#literally the only non-spoilery part of the whole chapter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

other-peoples-coats · 2 years

Text

Mando’a in BTMYBW part 2

Alright, so, welcome back to made up mando'a 101. The next chapter of Be that monster you been wanting (chapter 11) is about to go up, and this is, once again, the post where I break down all the word choices and kitbashed words I used in it.

Again, this is a post about linguistics and world building; you don't need to read this to understand the story. Mild spoilers for the chapter, plus a couple of details that will come up soon; nothing Hugely Spoilery, just, y'know, clarification on a couple of points mentioned in the chapter. (Tea. It's the tea.)

Previous post on this nonsense here; basic overview recap of what I'm working with is that there's ~three main dialects of Mando'a, on a sliding scale of 'precise wording and complicated grammatical structure' to 'highly contextual and simplified in the extreme grammar'. Mando’a refernced comes from both mando’a.org and the great big spreadsheet of doom; mostly the later, tbh.

Ok, disclaimers and explanation over, let's get to the kitbashed mando'a. Once again I'm breaking this down by line/chunk of mando'a, skipping things I don't think need explanation.

So, like last time, I'm gonna do mando'a - literal translation - actual translation, and then break down any other words or whatever.

Kaysh ne'ven'hiibir jekai.

Literally, this is They will not take bait; functionally, it's He's not going to take the bait. Qui-gon misses the word bait, but guesses it anyway from context and being suspicious (for, to be fair, good reason).

Again, Kaysh is the all purpose non-genered Mando'a pronoun, ne' is the negative prefix, ven' is the prexfix for will (becoming will not or won't with the ne' added on). Hiibir is take/pick up, thus, we get will-not-take in one awkward phrase. Jerkai is bait; I figured that given Qui-gon learnt what little Kalevean Mando'a he knows doing negotiation, awkwardly, he probably didn't come across the word.

Elek, haa'banar.

Literal translation is yes, come to pass — functionally, this is the same as Yes he will, but haa'banar is more solid and much rarer in use. It's being used here by Satine as a 'He will take the bait (because he's a Jedi)', like 'if you drop a cup it will fall (because gravity applies).' Very much a statement of belief — Qui-gon's a jedi, therefore he will, sooner or later, go investigate the obvious shiny mystery they are dangling in front of him, even if anyone else might be like 'none of my business'.

Naryc, ne'ven. Mhi as'gaanir sol'tan Jetii meg ne'lendat uhiibur.

Literal translation : No, won't. We get unique Jedi who not-target puller.

Functionally, No, he's not going to. We got the one Jedi who's not an interfering busybody.

So, ne'ven is actually grammatically, uh, nonsense — it's a fragment, and should be technically attached to like, an actual word, like the last time we saw it.

However, I figure that in at least the more contextual dialects, there's at least a bit of — y'know, weird grammatical backwards creation of words. Thus, we end up with a won't that becomes a sort of contextual negation of the whole idea that Qui-gon is going to take the bait and investigate the east wing. English does this all the time — strictly grammatically, it's wrong, but almost no one speaks entirely grammatically correct, even less when they're chatting with their siblings.

And, of course, Bo-Katan is slightly less Kalevan influenced in dialect than Satine, which makes her more likely to do things like use the mando'a equivalent of wouldn't've than her sister. Hence also why she's a little less precise about tense; technically, all of her words are in simple present tense, instead of even simple past, but the meaning is a contextually past one (we got rather than we have a jedi who's not—).

Sol'tan is, like I mentioned last time, one, but in the sense of unique or only. Bo's emphasising that out of all the possible jedi, they've apparently got the single one that's not immediately running to solve the shiny puzzle.

meg is the catch all mando'a for which/what/that/who; it's not exactly Qui-gon's fault he guessed wrong, because it's straight up the same word for about four options.

ne'lendat uhiibur is a kitbash - lenedat is target, and uhiibir is pull + the ur suffix for performer of the action. This is a bit of made up slang — it's an irritating, interfering person, someone who pulls on your (shooting) target, and thus fucks up your shot. The negative ne' is applied to the whole phrase; thus, Bo's complaining that Qui-gon isn't an interfering shithead.

Kih'aka'daab, Kaysh ven'taabir tok'ad briirud Coruscanta tay'haatir ibac mhi cuy tratyc besom'la kihya. Briirud jorhaa'ure'tsad ven'parer akay ibac, kry'ad edur val cuyi, vaal—

Literal translation: Small-task-down, he will-march retreat Coruscant report that we are collapsing lout village. Republic will-wait until that, corpse gnawers they are, while—

Functionally, I translated this as If nothing else, he'll still go back to Coruscant and tell them that we're just a backwater about to collapse. The Republic'll wait for that, vultures they are, and in the meantime—

So. To start with, Mando'a doesn't seem to have a phrase equivalent to at least or at the minimum or anything similar that I could find, so I…made one up. Kih' is still the prefix for small, aka is task, and daab is down — I'm calling this one of those fossilised phrases that's made its way into general use despite being, y'know, grammatically bizarre; much like a minced phrase that out lived the context it was minced from (english examples include: caboodle, as in kit and caboodle, which was minced from the borrowed dutch phrase kitte en boedel).

Functionally, this does actually work as both if nothing else, at minimum, and suchlike; Qui-gon's not actually translating it wrong, he's just not familiar with all of the uses of the phrase and doubting himself. This is a not uncommon thing to stumble on when you're not fluent in a language; Qui-gon's hedging his bets here.

Again, ven' is the prefix for will, and taabir is technically footed, but like I said last time, I'm using it as a variable word. Here Qui-gon's understanding it as a fairly close to literal interpretation of walked, though in context it's more like hurry or run.

Briirud is retreat — Satine is emphasising that once they're done, Qui-gon will be running back to the Republic ASAP. Derogatory, in the same vein as run home with your tail between your legs. Kalevean wouldn't use briirud except in, well, exactly this sort of context — not just go back (wherever), but run away; the other two dialects would use it in a slightly wider context, but given the rest of the sentence it's still pretty derogatory and dismissive.

tay'haatir is report — literally, it's package-truth verbed. Very much a double duty here; contextually, Kalevala usually would use this for report like give a news report, while death watch would use it for, y'know, give a military report. Different implications, similar meaning, Satine is kind of striking a middle point.

tratyc besom'la kihya - ok, so this is another kitbashed phrase. Literal translation is collapsing loutish village. Tratyc is 'in a state of collapse', besom is lout+ 'la suffix for adjective (as in, describing the village), and kihya is village, I assume from kih' (small) + what seems to be the root word related to home/living places/shelter of some kind, ya — see yaim (home), yai (womb/belly), yam (building), etc.

Sidebar — there's probably some cultural nuance in that everything about the home seems to be very much the belly or womb of whatever, but, uh, that's about where we run into the very fucked up totally opposing canon ideas that Mandalorians both have no feelings about gender and are wholly onboard with gender equality, and also value boys much higher than girls and are generally pretty misogynistic in phrasing when it comes to female related words. (it gets pretty yikes. The similarity between the word for woman [dala] and the word for sheath [dalab, which seems a lot like woman+possesive b suffix] is, uh. more than a bit not good.)

I'm not doing that, and I'm not getting into that, so. Y'know. It's there, I know, everything about mando'a and mandalorians is on a sliding scale of fucked up implications, I'm making up words in a fake nonfunctional language so I'm choosing to eject that part of it.

Anyway! loutish village I have used as a sort of catch all phrase for, y'know, shitty backwater, with the bonus implication that it's rough and kind of a surprise that it's still standing. Like that town that got taken over by libertarians and then immediately developed a bear problem.

Functionally, Satine is saying that if nothing else, Qui-gon is going to report back to the Republic that Mandalore is a collapsing tire fire they should stay the hell away from, lest that tirefire expand to the Republic. This ship is fuckin' sinking, do not board, look, see all this fucked up shit happening! waves evidence.

briirud jorhaa'urne'tsad - another kitbash. Mando'a doesn't have a distinction between the Republic and the Jedi, and 1) I needed one plus 2) Satine, of all people, would draw a distinction between them, particularly in this context.

Briirud is circle, jorhaa'ir is speak or talk (like having a conversation, becomes jorhaa'ur as in talkers or the people talking, -ne is the superlative, and 'tsad is group. So, we end up with the group of people who talk in circles the most, which, if you asked any Mandalorian and got a polite answer (somehow), would just be to reflect how the Republic Senate dome is round and has so many talking pods. The less polite but much more accurate answer would be that it's basically republic(derogatory), and referencing how the republic are a bunch of two faced fast talking lying rat sucking scummy bastards.

Next few are direct from the sheet, plus a little grammar changes (ven' for will, mostly), and then we have kry'ad edur, which is literally corpse nibbler but I have coined as a kind of equivalent to vultures, in the derogatory sense.

val cuyi, So, this is all from the sheet, but I'm mostly pointing out that once again, cuyi is being used here by Satine as an emphasis — not just that the Republic are vultures, but that everyone knows they're vultures, and the Republic will wait for Mandalore to collapse before coming to pick over the corpse instead of facing them in a fair fight (because they're vultures).

vaal— while. This is a dangling preposition — very formal Mando'a wouldn't use this, but Satine's just chatting with Bo, and trailing off. One of the things I'm doing my best with is to make what speech there is actually sound, y'know, like people talking, and that means fucking with grammar a lot more than technically correct.

Akay vaal, mhi cuy nari tegaanalir'an ash'ad ret'yc. Ni suvarir.

Literal translation is Until while, we are saving anyone possible. I understand.

Functionally, I went with In the meantime, we're sheltering anyone we can. I know.

So, Akay vaal does literally mean until while, but I've used it as a phrase that's sort of — until [whatever] happens, [x] is being done/happening — so, until [my dishwasher is fixed], [I am washing dishes by hand].

In this case, it's a linking phrase following on from Satine's statement about the Republic waiting for mandalore to collapse — thus, until [the republic stops waiting for mandalore to collapse], while [mandalore is sheltering who they can].

mhi cuy is we are, and Bo is very much leaning into the Kalevean dialect. She's just chatting with her sister here, and it's, y'know, not a fun topic, but it's also not horrifically traumatising and causing her to slip back into deathwatch dialectal habits.

This is, incidentally, why Qui-gon is having an easier time translating things; they're speaking mostly like kalevalans, which means he's more familiar with the phrasing and structure of sentences, and is also not having to guess so much based on contextual clues.

nari tegaanalir'an is the present progressive of save or rescue — ie, saving or rescuing. Interestingly, this seems to be possibly derived from the+catch (verb), which…kind of makes sense? I guess?? Anyway, this is a word Qui-gon would have zero reason to know, and works very nicely as a word that changes the meaning of a sentence. (It's not all world building, sometimes it's just author's convenience.)

ash'ad — literally anyone, rather than everyone, which is anade; Bo's not saying they're managing to save everyone, just anyone they can manage to save. Very precise wording here — on the whole, BTMYBW is built on extremely precise word choices from a bunch of people.

