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isitgintimeyet · 4 years

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Road To The Aisles

AO3

Happy Sunday. Time for another chapter and if we’ve had a hen party, surely it’s time for a stag do (without Wee Jamie).

Thanks to you all and especially @wickedgoodbooks @happytoobserve @mo-nighean-rouge for their support.

Chapter 21: A Staggering Circumstance

Rudy: Let's have a bachelor party with chicks and guns and fire trucks and hookers and drugs and booze!

Gary: Yeah! Yeah yeah! All the things that make life worth living for!

Bachelor Party

Jamie leant back in his chair and closed his eyes, a finger marking his place in the report he had been reading. He mulled over the recommendations succinctly articulated by Jenny. Ever since her recent fact finding visit to the Macallan distillery, she had been enthusing at every opportunity about the new architecture, technology and design and was preparing a presentation on her vision and proposed five year plan for their own distillery to the Board.

Jamie sighed. The Macallan was certainly impressive, but they were a much bigger outfit and, as part of a larger group, had the finances to support change on this scale. As a smaller, independent distillery, Broch Tuarach was not in that league and, truth be told, Jamie found comfort in the old technology and older buildings. But he did realise that some change certainly would be good for the business. It was all a balancing act really, tradition versus technology, investment versus profit, increased visitors versus spend on amenities.

A ping from his laptop made Jamie open his eyes. He smiled at the email from Claire - just a very brief message (love you) plus one attachment. He opened it up. With four weeks to go before the big day, this was the latest version of their wedding planning Excel spreadsheet. He quickly scrolled down looking for the tasks Claire had assigned to him, clearly highlighted in yellow. There were two - he had to pick up thank you gifts for Ian and Wee Jamie and then collect William’s special wedding outfit.

He glanced across at the photographs on his desk - an ever growing range. The latest additions included a black and white snapshot of Claire holding William, laughing as he tried to paw her face, his happy grin clearly displaying his two front teeth and another of himself crouching next to William whose arms were outstretched, waiting for his father to cuddle him. And more photos to be added over the coming weeks, too, without a doubt.

The next four weeks could not pass quickly enough. Jamie longed to see Claire in her wedding dress. He longed to stand up in front of family and friends and make that forever commitment to Claire and to hear her say those words to him. In their day to day lives, nothing would really change, and yet, Jamie knew in his heart of hearts, marriage to his Sassenach would change everything for him… everything.

A slight tap at the office door roused him from his contemplations and, with only a brief pause, Ian came in. Jamie gestured for him to sit.

“I’m no’ disturbing ye, I hope?”

Jamie shook his head. “Nae. Jes’ digesting this report from Jenny. She has some grand ideas, ye ken.”

“Aye, that’s our Jenny. A woman with a vision, Nae doubt. But I didna come here tae talk about that. I jes’ wanted tae clarify something with ye. I’ve had an email from Angus… about yer stag do.”

“Oh, god. I thought it was all sorted. Curry and pub. That’ll do me fine.”

“Aye, that’s still the plan, but Angus wanted tae tell us about a club that’s jes’ opened that he can get us complimentary tickets fer. It’s called…” Ian consulted his iPad. “... ‘Gentlemen’s Relish’.”

Jamie sighed. “Er, that wouldna be a strip club by any chance?”

“Angus says not. Apparently, it’s a high class establishment frequented by discerning gentlemen requiring sophisticated entertainment.”

Ian showed Jamie the image of the flyer Angus had included as an attachment to his email. Jamie snorted with laughter.

“Sophisticated entertainment, ma arse. The pictures of those women in gold bikinis… It’s jes’ a lap dancing club. I’m no’ interested. And I dinna think Claire, or Jenny fer that matter, would be too impressed. Let’s stick tae the plan.”

Ian stood up, “ I kent ye’d say that. But I had tae ask. And ye’re right. Chicken Jalfrezi and a few beers is much more ma kind of thing too. Dinna fash, I’ll set Angus straight.”

***************

Jamie supped his beer contentedly and looked around, catching snippets of conversations from his friends all in various stages of inebriation. His belly was comfortably full of lamb madras, rice and many, many poppadoms and now beer. He belched softly, a sure sign it was time to switch to whisky.

He shifted on the bar stool, trying to fit a wee bit more buttock onto the seat, but gave up and used his long legs to support him instead. That was the only downside of this pub, the seating. But worth it for the old fashioned ambience, the dark wood panelling, the lack of trendy, loud young crowds and, of course, the wide selection of craft beers and single malts.

Angus was talking animatedly to Rupert. From his elaborate hand gestures, Jamie was fairly certain he was telling Rupert about the ‘gentlemen’s club’. Jamie smiled. That wasn’t his idea of a fine evening. The whisky would, no doubt, be overpriced and watered down and however scantily clad and attractive the girls were, it wasn’t his kind of entertainment. Well, he corrected himself, it would be his kind of entertainment if it was his Sassenach providing the lap dance… a deeper connection there, not just providing a service to a series of nameless punters.

Jamie shifted, trying to lessen the stirrings in his nether regions at the thought of Claire giving him a personal lap dance. Perhaps he would ask her when he got home, perhaps she would be willing to…

A sudden shoulder shove from behind pushed Jamie off his stool. Struggling to regain his balance, his beer sloshed over the glass and onto the floor, catching the front of his shirt on the way. He turned around, anticipating an apology to be met with a sweaty and, once again, inebriated Tom Christie.

Tom leant fully against Jamie’s now unoccupied bar stool and looked up at him.

“Fraser,” he acknowledged. “Celebrating or commis… commis… drowning yer sorrows? I may have had a couple of nips maself. Is yer girlfriend no’ with ye?”

“Fiancée.” Jamie corrected and offered no further conversation. He put the dregs of his beer on the table.

“Aye, a fine lass, that one. If ye ever change yer mind, pass her ma way, would ye?”

In an instant, Ian was at Jamie’s side, a calming hand now resting on Jamie’s shoulder. At the same time, Tom’s drinking companions joined him.

“I suggest ye get Tom some fresh air and a taxi home.” Ian spoke directly to Tom’s companions.

They hesitated and looked at Tom, now slightly swaying. “Och, he’ll be fine…”

“Now.” Jamie’s voice was harsh. “And that’s no’ a suggestion, mind. Get him out of ma fucking sight.”

He deliberately turned his back on Tom. Ian watched as Tom was, reluctantly, led away. John passed Jamie a large whisky.

“Ye did right, there, Jamie.” Ian reassured him. “He’s no’ worth the effort. And fer some reason, he has it in fer ye.”

“Aye, I dinna ken why.”

“Jealous, most like. He wants tae be ye. Ye have the family distillery, ye’re good looking, if ye like that kind of thing,” Ian joked. “And ye’ve Claire too. Ye need tae let him go and forget it. This is a night tae celebrate, not think about twats like him. And therefore…”

Ian cleared his throat and continued. “So, gentlemen, can we have a toast please tae the man of the moment, who’s finally leaving the single life and getting married in three weeks time tae the lovely Claire. I'm no’ sure quite what he’s done tae deserve her, but anyways, she’s said yes. So raise yer glasses tae Jamie Fraser… lucky bastard.”

“Jamie Fraser… lucky bastard.”

*******************

Claire pulled her dressing gown tightly around her as she checked the spy hole on the front door. A single blue eye stared back at her.

“‘S me, Sassenach.” The blue eye blinked. “Would ye let me in… please?”

She opened the door to find Jamie standing on the doormat, keys in one hand, bag of chips in the other. He stumbled slightly as he came in.

“I tried tae get ma key in, but I think there’s something wrong wi’ the hole. Mebbe it’s broken.”

He pushed the chips into Claire’s hands as he leaned in and gave her a kiss. She winced slightly as the beer and curry fumes hit her.

“I bought ye a wee gift, Sassenach.” Jamie indicated the lukewarm bag of chips.

“Thanks. Good night then, I take it?”

Jamie started to take his jacket off, struggling to get his arms out. Claire watched for a moment, amused, before depositing the chips on the hall table. She unfastened the buttons on the cuffs and pulled his jacket off.

“I thought my jacket was broken then. Is everything broken ‘round here?” He pulled her into a bear hug. “Ye dinna have a gold bikini, do ye, Sassenach?”

“No,” she laughed. “Why?”

“Och, jes’ a thought.”

He relaxed his hug and brought one hand up to her hair, selecting a random curl. Her hair smelt of rosemary and mint, fresh and clean. Letting the curl drop, his hand followed a familiar path down her back towards its favourite destination. He squeezed her arse through her dressing gown. His other hand crept between their bodies, finding its way through the layers of smooth fabric. He cupped her breast, feeling the nipple harden against his palm. Claire gave a small contented sigh.

“Will ye come tae bed?” He whispered.

“Yes, but, please clean your teeth.”

Jamie headed for the stairs, smiling. “Aye, I will do. I’ve some ideas…”

He stumbled on the bottom stair but, unphased, carried on talking. “Sassenach, babe, I’m going to rock your world.”

Claire made the usual nighttime rounds - checking the locks, turning the television off, switching off the lights, before following Jamie to the bedroom.

“Ok, then Fraser, what ideas have you got for me—”

She stopped suddenly and took in the picture in front of her. Jamie lay, fully clothed, diagonally across their bed still wearing one shoe. The other was, inexplicably, on his bedside table, next to his watch, a beer mat and several after dinner mints. He gave a small snore, adjusted his balls through his trousers and farted.

Claire sighed. She quickly undid his belt and trousers and slowly shimmied his trousers down his hips before pulling the legs. She unbuttoned his beer-stained shirt.

“Jamie, Jamie. Wake up. You need to get ready for bed.”

Jamie emitted a mumbled ‘aye’ and rolled onto his side.

“Jamie, wake up.” She tried again, adding a shake of his shoulder.

With Jamie most definitely asleep, Claire left the bedroom and returned with a blanket and bucket, which she positioned next to his side of the bed. By a process of pushing Jamie’s inert body and pulling the duvet from underneath him, she managed to create enough space in the bed for herself. Tucking the blanket around Jamie, she finally crept into bed.

Perhaps Mary has the right idea, she chuckled to herself, maybe I should get me a ‘toy cupboard’.

Jamie snorted as if in agreement.

Claire moulded her body against Jamie’s back. “You raise a girl’s expectations, James Fraser and then you don’t deliver. But I forgive you.”

“And I can’t wait to be married to you,” she whispered. “I know on a practical level, nothing will change, but, for me, I know everything will change…” She lightly kissed his back. “... everything.”

#outlander fan fiction #outlander fan fic #Road To The Aisles #Jamie Fraser #Claire Beauchamp #Chapter 21

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jira-chii · 4 years

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I tried rewriting the Afterlost/Shoumetsu Toshi anime

Background: Madhouse made an anime from a mobile game with the best story out of any gacha game I have ever played, and fucking botched it. So I tried to see if I could do it better.

