#plot-wise it’s relatively straightforward

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 47

Fortunately there is no time jump, so we return to World Enough and Time's final part, The Doctor Falls. This is good for answers, because sometimes two-parters jump around - we're still waiting to find out how Matt Smith got out of that cube and whether River blew up. But not this time! Here we are on a Cyberman infested ship again.

Also, here is something I genuinely enjoy about Steven Moffat's writing: he does very good and fun and engaging pre-credit cliffhanger resolutions to his two-parters, and this one is no exception. We are treated to an idyllic farm house with adorable innocent children and salt-of-the-earth rustic folk in a green countryside a few floors up in the ship, with Cybermen crucified as scarecrows all around them; a child feels an earthquake, and suddenly a space shuttle bursts up through the floor and crashes. And out of the wreckage walks Cyber-Bill, carrying the Doctor in her arms.

VERY FUN (the Doctor gets Cyber-shot like eight times in this episode, he does need carrying)

Anyway, this is a fairly straightforward episode plot-wise. After Missy and Master attack the Doctor, he changes the parameters the Cybermen are following to identify humans - now they will target 1 or 2 hearts, so suddenly the Gallifreyans are also at risk (I will admit this is one of those "Seems clever but is actually dumb as hell" twists that Moffat is so good at. "I only had time to make one small change!" says the Doctor. "I added a 2! Now they will also chase people with two hearts!" Okay but that is not how coding works. Either you change the number 1 to a 2 - in which case they would now EXCLUSIVELY track Gallifreyans and leave humans alone, problem solved - or you added an operator like AND or OR or what have you, in which case you used up extra precious seconds to deliberately ensure that these Cybermen would still track humans.)

(And actually, they don't track the blue man. And the Doctor takes pains in this episode to point out that the Cybermen still have easily fooled monkey brains. So like. At any point, everyone could have painted themselves blue and been fine. Hmm.)

ANYWAY

The change means Missy and the Master escape upwards with the Doctor, Nardole and Cyber-Bill, so we exchange Cardiff University and Bute Street the grime of the Cyber conversion level for the pastoral wilds of Abergavenny floor 507, a solar farm that therefore has a holographic sky and simulated weather. And then it's basically a village under siege story - the Cybermen are coming, and are upgrading as they go, a process that is happening in what appears to be days to our hero but is in fact years at the bottom of the ship. This also means they can't all go up in the lifts to escape more than a few floors now - the Cybermen will upgrade to stop them too fast.

(Except. There's about 50 things wrong with that as a concept. I can think of one previously noted plot point that proves that wrong and about five possible workarounds right off the top of my head - as I say, "seems clever but is actually dumb as hell." But this is an era finale and so the focus is not on the plot - a mere skeleton to prop up the actual star of the show - but the story. What matters here is the characters, and what they think and feel and say, and what choices they make.)

Ultimately, it turns out that Missy genuinely does want to change, and become a good person. This is genuinely poignant, because the Master therefore kills her to stop her. I'm not wild about that as a twist, actually - long franchises with recurring villains never like to allow true growth, but I think "villain trying to atone" is actually a super valuable narrative, and I always feel sad for characters who aren't allowed to do it. But I will admit that it's played relatively nicely, as a tragedy.

Fortunately, it's juxtaposed with one of the best monologues any character in anything has ever given; namely, Peter Motherfucking Capaldi turning his Acting skills up to over 9000 to explain why we should choose to do the right thing. It's beautiful and moving and timeless and true and I love it, wholeheartedly and unironically. I mean it's also bullshit from this particular Doctor, given that we have in the past watched Clara have to force him to even try to save people if they don't do what he likes (Christ she deserved a better Doctor T_T), but regardless, it's a fantastic speech delivered by one of the greatest actors of his generation.

So what does happen?

Well! Bill is Cyber-Bill now, and the process is written off as permanent. She retains her memories through force of will, but will slowly succumb. "I can feel the programming," she sobs at one point, and fuck me Pearl Mackie is also a phenomenal actor. "It's like a hurricane in my head, and I'm hanging on, but I can only hang on for so long."

This episode literally started with the Doctor altering the programming of the Cybermen.

"Alas," he tells her. "There's nothing I can do to fix this."

Well then.

The Doctor and Bill ultimately decide to stay and fight Cybermen off while Nardole is given the task of leading the humans up five floors to the next solar farm in the lifts; the Doctor then blows up the floor they're on with the Cybermen on it, and go out in a blaze of glory. This is... certainly a choice, isn't it? Every story with Nardole so far has shown him to be the plucky comic relief, and I include in that THIS EXACT STORY WHERE MISSY CALLED HIM COMIC RELIEF TO HIS FACE. We even got more Weird Nrdole Stuff this episode - apparently he's some sort of reformed con-man and a computer whizz. And yet!!! And yet he gets the Proper Companion Ending!!! This is such a tonally strange choice. The Doctor even convinces him to do it by telling him he's stronger than the Doctor, a claim for which we have seen zero evidence, and is actually the sort of thing that gets said to Proper Companions after they have been through two series' worth of character development. By rights, this should surely have been Bill's job? Lead the survivors in a post-apocalyptic world?

Instead, Bill dies as a Cyberman, and then suddenly, from our perspective, THINGS GET REAL WEIRD, because an unnamed water faerie with a star in her eye who apparently once cried on Bill turns up and goes "You're like me now," and they magic the Doctor back into the TARDIS that two minutes ago he said he couldn't reach, abandon Nardole in a Cyber-infested ship, and then fuck off to explore the cosmos together and have hot lesbian sex, I assume.

What the fuck.

And then to round off, the Doctor wakes up, cries that he doesn't want to regenerate, and staggers out of the TARDIS into snow and also the arms of David Bradley's First Doctor. Which brings us nicely to that story we've already seen! We've seen Capaldi's regeneration. That was a good one.

So! Let's update the board.

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (Suspects: River, Missy, Me, Clara)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest. The Thijarian planet was destroyed by some sort of impact). Is this the Flux?

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (Nope: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again. NOPE, back to not working.)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? He used to be blue, and could apparently go back to it??? NEW INFO: he's some sort of helplessly criminal con-artist??? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregnancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?) She’s deffo pregnant and the baby becomes River, but why inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri (Not anymore, somehow)

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory? How did she forget a Dalek invasion?

Is Rory plastic or not? Yeah, must be, he couldn’t possibly remember being plastic otherwise

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras? A psychic midwife says she’s just normal human

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven? NEW INFO: Is this because she's now dead?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather? NEW INFO: This is presumably the star-eyed water faerie

How did Nardole die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name? NEW INFO:  Missy says it's "Who"

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years? Since Roman times, it seems

How does the Doctor survive River? He doesn’t, apparently

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

When did the Doctor send the Daleks into a void to save the universe?

What’s with the weird crack in the wall and is it affecting memories?

Why do Amy and Rory think the Doctor is dead? Is it because of River as an astronaut?

Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a tree racist?

Why is the beautiful geode woman stealing people into a Passenger form?

River says she’ll die one day when the Doctor doesn’t remember her, let’s hope she doesn’t mean it

Why doesn’t the TARDIS like Clara?

When was the Master Prime Minister?

When will the Doctor go and rescue Nardole and the colonists?

#doctor whom #and yet we are continuing

[ficretus]

Theory: Speculating about Volume 10 through Joan of Arc references. Part 2: New land, old enemies

Hello, this is continuation to my previous Volume 10 theory (linked below)

Speculations will be done mostly through Joan of Arc references, meaning they will be very Jaune-centric. Speculations will also imply that every major event in Joan of Arc's story will have RWBY equivalent, which is very optimistic assumption. But hey, I'll shoot at the wall and see what sticks.

As usual, I'll also link my Joan of Arc timeline theory for anyone interested in my full reasoning. This theory will be relatively straightforward and focus on my so called Timeline 1. Either way, I'll give quick tl;dr if something from that theory pops up.

With all that out the way, let me begin this theory.

TYRIAN AS MAIN THREAT

Last time we saw Tyrian, he was being sent together with Mercury to Vacuo. I'd say it's safe to assume he will be major antagonist of early Vacuo portion of the story (Cinder and potentially Salem being saved for later). Otherwise, what was the point of him being sent away relatively early to Vacuo when siege of Atlas wasn't even finished. Salem probably has major plans for Vacuo she wants to accomplish through him (especially since Vacuo was suppose to be sooner than Atlas). In my previous theory I speculated Crown faction from RWBY novels will be antagonists of this portion of the story as well. If that's the case, Tyrian was likely sent to establish the contact with them.

Tyrian also makes sense as an antagonist if you think some plot threads of previous volumes are being repeated. Volumes 7 and 8 have decent amount of parallels to Volumes 1-3, especially endings of Volume 3 and 8. If that's the case, then Tyrian makes sense as antagonist considering his first appearance and major antagonistic role was in Volume 4. Theoretical Volume 11 would then likely repeat some threads from Volume 5.

However, this is primarily Joan of Arc based theory, so let me get to that. After relatively unsuccessful campaign against Perrinet Gressart (which I read as first encounter with Crown in my previous theory), Joan took it to the field to take enemy castles and protect allied towns that rose in support of Charles VII. On her way, she found out that enemy commander Franquet of Arras was sieging nearby castles. Franquet departed from Paris and was looting local towns and churches while Duke of Burgundy was preparing larger army. She departed and attacked Franquet's army sieging small castle near Lagny.

This might not sounds like much, and it really isn't. But out of all Salem's faction commanders, this feels most like Tyrian to me. First of all, unlike Gressart (who was pure opportunist hated by both sides), Franquet was considered fairly important commander of Anglo-Burgundian side. He also departed directly from Paris (unsuccessful siege of Paris matches siege of Atlas timeline wise), which parallels Tyrian departing directly from Atlas. It's also most logical for this to be Tyrian since as I already established, he will likely get there first. This kind of parallels Franquet being advancing party while the rest of Burgundian Army is still gathering.

TYRIAN'S DEATH

Franquet attacked the castle, but was unable to take it quickly. This bought enough time for local French garrisons and Joan's army to reinforce it and surround Franquet. He managed to repel first wave of attacks, but was eventually overwhelmed and his army was completely destroyed. Franquet himself was captured alive, but subverting usual rules of war, he wasn't ransomed and was instead trial and executed. They argued he was murderer, rapist, traitor and robber. This is slightly bizarre, since pretty much every notable commander was all those things at the time. He was either gigantic piece of shit or locals simply didn't care about usual rules of war. Joan was initially against that outcome, wanting to ransom Franquet for King's agents that were captured in Paris. However, when she found out those agents were hanged, she let execution proceed. Franquet was beheaded after being trialed. According to Burgundian sources, Franquet looted enormous amount of wealth, part of which French soldiers kept for themselves. In Burgundian propaganda, Joan was the one executing Franquet.

