#the game and the show are two separate adaptions and i love them both for different reasons

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 致命游戏 / The Spirealm.

The Spirealm is a 2024 drama about two young men who fall in love while basically playing a whole bunch of horror-themed escape rooms that can for-real kill you.

This show/book combo has gripped my entire ass. The second I knew I wanted to watch this, almost immediately after it started airing, I muted the tag. I was so right to do this, because this is worth not spoiling yourself about. If you are a Guardian fan in particular, you owe it to yourself to watch this for reasons I think will become clear as you go about watching it.

So! If all you need to know is that I think you need this show in your life, great! You don't even need to scroll down to the end of the post for the links; go to Viki and press play. In case you need more convincing than that, though, I'm going to give you here five reasons to watch it that are as spoilerless as I can make them.

Before we start, though, I'm going to take a moment to note that I had to torrent the video files so I could make screenshots of my own, and if I hadn't, this would have been a much uglier rec post than the others I've done. Not only were there not many promotional materials or official stills released, the show itself barely stayed up two hours on iQiyi, and that's because this drama is a...

1. (Barely) Censored Adaptation Of Same-sex Original Work

Ah, you know that MyDramaList tag well, don't you? Yeah, the original novel, Kaleidoscope of Death (which has a rec post of its own!), is supernatural story about grief and loss built on the love story between the two male leads. Now of course you know already that a mainstream Chinese television adaptation of something like that is going to straighten up everything and turn the horror romance into the sci-fi platonic love of besties.

...But damn, folks, it's still real gay.

Ling Jiushi, the sweet-faced newbie, is a canonical virgin and loving cat dad who plays the mysterious video game once, then finds himself suddenly able to enter the game worlds bodily -- and of course, if you die in the game, you die in real life. He's pretty much doomed, until he meets...

Ruan Lanzhu, the cool-as-a-cucumber veteran of the door worlds, who falls pretty much immediately for the completely oblivious Ling Jiushi, then has to spend the rest of the series consumed with lust while trying to keep him and a couple other dipshits alive.

The show preserves so many overtly gay beats and declarations of affection from the novel, to the point where it's just this side of suggesting that the romance is actually, textually happening just offscreen, every time the camera cuts away. I am forever grateful that working with Zhu Yilong on Reunion seems to have perfected sweet baby Junjie's ability to look at a man with nothing but love in his eyes.

I adore so much the dynamic they have, one where a man who has never told the truth a day in his life encounters a man so sincere and naive that you cannot seduce him with anything but absolute honesty or he's never going to get it.

There are three (3) separate door worlds where they share a bed, and in every one of them, they both sleep with their shoes on. Like the absolute freaks they both are.

2. It's puzzle solvin' time!

So if you've read some of my rec posts before, you know that I am critical of stories that center around cases that are unfollowable, uninteresting, or both (e.g., Mysterious Lotus Casebook and White Cat Legend). I am therefore thrilled to tell you that the door worlds are actually (largely) thoughtful mysteries with reasonable solutions, where you care about what's happening and why.

The way each door world is set up is that you have to solve the puzzle to find a key and unlock the door that will let you leave. One of the challenges is each world's door ghost, who has the key and does not want to give it up. The other challenge is the world-specific set of taboo conditions, where violating them means the door ghost can kill you -- and you are not always told what those taboo conditions are. That means that solving a door involves 1) figuring out what will insta-kill you, 2) not doing that, 3) finding where the hell the exit door is, 4) placating and/or scamming the door ghost long enough to snatch the key from them, and 5) running like hell to the exit door with that key before the door ghost fucks you up about it.

As the show goes on, you get introduced to the concept of door-passing shepherds, which are experienced door-finishers who take through lower-level players, building them up in the process. A lot of these shepherds work for organizations, such as the one Ruan Lanzhu runs. And a lot of them are ready to reach the exit by climbing over everyone else's corpses.

That's part of the fun of the setup: You're not just thrown in alone. You show up with a random number of other players, some with very different levels of experience. At least one of you will make it out; not everyone will. So you can add a step 6) to the list above, which is: surviving all the other players who will gleefully stab you in the back in order to be the first player out the door.

The door worlds are also lovely. They all feel like sets -- and I know that's a weird thing to say about places that are literal sets, but they manage it feel it even on film. In fact, even the show's uses of clunky-ass greenscreen feel appropriate, because of how unreal everything is supposed to be. Everything looks like a dream, which is only amplified by how beautifully everything's shot.

(What's that you say? You say the guy who directed this was the editor on Infernal Affairs? No kidding.)

From a fandom perspective, what's great here is that even though there are technically just twelve doors, there are canonically way more than twelve door worlds out there. That means that whatever worlds you want to create are valid. The best pieces of fanfic I've read are the ones that dream up their own door worlds, complete with taboo conditions, key puzzles, and world-specific perks that lead to gay sex, because come on.

3. A good middle ground of horror

So at this point you are perhaps wondering: How scary is it?

And the answer is, kind of as scary as you're willing to let your mind go with it. Everything has been science-fictioned real hard, including the video game premise that "explains" what's happening with these doors. It relies on dread way more than jumpscares. The blood/gore/gross content is extremely low, again on account of Chinese content censorship. Most icky things are done with offscreen sounds and shadows. I'm pretty squeamish about pain and injury, and I can't recall a time I had to look too long away from the screen.

However, that means the show works some real conceptual horror. That picture up there is of a man forcing three young girls to hold raw eggs unbroken in their mouths. There's nothing about that image that's not technically G-rated, and it's awful in context.

The best bits are when the monsters don't need a lick of CG to become horrors. They cast a contortionist in the Waverly Hills door world, and she absolutely earned her keep.

I have a lot of critiques about how the show handles things, especially in terms of defanging the horror elements (which it does), but one thing I think it absolutely gets right is that it understands that ghost stories are first and foremost tragedies. That's a thing I've always liked about Asian horror in particular, how often you wind up siding with the ghost. Yes, sure, she tried to strangle you with her hair, but have you ever considered she's the real victim here? There's always a bit of a calculus: Can you negotiate with the door ghost, or do you just need to stab them and run? The Spirealm prefers negotiation, and frankly, so do I.

So yeah, it's about as scary as you let it be. If your horror tolerance is low, watch it in a well-lit room and focus on the unreality of it, and you'll be okay. If you're looking for something genuinely spooky, spend some time thinking about the existential dread of the entire situation, and that'll be good for a couple good spine tingles.

4. The Obsidian Family (& Friends!)

In a show where death is always an option, you have to have characters where you actually care if they live or die. Fortunately, all your allies are charming and loveable enough that you are going to be real upset every time they get put in danger!

Obsidian is one of the organizations I mentioned earlier. It's run by Ruan Lanzhu, and it includes a cool and collected doctor, a mom friend who cooks for everybody, a guy who's maybe not having the best mental health day of his life, and two identical twins who could not be more different if they tried. They all live in the same amazing big fancy house, which is where Ling Jiushi too goes to live when he joins the group. They have big family meals, they look after one another, they hang out together -- I mean, if this is the kind of setup you love, then you will love this setup.

There are also plenty of allies who aren't technically part of Obsidian, but who are our friends nonetheless, and who come over to hang out in the Obsidian house from time to time. Some of them are rivals turned friends, some of them are clients turned friends, and some of them were just friends all along! Surely nothing bad will happen to any of them, and they'll all live happily ever after, right? ...Right?

5. Toast and Chestnut!

Of course, the true heroes of the show are Toast the Corgi and Chestnut the Kitty.

Animals are so good.

Truly, I love that one of Ling Jiushi's defining characteristics is that he is a Cat Dad. He is a simple man with simple needs, and one of those needs is to pet his kitty or he'll explode.

caveat: Some thoroughly bad adaptation choices

Yeah, so I keep talking about the novel (and talk even more about the novel in its own rec post), but I assure you, you don't need to have read the novel to feel the degree to which this is an adaptation -- and one that's had its rough, nasty, spooky, gay edges all sanded off in the desperate hope of ever seeing daylight.

Now, sometimes I consider batshit nonsense janky creative decisions to be a selling point for a show (see: Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Legend of Fei, Sand Sea)! In this case, however, I'm going to have to take points off for how incoherently bad they are here. We're talking Psych-Hunter levels of Why Would You Do That-- and the answer, as always, comes down to how you write around what censorship won't allow on television.

The novel says the doors are supernatural. The show says they're a virtual-reality computer game. Now, on the surface, this move sort of makes sense -- you can't have ghosts, but you can have computer games that make digital ghosts, which, sure, okay. But then the problem quickly becomes that the plot of the novel is not remotely built to support a sci-fi premise, so a lot of things have to be grafted awkwardly on. Like, say, a bad guy who stole his corporate logo from Even Worse Twitter. Or a game-designing bestie whose face is never seen. Or [late-stage spoilers about a major character].

The eventual explanation is that this whole setup is a righteous and good game that has somehow been corrupted by evil game-designing capitalists from the West, and that's why it can abduct you in broad daylight and kill you if you fail it. There are good people who want to purify (???) the game, and evil people who want to make money off the game. And I don't mind spoiling you for that part, because it's garbage nonsense. You will be deeply unsatisfied with the show's half-assed attempt at resolving it all. (You may, however, have that disappointment tempered with the amazing concurrent display of heterosexuality that is apologizing to your best bro by coding his perfect man for him. The Spirealm is a land of contrasts.)

Look, I consider myself a mild to moderate socialist, and even I was yawning and making jerk-off motions every time someone started to wax halfheartedly poetic about how evil American capitalism is. Like, yeah, but not because some college student made a vile and wretched video game that eats people! This show is a critique of capitalism like a five-year-old crying because he doesn't get ice cream before bed is a critique of authoritarianism.

And even this, I can't be too mad at it about, you know? I just assume that this was some absolute Hail Mary attempt at getting past censorship -- you know, maybe if we make all the right "grr, USA bad!" noises, they'll let our gay ghost story slip by? And it worked! I mean, just barely, but it did.

So yeah, fair warning that the Spirealm is a show that, if you love it (and I do), you will have to love despite some glaring flaws that haunt it all the way through and hit especially hard during what should otherwise have been an amazing endgame. But hey, we're c-drama fans! We're good at loving janky things, right?

Want to enter the World of Doors?

As I said at the start of the post, Viki's got it -- and only Viki. I'm not sure what circumstances got it up on Viki after iQiyi pulled it, but I'm glad. Watch it quick, before Viki changes its mind!

Hug him! Hug that boy!

[the-prophet-lemonade]

what is your opinion on the witcher ( show & games )

yennefer is hot, that is my opinion

[cbrownjc]

My thoughts about Devil's Minion right now after Rolin Jones' comments (spoilers):

A meta so thorough, that I first wrote in a post/reply elsewhere, I'm putting it into a separate post, (with some more added to it), just because. And especially since I know I've gotten a lot of followers over the course of Season 2 because of my Devil's Minion posts as well, and I want this all in a separate, individual post for quick reference, just in case.

Fair warning: if you are totally happy and fine about what happened -- i.e. how Armand turned Daniel -- then yeah, what I am going to say here isn't for you. I'm not trying to harsh anyone's vibe, especially if you are just happy that Daniel is a vampire now, okay? This is just about how I feel and see things about it at the moment (particularly regarding RJs comments about it). So if you're not up for criticism, critique, as well as speculation about Devil's Minion right now, then yeah. IMO, just skip this post, please.

Okay. So. Rolin Jones just gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and this is what he said about Daniel's turning by Armand:

Jones confirms that, just like in Rice’s books, Armand is the one who turns Daniel into a vampire. “Will we see that moment of turning? No, but Armand finally made a vampire and clearly made him out of spite,” he says with a laugh. “It looks like it was really not a great moment [between him and Daniel], but that connects those two characters. They will have scenes going forward, obviously.”

-- Rolin Jones, Hollywood Reporter, 06/30/24

Okay so, to start. For me, someone who has been waiting since 1995 (when I was 17) for Devil's Minion, for Armand and Daniel's relationship to finally be adapted in some way, I'll be honest. There are only two ways this can go now that I can see at the moment: either Rolin is lying/trolling to hide the truth about all of this, or he is telling the truth and this is truly the way they are going with this.

If Rolin is lying/trolling to hide something about all of this, then I'll forgive that lying/trolling instantly once it's revealed that he was. (Put a pin in this.) Having to flat-out lie or troll is sometimes par for the course when it comes to running a show and not wanting to spoil anything about what might be coming up in it. So honestly, if that's what's going on with what he said here? Meh. No skin off my nose.

If he is telling the truth, however? Then I'll have zero desire to watch the show anymore, once I see it 100% confirmed in some way with my own two eyes in some way on screen somehow. (Again, pin in this.) Because I have very much learned my lesson when it comes to TV shows and lazy writing/bad adaptations after Game of Thrones.

Because Armand turning Daniel out of spite is the antithesis of what Devil's Minion is supposed to be for both characters. It is an utter and complete misunderstanding of both characters and their relationship together. It's an utter downgrade of their relationship from the books, and I am not here for it. I literally do not care what "romance" they might later have planned for them if this is how Daniel was turned.

Look. If you are someone who only ever cared about Daniel just being a vampire, then this is all likely fine for you, and that's okay. But not me. Because Daniel being a vampire never was, or has been, the important part of Armand and Daniel's relationship. Not in my eyes and, frankly, not when it comes to the original story. Daniel becoming a vampire is not the important part of the Devil's Minion story. The actual love and romance before Daniel is turned is because it is during that part of it that the actual character development and growth both of them go through from it takes place. Especially for Armand's character.

And that only has any depth when Daniel is human and Armand is forever refusing to turn him because of his hangups about making another vampire.

And Armand finally turning Daniel out of love was a huge step that showed Armand beginning to move forward and heal -- from not only his time in the Children of Darkness cult, but begin his healing when it comes to his Marius issues as well.

Armand turning Daniel out of spite undercuts all of that. It undercuts the whole story. And flat-out guts some of the major depth of the relationship and Armand's character development overall.

Not to mention it makes Daniel no better than someone like Claudia wrt Armand turning him now. Maybe even less than her since at least Claudia got turned out of Lestat's love for someone else. Daniel doesn't even get that? The person who is supposed to be his eternal companion doesn't even get turned by him out of love, an important point to the bond between such Maker and Fledgling eternal companions, but out of hate and spite instead?

Yeah, no thank you.

This is not what I've waited since 1995 to see with these two and the fact their relationship may have gotten treated like this -- if this is true -- utterly astounds me how this show could get Loustat so right (and even upgrade them so beautifully in so many ways such as with Louis' turning) and utterly fail Devil's Minion so badly. Because yes, it's failing them. It's a terrible and, moreover, just a shallow adaptation of Devil's Minion if this is how it really all goes down.

