#the most butchered female protag...

[hamstermastersamster]

I finished Koudelka and started playing Shadow Hearts again and . . .

Well xD SH is not as great as I remember. The weird thing is, though, that it's sort of exacerbated by having played Koudelka first.

I totally understand why Koudelka tanked. It looks like a Resi Evil on the outside but it's a random-battle-driven slow, turn-based RPG that explains absolutely NOTHING about itself and is very prepared to trip players up on unforgiving things like breakable weapons, weird RNG and needing a hard-to-find item to get anything but the worst ending. The game mechanics really kinda work once you figure them out, but most gamers wouldn't have given it that chance, not in the era it was released.

And it's a damn shame, because I really, really love it. The dark horror atmosphere, the soundtrack and sound design, the creature design, and . . . the cast.

Like, don't get me wrong, the cast aren't characters you'd make friends with. They are deeply flawed individuals whom you will actively dislike at times, but they are meant to be grounded in a level of realism and they are incredibly fascinating and entertaining to watch develop. Most of the narrative scenes that aren't FMV are actually just character interaction scenes, and they are presented with a real sense of craft. A documentary on Koudelka that I watched described the aesthetic as 'stage play' and they were so right.

The voice actors are clearly professionals and they do a really good job (even if none of them have British accents xD), despite the recording sound quality not being the best. But they dramatise and project like they're on a stage, and in what MUST be mo-capped or at least heavily-referenced animation the characters themselves move around the set and gesticulate and interact with it in unique, scene-tailored animations that bring them to life - no stock hand gestures, standing still and stilted hands-on-hips poses here (cough RE cough).

So no, the game isn't perfect, but its vibes and aesthetic and sense of stagecraft are, as they say, immaculate.

Then we jump to Shadow Hearts and . . . the levels of infantile JRPG trope smacked me in the face almost as soon as I got past the first few scenes. And that jump from playing Koudelka, with characters expounding on matters of faith and sincerely quoting poets like Byron and the narrative itself riddled with detailed, respectfully-researched alchemical and occult history . . . to anime fanservice 'pervy men are hilarious' and 'all gay men are lecherous perverts' jokes is a LEETLE bit jarring.

I wish I could say it was a product of its time, but the gay men perv joke trope was present as recently as Persona 5 so it's still pretty common in JRPGs. Sigh.

I can't say I didn't REMEMBER that SH leaned into lewd 'humour'. Of course I did, it's part of the scenery there. But coming from Koudelka, where the closest it got was seeing too much of the protagonist's underwear because of her short skirt and her incredibly funny, witty remark about "that handsome carpenter's son' made specifically to rile up the bigoted priest of the party? The writing, aesthetic and the atmosphere of SH are a definite downgrade in retrospect.

And it sorta makes sense to me because I knew that SH got arguably worse, but certainly aesthetically DIFFERENT enough to be off-putting over the course of its 3-game run. By SH2 it had strayed further and further from its horror roots, and SH3 had almost no horror and was just a mess of 'quirky' silly JRPG characters and all-out fanservice with a butchered Native American female protag who spent most of her time in eyeroll-worthy transformation sequences stark-naked.

Beyond that, SH reverts to cheaper stock character animations, 90% text dialogue and anime emoticons in speech bubbles (think sweatdrops and hearts) for emotional expression, and again, just . . . such a downgrade, aaaaa.

Koudelka really was something very special. I guess I'm just retrospectively sad all the good things about it got totally nerfed for SH.

It's okay, though. Sometimes the nostalgia goggles are wrong, sometimes you are a different person to when you originally played and liked a thing. SH isn't BAD and I will probably warm up to the cast again as I play. A bunch of stuff in it just hasn't aged well at all.

Soundtrack still slaps though <3

#shadow hearts #koudelka #hamster plays

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 107- 108

se03, ep 6 is weakest ep in se03 despite it being tohru’s long waited focus & having the biggest plot keys & character impactful moments & one of the best pining hug scenes in anime history “ thro the laundry sheets at sunset”. Reading the chapter that starts this ep in the manga made me feel so happy & so angry.. I lament all the subtle yet effective changes & the powerful character-influenced changes that the anime ditched for cheap drama or unexplained wide shot.

-The Art of Subtlety: Power Resides in Words:

In se03, ep 6 when tohru tells kyo that Isuzu will be staying at Kazuma’s, kyo responds that” then Master won’t feel lonely”. Meaning after his imprisonment. Huge gut wrenching moment since kyo doesnt know that tohru knows abt his imprisonment.

The anime chooses to displayed it in their mandatory style of “ kyoru-moment inside shigure house : which is widen the shot so much to include yuki & shigure & flatten the emotional impact to include other characters reaction that has nothing to do with the moment itself... They never consider zooming into the kyo-tohru reactions to their words, then widen the moment o include yuki, shigure, the tv, the woods, kyoko’s grave or the moon if they want to.. Complete lack of understanding of the emotional impact. This isn’t abt romantic lovey dovey moment. This is abt character development. The biggest loser i this design is : Tohru’s emotions. God, I hate how bland she is in the anime in regards to situations that affect HER.

Also, the anime chooses to squeeze in another moment here, which is kyo’s reaction to tohru’s grave visit & still lacks in showing the emotional depth even here & opted for what? yup! you guessed it. Widen the shot to include yuki & shigure. At this point I wonder why kyo & tohru didnt adopt yuki & shigure & took them with them in their house by the end of the story. To complete the tradition of these two poor guys witnessing everything..-_-’. Jokes aside, This doesn't just affect kyo-tohru. But also reflects badly at shigure & yuki. They become an unwanted third-wheels without proper plot or character driven reason. In good story-telling “ forced-third wheeling has a purpose!!”, such as to transfusion to the 3rd character moment or to be later used for the 3rd character driving emotional moment. not just a reminder that characters X & Y live here & therefore see this & that.. This is an example of missing the impactful design of the moment. I dont even understand how can someone miss such basic story-telling devices... 

Lets look at only 3 panels from the manga:

See how in the above panels in the focus is on tohru’s emotions. This is Tohru’s focus why not show her emotions instead of her stupid wide eyed, new eye lashes face & zooming out on tohru to include yuki for no reason!!!!! The anime is capable of focusing on characters pain, we saw that wioth yuki dozens of times. The anime is capable of focusing on showing facial emotions, we saw this with kyo in all his focused eps! Why can’t they give tohru half of that.. Just look, she looks like spacing out thinking of what to cook~ lala~ gotta feed the boys.!! zoom out on her & her purpose on the story~~~~~

-The power of words is unbelievable~~

Kyo’s little sentence of being happy Isuzu will stay with kazuma, destroyed tohru. Look how the manga makes tohru continues to think abt it. You might wonder why will the author do this? The author is building towards tohru realizing her romantic love & uncovering her traumatic attachment to her mom. Reminds you of sth? the 6 or 7 eps that se02 dedicated to yuki where every sentence established his journey towards facing his emotions. In se02, yuki thought abt the words of many characters until he reached his conclusion. The anime refused to give tohru ONE sentence.

-Powerful Character-Influenced Moments:

The manga made rohru leave screaming abt wanting the curse to break before spring. Why? because (a) tohru must be giving time to think abt HERSELF, not the cat or the curse, so tohru wander around thinking abt her mom, we saw that in the anime.  the the moment of shigure tells tohru abt the zodiacs ugly spirit & delight at seeing the cat suffers happens right before kyo finds crying tohru. Why? because (a) it was established that kyo will visit kazuma, so no weird out of no where lover finds lover in the streets for loving support moment, (b) to make kyo’s emotional support to tohru reasonable. In the anime, he saw her crying & comforted her assuming she cried cuz of the grave visit or sth, it was never hinted at anything, cuz kyo never gets any inner thoughts until it is his dramatic moments, but here he comforts her cuz he thinks she’s upset abt Isuzu, why oh why you write this thing out??????????????????????????????????

Not enough eps? but you gave motoko half an ep?!!! Why write off your main protagonist? I dont get it??? why intentional make tohru one-denominational character. Either yuki’s momma or a girl in love.... Is that what women are for the anime? a caring loving mothers & good lovers?

-Shigure’s words are to tohru are so watered down in the anime. Here he connects everything to the major plot of “ zodiacs turing into cute animals ” premise of the story, this is not sth cute as the early story made it out yo be. I love this!!!! why the anime cut it! Tohru screams when shigure brings an unavoidable question. Ask yuki & the the others whom tohru loves & believes they’re the kindest. Ask them of they KNOW kyo will be locked & are relieved! so cruel & shocking thing to thin abnt that shatters tohru’s world! shigure knows tohri will NEVER ask! so true to his character! epic moment! My best shigure-tohri moment! both of them NOT hiding anything & both in theit lowest moment!!  INGENUOUS WRITING!!! so plot-worthy!!! WHY CUT IT!!!

