episode title…?

Stereotypes, eh? I kind of expected as much from the promo, but where’s the title character…?

…was that yuri fanservice? I can’t quite tell because it was the aftermath of an action scene, but I can see the shippers gearing up in my head.

…after a bit of waiting, there he is. Back Arrow himself. He kind looks like Takuto (Star Driver).

“I’m not trying to hide anything!” – Well, that’s…true.

…*sigh* Why do girls always have more feminine-looking mechs? (Plus this one has boobs…*sighhhhhhhhhhhh*)

So it seems mechs in this anime are the form of one’s conviction and they have skills along those lines, eh? An interesting concept.

…you do realise I abandoned an entire anime based on a joke about lucky underwear? However, this anime is so absurd and just keeps running with the joke that I just can’t say no to it. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from volunteering at a charity store, it’s that when it comes to selling stuff, you can’t say no to a lot of stuff…including selling potentially used underwear, so long as it’s not dirty or stinky.

Whoa! Those things break?!

Why does the title card mention the wall...?

Anyways, I…like it, surprisingly enough. Let’s keep going.

Back Arrow 2

…eh? Didn’t expect inflatable clothing, LOL.

I suspect Shu Bi is scheming something.

What’s the long thing…?

“…tomorrow might not come.” – A good reminder to have in these times of COVID.

Peath = Peace. (Heh. What a stupid name…*thinks about the name “Quattro Bajeena” suddenly* Okay, “Peath” pales in comparison to that.)

What is that creature that circles in the sky…?

I know this is meant to be a serious fight, but…that attacking guy’s hat seriously looks like a bamboo stalk and so I keep seeing it and trying not to laugh.

I only just now realised there’s CGI. CGI these days is getting much better than it used to be.

Tomozaki 1

LOL, Yontendo. It’s clearly Smash Bros + Nintendo Switch and the character designer was also around for Iroduku, so that’s why this style looks familiar.

…lemme guess, since this is a romance, it’s likely NONAME is Aoi. Or some other girl.

I would pay for a romance where it’s the girl building the guy up to be presentable, instead of a girl building other girls up to be presentable a la Ageha 100%.

Didn’t the anime show us Tomozaki reflecting to himself, though…?

“…rules working in combination.” - Well, there’s social norms (e.g. knock before entering a room), laws, contracts, societal standards (e.g. in Japanese society, you bow to others as a greeting or apology)…(continues to blabber on for a bit)

I think Aoi said something like “onitadaku”, but I’m not sure what the joke is there. Oni is in there, sure, but what’s the original phrase she’s playing off?

…LOL, it’s a good time to remind people to wear a mask.

LOL, Krout.

Anyways, this seems decent. I like how it’s going the way I want it to.

Tomozaki 2

“…make sure I’m nearby…” – Okay, that’s just being pushy, Aoi.

Minami and Hinami…so confusing…

*Minami chomps on Natsubayashi’s ear* - …okay, that’s not a thing girls do in real life unless they’re lesbians. This is likely trying to take the fanservice route.

They didn’t even show why the “kiss” was broken up…meaning they were doing it to make potential girl-on-girl look hot. Just great.

*Aoi touches Tomozaki’s butt* - Dude, that’s groping…

I didn’t think we’d get the story on Aoi’s “hexactly” so soon.

…well, that episode just made me feel mildly bitter. I’m dropping it here.

Praeter 1

…aw s***. Only a few seconds in and this looks like a terrible game…

It’s like someone barfed paint across Durarara…

The only time the background buildings look any good are when there’s a fight scene…

These Seals (or whatever those designs are called) seem to act like mini shields. Update: They’re called tattoos.

That transition was a bit fast for my liking…

Seems like the series is mildly peppered with Greek terms.

“To Infinity and Beyond” by…some author I can’t really read the name of.

Suddenly, they throw in more characters…?

Where does Eiji keep those bullet cases of his…? In his jacket?

Having a guy die in the 1st episode is cheap. I mean, we don’t quite care for him yet – it’s too early in the anime for that.

Now there’s Norse terms on top of the Greek ones…

Even more characters? You kidding me?

Lemme guess, Eiji gave up his tattoo because Yamato inspired him and now he’s a goner.

Welp, the weight of the world is in your hands, Yamato. Including that dead dude on your back. (<- sarcastic)

Sk8 1

I’ve been hearing good things about this anime! Let’s go! (<- about a week late to the debut)

That politician is probably relevant…probably someone’s dad, if HypMic taught me anything.

LOL, a beef. They call this stuff “beef”? Where’s the chicken? (<- joke from HypMic)

Haemanthus…apparently a flowering plant from S. Africa.

That’s rare, you don’t see Canadians in anime all that much. I was just thinking as I came home from volunteering how you know British people all have fancy names like William and Australians are Johnno, Danno etc., but Canadians? No clue. Update: Apparently you’d call one Arnold or something just as generic…?

Why are all foreigners in anime half-Japanese with the mother being the Japanese side, anyway?...Because people can make their character speak Japanese while looking foreign. Right. Moving right along.

Ahh…I understand your plight all too well, Reki.

…Hmm. It seems Reki’s surname is written kiya, but read “Kyan”. His name literally translates to “history (calendar/age) of bravery (military might)” Update: Turns out his surname is 3 characters (read “kiyan”, although I’ve never seen that final character ever being read as “n”) and his first name is one, so his first name is just “history (calendar/age)”.

Even I suck at balancing on bikes and stuff (…yeah, I still can’t ride a bike even though I’ve done so many other things in my life) and I know you have to support yourself with one foot on the ground before you do things like trick flips. I may not have observed Tony Hawk all that much, but he was on the periphery of my knowledge.

“What’s your hourly wage?” – Ouch, I feel ya, Langa.

Koko ni netete actually means “Lie down here”, but…okay.

These eyecatches are cute.

That’s a cute fox.

Yikes! 60 mph = approx. 97 km/h!!!

Random umeboshi, LOL.

Aghhhhhhhhhhh! Cherry Blossom’s so pretty~! I love him already!

Thank you, based Bones!

Something that can be enjoyed, even without sound: this is why I enjoy both action and comedy anime!

Okinawa? We’re in Okinawa?

Well, that was cool! I didn’t even ask where the location was until the end. Update: Why is this anime sometimes called Sk8 the Infinity anyway…?

Horimiya 1

Horimiya…I’ve been aware of this series for a while. There’s even a Chinese volume of it at a library close to me, although due to contact tracing I haven’t bothered to check it out.

Oh, I bet Hori is the otaku!

Ooh, Marketing Script!

Because I’ve been behind on the premieres, I’ve seen enough to know this boy with the chain is Miyamura.

…argh! Miyamura is cute! Y’all were right!!! (<- likes blushing bois)

I bet there’s going to be an emergency meeting!

“Sorry, it’s egg time!” – Oh, I’m laughing so hard! So that’s the context behind the Wonder Egg Priority meme!

“…see these?!” – Well, it’s not like you have a tattoo or some-*Miyamura shows his tattoos* Never mind…

Oh, I just realised they even animate the minute movements of the eyes Miyamura does…cool.

Notice how Miyamura is blocked from the other guy due to the window.

Miyamura goes “Ishikawa-kun” but “Hori-san”…hmm. No wonder he’s letting Ishikawa get Hori.

The problem I find with romance series is that they’re generally tied to heteronormativity. Hori is coded with red silhouettes and Miyamura with blue…*sigh* Whatever happened to gender ambiguity?

Good heavens, what is up with this ED?! It looks like Pocoyo! (…Does anyone else know that cartoon…?) Aside from that quibble, this anime is great though.

Mushoku Tensei 1

Apparently this is the grandad of all isekai. Why it took so long for an anime of this…who knows?

…and of course this guy’s a loser virgin. Go figure.

*sighhhhhhhhh* He’s just ogling this woman’s boobs…

…oh, sorry. I was so distracted by the man candy, I didn’t care about Rudy.

I-It’s actually quite refreshing to not have an OP protagonist from the get-go for once. (Or maybe I’ve developed such a disdain for isekai since SAO rolled around that everything here suddenly feels fresh.)

You can see the birthplace of isekai without having watched any of the others right here, it looks like.

“…what’s the point of incantations?” – To make it easier for you to cast spells, I gue-spoke too soon.

…wow, they shamelessly showed off Rudy’s privates. I know he’s still young at this stage, but that reminds me of how I dropped Dragon Ball around the time Goku was shown the same way (which is…very early on, by my own admission).

I believe, based on the name of the spinoff I see in the 7 Seas emails, the magic tutor is called Roxy.

You’re thinking about marriage?! At your (reincarnated) age?!

Oh no! The tree again!

LOL, Rudy’s acting like a kid who’s been in COVID lockdown for a while.

I think what most of the isekai that spun off from here missed is that the loser is job age. Losers at life at job age are relatable and high school geniuses are relatable (albeit sometimes insufferable), but losers who become NEETs for no reason whatsoever and then get banged up by Truck-kun are not.

Anyways, this was good, but a risky kind of good, since it seems like this male gaze will continue to be around as Rudy gets older.

Update: Dropped after learning Rudy was a paedophile in his past life.

Update 2: Apparently the anime toned down this paedophilic tendency of Rudy’s, so...now the verdict is that I move on while I let other people tell me if this is true of the anime or not.

Kemono Jihen 1

“Kemono Jihen” means something like “creature incidents”. I wonder why Funimation didn’t change the name…?

Kabane means “summer wing”.

Kanoko Villa, I’d assume, is named after the deer (the name means “deer’s child”).

My experience with Sho Aimoto (creator of this manga) is reading a bit of Hokenshitsu no Shinigami. (That, by the way, reminds me of Nube, but it’s nothing spectacular.) However, Hokenshitsu no Shinigami has a very detailed artstyle…That’s why I’m pretty shocked Kemono Jihen has such a scratchy one…

Ooh, edamame!

