#which is a very neat characterization I’m accidentally creating!

[sincerely-sofie]

Alright. Going to play more Slay the Princess now. Y’all’s reactions to my worst theory yet scare me. Have some fanart to enjoy while I dive back into the insanity.

[yesterdoesart]

⚖️ Saiban Superheroes AU ⚡️

(Updated Feb. 10, 2021) I'm RIDICULOUSLY excited to bring you all this AU, which both golden.ghostie and naribug (@zelandiangelo) of instagram helped on. Presenting Turnabout Heroes: An Ace Attorney Superhero AU!

Basically, this is an AU where basically everything is the same except some of the characters are superheroes/villains on the sides. I plan on writing a bit about how this affects the cases!

If you want to see more of this (or if you want to make content for this; I'd love to see it) I'm using #saiban superheroes to keep track of everything!

Singular references are below the cut because Tumblr keeps ruining my formatting. You can also find more info on the characters and designs under the cut bc I like symbolism :) There ARE spoilers for the trilogy and minor AAI/AAI2 spoilers though.

Each hero here has three powers: Two that they can do easily anytime, anywhere - a go-to. The third is what I'm calling a Trump Card. Trump Cards are powers that require a lot of energy and only work for short ammounts of time in one go. Think of it as a last resort that can change the course of a fight.

Phoenix Wright → Turnabout Terror

Powers: Super Strength & High Constitution. His super strength is inspired by the number of un-open-able doors Phoenix has barreled his way through. His high constitution is based on the sheer number of times Phoenix should have died, but did not. Trump Card: Negation. Turnabout Terror can briefly cancel out another person’s superpower. His Trump Card is based on how underestimated Phoenix is as a lawyer. Power negation felt like a neat way to characterize the way he’s able to get past his opponents tricks and catch them off their guard. Character Notes: Phoenix gained his powers after he ate the necklace during the trial of State v. Wright (2014). Contrary to the court’s belief, there was enough poison in Dahlia’s necklace remaining to theoretically kill Phoenix. Instead of this, though, the poison caused his powers to develop. Turnabout Terror’s name comes from the fact that he’s very good at saving the day when things seem like they’re at a loss. The design for his costume is based on Signal Blue from the Signal Samurai! I took a bit of inspiration from Power Rangers for his sleeves, as Signal Samurai give me that vibe, and I think that it gave the costume a cool modern twist. The emblems on the top are, of course, based on the Attorney Badge! I felt like adding the scale was too obvious though.

Maya Fey → Mystic

Powers: Perception Alteration & Fighting Skill. Perception alteration is inspired by the Magatama, which changes the way the user sees things - Granted, this is less in a literal sense, but I still found it fitting. Fighting skill is something I added that the Fey family would practice. They’d likely practice jujutsu - This is a Japanese martial art with a long history, and it is based on disarming & pinning, which I feel fits with the Fey family - You’d need to pin a medium without hurting them to conduct spirit severing. Trump Card: Channeling. Mystic is able to channel spirits and borrow their energy to unleash. This is almost directly from canon, but I added the part about harnessing energy. I felt that this fit best as a trump card as Maya usually channels Mia when the going gets rough. Character Notes: Mystic is a mantle that has been passed down generation to generation in the Fey Family, similar to how the title “Master of Kurain” is. Before Maya became Mystic, her sister Mia held the title. Before she became Mystic, Maya used the mantle “Fuji Senshi��, meaning “Wisteria Warrior” - This is a nod to her love of the Steel Samurai and Pink Princess. Speaking of Pink Princess, Mystic’s costume is based on the Pink Princess - I gave the design furisode and a side-part opening, like her. It’s also based on the Kurain and Hazakura training robes. Since the mantle is passed down, I imagine that while Pink Princess-esque is Maya’s special spin, all heroes who take the mantle of Mystic draw from Kurain tradition in their costume.