Ni suvarir - literally, I understand, functionally, more like I know. The kind of sighed agreement that you know you're doing what you can but wish you could be doing more or know it's not really enough, even if it's all you can do. Another fractional sentence; Bo's speaking far more Kalevean than deathwatch, with the use of Ni not even as emphasis, just as part of the sentence fragment.

Tion'bor borarir keenir gayi'kartay be briirud jorhaa'ure'tsad nari banar'an?

Literal translation is How work infiltrate network of circle-talkers group happening?, and functionally is How's the work on hacking the Republic network going?

Tion'bor is how (direct from the sheet), with tion' being the prefix for questions in Mando'a.

keenir is infiltrate, but given the context, it's closer to hacking, given Satine's asking about infiltrating the Republic network. Kalevean would have a specific word, probably, but also likely wouldn't, uh, really use it much; Death watch mando'a would use keenir mostly to be like, infiltrate physically and probably would also have a specific word for hacking, like, idk, radio-infiltrate or something.

gayi'kartay be briirud jorhaa'ure'tsad — this is literally network/internet of (as in belonging to) the Republic, but in context is less like, The Holonet and more like, the Senate Network specifically — the difference between going online and getting into parliament's internal network.

Majyc ray'tuure, kih'aka'daab. Meh kaysh cuyi kih'alorii, ret tuur, al'—

Literal translation — Extra week, small-task-down. If he be small royal, maybe day, but—

Functional translation — Another week, at least. If he was a diplomat, maybe a day, but—

Majyc ray'tuure is technically extra week, but given the context, it very much functions as [another week] in response to Satine's implied question of [how long until the hacking is finished]. Contextual! Kalevean wouldn't do this, probably, but then again, extra/another is a fairly logical crossover, so. Chalk it up as one of those non-literal phrases that everyone understands and people who are not fluent are like 'uh what?'

kih'aka'daab again; this time, functioning as at least rather than at the minimum. This is a more Kalevean influenced use of the phrase; Qui-gon is, unfortunately for him, tripped up because he's not aware that there is more than one use of the phrase, and he can't make the two contexts make sense with only one meaning.

kih'alorii is a kitbash! literally, it means small royal, from kih'+aloryc but made into a noun (drop the 'cy, replace with ii). Royal in this context is sarcastic; small royal is basically senator/diplomat(derogatory). They're not an actual leader, but they're carrying themselves like one, is the implication — one of those people who swaggers around like they're a king but very much aren't.

Contrast this with naak'jorad, which is also diplomat, but literally means peace-talker.

al' is another dangling preposition — it should really be attached to a word, but again, people talk in fragments in real life, and it's a contextual sort of but [situation that means that's not happening]

So, the whole sentence is basically Bo-katan replying that it'll be at least a week until they finish hacking the republic network, because they're trying to hide it from Qui-gon, who is a Jedi and is more likely to notice Suspicious Shit than some random idiot senator/diplomat. And is less likely to be cowed by ooh scary mandos — this is why they've set up the enrichment puzzle shell game featuring the east wing (and…other things) to keep Qui-gon from noticing what they're really up to.

Dini'la jetii'dral osik. Kaysh ven'ulur mayen amyc.

Literally, this is Crazy force shit. They will detect anything changed.

Functionally, it's — well, pretty much the same, honestly. Crazy force shit. He'll sense anything different.

So, not a heap to break down here; most of it comes straight from the sheet. The couple of things to point out here are ven'ulur, which is ven'(will, you should recognize this by this point)+ulur (detect) — which is working here as a 'the force will give him Bad Vibes' — and amyc, which is changed, but also unnatural, which in this case is more like not meant to be there (in the republic system).

In context, it is very much a 'if we fuck up and leave literally any evidence about what we're doing, the Force will Tell Him, so it's taking so much longer because we can't be found out'.

Jorhaa'ir beh dini'la jetii'dral'jurur. Tion'jahaal kaysh?

Literal translation is speaking about crazy Force-carrier. How health they?

Functionally, this is Speaking of crazy Force sensitives. How are they?

Again, not a heap of non-standard words here. Dini'la is very specifically being used here — Bo is meaning both crazy as in that was a crazy plan and in the oh you are Mentally Ill kind of way. There are other words that could have been used, but she's both echoing Satine's phrase — crazy force shit to crazy force users, in terms of 'that stuff is bonkers' — and also in the, well, there's a specific force user they're talking about, and he is Mentally Unwell.

jetii'dral'jurur is jetii'dral (force)+jurir(carry/bear), verbed (hence the ur rather than ir ending). It's a phrase that's basically coming from 'people who have the Force', nonspecific to Jedi or Sith. There is a whole separate post to why mandalore refers to everything with the Force as some variation on Jetii (dar'jetii/jetii'dral/etc), but that post is not this post. So I'm gonna call it akin to how brands become the local word for the generic object — kleenex instead of tissue, hoover instead of vacuum, Jedi instead of whatever the previous mando'a word for force shit was.

And again, tion' is the question prefix, and this time it's attached to jahaal, which is health. Bo's asking how [they] are, but specifically asking how're they're doing, rather than what they're up to or anything.

Kaysh nari piru'an haran'behot.

Literal translation and functional translation: They are drinking hell-tea.

Yeah, Qui-gon was right in his translation. Nari piru'an is the present progressive of drink — thus, drinking — and you should know what kaysh is by now.

haran'behot is hell tea, which I am using as a hellish(ly spiced) tea. Very much not something most people drink for fun. Qui-gon's guess about it being the equivalent of a phrase is wrong — it is very much an actual tea that is just spiced to hell and back.

Very grounding, one might say. Very good to keep you in the moment, and not, perhaps, having any sort of dissociative trauma response. (baby-wan drank a lot of this during the year on the run.)

Ah. Ibac dush.

Literal + functional translation— ah, that bad.

I had considered actually using dushne, as the superlative form of bad, but honestly, that bad is a nice little bit of understatement. They both know that if their guest is drinking hell tea, things are pretty shit; the understatement is, if anything, an extra bit of emphasis.

Kih'aka'daab mhi ke'gyce Jetti nari be'chaaj'an ashi naak'jorad.

Literal translation — small-task-down we order jedi continuing-away other diplomat.

Functional translation — At least we told the Jedi to stay away from the other envoy.

Kih'aka'daab rides again! back to the at least; rip to Qui-gon, who has fully given up on working out what that means.

ke'gyce is order, and ke' is actually the imperative prefix — not just told, but Ordered.

nari be'chaaj'an is be'chaaj (away) in the present progressive, which is— kind of stay away, or continue [to be] away.

And here we have the other, canon word for diplomat — like I said earlier, compare naak'jorad, which is diplomat(complementary) and kih'alorii, which is diplomat(derogatory).

Bo's putting a brave face on this, but she's a little rattled, and so some of her grammar slips a bit. A bit more contextual, but it's a short sentence, and she is just chatting with her sister.

Nu'ru'cuyir ru'vegyc'ret ashi naak'jorad maan'taap. Kaysh ru'ret'vegyc cuyir sur'aryc, mir'adir, mar'eyir nass.

Literal translation — negative-past-to-be past-maybe-should other diplomat first-place. They past-maybe-should be focused, investigate, find nothing.

Whoo, that's a doozy, right? The functional translation is There wasn't meant to be another envoy in the first place. He was supposed to get interested, investigate, and find nothing.

So, part of the reason the literal translation looks like a mess is because there's a bunch of past progressive tense in the first half of the sentence. Kalevean dialect gets messy as fuck with literal translation as soon as you start bringing in complex tenses, and this is, shockingly, kind of a lot of weird tense work. This is a sentence that would be borderline incoherent in deathwatch mando'a (no complex tenses! you get past, present, and future only, which means the phrase is, like, 'nu'ret ashi naak'jorad maan'taap. Kaysh ret sur'aryc, mir'adir, mar'eyir nass, which translates as 'shouldn't other diplomat first-place. They should focused, investigate, discover nothing', which…makes sense, but is pretty incoherent.

In average mando'a it would still be— pretty complicated and incoherent. Worst of both worlds.)

So. Lets break that original sentence down some.

Nu'ru'cuyir is the negative past tense of [to be], which works out something like There wasn't, as a part of a sentence — there was in the negative, basically, which gets you was not.

ru'vegyc'ret is the past tense of vegyc'ret, which is the modal prefix of should carried by maybe, which I am kitbashing to be supposed to or similar. should-maybe is a kind of wavering 'it'll be like this (probably)', and then it's just past tensed.

This is a fairly kalevalan word, by the by; the other dialects would have slightly less complex and specific words for meant to.

maan'taap is literally first-place or original-zone, and is another sort of fossilised word — it's a location, but it's a metaphorical location, rather than, like, a literal one. In some contexts it has a far more military implication, but that's pretty contextual.

sur'ar is literally concentrate or focus, but here I'm giving it the slant of interested — Qui-gon was meant to get interested in the east wing, investigate it, and not find anything (more than what they laid out for him). A little contextually more common mando'a than Kalevean, but this whole sentence is a weird mix of the two. Satine is frustrated and annoyed and also worried — this shell game she's running is keeps having extra shells added in, and she's not in control of them — which is pushing her dialect to shift a bit more wildly than her usual intentional blend.

And the rest of the sentence is pretty much translated already.

Oh, jii mhi cuy nari man'ceratir'an meg'tome urakto bor naas?

Last one! Literal translation is oh, now we are identifying all-together hard work nothing?

Functional translation is Oh, so now we're calling all that hard work nothing?

So, one of the things I've actually struggled with is that mando'a doesn't have any interjections or placeholder type words — oh, ah, uh, etc —, but, obviously, if you're trying to write you…need those….

So. I'm putting them in and calling it good enough. Not a lot of thought, just vibes.

Most of this sentence is straight from the sheet, more or less; the two bits that aren't are nari man'ceratir'an and meg'tome.

nari man'ceratir'an is the progressive tense of man'ceratir, which is itself identify. I'm leaning on mando'a does double duty for military/non military words, and given that this is very specifically a 'we're going to say [x] is [y]' sort of use of calling, it's a linguistic kind of joke. Like, not just 'oh, we're calling it nothing', but 'oh, we're identifying it as nothing', with the sort of Military Implications of Identifying This Thing being the joke, because it very much was not a military operation.

Like your friend saying 'we should go to the mall' and instead of just going 'yep' you respond with 'SIR YES SIR!'. kind of stupid, kind of mocking the whole thing becuase it's not that serious.

Obviously, in this context, it actually was serious, but Bo katan is trying to lighten the mood by leaning into 'haha mock overblown offended and serious'.

meg'tome is a kitbash — meg is again, the catch all which/what/that/who of Mando'a, and tome is together (you may recognise it from where it shows up in the marriage vows).