Oh, I see…this is like Furuba or a werewolf story, huh? Rather than a Natsume Yuujincho sort of thing.

…I thought Inugami and Dorotabo had seen everything of each other because of bathing together…I guess not, then.

…is Yataro going to die?

It seems the “immortal demons” are oni, so…why subtitle them as “immortal demons” and not just “demons”?

Ohhhhhhhh…this shite’s good. It seems to have a throwback feeling to it, moreso than even Yashahime or a lot of the sequels I’ve seen recently.

Cells at Work!! 2

I was going to move right along to Wonder Egg Priority because I’m really behind on the debuts right now, but I accidentally opened this up while I was cleaning up so I might as well watch another episode or two before setting it aside.

He’s dead, Jim. (<-joking)

…gosh, these walls look like Hover all over again and that’s from 1995…

LOL, these background cells don’t even have any details. They’re basically stick figures with fat bodies…

I think that phrase that appeared, “Take good care of B Cell!”, may be a pun on Give My Regards to Black Jack (written with similar Japanese, “B Cell wo Yoroshiku!” vs. “Black Jack ni Yoroshiku!”).

LOL, “you sure have the guts”…while they’re in the guts.

The certificate says something about it being presented to someone in the face of bravery, I think (<- just looked at it briefly).

“You have a good head on your shoulders,” says the T cell as WBC struggles with the disguise…stuck on his head.

Wonder Egg Priority 1

I’ve been hearing this series is surreal, but no more surreal than Flip Flappers. So…I don’t know if I’ll like it or not.

What’s this K?(?96…?

There’s a sunflower on her raincoat…so that’s why I saw a post called “You’re the sunflower”. Personally, that just reminds me of Post Malone.

Those Seeno Evils…they’re CGI, aren’t they?

As Boueibu once said (but I may be paraphrasing here), “nothing is more scary than free”.

…to be honest with you, I haven’t had a best friend for at least 2 years now. I only really feel close to people who are like me and who I have sustained contact with over many years, so I end up cutting contact with people after we part ways and never trying to fix it.

I always find it slightly absurd when anime girls get a little pudgy and go, “I’m so fat!” (See, for instance, the Dumbbell series.) Or, in this case, Ai’s going, “I’m so ugly!” when there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s only a bit different from everyone else due to her heterochromia - she doesn't have any physical or mental difficulties.

IChu 1

Here for Ume and, of course, dem bois. Bring it!

I seem to remember one of the magazines called an “Ichu” “an idol egg” (i.e. a fledgling idol)…More egg puns for me, then.

I found him! Ume! He’s Akira Mitsurugi! Update: Turns out that’s Toshiyuki Toyonaga…Oops. (Ume is actually Lucas from I*B.)

Huh? For a second, I imagined Akira with a dubbed voice. Of course, I could only be dreaming, because idol anime normally don’t get dubs, but…it was interesting to think about.

LOL, “Onsta”.

This Akio-type character is popular lately. The sort who’s timid but has an outstanding talent they themselves might not see.

…uh, but Kocho means “Principal”…?

An idol bear?!

Torahiko is crazy…(Note the tigers. Tora = tiger.)

Specifically, that’s black coffee with no sugar.

As much as I want to keep watching this, I’ll hit pause on it here. There’s much better offerings this season.

YuruCamp s2 1

…grandpa’s writing is so…neat.

*glares at CGI car…*

This OP just doesn’t compare to Shiny Days, y’know…?

OOPArts.

Talking pine cones! They’re back!

Curry rice! Literally had some of the Japanese-style stuff the other day. It was great.

All this talk about jobs…I personally don’t like jobs because I like to work at my own pace (hence one reason why I’m working on being a translator), but…money…I’m jealous, girls.

I’m trying not to rely on the subs for those texts that appear on the screen so that I can keep my reading skills up…I kept up with them for the most part…but then I got distracted by the croquette sign at one point…

“…buy you some local food?” – That’s omiyage, normally translated “souvenirs”. “Local food” actually does make more sense in that gap, though.

…man, I’m jealous that the girls all got jobs suitable for their personalities and everything. Lil’ ol’ antisocial me sucks at retail, even after 2 years.

Design-bu 1

LOL, that man and his bunny. Update: That’s Unabara-san.

…geez, these utaite are everywhere now. I’ve seen 96neko, USSS, Eve and more being more central to anime song creation…

Thise characters in the OP seal (<-the stamp, not the animal) are saiyou, meaning “recruited”, or in this case, “accepted”.

OEM = original equipment manufacturer.

Hrm…you can tell it’s a giraffe by description, but…that “base everything on the horse” is interesting as you could count several things as horse derivatives. Also, the angels’ names are all standard Japanese names with natural components to them (Ueda = upright rice field, Shimoda = frost rice field etc).

Is this pink-themed guy…a guy? Or a crossdresser? Update: That’s Kanamori-san.

I like how the suits have little wing-like flaps. Also the wings on Shimoda’s back.

…I never thought an anime episode would make me so concerned about giraffes.

That guy in the green I remember from the Wave x Tendebu (Heaven’s Design Team) collab, his name is Kimura.

Oh, so there is a bird like that!

The random wiggling the chibis do in these short segments…it’s a bit disorienting. (<-Just a small quibble of mine.)

Oh! Galapagos effect!

Agonistic: “polemical; combative.” I thought they meant “antagonistic”.

Oh man, that punch line was great! It took me a while to get into the spirit of it, but this anime is great!

Update: Oh, that’s where those nature names come from! They’re actually meant to be gods! (Or…named after gods…?) Also, Ueda vs. Shimoda (the “shimo” could be the kanji for “below”).

Ex-Arm 1

I’ve heard this anime looks bad…even well before its debut. How bad? Let’s find out.

*stifles laughter* From the first pan, I know this anime is doomed on my list. Even Praeter was better than this!

*stifles laughter again* This OP really does look as bad as the stuff I was seeing prior to winter 2021! Like a game I shouldn’t take out of my archives! (It’s not as bad as Hover’s graphics, but still…that’s from 1995. Cut it some slack.)

That’s the 2nd Kimura this season…

Yugg is just…ugly. Never try to render elaborate eyelashes in CGI again, people.

Dimension High School was better than this because at least that had puzzles. This is even jankier than that!

Wait, why is Akira 3D when his dad is 2D? It’s not that obvious, but I notice these things. Update: That’s not his dad…but close enough. (That’s his brother.)

…and here comes Truck-kun! (LOL)

This would be good…if it weren’t rendered in the jankiest CGI known to man…

Alma’s gun strike doesn’t have a lot of force to it.

The fire is rendered so terribly…*stifles laughter*

This part with a disembodied Akira is what I assume I got up at 6 am for…but I can’t hear it, due to background noise. Remind me to confirm this later. (Minami’s mouth is rendered so terribly…augh.)

No force to any of these recent motions, either.

LOL, this censorship.

Wave 1

Ever since this project was announced, I’ve been watching developments unfold on Anime News Network. I knew it would get an anime or something similar I could follow…and now here I am. I mentioned in the Sk8 comments I have basically zero knowledge of surfing, so…this is very unexpected, in one sense.

Was that a drone…?

“Wizard of the Waifu Board”?! Are you kidding me?! (LOL)

There seem to be shots where I can see the CGI here, but…anything’s better than Ex-Arm. Let’s say that.

Actually…yappe is a derivative of yabai, meaning “cool” or “crap” (in an ironic sense). So it would probably be better to translate it as “Surfing’s the greatest!” or “Surfing’s the coolest!” Anyways, what I was thinking before I was going to say this was that the waves are so enticingly animated, it feels like a summer anime. Basically the only other anime I’ve ever said that for is Grand Blue.

If I’m understanding where Isokichi’s name comes from right, “iso” is the character for seashore or a rocky beach (磯).

LOL, the teacher just wrote “Show must go on.”

Hayama, Kanagawa. Kanagawa’s capital is Yokohama, so it’s not quite Tokyo, but somewhat close.

“Murphy”? I have zero clue what that means.

Oh, I see. The title is translated that way due to context. Now that I can accept.

I just burst out into laughter when I realised Nalu hasn’t dropped or put down his ukulele once.

BSD Wan! 1

Here comes my past to haunt me…aside from me being a fan of BSD, I’m here because I influenced this series. How so? Once upon a time in the now-distant year of 2016, I was a scanlator for a brief period. Most of the work I’ve done hasn’t influenced the world at large, but this is the most influential manga I had a hand in working on.

Oh no! They’re starting with the dog AU?! (That comes from pretty far into the manga, IIRC. Further than my work was on it, at least.)

It’s Rashomon, but Rashoken (that last bit means “dog”). Hence Ruffshomon.

Basically, they just insert dog-related words everywhere…don’t make me explain every one!

Ouch, I can only imagine how much pain it was to translate Inu Shikkaku. Literally, it’s “No Longer a Dog”, but how would anyone make it in line with the other puns…?

I wasn’t fully aware of how the dog AU was connected to the main Wan series because I haven’t really looked at it after I quit due to aggregators, but…that was a nice fakeout. Also, I was concerned as to whether this was going to be a full-length ep or a short…seems like it’s a 10 minute short, so I have more chances of taking it.

…oh gosh, that pose! I remember it! I worked on this one! (Now that I know it’s a TV short, I won’t cover future episodes, but I want to at least finish this one because I started it.)

I think they added a bit there. I remember Kunikida’s and Yosano’s were in the manga, but not the other members or Fukuzawa going “the wind is smiling” + Kenji working on the roof at the start.

Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I remember Rampo. I think I had to approximate how he would say stuff with Pocky in his mouth, but Slug (current scanlator) went the extra mile and stuck food in his mouth to do the same panel.

It seems to make a short ep., they strung a bunch of the chapters together. Also, I don’t think we ever found out what Yosano’s puddle was and that was…probably for the better.

