#when you have made...so much writing for more worldbuilding expansion

[dlthedescent]

With the Beast dlc coming up and with the hints so far, I could see myself take a different writing in Descent from here on out (thankfully the large time gap between DL1 and DL2 gives that leeway). That said, I have gotten some comments and yeah it's a whole different take than my Freakazoid take.

And to be frank, I'm not too concerned about potential changes. Fanfics/fanarts are meant to be fluid and adaptive, and surprisingly, Dying Light is one of several that has a lot of potential for creativity freedom and character exploration. So I'm open to whatever Techland gives for this DLC and I don't mind at all adapting to the new content for Descent because who knows, it might open more ideas! Moreover, I'm happy with what I have so far is good enough that there doesn't need to be any severe changes to past chapters. Concept art, most likely (something I need to go back).

With that said, it's a good thing this happened. Because 1. the art for Freakazoid was still concept drafts so I don't mind refining the design based on new info (which means I CAN DRAW CLOTHES ON A HUMAN-ISH BODY AND NOT A FULL-MONSTER-ISH BODY YIPPEE!). And 2. it made me remember my damn timeline in Descent was that it has been four months since the Following in Descent.

I'm pretty sure NOW thinking of it, four months of infection and mutation is not gonna be as drastic as a full-fledged volatile or hunter....

[bet-on-me-13]

Fanfics that changed your entire perception on a piece of Media?

Every once in a while I will find a Fanfic that completely overhauls my entire perception of a Show or Book, to the point that I consider that Fanfic as a Better Canon than the Actual Canon Story. Simply because I adore them so much.

(Not to say the actual Canon isn't good, but I just like certain elements of the fanfics more than what they did in Canon, and in some cases those elements stack up so much I wish I could just replace the entire story with them)

For Harry Potter it was Lily's Boy. This added so much to the HP Universe and made a story I desperately wish was Canon instead. I think most people who read this agree, especially because JK Rowling🤢 sucks ass at actual worldbuilding and this sets up a magical world that feels fleshed out and alive. My only gripe is the Ron and Hermione bashing, but I can ignore that pretty easily. Dumbledore Bashing is perfectly fine imo.

For MHA it was We Are Here: Emerald Sparks and Angel on my Shoulder. Both are Fics that dramatically expand on the MHA Worldbuilding, and have Concepts and Arcs that I wish were a part of the actual Anime. Especially with the expansion they do on what happened during the Dawn of Quirks, and just how Dark and Brutal the MHA World can actually get when you think about the information we are given about it in Canon.

And the big one for me, for Legend of Zelda: BOTW it was Luminous. This is a huge one because I actually cried when I read it, the character writing, emotional beats, headcanons, and more are all just absolutely incredible and kept me on the edge of my seat every single chapter until it finished. The scenes with the Champions and Mipha, the flashbacks, the Yiga Clan, the OC's, and character expansions, and so much more. I cannot wait for the sequel and prequel series that are in the works.

Any fics like that for you? (Also any recs?)

[comicaurora]

i think pacing is THE literary tool that most directly proves that you write good when you've been writting a lot. pacing is a feel, you can and def should read stuff about pacing, but you simply can't develop the muscles for it without hitting the gym.

so uhh, when did you start feeling good about how you've handled pacing in previous works and current one? was there a moment? i feel stuck, and discipline tells me to keep on trucking but its demotivating. sorry for long question aaa

Conveniently it was during the process of making the comic, because I absolutely did not have it down before I started. I had a moment of clarity sometime around chapter 3 that all my artistic practice for the comic had done nothing to prepare me for the invisible substrate of visual storytelling: pacing. Splash panels and big dramatic establishing shots are much more common in those early chapters because I hadn't processed how to fully utilize the space on the page. I had to do some backend reworking of the general timeline as I realized that any amount of narrative backtracking would grind the story to a halt AND take me way too much time to make. I realized I had a lot of unconnected filler in my initial plan that kind of just kicked the plot into little zero-consequence cul-de-sacs that didn't move anything forward, so I began to prioritize story beats that advanced at least one of either the plot or a character arc - I didn't want to fall into the trap of making absolutely everything tie into one singular grand evil plan or not have any room for broader worldbuilding, so I allowed for some outside-context antagonists and threats as long as they let me reveal new things about the main characters. It gave me a feel for what constituted forward motion or broad expansion of the story.

Somewhere along the way - I think maybe around chapter 9? - I gave myself a rule of thumb that every page needed at least one new thing on it. That "thing" could be a piece of new information, a turn of events in the story, a reveal of something previously unseen, a character making a decision - it's not a hard definition by any means, but it helped me stay on track. It also helped balance the two completely disparate pacings I need to account for, namely how the story is paced when you read the archive through vs how the story is paced when you read it as it updates three times a week. "One thing per page" means the people reading it as it updates always get something new to chew on.

When I bit the bullet and started this story, I was as prepared as I could've been for someone who'd never made a longform comic before, but that meant I was completely lacking in experience with the unique and invisible elements of comic storytelling, of which pacing is the most foundational. It's ok if you don't think you're good at it yet; it's impossible to get good at it before you begin. Starting the story is the hardest part.

[marinsawakening]

Tangentially related thoughts I had while writing the last post that I decided to put in a new one: its entire story is just so... nothing to me. It brings pretty much nothing to the table that I think is interesting to explore outside of this specific game canon.

The only imprint Skyward Sword left on the rest of the series was Hylia, and that one line where Zelda asks Link if he can hear the Master Sword talk in BOTW. There is a reason TOTK didn't even hesitate before shrugging its shoulders and completely ignoring every single lore element it established. Yeah, LOZ loves to do that, but it also loves to take good things from past games and use them. For example, OOT's take on the Zora has become the default because it was way more interesting than the previous Zora, and the Gorons, Sheikah and even the Gerudo were interesting enough to become fixtures of the LOZ world. This is because, in worldbuilding people and cultures distinct from Hyrule, they made the world feel more expansive and real.

Skyward Sword, fundamentally, did not do that. The non-Hylians we meet pretty much unanimously have little going on, at least as far as cultural background is concerned. The closest species to having an actual 'society' are the Parella and the Kikwi, and neither of them even have, like, shops. They are plot devices; charming ones, but plot devices nonetheless. There are a whole three Gorons and no mention of their civilization that must exist somewhere. The most expansive settlements we see on the Surface are those of the bokoblins, who we are clearly not supposed to view as actual people, considering how many we are casually killing. Impa is Sheikah, and she also the only Sheikah we ever see, and we know pretty much nothing at all about their culture or what they were like; in fact, the logical conclusion is that Impa is the only Sheikah left in this world, and we never even acknowledge that. There is no real society of note on the Surface, except for the dead one in Lanayru. Aside from pretty environments, there is pretty much nothing on the Surface.

Skyward Sword's contributions to the LOZ lore were passive ones; Hylia as an explanation for why Zelda is special, Demise as an explanation for why Ganon is special, Fi as and explanation for why the Master Sword is special, and who is explicitly established to be asleep and therefore unaware of what goes on outside of her by the end of Skyward Sword. Regardless of whether you think these additions to the lore are interesting or not, they are also pretty much dead ends. You could do more with them, if you wanted to (see: BOTW/TOTK and Hylia), but they are not designed for it. None of Skyward Sword's original species are given enough depth to really be worth exploring in other games, considering their niches as Mountain, Forest, and Water Creatures are all filled already. Skyloft itself is an isolated island floating far above the clouds, and thus easily ignored in future installments. Skyward Sword wraps everything up in a neat little bow that you can nod at and then promptly proceed to ignore for the rest of the series.