Because there is way more to Armand and Daniel than them just Daniel being a vampire and them finally "getting together." Or at least there is supposed to be. And this ain't it.

(Pin!) Now, with that all said? The fact that Rolin flat out says that we'll never see Armand turning Daniel? Yeah okay, I'm sus on that one. Because really. The only reason not to show Armand turning Daniel next season -- and visually confirm that Armand did it -- is if because . . . Armand never actually turned Daniel in the first damn place.

Or, if he did, it maybe was not fully Daniel.

I mean, you're not going to ever actually show Armand turning his first-ever fledgling (who he's supposed to go on to have a romantic relationship with at some point) after making a big ass deal out of the fact that Armand has never turned anyone before? Ever?

See I know damn well that Armand is being framed as a villain right now. He very much has to be given how the end of the book IWTV and how the upcoming book The Vampire Lestat, goes. Armand is the main villain/antagonist in it. Even in the present day, it is clear Armand hasn't gone yet gone through all of the growth that he does from Queen of the Damned on. So he's still back in his villain-era mode right now. And his post-breakup with Louis mode in the present day. Which is fine, it's how his story -- and the story where it is right now -- goes. I am thoroughly okay with that.

And the very idea that Armand turned Daniel out of spite? Very much plays into that framing-him-as-a-villian state where Armand's character is right now. And will be for the majority of Season 3, which I've already before now suspected and said.

So here is where the speculation on my end of things comes in. Because yeah, not only can I not help myself but because -- until I see this play out with my own eyes -- I'm willing to be reasonable and look at the various ways this all could still play out that doesn't completely gut out the very heart of Armand and Daniel -- as characters and their relationship together. (Or at least not have it be so damn shallow by the end when they inevitably get and stay together.)

So as @nalyra-dreaming can confirm, I gave her a few scenarios that could be behind Daniel's turning weeks ago, when I first suspected it was going to happen (before the screener leaks about it started). In one of the scenarios, I said that if Daniel's vampire eyes are any color other than violet, then that is NOT Daniel's spirit/soul/consciousness in Daniel's body that has been made a vampire.

As the saying goes, "The eyes are the window into the soul." And am I really supposed to think this show got Lestat and Louis' eye color dead on correct but just missed Daniel's iconic eye color? Really? (Because no, I do not find it romantic that Daniel has his Maker's eye color, or whatever. Besides, vampire eye color doesn't even work like that -- the show didn't even do that with Louis and Lestat who are the main, grand romantic couple of the damn show.)

As I said here in this reblog, I stand by my opinion/theory that no way this show gets Daniel's iconic violet eye color wrong, even on accident. I said so weeks ago, before even seeing Daniel's eyes in that final shot in the season finale, and just predicting that he was going to get turned.

No way this show got Daniel's iconic eye color wrong when he became a vampire, not when they went to all the damn trouble creating those vampire contacts and gave Jacob's Louis green eyes to match book-Louis.

And yes I damn well know they could just have Daniel pop up with violet vampire eyes in the Season 3 premiere and there goes all of that, and it really was all just laziness, incompetence, and a mistake when it came to the color of Daniel's eyes in the finale. But right now? I'm treating Daniel's eye color as the equivalent of Rolin saying "Lelio is so boring!" as to the question of why Sam's Lestat was playing Harlequin and not Lelio in the Season 2 theater flashbacks. Something the show changed on purpose and for a reason.

Because we all damn well know that we are going to see Sam's Lestat as Lelio in Season 3, correct? Because we are.

And yes. I know some people really hate the idea of a body swap scenario regarding Daniel, but I'm sorry. At this point, it really is the only scenario out of this whole storyline that I can see right now, that will keep it anywhere close to retaining the heart of the Devil's Minion storyline, especially if Armand really did turn Daniel out of spite here (even though, again, we'll apparently never see that turning to confirm that in full. Uh-huh, okay.).

And two things that I think do set up the possibility are:

1.) Louis says Daniel was turned after he left Armand alone with him. But Louis actually wouldn't know something like that unless he was told since he wasn't there. All we can really assume at the moment is that Daniel told Louis what happened after Louis left the room. And as RJ and Assad said, we'll never see the actual turning. So who knows when the hell it happened.

2.) Raglan James, via those direct messages asking Daniel for "reciprocation" for getting him a copy of the script, with Armand's handwritten notes, of the trial-play. Between that request and the Talamasca publishing Daniel's book, that loops Daniel into the James orbit very much. And ties Daniel very close to any Talamasca going on even more.

And, quite frankly, I've thought since Season 1 that David Talbot's character was out and would be merged with both Louis and Daniel on the show. And Sam pretty much confirmed in his interview with Autumn Brown that some characters from the books will be merged together with others in the show. So, yeah. David's character is very much a character I always thought they were doing that with, and I know I'm not the only one who's thought it before now as well.

And honestly, I can much better deal with some type of scenario in which Armand maybe ends up turning two versions of "Daniel" -- and therefore technically having two fledglings, even though they are kind of the same person -- over what is being put forth about this right now. One turning -- in spite -- of Daniel's body without his true spirit/soul/consciousness in it, and the other turning -- out of love -- of Daniel's spirit/soul/consciousness inside a different body of some kind. (Which I won't go into now, as that is a whole separate long meta if I did.)

Because at least with that scenario then, in a weird way, Daniel being Armand's only fledgling would still hold. 🤷🏾‍♀️ Along with a few other things that can happen regarding Armand's character growth in between each turning.

But that is it. Because there is no way they can have Armand turn Daniel (as fully Daniel) out of spite -- as Rolin directly says he does in this interview -- and actually keep the heart of the Devil's Minion story and romance now. Not even if the Devil's Minion chase and parts of the relationship happened in the past IMO . . . another thing they are clearly avoiding talking about, btw. Which, at least right now, just tells me that, if we're lucky, we'll only -- once again -- get one episode that flashes back to that time in Season 3. Can't really be helped, since Season 3's primary focus will be regarding Lestat and Lestat's backstory. (As I've said before Daniel isn't even in that book. So whatever we get with him in Season 3 really will just be extra, added stuff.)

Oh, and something else I very much recognize is that Loustat shippers -- particularly book ones -- have gone through it these past two seasons, but now seem to be coming out of that darkness. Maybe now it's time for Devil's Minion shippers like me and others to face the same damn thing now. Because of something Assad let slip a few weeks ago about not getting Armand's full story until Season 4, I think that is how long we're going to have to wait to see the full of this play out.

But I advise right now that if some of you think you can't handle that and would just rather quit the show and binge things later, I totally get it. Waiting two seasons -- basically 4 years minimum -- is going to be a pain in the ass. I already know right now that there are some things I'm not going to have the patience for during the hiatus times in between, particularly this one. (One thing I can already say, at least right now, is that I'm not inspired to write any show-based Devil's Minion fanfic this hiatus like I did during the last hiatus).

But quitting the show altogether? No, I'm not there yet. Because yes Rolin does like to troll. Plus Hannah's tweet. Plus what was said about Devil's Minion at ATX Festival. Plus my thinking, long before now, that David Talbot was always out wrt the show, and the fact that Raglan James is here and Daniel's character has been heavily tied into The Talamasca plotline of the show.

And given everything I've seen this show do wrt it's writing up until now, I just can't fully believe they would really make Devil's Minion this damn shallow and devoid of its depth and heart. And just have Armand turn his one and only canon fledgling and immortal companion out of nothing but spite. When Armand loving Daniel and finally having to trust in Daniel's love for him, as well as his own love for Daniel over his own fear was a major point and culmination of the Devil's Minion storyline.

After everything I've seen these first two seasons wrt this show, I can't think these writers would miss such an important heart and point of the Devil's Minion storyline and romance so completely.

Not yet at any rate.

[rightpastnowhere]

TLOVM season 3 episode 3 thoughts from someone who's slowly losing her mind

PART ONE: campaign vex and perc'ahlia VS tlovm vex and perc'ahlia

(yeah. yeah it's part one. i have so many thoughts gang)

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

okay. so. i feel like i've made it clear how much i ADORE the perc'ahlia relationship timeline in campaign 1. and it remains to this day one of my absolute favorites, and i was very afraid of it being changed in tlovm. BUT. i'm actually kind of fucking obsessed with these changes.

because, really, campaign!vex and tlovm!vex are two entirely separate characters. they're still the same vex at their core, but the changes to the narrative in tlovm have changed the show version of vex in ways that i think are perfectly suited to the "i'm going to turn this into a fling even though we're both fooling ourselves" plotline. tlovm!vex seems overall more committed to the facade she puts out. she's a bit colder in the beginning, and has slowly thawed over the past two seasons, but not in the same way campaign!vex has by this point in the c1 plot, and like. on the one hand, it might just be a personality shift for the adaptation! something to make more clear-cut character archetypes. on the other hand, i keep remembering that vox machina haven't been a party for as long in tlovm. she's still questioning whether or not to stay with the party in season one. she doesn't have as strong of a foundation with these people, less trust and less comfort. she's got so many more walls built up.

and that, of course, includes her relationship with percy. campaign!perc'ahlia, in my eyes, is a friends to lovers slowburn. it's been mentioned that they hit it off well from the beginning, and while they both were attracted to each other to some degree, they both dismissed it as a bad idea and moved on. over the year of in-game time they spent together (maybe more? i get confused with the timeline) before we even see them on screen, they build up a steady and solid friendship. one filled with flirting and teasing, but still a friendship. and it's clear that they both value this connection they have, especially in the briarwood arc, with the mask and all of that loveliness. and sure, some of that could be read as romantic, but it's love all the same. vex loved percy before she was in love with him, and that dynamic is one she's terrified to lose! "wouldn't it be so awkward, though?" she says, as if she's already decided that all that confessing would do would be adding tension, that there's no chance of reciprocity.

in tlovm, though? it's barely been any time at all. she's fallen in love with percy in the same time it's taken to really be his friend, to find that she can trust him and rely on him. the weight of their history isn't nearly as bulky, here. sure, she won't dare risk any revelations of her feelings or any attempts at a serious relationship, but sex doesn't have to mean anything. if it makes things awkward then, well, they're still settling into their dynamic as friends anyway - things can be shuffled around and fall into different places. there's nothing solid yet to risk, if that makes sense. they're still building a foundation, she can build around the cracks.

and another significant point of divergence: syldor. i have a lot of thoughts on the feywild arc and the changes made, but i'm going to disregard all of that now because they're, same as vex, basically different characters. to put it simply: tlovm!syldor is harsh and gives bad attention, whereas campaign!syldor is neglectful and doesn't give enough attention. as a result, we see that tlovm!vex seeks out good attention, whereas campaign!vex avoids getting close enough to anyone for them to pull the rug out from underneath her. tlovm!vex initiates a fling, a dynamic of gratification and positive attention without emotional weight, because actually being in a relationship can result in that trust being used against you. she trusted in her father, and he used being her father as a way to beat her down. campaign!vex doesn't even try to initiate anything, because she fears the silence, the lack of reciprocity and care, the fear of being turned down. she tried to build a connection with her father, and was met with silence and quiet disapproval and barely even a second glance. i don't know if this makes any sense, and i'm bad at words, but these feel like different fears of rejection to me? and yet they're both fears of rejection, something that is at the core of vex's actions and personality in both adaptations.

two different stories of a person driven by fear, and i love them for their differences!! they both feel more fitting for their versions of canon!!! and both make me insane!!!!!!!!

[crisiscutie]

Can I request a scenario where darling knew young Sephiroth and she likes to tease him for being shorter than her. They part ways due to their work, but meet again after several years.

But this time, darling is surprised by how tall Sephiroth is, like waaaay taller than her and now he enjoys teasing her back.

The Ever Cutie and his big sister/nee-san darling prompt? On my birthday!? 💜 Let's get right into this.

You've known Sephiroth since you were both little kids, with you being four years older. You two were allowed to occasionally play with each other.

Your mother, a dedicated scientist, played a crucial role in the development of the new generation of SOLDIER. Among the subjects, Sephiroth stood out, she had been studying him a lot with other scientists.

Sephiroth's deep attachment to you had grown to such an extent that he had even once secretly followed you and your mother home after your playdate. He vanished from the building without a trace, leaving everyone wondering how he did it. Your mother got so much in trouble for it when she returned him.

It's a funny incident that the two of you and everyone around you loved reminiscing about as time goes on.

You knew from an early age that Sephiroth lacked normalcy in his life, so you do your best to introduce it to him, whenever you can.

During lunch times, you indulged him with your secret stashes of candies and other treats, while also introducing him to games like hide and seek, that evoked his hunting instincts from his training. (You had to get him out of that mindset when it was time to play)

After Sephiroth has shown so much promise, the older generation of SOLDIERS started to get phased out, them mostly being gone by your teens.

You yourself were offered a mentorship role for Sephiroth and other new SOLDIERS because of your mother. Nepotism for the win, right?

By the virtue of being older than him AND an early bloomer, you just had to poke fun at Sephy and his height when you hit your teens. In your eyes, he will always be your sweet little brother.

His habit of bumping into you due to the height difference always made him so flushed and flustered, especially when you tease him about it.

During your late teens, it was a little easier to give him some normalcy by inviting him over to your apartment for dinner and other activities, as you had more opportunities to do so. You definitely weren't responsible for his love of lasagna. Nope.

One unforgettable day, etched in your memory, was when he gave you a warm smile, his eyes sparkling with joy as he noticed the change in your eye color. It's so similar to his now. You were happy that you finally got your mako injections, and to your relief, your body adapted well to them. You had to show Sephiroth your new mako eyes.

Unbeknownst to you, this brought him solace, as he realized he now shared a resemblance to a loved one. It made him feel like he belonged. Like he can actually be your younger brother.

Later on, your time together became less as Sephiroth trained and you focused on your own growth as a SOLDIER and a mentor those younger than you.

After Sephiroth deployed to Rhadore, you saw little to none of him in the following years. You were both sad, but also understood your separation was necessary for your duties.

During a mission briefing years later, you couldn't believe your eyes when you saw your sweet little brother, who had an unusual growth spurt. You knew he changed greatly, but it was still a whiplash from the young boy he once was.

From a distance, it appeared as though he had not only grown a whole foot taller, but had also let his silver hair grow out, it now nearly reaching his ankles. His physique had become more muscular, and he had become the most famous person in the entire world.

It was impossible for you not to feel a sense of pride for him.

But there's no way he'd recognize you after everything that's happened to him in the past years.

Yet after the briefing, you heard someone unexpectedly call your name. As you turned around, your eyes met his strapped, muscular chest.

Without any warning, his eyes lit up mischievously, transforming his surprise into a playful expression.

"You're shorter than I remembered, darling."

Your face turned red and pouty.

"I'm not short! You're just too tall now!" You said, as you playfully hit his chest.