___________________________________________________________

Ok, so let's get the obvious out the way: reading this 1:1 means Tyrian will attack Vacuo, get his ass kicked and then die. That's cool and all, but I'll try to speculate finer details.

First of all, what exactly would be circumstances that put Tyrian in this position. Assuming Cinder isn't there (and I'll get to this part later), what exactly would Tyrian hope to accomplish. Circumstances of Battle of Lagny would make Tyrian an attacker. On his own he cannot achieve much, but as I went in previous theory, Crown leader, Gillian Asturias, offers interesting idea. Since she can drain Aura and she has massive delusion of grandeur (she thinks she is rightful Queen of Vacuo), it's entirely possible they'll attempt to seize Maiden powers and open the Vault.

Would they really try to achieve that without certain power hungry Fall Maiden? I'd say yes. Tyrian seems to heavily dislike Cinder and relishes in her failure. Cinder's fixation on Maiden powers and personal vendetta also ended up backfiring several times. It's entirely possible Salem will seek another Maiden ally, not only to prevent Cinder from screwing it up, but also to preserve Cinder for inevitable opening of final Vault. Last thing she'd want is to lose Cinder before she can open her Vault.

The fact Franquet looted churches is also somewhat interesting. Relics by definition are objects associated with saints and veneration. So Franquet looting churches and taking enormous treasure could be translated into Tyrian (with new Summer Maiden's help) opening up the Vault. If that's the case, I'd reckon Tyrian might wield Relic of Destruction. Think about it, character most obsessed with carnage and destruction wielding divine object embodying that aspect. Either way, he is destined to lose this encounter.

___________________________________________________________

Ok, but who will be on newly formed Scorpion Extermination Squad? Jaune is almost given since I am speculating this from his literary influence. Tyrian also stated Jaune interests him back in Volume 4, so them never interacting after that again would be relatively weird. Others are up for speculation.

The fact Jaune is there and Volume 10 might rethread some Volume 4 plot points (here most notably being first fight against Tyrian), I am almost certain squad will include Ren, Nora and Qrow. Tyrian having long tail and being venomous, also makes me draw some Norse mythology references to Jormungandr, Thor's nemesis. If that's the case, I could see Nora having major role in that fight.

Another combatant I find likely, especially if fight reaches the Vault is Shade Academy's principal Theodore. In battle of Lagny Franquet was sieging the castle before being surrounded by various French garrisons and Joan's army, so Theodore as metaphorical local castle commander makes sense here. Theodore was described as being eager to fight, so it would be weird if he wasn't present for do or die fight on his turf.

Last two I'd speculate are Emerald and Mercury. I don't think saying Mercury will be redeemed is a anything controversial. He already had massive doubts about fighting for Salem's cause in Atlas volumes. The fact he now has to hang around with guy that makes his dad look like a saint is definitely not gonna strengthen his resolve or allegiance to Salem (especially after Tyrian basically confirmed him that Salem will destroy the world). Tyrian also seemed to enjoy abusing Emerald and Mercury while Cinder was presumed dead, so I can't imagine him being pleasant to Mercury. Considering Mercury killed his own father, I think it's inevitable he'll eventually come to blows with Tyrian (who is basically his dad 2.0). Mercury switching sides late into the Volume and metaphorically backstabbing Tyrian would parallel French troops attacking Franquet from the back.

What about... you know... team RWBY? It's entirely possible they'll fight Tyrian as well, I just can't firmly speculate it through anything besides Ruby fighting Tyrian back in Volume 4. If Tyrian fight happens in the Vault, then he'd have to have allied Maiden. So if that happens, I could see team RWBY fighting new Summer Maiden (likely Gillian) alongside various other characters.

_____________________________________________________________

As for parallels with Franquet's execution, I can see various interpretations. You don't really need some special reason to want Tyrian dead, he is closest RWBY has to pure evil character. However, every time he was defeated, he was imprisoned, and every time he was imprisoned he ended up escaping. Good guys executing Tyrian breaks the norm, just like executing Franquet broke usual norms during the war.

As for his executioner, I can see several options. Jaune killing him would parallel Burgundian propaganda about Joan of Arc murdering Franquet herself. Jaune also showed in previous volumes that he has capacity to kill. It's plausible, but I think Jaune will take a different path during this fight (I'll go into this later). There are lot of options, some I could see happen include Nora (if Tyrian really is somewhat Jormungandr inspired), Qrow (taking revenge for their previous encounters) and Theodore. Reason I go with Theodore is because Franquet was trialed and executed by local authorities, Theodore is local authority. He was also described as extremely cautious to the point he thinks Ironwood is reckless. If that's the case, there is no way he'd let Tyrian live after knowing what happened last time he was imprisoned.

There is also some literary justification for this. Tyrian's primary literary influence is Scorpion from various fables, most famous being Frog and the Scorpion. However, there is also Turtle and the Scorpion where Turtle realizing Scorpion's evil nature submerges, drowning the Scorpion. Whoever kills Tyrian will be the Turtle, realizing Scorpion cannot be helped or trusted, putting him out of his misery.

As for Joan's demands of wanting Franquet ransomed for King's agent in Paris, I could see this being realized through Ace Ops members. Have Ace Ops members be an obstacle on the way to the Vault and have Tyrian murder several of them. When Jaune asks what happened to them, have someone confirm they were killed by Tyrian. This would definitely add to the reasons Tyrian shouldn't survive, paralleling Joan seeing no issue with Franquet's execution.

After the battle, French kept some of the vast treasures Franquet looted. If fight takes place in the Vault, this could mean Relic of Destruction. If they fight Summer Maiden as well, I expect her to escape, especially if it's Gillian (who was shown to be very risk averse). As I established in my previous theory, Gressart (who I read as Crown as a whole) was eventually dealt with by French King (who I read as Ruby) himself down the line.

JAUNE'S SEMBLANCE GROWTH

After the battle, Joan was brought dead baby by the locals. Baby's body was darkened and was supposedly dead for days. Joan prayed together with locals and baby was revived, normal color returning to its face. Baby would die soon after, but not before being baptized. This is one of the rare miracles attributed to Joan of Arc and was even one of the reasons behind her eventual canonization.

Alright, but how does this translate to the show itself. Event takes place after the battle, so if previous reads are correct, it will be as a consequence of it. Someone will be so badly damaged they'll be assumed dead, which is where Jaune steps in. Jaune saving someone from the brink of death is kind of his thing, but this would need to be extraordinary considering event its paralleling is Joan allegedly reviving a baby. Now, I don't think Jaune's Semblance would ever reach the point where it can revive someone, that would open a whole new can of worms. More likely he'll undergo Semblance evolution and be able to achieve feats previously thought impossible. His big regret is not being able to save Penny, having to resort to murdering her. This is the answer, his sheer will to never experience something like that again will boost his Semblance to be able to heal significantly faster and or be able to fix way highly lethal wounds. Jaune achieving this during Tyrian fight would also make them interesting foils: embodiment of destruction against embodiment of preservation (which is why I think Jaune won't be the one to kill Tyrian, he will show himself to be his complete opposite).

As for who will be healed by Jaune, I have several candidates. Qrow would be interesting parallel back to Volume 4. Tyrian injects him with venom, this time even more lethal version. Considering last time he was barely saved, he is basically written off as dead. Then Jaune steps in and saves his life, showing his growth compared to Volume 4. If they play baby relatively straightforward, then I can see baby's darkened skin being translated into venom injection. Nora would work if Tyrian is indeed somewhat inspired by Jormungandr. Thor managed to kill Jormungandr, but died to the poisonous air beast left behind. This would be translated to Nora dying from Tyrian's venom, only for Jaune to do the miracle and save her from certain death.

There is also Mercury as an option, if we try to read Joan story very symbolically. For those who don't know, in Catholicism there is a religious doctrine of Original Sin. Adam and Eve tainted originally pure human nature with their sin, which means that humans as a whole fell. That means that you basically start your life as a sinner and need to undergo spiritual regeneration, which is first accomplished through baptism. Baby that dies without baptism is left to the mercy of God. Now, what does this have to do with anything? This might sounds like a stretch, but if Mercury does switch sides during the fight and dies, he would die before being baptized as a "good guy" and die as a sinner. Jaune saving Mercury would allow him to be fully redeemed, undergoing spiritual regeneration.

Weiss is another option, going full circle and having Semblance awakened again because of her. She'd likely be mortally injured by Summer Maiden and Jaune would arrive when she is already pretty much dead, saving her life. I don't particularly believe in this one, but I'll keep it as an option since it's fairly straightforward.

Doomed scenario is also something I entertain since baby was revived only for a short time. As in, Jaune will almost save someone's life, but his Semblance still won't be quite there yet and it will fail. At the end of the day, you may ship Jaune with whoever you want, but writers mostly ship him with Suffering, so that's another instance to add to the "suffering builds character" pile. Hopefully this doesn't happen since it would imply they are indeed adapting Jaune's story via Joan of Arc references, but purposefully making them all bad ending scenarios to make him suffer.

____________________________________________________________

NO CINDER

Now to loop back to the beginning of the theory, where is Cinder in all of this? She'll mostly likely be at her room hugging her Jaune body pill.... wait wrong theory.

For that we need to go back to Gressart campaign. Reason Joan was sent to fight Gressart was because after the siege of Paris, King had a truce with Duke of Burgundy. Attacking Gressart wouldn't break the truce since nobody gave a shit about Gressart. After that, Duke of Burgundy broke the truce himself and tried to take several towns allied with the King. While Franquet was doing his thing, Duke of Burgundy was assembling a large army at Arras.

First of all, in Timeline 1 theories I read Cinder as Duke of Burgundy (as well as some prominent commanders on their side). Both turned their back to their logical allies and sided with the enemy (Burgundy is French duchy siding with English, Cinder is human siding with Grimm). Both have personal vendetta that drives their action (against Ruby/King Charles VII). Both are power hungry and want to use their acquired to achieve freedom (Duke of Burgundy wanted to become a King so he can break away from France).