Which, to me, is the very opposite of what a prequel should be doing. It should be reframing, challenging, changing things. Even though prequels, by their very nature, do obviously need to lead somewhere predetermined, the reason they exist at all is because the story of how we got here is different than what we'd naturally expect. Skyward Sword is not. Skyward Sword says 'Link and Zelda are special because they are connected to a goddess, Ganon keeps attacking because he is connected to an evil god, and there was no society of note living on the planet when Hyrule was formed.' The Master Sword being alive is the only subversive addition to the series. Link, Zelda, and Ganon's connection to divinity was very much presumed already, even if the exact gods they are apparently connected to are new, and Hyrule being the center of the world was already the series default. This game could've practically been an exposition paragraph in the Hyrule Histoira, for all its impact on the lore.

What is interesting to one person may not be interesting to another, and I know Skyward Sword's story very much has its fans, but at least as an LOZ prequel Skyward Sword is just a whole bunch of 'yeah I kinda figured' to me.

[azems-familiar]

my thoughts on dawntrail

alright, now that it's been a couple days since i finished the 7.0 MSQ, and i've had time to get my thoughts in order, i wanted to write up my overall thoughts and impressions on the expansion. beneath the cut there WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS for plot points, zones, and dungeons/trials through the whole expansion, so be warned.

so i'll start with the positives.

first of all, i obviously can't stress enough how much i love the graphics update and how beautiful everything looks now. i really appreciate several of the QoL things they added in, like dual dye channels and the adjustment to the follow missions that make it easier to see when you might fail. i loved the first 4 zones - the designs, the cultures in them, the way they were developed. i think my favorite group was the Yok Huy. the dungeons and trials are also all REALLY fun, for the most part, although a couple of the fights suck balls on caster - Vanguard's second boss is aoe hell taken to a new extreme. i did have some troubles with seeing mechanics on the final trial, but i managed it, at least.

i overall liked the rite of succession. i liked Wuk Lamat's character arc, and i liked Koana's as well, and i wasn't too bothered by how much of a back seat in the story the WoL took, although i was disappointed we didn't get many chances to bond with the Scions or Erenville and the WoL's relationship with Wuk Lamat was centered over everything else (and sorry, but Lelesu is not going to think of her as family that quickly), especially with Erenville being the expansion's narrator. it did a little bit annoy me that it mostly felt like we were there to be a camera from which to let the player watch the story, but it wasn't too egregious. i wanted more of the rivalry between the Scions that we were teased, but overall it was an enjoyable little vacation with some really beautiful worldbuilding.

that said.

to me the second half of the story felt like someone trying to emulate shb without really understanding what made shb so good, while also trying to shoehorn Wuk Lamat in as the protagonist when by all rights she should no longer have been. the WoL was given no agency despite the fact that we were dealing with another reflection and a star-wide threat; frankly, the idea that Lelesu would have sat back and been perfectly content to wait for Wuk Lamat to challenge Zoraal Ja to single combat and whatnot is kind of ridiculous, considering the harm he could cause to not only the Source but the other reflections as well. i disliked that there were hardly any mentions whatsoever of past worldbuilding - we have no opportunity to talk to Sphene about how her shard's shift towards lightning was definitely intentional and caused by Ascian manipulation, we don't get to interject that we can cure the levin sickness (something that genuinely bothered me, since that was a MASSIVE PLOT POINT in the shb patches). our accomplishments are almost never brought up at all.

moreover, this expansion was supposed to be character development for Krile. i would not have minded the WoL remaining in the background so much if during the second half of the story, Krile took the fore, especially since her parents are from this unknown shard - but as it was, we barely got anything from her at all, except a couple cutscenes in Living Memory. the Scions also weren't particularly centered - they were all present, but all the emotional moments and connections were focused on Wuk Lamat and on Sphene, even Erenville fading into the background most of the time, and the WoL is constantly made to follow Wuk Lamat around to let the players watch what she's doing instead of working with their own team of people to ascertain what's going on and put a stop to it.

(this is very much a personal thing, but i also did not like Sphene; she gave me the utter creeps the moment she showed up onscreen, which would have been great if they'd been trying to play into that, but it felt like we were genuinely meant to Like Her and personally she made me want to claw my skin off every time she opened her mouth or did an animation, lol.)

despite my interest in another reflection, all of those issues above definitely soured me on the second half of the plot quite a bit. i also really did not like Living Memory - it felt somehow directly antithetical to the themes of endwalker, while trying to copy, again, the end of shb. like the opposite of Ultima Thule, which was incredibly cathartic even though it was very heavy. Living Memory just honestly was a bit triggering to me and left me upset in a bad way, and i had to force myself through the end of the msq there. especially considering that no one living remembers these people, since they all had their minds mass-wiped constantly...it did not feel very good. though i did like that we got some focus on Erenville there, finally.

the cutscene prior to the final trial i honestly did really love though - getting to pull out the Azem crystal and do what we do best made me HAPPY, since we'd gotten so little of that this expansion. so you can imagine i felt incredibly frustrated and...cheapened when Wuk Lamat burst through the literal fourth wall to trigger the boss's phase change. also the fact that no one is bringing up dynamis when "the power of emotion" is repeatedly mentioned is ANNOYING, because come on, we just had a whole arc about this, i guarantee you it's still fresh in everyone's minds. we also didn't get called the Warrior of Light at all this expansion, which just made me kinda go :/ because that's our title, even if Hydaelyn is gone. i am very interested in why the Key has Azem's symbol on it though, and looking forward to what kind of arc this might kickstart. i also liked the final scene in which Erenville asked the WoL what drives them - the answers we were given to choose from felt like a really good indicator of the growth our characters have gone through since we were first asked why we became an adventurer to begin with.

another little thing that does irritate me is - why does no one in Tural seem to have any familiarity with the global events in the past? such as the Final Days, primals, the Echo, the concept of a Warrior of Light - Hydaelyn spoke to everyone and since the Echo is a manifestation of an ancient soul, it makes no sense that only people in Eorzea would have it. it also makes no sense that the Ascians would just completely ignore one of the major continents, especially since Emet-Selch has clearly been to Tural before. i definitely didn't expect them to recognize us, but idk, it was kinda weird that there was just no mention of this stuff.

my overall impressions is that i will probably enjoy doing sidequests and things in the new zones, and running the content, but i probably am not going to replay the story at all and i'm holding out hope for better writing in the patch quests. before anyone comes at me with "well of course the wol wasn't the protagonist we can't be saving the star all the time-" i'm perfectly fine with lower stakes, i just wish it felt more like we were relevant, especially in the latter half of the story. there's an easily-achievable happy medium, you know? same with there being a happy medium between "continuing the previous plot arcs" and "ignoring basically all past plot events and worldbuilding".

if you've read all the way down here, have a happy Lelesu for your trouble:

she looks amazing in the rdm artifact gear!

[spaced-out-reader]

what are your favorite features of sci-fi?? Like which tropes or themes make you like the genre the most?

Ooh, this is a good one!

Number 1: Space. First and foremost, it is space. From spaceships to stations to extraterrestrial settlements--I love the great puzzle that is our future in space. It's a setting both familiar, echoing our history on our planet's oceans, and at the same time excitingly unknown. I love designing my own spaceships and working out systems for how they work. I read a lot of game manuals from old scifi ttrpgs and just enjoying the setting they give in fluff and the cool toys you're meant to play with.

I also like thinking about how the crew interact with each other and perform their duties, which is why I love Star Trek: TOS so much but that's a whole different conversation. People On Spaceships is just such a lovely genre to me. (eg. Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Firefly, The Expanse,

Number 2: Aliens. More specifically: speculative biology. Nothing fascinated child-me more than a properly messed up creature. I grew up watching all of Ben 10 (and I mean all of it) and I was always captivated by the sheer coolness of the aliens' designs and biology. John Carpenter's The Thing also made me a huge fan of practical effects. Just the chance to examine what it means to be alien is compelling enough for me when it's done right (like Arrival)

Number 3: I like worldbuilding. I can do that for fantasy as well but my inner critic is a little prick who keeps asking why I'm not as good as Tolkien. So instead of more fantastic settings, I ended up working with something that offered a more well-thought-out ruleset (i.e. physics) which gave me a lot of opportunities to make some creative decisions that feel much more fulfilling than if I had been working from scratch. It's like a puzzle to me.

