#this is especially the case for sci fi dystopians i find. i can still handle fantasy just fine

[em-dashes]

there’s a lot that’s currently bothering me about aphelion now that i’m back to working on it, and so far the only change i’ve implemented is aging up cay and bee, and somehow that feels like a step in the right direction

[auntarctica]

Who do you think is more powerful and why: DMC Dante and Vergil or DmC Dante and Vergil?

Interesting. Well, you’d have to analyze that comparison from multiple axes, I think - it can’t be asked straight across or decoupled from context, especially as the two iterations of the Sons of Sparda story exist in universes with some pretty notable differences.DMC Classic is a surreal, lavish neoclassical fantasy where everything is exaggerated and overpowered for sheer hyperbole and bombast. Swords can be unrealistically enormous ironing boards and still present no logistical or physics issues for Dante; Vergil can cut bullets in half in midair, arrange them like antipasti, and serve them back at his opponent like a sous chef.

It seems to take place in an idealized generic Western European Everycity. Maybe sort of like a Rome, but London or Bruges or Budapest or Brasov would look much the same - it is reminiscent of any city with an old town, and the Japanese developers liberally borrowed all the urban Western European stuff they liked: London’s red double deckers and phone booths, for example. Italy is hinted at, by context, but never confirmed. We know it’s not landlocked, in any case - and that whatever body of water it adjoins is large enough to encompass an island.Technology exists, but is arrested at a certain point of romanticized classical modernism: they have cinema (we see movie posters), but not television (though I suppose it’s possible it exists - all we know is that Dante doesn’t have one). They have rotary telephones, but not cell phones. They have motorcycles and guitars and amplifiers and jukeboxes, but not computers. Nico can craft sophisticated motorized prosthetics and weapons, but they seem mechanical, not digital - predicated on servos and leverages and explosive propulsions.It makes sense for technology to be quainter in a fantasy-reality fusion series, where most of the characters’ powers will come from magic.ReDmC is a more grounded, grittier fable, with a cyberpunk/tech slant; more pop art bildungsroman and less baroque polyptych - (though to its credit, it pays homage to its neoclassical ancestry and DMC DNA in some really sublime interstitial set pieces and still lives).It also takes place in a Western setting, but this time it’s the New World, the new West, and a decidedly North American depiction. It could be emblematic of either coast; Dante’s trailer by the carnival looks suspiciously like Santa Cruz/a So-Cal pier, but could also be like Coney Island. The city is a little dystopian, with general elements that wouldn’t be out of place in either NYC or LA, or any major metropolis: again, a generic idealization, liberally borrowing whatever appeals.The world we see in ReDmC is anchored in a slightly more modern, realistic depiction, so in some ways, the brothers’ powers (at least in story/cutscenes) are also scaled down slightly in scope to better match this aesthetic. Technology-as-magic plays a slightly bigger role here than classical magic, which is diminished a bit, which makes sense in a sci-fi/reality fusion series.But we also have an interesting wrinkle: the brothers aren’t human at all. Rather, they’re the offspring of two juggernauts - two breeds of powerful nonhuman being - one celestial, one infernal. This suggests that, unlike Dante and Vergil, ReDante and ReVergil are wholly unfettered by powerless humanity at all - they resemble humans in image only.Also, canonically, this hybridization/abomination seems to have an exponential, compounding effect larger than the sum of its parts: a Nephilim is a being *more* powerful than the average angel or demon, (having been historically hunted down and exterminated for precisely this reason) - and the only being on earth capable of killing a demon emperor like Mundus. (Again, as in DMC Classic, we have the concept of identical twins: two bodies inhabited by one cloven soul, which is sort of used to explain why neither brother can manage it alone.)Their updated heritage all makes sense with the proviso tacitly set forth by Capcom when instructing Ninja Theory on how to handle Reboot: “IT HAS 2 B MOAR EXTREEME!!!111112″Of course Dante and Vergil couldn’t just be half demons, man - they have to be something even more intense.(Which interestingly also removes a lot of Sparda’s motivation for giving a fuck about humanity - if his wife isn’t human, then the human world just becomes a witness protection place for these two to settle down - not necessarily anything either of them are particularly sentimental about or magnanimously invested in. This difference is something that I play with in my Reboot fic, since it’s so much more ambiguous. Dante’s sudden decision at the end is thus entirely his own emotional impulse, and Vergil’s lack of trust or appreciation for humans’ self-governance becomes less a refutation of his own nature, and more the measured conservationist philosophy of someone who has observed a lesser taxonomical species his whole life, seen how easily they became enthralled, and determined they shouldn’t be left to their own devices, or they’re liable to extinct themselves in short order.)There are a couple of other considerations:First, we have to compare ReTwins solely with 3Twins, because that’s the parallel property, timeline-wise, and we only have one DmC game to canonically go on.Second, while I love ReDmC, it can’t be denied Ninja Theory was a little half-baked with producing a through-composed theory of narrative, and the inconsistencies their badass! changes would create in the original lore, which was fairly comprehensive, careful and well-considered. So there are some loose ends and threads here and there that can’t really be reconciled either with the original, or even with ReDmC’s own internal logic. Within the context of their own respective worlds, I think ReDante and ReVergil are *depicted* as more underpowered in their setting than classic Dante and Vergil, but *scripted* as more powerful, interestingly enough. On paper versus in practice.I would venture to posit that either set of twins would probably find themselves at a sudden disadvantage in the others’ worlds.So I feel like it’s something of a push, functionally, with narrative goals and the emphasis on “power” being shifted compensatorily depending on the context and the story being told, but ultimately having the same atomic weight, even with different ratios of components, if that makes sense - - and that the answer would vary quite a bit depending on the parameters the question was asked under.I feel like such a dork for ruminating this much and writing such an exhaustive reply, but then again, this is what we do, right? This is our brand. Anyway, what do you think?