Oh yeah…I think I remember this one.

Now I remember it! I remember having fun explaining what a youkan was.

Whoa, Higuchi scrapped the SFX! That wasn’t in the original…

The ED seems to be an Atsushi cover of Namae wo Yobu yo.

Oh noooooooooooo! The flower gazing episode! That’s the one I remember most, because I was trying to figure out how to translate 移動 while making it smooth-sounding English…(I remember the final result was something like, “Move! Move~!”

Dr Stone: Stone Wars 1

Final debut! Let’s go~!

The last time this series was on the air was about 1 year ago. I can remember that far back…

I like how that recap is framed as Gen talking to the kids.

Senku overcomes every problem with science.

…not much to comment on here.

[themovieblogonline]

Lousy Carter Review: A Decent David Krumholtz Comedy

Lousy Carter, written and directed by the somewhat polarizing yet intriguing indie cinema's Bob Byington, emerges as a quirky attempt to delve into the comedy genre with a premise ripe with potential for both heart and hilarity. This film features a cast led by David Krumholtz, whose character-driven portrayal aims to infuse life into Carter, a man stamped as a societal and familial disappointment. Alongside him, notable performances from Olivia Thirlby, Martin Starr, Stephen Root, and Jocelyn DeBoer add layers to this tale of existential dread and comedic despair. Despite the ingredients for a breakout hit, Lousy Carter ultimately delivers a mixed bag that dances awkwardly on the line between genius and gimmick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yz7chWMlKI At its core, Lousy Carter endeavors to craft a narrative about redemption, dreams, and the unlikely relationships that propel individuals to confront their deepest fears. Krumholtz's Carter is a man besieged by his shortcomings, both in his professional life as a high school teacher and within his personal life, marred by the disparaging views of his ex and his mother. This foundation is relatable, presenting a universal struggle against the tide of expectations and self-doubt. However, the execution falters, veering too often into the realm of the implausible without the grounding needed to foster genuine connection. The chemistry among the cast, particularly between Krumholtz and Thirlby, who plays Candela, a beacon of hope in Carter's otherwise dismal existence, shines as a highlight. Thirlby delivers her role with a nuanced balance of earnestness and wit, elevating the scenes she inhabits. Meanwhile, Martin Starr's Kaminsky and Stephen Root's Analyst offer moments of comedic brilliance that occasionally remind the viewer of Byington's capability for insightful humor. Jocelyn DeBoer, as Olivia Kaminsky, rounds out the core with a performance that both compliments and contrasts the absurdity of the central journey. One of the film's most glaring issues is its inconsistency in tone. Byington appears unsure about fully embracing absurdity or grounding the story in relatable reality. This indecisiveness creates a jarring experience that often pulls the viewer out of the narrative. It undermines the film's potential for emotional impact. At times, Lousy Carter feels like a series of disconnected vignettes, each with its own promise. However, lacking in cohesive narrative drive. The film's visual style and direction, while competent, do little to elevate the material. Byington's choice of a somewhat muted palette ostensibly aims to mirror Carter's drab outlook on life. However, this choice also unfortunately mutes the vibrancy that comedy thrives on. There are moments where the direction shines, particularly in scenes that embrace the more surreal aspects of Carter's journey. But, these are too few and far between to form a consistent visual identity. Where Lousy Carter does find solid footing is in its sporadic moments of genuine humor and insight. The script, though uneven, provides enough sharp dialogue and situational comedy to keep the viewer engaged. The film's potential was hindered by its unstable narrative and tone. Byington's wit is evident, and when it connects, it serves as a poignant reminder of the human condition. Moreover, the thematic exploration of existential dread and the pursuit of unfulfilled dreams resonates, albeit inconsistently. There's an underlying commentary on the modern condition. The societal and internal pressures that define our sense of self-worth and success. Byington touches on these themes with varying degrees of success. He offers glimpses into a deeper, more reflective film that could have been more impactful with a tighter narrative focus. Ultimately, Lousy Carter is a film that tantalizes with its premise and occasionally delivers on its promise. However, it's bogged down by its inconsistency in tone, direction, and narrative cohesion. Krumholtz's performance showcases potential greatness with a more disciplined approach to storytelling. For fans of films that straddles the line between existential reflection and quirky humor, Lousy Carter offers enough. However, for those looking for a more polished, coherent cinematic journey, the film may prove to be a frustrating experience. Lousy Carter embodies the very essence of its protagonist. A project with dreams and aspirations that, despite earnest effort, falls just short of its intended mark. Read the full article

[haeddoti]

The Reader Trilogy

Traci Chee

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure fiction

“Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the

wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped,

leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin's been

taken, or if she's even alive. The only clue to both her aunt's disappearance and her father's murder

is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book-a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed-and punish the people responsible.”

I highly recommend the book to everyone who likes the genres mentioned above and if you don’t want to get spoiled please stop reading and BUY THE BOOK.

SPOILER DOWN BELOW

These days, a lot of plot is so similar to another that the story blur into each other and you sometimes even forget what you’re reading in the first place. Happens to me quite often but that’s also due the fact that my usual attention span is like, 5 seconds. This got worse over the years but what can I do.

This being said, it did not happen once while I read the books. It takes one of two things for me to be complete absorbed into a story

A). The story is so entertainingly written that I have fun while reading and/or the character dynamics are so interesting that I keep reading to see how the relationship develops.

B). There are some sort of secrets in between the lines and I really, really want to find them.

These books had both. Interesting, intricate relationships and fully developed story strings that deserve whole books of their own. Multi-faceted characters with interesting lives and A LOT of diversity. Speaking of diversity, I personally feel like some authors implement their LGBTQ+ characters in a way that sometimes just doesn’t feel natural or even just plain forced. Again, not the case with this book, the non hetero relationships were constructed carefully and the dynamics felt real and heartbreakingly beautiful.

Even the love relationship between Sefia and Archer, the two main characters, is great and the pain the two experience is displayed perfectly and doesn’t feel unnecessary because the story actually wouldn’t work if they were just “really good friends”.

I mentioned above that there are a lot of different strings of story and characters that at first don’t have anything to do with each other. The way Chee managed to fiddle all these different strings together into the best character-connection-net I’ve ever seen amazes me.

We have Sefia and Archer, an infamous pirate captain, a wanna-be sailor, a dying king and his lover and many, many more. This feels overwhelming at first but once you understand the concept of the book, it all makes sense.

Speaking of which, the concept. The fucking concept. It says on the first page (this is translated roughly into English, I only have the German book) the following

“Hello

If you’re reading these words, you may know that you have to read all of it. And maybe you know that you have to read really carefully. Because between the lines there is magic and a bit of witchcraft. And once you learn how to find secrets in the dust and how to discover the secrets of the ocean, then you learn what it means to be reading.

This is a book. You are the reader. Look closely. This is magic.”

The only thing Sefia has left from her parents is a book.

Some pages of the actual book the reader is reading seem to be pages of the book Sefia has and there are secrets woven into the letters and pages. Bolt letters form warnings or names of things that will happen in the future. Some pages have written words on the bottom of the page and these form a poem.

The Sefia is magical. If you know how to use it, it shows you what happened, what is happening right now, and also what will happen. And there is a mantra repeated throughout the book, the sentiment that whatever is written down WILL eventually happen. And while at first you don’t really notice what this means at all, you later realize that this is what is happening EVERY TIME you read a book. If you are on page 50 of a 400 page book, the characters’ destinies are already written, literally.

Sefia struggles with this reality throughout the books and at first you don’t think much of it but at some point you as the reader, the one who wants to read a good ending, you realize and understand BEFORE THE CHARACTER IN THE BOOK that some endings are inevitable. This hurts, the ending hurts but any other ending would have destroyed the story and to be fair, you basically learn how the whole story will end during the first book but that doesn’t make the story in between the start and end or in between the lines less captivating.

Are you the reader or the read is also a big theme in the book and it makes sense. With the book, Sefia can see what will happen and she basically reads what will happen to her and the people around her. But sometimes the book doesn’t show all of the stories she wants to see but only snippets. The book is magical.

Kelanna, the world the story takes place, isn’t as magical. There are 5 nations spread over 5 islands and gigantic oceans between them. Stories are shared trough speaking since there is no known alphabet and the inhabitants don’t believe in ghosts or mourn the dead. When someone dies, their corpse will be laid down on a boat, set on fire and send away on the ocean.

Even explaining doesn’t really take the magic of these books away. Please read the books. They are so good and I was captivated to an extent I never thought I’d reach ever.

See you around!

[mikewytrykus]

Carl Reiner: Write What You Know

When I was a student at Columbia College Chicago, I had a Studies in Television class about The Dick Van Dyke Show. What follows is the essay I wrote for my final paper about its creator, the recently passed comedy legend Carl Reiner. It’s about 1,700 words. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

I have been a fan of the work of Carl Reiner for a long time – longer than I had, until recently, realized. I had never noticed before that he was the director of such movies as Oh God!, as well as the early films of Steve Martin (not all of which I have seen, but I have enjoyed those that I did see). And even before I knew who Carl Reiner was, I was a fan of the work of his son Rob Reiner. I watched All in the Family long before I had ever seen an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. And The Princess Bride, a classic of the fantasy-adventure genre, remains one of my all-time favorite films. Later on, when I began watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, I did not immediately realize that the actor playing Alan Brady was in fact the creative genius behind the entire series. I did not notice that this one man scripted the bulk of the episodes, including many of its best. I had not yet come to fully appreciate the talent and brilliance of Carl Reiner. That is something I have only achieved through this course. I have a new respect and admiration for the man, truly one of the great comedians of our time. The series he created has been a favorite of mine since I discovered it through reruns on Nick-at-Nite and will remain one of my favorites for as long as I live. I will examine Carl Reiner’s various roles throughout the production of The Dick Van Dyke Show and show that this actor turned writer-producer was truly a force to be reckoned with in the field of comedy.