Kyo finds tohru cuz he saw her sad! bringing the realistic aspect of story-telling & ditching the dunb superficial coincidence.

Look at how tohru uncovers her trauma little by little:

parallel between loosing her mom & loosing kyo. By showing this, the readers/ viwer will begin to be prepared to question tohru’s “ I cant love mom more than kyo”. The following chapters will for sure dive into this deeper, writing tohru as more understandably, more flawed., more real. Nothing like a the fixer for grown men, nothing like an angelic mom, nothing like the princess saved by the prince’s love. Basically, nothing like her shallow anime self.

Side Notes:

I was right abt the anime wanting to close Isuzu & Haru’s arc in ep 5, cuz in this chapter we have a lil scene that is the follow up with their plotline. Haru wanting to thank Kureno & asing Isuzu to never risk herself. It’s the little things that add depth to characters.. but I get it Haru in se03 can no longer support yuki cuz yuki have Kakeru, so his plotline is reduced to isuzu’s lover & that was closed in ep 5. Isuzu still had few things to add to the plot in ep 6 which is be tohru’s unfiltered deep talk partner. 

The sad reality of the anime focusing on wide shots lost us yet another good emotional impact besides kyo-tohru moments. This time, we lost kazuma’s reaction to isuzu being held in cat’s room & haru/yuki’s reaction to kazuma’s sadness.. The anime gives us wide shot to include all the room. so,Screw haru & yuki’s reaction???.. they dont care abt the cat? is that it? nope, cuz this reasoning requires emotional depth of hate & disgust. The anime just loves wide shots “ so artistic~” but the real reason, the anime is flying in bullet speed in this ep to include as much as it can to save place for the “ new added moment of kyoru’s united shock” & still include the intro & outro... yep, ep6 is the weakest ep in design...

More on ep 6 in the following chapters, I guess. I’ll stop here this time. I’m so mad.. I’ll calm down & read the flowing two chapters later to articylate proper thoughts.

 I hate hate how tohru was done so dirty! I’m loving everything abt her so far in the manga, but when I remember her in the anime! ugh! I still love kyo & yuki’s anime stories. But tohru, nope. I stopped loving her in se02 once the beach arc is over & she became a full mother to yuki & nothing more. I adore her character & she’s so endearing, but My God, she’s so bland in the anime, just the lightest version of her manga self... so light, it’s a shame she’s a protagonist...

I really wonder how manga readers feel abt the lack of tohru’s focus & lost emotional depth? is tohru even popular in the manga days? I know kyo is popular & i know lots adore yuli’s growth. but what abt tohru? I’m curious how manga readers felt watching her butchered arc in se03?

#Anime Only #Fruits Basket #fruits basket manga #manga spoilers #mad paper! #pissed off paper #poor tohru #the most butchered female protag...

[yarrowleef]

Read Darkness Within all in one sitting last night and then passed out so here are my scattered thoughts i wrote down as i read, (afterthoughts in parenthesis)

Darkness Within Spoilers, obv

UGH GOD THE SECOND HAND EMBARRESMENT FROM SQUIRREL FAKE FLIRTING WITH ASHFUR IT HURTS

Just remembered Sandynose died and got a small boost of happiness (will Hawkwing and Plumwillow ever be allowed to talk again now? I mean probly not b/c they aren’t protags and non-protags don’t rly have friends but I can hope. Sorry, Hawkwhing and Plumwillow’s short-lived friendship in Hawkwings Journey was one of the last times I felt something)

Ghost fleas lol

Mothwing: i’m rude now. (but more importantly, Fuck Tigerheartstar for forcing his son to be around the cat that hurt him so badly, like he HAS to know how upset everyone is regarding Shadowsight and his accidentally helping the imposter, and he’s making him be the sole one to tend to him??? There is NO REASON Puddleshine couldn’t have done it. You think Puddleshine is going to try and murder someone?? )

Oh no don't make this a traveling book, and a ROOTBRISTLE traveling book this is going to be insufferable

BACON AND EGGS

Lightleap Is Good (Hey didn’t Shadowsight have another sister? lets be real we all knew Pouncekit was going to end up as the forgettable 3rd one)

Bristlefrost’s crush continues to feel unnatural to me. It’s like she’s grasping at straws romanticizing the most generic things.....wow....I love how ur just so...bare minimum competent....being polite to the loner we came all this way to ask for help like any somewhat reasonable person would....How admirable...I love the way you just *clenches fist* exhibit some basic traits of loyalty and skill that literally every warrior has (I s2g I’m this close to head canon-ing Bristle as a clueless aromantic who doesn't understand what romance is actually suppose to feel like so she just looks at feelings of low-bar admiration and assumes “oh I guess this is that “romantic attraction” everyone’s always talking about? guess I must be in love???” because both her crushes have felt out of nowhere and like. Idk fake/forced sounding like she’s just telling me that that she’s In Love Now while I continue to not actually feel it at all from her end. I know it’s just that I hate the way Erin’s write female characters in love but this head-canon makes me laugh)

Got scared because I thought they were going to villainize Spotfur for not wanting kits for a minute, but also excited at the concept of maybe exploring a female character that doesn’t want to be a mother, but it turns out she was just pulling a Sparkpelt and actually DID want the kits all along and was only hesitant because she’s sad. Shrug oh well.  (the only female character in warriors that was distinctly upset about pregnancy and motherhood was Lizardstripe and as we all know she was eeeeeevil and abusive and “overly ambitious” because why else would you not come around to being happy about motherhood?? YES I’M STILL SALTY ABOUT YELLOWFANG’S SECRET, BAD BOOK)  Whatever it’s fine so long as Spot doesn’t lose her rebel leader spirit forever and default to “soft mom” personality for the rest of her life, I gotta have hope because I actually like Bristle and Spot’s current relationship. Also I am actually very grateful they never made Bristle resentful at Spot for getting with her crush, as lots of middle grade/YA media has a very bad habit of demonizing female romantic “competition” and its super gross, so I rly do like that Bristlefrost is so protective and caring towards her instead. )

This series is trying to tell me that Rootspring is actually Big but I refuse to accept that. he has dumb scrawny bitch energy and we all know it

Sunrise: “Thunderclan may be better with a new leader” lol go off (i mean........they right tho...It’s unfortunate that the tension in this whole plot is a bit dampened by the fact that i DO in fact want bramble to die v badly. I don’t even have special hatred for him, I’m just bored of him.)

Yes Lionblaze beat the shit out of Ashfur

*HOLY SHIT THAT’S FUCKED!!!! (I wrote this in reference to the ghost summoning scene, this was all I could manage at the time, that scene was WILD and I am VIBING WITH THE HORROR OF IT ALL)

* Brashfur: Oh yeah? Could Ashfur fake THIS? *stands up with slightly better posture* Shadowsight: oh damn you got me there...... (asdfhhfhhgh im sorry that was really funny, how did that prove anything?? ONLY A ~REAL~ WARRIOR COULD STAND UP STRAIGHT WE ALL KNOW ASHFUR IS INCAPABLE OF GOOD POSTURE!)

End of the book: *LAUGHING NERVOUSLY* WHAT THE FUCK??? (I thought he was just gonna kill Squirrelflight right there holy shit can you imagine the RIOTS that would ensue in the wake of all this Squirrel/Bramble discourse I was so scared for a second.  

 But it’s fine, she just....went to super hell instead......Warriors has come so far lmao WHAT IS HAPPENING

Final Notes:

*On Mothwing, I don’t think her behavior struck me as “CHARACTER BUTCHERING” as much as it did for other people? I mean.....Warriors fans will say that literally any time a character does ANYTHING less then perfectly nice I think her actions just seemed that much harsher because we are reading from Shadowsight’s POV, and Shadowsight is taking everything 10x more personally right now (understandably so, but Mothwing isn’t inside his head) she wasn’t trying to hurt him. Also... like... Shadowsight DID get his name too early. It’s not Mothwing’s job to put his feelings above everything else, she’s not even his mentor, Puddleshine on the other hand, as his main mentor, I don’t understand what his deal is ignoring Shadowsight, that’s not how you help an apprentice but I suppose I chalk many of his mistakes up to also not being the most experienced medicine cat (he barely even had his own mentor.) Maybe he’s distant because he feels guilty and actually blames himself for not guiding Shadowsight better?? the two of them haven’t communicated about it yet so idk

 any way I give Mothwing a pass to be a little short tempered right now as a cat who has had her abilities periodically questioned all her life no matter how hard she works or how much experience she has, just because she doesn’t vibe with the spiritual cult side of the clans, I can understand why she’s a bit defensive of being questioned and frustrated watching so much hurt happen Yet Again due to reliance on StarClan visions over common sense, and I for one still stan her for slandering StarClan and refusing to accept Mistystar’s bullshit banishing like everyone else. Sometimes a character is at the end of their rope and can’t manage to be 100% nice 24/7 and that’s maybe not inherently bad writing? idk just my hot take. At a certain point we all gotta reckon with the fact that our perception of most popular supporting characters in heavily colored by fanon and we can’t always get mad at the authors for not adhering to it

*The sisters magic shit is my fav worldbuilding warriors has had in AGES, I love the way it’s described and it actually feels like it adds something to this world. I love this horror imagery with the ghosts, very excited for that. 

