#unfortunately the arc doesn’t exactly match all the symbolism but

[slitheringghost]

A narrative thread I find interesting is Family As Teachers and how characters influence and mirror each others’ abilities in familial dynamics - particularly in sibling/"twin" dynamics - which is fitting in a society where children’s magical education seems entirely controlled by their families until age 11 when they start Hogwarts and intermittently afterward. This theme is reflected in Ollivander’s words in DH while discussing the mystery of the twin cores and general wandlore with Harry:

"The best results [...] always come where there is the strongest affinity between wizard and wand. These connections are complex. An initial attraction, and then a mutual quest for experience, the wand learning from the wizard, the wizard from the wand"

You even have the three Peverell brothers inventing the three Hallows together to conquer death

Fred and George - as the actual siblings/twins, the most in tune - drop out and invent Weasley's Wheezes together, shared sense of humor via a literal Joke Shop. They find the Marauders' Map ("This little beauty’s taught us more than all the teachers in this school"). This twin duo sometimes turns into a trio - see post about Hermione’s contributions to their inventions in my meta Hermione As Teacher and Connections to Lily (who eventually joins the Weasley family, so like a sister to them); and additionally the twins’ best friend Lee Jordan helping them:

Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko’s merchandise Fred and George appeared finally to have perfected one type of Skiving Snackbox, which they were taking turns to demonstrate to a cheering and whooping crowd […] Lee Jordan, who was assisting the demonstration, was lazily vanishing the vomit at regular intervals with the same Vanishing Spell Snape kept using on Harry’s potions. (OoTP)

George then mentions utilizing Vanishing into their fireworks: (“Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next…They multiply by ten every time you try”). Snape’s skill at Vanishing ties to dynamic with Mcgonagall as she’s shown teaching 5th years Vanishing Spells in OoTP, and later in the book LV’s emphasized as weaker in Conjuration with his conjured shield, unsurprising given Dumbledore was his Transfiguration teacher.

THE MARAUDERS - James and Sirius collaborate on the Marauders' Map (with Remus; shared sense of humor built into it via insulting Snape), two-way mirrors called "twin" mirrors in DH; James's wand is "excellent for Transfiguration", he's a confirmed prodigy and Sirius is equal to him - both Animagi, McGonagall's favorites ("Both very bright, of course—exceptionally bright"), Sirius goes "I don’t need to look at that rubbish, I know it all" re: Transfiguration textbook; looking to create a new identity from his family's Dark magic, Sirius's interest in Transfiguration likely stemmed from James. Equal in DADA (finish the OWL early, "I’ll be surprised if I don’t get Outstanding on it at least" "Me too"), hex people together.

Remus - Dark Creatures interest from his father (Lyall was "a world-renowned authority on Non-Human Spiritous Apparitions" such as "poltergeists, Boggarts and other strange creatures") shown in Remus with Peeves and the Boggart lesson. A possible hint of Remus and Tonks friendship affecting her interests - Tonks helping with a "murderous old ghoul lurking in a toilet" in 12GP.

THE BLACK FAMILY - the Blacks are all brilliant. Sirius and Bellatrix are mirrored in battle implying Bella taught him and/or they dueled together - a connection transferred to Sirius mirroring James and Remus in combat ("Then, with identical fluid movements, they reached into their back pockets" in the prequel; "Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands" in PoA). Same weapons: Knives - Sirius slashes the Fat Lady and tries to stab rat!Peter, gifts a penknife that opens any lock to Harry; Bellatrix tortures Hermione and murders Dobby with a knife (potentially they keep them handy for blood magic - "rusty daggers" in 12GP nearby the crystal bottle of blood).

Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Regulus can all occlude LV and Bella trains Draco. Sirius knows a lot about Dark Arts and Harry's curse scar from the horcrux, Regulus identifies LV's horcrux, Bella is LV's Dark Arts student and given a horcrux.

Sirius and Orion - Orion warded Grimmauld Place, adding "every security measure known to Wizardkind", made it "Unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call"; Sirius maybe used his family's magic on the Map (a tool in part to make Hogwarts safe from teen DEs, and I HC Sirius worked on it most, as Hogwarts was also a home and escape from 12GP to him), role as Secret Keeper, offers GP as safehouse to the Order, undoes its enchantments to let halfblood Harry inherit. Sirius and Walburga both use the Permanent Sticking Charm - Walburga to terrorize and scream bigotry, Sirius to flaunt his differing politics with Muggle stuff.

I HC Bellatrix invented some Dark artifacts in 12GP - the "unpleasant-looking silver instrument, like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scuttled up Harry’s arm like a spider when he picked it up and attempted to puncture his skin" which Sirius smashes with Nature’s Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy (fits Harry and Sirius's interaction with Bella later in OoTP) and the "musical box that emitted a faintly sinister, tinkling tune when wound”, making them all "curiously weak and sleepy" until Ginny shuts the lid - placed right next to Merope's locket (esp. as Sirius’s words after this passage parallel Bellatrix in DH). Raised as the heir, Bellatrix likely had similar training and skill in wards as Sirius.

Bellatrix and Voldemort - paralleled in combat ("Bellatrix was still fighting too, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she dueled three at once"), both Legilimens. Her speech about the Dark Arts and learning "spells of such power" while teaching him the Unforgivable curses - she's likely as skilled as LV in inventing curses.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald - "just as precociously brilliant", "even after they’d spent all day in discussion — both such brilliant young boys, they got on like a cauldron on fire", "at last, my brother had an equal to talk to, someone just as bright and talented as he was". Twin imagery with Grindelwald as hilariously described like Fawkes.

Next-door neighbors, knew each other only for a few months, yet Grindelwald’s ideas "caught and inflamed him", Dumbledore’s "ideas helped Grindelwald rise to power". Collaborate on the fascism and Deathly Hallows quest, but not Dark Arts (vs. Snape and Lily share the Dark Arts experimentation but not the fascism). Both on the same level in dueling, can conceal themselves without a Cloak.

Bathilda Bagshot - Dumbledore's Mother Figure/teacher, "impressed by his paper on trans-species transformation in Transfiguration Today" which Dumbledore's shown reading, so she presumably mentored him in Transfiguration, clearly a favorite field (While Dumbledore had few close friends, McGonagall's maybe the closest equivalent to a female friend; echoes Snape with Eileen and Lily).

Elphias Doge - met at 11 on their first day at Hogwarts, "Our mutual attraction was undoubtedly due to the fact that we both felt ourselves to be outsiders". They "intended to take the then-traditional tour of the world together, visiting and observing foreign wizards, before pursuing our separate careers".

While the pair are said to not be intellectually on par, Dumbledore's interests clearly influenced Doge, also implied in Doge writing “his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me in later life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.”

Doge on his travels mentions "experiments of Egyptian alchemists" and "escapes from chimaeras in Greece" (fire-breathing lion, goat, serpent hybrid) - echoing Dumbledore as a "Gold Medal-Winner for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo" and interest in certain magical creatures and associations with fire (Fawkes, dragon's blood uses, "trans-species transformation" research, bewitches a branch of Gubraithian "everlasting" fire which is Charms related, the Deluminator as a cigarette lighter).

Nicolas Flamel - Dumbledore's Chocolate Card notes his "work on alchemy with his partner Flamel" inventor of the Philosophers' Stone (colored “blood-red”) who taught teen Dumbledore; Dumbledore later enchants the Stone and links it to the Mirror of Erised (only one who wanted to find but not use it could get it, or they’d be shown making gold or drinking Elixir of Life). Albus also means "white", after an alchemy principle.

Marchbanks who examined him in Transfiguration and Charms N.E.W.T.s says he "did things with a wand I’d never seen before", won the "Exceptional Spell-Casting award"; published papers in Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions journals - linked more with wand magic fields.

Snape and Voldemort - From his words in HBP (disdain at Mundungus for not being a real Inferius), Snape likely learned necromancy with LV and enchanted Inferi during the First War (fitting to his vampire vibes).

Potions - LV uses "old piece of Dark Magic" rebirth potion; creates the Rudimentary Body Potion of snake venom, unicorn blood, spells of his own invention. Snape's Potions speech in PS - "the power of liquids that creep through human veins" (reference to potions with human blood?).

LV invents the Drink of Despair, Snape modifies the Elixir to Induce Euphoria (and assigns a dementor essay). Snape’s knowledge of poisons (logic puzzle, undetectable poisons essay, etc) and the bezoar trick as antidote, Tom poisons Hepzibah with a "lethal and little known" poison that passes for sugar to frame a house-elf who can’t carry a wand. Riddle petrifies students with the basilisk, Snape brews Mandrake Restorative Draught for basilisk victims (mandrakes heal transfigured or cursed victims, "an essential part of most antidotes").

LV curses the Gaunt ring, Snape heals that curse (golden potion and countercurse, collaborating with Dumbledore). LV turns the locket into a horcrux, Snape heals Katie Bell from the cursed necklace. LV curses the DADA job and the curse on his name, Snape invents Sectumsempra. LV the most accomplished Legilimens; Snape the most skilled Occlumens (and a skilled Legilimens). LV adds a concealed entrance on the Locket Cave/symbolic Gaunt shack, Snape renovates Spinner's End with two hidden doors (both in locations related to their Muggle childhoods).

Snape and Lily - to a large extent it makes sense that their magical abilities and interests align even more closely than any other duo save the Weasley twins, because they played the role of "family training" for each other for 2+ years. Both outsiders and ambitious with magic as their way out, Lily's joy at magic and Snape views it as an escape from home, closest to siblings living in the same town. Snape's keen on sharing everything (esp. if raised with an idea of how training works in magical families), Lily on knowing everything (and seems to be following Snape's lead on the magical world in a lot of ways).

Eileen clearly taught Snape a lot about wizarding society and I assume some magic, has all her school textbooks and likely some Prince family books/knowledge, with Dark Arts and Potions specialties, which Snape passed onto Lily. But Eileen either wasn't as gifted or intellectual as her son (we only know she's Captain of Gobstones) and/or just too neglectful for the connection to go far.

Snape tells Lily "you’d better be in Slytherin" in the scene he tells James "if you’d rather be brawny than brainy" re: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, so he thinks Lily falls under "brainy".

Magical power - unsupported flight, Snape's a Legilimens and there's circumstantial evidence of Lily as one in the early memories.

As with J/S, Lily's wand predicts her mutual interest with her best friend/like-a-sibling (of course their main field as Potions which doesn't require much wandwork) - "Swishy, nice wand for charm work", the Prince invents Charms. They "swish and flick" in Charms (levitating feathers), associated with flight. If taking extracanon, willow's an uncommon wand wood with healing power, enables advanced nonverbal magic (Snape heals Dark magic/etc, invents nonverbal spells).

James and Sirius are wary of Lily's wand means she's a skilled duelist and has gotten into fights; Snape invents hexes. Given the theme of duel between brothers, dueling's traditional in magical families, so Snape and Lily likely practice dueled together too with similar methods (Legilimency in combat); though in application, unlike the Marauders at Hogwarts, they'd be fighting on opposite sides.

Slughorn describing the Prince's work as exactly like Lily's at every turn indicates it as collaborative as the above examples of duo inventions - "You’ve got nerve, boy", "That’s the individual spirit a real potion-maker needs", "Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration", "I really don’t know where you get these brain waves", "intuitive", "instinctive" "a natural" - aka she's creative, inventive, unafraid to take risks with and push the boundaries of magic.

The Prince's disdainful "just shove a bezoar down their throats"; Slughorn laughs at the bezoar, says it's exactly like Lily, gives house points "for sheer cheek" - implies Snape and Lily shared sense of humor often consisted of making fun of how purebloods view magic and incorporating their Muggle background into their methods (matches "as there is little foolish wand-waving here, you will hardly believe this is magic"). Snape's interest in poisons led to the bezoar trick which is Dark Arts related, so Lily knowing the same also implies her Dark Arts interest (of course Potions masters, Aurors, Healers, etc all study poisons, but I assume going deeper into it leads to more effective healing, as with Dark curses and cursebreaking skill on the Gaunt ring/etc).

Like Fred and George, Snape and Lily experiment and invent together constantly over summers - Petunia says Lily "came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats" (Potions, Transfiguration) and the Dursleys don't know Harry can't do magic over summers in CoS, an easy lie for Lily to keep up when doing magic often at Snape's house.

Snape evidently came prepared to impress Slytherins - per Sirius, he was always fascinated by Dark Arts, famous for it, knew more curses when he arrived than half the 7th years (likely showing off his knowledge vs. immediately cursing others). Snape's very aware of Muggleborn prejudice (hesitates before saying it makes no difference), yet was set on Lily being in Slytherin for 2.5 years pre-Hogwarts and groans when she's Sorted elsewhere, so sharing his Dark Arts interest with her fits that, expecting she'd need to "get in with the purebloods" along with him, which means making sure she knows as much as he does (see this post).

Snape at nine thinks Lily's the odd one for being fascinated by dementors:

"Tell me about the dementors again." "What d’you want to know about them for?" "If I use magic outside school —" "They wouldn’t give you to the dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban." (DH)

Cue Snape's monologue about the Dark Arts years later:

“The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal [...]" Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice? “Your defenses must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures [...] give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse” — he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony — “feel the Dementor’s Kiss” — a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall — “or provoke the aggression of the Inferius” — a bloody mass upon the ground. (HBP)

They absolutely mutually encouraged each other's interests in forbidden and Dark magic. Snape and Lily learn magic together, their magic individually and together parallels LV's the most, and they directly undo LV's own magic, Snape's instances even utilizing Potions.

Dumbledore expects Snape to immediately know Lily's work vanquished LV ("You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily’s son"), implying he knows Snape and Lily learned similar magic together and expects Snape to ~recognize Lily's style~. Converse to how he speaks to McGonagall the same (?) day:

"After all he’s done... all the people he’s killed... he couldn’t kill a little boy? It’s just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?" "We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know." (PS)

Lily and Sirius - Sirius is also knowledgeable about curses - knows the countercurse for the biting snuffbox (Wartcap Powder) and examines his hand "with interest"; suggests the Conjunctivitis Curse "as a dragon’s eyes are its weakest point" which Krum who was taught Dark Arts; often the one consulted regarding Harry's curse scar, recognizes Priori Incantatem, Harry writing to Sirius when he wants someone like a parent "who had experience with Dark Magic".

Sirius breaks Black family tradition in undoing wards/protections on 12GP (maybe manipulating a form of blood magic?) to let his halfblood not blood-related godson inherit and block DE Bellatrix out; and Lily creates blood wards that'd traditionally protect a pureblood family house to protect her Muggle family and eventually protects Harry. Mirroring Snape and Lily weaving their Muggle background in their magic, Sirius enchants Muggle objects like the motorbike (and creates an alternate method of flight).

When Harry says "You never heard her, did you? My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it" Sirius goes quiet, which may hint at specific knowledge that Lily vanquished LV (also a possible reason for Sirius rereading Lily’s letter in OoTP, when the Order’s trying to figure out what’s up with the prophecy and the Harry-Voldemort connection).

Harry and Ron - "In the end, he chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he’d have someone friendly to help him", write up absurd stories for Divination and make fun of Trelawney together. Harry and Hermione elaborated here.

Parvati and Lavender - Divination, both close with Trelawney (vs. Padma in a different house than her twin)

Moody and Tonks (who was "close to Mad-Eye" "his favorite and his protégée at the Ministry"), Bellatrix and Barty (if you accept he was her apprentice), Snape and Draco (“Draco’s favorite teacher”), Xenophilius and Luna - her family training consisting of... conspiracy theories, Luna first shown reading The Quibbler (Most likely Pandora Lovegood was a conspiracy theorist like her husband - "intellectual equals" - and died due to something like believing an explosive Erumpent horn was a Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn)

[bigmeatymudcrabchitins]

A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

[lenskij]

The worst Onegin I’ve ever seen

The Royal Swedish Opera, 2018. Director: Vasily Barkhatov

The picture above is the poster photo for the production. It shows what would happen if I ever meet the director responsible for it.

That’s also the duel.

Yes.

THE DUEL WAS A FISTFIGHT.

How did Lensky die, you ask? Oh, Eugene punched him and Lensky fell on top of a pile of logs (which luckily for the tenor were made of pillows) and died. And after the most emotionally devastating lines in the opera (”Is he dead?” “He’s dead”) the audience GIGGLED.

Mr. Director, sir, THAT’S NOT THE REACTION THE DUEL SCENE IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE. Sir, YOU MADE THE AUDIENCE LAUGH AT LENSKY’S DEATH! Sir, please tell me that wasn’t the reaction you were aiming for! Sir!!

I often say that Eugene Onegin is a comedy BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT. 

Look, I found a picture! *screams* I hate this so so much!

(Also that man in the pink dress and top hat is Triquet. Yes, they turned him into a man-in-a-dress joke... Bad.)

Act 3 was terrible too! I couldn’t find a picture of the set, so her’s a blurry screenshot from the trailer (the text says “indescribably sad” which YES that’s exactly how I feel about this!)

What’s happening in act 3, you wonder? Oh, it’s just the Gremins having a reception AT A TRAIN STATION. What??? Who on EARTH would host a reception at a train station? With random people walking about - well, they’ve closed off the area with a rope but still?? Wth??? And yes, one of the random people walking past the reception was our dear Eugene, who spotted Tatiana there.

I mean, a train station works well as a metaphor, y’know, as a symbol for Change and whatnot, except it felt more like a eyesore and/or punch in the face than a storytelling device. URGH.

And the final scene: the party has cleared out, and only Eugene and Tatiana was on stage. Tatiana had a suitcase, she was on her way to presumably catch a train with Gremin or whatever, and Eugene was begging her to stay. They eventually ended up fighting over the suitcase?? While singing about their pain and feelings?? To me, Tatiana didn’t feel conflicted at all about rejecting Eugene, which goes against what the music is telling us.

In general, I’m not against transforming an opera into a new setting. However these types of productions often seem to make something new just for the sake of novelty. This was definitely the case - this made a mess of Onegin instead of retelling the story. I remember I actually liked the first act, though unfortunately the memory is overshadowed by how much I hated the second and third acts. The setting had the vibes of the 20s or 30s, which we all know from Russian history was Not A Good Time for the aristocracy. Onegin is very much a story about the aristocracy (which is one of the reasons why it’s very difficult to move it into more modern times, where the aristocracy isn’t the same class as it was in the 19th century). And so, this setting could have worked: the Larins’ house had signs of past glamour, but now was laid bare, and the Larin women were trying to adjust to this new life. “Habit is given to us from above in place of happiness” - they would get used to that, eventually. The idealist Lensky fits here well, too: he’s a poet striving for a beautiful ideal that no longer exists. The dialogue between past and present is a theme I’ve seen in other productions of Onegin as well, because it does work really well with the story. 