You don’t need to have seen Shoumetsu Toshi to read this post. However I do recommend reading this article concurrently with my summary of episodes on twitter.

So, the Shoumetsu Toshi anime was announced during the game’s fifth anniversary, and aired in April 2019. It was both exciting and terrifying because Shoumetsu Toshi is a seriously underrated game with a mindblowing story, but given the track record of game-to-anime adaptations, everyone was sceptical about it. And that scepticism ended up being justified.

In summary (my opinion): the anime itself started out half-decent, shot itself in the foot three episodes in, staggered back up for another two or three episodes, fell flat on its face directly after, and then just kept on falling from episode 8 onwards.

While watching said anime, I realised there were very minor things I could do to improve the flow, such as changing the order of episodes, or introducing certain characters later. After a while I came up with a new alternate anime structure (see tldr on twitter). This post will be the accompanying commentary explaining the decisions I made.

My aim for this exercise was to stick as close as possible to the main message and tone of the original anime. Honestly though, if I were rewriting the anime from scratch, I would have taken a different approach entirely (because I don’t agree with the message or the tone of what we got, but that’s a story for another post).

I have tried to make sure you don’t need to watch the anime to understand this post (it would be my last wish to force anyone to watch it). That said, I may make reference to the (far superior) source material, the Shoumetsu Toshi game. I have tried to keep the general commentary in the main body, with more specific detail in the side notes at the end of each episode break-down.

Ok, here goes.

Episode 1 Lost/Lost

The role of the first episode is to establish the characters and setting. The main idea of this episode should be to introduce Lost as mysterious and frightening, and why the main characters need to go there.

As a whole, I think the original anime does do this. It starts off with an overview of the situation (courtesy of Yuki’s monologue), and then gives us some action. Characters are introduced, the mystery starts to reveal itself, and then we end on a cliffhanger. I personally don’t feel a need to change that structurally.

I do however feel the need to switch up the order and amount of introduced characters in this episode. Our brains can only hold so much information in one episode and this episode probably exceeded that capacity and then some.

Instead of Eiji and Kikyou saving them, I suggest having Takuya take Yuki to Geek’s first. Geek can provide a simple man’s explanation of the tragedy of Lost, using his favourite idol group SPR5 as an illustrative example.

This means we will not be met with completely new information when the much heavier exposition from Kikyou and Eiji comes later. Because instead of brand new information, most of it will be filling in the gaps from what Geek told us. And that is much less headache-inducing than the chaos of the original episode 1.

This also means the cliffhanger of the first episode becomes Yuki finding out her father is possibly alive (instead of us wondering if Takuya is still alive…). This is admittedly not as dramatic nor as shocking as the cliffhanger of the original anime. However I went with this because I don’t think an audience going in blind would have been able to handle any more new information right after what Kikyou and Eiji did to us. Also, I don’t think many people would fall for the main character dying in the very first episode...

Side notes:

The original episode 1 started with Yuki’s monologue. I liked that it invoked interest while telling a story succinctly. So I would keep it. I would also keep the scene where Takuya busts Yuki out by throwing a fire extinguisher and jumping out the window because ngl, that was badass.

I think the original anime built up too much goodwill in Takuya in the first two episodes. By episode 2, Yuki basically completely trusts him, but I think it would be more fitting if Takuya had to ‘earn’ that goodwill gradually. Note that in my version of episode 1, none of the conflicts between Takuya and Yuki are resolved. For example, in the original anime, Takuya tells Yuki even if she doesn’t trust him, she has to trust her dad. What a good-guy thing to say. That doesn’t happen in my version. The aim of that is to create a constant feeling of unease and tension. Because this early on, none of us should be sure if Yuki can really trust anyone around her. She’s just forced to follow them to find her father.

You may have noticed I’ve removed Rou (flying monk dude) entirely from my version of the anime. I’m not hating on Rou, but I really don’t think he was useful. In fact, he just made people more confused. I would much rather prefer Suzumebachi appear in both episodes, with the fight not even happening until the second. I made this decision with three reasons in mind: 1. It sets up the expectation in the audience for more action in later episodes, encouraging them to keep watching to see the resolution; 2. It makes Suzumebachi seem like a more threatening opponent, thereby upping the tension; and 3. There is one less character we have to introduce (Akira), meaning he’ll really shine and leave an impact when we do the big reveal

Honestly, I would also remove fortune teller Kazuko. That’s a cameo nobody asked for, and it felt kind of forced. Though there’s also no harm in keeping her in.

On the other hand I have deliberately chosen to delay introducing Yumiko and Kouta. Like I said, there are already too many characters in this first episode. The result of this, though, is that my ending deviates quite a lot from the original episode 1 ending. But I think that’s fine. This is only episode 1, we don’t have to end with drama. I think it’s more important to get the main themes across (the episode is titled ‘Lost’, so let’s make that the focus until the very end ok).

Episode 2: Sacrifice/Sacrifice

Episode 1 should be somewhat dramatic and action-packed to hook our audience in. But then episode 2 should provide them with more information about the setting. I think the anime made a bad move by pulling a plot twist at the end of episode 1 and then immediately rectifying it in episode 2. It feels cheap and undermining. And a waste of time.

So I chose to avoid the whole thing with Yumiko and Kouta saving Takuya. Instead I get Eiji and Kikyou to send them straight into hiding. I think it is more fitting if, directly following from episode 1, this episode starts off focusing on Yuki’s feelings about her family. This provides some much-needed context, and makes her values clear from the beginning, as she starts thinking about whether it is worth going to Lost to find her father.

Now we can start introducing some new characters. Honestly though, in the grand scheme of things, Yumiko and Kouta serve the exact same purpose as Eiji and Kikyou in the narrative. Which is a shame, because I think just their connection to the organisation opens up a whole heap of possibilities. Therefore, if I am going to include them I should take advantage of that connection. In my version of the anime I make them privy to certain information about Lost. This would make sense because the organisation they used to work for was all about getting Taiyou to Lost to complete the Noah Plan. By making that special information only Yumiko and Kouta know, I make them important to the plot.

I can further leverage their connection to the enemy to arouse suspicion in them, because Takuya and Yuki wound up in an ambush with Suzumebachi following their instructions. But that’s a minor conflict that can easily be resolved and is honestly not that important.

What is important, is that being ambushed by Suzumebachi means I can finally show off tamashii Akira! The fight will basically play out like the original episode 1, only with Suzumebachi instead of Rou. After the fight, I envision the scene to play out similar to the end of the original episode 3, with Souma appearing before them.

Side notes:

In the original anime episode 2, Yuki talks to Takuya when he shares bread with her on the roof. They talk about Akira, which is fair enough. However in my version they don’t even know about Akira at this point. They have nothing in common to bond over. Also, Yuki is still distrustful of him. This more closely mirrors the game, where both of them were more closed off. But I think it makes sense to be wary of a stranger you just met, let alone one who just called you a fucking package.

That said, we can hint at some development through symbolism. Yuki starts off thinking about her family all by herself. But then Takuya comes. And even if they get nowhere in their conversation, physically at least, Yuki is no longer alone.

The true reason Yumiko betrays the organisation is simply that she likes Takuya. But she can’t just tell him that directly. That’s one of the reasons the anime uses Suzuna in episode 2. I have Kouta take that role here. I also wanted Yumiko’s attraction to Takuya to be more subtle than her straight up telling Suzuna she likes him. There’s a bit of dramatic irony there because Takuya would still be suspicious of her, but the audience should be able to tell her true reason for helping is actually quite pure.

Akira is actually a symbol of hope for Yuki. He is a remnant of her old life. But as is the case in the tragic storyline of Shoumetsu Toshi, whenever we see hope, we must destroy it in the most ironic way possible. Here, it is the appearance of the other person from her old life, her brother Souma.

Episode 3: Memory/Suspicion

The original anime pulled a really, really bad move here, by throwing in a monster of the week-style episode while its setting was still developing. This is confusing and distracting. But the biggest reason I chose to delay the SPR5 episode to episode 4 is because Yuki’s character development in the original episode 3 was too great, as to almost make no sense.

Therefore, I use episode 3 instead as a stepping stone to get Yuki to learn to trust the people around her. Once she can resolve her own insecurities, then it makes more sense for her to be able to fix other people’s problems.

My version of episode 3 is more similar to the anime’s original episode 4, which introduced Ryouko. After being betrayed by her remaining family member, a traumatised Yuki is finally introduced to somebody she thinks she can actually trust. But Eiji and the others warn Yuki she must not tell Ryouko anything. That said, Ryouko proves to be a good person, who even helps with some of Yuki’s troubles.

Introducing Ryouko also introduces the investigative element of the anime, which emphasises the Lost mystery, but is also honestly a breath of fresh air from the doom and gloom on Yuki’s side. A benefit of seeing the police’s perspective is that they are just as clueless as the audience. So it is much easier to follow their train of thought (compared to the other group led by Eiji and Kikyou).

So, with three episodes done, the audience should now have a good idea of what they are getting themselves into. We’ve got the characters, the setting, and a couple of mysteries set up. All that’s left is to deliver on them (which is easier said than done).

Side notes:

Honestly, writing up this first encounter with Suzuna and Souma was harder than I expected. The problem is that Souma is too powerful to be deterred by anyone, especially not the police. I have to come up with some reason to force him out of the picture. I decided to use Suzuna for a couple of reasons. It gives the audience a good sense of her foresight powers. But also, maybe it could indicate Suzuna has another motive? I had thought as far as using Taiyou as Suzuna’s excuse: Souma did not inform Taiyou he was going off on his own. If he does anything unnecessary he could get into trouble. This also effortlessly allows me to foreshadow the final boss.

Yuki is a very introspective character, meaning she thinks to herself a lot but rarely shows it. Which is why having a character like Ryouko spell out things for the audience can be helpful.

Importantly, Yuki does not reveal everything to Ryouko just yet, even though she really wants to. This ups the tension, but importantly, it also means Ryouko can stick around a little longer! So we (and Yuki) get some time to get attached to her.

Ryouko’s thought process right now would be: she thinks the group is suspicious, but needs more evidence to back her gut feeling. So she does the background check, leading to Kaibara where we can hint at Takuya’s connection to Yoshiaki and start setting up the Kaitodan arc.

Episode 4: Suspicion/Memory

With the main plot finally set up, I am now comfortable to slip in the SPR5 episode. Surprisingly, I actually did not mind the episode as much as I thought I would.