You were wearing heels and somehow Sephiroth STILL towered over you.

Without warning, you pulled him into a heartfelt hug afterward, your tears of joy trailing down his chest.

He seemed taken aback by the sudden hug as his hands hovered around your waist, but he secretly appreciated it.

You two had little time to catch up, as Sephiroth had to deploy for his next mission. But the memory of this reunion will be enough to hold him over until next time you two meet...

By the way, it may just be me, but Young EC Sephy doesn't seem that particularly short going by his battle model. Anyways, I love this AU and wouldn't mind working on it more for EC/7R verse.

[imagionationstation]

This is simply my characterisation of 2k12 Hamato Donatello, so feel free to add up your thoughts and opinions :]

This idea just randomly popped out in my head; how stresful it is for Donnie to be still identified as the 'babies of the clan' yet had to bear the title of an older brother. He loves his job, his rensponsibility— ofc, there's no denying that he is absolutely thrilled at being needed/wanted, but there hasn't been much talk of his family dynamic.

First off, I'd like to point out how the show treated both Mikey and Donnie like a complimentary, or an extension to the rivalry between Leonardo and Raphael. They mainly focuses on what the two eldest has going on and had the two youngest thrown into the predicament sometime later. Even so, the show clearly emphasis on how the two eldest had connections— brotherhood only one could wish to have. How if one goes down, the other immediately follow suit.

I imagine the Donnie would be so anxiety-riddled, especially after S1 and so on (or even earlier. That boy been going through some stuff). He has seen how Splinter's death absolutely shattered Leonardo, his oldest brother, who is bound to be the next head of the Hamato clan— just as he witnessed how Raphael has the tendency to drive himself to self-annihilation if anything were to happen to the oldest. He's there. He saw how Leo exhibit textbook signs of psychosis, just as he knew that Raph might as well be suicidal. He knew.

If Leo were to go down, then Raph will go down with him— and Donnie would have to pick up the mantle. He had to be there for Mikey who had, too, lost his father; and with how things are going, his two oldest brothers too. Leaving his younger brother, his only younger brother, would be cruel, no?

I wish the show would also give us content on how Leo and Raph's dynamics affect the two youngest; how many times do you think they stayed up late making sure the two oldests are still there? How do you think they cope with the loss of their father, while simultaneously having to deal with their two oldests?

Do you think that, at one point, Donnie said, "We lost our father too, not just you— and we need our oldest brothers too... I need my oldest brothers too...".

Alright, thank you~

HOLY MOTHER OF MUTATIONS

YOU CANNOT THROW THIS ON ME WHILE I’M LISTENING TO UNSAID EMILY

Silent days, mysteries and mistakes Who’d be the first to break? I guess we’re alike that way…

FREAKING SONG WHY

🤣 Yes, I am blaming you for something completely out of your control because I didn’t pause my music as I opened this. How dare you make me experience emotions and why are these brothers are SO WHOLESOME and YOU DESCRIBE THEM SO WELL LIKE HOW

“I don’t usually feel things, but this one broke through.”

This was absolutely the best thank you

I have many thoughts. Click at your own risk.

I dunno if the idea of being a “baby of the clan” would stress him out as much as the idea of being the head of the clan would. As much as I can argue that he can act as leader in times of trial as the show has proven (see New Girl In Town/Mousers Attack), he’s very much a follower. When he did try a one-man mission (see Operation Break Out), he almost ended up getting himself captured and only escaped because his team tracked him down.

I don’t see Mikey&Donnie as an extension. I see them as their own people, a separate group, their own enthusiastic team.

The reason that they don’t get the spotlight like some people seem to want is because it’s not in their personalities. They don’t have the experience or responsibility of leading/making impromptu decisions like Leo&Raph have. As older brothers in general, giving the final say and having to make the right choices in everything is something you have to learn to adapt to. Mikey&Donnie are used to being led, and that throws off their game when they have to lead themselves.

They are willing and have potential to do so, but that doesn’t mean they can (see Mousers Attack).

One of my favorite thing about the dynamic is how realistic it is. When Mikey&Donnie are worried/scared and need reassurance, they look to Raph&Leo. When something needs judgement, they look to Leo&Raph for the a-okay. When something’s gone wrong and they need an immediate solution, they look to Leo&Raph.

Oftentimes Leo makes the final call, but he’s the eldest and team leader, so it’s his right.

Leo&Raph only look to Donnie if it’s a tech/science problem. If it’s something that they are aware is out of their expertise and don’t know how to handle. Yes, it’s a hard and stressful job, but the reality is that if Donnie messes up, his older brothers will be there to pick up his slack, through fists and plans and retreats.

No eldest sibling is going to lean on the younger ones. Leo only leans on Raph as much as he does because Raph doesn’t give him a choice in the matter. He’s always there- and he’ll always be there- and that’s an unspoken promise that they’re used to. Raph is going to shove himself into Leo’s personal bubble anyway, so Leo lets him in as much as their prides will allow.

One of my favorite parts of the show is that Raph calls Leo, “brother” and Mikey and Donnie, “little brother”. Leo is not his older brother. He is simply his brother, his equal. They are on the same page, and he will not be treated as anything but his equal.

They are the protecters. They can’t lean on their “baby brothers”, so they wholeheartedly lean on each other.

I… Don’t support the psychosis as canon. I will headcanon it the same way I headcanon Leo being unable to use kitchen appliances (despite the fact he has been seen making food in the show), but I don’t see it as canon. It’s a fun idea, but not one I choose to believe.

A favorite thing about the show that I noticed is what happens after Leo gets knocked into a coma. Donnie’s struggle through multiple episodes in the first two seasons to be in charge (questions Leo’s choices, calls Leo out, fights Leo’s decisions, insists his own plans, and even runs off on his own) either softens significantly or disappears completely.

Yk why?

BECAUSE HE BLAMES HIMSELF FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE INVASION AND CARRIES THAT WEIGHT OF ‘KILLING’ HIS FATHER AND BROTHER WITH HIM FOR THREE AGONIZING MONTHS!

The way he sees it: Leo told him what they needed to do to keep everyone safe and he fought him. He got injured, Leo was in a coma, their dad was possibly dead in the sewers, their safe place, and they’d been kicked far from their only home because he insisted upon a robot that failed!

He messed up big time and that traumatized him into submission.

So imagine how terrifying it must be to realize that his family is killable. That there won’t always be a back button. That their father is gone and the chances of Splinter Jr. following his lead and doing something insane, and Raph throwing himself headfirst into the situation in the hopes of getting Leo out, and both of them getting themselves killed permanently isn’t actually all that far-fetched.

And Mikey’s not stupid. He can see the amount of times Leo’s thrown himself into trouble. He knows how far Raph is willing to go to keep Leo safe.

So, YEAH, especially since they know that Leo has no hesitations to solo missions (see Attack of Mega Shredder and Broken Foot) and Raph has a tendency to let his anger guide him towards vengeance, there are so many ways they could lose them. So many reasons that they might blink in the future and find out that it’s just the two of them now.

This would absolutely be something that haunts them at night.

For a while, at least, because I do notice that Leo isn’t quite so Lemme go *off* myself for the good of man in season five. There could be many reasons for this inside canon, but I believe that they did have a conversation about what his actions could do to them.

I believe something happens, maybe they almost lose them and Donnie gets fed up, and a much needed conversation happens.

“That is IT! I’m tired of you two! I’m not going to sit back and watch you kill yourselves! Try thinking about someone else for once! You’re not the only ones who lost him! You’re not the only ones hurting! And your lives are no more expandable than his was!”

“You never think before you act! You could have died! You both almost died! And then what?! You’re gone! You’re gone and we have to bury two more bodies next to Splinter’s! And then we have to live with that! We have to live without you! We have to fight without you! And I CAN’T DO THAT!”

“SHUT UP! You can’t possibly ‘get it’ or you wouldn’t be spending every night taunting death and expecting us to stand by and let it happen! This isn’t a game! This is real life! And NEITHER of you are ANY MORE invincible than we are!”

“I WON’T calm down because YOU’RE NOT GETTING IT! You’re not LISTENING! How would you feel if I threw myself in Kraang fire at every change I got?! Or Mikey?! Yes, Splinter’s gone! Yeah, it hurts and it sucks and maybe this just seems easier to you both because, heck, we’re all just going to die anyway so might as well choose a time and place- I AM MAKING A POINT LET ME TALK!”

“I am being COMPLETELY reasonable! How would you feel if you have to leave the lair every mission wondering if two of us will even come home? I may have wanted to lead once, but I don’t want that anymore! I don’t WANT to take your place anymore than you WANTED to take Splinter’s! Why would I want that?! Why would you make me take that?!”

“You are! Every single mission that you play chicken with death! I can’t take your place- I can’t be sensei! We need you! Maybe more than you need us because clearly you don’t care enough to stick around- but I- we- we don’t want t-to remember heroes or martyrs. We- we just want to keep our brothers. We want- we can’t- I-I can’t-”

“We need you. Why- why can’t that be enough for you to stay?”

Cause the light just keeps leaving my eyes And I don’t know where it goes But the touch from the warmth of your hand And I feel all over again

GOSH DARN IT SAVE ME

THIS PLAYLIST WILL BE MY END

I’M FEELING THINGS AGAIN

All of this is to say- I love your perspective on this. I’m so very grateful to you for sharing because this is one of those things that crosses my mind sometimes, but I don’t give enough consideration too. These new emotions and scenes in my brain are much appreciated. Thank you, anon 💞

[tyrantisterror]

Wizard School Mysteries: Character Inspiration Boards

A while back one of my friends suggested I do a Character Inspiration Chart for my Wizard School Mysteries characters, which sounded like fun but also like a lot of work, so I put it off. But since the new book is on track to come out pretty soon, I really should start advertising it, and unfortunately one of the best tactics to sell your original content on the internet is to point out how much it's like other things (despite this also being one of the most popular tactics to "critique" an original work as well). And it gives me a chance to gush about media I love AND a story I've made, and you know I like to do both of those things! So, using this template by deviantart user-with-a-deactivated account SlackerArtist, let's dive into what inspired some of the characters from Wizard School Mysteries!

There will be spoilers for both WSM and the media that inspired it, by the way, so read on at your own risk.

Now, when I say "character inspiration" here, I'm talking about two things: inspiration for a character design, and inspiration for characterization/personality. Some of the examples listed will be here purely because they designed the look/aesthetic vibe of the character in question, others because they inspired the character's personality, and some who did both.

I'm also not going to cover EVERY character in WSM because hoo boy there's a LOT of them even with only two books so far, and a good number of them would not have enough separate sources of inspiration to fill out this meme. So we're just going to have the 8 Meddlesome Youths here, and maybe later I'll tackle some of the other members of the supporting cast.

Which means we should obviously begin with:

James Chaucer

I'm going to talk about the three anime boys on the left hand side first, both because they're probably the most important influences on good ol' James here, and because they share a unique status as being Video Game Player Characters. From top to bottom, they're Yuu Narukami (i.e. the player character of Persona 4, who was named Yuu Narukami in the first anime adaptation of that game, and who I'll be calling Yuu from here on out), Joker (i.e. the player character from Persona 5), and Byleth (i.e. the player character from Fire Emblem 3 Houses).

Now, I'm sure some might be raising an eyebrow at me citing the player characters from some RPGs as influences, given that RPG players characters are, well, "cipher characters" - i.e. designed to not have one single characterization, but rather a variety of options the player can choose so they can feel like they're in the story. A cipher character is supposedly meant to be lacking in substance on their own, or so a lot of RPG writers seem to assume, as any display of personality could clash with what the player might be thinking in their own head. I think the ultimate example of what people think of when they think of cipher characters is the player character from Fallout 4, who, no matter what situation you are in, refuses to show even a shred of personality in any of their interactions, always talking with a tone of dull surprise and never having any unique turn of phrases or inflections when speaking. That kind of character is PRETTY BLAND, and definitely not going to inspire characterization in others because, well, they have no character.

(the Silver Shroud quest in Fallout 4 is a must because it's literally the only way to get any dialogue options that show even a smidge of personality, even if that personality is just "a really bad Christian Bale Batman impression")

Not to get on a soapbox, but while I'd definitely agree that a lot of RPG player characters are written like this, I don't think they should be, and in fact I think the best RPGs do not do it this way. The best RPGs, in my opinion, write their player characters in a way where you naturally have a reason to inhabit their head and share their feelings. I'll take an example that's not listed here, Hawke from Dragon Age 2. To get into Hawke's head, they show you the opening scene where Hawke and their family are running from a disaster overtaking their home, and arrive in the new to them (and to you, the player) city of Kirkwall. They don't have money (just as you don't have in-game currency), they don't have great lodgings, they're desperate. A character approaches them with an offer of jobs to improve their circumstances, and you, being int he same boat as your player character, get to take it and live their life from there. The dialogue you can have is filled with choices that allow you to color who exactly Hawke is, but despite the choices being different in many ways, they're all written with a voice that is authentically Hawke's, rather than Generic Player Character, but you don't mind because, well, you sympathize with Hawke, because the game makes sure you feel what they're feeling.

(Pulling this off takes more writing skill than just writing a bland character, though, which is why a lot of companies don't go this route.)

So, like, there's an art to writing a good RPG protagonist, right, and understanding of that art can be applied to writing protagonists in less interactive forms of fiction, which is where the influence comes in here. Yuu, Joker, and Byleth are all similar in a few key respects, and one of them is that they're all designed to let you into their heads with ease. They're contemplative characters, deep thinkers and feelers, people who observe others closely and have a deep desire to understand and help the world around them, and all of that was something I wanted James Chaucer to be as well.

The writers of Persona 4 talked about how they modeled Yuu Narukami off of the Blue Rangers in Super Sentai (i.e. the Japanese show that was recut to become Power Rangers) rather than the Red Rangers, giving him a personality that was quiet, thoughtful, and reserved for the other, more bombastic characters in Persona 4 to easily bounce off of. Fans have joked about how Yuu's catchphrase is "calm down," and to be fair, he not only gets it as a dialogue option a lot in the game (including in a couple of VERY important scenes), but it sort of succinctly shows why he's the right person to be leading things in his story - when people's unbalanced emotions literally turn into monsters, having a person who specializes in getting people to properly manage their feelings is crucial. The secret sauce of Yuu, though, is that he isn't really less eccentric than the characters around him, his eccentricity is just a lot quieter than theirs. He might not have big wild takes and freak outs like the rest of the cast, but sometimes the lack of a big reaction to weird shit is a lot more strange, and in many ways Yuu's unflappable nature comes off as more weird than anything else around him. He is, simply put, quietly deranged.