Thus, we get that-together, which is a sort of fossilised phrase of [all the subject of the sentence] together. It's a pretty contextual phrase, but it's useful enough it's stayed around, because it's handy to have a word that's the verbal equivalent of vaguely guesting at a bunch of crap, metaphorically or literally.

#mando'a #star wars #satine kyrze #bo-katan kyrze #Qui-gon jinn #btmybw #coats originals #as ever large grain of salt with all this #I am not a lingusit and do not play one on tv

17 notes · View notes

bluerosesonata · 4 years

Text

A Window to the Soul: Game Mechanics and Characters in Ai: the Somnium Files

Spoiler-free!

Ai: The Somnium Files is an adventure game/visual novel for PC, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch by Spike Chunsoft in September 2019. Written and directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi, known for his Zero Escape Trilogy (999: Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors (DS), Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (DS), and Zero Time Dilemma (DS, PS Vita, PC), also available as the Zero Escape Trilogy on Steam and PS4), this game once again displays Uchikoshi’s signature combination of suspense, humor, and ludonarrative harmony that fans of his previous games are familiar with, alongside a cast of complex, compelling characters you’ll absolutely fall in love with.

For all my fellow Zero Escape fans, you probably remember the issues the series faced with financing, which ultimately lead to Uchikoshi helping to establish Spike Chunsoft and the eventual release of Zero Time Dilemma. In AitSF, more than ever, the fruits of that partnership are apparent. It feels we finally get to see a complete picture of Uchikoshi’s vision; Featuring fully animated 3d models, fully voiced dialogue, and some incredibly goofy and self-indulgent dance sequences, this murder mystery (and yes, it is a murder mystery) is absolutely worth it’s full price and your time.

The game has multiple endings (About 5, without checking), all leading up to and feeding into the true ending. One notable feature is that the timeline allows you to jump into previous played sections at any point of the chapter, and even provides summaries of the events that happened in each “node,” so unlike in the original 999, you don’t need to replay through every scene of dialogue to get to each ending.

Rather than spend time analyzing the story itself- something that can’t be done to a satisfying level without spoiling the whole thing- I’ll just say that the way Uchikoshi literally has us get inside the heads of characters by “syncing” with them is a great story device, and is realized extremely well in the gameplay. For me, the Sync was used in all the right places to push me into genuinely caring about some characters, that, without the sync, I would be sympathetic to, but not feel a real sense of attachment towards.

What follows is a breakdown and analysis of how well the gameplay is designed, and some non-spoilery discussion of characterization and character design:

Mechanics:

The core gameplay loop can be broken into two parts: dialogue and investigation, and “syncing.”

The investigation portion of the game is similar to most adventure visual novels- investigating crime scenes, talking to NPCs to advance the story, examining your surroundings, and in my case, clicking on scenery over and over again to get funny flavor dialogue.

The flavor dialogue does not disappoint- and for me, the best minor feature included in the game ties to this. When you click on an object, you get an initial string of dialogue- but the indicator with the name of the object will only get grayed out once you’ve seen all the text related to that object. For some people, this might ruin the “fun” of clicking over and over again- like in 999, where some bits of dialogue would only display on the 9th time examining an object- but for me, it was a godsend, because I didn’t spend any time wondering if I missed anything funny.

The Sync gameplay loop is also mechanically brilliant. Part of the in-universe rules, which are emphasized over and over, is that the main character, Date, can only spend 6 minutes within the subject’s “Somnium”- the internal dreamscape of their mind- and that staying any longer could result in disastrous consequences. As such, each Somnium loop attempt can (hypothetically) be experienced in chunks of about 8-10 minutes. This set time frame makes it a breeze to play the game in small sections at a time and let your mind breathe a bit. The time limitation is challenging, but never infuriating; even when I messed up horribly and knew I had to restart a sync from the beginning, I would just use the time I had remaining to try out the goofier actions available to try out as puzzle solutions.

Somnium Files’ adaptability to being played in long sittings or in short bursts, while still maintaining an engaging, tense narrative is an incredible strength that not all games can boast of. Not a single part of the game felt like a slog or a chore to me, unlike a few puzzles in Zero Time Dilemma, where I ran into the perennial adventure game issue of “okay, so I have this item, but where do I use it?”, “how the hell do I even solve this puzzle without a guide” (I didn’t), and “what do I need to do to unlock the next sequence?”

Characters

So let’s talk about these good characters. Some of you probably recognized the art style for the game’s key visual as the work of Yusuke Kozaki, best known by many as the head artist and character designer for Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem: Fates. Even in his work for the Fire Emblem franchise, you can tell he doesn’t care much for drawing armor- which puts him in the same club as literally every artist I know who draws Fire Emblem fan art. His designs really shine in a contemporary setting, with modern clothing, and really give the cast a unified, unique aesthetic. Moreover, the designs are beautifully translated into 3D as well.

For a game that was most likely well underway in development several years prior to the boom of the subgenre, the design for A-set, (AKA Iris), an in-game internet idol and streamer, is incredibly in line with those of many successful “Virtual Youtubers”- for that alone it deserves some accolades. Fittingly, as part of online promotion for the game, Chunsoft posted a series of video blogs starring A-set, as if she were posting to her own channel. (I missed all of these, and that’s a real shame, because I think they would have gotten me excited for the game if I had been paying attention.)

Despite Iris’ obvious and engineered marketability, I think my favorite design of the game is Aiba, the AI partner of the main character, whose human form only appears in Somnium and in the realm world as an AR projection imposed in Date’s cybernetic eye. The way her arms fade into glowing, electronic “nerves” at her arms is a subtle reminder of her artificiality, but her design also doesn’t make her more playful and goofy behaviors jarring in the least.

As far as personalities go, I would say that Date, our protagonist, manages to hit the perfect median- maybe even fusion- between the past male protagonists in the Zero Escape trilogy. Junpei, Sigma, and Carlos were all likable in their own ways, as the narrative character, but all had a level of blandness to them. To me, they served more as vehicles for us to participate in the Nonary Games.

In contrast, Date feels very much like his own, established person, and that’s not only a huge strength, but central to the overall narrative. (For all non-ZE fans reading this review- I apologize for the heavy use of ZE comparisons here.) Like Sigma, Date is a bit of a perv, but unlike Sigma in Virtue’s Last Reward, I didn’t feel squicked out by his behavior; Like Carlos, he cares immensely for the people important to him, and puts their wellbeing first; Like Junpei, he’s, also, a loveable moron.

There are other characters- Mizuki in particular- whom I can’t speak too much about without spoiling some of the enjoyment of their character arcs, but all of them have incredibly good and complicated interpersonal relationships both with and outside of Date.

Lastly, there’s Aiba. A good companion character is worth their weight in gold. After all, most of the time, they’re who you spend most of your time with, and for that reason, the more “annoying” ones always catch more flac for being so. For me, Aiba easily slides into my top 10 favorite companion characters of all time, along such members as Maya Fey in the original Ace Attorney trilogy and Midna from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Most of the goofiest sequences in the game are instigated by her, and every time she’s on screen there’s bound to be something fun to do, not to mention the fact she’s our avatar used within Somnium. Combine that and her telepathic banter with Date, and you got a recipe for a dynamic duo.

In closing, every aspect of AitSF is absolutely delightful; It has tightly woven narrative gameplay, wonderful and complex characters, a storyline that, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t unravel the details of before they were revealed- and I didn’t even get into how great the voice acting is. If you’re looking for an enjoyable, self-contained game that you can beat in under 35 hours, Ai: The Somnium Files can’t be beat.

#ai the somnium files #aitsf #somnium files #game essay #game review #game design #narrative design #visual novel review #visual novels #bluerose writing #bluerose-essay #bluerose game writing #bluerose nonfiction

35 notes · View notes

themountainsays · 4 years

Note

Ok I'm gonna ask because I saw your tags mentioning another story, and when you posted CoTA you mentioned you had another, bigger, and more political AU. So... Can we know what it's about??? 👀👀👀👀

Omg omg thank you and also, yes! i have this thing! Oh god i don't know where to start because I'm very excited about it! Oh boy haha

It's this very complicated AU uuuuh here's the basis of it:

The Mist never fell and Runeard didn't die. He was severely wounded during the battle and during his recovery, baby Agnarr acted as Prince Regent. By the time he recovered, Agnarr and his weird girlfriend had figured out a way to manipulate him into abdicating and leaving the throne to him, making Agnarr king and leaving Runeard bitterly planning a game of thrones to take the throne back. Agnarr, as a young and inexperienced prince, took the easy route and delegated a lot of power go the church and the bourgeois, reducing the power of the State so he could deal with things more easily. Both the church and the bourgeois had been waiting for this for decades, as Runeard hoarded all the power to himself and gave other political actors almost no room to do anything. This granted Agnarr some very powerful allies and consolidated the legitimacy of his power very easily, ESPECIALY after Runeard got better and the bourgeois turned against him. Also, the people liked him a lot more. Having Runeard again after living under Agnarr's rule for a year or two would have caused an uprising.

The Northuldra are driven out of the forest around a year or two after this due to flooding and the damage of the land caused by the dam. This was part of Runeard's plan, because his military was so small and they had so little budget that they literally couldn't afford to conquer other land, so if he wanted to control the Northuldra, he would have to lure them into Arendelle.

The Northuldra now live within the borders of Arendelle, traveling around as they're a nomadic people, and herding their reindeer like it's nobody's business. they're severely opressed. The whole point of the plan is to force them to assimilate into Arendellian culture, in hopes of better controlling them and to take away their magic (magic = non-institutional violence. Any organized State would try to either eliminate it or institutionalize it). Iduna has been brainwashed by evolutionist antropology or some bullshit like that and she doesn't even dare to be in contact with her people until The Incident happens, when Anna is hurt by Elsa. She's desperate and she takes Anna with her to seek help, leaving Agnarr and Elsa behind. But guess what as soon as she's back with her people she realizes she never should have left, and because of a whole bunch of spoilery reasons she decides to stay with them and raise Anna with her people instead of going back and bringing Elsa along

Uh oh Anna has amnesia! Elsa thinks Anna is dead! ANGST

Anyways Agnarr dies at sea and Iduna "disappears under mysterious circumstances" around the same time. Runeard rises to power as Prince Regent until Elsa comes of age at 21 (as if that's ever gonna happen *evil laughter*).

Oh shit why is it snowing in summer

Elsa is depressed but if i start listing the reasons we're gonna be here forever.

