#so it's only proper to publish them first :B

[literary-illuminati]

An Arbitrary Collection of Book Recommendations

(put together for a friend out of SFF I've read over the last couple of years)

Cli-Fi

Tusks of Extinction and/or The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. They’re pretty different books in a lot of ways – one is a novel about discovering a certain species of squid in the Pacific might have developed symbolic language and writing, the other a novella about a de-extinction initiative to restore mammoths to the Siberian taiga – but they share a pretty huge overlap in setting, tone and themes. Specifically, a deep and passionate preoccupation with animal conservation (and a rather despairing perspective on it), as well as a fascination with transhumanism and how technology can affect the nature of consciousness. Mountain is his first work, and far more substantial, but I’d call it a bit of a noble failure in achieving what it tries for. Tusks is much more limited and contained, but manages what it’s going for.

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. In a post-post-apocalyptic world that’s just about figured out how to rebuild itself from the climate disasters of the 21st century (but that’s still very much a work in progress), aliens descend from the sky and make First Contact. They’re a symbiotic civilization, and they’re overjoyed at the chance to welcome a third species into their little interstellar community – and consider it a mission of mercy besides, since every other species they’ve ever encountered destroyed themselves and their planet before escaping it. Awkwardly, our heroine and her whole society are actually pretty invested in Earth and the restoration thereof – and worried that a) the alien’s rescue effort might not care about their opinions and b) that other interest groups on earth might be more willing to give the hyper-advanced space-dwelling aliens the answers they want to hear. Basically 100% sociological worldbuilding and political intrigue, so take that as you will.

Throwback Sci Fi

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is possibly the only thing I’ve read published in decades to take the old cliche of ‘this generic-seeming fantasy world is actually the wreckage of a ruined space age civilization, and ‘magic’ and ‘monsters’ are the remnants of the technology’ and play it entirely straight. Specifically, it’s a two-POV novella, where half the story is told from the perspective of a runaway princess beseeching the ancient wizard who helped found her dynasty for help against a magical threat, and half is from the perspective form the last surviving member of a xeno-anthropology mission woken out of stasis by the consequences of the last time he broke the Prime Directive knocking on his ship tower door and asking for help. Generally just incredible fun.

Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh is, I think, the only thing on this list written before the turn of the millennium. It’s proper space opera, about a habitat orbiting an immensely valuable living world that’s the lynchpin of logistics for the functionally rogue Earth Fleet’s attempt to hold off or defeat rebelling and somewhat alien colonies further out. The plot is honestly hard to summarize, except that it captures the feel of being history better than very nearly any other spec fic I’ve ever read – a massive cast, none of them with a clear idea of what’s going on, clashing and contradictory agendas, random chance and communications delays playing key roles, lots of messy ending, not a single world-shaking heroes or satanic masterminds deforming the shape of things with their narrative gravity to be seen. Somewhat dated, but it all very impressively well done.

Pulpy Gay Urban Fantasy Period Piece Detective Stories Where Angels Play a Prominent Role

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark stars Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in Cairo, a couple of decades after magic returned to the world and entirely derailed the course of Victorian imperialism. There’s djinn and angels and crocodile gods, and also an impossible murder that needs solving! The mystery isn’t exactly intellectually taxing, but this is a very fun tropey whodunnit whose finale involves a giant robot.

Even Though I Knew The End by C. L. Polk is significantly more restrained and grounded in its urban fantasy. It’s early 20th century Chicago, and a PI is doing one last job to top off the nest egg she’s leaving her girlfriend before the debt on her deal with the devil comes due. By what may or may not be coincidence, she stumbles across a particularly gruesome crime scene – and is offered a deal to earn back her soul by solving the mystery behind it. Very noir detective, with a setting that just oozes care and research and a satisfyingly tight plot.

High Concept Stuff That Loves Playing around With Format and the Idea of Narratives

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente is a story about a famous documentarian vanishing on shoot amid mysterious and suspicious circumstances, as told by the recovered scraps of the footage she was filming, and different drafts of her (famous director) father’s attempt to dramatize the events as a memorial to her. It’s set in a solar system where every planet is habitable and most were colonized in the 19th century, and culturally humanity coasts on in an eternal Belle Epoque and (more importantly) Golden Age of Hollywood. Something like half the book is written as scripts and transcripts. This description should by now either have sold you or put you off entirely.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez is the only classic-style epic fantasy on this list, I believe? The emperor and his three demigod sons hold subjugated in terror, but things are changing. The emperor, terrified of death, has ordered a great fleet assembled to carry him across the sea in pursuit of immortality. The day before he sets out on his grand pilgrimage to the coast, a guilt-ridden guard helps the goddess of the moon escape her binding beneath the palace. From there, things spiral rapidly out of anyone’s control. The story’s told through two or three (depending( different layers of narrative framing devices, and has immense amounts of fun playing with perspective and format and ideas about storytelling and legacy.

I Couldn’t Think of Any Categories That Included More Than One of These

All The Names They Used For God by Anjali Sachdeva is a collection of short stories, and probably the most literary thing on this list? The stories range wildly across setting and genre, but are each more or less about the intrusion of the numinous or transcendent or divine into a world that cracks and breaks trying to contain it. It is very easily the most artistically coherent short story collection I’ve ever read, which I found pretty fascinating to read – but honestly I’m mostly just including this on the strength of Killer of Kings, a story about an angel sent down to be John Milton’s muse as he writes Paradise Lost which is probably one of the best things I read last year period.

Last Exit by Max Gladstone – the Three Parts Dead and How You Lose the Time War guy – could be described as a deconstruction of ‘a bunch of teenagers/college kids discover magic and quest to save the world!’ stories, but honestly I’d say that obscures more than it reveals. Still, the story is set with that having happened a decade in the past, and the kids in question have thoroughly fucked up. Zelda, the protagonist, is kept from suicide by survivor’s guilt as much as anything, and now travels across America working poverty jobs and sleeping in her car as she hunts the monsters leaking in through the edges of a country rotting at the seams. Then there’s a monster growing in the cracks of the liberty bell, an in putting it down she gets a vision of someone she thought was dead is just trapped – or maybe changed. So it’s time to get the gang together again and save the world! This one’s hard to rec without spoiling a lot, but the prose and characterization are all just sublime. Oddly in conversation with the whole Delta Green cosmic horror monster hunting subgenre for a story with nothing to do with Lovecraft.

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is a story about aliens destroying the earth, and growing up in the pseudo-fascist asteroid survivalist compound of the last bits of the human military that never surrendered. It stars a heroine whose genuinely indoctrinated for the first chunk of the book and just deeply endearing terrible and awful to interact with, and also has a plot that’s effectively impossible to describe without spoiling the big twist at the end of the first act. Possibly the only book I read last year which I actively wish was longer – which is both compliment and genuine complaint, for the record, the ending’s a bit messy. Still, genuinely meaty Big Ideas space opera with very well-done characterization and a plot that does hold together. 

#meta #book recommendations #sff #sharing this mostly so I don't lose it next time my laptop dies #and also hey why not

[leliosinking]

Hot take I guess but the fandom was way too hard on this book (and still is tbh) and for what? Because it isn’t interested in fan service? If anything Anne’s writing was at its best when she ignored what fans wanted, and I think it’s time for a reevaluation of my boy Vittorio the Vampire.

I just think this was such a promising start to New Tales (more than Pandora, even) and I sort of hate all of you for boycotting it or telling new readers to skip it. (as far as i’m concerned TVA, Merrick, B&G, BF and BC are all unofficially New Tales anyway.. TVL-MtD are the only proper vampire chronicles, everything else falls into different categories, but I digress).

With regard to Vittorio, however, we were given a true blue Ricean vampire hunter novel (the only one mind you) with an actual, functioning plot and some of the best action she’s written since TVL… and you all shunned it. And I get it, we don’t read these books for conventional, commercial plot contrivances, but for the florid language and richly crafted characters; but this is the rare Anne Rice novel that’s just.. fun for the sake of fun?

And no, I’m not blind to its problems. It absolutely needed another draft or two (as do a lot of the later VC entires) and no, Vittorio is not her strongest protagonist by leagues. But what we got was still filled to the brim with good ideas?

The Court of the Ruby Grail cult, especially, is one my favorite of Anne’s inventions. Like their dynamic with the local human villages feeding them their castoffs was legitimately disturbing and IMO better executed than most of the times she retreaded the Children of Darkness post-TVL.

And while Vittorio the character might be kind of boring, Florian and Ursula carry this novel and deserved to enter the larger narrative tapestry on their strengths alone but “waaah Lestat and co. aren’t here” so “it’s bad” or whatever.. I really can’t stand some of y’all.

Anyway, this is long enough and I really didn’t set out to write an essay in defense of what is ultimately a mid-tier entry into this series. But. I still feel that much in the way that MtD and Blackwood Farm have been recently reassessed as good novels that happen to be bad VC entires I think it’s time for some of you to similarly reevaluate Vittorio the Vampire, because this is a good vampire novel, it just isn’t a good vampire chronicle (well I think it is and yet and yet and yet). But it’s still part of the series and it does fit into the larger picture despite what some will have you believe.

If this is your first time, I personally like to read VTV between Body Thief and Memnoch. I think it is better thematically situated there than between TVA and Merrick as initially published. The archangels that enter later in the story build nicely upon David’s vision of God and Satan in TTOTBT and make for a strong intermission full of angels and demons that assist in setting up the Dantean finale of MtD. (I have more suggested reading orders btw, some other time perhaps).

I dunno.. if you like this book please let me know lol like I could use the solidarity because I feel like I’m the only one (I have it ranked #6 out of 15). But yeah, I think Vittorio is probably the most underrated and most unfairly slandered entry in Anne’s entire catalogue if I’m being completely honest.

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #anne rice #lestat #amc iwtv #vampire chronicles #amc interview with the vampire #the vampire chronicles #Vittorio the vampire

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Brainrot Housekeeping: A little note about Dorian

This is my heads-up that I've decided to try messing around on their platform and translating some of my headcanons into the Arcana's visual novel format.

This is not a promotional post. (hence why you won't be seeing any links, story titles, or profile handles)

It's mostly so that if anybody sees something posted by an author over there using my ideas/moniker, it's probably me and not a thief. Also, this blog is far and away my priority over that - if I start to feel overwhelmed or burnt out, that's going to be the first thing I stop doing. Not this :)

I'm putting more thoughts below the cut since the main point of this post is to be transparent about my activity to avoid misunderstandings:

I've been in conversation with plenty of people about Dorian. I've heard from people whose lives were transformed for the better because of it, I've heard from people with mixed feelings, I've heard from people whose lives were wrecked by it. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been on my page for a while that I'm fairly skeptical of them myself and don't always see eye-to-eye with them on how things seem to be run.

