#i actually think the goat theme is really interesting because of the story of the sheep and the goats in the bible

[plutaztix]

Finished first draft designs of the hazbin cast- Alastor., Charlie, Angeldust, Nifty , and Vaggie.

Some of them got minor redesigns while others got revamped, so I’ll be going down the line and discussing my reasoning for each one (please note, these are not perfect, and probably are not animator friendly, I did this for fun, and a lot of the decisions I made were because I felt like it. Do not throw a fit if you don’t like them)

Alastor- when redesigning alastor I focused on 3 major details: that he was from the 1920s-1930s, he was from the south, and that he was a “radio demon”. I took away the voodoo stuff cause that felt like a really weird way to associate him with Louisiana culture, and instead went for the more “southern gentleman” feel using the slicked back hair and simple clothes. I also replaced his monocle with a full pair of glasses, because I think not being able to see his eyes makes him more menacing, same thing with the straight teeth. I made his color palette into warm browns to kind of give the vibe of an old timey radio- with a highlight of gold as well. Side note: I like to imagine he doesn’t open his mouth, and instead it just lights up like an actual radio- cause I think that’s cool character flavor. I also kept his deer motif cause ,apparently, it was supposed to connect with how he died- plus I’m always a sucker for the kind of evil character that has an innocent animal theme, super fun. (Also his microphone is sentient and does change the text depending on the situation)

Charlie Morningstar- I think Charlie is a lovely character, she’s one of favorites, but she felt pretty plain in some aspects. I learned that she was kind of inspired by porcelain dolls, which gave me an interesting idea of making into kind of a “devils Pinocchio”- because what’s more innocent than a doll imbued with the power of her father’s dreams? So I really leaned into the soft friendly doll look, giving her ball joints and large eyes that stare into your soul. I softened a lot of her colors and gave her rounder shapes as well as leaning into the goat aspects of her character, because i thought it could be fun to have her play off the deer motif that alastor has.

Angel Dust- My boy , my good lad. He is also pretty solid when it comes to design , however- HE DID NOT LOOK LIKE A SPIDER. I had no idea that his freckles were supposed to be eyes until I rewatched it. Soooo I definitely tried to make him more spider like by making his eyes more prominent and giving him pointy side burns that act as mandibles. I also gave him him his spider butt and some weird ass legs. Oh and , unrelated, I like to imagine he does burlesque.

Nifty- MY FAVORITEE , I love nifty guys, she’s my POOKIE bear. When going into her design I knew I wanted to make her look older since I thought it was weird how much she was infantilized so I gave her lipstick and pearl earrings to make her look more like a refine 1950s housewife, as well as give her an apron and cleaning gloves to make her feel more like a maid. I also leaned into her subtle bug theme by giving her antennae, and giving polka dots on her dress for a very subtle lady bug theme (cause she’s my little lady). Some more small things I gave her a little swirl in her bangs to call back to victory rolls, as well as some subtle hints of green to call back to the uranium craze of that time.

Vaggie- she was difficult. Initially, I had no idea what I wanted to do with her, but I think that’s also because she’s not a very fleshed out character? Her whole story is kind of , Support Charlie and be a fallen angel.(still love chaggie tho) So I took some creative liberties, and gave her a more mature look- with some periwinkle to act as a subtle hint to her angelic nature. I also gave her the monocle from alastor design cause I thought it made more sense for her? Like, if anyone is gonna have the one eyed visual aid it’s gonna be the bitch with one eye. It also makes her look more matured? And I gave her a moth broach to call back to her moth inspo.

Annnd that’s it! I’ll be working on the next batch soon, which will likely have husk and sir pentious, if you have any other people you wanna see lmk!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin #hazbin art #hazbin hotel oc #hazbin hotel redesign #fypシ #helluva fanart #helluva boss #angel dust #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel charlie #hazbin hotel vaggie #hazbin hotel nifty #fyp

[starrysharks]

hotel manager

#zeno's art #i'm not sure if i should tag the show itself as i'm not a fan but i guess its “fan”art so i will #hazbin hotel #charlie hazbin hotel #vivziepop #i was bored and wanted to draw something #my main goal here was to create a design that looked distinct and could (potentially) be moderately easy to animate #of course based on charlie's character i added as many angel images as possible through the hair and bowtie #(i know white on white is a character design sin but i wanted to show the angel wing detail ;w;) #also to express the personality and juxtaposition of a sweet devil her horns are supposed to curve into a heart shape #of course the garterbelts are upside-down/st peters crosses because of her satanic themes #i also tried to go harder into the goat theme but its still subtle i think #i actually think the goat theme is really interesting because of the story of the sheep and the goats in the bible #but i cant remember if it was actually something intended in her original design #i'm not going to draw anyone else so dont even anticipate that #this was basically a cooldown? ok i think i'm rambling now #goodbye #ok edit to say it clearly: i am not a fan of vivziepop or her work. i just wanted to redesign charlie as a cooldown/exercise for fun #because i used to be a fan of the character before i wised up about what vivzie had and has done #and before i matured and noticed the cracks and fundamental flaws in her works #so yea i dont support her at all and this redesign is critical i guess #also the reason why the tag “vivziepop” is there in the first place is so that anyone who has that tag silenced can scroll past #without seeing anything related to her work. in case that clears anything up #its the same reason why i tag “long post” and “food” and the like

[white-weasel]

Saw IV and V thoughts after my Saw Saturday movie viewing experience last night:

Really glad we got some new characters introduced into the series. It breathed a lot of life into things I feel like

Finally got to meet Hoffman and Strahm let’s gooooo! I knew that these were popular characters and honestly they did not disappoint

I cannot believe that John Kramer ate a fucking tape before dying. My friend and I were discussing how he did that so cleanly without gagging or choking and our only explanation is that he’s a throat goat

Rigg’s whole trial was rough man, but it was actually very interesting. Basically “You’re obsessed with saving everyone, so the only way you can win this gauntlet (and save your friends) is to let it go.” I think that this series of traps was MUCH more well done than the series of traps Jeff went through in 3 and they also did each feel like they were testing different aspects of the same “sin” so to speak.

Favorite of those trial traps was probably the one with the husband and wife and them being impaled. I thought it was clever in its theme and its conceit. Sometimes I look at some of these saw traps and go “okay so somebody just thought of the most fucked up thing they could for the shock value” but this was not one of those so I enjoyed that

The iceblock trap though? Amazing idea and execution on that shit. Just the concept of a melting block of ice slowly hanging someone while that melted ice water fills a pool that will eventually touch another person, thereby electrocuting them because there’s a current running through the pool? Very very cool. Plus the added mechanism that kills you if someone (Rigg) walks through the door. Very scary but very good

The puppet still makes me laugh. Him just sitting on the chair before (unfortunately) blowing up at Perez got me. My friend is convinced that I need a little Saw puppet for my apartment now, though I think having the actual thing and seeing it irl might freak me out

Not sure I *needed* to learn more about John’s past before his diagnosis and his descent into becoming Jigsaw, but I also didn’t absolutely hate it. I liked getting to see his ex wife at least and get an insight into his interpersonal relationships

I’m 50/50 split if I like John’s first victim being someone who personally wronged him and ruined his life. On the one hand, I think it does great to kinda show his own hypocrisy in all of this. He says it’s not emotional and these traps are meant to save his victims, and he does at least give him a way out, it did not seem like he really wanted to reform him and that’s interesting to me. On the other hand, I don’t think the movie presents this action or putting him in the trap this way so??? Yeah

My new motto for these movies is “If I don’t see you get murked on screen, you’re still alive somewhere.” Because I was *positive* Eric was dead before they revealed him, but, well, he’s certainly dead now I guess lol

The reveal this movie that it was all taking place at the same time as 3 and that Hoffman is Jigsaw’s apprentice was amazing. Absolutely brilliant, no notes at all

I really liked how Saw 4 and 5 basically felt like a TV show in that they were very obviously meant to be viewed together/feel like one continuous story. I’m assuming that production wise the studio knew that they had 4 and 5 guaranteed so they could leave some stuff for the next movie which I appreciated

(I’m assuming they knew they were at least getting a 6 too because we didn’t get any answers for what was in that box Jill got 👀)

Hoffman carrying that little girl out of the warehouse and being like “We were the only survivors :((“ only for Strahm to get wheeled out on the gurney literally seconds afterwards was so funny

Speaking of, I can’t believe Hoffman didn’t take Strahm’s pen from out of his pocket during the water cube trap. He took all his other stuff but it’s weird he overlooked that. Granted, I doubt that he knew that Strahm would perform a tracheotomy on himself but wow

I liked the backstory we got with Hoffman and how he came to know Jigsaw. The idea of a copycat killer designing his own “trap” but it really just being a way to murder someone he wants revenge on was marvelous. Then the whole part with John kidnapping him and teaching him his ways was also cool

(Hoffman tied up with the shotgun nestled right underneath his neck? Unfortunately kinda hot)

The trap gauntlet for the five people was fine. The first trap I was like “oh my god he’s telling you to all work together! Just go get your keys one by one or have someone get their key, unlock, and then get the next person’s after they’re unlocked” at least for that one though I can see why they panicked. The second one they had no excuses lol I literally said out loud “you can definitely fit at least two people in a cubby hole”. That one seemed sooo obvious, too obvious to at least not give it a try. I didn’t totally hate the set up though, just moreso me getting mad at horror movie characters lmao

And I get Hoffstrahm now lmao. Saw IV I was like “? They barely interacted what’s this?” And then we got the whole cat and mouse game in Saw V and went “Oh yup. There it is. Theres the dynamic.” Especially with the whole glass coffin bit at the end

Speaking of the glass coffin I loved that scene. Just the wasy Strahm shoves Hoffman into the coffin and you can see Hoffman start to gloat and taunt Strahm from behind the glass because he’s sealed his own fate? Amazing. No notes. I did have to look away at the end of the trap though because watching the Saw movies has taught me I cannot handle broken bones, especially when they are very prominent. As soon as I saw Strahm start pushing on the walls I went “I know where this is going” and dutifully turned my head away

Anyways Hoffman is an interesting new antagonist! I’m curious what’s gonna happen next in this little murder soap opera. Honestly, I hope that Agent Perez gets out of the hospital and fucks up Hoffman. She finds out that Strahm is supposedly Jigsaw, goes “wtf no I could never believe that” and starts trying to pursue the real killer

Current Saw movie ranking (giving this because I gave it to my friend after discussing Saw V and my thoughts on the franchise overall)

Saw (The og and the goat, don’t think anything will really topple this one. I was glued to the screen the entire time and loved how this one really focused on Adam and Lawrence, the people in the trap, rather than the killer himself. I feel a lot of future installments lack compelling trap victims which is kinda a shame)

Saw V (I liked the story of Hoffman in this and the cat and mouse between Hoffman and Strahm a lot)

Saw IV (This was a really well done trap gauntlet for the main portion of the plot and the ending reveal was so awesome. Lots of adrenaline pumping for this one, but it did get lowered because I’m still meh on a lot of the John Kramer additional backstory stuff atm)

Saw II (Saw II gave me so many issues ranking it because the final reveal was PHENOMENAL but the main game portion didn’t always work for me. I did like the idea of Eric’s game of just having to wait out the clock but I kinda count that as being a part of the final reveal and thus it can’t elevate the whole movie. There’s potential this and Saw IV could flip flop depending on my moods. This one just has higher highs but lower lows for me)

Saw III (I liked Amanda getting tested and the whole ending with the chain reaction of violence/death, but that’s about it. The main traps in this game did not do it for me, nor did the story connecting those traps. This one also just really felt that they needed to escalate the traps for escalation’s sake rather than to tell a compelling story, which I know is probably a dumb complaint for the gory trap horror franchise but idk I just didn’t like it)

#saw #saw franchise #saw series #sawposting #saw iv #saw v #white weasel talks #I scream about Saw

[doktorpeace]

The Great All Generation Nuzlocks Roundup - Part 2

A continuation of Part 1, this encompasses the remaining games.

BLACK 2 - I love you Unova I love you so much you're so fucking good. I know B/W1 like the back of my hand, they're like home to me. So I went with B/W2 for additional challenge and just because of the broader encounter variety. Little did I suspect, that fate would have something in store for me.

This game had by far the most tumultuous early game, and it is in fact the game I wiped most in! I wiped three times before the second badge, and two of those were at Cheren! However, soldiering on, we eventually broke through the early game and clean through to the opposite side of a run. For most of this run a core contributor was a Magneton which I gave Eviolite to. As expected, a Steel/Electric type with 1.5x defensive stats is incredible for in game purposes, however, I blundered them away late in the run. Despite being consistent and undeniably helpful, I wasn't all that torn up by the loss. It actually freed up my team to have less type weakness overlap! This is definitely one of the stronger teams overall we got, with Whimsicott in particular truly surprising me with the sheer number of enemies it could just sit on and whittle down at little to no risk. A true champion.