*still won’t be thrilled if Ashfur is working alone, because his motive doesn’t make sense right now. I mean the trying to get Squilf thing, sure, whatever, but the “I will make everyone pay for what they did to me”???? cause like?? Who??? they didn’t do anything to him?? Ashfur’s grievance was very specifically JUST Squilf. He has no other cause for revenge, he had no other beef or complaints about the clans to my knowledge? The cat that killed him is dead, and she’s like, the only other one that I could see as having “wronged” him?? I guess he also didn’t like Firestar much according to Graystripe’s Vow (and on account of how willing he was to kill him w/ Hawkfrost) but Firestar is ALSO dead. I don’t understand his angle. Will have to see last 2 books to judge i suppose.

*All in all I am interested to see where this is going!! but also the pacing as I feared is becoming a major issue. It’s better then ending the main conflict on book 3 like Vision of Shadows did, but omg. Hardly anything happened in all these pages. I realized I was over half way through and nothing about the situation had actually CHANGED or advanced at all in all that time. Similar to the past 2 books which I believe could have been combined, this plot felt like it should have been the first half of a book. Discussing whether or not to kill the imposter isn’t much of a standalone plot, it’s just the set up to a plot. Finding the sisters didn’t need to be a whole long thing, the debates about the Imposters fate didn’t need to be repeated 10 times, all those chapters illustrating that “Shadowsight is sad” were also drawn out, repetitive, and interchangeable, we probably only needed 2 or so chapters showing his struggles to get the necessary information across. It felt like a lot of padding, it was really slow and I did a lot of skimming. I am still very interested in the overarching plot and mystery behind the ghosts so that kept me reading but man this “will they won’t they kill him” plot did not justify it’s own whole book. Alas this is a persisting issue that will never be resolved while they continue to force 6 books into 1 series that doesn’t need 6 books. I’m sure the writers are doing the best they can with these unfortunate constraints but still, it’s a wonder this slow padding isn’t more of a detriment to their younger readers that the books are supposed to be marketed to.

#warrior cats #the broken code #darkness within #the darkness within #darkness within spoilers #wc tbc #tbc #is that enough tags #yarrow speaks #wc criticism #long post #the broken code spoilers #warrior cats spoilers

[kingjasnah]

I'm glad you point out the shit Brandon does. It feels like so much of the community can't see the inherent problems with some of the things that happen (White washing, the age differences, that fucking statue, etc.) And no one really aknowledges that the Cosmere has problematic aspects.

im sure as hell not gonna forget abt that statue soon like. that really set me off there was no need for any of that and what gets me is like.....is this the best we can do??? sanderson is hands down the most progressive mainstream fantasy writer (i say mainstream loosely but i mean. well hes in the same camp as like butcher and grrm so low bar) and this is the BEST we can do??? and if no one calls him out hes not gonna see its a problem hes a rather privileged person even when trying to write diversely. things are gonna slip through the cracks. though none of that is STILL an excuse for that statue!!!!!! im big mad. like damn you want to portray ur 16 yr old protag (who is not feminine presenting because its genuinely dangerous to be in this society) as this sexed up nipples through the t shirt skin tight crop top that you cant even see cause the clothes are comic book artist contoured to her body....what the fuck does that say about female fantasy protags? and the way male fans see them? vin certainly wasnt written as a typical one dimensional Strong Girl and sanderson talked a lot about the way he approached writing a dynamic female character so to turn around and be cool with this???????? its gross. someone mentioned in the notes of that post that he just might not have wanted to counter the sculptors vision or whatever (like how he let whelan whitewash kaladin and shallan on acct of respect for the guy) but i dont think thats much better. i think that comes from a very high place of privilege and he genuinely didnt consider that these specific actions would have consequences.

did not mean to go off. sorry. i will say though i think the community is kinda killing it with pointing this stuff out lately, like its DEF not just me and most are handling all the discourse thats been popping up in an insightful and compassionate way.

#i really didnt mean 2 go off this was just supposed to be the last two lines but im so so so mad abt that statue #i dont think this was malicious on his part but thats not BETTER he needs to. think abt what hes saying and posting and putting out there #asks #ESP FOR MISTBORN..... #theres a REASON all the discourse has been ABOUT MISTBORN SPECIFICALLY. #thatoneaxiousnerd

[bigskydreaming]

Random question, Kalen. But what things are you personally tired of seeing in urban fantasy? (And no easy answers like Jim Butcher. We ALL wanna erase Jim "somehow extraordinarily mediocre + misogynistic racist" Butcher from the fantasy scape)

Ugh Adam, I don’t even know! Like the thing is, its been so long since I even got excited about an urban fantasy, lol. They’re all so same-y. The genre had so much potential at the start of the ‘urban fantasy gold rush’ or whatever the fuck they’re calling it these days, but it quickly petered out into formulaic repetitiveness.

I just want some different stuff in the mix, y’know? I love werewolves, but enough vampires and werewolves, or at least mix up the dynamic so its not always aristocratic noblesse oblige vampires lording it over rough and tumble biker gang werewolves or whatever, lmao. Chill with the Greek mythology, there are other mythologies, but also don’t fucking treat actual living religions and spiritual beliefs as fucking mythologies. Instead of it always being wizard and witches and warlocks and the occasional druid, like, let’s have a fucking alchemist protag. The fucking travesty that is a genre noted for having mostly female protagonists, but with those protagonists mostly hailing from the Joss Whedon School Of Feminism in their narratives and treatment. Gimme some demons that are terrifying instead of just smarmy. STOP TRYING TO MAKE ZOMBIES SEXY, LET DEAD THINGS BE DEAD OKAY. 

If you’re gonna use mythologies and mix in Christianity, like, meeeeebbe don’t always default to ‘and then of course Christian artifacts beat everything else on the playing field cuz they’re like, REAL real instead of like, pagan real’ because um, you’re literally treating these other mythologies as real too, so really all you’re saying is the Christian beliefs are better anyway even in a world where you’re accepting that there are really all these other gods and goddesses out there too, so......awkward.

Or like, if the supernatural part of the world isn’t common knowledge in a series and most people aren’t in on the ‘secret,’ maybe don’t have epic spell battles in the middle of downtown every other book without positing that maybe somewhere along the line, some ‘ordinary people’ start to go um hey, what’s up. Like, at least work in some actual explanation like PJO does with the mist or whatever.

Not everything has to be about saving the world, like, gimme the urban fantasies that are just like.....a regular dude walks into a pawn shop and unknowingly purchases a genuine magical artifact that for all intents and purposes gives him a superpower, like teleportation or invisibility. Doesn’t always have to be paired with a curse or ‘don’t trust magic/be careful what you wish for’ morality fable, like sometimes a magic ring can just be a magic ring, y’know?

*Shrugs* But idk, I mean, that’s all I got off the top of my head. Don’t really have many thoughts on it, tbh.