Miles Edgeworth → Glacieus

Powers: Ice & Impossible Mobility. Ice was the perfect power choice for Edgeworth, who’s noted for his cold stares and chilly demeanor. He can both create ice and freeze surfaces. Impossible mobility was chosen for his ability to roll with the punches in the courtroom - Even after he’s thrown completely off guard, he’s able to quickly recover and keep fighting. Trump Card: Checkmate. Glacieus can create a trap covering a square area. When his enemy falls or steps into it, it temporarily paralyzes them, rendering them unable to make any moves. This is based on his Logic Chess from Ace Attorney Investigations II, as this is his way of cornering people and getting them to give him the information and opportunities he needs. Notes: Miles’ powers were passed down to him by his father. In his family, powers are either passed down to the next generation as a right of passage or upon the death of the previous wielder. This factors in to Miles’ fears that he accidentally killed his father in the DL-6 incident. “Glacieus” is based off the word “Glacier” - An icy name for an icy hero. His design is based off of kamishimo, which is a type of Samurai formal wear. This is both a nod to the Steel Samurai and to his eloquence and formality. While most of the masks I created are blindfold-esque, this was a conscious decision for Glacieus, based on the concept of “Blind Justice”. 

Franziska von Karma → Zenit

Powers: Weapon summoning & tracking. Franziska’s already a powerhouse in game with her whip, so it made sense to base her power on this. While she can summon other weapons, such as swords or knives, her whip is still her weapon of choice. Her tracking ability is based on the way she tracks Gumshoe in “Justice for All” - She can track people she’s met in person. Trump Card: Impossible Stamina. Zenit has the ability to push herself past her limit, unleashing extra power in a fight. This felt like an ideal Trump Card for her because Franziska is stubborn to a fault and refuses to give up - She always works extra hard to meet her own (and her family's) high standards. Notes: Zenit is German for “Zenith”, which refers to the time where something is most successful. Franziska strives for perfection, trying to prove her worthiness to her father and to herself, so it makes sense that her mantle would also boast this perfection. Her costume is based on Medieval German knights - Franziska is very much a fighter, so this felt fitting for her. It also fits because she, like Miles, is very tied to her honor, so I like the motif of a noble knight for her.

[ask-jumblr]

Hi! So I was one of the anons who was asking a writing question on this blog. In light of one of the other asks that suggested gentiles use more detail when approaching this blog as a writing resource, I’m going to resubmit my question with additional context. I know a lot of people rely on this blog and I don’t want to take up too much time.

So, the question I asked was about other gods and Jewish characters interacting with them, and I used Mara (fictional) and Hestia (Hellenic) as examples. I believe I mentioned blessings as well, although I was oversimplifying to save on room to fit in one ask, and after laying everything out I can see where I really didn’t do the respondents any favors by doing so given this is a bit of a nuanced question with a lot of context.

Mod here. I’m interrupting to thank you for the level of detail and for being willing to come off anon. Submission continued under the cut for those who are interested.

The character in question is Tim Drake/Robin/Red Robin from DC Comics, who hasn’t been confirmed as canonically Jewish, but his definitive writer, Chuck Dixon, has gone on record as stating he considered Tim a Jewish character, although as far as I know there haven’t been many, if any, hints that Judaism plays any meaningful role in Tim’s life. I want to push back against this as part of Tim’s character arc, which was left uncompleted after the DC-wide continuity reboot, and show him settling more into an explicitly Jewish identity, especially since his father figure/mentor Bruce Wayne/Batman is canonically Jewish, although DC has ignored that ever since they accidentally canonized it.

Now, the DCU, as any comic universe is aught to be, is filled with cosmic entities and gods and monsters of all sorts. The specific one I’m thinking of here is Scott Free, or Mister Miracle, who was created by a Jewish man named Jacob Kutzberg, better known as Jack Kirby, as part of his Fourth World Saga. Scott Free, and most of the characters in the Fourth World, are referred to as “New Gods” who have taken the place of the “Old Gods” after they died. Kurtzberg never finished the Fourth World Saga, so his intentions as to what that means are unknown. Complicating things further, the Hellenic/Norse gods are very much alive and well in the DCU. 

We have no futher explanation - at least, not from Kurtzberg- of what exactly it means to be a New God, and the only one who is ever shown to be worshipped is the evil Darkseid of Apokalips, who is the antagonist of the Fourth World and some would argue the entire DCU, who seeks to eradicate free will and forces his subjects to worship him as his master. As far as I know, no DC character has ever prayed to any New God.

As for Scott, he is the DCU’s greatest escape artist, bar none. His talents were honed through his many escape attempts on Apokalips, until he finally succeeded in escaping Apokalips in defiance of Darkseid’s will, choosing to run away from Apokalips rather than serve under Darkseid’s regime as a warrior. He now lives on earth with his wife and his adopted son Shilo Norman and uses his talents as an escape artist to perform for the public. He also serves as a member of the Justice League with his wife, Big Barda, also a New God and an ex-general of Darkseid’s. He and Barda are the only ones who have ever escaped Apokalips and Darkseid’s wrath.