This production, however, fell apart at the duel. It’s a pivotal point at the story - even if the main conflict is between Eugene and Tatiana, Lensky’s death is vital in defining Eugene’s arc, and if it’s done wrong, it messes everything up. It’s a completely different thing if Eugene killed Lensky intentionally, in cold blood, than if it was an accident. The duel is another key factor why it’s difficult to move Onegin from its original setting: there just isn’t any modern equivalent of duels, that have so clear-cut deadly and predetermined consequences. Boys still fight over girls, of course, but they can no longer challenge their rivals to a duel. If they did, they’d appear comical, and the rival wouldn’t lose any honor in declining. If the director’s intention was to make Lensky appear laughable, he very much succeeded. It’s another theme I’ve seen before: Lensky’s dreamy idealism is silly in the cold real world, reality has no place for poetry or beauty. However, Tchaikovsky’s music demands us to take Lensky seriously, and accept his pain as genuine. I can see where the director was coming from, but that’s not what Tchaikovsky wrote the music for. The contrast of the audience giggling & Tchaikovsky’s sorrowful notes was jarring. Again, if that was the intended effect, it’s brilliantly executed (I still hate it, though). Same thing with the third act: Eugene appeared as a pathetic loser begging for Tatiana’s love, which could have worked, were it not for the music. The stage and the music were telling different stories. Now that I’m thinking about it, I start to suspect that was intentional too, which would turn the entire production from an objectively terrible mess into something I just personally hate. (When I write a review I always try to separate my personal preferences from objective truth, but we all know it’s a difficult task).

There is no correct way to make an adaptation of Pushkin’s Onegin. The themes of the novel are eternal and universal - you can present them in a myriad of different ways and make it work. However, if you make an adaptation of Tchaikovky’s Onegin, you need to match the emotions in the music. Tchaikovsky interpreted the story in a certain way, and even if music alone isn’t as strict as stage direction, it still contains emotions you can’t separate from it. And when your story doesn’t fit the music, the entire play falls apart.

Maybe that’s why I hated this so much - it could have worked, but the director’s story was in conflict with Tchaikovsky’s music. The setting makes sense with the story, but not with the music. It could have been a brilliant play... It could, it could, it could...

But instead, we got this.

[autumnblogs]

Day 8: The Universe Will Eat Paradoxes for Breakfast

Alright, time to get back on this horse.

https://homestuck.com/story/1358

We open with John exploring his planet. This game is a lot shorter than I remember it being, which is kind of welcome. While these little walkaround are fun, it isn’t until some of the later ones that they have some really heavy content, and this one in particular can be effectively skipped since I know we rehash it later with PM. That said, as part of the work as a whole, especially for first-time readers, and especially especially back when it was first being written, these are a lot of fun.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/1363

The militarist surrenders at the first sign of being overpowered (Bec is a symbol of trauma for him)

https://homestuck.com/story/1365

And is easily subdued.

https://homestuck.com/story/1372

More of the highly-jade-specific interactions.

Most of our opportunities to directly control characters so far have been pretty exclusively John and Jade. I wonder if Prospit players in particular are just more susceptible to the layered narrative true nature of reality in Paradox Space, or if it’s even just specifically John and Jade? We can directly control John through the walkarounds in his house and on his planet, and are implied to be indirectly influencing Jade through the sections where Jade breaks the fourth wall and lets the audience do things (whether literally through the couple of polls so far, or during the memory match game).

I’ve already theorized about all the parts of the story where Jade lets the audience take control as being representational of Jade’s highly overactive imagination - the audience serves as her gallery of imaginary friends, effectively.

Going back momentarily to the walkarounds with John, I wonder if we could read out of them that John’s wandering around tends not to be voluntarily directed by John almost at all - he zones out, and just lets the wind take him wherever it will, not really consciously exploring so much as aimlessly wandering. For John, everything in his environment is potentially a source of meaning, so everything in his environment is equally meaningless.

https://homestuck.com/story/1382

The Pumpkin is far too semantically complex to be rendered as a human-readable captcha code.

Which is weird, because as symbols of Void, shouldn’t Pumpkins be almost elemental? I would have expected a pumpkin to have one or two slots tops.

https://homestuck.com/story/1383

As @mmmmalo​ has already pointed out (or maybe one of the many people who reply to their posts!) this page conceptually connects a pair of hands holding each other with Squiddles, building Squiddles as a symbol of intimate contact.

https://homestuck.com/story/1389

In spite of Jade’s inner desire to go ape shitt [sic] she nevertheless remains by far the character with the best foresight until Terezi enters the comic (and Rose finds her groove as a Seer of Light.)

https://homestuck.com/story/1391

While inquisitive and probing when he comes across something he can interact with, when he talks to his friends, John seems very happy to mind his own business about their inner lives, and not push too much for more details than they are willing to give.

Another line in here has John mirror Dave’s language but end differently, turning the trope “take him out behind the woodshed and shoot him” and turning it into a playful joke. The fact that they both make use of nearly the same language makes me wonder whether John and Dave have talked about Becquerel alone, Dave sharing his discomfort with John leading him to make this remark, or if strange minds just think alike in Paradox Space?

https://homestuck.com/story/1393

Jade and Dave’s interactions with each other continue to be priceless. I think Jade’s guilelessness and lack of pretension makes it considerably easier for Dave to exist around her and just be himself, he doesn’t feel too competitive the way that he does around John (who is another boy/man - a significant part of Dave’s future arc is the level of insecurity that he feels over the way that John is arbitrarily powerful and he can’t catch up. Bro’s version of manhood is one where men have to compete with one another to establish dominance. I keep mentioning Toxic Masculinity in relation to Bro, Dave, and manhood in Homestuck in general, and instead of writing on the subject myself right now, I’ll direct you to Cinema Therapy’s excellent video about the subject.) or Rose, whose non-traditionally-feminine characterization and superior affectation eggs him on in a similar way. Dave can just be Dave around Jade.

https://homestuck.com/story/1394

Unlike Jade, John does negotiate with terrorists! I think that John is definitely only tolerating Karkat here specifically because the game is giving him reasons to believe that Karkat is actually an alien. But I also think that if Karkat had contacted anybody other than John he would have been shit out of luck. While in other places it manifests as gullibility (like when Terezi tricks him into getting killed by his denizen), John is generally extremely tolerant, willing to accept apologies, and believe the best of other people. He will kick the shit out of you if you’re an unrepenant jerk like Caliborn, but John has faith in just about everyone.

https://homestuck.com/story/1401

If it feels like I can barely be bothered to stop talking about the genders for twelve seconds, these characters can barely stop talking about the genders for twelve seconds, or sex, or psychosexuality, or being tangle buddies. Sometimes, they’re just talking about being friends though, and that’s alright too :)

https://homestuck.com/story/1403

The way that Jade deploys Sburb machines is nearly the opposite of what Rose does. Rose looks for pre-existing places within John’s house to deploy Sburb’s apparatuses, filling space that isn’t filled yet. Jade removes Dave’s bed to deploy the Cruxtruder there, his Television to put the Totem Lathe there... you’d really think a Hero of Space would display better spatial reasoning!

https://homestuck.com/story/1431

Rose, like Terezi, is more cognizant of Narrative Prompts meddling with her internal thought processes. I feel like that probably feeds into her paranoia in a vicious cycle.

Dave does not like being watched.

https://homestuck.com/story/1442

I’m pretty sure that this is the first time the Bluh imagery gets used but I could be wrong? I feel like I might have missed an earlier one if there is one.

John’s expression of disgust here does recall an earlier panel that has its basic theme repeated with all three characters though, and I forgot to comment on it completely until now!

Characters have intrusive thoughts, and intrusive trains of thought like this all the time in Homestuck, as they think about random shit that doesn’t pertain to their circumstances at all, ideas that they don’t want to have, and then reject. Dave’s train of thought here in particular immediately recalls another intrusive thought - Apple Juice and Urine are linked in his head now, so he can’t think about one without thinking about the other now, unfortunately - it’s not a conscious decision.

The quartet of Intrusive thoughts I’m thinking about are

Squawk like an imbecile and shit on your desk.

Writhe like a flagellum and puke on your bed.

Bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable.

Squeal like a piglet and fertilize some plants.

Interestingly from amongst the aforementioned establishing intrusive thoughts, the only character who humors hers is Jade, who proceeds to do exactly that. Go Ape Shitt Jade.

Really, this entire little aside is a bit of an intrusive thought made manifest.

Dave is extremely clever, thinks on his feet, and ruthlessly cunning. I think these are the hallmarks of a Knight, who exploits their aspect (as a weapon, if all the references to Knights as specifically warriors are to be believed.)

https://homestuck.com/story/1452

More intimacy symbolism with squiddles.

https://homestuck.com/story/1483

https://homestuck.com/story/1484

John and PM are in pretty much the exact same predicament.

https://homestuck.com/story/1487

John’s powers manifest just by his being there, without him even really doing anything to trigger them.

I wonder if an Heir of Light would passively cause outrageously lucky happenstances in self-defense like, all the time? Like the dude from that one episode of X-Files with the Rube Goldberg machines.

https://homestuck.com/story/1501

If we go with the theory of AR as a Bad Cop, he is extremely quickly rehabilitated by his community, as almost all such cops are. Again, this reading of AR is extremely experimental and is probably bullshit.

https://homestuck.com/story/1504

More juxtaposition between what is going on with the Exiles, and what is going on with the Kids. I forgot how rapidly Homestuck switches back and forth between perspectives.

This too is probably a kind of circumstantial simultaneity - events that coincide or follow each other not because of geographical continuity, but because they are both related to the same set of information.

https://homestuck.com/story/1521

I think it’s neat that Sburb has built in mechanics like this to ensure that it is played as a cooperative game, but also places limits on how much members of the team are allowed to use each other’s stuff so that douches like Eridan don’t steal the entire team’s Grist Cache to make something stupid.

I wonder if the Red Team and the Blue Team could use each other’s grist? That’s probably one of those things that hinted that they were actually one bifurcated session.

https://homestuck.com/story/1524

Terezi’s use of the phrase Hyper-Flexible Mythology here reminds me of an essay with that phrase in its title that discusses the way that elements like the Classes and Aspects are extremely constructive toward building a story that will have endless room for original characters, and with them, other kinds of fandom engagement.

Other than that, I notice two things here. The first is that Terezi informs Rose and the crew about the Exiles, and by doing so, helps us, the audience, understand why we keep flashing sideways to them.

Terezi also names the setting of Homestuck, Paradox Space, and in nearly the same breath, she alludes to the nature of reality in Homestuck - reality in Homestuck is self-fulfilling. Its only meaning is its own existence - Paradox Space exists just because it does. It needs no external justification for its own existence, it does so because it will. People who live in Paradox Space are like this too. While this is literally, materially true for Gods like John, Rose, Dave, and Jade, it is probably more spiritually true for everyone who lives in Paradox Space.

Nobody in Paradox Space is alive on accident. Everyone assents to their own existence. Everyone gets what they want. Everyone gets what they deserve. Even if they don’t know that those are the same thing, or that Determinism and Karma working together to create a system of distributed responsibility where no one actor is entirely to blame for the ultimate final outcome, but everyone simultaneously played a part in having it end up where it is, and in ending up where they are in all of it.

And with that, I’m going to pause here. We got a lot of information from Terezi, so before we get too much further into Troll shenanigans, we’ll take a break for an evening.

With some luck, I’ll get back to an even number of hundreds in terms of pages tomorrow.

Cam signing off, Alive, Not really feeling like myself today, but still Not Alone.

[a-crimson-lion]

Parallels, Parallels, Parallels

[We got a double hitter, fellas. For the sake of courtesy, you may want to leave if you don't like Bakugo bashing. Just a fair warning.]

Part 1: Kacchan and Deku

Like it or not, Horikoshi made it his mission to make sure that his protagonist Izuku and Katsuki had heaps of parallels.

For the most part, it's really prominent.

Katsuki acts as a foil for Izuku. He was born with a powerful quirk, Izuku was quirkless. He's loudmouthed and abrasive, Izuku's softspoken and understanding. He has no inate will to help people by default, Izuku will leap to the defense of an innocent person before he can think. The list goes on.

The best way it's highlighted is during the U.A. Entrance Exam: Katsuki gets in on only Villain Points. Izuku gets in on only Rescue Points.

On another note, Izuku and Katsuki both represent various aspects of luck and work. All Might once said something along the lines of "There are those who gain power through luck, and those who work to earn power. Know the difference." This fits some of the more prominent characteristics of Izuku and Katsuki.

Katsuki's Explosion quirk is essentially a very big play of luck. That's not to say he doesn't work hard, but the work he does accomplish is more for maintaining his high position, and less about going further beyond. Izuku is different. Getting One for All was incredibly lucky, but the work Izuku had to put in to obtain and control the quirk was definitely not just luck. He cleaned and entire beach just to get the quirk, and as of now, he only recently learned to control 8% of OFA, as well as 20% in short bursts and 100% without reprocussions when a small child is connected to him and actively reversing the damage. And said small child's quirk is a freak mutation, so someone has to stop her quirk to make sure Izuku isn't erased from existance when he isn't actively on the bone hurting juice.

Which brings me to my next point: going beyond.

There are only three major instances where we see Katsuki seriously push his limits (no, Howitzer Impact doesn't count because:

It's a super move.

By itself, it doesn't really result in major reprocussions.)

The first time we ever see something close to Katsuki reaching his limit is during the infamous Katsuki vs Ochako fight at the Sports Festival. Katsuki manages to pull off a gigantic explosion seemingly out of his ass, defeating Ochako and her well thought out plan at the cost of his arms starting to experience strain. The second instance is during the final exams, where Katsuki is trying (and failing) to take down All Might, even blasting past his gauntlets' safety precautions and going so far as to try and bite All Might's hand when he's out of stamina. The third notable occasion is at I-Island, where he pushes past his already reached limits in order to help take down the powered up Wolfram.

With the potential exception of the third example, there's nothing all that special about him pushing past his limits.

His motivation is just that he wants to win, end of story. He wanted to beat Ochako? BOOM, big explosion. He wanted to beat All Might? BOOM, big explosions, but he still fails (remember that the only reason he passed is because Izuku is selfless and came back for his sorry behind). I-Island is more of the same, but in that instance he's working towards a team goal, AND he's rooting for All Might, so admittably the circumstances are different.

So how does Izuku going beyond differ from Katsuki?

Well, unlike most shonen anime, when Izuku goes beyond, there are actual consequences. Izuku tries to save Katsuki from the sludge villain? Izuku gets scolded for being reckless (even though the Pros were just standing there, using quirks as an excuse while Katsuki was going trigger happy trying to free himself, and yet he gets praise). Izuku saves Ochako from the Zero Pointer? He breaks his legs and an arm, though he thankfully avoids being turned into a bloody pulp. Izuku tries to save Shoto from himself? He ends up permanently disfiguring his hand after he decides to go all out against Shoto, and eventually gets the incentive to learn what would later become Full Cowl. He wants to save Kota from Muscular? He screws his arms up so bad that he can no longer use them at full power unless he wants them to stop working altogether. The thing about Izuku going beyond is, aside from gaining consequences, he also gains something from the experience.

He got All Might's attention during the Sludge Villain Incident. Ochako saved him after saving her from the Zero Pointer, allowing both of them to pass and eventually leading up to Ochako becoming a close friend of Izuku. Shoto accepted his fire side, and Izuku eventually learned Full Cowl in order to stop breaking his bones as frequently. Kota stops hating heroes, and Izuku eventually teaches himself Shoot Style.

What does Katsuki get from his experiences? "Be stronger."

Which is terrible advice for someone in his position; the proper advice would be to "Be smarter." He should have lost his fight with Ochako and realized that big explosions won't always fix his problems. He should have fought All Might and realized halfway that defeating him would have been impossible, and thus (even reluctantly) decide to cooperate with Izuku. The I-Island incident is the only exception I'll give him, simply because his reasons for going beyond were slightly more noble than normal. And before you bring up Katsuki's quirk's limitations, remember that we didn't see those again until he was fighting ALL MIGHT, WITH HIS GEAR ON. He would have been toast sooner if he didn't have his gauntlets.

But hey, that's my personal opinion. What do I know?

Part 2: King Explosion Murder and Endeavor

Stop me if you've heard this one before: If Izuku equals All Might, then Katsuki equals Endeavor.

Unfortunately, that comparison isn't too far off.

Both of them are egotistical manics looking to surpass All Might (and in Katsuki's case, also Izuku) with powerful quirks and prominent positions of power. They also both have a tendency to use people to meet their own ends. Katsuki didn't give a crap about his fellow teammates during the Cavalry Battle, going off on his own multiple times and not even bothering to recall their names. In the manga, Mina even stated that Katsuki only picked her to counter Shoto's ice when the Cavalry Battle is over, and its been stated that Eijiro only got aboard Katsuki's team because he brought up "taking down Midoriya." This sounds awfully similar to Endeavor (or Enji Todoroki) using his wife Rei in order to "create" a perfect heir (Shoto) in order to surpass All Might.

They're also both sore winners. Shoto lost to Katsuki in the final round of the Sports Festival, and Katsuki has to be chained up because he refuses to accept the victory. Meanwhile, later in the series, Endeavor rages when he's given the position of Number One Hero because he's seen All Might's true form, and suddenly everything he's worked for is for naught, at least in his eyes. Katsuki and Enjialso tendend to be assholes to certain people in particular. Katsuki was (and still is) an asshole to Izuku because he was quirkless and therefore useless (and maybe to some extent, Katsuki feared Izuku's innate heroic nature, so he tried knocking him down to avoid future competition, even if, by Katsuki's words, Izuku wouldn't be competition because he didn't even have a crappy quirk). Endeavor was an asshole to Shoto, sending him through brutal training that no four year old should be subjected to, isolating him from the rest of his family, and driving his mother to insanity, leading to his iconic burn mark on his left side.

What really gets me infuriated about the both of them is how Horikoshi tries to parallel them with actually decent human beings, usually through their redemption arcs.

Katsuki has been compared to Izuku by All Might himself, stating that the two of them are both sides to the same coin: the saving hero, and the winning hero. This comparison would be fair IF Izuku wasn't already learning to be a winning hero (and being a saving hero by default) while Katsuki has yet to show a desire to save beyond his desire to win.

Meanwhile, Endeavor gets parallels to Shoto. "Earlyroki," as Shoto was often referred to by his peers after he opened up, was an ironic reflection of his father, only relying on his ice power in a nearly condescending manner, and also adopting his father's lone wolf attitude. Then there's the whole deal with Endeavor getting a scar on his left side to match Shoto. There's no being subtle with the symbolism.

Although, and this is an unpopular opinion, I do like some aspects of Katsuki and Enji's redemption arcs. For Enji, we're shown that even if he's seemingly willing to change his ways, not every person has to accept his attempt at reconnection. A bad person can turn a new leaf and people are allowed to still not trust them. We don't see this in Katsuki's redemption arc, since everyone is somehow in unanimous agreement that Katsuki didn't do anything seriously wrong. Even though he did. And that's infuriating, specifically for me. What Katsuki's arc IS doing right, is that he actually has the potential to change. He may have abused Izuku for well over a decade, but he's still a kid; he still has time to change, and the changes are starting to form, however subtle they may be. I wish they were less flip floppy in progress and that people in the fandom and in the series weren't exaggerating it so much, but we can't have everything. At least he's better than episode one Katsuki by a notable margin. Meanwhile, Endeavor's been stuck in his ways since he married Rei. He can still change, but his habits will be harder to remove since he didn't learn early on enough that his actions weren't exactly moral.

