#two of my friends were playing and i was watching them via disc

[trannydean]

i was being such a little shit the other night lmao

#dean speaks #CAN'T STOP THINKING ABT THIS #IT'S FUNNY #btw this is abt some bald npc kid in bg3 i saw running in circles #two of my friends were playing and i was watching them via disc

[starshipsofstarlord]

Hello, can I request a Wanda x Female Reader? Where R shifts to date Wanda and everything is all fluffy until Wanda asks why R has thoughts about a person that looks like her (Elizabeth O.) but she doesn’t recall ever doing these memories?

Break Up and Break Through

Pairings | Elizabeth Olsen x reader, Wanda Maximoff x reader

Summary | shifting to date the renowned and well loved scarlet witch comes with troubles, when the avenger reads your mind.

Warnings | angst, mention of a breakup,

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

Wanda laid upon the well made bed, eating a packet of salt and vinegar crisps as she stared at you. She was waiting for the light to illuminate the room, as she watched you with a soft smile, down on your knees, cleaning the old disc that you had kept all through your youth.

It was one of her favourites too, it was one of the things the pair of your shared. The fact that you knew that she loved Bewitched when she was younger almost scared her for a second, but she realised that she must have let that detail slip in one of your many conversations before the pair of your had gotten this comfortable around one another.

The one thing that she would not allow herself to do around you however, was read your mind. She thought that as pushing boundaries, though, sometimes, the ability could not be helped. The avenger tried her best to respect your privacy, only looming in the corners of your mind when she was worried with how you felt about her.

It was no secret that the public had a formed opinion about her, they simply thought that she was not in control enough to save lives, all because of the ones that she has taken via incarnated accidents. But you, you accepted her just the way she was, and that gave her much comfort. And whilst you were sorting out putting the television on with the chosen agenda of what to watch, Wanda decided to go against her usual promise, and look into your mind.

The aura within it was sweet, and she found everything that she loved about you within the mental realm, however, she didn’t disrupt your own recollection locked away in your mind so that she could envision you in your child, chasing butterflies and sneaking an extra cookie against your parents’ orders, as nice as the character building of you was.

Her aim was to discover the folder that had inclusivity of her, she wanted to gather the thoughts that you had around her, and use them to keep herself content with being who she was. And then, she saw herself, though, she looked a little different. She had dirty blonde hair, and you kept referring to her as ‘LIzzie’.

Never in her life had she wore such a light hair colour, her roots were naturally dark, and had changed to hold a reddish tone as she had gotten older, and staked out during the split of the avengers. But all that ruckus was over now, was it not, or was somebody else creating illusions to trick your mind into seeing her as someone other than the scarlet witch?

It left her in a state of concern, hardly noticing how the beginning credits rolled onto the screen, and you dived quite goofily onto the bed beside her, for all that she could think about was how you had the incorrect image of her in your pretty and confusing mind. This Elizabeth that you harboured memories of was certainly not her, she had had a brother, whom was now deceased all thanks to Ultron, not two twin sisters that had lead her into the lifestyle of being... an actress?

Wanda was pulled from her invasion of your thoughts, as you reached beside her, stuffing it inside of the green chip packet, pulling out a few altered potatoes, and put them mindlessly into your mouth, as your eyes shon towards the screen. And so, the avenger cleared her throat, grabbing the grey remote and pausing the show, so that you would pay her some attention.

“Y/n...” She spoke your name, her accent peeking through as you tentatively listened, your ears perked for her only. “Who is Elizabeth Olsen?” The question was innocent enough, but the way that your eyes went wide was anything but. It had not been something that you had expected, but yo had been caught out, considering that your current, and girlfriend from another reality had the ability to read minds.

It should have been something that you had expected, though, it had been the last thing from your mind, and Wanda reeled that thought through her head as you listened to you mull over your possible answers that would grant her, and perhaps yourself, some clarity on the situation.

“Um, she’s my ex.” You reached your hand back to play with the roots of your hair, as you nervously admitted the fact aloud. It had been hard to let her go, it was stupid, you couldn’t even remember the fight that had caused the pair of you to break up, but in the end, the pair of you had still gone your different ways, and kept distance between you.

The memory had you gulping, there had been tears falling like faucets from your eyes, you had laid in your bed that night, immobile as she packed her things to stay with a friend. You wished that things could have worked out, but instead, you had opted to shift, and find another her, and whilst Wanda was an amazing woman, she wasn’t Lizzie.

Gulping, you registered what to say next, but Wanda placed her finger upon your lips, stopping them from moving. “It’s okay, I understand.” Wanda smiled, shrugging softly. “This isn’t real for you, and when you wake up, this will all be a very realistic dream. And that is fine, but you should go to her as soon as you open your eyes, if there’s another me there, there has to be another you here for me.”

You weren’t sure how to thank her, and so, you relaxed in her arms, and watched Bewitched, until your damned alarm interrupted your vivid senses, and brought you back to your reality, where you were in bed alone, but didn’t want to be. There was only one thing that you could do, and that was throw a pair of shoes onto your feet, caring not to change out of your pyjamas, and rush to your car.

You knew exactly where your destination was, and whilst remaining within the speed limit, you went as fast as you could to said place. When you reached there, you parked your car, and went straight to her new address, rapidly knocking upon the door, feeling urgent to see her.

It took a moment until there was an answer, and when you were met with her green eyes, it was clear that Lizzie was in shock of your presence. “Can I help you?” Her fingers nervously picked at the skin of her arm as she awaited for you to say something, but instead of speaking, you acted.

Reaching your arms forward, you tugged Lizzie closer, pulling her lips down upon your own, like a lovesick fool. “I think you can.” You confirmed, feeling proud that you had listened to Wanda, and done what she had suggested. Lizzie tucked her hair behind her ear as she opened the door further, inviting you inside.

“I’m watching Bewitched, care to join?” Accepting the invite, you entered her new place, looking around for only a second, until Liz tugged you onto the sofa with her, and rested in your arms, the pair of you having missed each other equally.

#elizabeth olsen x reader #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x y/n #wanda x reader fluff #wanda x you #elizabeth olsen oneshot #elizabeth olsen imagine #Elizabeth x reader #lizzie olsen x reader #lizzie olsen #imagines #imagine #xreader #wanda maximoff fanfiction #wanda fluff #wanda imagine #mcu requests #marvel reader insert #marvel request

[lazyliars]

/rp

DreamXD actually slots very nicely into a working theory I've had for about two or so months now, mainly centering around one question:

What happened to Dream?

Namely, why did Dream change, when exactly did it happen, and was it solely an internal change, or was there an external force at play, specifically a preternatural one?

I think with DreamXD, we might finally have an answer.

Or at least some clues to follow. DreamXD presents a shift in every single paradigm the Dream SMP has had. Like, I think most of it is just being so utterly blind-sided by George Lore Real, but part of it is the massive ramifications of an Actual God* being present in the storyline.

((*On the other resident god of the server, Foolish:

DreamXD is different than Foolish, in that his characterization is so dramatically inhuman - Foolish talks and acts like a (somewhat eccentric) person, and his powers are, as far as we know, limited in comparison to the creative-mode godhood that DreamXD occupies. And whether that is because Foolish is not a "full" god (having been referred to as a demigod) or simply because he's spent so much time around humans, we don't know, but we do know that either way, DreamXD is NOT that.

DreamXD's voice is marked by glitches and dramatic shifts in tone, he seems to lack control over the different aspects of his personality, like the more "Dream" part vs. the darker one that threatens to eat peoples souls. The "normal" part even displays confusion when George references things that the "darker" part said, implying that it may not be fully aware of itself.

TLDR: Foolish acts more human than DreamXD, who has a very eldritch personality.))

To get right to the point:

The Dream we knew before November 16th, and the Dream we know now are not the same. Something changed, and it changed for the worse.

Consider: Dream was always antagonistic to the L'manbergians - he was always imperious to them, and he was responsible for starting a number of fights between his faction and theirs, just as many if not more than they were.

But, he was also not... evil. He'd pick fights with Tommy, the disc wars were still a thing, but the gravity of the spats they had weren't dire. They were fun. They were... actually a game. He wasn't like the way he is now. While in hindsight we can look at these events and detect a serious undertone knowing what's to come, at the time they were far from it.

There is an argument to be made that he had the same tendencies as now, just not expressed as loudly, and while I believe it's a valid argument, I disagree that it's proof of Dream always being the way he is now.

Sapnap, Badboyhalo, Sam. They all remember Dream as their friend - they remember someone who was, maybe a little aggressive and a lot competitive, but not cruel. Not needlessly murderous. Not someone who steals sentimental items and lines the walls of a disgusting museum to use against them.

Dream cut them out. Sapnap was totally blindsided. Bad doesn't seem to fully believe it. Sam blamed himself for not realizing and tried to take the weight of that crime on his own shoulders by becoming the Warden.

There's also the competing theory that what happened to Dream was purely psychological - either the circumstances slowly isolating him from his friends driving him to the do things he's done, or a desire for control that started early and continued to fester until it overshadowed everything else, or any combination of both.

And those theories are still valid, they could still be the case, but I haven't been able to shake the idea that there is something deeper at play. I can't overstate how the exile arc and everything after it have been so inhumane, so cruel, and... not exactly out of character in the sense that I could never see Dream doing them, but in the sense that I could never see him doing them for no reason.

And there really doesn't seem to be one. Dream says himself, it's like a game. He sees people as toys, puppets. And there just doesn't seem to be an inciting incident that could explain how he made the leap from semi-authoritarian leader who, despite being a warmonger, does love his friends, to heartless murderer who wants to reduce everyone he knows to dolls.

There's... ways, he could get there, but nothing that we've seen makes sense. There is a missing piece, something that must have happened from his POV that we didn't get to see because he doesn't stream.

And DreamXD could be it. This godly entity that claims that it is "a part of [Dream]" but that it isn't him entirely. That seems to share the lack of understanding of humanity that Dream has been displaying like when he asks if resurrecting Tommy was “cool.” But that still loves George. He still, despite apparently not having the same history as Dream, desperately wants to be George's friend.

If I had to pinpoint the moment Dream changed, it would be the day that he revealed that he switched sides, and was going to be fighting against Pogtopia. He was paid for this betrayal in the Revive Book.

I mark this as the turning point in my theory because it is the first time Dream mentions his affinity for chaos in the context of hurting others. However, we also know that this likely wasn't the day he actually made the decision to betray - as he revealed that there was a traitor among the Pogtopians, a fact that he likely would have learned before this.