My biggest recommendation for this episode would be to drop the entire Seiji/Shoumetsu subplot altogether. It is just too confusing with all the other information in the episode. And with Seiji dying eventually, in the grand scheme of things it means nothing. The main aim of this episode should be to focus on what tamashii really are and what they can do. Dropping Seiji also means Takuya doesn’t have to disappear during Yuki’s character development (?) during her moment with Yua. I would really like to use this episode to hint more at Takuya’s regret, and do some more solid foreshadowing of the orphanage arc. This then leads in nicely to the sudden phone call from Yumiko I have inserted at the end of this episode to set up the next.

Episode 5: Affection/Affection

Just like the anime, my versions of episodes 5 and 6 focus on the Kaitodan. However, I make some pretty big changes. While I did really enjoy the execution of the original episode 5 (which was my favourite episode of the whole series), the whole ‘heist’ made no sense to me. Kaitodan didn’t even enter the building past the roof. The only real merit of the original setting is the clock tower, which is an Easter egg referencing Tsubasa and Yoshiaki’s reunion in the actual game.

So I decided to switch up the tone entirely, by having Takuya and Yuki meet Yoshiaki in a family restaurant (family being the key word). Again, admittedly not as dramatic as the original, but this saves a lot more time.

Something I think the anime really should have done was foreshadow Tsubasa better. He has deep ties to Takuya, but episode 5 is the first time we hear about him. I opted to foreshadow him in episode 3 (through Yumiko’s memories), and episode 2 (being used by Souma). This should make it easier for the audience to piece the puzzle together with Yuki.

My drama for this scene comes in the form of an actual kidnapping. By separating Takuya and Yuki, we get a glimpse into how each thinks of the other. It’s also great that Rui canonically flirts with Yuki so I want to see that. I also really want to show the family dynamic of the Kaitodan, for three reasons. 1. As a contrast with Yuki to emphasise the loss she feels in losing her own family; 2. The irony that Yoshiaki will join this family as a result of losing his own, and to know he will be in good hands; and 3. Kaitodan’s quirky personalities are the most lovable thing about them and we need to see more of it.

Side notes:

Yoshiaki’s power reveal having a purpose to the plot would be so much cooler than him just randomly making an owl feather disappear. I decided to show said power in the midst of a dramatic car chase scene. Because why not.

I gave quite a lot of thought into how Kaitodan could secretly track down Takuya and Yuki, and it goes like this: Kana bugged Yumiko, because Kaitodan know the organisation had something to do with Tsubasa disappearing. I envision it happening the night Yumiko left the organisation. Once Yumiko escapes far enough to be safe, she would feel a sense of relief. But her guard would also lower. Kana has been tracking Yumiko ever since, waiting for a clue. This means the Kaitodan heard Yumiko’s call with Kaibara and know Tsubasa is involved. But they couldn’t make a move on Yoshiaki directly because they were aware he was being surveilled. So they followed Takuya and Yuki via Yumiko, and waited for their chance. Also, because it was Yumiko they bugged, they don’t get to know the contents of Takuya and Yuki’s meeting with Yoshiaki. This is all implied in my version of the anime, but none of it is important. It is just a check I did to make sure everything made logical sense.

I went as far as making up a scene to show some Kaitodan interaction. But including that in the episode summary is probably too much detail, so I will indulge myself in these side notes:

The Kaitodan notice Takuya chasing them. Jack tells Yuki that her “lover boy” is here. Yuki gets flustered and says he’s only coming after her because of their contract.

Rui doesn’t understand what Yuki sees in an uncouth guy like Takuya. He talks about a time Takuya used some pretty underhanded methods to catch them. They managed to escape by the skin of their necks by Jack throwing an up-close bomb. Kana laughs remembering how the bomb totally ruined Rui’s clothes. Rui then gets angry at Jack because that was a new suit. Sumire tries to break (i.e. cut) them apart with her chainsaw, causing chaos as Kana continues laughing hysterically.

Yuki looks on this with a small smile, thinking the Kaitodan aren’t such a bad bunch.

Episode 6: Parting Ways/Choice

The anime concludes the Kaitodan arc in this episode, but I’d like to keep them for a little longer. I reserve the fighting for a later episode, and instead, I make this episode quite information heavy. The aim of all this is to lead into the orphanage arc. I did not like that Takuya went off to resolve his own regrets without Yuki in the original anime. However it makes no sense to have him make Yuki tag along with him to something unrelated to their contract. My solution to this is to give Yuki more agency, and the mind to make her own decision.

I intend for a couple of truth bombs to come out here: the organisation does human experimentation; Daichi works for the organisation; the organisation has a base in Lacuna; and Yuki and Takuya will die if they go to Lost. The anime left a lot of these reveals until the end, but I don’t think they are truly that important to warrant that. Having Yuki know these things now, and make a decision despite that, helps build her character more (so we can pull all her confidence down later).

Side notes:

Having Eiji reveal the truth puts both suspicion and trust in him. If he was working for Daichi, that means he was also working for the organisation. However, if what he says is the truth, the reason he reveals this information is because of his guilty conscience. To make sure he comes off as sincere, his guilt should be foreshadowed in earlier episodes.

I wonder, if Lacuna really did end up being the final boss, would that mean Yuki would not need to go to Lost anymore? If Yuki were able to save Souma and return him to ‘normal’ would she be satisfied with never seeing her father again? Or was she hoping Souma could join them on their journey to Lost as well? Honestly, not even I know what Yuki was thinking. All I know is that the anime built up Lacuna as a fake ‘last boss’ (spoiler: it’s not), so I will too.

Episode 7: Regret/Regret

Like the anime again, I make episode 7 the orphanage arc. Unlike the anime, I also combine it with Tsubasa’s arc. The key to making this work is to progress both, but put the focus on only one of the storylines. For episode 7, the orphanage will be the focus, while I leave Tsubasa for episode 8.

The anime originally put the focus of this episode on solving the mystery and finding the link between Lacuna and the orphanage. However, because of how I set things up in episode 6, our characters’ main goal is actually to find clues to the Iink between Souma and Tsubasa. I want the focus on the orphanage side to be entirely about Takuya’s character development, and how Yuki looks over that development. The real plot actually happens on the Kaitodan side. Naturally, Takuya and Yuki will eventually join the fray but I think, for the purpose of the final message of the anime, it is important to show that things can still happen without Takuya and Yuki.

Side notes:

I want Ayano to have more screentime, so I am making her lead them to Hinako. Ayano thus acts as a facilitator, rather than an observer. Also, I plan to make her shuumeigiku an AF (because AF were built up as some really important thing in the original but were not even used in the final battle).

Having the episode end on a cliffhanger means the main characters (and hopefully the audience too) won’t have time to ponder the shuumeigiku, nor the birdhouse for now. This is intentional.

Episode 8: Choice/Parting Ways

In the original anime, episode 8 is the Lacuna break-in episode. But it’s still too early for that. My episode 8 wraps up the Kaitodan arc.

We've had some time to get to know the Kaitodan members so I want this episode to be their moment to shine. First off, putting the Kaitodan flashback at the start of the episode, instead of in the middle of a fight (like what episode 6 of the original did) makes it feel less hasty. I also use this opportunity to insert some more Kaitodan shenanigans through flashback. This episode focuses on the bonds they have with Tsubasa, and the pain of losing that bond. So to make that emotional impact really hit, I have to utilise the flashback effectively.

Other than that, I guess the fight will progress similarly to episode 6 of the original, just in a different setting.

Side notes:

Having Yoshiaki and Tsubasa’s confrontation in the middle of what was once the lab both were experimented on as children has symbolic significance, especially because AF are the key to the battle.

I avoided the whole flashback around Tsubasa slashing Tsuki/the organisation hacking Yoshiaki’s twitter to lure Tsubasa into a trap. Because I think this episode already has more than enough flashbacks. I want to try to avoid overuse of flashbacks because they tend to ruin the immersion and pacing of an episode. If I really had to insert it somewhere though, it would be during an exposition by Souma when he calls Tsubasa weak.

I tried to make Sumire and Kana’s roles more relevant. I am not sure if it worked.

You think the title of this episode refers to Yoshiaki and Tsubasa parting ways, but did you expect Ryouko would also actually die? This is (I hope), an unexpected death, and I want the audience to feel almost just as devastated as Yuki does. Ryouko’s stuck around for a while now, so killing her off should have some sort of impact.

The ending of my version of this episode is a direct copy of the Tsuki Taiyou scene from episode 10 of the original. Placing it here is a set up for what I have planned in my version of the Lacuna break-in. But alternatively, it could also be placed at the end of my version of episode 6, because that is the episode we learn more about the heads of the organisation.

Episode 9: Fate/Fate

The original anime made this entire episode a flashback. And I hate that. Because I hate flashbacks. And using one for an entire episode just seems like lazy writing. I will address the whole thing with Daichi in my own way in a later episode, but for now I’ve got to do the break-in.

So, in a nutshell, I was very unsatisfied with how the anime handled the break-in. It was anticlimactic, and the real conflict (with Souma) happened nowhere near Lacuna. I understand the need for futility, but having nothing accomplished at all in the grand scheme of things is also doing a disservice to your audience. Because it’s wasting time if it’s not progressing the story or characters.

Essentially, I want my version of this episode to deliver the same information as the original anime episode 9 (flashback), but with about 70% more action and 99% less flashback.

As I mentioned before, Lacuna was built up like a climactic boss battle so I am going to treat it like one. This is also a chance to foreshadow Taiyou’s powers that exhibit symptoms of Lost. and a chance for Suzuna to show off more of how formidable her powers can be.

I’ve put Tsuki as the miniboss because mate, she’s perfect. Why wouldn’t I? The anime seriously missed a golden opportunity. Tsuki is actually a really good character to fight against because she stands for a lot. She is obviously on Taiyou’s side, but in a tragic way. Despite being betrayed by him, she still stands by him, and will sacrifice herself even after he turned her into a monster. This is exactly what makes her fascinating. She brings moral greyness to an otherwise black and white fight against Taiyou. It’s also a chance to show that Akira is becoming more powerful, and Yuki feels more confident in herself.

That said, the end of this episode is a direct test of Yuki’s character development, because she’s been put in the exact same situation she was in at the start of the anime. This is her chance to fix that regret that’s been haunting her the whole time. And now she has Akira by her side, she can be brave enough to move forward. Little does she know, what lies beyond the door is really going to test her limits…

Side notes:

Yuki being a product of two worlds was surprising, but i feel the impact is stronger if she gets told that directly by Taiyou, rather than the audience seeing it through a flashback. It adds more tension, especially as Taiyou gets away.

In my version of the anime, it is entirely possible for Takuya and Yuki to not even be aware Tsuki was once human (but the audience does know). I can play up the dramatic irony, by having Tsuki voice her thoughts. Yuki might get the feeling: this monster is completely loyal to Taiyou. Is she his pet?

On the other hand, if I choose to have Tsuki present herself as human-turned-monster, this gives an opportunity for her to explain there is good in following the Noah plan: it will save a lot of people. Going with this version should involve suggesting that Tsuki at least genuinely does want to save the people on her side. Maybe she has a child?

