#'change and improvement' are hollow words without context

[justatalkingface]

Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem

Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:

The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.

There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:

I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.

Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.

Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'

I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?

'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.

So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.

Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.

I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.

So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!

...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.

On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.

Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.

Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.

Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.

That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:

All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.

Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.

And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?

Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?

Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.

Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?

Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.

And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.

Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.

But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).

Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.

Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.

Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?

Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.

Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.

Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?

What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.

Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?

This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.

Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.

Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.

Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.

For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.

In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."

He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.

But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.

Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.

Because he can. Because it's fun.

(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?

Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?

Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.

So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.

But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)

This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.

Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.

Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.

And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.

His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.

'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'

Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.

Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.

This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.

This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.

And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.

But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.

Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.

I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?

This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.

Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.

Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.

This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.

Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.

Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.

First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.

Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.

Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.

And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.

But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?

Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?

'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.

...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.

It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?

Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?

Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.

So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.

And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?

This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.

Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).

Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:

When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.

In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.

Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.

Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.

And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?

Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?

Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....

*shrugs helplessly*

If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.

But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.

And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.

Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.

Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."

And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.

Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.

And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.

Simply marvelous.

Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?

Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!

And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.

The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.

This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support

No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'

I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.

There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.

Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!

Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.

Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.

And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.

But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.

But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.

But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.

Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it

One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.

Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?

The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.

Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.

...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.

Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.

So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.

(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)

But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?

And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-

Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.

That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.

Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.

And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.

You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.

But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.

So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....

All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!

In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.

The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.

And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.

And. And am I supposed to believe that?

I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.

He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.

Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.

And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.

All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.

All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.

That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.

While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.

Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.

When he has a Quirk.

And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.

And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.

I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.

Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.

The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.

*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.

Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.

The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.

But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?

And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.

And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.

#this got way too long #basically an ask at this point #bnha critical #mha critical #bakugou critical #anti bakugo #izuku deserves better #izuku is basiclly an abuse victim #why doesn't izuku have burn scars? #the power dynamics of saving #'change and improvement' are hollow words without context #bakugou's SCP Worthy Tsundere Field #Izuku is an unreliable narrator #AP Shot makes no sense #Bakugou's development is like watching someone get over an infection of Morals

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Back here with another episode of:

Read Part 1 here!

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

Alrighty then, so let’s just jump into it!  

- - - - - - - - - - 

Recap! So when we last left off, we had just finished off Act 1 of the story. We’ve used the character introduction segments and the gambit feature as a means to give more life to everyone, without sacrificing too much cutscene time. Allowing us to save and focus the major story details and set up on the more cinematic cutscenes.

I had forgotten, but after Part 1 came out, an anon pointed out that Impa’s character introduction could use some work, and while you don’t need to read it right now to understand the rest of this post, I encourage you to look at it eventually to see the strengths and flaws in the original Impa introduction, and the reasons for my rewrite changes! All you need to know is that eggbot was lying around, deactivated, but when in proximity to the Sheikah Slate, was turned on like other Guardians. Eggbot being activated by the Sheikah Slate is kinda brushed over in the original game? But in my rewrite it’s gonna have some later significance. Also during the Royal Lab cutscene, I want Robbie or Purah to mention how Zelda’s control of the Sheikah Slate is quite exceptional or something. It’s a bit obvious already in Hwaoc, but I need it to be verbally said in a story scene for, again, later significance. Alright that’s it for my added details, moving on now. 

After Chapter 1, we moved into the characters accepting the Call to Adventure, whether by the general external reasons of wanting to save the world, and developed a little bit further with more internal related reasons to give nuances and identities to different characters. Revali wishes to prove that his hard work earns him better merit than a sidekick, Urbosa wishes to protect and help Zelda on an emotional level, Mipha wishes to get closer to Link and come back to her family proud, etc etc. 

Then, the climax of Act 1 ends with the Yiga ambush, and the characters get a first taste of leaving their areas of comfort, and journeying into the unknown world. Although the gameplay and the successful defeat of the Yiga establishes the Champion team’s strength, our interaction with Rhoam shows us that they still have a ways to go. The momentum into the full story now has a bit of tension and conflict. 

So now we crash into the beginning of Act 2, the longest Act in a story, as it’s the part where the....story, happens. Let’s take a look at changes to the Hollows, eggbot mysteries, Zelda character growth, and our first real dip into the character of our antagonist, the Prophet of Doom himself, Astor…

So in the game, Chapter 3 opens on the flank of Death Mountain, our heroes overlooking the view of Korok Forest.

There are a few problems I have with this scene. It’s really stale, there’s no movement, nothing dynamic about it other than the opening shot. They just kinda stand there and say words until Revali’s done ranting and summons Medoh. Also Revali’s dialogue is a bit “much” to say the least, and uh, spoiler alert, he’s gonna be reworked a bit more than the other Champions. Finally, this scene doesn’t have a lot of purpose or substance. Sure, it has some character conflict with Revali and Link and the team, but that’s kinda established already, plus it’s something that I’ve already fleshed out in the last scene with King Rhoam, so it’s a bit redundant. So that leaves this scene serving only as a boring current draw to the Medoh fight and nothing else. This is the opening set up for the Chapter where important story stuff goes down! Needs a lot more substance. So! Here’s my rework. 

We open on the sound of running. Link, along with Zelda, Urbosa, Daruk, and Mipha are running upwards on a path by Edlin. They’re chasing a small group of bokoblins and it looks like it’s the end of the fight. Urbosa is more near the back, with Zelda, but Daruk and Mipha both kill a bokoblin, their bodies of the monsters exploding in a cloud of malice upon their demise. When the camera shows each of their kills, the shots are quick, but I want the angle of the camera to be in such a way that the malice evaporates center frame, with Daruk and Mipha being behind the malice. This is because for a split second, it looks like the malice lingers around them like smoke. Huh, I wonder if that’s foreshadowing or something.

Anyhow, Link chases the final red bokoblin uphill, boots pattering against rock. However, we’re now seeing this from a moving, flying, bird’s eye view [quite literally wink wink] 

Cut back close to Link, he kills the bokoblins. Stands there for a sec as he sheathes his sword. And then...

“Well I’ll be plucked. You defeated it, eh?” 

Reveal Revali flying from above, and he lands in front of Link, but faces away from him. “Who would have thought that some little knight, amongst a group of chosen heroes, would get some action. You must be pretty proud of yourself, hm?” Cue that classic Revali head turn with a glare. Also when Revali says “heroes” I want him to flick his scarf dramatically, while staring at Link’s armour, as if internally he were judging Link on a runway.

Zelda runs up and starts speaking. “Oh Revali, I apologize our meet up with Medoh got a bit delayed. I assume that you’ve already positioned them by now for the attack?”

Revali hums a yes, but doesn’t bother to entertain a more fleshed out answer. Instead, he flicks his wing (as if to say, “come on”) and turns his back to walk up the trail. The others follow.

“I was informed that only the Champions and yourself would be present. What are…” Revali flicks a wing in the direction of Link and eggbot, like a Karen shooing a waiter. “...they, exactly contributing?”

Zelda says some stuff about Link being her bodyguard like: “Well, my father was impressed enough with Link’s actions from the other week that he’s assigned to give me further protection.’ She can say this a bit grumpily, to Link’s ignorance. Daruk can pipe in like “And a good thing too! Always great to have little guy at our backs.” and Mipha can nod sheepishly or something. But their dialogue is cut off by another rude interjection (because hell if Revali wants to listen to more rambling about Link)

“Right, right. And this thing is still around?” Revali gestures to eggbot. 

Zelda: “Well, This little one's technological prowess has been quite useful in battle, allowing us to access the rune functions and all. So I figured it’d be a big help should something unexpected happen. Plus...” cute shot of Zelda staring at eggbot, “it just...feels right.” Then the little eggshit can like, chirp happily or make some cute whistle or whatever. Just shove in a bit of that egg fanservice, might as well since I need to better establish its presence for later.

Revali mutters something about “big help,” before gesticulating with his wings as he continues walking up the trial. “Mooore like a big liability should anything happen to your little pet, and one of us be forced to risk our lives just to save it from becoming scrap. Honestly, when it comes to you, and you.” Revali points to both eggbot and Link, “Your presence is an entire waste of time. ‘Backup?’ Help?’ Tsk. Humouring.” Eggbot can make a noise or something while Link just tilts his head. Revali continues: “You’re only here because of a non-existent, fantastical, imaginary hypothetical in which I somehow fail, and I don’t, fail.” When he articulates that last part, he stops walking and does another little head turn/glare, but he still doesn’t bother to fully face him. “I’m sure that your duty will no longer be of importance once your reputation...is nothing but a memory overshadowed by today’s great feats. A forgettable knight, heh heh!”

“Revali,” Urbosa sighs, “How long do you expect us to put up with your showboating and prattle?”

That when Revali finally turns fully to face the group, with a more grim glare. They’ve reached the top of the ledge anyhow, so they’ve stopped walking. This is where the camera can view the Lost Woods in its fullest as it zooms on Revali. Then, that ending is the same as the game with the pan up to Medoh’s presence. 

“Fine. I’ve said enough. The time has come to show you what I’m made of. Now witness...Vah Medoh’s divine power!”

So that’s that. Revali is toned down a bit, and his rude remarks have more of a precision as to their point. It’s a bit hard to explain over words alone, but the fact that this scene takes place as the Champions are walking up the trail, means it’s a lot more interesting to look at. (Kinda like the walk and talk premise that you see in The West Wing) Plus, the trail being uphill establishes that hint of power dynamic as Revali is above everyone else. Also there’s just a bit of some botw dialogue connection, not only in just the opening, [Hwaoc Revali vs Botw Revali “Who would have thought” is put in different context based on their development, so it’s a good establishing point to show where this Revali is at in dynamics with Link in comparison to botw, all in just one line rather than in a more longer explanation] but I also scattered a few dramatic irony pieces in there heheh. There’s a lot more reasons why this scene is an improvement [and hopefully to you, it already *feels* better] but I’m not going to explain them until near the end, as its importance is connected to the later scenes of this Chapter.

In fact, that's the overarching change that I’ve made to these cutscenes, I’ve actually connected them and related them to the other scenes. This is the very first introduction to Chapter 3, after all, so it’s important that this introduction serves to be of more significance than “ok here’s the champions, here’s revali, there's medoh. Now go wreck stuff.”

Medoh’s fight is the same, the cutscenes after are mostly the same. Except here, when everyone runs into Korok forest and you see Astor, I want this scene to end not on Astor’s face (because it’s not as significant anymore since we’ve already see Astor in full in Chapter 2 with Urbosa’s stage) but it should end with Astor reaching out a hand towards the camera. The camera angle would be just a bit below Astor. This is because I want the implication to be slightly more clear that he killed those two Yiga underlings to craft the Hollows. It’s a nice little “watch it for the first time it doesn’t mean anything” but watching again it’s like “ohh how did I not notice that” kind of thing. 

Then, Hestu’s introduction is roughly the same. I don’t think I really need to rework it too much, since Hestu as a character doesn’t serve anything major to the plot, so it’s fine for it to just be fun and cute. I will however, change just a few pieces of dialogue. 

Revali: “Are we even making progress? We could just be going in circles.”

Daruk: “Good point. If only someone could fly above and scout the way.”

Revali: “As though I could see anything through this muck. Honestly, do you even think before you speak?”

Revali!!! Don’t be so rude to Daruk. Like yes it’s a bit funny, but that last part with “do you even think before you speak” is a bit much, because honestly Revali doesn’t really have a reason to hate Daruk. He’s characterized as being rude to Link and those he deems unworthy of respect, but Revali respects Daruk, Mipha, and Urbosa fairly well, considering they were chosen alongside him. So personally, I’d just tweak this to

Daruk: “Good point. If only someone could fly above and scout the way...”

Mipha snickers at this. And Revali mutters more quietly to himself, “As though I could see anything through this muck.” and gives little “hmph!” at Daruk, moving away.

There we go! It still serves it purpose of showing how the Champions are still not completely in sync (which is what I can assume was the original purpose of Revali’s rude comment line) but it’s played a bit more comedic (which makes sense considering this is in the context of Hestu’s introduction) and we get to poke fun at Revali, since just early we had spent so long boosting up his ego. Also Mipha laughing a bit with Daruk while Revali broods adds to that point of them being too busy to see Hestu right behind them.

Another small change, I don’t want Zelda to discover Hestu first. I want eggbot to discover Hestu, maybe they shake their maraca and eggbot notices and gives a little curious whistle. When Zelda notices eggbot not walking with her, she looks right, and that’s when she notices Hestu. It’s almost insignificant, but I really want to establish the eggbot’s presence for this chapter. Especially since this game writes him out of cutscenes a lot. 

Final small change. That Hestu scene ends, not with Revali wordlessly shaking his head and following the group after hanging back. But with Mipha actively turning back, saying something like “Come, Revali. We should all stick together. It wouldn’t do for us to get lost.” and then a reply like “As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to mystic swords, magic trees, lucky knights, and walking eggs...I already am.” I’m just trying to keep intact that Nintendo “vibe” of flicking the character stances right in your face, especially since this game's only forms of telling the story are through these less than a minute cutscenes. 

OKAY! Gameplay stuff. There are no real mechanic or level design changes to the Battle of Korok Forest, BUT there is one important change that I want to make here. 

When the party splits up to take on the bosses in order to get rid of the malice. I think that the Hollows should speak.

Not like full on sentences and stuff (yet) but I think they should mumble and groan and be able to speak a few simple words. Now why do I say this? Well, let’s take a look at how I think we should introduce them. 

First off, I think it should be a cutscene. Not just some 2 second animation where the Hollows spawn in. Nonononononono, this needs to be a cutscene, because it needs to be acted, because we need to see the character reactions. Like, if you’re gonna have that cliche “dark evil clone of the protagonists” thing, then you might as well go all out with the angst. In fact, personally, I would have rewritten is as the hollows actually *being* the champions and astor can temporarily control them but then when he sees that fail later in the game that can be his motivator for making the blights to kill them off since they’re no longer of use to him alive or whatever but we’re scrapping that idea because like I've said I want to try to keep the integrity of the original story.

Ok, so you have a character come up to one of the map points, and when they get there it fades into a cutscene. It’s not gonna be super long, but here’s the vision. 

Character is in the lost woods, they killed a stalbokoblin or whatever. Just some low tier enemy, and then it dies and becomes that whisp of malice. Great. Character turns to leave, but then they hear something. Like a snicker, or laughter. Cut to this angle from behind the trees, but instead of astor it’s the character you’re playing as.

They go over to investigate, creeping closer with caution, until they see a shadow. The shadow of a small figure, about no higher than Link, with a long, trident weapon. 

FWOOSH! An explosion of malice, almost like a fountain behind the character. They turn just in time to block the attack, the Lightscale Trident, but yet...it’s not the Lightscale Trident, because it’s covered in malice. Hollow Mipha is striking from the air, because this is basically her fountain teleportation thing, but malice. Once the character blocks the attack, time slows just a bit so you can see Hollow Mipha’s face, and then cut to the other characters face to give them a reaction. And that’s it. 

Then you can pop back into gameplay, but there should be textboxes on the bottom where you can see the character’s surprised reaction like

[Unimportant detail, but if Daruk fights his Hollow self I want his reaction to be like “Woah! I sure look grumpy. I look like I skipped breakfast.” and then his gambit attack is like “eat THIS!” Also Revali can say something about how imitation is a form of flattery]

Through that fight, the Hollows also have like one textbox and a line of Evil™ mumbling and/or laughing once they’re defeated. The laughing is kinda used in a later scene, but it’s never really seen again so I just want that to be more prevalent. You all could probably think of more angsty “evil version of you” lines that are specific to each character, but I’m just thinking stuff like “You...won’t...last” or even just *muttering*. In fact, this is another thing that I want to flesh out with my gambit feature. It not only serves as interaction between whatever two characters you’re playing as, but also as interaction between your antagonists. So if you use a gambit on Kohga, he’ll say something specific about the characters he’s fighting. Same idea with Sooga, or Astor, and now here, the Hollows can say stuff to you.

There’s gonna be someone out there more creative than me out there that can think up some cool dialogue for them, but basically what I want to establish is that we know that these Hollows are made from people’s like, souls? Or life force or whatever you wanna call it. So it wouldn’t be farfetched to give them the ability to speak. Over the course of the game, I want their textboxes/dialogue to be more and more lifelike, like without the pauses or muttering. This is because the entire point of the dialogue is not only to serve that trope of “I’m the evil you I’m gonna say stuff that emotionally impacts you mwahaha” but it also makes them just a bit more menacing in my opinion. Also overall gameplay wise, I think they need to become stronger with the Champions because idk if it was just me, but they were so easy that I just forgot about them. 

So! Korok Forest Battle introduces these creepy mumbling Champions, people react and are a bit freaked out, but they eventually clear the malice and we hit the next cutscene. 

This is where the shit goes down.

You all probably remember how this scene goes down so I’ll try not to spend too much time explaining it. But here’s my two cents as to why I’m gonna rewrite it a bunch. I think it’s not a good villain reveal. 

Like first off, it doesn’t establish Astor as a threat. His memorable action here is the summoning of the Hollows, and while yes, they do beat up Link and that’s very good, it also let’s Link easily beat them and Astor as soon as he gets the Master Sword IN THAT SAME SCENE. There was no time to let the threat of Astor linger, and when we see Link instantly beat him once he gets his Mcguffin, it really hinders the effect of this reveal.

Secondly, everyone is just silent during this??? Like, obviously Link doesn’t say anything, but Zelda doesn’t do stuff? Astor just kinda says “kill her!” and thats about it. Zelda never says “who are you?” or “what do you want?” or anything because as far as she’s concerned this is just some random dude, he’s not Yiga or anything. Also Astor never even introduces himself?? Throughout the entire game??? So while we the player know who he is because of his fancy title card, as far as all the characters are concerned he’s just a Mystery Clown.  

It’s just super weird how no one asks any questions during this scene like no one acts like a human being with common sense. In fact, one could say that no one asks any questions for this entire game. Things just happen, and happen, and happen, and everyones just kinda chill. And then Zelda just kinda receives 17 flashbacks over the course of two minutes at the end of the game like she’s speedrunning botw memory%. Obviously having an aura of mystery over the course of your game is fine, it’s good to keep questions lingering over the audience’s head. Just so long as you answer them in a satisfactory way later on. Like, that’s not something I need to spell out for you right? If you set up a question, give the audience a good answer. If you set up a mystery, give a cool explanation. If you set up an interesting character you have to give the people a pay off that was worth their investment into them, right? Right? Right? You understand right? Cause as the writer for a story, it’s you’re to explain the significance and importance of why things happen in a creative way. It’s almost as if that’s the entire purpose of storytelling, you know, an explanation of events in a compelling manner. Like please, this is a concept that you are able to grasp right? This isn’t just me right? See that’s how writing works when setting up anything ever, you gotta give an explanation to the choices you make in the plot. You gotta explain why. You gotta explain why. Explain why. Explain why. Explain, why? Explain, why? Why? Why? WHy? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WH

Sorry I got carried away. Anyhow, here’s the rewrite. 

Link and Zelda don’t enter the forest at the same time. They run through the wooden tunnel thing, and Link makes a gesture like “go!” while he stays back a bit to hold off some monsters like stal-lizalfos or something. So Zelda runs into the center of Korok Forest.

As far as any of the characters know, this is a safe haven now, this was their destination, so there’s no monsters here, so they’re good. The princess is safe, the Champions are just cleaning up in their respective corners of the forest with the Hollows, and Link is fighting off the monsters by the entrance. So while there is still tension from the battle, Zelda lets out a sigh of relief once she sees the Master Sword. 

She approaches it, cautiously, but doesn’t step onto the stone pedestal, still staying a ways back in the grass. “We’re finally here,” she says to herself. “Now we just have to protect the sword, await for the hero to retrieve it, and await for destiny to arrive.” She looks down at the ground, and then at the back of her hand (fuck what hand was the one with the triforce, her left hand? I’m gonna say left hand). So she looks down at the back of her left hand, before letting it fall. She turns away from the Master Sword and to herself she just mutters, “I only wish that I could make as much progress in fulfilling my own role...in making myself to be of actual use, like the others.”

There’s a moment of silence as Zelda wraps her elbows and closes her eyes. Then,

“If that is what you wish,” a sudden voice echos, and Zelda spins around to face it, “Then perhaps I can be of some assistance.”

Cut to Astor, standing in front of the Master Sword, facing Zelda. Roughly where he is shown here, but Zelda is a couple feet away from him, standing on one of those rocks.

Zelda steps back in shock for a moment. “W-Who? Who are you?”

“Me?” He takes one step down the stairs. “Oh, I am just someone, same as you, who wishes to see destiny fulfilled.” Zelda takes another step back, and seeing this, he stops approaching. “Ease your mind, Your Highness. There is no need to be frightened. You may call me, Astor”

Cut to title card on his face, it can be like this, BUT, no malice or glowing magic around him, it’s all still lush green forest, and I don’t want as much focus on his astrolabe. It’s just his face, and he’s giving a warm, yet chilling smile.

