#there’s so much to the magic railroad and the powers associated with it

[hkpika07]

Oh Thomas, don’t you know? I’m not the only one.

Introducing the 3 gods of locomotives! Lady, god of steam locos. Damien, god of diesels. And Cassius, god of electrics. These three are siblings, with Lady being the oldest and Cassius being the youngest. They all have golden eyes to represent the gold dust and they all live in their domain The Magic Railroad. Each deity has an item specific to them. Lady’s is her hat, Damien’s is his goggles and Cassius’ is their mask. They also all have helpers, which are chosen engines to become demigods. Well, Lady has a helper. Damien refuses to choose another and Cassius still hasn’t chosen his.

[wanderingsoftly]

I previously hypothesized about the island color wheel situation on this blog, but now having watched 2 more episodes, I have more. I originally focused too much on the type of magic that was done in each place, but it's more about how the magic works and what powers it.

There are Six Color Wheel Islands (kind of), a center location, and a Binary System represented by the black and white tethered spheres on the orrery. The opposing colors on the color wheel mirror the opposing kinds of magic found on the islands associated with the color.

Orange - Creation magic on Fire Island 2

Blue - Opposite to orange; they get their magic by killing and destroying hence Cannibal Island; also referred to as an Island of Illusion, which is interesting as you would assume that would be the opposite of truth, but I think the secret cannibalism or the faccade that magic is like it once was or can be is the illusion probably instead. She also said "an" and not "the", so it is not a proper noun kind of thing. Aabria does however mention the sky as too blue and the grass as too green, so there may be an unexplored third possible illusion if that is not just world building flare. Also an unsupported theory, but I am fairly certain the creature for this island is in fact dead. We never met it outright I don't think, and with the other murder of magical creatures, that seems a fair assumption.

Yellow - All-knowing Goat of truth. Retrieving something that was lost.

Purple - Unseen so far but if the trend matches then this is somehow built maybe on lies or the manipulation of truth or changing someone's destiny. Or on losing something even.

Green - Tad's Island. Yet to be visited, but let's go by what we know of Tad. A creature that represents the fear of the abuse of magic for power and ultimately limiting magic (like how it is weakened during the holiday special). Tad is lulled to sleep by the genuine bond between people. It also seems like Aabria is specifically (not in a railroad way necessarily, but almost pointedly) directing the players away from this island until later (the issue with the sock, the lack of magic when Tabby is told to search for Tad, and she mentions how close it is to the center island too which suggests pushing it to later possibly).

Red - St. Dotto's. Amplification magic. Over-the-top drama and very artificial seeming society. Presumably, embracing the abuse of magic? Strengthened magic? The sneak peek showing a shadow figure in the walls of the dome (and arguably Evan's general jumpiness and seemingly unprovoked improvised weapon wielding) perfectly mirroring the holiday special is of course not a coincidence. BUT, there appear to be 2 red islands: one singular one like the rest of them (directly behind and to the right of the center sphere in the picture - We'll call it Red A) and one between the binary islands (Red B). The one that has St. Dotto's is technically I believe the binary island one based on Aabria narrating that Jammer thought about K's injury and Red B flared up. Again tho, we see the creature that appears to maybe be the creature on the red color wheel tile appear in the next episode. So it is unclear if these two red islands are physically separate.

Binary System - Now this is interesting. My initial thought was a yin and yang fighting for balance sort of vibe. That is still unclear. Another theory could be the black and white orbs are some kind of policing situation and maybe the red island is especially volatile or something that is being highlighted currently by the binary to deal with some threat? A completely different theory could be that the black and white could be some sort of transportation or gateway and the red island is being accessed or highlighted specifically. A final theory is that the binary houses or represents the duality of magic and that maybe Tad and this unknown Inverse of Tad creature are battling or something and Inverse Tad is winning. (This may just be because I have an undersupported hunch that Tad is maybe dead or at least in real danger)

The Center - Aabria said "the center is where you all want to go". It's at first unclear how that is meant, as in is that a foreshadowing of a location or a mechanic of the navigation system. However she then says directly after that that Tabby "shows them these other locations", so it can be assumed it's a place on its own. The talk about the center was in direct reference to Jammer asking what does Tabby need to get back up to average. And Tabby's goal is to fit back into place with the others like him and understand the connections between the different types of magic. The center being a Tabby colored ball then makes me think that this is the place that he will fit, where all magic would be understood together (made whole), and this will probably be the finale location.

[scraftyisthebest]

Pokemon main characters with their first partner Pokemon.

And now, for fun, time to talk about characters with respect to elemental powers and their starters! More specifically, their stories and goals.

⚡💨 Ash's first partner is Pikachu, an Electric-type, associated with the classical element of Air in many cases. Ash is a lively, carefree, energetic, and friendly spirit who can become friends with just about anyone. He is adventurous, and never stops loving to explore the world around him. Even after becoming the World Champion by defeating Leon and becoming the greatest Trainer who ever lived, he continues to travel the world, valuing the friendships he forges with the Pokemon he meets, and his undying love for Pokemon shines through in his belief in every Pokemon and bringing out the best in them through that belief and love. His resolution to becoming a Pokemon Master? To become someone who can befriend and connect his heart with any kind of Pokemon. Even if it's a lofty goal that he went through so much to get to where he is now, he never gives up in that dream nonetheless. In a sense, he's everyone's friend, and a free spirit who is true to one who embodies the elements of air and lightning.

💧💦 Dawn's first partner is Piplup, the Water-type starter of the Sinnoh region, naturally associated with the classical element of Water. Though starting out as a perfectionist focused only on results, expecting utter victory and taking failure hard, because of her eagerness to follow in the legacy of her mother, she learns to accept failure and struggle and to forge her own path as a Coordinator. She learns to take stride in the experience, instead of focusing purely on the endpoint, and becomes much more humble in her skill. Though well known around the world for her talent as a Coordinator, she now pursues Contests as a passion, and has opened herself up to doing more outside of it, becoming more laid back and going with the flow, embracing the adventure, and even the simpler pleasures of life. This is especially shown in her first interaction with Chloe, as she took the surroundings around her in stride, and taught Chloe to do the same to truly embrace the joys of being on a journey. In a sense, she's a skilled Trainer and Coordinator, but also a veteran journeyer around the world who goes with the flow like water.

🔥💥 Serena's first partner is Fennekin, the Fire-type starter of the Kalos region, who eventually evolved all the way to Delphox, with its evolution reflecting her own growth on her journey. Once railroaded into a set path by her mother into being a Rhyhorn Racer, she took an opportunity to see Ash, a boy she met once before, as a means to escape, and over the course of journeying with him found her own dream, to be a Pokemon Performer. And as she works towards that dream, she develops the willpower and passion to pursue it and to reach the top, to become Kalos Queen, to become the world's greatest Performer. She eventually comes to learn why she wants to become a Performer, which is to inspire others and give them strength, and goes as far as to travel to Hoenn to partake in Contests to gain even more experience, but also to give strength to others in her rise to the top. And it is that strength and passion that inspires Chloe to give a Contest a try in Journeys, and in doing so Chloe learns the sheer passion and excitement of pursuing a challenge alongside her Pokemon, and to reach greater heights. Serena learns to bring strength to others and work hard towards her dream and becoming the best, aiming for the top with the passion of fire.

🌱🌿 While Liko's story is still in its early stages, her first partner Pokemon is the Grass-type Sprigtito of Paldea. It will likely evolve all the way into a great Meowscarada someday, but that can wait. Nonetheless, a Grass-type can represent the Earth element of magic and fantasy. Someone who is steadfast, loyal, and true, and will protect what they believe in and those around them. In some cases, this can also manifest in a nurturing and caring nature. Liko has gone through quite a bit of development in what little we've seen thus far, but we know that she desires to become a strong Trainer so she can protect the people and Pokemon she cares about, caring most for the safety and livelihood of those around her. She is devoted to being someone who can stand up for others, true to her own innate being, and shows great compassion, even showing her devotion to the livelihood of Pokemon when she led an effort to restore a burnt forest to life on Arboliva's behalf. In a sense, loyal, calm, and nurturing like the earth. As Horizons continues, we are certain to see more of this aspect of Liko's character as she continues to create her legacy as a Trainer in the world of Pokemon.

Anyway, a fun ramble from me! If I feel like it I could do more of it with more characters!

[regaliasonata]

Good day people.

So with Cosmic Fury approaching soon many individuals are anticipating what's happening next for power rangers as a whole. Kyuranger isn't getting full adapted and Lupinranger vs Patranger won't happen most likely for years.

I keep seeing people want ToQger to be adapted but the constant argument is "trains won't be marketable here" personally I disagree as in the past PR has taken seasons like In Space and RPM that steer away from the source material and made it successful.

So here is my idea of an adaption for ToQger.

First things first it needs a name. With the idea I had I think Power Rangers: Dreamroad Nexus might fit( thought I'm up for criticism cause train terms are kinds hard to come across)

Anyways, in ToQher the theme of imagination is very evident and here I feel like we can take this to another level. They have to protect this mysterious dimension known as the rainbow line only seen by individuals with imagination. Mostly held by children and the antagonists are called the shadow line who want to spread darkness through the world by taking over the rainbow line.

So in my adaption, the rangers are a group of individuals who use the power of the "gridline" with their imagination. The gridline is this railroad like passage within the morphin grid that acts as these threads containing energy.

Not many know how long it extends but one of their main junctions goes around the ley lines which in real life is said to be a magical system on earth which connects to the universe.

Their base is this train station like dimension where they keep artifacts. These artifacts are dubbed "Nexus", the nexus are items that contain memory and dream like energy that associates with the world. It can vary from being a baseball representing someone wanting to go far in life or say a cat statue symbolizing the laziness of life.

Nexus items are found within the world or in the dreams of people(mainly children). The reason why they are so important is that like their name they act as a nexus to energy within the gridline, connecting the memories of the world like a thread. If they were to be lost then those drama and concepts keeping humanity hopeful would fade away.

As for the antagonists I think we can call their group Noirtropolis(noir and metropolis, metro being a subway system). The beings that exist within this group are called nachtmares, beings who have sprouted from darkness and act as nightmares in a sense. They seek out the nexus items and also resort to going into human dreams as they both can give energy and act as a gateway to the gridlines.

The rangers strive to contain a happy and beautiful world without any concerns for what truly lies within the dreadfulness of life whole nachtmares are usually apathetic and see things negatively.

I think we can see a contrast here as the rangers start to feel hopeless and lose their faith in the world as all the negatives are brought to light. The Toqger rangers lived in happiness even without their memories so the rangers here just want to life in blissful ignorance.

As for the villains well they are empty in a sense, what is a nightmare to do without having purpose. Perhaps collecting the nexus items or going to the gridline can provide them the energy they are missing to fully find their own goals in life. We could possibly see both the rangers and nachtmare struggling to retain what they have instead of moving on.

Cause at the end of the day we have to age and face what lies ahead in life. Nothing last forever and as children we dream so much for our ideas to come to fruition. But it won't end on a bad note, I think in the end like a dream we can find ways to adapt those lost ideas into something else. They will move on and do something together in the end for a new type of happiness.

That's the reason why I think trains here could be a perfect message. Trains cannot stop in one destination and they have to keep going, the journey is worth it to see what lies at the end. We just have to face it together, this could be such a great message to children if you think about it.

I mean I got into my PR phase recently and I don't want to grow up yet, I'd like all the opportunities i can get to be a kid again.

So that's my ideas for the adaption, @mo-ok @skyland2703 @tranqvii-jae20 and @metalucie any thoughts on this idea? You think Hasbro would hire me😭

[theredengineapologist]

Introducing the world of TTTE: Sudrian Boys [TTTE: Sudrian Boys AU Worldbuilding, Pt. 1]

Now that I've worked out exactly what I want from my AU, I believe it is finally time to share the lore with all of you (one month after I initially promised it OOPS).

The lore of this world is a bit HEFTY to explain, so I'm breaking it into multiple parts. This part mainly goes over the history and background for my Humanized!TTTE AU, TTTE: Sudrian Boys. In later parts, I plan to cover things like Sudrian vs Non-Sudrian Engine culture, how the engines differ from humans, and more info about how the shapeshifting works in my AU, so stay tuned!

Also! Information regarding specific characters will be included in separate character sheets I will be posting at a later date. I'm also currently working on some fanfics that I hope will expand my AU further. But feel free to ask me any questions you may have!

This is going to be a VERY long post so read on under the cut!