Now, I mark George's lore stream as the introduction of DreamXD proper, and I want that on the record because it isn't technically his first appearance on the server.

Most people will remember him from Techno's stream, where he logged on to break the End Portal in a panic. I doubt the character was properly written into the lore at that time, but it fits neatly with the rest of what we know about him - a guardian of the server, and the keeper of it's rules. No contradictions.

What less people might know, is that DreamXD has made an even earlier appearance, and it's this one where things begin to get... interesting.

Around roughly October of 2020, Tubbo and Fundy did some improv'd streams centering around Demon Hunting, or rather, "Dreamon" Hunting, and it's during the first of these two streams that DreamXD makes an appearance.

The bare bones of it was - Tubbo is an experienced "Dreamon Hunter" and teaches Fundy his ways. They find Dream, and realize that he has a Dreamon inside of him, which is basically an evil version of him. They attempt to exorcise the Dreamon from Dream via various shenanigans, and eventually, they do a ceremony to free Dream. However, they apparently botch it, and unleash the Dreamon within. After more shenanigans, one attempt to fix it utilizing Fundy and Dream's wedding appears to work, but then DreamXD logs on, flys around at Tubbo and Fundy threateningly, and they end stream on the idea that there are probably more Dreamons to hunt.

Now. There's a lot to unpack here. I'm not gonna go into the nitty gritty details in this post, but I do recommend watching the Dreamon streams, as they have A LOT of details that, if this is getting incorporated into the main story line, could be important - especially the focus on duality, having TWO versions of Dream, which end up being potentially separated from each other.

(Also, they're just really funny streams. Tubbo and Fundy are at PEAK chaos and Dream plays along with their inane bit perfectly, it's just good content.)

At the time of the Dreamon streams airing, they were explicitly non-canon. IIRC Tubbo and Fundy referred to them as taking place In an “alternate universe,” which makes sense considering they would have been on opposite sides at the time (Manburg and Pogtopia.)

However.

And this is where I show you my wall of red string and newspaper clippings.

My singular piece of evidence for this comes from one line DreamXD drops. He simply says: “At least you're not hunting me.”

The Dreamon streams take place around early October. Dream reveals his betrayal of Pogtopia around November 6th-7th. The timeline of the Dreamon streams would line up perfectly with the idea that there was a catalyzing event that put Dream on the proverbial path to hell.

I do not believe that they intended the Dreamon arc to be anything other than a side story at the time, but considering that DreamXD himself was barely canon until now, I don't think it's out of the question that they took a look back at a fan-favorite minor arc, saw an opportunity to co-opt it into the current story line, and potentially fill in some holes regarding Dream's characterization all in one move.

On the question of whether this would be a GOOD storytelling move?

The Dreamon theories were prevalent during the exile arc, and I've got to say, I was never a huge fan. The detachment of Dream's actions from his intentions, and by extension his morality, never sat right with me. It feels cheap to make him a victim and say “a Dreamon did it!” in regards to all of the horrible things that he's done. It strips his agency and makes everything that happened less impactful in my opinion, and I stand by that reading.

BUT. With DreamXD introduced, I feel like it's necessary to look at this from all angles. And with the way DreamXD was characterized in George's stream, I don't think it necessarily ruins Dream's character to say that an external force was involved with his descent into evil.

Namely, the idea that whatever happened to Dream was not really a “possession” so much as a gradual loss of humanity, could be an interesting way to look at this. It implies that Dream was always capable of his actions, but grants us understanding as to why he would actually perform them, and why he might have become isolated enough from his friends that they would let this happen.

The Dream we know now could be an expression of his “worst self” brought to the surface by a Dreamon/DreamXD/other. It also begs the question of what would happen if that force were to leave him, and how it might cause yet another shift in character, especially if it were to be portrayed as less of a switch being flipped, and more of a withdrawal, with a gradual process of realizing how far gone he was.

To close this out, I've been stewing on the idea that Dream hasn't entirely been himself since the climax of the Exile Arc.

I think this theory holds water, but it's also not waterproof... there are plenty of holes, and a lot of that comes from the fact that Dream doesn't stream. We're left in the dark when deciphering his character, and what might appear to be the key, could just as easily be revealed as a red herring, or even nothing at all.

Regardless of the validity of the Dreamon theory, I think that DreamXD is one of the most interesting developments we've had on the SMP in a long time, if simply because his arrival coincides with fucking George Lore Real. God. I still don't know how to deal with that.

I always appreciate people adding to the discussion by the way! Feel free to reblog with additions if you like or leave them in the replies.

And if a single one of you comes to my blog on THIS. THE DAY OF MY DAUGHTER'S WEDDING. And calls ME a c!Dream Apologist to MY FACE..... I will be v sad.

#Dream SMP #DreamXD #Dreamwastaken #c!Dream #georgenotfound #dream smp analysis #dream smp theory #lazytext

[chrysalizzm]

i uh. realized people follow me now because of uh. you’re human tonight on ao3 asdjgfs

i have content!! behind the scenes content as promised. i do outlines for my fics as a general rule of thumb just because i personally can’t write things to a satisfying finish if i don’t Do That, and so - here are my chapter/plot outlines for you’re human tonight ^^ (i have no idea if this is interesting content or not i thought i’d put it out there because i think outlines are kinda fun hhhh)

chap 1 fundy

subtitle: an inkling

fundy makes an iron golem gone wrong, dream makes it go boom

chap 2 purpled

subtitle: uh oh social interaction

purpled shelters a fugitive, gets his house explosion-proofed as thanks

this is probably gonna be the only chapter with a funny title hh oh well

update: it’s not and i’m pleased with myself for branching out with my dry humor

chap 3 sapnap

subtitle: dust to dust

sapnap’s dying via wither effect, and he knows respawn’s around the corner but goddamn if it doesn’t hurt til then. dream skids in around the nether fortress corner, drops all his weapons cradles sapnap’s head in his hands, has always taken death much harder than anyone sapnap’s ever met. at the last few seconds, when death creeps up like a shroud, dream starts to hum to him hoarsely, pressing his forehead to sapnap’s, and in the final moments sapnap doesn’t hurt at all. the last thing he hears is dream whimpering. he visits dream’s bunker the next day, knocks on the door over and over, but there’s no sign of life there. sapnap shrugs, bites his lip out of guilt for forcing dream to sit there watching him die (if temporarily), and moves on.

the chapter that introduces dream’s primary ability of soothing hurts. put a lot of emphasis on the fact that sapnap ached up until the moment dream started humming, because for dream to do that is pretty frivolous considering once sapnap died he’d respawn and the hurt would just disappear but dream wanted sapnap to have a peaceful last few seconds. emphasize how abnormal it is that withering stops hurting. 

chap 4 ponk

subtitle: beaches dry of sugarcane

dream visits ponk after george burns down the first tree. when ponk arrives to the second tree to move in, he realized dream made the tree flourish, grow healthier and bigger. 

chap 5 sam

subtitle: fuck this shit i’m out (edit: the official subtitle is “oh god oh fuck”, i changed it last-minute)

dream picks sam’s brain for manhunt strategies while the latter is mining for redstone. sam stumbles upon a spawner and reels back, trips, nearly misses the moment dream sweeps him behind him and his eyes flash beneath the mask and when sam gets back up, dazed, there’s nothing but the splay of cobwebs all over the walls. 

chap 6 punz

subtitle: lines drawn

in an unrelated skirmish, punz drives his sword up to the hilt in dream’s chest, relying on respawn for dream to not feel any pain and for punz to get paid. dream doesn’t die. this is understandably alarming. 

can we get some funnies in chap? just a few laughs?? a lil funny for mr luke punz man?

can we get some panicky dry humor for real tho because punz strikes me as someone who copes with morbid humor and dream spluttering up blood is def a situation that punz would not know how to deal with

chap 7 wilbur

subtitle: so about that date

wilbur makes platonic moves on dream while dream fake texts his fiance under the table. wilbur also accidentally vents to dream about his little brother tommy and how afraid he is that tommy will get himself hurt for how reckless he is. dream siphons some of his anxiety from him, smiles as they depart from one another. wilbur notes that dream is shaking when they leave. 

chap 8 skeppy

subtitle: get wrecked noob

dream walks skeppy through some pvp. when skeppy demands a rematch w tommy and gets a lil stage fright kinda sorta thing, dream siphons his anxiety and his nerves and goes full soccer mom with bad and skeppy loses 5-2 but like!! he won!! against tommyinnit!! HH

is there any mental image nearly as powerful as dream wastaken, the soccer mom

chap 9 jack

subtitle: mandatory volunteering

after tommy goes on another one of his destructive rampages lmao, dream enlists jack, newest-comer, to help him rebuild stuff bc underclassmen have to do whatever upperclassmen tell them to do thems just the rules. after rebuilding a statue near the community house, dream pats it fondly, and when tommy sneaks back to set in on fire for shits and giggles, he finds that it’s fuckin fireproofed AGAIN

rebuild efforts, i promised monuments rebuilt so thats what theyre gonna fuckin Get

chap 10 antfrost

subtitle: twist the knife

ant on what ends up being an unpublicized manhunt: dream stops the manhunt because he’s triggered a raid and by the time the hunters get there, alarmed by the screaming and the fire and dream’s unresponsiveness, the villagers are all dead and there are raider corpses everywhere and dream is lying near the bell on his side, whimpering. (what the hunters don’t know - dream tried to fight off the raid but was overwhelmed and witnessed the village get slaughtered, he took the pain of the villagers that weren’t dead but were dying.)

segment: There’s a reason they do the manhunts, and it’s not just for them to horse around and try to kill one another for a few days. Antfrost is the newcomer but he’s always been good at reading people and from the outset he knew that Dream was someone filled to the brim with the restlessness that characterizes humans, that never-settling wanderlust, and his brain works too fast for the rest of his body sometimes, and he just needs an outlet. It’s part of why he eggs Tommy on in their little war games, why he holds onto those discs even though he doesn’t need them, why he gets that delighted look on his face when someone tells him that Tommy’s griefed them or stolen from them or otherwise ruined their morning. Antfrost thinks the only times he’s ever really seen Dream silent, Dream waiting, Dream unmoving, are when Dream is 

chap 11 karl

subtitle: head in the shallows

karl, sapnap, george, and dream have a sleepover after mcc 11. karl, nearest to dream, wakes up when dream starts tossing and turning from a nightmare. when he tries to shake dream awake, dream’s eyes fly open and he slams his fist into the wall behind him and the earth, the literal earth, the entire slab of it, shudders like an earthquake. sapnap and george sleep like the dead, so it’s just karl and dream staring at one another. finally karl asks, concerned, “do you want some tea or water or anything?”