But most importantly of all, our friend returned to us! A 10% chance of encounter, in only one location, Chargestone Cave. I didn't even know Nosepass could appear there! I was ecstatic and broke naming convention for the return of our true friend, Cao Cao the Probopass. This run, which had overcome the trials of the early game, now held the Mandate of Heaven and was destined for success. But getting through wasn't enough. Our true quest was now getting Cao Cao through to the end.

Unlike in Platinum, he had a +Sp. Attack nature this time and with Power Gem could dish out some serious damage! A very slow Volt Switch also allowed him to safely pivot us into our other team members to keep momentum up and enable a lot of powerful plays. Mienshao was a remarkable lategame encounter who truly did a lot to trivialize the late and endgame and paired well for a Volt/Turn core with Cao Cao. A very powerful team indeed, though Ampharos was mostly just There and saw no use in any major battle. She simply was late game, just-in-case backup filler after we lost Magneton on the Plasma Frigate.

In the end, not only did we succeed in getting our new friend through to the end of the game. He even dealt the finishing blow to Champion Iris. Fate blessed us with a second chance and we did not squander it!

In his well earned retirement, we've managed to move him all the way up to Paldea, thanks to his return in Kitakami. Any Region, Any Adventure, True Friends Always Stick Together!!

I love Unova and now I have another great memory thanks to it. Truly the GOAT region.

This game had a nickname theme - Food Biproducts, and Cao Cao

Total Wipes - 3 (Wild Magnemite Gym Leader Cheren Gym Leader Cheren)

Y - I hadn't played through Y except the once at launch, so I was honestly rather excited to give it another try. I did, however, challenge myself to not use any of the gift pokemon given to the player since you can make a whole team of them and I had a great time for it.

Gameplay wise, I quite like Kalos. It has great aesthetics and introduced pretty much nothing but great new designs. Unfortunately, however, it contains Writing and Characters and that part is basically all bad. I do think there's a seed of an interesting story with Lysandre and Team Flare but like, damn, they totally beefed it on this one, lmao.

Oh well, at least I had fun! And I don't have much else to say.

Aerodactyl and Snorlax were our absolute GOATs this run, plowing through most of the game. We actually blundered away Oats on the literal last trainer in Victory Road by not playing around a crit and I REALLY didn't want to grind up another Pokemon, so I simply carried his fainted body through the Elite Four and Diantha, largely on the back of Garchomp. This run really did endear me more to Garchomp, whom I've never used before and never been the biggest fan of. Even with a -Attack nature in the Fairy Region she simply annihilated everything I set her upon. Great pokemon, makes any team dramatically better for having it, lol.

Overall Kalos was exactly as mediocre as I remembered. But a mediocre Pokemon game is still quite fun minute to minute, so it's not all bad and it really let me look forward to the next region, which does away with TMs and is generally excellent.

Garchomp Sweep.

Total Wipes - 1 Gym Leader Viola

SUN - I recently played through Ultra Sun for the first time and jeez that game is quite the letdown compared to the vanilla version. Almost every change made worsens the experience in some way, and in many cases outright erases core character's arcs. It's not totally without merit, but picking vanilla Sun was an easy choice.

Alola is just plain fun. I had a great time but also don't have much to say! This run overall went pretty smoothly with the only critical loss being our Decidueye at Aether Paradise super late in the game! As a result, Exeggutor was a super late filler who ended up doing almost nothing.

Almost every member of this team impressed me though. I genuinely did not know Toucannon was so good! An incredible moveset and genuinely great stats for the early and mid game let him do a ton of work! Undeniably falls off late, but that's okay. Eviolite Charjabug is also shockingly great as a pivot and defensive stopgap for most of the game. It was almost better unevolved than fully evolved, lol. The real star of this team in the late game was Carracosta, what a beast. Shell Smash setups with sturdy and wide lens for high base power, perfectly accurate STAB just CRUSHED the elite four, champion, and final Hau fights.

Alola was fun, easy breezy, and a nice step up from Y, though I think it's the game that took by far the longest to clear. It does have a lot of cutscenes, but I like the charcaters and story so that's fine.

Total Wipes - 0

SHIELD - I'm a Galar appreciator. This region has issues but the core gameplay experience is not one of them. In fact, I think Galar has one of the strongest campaigns in the series for purposes like this, it's very Arcade-like. Brisk pacing, a well balanced difficulty curve, a shockingly tough final boss, and just a great and fun mechanic in dynamaxing. This game is a lot of fun to play through and I was pretty happy to get to return to it. I love cooking curry and playing with my funny guys in camp but I had to be careful not to do that so it wouldn't give me mechanical benefits, lol.

On the story side it's thin boned and that's fine, imo. After several generations of more serious or involved stories it's a nice palette cleanser for the franchise and further it helps serve the core experience of this game being 'you start the game and are in the wild area with access to 100+ species within 30-45 minutes'. There is truly no region better for, simply, playing through with a new set of 6 guys you've never used before. Even with that thin plot I still think Hop is the best rival in the franchise's history. He has a strong, easily identifiable character arc and uses the most different species of any trainer in the entire series besides N, who's whole thing is he uses completely different teams every time.

Hop struggles with inferiority to Leon and then to you and in the mid game dramatically changes his team around several times just to try and beat you! He even boxes his starter for one of them and NO other rival does that! In the postgame he realizes he's not necessarily in the top 1% of battling trainers, but pursues a career as a researcher which is great! I really like Hop, he's ace. I just wish his final team weren't so shit though. He uses so many different, cool, species and his final team has both Dubwool and Snorlax on it, for some reason? It's weird.

Anyway, I love playing through this region and this team rocked. I blundered away several encounters, including losing Badnik the Golisopod, at level 50, to Raihan because I didn't pay attention to the fact that his Duraludon has Rock Type coverage. Mantine was a very late filler pick, however, he actually accomplished a good bit and was a great teammate for what little time we had him.

This team has the biggest gap in level between its top runner and 6th man, and that's largely because I saved every rare candy in the game to ensure Cinderace specifically was equal to Leon's Charizard before that fight. It's such a strong mon I wanted to maximize what it could do. This region does have extremely few encounters outside of the Wild Area so it had two modifications to normal encounter rules - 1) In areas with no Wild Encounters (the two Mines) the first pokemon I run into is my encounter. One was a Drillbur and the other was Badnik, both of which I lost :(

2) I'm allowed to have one encounter from the Wild Area each time the game directs me there, for a total of three. Once right at the start, once after clearing Kabu's Gym, and once after clearing Raihan's gym. For these, I still took Random Encounters from shaking grass, but I did allow myself the nicety of choosing which region I wanted them from.

Overall, the former had a moderately large impact on the run since Golisopod was a great encounter but the latter didn't end up mattering really at all.

The true star of this run was our Route 1 encounter, Greedent. He is Him. Payback is the first TM in the game, immediately giving him a 100BP Dark move to hit ghosts with. Body Slam for STAB, Cheek Pouch gives RIDICULOUS survival with sitrus berries (58% extra HP in every battle! Equal to basically 150 extra health in the mid and late game!) all game long, stockpile for defensive boosts, rest to net heal even while continuously attacked. He swept the ghost gym, he swept the fairy gym. He swept half of Leon's team, including Haxorus and Dragapult. HE IS HIM!!! Greedent is so fucking strong and is my friend, I love you Greedent.

This game is the first time since Crystal where our starter made it all the way through.

Total Wipes - 0

VIOLET -

RAAAAAAUUGGGHH THIS GAME RUNS LIKE DOGSHIT LMAO!!!! IT'S BEEN LIKE 6 MONTHS AND IT STILL RUNS AWFUL!!!!!!!

However, I do like Violet for what it is. It lacks so may QoL features and just generally basic niceties and polish and yet it's so much more than the sum of it's parts. I guess that's what happens when you get the author of Cowboy Bebop to help write your game's story. Like, imaging getting that guy and then rushing the game out after a ONE YEAR development cycle. Geez.

Paldea itself is a fairly forgettable region that is full to bursting with incredible Pokemon designs and characters. It's the small things that are memorable rather than the region itself and I truly wish to see a 'complete' version of this game someday. Hopefully, the game being rightfully lambasted and made a mockery for releasing blatantly unfinished and buggy as fuck will light a fire under The Pokemon Company's ass and force them into actually giving GameFreak time to produce their damn games! You know GF themselves want to put out better than this!

Still, it has its strengths. Again, the scenario design and gameplay are quite fun and they're what I would consider the only 'truly' nonlinear Pokemon games. Gens 1 and 2 have 'Fake Nonlinearity' since doing things in a nonlinear fashion is basically a waste of time and effort. Those games were still made with specific paths in mind, but Paldea wasn't (mostly). While the gyms, titans, and team star encounters each have set levels, you're still free to do them out of order and you actually get the breadth of the region to explore and run around basically immediately. If you master some basic movement tech you can get practically anywhere without any of Koraidon/Miraidon's upgrades, too! The one true downside to this is only Gym Badges increase Pokemon obey levels when it really should be any badges that do.

For encounters in this game I only got encounters via Tera Raid Dens (Besides the Starter and Poco Path, which can't have Raid Dens) since those are truly random! This region also has BY FAR the fewest possible encounters with this method, at only thirty-ish, which makes every last one count! Thankfully, with easy access to vitamins, EXP candies, and nature changing mints, maximizing your few encounters is easy and fun.

Getting a Steel Tera Type Applin as our very first random encounter set the stage for the whole run. Eviolite Dipplin was an unbreakable monster. Dragon/Grass coverage with Recover and Reflect made a mockery even of super effective hits and crits. This whole team is slow and bulky (besides Cetitan) but Dipplin was the slowest and bulkiest of all by a mile. All six members worked in great harmony and were able to overcome all challenges without any real risk or nail biter moments. They were just plain consistent and strong. Lumineon is a firmly Mediocre Pokemon, but thanks to aforementioned mints and vitamins, we were able to max out his HP and Physical Defense. With Leftovers, Aqua Ring, and the debuffing moves Chilling Water and Icy Wind, he could turn any physical threat into setup fodder for Skeledirge (Torch Song), Muk (Minimize), Dudunsparce (Coil), or Cetitan (Snowscape + Slush Rush). This team's playstyle was often slow and methodical but could explode into vicious sweeps very easily.

Cetitan in particular truly just bowled over the endgame. The Elite 4, Champion, Final Nemona and Final Boss all got swept mostly or entirely by Cetitan after a single turn of setup with Snowscape. Slush Rush with Ice/Ground STAB on Ice Spinner and Earthquake just annihilated everything. What a monster, I love my huge whale friend. This team was basically perfect and nothing could challenge their stability and strength. A truly excellent note to end on.

This team reached it's 'final' state earliest of all, solidifying after just the fifth gym, whose level cap is 36 while Muk's evolution is 37.

This game is the only one where I completed all endgame content, and still lost no major team members.

Total Wipes - 1 (Team Star Leader Atticus)

I love Pokemon. It's a fun and fantastic series. It's got its ups and downs and right now it's definitely far from what it could, or should, be. But it's just such an impossible to fuck up gameplay loop it's just FUN to raise and bond with new guys!

If you've read this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my experiences, and I'm willing to field questions!

My kingdom for Gen 10 to get a six year dev cycle.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke

[astronicht]

For the ask meme, I’d love if you answered 1, 8, and 10

I hope you don't mind that this got a bit long!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

Oh I always wonder about this! I don't think I'd say the fic I actually consider my best piece of writing ("the field meets the wood"), but probably "pro bono" (aka lan fangji), which is a pretty good billboard for the things I love and tend to write about. In my heart it should be "hush now" (lesbian modern au wangxian), but that's mostly because it's the first fic i really wrote in the style I use now, so it literally WAS an introduction, and was directly and indirectly responsible for introducing me to some really dear friends. Actually I think "hush now" and "pro bono" are an interesting mirror of each other in terms of how I wrote them and handled similar themes? But I've strayed SO far off the question.

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

Up the Wolves by the Mountain Goats!! Love Interruption by Jack White doesn't have a plot per se but by god it's got a vibe. Literally any classic country song like. Charlie Parker said "The stories, man. Listen to the stories!" and he was right.

10. How do you decide what to write?

Short answer i don't, which is why it's good that I am not a professional. True but annoying answer is that it comes to me in a vision. literally i start a story around a single pearl of an idea, which is usually one murky image: lan zhan in the bath in "hush now", an adapted version of my aunt's side yard in "in the pines", the view from above of the main room of the inn that smells like sweet soy sauce in "the belly of it". and then i have to write everything around it until it feels alive.

