#underwater utopia

[dmdunamancer]

From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson

"Artist Ayana V. Jackson creates an undersea realm honoring those who jumped or were thrown overboard during the trans-Atlantic slave trade." (Smithsonian Magazine, 8 June 2023)

Where There Is No Origin But Memory I

The Self-Forgetfulness of Belonging Will Never Be Mine I

Consider the Sky and the Sea

Some People Have Spiritual Eyes II (featuring the dress which also appears as "Use the Stars to Fix a Celestial Navigation Point," with materials including Ghanaian currency, paste, cotton, raffia reed fans)

When the Spirit of Kalunda Comes So Does Kianda

Some People Have Spiritual Eyes I

Reliquary: The Sea Has Nothing to Offer but a Well-Executed Grave

It is Only When You Lose Your Mother That She Becomes Myth

I Summon the Voice from the Deep I

[images from the official exhibition website]

Also -- for those interested, many of these garments and models appear in video-works in collaboration with other artists! Very cool.

[nestedneons]

By jilt with stablediffusion

Cyberpunk art commissions

Ko-Fi

My free ai workflows

[libelelle]

what if silver saved the future but he goes back and everyone is living underwater with submarines and shit would he like that

Hmmm good question. He would be thrilled there are people but the fact they are living under water... something made it so they had to i assume so he wouldnt be too happy about that. That would be a big problem for him. This being said i think if Silver could solve that issue in that time he might, since there are so many people. I do also think he'd find zooming around in the water fun : )

[stefy-giuggiola]

Title: Utopia

[thankskenpenders]

One question that's been haunting me since I binge-read most of the blog whilst doing testing is: in your opinion, what is the primary difference in the worlds of Archie Sonic and IDW Sonic? Obviously part of that is Penders' influence vs. Ian's influence, one's obviously based more on the games than the others, etc... but I feel like more than that, the two comics have a vastly different feel in terms of how their world generally just works in-universe. I'd like to know if this makes any sense, or if I'm just crazy.

I mean, the IDW world literally is the game world now, so yes, there are some pretty huge differences that are immediately apparent.

I'd say that where both incarnations of the Archie universe were much more of an "anything goes" sci-fi/fantasy world with all these different factions and kingdoms and whatnot, the IDW comics depict a more mundane modern/near-future setting that just so happens to have some highly stylized scenery and be inhabited by cartoon furries. (And off-screen humans, now that the two worlds have been reunited, I guess.)

I mean, it's right there in the names of the planet. Archie was set on the fantastical world of Mobius, but the IDW comics are just on a fictional version of Earth. Most of the sci-fi elements are Eggman's creations. There are still plenty of fantasy elements, but they tend to be hidden better. They're a thing for Sonic and his friends and enemies to discover on their adventures, not an everyday fact of life for the normies. In the Archie comics you had people living in medieval kingdoms and underwater societies and Mad Max wastelands and floating utopias and all this other stuff, but in the IDW comics they tend to live in pretty normal modern cities. I'd argue that this makes Sonic feel like more of a larger-than-life hero in the IDW comics, since he's always seeking out adventures in these corners of the world that the average person doesn't know about. Joe from Station Square's never been to somewhere like Sky Sanctuary or Little Planet

I know some Archie fans think this means the worldbuilding in IDW is "bad" or "boring" since there aren't a bunch of high-concept fantasy locations being introduced, but it's just different. The way they did things at Archie was fun, but this matches the vibe of the games much better

[artist-issues]

I'm tired of being disappointed. By far the best part of the movie was the what-could-have-been in the soundtrack. Mufasa had seeds of being good but it suffered from a lack of focus and terrible visual language, so it was ultimately unsatisfying. 

I think it's actually worse when you can see the threads and interesting seeds of a good story just wasted and abandoned under a pile of Bad Storytelling. 

Lack of Focus:

The movie was trying to say something about Bravery, and Bloodlines, and Vengeance, and Going Against the Status Quo, and Self-Reflection, and Loyalty, and Family, and Relying on One Another Instead of Just Yourself, and Belief in Yourself, and even Vague Spirituality, all at once. So it wound up giving the movie-equivalent of two or three disjointed sentences about each topic, and never actually made a clear point about any of them. 

For example, Mufasa is afraid of water. Rafiki says that this is because Mufasa is afraid of his own reflection, even though the audience would have been assuming that it was because Mufasa almost drowned as a cub. Then in the climax, Mufasa and Kiros are battling underwater and Mufasa remembers his foster-mother telling him to close his eyes and use his other senses to hunt. So he does, and he realizes I guess through the currents, that a big rock is falling toward them, and pushes Kiros into it.

What does that tell us? That Mufasa was taught to hunt like a lioness, so he can use those skills when he needs to. Which he's already been doing with no hesitation for the whole movie. Just because he's in water during the final battle, doesn't mean that's a satisfying conclusion to what they were doing with water, as a symbol for his character.

IF Mufasa had been embarrassed about his lioness-observational-skills, thinking it made him less of a lion, or weird, and therefore rarely used those skills because he was always trying to be more like Taka or the other males—conserving energy, not being mindful of what's around him—THEN finally embraced his weird skills at the end, while in water fighting—that would be something thematic. 

You would be able to say, "he's learned not to be afraid of where his skill-set is, as a leader, ergo: he's learned 'not to be afraid of his reflection/the water.'"

But that's not what happened. Because they didn't devote time to developing what, exactly, Mufasa is afraid of seeing in himself, or WHY he's afraid. Because everything he does succeeds. He wins his first race, wins his first fight, wins the favor of his adoptive father, survives diving into water even though he's afraid of it, wins at saving sarabi and then wins her affections even when he's actively trying not to—there's no reason for him to be trying not to. Not any that tie back into "Mufasa is afraid of himself." There's no reason ever shown for this weird halfhearted insecurity he sometimes has, and has to overcome.

So then it's not compelling. And that sort of thing is sprinkled all over the movie.

