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spooky-ghostwriter · 10 months

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Sentinels Deck Number 6 - Ol’ Inkwell Town

A while back, I posted some Sentinels stuff which included a set of 1920s cartoon promos for all of my heroes - except Silhouette, who I hadn’t made at the time, but she is not left out!

But I know what you’re thinking. What are these old-timey cartoon versions of my heroes? How do they fit into the flimsy made-up canon that my decks are retroactively based on?

Okay, you’re probably not asking those questions, but I made a whole deck to answer them. Welcome to Ol’ Inkwell Town...

The story behind this deck is basically that the heroes woke up one day and found that they were no longer in New Granwall City. They were in an alternate cartoon version of their hometown - and they had to find a way to get back.

Ol’ Inkwell Town is made up of three distinct locations. My heroes Gold Dragon and Skimmer, plus guest heroes Charade and Alius (by insomn and Mistillitain respectively), explored the main city. Various street corners looked familiar to Gold Dragon and Skimmer, though danger lurked in the skies.

The first cards to show off are pretty simple mechanically, so let’s talk thematics. Ol’ Inkwell Town is mostly based on black and white cartoons. I watched a lot of Popeye in particular, since Gold Dragon’s old timey cartoon version was heavily based on Popeye. The deck also includes some Loony Tunes clichés like falling pianos and anvils.

Instead of simply drawing a falling anvil, I turned it into a character. Living objects is a bizarre trend of those classic cartoons, so I put faces and white gloves on everything from lamp posts to other heroes’ equipment.

The deck is intended to be wacky but deceptively brutal. Making hero equipment cards “come alive” is an effect that already exists in Sentinels, and it’s a dangerous effect because it allows villains to destroy your cards simply by doing damage. Ol’ Inkwell Town’s version is even more brutal by having your equipment fight you when you try to use them. However, heroes whose equipment are mostly magical (denoted by the Relic keyword) are immune.

Bomby is a very destructive effect, but you have a whole round to try deal with him before he goes off.

The second location visited by heroes is the cartoon equivalent of the Alesia Circus. This is where Escarlata, Electrogeist, and Tsukiko ended up.

The Table of Pies is both a benefit and a negative. Playing the top card of the environment deck usually means another cartoon is coming into play, accelerating the deck’s nonsense. Then it increases the damage the cartoons are throwing around by giving them an arsenal of pies.

However, the heroes can use the pies too - either throwing them as well, or eating them to recover HP. Heroes typically have powers that are better than what Table of Pies offers, but in a pinch, those powers might be exactly what you need.

Past the pies and into the circus proper, Escarlata and Tsukiko discovered an old-timey version of Tsukiko herself, who cast a horrifying spell on our modern-day Escarlata...

When Escarlata was pulled into the box, a cartoon version of her appeared as well! Electrogeist and the modern-day Tsukiko were shocked!

The Enraged Escarlata isn’t really a card in the deck. At the start of a game of Sentinels, you choose one of the 2-5 variant character cards that each hero has available, play as that character card, and put the rest back. Only one card in the official game can switch variants mid-game, but I think it’s interesting design space, so I threw it on a card here in an intentionally wacky environment.

The “thematic” way to play this deck is to have my heroes switch into their cartoon selves when Forced Volunteer hits them, but you’re free to switch your hero into any variant you want.

The modern-day Escarlata wasn’t really gone forever, though, and she quickly found her way back to the stage from wherever the magic had put her. There, she met her own cartoon counterpart...

The deck has two copies of Cartoon Counterpart, and even though it took extra drawing, I was convinced to change the art for the second copy. This is an annoyingly wordy card, but the premise is simple. Cartoon Counterpart fights its “owner”, who thematically is the one the cartoon is a counterpart of, but if you beat it up enough, it helps you. Cartoon violence is the solution to all of cartoon life’s problems.

So, where was the original Tsukiko during all of this? Erm... occupied.

When I asked my friends on the Custom Sentinels Discord for things they wanted to see in an old-timey cartoon deck, I got lots of ideas for tropes and clichés (most of which I already had on my list). But someone (insomn?) reminded me of a saw I’d drawn chopping Tsukiko in half on the incap for her own cartoon version.

This inspired Choppy Sawington, who is once again harassing Tsukiko. He has a really nasty effect that I’ve toyed with before, of either chopping a hero’s hand in half or dealing some damage. (I would’ve liked it to chop the hero’s HP in half, but that’s way too strong.)

The icon on Choppy is Tsukiko’s nemesis icon, meaning that Tsukiko and Choppy deal extra damage to each other. Given Choppy’s ties to stage magic, and Choppy focusing on discarding cards compared to Tsukiko’s focus on handing out card draw, and the fact that Choppy’s only victim so far has been Tsukiko, I felt it was more than justified.

The third location in the environment is only touched on briefly, but it’s the haunted mansion where a devilish vampire lives.

Silhouette’s cartoon counterpart, The Zany Zywen mentioned right at the start, is a user of dark magic who offers power to those who seek her out. This is usually a monkey’s paw situation where the person who gains the power realizes they were better off without it.

Naturally, Silhouette herself is all about dark magic and cursed power, and envious of her cartoon self, so she charged right into the castle. A guest hero, Antiquarian by Gaist, joins her.

The gargoyles themselves are your typical prankster minions, and in the game they’re annoyingly hard to kill and annoyingly destroy the heroes’ stuff. I don’t have much to say on them in particular, so let me go off on an art tangent.

When I first started this deck, I’d been drawing simple backgrounds (or no backgrounds at all!) for the old-timey cartoon stuff. However, not only did I need some background art for the digital implementation of the deck, actual old-timey cartoons really did have nice background art.

The backgrounds are still fairly simple compared to what I usually do, but I used CSP’s pencil tool to shade and add a unique texture to everything. I wanted to give everything a grainy look to it and make the non-cartoon characters really pop.

Zany Bats is a card designed pretty much for Silhouette. The bats seek out the hero with the lowest HP, and Silhouette is likely to be lowest since she starts with such low HP. A hero bitten by the bats may deal themselves Infernal damage, which is Silhouette’s whole shtick. And finally - this one was accidental synergy - if Silhouette plays her own Form of the Bat card, she has enough damage reduction that the bats won’t hit her at all.

After the three groups of heroes escaped their perils, they all tried to meet up to share their findings. But there were still two obstacles...

As the various cartoons met up, they started a fight that escalated into a giant brawl.

The two in the center of Big Ball of Violence are Escarlata and The Zany Zywen. You can also see Tsukiko’s Tank Top sticking out of the cloud, as well as Gold Dragon’s tail, one of Charade’s now-sentient Stun Batons, Choppy Sawington’s... nose...?, and a foot. That foot belongs to Ampere, another guest hero by Mistillitain.

Finally, there was but a single obstacle...

Me!

Cartoons and their animator fighting is a classic cartoon trope - though admittedly it’s more of a Looney Tunes thing than a black-and-white cartoon thing.

I had some mixed thoughts about what the animator should look like. A giant hand from the sky? Should it even be a character, or just the reality-warping pencil itself? But I like where this settled.

The Animator has two abilities. It “erases” a cartoon and deals radiant damage, and it also plays the top card of each deck, essentially creating and rewriting the game every round.

In the art, we see a guest hero Chronan the Barbarian (made by Gaist) as The Animator draws a cartoon counterpart for him.

And that’s the deck! None of the cards represent how the heroes actually got home, but I think there are a few possible options. Maybe The Animator was the one responsible for bringing them there (I was) and sent them back. Maybe Silhouette managed to make a deal with her cartoon self and got sent back with dark magic. And maybe Tsukiko’s magic box was powerful enough to return them to the real world.

Whatever the case, I had a blast making this deck and I hope Sentinels custom content players have just as much fun playing it.

#sentinels of the multiverse #fan-made environment #new granwall guardians #tsukiko #silhouette #escarlata #gold dragon #my art

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rai-knightshade · 5 months

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Get to know me tag game!

Exactly what it says on the tin, I was tagged by @samblerambles for this one!

Top 3 Ships: I hope this question means just, like, currently, cause no way could I choose a top 3 of all time 😭. Current Nuclear-Levels-of-Brainrot Blorbo ships are: 1) Jeca (Jesse x Beca, Pitch Perfect); 2) Zelink (Link x Zelda, primarily Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom); and 3) Zekkna (Jaina x Zekk, Star Wars Legends/Young Jedi Knights). Honorable mentions go to the polyam versions of these ships tho (JessexBecaxChloe and Jaina's Mini Harem aka JainaxZekkxJag(xmaybe Kyp but I'm not sold on him). And maybe also YonaxSidonxLinkxZelda, which I just think is neat and fun)

Favorite color: yellow! I love a good golden, sunny yellow I gotta say 😁

Last Song: unintentionally, Cake by Itzy (played on the radio at the boba place I went to today); intentionally, Mr. Perfectly Fine (Fearless Vault Track by Taylor Swift)

Last Book: you know what, it's been 7 months since I last read anything, I think that officially makes this answer None until I get around to reading another book 😅.... Or it's the Little Golden Books baby's first biography on Taylor Swift. Which might actually be cringier 😅 (cringe is dead and it's a cute book etc etc but goddamn does this still say something about my ability to read actual books nowadays rip)

Last Movie: The Eras Tour Movie, preceded by The Barbie Movie

Currently Watching: nothing intentionally. I like watching some of the MeTV block of classic 70's/80's/90's shows tho. I'm always down for classic Macgyver and Emergency!

Current obsession: while you might come to the conclusion, based on this post, that it's Taylor Swift, I'm actually still fairly normal about her I promise 😅 I maintain the distinction that I'm a swiftie, but I'm not a Swiftie™. There's a difference. No, the actual answer is only mentioned once so far: Pitch Perfect, more specifically Jeca (and also SwanSongs aka Jesse/Beca/Chloe), even more specifically the secret good sequel to the third movie where Jeca can still win (and everyone is truly, canonically queer in a myriad of ways) that lives rent-free in my head, multiple pages of my sketchbooks, and as the Big Damn Fic™ I've been posting very slowly to AO3 since last year. Don't believe me? I'm gonna add '#jeca' and '#not to Blorbo on main but' to the tags of this post, look through the reblogs and actual blogs I've tagged over the past couple years and you'll truly understand how deep it all goes.

Currently Working On: allegedly, it's chapter 2 of the Big Damn Fic™ I just mentioned, 'these hands had to let it go free and- (This Love came back to me)', for which i just posted the ending a couple weeks ago as its own fic in the series to show that I'm doing something with it.

Country You Want to Visit: Scotland, Norway, and New Zealand. And also maybe Iceland. Pretty much in that order. I'd take a tour of Europe too tbh but those are the Big 3 (4).

Tags for Funsies: @thesorrowoflizards @lord-owlsnake @qcboeifzzz @beautiful-flutey @avian-violet and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it! Go for it! (No pressure tho ofc)

#tag games #ask games #taylor swift #jeca #not to blorbo on main but #zelink #zekkna #zekk nolastname #zekk solo fel #oh man is the brainrot strong for these stories #got brainrot so bad i started mentally fleshing out jesse's mom and ended up drawing up an entire page of drawings for her #i think she's my second favorite pitch perfect oc now (second only to my beloved sunshine daughter Maria #naturally)#ill talk more about her when i post said drawings but just know that a) shes kind of a weirdo just like her son #b) she's World's Best Mom™#c) she will see a feral stray standoffish cat in human form (aka Beca) and say 'is anyone else gonna adopt this poor girl'--#--and not wait for an answer. sorry beca she's your mom now. yeah its permanent no backsies. yeah youre on the christmas card too.#(its ok tho in this verse beca's mom is basically nonexistent--much like the actual movies make her--so she's sorely in need of one)#anyways. brainrot. its real bro

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crystalelemental · 1 year

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In anticipation of Scarlet and Violet, I think now’s a great time to update the overall opinions on games within the series. So I made a tier list that, I imagine, no one is surprised about. Though who knows, maybe some of you are surprised. I was. This is the worst bell curse my opinions have ever produced.

Overall, this is an assessment of personal enjoyment. I want to call it quality too, and will talk about my perception of quality, but let’s be real: it’s personal enjoyment. As such, some of the placements are more based around the questions “Would I intentionally pick this up again?” and “Would I enjoy playing it again?” There are extra aspects that go into those questions, but I’ll address those as I bring up the games.

Speaking of, in the interest of avoiding just going in a logical order, I’m going to go by generation, because that’s the order I made the list in. Which means initially, Gens 1 and 2 largely fell in C until opinions started happening and stuff got moved. And I think it’s more interesting to talk that process of why. Also note, I only put one of each game cluster up, choosing based on which game I tended to gravitate toward for the cluster.

GEN 1

Red/Blue (D2). The games that started the franchise, and are universally beloved. Except, notoriously, by me. Listen, I get that there’s nostalgia, but that’s all there is anymore. Red and Blue were great for their time, but the instant we stepped into Gen 2 it became apparent how much better we could have it. Red and Blue are not games that I go back to...almost ever. Very, very rarely do I think about just making a fun run through, and almost every time it’s because I went traveling somewhere and forgot to bring the physical carts for other games, but Red/Blue are downloaded on the 3DS. It’s just not that much fun anymore. Inventory space limitations beyond reason, the nightmares of Wrap/Rage, no rebattling any kind of trainer with fairly low level wild Pokemon that made catching up difficult, the lack of almost anything interesting going on because you had like five non-Normal attacks in the game. It’s a fine start, but it’s the kind of start that legitimately should’ve been left in the past as something that started the series, but isn’t a major focus.

Yellow (D4). Okay look. I know it’s a generally accepted rule that the third game in the series is the better option, and that Yellow is included. I do not like Yellow as much. These are mostly petty reasons, but they bug me. The most “legitimate” is lack of reasonable access to Missingno. Sometimes, Red/Blue entices because of the raw clownshoes of Missingno’s presence. Without that, Yellow doesn’t feel as ridiculous of a time, which is a drawback. Second, I don’t love that I have to keep Pikachu around. I like Raichu, but I never liked Pikachu. It was so bad that, as a kid, I’d get my cousin’s Red and trade Pikachu to it, evolve it, and send it back. I do not want Pikachu on my team, unless it’s waiting to be Raichu. Which leads into the big, incredibly petty complaint: this game is just playing as Ash. No, really, look at it. The means of acquiring the three starters is like...the exact method the anime shows up. Koga has Venomoth line only because that’s what he uses in the anime. Yellow is PokeAni Season 1 The Game, and while I liked the show as a kid, I never liked Ash enough to ever want to play as him. Not that the distinction ever sunk in as a kid, but it bothers me more over time. I also have gone from “Oh cool, you get all the starters” to “that feels kinda cheap, and why are there still version exclusives if we’re getting rid of that requirement?” I dunno. I like Red/Blue better.

GEN 2

Silver/Gold (B2) - I feel like when quality is discussed, often people will defer to “Pokemon is a kid’s game, they made it for kids.” Which is fair, but also, this came out when I was like ten, and even then I could feel the difference. Everything that made Gen 1 clunky was gone, and Johto remains one of my favorite regions. It’s a cool place! Silver legitimately felt like a more exciting experience, with great new Pokemon and old faces alike. Frankly, it’d be higher if it weren’t for Crystal and the remakes, which...kinda make these games far less enticing to pick up. That said, I have to bring up the biggest issue of all things Johto. Wild encounter levels are pitifully low, rebattling trainers still isn’t much of a thing, and levels scale really fast in some places. In some ways, it has a legitimately worse version of Gen 1′s problem with this. While completely subjective, I feel like the tradeoff was that Gen 2 felt bigger. I mean...it honestly was because of the dual-region thing, but even just Johto felt bigger than just Kanto, with more side events like the Bug Catching Contest and trying to track the Legendary Beasts, or exploring optional caverns like Mt. Mortar. Johto felt a bit more exploratory, and because of stat experience, you never actually fell too far behind despite staying lower level, making it feel a lot more like you’re the underdog trainer fighting stronger opponents and winning with your friends. The exception’s the Red fight, which is bad, but Gen 2 never bothered me as much as Gen 1 despite having similar issues.

Crystal (A5) - My beloved. Crystal was the first game I legitimately fell in love with. I still have incredibly fond memories of the game. Which is fascinating because I don’t actually think all that much changed between GS and C. The biggest thing was honestly Pokemon placement. Early access to Poliwag, Teddiursa, and Phanpy was neat, reminiscent of Yellow adding Mankey and the Nidorans before Brock. I...really couldn’t tell you much else, though. This is really more a situation where I don’t think it’s legitimately better in every way, I just like it better in every way, and always pick it up over Gold or Silver. And sometimes over HGSS.

GEN 3

Ruby/Sapphire (C1) - When this game first came out, I...did not love it. In a weird way, I think this game really indicated what the fallout of Dexit was going to be. All my old Pokemon couldn’t be transferred, and I hated it. I didn’t have any of my Eevees. I couldn’t trade my Mewtwo. So much was just gone in the generational shift. While I’ve since gotten over this, and come to actually appreciate when games push their new dex, Gen 3 remains pretty mid-tier for me. Well. The originals, anyway. Ruby and Sapphire never quite caught on with me, and Hoenn remains one of my less favorite regions on the whole. I could not tell you why. I have no especially negative opinions about it, it’s just hard for me to like Hoenn. I do think part of it is the Eternal Surfing, and the fact that Magma and Aqua remain the dumbest teams. Because otherwise...Hoenn has a great dex, some great gym leader designs and concepts, Steven Stone is there. I shouldn’t be as lukewarm on it as I am. But, here we are. As for why C-tier, it’s because I have not ever thought about picking up Ruby or Sapphire. The reason should be obvious.

Emerald (S2) - Until recently, I would’ve lumped Emerald in with Ruby and Sapphire. It was actually a recent playthrough that really got me invested, to the point I think it has legitimate claim to being the best game in the series. I argue this due to challenge. When challenge is discussed in Pokemon, I feel like it’s pretty universally in terms of absurd, tedious challenge that is honestly just bad game design. Think about things like how Gen 7 and BDSP addressed concerns around difficulty, and produced something that lacks any sense of fun. “Challenge” is ill defined, subjective, and most problematic, not synonymous with good game design. Sure, you can make foes with capped EVs, IVs, and positive natures, but is it fun for the player to have to stop, breed something with perfect IVs, and farm millions of dollars 20k at a time over days to catch up? No. No, that’s horrid. There are other ways to go about this, and Emerald goes about it the right way. Emerald introduced Boosting moves in a big way, incorporating Bulk Up, Calm Mind, and Dragon Dance as the big names. And as a result, they anticipated everyone would play around with them a bit, and built battles that aim to counter this strategic play. Almost every fight offers counterplay to setup, be it Winona’s Perish Song on Swablu, Sidney’s Sand Attack on Intimidate Mightyena, Glacia’s Body Slam paralysis on Sealeo, Wallace’s Water Spout Wailord, all the way up to Steven Stone’s Toxic and Spikes on Skarmory. The game introduced strategies that the player could try out, and intelligently built its battles around them, being able to demonstrate responses. This is the kind of direction that I think the series needed to go, building challenges that were more strategic. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way, because Emerald failed its mission by proving the most effective way to win was just four coverage moves. Just hit them and most of your opponent’s counterplay is irrelevant. It’s why I can’t accept it as top dog, despite having some really fantastic concepts behind it. I love this game, it’s not easily among the favorites, but if it had just gone a little further with its teambuilding it could’ve been perfect.

FRLG (A4) - I mentioned Gen 2 was my youthful realization of what quality of life improvement was? FRLG was my realization of what graphical improvement was. I kinda started console games around OoT, I missed the major jump. But seeing the old beep boop Pokemon game in this kind of color, with this much improvement to the sprite work, honestly dazzled me. It was such an improvement. And if I’m going to get nostalgia about Kanto, this is where it happens. This game exclusively. FRLG has a lot that fixes the original Gen 1, to the point I consider it the only perfect remake. Every mechanical issue is gone. The Vs Seeker lets you battle trainers again, easing the issue of being massively under-leveled. The Sevii Islands added a lot of meat to the game. FRLG is fantastic.

GEN 4

Diamond/Pearl (C2) - I will be honest. These are the only games I haven’t had access to a physical copy for. My cousin stole my Diamond ages ago and I never got it back. I uh. I don’t remember much specific. But I remember not liking them quite as much, and thus not liking Gen 4 quite as much, until...

Platinum (S1) - Platinum is still my pick for the best game in the series. I will admit to serious flaws. Despite Emerald’s strategic approach, Platinum goes in the exact opposite direction, locking entire strategies behind the BP shop for no reason other than removing boosting and Toxic/Paralysis from any equation. This game wants you to hit each other with sticks and nothing more. Jokes on them, because movepools are now big enough, and technical applications wide enough, that you can do some fun things with the game. This is where I feel like things actually worked. In Emerald, trying to Leech Seed stall usually gets you killed, because of how well your opponent can counter you. But Platinum doesn’t have the same aggression toward setup leads. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, strategy is much more effective in Platinum. On the other, so are setup sweepers, who can absolutely body most of the game. Just about any kind of setup can turn Cynthia’s final battle into a pretty easy time. I’ve absolutely 6-0′d her team because of how easy it is to set up on Spiritomb. What I think is nice about Platinum, though, is that it will showcase strategies through your opponents as well. Emerald didn’t do a whole lot of cohesive strategy, so much as just having strong anti-leads. Platinum is where you get team structures like Gardenia, who can set Reflect to block Bird Sweep, followed into Cherrim’s Leech Seed to obliterate Bronzor stall. Or where you get Candice, whose Hail-based shenanigans means she can potentially win any matchup just by having RNG work in her favor a bit, and thus pushing players to use their own weather to respond. The game isn’t quite perfect about it, but Platinum feels like another attempt to have legitimate team cohesion and strategy behind it, which makes it more engaging. It’s also like...the only game where I’ve never been able to handle the final fight 15-20 levels below them. I’m always within like 5-10 levels of Cynthia. Part of this is difficulty, but part of it is what I talked about with Emerald: better game design. Having to go from facing level 62 to level 88 is not a fun nor reasonable challenge. The only solution is tedious grinding, or having gotten really good at counterpicking the final battle. Cynthia always feels so close in level because the content of Platinum is so dense that being under-leveled is a choice. There’s an extra thing to do constantly, and the introduction of open areas with an exploration partner who heals you was a brilliant way to allow players to farm a few levels without running back and forth to the Pokemon Center. Even post-game, you have the entire island to explore. Platinum is wonderfully content-rich, well-balanced, and by far my favorite in the series.

HGSS (A2) - HGSS is an objective improvement over GS, but arguably C. I say this on one technicality: all the cool early access Pokemon in Crystal aren’t there is HGSS. I don’t agree with it. But it’s hard to deny how much more HGSS has. The Safari Zone offering access to the Kanto-exclusive new Pokemon was a delight, and added more territory to explore to help close level gaps. Kanto itself felt a bit more full, so it wasn’t quite as empty a sandbox as it was in the original games. They kept the Suicune subplot, which is great except the part where Suicune has to wait until after your first run of the league. Speaking of, the improvement of the league in a rematch helps bridge the gap between Blue and Red’s fights. You’re not as required to experience a 26 level jump in one go. Though you’re still likely to be massively under-leveled. There’s also the questionable choice of Voltorb Flip. Personally...I liked it better. I could never do slots, but I’m good at Voltorb Flip. As another small addition, the Kimono Girls were given tremendous significance, which I loved, and we got a bit more of the lore of the region. So with all this praise, why not S-tier? It still suffers from the same thing every Johto game does. Progression is slow, grinding practically required, levels too low to gain meaningful experience, etc etc. I’d argue it’s worse here, because stat experience was a free boost to everything that could legitimately close every statistical gap despite being 20 levels under. Here, you get EVs, which are outright impossible to control for, and therefore can’t offer the same cushioning from being constantly under-leveled. As a result, it can legitimately feel more stacked against you. Some people like that. They’re lunatics.

GEN 5

Black/White (S3) - Black and White has the best story in the series. I don’t feel that’s controversial. It also did the best thing ever by completely cutting off previous Pokemon, and making you operate only with the new stuff. That one might be controversial, but I loved it. Reusable TMs saved a ton of effort, but I will admit to sometimes missing the strategy of where to allocate those resources. The league being interrupted by the villain team and N’s rise is way more interesting a shakeup to the Pokemon Formula than anything Gen 7 tried to do. Gen 5 has some of the best stuff the series has done, and yes, that includes Garbodor. So why below Emerald and Platinum? Black and White was a bit of a step back to me when it comes to strategy. Nothing stands out like a Candice fight, and no one’s got a particularly strong anti-lead like Emerald to suggest serious planning went into it. A lot of Gen 5 feels more like “We’re going to hit you with a big stick.” It also has a little bit of a Gen 2 problem, thanks to scaled experience. Levels are not intrinsically too low, but because experience is scaled lower when you’re above an opponent’s level, grinding is effectively impossible...unless you Audino farm, which is the single most tedious means of gaining EXP the series has ever produced. Because of this, you’re constantly underleveled against opponents who are really strong, and now have nigh-endless coverage options by this point in the series, and all your best strategic responses like boosting moves are TM locked to post-game. BW is legitimately just less fun to play than those games. Even as fantastic as it is, Gen 5 is a generation that takes a little building up to. I have trouble just picking up and playing without at least some level of “Yeah, this is what I want over Platinum/Emerald/HGSS.” But when I want soemthing in Gen 5? Man, this is the one.

Black/White2 (A3) - A rare case of the continuation being worse. Not significantly worse, I think it does some interesting stuff in its approach to Team Plasma’s division between those who were in it for themselves, and those who earnestly believed in the mission. But I also think...BW2 incorporating other regions’ Pokemon was for the worse? I liked being left with just the new region. They don’t do anything too interesting with the league this time around. Iris is bizarrely absent most of the game, despite having the regional champion be a big deal in like...every other generation. There’s an odd amount of backtracking at times as you navigate the region, making it feel a little more tedious. And it also keeps a lot of the flaws of BW1, notably the EXP scaling and Audino thing. To make matters worse, it also has Hugh, the worst rival. Going from Bianca and Cheren, two of the best, to the worst in the series, is a rough transition. I’m also going to concede, I never really liked Colress. I could never get a read on him or what his deal was. Still, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t add some of the best side features of any game. PokeStar Studios blew my mind the first time though, it was such a cool and creative idea. Pokemon World Tournament bringing in nearly every face from the series was super cool, and having matchups against other gym leaders along their favored typing was everything my aspiring monotype heart could’ve asked for. And nothing about the game was specifically bad, it just didn’t live up to BW1, in my book.

GEN 6

XY (B3) - I feel like this may be too generous, but I’m sticking with it. XY is not great. It is absolutely riddled with problems. EXP All trivializes the game, and even without it, the game’s surprisingly easy. Mega Evolutions were so cool, but then you don’t have access to almost anything until post-game. The region is loaded with options, but this always gave me more choice paralysis than excitement about options. I never know what to run, and get frustrated with the selection process by like...Parfum Palace. There’s also just not much attention given to the characters, which feels incredibly odd after Gen 5′s fantastic emphasis on character and story. Speaking of story, Team Flare is still one of the least coherent villain organizations, with Lysandre being so transparently the villain from the moment you meet him that no one has ever reported being fooled. Diantha remains mysteriously absent throughout the game, much like Iris, resulting in her having almost no lasting impression. So why is it B? In part, the fact that I keep picking it up. XY isn’t great, but it’s kinda like the gaming equivalent of having a craving for McDonalds. It’s not good for me, but sometimes it’s what the heart wants. It’s a pretty simple game, with a lot of favorites to work with, and if I can just push through the early-game choice paralysis, it does tend to result in a fairly fun experience. Not like the other generations. But it’s at least something. Which feels appropriate for B. Something I’d intentionally pick up, but not be in the mood for generally.

ORAS (B1) - Speaking of which, the other Gen 6 introduction is also B-tier. ORAS is inferior to Emerald, I don’t think that’s controversial. But I will admit to still liking ORAS, in spite of things. Delta Episode is fun. Mauville is a nightmare in this state, I can’t find anything. Aron can’t be caught until later. But we get the first hints of no HMs with the Latis flying you around. I actually like the designs a lot better. Except Wallace, which is worse. This is also the only one I think I’d be willing to argue one version is better, and it’s Alpha Sapphire. Given their new presentation, there is something endlessly funny about frat boy Archie constantly outsmarting Hypernerd Maxie at every turn.

GEN 7

Sun/Moon (D3) - Sun and Moon is, similar to Gen 5, a generation where the first thing brought up is story. And yes, SuMo has a great story. For the Aether Family and literally no one else. No one else in this game matters. They get a quick introduction and are removed. You don’t even battle the trial captains, just the totem Pokemon; they are completely removed from relevance. Even characters you’d think would have a lot going on due to proximity, like Wicke, don’t. SuMo just doesn’t feel like it matters much. Though I will give props for the post-game with Anabel and Looker and Nanu. I love that segment. What really bothers me about this generation is that it’s the worst to play by miles. Totem Pokemon were awful as a decision. Cool, your idea of “challenge” is making every fight 1v2 with my opponent having like doubled stats, fantastic. Even random encounters and the Call for Help mechanic just endlessly keeping the battle going if you can’t take out both options in one hit is a nightmare. And Rotom Phone. Oooooh my god, with this thing. I hate it. Sun and Moon is the only game that is top of its generation that I cannot bring myself to replay. Even when I pick it up, I put it down as soon as I leave the first city, every time. I have not made it off the first island in like five years. It’s just unpleasant.

Ultra Sun/Moon (F1) - And yet somehow, the sequel game is worse. Imagine having everything bad about the first iteration, but then making the bad parts worse, and tanking the only positive you had. Totem Pokemon were made infinitely worse, by forcing you to deal with even cheaper strategies like Thick Club Marowak with Protect so it guarantees its partner, or the nightmare of facing Ultra Necrozma’s doubled stats. In a game where OHKOs aren’t a constant, the idea of a massively powerful foe like that could be interesting. But this is a turn-based game where every attack that thing throws out kills you. This isn’t fun, you’ve just developed a check to see if I have enough Revives or Rotom Powers, and the latter is still just waiting to get crit. It’s wretched. But even more unforgivable is how badly is botches the Aether Family. Turning Lusamine into just misunderstood parent and having all that trauma and abuse resolved off-screen in the ten minutes you’re gone is insulting. Having a post-game where Lusamine is turned into a damsel in distress for you to save from Giovanni of all weenies is bad enough, but to then have Lusamine come to and laugh with the family in the room where all her Pokemon are still frozen? The game is just tone deaf and does nothing to actually rectify the problems it kept. All the while they introduce the worthless Ultra Recon Squad running around like “Oooh, technology can be so bad for us.” No it can’t, moron, because that wasn’t your issue! Your issue was capturing a living entity and torturing it for a power source, you clown! What are any of you talking about?! USUM was terrible, and despite originally stating it’s the worst in the series, somehow it would be outdone twice, and even once within its own generation.

Let’s Go (F2) - Talk about a game that’s borderline unplayable and has no redeeming qualities at all. Do you like having to jerk your controller around the room to throw a Pokeball, only for it to go in a completely different direction than how you moved? Do you like having no ability to realistically improve your odds of success, and have Pokemon just run away from you at random if you aren’t lucky? How about all of that, but also there is no challenge to any battle at any point, because the levels are scaled lower and teams truncated to like one Pokemon instead of usual team sizes, so the idea of encountering a challenge is laughable? No? Don’t play this game. I have nothing positive to say. And it’s not even the worst one.

GEN 8

Sword/Shield (D1) - Having had three years to cool off from the original launch, I’m willing to say there are some positives to these games. Some. I think much like XY, there are occasions where it’s something I’ll think about as junk food, but it’s actually harder to get invested in SwSh than XY. Mostly, it’s because of how often something stupid happens. Usually it’s “What do you mean they took away Altaria’s natural Dragon Dance?” Movepools got annihilated this run, and while your options still exist, they now exist through Watts, the super tedious currency of the boring Wild Area. Wild Area should’ve been huge. A place to find every Pokemon in the game right at the outset? You can build any team early! Finally, my dreams! But instead, it’s boring space where a ton of areas can’t be accessed because of level constrictions, and the “every Pokemon” is either a lie because you have to find it during specific randomized weather (one of which is only found in post-game), or because they’re in dens, the worst idea of the generation. Dens suck. And they suck because of how hard the game insists on hard saves before every action, or locks events to the day on the system calendar, making it impossible to soft-reset for anything you want around the terrible appearance rates. Despite having Pokemon visually on the field, they put some hidden in the grass at random for no reason, ruining one of the only pure positives the game could’ve had. I can’t even say it has any good post-game, because all of that is now tied to the concept of DLC, which...is legitimately good and enhanced a ton of what base game felt like it was missing. Most notably, any sense of exploration? Wild Area sucked, and each route is a straight line with almost nothing in it. This region is dead and empty. But Isle of Armor actually feels more interconnected and like you’re exploring a location, and is what the game probably could’ve been all along. So unlike XY, which got elevated to B, SwSh is staying down in D, because even though I’ll sometimes go to play it, it’s a legitimately tough sell.

BDSP (F3) - I...literally cannot believe this game is real. I forget it exists sometimes, when my mind wanders and I can forget the cruelty of the world. BDSP is the worst designed Pokemon game by miles. Even Let’s Go can be forgiven for just being a bad idea an executive made about tie-ins to mobile games. BDSP has no such excuse. It’s a full-price “”remake”“ of Gen 4′s Diamond and Pearl, except it is point for point exactly the same. Only now with dozens of incredible bugs that snapped the game wide open for people, including being able to circumvent blocks and get their limited time event Pokemon months ahead of schedule. But the real sin is the League, and rematches. Every battle has max IVs, max EVs, and a beneficial nature. This game is a fangame. This isn’t a main series Pokemon game, it’s the kind of crap you see some moron shit into a fangame after spending too many years arbitrarily complaining about “Difficulty” in Pokemon. This isn’t a well-designed challenge, because it robs Pokemon of everything it is. You cannot match this. You, the player, cannot have perfect IVs. You cannot have perfect EVs without spending millions of dollars on stat boosters, which requires ungodly amounts of farming random trainer battles that would honestly put you over-leveled anyway. You can’t get most of this without breeding Pokemon, which should not be a requirement for the base runthrough. Oh, but I guess it’s not, all you need to do is massively powerlevel to avoid being steamrolled by Aaron’s Heracross. It’s just another rendition of GSC Red. Their solution to challenge is to spike the difficulty so sharply that you have no choice but to engage in the mind-numbing process of level-grinding. But that’s not being challenging, that’s being tedious. And removing the sensation of being an underdog goes against what Pokemon is. Do you know why EVs are the way they are? Why stat experience was a thing, and why none of it is ever mentioned? Because you’re not supposed to know. It’s meant to be a hidden mechanic that the player has access to, pushing your stats up to match higher level Pokemon, to facilitate the illusion that you are the newbie underdog overcoming significant challenge through friendship and teamwork. When you take that away, the game loses all of the charm the series is supposed to work with. This game isn’t just badly designed, it’s antithetical to the entire series’ function. No love or thought went into this. I legitimately wish they hadn’t even tried, because they massacred my favorite region.

Legends (A1) - So thank god for Legends. Legends Arceus is a wonder to me. After two generations of having some really awful products, having Legends Arceus show up with a fascinating new approach to the series, that builds on the lore of Sinnoh and produces one of the most engaging experiences I’ve had with the series in over a decade, is miraculous. Yet here we are. I adore this game with all my heart. The speed with which progression moves is honestly the biggest improvement. Who knew that what held the series stagnant was how slow and tedious random encounters were, and how much better it was to just smack that Bidoof in the back of the skull with a Pokeball and call it a day? Having little action sequences with the boss fights was also fantastic, making the game about more than just the Pokemon battles. Simplification of mechanics also worked greatly in its favor, with things like Frostbite and Sleepy being infinitely better status conditions than Freeze and Sleep. And the story. By god, the story. This is a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game in spirit, and I adore it for that. It’s so good, both how it handles its characters and how much it does for the lore of the Sinnoh legends. It’s all perfect. There were points in playing this game that I outright squealed in delight with what was presented, it was so good. But, that’s not to say Legends does not have flaws. There’s a reason it’s not S. Legends has very little in the way of battling, and as a result, isn’t particularly engaging on that front. Which is wasn’t specifically trying to be, I can forgive that, but it is an area where it’s lacking to a degree it hurts experience. Having opposing Pokemon gang up on you, but being unable to use AoE moves, really makes the experience annoying when you’re sitting through like six opposing actions because you made the mistake of leading with Rhydon. This is especially noticeable, I feel, around Crimson Mirelands, when you don’t have much grit but are focused on getting into those distortions. Getting hit by multiple enemies is a death sentence without being caught up on grit, which can kinda feel like the original Rescue Team Mystery Dungeon games, when you’re going through an area that is littered with traps and have to just accept that this isn’t for you until you can get the IQ to turn those traps off. Which isn’t great. And Alabaster Icelands, despite being a cool location, was never a place I lingered too long, because at that point I’m just eager to blitz the story. There are points where Legends can feel like a little bit of a drag. But all of its positives massively outweigh the negatives.

Hopes for Gen 9 If this turns out to be a B-rank game, I will be happy. Like, that is how much I have to hedge my bets after Gens 7 and 8. If it can be as good as XY, a game already not that great, I will be satisfied.

I think the biggest hope I have is that they really did take a lot of inspiration from Legends Arceus in their approach this game. All else aside, the mechanical changes in Legends really made that experience shine. I’d also hope, though not expect, to see battles become a bit more of a big deal. Very little in the last three generations ever truly felt threatening and fair at the same time. XY and SwSh lack a sense of threat in most fights, while SuMo constructed challenges that were terribly designed. I’d like to see things go back to Emerald/Platinum structures, but honestly if I can go through this fight and feel, legitimately, like thought was put into the team composition and actions of the AI, I’ll take it as a win.

#pokemon #pokemon tier list

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owlixx · 1 year

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Kirby Super Star Ultra Thoughts

Opted to just play the remake instead of playing both versions, like I did with Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land

This is the first one of these that I have ample experience with

Owned this physically as a kid and remember playing it a bunch in middle school

I particularly remember getting lost in great cave offensive, not necessarily in a bad way

I also have played through a good chunk of the SNES original as a coop game a couple times over the years, but never gotten past the first few “games”

What I’m getting at is that Spring Breeze/Dynablade reminded me of being in college/high school, Great Cave Offensive reminded me of middle school, and Milky Way Wishes was brand new

Most importantly, this entire game is just such a joy

Having not played this game properly in single player in a decade really made this a unique experience

Also, playing the games leading up really helped me appreciate this game more

I was especially impressed by the graphics, the variety of the different games, and how fun the copy abilities are

Finally having multiple moves per copy ability increases the fun drastically

I actually really enjoyed summoning AI companions even if they ended up destroying one of the treasures in Great Cave Offensive

I think it’s bogus that the DS version requires player 2 to look over player 1’s shoulder

Milky Way Wishes ended up being my favorite game of the bunch because of how you permanently unlock copy abilities to switch between

I really enjoyed that we got to see multiple different types of level design here:

Old kirby levels remixed for the new style in Spring Breeze

An original set of levels in Dynablade

A single large interconnected level with collectibles in Great Cave Offensive

A time-restricted level in Meta Knight’s Revenge

Puzzle/unlockable based in Milky Way Wishes (especially loved that season-swapping puzzle at the start!)

And haven’t done it yet, but getting to play as meta knight and the helpers in the extra DS modes

So yes, the different games feature a mostly similar Kirby and abilities (except Milky Way wishes and the extra DS modes) but because the concept behind the level design is so different, that’s what makes them feel distinct to me

Favorite abilities were hammer, parasol, yoyo, wing, jet

Loved the way parasol and wheelie could connect you and your companion

Really every ability in this game feels amazing to use though with dash attacks, dash jump attacks, blocking, and other unique moves

Still not a fan of stone, copy

Didn’t even try plasma somehow

If laser is in this game, I never got it

Generally avoided the screen clear abilities this time

I wish modern Kirby games had a mode like Milky Way Wishes and the new DS modes (meta knight remix + playing as every helper)

The sword fight against meta knight is even better this time with the addition of all the new moves you can do

I love all the references to other Nintendo games in great cave offensive

Love that Kirby still gets to change color for each ability

Really just want to emphasize how much joy this game brought me.

I’ve been having fun up til now, but I couldn’t stop smiling while playing this game, especially the further I got

Actually played this on a genuine DSi XL which probably helped sell me on the nostalgia

I have a hard time imagining that another game is going to top this one, besides maybe Robobot because I already know that one slaps

I am wondering if Amazing Mirror is going to remind me of Great Cave Offensive (and if I’ll get stuck and have to skip it)

I beat the shoot ‘em up section and Marx in a single try! Very proud, I was on my last hit point and had never seen that content before

Side note: I am already multiple worlds into Robobot, Return to Dream Land, and Epic Yarn from a while ago. I plan to just continue where I left off in those games, maybe just replaying the opening level of each to get my head screwed back on.

Up next: I believe Dream Land 3 is next, perhaps after a brief detour into Star Stacker

#kirby #retro gaming #Nintendo #Ds #nds #kirby super star #kirby super star ultra #16 but

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thefossilwhale · 3 years

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gender and gender variability in IF is so weird and there is no way to fix it god bless

#representation should never be a numbers game except in IF where it kind of has to be bc if romance is a major part of the story then you-#-want players and MCs of all genders n sexualities to have the same amount and range of options #but that usually means you fall into the ~ secret 3rd gender ~ trap even if u r actively fighting it #bc ur like. counting off nb identities and presentations to mirror your male n female ROs #'ok so you make them gender-selectable to maximize the freedom for each player!'#which is cool. except ur writing a character that is basically nonbinary in ur head bc they exist across genders but in the Actual Written-#-Work that all goes away and they're only ever encountered by the reader as one of two cis gender-conforming versions of themself #like idk maybe this is bc of Me and the way i think of characters but it's so hard for me to imagine writing one of my own as two different #-genders and having them be separate?? and not just different gender expressions belonging to one person. and reconciling that w the fact-#-that that's how ppl are going to see them and ur no longer doing justice to their actual identity #and even if you DO get past that. making those 2 versions distinct based on gender??#bc if they're the same character w the same personality/history/motivations and the only difference is like... 'well this character is a-#-girl now so she has longer hair :) bc that's what girls have :) '#(and disclaimer yes attraction can be based on presentation even tho that can't tell you someone's gender and that affects gender in IF)#but that's Real Life People making their own choices and not. one author with their own unique relationship to gender trying to represent-#-everyone #(you cannot ofc represent everyone and it's more important to do right by your individual characters but gender in IF is so impossible to-#-escape bc of the prevalence of romance)#final disclaimer that there are trans/nb authors out there doing good work and i don't think anyone is evil for doing any of the above #bc as i said. it is basically impossible to get this right. love always loses <3 #HIIIIII everyone who read this. i tried a fun thought experiment of what my WIP would be like as an IF and now i'm having this crisis

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weirdmarioenemies · 3 years

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Name: Bzzit

Debut: Rayman

Hello and welcome to Funky Friday, on this Funny Fly Friday! It is Funny Fly Friday because I have decided to write about a funny fly. This is Bzzit, and while I may not have played that much Rayman, WOW I love Bzzit! And you will too. If you don’t love Bzzit by the time you finish reading this post, I’m sorry for pressuring you. You don’t have to.

You can already tell by looking at him that Bzzit is an absolutely perfect darling, and an ideal cartoon mosquito, with big ol’ eyes and a proboscis! And a very neat segmented, retractable proboscis, too! Like so many creatures of this world, he also has floaty hands and feet, but not JUST floaty hands and feet... floaty white gloves and sneakers! That is so good! This is a mosquito living in a swamp! Where did he get those?

From the first image here you could probably tell Bzzit seems a bit Disgruntled. And here, you can see he is outright Angry! That’s because he is the first mini-boss in the game, so he means a little bit of business.

And it seems it’s not just his hands and feet that are floaty, because he completely disassembles temporarily when hit! Yeowch!

When Bzzit is defeated... he cries. Rayman does his silly victory dance, while this poor mosquito is legitimately hurt by this whole experience. But then, something wonderful happens.

Rayman notices Bzzit’s suffering. He stops dancing, and gives him reassuring pats on the eyeball. They high-five.

And just like that, so easily, they become friends! It was all just a misunderstanding, maybe they weren’t in quite the right mindsets a few minutes ago, but that’s okay, and it’s in the past now. A massive, needle-faced parasite is, in this game, someone with feelings, who really just wants a friend. And this, along with the simplicity with which this friendship is shown happening, is really one of the most wonderful things I have ever seen in a video game!

Right away, in the following portion of the level, Bzzit gives Rayman a ride across the water! What would Rayman have done without friendship? Died, I guess!

WhIn Rayman 2, Bzzit himself does not appear, but there are mosquitoes flying harmlessly around the environment. I know I said I love the big ol’ eyes and proboscis look, but this is a bit silly, now! Where are your thorax and abdomen? When you slurp, where does it go? Do you even slurp at all? It would be such a sad life to have a proboscis and not slurp!

Thankfully, in Rayman Revolution, the sort of remake/enhanced version of Rayman 2, Bzzit DOES appear, now with actual legs! And he owns a boat! Why does he have a boat? Maybe it reminds him of his aquatic larval and pupal stages. Regardless, Rayman could really go for a boat right about now, and Bzzit lets him use it, because they are friends who help each other!

While none are confirmed or denied to be Bzzit, many mosquitoes appear in Rayman Origins, where they are once again rideable friends! Mosquito riding is now better than ever, as they can not only shoot little energy blasts, but also inhale and blast enemies into and out of their proboscis! Bzzit was too shy to do that part. I just don’t like the new teeth they have. A distinct head base? On MY cartoon mosquito?!

Bzzit has not made any appearances in the series in quite a long time, but the appearances he did make were so wonderful! Look! He’s slurping.

#bzzit #rayman #rayman 2 #not mario #funky friday #mod chikako

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caguaydreams · 4 years

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A thorough analysis on why Vah Medoh’s dungeon theme makes me want to cry

Yep, that’s an accurate title. Hi there! do you have a moment to hear about Breath of The Wild soundtrack? posting for yet a third time in hopes that tumblr won't hide it. I'm so tired

What started as a quick and harmless post, pretending to simply point out a couple of things, rolled downhill, out of my grasp and turned into a massive snowball of a short essay. How and why did this happen? Well, I assume a lot of people know about this song, and know what I’m talking about when I say that it makes me tear up and sob uncontrollably with every change in key as the seconds tick by and I spiral down into a dwell of misery from where I struggle to find the exit and to later recover.

……No?…..At the VERY LEAST it makes you a little uncomfortable. And I state this with much certainty, because after reading hundreds of comments everywhere online where this song is present, I picked up on a vast majority of people who expressed to feel the same way I did when it came down to our current music subject. See, statistics don’t lie… normally. So, naturally, my intrigue got the best of me. I wanted to find out exactly why this soundtrack was mercilessly stirring up everyone’s emotions, so I caved in and we ended up with this.

Buckle in, fellas.

Out of all Divine Beasts’ dungeon themes, Vah Medoh’s is the one that I can’t sit through. Not without growing antsy and wanting to turn it off as soon as possible. I find it genuinely difficult to listen to, and it’s not only because Revali is my favorite character and the song is just, plainly put, depressing, mind you.

We’ll start from 0 terminals activated.

It opens up similar to the other three dungeon themes; the pace is slow but eerie, gives off the impression that it sounds broken somehow. Something is off here, and it’s easy to figure out what that is from the get go: you’re basically entering a majestic, ancient, mechanical mausoleum, where everything went terribly wrong a century ago. Someone is gone, someone you knew, someone who was probably close to you, but it’s impossible to be sure. You don’t remember a thing, and this entire ordeal is confusing at best, and terrifying at worst. It’s your duty to make things right again.

It’s the same for all four Divine Beasts upon entering, save for the obvious little differences that separates them from each other and make them unique. Ruta’s is played on a major key, adhering to a sense of hopefulness. Naboris’s begins with a startling smashing of the piano keys, much like thunder of a sudden lighting strike. And Rudania’s theme starts threatening, dangerous, like scalding lava.

But now, back to Vah Medoh. The tone here is… alienating. The dissonant chords are all over the place, and feel disconnected, cold. It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want us to be here, or just like the elusive key, our presence is unexpected. Fitting, for a Divine Beast that’s high above the land, impossible for most to reach, yet we somehow made it. Apart from the piano, we have the occasional hint to rito culture, in the shape of a short, synthetic version of the rolled chords at the very beginning of Rito Village. A quiet reminder of where we come from. There is also, of course, the morse code distress signal, but we’ll talk more about that later.

As soon as this formal introduction is over, we finally get to the more, say, intimate stuff. Oh, and wouldn’t you know, it’s just tragic.

One terminal activated.

There’s no better short way I can describe this passage, other than anxiety-inducing. Especially when the strings come into play, and there’s two reasons I can think of why I feel this is an important thing to point out:

1- Characters and Symbolism.

I tend to associate stringed instruments, all of those which compose the violin family, with rito culture. And Revali, most specifically. In Creating a Champion we can see the early concept art and designs for all or most major characters in the game, and Revali’s highlighted rough design might be the one that changed the most throughout proper development of the character, out of all champions. He looks quite different from our usual depiction of him, it’s fascinating. What truly catches my eye, however, is the design of his bow.

You thought bird puns were bad? Oh boy, how do you feel about Revali having a bow that looks like a violin/cello/viola??? And do you need a bow to play it also??? Like, is it even an instrument or it’s nothing more than a mere fashion statement?-

Anyway. I believe this was originally going to be a not-so-subtle wink to rito culture, being heavily musically inclined as we can see and conclude for ourselves. Perhaps Revali was going to be a musician as well, now how cool it that!

Needless to say, the idea was eventually scrapped. But one detail I am CERTAIN carried over to the character we know and love today(okay not all of us love him but seriously if you dislike him why are you still here lol): strings. The association between bows(weapon) and stringed instruments, aside from being a quite clever and creative one, goes beyond the concept art and remains strong as part of Revali’s character, settling for having a presence via score. After all, Revali is a master of archery, so in that way it makes sense to keep strings as symbolism to reinforce the idea and drive it home.

But can you guess what other thing Revali excels at? That’s right: flying. He’s the only rito we know of who successfully managed to take advantage of wind currents and bend them to his will. And do you know what musical instruments are often used to evoke the feeling of flight and gale? If you thought of bowed strings, you’re correct! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much support on this topic online, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I am most certain that this is fact, although not something worth discussing on the Internet, by the looks of it.

Anyhow, violins/cellos/etc are ever-present whenever we’re close to Rito Village or dealing with a rito related mission. Attack on Vah Medoh, for example, features a sequence of strings that is meant to evoke the strong winds we’re fighting against in that particular moment(*). Another great example is The Final Trial, the song that plays at the shrine of resurrection nearing the end of the Champions’ Ballad. Preceding the activation of each terminal, you’ll notice that a new instrumental element joins the crowd: the first one corresponds to the tambourines, related to the zora and Mipha; the second one are strings, referencing the rito and Revali, etc. I tell you, the moment I heard this during the trial I almost started crying like a baby. And, although strings have a lot to do with Rito culture in general, they tie most strongly to Revali, since he was the champion of his people, and his legacy carried over throughout the years. His accomplishments became material of folk tale, a legend, a source of pride and inspiration for the village. And let’s not forget that, at the end of the day, Revali is the crucial and foremost connection Link has to this place. Other than appeasing Vah Medoh, Link’s responsibility here is to free his past fellow champion’s spirit from Ganon’s malice. The soundtrack is referencing Revali first, and by extension his devotion to his home.

With all that in mind, let’s move on to our next point:

2- Nowhere to Go.

You shoot the canons, land on top of the Divine Beast, do what you gotta do, activate the first terminal and the soundtrack goes off unannounced. Like some sort of surprise anxiety bomb. The rhythm turns fast, the melody erratic, incredibly desperate in its execution. There’s this sheer despair, fear, this feeling of suffocation almost, which are so well achieved in this particular piece.

And that is, partially, because a quite familiar resource is used here as well; one that we’ve heard before in songs such as Rito Village or Revali’s theme. You could even think of it as a motif: two notes are played in an semitone interval, repeatedly and in quick succession. For the sake of later convenience, we’ll call this the Flight Motif, now let me explain why. In Breath of The Wild, this semitone loop is often followed up by some form of resolution. In Rito Village, formerly known as Dragon Roost Island(**), that resolution consists of a graceful descent of the melody, from a high that was built up previously during the motif. On the other hand, if you listen to Revali’s theme, you’ll notice that the interval repeats itself for a couple of times as thought charging up, to then rise fast and determined into a triumphal reprise of Revali’s distinctive assigned melody. This juxtaposition supposes the difference that lays between common rito flight and Revali’s trademark ability; both musical sequences are speaking of flight, albeit in two different languages depending on the way to achieve it. While the rito traditionally use their wings to glide and let themselves get swayed by the air currents Buzz Lightyear style, Revali takes full advantage of his flying capabilities to somehow create an updraft of his own, rising meters above the ground whenever he likes or needs to.

So, now that I layed out my base of thought when focusing on the strings, this’ll be much easier to explain. We’ve settled what the instruments themselves are a symbolic representation of Revali, in this scenario specifically. He was the only one inside Vah Medoh, and the score is, in a way, a retelling of what we can vaguely assume went down here during the Great Calamity, as much as it is what sets the tone and ambience for Link’s mission. But what are we hearing exactly? What we talked about, the Flight Motif, is being repeated nonstop. And that’s the thing, remember how I mentioned that this sequence usually finds resolution at the end? Well. Inside Vah Medoh,… it never does. The melody picks up in numerous occasions, but it’s not nearly as graceful, or calculated, as we’ve grown used to by now. It gets tangled and lost, and then inevitably falls to the ground in disarray. The pattern repeats itself, reaching higher after a handful of failed attempts, but no matter how much it tries, the cycle never ends. What used to tell us about flying and freedom in the skies, has morphed into an almost sinister musical incarnation of a tornado, and there is no way out of this trap. What do you think it must feel like to mindlessly flap your wings against wind currents so strong and violent, that it is impossible to get anywhere nearby, let alone take off every time you lose your balance. Or every time you’re shot down. On top of that, trying to aim and fight back in whatever short breaks and opportunities you get, at an enemy that’s much more powerful and relentless, who’s using your own element as a weapon to destroy you… it’s a risk Revali surely had to take in order to put up a fight. Even knowing full well that the odds were not in his favour, that he was most likely going to lose this battle, that he was going to die. Let that sink in. I’ll skip the activation of the second terminal, since there’s barely any change registered in the theme in general. So-

Three terminals activated.

I know this post is supposed to be a breakdown of the song purely, but that doesn’t mean there’s no place for a little theorising, and the following scrutiny is also quite relevant for our discussion. Bear with me for a bit. I’ve read almost everywhere about people’s most common interpretations on the Divine Beasts SOS signals, and how everyone thinks that Revali’s coming in last (a few seconds later than the other champions) has to do with him holding on for longer. Or, also, overconfident as he was, it means that the idea of calling out for additional support didn’t cross his mind until it was too late, and that’s why the beeping sounds more frantic and panicked than the others’ when it does appear. After giving it some thought myself, I’m betting on the latter option holding more ground, and that’s not all. I want to touch upon a detail of the piece that I never acknowledged was there until very recently(after seeing myself obliged to listen to this song fully and a handful of times, suffering every minute of it for the sole purpose of this analysis. It’s okay I didn’t need my heart anyway). Soon after activating the third terminal, the SOS signal disappears, or grows distant and faint enough that we can’t make it out from the background anymore. In its place, we’re confronted by this… shrill, piercing and painfully slow tune. It sounds synthetic, artificial, devoid of life. And it’s funny, because you know what it reminds me of? I’ll tell you:

A heartbeat flatline sound.

And I want to highlight that this doesn’t happen in any of the other Divine Beasts themes. All their SOS signals carry on, but Medoh’s is no more. This abrupt stop, followed by this bone-chilling tune…. makes me believe that Revali was the first of the champions to fall. A few days ago I came across SuperZeldaGirl’s video on a similar topic, theorising that this could very much be the case. There is not much evidence to support this claim other than some visual cues that could be suggesting to it, but after I found this in the soundtrack, and if we’re to rely on it for anything, I believe Revali was either the first champion to be ambushed by Ganon, or well…. the first to be killed. It is plausible, because short after Calamity Ganon unleashes his power, Revali parts from the group and flies directly to Vah Medoh, and he very well could’ve been the first pilot to arrive.

On this note…. we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves, when Age of Calamity provides long-awaited answers to many of our questions.

Four terminals activated.

An interesting melody is being played on what, for me, would qualify as a glockenspiel or a celesta, which are keyboard based instruments that produce a sound similar to that of a music box(***). If you want to pay more attention to it, I suggest listening to Vetrom’s Instrumental Mix Cover of the theme, where they practically zoom in on this part of the song (keep in mind that it uses the All Terminals’ time signature so it’s being played faster). For some reason, this particular addition makes me feel profound empathy. The sound of this instrument could be described as cute or childlike, magical, even. It is more often than not used to represent innocence, but I highly doubt that’s specifically the intention here. Much like the leading strings’ melody, the melodic contour of this one is trapped in a loop of going up and down constantly, but the difference is that this time around it sounds more under control. And much more uniform too. It doesn’t lose focus or takes risky, fruitless leaps, but rather chooses to stay on a path of waves that consistently rises and falls without taking detours. Like a determined battle strategy, giving it your all. You fall, but get back up again, and try again, and again. It reminds me of Revali’s approach to training, being persistent to the point of overworking himself. He had discipline nailed down to a tee, which I also think served him well in combat. It’s not just about being hard on yourself, either, but being confident and having complete faith in your abilities; believing that you’ll make it. For this to appear now, that the SOS signal is almost completely gone, is significant because it means that by this point, being so close to success on Link’s behalf, the music is sparing genuine encouragement for once, in spite of the tragic outcome of the past and the danger of the current situation. But, in all honesty, this is probably just me reading too much into it. Perhaps the composer just thought this addition sounded pretty bitching and there’s not much else to it, which is completely fine. Although, intentional or not, sometimes coincidences do happen, and at the end of the day, interpretations like this are a form of appreciation for an artist’s work and for what they can unknowingly accomplish.

All terminals activated.

This is the moment when the song finally lightens up. Notice how the strings abandon the wave pattern for a more even contour. The beat quickens, the melody stabilizes. At first I thought, coming from our flight analogy, that this meant a cease in movement entirely, and it was partly one of the reasons why the song in general makes me anxious. But thinking about it now, …there is something different going on here. The strings are playing on a steady rhythm. It resembles a march, it’s like a pounding heart. It’s a lively, hopeful statement. And what’s interesting is that, up until this point, there was so much fear and helplessness present in the score, even going as far as to reach a dead end when we activate the third terminal. But that’s it, isn’t it? the music just keeps going further.

It’s saying: this isn’t over yet. Even after complete and utter defeat, there’s still hope and an underlying wish to overcome this predicament, and we started to hear this as soon as a fourth terminal is activated. The melody we previously talked about? it’s here as well, and its beat is much more daring and confident.

And I just want to say… this is so powerful. Because this sentiment is deeply tied to the game’s story and Revali’s character arc. You see, he is introduced as someone who resents Link for being the manifestation of his failure, in a way, because Revali has trained arduously his whole life to be where he is, to be recognised. And yet… this hylian gets chosen by a magic sword and some tale of divine destiny and, apparently, that’s all it takes for him to be deemed the hero that will save the land. In Revali’s eyes, Link has done nothing to prove his worth before him, so it is easy to see why he despises the silent knight so much; he is yet another individual that was born into their destiny. Meanwhile, Revali has had to build his reputation from the ground up, earning him a place among the greatest warriors of Hyrule, and even then he finds himself surrounded by people who grew up praised for being born gifted. We can see how Revali is the odd one out, and can map out the reason for him acting so antagonistic towards Link.

But once we’re on Medoh, things start to change. When Link enters the Divine Beast, Revali greets him with disdain, as per usual. Of course, Link has no recollection of whatever happened a hundred years ago, other than a small glimpse of the rito champion talking down to him, a memory that came and went in a flash. So as Link, we more than expect Revali to act cold and mocking, which he does. He provides us with as little help as needed in order to free Medoh, reluctantly, shielding his wounded pride over having to wait for Link, of all people, to come to their rescue. But you can hear him starting to open up bit by bit(I wish I could translate his dialogue directly from Japanese but I’ll make do with a couple of dubs and other numerous sources from translators online). With each little step Link takes towards success, activating the terminals, the perception Revali has of him shifts from one of resentment to one of genuine admiration and respect. By the end of it all, he is willing to not only cheer on Link during the boss battle, but to trust him with his life’s worth achievement. And once left alone, he admits defeat and lets go of his bitterness, realising that he was wrong to underestimate Link, and later wishes he could’ve had a chance to measured up to him. To take all of this into consideration and work with it in the soundtrack I think it’s genuinely splendid. And for once, I am grateful that it ends in somewhat of a positive note that puts my soul to rest. I still have a hard time listening to the first two thirds of the entire thing, but now I can look forward to a hopeful and earnestly heartening conclusion for all the pain that this composition puts me in. I must admit that it’s beautifully and brilliantly crafted, and that I am enamoured of it regardless.

That is why I wrote roughly 4k words about it! I hate myself!

If you’re as crazy as me about the soundtrack of this game, I recommend you read the published cd interview with the composers themselves! if you haven’t already. I just found it yesterday(unbelievable but it’s true) and… after writing all of this and checking it out, I felt validated. It sure is a one of a kind feeling.

Alright folks, we’ve made it to the end. Congratulations for sticking around and thanks being interested in my nonsensical rambling!

I also hope that you, like me, will now be unable to listen to bowed strings without being reminded of Revali. Good luck!

————– Annotations/Sidenotes/Whatever

(*)The Flight Motif(in point number 2) is also present in this track. We can hear it in the background right after the Rito leitmotif, as per usual. It starts with a clarinet, I think, before the strings take the lead. (**) Note that the Flight Motif only comes into play in the Breath of The Wild rendition of the song. (***)I strongly associate this instrument with Mipha, given that it is used in her theme, in every “response” to the initial melody. It can be heard in Attack On Vah Ruta, as well, it enters the scene when the notes Mi(E) and Fa(F) are played. The initial tune, Si and Do(B and C) are played on a clarinet or oboe, wind instruments just like the flute that leads Sidon’s respective theme. The celesta can also be heard inside Vah Ruta, activating the first terminal…. when the song really takes a turn just like Medoh’s. Mipha has nothing to do with the song of this analysis, however. We must understand that instruments, although they are attached to characters/various story elements in some cases, can always be used outside of that context, for that is the nature of an orchestral soundtrack. If you have this many tools at your disposal, you will make good use of them.

#Revali #Vah Medoh #botw #loz #aoc

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penguinwithitsarseonfire · 3 years

Text

Mosaic Broken Hearts (But This Love is Brave and Wild)

Part 2 | See the Full Series Here

Pairing: 13th Doctor x Reader

Word Count: 5,140

Warnings: None

Summary: The Doctor knows she loves you, that isn’t her concern. However, doesn't know what to do about it. For help, she calls up one of her old faces for advice, but doesn't get the regeneration she was bargaining for. (This is technically a sequel to Your Hand Print's on my Soul but can be read as a standalone)

Key: Y/N - Your Name, Y/P1 - she, he, or they, Y/P2 - her, him, or their

A/N: So here's what I've decided on the pronouns front. When Reader is the subject of the sentence, it'll be Y/P1 (these are for pronouns like she, he and they). When reader is the object of the sentence, it'll be Y/P2 (these are for pronouns such as her, him, and their). I'm doing it like this because thanks to a wonderful anon, I've learned that people use this extension that changes Y/N (and other acronyms) into your name. So instead of just Y/P, I figured it would help if I made a distinction. Let me know how you feel about this and how it goes!

“Right,” the Doctor said, and she dumped the small book in front of Yaz. “I need your help.”

Yaz looked up from her phone. The Doctor didn’t know what had captured her attention, but apparently she had been refreshing her feed all day. “…Right,” she glanced down at the book, then back at the Doctor. “What’s up?

“It won’t take too long,” The Doctor said. “I just need your opinion.”

Yaz set her phone to the side, and cautiously picked up the book. “What on?”

The Doctor gestured to the book.

Yaz opened it and flicked through a couple of pages. It was a photo album of all the Doctor’s past faces, and as Yaz flicked through them, her face fell into a small frown. “Hey Doc, no offence or anything but… Why am I looking at a bunch of photos of random old white men?”

“They used to me,” The Doctor said, and she sat down in front of Yaz, cross legged so that she was looking slightly up at her. Yaz had been curled up on the living room sofa, the BBC playing softly in the background on the TV.

They were in Yaz’s family apartment, house sitting for them whilst Yaz’s family were down at the Coast. Her family had extended the invitation to both Yaz and the Doctor, but neither wanted to be too far away in case of a crisis.

Yaz sighed, sitting up right so she could flick through the book properly. She eyed the Doctor, as if she didn’t quite believe her. It was a look the Doctor got often from her new friends, and it gave her an edge of amusement. “Hmm,” Yaz eyed the Doctor’s eighth face. “What am I looking for exactly?”

“Which one’s the most trustworthy,” The Doctor said, then she frowned. “No wait, that’s not right. Which one looks like they’ll give the best advice?”

Yaz raised an eyebrow. “Best advice? Doc, I can’t judge that from a photo.”

“Sure you can!” The Doctor said. “You can get it from a vibe! Besides, I need a neutral party to decide. I can just imagine technicolour dream coat and I getting into an argument. He wouldn’t like my rainbow, which doesn’t even make sense, have you seen how much rainbow is on him!”

Yaz quickly flicked backwards through the pages, until she landed on the Doctor’s sixth face, in all his curly blonde haired glory. “Is this him? Technicolour dream coat?”

The Doctor nodded her head. “Oh just look at that coat, I loved that coat. I reckon I’d look smashing in that coat today.” Yaz gave it an amused smile. “It’s certainly… striking,” then she closed the photo album and gave the Doctor a look, and the mood completely shifted.

The Doctor hated when Yaz did gave her this look, it was too… knowing. It was like she was piecing together all the things the Doctor had ever said, stitching together the real Doctor, the version of herself she wasn’t sure if she wanted the others to see. “Why do you need advice from one of these blokes anyway? We’re all here for you Doc, all of us.”

The Doctor’s jaw clenched. What was she supposed to say? Oh yeah, don’t mind me, I’m just in love with Y/N and need advice on how to deal with it, nothing big or important at all.

Because that was the thing though, she wasn’t even sure what she was supposed to do about it. She wasn’t sure whether she should pursue you, if that would even be fair, given the weight that was her everything.

And? If she did decide to pursue you? If the Doctor was really going to be so selfish? Well, she couldn’t even begin to know where to start with that.

So fresh eyes, eyes that understood her to her very core. That’s what she needed.

“Honestly,” the Doctor swallowed. It was difficult being honest in this face, speaking so openly like this. She had to practise, not just for herself, not just for you, but for the rest of her friends too. “I don’t know,” she said, eventually. “But I know, right now at least, the only person who can tell me… is, well, me.” I just don’t know which me to choose, I don’t want to be biased about it, base my decision on baseless things like the opinion on a coat, for example.

“And Yaz, you’re good at this, brilliant at it even. You know people, you know how to judge people immediately. I’m asking you because… well, because I trust you. You’re one of my best mate’s Yaz, who else would I ask?

Yaz chewed her lip, giving the Doctor a look she couldn’t yet recognise. “Alright,” she said, at last. She flicked through the book, and the Doctor watched as Yaz scrutinised each and every one of the Doctor’s old faces. She made some comments from time to time, mostly about the clothes the Doctor had once worn, or certain hairstyles.

Finally, she settled on someone. “Him,” she said. “He’s got a knowing face.”

She turned the book around so the Doctor could see. Huh. Yaz had chosen her tenth face; Sandshoes.

Well, technically her eleventh face, but that was neither here nor there.

The Doctor pondered over the thought for a moment. He wasn’t a bad choice, in fact, he was probably the best choice of the bunch. He’d wanted love more than anyone, he had fallen in love, so easily, so quickly, so readily.

At the very least he knew how to navigate it.

“That,” the Doctor said finally. “Is an excellent choice, I think.”

“Yeah?” Yaz said, and she was smiling. “You reckon?”

The Doctor nodded vigorously. This could work, this could be perfect.

Which was why, when the Doctor was finally alone, she set her plan into motion.

You, Ryan, and Graham had agreed to come over around the same time Yaz’s fam did, which had been the Doctor’s suggestion. She just needed one short moment, just a minute, a quick duck out and duck in, none of you would ever even notice – you wouldn’t know.

So, when Yaz’s family came home, and she was letting them inside, the Doctor snuck into the TARDIS, which had been parked in the spare room.

Now, the thing about time travel, the very tricky thing about time travelling, is that travelling through your own time stream could be messy, very messy. The Doctor knew this, of course, and, when she had decided that she was going to meet up with her past self, she had planned to circumvent this.

The first thing she had to do was think of a location that wouldn’t be prone to a violent world ending, explosion making paradox – which she had already done; The Medusa Cascade. She had been there enough, in so many regenerations, that the old girl would barely bat an eye should she materialise at the same time as a past version of themselves.

And even if the TARDIS did realise when exactly she was going (which, of course she would, nothing got past the TARDIS), well, the TARDIS was such a romantic, surely she wouldn’t mind.

So the Doctor punched in the coordinates.

The second thing the Doctor had to do was send her old self a message, one that conveyed the urgent-ness of the meeting, but not too urgent. She’d run into her timestream so many times now that it was basically an annual holiday for her, but that didn’t change the fact that this was something she definitely shouldn’t do lightly.

She had a message, or, well, at least, the idea of a message.

The third thing, well, the third thing she had to do, was sync up their TARDIS’, create an artificial temporal feedback loop between the two TARDIS’ so neither one of them would vomit the Doctor(s) out. Hopefully, what it would do would allow both her and sandshoes to exist in the same TARDIS, whilst also not existing in the same TARDIS at all.

The Doctor waited for someone – you, to tell her that she was clever.

Then she whacked her head on one of the crystals that towered around the console and realised you weren’t in the room at all, that all of those words had just been her internal monologue.

Huh, well then.

She rubbed her head with the back of her hand, trying to subside the throbbing, pounding, sensation that was rattling against on her forehead. She punched in the rest of the coordinates, pulled up the leaver, and was off.

The TARDIS groaned loudly. She was shuddering dramatically, and the Doctor almost groaned. “C’mon old girl, don’t tell me you’ve gone bitter in your old age.”

A panel on the wall popped off, leaking angry fiery, sparks. The Doctor yelped, and glared around her person, so the TARDIS could clearly see who the glare was directed at. “Now that wasn’t necessary.”

With a shaky grumble, the TARDIS landed, floating in deep space. The sparks stopped as soon as they started, and the Doctor made a mental note to patch it up before she left.

Right then, time for the message.

A video call wouldn’t be right, not for this. She needed something dramatic, something mysterious, something her past self would latch on and be too curious about to ignore. A simple message, completely appropriate, just 13 words:

↠ In a sort of pickle, Bad Wolf and all that. Fancy a cuppa?

And then, of course, she sent the instructions on how to create an artificial temporal feedback loop between the two TARDIS that her past self could follow. Of course, since this was herself that she was planning for, she knew damn well that he wouldn’t read the a word of them.

So hopefully that would mean that she would wind up inside his console, instead of it being the other way round. She didn’t have the time or energy to defend her stylistic choices to him.

The Doctor waited anxiously, pacing around the console like a nervous cat, like one sound would cause her to flee. She wasn’t even sure why she was nervous, she was only seeing herself, after all.

Which was exactly why she was nervous.

She considered bailing, finding another face of her to talk to instead. She was going to get distracted by Ten’s spikey hair, she could already tell.

No, that wasn't true.

She was scared, she felt like she was being selfish.

The thing was, Ten had loved someone too: Rose. She had been wonderful, utterly fantastic, and to this day the Doctor still loved her, in her own way. She loved Rose as an echo, a memory of what-ifs and could have beens.

The Doctor wasn't sure how it would feel to have a future version of herself tell her that she would one day love another, that it would be so tangible and close, after losing someone so awfully. She couldn't imagine that sort of pain.

Actually, she could imagine it, quite easily. It was dreadful.

She had experienced it once, with Rose.

And River.

And she wouldn’t ever, couldn’t ever, experience it with you.

The Doctor took in a deep breath. The message has already been sent, an invitation for just the two of them to talk. She couldn’t back out now.

She eyed her fez, sitting by the steps that lead up the TARDIS corridors. It was a split second decision, one second she was debating whether or not she should grab it, the next, it was on her head.

She felt more herself, more confident, wearing it.

Yeah, totally still her.

The first thing she noticed was the way her skin prickled, as if thousands of tiny needles were lightly poking her. Then the room around her went fuzzy, and the Doctor felt dizzy. In an instant, she was stumbling into a different TARDIS, with familiar brown poles, wires swinging freely in the air, and old grating under her feet.

Except… there weren’t any brown poles, or grating under her feet. The Doctor stared underneath her and oh no.

Something had gone very, very wrong.

For one thing, the most obvious thing, the thing she should have noticed immediately: she was standing on glass.

The Doctor looked around her, she was surrounded by orange chromed walls, golden metal plating, and round little lights sat into the sides. It was familiar, intimately and completely familiar, because this console room had once been hers.

But this wasn’t the console of her tenth face… this was-

“Who,” a familiar voice rang out. “Are you?”

The Doctor turned around slowly, and eyed her eleventh face carefully.

Gods, she had forgotten how big that chin was.

“So,” she said slowly. “I’ve got a bit of explaining to do.”

“A bit?” Eleven said. He said the next two words under his breath. “Bad Wolf,” he then turned to her. “I haven’t heard those words in a very long time.”

The Doctor took in her old self. He seemed tired, his clothes were a bit disorganised, with his shirt untuck and his suspenders hanging limp by his knees. His hair was a mess too, flopping over his face like he had just regenerated. He seemed stressed – scared, almost.

It was almost as if-

“Lake Silencio,” Thirteen breathed, the realisation hitting her with so much force she stumbled backwards slightly. “That’s about to happen, isn’t it?”

His eyes visibly widened – they were so expressive, these eyes. They were the only things that showed his age. “How do you-”

“I’m so sorry,” Thirteen said. “I wasn’t supposed to run into you, especially not now. I was trying to find sandshoes.”

“What? Sandshoes?” Eleven drummed his fingers against the console. “Spikey hair, big sad eyes?”

“Yup, the very same.”

“Why would you even want to talk to him, he,” Eleven straightened, and marched towards her. “No, wait, hold on. That’s distracting, you distracted me with information.”

Thirteen raised her hands up, placating. “I really am sorry-“

“Who are you?” Eleven repeated. “You can’t be me, I’m, I’m about to-”

“I am though,” Thirteen interrupted, and she scrunched up her face. She knew he didn’t want to finish saying that sentence as much as she didn’t want to hear it. “I’m you, a couple faces down the line.”

“You can’t be, you shouldn't exist," Eleven said, an edge of an accusation in his voice. “How do you exist?"

"Aww," Thirteen drew the sound out. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, something to do with spoilers."

"Spoilers," Eleven let out a half laugh, a half scoff. "Now that's a word that's thrown around a fair bit." 

River.

The Doctor's hearts ached for her, they always would, in a way. A memory of so many chances, of sly smiles, and fleeting moments.

"Trust me though," she said. "I am you, we have a future."

Eleven’s mood changed almost instantly. “A future," he breathed, and he had a wistful smile on his face. "Well then, that's something. I hope it's a good one."

"I do my best."

"Right then," Eleven said, and he clapped his hands together. “What are you here for? What’s so urgent that my future self would come barrelling in like this? I did pop the kettle on.”

Thirteen grinned. “Peppermint tea?”

Eleven rummaged on the console for a moment, before throwing a small cardboard box in the air. He caught it one handed and turned to Thirteen with a wink. “Of course.”

He then jogged towards the kettle, not waiting for a reply. “I do love the fez by the way,” he called out. “It’s suit’s you! Let me know it was you, too. Well, that and the scan I did as you landed.”

Thirteen looked around frantically, scrunching her face up at the TARDIS interior. “Scans? When’d you do scans?”

“As you materialised,” he replied. “Set it up with Donna, remember?”

Thirteen racked her brain for the memory. That had been over a thousand years ago for her.

“Vaguely,” she replied, and hopped over to him.

“Ah, losing that memory with age then?” He eyes sparkled as he passed her a mug.

“Careful whippersnapper,” Thirteen teased. “I’ve got centuries on you.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it,” Eleven replied. They move in sync, in a sort of tandem that only they two were familiar with. They were the same person, but also so starkly different.

“But what do you think?” She said, and she gestured to the fez, but really, she was talking about all of her. “Still me?”

Eleven eyed her up and down quizzically. “Most definitely,” he said. “An upgrade, I’d say.”

Thirteen grinned as they sat down. “Tell you what, buying women’s clothes, still not used to it.”

“Nah,” Eleven replied. “It’s been ages.”

They sat on the threshold of Eleven’s TARDIS, each with a mug of peppermint tea in hand, staring out at the Medusa Nebula. Thirteen was curled in on herself, one knee tucked into her frame and the other dangling freely. Eleven, however, sat openly, his legs swinging free.

She didn’t know how long they sat there in silence, just taking in the bright dust clouds dancing across the inky black universe.

“I’ve met someone,” Thirteen started, after another moment. “A human.”

“Well,” Eleven took a sip of his tea. “That is something we do.”

“No it’s,” Thirteen floundered for a moment, trying to find the words. “It’s different.”

“Define different.”

Thirteen struggled to find a way to describe it, to fully articulate what it was like, what her love for you was like. So, she told a story.

“Do you remember,” Thirteen said. “Gods, it was so long ago for me, but there was this way Amy once described Rory. How, sometimes you meet beautiful people, but they’re dull as a brick. But then you meet someone, and their personality just becomes synonymous with their beauty…”

“She said Rory was the most beautiful man she had ever met,” Eleven finished.

“Exactly, and, well… Y/P2 name is Y/N,” Thirteen said, and risked looking at her younger self.

She watched him blink as the realisation hit him. “Oh,” he said softly, and it was enough.

“Yeah,” Thirteen breathed out.

“So…” Eleven said. “Sandshoes.”

Thirteen chuckled at that, and took a sip of her tea. “Yeah.”

“He would’ve been a bit moody about it.”

Thirteen snorted, and Eleven laughed. “Oi, don’t judge it,” Thirteen said. “My friend picked him out, said he’s got ‘a knowing face,’ so I went with it.”

“He would’ve known how to cope with it,” Eleven said. “That’s for sure.”

“That’s what I need,” Thirteen said. “See, I know I love Y/P2, I keep it safe, hold it in my hearts. That’s not the part that worries me.”

“You just don’t know what to do with it,” Eleven surmised.

“Exactly,” Thirteen nodded. “So, you’re right, and so was Yaz. Ol’ cockatoo hair would’ve known.”

“And you got me instead,” Eleven said with a rueful grin.

“Yup,” Thirteen said. “So? Got any advice for me?”

“Not really,” Eleven replied. “But tell me about Y/N, maybe that would help?”

Thirteen smiled, staring out at the Medusa Nebula, and thought of you. “Well,” she started. “Y/N’s amazing, just so thoughtful, so selfless. I don’t even know if Y/P1 realises just how much she does for others, I think it’s just so innate and present within Y/P2 that for Y/N, it’s just a state of being.”

Eleven sounded out your name on his lips, enunciating it carefully, almost reverently. “It’s a nice name,” he said. “Straight out of a storybook.”

“It is,” Thirteen agreed. “And, okay, so, you know that energy humans have? That wonderful quality that just fills them with so much vibrancy, so much life?”

“Always,” he looked riveted, like he was hanging off of Thirteens every word.

“Well, Y/N just sort… encapsulates it. It’s like, there could be an entire solar system, an entire nebula,” she gestured to the view. “Right there, but the only thing worth looking at is Y/P2.”

“But everything,” Thirteen continued. “Absolutely everything to Y/P2, is so new and exciting. I could show Y/N the seven wonders of the universe, take Y/P2 to see the most dazzling sights in the next universe over, or just show Y/P2 some pink snow, and Y/P1 would find it all just as extraordinary as the next.”

Eleven’s mouth formed a small smile. He took a small sip of his tea. “That sounds… wonderful.”

“Yeah,” Thirteen said, and then, suddenly. “If you were me-”

“I am you,” Eleven said, giving her a wry grin.

“Yes, I know that, but me, me. As in, this face me. Would you pursue something with Y/P2, would you try?”

Eleven let out a heavy breath. Thirteen had no doubt as to what he was thinking about, who he was thinking about – she had lived it, after all. I would be different hearing it, though. “Yes,” he said, after a moment of thought. “I would, if I could. What you’ve said, it sounds like… well, it sounds like everything.”

Thirteen swallowed. It certainly felt like everything.

“The thing is though,” Eleven added. “Is it what you want, is it what Y/P1 wants?”

Thirteen scrunched her face up at that. “I don’t know.”

“Look” he said. “I know next to nothing about this sort of stuff, really, it was absurd you came to me-”

Thirteen snorted, again.

“-But the way I see it, the fact that you’re going around, asking people stuff, questioning this, seeking answers, that’s got to count for something. Loving a human… I can’t imagine anything better.”

“And when I lose Y/P2?” Thirteen challenged. “When Y/N is gone with everyone else, what do I do then?”

Eleven sighed. “What we always do, what we’ve always done. Keep moving forward.”

Thirteen huffed out a breath. “I don’t know if I can do that, again. I’ve lost so much, more than you could imagine-”

“Oh I’m sure I’d be able to, one day.”

“-Right,” Thirteen ran a hand through her hair. “I’m just exhausted though. I’m so sick of losing people, of losing everyone. You fix things, you move on, and then it just keeps happening,” she gave him a desperate look. “I’m not sure I could lose someone again, I’m not sure if I could lose Y/P2.”

“I suppose then, you’ve got to think of the alternatives,” Eleven replied. “What are you willing to do, what boundaries are you willing to set?”

Thirteen considered it for a moment. Then it hit her. “I don’t want to set boundaries. Well, Y/N can set boundaries of course, but me? I… I want whatever I can have…” she scrunched up her face. “I think”

“Do you always do that?” Eleven asked suddenly.

“Do what?”

He mimicked her expression, scrunching his face up. “This.”

Thirteen couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Y/N says I do, Y/P1 notices things, that one.”

“Oh I don’t doubt that, either,” Eleven said. “Face it, we’ve got a type.”

“Plucky adventurous willing to take on the universe?” Thirteen suggested.

“Exactly,” he sobered, after. “I can’t tell you what you should do. Even though I am you, I think that’s something only you, you can decide.”

Thirteen let out a half-hearted groan. “That’s what Vastra said.”

“Oh, Madame Vastra! How is she?”

“Not enjoying her meals as much as she was,” Thirteen commented idly. “She liked Y/N though.”

“Well that’s important, her approval is hard to come by.”

Thirteen thought about Clara, and Amy, and River, and all the people the Doctor had been close with whom Vastra approved of. “She does have excellent taste.”

“Wait,” Eleven said. “If Vastra told you the same thing, why’ve you come to me – or, well, why’d you go looking for sandshoes?”

Thirteen winced. “I may have… um, interpreted it literally.”

Eleven laughed. “I would’ve done the same.”

“You will,” she sighed. “I just… I feel so…” she groaned, not finding the words. She didn’t want to say inadequate, or wrong, because neither of those words fit.

Eleven, though, just nodded. “I know,” he said. “I feel it too.”

“I’m just worried that my own self-doubt, or, well, not even that, but, I just feel like it will stain my decision” Thirteen went to take another sip of her tea, and frowned when it came up empty. “I want to make sure, whatever I decide, I do it for the right reasons, I do it for Y/P2. Y/N’s the most important thing.”

“Well,” Eleven said, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t think any version of ourselves are the best person to talk to, then. We’ve all got that” he waved a hand in the air. “Sad self-doubt thing.”

The Doctor thought about you – you who was so bright, so good. She was scared of hurting you, she was scared of hurting herself, too.

And this was all under the presumption that she could woo you, too.

She groaned, again. This was all just so messy.

“Y/N,” Eleven said slowly, again. It was as if he was trying to fit your name in his mouth, hold it, like the act could help him remember it, help remember you.

Actually, no, it wasn’t ‘as if’ at all. Thirteen knew him, she had been him, she knew Eleven better than anyone.

And she knew, if she were in his position right now, she’d be doing the same.

“I’m sending invitation,” Eleven said, after a moment. “To the Ponds, to River, the people most important to me. I mean, I got the guest list because I’ve already seen it, bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, this-”

“Or a bootstrap paradox,” Thirteen supplied. “You’ve got questions like who made the list? Where did it come from?”

Eleven gave her a rueful grin. “Still obsessed with the ‘why’ I see.”

“When haven’t we been,” Thirteen countered with a soft grin.

“Although, and, I’m not sure how much of this you remember,” Eleven said. “The feeling of it, at least. When it hit me that this is what I had to do… I was grateful it was those three on the list. I think I need them there, I couldn’t go through with this alone.”

Thirteen nodded. She remembered, and she suspected she knew where he was going.

“So,” Eleven continued. “I guess what you need to think about is, if all of this,” he gestured around them both. “Was to end tomorrow, where would you want Y/N? Where would you need Y/P2?”

The question made Thirteen pause. She hadn’t ever considered that, not for a moment. She thought back to times when you had been missing, or lost, and how the only thought on her mind was how she needed you back, needed you here, by her side.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Eleven chuckled. “Yeah.”

It was an important thing to think about; boundaries. What was the Doctor willing to sacrifice? How far was she willing to go to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt, and that, in turn, you wouldn’t get hurt either.

“Right,” Thirteen stood up and brushed down her pants. “Thank you for this, I think I needed this.”

“The tea or the chat?”

Thirteen shrugged. “Both. I love a good tea, my friend’s mum makes the best tea.”

“I’m not going to remember this, am I,” Eleven said suddenly. “We’re too close to creating a paradox.”

“Part of the reason I chose this place,” Thirteen replied.

“Then…” Eleven scrunched up his suspenders in his hand, leaving his tea deserted as he stood. “The Ponds. How are they? Do… do they?”

Thirteen swallowed her sadness at the question, doing her best to give him an encouraging smile. “They live long, happy lives.”

He scrutinised her for a moment. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

The long happy lives starts in 1938.

She gave him a small, sad smile. “Spoilers.”

Eleven huffed. “I suppose I should have expected that.”

But he helped her get back to her TARDIS, and the familiar glow of the crystals warmed her hearts. She rolled her fez in between her hands, thinking about what her younger self had said, thinking about you.

What did the Doctor need? How was she supposed to work it out?

Eleven was right, it wasn’t something that any of her past selves could tell her. It was such an intimately, personal question. And not one with a clear answer.

She threw the thought in the back of her mind. She had all the time in the universe to work it out, hopefully. And rght now, she missed her fam, she missed you.

So she pressed the buttons she needed to press, pulled down the levers she needed to pull, spun her mini TARDIS that sat on the console, and flew home.

As she landed, The Doctor wondered how long her younger self would stay by the Medusa Cascade, holding the memory of their conversation, the knowledge that he would live, regenerate, and fall in love again.

If it were her (and it was, in a way), she would stay there for a long time, just thinking of you.

It was only a second or so after she had landed that there was a knock on the door. Surely it wasn’t Yaz, she couldn’t have realised that the Doctor had gone.

The Doctor swung the door open, completely unprepared for any sort of excuse to give Yaz.

Except, it wasn’t Yaz by the door… It was you.

You were giving her an amused grin, and the Doctor wanted to capture it, hold it and cherish it in that special place that held everything you gave her. Every smile, every laugh, all of it.

“Where did you get off to?” You asked.

“Oh, I just had to check out a thing, you know how it is,” she stepped to the side to allow you to come in.

“Not really,” you said. “I’m not the time travelling alien in suspenders.”

The Doctor almost snorted. Little did you know.

You were holding a bigger bag than normal. The Doctor wondered if that meant you were going to be staying longer. She hoped so. She watched your face fall into a confused frown. “What on Earth happened there?”

The Doctor followed your gaze, landing on the panel that the TARDIS had blown off in a petulant fit. Well – not a petulant fit, the Doctor would never let the TARDIS believe that’s what she thought. “Uh…” The Doctor tried to think of an excuse, any excuse. “Just some maintenance.”

“Right,” you drew out the word, clearly not believing her. “Oh!” You suddenly turned to her. “I forgot, Yaz’s mum has invited us to have tea with the family. Graham and Ryan too.”

Doctor grinned. Tea at Yaz’s. Tea with you at Yaz’s.

“Sounds brilliant.”

A/N^2: If you've made it this far, thank you for reading!! I'm having a lot of fun with this series/collection of standalone fics all set in the same universe with the same premise. On request I’ve started a tag list, so, if you'd like to join it, just let me know!

Tag List: @fictionalhoomanofnowhere @dreamer7black

#the doctor x reader #thirteenth doctor imagine #13th doctor x reader #thirteenth doctor x reader #13th doctor #Doctor Who #DW #as always this is not edited #it wouldn't be on brand if it was whoops

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tommosupport · 3 years

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We get some asks from time to time about where to get data from. Of course, we want to preface this by saying that you need proper context in order to be able to use the data fully and build on it. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of platforms available for you to use - we’ve added caveats where necessary.

1. Kworb (http://kworb.net)

a. Provides realtime iTunes chart updates for both singles and albums, as well as iTunes popularity updates for both singles and albums. You can sort by country or get worldwide data, and the platform also offers some data on YouTube and other metrics, such as Artist Popularity.

b. Drawbacks: Keep in mind that even though it’s realtime, there is a lag in Kworb’s data nonetheless. Popularity is updated only every four hours or so. iTunes charts will update more regularly, but will lag behind what people may already be able to see in their own iTunes stores.

2. DigitalSalesData (http://digitalsalesdata.com)

a. This website used to be able to provide you with the sales numbers for singles on iTunes charts.

b. Drawbacks: It no longer gives accurate data, because this is no longer included in the iTunes Store API. Nonetheless, it does give you an indication of the market as a whole in a country – are the margins to get into the Top 10 close or not, and what’s the sales velocity like? Keep in mind that these numbers therefore should be interpreted, and not just blankly copied or taken as reflective of the actual sales numbers.

3. Chartmetric (http://chartmetric.com)

a. Probably one of the most elaborate websites that lets you collect many KPIs from various platforms – TikTok, Shazam, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube, etc. They have over 25 different data sources. It also shows you things like fan conversion rate (the ratio of monthly listeners vs artist followers on Spotify, for example), and lets you sort playlists on whether they are editorial, personalized or both. They provide data on trends and give you updates in percentages as well when it comes to relative change in subscribers, views, etc. There’s a separate section on social insights, too. They also developed their own cross-platform index which is a useful tool to see if an artist is able to really create a robust fan foundation across all various social platforms. Chartmetric regularly publishes interesting pieces on their latest finds and data analysis. Reading them will help you understand the data they offer, and will let you know how to interpret it all.

b. Drawbacks: You can only follow up to 5 tracks/items and get email notifications for the free version. And most importantly, you need to actually put in some work to understand how you can interpret their data points. Otherwise it can be overwhelming, or you may just copy-paste the numbers without contextualizing them, which isn’t going to help anyone. It’s great for trends, but you need to be able to identify those and explain them, supported by the numbers. You also don’t have as much insight into radio on the free platform.

4. Songstats

a. Similar to Chartmetric, SongStats offers data on an artist and their discography, using various inputs (Spotify, Beatport, AppleMusic, Deezer, Shazam, SoundCloud, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, TraxSource, 1001 Tracklists, YouTube, iTunes). It can also provide you with an overview of the top current playlists where any music by Louis is playlisted. You can customise what data inputs you want to see.

b. Drawbacks: The data they provide for the free version is very limited, and while they do provide some analytics for free – those are all cumulative data. For example, they’ll say Defenceless is on 114 playlists and has a reach of 2,04M. This is in total, across time. It is not always current, so again you have to be very careful with reading the data they give you in analytics, and how you need to interpret it. It also depends per input source. iTunes & AppleMusic do offer a distinction between current or total/cumulative.

5. Soundcharts (http://soundcharts.com)

a. Similar to Chartmetric and Songstats (more like Songstats in how it’s formatted, but more like Chartmetric in the data it lets you see). Very useful specifically if you want to see a breakdown of radio play per country.

b. Drawbacks: This is only free for two weeks, then plans start at 41$ a month. Moreover, again, be careful in how you interpret data. They don’t properly account for syndicated shows, and they use a questionable metric to track audiences. It also makes no distinction between internet/terrestrial radio. (There’s a difference, because internet radio is traditionally not counted for charting, whereas airplay on ‘terrestrial’ radio does count if radio is tracked for charting purposes like in the US). When you look at e.g. radio play, make sure to use the function to filter out plays shorter than 30 seconds!

6. SpotifyCharts (http://spotifycharts.com)

a. The official site of Spotify that updates on Viral and Top 200 playlists. You may find that there’s a difference between the numbers shown here and on an artist’s own profile. It’s because these numbers have been audited extra carefully to filter out any sort of artificial inflation or fraudulent streaming activities. These update daily around 3PM EST, usually a bit earlier than the song specific numbers.

b. Drawbacks: While they do update daily, the time thereof is incredibly irregular.

7. Chartmasters (http://chartmasters.org)

a. A site that allows you to quickly see an artist’s overall Spotify streams in a table. You can sort based on popular songs or on discography.

b. Drawback: You need an account and only get to use it 3 times a day. Make sure you use them wisely.

8. Billboard (http://billboard.com)

a. Billboard offers a variety of charts – aside from the most well known Hot 100 and Album 200 (and the Social 50 in the past). It also used to offer artist-specific overviews of peak chart positions.

b. Drawbacks: We said ‘used to’, because they technically still offer it – you just need to have a paid subscription to be able to access that data, as well as the other charts they have. Think of split-out charts on digital download sales or streaming, as well as radio airplay or genre-specific charts.

9. NextBigSound (http://nextbigsound.com)

a. NBS is monitored and used by Nielsen to compile the Social 50 for Billboard. It provides you a good overview of social media clout and activity. It also gives margins as to whether or not an artist’s activity and engagement are on par with what you’d expect of an artist what x amount of followers, for example. Also unique: It gives you insights in Pandora. Pandora is part of SiriusXM, as well as its own streaming service and is therefore influential in US radio play as well.

b. Drawbacks: It only tracks a limited amount of data sources (Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, Wikipedia), and used to provide more insights as to e.g. gender & country demographics. It no longer will do that, unless you have access to an artist’s AMP on Pandora.

10. Radio Airplay Chart UK (http://ukairplaychart.com/)

a. Gives you an overview of Top 40 songs being played on UK radio. You can also choose whether you want a rolling overview or see last chart week.

b. Drawbacks: It doesn’t tell you how often a song needs to be played and if this is based on audience or amount of plays (or when songs were most often played)

11. AllAccess (http://allaccess.com)

a. This is the database that is most often used by radio in the US to find new songs to play and to track radioplay across the country. It’s also a great platform to keep updated with the latest changes in terms of program directors or hosts at particular radio stations (which is useful when requesting). It will show you when a song was played and how often, and the estimated audience that was reached. All these things factor in airplay charting, so it’s nice to have a breakdown of it. It’ll also tell you which radio stations are giving support.

b. Drawbacks: You need to have an existing account with them and you need to know how to navigate their platform, which can be quite tricky. Moreover, they use the callsigns of radio stations, which can further complicate finding the data you need, because you’re most likely not going to be familiar with those.

12. SpotonTrack (http://spotontrack.com)

a. Sends you daily reports of Spotify and AppleMusic tracking data for a song. Useful for playlist updates!

b. Drawbacks: Only lets you track one song for two weeks in the free trial, after that you’ll have to pay for the service. You could technically also monitor radioplay, but this is not available for free trial users.

13. RadioMonitor (http://radiomonitor.com)

a. This site shows you radio charts around the world, but can also provide aggregate data for particular regions.

b. Drawbacks: Only useful once a song has started charting in airplay Top 10s.

14. WARM Music (https://warmmusic.net/)

a. Allows you to track radio play starting from 3E per month

b. Drawbacks: Not sure how accurate their data is, though they monitor over 28000 stations around the world. When using the free trial from time to time, it always seemed somewhat limited and not in step with what other sites would say (i.e., currently it says Defenceless was only played 49 times in total over the past two weeks. We know this is not correct.).

#info #resources

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dog-day-morning · 3 years

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THE TRUTH AND SHAKA ZULU WILL KILL YOU

In a once-popular commercial for Calgon detergent in the 1970s, a curious housewife probes the Chinese owner of the local laundry for the answer to one of the world’s eternal mysteries: “How do you get shirts so clean, Mr. Lee?” After peering over his shoulder (so as to be sure that his not-so-discreet wife isn’t standing near) the man turns back around, raises a finger to his lips and says through a smile, “Ancient Chinese secret!”

While the answer to the question posed to the laundry owner by the woman was a closely guarded secret — one that his sweet, no-nonsense wife happily ruined — it was neither ancient nor even Chinese in origin. But the TV spot famously tapped into one of the most enduring legends about the country whose Ming Dynasty rulers had a 16-to-26 foot wall built around it: the age-old traditions of secrecy.

And, like Vegas, what happened in China very often stayed in China, just get the hell out of Alkebulan!!! But if you insist on staying, you and your barbarian invader horde of Ghengis Khan, wannabe warlords can take that beatdown like Hirihito of Japan. You can indulge in Alkebulan's rich resources for a season or get on a junk boat and go back to China and rebuild your own country. If you stay in the Motherland you'll perish🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿. As the saying goes, s**t happens. Wash ya ass. Please, continue reading… my screwed up mind !!!

Take the Black Chinese [Moabites] who once made up the entire population of China prior to Esau's attempt at reclaiming the birthright God decreed would be Jacob's while in the womb through forced miscegenation "Raping of indigenous women." Do not be confused or mislead by this post. My research was sketchy to say the least. The portion of the population before China’s modern era does not register any indigenous Moabites, for example. The fact that you’ve never heard of them proves the point. Here comes the BS. But don’t worry. You’re not alone. China has some 1.3 billion people and nearly all are just as in the dark about them. Well, either that or a billion people all swore to never-ever-never air any [ahem] ‘clean laundry’ about black folks formerly having a place in China’s allegedly homogeneous society. That's a bunch of made up monkey s**t. Frankly, even an ancient culture with the bragging rights to the longest continually recorded history, another myth, is bound to miss a few things like a heart, and some effing genomes. The former presence — up until sometime in the 20th century — of Black people in pre-modern China is one of them. Fortunately, though, old photos taken throughout China around the advent of photography can help us to fill in today some of what the historians missed on purpose. I can't believe I'm posting this. 👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿 China’s Qing Dynasty, established by the Manchu people who ruled from 1644–1912, is described as having been a vast multicultural empire. But it appears multicultural could also be a more pleasant euphemism for multiracial. You people are like dogs, stop eating them?! Nothing illustrates this better than the Black and white photos taken by visitors from Europe in the mid-to-late 1800s. Really?!! John Thomson, an Irish photographer was one of the first to capture images that reveal a surprisingly more diverse makeup of then-contemporary China. In one of the most stunning photos taken by Thomson displayed above, six women dine together in a courtyard. Captioned “Manchu ladies at a meal,” the picture was taken in 1869 in the city of Peking (now Beijing). Seated at the center of the photo are two women: on the right sits a typical high class Manchu and on the left sits a smiling Black woman — who could easily pass as the mother of the RZA, the GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, or any other member of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Apart from the physical differences in the women (including the two who were likely seated, but stood for the picture), what’s also remarkable is that when Thomson writes about them, he makes no distinctions — though there were both racial and class differences; some of them were most assuredly attendants or maids. But in the view of Thomson, they were all simply Manchu ladies sharing a meal on a day when he sought interesting subjects to photograph. I saw the photographs. The darker ones were inherently claimed to be lower case workers or servants, while the ones who looked like Lucy Liu were considered affluent, and well off. These racial disparities that evolved from hell are a sad reminder to a wound that won't stop bleeding because of man's inability to stop giving in to his base emotions. I plead cray cray, and insanity. Jacob, they would rather burn in hell for an eternity than let us live in peace for a day. God is coming back for Israel not the Christian Church that has been corrupted by the Evangelical, right wing, nut jobs.

1 Maccabees 3:48

And laid open the book of the law, wherein the heathen had sought to paint the likeness of their images.

If you study history, and read the Bible, you'll see how religion has been used to divide God's people which they're not. Some gentiles will walk into New Jerusalem, the vast majority of them won't. The Bible has been tampered with by people who are shepherds for the Devil. The Catholic Church is Satanic no matter how you cut it. The cathedral of Notre Dame had gargoyles mounted atop the edifice looking over the city of Paris, France. Do you find this to be a bit of a double minded mentality or a slap of defiance in God's face. What god do you worship? We want to know the truth from God. This world can't be trusted with an anorexic T-Rex. You'd call it a crackhead and dump him in the Labrea tar pits unless it was a female, at that point you would attempt to crossbreed it with a Chihuahua, and hope to domesticate this new animal which has disaster written all over his I'm shaking cause I need a fix quick, petrified ass. When Vatican City is destroyed let that be a warning from God to those who still have a sliver of faith in God, get a relationship with Him. Jacob, this writing piece reveals their unwillingness, and froward hearted, lack of sensibility by not telling the whole truth. Instead they give us a revised version of history that wasn't. They have been our teachers for the last 500yrs when we were there's previous. Either you learn from your mistakes or continue to repeat them.

Zechariah 8:23

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

If you hate being rebuked by a Black professor with a tenure ship, you'll hate being corrected by a Black child who has 5 degrees including a specialist in biochemical, ecological science, and psychology. You're ashamed because you're proud. There were great African kingdoms that educated the anglo European that's been shrouded in history. The book of Maccabees says the people who have mislead, and lied to us are as knowledgeable as a 13yr old using crib notes. I'm nuttier than a can of Planters, the truth is in you Jacob. Utilize the authority given to you. You will have to teach them as it was in the past. Everything from Bible scriptures, to aerospace, science engineering. The educational system is designed to hold back Black children, but the 3 people with the highest IQs in the world at the time was a 10yr old Black male, an 2 Black females under the age of 8. They were the youngest members of Mensa ever. This was about 4yrs ago. You can't stop God's anointing from glowing and glorifying Him and His people. Read the rest of this article and lose your mind. Its a nauseating and frustrating read. The truth will set you free. It ain't in these hood boogers

Written accounts by early Chinese historians tell us that the Tonkin region and its adjacent areas were once a hotbed of various non-Han Chinese peoples, including those from whom the Lao Cai girl descends. But with the southward advance of the Han Chinese, such groups were pushed even further south, or gradually assimilated into the dominant population. Historian Thant Myint-U writes in “Where China Meets India” that during the 9th century, the Chinese ethnographer Fan Cho compiled the Man Shu, or “Book of the Southern Barbarians.” Fan Cho describes there the varied peoples living in and around Yunnan. Included among them were the Wu-man or ‘Black southern barbarians,’ so-called for their dark complexions. And ironically, the French author of the Lao Cai photo had the image annotated with the Chinese word “Man,” and — sadly — with the Vietnamese “Xa” (or Kha), signifying servant or slave.

With this photo of a mother and her two children by John Thomson, taken on the streets of Peking (now Beijing), something finally clicked. For reasons that won’t be detailed here (as it would take far too long to explain) more than a decade of research into the peopling of Asia seemed to suggest that any black Chinese still living in the age of photography would likely all be found in southernmost China. Black Moabites still coexist in China to this day. This is a class study in you must be dumber than an incubator.

In his 1902 book The Boxer Uprising, American photographer James Ricalton includes this photo of several dozen men, many of them likely to be executed the next day for their part in the Boxer Rebellion. The latter was a bloody, anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising that took place between 1899 and 1901; the 2006 Jet Li film Fearless was inspired by events that took place in the aftermath of the rebellion. The same is also true of the 1971 Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. No actors in the aforementioned films — nor any other martial arts films set in pre-modern China — ever had actors resembling the non-Han Chinese mixed in above. About them, the racist Ricalton writes:

“This is truly a dusky and unattractive brood. One would scarcely expect to find natives of Borneo or the Fiji Islands more barbarous in appearance; and it is well known that a great proportion of the Boxer organization is of this sort; indeed, how dark-skinned, how ill-clad, how lacking in intelligence, how dull, morose, miserable and vicious they appear!” I'm willing to bet you 5 million in Bitcoin that I don't have, a lifetime supply of opium, and 2 happy ending massages daily that this bougie French bastard is rotting in hell praying to white Jesus that Rumiel won't screw him up the wahoo tonight. Tickle his sack!!! Like Thomas Cromwell the powers that be went to great lengths to cover this history in ChinaTown. You can't hide the truth from a people that's tired of being dictated to, oppressed, lied on, abused and persecuted by everybody, and discredited for the contributions they've made to this damnable planet. As previously stated we don't want crumbs [reparations] we want the whole planet Black before you, and the I hate n**gers brigade showed up, that includes Moo Goo Gai Pan. As soon as his Chicken fried, Bat Man eating, pancaked backside came along, and gained some freedoms, he started emulating his zaddy, he became drunk with xenophobia like the rest. If you hate my commentary tell ya boy Biden or his Amerikkka is not a racist country VP, Kamala Harris. She's next in line to preside as Pontius Pilate over this damnation unless Biden loses his dementia. Its a joke, think or buy a vowel. If that doesn't work, swap some Budha, and kiss Mr. Nasty bye bye.

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goldenkamuyhunting · 3 years

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Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 263 “Oosawa Fusatarou, also known as Boutarou the Pirate”

And so we’re ready to talk of the chapter we got as a (rather sad) present for Christmas and of someone we shouldn’t forget…

Yeah, Oosawa Fusatarou, better known as Boutarou the Pirate

(for who’s wondering the quote below his name is actually based on this quote: "Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story." by Tim O’Brien)

So okay, now let’s dig into the chapter.

We first follow some of the escaping knights, the ones who were tailed by Hijikata. Hijikata shoot them but he’s displeased to discover he chased the wrong group as the sack they were carrying is filled with barley and that he didn’t manage to kill them at the first shoot as they stand up again and try to gang up on him. At this Hijikata takes his sword...

...and since Hijikata is not bad with the rifle but he’s usually much more awesome with his sword I don’t expect them to last long.

We then move to Tsurumi’s steam pumper where Sugimoto has his rifle in his hands... and he’s ready to use it as a primitive club... because he has figured not even that up close he would manage to shoot something. Okay so he is also holding himself up with his other hand so shooting would be difficult but really, I see Sugimoto using his rifle as a club way too many time to think this is an one time thing motivated by emergency.

Sugimoto favours to use it as a wand, if this can’t be done, he revert to using it as a rifle.

Anyway with hit he tries to break Kikuta’s head but Kikuta manages to lower himself right in this so Sugimoto gets close but manages to make no harm... well, apart from managing to knock from Kikuta’s hand one of his PRECIOUS Nagant.

This is a hard blow for Kikuta, more than if Sugimoto has managed to hit him, because everyone has his priorities.

Tsurumi too has his priorities and tries to shoot at them.

I doubt he genuinely bothered aiming as Tsurumi is usually much better with his gun (though yes, they’re on a moving vehicle, but really Tsurumi is good and they’re close). I’m sure he thinks hitting Sugimoto would be preferable but he wouldn’t be above getting rid of Kikuta whom he never fully trust... so Kikuta complains that what Tsurumi is doing is dangerous. I doubt Tsurumi cares.

But we go back to Boutarou and Shiraishi. The bottle car enjines are still roaring but the car is still. Boutarou is still alive but no more in shape to drive.

Shiraishi, sweating a little, is asking him ‘what the hell came over him’ as saving Shiraishi wasn’t Boutarou’s normal behaviour in Shiraishi’s books.

Boutarou, who’s clearly dying, tell him that he has messed up and therefore, since he saved him, Shiraishi will do better not to forget him and tell his children the reason they exist is ‘thanks to Oosawa Fusatarou, also known as Boutarou the pirate’. Shiraishi agrees and Boutarou tells him he also has to make something of himself as he can’t live his life as nothing more than the escape king.

As he says so... Boutarou hands him the skins he got from Kadokura.

Shiraishi says he understands...

...and Boutarou pulls him closer to reveal him the info he got from the Ainu about where is the place where the Ainu first gathered up all the gold. This surprises Shiraishi greatly but when he asks Boutarou for confirmation the latter is dead.

The next we see is Shiraishi driving the bottlecar, a dead Boutarou on his side, as he promises him he won’t forget him... OosaKA Fusatarou, also known as Boutarou the pirate (Boutarou’s surname is actually ‘Oosawa’).

Okay so I stop here to say Boutarou’s whole death felt very underwhelming. Shiraishi, who up to the previous chapters seemed concerned and worried for him even though Boutarou had betrayed them, now doesn’t really look like he’s feeling much, even though Boutarou has just saved him from death taking the bullets that were meant for him.

Sure, it can be that Shiraishi is a bit in shock, hence the lack of expression but really, I’m not particularly impressed. The only moments in which Shiraishi seems genuinely affected are when he’s surprised at hearing the location of the gold and when he says to a dead Boutarou that he won’t forget him. Though since it seems Noda wasn’t in his best shape when he drew this chapter, maybe this scene will be revised later on. Shiraishi seemed a lot more emotionally involved when Kiro died than now... and it doesn’t help that Shiraishi, at the end of the scene, spells Boutarou’s name with the wrong kanji. If it’s a joke to say that Boutarou’s name couldn’t even be remembered correctly, well, that’s not funny, placed at this point. If it’s a typo though, this is also something we can only find out in the volume version.

Overall, okay, I was expecting for Boutarou to die, and it was great how Boutarou, in his last moments, passed everything to Shiraishi while pretending to remain himself (oh, I made a mistake in saving you) yet still showing he cared for him by telling him to get a real life, something that was more than escaping from prison to prison, and something Boutarou has always insisted Shiraishi should search for himself so it’s not like he’s saying so just because he’s dying.

And I think that Boutarou’s death will affect Shiraishi’s future, the way Kiro’s death will affect Asirpa (will Sugimoto too have someone whose death will affect him? Kikuta? Hijikata? Ogata? We’ll see...) but really, I wanted to see Shiraishi reacting more to his dead, at least as much as he has reacted to seeing him wounded. Well, whatever, we’ll see if this gets improved in the volume version.

Meanwhile back to Sugimoto we go.

Tsurumi has given up on trying to shoot him and is merely driving the steam pumper carriage, while Sugimoto is pinning down Kikuta, taking care of not getting shoot by another of Kikuta’s beloved Nagants.

Sugimoto, with his irises white in full murder/beast more, demands to have Asirpa back and that he’ll send them all to hell. Now that Kikuta is lying flat on his back and Tsurumi couldn’t shoot him too by mistake, Tsurumi is taking good care not to try to shoot Sugimoto. I guess if Sugimoto kills Kikuta Tsurumi will consider it as a personal favour.

Anyway, at Sugimoto’s statement Kikuta says to do it as ‘they’ll be rolling out the red carpet for him’.

This rings a bell in Sugimoto, whose eyes return normal, and should ring a bell in us also as Sugimoto said this same sentence in chap 2.

With an almost vulnerable look Sugimoto seems to realize the man he’s strangling is ‘Kikuta-san’.

As he calls him that this rings a bell in Kikuta as well who realizes ‘the immortal Sugimoto’ is the one he knew as ‘Norabō’ (ノラ坊 “stray boy”)…

...which draws a funny parallel with how Ushiyama called Ogata ‘Nora Ogata’ (のら尾形 “stray Ogata”)…

...but this nick is more likely meant to be here to tell us the truth is Kikuta met Sugimoto prior to the war, when Sugimoto was wandering after he left his village, which might explain why Noda was very vague when answering to a question asking what Sugimoto did in those 2 years.

Q8: What did Sugimoto do in the 2 years between leaving the village after burning his house and coming back to Ume’s wedding? Noda: He travelled to places such as Tokyo and Kyoto. [translation courtesy of @piduai]

This might also explain why Sugimoto and Kikuta, despite knowing each other, didn’t recognize each other.

Sugimoto was younger, without his distinctive scars, with longer and more straight hair so Kikuta, who apparently never learnt his name, didn’t connect him with the boy he knew. As for Sugimoto evidently he didn’t pay Kikuta any attention when the latter was in Karafuto with Tsurumi and now he was so knee deep in the heat of the battle he likely paid no attention to Kikuta’s face, only seeing an obstacle in front of himself.

I’m genuinely curious to see how things will go between them, especially because, at this point, Tsurumi decides to try to shoot Sugimoto again (no idea if because he’d heard their talk and understood things could turn out unfavourably or because he decided the chance Sugimoto were to kill Kikuta wasn’t worth carrying Sugimoto with them, especially because, once he had dealt with Kikuta, Sugimoto would try to kill him), the shoot distracting an already confused Sugimoto and Kikuta, instead than taking advantage of this to try again to shoot him, just kicks him off the cart.

Sugimoto rolls on the ground with his rifle...

...again Kikuta making no attempt to shoot him and then resumes running after them, calling Asirpa.

At this point we see Asirpa’s face as she tries to call Sugimoto...

...but we can’t know if she’s with Tsurumi because the scene switches to Koito, Tsukishima and Nikaidou’s group and really, I would totally LOVE if Asirpa’s with them (so yes, I’m biased and therefore not reliable in trying to guess where Asirpa is) because, as they think they’re safe because no one is pursuing them, Koito’s horse gets shoot down by someone in front of them, causing Koito to fall.

Tsukishima thinks someone is following them when, in that moment, Sofia, MY QUEEN, jumps from the roof on Tsukishima’s horse.

So you see, of course I want Asirpa to be there and end up with Sofia as I’ve been anticipating their reunion for YEARS. On another side Koito and Tsukishima are in a really bad spot because not only Sofia is very strong and her men are probably with her (hence Koito’s horse could be shoot by someone ahead of him), but Sofia knows they had a hand in Kiro’s death and wants revenge, sweet revenge.

Now, I don’t want those two to die but it was high time the tiger curse were to come bite their backsides and Sofia is such a formidable foe even alone she could spank Koito, Tsukishima and Nikaidou with a single hand considering how she had no problems holding her ground with a tiger and with Gansoku.

On another side I really wanted Sofia to have a chat with Koito as there’s a huge chance Koito too talk French and I think it would be really good for our Bonbon if he could talk with a lady who used to be a bonbon herself but grew out of it to became such AWESOME revolutionary leader.

Really, I’m so happy Sofia is back to the plot I can barely wait for the next chapter!

Anyway the story ends here, with Sofia ready to spank the boys while Sugimoto runs after Tsurumi. I expect Shiraishi will reach Sugimoto with the bottlecar and they’ll resume the chase and that Hijikata might possibly join them. That or Hijikata will join Sofia.

Will the Hijikata group join their boss as well?

We’ll see.

I doubt someone will catch up with Tsurumi though, and it’s entirely possible the next chapter won’t even spend a word on this as we’ve left Ogata and Vasily in the middle of attempting a sniper duel so next chapter might be about them.

We’ll see.

#Golden Kamuy #Hijikata Toshizou #Sugimoto Saichi #Kikuta Mokutarou #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Asirpa #Oosawa Fusatarou #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Sofia #Koito Otonoshin #Tsukishima Hajime #Nikaidou Kouhei #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories

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rayofspades · 3 years

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How to Write a Horror Story: The Magnus Archives

This post is kinda weird since most tumblr fandom content is based on the assumption that Everyone Has Seen The Thing, but since this is a transcript of a video essay, it’s more broad.

I might link the video in a reblog since, you know, tumblr doesn’t like links.

Anyways, here’s the post:

Hello Jon, apologies for the decep-

I’ve seen a lot of mystery shows in my day, and some supernatural shows, and the common thread between them is that they kind of...fall apart as they go on.

Obviously, this is a generalization and I haven’t seen every mystery show or every paranormal show, but it’s a pretty common problem.

At this point in pop culture criticism, it’s basically common knowledge that these shows fall apart due to a lack of planning. If a mystery series is making shit up as it goes along while trying to surprise the audience, it’s going to stop making sense at some point. And if an episodic paranormal show is constantly trying to up the stakes, eventually it’s going to become absolutely ridiculous and stretch the audience’s suspension of disbelief past a breaking point.

Other people have already talked about this stuff to death, but today I want to talk about a paranormal mystery show that actually succeeds at what it set out to do.

The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonny Sims and directed by Alexander J. Newall. It ran from 2016 to 2021 and it’s...really really good. It’s an episodic horror story, taking place at the fictional Magnus Institute where the head archivist reads various statements about people’s encounters with supernatural entities. It’s got it all; scary stories, mystery, an overarching plot, office comedy, office romance, office tragedy, a villain that’s making straight men everywhere question their sexuality, and an overall really solid structure.

If you listen to the Q+As put out by the writer and director, you’ll hear them talk about how they planned the series from the beginning, setting up the layout for each season. Some things were definitely changed throughout the actual writing process; that’s just inevitable and necessary when you’re working on a long running show, but in a general sense, they knew where they were going. But, writing a good story doesn’t just involve knowing where you’re going; it’s about executing whatever plan you have effectively. And I think the execution of The Magnus Archives is pretty brilliant, so I want to talk about it.

And for the record, I said “brilliant,” not “perfect.” I do have a lot of criticisms of this show, and I’m definitely going to talk about those too, because honestly? Even the problems with this show are interesting in their own right.

Ok, let’s go.

Oh, spoilers by the way. For the whole plot. Whole thing.

Part 1: Horror and Mystery

Ok, so The Magnus Archives has two separate plots going on: the episodic stories that can be listened to individually, and the underlying meta plot. The former is where most of the mystery storytelling takes place, and it’s a really engaging mystery. It’s starts off slow, and almost undetectable at first. The main character, Jon, also known as The Archivist, is just reading out old scary stories that people have delivered to the Magnus Institute. Stuff like; a college student sees a ghostly inhuman figure asking for a cigarette, a woman’s fiancé dies and she finds herself trapped in an empty graveyard, there’s this goth kid who apparently murdered his mother and then skinned her? But she’s kind of still alive? What the f*ck? Hope we never see that kid again. Also, this “Jurgen Lietner” guy wrote a bunch of cursed books and Jon knows about this? Are more books gonna come up? And then you’re like, wait is the goth kid who killed that burn victim the same goth kid who killed his mom like 8 episodes ago? Holy shit the family of that girl’s dead fiancé FUNDS THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE? Did this famous youtuber meet one of the missing people from episode one? The goth kid is back and he’s looking for Leitner books? The name “Michael” has come up like 6 times? Are they all the same guy? I just—who the f*ck is Jurgen Leitner?

So yeah, as you can see, a lot of these stories connect in cool ways, and I’ve only mentioned like, 0.2 percent of all of those connections. Furthermore, these stories are told out of chronological order, and sometimes the same scenario appears in more than one statement, told from different perspectives. This asymmetrical storytelling and odd doling out of information creates a mystery that’s really interesting. It also makes for a great re-listen, since you can retroactively see what elements were set up before you even realized that they were going to come back.

The audio format contributes to this too; you can’t just see that the table from episode three matches the pattern on the box in episode eight. You have to pick up on clues that were mentioned and pay attention to what people are describing, and it’s highly rewarding when the pieces all start to fit together.

There is a bit of a downside to this though. Technically The Magnus Archives is a horror story first and a mystery second, and these two elements can mesh in weird ways.

The horror is element is really strong. Each story is completely different, sometimes focusing on psychological horror, body horror, or supernatural versions of more primal fears like heights, darkness, enclosed spaces, etc. Basically, if you’re afraid of anything, there will be at least one episode of The Magnus Archives that gets under your skin.

Jonny Sims can really sell his stories through both his writing and acting. He plays Jon, by the way, and plagiarized his own birth certificate for the character name. (For future reference, Jonny is the actor, Jon is the character). Overall, he’s really good at writing prose, and each narrator has a very distinct voice even though the large majority of the stories are being read by one character/actor.

Obviously not every episode is a bull’s eye. Sometimes it’s due to the subjectivity when it comes to what you as an audience member are scared of, and occasionally it’s just weird writing decisions. I’m thinking specifically of episode 21 where the line “the sky ate him” is said, and it is the worst line in the entire show. The whole goddamn show. That’s it. That’s the number one worst line.

But still, overall, the horror storytelling is incredibly solid, and some episodes even gave me brand new fears, like the unholy isolation of being in space, or the concept that someone you love could be replaced by someone completely different without you noticing.

But here’s the thing;

A lot of good horror is based on the absence of explanation. Most of the episodes that gave me the most visceral reactions of genuine terror come from the first two seasons, because that’s when the audience has the least amount of information.

For example, in episode two, a really terrifying coffin is introduced. It’s creepy, it reacts very strangely to water for some reason, and appears to compel people to try opening it. By the end of the episode, the audience never finds out what’s in that coffin and that is a good thing. That is a huge part of what made that episode so unnerving.

And then a few seasons later, we do find out what’s in the coffin, and to be fair the answer is both very creative and very scary, but it also takes a lot of the punch out of episode two.

No matter how f*cked up your thing is, it’s not going to compare to whatever the audience can conjure up in their own mind after such a creepy set up. This problem isn’t just stuck in this one scenario either; there are a lot of early episodes that, while still good, seem a lot less creepy in hindsight after you learn more about the scenario.

I don’t think it’s bad writing, but I do think it’s a double-edged sword. Jonny Sims even mentions this sort of issue in the first Q+A.

But yeah, to sum up; the narration is good, the ideas are creative, and seeing the mystery unfurl itself is deeply compelling. And for the record, the mystery elements aren’t of the Sherlock Holmes variety. It’s less about finding out who did the thing, and more about discovering how all of these individual points are intricately connected, pulling on each other as they move. Woven together like a... oh shit what’s the word? Gah, it’s on the tip of my tongue. Ah, whatever, I’m sure it’s not like a running motif or anything.

Part 2: Stakes

One of the main reasons I stopped watching Supernatural is that it devolves into complete f*cking nonsense. At the end of season five, the boys literally defeat the devil, and then the show...keeps going? Which would be fine. It’s also, largely, an episodic show, so if they have more creative ideas, they could definitely keep going with it. In fact, there are some post season five episodes that I thought were pretty good. But as they kept trying to outdo themselves with Bigger Bads, it got kind of difficult to suspend my disbelief. And the final nail in the coffin for me was the end of season nine, when Crowly basically points out to the audience that the main characters keep dying and coming back to life, so there are no stakes. The most-badest bad guy can always be defeated because some new Thing can just come out of left-field, and dying isn’t even on the table as a threat since people have tons of ways of coming back to life.

The Magnus Archives, while being a show based in the supernatural, notably doesn’t bring anyone back to life, even though some very beloved characters die. I say “notably,” because in the season three Q+A, Jonny even says, “We make a point not to bring people back from the dead in Magnus, I know it sometimes feels like that, but we are very careful to never actually resurrect anyone.”

Upon listening to this I said “oh my god, these guys are the only writers left who at least kind of know what they’re doing.”

Also, as far as plot progression goes, The Magnus Archives is lowkey structurally perfect in the way the threats escalate in the underlying plot; both in terms of destruction and power and in terms of emotional consequences. Season one starts off with one major threat that’s dealt with by the end of the season, season two reveals the main villain, season three lays out the grander forces at play, season four ends the world, and season five is about un-ending the world. The difference between season one and season five is vast, but how we got there makes perfect sense.

As for the emotional stakes, let’s talk about themes and characters.

Part 3: Themes and Characters

At the very end of season two, it’s revealed that the supernatural happenings in the Magnus universe are the result of entities far beyond our understanding. Since their existence is so fundamentally different from what we can comprehend, they interact with the world through cursed items, creatures, and humans who have dedicated themselves to an entity.

A lot of people read this as a metaphor for late-stage capitalism, and I am one of those people. A bunch of faceless entities exploiting humans through means of dehumanization and causing people to suffer because it feeds them seems like an appropriate metaphor.

While we’re on this topic, I do want to talk about Elias, since he’s the main villain of the entire series and also one of my favorite villains of all time. The Magnus Archives is a series that deals with a lot of moral questions and has a lot of characters who do morally questionable things, so one might assume that the villain of said series is, you know, morally ambiguous and sympathetic to some extent despite being “the bad guy.”

Nope! No stops, full bastard. It’s great.

He falls under what I’ve deemed the “unbeatable boss” archetype. He just doesn’t tolerate insubordination or resistance, and that combined with his lack of empathy means that anyone who crosses him is either killed or brought to heel. His power set is cool too. On the surface the ability to see out of any eye and read minds sounds useful, but not deal breaking, but the way he uses that power to manipulate people and anticipate threats...yeah, it makes him kind of impossible to beat.��

He’s just...so evil and he loves being evil and every single f*cking thing he does pisses me off and makes me want to kill him. It’s. Great.

Anyways, I think Elias’s role as the central antagonist is what makes the capitalist reading so common. He’s the head of the institute, he’s wealthy, he’s powerful, and he dehumanizes people in ways that are both brutal and chillingly indifferent. He seems like an appropriate stand in through that lens.

I also love how voice actor Ben Meredith plays him like’s he’s trying to seduce the audience.

With all of that said, I wouldn’t call this the critique of capitalism a direct allegory or anything; in much looser terms, this could be a metaphor for any power structure that exploits humans. Organized religion or cults might be even more on the nose, considering there’s a lot of mentions of rituals and worship within the show.

But if we boil it down to its barest aspects and focus on the avatar characters, The Magnus Archives is a series about people becoming monsters. Or, at the very least, becoming worse versions of themselves. That can mean a lot of things to different people in a metaphorical sense; the tense relationship between desperation and morality, the eagerness to please at the cost of one’s own mental health, the psychological traumas that lead people down dark paths, and how personal choices can still be dictated and manipulated by outside influences. It’s kind of heavy stuff, but put into a digestible package through the show’s abstractions.

Well, for the most part.

There’s some debate as to whether or not Daisy’s arc was handled tastefully. While her demise and Basira’s character arc were clearly meant to condemn police brutality and the deeply corrupt system that allows it to foster, it’s still a weird subject to discuss in such a fantastical context, and there is a strange sympathy for the devil angle that can get kind of uncomfortable for some listeners.

Okay, stepping back from that for a bit, let’s talk about Jon and how he fits into this whole “people becoming corrupted” thing.

Jon has one of my favourite brands of character arc, which is one based in deterioration alongside growth. The most obvious way this takes form is his departure from humanity as his relationship with the Eye drives him to psychologically harm others, and he finds himself sympathizing more and more with the people he was afraid of, stating in episode 152 that anyone listening to his recordings might compare him to the other avatars that have had their minds and morals twisted.

Over the course of the series, he is repeatedly traumatized and the show makes a point that he is being both physically and emotionally scarred. These happenings are what drive his motivation for revenge in season five, and he even states that revenge is making him a worse person. As a character he’s constantly berating himself and his own monstrousness, much to Martin’s dismay.

That’s why the finale destroys me in the best way. Upon seeing that Jon has betrayed him and basically given himself over to the Eye, Martin asks “how much of you is even left?” And when Jon tries to reassure him that he’s still himself, Martin’s response is “how would you even know?” This cuts through me every time. Up until this point, Martin had consistently stood up for Jon and Jon’s humanity, even in the face of Tim’s doubt, Basira’s mistrust, Elias being cryptic, and Jon’s own self-hatred. This is the ultimate breaking point, the point where even Martin, the love of Jon’s life, doesn’t really recognize him. It’s brutal. Because at the end of the day, Jon is still himself; he’s a deeply broken person trying to make the right decisions.

We’ll come back to the finale later, but for now I want to talk about the romance.

Jon’s emotional growth throughout the series is largely tied into Martin. Martin’s the first person that Jon really opens up to, and this later grows into trust which then turns into a genuine emotional connection. On the flip side, Martin’s growth in season four is largely tied into Jon. Martin starts season four basically waiting to die, but Jon’s return gives him a reason to keep living, and he’s later able to recognize his own value outside of the pure utility of ‘you need to set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm.’ Both of them give each other reason to push onward despite everything becoming more and more hopeless.

It’s a good romance. I wish the two had had a few more scenes together before the culmination, but it is built up over the course of four seasons and comes together in an utterly fantastic confession.

And yeah, the scene with Martin and Jon in the Lonely is cheesy as hell, but it is the highest quality of cheese. These are some gourmet nachos.

Umm, also kind of stating the obvious here, but it’s also pretty cool that the main character in this horror story falls in love with another man. You don’t see that a lot, and it’s cool that no one even makes a big deal out of it. It’s just a normal romance, but with two guys. It’s nice.

So, they go to Scottland, they hang out, they’re in love, Jonalias starts the apocalypse through Jon, the world ends, and season five starts!

...Let’s talk about season five!

Part 4: Season 5

At the very start of this post, I said that supernatural mysteries tend to get worse as they go along, and I am deeply sad to report that I don’t think that The Magnus Archives is an exception. It just goes downhill in a very different way than its ilk.

And, so we’re clear, I don’t think season five totally tanks or becomes unlistenable, it’s just, in my opinion, notably worse than the rest of the show.

As discussed earlier, it doesn’t fall apart due to a lack of planning; everything still makes sense, but the presentation has changed drastically. The episodic statements are no longer scary stories, but more like slam poems about the various hellscapes that Jon and Martin are trekking through. Honestly if these were published in a book of slam poetry, I would probably think they slapped pretty hard. I genuinely believe that Jonny Sims is a good writer, but as a podcast a lot of these statements just made me zone out. There’s at least four that I don’t even slightly remember. Myself and many others have noted that they just...aren’t scary, unless there’s a specific episode that really gets under your skin due to a certain fear or phobia.

To quote my friend, “it’s harder to feel a solid impact when the setting is literally divorced from reality. People would either go numb or insane to the point where their fears become unrelatable.”

And, to be honest, I think that this same surreal odyssey set up could have worked with a slight shift in narration. Two stand out episodes for me were “Strung Out” and “Wonderland.” Both of them show the tormented target actively trying to resist and interact with their tormenter, instead of just trying to escape or live through their situation. “Strung Out” is also more of character study; you learn about Francis’s life before the apocalypse through their interaction with the Web hellscape. Meanwhile “Wonderland” is just...f*cked, and you get to see Jon take the perspective of first-person Bad Guy throughout the whole thing, which is its own level of disturbing.

But the majority of episodes feel so abstract that I kind of forget the people trapped in them are supposed to be characters and not just concepts, so it’s harder to feel their dread and pain.

But I’m still here for the metaplot, the drama, and the romance. And when that’s good, it’s great! I think the final handful of episodes are really solid in that regard.

Buuuuuuut...

A decent chunk of season five is dedicated to the “kill bill” plot. Jon discovers he has the power to smite people, and while at first, he’s embarrassed about this, since he actively enjoyed killing Not!Sasha, Martin is super into it! He’s encouraging Jon to murder people.

This is actually the set up for a really good arc. As Jon gets more and more into his own avenging angel persona, Martin could get more and more disturbed by it so by the time they get to London, Martin could be really upset that Jon is so willing to wreak his own divine justice by killing or torturing all of the avatars.

And this does kind of happen. We do reach this end state, and it makes for a good final conflict, but the way we got here was borderline nonsense. Thematic gibberish, if you will.

Throughout the journey, Martin is clearly motived by a sense of justice; these people are bad, and so they should die. Whereas Jon is clearly more motivated by revenge; he only goes after the avatars that hurt him personally. At one point, Jon admits that maybe all of this killing isn’t making anything better, but just making him worse. Martin apologizes for egging him on, Jon absolves him by saying he started it, and then Martin’s like “I’ll keep my apology then.” This is the second worst line in the entire series, right after “the sky ate him.” And it’s close.

But it kind of feels like we’re back at square one. Jon is back to being ashamed of killing and Martin is still keen on his justice stance, but now just less pushy about it. The arc is basically half resolved at this point.

But then it doesn’t matter, because Jon kills Helen anyway. So, Jon’s back on his revenge/justice thing. Then what was the point of his earlier revelation? Why have that if it’s not going to matter and the conflict that was escalating still culminates with Jon leaning into the avenging angel stuff, and Martin being disturbed by it? It just makes both of them look like huge hypocrites! I f*cking hate it when they’re in the tunnels and Martin says “you weren’t meant to enjoy it this much,” regarding Jon’s smiting. Where did this come from?! Why didn’t you say this earlier? Third worst line in the series.

And yeah, I’ll say it; the boys fight too much in this season. I loved their romance up to season five, and their cute moments and more lowkey serious discussions are still good in this season, but God, they fight so much. And I’m not saying couples can’t have fights or tension, that’s just realistic and also stories need conflict to be interesting. Jonny Sims is on the record saying that balancing a healthy romance with the stress of a literal apocalypse was a priority, and I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s well balanced. I’m just saying that sometimes it feels like they don’t even like each other and it really started to grate on me.

Maybe it would have been better if the beginning of this season was dedicated to charming romance at first, so we as an audience could better appreciate how strong their love is and how it’s truly being tested. But obviously that was never on the table—

ALEX NO.

So, yeah, I have a lot of problems with season. I think it’s the worst one by far, even though there is a lot of it I still enjoy, including the ending.

As I mentioned before, the moment where Martin confronts Jon in the panopticon absolutely kills me, and Jon’s reaction kills me even harder. Throughout the season, Jon had largely been motivated by revenge, martyrdom, and the subconscious call of the Eye, and all three of those factors led him to his position as the pupil. He’s getting revenge against the powers, sacrificing his humanity to get rid of the Fears, and taking his place as wearer of the watcher’s crown. But all of this gets thrown out the window when he realizes that Martin is going to die. And not only is Martin going to die, Martin is going to die specifically because he loves Jon and refuses to leave Jon alone to die horribly. Martin had always been an underlying motivation for Jon, his “reason” as stated in episode 167, but now love as a motivator has come to the forefront, and Jon can no longer go through with his plan because of it. But at this point in the series, they’re both utterly doomed, and Jon concludes that the only possible chance they have of surviving, however unlikely, would be to sever the pupil of the eye, technically killing Jon, but maybe, just maybe, allowing them to escape with the Fears. Whether that’s meant to be literal or more ethereal is left unclear. Hell, maybe Jon’s just making it up completely and creating his own potential happy ending. It’s a pretty potent ending in emotional terms; Jon has to release the Fears and Martin has to kill Jon, and those are the two things they were dead set on not doing.

The Web, arguably the real main antagonist, basically won, and their manipulation of Jon worked. The destruction spread, and there is kind of a bleak underlying tone to that.

But at least this ending has some semblance of hope to it. I’m not saying that releasing the Fears was objectively the correct moral decision; the entire point of the dilemma is that there was no objectively correct moral decision. But, while Jon’s solution does have merit, it was also the most hopeless. I think dramatically, any one of the choices on the table could have worked if the writing was well executed, but thematically this one seemed like the perfect combination of grim and optimistic. Like, all of the evils that plague humanity can’t just be defeated forever and things could get worse, but maybe not. Maybe everything works out...

So yeah, The Magnus Archives...is a podcast. And it’s a really good podcast. Great, even. I can complain about season five all I want, but regardless of how that worked out, you can tell throughout the entire show that the people working on it were trying to tell a genuinely excellent story.

It’s good. Go listen to it. Even though I spoiled the entire thing and if you’re still here, you’ve probably already listened to it. Listen to it again.

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood

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crossdressingdeath · 3 years

Note

On the Lan Sect negativity:

1) The Lan Sect’s involvement was only at Discussion Conferences and the like - events they had to attend. No real choice, they had to go. But WWX mentions only the Jin Sect at Qiongqi path, and only the Jin and Jiang Sects at the siege.

WWX only mentions that WN might have hurt Lan Sect members when he went wild at his execution with WQ - and it should be noted that the Lan Sect let LWJ argue on behalf on the Wens. They had the power to stop him, but they didn’t. At the Nightless City, WWX seemed to attack everyone with no mercy or distinction between friend or foe. Of course they’re worried when LWJ disappears with him. But LXC specifically points out that he wanted to do it secretly, so it wasn’t a Lan Sect siding with the Jin Sect thing.

Yeah, there was the Second Siege... but the Jin Sect had “proof” that WWX had killed innocent people and had kidnapped Sect heirs and junior disciples. Not great proof, but ya know. And the Lan Sect was one of the first ones willing to listen to WWX.

2) We don’t know what went on with LWJ’s mother. We don’t know much about who she killed, why she killed them or anything. The fandom likes to paint her as this helpless victim but we don’t know if she was. We don’t even know if she was in love with her husband or not. You can speculate. You can headcanon. But you can’t know. It sucks, but it is what it is.

3) We see in the extras that it’s perfectly normal for Sect members to interact with someone of the opposite biological sex. WWX sees and talks to a female disciple, who was heading to feed the rabbits. And, actually, it seems that the separation only happened recently, as WWX’s parents met at CR. CSSR met JFM at CR. And it seems like a lot of the parents were there as well. It’s probably a tradition for Sect heirs to go. I wonder what could have happened with the past generation that could have caused the Lan Sect to decide “You know what, let’s seperate them”? That sounds like a great idea for a crack fic, honestly...

Anyway, the gossiping rule is only there to discourage the spread of misinformation. Considering that one of the main themes in the novel is the dangers of taking gossip at face value without looking into it, I don’t think that’s a rule we’re meant to find oppressive.

4) Where does it say that the “no talking to WWX” rule is written on the wall? I’ve only seen it in fics. And rereading the extra it was introduced in... hmm, not there... maybe translation differences? Or maybe it’s an exaggeration? Either way, this rule is clearly not taken seriously as WWX is allowed to teach the junior disciples. Without LWJ present even. This is shown in two seperate extras. So, unless we assume that the Lan Sect is too dumb to realize that WWX and the juniors all disappearing at the same time has a connection, we can assume that he’s probably allowed to teach them. And it’s very hard for a teacher to teach without communication with students.

5) Yeah, the Lan Sect has plenty of rules, but the rules are clearly dealt with differently depending on what they are, and the circumstances they are broken in. Like the rule against fighting - that is clearly fine to break if you’re fighting to defend someone or something. The rules against noise and running? Perfectly fine to break if there is an emergency and you need help instantly (or if you want to scold someone for doing something wrong). Someone being unconscious doesn’t violate the sleeping rules either.

It should also be mentioned that they’re even willing to let things slide not only based on serious (we never see WWX punished for running, or sleeping in, for example) but also on knowledge. They don’t punish him for those first four rules he breaks, they just make sure he can’t use not knowing them as an excuse to break more.

6) Yes, “Do not grieve is excess” sounds messed up on its own. But one, I don’t even remember if that’s a canon rule or a fanon rule (this is not as easy to double check as the rules in the extras), but I don’t remember it in any version I’ve seen. Two, there are certain parts of the grieving process that can actually be detrimental to one’s health if preformed for too long. The rule doesn’t put a time limit on grieving, it just says “excess”.

1) I believe it’s mentioned that they were present at the first siege, but it was the Jin and Jiang sects that were leading it and as I’ve mentioned before the fact that they felt the need to hide the bodies suggests to me that the Lans (and Nies) were far enough away from the actual Wen village that they never saw any of the remnants; it’s not like there wouldn’t be a large number of fierce corpses to keep them busy in the Burial Mounds. I think there may have been some Lan cultivators at the ambush? But that may be CQL-only (if it was a thing at all; I may be misremembering), and either way we never get any evidence to suggest their presence was sanctioned by the sect as a whole. And yeah, the Lans at the very least hid LWJ’s involvement from the rest of the sects; it may have just been an attempt to protect their own, but they were prepared to let a connection to WWX slide, at least. (Not to mention I don’t doubt that at least some of them suspected that A-Yuan was connected to WWX in some way, and no one said anything about that; I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t prove that, but it seems like a reasonable assumption.) And as you say, in the second siege they’re quick to stand down when given reason to believe that WWX isn’t an actual threat, not to mention how their sect leader actively sheltered him from the wrath of the sects not long before that point.

2) Yeah, that’s always the thing with the “the Lans locked up the Twin Jades’ mother and forced her to marry against her will” thing. It’s certainly a possibility, but it’s not a guarantee. The only source we get is getting the story second hand from people with a vested interest in making the whole affair look as bad as possible (to lower the risk of their current sect leader and heir doing something similar, which... fails). And if it did happen it doesn’t guarantee they’ll do it again in a very different situation; in fact we know they don’t, since WWX and LWJ’s marriage is accepted, if only grudgingly, and there’s no sign of them locking WWX up.

3) I imagine male and female disciples were always separated during classes, but it doesn’t follow that they’re separated all the time; clearly there are at least co-ed areas, if a female Lan disciple is going to visit the rabbits. Personally I’m thinking maybe the separation is at least stricter during the lessons to avoid distraction (hence why WWX never saw a female disciple as a kid but ran into one by accident while living in the Cloud Recesses) and it was probably a thing while the previous generation was there (CSSR is the exact sort of person to sneak into areas she’s not supposed to be in; I mean, she breaks into LQR’s room). But yeah, if nothing else there’s no reason to believe the male and female disciples don’t share information and a rule against sharing information that isn’t proven true (in a sect with rules against lying) which is generally rather negative towards the target doesn’t exactly seem unreasonable.

4) I think it’s in the ExR translation; is it not a thing in the original Chinese? But yeah, at worst the entire sect turns a blind eye to this rule being broken constantly, and more likely it was just quietly removed (if it was an official, policed rule to begin with, which is debatable). People seem to take that rule way more seriously than it’s ever taken in canon, honestly.

5) Yeah, the Lans are clearly prepared to make allowances in the rules for various reasons; there’s no reason to believe that mental health stuff wouldn’t be considered worthy of a similar allowance. Note that whenever we see a Lan faced with a clear mental health issue their response is to try to help; somewhat clumsily in LWJ’s case, but they do want to help, not shove the person back into some semblance of normalcy. That suggests to me that someone having genuine issues with following the rules would be treated more gently; note that LJY’s rule-breaking is treated mostly with mild exasperation and the usual punishment (which also grants Lan disciples a pretty useful skill, in this case; incredible arm strength is the Lan Thing, after all) and no one really seems to get fed up with him in any serious way.

6) Honestly, of all the sects I think that the Lans quite possibly have the healthiest grief-management stuff? I mean, we don’t see much of the Jins, but the Nies seem to go for “Channel everything into Rage and Fighting” and (while odds are it’s not indicative of the Jiangs as a whole, at least under JFM) every time we see grief in the Jiang sect it involves JC trying to murder WWX, which... is a whole thing. I’ve always taken “Do not grieve excessively” as “Do not let your grief consume you”, which is in fact a healthy way of looking at it; I don’t know if the Lans have grief counselling, but there is a point where grief just becomes incredibly unhealthy and saying “Hey, don’t do that” is at least... something. I do hope they offer some sort of assistance though, because just banning all-consuming grief and offering no help would be a whole mess. Still, if any sect is going to offer some form of counselling it’s going to be the one with the magic music for calming the mind!

#mdzs #cql #y'know i like getting asks in numbered lists #makes it easier to respond to #anon #asks

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unbiasedcabaret · 3 years

Text

love death + robots

objectively the most badass name for a tv show

anyways here's my review of the first season. it is ranked. but rankings change depending on whether I wanna look at pretty animation or be invested in characters/story. there are short, slightly (extremely) stupid reviews next to them too.

(Also rankings are so hard. Am I basing it off of rewatchability? how impressed I was on the first watch? would I want to go back to that world? the animation? the characters? my investment in the story? Currently, I'm going off of what feels right and how excited it makes me basically)

18. The Dump: Eh. I couldn’t get into it. Boring animation, like it was definitely good quality, but nothing particularly interesting. Like okay, dumpster monster. Cool cool cool. This felt so long when it was relatively a shorter episode.

17. Alternate Histories: Never have I been so disappointed so fast. The premise sounded so cool, I was really hoping they’d go realistic with this one, explore some really interesting theories/possibilities. If I look at it objectively, pretty okay. I liked hitler’s long legs, did not enjoy the weird prostitute part, and had an okay time at the ending. Eh.

16. When the Yogurt Took Over: I don’t get it. Oh wow, humans are so dumb even the yogurt left us. Or oh wow they were so smart they got everything they wanted genius yogurt. Okay so? I didn’t care about anything happening, because I got over it kinda fast.

15. Lucky 13: Fun. I love pilots loving their ships, especially with this slightly sentient(?) ship thing going on. I enjoyed the rise to the top, could’ve been a less predictable fall perhaps.

14. Ice Age: Great start, I was hooked from the second the civilization started developing. Might’ve helped that I was high as fuck while watching this. Didn’t really go anywhere, there was no resolution, no reason, nothing. Honestly just felt a little underdeveloped, they should’ve pushed it a little. Very cool premise though.

13. Beyond the Aquila Rift: I don’t fully get the hype not gonna lie. Like I was interested definitely but the twist didn’t blow my mind it just seemed like it made sense. Didn’t have the ‘oh fuck’ moment and wasn’t especially blown away by the animation

12. Sucker of Souls: My favourite part of this was when they literally killed the exchange student. Very fun. Also when his head was split in half and it split into layers. Other than that, eh. The cat thing was interesting but then they never actually used it so what was the point. It just went nowhere and wasn’t that cool. Okay, I take that back the chase scenes/fight scenes/anything action was very engaging.

11. Shape-Shifters: I agree with that one guy who said bad-ass. I love it when fight scenes are actually all out because you KNOW motherfuckers tend to hold back for the sake of plot or whatever. I like it as a short though because it’s interesting to think about, I’m just not too interested in seeing where it goes after. (Which is a good thing because they did all the fun things in the short).

10. Three Robots: Really interesting, loved the characters, loved their skewed understanding of human history (kinda makes me question how much we really know about the past). Odd ending but high me was impressed

9. The Secret War: I was super into it. I love a good fight scene, great backstory, great animation. I just watched Aquaman and the creatures reminded me of those guys from the trench, especially with the flare at the end and I’m not complaining.

8. Blindspot: Why does this episode get hate. It’s a heist with robots how is it boring. I personally love heists, especially in the fast&furious style thing. I loved the characters too, and I’m now questioning my ability to get attached to robots this fast. Also enjoyed the murder, because I’m so used to people being saved at the last minute. I would definitely watch the fuck out of this movie because there could definitely be fun ways to fuck with the whole ‘there are no stakes because we can’t die’ thing.

7. Suits: PERFECT. So perfect there is nothing wrong with this like absolutely nothing wrong. I was into it, loved the robots, loved the characters, loved the world. Would wanna go back into this world and see more of it. Just the idea of casual alien encounters is so fun to me. I’d definitely watch this movie. Honestly felt bad when Jake died which is surprising with an 18-minute runtime. Basically, I view this as a little Pixar version of the show and I had a fun time.

6. Fish Night: So pretty so mesmerising so mystical. I wish the fish part went on for longer I would’ve watched the shit out of it. I kinda wanna go and see that whole scene again. Great short. Very perfect.

5. Helping Hand: Gravity but gory. Did not see it coming so it was a very fun surprise. Nothing wrong with this and I would watch again. Especially liked the part where no one somehow managed to save her and she figured it out on her own. (Not from a feminist point of view, more from a predictability point of view)

4. Sonnie’s Edge: Brilliant fucking animation (when the neon outfits/parts thing came I had to replay several times), great fight scene. I shouldn’t have been deceived by that dude’s girlfriend but she was good, so when she extended her nails through Sonnie’s skull it was great. Apart from the animation and the direction, the story did kinda fall flat now that I think about it. Like it felt a bit, okay so? types I think.

3. Good Hunting: Very great animation, great story, great storytelling. Loved the world and the way the world developed. Loved the automatons. Loved the combination of magic and machine. I didn’t expect her to be able to transform at the end so that was extremely fucking cool. Loved that she got her agency back and that the son was able to break away from his father’s habits. Hated seeing that one guy’s dick.

2. The Witness: SEXIEST animation. Spider-verse vibes especially with the bang! or whatever and I wish there was so much more of this. I was definitely more interested in the action sequences than in the weird sex stuff mostly because I saw no point to that. What was the point of the whole vladmir character when we don’t even know what he’s like. Like he was given way too much importance in my opinion. Technically she didn’t even have to leave that room. The loop stuff was pretty cool though like I had to go back to the beginning to make sure because- slight mindfuck. But I think this animation, and this beautiful beautiful world, was wasted on this average ass story. Could’ve been way cooler.

1. Zima Blue: Oh god this was a good fucking episode. Didn’t think it was gonna be this good. First of all the art itself was so cool. The were spray painting literal space rocks you cannot get more anything than that. Then his whole story? His origin? His truth? FUCK me. Also the animation was so distinct. It was so, it’s own. So specific. And it worked so well with the story. I don’t want anymore of this short in the best way possible. Also I thought of this art thing that starts like this but the blue starts becoming better and then a whole universe comes out of the blue and it starts right back where he started - murals of the universe. And his final work is a universe with like a tiny blue square to show that it repeats forever? Idk what that means but I kinda wanna make it but it’d definitely be plagiarism. Also I can’t do art.

#may 2021 #love death and robots

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burningdarkfire · 3 years

Text

tagged by @saturdaysky, thank you! always very happy to talk about writing 🤠

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

36 on ao3, with many others left in the past on livejournal or ffnet

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

162k. it’s kind of a shame it doesn’t have the majority of my pre-2011 output as i never ported over my top four or five longest fics. i would’ve loved to see some genuine lifetime totals!

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

9 on ao3 (critrole, nier, hetalia, overwatch, trc, voltron, no. 6, star wars, tiger & bunny). if you expand trc to include anything clamp and throw in code geass then that covers everything i’ve ever published, though homestuck is by far the fandom i have the most WIPs for despite never finishing a single one and deserves a shoutout

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

take my hand / take my whole life too: critrole, 9k, how essek and caleb’s relationship evolves through touch

blue sky, warm sun: critrole, 3.5k, six mornings caleb wakes with essek

dark night, bright stars: critrole, 3k, six nights caleb spends with essek

kitty love: star wars, 1.5k, kylo ren forms a bond with hux’s cat millicent

the walls kept tumbling down: critrole, 2k, caleb spontaneously visits essek after a hard day

commentary and further answers are below the cut!

spots 1-3 on the list are gladly accepted, given that i also think they’re some of my best and most broadly-appealing shadowgast. kitty love gets its spot despite being pure, pointless crack because it’s for a huge fandom, which is fine and fun but i don’t have a lot of personal attachment to it

the walls kept tumbling down is a surprise! it was a self-indulgent “i want a fic exactly like this to fix my mood and instead of digging through the internet for one i’ll just make one up” that i only worked on for a couple of days. i’m glad it clicked for other people!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

i always try to respond to comments, although sometimes a week or two pass by before i can find the energy to sit down and do it

admittedly comments have gone unanswered during months or years when i’m not writing fic and then it feels too awkward to a) go back and respond, and b) respond to any further comments on the fic even if they come in when i’m active. so instead those comments haunt my ao3 inbox forever (oops)

i do appreciate every single one though, and there are some comments that i go back to read if i need a pick-me-up just because they were so nice 😊

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

i’ll link my no. 6 fic forgive me because it still dominates my top fics in terms of hits despite being 387 words long. i wrote it in 2011 in less than half an hour, if i’m remembering correctly, and there are a few clever bits in it that i’m still quite proud of

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

i don’t usually write or read “pure” crossovers but i do like fusion AUs where characters from one work are imported into the setting of another work

but it’s fandom-dependent. critrole has been an outlier in that i can count on one hand the number of AU fics i’ve read and liked enough to remember. some of my favourite canon-adjacent fics veer off wildly, but they’ve still got their roots in the universe

i’ve published 17 critrole fics myself and they’re all canon-adjacent. i’m only now working on my first fusion-type AU 🤷‍♂️

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

i have one distinct memory of receiving criticism on a fic. in hindsight, it was constructive and pretty fair, but i was a young teen and so it still haunts me

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

i do!! and i’m excited about it because it’s fairly new to me!

i write to the characters, and what kind of relationship i think they’d have, but it’s probably true that my interests tend towards certain relationship dynamics

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i’m aware of!

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, actually! this was about about a decade ago so sadly the details have been lost in the haziness of memory and the inaccessibility of ffnet. i tried to dig it up last night but couldn’t find it again 😔

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i don’t ... think so? my current roommate and i tried co-writing when we were teenagers but none of that got published. it’s possible i’m forgetting something from my livejournal/early tumblr days because i remember doing a lot of ask games and challenges with other writers and fandom friends

now i’m just an introvert who avoids invites to discords because i feel like i simply Do Not Have Time so 🤡 not sure it’s anywhere on the horizon

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

i used to have shipping walls and pairing lists until 2015 or so but i have since accepted that i am changeable like the wind. my interests come and go!

i am a multi-shipper though as a general rule. i’ve never had such a loyalty to a pairing that it would bother me to pair one half with someone else, and i also don’t care at all whether or not a ship is canon. it’s just about what’s interesting!

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

i’ve had remarkably sequential focus for my critrole fics and finished nearly every idea i’ve had so far. however, this ACME AU is testing me lol and i’ve spent so much time on it that my list of other ideas to write is only getting longer and longer. nothing is abandoned yet, because not much else has even been started, but i am starting to sweat a little

15) What are your writing strengths?

i love my writing style! i value simplicity and clarity: no flowery descriptions, easy words, few similes, little variance in sentence structures, etc. it can vary, based on my mood or the characters i’m writing, but i like doing more with less

i’ve spent years working at my own style and it is so satisfying to read something i wrote in 2011 and feel how familiar it still is while being able to pick out what i would change

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

recently, it’s been plot. if it can’t be conveyed by 2-4 characters talking to each other then i don’t know how to do it anymore 😭 i’m most invested in emotional resolutions, but it’s probably a good idea to have things happen sometimes!

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i really do not enjoy this when it’s used as a “character quirk”. this includes nicknames, common phrases even if they are spoken that way in canon, and .. everything, really, that’s in a different language

i’ve spent a lot of time in spaces where it seemed widely agreed that doing so was not welcome, and i’ve had considerable fandom “culture shock” reading critrole fics. there are plenty of reasons to have caleb speaking “zemnian” or to emphasize his accent, and those reasons don’t need to be lofty or deep, but i do think there should be a reason beyond “haha this guy says ja instead of yeah”

i promise, absolutely pinky swear, that i don’t judge anyone on an individual basis for doing this. it seems to be a deep-seated fandom trend in this case and i just wish it wasn’t

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

tsubasa reservoir chronicle (trc) all the way back in 2010. tsubasa, my beloved, how you changed my life 💕

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

i like different ones for different reasons, but the top contender might be such is the endlessness for nier automata. it’s a vampire/werewolf enemies-to-lovers fusion AU where i put 2b and 9s in an original universe of mine that i wrote about a lot when i was a teenager

i feel like i did a spectacular job of adapting the universe for nier and i thought i conveyed a lot about the world in a relatively short number of words (the entire fic is just under 5k). i’ve considered more than once that i should use this version of the universe going forward because i enjoy it so much!

thanks again for the tag, sky, and i’ll leave this open to anyone else who wants to try as i think most of my mutuals have already been included. don’t be shy about tagging me in your answer if you take my open invite as i love reading these! 💖

#my posts #writing blogging #replies

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