Slightly longer answer is that I tend to simply write what I want to step into, somewhere I want to be. Not always literally, and sometimes I'm furious and want to see a car-crash of a scene. Sometimes I need to be somewhere good. A lot of my writing is lodged in longing, even if it is not, of course, a simple 1:1 statement. I want to go somewhere in a story so I build it. Or else I build it for a friend who has had a bad day. Same idea. It's so delightful for me, to be able to do that.

#ask replies

[felixantares]

Thank you for the tag @allalrightagain 💚

Hardcover or Paperback? I'm just taking LT's answer but yes, ebook! I can use dark mode, write as many notes as I want, and something about reading on the small screen tricks my ADHD brain into thinking I'm not actually reading a whole book. To answer the actual question, paperback.

Bookstore or Library? Libraries! So many free books, and the librarians can find you pretty much anything you want! Also if I said bookstore my librarian mother would materialize behind me and end my entire existence (but my answer would be the same regardless).

Bookmark or Receipt? I mean receipt or scrap paper if I have it, but I'll be real i'm a terrible awful person who has very few issues dog-earing a page.

Standalone or Series? Typically standalone, but if a series is really good then it can win me over. All my favourites are series (Percy Jackson, Harry Potter) but I've also read so many series where I feel like the story and themes gets lost or muddled over too many books. I've had more consistent success finding well defined stories with standalones.

Nonfiction or Fiction? Oh easy, fiction. I read to escape reality, why on earth would I want to read about reality?? I mean I do like research but only with a goal in mind. Non-fiction just for the fun of it? No thanks.

Thriller or Fantasy? Fantasy, all day every day. It's the D&D obsession shining through, I think.

Under 300 Pages or Over? Over!!! I set my ao3 search functions to sort by word count and if it's under 100k I gently place it in my marked for later list for when I want a 'light easy read' 😂 I'm way more likely to be interested if you tell me a book/fic is over 250k (or however many pages that is equivalent to).

Children’s or YA? I like a few kids books for the nostalgia, but I mostly read YA.

Friends to Lovers or Enemies to Lovers? I'm giving up and just quoting LT here because I agree 100% and couldn't say it better: "Friends. Enemies can be fun too, but I love the layers when you get into friends to lovers. Enemies to friends to lovers or friends to enemies to lovers or other permutations of Messy can be even better."

Read in Bed or Read on the Couch? I mostly read on my bed because my roommate tends to keep youtube videos running on the TV while he does various crafts around the house (right now he's painting a mirror frame with really pretty flowers!) but if we're just chilling listening to music then I like the couch better. We've got about 30 plants in our living room and we can open the balcony door when it rains and it's lovely.

Read at Night or Read in the Morning? I mean, the morning is definitely safer. If I start reading at night I'll never put the book down and I won't sleep, but if I start in the morning things won't get done. It's lose-lose.

Keep Pristine or Markup? Markup. This is why I have digital books, so I can write essays in the notes section. I once had to tape a piece of paper inside my book because there wasn't enough room in the margins for my notes.

Cracked Spine or Dogear? (this part is mostly for LT but I have a copy of OotP where the spine is also cracked so bad you can't read it!! samsies!) But uhhhh both? I do try to take care of my books, but I don't have many and the ones I do have are my favourites that have survived the various purges of many moves, so they're all very beat up with cracked spines and dogears and notations everywhere 😂 I call it a sign of a well-loved book. I'm pretty sure my copy of HBP lost its cover at some point and I hot glued it back on.

Tagging: @girl-with-goats @luxuriousmalfoy @gloivy @venom0usbarbie

#tag game #felix talks

[robotlesbianjavert]

i’ve been following you for a while and i love your blog! got a question however: i see you blogging moral orel and i’ve never seen it but from what i’ve read on wikipedia, how would you compare the bad dad to bnha’s bad dads. is he fit to join the club. looking at him gives me afo vibes somehow.

eyyyyy thanks for following and keeping up !! you're a trooper. anyways clay puppington is way way worse than the bnha bad dads. like easy clear. one of the best characters! but definitely the worst dad.

moral orel primer

The thing about Moral Orel is that it's an edgy-ish mid 2000s satire about hypocritical fundamentalist Protestant environments and how badly one eager and god-loving kid can be lead to misinterpret the bible. It's got that irreverent humour. Skip the episode "God's Xhef" if you ever watch it. To set up my point, one of the running gags for the series is that at the result of Orel's shenanigans is Clay taking Orel to his study to belt him. And then his pants fall down! haha.

The series then takes a swerve, starting from the first season Christmas episode and leading into the third season, for a darker, more character-driven narrative. It delves more into the citizens of Moralton, the impact that their Christian environment has on them and their relationships with each other, and bits of history to understand how they turned out the way they did, etc

One of the characters most impacted here is Clay. While he's always been the second-most prominent character after Orel himself, and their relationship is central to the story, it's with this new take on the story that Clay really becomes the deuteragonist of the series. He becomes that much more fascinating a character, and his treatment of Orel and his family becomes that much more vile. Sadly the third season is cut short, reportedly after execs saw a particularly dark episode (not Orel or Clay related!) and thought. hm. that wasn't funny.

I lay that all out to explain that while Moral Orel starts off as a pretty silly, shock-value cartoon about how weird Christians are, it also depicts a lot of serious subject matters, and the treatment of that is much more frank and realistic and difficult as the series progresses.

So while he becomes a much more developed character that the audience can understand, Clay's abusive behaviour loses a lot of that wink-wink satirical irony. He's also CRAZY pathetic.

also it's got the mountain goats! that's how i first found moral orel!

how comparable is it to bnha?

First things first, I do think there are largely interesting things to say about how BNHA depicts abuse, despite the downhill trend of writing in the third act that I complain about all the time. I don't think every aspect is perfect, but it's like. I do think there's more positive to say there than how other stories depict abuse. There's actually lots that I love about what the series does, or think that it could do were it not hobbled by things and stuff.

Ultimately, there isn't really a bulletproof way of comparing fictional abusive situations to another, because respective to real life you can't compare one abusive situation against the other.

But one can compare things like the genre and structure of a story, who the intended audience is, what the production of the story is like, how much time and focus can be devoted to certain subjects and what the actual focus is meant to be, etc etc.

Moral Orel can pull together different elements of abuse, like the suffocating environment of Christian fundamentalism, the abuse of a self-destructive alcoholic, the neglect that comes from mutually disaffected and inept parents, the generational nature of abuse, so on and so forth in a sincere way. Meanwhile BNHA, as a weekly serialized shonen battle manga whose creator has become increasingly rundown, has Things To Say, but doesn't necessarily have the same capacity to devote its power to those things. Abuse is vital to the themes of BNHA, but it's not the center of it the way it is for Moral Orel.

So when Clay does his thing, stripped of the fantastical couching of BNHA's bad dads, it just feels more real and it feels worse as a result.

anyways.

clay SMASH bnha's bad dad club

Never a question that Clay is a worse dad than Enji lmao. However one feels about Endeavour's arc, or how well-written or 'deserved' it is, or how successful and genuine Enji is in his efforts, at the very least he's realised that he's done wrong and wants to atone for it, while also grappling with the fact that there may be no way for him to do that. spoilers but clay shan't do this. you get flickers that he has regrets, but he'll NEVER change baby.

I guess Clay gets a one-up where his marriage with Bloberta is mutually destructive, harmful, and toxic in comparison to Enji unambiguously abusing Rei though. so failmarriage win.

Kotarou is actually similar to Clay though! Lots to say, to compare and contrast. I'm actually kind of obsessed, especially because what I said about Clay being more realistic also applies to Kotarou - Kotarou just gets less screentime. They're both deeply affected by their childhood and relationships with their own parents in ways they take it out on their children (the "explained but not excused" idea behind fictional depictions of generational abuse). They also project an image of the upper(?)-middle class family man and Patriarch of the household, either to make up for the failings of their childhood or because it's what expected of them as a man in their world. (Wee bit of conjecture on Kotarou's part but I think it has solid grounding.)

But there's also significant differences. Physical abuse is normalized as corporal between Clay and Orel, on top of the emotional abuse, manipulation, and neglect. Kotarou's abuse of Tenko is largely emotional, with the big slap implied to be the first time that abuse manifested as physical and a line crossed for the rest of the family. And while I'm sure some people would debate this, the idea that Kotarou promised Nao a home full of joy feels genuine. He did want that, the happy family full of smiles he lost as a kid, only for his own resentment to poison everything when Tenko can't obey the rules Kotarou created and enforced to achieve it. Clay, on the other hand, like. There's bits of him implying he loves his family but doesn't have the means to show or act on it, but when he has a whole speech about the sacrifices he makes for his family, family never rings as more than an obligation that he has to put up with for the appearance of manhood.

And Shigaraki can have xyz feelings about his dad forever, but he accepts and espouses the one true lesson Kotarou taught him, that heroes can't do shit all. His father was always a scary and domineering figure, but it feels like while he will never forgive him, Shigaraki does understand him more as an adult. Meanwhile, Orel tries as hard as he can to honour thy father until he can't anymore.

Again, I think that Clay and Kotarou are probably most comparable in terms of being the Bad Dad with some similar hang-ups and relationships to their kids, but part of what makes Kotarou interesting is that we don't know what he would have done had Tenko's quirk not triggered how and when it did. With his family finally willing to push back against him and himself feeling regret for hitting Tenko, could he have changed? We don't know! But much like I said when talking about Enji, Clay's never going to change.

All For One has become more of a cartoon villain that I am determined to turn into a dress up doll for my own amusement than a bad dad and is more evil guardian or whatever. BUT there's one thing that I almost forgot about when I was first writing this up, but realised is actually soooo interesting.

There's a lot to say about AFO and Clay being the primary "teacher" to Shigaraki and Orel! I that while AFO does influence Shigaraki's villainous ideals, he also lets society and Shigaraki's experiences speak for themselves. And frankly, Shigaraki has a lot of leeway and agency in evolving his ideals through his own experiences, particularly after AFO's incarceration. He sees AFO for what he is, probably has for a long time, and is determined to establish his own identity outside of AFO regardless of what Shigaraki has learned from him. Clay is much more strict and obvious about imposing his worldview on his son, but while Orel is desperate for his dad's approval and love and can be led to do things that feel wrong for that love, Orel never absorbs those lessons the way that Clay wants him to, and separating himself from his father and come to terms with what Clay has done is a much more difficult process.

but mostly i just think that clay could do this

and afo could do this

beautiful world.

#abuse discussion cw. obviously. #sorry if you didn't expect an essay but i Love Moral Orel. i need to rewatch. #thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk at length. about. moral orel. i love you anon. #bnha bloggin #moral orel bloggin

[rocketorca]

I’ve been trying to read more in general but also for inspiration in game design. I just finished The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Dark fantasy, Arthurian age, metaphor for societal trauma and dealing with atrocities via (deliberate) forgetting.

For me I give it a like…. 6/10. I really enjoyed the story but often it was a difficult read because of the dialogue. Too me, it felt like reading the movie A Field in England, although the language was not as period accurate per se.

It was more the fairytale-esque indirectness and social mannerisms make it all seem like a heckin big riddle! Dancing around a lot of subjects. But also the main characters have been affected by a forgetting mist so that also contributed.

I liked the story structure, the almost 0 exposition, interesting world building, strong theme, cool use of a monster/dragon, the melancholic nature of the book. But it was def a slow go reading for me as I worked through the dialogue.

Spoilers. Cool ideas.

- Baby dragon bite making humans want to go and protect dragon mama. Voice of dragon calling to human making them think their own mother is calling to them.

- bewitching a dragon as a giant fog machine to cause a location to lose long term memories

- finding out the knight tasked to kill the dragon is actually protecting the dragon because a king had it bewitched for sad nefarious reasons

- ferryman taking people to an island (afterlife) but making special exceptions to take couples with strong bonds together but are judged based on their memories

- feed a goat with poison plants to feed to a dragon ala Jurassic Park Trex style (lol)

The end

#books

[viraltang]

Could you go more into detail on why you think fire force being a prequel to soul eater isn't good? You don't have to I'm just curious

Glady. For one. One of its strengths in the begining was how vague it was with a everything including the kitchen sink approach to everything. And with the Burton shade of whimsy and all the loving horror references on top of that it created a unique and offbeat tone for a shonen that I really haven't seen since (well maybe The Owl House) And it just sparks ones imagination

Like oh hey Death is a rather friendly and jovial fellow but is he THE god of death or A god of death? Are there other gods? And what are they like in this setting?

Is Thor a goat farmer content with life? Anubis has a second hand bookshop? Cthulhu runs a ask column in a few papers? And Okubo throws in references/pulls inspiration from mythology/mysticism from world wide sources feeds that again on top of all the horror influence that also tends to be silly just as much as scary.