Meanwhile england the Southern Isles is doing a napoleon and trying to conquer all Northern Kingdoms (Arendelle, Corona, Weselton and a few other OC kingdoms I made up). I know this has been done a million times but bear with me! The war already supposes a big punch in the gut for the economy, but add that to so much of the royal budget going to trying to colonize the Northuldra AND the fact that most industries have been interrupted with 1) the sudden death of crops and livestock 2) the lack of raw material entering the productive process 3) the interruption of trade 4) the nearly non-existent industry in Arendelle making it dependant on commerce and 5) the constant strikes among the proletariat factory workers and the miner's guild for a better salary and the reduction of prices (supply and demand baby!) AND the fact that both the industrial and the rural bourgeois HATE Runeard, the economic crisis ends up being a more dangerous enemy than the Southern Isles. The only industry that's doing well right now is the Northuldra reindeer herding industry (and just barely, as the sudden change in the weather didn't give the animals time to get all fat and ready for winter). It would be a big pitty if the Crown decided to expropriate the reindeer huh.

Add that to the constant attacks coming from the Southern Border, the Northuldra armed groups intercepting caravans delivering firearms from the port to the southern border and the formation of independant militias in the south of the country to fill in the void left by the military, and the levels of non-institutionalized violence is driving the State (and the budget) crazy.

Elsa sings this @ the Northuldra

Also, being all alone, Elsa has to hide her magic from her grandfather.

Anna and Elsa find each other again in this shitty context, but they don't recognize each other. It starts with Elsa needing help to translate some documents in northuldra which she thinks may help her stop the winter, but it soon turns into a dramatic story about propperly reconnecting one's lost heritage, navigating a court of people who want you dead, hiding your identity in enemy territory, mastering the four elements, fixing colonialism (ha), winning a war and also an i*cest love story, because I couldn't help myself.

Oh and also! The spirits have followed the Northuldra south and now live within the borders of Arendelle, but things are so out of balance, they're violent and dangerous to everyone. God knows the giants are a problem. You think you hate the giants from Skyrim? Wait until you meet these guys. Only Gale seems to be chill with humans, and that's only because she's fond on Iduna and her daughter. If only there was a fifth spirit to bring balance to the world 🤔🤔🤔 someone who already knows how to deal with spirits. Maybe someone who is already friends with one. It would be super conveniente if that person also sort of had a claim to the throne.

Bruni and Anna become bros.

You have no idea how happy it makes me that you asked 😭😭😭 i have more stuff and i already have 4 chapters (out of 30) written down but if i tell you everything i have in mind i will never stop. It's heavy and it's A LOT and i really really really hope i can finish it and post it some day. Just writing this makes me want to go work on it right now haha. Thank you 💙💙💙

#tagging as #elsanna #kinda #wind and sky au #northuldra!anna #northuldra!elsa #es muy obvio que se me ocurrio la idea mientras cursaba el cbc? jkshdksjdldjsk

11 notes · View notes

yellowfoot-06 · 4 years

Text

Why you should read Cucumber Quest

So it is currently 2 am in the morning and I decided to write an essay. I may put this in draft form and continue if I get too tired. This will probably be less me trying to convince you to read it and more me gushing about Cucumber Quest. This is also just me distracting myself from what is happening with it right now. There will be no pictures but just me referencing pages of it because I am on the computer so it is hard for me to put in pictures compared to Mobile. More under the cut if you care for this and link if I was somehow able to convince you to read this underrated comic.

https://cucumber.gigidigi.com

Main Details

This section is just a simple overview of the comic and I will elaborate more in the Character/Story section. The comic is about a little flat planet called Dreamside. The pancake planet is inhabited by bunny people and like, some pigs in one country/kingdom. An alien named Queen Cordelia has taken over the Donut kingdom and is trying to collect the Disaster stones to summon the Nightmare Knight, an ancient evil that used to destroy Dreamside 500,000 years ago (And the Dreamsiders somehow haven’t technologically advance in half a million years using the theming of two characters) Anyways, now it is up to Cucumber and his sister, Almond, along with two other characters to help defeat her and save dreamside! You should probably read Cucumber Quest and come back after reading the prologue and Chapter 0 (Also the beginning of chapter 1 for good measure) because there is some suspense there that is hard to not spoil when talking about the story and characters.

Art Work

Anyways, here is an entire section about the artwork and designs alone because of how beautiful it is. The artwork is probably all you need to know before reading the comic. Page 804 is probably a good non-spoilery example of the artwork. You can also see the gradual improvement in the artwork if you compare the artwork from prologue to (currently the latest chapter) chapter 5. It makes sense to see the artwork progress because it is 9 years old (since I’m writing this) and it is still going on. In the printed version (which only goes to chapter 3 for now) You might notice that the artist/author, Gigi D.G., Redrew some of the pages. The printed version also has some exclusive stuff in it if you want.

The character designs are another plus. Now they are very visually pleasing because of the colours used for them. They all have nice and soft colour schemes. Most of the characters also all are the same species say for the antagonists and some other characters. This kinda separates the villains from the protagonists (The antagonists also have different speech bubbles and some of them have this thing where the style slightly changes when they come on screen with the protagonists). The setting kinda makes everyone's designs unique yet fitting (There is literally a character that is just a giant black circle and she somehow fits). On the side note of unique character designs, even when the color schemes _and _outfits change on the characters change, you can still see that it is them based on the designs and personalities. Pages 346 and 349 are good examples of this yet slightly spoilery. Other good examples are basically the entirety of chapter 5.

Characters/ Story

I mashed both the characters and story section into one because the characters are the ones moving the story along and it is kinda hard talking about one without talking about the other. Anyways, let’s talk about the protagonists, Almond, Cucumber, Sir Carrot, and Nautilus. You can also put the antagonists in the protagonists territory because of how well written they are.

Cucumber is a great main protagonist because of his ideals. His character is slightly cliche, you know, the nerd preteen (At least I think he is that age range) has to now save the world and he doesn’t want to do it. Now there is no real “Oh, I don’t think he can do it” in there but he does have an idea of pacifying the antagonists and everyone thinks that is a silly Idea except for Nautilus. Now, Gigi puts a twist on the second part by making him slightly possessive of this idea. So much in fact that he kinda ignores the people around him. He tries to pacify the Nightmare Knight in chapter 3, it was working until Almond comes along and ruins it. Now, the Nightmare Knight scares them with a near-death experience. They talk about it now shook, and Cucumber now sees Almond crying and realizes that she was just trying to protect him. From the outside view, it seems like the antagonists are awful monsters, so it looks like Cucumber is needlessly endangering himself when the better answer would be to stab them all to death. I just love this twist and how he becomes more insensitive to others when trying to sympathetic to the antagonists. The end of chapter 5 is also a good part of Cucumber’s ark when he believes in an assumption and starting less to believe in his own cause.

Almond also has a great story ark in this comic. In the beginning, she is cocky and believes that saving the world is just gonna be a nice adventure like in the tv shows she watches. She is actually the main reason they are on the adventure, to begin with. Her stubbornness and cockiness starts to dilate the further she is on this adventure and when she sees the real danger that is happening. In chapter 4 this is brought up by Cucumber. She still has some of her beginning ark in her but now it seems like it is a mask that she puts on.

The other two protagonists are Princess Nautilus and Sir Carrot. Sir Carrot came into the story before Nautilus so I’ll talk about him first. Sir Carrot is just a simple knight that wanted to help two bakers out. He is not really interesting compared to the others. At the beginning of the story he was scared by everything but you can really see a reason begin to form in chapter 3 and onwards. He has a really interesting dynamic with the Nightmare Knight and with some other characters. The final protagonist in the group, and my personal favorite, is Princess Nautilus! She is probably the funniest and most comedic out of the three. Her comedic shenanigans make me laugh a whole lot. There are only two characters that make me happier when I see them. She hardly changes in the story, the only real changes that happen is that her comedy starts to dwindle as the story progressed. A big part of her ark is a little eel named Liquus. They have such a cute dynamic together that started to dwindle more after chapter 3.

Now, time for the most interesting characters, the antagonists. The first villains we see are Queen Cordelia and Peridot (pronounced Peridoh). They have a nice and cute familial connection. Cordelia is stubborn and confident. She is a cat from an alien planet that came to conquer Dreamside with the help of the Nightmare Knight. When Cordelia summoned the Nightmare Knight, her confidence starts to break as she sees his power. She seems to be a powerful conqueror with confidence in her actions, so seeing her in fear is a slight surprise as summoning the Nightmare Knight in the first place was her idea. When she interacts with Peridot, she is calm and motherly, another thing that separates her from her average personality. The Nightmare Knight is also very intriguing because he is basically stuck in a place he can’t escape from as both sides are antagonizing him and he has this cycle but it can’t keep going on forever and with fears of what happened before and-

Great, now that we got all the other characters off the plate (except for the side characters) now we can talk about the best characters (in my opinion) the Disaster Masters! This is where the gushing really begins! They are the most interesting when you think about the logistics of each character and the cycle they have been. I can’t talk about every character since there are 8 and this section is already extremely lengthy. So I am speeding through each of these. Splashmaster: adorable but not really interesting. Ya Boi: great and the first example to show that everything is not completely what it seems. Mutemaster: probably the most forgettable and gets over shined by Ya Boi. Rosemaster: Oh ho ho! This is where the story starts to turn darker and she is a really good character, her chapter might be one of the best. Thebestmaster: Name says it all, he is the best and if you say otherwise I will personally stab you through the screen. Quakemaster: Same as Splashmaster, except replace adorable with menacing. Mistmaster: Terrifying and even more so if you think about what happened to him. Glitchmaster: You know about the circle I talked about earlier? Yeah, that's her. She is a lot more spooky with context.

Woohoo! This is (hopefully) the last paragraph of the section! The side characters are where the comedy mainly lays on. These characters are very wide-ranged. You have characters such as psychopathic 10-year-old, realistic Rabbit, and a bunch of crabs. These characters are normally comedic and a great part of the story. Some characters are more important like Cosmo, the psychopathic 10-year-old. Other characters are just jerks jokes like Cucumber’s father. Even though some aren’t important, all of them are likable/enjoyable.

Final

Finally! If you read the entirety of this, then uhh, you read it! Here is a link to a Youtube video that is a lot shorter and more concise than this essay, and the link to the comic again:

Video: https://youtu.be/4uiO9ZKj2HE

Comic: https://cucumber.gigidigi.com

#Cucumber Quest #Original

12 notes · View notes

bladekindeyewear · 5 years

Text

Boots reads Homestuck Epilogue part... one..??

Alright, let’s do this. As I’ve said, the page after this one is all I’ve seen, I’m diving in unspoiled. Also I gather from some of the non-spoilery chatter I’ve heard from my friends -- one of which warned me this sort of thing was coming a couple weeks ago, and I believed them (but didn’t want to) -- that this first epilogue-upd8 may not be the only epilogue-upd8, which isn’t surprising either given how Andrew works.

Alright, let’s go. Hope my stomach can take it!

So, Page 1, the mock-AO3 page that’s the only thing I’ve seen before posting this. The content warning is EXCELLENT, and gives me hope that this will be the usual Hussie-caliber and more humorous than heartwrenching. :)

It also makes some serious sense that there would be multiple epilogues; from the sound of the summary, this one might focus more on John and then leave ample opportunity to discuss the others.