Zelda is still stammering. “Y-You...do I……. how did you—”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters now is taking every step towards stopping the Calamity, correct?” Astor starts to take a step towards her again, and this time Zelda doesn’t flinch.

“Y-Yes. Yes of course. But I’m afraid I’m still a bit confused. ...What exactly do you...want?”

Astor doesn’t immediately answer. He steps off the pedestal and starts to circle around Zelda, eyeing her, but still with that creepy smile. “Tell me, Princess, how fares your recent training? Adequate progress, I presume?”

He continues circling around her, still a few feet away. Zelda looks to the ground, defeated. “I’m afraid not. I’ve been trying to aid the researchers with the Guardians and Divine Beasts. But when it comes to this power…” she looks down at her hand again. “...it seems despite my great efforts and restless hours of prayers, they have yet to awaken.”

Using his free hand, Astor places a hand on his chest, tilting his head in a sorry pout. The gesture seems exaggerated. “My...you poor thing. How harrowing this must be for you.” He continues walking, eyeing her as he circles behind. “But, I am certain it is not your fault. You are but a child, after all.”

“I…” Zelda is still staring at the ground in front of her. Astor continues.

“I mean really, have you ever stopped to think about how absurd this all is? A collection of mis-match warriors, demanded to pilot gods. A sword for an unseen hero. The lives of us all, in the hands of one girl. Expected to lead us all, awaken a divine power, and save the world, all before her 17th birthday…”

After a beat, Zelda finally looks up at him, confusion and suspicion back in her eyes. “What did you say?”

Astor stops walking, he’s back directly in front of the pedestal. The camera is on him center frame, so that when he turns to face Zelda, his figure blocks the sword. 

“Now Princess, is that truly what you want? Do you really believe yourself prepared to live up to such a monumental task?” He’s walking directly towards her now, arm outstretched. 

“I—” Zelda pauses, before shaking her head. “Of course not, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Yeesss. Precisely! You needn’t not let yourself live like this, like some beggar to the gods, like a failure.” Astor is walking more quickly towards her, and Zelda is stepping back.

Zelda lets out a gasp of fear now, as Astor approaches, there’s a swirl starting to form around the astrolabe in his hand. “I don’t understand! What’s your point, what do you want? Who are you!?”   

He stops walking, he’s so much closer now, just a foot or two away from her. “It’s quite simple my dear.” He gives another smile. “I’m a man who wants to live.”

Fwoosh! The air around them is now tinted purple, the astrolabe’s power surrounding them both. Zelda gasps again. 

“If we truly wish to see this realm prosper, we must accept the indisputable truth.” Astor reaches out his hand. “You are not worthy of saving this Kingdom. You do not have the power to oppose such an unimaginable enemy! Therefore I shall relieve you of your burden, for the sake of us all. I will steal, your, destiny!”

Astor is seconds away from touching her, before suddenly...the sound of a sword unsheathing.  

Astor flies back, crumpling on the steps of the pedestal, he looks up to see Link, sword at the ready. Link had pushed astor back with the pommel of his sword [because no stabbing or blood for our PG Nintendo game] and the motion has cause him to drop his astrolabe, which now lies a few feet in front of him in the grass. 

“Link!” Zelda says, relieved. From behind, eggbot also appears. It walks infront of Link and gives a little whistle and does that sassy pointing thing in the direction of Astor, as if telling him off. 

Astor frowns when he sees Link, but when he sees eggbot his face morphs into confusion. “You…? But I…” he glances at his astrolabe. Astor gets up to retrieve it and stands.  

“It doesn’t matter how you’re here again. You can’t stop this.” Astor summons the Hollows, and they appear in front of him. It was harder to see in the lost woods, but here in the lush grass, its undeniable that the Hollows are draining the plant life around them. 

“Kill whoever he is. Fight the Guardian if you must, though I’d prefer it intact. But don’t touch the girl.” He narrows his eyes. “Her thread shall be cut by my hand alone.”

Then it goes into that action sequence. Link is desperately fighting off the Hollows, while also trying to keep eggbot close to protect it. The hollows are laughing, even taunting him, as Astor is just walking calmly forwards towards Zelda, and Link can’t do anything to stop it. 

Then it’s roughly the same, Link flies back as his sword breaks. Zelda is kinda helpless. And then just as Astor is about to reach Zelda again, Link cries out, the Master Sword glows. Everyone looks back, confused. Link pulls the sword. Boss fight. 

After the fight and after Link defeats Astor, he’ll say something like. “That sword...is too powerful.” and blah blah blah. He looks up at Zelda. “Should you come to your senses, Your Highness,” he hisses the words, “I will delightfully accept an invitation with your company again.” He glares at Link. “Perhaps one day, when we have more time, you will fully come to understand where your arrogance is leading you.” He stands, though clutching his side in pain. “Until then, I shall make certain we meet again.” Link charges him, but he disappears in smoke and malice. End the Korok Forest arc.

Okay so! Why is this scene better? Uhhhhhhhh because it fucking is that’s why. We got 1) A villain introduction that’s more menacing 2) an establishment of character goals, but a mystery of character motivation to keep suspense 3) a more insightful look at different character’s feelings and thoughts 4) a much more interesting interaction with dialogue that raises tension and properly climaxes to the action and 5) the story’s momentum moves forward with ascending action, and new story details that set up later scenes. 

I find it absolutely absurd that in the original game, these scenes are not written with more impact. This is the first look into the real mystery and substance that the story has to offer, and the first real look into the prime antagonist’s head. The actions and stakes throughout Act 2 have to properly ascend and rise in order to truly keep the audience engaged. You can’t just rely on mystery alone, you have to make use of character goals. 

Reiterating Zelda’s internal struggles means that this can more easily connect and flow into the later segments where she doubts her ability and sees Link and the others grow stronger. In addition, Astor’s presence is a direct foil to Zelda’s arc. You can already see it a bit based on his dialogue, but I will more fully explain the true depths of how his is a direct foil to Zelda further down the line when all the aspects of his character are revealed. It’s almost as pacing the amount of information you give about a character can properly incite your audience to be more invested in the story, hmm. Anyhow, all you need to know for now is that good antagonists have similarities and aligning viewpoints as the protagonist in the beginning of the journey, much more, than you might think.

= = = = = 

That is it for now! I can’t believe I had to dedicate an entire section to just one battle. But! That is how the story must go, as I need to flesh out as much as possible in only a few cutscenes without ruining the pacing. Tune in next time for flashbacks, backstory, Yiga husbands, token Zelink hours, aaand perhaps just a bit of Impa simping. 

#Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #Part 2 #hwaoc spoilers #long post #hwaoc #age of calamity #hw age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

[soulwitch]

The Same Story, Never More

Context: Jeanne visits another Furuzuki to take out her anger on another Haya, but meets for once a young adult Haya and young adult Aiharu who have overcome most of their obstacles, and are more than ready.

Length: ~4.1k words.

Muses:

Subusa Haya - FC Song(normal), and Musashi(magical) Shimazu Aiharu - FC Silva(normal), and Tomoe(magical) Jeanne Beaulieu - FC  Vira Aiwa - FC Fu Hua (???)

Pouring rain flooded the streets, the tall shadows of high rises and cooperate buildings masked what little natural light was able to peak through the clouds onto the streets below. Four large building that made up the center block of this city, all around it a sprawling hive of people, lives, and memories.

Usually bustling with mid day activity, with the end of the work retreat home and the buzz of cars, trains, and buses. Now it all held still, silent, only the rain dripping off the three that stood apart from each other.

For one, the tallest of the trio, blonde hair, red eyes, blood soaked blouse, this was the same story that she had indulged in so many times over. And now, in her moment of turmoil, what better way to return to what felt right, than to kill those that didn’t feel right. 

She had been here before, this city, this position, against the same two woman, often without the second. It wasn’t anything Jeanne had no seen before, the actors were usually a little different, but the main character was the same. The one standing directly in front of her, staring at her without hatred, without pity. Only focus, a sense of duty, and a warmth to her gaze even towards a foe.

From her place in the rain, in the middle of this street, southwards were the other two actors. The one that never changed, and the one that was a surprise to see. Silver hair, striking purple eyes, a sword and attire that suggested a tomboyish nature. Her eyes didn’t share the warmth that Jeanne’s main target did, hers were serious, deadly, focused less on the target before her, and more on what was needed to be done to return to something.

Shimzau Aiharu, not the one Jeanne expected to see. The others always seemed to be, a Makoto, or a Hotaru. Always speaking highly of an Aiharu passed, but this time the girl was here.

Leaving only one, the heroine herself, the guardian of so many Furuzuki’s, selfless, caring, and reckless. Subusa Haya, the mirror of her soul. The same vibrations that formed them, yet molded differently despite the circumstances. A soul that sickened Jeanne to her core, one that reminded her of what she might of been able to become, of what she tried to be, of what failed to manifest.

Disgusting, it filled her with rage, seething, burning desires to kill the woman across from her. Such desires so pronounced there was no way the other two didn’t feel it. Even if one felt, far below the other, they both showed a reaction to the negative energy. 

Drawing her blade, how fitting a weapon for her to use, weapons that seemed mirrored always by Haya, but this time it seemed by Aiharu as well. A brief moment of possible unease, though Aiharu’s energy seemed pathetic in comparison to the two routine actors. 

“There is no need to explain this..” Jeanne announced, “I am here to kill you Subusa Haya, and spread your entrails across the city for all to see.” The blonde’s declaration clear and without need of motive, a threat outright and a goal in mind. Waving her hand before her, water turned to crystal, lances of the hard material floating just behind her.

Curiously still, she looked to Aiharu. Haya was already in her magical form, the one she’d seen so often. Pink hair, the look of a samurai ready to duel. But this friend of hers, seemed only dressed up, hardly transformed. “Your friend best stay out of this, or bring something more to the table.”

“She will die.”

“She won’t.” Haya returned, answering before Aiharu could get riled up. This Haya and Aiharu, not as old as some of their counterparts. Late twenties at best, but they’d overcome all their obstacles, with others, with each other, and they had succeeded. Through teamwork they had banished even the strongest Queen of evil in their world, but both had not actively worked as magical girls in some time. A few years, their prime was in a sense, past as it was no longer needed.

At least, not till today. Haya’s hands faced their palms up and outwards, forming two sword handles in her hands without blades. With a heavy sigh, letting all her energy flow out Haya would take up a stance, ready to meet Jeanne’s aggression.

Which only left Aiharu, watching this blonde appear, a woman with a smothering aura, just like that of the Queen a few years ago, yet her senpai, Haya, stared them down without hesitation.

“I won’t.” Drawing her blade, a hollow sword, its core missing only to be replaced by energy that flowed into the blade. Aiharu’s magic, the orbs she used to create to attack from weapons had evolved. It was still her primary attack method, using each slash as a special attack to be molded. But her sound had improved as well, able to trap enemies in a cycle of rings will they gave up or somehow broke out. 

It was how they beat the Queen, wearing her down till Aiharu’s magic took them into the mind maze of bell rings, and within it the Queen fell.

In a sense, three very different sword masters of their own craft, masters of weapon and magic, of different origins and feelings. Three with far more in common with each other than they knew, but these things that could bond people together were not the focus.

Jeanne’s desire to kill and rid her mind of the constant mental anguish she felt, was stronger than any of that, any of the feelings she got from both girls. Holding her hand out, clenching up to a fist. The first shots rung out.

Windows of the north buildings cracking as crystal lances pelted towards the two, both Haya and Aiharu taking to running, closing the gap between them and the witch, Haya’s empty sword handles flourishing with magic.

In the right, a raging inferno, and in the left a gusting wind, the right slashing out as they way to send a wave of fire before them. Like near shore tidal wave it rose up before crashing down, Jeanne’s feet kicking off the ground to go airborne as the whirl of wind echo’d around her.

The other sword with swirling wind, whipping a slicing gust around the blaze at the witch, Jeanne’s crystal forming a barrier before her and the cutting wind in one direction before having to split her attention again.

A concentrated laser of an attack, cutting through the shielding crystal, a near miss as it came from the opposite direction, its origin the tip of Aiharu’s smoking blade as she rushed to the flank. A grin of pride showing on Aiharu’s face, on that Jeanne did not miss.

“I see...” The pair only in a single move had shown their strengths, such teamwork and trust. But there was a clear reliance upon one, and a desire to be recognized on the other. Years of watching her daughters work in pairs to show the same thing, one wishing for praise for the more reliable one. 

Dropping to the ground, the air proving to be dangerous with how in tune the two were, knowing she had to keep both Aiharu and Haya in her vision at the same time. Bringing her hands together to her chest, a deep inhale before a sickening magic warped around her hands.

Stabbing her sword into the ground she swung her hands outwards towards her backside, forcing both Haya and Aiharu to move further front and center. But her aim wasn’t entirely to try and hit each woman, in one small sense it was to move them to Jeanne’s front, but the other reason would soon reveal itself.

Jeanne’s attacks spreading wide, cutting into the two Northern buildings, crashing into their superstructure before the buildings started to crumble towards the south. 

“Aiharu over here!” Quickly Haya beckened Aiharu towards her, changing both swords to wind as the tall buildings collided with their southern sisters, held up by the southern pair as dusts started to flood into the streets. With a heave Haya’s wind would blow it all back, but the debris starting to fall would begin narrowing the field of battle, and the field of view Jeanne had to use.

“I get it.” Jeanne drew her blade from the ground and began slowly walking towards Haya and Aiharu. “I see it, silver haired woman. Aiharu, I see now.” Tapping her blade against her hand, the blonde’s eyes widened as she focused on Aiharu.

“You’re the weakest link, but not because you’re weak..” There was simultaneously a sickening grin forming on Jeanne’s face, and a worried expression forming on Haya’s.

Changing her posture, Haya’s elemental like blades, formed into solid energy. The ponytail wearing woman focused a stern look on Jeanne before speaking. “Aiharu, we’re going to take her down. Just like the Queen, be ready.”

Haya’s words meant not to mask over what Jeanne might have to say, the bait Jeanne had left, but to focus Aiharu on the task at hand. If Jeanne were to unearth or prod at things, Haya knew she could handle it after, but right now they needed focus.

Swords before her, Haya leaned forward, and in a flash she would be right upon Jeanne. Surprising even the blonde witch as blades clashed, Haya’s twin sword style beginning rapidly to overwhelm Jeanne, the solid blades clashing as each swing held its own magically attuned feeling, its own empowerment that rung out.

The vibrations causing the two leaning buildings to begin to crumble more into the southern pair. Every step forward of Haya’s, was one lost of Jeanne’s. The witch ejecting crystal shards into the air, only to be met with a swift change of one of Haya’s blades to an element to meet it. 

Matching each other blow for blow, like mirrors of the same mind, yet Haya’s seemed to be winning for the witch lacked the intensity she would of normally had. On top of it, Haya’s attacks began to double, every swing felt like two, like a second set of arms was swinging down, clashes of fire, ice, wind and rock. 

It was not that Jeanne was weak, but this Haya was stronger, far stronger than others, and she had experience. She was not a naive woman, she was not an older mom out of her element. She was only a few years off being the savior of her world, and with her support just behind her, preparing their sure kill attack, Haya had nothing to fear.

Every move of hers seemed to be a step ahead of Jeanne’s, every spell met with something to counter it, every attempt at an incantation or a gate to re-position, interrupted or shattered by a cleansing swing. Flower petals scattering from Haya’s attacks, whirled up by wind as they started to cut the witch before her.

Of course, it was not like Jeanne’s attacks weren’t nothing, they hurt, swings that echo’d lashing magic onto Haya cut and scratched her up, much to the focusing Aiharu’s dismay. Yet she pressed on.

With a quick strike at the center, forcing Jeanne to parry the sole blade, only for the second to sweep it and disarm her, and the second set of swings stabbing down into Jeanne’s thighs. The witch was stopped in her tracks, falling forward to her knees as Haya drove both of the first set of blades past Jeanne’s waist and into the ground. 

The cuts stung, and the first blades immobilized. “Now Aiharu!”

“What? Why didn’t you..” Jeanne of course, wanted Haya to strike more true, to trigger a repelling spell from her heart right into Haya’s, but she didn’t. Instead, the spell would time out, and behind Jeanne the weaker Aiharu appeared. 

The sound of a bell rung, and darkness came over.

Haya was gone, the crumbling buildings were gone, it was just Jeanne in this pitch black. Her legs were still cut, her waist too. She could barely stand, and no healing seemed to be taking place. “What is this place?”

Jeanne frantically looked around till finally she spotted Aiharu in the distance walking towards her, slowly with a knife in hand, and a bell in the other.

“This is my spell.” Aiharu spoke, walking slowly towards Jeanne. “This is how you kill, the unkillable.” Her form got closer and closer, yet Jeanne would only smirk.

“Kill me? How? You?” She drew her sword from the ground, pushing herself barely to her knees before pointing the much larger blade at Aiharu. “With that knife, I’ll show you what mockery of a spell this is!” With some anger Jeanne forced herself to step forward, slashing through Aiharu.

Ding. A bell rang.

Darkness again, Aiharu was back at the same far distance walking towards Jeanne, and Jeanne where she started. Except this time, the right arm that held the sword, would not move. “What is this?!” The witch’s eyes widened, picking the blade with the other hand and forcing herself back up. 

Heaving it onto her shoulder, she made her way to Aiharu to slowly approached. Without words, Jeanne cut through Aiharu again.

Ding. A bell rang.

A third time the darkness sank in, now Jeanne’s left foot wasn’t loving, it was numb, dead, as if it wasn’t even there anymore.

And once more, Aiharu approached, slowly with a knife and bell in hand. “Its over for you witch, these cycles are your end.”

Ding. A bell rang.

Jeanne had once more hoisted the blade up to cut Aiharu down, extending its reach with an ice spike. Yet now, The entire left leg would not work, and Aiharu seemed to be approach faster this time around.

“So this is how it goes? A ding, I lose my body, and you come to kill me?” Jeanne asked, expecting no answer and getting none. She had no idea how many times this would repeat, but three rings was already too worrisome to deal with.

Rolling onto her butt, Jeanne formed a spear of crystal. So long as her hand words, she could impale Aiharu before she ever reached her. But that meant sooner or later, her arms would fail, and that knife would reach her. There was no better time then to pry into what she had felt before.

Into affection, and the familiar mindset of a woman struggling, with love. “Its not real you see?” Jeanne sat back, welcoming Aiharu’s advance.

Ding. The fourth ring.

Her other leg went limp, useless, gone. But Aiharu had been impaled and they were reset, only this time Aiharu’s face was showing more emotion than before. Worry, and a little bit of confusion.

“You’re a team you two? Yet you’re the one that has to kill and end it right? You’re the one that has to be dirty, yet she basks in all the glory? She always does you know? And you’re never there.” Jeanne started to pry at the girl’s insecurity, “like a child you’re brought along but she never looks at you like you do to her does she?”

Ding. The fifth ring.

The time it took Aiharu to get to her was shorter again, but none the less she was impaled. Jeanne’s neck gave out on her now, slumping back awkwardly but able to direct her gaze at Aiharu.

“Its not real..” Jeanne added, “those dreams you have, the fantasies, the feeling of mutual love and respect. Its not real.. those eyes she gave me, of focus, neutral duty, she gives you those. You’re a partner, a pawn. But you are never HER to Haya.” The witch giggled, more and more she spoke, yet Aiharu did not answer. Despite this however, her visage, starting to look pained with concern was more telling than any words could ever be.

“Every world I’ve seen. You are NEVER at her side.”

The witch’s words stung, but Aiharu pressed on, she approached, locked to her spells own rules, and Jeanne’s attack pierced her. The girl falling backwards mumbling to herself, “Its not.. true.. two.. more.”

Ding. The sixth ring.

Jeanne’s upper left arm gave away but her wrists could still paint what she needed for a lance. She was safe, but two more? The words kept with her. “She can’t love you like you want her two, she never looks at you like that. You’re always watching from behind, always holding her back, and she knows it.” 

“You should never be forced to be here but you are, alone against a scary foe.” Jeanne added, her tongue trying to twist words into a young woman’s fractured mentality. 

Ding. The seventh ring.

Jeanne’s body was a mess now, she could only speak but she couldn’t protect herself anymore. Hearing Aiharu’s footsteps approach, the girl standing over top of her, conflicted and confused, she gripped the knife so she could plunge it into Jeanne’s soul and kill her.

Only, the witch had one more set of words for her. “Its a fantasy, a dream, you live beside her but she doesn’t see you. You come from different worlds I bet, only met because of one tiny reason. And now she drags you along, and you barely keep up..”