The Noah plan is important for understanding Taiyou’s motives. But honestly it is not that important for the audience to know all the details. Which is why I want Takuya to be the one to see it. He’ll trivialise it, because he knows what’s really important is what’s happening for him now. And really, Noah is just trivia/fan service for the audience in this anime, seeing as there is barely any moral ambiguity in Taiyou anyway.

Episode 10: Decision/Decision

This is the Souma episode. Despite the very different build up, the events in my version aren’t that different from the anime.

I thought the lab would be an appropriate final confrontation setting. It symbolises Souma’s desire for power which ultimately led to his current downfall. But he wanted that power to protect Yuki. Which should resonate with Akira. And that is why he is also there.

Akira needed more screen time in the anime. He is not just a weapon; tamashii are not tools. He is Yuki’s protector, and his very presence as a tamashii implies his regret and desire around that.

This is simultaneously the grieving episode (original episode 10), which I’ve merged into the seaside scene. To really heighten the emotion, Yuki should have an outburst. Think about it, she’s been keeping everything bottled up inside her: her lab PTSD, the tragic fate of the orphans, and Ryouko. Losing her brother was the last straw. Showing vulnerability to Takuya is a sign she trusts him.

At the same moment Yuki loses one of the most important people in her life, Takuya gives her hope for the future. A bittersweet moment like this is really what the message of the anime should be about. Additionally the timing of this ray of hope means it is so much more important to Yuki to hold onto that image of happiness (and more impactful for the audience).

Takuya showing willingness to give up his contract is the ultimate sign this man cares for Yuki.

Side notes:

I feel like I packed a lot into this episode, but that’s because Souma’s death scene actually goes by very quickly, because neither side are putting up much of a fight? Both the original anime and my version have to rely on flashbacks to pad it out.

I foreshadowed Souma’s fate using Tsuki (both morphed into monsters).

Akira should also feel emotionally impacted by Souma’s death. Why does the anime make it seem like both Daichi and Akira show favouritism towards Yuki? Souma is also Daichi’s child, and he also saw Akira as a big brother.

I also think the flashbacks should show more of the three interacting together, instead of solely Yuki and Souma.

Souma gets some final character development by apologising to Akira before he dies.

At the seaside, Akira is also grieving. But he is full of guilt. He does not have the right to comfort Yuki.

Putting ourselves in Yuki’s shoes for a moment: the only two people left as a reminder of her previous ordinary life were her brother and her father. Now that Souma is gone, she is left with no choice but to go to Lost. Even if we ignore all the saving the world rhetoric, Yuki would still go just for personal reasons alone. Because what Yuki wants more than ever right now is the comfort of family. It’s an incredibly tragic situation. That’s why it is so important that Takuya shows a willingness to break his contract. He’s not just comforting her because he wants her to get over it and go to Lost so he can do his job. Knowing this allows Yuki to trust him, and show her vulnerable side.

This is the moment Yuki wishes things were different. If Takuya wasn’t here with her, she really might have reset the world like Daichi wanted her to.

Episode 11: Trust/Trust

My version of episode 11 is quite similar to the anime’s episode 11. Except I cut some NPC moments and massively extend the parallel world moment.

Suzuna and Taiyou’s scene plays out like in the anime. If possible, I’d like them to have some conversation in the sedan hinting that Taiyou has lost his way to his original altruistic goal.

I make the crux of this episode the parallel worlds within Lost. I thought that part was very cool in the original anime, but it just wasn’t impactful enough.

I want to use this as an opportunity for Yuki to see Daichi’s memory. Essentially, I want to condense the flashback episode (episode 9) in the original anime to its bare essentials. This is probably going to be challenging, but with a combination of visuals paired with efficient narration by Daichi, I think it is possible to make things move quicker.

Basically, I want Yuki to see the whole picture, to understand her father’s perspective, and despite that make her final decision. Yuki realises her father is from a parallel world and is trying to save a lot of people from another world. But even so she is conflicted about whether what she is doing is right.

I like that this allows a clear link to happiness at the end. Yuki resonates with Daichi’s own desire for happiness, causing her to remember the happy future she painted together with Takuya. This is a much clearer way of explaining how Takuya and Yuki managed to free themselves from the effects of Lost, while also emphasising their bond.

Side note:

I’d like to believe that even with a clear image of happiness in mind, a normal human like Takuya should not be able to escape Lost unscathed. I’d like to hint that the fact he is even able to function in this space is because of his bond with Yuki, a girl intricately connected to parallel worlds and thus more immune to their effects?

Episode 12: Future/Future

The last episode’s boss battle with Taiyou plays out largely like the original anime. But I think there is scope to have a lot more satisfying pay-offs.

Lost is how the tamashii came to be, so first off I would recommend there be more of them. Even Tsubasa, who disappeared, could possibly exist as a parallel world version of himself. That’s what Lost is about, after all.

It would be fitting if Taiyou also gets taken down by these other tamashii, including the orphans. This would be an appropriate approach to highlight the contrast between Taiyou (who is alone), and Takuya and Yuki (who are not). Additionally, I bring back the shuumeigiku, which means ‘to endure’, in order to emphasise the justice that was eventually served.

I wanted there to be less spotlight on Suzuna and more on Akira. After all, he is the one with the real meaningful connection to protecting Yuki. Therefore I have him deal the final blow after evolving. On top of being epic fanservice, the fact he is the only tamashii who evolves in the entire anime means there is narrative significance to it. It is the culmination of his bond with Yuki, and it is fitting that he can finally wield that power to protect her properly.

After the fight in the original anime, Daichi shows Yuki an alternate world without tragedy, an ideal world. However, importantly, this is a world where Yuki never interacts with Takuya, Geek, or any of the other people she’s met on her journey, and I think the anime could have done better to show that.

So my alternative is to have Yuki see those happy versions of Ryouko, Yoshiaki etc in the previous episode, while showing her own alternative life in this one. I really want to juxtapose the happiness she feels living an ordinary life with her family, against the missed opportunities to meet people like Ryouko and Takuya. This provides a lot more ambiguity to her choice, and we get to see the conflict playing out in her head in real time. By actually making it possible to follow her train of thought, the audience will be more likely to understand why she makes the decision she makes.

Finally, I choose to end my version of the anime with a monologue from Daichi as a homage to the game. But also, it seems appropriate because he is an observer, just like us. And as observers, who are we to judge the choices people make? I contrast Daichi’s message of hope to the somewhat less than ideal futures everyone leads in order to show the ambiguous ending I think the original anime was going for. Regardless of whether you end up better or worse, life moves on.

Side notes:

Yuki needs to show more emotion when she sees Daichi. Seriously.

I referenced the ending of the original anime (Yuki’s ideal house) in the ‘ideal’ world Daichi shows Yuki. I think the message the anime wanted to convey with that scene is that what we perceive to be true happiness may not really be that. And that’s kind of the vibe I’m going for in my ideal world scene, which is why I put it there instead of at the end.

Daichi should thank Akira. Holy fuck the poor guy’s been through so much with absolutely zero gratitude. He kept your daughter alive gdi

Ultimately the problem of Lost was never properly resolved? But the anime left it equally open-ended so I’m cool with that.

Finally, some overall points

I removed Keigo and Shunpei entirely from my version of the anime. Because they weren't needed. Keigo I can put back in (because he and Yuuji serve the same narrative purpose), but I don't want Shunpei. He was an original character created purely to betray Ryouko and then die. I have no need for a character like that. He could be Ryouko's assassinator I guess, but I would rather the sniper be a tamashii cameo like Wolf or something. Or nobody at all. Because the sniper as a character is not important at all.

I removed all the deliberate food scenes because there was no scope to include them. It is one thing to claim you want to put more emphasis on food, but that should be second to creating an actually viable product.

And with that, this project is finally complete.

I admit I had high hopes for the anime, and it frustrates me that it turned out the way it did when there were so many simple things they could have done to make it less confusing.

That said, fixing something that has already been done is much easier than creating something entirely from scratch. And while everything may work on paper, translating that into practice with the actual production is a very different story. Therefore, despite how everything turned out, I still commend the production team for being able to make the anime a reality at all.

As I've mentioned before, it is not easy to make an engaging story fit in the span of just twelve episodes, let alone one adapted from an epic game featuring time travel and parallel worlds. But I wish they could have tried just a little bit harder, to be just a little bit more risky, to deliver a product we could actually enjoy.

Some of you may like my version of the anime better, some of you may not. A lot of my personal biases definitely showed through, and it was more challenging than I thought translating my ideas into writing. If I’ve confused you about anything, feel free to drop me a message.

If this post wasn’t long enough for you, you can read more of my analyses on the Shoumetsu Toshi anime below:

My thoughts on the anime before it aired

My thoughts on the anime after it aired

a deeper analysis of episodes 5 and 6

#anime #shoumetsu toshi #afterlost #analysis #long post #madhouse

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raendown · 6 years

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Pairing: ShikamaruSakura Word count: 1625 Soulmate au: The one where you have a limited stack of sticky notes that, when you write on them, will appear before your soulmate at some point during that day.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 119: ShikamaruSakura

Sometimes it occurred to Sakura to wonder where the sticky notes came from. Where they made of trees like real paper? Could they be recycled and made in to new products with the same properties? These were questions which would forever go unanswered, of course, because she had absolutely no intention of ever ruining any of the notes she had received from her soulmate over the years. Each one of them was tucked away and kept safe in a box underneath her floorboards, a secret hoard to cheer her up on the days when it felt as though she might never find them.

When she was younger Sakura had considered blatantly asking who and where they were instead of relying on any accidental hints like everyone else did. Until then they had only communicated by sending each other small childish doodles, conversing in the only way they knew how until both of them learned to write. Her first lessons in letters, however, came with a warning from her academy teachers. As a future shinobi it would endanger the village to give away their location, not to mention cause possible conflicts if it turned out their soulmates were loyal to a village Konoha was currently at war with. Sakura went home that night with angry tears in her eyes and threw her little stack of sticky notes against the wall. What good was it being able to talk to them if she might never get to meet them? What good was it to love someone you could never be with?

Over the years as she grew older Sakura came to understand the practicality of it, like all shinobi do. She still didn’t like it but it was rather telling that her soulmate never asked for any information about her either. Somewhere out there in the world was another shinobi whose soul was bound to hers.

She did manage to pick up a few small hints, though. Her soulmate seemed fairly laid back and offered smart advice to any vague questions she asked, so they were probably intelligent. He said something about a ponytail once – and she only called him ‘he’ out of some vague instinct that his speech patterns seemed more masculine than feminine. Honestly she would have been fine either way.