Reason I think Cinder will be inactive during early portion of Vacuo is because Duke of Burgundy was inactive as well. During this time, he was either upholding his truce or assembling his army. I of course don't think Cinder literally called good guys on scroll and they hashed out something. Truces in Joan story symbolically translate to periods of inactivity. For example, there was a truce during King's coronation that roughly corelates to Volume 6 timeline wise. Cinder was inactive in Volume 6 and was biding her time. Cinder being inactive also works with potential Volume 4 parallels, considering she also didn't fight good guys during that Volume. She'll likely be held back by Salem and preserved for later events. Those later events is also something I already made a theory about, so you can check it out.

In conclusion, no scorpions were harmed while making this theory. As usual feel free to comment if I missed anything or if you have your own interpretations.

#rwby theory #jaune arc #rwby jaune arc #greenlight volume 10 #rwby volume 10 #rwby tyrian

[teafiend]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I saw this and thought it would be fun. Tagged myself. 🤪

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

60.

(One shots, drabbles and ficlets/snippets/vignettes).

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

280,528 (as of 1st Nov, 2023)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Korean dramas “fandoms”.

“Sohn: The Guest”, “Voice”, “Glitch”, “Beyond Evil” and “A Time Called You” etc so far. Except for TG and “Voice”, I don’t have more than one work in the other “fandoms”.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. To Be a Part of You (Kang Kwon Joo/Mo Tae Gu) - Collection of related, smutty one shots.

2. Gossip (Kang Gil Young/Choi Yoon/Yoon Hwa Pyeong) - Mini one shot. There is mention of children.

3. Dying Just to Feel You by My Side (KKJ/MTG) - The starting story for the series ‘To Be A Part of You’ is in. Literal relationship negotiations (with a stalker).

4. Fly Me to The Moon (Hong Ji Hyo/Heo Bo Ra) - Collection of 100-word drabbles for this pair of chaotic, gorgeous cuties.

5. Brass Blossoms (KKJ/MTG) - Collection of 100-word drabbles.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why? Why not?

I always do.

I get very little interaction and try to respond to anyone kind enough to leave a comment (except for trolling ones).

Each and every comment is deeply appreciated.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?.

None. Am a HE/A-supremacist. I also can’t do angst, mostly due to skill issues.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All are relatively happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

So far, only one. On a fic for a rare pair in a relatively larger fandom. It was a mild “hate” comment(s) and was more hilarious to me than anything.

The audacity of some people! 😎

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. All kinds, but mostly the vanilla flavoured ones, and not descriptively explicit. Even the “dub-con” and CNC ones are tepid.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yes. Not crazy as much as I had lots of fun with other crack pairing(s) to fawn over.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I mostly write rare pairs in minuscule, obscure fandoms. Nothing worth stealing.

Stealing anything fan work is abhorrent, however, so please don’t.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. But I have translated a fic to English - from an amazing writer - for one of the rare pairs I write for.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Kang Gil Young/Choi Yoon.

I have too many favourites - from other fandoms, i.e., HaruMichi, Everlark, Mileven, Silverparry, Reylo, Romanogers, Nevmione etc, and all are special and unique to me - to put one at the top, but as one I write for (and visuals wise), KGY/CY is undoubtedly my favourite.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

You Are Not Allowed series. It is left as “completed” because I am just a snippet/single scene/one shot scribbler, but there is supposed to be an endgame there that I doubt I will ever write for again, though the ending is there in my mind.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Boringly straightforward and dry. It is not a strength but one I have to live with.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot! Dialogue! Prose. Description of scenes, objects, characters. Well, basically everything.

I don’t have any pretensions I can write (or ever had any aspirations for writing), but am desperate to have my rare pairs occupy my mind for longer while I fixate on them, so… and scribbling word vomit is quite fun, so I scribble whenever my rare pairs visit me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Haven’t done it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Sohn: The Guest.

20. Favourite fics you’ve written?

A Verb in Perfect View

(A collection of snapshots/snippets/ficlets for Kang Gil Young/Choi Yoon)

I like most of my fics - not because they are any good - just because they are the few available for my rare pairs. “Beggars can’t be choosers” and all that crock. 😆

#20 questions #fanfic author #tag game #I tagged myself 🤪 #self indulgent rambling #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #writing rare pairs in tiny/nearly nonexistent fandoms #scribbling is more apt?

[sennqu]

watched Nope today! it was So Good! i've seen Get Out and Us before but this is the first time i've seen one of Peele's films in the cinema. i went ahead and got tickets to an imax showing too ^o^ because apparently it was filmed in imax! i think it was worth it. very immersive experience even in 2D.

there were only like 20 people in the theater so it felt relatively safe panini-wise. unlike the last time i went to watch a movie...

i wish i could rewatch it immediately, haha. it's not as straightforward as Get Out and Us were i think but just as wonderfully directed and shot. i especially loved the lighting for the nighttime scenes. and i loooooved the creature design. very NGE. and there was an homage to Akira which was super cool too, haha. and also, not related to the plot, but all of Keke Palmer's outfits were so pretty.

#ku blarghs

[anghraine]

how would you describe the kinds of adventures you most enjoy in DnD? my campaign has been heavily focused on dungeoncrawling and stronghold/warfare play, but that's some conscious old-school-ism on my part

Hmm, interesting (and surprising) question!

Just speaking for myself, I like relatively straightforward combat in my adventures—I dislike puzzles and puzzle-like combat situations. I'm terrible at figuring out stuff like that, so I find it really frustrating to be stuck dealing with puzzles again in something that's supposed to be fun. I know it's a classic part of D&D and a lot of dungeons, but I do prefer a more straightforward approach to combat—not easy, just not full of knotty problems to figure out.

I also really like adventures that feed into interpersonal drama: not between players, but between the characters (PCs and NPCs), whether it's romances, personality clashes, disagreements, or friendships that evolve in ways integrated to what's happening plot-wise/adventure-wise. I don't want a party to be always fighting each other, but the personal strains and connections are what make the RPG part for me.

One of my favorite moments for one of my characters was when she (lawful good warlock) took aside her bff's NPC love interest (lawful good warlock) before a big battle we all knew was coming, and quietly told him that she respected his commitment to justice and if he ever did wrong by her friend again, justice would find him. The friend never found out (in-game) that this happened, the NPC never screwed up with her again, and (out-of-game) everyone got a kick out of it. Setting up situations where that kind of thing can arise naturally is a big part of the fun for me.

#anon replies #respuestas #dungeons and dragons #anghraine's gaming

[snoopdogofficial]

As I Descended by Robin Talley

overview: As I Descended is a queer retelling of Shakespear’s MacBeth taking place in a haunted southern private school. It follows four characters: the lead Maria, her girlfriend Lily, her best friend Brandon, and his boyfriend Mateo. Ghosts and murder follow.

plot: I have not actually read most Shakespear works, I admit, meaning I generally go in blind with these. The plot is relatively straightforward, but gripping with how quickly it moves. The first chapter doesn’t waste time with its intro into ghosts, mischief, and tension between characters. Very little of the book feels like fluff with every minor interaction or moment of introspection building how the plot progresses or showing us the mental state and reasoning behind the character’s actions. It’s not anything particularly groundbreaking message wise or structurally, especially for young adult, but it’s solid and interesting if not slightly rushed at the end.

characters: I believe the characters are something this novel does well except for one case: Maria. Maria, our main character, begins the novel as a soft-spoken overachiever who plays by the rules. After being coaxed by her girlfriend, she commits to tricking the queen of their private school into failing her drug test. Only, it doesn’t go well. I enjoyed Maria’s fear and guilt over accidentally hurting Delilah, then later Brandon, but when it comes to Mateo, I suddenly wished there was more build up to her sudden commitment to wanting to kill him, too. I understand her reasoning in a general sense, but I still wish I could’ve gotten more of the logic and emotion so I could feel like it was truly earned by the character I met at the start. But besides that, I love the cast of characters. Lily who is unapologetically morally gray and okay with playing dirty to get ahead of the people who look down at her for her disability. Brandon who is a generally nice guy with his own issues that just wants his best friend back. And Mateo. The understandable antagonist who goes from bystander to the heart of a double would-be-murder plot in seconds. I really felt for him, which is why I love him as Maria’s antagonist. Because I also felt for Maria and Lily who are morally gray, but ultimately didn’t mean to hurt people but did and probably deserve the consequences for it. Have I mentioned I love morally gray queer characters? Because I do.

One other thing I will note, though, is that I wish more of the setting was utilized. While Maria being brown and Lily being disabled (and both gay) is a major reason why they chose to do what they did, this book suffers from having a white author. Class and race are two very tied things that are only mentioned on the surface unlike queerness or disability. Maria is described as “acting as white as possible” by one character, but the author doesn’t do much with this. She’s said to have worn her hair naturally until after the second murder, but if she’s acting “white”, why not have her straighten her hair the whole time? And Maria blamed other Latinos for “drugging” Delilah. Why not make that a point for how she’s betraying her ethnicity for whiteness? And the school was built on a plantation where Maria is described as “coming there in a price tag” were it still the colonial period. Why not do something with that? Why make the setting a white, rich private school built on slavery for the aesthetic if it doesn’t serve purpose? Ultimately, I understand white authors not wanting to overstep, but I can’t help but feel that a missed opportunity for richer storytelling is missed when you aim for diversity yet don’t embrace it.

Would Snoop recommend? If you’re a reader of YA, interested in supernatural beings messing with the living, enjoy morally gray queer characters in all their imperfectness, and private school politics, then yes.

#book review #review #as I descended #sapphic #achillean #disability #poc #physical disability #suspense #supernatural #retelling #latina main character #latino supporting character #physically disabled main character #morally gray characters #teen #young adult

[windviator]

Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it. I'll disband their whole regiment if that's what it takes to make you happy.