Joker from Persona 5 was meant to contrast Yuu in key respects - namely, his weirdness is a lot more up front, with a more extensive list of out-there responses in dialogue at his disposal. He's quiet, but less in a "cool and collected" way and more in the "I'm pretty sure that guy staring off into space is hearing circus music in his head right now" sort of way. True to his codename, Joker is a bit of a clown, albeit one that knows when to get serious and how to be dangerously effective not in spite of, but because of his slightly off kilter view of the world. He's a "that's crazy enough to work" kind of schemer, which, given the horrible situations his game throws at him (and, by extension, you the player), is a big relief. To deal with impossible odds, you need someone who thinks outside the box.

Byleth from Fire Emblem is a character who's had a huge part of his identity stolen from him since birth - namely, his ability to express emotions. He's viewed by many as stoic and unfeeling, and even his own father fears that he might be lacking in humanity. But then the game thrusts him into a nurturing role, making him a teacher at an academy whose students are all more or less his age, and forcing him to not only lead others, but to open up to them in the process of doing so. It culminates in one of the most emotionally powerful moments I've ever experienced in a video game, where - SPOILERS! - Byleth's father dies. Byleth, for the first time in the game, begins to cry, and his dying father says, "To think, the first time I saw you cry, your tears would be for me. It's sad, and yet I'm happy for it." You, the player, who begin the game with no attachment to any character in this world, have developed that attachment by this point, and have it recognized by one of the characters as they make their exit - you have, through playing the game, come to know what Byleth is feeling, share his grief, and are likely sharing his tears at that moment, and the game acknowledges this as an achievement on your part and his. You are the identity that was stolen from Byleth, and by joining him you've completed him, even up to and including his grief. It's just a beautiful moment, and a way this character is written to naturally draw you, the player/reader, into the story.

I wanted James to have that same element to him, that way to draw you in and make you share his investment in the tale by making you share his feelings as you go through this story. I gave him the quiet unflappability of Yuu, the off-kilter worldview and tendency to look for "crazy enough to work" solutions of Joker, and the crisis of identity of Byleth, while also giving him the deep contemplative nature and desire to understand and help others that defines all three. The aim was that James would not only be someone you can sympathize with, but that his status at the start of the book would provide an easy jumping in point for you when you read it, and that you'd feel comfortable when the story focuses on him (which it does often, but not exclusively).

Ok, enough about video game people. Let's talk about cartoons and comics.

Wizards in mythology and folkore are defined by thinking their way out of problems rather than just using brute force, and so I wanted all of my Meddlesome Youths to show different ways people can do that. In James's case, I wanted him to have guile, and ultimate my model for showing that was Bugs Bunny. Bugs is never the strongest character in the room, and sometimes he isn't even the smartest in terms of booksmarts - both Marvin the Martian and Wile E Coyote were introduced as villains who could technically outthink Bugs on a sheer scientific level. Bugs's advantage was his ability to hone in on what makes his enemies act foolishly, and exploit it as viciously and thoroughly as possible. I tried to emulate that with James's approach to problem solving, and to that end I also tried to stick to Bugs's rules of conduct - namely, James doesn't pick fights, but once someone has picked one with him, he will do everything he can to make them regret it, and often just by turning the situation into one where his antagonists torture themselves without knowing it.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man was also an influence on James's character, as he is on 90% of sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction that doubles as a coming of age story and was written after the 1960's. In James's specific case, he was most inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man version of Peter, in part because that's the version I read during my own teen coming-of-age years. Like that Peter, he's sweet, compassionate, driven to protect and help people even when it comes at his own expense, and maybe a tad too snarky for his own good.

John Eggbert from Homestuck doesn't have a whole lot in common with James personality-wise, but was part of the big collage of images I made when figuring out the archetypes for the Mystery Solving Teens genre, and I think James's affinity for blue clothing, cowlick stricken black hair, and glasses all might have come directly from John.

Finally, while he wasn't consciously on my mind when I planned out and began writing Wizard School Mysteries, in retrospect I see a lot of Arnold from Hey Arnold in James. Hey Arnold was a show I watched a LOT as a kid and was very formative on my tastes in stories ever since in a lot of ways (I think I can at least partially blame my obsession with angry, troubled female characters on Helga Patacki, for example), and the titular protagonist is defined by he compulsion to understand and help other people with their problems. Like, a lot of what drew me to characters like Yuu, Joker, and Byleth was planted in my mind by Arnold, that deep drive to know why others are hurting and to try and help them sort out their lives even when you could easily walk away and leave them to suffer. It's not a common trait for male protagonists to have, either - that kind of nurturing personality is far more commonly given to women, and even then only so stoic male characters can have a surrogate mom to hug them when they're sad. So it's very compelling to me when a male character exhibits it, and it was something I wanted to be a defining trait for James as well.

Jesus crumbs, that was a lot. Let's get to the next kid.

Ivan's archetype in mystery solving teens-dom is "the goofy guy," i.e. the member of the team who's more there for moral support than anything else. His archetype for wizardom is, well, let's call it "the failure wizard" - i.e. a wizard who, due to self esteem issues, really has trouble performing magic with any consistency.

And I decided the perfect intersection of those two archetypes was Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn, a wizard whose mastery of spellcraft leaves a lot to be desired, but whose loyalty and resourcefulness more than make up for it. Schmendrick was such a big influence, in fact, that Ivan's starting outfit is like 90% his by volume. He's player 2 Schmendrick. Schmendrick: the Teen Years.

Continuing the Persona 4 influence (I've said it before and will say it again: WSM is more of a riff on Persona than anything else), Yosuke from P4 fills the same mystery solving teens role as Ivan, and is also tied to the same Tarot arcana of The Magician, which showed how the Magician can manifest as a character in a story instead of just, like, a card with vague meanings attached to it - namely the idea of it being a character who's loyal and helpful to the Protagonist, but also tends to overreach. Yosuke is a kid with a lot of worries about his own usefulness that manifest in him trying to pull off big schemes with the group to prove his worth - something that Ivan does too in a slightly more lowkey, neurotic way.

Shaggy is, like, the Prime example of The Goofy Guy in these kinds of stories, so it was inevitable his influence would be here too, though it mostly ended up as aesthetics - Ivan doesn't have the gluttony or cowardice that define Shaggy's characterization, but does have the anxiety as well as the, well, shaggy/sloppy appearance.

Rincewind from Discworld, meanwhile, is another great example of a Failure Wizard, and especially one who keeps being thrust into perilous and world-saving scenarios despite his apparent incompetence. Literally being Fate's plaything, Rincewind has both the worst and best luck imaginable, which is something I've tried to dole out on Ivan in equal measure.

Ivan is also inspired by a lot of folk/fairy tale "fool" heroes, i.e. characters who are thought of as dumb or stupid by others in the stories they star in, but who show a remarkable creativity and guile when facing magical bullshit that others would never think of, which allows them to win the day against all odds. I've represented this folklore archetype with Jack from the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods, because why not?

Finally, because anime is such a big influence on this series, I'd be remiss not to mention the Shonen take on the concept of the Goofy Guy, because while Dragon Ball and Yu Gi Oh may not be mystery solving teens stories, they do nonetheless sport Goofy Guys in addition to their main heroes, and those guys function just as their mystery solving teen counterparts do. For Ivan in particulalr, Joey Wheeler and Krillin are the most direct influence, as they're both characters who never outright win the day on their own, but always play a vital part in making sure the hero can come in and finish the job.

With Gretchen, I started with Velma from Scooby Doo as a baseline and tried to figure out how many extremes I could push her into, which resulted in her going from "the smart guy in the group" to "the mad scientist in the group." She picked up some acerbic qualities from the Mystery Inc. incarnation of Velma specifically, which ultimately drew in other influences as a result.

If Ivan is Teenage Schmendrick, then Gretchen is teenage Molly Grue, the sharp-tongued cynic with a secret idealistic streak she tries to hide. And because I'm a kid of the 90's, that also drew in some Daria qualities as well - Gretchen's the snarker on the sidelines a lot because of these two, and also cares more than she lets on because of them too.

Her more Faustian ambitions and tendency to take her genius to "mad" levels, however, comes from two other characters: Futaba from Persona 5, who is initially shy and withdrawn but reveals herself to be an eccentric and somewhat terrifyingly powerful hacker once befriended, and Rose Lalonde, who begins the story of Homestuck seeming like the most intelligent and rational member of our mystery solving teens, only to go very much into mad scientist/dark wizard territory as the plot progresses. Together they take the potential for unhinged behavior you can see in Gretchen's other influences and let it off the leash.

The black mage and Wizardmon here, on the other hand, are purely visual influences - I wanted Gretchen to have an air of mystery about her, to seem just a bit ominous, while also still being oddly charismatic and likable in her own unique way, so I gave her the look of some of my favorite mysterious wizard character designs of all time.

So our first inspiration for Margot is a bit of an oddball, as it's less an influence on design or personalty and more, like, a situation that both characters are in. I watched... way too much of Inuyasha as a teen, and it left me with a lot of frustration about the great setups it had for its characters and story and the very bad delayed payoffs that ensured those setups died slow, agonizing deaths over the course of way too many episodes. Miroku's in particular stuck with me: here's a guy who has a literal black hole in his hand, one that can solve a LOT of problems very easily, but will kill him (supposedly) if he uses it too much. Because Inuyasha was allergic to ever making its setups pay off, it quickly became clear that Miroku's fears of dying to his black hole hand were weightless, because if the narrative ever cashed that check it'd have to, like, advance the plot to some small degree, and Inuyasha can't do that! No advancement in any meaningful direction ever, that's the Inuyasha motto! So Miroku inspired Margot in the sense that I wanted to do that plot element right - give a character a shitload of offensive power that comes with some nasty drawbacks, and then, like, actually show those drawbacks.

(You know how Inuyasha dealt with the fact that it could never actually pay off the drama of Miroku's hand but also didn't want him to solve every problem with his black hole hand? Bees. Demon bees. If he used his black hole hand, he'd swallow some demon bees and oh boy, they'd sting him good! So he never used it again.)

Ok, back to more traditional influences. I knew I wanted Margot to be the muscle of my group of mystery solvers, but I wanted to avoid my usual tendency to paint the muscle as a boisterous bruiser. I love writing boisterous bruisers, don't get me wrong! No Sympathies has one in Alichino, and ATOM had, like, EVERY kaiju more or less as well as a good number of supporting cast members fill the role. They're fun to write! Easy to write, too, which is why I wanted to avoid it this time. I wanted to challenge myself to show a different shade of "token tough guy" in my cast. And, since WSM is a Persona pastiche more than anything else, I looked to a Persona character for inspiration - namely, Makoto Niijima from Persona 5. When we're introduced to Makoto, she's very prim, proper, and soft-spoken, someone who thinks very rationally and proves to be a good detective in her own right. When she's recruited to the party, though, we see another side of her - namely, Makoto has repressed anger and a desire to solve problems in a more visceral and bombastic way. She's never outright boisterous, but she can tell a fucker off when pushed, and is also the token RPG character who brings fists to a tank fight and wins. Those are always the best characters. So that informed a good deal of Margot's character - I wanted Margot to be calm, collected, maybe even a little elegant, but very clearly capable of and willing to put a motherfucker in the ground if the situation calls for it.

Yor Forger's inclusion on here is funny because I didn't start watching Spy x Family until after I'd started writing Wizard School Mysteries, but when I did I saw a lot of what I was gunning for in Margot reflected in her, and I think Yor's bled into Margot's characterization a bit. Some of Margot's goofier moments come from Yor, as do some of her more humorously cutthroat ones - the juxtaposition of a character who's very sweet but also will absolutely end a person without hesitation if they threaten someone she loves is just very satisfying.

Edelgard's influence on Margot continues the theme of "female characters who will not hesitate to use violence to protect what they love and to right injustices they've noticed" that we've got going here, but also adds an important aesthetic element: namely, both she and Margot are villain coded. Tragic backstories, powers that come with terrible side effects regarding their physical health, outfits that are scream I Am the Big Bad Evil Guy, they're meant to scream villain - hell, Margot even gets an evil looking left hand, something that's literally AND figuratively sinister. I love it when heroes have villain coding, it's something that always makes me giddy.

Susie from Deltarune is also villain-coded and also a character who's influence on Margot began after I started the series - while I knew of Deltarune before starting the series, I hadn't actually gotten off my ass to play it until well after writing the first draft of the first book. But I love Susie's whole arc, being this ominous, terrifyingly huge girl with a menacing aura about her who's slowly revealed to just be troubled in a very real, mundane way, and who has a good heart when you break down her walls.

Rogue from X-Men Evolution (yes specifically that incarnation, it's the only time an X-Men adaptation has managed to consistently hold my interest) was sort of a subconcious influence, but one that I can't help noticing in retrospect. Powers connected to deadly physical condition? Check. Seems moody and evil-ish at first glance but actually a sweetheart looking for emotional connections? Check. Goth? Check!

Devi D. from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and I Feel Sick fits a lot of those same inspiration points too, but I think her influence on Margot was primarily in terms of appearances - the reason why Margot has a big, aquiline nose and that big ol' pony tail in particular, as well as the goth trappings.

So... the seed of Rodrigo's character was planted in my brain upon my first replay of Persona 5, where I decided to spend more time with Yusuke in my party - in my first playthrough I left him out of the party after his introductory arc was over and just never really put him back in. Keeping him around more often meant I got to know his character better, and I found myself liking him a lot more than I did the first time around - this very serene guy who loves art to an eccentric degree, and perhaps a bit up his own ass about it but in a lovable way. I liked him enough that my brain finally said to me, "You know, it kind of sucks he's not a romantic option in this game." I mean, I wouldn't have picked him if he was, but still, in a better world, you could have dated Yusuke in Persona 5. I dunno, I just think Yusuke deserves to love and be loved.

Since The Muscle in mystery solving teens groups is usually a boy but is a girl in WSM, I thought it might be fun if The Beauty was a boy instead of the traditional girl. One way to do that would have been to make a very masculine man, I suppose, but I wanted Rodrigo to be a literally pretty boy. To that end, I kinda... basically made him a gender-swapped Esmeralda from Disney's Hunchback adaptation? The dark skin with the green eyes is a striking look!

Rodrigo's dynamic with James is something I discovered in the process of writing the first book. I knew I wanted there to be friction between them at first, born out of mutual misunderstanding rather than either one being a bad room-mate, but I wasn't sure how their friendship would develop until I got into it. I think in some ways Rodrigo is very much the Watson to James's (significantly less arrogant) Sherlock Holmes, which I've started to lean into now that I'm three books deep into this eight book series.