[miqojak]

📖

How about this - I’ve been headcanoning a DnD campaign for a long time now (and keep postponing it), but here’s the schtick. This world has a dragon trapped in it - some great, ancient battle in the cosmos between good and evil, and obviously the good one won. (This was all before I knew anything about FF and dragons hatching out of moons, mind you.) The continent I’ve been sort of slowly plotting out is, in fact, shaped like a dragon. This ancient tale (that needs names and embellishment, obvs) of the creation of the world of Drakisfal is all but a myth, or a religion, now. (Hell, maybe the bad dragon is locked on one side of the planet, and the good one on the other. I’m digging the idea that this is the only way to keep things stable. Apparently I think like writers at SE, since this was before my FF time. Hire me Square Enix.)It is a high magic, high fantasy world where the races are as varied and fantastical as you can imagine - but I was very heavily inspired by Karen Marie Moning’s ‘Fever’ series of books about the Fae (a kick-ass female protag) and how they affects modern day life and effectively results in a post-apocalyptic fantasy hellscape in the end (I use the word ‘end’ loosely, she’s still writing in that universe and I recommend the books!). That said, I want the main ‘conflict’ to be less about good and evil, at least to begin with, and more about law and chaos - this world has many, many hidden (and not so hidden) portals to the First World/the Fae Realm. This causes a lot of bleed over of magic, and a widespread devotion to the ‘gods’ of the First World and the creatures therein that are powerful and capricious…and very upset with the way Drakisfal is being butchered and colonized. (Zealous forest druids/shifters/rangers who guard portals to the First World, anyone?)I have all these ideas for dark and light courts, but neither Paizo, nor Wizards of the Coast has any genuine established lore for this concept so I’m running off of a little third party lore and my own imagination, and I’m daunted at the level of creation it would take to make NPCs for the courts.The world is as varied and fantastical as it is, due to the…world-sized dragons entombed within and the magic ‘bleed-off’ from their seemingly eternal slumber. I feel like the knowledge of their existence is mostly tall tales and religious belief…and the knowledge that this is real is probably some deeply guarded secret held at the end of the world somewhere. Having a cult try to awaken one of the dragons could also be a fun twist at later levels! There’s most standard fantasy races (except orcs! Too many things rely on them as bad guys. I’ll definitely have strong gnolls as the ‘savage bad guys’ though); though there’s lots more that are less often seen! ‘Egyptian’ Catfolk (get ready for Siamese and Hairless catpeople!!). Ratfolk. Strix. Syrinx. Dragons. Wyverns. Kobolds. Lots of fae. There are so many, they are too numerous to list, and too varied to describe; from beautiful to frightening, and from honorable knight, to as wicked and twisted as they come.Also elitist dragons who live in the mountains and have kobolds serve them, and wyverns guarding the forests that approach the mountains? How about a spooky marsh with scary, monstrous trees and oversized spiders and after all the hidden dangers, there’s a dark, ex-Queen of the Fae in a tower of onyx that seems to absorb all light around it, and you’ve been collecting shards of her magical mirror to stop her shenanigans, but now you need to stop her but also you gotta go through her loyal undead servant? Yeah there’s so many threads here. The Enchanted Wastes, which is a vast, magical desert with djinni and lots of illusions - maybe a nymph guards the only oasis for miles and you can’t make it another night without water? How about haunted tombs? And if you survive the journey there’s grand cities of foreign catfolk who don’t trust you. The Red Wastes - which I think I renamed - that are full of ravenous bands of Gnolls who ride dire hyenas, and the only force that rides in defense of the border is a band of halflings who ride the green prairies on their dire corgis? What about an abandoned magical wizard tower guarded by a dragon at the end of those red wastes full of magic lost to time??There’s a lot in my head that I want to get out, so I don’t know how to start setting it all down ‘on paper’, so to speak?THANKS IF YOU READ ALL MY RAMBLINGS, and thanks for the prompt!

#how about #Thanks for asking! #DnD #Pathfinder #Fae #Fey #Fey realm #First World #Paizo #Wizards of the Coast #hire me #let me write cool things for a living #where to start #I love fantastical things #high magic #high fantasy #dragons #long post #rambling

[goforwardgreenwriter-blog]

The Worm Reads: The Assassin’s Blade, Ch 11-12

Hopefully this next story is more interesting than the last!

This next story is The Assassin and the Healer. Also, since this is a new story, this is technically Chapter 1 again, but for the sake of this review, we’ll call it Chapter 11.

The strange young woman had been staying at the White Pig Inn for two days now and had hardly spoken to anyone save for Nolan, who had taken one look at her fine night-dark clothes and bent over backward to accommodate her.

The strange young woman, in case you’re wondering, is actually Celery herself. Meaning that we’re in a new POV! Thank god, I needed a break from being in Celery’s head.

Yrene Towers had been watching the young woman from the safety of the taproom bar. Watching, if only because the stranger was young and unaccompanied and sat at the back table with such stillness that it was impossible not to look. Not to wonder.

Yup, this story features Yrene, the healer who would later be in T0D. I can’t bear to read T0D and witness the butchering of my sweet innocent Chaol, but I’ve heard the horror stories. *shudders*

Yrene glanced at the mug she was currently cleaning and tried not to wince. She did her best to keep the bar and taproom clean, to serve the Pig’s patrons (...) with a smile. But Nolan still watered down the wine, still washed the sheets only when there was no denying the presence of lice and fleas, and sometimes used whatever meat could be found in the back alley for their daily stew.

Fucking nasty shit right there. Disgusting. I’d say let Yrene move somewhere else, but, well..... T0D showed what a mistake that was.

Yrene quickly poured ale into the mug she’d just been drying and set it on a tray. She added a glass of water and some more bread, since the girl hadn’t touched the stew she’d been given for dinner. Not a single bite. Smart woman.

Yrene is under the impression Celery is aware of how contaminated the food is and that someone might have tried to spike her food, so she’s wise not to eat it. Keep this in mind for later.

Yrene brings up another server named Jessa who takes most of the tips from the inn so SJM can slutshame another female character for using her sexuality and daring to be *gasp* feminine. SJM can kiss my ass.

Like most who hailed from southern Fenharrow, Yrene had golden-tan skin and absolutely ordinary brown hair and was of average height.

So is Yrene just a white girl with a tan, or......? I mean, golden-tan implies a tan in my eyes, but who knows.

Celaena Sardothien sat at her table in the absolutely worthless inn, wondering how her life had gone to hell so quickly.

Big Mood. Also, ungh, we’re back in Celery’s POV.

She’d been here for two days now—two days spent either holed up in her despicable room (a “suite,” the oily innkeeper had the nerve to call it), or down here in the taproom that stank of sweat, stale ale, and unwashed bodies.

Am I the only one umcomfy with how much SJM puts emphasize on all the evil/greedy characters being ugly? Like I know it’s just a book series, but coming from someone who is average looking and has very difficult hair that gets oily if I don’t wash twice a day, this just makes me uncomfortable. Maybe that’s just me.

Celaena sighed and took a long drink of her ale. She almost spat it out. Disgusting. Cheap as cheap could be, like the rest of this place. Like the stew she hadn’t touched. Whatever meat was in there wasn’t from any creature worth eating. Bread and mild cheese it was, then.

Nope, Celery isn’t concerned at all that flaunting her wealth around might cause her to gain a few enemies. The stew simply doesn’t live up to her expectations! I’m laughing.

She fought the urge to touch her face. The swelling from the beating Arobynn had given her had gone down, but the bruises remained. She avoided looking in the sliver of mirror above her dresser, knowing what she’d see: mottled purple and blue and yellow along her cheekbones, a vicious black eye, and a still-healing split lip.

Just throwing this out there in case anyone wants to defend Arobynn or say that he’s not all that bad because he took Celery in, he beat the shit out a sixteen year old. Real standup guy! Maybe I should review Q0S just to enjoy what happens to him...

There was no denying it: she’d merely been spoiling for a fight. No blades, no weapons. Just fists and feet. Celaena supposed she should feel bad about it—about the broken noses and jaws, about the heaps of unconscious bodies in her wake. But she didn’t. She couldn’t bring herself to care, because those moments she spent brawling were the few moments she felt like herself again. When she felt like Adarlan’s greatest assassin, Arobynn Hamel’s chosen heir.

Hmm, I like this? Yeah Celery is a violent asshole, but it explains her mindset and trauma well because she feels as an assassin she has to fight, that the thrill of a fight keeps her going since she’s been raised that way since she was young. Very nice. I’ll admit, this book isn’t nearly as bad as the later novels in the series. It’s got Sammy and a few good moments like this.

Celery toys with the idea of running away, but she knows that Arobynn would hunt her down to kill her and informs us she still has no idea where Sammy is. I swear, if he’s hurt-

Chapter 12 switches back to Yrene’s POV.

Yrene couldn’t have left even if she wanted to. Last call wasn’t for another forty minutes, and she’d have to stay an hour after that to clean up and usher intoxicated patrons out the door. She didn’t care where they went once they passed the threshold—didn’t care if they wound up facedown in a watery ditch—just as long as they got out of the taproom. And stayed gone.

Damn, I feel for you, Yrene. Let me just say as someone who had to volunteer dozens of hours in the Girl Guides to serve as a waitress for charity suppers and teas? I know that #feel of dealing with the most unbearable costumers.

It was common knowledge that [Celaena] was leaving tomorrow at dawn.

Um.... how? Nobody knows she is a famous assassin, and only the workers of the inn would know how long she’s paid to stay. Did Celery just announce to all these sketchy drunks she’s leaving tomorrow?