Before we begin, some key things to keep in mind:

I am still actively catching up with the canon source material at this point in time! Thus, aspects of my AU are subject to change as I read/watch more of the source material and incorporate it into my AU.

This AU is primarily based on TV series canon (both model and CGI), as that is what I am primarily familiar with. Some aspects are also taken from the Railway Series to help estimate an approximate timeline of events.

At this current point in time, BWBA is NOT canon in my AU. This is mainly because I have not watched it yet and have no plans to watch it later (with the exception of the Michael White episodes that everyone says are good). The episode "A Shed for Edward" from Season 21 is also NOT canon in my AU. This is to say that in my AU, Edward and Henry still live in Tidmouth. It's my AU. I do what I want.

On that note, Thomas and the Magic Railroad is partially canon in my AU. I haven't gone back to re-watch the movie yet (I do plan to at a later date), so I'm going purely off of memory and what I hear other people say about it. Because of this, I've decided to basically just take parts that I like and leave behind parts that I don't. In regards to the canonicity of the film itself, I consider it as a dream Thomas had (that may or may not have actually happend. It'll all make sense later).

With the exception of Philip the Diesel Boxcab, ALL of the engines are adults in my AU. Yes, that includes Thomas and Percy.

With that out of the way, let's start at The Beginning:

A long time ago, when humans were designing the first steam engines, a young faerie fell in love with them. Her true name is beyond mortal comprehension, but engines of today refer to her as Lady (or alternatively, the Lady of Legend).

Though fae are usually associated with nature, this faerie in particular was fascinated by machines and the ingenuity of mankind. And so she used her magic gold dust to breathe life into the machines that she loved so much.

And thus she became Lady, Goddess of Steam Engines.

For many years, engines and humans lived together in harmony. The engines found purpose in being useful, and humans were able to travel longer distances and distribute supplies amongst each other. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

But then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked dieselization happened.

Lady watched in horror as humanity turned their backs on the steam engines that worked so hard for them. In increasingly larger numbers, engines were getting scrapped for as petty reasons as "not being useful enough". In an effort to protect her beloved machines, Lady imbued them with more powerful magic.

As much as Lady wanted to, the Fae Court wouldn't allow creations of man to be taken in mass to the fae realm. So if she couldn't offer her engines salvation, Lady would at least give them a means of escape.

By around 1960, as steam was getting phased out, Lady blessed her beloved machines with the ability to shapeshift. If an engine ever had a desire to leave the rails, all they had to do was imagine themselves doing so and they could walk the Earth in a human-like form. This would allow them live lives completely independent from mankind. Being "really useful" was no longer a requirement to have a right to live, now they could simply exist and pursue goals of their own choosing just as any human could.

For steam engines all around the world, shapeshifting became a secret and closely guarded practice that they would only discuss amongst each other. Humans were not to be made aware of this under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, even after Lady bestowed the gift of shapeshifting upon her engines, hundreds of them were still killed under the cutter's torch. Steam engines are proud entities after all, and many of them preferred to die upon their rails than to live in hiding as something foreign. And since shapeshifting was such a closely guarded practice, not every engine who may have wanted a way out was able to be taught.

Even so, there were still reports circulating of engines vanishing from scrapyards without a trace, almost as if by magic. These were the engines that managed to escape and are now living secretly amongst humans to this day.

Fast Forward many, many decades later. We return to the Island of Sodor:

It is now the late 2010s to mid 2020s. The entire Island of Sodor basically runs as a giant heritage railway.

The NWR is currently run by Sir Topham Hat III, who is at the strapping young age of 83. (I saw this tweet from someone who asked Christopher Awdry if STH III is still running the railway and he said yes so we're going with that.) STH III loves his engines very much, which is why he has no plans on retiring any time soon. Still, he has STH IV shadow him closely in order to prepare him to take over the railway some day.

Because of the success of both The Railway Series books and the Thomas and Friends TV show, tourists flock from all over the world to get a look at the famous engines. Plus, being one of the few places to still have steam engines in operation (and so many of them in fact), you can count on many of the tourists being train enthusiasts too.

Basically, the engines of Sodor are all treated like celebrities. They are FAMOUS and are generally adored by the public. Whenever they go anywhere, you can count on someone knowing their names.

And because of just how many tourists come to Sodor every year, the economy is thriving and the engines are all very, very busy. Everything is pretty idyllic.

But sometimes, prosperity can get pretty boring.

And now, our story begins:

As with many Sudrian Shenanigans, everything starts with Thomas the Tank Engine.

One night, after Thomas delivers passengers to a carnival, he makes a wish to leave life on the rails, even if only for just one night.

As much as Thomas loves working on his branch line, delivering goods and passengers from place to place, and meeting tourists, doing the same routine for literal DECADES can get a little dull.

While waiting for his driver and fireman to return from a short break, Thomas let his mind wander. He imagined himself as a human person taking part in the festivities with the passengers he just delivered. In doing so, Thomas accidentally activated the dormant shapeshifting magic Lady had blessed him with many years ago.

When Thomas opened his eyes, he was literally much closer to his rails than he had ever been. The station platform was much higher up. And Annie and Clarabel were much bigger than he remembered. Thomas had accidentally turned himself into a small human man, just like he had seen in his imagination.

He freaked out a little at first. When they returned, his driver and fireman didn't recognize him. It was only after Thomas started going off about things that only he would know, details about events that happened decades ago, before they were born and had only heard about in stories, that they realized that this small human figure really was Thomas the Tank Engine.

They called Sir Topham Hatt III at once, explaining the situation. And while baffling and unbelievable, the truth was right before their eyes. They were at a loss for what to do, especially since Thomas didn't know how to turn back yet. They concluded to allow Thomas to enjoy the festival for now, let Edward take the passengers home that night, and have Thomas stay with STH's family until he could figure out how to return to normal.

While scary at first, Thomas did enjoy the festival that night. And he went home with STH in Annie and Clarabel. He got to see the island from a new perspective, and he very much enjoyed that.

STH III made Thomas's driver and fireman promise to keep this a secret for now until they could figure out what happened. But that ultimately didn't matter because Thomas went to say "hello" to Edward that night. By the next sunrise, every engine on the island heard exactly what happened to Thomas. Some told their crew, but most weren't believed. Even some of the engines didn't believe each other. But at the very least, every engine on the island knew something strange was afoot.

The news eventually reached Donald and Douglas, who swiftly made their way to Tidmouth Sheds. Coincidentally, STH was bringing Human!Thomas to Tidmouth to inform the rest of the Steam Team about what had happened.

It is at this moment that Donald and Douglas reveal that they knew about shifting for decades. It was how they managed to get to the island under the guise that there would only be one of them. They would take turns, one traveling as an engine while the other hid in their cab. The reason they both appeared on the island as engines is because they hoped the controller would be kind enough to keep them both (and he was!). If it hadn't worked out, they would have run away together as humans. Since things worked out in their favor, they didn't see a point in shapeshifting again. But now that their secret was out, they needed to keep it safe.

Donald and Douglas taught the Steam Team how to shapeshift, and the engines continued to teach each other until basically every engine on the island knew how to switch between the two forms comfortably. In exchange, however, only a limited number of humans could know about engine shifting. These include STH III, STH IV, and the engines' drivers and firemen. Basically, only those who really needed to know.

Nowadays, STH gives the engines a little extra time off during the day to explore their new forms. The Steam Team also has an apartment where they can live together as humans if they choose. Within a few months, most of the engines have gotten in the habit of shifting back and forth, exploring their world and learning new things about themselves.

Now in a new perspective, the adventures continue. 😉

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. By Tom Lin. Back Bay Books, 2021.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: western, historical fiction, magical realism

Series: NA

Summary: Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon’s henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad.

Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.

***Full review below.***

Content Warnings: violence, blood, gore, racism, animal suffering and death

Overview: I haven't read a lot of books set in the Old West, so when I happened upon this one in my local bookstore, I figured I'd give it a go. The premise looked interesting, and I was curious to see what a western story would look like with an East Asian protagonist (especially given the history of Chinese immigrants and the railroad in the West). Overall, I was impressed by this book; I think Tom Lin has a talent for writing atmospheric prose and he holds back just enough to keep the reader guessing. While I do wish a couple of things had been done differently, I also think this was a solid debut novel, and for that reason, I give this book 3.5 stars.

Writing: As stated above, Lin's prose is very atmospheric, conjuring up vivid pictures of the desert and endless stretches of dry heat with an economic style. I very much appreciated how much atmosphere and action Lin could convey in sentences, paragraphs, and chapters that weren't very long, and I loved how Ming's reticence turned the protagonist into a fairly moody character.

I also appreciated the tension that Lin wrote into Ming's ethnicity and his cultural identity. Ming is a Chinese man by birth, but speaks no Mandarin (or other dialect) and has no ties to Chinese culture, yet the world keeps trying to forge an association between him and the Chinese immigrants who are working for the railroad. What I found interesting about this tension was just how complicated it made questions regarding race, ethnicity, and culture, and though I wish Lin had more fully explored what life for a Westernized Chinese man might have been like, I think putting Ming out there for readers to grapple with was a smart move.

Lastly, I liked the blend of Western and magical realism throughout the novel. While I think it would have been easy to make this book a full blown historical fantasy, I felt like keeping the magical elements understated enhanced the overall mood.

The only thing that I think bothered me about the writing was the pace. Lin seemed interested in progressing fairly slowly, showing every detail that other writers might have glossed over or edited out. As a result, the journey west felt slow, but maybe that was the point. Maybe Lin wanted readers to feel sluggish, especially since the travel was across a desert.

Plot: The plot of this book follows Ming Tsu, a former criminal who seeks revenge on the people who wronged him. Ming was the protégé of a notorious criminal named Silas Root, who taught Ming how to kill. But Ming decides to leave all that behind when he meets Ada, the daughter of a wealthy railroad baron. Ming and Ada elope only for the baron to hire a bunch of men to break them up and send Ming to work for Central Pacific Railroad, trapping him there by threatening to murder Silas. Once Silas dies, however, Ming escapes and starts his revenge journey.

On his way West, Ming teams up with a curious cast of characters, including a prophet who can only "see" forward in time and a band of traveling magic-show performers, all of whom have uncanny abilities.

What I liked most about this plot was the way the characters came together. Not all of them get along, but when they do, it's varied and interesting enough to keep me invested. I wouldn't quite call them a found family, but there are definitely some relationships that feel deep and meaningful.

I also liked the general arc of Ming's revenge journey, as it followed a trajectory that one might expect out of a Western. I'm all for playing with tropes, but sometimes, sticking to the classics works just as well, and I think it worked well here.

I do think, however, that Lin could have made his plot more compelling by getting the reader more invested in both the character dynamics and the revenge plot. As it stands, it seems like Ming is largely unaffected or not invested in his relationship with the magic show performers, and though he comes to like Hazel and Hunter, those bonds aren't quite strong enough to make him seriously question whether or not revenge is the most important thing in his life. As for the revenge plot, I did enjoy the list of people Ming wanted to kill, but to me, each of his targets were just names. When he finally killed someone, I didn't quite get a sense of relief or fulfillment, and perhaps this is because we are told about Ming's past but aren't invited to feel his feelings. Maybe Lin did this on purpose; maybe he wanted killing to feel emotionless and empty, but if so, I wish that had been balanced by pouring emotion into something else.

The members of the traveling sideshow are varied enough to be interesting, and I think Lin differentiated them well. I also liked how each one of them had their own relationship to Ming, so some connections felt more familial while others were businesslike or even hostile. I especially enjoyed Ming's relationship with Hunter, the deaf-mute boy who could "talk" inside people's heads. The disability representation was appreciated, and I was touched by the way Ming strove to protect Hunter while also learn to communicate ate with him.

Characters: Ming, our protagonist, is fairly compelling as a protagonist in that he has a checkered past and a fair bit of trauma. Not only does he have a criminal history, but in true Western fashion, he was done wrong by a powerful man and is now on a quest for revenge. I sympathized a lot with Ming's desire for revenge, and I wish Lin had leaned a little more into the psychological effects of his various experiences. As it stands, Lin seems most interested in showing us Ming's hang ups around his wife, Ada. These parts were very well-done, and I wish we had flashbacks to other points in Ming's past.

The prophet was a compelling character in that his prophecies gave shape to the overall plot. I liked that Ming and so many others came to rely on him, and his prophecies were useful for creating suspense and narrative tension. The prophet also had some insightful things to say, and I was charmed by the way he lived in the present.