As most people did, Sakura failed to pay attention to just how often she used her sticky notes until one day she realized that there were only a handful left. That was when it finally hit home that this was it, the last few times she would ever be able to communicate with her other half and then she might never find them again. After spending several days crying for lost opportunities and ignoring Ino-pig’s questions about what was getting her so down, Sakura finally sent a note to her soulmate, cramped writing squeezing in to the limited space. It was the fifth last note she would ever send him.

I only have a few more of these left. If we never find each other then I want you to know I will never forget you. We’ve never met but I think I love you.

Later that day she found a sticky note pressed to the door of her fridge, professing the same sentiments. It was as succinctly worded as they usually were yet there was so much emotion in that short sentence that Sakura couldn’t help breaking down in tears all over again. She was glad right then that she had finally moved out on her own so that no one could see the absolute disaster she had made of herself, propped up against the her kitchen cupboards with salt crusting on her cheeks and a pale yellow square of paper clutched tightly like a precious jewel.

Sakura wished she could say that she had enough patience to wait and use her last few notes for something truly important but in reality she squandered them just as she had squandered the rest, sending pointless messages just so some strange man out there in the world would know that she was thinking of him. Over the years ahead of them, she hoped that he would never think she had stopped thinking of him. She was absolutely sure that she never would.

On the day her last sticky note was sent, it held nothing more momentous than a single carefully inked word: goodbye. As soon as her pen lifted with the intention of having finished her note, the paper disappeared from beneath her fingers as though it had never been there. At some point during the day it would appear before her other half and carry to him perhaps the last words she would ever have the chance to say to him.

That day passed almost painfully slow. When Naruto came by and found her with a dark cloud over her head he retreated to a safe distance down the road before sending out a clone to fetch the big guns. Ino, when she arrived, marched in to Sakura’s apartment as though she belonged there more than its occupant. There were protests, insults, and sharply spoken words. None of it swayed Ino from her determination to see Sakura up off the couch and out of her funk.

Only one of those goals was accomplished. An hour later found Sakura at the café two blocks over surrounded by chattering friends. She didn’t particularly feel like socializing at the moment and luckily Ino seemed satisfied with her lack of escape attempts, deeming that enough of a win for now. With a heavy sigh Sakura closed her eyes and let herself fall sideways on to whoever it was that had happened to sit next to her. From the faint scent of cigarette smoke, she would have guessed Shikamaru.

Her genius friend said nothing about being made in to a leaning post, allowing her to peacefully drift in and out between the present moment and her own morose thought. She remained undisturbed until the entire table lit up with enthusiastic cat calls and someone jolted her perch from the opposite side.

“Go on Shikamaru, read it!”

Sakura cracked one eye open to see that there was a pale yellow sticky note stuck to Shikamaru’s shochu glass. A wave of pain ripped through her and she stubbornly closed her eyes again, unable to stand even the sight of someone else’s happiness when hers was already a lost opportunity. Oddly, she could feel a light tremble in her friend’s body as he reached for the note awaiting him.

“What’s it say!?” she heard Ino demand, probably leaning across the table to try and sneak a glance for herself. Shikamaru’s breath stirred the hair on top of Sakura’s head.

“Not much; it just says goodbye,” he murmured quietly. Sakura’s eyes flew open again at the same time Naruto snorted.

“The hell?”

“Naruto, don’t.” Shikamaru was shaking his head, an unfathomably sad expression caught in the lines of his frown. “She…I don’t know who she is. But this is the last of her stack. I knew it was coming soon but – look, do you guys mind if I go? Suddenly I’m not in the mood for drinks.”

He slid out from underneath a paralyzed Sakura’s weight and excused himself without waiting for an answer. Everyone else broke out in muted gossip the second his back was turned, passing worried questions back and forth about whether he was going to be okay or not. Pushing herself upright, Sakura forced herself to lift her head and look at the note Shikamaru had left behind.

Black ink on pale yellow paper, her own handwriting stared back at her.

She was scrambling out of her seat before she had even fully processed what it all meant, barreling out of the café and ignoring the startled shouts of the friends she left behind. Once she was out on the street she looked in both directions frantically, catching sight of a high ponytail as it went around a corner a couple dozen feet away, and took off running in that direction.

As soon as she had him in her sights again she was crying out for him to stop and wait. Shikamaru paused and looked over his shoulder at her, irritated and sad and obviously just wanting to be alone. Her news couldn’t wait, however.

“Shika wait! Your note–!”

“I don’t want to talk about it, alright?”

“No it’s – it was from me!”

“You…what?”

Shikamaru stared at her as Sakura came to a skidding halt, almost crashing in to his chest before frantically digging through her hip pouch. After a few heart pounding seconds she came back up with a square of paper neatly folded in half and kept lovingly free of any other wrinkles. When she thrust it in to his hands he had it open almost before her fingers had let go.

Then he stared at the words inside, no doubt marveling at his own handwriting the same way that she had.

“You’re my soulmate,” he said quietly. Sakura trembled.

“I…yeah.” Any other words were lost to the quivering of her fingers, the catch of breath in her throat. Shikamaru looked up at her with his dark eyes shining brightly.

“All this time you’ve been right here.”

Sakura opened her mouth to make some reply, probably something as speechlessly halting as before, but she wasn’t given time to say much of anything. Before she could do more than draw a breath Shikamaru had his arms around his waist and his lips pressed to her own. His kiss was clumsy, a little awkward, but it was warm and real and it belonged to her.

It was her first kiss with her soulmate. To her, it was perfect.

#soulmate collection #rae writes #shikasaku #sakura #shikamaru #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

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willag42 · 6 years

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Yuri!!! On Ice Fanfic Recs with Reviews ["P” Authors]

Note: Doing some major reformating of the YOI fanfic rec pages. The pages that include my reviews are now having the posts separated alphabetically by author (see below). I am also creating separate page(s) that allow filtering the fanfics by category. It's a work in progress, but I'm having fun with it.

This page includes my YOI fanfic recs (with reviews) for authors whose names begin with "P".

Note: For any authors whom I don't know the gender, I refer to them with they/them. If any authors wish to correct me, please do so.

AUTHORS REC PAGES: #0-9 -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z

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Refer to this masterlist for all of my YOI fanfic recs.

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Phyona (@rageofthenerd)

The way Phyona writes the interactions between Yuuri and Victor are some of my absolute favorite. She writes them as good-natured rivals, always ready to compete against one another; as both coach and both student, willing to direct and support one another; as best friends, willing to tease and goof off with one anther; as lovers, passionately invested in one another; and as soulmates, completing and fulfilling one another. She is amazing at writing both comedy and drama, switching between moods and creating the appropriate emotional gravitas. But her stories have positive messages about growth and becoming stronger together.

Nerve Endings

Rating: Explicit Words: 74.1k Status: Complete Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Canon compliant; Post-season 1; Domestic fluff; Anxiety; Miscommunication; Learning to relationship ❤❤❤❤❤ Summary: When Yuuri moves in with Victor in St. Petersburg, they have to work through Yuuri's anxiety and Victor's secrets to find their balance. ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: This is my favorite post-season 1 fic where Yuuri and Victor learn to live together. This is a story of their interactions off of the ice and how they inspire each other to be better people and boyfriends. Their interactions are awkward but eager at the beginning, and slowly they learn to work through their issues and grow closer emotionally and sexually. One of my favorite parts about this story is when Yuuri has an anxiety attack and almost convinces himself that Victor doesn't love him like he loves Victor, but he's able to work through the negative thoughts and recognize that it's in his head and that he doesn't deserve to think of himself like that. I really like how he is able to work through it himself, which I think is a powerful message. I recognize that this isn't necessarily possible for all people. We all need help at times and sometimes can't work through things by our own power, and that's why emotional support and medical science are so important. But don't discredit how much you can do yourself. Yes, Yuuri is an anxious bean and he can't help his brain chemistry, but he doesn't let it rule or excuse his decisions. He learns to accept and empower himself for both Victor and himself. I love this sort of hopeful and powerful message.

Puppy Love

Rating: Teen Words: 10.4k Status: Complete Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Canon divergent; Dog Yuuri; Curses; Dead Makkachin; Hurt/comfort ❤❤❤❤❤ Summary: When Yuuri gets turned into a dog, the last place he expects to end up is Victor Nikiforov's apartment. He learns quickly that the only thing worse than being his idol's pet, is watching him pine for someone else. ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: A wonderful oneshot that is both humorous and sad. Victor is suffering the loss of Makkachin and becomes attached to puppy Yuuri, and Yuuri simultaneously wants to hide from Victor and emotionally support the man through his grief. The story is charming in how these two become closer in this weird situation that does eventually correct itself. And they have an appropriately awkward yet happy and honest interaction at the end.

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Piyo13 (@piyo-13)

Most of Piyo13's stories are fluffy short stories, about 50/50 Victuuri and Phichimetti. All are appropriately sweet. Her wraiths pinned to the mist is a longer fluffy story where Yuuri and Viktor are scientists in Antartica. Her meatiest, and my personal fave, story is a series that takes place in an alternate canon universe where everyone has daemons - external physical representations of a person's inner self. She's currently written three fics in this universe, and I look forward to whatever else Piyo13 writes in it!

hollow ground

Rating: Teen Words: 40.9k Status: Complete Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Canon divergence; Daemons AU; Gold medal ending ❤❤❤❤❤ Summary: There's no rules regarding where a daemon has to be in relation to their skater, only that they aren't allowed on the ice. This has always seemed a little unfair to Yuuri. After all, he loves skating like he loves his own soul; why can't he have both? ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: There are several things I love about this story. First, the daemons are adorable and help enhance the story and character scenes without overpowering the characters we already know. They're given their own character without taking up the spotlight, which I feel is the best way to write OCs. Second, despite it being an alternative retelling of the series, every scene feels fresh. Piyo13 is selective about which scenes she covers from the anime, avoiding only retreading over what's familiar. The scenes are altered enough with the presence of the daemons to help them feel new. Additionally, she doesn't let the scenes drag, capturing Yuuri's thoughts succinctly and with wit, and then moving on to the next scene. Even better are the original slice-of-life scenes Piyo13 added to further develop characters and relationships. Moments between Yuuri and Phichit talking over chat (about more than Victor) that delve into their friendship; a moment after JJ's flopped SP where Yuuri helps JJ become motivated again; a moment at the end where Yuuri's parents tell him how proud they are and he thanks them for their love and support; and then all of the new moments between Victor and Yuuri, like when they first start practising pair skating. Third, and probably the best, the last few chapters fix all the major grievances I had with the anime's ending. (Note: If you don't want anything spoiled, stop reading right now). Yuuri gets the gold medal; Chris and Otabek end up on the podium with him; Yuuri and Victor's decision to return to the ice doesn't feel rushed (they return to Hasetsu before discussing their decisions); and, most importantly, Yuuri's decision to return to the ice is only influenced by his own realization that he loves it and that he doesn't want to stop what he's had with Victor just yet. It's not debased or obfuscated by rivalry, when Yuuri's main character arc was always that he's his own worse enemy. The series also includes two side stories: a falling star can't fall forever, a prequel about Victor and Vasilisa; and life's not a paragraph, focusing on Chris. Overall, this is an amazing story.