Yrene swallowed hard, pouring another mug of ale. Her mother wouldn’t have hesitated to warn the girl. But her mother had been a good woman—a woman who never wavered, who never turned away a sick or wounded person, no matter how poor, from the door of their cottage in southern Fenharrow. Never.

Another dead YA mom. Okay, I’m not against dead parents on principle (how can I be when one of my WIP’s protag’s arc is about discovering the past of his dead father), it’s a cliche old as time itself and for some stories, yeah it works. I just wish there were more YA moms who were alive and had a relationship with their kids, you know?

A bunch of costumers sexually harass Yrene because SJM novel, then we’re back in Celery’s POV.

Reckless and stupid, Sam would say. But Sam wasn’t here, and she didn’t know if he was dead or alive or beaten senseless by Arobynn. It was a safe bet Sam had been punished for the role he’d played in liberating the slaves in Skull’s Bay.

I miss Sammy... I want him and Yrene to become friends and abandon this shitty kingdom.

Sam had become her friend, she supposed. She’d never had the luxury of friends, and never particularly wanted any. But Sam had been a good contender, even if he didn’t hesitate to say exactly what he thought about her, or her plans, or her abilities.

Huh... SJM isn’t immediately playing up the romance drama just yet and actually acknowledges they need to be friends first? Color me both shocked and impressed. Idk why SJM dropped this for later novels, but I’ll give her props for this.

Sighing, she slipped into her room and bolted the door. After a moment, she shoved the ancient chest of drawers in front of it, too. Not for her own safety. Oh, no. It was for the safety of whatever fool tried to break in—and would then find himself split open from navel to nose just to satisfy a wandering assassin’s boredom.

I’m telling y’all, Celery is a psychopath. it’s one thing for an assassin character to be neutral towards killing and murder, it’s another for them to want to slice open randos just for fun.

But after pacing for fifteen minutes, she pushed aside the furniture and left. Looking for a fight. For an adventure. For anything to take her mind off the bruises on her face and the punishment Arobynn had given her and the temptation to shirk her obligations and instead sail to a land far, far away.

Bitch I wish you would. Take the rest of this shitty series with you while you’re at it.

Yrene lugged the last of the rubbish pails into the misty alley behind the White Pig, her back and arms aching. Today had been longer than most.

And another POV switch in the same chapter? Damn, if this book was written today, this entire chapter would’ve been split up into like, 3 separate chapters.

Unsurprisingly, Jessa had vanished with her sailor, and given that the alley was empty, Yrene could only assume the young woman had gone elsewhere with him. Leaving her, yet again, to clean up.

It is shitty of Jessa to leave Yrene to clean up all of the mess but I still don’t like that lowkey slutshaming from earlier.

I told you to wait until it’s past—” she started, but paused as four figures stepped from the mist. Men. The mercenaries from before. Yrene was moving for the open doorway in a heartbeat, but they were fast - faster.

Before you recoil in horror, no, SJM isn’t stupid enough to write a sexual assault scene. We aren’t at AC0TAR levels of disgusting and offensiveness, yet. The mercenaries only try to rob Yrene.

“Saw you making some hefty tips tonight, girl. Where are they?”

But it was Jessa making the tips and not Yrene, right?

The man farthest from them was yanked into the mist with a strangled cry. The mercenary holding her whirled toward him, dragging Yrene along. There was a ruffle of clothing, then a thump. Then silence. “Ven?” the man blocking the door called.

You get three guesses as to who is rescuing her. The first two don’t count.

“Come out, you bleedin’ coward,” the ringleader growled. “Face us like a proper man.” A low, soft laugh. Yrene’s blood went cold. Silba, protect her. She knew that laugh—knew the cool, cultured voice that went with it. “Just like how you proper men surrounded a defenseless girl in an alley?”

If only it wasn’t Celery to the rescue, I might be able to delightfully enjoy this moment of girls protecting girls. Alas.

With that, the stranger stepped from the mist. She had two long daggers in her hands. And both blades were dark with dripping blood.

Total nitpick, but wouldn’t “And both blades were dripping with dark blood’ sounds better?

Overall, this story, despite the lowkey slut shaming in one part, is much more enjoyable than the last, even though Sammy is still nowhere to be seen. We’ll just have to wait and see if SJM butchers it.

#the worm talks #the worm reads: tab #anti sjm #anti tog #anti tab

[ellicler]

*points with finger* haha eric kripke spilling his psychosexual makeup all over his scripts by god that man is sooo compellingly insane

'women love their children more than they could EVER love ME' i'm sorry you didn't have a good role model for a dad so now you can't imagine loving your child. the homelander-butcher parallel is almost artfully compelling if it wasn't for them killing their most interesting female character without giving her a chance to develop. although i'm glad to see kripke's learned something from the 'sainted mary winchester' trope

homelander keeps *almost* being dean and *never* really becoming dean. the script is too tight and too invested in actually never exploring his psyche beyond 'wow isn't he fucked up' b/c they need their balancing act can't have more than 2 sympathetic heroes one human one super and that's enough

kripke keeps on being hilarious about 'oh NO should we save the important character's life what a MORAL DILEMMA' while his 'good' characters keep killing NPCs in the background (this one goes to you hughie & annie)

also lamp. LAMP. sparks!! superpowered protag saving the human protag & love interest from deep shit! if that wasn't an admission of 'whoops i accidentally wrote s4 deancas as a love story' idk what it was!! annie's whole arc is basically s4 cas (but less compelling, give her another season maybe?)

anyway this show is HILARIOUS i can't wait to see what kripke does with jackles!!

#the boys #I've just finished s1

[ceriseal]

like... for the switch the only compelling to sort of compelling rpg's are, listed from most compelling to least:

girl centric:

Atelier Lydie & Suelle (very compelling but a mediocre game in the series still)

Stardew Valley (will be available on the vita as well, so doesn't weigh into choice)

I Am Setsuna (looks like a shitty old port)

Skyrim (potentially female protag, a old but compelling pc game)

not girl centric:

Longest 5 Minutes (will be available on the vita as well, so doesn't weigh into choice)

Xenoblade 2 (awesome world and compelling gameplay butchered by horrific fanservice, forced gross-ass male protagonist, and being utterly disgusting about how female characters are treated)

Lost Sphear (crappy port)

Darkest Dungeon (an indie 5$ kind of gimmick/minimalist rpg that seems interesting)

#Amaranth

[sixvisxpacem]

@theholylight 

 Really need go… ...

True true…. Angelmaker just sounds like one of those cringey ship names that I wish died with Arc V… sadly, no. Like, anything else would have been better for me, so I’d have a tag to use. But no. Just… no. I’m not holding my breath. I think Aoi will end up unreasonably in love with Yuusaku by the end like all the main girls before her - I really do hope I’m wrong - though I hope she isn’t degraded to Yuzu and Aki’s degree… those two in particular were just…

So even if she comes back, I do expect to enjoy her character for another 20 episodes at most like with Yuzu and then it will be the Yuusaku fangirl/cheerleader, probably, who can’t stand up to him about anything. I do hope I’m wrong, I don’t want another Yuzu in that regard. Kotori was at least capable of slapping Yuma out of bad thinking after Astral disappeared but… 

Yuzu just went along with whatever Yuya said when she was there with him, like she didn't have a mind of her own. It's one of the reasons I'm not too big on Arc V anymore, I will take Vrains' slow start if it has an amazing ending or at least final duel that's meaningful, you know what I mean? :/

At least I can hope Yuusaku isn’t the next Yuuya, that seems OOC of him. Personally hoping for a mix of Atem, Judai and Yusei, personality-wise… I can dream? :D 

I just use Yuusaku/Aoi for these two as a tag XD Just as I use YuuriSere rather than Predator too, given how cringey and OOC that name is XD Bad ship names have been around since DM, though. It’s been a problem from day one and I doubt this’ll ever change, meaning the only thing you can really do is to either go for Character A/Character B when tagging or create alternate names for your own use only - and yes, I do have ship names of that kind and just for myself XD

Unpopular opinion here, but I really couldn’t care less about ‘strooooooong female characters’ or ‘feminist writing’, when the treatment of intelligent characters of gray morality is a LOT worse and people really need to take a look at how horribly male love interests are written and treated in media for a female target audience. Sure, Yuzu was ultimately reduced to a complete damsel, but she was still on the same spectrum of morality as Yuuya from day one and told him to ‘smile’ in his duel with Reiji as early as in episode 12. She did deserve better, yes, and her season one self got one of the best female character writing of the franchise (though the first place will always be reserved for season one!Serena in my eyes), but as a character, she was neither complex nor intelligent nor anything I haven’t yet seen in a different context, so it really isn’t that big of a loss in my eyes. In addition to that, what people like to ‘praise’ her writing for is that lots of the typical shounen protag clichés season one!Yuuya didn’t have (making him a refreshing protag) were applied to her instead - and the plot points related to that did make me cringe from day one, as it simply isn’t good writing.