TL;DR: The Thousand Crimes of Min Tsu is an incredibly atmospheric novel that blends Western with magical realism in a compelling way. Though I think Lin could have done more to help invest the reader more in the plot, this book was a fairly solid debut and I look forward to seeing more from the author in the future.

[7serendipities]

Suggestions for Protection During Otherworldly High Tides

This blog is a sort of sequel to my last one, because while Irene Glasse covered how to fight for Hope in the human world better than I could, when Morgan Daimler wrote about their own experiences with the Otherworldly War, they included some advice their Folk had given them regarding protection, and I realized I hadn’t touched on that at all! Oops!

Morgan wrote:

For my own part my Other have strongly emphasized the power of solar symbols and things like gold, amber, red stones, for protection. They have repeatedly encouraged heavy duty cleansing of a spiritual nature and to stay on guard against unseen spirit dangers.

And while I can’t now recall if I first heard the solar advice from them or from Seo Helrune, it’s definitely something I’ve since incorporated into my protection work, particularly last summer after I got elf-shot and ended up with Covid. But I’ll come back to that. First, let’s talk about generally recommended apotropaic items and substances (the word “apotropaic” means “able to avert evil influence and bad luck”) and how spirit relationships can help protect you. Ha, people who read my series on home protection are not surprised to see that second part, I’m sure! This blog is also sort of a sequel to that, but focused on personal protection, instead.

First the big three: Iron, Salt, and Fire. These are traditional, they’re fairly cross-cultural though fire is by far more universal as it’s been used around the globe. Iron is considered the best protection against fairies in Irish lore, and you’ll see the term “cold iron” sometimes with a variety of explanations as to what that means, but really it’s just an old way of saying “cold steel” which is nowadays a gun but really just means “a weapon made of steel”. So “cold iron” is just any sharp thing made of iron or steel. I do find that stainless steel blades work just fine, but in my personal experience there seems to be something a bit more potent in something made by hand. I have a collection of hand-forged nails — which are pointy enough to be a deterrent but not obviously-a-weapon enough to be offensive to my Locals if they’re kept in my bag — that I can use to set up a circle or barrier if needed, and my spouse has a ritual knife we bought from an artisan blacksmith made out of a railroad tie. My favorite example of fire as a purification and protection is probably the traditions of driving cattle through a fire or between two fires to protect from disease and enchantment, but most people are familiar with the uses of salt and fire, and there’s a ton of information out there on them, so I’m sort of going to just leave it there and move on instead of repeating what other people have explained more in depth.

Other common materials include: silver, certain crystals, hagstones, and protective and purifying plants. Silver is of course well known from pop-culture, being effective against werewolves, some vampires, and a host of other movie and video game monsters. Depending on whom you ask, it is associated with either moonlight or starlight as well, and on a scientific level, silver has some antimicrobial properties. Personally, silver is one of the materials I used to always reach for first, because I also find that it works well with my personal magic style. Again depending on whom you ask, there are dozens of protective crystals and semi-precious gemstones, and I don’t have space to really talk about all of them in depth here, but a few of my favorites are: obsidian, black tourmaline, tiger’s eye/tiger iron, and hematite (although that’s easier to find if you look for lab-grown, and I don’t find there to be much of a difference magically, as most of the stones I find are a little disoriented from being dug up and transported around the world anyhow). Hagstones (also called “holey stones”) are any type of stone with a natural hole formation going all the way through — these are commonly found on beaches and riverbanks (though you shouldn’t take them from anywhere it’s not permitted, like a national park), but they can also be purchased online. They’ve got a long history of lore in Ireland and Britain, and again I’m going to suggest you go read about that elsewhere as I’m trying to be brief! There is again a huge possible list of plants, but I tend to use plants that are known for being both protective and purifying, like mugwort and juniper. Generally I burn them and use the smoke, but I’ve also made oil infusions and tinctures and water-based sprays, depending on what I’m doing. When I’m settling into a new house, I like to clean the windows with a water and vinegar based spray that has a little sea salt and an herb sprig in it, just to cover my bases. Some plants are said to be both used by witches/fairies and also to protect against baneful magic when they’re prepared a certain way, like rowan twig crosses made with red thread, which are said to ward off the Fair Folk.

Similar to the rowan crosses, there are also apotropaic items that get their power from their form and not the material they are made from. Some examples of these are the nazar (also known as the “evil eye”, which is commonly seen as jewelry), Pennsylvania Dutch barn hex signs, and blessed religious jewelry (such as Catholic saint medallions). We pagans can of course make our own amulets and blessed jewelry with the imagery of our own faith(s).

However — and here’s the point at which we move back into the Otherworldly Tides discussion and UPG-land — some of these seem not to work well against the unhael newcomers. Which is where the solar suggestions come in. Instead of iron or silver, think gold (especially yellow gold). Use solar-aligned gemstones and minerals like rutile quartz, amber, carnelian, and pyrite. For solar-aligned plants, think yellow or orange flowers or anything heliotropic, or look for solar plants in Culpeper’s Herbal (Project Gutenberg version available here) or other magical herb books. I suggest starting with angelica, St John’s wort, bay laurel, rue, sunflowers, or marigolds. I’ve acquired a few gold-plated sun charms, like might be used as pendants for necklaces, or on charm bracelets, and that’s an inexpensive way to acquire a little gold jewelry to bless or enchant into an amulet. I think it might work even better on a gold-plated chain, and if a charm of the sun isn’t really your aesthetic, consider sunflowers or bees instead.

Alas, I have a lot of metal sensitivities, and I can’t usually wear gold unless it’s very low carat white gold because that’s usually blended with one of the metals I can tolerate: rhodium. But that’s not solar-aligned, and neither is copper, so I went off to look for more solar help and ended up reading notes on some old alchemical correspondences, and as it turns out Platinum was thought to be a combination of gold and silver back then and was therefore associated with both the sun and the moon! So I went looking for a (relatively) inexpensive platinum plated chain, and I found one, bought it, enchanted it into a shield, and started doing experiments. I wore it while wandering around in the Otherworlds and when I was called on to do some guardian work and when I ran into some unhael beings, and while I can’t say if it’ll work well for anyone else, it worked really well for me! Gold doesn’t work well with my magic, either (which may or may not be related to my metal sensitivity) but platinum worked just as well for me as silver does, which was very exciting. And while I was doing the guardian work one of the times I got elf-shot at again and that time — instead of piercing all my shielding, making me nearly faint and have convulsions, and leaving me vulnerable to Covid — the arrow itself got lodged in the platinum necklace where it was easy for me to remove and repair the enchantment. It seemed like it was drawn there almost magnetically, and I was pretty amazed!

And then the last part — if you find yourself getting drawn into the Otherworldly part of this Great War, I really think the best way to protect yourself is to throw your lot in with allies who are also fighting and who are willing to protect you. (If you can stay out of it, though, do that!) I mentioned in the first blog that I’ve been drawn in through relationships with my Local Fair Folk, and despite that I still think I’d prefer to have those relationships rather than not. It’s no walk in the park, but trucking with the Fair Folk rarely is. There are sublime moments, but there’s also a lot of difficulty. I tend to give the same warning about this kind of work as I gave above: if you’re not being drawn in, stay out! That’s easier and safer, if you have a choice. I didn’t really have a choice (or rather, the choice was to look into paganism and witchcraft in the first place, and then I believe all roads would have inevitably led here) so I’m making the best of the hand I was dealt.

Hopefully some of the above suggestions will work for ya’ll, and I hope everyone manages to stay safe out there, even when the tides of the Otherworldly War are rising to new levels and spilling over the bulwarks and into our neighborhoods and daily lives.

[carewyncromwell]

“And so...esteemed members of the Wizengamot...based on the overwhelming evidence -- the factually bankrupt, inflammatory anti-Muggle and Muggle-born leaflets sent out by the defendant’s Commission and promoted by the defendant herself; the transcripts of trials overseen by the defendant that spell out blatant corruption and unsanctioned cross-examination techniques, including having Dementors present during all trials and actively refusing to give any defendant proper legal representation; the testimony of over fifty Ministry employees, speaking to the defendant’s close working relationships with known Death Eaters and to her own willingness to overlook Wizarding Law to advance herself and her Commission’s political aims; the countless memos written in the defendant’s own hand condemning nearly a thousand people, including over a hundred children, to unjust captivity; and the defendant’s well-known reputation among her ex-students, her coworkers, and even her own family for enjoying the suffering of others and persecuting fellow wizards and witches not just for their blood, but also for suffering from medical conditions like lycanthropy and blood maledictions -- all of which the defense has offered no suitable defense for, aside from incorrectly asserting that the defendant was ‘simply following orders’ from her superiors...I think there is no question as to her guilt, or to what justice would be appropriate.

Although I -- as a private citizen of the Wizarding World -- agree with Minister Shacklebolt’s measure to remove the Dementors from Azkaban prison...I must acknowledge that if there were ever a case for a criminal from our world deserving the Dementor’s Kiss...it would be Dolores Jane Umbridge. But because we -- unlike the defendant -- have a code of honor before us that we will not break just to achieve a political objective...I believe it’s our solemn duty to ensure this basilisk in human skin never walks free again.”

~Carewyn Cromwell, prosecutor for the trial of Dolores Umbridge // January 1999

Hey guys! So I came across this awesome fashion post and was reminded of dress robes...so here we have a 25-year-old Carewyn Cromwell as the lawyer in charge of prosecuting Dolores Umbridge for her crimes during the Second Wizarding War. She got her hair cut, as you can see! In the 90′s, when the original books are set, there was a lot less of the “big hair” popular during the 80′s, and short, more modest hairstyles became more common. Think of this as a #Future!MC Challenge? 8D

More Future!Carewyn lore under the cut!

The Second Wizarding War was...difficult for Carewyn. Although she had so much baggage with Dumbledore, she agreed to join the Order of the Phoenix, but only on her own terms. Carewyn never attended any of the Order’s meetings in person, preferring to stay in touch solely through her old friends Tonks and Jae, so as to stay at an advantageous position within the Ministry without Fudge suspecting her of associating with known Dumbledore allies like Professor McGonagall or the Weasleys. Even if she wasn’t very active on the battlefield against Voldemort, Carewyn nonetheless provided quite a bit of covert support to them by silently sabotaging Fudge and the Death Eaters at the Ministry. It was a struggle to stay silent and composed in the face of the Death Eaters’ tyrannical takeover of the Ministry and persecution of Muggle-borns and political dissidents, but Carewyn knew she had to strike at the proper moment, if she had any chance of delivering a fatal blow to someone as powerful as Voldemort. This doesn’t mean it wasn’t very, very hard for her not to lash out violently in defense of the people the Muggle-Born Registration Commission hauled into court on trumped-up charges. She was able to smuggle intelligence out to other Order members who helped with rescuing some of those prisoners or protecting wanted fugitives, but Carewyn never forgave herself about the many people she was unable to help.

Meanwhile Carewyn’s brother, Jacob Cromwell -- now a rather prominent Cursebreaker and traveling magical researcher -- helped the Order by hiding Muggle-born fugitives in a secret room he’d constructed in his flat. Even though Ministry officials searched his home multiple times, Jacob’s combination of both magical and Muggle tricks kept the families in his care from being detected every single time.

When the Battle of Hogwarts began, the Minister and his entire support staff left the Ministry to either join their true master Voldemort or (in the case of Percy Weasley) join the Order. Carewyn -- realizing how dangerous it would be to leave the Ministry unprotected when Voldemort and the Death Eaters were still at the height of their magical power -- instead stayed behind, incapacitated the head of the Muggle-born Registration Commission Dolores Umbridge, put her under citizen’s arrest, and took temporary charge over the remainder of the Ministry’s staff. Carewyn sent the majority of them either home to their families or to Hogwarts as reinforcements -- the few employees who chose to stay behind then helped Carewyn with securing the Ministry against a possible assault by the Death Eaters in case they returned and with starting the process of rescuing the Muggle-borns and political enemies imprisoned in Azkaban and its related camps. By the time the Battle of Hogwarts was over, the Death Eaters had lost everything -- their leader, most of their members, and all the power they’d accrued over the Wizarding World.

After the Battle, Carewyn arrived at Hogwarts, seeking out Jacob, who’d gone to fight in her stead, as well as Percy, who at that point would’ve been the legal successor to the role of Minister. While there, she learned of the deaths of Tonks, Lupin, and Fred. The three deaths, on top of the past deaths of other dear friends like Rowan, Cedric, Kyril @kyril-hphm​, Moody, and Dobby, were too much for Carewyn to bear. Even now, years later, she resents herself for not having been able to take care of and protect her friends the way she thinks she should have.