[bick-bookreviews]

Book Review: Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza

Empress Rhee, also known as Crown Princess Rhiannon Ta’an, is the sole surviving heir to a powerful dynasty. She’ll stop at nothing to avenge her family and claim her throne. Fugitive Aly has risen above his war refugee origins to find fame as the dashing star of a DroneVision show. But when he’s falsely accused of killing Rhee, he's forced to prove his innocence to save his reputation – and his life. Madman With planets on the brink of war, Rhee and Aly are thrown together to confront a ruthless evil that threatens the fate of the entire galaxy. A saga of vengeance, warfare, and the true meaning of legacy.

Empress of a Thousand Skies was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it most certainly did not disappoint.

I've been aching for a proper space opera YA sci fi for the longest time, and so far most of the space-bound YA books I’ve read haven't hit the mark for me. Either too dystopian, too flimsily thought out, or...the Zodiac series. About which the less is said is better. But Empress of a Thousand Skies at long last delivers everything I wanted in a space opera setting. It's colorful, imaginative, bursting to the seams with lovely little touches like fox-like people who stalk on all fours when they're hunting, organic spaceships with forests inside, and octopi-like creatures that somehow manage to live and feed in the vacuum of space. Belleza manages to convey a vibrant galaxy seething with life and a complicated history of war without any infodumps or paragraphs of purple prose. I'm especially impressed with the execution of the Cubes, which I was a bit nervous about coming into the book. It can be difficult to convey such an alien concept in a relatable manner - even with how plugged-in we've become in the modern day, we're still not capable of uploading our memories and playing them back as we please - but Belleza pulls it off with aplomb. Maybe it's a slight narrative cheat to have the two main characters disconnected for large portions of the book, but she delves into enough detail about what the Cubes feel like, what they mean, and how they shape society and the way people think that it's very satisfying. I also appreciate how she didn't drop a "NEW TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL" anvil, which the Cubes could easily have been used for. Her look at how people and societies interact with the Cube is far more organic and nuanced. I think that's a huge part of what impress me so much about the worldbuilding in Empress of a Thousand Skies; it feels sociological. Like Belleza didn't just slap a veneer of sci fi jargon and strange planets over otherwise modern day characters and worldviews. There's a deep interest in how this world shapes the way the people in it think and relate to one another. It shows in that it's not a simple case of two cartoonishly rendered sides facing off, like so many YA speculative fiction ends up being; sure there's two sides with a history of war, Kalu and Fontis, but they aren't perfect opposites of each other and their relationships are complex and ever-changing, and other worlds like Wraeta get dragged into their conflicts as well. We get a clear view of the cultures of many different societies throughout the book, all of them different and multi-layered. And of course, at its core the novel is about an opportunistic politician who scapegoats refugees in order to launch a self-centered war. Which seems pretty damn relevant these days, I must say. I'm gushing so much about the worldbuilding because it's the standout for me, but the characters shine pretty strongly as well. Thanks to the other reviews, I was already prepared for the fact that Rhee and Aly don't meet, and I think that managed to keep me from feeling the same disappointment that many others did. In fact, I really appreciated that their stories were by and large separate; it can be a risky move, but it helped make the scope of the story, and therefore the galaxy, much wider and therefore feel more like a real place. As protagonists, Rhee and Aly are definitely memorable standouts from the typical YA archetype. I think I may have liked Rhee a bit more, even though she was far more boneheaded and made stupider mistakes, but that may well be why I liked her. Aly was a charmer throughout, with a strong and distinctive voice and a heartbreakingly poignant inner conflict. I really, really appreciate that while both of them make terrible mistakes, they learn from the mistakes and vow to become stronger and better people. I came out of the book with the sense that while both of them had been terribly shaken by all the things that happened, many of which were their own fault, they had gained a much firmer conviction and an admirable desire to make things right again. The summary only really focused on Rhee and Aly, so I wasn't expecting several other characters to take such prominent place alongside them. On Aly's side, he travels together with his best friend Vin for a while, and they have a wonderful vitriolic yet brotherly relationship, and then Aly meets a girl called Kara. Kara fell a little flat for me, possibly because she was introduced so late and the plot twist about her was obvious from the beginning, and her romance with Aly was a bit instalove-ish. But that's more than made up for with Dahlen. Oh, Dahlen. He was the best surprise of the entire book. I had no idea his character existed until he showed up, and then I fell head over heels. A tattooed assassin with pointy ears who has a dark, mysterious past and a coldly pragmatic approach to life as well as an unshakable resolve. I did not stand even an ounce of a chance. I have a new book boyfriend to beat all book boyfriends now (move aside, Kaz Brekker!). In fact, I was kind of shipping Dahlen with Rhee throughout, and I'm preeeeeetty damn sure I didn't imagine all the tension between them, did I? Or was that just my wishful thinking? Because oh lordy lord, their relationship was definitely one of the deepest, most twisted and complicated ones in the entire book. The weird mix of resentment, loyalty, mutual dependence, mutual betrayal, Rhee's horror over Dahlen's ruthlessness but also admiration, the fact that he gets tortured multiple times for her....ACK! It's catnip! Please, Belleza, get these two together in book two. That's all I want. And I'm scared it won't happen because their tension was incredibly downplayed compared to Aly and Kara.... Am I just seeing things? My poor shipper heart can't handle it! The only reason Empress of a Thousand Stars isn't a full five stars for me is the plot, honestly. It's very basic, and though it has a number of twists, I predicted every single one of them beforehand. If you've read any sci fi or fantasy at all, there isn't anything new to offer. Some of the characters also felt pretty bland and one-note, like Seotra or the Elder, merely existing to serve plot functions. Nonetheless, the plot still felt convincingly epic in scope, and I was invested in seeing what happened to all of the main characters. I can't wait for the sequel to come. ....if only so Rhee and Dahlen can finally get together? Please? PLEASE?