Anybody who's talked to me personally about it knows that I have boatloads more opinions, but I realized that those are based off of what I've heard much more than off of what I've experienced. So for transparency's sake, here are my reasons for trying this out:

First, the most important thing I've learned to do is to try encountering something for myself when I keep hearing and developing strong opinions about it. Sticking to this personal value is what got me out of Rai's server and influence (if you don't know and you want to know, read my pinned "to the arcana fandom" post) and ultimately what helped me get the resources I needed to help my friends get out of serious danger too. If I want to join the conversation about the clear divide between Dorian's vision for the Arcana and the fandom built around the original game, I have to try both sides out for myself.

Second, I'm a curious person and it seems like a new way to fuck around and find out (something I do constantly, though I rarely show it on here :P). I'm a creative, I love these characters, and the chance to see my own words in the original format sounds like fun.

To finish off, these are the goals and parameters I'm setting myself when it comes to however active I end up being over there. I'm putting them here again for transparency, but mainly to help me keep myself accountable:

My main goal is to try a new experience and have fun in the process. To do that, I'm going to keep my mind open without losing critical thinking and only make what I feel like making and when I feel like making it

Nothing I create is going to be motivated by a desire to be "successful". I'm already successful - I have a steady job IRL, a group of amazing friends, and this gift of a page that lets me be creative and find joy with other people around one of my many interests

Being active over there is going to be a bottom priority. If my tasks are getting to be too much, that will be the first to go because the only value I place in it at this time is experiental

If I find I can't stick to these goals, whether it be motivation, mentality, or just a loss of interest, I'll stop my activity over there and re-evaluate what I'm doing vs what I want to be doing and why

If I encounter something that's deeply concerning to me, I'll attempt to address it proactively through the proper channels available to me. If those concerns remain unaddressed and I think people need to know about it, I'll talk about it openly and honestly

I won't use my blog or server to promote any work I publish over there. Concurrently, I'll do my best to avoid any promotion off of the Dorian app

That's all from me for now about this! I'll be linking it in my pinned post so people who want to know more about me can look at it, but I won't be putting it on the arcana tag because I don't think it's relevant at this time.

Cheers!

brainrot

#ask arcana brainrot #dorian era

[irrealisms]

every martyr in this jungle liner notes

fic here if you haven't read it!

okay so this first point is, like, barely a liner note for the fic proper. but did you know i have spent the past several weeks engrossed in the mcyt-trio polls. i have written two fics for it and made a web weave and i'm already planning a third fic for the finale next round as a thank you to the mods. shit's crazy. i rushed the editing timeline on every martyr in this jungle because i wanted to publish it before the time on this poll runs out. vote eclipse federation if you haven't already, with the disclaimer that it's got like 16 hours left as of me writing this, and keep an eye out for a bench trio fic coming soon to a blog and/or ao3 near you

anyway! fic time!

the most-used word in this fic that is not a name (the top three words are of course Vitalasy, Zam, and Subz) is again. this is on purpose. during editing i deleted an instance of "again" due to awkward phrasing and i had to double-check before doing so that it was still winning in Word Frequency or else i would've added it back in somewhere else. they have had this conversation before. maybe not in its details, but in its shape. they are having this conversation again, again, again.

vitalasy has so many issues around zam being afraid of him, even though (a) vitalasy hasn't actually done anything to anyone other than himself*, (b) zam is the one who killed vitalasy. some things i was drawing on for character inspiration here: the song hold no guns by death cab for cutie, the poem ON BEING RAISED ON FAIRY TALES IN WHICH YOU ARE THE MONSTER by a.m.h. *sorry for the planetlord erasure

zam...isn't actually as afraid of vitalasy as vitalasy thinks he is. zam is, like, a normal amount afraid of all social interaction, due to who he is as a person. he is an incredibly scared and jumpy guy, because he has an anxiety disorder, but he isn't actually particularly scared of vitalasy qua vitalasy anymore. vitalasy just...has issues from when he was.

relatedly: if this were from zam's pov, every time there is the slightest pause in the dialogue you'd get his internal monologue, which is approximately "oh God oh fuck this is going so terribly what do i say why am i so bad at talking to Vitalasy what do i do" the entire time. he's trying! and the tension on his end is much less "aaaa Vitalasy who I am scared of is here" and much more "WHY DO I KEEP SAYING THE WRONG THING. WHY AM I SO BAD AT THIS. OH NO HE'S EVEN SADDER NOW?????"

it did need to be vitalasy pov, though. as soon as i got the idea i knew it had to be vitalasy pov. i knew it had to be vitalasy pov because the previous one was zam pov and they're mirrors. here they are, at the grave, (again!) but now it's vitalasy standing vigil, and zam awkwardly showing up to put flowers on it.

the way it is still, constantly, about subz. vitalasy gets mad at zam for this, because zam cares so much more about subz than him, but he's just as bad--every two seconds he's thinking about subz's death, subz's note. the grave is the space between them. the grave is the only thing bringing them together. this is a bit of a continuation of the last fic. it is about zam and vitalasy but it is also about the ghost of subz.

the moon-representing-subz has Less of a presence in this one vs the last one, except for at the very end. the moon is rising. subz will be back soon. (well...it rises once zam leaves. this, too, is a metaphor.)

also related to the ghost of subz: i considered bringing up the fact that zam's been [hallucinating? haunted?] seeing subz everywhere. it didn't quite work but it's a fun little detail that is, btw, canon. canon in a "one-off line that was a little bit a joke" way but nonetheless canon enough to make me crazy about it.

the note about zam fidgeting a lot to the point of half-dancing around mapicc and spoke is about his lunar client emotes . and how he does them Even More Than Usual (which is already a lot) when he is around ppl who are also being silly w lunar client emotes <3

the thing where... they know each other. they know each other so well. they are, both of them, trying. this does not fix anything, it just makes it hurt worse.

sort of related to that and sort of related to zam's Fear (in general, of vitalasy) and sort of its own thing, zam is.. mm. zam's got certain expectations of people. and it's easy to assume they're about his [past issues in relationships] or even about [the person he is presently talking to] but they're...not, really. they're not zero about those things but they're not only about those things either. they are in large part about what zam, personally, thinks he deserves (punishment, death, bad things, etc). (occasionally when zam feels better about himself it's about how zam is a Victimhero Martyr and everyone else is a sort of prop in that, which vitalasy also has a huge complex about, but that's less relevant in this fic specifically than the...thinking he deserves for vitalasy to hurt him & on some level he wants vitalasy to hurt him as a weird self-harm-by-proxy thing & therefore vitalasy is probably going to hurt him)

the song the title comes from is Estate Sale Sign by the Mountain Goats. it's one of my #1 eclipse federation songs, tbh it's also one of my #1 s4 zam songs in general--i also am fond of it for team awesome. the title, though--that's all eclipse fed. they are all martyring themselves. they have all either banned themselves off or seriously considered it. they remember loving each other and now they still love each other but they are giving away that love. mm. [i remember when we loved each other day and night//and high above the water/the eagle spots the fish/every martyr in this jungle/is gonna get his wish]....man. also thinking about ["This is a song about, um, you may find it necessary to get rid of all your stuff, at some point."] and vitalasy burning all his stuff before his suicide. that's less relevant to the fic, though.

the series title is really funny to me. credit to angel qfitmc on tumblr for making this joke on hyperbeam chat and me cracking up every time i remember it. the thing is. while vitalasy and zam are being so fucking angsty and miserable about subz's suicide. subz IS playing dark souls. also elden ring. jump king. etc. bro killed himself in minecraft to become a variety streamer and i think that's beautiful. he's just chilling. this was of course epitomized when zam tried to bring him back but he was too busy playing dark souls and so he just Didn't. point is you don't have to stand at his grave and weep he is LITERALLY doing a pokemon nuzlocke run right now on twitch dot tv. unfortunately this is not stopping these two. from standing at his grave. and weeping

#therapists dni #my writing #any british ants in the chat?

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @e-klair

Who You Are:

E.K. || They/them

I'm from Germany and I study English and French translation - I plan on being able to make a living of translating books one day. I've been writing since I was 10 years old, and even though I love all other kinds of creative work too (I sometimes draw and am the singer of a rock band) it's the one thing in life I just NEED in order to be happy.

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Adventure, comedy, fanfic, fantasy, mystery, paranormal, romance, and sci-fi. Young and new adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Fantasy! Exploring new worlds and concepts, and at the same time being able to transfer the lessons learned there to real life is just… Idk, it really makes me emotional :')

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

Crime fiction. It's just a really specific genre following really specific rules, and I don't think I'd be able to follow all of them and have fun at the same time.

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

Honestly, at the moment it's just me, and sometimes my friends. I feel like my stories are very close to my experiences in life, so I wouldn't expect anyone to get or like them.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

One specific thing I always come back to is a conflict between two groups that need to overcome their prejudice. In one of my stories it's a straight up war, in the other one it's a family feud. In general, acceptance of the other (in whichever form) is a really strong theme in all of my works.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

Are toxic relationships a trope? I don't think they're a healthy thing to romantisize, especially in YA fiction. They can be written well if not romantisized, though, and that's cool!

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

I'm currently working on a fantasy duology called "Dawn". I've been working on it for 10 years now, but with a major break in between taking 8 years (!).

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

Mostly a mix of A) internal and external struggles and the need to put them on paper in as many metaphors as possible B) the sheer joy of having written something that wasn't there before. Creating something out of thin air is just wild!!

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

14 years now. I first started writing down my dreams as a kid, and over time those dreams developed into really long stories until I one day decided to finally write a "proper book".

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

Music! Everything I write is in some way inspired by the music I listen to, especially my current project - some characters or scenes only developed the way they did because of a certain song or album. (It also goes both ways cause my stories sometimes find their way into my own songs, help)

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

My current project, Dawn! It's just amazing to be able to return to writing something I loved so much as a teenager, and on top of that add everything I learned about writing in the meantime. I never would have thought that I could find so much potential in something I wrote when I was 13 and use it to make something even better.

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Not yet. I would love to publish a book one day, but I don't want to rush it.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

The best thing is to just be able to have a copy of it on your shelf and give it to your friends. I think I would be a bit scared of offering it to a publisher and having other people make decisions about it that differ greatly from my own ideas.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

HAVING WRITTEN and being happy about it is so good! Not having written? Or worse: Having written and being unhappy about it? Hell.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I usually do some soft plotting beforehand, but once I dive into writing I tend to follow my instincts. I work with Scrivener, which really helps me to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Otherwise I would easily lose track of where I'm headed or where I left off. I am also very motivated by word counts - keeping a goal is essential if I want to finish a project. Also: I really love writing on the train. It's amazing.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

All of my active years combined: About 2. I think the writerblr community is a very positive, interesting one and I just love keeping in touch with other people and their amazing ideas. Every one has their own style and flavour, it's like a candystore full of stories and nice people.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

@concerningwolves is an amazing author and their work is full of rich worldbuilding and fascinating characters. When Dealing With Wolves is definitely worth a read. @siarven is not only an amazingly nice and energetic person but also a fantastic artist! I love their drawings so much.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

The positivity! There's also a lot of information available with so many people sharing their experiences. It's great.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

Ummm. I actually don't know. It's sometimes hard getting in touch with people or finding blogs to follow. It's also really hard to talk about and share work that's written in another language than English, but that's how it is on most platforms.