Since Percy had resigned as Junior Undersecretary mid-battle, it was decided that an election would have to be held very quickly -- in the meantime, Kingsley Shacklebolt took on the role temporarily, with Carewyn, Arthur Weasley, and Percy serving as support. (Shacklebolt would go on to be nominated and elected Minister for several terms.) Carewyn specifically almost singlehandedly took on the task of bringing everyone who had aligned themselves with the Death Eaters to court to receive proper justice. Fortunately, unlike Barty Crouch, Sr. during the First Wizarding War, Carewyn never railroaded her defendants or lost sight of who she was getting justice for. Every time she faced an accused Death Eater or Voldemort sympathizer, Carewyn felt the presence of her friends in that courtroom with her. And when she looked into her defendants’ eyes and -- through her Legilimency -- saw no sincere love in their minds or souls, the lawyer once called “Cursebreaker Cromwell” became all the more convinced that love was the strongest magic of them all.

Interestingly, although Carewyn prosecuted all three Malfoys, she actually offered relevant evidence and testimony she came across in her own investigations to the defense attorneys assigned to Draco and Narcissa Malfoy. She never let go of her dislike for Lucius Malfoy or his wife, but perhaps because of her sympathy for Draco Malfoy’s position as well as her having met him when he was a kid, Carewyn didn’t express vocal disappointment when the Wizengamot pardoned the Malfoy family after the War. In Draco’s case specifically, Carewyn believed that he, unlike his parents, had the potential to reform himself. She even visited Draco after he was released from custody and -- reminding him of what he’d said to her before they’d parted ways so many years ago -- challenged him to a friendly duel.

Carewyn Cromwell’s name never became world-renown, but the cases she was involved in, both regarding the War and not, became her legacy. Thanks to her efforts, countless Death Eaters were arrested; victims of the Muggle-born Registration Commission received proper compensation and justice; the Statute of Secrecy was relaxed so that Muggle spouses of witches and wizards were allowed to know of their partner’s magical talent before having children with them; and the High Inquisitor position was dismantled so thoroughly that no similar position could ever be created again.

[thewellzine]

Some books I’ve acquired or read (or both) during quarantine.

By William Page 

Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith

I recently added a bunch of middle grade speculative fiction by Black authors to my list because 1. I’ll never outgrow good middle grade fiction and 2. I want to be able to give better recs to young Black readers. The blurb told me that the main character’s name is actually Hoodoo (Hatcher). Wasn’t expecting that. It also alludes to a central conflict between Hoodoo and a sinister stranger with “black magic,” a characterization that Courtney Reid-Eaton long ago brought to my attention as problematic (equating blackness or darkness with evil). Still, I haven’t come across many middle grade books dealing with Black folk magic, and I’m interested in seeing what the author does with it.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Has been on my radar for a while. I’ve heard it described as a collection of feminist retellings of “traditional” fairytales and myths, which I can definitely get down with. It does make me think about conversations we’ve had during the course of the DDP re: subverting the “canon” vs. forgetting it/making a new one.

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

I can’t overstate my love for this person. The Underground Railroad blew my mind. The Nickel Boys was great in a completely different, often more subtle way. His oeuvre makes a case for him as the most versatile writer writing. I also had a chance to hear him give a talk once, and can personally attest to his wit and humor. I’d never read this one, and reached for it as a relevant quarantine/pandemic read (i.e. it takes place in the aftermath of a pandemic that has turned most people into zombies). Unfortunately, though, the beginning didn’t grab me, and I eventually put it down. This has happened with books that I’ve later come back to and loved (most notably One Hundred Years of Solitude), so I’m hopeful that this just wasn’t the right time.

Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter’s Saga by D. O. Fagunwa

Marlon James put me on during an episode of his podcast with his editor, Jake Morrissey (“Marlon and Jake Read Dead People”). He sighted it as one of the works that influenced his Black, queer, epic, epic, epic fantasy masterpiece, Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Fagunwa’s novel is considered the first ever written in Yoruba, and it predated fantasy “classics” like Lord of the Rings. It’s strictly episodic in form, and I most enjoyed the rich depictions of the mythological beings inhabiting the forest.

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

Same as with Hoodoo, I want to read this partially because I want to be able to recommend more Black, speculative works to young Black readers! The blurb told me that it’s a retelling of a classic Haitian folktale, “The Magic Orange Tree,” which I’m not familiar with. Rather, I was drawn by the title, which reminded me of the mako jumbie that makes a brief but memorable appearance in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber. Haillee Mason also recently introduced me to moko jumbies. So, I guess I’ve been thinking a fair amount about jumbies.

Meji: Book One by Milon Davis

Milton Davis writes what Charles Saunders coined “sword-and-soul,” or sword-and-sorcery (a fantasy subgenre) centering African histories, cultures, traditions, mythologies, etc. (Davis wrote a short sword-and-soul primer that can be found at https://www.miltonjdavis.com/post/a-sword-and-soul-primer.) Sword-and-sorcery/soul isn’t typically my go-to speculative subgenre, but I’m excited to give it a try.

Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke

I just started reading this collection of stories. The first, “Walter and the Three-Legged King” (which surprised me with the collection’s titular phrase[?]), was just okay to me. The second, “Purse,” was really short and disturbing (not a bad thing). The third, “I Make People Do Bad Things,” was a well-rendered, somewhat morbid period piece (definitely Harlem, seemingly sometime in the early part of the 20th century, though I don’t think it’s stated explicitly) with several big characters. The fourth, “The Unremembered,” was very tender and fed my interest in explorations of legacy and inheritance. All were undoubtedly unique in concept. I’m looking forward to the rest.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

I don’t read a ton of brand-new releases by author’s I’m not already somewhat familiar with, but this one drew me for whatever reason. I saw it described as a story about a group of travelling, queer librarians in an unambiguously fascist, dystopian, near-future American West. The story moves pretty quickly (with lots of action), and I found myself wishing it was longer. Still, the author develops the two main characters well and I was at times audibly rooting for them. The depiction of the various forms that resistance can take and the ways in which community underpins it all felt very relevant.

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

Land, who owns the bookshop where I work, brought me this advance copy from the American Booksellers Association’s 2020 Winter Institute. I didn’t get around to it for a few months, and therefore didn’t realize that he got her to sign it to me :) It (the book) was chilling primarily because of how plausible it felt thanks to our country’s long history of race-based medical experimentation and violence.

The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson is one of the O.G.s of Black Caribbean speculative fiction. I have a bunch of her novels (including the aforementioned Midnight Robber), but had never heard of this. The blurb doesn’t give much away regarding the mechanism of the main character’s power, and that makes me really curious about it. The power to find lost things sounds ideal, but it’ll clearly be much more complicated than that.

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

I don’t post much on IG, but The City We Became brought me out of the woodwork. Since I already wrote that, I’ve copied it below.

It's like she wrote a love letter to NYC and let us read it. And by "love letter," I don't mean trite, or even always that warm, or rooted in romanticization. The city I met as a reader felt genuine, with a definite edge. Also taut, maybe? Somehow still very tender. Gritty (this one might be trite, but, if so, charge it to me, not her). Frustrating in ways that rang true and which were often tooooooo familiar. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that soul-sucking gentrification, general anti-Blackness, the ways that capital and power operate in art spaces, and a host of other ills not unique to any one place figure prominently in the story. And in this case, they become magnified in an interdimensional way, become harbingers and footholds for something incomprehensible and deeply unsettling (her imagery for this element, in particular, is striking). The story was also, at times, kind of hilarious. And thrilling. And everything but simple or straightforward, which makes sense given that it's a meditation on cities (which are neither of those things). What are they, then, really? What gives them their soul? In what ways are they strong, and from where does this strength flow? And what might one do or sacrifice for their own? It's not difficult to get some sense of how she feels about hers (in her acknowledgements she says she's both hated and loved the city, and I immediately thought about Jimmie Fails iconic quote from The Last Black Man in San Francisco: "you don't get to hate it unless you love it.") It definitely caused me to reflect more on mine. At this point, I have her to thank for way more than a few trippy and magnificent reading experiences. How lucky I feel to be living in the time of N.K. Jemisin.

[mzminola]

High School Elspeth is attempting to be goth. Pencil eyeliner is her nemesis but liquid is actually pretty fun. She does not find any of these clothes comfortable but dangit, she likes the Look.

College Elspeth has confirmed she likes purple, discovered she likes pink, and took a gap year to work in a national park halfway across the country, during which time she took down a drug-running ring with her coworker Darkwind.

~

“But what if we took the Valdemar characters and shoved their plot into the contemporary Psychic Powers Experiments universe that the Pern Rock Band Au takes place in? What if we tried to translate the pseudo-medieval Romantic Fantasy political shit to a modern American city? How does that even work?”

Anyway this is the One Canon Valdemar Character I’ve both shoved into this genre-shift tube and made in the dollmaker. It’s Elspeth. She’s probably called something else in this verse. Her mom is the Mayor of Haven, a large city that’s a commercial shipping hub and university town, where the city government and university administration have all been made up of the same twenty families for the past hundred-fifty or two-hundred years. There’s a lot of nepotism, and a lot of “we will give our citizens the best damn infrastructure & social supports we can, also we’ll fight the mob. Which mob? All of them. Corporations too, fuck your tax breaks. What, you’re gonna take your factory & all the jobs & leave? Have fun shipping your products without our ports & railroads, suckers.”

The kind of town where a Young Single Mother (From The Right Family) can get elected Mayor, but not treat her daughter’s autism & dyslexia as anything other than a Family Embarrassment. Elspeth had to fight like hell to get officially diagnosed at around the same time she fought to attend high school instead of continuing with homeschooling. Mayor Mom claims the homeschooling was to “protect” Elspeth, and she may genuinely believe that, but dang did she not communicate that well. Or, like, ever, until the fights to enroll started.

Do I think canon Elspeth is any variety of neurodivergent? No, it’s been too long since I read her trilogy to say, and I don’t remember picking up anything like that when I read the books she’s a more minor character in. I don’t think she isn’t for sure, either it’s just been awhile. BUT this is an AU with no Magical Horses, and we need something for her mom and other adults to Handle Poorly and dismiss as “brattiness”, and also I Want More Disabled Characters Especially When How Lackey Handled Disability In The First Mags Quintet Bugged Me So Much. Elspeth also has a lot of “fuck your expectations for me” that makes this feel like a good fit to me.

Also I just want her to be. Anyway.

In high school Elspeth attempts to go goth. She’s very bad at it, and it’s an extremely necessary part of figuring out what she likes wearing out of the house, because previously if it wasn’t Comfy Loungewear Time it was Be Forced Into Nice Clothes For Political Appearances & Fancy Dinners and that didn’t go well for anyone. Technically she didn’t “need” to go goth for Outside The House Clothes, because Herald University has two private schools associated with it (middle and high) that have a uniform. The uniform is not pictured in the grey image above. That’s what she wears on Free Dress days.

Oh, yeah. The private schools. Herald University’s formerly-secret Extra Sensory Perception Research Program uses them to collect potentially psychic kids and offer their parents reduced tuition if they let ‘em run experiments. Kinda like Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, but with less superhero teams, though just as much “if you have gifts you’re obliged to use them to help others regardless of your own comfort and safety”. College students are also offered reduced tuition if they let the University do shit with their powers, which is a somewhat less sketchy situation.

[azarathzinthcs-blog]

And he says, 

“I’ve got you written in a black book by the railroad tracks. You see, I know your fate.” 

❝ — °  is that Russell Roth? he is a hero and known as their alias Raven by the public and affiliated with Titans. Russell has been described as Selfless, Intelligent, Perceptive but has also been described as  Sarcastic, Brooding, Withdrawn, he is currently working as a librarian. the aesthetic often associated with Russell  is shadows, old tomes, ravens, black robes, glowing red eyes, the calm of meditation, dark shades of indigo and midnight blue.

And I said, “You’ve got to listen, I’m a songbird with a brand new track, you underestimate.” 

— HISTORY

Raven’s story begins with a woman who had never known an easy life, someone who knew what it was to feel unwanted, and was on an endless search for fulfillment and belonging. Angela Roth ended up in a Satanic cult, something that led to her being chosen to be the bride of Satan himself, a being that presented himself as beautiful and alluring to her, only to realize that he was actually the inter-dimensional demon, Trigon.  Trigon took her by force, and left her with child, destroying the rest of the cult and leaving her broken and alone.