They keep mentioning "Milele," which means "forever" in Swahili, but that whole concept is alternately described as a "dream," or "a place you feel inside of you," but basically it's also a physical location that becomes the Pridelands. And nobody ever clarifies what exactly Milele is. It's treated like a fantasy concept or a spiritual vision or a physical utopia whenever the film needs it to be those things. But if it's never clearly defined, it's not compelling, which sucks when Milele is what the characters are "searching for." Another example of starting a concept and then never following it through to a satisfying conclusion.

They have seeds of Mufasa being the only lion to ask for help and be willing to cooperate with other animals besides lions—but they are few and far-between. He doesn't ask Rafiki for help; Rafiki sort of convinces him not to eat him. And asking animals for help like he does with the elephants or the Pridelands animals isn't unique to him; the first to do it is Sarabi, who willingly accepts and relies on Zazu despite others' scorn—and MUFASA is one of the ones who is scornful, initially! So they plant seeds for the big climax where he's the only voice that can unite animals across species by the climax, but they're don't water or tend to or help those seeds to grow. So the climax feels a little out of nowhere and less compelling.

If they had just focused on one of these things, it would've been tighter and more emotionally impactful.

Except NO, it wouldn't have been. Because you will have a hard time connecting, emotionally, to photorealistic-CGI lions even if the story's focus was tight.

Bad Animation and Filming

Lions in real life move with too much weightiness and heavy-animal-breathing for you to commit to that weight 100% of the time AND have good character acting. You can only really commit wholeheartedly to one or the other.

So you can tell in this movie the eyes are bigger and more expressive than in the first CGI Lion King. But that doesn't save it. It doesn't cut it. 

When Taka is giving Sarabi his last longing look, he just looks like a vaguely displeased large animal. There's no human heartbreak in his expression. 

When Mufasa is singing a fast line about not knowing how to respond to Sarabi, he should be swinging his head back and forth, like he's looking around for something in desperation—because that's what the song sounds like—and his walking, if he's walking, should be fast. A cross between running from something and searching for something. Because that's what's happening in the emotion of the song.

But lions don't move that fast, because they're heavy. And when they're looking around for something, they do it with their noses and long head-turns in sweeping motions. No fast eyes-darting-around. Certainly no human conflict of desire in their faces. So photorealistic Mufasa can't do any of those things. Which sucks, because the actions of the characters and the action in the scene should match the emotions they're feeling, and the emotion the audience is supposed to be feeling. But it can't, so everything is flat and boring. 

And even if you could connect to photorealistically emotional lions—you might, we connect with our pets emotionally all the time—you wouldn't get the chance because the film avoids their faces every time something emotionally interesting is happening. 

For example: my favorite part of the song "I Always Wanted a Brother" is when the beat appears to hard-drive, and it feels like a "stop everything" moment, to match Taka's outrage that someone is dissing his brother. And he goes, "what did you say 'bout my brother? That's not a stray, that's my brother! You stay away from my brother 'cuz I say so."

That whole moment, I'm envisioning Taka getting all up in another animal's face, maybe taking a swipe at it, throwing his little weight around and puffing his chest, fearsome-face. The song FEELS like that's what's happening; like he's going on and on,  exploding with insistence and protectiveness.

Something similar to the "stop everything-angry" vibe of this:

But in the movie, is it a close-up shot of Taka invading another animal's space? Does the camera follow him from behind in a slow zoom, and then when he says, "what did you say bout my brother?" He spins and looks directly into the camera (in the direction of the animal he's talking to) and the camera stops while Taka charges closer? Do we get to see his angry face at all?

No.

The camera does this stupid boring thing where we, the audience, are in the branches of a tree (where the animal Taka is addressing is safely out of reach) and it pans slowly along, unfocused, like we're casually passing this interaction by. Taka's face is far away on the distant ground and you can't really see it's expression, his body language isn't doing anything interesting (he's just standing there for the whole part of the song) and at one point because of the panning, the tree the camera is in has a branch that actually hides Taka completely from view during the song.

We don't even get to see the animal he's talking to react. All we see is the back of its head.

They do this over and over in the movie. When Rafiki is finally running to meet his long lost brother, we get the back of his body, one quick snapshot of the underside of his face, and then it's flyover drone-style shots. When Sarabi and Mufasa decide to love each other, it's a close-up on the backs of their chins; no eyes, no mouths, no head-body-language. When Sarabi and Mufasa are singing a very back-and-forth interactive duet to one another, the camera is, again, far-off and distant for most of the song, rotating slowly around a landscape that they're lion-lumbering through. Boring. Distant. Wasteful.

Sometimes the movie tries to match the emotional pace in the way it's shot. When Kiros is readying a killing blow and Taka has moments to decide if he's going to save his brother, that scene cuts well between the raised paw and Taka and Mufasa's faces—for example. But those are the most basic ways to shoot those scenes, and scenes like them are few and far-between.

What it needed was one overarching idea to connect the character threads, and give them time to unspool. And then it really, desperately needed to be animated traditionally so that the lions could emote like humans.

So! I'll probably be writing a series of posts exploring what could've been to correct the fumble. Because I did enjoy the concepts in Mufasa.

[inklings-challenge]

Since we're less than a month away from sign-ups for this year's Inklings Challenge, it's time to address what I call:

The Team Chesterton Problem

The Inklings Challenge divides writers into three different teams, which are each assigned a type of fantasy and a type of science fiction, and writers can choose which one they want to write. The fantasy categories are easy: Team Lewis is portal fantasy, and Team Tolkien is secondary world fantasy, which leaves intrusive fantasy for Team Chesterton. Intrusive fantasy gets by far the least stories written for it, probably because people are intimidated by fantasy with a real-world setting, but that would be okay if the science fiction category drew in people.

In three years, we have had two stories in the Team Chesterton sci-fi category. Both last year.