Number 4: Inspiration. What inspires me in my own writing, is the understanding that science fiction is about the future. It's about us and what we could, might, should, and will be. The world does change, says science fiction. And you have the power to push for that change. The world won't stay like this forever. But you must first believe.

The reason I'm dedicated to this genre is, in part, spite. I want to prove to people that the future can be a great place if we want it to be. That we can reach the stars (not through ftl, though. I'm not betting on that, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong!). That space travel can be something beautiful, something that doesn't belong solely to the rich, something that drive us upward and outward into an exciting new milieu.

In short, scifi is a unique way for me to have an intense relationship with my imagination, and hopefully inspire someone else to dream of the future. And, you know, maybe have some fun along the way.

So, yeah!

[lancerfay]

Happy New Year! I want to be more like, documentative of stuff I'm doing this year because it really helped me confidence wise to see how much I'd done once I sorted my drawings by year. So in lieu of just posting sketches, I think project progress posts might happen at least for a while if they're fun. Especially if folks find it interesting or helpful to see someone else do stuff at a different pace than "and now here's a finished thing". So with that in mind! OC and Vtuber mo(th)del stuff after the fold (long post):

Character Designing

You might remember my previous sketch for redoing her hairstyle (her OC name is Fay btw because mildly self inserting). In addition to the hair, I went and redesigned her outfit and figured out a color palette.

So Fay here had a few previous design iterations, a lot of the monstergirl bits are hugely influenced by Juniper Actias, one of my favorite streamers not only because she's a monstergirl enjoyer but also because she streams so much of her drawing and animation (rigging) work for her models its hugely inspiring (link for her twitch, other links are in her channel bio). I've obviously made sure to distinguish Fay here from Juniper but the influence is at least IMO undeniable nor am I particularly concerned with it being so noticeable, I'm just gonna give credit where it's due.

Face wise I was inspired by this (horny) art of like a bile titan (Helldivers 2) gijinka where the mouth split open on these seams, and that was such a cool way to have mandibles and a fucked up mouth opening (here https://vxtwitter.com/Museumofendings/status/1769777921747456421) cropping the image to show the example here because the original is kinda NSFWcore

On to the outfit, I had an old outfit design, a few actually, and those are here:

As you can see, the color palette's kept a few things and lost a few others. The teal color (my favorite color) has stayed even though I never made a conscious decision for that, it just felt right. That orange was originally picked for matching to the type of moth she's inspired by (Death's Head Hawkmoth) (also yes I know moths don't have mandibles but I'm a monsterfucker sooo...). We went from primarily sashes (its a lore thing) to being an old labcoat design mixed with some of the sashes. Conceptually she's a necromancer and the magic in my worldbuilding is very scientific in vibe, so the combo of doctor and whatnot is fun. You can also see that her claws now take the shape of scalpel blades which is very intentional (inspired by GirlDM's villainess model, Twitch Link more links in her channel bio too). Semi related the claws themselves are lorewise bone that she's grows into those shapes. Very The Locked Tomb core necromancy where its not so much skeletons as much as it is just manipulation of organic matter which is much more expansive and fun. Maybe someday I'll do a loredump about my fantasy setting I write in, but for now you just get that.

Vtuber Model Time

So I make Vtuber Models. Not a secret. I love the process, I love how creative the people that design vtubers can be. Great examples I follow not already mentioned above that I'm pretty sure make their own models are BooBeeQueen, Syraxis, LobotomyBunny, and if pngtubers are more your vibe you gotta see Oceonax who has so many bespoke animations its insane. Additionally if you watch PorcelainMaid AKA Jowol, he's done so many super sick character designs for folks to adopt as vtubers. So anyways, I love vtubers as a creative outlet and for animation its really really fun to see my own art moving just because I'm making faces at an iphone, like below! with my current/most recent model:

This little dark academia cowgirl was fun to make, she's got lots of hand toggles I was messing with, and what I learned when making her was a huge step up from my first model attempt you might remember, the android girl (link to old tumblr post here).

When it came to the moth here I have, a lot of ideas, but to keep it so it actually happens, I'm going with very basic for now. In total our project is going to have: - Face and body movements, facial and mouth tracking, and one or two hand postures to toggle, just like the cow lady up there. - A non-standing pose, as I've only done front-facing models so far and I really like how both Juniper's sitting model looks as well as Matara Kan's sitting pose.

For the tracking we know how to do that but will cover it once we get there for folks that are interested, right now we're making art assets, which folds into the pose! Here's the pose we're going with:

This half-kneeling I think is dynamic, in character, and is (I think) unique and interesting while being able to show off the whole outfit! Not super well pictured are here secondary arms, but we'll get there once we start rendering the parts, since lineart for these things looks...

... A little bit insane. If we're honest with ourselves.

The reason for this is because the model requires each piece that's going to move to be an individual layer and self-contained part. As you can see, the legs for instance are made up of chunks.

Vtuber models are functionally paper dolls, and you use temporary transform tool style warping to animate and move. For that to work the parts of the art needs to be "cut" up into these pieces. Not here that the foot and calf are one piece, I might change my mind and make each foot its own piece just for more options! For now though we're doing it this way.

The face and torso are directly front facing, this is because it's far easier to make a straight on face turned sideways look good than it is to take assets from a 3/4ths angle look anything normal facing forward, and we have to keep in mind the range of motion for those parts.

For the chest you can see here all the lineart for each of the nine (9) parts!

We do this here because we want each piece to have different physics. The way that her breasts move will be different than the cloth physics for the scarf, which is itself different from the cloth for the hanging fabric, and is itself different from the chest strap there, which isn't going to have physics but does need to move independently of the chest for working with facing angles.

We've only just started the head, but you can see here that the hair is already at least seven pieces, and the mouth interior is going to be more than ten.

As seen there where teeth and alternative texturing on the mandibles creates already eight of them, and we haven't even made the cavity parts like the throat or the (I'm not sorry) anatomically accurate proboscis tongue.

So that's where we're at as of 01-01-25! Welcome to 2025 by the by (how hellish). At this current pace, this might be done by the end of january.

I hope if you read this far that you thought this was interesting! Thanks by the way! I'm happy to answer questions if folks are interested in making vtuber models or why I picked different character design things, yapping about creating is always fun! Lastly you can have a bonus little drawing of F4 (the android girlie) I did a weekish ago~

[qoldenskies]

you mentioned you were going to have more karai in wwww! you don't have to spoil more than you want to, but does this mean you'll be doing some rottmnt worldbuilding in general too? like, kraang as well? because if karai and draxum share parallels in their role in how the turtles grew up as weapons, maybe there could be something interesting too about sibling alien invaders who respect only strength

that aside, just rant about wwww in general :D i am already obsessed somehow you have no idea

i definitely plan on expanding on her character and her relationship with her father ESPECIALLY, mostly just through the lense of her own perception of everything that happened ... she'll be put in the plot a LOT earlier than she was in canon, so she'll have more time to bond with raph and mikey especially!

although yeah there's a parallel to be had with how leo and donnie were raised as weapons by draxum, and how raph and mikey are learning about this grand legacy to be the same kind of thing by karai. she's torn between being someone who cares so much about love and unity and being someone who values necessary sacrifice, especially because she had to do it herself. she imposes those standards on them, which is extremely similar to the way that draxum is to the twins-- and of both instances, this is behavior that's,,, situational? any other circumstances and they wouldnt have made the mistakes they end up making. but alas

as for the kraang, idk i have no plans to expand on them before their event in the story, and even then i dont know if ill continue covering things after the ending of the main story in wwww. but itd be fun if they got to learn more about things like that!

i'll definitely be doing a lot of worldbuilding expansions though! it really just depends on how the story's gonna pan out when i write it itself, but id love to go into the hidden city more!! its criminally unexplored

[onewomancitadel]

The question of hard science fiction is usually related to whether it is better or worse to write realistic-fantastical settings, to what end realism should figure into fantasy, which is a question without end, but something I think that is less appreciated is whether by fixing particular rules and rules of development in that world, that you open up more and unique storytelling opportunities. It is less to do with realism per se, and more to do with how narrative rules ("worldbuilding") and narrative events interact.