Angela not being able to live with the horror, tried to commit suicide, but was approached by beings from Azarath, a pacifist world that existed in another dimension. They had long chosen to leave Earth behind, and live a more peaceful, harmonious life. Azar and the Azarathians believed they could help guide Angela’s child on a good path, away from Trigon’s influence. They knew it would be best for the sake of the world.

Within Azarath, Angela took on a new name, Arella, and gave birth to her son, Raven. Once Raven was born, he was raised and trained by Azar and the monks of Azarath, the leaders feeling that the less emotional ties there were between Raven and his mother, the better. The main focus was to suppress Raven’s emotions as much as possible in order to not unleash his demonic powers.

Growing up without emotions is a strange life, Raven had never known true fear for most of his childhood. Not until he was a teenager, when he was ambushed by Trigon at the gates of Azarath, finally unleashing his soul self, and giving Trigon the knowledge that he was what he needed to carry out his plans on Earth and the universe.

Raven in desperation, fled Azarath and went to Earth in search for anyone that could help him stop Trigon. He went to the Justice League and was swiftly turned away, not being able to gain their trust due to his demonic parentage. Not knowing where else to go he consulted his powers and magic and that led him to the Teen Titans. That is when Raven formally joined the team, vowing to fight beside them, hoping that they could help defeat Trigon.

Eventually, the team did defeat Trigon, sealing him in an inter-dimensional prison. This, however proved to be a temporary fix, as his influence over Raven and his mind still lingered. Trigon made it his mission to find a way to break free, and chip away at Raven’s mind so that he could be under his influence and destroy the Earth.

Trigon managed to break free, but he needed to break Raven further, once he was free he went to Azarath and destroyed it completely, killing everyone. Once that was done, he sent his daughters after Raven and tried to influence him into giving into his demonic side. It was relentless, and Raven knew he needed to face him head on. Raven tried to ask the team to aid him in taking down Trigon once again, but he knew that he needed to do this on his own.

Raven with the full power of his soul self, aided by all of the souls of Azarath trapped Trigon in a crystal shard, one that was a better prison than the one he had been in prior. Raven keeps it on his forehead, making sure that Trigon is trapped. He still battles with his emotions, his demonic powers, and if he will ever lose himself completely and become the evil he feels deep inside. Raven understands the fear people feel when they see heroes with their unbelievable abilities, he fears himself and the power he holds, the destruction it could cause.

Just give me something to believe in

— POWERS

Soul-Self/Astral Projection: The basis of almost all of Raven's powers are derived from his soul-self. He is able to project his own spirit from his body into a ghostly form, using it to interact with the physical world, affect others mentally, and to traverse through time-space. His soul-self takes the form of a double of his own body, or more commonly, a large black raven. He is capable of changing its shape and mass at will, and can alter his own appearance with his soul-self, like increasing his size or making his face hideous. He is able to project his soul-self into the minds of others to communicate, facilitate calm or to force people into submission with a devastating mental attack. Though normally composed of energy that is colored black, Raven's soul-self can change color depending on his emotional state, manifesting as red or white.

Empathy: The psionic ability to sense the emotions of others, allowing him to gain insight into their thoughts and intentions, and even experience their own feelings. This also enables him to sense the mental state of others. However, this does not work if his own mind has been tampered with.  Raven can absorb the pain of others into his own body in order to induce rapid healing for them, and can heal himself by going into a trance of emotional calm. He can also receive precognitive flashes of the future when exposed to extreme emotion. By using his empathy to guide him, he can track others with his soul-self.

Advanced Telekinesis:  Raven can merge a small part of his soul-self into objects in order to take control of them, with the object essentially becoming an extension of his soul-self. Whenever he takes control of something, it is covered in the same dark energy that composes his soul-self.

Telekinetic Constructs: With his soul-self able to be molded into any shape, Raven can create simple domes or walls that act as barriers against attack. He can project solid bolts to be used as projectiles, or a steady stream of solid force.

Telekinetic Force-Fields:  He can erect shields of sheer telekinetic and dark energy around himself and others for protection.

Telekinetic Teleportation: In conjunction with his telekinesis, Raven's soul-self is able to envelop him (along with a max of about four other people) and travel to other dimensions. He can use this technique to travel vast distances on Earth or to teleport by momentarily displacing himself and then re-appearing in another location. He can pass through walls and obstacles by simply teleporting past them, giving the illusion of intangibility.

Flight: Raven is able to levitate without the use of his soul self.

Spell Casting: He can cast powerful spells, and is always reading new grimoires to expand his knowledge.

With all of Raven’s abilities and more importantly, his emotional state, there comes a need for self-control. He cannot allow himself to ever give into his demonic tendencies, so he has to be careful and know how and when to show restraint.

Promise me...

[weapon13whitefang]

We’re off to see the Wizard! – The Yellow Brick Road Home [TWD TD Theory] - LONG POST!

"But as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring.... At last, she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed and laid down upon it. And Toto lay down beside her.... In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.”

In Episode 9X03, Rick and Michonne had a fun day with Judith. Before they were completely interrupted by everyone being assholes, Rick was reading to Judith. The book he was reading? “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L Frank Baum. A very popular children’s novel that has seen several reprints since it was published in Chicago in the early 1900. The title would be commonly known as/shortened to “The Wizard of Oz” and would have several reprints over the years.

If you don’t know the story of the “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, you live under a rock (although to be fair, some people did not grow up with WoO so I guess I shouldn’t be mean like that). The story follows Dorothy, a farm girl from Kansas, and her dog Toto and chronicles their adventure in the Magical Land of Oz after they are swept up by a cyclone while she’s in her home. The house is dropped into Munchkin Country and right on-top of the evil Munchkin Country ruler, The Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North shows up and Dorothy is given the Witch of the East’s magical Silver Slippers as a gratitude gift from three of the Munchkins.

The Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she is gonna be able to get home is to go to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her. So Dorothy receives a kiss from the Good Witch on her forehead, giving her magical protection from harm, and Dorothy sets out on her way with Toto.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz takes place over a set of days, unlike depicted in the film. Along the way, Dorothy meets a colorful array of creatures – Boq the Munchkin, a Scarecrow stuck on a pole which she frees him from, a Tin Woodman she applies oil to a rusted-up and allows him to move again, and meets the Cowardly Lion. Each of these last three – The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion – are in search of something to make them feel better. The Scarecrow wants a brain because he doesn’t have one since he’s only made of straw, the Tin Woodman wants a heart to feel love and have a beat, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage so he’s not afraid all the time. They each end up accompanying Dorothy on her way to the Emerald City, hoping the Wizard will be of help for what they need.

Now I don’t wanna tell the whole story since it’s a bit ridiculous to, but let me just point out that this story follows a young girl – lost in another world she was forcefully sucked into – and along the way she meets a set of characters each looking for something as well. When she gets where she needs to be, it turns out she can’t get back home until she deals with this strange world longer. She is given a task to defeat The Wicked Witch of the West.

When Dorothy heads on her way to go up against this Wicked Witch, a number of things happen. The witch spies Dorothy and the gang coming for her with her powerful telescopic eye. She sends a pack of 40 great wolves – yes, WOLVES – after Dorothy and her friends, but they’re all killed by the Tin Man and his axe (An AXE! Guys, an axe!). So the witch sends a murder of 40 wild crows after them, but the Scarecrows kills them all by breaking their necks. So the Wicked Witch summons a swarm of black bees to sting them, but they are killed when they try to sting the Tin Woodman while the Scarecrow's straw hides the others. She sends her Winkie slaves but the Cowardly Lion repels them. Finally, she uses the power of a Gold Cap to send her winged monkeys to capture Dorothy, Toto, and the Cowardly Lion. The monkeys unstuff the Scarecrow and dents the Tin Woodman before Dorothy is whisked to the witch and is forced to become the witch’s slave all while the witch is trying to find a way to get Dorothy's Silver Shoes. She also tries to force the Cowardly Lion into submission by starving him but Dorothy sneaks him food (I forgot how dark this damn book was lol).

Long story short, Dorothy ends up defeating the Wicked Witch of the West when she – in anger at being tricked out of a slipper after the witch makes her trip over an invisible bar – throws water on the witch and causes her to melt (this was believed to be made the witches of the books weakness because of the old held belief that water is effective in purifying the soul and combating evil). There’s a whole other mess that happens but eventually Dorothy is able to return home. I’ll talk more about that in a bit. Again, not trying to tell the whole damn story (even though I kind of already did… Yeah that didn’t work out how I tried lol).

How did Dorothy get home? The Silver Slippers. The Good Witch of the North – Glinda – reveals to Dorothy that the Silver Slippers have the power to take her anywhere she wishes to go, giving the lesson that you always have the tools to get where you want with you, always. Meaning if you think work for it, you can always find your way home or back to the ones you love and who love you or accomplish anything. This is enforced by how the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion show attributes that they wanted – The scarecrow with the brains to use himself as a shield to get Dorothy and the others hidden from the bees, the Tin Woodman having the “heart” to stick by Dorothy throughout everything, and the Cowardly Lion by thwarting Winkie slaves by being brave.

The children’s novel obviously has differences from the movie – a lot of differences really – and so people don’t always know about all the characters and all the adventures and all the dark shit that happens in this book.

But isn’t it interesting that Dorothy is facing of against things that can be associated with TWD in terms of when Dorothy is facing the Witch and facing the lie that Oz has given the people of Emerald City. First off Emereld City is presented in a way that it’s a perfectly safe place and a perfectly peaceful place. But it turns out it has a problem – the Wicked Witch of the West has the neighboring County (The Winkie’s) under her thumb.

Here’s the thing about the Land of Oz; Its heavily color coordinated. The Winkie Country is yellow and the inhabitants wear a lot of yellow and have yellow tinted skin. Gillikin Country is purple with many of the land surroundings being purple and the inhabitants wearing purple. Quadling Country is depicted in red and like the others, the land is distinguished by its red surroundings and the locals wearing red. Then of course there’s Munchkin Country – where Dorothy lands – and it’s Blue and much of the residents’ wear blue and much of the surroundings are Blue. Finally, there’s the capital - Emerald City – which is the one place that isn’t really the color they say it is because on the outside, the walls are green but the city itself is not and the wizard decree’s the everyone must wear green-tinted eyeglasses.

If you think about it, this could apply to a specific place on TWD… Terminus. In the show, Terminus is supposed to be a safe haven, a sanctuary for the future. It presents itself as one way to lure people in and then traps them. Of course this isn’t what Emerald City does, but it does present itself one way on the outside but on the inside it’s not what it seems for many reasons – it’s not actually green and the Wizard is a fake with no magic to his name.

Now, I want you all to take a look at something… Familiar.

The good old Terminus map… Anyone see something interesting about this map? Well… Let me show you something fun to go with it and take a minute…

You see what we have? Terminus is symbolized by a star… On the flag representing The Land of Oz, Emerald City is a star. Red, Green, and Blue are main colors on map… So we have Munchkin County and Quadling County and Emerald City represented on the map… Meaning the railroad tracks are the Yellow Brick Road. And the Yellow Brick Road in every country leads everyone to the Emerald City… Terminus is an Emerald City but with a dark twist.

It occurred to me that Rick in 9x05 [What Comes After] that Rick was Dorothy. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is in a world that’s different in that things are familiar to Dorothy but they’re not the exact same. She knows what a lion is, what Scarecrow are, and what a Woodman is. But Lion’s and Scarecrows don’t talk and Woodman aren’t made of Metal. There’s not wicked witch or magic and wizards. There’s things she knows don’t really exist but they’re things she also knows about… Which makes me wonder if Rick’s fever dream was his stumble into a world he knows but doesn’t… But the Helicopter became his tornado that lifts him into a new world… If everything sort of played backwards for Rick.

Rick’s fever dream is a topsy turvey thing. The definition of Topsy Turvey is “in utter confusion or disorder” and “with the top or head downward” – basically, everything is backwards. Think of the song from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. One of the lyrics is "Once a year we throw a party here in town / Once a year we turn all Paris upside down / Ev'ry man's a king and ev'ry king's a clown / Once again it's Topsy Turvy Day" and "Dross is gold and weeds are a bouquet / That's the way on Topsy Turvy Day". The song literally explains that everything is the opposite of what is known. “Dross is Gold” – Dross is scummy junk that is useful in the trash. “Weeds are a bouquet” – A weed is plant that is considered undesirable in a particular situation like when they grow in farm fields and gardens or on your lawn so it’s not something you’d want in a bouquet. So it’s things that are not what they usually are…

A fever dream is basically described as an intense or confusing dream brought on by a fever. Being severely damaged or suffering a sudden infection – which, I mean, Rick landed on a fucking rusted rod so yeah I’d say he freaking is suffering from a sudden infection to his body from the metal rod and also suffering intense pain as his body fights the injury and thus being severly damaged – will trigger someone to have a fever dream. Rick’s temperature probably rose along with his blood pressure because of a sudden puncture and with the way your brain works, a fever can produce waking hallucinations and vivid imagery and intense nightmares. Again, Rick’s situation.