Aiharu brought the knife down but hesitated upon hearing Jeanne’s words.

“That’s not true! There’s something between us, there’s..” Plunge, a piercing feeling battered through the body and red poured out.

But it was not Jeanne’s blood, the witch’s body producing one last set of crystal spikes all around her, jamming into Aiharu’s body as she had hesitated too close to the witch. Coughing, the darkness was still all around them.

Laughing, Jeanne’s body returned to her, all that feeling came back as she set her hands on Aiharu’s head. “IT IS TRUE. LET ME SHOW YOU BEFORE YOUR SPELL UNWINDS.”

The blonde placed her hands on Aiharu’s head, the girl bleeding with spikes all through as Jeanne forced Aiharu to witness every single world where Aiharu was either never there, dead, or evil. 

The darkness around them shattered, returning them to the moment before. Haya’s swords were retracted, Aiharu was holding Jeanne, forehead to forehead.

There was moment as Haya looked up, smiling. “Aiharu you-!”

BGM

A crunching sound as a red charged blade stabbed through Haya’s stomach, toppling her over as Jeanne placed her hands on Aiharu’s head, the crying girl buckling under the pressure.

“You are nothing, look at what you did. You got wrapped up in your emotions, you let her down. You killed her again, you’re why she never wins, like Makoto you’re both so useless.” The memories of many visions of Jeanne’s were being forced into Aiharu’s mind before pushing the girl back.

Aiharu screamed as she fell to the ground, her image of reality shattering, what she believed in on the brink of shattering forever as Jeanne raised her blade. 

“Ahh this has been fun, you two really are, a wonder when you’re actually together, such lies and hate. Usage of circumstances, monsters really! Now, its time to die.” Blade targeting Aiharu first, crushing down only to meet metal again.

BGM

“You’re wrong.” Haya stood, pushing back against Jeanne’s attack, the second set of arms slicing inwards in an attempt to cut Jeanne as she was forced away. Quickly Haya followed her, letting up no pressure despite her wounds. “Aiharu was never holding me back.” 

Jeanne grimaced, deflecting vigorous attacks as once more Haya’s own determination started to sicken her. “What!?”

“Aiharu is the picture perfect symbol of love and affection, it was me holding her back. Aiharu! For so long we’ve fought, we’ve had our troubles. Every day since we left school, since we started this crusade to save the world. I was always scared.” Sword clashed and clanged, Haya’s pressure was growing and growing despite her body weakening. Soon Jeanne would be able to turn the tides, but not yet.

“I was afraid! Afraid of losing you, afraid of making a mistake, afraid of letting you do anything more. But, you always won. You were always there, Aiharu! I’m not the real hero, I’m not the guardian of Furuzuki. You are, you’re the strongest magical girl to ever exist.”

Haya drove her swords forever, Jeanne parrying them downward to disarm here before countering with a deadly blow. Falling backwards, she spun towards the ground before finding herself in someone’s arms.

Looking up, Haya placed her hand on Aiharu’s cheek as red scattered from the sky down upon them. Jeanne’s anger reaching a boiling point as she rained spikes down on the two. “You’re the one I love Aiharu. See? You were never, anything less than perfect.”

Leaning over Haya, Aiharu’s true magical form shined even as they were rained down upon with brutal spikes. Piercing both, Haya’s hand running across Aiharu’s cheeks as they set their heads together.

“Senpai! I.. I love you!” Aiharu cried, gasping out red as they suffered together.

“No crying. We have a job to do right?” Haya held them close. “I love you Aiharu, this witch and her lies. Let’s prove her wrong, the way only we can.”

Irritated, Jeanne held her hand up high, charging a red lightning ball that started to rip through everything, breaking apart the toppled buildings, forcing the southern pair of buildings to fall as well. “Enough!”

“You’ll both die then!”

With a heave, she sent the cursed lightning into the ground atop the two. A rippling explosion echo’d through the city, windows shattering for miles, people watching so so far off were blown over and eardrums burst. 

Yet, as the dust settled. The fight was far from over.

From the dust, one person remained. Silver and red hair, a mixture of their magical forms. Their magic itself, intertwined, bound together forever. “We will not allow you to trample over the hearts of these people, we will not allow you to trample across galaxies harming any more of us.”

Looking skywards, Jeanne’s disgust only heightened, teeth grinding as her in-took all the eldritch energy she could. “Disgusting, disgusting. What sort of love is that? That leaves two forever corrupt as one? Disgusting.”

The combined two decided on a name. Aiwa. Looking up to Jeanne, Aiwa formed a twin blade in their hand, and with a push rocketed themselves airborne. One strike, cutting right through Jeanne’s arm, loping the thing right off before delivering a kick to the witch. Sending her spiraling into the South West tall building’s wreckage.

“Evil incarnate, that is what you are. Misguided maybe? Lost? Perhaps. Salvation? Does it exist for you? It does not matter. But what we can do in our short time, is ensure two things.” Hands clasped together, the twinblade stuck into the ground before them as they enchanted each palm.

Jeanne rose from the debris, a horrifying mess, black ooze leaked from her face, red magic spewed all over the ground, crystals began forming all over yet Aiwa remained focused.

Prepared, two seals, one on each hand. They waited for Jeanne to raise her weapon before dashing forward, in a blink they were inside Jeanne’s guard.

“Haya is kind, loving, she is too soft. This palm, a seal!” The left slammed into Jeanne’s chest, leaving a seal on her soul. “You will never be able to kill another Haya again, never another Aiharu, you cannot!”

And the right palm struck. “Aiharu is merciless, too harsh. She acts impulsively, you are banished from Furuzuki, forever. There is no forgiveness.” Both palm melted their seals onto Jeanne’s soul before sending her flying backwards into more debris, the witch stumbling forward to look at Aiwa.

“This isn’t the end, I will..I..” Jeanne stood only to find herself back on her knees, crumpling in pain as her body twisted and deformed, preparing to force her away from this town. From this universe, staring at Aiwa she cursed. “I’LL FIND A WAY, I’LL KEEP KILLING YOU TWO, OVER AND OVER AGAIN!”

Jeanne’s body was wrapped in a light that started to pull her away, eyes filled with rage as Aiwa slowly sat down.

“No, you won’t. Goodbye Jeanne. This will be the last time, you ever meet us.” Aiwa slowly laid back, Jeanne’s body torn away from this reality as she was ejected somewhere else. A world of red water perhaps, as for Aiwa.

She would separate into two once more, not into their magical forms but as two normal woman together.

That night Furuzuki would learn the identity of the two heroines that had helped their city over the last decade, laid to rest together. They would be honored, mourned, and missed.

But they would never be forgotten.

#;;drabble #;;Haya #;;Aiharu #;;Jeanne #might edit in some other BGM recommendations later but the two that are there inspired this #along with honkai chapter 6-4 I believe it is

[themattress]

I made this post last month about the main fixes that should be made to the story of Birth by Sleep in order to make it the best it could possibly be. While I don’t believe the flaws in the stories of the original KH, COM, and even KH2 are as damaging as the flaws in BBS, in the interest of fairness I’ve decided to make a post about what fixes should be made to them.

From Kingdom Hearts:

The World Order - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is a stupid rule. Not only is keeping the existence of other worlds a secret while visiting not the kind of the thing you want to hear in a crossover story, but it’s also a rule that keeps getting broken anyway. In just about every world the heroes visit, someone finds out about other worlds thanks to their presence and/or the presence of the Heartless. Certain residents of worlds become summonable allies for Sora and fight alongside him in other worlds. A group of villains, all from different worlds, are the central antagonists of the story. The Princesses of Heart all come from different worlds and end up banding together. The Beast goes to Hollow Bastion. And let’s not forget everyone in Traverse Town! The World Order is broken left and right, so why does it even exist? It shouldn’t. Other worlds’ existence should be common knowledge.

“The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning” - This line is just nonsense. The Heartless cannot use anyone, they are beings of instinct who cannot think or plan, they only exist to devour hearts and spread darkness everywhere. Maleficent was using them, period. Ansem, the special Heartless who says this line, was the only one using Maleficent.

The Placement of the “Oathkeeper” Scene - The scene where Sora tells Kairi to stay behind because “it’s way too dangerous”, and she gives him the Oathkeeper keychain, is problematic, and it didn’t need to be.  If it was placed in Hollow Bastion, it would make perfect sense - not only would it link to the start of the scene, where Kairi explicitly references her grandmother’s story that was told to her in Hollow Bastion, but End of the World actually IS “way too dangerous” for Kairi. The notion that Hollow Bastion is too dangerous for her is laughable, since not only do Leon, Yuffie and Aerith proceed to leave her behind at Cid’s house and go to Hollow Bastion without any trouble, but the other six Princesses of Heart are also just fine being there! Because the scene is placed in Traverse Town and Kairi isn’t allowed to do something that she really should be allowed to do, it becomes the Franchise Original Sin of sidelining Kairi as a character. And that’s a damn shame, since it’s a great scene otherwise. The manga of all things actually corrected this and placed it at Hollow Bastion where it belongs (even though it made a joke out of it), so why couldn’t the game?

From Chain of Memories:

The Concept of Memory - The central concept of the story is pretty confusing. This game claims that memory, which everyone knows is an aspect of the mind, is actually an aspect of the heart. Apparently so much so that if someone’s memory was erased, their heart would be destroyed. But this doesn’t line up at all with subsequent games - people are constantly getting total amnesia and yet their hearts are just fine. What’s more, the Organization say they have memories of when they were human, except that as Nobodies, they lack hearts, so this should be impossible if memories come from the heart like this game claims they do! Memory should have just been kept as a mental thing, with how one feels about memories being emphasized, since that’s something related to memories were the heart is involved.

That 2nd Repliku Battle - The story gets dragged down by too many battles with the Riku Replica. One could afford to be cut, and it’s easy to choose which one: the second one. There is no reason for this battle to happen; Sora instigates it instead of Repliku, which makes it feel out of place. Repliku should’ve just said what he needed to say and then left.

Reverse/Rebirth - Riku’s story mode should not have been a story mode at all. There is clearly too little material to actually cover a full playable campaign, and the pre-prepared decks, overpowered Dark Mode (and Duel function in RE:COM) and story-less Disney worlds just add to how ridiculously short it is. The story of R/R should have instead been split between unlockable extra playable episodes, with Riku always at a set level where he has an equal chance of winning and losing the necessary battles. They could be unlocked through a New Game + for Sora, which would increase the length of the game’s playtime considerably. 

DiZ as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness - This was a pointless story element for the sake of a “Gotcha!” twist, and not only does it make things needlessly confusing given that the real Ansem, Seeker of Darkness is already in the story, but it makes things even more confusing in KH2 when Riku ends up taking Ansem’s form and is stuck with it even though DiZ wasn’t, and when DiZ is revealed to actually be Ansem and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness to have always been an imposter! Just let DiZ always be DiZ, the story works a lot better that way.

Riku’s Lesson - The lesson Riku learns in R/R is “accept and use the Darkness, it will help you achieve your goals and reunite you with your friends”...which is exactly what he did in the first game and was rightly portrayed as wrong! And then in KH2, it ends up having disastrous consequences for Riku, so apparently it was still wrong!  The lesson Riku should have learned was that he can’t fight the Darkness within himself because that’s acting out of anger, aggression and self-loathing...in other words, it only creates more Darkness. Only light can cast out Darkness, and so he should focus on reclaiming the Light rather than eliminating the Darkness. He doesn’t have to use it, but he does have to accept and tolerate it until it’s gone. 

From Kingdom Hearts II:

The Prologue’s Length - I honestly think the infamous Prologue wouldn’t be nearly as controversial as it is if only it was shorter. A lot of cutscenes and things to do in it seem to be there just for the sake of padding it out. Cut it down by at least an hour and it’d be better.

No Clear Villainous Threat - A big problem KH2′s story has when compared to the first KH is the lack of a clear villainous threat. In the original game, the Heartless and the Disney Villains who commanded them were established as an imminent, world-destroying threat very early on. But here, the Heartless are just threats to people instead of entire worlds, while Pete is dismissed as a complete joke. It falls upon the Nobodies and Organization XIII to present the new threat...but for the longest time, they don’t. It’s just said that “they’re planning something and it’s probably bad”. They are so caught up in being mysterious that they fail to provide a sense of urgency or motivation as to why they should be stopped, or even what exactly they should be stopped from doing. This only changes midway through the game when they finally reveal their big evil plan to capture millions of hearts which Xemnas will use to ascend to godhood. They don’t have to reveal this early on, but they have to be doing something actively dangerous toward the universe in order to justify why Sora needs to fight them.

Underselling Maleficent - When Maleficent is revealed to have been resurrected, it should be a big deal. Pete shouldn’t be a joke anymore since he’s being backed by the sorceress who was the main villain for most of the first game. But instead, this bombshell just gets brushed aside without much fanfare by Sora and his friends. The first visits to Port Royal, Agrabah, Halloween Town and Pride Land would feel less like filler if Maleficent and Pete were treated with the same gravitas as Organization XIII by the narrative and its characters. 

Cloud’s Side Story - It’s stupid, it’s pointless, don’t include it.

Worlds Revisited - A few of the stories in the Worlds Revisited stage of the game could have afforded to be rewritten, but much more importantly, this stage of the game needed to have proper narrative context. Because as it stands, it doesn’t. Sora, Donald and Goofy get clues that explicitly point to them needing to go to Twilight Town, and yet they don’t go there until after the Worlds Revisited stage is over with, and there is no reason given as to why they are revisiting all the worlds beyond “looking for a way to get into the Organization’s world” (again, why not check out Twilight Town for that way!?) They needed a narrative reason for Twilight Town to be blocked off (like, say, that fucking Dreadnought battle station from the Gummi Ship mission before it), and thus a reason for the Worlds Revisited stage of the game to happen (with Sora, Donald and Goofy looking for a gateway around the Dreadnought). They wouldn't find one, of course (Tron would instead unlock a way right through the Dreadnought at the end of the Space Paranoids revisit), but it’d still give a proper reason behind why they’re revisiting the worlds instead of just going to Twilight Town like they were directed to. 

Kairi and Riku - The majority of Kairi’s screentime in this game is in the World That Never Was, and the entirety of Riku’s screentime as Riku is in the World That Never Was. Neither of them are very developed beyond two or three moments, and their personalities feel sadly two-dimensional compared to the orignal game: they are just The Chick and The Lancer respectively. Their roles and their characterizations should have been more fleshed out.

Organization XIII - @ultraericthered made a post about this. Although the Final Mix version of the game fixed a lot of problems with how Organization XIII was handled, there were still improvements that could have been made to make them an even more consistent presence. 

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Chain of Memories #Kingdom Hearts II #Analysis #Opinion #Bad Writing #What Could Have Been #They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot

[officerjennie]

“It’s not you, it’s me…”

               Such a cliché, I know. I considered not putting it in at all. It might seem cruel to you – you, who held my hand firmly through the years, the rough pad of your thumb etching patterns into my skin – to start with an impersonal smack, without first context or reason. I wrote this letter a dozen times, crossing out line after line, reminiscing thoughts of winter nights under the worn, fraying comforter, listening to the fire hiss and crackle behind the chicken wire of our brick fire place, air smelling of fresh pine and rich chocolate, watching the smoking tissue paper turn to black ash and embers, orange and red dancing shadows on beige plaster walls – then removing the words from my life, folding them into small piles in my bottom drawer, slammed shut with a sigh, hidden from view alongside unfinished novels and poems fading away.

               This will never satisfy me. These words look foreign as I write, unable to convey what needs to be, what I wanted to be. If I spent the time, weeks of rough drafting followed by months highlighting phrase after phrase to mark out and improve, I would never finish, and you would never know. And so I settle once more for something less-than, this time out of true necessity. I cannot lead you nor myself on further passed this threshold – though you would follow, as you always have, no matter sunshine nor stormy winds nor light kisses from snowflakes melting on your cold-raw cheeks. Thus, “It’s not you, it’s me…”

I followed my feet to the woods today, the damp, fading autumn leaves pushed into my path, wind blowing hollow through my cheeks – I could taste the cold, my tongue pressed against the sides of my mouth, fighting the urge to bite down and taste blood instead. The trees hung around me, buffering car engines and laughing passengers until my thoughts drowned out the distant distractions. I breathed in grass and creeks, the groan of metal stairs whispering memories to me as I travelled further into who I was, am, will be.

I stepped away from noise pollution and graying buildings to question, to think. Asking “who am I?” seemed to always lead down an empty gravel road, the blackberry briars bare and reaching summer after dark summer, thin branches snapping under worn Walmart flip-flops, splinters and biting bugs invading bell-bottom jeans – those who ask so directly are rarely prepared for the journey, finding the path too harsh to bare.

So I followed my thoughts where they led me, refusing to lead them, thinking of loss and joy, of “I’m not good enough” and “what if a bear eats me?” My mind raw against the wind, lightly touching feelings I didn’t want to know, words I had yet to voice. Tears constricted my throat, and yet I thought, walking further in, tripping on the knarled roots, rough dirt paths seldom trod, gazing deeper into the forest with each solid step towards what I needed to know.

               I found an odd obsessive love for our relationship, rushing back from work in the late afternoon, longing to breathe in your presence. Each second seemed to last, the relaxed heartbeat of my drumming fingers slowed to a lull, tension leaving my body as I simply gave in to desire, allowing you, body and mind, to enter my being fully, consuming my every late hour. Your presence comforted me, stroking my hair in long, slow movements, winding slender fingers around the curls lying blonde across my shoulder blades. Each night ended like the last, our roles never changing, you were unchanging, unaware of the world spinning wild circles around us. Desire turned to habitual understanding, my every day planned weeks in advance, a smiling-sweet clone of the one before it, beautiful and perfect yet strangely never quite right, never quite human enough.

               I wanted you to be good for me. As we laid together every night, your arm wrapped loosely around my waist, chest rising and falling against my back, I would shut my eyes tight, repeating under my breath, “this is how it is. This is how it should be.” But my mind would race and my fingers itched, my heart unable to match your relaxed rhythm.

Wood splinters fell one by one beneath my cracking fingernails, my thumb and index, minds of their own, chipping my sanity away into the dark knots of my desk. Blue dots of ink turned into abstract art on the wrinkled corners of the college rule, the tap-tap-tap of my tennis shoes against the hijacked dining room high-back I sat in, increasing the pace of my agitation.

The flow never just stopped. It ebbed away, trickling out of my mind into the void of my chest, leaving feelings and gut instincts without a medium. I had no voice, my mouth dry, vocal cords rendered from my throbbing throat with vicious, saw-shaped claws, no cure nor end in sight. I fought to scream, fingers scrapping against the skin at my neck, blood running fast and hot, but only blanks were drawn, any muse within site evading my whimpering pleas, sliding past my fingernails, ghosts of what could be. I was lost, and no one even knew to start looking for me.

              It didn’t start this way. For months, you slowed my pace, my thoughts winding down to a standstill, a standoff with my brisk body movements. Once, I welcomed the laxed life, no worry nor pressure, knowing you expected nothing. In time, I would stretch my bored arms, convincing my tireless calves that sitting calm would do them good, would do me good – as you have reminded me so many times.

              But I grew restless – perhaps you never noticed how my foot tapped against your rhythm, how the blank pages on my dusty desk started slowing filling with stuttering thoughts in opposition to this lifestyle. How can you sit even now, with neither music nor pen to pad to hold your attention? I long for hours of focused attention, pouring heart and soul, blood sweeting from my pores – I need to do, to be. You try to calm me when I desire action, running wild with my thoughts on bare forest paths, my thread-bare shoes pounding loose dirt piles, clouds of chocking dust rising like mist, clinging to my pale arms like parasites trying to weigh me down. You would have me stop and rest, daydreaming turning into the end of a journey out – but my sweat wipes me clean, my heart keeping pace with the forests breathing, thoughts clearing with every ragged, forced breath. I need this – and yet you stand in my path, telling me to sit still, fighting against who I am, who I’ve been, and who I’ll always be.

As the weeks went on, I noticed my food came later and later. You opened the cans with less enthusiasm, the scratches behind my ears, back rubs moving my gray-beige patterned hair into odd patterns and angles, somehow soothing me, reassuring me that you were well, that I was loved – these turned to gentle pats and slow huffs of breath, your eyes staring off past my own to the opposite wall, no feeling in the air beyond sad acceptance.

Was it me who changed? I thought hard, bathing and preening away my worries. Even my “bad” habits, sharpening unused claws on fraying arm rests, chasing ghost foes at night, hoping you’d join the fight against the world’s impending doom – all went unnoticed by your dulling gaze, your shooing hands barely touching the air around you. I went on my best behavior, cleaning my face and shaping my nails in designated, appropriate areas. When I felt ill, I noted your concerned glances, felt on my back, came less and less.