That being said, I was angry about the bad treatment of Ruri, Rin, Masumi, Serena, and the Tyler sisters (and also Aki!! she really could’ve been the first AMAZING female lead, had she not been butchered) - though not because of ‘feminism’ because rather because these characters either used to be more (Masumi, Serena, Tyler Sisters) or were heavily implied to be more (Ruri and Rin), and I’m just really frustrated by wasted potential or character destruction for protag worshipping reasons in general. Still, Shun, Reiji, and Yuuto were treated a LOT worse than these female characters and their potential was a lot greater too, so I’m thrice as angry about that. (That and the toxic mindset applied to them and their struggles and glorified is incredibly disrespectful and causes a LOT of harm in real life, so their treatment by Konami and their hypocritical fans sickens me to the core)

I’m not that worried about Aoi tbh. Her Trickstars are among the most popular and financially successful Vrains cards, so I cannot possibly imagine greedy Konami NOT chasing after the money coming with her being relevant and getting to be a capable duelist. And with Konami, there IS no stronger argument than ‘money’ lol At the same time, I don’t have any high hopes for Vrains if we are not talking about Yuusaku and Aoi. It’s not about a slow start (season one Arc-V had that too, but there were a LOT more interesting characters, duels, and conflicts being hinted at before episode 34 happened), but about boring, predictable, and anticlimatic writing and everything and anything revolving around the protag. This is not to say that I consider Vrains to be the worst YGO (and I think of that title as ‘useless’ to begin with) - especially since all other shows except for the first season of Arc-V had very similar flaws, but... yeah, it’s just back to YGO standards, and I don’t have to like that.

I don’t think any of this would be fitting for Yuusaku. Atemu’s heroism isn’t fitting for someone fighting his personal battle and neither Yuusei nor Juudai are thinkers. I just hope he continues to be treated with respect and doesn’t end up being dumbed down into a poorpuremisledcinnamonrollchild like basically every other intelligent morally gray survivor of the franchise before him.

#theholylight #Elly replies #Elly talks about Vrains #Elly's unpopular opinions

[kyogre-blue]

Winter 2018, Crunchyroll line up

This is the new season shows at Crunchyroll. I might look up a couple more that aren’t there a bit later.

Record of Grancrest War, ep1 - Dropped. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on and there was waaay too much info dump. I hate in media res openings btw. Also, the male and female lead already remind me of far too many anime couples and dynamics I hated.

Katana Maidens ~ Toji No Miko, ep2 - Keep for now. I did not expect the cute girl main character to become a wanted fugitive within the first episode? They also explain the actual reasons behind her running off with a girl she’s just met by end of ep2, which is pretty nice. As an aside, the human CGI is awkward tho.

Basilisk : The Ouka Ninja Scrolls, ep1 - Dropped. You know, I remember watching the original Basilisk anime. I think it might have been on rented DVD... anyway, it was okay for what it was, but it wasn’t my kind of thing. This one makes a good chunk of the cast children...? And also goes for incest in the main pairing, if I’m understanding the stuff about Hibiki and Hachirou right. I don’t really see any reason to watch it. “Everyone gets killed off one by one” isn’t that great a promise to begin with, and the historical stuff just makes my head hurt.

Maerchen Maedchen, ep1 - Dropped. All those ass shots in the opening, and then comparing herself to a light novel harem protag in the narration? And of course, the running around naked thing. ...Get out.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, ep1 - Keep for now. The thing with the mayor’s son killing and raping a girl veered close to my “too much gratuitous sex and sexualized violence” drop point, but it wasn’t too bad by standards of the genre. Hearing “tantei” all the time also acts as a keyword right now.

How to Keep a Mummy, ep1 - Keep for now. This is the most disgustingly cute things I’ve witnessed in years.

DARLING in the FRANXX, ep1 - Dropped. On general, I drop anything that does “naked first meeting” and the heteronormativity thing was unimpressive. Also, waaay to “deep” for me. Very pretty tho, real shame. The ghost of Eva does not let anime rest in peace.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, ep1 - Dropped. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be getting here. They try to do “oh man, if those games were real, they’d be so brutal!!” but also “this character is insanely OP.” Also, uuuum there were like a couple dozen lizard people, how did he gain 300 levels off them? Anyway, I don’t see any appeal in this to sit through the very light novel cliche stuff.

HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI, ep1 - Keep for now. Not that it deserves this. Tbh this show is a mess, the pacing in particular is really bad. But I’m curious for personal reasons.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card - in queue. I’m gonna be honest, I’ve only ever watched the butchered dub of the original show, and not even all the way through. I’m going to keep this in my queue, but it would be weird to watch it.

#now playing #season overview

[lesbianyennefer]

i went to see tlj and tfa double bill last night and i have some feelings..  

when i just fresh came out the cinema i was so relieved that kyle is now utterly unreedemable and that re*lo didnt happen that i was like that wasnt too bad but now ive slept on it im starting to grow more annoyed and these are my feelings:

- the ‘humour’ was jarring and ooc. par examplar jj specifically wrote it in a way that hux is just a pompous arrogant ass youre supposed to hate because hes the fucking leader of a facist group and the scene in tfa where hes gives his speech is supposed to make you see just how evil he is and is incredibly unsettling. turning him into a joke feels like youre dumbing it down and trying to make him ‘likeable’. Having rey make a quip when force bond talking to kylo about putting a shirt pulled ALL of the tension that should have been there out of it and ruined the believability utterly. you honestly expect us to believe tfa rey would be joking with a man that totured her and her friends and murdered the man she looked up to as a father figure? It made it feel like a parody. which is coincidentally how i feel about the whole film. in the vein of villains snoke was treated the same which turns into my next point:    

- he changed the personalities of half the characters. ones that prominently spring to mind - hux, snoke, poe, rey and dont get me STARTED on luke. snoke went from this mysterious calm and collected entity into this charismatic posturing joker before being abruptly discarded, rey was suddenly making ‘jokes’ a lot (emphasis on the apostrophes) and lost most of her personality, i dont even think poe was the same character and then luke. OH BOY LUKE ryan literally took one of the softest sweetest male characters in history luke everybody deserves redemption luke fucking turned his father from the dark side skywalker and literally wrote in a script that this man tried to kill (only for a second but doesnt negate the point) his fucking nephew because he saw dark in him LIKE FUCK OFF. i cannot literally belive that he sat down and thought hmmmmm lets make luke skywalker the creator of kyle ron!!! like the whole luke turned into curmudgeonly old man could have been worked well that part i liked but it was just completely offset by the idea that he would do something like that!!! though tbh i should have known from the moment he just threw the lightsaber rey handed him over his shoulder this wouldnt go well (another jarring moment that brought me straight out of the film just thinking about the stark contrast between that and the raw pain and emtoion in lukes face at the end of tfa makes me MAD what could have BEEN)

- rey was treated as a throwaway for kyles man pain. like her entire ark is about trying to redeem him. because of course its the womans job to save the man who violated her mind, lacerated her friend and killed han solo in front of her. like youre telling me rey would just willingly sacrifice herself literally into the arms of the first order to save that little bitch willingly get herself cuffed taken to snoke and dont get me started on her being tortured in front of kyle to fuel his diffcult choice and man pain :((((((((((((( ‘oh it touched his hand and saw light in his future oh please dont do this kyle!!’ rien literally RUINED one of the first female characters i looked up to in sci fi and turned her from a protag into a side to kyles story. and what was with the really sudden and completely forgotten about part where she went ‘straight to the dark?’ what???? the laughability of it all topped of by the fact that she did it all because they ‘needed a jedi to save them’ because luke wouldnt train her and then at the end shes just fucking moving rocks like its nothing like lmao?? the point??????

- it literally felt like everyone got a rushed and really stupid plot line except kyle. those that are supposed to be the mains were treated like side characters. rey is just there for kyles (and to an extent lukes) man pain, finn and rose’s storyline was??? literally ??????????? his ‘epic’ battle with phasma lasted all of 2 seconds and now shes another character wasted. Poe’s was so incoherent and you know i cant even go INTO lukes  

and to top it off the plot was just a bit shit like as that reviewer said you could literally skip this film and not miss anything and theyre right except youd miss the butchering of one of the greatest characters in cinema and the turning of a .quartet of bright exciting new characters into shells of themselves and fuel for the Sad Story of Kyle Ron. 

like im sure i have more to say but this is the rant off the top of my head i need to get out so yeah fuck this please save us jj i feel ike pure shit just want you back!!!! 