#peter capaldi #cardinal richelieu #capaldieu #king louis xiii #the musketeers #just watched this #episode 1 complete #head empty no thoughts only cardinal #i quite adore the interactions between richelieu and louis #the way his lips quirks so very slightly before he turns to face Louis is delightful #Louis is giving off vibes of both a petulant child and a kicked puppy #also the costume designs are amazing #what’s with all the pretty hats #putting the cardinal in leather is almost sinful #plot-wise it’s relatively straightforward #all the plot threads seem to be laid out nicely in the first episode #pcap edits #gif edits

[scope-dogg]

Return to Gaogaigar Final: Final thoughts

The last Super Robot Wars to come out gave me an excuse to rewatch the original TV series Gaogaigar, which is in my opinion is probably the greatest single Super Robot TV series of all time. This time, SRW 30′s giving me the excuse to watch Gaogaigar Final, its OVA sequel. While it’s technically part of the roster, it’s listed as units only, with the real star of the show being its manga and novel sequel Hakaioh, but nevertheless it’s important background to that new entry in the same way Betterman was - and any excuse to come back to this OVA was good enough for me. After a good few years since I’ve last seen it I was pleased to see that it’s still the bombast and surprisingly emotional followup and a fitting conclusion (or at least, it was up until recently) to the saga of the brave heroes of the GGG corps.

The plot setup is that one year following the conclusion to the TV show and Mamoru’s departure from Earth, GGG still has their hands full with various threats including a high-tech terrorist group called Bionet. However, these are trifling in comparison to a new crisis arising. Several strange alien artifacts called Q-parts have been discovered across the world. Suddenly, Mamoru appears unexpectedly, and seems to acting in a strangely hostile manner in order to gather them all. This strange turn of events will lead to a dangerous voyage across space and time in order to prevent a calamity that puts the very existence of the Earth in jeopardy.

While this show’s sister entry, Betterman, is a dark and complicated narrative, Gaogaigar Final, like the TV show it’s following up, is pretty straightforward, being about courage triumphing over harrowing danger first and foremost. That said, Final differs from the TV show somewhat. It’s not necessarily darker per se, but it does feel a hell of a lot more serious. The stakes are almost immediately ratcheted up to levels that rival the endgame portions of the TV show, and it’s markedly less afraid to inflict hardship and tragedy on its beloved characters in order to drive the point home. Once the introduction is out of the way, the OVA’s run is defined by a constantly escalating sense of peril - by the time of the climactic final battle, just before the turning point that allows for final victory, the OVA truly manages to make you feel like all hope is truly lost with no way to turn it back around - of course, when our heroes do prevail, it makes it all the sweeter - but even then, it doesn’t feel like the victory has come cheaply, which leads into a really emotional bittersweet final send-off. It helps that the characters, both old and new, are uniformly excellently realised - there’s nothing particularly deep or complicated about any of them, but you feel their pain when they undergo hardship and tragedy, and it’s inspiring when they eventually rise above it to triumph. 

Presentation-wise, Final is truly excellent. It was relatively recently remastered for Blu-ray alongside the TV show and the extra quality really lets you appreciate all the superb detailing in the animation and the superior mechanical design. Legendary designer Kunio Okawara returns to bring two new incarnations of Gaogaigar to life and hits a home run with both of them, while the OVA features a rogue’s gallery of strange but well-designed and threatening opponents to battle. The soundtrack is mostly made up of tracks from the TV show, albeit sometimes with new versions of those old tracks to fit the mood better. Masaaki Endoh delivers two new versions of the original TV show’s inspiring theme song as well. Overall, it’s just a supremely well-made and put together package.

Really, it’s hard to say a lot about such a short and straightforward OVA, especially when it’s done so well. It goes without saying that you should watch the TV show first - this is ultimately just an epilogue to that, after all. If you watch Gaogaigar (which you should) and if you enjoy it (which you ought to) then definitely don’t hesitate to watch this next.

Of course, watching it this time was different when I watched it the first time. The OVA ends with a line from the narrator - “We believe that our heroes will one day return.” This is a promise that went unfulfilled for many, many years despite plans to deliver on it, but the recent novel and manga release of a mutual sequel series with Betterman finally has brought it to pass. The primary reason for me watching both this and Betterman was so that I could prepare myself to see if it lives up to that promise in a fitting way. That’s what I now intend to find out.

#gaogaigar final #mecha #respect the robot

[nellied-reviews]

Cataracts and Hurricanoes Re-listen

Hey! We've hit episode 4 of my epic Wolf 359 re-listen, which can only mean one thing:

Cataracts and Hurricanoes

In which Eiffel's off-structure, Minkowski gets to use her jetpack and everything is surprisingly action-y.

Honestly, I've not too much to say about thus episode. That's not because it's bad per se, but more because it's mostly just a straight-up sci-fi action episode. The plot revolves around the admirably straightforward premise of "Eiffel fell overboard", and looks at how the crew deal with that. There's a whole lot of tension, especially when Eiffel's suit springs a leak. But there aren't many shocking twists, or, until the end of the episode, many stand-out character moments.

That said, it's definitely the sort of story I expect from the show at this point. We've seen a couple of different threats and stories happening inside the station, after all. Now it's time to see what threats exist and what stories can be told outside the station. And the simplest way to do that is a "man overboard" story. It's tense, interesting and sets some basic ground rules of how being out in space, in this series, is going to work. How serious is it if somebody starts floating away? Do we have space jetpacks? Are spacewalks routine in this setting, or are they an all-hands-on-deck affair? These are all questions that this episode actually does answer, so that's pretty cool.

In this respect, starting with Also Sprach Zarathustra is also a smart choice. It's epic music in and of itself, but it's also so very linked to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's "space music" and I, at least, link it to a certain grandiose, glamorous vision of space - just like Eiffel apparently does, which is why he picks it for the background to his ridiculous little space log.

When Minkowski interrupts, then, it's both just a really funny record-scratch moment and a sort of rejection of this grand, cinematic version of space we all have in our heads. Her irritation is a reminder that no, space isn’t glam, it’s just the place we live, and it's a pain in the butt, especially when things keep breaking. Spacewalks, in Wolf 359, are an irritating chore at best, and pretty banal, all things considered. 

And the reason for this spacewalk? Eiffel wants to realign a satellite dish to see if he can pick up the alien signal better. It's … a surprisingly competent moment for him? He also seems to have taken the initiative and suggested it himself, basically because he's curious. It's a fun reminder that Eiffel's actually quite good at what he does, and that he's sometimes even enthusiastic about it. We don't see that much later on. Maybe it just gets beaten out of him by the general stickiness of everything that happens after the star goes blue. Either way, it's on show here, which is nice.

When he goes overboard, then, there's literally no way it can be pinned on him. We're not dealing with another "Eiffel screws things up" episode. Instead, the issue is that the star suddenly does something unexpected - not the last time we'll see this happen. The sudden, unexpected radiological alert is perhaps our first hint that there's something off about Wolf 359.

It also doesn't escape my attention that this flare, timed exactly for when Eiffel is outside the station, may or may not be our first instance of the Dear Listeners reaching out to Eiffel. I don't know, it just seems odd that two flares hit precisely when there's somebody outside the station. Hmmm...

In any case, the flare itself sounds terrifying, and the revelation afterwards that Eiffel is off structure but his tether is holding is actually a relief - I thought his tether would be gone for sure. We start to get all sorts of alarming things happening, though, with water seeping into the suit and threatening to drown him (!), but also the radio cutting in and out. 

Even worse, Eiffel's been blinded by the flare, which makes the whole floating/drowning thing even worse! I can't think of much worse than knowing that you've got water floating about in your suit and slowly choking you, without being able to see it. Ugh. 

Interestingly, it also put us in the exact same position as Eiffel. He's basically just got radio contact to the others now, without any visuals, which works really well with an audio format. We can put ourselves in Eiffel's shoes, because we're seeing and hearing basically the same things he is. It makes things really tense, especially when we can hear him choking. Yikes.

Minkowski, in the face of this, remains incredibly calm and professional, and saves the day, with Hera's equally able assistance - while Hilbert seems more than willing to just let Eiffel die. Which tracks, given his general evilness, I suppose. I like that Minkowski doesn't even consider Hilbert's suggestion that they abandon Eiffel. She's by-the-book, and a bit of a hardass, sure. But she's got principles, and is protective of her crew. Letting Eiffel die is not even a worst-case-scenario option for her, which I can respect.

All of the interactions after Eiffel is safely on board are really lovely too. Minkowski's so clearly concerned for him! He thanks her for the jetpack rescue! They joke around a bit! It's a happy, small moment, and then we get Hera tracking Eiffel's vitals, and recording his music, and it just gets better! It's super, super sweet, and I love it. After so much tension, it's a welcome change.

It also does not escape my attention that Hilbert does not come and check in on Eiffel. What a charming guy.

And then it's over. I was genuinely surprised by the end of this episode, because it felt like it went super quickly, even though not that much happened. Plot-wise, certainly, the episode doesn't do that much. Character-wise, it's not doing anything particularly shocking. There's very little interpersonal tension. It's not even got too much of Wolf 359's usual brand of comedy going on. What we're left with, instead, is an episode which is just a fun, relatively simple sci-fi action episode. It tries to keep us on the edge of our seats, and I think it pretty much succeeds there?

I don't know what else can be said about Cataracts and Hurricanoes. It does what it sets out to do. It's pretty fun. By the end of it, we have a better idea of how space works in this series, and exactly how dangerous floating off into space can be - which sets us up well for future misadventures. Plus, there are some cute bits at the end. 10/10 would float off into space again.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

I said it before, but I do love how excited and enthusiastic Eiffel is as the start

I like to think I would be equally excited about going on a spacewalk

But let’s be real, I would be panicking about running out of oxygen

Aww he wants to make a mixtape of the ragtime music!

“I’m going to drown?! In SPACE?!” 

Space jetpack!!!

Eiffel calling Hera baby ^-^

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #cataracts and hurricanoes #nellied reviews #aka space action time #now with added jetpacks

[rigelmejo]

i’ve been watching Handsome Siblings on netflix only in chinese to just like. see where i’m at.

and now that i’m on ep 4 it would feel kind of weird to suddenly switch back to english subs ok, for one.

but anyway like general level-wise: i am pretty much at where i can follow a lot of the gist of scenes even if i don’t pause to translate - but then i’m going to be relying on visual context a lot more. which is fine, it means i can go watch a show with no english subs to rely on Ever and at least follow along.

i do notice that if i PAUSE, i can catch the specifics of a lot more scenes. There’s a scene where the two princess sisters are talking to their nephew (who is a spitting image of Jiang Feng), and then after he leaves - discussing telling him to go take a mission to kill Xiao Yu’er, and then when he leaves the two princesses discuss their plan. I paused over and over after EVERY line that episode, because I really wanted to know the specifics of what they were saying. A lot of lines I could read, and there were a lot of one-words-in-a-sentence i had to look up for a more precise understanding. Same with a scene later in the town said-nephew and his girl kickass companions go to - i could follow the gist, but paused after some lines (and looked up a couple words) for more specific details. 