So finding out Death is the only god because Shinra's surrogate dad loves Death Metal and just made him...like just like that because hes a remake of jesus? (at least when the Matrix did that it was actually clever within the broader story and themes)

The reason there are so many monsters and fantastical animals? Shinra heard about them second hand and misremembered details and made them like that

and I will admit that there is some genuine charm to all that and I get what Ohkubo was going for and I do genuinely like Shinras last line in the comic "Dont care what anyone thinks. Live your life to the fullest and enjoy it!"

I just think in an age where so much of media/fandoms are obsessed with filling out Wikipedias about every little thing and everything's sudden need to be "connected" in someway I think leaving more things up in the air and unexplainable is more interesting and valid.

Especially since how Ohkubo did it was incredibly shallow and just lazy it doesn't add to SE in anyway and looks like Ohkubo was just cheap nostalgia baiting and clearly not over SE and how much more beloved by people it still is snd FF not being as popular the volumes sell well but from a weekly popularity stand point it was very middle ground and steadily dropping if my findings are right Where as the SE reprints and reissues of the show sold GANGBUSTERS.

I honestly could go on but this became a rant very quickly....

#olives musings #soul eater #fire force

[noperopesaredope]

Rhombulus Rewrite Art!

Guess what my beautiful chimeras! While I’m working on Season 4, to satisfy you during the wait, I decided to draw my redesign of Rhombulus for my Rhombulus Rewrite!

Now, let me first just say that I absolutely adore Rhombulus’ original design and think it’s honestly an amazing one. I respect the creators and think the design is very fitting for most elements of his character.

But unfortunately, the changes I made for my rewrite have caused the OG design to not really work with said rewrite. I said that rather than being childish, Rewrite Rhombulus is basically going to be a child. So I decided that, mainly for fun, I would do a small redesign (it only works for this rewrite though, not for the OG show). Note: half the reason I’m doing this is for fun and because I had an idea and though “ooh, that’d be neat!” and just did it.

So without further ado, here’s the redesign:

Artist’s notes under the cut (might mention certain story related things too)

I wanted to keep at least some of the primary elements of Rhombulus’ OG design, so I specifically chose to keep his snakes (and their general look because I love the snakes), his crystal head (despite it being a different shape), his eye being his only expressive facial feature, his nipple demons (though they are no longer nipples), and his hood.

The implementation of some of these traits were different, but a lot of the main ideas were the same. Also, I’m hoping I can color this in an use most of Rhombulus’ OG color palette because I did keep that in mind for this redesign.

As said in Part 1 of this series, I first got the idea of a chimera as the inspiration for this, and kept with that theme. But it slowly became a chimera of chimera as I unintentionally added in new, yet related creatures into it.

As I said, first was the chimera: front half is a lion, back half is goat, and tail is snake. But overtime I realized that there were other things mixed into it too. The second thing is a manticore. This is because he has a slightly humanoid face, a lion’s body (on the upper half), and, well, I’ll explain the tail a bit later when explaining each part of the design. The third thing is a satyr, which actually helped me in figuring out how to draw his legs, as I used preexisting art of satyrs as a reference.

The reason I used chimeras is, well, I don’t fully remember, but I do know that it makes him very much more monster like, which is going to be pretty important to the story, and because it adds to the mythological element of him. While they follow the queen, the MHC are still near godlike beings of immense power, and I want to capture that a bit more.

Now that I explained the main inspirations, I decided to add a breakdown of each element of the design and it’s purpose/incorperation into the story. I had a lot of fun with this, so I hope it’s pretty interesting why I chose to make the design the way I did.

First are the snake tails. I’m considering perhaps making them a bit like a shoulder angel and shoulder devil, to go with 1) Rhombulus’ impulsive nature and how he needs someone to help him think things through, and 2) the fact that part of his job involves imprisonment/punishment, so it would be part of his moral side. The snakes could also become a fun source of comedy if so desired, arguing with each other and having fun banter with both each other and Rhombulus. Kinda like Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove.

The other purpose of the snake tails would be for fight scenes. Rhombulus was made to be the muscle/fighter of the MHC, and he’s canonically been on the battlefield the most, so he probably has the most fighting experience. This is why I gave him a bit more tools for these jobs, and the snake tails are part of that. Like in the show, during fights, he freezes them to use as weapons during battle.

Here’s an example of how he freezes them. But in this rewrite, for this design, he actually uses them a bit like scorpian tails (might draw an example image later). So this is the purpose of the snake tails.

Onto his goat legs. I decide to add the goat legs because, honestly, I though they’d look cool. But they can also add a bit of character and show a bit of his connection to Lekmet. After all, part of the reason he was created was to be a translator for Lekmet. I think this could be kinda sweet, and they share similar feature in that way. One thing that you might not be able to tell from my drawing is that the legs are designed to look like they are made of crystals. The hooves are crystal, the little things on the heels are crystal, etc, etc.

Now for his lion arms. These show his strength and are helpful in fights because they are quite muscular and have crystal claws. I was going to also give him opposable thumbs, but didn’t feel like drawing that, and decides that it would be better to just make them like normal lion’s front legs. He cannot grab things with his paws. At most, he can only claw or bap. I think that would be slightly funny to see him try to open a door before one of his snakes rolls its eyes and opens it for him.

Next is his mane/hood. I couldn’t decide if it is just a mane or just a hood, so I might ask ya’ll to help me decide. I might just give him a mane with a hood on top of it that looks just like said mane and blends in with it. I already explained the implimentation of the hood, and feel like the mane is just another way to impliment parts of the OG design.

Then there is his head. It is shaped very different from the OG head, but I still like the idea of a crystal head, and it’s such a prominent design trait, that I couldn’t take it away. I did reshape it a bit though, and added some crystal ears to make it even more crystally since I wanted a few more major crystal features.

One thing I noticed as a whole about the MHC is that all of them (except for Rhombulus and maybe Reynaldo?) have horns. So to make him fit in more, I gave him some horns. But they are also crystal horns because that would look cool.

I also tried to keep his actual face (aka, the singular eye) the exact same since I loved how they used that specific element of his design in the OG show. It looks a bit sharper here because I tried to make it a bit more lion/snake like, but I honestly prefer his original eye, so pretend that that’s what’s actually there. The way they animate his eye is also going to be the same here, because as I said, it can be very effective and you can find lots of ways to animate his face with just the eye alone. I also think this could make his body language into his main point of visual expression. It’s basically the same reason Rebecca Parham doesn’t draw mouths. So I just decided to keep this particular trait.

Lastly are his clothes. I didn’t really feel like changing them all that much, so I kept the pants mostly the same, but a little longer so it felt less like he was wearing underwear. I also needed to keep the two nipple demons, but since I didn’t feel like adding them onto his nipples (didn’t want to draw as much attention to his chest since he is presented to be a lot younger in this rewrite), I found other ways to add them it.

At one point, I was going to add what were basically crystal stegosaurus plates down his head and back, but that was 1) a little too hard to show and 2) felt like it would be a little much. I honestly prefer the lion’s mane anyways, as it makes slightly more sense and incorporated the hood in a way that fits thematically.

So that’s the redesign! As I said before, I didn’t make this to “improve” the original, just make something different and present an alternate interpretation. The prototype designs for the MHC were all diverse and amazing, and all equally pretty good, it’s just that they each set a different tone. This is an idea I had and I wanted to put it out there. So this is that. Hope ya’ll liked it!

#rhombulus #nr rhombulus rewrite #svtfoe rhombulus #rhombulus rewrite #svtfoe mhc #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #star vs #redesign #character redesign #fan art #art #my art #character design

[samanthachan]

Twst boys thoughts on video games 1

There will be some character who have the same video game as another same characters out here multiple times

Might elaborate more in another part

Azul plays cuphead

. He’s on the devils side like the devil actually offered the main characters a way out

. He thinks it was main characters fault for getting themselves into the situation

. Prefers the bad ending because the main characters stuck to their deal with the devil

. Hates the fact that to get the story you have to play like on hard mode

Jade

Genshin impact

. Loves the collecting part especially collecting multiple types of mushrooms

. He always picks the bully Paimon options

. He does go on Genshin theory foroms since the mystery behind Paimon interests him

. One of his favorite monstat characters is kaeya

. One his favorite liyue characters is chongyun for the fact that chongyun seems like someone fun to mess with but he also likes Xianling

. One his favorite ayato he says ayato just reminds him of someone

. He honestly doesn’t see the fatui as villains or really any their actions that bad

. After teppei’s death in the inazuma arc he found himself agreeing with scaramouche

. Jade honestly thinks teppei’s Fate was teppei’s own fault

. His thoughts on the whole dillusion thing was the fatui were offering to give people something special and the people should have known that it comes with a price

. Jade loves controlling things in the teapot

Jade

animal crossing

. He loves this game

. He really loves the collecting part

. His favorite things to collect are fauna and plants

. Tom nook and his friends do remind jade of some people he knows

. He likes the control you have over the town in the game

. He finds slowly gaining peoples favor in the game fun

Flyod

Pokémon

Just Pokémon in general version I will give more details with specific ones later in these headcanons

. He finds the game interesting

. He loves reading all the Pokémon entries especially the dark and twisted ones

. In name his rival versions he always does an ocean animal nickname

. Flyod really likes ocean themed Pokémon

. He loves the darker side of Pokémon a lot and really finds lavender town cool

Flyod

Pokémon game : sword and shield

. Really finds the giganamax fun

. Does not like you have to be a certain level to catch certain Pokémon

Flyod

Bendy and the ink machine

. Flyod really likes horror so he finds this game fun

. He really gets into the game when there’s more fighting involved

. He likes when the character swims in ink because flyod thinks it looks cool

. Flyod is always interacting with objects

. Flyod actually goes through the game at pretty good pace

. Flyod is really smart and has amazing memory skills he just doesn’t show them to people and hides them or he just isn’t in the mood

Flyod

Cat simulator

. Likes this game the whole point of the game is destruction and choas

. He usually gets really high scores in the game since he knows the best ways to cause destruction

. He loves that he gets to terrorize people him the game and gets rewarded for it

Flyod

Goat simulator

. He prefers this to cat simulator

. Not only can he cause choas in this game but he can also kill

. He definitely does the devil summoning

. And he loves it

. He likes to go in the water areas of this game

Deuce

Pokémon rumble rush

Side note: this one of my favorite Pokémon games

. Loves collecting all of the figures and getting figures as well as getting higher level ones

. He feels guilty when he has to release figures

. Loves the battle mechanics

. He loves all the movements you can make

. Always loves the winning screen with all the confetti

Trey

Game : Pokémon cafe mix

. He loves running the cafe

. Also likes all the cute recipes

. He loves decorating the cafe

. Actually repilcates the recipes from the game

. Loves befriending Pokémon

. He really enjoys when he can put the Pokémon in cute outfits

Lillia : cooking mamma

. He’s bad at this game and he doesn’t understand why usually he’s really good at video games

. He doesn’t understand why mama is so picky he only did a few changes

. He also doesn’t understand when mama gets bad at him for just missing a few steps

. She’s even made when he thinks he followed the recipe

. No he didn’t follow the recipe

. At people in real life for now don’t have to suffer from his cooking

Malleus : nintendogs

. This animal care simulator game is different from ones he’s played before

. He does really enjoy the game

. He loves getting affection from the ai dogs

. He loves being able to dress them up and groom them and play games with them up

. He like a dog dad to these ai dogs

. He likes dogs now

Kalim : merge meadow

. He finds the game very fun

. He likes collecting , hatching and merging all these interesting creatures

. Also the games fast pace matches his energy levels

. He makes sure the creatures have really good care

. He dotes and fawns over the creatures in the game

#twst kalim #twst Lillia #twst trey #twst deuce #twst flyod leech #twst jade leech #octotrio

[swangtup6]

EP Review: Esophagus - Killing for Sport (2022)

mannn ive been sleeping hard on this band. like for the last year since ive heard of em ive been like that one dude in the story where he sleeps a really long time. ig id always kinda subconsciously categorized them with slamcore and tiktok bdm bands for some reason? which i guess they kinda are a tiktok band (at least recently) but thats ok.