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

Insert "idk i just got here" meme :D Honestly, I think a lot has changed since I first joined in 2018. I'm just trying to get back into the groove and then we'll see.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

Same answer as above. :)

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

God I love tag games. They're so much fun!

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

On instagram

Questions For Fun:

If your main character(s) was a flower, which flower would they be? Why?

Funnily, the full name of the MC of Dawn is Khorin'do, which means 'glowing leaf'. Glowing leaf is a tree of which the leaves turn almost see-through before autumn, which makes them look a bit like bug wings. Hence, this tree is not only how Khorin got her name, but in fact all of her kind - they are fairy-like creatures called Khorwes. So as you can imagine, her name is pretty much as common there as Steve or Mary are here.

If your writing were a color, what color would it be and why?

A friend of mine once described my writing as rainbow-coloured because it can get very intense, chaotic, and naive. Honestly, I think that's pretty accurate.

Is there a song that has had the most impact on your work? An album? A music artist? Why do you think they had such an influence on you?

For Dawn specifically, there have been many, many musical influences. In its early stages (around 2012), the themes of war and injustice were inspired by bands like Rise Against or Thirty Seconds to Mars (especially their album This is War, which umm… turns out to glorify war a lot? This is actually the opposite of what I wanted). Nowadays I tend to draw inspiration from instrumental vibes more than the lyrics. If it sounds epic, melancholic and slightly futuristic, it works. This is the case with Arcane Roots' album Melancholia Hymns. It helped me come up with a lot of internal conflicts for the characters and even inspired the new main antagonist as a whole. I think music has a big influence on me because it stimulates the visual part of my brain that loves daydreaming and indulging in fantastic scenarios, which is mostly what writing really is for me.

#iwaw #writeblr celebration #writeblr event #writeblr #writing community

[cantsayidont]

When it comes to packaging Bronze Age or later comics reprints, this is how to do it: THE TOMB OF DRACULA: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION series reprinted the entire 70-issue run of the '70s TOMB OF DRACULA series; the short-lived GIANT SIZE TOMB OF DRACULA; the entire run of the contemporaneous B&W DRACULA LIVES! magazine; assorted contemporary crossovers; and the complete B&W version of Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano's adaptation of the Stoker novel (which began in DRACULA LIVES! but wasn't finished until almost 30 years later), all laid out in chronological order and filled out with some pages of original art and covers of past reprint editions. Admirably, Marvel left the B&W material in B&W, and while the color material is digitally recolored, they did a proper job of it, limiting the heavy-handed effects (like that glowing full moon) to the covers.

I'm disappointed that the mooted Volume 6, compiling the short-lived B&W TOMB OF DRACULA magazine and the revisionist Dracula origin from BIZARRE ADVENTURES, was solicited and then canceled in 2022, but this is a pretty thorough collection of everything prior to that point. If anything, it's arguably a little too comprehensive: The DRACULA LIVES! magazine was only indirectly connected to the continuity of the color comic, so combining both in a single volume is a bit jarring, and the Thomas/Giordano adaptation of the novel works better compiled in a single volume than split into serialized chunks. (Fortunately, Marvel has also released that adaptation in standalone form, in both B&W and color editions; stick with the B&W, as the color is heavy-handed and only muddies Giordano's excellent artwork.) However, that's nitpicking a mostly well-conceived compilation of one of Marvel's best comics of the '70s. Even the price was not horrible given the format and page count ($44.99 USD per volume for about 500 pages). DC could take a lesson here.

There's just one terrible problem: Marvel almost immediately let these books fall out of print! Marvel has generally done better than DC at keeping its back catalog in print, but there are some weird lapses, some of them nonsensical (like letting the first couple volumes of a series fall out of print while later installments are still being published). An A for effort, a B- for follow-through, then.

#comics #tomb of dracula #neal adams #gil kane #gene colan #tom palmer #marv wolfman #gerry conway #dc HAS done stuff like this #like collecting all of the original batman and the outsiders in three color volumes #they just don't do it with any consistency #and many of their past reprint volumes #have been out of print for decades now #roy thomas #dick giordano #dracula

[cienie-isengardu]

Hi! Sorry if this has been asked before, but I was just wondering if you could recommend any specific Legends comics/stories that show Anakin's/Vader's relationship with his men? I know the 501st were loyal to Anakin and Vader later on, but I haven't really read any stories that show it, and I want to start delving into more Legends content. Thanks so much!

Hi there! I will do my best so here some recommendations:

Anakin

To be honest, we have only glimpses about Anakin’s life and though the period of prequels were full of clone wars stories, the Legends sources in general did not focus much on Skywalker’s relationship with men serving under him or working together on missions (as most was about Anakin and Obi-Wan, the unseparated team). Still, it seems to me like every major book, even with such limited focus, had Anakin come to rescue clone troopers or worry about them or in general be respected as a great warrior.

The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss (2008) and Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth by Karen Miller (2010) although tied to The Clone Wars TV animated series as far as I know are counted as Legends and like the show, explore Anakin’s relationship with clones and his padawan. Obviously, clones aren’t the main heroes, but there is a lot good examples how Skywalker and clones worked together (I especially like the battle and post-battle few chapters in the Gambit, a lot to analyze just by how Anakin addresses his men in contrast to some other characters, about what I talked more here).

From the unquestionable Legends sources I would recommend:

Jedi Trial a book written by David Sherman and Dan Cragg (2004) is the closest to showing us Anakin in a military setting (as in, not only leading troops during battle but also learning how to be a proper officer). Like I said, the prequel era did not focus much on Anakin’s relationship with people who weren’t Obi-Wan, Padme or even Palpatine so we don’t get closure similar to what was seen in The Clone Wars novels between him and Rex for example and sadly, most clones aren’t even named by narrative. But here is Grudo, an alien sergeant who was guiding Skywalker how to serve in the army and clone troopers got some interesting spotlight too. 

Labyrinth of Evil a novel written by James Luceno (2005) is another good book to recommend but sadly, only like first 10 chapters is focused on military mission in which Obi-Wan, Anakin and clones take part together because rest of story is greatly about Kenobi-Skywalker solo job. Still a pretty nice source and hey, Cody debuted here, that counts for something, right?

(And again, there is not much Anakin’s extensively inner thoughts about clones like in TCW books but I guess this is how the novels were written in 2002-2006)

Honorable mention: 

Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover (2005). Beside the opening Battle of Coruscant, Anakin was pretty isolated from clones (his men) as he was trapped in conflict between Jedi Council and Chancellor Palpatine, but the book brought on two separate occasions an interesting mention of Anakin made by Cody (about which I talker more here and here if you don’t feel like reading the whole novel). Beside that, the book in general is one of the best Star Wars books in my opinion.

From comics definitely worth reading is Star Wars Republic comic series, the issues about Anakin, Kenobi and ARC Alpha-17. Since the plot was heavily focused on Obi-Wan and Alpha’s time in enemy’s captivity, it usually overshadows Anakin and Alpha friendship, but Skywalker for sure had his part in character development of Alpha.

ARC trooper Alpha was introduced in Star Wars: Republic issues: 50-52, 55, 60, 62, published in 2003-2004) and later showed up in Obsession #3-5 (2004-2005).

VADER

Vader’s relationship with other characters in general are more tricky because 

A) he is the Sith Lord perfectly aware that sentiment gets you killed and not many people will not  betray him (thus not all stories have a happy end for his men) and 

B) the focus (like with stories about Anakin) is on the great action, plot, solo missions to find Luke or destroy the Rebellion or survive whatever Palpatine/political rivals / enemies / other imperials are planning and so on. Because of that, Vader's men usually play second roles and have limited appearances in books and comics and like I said in the previous point, often does not survive to the end of the storyline.

Forgive me for this little warning, I just don’t want to raise anyone’s hopes too much. In general, we could separate Vader’s men into smaller groups: 501st Legion & stormtroopers as a whole, his agents/spies (sometimes dragged into service because of circuments) and people who aren’t working directly for Vader (as you know, his trooper or agent) but were recruited by Dark Lord due to their skills that Empire could use and benefit from. 

 The stories with a main focus on Vader and his men are few and between in the scale of 40+ years of star wars but here we comes:

Vader Adrift - a short story written by Ryder Windham (published in the Star Wars Insider Special Edition 2012). One of my favorites to be honest. I don’t want to spoil much, so I will just say Vader met a clone veteran, Contrail.

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows a five-issue miniseries written by Tom Siedell and published by Dark Horse Comics in 2013. Told from veteran clone trooper’s POV the comics explore his relationship with Darth Vader and what it means to work for Lord of the Sith / Empire. At times pretty brutal and dark, but then again, the action takes place in dark times.

Darth Vader and the Lost Command - another five-issue miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics, written by Haden Blackman in 2011. The story overall is focused on Vader’s love, guilt & grief about Padme but there is commander Voca (clone trooper).

Shadow Stalker - the older comics from 1997, written by Ryder Windham that focuses on Vader’s agent, Wrenga Jixton doing a mission for his boss. Wrenga himself was introduced in the Shadows of the Empire comics version, but this one can be read without knowledge from other sources. Lemme say, I really like Wrenga and his deal with Vader and habit of testing Lord of the Sith’s patience for no other reason that he could. Definitely worth reading.

In His Image and the sequel, A Two-Edged Sword, written by Karen Traviss and published in Vader: The Ultimate Guide (2005) and Star Wars Insiders #85 respectively features an imperial officer Erv Lekauf, Vader’s personal aide. The main subplot is of course Vader and Palpatine (Sith)’s relationship but Lekauf got his spotlight too. 

Resurrection - another older comic story that appeared in Star Wars Tales 9 and was written by Ron Marz [Dark Horse Comics, 2001]. Vader and his stormtroopers get a few interesting pages. 

Dark Times - a comics series run of overall 32 issues published in 2006 that continued in a way Star Wars Republic. The main focus is on Jedi survivor of Purge but here and there was also focus on Vader in the first months/years of the Empire and shows a bit of his relationship with clone Commander Vill, and later more of it with Lieutenant Gregg and Bounty Hunter (forced into cooperation) Falco Sang. Gregg and Sang were even considered by some imperials “Vader’s pets” and I will not lie, Falco was my favorite, especially in regard to his relationship with Vader. I feel bad for commander Vill though. Also, this is a story set in Dark Times and some issues had its brutality / dark themes.

(I’m linking to their wookieepedia pages, for eventual easier search for the right issues and arc they were part of. )

Here a list of some sources that aren’t per se about Vader’s men (as in: stormtroopers or his agents) but an “imperials” who were working with the Dark Lord due to orders / circuments. 

Purge – The Tyrant's Fist issue 1 and 2 written by Alexander Freed and published by Dark Horse Comics in 2012. The story shows us Oniye Namada, a (female) major ISB tasked to work with Vader to eliminate Jedi. Personally I do not agree with some elements in regard to Vader and his treatment of (clone) troopers but it is worth checking out if you have a chance. 