A really wonderful example of this, and the very thing that made me think of this the other day, is in Season 3 of The Expanse (discussing the show in this post, not the books, but moving on) where there are wounded whose injuries won't be able to heal without gravity (due to blood drainage), which has been lost because of the protomolecule reacting to their hostility inside the Ring; and so the solution eventually emerges which is that the captain of the Behemoth chooses to start up its spin gravity for the first time ever, when it had not previously been done so before, because of course this was a ship intended for the Mormons which they had made away with - its build unfinished - during the Eros incident. This also means that Earth and Mars have to cooperate with the OPA, and to trust them with their wounded.

It's a very powerful series of events which are so especially satisfying (one is very excited to watch a ship start up); most importantly, you wouldn't have any of that if you weren't concerned with granular details such as these. To me, I am more interested in the idea that it opens up storytelling opportunities (and tone, and theme, and character, and plot) as opposed to whether some measure of "realism" is superior. Obviously for The Expanse its dramatic concerns, its political theatre, is bolstered by a serious attempt at grounding its science fiction elements - and this is why I've never really understood the distinction between "hard" science fiction (about technology, with "hard" rules) and "soft" science fiction (about feefees, with "soft" rules) when the binary seems false to me - more according to a set of reader expectations, perhaps, than which is more or less the correct way to handle science fiction (and I would say it's probably a post hoc label as well, since a lot of Golden Age science fiction doesn't sort into either neatly; maybe more Silver). Of course that "hard" and "soft" treatment has expanded beyond the confines of its genre into fantasy (thanks Sanderson) and probably beyond it by now. I have complained about this before and I'll complain about it again.

I think that perspective is limiting because it is emphasising the wrong quality which makes it work, which is about opening up different and exciting narrative opportunities; of course you also end up with the attitude that "hard" systems are more serious and thoughtful than "soft" systems or lack thereof and do away with tedious things such as character development and themes, which probably plays a part in the posturing. "Hard" systems are logical, and "soft" stories are illogical - and you can go on for quite a while with the yin-yang qualities so allotted. Or in the reverse - the "hard" genre is boring and too much work, whereas the "soft" approach is fun and light and more accessible. I think both are wrong in their underlying assumptions entirely.

The reason I touch on The Expanse is because it incidentally rejects this too.

[atomatowriter]

Hi! I'm Alex, she/her, 32 years old. I was a member of the writeblr community a few years ago, though I never made a proper writeblr introduction. I stopped being active around the time of the pandemic, unsurprisingly and for a number of reasons. Now that my life is back together and the internet is...the way it is, I decided it was a good time to come back here. I love interacting with other writers, gushing about our stories and swapping worldbuilding questions. I also have a discord for indie fantasy writers (published and unpublished) if anyone is interested in joining that.

What I Write

I am a self-published author with a debut novel that released in May, The Wounds of Wisdom. Wounds is the first in a YA romantic fantasy trilogy with court intrigue called the Time's Sacrifice Trilogy. I currently expect the second book to be out in September of 2024. You can read book one for free on Kindle Unlimited.

My stories feature messy, emotional characters coming together and learning to lean on each other while unraveling still messier truths about the world around them and the people who hold power. I also write about the queernormative worlds that I want to see, and draw much of my inspiration from years of playing tabletop RPGs.

WIPs (buckle up, folks, there's a bunch).

The Time's Sacrifice Trilogy - A would-be knight, a reluctant prince, and a prickly bodyguard from an enemy nation, each gifted with mysterious divine powers, find themselves thrown into dangerous intrigue when someone begins killing their fellow Wise Ones and they learn that the history they've been told is far from the truth. YA, Arthurian vibes, political intrigue, polyamory.

The Fox Eyes Duology - A young woman looking for the lost realm of elementals in hopes of saving save her uncle and the dying forest she calls home crosses paths with another young woman who would give anything to escape the elemental powers she considers a curse. NA, campfire talks and traveling shenanigans, dark gods and darker humans, elemental magic.

Seasons of Terrafae - a quartet of companion novels, each taking place in a different continent on the world of the Fox Eyes duology, where each continent represents each of the four seasons. Elemental magic, D&D vibes.

Siren Star: The Last Defense of a Notorious Pirate - An aging pirate captain looks back on her career, focusing on her greatest crime of all, the theft of divinity itself. Pirate fantasy, worship of the stars, flying ships, gryphons.

Wildery and Wolf - Friends-to-lovers-to-awkward-exes, Wildery and Wolf unfortunately still have a magical bond due to an experiment with a forbidden ritual a couple years ago. They embark on interdimensional shenanigans together. NA, contemporary fantasy, Bee & Puppycat vibes, not a second chance at romance but a second chance at friendship.

[Working Title] Fake Transcripts for Vampires - An upcoming webnovel about a floating music hostel for creatures of the night, that also offers fake transcripts so they can blend into the human world. Being Human meets Hotel Del Luna, episodic, vampires and werewolves and fae and demons oh my what is that.

Come Home - A boy finds out he's a changeling and plunges into the enchanted forest surrounding his hometown to trade himself for the sister he never knew. His older brother follows after him, unwilling to lose another sibling. YA, Brother centric, ace sex averse MC, scary fae woods, there's a cute puppy.

Asha Crowe Mysteries - A whodunnit murder mystery series in a high fantasy world. Asha Crowe has been chosen by the God of Death, so deaths just kinda happen around her. She gets fed up and starts investigating them. Reluctant protagonist, gods fucking with people's lives, immense fantasy world.

And some more that aren't mature enough to describe yet!

What I Love In Books

Found Family bc who doesn't

Expansive worlds with chunky lore

Friendships and family relationships that are just as intense and obsessive and messy as the romantic relationships

But also yes some good good romance

Messy politics

Full and hard-fought redemption arcs

Characters learning how to people or how to relationships

Adventure stories with lots of travel

High stakes mysteries and intrigue

Probably more idk I read a lot

What I'm Looking For Here

Honestly, I'm an extrovert and I just really love yelling about our stories with my writer friends. I'd love to find some critique partners, or just to hear about what you guys are working on! Just consider this me running up to you on the playground and shouting "HEY CAN WE BE FRIENDS."

[cee-grice]

Heyy Cee happy New Years' Eve!! 🥳

To end off the year, what are the top five influences for your book and how have they shaped you as a person? 🤩

happy New Year's Eve to you too, Tate<33

omg....ok I'm gonna expose myself for you all now so play nice pls thank u

the biggest influence for this story would have to be D&D. I had really gotten into playing it last summer, which was when I started thinking about this story, so you can really feel the influence in some parts haha (especially the magic system lol...). this whole story began with me creating an encounter featuring Endra, actually (with a stat block and everything lol), and I got so obsessed with the idea that I. made a whole story about it LOL. I would say D&D has... introduced me to a bunch of cool people, and everyone you meet, I think, shapes you a little as a person, so there's that haha. but also it made me think more about expansive worldbuilding, and thus appreciate it more as well. IDK I feel like it just made me love fantasy in general all the more:D

the second influence would have to beeee minecraft/dreamSMP. both, really, in their own ways. minecraft more on the lore aspect and magic system, weirdly enough??, and dsmp in the, hm, complexity of character relationships, I'd say? nothing specific, but more so the vibe. and my story is all about complex character relationships, so!! I also wrote quite a few fanfics for it, and that really helped with my confidence in writing, I'd say. I hadn't before had such a supportive audience, and they're very much to blame for my decision to actually take this Seriously haha. by that alone I'd say this shaped me most as a person/writer :v

thennn third influence, my jobs?? it just so happened that I was surrounded by pathology when I began this story, and I just sort of? gravitated to it as a central story point?? kinda wild, now that I think about it lmao. but yeah, idk, I feel like this job that I have made me mature a little more x)

ahmm fourth influence, maybe arcane? more of a subconscious one, though, as only when a friend pointed out some similarities did I go 'oh yeahhh' lmao. I did very much enjoy arcane, and although I watched it a good while before I'd started this story, some stuff must have stuck with me subconsciously haha

as for the fifth one...also more of a subconscious one, but Mo Dao Zu Shi. starting a story with necromancy is just an S tier story hook, in my opinion, so I did kinda yoink the idea from here haha, although, again, I hadn't done so intentionally lol. I also really liked the dual timelines and definitely wanted to write something with such a structure. this story sort of introduced me to modern Chinese fantasy, and I really gotta read more of it ahhhh, but yeah, always nice to broaden your literary horizons:D