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possibleplatypus (@possibleplatypus)

possibleplatypus has recently started writing fics for this fandom. They've posted two on their AO3 account and have a few more ficlets and one-shots at their tumblr. I would love to read whatever else they bring to this fandom given the quality and creative storylines they've already brought to the table.

a song that never ends (Series, 2 works)

TECHNICAL SUPPORT Rating: Teen -- Words: 18.8k -- Status: Complete -- Summary: Research had needed a new field-tester (they always needed new testers, as most Aurors would “test” an artefact only once before screaming to be reassigned), and thus the most decorated Auror in recent history was currently shouting into a modified “smart phone.” Viktor was quite certain that phones were not alive, so he did not understand how they could be intelligent. He found that when it came to Muggles, it was best not to think too deeply into things. “THIS IS NIKE,” Viktor bellowed into the thin, rectangular case. “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”

movie night Rating: Teen -- Words: 2.5k -- Status: Complete -- Summary: However, they had barely started Howl’s Moving Castle before Yuuri wondered if he had made a mistake. "What a fascinating concept! What spells do you suppose Howl is using to keep his, er, moving structure up?" Viktor refused to call it a "castle." A terrible mistake. ❤❤❤❤❤ Words: 21.2k Status: Complete Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Harry Potter AU; Aurors; Crossdressing ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: In this series, Yuuri and Viktor are both badass Aurors during a moment of downtime at the beginning of the story - Viktor forced into being a field-tester for the Research Department, and Yuuri recovering from his first, long-term undercover mission. What's really unique about this story is Yuuri's situation and what lead to it. He has taken on a new persona to help ease himself back into his life. Yuuri is amazing and adorable no matter what gender he is, and here he is both. I love how comfortable he is as a woman or a man and how his mannerisms change (and remain the same) across the two. There are a lot of misunderstandings during the first half of the fic - Viktor slowly falling for "Yukina", who reminds him of another Japanese man he was charmed by a year before - but eventually Yuuri opens up completely to Viktor and they become partners. So, so wonderful and sweet! The 2nd fic is a cute, little side-story after they've become partners, where Yuuri tries to show Viktor a Miyazaki movie... and proceeds to regret it once he realizes Viktor's one of those people who must always question and/or nitpick a movie out loud while watching. Haha. The ending where they re-enact an early scene from the movie is horrendously adorable though.

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powerandpathos (@agapaic)

Excelsior by powerandpathos (@agapaic)

Rating: Explicit Words: 77.4k Status: Work In Progress Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: (Mostly) Canon compliant; Except homophobia exists; Post season 1; Pair skating; Lesbian OCs ❤❤❤❤❤ Summary: Yuuri has won the Grand Prix, which was everything he thought he wanted. But for Yuuri, an end to skating could mean an end with Viktor, and when two female skaters approach them with an offer that could make them or break them, they are put to the test more than ever. Can they rise higher than they already have? ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: Another "homophobia exists within the canon universe" story that is still unique and interesting with how it handles the characters. Yuuri and Viktor are approached by a pair of female lovers who want to do a pair skate with each other at an official ISU competition, and they want Yuuri and Viktor to be their pair skating partners to get them to that point. Yuuri is an idealistic activist who never even really knew he was one until given the opportunity to make a difference. He can be a bit ignorant, following his heart on the matter and not fully understanding what he's sacrificing until in the thick of it and starting to be overwhelmed, but he's brave and kind and his heart is in the right place. He can be a bit preachy when it comes to Viktor's choice to support from the sidelines, but still loves him and tries to find a middle ground. Viktor is the pragmatic realist on the other hand, knowing that supporting this endeavor will cause him to lose his prestige and gold medals. Initially he's insensitive about Yuuri's choice, but eventually agrees to support him but in ways that won't cause him to sacrifice his hard-earned legacy. It's not that he doesn't believe in the cause, but rather he's not willing to give up that much. I personally enjoy this taken on Viktor and find his opinion a valid one, even though Yuuri's lines up more with my own ideals. Eventually, he does fully join and support the cause when things become more personal, but before then is a lot of struggle between the two to find middle ground and maintain a supportive relationship. It's a realistic struggle that I'm certain many couples can sympathize with, and I appreciate the story for going there. This story's greatest strength is the real-life issues, struggles, and reactions these characters face, and yet their desire to continue to support, fight, and love one another. It's a really great story that I hope powerandpathos decides to continue again some day in the future.

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proantagonist (@borntomake)

Drive

Rating: Explicit Words: 28.1k Status: Work In Progress Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Canon divergence; Road trips; Post Sochi GPF; Fluff; Feels; BFFs saving the day ❤❤❤❤❤ Summary: Yuuri remembers the Sochi Grand Prix banquet. He knows what he had the audacity to ask his idol, but that doesn't make it any less confusing when Victor Nikiforov shows up at Nationals two weeks later with a bouquet of roses in hand and a smile that doesn’t fool anyone. Victor has lost his drive and should be prepping for the European Championship instead of flying to Japan on a whim. After a crushing defeat at Nationals, Yuuri is in the midst of a crisis himself. Good thing they have their best friends – Phichit and Christophe – at their sides to keep them from falling apart. When Victor learns Yuuri must return to Detroit to finish college, he makes a rash decision to come to America with him. But why rush the journey? There's more than a week before classes start, dual existential crises to escape, and a budding romance to nurture. Time for a road trip. (A story in which two sets of best friends road trip across America together.) ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: Man, we aren't even to the road trip yet - we aren't even back in Detroit yet - and I'm already in love with this fic. proantagonist writes some of the best character interactions across all YOI fanfics - between Yuuri and Phichit, Yuuri and Victor, Yuuri and Chris, etc. And I am already so strongly invested in all four of the characters here. Chris' advice is halting Victor from his most unintentionally harshest commentary. Phichit is providing the emotional support that Yuuri needs at this time. And Victor and Yuuri are forming a connection earlier due to their friends' support. The latest chapter is my fave - they've pretty much had the entire beach scene conversation from episode 4, Victor has opened up about feeling lost at this moment in his life, Yuuri has an anxiety attack and snaps out all of his frustractions, Victor meets him in the middle, and they agree to help each other through their rough patches. Everybody is so supportive and wonderful, and I love such positive relationships. It's a sped-up version of their relationship from the anime with less miscommunication issues. And while I can definitely appreciate a slowburn, sometimes you just want to avoid a repeat of the same scenarios or the miscommunication tropes. That doesn't mean that there isn't a potential for more angst or miscommunication (I mean, there's always this fic's version of "Let's end this"), but everything is at a pretty healthy point currently. It warms my heart. And the roadtrip aspect just has the potential for so many more warm, supportive moments. I can't wait for more!

Winter Song Universe (Series, 2 works)

Winter Song Rating: Explicit -- Words: 156.5k -- Status: Complete -- Summary: Yuuri was aware that at some point — a moment in time he couldn’t quite place — Victor had become his boyfriend. There wasn’t a single instant when it happened. It was a slow awareness, as if Victor had silently been asking the question for months now, and Yuuri had been giving him the answer a little more with each passing day.

Falling (Victor's Story) Rating: Teen -- Words: 69.7k -- Status: Complete -- Summary: "What do you want me to be to you?" "I want you to be yourself." And wasn’t that just the funniest thing? This whole time, Victor had been trying to figure out which mask to wear to make Yuuri happy, when all he wanted was for Victor to take it off and show him the real person beneath. ❤❤❤❤❤ Words: 226.1k Status: Complete Relationship: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov Tags: Canon compliant; Post season 1; Scenes between episodes; Fluff; Smut ❤❤❤❤❤ Review: In a lot of ways, I consider this the essential companion fic to the series. The story takes care to be true to the canon material while fleshing out the characters and their relationships with each other more. It doesn't spend time rehashing what we already see in the series; instead it focuses on fleshing out the scenes between the episodes and after the end of season 1. The story mostly focuses on the developing romance between Victor and Yuuri and has a lot of very well-written smut and emotional hurt/comfort scenes. For those perhaps confused by some of the characters' actions or motivations in the series, this story provides one potential interpretation by a fan who has extensively written and thoughtfully considered many potential headcanons on her tumblr. It's clear she deeply cares about the characters to spend so much time analyzing the series. She takes a lot of care to remain faithful to the series, while still fleshing out the Victuuri romance. It's a beautiful story.

#Victuuri fic recs #YOI fic recs #P authors

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coldtomyflash · 6 years

Note

So I've been following your tumblr for a while now, and I've seen everything you've had to say about the crossover. I should preface this by saying that I am white with no Jewish ancestry. So I suppose my place isn't the question, because this does not affect me directly. However: I do not understand how showing Nazis as villains is a bad thing. I am not questioning that it hurts people. I've seen that it clearly does. What I question is "Why?" I don't grasp why Nazi=villains is a bad thing.

I’m going to be bluntly honest here. I had to mentally dismiss about ten blithe responses to this that were on the order of that now-infamous tweet “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.” I know that’s not what you’re saying, but I struggled, when I read this, to grasp how you could say that you see the harm (hurt) it is causing and yet don’t see that it’s wrong.

And how it could be true that you’ve actually read this post, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and some of the other stuff I’ve put in my tag for the crossover, and yet still be confused about this. And one of those posts, mind you, explicitly explains why it’s more than just “they made Nazis the villains of the crossover”.

And part of why I was tempted to answer blithely is because, given all that, I think it’s been explained time and again what the issue is here, and how it goes so far beyond the fact that them making Nazis the villains is the problem. The other part is because to re-explain it, to break it down to its elemental components? That takes time - hours from the time I started thinking about this to the time I’ll be done writing it - and energy - in terms of research and resources. I’m doing a lot of labour for you, emotionally and physically here. And part of me wants to shirk that labour, to put it on you to do it.

But… I can’t. Because I can answer your question, at least from my own perspective, and it is an important one to answer. Because before I understood just how much my own privilege impacted how I see the world and started to actively push back against it and expand my perception, I probably wouldn’t have fully understood either.

So I can’t explain this as eloquently or succinctly as some other people. And I can’t explain this from the perspective of someone who’s directly being harmed by this crossover (because I am also white and a gentile). And I’m sure many people people who are direct targets of Nazis would tell you that “isn’t it enough that it is harming me?” and they would be right, full stop. That would be an acceptable answer.

But I’m going to do my best to give you the understanding I genuinely think you’re looking for, allowing for the fact that others may have more to add or clarify, and allowing for the fact that my answer is inherently limited by my privilege.