Shilo has a point in the comics where he becomes Mister Miracle for a short time and is one of the more metaphysical takes on the Mister Miracle character. He’s the one who is mainly referred to as the Avatar of Freedom as far as I can tell, has escaped death itself and has received some sort of true sight ability from one of the other New Gods (Metron) during his time as Mister Miracle. Shilo, in addition to being Black, is shown consulting a rabbi during his time as Mister Miracle, though I don’t think they allow Shilo’s Jewishness to have any effect on the story or Shilo’s characterization.

In the original Kirby run, a lot of Scott’s escapes depend on the technology of the New Gods, which is also somewhat magical in nature. Newer interpretations of Scott emphasize the innate nature of his escape artistry, with some even having Scott able to escape death whether he wants to or not, though most of those seem to be influenced by Shilo’s run as Mister Miracle and not the other way around (given the pre-mentioned continuity reboot)

In my story, Tim goes to Scott looking for help finding Bruce because of Scott’s connection to Darkseid, who caused Bruce’s “death.” Along the way, Tim will get some training in escape artistry and combat from Scott, Barda and Shilo. There’s other complicated character stuff going on, but the important part is that Scott, Barda and Shilo are going to come to view Tim as a part of their family.

The question I have kinda depends on how Scott being a “New God” is interpreted, and on the effect his tutelage might have on Tim and Shilo as normal humans. As Shilo was shown consulting a rabbi, I think it’s safe to say he has some level of observance, even if his FOR is never made clear. Tim is a far more ambiguous matter, and Tim’s the character i’m going to be following in later stories- one of the projects I’m writing now is set after his training with Scott.

Tim’s definitely not going to recieve a direct blessing from Scott or anything like that. Specifically what I’m thinking is that when it comes to escaping, Tim’s a bit luckier than maybe he should be- a cracked link in a set of handcuffs that snap with a little pressure that don’t snap for someone else, for instance, or a guard whose eyes linger in the wrong direction just long enough for him to slip by. Little bits of accumulated luck. It’s not at all an idea I’m married to, but I thought it would be a neat detail to work in.

The TLDR is, it seems to me like there should be some metaphysical effects of being the protogee/the adopted son of a New God, depending on how you interpret the nature of a “New God” Is it possible to respectfully approach the idea of Scott and Barda being New Gods and the effect that might have on two mortal Jewish people, especially where Shilo is concerned? Thank you all so much for your time.

Mod here

[slothcritic]

Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 6 Review

Middling setup episode with inconsistent but mostly bad writing.

No One Ever Listens To The Magical Dragon starts off on a promising note with another reference to Popo's Pecking Order, but from there it's a long slide downhill.

The Saiyan scene inside of Kami's lookout is pretty weird and a rather unremarkable. There's a Hurricane Katrina joke that I didn't find terribly clever, but after Chiaotzu gets his butt kicked by a Protoss, Tien and Yamcha have some back and forth. And a lot of the connections made here become much more reminiscent and almost nostalgic when compared to later episodes of the show, but to analyze these decisions from their origin, some of them are very experimental and unfortunately lackluster.

I feel like Yamcha's "hah, gay" quip rests its full weight on Tien's delivery of the previous line. It's really unnecessary otherwise. I feel like most of the TFS cast looking at that dialogue on a script nowadays would cringe at the sight of it. I mean, if they were originally trying to paint Yamcha as someone who's an extremely immature jock, then that makes sense. But they definitely don't stick with this character decision for very long, even if they make callbacks to it - which I will speak on later, as they come up.

Yamcha is essentially a lesser Krillin. He's the reluctant hero who's the butt of a lot of jokes, and most of the time it's not without good reason. But I do want to stress that he is a hero. He jumps into danger even if he knows it'll kick his ass. Hey, not everyone can be Goku, but at least Krillin gets Android 18 in the end. Yamcha gets... Well, nothing. He has his friends but nothing improves for him. Perhaps this is karmic justice for being a massive pervert and tryhard ladykiller. Even his morals and general discipline in life are lesser to Krillin's.