chap 12 hbomb

subtitle: a maid’s burden

“i want to dress up as a maid for fundy,” says hbomb with false bravado. fundy’s fiance levels a very impassive look at him for an awkward minute or two and just when hbomb thinks he’s misread dream and fundy’s relationship dream says “i’ll get you a wig” and the entire chapter is just dream idly twisting the fabric of reality to get hbomb the items he needs to put the outfit together

pranks, i promised pranks, theyre gonna get pranks

chap 13 alyssa

subtitle: message in a bottle (edit: official subtitle is “ship in a bottle”)

alyssa’s leaving, at least temporarily. 

alyssa tells dream it’s getting dangerous on his server, doesn’t relish the expression that brings to his face, but he holds her hands and nods and bids her safe journey. when alyssa returns, running for something (later we’ll learn she had heard that dream was bad, that he might be dying), she finds that her house is completely inaccessible by everyone save her, placed in complete stasis by someone. 

start of the chapters leading up to festival arc. build unresolved tension in this one. 

chap 14 niki

subtitle: life doesn’t discriminate

wilbur and tommy are relentless, they waste no time; niki is willing to wait for it. 

the night before the duel, she goes to dream and holds a sword to his throat and demands he call it off, even though she knows it’ll mean little because of respawn, tells him she won’t stop hunting him down until he gives up l’manberg. dream smiles a little sadly and pats her hand and her fright, her rage, it simmers back down, and the anger that had swarmed her and made dream out to be the devil dies down until it’s just her friend, who was playing along with tommy til it got serious and he got cocky, who’s just as in over his head as she is, and maybe niki’s soft but she likes that about herself, that she’s always the first to forgive. niki is looking at the healing cut on dream’s neck, uncovered by any bandages, when dream shoots tommy, a clean shot that causes no suffering.

a long chapter, probably. i think at some point in this i want to mention niki’s respect for dream for apologizing during the first pet war, for not letting things get any bigger until fundy came back. some parallels can be drawn here - that dream let the fire die down in the initial stages of the pet war, that dream won’t let go of the l’manberg war now, and it occurs to niki that she doesn’t know dream nearly as well as she thinks she does if she expected him to act exactly the way he did during the pet war. she’s got what she’s wanted - dream’s remorse, proof of dream’s humanity - even though it’s not in the form niki wanted it. 

chap 15 eret

subtitle: crown of thorns

the king in name only consults with the true leader. 

they’re both upset about pogtopia’s exile, eret arguably more so because they think their early betrayal of l’manberg somehow butterfly-effected into the current dumpster fire, and as they talk eret works themself into a full panic attack reflecting on things that were, things that could’ve been - and the tide washes out all of a sudden, and eret’s left with the same looming hollowness they’d been feeling before, no dregs of the panic, they’ve never had a panic attack that left them feeling normal after - but dream is now wheezing like he’s about to die and eret immediately walks him through the panic attack, levelheaded even as they’re confused out of their mind. 

chap 16 quackity

subtitle: water to blood

quackity is a snake in the grass. 

quackity at schlatt’s side during the few weeks of his presidency. he knows schlatt from before, has been his friend, so he knows when his friend is acting off. the cynical, straight-faced humor is still there, his completely bland delivery and brazen showmanship, but it’s twisted to the left somehow, to make it so that those qualities that make up his friend have rotted, hurt people. quackity eventually goes to dream after schlatt first overdoses with a lot of questions, maybe even to confess that his allegiance has begun to shift because he can’t go to pogtopia and he can’t go to schlatt - and dream just gives him a long, sad look before lightly patting quackity’s shoulder and says “i can’t guarantee anything - just that you’ll be safe” and shooing him off and as quackity heads back to manberg he realises all the hostile mobs are avoiding him like the fucking plague. 

it’s big q!!!! fattest ass in the cabinet!!!!! pog!!!

fun fact this chapter’s subtitle was almost “chekhov’s gun” until november fucking 16th of 2020

chap 17 tommy

subtitle: most disputes die and no one shoots

tommy learns how a legacy dies.

a compendium of tommy watching the madness consume wilbur. it needs to be emphasized in this chapter that wilbur becomes an entirely different person when they’re ejected from manberg, that he becomes obsessed with the legacy he’s created and watching it crumble is what twists him; when dream gives tommy his crossbow, tommy, out of desperation and a need to have an older sibling again, asks what’s wrong with wilbur; dream’s face hardens and he asks tommy to take dream to wilbur. it’s a terse meeting, the only one they have before techno and before wilbur completely loses it and demands the tnt; wilbur says a lot of things tommy doesn’t understand (it’s complex mythological jargon hinting at dream’s status as a god but could be misconstrued to refer to dream’s status as simply the world owner) and at one point wilbur sneers, “are you trying to play god, dream?” and dream lurches forward and grabs wilbur by the wrist, and there’s a completely silent moment where tommy feels the air suck out of his lungs and there’s an off buzzing in his ears and he fancies he hears something that sounds, just a bit, like dream, whispering desperately wilbur wilbur wilbur it’s me it’s me listen listen listen then a shrieking, acrid wave of no and tommy reels back and when he looks up dream has staggered back, his hand to his mouth, blood dripping from somewhere beneath his mask, sounding like he’s gagging or maybe he’s sobbing, as wilbur shrieks in a voice that is entirely not his “get out get out if i can’t have l’manberg...” and tommy understands, finally, as dream sprints out. that’s not wilbur.

a distinction needs to be made perfectly clear in this chapter, as with schlatt’s chapter: it’s not them. they’ve been twisted out of control by something bigger than them, something that wants to toy with the young god running an oasis of peace for his people. it doesn’t need to be outright said in this fic; in another we can delve into the madness and who did it and why. for now, just make it clear it’s not explicitly anyone’s fault.

chap 18 techno

subtitle: colosseum

dream had to let techno in first, you know. 

techno and dream have interacted often - the duel, the championships, they’re friends more than acquaintances now. but techno was called in by someone wearing his brother’s face that he honestly doesn’t recognize from his voice and when he arrives at spawn, before tommy fetches him, he sees dream sitting cross legged waiting for him and they talk about the situation, dream giving techno a quick brief. when tommy comes, crying “techno, this way, this way to pogtopia”, and crossbow bolts are being fired at techno, dream gives him a lil wave goodbye (or what techno thinks is a lil wave goodbye but what actually turns out to be putting a swiftness effect on him).

“that’s not my brother, dream,” says techno, and dream’s mouth wobbles and he says, hoarse, “i know.”

techno Suspects, but only knows that dream has world-manipulating powers and thus standard minor god powers. he doesn’t let dream know he suspects. 

chap 19 bad

subtitle: run devil run

bad trusts dream, perhaps against his better judgement. 

dream comes to visit bad and skeppy on neutral grounds in the interim leading up to the festival that everyone on the server is side-eyeing and side-stepping. bad considers his friend and the owner of the world as he gives dream an impromptu tour through the escape route he and skeppy have dug out, wonders with a little reproach how dream could let things get to this point, then, soft, gentle as always, acknowledges that dream is only human kindly. when he says that, though, dream’s face crumples, as though those words hurt him more than any criticism bad’s given him in the time he’s known him, as though bad had driven a blade into his heart, and bad doesn’t understand but he lets dream run away from that. when a small flock of creepers explode over the tunnel the night before the festival and bad grumbles that he has to fix it, he learns dream left him with a fortified escape tunnel.

a/n: i’m sure the irony isn’t lost on you.

chap 20 tubbo

subtitle: cadmean victory

what say the sacrificial lamb?

tubbo is coming to terms with the fact that he might not make it out of office in one piece and it’s not his first time respawning but the older members of the server always, always did their best to shield the younger ones from death. he runs into dream by complete coincidence while he’s avoiding pogtopia (mostly wilbur) and manberg (mostly schlatt), caught between two strangers wearing his friends’ faces. he looks at dream, who looks back at him impassively, and tubbo starts to cry, because it finally hits him that even with his death and respawn nothing will be fixed, nothing can change, the poison’s run too deep into the veins of dream’s beautiful little world and now nothing can be right anymore and it feels like he’s shattering into tiny, aching shards - and then dream kneels before him, takes his hands, presses his forehead to them, sighs like his heart’s breaking, and tubbo feels a small calm thread back into him as dream stands abruptly, jittery. dream, with hands that shake, grips tubbo’s shoulder, hovers for a second, then his head jerks up and he bolts into the forest, clambering up a tree with admirable ease and disappearing away into the leaves as schlatt suddenly emerges from the bushes nearby with a joyous, plastic “hey! tubbo!”

chap 21 george

subtitle: lantern burns low

a moment in the night; george is visited by a specter. 

dream comes, pale, and asks george if there is anything wrong, is everything okay with you? takes george’s caught-off-guard face in his hands and says george george george, are you - and george catches a glimpse of dream’s powers (is he safe safe does he hurt no but fear but anxiety there are dregs hush now quiet now he is safe all quiet quiet quiet he’s safe) and he says, stricken even as the constant thrum of nervous energy he’d kept with him fades out, “dream what was that,” and dream presses his hands to his mask where his eyes are and says, despairingly, “they don’t get to have you too,” and staggers back out. 

george is the first person dream overtly “comes out” to. this is also why george doesn’t see dream til the festival. 

chap 22 schlatt

subtitle: the empty throne

dream visits schlatt in his office. 

schlatt, possessed by madness, has no idea what he’s saying but it feels right, it’s exactly right, everything is in his hands, and when dream approaches, his hands facing up, is he there is he there yes yes yes tainted polluted this is twisted this is madness madness madness dream reels back, shaking, and schlatt leans in and leers, not even knowing what he’s saying, “you can’t even fix it, young god,” and relishes the way all the color drains from dream’s face.

=)

chap 23 dream (edit: this monster ended up being split into three for pacing purposes and also if i left it together it was gonna be. h. 14K WORDS. also the drama of a cliffhanger at what most people thought was going to be the last chapter was too good to pass up don’t @ me

subtitle: do you feel like a young god?

running, running, running again

finale!! dream takes everyone’s old hurts into himself, takes the madness from schlatt and wilbur, promptly passes the hell out because no one should be doing that, wakes up, gets the shit hugged out of him, and explains a little, and gets told that he’s loved over and over. 

i uh! take questions! i like talking about this story, there’s a lot i still want to show, and even apart from that i just really love mcyt haha

#mcyt #young god #chrys writes #you're human tonight #yg meta #long post

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers. 