Why can I not warm your worries away? I try to show my affection, rumbling in your lap and mewling, padding beside you through the house, hoping your cooing and love will return. Hoping my human will come home from wherever their mind seems to be roaming. Please, come home.

               You are simply not good for me. I have tried again and again, analyzing personality and traits, yet each time I lied to myself. But no matter how your hands sooth me, your voice dulls my senses, sending me into a slumbering state of mind, thoughts unfocused and unclear. I need this freedom, to and wander for hours on end, mind and blood racing through violence, love, peace, wood carving, distant and new memories. I need to let myself out of your cage for good, and to not return the key. Our paths will cross, as our goals are intertwined so deviously, but I will no longer follow you, nor allow you to follow me.

              Do not think poorly of me,

              Sincerely,               A once-lost poet.

I followed my feet to the woods today, sprouts of dandelions and future trees pushed into my path, breeze blowing my hair in warm circles around me. I tasted the air, crushing pine needles between my fingertips, green dye trapped in the creases of my hand, the scent of peppermint tea strong on my breath. Clouds rolled above me, shading the forest here and there, the sun peaking like the waking squirrels from their winter hollows.

My thoughts led me deeper in, a familiar path before me. Each step brought me closer, each dragging breath allowing my mind to clear just that much more. And so I walked past the knarled roots, compact dirt paths beneath my feet, gazing deeper into the forest with each solid step towards what I wanted to be.

#a break up letter to writer's block #formatting is fucked the fuck up on mobile #mywriting #original works #old shit though #shit i wrote in college #poetry #lyric essay

[mrninjapineapple]

Fallout 4 Word Prompts - Patisserie Tank Shamrock Penguin

This is the longest prompt I wrote, which takes place in a utopian AU where all of the factions have made a truce and formed a formal coalition for the good of the Commonwealth. Anyway, enjoy! :D

They passed by the patisserie, arm-in-arm, both smiling at the sweet smell of fresh pastry. They soldiered on however, full after their dinner, and walked past the other shops, soon reaching the end of the pier.

Nate leaned on the railing, Nora resting her head on his shoulder. They both looked out at the ocean, endless waves of midnight blue shining in the moonlight.

‘It’s beautiful’ whispered Nora as she stared up at the pale circle set in the star-studded curtain of deep indigo.

Nate turned to her, his eyes taking in the beauty of her profile, softly silhouetted against the lights of the fairground at the other end of the pier.

‘Yes, it is’ he agreed without following her gaze.

She raised her head to look at him, her expression suddenly bashful. She jostled his arm playfully with a small laugh.

‘You know, you still haven’t told me what all this was about,’ she said, eyeing him suspiciously, smile still on her face. ‘Dancing, a movie, dinner, and now a romantic walk by the sea? If I didn’t know any better, Mr Howard, I’d say you had an ulterior motive for this evening.’

‘You got me,’ he admitted with a chuckle. ‘Not letting that degree go to waste, I see. Can’t get anything past the new hotshot lawyer in town.’

She went to punch him on the arm but he dodged to the side, grabbing her hand as he pulled her against him. They both laughed as Nora gained her bearings once more.

As their laughter slowly faded, Nate leaned in for a kiss, tasting the sweetness from their apple pie dessert on her lips. He pulled away and stared into her piercing, green eyes.

‘I love you,’ he said, barely above a whisper, before lowering himself onto one knee. ‘Nora Elizabeth Murphy…’

Her eyes widened as she realised what was happening.

‘…Will you make me the happiest man in the world?’ he continued, taking a small box from his jacket pocket and opening it up. Inside was a small golden ring, a diamond set neatly in the bezel, glistening in the light as it winked up at her. ‘Will you marry me?’

Nora raised her hands to her mouth, eyes welling at the sight before her. She managed a nod and flung her arms around Nate as he rose, a manic laugh escaping both of their lips through tears of joy.

As they began to kiss, the world shuddered, a ripple running through it like a wave through water. Colour began to drain from the world around them, everything turning cold and grey.

Marcus disengaged the memory lounger, opening the glass pod and sitting up, the experience fresh in his mind. Doctor Amari approached, reading data from the holographic tablet in her hand.

‘Did the memory freeze at the end?’ she asked, a frown creasing her brow.

‘No,’ answered Marcus, squeezing his eyes shut as a familiar ache began just above his left eyebrow. ‘I just… couldn’t remember what happens next. And you’ve told me a thousand times: “A memory can’t be created…”’

‘”…merely recreated,”’ she said, finishing the quote with a small smile. ‘Very well Mr Howard, if you say the equipment is working as intended, then I shall believe you.’

‘How many times, Doc? Call me Marcus.’

The Doctor flashed him a quick grin before turning away.

‘Good night Mr Howard’ she said as she left the room.

Marcus sat on the edge of the memory lounger and exhaled deeply. He hadn’t lied to Doctor Amari, the machine worked perfectly with the new upgrades, but…

I couldn’t remember what happened next.

The thought floated in his mind, alongside the vague trill of Nora’s voice, and the faint odour of her perfume.

Am I forgetting everything from my old life? My wedding, Shaun’s birth… Nora?

He ran a hand through his hair and stood, willing himself on, trying to ignore the hollow pit growing in his stomach.

Leaving the room, he entered the main hall and looked around.

Memory loungers were placed around the edges of the room. Set an equal distance apart from each other, they, along with the clean white walls and floor, gave the room a cold, clinical appearance. They were the original series of lounger, standard pods with no added features.

Doctor Amari had invited him to try the upgraded version, complete with detailed simulations and POV functionality, allowing him to experience the memory from his own point of view. He had also heard whispers of a new type of lounger, created with a large tank of specialised gel to give the user advanced sensory input, but Father had been scarce with the details.

The Memory Den suddenly feeling cramped and stifling, Marcus left through the large double doors, feeling the cool morning air of Goodneighbour soothing his mind. A guard passed him, his features distorted slightly and his skin sagging as if too big for his face.

Must be in the final stages of de-ghoulification.

Marcus dismissed the observation as he continued on, entering the Old State House and leaving the cold behind. He climbed the stairs up to Hancock’s infamous retreat, taking the stairs one at a time for a change, savouring the quiet.

The soft hiss of the decontamination arch greeted him as he stepped through, two guards waving him into the Den.

Through the doors, he could see Hancock posing for a portrait, his signature costume draped over his irradiated body. As Marcus entered, he felt a familiar sense of respect for the ghoul mayor. Despite the fact that a cure for ghoulification had been found, Mayor Hancock had staunchly refused, sticking by the founding philosophy of Goodneighbour and its love of the abnormal members of the Commonwealth – “Of the people, for the people.”

Codsworth, holding a brush tentatively within the mechanical grasp of his claw appendage, made swirls and splatters of colour across the canvas, the blobs of paint eventually coalescing to form an abstract profile of Hancock.

‘There we are, sir!’ exclaimed the Mr Handy bot as he revealed his work. ‘I think you’ll be most pleased.’

Hancock relaxed his pose and stared at the image for a minute, his frown lost amongst the numerous strands of discoloured muscle and cartilage stretched across his forehead.

‘Erm… what is that?’ he asked as politely as he could.

‘Why, sir, it’s a cubist representation of your glorious visage of course’ cried Codsworth, spinning with glee.

Hancock paused for a moment before reaching over and turning down a dial on the side of Codsworth’s body.

‘Sir, what are you…’ the bot began, before his system adjusted to the reduced culture setting. He saw the portrait before him. ‘Oh sir! I do apologise! This childish scrawl was not my intention…’

‘It’s okay, Codsworth,’ replied the ghoul mayor. ‘We can try again tomorrow.’

The Mr Handy bot took that as his cue and hovered out of the room, his eyestalks sagging in dismay at his failed artistic skills.

‘It’s an improvement’ said Marcus with a grin as he entered the room properly, gesturing towards the smeared portrait.

‘Yeah yeah,’ chuckled Hancock. ‘What brings you to Goodneighbour, oh Sniper of Sanctuary? How may I be of assistance?’

Marcus knew that he was aware of his visits to the Memory Den but appreciated the gesture regardless. Nothing happened in Goodneighbour with Hancock knowing.

‘Just helping Doctor Amari before I see to some business for Father,’ he said, noting the way Hancock squirmed at the name. Despite the truce between the factions, the trust of the people was a difficult thing to earn, with many vividly remembering the fear caused by them in years past. ‘You haven’t seen Cait, have you?’

Hancock took off his hat and scratched his head.

‘I think she said something about going over to Nuka-World,’ he said. ‘Something about a… zoo?’

Marcus smiled and left the room, leaving without providing any context. He left the Old State House and went to the tall building opposite the entrance to the Third Rail, walking through the automatic door and proceeding through another set of decontamination arches.

The interior of the foyer was well-furnished and neat, with an almost militaristic precision to the arrangement of the furniture. A large sign was hung on the wall before him, the words ‘Teleportation Hub: Goodneighbour Station’ clearly emblazoned across.

He allowed himself a smile as he thought about the pristine building, built and maintained by the Coalition; the formalised name for the alliance between the Commonwealth’s main four factions. Ever since he had negotiated peace, the Commonwealth had flourished under the rule of the Coalition.

Each faction had an accepted role within the makeshift government, under the main leadership comprised of the highest ranked members of each faction along with Marcus himself. The Brotherhood were the military, using their might to crush various raider groups and super mutant hordes. They also donated their top scientists to the Institute’s research branch, whose main focus was the scientific development of the new world.

The Minutemen, being a well-respected militia, were the perfect candidates for a police force, settling disputes and guarding settlements, both large and small. The final faction – the Railroad – helped wherever they could, with their best field agents joining both the Brotherhood and Minutemen, and their scientists aiding the scientific pursuits of the Institute. The main role of the Railroad however, was integral to the success of the Coalition, as they were responsible for opening trade routes, communication lines, and scouting settlements across the Commonwealth.

Marcus was broken out of his reverie as a synthetic receptionist greeted him, rising from the chair behind the desk as she asked him if he required assistance. He held up a hand, politely declining, and watched as she receded back into her seat, a smile on her face as she continued her paperwork.

Focused on his task once more, he entered a set of double doors to the right of the desk and followed the signs pointing him to the Nuka-World teleporter. He stepped onto the raised dais and felt a short pulse of energy before a deafening thunderclap sounded and the world went dark.

‘Your ears still ringin’?’ asked Cait as she placed another glass of whiskey in front of Marcus. In truth, the chipped tumbler held a noxious brown liquid reminiscent of the whiskey he once knew but Cait would take no excuses.

He downed the pungent concoction and winced as the fire made its way down his throat like shards of burning glass.

‘Smooth’ he croaked, before words failed him and he devolved into a small coughing fit. Cait remained oblivious however, pouring a glass for herself as she sat opposite him.

‘So… what brings you to my neck of the wasteland?’ she asked in her Irish lilt. ‘You don’t come around Nuka-World unless you have to…’

She fixed him with a knowing glare, a small smile playing on her lips, reminding Marcus of her keen intelligence. He remembered when he had first met her as a lost and lonely drug addict in the Combat Zone, fighting for her next fix of Jet. After he helped her to break her addiction, he wasn’t sure whether she would have the strength to resist the almost inevitable relapse.

Looking around, he was in awe of her resilience. Not only had she resisted but she had thrived, taking a part of the recently cleared Nuka-World as her own and transforming it into a quaint market town; not unlike the Irish quarter of the Boston he once knew.

‘Just thought I’d stop by and see how the zoo was coming along,’ he answered, his mind returning to reality. ‘Besides, I don’t need a reason to come visit, do I?’

It was his turn to flash a grin as she drained her glass.

‘Best be careful,’ she said. ‘Don’t want poor Piper to get the wrong idea… or the right one.’

She stared into his eyes from across the table… before they both devolved into a fit of laughter. As Marcus wiped his eyes, he felt a rush of affection for her. Piper would always have his heart but when it came to friends, there was nobody he would rather have at his side than Cait.

‘Come on, best get a move on,’ she continued, mirroring his own action as she wiped her eyes. ‘Cito and Curie should still be there.’

She pressed a button on her armband and Marcus saw the words “TRANSPORT EN ROUTE” flash across the small screen. With that, they left the saloon, both of them shading their eyes from the harsh noonday sun. Entering the wide street, they found themselves flanked by stores of every kind, with vendors selling their wares to passers-by and each building flying the same shamrock banner.

‘The town has certainly flourished’ thought Marcus as they passed a group of people who waved and smiled at Cait, with one even cheering her.

‘You seem to be popular’ he said, flashing another grin.

She brushed off the compliment absent-mindedly but he noticed a swell of pride as she quickened her pace alongside.

Reaching the transit station at the edge of the town, they boarded the waiting Corvega – The Red Rocket – and travelled to the large zoo facility of Safari Adventure. The ride over was brief but Cait regaled Marcus with news and tales from her time away from the Commonwealth.

Stepping out of the car, Marcus was in awe of the progress the Coalition had made. The structure of Safari Adventure remained the same, with large pre-war signage and walled perimeter, but the Institute and Brotherhood workers had erected large-scale renovations, adding entire sections and wings to the antiquated theme park area. Above the walls, a large glass dome covered the facility.

There was a hiss as the electronic doors parted as they entered and Marcus found himself stifled by the artificial humidity in the dense overgrowth. Plants and trees had been given free reign within the enclosure and had flourished, with vines creeping over almost every surface aside from the pristine pathway.

High above them, the pair could see the glistening light of the dome filtered through the canopy. A flash of red zipped past a nearby tree and a loud caw sounded.

‘What are those things?’ asked Cait in wonderment, staring after the red streaks through the trees.

‘Parrots’ Marcus answered with a smile, remembering the time he had seen the pre-war creatures at a local fair.

Together, they made their way along the winding path, passing lush vegetation full of life. With each step, the artificial biomes seemed to open up further, giving way to enclosed expanses of thick forestry, murky swampland, and arid desert; each with their own plants and creatures.

Reaching the end of the pathway, they made their way down a long flight of stairs, eventually emerging within a large subterranean structure, with thick metal pillars holding up the ceiling. As they walked through a doorway, they found themselves in a small room with a large machine dominating the space.

The cloning machine was an eight foot tube anchored to both the ceiling and the floor, connected to a small array of electrical equipment and machinery. Standing at one of these terminals, Curie smiled and waved them over as she finished making her adjustments.

‘Monsieur Marcus!’ she exclaimed as she drew him into an embrace, kissing his cheek before letting him go.

‘Curie,’ he said, flashing a smile. ‘How have you been?’

‘Tres bien!’ she replied excitedly. ‘I have been-‘

‘Eh?!’ interrupted Cait, staring pointedly at Curie as she flung her arms out wide. ‘Where’s my hug?’

‘Oh Cait, you make me laugh’ said Curie, offering a quick peck on the cheek.

‘Not bad I guess,’ shrugged Cait. ‘Where’s that hunk of meat you normally have hangin’ round?’

Curie looked puzzled for a moment, before a small smile spread across her face.

‘Cito? He is in the generator room I think. He-‘

Without waiting for her to finish, Cait had left through another doorway.

‘She is an odd one, non?’ said Curie, turning back to Marcus.

‘That’s one word for her,’ he laughed. ‘I almost feel sorry for poor Cito. He has no idea what’s about to hit him.’

‘I do not think that Madame Cait intends to attack him’ said Curie, wearing a confused expression.

‘It’s a metaphor, Curie,’ replied Marcus, chuckling at her blank stare. ‘So how goes the work?’

He gestured to the machinery around them and her eyes lit up with joy. Not for the first time, Marcus found himself admiring the life-like nature of her artificial body as he felt his face grow warm.

Curie didn’t seem to notice however, as she launched into a tirade about her work. Marcus caught a few words in the jumble but before he knew what was happened, she had grabbed his wrist and was leading him through a long hallway, glass enclosures stretching down both sides.

They passed lizards and other reptiles in their rocky habitats, big cats and large apes, bears and wolves, and all manner of different creatures. Curie continued leading him, offering insightful titbits of information about the animals.

She stopped in front of a glass panel and cleared her throat before starting her spiel.

‘This enclosure holds a group of-‘

‘Penguins!’ cried Marcus, staring in amazement at the stumpy little creatures waddling around the enclosure.

A look of irritation at the interruption flickered across Curie’s face for a second before she regained her composure.

‘Oui. Emperor penguins to be precise. The tallest and heaviest species of penguin, they were once found across the vast tundra region known as Antarctica.’

Marcus couldn’t hear her however, as he stared absent-mindedly into the artificial habitat. Another memory had surfaced from his pre-war life; a time where at the start of their relationship, Nate and Nora had visited a local fair. Wandering through the open area, they had spied a zoo and were meandering around the menagerie when Nora spotted the penguins.

Small fat creatures, they stood awkwardly nibbling at the iron bars of the cage in a sense of bewilderment, running at every loud child that walked past. A group were huddled together in the centre of the enclosure, warbling in affection with flat, expressionless eyes.

‘It’s so sad,’ Nora had said suddenly, her eyes never leaving the cage and the creatures within. ‘They don’t even understand where they are. They can’t fly away. There’s no ice, no snow. Nothing they can recognise… except each other.’

A baby penguin escaped the huddle and bobbed over to the bars, peering up with half-open eyes. Nora crouched, reaching out her hand to caress the chick’s head, smiling as the curious infant buried its face in her fingers.

It had only been the beginning of their relationship but for Nate, it was all he needed to know. In that moment, he knew that Nora would be the only one for him.

An image of Piper flashed across his mind and he jerked back instinctively.

In his reverie, he hadn’t noticed that Curie had sidled up beside him.

‘Another memory?’ she asked gently, resting a hand on his shoulder. He nodded. ‘It is difficult to lead two lives, Monsieur. Adjusting to human life has been… a struggle. But you must not hold on to the past.’

He began to reply but Curie continued.

‘You are no longer the man you were. Oui?’ she asked. Again, he nodded. ‘That is why you are now Marcus and not Nate. You have to let go.’

He looked at her for a moment before lowering his head, a sad smile on his face. She had grown so much as a person, he couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride for her.

‘Thank you Curie,’ he said quietly before perking up slightly. ‘I’m sorry I ruined your tour.’

‘It is no problem, we can continue another time,’ she replied. Her brow furrowed as she struggled to formulate her next thought. ‘I do not like to see… a friend in pain.’

Once more, he remembered the emotionless Miss Nanny bot he had met so long ago and couldn’t help but smile. He pulled her into a firm embrace and was glad of the companions he had gained during his time in the Commonwealth.

‘Come on,’ he said eventually, letting go with a sly grin. ‘Let’s go save what’s left of Cito.’

#MNP OC Marcus #MNP fallout 4 word prompts #fallout 4 #writing #prompt #longpost

[allthecanadianpolitics]

When word emerged of Justin Trudeau’s keynote speech to a German audience this week, one could have been forgiven for checking whether the clock had been turned back two years.

It’s not long ago that Trudeau built an electoral campaign around the claim that he intended to turn hope and hard work into real change. And on that front, a speech aimed at challenging inequality, precarity and atomization would have fit well with Trudeau’s message on the stump.

But that was before he had the spoils of incumbency to use as his primary source of political capital. We’re now in a position to judge whether Trudeau’s words have translated into action — and the contrast between his claimed values and his actions in office is jarring.

It’s well and good for a leader to lament the erosion of public trust in civic institutions, and to highlight the importance of rebuilding it.

But it’s rather less convincing for Trudeau to raise that theme so soon after summarily scrapping his core promise of electoral reform — particularly when he did so without any coherent explanation other than his own naked self-interest.

It’s for the best if opportunities to speak to an international audience include some discussion of the imbalance in power between employers and workers.

But that message rings hollow coming from a leader who has actively fought against a more fair minimum wage, and who hasn’t made any apparent effort to address the rise of precarious work while he’s held power. (Indeed, the Liberals still haven’t bothered to follow through on undoing the targeted attacks on labour rights implemented in the dying days of the Harper government.)

And it’s fine to speak about the importance of collective responsibility and inclusive policy-making. But the context of Trudeau’s assertion of that principle could hardly have been more tone-deaf.

Trudeau’s primary public message during his European visit has been an attempt to peddle the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: a typical business-friendly deal, negotiated behind closed doors by corporate tycoons to favour their own interests, then presented to the public as an inevitability. And the anticipated effects of the CETA include little impact on overall economic development, but a distinct shift in the economic playing field to further favour the people who already wield disproportionate wealth and power.

So while lamenting an “us vs. them” mindset, Trudeau is going out of his way to exacerbate existing inequalities.

With that in mind, Trudeau’s speech reeks of a patronizing sense of noblesse oblige, rather than any genuine effort to account for the needs of people who don’t enjoy the same privilege as the ballroom full of politicians who heard his self-congratulatory ramblings.