But the more I thought about it and really turned this over in my head I began to realize that Rick didn’t fall into a Land of Oz… He fell into Wonderland. Okay so stick with me for a bit cause I promise I’ll make sense – hopefully – to what I mean by this.

The Helicopter lifting Rick up was the twister lifting Dorothy into a new land. But before that… Rick had to go through a Wonderland… Fun time, everyone. There’s been multiple studies of how The Wizard of Oz and Alice and Wonderland… Are very similar books.

Let’s step back from Rick a bit to talk about “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland” (I’ll mostly be talking about the books but I’ll be mentioning the movies to – mostly the Disney version of Alice and the 1939 Judy Garland version of Dorothy as they’re just as well known as the originals).

What are some simple things that the books have in common? Well both characters are female, both have an animal companion of sort (though Toto stays with Dorothy through Oz while Dinah does not come to Wonderland), both are depicted in white and blue coloring – though inverted (“The color of trust. Blue, the shade of the sea and the sky, is thought to induce calm and convey tranquility, serenity and peace. The popular color instills confidence and inspires feelings of trust, loyalty, integrity and responsibility.  Cool blue is conservative and can also be perceived as aloof. Blue tends to suppress the appetite – there are not many foods associated with blue in nature” (x) and “"White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity... white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow... White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility..." (x) ), both are tossed into a world they don’t know, both must endure their travels through the world they aren’t familiar with, both are exposed to strange creatures that do not normally speak, both are a bit disappointed by what they find at the end of their trek (the wizard is a fake and can’t get Dorothy home, the Queen and everyone at the castle are completely full of nonsense and no help at all), there’s drug like references in both (Alice with the cake that makes her change and the caterpillar smoking, Dorothy with the poppy field that puts her to sleep and the snow that wakes her up), and both are returned to normal by a simple solution (The Magic Shoes that help her wake up, Alice literally waking up).

It’s really no wonder they have similarities. Alice Adventure in Wonderland was written in 1865 and The Wizard of Oz was written in the 1900s. It’s highly probable that Lewis Carroll helped inspire L Frank Baum, as many writers inspire one another. Makes sense to use the same element that worked for someone else and make it your own with a few twists and turns (isn’t that still kind of plagerism… Hmmm lol)

Anyway, keeping all that in mind and going back to Rick in his fever dream, we have established that Rick is Dorothy that fell into Wonderland before being whisked up by the “twister” (Helicopter). And WHO is in Wonderland – in Rick’s fever dream – that is a character that is played by someone who just RECENTLY debut in a music rap video as Alice herself?

Emily Kinney. Beth Greene.

Now now, I know. It’s very obvious that it’s a double playing Beth in the body pile… But we still have Beth Greene and Emily Kinney is Beth Greene’s celebrity named actor… Emily was featured in THIS VIDEO playing Alice from ALICE IN WONDERLAND with Whitney Avalon playing Dorothy from THE WIZARD OF OZ… Rick read the book to Judith in episode 9X03 WARNING SIGNS and that aired on OCT 21ST. Rick’s final episode was 9x05 WHAT COMES AFTER and that aired on NOV 4TH. The video was posted NOV 9TH and that’s two days before we end up in the time jump with 9X06 WHO ARE YOU NOW?

The whole thing… It struck me as… Way to well timed. Was way to coincidental. Having Rick read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and then five days later, Emily is acting/rapping/singing in a video where she plays another famous character against a Dorothy… That’s way to… That’s to coincidental.  To me, that screams advertisement connection. A sort of “Hey, don’t forget about me!” wave of the hand…

A lot of people in TD have talked about Alice in Wonderland having connections to Beth and the TD crew before. Back during Season 5, we had promo cast pictures that had characters… Looking through broken glass. Notable – you guessed it – Rick Grimes himself and… Carol.

This got me thinking of something way back when TD was growing and thriving… Who is the other person that had the last close connection to Beth? Carol…. See there’s something that I’ve been debating and thinking on and off about for the last three almost four years since Coda… We never saw Carol wake up and we never saw any interaction between her and Beth. The last thing we saw with any talking was Beth telling Carol “I just wanted you to know that I was here” while saving the woman’s life and while she was passed out. That’s it. We didn’t seen anything between them after that and suddenly Carol is awake and alive.

There was a post that went up about people believing Beth was drunk during the exchange in the Hallway (Found here) and I commented that I do not think Beth was drunk but that someone else was drunk or we were experiencing someone else’s tension / view. Tyreese, Carol, and Sasha were my main three with Rick pulling in close. Especially since the angle changes on us right after everyone comes into the hallway and again after Shepard says “stand down, it was just about her”. Someone was uneasy during this exchange and then everything started leveling out as Daryl lowered his gun after Carol places a hand on his arm.

I didn’t really go into detail about why Tyreese, Carol, and Sasha are the ones I focus on. Real quick, it’s because of Tyreese and how there’s so much focus on him for his death episode and how we have this whole hallucination scene happening… There’s guilt coming from Tyreese and it was HIS idea to go the peaceful route for the exchange instead of going in guns blazing. For Carol, she was injected with medication and then is suddenly awake and in a wheelchair and then suddenly on her feet like there was a skip in what was happening – a lag in perception of what someone is doing. Sasha I was seeing because she was the one who let Lamson get away and suffered a rather hard hit that knocked her out and might have caused a milled concussion from how she hit the wall and was knocked out and thus could have an effect on her view of things.

Now – jumping to season nine and looking at things and having this whole The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice Adventure in Wonderland train of thought – looking back at the images… I’m stuck on the line Gimple said about “not everything is what it seems” in terms of Beth’s story. That’s a whole thing about AAiW and TWWoO is that “nothing is what it seems” for these worlds.

A lot of this is me stretching things, putting my own thoughts and feelings into it… But I like to think I can try to be real with some of my theories. Don’t get me wrong, I fall through the realm of “that’s ridiculous” sometimes with them, but I do try my best to really see the connections and imagery in things…

In Season 5 they had Rick and Carol looking through broken glass and no one else in their promo pics. Not even Daryl’s promo picture is anything around broken glass, but instead in a warehouse with Rick… Everyone else but Rick and Carol are heavily shown in this warehouse. But Rick is outside and being seen through broken glass with Carol inside looking out the broken glass… In season 5 where we had Coda and lost Beth.

I’m wondering if maybe Gimple took these elements of “nothing is what it seems” and decided to apply it to a mystery around Beth… And Carol and Beth are top checker pieces around it. Since I believe more than ever now, that Rick or Carol were the ones we were seeing the exchange through. I think that from the moment the prison fell, Rick has been Dorothy making his way to the Emerald City, being disappointed (obviously) by it and had to have a wicked witch defeated before he could find his way “home” – AKA to Alexandria, Rick’s “Silver Slippers”.

Now we have Carol left – the other one by the broken glass – and I believe she is the one reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice Adventure in Wonderland. Carol is the one who we saw Beth’s “Death” through.

And dude I don’t even know if I’m making any sense. Just know that I believe that this is one big mesh of elements of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ and ALICE ADVENTURE IN WONDERLAND and Carol is the reader, Rick was Dorothy, and Beth is Alice and we have yet to see Alice’s story completely yet.

… Yeah I can’t brain this theory anymore so if you all think you can add something to this that’s more sensible and put together, pleasssee feel free to say something.

[the-elemental-sides]

Urban fantasy AU: The Sides are four spirits trapped in an amulet. When Thomas finds it and puts it on, he gains the powers of the four elements…or that’s what should have happened, but mistakes were made. Now the Sides have to coach him in their respective elements while Thomas deals with both his new powers and his ability to see into the magical realm. Not only is magic real, but there’s some pretty intimidating stuff out there, and only Thomas and the Sides have the power to stop it.

A/N: Surprise, the chapter’s early! Logan’s time with Thomas turned out long enough to be its own thing. On the bright side, I got to make an entirely Logan header and I think it’s much better than my original plan.

Taglist: @shinylyni, @hissesssss, @vexation-virgil, @madd-catter, @rptheturk, @ed-tries-to-be-cool, @nienna14, @ryuity, @asofterfan, @robanilla, @k9cat

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 

***

Logan stared at Thomas over the kitchen table. Thomas stared back, occasionally looking away uncomfortably. Logan did have that “teacher” air around him, and he was clearly a serious person, judging by that necktie. But Patton had assured him (whilst eating half a box of pizza) that Logan was nothing but a box of candy-coated Nerds.

“Shall we begin the lesson?” Logan asked.

“Shoot, Teach.”

Logan brushed his (solid) hands together, and when his hands came apart, he was holding a rock the size of a golf ball. He placed it on the table with great care.

“Here is your objective,” stated Logan. “Levitate this rock.”

“That’s it?” said Thomas.

“That is it.”

Thomas concentrated as hard as he could. He brought his hands as close to the rock as possible without touching it and pulled upwards like he was tugging on puppet strings. Predictably, nothing happened.

“I think you have to be more specific.”

“What else is there to say?”

“Patton and Roman both said something about their feelings…?”

“Feelings!” Logan said in disgust. “Of course they’d peddle that nonsense. You don’t need feelings for a formula. It’s a proof: given that you focus on the rock, that rock shall move. It’s a hypothesis: if you focus on the rock, then the rock will move, because icky emotion is not required in the manipulation of an inanimate object.”

“Then show me how you do it,” Thomas challenged.

“Of course.” Logan rested his elbow on the table, tapped his fingers twice, and raised his hand. The rock smoothly rose with it.

Thomas raised his hand to match, thought about how easily Roman had given and taken his fire, and pulled. Nothing  happened. Thomas snuck a look at Logan’s steely eyes and knew that he’d have to find his own path in this logical railroad of a lesson.

“I think you do have feelings,” Thomas began.

“That is a falsehood.”

“No, come on.” Thomas adjusted his elbow, which was pressing into the table. Now it looked like he and Logan were about to arm wrestle. “I’ve seen you. You’ve been in my house for four days.”

“Do you have proof?”

“I completely do. What were you doing at three in the morning eating Crofter’s jam from the jar?”

The rock moved a quarter turn in Thomas’ direction.

“At least cover the crystal or something!” Logan hissed, flapping his free hand at the amulet. “They can see and hear us!”

“OH, you were saying, Logan?”

“Get back in the mind palace, Roman, this does not concern you.”

“I’m just saying, there’s no shame in being happy that Thomas shares our favorite jam brand.”

“We are in the middle of something here, though, Roman,” Thomas said. “You had your part, so…”

“Very well!” Roman disappeared. Logan adjusted his necktie.

“Anyways,” Thomas said, and Logan rolled his eyes. “You binged jam in the middle of the night, you snapped at Roman literally two seconds ago, and I KNOW you were laughing at that one video of the Boston robot dog.”

“That doesn’t count, that dog is a blessing.”

“True.”

“So you’re hiding something, Logan.” Thomas attempted to stare the spirit down. “Why don’t you want to talk about how you feel?”

The rock wavered like a magnet caught between attractions.

Logan modulated his voice—technically Thomas’ voice, Thomas remembered, which temporarily brought the weird factor back—until it was down to a monotone. “Those were anomalous moments,” he said calmly. “I admit that I do like jam, and I may have shed some tears on the night of my awakening upon learning the fate of Stephen Hawkings—“

“Rest in peace,” Thomas added.

“Agreed. But these moments are the exception, not the rule. I do not need to express myself. I am fine.”

“What’s this? I think I’m gaining control of the rock, here. Ooh, look! I made it move!”

“Einstein’s combover, Thomas, will you respect that I am a reasonable individual?”

“Maybe if you admitted that you’re not a robot!”

“If you want to talk to someone about their feelings, go find Patton.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Patton told me you’d given him a cat hoodie! What’s your reasoning behind that?”

The rock plummeted. Thomas’ hand jerked as if twenty pounds of weight had been added to it, but he managed to freeze the rock an inch from the table’s surface.

Logan looked shocked. “I wasn’t aware that he told you that,” he said stiffly.

“You weren’t watching us practice?”