Well, that's my two cents. If you read it, hope you enjoyed.

-Crimson Lion (13 August 2019)

[arkus-rhapsode]

My Hero Academia Chapter 210 Review

Well this was a short chapter, but hot damn is it a scary one.

We open on All Might taking the call from Gran Torino from last chapter. Gran Torino talks about how Nana had a dream after inheriting one for all. It seems that this was the same dream Izuku had at the beginning of the arc that told us of All for One and One for All’s origins.

We cut to Deku on the field. I’m going to kinda get ahead of myself, there is not much focus on the actual clash this chapter, so the pacing around it might come off as a little wonky. Deku is leaping through the air, while his team follows behind him.

We cut back to the crowd observing the clash.

Deku having to work harder than Bakugou is really just the theme of their relationship, are we surprised that someone verbalized it?

Anyway, good to notice that Iida and Todoroki are back from the infirmary, probably meaning Honenuki and Tetsutetsu are back. Iida points out that Deku’s formation looks similar to Bakugou’s, which given how Deku’s original fighting style was developed from watching Bakugou and All Might, this makes sense that they’d have a similar strategy.

According to Sero their evently balanced, but I gotta disagree. While both teams consist of an all around ace, Bakugou and Midoriya, Deku’s team has a lot more skill based team members. Sero was arguable the most skill based in Bakugou’s team, Jirou was mainly recon, and Satou was extra power. That’s an all around team. But Team Deku is more or less unbalanced in the sense they have one power player and 3 skill based users.

As we’ll see though, Deku is still scary thanks to the fact Team Monoma is almost all skill based and lacks any power player. Now also, Sero does point out that Deku lacks someone like Jirou who was able to find their locations which assisted in allowing Bakugou to take the lead without much worry. Deku instead is flying blind into this, having to draw out team Monoma on his own.

Then here’s the line about Deku working harder about Bakugou. I’m going to get back to this later so instead we’ll just cut back to the field where Team Deku is following behind him.

Deku’s plan is to draw out team Monoma and find their locations, he’s such a threat to them that there is no way they’d be able to ignore him. A barrel gets thrown at Deku and Deku identifies it as Yanagi’s quirk. Now, he’s an issue I have, and its basically in universe people seem to be aware of abilities we have never seen before. Now we got names for all of class 1-b’s quirks, but we didn’t know what they could do. Hell, no one  seemed to know what Tokage’s ability was at first.

Now Deku is the most analytical in Class 1-A, so that likely means he might have notebooks and records on all of class 1-A’s quirks as well as 1-B’s from their training camp. Now we get a description of Yanagi’s quirk later, but right now, Deku immediately knows it.

Or does he???

Looks like that attack was Yanagi’s quirk and Monoma is using it. Monoma sttes that Deku is definitely a threat, but if he’s like Bakugou, then that means that he needs his team to draw out their full potential and not just work to support one member.

So unlike Tokage, Monoma is opting to instead of just try and draw them out, he’s on the offensive. As we see that Uraraka off screen has been attacked.

Monoma is taunting Deku and unfortunately, Monoma’s instigation tendecy make is hard to tell if this is all true, or if he’s actually copied Shinou and is going to try and brainwash Deku.

He even is sowing doubt into Deku by potentially saying their fine and that Urarak’s scream might’ve been Shinsou. In the end, Monoma has Deku locked right here, meaning unlike Bakugou, he can’t pick off their side one-by-one. I also gotta give shoutout to Monoma here, he is acting in such control here he’s actually quite threatening. I guess it goes to show that Monoma’s tendencies apply better on the battlefield then they do in social situations.

In social situations, Monoma either comes f like a jerk or a joke, but in battle he’s actually quite effective. Taunting and pushing opposing characters without seeming to try so hard like he does in normal situations.

Deku has luckily learned from his fight with Shinsou, and isn’t responding to anything he’s saying. Which is good. The Deku vs Shinsou fight was probably Deku at his dumbest, where even after being warned by Ojiro, Deku still fell for Shinsou’s ability.  Now Deku was younger and a lot more naive, but now e’s able to not fall for it.

Monoma mentions how blessed people will destroy the world, and he’s not exactly wrong as someone who is gifted or has god given talents will likely change the world for better or worse, but Monoma opts to target Bakugou in this. He states that Bakugou is gifted, so gifted that in fact he got targeted by Shigaraki and ended up getting All Might to come in and lose the status of the symbol of peace.

Deku is clear irritated by this claim and attacks Monoma. However as we’ll see, Monoma might not be to far off by saying blessed people will destroy the world could apply to Deku

We cut to the other members of team Deku, with it revealed that yes, the scream wasn’t Uraraka, but Shinsou.

Mineta realizes that something’s coming as we see more nuts and bolts fly toward the group. This is actually the real Yanagi doing this, and we see Shoda is keeping track of all things in the area.

Kodai then decides to jump in and reveal that those objects have been effected by her quirk and grow bigger or smalle. Also, Kodai’s quirk is similar to Uraraka with them having to put their hands together.

Uraraka makes the objects float to avoid them doing damage, but Shoda activates his quirk which fires off the objects again. This causes the group to scatter, which joy, you saw what happened last match through that.

We now get an unload of info as we learn what their quirks are. Basically, Yanagi has telekinesis to an extent and Kodai is Ant Man. Or I guess Stature.

And Shoda... Has an OP as fuck quirk considering its range. Granted, you have to strike first to activate a second strike. I’m sad we don’t get their hero names, which was something team Tokage didn’t get either.

We cut back to All Might and Gran Torino and Gran Torino mentions to All Might that Nana had this same dream when she first inherited One for all. Even the same foggy image of the first user of One for All.

As this happens and we end the chapter, black lightning jets out of Deku’s arm as everyone watches in shock. Oooookay, where do I begin...?

So this lightning inst the same as his full cowling lightning because this actually seems to be physically manifesting and destroying part of his super hero outfit. Now the way All Might looks at this, it seems to imply he doesn’t quite understand it himself. Meaning possibly only holders like Deku and Nana who are odd numbered suffered this. Or this could just be Deku and AfO is just fucking with him. I have no answers, you could make any theory at this point. But yeah, that’s where we end. Well I can say I am very concerned and eager for next week.

Now with that said however, its time I revisit that “work harder than Bakugou” line. I don’t mind the idea of One for All having a hiccup, but the thing that bugs me is just how much this undermines Deku. This twist hurts because all throughout this arc, we’ve seen characters show off how much more stronger and plus ultra they’ve gotten. Tokoyami, Tsuyu, Todoroki, Iida, Bakugou, all got these fight to show how far they’ve come as characters. Now its Deku’s turn in the spotlight, and he’s losing control in front everyone. He;s not going to show off how competent he’s become from the start of the series, he’s now going to be seen as he was when he first joined the school, unable to control himself and destroying his limbs.

I respect that Hori doesn’t make Deku a protag who everyone is astounded by or automatically respected as a paragon of ideas, but come on, its been 200 chapters, let him show off and get some recognition. It just feels a bit like he’s being done dirty when last fight was all about how far Bakugou has come and last chapter laid on thick that Deku has truly grown. But no, cruch time he’s messing up. Now granted, this isn’t an asspull as we’ve been told One for All is acting strangely so this could’ve happened, I’m just saying I really would’ve preferred if this One for All stuff wasn’t interfering with the exercise. Now this could end with Deku ultimately winning because he’s gotten a ridiculous power boost, but still that feels cheap cause I think a lot would’ve wanted him to win on his own skill that he’s cultivated.

But who knows how Hori intends to handle this. Maybe he gets one smash out, and that’s it. Maybe he goes this entire round with this power, no clue.

Post Chapter Follow Up: Honestly this chapter felt really quick. It seemed to go so fast with a lot of info just rattled off. I’ll start with what was positive and that was definitely the character in this.

Monoma owns almost all of his scenes he’s in, as well as Uraraka taking charge after getting separated from Deku. Hell, just the little moments of Sero off to the side explaining the situation of team Deku.

I also must say, watching Bakugou and Aizawa become concerned over Deku’s power is really subtle and adds a lot of weight to the scene. Another thing is just class 1-B actually seeming like a threat, After how easily they got knocked around last round, this is a welcomed change.

If I had one thing to critique, the fight in this round is honestly pretty lack luster. It seems like a result of the pacing that it feels honestly very fast and not as focuses on as it should be. But you could say that the fight hasn’t truly started, as such it’s just laying some ground work.

It might sound as if I’m angry, with the Deku’s power going out of control, but honestly its not bad. Look I’m more concerned cause this is that moment in an arc when Hori makes everything completely batshit, and I do wanna know more about what will happen. I’m just little sad by the fact that for an arc that has shown so much growth, Deku is seemingly undermined. Now I can’t call that bad writing” as we don’t know where this’ll be going. So I’m just merely getting my opinion out there on this black lightning, but I’m not holding it against this chapter.

Final Verdict: 6/10

Little fast and little wonky

Great characterization

Nail biting ending

Not much is really done in this chapter, kinda an extension of last weeks breather more than anything

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 18: Noah’s Dad Decides he Doesn’t Love His Son Anymore When Noah Gets Way Too Into Petz Hexing

I was hanging out with Bro and he made me look at a lot of bad Yugi wigs that were 600 dollars each, and because only like...4 good Yugi wigs exist in the world, I decided to help him get out that Yugi itch in a healthier way, by copy editing these posts and fixing the way I spell Gozaburo wrong about 400 more times before this arc ends.

So last we left off, Noah decided to reference that one part of the Bible he knows.

He’s gonna change the playing field to kind of run through the history of the Earth, showing us that in every period of history his outfit was never acceptable.

Also he got the history a...little bit wrong. You had to have people before Noah’s ark but...whatever. I took astrology, there’s a lot about planet formation we’re still kind of guessing on, so do whatever you feel like, Yugioh. It’s not like any kids watching this got real pissy about how Noah was totally botching the Archean period.

He also decides to dump on us how he got so smart. See, Kaiba got smart by studying a lot, surrounding himself with people way dumber than him, and then just bossing everyone around him until they agreed with him that he was very smart. In Noah’s case, it’s because he’s literally a computer.

I’m really glad I get to find another anime that’s all ham about this tree. In this case just slapping it on there for a few seconds, long enough for me to say “WHAT THE HELL, KIDS SHOW?” before it vanishes again.

Good on you, Noah. You just...casually slipped that in there.

Ah, but unfortunately, the AI who is like...not even human and is *pretty sure* He’s Noah Kaiba is still kind of attached to his Dad. Maybe it was a part of his core code that he couldn’t reject his Father? I dunno, just seems weird that he achieved enlightenment and was like “So uh...I guess I’ll play cards and take over a mindless corporation. Good use of my time.”

(read more under the cut)

Kaiba’s reaction to hearing that his brother stores all of human knowledge was “well, it can’t possibly be that difficult. I’ve done way more than that. I have a homeschool degree and half a high school diploma so go to Hell, bro.”

Yo how many people would sit down, turn to their computer, and just start shouting at their core processor about how they’re waaaay smarter than it? Remember that during this entire conversation, Kaiba is shouting at a literal computer.

So anyway, we finally get to see why they bothered showing us spider room a few episodes back. Youknow, that room with the baby in it? Turns out...there was never a baby in this room, since Noah was a kid when he first woke up here.

Before it was covered in spiders, it was covered in blue and off white. This is a very boring Martha Stewart room in different shades of robin eggshell. You can tell this kid is a Kaiba because oh boy that is a...really boring 50 yo housewife look, ain’t it?

I’m sure it’s symbolic for the fact he is hella dead and innocent at this point but like...every time we see Kaiba interior design it’s just the last type of design you expect from this high octane family.

Anyway, Noah’s kind of surprised to be awake because, last he remembers, he was very much hit by a car.

Ya, I mean, if you have to tell your son you Frankenstiened him into a horrible crime against humanity, might as well tell him as quickly and bluntly as possible, I guess.

Anyway, because Noah existing breaks the most basic moral human laws in every country on Earth, they kinda can’t let him go anywhere, which means that to prevent the loneliness, Kaiba gives him...a pet?

So Noah and the dogcat decide to travel through Domino and realized very quickly that there were only like...five NPC’s. There’s like an ice cream girl, and like a couple walking people, and that’s about it.

Noah’s words were something like “man this place is full of glitches!” because his dogcat wouldn’t stop barking and he threw a rock at it and it didn’t care. Glitches.

I guess it’s one way to look at it?

It feels like Noah got somewhat cursed like Pharaoh did, just a little bit. Like not completely it’s just that I can’t help but notice both are trapped in some sort of basic geometry shape--Pharaoh’s is a pyramid and Noah’s is an orb, and both have untold superpowers matched with some heavy depression that goes with having said superpowers. Not to mention, both have a host body all set up for possession, it’s just Kaiba is a little bit youknow...unwilling to participate. They’re very different obviously it’s just...way to trap your characters in shapes.

Anyway, last episode I felt like maybe Noah liked being an orb, this episode he’s made it a little more clear that it is kind of not great being an orb...but only because he can’t throw any rocks at dogs or have real conversations with anyone but his own Dad.

Anyway, Noah got a little bored. So his Dad sent him to virtual Mars.

And now Noah only finds joy in hacking his digital pet. Relatable.

Now I know a good chunk of you are my age--that good Jenna Marbles age--and will know exactly what I am referring to, as for the rest of you, turning your digital pet into a hell creation was just a thing we all did in year 2000ish. All of us did this.

And I was like “I bet you, that someone out there has made a robot Hex, I guarantee” because I spent...I want to say 2 years of my life downloading modded breedz of Catz 4? I even tried to do it myself but I wasn’t any good at it because I was super young and bad at computers, I never actually got Robbie William’s Millennium as a Catz meow (though trust me, I did try. It was my life’s dream when I was small.)

But the closest I found to a Robot Petz was this?

Dang. Look at that thing. This one is actually pretty good because it does resemble an animal. I admire it a lot. Trust me, I spent like days moving my bunniez feet around trying to make a dragon and just ended up downloading someone else's dragon.

And then, from the same page I saw this gem right above it.

HELL YES........

....I freakin love this period of the internet so freakin much. I was only ever really a part of a couple of fandoms as a child and the Petz fandom will forever hold a little part of my heart. I mean, look at this. What’s not to love?

Like, Catz is probably number 3 on my list of best games ever made. Not so much because the game was any good, but because none of the files were protected in any way so even kids like me could hack in there and make the weirdest abominations and post them all to their Angelfire pages.

Well, other kids could, I was so baby that I was still using my Mom’s email address and did not know how to put a damn thing on my webpage. Which I did have. But it had like...only frames. It had like 3 words and just me splitting the page into 50 frames because I did not know what I was doing.

I apologize to all the kids in the room who have never seen a web page covered in ugly ass frames. You lucky bastards.

....but Petz...Noah was into PETZ. I can respect him for that.

I still think he’s a little creep-o, but knowing that he hacked his pet has given me a lot of appreciation for his work.

Anyway, it was after Noah changed the boring ass simpleton dog into a much better dog that Gozoboro decided “I have made a monster, I am abandoning my boy.” Which uh...this was the thing?

This?

I mean as far as body horror goes, Litterbox up there is way worse. As far as body horror goes, we also have, Jinzo over here, but the digital dog with a cute robot head was the thing that made Gozoboro say “What have I done!?” The dog is digital, it’s not even alive.

Especially since I feel like the follow up question Noah made was like way more frightening than the dog thing?

Kaiba glazes right over this entire conversation. Like full stop, he didn’t even seem to blink. No part of this story even slightly surprised him, although I will admit, at least Seto has decided that Noah...exists and might in fact be a robot his Father made once. This in itself is a big deal for Kaiba, who has a goldfish memory and denial wider than the sea he’s trapped under.

First of all, congrats to the storyboarder/animator for drawing a hand in that angle, mad respect.

Second of all, this is pretty close to the actual line from the show, Kaiba legit thinks that his Dad wanted Kaiba to be the president, after he knows full well that his Dad was like “Don’t Take Over My Company, You Little Twerp” and then like tried to even send Seto back to the orphanage whence he came. Kaiba’s pretty sure that his Dad wanted that whole thing to happen exactly the way it happened. No regrets. Just family being family.

And Moki’s still chilling on the Moki couch, just kinda taking this all in before he’s summoned unto the field like a playing card.

Ah, yet another person who is like “KILL MEEE” on this show. It’s been kind of a while. Like, who’s left that hasn’t stood in front of a loaded card-gun like this? Duke? Is Duke the only one who hasn’t sacrificed his body for the greater card-good at this point? Is this why Duke is our amoral Chaotic Neutral? Is this why Duke is still the only one who hasn’t died yet (and I’m crossing my fingers still that he’s gonna be our death 169, it can happen, I can believe)?

I feel like this is the season of weird hugs. Like everyone on this show that has hugged has gotten a little weird. The only not-weird hug was when Yugi attempted to hug Joey once and then Joey dodged the hug and wrestled him into an arm-distanced noogie instead--which is technically still not a hug, but the closest we’ve gotten to something a human would do. It is so lucky for our art team that all the huggers are supposed to be hella weird anyway.

Anyway, next episode we get to find out if Noah also had an AIM username or got really into Jelly pens. I can see him getting suuuper into Jelly pens, with hair like that.

Anyway, here’s a link to Season 1 Ep 1 to read in Chrono order, in case you just got here and you’re looking for that.

[imagitory]

D-Views: Aladdin (with guest input!)

Hi, everyone! Welcome to another installment of D-Views, my on-going written review series where I take a look at Disney-produced and/or owned properties, as well as occasionally non-Disney films that were influenced by Disney’s success! For more of these reviews, you may consult my “Disney reviews” tag, where I’ve discussed such films as Treasure Planet, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Dreamworks’ The Prince of Egypt!

Today I’ll be doing something a little different. In lieu of the live-action Aladdin remake premiering in less than two weeks, I decided it’d be best to re-watch the original 1992 classic, and I invited two of my good friends, Christina and Jen, to help me analyze it. I will note any of their input when it arises, and hopefully you’ll enjoy hearing three voices for the price of one!