#only positive - reys a fucking lesbian no one can deny it now shes GAY #/// tlj spoilers #becky speaks

[zarinthel]

people are writing King’s Avatar fanfiction which is nice but also like?? I can’t read it for the same reason I can’t really read One piece or One punch man stuff-- the canon’s just so much better than most aus that miss on the main themes of the original work. Like, i wish i could read fanfic for these things but reading people’s perceptions of Chen Guo and Xe Yiu is Killing Me bc there wrong and giving Chen Guo the audience surrogate treatment is butchering her character and treating Ye Xiu like he’s a Harem Protag makes me Die Inside

ex: in over 600 chapters Ye Xiu has expressed his love of One Thing and that’s Glory. literally. he’s surrounded by well rounded, well developed characters, some of whom are female, and his One True Love is the game. y ya gotta treat him like That

#im not vaguing anyone in particular #i just want to Scream

[kingjasnah]

actually. actually let’s talk about diversity in fantasy let’s give that a go. im mad and im gonna be that way for a while

don’t want to read all this? fair. tldr: fantasy writers who rely not only on the medieval europe model but also hide behind historical accuracy in 2020 (fuck it, from ‘95 onwards) are lazy and unimaginative and should be held accountable no matter how many white 20 year old dudes jerk off to whatever power fantasy is embedded in the plot. so lets chat about that lads. (slightly) drunk rant under the cut

now prelim shit: we know fantasy is used both as escapism and as a way to deal with various traumas via magical metaphor. staples of the genre. even if jk rowling busted out the laziest and at times offensive metaphor for ww2 and racism ive ever seen, she still adhered to time and true tropes. whatever.

so why have we, in this post game of thrones era, become insanely obsessed with realism? i can hear sixty 20-something year old men crying at me rn like oh ohh oh its based off the war of roses oh wahh all medieval fantasy fiction is based off england and the crusades anyway so women should get raped and people of color should be demonized its not racism its xenophobia and also gay people dont exist and disabled people are systematically killed off and if we stretch the magic fixes mental illness thing a LITTLE further we have straight up eugenics.

we all know where the england but myth thing came from. now the thing about tolkien is that while i will always absolutely love lotr, looking at the LAZY state of fantasy? damn i kinda wish he hadn’t revolutionized the genre. the bitch was still racist. he still didnt give a shit abt women (eowyn was just a vehicle to show how much he fucking hated macbeth anyone holding jrrt up as a feminist icon for that needs to sit the fuck down and explain to me why i can count the woman speaking roles in lotr, a story with a name and fleshed out backstory for every minor character, on one hand but thats! another post). he had something to say abt class with sam i’ll give him that but he is still 100% NOT what we need to hold our standards to in 2020. 

i dont want to talk about old school fantasy, like 80s early 90s cause theres literally no point. its sexist, racist, ableist for sure, this we know. david eddings (not even that old school tbh) can rise from the grave and explain himself to me personally and i still wont forgive him for ehlana. 

so let’s talk historical accuracy. quick question. who the FUCK gives a shit? WHO is this elusive got fan who’s out here like blehh actually??? this method of iron production is TOTALLY anachronistic of the time. ummm these vegetables in this fictional world were NOT native to english soil so how are they here? cause i know this is the classic argument but ive never actually met someone who cared about the lack of dysentery as much as they care abt the women getting raped on screen/page. 

god forbid you have to worldbuild for a second god forbid you can’t rely on the idea of fantasy readers already have in their head god forbid you have an original idea god forbid you spend more than two seconds thinking about ur setting (oh i should mention i dont....really blame GoT for its setting cause of how long ago it was og written but trust me i sure as hell blame grrm for writing a 13 yr old giving ‘consent’ to sex with a grown man within the first couple of chapters) 

If we accept the basic premise of fantasy as escapism, and i AM drunk so i will NOT be finding fuckin. quotes and shit for this but come on tolkien said it himself and as much as i’ll drag him he crafted the simplest and most powerful fantasy metaphors on the board rn. But if we know its escapism. If we know. then who is it escapism for? certainly not for me, the gay brown woman who busted through all of GoT in 10th grade. 

modern fantasy lit used as an excuse for that white male power fantasy is literally disgusting. calling historical accuracy is so fucking dumb ESPECIALLY cause we, as ppl in the 21st  century, KNOW women have been consistently written out of the story. poc ppl, gay and trans ppl, anyone with a god forbid disability has been WRITTEN out of history as we know it, INCLUDING the fucking war of the roses so HOW can we hold up testimony we know is flawed to support our FICTIONAL. STORY. just to??? support the white power fantasy?? literally noah fence but if you are a white guy who felt really empowered by every time jim butcher described a woman tell me: how do you think that’ll hold up in classic HisToRiCaL fantasy. you think thats a fucking noble pursuit? or are you grima wormtongue out here. 

(side note: jim butcher stop writing challenge i dont need to know abt every woman on page’s nipples. anyone who hides behind subgenre like that? ‘ohhh its a noir story thats why hes sexualizing everyone’ shut the fuck up an author isnt possessed by a fuckin muse and compelled to bust out 500k they have agency and they have choice and they MADE the choice to reserve said will for none of their female characters)

which brings me to point 2: target audience and BOY is the alcohol hitting me rn but WHO is this for? this isnt the fucking 80s we know poc and other marginalized folk read fantasy FOR the escapism. on god ive had a cosmere focused blog for nearly three years and. im just gonna say it im interacted with A LOT of yall and ive managed to talk to VERY few white straight ppl as compared to everyone else. 

like....who deserves to see the metaphor on homophobia or racism. joanne rowling? the bitch who literally tried to sell us happy slaves and the disgusting aids metaphor and the worst case of antisemitic stereotypes i ever saw in an nyt bestseller? yall think that was for US? or was it for the white guilt crowd. 

literally white people can find any book about them that they can relate to. but hmmm maybe theres a reason gay women care so much about stormlight archive’s jasnah kholin, a brown woman who’s heavily coded as wlw. or kaladin, the FIRST fantasy protag ive ever seen with clinical depression. hmm i wonder why a bunch of millennials are vibing all of a sudden. im not saying sanderson is perfect--but its the best ive seen from a white author tbh

maybe theres a reason a lot of poc vibe with a literary way to express trauma, and maybe thats why i specifically get so pissed when its not done well. theres a REASON books about outcasts pushing through and claiming their own lives are popular with people who arent white and straight and able bodied. Junot Diaz had a point. maybe lets STOP catering to those assholes who think theyre joseph campbell’s wet dream personified. ive lost respect SO many authors who are objectively talented. pat rothfuss can write so beautifully that ive cried to bits of name of the wind but literally i will never pick that series up again (not just because of the felurian. women in general tbh. mostly the felurian ngl) cause 1) i personally KNEW men whod jerk off to that shit and 2) there was no need for it there was no plot reason for ANY of that shit 

so like obviously thers an issue with authors of color specifically not getting recognized for fantasy and genre work but on god??????? im still mostly mad at the legions of white authors churning out the same medieval england chosen one books year after fucking year. have an original thought maybe. also im sorry that you as an author lack the basic empathy needed to examine the way that women? or any group of people that youre explicitly writing about see the world and would specifically see YOUR made up world. 

yes your fantasy should be diverse, but more than that it should be kind. if you as a writer cant respect groups of people who deserve it....what the hell are you doing in a genre that traditionally is about finding ways to express injustice through metaphor? tolkien’s hero was sam. fantasy was NEVER about the privileged. yall know who you are so stop acting so fucking entitled. peace out. 

#disclaimer ive had a bit to drink. and instead of getting ridiculously emotional like normal and plud in a trek movie #im mad! surprise shes mad now. not at BS specifically dont worry this is still a cosmere stan zone but im mad and im gonna talk about it #if no one reads this ur valid but if you do im gonna be mad or another two hours before i force myself to #man idk feel free to talk tho #this is so stupid im sorry i got so heated i plugged in the BoP soundtrack #and like just #well youll see

[dapokemonmadster]

SAPPHIRE

WHOO OKAY, LAST ONE FOR NOW!

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would banghogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: Those fangs Okay but in all seriousness, her indomitable courage, her impressive strength, and her willingness to risk her life time and time again at age what, ten? to save her region. Also her incredible kindness towards Pokémon and utter strangers (how many times has she dropped everything to help someone?? How many) that led her to face team Aqua (which tried to kill her off A LOT) and continue to face team Aqua throughout her entire arc, and eventually come out on top. worst quality: Putting herself in danger at all times/dropping everything to help strangers. ship them with: Ruby (frantic is one of those otps that has a special place in my heart), Gold, Yellow, Crystal, Platinum, Pearl, Black and White! brotp them with: Gold, Yellow, Pearl, Black, Ruby and Flannery!needs to stay away from: Her butchered ORAS characterization Archie and Maxie, holy cats. misc. thoughts: I. LOVE. SAPPHIRE. She will forever be one of my favorite characters in all media, I love writing her, she’s another wonderful strong female lead in pokespe, she was the first character in spe that I could really relate to, and I loved both the idea of Ruby and Sapphire being dual protags (their interactions are always the most interesting, to both read and write), and the execution. For the most part, at least. I’m still pretty salty about the end of RS, I feel like Sapph got screwed over so the male lead could save the day, and I was real mad at Ruby for lying to her so much. Yeah I don’t have much else to put here unless I go on a rant about how great she is, so I’ll leave it at that. 

#Sapphire #Sapphire Birch #Pokespe #Pokespe Sapphire #Asks #tinybabyleafs

[the-evolving-falcon]

Vrvrvrvrains for the meme! If you haven’t seen it, then arc v!

[I’ve been watching it and while I have been enjoying myself so far, I’ve had no reason to be passionate about it yet, so... I’ll be doing both :D

Vrains

❤ Favorite Male: Yuusaku. Him not being a whiny idealist, but instead cynical and not having any of the bullshit of the hypocrites trying to talk over his head and paint him as a poor pure victim as they try to force their ideals on him (read: Akira) makes him the first YGO protag I’ve liked after Other Yuugi, which... doesn’t mean that Konami can’t still screw him up completely. He’s really refreshing and I'm also glad he didn’t turn out to be the pathetic awwwwwkward loser (who, deep down, is just a poor pure cinnamon roll child) a lot of YGO fans wanted him to be before Vrains started to air- people who are now disappointed and writing one Yuusaku hate post after another lol Most importantly, though, I am really grateful how respectfully the writers handled his backstory.

❤ Favorite Female: Aoi. I’ve been having a couple of issues with her writing - all of which are related to Akira, whom she just completely outshines and the ‘idealized YGO sibling’ trope is just very unfitting for these two imo, but... All in all, she is absolutely GLORIOUS. I love the differences between her online and offline self, she is capable without the need for cringey ‘feminist goddess’ tropes, and her archetype is to DIE for!! I really love her brand of entertainment dueling too - as unlike Yuuya, she is very open about being selfish and doesn’t try to paint herself as the purest and most selfless martyr when she simply wants some ego-stroking (unlike Yuuya).❤ Favorite Pairing: Yuusaku/Aoi. The official name of this ship sucks, so I won’t be using, but goooooooooooosh, this protag x main girl ship could become even better than Faithshipping used to be in the first half of 5D’s O.O I just... really want them to interact more - especially outside Link Vrains. And form a meaningful bond! That being said, while Yuusaku/Aoi IS my fave Vrains ship, I’m not nearly as passionate about is as I am about any of my fave Arc-V ships ^^’ It is just... while the setting is interesting and everything, what will always be missing for me is the context of a war story and child soldiers lol❤ Least Favorite Character: Akira. He’s a disgusting hypocrite and incredibly pathetic - and to make it worse, an immense letdown too, given how my immediate reaction to first seeing his design was “OMGGG, GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HOSTAGE LOVE CHILD!!! Pleaselethimbelikehisfatherspleaselethimbelikehisfathers O.O” Well... no wonder Shun and Reiji disposed of him in a different anime when their experiment turned out to be a disgraceful failure lol❤ who’s most like me: I cannot relate to any character on a deeper level (which is also part of the reason for my lack of passion about Vrains so far), but I suppose I’m somewhere between Yuusaku and Aoi....ish, though again, not really lol❤ most attractive: I was going to say Akira but EEEEEK, NO! >.❤ three more characters that I like: I don’t have any ^^’ The rest of the cast has been pretty lackluster to be so far tbh ^^’

Arc-V

❤ Favorite Male: It’s a tie between Reiji and Shun, though only before Konami forced the writing staff to butcher them. Their minds are absolutely beautiful, their pre-retconning selves BOTH had the most intriguing kinds of backstories with a LOT of potential, and their cards, too, used to be super badass and rich in meta at the same time. 

Reiji is the very best intelligent INTP character I’ve ever seen (there are... few portrayals of INTPs that are not disgraceful tbh), his way of dealing with the entirety of his pre-retconning family is outright fascinating, and I just LOVE how Reiji, despite being an INTP rather than an INTJ, is actually the biggest asshole of all YGO rivals, and he’s still being dignified about it and maintaining an air of politeness. His subtle jabs at mentally feeble and hypocritical Yuuya, too, are too glorious to be true, and I still can’t believe people still interpret his words as genuine praise and admiration.

And Shun... gooooosh, the subtlety of the way his intelligence used to be written never fails to make me pause and marvel, and the same applies to the way it is clear that Shun is the one to control his anger and wield it as a weapon, rather than being controlled by it, which is what is usually being done with characters of a similar type. And how prideful he is as he’s fighting a hopeless losing battle for three years makes me want to cry for and admire him at the same time.

Also, they are handsome - drop dead gorgeous, to be exact, and their perfect voices are going to be my death one day O.O

But... yeah, I love these two characters more than my own life, and they both deserve so much better than what they’ve been getting from Konami and their awful fanbases alike TT__TT❤ Favorite Female: ...If I can only choose from canon, then Serena - up until her half-assed ‘redemption’, with the addition of some later scenes that were still good. But if I can be self-indulgent too... I really love the idea of a Kurosaki Ruri worthy of Shun and written in the tone of season one, in which Arc-V was still completely set up as a war story. Canon Ruri, though... I want that abomination to burn and 90% of her deck pisses me off and makes me cringe too.❤ Favorite Pairing: H-O-S-T-A-G-E-S-H-I-P-P-I-N-G. One day, I will make a more detailed post about why this ship is too good to be true and why it would not only fix all flaws in the writing of both characters, but also make them shine in the best way possible by exploring their strengths and flaws alike AND showing off the full extent of their minds’ beauty.To make it short, though, these two could learn so much from one another, provide one another with what they’ve been deprived of, and have the most fulfilling and mentally stimulating discussions. And Shun and Reiji are 110% mindmates too.Also, it is a very aesthetically pleasing and ‘hot’ ship *cough*❤ Least Favorite Character: It’s a tie between Yuuya and Ray. Yuuya... I wouldn’t even mind him, did the writing not change all laws of the universe to make the fate of four dimensions depend on his fragile mental state though blatant retconning, deny the validity of everyone else’s values, views, and needs, and reduce every other character to a mindless plot device with the sole purpose of worshipping him. It is... stomach-churning tbh, and there is absolutely nothing meta about each of his flaws being glorified as he’s depicted as The Most Selfless Martyr eveeeeeeeer. He was pretty well-written in season one, though, interesting as a character and also remarkably refreshing, but... urgh, his writing should’ve continued on the path of him having to adapt to his circumstances rather than the entire universe being retconned for the sake of Yuuya getting away with and being worshipped for remaining stagnant and delusional.As for Ray, her asspull existence that I will never acknowledge is an insult to 10+ characters, my faves included, and the main reasons for her introduction were to 1) Make Reiji and Shun’s battle about YUUYA instead 2) Deprive the bracelet girls of their agency and purpose beyond being plot devices and damsels because oversimplification rooooocks XX___XX3) Turn Leo, who was originally set up as a capable MAIN villain into a poor pure misled cinnamon roll and a pathetic grieving father, making absolutely everything Shun and Reiji fought for, endured, and sacrifice amount to absolutely nothing and that... is insultingTo add insult to injury, the fanon version of her is even worse as she’s without fail a blatant self-insert and/or a gross SJW feminist power fantasy - and she is always used to degrade the more complex characters, who were meant to exist from day one, even further- especially Reiji and the other bracelet girls. So yeah, keep that asspull plot device away from me >.

❤ who’s most like me: Reiji and Shun; I’ve never related to a fictional character to this extent, and season one of Arc-V gave me two of them - just to take them from me later in the worst fashion possible❤ most attractive: Again, it’s a tie between Shun and Reiji. They are both so handsome it should be illegal O.O❤ three more characters that I like: Yuuto, Yuuri, and Rin

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#opinion meme #show meme #out of options #this blog is full of unpopular opinions #oddeyespendulum