I trust that you’ll read to the end, even though it’s long. And if at the end you still can’t understand, or you think I’m exaggerating, then I urge you to think on this, to sleep on it, and to read more and more about it. And even without understanding, to respect the voices of the Jewish (and gay, and Rroma) people who’ve spoken out about these problems time and again when things like this crop up. Amplify those voices, even if you can’t see the long-term ramifications of why this is ‘Bad’ yet.

First, the issue here cannot be reduced to “Nazis are the villains of the crossover.” Because that [.] at the end is actually a […]. It really goes like this: Nazis are the villains of the crossover…

… and the premise is based on the notion that Nazis won and have world domination.

… and that premise implies that Nazis are so powerful that with a bit of ‘bad luck’ in history, Nazis could have won.

… and that premise contributes to the mythic aggrandizing of Nazism that makes so many people Nazi sympathizers or apologists.

… and many heroes doppelgangers are Nazis.

… and Jewish-coded heroes’ doppels are Nazis.

… and a Jewish-coded hero who came to earth at age 12 and was raised on better principles than that still became a Nazi.

… and that notion spits on the original intent of the Jewish creators of these characters.

… and all of this implies that “good and heroic” people can still turn out to be Nazis, undermining the very message heroes should send. (Being a hero only when it’s easy is not being a hero at all. Doing the right thing when it’s against what society enforces is what makes them heroes.)

… and this turns the heroes that people (including Jewish people) look up to for hope and comfort into symbols of hatred and genocide.

… and the Nazis interrupt an interracial marriage between a Black woman and a Jewish-coded hero (who is canonically Jewish in parallel media like the DCEU) for the sake of drama.

… and the Nazi doppelganger outfits are designed to look ~*sexy*~ to an uncritical viewer.

… and the ~*sexy*~ doppel outfits include genuine Nazi symbols from WW2, which are pretty damn triggering to a lot of people. (But yet no sign of a swastika because that would most likely turn those uncritical viewers too far off).

… and they’re ~*sexy*~ enough that people already want to cosplay that Nazi and buy merchandise of that Nazi paraphernalia.

… and the promo photos show that a Jewish woman and a Black woman are going to be targeted specifically, thus capitalizing directly off threats and violence to actual historical victims of the Nazis.

… and the promo photos treat Wellsobard (many people’s fave villain) as an allusion to Dr. Mengele, one of the most infamously disgusting and reprehensible people to ever exist.

… and the promos show us images of a gay character and actor wearing a ‘Pink Triangle’ once again being used as a symbol of hate and shame.

… and there is a good chance that a Jewish character (Martin) is going to get killed off during this crossover.

…and the storyline is likely focused on the love story between a white gentile and a Jewish woman who gets targeted by his evil Nazi doppelganger.

… and the shows already have a history of antisemitism by putting a Jewish woman in a gas chamber (wtf Arrow), killing a Jewish one-off villain with radiation in a compressed chamber (Atom Smasher, wtf The Flash), erasing the Jewish identity of some characters (e.g., Ray Palmer) and failing to mention another’s (Martin’s) in three seasons (c’mon Legends), and no-doubt more.

… and … this list goes on. It really does. This is not exhaustive.

And you might be tempted to think “but if the Nazis are defeated, and shown unequivocally to be the bad guys, then isn’t it okay? Isn’t it historically accurate that the Nazis would target the Jewish and Black and LGBTQ characters and wear Nazi symbols anyway? Many of the main producers are Jewish or gay, they’re not trying to say anything good about Nazis.”

So this is where we have to talk about narrative framing, implicit associations, and sociological implications.

The concept of framing in psychology deals with how we can present the exact same information in different ways and get vastly different responses. How we present information, even paired down to simple basic statistics, massively impacts how people internalize and encode that information and therefore how they respond to it.

In narrative, we know that how we frame a character’s motives and background influence how they’ll be perceived by the audience. So many heroes in action movies kill and murder their way through a scene, but their crimes are justified by the narrative frame, whereas the villain’s won’t be. Or in order to humanize villains and make them sympathetic, the narrative may shift the viewer’s paradigm by re-framing the information: yes this villain is an asshole who hurt your favourite character, but they’re doing it because of [x].

So when we look at the crossover, we have to interrogate how it’s being framed. Are the Nazis villains? Yes? Good, check. … But the Nazis are also doppelgangers of our beloved heroes?… Okay, right off the bat, that’s bad.

That will make some people inherently sympathize with the Nazis doppels and like them. We have an emotional and automatic response to these faces, to these people, that is going to work faster and parallel to how our conscious brain responds to them, and many viewers (those who don’t have an automatic and massively negative knee-jerk response to the premise or the symbolism already built in) will have to be consciously and continuously inhibiting any decision to feel some positive sense toward those characters, and many viewers aren’t going to put in that conscious effort, especially not while the narrative is so distracting.

(For the record, if you consciously create this negative association it’ll become automatic. We aren’t born hating Nazi symbolism, we encode associations to it, and if you continuously encode negative ones, then you’ll hate other things associated with that symbolism too!)

So now in the crossover, by how our brain creates associations, if we have a positive association with that hero, there is an association now between that hero and their doppelganger, and that doppel and Nazi symbolism. That creates a link between positive feelings and Nazi symbolism. Say what? Look, our brains are simple in their associations and categorizations. There’s ways around this, but if we leave these associations unchecked, this can happen. Especially for viewers who won’t recognize and understand the symbolism like the ‘SS’ on Overgirl’s chest (i.e., younger viewers who are most impressionable and who the education system has seriously failed, and privileged viewers who weren’t taught to have strong negative associations to these less well known Nazi symbols).

And we already know this is happening. This is literally why we have articles on popular press outlets saying they want to buy merch of Overgirl (Supergirl’s Nazi doppel)’s outfit, which is literally emblazoned across the chest with Nazi symbols. People are saying they want to buy actual Nazi merch and the crossover hasn’t even aired yet. Just… let that sink in for a sec?

So.

That’s one reason why making heroes as Nazis is bad, and why making Nazis sexy is bad. Because of the automatic associations our brains make with those beloved characters, and even with attraction. If we find something attractive or beautiful, we tend to have automatic associations with that as ‘good’. Beautiful = moral is one of the stronger associations we have and it’s reinforced by media time and again. (Conversely to ugly = evil, or evil = queer. And female villains are often designed for sex appeal but it’s misogynistic anyway because it deals with a lot of bullshit about feminine purity and evil seductresses, and still conflates these associations our brains are going to make).

And look, it’s 2017. We have Richard Spencer the literal Neo Nazi on TV and articles about how this ‘alt-right’ leader is sexy and cool. We don’t need DCTV to jump on the bandwagon of making Nazis seem “cool”. Human beings experience approach motivations toward things we find attractive. The only option is to experience disgust and anger in response to people like Spencer and characters like Overgirl, or else we may fall prey to the implicit associations put forth by the media itself.

And that’s the problem: the media (the DCTV shows) are putting these associations there and forcing the viewers to work against them if we want to watch this and not come out of it as worse people for it. It’s designed to be entertaining and thrilling and they spent millions of dollars making it that way, and so much of that budget went to making the villains what they are.

So it’s not enough for them to say that Nazis are the villains or even to show them getting their asses kicked if they set the Nazis up to start as all-powerful world dominators. It’s not enough to have these characters say “I hate Nazis” when they show their doppels as Nazis and capable of those atrocities.

And if you’re starting to think “there’s an important message here. About how Nazis can look classically attractive but we shouldn’t be taken in by that, and about nature versus nurture and how we need to actively push back against evil within ourselves or else, in another dimension or if things had gone different, even we could be evil.”

That’s… tempting to argue. It’s an important message, to be sure. But given the stylized outfits and triggering imagery and the way they’ve set up the narrative, I don’t anticipate that’s the message we’re getting here. I mean, I think it’ll come up, most definitely, but I don’t think it’s what the viewer is ultimately going to take away from this. Not in the “I need to look within myself and push back against my own biases” sort of way. That’s not the way they’ve framed this.

And for a comparison point, if you want a narrative that says “White supremacists are all evil, don’t get taken in by one who seems ~reasonable~ and looks normal, and see what these modes of thought actually look like” then watch the movie Imperium (2016) and see how they handle it. (And then compare that to American History X, which apparently some Neo Nazis like, even though it’s inherently anti-Nazi, because it paints them as being powerful and is full of the visual symbolism they uphold).

Because the way they’re currently framing the CW crossover, it’s really just about amping up the drama? And they’ve capitalizing on intergenerational trauma of the Jewish community and the collective trauma of the Holocaust to the gay community. And I’ve said elsewhere that I have no doubt the intent was good, but good intentions aren’t enough.

If the producers don’t understand the damage they can cause by making ~*sexy*~ Nazis literally capable of world-domination (they’re not, they never were, they were superstitious and put genocide and hate over actual scientific advancements and their disgusting experiments on humans didn’t teach us near as much as people pretend they did), and re-writing heroes as Nazis (which, if anyone recalls, created a huge outcry when Marvel wrote Captain America as a Nazi) then regardless of their intent, they need to rethink their storytelling. Or if they really think that the right way to make a statement about the rise of Neo Nazism in the wake of the Trump election is to put the ‘SS’ symbol on Supergirl’s chest and make Eobard into Dr. Mengele, to recycle imagery of actual Nazis from WW2 and put a pink triangle on a gay man’s chest in 2017…. they don’t get it. Whatever their intent and regardless of where they’re coming from, they don’t fucking get it.

Sorry, I’m getting worked up. My point is that if they wanted to make a statement about things today, there were a million better ways to do it, and I could list at least 5 off the top of my head right now. But those would be more controversial, harder to pitch and sell, and not as stylized or easy to promote. So stylish Nazis is what we got. And that’s just… such a problem, including literally the ‘stylish’ part of that sentence.

Nazism and white supremacy are inherently performative. Nazis were all about the #aesthetic. They aligned themselves with famous designers for their uniforms. They had the villainous dramatic flair, and they used it to their advantage. Having that in the crossover might be historically accurate, but it falls right into what the Nazis themselves do: make themselves look good to amp up this notion that they are good.

And a problem with depicting them this way (instead of making them pathetic, vacuous, hate-filled to the point of self-defeat, self-important to the point of being ultimately silly and sad, punching down their notions of grandeur) is that actual Nazis like it. They like being portrayed as sexy, powerful, and cool. And depictions like that help them with their recruiting. “Look, isn’t Overgirl sexy? She’s like our mascot. They know that when we take back this country from foreigner invaders, this is how it’s gonna look.” Because they say when, not if, and they recruit by framing themselves as the victim in a struggle against invaders and usurpers. Make no mistake, white supremacy is a victim complex of untold proportions and having attractive, fan-favorited characters championing their cause helps spread their message.