With Team Lewis having space travel and Team Tolkien having time travel, the first two years, Team Chesterton had a technology category. Since that covers everything from steampunk to mad scientists to robots to cloning technology to cyberpunk, you'd think there'd be a lot of story potential for any type of writer. Not one. The third year's category, Adventure, tried to make this wider story potential clearer, so people didn't think they had to be technological experts to write in this category. We got only a couple of stories.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's too broad of a category. Space travel suggests a specific genre. Time travel provides a specific inciting incident. Technology and Adventure have a kind of "everything else" vibe, which could make it difficult to come up with a specific story in a short time frame.

So I'm considering other options:

Mystery

Pro: Chesterton-related, specific genre that can be applied to a fantasy or sci-fi setting

Con: Not inherently a sci-fi genre; requires a lot of thinking to apply it to a speculative fiction setting

Dystopia

Pro: Specific genre with specific vibes. Chesterton-related

Con: Vibes are depressing and people may not be drawn to it

Utopia

Pro: Less depressing than dystopia. Could even be combined with dystopia

Con: Who's willing to admit that they think they've invented a perfect society? Outdated genre.

Travel

Pro: Fits with time and space travel. Would suggest planet-bound adventures--finding hidden lands, journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth, underwater cities, you name it--while providing a specific event to base the story around, so it's less broad than adventure.

Con: Would take a lot of explanation to get to that definition. Has a lot of the same "too-broad" problems that Adventure has

Cyberpunk or steampunk

Pro: Specific genre with specific vibes

Con: If people don't like those vibes, they're out of luck. People could think they need to know a lot about technology or history to write in this category.

Superhero

Pro: Fun genre! Specific genre trappings and tropes to easily base stories around. Can feel very Chestertonian. Nothing that would make people think they need to stick to real-world science

Con: People might be burnt out on superheroes. Might turn to fanfic instead of original fic. Not a great companion genre to time and space travel

I had been hoping to end this with a poll, but there are too many options and variables here, so instead I'll just ask for general feedback and ideas on what genre would be most appealing and the best fit for this challenge.

[apradonite]

workplace christmas party

(surface lore under cut)

Back on the surface, Alexis Kane’s god-given name was Virginia Wulff – and instead of a lavish underwater penthouse, she lived in a dingy old studio in Jersey City. Going door-to-door and living paycheck-to-paycheck, her last place of employment was a location for a telephone production company, where she worked as one of their many smiling salesmen. It was as much of a road block as her other sales gigs were, but as the war came to an end and women were kicked out of the workforce in droves, there weren’t a whole lot of options. Selling overpriced rotaries to schmucks had to do.

Still, Wulff was always an ambitious woman, and even the jail cell of a dead-end job couldn't keep that locked in. She worked her ass off day and night, and eventually became one of the best salespeople in the company’s location. She won’t bring up the occasional tampered sales report or faking invoices with outside friends. It didn't matter how meager the achievement was in the grand scheme of things, just that she was the best at something for once.

McNamara worked in the office while Wulff was peddling in neighborhoods, so their interactions were minimal. Wulff knew her as more gentle and sweet compared to some of the others, but she never knew her much deeper than that. Never knew of any family, pets, or other friends she might’ve had. She saw her as a bit of a doormat then – hearing her regularly over-apologizing to customers that were obviously in the wrong – but she kept her mouth shut. McNamara didn’t have strong opinions on her either, but believed they had a generally cordial relationship. Unfortunately that was proven wrong in late 1947, when McNamara unexpectedly entered the office late at night while Kane was there “reworking” the numbers on another co-worker's report.

It was an accident; she didn’t mean to kill her. But she did mean to hit her over the head with a decorative vase during her panic.

She never checked her pulse. Not while she hauled the body and scraps of vase to her car, and not while she buried her in a shallow grave. Lying to the police was the easy part, but the Herculean task was managing the guilt months later. Admitting her murder wasn’t an option, but god knows she could only tell herself that she was just stepping on others to reach for the top so many times. She needed an out.

Her golden ticket was from accidentally eavesdropping on a couple of drunkards: An underwater utopia for people who want to escape from the economic and political perils of the surface. Somewhere a person could have a fresh start and others wouldn’t ask too many questions.

Wulff would’ve laughed at the idea in a normal situation. But a name change, a stolen recruitment letter, and a boat ride later, Alexis Kane left her baggage at the door to finally make a name for herself. Or did she?

[biscuitsofthesevenseas]

A Sea Cookie Hyperanalysis Post (Sugarteara/Wandercrab)

I couldn't think of a proper title. WARNING: Long.

Now, anyone who has at least seen/clicked on this blog before knows that the Ovenbreak sea cookies are my absolute favourites. I love them. However, making analyses tend to take a long time for me due to being a crippling literary perfectionist especially when it comes to characters I like, which may be why i ended up writing up this post waaay later than i intended to. Fashionably late too, as Wandercrab is now over a year old.....shoot.

But anyways, this analysis will be split over two posts. This first one will be mostly about Sugarteara, the next one Wandercrab. (For the sake of my sanity i am not confusing myself by bringing up Octopus here. They're going in the next chapter. ) There will be some mention of the Tower of Frozen Waves gang, but I wont be talking ahout them much. Mostly due to me generally not being as interested in them as much as the underwater guys.

Small note that I am not a media literacy wizard and may have interpreted some things wrong despite my research! I've tried making it as best as i can though, because not only is this a pretty self-indulgent post, but I kinda just... you know. Want the best for my lil guys. They deserve the best.

Anyways, moving on!!

The Role of Sea Fairy Cookie

First, I want to quickly talk about Sea Fairy. Because not only is she an interesting character, but she's also indirectly (or directly, if you interpret it that way) the reason this whole storyline happened in the first place.

Lore wise, she's probably one of the most interesting CROB legendaries (I specifically say CROB because I know that her lore in Kingdom is very different). She's constantly trying to escape the darkness trying to consume her, the curses inflicted upon her by an unknown higher power, all the while looking to the sky in search of hope. Misery lies in every corner of the ocean, to her. And when the threat of death and corruption is so near, it makes sense, actually. She fights fate already by simply staying alive. The moon, so close yet so far away, is the embodiment of the hope she's been searching for. The only source of light when the waters she calls home are darker than the night sky. The Tower of Frozen Waves is a symbol of escapism, yes, but also hope. Everything about her echoes hope. Because she has it rough, she truly does, but she'll suffer her fate again and again and countless more times so long as she lives and breathes.