I will say that the more characters you learn, the easier life is. Really! The more characters I know, the easier my gist-guess is right, the easier remembering new words (made up of known characters) is, and looking up new words is VASTLY easier because I know their pinyin and can look them up faster than drawing. 

If you’re going to do this: I’d still recommend using googletranslate to look up multiple characters you don’t know/phrases, since you can draw and easily get the correct result looked up. I’d recommend pleco if you know the pinyin, or if its a single word (because pleco’s definitions are more thorough and explanatory than googletranslate’s), or if it might be an idiom. 

I would recommend that if you like watching stuff on the computer, to get the learn-with-netflix dual subtitle add on, and just click your subtitles for a definition on-the-video-itself instead of needing to open an app like me. 

---

I am immensely excited and happy that I can watch a chinese show with no english and follow the gist now. That is a huge amount of progress for me compared with August 2019 when I started (and only knew ‘ni hao/wo hen hao’ and the numbers ;w; ). I am so proud of where I’ve gotten to. I definitely think really focusing on increasing known frequent words helps a lot. (Also, reading a grammar guide - grammar is again becoming understandable, so idk my brain is just acclimating again i guess). I’m going to keep focusing on frequent words, and the 2,000 most common characters, for a while and hopefully eventually this payoff will translate to reading as well.

If you DO happen to want to try watching a chinese show without english and testing yourself/studying, I have some mild recommendations you might take into consideration. 

1. If it’s too difficult, do it a little, then come back to it in a few weeks, repeat. This task really only gets enjoyable once you understand enough to be ‘comfortable’ with the remaining ambiguity you still don’t comprehend. That is going to be different for different people. I am comfortable with a pretty high amount of ambiguity/lack of understanding, so I can at least try to watch even stuff-i-barely-grasp at least a little for practice until my brain feels fried. But I’ve been trying this for months... its only NOW that my brain feels relatively okay just watching without pausing, without feeling Completely overwhelmed. And if you do intend to watch without pausing much, you’ll have some degree of not-understanding-everything. Likewise, if you plan to pause the show (and how much you plan to pause it) should be tolerable for you as well. If you have to pause everything, understand everything - do you know enough words to do that in a timely enough manner to get THROUGH an episode? If it takes you a long time, are you willing to intensively focus and look things up that entire time? Basically - what is your tradeoff between you being able to pause and focus intensively on looking things up, versus you being able to watch without pausing and interpret from the words you know/context only. Whatever balance is most enjoyable/bearable for you is when this will start being something that’s easier to do regularly, instead of only occasionally as practice. At least, that’s how it was for me. I’m only finally at  a point where I can do this regularly - before I could only do this for maybe 10-20 minute chunks of time occasionally. 

2. Pick a genre of show/material you are going to engage in frequently. If you’re ALWAYS watching case-type shows, those words and those scenes will be more familiar to you and easier for you to interpret from context and with less looking things up. If you try this with a wildly different kind of show, you may know MANY less words and many scenes may be harder for you to comprehend the gist of. I watch a TON of case type shows so they’re very easy for me to see and pick up words I’m familiar with, single out the parts that are ‘important explanation’ versus ‘some crowd saying unimportant WOW oh No how Horrible’ type lines. So i can cherry pick important things to pause and look up words for, and guess at what kind of line i’m trying to interpret (i can guess if it’s about a case, an emotional discussion, a simple ‘lets do X’ statement etc - because i’m familiar with the plot type). In a similar vein - an easier show/material to do this with, may well be a show you’ve already watched in your native language/with your native language. For all the same reasons - you will be much more familiar with the context. I could in theory watch Guardian again (which i’ve rewatched... a lot) and I would probably follow the plot very easily. But I like a challenge too much apparently, and I’d rather practice with things I can’t fall-back on my existing knowledge for as much. A show I’ve never seen has much less I can rely on for context, BUT the trade off is I can really clearly test how well i’m comprehending the plot and lines - because they are all completely new to me, so I either comprehend or I clearly do not understand what’s going on/obviously misinterpret. So it’s a very quick way for me to see if I’m achieving anything or not. Whereas if I was watching a show I already saw, I might learn new words noticably, but I wouldn’t be able to tell if I’m getting better at understanding overall plot with no english to rely on (since I already saw it before with english).

3. If you’re like me - maybe pick a show either heavy on action, or heavy on daily life. While I am familiar with case-type shows... I generally think (for me) they’re harder to follow when your existing vocab knowledge isn’t high enough to follow it... They’re big on mysteries, on plots that are actually not what they appear, and surprises. They’re big on ‘strategies’ and I find for myself, strategies are kind of hard to follow when I know less words. In contrast: if you pick a daily-life type show, you’re more likely to either know the words or NEED to know the words at some point because they’ll be useful to you. And the scenes should be relatively easy to comprehend visually even when you don’t know the words. (My caveat being - if you want the language specifically FOR understanding certain genres, by all means go for the topics you’ll actually be using - if you’re gonna read a ton of wuxia, or case-stuff etc, then go for stuff you’ll Actually Use which might well be THEM). For me... my end goal is to be able to read creative fiction, so wuxia settings and fantastical settings and mystery-words and period-words are all things I better get used to. So I haven’t really watched much daily-life stuff (although there are daily-life scenes WITHIN a lot of dramas, and I do think they’re some of the easiest scenes to follow and comprehend). 

Now, why might you pick an action-heavy show: easy to comprehend. Especially if you often watch action-oriented stuff already. The first chinese show I watched a whole episode of in only-chinese (it’s first episode, so that’s when i figured out the entire show’s set up) was The Shaw Eleven Lang (I really wanted more of Zhu Yilong’s acting in my life okay?). I DID in fact, manage to follow the plot. Without pausing much, because I was just watching it with dinner. What made it easier to follow was SO MUCH of the dialogue was really straightforward - stuff like ‘i want that sword’ or ‘i hate you’ or ‘lets eat and drink together to celebrate’ or ‘you need to go save/kill x’ or ‘do you think i’m pretty’ etc. So much of the dialogue was NOT schemes/plots/mysteries, it was really straightforward ‘we are doing X, we like Y, we hate Z’. Which for me are the sentence types I find the easiest to understand, and especially found the easiest at that point in time. In addition, because the show has so much action, often the dialogue is accompanied by action scenes that make it pretty freaking CLEAR what their objective is/what they just said. Yes, there are still plenty of unknown words to look up if you want to pause - but it should be obvious enough that you might have a decent guess at what they mean before you look them up (I had to look up words like sword, princess, clan leader, but those were pretty clear even beforehand from the context of the scenes). After I watched the first ep (which i don’t think i could even find english subs for), I watched the second ep with eng subs to see if i’d interpreted the plot correctly so far - i had. It felt pretty motivating to get through 40 minute episodes without much pausing, and know I’d followed along. I think, at least if you’re already an action-show/movie watcher, action series are going to be a relatively approachable thing to try watching in just your target language. (Another positive is a lot of verbs as commands lines, in context, so for me it’s easier to pick up new verbs, and those kind of lines are very easy to pick up in context - also lines like ‘xiao xin’ be careful, bubi, meiguanshi, danxin, ni fangxin, etc - all these short lines that are easy to understand in the context they often come up in).

 (Also, do I recommend The Shaw Eleven Lang? Well... I need to go back to watching it but uh... it’s definitely AN EXPERIENCE... with wild fighter-game-tetsuya-nomura-would-be-proud kind of costume designs, wild af scenes so far, and uh as far as i can tell Zhu Yilong’s on point to play a pretty crazy bastard in it... also there’s a LOT of genuinely kickass girls and kickass main women, which i appreciate, i believe also the main women are all 30+ which is refreshing in general in any-show tbh. also just... everyone in the show is kickass... that’s the point... its a lot like to me, if a absolutely Wild fighting game got a budget for a full drama and just went wild on the plot - very fun to watch, very bizarre... not particularly deep but like, did you play Square enix’s The Bouncer on ps2 for a Good Plot or for an absolutely wild bizarre Time? This show is like the game The Bouncer... just freaking Wild conceptually). 

And now, I am watching Handsome Siblings, and managing to get through episodes with only a little pausing for when I want to figure out specifics. It is also very action-scene heavy. At least for me, that’s been making it a lot easier to follow the gist of. There’s scenes where robbers attack - and even if I don’t know every line, its easy to figure out the gist of what’s being said. There’s scenes where people fight - again, very easy to follow. The parts I’ve been pausing the most on are the sisters plotting, because I feel that’s probably the most intensive-mystery in this plot so far, and because I want to make sure I interpret the details correctly when they’re mentioning them (since I think they’ll play out more in the plot later). I think the fact this show is Action-Heavy is making it tremendously easier for me to follow then like... me trying to watch Nirvana in Fire would be. The very straightforward action scenes are much easier to follow using visual context, at least for me, compared to dialogue heavy scenes where the vocabulary is not going to be emphazised with visuals nearly as much. (Another bonus of Handsome Siblings, at least so far, is the dialogue heavy scenes ARE accompanied by visual flashbacks to EXPLAIN the dialogue). Another bonus for Handsome Siblings: the writing seems very straightforward and decently paced. You don’t have to wait long for new scenes, for new developments, and that means a lot of dialogue and action is doing something right away and has a lot of context you immediately see result in something else. For me that just makes it... approachable and understandable in the kind of way like... movies like The Mummy were paced, or Indiana Jones, or Independence Day... do you know what I mean? It’s fun to watch even if you couldn’t understand, and the structure makes it quite comprehensible again even if you heard no dialogue at all. So for me, at least, it makes the balance of ‘ease of watching versus patience to look things up slowly’ much easier. Because its ease of watching is pretty high even for scenes where actual words-you-know isn’t high, so you can save looking-things-up for only when you WANT to, not necessarily as something you need to constantly do just to catch the gist. 

---

I tried reading again - I tried reading the novel for the Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. It was BRUTAL because I apparently know NO dynasty-royalty-govt related words (which really explains why Men With Swords political scenes I know so few words lol). I got through 10 out of 39 ‘small’ pages on my phone for the first chapter. I think I managed to follow it, the grammar thankfully was really straightforward and I imagine the original author is quite talented. The difficulty was in the very common use of turns of phrase and idioms for so many parts of sentences, which were all new ‘words/phrases’ i’d never seen before.