Star Wars (2013) #13 and #14 by Brian Wood showed Ensign Nanda's POV, a female imperial who served under Vader on his personal quest. Maybe not really one of Vader’s men but for sure an interesting source. Also pretty brutal.

This run also has Birra Seah who for a time being was one of Vader’s men but sadly, I read the comics a long time ago, so my memory about her role beside few scenes is blurry (just in case, linking to wookiepedia page for more informations about issues in which she showed up).

Walking the Path That's Given - a comics published in Star Wars Tales 21 and written by Jeremy Barlow and Shane McCarthy, features ex-CIS starfighter ace Nas Ghent recruitmed by Darth Vader to create the an elite Imperial squadron. Not much focused on Vader (like 2-3 pages if I remember right) but Nas was one of the people under Vader’s personal protection. I absolutely like this issue. 

Empire 14: The Savage Heart published by Dark Horse Comics in 2003 as a one-shot about Vader and his pack of animal predators. Seriously, I love this story but since it is not strictly about  Vader’s men it gets only an honorable mention of.

If you will want something from the classic (definitely an older, pre-Prequel era) of Star Wars comics lemme know but  think the list above should be enough for a start 😋 I always admired Dark Horse’s star wars so hopefully you will find something for yourself and have a great time exploiting Legends!

#star wars #my replies #star was comics recommendation #star wars comics #darth vader #vader's men #i feel like i'm repeating myself here but some stories about vader are really brutal #there is more of course and books also have mentions of vader's men but none focused strongly on this aspect so I did not add them #hope it will help you #also just in case i'm not that smart to remember all authors wookieepedia is such a great page for this :3

[afairmaiden]

Unfortunately, this is not for the Inklings Challenge (though I have been working on that all week.) But a couple of years ago, I had this idea for a story similar to The Pilgrim's Progress, and after a long hiatus, it's finally complete. I will be posting a few chapters here and plan on self-publishing in a few weeks' time. The book will include illustrations by @evelynmlewis, so please check out her page as well. Without further ado, I present to you:

The Pilgrims’ Daughters

A continuation of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

Chapter 1: Desolation

Late one night as I sat by my fire and read a familiar book, I found myself overcome by sleep, and as I dreamed, I saw the book before me coming to life before my eyes, transporting me from my living room to a world both familiar and foreign.

I saw in my dream a girl whose name was Christian, who had fled with her family from the City of Destruction, and wore the clothes of a pilgrim on the way to the Celestial City, and carried with her a key called Promise and a scroll called Assurance, which she had received at the cross. It was there that her mother, once Fearful, became Valiant, and her father, who had been called Stubborn, became Steadfast. Even her younger sister had been changed from Sullen to Joyful. Yet Christian was simply Christian, and she was not ashamed of her name or the One she represented.

They had gone a good way down the straight, narrow path when they came to the town of Vanity and passed through its great Fair, where their refusal to buy of the Fair’s goods had enraged the people beyond reason, and they set out to persecute and kill them. It was in that town that Christian’s parents and sister died, and Christian alone was taken to a far country and sold as a slave.

She was brought to the heart of Desolation, to a great house called Decadence owned by one Lawless, who set her to work in the fields and among the animals. There were in the house two sisters about Christian’s age. The younger of the two was a lively, sympathetic creature, who quickly took to Christian and tried by various means to distract her from her grief. Though she was no longer exactly a child, she had not yet received her proper name, nor made one for herself. But as there were only two young ladies in the house and one did not speak, Christian did not find this particularly troublesome.

The elder girl was rarely seen outside her room, though Christian often saw her at her window, looking out over the field. She wore a very stately gown and a great deal of jewelry, and the sight of Christian often made her start back, as if in horror.

“Don’t mind her,” the younger girl said of her sister. “She’s hopeless.”

And it seemed that Hopeless was indeed her name, for she always went about with such a look of defeat and despair as to depress the spirits of the merriest person, so that Christian was rather relieved to be spared her company.

It was, therefore, with great surprise that Christian discovered her in her room late one afternoon, looking over a little book, which was one of the few possessions Christian had in all the world. When she saw that Christian had come in, she quickly closed the book and leapt to her feet.

“I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean to pry, but I hoped to speak with you a moment, and I couldn’t help noticing—”

She stood holding the book for a moment as if unsure whether or not to give it up.

“Is this yours?” she asked finally.

Christian looked at her warily and said that it was.

“And…do you really believe everything that it says?”

Christian affirmed that she did.

“Then,” —here the girl’s voice dropped to a whisper— “are you really going to the Celestial City?”

As Christian stared in amazement, the girl continued, “Do you know the way? Will you take me with you?”

Now Christian was sorry to disappoint the girl, and had just opened her mouth to admit that she was not at all sure of the way to the gate, which she knew must be the first step on the path, as she had been only a child when she had first come to it. But as she was about to speak, she looked out the window and saw to her surprise a light shining in the growing darkness, and there, at the far end of the field, where moments before there had been only a line of trees, now stood a little wicket gate.

#my writing #pilgrim's progress #the pilgrims' daughters

[murderbotwritingprompts]

Pined post, this will be updated whenever necessary.

Last update: January 25th 2023.

This blog is run by @rjalker My pronouns are it/its.

Rules and other info are below the cut! Read this post before submitting a prompt :)

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Along with submitting prompts, if you tag me in art, as long as it doesn't violate the rules, I'll reblog it here! Art of Murderbot will be tagged "Murderbotart"

Submission rules, in no real order

0)) if you think shipping incest or pedophilia is okay, leave, now. Your actions are disgusting and you are not welcome here. This includes between adopted family members.

1)) I highly recommend you type out your prompts in an LibreOffice document or similar word program before submitting it, in case tumblr crashes while you're on the submission page, or if I delete it by accident while trying to post it.

2)) If you submit a prompt here, you can of course also post it to your own blog. You can also post it to your blog, and then @ me to reblog it here.

3)) If you want to submit a prompt anonymously, you can submit it like normal, and note at the top that you want it to be anonymous. I'll copy and paste it into a new post. (You used to be able to open tumblr in a private browser and submit anonymously that way, but I think they've made it so you have to be logged in now in 2024...who knows when that'll change again though.)

4)) Include a name for your prompt when you submit it! This will make it easier to find them later. It can be a simple descriptive name like "Murderbot gets lost in the mall" or something.

5))Please include proper paragraph breaks. I have to be able to read your prompt before it can b published. Not including paragraph breaks will make this take three times as long.

6)) I will be editing prompts submitted, usually to help clarify confusing language or to add paragraph breaks if the submitter doesn't add them in themselves.

7)) If you aren't okay with your prompt being edited before it gets posted, post it to your own blog instead, and then @ me to reblog it.

If a prompt violates the rules in an easily fixable way, I'll edit the prompt to follow the rules.

If a prompt violates the rules in a way that can't be fixed, it'll just be scrapped, and I'll post an explanation of what it did wrong and how to fix it in the future, without naming names.

Unless you're purposefully being malicious, in which case you'll just get blocked and I will warn other people to block you for their own safety.

8)) No shipping Murderbot with anyone, in any way, unless it canonically starts a relationship with someone in the books. It's not anymore okay to erase canon Queer representation when it's representing nonpartnering, everything-repulsed aroace people than if it were representing anyone else.

If Murderbot were canonically an allo lesbian, and you wouldn't want people to erase that, then don't erase that it's aroace and doesn't want any kind of relationship.

9)) No erasing Murderbot's solitaremity, which is a form of touch aversion where not only do you not enjoy touch, you also do not crave it or get "touch starved". Unless Murderbot in the books canonically starts explicitly seeking out and enjoying touch for the pure joy of it, then you need to respect that it is solitaremit. Real solitaremit people exist, and we deserve to see ourselves represented in fiction too.

Touch aversion is a disability, and it's no more okay to magically cure it or sweep it under the rug than it would be to cure Murderbot's very clear autism.

10)) No whitewashing characters OR assuming white people are the default. Just because someone's skin tone isn't described doesn't mean they're white. If you think it does, you're just racist. The only characters you can depict as white on this blog are those who are clearly described as white, like the GrayCris Agent from book 4.

He is in fact literally the only example of a clearly white character in this series so far.

I know, because I was keeping track the first, second, third, and fourth time I've read this series. This, like many things, is an established pattern in Martha Wells' writing.

It is extremely intentional that the only blatantly white character in this series so far is the capitalist pig who is holding a Black woman hostage.

I promise you it won't kill you to draw or describe people of color. You will not be harmed by fighting against the "white people are the default" that is in your head.

11)) No NSFW even if it doesn't involve Murderbot. There are kids in this fandom, I want them to feel welcome here, and I don't wan to see it either. Post it to your own blog and tag it appropriately.

12)) No super graphic or gratuitous violence. It's okay to go beyond what's described in the books (or, I should say, not described at all), but don't be excessive about it.

13)) Original characters are more than welcome!

14)) All human AUs will not be allowed. Murderbot does not want to be human. Turning it into a human anyways is just insulting.

15)) Other AUs that likewise remove Murderbot's constructed status to make it wholly organic will also be dismissed. That's just lazy and uncreative.

16)) No prompts revolving around Christian holidays. I'm tired of it, and you can't convince me any of the main characters are Christian. You just can't. Post it to your own blog.

17)) No misgendering Murderbot unless it's to show that the character / entity misgendering it is a bad person.

Example: A random jackass misgendering Murderbot is fine, as long as it's properly portrayed as that person being a jackass. (Yes, even if it's written from the jackass's POV and they think they're a good person. It's very easy to show that the narrator is not correct even when they think they are).

You writing a whole prompt and referring to Murderbot with they/them, he/him, or she/her pronouns is misgendering and not allowed. If you do this, it will be corrected the first time. If you do it multiple times, you will just be blocked. You get once chance, and that's it.

18)) No headcannoning Murderbot as being binary trans. Why do I even have to say this. Go somewhere else if you hate nonbinary people that much.

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Prompts can be as long as you want, but should be at least a good sized paragraph at minimum, not just a single sentence or two.

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You can submit art as a prompt or for a prompt, as long as it follows the rules above and:

A)) Murderbot's face must not be shown (it puts in a lot of effort to hide its face as often as possible, we should respect that!). Get creative with it. There are a lot of fun ways to accomplish this.

B)) Murderbot must not be whitewashed or light-washed.

Its skin color in the official art is very dark brown, with black hair.

The image below shows the shade of its skin tone taken from official art. The background color, and the box in the middle, are the main shade, and then it is shown being affected by light and shadow.

Lighting can be more dramatic or stylized with different colors, but the brightest lighting in the world isn't going to turn a black or brown person white or pink. Do not desaturate its skin either to make it grey.

Look up tutorials on how to properly draw dark skin if you need to, there are many that people kindly make for free here on tumblr.

[ID: A simple digital drawing of a hand, with a small pale orange sun next to it as a source of light. The art has a border of light orange in the same shade as the little sun, with black outlines, and the background is dark brown.

Five rectangular boxes are at the top of the screen, showing a simple gradient from warm brown to darker brown, with the the middle box the baseline, which is also the background color. The furthest left box is the lightest, the furthest right is the darkest.