Despite this all, she's also very willing to discard her hopes and dreams if it means her domain doesn't suffer as she does.

Which leads to events such as this happening:

Hmm Sea Fairy why are you all the way down in the deep ocean what happened here-

The Lost City of Sugarteara

An underwater city crafted from a legendary being's profound sorrow. A place that seemed radiant, almost a utopia, but in reality, the opposite was true. To the point where the being who held the grief had to keep herself captive in the city in order to not have the darkness seeping into the place spread to the rest of the ocean.

So if its fall was inevitable, then why did they make the city in the first place? We know the place didn't instantly materialise but was instead an active choice made by the founders, so why did they have so much faith in the pearl? Even knowing that the raw emotions of the divine was not something to be easily reckoned with?

And I think that this logic can be explained by the simple fact that Sea Fairy was, and still is, their god. She was the being who had sole and complete power over her domain and their home, the one who bestowed compassion to everyone throughout the seas. To them, a treasure with such connection to their god as the Sacred Pearl, was a blessing. And what better way to memorialise the Almighty Sea's fallen treasure than in the form of a civilisation? A place where everyone the pearl has blessed can come and celebrate it and the prosperity it brings?

However, no matter how much they protected, decorated and celebrated the place, the denizens could not hide that the city's existence was one of sorrow, just like its source, the pearl. The emotions of despair infused into the treasure were never meant to last forever, trying to keep it from deteriorating was impossible, and soon enough, the people realised this and they left. One by one, until the faith that had held the city together in the first place was suddenly on the verge of a devastating collapse, only delayed by the steadfast loyalty of two.

Now cut to a depressed crustacean leading two children (well, it is heavily debated as to whether Sorbet Shark is actually a child or not) and Wave Drop (another one of Sea Fairy's treasures, this time it's one of happiness and she left it on the tower as far away from the ocean as possible, while her treasure of misery was left to sink. Oh, symbolism, my best friend) down into the frozen city to save Sea Fairy from her fate once more, and also defeat the Very Evil Manta Ray trying to hold control over the city via the captive Sea Fairy. So really, all of their goals are being met here. There isn't much left of the city, apart from the buildings and sugar crystals, and they don't encounter much on their way to the temple.

Only thing is, the Very Evil Manta Ray speak Lobster had been doing pretty much consisted entirely of lies. Most of what they said at all in the cutscenes consisted entirely of lies, full stop. However, these were lies that Lobster themselves actually believed in a way. To them, they were the only one of the two left actually doing something to bring the denizens back. It didnt matter that it involved seemingly corrupting the one thing that held the place together, it just mattered that it did the job. To bring back the city's glory. Which is why they were surprised when Mocha Ray decided to oppose them. Surprised, hurt even, to the point where they genuinely believed she didn't actually want the people, and in turn, the city back. That she herself was the corrupted one. After all, one effort was better than what seemed to be nothing, so why prevent it from happening?

Peppermint and Sorbet don't know this however, for the better or for the worse, and when they eventually get into the temple (after a bit of experimentation with Wave Drop), they're met with Mocha Ray's iconic first appearance that, while iconic, also seems to play along with the lies they've been told about her.

Everything about this scene screams "villainous". The context behind it, the barriers, heck, even the lighting seems villainous here. The general mystery surrounding her as up to this point, the only information we know about her being the few words spoken by Lobster (the untrue ones as mentioned above). If the city was just as abandoned as they said it was, then why lock yourself up in one singular place? Why lock yourself up in what is basically the core of the city, the one place that dictates the city's existence? What else could you be doing there, other than scheming? Other than villainy? This mystery is what made the lies so easy to believe. We never saw Mocha's own side of the story, heck we never even saw HER up until now.

Which is why it comes as such a surprise when the two guardian's intentions seem to do a complete 180 when they both reach the pearl. The supposed villain ends up taking the good side, trying to protect Sea Fairy, and in turn, the entire ocean from harm, and the supposed hero takes the other. They then proceed to fight to the death, with Mocha Ray being overpowered, until Sea Fairy manages to come back to her senses and quickly eradicates the city (which was directly linked to both of their powers, but I'd say it definitely affected Lobster's more. I mean, they lost their claw. Again. It's a bit of a stretch to say Mocha's powers were directly influenced by the city at all, since it has been showed she kept them even after Sugarteara. )

But one thing I want to quickly talk about is the dynamics between the two. They're complete opposites. In personality, in morals, their roles in the story, they're on opposite sides of the spectrum on almost everything. Even design. (I think the fact that if you inverse their colours they end just having the other's ones was very intentional.) They literally could not be more different if not for one thing - the fact that they were both guardians of the same city. A similarity that shouldn't have as much impact as it does. The fact that these two, despite having their different reasons, were still the only ones who actually stayed until the end. They both were the only citizens who didn't leave on their own accord and actually had it taken away from them, unlike literally everyone else. And weirdly enough, that makes them more similar and intertwined than most of the characters in the entire franchice. Sugarteara is just like that.

But that's where the similarities end. Because even though they are both left with practically nothing by the end, they have some VERY different reactions to this whole situation.

Mocha Ray is surprisingly unfazed. Calm. Which is a bit uncalled for as she is the one who almost died in that. And when such an important place to her had suddenly been lost, you'd think there would be a small amount of grief. But no. Instead, she immediately looks to the future and eagerly tells everyone about her plans. And admits that maybe the city was doomed from the start. In a way, she's sort of facing her own fate head on, like Sea Fairy. (which by the way, their dynamic is hella interesting too because well, Mocha at this point is most likely Sea Fairy's biggest worshipper. She lived in the city crafted from and dedicated to one of Sea Fairy's treasures, and lived the best part of her life in the temple as a priestess specifically while also being one of the last denizens left before the whole destruction happened. And she was definitely the last one who still believed in Sea Fairy's will to keep the treasure and the city alive. The tremendous influence is showing here and I love it.)

