#the other would be a re-read and that series just isn't good enough to re-read. i just randomly got the urge to read the first book

[rackartyg]

when i was 14, i stopped reading books. i’ve always put it down to being humongously depressed at the time, which isn’t, like, untrue, but a much more significant reason was that the time i previously spent reading, i now spent on social media.

i was allowed to get my first smartphone when i was 11, started saving up for it for, and then actually bought it when i was just shy of 13. then i got tumblr and youtube and started spending more and more time on there, and my reading time decreased until it was nonexistent, and it stayed that way for years.

then the pandemic hit and i started reading again, just a little, and then more when i switched to e-books, because it made my book as accessible as social media. it’s been a bit touch and go since then due to my mental health, but i am actually reading again, and i love it. but i’m still spending too much time on social media and these last few weeks i’ve come to realise that i don’t even enjoy it that much, really, so why am i doing it?

so i’m going to put hard screen time limits on tiktok, reddit, and twitter, hopefully for the whole summer but we’ll see how it goes. and a soft limit on tumblr. i won’t do anything about desktop because i don’t waste time in the same way there. but i’m putting limits on my phone and tablet. actually i don't know if the screen time thingy on apple lets you put hard limits but i'm going to go find out now!

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Is shattering permanent in the comic (especially with the force fusions and cluster) or can it be fixed down the line like future did? Asking for your opinion on this too bc I found out about it in Future and it makes me feel weird (bc now it feels like any SU stuff and shattering has no consequence or tension, so haven’t been able to read or write stories). Maybe I’m seeing this wrong? Would love your thoughts

Hmm...

So to answer your first question: The comic for WDAU works on the same rules as canon does. I have no intention to over-write anything canon clearly stated to be true.

The ability to put back together shattered gems is definitely a part of that.

So yes, theoretically, even in WDAU, gems being shattered is not 'the end' because they can be eventually re-instated through the work of the diamonds, IF they someday decide to Change Their Minds like they did in the original series.

That being said...

I want to talk a little bit about something you said, because it tickles my brain in an interesting way:

"now it feels like any SU stuff and shattering has no consequence or tension"

And the best way to talk about stuff, I've found, is to ask questions about our underlying assumptions. So my questions for you (all) today are:

For us humans, death certainly IS a constant that remains ever-permanent, and thus it's easy to compare it to shattering and draw that parallel... but is that a fair comparison?

In fiction, death is often circumvented and there still remains reasonable tension in things like magic-heavy worlds, vampire novels, sci-fi where almost any sickness is eradicated, etc. Is this not quite similar to what shattering is for gems?

Is the perceived permanency of shattering the only reason it feels like a heavy consequence?

Are there OTHER consequences of being shattered that make it just as interesting, if not more than, to be explored as a plot device?

Must there be an ever-looming threat of something horrible and permanent happening to make a story good?

There isn't a right or wrong answer to these questions, necessarily. I'm not posing these in order to lead you to a singular, 'absolutely correct' conclusion or way of writing.

For some stories, death DOES need to be permanent in order not to make light of what the characters go through! In some forms of writing, there IS no other way around that consequence.

But I daresay SU is not one of those stories.

Let me put it this way - 100 years ago, medicine had only BEGUN to develop into the thing we know it as today. Sure, there were therapies and treatments for diseases, broken limbs, poisonings, etc. Some of them were quite good, even! But overall, the death tolls back then from basic illness were MUCH higher than they were today.

Pnumonia, Malaria, Syphillis, Smallpox, Bubonic Plague, AIDS.

These were things that people died from, with near CERTAINTY, for the LONGEST time. They were considered the road to a permanent black screen.

And today? Even though they are still, without proper intervention, JUST as deadly, we now have new tools and vaccines to combat them. Hell, if you get vaccinated fast enough you can get bit by a rabid dog and live to tell the tale, unscathed! Rabies used to be a one-stop-shop to the afterlife.

Despite this, we still view these diseases with appropriate fear. They are still dangerous - in the right conditions.

In the right conditions, the consequences for a LOT of things can be permanent. If permanency is what you're looking for.

So alright, the Diamonds can heal shattered gems now. Booooring. How easy it is to fix any shattered gem! What a simple solution to anything tragic.

But................... will they ALWAYS do so?

In fact...will the Diamonds ALWAYS be around?

Will the gems who got shattered always be picked up, piece by piece, and be brought back to them, perfectly preserved? Or will they lose pieces of themselves along the way - literally?

And what NEW consequences can we think of, when we stop thinking of the permanency of death, and start thinking of the Impermanence of those tools that keep us here longer and longer?

Just food for thought. 👀

[pinegreenapples]

Radiostatic Fic Recs

Do you like radiostatic? Are you looking for something good to read? Here are some of my personal favorites that I think everyone should read! As a reminder, if you don't like something listed, just don't read it! And don't bother the author or me! Staying in your lane is free! 😊

Part 2 here!

Finished works

Read 'Em and Weep

Vox and Alastor are on the cusp of a relationship but Alastor worries that he isn't enough for Vox. Val interferes. Now a series!

Get Your Thrill Just to Get At Me

Alastor experiences a rut for the first time and Vox refuses to waste good dick on a panic attack.

Hold Me Like A Grudge

This one's ABO and pretty much just smut. Suppressants fail all over the city! Guess we gotta fuck!

Put Your Fingers Back to the Keys

Alastor gets publicly summoned by Lilith and Vox searches for him.

Escape Was Just a Nod and a Casual Wave

This one's a really cool predator/prey fic where Vox chases Alastor.

Keep You Like an Oath

Alastor sneaks into V Tower and discovers Vox's video logs. It causes a revelation.

Lucidity's Fog

Vox has one final sex dream of him and Alastor together.

How to Commission a Radio Demon Body Pillow (and other assorted things)

This one is based off a tumblr ask thread about Vox having an insane amount of Alastor paraphernalia. It's funny, but it is one-sided.

Would You Download a Demon?

Alastor tells Vox and Rosie that he sold his soul. Vox does something so stupid, it's smart.

Classic and Better

Oooohhhhoooo, this bad boy is what made me start writing again. The characterization of them is so good and I love it so much. Alastor tempts Vox back into his folds and Vox follows blindly.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Alastor lays claim to Vox by biting him. This one is short and sweet. Now a series!

Couple's Therapy

This one was funny and sadly too short. Modern day Alastor and Vox decide to go to therapy as a joke and it actually makes them realize a thing or two.

Bambi

I love this piece. It's cute! Vox and Alastor have two different versions of Bambi-their clashing interpretations lead to an adorable misunderstanding.

Joking Matters

Vox and Alastor got married to consolidate their power and have kept their relationship a secret since.

Obligations

Vox trades for Alastor's soul but it isn't at all like how he wanted. They both cope in their own ways.

Meant to Be Yours

This one's one-sided. Vox gets rejected and takes it really badly. An excellent piece exploring his side.

Bargains

This one is also so so so good. Alastor has a rut cycle and the only person who knows is Vox. However, Alastor hates that he has a rut and takes it out on Vox. Vox just wants to know what Alastor actually wants.

Spite

This one is delicious. It's based off the first episode where Alastor says he pulled a few strings to get the commercial to air. Vox demands that he act in a porno for blackmail.

Just a Slave to Your Instincts

Vox researches deer instincts and uses it very effectively against Alastor.

That One Tuesday

Similar premise to Classic and Better but it involves more of the Hazbin cast and the main plotline of trying to redeem sinners.

Vox and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Afterlife

This one is light on the relationship but funny. Basically, every rut Alastor goes fucking nuts and takes it out on Vox. However, no one believes him and they think he's going crazy.

666: Live on Air!

An excellent series that does a good job exploring the push and pull between these two and what a relationship between them would look like with all their hang ups and miscommunications.

Seeking Solace

This story plays with Dom/Sub designations and Vox is a sub who hasn't dropped in too long. He calls Alastor to help.

Radio Made the Video Star

An excellent series exploring the arc of Alastor and Vox's first meeting, their subsequent fallout, and their re-connection as they are forced to work on a project together.

Thawing Out

Vox is in an abusive relationship with Valentino. Alastor finds him one night by accident when he's mulling over his relationship. For the first time, Alastor notices that something else might be going on at Vee Tower and he has these awful feelings about it that he can't seem to shake.

The Pitch

Vox swaggers into Alastor's radio tower to find out more about his newest pet project, he ends up limping out. Wink wonk!

Hypnosis, Live in your Bedroom!

This is inspired by the 666 hypnosis fic and it is quite good! It’s another smut piece of Alastor and Vox exploring his hypnosis.

Other Place

This piece is really sentimental. It made me cry and think about death. Basically, Alastor visits Vox on the anniversary of his mother's death and they talk through his many emotions.

This Wasn't on the Agenda

One-sided but funny! Vox and Alastor start a hissy fit in an overlord meeting about their brief sexual history together.

Staticradio Woodland Fun

This one's cutesy! Vox and Alastor are both mythical creatures experiencing rut and so they spend it with each other.

Feeling from Grace

Angel Dust comes to Alastor with some concerns about Vox’s wellbeing. Alastor manages to fuck it up, as he does all things regarding Vox and feelings.

Music on T.V. and Sex on the Radio!?

This one’s funny and sexy. After their little fight on air, Vox tracks Alastor down in his tower to have some good old fashioned fun.

Stay

Alastor can’t seem to let Vox go, even when Vox decides he can’t keep playing this game anymore.

Like Old Times

Alastor pays Vox a visit in his office after their musical spat to say hello.

Deer in the Backlights

This piece is nice in the way that it explores Vox finally getting closure from his obsession with Alastor. Val and Velvette set up a meeting for Vox and Alastor to finally fuck and get rid of their weird psychosexual tension. Vox wonders if this was really what he wanted all along.

198

This one is pure smut and it’s so delightful. Vox manages to mind break Alastor and turn him into his own personal sex toy. I also highly recommend anything by childishsadism, they write very compelling work!

Undisclosed Desires

Alastor and Vox get into another fight and Alastor finds he likes it a lot more than he thought he would.

To Be Yours

This is my own work! Alastor hears Vox open their personal frequency for the first time in years. Curious, he goes to find out why exactly Vox has chosen to break the silence.

Safe with Me

This one's good! It's a modern AU where Vox is a CEO and Alastor is a serial killer and podcaster. After separating as childhood friends, Vox and Alastor meet once again and find love with one another. Now a series!

Bluest Monday

This one is so well written and the romance between them is absolutely heart wrenching. Alastor fears losing Vox to modernity, so he finally accepts Vox’s courting in an attempt to keep the other at his side. This decision has unintended consequences neither could foresee. Now a series!

Addicted

Addicted is really good. Vox finds out he's been drugged by Val for decades and as a result has long term amnesia. He runs away and tries to reckon with a past he can't even remember.

Hypnotic

This one is a rape fic. Vox hypnotizes Alastor against his will and forces him to recount his first sexual encounter as he has sex with him.

Unfinished works

Prey of the Video Star

This one is really really good! After the battle, Vox takes Alastor back to Vee tower, determined to finally make the other his. Alastor, weakened, struggles the best that he can even as the noose tightens around his neck.

Equilibrium

Vox saves Alastor and accidentally creates a soulbond between them. This sets in motion a landslide of unexpected events between them.

The Answer is Yes

Okay, this one is extremely well written. It's a fascinating exploration of Vox and Alastor's relationship through a vignette style. It blends all sorts of memories with modern day and it's really cool. I like it a lot.

Hell’s Televisionary

This one is a really interesting take on Vox and his first few years in Hell. I’m really enjoying it! Vox is new to Hell and looking to make a name for himself. He’s also looking to reconnect with the elusive redhead that helped him when he first fell.

Rival Frequencies

Vox goes after Alastor after the extermination and patches him up. He discovers that maybe his feelings haven’t waned, and he tries to rekindle a friendship with Alastor again.

Tune On In!

This one is based off of an art post where Vox and Alastor got platonically married and details their life together.

Unraveling Emotions

Falling in love makes a sinner’s heart human again and their second death permanent. Vox has never stopped loving Alastor. Alastor makes a mistake and Vox nearly pays the price.

For my friends who liked my post, I hope this finds you!

@rae-does-stuff, @drakepad-luv-2000, @motherarts, @freakshowmemories, @bratpfanne-of-doom, @superpersonpatroleclipse , @nocakesformissedith , @coins-that-never-land , @matrixbearer2024, @dancingafterdark ,@pedi-bug , @starlightthenightwing , @unnecessarilysalty

[tonydaddingham]

Hi! I saw your tags on a post talking about car trouble as one of the great good omens fics and I've put it on my tbr! I wasn't really active in the fandom after season 1 so I feel like I missed out on all the great fics. I know about Demonology and Slow Show and I know about others from Aziraphale'sLibrary from their classics tag. But I was wondering what your list would be, your list of what the best and greatest good omens fics are. I'm young, so I have time to read lol

GASPS I HAVE RECS COMING OUT MY EARS @queenofthearchipelago, BUCKLE UP KID💕

this will be a mixture of genres and a lot of them are well known so may well already be on the AL classic lists (but, well, theyre classics for a reason imo) but im just gonna dump them here; these are literally just off the top of my head so won't be very coherent/in order - i'll give the links and ratings, but will leave you to peruse the synopses directly (most will be human AUs, they're my particular favourites), just to save making what will be a huge post even longer!!!

Car Trouble (E)

Petrichor and Parchment (E)

Memory of Eden (M) (and its sequels - imo The heartbreak series of all time. i sob like a baby) (it's written pre-s1 release, so book!omens, but i find it relatively easy to re-imagine if tv!omens is how you imagine them too etc) (no seriously if i ever get any fic professionally bound into a physical book, it's this series)

For Want of a Seed (T) (and also a huge shout out to Right of It also by cassieoh but it's unfinished - ive had it open as a tab in my phone for like a year? in the fervent hope it'll be updated, which fair enough if it isn't!!! but it's beauuuutiful)

Stranger in Paradise (E)

Infernal Bodyguard (M)

Wicked Thing series (E) (and anything by phoenix_soar, frankly. just... damn🫠)

i then also want to shout out a couple of fics from some amazing people on tumblr here (listed in no particular order!) which you may have already seen? but definitely worth mentioning because they're similarly insaneeee:

Shoot to Thrill and Learning on the Job (both E) and tbh anything by @teddybearbutchh, otherworldly affinity for not only writing in general, she's so talented, but her smut is 🫠

How Do We Turn On The Light? (M) by @moonyinpisces is soooo good as a post-s2 fic, she's really captured how i personally imagine aziraphale and crowley to act after the feral domestic, i love her characterisation!