The shades are placed on the simple drawing of the hand, with the brightest color used to highlight the part closest to the little sun, with the second brightest forming a larger part of the lighting, then the baseline, with the darkest color on the opposite side of the arm and fingers that are in shade, with the softer shading taking up most of the shadowed parts.

End ID.]

C)) Murderbot cannot be drawn stick thin and skinny. It's literally designed to be physically powerful and kill people and things. It is not skinny.

D)) Try to include an image description for your art whenever possible. If you do not include one, I will have to create one before it is published, so it will take longer to publish, depending on how complicated the image is.

Memes will be allowed, as long as they don't violate any of the other rules.

As long as your fics follow all the rules, you can also submit full fics here for people to read, as long as each chapter individually isn't too long to fit in a single post. Say whether or not it's okay for people to use your fics as writing prompts.

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All prompts will be tagged:

Murderbotwritingprompts

Murderbot writing prompts

TMBD writing prompts

The Murderbot Diaries

if you want to filter them.

"blogrunner prompt" will indicate prompts created by me

"submitted prompt" will indicate prompts submitted by others

You may request specific tags to be added to your own prompts, like if you're going to be submitting a series of prompts set in the same "universe".

To maybe help keep things ordered, Each prompt will also be given a number in the order it was submitted, no matter who created it, and tagged with that number as "prompt1" "prompt2" ect.

Will this actually help anyone find prompts later? I don't know, I guess we'll see...

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Some common terms and their definitions:

Transmisia

Transmisia is indeed ""transphobia" but minus the "-phobia" suffix, because hating trans people isn't an anxiety disorder like phobias are, and people who do have phobias get treated horribly because people think it means they're bigots when they're not.

The -misia suffix comes from the word "misos" for "hatred", which is also where the word misogyny comes from! Miso-hatred, gyn-women. Misogyny = hatred of women.

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Athiktomisia (link to coining post)

Athiktomisia is bigotry towards people who are touch averse, with athikto translating to, roughly, untouchable or thereabouts,and the -misia suffix like above indicating hatred. Athikto+misia = hatred of those who are untouchable.

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Solitaremit, soliteremity, etcetera (link to coining post)

Solitaremit is a specific form of touch aversion where the person is touch averse, and also does not get ""touch starved"" or have any desire for touch at all, specifically created because many touch averse people who do not get touch starved were being alienated even in touch averse spaces, because desiring touch and being touch starved was still behind held up as normal and universal.

Solitaremity is...uh, the state of being solitaremit. Example sentence: Most people, even those who are otherwise touch averse, don't even know that solitaremity exists.

Solitaremity was created specifically to be a unique word that is brand new, and thus (meant to be) easy to search for and find, combining the words "solitary" and "hermit" for maximum emphasis.

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Solitaremisia

Solitaremisia is, again, the -misia suffix, combined with solitaremit to specify hatred against people who are touch averse who specifically do not desire touch in any way, even with touch starvation. Which is unfortunately a common attitude even in other touch averse people :|

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Gregariable

Gregariable will probably be used at some point, it was created as the counterpart to solitaremit, it means someone who desires touch and gets touch starved, whether or not they're also touch-averse. Aka, 99.99% of people are gregariable. It combines the words "gregarious" and "sociable" to create a unique word so that it would be easy to search for.

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Aroacemisia

Aroacemisia is bigotry against aroace people in particular, again with the -misia suffix to indicate hatred.

Amisia, acemisia, and aromisia are hatred towards aspec people in general, hatred towards asexual people, and hatred towards aro people.

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Exorsexism

Exorsexism is the specific hatred of nonbinary and genderqueer people, which is separate from, but sometimes a part of, transmisia.

Murderbot is nonbinary, so any transmisia it faces is inherently exorsexist.

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It its antagonism

it its antagonism refers to hatred targeted specifically at people who use it/its pronouns, usually always combined with exorsexism. It its antagonism is a form of neopronomisia.

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Neopronomisia

Neopronomisia is hatred of pronouns other than she/her or he/him. This includes but is not limited to pronouns like it/its, te/ter, and they/them.

#Murderbotwritingprompts #Murderbot writing prompts #TMBD writing prompts #The Murderbot Diaries #Blog rules #pinned post #described images

[alicemichelle297]

Sonic Frontiers (2022) review

I really, really didn't want to get my hopes up for this one. Arguably, Sonic hasn't had a good game since 2011's Sonic Generations. On top of that, releases for this series used to be practically yearly but they slowly dried up and there hasn't been a proper Sonic game since 2017's Sonic Forces (and that was a nightmare). So you can imagine the anticipation for Sonic Frontiers was excruciating.

As a life-long Sonic fan, I had to get this game on day one, but I waited to share my thoughts until I could digest my experience and come back to it for a second look, confirming the thoughts that stuck with me. I wanted to be fair as well as thorough, so this is a longer post from me than usual.

Story

The story of Sonic Frontiers is simple and that's not a bad thing. Sonic, Tails and Amy investigate a location called the Starfall Islands because the Chaos Emeralds were mysteriously drawn there. When they arrive, they're pulled into an artificial reality called Cyberspace and only Sonic is able to escape (because of his speed, I think).

Sonic has to find a way to rescue his friends, presumably by running through more Cyberspace areas and taking the digital corruption into his own body to free them. Along the way, he discovers that Knuckles came here and got trapped on his own, and so did Dr. Eggman!

He's confronted by Sage, an A.I. created by Eggman, who tells Sonic his efforts are wasted. Not only does she try to stop Sonic, but so does the ancient technology left on the Starfall Islands by an alien race called... well, the Ancients.

The premise is pretty thin, but it's also all it needed to be for an open-world concept like this. Just an excuse to go from point A to B and play more levels and collect more tokens.

This game's saving grace in the story department is that it was penned by Ian Flynn, head writer of Sonic comics from Archie's Sonic #160 to the end of that series, and then the first 30 issues of the IDW Publishing run. The man knows these characters better than anyone else on Earth. In fact, when they announced Flynn was writing it, Sonic Frontiers became a guaranteed purchase for me.

The downside is it seems Flynn was only given leave to write the dialogue. The overall premise and structure, what characters would appear, etc. was already dictated by SEGA. Given that that's all he had control over, Flynn does an exceptional job to make it work. Sonic and co. have never been so well characterized.

Flynn manages to pull connections to Sonic Forces and earlier games to sneak in small character arcs for our main cast. He directly tackles the fan backlash to Tails' nervous breakdown in Forces and makes it into a moment of self-doubt for Tails, who now feels unreliable. Sonic reminds Tails, and us, that he's been a hero to rely on before– like when he saved Station Square from a missile strike in Sonic Adventure. By the end of the game, Tails resolves to go on an adventure on his own and re-establish himself as an independent hero.

Knuckles' time as Commander of the Resistance is referenced in his actions leading a battalion of Kuco and in the fact that his character tokens are shaped like military medals. This is more subtle, but it works for me.

On top of it, he reflects on being the last echidna and how his determination to work alone leads him to struggles he can't handle on his own. Just through dialogue, Frontiers reinforces Knuckles' hard-headedness as well as his strength of friendship with Sonic, who would do anything to help him even though they're still considered rivals.

Granted, most of this characterization is actually in a short animation released as a "prologue" to the game, explaining how Knuckles got to the Starfall Islands on his own, but I'm choosing to include it in the game's review.

Probably most impressive is that Flynn was able to connect this arc for Knuckles to how he appeared in the Free Comic Book Day issue of the IDW Sonic comic, in which Knuckles resolved to explore Angel Island and find more of its secrets. Are we finally in an era where Sonic trans media properties will connect and carry story arcs between them? (I mean, probably not but a girl can dream).

Amy on the other hand gets both the most and least rehabilitation. Flynn has been working for years now to re-establish Amy as something other than "girl who is obsessed with Sonic." In the IDW comics, she's taken on a role more similar to Sally Acorn in the Archie Sonic comics: leader of the Resistance who makes the plans and executes them. Frontiers doesn't reference Amy's time as commander of the Resistance or her establishment of the Restoration after the Resistance is disbanded, instead focusing on her romantic nature. Rather than being obsessed with Sonic, she's clearly obsessed with the idea of romance. This is a small upgrade but it's something. I still think it reduces Amy to "my personality is girl" as Game Grump, Dan Avidan pointed out years ago.

New character Sage is an interesting case. She endears herself to the player pretty easily but I'm not sold on her role as Eggman's "daughter" through the little story we got between them. I find it funny that Evan Stanley (current writer of the IDW comics) also developed a surrogate daughter character for Eggman at the same time, apparently by complete accident. However it's hard for me to ignore that Belle is a much more interesting take on this idea than Sage is. I will grant that Sage's character design is cooler, though.

Sonic makes off-handed mention of other games' stories, including Station Square as mentioned earlier, Lost Hex, and a handful of other situations. He also makes a passing reference to Tangle from the IDW comics. This only highlights more that other elements of that story– which are presumably the events directly before this game and between Sonic Frontiers and Forces– aren't mentioned. No mention of the Restoration, Jewel, Whisper, the Metal Virus or any other comic elements. I wonder why Flynn was allowed to reference Tangle at all if the comic storylines weren't being canonized. Or for that matter one other non-canon character I won't spoil here.

Sonic Frontiers actually makes attempts at world-building, which hasn't really been done since Sonic Unleashed, 14 years ago. I won't spoil any of the specifics but the origins of the Chaos Emeralds, Chao and Chaos are all addressed in the course of Frontiers' story.

Something I didn't notice until really late in the game is that the main objective will take you to most of the story scenes with Amy, Tails, Knuckles and Sage, but there are additional scenes that can be found in the zones which are presumably optional, but some of the events of these optional scenes are referenced in the required scenes, so if you do them out of order it doesn't connect properly.

Gameplay

OK, that's great Alice, how's the game actually play? Overall: not too shabby.

Sonic Frontiers is broken up into two different gameplay styles: the open zone hub world areas (akin to Sonic Adventure's "adventure fields only much larger) and the linear cyberspace stages (similar to the levels of Sonic Forces, Colors, etc.).

Open Zones

The open zones are broken up into five different islands, which consist of 3 different biome themes: three forested/grassland islands (Kronos, Rhea and Ouranos Islands), a desert island (Ares Island), and a volcanic island (Chaos Island). Each open zone contains platforming challenges, puzzles, and portal gates that lead to the cyberspace stages, as well as vaults that hold the Chaos Emeralds.

The player has to collect a variety of tokens and keys: character tokens, which unlock stories for each of the side characters; and portal keys, which unlock the cyberspace levels. Through combat and other challenges, the player collects vault keys, which unlock the Chaos Emeralds.

It can be a little intimidating to see so many different collectibles, but rest assured everything you do in the game gives you some kind of key or token and, as long as you're running around doing something, you will get enough of each to complete the storyline objectives. I never had to grind for any of these collectibles to progress the story.