“I was-- preoccupied.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, so Thomas stayed quiet and watched the rock bob around in the air. He’d always thought he would be an earthbender.

“I suppose I do associate a state of mind with my powers,” Logan said finally, “but it isn’t a pleasant one, and I don’t want you to take it up, okay? To be honest, I feel a certain amount of personal responsibility for the situation the four of us are currently in. Any time I use this geokinesis serves as a reminder.”

“You’re guilty,” Thomas guessed.

“Yes.”

“Aw, Logan—it isn’t that bad, right? You’re all here now, and you seem okay to me. You were supposed to give everyone their magic powers, right? The procedure?” Logan gave a quick nod. “Then that part worked out fine, and maybe they didn’t quite transfer to me, but I’m learning them now, aren’t I? Look!” Thomas waved his arms expansively, and the rock followed his hand like it was attached by an invisible thread, boomeranging around through the air.

“It’s not just that,” Logan under his breath, then sighed. “I feel—especially guilty to Patton, because he was the reason we started the crystallization process in the first place.”

“Why?”

Logan looked ashen. “I can’t talk about it. But I will tell you that I was the first to suggest sealing us in that crystal. I even argued my position. I deeply regret that now.”

“I’m sure Patton isn’t mad,” Thomas said.

“Of course not,” said Logan, but that made him look even sadder.

“Hey,” Thomas said. “Why do teenagers travel in groups of odd numbers?”

“Hmm? Why?”

“Because they can’t even.”

Logan blinked. “Oh. That was a math joke, appealing to my sensibilities, wasn’t it? At the same time, it was a play on some contemporary slang. Ha ha.”

“It’s pretty funny.”

“‘Can’t...even,’” Logan muttered, writing furiously on an index card. “That’s one for the flashcards.”

Thomas stood up from the table, offering Logan a hand. “Feel better?”

“I...I do. It was, if nothing else, fun to teach a lesson.”

“I actually wasn’t really sure what I was doing,” Thomas said with a helpless shrug. “And now, uh, I can’t get this rock off my hand.”

“Oh! Of course. Let me give you some help with that…”

***

Next Chapter

[hitodama3]

More things I've learned doing the island event, that makes me think the boys could be yanderes easily, and saw from grinding stories for the blue coins to pull for Marius' SSR card. 60 pulls in and we have Luke and Artem's card but no Marius.

More yandere headcannons below:

Marius - Gets jealous VERY easily. Any of you that has seen Luke in action in this event knows that the devs have blessed us with the no pupil dead eyes yandere looks. I've been told in Marius' event card he gets this look getting jealous of someone talking with MC. In the guitar SR card Marius gets jealous of the guitar player for taking away MC's attention. It's a thing for this man, but not only is he the jealous yanderes he's also manipulative. Not manipulative in Vyn's I can turn your mind against you way, but in the constantly making you feel sympathetic towards him and then doing something to show it's a joke/lighten the mood and giving you emotional whiplash. Also would be the most submissive of the yandere boys. MC compares him to a dog and he acts like it he wants all your time, attention, and approval. Very dependent on your happiness to be happy. Probably least likely to lock you up and have close to a normal relationship. Most likely to put marks of possession all over their darling. Bruises, bitemarks, paints, maybe even tattoos. I can't see it moving to physical abuse because of how delicate his character is with women due to his mom.

Artem - I got the least new info for him in this event. Most of this new info comes from the card stories I unlocked. We did learn he can shoot in the dark based almost solely off sound with amazing accuracy. This man is a SERVICE DOM your comfort and needs above all else, BUT he also will ignore your opinion entirely if he thinks his own will keep you safer. Unlike Marius who will bow to your wishes unless it takes your attention away from him or causes jealousy Artem can and will railroad you. He will talk over you and causally abuses his power as your superior to get his way knowingly or not I'm unsure. Know it all kind of mentality. His SR card where MC gets sick he frequently talks over MC's opinions and makes decisions for her. Also asks for personal information in a way you don't question that you probably shouldn't share; like your entire medical history. Apparently very knowledgeable in cooking traditional medicines, MC has admitted they know little about, could very easily hide who knows what in. Would be the most likely to seem like have the perfect relationship to outsiders. Most normal looking yandere. Wouldn't need to kidnap you no one would believe you anyway and he knows to much of your personal information for you to get far. Most likely to mentally exhaust their darling into being delusional that their relationship is normal.

Vyn - Speaking of people who know medicines. We learn that Vyn, did you all know this was a nickname? (his SR card about magic we find out his full first name is Vynhelm), has a shocking knowledge of wild medical plants and the uses for them. It would be very easy for him to drug people or MC and you could never trace it back to any source like a pharmacy because he can go get it from the woods. Has a really hard time asking for help when it comes to your safety because he wants to be the ONLY person to save you so you'll associate safety with him. Sir you probably shouldn't admit that, but MC is too trusting. Most likely to get MC killed out of the bunch, will kidnap you once the relationship starts to sour. This man 110% has a secret room in his house. In the event he talks about liking secret rooms in castles because he likes to roleplay (which is the story for one of his ssr's). You will be trapped there until he can mentally break you enough to take you back outside to roleplay a loving couple. Most likely to mentally break their darling.

Luke - Finally the last love interest! I thought VYN would be the canon yandere. Man did I jump off the Luke boat to fast! First the interrogation scene. Dead eyes, dead tone, talking about how the hostage is causing MC trouble due to not talking fast enough, and it annoying him. Would 150% kill for you if asked. Probably delusional. Doesn't want to lose whatever spark and relationship they had when they were younger. Does not want your opinion to change of him that he's changed and probably has blood on his hands. (MC was dumb and stated that they don't care how bad Luke gets because they're still Luke.) Can see his delusions getting worse from this blank statement. Almost professional in a lot of outdoor activities; climbing, rafting, bungee jumping, tracking as I said before, etc. Terrifying to try and run from. But worst of all is his insane over protectiveness. Multiple of his cards both SSR and SR show him babying the MC and not allowing them to do anything that might get them hurt OR only letting them do it with supervision. Also shown that he can't take you being mad at him. This may be the only defense after you get kidnapped, because definitely the one to kidnap you without warning and lock you away. Will be very delusional and pad your living area so you couldn't get a bruise if you tried, or go full the only one that can harm you is me and break your legs if you attempt to escape and harm yourself.

ToT Yandere Potential

The new event made me truly realize the yandere potential of these boys.

Marius - Richer then god, with connections everywhere, really good at acting because of all the masks he has to wear as CEO, as an artist constantly around chemicals and would be good with clean up, and knows enough about makeup to cover anything up.

Artem - High level lawyer you would never be able to win a court case against him if you tried to go to the police, speaking of police highly trusted by them and they would NOT believe you, great public image so the public probably wouldn't believe you either, and a gun expert and enthusiast.

Luke - Part of an alphabet government agency with connections, easily able to falsify evidence for or against you if needed, great tracker and outdoor specialist.

Vyn - Could easily gaslight you into doing whatever he wants, probably going to be the canon yandere considering the hints we've gotten in game, his job is dealing with the mentally ill so could easily get you declared insane or unable to take care of yourself, the treasure hunting event shows up that he's an expert bow user and can hunt with it on horseback.

So they would be terrifying enough just on their own if one decided to be a yandere for you, but many times fans will make MC x harems and the absolute terrifying potential these four could have TOGETHER!! As a yandere harem is awe and horror inspiring. They've already come together to make NXX because of their top of the field specialities but combing them into a yandere harem the MC has literally NO chance.

[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton. It was reading Morrison's "Song of Solomon" and its motif of black flight that I just found the idea so beautiful. The book on the underground railroad quilt codes referenced this and the library actually had it. I didn't realize it was a children's book, but is done in manner of having an adult introduction presenting each story in a manner that lends themselves to being read out loud (as the oral tradition demanded) ending with a paragraph again for adults contextualizing the story. In all there were just under 30 stories in over 130 pages with illustrations. These folktales in general were a creative way for an oppressed people to express their fears and hopes to one another and dealt in metaphor with a good number of them featuring animals in the tradition of past folktales I posted about from the Lakota tales featuring the fox trickster to Yoroba tales in Africa with Anasi the spider trickster. The first story features a proud lion that the other animals fear, and ask the bear and rabbit (the latter if which a reappearing hip to the ways character) to help. The two decide to introduce the proud lion to a man who immediately shoots at the lion teaching him the ways of man or really the relationship of themselves to the slaveowner to which the young audience it was intended. Tar-baby appears here that although at a certain point became associated with a racist depiction of pikannies and became a slur, was a story that carried a metaphor of a problematic situation that is only aggravated by additional involvement with it. A good number of the stories were originally told in a Gullah dialect something that the book modifies a bit to be more readable, because after one story they give an accurate Gullah original text and it's clear to see why they modified it. Most of the people from the South Carolina coast nowadays are thought to have come from the Gola tribes between Liberia and Serria Leone, but more traditionally were thought to come from Angola among whom were thought to have brought special powers with them culminating in the final story, "The People Could Fly." The story begins with an old legend in Africa that some people knew magic and could take flight like birds. Many of them captured for slavery had to shed their wings due to the overcrowded ships that brought them here...and no longer breathing the African air forgot how to fly. The story skips to a young mother with her child on her back picking cotton to the point of exhaustion while her hungry baby cries. The master tells her to shut the thing up and whips the baby till an older slave comes over and says, "it's time" whispering the magic words (actually Bantu) "kum yali, kum buba tambe" and her and her baby awkward at first begin to fly much to the surprise/dismay of the slave master. Over the days he whispers the words to more to fly before he is heard and has to take flight himself living those slaves who could not fly behind. They say that those children of the ones who could not fly told their children ending the story, "And now me, I have told it to you." Throughout a lot of our culture their are accounts of flight usually in combination of tales of enslaved people escaping or a motif of wishful fulfillment. In another variant of the story a magic hoe is left in the field after all the slaves have flown away that is often attributed to Angolan slaves who again were thought by others to have special powers. More than the other stories, the suffering evident in this story making the motif a powerful testament to the millions of slaves who never had the opportunity to "fly" away. They remained slaves as did their children, so the story was first told and retold by those who had only their imaginations to set them free.

[schraubd]

David's Personal Top Ten Video Games

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It is a personal list, reflecting the games that have stuck with me the most over the years. I'm not enough of a gamer to claim it is anything comprehensive, and it has a strong bias to the sorts of genres that I like. Nonetheless, I'd stack these games against any that have been made in my lifetime. Anyway, without further adieu ....

Honorable Mentions:

Portal 2: How can a game with virtually no “dialogue” (if that means conversations between two characters) have some of the best spoken lines in all video game history? I have both the original and a capella versions of the Turret Opera on my iTunes (yes, I have “Still Alive” as well).

Railroad Tycoon II: A brilliant simulator that makes you actually feel like a turn-of-the-century robber baron (by far, the game is most fun to play when set in the late 19th century). If every man goes through his “trains!” phase, this was mine. As in real life, I am not good at playing the stock market.

Horizon: Zero Dawn: Robot dinosaurs! Incredibly, Horizon: Zero Dawn takes a core concept that sounds like word association from an over-caffeinated twelve-year boy and makes an entirely serious game about it—and it works. It works so well, in fact, that I loved it despite the fact that the plot and entire world-building background centers around my single greatest phobia (no, not that—being alive for the extinction of humanity).

10. Sid Meier’s Gettysburg: I find it odd that very few games have sought to replicate Gettysburg’s spin on an RTS—focusing combat around regiments rather than individual units and prioritizing morale over raw numbers. But the thing I like best about Gettysburg—and sadly it’s mostly unique too—is in how it concentrates on controlling territory (and terrain). Many RTS games, for me, might as well have a blank screen over 80% of the map between my base and my opponent’s base. You build up your force, and then try to swarm your opponent before he or she swarms you. But in Gettysburg, the goal of missions is not “wipe out your opposition”. It’s to capture and hold a ridge, or dig in and hold an exposed farmhouse.

My only critiques are that I want this game to be bigger. I want it to encompass dozens of map spanning the entirety of the Civil War. I want to be able memorize even more obscure Union and Confederate generals and wonder if they really were “mediocre” or if that was just a game balance decision. The random battle generator is okay, but this game screams for user-created expansions which I’ve never been able to find.

9. Crimson Skies: A pulpy fun flight simulator taking place in an alternate history 1930s where America has fractured and Zeppelin travel rules the day. The game doesn’t hesitate to lean into its concept (phrases like “broad” and “floozy” abound), and it does a great job world-building in a relatively short period of time. Somehow, I could meet an enemy “ace” for the first time in the middle of a mission and yet still feel like we had a history of epic dogfights together of which this was only the latest. Meanwhile, each of the locations the game takes you to (Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Hollywood, the Rocky Mountains, and New York City) are a blast and a half.