Of course, none of this is particularly new for Trudeau’s party. With rare exceptions linked to political opportunism, the Liberals have always defaulted toward favouring the cloistered few over the citizenry at large. And upon taking an artificial majority in 2015, Trudeau and company immediately reverted to form — discarding any pretence of remediating inequality as a core goal, along with most of their promised policies which could have improved matters.

When it comes to earning and maintaining public trust, then, Trudeau is precisely the problem, not any part of the solution.

As a result, Trudeau’s attempt to brand himself as a voice for the collective interest ultimately serves only to highlight his utter failure to pursue it in practice. And Canada’s best chance for the future is that the hope wasted on a cynical machine politician in 2015 can be redirected toward actually achieving the goals he’s discarded since taking power.

Fingas is a Regina lawyer, blogger and freelance political commentator who has written about provincial and national issues from a progressive NDP perspective since 2005. His column appears every week.

#income inequality #classism #Justin Trudeau #LPC #Cdnpoli #Canadian news #Canadian Politics #Canada #news

[mattrants]

SONA2017: At least we have the EFF

If you just listened to or read Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address in complete contextual isolation, you would see a pretty normal political speech. JZ Oration does not inspire enthusiasm, but in general this was a pretty normal speech. It quoted ANC stalwarts, it touched on all the major areas of South African politics - mining, education, jobs, the economy, housing, electricity, land. On the surface, there seems to be much to like about a lot of the points made and the policies proposed. Most of the policies were along very similar lines to what the DA proposed a few days ago. It all seems normal and fine. As soon as you add the context though, the speech changes in meaning almost entirely. Zuma's speech was delayed by more than an hour by the EFF, energetically proposed points of order as a means to point out many of issues hanging over the president and the ANC. Regardless of what you think of their tactics, it should be hard to shrug off their statements around the illegitimacy of Zuma - he may be the leader of a party democratically elected, but there is so much controversy around him, that it seems insane that the party can still support him. As Malema pointed out, just because the ANC majority Parliament steamrolled the Votes of No Confidence against Zuma, does not mean that he is innocent or that people have confidence in him. The Constitutional Court has ruled that Zuma broke his oath of office, and chastised Parliament for neglected their duty around Nkandla., a fact that the EFF continually made, and a point that adds huge credibility to their cries of the President's illegitimacy. In fact, the continuous support of Zuma in the face of the myriad misdeeds - Nkandla, Guptas, the Public Protectors Report, the Constitutional Court Rulings - is indicative of how far the ANC has fallen into kleptocratic cronyism and patronage politics. That Zuma has gotten away with all of this without even chastisement is appalling. I have come to appreciate the fight the EFF are making - their bravery in the face of the increased security presence is admirable, and their tactics are working to disrupt the sham event that SONA has become in the age of Zuma. That it is a sham can no longer be denied. The increased security and the use of the army is a frightening turn in our democracy, the violent removal of the EFF was shocking, as was the ensuing violence outside of parliament. And for Zuma to proceed with his bland platitudes after that violence is bad, but for him to chuckle along to jokes about teargas is fucking appalling. To then start his speech with talk of unity is just batshit crazy. Zuma then proceeded to quote Oliver Thambo in reference to economic emancipation, powerful words, made bitter and ironic by a man who has sought to enrich himself and his cronies to the extent of Billions of Rands. There were things said between the lines that are equally terrifying. When Zuma says "The manner in which parties conducted and carried themselves during the wage negotiations in the platinum sector in particular, must be applauded.", it's hard not to hear an implied threat against platinum miners who do not conduct themselves in a manner that pleases Zuma. The fact that there is still no accountability for Marikana is a blight on this government and country. Then there is the reality to many of the nice policies laid out. A minimum wage has been agreed, and that is great, but by all accounts, that wage is below a living wage and will just serve to create indentured wage slaves. Zuma also praised the "unity" in getting the minimum wage agreed on, but this is an illusion - COSATU itself has been critical of the level of the wage. The President congratulated the government on avoiding ratings downgrades, the threat of which has largely come from Zuma's handling of the Nene firing, the consistent attacks on the autonomy of treasury, and the continued aura of corruption. Government helping everyday people escape the consequences of government failings is not something to be celebrated. It also ignores the fact that SA has been downgraded twice during Zuma's presidency. All the talk of using state buying power to improve the lot of black owned businesses also rings hollow when we know that Zuma and his ilk are abusing those very same mechanism for personal enrichment. The sham pomp and ceremony, the glossing over of the very real dissent, the complete unwillingness to even acknowledge the rotten position of the President is stunning, and coupled with the increased securitization of parliament, the militarization of the police and security forces, the censure of opposition parties, and the anger and vitriol (and racism) directed towards opposition parties, paints a bleak picture of the state of South African democracy. We cannot avoid the context, no matter how hard the ANC to pretend it doesn't exist. The real state of the nation was evident everywhere except in the words of the president.

#SONA2017

[tobiologist]

some place real

Hunk/Lance // canon compliant // stargazing // 1.5k // sfw

Summary: 'The stars you can see from here? This isn’t the same sky. The chirping sounds aren’t coming from crickets or cicadas either, and of course there aren’t any frogs. I can’t even imagine what the animals are like. I’ve only seen those weird cat-hedgehog creatures so far. And, Lance, this-“ he tugs at the ground- “this? It’s purple.’

or: Lance and Hunk have a mostly serious conversation about what “home” really means to them

Maybe Lance is too picky.

The grass beneath his fingers feels smooth, spindly wisps of violet bursting from the ground. The forest stretches out below the hillside and plumes of pink treetops stretch for miles. Animals of some sort chirp and hum, creating a backdrop much like cicadas and frogs on a summer night. A breeze ruffles the sleeves of Lance’s jacket.

And although every detail is familiar… it’s not the same.

>>READ THE REST ON AO3<<

Lance is content to sit here, under the stars. It’s always nice to see them from the ground rather than the inside of a ship. He likes it and wants, more than anything, for it to alleviate the homesickness sinking in his gut like a lead weight. But, no matter how many times he closes his eyes and tries to pretend, it doesn’t change a damn thing.

“Dude, was I right about the view from up here or what?” At his side, Hunk tugs Lance’s thoughts away from dangerous territory.

“Yeah,” Lance answers and immediately winces. Hunk has known him long enough to see through his bullshit. He puts on his most convincing smile and turns, “Yeah, it really is. I’m glad you brought me up here.”

Hunk hesitates and, for a horrifying second, Lance thinks he’s going to call him out. But he carries on, keeping his gaze focused overhead. “No problem. Pidge staked this spot out like the first night we were here, and now I can totally see why. It reminds me of… it kind of reminds me of back home.”

Lance flinches. There it is.

“Remember when we were younger and used to sneak out to the park? Because we didn’t want our moms to know we were out past curfew but wanted to look at the stars anyway? With your book about constellations?” Hunk’s tone is wistful, nostalgic. Lance remembers those nights all too well. “Man, I wish I still had that telescope. It was awesome.”

“Your dad took it with him,” Lance recalls. The thought of Hunk’s dad makes his skin crawl; he was never a big fan. “He took it when he left. Which made, like. Absolutely no sense. Why would a guy like him need that telescope?”

“Eh, it’s fine. He was a dick, that’s all there is to it. I guess he needed the money. And at least you had one, too.”

“True.” Lance drags out the u, glancing down at his feet. “Best birthday present ever. My older sister was- is a blessing.”

Our families are still alive. I shouldn’t be talking about them in the past tense like they’re not.

Hunk laughs, as if he doesn’t notice the misstep in Lance’s words, and shakes his head. The space around them goes silent. The lull in conversation isn’t awkward, though. Lance always enjoys his talks with Hunk for exactly this reason. Moments that should feel weird instead feel… comfortable. Natural. He supposes their relationship is just like that- as easy as breathing.

“This isn’t Earth,” Hunk mutters.

Lance chances a glance at Hunk. The uncharacteristic expression on his face twists Lance’s insides, coiling into painful knots. He expects Hunk to stop, but, surprisingly, he carries on.

“The stars you can see from here? This isn’t the same sky. The chirping sounds aren’t coming from crickets or cicadas either, and of course there aren’t any frogs. I can’t even imagine what the animals are like. I’ve only seen those weird cat-hedgehog creatures so far. And, Lance, this-“ he tugs at the ground- “this? It’s purple.”

Lance stares down into his lap.

“The grass is- it’s not green. It’s purple.” Hunk lets out another laugh, but this one comes out shaky, hollow. It isn’t like Hunk.

Without hesitation, Lance rests his hand over Hunk’s, lying between them. Lance curls his fingers and marvels at how warm the point of contact is. Hunk has always seemed warm to him. His personality, his sense of humor- it’s what made him so special. Lance still can’t believe he managed to befriend someone as genuinely kind and smart as Hunk.

Hunk scoffs. “You’re pretty smart, too. You know that, dude, you have to.”

Oh God. Had he really just- Awesome. Good job, Lance. He’d spoken out loud. Leave it to his own mouth to betray him like that. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Um, I- thanks, buddy,” Lance mutters, suddenly self-conscious.

“Actually… this is going to sound super cheesy. And I’m worried you’ll make fun of me so, uh. Can you please promise me you won’t laugh?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.” Lance pauses. “Wow, okay, maybe not die. That can actually happen now, what with the whole ‘fighting aliens from inside giant space lions’ thing. Cross my heart and hope to… lose to Keith! Yeah, that works.”

Hunk chuckles, and Lance can’t help but smile. That’s more like it. That’s a real Hunk laugh. I did that.

I made him laugh like that.

“Alright, alright, fine. I trust you.” Hunk takes a deep breath. Lance glances over and marvels at the light flush dusting Hunk’s cheeks. He can’t remember the last time he’s seen Hunk blush. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. You know I don’t usually get homesick, right?”

“Yeah, not as much as you used to. Proud of you, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Hunk says and Lance can almost swear his cheeks get pinker. “But I think I figured out why I’ve been improving.”

“Ah, yes. Better food? Eating green goo for every meal would make anyone long for the sweet release of death. Especially when you compare that gloppy stuff to your mom’s cooking…”

“Lance.”

“Oh, oh, wait! I’ve got it! Helping me tease Keith? I was so glad when you joined in. My list of ‘mullet’ and ‘samurai’ nicknames wouldn’t even be half as long without your he-“

“Lance, seriously,” Hunk warns.

“I’m just kidding, geez. Alright, what is it?”

Hunk looks torn between explaining himself and dropping the issue. Lance feels about two inches tall, thinking he’s the reason Hunk would shy away from a serious answer. Is he really that scared to tell me? They’ve known each for years; if there’s anyone Hunk can be honest with, it’s Lance.

“You,” Hunk eventually finishes, voice barely more than a whisper.

Everything goes quiet. One single word, that’s all it takes. It hangs there, charged and full of hesitance, and Lance has trouble processing Hunk’s response at first. He and Hunk are friends, sure, and best friends at that. But…

Lance has never really felt special. The way Hunk explains it, straightforward, with red-tinged cheeks. It’s hard to grasp the concept. The reason Hunk doesn’t get homesick… is Lance?

“Me,” Lance repeats uncertainly.

“I mean… yeah.”

“Huh.”

“Other than Pidge, you’re the only person I knew well before getting sucked into this whole mess,” Hunk rushes to explain. “But I’ve known you since we were little, you know? We lived on the same street, went to the same school- we even applied to the Garrison together!”

Lance smirks. The application for that damn academy took hours to complete- days, even. But filling everything out with someone there to suffer along with him… it sucked a little less. When it came time for interviews and dorm selections, it sucked a lot less.

“I didn’t want to make things weird between us but- I had to tell you. It was eating me up inside, dude.” For the first time since he started speaking, Hunk meets Lance’s gaze. His softened features, even in this context, catch Lance off guard. “You remind me of being back home.”

Home.

Lance chokes back the dying animal noise threatening to creep up his throat. Because Hunk is right-  he’s totally right. When Lance is around Hunk, he’s reminded of visits to the playground, agonizingly long study sessions, weekly movie nights. The realization hits Lance like a fucking bullet train.

Hunk is his closest tie to Earth.

“Same,” Lance blurts. Instinct takes over, and Lance finds himself sliding closer to Hunk, slipping his arm around Hunk’s waist. He’s so warm. End me now. “Same, buddy.”

Initially, Hunk stiffens. But after a few seconds, once he seems to realize Lance isn’t messing around, he relaxes against his side.

“You didn't… laugh. Lance McClain-Sanchez managed to have a serious conversation with me about feelings-”

“Hey now! I can talk about my feelings just fine.”

“Sure you can,” Hunk teases.

“It’s one of my many charms.”

“…you’re unbelievable.”

“Aw, c’mon now. You know you love me,” Lance trills, brimming with self-satisfaction.

A beat.

“Mmm…”

The sound rumbles in Hunk’s chest. Lance feels it in his bones. He doesn’t miss the significant pause between responses. Hunk couldn’t possibly… But that’s a matter for another day. They could sort that out later.

Overhead, the stars continue to glint and shine. Their patterns, unlike those visible from Earth, would normally frustrate Lance. The purple blades of grass tickle any exposed slivers of skin on Lance’s body, occasionally eliciting little shivers that have him pulling Hunk closer. Bizarre creatures continue their chatter. The spindly branches of the trees below sway in the wind.

No, it isn’t Earth. But having a little piece of home with Lance everywhere he goes certainly helps.

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #hance #lunk #lance #hunk #my fic #mine #my fic: lunk #my fic: voltron #wowowow another self-indulgent hance/lunk fic #what a surprise #but it's almost twice as long this time so #let these boys visit earth #even though they have each other #ugly crying #bingo winners

[kstanley400spatial]

Main points from W7 Presentation.

Tutors present and giving feedback // Jen Archer-Martin, Meg Rollandi, Faith Kane and Georgina Stokes. 

// There is room to improve and develop the conversation with the public. How do people view the performative works? 

// Do the screens on the structure inhibit conversation? Can I change that? Change structure design? materiality? Camera?

// Using the word Trauma without earthquake is confusing to the context. stop it.

// How does my body work with the structure? Is it designed with me in mind as well.

// The Motar? area for improvement. more real. re pointing. 

// Design the pins.

// Making my act of care and my own display of respect/connection the focus of the facade not the hollow emptiness of the reconstruction. 

[softrobotcritics]

The Reuleaux Collection of Kinematic Mechanisms at Cornell University

The Reuleaux Collection

of Kinematic Mechanisms

at Cornell University

Francis C. Moon

Joseph Ford Professor of Mechanical Engineering

July 1999

Introduction

In an age of computer simulation and multibody dynamics codes one can easily assume that engineers of earlier generations lacked the ability to visualize complex motions of machines and mechanisms. But the use of three-dimensional drawings and physical models of scientific and engineering devices goes back to the Renaissance engineers of Italy, including Leonardo di Vinci (see e.g., Ramelli, 1588). Eugene Ferguson, a former curator at the Smithsonian, has reviewed the history of non-verbal and non-mathematical communication of technical information in his book Engineering and the Mind's Eye (Ferguson, 1992), and in an earlier articles (Ferguson, 1977, 1962). In his reviews, he points out the use of machine models in the teaching of engineering in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the more popular collections of models for teaching, especially in Germany and in North America, was the reproductions of kinematic mechanisms of Franz Reuleaux. At the end of this millennium, it is fitting for engineers not only to review the progress made in the last century, but also to review what has been lost in the way of technical knowledge.

I will describe one of the largest remaining 19th century collections of kinematic models in North America and perhaps in the world, namely the Reuleaux models at Cornell University. Collections of Reuleaux models were widely used in Europe, especially in Germany, before the Second World War. Most and maybe all have been lost in the destruction of 1941-45. The Cornell Reuleaux Collection seems to be the last remaining large set of 219 models out of the original 800 that Reuleaux had built in his laboratory in Berlin over a century ago.

In this paper I will review Reuleaux's contributions to kinematics in the context of these models. I will also describe how Cornell University acquired its collection through the vision of its first president, Andrew Dickson White. This acquisition took place amidst a crisis in mechanical engineering education at Cornell which involved ASME's first president Professor Robert H. Thurston of Stevens Institute of Hobocken, New Jersey. I will also describe the current state of the Reuleaux collection at Cornell and a smaller collection of Darmstadt models and a plan for making the models available on the web through construction of a virtual kinematic museum.

As a recently appointed curator of the kinematic models collection at Cornell, I found that I had to learn a lot about the history of kinematics and nineteenth century machines in order to understand the role of the Reuleaux models in teaching kinematics. As a result I realized the shortcomings in my knowledge of kinematics and the history of technology which the reader might discover and I hope will understand.

Franz Reuleaux

Franz Reuleaux was born in Eschweiler (near Aachen), Germany on September 30, 1829. He is regarded as the founder of modern kinematics and as one of the forerunners of modern design theory of machines. [A brief biography in English may be found in Gillispie (1970). Another excellent, short biography of Reuleaux has been written by Ferguson as an introduction to the 1963 Dover edition of Reuleaux's 1875 book on kinematics. A separate annotated list of references to Reuleaux in German is provided in the Appendix.] At the time that Cornell's President A.D. White acquired the Collection in 1882, Reuleaux was rector of the Technische Hochschule at Charlottenburg near Berlin. Earlier he was professor of machine design at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich where he developed many of his ideas in kinematics. Of his two major books, Der Constructor and Theoretische Kinematik; Grundzüge einer Theorie des Maschinenwesens, the second had a wider impact. It was immediately translated into English by Professor Alexander B.W. Kennedy of Great Britain titled, The Kinematics of Machinery; Outlines of a Theory of Machines (Reuleaux, 1876), after being translated into French and Italian. This pioneering book dealt with both analysis and synthesis of machine kinematics. Kennedy also wrote a book review on Reuleaux's work in the London based journal, Engineering (Kennedy, 1876a). In the earlier sections of his book Reuleaux states that he is interested in how the mind creates new inventions as well as kinematic analysis. Some of his ideas are captured in the quotes in Table 1 below.

Reuleaux was one of the first to use an abstract symbol representation of machines. He is also credited with inventing the idea of a kinematic pair (Kennedy, 1881). Each pair had a different symbol, and each mechanism would be described by a collection of symbols or word. A complete assembly of mechanisms is then a sentence of words in this symbol language.

Reuleaux's symbol notations was based on his ideas of a kinematic chain and pair elements. There were three kinds of signs denoting; i) class or name for a body or link, ii) form of the body, i.e., solid, hollow, etc, iii) relation of one element to its pair. Thus, the four bar linkage shown in Figure 1, without specifying the fixed link has the contracted symbol (C). If the bottom link is called d and is fixed, then the symbol becomes (C)d. The C stands for cylindrical motion, the primes stand for parallel axes and the subscript denotes the four links.

Another example is the cylindric slider-crank chain. The classic slider-crank would have the contracted symbol (CD^) where the P indicates one of the pair elements is a prismatic joint. If the slider follows an arc as in Figure 2, Reuleaux uses the symbol (CA) where A stands for a circular sector. By reducing mechanisms to a symbol set he is able to show how many apparently different devices are similar or identical in a kinematic sense. Also, by changing the fixed link in the chain Reuleaux was able to generate inversions of the same kinematic chain. The details of this system may be found in Reuleaux (1876), Chapter XII.

This abstract methodology for kinematic mechanisms did not propagate in later textbooks in the early 20th century. However, the idea of symbols for machine elements has been renewed in modern design synthesis theory (see e.g., Hartenburg and Denevit, 1964). Reuleaux's contributions to kinematics have recently been recognized in a recent review of modern developments in kinematics (Erdman, 1993). Quotes on Reuleaux from modern practitioners are given in Table 2.

Besides his influence on kinematics, Reuleaux was active in the technological politics of the newly united German Empire. He had an important role in developing German patent legislation and with the founding of the Mannesmann steel works, as well as a member of juries of international exhibitions. Reuleaux was also active in improving the quality of German manufacturing. [See the short biography by Otto Mayr in Gillispie (1970).]

Nineteenth century kinematics flourished because of the need for machine inventors to transmit information and forces (power) from one element in the machine to another. Thus, we see the names of James Watt (1736-1819) and Rankine (1820-1872) among earlier inventors of mechanisms for the new steam and water based machines that revolutionized the 19th century. Also, water and steam power generated circular motions and the need arose to convert these steady circular motions into nonsteady linear and curvilinear motion for machine applications. The challenge to create input-output kinematic devices that could convert circular motion into noncircular, complex, three-dimensional, intermittent motions attracted both practical inventors as well as mathematicians in the nineteenth century. Analysis of mechanisms attracted mathematicians of the likes of Ampere (1775-1836) and Chebyshev (1821-1894) (Ferguson, 1962). Thousands of mechanisms were invented, designed and built in the last century which helped nurture the widespread use and manufacture of machines analogous to the plethora of electronic circuits in the early 20th century and software in the late 20th century.