Rodrigo's wizard archetype - at least at the start of the series - is the evil chancellor/scheming vizier, the courtier who has magic powers and sinister hidden motivations. Obviously his actual personality subverts this, but visually I wanted that evil chancellor coding - which I think, in a roundabout sort of way, put Hubert from Fire Emblem Three Houses in my mind. Hubert's a great character - a 20 year old who dresses and acts like a Dracula and is constantly looming around the heir to the Adrestrian Empire like a devil on her shoulder. And he's even better when you learn that him looking and acting like a Dracula isn't an example of the character designers lacking subtlety, but a conscious and deliberate choice on his part. He's a guy who fully wants to be the scheming chancellor who's got his hands in many sinister pies - but he's also completely and fully devoted to his future empress, and only wishes to get his hands dirty so she doesn't. Like, I think my tendency to write Rodrigo as the friend who's willing to bring up flaws in the gang's plans and be a bit of a cynic for their safety, it's the influence of Hubert.

Visually I'm slowly moving Rodrigo towards the fashion trends of Red Mages from Final Fantasy, i.e. the sort of dashing, swashbuckling, princely kind of adventure wizards. That's why he got a bycocket hat in book 2 - baby steps!

I need to revisit Yu Yu Hakusho, but I remember watching just as much of it as I did Inuyasha while also being a lot less frustrated with it. And I specifically remember the main quartet of heroes in the show - Yusuke Urameshi, Kuwabara, the guy who was like Vegeta if he was in his twenties and shopped at Hot Topic, and finally Kurama, the pretty boy demon with the rose whip who was, like, just a solid dude with an intimidating amount of elegance to him, which I think was what I had in mind when making Rodrigo. So maybe the seed was planted even before I played Persona 5...

Finally, Myotismon is just here because I was playing Digimon Cyber Sleuth while trying to figure out where exactly I drew Rodrigo's fashion sense from initially, only for me to look at him and go, "Oh, yeah, Digimon informed 90% of what I find cool in character designs, obviously I was cribbing from them."

Obviously Serena Takeuchi was inspired by Sailor Moon. Obviously. Her first name is the same as Sailor Moon's in the English dub, her last name is the creator of Sailor Moon, she's a magical girl, we don't have to labor this point.

As I started developing her beyond "an anime style magical girl in a pretty bog standard vaguely medieval european fantasy setting" pitch, Serena started picking up some personality traits from Persona 4's Rise, namely having a perky yet mischievous personality, an affinity for the color pink, and a sort of pop star charisma. Design-wise, meanwhile, I wanted her to look like a character from a 90's anime that takes place in (Japan's idea of) a vaguely medieval european fantasy setting, like Record of Lodoss War or Slayers.

And that last one had a big effect, because the minute I gave Serena's outfit some elements of Lina Inverse, I think I accidentally poured some of Lina's personality into her as well. Serena went from "kinda quirky" in my mind to outright manic, a bubbly, joyful young woman who laughs in the face of danger because it means she gets to kick someone's ass with sparkles and glitter. That in turn pulled in some elements of Ann Takimaki from Persona 5 as well, since Ann is basically like Rise is Rise was more willing to throw hands.

One of my friends noted after reading the first book that Serena reminded him of Hilda from Fire Emblem Three Houses, and while that wasn't intentional I can definitely see it in retrospect - both bubbly, both extremely feminine yet very good at laying out a punkass when they need to, both a bit cheeky in their social interactions but in a lovable rascal way.

Finally, Utena... ok, so, to my deep regret, I did not watch Revolutionary Girl Utena before writing and publishing Book 2 of Wizard School Mysteries, which is a fucking shame because that was the book that had a tournament arc and would have been so ripe for an explicit Utena reference or two. Missed opportunities, man - this one felt almost as bad as not having seen Wizard People Dear Reader before writing the first WSM book, and thus making it the only one in the series that won't have a stealthy Wizard People Dear Reader reference in it (did you guys find the one in book 2? Keep an eye out for one in book 3!).

Where was I? Oh, right. So I didn't get to intentionally reference RGU in the book of this series where it would make the most sense to, and I didn't want to force a reference either, but upon writing book 3... well, I dunno, I think it may have leaked into aspects of Serena and Gretchen's relationship, just a tad. Maybe tell me if you see it too.

The biggest and most obvious influence for Charlotte is, well, Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. I mean, c'mon, they have the same name, they're both friendly spiders, we don't need to dig deeper than that do we?

Design-wise, she takes a lot from both the Transformers Animated take on Blackarachnia (namely those extra arms sticking out of her back instead of along the sides of her body like most many-armed characters in fiction) and Arukenimon's human form, i.e. a spider-themed witch lady.

Personality-wise, though, she's a bit more all over the map. The Little Mermaid was sort of the kernel of her character - i.e. a nonhuman who's obsessed with the human world, even if her attempt to know more about it proves hazardous to her health. I also drew influence from Elizabeth, the Velvet Room station attendant from Persona 3 and, like, the only character in that game that managed to pique my interest (all the others felt like rough drafts of the characters in Persona 4 and 5, sorry!). Elizabeth is... ambiguously inhuman, and at least is removed enough from humanity to be fascinated by things in the mortal world that we find mundane, like wishing fountains and jungle gyms. Her naievete about our world is balanced out by her high intelligence and in particular her much-better-than-the-player's knowledge of how Supernatural Bullshit works, which is something I wanted to put at play with Charlotte - she might be ignorant of certain realities in the mortal world, but makes up for it with knowledge about Fairyland.

Sally and Kiki come in with regards to Charlotte's attitude towards others vs. herself - like them, Charlotte is willing to try some truly daring and taxing shit to help her friends or even just, like, light acquaintances. At the same time, she asks for very little - and expects even less - for herself. There's a special sympathetic tragedy in how Sally thinks her dream of a better life with the person she loves is completely out of her reach, yet constantly does amazing things just to make his and other people's lives a little happier anyway. I view Charlotte as having a similar sort of tragic strength.

I started this writing project several years before the Terf Queen went full mask off, so yes, in the early stages - back when this was called "Untitled Mystery Solving Teens Project" instead of Wizard School Mysteries - the kids from Herby Porber were in the big collage I made of eight different character archetypes in this genre, with Draco Malfoy being in the eight archetype - the Rival. In the MANY years of gestating between then and when I finally started plotting out Wizard School Mysteries proper, pretty much all of the core eight meddlesome youths had moved very far away from the influence of their Harry Potter archetypal counterparts. Except one.

Polybeus.

But, even then, Polybeus isn't really based on the Draco Malfoy that the Terf Queen wrote, or even the one from the movies based on her books. No, he's based on the spoof version of Draco that appeared in A Very Potter Musical and its sequels, the one that finally helped me understand what on earth made all the goth girls I knew in high school think Draco was boyfriend material. A Draco who's a dick, yes, a real asshole with serious issues in fact, but genuinely has a good heart deep down and kind of gets the worst of it in all his evil schemes more than anyone else. A Draco Malfoy with Skeletor energy, basically. That Draco does not exist in the books as written by the Terf Queen, but it would be kind of cool, wouldn't it, to take that basic idea and give it a different story to live out in?

And since I'm a Spider-Man nerd, there was another character that immediately came to mind when thinking of "What if Draco Malfoy was actually sympathetic and three-dimensional?" - Flash Thompson. See, the secret sauce for Flash Thompson in the comics and, like, the rare adaptations that decided Spider-Man's non supervillain supporting cast should get decent screentime, is that he ISN'T a one note bully. He's actually a pretty decent guy, for the most part - he and Peter just really dislike each other because they're teenagers who, based on a few fleeting interactions, decided each other was a dick, and have treated each other as such ever since. A notable fact is that while Flash thinks Peter is an asshole, he fucking LOVES Spider-Man, because Flash is a good enough person to realize Spider-Man is a hero no matter what the newspapers say.

Oh, and hey, remember me saying I watched a lot of Yu Yu Hakusho, but it was long ago and I don't remember much of it? Well, one thing I for sure remember is the character growth of Kuwabara, who begins the series as a hated and vocally contentious rival of the hero, Yusuke Urameshi. However, when Yusuke gets killed by a truck in the beginning of the series, we see Kuwabara crash his funeral in tears, claiming to be furious that Yusuke died before they could settle their score, but clearly feeling a lot more than just anger at the death of the one kid who he had the most meaningful relationship with at school. As the show went on, Kuwabara becomes Yusuke's staunchest ally, never the most powerful person in the room but always willing to hold the line until Yusuke can save the day. It's a great damn arc and left a lasting impact on me - the power of introducing a character as kind of a one-note asshole foil to the hero, only for him to gradually turn into a loyal and inspiring ally.

Of course, for Polybeus to pull off that arc, he has to establish himself as an obnoxious rival first, which is where I went to one of the best for inspiration: Gary Oak/Blue from Pokemon, a snide fucker who keeps popping up when you least expect it on your adventure to talk shit to your face, get his shit wrecked by your team of overleveled monsters, and then saunter away still acting like he's leagues better than you. Perfectly punchable, no notes.

And when you've got anime rivals on the brain, it's hard not to think of Vegeta too, arguably the most iconic of them all. An aspect of him that got absorbed into Polybeus was his obsession with a culture of conquerors and warriors that our hero cannot bring himself to give a single shit about, which I think is just a very funny dynamic. "YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME, FOR I COME FROM ROME, THE GREAT EMPIRE THAT SHALL RULE THE EARTH!" "Yeah cool buddy, can I deck you in the schnoze now?"

Kanji from Persona 4 was an influence less on Polybeus's personality (which is no slight on Kanji, Kanji fucking rules, easily one of the top 3 characters in Persona 4) and more on his dynamic with the rest of the group. Being a delinquent, Kanji speaks roughly and is prone to angry outbursts whenever he feels threatened, which is all the time basically where social situations are concerned, and so it takes a while for the other party members to be comfortable around him. Eventually, however, they realize his bark is much worse than his bite, and Kanji in turn finds he feels safe enough around them to let his walls down, and that's when he goes from "the loud angry guy" in the group to one of the best friends in your player character's social circle. Again, I love the turn around of that character arc - the way it makes you as an audience member suddenly have to reflect on and critique your own expectations and biases.

Finally, if James's approach to problem solving comes from Bugs Bunny, then Polybeus's approach to problem-causing has to be from Daffy Duck - all born from a volatile and contradictory cocktail of unearned pride and overwhelming self doubt and set aflame by arrogant over-reaching.

And that's it! For now... I may have made charts for some of the other characters, but I think we've all had our fill for the moment, don't you?

[e-glyde]

Why do people think adhering to lore will make a good story?

Why do you rely on "respecting the lore" to be your reason for disliking something? Maybe the lore needs to be disrespected. Perhaps what you respected from the original set of writer's had PROBLEMS. Could be the new writer's want to do something different in this world of rehashes or something.

It could also go wrong, and even kill the reason you love the story. So let's look at two different examples of adaptations of video games. Sonic and Halo…not perfect I know but stick with me.

I should also mention I enjoy the Halo show and the Sonic movies irritate me with it's changes.

STICK WITH ME HERE.

Let's take a look at the similarities of the both:

Produced by Paramount

Major Changes from it's source material

It's own timeline separate from their games and extended lore

Live Action when it probably shouldn't be

More likely to use/keep intact deep cuts from the source lore

More likely to change up key aspects most everyone knows

Let's take a look at the differences now:

The Sonic movies are beloved by many of it's fans

The Halo show is just discourse town and hated by many of it's fans (The tide of this is turning. I might come back to this.)

The Sonic movie's demographic is children

The Halo show's demographic is adults

The Sonic movie is allergic to the game's music

The Halo show has used several themes and music styles from the games

Halo is military sci-fi

Sonic is shonen

We can ignore those last two. I'm just salty the Sonic movies don't really use any of the game's AMAZING music or hire any of those composers to help out or EVEN JUST, HOVER AROUND THE VIBE OF THOSE OSTs! Actually let's not ignore it, because that's a good point to start with. Despite such an annoyance in my eyes, the Sonic fanbase hasn't made much a stink about it. And we take a look at Halo and throw many different fires that the show doesn't use the OST. Now how could that be? Didn't I just mention they actually use themes from the games?

Oh yes, the Halo show even uses THE Halo Theme in several key moments. So why are the complaints brought up? Well so I can go to sleep at a decent time I'll get to the point, or a point. I've noticed many different aspects going for and against each franchise adaptation into live action. One being the audience each genre brings, military sci-fi usually brings in those wiki types who act all high and mighty like they've read the extended lore but all they've done is quote a wiki. Or worse, a youtube video. Shonen can run quite hard on cool factor, and less on lore trappings. Even if people fixate on power levels, a story can move in and out of an establish power scale and still keep an audience…if it's fucking cool.

Halo by and large, has a pretty consistent quality. With an aged fanbase who from day 1 hates anything new.

Sonic I've noticed has changed a LOT, and has varying quality and all the fanbase begs for is something good.

That point isn't too good. Let's go back to Halo :3 The point from before was speaking to how despite the consistent quality the fans would have you believe the current company has killed Halo and never made a good game ever. Then you play them and see that even it's worse is still a fine game. And then you wonder, "Why do y'all act like these games are the worst thing ever? Do you not know worse games or can you not see your bias and act accordingly?"

The same goes with the show, while, not perfect…is fine even at it's worse. But they'll have you believe it's literal unwatchable dogshit. You look at any popular tweet about the show and it's probably going to be something changed from the lore and people acting like the sky is falling.

I see the Sonic movie show up and people are just enjoying the goober. Or quoting Idris Elba's knuckles. rip Tails Or Jim Carrey's eggman chewing the fuck out of the scene. Despite ALL OF THIS, being different. Because this audience isn't lore heavy sci-fi fans, they're shonen fans. It's cool factor, it's Knuckles stopping Sonic and taunting him. It's Super Sonic wiping the floor with a giant mech, it's Eggman being a charismatic confident jerk. Who cares i-oh wait, I'm getting a phone in…Sonic fans do not enjoy the human subplot….yea…yea. Okay. Makes sense, if you came from epic anime hedgehog moments, the comedic human subplot would probably do that. But it's not enough to make every Sonic movie tweet inevitably show up going, "Erm, but the movies suck though!"

Yes the Halo show has that. It's very annoying. But honestly sci-fi especially military sci-fi just has the problem. I don't know why, but it is annoying as hell. The mass demands lore, no not that one, no not that one; yanno the good lore. The one the audience liked as a child. The original one. The never changing lore; except the one that changed things but it was good!

Getting side tracked. There was a point here. Eh who cares, but I'll leave you with some wild shit I've seen.

"The Halo show is a Mass Effect show in disguise."

Evidence:

A Commander Shepard cameo in the dialouge in one scene referring to a Commander Shepard.

The show has Romance.

That's it. From what I've heard from Mass Effect fans, this take is even worse because you'd have to be media illiterate to relate the both. Or it's self admittance you know nothing of Mass Effect except it has romance.

"The Halo show disregards the games. The writers said so!"