A sequel, High Road to Revenge, was released on Xbox and leaned a little too hard into the arcade-y elements (power-ups, automatic evasive maneuvers with the press of a button, and so on). But the original PC game was just right—planes flew exactly like how someone who knows nothing about planes thinks planes fly, which is just perfect. You felt like an ace pilot because of your skill (even though behind the hood the game is really holding your hand). Piloting a gyrocopter through half-built New York City skyscrapers, or a prototype single-engine through the Hollywood "O", is great. Doing it to evade local security, then doing a loop and turning both guns on them -- well, that's the cat's meow.

8. Mass Effect (Trilogy and Andromeda): As far as I’m concerned, the definitive space opera (even muscling out Halo). Fabulous voice acting (listening to Martin Sheen play evil Jed Bartlett is one of the great joys of my life) and memorable plot lines pair with a morality system that at least inches away from “basically decent person or utter asshole.” The universe feels genuinely alive, like there’s an ecosystem and civilization that you’re very much apart, but also moves in your absence.

I can’t really separate out the core trilogy games from one another (each sequel seemed to simultaneously step slightly forward and back), which is not I think an uncommon position. What may be more uncommon is that I think Andromeda stands right in there with the core series. Yes, it was disappointing that it took us to a brand new galaxy and only gave us two new species (while eliminating many of the more backgrounded Milky Way aliens). But I was much more disappointed that there will be no DLC or sequels to continue the story and tie up loose ends.

7. N and N++: There can’t be any serious controversy that N is the greatest Flash game ever made. While Flash demands simplicity, N is not so much simple as it is elegant. It is the perfect balance of speed and control, thoughtfulness and twitch-trigger reflexes, serene relaxation and butt-clenching tension. Once you master the floaty physics and the unique enemy styles, you will truly feel like a ninja—stripped to its core essence and deprived of all the usual but unnecessary bells and whistles. A virtually unlimited supply of levels guarantees you endless gameplay.

And so it is unsurprising that N was one of the rare flash games that made a successful jump to a full true game (in the form of N++), one that has a strong claim on being the greatest platformer ever made. The developers were wise not to disturb the basic formula: run, jump, and slide around a level, dodge obstacles and traps that will kill you instantly, reach the exit. Repeat ad infinitum. But N++ adds just a splash of additional flavors and spices into the mix. A perfect trip-trance soundtrack that sets the mood perfectly (and may single-handedly stave off keyboard-smashing frustration). A few new enemy types that deepen the game without ruining its austere grace. And perhaps most importantly, it adds a bunch of extra, semi-secret challenges (which can be used to unlock still more levels) waiting for the very best-of-best players.

Of all the games on this list, I might be in absolute terms “best” at N++ (there are a non-trivial number of levels in the game where I have a top 100 or even top 10 score on the global leaderboards). And yet there is not the slightest chance that I will ever perfect this game, or even come close to it. Nor is there any chance I will become permanently sick of it. A simple concept, executed brilliantly. The perfect N++ level is also the perfect description of the game.

6. Final Fantasy IX: The question was never whether a Final Fantasy game would make this list, only which one. I’ve long had a soft-spot for FFIX, which I feel is often overlooked inside the series (in part because even on release it seemed players were already looking ahead to the Playstation 2). Yet it’s hard to find fault in Final Fantasy IX as an emblem of a straight-forward JRPG. It has a moving story, fun gameplay, beautiful music, loads of quests to do and places to explore, a fabulous supporting cast (Vivi might be my favorite Final Fantasy character ever written), and a lead character you don’t want to punch (*cough* Final Fantasy X).

Final Fantasy IX is often described as “nostalgic”, and despite the fact that it was only the second game in the series I had ever played, I got that feeling instantly. Try listening to the soundtrack for “Frontier Village Dali” without feeling a little melancholic. You don’t even have to have played. But I recommend that you do.

For the record, my ranking of Final Fantasy games that I’ve played goes: IX, VII, XII, XV, X, XIII.

5. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood: One difficulty in judging games within a series is how to compare an earlier game which still had some rough edges but represented a quantum leap forward versus a later game which didn’t do anything super-novel but tweaked the formula to perfection. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Now, for me, this is an easy call for idiosyncratic reasons—I played AC:B before AC II, and so I experienced the former as both the perfected model and the quantum leap forward as compared to the original game. But I respect that for those who played the series in order, this is a harder call.

What should be easy for anyone is to agree that together, Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood represented the AC series reaching its full potential. Ezio continues to be the best protagonist the series has seen to date. Renaissance Italy likewise is the ideal setting for both AC’s vertical and horizontal platforming elements and its shadowy-conspiracy/secret-history plotline. As a franchise, Assassin’s Creed really launched the parkour/open-world exploration genre, and Brotherhood was the first game where every single element of what that genre could be came together. Other more recent games have been tons of fun (Black Flag and Syndicate are I think highlights), but these two games are the reason this series is so iconic.

4. Might and Magic VI: The same problem posed by AC2 versus Brotherhood emerges with Might and Magic VI and VII—except here, I did play them in order. Like the previous entry, I do think that VII ultimately improves upon the formula set out in Might and Magic VI. It’s more versatile, has more replay value, a touch more balanced (and that’s not getting into ArcoMage) … all in all, probably a better technical game.

But Might and Magic VI is for me iconic—it may well be the first RPG I’ve ever truly loved (and given the way this list is stacked in that direction, that’s saying a lot). Virtually all the things that characterize what I love in games today, it had in at least skeletal form. Open world exploration? Check: It was the first game where I felt like I was a true pathfinder—meticulously crawling over every corner of the map to find each obscure bandit’s cave and goblin fortress. To this day I still have the lay of the land in Enroth basically memorized. Overly detailed worldbuilding text to read? Absolutely: my obsessive-streak came out in reading every single artifact description, conversational option, and quest backgrounder (it is canon that Enroth, and the entire planet it resides upon, was blown up in a magical explosion—a fact I’m still resentful towards 3DO for long after it disappeared into bankruptcy). Slight genre-bending? The splash of Sci-Fi onto the fantasy setting was delightful to discover for someone who had never played any of the prior entries in the series. And some of the music—well, the White Cap theme is a thing of beauty, and on my computer “Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ” is still listed as “Church Dungeon Music.”

3. Heroes of Might and Magic III: If comparing earlier, more revolutionary games against newer more polished ones presents a problem in the Assassin’s Creed and Might and Magic series, it presents no trouble at all in Heroes of Might & Magic. That’s because the third installation in the series both represented a huge jump forward from what came before and is unquestionably the best entry in the overall sequence.

Sure, some of the expansions are a bit goofy, but they still work—sharpshooters and enchanters are massively overpowered, but they’re generally used in missions that would otherwise be impossible. But the main campaign is fabulous—a surprisingly intricate and interwoven plot that bridges Might and Magic VI and VII compliments outstanding strategy gameplay. And that doesn’t even get into the acre of standalone maps provided, plus countless more available on the web thanks to a map editor so intuitive, even I can use it (I’m terrible with map editors).

As a result of all of this, Heroes III is maybe the only game on this list that can compete with N++ regarding infinite replayability. This is fortunate, because—given the fact that Heroes III was a full-budget release and was not supposed to be “simple”—it ages incredibly well. Even the graphics hold up (no need for that remastered remake—which doesn’t even include the expansions!).

2. Witcher III: As you may have noticed, this list has a strong bias towards RPGs. My preference is toward “Western” RPGs (which have a go-anywhere/do-anything exploration mentality) compared to “Japanese” RPGs (which are more linear and story-driven), but Witcher III does an incredible job of synthesizing the best of both. It has a huge open world to explore, one that feels alive and dynamic—but there is also an incredibly rich story filled with deep, well-written characters (of which Geralt—the player character—is but one).

Gameplay-wise, Witcher III really hits the perfect balance. I simultaneously felt like the biggest bad-ass in the room, but also like a single slip in concentration or bit of overconfidence and my corpse would unceremoniously end up at the bottom of whatever cave I was in. But Witcher III particularly stands out in how it subverts certain common RPG tropes. You are a hero, but you’re not particularly well-liked. You’re a powerful warrior, but you’re still ultimately treated as a pawn in larger political machinations. Your interventions do not always save the day, and sometimes don’t even make things better. If a mission starts with a villager worrying that their beloved has gone missing, nine times out of ten that person has been devoured by a monster well before you ever get there. While many games claim to place the hero in difficult moral dilemmas, Witcher III is a rare case of following through (some games might give you the choice to let a trio of witches eat a group of kids whom you recently played hide-and-seek with, but few make it so that might actually be the more moral of the options in front of you). There’s even a quest where you help a knight rescue a lady in distress from a curse, then lecture him that he’s not entitled to her romantic attention as a reward (talk about a timely intervention in the video game genre!). Over and over again, the game reinforces the message that being really powerful and doing “the right thing” isn’t enough to fix a fundamentally broken system.

Most impressive is the emotional impact that Witcher III dishes out. Sometimes this is a result of rich character development that pays off over the course of the entire game (as in “The Last Wish” quest). But sometimes it shows up in even relatively minor sidequests—the epilogue of the “Black Pearl” quest was one of the more brutal emotional gut-punches I’ve experienced in a video game. Ultimately, this was a game where one always felt like each character was a person—they were imperfect, they had their own interests, hopes, dreams, strengths and foibles, and while you were a little better with a sword and gifted with some preternatural abilities, you were still only one player in a much bigger narrative. As a result, Witcher III might well be, in my estimation, the perfect RPG.

Oh, and Gwent is ludicrously addictive. Let’s not forget that.

1. TIE Fighter: I don’t think this list has a particularly “modern” bias. Still, there’s something impressive about the number one game on this list also being the oldest by some measure. TIE Fighter originally came out in 1994, and the definitive Collector’s Edition was released in 1995. It is, to this day, one of the best games ever made. And that’s not a retrospective assessment. Star Wars: Tie Fighter holds up even played right now.

For starters, it is one of the few elements of the Star Wars universe to get the Empire right. I’m not saying that the Empire is the real protagonist of the series. I am saying that they wouldn’t view themselves as evil—as much as naming spacecraft “Executor” and “Death Star” might suggest otherwise. TIE Fighter is quite self-assured in presenting you as being a force for law and order in the galaxy, battling not just seditious rebels but pirates, smugglers, and other anarchic forces that threaten to tear civilized life apart.

Let’s start with something often overlooked in TIE Fighter: the music. It’s probably the only context that the phrase “kick-ass MIDI soundtrack” makes sense. But that’s not even the half of it. The iMuse system dynamically and seamlessly arranges the musical cues to reflect what’s going on around you in the mission—you can literally follow important mission updates (e.g., a wingman being shot down, or reinforcements arriving) simply by the way the melody shifts. I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered anything quite like it since. To this day, the number that accompanies an incoming enemy capital ship fills me with exhilarated dread.

Gameplay-wise, TIE Fighter is almost shockingly rich. The core mission requirements are challenging, but by no means out of reach. But embedded in each level are a series of secondary and secret bonus objectives. These unlock a parallel plot of the Emperor’s Secret Order—but always present a brutal risk/reward calculus. That’s not unrelated to the fact that you’re often flying, well, TIE fighters (not noted for their durability)—but the challenge extends well beyond physical peril. TIE Fighter actually gives you an “invincibility” option if you want it, and yet even with it on some of the later missions and bonus objectives will strain every piloting skill you’ve ever developed.

Most importantly, the secret objectives usually are more involved than “blow up everything in sight.” They reward initiative and exploration. Maybe your primary mission objective is to destroy a rebel space station. But just before it goes down, you spot an escape shuttle fleeing the station. Take it out? Maybe—but maybe the occupants are VIPs best taken alive. So you switch to ion cannons and disable it for capture. Yet that extra time you just spent has given the rebels enough breathing room to summon reinforcements—now an enemy cruiser is bearing down on you. Take out its missile launchers and clear path for bombers while praying that your own Star Destroyer will arrive soon to back you up. All on the fly. All while dogfighting starfighters, dodging mines, giving your wingmen orders … it’s insanely, beautifully chaotic.

Did I mention this is all happening in 1995? 90% of games released today don’t have that kind of depth or spontaneity. In terms of playability, replayability, and just plain fun, TIE Fighter stands alone, and unchallenged.

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