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning

3.75/5. 10/1/2024.

vibes: urban fantasy, lightly gothic, witchy bloodlines, vampires

Heat Index: 3/10

The Basics:

After the shocking death of her mother, Zo Gray is broke and directionless--until she gets a call from a lawyer realizing that a previously unknown relative left her a massive inheritance in Divinity, Louisiana. Before the house and the money is officially hers, however, she has to live in this intimidating, mysterious home--and put up with the suspicious townspeople--alone for three years. She can hardly say no--and the groundskeeper is quite hot--but Zo can't ignore the odd happenings in the mansion. Like doors that go to nowhere. And what about the secrets surrounding her lineage? They could be more mysterious than she'd possibly imagine..

The Review:

Okay, so first off--for the purposes of my blog, just have to make it clear: this isn't a romance novel. It was categorized as such on NetGalley, and I do (as someone who hasn't read Karen Marie Moning before) believe that the author has a reputation as a romance novelist. But this isn't one. Like, there are romantic setups--potentially more than one. There is sex. And there is more to be seen in the next book, I imagine. As of now, however, this is much more about urban fantasy witchcraft than it is about the love story.

So, while I do think there definitely could've been more development devoted to characters like Devlin and his dynamic with Zo... What was clearly more important to the story was Zo's relationship with her late mother, her dynamic with her friend Este (which I loved) and the mysterious attorney James Balfour.

I really liked Zo as a protagonist--she's not a shrinking violet, but she also isn't this Headstrong Female Protagonist. She's struggled in life, she's looking for safety and security, and she's ready to jump on a good opportunity, even if it's pretty creepy. I relate to that--and I think a lot of people in their twenties and thirties for that matter will relate to that, especially during the tough times we've been going through economically as a nation. Her love for her mother and pain over her loss is palpable--I'm fortunate enough to still have my mom, but it was really visceral and made me a bit emotional. Based on the dedication at the beginning of the novel, this entire story felt deeply personal, and I respect that.

As I said before, this was my first Karen Marie Moning book. I like her writing style--even when the pace of the story isn't super fast, the actual texture and tone is, if that makes sense? It keeps you reading, it keeps you compelled. I do typically enjoy a good bit more romance in a story, but I was by no means bored or frustrated here.

I also really liked the worldbuilding with regard to the witches. It was quite fun, and seemed to me a blend of more recent urban fantasy trends and more Witch Classic stuff. Which worked for me as someone who enjoys Witch Classic. The vampires could have used more explanation and expansion, but based on the ending of this book, I do think that will happen.

The Sex:

I did find this kind of frustration. One of the thing the book establishes early, which I really liked, was that Zo is very unapologetically sexual. She's more sexual than she is romantic, and you don't see that too often, even now, with female leads. There's no shame; it's very sex positive.

But like... the sex scenes are basically just described vaguely in retrospect. I wouldn't call it closed door, but it's pretty close. And because they're described as so mind-blowing, and because sex is actually kind of important to the magic and the story here... I felt a little thrown off. I also know, based on what other people have shown me and discussed about KMM's other books, that this is probably a shift. At least from her notable works. So I was a little let down there.

That said, if you're good with low heat sex scenes, or for that matter just don't care either way, it'll be totally irrelevant. By no means does it damage the book's quality, I just do think there are expectations that should be set and that's what reviews are for!

Overall, this is an entertaining, well-paced read that's perfect for October. If you're into witches, you're going to be pleased--and I definitely want to read more from this author (and the next in the series).

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[centrally-unplanned]

Someday we will get you to write a simple, one paragraph response to things! It is not this day, clearly, but someday...

Anyway I have seen a bit of the Empire Wreckers videos! Not exhaustively in this case - I have also seen Jenny Nicholson's script readers of the drafts for Rise of Skywalker as well, which fills some similar gaps, and yeah its a real "death of a thousand cuts" for the coherence of these movies (even if none of the ideas were great imo)

Overall I think I agree with your assessment, even if I probably put different weights on different things. Lucas in the prequels definitely just hard-flubbed telling a good story but when you aren't watching it that matters less. When you look at as a bunch of parts his crazy obsession with world building and universe expansion shines through, there is just far more diversity of settings, alien species, weird little plot nibbles and forks, that he just loves throwing in. Even the meme lines are normally goofball moments that have so much oddball worldbuilding in and like overwrought dramatic vibes - which are great in isolation!

Meanwhile the sequels learned a - probably correct! - lesson from the prequel's struggles to dial it down, keep it simple and focused on core Star Wars aesthetics. Which if you tell a really good story would probably work great. They just didn't do that because it was also made by committee and by people deeply scared of pushing things in a new direction. You can retread the OT aesthetics with a new story, or you can maybe soft-retell the Rebel/Empire thing but with a brand new vibe, but you gotta push somehow. Their choice was either "nothing" or "meta/inversion" stuff, not enough on its own. And when you are trying to tell this sort of "traditional" story that is very focused on typical character arcs and moments, you really can't have scenes going off where like Obi Wan just visits a cloning planet and talks to cloners and its not an "emotional beat" of him, he is alone doing it, but its worldbuilding. So even though they had a metric ton of creative artists on the project they get less of a chance to shine.

Credit to Lucas, he did get a ton of criticism for Phantom Menace. And he listened, you should listen sometimes? But he still stuck to his guns about what he wanted to do - while the sequels completely quaked after The Last Jedi.

It used to be that Star Wars villains made at least some modicum of sense, but not anymore. Because of Snoke.

[littlemisspascal]

Rockford & Roan Pt. 2

Pairing: Tim Rockford x Female Reader/OFC ‘Roan’

Word Count: 2.1k

Summary: A week into living together, you start to realize there’s something…peculiar about your roommate.

Rating: T 

Warnings: Language, Reader has a dog, Reader has military background, Superpower AU, They Were Roommates AU, self-esteem issues, soulmates-ish, original characters, worldbuilding

- Reader has no first name and no physical traits described in detail except for being shorter than Rockford

Author Note: Thank you so so much for all the kind support 😊 I've really enjoyed writing for these characters and developing their world + relationship. If you want, check out some art I made for the fic here. Hope y'all like this new part!

Special thanks to @beecastle for beta reading and encouraging me 💜💜💜

Part 1 / Part 3

The Apartment

445D Albatross Lane does indeed have an unmistakably yellow door. 

Standing on the sidewalk, you and Banjo stare up at the building. Well, you’re staring up at the six stories of tan bricks and arched windows, Banjo is far more interested in the smells coming from the small bakery situated just to the right of the canary yellow door. A sign on the window says they make pet friendly treats. Banjo would never forgive you if you didn’t buy him some to try sometime.

Overall, it’s a quiet and nondescript place on a quiet and nondescript street. Definitely not as modern or bustling as your current apartment on the other side of town. It’s clean though. Mellow. Charming in its own funny little way. 