Surprisingly enough, the open zones do not use any kind of tower to unlock map progress. The map in Sonic Frontiers unlocks by completing the combat challenges and puzzles so, as long as you're running around and doing something, the map will fill in on its own. Some of the earliest gameplay footage released showed Sonic climbing a large tower, which was assumed to be a tower just like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, etc., which would need to be scaled in order to unlock portions of the map and other activities. Ironically, the one shown in that trailer is the only such tower on the island and it doesn't unlock anything. You can just climb it for fun.

Running around the open zones generally feels good.

Although, because the terrain is so varied, there are some handling issues. Sonic seems to be magnetically attached to the ground, so when terrain becomes uneven, he will "glitch" at odd angles to adhere to the ground. At speed, this can also cause the camera to twitch back and forth, or at worst cause Sonic to spontaneously launch into the air. This is kind of annoying, except boosting and launching yourself in this way can actually allow you to fly over large chunks of the environment and even cheat your way into areas that would take a lot of effort to run to as intended. I'd categorize this as "good for speed runners" but also "sloppy presentation" for the rest of us.

Also a weird addition to the game is the drop dash from Sonic Mania. Sonic doesn't have access to a regular spin dash in this game, however, so being able to initiate a spin dash in mid-air is a bit confusing.

The biggest issue I have with the open zones and honestly the game as a whole is that the Sonic level design elements are very poorly integrated into the environment, by which I mean they aren't integrated at all.

The zones themselves have a more photorealistic art style, but there's random grind rails, springs, and rings just floating in the environment looking the same way they have in Sonic games for the past 15 years. The rails aren't even attached to anything, they're just floating in the air. They could have at least put on some kind of "anti-gravity technology" on the bottom of the rails to explain why they're just hanging out there. But even better would be to attach them to the actual environments like they originally were (most of the time) in Sonic Adventure 2, the game that debuted rail grinding.

Overall, the open zones look a bit like someone dumped a bunch of Sonic game assets into Unreal Engine, which is not a good look for a game that retails at $60. Especially for as much as it reminds me of a fan game like "Sonic Omens."

Cyberspace

Cyberspace stages are more similar to Sonic Unleashed's "daytime stages" or what fans have taken to calling "the boost formula": a linear level in which you can boost (hold a button down to go fast) through most of the level.

Cyberspace in Sonic Frontiers alters the behavior of boosting in some key ways. For one thing, it's now on a stamina wheel a la The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and that is the only comparison I will be making to that game) instead of limiting it to how many rings you pick up or random power-up capsules like in previous games.

The most noticeable change, however, is that Sonic is no longer shrouded in a blue aura while boosting; instead, a subtle "sonic boom" effect appears in the air when boosting starts. This removes some of the visual clutter from the gameplay but it unfortunately removes a visual cue that you're still doing it. Sometimes jumping or other actions cancel the boost out, even if you're still holding down the trigger. I lost count of how many times I thought I was boosting only to realize I was running at normal speed.

Boosting in mid-air causes Sonic to arc upward slightly, allowing you to bridge some gaps in mid-air. This used to be accomplished by using the Homing Attack in mid-air, which is more or less useless now. Even if you hold the trigger down to boost in mid-air, it won't allow you to continuously boost. Instead, the mid-air boost is more or less a short mid-air dash. And you can't continue to boost when you hit the ground from a mid-air boost, so you have to consciously release the trigger and then hold it down again to continue boosting.

A weird decision that caused me endless frustration was to actually alter the jump physics between open zone and cyberspace. There's just as much platforming in each environment– and the same type of platforming at that– but Sonic's handling during a jump is completely different between the two, which caused me to die hundreds of times just from misjudging my ability to move in the air.

A nice quality of life improvement I didn't know I needed is that Frontiers allows you to initiate a homing attack from the ground instead of jumping in the air and then homing in. This is accomplished by moving the homing attack to the X button (on Xbox) like it was in Sonic Unleashed, rather than pressing A twice as it was in every other Sonic game ever. On a practical level this was probably done to separate homing attack from the double jump, which returns from Sonic Forces.

Cyberspace suffers from not having enough level themes, just as the open zones suffer from reusing the theming of Kronos Island. There's dozens of levels, but there are only four level themes: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and a new Eternal Highway design.

Eternal Highway at first glance is too similar to Speed Highway, in my opinion. It really stands out when one of the levels actually rips the level layout of Speed Highway Act 2 straight from Sonic Generations.

On that note, some of the levels are original layouts, but most are inspired or directly ripped from past games, albeit with a different level theme. Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed is ripped whole cloth but re-skinned to look like Sky Sanctuary. Sky Rail, Metal Harbor and Green Forest from Sonic Adventure 2 are ripped and re-skinned in the Green Hill Zone style. Chemical Plant Act 2 from Sonic Generations appears in zone 1-5, using the Chemical Plant theming so it's perfectly obvious, just as Green Hill Zone Act 2 from Generations is recreated in 1-4 with the same theme.

At first it's kind of charming, but on another level it feels lazy. This really makes it obvious that Sonic Team were rushed to deadline and simply didn't have the time to make new levels, relying on the big hits from their past instead. I'm not mad at it, I love Metal Harbor and Sky Rail and it's actually nice to play them with all the modern advancements in graphics, but it also makes me want to close the game out and boot up Sonic Adventure 2, which is also installed on my Xbox so it's 3 clicks away. I assume that's not what they want me to do.

Combat

I never thought I'd be talking about combat in a Sonic game. For the uninitiated, "combat" in Sonic's history has consisted of "jumping on an enemy" like Mario or "homing in on an enemy in mid-air" like a missile. With some notable exceptions like Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) or Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (2014), Sonic doesn't really do combat.

I think it was a wise decision to keep the combat very simple. There is a skill tree, which unlocks with skill points gained from just passively playing the game and fighting, but it remains a button-masher no matter how much you upgrade. There's even a skill unlock which allows you to auto-combo by mashing the same button so you don't even need to memorize the two-button combinations.

This game also adds in a parry mechanic but it's far from being skill-based. The game doesn't tell you this, but you can just hold the parry position indefinitely and whenever something hits you, it will trigger the parry. You don't need to be timing it out at all.

There are some other RPG elements like upgrading your stats: speed, ring capacity, defense and strength; but you absolutely don't need to. The difficulty curve never necessitates any stat upgrades, and thank God for that because upgrading is a chore. You have to seek out specific NPCs to upgrade each stat one level at a time. To go from level 1 to 99 will take you over an hour (and I'm not exaggerating, someone timed it). This is the very first thing that needs to get patched out.

Titans

Ok, here's the real star of the show: the titan boss fights.

Each island is defended by a titan: a giant robot a la Evangelion which can only be defeated by transforming into Super Sonic. This information is best communicated when Sonic first tries to face the titan Giganto, which promptly picks Sonic up in his giant hand and throws him through several ruins and into a mountain, leaving an impact crater like it's Dragon Ball Z.

When you collect six Chaos Emeralds on each island, the titan fight will become available. You scale the surface of the titan and claim the seventh Chaos Emerald, which is being held in a vault on the titan's head. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and the music queues up.

Now the music of Sonic Frontiers, overall, is fine. Actually a lot of the cyberspace levels have great beats with this very funky electronic thing going on, but the titan fights crank that up to 11. The vocal sting of Giganto's theme, "Undefeatable," is a show-stopper.

This, combined with the visual scale of the titans, the fact that the entire island is your arena for this battle, and the visual spectacle of Super Sonic in this game, spells out the most hyped up boss fights of Sonic's 30 year career.

Super Sonic smolders with golden light and when you attack using the same moves you unlocked in the open zones, there are now golden light after-images of Super Sonic, his fists, and his feet/shoes. Think Bayonetta's combos with her partner demon's giant fists flying in for a hit.

You're immune to all damage while in the super state, however you can be knocked back which eats up your time. You gradually deplete your rings (about 1 per second) while in Sonic's super form, and when the rings run out you revert back to normal and automatically lose the fight, making titans more or less a timed fight.

Giganto makes the best impression, but Wyvern is also a visually stunning fight as it takes Sonic on a flight path around Ares Island, dodging mountains and ruins that reach into the sky, all while the titan shoots laser beams and missiles back at Sonic.

The third titan, Knight, is a bit too gimmicky for my tastes, as you have to parry a shield toss from the titan and then ride the shield in a ricocheting path to hit and stun Knight so you can continue fighting as normal.

The final titan, Supreme, is unfortunately just Giganto again except he has a Gundam-sized rifle to shoot at Sonic. On the bright side, it's the shortest of the titan fights so it doesn't overstay that cold welcome.

Presentation

Sonic Frontiers makes a great first impression because it's such a bold new direction for Sonic. Once the initial excitement wears off though, the seams start to show.

As mentioned before, the level design elements are not integrated into the environment and it makes the place look unpolished. On top of this issue, there's a lot of pop-in. You will constantly see grind rails pop in, in the distance. It's not exactly distracting but it is noticeable.

In my opinion, the rendering distance is too short for the scale of this game and what results is that navigating the islands by actually looking around for what to do next is impossible. You have to open your map and place a marker on where you want to go next to have any hope of getting there. You can't reliably look around to spot the next platforming challenge, for example, because the rails haven't loaded in yet and they won't until you're within a few meters of them.

There is occasional stuttering and frame rate drops, which for a game like this on modern hardware should not be happening, and that tells me this game was rushed to deadline before it could be fully optimized, which Sonic Team has not been shy about admitting. The visuals are far from cutting-edge, so there should be no issue running it at a good frame rate on an Xbox. I can't comment on the PC or PS5 versions but, from what I've seen elsewhere online, it runs about the same on other platforms. I assume this means the game targets the lowest common denominator: the Nintendo Switch.

The animations are better in this than they've been in previous titles, though still nowhere near the expressiveness of actual animations like Sonic Boom. Even so, this goes a long way towards making Sonic and co. look more like characters that live in a stylized world rather than people in mascot costumes which can't make expressions with their eyes and can't move their limbs around too much for fear of tripping and falling in the middle of Disney World.

Most of the combat animations have a good sense of power behind them, although if you look closely at them or in slow-motion you'll notice that Sonic isn't actually moving very much, it's mostly visual effects like wind and blue lights. It gets the job done.

One nitpick I have (or another one, I guess) is that Sonic acts like he's injured, hobbling over for most of the game as a result of being corrupted with cyberspace, but this doesn't get worse as the corruption progresses. It's the same pose no matter how much cyberspace we're talking about.

Art Style

The art style of this game is a mess. The islands look like they're attempting a photo-realistic, Unreal Engine vibe, but Sonic and friends still look like stylized video game characters.

As far as I can tell, these are the same character models used in Sonic Forces, which isn't actually a bad thing, but they've all been re-textured with a "fur texture" that looks more like felt. I gather this was inspired by the success of the Sonic movie by Paramount Studios and its use of a fur-textured C.G.I. Sonic in a live-action world.

Adding to the movie inspiration is a blue electric aura which surrounds Sonic when boosting at full-power. It's not a bad thing, but I personally prefer the games version of Sonic to use more of a wind elemental effect. I think it's better for movie Sonic to be "electric Sonic" and for games Sonic to be, I don't know, the "Knight of the Wind" (to drag in a reference to past games, kicking and screaming).

The islands' biomes are a mixed bag as well. I think the forest theme of Kronos Island is very appealing. That probably comes down to blue Sonic on green backgrounds doesn't clash and green is relaxing anyway because of color psychology.

Ares Island, on the other hand, I cannot stand. The sprawling sand dunes lose visual interest after about two minutes, and the obsidian terrain of the volcanic Chaos Island isn't much better.

The Verdict

Ok, you hung on this long. Is Sonic Frontiers good? Yes (for a Sonic game).

This game does a lot to address concerns fans have had for years, and it especially gets credit for trying to take the series in a new direction after over a decade of the same old, same old.

If we grade on the curve of comparing this only to past Sonic games, it's a knockout. If we look at it just as a video game that competes with every other game on the market, it's average.

I love Sonic probably more than any other media franchise, so I have major blinders on. They won me over just by paying lip service to the comics and sprinkling in a couple new ideas.

I will give credit for the responsiveness the game's director has shown online and I'm hopeful based on the promises already made of future updates and DLC. I think this will take the game from average to great, without having to grade on a curve.

This review was written based on the Xbox version played on a Xbox Series S. This was not a review copy.

Sonic Frontiers is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic frontiers #game review #reviews #Xbox Series S|X

[detransdamnation]

Hi this is the anon that was complaining about Mia Hughes summarized stuff. My issue is some of her writing in it(seemingly misrepresenting ejaculate in the bit you had a screenshot of, in the intro where Paul McHugh getting the John Hopkins gender clinic closed doesn't seem to bring up how Paul McHugh's intention to shut down the gender clinic was his motivation for getting at John Hopkins and the study used for justification was flawed (Meyer & Reter 1979, sex reassignment follow up, penalized trans people outside of straight relationships as well as those receiving therapy. Also, considering the ghoulish shit John Money did I don't think it is necessarily bad that clinic was closed. Finally, the citation about it closing is an article written by Paul McHugh who seems more to be influenced by right wing Christian views than evidence)) and that I think that a more neutral person in general should have done the writeup, because Mia Hughes has written under various names against trans care and would likely be deemed to be biased. I did see something which I think is silly by Erin Reed talking about issues with the wpath files editorialized section, and I do worry that because of criticism like that there will be less of a chance of people who are vulnerable (like a person with DID being asked for "informed consent" with all their alters, IMO they should not be allowed to get on HRT in that type of mental state) getting protection from bad medical care. Also, full disclosure, I don't know your view on if transition should be allowed in general, but I think for adults who have gone through enough therapy and don't have underlying conditions that could cause them to incorrectly think they are trans that transition is OK. Sorry this was so long.

No need to apologize for the length—I asked you to expand because I genuinely wanted to hear your thoughts. I understand where you were coming from with the screenshot now and agree the phrasing could have been less convoluted.

I'm assuming the citation you're referring to is Citation 33: "Surgical Sex." First Things, 2004. [AL] If so, the most immediate issue I took with Paul McHugh's article is that he seems to be conflating males who transition due to dysphoria with males who transition due to autogynephilia, even stating outright that the latter were the majority patients at the clinic at the time. This causes him to lose some credibility right off the bat in my eyes because a fetish does not equate to a mental health condition and the treatment protocols for them, ethically speaking, are entirely different.

The most pressing issue, overall, though, as you said, is the study he shares in his article to prove his point, as it does not pertain to neither dysphoric nor autogynephilic males, but males who were born with cloacal exstrophy; he shifts his focus halfway through. It is highly hypocritical to, in an exposé, cite an article that not only conflates dysphoric people to autogynephilics and people with genito-urinary disorders, but then also goes on to cite a study concerning a population that the average person seeking gender-affirmative care would not even be a part of. This is not even to mention that the studied population was extremely small—sixteen total, all male, only two of whom were not specifically raised as if they were the opposite sex—and the lack of proper study controls in transgender research is something that is criticized, multiple times, throughout the document. This insinuates, to me, that Mia Hughes has either not done enough careful research of her sources to justify publishing the document at this time, or she is making the same false equivalences that McHugh has—which raises the question of what, exactly, she is criticizing and for which group of people. Either way, this all does, as you say... somewhat delegitimize what is being shared here (...and I say "somewhat" only because the points being made do hold merit, even if the delivery may leave something to be desired).

Well, regardless, in conclusion, I do, in theory, agree that neutrality is important when writing documents such as this one, although in practice, unfortunately, this is very rarely how it works out since most people, concerning most issues, naturally lean towards a "side" whether they have adequate information to choose that side or not. It's difficult to find neutral people when discussing such polarizing issues, especially when today's sociopolitical climate views everything in black-and-white. This is why reading with nuance and having discussions such as this one are so important in formulating our opinions. I haven't seen or read anything from Erin Reed yet, so I'll have to refrain from commenting on that for now—but thank you again for the message. You've given me a lot to take note of going forward with this thing.

#submission #gender critical #writing #text #my post

[alln64games]

Bomberman 64

JP release: 26th September 1997

NA release: 27th November 1997

PAL release: 3rd December 1997

Developer: Hudson

Publisher: Hudson (JP), Nintendo (NA/PAL)

N64 Magazine Score: 50%

Bomberman is a much loved multiplayer game, and with the Nintendo 64 having four controller ports built in, an N64 version seems like a no-brainer, you could even have 8 players by having players sharing controllers, one using D-pad and L and the other using C-buttons and R.

Bomberman 64, however, leaves multiplayer to be an afterthought, focusing instead on a 3D puzzle-platform game.

The start of Bomberman 64 is immensely more difficult than the rest, with the main challenge working out the mechanics of the game. The controls feel extremely imprecise and the game gets you to use the barely-working method of dropping a bomb and then pressing b to pick it up – except if you get close to a bomb, you’ll kick it and it will slide away.

Then, after you’ve completed the first world, the game tells you “oh, if you press A and B together, you’ll hold it straight away”. It’s strange that the game lets you struggle with it before telling you the proper way to play.

Little frustrations plague the game. From thin platforms that aren’t suited to the game’s controls, the game hiding objects in places where the game’s bad camera struggles to see and that once you’ve figured out the main mechanics, you realise that there aren’t really any puzzles other than roaming around, hoping you’re going the right way.

Your bombs also explode in a circle, with the blast radius increasing slightly every time you collect a power up, which makes it very difficult to judge how far your bomb will explode, although even at the maximum, it’s nothing compared to the + shape explosions we know and love from Bomberman, one that is integral to the gameplay.

To get to the credits, there are 5 zones, each with 2 levels and 2 bosses. The bosses are quite tedious and not exciting, and Bomberman can only take one hit. There are also golden cards to collect. To collect these, you have to search every nook and cranny, as well as attack bosses in certain ways – with no clues for any of them.

If you find all 100, and fight the boss again, you’ll unlock the secret final world, but when the game is so tedious to play, is more even a good thing?

Bomberman 64 is slow, tedious and the transition to “3D” has taken away everything that made Bomberman fun and enjoyable. It’s no surprise that Bomberman ended up returning to its 2D gameplay.

When it isn’t being tedious, this mode just about works. There’s not much to it, admittedly, and it suffers from all sorts of minor annoyances – such as having to work blind when the environment obscures your view; enemies who regenerate out of sight, in places you’ve thought you’d cleared; exploration puzzles that hide things from the usual perspectives.

- Zy Nicholson, N64 Magazine #8

Remake or remaster?

There are much better Bomberman games to focus on instead.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Bomberman 64

#bomberman #n64 #n64 games #nintendo 64 #retro games

[opalescentorchidaceae]

Fic Writer Tag Game

tagged by @autisticwriterblog! (technically it was my tv blog that was tagged, hopefully it's cool that I'm answering it here instead)

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

17, plus one that I published anonymously. Apparently those don't count towards the total even though they still show up on the stats page.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

120,644. That's honestly a lot more than I thought it would be!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well, the fandoms listed on my stats page are:

Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Video Game)

Nova (Comics)

Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Right now I'm not really interested in writing for any of those, although I have been thinking about replaying the GOTG game and that might get me back into writing for it. I've also been drafting a few fics for Skyrim, so I might be able to add that soon.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

#1: The Rise and Fall of Rocket Raccoon and the Dumbass from Earth, my first fic and also by far my longest.

#2 and #3: I'd Rather Sleep Alone and I'd Rather Sleep on the Floor, respectively, a two-part series (that was supposed to be a trilogy oops).

#4: Night Moves, my first attempt at writing smut. I've been too afraid to go back and read it since I first put it up lol.

#5: An Improper Little Seductress, my most recent fic and the only OFMD fic in the top five.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Sometimes. I always try to find something more to say than just "thanks," but if I can't then I'll usually end up forgetting about it and never replying. I do love getting comments though, so I'm trying to be better about that.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I generally don't do angsty endings, but the one exception to that is Sometimes Love Is Not Enough, the anonymous fic I mentioned earlier.

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

I love a disgustingly saccharine ending so it's hard to choose, but I guess I'd go with The Rise and Fall of Rocket Raccoon and the Dumbass from Earth.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No; I was expecting it on Sometimes Love Is Not Enough, which is why I put it up anonymously, but all the comments on it have been positive.

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

I tried it once and it wasn't really for me. I will still occasionally write sex scenes, but they always end up being more comedic than erotic.

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

I guess technically I have a few GOTG (movies) / GOTG (2021 video game) crossovers, in that I'm just kind of picking and choosing bits of setting and characterization from each and mashing them together, but I've never done a proper crossover between two completely different canons.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've never actually checked any other sites to see, but I really doubt it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I would be totally open to it if anyone wanted to.

13: Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No, and I don't think I ever could. I'm both an incredibly slow writer and a total control freak so I would be such a nightmare to work with lol.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

That's tough; my first ship was roquill (Rocket Raccoon/Peter Quill, from GOTG), the ship I've felt the most passionate about was cjizzy (Calico Jack/Izzy Hands, from OFMD), and I don't really have a ship I'm that into at the moment.

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

I don't have any; once I've committed to writing a fic I will drag myself kicking and screaming until I'm done with it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue for sure. I like to think I do a good job portraying what characters would say and how they would say it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes are really tough for me; if I'm not careful I tend to fall into just writing "character A did x, then y. Character B did z" over and over again, which isn't very interesting. I also struggle with describing the setting of a scene, so I guess it's just narration in general that I'm not great at.

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

I have one single word in Spanish in Billy, and that took all my vague memories of high school Spanish, a dictionary, an online translator, and a few language-learner forum posts to make sure it was the right word in that context. And I'm absolutely not going to go to all that effort for anything longer than one word lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Guardians of the Galaxy (the movies, I didn't get into the comics until later).

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Probably REAL GHOST ENCOUNTER (NOT CLICKBAIT). Writing is usually torture for me, like I'm taking a pickaxe to my skull to mine the words out of my brain one by one, but this one just flowed right out of me. I was so inspired that I wrote the whole thing over the span of one evening, and I think that ease comes across in the final product.