When I began watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, I slowly became more familiar with the work of the cast and crew of the series. Once I had learned who Carl Reiner was – the creator of the series as well as its chief writer and producer – I discovered his early work on Your Show of Shows. I knew, for the most part, who Sid Caesar was. I was probably most familiar with him from the classic comedy film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – which also featured Reiner in a small role as an airport control tower operator. I knew of Imogene Coca and Howie Morris – the latter more from his cartoon voice over work. I had never seen the show, but I knew it was a landmark television series, essentially the Saturday Night Live of its day. I’ve since learned that it was Reiner’s experiences on this series and with the people that have worked on it that formed the basis for The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was through Your Show of Shows that Reiner began a long lasting friendship and professional partnership with the great Mel Brooks, who I should not have been surprised, was the inspiration for the human joke machine that is Buddy Sorrel. Reiner was primarily a performer on the show but eventually became an uncredited contributor in the writers’ room. However, his alter ego on The Dick Van Dyke Show would be the series’ head writer, an embellishment that I’m sure delighted Reiner to no end. 

It is the creation of this series and Reiner’s alter ego Robert Petrie that most impresses me about the man. Trying to break into the arena of television sitcoms, unable to find a vehicle fitting of his talents, Carl Reiner took it upon himself to create his own series – partially at the urging of his wife Estelle. Reiner believed in the old adage “write what you know” and thought about what experiences he could draw upon that others might not. It occurred to him to base his series on his life and career as a performer and writer on Sid Caesar’s television series. It also occurred to him to not only draw upon his professional life, but his personal one as well, and show the two worlds his main character would inhabit: the world of his job as a television writer and his world at home as a husband and father. Reiner then proceeded with the unprecedented endeavor of writing thirteen complete episodes for this series in a single summer. It is this feat of dedication and productivity that most inspires and encourages me. It shows what a creative individual can accomplish when he or she sets his mind on a task, a goal, and commits to it. It remains a grand accomplishment in spite of Reiner’s initial setbacks in getting the series off the ground. Reiner’s series, dubbed Head of the Family, would make it to the pilot stage and, for at least a time, no further. It’s rather ironic that one of the biggest problems with this incarnation of the series is the performance of Reiner himself. One would think that a man would be most qualified to play himself, but apparently this was not true in Reiner’s case. 

We can thank the efforts of executive producer Sheldon Leonard for salvaging Reiner’s fledgling series and setting him onto his true path, as the show’s writer and producer. It is was here that Carl Reiner truly shined. The shear workload that Carl Reiner endured throughout the first two seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show is striking, one might even say Herculean. As producer, Reiner’s responsibilities included the supervision of casting, staging, scoring and editing of each season’s thirty some episodes, in addition to his duties as writer and story editor. Nearly two-thirds of the episodes aired in the first two seasons were written by Carl Reiner, and there was almost no episode that went completely untouched by his creative hands; many of these episodes were polished or rewritten by him as well. How Reiner was able to endure this staggering workload is nothing short of amazing, almost miraculous. However, it was not something the overworked creator could endure forever. Fortunately for Reiner, and for fans of the show everywhere, help arrived in the third season in the form of screenwriters Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. It is because of these unlikely saviors lessening his burden of responsibility that we were able to enjoy Reiner’s efforts in front of the camera as well as behind during the series’ final two seasons. It is here that Reiner was able to return to his first desire – performing – as the vain, egomaniacal, overbearing television star Alan Brady.

If Rob Petrie was the alter ego of Reiner himself, then Alan Brady represented Sid Caesar, as well as many other vaudevillian stars of early television. When one considers what kind of a man and a boss that Reiner was – he only lost his temper on set once and was a genuinely gracious person to work for – it’s a testament to his acting abilities that he delivered such a believable and hilarious performance. Alan was loud, domineering, arrogant, self-centered, often cruel, but always funny. He was the living embodiment of every big shot television star that was completely full of himself, and added a welcome dynamic to the show. As if beleaguered producer Mel Cooley hadn’t suffered enough thanks to Buddy’s constant insults, he now had his belligerent brother-in-law to contend with. But Mel was not the only target of Alan’s pompous anger. I doubt anyone on the cast avoided being walked all over by Alan, and I would say Rob suffered more than anyone. Everyone was terrified of Alan Brady, and with good reason. He held the collective destiny of our favorite characters in his hand. The threat of being fired loomed constantly overhead and led to some great comedic moments, even when the threat was idle or completely non-existent. Whether it was Rob forced to ghost doctor the lackluster play for Alan’s Broadway debut or the whole staff offering their writing services to a snail, the prospect of unemployment was never funnier. Not even friends and family were safe as Laura, Millie and Jerry were all caught in the wake of hurricane Alan. 

Writer, producer, performer, Carl Reiner was at least a triple threat. Like nearly everyone in the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Reiner was as multitalented and versatile as they come. Always a class act, forever striving for excellence and devoted to bringing to life “one man’s reality”, Reiner worked fervently for over five years to make the series he had created one of the best television shows ever to grace the airwaves. It is for this reason that he and Dick Van Dyke chose to end the show after its fifth season. Like any good showman, Reiner wanted to go out on a high note and leave the crowd wanting more. It may have been the end of his sitcom, but it was hardly the end of his career. 

Carl Reiner would continue to be a driving force in comedy and moved on to become a writer and director of feature films, including the movie based on the novel Enter Laughing that he wrote in the late 1950s that was a precursor to his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He kept working in television as well and even reteamed with his former star in the 1970s for The New Dick Van Dyke Show. It was, however, not as long lived or anywhere near as successful as their previous endeavor. Reiner would also continue to work as an actor and, in fact, continues to work to this very day in both television and movies. His role as Saul Bloom in the Ocean’s 11 films was one of the highlights of that series.  He has even reprised his most famous role as Alan Brady on sitcoms like Mad About You, a Dick Van Dyke Show reunion special and even an animated program titled – what else – The Alan Brady Show. 

Carl Reiner has crafted a legacy that I believe will withstand the test of time, and he will be remembered as one of the giants of comedy, a true creative genius. He has certainly inspired me to continue working hard on my own creative endeavors and to commit myself to the things that I am passionate about. If I could achieve even a fraction of his success, I would be a very fortunate man indeed.

[bcdrawsandwrites]

For Unity By me and @jaywings

Rating: T Genre: Friendship, Angst Characters: urGoh, skekGra, skekSil, skekSo, skekTek, skekVar, urVa, urSu, urSol, urZah, possibly others... Warnings: A LOT OF VIOLENCE. Description: One was as vile and repulsive as his brethren. He murdered, and maimed, and reveled in it. The other was as slow and indirect as the rest of his brethren. He hated his dark half as much as the others did theirs. But who they were did not matter, for Thra saw its moment, and seized its opportunity. View all chapters here!

---~~~---

Chapter 2: A Dream of Peace Summary: In which the Wanderer wanders home.

—~~~—

The sky had been a dark crimson that early morning as the triple suns rose, a deeply foreboding sign for many.

But urGoh the Wanderer—one of the sixteen remaining Mystics, one of the few who ever left the Valley of the urRu and who had traveled much of Thra—had witnessed many sunrises and the days that followed. He had seen sunny days that ended in sorrow, and storms that ended in joy. If there was any light at all—if the suns still shone, even when obscured by cloud—then it was a sign that Thra was still fighting against the evil that plagued it.

He took it as a symbol of hope.

This hope endured in spite of the terrible rainstorm that followed all that day and into the evening, and his steady feet did not slip upon the muddy ground as he meandered ever closer to the Silver Sea. His wanderings never took him on any certain paths or directions, and he never knew what he would see in his travels. Thra had bought him many unexpected sights before.

It still left him breathless with horror when he crested the hill to see the bloodshed along the shoreline, black as tar in the fading light of the third sun.

Red-tinged waves mixed with the rain and lapped spilled blood from the water’s edge. Down below him on the sand he could see the still, huddled forms of the fallen; surrounding them were a small army of Gelflings from various clans laden with swords and knives, and led by three dark figures that towered over them. Two of the creatures were large and stocky, excelling in brute strength; the third was lithe and agile, expertly wielding a long sword and wearing robes that matched the color of the stained sea water.

From this distance the Skeksis’ faces were indistinguishable. But the leader, the one in red robes—urGoh knew him. Knew him like he knew his own traveling cloak, patched and worn and frayed as it was, though the two of them had met face-to-face only once.

Disgust laced through him at the sight and burned behind his eyes. Even as he watched, the creature paused in the midst of battle and crouched by each body, briefly rifling with it, as though… collecting something.

The revulsion fizzled out to be replaced by a shiver of loathing.

UrGoh shuddered, forcefully pulling himself back to the present. He blearily turned his attention to the sound of water gurgling next to him—too close to be the distant shoreline, and too gentle to be the sea. The river here was shallow, soothing. He crouched by the bank and closed his eyes, taking a brief stretch of time to find his center and clear his mind.

It did not help. He could still see it all playing out in front of him again—as if it was still happening, as though he had never left the doomed battlefield. Meditation was not going to work tonight, it seemed. Maybe it was the pain in his hands.

They had been stinging for some time now. He opened his eyes again and dipped his hands into the stream, wincing slightly at the bite of the cold water against his blistered fingers. A cloud of steam issued from his nostrils into the chill night air as he drew his hands back out, patted them gently against his robes to dry them, and used his undamaged lower arms to spread a paste of crushed herbs over the burns. He bound them loosely in strips of cloth, but paused. His sleeves still bore dark red stains.

His vision swam, and the knot he made was clumsy. He thought he could still smell the blood.