But the line about Yamcha "actually getting pussy" to me seems either like lightning in a bottle or accidental genius. It's cringey, but I feel like, in retrospect at the very least, it really fits Yamcha's awkward, bumbling personality. He's someone who spends nearly his entire stay in this series treading a tightrope between bravado and humiliation. This characterization, this moment of his smart-aleck mouth or leap-before-you-look mindset backfiring on him ultimately becomes his destiny of character.

The only other noteworthy part after this is that Krillin has a great scream and the owned counter ticks up to four. After a montage of everyone dying, they return to the tower and Popo congratulates them. But he has some bad news.

"You're going back." "Wh... What?" "BYE."

This just felt fiendishly dark to me, and though I find overuse of the word "schadenfreude" to be pretentious, it does very well to describe how I feel when I’m watching this. This is honestly a wonderful punctuation to an otherwise below-average scene.

On King Kai's planet, I love the notion of Goku going smack-happy with the mallet like an unattended child, while King Kai just lets him get it out of his system. This isn't even part of his training, this is just Goku fuckin' around. He even smacks through the planet and dings Bojack, which gets another "Shut up, Bojack" from King Kai. Nothing to write home about but it's a scene with charm. Also, the Bardock reference was neat.

Back on Earth, oh hey! First use of the eponymous Dragon Balls in the series! Shenron suggests that instead of wishing Goku back to life, they should wish the Saiyans would fly into an asteroid field. I'm not sure how this would work in the series proper, or if it's even possible since Shenron wouldn't have the power to "make them go away" however you want to interpret that, but I'm ultimately tickled by the idea that in this series, such a thing is actually possible but the main ensemble is just too stupid to realize that. It's also kind of established that Shenron just does his own thing.

The episode ends with King Kai having taught Goku the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb off-screen (which I have a lot to say about) and then booting Goku off his planet. He immediately realizes his mistake once he discovers that he's all alone again... except for Bubbles, Gregory and the main man Bojack himself, and promptly tells them all to SHUT UP! This gag doesn't have as much going for it the third time around, but it's the closer for the episode and the end of the "Training at King Kai's" mini-arc, so it still manages to hold potency.

Conclusion

I feel like that last episode might've spoiled people off of this one. Even if we go by the inevitable philosophy that there will always be highs and lows in any episodic medium, a lot of the negatives of this episode (and there are a lot) are due to just poor writing. Poor choices in dialogue, poor choices in jokes, questionable scene direction, and odd bits and ends that don't belong. I would've considered this a strong follow-up to Episode 1, but it's a sharp drop down from Episode 5.

Initially, I felt that gimping out on Goku learning the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb cheapened this episode. After all, was it really necessary to abridge HFIL, but then not abridge Goku learning some of his most iconic moves in the series?

But to the credit of TFS, they do rectify this with their Make A Man Out Of You parody, which I feel is an appropriate and deserved representation or summary of the scene in question, so that alleviates my complaints about that entirely. 

Even though it’s not an actual episode, Make A Man Out Of You is treated as canon to the DBZA series. For that reason, I feel it amends the issue of the scene not being done justice. 

However, it does not fix this episode specifically, and does not change the fact that it is glossed over in this episode. If anything, the fact that Goku now just has these abilities is treated like it’s not important in this episode. Perhaps TFS were purposefully saving it for where they thought it would be better used, like in the musical number.

This creates a tough decision for me, since I have to be very distinct here.

If I say that the musical montage retroactively makes this episode better, that’s not fair to this episode as a self-contained product. 

But if I say that this episode should have included the Kaio-Ken/Spirit Bomb scenes, even though I feel it’s given a very satisfactory and deserved treatment in Make A Man Out Of You, that implies that I would’ve desired perhaps an inferior version of that same scene within this episode purely for semantic reasons, which ultimately feels hypocritical to me.

However, I must stick to my guns here and evaluate this episode solely based upon itself and nothing else. So even though Make A Man Out Of You does my complaints justice, it’s unfortunately too little too late, even if it was for a good reason. I purposefully want to avoid having my final scores consider retroactive decisions made after a product has been released, unless it specifically changes the product itself. This is more prevalent in remasters or games (bug fixes, patches, etc) instead of just making extraneous content like sequels.