The very first episode had several references to Halo CE. And the actual quote was more like, "We looked beyond the games." Which is extremely true because the more books I read, the more I noticed the inspirations for their choices.

For example in the first book the Main Director for the Spartan 2 Super Soldier program mentioned that she rejected the advice of wiping the Spartans memory. (or something to that effect). Her reasoning being that if they were to find out they were stolen from their parents, it won't bold well for their caretakers. So she went with just indoctrination. The show doesn't listen to this advice and guess what happens. A Spartan finds out about his past and doesn't take it well. This is used as evidence the show doesn't know the lore.

Taking a "what if" moment and exploring it. It's annoying. One can critique the pure indoctrination angle is a more psychologically interesting one but well, that's not what this post is about. This is more about how people act like the lack of KNOWLEDGE of lore is the fault.

And with Season 2 taking a different direction and even more characters more in-line with the extended lore depictions of themselves….this still happens. "The alien ship looks bad because they don't know the LORE man. Do they not know the lore???"

"I will act like choices I don't like are because of ignorance or arrogance from the writers, and not a creative decision I disagree with."

-Sci-Fi fans or something.

Patch Notes: Captain Shepard has been change to Commander Shepard Added a "Keep Reading" Marker

[intertexts]

tell me more about dakota cole gon hunter hunter I literally know. nothing abt that anime give me ur propaganda. ramble 2 me forever and ever I wanna KNOW

I HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE IN FOR!!!!!!

god. okay. hunter x hunter is a shonen manga by yoshihiro togashi that's been in serialization since '98 & has had two separate anime adaptions. i'm gonna be talking abt the '11 adaption, since that's the one ive been watching! (sidenote: started hxh because of the podcast media club plus which is easily one of my favorite podcasts everrr incredibly good analysis has really affected the way i think about media analysis & criticism extremely fucking fun awesome dynamics btwn folks who are 1) very well known for having extremely good media opinions & 2) great friends who have been friends for a long time & just a delight to listen to. its a great time regardless of whether u r watching the show or not highly recommend if u ever need a new work or commute podcast etc) also disclaimer that i'm only on episode 62 of the show. so.

anyway. the hxh plot:

i will not get into the plot much because it's not as important for the dakota gon isms. but its this. ^!!

so hxh is, overall, a homage to and deconstruction of its genre tropes. togashi very much loves and enjoys a ton of the tropes he's playing with and very obviously delights in subverting just as many of them. it balances these wildly disparate tones of classic, bright candy colored shonen magical worlds and powers and big fights with genuine, seriously-considered violence, cruelty, sinister power structures and all the other heavy consequences of splashy ultraviolence. [RINGS THE PD BELL!!!] the whiplash is ridiculous sometimes-- the ease with which the show cuts from the last survivor of a genocide (kind, reasonable, soft-spoken) turning to self-destructive revenge that is quite literally destroying him from the inside out, taking an immense toll on him and his relationships with the people he loves, becoming a murderer in cold blood (& of course we spend time with the man he murders beforehand, and he's fucking awful, but also human, and has friends and shit, & it's very clear that this is something dreadful and not just a cool fight)-- to like, the two twelve-year-old main characters concocting a fucking ridiculous scheme to corner the antiques market so they get a billion dollars to buy a viddy game & one of the twelve year olds faces turns into a little >:3 kitty face whenever hes doing something sneaky & there's some cartoon ass shopkeeper scamming them, is wild. and neither of them are the "correct tone," right? the whole thing is a balance between the modes & takes them both seriously & at their own value. [RINGS THE PD BELL] so like. literally since a couple episodes into prime defenders ive been like oh, yeah, this tracks, i'm not bothered by the constant juxtaposition of stupid ass bits with genuinely serious moments, this is obviously influenced by hxh. which, like, i still can't say if that was intentional or not. but hxh is one of The manga of all time & was & still is incredibly influential (sasuke of sasuke fame is a knockoff of a hxh character btw), so i have no doubt that it was an ingredient in the mix somehow!

anyway. gon, who is literally dakota, is the protag! hes the little boy who set off to find out whats so great about cigarettes :) he is a kid who was raised by his aunt who he has a complicated relationship with after his mother was killed and his father disappeared, and he grew up in the woods and is very very strong and fast and good at fighting because he grew up in the woods!! fucking feral little creature boy who fights with a fishing rod and talks to animals and has an incredible sense of smell. gon does some shit, leaves the island, makes some friends, gets groomed by a creepy fucking pedophile which he thinks is fine, gets brutally tortured for a very very uncomfortably long time, which he thinks is fine, becomes a hunter (which is great he has awesome lines of credit now!) it's still unclear what a hunter is or does, but they have lots of power and can do pretty much whatever they want. anyway, he wants to be the best and the strongest and he loves fighting for fun, for the sake of fighting and being good at what he does!!!! and he also wants to find his dad. and definitely doesn't have any unresolved issues from the fact that his mom is dead its fine he doesn't even want to know anything about her its chill and also his dad's so cool so whatever he was doing was for sure more important than him so it doesn't matter that he abandoned him! the crux of gon as a character is that he is very silly and often kind and very much a kid, and he does not fucking care what happens to himself. he is fine with getting the shit beaten out of him by people twice his age he is cheerfully oblivious to and makes excuses for almost every single adult taking advantage of him or being just awful to him, when it's very obvious in the narrative that it is bad and not good, he's self-destructively reckless and impulsive and fixated on what he thinks is good and right and also on becoming the best and strongest even if he burns out fast and he loves his friends so so so much. and simultaneously also he's a sillygoofy kid who does dumb shit with his best friend ever (gay) n worries about his pals n stuff. its okay if he burns himself out and gets himself hospitalized for months its okay if people hurt him and take advantage of him and get off on the idea of killing him but its NOT ok if his friends even THINK about taking a risk like that >:(( head in hands. anyway. yeah. fun silly adventures strange beasts and foreign lands and wild cartoon shenanigans and very explicit horror and gore!! with often brutal and terrible consequences that leave you feeling kind of sick!!! where have i heard that before!!!!!!!!!!

[twistedtummies2]

Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 16

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting down my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

We’ve reached the halfway point of the countdown!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “We're smart people. So why do we always do things that make us look like we have the intelligence of beef jerky?”

Number 16 is…or, rather, are…Zack & Ivy, from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

If you know me, then these two showing up somewhere on the countdown probably won’t be surprising. But if you don’t know me – or, quite possibly, if you only know the Carmen Sandiego franchise via the Netflix reboot series – then this will likely be VERY surprising, especially so high up. So, for those who came in late, as it were: the “Carmen Sandiego” franchise is an “edutainment” series, which primarily teaches social studies such as geography and history. It started off as a series of computer and video games, and was eventually spun off into four separate television programs. Two of them were game shows, the other two were animated programs for kids. The first of these animated programs – and my personal favorite take on the Carmen Sandiego franchise as a whole – was the cartoon series, “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?”

In the pre-Netflix era of the franchise – and, by extension, in “Where on Earth?” – the premise remained largely unchanged: the title role of Carmen Sandiego is the main antagonist of the series. Carmen is a master thief, and the mysterious head of a legion of robbers, spies, and blackmailers known as “V.I.L.E.” She and her cronies go after rare and one-of-a-kind targets, stealing everything from white lion cubs to Elvis’ pink Cadillac to the Statue of Liberty itself and so much more. Trying to capture Carmen and stop her crimes is the ACME Detective Agency: an elite team of sleuths whose primary objective has become the defeat of Carmen Sandiego, who was once a member of the Agency herself before turning rogue.

In the original computer games, before the cartoon show came out, the Player was the lead detective (although they sometimes had helpers who were fellow ACME Agents in different titles). In the game shows, similarly, the players had the roles of the sleuths on Carmen’s trail. Naturally, for “Where on Earth?” this format wasn’t really going to fly: the creators needed specific protagonists, characters with personalities and lives all their own to go after the arch-villainess. Enter Zack and Ivy: the brother and sister teen detective duo who act as Carmen’s arch-nemeses in the series.

Zack is a computer whiz kid who seems to know almost every foreign language under the Sun. He’s a wisecracking jokester who loves riding his skateboard almost as much as he loves catching crooks. (Did I mention this show was made in the 90s?) Ivy, meanwhile, is an expert martial artist, rock climber, and all-around awesome gal who prefers more hands-on methods of detective work. She tends to be a little more serious than her brother. The two are, in some ways, total opposites, and in other ways they work like two peas in a pod: both have a tendency to grow impatient with one another, but each also cares a lot about their respective sibling. What I love about these two is that neither is really treated as the “top detective” of the two; there’s no clear leader or follower between them. Each compliments the other very well with their respective abilities, as well as their respective personality traits. Throughout the show, they use their knowledge of history, and their respective talents, to solve Carmen’s numerous clues and try to stop her crimes.

I absolutely love Zack and Ivy, and many other people seemed to like them, as well. They were even adapted into the video game lineup that sired the franchise: “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Junior Edition,” which was loosely inspired by the cartoon series, featured the pair as helping hands for the Player. They would also become the template for several other characters who would appear down the line in the franchise. Most notably, the two were later reimagined in the aforementioned Netflix reboot; in that version, Carmen is reinterpreted as an anti-hero instead of a straightforward villainess. Zack and Ivy, similarly, are reworked from a pair of intrepid and brilliant detectives out to catch her, to being her two partners-in-crime, and tend to act as the brawn to Carmen’s brain, in some ways. While these new versions of the characters were fun, and fit the new format, I’ll always prefer the original teen detective duo from the first cartoon show.

I was actually sorely tempted to include the pair in the Top 15, but after much deliberation, I felt others earned the higher ranks better. Still…when your arch-enemy is the World’s Greatest Thief, and you do manage to arrest her a couple of times? You’ve earned your stripes, to say the least.

Tomorrow, the countdown enters the Top 15!

CLUE: “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.”

[bakiuwu]

Random gaia x skiorsky hcs (I'm very bored)

Gaia and skirosy usually sleep separately, with skirosky sleeping on the wall and Gaia in his futon but when it starts getting cold out the two agree to share the futon with each other

Skirosy is usually able to stand cold, but since his body adapts to the warm weather of Japan, it's takes him a while to get used to cold temperatures

The two will never admit to each other, but they're comfortable around each other

Gaia and skiorsky split up their chores. For the first three days of the week, it's skiorskys responsible for cooking,cleaning, and grocery shopping. Then, in the next 3 days, it's Gaia turn. On the seven day, the two clean and cook together. Gaia was the one who came up with this schedule and surprisingly, skiorsky agrees with it since it seems fair

On days where it's Sikorsky turn to cook, he tries his best to replicate the meals he sees on the cooking channel. (He really likes watching the cooking channel), for most of his dishes he tries to replica is what gets shown on the channel, but he doesnt always get the ingredients right (he somtimes get names confused)

In a way, he tries to impress Gaia with his "knowledge" on Japanese dishes that he doesn't always do a good job at making. He'll present it with such an cocky attitude. "This is gonna be the best meal you ever had, even better than one you'll get at restaurant." Until Gaia takes a bite out of it and starts listing the things he didn't cook correctly/ put in it

Gaia may poke fun at how off his cooking is, but he still eats it to show how grateful he is for skiorsky actually trying (he thinks it's sweet tha he trying to impress him)

In their apartment complex, it's assumed the two are already dating. Not because they both live together but due to their "flirting" (which they do alot, they just don't realize it) the two bicker like an old couple, especially when leaving from their apartment or while their in the store agruging over what should be bought

Most of the tenants see them in public alot, there isn't a time when they don't see the two by themselves, they might see them walking together, shopping together and most definitely bathing together at the bathhouse. No one wants to ask whether the two are actually dating (they don't want to seem rude), Garland immediately assumes, especially when he hangs with them (he feels like a 3rd wheel)

Even their co-workers thinks this, since they never seen a time when Gaia working and skiorsky isn't or vice versa. Even tho gaia talks to everyone at work, he mainly talks to skiorsky. Skiorsky doesn't really talk tha much, hell say hi or bye, but he only really talks to gaia. Due to this assumption tha the two are dating, their manager gives them the same work shitfs and days off.

The two are very oblivious to this tho, they never think about how they're always around each other or how people may see them as a couple. How their walks may be seen as romantic or they're bickering as cute, they just don't question it

These two know how to.....I mean talk, they are very talkative with eachother there isn't a time where the both of them arent chatting up a Storm, you would think the two wouldn't have anything to talk about but your mistaken. They usually talk about stuff on TV or books they've been reading

They both find the other attractive(of course that will never be admitted), which leads to both of them having staring problems

There have been times when gaia had to be gon for a day or two(idk military shit), and while gone, he'll stay in contact with skiorsky, either through texting or talking. He will say he's has to make a quick phone call but will be gon for like half an hour cause he's to busy talking to skiorsky (they most definitely play "no you hang up first" game with eachother)

Gaia loves teasing skiorsky, the two of them have a teasing/joking dynamic at times when they're not at eachother thoarts about something, BUT THE TEASING IS BAISCALLY THEM FLIRTING WITH EACHOTHER it doesn't help that they do it in front of people, making them seem very much like a couple

Gaia and skiorsky at times forget why they're living with each other in the first. They became so comfortable with the life they've created with each other that they tend to forget. Most times, garland is the reason why they remember their "rematch" (if that's ever gonna happen)

I have so Many random hcs foe these two😭

[akanesheep]

Now that Nightbringer is out, and we’re a few chapters in… I keep wanting to put some thoughts in writing, and then a new chapter will drop and I end up getting one question answered, while gaining several others… I’ll try to keep speculating to a low and just discuss how I personally felt while playing.

Spoiler warning now, as I’m going to be discussing events that take place through the latest release.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the change of the battles to a rhythm game, as I’ve always been bad at them. But I’ve adapted pretty well, although I’m a perfectionist, and will waste time and precious AP trying to get the best score possible XD

Now onto the story…

It seems odd to feel genuine heartache, frustration, etc. but that has definitely been the case.

Tossed backward in time to brothers who didn’t know us, and in fairness, don’t know themselves at this point in time. It’s been so strange to see them like this. Barely out of Heaven, minds between angel & demon. Both familiar and unfamiliar. To become strangers to those I’ve grown to know so much about. How unfair. Solomon arrives with one or two pieces of information, but what made me so curious is why couldn’t we go to Barbatos? Why is Barbatos so hostile to Solomon? He says he doesn’t remember, which I don’t wholly believe. He’s hiding stuff, which I really dislike, no matter how much I adore him.