When the fighting had moved on further along the shore, he was able to slip down to the muddy sand unseen, taking in the surroundings with a sort of numb, drowning horror. The bodies littering the shoreline in the shadows of broken war machines were overwhelmingly Gruenaks, two or three fallen Gelflings lying among them. UrGoh stopped beside a young Gruenak lying on its stomach, appearing mostly unharmed, only to partially lift the body and catch sight of the gash across its neck; blood gushed from the wound when it was moved, seeping over his hands.

“I’m sorry… little one,” he murmured, and settled the body back down as gently as he could. Slaughter and carnage surrounded him. The scent of blood was heavy in the air, even through the downpour. And still the battle raged on a small distance away—he could hear the enraged shouts, the terrified screams, and see the flickers of fires that struggled to burn in the rain.

The Gruenaks had clearly done something to offend the Skeksis, and the twisted creatures were good at what they did. None would be left alive.

Do something, a voice whispered in his mind. You are the only one who can help.

It hadn't been the first time he'd heard the calling, the pull to interfere. He'd followed it in ages past, when a race of enormous, terrified creatures had erupted from the ground and lashed out against everyone they came in contact with. He'd stepped in to protect a little Podling from the Makraks’ terrified fury, and directed the larger creatures to a place that was safe for them. In doing so, he had saved many lives that would have otherwise been taken by fear, or the Skeksis' terrible schemes.

UrSu had warned them all against interfering with the Skeksis again. “Not until it is our time,” he had said, with a calm, slow blink of his eyes. “Only when the Crystal calls for us.”

Do something.

The attackers this time were not terrified, misunderstood beings lashing out in fear—they were trained soldiers, headed by the dark shadows that bathed in warfare and haunted the minds of every Mystic. But what could he do? He was not a fighter, and attempting to attack the Skeksis was a foolish idea for a number of reasons.

He moved back uphill to get a better view of the distant battle without being seen himself—and yet, something had spotted him anyway. Why they came to him, he did not know.

Perhaps it was the simple fact that he was neither Gelfling nor Skeksis.

A splash in the water nearby startled him from his thoughts, but it was only a swimmer. UrGoh lifted his head and traced the creature’s path upriver through the glittering rapids. He had already followed the Black River for some distance before parting ways with the Gruenak survivors he had saved; keeping along this path would lead him, eventually, to the Valley of the Mystics, where he must relay news of the massacre.

The thought was not a pleasant one.

Sometimes he wished he could simply stay there as the others so often requested, living in blissful ignorance of the atrocities committed beyond the protective reach of the Standing Stones. But his wanderlust, this yawning hole in his being, would not allow him to remain in one place for long. There was always more he must learn, more he must see. Even if those things left their scars on him forever.

It was the only way to feel complete, if only for a short while. And now, having seen to his injured hands, it was time to continue on his trek.

He had traveled this way so often that he could follow the path with his eyes shut tight. He knew the fastest ways to take him home, the surest routes to evade Skeksis detection, and where to cross the river while avoiding Stone-in-the-Wood and any other residences of Gelfling, which had become necessary in recent times. The Gelflings would not take kindly to his presence, thanks to rumors and lies that had spread across Skarith and beyond about the Mystics. Stories spoke of “dark wizards” who lived in hiding and stole the souls of Gelfling children. He could only guess at the origin of such tales, and the reasons for it, but they certainly were of no help to him.

But apparently the lies had only reached Gelfling ears, and not those of the other races that inhabited this world.

They had come to him when the rest of the fighting had died down—three of them, one significantly smaller than the others—scrambling up the hill to reach him in the downpour, desperation filling their beady eyes. Shouts and snarls from below indicated that one of the Skeksis had noticed and was not far behind. Their tongues uttered broken language, begging him for help. Please, help. They were dying. Even the children were not being spared.

"Do not interfere," urSu had told him, but when the pursuing Skeksis, still scrambling up the muddy hill, let out another enraged snarl, something burned within him. The Gruenak family scrambled to get closer to him, and he turned his head, his long muzzle pointing like a compass toward the Caves of Grot.

"I will take you... to safety."

He had already begun walking when he heard the creatures shriek, and the monster clad in blood-red crested the hill.

"I see your wandering path has crossed mine yet again."

Blinking, urGoh shook his head to bring himself fully out of the memories at last and turned his long neck to see another Mystic standing nearby, watching him calmly.

"Or did your path... cross mine?" urGoh replied, tipping his head to regard the Archer.

"Whichever it may be, it is good to see you again, urGoh." UrVa, his long wooden bow clutched in one hand as an improvised walking stick, crossed the short distance between them to match his stride with urGoh's. "You seem to walk with purpose."

"Yeah." Drawing out a deep sigh, he watched his breath fill the air with steam. "I return to the valley... with news."

"Hmmm." UrVa stared up ahead, his gaze piercing, as though he could already see the valley from where he stood. “Your news must be grave indeed,” he said, “for you to return with blood staining your robes.”

UrGoh lifted his hands and once again took in the crimson blotches on the hems of his sleeves.

“There was… a slaughter,” he said, his voice catching. He turned his head and nodded in the direction he had come from. “A day’s journey… north… through the mountains, to the… shoreline. Skeksis fought to destroy… the Gruenaks, hiding there.”

The Archer bowed his head slightly. “There are some who would face death rather than live on knees bent to an overlord,” he said, his voice somber. “Like the Arathim before them, they knew the direction their path would lead.”

“They could not,” urGoh said.

The two ancient urRu considered each other for a moment.

“A journey to the Standing Stones would serve us both well, I think,” urVa said. “May I join you?”

In answer, urGoh turned and began shambling along again upriver. “Only if you… can keep up,” he said.

UrVa fell into step beside him and the two of them continued down the path to the well-hidden Valley. They walked for hours without speaking, all through the night, guided by the bright silver light of the three Sisters hovering high above them.

Once, urGoh caught sight of the Archer’s eyes trained upward at the night sky. UrGoh rarely looked up at the stars. They were a harsh reminder of all that had been… and all that may never be again.

"Our path... lies ahead," urGoh said, before he could stop himself. "So why do you turn your gaze... upward?"

"When an archer seeks a target, he must keep his eye out for it," urVa said, still staring at the heavens. "I have not seen my friend in many trine. I wondered if perhaps I could catch a glimpse of her in her travels."

"You speak of... Mother Aughra?" urGoh guessed, and urVa nodded his head slowly. "Still she travels amongst the stars, then."

“Yes,” urVa replied with an edge to his tone, dropping his eyes. He did not elaborate.

UrGoh glanced at him. “Would you… care to hear some poetry?” he offered. “I have written many new verses… on my wayfaring.”

The Archer stopped and stared at him for a moment, bemused, then smiled lightly. “I had forgotten you were so... artistic.” He swept his head around to indicate their path ahead. “Perhaps it is best we save our breath for walking.”

“Ahh.” With a flicker of disappointment, urGoh dipped his head. Not an appropriate time for poems, he admitted to himself. He prepared to set off again when urVa shifted his bow slightly to tap his elbow.

“However,” the other Mystic said, “there is an alternate route to our destination that I discovered many trine ago, if you are willing to go a small distance out of the way.”

“I am always willing… to wander,” urGoh said. “Many do not know this… but some say… it may be how I got my name.”

“Hmm. In that case, my roaming friend, let us continue this way.” UrVa gestured with one of his hind arms to a thin indent in the trees to one side, a thin trail that could only be called that in the broadest of strokes. UrGoh allowed the Archer to take the lead, traveling quite a ways through a sliver of the dark forest that urGoh had never explored before.

Eventually the dense trees opened out into a small glade bathed in moonlight, with clumps of berry bushes bearing silvery-white and orange fruits.

“I do not know of any other place where these grow.” UrVa plucked a branch from one of the bushes and handed it over to urGoh, who sniffed at the berries. “They have no taste in the daylight. But under moonlight, they are as sweet as shimmering stars fallen from the sky.”

UrGoh licked up a few from the branch and crunched them between his teeth, his brows quirking a little in surprise. The berries were sweet. As for whether they could truly be compared to the taste of stars, however, he could only guess, having never tasted one.

The Archer took a handful of berries for himself. He did not immediately eat them, seeming to idly examine them instead before lifting his gaze skyward once more. “Do you see the Sisters, Wanderer?”

Swallowing the last of his share of berries, urGoh hesitated, before turning his eyes to the sky. Two of Thra’s three moons hung luminous against the blackness, unobscured by clouds or trees. They were both waxing, though the Pearl Moon was closest to full.

“Beings that shift between light and darkness, and all of them merely dim reflections of the Triple Suns,” urVa murmured. “Waxing and waning in turn, the light and shadow unable to exist without the other. Not for long.” He drew his gaze away and focused on urGoh once again. “It is not in our nature to understand this, much less accept it. Yet sometimes, understanding comes upon us in the most unexpected of ways.”

His look was penetrating. For the space of a breath, urGoh had the distinct impression that his companion was looking through him—that he could see the blood-soaked battlefield. The creatures pleading for their lives. And the charging Skeksis, sword drawn, his eyes burning like coals.

“Oh—oh, yes,” urGoh replied. “Understanding. Like… an arrow. To... the... foot? Ouch.”

UrVa tilted his head, one brow raised, and urGoh snorted. “...Apologies. I… do not know any archery metaphors.”

The Archer smiled, letting out a soft chuckle. “With enough practice, they come easily. Now, we should take our leave—the night grows short, and we have several hours yet before we reach the Standing Stones.”

He turned, and began shuffling forward onto another trickle of a path on the other side of the clearing.

Before leaving, urGoh picked another branch and dropped it carefully into his pocket. “A sprig from these bushes... may take root in the Valley, if tended by the Herbalist,” he said. “The others would… enjoy them.” With that, he followed after urVa. As they left the clearing he was tempted to look back over his shoulder, to catch another glimpse of the two visible Sisters, but refrained.

"It is good to have company," urVa said when urGoh caught up with him. "With the Skeksis' lies spread about us, and Mother Aughra's spirit absent from Thra, I have had few to talk to."