Getting back to the rest of this episode, the high points of this episode were in fact good. I liked how they finally explored the other characters in this episode. Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Shenron all have their first spoken lines of dialogue in this episode. Of course, there was going to be no way around that if they wanted to do those two scenes at all. Necessary world-building elements take place with their own unique twists to show the progress of events and make the final result feel earned, but not much else to discuss. This episode was largely unremarkable, with maybe one or two moments that anyone would remember a week later.

Score: 49

Passing Thoughts

It's interesting to see how King Kai's voice has evolved over the series. In this episode, some of his lines are so nasally that I can hardly understand him.

"This can't possibly get any worse!" "Hi."

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

I’m not going to review Make A Man Out Of You, but at a quick glance I would probably give it a score in the 70′s. The production is pretty good all things considered, and it still holds up even though it was made in 2008.

[deconreconstruction]

The Lefty Situation

I didn’t want to come back to this after making our last official statement on the subject, especially right after the release of [S] Engage, but it has grown enough that it warrants being spoken about again and solved.

The usage of ‘Wendigo’ was always referential in VE, it was important inspiration to the characterization of Lefty and what she is, but not a direct portrayal. We knew from the start that she was not deeply rooted within the culture her name comes from, but we did know that the Wendigo was a very intriguing piece of culture that Heather and I agreed would be a neat basis of concept work for the world of Repiton and would mold its use in Serpaz’s character arc. So we went with the base idea and tinkered with how it looked and worked in order to make it better fit the world and landscape of the comic. I know Heather took tips from other non-wendigo designs from other media, such as World of Warcraft as inspiration when creating Lefty’s final design. To us it was a recognizable idea that fit the needs and thematically portrayed something important to Serpaz. I said before maybe we should have thought about this more, but at the time there wasn’t much to think about.

When the issue first arose, I mistook it to be some sort of general question rather than asking about the roots and origin of Lefty as a character. I was then informed that it was a legitimate complaint made by a Native American teenager who was offended by the concept, and I didn’t really know what to make of the situation. So I deleted the ask and instead talked about it semi-publically on the VE Community Discord without much to say. I discussed with Heather a number of different naming options after the fact (and even before the incident) but eventually we came to the conclusion that no other name really sounded right (at least not without giving away pertinent plot information) and that there were only a few people out of the majority who was clamoring for the change. So we decided to keep the name and apologize rather than changing the name of the creature at that moment.

Today it was brought back into light when an ex-fan and tumblr user (the same person who discussed it with me back on the Discord) brought up that past incident, and was publically harassed because of it. That is not something that Heather or I condone or like to see happen, regardless of the reason.

Now, I’m not going to say this person was squeaky clean on the issue, it seemed like they were personally upset with me given how I accidentally slighted their friend and I do believe the situation got out of hand with how they responded to the debacle. Most people don’t react kindly to straight up being called a shitty person and a racist, but this is not the topic at hand nor is it about me. I hold no ill-will towards this user, if they want to think me and Heather are shitty and dislike the comic that is expressly their prerogative.

The issue comes in how they feel I treated their friend, and how other fans and people around them feel I treated their friend. Neither of which was ever done with malicious intent, or the intent to disrupt and appropriate any sort of culture but that is what happened.

There was a right to be upset about it because it’s important to them, even if it isn’t important to everyone else, and again, I apologize for causing anyone to feel dismissed. I do NOT let fans dictate was does and does not happen in VE, but this is a different case. In the case that people get legitimately offended over something you’ve done and it becomes ever apparent that others past a select few people were staying silent feel the same way, that’s when you know you have an issue on your hands. I’m sure to some this comes off as backpedaling or compromising our ideals to the beast that is this website, but I’m not doing this for the sake of PR or trying to remove a mark on our record that is now written in permanent ink. I’m doing this because it’s what is right. I made a mistake, didn’t know how to fix it, and now it is ever clear to me that something does need to be done.

If you were upset by the use of the term Wendigo and you don’t want to accept this apology that is completely fine. I cannot change anyone’s feelings or pretend nothing ever happened, nor would I want to. But I am a human being, I misinterpret things, I make mistakes, I don’t always know what everyone says about me or what everyone is thinking.

But I do know when I’m wrong and I can admit that, and I know that I want to at least try to make amends where I can.

Page 586 has been changed, Lefty is now known as a ‘Compecado’. A term that I had help in deciding with my good friend and creative associate Kate. I hope this serves you all and the comic better as we move forward.

Thank you for reading.