As for the brothers, my heart breaks. Satan in his uncontrolled anger phases, Mammon wanting so hard to be a responsible ‘big brother’. Levi struggling with his self worth even more than before. He’s using different words most of the time, but we know his meanings better than just bashing himself for being a ‘stinky otaku’… the lack of Normie, but still our lovable otaku. Lucifer shaken, rebuilding himself in private while putting on the front of a cold hard ass to his brothers. Providing them the structure and stability they require to move forward. It’s the hardest role in the family, and he stepped into it naturally. As it was his role before their fall. I love that despite everything, he never hesitated. He never regretted his decision. He knew it was the right choice even if it caused pain. He does show moments of brief regret about the brothers fall, especially when Levi & Asmo on separate occasions had their moments of lamenting their situation, or missing the Celestial Realm. Even though each of them personally bears no regret for having followed Lucifer, all of the brothers, Lucifer included, are going through grief and loss. And we have a front row seat.

I was surprised at how long it took for us to even hear the name Lillith. The very end of chapter 10, Belphie is the first to bring up her name. We already know the story, of course, as well as Lucifer’s secret. In the original timeline, we knew about Lillith before Belphie, and in the fallout of chapter 16 we learned about Lucifer’s deal with Diavolo. At the end of Nightbringer chapter 10, it’s revealed that we are human, and the beginning of Chapter 11, where we get the near repeat of Belphie’s anger and grief inflicted upon our poor lil body. Solomon saved us and took us to 13��s cave.

If the lead up to this point was lamenting the loss of of ‘our’ brothers. This chapter was about the pain of us ‘betraying’ them. I cried, a few times… they were so hurt and the whole time I was wanting to tell them everything.

At the Fountain of Wisdom, Solomon pushed for us to choose humanity over everything else. Honestly, it pissed me off. It felt manipulative, like he was actually saying ‘choose me over the brothers’. I might be the only one who took it that way though. XD

The grimoire was the simplest choice for me. It wasn’t even a thought. It was going into Lucifer’s hands. All other things aside, I don’t think it’s right to control people, especially those we care about. (But that’s a personal history I won’t get into ;3) Declaring a promise to ‘protect’ them is pretty spot on for me too, which led to the events of chapter 12.

Unconscious me getting sweet visits from all 7 brothers was touching. Especially seeing that Belphie, having calmed down from his initial outburst, realized that it didn’t matter that we were human, that blaming all of humanity for the fact that Lillith ‘died’ wasn’t right. The benefit of being able to engage with him before he had thousands of years to let that stew inside him, his anger, frustration, grief, and guilt, hadn’t solidified into the cold murderous intent of the original story. His outburst this time was loud, angry, and hot. He hadn’t planned it. Therefore, it wasn’t as hard to dissuade him. A solid threat from Solomon resolved the better part of it, as well as the quick exit. It allowed thought, reflection, and time to calm down and see things properly.

On one hand, it’s good to see him face his grief differently, but on the other it’s hard to see the brothers collectively face it. Aside from Satan, who doesn’t have the personal connection to Lillith, it seemed that the brothers were coping with their grief by distraction. Her name seemed taboo to bring up. It could be said it was that way in the original story, but to a lesser extent. Some of it’s reveal was incidental to your getting to know the brothers, getting to know your environment… but this time, it was an intentional omission. They simply weren’t ready to talk about it. (Although, in Lucifer’s case in both stories, he simply feels it isn’t any of your business)

Nightbringer is a strange character. He calls himself a demon. Yet he could use the Ring of Light. That he even had possession of it is odd. Although it isn’t like we know how Lucifer came into possession of it right? (If I’m wrong on that, please let me know) He’s obviously playing some kind of game involving a much bigger picture than we can see, and are currently oblivious of. I’m starting to wonder if the voice that spoke to us when we were unconscious following our obtaining the Ring of Light from Solomon was actually Nightbringer. I’d originally thought that perhaps it was Michael, but given where things currently are, Nightbringer seems to be the safer bet. When he spoke to us in the latest chapter he tells us it’s our happiness he seeks. He also mentions something about scales being out of balance, as well as bringing night. But to where? Devildom is perpetually dark. The human realm? Likely no. The celestial realm then? What scale of balance is he referring to? Our personal balance? The balance of power within the three realms? If he’s seeking our happiness, it wouldn’t seem he would then seek to upset our personal balance of things. I had a thought on this, which perhaps if it related to the three realms, it could be he wishes to cause a more direct balance within the human realm, as while it already is a balance between light and dark, it is decidedly leaning toward the celestial realm. Is he seeking another war between the angels and demons? One that would lead the celestial realm out of it’s perpetual light? Or is this a more subtle thing. Does he simply wish to somehow magnify the mixing of the three realms? Like a super magnification of Diavolo’s plan of peace? Could it even be an attempt at rebalancing the harmony of the brother’s lives? To return the happiness and joy that was lost to them when Lillith died? The line talking about what MC in regards to the brothers gave me that thought. Are we there perhaps to prevent some past event from happening? (Like a ‘Back to the Future’ type of thing?) Whatever it is, MC and the brothers, are absolutely key.

This would beckon the question of ‘why?’ Who does this plan of happiness benefit? I mean, aside from ourselves. But what does it cost? That is what is to be revealed I suppose. Solomon obviously knows things and isn’t talking. For the first time, I truly find him suspicious, as opposed to mischievous. It’s fun, I suppose, to get to enjoy the domestic aspect of living with him currently… and seriously, I love this awkward aloof man. I’ll do a write up on that soon enough… but it’s safe to say from my personal perspective, that I’m very suspicious of his actions.

How intrigued are you guys about Barbatos? Why can we not go to him with the story of what is happening? If nothing else to explain where we are from and seek assistance in returning to our proper timeline? The red flags for why could be in the persistent insinuations that Barbatos may well indeed be Nightbringer. From the opening, which is clearly narrated by and talking about Barbatos, and the card which shows his scary wide smile over a set of scales while he plays with the puppet of a king… it’s hard to ask, but is Barbatos responsible for Diavolo’s father falling into his sleep? Is he now, or was he then, controlling the royal family, including Diavolo? Or could he also be connected to Nightbringer in a similar way to Solomon? I personally can’t see him controlling Diavolo in either instance… perhaps this story given in the intro is something which Barbatos did in the human realm at the behest of Nightbringer? …again, we’ll have to wait and see.

I wonder if the brothers can feel us in their past… like are they sitting there and suddenly remember they had an attendant named ‘MC’? Do they realize that it’s you? Do these new memories you’ve made pop up in their minds 3,500 years in the future? Is it distressing or comforting? I want to hug them all. Both past and present… -sigh- chances are that feeling isn’t going anywhere.

My sole ‘complaint’ if that’s what it can be called, is the appearance of Simeon and Luke. They aren’t exchange students yet, as RAD still doesn’t exist… but ‘poof’ here they are… way too early, and under no well defined explanation. (Or at least to me…) it seems a bit contrived. Like the devs had to keep them involved because they’re dateables, even if the story doesn’t support their appearance… I say that as if my angel husbando and my child are unwelcome… that isn’t the case, I just wish the events surrounding their sudden appearance made more sense. Maybe I just missed something in the story?

What does everyone think of the story and game this far? I, for one, keep flying through each chapter as soon as it is released, and wait anxiously for the next chapter. It’s quite compelling thus far… and I’m excited to see where it goes.

[retrocritter]

[REVIEW - en] Breath of Fire 4

It is certain that a very reluctant feeling is awakened when I think about playing any title from the Breath of Fire franchise. Throughout the years, we came across very harsh critiques about its fragilities, which has almost convinced me that, although having an emotional relation with the characters, they were not games worth revisiting.

The previous contacts were very erratic: small tries in childhood and pre-teenage years that were brief, both motivated by the language barrier and the intricate points of the narrative, especially in Breath of Fire 2. In that sense, the sensation of being in a repetitive cycle while trying to finish games that maybe just don't work for me is very present.

At the same time, I love an underdog. When a game or franchise is widely criticized - specially in JRPGs - being it at release or throughout time, my first impulse is always trying to see from another perspective.

This is mainly due to little belief on mainstream industry cultivated values (yes AAA, this is about you) and an understanding that we are increasingly moving away from the possibilities of experimenting games that frustrate us, do not commit to expectations built by billion-dollars teams with hundreds of people and, in particular, are imperfect, brittle and mirror learning and adaptation processes of the people that developed them.

That is the case of Breath of Fire 4 (at some level). Although more polished than its predecessor in context of the 2D - 3D transition on PS1, the game accidentally put us on unresolved graphical dilemmas on the intersection of these two paradigms.

On one hand, the 2D sprites show us the maturity of 7 years of franchise with vibrant animations, carefully selected colors and a visual identity that enhances the impressions we have of the characters and their relationship with the world.

This certainly reflects an extremely singular skill of pixel art expression, heritage of decades in which it was developed as a craft. By the same measure, it is also an omen of its shrinking to give space to 3D models in the current videogame generation at the time and the ones that would still come.

On the other hand, the 3D models of the scenario, the camera controls and the level design of the cities early in the game look like a still embryonic attempt of adequating to the industry standards, a crisis that affected other japanese giants and intensified even more throughout of the first decade of the third millennium.

This is the first duality among lots that we would find in BoF4. Divided by the affection i felt for the character design and the constant irritation with movement angles, difficulties visualizing the scenarios and the proximity of the camera without possibilities of control, the narrative at first innocent stole my attention from its lacks, until I realized I was very involved by the proposal that the game was actually putting on the table.

The story follows the pattern from the previous titles: Ryu is a silent main character with an unknown past. through his path, he meets other anthropomorphic beings that are involved in political conflicts and their encounter orbitates the search for a missing person.

Throughout the journey, a detail about Ryu emerges: he is a dragon. In this case, not only that, but he is the other half of the dragon god of the continent that antagonizes the one he is in, enemy in an intermittent and grandiose conflict.

The duality between the split-in-half dragons, separated by the prophetic time by which the dragon god would be complete, intrigued me by its political messages in subtext.

The allusions to the west and east of our world (in particular, the known historical friction between Japanese and the United States’ culture), the wars that involved them and the flexibilization of their own culture regarding political and economical power is evident. This is illustrated by the soundtrack, which refers to Indonesian music on the other continent, and to european music on the inicial continent.

The identity crisis of both sides and the lack of mutual recognition as resemblants, problems that we usually buy by the western perspective, are presented here in an intimate, vulnerable way by the side that, after using its resources to replace god, produces a misshapen quimera of the parts that represent the whole.

In opposition to the prophetic encounter of the two parts of the dragon god, the quimera is a compulsory encounter: carries within itself the feelings of domination inflamed by the war and the will of not existing, for it represents the conflict as a body.

Its persona, until then envisioned by the group while we play, now marks a painful event of a difficult choice: to recognize the changing of what we desire when the dream is distorted by the world. To Regain conscience of what the dream means in reality, but also in a broader way on the path, interlaced by the world’s destiny.

The game places us in much more passive positions when it comes to war and destiny, compared to others of the same genre (Final Fantasy in general, but particularly Tactics, Suikoden and Fire Emblem), although the main character carries within himself what would resolve the conflict. The comes and goes between the sides of the planet, as well as the conflicts that convey in the built relationships, microcosmos of an enormous disposition, affected me as I eventually noticed that the bigger events happened far from the view of the main group or right before they arrived at the destination.

In that sense, we have a masterfully built sample of the relationship between destiny and free will, the dimension of our actions in face of matters much bigger than us and the power of collective memory that disapproves selfish decisions made by greedy rulers.

Breath of Fire 4 establishes a more just fictional relation of cause and effect than the ones we live in our worlds, but could accidentally reinforce messianic beliefs out of the screen that don’t carry the same fairness. Still, it can strengthen the purpose of those who were subjected and wait the ruin of the ones who subjected them.

[morningstargirl666]

director’s commentary on Big Bad Wolf chapter 33, please!

Oh, that's a good one. Yaaaaassssss let's see shall we?

So, first off, chapter 33 and chapter 34 were originally plotted out as the same chapter, so jot that down. The original outline was something like this:

(yes I have tbbw all plotted out in a separate document, all my secrets are in there, no you will not be seeing them hehehehehe)

You will see, Sam and Kol's scenes aren't even on there because it was something I thought of closer to writing the chapter, and after I wrote chapter 30, @stars-and-darkness was particularly traumatised over Sam's ordeal so I promised her some fluffy video gaming between the two (I'd already been thinking about it for a while, like those two playing mario kart was an image that would NOT leave me alone). I'd also forgotten to plot in some scenes addressing what happened to Sam and him waking from that...so that ended up in there too. Add Liz arriving, the conversation between her and Klaus becoming longer than I anticipated even though I'd already written some dialogue for it...

...Well, you can see why I ended up having to split the chapter into two.

[deep sigh]

ANYWAY another plan that changed when i finally wrote chapter 33, was the scene between Kiera and Klaus. Originally, Sam was going to be in the same room during Liz and Klaus' conversation, and after Liz left, Klaus would have this massive blowout where he destroys the room, kicks Sam outside for lying to him and Sam would wait, defeatedly sat outside the door, for Klaus to cool down. Then Kiera would arrive and that line - if you want to break something, break it, just don't let it break her - would come in.

That line, actually, has a story of it's own. It comes from the cinematic adaptation of Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls, which was both a book and film I loved, telling the tale of a boy that comes to terms with his grief over his mother (who's dying of cancer) by imagining a monster that visits him every night, telling 3 stories that turn into lessons. In one of the stories, the 'monster' destroys a town? church? (can't quite remember) and I seem to think the destruction was justified, like someone else had done something to earn the monster's wrath. The boy, Connor, wakes from the monster's story to realise he's destroyed his Grandmother's (who he's living with while his mother's sick) living room, smashing all her prized possessions. At the hospital the next day, his mother tells him - after learning about what he's done - that if he wants to break something, then break it. The monster's lesson was everyone experiences grief and anger and pain in different ways, and it's okay to be angry, it's okay to break something. Expressing emotion is part of the human condition, and when you start bottling those emotions up inside, that's when the problems start. That's when you become a ticking time bomb that's about to explode. (It's a fantastic book AND film, Liam Neeson voices the monster - go forth and educate yourselves)

Klaus is the same. Mikael has beat into him the need to not show weakness, to bottle those emotions up until he explodes and every single time he does, leaving carnage in his wake. Kiera, like Caroline, understands who Klaus is on a fundamental level, and she's probably the first person to say, it's okay. It's okay to break things. It's okay to feel fury and betrayal and hurt and pain. It's okay to show it. Just don't destroy everything - don't let your rage destroy the ones you love. No one can be King over a pile of bones.

But I digress, back to how that plan changed - obviously Sam was with Kol, so I had that blowout instead where Klaus confronts Sam upstairs and then Kiera arrives later to calm him down. Klaus and Kiera's relationship is so tricky for me to write because I'm trying to get across that they're very close - probably understand each other better than most do - without overshadowing or belittling the connection Caroline and Klaus share. It's a tricky balancing act, but I think I got it right this time around in that last scene. They have so many memories together - an immortal's worth - and the basis of their relationship is born of mutual respect for each other. I hope that comes across in that scene.