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”.  Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me. 

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least.  Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least).  Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs. 

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it.  This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there. 

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy. 

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all. 

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run. 

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit.  However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough.  So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all. 

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her.  Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright. 

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know.  Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head.  Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit.  And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap.  Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs.  Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing.  It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall.  So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is  a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that. 

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective.  A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great. 

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow. 

#darkwing duck #reviews #ducktales #darkly dawns the duck #drake mallard #goslyn mallard #launchpad mcquack #tarus bulba #the disney afternoon #the 90's

[autumnblogs]

Day 11: Melodrama

WIth Act 4 over, we’ve finished setting up the pins on the Earth Side of this story. We are now roughly one quarter of the way through the full story - and Homestuck is set up more or less in four acts, rather than in six acts as its “official” structure would suggest.

Time to start setting up the pins on the other disc.

https://homestuck.com/story/1942

But first, some more of Andrew’s prose to detail the fallout of the Sovereign Slayer’s activity. He’s been a busy man.

Also, Rose goes off the rails, but we knew that already.

This is the part of the story where Rose becomes an antagonist, in my opinion. More on that later. More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/1955

A letter from another version of Earth.

One of the very first things that we learn about Jake is that one of his all time favorite movies is Weekend at Bernie’s, an association that is part of a long list of red-herrings that link Jake up with Lord English, but of which nothing ultimately comes. It’s an association mostly because Bernie is a corpse who is also a puppet (like Doc Scratch, for example).

All that has already been pointed out by a lot of people before me, so moving on.

https://homestuck.com/story/1957

Just missed her.

https://homestuck.com/story/1993

Act 5 off to a great start, and while Karkat is in many ways a parallel to John (via their shared interests), right away, this action compares Karkat to Dave. Their reaction to being misnamed by the command prompt is pretty much identical.

https://homestuck.com/story/1994

Like I said, Karkat is pretty much immediately compared to John in terms of their shared interests, what with his Terrible Taste in Movies and his Amateur Coding.

One thing that stands out as endearing to me that I’ve probably not thought so much about before is Karkat’s practicing with his Sickle in his room. It reminds me of lightsaber wielding kids on early youtube.

https://homestuck.com/story/1995

So let’s break this and the next few pages down. Viewing the narration through the same James-Joycesque lens of “Narration is more or less identical with the characters’ thought processes,” that we have been so far, Karkat seems pretty ambivalent about existing as a troll, going as far as to describe his bad dreams as *terrible.*

Do all Trolls have dreams as bad as Karkat does? Is it a chucklevoodoos thing? Maybe it’s specifically a Karkat thing.

https://homestuck.com/story/1996

Karkat gets distracted instantly by intrusive thoughts and does something else that’s very Johnlike.

https://homestuck.com/story/1998

Aw c’mon. Early Sandler isn’t even that bad. Then again, it’s been a while since I’ve watched this one, maybe it’s worse than I remember it.

https://homestuck.com/story/1999

This section of the story is even more time-agnostic than the rest of the story, and a lot of it is told in past tense prospective action, which says to me that what we’re experiencing here is the various trolls on the meteor at the End of Act 4 collectively remembering what has taken place in the past, while the parts of this segment that are narrated in the present tense are being relayed to us via the characters in the narrative present (which is to say, the events which are being relayed to us in the panel.)

https://homestuck.com/story/2008

I wonder if Troll Will Smith is a Troll Scientologist?

https://homestuck.com/story/2010

I didn’t like the Trolls very much originally. They’re so ornery and pissy with each other all the time, with the exception of Gamzee and Tavros, but on a reread, especially keeping the things in mind that I’m keeping in mind, all of these characters are a lot more tolerable.

Using the cipher that we’ve established from reading the characters as basically attempting to perform what is culturally expected of them in the first four acts, we can immediately decode what is going on between Karkat and his friends - they are trying to be the best trolls they can be, or at least, live up to certain ideals/stereotypes the way that Dave tries to live up to the stereotype of the coolguy, or John emulates the mangrit and fatherliness and so on of his father figures.

But something is way *way* more wrong with Alternia’s role models than Earth’s.

That’s all from a Watsonian perspective. From a Doylist perspective, there are very explicit stereotypes each of these characters is designed around - commonplace annoying internet people from the ‘00s (pronounce that as Naughts).

https://homestuck.com/story/2012

There’s a lot of early installment weirdness in the first bits of Troll Stuff we get where it’s clear that Andrew was riffing and trying to find clear definitions for their relationships - it’s somewhat poorly known these days, I think, but Andrew has said in the past that he hates worldbuilding, and it kind of shows. (Did I mention that Kanaya Sollux friendship back when those two were interacting not long ago? That’s another one of those bits of early installment weirdness).

Anyway, the actual bit of early installment weirdness that I’m drawing attention to is the fact that the Subjugglators are described as being an Obscure Cult here, but later Homestuck Media (and even stuff within Homestuck, honestly) will make them out to be basically the only major aspect of being a Purple Blood.

https://homestuck.com/story/2013

Gamzee’s ignorance and his bliss are pretty much immediately linked to one another.

That said, I’m not going to dive too deep into Gamzee’s inner life. Like a lot of the trolls, in spite of his great relevance, he’s a bit of a joke character, and the joke is on us - whatever is going on inside this lad’s head is a puzzle for most of the comic.

Gamzee has a Freudian excuse in the form of his absent Lusus, which incidentally, is a parallel to Jade - the Nurture is the same, but the Nature is very differently. Unfortunately, when God was handing out Natures, he gave Gamzee one of the really bad ones, so he’s a worthless goddamn piece of shit.

https://homestuck.com/story/2024

Already into the first few troll conversations, and we’re setting up some stuff for later. Gamzee and Terezi’s very first conversation demonstrates the terrible chemistry that the two have together - Gamzee legitimately unsettles Terezi, and there’s just nothing at all she can do to bother him.

https://homestuck.com/story/2025

Sollux is probably so handy with this coding language because of his ability to hear the voices of the imminently deceased - so he can write programs that will execute along a pretty reasonable time frame.

https://homestuck.com/story/2027

Leader is a phrase that ends up being used in conjunction with Karkat a lot, and the concept of leadership is another one of those things that Homestuck Talks About but not a thing that Homestuck Is About, at least in the sense that leadership as a role is part of the comic’s broader commentary on cultural reproduction, the same way that Homestuck’s conversation about gender is, or Homestuck’s conversation about Roles in general.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Karkat wants to be a leader.

As long as Sollux is making his first appearance as a character, I want to take a second to say that as a character, he’s always been pretty tough and enigmatic for me to write, especially in the sense that he‘s frequently referred to melodramatic and sensitive or similar terms by people around him, but he actually doesn’t really seem that way in most cases - he just seems like a guy who wants to his own devices, and is generally pretty non-reactive to other peoples’ bullshit. Maybe he’s melodramatic in the way that Dave is, hyping himself up as a coolguy who is the best there is, but then again, Sollux kind of lives up to his own hype, considering that up until the last possible moment, he wins pretty much every fight he’s in handily, adapts Sburb personally, and has more romantic success than just about everyone else in the comic.

Maybe Karkat’s just projecting.

https://homestuck.com/story/2031

Roleplaying - a concept that I’ve used frequently to refer to the way that John and his chums perform rituals in order to relate to their culture and parents - is made explicit through the language of Flarping, which for the Trolls, serves as a way for them to literally act out the adventures of their long-dead ancestors, although it strikes me that it’s probably a lot more gainful for highbloods like Terezi and Vriska than it is in general for lowbloods like Aradia and Tavros.

I’ll get this out of the way up front instead of commenting it on a drip feed throughout Terezi’s upcoming courtblock roleplay - Terezi is the kind of kid who aspires to be a Cop. Or a lawyer, anyway, which in Alternian Law, is the same thing as a cop. In the wake of 2020′s scads of police brutality, and in general, having grown up into a nasty commie, it’s kind of hard to look at Terezi the same way.

While it’s clear that Terezi is remorseful later on toward her earlier attitudes and behaviors, Terezi is at least ambivalent, and at worst a purely antagonistic force throughout a lot of early Homestuck because of her authoritarian tendencies and her honestly pretty psychopathic behavior. She plays games with her friends’ lives.

https://homestuck.com/story/2047

Terezi adores having power over other people and making them helpless. For Terezi, alienation takes the form of emotional distance from the people that she’s tormenting. It makes it so much easier for her to conceive of them as wicked people who need to die.

https://homestuck.com/story/2055

Nepeta is an adorable girl who deserves all the good things. All of them.

That said, as long as we’re commentating and not glurging, Nepeta’s internet troll stereotype is probably less familiar these days, and I say probably less, but I can’t say for sure - it’s like this really specific thing that existed during the late ‘00s, where you had this highly specific stereotype, which I’ll call the Furry Artist Roleplayer, and I really hope that I’m not talking out of my ass by generalizing anecodtal evidence, but I know people who were pretty much exactly the Nepeta stereotype around the time that Act 5 was being written! Roleplaying in IRCs or on specialty forums with other people, all drawing art of their anthro OCs and writing stories about each other’s characters. That sort of thing still probably exists these days, but if it does, I’m not really part of any communities anymore where it leaks into the mainstream.

https://homestuck.com/story/2058

Okay, yup, Karkat is 100% projecting “Melodrama” on all the people around him. In a literal sense, Melodrama refers to theatrics that are exaggerated and sensationalized in such a way as to appeal to the emotions, often prioritizing spectacle and physical action over deep characterization.

Actually, if we’re taking it in the literal sense of the word, just about every character in Homestuck is pretty melodramatic - I keep talking about the way that they roleplay rituals and associate with symbols even when they fail to structures of power and culture that those rituals and symbols point to - performative participation without any actual substance. That’s practically the definition of Melodrama.

But Karkat is, perhaps, the most Melodramatic of all.

https://homestuck.com/story/2065

Aradia is one of my favorite characters in Homestuck, and possibly my favorite, something I can be up front about.

Our introduction to her is brief, and right out of the gate one thing about her is apparent - her relationship with destruction is central to her characterization.

https://homestuck.com/story/2069

While I was going to wait for the Hemospectrum to come up explicitly, now’s as good a time as any to talk about the fact that Andrew uses Troll society to comment on hierarchy a lot - hierarchy of just all kinds. Ageism is one of those, and Gerontocracy in particular in Alternia. In Alternia, just one of the ways that the oppression of the Hemospectrum manifests is the way that the Empire systematically takes advantage of its children by basically leaving them completely to their own devices. Trolls don’t have family units normally, but the fact that Troll adults are all offworld is not a “natural” part of Troll Society, it’s a decision. And while it’s a decision made by the Empress, it’s still one that, to some extent, benefits adult trolls at the expense of the children, since they’re not around spending energy on raising kids who are expected to raise themselves from the word go.