this EP has a really interesting style of writing, where it kinda just plods along aimlessly for most of it, which i actually shockingly really like because i think it fits the band's sound well. most of the drumming and guitarwork is super super simple, and it compliments the very catchy sound the band is going for, while staying pretty brutal. this is real meathead slam, and it lets the vocals (the obvious focal point of their music) shine. however, it does sound pretty amaturish at times, and not in a good way (especially considering this band formed in like 2008)

im also a big fan of the production, surprisingly. it's relatively clean, but i think thats mainly a result of the mix having like nothing going on in it. when the only instruments going are some really basic, relatively sparse guitar riffs, with simple drumming to match, and some vocals layered on top, there isnt really a ton you can do to filth it up, unless they wanted to make the guitars wayyyy louder. im usually a bigger fan of super rough production (i make raw black metal) but i think the cleaner production serves the band better as listening to their first demos, they clearly dont shine as bright as they did on this EP.

the guitar tone is pretty standard; crunchy, but not overly so, and without a ton of feedback. it's also thin and mixed pretty quietly, which makes this project not as heavy as a band like say Cephalotripsy or Agonal Breathing, but that doesnt really seem to be what this band is going for so i think it works. theres no bass on this project. the drumming is also mixed well, with a very poppy snare (which i can NOT get enough of). overall, the mixing is sterile but serviceable.

now, the vocals. the vocalist is 10000000000000% the most important member of this band, and it's clear that the band thinks so too. this guy sounds like if Don Campan (Waking the Cadaver) and Joe Wolfe (Heinous Killings) had a baby, with a healthy mix of predator purring (HK style) and insect trilling (WTC) making up just about all of the vocals on this release. it's interesting, actually, that they dont really utilize any significant amount of standard slam gurgles, and i think it really sets this band apart. the vocals are definitely the draw on this release, which i think is a plus and a minus. im sad that they replaced their original vocalist with Don Campan, because even though Don is the deathcore GOAT, i really liked the original guy.

overall, this is a solid release by a pretty solid band. it's not mind blowing, but i like listening to insect noises as much as the next girl. actually prolly a lot more than the next girl but that's besides the point. i do kinda wish the instrumentals were less stripped and more heavy, because i usually like heavier death metal than this. however, still a good EP and i would recommend it if you really like Waking The Cadaver or Heinous Killings.

i also think the band theming most of their music around the Predator franchise is pretty cheesy for what it's worth

7.5/10

standout track: Killing for Sport

#youtube #music #music review #metal review #metal music #death metal #slam #brutal death metal #slam death metal #esophagus #tiktok #trendy death metal

[beauty-and-passion]

Time to talk about the flower shirt

You read the title. Time to talk about this.

This is the infamous flower shirt Thomas put on in his store and, since the fandom is the fandom, everyone started to speculate about those flowers.

At first, I didn’t want to do it. They’re just flowers and other people already talked about them, so what could I possibly add to the conversation?

But while I was writing about Orange, I had to talk a moment about the orange flower. It was supposed to be a small parenthesis, just a couple of words about that.

But then I looked at the other flowers and what other people told/not told about them and how some didn’t find Patton’s flower... so here I am, adding my two cents to this theme.

You needed it? Probably not. Well, I’m writing it anyway.

So let’s take a closer look at those flowers and see each one in detail:

__________________________________

Roman: Red rose

Should I really explain why it’s perfect for Roman? Red roses are the universal symbol of love. Basically in all cultures red roses symbolize passion, true love, romance and desire. Also, according to this website, even the shade has a meaning! In fact, the deeper the red shade is, the stronger is the passion.

And even the number of red roses has a meaning! In this case, we have only one single red rose and that "represents love at first sight, or if it’s coming from a long-term partner, they are saying “you are still the one”.”

You know what that made me think? About Thomas telling Roman “You’re my hero”. A perfect symbol that he was “still the one” for Thomas.

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Orange: Lantana camara

This is an incredibly peculiar flower.

Lantana Camara symbolizes severity and rigour. And this alone can be analyzed in all possible ways, but there are other interesting details about this plant I think it's worth mentioning.

Lantana is toxic for livestock, such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and goats. According to Wikipedia, previous studies suggested it could be toxic for humans too, especially the green unripe berries. However "other studies have found evidence which suggests that its fruit poses no risk to humans".

Lantana is a freaking invasive plant. In some areas, it's so predominant, to reduce biodiversity, because its presence "can significantly slow down the regeneration of forests, by preventing the growth of new trees". Also, as if this isn't enough, this plant can also produce toxic chemicals which inhibit other plant species.

Lantana has also a great adaptability, that helped it to be so invasive: it can live in a wide range of different environmental conditions, it can survive long periods without water, heck it's even resistant to fire. It's not a plant you can underestimate. Like Orange, I assume.

But Lantana isn't just an invasive plant. Lantana has always been used for medical purposes, because it showed good antimicrobial, fungicidal and insecticidal properties and its extract helps against respiratory infections and ulcers.

Also, since it doesn't have many pests or diseases, lantana became a common ornamental plant. It even attracts butterflies!

In other words: isn't that the perfect plant to symbolize the double nature of a dark side? It can be a threat, change the environment, destroy and even kill. But it can also be a medicine, something useful, something beautiful.

Whoever Orange is, Lantana camara tells us that, whithout a doubt, he’s a dark side.

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Janus: Sunflower

Do you think Janus isn't perfect enough as he is? Do you think there's not enough husband material in the snek?

Well, you’re wrong and the sunflower is here to prove it.

Sunflower symbolizes loyalty, adoration, longevity, vitality, worship. Now add this up to the sunflower’s behaviour and how it follows the sun... and you’ll get Janus. Janus literally acts like a sunflower: Thomas is his sun and everything Janus does is for him. His whole existence is centered around Thomas.

But we already knew that, because it's the same message that shone through his playlist. Everything about Janus tells us how much he adores Thomas, from his canonical behavior in the series, to his playlist, to this flower.

Oh, do you need another proof that this is flower is perfect for Janus? Some societies use sunflowers as religious symbols. Ah, some good ol' reference to religion: it’s like being in his playlist all over again.

And, of course, sunflowers are used for a variety of reasons, like cooking oils, skin care and so on. Even the flower says self care.

This man is perfect.

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Remus: Green chrysanthemum

Here's another interesting flower.

Chrysanthemum symbolizes death and it’s the typical flower used for funerals. And I thought this was its universal meaning. It was perfect for Remus just like that.

But then I found out that Europeans use chrysanthemums for funerals and to honor the dead. This flower actually has a whole lot of meanings, some completely different from this.

In China, for example, chrysanthemums are associated with wealth, prosperity and long life. Also they're symbols of new life and reincarnations, so they're the perfect gift for old people or newborns.

While in Japan chrysanthemums are symbols of power and royalty. And that's even more fitting for Remus, because he's a Duke, so he is royalty.

But chrysanthemum also symbolizes friendship - and not just "a friendship", but a meaningful one. It's a symbol of loyalty, devotion, romantic/platonic love and, in general, positive energy. It's a flower with an incredibly strong meaning, so it can't be given too lightly.

And this makes it even more perfect for Remus. It's a flower with a huge plurality of meanings, it's both associated with life and death, it's powerful and it's royalty.

Also, you can eat it. Isn't that the perfect Remus flower?

(On a side note: please notice how chrysanthemums and sunflowers are both associated with joy, loyalty and devotion. I would have never considered "joy" a common trait between Janus and Remus while loyalty and devotion... well, they both care about Thomas and his career and they both work for him despite not being accepted, so I can see why those are common traits.)

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Patton: Nemophila

Surprise surprise, this flower wasn't easy to find. I’ve never heard of it, so I had to search among endless lists of blue flowers, hoping to find one that would perfectly match the one on the shirt.

And that’s how I found nemophila.

First of all: nemophila is also known as "Baby Blue Eyes" and it's an extremely rare color to find in nature. It’s very famous in Japan, thanks to the Hitachi Seaside Park. Open this link: it’s a literal sea of blue and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Of course, it attracts people every year.

Nemophila represents prosperity, congratulations on success and victory. Not the first things you would associate with Patton, right?

Well, while I was searching more informations about this flower, I found out this website about the essence of Baby Blue Eyes and the passage I quoted down below has the exact same words you can find on that link:

With its pronounced affinity for water, the Baby Blue Eyes flower essences addresses qualities of tender sensitivity, innocence and trust associated one’s early childhood relationship to the father, or other significant masculine figures that are in some way disturbed.

Very often the father was absent, or there was a lack of support or genuine presence. The Baby Blue Eyes type attempts over time to cover this wound of vulnerability with a false “hardening,” such as emotional distancing, mistrust, cynicism or spiritual alienation. It is a flower that can be equally helpful for men or women, although it is especially needed for many men who struggle to become strong, by disowning their pain.

So nemophilia’s essence has qualities associated with childhood, to the father figure and attempts to “repress” and hide emotions.

That’s Patton. That’s him, period. The childhood-related emotions, that are linked to Patton’s longing for “a simpler time”. The mentions of a father figure - who migh be absent or showing lack of support (like, idk, suggesting you should die so your friends live?). And the attempt to “cover the vulnerability” doesn’t remind you anything? Like the Nostalgia episodes?

This flower is Patton.

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Logan: Blue petunia

I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, a huge "FUCK YOU" to this flower, because I spent TWO DAYS searching all the blue flowers in the world and all possible variants, asking myself why this goddamn flower looked so familiar and why it was so hard to find. Blue isn't even a common color in nature, so why couldn't I find it?

I've learned more about blue flowers in these two days than in my entire life. I've searched among flowers I never saw before, like glandora diffusa, leschenaultia and omphalodes verna. I was so desperate to consider this flower a new species, with the petals of a bellflower and the corolla of a morning glory. I even found a goddamn chinese variant of the morning glory that was somehow similar but not that much and why, WHY this was so hard to find?!

And then, after two days and a lot more desperation, I remembered: my dear friend @reptilianwithscallions​ told me about a post they made, regarding this shirt and the flowers. Maybe they had some idea about Logan's flower?

Well, let's all thank my saviour and this post, because otherwise I would've kept searching until the end of my days.

Long story short, Logan's flower is a fucking blue petunia.

And it's a very peculiar choice, because petunias have multiple meanings, several of which can be contradictory.

In general, petunia symbolizes anger and resentment. It reminds someone that you're still angry or disappointed by their actions and you haven’t gotten over the things that caused these feelings.

Oh my, I didn't know we were back in Logan's playlist. It's basically what he kept expressing towards Thomas with his songs: that he was angry at Thomas for his decision, that he doesn't approve that Thomas hasn't "a real job" and so on. Petunia is a flower that screams passive-aggressive, so it's perfect for Logan.

But petunia's meaning deeply changes, depending on the color of the flower. And while petunia in general symbolizes anger, a blue petunia is a symbol of peacefulness, intimacy and deep trust, shared between two or more people. It's so wholesome, because the deep trust reminds me - again - of Logan's playlist and how it ended: no matter what, he and Thomas are always best friends.

Also, petunia flowers have even a secret meaning behind. Since they’re also gifted to new neighbors or to people who have just moved into a new home, they represent a perfect welcome and a way to express affection and kindness to others.

You’re lucky to be so wholesome, you tricky flower.

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Virgil: Perennial Geranium

Geranium is a confused flower.

Some of the other flowers have conflicted meanings, but not as much as this flower. These are the most common meanings I found:

Folly or Stupidity

Gentility and kind nature

Clever minds

Ingenuity

Melancholy

Perfect gift for a bride

You can gift it to someone with whom you have planned a meeting 

You can gift it to someone with whom you haven't planned a meeting, just to make them feel welcomed

True Friendship

See? It’s confused.

Aside from jokes, this variety of meanings is due to its great diffusion: since geraniums grow everywhere, every culture gave them a different meaning. And sometimes these meanings depend on the situation too.

Awww, isn't it perfect for Virgil? He can be good and bad at the same time. Anxiety can be bad for Thomas and detrimental for his life, but it can also be the alarm Thomas needs. It depends on the situation.

And, just like geraniums in general symbolize positive emotions, happiness and friendship, so Virgil is in general a good guy. All he does is for Thomas' wellbeing, not against him.

And this is confirmed by the vast use of geranium's essential oil. It's one of the most popular and it has a ton of properties: anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, decongestant, relaxing and so on. Just like our Virge boy can be incredibly useful under the right circumstances. (Did someone say "Flirting with social Anxiety"?)

Also, geraniums are simple, humble flowers that usually grow outside, but then we take them and make them part of our homes. Once again, it’s Virgil: he's an outsider, he's humble, he talks bad about himself - but Thomas and the others took him and made him part of the famILY anyway.

__________________________________

Thomas: Cherry blossom

I searched this flower everywhere and the only one that looks like the one on the shirt is the cherry blossom. Why did Thomas make a cherry blossom with eight petals, when they all have five? I have no idea. Is this a different flower, maybe? Maybe, but I’m done: I've looked at enough flowers and I don’t have any strength left.

As you probably already know, cherry blossoms are extremely important in Japan. They're beautiful, they're everywhere and they're meaningful.