The Loophole (E) by @fellshish is a different take post-s2 but incredibly funny and the apology dance is. life changing

Chemistry (E) by @twilightcitysky, i simply revisit their works time and time again, but this one is a particular favourite!!!

and im sure there are some lovelies that might read this and want to add their recommendations too, or self promote???💕✨ but these are my faves, like i said, right off the top of my head!!!

[scarletwinterxx]

WE NEED MOREEE Taeyong dad au honestly all ur dad aus r so good liekkkk

a/n: hiiiiiiii ~ honestly i didn't think about writing more abt taeyong dad au, i loved writing the first one and how simple and cute it was. but never say never 😅 so here we areeee. thank you for liking my stories🤍🥺

For my other works you can check them out here, and for my other story series’ you can check them out here.

and if you want, u can buy me coffee(totally optional but any donation is very much appreciated!) thank you🥺💛

All works are copyrighted ©scarletwinterxx 2024 . Do not repost, re-write without the permission of author.

The sight of your husband sneaking around the house to prepare for the twin's birthday. The big 7. It feels like yesterday you were inside the bathroom making Taeyong look at the pregnancy test first because you were too nervous.

As the two kids grow up, they showed more of their individuality which you and Taeyong love watching. Minseo the ever confident one, she took a liking in joining school musicals and performances. She's always been the star in your household and she shines just as bright whenever she goes. Minhyuck, on the other hand, is a big bookworm. As soon as he started to learn how to read, there wasn't a day he didn't have a book on hand. He's also very into drawing much like his dad. You have a collection of his drawings hidden away to keep forever.

If there's one thing you and your husband learned about being parents, it's that time really does fly when you have kids. One day you have to hold their head up for them and the next second they're out making their own marks in the world.

"Do you think they'll like this?" Taeyong asks, looking at the rows of balloons he got for the twins. "They'll love it"

"I got the pink scooter with purple glittery handles Minseo wanted and the orange bike Minhyuck wanted"

"Good job"

"Are we forgetting something?" "Taeyong love, what are you stressed about?" you chuckle

"I just want tomorrow to be perfect and a day they will always remember. They only turn 7 once" he pouts, recalling the days when his babies were younger. Indeed wondering where did the time go.

"Aw love, come here" you open your arms for him, stepping in your embrace and burying his head between your shoulder

"They're going to love all the gifts you give them, we taught them well to appreciate even the little things"

He picks his head up to look at you, "They're not babies anymore"

"I know, I'm sad too but more so excited about they're future. I'm excited to see them explore more, know more about themselves, grow up" you play with the ends of his hear on his neck, looking into his big eyes both your kids inherited. Thank the heavens.

"Does it make you sad, that we never had kids after the twins?" you ask him

"Of course not" he answers without missing a beat, "You, Minseo and Minhyuck are my everything. There isn't a day I felt like there something missing in me the moment I met you" the same words he told you the day you got married.

After the twins birth, it was very stressful for your body to the point you were told by your doctor it was going to be very dangerous when you decide to have another kid. Taeyong is right, the twins are enough and there isn't a day you felt like your family isn't complete. But there are moments, very few, where you wonder what it would be like if you had more kids.

"If we're blessed to have more then that's good, if we're not then that's okay too. Losing you isn't a risk I will ever take. Don't ever feel pressured about that, okay? I love you very much and this life we created together" he tells you, holding your face in his hands

"I love you too" you give him a sweet kiss, finishing the night.

The next morning, very early you get the cake ready for the twins. Waiting for them to wake up. You light up the candles when you hear voices coming down the stairs,

"Gotta keep your eyes closed okay, no peeking" Taeyong appears with one child in each arm, carrying both down the stairs. He puts them down before telling them it's okay to look, "Happy Birthday!" you and Taeyong say at the same time, the two kids immediately smile upon seeing the surprise waiting for them.

The two blow their candles and open the gift you and Taeyong got before you eat breakfast as a family.

It's days like these that makes life worth it, making you excited for the days yet to come and the future you're going to live. You look over your husband, playing with the kids and letting them put icing on his face and think your self how much you love your little life.

[the-catmans-offical-2]

The offical art when it comes to Ed and Wrath are few and far between. However, there's some things I've noticed and would like to share!

Wrath, as a human, would have blue eyes - while this is something we pretty much already knew just by watching eps 28 through 30, if you look at Ed's eye color then you'll realize that they're very close to being inverses of each other!

Also Wrath is cool colors (Blues and greens, blacks and purples) whereas Ed is warm colors (Yellows and reds, whites and oranges). I think that's another contrast or inverse between them to show who they are as characters - with Wrath being a homunculus he is colder colors like the tones of a dead body or just generally not something alive, while Ed has warmer colors like a living human would.

There's more differences between them! Wrath's iris shape is (in the picture and originally) more circular than Ed's - who's is more ovular. Wrath also has slightly larger eyes than Ed, giving him a bit of more childlike appearance though his facial shape keeps him appearing as though he is of similar age to Ed. (I remember reading somewhere once, and please correct me if I am wrong but I personally believe this greatly, that Wrath was made with the goal kept in mind that he'd be an opponent to Ed of similar age and similar in other ways as well.) Wrath also has sharp teeth whilst Ed has dull flat ones - oddly enough Wrath's ears are pointed slightly and Ed's ears are rounded, furthermore giving the visual feel that Wrath isn't human. He must appear rather uncanny to Edward or to any human - same with the homunculi in general - because he looks human but with subtle things that make him... Off.

Wrath is all smilely too, whereas Ed looks more serious or weary; Showing off Wrath's inital innocence (which stays there throughout the series until he was betrayed by Dante and Envy, and I will fight anyone on that) and Ed's lingering distrust for Wrath. Fun fact, in CoS he seems to trust Wrath more even though the two never see each other again. Oh, they're gonna be the end of me. ED FUCKING ACTED LIKE HE KNEW WHAT WRATH WOULD WANT, which leads me to believe they had a talk or just SOMETHING during ep 51 that was cut out.

I have no idea what this image is from so please let me know if anyone knows! I've been curious for a while.

Anyway, Wrath:) He's poking out from behind Ed, and there's more things to point out between them!

Wrath is wearing dark clothes whereas Ed's wearing light ones. Like usual, Wrath's hair is down and messy while Ed's is up and neat. This is the offical art that made me realize that Ed has longer, thinner eyebrows than Wrath - who has thicker ones!

Also Wrath seems to be staring directly at Ed, but I personally can't read his expression as anything? Maybe curiosity? I'm not good with reading facial expressions lmao.

I only added this one bc WRATH LOOKS SO SILLY WHO THE FUCK PUT HIM IN A LIL SUIT??? HOW THE FUCK DID SOMEONE PUT HIM IN A SUIT???

I'm looking for a clearer image for this so I may update this post at some point to put the clearer one there if I find it!

Anyway so Wrath and Edward are standing back to back. They have a slight height difference with Wrath as the shorter of the two (I bet Ed is very happy/j)

Ed's expression is more angry or solem while Wrath's is a grin - but both can be said to look angry I'd think.

They both have a hand on their hip (Ed's in his pocket but Wrath doesn't have pockets, L) and the opposite arm resting more languidly at their side. They're both standing straight, Ed's head is tilted slightly downward while Wrath's is tilted up - no one else is shown standing back to back. Only Wrath any Ed. Al is there, standing beside Ed, but Gluttony is standing with his side to Alphonse, and Lust is more off to the side and facing the others rather than with her back to anyone. I think it is to further show that Ed and Wrath are such parallels (and Lust is standing a little to the side, possibly showing how she isn't really obeying anyone but herself - showing how she betrayed Dante and went to help Ed get Al back in exchange for becoming human again; But we know how that played out..)

I'm not really gonna talk about these here, as one of them is simply a scene redraw, and they're more Izumi focused if you look at them - with Izumi appearing somber while Ed looks weary or even fearful, and Wrath is just.. Being a kid. Running and flipping, and then in the redraw fighting Ed and Al.

The same could be said about these!! They aren't really interacting - in the first image Wrath is asleep at a table with the other homunculi, and in the second he does appear to be staring at Ed; But again Ed isn't focused on him.

Probably some of the ONLY FUCKING COS OFFICAL ART I HAVE FOUND with Wrath in it. Wrath and Ed are facing opposite of each other. No one, other than Wrath in the image, is fully facing at a side profile - which at first I thought represented how he had died, but Alfons is there and so is Eckhart.

Ed looks wistful, not angry but not happy. Sad perhaps, which is what he seems to be a lot in CoS. But Wrath, he looks down right angry. Yelling maybe? His mouth is opened wide and showing his sharp teeth, his visable eyebrow furrowed, he looks dirty and tired. Clearly this is during his fight with Gluttony. I love that they're seperated by the margin, representing the Gate kinda - Armestrian characters on one side, 'our world' characters on the other.

Again, this isn't really Ed and Wrath in particular. But I want you all to really look at Wrath. He's licking his Ed arm. In a similar fashion Dante does to Lyra's arm after possessing her body, and basically asking Hoenhiem to.. Yk, fuck. While I definitely don't think Wrath is doing it out of sexual desire or reason (that is a child, that is a child, that is a child), I do believe he's doing it to mimick or copy Dante. Wrath could've seen that she liked Hoenhiem, which is putting it lightly but for the sake of the sake I'll just say she liked him, and then copied her by licking said limb out of liking Ed or desiring (non-sexually) his body/limbs. To become human.

Also jfc Envy is buff, go back to being a twink you loser.

Uhh I dunno, I just rambled a lil. Maybe I'll make another post with this? Maybe not, but this is what you get for now!! Use my ask box if you have any questions! :)

[mostlyihyperfixate]

WrightWorth Fic Recs

Okay, so @moongasux told me to give some fic recommendations on last night's post, and I thought it would be easier for me to put together a list in a separate post. And then I can update as I go along.

Please note that these aren't all the fics I've read or even the only good ones, just my favorites so far--the ones I've gone back and reread multiple times since discovering them. I've got several explicit ones to recommed but I literally just started reading smut so I can't actually comment on how good the sex scenes are.

A Long Way to Fall by prospectkiss

Rating: Explicit; Content Warning for stalking and torture; set pre-AA4; finished

Words cannot express how much I love this fic. It was the second one I ever read, and it's still my all-time favorite. It sounds really dark, but the subject matter is treated with the reality and seriousness it deserves. The author also simultaneously knows where and when to stop with the angst so it never gets overbearing. I especially love that both Miles and Phoenix seem like 100% equal partners and adults. The character voices are *chef's kiss*. This is, hands down, the best Franziska I have come across. Be warned that there are explicit sex scenes!

A Night You'll Never Regret by MaudMoon

Rating: Explicit; Content Warning for drinking in excess; set post-AA6; finished

This is another excellent fic, a sort of pure-fluff alternative to A Long Way to Fall. It's just good times from start to finish. The character work here is also very good. The author deals with a pretty large cast masterfully. Larry is amazing in this. This is the story that introduced me to my NOTP, but I'm coming to realize that it's a fairly common ship in this fandom, and who am I to rain on a collective parade? This story is too good to ignore just because of that. Again, there are explicit sex scenes.

Turnabout: Bloodline by LeFlayART

Rating: Explicit; Canon Divergence post-AA6; Spirit Medium!Miles AU; finished (the first two of the three stories, anyway)

You have got to read this. I started reading the first story in this series yesterday, and I've hardly been able to put it down. I am crushed to see that the final story never got finished--but a look at the number of comments on the second part shows that the number of comments this received at the time was a travesty. This is a masterpiece. They say the mark of a good story is that you keep saying to yourself, "Just one more chapter. Just one more chapter," and I have been saying that since, like, 9:00 in the morning yesterday. There is explicit sex. There is a lot of explicit sex. Please go shower this fic with the praise it deserves.

pressed beneath the burden of proof by harmony

Rating: Mature; Content Warning for amnesia fic; one shot

I effing love an amnesia fic, okay? I know it's not for everyone, but it's one of my favorite fic tropes. (Seriously, if you know of any other Wrightworth or Klapollo amnesia fics please send them my way). This is a nice lengthy one that doesn't overstay its welcome by making you wonder where the heck the plot got to. There's no big, overarching legal mystery to solve, but watching Miles put things together is plot enough. The interactions between Miles and Phoenix are wonderful.

res ipsa loquitur (the thing itself speaks) by griffonage

Rating: Teen and Up; finished

This is a fun miscommunication fic that isn't going to leave you wanting to rage at the couple for not just communicating. It's fun miscommunication. Another great "It's about the pining" fic, but without all the angst that usually comes with all that pining--and it's only five chapters, so you can read it in a snap! The author wrote another similar story from Phoenix's point of view later, but of the two, this is my preferred one.

Guilty as Charged by JustNerdyThings

Rating: General Audiences; finished

Do you like seeing Apollo tortured in the fun sense? Then this is the fic for you! It's got some additional Klapollo which finally made me go, "Oh, yeah, this ship is cute," and while shipping (and fumbled matchmaking) is the plot of the story, the place it really shines is just watching Apollo deal with the rest of the cast as the only sane man. It's all cute enough to give you cavities.

Epoch by citsiurtlanu

Rating: Teen and Up; Content Warning for Soulmate AU; set through the series; in the process of being posted

I feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest when I open this up and read it--every single damn time. It hurts. I mean that in a good way. I don't typically read soulmate AUs because I always have more questions than what is addressed, but this one's sort of (at least thus far) a deconstruction of the concept. I am genuinely upset that I have to wait for weekly updates on this when I just want to unhinge my jaw and swallow it whole. Every week's update leaves me wanting more. Also, the author is terribly nice.

[gffa]

I know it just came out and that there's only a couple episodes, but is the Acolyte any good? I tend to vibe with your star wars opinions and wanted to hear from someone who is also pro jedi

It depends on what you're looking to get out of it, I would say. For me, I have a pretty high tolerance for looking past any potential narrative intentions that go into a Star Wars story if it's not from Lucas himself and rolling with unreliable narrators and conflicting needs between the Jedi and another group. But other people have had their nerves scraped raw by that or just aren't interested in it, and that's fair! We're not even halfway through the series, we haven't had enough time to reveal the big mysteries that will really tells us what the show is trying to say, so I can't give a fully endorsed stamp of approval in pretty much any direction! What I will say is this: I think it's fine so far. It's not great, it's not terrible. There are some things that had me giving a mild side-eye, but there are things that I genuinely enjoyed, re: the Jedi stuff. Overall, I think people read too much into stuff and won't let characters just be, like if a character is a stick in the mud, then that's an indictment of all Jedi ever?? Hard disagree! Just let that one character have his own personality! I think, if you have a tolerance for stories that have unreliable narrators who are mad at the Jedi, but it's not hard to understand that they're coming from an unreliable but sympathetic place/that the Jedi aren't coming from a horrible place, you'll be fine with it so far. If you're fine with mentally separating this out from Lucas' Star Wars and are willing to either enjoy it or just leave it on the table, because it doesn't need to be perfect, this isn't going to impact the Star Wars story of my heart (which is the first six movies + first six seasons of TCW), I hope you'll like it well enough. If you're fine with a few "....did this person actually watch closely the movies/TCW?" moments that are overall actually really mild so far, you'll be fine. tl;dr: I think it's fine, if you vibe with my approach to stuff (especially over the last year, where I've worked really hard to chill out on stuff), you'll be okay with it so far.