It’s honestly pretty late, and I’m tuckered out because of the steroids that I’m on, and the cough medicine, so in spite of the comparatively pretty short amount of reading I’ve done tonight, I’m going to call it here.

Cam signing off, Alive and a little High.

#liveblogging #commentary #nurture #nature #trolls

[thewidowstanton]

The Widow’s best of 2020

Well… during a year when we haven’t been able to see many live shows we’ve still managed to find lots of things we loved. Here are some of them; live shows are indicated, otherwise we watched them online – our grateful thanks go to all the companies that streamed their productions for free – listened to them or read them. You’ll notice that our list includes lots of women and the occasional man.

But before that we start with a new category…

PERSON OF THE YEAR: Circus director Carol Gandey (pictured) of Gandeys Circus. If UK touring circus – an artform championed by The Widow’s Liz Arratoon for more than 25 years – is to survive Covid-19, it will be in large part to her. Gandeys had produced three shows before the UK’s March lockdown, two of which never had a chance to open, incurring hundreds of thousands of pounds in costs. It then provided accommodation and living expenses for 33 stranded artists, and meanwhile developed an air-flow working model for circus – trialling an opening at Butlins – which gave the government enough confidence to allow circuses to reopen with reduced seating capacities.  

Carol constantly lobbied the government and the Arts Council for aid – as did other industry figures – and her application to the Arts Council Recovery Fund, which was said to be exceptional, resulted in a £1.1 million grant; the largest amount awarded to any UK circus company. Gandeys used some of the money to cover the losses due to the lockdown, and to fund a survival package that included some reduced-capacity performances this autumn, as well as funding the production costs for reopening in 2021.

From one strong and inspirational woman to another…

BEST EXTRAVAGANZA: Rhianna’s Savage X Fenty Volume 2 TV special for her lingerie range. Wow! What a mix! This was an explosion of creativity; part fashion show, part dance show, part gig, part circus, part ad, and included a simply stunning floral set. Add a cast of big names, a wonderfully diverse choice of dancers and models, no expense had been spared. Exciting, fresh and really impressive.

BEST LIVE SHOW: Zebra, a solo show by juggling genius Wes Peden, which was part of the London International Mime Festival at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room.

BEST CIRCUS SHOW: The really inventive CAPAS by Circo Eia (pictured) – so great to see so many new ideas, and here’s our chat with cast member Francesca Lissia. Plus the intricate and dazzling Twenty Twenty by Gandini Juggling. 

BEST DANCE SHOW: Faust by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, featuring the spectral Bernice Coppieters (pictured) as Death; and Cia de Dança Deborah Colker’s super-stylish Belle, inspired by the novel Belle de Jour.

BEST KIDS’ SHOW: Little Angel Theatre’s hat trilogy, presented by puppeteer Ian Nicholson; an adaptation of the picture books by Jon Klassen: I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat and We Found a Hat.

BEST COSTUME: The Widow has always considered costumes to be extremely important. As Federico Fellini said: “Don’t forget that costumes, like dreams, are symbolic communication,” and frankly we wish more artists would make the sort of effort Dua Lipa made on Saturday Night Live!

Staying with costumes… slightly less glamorous, but an effort was made by Hot Mess in party-sketch work-in-progress Dirty Stop Outs.

MOST EXCITING: Meeting Marina Abramović in the foyer at London’s Barbican before the Efterklang gig.

BEST SHOWGIRLS: Seen in the 1972 film Un Flic; costumes by Colette Baudot. Also featured is a stunning black dress, worn by Catherine Deneuve, designed by Yves Saint Laurent.

BEST BURLESQUE: Lady of Burlesque, starring Barbara Stanwyck, who wears costumes by the great Edith Head.

BEST FILM CREDITS: Sudden Fear, starring Joan Crawford as a scorned – but impeccably dressed – woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown! 

BEST CASTAWAY: Hard to choose between Rupert Everett, Ian Wright or Daniel Radcliffe, who all washed up on BBC Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs.

BEST SHOWBIZ STORY: Catherine Russell – on Outlook, BBC Radio 4 – who has played the same role for 32 years and said the same lines more than 13,000 times. She holds the world record for the most theatre performances in the same role; Margaret Thorne Brent – a psychiatrist who might also be a cold-blooded killer – in the off-Broadway play Perfect Crime.

BEST TV SERIES: It was a close call with The Queen’s Gambit, but our choice is the utterly brilliant My Brilliant Friend; the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s series of Neapolitan novels. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY: The Bee Gees – How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

BEST CABARET PIC: The ever-lovely Eve Ferret at the Crazy Coqs in London. Picture: @marc_t_albert 

BEST SHOWBIZ MEMOIR: John Cooper Clarke’s I Wanna Be Yours.

BEST SHOWBIZ BIOGRAPHY: Jon Gresham: The Life and Adventures of a Sideshow Showman, Fire-Eater and Magician by Edwin A Dawes, Pat Gresham and Jon Marshall. This is a painstakingly detailed and enthralling account of Gresham’s life, lovingly compiled by his widow and friends from material written by Gresham himself. Want one? Details below.

BEST SHOWBIZ AUTOBIOGRAPHY: The heartbreaking Everything and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy by Dorothy Dandridge and Earl Conrad. The revealing autobiography of Hollywood’s first African-American sex symbol and screen legend.

BEST GIG: Sevdaliza’s only show this year, streamed live from The Hague's Koninklijke Schouwburg (Royal Theatre) to a global audience.

BEST SONG: Désormais by Charles Aznavour, which was used as the title track for the film Chambre 212 or On a Magical Night.

BEST ALBUM COVER: Charles Aznavour’s Désormais. That hat!

MOST CHARMING: The sheep invasion during Isabella Rossellini’s show Sex and Consequences, which was streamed live from her farm in Bellport, Long Island, USA. Yes, her live sheep! 

BEST TWITTER CIRCUS PIC: The stunning Crystal Pyramids by Severus posted by @PablosCircus.

BEST LIVE COMEDY: Myra Dubois – star of Britain’s Got Talent – at The Poodle Club in Sydenham. Some of us recognised the greatness of Rotherham’s finest before she was famous!

GONE TOO SOON: Actor Chadwick Boseman (pictured) at just 43, funnymen Eddie Large, Tim Brooke Taylor and Bobby Ball, and dancer, choreographer and actor Ann Reinking.

MOST MISSED: Davenports magic shop that closed at the end of January – but you luckily can still order from it online – and a more recent casualty, after 96 years, London’s beautiful Café de Paris.

MOST DISAPPOINTING: Madonna’s Madame X show at the London Palladium. Goodness, this was shoddy! She was so incapacitated that she simply marked all the dance moves and had to be helped around the set, and up and down the stairs. The tickets were exorbitantly expensive and no one paid to see someone hobbling about onstage. We paid to see Madonna!

But let’s not end on a sour note…

BEST SHOWBIZ MASK: Shirley Bassey’s fabulous sequinned number!

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL: Some things we’re looking forward to include:  The 45th London International Mime Festival, which will be screening free-to-view videos of shows from past LIMF editions, running an extended workshop series with live and online classes, and hosting a series of talks.

We’re also awaiting the new series of Call My Agent, which starts on Netflix on 21 January 2021.

And, last but by no mean least, one of the world’s truly funny clowns, Gloria – also known as Mooky Cornish – has been busy training her chickens – Kukuruzza (pictured top), who has been taking piano lessons, and the athletic Galina – and will be touring the Canadian prairies with them next summer. Now that’s something we’d love to see! Picture: Nichole Huck

Better days ahead!

*Jon Gresham book is available via PayPal from [email protected]: P&P incl, UK – £25, EU – £30, USA tracked – $52

#best of 2020 #showbusiness best of 2020 #rhianna #savage x fenty #Wes Peden #Gandini juggling #circo eia #Ballets de Monte-Carlo #deborah colker #myra dubois #bbc outlook #desert island discs #eve ferret #john cooper clarke #Jon Marshall #sevdaliza #charles aznavour #desormais #isabella rossellini #davenports magic #carol gandey #gandeys circus #Mooky Cornish #gloria #madonna #little angel theatre #marina abramović #bee gees #shirley bassey #dua lipa

[adenei]

The Mixtape Mishap - Chapter 2

Christmas at the Burrow

Ginny woke up Christmas morning to a pile of gifts at the foot of her bed. She immediately began opening them. When she opened the gift from Hermione, she saw Hermione’s note saying she’d be there for New Years. “Yes!” Ginny said out loud. She examined the muggle music player and CD thingies that Hermione had given her. She’d have to ask Harry for help setting it up, and keep it away from her dad who would no doubt have a field day with it. 

Ginny was chuckling at the thought when she noticed the envelope she was meant to give Harry. She felt another envelope slip under the one for Harry. “Hmm..’RW Bad Blood’. She didn’t mention anything for Ron, but this must be for him..” Ginny shrugged and carried the two envelopes downstairs with her. Her mum was busy making breakfast.

“Good morning, dear!” she said cheerily. “Happy Christmas!”

“Happy Christmas, Mum! Thank you for my gifts! Is no one else up yet?”Ginny asked.

“Just waiting on Ron and Harry. Breakfast is almost ready, so I’ll have you go up and get them if they aren’t down by then.” Ginny nodded as she went about helping to set the table. “Ginny, did Hermione ever tell you if she’s coming for New Years?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Yes! She’ll arrive on New Year's Eve via floo. Remember, Mum, we can’t tell Harry or Ron if she does come. She and Ron aren’t on good terms..” Ginny reminded her.

“Is it because of that girl he’s seeing?” Mrs. Weasley asked seriously. “I really always thought..oh, nevermind, he’ll come to his senses eventually.” 

“One can only hope,” Ginny muttered under her breath.

“What’s that there?” Mrs. Weasley asked, noticing the envelopes Ginny had set down.

“Oh, they’re for Harry and Ron,” Ginny said. “Want me to go get them?”

“Yes, I think it’s about time. Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Weasley said.

Ginny grabbed the envelopes and brought them upstairs. When she got to the top landing she knocked on Ron’s door. “Breakfast is almost ready! Are you lot up yet? I have something for you,” Ginny called from outside the door. She could hear Harry laughing hysterically about something.