[stellarcyber-security]

2024 cybersecurity predictions: GenAI edition

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past year, you know that generative artificial intelligence applications, such as ChatGPT, have penetrated many aspects of our online lives. From generating marketing content, creating images for advertisements and blogs, or even writing malicious code, we are all interacting with the results of generative AI in some ways daily.

So, when I was thinking about writing about 2024 predictions, I thought, why not give Gen AI a shot at making some predictions for the upcoming year? So, I did just that. I will provide the raw ChatGPT results and then give each of its predictions a grade. Let’s see how it did.

First prediction: Ransomware evolution and targeting of critical infrastructure

Ransomware attacks will likely evolve in sophistication and intensity. Threat actors may increasingly target critical infrastructure sectors such as energy, healthcare, transportation, or finance, aiming to disrupt essential services and demand high ransom payments. They might utilize advanced tactics like double extortion, where stolen data is threatened to be published or sold, in addition to encrypting the victim’s files.

Steve’s grade: B+

While I cannot say this is the most unique prediction for 2024, I give it a B+ in applicability. It’s hard to debate that ransomware won’t continue to be a huge issue for organizations in 2024. Just last month, MGM Grand got hit with a massive ransomware attack that disrupted normal business operations to a $100 million loss.

Attackers will undoubtedly continue to deploy these sorts of attacks across all industries in the coming year. The key for organizations is to continue to shore up their defenses. The sad fact is that, in many cases, a ransomware attack could be averted with more cybersecurity training for employees, patching known vulnerabilities when they arise, and ensuring proper network segmentation.

Second prediction: AI-driven cyberattacks

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) could be employed by malicious actors to enhance the capabilities and efficiency of cyberattacks. AI-powered attacks may include more convincing phishing attempts, automated malware creation, evasion of security measures, and personalized social engineering attacks, making it harder for traditional defense mechanisms to detect and prevent them.

Steve’s grade: A++

This prediction immediately brought to mind the famous scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, where HAL, the onboard AI, tells Dave that he knows about the plan to disable him and won’t let him do it. he fact that ChatGPT, a GenAI app, predicts that GenAI will make attacks harder to stop by traditional means is certainly ironic, if not indicative of the power of AI in today’s world.

I am sure most organizations are trying to strategize how to combat AI-driven attacks in the future, but there is no clear leading approach. Without a doubt, vendors will introduce new products and capabilities attempting to identify and thwart AI-driven attacks in 2024 that use AI to identify AI attacks, which brings to mind another famous movie scene from the cult classic War Games.

In the movie’s ultimate scene, the WOPR takes control of the nuclear missile codes and attempts to start World War III. Our hero turns the computer against itself in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, eventually leading it to the ultimate decision that the only winning move is not to play the game or start a global thermonuclear war (lucky for us).

All kidding aside, there is a real chance that the near-term future threat landscape might look wildly different than it does today once attackers incorporate the full power of AI. Forward-leaning security teams need to be vigilant in seeking out new technologies to augment their existing security controls; otherwise, the battlefield they have worked hard to even might quickly become one-sided – and not in the direction they want it to be.

Third prediction: Exploitation of IoT devices and smart infrastructure

With the increasing adoption of IoT devices and the development of smart cities and homes, cybercriminals may exploit vulnerabilities in these interconnected systems. Attacks could range from IoT-based botnets for DDoS attacks to unauthorized access to sensitive data through compromised smart devices, emphasizing the need for robust security measures and IoT-specific defense strategies.

Steve’s grade: A

The barriers between traditional IT infrastructure and the expanding IoT world are quickly vanishing, and attackers know it. Recently, there was a not-so-publicized attack where the attacker penetrated an organization’s environment through – wait for it – an internet-enabled fish tank thermometer. Once they owned the thermometer, they could hop to the internal network and deploy their attack.

Now, who am I to say only some appliances we use need to be connected to the internet? I enjoy that my new washer and dryer send notifications to my phone when their cycles are complete. However, the conveniences we enjoy that make everyday tasks a little less annoying come with a price.

For security teams, the best way to protect the entire environment is to ensure that those IoT devices used by employees and contractors are appropriately partitioned off from the intranet, minimizing the chance for a creative attacker to turn your internet-enabled espresso machine into their initial attack vector.

Fourth prediction: Supply chain attacks and third-party risk

Supply chain attacks might become more prevalent as attackers target software vendors and suppliers to compromise their products, affecting a broader range of organizations. Third-party risks could be exploited to gain unauthorized access to networks, inject malicious code, or steal sensitive data. Organizations will need to focus on securing their supply chains and closely vetting the security measures of third-party providers.

Steve’s grade: A+

The dreaded third-party risk can keep even the most confident security professional up at night. As your organization expands and your use of contractors grows, the risk that one of them could unwittingly be patient zero of an attack becomes very real. We all remember the Target hack of 2013, where a third-party contractor that fell victim to a phishing attack led to a multimillion-dollar breach with losses that exceeded $200 million.

While that attack was a wake-up call for many organizations to be more vigilant regarding their network segmentation, third-party access, and more, only some have taken the appropriate steps to ensure they are protected from a similar attack.

Security solutions like our Open XDR Platform, which automatically correlates security-relevant alerts and data from any number of security products, are a great way to ensure that anomalous behaviors most certainly did occur during the Target breach, do not go unnoticed. Since this prediction focuses on supply chains, let’s briefly discuss it.

We know that when supply chains are disrupted, we all feel it. Remember when many shelves in our favorite stores were suddenly empty due to COVID? Now imagine supply chain disruptions due to a successful cyberattack impacting multiple suppliers of products we depend on, with no easy resolution. Talk about pandemonium.

The good news is that the risk of a widespread supply chain disruption due to a cyberattack can be mitigated with good network hygiene and following architecture best practices. While eliminating the potential of an attack is unrealistic, ensuring proper network segmentation, adopting new automation capabilities regarding security analytics, and (yes, again) proper cybersecurity training for everyone, including contractors, can go a long way.

ChatGPT ends its predictions with this statement: “It’s essential to stay updated with the latest developments in the cybersecurity field and adapt to emerging threats as they evolve. Organizations should invest in proactive cybersecurity strategies, employee training, and robust incident response plans to mitigate potential risks.”

I couldn’t agree more. Well said.

Overall, I have to admit that ChatGPT came up with some pretty decent and applicable predictions for 2024. The fact of the matter, though, is that no one knows what the new year has to offer, aside from the fact that attackers will continue to attack, defenders will continue to defend, and vendors and service providers will be here to help.

Thanks again to ChatGPT for collaborating with me on this article. Well done, my AI friend.

[sleepymarmot]

I haven’t giffed for a while, so making the previous post was a bit of an adventure.

I started this gifset in February 2021. Back then I ripped every frame and the gifs were too big for tumblr, so I had to delete every other frame by hand. It looked so choppy that I put the post on ice, and it got buried under other drafts. Evidently I found the post again months later but didn’t fix it and left it to rot again.

I found the post again this week and almost published in that state, but thought it’d be too embarrassing to post a gifset with every second frame in 2023. I then tried to remake it in proper quality. I discovered that I had one of the gifs ripped with every second frame, and had to re-rip it again (and remember how to crop them). For some reason, the new screenshots were brighter, so I had to use a different coloring for them. I also had to split that gif into two, but that’s easy.

The gifs were still way past the Tumblr limit, and I was on the brink of losing hope and shelving the post again when I realized that I can just reduce the number of colors. This is b/w! There are 64 and even 32 colors per gif in that post and it all looks perfectly fine. So my big problem from two years ago was finally solved. (Too bad this solution would not work with normal color gifs.)

The original version was also awfully slow. For the new one I started experimenting with frame delays since I’m unfamiliar with giffing every frame. At first I tried to abandon frame animation altogether and set the FPS on the timeline the same as original video, but that didn’t work (in two different ways). Then I realized that gif exporting ruins frame delays anyway, rounding them up/down to either 0.03 or 0.07. 0.03 looked perfect in my desktop image viewer but too fast on Tumblr in the browser. 0.05 looked too slow. Then it finally occurred to me to do the math, and 1 second / 23.976 fps indeed equals 0.04 (rounded). So I adjusted the gifs to have 0.04 as frame delay and it still looks wrong somehow, even though objectively it should be the best option.

By the way, I had to carefully replace gifs one by one in the original post buried like fifty pages deep within my drafts, and not just because I didn’t want to make a new one: that draft is in the legacy photo post format, and I don’t have access to it for new posts anymore.

After finishing and uploading all that, I realized that I never cropped out the black border, and it’s quite visible at the edges of the gifs. But I already wasted way too much time to go through every gif again.

In the end, the only thing I had to redo from scratch was the final gif (now split in two). For all the others, I used the same psd, adjusted the export settings, then redid the frame delay of the exported gifs. The real time-consuming part was not the editing process itself, but figuring out what I needed to do.

All this was for an extremely simple gifset, by the way. The kind that requires no actual creativity or hard work, only a bit of technical know-how. If you know what you’re doing, and not blindly poking at the settings you’re not used to, it should take no time to make. I just want to share how much I’m overthinking everything. (And also to journal for my own sake, because this has been An Experience.)

#photoshop woes #blah blah blah

[crouton-knight]

Saturday OC Talk: Marzi

Marzi wins the first poll!

Old art is old

cover by digitalpopsicle

More under the cut.

He was originally named Marzi Pan but then I decided to just keep it at Marzi. I think I came up with him in 2020 or so? I wanted to write about the Glibberspring Caldera milk slimes first (long story, will be explained in the second installment of Marzipan), but I was having too hard a time making an actual story out of it.

So I dialed it back a bit and went on to make something like a plot. Mostly just fucking, but there's a progression from Point A to Point B (or perhaps Tab A to Slot B) and a whole lot of characters just tumbled out from there. Maybe I'll talk about them some other Saturday!

Anyway: Marzi. He's a catboy adventurer and doesn't have a formalized "class" yet because he's too low level to get proper training for it at the moment. The setting he's in is sort of videogamey, where they have guilds and levels and quests and all that; quest rewards (mostly money or miscellaneous treasure) go towards guild maintenance, such as paying for trainers, and adventurers are who you hire for odd jobs too dangerous for someone more specialized.

Marzi's inexperience also means he makes some bad decisions, which I have a lot of fun with. The most character defining in the first act I think is trying to steal a farmer's cow to sell and then pay the farmer back once he's got adventurer levels. It doesn't go according to plan at all, but the farmer fucks him and all is well.

It's not a particularly deep story. Marzi kind of is though, after a fashion. (Was that too corny?)

I've been working on the series on and off since 2020 until now, but it's only now that I got the first part published on smashwords. Here it is! Note that it's NSFW.

Seeing as I haven't gotten very far in writing yet of course, this means there are a lot of different directions Marzi could go in; I plan to have the story after the next one voted on as well. Someday. Hopefully someday soon!

Anyway this next poll is only running for a day so I'll have more time to actually write.

#saturday oc talk #my writing #original writing #smashwords #knot a problem #marzi #marzipan series