#handsome siblings #chinese studyblr #rant #nts #watch progress #a lot of this is notes for myself but if anyone finds it useful thats cool #i am just. so happy about the progress #a few months ago watching a show in all chinese was a pipe dream #and in august that would have been completely unimaginable #i really... started in august practically useless

[infernusvacua]

&&. ( belen maev ) was just spotted in amsterdam. rumor has it ( he/they ) is a ( 812 / physically 35 ) year old ( angel of light ) who resembles ( lee pace ). ( he ) has been said to be ( loyal & ambitious ) but also quite ( conceited & vicious ).with all the chaos surrounding the magical underworld, ( he ) has chosen to align with ( the angels of light / the russian bratva ). ( he ) is currently serving as ( bodyguard / guardian angel of tatiana valentina ). hopefully the city doesn’t devour him whole.

( belen ) would describe ( themself ) as a ( winter ) person and would identify as a ( istj-a). ( their ) birthday is ( january 6th, 1208 ), making ( their ) star sign ( capricorn ) and ( their ) celtic animal sign the ( stag ). ( their ) biggest pet peeve is ( failure ), and ( their ) theme song is ( from eden by hozier ). finally, ( their ) primary goal is to ( save tatiana and continue to protect her for the rest of her life ).

Hollaaaaaa! Bree again with bby #5, Belen. TWs for mild violence and kidnapping.

Character File

Muse Page (for tags)

SUMMARY

Belen comes from a long line of warrior angels dedicated to serving heaven and protecting mortals. His father Karael has trained generations of warriors to serve The Almighty, while his mother Suriel is a noted healer who dutifully tends to those who return from battle against hell. It is a proud lineage that Belen was always more than happy to continue. He served on the front lines against hell and all its unholy minions for decades uncounted, scoring victory after victory for heaven against their enemies. He never doubted his calling to the warrior’s life, for it ran in his blood as surely as it did in his father.

A few centuries ago, Belen was given new orders: to leave the front lines and guard over a human on earth. Although he’d never trained to be a guardian angel before, he knew that the Almighty must believe he was the only one suited for the job. So he accepted willingly, and buried his thoughts that a few decades of following a human around would be boring compared to smiting demons. But Belen ended up growing extremely attached to the mortal. They were a brave warrior whose loyalty and dedication the angel could easily identify with. Under Belen’s guidance and stewardship, the human grew to be a celebrated hero and a beloved leader to their community. Belen remained at their side until the moment they passed—their death was the only time in his life that Belen has shed a tear.

With his ward gone, Belen went back to the battlefield, slaying demons and beating back the fallen angels who stood against him. But the decades spent guarding his human had changed him, making him a more cautious fighter and a better warrior. The fight never filled him with the same sense of purpose that it once had, and sometimes he wished that he would be assigned to another mortal. But he'd never been guardian material. He was a warrior to the core, blunt and straightforward in his problem solving, never relying on emotions to guide his actions. Guardians were meant to be loving, caring forces of good for their wards. He'd had a good experience, but it was time to move on.

Twenty years ago, Belen was tasked yet again with guardianship over a mortal, and he leapt at the chance. This mortal was a baby girl born into a family of werewolves. Not just any family either: the Valentina crime family, renowned in Russia as the Bratva to be feared above all others. Given that her family were criminals and murderers, he found this confusing, but refused to question the assignment. He’d been hoping for another ward, and no matter the circumstances, he was going to watch over little Tatiana more effectively than any human or werewolf bodyguard ever could.

Of course, a crime family like the Valentinas weren't just going to let a stranger walk in off the street and guard their princess. Belen had to prove himself to these mortals to gain an in with them, and Tatiana's father tasked this newcomer with a daunting task: killing a family rival, a notorious murderer who had wronged the Valentinas in many ways and was finally becoming too dangerous to ignore. Being an angel of the light, it was against Belen's nature and duty to harm a human, but he was able to find a moral loophole which made the task quite easy. The target’s soul couldn’t be saved at this point, and given what he’d done to other members of the Bratva, he was liable to be a very real threat to Tatiana at some point. Feeling safe and justified in his actions, Belen smote the sinner with ease and returned to the Valentinas with his head. The quick and casual manner of his return awed them, and Belen was immediately welcomed into the family with open arms.

From that moment onward, Belen was family. He protected Tatiana with a ferocity and diligence that bordered on obsession, though anyone who has ever met a guardian angel would understand his devotion to her well-being. He became like a brother or uncle to her, and he treated her as his own flesh and blood. He had to hide his true nature from both his ward and her family, of course, but they were always relatively accepting of his quirks. It was with the Valentinas that Belen discovered there was now more acceptance and terminology for genders outside of male and female on earth. When he expressed that he was neither a man nor a woman, the werewolves immediately began including gender neutral language for him in their daily life. This pleased and amused Belen greatly, since the concept of being gendered had never felt applicable to him anyway, and has continued to accept both "he" and "they" pronouns ever since.

On rare occasions, the former Pakhan, Tatia's father, would task Belen with special missions for the Bratva that no one else was available to do, or even could, like taking out particular targets that were deemed a threat. The bodyguard’s effective and often brutal methods earned them such nicknames as "the Avenging Angel" and "the Silver Lion". So long as they could find a loophole that meant the mission directly protected their ward (and they always did), they were unstoppable. There was nothing they would not do for her.

So one can imagine Belen's wrath when Tatiana was stolen away to be trafficked in Amsterdam. Under normal circumstances, such a thing would never have been possible. To this day, Belen curses themself for letting their beloved ward be stolen. But to their credit, it was not entirely their fault. Tatiana had left school early without telling anyone, meaning Belen was not on hand to pick her up and escort her home as usual. Only after they'd arrived at the end of the day to collect her did they find that she wasn't waiting for them as usual. They alerted the family at once, hoping that someone else had simply picked her up first.

From there, the worst nightmare of Belen's long life spiraled out of control. The angel scoured every inch of Russia, terrorizing the criminal underworld and depleting the inmate populations of several gulags to get every scrap of information they could. One tip they uncovered directed the Bratva to Amsterdam, where many human traffickers had found a new market. Tatia's brother Viktor, the new Pakhan, headed there at once while Belen stayed in Russian to continue looking for clues. All they wanted was to find Tatiana, make sure she was safe, and then smite every last foul worm who had a hand in her disappearance. But all they were able to do in the meantime was take their frustrations out on the scum of Russia's underbelly. Until Viktor sent word that Tatia was, indeed, in Amsterdam... and a prisoner of the fallen angels who had so recently declared war. The angel has now arrived in the city alongside the middle Valentina child Dimitri, determined to save their ward and punish whoever thought it wise to take her from them, no matter the cost.

Hmu for plots and such!

#nhqintro #chivalry fell on his sword : belen

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight: TGWTG Anniversary Crossovers

I think enough time has passed where I can talk about these films without looking like I’m jumping on a trend.

Back when it was, you know, an actual thing, Channel Awesome would every so often gather together and make a big-as anniversary film to celebrate the site. The movies would always be these massive doorstoppers where everyone would be running around in Halloween costumes of whatever character they liked the most that fit the theme and fighting some random villain. None of this ever really tied in to their work, and none of this even remotely had anything to do with reviews. It was all just hanging around with friends and having dumb fun, and when I was younger I kind of just accepted that.

But certain revelations have made that dubious. No one was having fun making these. Everyone was miserable, except perhaps Doug Walker, who was just utterly oblivious to the plight of his coworkers. There was seedy stuff going on, people were pretty much being tortured and abused, and it’s a wonder anyone was ever able to feign enjoyment in any of their scenes. And looking back on these movies I used to remember fondly, I have to say… they kind of really, legitimately suck ass. These three films – Kickassia, Suburban Knights, and To Boldly Flee – are just legitimately painful and depressing to sit through, for reasons both meta and writing-wise.

The biggest problem with all of them is their humor, which is a pretty big problem when you’re starring a bunch of comedians, some of whom can be legitimately funny. The worst bits tend to revolve around the mind-boggling number of references they cram into each script; To Boldly Flee and Suburban Knights are much worse in this regard, as they have all of the actors literally dressed up as their favorite characters, but there are two examples of this sort of thing that shine as the worst examples of all. The first is Lindsay Ellis doing a Sarah Palin impersonation in Kickassia; Palin was such a flash-in-the-pan politician that it instantly dates the whole movie, and I don’t know if it was just bad writing, lack of direction, or what, but Ellis just fails to make this joke work at all. Like I know I can’t expect this to be as funny as Iron Sky’s Palin riffing, but still, it’s just sad.

The absolute worst, however, is JO in To Boldly Flee as Ed from Cowboy Bepob… at least that’s who I think he’s supposed to be playing. I know nothing about Cowboy Bebop and have outright refused to ever watch it because if Ed is anything like how JO played her, I’m going to fucking hate the whole show, Steve Blum and Melissa Fahn be damned. JO’s portrayal is whiny, hyper, annoying, manic, obnoxious… there’s not a single positive thing that can be said. His performance of the character is pretty much the poster child for just how absolutely awful these movies could get.

There’s also a lot of jokes where the punchline is basically just “this guy’s body/genitalia is funny, teehee.” Suburban Knights and To Boldly Flee have some truly awful examples of this, such as the numerous upskirts Doug Walker gets as Link and the infamous Spoony Dune scene. But even that isn’t the worst of it. The worst of it comes from the frequent states of near-nudity that Justin “JewWario” Carmichael would find himself in throughout these films. To Boldly Flee has him channeling George Takei and fencing without his shirt on, which is bad enough, but Suburban Knights has perhaps the worst scene of all, in any of these films, though only with hindsight.

For those of you not familiar, JewWario was outed as a creepy sexual predator during the whole #ChangeTheChannel fiasco. The guy groomed young women and did god knows what else during his time on the site, with none of his coworkers any the wiser and the management doing their best to cover it up; in fact, everyone only found out because the suits who owned CA made a huge blunder during their rebuttal of the claims of its former employees. With all of that context, please try and rewatch Suburban Knights’ climax in which JewWario helps save the day by revealing his penis to everyone. This right here is Keyser Soze levels of “uncomfortable in hindsight.”