“Er, yeah, come in,” she heard Ron call.

Ginny opened the door to find Harry holding a box of maggots and Ron’s face redder than normal. “I’m not even going to ask,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

Harry nodded towards the box he’d just closed and said, “Kreacher,” as Ginny nodded in understanding. “Ron got the best gift from Lav Lav,” he said as he fell into a fit of laughter again.

“Oi! Sod off!” Ron said. “What do you want, Gin?” 

Ginny handed Harry and Ron the envelopes. “These ended up in my gift,” Ginny said.

“A CD?” said Harry. “How are we supposed to listen to these?”

“Hermione got me a walk-thingie to play them on. You’ll be able to help me figure it out, right Harry? She knows I like wizard rock so she got me some muggle rock music to listen to. I’m sure it’ll be great once I figure out how to use it.”

“Sure! I’ve used Dudley’s old ones before, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Her note says the music on mine is the same stuff you have, just not as much.” Harry was skimming her note.

Ron had been silent the whole time, staring at his envelope. “Are you sure this is for me?” 

Ginny shrugged, “It has your initials on it, so I assumed it was for you. If we get the music player working, you can use it to listen later if you want. We should probably get downstairs before Mum comes for us.”

* * *

That evening, Ron walked upstairs to his room while Harry and Ginny were figuring out Ginny’s gift from Hermione. He figured now would be a good time to examine his envelope from Hermione in private. She hadn’t spoken to him in weeks, so he wasn’t expecting anything from her. He was surprised that Ginny had handed him the envelope.

 Life was weird without her. Sure, snogging Lavender was fun, but after a couple of weeks, it was starting to feel more like a hassle spending time with her. Lavender just didn’t get that he needed to get his work done. He needed space, but she wanted to spend every waking moment with Ron. And now, with that horrid gift, Ron was realizing he barely knew anything about Lavender at all, or vice versa. What was worse, is that he wasn’t sure he wanted to learn more about her. He found himself missing Hermione more and more, but didn’t know how to make amends with her. 

Ron knew he’d agreed to go to that party with Hermione, but then the row with Ginny happened, and the jealousy resurfaced over Krum, and things slipped out of control from there. Fast forward to now, where he was in some sort of relationship with Lavender that he was starting to second guess. 

He opened the envelope and saw the piece of paper inside along with the, what’d Harry call it? A BD? Ron took out the paper, but left the disc until he could listen to it. He still wasn’t sure how you ‘listened’ to that. It made no sense to him. He unfolded the paper and read the top: ‘Attempt #36 to get over him’. What? Why would she send me this? Ron asked himself. Get over me? No, there’s no way Hermione actually fancies me. That would be too good to be true. He continued reading the paper that had her handwriting. 

The words kept jumping out at him and the theme was clear, even if the numbers and the underlines didn’t make sense. With the paper in hand, he bolted down the stairs. He needed to hear what the rest of those songs said. Now.

He entered the living area where Harry and Ginny were still listening. Ginny looked up and saw the look on his face and paused the device. “Everything okay, Ron?” Harry looked at him, too.

“Er, yeah. Listen, can I use the music thing? I really need to hear what’s on the BD.”

“CD?” Harry corrected.

“Ron, we’re listening right now, can it wait?” Ginny asked.

“Please, Gin? There’s only-” he looked down at the paper in his hand, “nine songs, I think. I promise you can have it right back. I just- I need to figure out what this means,” Ron gestured to the paper.

Harry and Ginny shared a look. “Um, I guess so. Did you leave the CD upstairs?”

“Yeah…” Ron answered.

“Alright, I’ll come with you and show you.”

When they got to his room, Ginny noticed the paper again. “What’d she write on that? Harry and I didn’t get anything like that.”

“I don’t know, that’s why I want to hear the music. It makes no sense.”

“Can I see it?” Ginny asked.

“Er, I guess” Ron said as he handed it to her.

As Ginny read through it, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. There was no way Hermione meant for this to be seen. Oh no, oh no, oh no… she thought. It’s too late now, I have to help him. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll come to his senses and do something about it, and then Hermione won’t kill me. I’ll just play dumb. Yes, that’ll work, right?

“So?” Ron interrupted her thoughts. “What do you think?”

“Well, I think you’re right about the numbers. That’s how many songs - see the 9 on the screen here? I’d guess the underlined words are the titles of the songs, and the quotes must be lyrics.”

“Right, thanks.” Ron said as Ginny walked him through the buttons. He really just had to press play. “I’ll bring this right back to you once I’m done, promise.”

Ginny got up to leave. She stopped when she got to the door and turned around. “Ron? Please don’t make this worse, okay?” She left before he could respond.

Ron began listening to each of the songs. The first few were sung by a male and the rest by a woman. It was clear in every song that the singer was singing about someone else that it sounded like they were in a relationship with. Or was, he wasn’t quite sure. It was becoming clear to him though, that the words Hermione had written had to do with how she felt. 

The gates had broken to the feelings he’d been trying to suppress for her, and he knew there was no hiding them anymore. He had to end things with Lavender. He couldn’t keep lying to himself, or to her. Ron brought the music player back downstairs and returned to his room. He pulled out parchment, and began writing a letter at his desk.

Lavender,

I hope you had a happy Christmas. Listen, I’m really sorry to be doing this now of all times, but I don’t think this is working out. I don’t want to lie to myself, or to you. The past few weeks have been fun, but I haven’t been interested for the right reasons. I’m sorry if I led you on. I’m also sending back the gift you got me, as I really don’t deserve it, especially now. I hope we can still be friends. 

Ron

Ron read and re-read the letter. He’d never broken up with a girl before. He knew doing it through a letter was shitty, but he didn’t want to wait until he got back to school. He had to focus on making up with Hermione, and he couldn’t do that while Lavender was still in the picture. Ron repackaged the necklace Lavender had gotten him. He handed the letter and package to Pig. 

“Bring this straight to Lavender Brown, okay? I’ll give you extra owl treats when you get back.” He watched Pig fly out into the night. Hope she doesn’t send me a howler, Ron thought, as he flopped back down on his bed, rereading the paper from Hermione.

#romione au #romione #ronmione #ron x hermione #Ron and Hermione

[avoutput]

Final Fantasy VII Legacy || Nomura, Complex?

This is the 3rd out of 3 articles. Find the second here.

It’s time to get down to mythril tacks. At this point, I have talked about what this game meant to me when it was released and how it’s newest installment fared as a game. Finally, it’s time to talk about the impact the Remake has on what has unexpectedly become a robust and diverse universe. What does this mean for us at large, the players? This is a no-holds-barred SPOILER frenzy about anything and everything in the Squaresoft/Square-Enix pantheon. This means not just the games in the orbit of Final Fantasy VII, but the entire catalog at Square-Enix. To be honest, this is just the introduction, I don’t know if I even have an intent of going so far beyond the purview of the Remake, but in the spirit of the Final Fantasy gatekeeper, Tetsuya Nomura, I refuse to limit myself.

It’s been almost exactly a month since I started writing this article. It took so long to come back to this because I kept finding more and more content related to Final Fantasy 7 that I either forgot about or didn’t even know existed. On my own shelf sits Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. I decided to watch Advent Children immediately after beating Remake. As a movie fan and amateur critic, the film is littered with terrible film decisions and was clearly the work of people who spend much of their time penning and creating video game stories. It’s a series of cutscenes without a controller attached and at a certain point, you realize Advent Children was never meant for film fans, but for fans of the game. Specifically for fans desiring an epilogue and more directly fans of Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth. The story is almost unintelligible because there is tons of connective tissue left to be assumed by the viewer. It is at once too far removed from FF7 in both linear real time and in-game universe time to be recognizable, and simultaneously inexplicable in what has transpired and why. It takes a crack at explaining it from moment to moment, but largely, it looks like they were looking for excuses to push the characters to act. I am not trying to review the film but rather my intent is to create a modus opendai for the gatekeeper, Mr. Nomura. The more I learned about the world of FF7 that was being created over the years, the more it seemed to lean on the stylings of this one man. In a way, Nomura launched Squaresoft and himself into a whole new stratosphere of fame and broke all expectations. In my first article, I mentioned that for a certain generation of fans, it was the perfect storm, but I would later find out the cause of the storm was Nomura breaking open lightning in a bottle, releasing his brand of design on the world with a multi-million dollar international company backing him.

If I may, let me take a parallel series by the same creator infested by the meta of his own other original creations, namely Kingdom Hearts. In its inception, it looks like two producers at Square were trying to make a 3-D adventure platformer game with characters as popular as Mario, but only the biggest brand on earth, Disney, could possibly beat the king of platformers. Nomura was… walking by and pushed himself into the conversation, and they decided if they could do it, they would let him direct. (Read more here) Yada yada yada, Kingdom Hearts was created. While I can’t seem to find (and didn’t look too hard to find) proof, I can only imagine that with KH having a tenuous new relationship with big-corp Disney, they focused more on a simple game that was straightforward. KH is very much a disney product with a little bit of artificial Nomura sweetener. With its unbridled success, Nomura was unleashed. Kingdom Hearts 2 would go on to be, in my opinion, one of the most unintelligible video game stories ever inscribed to plastic discs. But the power of Nomura’s story-telling is that we all understand it differently. He creates bedrocks, little story islands of unshakable facts that are connected via a salty sea of undefinable liquid moments. Cast out to sea, rudderless and deprived, you try to bring to your mouth this brine only to be dehydrated faster than if you had just sailed the sea and died in the sun between fact islands or lived long enough to tell the tale. And that metaphor is my tribute to Nomura. Long, winding, hard to remember, and just clear enough that you think you got it, but you still have problems with its construction.

It has now been over two months since I have last visited this article. What is keeping me from continuing? The incomplete nature of my knowledge of Final Fantasy VII lore. Unlike the Kingdom Hearts sea, VII is like a series of interconnected caves, and the more you unearth the more you learn. And therein lies the problem. The Nomura-verse is composed of both his methods and his circumstances. His methods, we have discussed, but his circumstance is game development. Unlike movies or books, games obviously have an interactive capability, but they also have a variable development cycle. Some titles come out quickly, others span decades. They also consist of different teams, story writers, directors, and a myriad of producers. This in turn can make it much harder to make a solid universe, especially when new additions start off in a place where a continuous story was never meant to exist. Nomura is at once hindered and strengthened by his circumstances. He can’t tell a better story because the development cycle of his vision is variable, and success is based on sales and popularity. Without success, he can’t create a new addition, and often in games, the end is meant to tie the whole thing up. Were there to be a sequel, a whole new story is thought up and tacked on wherever it fits. Gamers are pretty forgiving of this concept. Still, at the same time, Nomura probably wouldn’t make a concise story because it's not his style. For comparison, see the Dark Souls series. A game that both has deep lore and an involving story, but at the same time, the game doesn’t require you to know a single point to continue moving forward. This is almost the antithesis of Nomura’s style. In Souls, they let the player decide to explore its story caves, but doesn’t confront them with it to continue advancing. This is a strength of  video games. A strength that Nomura keeps using to his disadvantage.