“Hello again, Miss Roan,” Rockford’s voice pulls you out of your observations, turning around to find him paying a cab driver. “And you, as well, Banjo,” he adds when the little mutt barks in greeting.

His appearance hasn’t changed much since yesterday, same white shirt and ruffled hair, but he’s ditched the trenchcoat this time, revealing just how much the cotton fabric stretches to accommodate his expansive shoulders.

“It’s a nice place,” you say as he comes to stand next to you. 

He quirks a smile. “Just wait ‘til you see the inside.”

In the elevator, Rockford presses the button for the 4th floor. You stand next to each other; him silently watching the numbers tick by over the doors, you silently watching him out of the corner of your eye. 

He seems calm. Outwardly, at least, hands stuffed in his trouser pockets. You wonder if it would mirror the same internally, ocean waters smooth and still. Your mind-gift hovers at the edges of his aura, torn between the selfish desire to submerge into his emotions again and the terrifying wariness of triggering his discomfort. It’s only the second day of knowing each other, after all, and there is such a thing as too much too fast.

But oh how you want…

You run your tongue over your bottom lip, thinking of how you could ask without sounding impolite or, worse, desperate—except then the elevator’s stopping and Rockford’s gesturing for you to follow him down the hallway.

“Only got the one key at the moment,” he produces said item from his pocket, unlocking the third door on the right, “but if you’re still certain about moving in after you look around, I’ll talk to the landlady about making copies. She’s a friend of the family, owes me a favor or two.”

You turn in a slow circle inside the living room, taking in everything while Rockford points out some of the appealing features. Good amount of natural light from the windows, updated appliances, ample sized rooms with high ceilings. The walls are painted a soothing cream color, lined with a couple of shelves here and there covered in books and random trinkets. A miniature globe, a solved Rubik’s cube, and an antique camera standing out amongst the clutter.

What he doesn’t point out is the abundance of boxes stacked in practically every corner, filled to the brim with even more books and folders stuffed with documents. Or the assortment of laboratory glassware spread out across the adjoining kitchen’s countertops. Or, most alarmingly, the joker playing card stabbed to the wall with a knife.

“My brother and I, we’re very competitive,” he explains, noticing your staring. Then, with a chuckle that sounds a bit too forced to be real, “God forbid we ever play Monopoly, we’d murder each other.”

“Does he live nearby?” you ask, filing away the little factoid in the corner of your brain you’ve decided to label Tim Rockford 101. 

“Unfortunately,” is the short reply, and that’s the end of that.

You take another look around, slowly drifting over all the details big and small, thinking to yourself you can see it—a life for yourself here—just from this little glimpse.

There’s a comfortable looking plush navy couch pushed against the wall you’ll take naps on after sessions with Dr. Odair, and a perfect spot for a dog bed by the center window, and a pair of floral-patterned armchairs near a dark wood coffee table and fluffy white rug that have no good reason being grouped together and yet—and yet, somehow, you can’t imagine anything else more fitting. 

“It's great,” you say, nodding your head. “You’ve found a wonderful place.”

His eyebrows furrow like you’ve given him a complicated math problem instead of a compliment. 

“What?” You glance down at yourself self-consciously, worried about finding a stain, but see nothing wrong.

“You’re restraining yourself,” he says at last. “Outside on the street, I could understand keeping your mind-gift close, but here, where it’s just you and me, I’d hoped you would be comfortable enough not to suppress your empathy.”

“You–” Your breath catches in your throat, heart performing a somersault. “You mean, you don’t mind it?”

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead now, surprised and dismayed. “Of course not,” he says, so earnest and sincere you don’t even need your mind-gift to know he’s telling the truth. “Your mind-gift led to our matching. More importantly than that, it’s a part of you. I can’t promise my emotions will always be pleasant, but I can promise they’re yours to feel just as much as they are mine, Miss Roan.”

It’s…overwhelming to process. Rockford accepting your mind-gift wholly and completely. Rockford giving you unrestricted access to his feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s the greatest offering of trust you’ve ever received, not even your own parents gave you such permission to feel their every change in mood.

You’re speechless for a long moment, furiously blinking back against embarrassing tears burning at the corners of your eyes. “Thank you,” you croak, and then divert your gaze to the hallway leading to the other rooms. “I’d like to see the rest, if that’s alright?”

He leads the way with an easy smile, and there’s only the faintest of stumbles in his step when your empathy tentatively brushes against his mind before his emotions rise up to greet you like an old friend.

Yeah, you think to yourself, looking around the bedroom that will soon be yours, head filled with the gentle lapping of waves. I think I’m going to like it here. 

The transition from living alone with a dog to now living with a dog and roommate is a surprisingly smooth one. Maybe it’s the influence of the bond further tying your lives irreversibly together, but a part of you likes to think even if you weren’t a matched pair, you and Rockford could just have easily carved out a space to cohabitate. A little realm of your own making.

You move into your new bedroom with a mattress twice as big as your old one, the few personal items you own seamlessly mixing with Rockford’s in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Your toothbrush shares a cup with his, the grocery list sticks to the fridge with a magnet from the pet shelter, a blanket your mom gave you for your last birthday drapes over the back of the couch. 

Even Banjo settles quickly into the new environment. After spending the first two days sniffing everything in sight, he finds a new favorite spot on the living room floor warmed by the sunlight to stretch out his legs like a starfish. His leash hangs up on one of the entryway wall hooks next to Rockford’s trench coat and his basket of toys fits perfectly in the bottom nook of the hall closet, filling up the final tiny gaps, cementing this apartment as home.

The Roommate

A week into living together, you start to realize there’s something…peculiar about your roommate. He’d forewarned you about his unpredictable schedule and insomnia, but you hadn’t anticipated the way he locks himself away in his office for hours some days—spending most of the time pacing, if the creaking floorboards are any indication, deep in thought—or his frequent penchant for leaving the apartment in the middle of the night without any explanation. Not that he owes you one. He’s entitled to his own private affairs, but still. Peculiar. 

His emotions provide you with little clues to fill in the missing blanks. Mostly his mood’s a state of calm, calm, calm throughout the day, interrupted by the occasional splash of amusement, rumbling thunder of frustration or jarring spasm that accompanies a sudden change of thought. Epiphanies floating up from beneath the surface, from the vast, dark chasms that transfix your mind-gift with their mystery. How far down do they go? What, if anything, lies at the bottom?

You want to ask—about where he goes, about his gift, about so much—but asking would risk revealing just how much you enjoy collecting facts about Rockford, like a pathetic little magpie constructing a nest of shiny things. So rather than potentially die from embarrassment, you keep your mental list to yourself, adding to it as the days go by.

One - he’s an avid reader.

You’ll be honest, a small part of you initially thought perhaps the heaps of books throughout the apartment were just for show. Some kind of library aesthetic maybe. But no, set any book or magazine or newspaper down in front of him and he’ll inhale the words like they’re his lifeblood. The genre and topic don’t matter either. Historical events, fairy tales, biographies, poetry, science fiction, true crime. You’ve caught him reading all of them, felt his emotions swirl and surge with every turn of the page, heard fragments of sentences murmured aloud dulcetly while you dozed on the couch.

Two - he solves the Fox Leap Times crossword every morning.

Eating breakfast together becomes a staple in your daily routines. No matter where he goes at night or what time he returns, he’s always there in the kitchen come dawn. The meals are never overly fancy—the military didn’t offer much in the way of cooking classes, and your meager skills and can-do attitude are only a little better than Rockford’s—but regardless, just like his reading habits, he isn’t picky about what’s on his plate. A couple mouthfuls and a few sips of coffee—black with a dash of cinnamon—and he’s powering through the puzzle like he’s been possessed, finishing the whole thing in under ten minutes with a pleased little smirk.

Three - he’s a connoisseur of takeout food. 