In Reuleaux's work we see an interest in kinematics–namely the relationship of input and output velocities and motion paths (e.g., in the design of straight line mechanisms). However, by the mid 20th century dynamics became important in machine design with kinematics as one part of a mathematical tool kit to be used to solve the rigid body equations of Newton and Euler. Also important in 20th century machine design was stress analysis and materials science.

The study of kinematics as a separate discipline in mechanical engineering all but died out in many universities by the early 1950's, partly because it became recognized that dynamics was as important in the design of machines as kinematics. Dynamics had all but been ignored by Reuleaux and other 19th century kinematicians. In the late 20th century, kinematics has seen a renaissance with the development of high-speed computers, robotics, the growth of design synthesis theory and mechatronics.

The Reuleaux Collection of Mechanisms

In the mid 19th century, Franz Reuleaux embarked on a method to codify, analyze and synthesize kinematic mechanisms so that engineers could approach machine design in a rational way. To this end, he created at Berlin a collection of over 800 models of mechanisms based on his book. Reuleaux's models were apparently influenced by a model collection of his former professor at Karlsruhe, F.J. Redtenbacher [see footnote 37 in Ferguson (1977).] At the time (c. 1876) he authorized a German Company, Gustav Voigt, Mechanische Werkstatt, in Berlin, to manufacture these models so that technical schools could use them for teaching engineers about machines. From Reuleaux's letter to A.D. White in 1882, Voigt had apparently worked for Reuleaux or had been a student when Reuleaux taught at the Gewerbe Schule in Berlin.

By 1907 some 368 were available in the Voigt catalog and the Cornell collection was reported to number 266 items (Hartenberg and Denavit, 1964). The present inventory as of December 1998 is 219 models from the Voigt catalog of the Reuleaux kinematic models. The classes of models are listed in Table 3. Because of widespread destruction in Germany in World War II, it is believed that Cornell has the largest remaining collection of Reuleaux models. A curator in mechanical engineering at the American Museum of Industry at the Smithsonian Institution said he did not know of any other large collections in the United States or Canada.

Reuleaux's models go beyond the collection of kinematic pairs as in Christopher Polhem's "mechanical alphabet" models of 1729 now at the Teknista Museet in Stockholm. There are numerous Reuleaux models of complete machines such as eight fully operating clock escapements, and several complex winch machine models. The clock escapements have as many as fifteen moving parts, constructed from over two dozen manufactured machine elements.

The models are clearly designed for teaching kinematics. Some are demountable so that a different link can be fixed. Some are inscribed with letters and numbers on the links corresponding to Reuleaux's books. Many have adjustments built in so the user can find the optimum setting for proper motion.

At the time of Reuleaux's book on theoretical kinematics in 1875, he began to travel abroad, and became a member of juries of world exhibitions. Of particular interest are the world exhibitions in Vienna (1873) and Philadelphia (1876) where Reuleaux served as the German commissioner (Gillispie, 1970).

Robert H. Thurston was a member of the Scientific Commission of the United States to the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873. Thurston was then at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, N.J. Thurston's report on the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 (Thurston, 1875) is titled Machinery and Manufactures, with an account of European Manufacturing Districts. On page 367, Thurston mentions visiting Dr. Reuleaux' as director of the Gewerbe Schule, a forerunner of the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. Thurston mentions "the fine collection of geometrical and mechanical apparatus." "The models are lighter and neater than those usually seen in our own cases" and that "none are for sale."

These are several documents in the Cornell University Library archives that confirm that Cornell acquired the collection in 1882 or thereafter.

First there is a letter in English (hand written) from Professor Reuleaux to A.D. White dated 27th June 1882. This letter establishes that there was earlier correspondence between White and Reuleaux and that Reuleaux would supervise the shipping of the Voigt manufactured models to Ithaca.

Second, the minutes of the Cornell University Board of Trustees, June 14, 1882, "Acknowledges a pledge of $8,000 from the Honorable Hiram Sibley of Rochester to secure the duplicate of the Reuleaux models in the possession of the Imperial Government of Germany." (Hiram Sibley and Ezra Cornell both formed the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1854.)

Concerning the International Exhibition of 1876 at Philadelphia there is evidence in the reports of the U.S. Centennial Commission (Walker, 1877, 1878) that A.D. White, Reuleaux, and Robert H. Thurston were all there at some time during the fair. The Exhibition was open for six months. Over ten million people visited the fair to see over 30,000 exhibitors from all over the world. Reuleaux is listed in the volume on Group XXVIII, (p. 203) Education and Science as a Commissioner-General for the German Empire and having assisted the judging of this group. The official list of judges include Andrew D. White of Ithaca, New York. However, in the list of awards, no mention is made of Reuleaux's models nor is he listed in the overall index of awards in the multi-volume report on the Exhibition.

Robert Thurston is mentioned in Group XXV on Instruments of Precision, Research Equipment, etc. as having exhibited his Machine for Testing Strength of Materials. He is identified as a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. This machine, or a copy of it, is likely the one now in the strength of materials laboratory of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Thurston Hall at Cornell University. This Group had judges which included Joseph Henry, the discoverer of electromagnetism who was then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. In Reuleaux's letter to White (see Document 1), he mentions the Smithsonian, but not Henry.

Thus, it is possible that Reuleaux met A.D. White and, perhaps, Thurston in Philadelphia. We have no direct evidence so far of how President White learned of the Reuleaux models though perhaps he saw them in London. There is evidence that 300 of Reuleaux's models were actually on display at the Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum in London in September 1876 (Kennedy, 1876). In the Cornell Archives on A.D. White, there is also evidence that White had traveled to Europe in the Fall of 1876. Thus, it is possible he saw the Reuleaux models at South Kensington. The South Kensington Museum was the predecessor of the Victoria and Albert Museum built in Kensington around 1900. There is a wonderful little book by Professor A.B.W. Kennedy of University College, London with a 19 page introduction by Robert Thurston (Kennedy 1881). The book title is The Kinematics of Machinery: Two Lectures Relating to Reuleaux Methods. These lectures (88 pages) were given by Kennedy at the Museum. Kennedy describes Reuleaux's theory of kinematic pairs and his symbol representation of complex mechanisms. This small book illustrates the high esteem that Reuleaux was held both in Europe and the U.S. and the relation of his theory to his models. (Kennedy became the President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in Great Britain and Thurston was the first president of ASME.) Kennedy mentions the loan to the Museum of the Kinematic Collection of the Gewerbe-Academe in Berlin, designed by Reuleaux. He also mentions a set of models at Dresden as being essentially the same as the Berlin models.

To understand the complete collection of models, one has to reference not only Reuleaux's 1876 book on kinematics, but also his 4th edition of his earlier book The Constructor, translated by Henry Suplee in 1893. Reuleaux offers two prefaces, one for the German edition and one for the English edition in which he says he has added many aspects of kinematics in this 4th edition from his theoretical book on kinematics. There are many figures of mechanisms which appear to be directly related to the models especially those dealing with belt drives, water chamber wheels, pumps, couplings and escapements. Many of these are not shown in his earlier 1876 book on kinematics. In The Constructor Reuleaux gives the history, application, inventor and detailed information on the operation of the mechanisms which is lacking in his 1876 kinematics book. According to his Preface, he wroteThe Constructor as a handbook on machine construction for the practical engineer.

A Reuleaux Collection Sampler

Along with the Voigt catalog of 1907 and the English translation of Reuleaux's book on kinematics by Kennedy, there is a set of 40, 5 x 7 inch cards, with descriptions of various mechanisms in the Cornell Collection. The cards reference Reuleaux's Kinematics of Machinery as well as other books on kinematics in the late 19th and early 20th century. The cards were written around 1940's-1950's by Harvey Roehl then a student in mechanical engineering. There is no other complete description of the 219 models although we hope to assembly one as part of a new Library effort to catalog the colleciton and to create a virtual museum on the web.

The following descriptions of mechanisms are based on the material in Reuleaux's books. The last item is from the 1962 Smithsonian article by Eugene Ferguson on the history of mechanisms and Reuleaux.

• The pump mechanism (F4) known as Ramelli's Rotary Pump (Figure 3) was first described in 1588 by the Italian military engineer, Agostino Ramelli (1531-1610). This mechanism found application in mid twentieth century household refrigerator compressors (Reuleaux, 1876, p. 365).

• The Pappenheim Chamber Wheel (I1) (Figure 4) is the forerunner of modern gear pumps. Versions of this mechanism have been in existence for over 350 years (Reuleaux, 1876, p. 403).

•The Isosceles Slider Crank Train (S2) (Figure 5) was used in an early steam engine in 1816. This mechanism can be used to form ellipses. Its invention has been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) for machining elliptical surfaces.

•The Crown-Wheel Escapement (X1) (Figure 6) is associated with the Dutch scientist, Christian Huygens who designed the first pendulum clock in 1657. This mechanism allowed the weight of a hanging mass to regularly impart energy to the oscillating pendulum. The Cornell Collection contains eight of these beautiful clock escapement mechanisms. They are the most elaborate devices in the set and can run for a short time by suspended weights. They are the jewels of the Collection.

•The Pin-Wheel Escapement (X4) (Figure 7) was invented by Amant in 1741. It was employed in French made pendulum clocks. It was also used in tower clocks.

•Chebyshev Mechanism (S19) (Figure 8). For a period in the early 19th century, there was a concerted effort to invent a mechanism that would convert rotary motion into a straight-line motion. This quest occupied mathematicians as well as practical mechanikers. The famous Russian mathematician, Professor P.L. Chebyshev (1821-1894), of the University of St. Petersberg invented his own straight-line mechanisms. Such devices were important in metal planing machines and textile manufacturing.

Other Reuleaux and Modern Kinematic Model Collections

During a sabbatic leave in 1995 at the University of Hannover in Germany, I met Professor Reinhard Braune, a professor of kinematics and computer aided design. He proudly showed me about ten models from the original Reuleaux collection. (These were from Reuleaux's own laboratory, not Voigt's reproductions.) He told me virtually all the collections in Germany were destroyed. However, from recent correspondence with the Deutsche Museum in Munich, it appears that they may have about hundred models, though they could not send an itemized list. In Hannover, they have reproduced several models and displayed them so they can be actuated. The display also includes modern applications of kinematic mechanisms in manufacturing, automotive design and aerospace technology.

There is also a wonderful modern kinematic model collection of about 300 devices at the Technische Hochschule Aachen under Professor Dittrich. However, they do not have any Reuleaux models. (Their web site also describes all the institutes of kinematic research in Germany.)

Professor Braune was kind enough to give me copies of articles on Reuleaux in German (see Appendix). These articles, dating from around 1899-1940, suggested there were other North American Reuleaux collections at McGill University in Montreal, and Stevens Institute in Hoboken, N.J. Inquiries at McGill indicate that their collection, if it existed in any great number, is gone. One colleague remembers seeing one model several years ago. A call to the curator at the Stevens Institute Library revealed that they have, at most, a few and perhaps only one on display in their library. Also from a phone conversation, the Smithsonian does not have any Reuleaux models either. Professor Dittrich in Aachen thought there was also a collection in St. Petersberg in Russia. However, through his conversation with Professor Artobolesvsky, he believes they were also lost during the War.

In addition to the Reuleaux models, Cornell has about ten old kinematic models by Professor Schröder of the Polytechnisches Arbeits Institute, Darmstadt. These models were cited for an award at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876 in the section judged by A.D. White of Cornell and Reuleaux. We are currently trying to obtain a biography on Schröder.

It is a paradox of Reuleaux influence on kinematics, that although he himself built over 800 models and used over a thousand images of these machines and components in his 1893 edition of The Constructor, educators in kinematics in the early twentieth century substituted mathematics for visual pictures in their textbooks. For example, Kennedy who was such an enthusiastic Reuleaux supporter, does not show any of the models or related mechanisms in his own textbook of 1886. Also, although Cornell university had a large collection of over 250 Reuleaux models, the textbook by Barr and Wood (1916) which was based on a course taught at Cornell, has no figures showing Reuleaux's models and has only 220 figures (mostly live drawings) with very few artifacts except gears. However, unlike Reuleaux's books, Barr and Wood incorporate more detailed velocity and acceleration analysis which became the pattern for later textbooks. An exception to this trend was the book by Durley (1903) who was a professor at McGill University. McGill at one time had a collection of Reuleaux models and Durley's book contains a dozen figures based on these models. But the trend in the 20th century was to use a mathematical approach to kinematic analysis to the detriment of visual, historical and case method studies. Another exception was the work of Hartenburg and Denivit (1964) who devoted a Chapter (3) to kinematic models.

Reuleaux Collection, Thurston and Engineering Education

The acquisition of Reuleaux' famous collection of kinematic models in 1882 by Cornell President White took place amidst a watershed for Cornell's mechanical engineering program as well as American engineering education (Calvert, 1967). For seven years between 1878 and 1886 the University was struggling to resolve a nasty feud between professors, students and alumni about the teaching of mechanical engineering. In the first decade of its existence, the University had developed a curricula in the "mechanic arts" as required of a land grant recipient, based on a shop culture model (Calvert, 1967). Young men were recruited with a farm or mechanical skills background to learn how to construct mechanical machines and machine components. The major proponent of this system was Professor John Sweet (3rd president of ASME) who was supposedly hostile to book learning. At the same time, Professor Robert Henry Thurston (1st president of ASME) of the Stevens Institute in Hoboken, New Jersey was developing a different curriculum based on laboratory testing, and scientific and mathematical principles.

In 1878 Sweet decided to leave Cornell which prompted a crisis over the teaching philosophy. A Trustee Committee was set up to reform the mechanical engineering program helped by a generous gift from a successful businessman, Hiram Sibley of Rochester. It was during this time that Andrew White acquired the Reuleaux models although on whose recommendation we don't know. One possibility is that he met both Reuleaux and Thurston at the Worlds Fair in 1876 in Philadelphia, as discussed above. Reuleaux' letter of 1882 to White suggests that the two men had been in contact between 1876 and 1882. (Reuleaux thanked White for help in contacting the Smithsonian.) Then in 1886, White proposed to the Trustees to appoint Robert Thurston as Director of the newly organized Sibley College of Mechanic Arts and Mechanical Engineering. Shortly after his arrival, Thurston wrote to Andrew D. White in a letter dated July 8, 1885 (typed). Thurston had recently been appointed as Director of the newly revised College of Mechanic Arts in a Board of Trustee meeting of June 17, 1885. Thurston notes the need to "equip the department of mechanical engineering." "With the exception of the Reuleaux collection" he asks for funds to buy more models, plans, charts and a "complete collection needs to be obtained." It is not clear whether this refers to the Reuleaux models or other teaching models. In Thurston's letter to White in 1886 asking for financial resources to rebuild the College, he comments that the Reuleaux collection of models, paid for with a Sibley gift of $8,000, was one of the few strong assets of the College.

In the period of 1886 to 1900, Thurston built the mechanical engineering program on a new educational model based on a balance of scientific and mathematical fundamentals, engineering science and practical shop experience. The use of extensive laboratories and collections of teaching models of mechanisms and machines as well as technical artifacts of the day were essential to the students all round education. Using this new philosophy, Thurston catapulted Cornell's Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering into the top rated program in the United States (Calvert, 1967).

The Reuleaux Collection at Cornell is a reminder of how the vision of A.D. White, H. Sibley and Robert Thurston helped change the nature of engineering education in the United States.

The Cornell Collection–Current Status

The collection of mechanisms is housed in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. When it was originally acquired in 1882 it was housed in the old Engineering campus at the north end of the University. According to an article in the October 17, 1885 issue of Scientific American there was originally a museum of mechanisms and a museum of machines in the then Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering. After the second world war Cornell moved its entire engineering college to the south end of the campus and the kinematic collection was housed in special cabinets in one of the new buildings. By the 1970's, however, space assignments in the College shifted and the Collection space was occupied by Computer Science, so that Mechanical Engineering faculty and students rarely saw or used the models. One of the last faculty to use the collection for teaching was retired Professor Richard Phelan whose design text was well known in earlier decades. After a hiatus of over a decade, however, several younger faculty in design discovered the use of these wonderful machines for teaching. Today the collection is back on the turf of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and are publicly on display for students and visitors to view. A few faculty such as myself make use of a dozen or more of the models each year for design and dynamics courses. Inspired by the wonderful kinematic collection in Aachen and Hannover we have motorized one model and hope to motorize reproductions of many other models so that visitors can actuate the models from outside the display cases.

The Engineering Library has embarked on a conservancy program to catalog and make images of the models available on the web. To date we have photographed all 219 Reuleaux models on color slides and hope to make their images available on the web in the form of a virtual museum. Plans are also proposed for quicktime computer movies of selected models, again inspired by the modern German collections.

The state of the models are remarkable. Except for one model, the mechanisms show no rust, Reuleaux having designed the cast iron alloy himself to resist rust. All but a half dozen models actually work and can be actuated by hand. The most marvelous models are the clock and power escapement mechanisms which were designed by Reuleaux to exhibit self excited oscillations driven by a weight on each model. While most of the models represent devices that were common to various technical machines, such as four bar linkages, pumps, or intermittent mechanisms, a small subset actually simulate mathematical curves attendant to kinematic motions, such as cycloid and trochoid curves related to rolling mechanisms.

As noted above, these models were reproduced by the Voigt workshop from Reuleaux's original models under his supervision. Cornell has copies of the Voigt catalog which consists of pictures and a separate list of short descriptions in German. We are using the Reuleaux-Voigt numbering system to catalog the collection (see Table 3).

Researchers from outside Cornell can have access to these models for study by contacting the author of this article.

TABLE 1

Reuleaux on the Study of Machines

•He who best understands the machine, who is best acquainted with its essential nature, will be able to accomplish the most by its means.

•...if the new theory is to lay claim to general interest, it must be capable of producing something new; it must make problems solvable which before could not be solved in any systematic way. This may certainly be said to be the case if it succeeds in making Machine-Kinematics, down to its simplest problems, truly scientific.

•What is left unexamined is however the other, immensely deeper part of the problem, the question: How did the mechanism, or the elements of which it is composed, originate? What laws govern its building up?

•In other words, the invention of a mechanism will be to the scientific kinematist a synthetic problem,–which he can solve by the use of systematic, if also difficult, methods.

TABLE 2

Modern Quotes on Reuleaux' Contribution to Kinematics

[All quotes from the review book Modern Kinematics,

Edited by Arthur G. Erdman, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1992.]

1. It was Reuleaux, however, who presented (Kinematics of Machinery) an extensive description and symbolic representation of the mechanisms that are used in engineering. He also addressed important aspects of kinematics, such as pairing and inversion of mechanisms. Reuleaux stated at the outset of his project that he would be concentrating on the theoretical aspects of kinematics of machinery, not the applied subjects. His aim was not to deal with the kinematic behavior of any particular machine, but "...to determine the conditions which are common to all machines...."

§1.2 The Origins of the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms,

A.D. Dimarogonas, p. 15

2. Reuleaux's work is the first work devoted to modern kinematic synthesis and, further, to symbolic representation of knowledge. Synthesis, in the Reuleauxian sense, is limited to type synthesis. The systematic study of type and dimensional synthesis, although identified long ago, were later developments. However, Reuleaux can also be considered the father of group technology.

§1.2 The Origins of the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms,

A.D. Dimarogonas, p. 15

3. Reuleaux recognized the preeminence of the joints and identified them as kinematic pairs. He laid the foundation for a systematic study of machines by 1) defining machine and mechanism in a meaningful and unambiguous manner, 2) defining the basic building blocks, and 3) establishing a classification of known mechanism types.

§3.2 Historical Review,

G.K. Ananthasuresh, S. Kota, p. 31

4. Reuleaux identified two different methods of synthesis: direct and indirect.  Direct Synthesis should yield all the links and pairs required to accomplish a specified motion transformation.  Indirect synthesis" provides beforehand the solutions of all those problems under which it is possible for the given problem to fall." Since the number of possible pairs is limited, the number of possible combinations of pairs, although great, is s till manageable. Therefore, all possible combinations can be enumerated and investigated systematically.

§3.3 Methods and Tools for Type Synthesis

S. Kota, et al., p. 36

Table 3

Kinematic Models After Reuleaux

Gustav Voigt Catalog, 1907

Series Description Number of Models

A Lower element pairs 3

B Higher element pairs 4

C Simple kinematic chains (including 4 bar mechanisms) 9

D Crank mechanisms (including slider crank mechanisms) 14

E Crank mechanisms with a pivot 7

F Chamber wheel mechanisms (fluid motors/pumps) 6

G Compound wheel trains (gearing) 7

H Vise stands to create inversions of 4-bar linkage 2

I Chamber wheels (pump mechanisms) 9

K Angular loop chain-crossed axes slider mechanisms 2

L Cam drives of constant breadth 6

M Screw mechanisms 9

N Ratchet and intermittent mechanisms 28

(including power escapements)

O Planetary wheel chains 5

P Hinged couplings (universal joints) 5

Q Gear tooth profiles 8

R Spherical cycloid rolling models 7

S Straight-line mechanisms 39

T Parallel guide mechanisms 14

U Water-wheel paddle mechanisms 2

V Belt guides 16

W Friction wheel mechanisms 7

X Clock escapements 12

Y Reversing shift transmissions 20

Z Clutches 7

References in English

Barr, John H. and Wood, Edgar H., 1916, Kinematics of Machinery, 2nd edition, J. Wiley & Sons, New York.