[ninyard]

Hii, I guess this is a question not only for you but also your followers. Why wouldn't it be ok to like aftg? Like I've seen people say is problematic? But the only thing I've seen criticized is how unrealistic it is and like is a book so... idk maybe I lack critical thinking on some topics so if anyone could point me where to look I'd love to keep liking these books while being aware of it's failings :3

this is an interesting question! i guess the biggest part of whether it wouldn't be "okay" for someone to read aftg would be somewhat down to personal tastes.

re: the unrealistic part, i think if you go into a lot of books expecting them to be "realistic" you'll probably find there's a lot out there that just... isn't. i myself think that 90% of the biggest arguments i've seen about it's realism are from people who 1) refuse to suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoyment or 2) go into it with a certain expectation as to how realistic it's going to be before reading.

you can pick apart a million different books and movies and tv shows out there and find "unrealistic" parts in them all. and what do people say is even unrealistic about it? the different languages that are spoken in it? the trauma all the characters have? i understand it, to some degree, but i think people who think that fiction that is unrealistic = fiction that is bad, are probably just reading the wrong things. and that's fine. it's personal taste. but not everything has to be realistic for someone to enjoy it. that's just me.

as for the problematic aspects of it, i guess my gut instinct is to say that's once again down to personal perspective and opinion. i personally don't like or agree with some things in it, but i don't know if i can definitively say, oh it's problematic for this reason or that reason. are there triggering topics in aftg? are there uncomfortable scenes and problematic things that the characters do and say? are there bad people who do bad things? yes. that's just the truth. does that make the books themselves inherently problematic? i don't think so. but maybe i'm wrong with that. i don't know.

if you try to justify and explain and dissect everything that happens or is said in a book like aftg, i think you can probably find yourself in a real rabbit hole of is this appropriate? is this okay? is this problematic? i just feel that, it's a book, that has shitty things said and done in it, and it's up to you yourself whether you think those shitty things cross the line of being problematic or not. there's limits to everything, and while i dont think aftg crosses those limits, it doesn't mean i think it's perfect or an exception to criticism.

i guess what i mean is that if you try to find things wrong with aftg, you'll probably find something. it's not perfect. you could pick it apart if you really wanted to. but i suppose i'm just happy enough to enjoy it without doing that because it is what it is. it's a book about people who have had shitty things happen in their lives, about people who say and do shitty things, but i don't think it glamorises or makes those shitty things okay. me liking the series also doesn't mean i'm 100% a-okay super cool with everything that happens in it either. i am not the media i consume or enjoy.

but it's also really important to listen to people who talk about things that do personally hurt them or make them feel like they're not seen for who they are or what they've been through. i can say that i personally am not offended or hurt by 99% of what happens, but that doesn't invalidate someone who was. that doesn't invalidate other people who aren't me who say "it's problematic for x reason". i'm happy to share any insights into this if anyone wants to send them my way!

maybe this isn't a good answer to your question and i'm still not sure if i've gotten my point across properly. there's a million things problematic about aftg, i guess, but it's just about where you draw the line between the problematic content inside the series, and it maybe being a problematic series from the outside. i don't know exactly where to point you towards to have a balanced understanding of why it might be okay vs not okay. i'd just say to keep an open mind and listen to what people say when they raise their concerns about it.

[gallafics]

𝙶𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚏𝚒𝚌'𝚜 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠

Title: Quatervois Author: @dodgerbear84 (Ao3)

Rating: Explicit Series: N/A

Chapters: 8/8 Word Count: 51.5k

Archive Warnings: No Warnings Used

Favorite Character: Two lovely side characters; a bartender named Cam & Mickey’s friend Kenny. And of course our boys.

Least Favorite Character: I didn’t have any characters in particular that I disliked, but Gracie’s mom?? iykyk

Ao3 Summary: “Quatervois (Qua-ter-vwa): A crossroads; a critical decision or turning point in one’s life.

Closeted soldier Mickey meets farmer Ian in a bar when on leave from his base in the Deep South and discovers that making the leap toward happiness isn't as tough when you have someone on your side.”

Review: This fic actually blew me away. The writing style is extremely cinematic and had me convinced I actually just watched a movie instead of reading a book. I could vividly picture Ian’s farm, their facial expressions, the bar, the creek—everything. I felt like I was there watching it in person.

Mickey and Ian’s build up in this fic is beautiful. Their flirtation is both cute and sexy while also having hints of pining and being slight idiots. Mickey falling for Ian in this fic is a favorite of mine because it’s so obvious how much they want one another but have things that are keeping them apart.

This fic really has it all. There’s spice, there’s banter, theres fluff, there’s lust and longing and perfect comedic timing! It’s all around a beautiful fic that has made its way to my personal downloads because I will be re-reading it!

Spoilers Below↓

Favorite Moment: So, I’m a sucker for the moments in a story that just rip your heart out and absolutely stomp on it in front of you, so, I would say my favorite part is when Mickey is leaving the state, getting ready to deploy and he and Ian are saying good-bye…

“Don’t think about what you’re leaving behind. Think about the bright future ahead of you. Promise me you won’t dwell on us saying goodbye.” Mickey’s heart clenched tightly in his chest. “I promise.”

Equally favorite moment is their first meeting, it’s so tense and Ian’s so nice and Mickey is gay panicking and ends up being an asshole

“I wasn’t asking to be your friend. I was just being friendly. Big difference. Sorry to have offended” Mickey watched as Ian headed back to his corner and felt irrational anger bubble up inside him. “What? You’re not gonna thank me for my service?” Ian laughed loudly and hollowly, turning to face Mickey and lifting the hem of his black shirt up to his chin. Mickey gaped at the display of rock hard abs and firm pectoral muscles. It lasted a moment before he spotted the livid red skin of severe but well healed burns covering the left side of Ian’s body from waist to armpit. “You gonna thank me for mine? Didn’t think so. Drink your beer, soldier, I won’t bother you again.”

Honorable mentions, their first kiss, Mickey visiting the creek, the conversation about Ian’s bed (iykyk), still obsessing over their reunion, the waterfall scene (!!) and so so many other good moments in this one!!

Favorite quote(s):

“Anything happens to Ian and you’ll have this whole bar looking for you.”

“You totally fed it.” “The fuck you on about?” “The stray cat. You fed it. You make out like you’re this tough badass but you have a caring side”

“I just… I ain’t ever… this is all… wow fuck. Kiss one guy and you use your grip on life.”

“There’s a sight I could never get tired of seeing.” Ian leered. “Me sweating my tits off while I try to stay fit enough to be a soldier even though I drink beer like water and smoke more than a funeral home chimney?”

“Nobody has ever touched me there.” Ian mumbled against Mickey’s mouth. “You’re beautiful.” Mickey had never said those words to anyone before.

“Then you came along. You, with your fucking attitude problem and killer smile.”

There were honestly so many moments in this fic that made me insanely happy and have stuck in my brain. It’s such a beautiful story. If you haven’t read it 10000/10 recommend, if you have read it? Go read it again!!!

Final thoughts: The plot was plotting. The spice was spicy. The romance was romancing. The chemistry was off the charts. I cried. I laughed. And everyone in the gym probably thought the lady on the treadmill was crazy cause I couldn’t stop grinning at my phone! Amazingly, beautiful, cinematic masterpiece!!

Thank you so much, DodgerBear, for blessing us with this fic!!

— Harley, Gallafics Reviews

[orangeshipper]

The thing is, with Dunnett. Her characters are SO GOOD.

(oops this got really long)

I have always, since childhood, let my imagination play with characters and stories. The what-ifs, the missing scenes, the unwritten epilogues. (Hello, fanfiction!)

And the Lymond Chronicles, particularly Checkmate, have SO MUCH scope for it. (Ok I'm having a weird tangent on myself here, forgive me).. I mean, Checkmate is the highest kind of melodrama. It's ridiculous and magnificent. On first read, I thought in all honesty that it was a Bit Much. I wanted to smack Francis and Philippa upside the head and re-imagine any and every one of their encounters to get them over themselves and get together. All those moments where they came so agonisingly, tantalisingly close and then got in their own way. Like I said, a total DREAM for re-imagining and fanfic. The chase in Lyon, the carriage on the way to the Triumph of Calais, the disaster afterwards at the Sejour du Roi, the bedroom after the betrothal/commissioners banquet, the library, Sevigny... Every one where I'm internally begging them to just SAY IT and LISTEN TO EACH OTHER and STOP BEING IDIOTS. On first read, it began to feel like drama for the sake of drama.

But. I have tried to re-imagine every one of those scenes, and more in-between, and... it doesn't work. Their characters with their internal beliefs and moral codes and principles and history are so strong, so vivid, so compelling, that I actually cannot get them together without breaking character. Dorothy knew what the hell she was doing. And actually, when I do let the flighty fanfiction brain take over and just get them together anyway for the fun of it, it's so... unsatisfying?? Because the depth of connection and love that they have by the end, after Sevigny, after everything, is so much richer for all they've been through.

She knew her characters, and she committed, and I am in awe.

Side note: Her character game is so strong that I have violent levels of affection for even the most minor of characters, who are individual and vivid and brilliant. I won't list because I would literally list every character in the series.

Side note 2: I cannot express enough my love for how she takes common fanfic tropes and just turns them on their head. (Oh no, only one bed and we must share a room! Marriage of convenience! etc etc, BUT NO, PAIN.) And just, THANK YOU DOROTHY for writing us the gifts of Will, Gabriel and Jerrott. Slash isn't generally my thing, even, but I am SO entertained by everything she does with them. Will at The Ostrich, just EVERYTHING Gabriel does, Jerrott being so furiously and obliviously in love with Francis... just, magnificent. All of it.

[crooked-wasteland]

re: Predestination, that is a very interesting angle, but from what I've seen and read it's never told within the story or worldbuilding right? is it a case of a creator thinking their religious upbringing is somewhat universal and therefor never explored in depth within the shows?

The idea of predestination is never explicit in the show, but very passively referenced as if it were a fact of reality. And that either comes from an insular view of religion and thinking her beliefs are, if not universal, at least common enough to be easily identified. Or, what I believe is more likely, it's selfish content of a selfish creator.

Predestination is a debatable topic in Christianity about how common a belief it is. From some search results claiming it is one of the most prevalent cornerstones of Christian belief to being one of the rarest. At the very least, Calvinist doctrine is extremely rare in the modern landscape, almost exclusive to Presbyterianism. Though I should also specify that Presbyterian doctrine is not a united belief. Many who identify under this religion can have widely varied beliefs, but the story of Hazbin Hotel places Medrano's understandings quite heavily in predestination.

One of my biggest critiques on Hazbin's themes was that the idea of "Christian Hypocrisy" was just not there. The whole episode of Welcome to Heaven didn't determine anything aside from "we don't have proof of it being possible". Not that Sera or anyone actually had control over that fact and were somehow keeping sinners out. There isn't even true hypocrisy in Adam and Lute being angels, because while they aren't holy people, the selection of salvation is not up to anyone. The whole point to predestination in Presbyterianism is that it is more fair that way. People are chosen to heaven before they even begin their lives and everything they do in life, God was aware they would do them when he chose them regardless. No one, then, is being hypocritical, and Medrano seems to know this in how she calls human angels "Winners" like of a lottery. And lotteries are considered the most unbiased means of selecting people for anything. It isn't based on you being a good person, or a bad one. The system itself is merely uncaring, and in that apathy levies justice and salvation in equal measure.

And because she never explicitly acknowledged her beliefs of predestination, Sir Pentious becoming an angel at the end is the closest to criticism of religion that we get. Basically, "I think people who aren't chosen should have the opportunity to work for it." Which is ironically less fair when analyzed objectively. Some people get in no matter what, while others have to essentially slave away to receive the same thing.

Most religions have an emphasis on redemption through life. Calvinism itself was designed with the goal in mind that people didn't focus their lives on their deaths, but on the actual gift of living. If you're chosen you have faith, it's the chicken and the egg scenario. Most religions put faith as the act that saves, whereas Presbyterianism says that having faith is the sign that you are saved.

In the one way she adds a layer of depth to her series, Medrano simply reinvents the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

[miss0atae]

15 Day BL Challenge 2024 - The Sequel (PART 1) :

I never have enough it seems. Again, we don’t really have time to do it from day to day, so I’m going to post 5 of them in a post. You can find this challenge here and thanks to @slonekaru for making this sequel.

16 – What show has taken you by surprise this year?

Three shows has taken me by surprise this year.

The first one is Reverse 4 You. I remember when I saw the first pictures of this series and I read the synopsis. I was thinking “meh”, it’s not for me. I think I waited until the series reach the middle of its story to watch it and I never expected to like this series as much as I did. It has its flaws as any other series, but it never really was a problem for me. I was charmed by the main leads and I was rooting for them to be together. It was a great surprise and I had fun.

The second series was Every You, Every Me. I admit, it may be wrong, but I usually get hyped by a series for two reasons: its plot or the actors/actresses that star in it. However, when I read the synopsis of this series, I didn’t get the appeal. I also admit I didn’t know the actors, so I had nothing to really grab my attention. I know myself, sometimes my judgment can be too hasty, so I gave it a try and it became one my favorite Sunday treat. The actors’ performance were really good and the idea of mixing several stories and featuring the same leads was compelling.

The third one is a series that is still airing and it's Caged Again. I really thought it would be a silly show that will just be entertaining. Again, I was proven wrong. There is so much more in this series that I never expected. I forgot that sometimes, talking about serious topics, doesn't require a serious settings or characters. Animals-turned-humans that experience what the meaning of humanity is actually a good idea.

17 – What's your most returned-to / comfort BL show?

If we are strictly talking about a 2024 show, I would say Love for Love’s Shake. I re-watched it several times and I always get the same feelings. I guess it gave me hope when I was feeling down.