Why? Because cherry blossoms are considered the perfect metaphor for human existence. When they blossom it's a pink ocean, a party, people go to admire them - but they’re short lived, because in two weeks, the blossoms start to fall. It's just like human life: a small, rich, glorious parenthesis in the void. Something little and precious that ends soon.

But cherry blossoms also symbolize rebirth, optimism, hopes and dreams. When they bloom, it means springtime is coming and spring has always been associated with renewal.

That’s a very good choice for character Thomas. He’s basically a cherry blossom, the whole series is: something that reminds us how beautiful life is, how multi-faceted, how important. Just like Thomas' single being encompasses seven different sides of himself, so life presents a wide range of choices, of aspects, of flavours. All beautiful, all worthy of appreciation, no matter how different they can be from you and your experience.

And this becomes even more important, in relation to the passage of time and the transience of life. Because life is short and, after that, there won't be any more time to appreciate anything.

In addition to that, I would like to point out how the theme of passage of time is something we already saw in the series. And not just one time, but several. Since the first season, we have episodes all around the concept of growing up, growing old, not being a child anymore, becoming an adult. And the last Aside keeps going in this direction. It's clear this is a big theme and its connection with the cherry blossoms proves it.

But why is the flower so different on the shirt? Because Thomas wanted to mess up with us? Probably. Almost certainly. Once again, thank you Mr. Sanders for making me question everything.

The floor is (figuratively) yours now: if you have any other information, thoughts or opinions, feel free to share them.

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TAGLIST:

@willpowerwisps @royalprinceroman @reesiereads @mudpuddlenl @shelby-711 @allmycrushesaredead @aquatedia @sweetkirbi @whatishappeningrightnow  @effortiswhatmatters  @atlasistryingherbest @bella-in-a-bag  @doydoune  @miasheer  @forever-third-wheeling @mishanthropist  @corndot @payte @mcang3l  @geekyapollokid  @kawaiipotatuh  @hypnossanders  @idontreallyknow24  @imcrushedbyarainbow  @simplyapannightmare  @patton-cake

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#sanders sides #sander sides #analysis #roman sanders #ts roman #orange side #janus sanders #ts janus #remus sanders #ts remus #patton sanders #ts patton #logan sanders #ts logan #virgil sanders #ts virgil #thomas sanders #flowers #sander side #sanders sides theory

[hamliet]

The Crows Summon the Sun

Or, Hamliet’s review of Shadow & Bone, which gets a 4.5/5 for enjoyment and a 3.5/5 in terms of writing.

The true heroes of this story and the saviors of the show are the Crows. However, the problem is that the show then has an uneven feel, because the strength of the Crows plotline highlights the weaknesses of the trilogy storyline. But imo, overall, the strengths overshadow (#punintended) the weaknesses. 

I’ll divide the review into the narrative and the technical (show stuff, social commentary), starting with narrative.

Narrative: The Good 

It’s What The Crows Deserve

I went into the show watching it for the Crows; however, knowing that their storyline was intended to be a prequel, I wasn’t terribly optimistic. And while it is a prequel, the characters have complete and full arcs that perfectly set them up for the further development they will have in the books (which I think should be the next season?). Instead of retreading the arcs they’d have in the books, which is how prequels usually go, they had perfect set up for these arcs. It’s really excellent. 

Jesper, Inej, and Kaz are all allowed to be flawed, to have serious conflicts with one another, and yet to love each other. They feel like a found family in the best of ways. Kaz is the perfect selfish rogue; he’s a much more successfully executed Byronic hero than the Darkling, actually. Inej is heroic and her faith is not mocked, yet she too is flawed and her choices are not always entirely justified, but instead left to the audience to ponder (like killing the girl), which is a more mature writing choice that I appreciated. 

Jesper is charming, has a heart of gold despite being a murderer and on the surface fairly greedy, and MILO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GOAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. I also liked Jesper’s fling with Dima but I felt it could be better used rather than merely establishing his sexuality, like if Jesper and Dima had seen each other one more time or something had come of their tryst for the plot/themes/development of Jesper. 

Nina and Matthias’s backstory being in the first season, instead of in flashbacks, really works because it automatically erases any discomfort of the implications of Nina having falsely accused Matthias that the books start with. We know Nina, we know Matthias, we know their motivations, backgrounds, and why they feel the way we do. It’ll be easy for the audience to root for them without a lot of unnecessary hate springing from misunderstanding Nina (since she’s my favorite). Matthias’s arc was also really strongly executed and satisfyingly tragic. Their plotline was a bit unfortunately disconnected from the rest of the story, but Danielle Gallagan and Callahan Skogman have absolutely sizzling chemistry so I found myself looking forward to their scenes instead of feeling distracted. Also? It’s nice seeing a woman with Nina’s body type as a romantic and powerful character. 

Hamliet Likes Malina Now

Insofar as the trilogy storyline goes, the best change the show made was Mal. He still is the same character from the books, but much more likable. The pining was... a lot (too much in episode 4, I felt) but Malina is a ship I actually enjoyed in the show while I NOTP’d it in the books. Mal has complexity and layers to his motivations (somewhat) and a likable if awkward charm. Archie Renaux was fantastic. 

Ben Barnes is the perfect Aleksandr Kirigan, and 15 year old me, who had the biggest of big crushes on Ben Barnes (first celebrity crush over a decade ago lol), was pretty damn happy lol. He’s magnificantly acted--sympathetic and terrifying, sincerely caring and yet villainous in moments. Story-wise, I think it was smart to reveal his name earlier on than in the books, because it helps with the humanization especially in a visual medium like film. Luda was a fitting (if heartbreaking) backstory, but it is also hard for me to stomach knowing what the endgame of his character is. Like... I get the X-men fallacy thing, but I hope the show gives more kindness to his character than the books did, yet I’m afraid to hold my breath. Just saying that if you employ save the cat, if you directly say you added this part (Luda) to make the character more likable (as the director did) please do not punish the audience for feeling what you intended. 

I also liked the change that made Alina half-Shu. It adds well to her arc and fits with her character, actually giving her motivations (she kinda just wants to be ordinary in a lot of ways) a much more interesting foundation than in the books. Also it’s nice not to have another knock-off Daenerys (looking to you Celaena and book!Alina). Jessie Mei Li does a good job playing Alina’s insecurities and emotions, but... 

Narrative: The Ehhhhhhh

Alina the Lamp

Sigh. Here we go. Alina has little consistent characterization. She’s almost always passive when we see her, yet she apparently punches an officer for calling her a name and this seems to be normal for her, but it doesn’t fit at all with what we know about her thus far. Contradictions are a part of humanity, but it’s never given any focus, so it comes across as inconsistent instead of a flaw or repression. 

I have no idea what Alina wants, beside that she wants to be with Mal, which is fine except I have no idea what the basis of their bond is. Even with like, other childhood friends to lovers like Ren/Nora in RWBY or Eren/Mikasa in SnK, there’s an inciting moment, a reason, that we learn very early on in their story to show us what draws them together. Alina and Mal just don’t have that. There’s the meadow/running away thing, but they were already so close, and why?  Why, exactly? What brought them together? The term “bullies” is thrown around but it isn’t ever explored and it needed to be this season. If I have to deal with intense pining for so many episodes at least give me a foundation for their devotion. You need to put this in the beginning, in the first season. You just do.

A “lamp” character is a common metaphor to describe a bad character: essentially, you could replace the character with a lamp and nothing changes. Considering Alina’s gift is light, it’s a funnily apt metaphor, but it really does apply. Her choices just don’t... matter. She could be a special lamp everyone is fighting over and almost nothing would change. The ironic thing is that everyone treating her like a fancy lamp is exactly the conflict, but it’s never delved into. We’re never shown that Alina is more than a lamp. She never has to struggle because her choices are made for her and information is gifted to her when she needs it. Not making choices protects Alina from consequences and the story gives her little incentive to change that; in fact, things tend to turn out better when she doesn’t make choices (magic stags will arrive). 

Like... let’s look at a few occasions when Alina almost or does make choices. For example, she chooses to (it seems) sleep with Kirigan, but then there’s a convenient knock at the door and Bhagra arrives with key information that changes Alina’s mind instantly despite the fact that Bhagra’s been pretty terrible to her. If you want to write a woman realizing she’s been duped by a cruel man, show her discovering it instead of having the man’s abusive mother tell her when she had absolutely no such suspicions beforehand. There’s no emotional weight there because Alina doesn’t struggle. 

When she is actually allowed to carry out a bad choice, the consequences are handwaved away instead of built into a challenge for her. Like... Alina got her friends killed. More than once. I’m not saying she’s entirely to blame for these but could we show her reacting to it? Feeling any sort of grief? She never mentions Raisa or Alexei after they’re gone, just Mal, and I’m... okay. They were there because of you. Aren’t you feeling anything? Aren’t you sad? The only time Alina brings up her friends’ deaths is to tell Kirigan he killed her friends when they were only there because she burned the maps. She yells at Kirigan for “never” giving her a choice, but she almost never makes any, so why would he? Alina has the gall to lecture Genya about choices, but she herself almost never has to make any. 

Which brings me to another complaint in general: Alina’s lack of care for everyone around her when they’re not Mal, even if they care for her. Marie dies because of her (absolutely not her fault of course) but as far as we know she never even learns about Marie. She certainly doesn’t ever ask about her or Nadia. Alina seems apathetic at best to people, certainly not compassionate or kind. 

The frustrating thing is that there is potential here. Like, it actually makes a lot of psychological sense for an orphan who has grown up losing to be reluctant to care for people outside of her orbit and that she would struggle to believe she can have any say in her destiny (ie make choices). It’s also interesting that a girl who feels like an outsider views others outside her. But the show never offers examines Alina’s psychology with any depth; it simply tells us she’s compassionate when she is demonstrably not, it tells us she makes decisions when it takes magical intervention to do so. It’s a missed opportunity. This does not change between episodes 1 and 8, despite the episodes’ parallel structures and scenes, which unintentionally reinforces that Alina had little real development. 

Inej and ironically Jesper and Kaz embody the concept of “mercy” far better and with far more complexity than Alina does. The Crows have reactions to the loss of people who even betray them (Arken, etc), learn, and course-correct (or don’t) when they are even loosely involved in having strangers die. They’re good characters because they change and learn and have their choices matter. When they kill we see them wrestle with it and what this means even if they are accustomed to doing so. Jesper can’t kill in front of a child. Kaz wonders what his killings do to Inej’s idea of him.

Narrative: The Mixed Bag

Tropes, Themes, Telling vs. Showing

So the show’s themes in the Alina storyline are a mess, as they are in the trilogy too. Tropes are a very valuable way to show your audience what you’re trying to say. They’re utilized worldwide because they resonate with people and we know what to expect from them. The Crows' storyline shows us what it wants us to learn.

Preaching tells, and unfortunately, the trilogy relies on telling/preaching against fornicationBad Boys. It’s your right to write any trope or trample any trope you want--your story--but you should at least understand what/why you are doing so. The author clearly knows enough about Jungian shadows and dark/light yin/yang symbolism to use it in the story, but then just handwaves it away as “I don’t like this” but never does so in a narratively effective way: addressing the appeal in the first place. If you really wanna deconstruct a trope, you gotta empathize with the core of the reason these tropes appeal to people (it allays deep fears that we are ourselves unlovable, through loving another person despite how beastly they can be), and address this instead of ignoring it. Show us a better way through the Fold of your story. Don’t just go around it and ignore the issue.

The trilogy offers highly simplistic themes at best--bad boy bad and good boy good, which is fine-ish for kid lit but less fine for adult complexity, which the show (more so than the books) seems to try to push despite not actually having much of it.

Alina and Mal are intended to be good, we’re told they are, but I’m not sure why beyond just that we’re told so. Alina claims the stag chose her, but in the show it’s never explained why at all. Unlike with Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and hell even Matthias and Nina, we don’t see Alina or Mal’s complex choices and internal wrestling. 

Like, Inej’s half-episode where she almost killed the guy they needed was far more character exploration than Alina has the entire show, to say nothing of Inej’s later killing which not only makes her leaps and bounds more interesting, but ironically cements her as a far more compelling and yes, likable, heroine than Alina. We see Inej’s emotional and moral conflict. We can relate to her. We see Kaz struggling with his selfishness and regrets, with his understanding of himself through his interactions with and observations of Inej, Alina, the Darkling, Arken, and Jesper.

We don’t explore what makes Mal or Alina good and what makes them bad. We don’t know what Alina discovers about herself, what her power means for her. We are told they are good, we are told she knows her power is hers, but never shown what this means or what this costs them/her. Their opportunities to be good are handed to them (the stag, Bhagra) instead of given to them as a challenge in which they risk things, in which doing good or making a merciful choice costs them. Alina gets to preach about choices without ever making any; Inej risks going back to the Menagerie to trust Kaz. Her choices risk. They cost. They matter and direct her storyline and her arc, and those of the people around her.