Let’s click page 2 -- oh, or contents: “Prologue”, this being a chapter list for this is another way to do it. Clicking Prologue.......

Okay wow, this is novel format for the moment. Good chance it won’t stay that way.

These first two paragraphs are well-written and ominous, sure -- describing stuff we pretty much already knew was happening, in different words -- but even though the writing isn’t really pretentious, there’s still a good chance Andrew *views* it as pretentious enough to find cutting away to art-style instead hilarious. Onto the third paragraph...

Music and Calliopes the other Calliope is conducting, yeah... Oh, there’s a garbage disposal reference. In regards to a black hole. Like the one I kind of pointed to during Dave’s intro sequence in the Third Scratch theory and stuff in all those big theories. The ones I was, er, wrong about... ahem. Moving on.

“Your name is John Egbert, and you have just had a terrible, deeply pretentious nightmare.”

Pfffffffff :D

I love you Andrew Hussie. Reading on...

YES I see chat colors. Chat colors!!! I need chat colors. Reading reading reading let me get down to them let me

Absolutely nothing of note has ever happened here in the entire history of the planet, which you would know, because you created it.

Baahahahahah. :D

Okay yes I’m at the phone-sterlog.

Uh oh.

I am reading elevated levels of angst compared to usual pesterlogs in this log. Which is to say, virtually any at all, really. THAT doesn’t bode well for the outcome/overall tone of this epilogue. :X --Not to say it isn’t *appropriate*, given they still haven’t fixed/resewn Paradox Space together, but... yeah, *future feels* are popping up on the radar, that’s what I’m worried about. I loved the tone of the snapchats and the feeling that everything was going to be fine, especially given how the ending “not being what I expected” shook me a fair bit, but to look forward to when that may end... D:

Yeah, Rose having some serious visions about some unfinished business they need to get around to instead of just fucking around and living their lives makes sense. :X --or at least some timeline version of them. I’m imagining they’re living varied, excellent lives in a whole TON of timelines of promise that commit our imaginings of their potential futures to virtual canon, really, with the main thread that ties off Caliborn’s stage play almost irrelevant in comparison... that was kind of the whole point of the Ending of homestuck earlier, of that final anime flash, the fact that the victory and planet and *lives* they won meant a whole lot more than whatever Lord English’s irrelevant machinations were.

So... returning to the tail end of that main thread and seeing how *serious* it might be....... yeah. Kinda mildly panic-inducing. :XXX

You move the phone away from your ear and assume an expression you haven’t practiced in years. It is the look of a man who actually has something to do.

Okay that was good.

Ah, he’s twenty-three now!

Let’s click the next link. ==>

Fuck let’s not recount Rose’s substance abuse.

Oh, cool. Er, “cool”. Rose is getting some of Rosejaspersprite^2′s awareness of all her alternate-timeline doomed selves and their lives. No wonder she’s worried about the substance abuse she technically mostly *avoided* in this timeline.

Light explicitly relating to knowledge, good. That’s a nice aspect tidbit to have reiterated.

ROSE: There’s a different scale I’ve come to understand. Another dichotomy that’s less... emotional, I guess? ROSE: Consider, instead of the word “good,” using the word “essential.” ROSE: And what exists at the opposite polarity from essential is... ROSE: Something that is best not to contemplate.

ooh. oooooh. holy shit.

okay NO, BOOTS/BKEW. DON’T GET FUCKING EXCITED.

DON’T get excited.

It only SOUNDS like she’s learned to recontextualize the whole adventure in the rich context of the classpect system, that’s just your wild fanfic-y theoryimagination talking. Shoosh. (Even though she IS very, very, *very* clearly referencing the Light/Void dichotomy with the above quote.) Just... tamp down your hopes, Boots. Leave it at MILD hope. Like cool porridge.

Reading on.

Alright, yeah, this universe exists beyond the timespan of the Green Sun’s influence. Unsurprising, since it was heavily implied. And she doesn’t have access to her expanded Green Sun powerset while *in* such a universe, which was also heavily implied by alt!Calliope or her denizen or I forget the exact conversation where it said she’d have to make the final journey without Green Sun powers or whatever. That’s cool. (Though having it spelled out more explicitly than usual does make it more awkward to have her use her powers for humorous purposes on MXRP in the future.)

OOOH DAVE KARKAT AND JADE ARE IN A PERPLEXING SOCIAL ARRANGEMENT YESSSSS :D

Best news. Okay reading on.

ROSE: You will need to travel back into canon and defeat Lord English.

Yeah I guess.

Again, the way the ending sort of put it was that..... our heroes did have to defeat Lord English eventually? Or set right some prior stuff like doing the stage play? But that part of the point of this whole story -- the Ultimate Reward -- was that it didn’t really matter, because they had earned nigh-infinite branching timelines of promise in a brand new universe where they could go YEARS AND YEARS living their lives in many of the ways they wished, richly enjoying themselves and starting civilizations that would last billions of years, loving and living and experiencing, only “needing” to go finally check off these other responsibilities in a single timeline of promise at the end of an extended period of vacation they chose with no particular urgency. Branching years-and-years of essentially heaven as long as they EVENTUALLY fulfilled that particular endpoint, and they knew it. More or less.

Rose phrases it pretty explicitly, though. John’s powers are the only thing that can warp people through canon like that without restriction, so he was always to be involved, but... *he* needs to defeat him? Does that mean alone?

JOHN: yeah, i had a feeling that was going to come up again someday. ROSE: I’m sure we all did. That is, even those of us without visions. JOHN: i was doing my best not to think about it. i guess we can’t put it off any longer then? ROSE: Now is the time. We are rapidly approaching a point of no return. If the decision isn’t made soon, it will be too late. The issue will no longer matter. JOHN: when exactly is the point of no return? ROSE: Today. JOHN: wow. JOHN: ok then.

Ouch.

That’s slightly more abrupt than the picture of branching bliss I just painted.

JOHN: fine? ROSE: Of course everything is fine here. ROSE: We’re outside of canon now. JOHN: yeah, i know. what does that actually MEAN though? JOHN: are you saying this isn’t really happening? ROSE: Of course it’s happening. ROSE: Just because certain events take place outside of canon, it doesn’t mean those events are non-canon. JOHN: oh. ROSE: In other words, there is an important distinction between events which can be considered to occur inside canon, outside canon, and those which are not canon at all. ROSE: The day we went through that door and claimed our reward, we passed a threshold between continua marked by differing degrees of relevance, truth, and essentiality.

Well okay then. I was wondering why she used the word “canon”. They literally DID escape the narrative literally as *well* as figuratively with that Juju, then, Neverending Story style.

Also, Light being highly tied to canon and Rose having spent so much time outside of it... yeah, I can understand the headaches more, too.

Alright, reading on, it seems Andrew is using Rose to more explicitly explain how he intends all the non-canon stuff he’s presented to us to “matter”, for those who didn’t quite get or fully believe the implied explanation from context towards the end of the story.

Heh, so the idea is that the urgency comes from “it’s been too fucking long since the story ended, and this epilogue needs to come out when an epilogue would still matter to anyone”. That’s kind of brilliant.

ROSE: As long as we live outside canon, everything that happens will technically be “real,” but only conditionally. ROSE: There are certain crucial events inside canon which must happen in order to continue to prop up the legitimacy of events here on Earth C. ROSE: And you specifically, John, have a responsibility to make sure those events take place.

Closing threads closing threads CLOSING THREADS :D !!!!!!

FUCK is this epilogue going to be mostly devoted to TYING UP LOOSE ENDS and clarifying stuff??? :D Like the HUNDREDS OF LOOSE ENDS that were left unanswered because the ending tried to paint it all as sidelined/irrelevant regardless of the fact that they hadn’t been answered/fulfilled, which had previously pretty much traumatized me around Homestuck’s end because I was (1) so used to Andrew expertly tying up almost every loose end eventually and (2) was a theorycrafter with explicit investment in the idea that Classes, Aspects, and most of these loose ends actually DID matter??? :D

Sign me the fuck up!!! :DDDD

...I know it’s doubtfully going to be anything close to all I hoped for, but still. Answers, contextualization, and John tying up loose threads. Like that final frog warped in front of Jade as a child. That’s good, that’s VERY good. I’m excited instead of nauseous. :D

--and yeah, reading on, Rose makes more explicit what I said earlier that the justification Andrew’s painting for this is “we have to wrap up all these loose ends before everyone forgets about Homestuck.” That is hilarious.

Okay, so the juju is a big plothole. Heheh. We’ve heard it called that earlier.

...Oh. Oh huh.

Rose is pretty much explicitly talking about the stage play consisting of a bunch of non-canon ALTERNATE VERSIONS of themselves that mean the original versions of them living happily in the new universe won’t actually die. Holy shit. I mean we theorized that for a TIME with some of them but THOSE loose ends (like Roxy still having her mask on) were closed up toward the end... So instead, having it put THIS way (preserving our ideas of them living full lives post-victory), and not only that but having John DO all this stuff RIGHT NOW to fix things retroactively with some really well-written contextual clarification we’re bound to get to help with the closure... god DAMN. This is really good. This is going to make a LOT of people feel a whole lot better about Homestuck. Like me. :D

...Pff, some other girl is getting punched by John in the face again. :D Don’t worry, Rose isn’t saying that this is the Vriska punch at the beginning of the whole Retcon arc and that this epilogue somehow happened in the middle. (I hope.)

...Yeah Rose implies heavily that John is gonna die his heroic death if he does this? Or it’s meant to make us THINK she’s implying that. Yeah. And she feels pretty fucking horrible about what she’s asking John to go through regardless, so. (Yeah, everyone looked pretty genuinely dead but a few at the end of the stage play, but it was pretty uncertain.) Either way, she’s acting like John isn’t going to “come back”, even if he lives through this.

Stupid feels.

Clicking the next link. ==>

Hiiii roxy and callie!!! :D

Yes how polite of them.

“Ultimate self”? Yeah, a sort of synthesizing of all the offshoots of her Heart and Mind, pulling it all together and realizing the full person she is and sum of her whole experience across all timelines, pasts and futures. Yeesh. Pretty uncomfortable for someone who ain’t a hypersprite.

...Roxy and Rose aren’t as close? Is it because of the substance abuse, because of the Light/Void dichotomy literally-or-metaphorically distancing them (with how disparaging Rose just was about anything that isn’t relevant), or something else?

Ah, Kanaya hogged her until she got “sick”, that explains some of it too.

A bell tower? (DOOONNNNGGG)

Fffff interpersonal relationship mildangst. Fuck

You and all your friends have dispositions affected by your classes and aspects. You think you know what that means in your case. But what about her? You can only speculate. Void is a place where things sink and disappear. Where they linger forever, but cease to exist. You aren’t actually sure if your feelings for Roxy ever really faded, or if they just grew numb with time and distance. Is it the same for her?