However, if it’s my most returned-to BL show of all time, I will have to say Not Me, again. I already said many times how much this series count for me, so I won’t repeat myself because you'll get tired of reading the same things all the time.

A special mention to I Will Knock You and 3 Will Be Free.

18 – What show are you waiting most (im)patiently for?

Do we have to give only one?! There isn't only one show that I'm waiting for very impatiently, so I'm going to give 5 of them (but the list is longer). These are the ones I really can't wait. There are at the top of the list.

The Ex-Morning because I really can't wait to see what they are going to give us. I know I'm pretty late to the party as I watched Sotus and the sequels this year (again a special thanks to @dropthedemiurge for showing me what I was missing), but no one is really too late to appreciate something. I was impressed by the work of Krist and Singto and I want to see what they can bring to this story.

Interminable seems to have everything I like in one story: historical romance paired with drama and reincarnation. We're also going to see beautiful traditional Thai dances and I really started to appreciate them thanks to @heaven-is-in-your-arms-series that writes about them in series (I also want to add that they regale me with their reviews of Mhom Ped Sawan)

Us is my third choice because it’s been too long and the wait is actually killing me. I wish I could say it’s because the story seems incredible that I would like to watch this series, but I have to admit it’s mostly because of Emi Thasorn. This woman is so dreamy.

Goddess Bless You From Death is a story I can’t wait to see. I got a taste of “horror” BL series with DFF and now I want to have more. I also started to read the first chapter of the book in English and so it made me really anticipate this series (I will probably never know the end of the story without the series because the kind translator of this series stopped translating).

The last one I can’t wait to see is Only Friends: Dream On. I admit I like the drama and the messiness of the first one. This new cast and the trailer made me really curious to see what we can get. I’m a simple person, I like to be entertained and this seems to be pretty fun.

A special mention to Wicked, Pit Babe 2, Memoir of Rati, Girls Rules and The next Prince.

19 – If you could turn any Non-BL show into a BL, which would you choose?

Very easy to choose, I would say High School Frenemy. I know it was very BL-coded bromance, but why not going full BL?!

On a side note, I feel Summer Night would have made a good GL with a side dish of BL.

20 – Which series do you wish had more episodes than it did or you wish had another season?

The On1y One can't finish with this lukewarm ending. I know there were several announcement of a second season, but as there is nothing happening now, I still think I can add this series here so Tian and Wang can finally end up together. They found something in each other and I wish them happiness by keeping it.

Meet You at the Blossom was such a delight and I wish it had more episodes so I could enjoy all these characters more. I know we got special episodes, but it wasn't enough for me. It was great, but can't I be greedy?! I think it would also have given more time for the other couples.

Every You, Every Me, can have more seasons and a GL spin-off. I didn't get enough with this series.

A special mention to the Trainee, LoveSick 2024, First Note of Love and This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

It's that time again where I make an entirely too long summary of every game I played this year. There were far too many of them this time around (well over 100, but some of them I only played long enough to know they're not my thing, and a bunch are weird short little things), so I'll try to keep it to a sentence or two for most of them. On the off chance anyone's interested in more of my thoughts they should nearly all have at least one other more detailed post on here somewhere, hopefully all properly tagged at this point and everything.

Also hopefully the formatting makes it easy to skim through, broken into categories and with each individual game bolded, because I would be astonished if anyone actually reads the entire thing. It's over 180 games and 7500 words, so, uh...good luck?

I think I'll just stick with the same categories I've used in the past couple years. On average the categories further down the list have things I liked more, but there are things in one category that I might've liked more or less than some things in the categories next to them, and they're mostly not really ordered within each category.

So with that said, let's start with the worst gaming experiences I had in 2024:

Bomb Dolls: Probably more fun with other people, but it was borderline unplayable for me so I didn't want to subject anyone else to it.

Sayonara Wild Hearts: Anything that feels like it was designed in a lab to give me seizures and migraines simultaneously isn't allowed to place higher than this.

Gwenblade: It tries to do something interesting, but it has a pretty profound lack of polish that makes it just not work.

Survivors of the Dawn: It must get better later on, but it felt so sluggish and unsatisfying at the beginning that I couldn't be bothered to find out.

Neverwinter Nights 2: I guess I still really don't get along with RTwP and most CRPGs.

Persona 5 Strikers: This finally convinced me to give up for good on the SMT/Persona games, because I clearly do not click with their pacing or storytelling conventions in general.

Mouthwashing: The most profound sensation of boredom I experienced all year. Extremely not my thing, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror.

On to games that weren't the worst but still completely failed to live up to whatever (possibly incorrect) expectations I had of them:

Strawberry Vinegar: Weird miss for ebi-hime, with characters that felt awkwardly written and like they didn't suit their ages.

Scanner Sombre: Incredible tech demo, frustrating game.

CrossCode: I liked most things about it except for the actual gameplay, which was really not my jam.

Nier: Automata: Somehow feels substantially worse to play than any other Platinum game I've ever played, and the story and characters completely failed to grab me in the first half dozen hours.

Death end re;Quest 2: Huge let down after how surprisingly interesting but flawed the first was. They dropped almost everything I liked about the original, and even though they thankfully toned down the visual fanservice, the character writing was enough worse to counter that.

Dead Cells: Seems like probably a pretty good game, but having pretty obvious influences from Dark Souls in your gameplay mechanics is usually a good way to make me not have a good time.

Owlboy: It's pretty? Not much else going for it.

Night in the Woods: I did genuinely like a lot of stuff about it, but it just felt like it wasn't really going anywhere, and some of the night scenes were impossible for me to see with my weird/bad vision without turning the screen brightness to retina-searing levels.

Her Name Was Fire: What if 20 Minutes Till Dawn except everything was slightly worse?

Final Fantasy XIII-2: The first half was great and felt like a weird hybrid of Radiant Historia and Pokemon with a Final Fantasy skin, but the closer I got to the end the worse everything about it got until I quit in the final area. A contributing part of why the entire FF series is now banished.

Muse Dash: It's alright? The UI is a nightmare about a trainwreck though.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: I love the metanarrative of the story commenting on itself and how much more fleshed out the characters are, but as a game I didn't have a very good time playing it, and I continue to not vibe with the way Nomura/Nojima tell stories. The other main reason FF is now banished.

God of War: I was pretty hopeful about Dad of Boy, but I just don't like how it feels to play. A contributor to why I'm increasingly skeptical of giving most AAA games a shot.

It gets so lonely here: Second person is not a valid POV (for me personally).

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor: The mining mechanic is pretty neat, but otherwise it's one of the less interesting/satisfying things I've played in the genre.

Spider-Man: Most stuff about it is...fine? But aside from the great movement nothing else really makes it above fine other than the typical stuff that comes with throwing lots of money at making a game. Another major reason why I'm increasingly wary of buying or playing most AAA games.

Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania: The least fun I've ever had playing Vampire Survivors, almost entirely due to it not having its own separate adventure mode to introduce stuff on its own terms in more digestible chunks.

Neva: Not bad, but basically everything about it that's different from Gris is different in a way I don't personally like as much.

Once on a windswept night: see: It gets so lonely here

Stray: I only lasted a couple hours before getting bored. I don't even mind that it's mostly a walking simulator since I've enjoyed plenty of those since they were first a thing, but aside from the novelty of being a cat nothing about it really clicked with me.

Next we have games that I liked what they were doing overall but they're just not really my thing:

Gorogoa: Good art and a clever way to structure the puzzles and how you navigate them/between them, but it's not really my kind of puzzle game.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights: Probably the closest I've come to liking a game with Souls-like influences. Well put together metroidvania that feels good to play, but the combat got exhausting the further I went.

Snakebird: The addition of gravity and puzzles make Snake a lot more interesting, but I wasn't into the flow of it enough to want to finish it.

Please, Touch the Artwork: Good framing device and clever way to turn recognizable art styles into puzzles, but the individual puzzles didn't stay interesting enough to me after a while.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: It does some really clever stuff, but I think I just don't really jive with how movement feels in modern 2D Mario games anymore compared to the ones from the 80s and 90s (but I still love the 3D ones). Also maybe kind of a victim of how sometimes Nintendo polishes their games almost too much, and the removal of any rough edges ends up detracting a bit from things I personally like.

Toodee and Topdee: The dimension/perspective swapping is neat, but it wasn't quite enough on its own to pull me through the entire game.

Tens!: Reasonably satisfying, and a pretty polished presentation, but this one also didn't hold my interest all the way through.

The Shape of Things: Another one with good presentation and decent (but slightly janky) puzzle mechanics that didn't quite hook me.

OscarWildeCard: Excellent name, and card battles to determine who has the gayest dinner party is a fun idea, but it's not really my style of card game in the end.

From Ashes, Bloom: I really like the creature and how it moves and interacts, but in the end it's a tower defense game, and those have never been my thing.

Cypher: I really like Matthew Brown's puzzle games in general, and I liked this too at first, but once I got to the point where I couldn't mostly hold the puzzles entirely in my head anymore I lost interest. I probably would've had a great time with it when I was younger and had more patience for taking my own notes though.

Manifold Garden: It looks good and has some good ideas, but kind of like Antichamber I feel like it'd be more interesting to me if I didn't instantly already wrap my head around the way it messes with space. The burdens of having an intuitive understanding of unusual geometry, I guess.

Burly Men at Sea: Seemed like it had potential, but the UI is awkward enough on the Switch that I didn't feel like finding out.

Railbound: Another puzzle game where I liked learning how it works but didn't feel like sticking around beyond that.

Rabi-Ribi: It seems cute enough, but I didn't click with how movement feels and the pacing was a bit off for me.

Cureocity: Has a good premise, and I liked the idea of the combat system, but I felt like I wasn't getting enough out of it for what I was putting in.

Parallax: The core puzzle concept is solid, but it gets a little tedious having to run around the map to actually put solutions into action. Also the most broken default controller layout I've seen in a long time.

Kero Blaster: Nothing really wrong with it, but it didn't hook me. Definitely not another Cave Story.

Nora: The Wannabe Alchemist: There's almost something there and the art's pretty decent, but the Switch version is Not Great, and it feels like it could use a bit more work in general.

Psychopomp: Seems like there could potentially be something interesting going on there, but it's borderline unplayable with a controller.

Press Any Button: This one also might eventually go somewhere interesting, or at least it definitely hints at it, but the gameplay segments started getting pretty tedious before I found out.

stitch.: Great presentation of the puzzles, crappy mobile game presentation for the menus, and solidly average actual puzzles.

Thumper: Pretty unusual aesthetic and music style for a rhythm game, but I don't have the reaction time to keep up with it when brain no worky like lately.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: I can appreciate what they're going for, and it definitely addresses some of the issues I had with BotW/TotK, but I'm still having a really hard time getting as into it as older games in the series.

Spitkiss: I'm into the idea, and the presentation is really fun, but I bounced off somewhere in the middle as the levels got more heavily focused on tighter timing of actions. Seems fun for someone more into that sort of thing though.

After those we have the ones that are the most "fine, I guess" of the year that I had mixed feelings about:

Townscaper: More of a toy than a game, but I got it in a game bundle and messed around with it on a Steam Deck. It's fun briefly to see what you can make with it, but that's about it.

Little Noah: Scion of Paradise: Most of my time with it wasn't actually this year, but this is the year I concluded that even though the characters are cute and the way you build combos is kinda neat, the game itself is only ok. Also the Switch version doesn't run great.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R: The first 2/3 or so of it is great. The art style used in the remake is gorgeous, and the characters and running around doing typical JRPG stuff feels like all the things that made 90s JRPGs great. Then I got to what previously would've been disc 2 and it all fell apart into what makes 90s JRPGs so hard to go back to sometimes.

Fallow: I like most stuff about it except for actually playing it, which was kind of frustrating. Her music's still great though.

Ape Out: It's alright. I'm not very good at it.

Downwell: It's fine. I get what they're going for, and it feels like they succeeded, but I didn't stick with it super long.

Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling: This one gets an award for suffering the most from a bad translation or not being written in the creator's native language. It'd probably be pretty decent if that was cleaned up.

Astronomical Club for Queers: Dialogue's a bit awkward, but overall it shows potential for making something decent in the future.

Hardcore Cottagecore: This one has serious student project/game jam vibes. With some polish and balance they could make something alright though.

A Little to the Left: Deserves an award for "game that most makes me want to go replay Unpacking instead". Fine, but I lost interest after a while.

Twilight Survivors: I've definitely played worse bullet heaven games, but at least when I tried it this one didn't have much unique about it good or bad.

Geometry Survivor: It's close to being pretty decent, but it just doesn't quite feel good enough to play to me to stick with it too long.

Ikenfell: The characters are good and the story is ok, but I could've done without the gameplay. The "instant victory" button was one of my favorite buttons I pushed this year and saved the game enough for me to actually finish.

Star Ocean: First Departure R: It probably would've been more fun if I'd played it in the 90s. Significantly less compelling than SO2R but not actually bad or anything.

Cats Organized Neatly: Presentation's alright, but the process of solving the puzzles isn't the most satisfying for me.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Fixes a lot of the issues I had with BotW, and the abilities feel a lot more polished and like they complement each other better, but I still ultimately don't love the way these recent Zelda games play and am probably done with them until the next major franchise overhaul.

The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne: It's fine. There's just only so much it can really do in like ten minutes.

Jewel Match Solitaire Summertime: It's a perfectly competent solitaire game, just like all the other Jewel Match Solitaire games. Good for when brain no worky, but it doesn't stand out in any way.

Xenogears: The first time I tried playing it was before Xenosaga was even out. I tried going back to it to finally finish it, but I forgot how rough the translation was and how janky some stuff like the camera is. At least now I remember why I've never finished it.

One Deck Dungeon: It plays out in an interesting way with the way everything is built around dice rolls, but it just didn't grab me enough to get me to keep playing.

the static speaks my name: It was just strange enough to be a little bit interesting, but not strange enough to stick with me at all for more than a day or two.

Stray Cats in Cozy Town: Might be my least favorite Devcats game I've played because the different angle makes it harder to come up with a good search pattern.

TREE: Another ten minute free one. I liked it more before replaying it to get the last achievement.

Witcheye: Pretty unique movement and fun for a while, but the difficulty increase later in the game didn't feel like it fit as well with what the controls let me do.

RYB: Some pretty good puzzles, but the more mechanics are introduced the less well it reads visually.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: I've tried more than once to go back and finish it, and while I still like most things about it, the map design and a couple enemy types annoy me enough that I finally had to accept I'm not going to beat this one.