Production Stuff:

The Good: 

The production overall is quite excellent. The costumes, pacing, acting, and cinematography (for example, one of the earliest scenes between the Darkling and Alina has Alina with her back to the light, face covered in his shadow, while the Darkling’s face is light up by her light even if he stands in the shadows) are top-notch. The soundtrack as well is incredible and emphasizes the scenes playing. The actors have great chemistry together, friend chemistry and romantic when necessary (Mal and Alina, the Darkling and Alina, Kaz and Inej, Nina and Matthias, David and Genya, etc.) All are perfectly cast. 

The Uncomfortable Technicalities Hamliet Wants to Bitch About:

The only characters from fantasy!Europe having any trace of an accent reminiscent of said fantasy country's real-world equivalent are antagonists like Druskelle (Scandinavia) and Pekka (Ireland). When the heroes mostly have British accents despite being from fantasy Russia and Holland, it is certainly A Choice to have the Irish accent emphasized. The actor is British by the way, so I presume he purposely put on an Irish accent. I'm sure no one even considered the potential implications of this but it is A Look nonetheless.

The Anachronisms Hamliet Has a Pet Peeve About: 

The worldbuilding is compelling, but the only blight on the worldbuilding within the story itself (ignoring context) was that there are some anachronisms that took me out of the story, particularly in the first episode where “would you like to share with the class” and “saved by the horn” are both used. Both are modern-day idioms in English that just don’t fit, especially the latter. The last episode uses “the friends we made along the way.” There are other modern idioms as well.

IT’S STARKOVA and Other Pet Peeves Around the Russian Portrayal 

Russian names are not hard, and Russian naming systems are very, very easy to learn. I could have waved “Starkov” not being “Starkova,” “Nazyalensky” not being “Nazyalenskaya,”  and “Safin” not being “Safina” as an American interpretation (since in America, the names do not femininize). However, “Mozorova” as a man is unfathomable and suggests to me the author just doesn’t understand how names work, which is a bit... uh okay considering a simple google search gets you to understand Russian names. They aren’t hard. I cannot understand why the show did not fix this. It is so simple to fix and would be a major way to help the story’s overall... caricature of Russia. 

Speaking of that... Ravka is supposedly Russian-based, but it is more accurately based on the stereotypes of what Americans think of Russia. Amerussia? Russica? Not great. 

The royals are exactly what Americans think of the Romanovs, right down to the “greasy” “spiritual advisor” who is clearly Rasputin and which ignores the Romanov history, very real tragedy, and the reason Rasputin was present in the court. The religion with all its saints is a vapid reflection of Russian Orthodoxy. The military portrayal with its lotteries and brutality and war is how the US views the Russian military. The emphasis on orphans, constant starvation, classification, and children being ripped from their homes to serve the government is a classic US understanding of USSR communism right down to the USSR having weapons of destruction the rest of the world fears (Grisha). Not trying to defend the Soviet Union here at all, but it is simplistic and reductive and probably done unconsciously but still ehhhh. 

However, I’m not Russian. I just studied Russian literature. I’ve seen very little by way of discussion of this topic online, but what I do see from Russian people has been mixed--some mind, some don’t. The reality is that I actually don’t really mind this because it’s fantasy, though I see why some do. I'm not like CANCEL THIS. So why am I talking about this beyond just having a pet peeve?

Well, because it is a valid critique, and because it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. The Grishaverse is heralded as an almost paragon for woke Young Adult literature, which underlines itself what so frustrates me about how literary circles discuss issues of diversity and culture. Such praise, while ignoring its quasi-caricature of Russia, reflects a very ethnocentric (specifically American) understanding of culture, appropriation, and representation. All stories are products of their culture to various extents, but it bothers me on principle what the lit community reacts (and overreacts sometimes?) to and what people give a pass to. The answer to what the community reacts to and what it gives a pass always pivots on how palatable the appropriation is to American understandings and sensibilities. There’s nuance here as well, though. 

I'm not cancelling the story or thinking it should be harshly attacked for this, but it is something that can be discussed and imo should be far more often--but with the nuance it begs, instead of black/white. But that’s a tall ask. 

#s&b #hamliet reviews #shadow and bone #six of crows #kanej #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #alina starkov #malyen oretsev #the darkling #darklina #malina #aleksander kirigan #netflix shadow and bone #s&b review

[ct-multifandom]

More s4 predictions? More s4 predictions.

Luka closure, duh. He will start moving on from his breakup and start existing outside the scope of Marinette’s love life

I really hope we see Adrien hanging out with him to parallel Mari hanging with Kagami but I’m afraid the parallel might just be Mari hanging with Luka as friends

Marinette will try to give Adrien a miraculous again. Near the end of the season, she’ll realize that there are only a couple if not one miraculous left without a holder, and she’ll get overtaken by the desire to work Adrien into her team. If I had to guess which one, I’d say the dog because it juxtaposes the cat and I think Sabrina, as an outsider to the group and former mean girl lackey, might be the last to go.

We’ll meet someone’s mom for the first time and she’ll get akumatized along with a mode of transportation. Maybe a motorcycle or airplane this time? Edit: I guess Gina/Befana was motorcycle mom already so we’re just missing airplane mom

Alec Cataldi will be Psychomedian. Since they rewrote Gagotor for this I’m guessing the new character was probably replaced with one we know, and Alec is a recurring, humorous TV personality who hasn’t been akumatized yet. I came across his English VA’s insta by chance on explore and he made a post about recording more Alec lines after Optigami’s release

Rocketear will be/have to do with Max who misses his mom after she leaves for a space mission. It’d be nice to see the continuation of this subplot, which was shown for a moment in Miracle Queen after Startrain. Plus, Ladybug needs to give Max a charm sooner rather than later and Gamer, a very specific akuma, already had a 2.0. Edit: I’m Stan and I was wrong.

When Megaleech was first announced I thought it might be Bob Roth(’s sentimonster?) based solely off the name, but assuming that’s the thing in the Polymouse episode, it’s hard to tell. It’s so non-human. I wasn’t expecting Mylene to get her miraculous here based off the name either. My new theory, which I’m admittedly not super confident in, is that Megaleech is the fusion of the entire Kitty Section who got screwed over by Bob and/or XY again. That would explain the French pun and also Mylene’s personal connection to the case at hand. It might also explain why this group of heroes was hanging out outside of school. I wonder how Ladybug’s new charm animation would work with more than one charm at a time. Would they skip it altogether and just show her passing them out? Would they all match with Megaleech’s colors or would they be different for the individuals?

Edit: I am editing this post because I just saw a theory that the villain of this episode will be Andre Bourgeois again. Megaleech’s color scheme and medallions match Malediktator perfectly, and the tiny thing Chat kicks in the trailer looks like a shrunken version of him if you look closely. This is a lot more believable, but it makes me wonder what leads to Mylene being the hero of the day.

I hope Polymouse doesn’t get overshadowed by the large team, but I also hope she doesn’t get overshadowed by Multimouse. Unfortunately, there are a lot of immature kids who hate Mylene for no reason, so I hope Polymouse will be the one to come up with the winning plan, use her powers cleverly, and be heroic in general so that she can prove how well the mouse fits her instead of unknowingly competing with Marinette.

Teenage Alix will make her entrance as Bunnix when her dad gets akumatized. Both Timebreaker and The Pharaoh had time-y powers, and Alim is a historian, so if he were to get akumatized, he’d probably turn into a villain who controls time as well, leaving his daughter as the only one who can take him.

Sandboy 2.0 will happen as everyone predicted based on the voice director’s story post with Sandboy’s VA. Ladybug will probably see Chat Blanc in place of zombie Adrien, raising a lot of questions and tension. Maybe Chat will see Ladybug abandon him, or something else related to solitude rather than being trapped? We will also finally find out who the akumatized kid is.

Speaking of, I think Sandboy 2.0 might be Caprikid’s entry episode. (What?) Let me explain. I think the Sandboy kid and Marc look pretty similar, and correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure they’re the only male characters with defined eyelashes in the whole show. Both of them also have celestial thematics which would fit with Marc’s last name, Anciel (en ciel, in the sky). Sandboy looks like the night sky while Marc has a rainbow theme. It’s possible that they’re related, so Ladybug will enlist Marc to help defeat Sandboy. Here are pictures:

I’ve also seen other people theorize that Caprikid’s power is related to dreams, I guess because of something like “counting sheep”. This isn’t my theory for his powers, but I see where it’s coming from. His kwami has the most interesting name. While most of the kwamis are related directly to their animal, Ziggy, the goat kwami, is named after David Bowie’s stage persona, Ziggy Stardust, who is an alien from space. David Bowie had other famous personas like the astronaut, Major Tom, and Aladdin Sane who had the iconic lightning bolt, all themes associated with the sky. I wouldn’t be surprised if these themes show up in Caprikid’s design, like if he has face paint instead of a mask or a similar hairstyle to Bowie.

We can already kind of tell that Caprikid and Coq Courage are matching just like their civilian selves do from their opening silhouettes with the chest fur and feathers. I predict it goes further than that with daytime/nighttime thematics. Roosters are associated with the sun, and my theory for Orikko’s power is illumination. Evillustrator’s biggest weakness, which ended up defeating him, was darkness, and I read a post today that pointed out that he can draw without even looking at his tablet so it’s more likely that he’s just scared of the dark. If he has day themes I think Caprikid will compliment that with night sky themes based on the stuff above.

I expect Evillustrator will have a 2.0 episode or any sort of comeback at some point. He’s probably one of the most iconic akumas, yet he’s only been truly akumatized once, at least on-screen. Plus, ladybug needs to get protective charms to all her hero pals asap.

We will probably meet the family of a couple more major characters who don’t have canon family members yet.

I hope we see more more-than-one-person and/or fusion akumas among the major cast. The protective charms are helpful but it sucks that they limit our possibilities for this type of stuff.

Sabrina will leave Chloe once and for all, which will trigger a big change in both of their characters. Sabrina will become more independent and leader-like, but Chloe will hit her lowest point. If not for... a certain person’s writing... I’d say this will be the true catalyst for her development as she faces cold hard reality for the first time... but I’m not so sure. Maybe she’ll just mellow down and become less bad and less relevant. Maybe she’ll snap and join evil Lila. Only time can tell.

I want to see my boy King Monkey again this season before the big finale, which will probably have everyone, and I’m pretty sure I will. I feel like they’ll all show up before that. I want him to move across the city by swinging across stuff like a monkey on vines.

We will finally see Ryuko’s full transformation and lightning dragon. I saw that the Roblox server thing featured the (oversimplified and blocky) coreo for her full transformation before the actual show did? A bit embarrassing.

I want to predict something for my boy Ivan, but he gets so little screen time that I just can’t think of anything :( I’m very excited for Minotaurox, though, and it’s possible that he’ll be involved with his family rather than Mylene or his friends.

The whole gang takes down Shadowmoth. Booyah, 17 teenage furries, bet he didn’t see that coming. And everyone has a big “pointing and laughing” moment until the obligatory Adrien angst commences

#miraculous ladybug #mlb #miraculous ladybug theory #marinette dupen chang #adrien agreste #luka couffaine #ladybug #chat noir #sabrina raincomprix #max kante #mylene haprele #Polymouse #alix kubdel #bunnix #marc anciel #caprikid #coq courage #chloe bourgeois #king monkey #ml ryuko #minotaurox #ivan bruel #alec cataldi #Sandboy #evillustrator #long post #sorry for not taking about Sentibubbler and Crocoduel/Tigresse Pourpe but I don’t have any new predictions since my earlier ones

[palimpsessed]

Fan Fiction Year in Review 2021

I did one of these last year and thought it was interesting to look back over what I had written and think about what I may write going forward. This retrospective list of questions is from @captain-aralias.

If you're a writer, I'd also encourage you to do this. Tag me so I can see your thoughts 🥰

List of Complete Fics for 2021

1. Lotus-Eaters and Sirens - G, 557 words

2. It's a Kind of Magic - M, 15,806

3. The Thrill of the Hunt - M, 11,230

4. Chamber by Chamber - E, 19,043

5. The Hex Files comic - G, 183 (It has a storyline and words that I wrote so I am counting it)

List of In Progress Fics Started in 2021

(because I have a LOT of words 😤)

1. Sleeping with the Fishes (co-written with @the-greater-grief) - M, 7,786 by end of 2021

2. Slings and Eros - M, 52,882 by end of 2021 (This fic alone makes up half my total year’s word count!)

I also wrote a bunch of non-fic things, mostly about AWTWB, that I hadn't expected because I wasn't used to getting asks like I did last year. I'm going to include them, too, because time spent writing is time spent writing.