The stories aren’t much better, and often fall into the same sort of issues that The Angry Video Game Nerd movie fell into, in that nothing in these films really showcases why we love the reviewers; Kickassia infamously has the Dr. Insano twist, as one example of how they botched this. All of these movies just feel too epic in scope and don’t really try to incorporate anything that we love about these reviewers into the films. Only To Boldly Flee really does anything right in that regard, as it throws back to everything from oneshot Nostalgia Critic villains to the Todd-Lindsay-Lupa love triangle to Phelous dying… the real problem is you have to actually sit through To Boldly Flee to see that. The movies go for these epic plots where the reviewers do cool shit like take over micronations (Kickassia), quest for powerful artifacts (Suburban Knights), or deal with extremely heavy-handed and hamfisted allegories for internet privacy bills (To Boldly Flee). You’d think maybe throwing a bunch of comedians into an epic plot like any of these could lead to some funny jokes, or maybe some sort of Monty Python-esque parody, but no, instead these comedians decide to revel in melodrama and try to genuinely act, with EXTREMELY mixed results. It doesn’t help that some of these people just aren’t even remotely funny when they’re trying to be.

Here’s the thing with The Angry Video Game Nerd’s movie, in comparison to these, though: it may have had this epic, ridiculous, goofy plot involving Area 51, kaiju, aliens, and crappy Atari games buried in a landfill, but the entire plot was building up to, and ultimately delivered on, the promise of the long-awaited review of the E.T. game. For all the film’s flaws, Rolfe knew what we loved about the Nerd, he knew what the fans wanted, and by god did he give it to them in the silliest, most epic way possible. Even if I didn’t love the film, the fact Rolfe knew why we’d want to see a feature-length Nerd film in the first place speaks volumes about how he understands that he can do what will make him happy artistically and still show the fans what they want to see.

These movies from the Channel Awesome crew don’t seem to get that at all. They don’t build up to a review. They don’t build up to them discovering the worst movie or song or whatever they review. They’re all very straightforward genre comedies where they can make a bunch of shallow, Seltzer & Friedberg-esque “Look at this thing that exists! That’s a joke right?” references. Aside from seeing your favorite reviewers in a goofy plot like this, where is there any bit of the reason you watch these people in the first place? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they were playing characters instead of them playing themselves, in their internet reviewer personas; at least then you wouldn’t be watching Brad Jones stumbling around in a Darth Vader helmet and think to yourself miserably “God I wish that poor guy was watching another E.T. porno.”

So there are some positives in these films, shockingly enough. Brad Jones is consistently good across the entire ‘trilogy,’ especially in Kickassia where he has the good sense to walk out on all the bullshit for a while. Maybe it’s just because these films got me interested in him, but I definitely think he does a good job. The same can be said for a lot of the actors, such as the bad guy in Suburban Knights and Ma-Ti’s actor; they manage to deliver at least solid performances in spite of the films. And then there are the James Rolfe cameos, and it’s just always good to see Rolfe in general.

To Boldly Flee, despite its reputation, actually has a lot of genuinely good bits. For instance, the distraction song is actually a really solid musical number. Linkara, Doug, and Spoony actually play really well off of each other, so when they have their three idiot villains team up they at least get some decently good moments. And other reviewers I generally like such as Phelous or Todd do a solid job, and frankly in To Boldly Flee Doug Walker does show some impressive dramatic acting… but it’s in service of a character who has previously been portrayed as a petulant, whiny, self-serving, egotistical manchild, so it almost feels like he’s playing a totally different character. Still, credit where credit is due.

None of these films succeed at what they want to. Ostensibly, they are supposed to be celebrating the site and the friendship of the reviewers, but as I mentioned, there’s no reviewing, there’s nothing that indicates what the site is about, and they all just come off as ego-stroking self-congratulatory wanking. None of these films were worth the pain and suffering that the cast and crew had to go through to produce these, and watching them at all these days is especially hard knowing that a lot of these people are smiling and joking through pain, stress, and abuse. It’s sick.

Kickassia may be the most competent, but that isn’t saying much at all. Aside from the whole Palin bit, this one has a simple, straightforward plot and is relatively down-to-earth, and it almost feels like it really was just a bunch of friends making a shitty low budget action movie in the desert… something sadly undermined by reality. Suburban Knights is probably one of the most uncomfortable to sit through due to jokes like Film Brain saying he’d eat Kinley Mochrie’s “pea-ness” (this was before she came out mind you) and the numerous jokes surrounding JewWario’s junk, but it almost works, like it nearly comes close to being a dumb epic fantasy comedy, but it just frequently shoots itself in the foot with the bad writing and acting and its overreliance on references.

To Boldly Flee is, to put it absolutely simple, a hot mess. This film is an utter trainwreck from start to finish. It is the Battlefield Earth of internet review movies, a bloated, messy, overly long dumpster fire with some of the most nightmarish behind-the-scenes stories and horrendous financial mismanagement you could ever imagine. But where Battlefield Earth is at least unintentionally funny, this film… is not. This film just makes you feel bad for everyone involved, it makes your heart ache for all the poor reviewers who had to suffer under the miserable conditions, it makes you question Doug Walker’s sanity in thinking he could turn his screeching manchild of a reviewer into some tragic martyr in a total 180 from how he had always been portrayed prior. None of these three films are worth sitting through, but I think To Boldly Flee is, with hindsight, the one least worth sitting through, which is a truly incredible accomplishment.

It’s kind of tragic. I still like a lot of the reviewers who took part in these – Todd, Linkara, Phelous, Brad Jones, and even Doug to some extent (though that’s an unpopular opinion these days) – but I just can’t muster up any forgiveness for these films anymore. And I don’t blame any of the people in it (except maybe Doug); most of them were there out of obligation or friendship or what have you. These films are just a monument to hubris, ignorance, broken friendships, horrible management, and wanton cruelty to those who called you friends.

See that picture up there at the top? With all of them gathered together like friends? God, how I wish that were the reality. How I wish that picture accurately reflected life, that they were all pals having a good time and that these films were something they were proud of. But behind that picture are stories all of them could tell of hurt, betrayal, resentment, anger, contempt, and some very unspeakable things in Carmichael’s case. I wish the sort of world a surface level glance at that picture shows you existed, where the crew of TGWTG all had a blast making these shitty movies together, because at least in that case I could find a sort of ironic enjoyment in them. But reality has gone out of its way to undermine any of that. 

#Michael After Midnight #Review #Movie review #Channel Awesome #TGWTG #That Guy with the Glasses #Kickassia #Suburban Knights #To Boldly Flee #Internet reviewers

[eikyun]

Eishi Tsukasa Essay; how I met him, and 10 reason why I love him

Caution: it will be pretty long. Please bear with me >_<

In this post, I’m going to spill out all of my feelings I have for this guy. Stay away if you hate him, okay :) Hating Eishi is a bad civilization :p

I met Eishi 3 years 9 months ago, exactly at November 2015. After I finished watching the 1st season of Shokugeki anime, I was interested to read the manga. For the most thing I was more curious about the rest of Elite 10. With the information I got from Google, I clicked ch 119 and... tada~ At a manga panel, I saw a beautiful white haired male sitting while drinking a cup of tea.

“Wow, he is hot.” I mumbled. Yes, I was attracted to his looks at first glance. He is totally my type, appearance wise. Two next pages later, the cool, collected guy I saw before suddenly turned into an anxious, shy dorkie boy. 

“Is he actually the 1st seat?? Omg this is getting interesting.” I thought. How could soggy guy like him can gain the highest rank in the friggin Totsuki Academy?? This fact tickled my curiosity more, I wanted to know more about this guy. I skipped to ch 132, where Soma and Megumi met Eishi in his booth (I read the chapters in order later, though). It was more emphasized that our 1st seat is a true introvert, and a perfectionist. This guy... is very similar to me. 

He automatically jumped into my most favorite SnS character. No, he became my most favorite anime/manga character at that time.

After I read SnS until the latest chapter (ch 145), I eagerly waited for his next apperance. When ch 148 released, I saw him on a pretty big panel, sitting leisurely while watching the Souma vs Eizan from the screen... my heart skipped a beat, my lip drew a wide smile. What’s up with me? I just knew him for like... less than a month, and yet I felt like an idiot when I saw him. Did I... fall in love?

It took 4 months until his next appearance (ch 161). I was extremely happy to see him again, and I couldn’t wait to know about him more and more. During that Souma vs Eishi battle arc, I learned more about Eishi, I was amazed that the way he talked... the demeanor he showed... is very similar to me. I never met a 2D character (or perhaps irl people) who shared a lot of similarity (personality wise) with me. I felt more kinship with him more than with Megumi, who is also a shy character. This fact just made love him even more.

***

From ch 118 until Le Dessert ch 1, plus Betsubara 6 and 7 and some extras, my feelings for Eishi remains same. Here’s my 10 reason why I love a chef named Tsukasa Eishi.

1. Let’s start from the shallowest thing; looks. Yes, he is undoubtly good looking, I’m sure everyone must admit it! Nobody can resist that beautiful pale lavender iris with outstanding long eyelashes, combined with that gorgeous shining white hair... Oh, how ethereal. His fair skin, slender and long fingers, his alluring neck, his collarbone, his body shape, his waist— aaaaah ok ok I’ll stop >////< in tl;dr, people would fall in love by his looks alone, but when they find out his true self, who knows?

2. Fashion sense. I know you guys might find his flying necktie weird, but I admit, it looks so damn cool on him. Not to mention, I love how he wears his uniform, both school and chef one. The unbuttoned collar, half-rolled sleeves... What an unexpected style for a shy boy like him, huh? But I don’t care, if it makes him looks hotter, I’ll take it~ Not to mention the collection of casual outfits he has. He’s not on the fashionista tier for sure, but he still has good sense. Well, I can say that he looks good on everything.

3. His voice. This is something I admitted way later. At first I wasn’t too fond of Akira Ishida’s voice on him. Too ‘husky’ for me, I thought. However, the more I hear him talking on anime, the more I’m used to it, then it grows on me. Now everytime he speaks, my heart throbs faster. The power of love is too strong haha.