"Perhaps... after this journey, your travels... could join mine... for a while," urGoh said, meeting his eyes briefly. So it seemed he was not the only one to suspect that the grim tales had originated from the castle.

"No, my friend Wanderer. I fear I would never manage to keep up with your pace."

—~~~---

The first Brother rose slowly over the horizon, casting long shadows across the Valley of the Mystics as they approached the Standing Stones. The Archer stopped in his path, leaving urGoh to go a few paces further before turning around. "Do you not wish... to visit the Valley once more?"

"No. This is where our paths must diverge once again."

"Then diverge... they will." UrGoh turned away, adjusting his cloak. "May they cross... once more, someday. And then I… will read you all the great poems you’ve... missed.”

UrVa made an indistinct noise in reply.

As urGoh marched onward, he heard the Archer call back to him: "You realize, urGoh… that some words can stir upset and anger, unless they are held on the tongue."

UrGoh frowned, staring down at his bloodstained sleeves. "Anger and sorrow... are better than ignorance."

If urVa gave him a look at those words, he did not turn to see it, nor did he hear his friend's footsteps departing. But as he crossed through the Standing Stones, he turned back to take one last look, only to find the Archer had long departed.

—-~~~---

Over a dozen Mystics resided in the Valley, but to call it "full of life" would be questionable. They ambled about slowly within their residence, carrying out the same tasks they did at the same time every day. Few acknowledged urGoh as he passed by, save for one or two calm glances. If anyone noticed the stains on his sleeves, they said nothing.

The sharp, pungent scent of spices filled the air as urGoh passed urAmaj's kitchen alcove. The bitter smell made his mouth water, but he would stop for food later, once his more difficult task was out of the way.

As urGoh marched along the upper levels of the Valley, he spotted the one he sought standing outside his dwelling place, his gaze pointed in the direction of the castle—or, more accurately, the Crystal. It was not an unusual sight; the Master often did so, as he waited day after day for the calling of the Crystal. The cool morning breeze tousled his stark white mane, and he did not look at urGoh when he approached.

"The Crystal... calls not today... I take it?" urGoh asked.

"It seems not." Finally urSu turned his gaze upon him, sighing. Even without raising himself up, he stood a head taller. "I see you have again returned to us, urGoh the Wanderer."

"Yes, Master. It is... good to see you... as well."

Without another word, urSu began walking past him, as though that were the end of their conversation.

UrGoh followed, not keen on dropping this so easily. "I bring... news."

The leader of the urRu slowly shook his head. "No news from the outside is important... that we cannot tell from the position of the suns, or the song of the Crystal."

“The Crystal… has been silent,” urGoh pointed out, “yet other voices… cry out in terror… and pain. Skeksis spread lies... about us, and seek domination… over all races on Thra. Resistance against them… is met with massacre.”

They had come close enough to the Valley’s lower levels for nearby Mystics to catch his last few words; they lifted their heads a bit, as if listening but not entirely concerned.

UrSu stopped in his path down to the Valley floor, his head lowered, seeming to lean all of his weight on the walking stick he carried. “We have all known this for some time,” he said. “Your news… is not new. It brings only grief, Wanderer. Not enlightenment.”

Guilt pricked at urGoh’s heart. All sixteen urRu wore remorse like a second coat, but urSu seemed to bear it more heavily than most. The slaughter urGoh had witnessed was not a new revelation, but instead was one more tragedy in a long season of devastation carried out by the Skeksis.

Another urRu approached them, bowing his head to urSu and then fixing urGoh with a steady look. “And who is it, Wanderer? Who has fallen to Skeksis cruelty this day?”

UrGoh opened his mouth to answer, but to his surprise, urSu cut him off.

“No,” the urRu Master said quietly but firmly, not looking at either of them. “You know it is not our concern, Chanter. It is not our place to interfere with the world outside this valley. Our purpose is to wait here, for the calling of the Crystal.”

“Of course.” UrSol the Chanter inclined his head to urSu once more, and turned to leave. As he walked away, however, low rumbling notes issued from his throat; urGoh stiffened at the words that filtered into his head in urSol’s voice, which urSu could not hear: “I can see that something more troubles you, Wanderer. Not all of us are in full agreement with the complacency we have chosen. But we must all heed urSu’s wise words. Tread lightly, for your path forward is narrow and the smallest misstep may cause it to crumble.”

He took a moment to reflect on this, and somehow, his resolve strengthened. Normally this was the point where he really would let it rest—where he would turn aside, eat and sleep, and make preparations for yet another journey. Truly, he hated making urSu feel worse than he usually did, and the lot of them already knew how terrible things were outside the Valley.

But this time, something was different.

UrGoh didn't feel the usual calm defeat he did when returning with bad news. He didn't find his emotions all that easy to turn away, just as the blood had not washed away from his sleeves last night. An unfamiliar fervor clung to him as the stains did his robes, burning within his chest, working its way through his throat and to his tongue.

"What about... our former purpose?"

UrSu stopped walking.

None of them fully remembered the days before the Great Conjunction—so much of it felt like a dream at best, a nightmare at worst. But something had brought part of it back to his memory. "Were we not... here to help this planet? Isn't that why... we're here... to begin with?"

Clack.

It was a hollow sound, yet it rang throughout the Valley, which became very still.

And at the same time, things became much more noisy.

Talons, much smaller than his own hands, curled into fists and slammed against the table, sending a flare of pain through his still-blistered fingers. The room was dim save for the light filtering in through a small window against the table, and his view of the stone walls was blocked by tall, bulky figures.

UrGoh blinked.

This was not the Valley.

"SkekUng has already moved on elsewhere," he found himself saying, in a harsh and grating voice that was not his own. "It would take us a full day to reach him and we don't have that time."

A stuffy snort erupted to his side. "We don't need him. This won't be an attack on nearly the same scale as before. This will be an unorganized skirmish." Another fist pounded the table, with purpose. "We will crush them like the crawlies they are."

Taking stock of his surroundings again, urGoh noticed the map spread out over the table. It was hard to make out, but what little light there was in the room was focused on a singular place: a layout of the Caves of Grot.

"Mmmmm, Conqueror, is your mind wandering?"

When urGoh blinked again, the dim room was gone, and urSu was casting a long shadow over him. "...My... a... pologies," urGoh muttered, sweeping his tail behind him. What... had just happened?

His hands still stung; he could almost feel the rough wood grain of the far-distant table scraping across his knuckles. Never before had he been pulled from his own consciousness to see through the eyes of his Skeksis counterpart. He felt as though he had teetered on the edge of a steep ravine, the bottom hidden in complete darkness, only for someone to yank him back to safety at the last moment. He did not know what to make of it.

UrSu was looking at him intently. He had tapped his walking stick on the ground—not hard, but with enough force to cause everyone in the valley to focus their dull-eyed attention on him. They knew what the sound meant.

“We have all discussed these very questions in trine past,” he said. “Who we were, before the sky shattered above us…” he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, another sigh, “...is not who we are now. In these forms we can do nothing. We do not have the means to affect the world outside this valley. Nor should we… As you have brought readily back to mind, urGoh the Wanderer, our very presence here unleashed the wrath of the Skeksis upon this world… Perhaps we have done enough.”

The phrasing struck a chord, but of course urSu could not know that. He hesitated to speak again, though the words burned within him with the same strange fire as they had a moment ago, before his brief excursion into the mind of a bloodthirsty lizard.

“Gelfling… give each other aid with naught but brave hearts, and… two hands to help the fallen to their feet,” he said at last. “We… have… four.”

UrSu gazed down at him without anger or coldness, and spoke calmly, as though stating a simple fact: "Helping one to their feet... only allows them to fall harder once again."

"At least they can stand... a moment longer," he retorted, and resumed without thinking, "I do not regret... helping the Gruenak... as I did."

Only too late did he realize what he had said. In that moment, urSu raised himself up higher, though he kept his lower arms gripping his walking stick. "I thought something had changed... within you, Wanderer. You were always... in a hurry, but now... you have become hotblooded."

UrGoh took a step back, unsettlingly alarmed. He had not changed. He perhaps felt a little different, but truly it was from seeing the helplessness of the Gruenak that had approached him, nothing more. It wasn't the fact that he had seen him scrambling up the hill, his fiery eyes trained on the cowering family, his sword raised to kill.

It was not the fact that he'd stepped forward, and reached out with one of his four hands, and...

"You have seen... your dark half."

UrGoh let out a rush of air through his teeth.

"That is yet another reason... to not get involved." UrSu's tone was not condemning, but sympathetic. "We cannot allow ourselves to receive influence from our dark halves."

"Regardless... of how I did it..." urGoh said, mulling over his words, "I do not... regret... saving the Gruenak. Not now that they are safe... in the... in..."

His breath caught.

He'd led them into the Caves of Grot.

Where the Skeksis were now leading an attack.

"...They are not safe," he whispered, drawing back further.

"No," urSu said, finally lowering himself from his more upright stance, rolling his shoulders. "That is the way of things, and why—"

UrGoh slapped his tail against the ground. "—Why... I must help again." He looked up, meeting urSu's gaze. "Please... help me. We may... save them."

His heart raced in his chest—more frantically, he thought, than it had ever done in his existence. Emotions were surging through him, bubbling just beneath the surface, an entirely new sensation that he could not recall ever feeling before. He felt lingering disgust at finding himself peering through the eyes of his dark counterpart, whom he had tried for many trine to forget the existence of and yet now seemed to be popping up everywhere; there were sharp stabs of fear for the Gruenaks he had tried to protect, like icy knives impaling his skin; and most peculiarly, there was… growing frustration? Anger? Anger—towards the other Mystics? Towards urSu?

UrGoh clamped down hard on the feeling and struggled to snuff it out. Who was he, to let himself feel such anger? Especially toward his own kind? Especially toward his leader?

But why would urSu simply not listen?