There’s a collection of menus stashed in the drawer near the fridge from every eatery that surpassed Rockford’s high standards, within easy reach during evenings when there’s nothing left to eat except for a jar of mayonnaise or the last swallows of an expired milk carton. Rockford had spent a solid month gathering data and reviews from restaurants, cafes, vendors and food trucks to figure out the best of the best. I was between jobs, is all he says with a one-shouldered shrug of indifference when you ask him about it. Your shock (and slight alarm) at the dedicated lengths of his research quickly melted away during the first bite of a heavenly cheeseburger drowning in grease and a secret sauce from a little hole-in-the-wall joint you’d never have given a second glance without Rockford’s thirty-odd spreadsheets of persuasion.

Four - you’ve never seen him sleep. 

All humans need sleep to survive, even eccentric and peculiar men like Tim Rockford. Yet he’s always up when you retire to bed at night and always up before fiddling around with something in his office or reading a book. His emotions are never tainted with the fog and distortion of unconsciousness either. You tell yourself he must sleep while you’re out, and try not to take it personally that he doesn’t feel secure enough to rest while you’re around. 

Five - your empathy intrigues him.

For as much as Rockford’s emotional mindscape fascinates your empathy, he seems, bizarrely enough, just as interested in learning the ins and outs of your ability. You’d never previously thought of your mind-gift as a particularly exciting one—influencing and interpreting emotions pales in comparison to predicting events or levitating things across the room. But the way Rockford interacts with your empathy, easily accustoming to its presence, nudging against it playfully sometimes; and the way he hangs off your every word while you describe how you were prone to tantrums as a child, body overwhelmed by emotions that weren’t your own, exploding like fireworks until there was nothing left to do but scream, almost makes you feel like you’re something important. Something special.

Six - there’s a pinboard in his office covered in pictures of dead bodies.

…what?

[marinersubmariner]

ANDOR POST

This show has been so good and I’ve enjoyed it so much that part of me is actually mad about it, purely because it proves that Disney could have been giving us this level of quality THE WHOLE TIME and they DIDN’T. Which I realize is not a wholly rational complaint because it has different directors, writers, production teams, etc. and Disney/Lucasfilm isn’t a monolith no matter how much we imagine it to be. No franchise is uniformly consistent in quality and style. But the standard of the visuals and writing and just overall execution is so much higher than the other Disney+ series—NOT TO MENTION some of the movies—that I can’t help but feel cheated. Like they’ve been gorging us on subpar fast food and then wheel out a five-star meal and it’s like whoah whoah whoah hold on, you let us eat shit and made us think it was the best you had to offer while you were cooking THAT?

Of course nothing is ~flawless~ and I’m very excitable when it comes to impressive production design and cinematography. But the production design in particular has blown my mind!!! The sets and locations, the props, the costumes, getting to see more of these lived-in corners of the universe, and all of it filmed in a way that’s genuinely beautiful and cinematic—THAT’S what I want, not just from Star Wars tv shows but Star Wars in general! WORLDBUILDING!!!!!! YEAH!!!

It gives me a similar feeling to TLJ in that it uses the existing universe in ways that feel fresh simply by virtue of having a strong visual aesthetic and solid thematic viewpoint. It may still be a prequel but it adds to and shades in details and does its own thing in ways that actually seem new and expansive. It really feels like going into “a larger world” where the other shows and some of the movies’ constant callbacks and repetition have felt reductive and constricting. One of the things that still makes me so sad about TROS is that it felt like the world got smaller, in the ways it presented its story and the ways it concluded, and that is such a horrible place for Star Wars to be. It should be BIG! Mythically, emotionally, visually, hypothetically. It’s a galaxxyyyyyy, I want it to feel that way!

It is very funny to think about how I was excited for a Cassian show when they first announced it because I loved Cassian in Rogue One, but what I was imagining was more like “oh boy we’ll get to see Cassian and K2 becoming buddies yay” and not like “the grim realities of fomenting rebellion.” But I LOVE IT. It’s like a wholly different genre, and while I wouldn’t necessarily want all SW to be this serious because I do watch most of it with the mind of a child, I’m excited to get something like this as a facet of the overall franchise.

It’s concerning that I’ve seen comments to the effect of “nobody’s talking about this show, you’re all sleeping on how good it is” (I don’t know, I’ve ignored discourse about it and enjoyed it in isolation because I’m too irritable about fandom nowadays, and I cannot gauge the popularity of anything on the internet—I’m on tumblr where people still talk about Supernatural, I have no frame of reference). Because if it genuinely isn’t popular then Disney is absolutely gonna learn the wrong lesson and think nobody wants good quality Star Wars and decide crowd-pleasing garbage for an unpleasable crowd is the way to go. (that’s how we got TROS!!!!!!!!) I’m already bummed that the initial plans for a five-season show got cut down to two. Despite being a firm believer in quality over quantity, good quality never fails to make me want more. It’s the worst. :(

My only real complaint is that I wish there were more aliens. It’s mostly been a whole lot of humans and that’s the main thing that I’m iffy on. I saw a comment from Tony Gilroy that basically said they made it human-centric on purpose so that it feels grounded and relatable, which I get, it does make it feel more relevant to our real world. But I can’t see enough of an in-universe justification for it since this is supposed to be a galaxy-wide struggle, and one of the major things that separates the Rebellion from the Empire is the inclusion of other species.

It is absolutely WILD to me how much Maarva’s send-off was beat-for-beat something that would have worked for Leia. Off-screen death, a goodbye message to her son to affirm her love for him and alleviate his regret and encourage him to move forward and become who he should be, a rousing message as a respected and beloved leader to the masses spurring them to fight against the evil that has been allowed to fester through inaction. A HOLOGRAM CARRYING A MESSAGE OF THE REBELLION, I mean, COME ON. And it was so resonant, it worked so well! Imagine if Leia’s death had been this meaningful!!!! I know I’m too fixated on connecting unrelated things back to the Organa-Solo Massacre of 2K19 and that my mind immediately leapt there because it’s always there, but the counterpoint to TROS is so stark it’s genuinely impossible to ignore. HE WILL BE AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE FOR GOOD. THERE IS A WOUND THAT WON’T HEAL AT THE CENTER OF THE GALAXY. I’m gonna fuckin lose it

And I keep thinking how this show is so good at feeling truly tense and dark but also legitimately hopeful. It earns an emotional response because it all feels like it matters to the characters and the universe. The awful things that happen MATTER and are integral to moving forward. A dead character becomes a literal building block!!!!!! Symbolizing everyone in this story as simultaneously foundations for the future and makeshift blunt instruments in a fight!!!! Even while Cassian becomes a cog in a much larger machine too big to even perceive, constructing the building blocks of his own demise!!!!!!!!!!!! It feels so purposefully aimed toward telling a story with cohesive theming and messaging, not just throwing easter eggs at a wall.

It’s done such a good job of conveying scale and making the universe seem populated and alive, and I think the use of actual locations subliminally makes it feel like a real world in a way that the Volume and totally CG sets just don’t do. There is something oddly restrictive about cheap-looking visuals and obvious artificiality that makes a story look and feel small. There is so much in the other Disney+ series and even TROS that looks like a soundstage with bad lighting and it just yanks me right out of what’s supposed to be happening. Whereas everything in this show conveys a sense that it EXISTS and life is happening even beyond the edges of the frame. In any case, Rogue One is next to TLJ as the prettiest of the new era of movies, and I’m thrilled they put so much effort into maintaining its visual aesthetic.