Holy fucking shit. What a big middle finger to everyone who told me aspects didn’t matter to their personalities. :D

...Though, I think he has it kind of backwards, since he still doesn’t totally understand all this business. It’s easy for those in canon, introduced to this subject, to think that the classes and aspects affect their dispositions, to an extent where the reality (at least I contend) is that it was their natural dispositions in the first place that the classes and aspects were actually describing. The power that was latent in their very personalities and tendencies to action all along.

Reading... Ah, yeah, a choice. Was pretty sure this terminology would be important earlier. It depends on what SORT of choice this is though... see, so far, Rose hasn’t given John a lot of really EXPLICIT motivation to go through with this, other than some mumbo-jumbo that would supposedly be “bad”. And it doesn’t even address the black hole in his nightmares. And here, we have Roxy and others explicitly encouraging him with regard to the fact that he can choose NOT to do this if he wants to.

The main question it brings up (to the future of this epilogue, how it’s going to be considered afterward, etc) is if this is the sort of Choice that John would always say yes to -- in which case it’s more canon than anything else -- or if he will end up being on the fence enough for a Terezi-style Mind-split. Because this would be the PERFECT out to have him “die” in canon. See, if he’s on the fence ENOUGH about going, then he creates two timelines that even both potentially have promise within the confines of this universe (since universes hold more than one timeline of promise, according to one of the Calliopes I think)-- One where he lives here, happily ever after with everyone, and another where he completes his Heroic death in canon to fix everything. It would let Andrew kill John in this epilogue while still letting him live out eternity with everyone else outside “canon”.

He’d get to have his John-death and keep him too! Seems plausible enough.

Anyway. Reading... it looks like they know more about this decision that Rose has told them, including the consequences Rose might have been dreading. And likely know that IF John might die doing this, that it won’t be in a way that he regrets.

Oh wow, that whole Meat or Candy sequence is GREAT. Silly to the core, and yet perfectly emphasizing the debate that... well, I mean, think about what Andrew’s been telling us all along.

He keeps TRYING to tell us that non-canon stuff is fine. Trying to use that huge ending sequence of Homestuck to try and tell us that the fact that everyone is FREE from this story and its confines, free for everyone to imagine COUNTLESS ways things played out afterward for ALL these lovable characters in carefree futures, is almost MORE important than any of these stupid loose ends. But some of us were really cut by that ending, the insistence that the actual final battle “didn’t matter” and that this escaped-from-canon existence was the true victory. But if Andrew just upped and drew a bunch of bonus pages to start explaining more story, THAT would cheapen the escape-from-canon ending he wanted even as it satisfied those of us who wanted ends tied up, who wanted questions answered. He had to find a very careful, very well done way to give us BOTH. To write out the real “ending” of “canon” for those of us who needed it, without compromising the ESCAPE from the very necessity of it that was the essential point he WANTED to make with Homestuck’s story from the very beginning. To carefully keep the endless branches of post-victory possibility and play intact while still, separately and with explicit hedging and qualifications, give us the potential results of one last canon thread to tie up the lingering questions that he so dearly wants us to recognize still “don’t matter” as much in the vast scheme of things.

And he’s doing it. And it’s WORKING.

Holy SHIT.

I am excited for Homestuck. I am excited for Homestuck for the first time in years, and my nausea is gone.

I’m not going to start theorizing again; that’s over. But I’m definitely going to keep reading as the new Epilogue chapters come out, and do so with a spring in my step.

To Be Continued. :D

#Homestuck #Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Liveblog #bladekindeyewear #blastyoboots

279 notes · View notes

elliepassmore · 5 years

Text

Kingdom of Ash Review

4/5 stars

Recommended for people who like: high fantasy, strong female leads, friendships, hero's journey, multiple POVs Okay, I will be the first to admit I love this series maybe to the point of obsessing and that I bought and read this the day it came out....but this book is also entirely too long. There are two parts to this book, with the second part starting ~600 pages. The first part had some good content in it, but there was also a lot of space that didn't need to be there as well, descriptions and chapters and POVs that could've been cut out without really affecting the story or plot in any way. I especially felt that way when I hit part 2 and felt like the book should've ended there and Maas should've made part 2 a separate book (albeit a somewhat short one). The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that if she'd done it that way, we'd have a mostly boring 7th book and an action-packed, but shorter 8th book in the series....which is why I came back to the idea that she should've just cut scenes from part 1. There were so many scenes of the armies just moving or camping, and then there'd be a scene where an army was just casually mentioned as having been moved without showing us the movement, and I feel like if the book had done more of the latter it would've 1) moved quicker, 2) been less boring in part 1, and 3) been shorter. But I digress. The review will have some spoilers, I hide the major ones as always, but if you don't want spoilers, don't read below the cut. Non-spoilery review here.