Calvert, Monte, 1967, History of Mechanical Engineering, J. Hopkins Press.

Durley, R.J., 1907, Kinematics of Machines, J. Wiley & Sons.

Erdman, Arthur G., 1993, editor, Modern Kinematics; Developments in the last Forty Years, J. Wiley & Sons.

Ferguson, E.S., 1992, Engineering and the Mind's Eye, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Ferguson, E.S., 1977, "The Mind's Eye: Nonverbal Thought in Technology," Science, Vol. 197, No. 4300, pp. 827-836.

Ferguson, E.S., 1962, "Contributions From the Museum of History and technology", Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt, from United States National Museum Bulletin, 228, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. paper 27, pp. 185-230.

Gillispie, Charles C., 1970, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Charles C. Gillispie, editor, Charles Scribners Sons, New York , Vol. XI, "Reuleaux, Franz", by Otto Mayr, p. 383-385.

Hartenberg, R.S. and Denavit, J., 1964, Kinematic Synthesis of Linkages, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, p. 75.

Kennedy, A.B.W., 1886, The Mechanics of Machinery, MacMillan and Co., London.

Kennedy, A.B.W., 1881, The Kinematics of Machinery: Two Lectures Relating to Reuleaux Methods. Delivered at the South Kensington Museum with an Introduction by Professor R.H. Thurston, A.M., C.E. Reprinted from Van Nostrand's Magazine. D. Van Nostrand, Publisher, New York.

Kennedy, A.B.W., 1876a, Book Review, "The Kinematics of Machinery; Outlines of a Theory of Machines", F. Reuleaux, translated by A.B.W. Kennedy, Engineering, Vol. 22, p. 197, London.

Kennedy, Alex. B.W., 1876b, "The Berlin Kinematic Models," Engineering, Vol. 22, p. 239-240, London.

Reuleaux, F., 1876, Kinematics of Machinery; Outlines of a Theory of Machines, A.B.W. Kennedy, Transl., MacMillan and Co., London.

Reuleaux, F., 1872,  Der Constructeur : Ein Handbuch zum Begrauch beim Maschinen-Entwerfen (1872), Verlag von Friedrich Voeweg und Sohn, Braunschweig (in German).

Reuleaux, F., 1892, The Constructor; A Handbook of Machine Design H.H. Suplee, Transl. 1892, Philadelphia.

Ramelli, Agostino, 1588, Le Diverse et Artificiose Machine, Paris.

Scientific American, October 17, 1885, Vol. LIII, No. 16 [New Series]. The cover shows a montage of pictures of the Sibley College, Cornell University. The upper left corner shows cabinets with kinematic models and the footnote says this is the "Sibley College Museum of Mechanisms." The text (p. 249) refers to the Reuleaux collection of models in one museum display as well as to a museum of machines. Thus, if Reuleaux' shipment in 1882 arrived at Ithaca in the same year or 1883, then this article is consistent with the letter to A.D. White. The view in Figure 1 on the cover shows eight display cases which could well have contained over 200 models. The Sibley Journal of Engineering, June 1894, Vol. VIII, No. 9, published by the Students of Sibley College, Cornell University. The first article notes the progress in the College from 1885 to 1894. On page 382, the article notes that Mr. Hiram Sibley had given money for the Reuleaux collection. No other mention of the models is given.

Thurston, Robert H., Machinery and Manufacturers with an Account of European Manufacturing Districts, report on the Vienna Exhibition published by The U.S. Department of State.

Walker, F.A. editor, 1877, International Exhibition 1876, United States Centennial Commission, Reports and Awards, Groups XXI-XXVII, J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. The list of awards shows the Thurston's testing machine was cited for an award (Item 269, page 172).

Walker, F.A. editor, 1878, International Exhibition 1876, United States Centennial Commissioner Reports and Awards, Group XXVIII, J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1878. This volume shows that President A.D. White was a judge in the Group on Education and Science and that the German Commissioner, General Reuleaux, assisted in the judging (pages 203, page vi).

Appendix

Annotated References on Reuleaux in German

(From Professor Reinhard Braune

of the University of Hannover, Germany)

1. "Franz Reuleaux," Hans-Joachim Braun in Berlinische Lebensbilder: Band 6 Techniker, Wilhelm Treue and Wolfgang König, Editors, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin, 1990, pp. 279-292.

[Berlin Life Portraits: Engineers, is a rough translation. This article mentions correspondence about kinematics with (Robert) Henry Thurston of Sibley College, Ithaca (p. 289). There is also mention of Reuleaux's participation in the Philadelphia World Exhibition in 1876 as "Reichskommissar" (pp. 288, 290).]

2. "Ingenieurwissenschaft und Gesellschaftspolitik: Das Wirken von Franz Reuleaux" [Engineering Science and Corporate Politics: The Work of Franz Reuleaux.] by Hans Joachim Braun and Wolfhard Weber in Technik und Gesellschaft, Vol. 1, 1979, p. 285-300. [Contains 42 references. This article discusses Reuleaux's activities in the politics of engineering from World Exhibitions, patent questions, comparison of German and American industry in his "Letters from Philadelphia," and the relationship between the machine age and social questions. There is no mention of his kinematic models here.]

3. "Franz Reuleaux und die Grandlagen seiner Kinematik," Carl Weihe, Deutsches Museum, Abhandlungen und Berichte, VDI-Verlag Gmbh, Berlin, 14 Jahrgang, Heft 4, 1942.

[C. Wiehe was Reuleaux's last student. There is no mention of the Cornell collection, but at the end there appears to be suggestion that the kinematics section of the Deutschen Museum had a subset of the Reuleaux collection reproduced from the Technical Institute of Berlin.]

4. "The Kinematic (Reuleaux) Collection," Die Technische Hochschule 8(6) (1929) p. 158.

Article on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Reuleaux (1829-1905).

The Reuleaux Collection contains over 800 models and is the largest mechanism collection in the world. It has been copied in larger or smaller parts for other Technical Institutes in North America and Russia.

5. Monatsblätter des Berliner Bezirksvereins Deutscher Ingenieure, Nr S, Mai 1913. (Monthly Newsletter of the Berlin District Society of German Engineers.)

Page 10: outtake of article on Reuleaux mentions 800 models in Reuleaux collection (largest in the world, but still incomplete). Mentions a smaller collection in the Deutschen Museum in Münich.

6. Chronik der Königlichen Technischen Hochschule zu Berlin, 1799-1899, Berlin 1899. Lists table of collections on p. 33. Kinematische (Reuleaux) Sammlung - Prof. W. Hartmann, director of collection.

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the help of the following:

Cora Jackson, for cataloging and typing

Professor Dietmar Rempfer, Cornell University, for German translation

Professor Emeritus, Richard Phelan, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Professor Reinhard Braune, Institut für Getriebetechnik, University of Hannover, Germany

John Reis for photography

[breegullbeakreviews]

Summary: When Spider-Man finally manages to get Kingpin locked up, a new threat emerges to push Spider-Man to his limits.

Overall: Spider-Man combines the game design of the Arkham games and Beenox’s Amazing Spider-Man with the presentation of an Uncharted game to deliver a good game. It is worth $60, but I don’t think it’s the best Spider-Man game.

Story: I’ve rewritten this section three times now. It’s very hard to talk about what I like or dislike without spoilers so if you want details check out my separate post.

What I can say without spoilers is that the story is disjointed, unbalanced, and not wholly original. That all being said when it goes in a new direction or gives its characters time to shine it is really good.

What do I mean the story is disjointed? Well that’s tied to the fact that the game’s story is also unbalanced. The meat of this story is back loaded into the game’s third act. Before that the game has a focus on Mr Negative but keeps jumping back and forth with unrelated stuff that doesn’t form into anything until the end. The third act is strong, but it revolves around a twist anyone who has a knowledge of Spider-Man can see coming at least half a mile away.

The third act also doesn’t feel super original. The character motivations and reasons for everything make sense, but the evil plan and even some of the late game missions feel like something I’ve already seen done before in other Spider-Man games. There was a lot of possibilities squandered by going the route they did even if it is sound on a thematic level.

Let’s close out on the good. Spider-Man jumps 8 years into Peter Parker being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While we skip a lot of material, the past isn’t entirely tried and true. Mary Jane is a reporter for the Daily Bugle who knows Peter is Spider-Man but they’ve broke up and this turns her relationship with Peter into one more inline with Nate and Elena of Uncharted which means Mary Jane is an actual character here. There are a lot of other changes that involve spoilers, but this one alone is one of the strongest examples of this story making smart changes with series conventions.

The characters are what make this story work. The criminal power vacuum plot while not previously seen in any Spider-Man game to my knowledge, isn’t particularly strong in carrying an interesting narrative since it quickly devolves into Peter and MJ trying to prove that Martin Li is Mr. Negative. In fact it’s less a power vacuum and more an opportunity for him to enact his plans. If the character or villain doesn’t have ties to Peter Parker, they don’t get time to develop as a character. This really hurts just about every villain in the game as they feel like and are often treated as lesser characters. I said we’d end on the good and we will. Insomniac’s focus on a story where Peter and Spider-Man’s worlds collide is played really damn well as it allows for interesting character dynamics and storytelling that hasn’t been in previous games. The emphasis on the story is hindered by the plethora of previous Spider-man tales this story draws inspiration from, but it’s still hard to say this isn’t the best story in any Spider-man game.

Movement: While I never reviewed it, from what I played of Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive I felt was super stiff for a game about movement. That had me scared for Spider-Man. Luckily Insomniac had a lot of great games to look at when building this game and they took inspiration from them all.

Web swinging isn’t Spider-Man 2 levels of intricate, but it’s not your only form of transversal. In what feels some what reminiscent of The Amazing Spider-Man’s fancy cinematic web zipping, Spidey can zip to predefined point by tapping L2 and R2. You can web zip by tapping Cross in the air but what’s most impressive is when Spider-Man runs.

On the ground Spider-Man will parkour over obstacles as long as you’re holding R2. It’s fun to see Spidey flip over cars and fences. If Spidey gets high enough he’ll even transfer into a web swing, which is done by holding and releasing R2. On the walls is when Spidey is the most fun to control. Holding R2 will make Spidey run on the wall. Tapping X will give Spidey a web boost, and doing so as you reach the top of a building will propel Spidey over it. Running parallel to the ground doesn’t need to stop at the end of the building. Holding Circle will have Spidey swing around the side of the building.

The one time it’s not fun to control Spidey is when you are going slow. Trying to climb onto a ceiling is a slow process and navigating ledges in stealth feels stiff. Zipping helps in the stealth bits, but climbing walls doesn’t get that luxury. The difference in speed from basic wall crawling to wall running is night and day and led to me dashing out of cover on multiple occasions.

Overall it’s fun to move fast, but when it comes to precision Spider-Man feels like a tank.

Combat: Web of Shadows this is not. Combat feels like a less refined Arkham game. Spider-Man battles with dodges and gadgets, but it doesn’t feel like I can do whatever a spider can. Spider-Man has two forms of combat. You have the stealth stuff and the not so stealth stuff. Both have issues.

When Spider-Man is unabashedly bashing skulls the combat has one major problem, and that’s that the gadget system isn’t at all intuitive. Spider-Man’s default gadget is his web shooter’s rapid fire that can immobilize foes. It’s a good gadget. The issue is that if you want to use anything else you need to use a gadget wheel mid fight. There is no equivalent to Arkham’s hold a trigger and press a button to quickly pop off a gadget shot. This means you’ll almost never use them because it’s just not convenient too swap mid fight. It’s just a not a particularly intuitive system.

A more minor problem is that for me at least this combat system isn’t as fun as Web of Shadow. I know saying that is probably controversial but its how I feel. Web of Shadows was a game built around its combat and in my opinion it shined at that. The story was an excuse to create an endless stream of foes in numbers large enough that Spider-Man could literally hold a combo from one end of New York to the other. Fighting was also more than just on the ground. Enemies could fight you on the walls and in the sky and each of these could be transitioned between seamlessly and they all felt pretty unique with their own combos and a quick click of the stick would swap between the agile red and blue suit and the heavy hitting black suit. Is it fair to compare these two games? Maybe. Maybe not. I can’t help but compare them through as Web of Shadows is my favorite Spider-Man game.

The issue with the stealth is an issue with the movement. Spider-Man just doesn’t feel good to control when he’s moving slow or with precision. While Spider-Man has a lot more movement options than Batman does, he also has less gadgets and paths. Batman can swing from perch to perch, climb through vents, and generally sneak about. He’s got a massive amount of gadgets as well to aid in taking out his foes from the shadows and the amount of paths and variety of foes makes these sequences tense. Spider-Man does not have a variety of gadgets or paths. Spider-Man is slow and lumbering in the rafters, but as soon as he leaves them he’s helpless. Instead of paths of movement Spider-Man has planes of movement. Most of Spider-Man’s options are web related and most of them require staying up high since red and blue spandex sticks out in the shadows.

I wrote this above paragraph based on the game’s first stealth segment and I still stand by it once Spider-Man got more gadgets and could sneak around outdoors. Spider-Man is still helpless on the ground. Even outdoors when Spider-Man has the sky as his limit he can’t sneak under his foes. This system doesn’t feel like that much of an improvement over Amazing Spider-Man and those are some harsh words. The best stealth segments in the game are when you’re not playing as Spider-Man at all.

Side Content: As the story unfolds Spider-Man gains access to more and more side content. These include side missions which occasionally form there own multipart stories and some are just collectible hunts. All of these however have context. Even the races and combat arenas have context given which is something the Arkham game’s sort of half assed. Now that’s not to say all side content is equal, or that the way it’s dished out is okay.

Side missions are relatively meaty as are the hideouts. The latter are all replay-able so you can complete bonus objectives. I can’t say I’m as big a fan of the rest of the side content. Medal based challenge missions require near perfect play in all categories of play. Perfect and time efficient combat, stealth, and movement are a pain in the ass. I eventually settled for silvers across the board. The research stations are creative, but it feels like something is missing from them. They just feel hollow. The collectibles I like just fine. I don’t like how they are dolled out though.

All side content in this game is gated behind story progression. I’m fine with that for side missions. I’m not fine with challenges not popping up until half way through the game. I understand why the story related stuff is gated, but the other stuff generally doesn’t make sense being gated. My completionist tendency had me stopping the story constantly as this stuff is being opened up in waves. There has got to be a better way to handle these side missions than arbitrarily handing them out over the course of the story.

Trophies: Marvel’s Insomniac’s Spider-Man has a trophy list that is relatively simple to get. You will need to do a lot, just not everything.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. Way too much of this list is hidden trophies. Now some of them make sense as they’re spoilers, but a lot of them aren’t. Hiding story or spoiler stuff is fine, but is activating all the surveillance towers worth being a hidden trophy?

Outside that you can play on any difficulty and with smart saves or spending you don’t need to do every bonus objective or ultimate medal. Your most time consuming task is 100% completing the city which requires completing every thing in every district, and outside Central Park each district is packed.

#video games #review #marvel's spider-man #insomniac games #ps4

[wulfsark]

On Vicariousness

Vicarious; adjective, experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.

"this catalogue brings vicarious pleasure in luxury living"

               Vicarious, to experience something through someone else. Second hand experience of a sort, originally referring to the act of the Christ in Christian mythos to mean ‘substitute’, and taken from our clergical term ‘vicar’ (a deputy replacing a higher clerk) and the latin ‘vic’, to mean change or turn.

               When you watch sports, you’re experiencing sports vicariously.

               When you watch porn, you’re experiencing sex vicariously.

               When you play violent games, you’re experiencing violence vicariously.

               All of these things characterised in their stimulation by being risky and difficult; in a word ‘scary’. We circumvent the terror of risk and gambles and real loss by substituting ourselves for some man or woman on a screen or in a stadium a thousand miles from us. Through their transcendence and ecstasy we exude some filtered form of their pleasure, from the howling hordes in pubs cheering each goal to the blank stare of a teenager at their phone to the false testosterone rush of a man experiencing the sorrow of the battle of Mogadishu. We’re perfectly safe, projecting our experience onto some abstract experience without context that we truly desire to experience but are kept from by whatever madness life has thrust upon us.

               People are addicted to vicar, addicted to the low risk regular hit of victory and achievement without the risk of getting there themselves. We’re surrounded by children addicted to games, unable to understand how to deal with loss or damage or pain. We as a culture are spoon fed little doses of dopamine by our surrounding screens, kept docile and contented by our alignments to sports teams, having violence bred out of us by easy, victimless killing and becoming apathetic and asexual whilst blowing our loads over a plastic icon from Hollywood. The idea of experiencing things directly and actively experiencing things that have risk or pain involved is being removed from us.

               If you need examples we need look no further than the domesticated middle class, glued to fifty inch televisions hooked up to the latest TV streaming so they can travel, to the latest games console to hone their self defence, and to pornhub so they can see their significant other. Their children grow up with sedentary and confused parents, learning morals through soap operas and comedy through the canned laughter of the latest sitcom. Obesity is everywhere, children are being prescribed therapists for trying to learn how to act in moral ways and violence is universally warded against and understood only as a taboo relegated to those ‘who must’.

               Slowly and systematically we as a culture or species are forgetting how to live in the real world.

               In the past those civilisations that once great and strong became fat and distended as the difficulty and required skill of their lives diminished slowly moved away from warrior thought and transcendent strife, toward appreciating pleasures of the flesh and vicious politics more than the values that made their tribe great in the first place. Other tribes, forced to harsh living by the ascendance of the now overfat culture would have been fighting for survival, hard times making the members strong and powerful individuals to carve out their paths amongst the unwanted land of the area. To these smaller, ruder tribes uncultured in fine wines and sedentary lifestyles we have seen even roman marble trodden under the sole of a coarsely made, but functional boot.

               To throw off the shackles of forced docility I predict will be the toughest part of any man returning to the path of his ancestors from this vast desert we have wandered into of late. For modern men to turn from the glossy covers and bright lights back to the forest and wood axe seems impossible, and yet many of us are characterised and admired purely for our forsaking of this vicarious life.

               No progress can be made in ourselves through the deeds of another. In order to improve ourselves, our standing, our bodies, our intelligence, our wisdom, our learning (I could go on) we must endure the risk and pain and strife ourselves. Without sacrifice to ourselves in the form of comfort, safety and happiness we cannot reap the rewards that we seek. It doesn’t take long in the winter to realise that watching your neighbour chop firewood does not heat our own homes.

               In the Havamal we see Odin hang himself from the tree of knowledge and pierce himself with his own spear in order to learn how to know the runes; representing the primordial truths. To many this may seem like nonsense, why would we stab ourselves to learn to read? But the symbolism is clear. Odin hangs himself from the tree, surrendering himself, removing his ego in his attempt to learn. He pierces himself with his own weapon, sacrificing himself. In the next part we see the verse ‘I trow I hung on that windy Tree, nine whole days and nights, stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin, myself to mine own self given, high on that Tree of which none hath heard, from what roots it rises to heaven.’ He has sacrificed himself to himself. He suffered for himself.

               He sacrificed, caused himself pain and hardship alone, refusing food and water, that he might learn more about the way the world works. When we learn we are and must do the same, we sacrifice our old understanding, our time and our old safety of assumption in order to learn greater truths beyond the frail and failing body of thought we had before. We must slay our own misconceptions, weaknesses, pains, by striking inward with the same weapons we solve outward problems.

               Through rejection of the vicarious and the hollow we can regain some of the nobility that we have lost in this age of mass nonsense.

               To quote from Paul Waggener; ‘We live in an age of constant distraction- the thousand lights of illusion that never turn off, all vying and competing for our attention, everything infinitely more convenient and “now” and pleasurable than everything else. Entertainment is a god of the modern world and so is Ease, sometimes called Luxury or Comfort – that insidious convenience of everything “on tap.”’

               The more I tear from these feeds and cables feeding my domesticated brain with the sludge of meaninglessness the more strength I find in my limbs to tear from the remaining connections. Each conduit of easy living and contentment I find truly to be chains upon their removal. Through hardship and self sacrifice we can -and should- become more. We can live real lives, experience the rush of a fight, experience the love of a beautiful woman, experience the triumph of understanding something previously nonsensical to you.

               Vicarious pleasure is a trap.