She carries on, fully knowing rebuilding a city that in her eyes is just as beautiful as the place she left will take a long, long time. Despite having almost no remnants of a plan on how to get there. I say almost none, because her plan at the end of this is to find Lobster, who seems to have entirely disappeared (We will get to this later). You know, the guy who almost killed her?? The one who attempted to corrupt Sea Fairy with the darkness in the first place???? What the heck??

But in Mocha's perspective, it makes sense. Because she knows they are quite literally the only other person with the same goal as her. It also helps that despite moving on (somewhat) fairly quickly, she's also stuck in the past, and I would say almost as rigid as, if not more rigid than Lobster. Because at least Lobster's viewpoint of a person can change, hence the whole switch up with Mocha Ray. But Mocha still sees Lobster as a good person who is simply misguided, because of how they were back when the city thrived. So rigid, but in an hopeful way that could be confused as blind trust, but it really isn't that. Naivety? Maybe.

Its just a bit too bad, seeing how Lobster is her foil and all, because on their side of the story....

Yeah. That. The weirdly ominous scene where we find out that the plan to corrupt Sea Fairy via the pearl was not their own. Instead, that can be credited to the aptly named Eerie Anglerfish (who just so happens to be a messenger-type creature made by Dark Enchantress. It's unknown whether this is just a random fish corrupted and turned into a spy for evil, or whether this is the voice of DE herself.) But the reason I say it's aptly named is.. well.... look at the way it convinces Lobster to carry on.

Manipulation at its finest. The way this is worded makes me think that, no, makes me sure that Eerie Anglerfish was watching Lobster for a long while before making a move. I mean, there was lots of time, and there would've been more if Lobster didn't try and corrupt the pearl. Watching, of course, to try and bring Sea Fairy to the darkness. She seemed like the easiest target to DE as well, too hopeless and pathetic to protect herself, but powerful enough to have some sort of value. And as always, with a being such as her, there will be followers. Even DE had some. Now they were indeed loyal and would follow her every order, but there weren't any that could traverse the seas, and her goal was to conquer all of Earthbread, was it not? Including the domain of the lonely ocean. How? Via the lonely ocean legendary. Where? In the lonely ocean city. The only way to do this, however, was to recruit a new member, one who could access the domain which wouldve been unpassable to any of her other servants. And to DE's surprise, when the time came to strike, there only seemed to be two to pick from. Perfect.

Mocha Ray was out of the question. Despite being the closest to Sea Fairy, she most likely never even met the angler, because for a start, the temple, where she permanently resided was filled with barriers and traps of her own making. But even if the angler could get to her, she would absolutely not be convinced. Because as mentioned earlier, she is Sea Fairy's biggest worshipper, and would more likely kill the angler than be swayed. Mocha ray, following Dark Enchantress? Nope. Not happening. Non. Nada.

So that just leaves one. Lobster. Surprisingly easy to manipulate seeing that they had practically the same amount of loyalty to the city as Mocha, despite it showing in drastically different ways. And in those opposite ways lies opposite chances. Watching the two guardians fall apart, latching onto one was a piece of cake. Playing around with falling loyalty and watching it slowly dissipate as the target loses trust in the being meant to protect them? Easy.

When compared to the indiscernable mind of the temple keeper, the crystal-clawed sentinel's thoughts could be read like a book.

All she had to do, for them to join her, was provide a remedy. A cure for the dying, sacred city.

And with the plans of Dark Enchantress, the remedy was not going to work anyhow. It was never going to restore the glorious city, only conjure a twisted version of what was once a place of radiance. It didn't need Sea Fairy to fail. But she wasn't expecting it to end this way either. So she did the only thing she could possible do, without losing this newfound follower.

Another remedy. Another cure. Sugarteara was gone, so where else could they go? And the city would be revived. Back to its rightful glory, with newfound powers and a leader they could actually trust.

All of this, with one small condition. Their loyalty.

An offer they could not refuse.

TO BE CONTINUED !!!

This is the end of the first half of my hyperanalysis! (This took way longer to write than I intended, almost two months of pure procrastination) The wandercrab sector will probably arrive three years late if I'm being honest (just like the actual update), but I had a lot of fun writing this! If you actually got to the end then thank you for being one of the people actually interested enough in my words!!

Until next time!

[randomvideogametournaments]

Horror Game Protagonist Bracket: Round 1 Match 11

Character Info:

James Sunderland: The protagonist of Silent Hill 2. An average store clerk, James is a depressed man who lost his wife, Mary, 3 years ago to a terminal illness. He received a letter from the assumed dead Mary, telling him to go to the town of Silent Hill.

Source: Silent Hill Wiki

Jack: The faceless protagonist of BioShock. After being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, he finds himself in the underwater city of Rapture, where it's utopia-seeming entrance quickly turns out to be nothing but a façade.

Source: BioShock Wiki

[brinaarcadia]

SOFIA LAMB

"Utopia is not a place... but a people. It will exist the moment we are fit to occupy it."

Sofia Lamb is both an Oxford-educated psychiatrist and philosophical idealist. She was brought to Rapture to counsel the populace. Her worldviews were shaped by her experiences aiding the survivors of the nuclear blast of Hiroshima. She herself was very near the blast, but miraculously survived - only to find that everyone she had met for the past several years was dead.

The US justification for the bombing - the "greater good" - was a perversion off her own beliefs. She believes that genetic biases toward the self have doomed the surface world, and so she sought refuge in the underwater city of Rapture.

Her intent in joining Ryan's great experiment was to transform the closed society into an enlightened one through psychiatry - ultimately to abolish human suffering amongst the Utopian. Her daughter, Eleanor, was raised in isolation from other children, intended as a genius-level intellect trained to promote Lamb's philosophy. An underground religion began to form around her, born out of the city's disenfranchised, and Lamb took full advantage of it.