Graceful Explosion Machine: Surprisingly well balanced and an interesting gameplay loop swapping between weapons, but sometimes I lose track of enemies in the visual clutter. Also it's physically painful for me to play some of the later levels.

Frincess&Cnight: Good pixel art and fun interactions between the two characters' abilities, but the increasingly tight timings and need to start levels over for any mistake got a little annoying at some point.

CARS: More interactive art than a game. Fun to poke at for a bit, but probably not leaving a lasting impression.

VOYAGER: Slightly more of a game than the previous one, but mostly it's just tracing out fun patterns with your orbit while pretty good music plays.

Dragon Quest XI S: I played the demo on Steam a while ago and loved it, but having to replay the entire opening dozen hours when I got the full game on the Switch was painful enough to make me lose interest. There's so much stuff it does well, but It sure does start slow.

Project X Zone: I do enjoy a lot of stuff about it, but there are so many levels that each take so long to finish that after a while it got kind of tedious.

A Slug's Dream: Pretty good puzzles and presentation, but at some point I drifted away and never went back.

Puddle Knight: Same as above.

Please Fix the Road: Also same as above.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout: The most atrociously paced intro ever before suddenly becoming very good a few hours in, but the tediousness of needing to replace all my stuff at once toward the end of the game instead of stuff opening up more gradually killed my enthusiasm before finishing it.

Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Mahjong Solitaire: A friend gifted me Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire years ago as a joke, so I impulsively got this on sale in memory of that. Totally fine but nothing special as a game, and if they toned down the horniness a bit some of the character designs/outfits would actually be pretty cute.

Death Becomes You: Some decent ideas and an interesting world, but some of the writting is kind of off-putting and some of the endings feel kind of abrupt and unearned.

this morning I decided to die: I get what they were going for and can appreciate it, but it didn't entirely land for me.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age: One of my favorite mainline FF games since the 90s, and I did genuinely have a pretty good time with it a lot of the time, but every time I got back into it it would pull some annoying crap to pull me back out again.

Tales of Berseria: I liked a couple of the characters enough to keep me playing for a while and the story is fine, but I got bored of the actual gameplay eventually and gave up.

Tales of Arise: Feels better to play than Berseria, but even though it hints at something interesting going on nothing in the first couple hours hooked me enough to get me to keep going.

KarmaZoo: I love the idea, but it doesn't get to go higher than this because it requires other people to play and I couldn't find any when I tried.

Margo: Definitely a fan of the art style, but the overall experience was only ok. It was probably somewhat negatively influenced by it being a pain to get it to run on the Steam Deck and still running terribly when it did, a very rare experience for me.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk: It continues the pattern of most Musou/Warriors games that aren't affiliated with Nintendo in some way just not really being as good these days. It's ok, but it's noticeably more clunky and less polished than even the original Hyrule Warriors was and just doesn't feel as good to play.

Moving on, next we have games that were pretty good and generally met my expectations:

Luna's Fishing Garden: I didn't love either difficulty option for the fishing minigame, and it dragged a bit toward the end, but overall it's pretty cute and chill. Special mention to the "you got a fish" animation for being great.

Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! - New Era: I apparently never mentioned this in a post anywhere, or at least I can't find it. Anyway, it's more of the same from the first one, which is a good thing for the most part. It's basically WarioWare, except the minigames are about being considerate (or being a jerk if you'd prefer) in various situations. Cheap, short, and a decent way to be amused for a little while.

TET: Cute, funny, includes recipes. A good use of ten minutes and $0 if preparing food for Vietnamese Lunar New Year sounds like a good time. Also feels much better with a touchscreen.

Clickolding: Like I said earlier this year, it's the most about sex work anything's ever been without explicitly stating it's about sex work, and it will do its best to make you vaguely uncomfortable about that. Didn't leave quite as much of an impression on me as their other game I played last year, Can Androids Pray, but still pretty good.

An Arcade Full of Cats: Not my favorite Devcats game ever, but still enjoyable. As someone old enough to remember arcades it was fun seeing all the terrible cat puns on old games, and they did a pretty good job of capturing the general feel.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: Most of my time with this was before this year, but I finally made it through the last third of it. I have some issues with the dungeons dragging on too long and the almost non-existent quest tracking, but the characters and story and combat are mostly fun, and it's the only SMT/Persona-adjacent game I've actually enjoyed other than BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between: It didn't hit me as hard as the original over a decade ago, and a couple sections just didn't really land for me, but when it does work it does some interesting stuff. The train section was probably my favorite because it actually gets to expand on its ideas a bit more there.

The Fairy's Song: What if La Belle Dame sans Merci but make it yuri? Nothing revolutionary, but it does everything well enough to be enjoyable, enough that I'll probably get through the sequel one of these days too.

Bury me, my Love: Manages to capture both the surreal horror and mind-numbing mundanity of being a refugee seeking asylum and does a fairly effective job of it. The lack of typical VN QoL features kept me from going through again to see stuff I missed though.

Takorita Meets Fries: Fluffy nonsense about merpeople in search of french fries, and I mean that in a good way.

GOODBYE WORLD: The story and art were just enough to keep me going through the annoying platforming sections (which make narrative sense to be there, and even for them to be bad, but still), and the way it all came together in the end is what bumped it up as high as this.

Blackberry Honey: Yuri that's mostly cute and fluffy and fun while it lasts. I have Questions about the way the main character's boobs are drawn though. What's wrong with your boobs?

Voxelgram DLC #1: One one hand it's good because more Voxelgram is good, but on the other the larger puzzles are mostly just more tedious. Still good enough puzzles to get my poor ADHD brain to focus on something while listening to podcasts or whatever.

rat chaos: A replay of something I played many, many years ago. Not my favorite of the Twine boom back in the day, but having an "unleash rat chaos" button makes it memorable.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line DLC: Still not my favorite style of music/rhythm game so it doesn't go higher, but there's some good music in there, and it was still enjoyable enough that I had fun going through everything.

A Hero and a Garden: Cute, fun characters, good music (including the unlockable remixes after you finish the game), and somehow made in Ren'Py, which is not intended for this genre at all.

Hide & Dance!: I like it for similar reasons to the other games I played by hap (which will be further down this list), but it doesn't have quite as many opportunities for the silly humor that makes their games work.

Subsurface Circular: "You are a robot detective solving robot crimes by talking to other robots on the subway" is a great premise, and I was not expecting Thomas Was Alone (still my favorite Mike Bithell game I've played) to be canon.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: It was genuinely great for a while, and they did an excellent job translating what makes Kirby fun into 3D, but I kept finding more minor annoyances the closer I got to the end, and I gave up entirely on the postgame stuff pretty quickly because it wasn't doing it for me.

Clear Skye Thinking: More cute yuri fluff that won't leave a lasting impression, but it was a good palate cleanser.

Regency Solitaire 2: Basically just Regency Solitaire again, which is fine with me. These always feel a bit more substantial and more polished than the other solitaire games Grey Alien publishes, so it's nice to have another of these after years of mostly just Jewel Match Solitaire.

Zenzizenzic: Good bullet hell game with good music, and everything is so many squares. Sadly not available anywhere anymore, and neither is the soundtrack. Also sadly I'm not very good at it.

Wedding Witch: I got it mostly as a joke after it popped up in a Steam friend's activity, but it's actually pretty competently made. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the stuff from this in a little more substantial game that's somewhat less horny.

A Park Full of Cats: More Devcats hidden cats. If you're into it you're into it, and this is more of it.

Gordy and the Monster Moon; One of the more recent entries in the Frog Fractions Cinematic Universe. A successful attempt to see what would happen if you made a traditional Zelda game without most of the things most people think of as making something a Zelda game.

Art Sqool: I've seen people complain that it's janky and gives you bad tools for drawing, but the whole point feels like that even if you only can make "bad" art you still did something creative and made an art. Fun to mess around with if you can engage with it on its own terms.

Fire Emblem Engage DLC: I played the main game last year, but I didn't get around to doing DLC stuff like the Fell Xenologue until this year. Not quite as good as the main story (which was one of my favorite games last year), but I still overall had a good time with it.

Super PSTW Action RPG: Replay of something I played years ago, so it can't go any higher, but if it didn't break my own self-imposed rules it would be GOTY every year.

A Tower Full of Cats: More Devcats? More Devcats. See every other entry for them.

Shovel Knight: Really well put together platformer inspired by old 8-bit ones on stuff like the NES and clearly made by people with a deep love for and understanding of them.

Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk: This and the next one go together. They didn't completely win me over, but I'll give them points for managing to nether glamorize nor stigmatize trauma or psychosis and avoid having an ending that's either tragic or fixes everything. Not perfect, but they at least tried to do something interesting with it.

Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk: See above

Meet Her There: Does what it's trying to do pretty well even if the writing's a bit stiff. Content warnings on this one aren't messing around. Also it's funny how many people totally missed how full of gender it is.

Florence: Effective storytelling with almost zero text or dialogue, and they actually manage to do some clever things to tie the very minimalist gameplay into that to enhance it.

Boyfriend Dungeon post-launch content: I played the game itself right when it came out and had a good time with it, but it took me until pretty recently to go back and do the additional stuff added after it came out. I probably would've liked it more if I'd been able to do it all at once, but it was still enjoyable enough to be worthwhile.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force: Definitely an improvement over SO2R (which was great in the first half but kinda fell apart in what would've originally been disc 2). This one still stumbles a bit toward the end but holds it together a bit better. Enough characters I liked and satisfying enough combat/exploration to keep me going until the end, and the nyoom button might've been my favorite button to push all year.

Be My Horde: Or at least what of it is finished up until now. I like the idea of having your only resource being dead enemies you've killed and most abilities revolving around upgrades/enhancements of your resurrection ability. The voice acting is also surprisingly good/fun. Definitely has potential if future additions to it can build on its strengths, but we'll see how that goes.

Pesticide Not Required: Possibly the most unusual premise for a bullet heaven game I've played, crossing it with a farming sim. Somehow it actually works? Builds feel kinda samey after a while unfortunately, but it's cute enough and interesting enough seeing how farming/fishing/mining manages to work simultaneously with killing hundreds of bugs at once to be enjoyable for a bit.

Golf Club Nostalgia: I'm absolutely terrible at the actual gameplay (thank you story mode), but the story and worldbuilding told through the radio broadcasts were interesting enough and kept me going. Not subtle about its politics or who it's commenting on even though it doesn't name any names.

I commissioned some bees 0: Not really anything special on its own, but I'm a big fan of the idea of commissioning multiple artists to draw whatever they want as long as they can fit a hundred bees in it somewhere.

Point of Mew: Short enough that its cuteness and charm can carry it through to the end.

Locke(d): I appreciate that someone took a hypothetical scenario from an essay, interpreted it completely literally, and then used that setup to talk about the ideas of the essay.

The Great Voyage: Not nearly as good as their second game, Vengeful Heart (which will be further down the list), but you can see how they got from here to there and how some of that stuff was already here to begin with.

CATO: Buttered Cat: Some reasonably clever puzzles, and building your game mechanics off the idea of a cat with buttered toast strapped to its back is silly enough that I can't not like it.

The Knight Witch: It didn't quite win me over enough to finish it, but what I did play of it was pretty well put together and enjoyable enough.

Peglin: It has a pretty fun loop, and turning Peggle into a roguelike is a pretty neat idea that works surprisingly well. I could see myself going back to it for a few more runs now and then.

Words Can Kill: It has a pretty fun loop, and turning Scrabble into a roguelike is a pretty neat idea that works surprisingly well. I could see myself going back to it for a few more runs now and then.

Across-Stitch: The tweaks to the typical picross/nonograms rules are just enough to keep things interesting, and I probably would've spent even more time with it if it didn't have some unfortunate color palatte choices.

memories: Another little yuri VN, this time sad. I liked the way it tied different memories to different outfits, and it's reasonably well told for what it is. It desperately needs a way to adjust the text speed though.

Next but not quite last are the ones that exceeded my expectations in some way without necessarily being better than the ones in the previous category (although some are here because they were good). I could also just have gotten more out of them than I was led to think I would:

Seraphim Slum: A VN that isn't afraid to get weird with it, and by weird I don't mean rawrxdlolrandom, I mean surrealness and strange metaphors and corruption/destruction as a form of love. I can dig it.

9th Sentinel Sisters: Seems unfortunately abandoned at this point, but what they finished of it is a fairly enjoyable bullet heaven game with a bit of a different feel and aesthetic from what I'm used to seeing. Translation's pretty awful though.

20 Minutes Till Dawn: One of the better bullet heaven games I've played, with a great monochrome-plus-one-accent-color aesthetic (the character portraits are particularly good) and different builds that genuinely feel different to play. Play on anything but the Switch if you have the option though, because it has atrocious slowdown with certain builds (although it still remains remarkably stable even then).

DoraKone: More yuri fluff about four queer girls spending the summer playing the my OC do not steal version of Pokemon GO. It's cute, and I liked the way they managed to tie the developing friendships/relationships into playing the game together in a way that actually felt like it worked.

A Time Traveller's Guide to Past Delicacies: More surreal weirdness, but this time with sock puppets too. I'm still undecided on what it's trying to say, but I really enjoyed the way it said it, and it captures both the fun and the janky parts of 90s FMV games well.

Bayonetta 2: The main reason this counts as exceeding my expectations is that the first game was full of great ideas but felt really unpolished in a lot of ways, and I wasn't expecting something that's still an entire decade old to have really fixed all that. But they did for the most part, and all the potential from the original finally came together properly.

Vectronom: Aside from pure rhythm games, this might be the first thing I've played since 140 that integrates the music and gameplay as well as it does. Bonus points to whoever decided to include some stuff with odd time signatures and rhythms later in the game.

Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting and Operation Guns: I liked both of these as much as I disliked Ode to Castlevania. They're much more interesting than the previous DLC was and experiment a bit more mechanically, and the adventure mode does a great job of introducing all the new stuff and teaching you the new mechanics and maps.

Lies as a Starting Point: A good example of how this category isn't necessarily better than "worse" categories in my list. It's pretty decent and the three storylines come together in a satisfying way in the end, but the translation is awful. I still got more out of it than I thought I would though.

Before I Forget: Ironically for a story about memory problems I forgot a lot of it because of my own memory problems. This nearly ended up in the best category though, and I appreciated how they made the story about who the character is as a person instead of just what's wrong with her.

Mom Hid My Game!: This and the next two are basically three parts of the same game, which is the offspring of a point and click adventure and WarioWare. Pretty short with lots of little bite-sized puzzles and a silly sense of humor.