[acacia-may]

Heyo! I saw that you love A Series Of Unfortunate Events and that's so cool, I love it too but sometime I have the feeling it's not well-known. Question, what do you think about the adaptations, the film with Jim Carrey and the Netflix series? Personally, I like them too, but I also understand why they're not for everyone's taste, which is fair. I'm just someone who loves books, film and show of this series, so I always wonder how it's for others.

Hello there! Thank you so much for the ask! I so rarely get ASOUE asks so this is really special and very exciting to me! 🥰

I do love A Series of Unfortunate Events (I also enjoyed All The Wrong Questions). ASOUE was such a big part of my childhood and something I've gone back and reread several times in my life, and I've always gotten something new out of it which I think is the mark of an incredible story. It was also something I got to share with my two sisters, so it's special to me in that way as well. I'm much older than both of my sisters, and my youngest sister and I are nearly 10 years apart in age, so it was kind of difficult to find things that we all could enjoy together, especially when they were young. However, we read ASOUE aloud when my youngest sister was old enough to understand/enjoy the series and also in preparation for the Netflix series which was scheduled to be released, and she just loved it and we had so much fun reading it together. I tried my best to do all the voices... (I remember I could never quite get Book Olivia/Madame Lulu's and kind of butchered my way through Book 9 😅). When they were very young, my sisters wanted to have these imaginary "VFD meetings," and it was a very silly game but always so much fun to get to play at that with them. [And to this day, my one sister's nickname in my phone is actually still "Jackalope" as a very meme-like reference to her always being the "Jacques"]. Anyway, I have so much love for that series and a lot of good memories related to it. 💕

Long story short: I have an appreciation for the ASOUE adaptations since I think it's a very difficult story to adapt due to the fact there is barely any, actual "canon" information, and I especially liked a lot of Netflix's interpretation of the series. However, they are all very separate things in my head (so it's almost like I've got a "Book Lemony," "Netflix Lemony" and "Movie Lemony" in my mind, just for an example). My ramblings about the adaptations got so long and are riddled with spoilers so I am putting them under the cut!

(Warnings: Spoilers for all iterations of ASOUE and mentions of death, murder, & trauma)

As far as the adaptations go, I think that the nature of ASOUE makes incredibly difficult to adapt in any medium. Lemony is an incredibly unreliable and biased narrator, and the canon is often (purposefully) ambiguous, contradictory, and riddled with plot holes, which makes for a great story in which the reader really gets to take the reigns and, in a way, "make the canon" whatever they want it to be. It's such a different experience because we/the readers, honestly just don't know so many things about the story, the world, and the characters so it's up to everyone to kind of "play detective" and essentially create a canon of their own--but, at the end of the day, that "canon," as each individual reader perceives, is probably 20% actual canon and 80% headcanon (and that's being generous). So for me it's difficult to judge the quality of an adaptation of this story because I really view a lot of my personal perceptions and understanding of the series as my headcanons rather than the actual canon so my perception of the tv show and the movie is really just me comparing Netflix's headcanons or Nickelodeon's headcanons to my personal headcanons, if that makes sense? And in that way, like you said, I can completely understand why one or both of them would not be to someone's taste.

I personally see both adaptations as separate things from the book series and will often talk about certain characters as like "Netflix Kit" or "Book Kit" and things like that. They really are that separate in my mind. Overall though, I really enjoyed the Netflix series and was really happy with a lot of what Netflix did. I did not go into it expecting a lot because I just figured that my interpretations were going to be different than theirs, but I was extremely surprised by how similar the portrayals of a lot of the characters were to what I was imagining in my mind. Esme especially was just phenomenal--everything I had ever imagined her to be like! The children (both the Baudelaires and the Quagmires) were great! I loved a lot of the guardians/supporting cast: Monty, Josephine, Georgina, Vice Principal Nero, Hal, Justice Strauss, Carmelita Spats...I can't even list all the people. It was just so well-casted across the board!

And even characters who were different than what I imagined in my mind were really wonderful! I really liked the portrayal of Netflix Fernald for instance--he was much more likeable, and I loved that friendship he had with Sunny (and how that hinted at his own relationship with his (long-lost) younger sister). Netflix Count Olaf is another example of a character who I feel much more positively about in the Netflix series than in the books. Overall, I think Neil Patrick Harris's Count Olaf was a much closer interpretation to how I personally imagine Count Olaf than Jim Carrey's Count Olaf. Netflix Olaf was definitely, ultimately much softer and more sympathetic than I how I imagine Book Olaf, but I think overall Harris did a good job of treading that fine line of being a very melodramatic villain but also being actually threatening and menacing. I can really appreciate how difficult that must have been because Olaf is such a very complex character and I can see why he wouldn't be an easy one to portray. And of course, Netflix Olivia is basically an entirely different person but a very amazing person!

Which reminds me, I know that Jacques gets thrown out a lot as a character whose Netflix interpretation didn't quite match up to what people were imagining, but for me (and this was probably the most shocking because I always felt like the odd one out when it came to my personal interpretations of Book Jacques), Netflix Jacques was very, very similar to what I imagined his book counterpart to be like so I was feeling very excited and very vindicated that I wasn't the only one who imagined in that way. I think the most radically different (besides Olivia of course) was probably Ernest, but we know basically nothing about him so I don't have a problem with Netflix Ernest. For all we know, Book Ernest could secretly be an evil cowboy and lasso someone and boil them alive in curry--but my personal interpretation of Book Ernest is that he would not have done that. But I recognize that's all headcanons so I don't really have a criticism there.

Besides with Ernest (who was much more of a coldblooded killer than I what I was imagining), I think most of the changes in the Netflix universe painted the characters in a much more positive and sympathetic way than what I was imagining in my mind. Netflix made them less broken, less traumatized, less morally dubious, and ultimately much more well-adjusted than what I had been imagining based on the books. I think Netflix Lemony and Netflix Kit are both good examples of this. Neither one of them are nearly as jaded in Netflix as they are in my interpretation of their book counterparts. I love them as characters--have always loved them so I want these good, happier things for them. I want a universe for Kit where she gets to hold Little Bea before she dies. I want a universe for Lemony where he gets to reconnect with his sister one last time. And yes, though I realize that most interpretations (including my own) of Book Kit Snicket would have never, ever, ever in a million years been on board with jumping ship on VFD when she got pregnant and running away to island to the raise the baby away from all that, I still want that universe. I still want that universe where things are a little less bleak and a little more hopeful, so I feel I am very biased in that way because in a certain sense, I was grateful that Netflix gave us a happier, more hopeful world for these characters that I loved.

Overall though, despite the differences, I think Netflix ASOUE was made with care. I got this feeling while watching it and squealing over the little details and references to all parts of the Snicket-verse that the people who made it and were involved in bringing this story to life really, genuinely cared about the source material. They were forced to pick an interpretation and though that interpretation might not be exactly like mine, I can respect that they picked theirs with thought, effort, and care because they loved this series. And it was really such a delight to get to experience an adaptation that was made by people who clearly have as much love and passion for this series as me, if not more.

I'm not as fond of the movie. I feel like it missed the mark in terms of the macabre sense of humor of the series and was more tonally uneven than what Netlflix made. I did love the portrayals of the children in the movie--especially Klaus. Movie Klaus's sass was just top-tier. I loved watching his faces in the background! They're hilarious! But they didn't give him glasses (at least not ones he wears all the time), and the movie is just kind of full of little things like that that just kind of miss the mark for me. I wasn't a big fan of Movie Olaf either--I felt that he was too goofy and not threatening enough as a villain, but I did love Movie Monty. He's such a sweetheart, but Netflix Monty was just as good. The same with Movie Lemony versus Netflix Lemony. Jude Law and Patrick Warburton kind of played into different aspects of Lemony's character so they're very different portrayals but both still good.

My favorite thing about the movie by far, however, is the soundtrack. I have owned it for years, and I still listen to it all the time. I was just listening to "The Letter That Never Came" last week, actually, when I was working on my piece for the Wicked Way Exchange. I just love the music! It's gorgeous and fits better with the tone of my interpretation of the series than probably anything else in the movie. I grew up with this movie, so I think there is some nostalgia there, but if I wanted to watch or recommend an adaptation of ASOUE, I'd definitely choose Netflix.

Thanks again for the ask and for indulging my ramblings! Feel free to drop by to talk about the Snicket-verse anytime! 🥰

[wordsandrobots]

Ask 001, for two ships:

Ed/Winry

Mikazuki/Atra/Kudelia

For this ask game.

Ed/Winry (Fullmetal Alchemist)

when I started shipping it if I did:

So, the thing about me and shipping is that I don't do it much, or didn't for the longest time. I just didn't come into fandom via that avenue, which is why most of the relationships I have written are fairly solidly the canon ones. So the honest answer is, when FMA!2003 did.

my thoughts:

Again, to caveat: I've a bigger soft spot for the 2003 anime adaptation than I do the manga (Brotherhood I don't count at all). So my baseline is an anaemic version of Ed and Winry's 'intended' relationship. But I've always liked that 2003!Winry gets to be a proactive part of the goings-on, and her friendship with Sheska, and I like the sense of the person she is come Conqueror of Shambala. Similarly, I could always think of more to do with the broken version of Ed that ends the anime. He's a quieter, gentler character than his manga counterpart and I think that's why what I ended up writing for them coming together at last was almost a sigh of relief. It's not a deeply complicated relationship, they just share a lot of friendship, mutual attraction and feel safe in each other's company. It's hardly the romance of the century but then they're neither of them especially romantic people.

What makes me happy about them:

That they're prodigies in completely separate fields, who dazzle the socks off the people around them smart enough to know what they're doing, who're nevertheless hopeless dorks on a personal level and will, with perfect hypocrisy, call each other out for being so. Also, there is nothing quite like sticking Ed in a room with the auto-mail people who fawn over Winry's genius. It's the perfect collision of 'my girlfriend is so cool' and 'I haven't a fucking clue what these people are talking about and this is a scary new experience.'

What makes me sad about them:

Probably the fact that I can't imagine them ever losing the compartmentalisation in their lives. For both of them, there are areas that the other just Will Not Get, no matter how long they're together.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Not directly related to Ed or Winry but I kind of don't like it when people pair Winry with Al as a means of freeing up Ed for another relationship. That's never worked for me, with their personalities.

things I look for in fanfic:

It's been years since I read FMA fanfic regularly. But I think it'd be people leaning into them both being bloody knowledgeable, bloody-minded people and also Winry's lock-picking skills.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Winry and Paninya, naturally. Ed . . . genuinely I'm not sure I'd pair him with anyone else. I read him as being fairly slow to form attraction to people and I'm too much of a Mustang/Hawkeye sap to go for the obvious choice. (I never did get to explore it much but in my fics, Russell Tringham is very much fuck why are you hot about Ed but that was entirely one-sided. Still, that could be funny.)

My happily ever after for them:

Winry is a fabulously rich and renowned auto-mail mechanic and Ed helps by coming up with ever-better materials for her to work with.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

(They switch and try very hard to avoid auto-mail-induced bruises.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

I reckon they make for a very sweet pair of sappy nerds reading on a sofa together, off in their own separate worlds but sprawled over each other.

Mikazuki/Atra/Kudelia (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans)

when I started shipping it if I did:

Roughly two seconds after Atra did in-canon.

my thoughts:

OK, look, do you have any idea how refreshing it is to have a show eject love-triangle/pining nonsense in favour of explicit, no-holds-barred polyamory? Like -- push all the male-power-fantasy stuff aside for a moment and try to remember the last time you saw a character respond to nascent 'oh no my crush is talking to someone attractive' with 'but actually there's a way this can work out where everyone's happy', and then proceed to symbolically marry the three of them together? I love Atra so much.

I love how it plays with those power fantasy tropes, too, because you have to remember Mika isn't actually one of those, he's gradual decay dressed up to look like a power fantasy in certain lights. He doesn't just passively collect two girlfriends. He's the one who comes on to Kudelia (with a customary lack of manners) and repeatedly shows warmth and care towards Atra. Likewise, Atra is pushing them all together every way she can, having learned from the Turbines that it's possible to have that kind of family and determined to make it work. Kudelia meanwhile . . . well, Kudelia has no idea what's going on but these are her two favourite people in the world now.

None of this is one-sided, or 'just because'; they each have reasons to care about the others and they respect each other enormously, and it's all jumbled up with the immense pressures they're all suffering under. It's lovely.

What makes me happy about them:

All of the above but also that it's so very . . . not a big deal. It's good for them, they make each other happy, and it's very easy to imagine them just chilling together doing normal stuff. In the middle of everything, I think that was the perfect choice for this kind of relationship, for how it throws the rest into sharp relief.

What makes me sad about them:

Well. This story is a tragedy so no way was it ending well. And I wouldn't change that. That's too much the point. Mikazuki was always going to let go his happiness for the sake of following Orga and there was nothing either of the other two could do to hold on to him.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Bearing in mind that I regard Orga Itsuki as the most asexual man on Mars, I don't have a problem with Mika/Orga as a pairing. But I've read at least one fic that got on my nerves by too readily detaching Mika from Atra and Kudelia to make it work. It also gave Atra this long speech about how terrible it was for her to try to hold on to him by getting pregnant, that was clearly expressing the author's bugbear with what is, in-story, an act of desperation at a point where Mika is loudly committing to fighting 'til he's dead on account of his increasing disability (can we please not cram the literal child soldiers into some drive to acknowledge 'problematic' behaviour, they have enough going on already, thank you). BUT ANYWAY, my point is, it's not like you can't easily fold Orga into this relationship. If he wants to be Mika's wife too, that's fine.

things I look for in fanfic:

More IBO fanfic generally.

I mean, probably the fact Mika is a lazy bum who needs to be nagged into helping with the chores he doesn't like, Atra is a walking ray of sunshine who can handle the most cripplingly dark shit like it's nothing, and Kudelia blushes like a tomato over intimate stuff.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Well canonically --

The legal team has informed me this is the kind of behaviour that will get my kneecaps turned into castanets so --

Mika is surprisingly easy to picture shacking up with virtually anyone (he's like Shino in that regard), but the right answer is Hush. Just your average disabled mobile suit pilot and his service dog.

Kudelia . . . honestly, there is something in the idea of her and Orga as a couple, given the few times they get to work in sync on-screen.

And Atra . . . hmm. No one person per se but she'd fit right in, working with the Turbines.

My happily ever after for them:

Mika and Atra run a farm while Kudelia commutes to her job taking down the government. Not that I'd change a thing about the actual ending, mind you.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Kudelia is the big spoon by default. I don't think she minds.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Cooking together, eating together, bullying Mika into helping with the washing up together.