               We must reverse the conditioning of our brains to be satisfied with watching others take the prizes we truly wish for ourselves.

               Dylan

#vicarious #vicariousness #writing

[lachlan-adad1002-blog]

Experiment 3/ “NSEVUA”

My third experiment in relation to the static visual representation of chance was completed in a unique manner with a number of processes to reach a pleasing end result.  Firstly a die was rolled to select the number of letters that were to be picked at random a collection of letter pieces from the board game “up words” (a six was rolled).  Secondly all the letter pieces were placed facing down so the letters couldn’t be seen and then thouroughly shuffled about and six were selected at random, the order in which they were removed was the order they remained in once selected (the letters selected were N,S,E,V,U, and A).  From this point in an attempt to show the multitude of possibilities of chance from one set  random context I set myself the task of writing four diffrent stories of diffrent genres each discussing one of the sub themes of chance (some more discretely than others) in a manner I believe the video endevours to whow through visual and audio based techniques but is not quite able to reach due to technological and financial limitations.

Results:

Title : Smile for you are blessed

Next to myself, a calm manic laughter echoed through my hollowed bones.  Slowly it enthralled me curling, twisting, bending, and crawling its way up my spine and into the back of my mind reddening my eyes.  Everything darkened I saw no light, felt no sensation.  Venomed words echoed bouncing numbly around my skull ever increasing, like an overloaded pinball machine.  Unlike before the Sigyns’ bowl would provide no restoration against the pushing and shoving of the familiar external madness.   All I could do was wait for this life to subside and for my mentality to become unchained and for my mind to soar.

Title: predetermined realities of freedom

Neon lights reached upwards touching the sky, at least I assumed so, I myself cannot see the sky through the thick mixture of fog and soft rain that seemed ever-present in this city.  Some of the lights smouldered flickering like a dying fire whilst others shone brightly next to one another like newborn stars competing to create the most light.  Evening turned to night the city’s nature was unveiled.  Void and lifeless like a dead fish is my only description of the eyes of the patrons I met, faces still moved however they were animatronic in their sudden change of character like a selection of emotional display rather than genuine expression.  Unlike myself others had chosen to consume the new technologies presented to us and thus condemned themselves to limitation through their medium of existence rather than just being, through their search for their goals they succumbed to the promises of a happy existence at the price of their lives being falsehoods. Anon these animatronic people will subsume those around them outcasting those unlike them and with their shared common identity individuality will be lost in the death of freedom.

Title: Living in a time of progress

Natures craft is truly cruel to both the mind of those left and the body of those leaving.  Sickness has swept these planes many times, blackening of limbs, loss of sight, and children wailing clasping the icy hands of their guardians’ long dead were not uncommon sights.  Every day passed was a battle for unglorified survival whether this meant stealing of food, avoiding inquisition, or hiding away to avoid the sickness of others.  Vast planes of land now lay barren due to the burning of the sick, live or dead, however, that did not stop the first horseman riding further into our country and homes.  Urbanisation of the countryside had turned the whole country into a densely populated time bomb with the poor living conditions of many and the limited access to the expensive medicines which kept the rich and doctors in good health.  Alas maybe this was not natures cruelty to us  but natures representation of justice for all the animals we had heartlessly slaughtered for only a small portion of their body, for the raping of the land  for its resources without an endeavour towards restoration of the land after mining,  yes maybe this was natures justice to a predator who poisoned the river from which it drank.

Title: Fate of the invisable

Negative energies were once the only thing in existence, then came a light, a shield against this burden some named it luck others chance even fate became its name despite its conflicting definitions.  Spiritual followings of the shield became prominent and some began to follow the definitions more than the essence of the shield and its abilities for the protection of life, predeterminism and free will consumed the minds of many.  Variations of the understanding of the shield spread, some argued against its existence whilst others put the task to themselves to speak on behalf of the shield without any true understanding of it these soon led to cult followings and misinterpretation of both the words and essence of the shield.  Uniquely some sought the true essence of the shield and its catalyst without the fixation on personal followings or preaching of their own ideas in the seeking of mortal fame or glory.  Any chance of finding the true meaning of the shield relied on the acceptance of none and all possibilities some things must be conceded in order for acceptance of reality.

Reflection:  In the execution of the creation of these four stories chance was present at every step and like in chance my personal understanding of the limitations shifted my outcome from all other alternate possibilities whilst also becoming shaped to reveal specific things about chance through my deeper contemplation and ability to display that through written word opposed to the limitted subtleties of film.  I believe with this set of stories chance and some of  its sub themes are heavily represented however I believe the presentation of these stories needs to distance itself from the viewer in order for them to understand chances presence within it, for this I believe a puzzle or code where possibilities are forced to be contemplated would be optimal for this.

Conclusion: This experiment in the presentation of chance was a success in that is was able to have chance within itself during its construction and still represent chance in a more deeper and metaphorical matter. However this could be improved through the creation of a puzzle or code to force the viewer to question the potential of the work.

#adad1001assignment3

#adad1001assignment3

[mccullytech]

Will Breaking Down Silos Really Fix Your Broken Customer Experience?

London’s Heathrow Airport serves more than 75 million passengers every year. To accomplish this, Heathrow needs robust capability in a host of different areas — parking, security, train service, retail spaces, and more. But to passengers, Heathrow is simply an airport, a single entity. However, what happens on the way to or from, or inside the airport affects customer perspectives about it as a whole, and those perspectives are powerful.

That is the underlying reality of experience businesses. To succeed, companies need to understand the customer journey, and how to make it more streamlined, simple, and delightful for customers. For Heathrow Airport, that meant studying when, where, and how customers interacted with various parts of the whole, and what their impressions were along the way. The study found that security was the largest predictor of customer experience. Making an effort to improve that experience would elevate perception of the entire airport ecosystem.

Business Insider now predicts that 40 percent of businesses will fail over the next 10 years because they are unable to keep up with changing customer expectations. And, according to the 2017 Adobe Digital Trends Report, by 2020 customer experience will be the leading differentiator for businesses — surpassing even product price.  In other words, businesses need to learn how to empower their teams to keep up with the rapid pace of change if they want to survive the next decade.

Uncovering the origin of customer journey friction.

To understand how to improve the customer experience offered by your business, it is helpful to first understand at what point customers have difficulty during the customer journey. Bruce Swann, senior product marketing manager for Adobe Campaign, explains the root cause of the problem. He says, “most organizations today are structured from a marketing perspective — organized by channels. Often this is a result of strategies that an organization has taken over time. You have different technologies to support each strategy, and then you have a different team managing each technology.”

As businesses grow and add new technologies, they often bring in new talent to understand and operate them. In light of that, it makes sense from a management perspective that the new talent and technology would be grouped together into a new business unit — but this is how departmental silos originate. Unfortunately, when organized this way, business units tend to keep to themselves rather than collaborate.

Without collaboration between business units, companies won’t be able to build the kind of complete customer profile needed to map the entire customer journey.  Instead, each segment of the journey will be managed by a different, isolated department, leading to a disjointed customer experience.

Think it through — identify your silos.

In order to elevate customer experience in your business, it is necessary to work through these silos by employing the right technologies and training. Bruce is quick to point out that, while eliminating silos entirely to unify the customer journey may be the ultimate goal, trying to start that way might be too much to handle. “You don’t necessarily start by destroying silos — you eliminate the problems silos cause. This is profound because you can’t simply tear an organization apart and still expect it to function. Even here at Adobe, we’d love it if everybody just ripped everything out and replaced it with solutions from the Adobe Experience Cloud. But in reality, that’s not practical. Businesses need to start somewhere, and then build upon that. So don’t get so caught up in eliminating the silos — focus on the problems that silos cause.”

Chris Nguyen, a group product marketing manager for Adobe Experience Manager, suggests that you start by mapping the customer journey. “You have to consider any touch point or channel a customer uses to engage with your business — be it sales, in store, or online. Even more than identifying who, it’s about identifying how and when the customer engages with your organization.”

Once you map the customer journey, you’ll be able to see which organizational silos are handling which segments of the journey. This will help you to see which teams need to better integrate at which points in order to make the customer experience seamless. To manage that integration, and thereby bridge the gaps between silos, you need the right training and the right technology.

Lay the path — align goals for experience business integration.

One reason customers experience disjointed journeys is because the various departments along the way have different motives. They may have different goals, measures of success, and even incentives. The first step toward integration is to align these goals across the organization, and then train employees to work toward the new, unified goals. To do this, it can be helpful to define who your customer really is.

Bruce talks about this alignment, citing the example of Marriott Hotels and their journey toward integration and an improved customer experience. “They had to start by defining who their customer was,” he says. “They defined their customers as their guests, and then looked at interactions. Any given guest might make reservations online. The same guest might also download the app or make a phone call. That guest might be a business traveler during the week, but a leisure traveler during the weekend. Knowing the customer helped Marriott see how the silos actually overlap.”

Some departments are not traditionally “customer facing,” so such a definition may seem hollow to them, but they still have an important role to play. Haresh Kumar, director of strategy and product marketing for mobile and connected experience at Adobe, explains that role. “When you think of the customer experience, everyone has a customer, either internal or external,” he says. “As an organization, take the view that, if my internal customers — or employees — are happy, they can serve the external customer even better.”

By aligning the organization around a single customer vision and unified goals, you can cluster your silos closer together and encourage sharing across departmental borders. As a result, different departments can clearly see where they have the most impact, and how that impact can be improved by partnering with other teams.

Soften hearts — overcome resistance to change.

Of course, change isn’t always easy. Employees get accustomed to the way things are done, and they often resist changes to those processes. Even leadership might resist change if they feel it undercuts their authority.

In these cases, most resistance comes when individual silos have to scale back their efforts in order to align with the overall organizational goals. This often makes them feel like they are being sidelined. The key here is to help people in the silos connect with and own that big-picture vision of the customer and customer journey, not just the goals within their individual silos.

Bruce recommends that you start small. “Pick a project where teams can collaborate and work with one another,” he says. “Learn from that, and then grow based on the learning. Maybe bring on an additional channel or bring something to the strategies within different channels.”

Chris agrees. “The best thing for a company isn’t necessarily to go out and try to fix the entire customer experience journey up front,” he says. “Instead, focus on value segments within those customer journeys. Focus on where you can get the most value. Start there.”

Travelocity, for example, focused on its email campaigns. By sharing information between the IT and email-campaign silos, the company was able to decrease the time it took  to create campaigns from 3-5 days down to a matter of hours. By refining its picture of the customer journey, Travelocity could be more strategic and personalized in its campaigns, improving click-through rates by 15 percent and email-open rates by 40 percent.

Support the effort — empower with experience tools.

To make this integration work, you also need to provide teams with the right technology. For customer experience improvement, you need a strong foundational platform that can support the various apps and tools your teams need to succeed.

The customer journey provides guidance about what specific tools a business needs. For example, in the early part of the journey when customers are anonymous, companies need an audience manager. In terms of Adobe-specific products, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target work together to accelerate the beginning stages. Before and after a purchase, the customer might join a loyalty program or opt into email contact — this is when Adobe Campaign is effective. Campaign takes customer data and uses it to customize future contacts. Through the entire journey, a content engine like Adobe Experience Manager provides the foundation into which other solutions are integrated.

Supporting your employees with the right technology makes a big difference in how they’re able to support the customer. T-Mobile provides a perfect example of this in the context of integration along the customer journey.

T-Mobile tracks its users and sends out periodic offers, like most companies do. With T-Mobile, however, those offers are customized and integrated. If you click on an offer to upgrade, for instance, you will be taken to a portal where you can set an appointment at a local store. When you arrive for your appointment, there’s an associate ready your new device that is set up with your account information. Or they might, alternatively, show you various options for devices based on your preferences, and then help you get everything set up on the one you choose.

The email connects to the appointment-setting system, which integrates with the in-store scheduling system, all of which are designed to provide a personalized experience for the customer leading to a purchase decision. This would not be doable without the right technology framework and integrative tools in place for communication between teams.

Keep the end goal in mind —upgrade your business.

When it comes to the customer experience, top brands like Heathrow, Travelocity, T-Mobile, and Marriott, agree that it is important. But getting started, and making it seamless can be a real challenge. By first defining your customer, and then mapping out that customer’s journey, you can begin to focus your efforts. Using that customer journey as a roadmap, align your organizational and departmental goals, then integrate the teams necessary to achieve those goals along each stage of the customer journey — and don’t forget support functions like finance, HR, and product development.

Then, using technology, uncover the weak points along your customer journey, and build cross-functional teams to address those points. Don’t worry initially about tearing down silos. Let them do what they do, but focus on bringing silos together to share information and expertise to streamline the customer experience, and achieve your shared goals. Start small, but start now, and you will get up to speed, and position your company to succeed in the future experience business economy.

The post Will Breaking Down Silos Really Fix Your Broken Customer Experience? appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/will-breaking-down-silos-really-fix-your-broken-customer-experience/

#Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe

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Will Breaking Down Silos Really Fix Your Broken Customer Experience?

London’s Heathrow Airport serves more than 75 million passengers every year. To accomplish this, Heathrow needs robust capability in a host of different areas — parking, security, train service, retail spaces, and more. But to passengers, Heathrow is simply an airport, a single entity. However, what happens on the way to or from, or inside the airport affects customer perspectives about it as a whole, and those perspectives are powerful.

That is the underlying reality of experience businesses. To succeed, companies need to understand the customer journey, and how to make it more streamlined, simple, and delightful for customers. For Heathrow Airport, that meant studying when, where, and how customers interacted with various parts of the whole, and what their impressions were along the way. The study found that security was the largest predictor of customer experience. Making an effort to improve that experience would elevate perception of the entire airport ecosystem.

Business Insider now predicts that 40 percent of businesses will fail over the next 10 years because they are unable to keep up with changing customer expectations. And, according to the 2017 Adobe Digital Trends Report, by 2020 customer experience will be the leading differentiator for businesses — surpassing even product price.  In other words, businesses need to learn how to empower their teams to keep up with the rapid pace of change if they want to survive the next decade.

Uncovering the origin of customer journey friction.

To understand how to improve the customer experience offered by your business, it is helpful to first understand at what point customers have difficulty during the customer journey. Bruce Swann, senior product marketing manager for Adobe Campaign, explains the root cause of the problem. He says, “most organizations today are structured from a marketing perspective — organized by channels. Often this is a result of strategies that an organization has taken over time. You have different technologies to support each strategy, and then you have a different team managing each technology.”

As businesses grow and add new technologies, they often bring in new talent to understand and operate them. In light of that, it makes sense from a management perspective that the new talent and technology would be grouped together into a new business unit — but this is how departmental silos originate. Unfortunately, when organized this way, business units tend to keep to themselves rather than collaborate.

Without collaboration between business units, companies won’t be able to build the kind of complete customer profile needed to map the entire customer journey.  Instead, each segment of the journey will be managed by a different, isolated department, leading to a disjointed customer experience.

Think it through — identify your silos.

In order to elevate customer experience in your business, it is necessary to work through these silos by employing the right technologies and training. Bruce is quick to point out that, while eliminating silos entirely to unify the customer journey may be the ultimate goal, trying to start that way might be too much to handle. “You don’t necessarily start by destroying silos — you eliminate the problems silos cause. This is profound because you can’t simply tear an organization apart and still expect it to function. Even here at Adobe, we’d love it if everybody just ripped everything out and replaced it with solutions from the Adobe Experience Cloud. But in reality, that’s not practical. Businesses need to start somewhere, and then build upon that. So don’t get so caught up in eliminating the silos — focus on the problems that silos cause.”

Chris Nguyen, a group product marketing manager for Adobe Experience Manager, suggests that you start by mapping the customer journey. “You have to consider any touch point or channel a customer uses to engage with your business — be it sales, in store, or online. Even more than identifying who, it’s about identifying how and when the customer engages with your organization.”

Once you map the customer journey, you’ll be able to see which organizational silos are handling which segments of the journey. This will help you to see which teams need to better integrate at which points in order to make the customer experience seamless. To manage that integration, and thereby bridge the gaps between silos, you need the right training and the right technology.

Lay the path — align goals for experience business integration.

One reason customers experience disjointed journeys is because the various departments along the way have different motives. They may have different goals, measures of success, and even incentives. The first step toward integration is to align these goals across the organization, and then train employees to work toward the new, unified goals. To do this, it can be helpful to define who your customer really is.

Bruce talks about this alignment, citing the example of Marriott Hotels and their journey toward integration and an improved customer experience. “They had to start by defining who their customer was,” he says. “They defined their customers as their guests, and then looked at interactions. Any given guest might make reservations online. The same guest might also download the app or make a phone call. That guest might be a business traveler during the week, but a leisure traveler during the weekend. Knowing the customer helped Marriott see how the silos actually overlap.”

Some departments are not traditionally “customer facing,” so such a definition may seem hollow to them, but they still have an important role to play. Haresh Kumar, director of strategy and product marketing for mobile and connected experience at Adobe, explains that role. “When you think of the customer experience, everyone has a customer, either internal or external,” he says. “As an organization, take the view that, if my internal customers — or employees — are happy, they can serve the external customer even better.”

By aligning the organization around a single customer vision and unified goals, you can cluster your silos closer together and encourage sharing across departmental borders. As a result, different departments can clearly see where they have the most impact, and how that impact can be improved by partnering with other teams.

Soften hearts — overcome resistance to change.

Of course, change isn’t always easy. Employees get accustomed to the way things are done, and they often resist changes to those processes. Even leadership might resist change if they feel it undercuts their authority.

In these cases, most resistance comes when individual silos have to scale back their efforts in order to align with the overall organizational goals. This often makes them feel like they are being sidelined. The key here is to help people in the silos connect with and own that big-picture vision of the customer and customer journey, not just the goals within their individual silos.

Bruce recommends that you start small. “Pick a project where teams can collaborate and work with one another,” he says. “Learn from that, and then grow based on the learning. Maybe bring on an additional channel or bring something to the strategies within different channels.”

Chris agrees. “The best thing for a company isn’t necessarily to go out and try to fix the entire customer experience journey up front,” he says. “Instead, focus on value segments within those customer journeys. Focus on where you can get the most value. Start there.”

Travelocity, for example, focused on its email campaigns. By sharing information between the IT and email-campaign silos, the company was able to decrease the time it took  to create campaigns from 3-5 days down to a matter of hours. By refining its picture of the customer journey, Travelocity could be more strategic and personalized in its campaigns, improving click-through rates by 15 percent and email-open rates by 40 percent.

Support the effort — empower with experience tools.

To make this integration work, you also need to provide teams with the right technology. For customer experience improvement, you need a strong foundational platform that can support the various apps and tools your teams need to succeed.

The customer journey provides guidance about what specific tools a business needs. For example, in the early part of the journey when customers are anonymous, companies need an audience manager. In terms of Adobe-specific products, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target work together to accelerate the beginning stages. Before and after a purchase, the customer might join a loyalty program or opt into email contact — this is when Adobe Campaign is effective. Campaign takes customer data and uses it to customize future contacts. Through the entire journey, a content engine like Adobe Experience Manager provides the foundation into which other solutions are integrated.

Supporting your employees with the right technology makes a big difference in how they’re able to support the customer. T-Mobile provides a perfect example of this in the context of integration along the customer journey.

T-Mobile tracks its users and sends out periodic offers, like most companies do. With T-Mobile, however, those offers are customized and integrated. If you click on an offer to upgrade, for instance, you will be taken to a portal where you can set an appointment at a local store. When you arrive for your appointment, there’s an associate ready your new device that is set up with your account information. Or they might, alternatively, show you various options for devices based on your preferences, and then help you get everything set up on the one you choose.

The email connects to the appointment-setting system, which integrates with the in-store scheduling system, all of which are designed to provide a personalized experience for the customer leading to a purchase decision. This would not be doable without the right technology framework and integrative tools in place for communication between teams.

Keep the end goal in mind —upgrade your business.

When it comes to the customer experience, top brands like Heathrow, Travelocity, T-Mobile, and Marriott, agree that it is important. But getting started, and making it seamless can be a real challenge. By first defining your customer, and then mapping out that customer’s journey, you can begin to focus your efforts. Using that customer journey as a roadmap, align your organizational and departmental goals, then integrate the teams necessary to achieve those goals along each stage of the customer journey — and don’t forget support functions like finance, HR, and product development.

Then, using technology, uncover the weak points along your customer journey, and build cross-functional teams to address those points. Don’t worry initially about tearing down silos. Let them do what they do, but focus on bringing silos together to share information and expertise to streamline the customer experience, and achieve your shared goals. Start small, but start now, and you will get up to speed, and position your company to succeed in the future experience business economy.

The post Will Breaking Down Silos Really Fix Your Broken Customer Experience? appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/will-breaking-down-silos-really-fix-your-broken-customer-experience/

#Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe