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isfjmel-phleg · 17 days

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March 2024 Books

Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot by Janet and Isaac Asimov

This one was a lot of fun! I should track down the rest of the series.

The World's Greatest Detective by Caroline Carlson

I was very confused about what era this world was mimicking (are they Victorian? 1920s/30s?), but it was a fun story and I enjoyed the dynamic between the protagonists.

A Dig in Time by Peni R. Griffin

I remember liking this one, but it feels like I read it years ago and I can't remember everything. Time travel with a family emphasis.

The Promise by Monica Hughes

Like Sandwriter, which this is a sequel to, I initially wasn't so sure that I liked this one, and then it went in an unexpected direction that took the themes in a more complex place, and I appreciated that.

The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

I generally like fairy tales well enough, but this one was rather a slog to get through, and I ended up skimming a lot of it. There were some familiar favorites, but a lot of the tales were of the variety that consist of an interesting set-up followed by a seemingly incoherent series of events, and I regret I don't have enough interest in folklore to get much out of that.

The Romance of a Shop by Amy Levy

Interesting from a historic perspective mostly, but I didn't connect much with the story.

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber A. Logan (reread)

Reread so it would be fresh in my mind before the presentation. You already know how I feel about this one.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter (reread)

Same as above. I have a post in drafts with some thoughts on this one that may eventually see daylight.

The Making of May by Gwyneth Rees (reread)

Already discussed this one.

A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi (reread)

Beautifully written and very readable and develops its themes well. Does fall into the trap of making the story about grief (Maria's late parents were frequently absent from her life, and she resents this, but she did have relationships with them in ways that her counterpart in the original book never did with her parents, so it's a completely different dynamic). I found this Colin to be somewhat underdeveloped, but I did appreciate the concept of his being fearful about failing to live up to family expectation, which is a reasonable translation of the original character's source of shame.

Charley by Joan G. Robinson

I don't remember much of this one. Didn't have any problems, just didn't have as much impact as other books by this author have for me.

Greenwild by Pari Thomson

A very derivative example of the Child Learns That They Are Magical And Special And Enters A Fantastical World Where They Must Take On The Villain sort of story. I wanted to enjoy it, but everything felt trite.

Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time Lords by Steve Tribe

This was a gift from my brother. I am a very casual DW fan and haven't really engaged with the show in quite a while (really should rewatch and catch up on new stuff but that's a pretty big time commitment right now). I think I would have got a lot more out of this if I were more than passingly familiar with Classic Who and all the lore in general.

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu

I was interested in this one because it's a retelling of "The Yellow Wallpaper," and the concept of comparing the difficulties of getting difficult-to-trace chronic illnesses taken seriously and diagnosed in today's world to the mishandling of women's medical and psychological conditions in the late nineteenth century intrigued me. However, this book didn't really know what it wanted to be. The young protagonist's struggles with her mystery chronic illness took up most of the book, but there was also a plot about a literal ghost in the wallpaper of her new attic bedroom that needs to be defeated in the end, and neither of these things fitted well together. One or the other of them would have been fine, but the combination left me confused about the nature of this fictional world and the themes of the book in general.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Benevolent Sisters of Charity (Over the Garden Wall)

This is the only one of the OTGW comics that I wasn't able to buy before it went out of print, so I ILLed it and realized that it was for the better that I hadn't. The story was incoherent and pointless and the characters were OOC. The art was much better than the story deserved.

Wayne Family Adventures Vol. 3

I've read these as a webcomic already but wanted it in book form too. These are entertaining; you just have to go into it aware that this is The Fluffy World version of everybody and they are characterized accordingly.

The Flash by Grant Morrison & Mark Millar

Not on a level with Waid's work, of course, but the highlight of this one was the storyline in which Linda dies and Wally manages to bring her back (some good Bart content here) and a delightfully meta short story in which Mark Millar meets up with Wally to figure out what story about him to tell next...and Wally is given a co-writing credit in the end.

The Flash by Mark Waid Books Seven and Eight

An effective end to this run. Waid points out in his Afterword that he's still got another story on reserve, so...anytime he wants to give that to us, that would be great. I'll be waiting.

The Secret Garden on 81st Street: A Modern Retelling of the Secret Garden by Ivy Noelle Weir (reread)

You know how I feel about this one. (I whipped it out at the convention to show somebody who was talking to me about CEN in the present day through leaving one's child to technology that that concept was used in this retelling, and somebody nearby oohed about what a diverse retelling it was as I flipped through pages. Which is, you know, more important than effective storytelling. It should have done both! We could have had both!)

Stephen McCranie's Space Boy Omnibus Volume 5

I've read this in webcomic form already, but it's a pleasure to have a physical copy of the latest omnibus.

Sinister Sons #1-2 plus additional material establishing the backgrounds of Lor-Zod and Sinson

A sort of response to the series Super Sons (which featured Jon Kent at his proper age and Damian Wayne), by the same author. This is going to be about a teamup of Lor-Zod (son of General Zod, was Chris Kent in another continuity, has apparently been Zukoed in this incarnation) and Sinson (a young, apparently orphaned thief who believes that his father must be Sinestro, the Green Lantern's arch-nemesis). So far the boys haven't done much more than fight, but I'm interested to see where this is going. (#3 is in the mail now!)

Lor is a horrid little piece of work, but his parents' recent treatment of him puts him in a more sympathetic situation, and I am hoping he'll get a redemption arc that would move him closer to his original version. Sinson is no angel either, but he's just a child who really, really wants a family and is clinging to the only hope for one that he has--and if that means he's a supervillain's son, then he's ready to follow in those footsteps to gain acceptance.

(Also he drew a mustache on himself with a black marker to look more like his alleged father, and that's so ridiculous and kind of endearing.)

#random personal stuff #it's been a weird month for reading but I'm hoping for both more time and more motivation this month #I'm at a point where I have plenty of unread books but don't feel particularly inclined to pick up any of them #and I need to get out of that

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brazilian-whalien52 · 7 days

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You're always posting Dorama stuff, can you give me a a recommendation list?

I into gays and don't like anything with dubious consent (or not consent at all), underage or incest (the two Thai Doramas I tried had both)

Pretty please you seem to know a lot of them

You're always posting Dorama stuff, can you give me a a recommendation list?

I into gays and don't like anything with dubious consent (or not consent at all), underage or incest (the two Thai Doramas I tried had both)

Pretty please you seem to know a lot of them

Hi, I would love to recommend some!

Thai Dramas

(Thailand has the most BLs and a lot of variety but also can be a little messy because the industry is still growing)

* I told sunset about you - about two teenagers that are rivals and are taking the college exams entrance. A classic come out of age story but also a brilliant masterpiece (acting, cinematography...)

* My School President the series - A light High School romance. Has the vibe of club activities anime. They are all dumbass and it is wholesome, funny and full of music (the characters remind me of the mugiwaras).

* Bad Buddy the series - One of the best titles. It is a college romance with romantic comedy Romeo and Juliet vibes. Two neighbors that the family hate each other meet again in college, but they are in rivals majors. First eps may be a little confusing but it picks up.

* Triage the series - a time travel stick in a loop story. There is an age gap since the protagonist is a doctor, while the patient he is trying to save in the time loop is a college student. But the story is pretty interesting.

* Not me the series - This one is about a set of students fighting against the oppression. White learns that his twin brother Black is in a comma and decides to take his place to find out who did this. However, he soons founds out that his brother is in a revolutionary group.

* Moonlight chicken - A more mature story. It is about the owner of a chicken shop, his family and the new men trying to flirt with him.

* A tale of thousand stars - About a spoiled brat that has a heart problem and ends up receiving the heart of a volunteer teacher. After the transplant, he decides to learn more about this women and changes to the little village that she was a volunteer teacher. More slow paced but a pretty story.

* Be my favorite the series - the protagonist feel like he wasn't able to get anything he wanted in live. He gets an object that allows him to time travel to his first year of college and change his future. It is a funny romantic comedy with some good lessons.

He is coming to me - A coming out of age story about a college student that can see ghosts (the age may feel weird because he first see the ghost as a kid but they are both the same age since the ghost died as a college sudtent too)

Japonese

(Japonese dramas a lot of times I feel are more mature, for an older audience or they hit the fluffy first love stories)

* What did you eat yesterday - About being older and queer. A more domestic slice of life. Definitely my favorite.

* My love mix up - this is an amazing first story! It is a light and funny romantic comedy set in high school. The characters are all adorable.

* If it's with you - just a cute and sweet romance, also high school

* My Beautiful man - this is a really good story, warning that the characters are more obsessive. Still you analyze their motivation and what is the story meaning. They are with each other.

* Cherry Magic - A classic. Has a Thai adaptation that is also worth checking and an anime. The protagonist is a 30y that gets the power to read people mind because he is a virgin. And the story? Pretty funny and wholesome.

* Our dinning table - Wholesome story. The protagonist becomes friends with a cheerful kid and his older brother and they bond over meals.

Old fashioned cupcake - a really beautiful story about allowing yourself to enjoy things even when growing older

* Takara-kun and Amagi-kun - cute, cute, cute and adorable. Fluffy high school romance

Korean

(Korean BL are usually the less problematics one. They are still small and I am not the biggest fan, but if you like their story most you can start without fear. The two first are the ones i like the most)

* Semantic Error - Romantic Comedy in a college setting. Fun to watch and the characters are interesting

* The Eighth sense - Another unique queer story. It is about a boy that moves away from his small town to attend college and falls in love with his senior. Good acting, cinematography and chemistry.

* Unintentional Love story - a recently fired office worker goes to the beach to take a vacation and there finds a recluse ceramic artist. It is a nice one to see

* To my star - Cute and good to pass the time

Taiwan

(Taiwan has more compelling plots but also is pretty messy so may be a hit miss)

* DNA says I love you - it is a hard story to explain, but it delivers really well complexity. The characters are interesting and the plot is different too.

* Be loved in house - a romance story about a boss and his employee that do not get along but end up living together. The dynamic is pretty fun and no need to worry about power in balance.

* History 3 trapped - the romance story of a policeman and the Mafia leader. Pretty fun to watch. I also recommend history 2 crossing the line (highschool volleyball romance) and history 3 make our days count (beautiful and amazing highschool romance but may make you cry). They are stand alone.

* My tooth your love - Romantic Comedy about a dentist and his patient that hates to go to the dentist over traumatic reasons, but is forced by his sister. A little cheesey and cliche, but a fun watch.

* No.1 for you - about two university students that are rivals.

Philippines

(I love their dramas but there isn't many)

* Gameboys - super funny but also can be quite heavy since it talks about the COVID pandemic. Two boys start talking online during the pandemic.

* Like in the movies - beautiful queer coming out story. It is about a college student that moves out to an apartment but he does not manage to get a job, so to pay rent he agrees to fake date his neighbor.

Chinese

(Chinese BL unfortunately are censored so you will not get any kiss of them or explicit romantic confession, but you can see the love is there)

* Untamed - the first of many, it is a cultivation story so it is complex at the start but really compelling and engaging plot

* Word of honor - also a cultivation story about two shameless bastards. Gets your attention.

* Guardian - it mixes some of the cultivation world elements with modern detective work. Funny and engaging.

* The spirealm - the characters enter in a game about live and death. A little confusing but I really love the characters

I tried to make a list with more variety so you can choose from. If you want more recs later let me know. A warning would be that a lot of this stories are still growing so you can see some problems in them but it is worth giving a chance. If you want to ask over an specific taste you have in stories, let me know because I can see it better.

- So I didn't know if by "no underage" romance you were talking about underage x adult or stories with no underage sex. I decided to add high school romance to the list that do not have sex and there is no age gap.

Stories that are not bl but i consider so and recommend" Beyond Evil and Devil Judge

Some that I didn't finish so they are not in the list but a lot of people rec: The Sign (really good and with a more complex plot), 3 will be free (poly), Until we meet again (soulmates), 23.5 (GL), She loves to eat and she loves to cook (GL), Killer and Healer (Chinese)

If you finish both A tale of thousand Stars and Bad buddy they have a special together in Our Skyy

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fic-pickyourpoison · 28 days

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hi! first of all I really love your fic. Second of all, this migh be a bit of a dumb question but, when in the tags you call it a Tragedy, in which sense of the word are you using it? Is it in a looser modern term, that is, indicating that bad/sad things are going to happen to the protagonist (kinda like whump I guess)? Or is it a more classical term, be it man against fate/man against itself/a fatal flaw which dooms them even as they keep going forwards? Because if so, if you had to choose a classical tragedy that’d suit Lami as protagonist, which would it be? Third of all, again, really love your fic! Also do you have any references on how kid/adult Rin may look like? Wishing you the best!

Good afternoon! Thank you for the ask, I’m super happy to hear that you’ve enjoyed the story so far ^^

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been travelling and haven’t had much spare time.

Not a dumb question at all! This is actually very interesting. Both are definitely relative to the story, but the “angst” tag is there specifically for the sad/whump. Dead Dove is there to really hammer in that it’s gonna be sad and fucked haha. The tragedy tag is definitely based more on the classical term of it, especially when taken in context of classic plays, but its also with a lot of inspiration from modern literature. The themes I associate this story & tragedy with are: doomed by the narrative; you can never go back; died and brought back wrong; the everyday tragedy of circumstance, etc, but the ones you mention here are also very applicable!

I am completely blanking on what classic tragedy would suit her—if I think of one I’ll let you know. I’ve been on a Greek mythology binge lately (does one ever give up on such a thing?) and while it’s less a tragedy and more a story of warning of man’s hubris, I’d associate her with the story of Sisyphus. It just fits haha

Rin! I love that girl, thank you for your love for her <3 There's been a few Rin drawings floating about, but they are all a couple years old. Here's an example of how I envision an adult Rin:

Rin's favourite colour is red 🚩🚩🚩 hahahah

#ask #art #Rin

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chrononautintraining · 6 months

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All right! Fine! I’m in! Can you recommend me your favorite fic in the non-hobbit fandom that you post about a lot? I’m not familiar with it all so a fic that explains canon a little more than an a total AU would be best

No biggie if you don’t want to recommend any hahaha just send me on my way with a ‘no’

Yes! Join us! You must be referring to The Untamed, which is a Chinese drama based on a web novel translated into English under the name The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. It has a lot to recommend it to Hobbit fans! Swords! Legendary monsters! Do you like that scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits stumble across the ancient tomb and are almost laid to rest by a barrow-wight, but come out with the Numenorean blades? I have good news about both leveling up weaponry in graveyards and ancient tombs!

If your preferred way to enter a fandom is a fic rec, I have to say A Narrow Bridge by JoLaSalle and FrameofMind is my current favorite. It's a Fix-it-AU that tells most of the early canon through flash back scenes while diverging wildly. I'd say it goes into even more detail than canon about how some aspects of cultivation and demonic cultivation works. Moreover, it has a *lot* to appeal to Hobbit fans. "How do you feel about pastoral novels?" she asked knowingly. Please enjoy two devoted, justice-loving idiots growing radishes in a graveyard, zero feet apart because they are in love.

Okay, so A Narrow Bridge is 700 thousand words. A big part of the appeal of this fandom is how many incredibly writers go for sprawling, epic AUs. There is a library here waiting, if you find you like the blorbos. That said, if you're looking for something a little shorter:

Short and Sexy - if this is what you like in a fandom, my friend, this one has a tremendous amount of well written, niche smut.

River-to-the-Sea Sure by Deastar is ~7k words of heat. This fic is A/B/O, which is not usually my thing. So believe me when I say that it is both extremely sexy and genuinely virtuous. It captures the characters of our main leads and their usual dynamic very well. Interestingly, this is the first in a series of A/B/O Bingo by the author, which somehow manages to keep Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian in perfect character no matter their "dynamic". But the dynamic illustrated in this story is the one you meet with most often.

But the rose was awake all night for your sake knowing your promise to me by x_los is ~8k of magical lovemaking. Very magical. Using tentacles of resentful energy...

Midlength Mysteries - my understanding of the genre is that the typical format involves two cultivators traveling together to investigate supernatural mysteries. Here are some of those.

And I will Call You Home by Spodume 42k of a post-canon investigation into some mysterious deaths. This is an interesting example of the ways the monsters in cultivation novels differ from traditional western Dragons In Need of Slaying, ala Smaug. At its core, this is two investigators working a problem, and one very smart protagonist coming up with an answer. Also, the investigators are in love. Love is the answer.

Vagabond by xantissa is 65k of something similar, equally good, with added undertones of gay culture in ancient china. I really adore this one, but maybe read one or two other stories first so the climax has its full impact.

Look Not With the Eyes by Spodume 28k Classic tropes, truly classic mythological creature, absolutely adorable. Is it kind of cheating to recommend two by the same author? Maybe. Do I low key think you should just start with this one? Yes. Two men travel to investigate a mystery. After a strange encounter, they find that everyone they meet falls instantly in love with one of them. The other is totally not extremely jealous, but works hard to solve the mystery and fix this serious problem.

And once you're in deep, hit me up again! I have a million AUs to recommend.

#wangxian #the untamed #chen qing ling

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rruhlauthor · 2 months

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Film Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I read The Hobbit in 2018. I’ve never seen the movies before, nor have I read or watched The Lord of the Rings yet. I was excited to give the movies a try, starting at the beginning. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had questionable pacing, arguably extraneous additions to the book’s story, and relied on the audience’s knowledge of the outside lore for parts to make sense, but the deeply resonant theme and the escapism only an adventure story can provide make the story a beloved classic.

Let’s first talk about the good qualities of the film. By no means did I think it was a bad movie, even if the pacing was off. This is the kind of story that resonates across the generations. A man leaves home and travels far away on “an adventure.” There are simplistic yet powerful themes of good versus evil, of leaving and returning home. Tolkien’s writing takes inspiration from Norse mythology, stories so important to humans they have endured for millennia. The popularity of fantasy is due to the escape it provides from the real world. There may still be darkness and grief, but there is also magic and dragons. A reader can imagine leaving their dull home, picking up a sword and an enchanted ring, and going on an adventure to save the world instead of to save the office job. Tolkien wrote from his experiences in WWI. In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, people are caught in a war, but their struggle is not for nothing, and they are not forgotten. The great evil in the world can actually be defeated by the goodness of people. The foreword in my copy of The Hobbit mentions the books didn’t gain popularity until the 1960s. In the United States at the time, people needed escape and comfort from the Vietnam War and a battle for civil rights. Epic fantasy stories can be inspiring.

I know Tolkien wrote from a British perspective, but watching An Unexpected Journey, I was reminded of old Western movies. There’s a band of righteous travelers, their mystical companion, outlaws, wild animals, authority figures that don’t believe in the quest, and a legendary city of gold. Characters travel through ruins and graves and sing of a bygone golden age. From the perspective of our protagonist and the insert for the viewer, the whole world is literally larger than life for a Hobbit. Gandalf the Grey, whose magic serves as a deus ex machina on more than one occasion. Thorin Oakenshield, slayer of countless formidable foes. The otherworldly knowledge and abilities of the elves. Giant spiders and stone giants. We have this grandiose setting populated by heroes and villains and their exploits, but the theme is antithesis to that. The story is about a small person who doesn’t know how to use a sword and would rather be home reading.

For this one line, the film spoke to me, and I fell in love with it. This one scene was the heart and glory of the story.

In some ways, the movie gets caught up in the great power, but the book starts on an intimately human level. “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” From the book comes the core of the film. It isn’t the battles or magic the film added to the book that makes it a success, but the good story it was based on.

I don’t think The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could be successful on its own if not for the success of the books and the preceding Lord of the Rings films. If we treated this like a regular fantasy adventure story not associated with the popularity of Tolkien: the pacing was slow, the plot jumped around a lot with little sense of connection between points, and the titular character is not the focus of the majority of the film. If I had not read The Hobbit previously, I would have been completely lost. Honestly, I still was lost with the pieces that were added for the film. The book is 300 pages. Stretching that into three movies is too much, in my opinion. Some scenes seemed to drag on forever. I was almost certain I did not remember the parts with the orcs or Gandalf’s other wizard associates from the book, and I was glad a friend pointed out they were added for the movie. I don’t mind film adaptations of books being a little long because they’re trying to be true to the story, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey could have been about half an hour shorter, and closer to an expected two hour film runtime, if the scenes that weren’t in the book weren’t added just to stretch a short book into a trilogy. The one thing you never want your audience to be, regardless of what genre you’re writing, is bored. I got bored and had to spread this film over several days of watching, and honestly if I didn’t know what climax this movie was building up to, I would have stopped watching because I lacked investment.

This is the problem with creating a movie or book just to establish context for a future installment in a series. There’s a ton of exposition and rising action, but the climax isn’t going to happen until the second or third movie, which risks leaving the viewer unsatisfied or questioning the purpose of the film at all. I think two parts would’ve been grand for an adaptation of The Hobbit rather than three. One has to wonder if the length of the film series was not in the spirit of creating an immersive story but rather for the box office. I hate to be pessimistic, but given the fact some side plots were added that weren’t in the book, I’m inclined to consider the latter.

That’s the thing about blockbusters though, isn’t it? When a title becomes immensely popular, saturates the cultural consciousness, and gains a large and dedicated audience, they can create whatever they want and it will sell. If something says Marvel, or Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings, or even Frozen, it will be read, it will be watched, and it will make lots of money because the existing fanbase is already so loyal. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing as long as the audience is enjoying it, but I do become cynical when the quality of installments noticeably drops because the studios have figured out they don’t need to spend a lot of effort to get a large return. This contributes to a “fast fashion” cycle of rapid consumption in our current media climate, which is stressful on both fans and creators. It makes it harder for new stories to get a foothold in the market if they have to compete against Avengers 22, or Star Wars Episode 16, or the umpteenth remake of a Disney cartoon, or Harry Potter Prequel 7: This Time With Even More Bigotry, or whatever it is this month.

I’ve gone on a tangent, and I’ll end on a good note. I didn’t really appreciate epic fantasy until watching this movie. When I read The Hobbit six years ago, it wasn’t at the right time of my life for me to fully connect with the story. Now, I feel immersed in the comfort the escapism can provide. You can always return home, though not unchanged. Change is an inexorable part of life, but if you have the courage to confront it, you can do great things.

#film review #the hobbit #epic fantasy

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yuzukahibiscus · 1 year

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That’s TAKARAZUKA 2023 Flower Troupe

LOOK BACK on 2022 – You can feel their resilience and strength after overcoming the tribulations.

（The performance is Genroku. The Mizu Sumitomo Visa Card Theatre Musical “Genroku Baroque Rock” is full of glamorous costumes.)

From January, Yuzuka-san and Hoshikaze Madoka-san became the new Top Combi and started Flower Troupe’s 2022, going through a turbulent year. The year began with the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre performance – a story of Chūshingura added with time traveling elements “Genroku Baroque Rock” and the show celebrating Flower Troupe’s 100th anniversary “The Fascination! – Flower Troupe’s 100th Anniversary To The Future and Beyond–”. But it was forced to stop right after it started and even though it reopened later, it was ultimately a performance period of 12 days.

(Yuzuka-san was what people discussed a lot, as she not only played the beautiful pianist Liszt in “Years of Pilgrimage” but also for actually performing the piano live.)

In the next Grand Theatre performance, it is the musical portraying the life of the piano magician Liszt “Years of Pilgrimage~The Wandering Soul of Liszt Ferenc” and the stylish show “Fashionable Empire”. In the Tokyo performances also, the first day opened a few days later but it was announced that there were suspensions again and the performance reopened only on the last day (Senshuuraku). But the Senshuuraku performance was the thing to believe that it’s not just about feeling negative – I believe that was what the Flower Troupe members were thinking on the day. That it was a stage that’s not too forceful, but sincere and passionate; that it’s enriching with precision rather than leaving a blank. Especially the thing that caught my eye was how powerful the group dances were. That’s how strong the resilience of the troupe is, with Top Star Yuzuka-san in the centre. We are looking forward to Flower Troupe in 2023 as they accumulate and become a level stronger in resilience.

Q: What kind of troupe is Flower Troupe?

From Yuzuka-san:

Everyone is cheerful and bright and are wonderful kids that are moving forward enthusiastically. I’m thankful for them. Their energy in rehearsals are amazing, and I’m happy they can perform on stage with such liveliness and vividness. From now on, I’d be thankful that everyone could always be professional and aspire to improve, being a troupe that is honing and improving.

From Minami-san:

They’re very bright and I feel that everyone including the underclassmen have their own objectives and are progressing towards then. They have a passion for the performing arts. The underclassmen are always learning from the upperclassmen. The upperclassmen would also be the first in position ready to teach them, and when I see that every time, I’d think this is a good troupe.

From Towaki-san:

We’re a troupe that’s often growing and expanding to be better. That otokoyaku and musumeyaku are all enjoying to focus on the key points of being otokoyaku and musumeyaku and I feel that we respect each other.

Q: What kind of person is Hoshikaze Madoka-san?

From Yuzuka-san:

I’ve been thinking of this ever since we’re a combi, but she’s quick at understanding what I want to do. I am truly grateful for her being straightforward, playful and ambitious and she enjoys the process of transforming with me. It's been about a year and a half since we started working together, but I feel like we'll be together even longer.

NEXT STAGE – This is the Takarazuka CLASSIC. A classical performance portrayed in Reiwa (year).

Flower Troupe is starting January in the Takarazuka Grand Theatre with the two-set show of “MAYERLING” and “ENCHANTEMENT–A Luxurious Perfume–”. “MAYERLING” portrays the historical story of the misfortunate Austria Crown Prince Rudolf as the protagonist, a masterpiece performed again ever since the premiere in 1983. The one who wrote the script, Shibata Yukihiro-san was a longtime playwright and director of Takarazuka Revue ever since the ‘60s. Yuzuka-san led Flower Troupe to perform “Sorrowful Cordoba” in 2021, “Love Burns in Firenze” in 2022 for the national tour performances. The Shibata works have a classical depth to it and when they were performed by Yuzuka-san who’s modern and stylish, she adds smartness and reality to the melodrama. Yuzuka-san played Rudolf once in “Elisabeth – The Rondo of Love and Death”, and she enjoys it very much to pursue the portrayal of the ultimate love. At the same time “ENCHANTEMENT” is a show with perfume as a theme. From the title, it is a word meaning “magical” and “rapture”. It’s a performance that is sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy and exotic, one that is gorgeously charming.

Q: Please tell us about your favourite scents.

From Yuzuka-san:

I love citrus smells when I’m in underclassmen times…recently I like something that’s a little stronger and deeper…compared to flower aromas, I like scents that are sweet like vanilla more. Also, when I clean the room, I open the window for a refresh of air, I love to light some aroma scented (candles) in the room.

From Minami-san:

I like the citrus and fresh kind of scents. I'm actually very sensitive to smell, so if it’s car refresher or car perfumes, I don’t like those with strong synthetic smell. I think scents I like can affect those around me, so I’ve been using perfumes a lot these years. Recently I like the laundry smell the most.

From Towaki-san:

Even though I like almost all kinds of good scents, recently among those scents, I like those with smoky aroma. That’s why instead of aroma candles, I’m the kind that likes the charcoal or incense smell. Recently, my favourite is using a spicy or smoky kind of spray type to fill the room with fragrance.

(Admin’s note: This is the last of the ANAN Translation series! 💙）

#yuzuka rei #hoshikaze madoka #minami maito #towaki sea #flower troupe #takarazuka #takarazuka revue #hibiscustranslation #柚香光 #水美舞斗 #永久輝せあ

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azumasoroshi · 10 months

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guess who just watched summertime rendering (it's really good)

guys what the FUCK

(spoilery-review stuff will be below the cut but tldr: summertime rendering is really good, subverted a lot of my expectations, gorgeous animation, keeps you on your toes and has smart characters and good writing, just try not to cringe too hard at some of the haha boobs/haha panties jokes i swear there's not too many)

okay funny story. i got interested in this anime literally yesterday because one of my favorite channels was analyzing its ending song by chance

and i was like oh it's like anohana but a murder mystery? interesting premise. doesn't necessarily guarantee that it's good, the animation looks pretty at least, but it's 25 episodes and my attention span kinda sucks...

and i see the main girl in a swimsuit and im like alright. the second there's a really weird zoom on her chest im out

(my live thought process pictured below)

and the first shot or so was of the swimsuit girl (ushio) without any weird zooms so i was like okay hey we're in the clear so far

AND THEN

one minute ten seconds. dawg. that actually has to be a record of some sort

and i was 🤏this close to dropping the anime but i really wanted to see the dark horrifying stuff so i continued anyway

like. maybe that's a one off joke. maybe they wont do it again and that was just to get weirdos to be like AYYY and keep watching. maybe there is hope

there was no hope.

but i hung on anyway because right after that was the OP and it looked really interesting mostly because there were no anime visuals at all until the very end

which was. shinpei being a little bit silly. little but quirky. vibing persona 3 style baby baby baby baby baby baby baby

so yeah i decided to keep watching until the end of the first episode despite my apprehension because i just. wanted to see the dark shit go down. uaghhhhhh

and i kept watching EVEN THROUGH the clear insinuation that the mc's adopted sister was in love with him and that the mc was in love with his other adopted sister and the police officer was looking at porn in public and then FINALLY

FINALLY

(major + ending spoilers start here)

they killed my favorite character.

and then they killed the younger sister and then they killed the MAIN CHARACTER AND I WAS LIKE DAWGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

like i was expecting it to be dark but i didnt expect them all to straight up die on screen with blood splatters n everything :sob: wasnt expecting the time loop either

like. you gon have this gorgeous animation just to make the characters' deaths that much more brutal. holy fuck

i realized the other anime this reminded me of. this anime is a anohana x kagerou project crossover. thats fuckin crazy i kinda dig it

people also compare it to re:zero which is fair cuz it has the time travel, the unexpected brutality, the short haired girl who gets rejected in favor of the long haired girl (lmao) i just like kagerou project more

it somehow didnt connect the first time that it wasn't mio and i was like huh i wonder why they suddenly skipped time

and then when this scene rolled around for the second time i literally like. it hit me so fast and i was like FUCK. i was like genuinely terrified help

and then she started stabbing the ever loving shit out of totsumura and i was like oh okay! guess i dont have to wait in suspense for what she'll do at the very least

and then she stabbed shinpei in the throat and i was like OH OKAY

that scene also terrified me cuz like the phone call happening while the killer is nearby is a classic horror trope but like. i dont watch horror usually. that's my worst nightmare

it was on his third death that shinpei really started to shine for me as a protagonist because like. he's smart. notably so! it was really nice because the classic horror starts to fade away at this point and everything becomes a giant chess match

fair enough though cuz bro was like "LMAO NAH I REFUSE TO DIE AGAIN THAT SHIT PAINFUL AS FUCK" (and then repeatedly died a bunch more anyways)

it's interesting that his whole "take a step back" thing is like. a trauma response too. we love dissociation representation lmfao

shinpei was also really quick to adapt to everything and it took a LOT of shit going down to make him finally lose his composure, but he gets back in it and doesnt waste time and it was really refreshing because yknow anime (and the horror genre in general) with its overdramatic clueless protagonists

and also!!

i immediately pegged sou as the loud dumbass yosuke/ryuji type (i love them and their depth, im talking about surface level) best friend who wingmans for shinpei and immediately gets sus of shinpei and gets killed first n shit

but that was my bad like damn sou was a really good character

to be fair this was his first introduction

and the line "I should tell Sou everything" with a shot of the sky is REALLY FUCKING OMINOUS, so i feel like that was a bit of a bait and switch on the author's part lmfao

i stopped taking screenshots around this point so ill just talk about a bunch of parts that stood out to me pff

HIZURU MINAKATA MY BELOVEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

she's so autistic and so smart and so just. god. i love her

AND RYUUNOSUKE IS BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

i literally wanted to cry seeing him in the ending like dawggggggg he's SO cute id marry him no questions asked

he and hizuru were my favorites along with nezu because badass old man SLAYS

i also surprisingly really liked ushio lmao i thought she'd be like the usual manic pixie dream girl and then just based on her being in a swimsuit but like. she was honestly a joy as a character lmfao

like. her being the biggest powerhouse next to hizuru? did not see that coming, we love a girlboss!! and she's also smart and forward-thinking despite the airheaded vibes so like damn. good character! i really liked what little we got to see of the real ushio interacting with her shadow too, it was a nice bit of character building + it was funny lmao

mio was the only character other than shide that i just straight up did not like lmfaosgkjhsjg the whole "im in love with my stepbrother" was just. fuckin. weird to me from the start and you have no idea how fucking relieved i was that shinpei didn't accept her confession or get with her at the end

of course it's like. not any better that he got with his other stepsister. but like mio was more annoying so it's fine (😭)

she ended up being a damsel in distress who didnt really do anything up until the school fight where she still didnt do much, and with how much ushio emphasized "protect mio" you'd think she' have some sort of plot relevance but nope she just. thought about her brother a lot and confessed after 20 episodes and got rejected and cried

it's like all the buildup to her confession was PURELY to buildup for the ACTUAL confession which was shinpei telling her that he was in love with ushio

which is lame

like jesus her shadow had more plot relevance than her. i literally liked her shadow more than her like ????????

tokiko was a good character though i liked the "i didnt dirty my hands for this" foreshadowing and also her being a lesbian was an unexpected surprise that i liked lmfao she's a fuckin real one for still encouraging mio to be with shinpei despite being madly in love with mio. what the hell was that "i want her to see all of me" line like girl????

shide was a good smart villain, he kinda started getting cheesy typical anime villain by the end but by that point the anime was pretty firmly in the action/strategy genre and relying a lot less on the horror/mystery part so it was alright

i did love the talk he and shinpei had about video games and the FF7 namedrop was hilarious lmfao

it was cool how they had the callback to him being a video game nerd during the first fireworks festival with that 2d 3d king thing

absolutely despise him for what he did to hiruko though like. ew.

i didnt really get why hiruko deadass reverted into this weird lookin baby thing at the end but like haise was cute i liked her

didnt understand how they literally changed history either but i guess the magic eyes are like "fuck time lmao all my homies hate time" so oh well, i guess it works

the ending was really a full on "everybody lives and is happy" type deal but like. i didnt even mind man i was literally ecstatic seeing hizuru's boobs again like holy shit. you know you're watching a weird ass anime when you start crying at the fucking fanservice scenes like ohhhh my god

and like goddammit they deserve happiness

although. i was a bit pissed that they brought ushio back to life. like yeah she deserved to be brought back and yeah i do love her but rip the themes of grief and regret i guess

the show was never really about grief so i get why she was brought back but like ueeeuueueuueuee the whole "i don't want to do anything i'll regret again (including leaving ushio before we had the chance to say goodbye) so i have to keep moving forward" was really good character stuff and hrekjajsghjhsg i guess it paid off at the end???

whatever ill take getting hizuru and ryuunosuke back no matter the narrative costs

anyway yeah really good anime, definitely exceeded my expectations (which were pretty low to be fair though), i did watch all 25 episodes within 24 hours so i might be a little insane

#summertime rendering #summertime render #summer time render #summer time rendering #god. i fucking knew the tags on tumblr would be a mess the second i saw the name #shinpei ajiro #ushio kofune #hizuru minakata #ryuunosuke minakata #tokiko hishigata #sou hishigata #ginjiro nezu #not tagging mio for any mio likers out there im sorry :sob:

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alparlaboratories · 1 year

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Are you perhaps interested in some... Pokefic?

Hello I am here today to be a shitty fic salesman if I may.

Tell me friends, do you like Pokemon? Do you like fics? Do you like fics set in the Pokemon world, more specifically those who take the existing story of a region and expand upon it while adding a whole bunch of shit that (probably) no one asked for but the writer is too off his shits to care?

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, do you like Sinnoh? Some Dawns and Barrys, some Cynthias perhaps? Do you want to experience the story of Platinum from a new perspective now that the remakes disappointed us so greatly?

And, finally… do you like fics that are not only very long (almost a million words long Jesus Christ) but also 100% complete?

In that case, you might be interested in Child of Thorns, my original, cool and sexy Sinnoh adventure fic.

Now, the previous description and accompanying cool-looking cover might have peaked your interest, but you still probably don’t know anything about the fic. Well, here’s a few things that Child of Thorns can offer you:

1) Reasons to read Child of Thorns:

–> Have you ever wondered what Dawn would be like if she were a depressed theater kid who wakes up every day and chooses violence? That’s the protagonist of this story! Her name is Inyssa (Dawn is her last name).

–> Do you like flawed protagonists and coming of age stories? Do you like Pokemon fics where the main characters aren’t 11 years old? Do you like characters with abandonment issues and social anxiety slowly learning to heal over the course of a journey filled with Pokemon, fighting and adventures?

—> Do you like realistic depictions of trauma, mental ilness and complicated family issues without it being overtly grimdark? There’s always gotta be some hope, after all.

–> Have you ever wanted a trainer journey where protagonist and rival travel together, including all the slow burn classics we know and love? What if both of them are bi? What if they’re also super open and affectionate with each other while constantly denying themselves the possibility that they see each other as more than friends?

—> Do you like stories where multiple characters and forces and entities are all struggling for power while those left below must gather together to clear the dark clouds hanging over the horizon?

–> Do you like Pokemon fics where the author fucking loves writing battle scenes while listening to JRPG battle music at full blast and feeling like he’s high on coke? Do you like some good shonen goodness with lots of explosions and pretty lights and cool moves and a protagonist that is utterly terrible at naming attacks and everyone makes fun of her for it?

–> Do you like Cyrus? Team Galactic and its commanders? A Team Galactic who’s not just a bunch of idiots and actually have an understandable motivation? How about Cynthia and her well-intentioned if morally gray personality? There’s lots of that here.

–> How about some cool mythology? Cynthia being Sinnoh’s Lorekeeper and a whole bunch of lore and legends about the lake trio and the humans they used to bond with? What if that started happening again? The answer is in this fic!

Oh shit, look at all these reasons! There’s some more stuff, but I don’t wanna make a grocery list when you could just find it all out for yourself.

Also, I have to ask…. do you like OCs in Pokemon fics? If not…. well, you do you, but if you do, then boy do I have some OCs for you.

2) Cool OCS:

We’ve got Metchi! An ex-Team Galactic grunt who is now determined to oppose both her previous companions and the forces behind Sinnoh’s government as a whole.

She also possesses the fabled cool glowy eyes that all good protagonists must have. If you ask her what said glowy eyes are about, she’ll probably tell you that it’s because she’s trans and that makes her cooler and more anime, but there’s probably something more to it. Read to find out!

We also have Reiko! A league challenger from Kanto who is buff and has a sword she likes to swing around, more often than not to the active detriment of her lofty goals and ideals.

She also has some cool glowiness to her but it’s different from Metchi’s glowiness.

There’s also Percy, Reiko’s boyfriend! If I had to guess he’s probably the richest Kalosian trans man in all of Sinnoh, though unfortunately all that money can’t buy him a way out of his family drama or his inability to not be a bit of an asshole.

Man, those sure are some OCs right there.

3) But don’t take my word for it!

Here’s what readers and reviewers have to say about the story.(Disclaimer: I love all these people and I would and will die for them.)

4) The end or something:

So anyway, if you’re interested in anything of what I’ve listed and if you wanna read a lot of me writing cool battles and political intrigue and a whole bunch of other shit with the cast of Sinnoh and more, feel free to give Child of Thorns a read!!

AO3 (recommended)

Royal Road

FFN

And if you wanna hang out with some pals and see some more CoT art and memes, join us in my discord server! Code is sHey6Tw

#pokemon #pokemon fic #fanfiction #sinnoh #twinleafshipping #trainer dawn #rival barry #champion cynthia #team galactic #ocs #pokemon fanart #queer pokemon fic

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opheliaswritings · 1 year

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Love for Yashiro Nene ⍣ ೋ

6/6

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Fate or the future may also be represented by the red ropes that show up in every other cover of the manga. In Japanese culture, red strings are a sign of soulmates, predestined by god they tie a red string to your soulmate as a sign that you are bound by each other. This could also relate back to Hanako and Yashiro as they are multiple artworks to have the red ropes. This could mean that not only are they bound by fate, they could change each other’s future. As that’s what we have seen with Hanako, preventing her future from dying happening and Yashiro’s time traveling.

So, the ropes of fate are synonymous with her death, as that is the future aka her fate. Yet, Hanako is looking for a way to subvert via freeing the yorishiros themselves and getting a wish from god.

How it all interlaces:

All of this can all come back to the fact that Yashiro is very important to the manga. She’s not just a seer for Hanako’s story, but she’s central to the whole plot. The Kannagi can come back to the fact that Yashiro is one and it is the reason why she has her wish in the first place. Nanamine is one as well. Then Nanamine’s somehow involved with hers and Yashiro’s wish. Yashiro’s wish was to live, defying the future or the ropes of fate. So it may not look like it, but Yashiro is a big deal in the story, the key to every event.

Audience Perspective:

For this section, I always do a google form, so thank you for the several responses I have gotten! I appreciate it very much. This database is for you guys to get an idea on how people perceive Yashiro Nene!

As you can see, Yashiro is fairly loved in the fandom, and she is mostly shipped with Hanako. In the responses I have gotten when asked on whether she is well written and why, some said how they loved her though she was a bit boring.

Overall, Yashiro gets good reception, but there are a few problems, not with her, but the bigger picture. Despite being the protagonist of TBHK, it doesn’t focus on her, and more on Hanako and his story. He has his own covers,and the most, whilst Yashiro barely even gets one of her own. The fandom also primarily focuses on Hanako, creating fanwork and such. She may be a popular character, yet Yashiro hardly gets looked into. She is mostly branded as just “Hanako’s girlfriend”. But really it should be the other way around.

As I have discussed before, Yashiro’s character is central to the whole story, so it’s saddening to see both the manga and the fandom undermined her. And it’s not just her who gets treated like this. Female characters like Nanamine, Aoi, and Mei get favored a lot less than male characters. They often get overshadowed, and none of their brilliant stories hardly gets out or when they do; they always get accompanied by their male “love interest”. This is very prominent in the manga so of course, it’ll translate back to the fandom and fanworks.

The interpretation of the Little Mermaid was not actually seeking out love, but to adventure and seek out new heights was brought by Maria Tatar in her book “The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales”, and she also marked some other details as well. She states how, the Little Mermaid is one of the only heroines during those times, who wasn’t actually a wholly victim like the others, but the one who knew the risks and still took it. Unlike heroines like Snow White or Cinderella, she had a choice in her endeavor. She chose to exchange her voice for legs, she chose to pursue the prince, she chose to die, all knowing of the dangers. The Little Mermaid is a pure of heart adventurer. That is what makes her so ingenious, as she’s one of the only princesses who did things not for a man or to escape abuse, but all for herself.

This interpretation is not very popular, but this can align a lot with Yashiro. Audiences may misunderstand the intentions of both the Little Mermaid and Yashiro Nene. People who were raised and grown up with the romance genre will know that a lot of heroines or female protagonists do not do things for themselves. Every important action has been dictated by their love interest. So people expect this expectation on other heroines and don’t look any further. That’s another reason as to why Yashiro doesn’t even have an analysis by herself. Yashiro did not pursue romance just to have somebody near her, but to give herself purpose. Her true love was life itself.

Yashiro was curated and written splendidly. She was one of the best shoujo manga protagonists I have seen in a while, so I wanted to take the time and give her the attention and love that she never got. I have been a fan of TBHK since 2018, but it wasn’t until 2021 that my obsession of Yashiro really, and I mean really took off. She’s everything I love in a character. Than, one time I was talking to her in a server and people explained how little they know of Yashiro, as Hanako often eclipses. This disheartened me because to me,Yashiro was so much more, so I wanted to share my thoughts about her.

Conclusion:

Yashiro Nene is not a name you can just easily forget, her story is engrossing and riveting. From the mermaid motfis, and how she conects to everything to the story and back. Her story is wonderful, and somebody we haven’t seen in the Shoujo scene in a long time. I hope this anaylsis paints a better picture on how great Yashiro is, and helps you understand her a little more!

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#jshk analysis #jshk manga #tbhk analysis #tbhk manga #toilet bound hanako kun #yashiro nene #nene yashiro #tbhk yashiro #tbhk nene #aoinene #hananene

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gothicfairytopia · 5 months

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for those who are not obsessed w vampires:

Carmilla is the story of a young girl who lives alone in a castle with her father. A carriage crashes nearby, and they take in the young girl (Carmilla) injured in the crash. She’s lowkey goth and loves committing casual heresies and is (on the down low) a vampire making her way through the young ladies of the kingdom. The protagonist is lonely and befriends her before she realizes Carmilla’s true nature (and still can’t really keep away).

The Vampyre is Polidori’s “I hate Lord Byron and would also like to make out” narrative. The protagonist, Aubrey, meets Lord Ruthven at a party and agrees to travel Europe with him. Lots of drama about Aubrey’s moral outrage with Lord Ruthven’s whore activities. Both of them end up caring for each other while ill.

For both of these I would be adjusting the endings because we are in a different age of vampire literature and I don’t feel like ultimately vilifying or killing either of them.

#queer vampires are my PASSION #good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #aziracrow #crowley #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #good omens fanfic #good omens fanfiction

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lilyblackdrawside · 1 day

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Recently, I picked up the game Dream Tactics. It's a Tactics RPG - think something like Super Robot Wars, Devil Survivor or Fire Emblem - that doesn't run the typical chapter/mission structure. Instead you freely move around the world and encounter preset fights. You can usually see them from a bit away, so you can turn around and check other areas first or take them on.

Long post with some information and opinions on the game (and genre) underneath.

It's a pretty cute game with the only caveat being that it doesn't have battle scenes. Those are always a strong point of the genre, but here it's just minimal animations. It works and looks good too and after a while I'll skip the animations or turn them off entirely, but would be nice to have.

This is what your party looks like when traveling.

In the prologue level you start with two characters and are quickly joined by a third.

These are from left to right Neru, who is your protagonist, Luna, one of her guardians and a tanky melee type with some support and Sophie, her other guardian and a tactical cavalry unit.

Neru is a mixed offensive/supportive mage who spreads the Tired status on both enemies and allies (a debuff that reduces certain stats) to enhance her damaging or healing spells. She's surprisingly a bit tricky to use, because you only want Tired on your allies during certain moments and can ruin your own damage by removing it from enemies at an inopportune moment, but once you're over these small hurdles she's very competent. Quite frail, as is the norm with these types, but with her good range and healing she won't cause too much trouble.

Luna is - as mentioned - someone who could be likened to a classic Paladin or Cleric. She hits enemies in melee range and most of her attacks build "Carrot" stacks on herself, which greatly raise her Luck stat, which governs crit rate. Some of her attacks gain special effects when striking critically and she needs to to deal decent damage. Crits double an attack's damage before the target's defense is factored in, so you're getting a lot out of it. She's quite tanky on the physical side, but tends to fold quickly when magic is involved, which is - once again - fairly typical.

Sophie is cavalry, but luckily she doesn't use a horse or I'd have had to make the painful decision to bench her. I can't stand horses. Get more creative. No, she rides a slime and it makes cute slime noises when she moves around. Her deal is that with her lance pretty much all of her attacks have 2 range and she has good area damage as well. She has a two-stance system where all of her attacks gain an effect when in one stance and will shift her into the other one, which is pretty fun to use. Her most outstanding move is Retreat, which pulls her back to the position she started the turn on and heals her for a small amount. I immediately gave her an item that gives her more movement range and later found an even better (and more entertaining) one. The first one gave her +2 move for the first 4 turns of a fight (default movement range is 5 on everyone so far), the new one gives her a permanent +2 but she can only move an even amount of tiles and I added another item for another +1 so she's at an even 8. I also gave her an item that lets her pass through enemies (and enemies through her but that's okay), so now I can just send her way into the backline to let her stab squishies and it's super fun. Sophie is easily my favourite unit so far.

The overall vibes of the game are more lighthearted from what I've been seeing. TRPGs tend to be kinda gloom and doom in their stories and will only provide levity in the moment sometimes, so this is a nice change of pace.

Another thing that I really like about this game is how it handles EXP. You don't get any for killing enemies, it all gets distributed at the end of a battle and everyone gets the same amount, so I never have to worry about a unit who didn't get to directly contribute in a way that would traditionally give high EXP. Like, Sophie is a pick class the way I use her. She goes in, assassinates a key threat and zips back out. On the other hand Neru has major area damage, so with some setup she can kill several enemies in one turn. I did say that Sophie has some good area damage, but it's more incidental and tends to soften enemies up. I don't want to have to worry about who to give what kills to, basically. It's nice. It also doesn't do Fire Emblem stat growths, which (aside from the horses) are my biggest gripe with that series. I know that on average your units will end up fine and that you can just clear the games 0% growths anyway, but it just doesn't feel good when your requisite edgy samurai misses his 45% strength growth for the fourth time in a row. Dream Tactics has Growth Rates on everyone, but they're not chance based, they just "fill an invisible stat level-up bar" which raises their stats whenever it ticks over 100%. It's like in FE- Engage Maddening Mode, where your growths are also fixed like this.

For people who like the genre, it should be a good pick.

#dream tactics #long post

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dozing-marshmallow · 5 months

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What about Chris and reader watching tucker and Dale vs the forces of evil? One of my favorite movies of all time, super funny.

HALLELUJAH I FINALLY FOUND THE MOVIE ON YOUTUBE😫 I’m so sorry I put this off for so long, anon! I couldn’t find the movie anywhere for the longest time and it was such a relief to finally find it 😭 Who knew it was on YouTube after a second try of searching? Looking back on it now, it was an amazing film and I regret not watching it sooner! I hope this was worth the wait, you absolutely deserved an answer for being so patient 💘

Spoiler and trigger warning to those who haven’t heard of this movie before, it’s a horror film that involved a lot of gorey scenes with majority of them embedded in this post, so if you’re uncomfortable, don’t feel that you need to continue reading!

WATCHING TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL WITH CHRIS MCLEAN

“Let’s watch another classic.” you hold the DVD out in front of Chris, Tucker and Dale vs evil.

He has himself a good look and smiles,“You know what the name reminds me of?”

“What?”

“That one cartoon.”

“What, Star vs. the forces of evil?”

He clicks his fingers,“Yeah!”

“Hah.” Having summarised knowledge of the movie’s premise, you could only feel smug at the lighthearted nature of that franchise being nothing alike to what you were putting into the DVD player.

Three days ago.

In the beginning, the movie takes you on a journey with a bunch of young people inside a car, travelling somewhere for school break, having stopped at a gas station along the way to pick up some beer. This is where you meet the actual protagonists, Tucker and Dale, whom were also at the store collecting some housework equipment.

“Smile and laugh.” was Tucker’s advice for Dale’s demeanour in talking to the college girls that were helping each other to store bags of supplies into the car.

Naturally, the kids were uncomfortable with this ragged looking man approaching them, nervously laughing.

“Why is he going to them with that scythe?” you ask, despite knowing Dale had unconsciously made a poor choice of grabbing the closet thing to him in order to appear more normal.

“He’s the grim reaper! He’s gonna end everyone’s lives from how embarrassing this is!” Talk about figurative language, especially admirable on Chris’ part.

The college students coincide their hangout spot at the same woods Tucker and Dale went to where the night had settled and they were around the campfire, sharing a horror story of the “Memorial Day Massacre”, where in the exact woods they were in was a mass killing of college students, orchestrated by “Tucker and Dale’s kind”, twenty years ago.

“Wait, so if that was the case, why the hell did they think that was a good place to go to?” they were practically sitting in a graveyard.

Chris scoffs,“Teenagers.”

In a flashback of the Memorial Day Massacre, one of the killers whom joined the college students had sunk a sharpened cog into his neck before throwing it into the face of his first victim.

“OOH.”

The group quickly disperses and it became every man for themselves. The scene then ends when the new batch decides to go swimming in the lake.

After a failed night of skinny dipping and assuming the main female heroine Allison was captured by the “creepy men from the store”, it was now up to her friend group to “rescue” her.

“It’s just a cabin, it doesn’t mean they’re psycho killers.” One of the boys comment as the group walks into the sight of the previously abandoned shelter.

“Oh yeah? Then why don’t you go in there and talk to them?” Chloe snarked, obviously not buying the idea.

“Alright. Maybe I will.” The collective looks back to Mitch, waiting for him to go,“I said maybe.”

“He reminds me of Cody...” Chris remarks in a thinking, squinting manner with his finger to his chin,“He’s got the style, the confidence, the hair...”

To compare a character to Cody in a horror film considerably meant the most unlucky thing,“Oh no.”

Mitch’s maybe ends up forcefully becoming a yes after losing a game of Rock Paper Scissors. So he makes his way towards the foggy cabin.

Tucker meanwhile was outside, minding his own business, getting on with wood sawing when he gravely jabs the chainsaw into a wasp nest, enraging the buzzing inhabitants to chase him in a frenzy, sending an entirely different message to the teens.

“Why is he just running with it!? Like why can’t he just throw it to the ground?” you cry when the movie, if shown to someone who had walked in, would look as it did to the kids in movie.

“I dunno. But it’s sure funnier this way.” Your spouse’s statement spelt true by his chuckling.

Having been faulty in his attention to his rapid change of surroundings, Mitch ends up getting stabbed by a tree branch. And not only did he get stabbed, his body somehow ripped halfway through.

“How the hell does that happen?” it was kind of gross to see,“Right in the heart? You can’t just run into a stick and end up that deep in it to the point where it’s coming out your back!”

“Huh. Look at that, it really is Cody.” All Chris had to say, to the dying boy who spent his last moments realising the opposing truth behind Tucker’s running. Had he lived, the movie may have moved more smoothly.

It then cuts back to Allison and Dale playing their board games, jolly in the cabin.

“Girl’s unaware her friend died.” you nearly chock on the bitter change of atmosphere.

“I just think that so many of the major problems and conflicts in the world are caused by a lack of communication, you know.”

Isn’t that ironic.

Here, the kids were executing their scheme to tackle the men. Again.

One of the students, Todd, had sharpened a spear from a tree branch and began running at Dale and Allison in the middle of them digging a hole. However, Todd javelin throws it into the pit, moments before fatally tripping and landing right through it, where Dale’s soft heart witnessed in panic, drools of blood falling from his mouth.

“Again?” you’re shocked,“Why are all these kids going straight into the tree branch? It doesn’t work like that in real life!”

There was another, Mike, hiding behind a tree, watching Tucker getting on with some wood chipping. Off the brink of bravery(or stupidity), he ran with pocket knife at the ready. But Tucker was a lucky ducker. So Mike ran.

Right into the wood chipper.

“AOW.” you involuntarily let out. What a way to go.

Chris was laughing. Tucker, now horrified at the sudden appearance of the boy inside the machine, drops his blocks of wood to try rip him out even though it was way too late to do anything(which again was terribly mistaken, of him trying to push him into the machine).

“That is so disgusting.” you watch the bimbo in front getting drenched in his bodily pulp,“Noo...why did they have to show the shot of him coming out like that? I can’t imagine how that skeleton looks...”

Chris coughs out the last few chips of laughter,“Yeah, he’s gone.”

“So, this is a movie full of dumb people dying in the most ridiculous ways, is that what I’m seeing?” Your question sounded more like a screech against words.

“Pretty much.” It may have been a horrible thing to wish for, but Chris’ carelessness was something you too hope to embody in the future- to horror films.

“Long day for them.” Tucker himself was also all bloodied from head to toe,“He needs a serious shower.”

The movie switches perspective back on the teens, where the saner ones were wondering why they were still there and debating on how to leave. Chad had himself a monologue.

“How many people do you think get a chance for something like this?... The chance to live, to be free from people always telling you what you can and can’t do.”

“He’s actually such an instigator, what is wrong with him?” you question aloud in disgust at Chad’s thought process on the situation, like it was a game,“Do what any normal person would do and leave, don’t hang around. About us against them.”

“Hero complex, (Y/N).” Chris coldly worded, sipping loudly from his pop soda.