The book opens with Aelin, who is not in a good place right now. Despite fears, it's only been two months since Maeve and Cairn got a hold of her. The scenes in the beginning are...dark. There's heavy mentions of torture and mind manipulation and death and all sorts of really horrible stuff. Some of the torture scenes get more descriptions than others, it's nothing I would call graphic, but it's enough to make your skin crawl and twitch. On the plus side, Aelin does escape *SPOILER* super plus, she manages to get herself out of Cairn and Maeve's grasp, even if there were other forces behind it *SPOILER END* and she teams up with Rowan, Lorcan, Elide, and Gavriel. The lot of them + Fenrys basically haul ass out of Wendlyn....which is where it gets boring. Reading several chapters of them traveling is not that interesting, even if some stuff happens during that time, there was definitely other ways to bring it about and/or ways to shorten the mentions of them traveling and bring them back to stuff that actually happens. Aelin really drew the shit-stick when it came to destinies the day they were handing them out, I'll say that. Before I get too off the tracks, I was really not happy when it was revealed that all of Aelin's scars were wiped away. Like...I get they had a lot of healing to do on her, but really, all of them? It's part of the trauma, everyone's horrified by it, but I wonder if it really had to be in there. Part of the draw of Aelin was that she was so scarred, that it could be seen, especially since a lot of her scars were testaments to her survival despite the odds. Having her skin just suddenly be scar-free felt....oily to me. Also kind of bummed that Aelin didn't really fight in the war that much. She was in two battles while pretty much everyone else was in a battle every ten chapters. I wanted to see her fight more than she did. In terms of development, Aelin has both internal and external development. On the one hand, she has to contend with the new round of torture she'd endured and raise herself back out of the depression she's in--I definitely appreciate the different ways Maas depicts depression, I'll say that, it's different for different people and situations, which true to life and nice to see. On the other hand, she also has to contend with the Lock and the throne and the coming battles. Throughout the book, she has to look at a situation and decide if it's worth stopping to help if it means more fall to Erawen's forces down the line when either helping or continuing on could mean Erawen wins. Sometimes she makes the right decision, sometimes, like with the Lock, she doesn't (*SPOILER* I still feel bad when people get mad at her about the Lock though, even if I understand and kind of side with them, lol *SPOILER END*). Aelin has to shed a lot of the stuff that's happened and the weight of every success and failure and destiny and god as she moves through his book and finishes her development. Aelin comes through strong in the end, despite her mistakes, and I think the way things end for her is perfect for her arc and what it's been building toward. When Elide said she was pissed with Lorcan, she bloody well meant it. I don't think the two of them are on good terms until several chapters into part 2. I'm kind of surprised she didn't kill Lorcan in his sleep for how mad she was at him. Aside from her being pissy, we also get to see more of her using her observation powers and calm cunning to outsmart their opponents multiple times. She's vital to getting Aelin back, and she's vital to the final battle in the book as well. I really enjoyed seeing her development in full-swing, especially when it came to confronting her uncle. Vernon is an ass, but he's not wrong that witch blood flows through her and it shows when she's making decisions regarding enemies and opponents. Elide's cleverness and cunning plays a huge role in some of the major schemes and events in the book, which was awesome to see. By the end of her development, she feels like a Lady more than she did in the previous books. Aedion and Lysandra are playing their parts as they get settled in Terrasen and prepare for the coming war. The interactions between the two of them are...tense, to say the least. I can see why Aedion would be angry with her, but I don't necessarily agree with it or with the way he handles the situation. Because he's honestly an ass *SPOILER* until Lysandra almost dies *SPOILER END* and if I were Lysandra, I wouldn't give him the time of day. Aedion is angry in this one, like, really really angry. He's angry at Maeve, angry at the Terrasen lords, angry at Lysandra, even angry at Aelin, to an extent. I felt like all the maturity he had in the previous three books just sort of disappeared and he just lost all perspective for first half of the book. There's an instance when Aedion is thinking about how Aelin should've conferred with everyone before making plans with Lysandra, apparently, conveniently forgetting that Maeve made a surprise!capture of Aelin and that Aelin hadn't sacrificed herself to the Lock. He was literally angry at them about something neither of them had planned nor had control over, but that Lysandra acted upon in order to help rally the troops....riiight. So, for most of the book I just really didn't like Aedion, and then he got miraculously better and was suddenly back to being himself. He basically pulled an Elide but for less good reasons. Obviously, this is the last book and so it's the end of the character development. For Aedion, I feel like a lot of his development in this book is on the emotional side of things. He deals with maturing a little bit when it comes to people making decisions he doesn't like. He also develops in that he realizes he can be fatally wrong. He was wrong about Aelin and the allies in the end of EoS, he's wrong about Lysandra in this one, and he's wrong about some of the strategies and maneuvers he tries as well. He's definitely someone, I think, that doesn't handle things Going Wrong very well, and so his development is mainly focused on improving that in this book. And, of course, part of that development is reconsidering his anger and resentment toward Gavriel. Once we get into part 2 of the book, we see him really doing a reversal and growing as a person (I definitely like him better in part 2). Lysandra is another character who gets the short end of the stick in this one. She has to juggle pretending to be Aelin while also shifting to go on scouting missions and fighting to help the army while in battle. The only person there who knows she isn't Aelin is Aedion....who is pissed to no end with her. I think it's clear from the get-go that Lysandra doesn't necessarily expect to survive the war, but Aelin's friendship and offer for a better world combined with knowing that if they win Evangeline will get to live keeps her going. It gets better in part 2 of the book, which is definitely the 'upward curve' part of things for just about every character. We get more Lysandra-narrated chapters in part 1 of the book, so there's not really a whole lot to say about the second part, but it did feel that the second part of the book, for her, was more about redeveloping her relationship with Aedion. There was just less of a focus on her going into battle and I wish Maas had expanded these more, since it was cool to read about her fighting in different forms and how they used those forms to their advantage. Manon, of course, remains one of my favorites and she was with the Thirteen trying to find the Corchans. So, uh, the Crochan witches are not as goody-two-shoes and nice as I was expecting. I mean, to be fair, I probably wouldn't be in their position either, but still, it is well established that if I were a witch I definitely wouldn't be the benign kind. Manon's arc in this one is mostly about tackling her new heritage and how to either pick a side or balance them both. Manon, quite literally, comes into feelings for pretty much the first time ever, so that was fun to read about. Her relationship with Dorian was just weird, though it felt a little more natural in this one than it did in QoS, though I still think she and Elide would've been good together. She was unbalanced in this book, mostly because of aforementioned feelings, but the inability to balance and the struggle to win over the Crochans while still keeping true to herself forged her. Manon is one of the characters who I think gets a pretty solid arc throughout Part 2 of the series (and technically Part 1, since HoF is in that part when I divide the books plotwise, but w/e). There are definitely some things in this book regarding her that I would change, mainly re: the Thirteen and Dorian, but overall I think she has one of the strongest arcs in KoA. Dorian also undergoes a significant arc transformation in this book. I think multiple people in the books acknowledged that he still felt like a prince during and at the end of EoS, but as this book opens and develops, we get to see Dorian continue to struggle with the collar, his abilities, and the Lock, which in turn triggers the final phase of his development arc. He does get a bit of that cunningness and cruelty he marked in Manon and Aelin, and he is able to trick his way in and out of things. I kind of miss how soft he used to be, since almost as a necessity of this transformation he loses a lot of that softness--but not entirely!--and it kind of makes me nostalgic for when he was just a cinnamon bun princeling, but I think the changes are, for the most part, good for him as a character. Like Elide, by the end of KoA, Dorian actually felt like a king as opposed to someone who just had that title in front of their name. Yrene is an interesting character and I wish there'd been more of a chance for her to shine in the beginning of the book like she does later on. I also wish she hadn't been pregnant. Call me crazy, but she's a healer, she mentioned in ToD that she could brew something for Nesryn, and they're about to go into war but she somehow gets pregnant? Are you kidding me? But that aside, Yrene really does come through with her Valg-healing powers and plays a huge role in how things play out. A lot of her arc already played out in ToD, so her actions are mostly external and push the plot or other characters forward. I wish she had a bigger narrative element to her in this book, and while she does get her due later on, I feel like this is one of those areas that could've been expanded had extraneous scenes been cut. For all the traveling Chaol and co have to do, they certainly get into the thick of things faster than Aelin does. We finally get to close the loop with Chaol's father that was opened in the series' Part 1, which I think was the only unresolved part of Chaol's arc. Like Yrene, a lot of his arc was dealt with in ToD. He does, however, adjust to being the King's Hand, and having the power to forge alliances and give land and whatnot. I loved his reunion with Dorian. It took over half the book, but it did eventually happen and we later got to see them fight side-by-side! This is apparently the space where I complain characters aren't given their due, because I feel like Nesryn got shorted too. Again, in part 1 of the book, she barely gets any narration and the narration she does get is her worrying about Sartaq. Like, good grief, both of you have seen battle before, I'm sure you'll be fine. She also worries a lot over the role of empress and is a bit hesitant over it, but it's not really a major touching point. I feel like there was some development of Nesryn as a ruk rider that we didn't get to see in either book, yet somehow she was a good enough flyer and had adjusted enough to the difference between fighting on foot and on the back of a ruk that they let her fly in the aerial legions. It's not really something that needed a ton of focus, but a little more than it actually got would've been nice and would've rounded out the physical arc with the ruk riders she had going on in ToD. I feel like Rowan wasn't a huge narrative presence in this one, unfortunately. He was obviously worried for Aelin and was trying to be attentive, but he also had some of his own schemes up his sleeve that we don't get to see until the very end (Aelin clearly rubbed off on him in more ways than one). I think the major shift with him is that he and Aelin are more like a team again in this one, like they were in QoS, where they scheme together and apart, whereas in EoS they did more scheming apart than together. I have to say, I really like them being a team better than I liked their separate, but supportive schemes in EoS. Lorcan had all, or most of, his narrative chapters dropped, though we did get to see some of them. Lorcan's definitely not in a good place for most of this book. He realizes he fucked up by calling Maeve and that not only did he fuck up in calling Maeve, but he fucked up in ever serving Maeve as loyally as he did. Lorcan's arc is largely about redemption from that and coming to the realization that there are other options and the potential for a better world out there, as cliche as it is to say. A decent portion of his page-time is also dedicated to getting back into Elide's good graces, as pretty much everyone else gets over Lorcan's mistake pretty quickly, even Aelin, funnily enough. Evangeline got narrative chapters in this book, which I was happy to see. I can't really remember how old she is, 10 I think, but she's definitely mature for her age and clever as a whip. I think that, even with everything Aelin and the others do against Erawen and Maeve, Evangeline's the one to really convince Darrow to stop being stuck up about the throne and crown. I did think it was a little weird when she became his ward and heir without mention of whether she was also still Lysandra's ward and heir still. It just warranted more of an explanation than we got. Nox came back in this one, which was a nice, if not unexpected surprise. Unfortunately, he meets Lysandra!Aelin and then yeets into the distance and there is Absolutely No Resolution regarding where he went, what happened to him, or if he actually met the real Aelin again. Even if it was only a couple lines, Falkan did get to reunite with Lysandra, so we got the nod there. If we're talking about characters who got done dirty, the Thirteen and Gavriel are at the top of the list. I really like the Thirteen and wish they got more page-time individually. We know Asterin and Sorrel the best out of them, I think, but the others are sort of background names I felt like. They're such an interesting and complex bunch, and they have some of the only continually included gay characters and characters of color in the book that I really wish they got more attention. Not to mention, people Aelin and Dorian care about get chapters dedicated to them, but people Manon cares about don't? How does that make sense? I also really hated how their arcs ended [ they sacrificed themselves to take out the last witch tower. Like, it's poetic and broke the curse on the Wastes, but (pun aside) it was such a fucking waste to have that be the answer (hide spoiler)]. Gavriel was such a warm and caring character and he really only wanted to bond and spend time with Aedion, and then he's separated from Aedion for most of the book only to reunite in battle. He, of course, has a similar course to the Thirteen...like, almost exactly just with a different situation, actually. As much as I loved the book, I will admit that some of it was predictable. If you've browsed the fan theories since EoS and ToD came out, then you've probably come across some of the theories that turned out to be true. Maybe we just got really good at reading Maas' foreshadowing, but I do feel that some of the major elements of this book were more predictable than before. My least favorite theory that came true is the one where *SPOILER* Aelin loses almost all her power and is saved in part by her water and Mala, but remains at a low level of power; honestly, I can understand Aelin losing some of her powers, but for the supposedly most powerful female Fae in the world to be reduced to mere embers and some water, while she's surrounded by powerful male Fae like Rowan and Fenrys and Dorian, who end up being more powerful than her after she forges the Lock, is annoying (especially when it was said earlier in the series that power calls to power)*END SPOILER*. So, 4/5 stars overall. I really like a lot of the stuff that happens in the book, it was great to see Nox again and seeing everyone with their powers out and fighting was awesome, and I think most of the characters get a good resolution to their arcs. However, the book is way too long, is too boring during certain parts of it to warrant it being that long, and definitely did some characters dirty. Combined with the fact my least fav theory came true--a little petty? maybe--and the fact that aside from the characters done wrong, no one really dies, I decided to drop a star despite the other interesting things that happen during this book.

3 notes · View notes

aspiestvmusings · 5 years

Text

LONG POST: I AM IRON MAN

A STUDY ON: THE MAN vs THE SUIT.

MY THOUGHTS ON TONY vs IRON MAN.

SPOILERS FOR MCU FILMS, INCLUDING ENDGAME. SO BEWARE.

I am being very vague, and no real spoilers, but some might still find this too spoilery, too.

In “Iron Man 1″ Tony built the Iron Man suit, and declared at the end of IM1, publicly, to everyone that “I am Iron Man”. Then in “Iron Man 2″ he went on record and said that the suit & the man are one (”The suit & I are one”). But then in “Iron Man 3″ (due to the events of “Avengers 1″) the man & the suit started separating.

In IM 1 he got the suit, and became one with the suit. In IM 2 he becomes truly one with the suit. In IM3 he and the suit are, against his will, separated.... “physically”, when both the suit & the connection to the suit (JARVIS) are separated from him.

In the beginning of IM3 he first claims that the suits are part of him. But the he goes on a personal discovery journey. (And that’s AFTER he uses the suit to protect Pepper - putting others first) IM3 shows that while both the suit and the man are broken (suit physically broken, Tony mentally broken), he mostly tries to take care of the suit, not himself. Therefore putting the suit (others) before the man (himself).

Up until now he has seen them as one - the man & the suit (himself & Iron Man), but meeting Harley and the experiences they have together... makes him see things from the boys perspective... through eyes of others (non-superheroes, random people) - who only know the “covers of the book” - the suit & not the man inside...not really. The suit is Iron Man & he is the mechanic, who made the suit (even if, technically, he/the man is Iron Man).

His character development takes (mostly) place in IM3, where he is “broken”. And yet he still tries to take care of the suit first, and not the man -- the man comes second. He has believed that the suit makes him - that his strength comes from the suit, not his character. But as the IM3 end tells us via his voice over - he now sees it differently. He destroys the old suits (and his home has been destroyed, too), and starts off from scratch (The Clean Slate protocol) That was the end of the first chapter of his development.

When in IM1 his declaration “I am Iron Man” said that he & the suit are one and the suit makes him Iron Man, then in IM3 his end declaration says the opposite - he is Iron Man despite it (You can take away all my toys and tricks (his suits) - but you can’t take away one thing - the fact that he, the man, is Iron Man). He now acknowledged that the mere mortal human inside the suit is the Iron Man - that it’s Tony who has the strength & the power... to do all these great things.

His character arc was to get to that point in the IM trilogy. He has accepted that his strength comes from having flaws, too.

Up until this, the suit & him have also been one, because he’s depended on the arc reactor in his chest to power the suit & to keep the man inside it alive. But the end of IM3 changes that. IM3 end separates the man & the suit... as he gets the shrapnel removed from his chest, and is not dependant on the magnetic heart in his chest. After this the suit is not “part” of him, but “around him”. Now the suit lives ON his skin, instead of IN(SIDE) him.

As he says in A3... the arc reactor now is just a device on his skin, an accessory (like a watch or a piece of jewelry worn) that houses the suit, and he is not dependant on it, it’s just an “accessory”, not a device keeping him alive...more literally.

And that “growth” comes after the A1 events, and how it affects him - the anxiety, the PTSD, the.... sleepless nights...that takes us to IM3. And then his attempt to save everyone came to play in A2 - his greatest fear of not being able to save everyone, and losing everyone he loves (he might say that Pepper is the only one/thing he can’t live without, but A2 to SM1 have shown that his family is larger than her, and losing the kid in A3 definitely affected him... strongly. He, like they all, lost a lot - lost someone important to him. He didn’t lose everyone as he had feared (the A2: AoU “vision”), but he did lose someone. His greatest fear did come true. So his “survival guilt” & “not being able to save everyONE” was the theme...kinda after that...)