It’s gotten to a point with Disney Star Wars that I recoil in disgust from the way fanservice is incorporated (or, you know, what they think fanservice is—the lowest common denominator “I understood that reference” shitty callbacks and cameos), and the complete lack of anything blatant like that in this show has been AMAZING. The post-credits stinger is the only part that got close to that type of thing and even that was effective because a) I think most people guessed they were building Death Star parts so it’s nice to confirm it, and b) I LOVE that perspective shift of being so entrenched in a ground-level story that then zooms way out to show a glimpse of the macro scale that is imperceptible to the people within the machine. You’ve been watching all these tiny moving parts adding up and working together and building toward something, only to see how truly small they are and how much of an uphill battle they have to match this inconceivably massive system they’re working against. It’s such a great gutpunch that I think it transcends the stupid “teehee hey nerds look it’s the Death Star like in the movie.”

What I loved about Rogue One and its depiction of the Rebellion was how much it emphasized the smallest actions of the individual as being important to the whole. The final relay race with the Death Star plans and how tenuous their success is; the entire climax of the film giving each character a linchpin moment where if they weren’t there, everything would have failed. It showed what a delicate chain reaction it was to ultimately get to Luke firing those torpedoes into the exhaust port. And now on Andor with its ensemble, once again there’s this great sense of all these small parts that are integral to the bigger picture that they’re a part of, and approaching something inevitable but doing so in a way that still feels precarious and uncertain.

Ironically without a Jedi storyline the concept of Empire vs. Rebellion = Sith vs. Jedi stands out even more prominently than in the stories where both aspects of the war are present. The conflict here is structured with such weight on fighting against darkness that it becomes glaringly obvious to extrapolate it into “JUST LIKE THE FORCE!!!” Of course Luthen’s speech brought this to the foreground, but Nemik and Maarva’s speeches really drove the point home. The light side and the dark side have obviously always been a metaphor made literal, but in a story that’s more centered on humanism than spiritualism it’s interesting that those concepts from the more fantastical side of things are still right there in the language, hidden in plain sight—like the Rebellion, like Luthen in the crowd passing unseen by the people who are hunting for him, like the shape of the Imperial insignia subtly repeating everywhere: all of it is apparent if you just know what to look for. “Oppression is the mask of fear.” Like. LITERALLY. THE MASK. OF FEAR. There is no Vader in this story and yet Vader is in this story. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. This narrative is haunted!!!!!!!

Miscellany:

There wasn’t much spaceship stuff but the little we got was SO GOOD. The escape in The Eye and the visuals of the meteor shower were amazing, it was so stressful but totally thrilling at the same time. And of course Luthen running from the cops HOOHOHHOHOHO GOOD SHIT. Rogue One has THEEEE best space battle so getting to see that practical model-like lighting again is so cool, and it was just FUN fun in a little more of a traditional Star Wars way. Spinning! That’s a good trick! Also I got a kick out of Luthen’s phony “hi lol I’m just a regular guy! lol! sorry officer!” voice. Big Han “we’re all fine here :)” vibes

Something I’m delighted to now be able to say about Star Wars is that I love Mon Mothma’s lesbian cousin. :) The reveal that Vel is related to Mon gobsmacked me, I enjoyed the way they held that off for so long so your impression of Vel kept changing. “So she’s a grumpy gay freedom fighter. Oh she wears fancy clothes too? Oh her family is rich? OH SHE’S RELATED TO MON MOTHMA?!??” A wild ride!

BEEEEEEEEE new best droid friend!!!! Has a stutter, takes a lot of effort to do anything, has to spend huge amounts of time recharging at home: most relatable droid of all time??? LOOK AT IT IT’S GOT ANXIETY

😍 Brasso 😍

TV news!!!!

SPACE FOODS!!!!!!

The living spaces oh my god I’m so excited. I know the Karns’ apartment is supposed to be kind of depressing but the modular design and ‘70s retrofuturistic accessories are SO GOOD. Syril’s sad little room with his action figures. Maarva’s house and her plants!!!!!!! Mon’s beautiful gilded cage of an apartment, aahhhhhhhh. By nature of being an adventure story there isn’t usually downtime in Star Wars to spend in homes or bedrooms, but it’s something I’m always wishing for so I’m particularly delighted that a longer-form series has finally allowed us to see more of those everyday details. SPACE HGTV

MONNNN MOTHMAAAAAAA. She’s the best and I am just so pumped that we’re finally getting more of her. It is, however, hilarious to think about her hair and wardrobe downgrade once she’s fully with the Rebellion.

The score has been great—between this and Mando and the final run of Clone Wars it’s awesome that the music is really getting outside the box in terms of what Star Wars can sound like. Synths!!!

Cassian with the sky kyber... matching crystal necklaces with Jyn........ ;____;

Those blue pelicans on Niamos!!!!! CREATURES

Andy Serkis was excellent but it was pretty bizarrely funny to hear Snoke’s voice making a good guy speech instead of a bad guy speech

“The first spark of the fire,” Canto Bight name drop... TLJ relevance for the sophisticated palate 🥂

One thing about Cassian Andor is that he’s always gonna have a shitty time at the beach

UGH I CAN’T BELIEVE WE HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR SEASON 2. I hope it maintains quality and I hope it doesn’t feel rushed with how they’re planning on covering the time period. Since they’re starting production now I think it’s unlikely that they’ll suddenly change course and give us an extra season, but... I really wish they would at least add one more season on there... but then even if they could do that it just makes it less likely that they would be able to keep up the quality and budget. I guess we’ve just gotta savor what we get. ;___;

[human-blob-nessie]

"if there's not rules why'd i buy this book" idk the setting, the worldbuilding, all that ? I'll admit it's not a big part in a lot of modern ttrpg books, but personally it's always at least half of the reason why I get a ttrpg book. Now if you personally actively want intricate rules, that's fine, but there are reasons to want something lighter.

As someone who actually does play without a rulebook sometimes, it's very fun ! But it's better if you have a universe you know about to have some sort of reference to what should and shouldn't be possible.

I used to do that with the Warcraft universe, especially after I got myself the lore books that explained a ton of stuff. But it would have been better with a (up-to-date, i'm aware of the 2005 WoW rpg book and I even own it) book designed specifically with TTRPG in mind, as those tend to answer specific questions you wouldn't see otherwise. How many days to go from this place to this one, how does this form of magic counter this one, what kind of currency is used and what is its rough value ? Is there a comprehensive list of the creatures or factions you can encounter ? Maybe with some details about how these live and function.

There could even be some example scenarios for the kind of story the authors thought of when making the setting, you're not obligated to do the same thing but it's interesting.

As I said it's more practical to use if it has been thought as a TTRPG, and with indie games often there is no goal other than that. Some people who write those aren't necessarily that much into making (or playing with) tight rules though, so making a rules-light system from can help structure what is show.

Rules-light games also sometimes present as documents only a few pages long with little to nothing in terms of setting or worldbuilding. Those mostly are to ttrpg what party games are to tabletop games in general : a game with a fun gimmick so you can play it one time or three with your friends, just for fun and without much preparation.

that may be me rambling but the prioritisation of rules over setting in ttrpg is kinda sad to me (especially as i see how D&D books have basically no broad info about any setting, and since it's basically the most popular game at the moment people tend to expect every book to be made like it when it has awful flaws, one of the worst one in my opinion being exactly this : complete and intricate rules but barely any reference to what world you're supposed to play in unless you buy another book, which expansions like volo's, tasha's and all don't do either so you have to refer to adventure books : You buy 3 books, maybe 5 or 6, and you still have only one of the two pillars of what makes basically any other big TTRPG book.

And yeah you can make it up, you almost have to in fact, which means more work for the GM, which is especially bad if it happens to be said GM's first ttrpg ever -which, you always have to take into account that your game has a chance of being someone's first- (there is some -not great- advice in the DMG, but it's advice to create your own, not something ready to be used)

Soooo yeah, why buy a book if not for the rules ? The other half of the game basically. But I guess that's just me.

And as I said before, if you only want to play a game with intricate rules, you do you, but there can and should be more than just that in a ttrpg book.

I dont want "rules-light" games I want rules and structure to play within. If theres not rules whyd i buy this book. I coulda played pretend with some dice for free