Aladdin was released in the midst of the Disney Renaissance in the 1990′s, sandwiched between the landmark hits Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. Out of Disney’s biggest blockbusters, Aladdin is easily the most “of its time” -- it relies on pop culture references for its humor and uses era-specific slang (i.e. ”NOT!” and “Made you look!”) more than most Disney films do and features a celebrity voice in a prominent role, which was quite uncommon, compared to previous Disney projects. (The best examples I can think of prior to this was having John Hurt, Peter Ustinov, and Vincent Price play villains in The Black Cauldron, Robin Hood, and The Great Mouse Detective, but...yeah, as amazing and well-renown as those men are, they weren’t insanely popular media stars of the time the way that Robin Williams was.) One could attribute this “hipper” aspect at least in part to Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was head of Disney’s animation department at the time, and Disney CEO Michael Eisner, both of whom put a lot of focus in following what was popular and marketable. (Katzenberg later put all of his attention and focus on molding Pocahontas into a historical-fiction retelling of Romeo and Juliet as he assumed a forbidden love story would be a hit, while Eisner kicked The Rescuers Down Under to the curb a year before Beauty and the Beast came out all because it didn’t break the box office opening weekend.) Fortunately the approach paid off and Aladdin was a big success, fueling two direct-to-video sequels, a spin-off TV series, and a show at Disney’s California Adventure that transformed into a full Broadway musical. Even now it’s still very well-loved by Disney fans, many of whom are now looking forward to the live-action remake coming out this month. As my followers might know, I’m still very on-the-fence about the remake myself, as I haven’t reacted very warmly to Disney’s other recent live-action remakes, but my two cohorts Jen and Christina are much less cynical about the prospect, so hopefully any commentary we might make about what we’ve learned about the remake compared to the original will be minimal. Now that our context is framed, let’s board this magic carpet of a movie and see where it takes us!

To start with, Arabian Nights is just such a fantastic musical introduction to this story! Aladdin was the last project that lyricist Howard Ashman worked on before his premature death in 1992, and like in the rest of his work, the word play in the songs he wrote for this movie (Arabian Nights, Friend Like Me and Prince Ali) is just masterful. Arabian Nights in particular just emanates “adventure” -- it was later used as the opening theme for the Aladdin TV series, and it got me so pumped up whenever I watched it, just as much as it probably excited those who first saw the movie in theaters. Fun fact: while listening to the intro, one might notice the names Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio credited as two of the film’s screenwriters, alongside directors John Musker and Ron Clements -- down the road, Elliot and Rossio would also write the screenplay for The Road to El Dorado, join the writing team for Shrek, and be the main writing force behind the Pirates of the Caribbean films. 

As much as I rarely go for films that market themselves as comedies, I feel like Aladdin handles its comedy really well. From the beginning, we see the comedic, spontaneous tone in the peddler’s narration scene, and that tone is taken on by Gilbert Gottfried as Iago until Robin Williams reappears as the Genie later. It makes it so that, unlike Mulan where the comedy kind of starts and ends with Mushu, the comedy is a constant fixture in the story, never distracting from the plot and never feeling out of place. 

One niche interest of mine that I rarely get to delve into is color psychology, and oh BOY, does this film give me a lot to talk about there! Aladdin’s production designer, Richard Wende, used a very simple, yet striking color palette for the film that favors blues, reds, and golds. The effect is a beautifully lush setting while maintaining a “desert” feel: any greens that appear really stick out, like when Aladdin and Genie arrive in an oasis after escaping the Cave of Wonders. It also makes it so that when the background is mostly red or gold, any blue shades draw focus, or when the scene takes place at night and is mostly shades of blue, anything red or gold likewise draws focus. This post goes into the color symbolism more deeply, but generally blue is representative of good characters, while red represents evil, with gold being a sort of middle ground. Primary colors often are used in properties marketed toward children (ex. Team Valor/Instinct/Mystic in Pokemon Go, Snow White having all three colors on her dress), so it’s understandable that so many kids from the 90′s gravitated toward this movie, but the palette never feels restricted or simple. The deep, saturated fusion of reds and blues and reds and yellows creates a lot of texture despite the limited color range, and it beautifully communicates the heat of the locations and creates a unique visual style for the film. I’ve noticed that in the trailers for the remake, this color symbolism was discarded in favor of a more “Bollywood” look, not unlike how the Beauty and the Beast remake likewise ignored the color symbolism of Belle being the only villager to wear blue (which accents how much she stands apart from the crowd) and decided to dress a lot of people in blue during the opening number Belle. I can only hope the decision means the film is just choosing to make Agrabah more like India than Arabia, rather than this just being a stylistic choice with no substance, but I think the subtle color psychology in the original film is very clever short-hand for the audience, even if they’ll likely not be able to consciously express how the color palette affected their viewing experience.

As Jafar and his stooge Gazeem come across the Cave of Wonders, I’m reminded of how awesome the Cave’s design is. It was made primarily with CG animation, yet the CGI is never distracting: on the contrary, it fuses together beautifully with the rest of the hand-drawn background. Even the sandy texture on the Cave is very well rendered. Christina also noted a neat detail I hadn’t picked up on before: the tiger head has an earring in one ear, just like the Genie whose lamp lives inside the Cave!

After the Cave of Wonders devours Gazeem, declaring that it will only allow the “diamond in the rough” inside, we meet our title character and resident “diamond,” Aladdin. Voicing Aladdin is Scott Weinger, or Steve of Full House fame, who brings such charm, energy, and personality to the role. I honestly think it’d be hard for anyone else to match the sheer likability rippling out of Scott’s voice. Accompanying Weinger and Robin Williams in this stellar cast are Broadway actor Jonathan Freeman as Jafar (who has since gone on to play the character in everything from TV shows to the Broadway musical), raucous comic Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, and three voice-acting legends -- Frank Welker (who voices Shaggy and Scooby Doo) as Abu and Rajah; Jim Cummings (the current voices of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger) as Razoul; and Corey Burton (who is best known for playing Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts) as Prince Tiger-Fucker Achmed. Even Jasmine, who was voiced by the at-the-time-fresh-faced actress Linda Larkin, had her singing voice done by Broadway legend Lea Salonga, fresh off her success premiering the title role in Miss Saigon. Even though many of these names aren’t celebrities like Robin Williams, and so I would hesitate to call this an “all-star cast” exactly, it doesn’t change how much talent was accrued by Disney’s casting agents! 

Unlike most main characters in a Disney musical, Aladdin doesn’t get a full solo number to call his own. Originally Howard Ashman wrote a song for Aladdin called Proud of Your Boy, where Aladdin sings to his mother (who played a large role in early drafts of the story) about how he’ll make good for her. Unfortunately the story’s focus on Aladdin and his mother’s relationship ended up taking focus away from Aladdin and Jasmine’s romance and Aladdin’s character arc to accept himself, so the screenwriters ultimately had to cut the mother character from the story, at which point the song no longer fit. The decision was very difficult for the filmmakers at the time, given that it was one of the last things Ashman wrote and it’s such a beautiful, raw song, but I ultimately think it was the right decision. Putting Aladdin on his own with no one but Abu for company and giving Jasmine no emotional support outside of her naïve, misguided father and her pet and only friend Rajah I think goes a long way to explain why they’re such kindred spirits. Aladdin and Jasmine each become the friend and support that the other needed. (This is also why Christina and I are concerned about the inclusion of a servant/friend for Jasmine, as the choice would likely weaken any rationale Jasmine could have for leaving the palace and for connecting so instantly with Aladdin.) Plus I think Aladdin’s reprise of One Jump Ahead is just as beautifully raw as Proud of Your Boy, just with a slightly different message and less words. I really feel Aladdin’s frustration and yearning for something better, and Aladdin’s singing voice Brad Kane is able to stuff so much pathos into such a short tune that a longer song isn’t even necessary. And fortunately Proud of Your Boy was later utilized in the Broadway musical version of Aladdin, so it got its dues eventually. 

At the palace, we meet our heroine, Jasmine, who was Christina’s favorite Disney character as a kid and who I personally think is the prettiest of the Disney princesses. Jasmine was designed by supervising animator Mark Henn, who modeled her after a picture of his little sister, which honestly is so sweet that I can’t stand it. What I really like about Jasmine in comparison to other Disney princesses is that she is fiery, but clever: determined, but calculating: proud, yet compassionate. It’s this balance that makes her interesting: in my mind, Jasmine is the ultimate Slytherin Disney princess (with just as Slytherin of a prince!), because unlike Ariel, she isn’t reckless in her rebellion. What’s also very cool about Jasmine is that her circumstances are a perfect contrast to Aladdin, placing them in a more romantic Prince and the Pauper set-up where they envy each other, and yet they want the same thing: freedom. In fact, all of our protagonists do -- namely, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie. Aladdin wants freedom from his poverty. Jasmine wants freedom from her privilege. Genie wants freedom from his purpose. They all have different cages, but they all want to be free to live their own lives, and it’s through Aladdin learning to empathize with Jasmine and Genie and see their respective prisons as clearly as his own that he grows as a character. (For a video that delves into this thought process further, please consult this piece by ScreenPrism -- it’s just beautifully done!)

Throughout the film, three animals emerge over and over -- the cobra, the elephant, and the tiger. Tigers -- which we see not only in obvious examples like Rajah and the Cave of Wonders, but also as a carving in the back of the Sultan’s throne -- are generally associated with courage and heraldry, not unlike their feline cousins, lions. The heraldry aspect I think is most relevant here -- only one who is deemed worthy, namely Aladdin, may enter the Cave of Wonders and access the wealth of kings, and when Jasmine runs away from home, she leaves Rajah, a symbol of her noble heritage, behind. Elephants in comparison are associated with wisdom and more notably royal power. In the film, Abu is transformed into an elephant steed for Aladdin when he becomes Prince Ali, and even the Sultan sits in a throne decorated with a statue of an elephant. As for the cobra, it’s entirely connected to Jafar, first as his magic scepter and then as a form Jafar takes on himself. Snakes overall are associated with many things like healing, rebirth, eternity, and the dichotomy of good and evil, but cobras specifically are the most poisonous snakes on earth. Legends even claim that Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, committed suicide by cobra bite. I reckon that meaning is more than enough reason for it to represent Jafar.

Through the use of a bizarre storm-making machine powered by Iago running on a treadmill-like wheel that Christina, Jen, and I thoroughly don’t understand and kind of find hilariously ridiculous, Jafar is able to discover the identity of the elusive “diamond in the rough.” He then sends the guards out to arrest Aladdin so as to coerce him into aiding him in his goal to enter the Cave, but in the process gets caught by Jasmine as he’s exiting one of the secret passages. Jen brought up the lovely point that Jafar seems to be the only person who knows about these passages in the palace, even though the Sultan presumably was raised in the palace just like Jasmine was -- this isn’t necessarily a problem, but it does make both her and me want to know the story behind this! Was Jafar basically raised in the palace too? Did Jafar partially create those passages? Were they forgotten after years of non-use and Jafar came across them by chance? It seems like there could be some fun explanation here, if someone wanted to write a fic or fan theory about it.

Okay, I really don’t want to express my concerns about the remake yet again, but I just have to say this flat-out -- there is no way that Abu in the remake could be as funny as he is in the animated film. Let’s be honest, CG characters in live-action films are almost never very charming if they’re more on the cartoony side compared to the so-called “realistic” world they’re supposed to inhabit. You can have very likable, well-developed CG characters -- just look at Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia -- but he wasn’t solely comic relief the way Abu is, and Abu’s comedy in particular relies on a lot of cartoon-like squash and stretch that would be difficult to recreate in CG for a live-action movie. Best case scenario, you’d have something like Pip in Enchanted, which is only irritating and visually out-of-place sometimes, but alternatively, you might get something like Alvin and the Chipmunks (where the humor falls flat), Dobby in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (where it’s clear he was never actually there the whole time), and/or the enchanted objects in the live-action Beauty and the Beast (where the characters end up looking creepy, like something out of the Uncanny Valley). Basically if they want Abu to work in the live-action setting, it’s likely they’d have to make him more like an actual animal, which as I said would make it so he is a lot less funny.

Anyway, not long after Abu unlocks Aladdin’s shackles, Jafar arrives to bust him out, disguised as an old man. Just as Jafar’s storm-making machine makes no sense, the three of us all concluded that his disguise makes no sense. Not only does Jafar suddenly look a good foot and a half shorter, which even with him crouching shouldn’t be possible, but he’s changed his teeth with no visible dentures (which would’ve slurred his speech anyway) and he can get rid of all of the white hair and beard he put on just by ripping off the beard in a single gesture. As Jen brought up, even the Evil Queen used a potion to turn into the Hag: if Jafar had used magic, these sort of physical changes would make sense, but he didn’t.

Back to the Cave of Wonders again, and now I get to talk about one of the most revolutionary aspects of Aladdin: the Magic Carpet. Our sweet little Carpet is a perfect fusion of CG and hand-drawn animation -- supervising animator Randy Cartwright drew the outline and tassels of Carpet with so much personality and silent comedy, and rather than have to animate Carpet’s detailed pattern in every single frame as the fabric folded and contorted, the pencil tests were handed to the CG artists, who melded the pattern perfectly to the line work, making it one perfectly cohesive character. Carpet’s pattern also has allusions to different parts of the film, including the Cave of Wonders, the magic lamp, and the flames that appear when Abu touches the red gem. Even if the technology of CG animation is much more advanced now than it was in 90s, it doesn’t change how seamless the finished result is.

As mentioned, the Cave doesn’t remain safe for our hero very long. When Abu snatches up a gem after being warned not to touch anything, the whole place starts to fall apart, raging with lava and fire. Christina brought up the question of why the Cave would allow Abu inside, since he wasn’t the diamond in the rough (yes, Abu was hidden in Aladdin’s vest, but the Cave was magical, did it really not know he was there?), but I almost wonder if it was an issue of Aladdin having trusted Abu when he shouldn’t have, which would end up being the true mistake in this scenario. Regardless, the CGI in this particular escape sequence is some of the more outdated material of the film. The flight on Carpet is still kind of fun, as it probably would make for a very exciting thrill ride, but it still looks incredibly fake, especially in comparison to other CG elements used in other scenes. Honestly, I’d say this Cave chase and the tower used in the “ends of the earth” sequence later are the worst instances of outdated CGI in this movie.

And finally, at long last, we get to the big, blue guy himself, the Genie. As much as I wouldn’t say Genie steals the show, as Aladdin has such a likable hero and heroine and an excellent villain, Jen, Christina, and I will say categorically that Aladdin would not be as good of a movie as it is without Genie and without Robin Williams. The directors Ron Clements and John Musker wrote the character with Robin in mind, but thought there’d be no way they’d ever get him -- fortunately Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for Genie, got the idea to make an animation of Genie speaking a piece of one of Robin’s comedy routines, and the animation amazingly won Robin over and got him on board. And really, it is that flawless combination of Robin’s acting and Goldberg’s animation that really makes Genie as likable as he is. Even Robin’s humor, which still is very funny, is not what makes Genie as great of a character as he is, in my opinion -- if anything, I’d say it’s how much sincerity Robin gives the role. Genie is never a sidekick in this movie, as he has his own distinct motivations and feelings separate to the main character and their goals, and Robin just makes you feel so much for Genie and his own desire for freedom. One quote of Genie’s that has stuck with me since I was a kid thanks to Robin’s beautiful delivery is “To be my own master -- such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in all the world.” It makes it so his humor is a sign of how resilient Genie is, despite how unhappy his circumstances are, which is something I understand very well as someone who has suffered from depression and I’m quite sure Robin himself understood very well too. I think it’s why so many people found Robin so likable and felt so much for the characters he portrayed over the years.

Speaking on Friend Like Me specifically, I’m afraid I’ll have to go off on a bit of a tangent and share a story with all of you. The day that Robin Williams passed away, I was working at the World of Color show at Disney’s Calfornia Adventure. When the Friend Like Me segment came on, I danced along to the music while in the walkway outside the show, trying to keep the grief off of my face and just make others happy, the way Robin used to. As the segment ended, everyone applauded like crazy. Then, all of a sudden, we Cast Members became aware of a strange, sputtering, almost sobbing sound. One of the show fountains in the water had gotten out of alignment and it sputtered softly in the background as the next segment (Touch the Sky) began, before after a minute slowly quieting and coming to a stop. It was as if the show was crying for Robin, this person who had given so much joy to so many people. And this, among other reasons, is why I feel so very sorry for poor Will Smith, who somehow has to try to fill the shoes that Robin wore. Jen, Christina, and I aren’t very optimistic about his prospects (I still personally might have offered the role to Wayne Brady instead, given that he can sing, he has done comedy, and he worked with Robin in the past), as even Dan Castellanetta, who voiced Genie in the Aladdin TV series, was never able to match Robin no matter how hard he tried.

On the note of Genie’s motivation, as well, we hear about it in a scene accompanied by the beautiful instrumental “To Be Free.” It’s one of my favorite pieces of instrumental music from the film, which became one of Christina’s favorite songs from the Aladdin musical, To Be Free, which is a solo sung by Jasmine. As very pretty and appropriate the song is from Jasmine, I do also really appreciate the number accompanying Genie’s monologue. The instrumental comes across as more spontaneous and thoughtful, like it’s making itself up as it goes along, until it gets to the sincere, meaningful line about freedom, at which point the melody that inspired the song To Be Free's chorus starts.

Another neat touch with Genie is his use of Yiddisms, such as “punim,” meaning face. Of course, Genie’s animator Eric Goldberg is Jewish, and the idea of Genie being Jewish as well I just find so unbelievably charming, particularly when you place him in an Arabian-like setting full of (presumably) Muslim characters, given that the Sultan at one point references Allah. Therefore Genie and Aladdin’s (adorable) friendship could be thought of as a friendship between a Jewish person and a Muslim! I think that’s really cool!

We return to the palace, where the Sultan scolds Jafar for Aladdin’s supposed execution, only for Aladdin to burst onto the scene, dressed as the dashing Prince Ali. During this scene, Christina noted the fun juxtaposition of Jafar’s fashion choices compared to the Sultan, Genie as a human, and Aladdin as Ali. All of them wear very similar robes and turbans, but the Sultan, Genie, and Aladdin wear turbans with more rounded, floppy feathers, which Jafar’s feather is sharp and straight. Aladdin’s and the Sultan’s feather even flop into their faces sometimes, whereas Jafar’s is rigid as a board. As Jen likewise pointed out, Jafar’s design gives him this pointed, slender look not unlike Dr. Facilier in future Disney project The Princess and the Frog. The shoulder pads on his shoulders also serve to give him this sort of sharp “T” shape, contrasted to the more rounded and well-proportioned characters. Couple that with a black/red color scheme that contrasts the more saintly tannish-white of the other three, and it really does communicate the “black cloud” nature that Jafar’s supervising animator Andreas Deja wanted to give the character, to compliment the “Severus Snape” level of dry sardonicism Jonathan Freeman gave the character.

Even though the Sultan is very impressed by “Prince Ali,” Jasmine most certainly is not. Genie counsels Aladdin (with a few outdated pop culture references) that he should tell her the truth -- the nice thing about the pop culture references is that, really, even if you don’t get the jokes, you can still understand them, and the jokes still drive dialogue and plot forward enough that those lines don’t feel like a waste of time. I mean, I didn’t get most of the jokes as a kid, and it didn’t hurt anything for me -- I still thought the Genie was funny because of his comedic timing and odd voices. (Oh yes, and since Jen brought this up while we were watching this -- Aladdin does not say “take off your clothes” while up on Jasmine’s balcony: the line that Weigner improvised for when Aladdin is trying to shoo Rajah away is “take off and go.” Get your brains out of the gutter.)