“It is my opinion,” urSu said, his voice firm and yet as calm and measured as ever, “that you should stay in the Valley, Wanderer. I am afraid I must implore you once again to make your home here with the rest of us… I have advised everyone to avoid interfering with the happenings outside. It seems you cannot heed these warnings…”

UrGoh stood with his mouth slightly open and his mind working slowly, unable to form a response. He had always known he could never be content to stay in any one place for too long, so living forever in the Valley had been out of the question. His place was meandering through the world, taking everything in. Watching the wondrous creatures of Thra go about their lives—their happy, fulfilling, whole lives that deep down he knew he could never experience for himself.

Now, as sudden as though it had leaped from the bushes and ambushed him, something greater called. He had led the battle’s survivors to the Caves of Grot hoping the Grottan Gelflings would see to it that they were protected and well-cared for. He had thought they were safe. He had wanted them safe.

“I am… sorry…” urGoh said, looking urSu straight in the eye. “I cannot… stay here.”

UrSu held his gaze, then closed his eyes as though in deep regret. “You are always welcome here, my old friend,” he said, his voice heavy with sadness. “I hope, in due time, you will realize you are making a grave mistake. I only hope you can recognize it before it is too late.”

He turned his head away again, and urGoh took that as a dismissal. The leader of the urRu would be no further help. UrGoh left his side at last and scrutinized the faces of the other Mystics in the valley, his heart still pounding, silently pleading for them to aid him. He could not do this alone.

The Caves of Grot were a day’s journey again back in the direction he had come. He also needed to eat and sleep, or he may well collapse on the trip. He would never get there in time. Not before the Skeksis arrived to wage their war, anyway, and he knew with bone-deep certainty that skekGra the Conqueror would never allow those three Gruenaks to escape alive again once he had them back in his sights. It was only a matter of time before they too were left like the poor soul he had lifted from the ground by the shores of the Silver Sea, the life cut from him with a gash to the throat.

There must be something he could still do. Surely someone would help him.

He spotted urSol once more, engaged in chanting ancient words over burning incense, and made his way over to him. He was keenly aware of the others glancing up at him as he passed by, only to look away again. UrSol looked up as he neared and met him patiently; it was as if he had been waiting for urGoh to approach him.

“I am sorry that you did not find what you sought here, Wanderer,” he said. “Perhaps in time we will all grow more attuned to the world’s suffering. For now, it seems you sail your own seas.”

“I need… to get to the Caves of Grot… quickly,” urGoh said. “Perhaps… you have something to…?”

“Songs and chanting will not aid your objective,” urSol interrupted. “You must seek help from another source. There is a place where one might stand and gaze into the far reaches of the universe, beyond the three suns, and glimpse the future in the shapes of the orbiting stars. It is there that you will find what you most desperately seek.”

UrGoh perked up, hope brimming in his chest, as well as confusion. A place to stand in one spot and look out across the universe… Where could that be? He had heard of the Spy Glass at the Castle of the Crystal, a contraption built by their Scientist with which you could peer over great distances, but surely urSol would not send him alone into the home of the Skeksis. The dark creatures had learned their lesson about harming Mystics half a thousand trine ago, but even so… even so…

“You will understand,” urSol murmured, turning back to his work with a swish of his tail, “when you see it on the horizon. Follow the Greater Sun…”

UrGoh tilted his head to one side. “But… that will take me to—”

“UrGoh,” a second voice said. UrGoh looked up in mild surprise; urZah the Ritual Guardian had joined them, looking at the two of them somberly. “You waste too much time here, Wanderer… If you truly want to save these creatures, you must leave now. Go to the home of Aughra—that is where you will find help.”

“I… see.” UrGoh glanced back at urSol. “You could have just… said that. But Mother Aughra continues her journey across the stars, and… can provide no help.”

“You have charted a treacherous course, Wanderer,” was all urSol said in response, without looking at him. “Though you are a skilled oarsman, be wary your vessel does not overturn… and you dash yourself upon the rocks.”

“And know this, also,” urZah said, lifting his head up and looking at urGoh through heavily-lidded eyes. “Though the Crystal does not call to us yet, it whispers… and I foresee a great darkness over your future, Wanderer. This path you have chosen—there is something unknown approaching, unfamiliar to us, crouching ahead of you like a fearsome beast. It waits to consume you… and your shadow.”

Uneasiness stirred in urGoh’s chest, his limbs suddenly seeming to grow heavier with dread. He pressed his mouth closed, swallowing hard, and then asked, “What… do you mean, my shadow?”

Nothing he knew of on Thra could consume shadows. He wondered if there were creatures unknown to the Mystics, perhaps deep down in the Caves of Grot, and he was walking directly into danger.

Or perhaps, a part of him—a part he desperately wished to ignore—whispered, perhaps urZah did not mean it quite so literally.

"I believe... you understand already," urZah said, inclining his head.

UrGoh grunted. "Whatever happens... will happen. I will take... the course I must." If the Chanter and the Ritual Guardian both bade him to travel to the sage’s observatory, then he would, and see what answers awaited him there.

"Then safe journeys... friend," urSol said, bowing his head. UrZah did the same, stepping aside and allowing him to pass.

But he would not leave the Valley just yet. Used as he was to travel, after a full day and night of walking he would need food and rest if he wanted any success on this journey. He stopped by urAmaj's kitchen to obtain a bowl of broth, which he carried with him to a cave that none of the other Mystics inhabited: his own home.

It was dusty and sparsely-decorated, but as he spent so little time there, it needed nothing more than what it had: a small mound of cushions and blankets that served as a bed, and a shelf stacked with sheafs of bark paper. While he used his front arms to bring his bowl of broth to his muzzle, with his back arms he reached into his satchel and drew out a few more scraps of paper. He placed those on the shelf with the others, adding to his growing collection of poetry.

As he downed the bitter food, his mind drifted back to urZah's words.

It waits to consume you... and your shadow.

That shadow, darkness and hatred made manifest, had cast a shadow of its own over the three Gruenaks, who trembled and sobbed around him. The presence of the creature made his mane bristle; he froze with his back to the monster and his head held low, glaring at the ground, disgusted at the thought of being anywhere near him.

The Skeksis, meanwhile, took no notice of him—entirely focused on his prey, he perhaps assumed that urGoh was a misshapen boulder in the rain.

"You little Gruenak worms dare think you can oppose the Lords of the Crystal and get away with it?!" His voice was a mad shriek, a taunt, as he swished his blade back and forth in front of them.

The Gruenak pleaded with him—with both of them—in broken language, begging the dark to show mercy, the light to show strength.

Only one of those was possible.

Behind him, the shadow raised his sword, and urGoh felt a flash of fury. With more speed than he had ever known, he raised himself up and twisted around, grabbing the Skeksis’ arm before the blow could fall.

The feeling that shot through him was familiar, yet not, jolting like a lightning strike through his hand and down his arm to the rest of his body. It shocked him to his core and he almost let go at once—but he shoved the feeling aside as he finally lifted his head up to face him, staring directly into the crazed and uncomprehending eyes of his dark half.

And, filled with a boldness he could not explain, he finally spoke:

“You... have done enough here today, skekGra. Leave these few... and go slink back to the rest of your kind."

After a moment, he let go, and the feeling was gone in an instant.

The strength and energy that had so suddenly filled him drained away, leaving him feeling like a cracked, empty vessel. UrGoh watched the Conqueror jerk backward in what he might have mistaken as horror, a strangled noise tearing from the creature’s throat. He saw as if in a blur the Skeksis whirl around, muddied red robes swirling, and vanish back down the hillside in a spray of silt.

He was gone.

UrGoh blinked down at the empty bowl in his hands; a bit of the edge had chipped away from his holding it too tightly. Shaking his head, he set it aside, and curled up upon his bedding. His back hands lazily drew a blank sheaf of paper, a quill, and an inkwell from his satchel and transferred them to his front hands.

Heaving a sigh that stirred the dust around the floor, he placed the paper down gently, took quill in hand, and began to scrawl.

The shadows cast from the beings of light

Promised protection, but instead ruled with spite.

The weak turned to the shadows to please show them grace—

Their response was the sword, and a turned-away face.

They then searched for the light in desperation for aid,

But the lantern is dim now and obscured by the shade.

If just one can give help after countless trine,

How much more brightly may one day we shine?

[tlbodine]

Twisty Turns and Horror

“Every story ever told can be broken down into three parts. The beginning. The middle. And the twist.”  — Jack Black as RL Stine in Goosebumps

I want to talk about twists. 

Specifically, I want to talk about two primary types of twists in the horror genre, and how and when each can be employed -- and the pitfalls of both. 

But first, a caveat: What do I mean when I say “twist”? 

A plot twist occurs when the audience’s expectations are subverted. 

Based on the existing information in a storyline, a reader or viewer expects a certain outcome. A twist occurs when something unexpected happens instead. But a twist is not a mystery. A mystery presents a question -- who did it? how? what happened? -- and then challenges the audience to figure it out before the characters involved. A good mystery requires you to lay down foreshadowing and set up all of the clues, providing red herrings as necessary to distract the audience, before tying it all up at the end with a neat bow. 

A twist, on the other hand, does not necessarily require such setup and foreshadowing. And, indeed, some of the very best twists in the genre do away with such things entirely. 

So with that out of the way, let’s talk about the two types of horror twists -- what I’ll refer to as The Hitchcock Twist and The Shyamalan Twist. 

By nature of the subject matter, this will be spoiler-heavy, so follow under the cut!

Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamlan are two directors who made their careers from creating movies with a twist. Although plenty of other horror directors employ the same techniques, the careers of Hitchcock and Shyamalan are defined by twists in a way others are not. 

But -- however much he may try to emulate him with his signature on-screen cameos -- Shyamalan trades in a very different type of twist than Hitchcock. Taken at a plot level, the two approaches to storytelling are actually completely opposite. 