4.      The adorable gap moe! Gap moe! Gap moe! Eishi’s gap moe is... too cute and irresistable >///< I’m sure people’s first impression of him is... a cool, elegant, and handsome guy... he must be a very cool guy like heroine’s love interest in shoujo manga or Korean drama! Who knows if he’s actually a huge dork! He can show you his anxious, worry-wart side at unexpected time, wrecking his previous prince-like image completely. What a gap! Would he stay calm and stoic everytime people surround him? Please don’t scare this soft guy, he would be freaked out and get nervous >_< 

His gap is also shown by his demeanor towards people. If it’s someone he barely knows and cares, he wouldn’t bat an eye, hence you call him an absolute selfish guy. However, he shows his care towards someone close to him. Just look how he treats Rindou (hmph, I’m so jelly :<) I’m sure he’d super sweet to his girlfriend and treat her like a princess, if he has one someday! >_<

5. If he is that spineless, is he actually an incompetent guy? Hell no! You all must know that he’s one of the best chefs in the series! If you’re going to deny this, you must read/watch a wrong series lol. He had sit on the throne of 1st seat of Elite 10 for freakin’ two years (there’s a plot hole about this, but regardless he gained the 1st  seat on 2nd year or 3rd, my point still stands). The more amazing thing is, he gained it not by magic or ahem, plot no jutsu. Many said that he’s a natural genius chef, however, he worked hard for that sweet 1st seat. You can reread/rewatch the whole of SnS to prove his competence in cooking.

6. His elegance. French cuisine as his speciality alone proves that. His dishes always have luxurious presentation. The taste? If only I could actually taste it... ;_; Throughout the series, it’s proved that he never fails to make a lot of people amazed. Not only by his dishes, people are also enthralled by his elegance in kitchen. The way he keeps composure while cooking, the way he interacts with ingredients, the way he set the plating of his dish... it’s like watching a prima ballerina dancing in an opera. Oh, not to mention, his nickname sounds elegant and noble as heck! Let me say it; Weiss Ritter der Tafel! The White Knight of the The Table!

7. Have I said he’s a hard-worker? Sure he is. Since junior high, he had set his goal to be the 1st seat of Elite Ten, and he didn’t just sit down for the whole of his time in Totsuki. He was famous as ‘Teacher Crusher’ for his effort to drag teachers nearby to try his countless test dishes. 

Even after he gained it and graduated from Totsuki, he still aimed to be a better cook! Can’t you just imagine how persistent—I mean, hard-working he is? His hardwork isn’t limited to cooking only; he is a diligent boy in general. As he got the 1st seat title, he didn’t throw his responsibility down to the rest and walk away like a boss. He hates paperworks and especially public speaking, yet he’s responsible enough not to ignore his duties. People might see him as a doormat for letting himself doing Rindou and the others’ paperworks, but not for me. Who’s the selfish one then? :p 

He deserves my highest respect for his hard-working nature and being responsible.

8. His innocence— I mean, it’s more like his naivety. This trait might be irritating for some people, and in Eishi’s case, it lead him to earn the ‘bastard/asshole’ title by those who misunderstand him, due to his incompetence to understand people’s feelings. It’s emphasized by the fact that he tends to be straightforward, both in words and act. 

His naivety makes sense, he lacks social/communication skill since he’s an introvert (not all introverts sucks in social skill, though). He doesn’t interact with a people much. Eishi’s own world is just around cooking and nothing else lol, that’s why he’s focused on his own cooking and prioritizes it above anything else. Sounds like an autistic person, you say? Maybe. As someone who has a tiny bit of autism, I understand this side of him well and I can’t blame him for that. I always find myself being busy in my own world, and I tend not to interact with people much. I’m not saying that he’s diagnosed with autism, no. He might have a bit of it, just like myself. So don’t blame him for forgetting Kuga after his match with him, he was just way too busy in his own world XD

Talking about innocence... isn’t he also actually an innocent, adorkable boy? I mean, he seems to have a relatively pure mind. He never actually means to harm people. If the others think so, it’s mostly a misunderstanding. He might be blunt with his words, but he’s just being honest, you know. He never lies. 

Please give him a chance, I believe he’ll grow to be a better person in future.

9. The previous point has connection with this one, his introverted nature. I can say he is 90% introvert. Isn’t it obvious? He is undoubtly shy boy, hates public speaking, easily gets nervous in front of a lot of people, prefers to cook alone, lacks of social skill... he is socially impaired, Rindou said so. However, he tries to overcome his social anxiety for the sake to be a better chef. Isn’t it great?

As a fellow true introvert, I find Eishi very relatable, thus I feel a deep connection between me and him. Every time I feel anxious in front of people, I think of Eishi that he would feel the same and imagine that we would overcome our shared obstacle together.

10.  Eishi isn’t Tsukasa Eishi without his dominant trait: perfectionist. 

Let’s start with the fact that his blood type is A. People with this blood type (including me) tend to be perfectionist and organized. You can search more about it on Google, and you’ll find out that Eishi fits most of A-type traits! You might see his obsession for perfection a bit annoying, but that’s Eishi for you. Everything he does must be perfect. He’s someone who makes plans and he wants to follow those plans completely. It leads him to be a hard-worker, but it also makes him prone to stress and worry. Is being a perfectionist a good thing? Yes, but it would drain yourself if you’re way too obsessed with perfection. Eishi seems... quite perfection obssessive. I’d say it’s way too much because I don’t want to see him being trapped in the endless loop of reaching perfection and drained him both physically and mentally. I’m also a perfectionist, but not as much as him, yet I understand how painful it is. I love this side of him for another reason; he always has a clear goal; honing his cooking skill to be perfect, and works hard for that. I’d prefer someone like that than a hopeless person who has no goal in their life. I admire people who try hard to reach their dreams. Also, he always gets things done properly and never try to be half-assed.

My conclusion: Eishi isn’t perfect, despite of being obsessed with perfection. He isn’t a perfect husbando material, but he’s perfect in my eyes. He has flaws and weakness, but I’d embrace those and keep loving him. I love you, Tsukasa Eishi.

#Shokugeki no Soma #tsukasa eishi #sorry for the tldr #long text post

[luckthebard]

i think the "anyone can die" nature of critical role is a real benefit to it - i came to critical role after being unable to connect to taz amnesty, and i think part of why i've been enjoying critical role a lot more than that (and other dnd shows i've watched) is that there's not this inherent feeling that everything will work out in the end. there's more stakes, and i'm more riveted to find out what happens, because ultimately the characters don't have plot armour and there's no (1/2)

(2/2) guarantee that they’ll be walking away from the fight at the end, dinged up but otherwise fine. but also crucially, the stakes are relatively appropriate for the party - so far at least (not fully up to date) i’ve never felt like they were at risk for a TPK, which adds more interest because not only do we potentially have this loss of a character we love, but we get to see the aftermath that loss has on the people who knew them.

This perspective is so interesting! I haven’t tried Amnesty yet but it makes sense it would also be a little more straightforward and on-rails in its storytelling, like Balance was. Which is fine! It’s just that, you’re right, that’s the biggest difference between TAZ and CR. And I think CR is the more unusual in that regard, storytelling-wise, which might be why some people who love TAZ feel blindsided by it.

Matt balances encounters really well, and he has a great sense of what will feel risky, challenging, and fun, but not unfair. He’s said before that a TPK would be his “fault” and that’s never the goal of any game they play. And the players (and Matt!) are so emotionally invested in the characters, that you feel their pain too when something bad does happen - if we the audience are upset by character loss, we know the CR crew is right there with us.

The Mighty Nein are rapidly approaching the level where they can cast resurrection spells, but in CR even those are tense and emotional. They use a resurrection ritual (which can fail!) that allows them to give the characters time to express grief, and so even when characters who die come back on CritRole, I always felt like appropriate emotional weight was given to the death. In campaign 1, character death even with resurrection led to some of the most interesting moments of character development, due to how everyone reacted to it.    

#replies #anonymous #character death discourse

[veeranger]

i was honestly shocked to discover dmc is basically completely straightforward and relatively simple plot wise considering how bayonetta is compete absolutely unadulterated horse fucking shit nonstop from start to finish and there is not a single plot point in the story that isn’t weighed down like a man being tied to a cinder block underwater with utterly wack fuck shit. bayonetta approaches homestuck levels of narrative insanity with all the time shit and the asanine confusing lore and shit but dmc is consistently like “dante/nero fights bad guys and kicks ass the end”

#apple post

[laurent-ofvere]

how do you write fanfic? i don't have problems with original fiction but i struggle with characterization in fanfic. i have an idea for a capri fanfic but every time I go to write it, i get so frustrated bc it seems like everyone is out of character, like i haven't cracked the code on damen or laurent. and if they're OOC then what's the point? idk i love all your fics and you seem to have them down pat, do you have any advice?

its so funny you aay that bc i have no problem with fanfic but i struggle with original fiction (not that ive actually tried yet but the reason for that is How)

im going to be honest, characterization is not something ive ever really strived for. ive always just /felt/ the characters and wrote them as they came to me, and it seemed to work out. im relatively confident in my characterization but im sure there are people who’ve read my fics and thought it was wildly ooc which is fair, bc ive read fic that gets high praise that i personally find to be ooc, so its all just such a personal thing. i dont often consciously think of following character rules or anything, like a bullet point list of “this is how a laurent pov should go”. say damen- hes not someone who’s emotionally in touch with himself and he doesnt even think of his emotional state. ive gone with that in some fics but a lot of times i just went “eh” and didn’t really shy away form him being introspective (which is technically ooc) but then in other ways i felt that i heavily maintained characterization, and thats just how i found my balance.

so even tho i mainly just write what comes naturally to me, here are a few random tips ive tried to gather:

let the plot play out in your mind and then apply it to canon- its easier to picture how they would act when its in a canon context that you’ve already been given. fanfic example: high school hate sex. think about that in canon, how did their interactions go when they hated each other? what was the vibe? what qualities did damen reluctantly like about laurent in the beginning that you could tie in here? how did laurent clap back to damens sass, and how throughout canon does damen show his anger and animosity (to laurent and others)? have that conversation with yourself and visualize it in a different setting. watch it play out like a scene, then write it. 

simple but straightforward:  what would ____ do? dont think of it as a fic, think of it as meta or a chat about characters with a friend. how do YOU think laurent would react to that hypothetical? why do you think that? well, what if x happened instead, would he still do that? work it out in your head with the way you see them responding, sort of like daydreaming about an au.

this might be odd but maybe try working off an existing fic. pick a fic that you like and agree with characterization wise and play with it, sort of like a fanfic of a fanfic. say i have a fic that you think is well done, try and keep the fic going, a scene or a conversation. try and emulate the dialogue or the way the characters are generally acting/reacting/posing etc. keep on expanding on it and “copy” it, for lack of a better term. it might snap something into focus. 

#asks #writing advice