Mom Hid My Game! 2: see above

My Brother Ate My Pudding!: see above

Soulstone Survivors: Another of my favorite bullet heaven games I've played. The addition of an active dodge and a lot of layered interactions between abilities makes it a bit more involved to play, but in a good way if you're looking for that sort of thing.

Bio Prototype: Not my favorite to actually play and the UI isn't great, but you can do some absolutely wild things with what basically amounts to a programmable build system to DIY your own weapons with very few restrictions.

20 Small Mazes: A great example of something that takes a simple concept, explores it thoroughly, and then ends without wasting time or energy on anything unnecessary.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe: As someone who's been playing the different variations on this since the original mod, this was a more effective story commenting on its own (re)telling and its own audience's expectations than FF7R was, at least for me.

Halls of Torment: What's this? Another of my favorite bullet heaven games? The standout for this one might be how so many of the achievements/unlocks are really well thought out to get you to approach playing the game in ways you might not have tried otherwise and are often little mini-puzzles themselves.

SeaBed: Very slow burn VN that ultimately pays off in the end even if I liked the journey a bit more than the destination.

Everything is going to be OK: On the surface it's very coping with adversity through absurdity, but if you keep digging it has more to say about trauma and depression and misogyny and the value of artists and so on.

Will The Man Get Frog: Cute little PICO-8 game/toy for creating haikus using an extremely limited set of randomly chosen words. Fun to mess around with to try to come up with anything remotely coherent.

The Indifferent Wonder of an Edible Place: Interactive poetry about being a willing participant in the destruction of history and trying to explain or justify it while also being aware of the sense of loss.

Luckily, My Arm Is a Shotgun: Nothing revolutionary, but it's surprisingly polished for something so small and cheap, and the titular shotgun is very satisfying.

a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely completely sweet, innnocent and normal: SOMETHINGETH ANIVERSARY EDITION: It feels like someone in high school in 2011 dumped their Tumblr into Ren'Py while also feeling like a flash animation from the 00s. I'm not sure the humor would hold up for me if I did all the different routes, but what I did play of it was the kind of thing I haven't seen in years.

And finally we have the ones I enjoyed the most or felt I got the most out of, not really in any particular order other than vaguely the order I finished them and added them to my list:

The Witcher 3: Absolutely my least favorite gameplay of anything anywhere near this high on the list, but the world and characters are so interesting and well developed that it more than makes up for it. I know they had an entire series of novels and short stories to draw on, but they've added so much more on their own, and it's only gotten bigger and better with each new game. They do a great job of making it feel like the world is much, much larger with a lot of stuff going on outside the small corner you're seeing at any given time.

Ghost Trick: It has a ridiculous premise and clever puzzles and a good sense of humor, but something else that particularly stands out about it is that despite the relatively simple art style it has some of the most fluid and expressive animations that give a ton of personality to everyone.

Vengeful Heart: Possibly my favorite retro aesthetic in anything I've played recently and definitely the best anyone's nailed the PC-98 look in a while, but even more than that the characters and story are great. They do a great job showing people from totally different backgrounds with totally different approaches working together against an oppressive power structure, and rather than everything working out perfectly there are definitely problems, but it still shows hope for overcoming them and a path toward the future.

Unicorn Overlord: Unlike Vanillaware's previous game the writing is only ok, but the art continues to be excellent, and it's easily their best iteration on their RTS ideas to date. I don't think the story will leave much of a lasting impression on me, but I had such a great time with the gameplay for the entire time I was playing that I don't mind.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong: Definitely kind of a slow burn that took me a bit to warm up to, but I really liked how things came together in the end as I got to know more about the characters and what was going on. It's also good at showing restraint though, not neatly wrapping everything up, and it left me with more to think about than when I started.

We Know the Devil: Another one that's good at hinting at and suggesting things without explicitly coming right out and directly telling you everything, and some scenes hit differently when replaying to see the other endings when you know enough to be able to read it as commenting on itself.

Jack Jeanne: A strong contender for my favorite thing I played this year. Definitely my favorite music/rhythm game, the best music in general, and the most gender. So many things in it can be read on multiple levels at once as being about the nature of art and performance, what gender even is, and how (or even if) to engage with an audience.

Visions of Mana: It's a shame the studio got shut down right when it released, because they definitely understood what made the old games in the series so much fun, and they finally made a new non-remake Mana game that's actually pretty great for the first time in over two decades.

1000xRESIST: I'm undecided on whether it's my favorite thing I played this past year, but it's definitely my favorite piece of media in general that came out in 2024. It's another one where everything works on like 17 levels simultaneously, like generational trauma, the nature of language and communication, the protests in Hong Kong, the experience of being an immigrant or a child of immigrants, both biological and found family, memory and what we choose to forget or to pass on, and like a dozen more things.

A Highland Song: If you're noticing that most stuff in this category is here because it has great writing/storytelling you're not wrong, and this one is no exception. The way what's going on is gradually revealed is satisfying, and the way it's structured across different paths keeps things interesting. It also does a great job of seamlessly blending realism and history with myth and legend, treating them all as equally meaningful and important to the people and world.

Ys X: Nordics: Sometimes you just need to go on a wacky adventure though, and Adol's shenanigans continue to be fun. The gameplay continues to feel tight and polished, and they also keep managing to have a large cast of interesting and likeable characters. It's just a good time.

I guess this time I'll only be tagging that last category because I played entirely too many games in 2024 and don't actually have enough tags for the top two categories like usual. There were some huge disappointments, but there were even more things that I didn't expect to like as much as I did, and there was a bunch of really great stuff in general.

[blluespirit]

Oh god..... NATLA analysis ahead (s01e01 - AANG)

EP2

With Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender now ~eight months old and season 2 being in production, I wanted to re-analyse the series. I spoke about it when it first came out (which you can find here), but now i'm ready to look at it again and see if my thoughts on it have changed at all.

This is my analysis/rambling thoughts of episode 1. It... got really long and I got unexpectedly really, really into it so.... enjoy?

[note before you read - this is just my opinion, you by no means have to agree!]

1 — Opening Scene This scene could have been good, however, to me the ending scene between the Earth Kingdom soldier and Sozin ruins it for me.

Exposition is the biggest issue here. The scene between these two is just... too long to say the least. Let me explain:

EARTH KINGDOM MAN: You’re too late. Your battle plans are already on their way to the Earth Kingdom.  SOZIN: Good. That means that all eyes will be on the Earth Kingdom. All eyes but ours

This is great. That’s MORE than enough to tell us what’s going on here. All we needed next was a look of horror from the Earth Kingdom soldier as he realises he got played, and then we can skip right to the part where Sozin kills him. However, the conversation is not done yet. It continues:

MAN: We’ll be prepared for your attack.  SOZIN: When your king receives those plans, he will redirect his forces to your borders and rally the support of the other nations. The Water Tribes and the Air Nomads and the entire world will turn their attention to the Earthbenders. MAN: You… You wanted us to know. We aren’t the real target. SOZIN: My sights are set higher. Much higher.

At this point it's a little over-done and on the nose, but - in my opinion - still forgivable if they ended the conversation here. We as the audience understand what's happening. Even without watching the original, it's relatively easy to understand that the attack on the Earth Kingdom was a ploy for another target.

But for some reason, there’s still more to be said between them... Insane!

MAN: Why? Why are you doing this? SOZIN: Because it is our time. [Sozin kills him by burning him alive]

Finally it ends! Longer does not always mean better and more explicit information does not always mean darker and edgier which this series is trying to go for.

It should have ended when Sozin delivered his ‘my sights are set higher. Much higher’ line but NO. It keeps going. It doesn't make Sozin or the Fire Nation scarier to keep on yapping.

Can you imagine how much scarier Sozin would seem if we just got that one line, a tense moment between them as the reality sets in, just enough time for the soldier to realise what is happening before being killed? And that’s just one example, but just a short, brief scene would have done everyone so much more favour than.. that. 

But WAIT!! It’s not even over. There’s MORE exposition needed apparently:

FIRE NATION GENERAL(?): A masterful ruse, Your Highness. But tactically, the Airbenders are not the threat. SOZIN: This isn't about the Airbenders. This is about one who lives among them. The only one who could possibly stand in our way. FIRE SAGE: But the Avatar is yet to be revealed.  SOZIN: Which is why we have to kill them all.

Why is this scene STILL going. It would have been forgiven somewhat if the next TWO scenes didn’t literally have Kyoshi explicitly explain the reason for Sozin's attack all over again and then immediately following that, have Sozin and the other firebenders killing the Air Nomads.

The opening scene chase between the Earth Kingdom soldier and the Fire Nation soldiers and the bending was amazing, but is immediately made redundant by whatever fresh hell this is.

2 — The Genocide  Showing the genocide was a risky move, and not necessarily a bad one, but the timing of it is terrible. It should not be one of the first scenes. It rips the build up away. There’s no mystery to who the strange kid found in the block of ice is. There's no slow build up of horror as the pieces fall into place of what happened to Aang's people. We just... know everything immediately.

It further takes away from Gran Gran’s speech later on in the episode, and her reveal of Aang as the Avatar because we already know he’s the Avatar. In the original, we found out (officially) that Aang is the Avatar at the same time Katara and Sokka do (when he confronts Zuko at the Southern Water Tribe). This works better because it feels like we are finding this out more organically, rather than being told over and over again that he's the Avatar, making Kanna's reveal lacking in impact or emotion for the audience.

We also get introduced to a new problem in this scene that I noticed - revealing too much too quickly (similar to the exposition issue mentioned above).

Information is revealed here, in episode 1, that was previously told to us in The Storm. The reason The Storm works so well is because we, as the audience, have had a chance to form an opinion and perception about both Aang and Zuko, one that is not informed by that much background. But it gives us our first insight into the real Aang, what really happened that made him leave 100 years ago and that under that goofy persona, there’s enough guilt to drown in. And we find out that there’s more to Zuko than ‘generic bad guy’. There are layers here. Despite his actions, we sympathise with him. Importantly, it contrasts and compares Aang and Zuko’s stories, and firmly brings them together for the audience. Zuko and Aang's stories are intertwined, and in my opinion The Storm gets that.

By revealing all this information here (about Aang, about the Air Nomads, basically Aang's whole story), makes it so that this is our introduction to Aang, rather than information that’s revealed later that adds to his character and lets us get to know him more organically and grow to love him. Aang's backstory being his introduction is just a bad move to me.

It lays everything out about Aang immediately. We already know what happened to him literally within the first 15 minutes of the series and it refuses to let us learn about him as he learns about his people or as Katara and Sokka learn about him - a much more impactful/meaningful way to explore a character. It also takes away from the Zuko/Aang dynamic - literally a cornerstone to the entire show. 

This is exemplified with ANOTHER exposition dump via an utterly bizarre scene between Aang and Appa (who looks so much better than the mov-*gunshot*).

AANG:  Hey, Appa. Couldn't sleep either, huh? Gyatso says I'm supposed to be the Avatar. Me. Monks don't even trust me to feed the baby bison, and I'm supposed to save the world? He said I need to remember who I am. But I know who I am. I like to play airball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends. That's who I am, not someone who can stop the Fire Nation. Not someone who can stop a war. The other kids always say I'm lucky because of the things I could do, but I'd trade places with any of them. I don't wanna leave. I don't want the responsibility. I'm scared of my power. I'm scared of being alone! I'm scared. You're right. I just need to go up where things always make more sense. At least for now.

girl, what are we doing here. Are we not allowed to see a characters personality shine through in literally any other way? We could have been shown this earlier if they desperately wanted us to know this about Aang before the original timeline starts by having him play with some kids, or they could have waited and let us learn this when we see Aang interacting with the Water Tribe kids. Hearing it from Aang's mouth in a monologue to his pet bison is certainly... a choice.

Also why does Aang not run away like in the original? Why is he just going to take Appa for a ride to clear his head? They talk about Aang’s guilt later on the series (literally all the time - at least that's what it felt like), so it seems utterly bizarre to me to simultaneously take something away from this guilt while also making it a bigger deal later on.

He’s a kid who was shouldered with an enormous and daunting responsibility that meant leaving everything he knew behind (with the fun addition if a war being on the horizon) and he panicked and ran away. That’s much more compelling than Aang being sad about having to leave and deciding to take a little fly to help him get his thoughts in order.

It's good to make changes in an adaption - however, those changes kind of need to make sense.

Having Sozin personally kill Gyatso is an interesting choice. It’s a horrifying scene, especially already knowing the outcome. Believe it or not, I am not trying to shit all over this and I am trying to find the positives, but I am not convinced that us knowing every detail about the genocide is actually better.

Personally (and this is very subjective), I think it was much more horrific when all we had was an empty temple and countless bones. That is a far more horrifying picture to me. 

In the original, having Monk Gyatso's first scene be Aang finding his body, colours every single flashback in the original in a way that's far more painful and actually more compelling to me than playing his death on TV. It's worse not knowing.

3 - Katara and Sokka  Okay so this whole interaction between Sokka and Katara in the live action isn't bad. It's actually pretty good. I would even like it if there was no comparison media. However, I have seen the original and I know what these characters are supposed to act like and what their dynamic is in season 1, which, while I think the live action basically/sort of/kind of accomplishes, it sacrifices a lot for seemingly no reason.

Sokka's arrogance is replaced with this crushing load of responsibility. There's none of that bravado that Suki manages to humble later on. He's tense and serious. Despite my framing of this paragraph, this is not a change I hate. I actually like Sokka's character most of all in the LA of the main cast (at least so far in my re-watch). He still has some quality humorous moments that come off well throughout this episode. So, I can forgive them for making Sokka serious here, since they establish it later on.

However...

Katara is literally a different character. She is relatively flat and has little to no fire to her like in the original. She argues back with Sokka but very quickly lets him win and doesn't try to push back. OG Katara was anything but a pushover. She stands her ground and asserts her own role in the village and its importance, rather than just managing to talk about Sokka almost exclusively outside of Katara attempting to waterbend.

Now, the solution is not necessarily copying the original verbatim, but I will use it as an example to show the contrast. 