A Shyamalan Twist Occurs at the End, Reinterpreting Everything That Came Before 

Let’s briefly review Shyamalan’s twists to see what they have in common, shall we? 

The most famous -- in The Sixth Sense, we discover at the end that the character played by Bruce Willis has actually been dead the entire time, and that he is just another of the ghosts the little boy can see. 

In The Village, we learn that what appears to be a rural pioneer settlement is in fact a modern commune that’s been lost to history for a couple generations, and the monsters are manufactured as a way to keep the inhabitants in line (and from escaping). 

In Unbreakable, we discover that the story isn’t just the hero origin story for Bruce Willis’s character, but the origin story for the villain Mr. Glass -- who was responsible for the accident that set the hero on his journey in the first place. 

In The Visit, we find out that the kids haven’t been staying with their grandparents at all, but rather with a pair of escaped and murderous mental patients. 

What do all of these have in common? The twist is revealed at the climax of the film, and it acts to completely reinterpret the events that came before it. You’re left leaving the theater to think about everything that came before the twist, and try to find a way to piece it all together. All of your expectations up to the climax have been subverted, and you’re left to do the work of figuring out how to make sense of what you’ve seen (or not, of course - perhaps you leave the theater without ever thinking about it again). 

Done well, this twist can be incredibly powerful because it invites interaction from the audience even after the story is finished. The twist introduces new questions that it doesn’t answer, and conversation can spring up around finding solutions for it -- either within the text itself, or contemplating it in a larger context. Done well, a Shyamalan twist can lead the audience toward introspection and create a haunting effect. 

Done poorly, of course, it can feel cheap, cheesy, unearned, or just downright stupid. That’s the greatest risk of the Shyamalan twist -- it can leave the audience thinking, “Who cares?” 

Of course, Shyamalan didn’t invent this sort of twist -- it’s just what he’s best known for -- and there are tons of other examples out in the wild. Here are a few to consider: 

The Twilight Zone -- When I’ve delivered this talk before (if you can call “rambling about movies to my coworker” a talk), it’s been pointed out that this twist was really codified first by The Twilight Zone, and I should really call it a Serling twist. Well, I’m not doing that for two reasons. One, because Serling never tried to draw a direct parallel between himself and Hitchcock, so Shyamalan is really inviting himself to this discussion. Two, because The Twilight Zone uses the formula a little bit differently. 

First, not every Twilight Zone episode had a twist ending (although the most famous ones did, probably for the reason I mention above -- people like to talk about surprise endings, and they stick in the memory). But more importantly, the twists were the story. The sci-fi/horror shorts were structured like jokes where the twist was the punchline, often crafted to deliver a particular message or parable. Most of the episode existed to set up the twist, with little time spent on extraneous plot and character development. Thus, Twilight Zone stories are more clever than shocking. Still, they are a treasure trove of storytelling to study, and they make for a wonderful compare/contrast with Shyamalan’s films. 

Other notable Shyamalan-style twists: 

Fight Club, where we learn that Tyler Durden is not real, but rather the alter-ego of the seemingly meek and unnamed narrator. 

Memento, where we learn that the film’s core mystery has been solved numerous times, only to be forgotten -- and that the main character is being manipulated every step of the way. 

Orphan, where we learn that the titular orphan with homicidal tendencies is in fact a grown woman with a peculiar form of dwarfism who is manipulating the families who adopt her. (the movie is better than that plot synopsis makes it sound, I promise)

In Hide and Seek, we learn that the little girl’s evil imaginary friend (at times implied to be a ghost) is in fact her father’s alternate personality. 

There are, of course, lots more. There are also some near-misses. For example, despite its bleak “gotcha”, the ending of The Mist -- where the main character mercifully kills his fellow survivors before running out of bullets to use on himself, only to find that help was just around the corner -- doesn’t quite count. It’s a shocking and heart-wrenching twist, but it doesn’t fully redefine the film that came before it. 

Pros to the Shyamalan Twist: 

Gives your audience something to think about long after they walk away, generating discussion and hopefully that haunted “I need a minute” feeling to process the story.

Invites a second watch/read in order to pick up the clues and pieces and see how the story unfolds differently after you know the ending.

Cons to the Shyamalan Twist: 

Can feel cheap or un-earned if the twist makes the events of the film no longer seem to matter (eg, “it was all a dream!”) 

Often ends up relying on ableist mental health tropes (split personality, escaped lunatic, etc etc.), so please do something new with it 

Can completely fall apart if the ending is spoiled ahead of time, making it difficult to succeed in a post-internet environment. 

All in all, the Shyamalan Twist can be a powerful storytelling tool, but it can also fall flat on its face. The thing that will make it succeed is if the other elements of the story, especially the characters, are compelling enough on their own to make the reader want to know more. 

A Hitchcock Twist occurs early in the film and changes the rules of what you’re watching

A primary characteristic of the Hitchcock twist is that it happens early in the story -- about 1/3rd to 1/2 of the of the way through. It sets up a premise, invites you to get invested in the characters and their situation, and then pulls the rug out from under you by dramatically changing the movie into a different type of story altogether. 

For example: 

In Psycho, the first 47 minutes of the 109-minute movie are all about Marion Crane, a woman who steals money from her job and skips town before ending up at a seedy roadside motel. These 47 minutes spend a lot of time building Marion’s character and setting up what could be a crime thriller...until she is abruptly and violently murdered, and the narrative shifts over to the killer. 

In The Birds, a socialite and a lawyer spend almost half the movie developing a relationship, from their meet-cute to the ensuing quasi-romantic stalking, the weekend getaway, meeting the locals, befriending the family, attending a party. It honestly feels like a romance (with a few creepy details) right up until a flock of birds starts attacking party-goers. 

In Vertigo, the main character is a retired police officer turned private investigator who is hired to spy on a man’s wife, only to fall in love with her, a situation made complicated by her apparent madness and/or possession by a dead ancestor. This madness drives her to commit suicide. Except then the movie keeps going, and we discover that everything up to that point (2/3rds of the film) was actually a complex setup to disguise a murder...a revelation that honestly takes a backseat to Scottie’s newfangled, creepy obsession with the not-actually-dead girl of his dreams, which then ends in a new murder. It’s a convoluted story that’s much easier to watch than to explain, but it’s a wild ride from beginning to end. 

What do all of these Hitchcock films have in common? They set up one storyline, spending lots of time developing the characters and progressing the plot, only to take an extremely sharp turn. Some might argue that Hitchcock thrillers are just very slow burn, taking their time to luxuriously build up to a crescendo, but I think it goes deeper than that -- some of these movies abruptly change genre. 

In no instance is this as self-evident as in The Birds. The effect of watching it is akin to what might happen if you made a Lifetime movie and then halfway through the zombie apocalypse just happened to take place. It’s brilliant, and it replicates the feeling of real life horror -- where bad things happen suddenly and unexpectedly to ruin your everyday life -- better than any other storytelling device. 

Hitchcock is the master of this type of plot, but there are other stories that employ a similar technique: 

Gone Girl introduces us to a man whose wife has gone missing, and spends a lot of time building up their relationship history and casting doubt on him, so that we begin to suspect that he’s a murderer...only to learn, quite abruptly, that not only is his wife still alive, but she’s the one who set this whole thing up. It’s masterfully done, and the twist occurs about halfway through, giving us plenty of opportunity to see the marriage turn into a real cat-and-mouse game between two equally awful people. 

You’re Next sets up a pretty standard home invasion premise, but it goes sideways when one of the guests begins to fight back. Brilliantly, this is a twist not just for us but for the people in the film -- it’s a turn of events that ruins the evil scheme, where the whole invasion was a setup and many fewer people were meant to die. 

Hereditary lays down all the foundation for the little girl to be supernaturally creepy, the driver of whatever badness the film has in store...right up to the moment of her death. (The film then double-helixes with a Shyamalan twist ending, just for good measure) 

Million Dollar Baby seems at the outset to be an underdog sports film, right up to the point where it actually becomes a treatise on assisted suicide (among other things). 

Interestingly, the Hitchcock Twist finds a home in dramas as much or perhaps more often than in mainstream horror. The reason for this is probably because the twist demands strong characterization, and that sort of lengthy, nuanced character study isn’t as common in genre fiction. This, by extension, means that genre stories that do successfully deliver this kind of twist are often better received by mainstream critics. 

For example, look at Game of Thrones. Ned Stark’s death is absolutely a Hitchcock Twist. At the outset, an audience has certain expectations for how an epic fantasy is supposed to play out -- and brutally killing the main character and ripping apart his family as a “reward” for acting noble is definitely not it. This subversion of expectations is one of many reasons the story resonates so far beyond the usual bounds of fantasy fandom. 

Pros to the Hitchcock Twist: 

Done well, it can make your story feel more literary and/or transgressive, providing cross-genre appeal for audiences who might not normally see or respect your type of work. 

It keeps the audience on their toes by subverting their most crucial expectations; once you pull the rug out from under them, anything can happen! 

Cons to the Hitchcock Twist: 

It can lose the trust of your audience, who may not want to follow you around the bend and might feel betrayed or confused by the sudden shift in expectations. 

It’s tough to market because there is almost nothing you can say about the story that will appeal to the target audience without also giving away the twist. 

It requires a lot of skill with characterization to make up for the slower pace of the plot. 

If there’s one thing that both Hitchcock and Shyamalan twists have in common -- and one take-away I want you to keep -- it’s that successful twists rely on strong characterization. You absolutely must write good, believable, compelling characters first and foremost, or the audience isn’t going to care what happens to them, no matter how twisty those events may be. 

And one final caveat: You can really only afford a couple of major twists per story. You can double up, offering both a Hitchcock and a Shyamalan twist in a single story (see above re: Hereditary), but it’s extremely tough to pull off and can make your audience confused and even downright angry if you fail. 

What are your favorite movie twists? Reblog and tell me all about them! 

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