Yet, Final Fantasy VII still excelled to unparalleled heights. It engages you in the same way all of the previous games in the series have, but with a slight departure on the strict fantasy theme, instead a merger with steampunk or semi-future. The series was changed forever, and so was gaming. Instead of doing the Dragon Quest method, expanding on the same universe design with different stories, Final Fantasy was emboldened to try completely random approaches with vector entries like VIII and X. For longtime fans, or fans of their original design, Every future title, MMO or Single Player, would go on to be successful, but not fully realized in their original context. Even the return to form in IX was much more playful than any of the original six entries. Gaming franchises have since become playgrounds for developers. Once they are accepted by fans, developers are emboldened and experiment with what would normally be a new IP, but instead use the financial shield of the famous namesake to move forward with new ideas. And in the case of Final Fantasy, when this concept of change works, it means that every numbered game becomes a wildcard. It’s a double edged sword for a gaming franchise that dates back to the 8-bit era. It has fans over 40 years old by this point and they may be willing to buy anything new. But this isn’t new to you and it isn’t a revelation for me. Final Fantasy VII Remake causes me to reckon with these demons I had buried years ago. It rips off a scab I thought had healed. I had given up on the past, a past where I was excited for a singular story, contained in a single universe, in a single title. I had given up on the glory years of Final Fantasy, but the Remake took me back and said, what if we told you everything you remember about the original was true, and everything we added after that was also true, even though you probably didn’t play it or even know it existed. Even if you do your very best, you probably won’t be able to track the story or interconnected characters if you aren’t in the know. It’s like joining a group of long time friends that are constantly referencing inside jokes, all of them just winking at each other, nudging you in the ribs and asking, “Do ya get it?” Truly, the Remake series thus far makes me feel lost at sea when what I wanted to feel like was coming home.

This retrospective has left me feeling broken. Based on the end of the FFVIIR, I sought out to reconcile all of the loose ends to all the connected media. However, spending time with the prequel Crisis Core for over around 40 hours, I realized this was a crapshoot. None of it mattered. It didn’t enrich the characters, it only made the story longer. It just added wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey “facts” to an otherwise complete(ish) origin point. The FFVII universe can’t handle the weight that is put on it. It’s a faulty bridge over a treacherous pass. On the other hand, that same bridge for some is a point of excitement. You tread the boards, one by one, testing your weight, hoping to get to the other side intact. And I think that is why we keep trying these games and why they keep getting made. We don’t want the fun to end, despite the fact that it has nothing left for us to be excited by. It’s a closed loop that we keep looking for something new in. By the end of the Remake, we are somewhere between ⅓ or ½ way across the faulty bridge, dangling between where we have been and where it is taking us. At this point, I am too mentally exhausted from trying to make sense of it all. Yet I am incapable of not enjoying it, the mental somersaults one does to understand the interconnected mess that is Final Fantasy VII. It’s too dear to me. I got on the bridge for so many reasons, but the biggest one is to be on the other side with all of the other fans who dared to play and dared to complete the game. To be in the know, to wink across the room. I want to be in that hyper-critical utopia where we all have one thing in common: We played Final Fantasy VII in 1997. And we all have something to say about it.

#Article #Final Fantasy VII #Final Fantasy 7 #Final Fantasy VII Remake #Final Fantasy 7 Remake #Tetsuya Nomura #Yoshitaka Amano #Cloud #Tifa #Aerith #Nostalgia #Gaming #Kingdom Hearts #Squaresoft #Enix

[mollymauk-teafleak]

Catching Up

It's my wonderful friend @minky-for-short‘s birthday so I wrote her a fic! And I'm posting just in case anyone read my fic 'I will love you if I never see you again' and wanted more dad Jupeter and more of their daughter!

Bianca has an announcement for her dads and there's only one way Nureyevs can communicate. And if you’d leave a comment on Ao3, I’d so appreciate it!

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There were many reasons they weren’t a conventional family.

There was their clunky surname that was hard to wrap your mouth around. Steel-Nureyev. Or maybe Nureyev-Steel, they’d never formally decided which way it went. Mostly because they never really had to use it and had never needed to write it down in any official capacity.

There was the fact that a female sewer rabbit lived in their modest Hyperion apartment, turning it into a tiny apartment and the rabbit into, technically, a house rabbit. It was fine, they rarely had guests over that weren’t Rita, Jet or the Aurinkos. Or Mick but he was terrified of Small Fry, as Juno insisted on still calling her.

There was the fact that, for months long stretches at a time, Juno and Nureyev would have no idea where their eldest daughter was. They would hear nothing from her or her wife, Desta, not so much as a message over their comms. Nothing but Juno’s anxious, obsessive tuning in to the police scanners of all the major planets and some from the outer rim to boot. Rita had hacked his comms so he’d be able to pick it up and Nureyev pretended he didn’t know how much he clung to it and that he wasn’t equally as worried, all the time, gnawing away deep down inside himself.

But there was also the fact that when, finally, they’d hear her boots in the hallway or see the coat that used to be Juno’s hanging on the coat rack by the door and hear her singing from her old bedroom, when their Bee Bee finally came home, the cards would always come out.

Juno tried to be a good host, tried to catch their attention to offer drinks but they were already focused. They sat across the dining room table from each other, like they always did, with the same matching smiles and narrowed eyes and playful determination. Nureyev laid the cards out himself, as he always did, so many that they took up a whole table in an array that still didn’t make a lick of sense to Juno, much to his irritation.

“Have they always done this?” Desta asked, her voice soft and quiet as always. Her lips were a bright blue today and she was smiling more than usual, “This game?”

Her eyes were on Bianca, with the same exasperated tenderness Juno was sure she’d see in his own eye, fixed on Nureyev.

“It used to be chess,” Juno hummed as he poured wine, “He taught her to play when she was six, they practised every night until she could beat him. Then he would cheat and she had to still win and tell him after how he cheated. Then they both cheated. And then they moved onto this. Same system, just with a game a million times more complicated.”

Desta looked at the splayed out cards, at the rapid fire way Nureyev dealt and shrugged, accepting the wine Juno held out to her and sipping mildly. Juno wished he could have the same blase attitude to not having a clue how Rangian street poker worked.

“Can’t you guys catch up normally?” he sighed, bringing Nureyev the glass of red wine he didn’t need to ask to know he wanted, “Like with a conversation? I’ve heard some families have those.”

“This is way more fun,” Bianca waved away her own glass and squeezed her mama’s hand instead, “Cos I get to catch up and beat my daddy at something.”

Nureyev’s eyebrow arched, “Confidence. An interesting play, given how our last game went.”

Bee Bee hummed, tilting her head so her earrings rang. Desta had clearly made them, they were exquisitely wrought discs of ceramic and bronze, painted with tiny flowers. She’d been doing a lot of pottery work lately, straying away from her usual canvasses.

“Funny, daddy, I don’t recall how our last game went. I prefer to focus on the game in front of me. First rule of thieving, right?”

Nureyev’s smile curled up at one end and he was clearly suppressing a chuckle, “Let’s start then. You can have the first question.”

Bianca tilted her head in thought, “Hmm...have you read Sephy’s manuscript?”

Nureyev’s eyes widened, “What? Have you? He’s not been letting anyone read it until his editor gets back to him, not even Idun!”

Her eyebrow lifted and her grin became truly smug, “Is that your question, daddy?”

He bristled the way a cornered cat would, “No. I want to know what planet you were just on.”

“Works for me. Let’s play!”

If Juno had thought Nureyev was fast back at the Oasis, now he thought he must grow four extra arms to keep up. He and Bianca were a flurry of effortlessly manicured, pale, spidery hands and laser burned, clever fingered, dark brown hands, all working to outwit the other set in ways that there was no hope of following. Juno gave up quickly, motioning Desta over to the sofa to the side of the table, making polite small talk about her latest gallery opening on Jupiter where the art scene had gone wild at the idea of an anonymous artist with such magnificent, bold pieces. He didn’t know a damn thing about art, especially good art, but the way the kid’s eyes lit up when she talked about her work was good enough for him.

They broke off when the hand ended, Bianca grinning in triumph and Nureyev scowling and gritting his teeth.

“No,” he said, short and clipped, “My own son, my flesh and blood, whom I gave life to will not let me read his manuscript.”

Bianca’s smile softened a little, “He just cares about your opinion. He doesn’t want you to read it until it’s absolutely perfect and even then he’s probably going to still worry you don’t like it.”

Nureyev gave a non committal grunt but it was clear she’d mollified him. Juno would have piped up and told him that he hadn’t been allowed to read it either but Nureyev already knew that. And he knew it didn’t stop either of them being so damn proud of their son, selling his first novel to a publisher at just twenty years old, after a childhood of watching him typing away on his comms, writing his little stories.

“Your turn, daddy,” Bianca smiled sweetly, shamelessly using every weapon she’d had since she was born to wrap the galaxy’s greatest thief around her little finger.

He drew in a breath and set his shoulders. Juno had seen him square up for fights before, he knew that look behind his cat eye glasses. Clearly Bianca had caught him on the back foot, bringing a new level to the game that he hadn’t known she could. But he was drawing himself tight as a bow, his knuckles threatening to burst out of his skin, his teeth showing under his lip.

Once again, Juno wished that they could catch up with their children over dinner maybe, cups of tea and biscuits even, like normal people.

“What planet were you just on?” Nureyev asked again, still stuck on his first question.

Bianca smiles broadly, dark gold eyes wandering around the room, “Did you and mama redecorate?”

“Play,” Nureyev looks insulted by her question, setting to the cards.

Juno just watched this time, he’d learned that a comfortable silence was best with Desta sometimes. He saw a lot of his younger self in the girl his daughter had brought back from one of her first big jobs. That didn’t bode well at all for the poor kid so he was always careful to give her space and just be a quiet presence beside her. It seemed to be working, she shifted closer to him after a minute of nothing but cards hitting the table, sounding like bird wings, and actually rested her head on his shoulder.