Fortunately Aladdin is able to soften Jasmine enough that she gives him a chance, and the two go on a magic carpet ride (a.k.a. the fastest world tour ever, as Christina described it! LOL). Accompanying this scene is, in my opinion, the single most romantic song in the Disney canon. A Whole New World was the very first song Alan Menken and Tim Rice wrote together. After the loss of his good friend and most constant collaborator, Howard Ashman, Menken was very nervous about working with someone else. Fortunately, as soon as he and Tim Rice met, they came together pretty quickly while working on the aforementioned love song, which ended up taking some inspiration from their circumstances as new collaborators in its melody and lyrics. So yes, one could listen to this song and some of its lines -- a new, fantastic point of view -- but when I’m way up here, it’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you -- unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings -- with new horizons to pursue -- every moment, red letter -- let me share this whole new world with you -- as being not just about these two characters falling in love, but also about a brand new, exciting friendship.

Aladdin and Jasmine connect, Jafar is banished from the palace, and the Sultan blesses Jasmine’s decision to court “Prince Ali” -- but yeah, just as everything looks like everything’s coming up roses, things start to fall apart when Aladdin breaks his promise to set Genie free. (Another fun story: when I first saw this scene in the Aladdin Musical Spectacular at Disney California Adventure way back in the day, I couldn’t stop myself from yelling “BOO!” from the audience. The people around me giggled. Then the actor playing Genie, without looking away from the actor playing Aladdin, raised a hand and pointed out at the audience. “You hear that?” he said. “That’s my THOUGHTS.” I died laughing.) But yes, thanks to Aladdin’s mistake, Jafar is able to take advantage of the situation and snatch Genie for himself, singing his own quasi-solo, Prince Ali (reprise). Like Aladdin, Jafar doesn’t get a full number to call his own, but fortunately he doesn’t end up needing one: Prince Ali (reprise) is more than powerful enough on its own, and it concludes with the most amazing, deranged laugh in Disney history. Really, as good as some other Disney villain laughs are, I would say that Jafar’s is easily the best.

Jafar becomes the Sultan of Agrabah, imprisoning both Jasmine and the Sultan and banishing Aladdin to the ends of the earth. Even if Jasmine’s a prisoner, though, she is no damsel: in Christina’s words, she’s the Princess Leia to Jafar’s Jabba the Hutt, clever and proud as ever and ready to do whatever is necessary to break free...even if it means kissing our villain in order to distract him long enough for Aladdin to try to snatch back the lamp. (Insert a cringe from all three of us here.) Alas, the ruse fails, and Jafar discovers that Aladdin has returned alive and well. The “Battle” track used for this climax is just epic accompaniment, easily being up there among some of the best “final confrontation” instrumental tracks in Disney history like Sleeping Beauty’s “Battle With the Forces of Evil” and The Great Mouse Detective’s “Big Ben Chase.” The visuals as well are also thrilling -- speaking as someone with acute ophidiophobia, Jafar turning into a giant cobra is pretty terrifying.

Despite all of the odds being against him, our diamond in the rough street rat nonetheless is able to outsmart Jafar, and Jafar, tricked into the form of a Genie, is imprisoned in his own pitch black lamp, possessing all of the power he longed for but ignorantly sacrificing the power of autonomy he had already. (As Jen said, and I quote, “Karma, bitch!”) I just adore how Aladdin outwitted Jafar too: not only does it really suit his Slytherin personality to win through craftiness rather than just brute force, but it also perfectly showcases the difference between Aladdin and Jafar: namely, that Aladdin knows empathy, and Jafar does not. Jafar only sees what Genie has that he doesn’t have, supreme magical power, and longs to possess it -- Aladdin sees Genie’s circumstances fully and knows that he is both amazingly powerful in a magical sense and utterly powerless when it comes to making his own choices.

Accompanying the film’s resolution is the beautiful instrumental “Happy End in Agrabah,” which dips into lighthearted whimsy, resignation, bittersweet joy and exhilaration, alongside echoes of both “To Be Free“ and A Whole New World. Aladdin gives Genie his greatest desire -- his freedom -- and in the process makes, in Jen’s words, the most selfless wish you could make...for only a diamond in the rough would make a wish for someone else, not for himself. And as Jen also pointed out, the Sultan follows Aladdin’s lead, giving Jasmine her freedom just as Aladdin gave Genie his. Our story ends with all of our protagonists earning the freedom that they’ve so longed for -- the freedom to achieve their own happiness -- through their love of each other.

Aladdin may be very “of its era” from a humor point of view, but it’s a movie that truly becomes more resonant with age. When Jen, Christina, and I were kids, we all enjoyed this movie’s flights of fantasy, humor, characters, and songs, but as adults, we can feel for these characters and their desire for freedom more than ever. We can understand how similar these individual characters are, and how even though they’re all in different prisons with different advantages and disadvantages, they all need the same key to unlock their cages -- love and empathy. However much the new Aladdin film diverges from the animated version, I only hope that they remember that core of the movie and how it is integrated into the entire story, from how much Aladdin wishes people would “look closer” when looking at him to Genie’s last words to Aladdin being that “no matter what anybody says, [Aladdin will] always be a prince to [Genie.]” And if it doesn’t, well, we still have the 1992 original...

...and Christina, Jen, and I give that movie three thumbs up!

[notbang]

Hi! Just wanted to rant a bit about how disappointed I am in Valencia's character this season... She is my absolute fave and I absolutely loved her character growth but in a couple of episodes she went from commentary on how compulsory heterosexuality pushes women to stay in obviously bad relationships because in theory they perfectly match their partner to "she could've been happy but missed her shot, oops" which takes away a big chunk of her complexity and retroactively weakens the whole (1/3)

of season 1, and now she wants Beth to propose or she will symbolically break up?? Like that worked with Josh because the relationship was sinking and marriage would have been the glue to hold it together + traditional gender roles but with Beth it feels so out of place! They have a healthy mutually respecting and loving relationship, they just moved in together, why is V so obsessed about marriage? (2/3)

(And what the hell she literally threw away a bouquet last season did that mean nothing?) Plus she still expects her partner to make the first move and was oblivious to that awful Pirate King song, it’s like she suddenly reverted back to season 1 (which I know the episode was aiming for but still, Rebecca wasn’t dumbed down…) Seems like a bad excuse to break V and Beth up over literally no reason, I’m really mad that this is happening. If you don’t mind, what’s your opinion on that? (3/3)

hi! there are plenty of others that could speak far more eloquently on this topic than i, but here’s my lukewarm take.

unfortunately most of the commentary valencia’s arc provides on comp het seems to have been unintentional (or in the very least, purely incidental). i think they accidentally wrote a repressed wlw character that their fanbase connected with in ways they weren’t expecting and that they had zero idea what to do with her, which is commentary itself on how what is considered a diverse writing room by many standards can still be entirely lacking. i don’t think they actually understand how much they’ve undercut a really lovely arc, because it’s not an arc they intentionally set out to write.

i’m not even going to touch on the father brah storyline, because… ugh.

i would, however, argue that the set up for a valencia/beth conflict is not necessarily for ‘literally no reason’ - valencia and beth have been together… what? six months? maybe closer to a year? like, they’re out of range for the u-haul joke i guess but the relationship is still relatively new. and let us also consider that valencia and beth moved to new york together but valencia has apparently come back to town for a period of time that encompasses roughly 2-3 months?? it’s kind of a confusing mess, but the urgency valencia is feeling for formal commitment does make a certain kind of sense when you take into consideration that she and josh were together for fifteen years and only moved in together - with an engagement only then becoming close to an actuality for them - right at the end of that significant period of time. literally more than half her life was devoted to desperately clinging to that specific picture of a perfect happy ending and having it held frustratingly out of her reach, only for josh to offer it up to rebecca almost immediately in comparison. 

the fact that valencia so desperately wants to be proposed to instead of, say, entertaining the possibility that she herself could propose to beth begs the question as to why the idea of being a bride (even one enmeshed in a terribly misogynistic song!) is still so important to her, which is absolutely an opportunity to re-examine the harmful effects comp het/patriarchal love narratives have had on her self worth. aside from marriage still being deeply intrinsic to her idea of a happy ending (because like… her preoccupation with pinning down josh as a life purpose kinda just shifted into her becoming a wedding/party planner, which isn’t so much a rejection of those ideals as it is a reframing - her career choice is now essentially built on performative happiness!!), i’d posit that a large part of it is valencia needing this very specific proof that she is being appropriately valued - that she’s not going to be waiting around again, giving herself over to the possibility of letting someone waste her time. it’s a relapse/regression/revisiting of an old wound that certainly invites character development, and i’m reserving judgment on it because it’s clearly a thread that’s going to be picked up again in the next episode, but the handling of valencia’s arc up until this point hasn’t exactly instilled me with the greatest of confidence.

this storyline could very easily go either way - their relationship dissolves, which helps dismantle the weird ‘look at how conveniently and perfectly my life has fallen into place’ feeling they’ve kind of used to dismiss both valencia and heather this season, or, in what could play into a nice parallel to rebecca’s own ongoing journey in self discovery, valencia comes to grips with the fact that she can rewrite her personal narrative, and they move forward with renewed perspective. whether or not either of those options plays out in a satisfying manner is a completely seperate issue.

what’s frustrating is that beth is so expendable to the story that her role almost doesn’t matter. valencia’s arc itself has come to lack depth and beth as a direct result is basically null and void, which makes the insistence that valencia is simply ‘beth-sexual’ even more laughable. i find her a pleasant enough character but let’s be honest she barely qualifies as one - her sole trait seems to be that she’s agreeable (something that was hilariously encapsulated in her ridiculously cheerful response to realising valencia was mad in this episode). i want to be invested in their relationship but i have to admit i struggle. if i’m completely honest at this point i’m more concerned that valencia and beth breaking up is part of a move to bring all of the characters back home to the nest to kick rebecca out of it as a way of saying her work in west covina is done, because, well. that would make me sad.

[regeek]

Okay so I know I just wrote about how Duelist Kingdom is underrated by the fanbase compared to Battle City, but I’ve been hit hard with DM nostalgia and I want to talk about how great the Battle City Quarterfinals are. A core inspiration for Yugioh is the ancient Egyptian belief that games are a comparison of the souls of the two players, and this arc really showcases that concept. Every one of these duels is a fascinating portrait of the two players and each character hits a turning point in their arc (even if it isn’t necessarily followed up on later. )

First, we have the Bakura/Yugi duel. Right off the bat we have our protagonist fighting the longest running villain, but we get a lot of development for Yugi and Atem here. This is the first duel where he summons Slifer, but also the first time he really accepts his greater mission. Up until now Yugi and Atem have just been fighting whatever jerk comes there way, but there they acknowledge that they will have a larger mission involving the Pharoah’s identity that will extend beyond this tournament. Having them go up against a deck that literally tries to kill them with their inevitable fate drives the point home. 

Next let’s talk about Jounuchi vs Rishid.  This duel mainly is about giving us backstory for the Ishtar’s but the duel itself has some interesting character stuff. Jounuchi is using everything he’s learned, represented by him summoning all of the cards he won as prizes. Rishid’s trap strategy is an cool challenge for him, as he can’t rely on his blind faith and luck to get him through it. He has to be careful of all the traps. Blind faith is also a character flaw for Rishid, who shows himself willing to sacrifice anything for Marik. But ultimately everything he ahs to give isn’t enough to match Marik’s lust for power, and Rishid loses failing to control the ultimate power Marik is after. He devoted his life to protecting Marik from himself, but he doesn’t have enough to give. 

Kaiba vs Ishizu is possibly my favorite duel in the whole series. I feel like we the fandom don’t appreciate how Ishizu is the true mastermind in Battle City, manipulating Kaiba and Marik flawlessly. Until this point everything has happened according to her plan. And that’s how the duel goes. Even without her clairvoyance Ishizu’s strategy is cunning and she really sees right through Kaiba in a way even Yugi doesn’t. However, the thing she doesn’t count on is Kaiba’s ego LITERALLY OVERPOWERING FATE ITSELF. Kaiba’s major turning point here is his realization that ultimate power will not be enough for him. Unlike Marik he has more important things in his life, and he sacrifices all the power he could ever want for a symbol of his love for his brother. 

Ishizu is actually a really interesting counterpart to Kaiba. Kaiba became the cold, narcissitic person he is to protect his younger brother. This is a sacrifice Ishizu was unable to make for her brother, but she attempts to control his twisted nature rather than reconnect with her younger brother. She devoted her life to power she thought could save him. Kaiba realizes he doesn’t need this power and that he can protect his family all on his own. 

Then we have Mai vs Yami Marik. Obviously this duel mainly functions to show off how big a threat Marik is, but there’s some cool character stuff here too. Mai actually does very well this duel. She endures Marik’s torture strategy the way she’s endured all of the hardships in life: by believing in herself, and only herself. But Marik shows her the limit of that idea. Yami Marik isn’t even really a character, he’s a black hole. He truly has nothing to lose, no one to care about. Mai tries to match his independence but by realizes fighting without her friends just brings her down to his level. And Mai can’t compete with him on that level. She’s not a sociopath, and she can’t endure the pain he can because she still has something to lose. Really this should have been the big turning point in Mai’s arc but unfortunately it never got followed up on effectively. 

(Unless you’ve read this fanfic.)

I’d like to touch a little bit on the Bakura/ Yami Marik duel, even if it wasn’t part of the tournament. It’s got a lot of interesting stuff here too. Like Marik vs Mai, we see YAmi Marik as someone who gets his strength from having nothing to lose. For all of the terrible things Marik and Yami Bakura have done, they are capable of basic human emotion and connection. They don’t really have anyone left but each other, and that relationship struggles throughout the duel. Like Mai (and later Jounuchi) they think they have Yami Marik cornered only for him to activate yet another BS power of Ra to win. Yami Marik’s whole thing is exposing himself and his enemy to as much pain as possible because he knows he can take more than they can. Yami Bakura fails to meet his level of depravity because he still has something to lose: his grand plan of revenge. So as he dies, his last breath is in reference to how his machinations will still go on after this defeat. Yami Marik lives totally in the present and had nothing to hold back, so he triumphs in this particular moment.  

In conclusion, all of these duels mark a turning point in the lives of their participants, forcing them to realize what they rely on most and question whether that will be enough to get them through the next phase of their life. Ishizu, Mai, Odion, and Bakura realized their need to change too late, and their path through the tournament is halted. The others move on, understanding exactly how far they need to go to win, and what they need to change to get there. These duels also establish Yami Marik as a unique challenge for our protagonist, someone who revels in pain and forces his foes to sink to his level. 

[noisemakerreviews]

‘Joker’ Paints An Uncomfortable Picture of Today’s World

Never did I think I’d see the day where I could parallel even the darkest of Batman themes to the world we live in. 

Todd Phillips’ latest blockbuster Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as the clown prince of crime we all know and love. Phillips’ other films include the Hangover trilogy, but this new film doesn’t have a happy go-lucky trio trying to remember their drunken stupors and find their fourth mate. 

Joker makes the audience laugh, but in a nervous, sort of uncomfortable way. 

At the Venice Film Festival, Joker received an eight-minute standing ovation. 

Reviews poured in following the Italian premiere and they backed up the hype. Mark Hughes of Forbes said, “The fact is, everyone is going to be stunned by what Phoenix accomplishes, because it’s what many thought impossible — a portrayal that matches and potentially exceeds that of The Dark Knight’s Clown Prince of Crime.”

The film opens with Phoenix touching up his makeup in front of a vanity. He hooks his fingers in the corners of his mouth and pulls them upward in a smile, downwards in a frown, then back up again; a single, mascara-stained tears roll down his cheek, and laughter ensues. 

Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, an eccentric man with a funny laugh and a horrifying past, searching for his identity. The film encapsulates Arthur’s journey with himself and his downward spiral into becoming the Joker.   

There are some prevalent themes within Joker that are worth talking about; the most prevalent being mental health and its effect on people in today’s society. There are several scenes in which Phoenix is sitting in front of his therapist, and she eventually jerks the needle off the record and informs him that the city has cut the clinic’s funding and their meetings must come to an end. The therapist goes on to claim that the higher-ups, “don’t give a shit,” about people like him or her. 

According to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, in 2016, 9.8 million adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. had a serious mental illness; 2.8 million of those adults were below the poverty line. Insurance companies have also been known to skimp when it comes to mental health cases, which makes it that much harder for people relating to Arthur to seek help. According to a study published by Milliman, in 2015, behavioral care was four to six times more likely to be provided out-of-network than medical or surgical care. In President Trump’s proposed 2020 budget, his administration aims to cut $241 billion from Medicaid, an assistance program that provides healthcare to low-income Americans.

Dancing is a symbol that is heavy in Joker. According to a Harvard study, “dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.” After especially tense scenes, Arthur begins a slow, emphasized dance routine that is hauntingly beautiful.

 With mental health being such a prevalent theme, Arthur clinging onto dancing as a coping mechanism or escape from the world backs up the analysis that he’s doing it to improve his mental health — or at least attempt to. 

In any Batman rendition — comics, movies, TV shows, video games — Gotham is always on fire… literally. In Joker, we see a bright Gotham in the beginning, with normal big-city crimes happening: teenagers stealing things, muggings, etc. By the end of the film, Arthur has bred chaos in the streets, and we see the imagery of Gotham that has become so prevalent within the Batman universe. In both Arthur and Gotham’s descent into madness, there’s an arc that’s ever present: protesting the elite. 

All around the country, protests have emerged to combat the elite. Most recently, climate change has brought criticism on the world’s elite members and their inability to make a change. In the past, police brutality has created protests in riots from victim’s families and their supporters, calling for change in law enforcement procedures. Countless marches have been held in response to several pieces of legislations passed (abortion laws, Planned Parenthood budget cuts, LGBTQ+ rights). 

“Kill The Rich” is a headline that pops up time and time again throughout the film, feeding into this “protest the elite” arc. Arthur guns down three rich men in the subway following their harassment of a woman and a physical altercation between himself and the men. This sparks a movement within Gotham that empowers Arthur and makes him feel noticed, something he’d never experienced in his life before. Citizens of Gotham supporting this movement don clown masks to imitate the suspect, aka, Arthur. 

Joker has faced its fair share of backlash. Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine took no prisoners in her review, stating that Joker, “lionizes and glamorizes Arthur even as it shakes its head, faux-sorrowfully, over his violent behavior.” Other reviews have had similar opinions. In 2012, a mass shooting broke out at a Colorado movie theatre during The Dark Knight Rises premiere. The assailant fatally shot 12 people. Family members of the slain victims wrote a letter to Warner Bros. expressing their concerns. 

Sandy Phillips, mother to 24-year-old victim Jessica Ghawi, told The Hollywood Reporter, “I don't need to see a picture of [the gunman]; I just need to see a Joker promo and I see a picture of the killer … My worry is that one person who may be out there — and who knows if it is just one — who is on the edge, who is wanting to be a mass shooter, may be encouraged by this movie. And that terrifies me.”

In what is perhaps its most iconic scene, Arthur eccentrically dances down the stairs that we see him trudge up throughout the film. This is also the first time we see him in that iconic purple suit, green hair, and a full face of makeup. He is dancing to Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part Two,” which has earned the film more backlash. Gary Glitter is a convicted pedophile currently serving a 16-year prison sentence. According to CNBC, Glitter is allegedly slated to receive royalties from the use of his song in the movie. 

People took to Twitter to post their opinions about the film. One user tweeted, “#JokerMovie was the most brutal, uncomfortable and tense movie experience I’ve had in a long time. Joaquin Phoenix is chilling. The film was spot on and did everything it should have for a character like the Joker.”

Another user tweeted, “Outstandingly Disturbing. Prolific. Necessary Blessing to Modern Cinema.”

As much as I enjoyed the film’s premise, production, and Phoenix’s performance, I do think there are some troubling themes that need to be brought up. Arthur often justifies his heinous actions by stating “they deserved it” and using the defense that society treats “people like him” like “trash” so, they should all die. He feeds into the “Kill The Rich” movement that he involuntarily created in the subway when he committed what we presume to be his first murder(s). 

Though I know the concept behind the Joker character, I can see how this can be construed as glorifying gun violence. However, we can’t have the Gotham supervillain without violence and guns. It’s an accurate representation of the character, and it’s unfortunate that it parallels a lot of what’s going on in the world today. 

The Joker is also painted to incite pity within viewers, which a lot of times, it does --- or at least attempts to. This is classic Joker behavior. In Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s comic Mad Love, readers meet Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. She gets assigned to none other than --- you guessed it --- the Joker. Though this woman is highly educated (we won’t talk about the things she did to get that education), the Joker still manipulates her and convinces her to not only help him escape Arkham, but become his partner-in-crime as well; Harleen Quinzel is no more and Harley Quinn is born.

She pities him and his situation, and he spins his tale of woe so expertly that she has the wool pulled over her eyes. Throughout the comic --- and the general timeline for Joker and Harley --- Joker mercilessly abuses Harley, from pushing her out a window to not noticing she was gone for six months. He is a cruel, manipulative psychopath that nobody should follow in the footsteps of; however, he’s good at his job, and Joker showcases that, however controversial and uncomfortable it may be.

Joker is rated R for a reason; not only are there a few F-bombs, the violence is staggering. However, when dealing with a character that is known for inciting violence and not caring about the consequences, tough scenes are necessary. Phillips didn’t shy away from blood and intensity in his murder scenes, and Phoenix went all in when it came to brutality. Personally, (spoiler!) I never really wanted to see Robert De Niro’s brains blown out the back of his skull, but you can’t have the Joker without some blood. 

And finally, while the troubled citizens looking for a leader are terrorizing Gotham following Arthur’s murder of Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on live television, our hero’s story starts. Thomas and Martha Wayne are gunned down in an alley outside a theatre by a rogue thug and Joker fan, and young Bruce Wayne begins his famous story. 

Joker was original in concept and plot, but had just enough callbacks to the comics to make it permissible. The atmosphere in the full theatre I was in was palpable. There were chuckles and titters here and there when Arthur would make a funny joke, or everyone was just laughing off the tension of the moment. There were also audible gasps and groans when things got especially rough (such as the aforementioned Robert De Niro scene). Joker did exactly what the real Joker would have wanted: it incited a reaction out of people.

I had low expectations going into the movie because, as someone who grew up reading Batman and loving to hate the Joker, I was afraid my favorite complex villain was going to get ruined (looking at you, Jared Leto). I was pleasantly surprised by Phoenix’s performance and Phillips’ take on Mista J, and it was a refreshing performance that was a polar opposite from the late Heath Ledger’s, but equally as convincing and chilling.

An Oscar seems to be on the horizon for both Phillips and Phoenix for Joker. The film is raunchy and tense, and I didn’t know I could hold my breath for two hours. It’s exactly what a Joker movie should be, and I’d encourage anyone to go watch it.

[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘A Prayer for Mad Sweeney' Review

"You have a story to tell." "Do I?" "I can see it in your fingers."

American Gods pauses in the penultimate episode of its first season to tell us a story. It's a really good story.

It seems like an odd choice, given that they only had eight episodes in the season to work with, that American Gods should devote almost the entirety of its penultimate episode to telling us an extended Coming to America sequence. It seems like even a stranger choice that they should have almost none of the regular characters appear or even be mentioned.

It should be an odd choice, but it isn't. For three important reasons:

- Neil Gaiman loves telling stories about stories themselves. That was roughly 85% of the Sandman comic's groove. It's not just about the story, it's about how stories themselves can affect a life.

- Essie MacGowan's life is a great story, and is very well told. It's actually surprisingly rare for a television show to excel in both of those things.

- When you actually break it down, this episode isn't just telling us Essie's story. It's also telling us Sweeney's story. And giving us a concrete example of how the old Gods ended up in America. It's demonstrating how the old beliefs die. It's showing us how belief can shape the course of a life, and how it can bring comfort as that life passes. It's telling us what Sweeney thinks about Laura, and why. It's showing us how his and Laura's relationship is evolving through the expediency of telling us the story of his relationship with Essie.  On a fundamental level, this episode completes Sweeney's emotional character arc. The Sweeney that puts his coin back in Laura's chest is not the Sweeney that broke into her hotel room only a few short episodes ago.

I just want to touch on Essie's story before we get into the Sweeney and Laura stuff, because there's one factor that makes it work really, really well. Essie was a servant girl who got her heart broken early, and then did what she had to for herself to survive. She stole without regret. She seduced the ship's captain in order to get back to England and then robbed him blind the second he left again, and she had what is implied to be a lot of sex with the gaoler in order to get pregnant and therefore not be hanged. They were all completely pragmatic choices that she made for herself. She enjoyed many of them and she didn't feel bad about any of them. And the show doesn't demonize her for any of it. Not even for a moment. All of the things she does which society would condemn are presented in exactly the same tone as her telling stories to her children, leaving cream out for the little folk, or being kind to a husband that she essentially conned into marrying her in order to get out of servitude, but whom she seemed to like well enough and whom she apparently made very happy.

None of these actions are presented as good or bad. They're presented, as a whole, as having been her life. Nothing more or less.

That said, the decision to have Emily Browning play both her usual role of Laura and that of Essie MacGowen was a brilliant move. Brian Fuller mentioned in the little after-show interview that they used to do that she has a gift for accents, and he is not wrong. Essie's Irish accent was every bit as believable as Laura's American accent. It was with some surprise that I discovered that she's actually from Australia, which means both are equally false. That's a real gift, as anyone who watched David Boreanez struggle with the task back in the day will attest.

Having Emily Browning play both characters explicitly tells us as viewers that we should be contrasting Sweeney's relationship with the two of them, and that choice really pays off. With Essie, Sweeney is roguish, charming, and open. He clearly treats her as, if not an equal, than at least a compatriot if not a friend. With Laura, Sweeney is bitter and cynical, clearly not thinking of her as being worth his time but being stuck with her in order to get her coin back. Just seeing the difference in him while he sits next to essentially the same woman tells us everything we really need to know about what the years have done to Mad Sweeney.

The mirror imagery serves the entire episode well, really. The usage of Fionnula Flanagan as both Essie's grandmother in the beginning and Essie herself at the end. The usage of Emily Browning as both the woman Sweeney liked and the woman he currently dislikes, and of course, the mirror car accident that finally brings Sweeney to his emotional catharsis. We all kind of assumed that Wednesday had caused the car accident that killed Laura, and that Sweeney was probably involved, right? Even so, as much of a not-surprise as that information was, it was right for them to hold it back until this point. Sweeney has witnessed Laura's kindness in letting Salim go. They've had the heart to heart in the ice cream van about having done bad things, and at that emotionally vulnerable point Sweeney is confronted with essentially the same visuals and experience as the car accident that he himself caused, which had murdered the woman whose animated corpse was currently sitting next to him. At this moment, and no other, he's presented with the thing he wants most. His coin has been knocked out of that same woman, the woman he murdered and who is herself an echo of a woman he liked very much. All he has to do is pick it up and walk away. And he can no longer do that.

That's a proper character journey, that is.

Two things that really seal this final moments into something special. First, thank you to the show for not translating for us whatever Sweeney screams at great length in Irish at this point. It can't possibly be as moving as what we're left to imagine for ourselves. And second, even more thanks for the choice to not have Sweeney tell Laura what he'd just sacrificed for her. As far as she knows she just got back up off the road and they're off again. That was the dramatically right choice.

Such a good story.

Quotes:

Mad Sweeney: "That’s what you get for putting a god in a petting zoo."

Laura: "So, do you love god, or are you in love with god?"

Mad Sweeney: "Can’t a man get a moment alone with his prick?"

Ibis: "Malice draped in pretty can get away with murder."

Essie: "I had my opportunity." Mad Sweeney: "Doesn’t seem right, just giving you the one."

Mad Sweeney: "We’re like the wind. We blows both ways."

Bits and Pieces:

-- The use of 50s music in the Essie scenes is there for a deliberate reason, despite being anachronistic. In visual storytelling, at this point in time, pop hits from the 50s indicate innocence. And more specifically, nostalgia for innocence. Not that the 50s were actually that innocent, but what can you do. The study of the use of symbols in a performed text is called 'semiotics,' if you were wondering. Tellingly, the music cues for Essie only become the 'appropriate' Irish period style when Sweeney comes to collect her at her death.

-- The three ships we first see deliberately visually invoke the whole Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria fairytale version of American history that we like to tell ourselves here in the US. Then it cuts to the interior and they're essentially slavers. A visual metaphor for American attitudes toward its own history. Discuss.

-- Were we supposed to infer that the coin that Essie gave Sweeney early on is his lucky coin that is currently in Laura's xiphoid process, or is it merely another visual echo? The sides we see of each don't match, but I don't think we see the other side of either.

-- Is Tatonka Ska supposed to be the buffalo that Shadow keeps seeing? Is he (she? They?) the 'proper' god of America?

-- I wonder if Pablo Schreiber was told when he got this part how much of it was going to involve public urination. That said, his losing an argument to a raven while he relieved himself was comedy gold. No pun intended.

-- It was sweet that Laura took the first opportunity to tell Salim where the Jinn was so that he could just go directly there and skip the rest of the road trip, but it's also hard not to read that just a little as 'We're not gonna need you for a bit, so why don't you take the rest of the season off and we'll meet you in the season two premiere, k?'

-- The implication seems to be that Essie kept forgetting to leave gifts for the leprechauns because she was too busy having sex. That's a tiny bit slut-shamey, but the episode doesn't dwell on it in any detail, so it's probably not intended as such.

-- The moment when Laura hands the ice cream truck driver everything from Sweeney's pocket and he politely takes the wallet back but leaves the money was a nicely staged bit of physical comedy.

-- This car accident was caused by a rogue bunny running in the road. We learn next week that the road bunnies are in league with Easter, who's all about renewal land rebirth. Did Easter just give Sweeney a push to facilitate some kind of spiritual renewal?

-- The title of the episode appears to be a reference to the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, but unfortunately I've never read it so I can't speak much to it.  I'm not a huge Irving fan, to be honest.

A great story. A great episode. Sweeney and Essie's last conversation makes me cry every time.

Four out of four cups of the best cream

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 29 April 2019

Quick Bits:

Angel #0 spins out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #4 (the ending events of which are presented again at the beginning here), giving us a flashback of Angel in Los Angeles and a case involving a werewolf. The tone here from Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Gabriel Cassata, and Ed Dukeshire is bleaker than the Buffy series, but it’s fitting.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #3 is a whole lot of flirting. Gorgeous artwork from  Germán García and Addison Duke with some impressive lettering from Crank!

| Published by Dynamite

Batman #70 wakes up from its “Knightmares” for the first part of “The Fall and the Fallen” by Tom King, Mikel Janín, Jorge Fornés, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. It throws down a gauntlet of Bats’ rogues as he fights to escape Arkham Asylum.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #1 is the first of these series that I’ve picked up, so I didn’t initially clue in that this wasn’t necessarily how this crossover had played out previously, but this first issue features a world of the two properties mashed-up in a combined reality. It’s an interesting start from James Tynion IV, Freddie E. Williams II, Kevin Eastman, Jeremy Colwell, and Tom Napolitano with some gorgeous artwork.

| Published by DC Comics & IDW

Black Hammer ‘45 #3 features a guest-spot for a young Abraham Slam, who seems to rub the Black Hammer Squadron the wrong way through trying to follow through with ideals and principles. It’s an interesting underlining of whatever potentially grey area operation the squad is on, as Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt, Sharlene Kindt, and Marie Enger continue to let that plot point simmer.

| Published by Dark Horse

Champions #5 is a tie-in to War of the Realms and also serves as a bit of glue to hold together different parts of the event, building upon things across different areas of the Marvel universe. It also gives us a very heartfelt reunion of Ms. Marvel and Cyclops, wonderfully told by Jim Zub, Juanan Ramírez, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles.

| Published by Marvel

DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1 gives a trio of teasers, two largely for the two sides of the Justice League/Legion of Doom stuff that has been going on, providing a backbone for the Year of the Villain event, and the third for Brian Michael Bendis’ brainchild of Event Leviathan, which unfortunately feels kind of out of place with the rest of it. As though the two separate stories are competing for resources, rather than being part of a cohesive whole. That said, all of the teasers do their job fairly well, piquing interest in what’s to come.

| Published by DC Comics

DCeased #1 is basically DC’s answer to Marvel Zombies by way of Stephen King’s Cell, but it’s damn entertaining work from Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, James Harren, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte. The set-up for the series with Darkseid meddling with the Anti-Life Equation and winding up with something worse is perfect.

| Published by DC Comics

Deathstroke #43 is kind of the conclusion to “The Terminus Agenda”, on paper at least. There’s still an epilogue over in the next issue of Teen Titans and the final page of this one sets up something huge going forward.

| Published by DC Comics

Descendent #1 begins another new conspiracy thriller, building off a child abduction and a “truther”, from Stephanie Phillips, Evgeniy Bornyakov, Lauren Affe, and Troy Peteri. It’s a bit of a slow build, working to develop the characters nicely, but there’s an intriguing mystery here.

| Published by AfterShock

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #7 continues the hunt for the Stilean Flesh Eaters as the Doctor and the team cross paths with some familiar faces. Gorgeous layouts and art here from Roberta Ingranata, Enrica Eren Angiolini, and Viviana Spinelli.

| Published by Titan

Eclipse #15 reaches a boiling point in this penultimate issue. Zack Kaplan, Giovanni Timpano, Flavio Dispenza, and Troy Peteri have at least partially turned this arc upside down, causing us to have some serious questions about the morality of either side in the conflict. It adds a great depth to the characters’ actions and makes me unsure as to what exactly I’d like to see in the finale.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Elephantmen 2261: The Pentalion Job #1 begins a new digital original mini-series from Richard Starkings and Axel Medellin. Burba sees himself released from prison early, only to be set up to do a new enormous heist. Starkings builds this one greatly out of what’s come before in the series and the art from Medellin is gorgeous.

| Published by Comicraft

Fallen World #1 is a very welcome return to the future of the Valiant universe, spinning out of the changes made to the world in 4001 AD and War Mother, with Dan Abnett, Adam Pollina, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell weaving gold out of the fallen threads of the fallen New Japan. You needn’t have read anything prior to this, Abnett does a wonderful job filling in necessary details of the world and the characters. The art from Pollina is probably the best I have ever seen from him, there’s detail, grace, and expressiveness that has leapt so far beyond even the beautiful work he’s done before. He and Arreola make this a damn impressive book to look at. Highly recommended.

| Published by Valiant

Giant Days #50 features a cricket match, including an explanation of the game that makes more sense than I’ve ever seen it explained before. John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell deliver another hilarious issue, with one hell of a final page.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Girl in the Bay #4 is the end to this mini from JM DeMatteis, Corin Howell, James Devlin, and Clem Robins. It answers what happened in order to create two Kathy Santoris, and her murderer’s deal, but it maintains the weirdness set from the beginning.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Gogor #1 is an entertaining start to this fantasy series from Ken Garing. The set up for the Domus taking over is interesting, as is the introduction of the seemingly Hulk-like saviour in the titular character. Gorgeous artwork throughout.

| Published by Image

Green Lantern #7 is a standout issue in an already astounding run, as Hal Jordan and a friend he finds in Pengowirr try to escape from Hal’s dying power ring. Great twists and turns throughout from Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, and Tom Orzechowski. The layouts for many of the pages, playing with the shape of the Green Lantern symbol are very impressive.

| Published by DC Comics

Harley Quinn #61 is the first of this series I’ve picked up, due to Otto Schmidt taking over regular art duties, and I quite like this. This is the first part of “Role Players” from Sam Humphries, Schmidt, and Dave Sharpe, porting Quinn off to an alternate realm steeped in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tropes. It’s pretty entertaining, with great art from Schmidt.

| Published by DC Comics

Hashtag: Danger #1 is another entertaining addition to the second wave of Ahoy’s comics, with Tom Peyer and Chris Giarrusso’s humorous take on the Challengers of the Unknown formula graduated from back-up to series. It’s rounded out with the usual back-up strip, text piece, and prose.

| Published by Ahoy

Justice League #23 has one hell of a gut punch for an ending (granted, it’s a little undercut by the DC’s Year of the Villain Special, but how could we expect something like that to remain anyway?). Absolutely stunning artwork from Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sánchez who only seem to outdo themselves with each subsequent issue.

| Published by DC Comics

Marvel Team-Up #2 continues the team-up between Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man in this Freaky Friday take from Eve L. Ewing, Joey Vasquez, Felipe Sobreiro, and Clayton Cowles. Interesting exploration of Peter and Kamala as they navigate aspects of each other’s lives.

| Published by Marvel

Meet the Skrulls #4 unveils what was a the heart of Project Blossom as fractures continue to develop between the Warner family. Great twists and turns from Robbie Thompson, Niko Henrichon, Laurent Grossat, and Travis Lanham as the series winds up for its conclusion.

| Published by Marvel

Nobody is in Control #1 features some very dense storytelling from Patrick Kindlon, Paul Tucker, and Wallace Ryan in this debut issue that goes down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and seemingly random information. It reminds me a bit of the structure of Steve Seagle and Kelley Jones’ Crusades from Vertigo ages ago, but with a more likeable protagonist and a decidedly different narrative.  

| Published by Black Mask

The Punisher #11 is the explosive conclusion to “War in Bagalia” from Matthew Rosenberg, Szymon Kudranski, Antonio Fabela, and Cory Petit. When I say “conclusion”, though, I only mean it’s the end of the arc, it doesn’t really conclude anything with Jigsaw or Zemo. Great art from Kudranski and Fabela.

| Published by Marvel

Red Sonja #4 delves a bit more into Sonja’s past and training, seeding something interesting, while the first assault after being resupplied takes place. Mark Russell, Mirko Colak, Bob Q, Dearbhla Kelly, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are continuing to tell an engrossing, thought-provoking story with this series.

| Published by Dynamite

Savage Avengers #1 is a good debut from Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin, and Travis Lanham. It spins out of Avengers: No Road Home, but only inasmuch as depositing Conan in the Savage Land. We’re getting a bit of a gathering of the team here as an ancient cult tries to summon a bloodthirsty deity from a planet past Pluto.

| Published by Marvel

The Six Million Dollar Man #3 is another hilarious issue from Christopher Hastings, David Hahn, Roshan Kurichiyanil, and Ariana Maher. The comedy of errors increases as Steve tries to recharge himself through acting as a lightning rod. Just wonderful stuff.