Tony needs to save everyone - he needs to be the “suit of armour around the earth” that protects everyone. He needs to be the hero. As once again, mentioned in one of the A4 trailers, when Tony says that he can’t help everybody & Pepper replies that it sorta seems that/like he can. His VISION in A2 & his reality after A3 - experience at the end of Infinity War - losing everyone/being the only (human) survivor after the battle (at his location) - is the one thing he can’t live with. He doesn’t want that (Spiderman’s death) on his conscience, cause he feels (like all the heroes) that it’s his fault/on him. But...he is a hero, who needs to save everyone. And this - failure - has always been his greatest fear, and the weight on his shoulders.

And this is why CA was incorrect in “Avengers 1" when he said Tony is “big man in a suit of armour...take that off & what are you?” Because, while Tony answered the way he did, because he hadn’t gone through the IM3 arc yet (and saw himself differently), he was always more than the suit. And Endgame proved that HE (Tony) is Iron Man even without the suit, and that he doesn’t fight for (only) himself. This is why Tony’s & Iron Man’s journey comes full circle with Endgame. He is the guy who (in many ways) is stronger than Thor & Hulk, and more patriotic (and caring about others) than Cap. He is a Hero. He isn’t just pretending to be one. And he’s not looking for an easy way out - saving his own ass, and letting others take the blows. Proving people wrong...once & for all. Too bad some didn’t really see the man in the suit until that moment.

And as he said to Peter in SM1... He wanted Peter to be better than he was/is. He told Peter than if he is nothing without the suit, then he shouldn't have it. He had realized this in IM3 (about himself), so he was “paying it forward”. And he applies this to himself, too. The man inside the suit makes the suit around the man. Or in other words: the man makes the suit, not the other way around.

It’s the same as they’ve done with Thor, for example - it’s not the hammer that has the power, but the man holding it - thunder comes from within him (it’s in his veins), not from the hammer. Interestingly to me... Thor’s character arc seems so much like Tony’s to me... especially after Endgame (which was Thor’s IM3 - learning to accept himself as he is, with flaws and all... which makes SPOILER GOES HERE Thor’s Harley Keener...because THAT CHARACTER helped him see & accept himself with flaws...find himself & start the healing)

In many ways he’s been “hiding” behind the mask... throughout the MCU history... throughout his journey over the past years since 2008. Literally. Every time there is danger, he “puts on the suit” & “closes the helmet around his face”. But... how does his journey end? The man behind the mask is revealed. He wears the suit, but... not the mask. The suit is a protective armour around him... a “mere mortal human”, but we see the man inside, because he doesn't hide behind the mask... he does not wear the helmet (at the end of the battle). Making it Tony that is being the hero, not the suit (Iron Man).

The two are separated now. This is the man...in the suit... that is doing the fighting. And...as it turns out TONY (not Iron Man) is the strongest avenger...in many ways. He is able to “lift as much as Hulk” - he does the same thing Hulk did, and unlike Bruce as Hulk, who needed time to get used to the power when it attacks him, Tony doesn’t even falter... when confronted with so much power coming at him... (he wills himself to do it & succeed)

Tony also has the willpower to save Thanos for last at the end. He makes Thanos witness his whole army/team die before the purple evil finds his own end. Tony does that by simply his willpower. He lets Thanos witness his teams failure/fall (that he/they lost)...letting that sink in...slowly, letting him know that Tony and his team won... This is why Thanos is the last one to die...

This is why in his line ”...and *I* am Iron Man...” in Endgame he was emphasising the “I” part. He, Tony, the man inside the (ironman) suit is Iron Man... the human with all his flaws...not just strengths. But his strength comes from his character, and the choices he’s made (from choosing to become peacekeeper instead of weapons maker...to everything that followed) that tell of his character. The whole story so far has been about how Tony Stark has a heart, and how he is the heart of the story. HE did all that. Tony did all that. He had the suit to help him (though).

Also... we see how everyone finally sees him as the hero, and the heart of the story. This is why Tony doesn’t say anything during THAT scene (besides those few words to Pepper) - it was all about how others felt about him - the hero. And everyone standing to acknowledge Tony... (as) the Iron Man, and the hero. Everyone's reaction to the hero was the focus, because that arc has now also been completed - everyone else now, too, sees Tony as the hero he is. It baffles me that it took until that moment for others to finally see it, too, but... that’s how it is.

Based on the canon there were many characters in this universe who did not see him as the selfless hero he had been...since almost the start of his journey (he redeemed himself in IM1... before he met any of the other heroes) And I am sad to read/see that even the makers of the films (the creators, the writers, the directors) didn’t see him as the selfless hero until his retirement. Maybe it’s the usual publicity talk & not their actual view on the character they helped to create, but yeah... seeing some claim that he finally...only now..did something not selfish...and fought for others, not himself... for me...is strange & means the person & character wasn't understood. But then again...maybe it’s the genius-factor at play - people just not understanding genius and seeing anyone who is smart & all actions by geniuses as arrogant & selfish. Not seeing the real person behind it & the real motives behind their actions? That’s my take on...that.

He is more than the suit. He is everything without the suit. Tony is Iron Man...the hero. That was the end of the second chapter of his development.

And here's an appropriate quote to sum it up: “The measure of a hero is how (well) they succeed at being who they are.” Tony was a hero, a superhero, a friend, a leader, a son, a *****’*; a ******.

Which is why him choosing family over other options...is...so believable. This way he’s had a taste of both of the worlds & he’s saved both - the world & his family.

IRON MAN WILL RETURN? LINK HERE

THE END

Congrats if you made it this far. It’s been another super long post from me.

There is, of course, more to this, but this is already too long of a post...even though I can say so much more about this all.

#SPOILER #endgame spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #Tony Stark #Ironman #Iron Man #MCU #AVENGERS #The Avengers #Avengers 4 #Avengers: Endgame #Avengers Endgame #my thoughts #master post #long post

6 notes · View notes

facets-and-rainbows · 6 years

Text

Mephisto said a sentence which went IMMEDIATELY AND COMPLETELY OVER MY HEAD during chapter 101, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to

1. explain a sentence which, trust me, is not going to translate well in whatever English version, and

2. show an example of how I work through a chunk of text that just shredded my reading comprehension on the first read.

(It’s probably one of the LEAST spoilery sentences in the chapter, no real plot information to be gleaned from it if you’ve read chapter 100.)

So Rin is watching things happen from behind a wall and Mephisto says:

奥村くん？ Okumura-kun?

すっかり家政婦は見たスタイルが板につきましたね ☆ I...uh...hmm.

I ...hmmm. I know...most of these...words?

すっかり completely, thoroughly

家政婦（かせいふ） uh...house-govern-woman. imma guess...housewife?Another word for stay at home mom or something?

は makes a topic

見た saw

スタイル style

が makes a subject

板（いた）board. why is there a board. what do planks of wood have to do with anything.

に to

つきました affixed

ね isn’t it?

Maybe...maybe if I try, like, parsing it into chunks?

すっかり (someone completely) 家政婦は (about a house-govern-woman) 見たスタイルが(the looked-at style) 板につきました (got stuck to a board)

hhhhhuh.

a housewife...saw a style, and ...stuck it ...to a board?

Something has gone terribly wrong.

WELP judging by their faces it’s most likely some kind of esoteric snark directed at Rin and not crucial to the plot, maybe I should move on to the next panel, YOU WIN THIS ROUND MEPHISTO

...

...yeah no it’s bugging me. time to break out the dictionary and the new tab to google and do some SERIOUS COMPREHENDING.

1. Just look up 家政婦 already, jesus

Maid! Not housewife!

家政婦（かせいふ） Maid, (female) housekeeper

.......I guess I didn’t REALLY expect knowing all the words instead of all but one to fix that sentence. It’s a start though!

2. Look up the phrase 板につく

“stuck to a board” just...it just FEELS like I’m missing a saying. It’s got that household object, that incredibly broadly defined verb...I bet a native speaker would know something about this board that I don’t. I bet they’re all cheerfully sharing some non-literal meaning of board while I’m over here puzzling over it like Amelia Bedelia trying to literally balance a checkbook so it doesn’t fall down.

Ah. Yep. There we go. Originally referred to a stage.

板につく（いたにつく） to be at home on the stage, to become accustomed to one’s job or role

3. Parse it again. Parse it better this time.

That saying would go well with すっかり. Somebody or something “has become completely accustomed to...”

...To what? 家政婦は見たスタイル？ The style that the maid saw? ...but no, that would be 家政婦が見たスタイル with a が. with a は is sounds like the maid is getting accustomed to some kind of style...but no. It’s just weird. The grammar just seems...off. And at any rate, there’s no maid here, just Rin.

This 家政婦は bit is screwing with my head, let’s just look at the bits I understand.

すっかりMephisto’s incomprehensible bulls***スタイルが板につきましたね。

So...some kind of style has taken hold here. Rin(?) is settling right in to some kind of style. What kind though?

4. Google the confusing bit in quotes

Okay. Let’s just. There’s only one weird chunk left. I’m starting to think that 家政婦は見た is like, A Thing, because a) the sentence makes perfect sense if I replace that part with “???” and b) every time I try to parse that は as part of the bigger sentence my brain breaks. I bet it’s a saying or something too. Let’s just google it and see if anyone’s said it before.

“家政婦は見た”

Bingo.

Check out those image results.

And a wikipedia article for a TV drama called 家政婦は見た！ (The Maid Saw!) which appears to be about a maid who goes around working for rich families who are secretly horrible, ends up witnessing their scandals and family drama etc. from behind the scenes, and exposes all the dirty secrets to the whole family before leaving.

That slippery demon bastard was trying to slide a pop culture reference past me.

5. Look at the sentence in context again.

*snort* okay I’ll admit he’s got a point

すっかり家政婦は見たスタイルが板につきましたね ☆ You’re really getting that “The Maid Saw!” look down☆

that...really is exactly what’s going on here isn’t it XD Rin’s I-feel-so-called-out expression confirms it.

Only difference is that it’s his OWN family scandals and secrets he’s witnessing.

That IS kinda funny, ha ha-wait.

waaaaaaiiiiiit.

70s!Mephisto. Did you...Did you just make a reference. In this, the year of our Lord nineteen seventy-whatever. To a drama which, according to its Wikipedia page, doesn’t air until 1983??

Keep your time periods straight man, you’re confusing us mere mortals with your non-linear understanding of time.

#blue exorcist #Ao no Exorcist #spoilers #my google fu vs Mephisto's ability to be obtuse #wish me luck #I'll need it

257 notes · View notes