Police sirens then play in the background and everyone(except a pricky Chad) ran to the direction of it.

“We don’t need the fucking cops!”

“Watch when the police aren’t even coming for them.” a smile drove on your face at the thought of such a scenario, driving one onto Chris’ face too.

“That would be funny.”

“Oh, disgusting.” you gag at the sight of Tucker and Dale dragging Mike’s legs across the ground,“Isn’t messing with the body a crime?”

“I don’t think that’s what’s important right now...” Chris replies, eyes stuck on the screen.

“You know what I don’t get...” you start, watching the police car stop in front of them, your throat drying for the men,“He sees this guy who he’s assuming is a psycho killer with a chainsaw and without a hook, working with a machine that can be very dangerous if misused... And his best thought of action is to run to him? Not sneak? How-How does he know that this supposed killer isn’t gonna use the machine on him?”

“That’s what college does to you (Y/N), it makes you dumber.” Chris claims, the scene of testimony miserably unfolds as Tucker attempts his best to explain what had happened to the sheriff, no matter how unbelievable it looked.

“You must think that I’m some kind of moron to believe a story like that.”

“Is that why you didn’t go?”

One easy way to offend him,“Way to spread misinfo, (Y/N)! I went then dropped out.”

“That’s even more sad.”

Having leaned on a pillar(same loose pillar in the beginning Tucker said he would need to fix), the Sheriff had fallen victim to an own accidental death, with a piece from the top impaling him on the face and doing so forcefully, he was hurled out of the cabin.

“Oh for God’s sake.” you face palm, both Tucker and Dale rushing out of the cabin in concern for the officer,“Is it everyday.”

“I mean, they did try warn him... At least he sees how the deaths are happening.” Chris smiles, contrasting to you flinching when he stumbled back to the car with nails right through his face and the remaining students inside the car losing it.

“Damn it! Tucker, I told you you should’ve fixed that beam!”

One of the kids in the car decides he’ll be saviour so he immediately leaves the passenger seat to arm himself with the dead Sheriff’s gun, aiming at the technically innocent men. The gun had its safety on, and Dale naively gives away how to turn it off, while Chuck was looking right into the barrel.

“Stupid kid, did he just shoot himself?” you exclaim when his body rapidly collapses in front of the splash of blood on the car front.

“At this point, the director wanted everyone off now.” Chris tittered, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

Thinking he was God’s servant, Chad took the gun off Chuck’s corpse and began firing Dale and Tucker into retreating back into their cabin. To reel them back out, he had to resort to a more inhuman measure that weighed out his pretentious “survival of the fittest” death match.

“No no no, I know this movie isn’t about to kill off the dog.” you shake your head at Chad holding a gun to the head of Jangers, through the perspective of the titular duo inside the cabin.

“I love when the people die, but if they kill that dog, I am switching this movie off.” Chris warned, thumb circling around on the red power button of the remote.

Praise be, he didn’t need to push it, because it was a good horror movie; good horror movies don’t rely on the animals dying, so Jangers was gracefully saved- unfortunately, that couldn’t apply to Tucker whom was caught by Chad shortly after freeing the dog, hanging upside down and letting out a bloodcurdling scream when Chad bellowed his axe onto him.

“Is it bad I can’t see where he hit him?” Chris rewinded the part three times to try spot any bleeding wound, but nothing.

“It’s more bad that they’re just allowing their friend to do that.”

About time, Allison reunited with half of her friend group inside Tucker’s cabin while the country men were on their way back.

“Wait a minute... I remember reading about this in my sociology class.” one of Allison’s friends recalled after listening to Allison’s rebuttal on the crazed serial killer label on Tucker and Dale they had lived under for time.

You would think that hearing from their friend who they thought was kidnapped’s perspective would finally put an end to the accidental deaths, right?

“...Stockholm syndrome. When someone who’s been kidnapped ends up falling in love with their kidnapper.”

Pause.

Both you and Chris got up from sofa.

“Congratulations.” you clap deadpanned, sitting back down,“Con-gratu-lations. Whatever your name was, I hope you’re happy. Because now, you have that one going off the deep end even more,” you point to where the screen froze on Chad,“And you have Allison looking like a dickhead.”

“You’re falling in love with him?”

Your mouth gapes from annoyance,“Why is he going off what that whore said?”

“Cuuuz! That boy is if Sierra possessed Cody.” Chris answered merrily,“And did Sierra ever have common sense?”

“Good point.”

Poor Allison was trying to insist that wasn’t true, but Naomi was so set on her nebulous statement, nodding her head away like a bitch.

“Oh my God, she’s pissing me off!” you were close to dashing the remote at the TV, “She’s not a professional, she can’t just make conclusions off medical conditions she knows nothing about! Cunt’s acting like it’s not a rare occurrence and even if it wasn’t, it’s not instant!”

“Yeah... She may be more of an airhead than Lindsay.” Chris laughs mockingly,“You should be the sociology teacher instead.”

That was actually a really big compliment,“Thank you Chris.”

“Where did that other blonde girl go?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Chris dismisses,“I bet you that Chad is gonna have the most gruesome death.”

“Is that Chamomile Tea cuz I can’t have that, it fucks with my asthma.”

“Oh hear that he has asthma, note that, that’s gonna be important for later.”

This hearts to hearts discussion Allison had initiated was going great until Jason and Chloe disrupts it(answering your question). Weed whacker at hand, Jason revives the accidental tragedy motif of the movie by slashing Naomi’s face off in attempt to get Tucker, her features twisting away in a bloodshed swirl.

“Aw see that was your friend this time, your friend, your friend.” you shout at Chad, hoping that would knock some sense into him that these deaths were happening by their own hand.

Chris dully rocks his head from side to side,“It just keeps going and going and going and going.”

Newcomer Jason ended up on fire after Chad threw a lampshade, and Chloe in desperate aid to help him, throws the nearest substance she could find (a paint thinner), worsening the situation and causing an explosion that ultimately killed herself, Naomi and Chad’s face to melt together with his flesh and skin.

“He has a little something...on his face.” Chris motions to the side of his face like Chad could see.

Tucker, Dale and Allison make a break for the truck to escape his impending wrath, Chad somehow immune to the burns of his disfigured face.

“Yeahh there’s no helping that thing, just go.”

Well, accidents happen and now Allison had yet to be rescued, with “captor” and “hero” correctly swapping places.

Morning came when she woke up, in an alarming tied down state under the disfigured Chad. He proceeds to lick her face moments after her new dangerous reality cut into her consciousness to your repulse.

Dale breaks into the warehouse and a fight between him and Chad commences. With Allison destined to be sawn in half slowly, Dale’s shoulders piled more with bricks of pressure to act. With a successful axe throw, Allison is freed and the two rush their way upstairs to frantically search for anything useful for their defence.

“It can’t be... They lied to me... How could they!”

“Yeah, see your life.” you snicker when Chad looks over the newspaper in seething disbelief at the painful truth of his conception,“I kinda feel sorry for him though.”

Chris illustrates his lack of empathy once more,“I expected something like that the moment I saw the killer drag her in the flashback. Talk about family lineage.”

Alas, post inhaling the boxed chamomile tea, Chad presumably falls to his death out of the window on the second floor and had been broadcasted as the scapegoat to all the deaths of the new generation of college kids. Tucker ends up in the hospital, Dale ends up in the bowling alley with Allison(who becomes his girl).

“All three of them deserved that happy ending.” You say adoringly. Right after you said that, there was screaming from other bowling girls and the stranger man who Dale had given flirting advice on was dragging the unconscious girl of his dreams in his arms in the background of him and Allison making out.

“Annnnd the cycle continues.” Chris gets the final piece of commentary in with a grin before the movie cuts to the rock credits,“Well! That was that. If I’m being honest, when you first came to me with this movie, I was thinking of something entirely different. I thought there was gonna be defying the laws of gravity or something.”

“Hah!” You crack your knuckles,“Didja like the version you got?”

He nods impressed,“Absolutely. Would you happen to know where this was filmed?”

“Errr I think, somewhere in Calgary. Why?” You should have thought twice before giving away such information to Chris.

He stands up,“No reason.”

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