But let’s get back to the crossover’s broader sociological message and stop talking about actual modern-day Nazis for a sec.

Nazis have been the villains in DCTV before. On Legends in 1942, and with Damien Darhk (again, actual literal Nazi, and again, the narrative has made him “entertaining” in the eyes of some viewers and keeps bringing him back over and over as a villain?). Nazis have also been the villain in pop culture for half a century. Indiana Jones. Star Wars comes to mind in particular. They’re not shy about the fact that their villains are explicitly based on Nazis and the Nazi regime. Which is working out so well considering how many people are mooning over Kylo Ren when he’s a genocidal fascist who murdered his own father (”but it’s okay because he’s just misunderstood, and by that I mean I find the actor attractive and I, too, have anger and angst so I identify with him, this Nazi”). At least in Star Wars it’s figurative, I guess?

And the thing about these narratives, the problem with these narratives, is that they fictionalize Nazis. This isn’t necessarily a reason to vehemently boycott these media or rail against them, but just, as a general phenomenon that’s happened over time, many people - and by this I mostly mean privileged people and people who don’t feel particularly targeted by Nazism - tend to think of Nazis as this cinematic enemy. This prop, this simple narrative device. This way of commenting on the past more than the present, or alluding to something about the present as a mere metaphor, and that metaphor tends to go over the heads of half the viewers anyway because most people aren’t taught to critically evaluate media except in high school english classes that no one takes seriously.

And fictionalized Nazis don’t look like real Nazis in the 21st century. So when real Nazis do gather, many people don’t realize just how bad that is, just how violent their coming together is going to be, and just why need to fight back against such demonstrations and against letting Nazis have any space or voice in our society. It’s like that “this is fine” dog cartoon where he doesn’t see an issue until the house burns around him? Making Nazis into a fictional narrative device can make it harder for many people to actually see the flames burning around them, because they’ve been taught that “real” fires look different than the ones already starting to burn their house down.

Finally, I’ll just come back to point number 1: this is hurting people. In a way that going to 1942 and letting Mick Rory roast Nazis didn’t. And as privileged individuals, we have a responsibility to call out and call attention to the issues in this media and to amplify others’ voices. But as human beings more generally? We also owe a duty of compassion to others.

Sure, there are a lot of people who aren’t hurt by this, but there are a lot who are. Who are shaking and sick to their stomachs and afraid for what’s happening in 2017 and how the tides of the world are turning. Who worry that this crossover is just another example of how casual people are about Nazism and who worry about everything I’ve listed here in detail as the broader effects of media like this and its current framing, even if they don’t have the language to articulate it all in one place like this. People who feel these effects, and feel the target on their back.

We owe those people some compassion, yeah? So when they say it hurts, we don’t need to say: why? That can come later. Our first question should instead be: how can I help?

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recentanimenews · 6 years

Text

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2017

Welcome back to Staff Picks, wherein we list our favorite anime, manga, and video games of 2017. This time we’re living up to the second half of our name with video games, featuring lists from Ani-Gamers Podcast co-hosts David Estrella and Evan Minto. As usual our six choices are hardly able to capture the many great games that came out this year, but they provide a glimpse into a year that was startlingly good for the medium. Nintendo launched the Switch, which set sales records and provided a platform for a number of fantastic, at times generation-defining games, some of which made it onto our lists. Indie games explored mental health, classic animation, and outer space while major studios (and one particular indie darling) unleashed massive open worlds and raucous online experiences. Without further ado, our picks for the best video games of 2017.

David Estrella

#3: Doki Doki Literature Club

Doki Doki Literature Club is a game-changing, earth-shaking, cataclysmic event that all visual novel readers would hope to live through. It’s exactly as cheap, cruel, and malicious as you anticipate … until suddenly it’s not, the ground disappears below your feet, and you re-evaluate whatever brought you into this position in the first place.

That is to say, why are you playing Doki Doki Literature Club?

I cannot speak about this game in terms milder than complete, ecstatic passion.

It is a fully realized expression of the medium, of what it means to be a visual novel, and a glimpse at the frontiers yet to be explored. Doki Doki Literature Club is the story of a generation buried underneath mountains of digital garbage, interpersonal failures, and the burdensome ghost of a future — the lie that we are all on the right track and that we are all going to be fine.

Doki Doki Literature Club careens into the boundaries. Occasionally this ride teeter-totters over the edge, and it’s only because of how far it pushes against what is safe and acceptable in our media that the empathy found in the resolution reaches so deep into my soul.

Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel about joining a high school literature club. You can choose to romance your childhood best friend, a pink-haired tsundere character, or a mature, mysterious beauty. Help Club President Monika and the rest of the girls make a big debut for this fledgling club at the school festival.

Doki Doki Literature Club is my Number 3 Staff Pick in Games for Ani-Gamers, but it is Number 1 in my heart.

#2: NieR: Automata

To reiterate what I said on Ani-Gamers Podcast #088, Yoko Taro’s sad robot game is a title few expected to succeed outside of those in the know. I was already prepared to like it (and I did, quite a lot), so the real story here is how deeply it resonated with the outsiders — those with no qualifications in action-heavy, beat-em-up, hack-n-slash games; with those who haven’t followed Yoko Taro’s drunken nihilistic oeuvre since Drakengard (2003); with those who came into this game with no greater motivation other than being extremely horny for 2B. (Is this supposed to be 2D?)

Automata, a mess of a game, is poorly matched in direct competition against Nintendo’s masterfully crafted Breath of the Wild. Zelda is untouchable when it comes to fun, but in terms of raw anger and frustration slathered with cold, gelatinous scoops of depression, Automata makes a decisive victory.

Why would anyone want to spend 40 hours playing a game that sets out to make the player miserable? Was I really miserable during it all? I can’t answer that succinctly in 200-300 words. Gamers must find the answer for themselves.

Many games are fun. Few are sad. Even fewer are sad and developed by Platinum Games with aspirations of tertiary mainstream success on PS4 and PC. Only one beautiful, bittersweet game blindsided the critics, astounded the bean counters at Square Enix, and made the Gamers cry.

Hint: It wasn’t Final Fantasy XV.

#1: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

OK, yes, here it is, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — the easiest and most boring selection a human being could make for their GotY 2017. I actually just want to take this time to talk more about Doki Doki Literature Club since I’m sure Evan will effuse enough praise for this game in his own write-up for the both of us.

Personally, my favorite Doki Doki Literature Club girl is Monika. I know it’s a weird pick since you don’t get to spend much time with her, but that sort of thing is pretty common with visual novels, isn’t it? There’s always a character that gets the short end of the stick and it almost feels like the devs forgot to write a route for what could be a really interesting character. Sayori hangs on the reader’s self-insert character like her life depends on it and Yuri can get a little overbearing. That just leaves Natsuki but I’m not too hot on the tsundere archetype.

I was hoping there was a secret mechanic with the poetry writing segments in the game to unlock Monika’s route, but I guess no one else has found anything like that. The options to share poems with Monika are there, so hopefully Team Salvato is intending on implementing an update that will let Monika Maniacs such as myself spend more time with her.

Breath of the Wild is the Game of the Year, but truthfully, all I need in this life is Monika.

Evan Minto

#3: Night in the Woods

In 2017 it seemed like everything was political, and for good reason — in the US, the election of Donald Trump added fuel to a growing culture war between left and right. So it’s not all that surprising that indie darling Night in the Woods, an adventure game about talking animals, comes with a clear leftist political message and takes a side in the generational divide between millennials and baby boomers. What originally attracted me to the game was its simplistic, paper-cutout visual style and its hilariously sardonic writing. The characters have a rapid-fire, always-on sense of humor and a penchant for dorky self-deprecation that accurately captures the irony-drenched reality of being a young adult in the 2010s. Its main character, Mae Borowski, drops out of college and returns home to her Rust Belt town to find her favorite haunts closing up shop and her friends stuck in dead-end jobs. It’s a little like Scott Pilgrim, in that it’s a nerdy dramedy that explores the things that young people do to form connections and find meaning while beset by economic hardship and mental illness. Plus the characters play in a band where they perform original songs like “Die Anywhere Else” and “Pumpkin Head Guy” via a rhythm mini-game, so I was destined to like this game. The ending is vague, evocative, and explicitly political, but what will stick with me about Night in the Woods is its dynamic and lovable characters, many of whom remind me of my own friends back home.

#2: Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo understands fun like no one else. For proof, look no further than Super Mario Odyssey, a video game that starts off fun and never stops, even after you beat Bowser and save Princess Peach. Mario’s got all his usual tricks, but this time he also has a talking hat named Cappy who can possess enemies and inanimate objects to aid in their globe-trotting adventure. That Odyssey takes you out of the Mushroom Kingdom is in itself is nothing new; Mario went to space in Galaxy! But Odyssey feels fresh thanks to a charming tendency for surrealism and the bravery to break from the visual conventions of a 36-year-old franchise. There’s a kingdom with dinosaurs, one with a city full of normally proportioned humans, and even one made entirely of food. The game design itself is masterful, with the Cappy mechanics adding a new layer of discovery and technical skill that starts simple but grows as players progress and find new objects with which to interact. Meanwhile, dozens of Moons (the equivalent of the Stars in old games) are strewn across each level, hidden behind simple puzzles, complex platforming challenges, and everything in between. Most importantly, Odyssey rewards exploration and experimentation by reducing punishments and discontinuities and hiding coins and Moons in unique, hard-to-find locations. I’ve been out of the Mario game for a couple years, but what a joyous return this is!

#1: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In any other year, Mario Odyssey would be my Game of the Year, but alas, 2017 was the Year of Zelda. Breath of the Wild is easily one of the best Zelda games of all time, even rivaling my love of Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time. Nintendo boldly threw out many of the 3-D Zelda conventions that have been around since Ocarina, allowing free-roaming exploration across mountains, rivers, and seas, with no predetermined order to the dungeons. The game’s massive world is filled with over 100 mini-dungeons, nearly 1,000 environmental puzzles, and countless open-ended monster encounters. Tying it all together is a set of mechanics that interact and resonate with each other in unexpected ways, allowing for seemingly endless experimentation. Weapons can start fires, fires create updrafts of wind, bombs are carried by the wind, the list goes on. Breath of the Wild captures the appeal of other open-world games but cuts out their tedium and stat-crunching nerdiness, leaving a pure sense of flow and a gnawing curiosity that makes it impossible to put down. In fact, it came out in March and I’m still discovering new items and locations as I approach 150 hours of gameplay. This is a fantasy adventure video game the way they were always meant to be, full of wide-eyed wonder and stunning beauty.

For more 2017 Staff Picks, check out Evan’s manga list and look out for our upcoming anime list!

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2017 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 11, 2018 at 5:26 AM.

By: David Estrella

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

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