1. Baggage - regarding Simon's literal and figurative baggage in WS, 480

2. AWTWB and Chosen Ones - thoughts about Simon's arc, Smith Smith-Richards, the Mage, and Chosen Ones, 686

3. The Watford Goats and the World of Mages - working out my ideas about the the goats in AWTWB and Agatha's journey, 314

4. The rest are all tumblr asks linked on my blog at the bottom of my Masterlist 19,147

Total:

4 complete fics, 1 comic, 2 in progress fics, 3 meta, 9 asks

word count: 128,114

word count for fics: 107,487

Thoughts: In my review post last year, I noted that all of the fics (4) I had completed were for events, and I predicted it would be the same for 2021. In fact, it was not! I figured out pretty quickly that I have a problem with over committing when it comes to fandom events and forced myself to scale back. I did participate in some events, but most of the content I made for those was art.

Best/Worst Title?

Best: Slings and Eros

I love this title, even though I have this fear that it won't make sense without my long explanation. Which I'm giving. I just feel like this title does so much. I even made a whole other post about it once. It's a play on words from a Hamlet soliloquy, which feels meta in itself since Shakespeare has to have quite a hold over the World of Mages (even though this isn't a magickal fic). Beyond the source, though, is the context, which is Hamlet trying to decide if he should end his own life and framing that life as enduring a series of trials ("the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"). I liked this quote particularly for my fic, because it's a Greek Mythology AU, and Greek myths frequently feature stories of a hero enduring a series of labors in order to achieve some overarching goal. This is true for the myth that directly inspired this fic, Eros (or Cupid) and Psyche, and also true for my fic. It's also a big feature of the classic Hero's Journey, which of course, ties back perfectly to the idea of the Chosen One. I also liked the fact that I was removing the word "arrows" from the quote, just as I removed Eros/Cupid's arrows from the story and replaced them with a sword, which felt far more appropriate for Simon. And instead, I could use "Eros" which very conveniently sounds almost exactly like "arrows" and also hints to the source material, Simon's characterization, and one of the major themes of the fic.

I also really like Lotus-Eaters and Sirens and Chamber by Chamber.

Worst: Sleeping with the Fishes

I stand by this title, and I think it makes sense once you've read past the first 1 or 2 chapters, but without any context, it probably sounds like a Mafia AU, when it's actually a tennis and texting AU. I like it, but I feel like it was probably not a great choice in the grand scheme of things. I just saw an opportunity for puns and went for it.

Best/Worst Summary?

Best: Chamber by Chamber

"I'd give him all that I am.

I'd give him all that I was.

I'd open up a vein.

…

I'd tie our hearts together, chamber by chamber.

Simon and Baz have been through a lot. They've also been hard at work on communicating their needs and feelings. Here's some (therapeutic) smut."

This maybe is unexpected because it's a book quote followed by "here's some smut" and there's no actual plot to summarize. But the "chamber by chamber" quote is what inspired the series that culminates in this PWP one shot, and it's smut, so...it really does tell you all you need to know.

Worst: Lotus-Eaters and Sirens

"Simon has some thoughts about sirens while watching Baz drive away from their eventful trip to the Omaha Renaissance Faire.

(This is when Simon is being cute and happy on battle adrenaline and car snogging, and reality is trying to creep back in.)"

I just reread this summary for the first time since I posted it probably and it's so clunky. I don't even know why I have the second part there. I am contemplating how much it would matter this late in the game if I rewrote it, or at least deleted the second part.

Best/Worst First Line?

Best: Chamber by Chamber "Baz is squirming beneath me. It's good. It's hot. It's perfect." Yup. It sets the scene, it sets the mood, it also helps to set up some dom/sub dynamics they're playing with in this fic, too. Also I wanted it to be reminiscent of the night spent kissing at Pitch manor. (Simon on all fours above Baz.)

Worst: It's a Kind of Magic "I can tell it's happening almost before it does. I've had lots of time to learn. I know the signs better than he does, now." I think this opener is weakest among all of last year's fics because it takes its sweet time to get to the point. I don't think I define the "it" in that first sentence for several (admittedly short) paragraphs, and even then, I think I imply, rather than state, that the "it" is Simon slipping into a depressive spiral.

Best/Worst Last Line?

Best: This one is going to be a tie between Chamber by Chamber (the fic not the series) and Lotus-Eaters. Despite them both being one shots with no plot, I really think both of them pack a wallop in their final lines and I am incredibly proud of them! I'm not going to include the last line of Chamby because, plot or not, it actually is a spoiler. For LEAS, I feel like it's safe, though, so I'll drop that one here. "And then…Well. Then I drown." What really makes this line punch for me is that it's a Simon POV taking a Baz line from canon and reversing it from "burn" to "drown", fitting in perfectly with the siren/water imagery Simon uses for Baz in the fic. (Also, points to me for using water imagery for Baz before AWTWB!) It also goes a little further in that the fic is sort of in conversation with the part of CO where Simon compares Baz to a siren (the kind on police cars) and turns that on its head, by having him revise his comparison to the other kind of siren (the singing, ship-wrecking kind). That part in CO runs parallel to Baz's part comparing Simon to an open fire, which is, of course, where the original quote "and then you burn" comes from.

Honorable mention to the Hex Files comic because I intentionally set up Penny's final line to sound like a spell, in order to make it ambiguous about whether she was actually casting on Shepard in the last panel.

Worst: Looking back, I really like all of my last lines. I felt incredibly good about every one of them when I figured out how I was closing out each of these fics and I don't think any of them need improving. So, for this I will say, the worst lines are the ones that don't exist yet because the fics aren't finished and I am a completist.

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, fewer than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I think I wrote fewer fics than expected (even though I did not place expectations on myself) but more words overall, so I guess I'm about equal. 2020 was obviously a very unpredictable year, so not really a great barometer of actual productivity. I was back working full time in person by the start of 2021, and then the day after Baz's birthday, I had surgery which kept me laid up for the better part of 6 months. Of course, I thought I'd be a lot more productive writing wise during that time, but I didn't really account for how tiring it is to regrow bones so...I spent more of that time on art. Plus, we got AWTWB?! After that, my brain melted and then I was going back to work with a COTTA deadline looming.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I wouldn't say "never predicted", especially because I was already planning it in 2020, but I wrote my first smut! And it ended up being one of my favorite things I've written so far. It was something I hadn't planned on doing, because smut felt intimidating and way out of my depth. But then I was rereading WS, as you do, and the chamber by chamber scene always sticks with me, especially Simon talking about "all that I am...all that I was..." and how those two ideas of his self-identity and self-worth really weigh on him and his relationship with Baz and what it would look like if he really could give all of that to Baz. And then I spiraled about trauma and liminal spaces and monster parts (my love). And I realized I was going to have to write a smut fic if I was ever going to know peace.

What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest?

Torn between two lovers... Chamber by Chamber (if it's not obvious by now given how I haven't shut up about it) and Slings and Eros. Both of these fics were/are incredibly challenging to me as a writer--Chamby for the smut but also what I think was an ambitious agenda about dealing with trauma throughout the three part series--and Slings and Eros for being a plot-heavy (for me) epic complete with epic poetry that is very likely going to break 100k. Both of them have been exercises in patience in their own ways, and labors of love that I have enjoyed even when I haven't.

Okay, NOW your most popular story?

Going by kudos and bookmarks, it's Chamby

(To the Manor Borne is still my most kudosed and A Man of Letters is still my most bookmarked overall)

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

I would have liked to see more love for my Penny/Shep comic but it's not Snowbaz and it's the very first comic I did, so maybe that's to be expected. Actual fic-wise, I'm kind of surprised that The Thrill of the Hunt underperforms its Chamber by Chamber colleagues because this fandom seems rabid for vampirism and that's what it's all about. But maybe people read the first one and get impatient for the smut and skip to the last part? I would like to see more engagement on Slings and Eros because it's my current project and I'm excited about it, but it's a beast and I get that a lot of people don't want to read WIPs, especially longer ones.

Story that could have been better?

I didn't answer this last year, and I'm not going to answer it this year, either. I just don't think it's worthwhile for me to hash over what ifs in my fan fic. If I think something can be better, I keep working on it until it is better. Otherwise, it won't see the light of day.

Sexiest story?

The one with the sex in it. 😉

Saddest story?

I think this is LEAS. There is soft and sweet to balance out the sad, but it's not really ever happy. Simon is riding a high from the Ren Faire as he contemplates how much he is just head over heels for Baz, but the undercurrent to all of that is how much he feels like he isn't good or good enough for Baz. He loves him but he can't give him what he deserves; he wants him but he's going to drag him down. It's a lovely meditation full of devotion, but that devotion is telling Simon that he isn't worthy and that's sad, even if he closes the fic reaffirming how hopelessly in love he is with Baz.

Most fun?

When I first went to answer this, I thought it meant most fun to write, but there’s another question about that further down. So then this means the story that is the most fun. And I have no idea how to answer that 😆. Probably Sleeping with the Fishes. Texting is usually a fairly good time. Anyway. I’m still keeping my original answer since the other question is combined with easiest to write, which is different from my answer here. So starting it felt like pulling teeth, partly because it required a lot of research and reading and outlining, and then I got the completely inadvisable idea to write epic poetry, and then had to slog through several chapters to get Simon and Baz into the same place...but SAE has been the most entertaining for me, I think, because of the character dynamics. Getting to write the first Penny, Agatha, and Fiona POVs was so freaking fun. Also, the boys are absolute disasters and I love to watch them just completely lose their minds over each other in every scene. And knowing where it's all going is just SO GOOD and I can't wait for the payoff!

Story with the single sweetest moment?

I think it's SAE, but I don't really want to tell what the moment is because I don't want to spoil it? There's a thing at the beginning, about Baz leaving offerings in Simon's shrine. And at one point, when Baz is having a really hard time, Simon does this really adorable and heartfelt thing that echoes the offerings Baz leaves, as a way to try to let Baz know that he isn't alone. And it just...is a very Simon thing to do and I love it. (Chapter 7 for those curious.)

Hardest story to write?

It's a Kind of Magic needed so many rewrites. I had written The Thrill of the Hunt and didn't realize until I went to write Simon's story in the series that his had to go first, and Baz's second. So then I had to sort out how I wanted to write part 1 when I already had part 2, and what parallels I was going for, and what the ultimate goals were in each part, etc. I think I had a much clearer idea in my head for what I was trying to accomplish with the Baz part than I did with the Simon one. I had a sense of what I was trying to get at, but I think I wasn't sure how to get there, or maybe even where "there" was. I started and re-started it so many times and just chipped away at it for a solid two months fruitlessly before I think things finally started to make sense in my head. Then I had story pieces and had to decide how they fit together and what order they went in. Then Baz started to lead me in a new direction I wasn't really prepared to go. Ultimately, it all feels very smooth and satisfying, but it was such a struggle the entire time. I had been most worried about writing Chamby and I sat down, wrote a full outline in one day, and just went point by point until I had 19k. It was wild. All the hard stuff had already happened I guess.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

I kind of already answered this. I think it was Chamby. There were some lines in there that had me howling when I wrote them. (Baz compares the tightening in his bollocks to the event horizon of a black hole.) There’s a line about them not holding back with each other, and I feel like I was doing the same—just letting them go and do their thing. It was also incredibly moving for being unapologetic monsterfucking PWP, but for the most part, I just had such a great time with it.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I think SAE has gotten me to think the most about the characters, in so far as it is an AU, and I'm spending a lot of time exploring the ways in which canon and the source myth converge and diverge and how that informs the characters and their dynamics. I don't think it's shifted my overall perception of the canon characters, but the ones in my fic, yes.

Most overdue story?

Same answer as last year, so we're moving on...(I get random bursts of creative energy and then they dissipate before I can capitalize) (but I will persist)

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I wrote smut, and I co-wrote a fic, and I started a fic off with poetry in a form I'd never written before, and I made a comic, and I started a super long fic with a fully developed "external" plot. I think what I learned is to take risks.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it?

Liminal spaces! I haven't screamed about them for a while, but that was really the driving force behind so much of my writing this past year. Chamber by Chamber is the obvious one, but also SAE, probably just one of many reasons those two are my favs.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Write what feels good when it feels good. But also venture out of my comfort zone once in a while. Since this is next year already, my immediate goal is just to keep working on my posted WIPs, but also to let myself think about/work on other things, too, because I feel like I need that reminder.

#fan fic year in review #lotus-eaters and sirens #it’s a kind of magic #the thrill of the hunt #chamber by chamber #sleeping with the fishes #the hex files #slings and eros #spicy links