| Published by Dynamite

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #8 sees Seanan McGuire continue to absolutely nail the character development and interpersonal interactions between the characters in a compelling and intriguing way that hooks you well on their drama, even amidst all of the action, mystery, and excitement. Also, the art from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring remains incredible.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Han Solo #1 gives us a sweet smuggling run set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back as Han and Chewie are still carving out what their place happens to be in this world, from Greg Pak, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Tamra Bonvillain, and Travis Lanham.

| Published by Marvel

Transformers #4 maintains the slowburn for this story arc, delivering a bit more information, a Cyclonus that might be insane, and Brainstorm’s funeral. Also, I’d swear that the story is hinting that the newly forged Transformer is the murderer, but that may just be me putting together dots that don’t actually align. It’s really nice to see art here from Sara Pitre-Durocher and Andrew Griffith as they join Angel Hernandez this issue.

| Published by IDW

Volition #5 throws a boatload of betrayals and twists at us as Amber and Hale continue to try to track down their creator...and her dog. Ryan Parrott, Marco Itri, Leonardo Paciarotti, and Marshall Dillon are very nicely raising the tension levels in this issue.

| Published by AfterShock

The War of the Realms #3 sees Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino continue to juggle the massive amount of characters and threads going into this event (even if some of the tie-in mini-series don’t seem to line up with the main event book itself). Gorgeous art from Dauterman and Wilson.

| Published by Marvel

The War of the Realms: Strikeforce - The Dark Elf Realm #1 is a one shot from Bryan Hill, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Sabino further exploring the team of Freyja, the Punisher, She-Hulk, Blade, and Ghost Rider before they ride off to Svartalfheim in War of the Realms #3. Some interesting character explorations and the nightmare of thousands of fluffy kittens.

| Published by Marvel

Young Justice #5 is huge, potentially exponentially huge, as it seems to pull at the fraying threads of the New 52 and Rebirth to hearken back to the pre-Flashpoint DCU. Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms, Kris Anka, Doc Shaner, Gabe Eltaeb, and Wes Abbott may be playing with fire but it’s a very welcome warmth. Bring marshmallows.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Amazing Spider-Man #20.HU, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command #2, Beasts of Burden: The Presence of Others #1, Black AF: Devil’s Dye #3, Devil Within #4, The Dreaming #9, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #5, Female Furies #4, From Hell: Master Edition #5, Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1, Grumble #6, Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond #4, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #9, Marvel Action: Avengers #4, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3, Outcast #41, Paper Girls #28, Self/Made #6, Star Wars #65, Star Wars Adventures: Flight of the Falcon, TMNT: Urban Legends #12, Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale

Recommended Collections: Aliens: Dust to Dust, Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 3, Art of War of the Realms, Bloodborne - Volume 2: Healing Thirst, Bone Parish - Volume 1, Doctor Strange - Volume 2: Remittance, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Silent Option, House Amok - Volume 1, Killmonger, Man Without Fear, Midas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - Volume 8, Olivia Twist: Honor Among Thieves, Princeless - Volume 7: Find Yourself, The Quantum Age, The Silencer - Volume 2: Helliday Road, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Terra Incognita, Stranger Things - Volume 1: The Other Side, Takio, TMNT - Volume 21: Battle Lines, Wonder Woman & Justice League Dark: Witching Hour, The Wrong Earth - Volume 1

d. emerson eddy would like to remind you that it’s Free Comic Book Day. Get out there and free some comics from the shackles of oppression. May the fourth be with you.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 13x23 “Let The Good Times Roll”

idk what you guys thought but I LIKED IT and here’s why!!!! (EXCEPT THAT THING WITH THE KNIFE??? WHAT THE HELL???)

04:02pm

so it only took 45 minutes to an hour to find somewhere to watch this, my thanks to @trisscar368 for helping me out!!!

eventually found it streaming rather than downloading, would not recommend but HEY IT WORKS (for now) [http://gorillavid.in/zbtu97hfei65]

this feels like it’s 2008 all over again, trying to watch doctor who after school

OKAY LET’S GO

i’ve seen a bunch of major spoilers but i know cas doesn’t die so i’m good. apparently it’s A Boring Episode but also MICHEAL and LUCIFER so

idk idk let’s just watch the thing and find out what happens

-

04:04

rowena: is there, i dunno, music? CARRY ON MYY WAYWAR---

fuck

-

04:09pm

feels good having bobby there

-

BOBBY’S REACTION TO TRUMP IS THE BEST EVER

“and you call where WE come from ‘apocalypse world’?”

-

04:11

cas: “they’re talking about whether kylie jenner would make a good mother. consensus is no”

hey give her a chance

i mean i know nothing about her but she seems... teachable?

-

dean: “yeah well, that’s why i’m a chloe man”

WHOOOOOP dean loves his girly trash tv i see

-

brown werewolf: “now that is why i’m a chloe man”

dead brown person alert :|

how naive i was to think he might be left alive because he got a speaking line and made himself a dean parallel with that single line

-

04:16

mary: “do you really like the rain?”

bobby: “when it’s this beautiful, i do”

lest anyone forget bobby is a gentle down to earth sweetheart

soft papa bear

-

“rowena and charlie are road-tripping it through the south-west”

WOULD WATCH THAT SPINOFF

but #savewaywardsisters first

-

04:19

dean: “can you imagine? you, me, cas, toes in the sand, couple of those little umbrella drinks, matching hawaiian shirts, obviously”

PLEASE

“....some hula girls“

mmmm *squints at how that part was said after a....... pause, off-screen with the camera on sam*

-

04:24

dean to jack: “it’s not about being strong....... i don’t know what you went through over there... but i know you came out the other side. because you ARE strong”

good papa dean words

much love for him and his emotional avaliability

-

04:26

dean: “whatever you’re dealing with, whatever comes at us, we’ll figure out a way to deal with it. together. we’re family, kid”

sam said it to dean, dean said it to jack

i guess the next step is ...jack saying it to cas?? SOMEONE’s gotta say it to cas

but also WOOOO DEAN’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT REGARDING JACK SINCE THE START OF THE SEASON

-

04:32

um

is it just me or is this a seriously unfortunate racist-looking coincidence

desperately hoping this wasn’t the guy who killed maggie

(i don’t think it is, which means maybe this is a “don’t jump to conclusions” kind of storyline which has a race-relations subtext??? i wish it meant nothing besides jack’s need to protect others, but given the lack of living characters of colour on this show, the minute a person of colour shows up, it BECOMES about the fact they’re not white, bECAUSE they always die, invariably)

anyway, my point is: this is problematic

also the red shirt. as in “red shirts always die” ??

edit: thank goodness....... RED HERRING

-

“3 sheeps” poster in the background

i remember this symbolism from something earlier but can’t remember exactly what

i’m thinking lambs to the slaughter, or being part of a flock, or being herded into something they’re wrong about, being naive, following each other one by one into the unknown

wow reading tarot has improved my “make a list of all the obvious symbolism” skills

-

04:39

the fact cas is suffering with the angel language whistle is interesting?? i thought it hurts dean because he can’t understand it

which means.......cas isn’t understanding this noise?

or maybe he is understanding, it’s just real loud

-

04:42

enjoying sam being protective of cas

-

lucifer: ........”the three amigos.... sam, dean, and the other one”

that’s probably how a lot of people see team free will tbh

how sad

-

lucifer: “you want a lightsaber?”

jack:

vroom

we mAY HAVE LONG SAID HE’S TOO PRECIOUS FOR THIS WORLD BUT WE NEVER MEANT FOR HIM TO LEAVE

-

04:50

that awkward moment when you’re trying to solve a murder and your adorable magic grandson comes home with the devil

:o

-

the face you make when the devil makes an ableist joke about your son and then says “no offence”

(the ”i would murder you but there’s enough dead bodies in here right now” face)

-

04:56

maggie: “kinda seems like you have... you know, bigger.... satan-y... problems”

bless this girl

-

05:00

dean: “as shakespeare once said: eat me, dick-bag”

tbh shakespeare probably did say that at one point or another

add shakespeare to the list of dean’s bisexual heroes

(follow up thought: what if when cas could time-travel, he and dean and sam went to go explore shakespeare’s town and dean made.... Friends)

-

05:04

lucifer’s talking to jack about their future space travels

i mean i think it’s fairly obvious, lucifer was the one who killed maggie, so he could bring her back and impress jack

maggie said “i didn’t see their face but i saw their eyes” and that means it was either lucifer or michael with the glowing eyes, and micheal said to dean “you’ll be the first life i take in this world” which leaves lucifer

stinking nasty manipulative trash angel

-

05;07

micheal, while strangling dean: “could’ve done this quick, but i wanted to enjoy it, that moment when the soul leaves the body”

yeeeah okay sure, speak aloud your reasons you’re stalling for time while jack figures out how to get back

-

05:10

jack to lucifer: “you’re not my father. you monster”

HUZZAH

-

for the record i’m... reaLLY ENJOYING THIS episode so far

it’s all big and mighty and magical but the core of the story is a boy trying to find his family and figure out the truth behind his manipulative father

i’m so glad it led to this because i am HERE for this kind of story

the world hangs in the balance, but it’s not dean, cas and sam trying to save everyone, it’s jack trying to find his place among loved ones, and by following his desire to help people he’s learning what he needs to know

i fucking love this okay

-

05:14

lucifer: i just need your power--

OH NO I SPOKE TOO SOON

OH NO

-

05:17

michael: “this is the end. of everything”

I SEE DEAN’S COGS WHIRRING AND I WORRY

nine years of not saying yes to micheal and now it’s happening isn’t it

-

05:20

jack’s pained little whimper :c :c :c

-

05:21

dean: “i am your sword”

CHILLS

-

05:22

dean: “CAS I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE”

cas: D:

PERFECT MOMENT FOR AN AGGRESSIVE KISS but nope that would be too much like goodbye

-

05:24

third option rather than sam or jack trying to kill each other: they pick up lucifer’s blade and kill lucifer with it

-

05:26

WHAT 

NO

??????

BAD IDEA????

JUST STAB LUCIFER????

-

jack:  i love you

NOO ;;A;A;A;A;A;A;A;;A;A

DJSGJD

I’M NOT ENJOYING THIS 0/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND 

PLEASE STOP

-

05:27

WELL FUCK

hi there

WHHHOOOOOOO

meanwhile back at the bunker: cas has the weirdest traumatic boner

-

05:29

THE WINGS KEEP GETTING BIGGER

-

05:31

interesting angel flying physics here

dean flails while sailing slowly backwards

i mean i know he’s on a suspension wire but technically waving his arms about ought to affect his position

-

05:33

LITERALLY SAM COULD’VE DONE THAT TO BEGIN WITH

WHAT EVEN WAS THE POINT OF THIS

HE COULD’VE ACTED LIKE HE WAS ABOUT TO STAB JACK AND THEN GO WHOOSH AND STAB LUCIFER

SAM HAS FUCKING NOODLE ARMS HE COULD’VE DONE IT WITH HIS EYES CLOSED

JEEZ

-

05:35

okay but i’m laughing right now

are you telling me this is what happens if lucifer accidentally trips and falls on his knife

where did that golden blade come from anyway

has lucifer just been carrying it around this whole time?

COULD ANYONE HAVE PICKPOCKETED THAT KNIFE AND STABBY STABBY >>> EXPLODING FLYING FLAME DEVIL ??

WHAT BRAIN CELLS WAS LUCIFER MISSING TO HAND THAT BLADE TO SAM WINCHESTER IN THE FIRST PLACE

OR GO INTO BATTLE WITH MICHAEL WITHOUT THE KNIFE

OR TO HAVE THAT BLADE ON HAND IN THE FIRST PLACE ??????????

I’m sorry i just find this hilarious

i mean good fucking riddance to this trash angel but wow what a way to get there

all of this was so easily avoidable ?? i seriously don’t understand what possessed sam to think “aw yeah let’s pick up this magic devil blade to KILL MY OWN SON and/or HAND IT TO HIM SO HE CAN KILL ME” instead of “umMMM the devil just gave me a magic knife and is trying to tell us to kill each other maybe we should kill him with it”

I HOPE SOMEONE IN THE WRITER’S ROOM HAS A REALLY GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS

-

05:45

HAPPY RELIEVED SAMMY

why do i feel like everything’s about to go terribly terribly wrong, worse than before

-

05:48

i mean micheal!dean looks good though

despite everything i think dean would approve of the outfit

-

like he actually looks a little bit TOO attractive

definitely not to be trusted

you know when people just look TOO handsome and shiny and perfect and they’re TOO charming and you know something’s up

this guy’s got danger written all over him in sleek & elegant calligraphy

-

05:50pm

mmmmmmmmm okay, it’s over

i liked it ?

felt old-school, kinda like a buffy episode or an x-files episode

things i’m happy about: everyone lived and lucifer died!! this is a pretty cool progression of events and i’m interested to see where it goes (not EXCITED, i’m not EAGER, but i am interested). that black dude was not the one who killed maggie. maggie survived!!!

things i’m not thrilled about: the fact sam didn’t just stab lucifer in the face when he was right next to him holding the magic knife?????? i don’t get it and i don’t think any kind of meta is actually gonna be able to explain how ~UM EXCUSE ME JUST ONE SECOND~esque that moment was

no bechdel test pass

jack’s personal arc this season was great and i love him

as always, this show is riveting to me only because i care so much about the characters, and i cannot tELL YOu how fucking pleased i am that this show’s universe is now a universe where bobby, charlie, mary, rowena, dean, cas, sam, jack, jody, donna, claire, the other wayward girls, and billie ALL EXIST AND ARE ALIVE

seriously could’ve done with some kevin too, i’m still bummed that he’s died TWICE now and isn’t back permanently yet

but HOLY SHIT THE REST OF THEM ARE ALL ALIVE 

GIVE ME A TEAM-FREE-WILL-MAJOR SEASON WITH ALL THE SQUAD ALIVE AND KICKING ASS AS A GROUP

like... save dean as a group, then one by one discover that dean and cas have been locked in a room without clothes for three days, then save the world and retire forever as a happy, healthy hunter squad with their gay dads

FUCK YEAH

overall, this episode is maybe a 9/10 just because that FUCKING KNIFE man. i dunno what to think about that.

like .........why

i also want cas to have a season arc!!! a positive one!!! where he actually accepts love and expresses affection and receives AUDIBLE AND VISIBLE AND TANGIBLE affection from others!!!

and for fuck’s sakes stop killing people of colour, give us more women of colour who are good and don’t die, pass the bechdel test more often

AND ABOVE ALL GIVE US WAYWARD SISTERS I WANT THAT SHOW SO BADLY AND EVERYTHING IT REPRESENTS

IT WOULD FILL IN ALL THE GAPS THAT ARE MISSING FROM THIS SHOW

PLEASE

[aellesaan]

Wanderings in Mac’Aree: Part Four

Part one

Part two 

Part three

Aellesaan laughed at the disturbed skull, and laughed even louder as they were whisked away. "Joy ride time! Wee!"

As they were bounced about, Aellesaan attempted to keep her breasts in her low cut, white shirt. However, as they were tossed out of the coffin, the shirt ended up sliding over which allowed one to escape. With a shriek, she hastily adjusted herself, and quickly scoured the crowd with her eyes to make sure no one saw. That just would not do.

Ash frowned as soon as the skull disappeared. He was looking forward to having a new play thing, and Phae had no idea what she was talking about, teeth made an excellent butt scratcher. As the lights went out again, and he felt himself lurch forward, he was caught by surprise for a moment, but the coffin started lunging forward on what seemed to be a track; this was very exciting for Ash. He had never been on such a ride, but this was thrilling. He threw his hands in the air and let out a loud "Wooohoooo!" as the coffin sped them towards light knew what kind of fate. He had completely forgotten about his disappointment from the sandwich. He only worried that some weak-stomached goat was gonna lose their lunch on him from the tumbling ride. As the coffin came to a stop and popped upright, he scrambled out. "Damn that was fun! Can we do that again? Ooooh, I bet it's even more fun on the way down!"

It was then that the Curator chose to remake his appearance. "You idiots survived? How the fuck.... no matter. You made it this far, but by the nights end, Sarloth will still feast on your souls. He will be satiated and this whole endeavor will be at an end," It commented, satisfied in its assumptions as the room revealed itself. The first 50 meters of floor dropped out to an abyss, going down, down, down. So far down that what seemed to be ladder rungs appeared overhead, like monkey bars little kids played on. Further on, the floor erupted into light patterns, brightly shining. "There now lets see, hmm? I am thinking of a number, double it, then add six, then half that number, and then subtract the number I started with. What number I started with, is the rung you must avoid." He offered to them.

Ash turned around at hearing the Curator's voice, furrowing his brow. "Great, here's this asshole again, spoiling the fun." The frown on his face showed his utter disdain for the large construct, even in holographic form, he wanted to punch it. He furrowed his brow angrily. "Really? Math problems? An ancient, all powerful structure like yourself, and you're quizzing us on math? Have you got nothing better to do? Are you lonely? I think the giant can opener just needs a hug."

As the curator spoke back up, and Ash hammered it with rather harsh words, Aellesaan smiled kindly at him. "I hope he likes compliments. Although, his riddles are rather easier than I thought if it's all that is guarding this scepter. Unless anyone objects, the answer is 3. I'm famished." Promptly sitting down, she dug into her bottomless bag and pulled out a sandwich. A squished sandwich, with some questionable red on the baggie, but a sandwich nonetheless. The red doesn't even faze her as she mawed down on it viciously, as if a primal hunger was threatening to her stomach if she did not comply to it’s demands.

Ash's stomach grumbled as he looked down at the spunky mage's sandwich, and he himself grumbled, thinking again of the sandwich he had dropped. "I sure hope that's the answer." He looked up at the ladder rungs and grined. He was all too familiar with this game, one of his favorite things to play back at the orphanage: monkey bars! He looked over to Aellesaan, and eyed her sandwich for a minute, then looked back up at the bars. He decided he trusted her intelligence enough, after all, she had answered all the other riddles. He jumped up and grabbed the first bar, and promptly swung to the second, doing a wide arc to skip the third. The curators directions weren't exactly clear, on if he should just skip the third, or every third after that, so he figured he'd skip every third rung, just to be safe. His athleticism was on display as he effortlessly swung across the bars, all the while calling out "One, two, skip, one, two, skip, one, two, skip...". He seemed to have no care, nor fear of what laid below them, in that dark abyss, and even paused half way across to bring up a hefty chunk of phlegm to spit it down into the darkness in hopes he hit whatever was down there, and then promptly continued swinging "One, two, skip, one, two, skip..."

The Curator  turned his head angrily at Ash as it head his comment. "Oh yeah well fuck you too buddy, are all the men in your group such dicks? At least the women have good looking butts... only redeeming value of having to interact with you idiots," It complained loudly at the situation it was forced to find itself in. However surprisingly enough if any of them did look behind themselves they wouldn't see a coffin any longer, no instead all there was, was a plain office wall, no sign of where they had come from was left any longer. "Besides you got the other puzzles right, but you don’t look very smart, so I bet you can't do mathematics," He spoke, articulating the words as if insulting him on his use of the shortened version.

The Curator looked over at Aellesaan, her positivity and warmness leaving him unsure and confused of how to act and react in response to her. After being somewhat dumbstruck, he finally responded. "Umm.. no oh no no he doesn't... Wait what?! Come on you have to know what the answer to that was?" He responded back sighing in exasperation. "And NO its not the scepter you’re after... sheesh it’s a key. Funnily enough a literal key rather than a metaphor, but a key none the less. The key gets you the scepter though." He added brightly as he watched her sit down on the floor and began to munch on a sandwich. Ash certainly was the daring type so it seemed, and luckily enough for him Aellesaan's answer provided the solution to the puzzle as well, or at least kept him from falling down, as he successfully swung past several groupings of bars. It was when he spat down into the darkness that his first mistake was made as a furious roar erupted, and a long clawed blackness reached for him, only coming within feet of grasping his legs. As he looked down he would see eyes of molten fury, and a mouth snarled open in utter rage, and hunger.

Ash would successfully come to land only several meters from the pedestal now, within throwing distance, as he stood across the canyon from them. While there was no Curator this time, instead there was simply a pattern of three symbols: one of the sun, one of water and one of stone. The floor pattern matched these symbols entirely, and if they were to inspect the symbols they would find ash on some, and crumbled pebbles and stone on others.

"Well?" Kairyth gestured toward Dayton, then looked from the ladder with the Vindicator disappearing into the darkness, to Aeiia (both of whom have totally been here all along). "He's a moron, but I'm not leaving him here." Aeiia, for her part, hardly glanced up from the tightly compacted ball of Light rolling in her palm. Bright enough to illuminate her own lovely features and a few inches before her, but by no means to penetrate the inky blackness above and below them; it is unclear whether the ball is a weapon or residual nervous energy. She wiggled her fingers at Dayton, smiling faintly at the undignified yelp which escaped the wolf when his paws lifted from the floor in the simple levitation spell. He looked almost frantically from the Anchorite to his mistress and sneezed, violently, three times. Kairyth rolled her eyes and snagged his nearest leg - a back one, unfortunately for him - with her tail, coiling it securely around the appendage before jumping up and catching hold of the first rung of the ladder. "Moron," she muttered, amidst a few other choice words as she followed Ash's example, skipping every third rung of the ladder as she followed him, and towing her poor wolf in all his indignity behind her. Aeiia stared after the Rangari for a moment before she tucked her ball of Light into her sleeve and stomped - somewhat more huffily than is her wont- over to the precipice and peered after Kairyth. "You are a terrible bodyguard," She announced, before duplicating Dayton's levitation spell on herself and jumping up to begin her own ascent. "Yeah, yeah. Suck it," Kairyth's voice trailed back from the darkness. Clearly she was unbothered by Aeiia's opinion.

Aellesaan finished her squished PB&J sandwich while she observed the others go across the ladder rungs. She was great at riddles, and sometimes math. No one appeared the wiser she had guessed three, and not known for sure. It was likely just as well Aellesaan didn't reveal the truth surrounding her guessing of the answer to this particular problem. After all, the first volunteers sure wouldn't find it as amusing or fun as she herself did, having put their lives on the line so quickly in their trust. However, gymnastics was not her thing; she was rather klutzy. With a deep  breath, and her heart nearly in her throat, she jumped up to grab the first bar, and nearly missed. She swung to the second with a grunt, and with luck, grasped firmly onto the fourth. Her palms had begun to slip on the smooth bars with her fearful sweating, and about halfway through, one of her hands did slip. A shrill shriek elicited from her mouth, and without thinking, she blinked across the rest of the way, barely getting far enough to make it onto the ledge. Her skin was pale, and sweat ran down her face. "Never again. I hate heights. I think I'm going to vomit. Oh Light. " Vomit spewed from her mouth as she quickly whirled around to face the cavern, and chucked up her freashly eaten sandwhich down below. "Uh-oh. I shouldn't have done that,” she whispered, fearful it would cause the monster below to become enraged.

Ash looked down as the beast reached for him, and he pulled his feet up in time to just narrowly escape being grabbed. He laughed the rest of the way across, and as he landed, he turned back to the pit and grinned, giving a crotch chop towards the darkness as if telling the creature below to "suck it." He turned back towards where the curator was and chuckled. "Come on now, you gotta be able to do better than that, Jeeves." He knew that this construct was ancient, and he figured comparing it to a common repair bot might be a good enough insult. He looked back at the rest of the group, making their way across, and saw Aellesaan struggling with the monkey bars. As she blinked to the edge, and puked into the abyss, he grinned. "You okay, love? Oh don't worry, he won't be eating any goats today, I'm sure he's happy with a bit of used PB&J."

Danarshi had, to his own regret, silently been a part of the wild ride that occurred within the coffin. As the next puzzle laid before them, however, containing the many rungs, he was, again, hesitant to proceed. If Aellesaan's answer was wrong, he shuddered to think of what horrors awaited them within the blackened pit below. Unfortunately, however, inaction would leave them trapped for eternity. Unable to find a more suitable solution than that of which the clever Aellesaan thought of, he figured that it was time to step out of his shadow and show courage. Rubbing his hands together and rolling his neck, Danarshi embraced a deep breath before performing a running leap, successfully landing atop the first rung. Using his momentum, he did not stop for even a moment. Danarshi continued on to the second rung, and then the third - ironically, it was there that he stumbled, tripping and falling forward. Luckily for the Anchorite, he had managed to push himself far enough forward that each of his hands clutched onto the fourth rung, where he continued to hang for a number of seconds. Heavily breathing, Danarshi could not resist the temptation of peering below, that of which he immediately regretted. Closing his eyes and mustering his strength, he soon started funneling his strength into his upper torso and arms, causing himself to swing back and fourth, much like a trapeze. Having soon created a high enough pace, he released his hold on the rung and flew forward, his hands wrapping around the fifth. Danarshi's hands ached from the friction of the rung steps scraping against them, and the Anchorite audibly groaned and grunted as he progressed. By what was, perhaps, some miracle, he soon managed to make it to the end of the course; planted down upon the solid floor, he collapsed on to his hands and knees, the muscles aching within his upper body.

Aellesaan wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and glanced at Ash. "At least he doesn’t have to chew it. Pre-chewed, homemade sandwich, express delivery!" Giggles emanated from her as she stood up, and looked at the ground. A pattern of three symbols, sun, water, and stone. "Any of you good at these types puzzles? I can if you allow me some time to concentrate." With that, she got as close as she could, and looked at the patterned floor.

Ash looks at the symbols curiously, and shrugged a bit. "I don't know. I mean, they could represent something that would happen if you stepped on certain symbols. The sun ones might burn you to a crisp." He pointed at the piles of ashes. "The stone ones might drop stones on you, which would probably suck pretty bad." He looked at the water symbol, and scratched his head a bit "I have no idea what the water ones might do. Maybe give you a shower? Seems the least terrible out of the three options. Maybe we only step on the water symbols? Hey, anyone bring any soap? Might as well get a good shower out of this after stepping in all that blood."

It seemed Kairyth had the same insanity complex that Ash did, only this time coming complete with entertainment to boot, as the group would watch her hook her tail around a wolfs leg and pitifully drag it through the air. The poor thing was terrified of the creature below roaring at it and trying to snatch it out of the air which hoped Kairyth would drop the wolf. Of course however she did not and following the direction Ash had done based on Aellesaan's answer was entirely successful in making it to the other end.

The construct would have grated his teeth had he still had any; instead he settled himself to raise a finger at Ash before it blinked out. It seemed they were not going to be getting any more advice or help from the construct regardless of how annoying and pessimistic the thing was.

As Danarshi would move through the monkey bars, his stumble would reveal to the group just what would have happened. The bar fell free quickly, and a polymer mesh net came down quickly; obviously designed to ensure whoever was on it was trapped entirely and taken down. He did however of course safely make it to the end, albeit taking the longest of the lot thus far.

Ash indeed had guessed the answer very well, and if the group continued to search, on literally the opposite area, the would see the exact repercussions were shown quite clearly. The sun tile had a three picture story of a person stepping on it, then being covered in light, and then being ash. The stone tile had the individual step on it, then a picture of a boulder heading toward them, and finally the individual smashed into the ground. The final one, water, had the same first symbol as the other two, before the second had what would amount to a barrel of water being dumped on them, and finally an image of a soaked and unhappy Draenei looking at the viewer. Unfortunately with the added addition of three wet wolves... yep they were gonna have wet dog smell... yuck!

Ash continued to look around at the group unexpectedly, hoping that one of them has brought a bar of soap with them. He sighed and shook his head as he realized no one had. "Fine, hobo bath it is." He stepped onto the first water tile with a distinct grimace set onto his face as he expected something terrible, like a squid being thrown at him or something, but he was pleasantly surprised when he realized he was right. As the water splashed down on him, he looked back at the group and grinned. "I did it guys, I solved one!" He started hopping across the tiles, making sure to only land on the water tiles as he definitely did not want a sun burn that bad, or a concussion. Every few tiles, he stopped and began scrubbing some of the blood off of his legs with the falling water, meanwhile whistling a tune like he was singing in the shower. "Hey Curator, I wouldn't suppose the next room is a bed and breakfast, is it? Maybe a manicurist? At least a snack bar?" After he is satisfied with his cleanliness, and had gotten a good amount of the blood off of him, he finished making his way across the tiles, shaking himself off like a wet dog at the other end. "Fuck, and I forgot my towel." By successfully making it across the tiles, Ash had proved there were no ill effects caused by the water, and it even got warmer as he made his way across, as if giving a hint they were going in the right direction.

Aellesaan clasped her small hands excitedly for Ash as he stepped on the first tile. "Great guess Ash! Ash:1 Curator:0." With delightful giggles, she followed him onto the water tiles, reveling in the sensation of the water rushing against her skin. "Hey guys! Wet t-shirt contest!" Of course, she happened to be wearing a white t-shirt with red stains from the blood bath earlier. While others may have been embarrassed or mournful at having water dump on them in a white shirt, Aellesaan seemed as uncaring about this as the rest of the adventure she had been having.

Copying Ash, she scrubbed her skin free of the blood as she danced along the tiles, and whistled another melody. While others may have been embarrassed or mournful at having water dump on them in a white shirt, Aellesaan seemed as uncaring about this as the rest of the adventure she had been having, dripping wet as she stepped off onto the pedestal as well with Ash. As she reached the end, she slid over to Ash and the pedestal with a playful smile, and shook herself off like a wet dog would do.

Ash doesn't even pretend to avert his eyes, as Aellesaan's shirt is soaked, and now translucent. With a slight smirk on his face, he nods in approval "Always the crazy chicks with the nicest racks." Of course he meant crazy in a somewhat endearing way, because he in no way felt that she was too insane to be of any use to the group. She had already proven herself quite well in his eyes, though he was still unaware that he had put his life on the line with her guess work. He gave her a sly grin. "You know, you keep that up, and the Curator might just short-circuit. The thing seems to have a bit of a flustered crush on you. I say next time he pops up, you flash him." The grin on his face told her quite well that the grumpy construct wouldn't be the only one to enjoy that show.

He turns back around and looked toward the key with a sigh. "I wouldn't suppose it would be so easy as we could just grab the thing, huh? Think it might be trapped or something?" He looked back at the rest of the group as they make their ways across the tiles, hoping that one of them knew anything about searching for traps. He was very athletic, and knew how to break things to death with his sword and shield, but trap finding wasn't exactly his forté. Though give him a pissy robot to antagonize, and he seemed right at home.

The Construct wouldn't respond or even appear at Ash's words, evidently so pissed off and annoyed by the current groups antics that even beyond Epilvik's extremely rough and rude treatment of him, the casual disrespect and insult shown to it by the others had frustrated it beyond belief, refusing to even let them have a hint on how they could get past without activating the traps.

Indeed as Ash was demonstrating it was likely all the males within the group didn't bother to advert their eyes, with how open Aellesaan was and willing to display herself, they would have received quite the eyeful indeed. While her work previously before this particular puzzle had been guesswork on some instances, they were also sound and reasoned guesses, and had lead them along well; clearly far better than anyone else that had come before. The pedestal looked untouched for decades as a large glass receptacle stood at its peak, inside containing an elaborate ruby, carved into the shape and structure of a key itself

[thehallofgame]

Review: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Release: 2017

My Rating: 8.5/10

              Hellblade is a long awaited and much anticipated new IP from developer Ninja Theory. Probably best known for their work on the Devil May Cry reboot this studio also produced Heavenly Sword, a launch title on the PS3 that was received with lukewarm reception by critics but later gained a loyal fan following. When no Heavenly Sword sequel was ever made fans latched onto the announcement of similarly named Hellblade as the closest they could get. It soon became apparent that the two weren’t directly related, but considering both games feature a young, female, sword slinging lead with a drive for revenge on their minds it’s fair to say Hellblade was a worthy spiritual successor.

              In addition to a return to the formula that put Ninja Theory on the triple A map the team also had a couple of significant goals in mind for their new IP. First: feature a protagonist with mental illness, specifically psychosis and do that respectfully. They aimed to tell a deep and emotional story about this person and convey the struggles others with this condition might face and how it shapes their perceptions without succumbing to tokenism or minimalizing Senua’s condition. The second goal was a pointed effort to reinvent the thoroughly dead field of middle tier games. To this end Hellblade released for download only at an initial pricetag of $30, precisely half of a triple A game’s cost. The game’s scope was shrunk somewhat to match the price point but, honestly, I find this to be fair exchange.

While Hellblade’s graphics were sharp and the textures looked nice the game lacked the polish of higher budget games. For a game that had full body and facial animations Senua’s face and body look awkward, and her lip-syncing was often out of whack. The environments could be repetitive, and as the game takes place entirely in one area, allegedly the Norse underworld called Nifleheim, there isn’t a lot of variety in the surroundings to start with. That said the game explores several different lighting, water and fog effects to convey a multitude of different moods visually. This, combined with the excellent set and musical direction manage to convert the game into something that feels as intriguing and claustrophobic as the best psychological horror games did in their heyday.

Unfortunately they also routinely break the immersion with flashbacks to what appear for all the world to be actor footage with a few filters slapped over it. It’s hard to take these sequences of exposition seriously when you’re trying to figure out if the team bothered to suit someone up in a motion capture suit and model them or just shot some footage on their iphones.

Which is a shame because these scenes are what the core of Hellblade’s story are set in. The voices in Senua’s head, the memories that come back to her, the myths of norse mythology, all these things reflect the trials she faces and help the player piece together the story between Senua’s hallucinations and the metaphors she’s adventuring in.

Hellblade asks the familiar ‘but how much of this is really happening’ question with the firm answer of ‘yes’. Which isn’t exactly conclusive, but the story becomes more intriguing for the vaguery, and with each runestone Senua finds, and the more Viking myth we hear, the more we wonder if we’re learning about ancient heroes or Senua herself.

There’s a good twist or two along the way, but nothing mind blowing. The ending itself is rather predictable and while it seems Ninja Theory is teasing a sequel they’ve written themselves into a box it will be hard to climb out of. Likewise their exploration of Senua’s struggle with her mental illness is a little awkward. They don’t do the best job of conveying how Senua experiences psychosis beyond just the obvious symptoms of hallucination and seeing patterns where there shouldn’t be any. However, the story is good for all that, and Ninja Theory does paint a compelling case of what it’s like living with mental illness. The game explores Senua’s relationship to her parents, her fight for independence, her isolation from the rest of her community and the damage her demons do to her attempts to start over and all of those arcs feel poignant and real.

Gameplay experimented with some of these features with admirable results. As Senua progresses she’ll find her way blocked with doors and puzzles. The solution usually involves a game of perception where the player must move Senua around the map until they can use objects in the environment to line up as a symbol or path Senua has fixed in her mind. Once this pattern or secret is found the way forward will open. It’s a good gimmick, and the game rearranges and reframes this puzzle nine ways to Sunday but in the end, even in a game that can be cleared in fifteen hours or less the gimmick wears out its welcome.

Luckily, the other big gameplay hook, combat, is awesome. There is no combat tutorial, and the best the player gets is the ability to check the controls on the pause screen. Senua starts with the basic sword-fighting game set of rules: light attack, heavy attack, kick/body slam, block and dodge. Without a tutorial the player is left to figure out the gameplay controls on their own and it feels amazing. As enemies get more complicated the player will be forced to come up with more creative ideas, combos and techniques that fit their play style… and the thing is their: ideas will work. A sprint can be chained into a tackle to knock back an enemy to be followed up by several heavy strikes to batter an enemy down. Likewise, in one memorable encounter, diving beneath an enemy and lifting the sword like the hero of  a tale heard by Senua earlier will fell the boss in one hit if the timing is right.

The game’s bosses are also excellent. They feel difficult, skilled and hard to hit without being ridiculously punishing. Each has their own unique identity from Norse mythology, slow build up to their appearance and uniquely terrible visage. Yet they don’t speak. In fact the only dialogue in the game occurs inside Senua’s head. The terrible isolation, ruins and blank stare coupled with the reactionary violence of the bosses all leads to a grim, creeping psychological horror to Senua that compensates in many ways for any warts the player detect.

The game is addictive, the fast flowing combat and the strands of coherence the player picks from Senua’s memories and the constant chatter of the voices are compelling. The game also uses a clever gimmick: every time Senua dies a ‘rot’ extends further from her hand to her head with the warning that if it reaches her head she will die permanently and the game will end. This is enforced by constant auto-saving and causes a pervasive paranoia about messing up in fights. That technique goes a long way to hide the fact that while bosses are fun and dynamic they rarely manage to take Senua down. Neither do regular enemies unless Senua is surrounded, and then only because the combat isn’t well suited to mob combat.

It is in those situation that Senua’s voices come into play. They notice things the player, and Senua, doesn’t. They’ll call out when enemies flank her, or when the chain gauge discreetly indicated by the increasing glow of designs on the mirror hanging from Senua’s belt is ready for use. The chain gauge is spent by pressing the same button that causes Senua to focus when looking at patterns. The battle then slows to a crawl and allows Senua to rapidly tear through enemies and thin the competition. The gauge can also save Senua from death. If she’s been knocked down and a deathblow is coming the voices will scream for her to focus, and hitting the button will expend a charge and cause Senua to escape in the nick of time and rejoin the fray. I can’t say enough for how smooth and natural the combat feels. It might not be unforgiving enough for Dark Souls veterans but it is a great entry point for those new to precision combat games and encourages learning finesse over battering through opponents.

While Hellblade was by no means perfect it did achieve almost everything it wanted to and it was good. It’s hard to produce media with the goal of having a message and do it well. In fact it almost salves the wound of never getting another Heavenly Sword. Ultimately with its quirkiness and dark beauty Hellblade is one of, if not just really, my favorite IP of 2017. The pricepoint allowing me to buy it the day it came out doesn’t hurt my appreciation any either! I hope for the sake of gaming’s future Hellblade’s model is successful and replicable because I’d love to see a return to mid-tier, affordable gaming.