But Lamb's collectivist ideals conflicted directly with those of Andrew Ryan, and she mysteriously vanished during the Fall of Rapture. Later, she crossed paths with Subject Delta, murdering Eleanor's beloved bodyguard in order to retrieve her from his care.

Now that Ryan and Fontaine are gone, Lamb has returned - and it seems she has a new plan for Rapture...

[obscure-horror-game-protagonist]

BEST OBSCURE(?) HORROR GUY, ROUND 1

SUMMARIES:

Clancy Jarvis (Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage) - Clancy was the newest member of the Sewer Gators, a paranormal investigation group responsible for a moderately successful Internet series by the same name. As his first assignment, he was to work as the cameraman for the group as they investigated the Dulvey Haunted House, only to lose sight of his coworker Andre within the abandoned building. After finding Andre's corpse, Clancy awoke in a room with his other coworker, Peter, only to then witness Peter be decapitated. Afterwards, Clancy awakes in a basement and is hunted by Jack Baker and monsters made of a mold-like substance, then he awakes in a bedroom where he is forced to escape from Marguerite Baker, then he awakes in a shed where he is forced to play a life-or-death game of blackjack, before finally awaking at a birthday party scavenger hunt, where he is brutally burned to death after the cake explodes. Most notable trait: The ability to eat rotten meat and mold until he dies, if you so wish.

Simon Jarrett (SOMA) - Simon Jarrett was a Torontonian comic book store employee who, after sustaining severe brain trauma in a car accident that cut his life expectancy down to mere months, volunteered for an experimental form of brain scan that had the potential to vastly extend his life, or at least improve his quality of life for the time he had left. The scan, while being fully comprehensive and effectively a form of cloning, ended up putting Simon in critical condition. This created a divide, where "Simon 1", the original Simon, lived the last months of his life, eventually dying on his death bed, while "Simon 2", the brain scan, lived on. 100 years later, "Simon 2" awakens within the PATHOS-II facility, an underwater research facility, and has to do "Some Amnesia shit idk the game is a spiritually successor" with the help of another brain-scan person named Catherine, who resides in a handheld device that Simon 2 carries around. At one point, Simon 2 transfers himself in what he believes is going to be a "brain" transplant, only to realize he has effectively cloned himself once more, and is now "Simon 3." Simon 3 is given the option to either kill Simon 2 or spare him (undertale) and Simon 3 eventually does one last brain scan to effectively clone himself aboard "The ARK", so that Simon 4 may live in a utopia. Simon 3 is forced to spend the rest of his existence underwater, and Simon 2 is either dead or alive depending on player choice, while Simon 1 died 100 years ago in Canada. Most notable trait: Based on his appearance, personality and profession, he really seems like he would have been a YouTuber in 2009.

[realmsofgames]

Bioshock 1 and 2 Review

Underwater is one of the best themes for any setting or story. The best X-Com game is terror from the deep. Because its underwater. Building an art-deco late 19th/early 20th century American planned city at the bottom of the ocean is so supremely wicked and should be impossible to fuck up. In BioShock you fuck around in the most mediocre repetitive levels engaging in the most mediocre repetitive gameplay while you're told a mediocre story about the contradictions that led to the downfall of a libertarian utopia and your role in it. Repeatedly. They made a mostly unfun game with a novel setting that is used to, we ESTIMATE, 20% of its maximum potential. They got a second chance and made the exact same game. 16 hours of the same thing. In two they push a more engaging anti-utopian angle which could have been good, but rather than presenting an interesting idea about what might be done to better society or pointing out something interesting about people driven by utopian ambitions, you get some actual utopian hippy shit about like, being a good person I guess. The other message people definitely discern from this sort of empty, seemingly, anti-utopian shit is just some TINA capitalist realism garbage, which is evil. What the fuck is up with the parental angle? It lacks any substance that I can discern at all. There's also some shallow drivel about free will and self-awareness. What am I a 14 year old?

High Minded Take of the Review: A bunch of kids (including adult gamers(kids)) who were unloved by their parents were enthralled with the idea of being the parent that they didn't have. They didn't know about foreshadowing yet so the dumb plot points the developers presented as twists were moving. They were moved by extremely vague themes that they'd never experienced before. Free will, utopia, forgiveness, family, and anything else those idiots thought they could jam in there. They got to be a wicked guy in a suit using magic and murking fuckers with firearms in a cool city. Those kids loved this game for those reasons so as an adult you might get tricked into thinking these games were more than they are.

Rating: This game is fucking gay and the setting should have been used in some CRPG made by a homosexual man or woman born in the 60s. We give it 4 Mario mushrooms out of 10.

[pix4japan]

Ubara Island: A Diver’s Destination

Location: Otaki Town, Chiba Prefecture, Japan Timestamp: 09:49・2024/07/10

Pentax K-1 II + DFA 28-105mm F3.5-5.6 + CP + 10-stop ND filter 73 mm ISO 100 for 3.0 sec. at ƒ/5.6

From the scenic vantage point at the end of the Ubara Utopia Trail, you can gaze out over the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean to the tiny Ubara Island. This idyllic spot off the coast of Myojin Cape is a popular destination for scuba divers and snorkelers alike.

Whether you're a seasoned diver or new to the underwater world, Ubara Island offers a delightful blend of beauty and biodiversity that promises to captivate and inspire underwater adventurers.

Access details and sources for further reading available in my full write-up, (1-minute read): https://www.pix4japan.com/blog/20240710-dive

[rittzbuilds]

Freckles' underwater utopia~

[adventure-showdown]

What is the greatest Doctor Who story ever told?

Everything has been split into groups of 32 that I think are of similar levels of notoritiy, but likely not popularity. Seeding within the groups decides the matches. At the end of the round groups are paired up and mashed together to do it all again.