Here's the two scenes side by side:

(here's the transcripts below)

SOKKA: It's not getting away from me this time. Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish. [Katara basically ignores him and sees a fish in the water. She manages to catch a fish with her waterbending, holding it in a bubble. She attempts to get Sokka’s attention, who dismisses her, still focusing his eyes over the side of the canoe.  Sokka goes to lift up his spear to strike, only to accidentally piece Katara’s water bubble and ultimately get soaked with water.] SOKKA: [angry/frustrated] Why is it that every time you play with magic water, I get soaked? KATARA: [annoyed] It's not "magic", it's waterbending! And it's ... SOKKA: [Cutting her off.] Yeah, yeah, "an ancient art unique to our culture", blah, blah, blah. Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself. KATARA: You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water! {later, after they are taken away by the current and are stranded on some ice} KATARA: You call that left? [referring to her telling Sokka to turn left when they were trying to navigate the current] SOKKA: You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you should've [He waves his hands, mockingly imitating waterbending.] waterbended us out of the ice. KATARA: [Indignantly.] So it's my fault? SOKKA: [Annoyed.] I knew I should've left you home! Leave it to a girl to screw things up! KATARA: [visibly furious] You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained- I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! SOKKA: [notices Katara’s movements are cracking the iceberg behind her] Uhh.. Katara?  KATARA: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!  SOKKA: [panicked] Katara, settle down! KATARA: [Angrily] NO! That’s it! I’m done helping you. From now on, [yells] you’re ON YOUR OWN! [the final swing of Katara’s arms sends up large wave that finally cracks the iceberg in half. The ice collapses into the water, sending a large wave that throws them to the ice. The wave subsides, and Sokka is standing protectively in front of Katara.] SOKKA: Okay, you've gone from "weird" to "freakish" Katara. KATARA: [Astonished.] You mean I did that? SOKKA: [Sarcastically] Yep. Congratulations. [the large ice dome bubbles to the surface. Katara realises there’s someone inside it] KATARA: He's alive! We have to help! [she grabs Sokka’s club from it’s sheath and runs over] SOKKA: Katara, get back here! We don't know what that thing is! [Katara hacks at the dome until it cracks and air billows out, throwing them both to the ground. A light beam shoots into the sky] [Aang appears at the top of the mound of ice, tattoo glowing, before he collapses and falls down]

LIVE ACTION :

(I included the moment where katara teases Sokka just before they go fishing, because it a good teasing moment between them!) SOKKA: SO, where were you before? KATARA: [nervous silence] SOKKA: You were waterbending again weren’t you? KATARA: Don’t worry. No once could see me. [softly] not that it matters SOKKA: [growing frustrated, he turns towards Katara] of course it matters. If the Fire Nation finds out your a waterbender-  KATARA: [cuts him off] No one from the Fire Nation has approached the village in years. Besides, there’s nothing to see. An otter penguin could bend more water than I could.  SOKKA: It’s probably for the best. You should be helping around the village more anyway. [he faces back to the front of the canoe.] KATARA: [annoyed] Not everything is about preparing to fight.  SOKKA: We’re at war. KATARA: Waterbending is what built our culture. Our way of life. Keeping it alive is our duty.  SOKKA: Keeping ourselves alive is out duty,  KATARA: I know that. And if dad were here- SOKKA: He’s not here! I am!  KATARA: [is silent] [after they are swept away by the current, they land on a block of ice] SOKKA: you okay?  [Realises the canoe has floated away from them]  SOKKA: [quiet but panicked] oh no, no, no. That’s not good.  KATARA: [facing the large dome of ice] What is that?  SOKKA: huh. Weird. [he returns his attention to the canoe] KATARA: [stares at it, clearly entranced, as Sokka’s voice becomes muffled] [we’re briefly interrupted by Zuko on his ship before it cuts back to the siblings] SOKKA: [about getting the canoe back] Maybe I could float over on some ice? KATARA: [takes her gloves off and gets into a bending stance and tries to bend the canoe over to her. A rumbling starts around them and the dome behind them begins to crack before it finally explodes, knocking both of them to the ground. A blinding beam of light shoots into the sky] [Aang appears at the top of the mound of ice, tattoo glowing, before he collapses and falls down]

If I were to summarise the main difference in these scenes is personality, like I mentioned above.

Like I mentioned, making the live action better by making it exactly like the original is not the point I’m trying to make here. But the key difference is that we learn about Katara and Sokka as individuals and as siblings. We see that Sokka is arrogant and skeptical; Katara is brash and stubborn. They fight with viciousness that speaks to years under the same roof and arguments that have surfaced over and over again. Arguments that while heated, are forgotten about later.

In the live action, the interaction feels a lot more... forced. It feels a lot more like information dumping than a sibling argument. Like, why do they both spell things out for each other in this scene:

SOKKA: [growing frustrated, he turns towards Katara] of course it matters. If the Fire Nation finds out your a waterbender-  KATARA: [cuts him off] No one from the Fire Nation has approached the village in years. Besides, there’s nothing to see. An otter penguin could bend more water than I could. 

Katara knows what will happen if the Fire Nation finds out she's a waterbender. Sokka knows how long it's been since the Fire Nation has been here. This information is for the audience. In the original, they take their time and ease us into the world. We learn that Katara can bend water but is still learning, and that it's a dying art, but most importantly, we learn about them.

KATARA: [visibly furious] You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained- I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! SOKKA: [notices Katara’s movements are cracking the iceberg behind her] Uhh.. Katara?  KATARA: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant! 

See how Katara manages to info-dump all this information (even if it's biased, it's still interesting and revealing information!) on us without it feeling like an information-dump at all? It serves their conversation, gives us an insight into their daily roles in the village and how they both feel about it. Somehow, the live action manages to accomplish a lot less.

Ultimately, the live action is just... a lot more boring. Yes, they argue, but there’s no real heat to it. There's no history felt in that one interaction. There's also zero sense of Katara's personality literally at all.

There are some things that I don’t mind too much. Katara bringing up Hakoda and Sokka having such a visceral reaction to that is not a bad thing and adds extra context to why Sokka has behaved like he has thus far (I.e., trying to train the children of the village, generally commanding everyone around, etc.).

But here lies my concern with this: 

Kya is completely removed from this conversation, despite Katara bringing her up in the original when she’s yelling at Sokka. Sokka gets a moment that ensures the audience understands the pressure he feels he’s under with their dad absent and the responsibility of protector being on him. Yet Katara never gets a moment where we realise the responsibilities she’s taken on after Kya’s death - something pretty integral to not only Katara’s character, but it informs how other characters see her as well. The original goes out of its way to tell us this.

I wouldn't even bring this up if it was just this scene, but the attention is constantly removed from Katara and placed on Sokka, sucking the life away from Katara as a headstrong, passionate, daring young girl. You would not know that from this scene (or any scene tbh).

Katara is one of my favourite characters of all time and I am pissed that butchered her like this. 

4 — Zuko’s introduction  [this encompasses the little scenes that Zuko has up until he comes to the SWT to keep things in order here].

Zuko keeping a journal, detailing all he’s uncovered about the last avatars, omens and spiritual weirdness over the last three years is perfection and fits right in with his obsession. I absolutely love the red-thread board of conspiracy vibes it gives off. Love it.

Zuko’s ship looks absolutely fantastic. Such a horrific contrast between the beautiful surroundings and this ship billowing out ash.

When Zuko looks at his little avatar statues all glowing, the look on his face is perfect. I can feel the intensity. And that finally he says when he sees the pillar of slight plus the hesitant, aborted smile - LOVE IT!  

Zuko and Iroh’s first interaction is pretty good actually. Zuko is an appropriate level of unhinged in this scene. Iroh is patient but, you can hear the take a deep breath and stay calm in his words. It also manages to be kind of a blow on Zuko:  

IROH: All I’m saying is, it’s hard to see you get your hopes up every time you see a… sign. 

Like, that delivery is pretty brutal and you can immediately see it on Zuko’s face, even though it only lasts a second before he shoves it down so quickly and turning away.

He then says: 

ZUKO: It’ll all be worth it once I return home in glory to take my place as the rightful heir to the Fire Lord. 

It would have played nicely into Zuko saying similar things in the original, only for it to become increasingly obvious as the show progresses Zuko’s motivation has nothing to do with the throne. 

It is kind of ruined when Iroh responds with: 

IROH: Perhaps it’s time to consider that the throne isn’t everything. 

Is it just me, or was it obvious in the original that Zuko’s very much talking out of his ass whenever he says that about taking the throne (which isn’t all that often)? 

Zuko’s response is weird to me as well: 

ZUKO: It may not have been for you… but for me, it’s my destiny. 

I checked (I got up all the season one transcripts and hit control+F for ‘crown’, ‘throne’, ‘destiny’, ‘destined’, ‘heir’, 'rightful' to double-check I was remembering correctly) and Zuko mentioned the throne exactly two (2) times in the OG season 1.

He says it the first time in The Southern Air Temple because he’s being antagonised by Zhao. Their conversation is incredibly hostile: 

ZHAO: [Confidently.] You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of war ships under my command and you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. Your own father doesn't even want you. ZUKO: [Angrily.] You're wrong! Once I deliver the Avatar to my father, he will welcome me home with honour, and restore my rightful place on the throne!

And the only other time is in The Blue Spirit after Zhao takes on the hunt for the Avatar himself: 

IROH: Don't give up hope yet. You can still find the Avatar before Zhao. ZUKO: How, Uncle? With Zhao's resources, it's just a matter of time before he captures the Avatar. [Turns back out to sea and whispers.] My honour, my throne, my country, I'm about to lose them all.

And he doesn’t mention destiny at all in season 1. 

In season 2 he mentions the throne in The Avatar State when he talks to Iroh on the anniversary of his banishment - he's feeling that loss of what he had more keenly than ever:

ZUKO: Three years ago today, I was banished. I lost it all. I want it back. I want the Avatar, I want my honour, my throne. I want my father not to think I'm worthless.

He mentions it again in Zuko Alone, which is one of the times he knows himself the least:

ZUKO: My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne.

Like right off the bat, the original is telling us that the throne is not the driving force here, so it’s weird for Iroh to mention it because if he understood this, then he probably would not have even acknowledged what Zuko said or said something different, as he would have understood it’s just something for Zuko to grasp onto than face the horrifying reality of his situation.

It sort of feels like they've taken a conception of Zuko, understood he talks about the throne sometimes (which is sometimes played up in fanon) and ran with it instead of actually thinking about the words Zuko uses and the context in which he uses them.

You might be thinking why is she going on and on about this. The reason is because it's one of Zuko's first scenes that establish him and his motivations to the audience. The OG is careful not to have us mistake that Zuko's main driving motivation is the throne - it's the Avatar that pushes Zuko forward. Whereas this feels a little too direct for an establishing scene for the audience not to take it seriously (especially as the conversation comes off as one that's happened many times before).

I may be overthinking this one, but I wanted to mention it because I felt like they were so close to perfect here, but those two lines really disappointed me. 

4 — Aang is taken to the village  I like that the village’s reaction to Aang is variations of hey what the fuck is this??  It feels like an appropriate reaction and the delivery is pretty funny, especially the utterly deadpan line of he looks dead. Love that so much. 

I also don’t mind the change that Aang doesn’t wake up immediately after coming out the ice. I think that makes more sense, actually. 

Overall, this scene is fine to me. No strong feelings either way. 

5 — Aang wakes up & time in the village Aang seeing the kids playing and his instinct is to smile despite being confused literally is so… 🥺 I love him. This reaction says SO much more about Aang than any monologue i am so serious.

Also the whole scene with Aang freaking out about Appa: 

AANG: Have you seen Appa? My sky bison? Six legs, horns, brown arrows?  SOKKA: [stares blankly] AANG: [with growing emphasis] sky bison. SKY. BISON.  SOKKA: [deadpan] repeating it doesn’t help

Like YESSS this is the Avatar I know and love!! I love this exchange so much. 

Good news over… time for another rant. 

Aang reveals what happened to him (he got caught in the storm, it was the Great Comet Festival, he’s from the Southern Air Temple), and Gran Gran delivers her Four Nations speech that… I just really am not a fan off at all. 

Kanna’s delivery of the iconic intro is left completely redundant. We already heard it from Kyoshi of all people in the intro (another disservice to my girl Katara - she is the narrator!!) The delivery is very… flat, and filled with just an astonishing amount of exposition:

KANNA: [softly] The Great Comet Festival. KATARA: Gran Gran?  KANNA: Water, earth, fire, air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. And so the Fire Nation marched and laid waste, plunging us into a time of darkness. Everyone in the village knows this story, but you don’t, do you, young man? Just as you don’t know that Airbenders haven’t been seen in generations and that the Southern Air Temple was the first to fall because you’ve been trapped in that ice this whole time. The last time that the Great Comet was seen in the sky was 100 years ago. He may seem like just a boy, but he’s much more. He is the last Airbender.

They either should have saved it for Kanna, or let Kyoshi do it. Not both. It’s lost its impact now that we already heard it. And I’m just not a fan of all the detail that she goes into when we already know most of it. What if it went something like this: 

KANNA: [softly] The Great Comet Festival. KATARA: Gran Gran?  KANNA: The last time that the Great Comet was seen in the sky was 100 years ago. You’ve been trapped in that ice this whole time. You are the last Airbender. 

I am no expert. I am hardly even a writer if fanfic even counts. But it didn’t need to be this long dialogue. We already know about the Four Nations, and we will find out about the details of the war later, but we already know that the Fire Nation is Bad at this point. The only point Kanna needed to communicate here was that Aang has been in the iceberg for 100 years. That’s it. 

6 — More Zuko moments Jee intro. Would kill and die for him thank you and goodnight. Zuko is appropriately bitchy. Zuko delivers a speech about the importance of their mission and tells everyone that they will see their homes and families again and prove themselves worthy. 

He ends the speech, looking directly at Iroh and says: or we will die trying. 

This is perfect. Exactly the level of drama I need from season 1 Zuko. 

7 — Aang and Katara   This section is a little rambly and mostly me reacting in the moment to each scene so bare with me:

Aang is in shock as the realities of losing 100 years and his entire culture in one moment. Katara tries to reach out to him, and I really love how clunky and flat her sorry lands. There’s so much pain Aang is feeling, but literally what do you say to that? I just enjoyed that part. 

Katara is trying to connect with him, so she tells him about what happened to her father. We get a flash of Kya, but she doesn’t mention her. She talks about Sokka instead, and the responsibility on him now that Hakoda has left. 

Don’t hate the idea that Katara finds Kya difficult to talk about at all actually, it just depends how they handle it going forward (I can't remember what exactly it is they do with this so I might have more to say later on).

Although Katara's constant emphasis on Sokka and how things are hard for Sokka and how Sokka is trying so hard made me super frustrated. It would be fine if it didn't keep diverting attention away from Katara and back to Sokka. I get she's Going Through It and finds Kya hard to talk about, but I'm not sure this was communicated very well. Katara's personality still suffers greatly from it. She's still so 😕 the whole time. Even when she's reaching out to Aang she's 😕. Like who IS she.

Also Katara saying “I’m a warrior. I should be doing more for our people,” When so far we’ve seen exactly nothing of that tenacious warrior spirit that we see in the original to actually back that up was laughable to me. Once again, justice for my girl. You can't just say shit and expect people to believe you when so far Katara is as enigmatic as a piece of cardboard.

Aang offers some teasing advice from monks, and he and Katara have a very brief, but very sweet moment where they really connect. The moment is dashed between them when Katara sees ash falling from the sky. Katara’s face falls, and it’s devastating (in a good way).

There are absolutely good things to take away from this, but so far the little bad things just keep piling up and digging under my skin.

8 — Zuko arrives to the Southern Water Tribe Oh my god okay so if there was nothing to compare it to, I think I'd like this scene a lot, but the problem is I know what I am missing out on and then I get so mad!!

I really don't know how to talk about this scene

What I liked/enjoyed:

a) Aang's reaction to Kanna outing him as the Avatar: The look of utter panic on Aang’s here is pretty good. In Aang’s POV, he literally just found out that he was the Avatar and the Fire Nation might attack - and then he wakes 100 years into the future, realising that’s exactly what happened. Kanna comes over and without warning drops that bombshell on Katara and Sokka.

And Sokka’s reaction is visceral, if understandable from his perspective. 

SOKKA: [angry]I knew [Aang] was hiding something. When the world needed the Avatar the most, he vanished because he’s a coward. He ran, and people died.

Aang says nothing, but I think him remaining quiet says the most. His brain must be going into overdrive or stalling out and there's no in between.

b) Sokka's anger, frustration, desperation. Building on the above point: Sokka steps up and does his best to direct everyone, but at the end of the day, he just doesn't have the experience or the manpower to do much of anything. That's communicated nicely when he turns from the gate. and looks at the little kids all standing there with rocks in their arms. You can see why in that moment, the only option for Sokka was to give Aang up.

c) Sokka apprenticing the other young boy in the village Idk. just a nice little touch. It was cute to see Sokka step into that role of protector and leader, even if he is wholly unprepared.

d) the kids throwing rocks at the Firebenders It's not going to work, but desperate times call for desperate measures and it's their home to protect.

e) the removal of the booby-trap scene on the abandoned ship. Idk I just feel like this was the best move. One giant beam of light already entered the sky, no need to have another, lesser one be the catalyst. (Although it did rob us of Katara fiercely backing Aang and showing us just what she's willing to put on the line to become a proper bender - but Katara is just 😑 remember so of course this scene is removed!!)

What I didn't like

a) The atmosphere. Where's the terror? The implication of the Fire Nation's arrival cannot be understated, and even with the little we know, the original communicates that fear very well which the live action manages to miss and badly.

-> You can watch it here.

(Tumblr says only one video at a time so have a link here for the comparison clips if you want to see what I mean).

b) The Zuko vs Aang fight misses the point I'll explain it this way: In the original, Aang and Zuko begin to fight. Zuko blasts fire and Aang defends against the flames. Aang quickly realises this could get out of hand with the flames brushing up against the Water Tribe people behind them. This exchange happens:

AANG: If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone? [Zuko's men still surrounding him, spears poised. After a brief moment of hesitation, Zuko rights himself and nods in agreement. Aang is apprehended by Zuko's men.]

This scene allows two things: for Aang to show his compassion for people he barely knows is more important than his own safety (i.e., despite being a goofy kid, there's a deep sense of responsibility he feels); and Zuko is not completely heartless. It's subtle, but right from the start, we see Zuko is more than just Average Villain, and is willing to concede to some extent.

The live action, the kids start to throw rocks and spears at Zuko and his men. Zuko, annoyed, says this:

ZUKO: Enough games. Burn the whole place to the ground. [Aang looks around, panicked.] AANG: No! [he runs in front of the villagers] I'll go with you. Just leave them alone. I'm the one you're looking for. ZUKO: [to his men, angry] get him.

See how Aang now only reacts after Zuko threatens to destroy the village (and they exchange blows, resulting in an explosion), rather than seeing the potential damage a fight could cause and Zuko's moment to show some humanity is removed? Yeah.

-> Watch the clips here.

c) Zuko doesn't even try to fight without his firebending Also another little thing (yes little, but Avatar was a show that prided itself on the little things which is why people still talk about it 10 years later so I get to talk about this!)

Zuko establishes himself as a fierce and strong enemy from the outset by besting Sokka without even firebending. He only firebends to initially scare the villagers into telling him where Aang is, and after Sokka's boomerang strikes him and when he fights Aang. This immediately illustrates that Zuko is not just a good bender, he's also a very good fighter. Again, I wouldn't mention this if Zuko were literally anyone else, but Zuko's resourcefulness and 'jack of all trades' abilities are important to... well every season and his character.

-> Watch the clips here.

d) live action thinks its darker by the nature of its medium Kind of an over-arching issue, but I wanted to mention it because it's kind funny to me that the 2005 kids cartoon managed to portray a more terrifying scenario than the 2024 live action did. I think live action remakes think they're 'darker and edgier' just by the nature of them being live action. But that's not necessarily true.

The Fire Nation, Zuko and his men are all portrayed as skilled, hardened warriors who are on a mission, and will not stop until that is achieved. Zuko's men remain (mostly) masked and unknowable. Their faces aren't important - only Zuko's is. They say nothing and fall into step with him.

In the live action, their faces are showing, and Jee even makes a comment, which Zuko bites back on, reflecting cracks in the inner workings (but they do not let any such thing show in the original show).

How does a scene that literally includes this moment:

be more intimidating/scary than the 'gritty' live action lol.

It actually meets the same issue in the scene just before Zuko arrives. Nowhere near enough gravitas is placed on Katara and Aang’s visit to the abandoned ship. In the original, Katara clearly states this ship has haunted her people since her grandmother was young. There’s weight to that. You can feel the pain in Katara's voice. The ship is... creepy. It's quiet and dark. There are abandoned weapons and evidence of the existence of real soldiers who tried to kill them.

In the live action, all Katara says is no one comes here. It’s quiet and hidden. They only enter this broken open area in the hull. It would take two seconds to show even a little bit off the ship, to show the remnants of this past violence, to add to the otherness of it. To show that it’s something to stark from what we, the audience has seen up until now. Instead, it's where Katara is shown to be in her opening scene and she takes Aang there again later. There is no effort to make the ship feel like the scar that it is upon their land. A constant reminder that their waterbenders were systematically wiped out - and because of that, they can't do move it or sink it or anything.

It’s almost as though they completely misunderstood why the Fire Nation ship was put into the original, but understood that people recognised it and thought that that would be enough. This ship demonstrates to us that this war is old and it’s left generational fear and scars. It’s such a brilliant way to warm us up to what could be happening outside this little village, why the village is little at all, and what is to come. The kids show manages to talk about the generational impact of war in it's first few episodes.

(Again, probably wouldn't talk about it it was just this moment... but I'll have more to talk about in future episodes).

9 - Capture and escape from Zuko's ship

Things I liked:

a) Aang and Iroh's conversation I enjoyed this scene a lot. Iroh's respect for Aang is perfect and I just thought the back and forth between them was good. It didn't feel as much of an exposition dump like previous conversations, feeling a little more natural - Aang would naturally want to know how the war started. Also this exchange I liked a lot:

AANG: But peace comes from respecting life, not killing and destroying. IROH: A noble sentiment, Avatar, but in the end, for most of us, it doesn’t matter how this war started. It only matters how it can end.And the belief is that by capturing you, the Fire Nation can finally bring that about. AANG: Is that what you believe? IROH: [hesitates] I must leave, but I look forward to many more conversations with you, Avatar.

b) Sokka not wanting to get on Appa and Katara being eager Finally some good fucking soup. When they fly away on Appa with Sokka just fully screaming and Katara with a big grin on her face, yeah exactly I love that

c) Aang stealing Zuko's journal no notes for this, I just think its funny.

d) the CGI for Aang using his glider actually looks so good

Things I didn't like:

a) Zuko just stands on the deck the whole time when Aang is escaping Yeah he's shooting fire at them and smiling like a weirdo watching Aang almost fall to his death (????), but where's the Zuko who's chasing Aang like the fucking terminator and literally jumping after him as Aang tries to fly away, risking at least serious injury if he fell from such a height??

b) they never get on Zuko's boat, so there's some moments that we miss. This point is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are some things I missed: Sokka's I'm just a guy with a boomerang. I didn't ask for all this FLYING and MAGIC! Katara and Sokka running over to him in worry after Aang collapses using the Avatar State. No Aang using the Avatar State or him launching Zuko and Iroh's fire into the ice, crushing their ship means we don't get a glimpse of Aang's raw power. This one is more of an observation rather than hill I'm ready to die on.

10 - The Southern Air Temple

Things I liked:

a) the scenery of the temple God the scenery is visually amazing. I was going to take a screenshot but the quality was so bad I gave up 😔

b) Aang's memory of Gyatso while in the Avatar State This is said with a caveat (see below), but I don't mind Aang's memory of Gyatso being the the thing that grounds him - it's actually really lovely, and every Gyatso has me on the verge of tears.

Things I didn't like:

a) The removal of Katara and Aang moments I have flipped flopped on this and I don't know if I like it or not. As someone who doesn't really enjoy shipping... at all... I was initially kind of happy they seemed to be taking out the Katara and Aang moments, but then I got annoyed because if they really are not going the kataang route (which is fine, I don't particularly care either way), why does that mean Katara can't be a grounding force for Aang? She can still be the one that reaches him when he's at his most distressed (seeing the Gyatso's body) without it all building up to a romantic relationship. This might all end up redundant as we see where they decide to take it with season 2 and 3, but as of right now, I am just on the fence about the whole thing.

b) why is the 8-10 episode seasons the only way to go now... I miss long seasons We get the The Southern Air Temple tacked on the end of the first episode in the last 6 minutes of the episode. Why did we waste the first 15-20 minutes showing us all this exposition and detailing in specific detail everything about the genocide and that randomly long scene between Sozin and the soldier, when we could have spent more time here, learning that same information, but along side the characters, therefore we feel Aang's horror and devastation along with him as we all slowly realise that all his people were murdered. Either that, or we have longer episodes so we can actually spend time on Things and flesh things out more rather than leaving out so many amazing moments.

This scene is burnt into my memory. Even though we saw what happened to the air nomads, finding out as Aang found out, feeling awkward and anxious the whole episode and Katara and Sokka struggle to reveal this information left more of an impact on me than the live action.

This is truly haunting.

My point here is we literally could have had this if either: we cut down on the exposition or we used the format that shows used to use all the time?? idk I'm not an expert there might be a Really Smart reason why this doesn't happen anymore (but that won't stop me missing it!)

I'll leave this one here with a summary.

Things I liked:

Bending looks fantastic

Appa and Momo look great!!

Sokka overall does feel like Sokka (just a more serious version.

Zuko's characterisation is also not too bad (at least in this episode)

i think a lot of their ideas are fine (but the execution is lacking in some places)

What I didn't like:

why don't you explicitly explain this idea to me for the sixth time... i don't understand anything that's not explained to me in excruciating detail

KATARA!! THEY BUTCHERED MY GIRL

No Zuko vs Zhao. I'm still sad about this. I was hanging out to watch Zuko beat him up. It's not the best fight scene in the series, but it's just one of those things that deserves recognition, especially with the soundtrack Agni Kai in the background. It's iconic.

Some of the timing of scenes is weird

IMO not getting/understanding some things in the original and you can see that in how they've constructed dialogue/scenes.

Thinks its grittier and more serious than it actually is.

There's probably more to this list and things I'll think of later, but we'll leave it there for now...

If you made it to the end, kudos to you 🫡

See you later for episode 2 👁️👄👁️

[a-d-nox]

pac: what to retain and release this month

take what resonates leave what doesn't - nothing is 100% for you because these aren't personalized so please no angry comments or dms about what i am saying not being a good fit for you or that you "don't claim" just keep scrolling if that is the case. be kind, self reflect, and have fun.

last pac/pap: advice from the universe

masterlist of pap/pac posts

want a personal reading? click here to check out my reading options and prices!

pile 1

release only focusing on the negative. negative moments exist so that we can appreciate the positive ones. without moments of difficulty there would be no purpose in having hope. a series of negative moments doesn't equate to a lifetime of them. perseverance makes us strong and resilient thus the negative moments are only there to help us become better/stronger versions of ourselves. focus on what you can control; not how you can control others or outcomes. let go of everything else (others actions, outcome, etc.). when you let go, that is when miracles happen.

retain your ability to create with passion. you are powerful. you know how to receive and act appreciatively and humbly. focus on what you receive rather than what you take; count your blessings. look around at all you have rather than what you don't; "gratitude is the best attitude." trust that the universe is working towards giving you everything you need in this lifetime - it simply takes time. attract what you want by using your passion and creativity. practice self-love and engage in activities that allow you to express yourself creatively.

pile 2

release your fears of being alone and self-isolation. you have done the work and you know who and what you want. don't face analysis paralysis - go out there and get it. your inner voice and thoughts are likely telling you not to, that its scary, that you'll only being disappointed, etc. that is not true - that's false perception. if you are experiencing negative self-talk, chances are you experienced being let down in the past and you are allowing cognitive bias to shape your future. what happened in the past isn't destined to happen in the future. don't hide your heart out of fear that it will be broken - it's not the way to live. if you aren't vulnerable with others and are unwilling to share your true self, you may never find what you seek most in life. this is the month for you to take a chance - its okay to be scared, its okay to stumble/fall, its okay to be hurt or to get hurt. so long as that is not where your story ends. face fears, get up, heal.

retain your fake it to you make it attitude. NONE of us know what we are doing and that is okay - use your powers of deception for good though. use them to get out of your comfort zone. you have a talent for strategy. have a honest conversation with others or yourself about what you want and need from any given situation. you have the strength to confront situations head on and you should do so! don't hide things about yourself that helps others to better understand you and your needs. be honest and be vulnerable - you are strong enough to do both. take what you need and leave the rest behind.

pile 3

release giving more than you have and more than you can afford to lose. something tells me that you tend to give more than you receive; be cognizant of what you are giving. it's okay to give without receiving, but it is NOT OKAY to be used for your generosity. do not feel obligated to constantly give; especially if you are not in the position to do so mentally or monetarily. mind your wallet right now - be careful what you are spending... and expending.

retain your ambition - push yourself and others out of their comfort zones. you have a non-quitting attitude: tired you recharge, disappointed you try again, losing momentum you reevaluate and re-strategize. reflect on your situation and follow your intuition. don't get caught up in the dramatics or get defensive - take in everyone's thoughts and opinions.