What that means right now is the order the matches below are listed in has no baring on what they'll be against in the next round

There will be 16 matches a day with Fridays off

Lastly, you can still submit propaganda for posts here

ROUND 1

ROUND 2

Day 16

The Metaphysical Engine or What Quill Did vs Alien Avatar

The Last Oak Tree vs Dead Man Walking

Black Hunger vs Dream-Eaters

From Out of the Rain vs Detained

A Day in the Death vs Nightvisiting

Fragments vs Taphony of the Time Loop

Lost Library of Ukko vs The Custodians

Sirens of Ceres vs Children of Earth

K9 and Company vs Regeneration/Liberation/The Korven

Mutant Copper vs Reset

For Tonight We Might Die vs The Lost

Miracle Day vs The Cambridge Spy

Mind Snap/Angel of the North/Last Precinct/Hound of the Korven/Eclipse of the Korven vs Fear Itself

Exit Wounds vs Something Borrowed

Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart/Brave-ish Heart vs Oroborus

The Fall of the House of Gryffen vs The Curse of Anubis

previous and future days under the cut - unfortunately i've had to get rid of the links because there were too many and the post broke, however they are all tagged #round 2

Day 1

The Mind Robber vs Galaxy 4

The Moonbase vs The Daleks' Master Plan

The Evil of the Daleks vs The Space Museum

The Gunfighters vs The Macra Terror

The Dalek Invasion of Earth vs The Celestial Toymaker

The Reign of Terror vs The Daleks

The Rescue vs The Ice Warriors TIE

The Ark vs the Romans

The Tenth Planet vs The Web Planet

An Unearthly Child vs The War Machines

The Invsion vs The Keys of Marinus

The Underwater Menace vs The Aztecs

The Edge of Destruction vs The Massacre

The Sensorites vs The Seeds of Death

The Chase vs Marco Polo

Planet of Giants vs The Time Meddler

Day 2

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances vs Love and Monsters

Human Nature/The Family of Blood vs The End of the World

The Waters of Mars vs The End of Time

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit vs Fires of Pompeii

Blink vs The Unquiet Dead

Boom Town vs Utopia

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday vs Father's Day

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks vs Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways

Dalek vs New Earth

Rose vs Planet of the Ood

The Runaway Bride vs The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky

The Girl in the Fireplace vs Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Partners in Crime vs The Christmas Invasion

School Reunion vs The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

The Unicorn and the Wasp vs The Sound of Drums/Last of Time Lords

Tooth and Claw vs Midnight

Day 3

A Death in the Family vs The Eleven

Ship in a Bottle vs Blood of the Daleks

Albie's Angels vs Phobos

No More Lies vs UNIT Dating

Horror of Glam Rock vs Companion Piece

The Grey Man in the Mountain vs The Love Vampires

Human Resources vs The Widow's Assassin

The Company of Friends: Izzy's Story vs The Side of the Angels

Day of the Master vs The Crucible of Souls

1963: The Assassination Games vs The Red Lady

Stranded vs The Sonomancer TIE

The Doomsday Chronometer vs The Silver Turk

Absent Friends vs The Eighth Piece

Paradox of the Daleks vs Better Watch Out/Fairytale in Salzburg

Inside Every Warrior vs Robophobia

Stop the Clock vs To the Death

Day 4

The War Games vs The Abominable Snowmen

The Sea Devils vs The Time Warrior

The Time Monster vs Fury from the Deep

The Tomb of the Cybermen vs Terror of the Autons

The Three Doctors vs The Ambassadors of Death

The Highlanders vs The Power of the Daleks

Doctor Who and the Silurians vs Carnival of Monsters

The Faceless Ones vs The Daemons

The Enemy of the World vs The Monster of Peladon

The Mind of Evil vs Frontier in Space TIE

The Claws of Axos vs Inferno

Spearhead from Space vs The Ark in Space TIE

The Horns of Nimon vs The Seeds of Doom

Planet of the Spiders vs The Web of Fear

Colony in Space vs The Green Death

Invasion of the Dinosaurs vs The Curse of Peladon

Day 5

Vincent and the Doctor vs Closing Time

The Snowmen vs The Beast Below

The Doctor's Daughter vs The Rings of Akhaten

Vampires of Venice vs The Doctor's Wife

Gridlock vs A Town Called Mercy

The Wedding of River Song vs Amy's Choice

The Girl Who Waited vs Time of the Doctor

Hide vs Smith and Jones

The Eleventh Hour vs Curse of the Black Spot

A Christmas Carol vs The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone

A Good Man Goes to War vs Name of the Doctor

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship vs The God Complex

Day of the Doctor vs Asylum of the Daleks

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood vs The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel vs 42

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS vs Turn Left

Day 6

The Lumiat vs A Spoonful of Masters

Nightshade vs Rhys and Ianto's Excellent Barbecue

Solitaire vs Paradise 5

Serenity vs The Last Post

No Place vs The Hollow King

Warfare vs Square One

The Cars that Ate London! vs Out of Time

Iterations of I vs A Full Life

I am the Master vs Forever Fallen

The Creeping Death vs Expiry Dating

Peshka vs The Forgotten Village

First Days of Phaidon vs The Scorchies

Gallifrey IV vs The Queen of Time

Wink vs Death and the Queen

Too Many Masters vs Peri and the Piscon Paradox

The Concrete Cage vs The Fifth Citadel

Day 7

City of Death vs The Creature From the Pit

The Key to Time vs The Ribos Operation

The Keeper of Traken vs The Masque of Mandragora

Image of the Fendahl vs The Brain of Morbius

The Horror of Fang Rock vs The Armageddon Factor

Terror of the Zygons vs Mawdryn Undead

The Sunmakers vs The Androids of Tara

The Sontaran Experiment vs The Pirate Planet

Genesis of the Daleks vs Destiny of the Daleks

Warriors' Gate vs The Invasion of Time

The Stones of Blood vs The Hand of Fear

The Leisure Hive vs State of Decay

Logopolis vs Robot

Full Circle vs The Face of Evil

The Deadly Assassin vs Pyramids of Mars

Meglos vs The Robots of Death

Day 8

Heaven Sent vs Cold War

Under the Lake/Before the Flood vs The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion

Flatline vs The Return of Doctor Mysterio

The Angels Take Manhattan vs Dark Water/Death in Heaven

The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar vs Empress of Mars

Smile vs Extremis

Hell Bent vs Knock Knock

The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People vs The Husbands of River Song

Mummy on the Orient Express vs The Power of Three

Twice Upon a Time vs Listen

Face the Raven vs The Eaters of Light

Robot of Sherwood vs The Pilot

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang vs The Girl Who Died

The Pyramid at the End of the World vs Oxygen

Time Heist vs Deep Breath

The Lodger vs World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls

Day 9

The Bekdel Test vs The Blood Cell

Human Nature vs Doctor Who and Shada (fan novelisation)

The Book of the War vs The City of the Dead

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street vs The Stranger

Mad Dogs and Englishmen vs The Crooked World

Anachrophobia vs Alien Bodies

Harvest of Time vs Interference

The Blue Angel vs Vampire Science

Lungbarrow vs The Turing Test

Oh No It Isn't vs The Eleven Day Empire/The Shadow Play

Living Legend vs The Gallifrey Chronicles

Engines of War vs The Year of Intelligent Tigers

Scratchman vs The Scarlet Empress

Psychodrome vs Camera Obscura

This Town Will Never Let Us Go vs Unnatural History

The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 vs A Photograph to Remember

Day 10

The Caves of Androzani vs Warriors of the Deep

Revelation of the Daleks vs Paradise Towers

Snakedance vs The Mysterious Planet

The Visitation vs Ghost Light

Survival vs The King's Demons

Black Orchid vs Battlefield

Planet of Fire vs Frontios

Attack of the Cybermen vs Enlightenment

The Curse of Fenric vs Mindwarp

Terror of the Vervoids vs The Mark of the Rani

Kinda vs Trial of a Time Lord

The Two Doctors vs Earthshock

The Five Doctors vs The Ultimate Foe

Terminus vs Vengeance on Varos

Castrovalva vs Ressurection of the Daleks

Delta and the Bannermen vs Remembrance of the Daleks

Day 11

Whatever Happened to Sarah-Jane? vs Kerblam!

Flux vs The Caretaker

Eve of the Daleks vs Revolution of the Daleks

Praxeus vs Last Christmas

Village of the Angels vs Revenge of the Slitheen

The Ghost Monument vs War of the Sontarans

Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror vs Resolution

The Tsuranga Conundrum vs The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Demons of the Punjab vs Eye of the Gorgon

The Halloween Apocalypse vs Rosa

The Woman Who Fell to Earth vs Once, Upon TIme

Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children vs Spyfall

The Power of the Doctor vs Can You Hear Me?

Invasion of the Bane vs Fugitive of the Judoon

It Takes You Away vs The Witchfinders

Arachnids in the UK vs Thin Ice

Day 12

Downtime vs Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

Dalek Weetabix advert vs The Fallen

Divided Loyalties vs The Land of Happy Endings

Summoned by Shadows vs Space in Dimension Relative and Time

More than a Messiah vs Step Into the 80s/On Through the 80s

Famine Appeal vs The Devil of Winerborne

Unnatural Selection vs Lepidometry for Beginners

Ground Zero vs Merry Christmas Doctor Who

The Zero Imperative vs When to Die

Fear Itself vs 12 Doctors, 12 Stories

Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough vs The Room With All the Doors

The Terror Game vs Eye of the Beholder

Old Friends vs In Memory Alone

Wall's Sky Ray lollies advert vs Nothing at the End of the Lane

Something Borrowed vs The Flood

The World Shapers vs The Star Beast

Day 13

The Chimes of Midnight vs Minuet in Hell

The Holy Terror vs Spare Parts

The Happiness Patrol vs The Company of Friends: Benny's Story

Dragonfire vs The Company of Friends: Fitz's Story

Doctor Who and the Pirates vs Singularity

The Condemned vs The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

The Girl Who Never Was vs Neverland

Other Lives vs Caerdroia

Scherzo vs The Company of Friends: Mary's Story

Jubilee vs The TV Movie

The Harvest vs Seasons of Fear

Terror Firma vs Storm Warning

Zagreus vs Arrangements of War

Master vs The Natural History of Fear

The Marian Conspiracy vs The Apocalyse Element

Loups-Garoux vs The Kingmaker

Day 14

Death of the Doctor vs The Gift

Lost in Time vs The Mark of the Berserker

Small Worlds vs Secrets of the Stars

Sleeper vs Everything Changes

Countrycide vs To the Last Man

They Keep Killing Suzie vs Out of Time

Cyberwoman vs The Nightmare Man

Combat vs The Temptation of Sarah-Jane Smith

The Wedding of Sarah-Jane Smith vs The Empty Planet

Random Shoes vs Adam

Goodbye, Sarah-Jane Smith vs The Mad Woman in the Attic

Prisoner of the Judoon vs Ghost Machine

The Curse of Clyde Langer vs The Lost Boy

The Last Sontaran vs Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Sky vs The Day of the Clown

Mona Lisa's Revenge vs Captain Jack Harkness

Day 15

Time Crash vs Tardisodes

Dreamland vs Dr Who and the Daleks

Shada (webcast with 8) vs The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later

Ronald Rat Continuity Announcement vs Pond Life

P.S. vs The Shrink

The Daleks' Invasion of Earth 2150AD vs Doctorin' the TARDIS

Farewell, Sarah-Jane vs The Infinite Quest

Shada (1992 version with linking narration) vs An Adventure in Space and Time

Night of the Doctor vs The Doctor's Meditiation

Real Time vs Dimensions in Time

Clara and the TARDIS vs The Great Detective

Rain Gods vs Scream of the Shalka

Doctor in Distress vs Space Time

Night and the Doctor vs The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Shada (2017 animated reconstruction) vs Born Again

Search Out Space vs The Curse of Fatal Death