Juno smiled and let his eye wander over the table, not trying to make sense of the erratic movements and patterns that seemed to rise and fall apart within seconds, but just watching his husband and their daughter be brilliant at something. He had fun finding the eerie similarities in their expressions and their mannerisms, how she looked so much like him but acted so much like Nureyev.

He was so deep in his own thoughts that the only reason he didn’t miss the reveal was Nureyev’s startled noise of dismay.

“What?” he looked down at their cards like he was looking at a cat with two heads doing a tap dance across the table, “But...but I…”

Bianca tilted her head, humming innocently, “Something wrong, daddy?”

“How did you do that?” he demanded, stunned, “I’ve never used that method with you and I invented it myself, how could you know about it? How could you counter it so fast?”

“This is all very nice but all I care about is if that wallpaper is new,” she actually pretend to stifle a yawn. Juno had to swallow a laugh very quickly or he’d have been sleeping on the couch.

Nureyev trembled, “Yes. Yes, it’s new, we redecorated after your mother’s pet chewed through the plaster.”

“Hey, her new teeth were coming though, okay?” Juno piped up indignantly, “They were hurting.”

Bad move, all of Nureyev’s frustrations flowed at him like a blistering wind via the glare he gave him. Maybe he should start fluffing the couch cushions now. Desta giggled beside him.

“You have something, don’t you?” Nureyev swiveled back to his eldest with realisation chasing away the clouds annoyance, “Something big. That’s why you’re playing like this.”

Bianca gave no reaction but a pretty smile, “All you have to do is ask, daddy. Well, ask and win, I guess.”

“Was I born yesterday, treasure?” Nureyev sniffed, “I know how this game is played. I will ask but only when I am in the correct position, perfectly poised to strike.”

“Cool, daddy,” Bianca seemed more interested in her nails, her posture looking like she was having a lazy brunch with a friend.

Desta murmured softly, close to Juno’s ear, “They do...love each other, right?”

“Hard to tell sometimes, isn’t it?” Juno whispered back after a rough chuckle, “But yeah, they’re devoted to each other. They’re just like this.”

They continued to be ‘like this’ for another half hour, playing round after round, questions fired like shots by Nureyev and tossed out lazily by Bianca.

“Did you pull that job over in Olympus with the melting bank notes and not come visit us?”

“So how’s your yoga class? Does Bitch Jan still go?”

“Why do you call your mother when he’s at work when you know I won’t be there?”

“That necklace is cute, is it new?”

“How the hell did you win that last goddamn round?”

“I saw you having dinner at that place on Third Street on Auntie Rita’s feed, is it any good? I was thinking of taking Desta.”

“What exactly did I do to deserve such a terrible child? No that is not my question, shut up Juno!”

The rounds went on and Nureyev’s blood pressure steadily climbed. He lost again and again to Bianca, with her barely breaking a sweat, having to give up the mundanities of their empty nester life, his attempts at baking and their redecorating and the silly streams they liked to watch.

Juno had never seen this happen before. He’d never say it out loud but Bee Bee had always been the better player, when you looked at it all together, but there had never been a game where Nureyev hadn’t taken more than a few rounds from her and it had never been so easy.

Juno narrowed his eye and studied his daughter, now with her feet up on the table and rocking her chair back on two legs, clearly enjoying this. But equally as clearly up to something. Nureyev had it dead to rights, there was something she held, something that had to be big with all the effort she was putting in to make him unwrap it.

Before he could help it, Juno was adding it up. And, in less than a moment, in less time than it took for Bianca to tear her winning hand into shreds and playfully blow them in Nureyev’s direction, he had it.

“Holy shit!” he yelped, slapping a hand over his mouth a second too late.

Bianca shot him a sparkling grin and a look in her eyes like she knew he’d get it eventually. She put her finger to her red painted lips.

“What?” Nureyev looked like he didn’t know whether to flip the table or cry now, eyes darting between the two of them, “Oh come on! Now he knows?”

“He is a detective,” Bee Bee pointed out, “And you are supposed to be good at this game, daddy. You are getting old, huh?”

Nureyev grit his teeth, finger trembling in the air, a million cutting responses crowding on his tongue. But then he dropped his hand to the table and inhaled sharply, letting it come out again in a long, low hiss.

“You know what? Let’s do this. My question...what are you keeping from me, Bianca Nureyev?”

Bee Bee only smiled, almost in acceptance, and pondered a moment, “Um...did you like that podcast I sent you?”

The creases on Nureyev’s brow deepend, “But...but you know that? I told you that? Weeks ago?”

Bee Bee looked untroubled, “Pass or play, daddy?”

“Play,” Nureyev eventually said, after a long moment of him clearly wracking his brain for what new machination their daughter had just put into motion, deciding to let it run.

The difference was palpable, even from where Desta and Juno sat. Before she’d been snake-like in how quick and deadly her movements were, now she was deferential, walking right into his snares without a care, doing something no self respecting Nureyev or Steel had ever done. She was playing fair. All while smiling like she’d already won.

It was a quick slaughter. No one was surprised when they turned their cards over and Nureyev held the winning hand. No one but Nureyev himself.

“I...I don’t understand…” he muttered to himself, as his hands moved automatically to tear his cards, “How did you...after everything…”

“Would you like your answer?” Bianca swung her legs down, leaning close, now intent and eager.

Nureyev almost looked terrified, like he was waiting for a trap to spring around his neck but he couldn’t see how yet, “Yes...yes, fine. What’s this big secret?”

Bianca beamed, like she’d been waiting for this since she walked through the door, “You’re going to be a grandpa.”

Nureyev didn’t seem to register it at first, his face still set in puzzlement. Then his eyes went very, very wide and he sat bolt upright, jaw practically hitting his chest.

Bianca laughed, already standing to go and hug him as tight as she could, only just managing to get out her apologies, her assurances that it was just too hard to resist teasing him, through her giggles. If the way Nureyev clasped her close and buried his face in her cloud of hair, already crying, she was forgiven.

Juno gave himself a moment before he jumped up and pounced on them, a moment to watch them and just how much they loved each other.

A moment to think how, right now, he was so glad they weren’t a conventional family.

#jupeter #juno steel #peter nureyev #tpp #the penumbra podcast #bianca nureyev #happy birthday Jackie! #so glad you like this!

[sassmill]

1, 8, 9 and 11 for the lizzie asks

1. When and how did you hear about the show?

Okay I remember this SO vividly—in 2014 when Lifetime made Lizzie Borden Took An Ax (the movie they made before they did The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, side note Christina Ricci was on some queen shit in every second of the movie and the show) I was totally in love with how they used rock music to score this bloody period piece, so I was on the app 8tracks because somebody had made a playlist of the movie soundtrack. Lo and behold, in my suggestions for “other playlists like this” was a playlist somebody had made of the LIZZIE soundtrack. I fell in love with it (listening totally out of order because without a premium subscription it plays everything shuffled), and then I looked into the show hoping there would be YouTube videos (hello watching every single available clip on repeat for an entire summer) and I read the entirety of the about page for the official website learning about the development of the show since the 90s and then I saw how GORGEOUS the two disc cd was and ordered it and oh my it has literally been my favorite musical since. There was a time in high school where I definitely listened to the entire cast recording at least once a day if not more for over a month. Like not to be a mentally ill dyke with trauma and mommy issues but this musical has gotten me through a lot. Also I feel weirdly attached to the Borden trials as a whole because my name is Emma and my birthday is the day before Emma Borden’s? I also have two best friends born on August 4th. But actually the birthday thing was how I learned about the case in the first place because when I was like 8 we had a school assignment to look up famous people we shared a birthday with and the website showed the day before and after as well and since my name is Emma I saw Emma Borden and obviously clicked and uh. Yeah. A random school assignment 15 years ago gave me the special interest that forms 75% of my personality. Hence the incessant oversharing.

8. Dream cast?

I don’t really have a dream cast (not just for this, I just don’t really have dream casts for shows in general which is odd because I am also a director and really love the process of auditioning and casting people, it’s like playing god but in a highly specific uquiz personality way; I digress) so much as this question just made me think “what actresses with good rock or pop vocals do I think would be really interesting in this?” And yeah I’m not gonna lie not much comes to mind because I guess it’s just not how I typically engage with a show/fandom but the two people that did come to mind are Katrina Lenk and Taylor Iman-Jones. And uh lucky for me because Taylor Iman-Jones was in the @roltheatre production that’s being streamed online in January (check out their page or any of my recent reblogs for a ticket link)! So I’ll get to experience that little brain blast of mine (my thought process was literally hmmm lesbian rock musicals that I know of other than this. Head Over Heels. Hm. Mopsa hot. Hm. Taylor Iman-Jones. Oh wait, she WAS in it a couple years ago.) The Katrina Lenk thought process is just I’m in love with Katrina lenk and I’m positive she has the range. Margo Seibert might also be really interesting? I’ve never seen her perform live but her performance of “Refresh” on the cast recording of Dave Malloy’s Octet should explain that choice for you. She’s got A VOICE! And the ANGER!

9. Have you listened to the other Lizzie Borden musicals?

So hear me out, the only other Lizzie Borden musicals I’ve been able to find information about were produced in the 90s and aren’t online in any capacity that would allow me to listen to them (I’m sure if I searched hard enough I’d find some 240p camcorder bootleg from 1995 but that’s more work than I’m willing to commit to) but I did manage to snatch up the last cd copy of the cast recording of Lizzie Borden the Musical from 1998, so when that arrives in the mail you can fully expect me to make that available for your listening pleasure via a google drive link. Other than the two 90s musicals, LIZZIE is the only thing that comes up. If you like classical, though, I highly recommend Morton Gould’s Fall River Legend Suite, the score for Agnes de Mille’s 1948 ballet of the Borden trials. It sounds absolutely wonderful on vinyl.

As for other theatrical productions about Lizzie Borden, I had the opportunity to read David Foley’s play Nance O’Neil which was really interesting. And yes, even though it’s named titled after Nance, it’s really about Lizzie, and the play does suffer a bit from that considering it’s framing relies on Nance being the main character. It wasn’t poorly written, but Nance as a character didn’t feel whole—I could talk so much more about this, but assuming you haven’t also read it (it’s not actually published anywhere to my knowledge) I fear it’ll bore you. I did enjoy it though. There were some very tender scenes between Lizbeth and Nance despite Nance’s weaknesses (you can hardly fault Foley for that, considering the vast bulk of surviving information about Nance O’Neil was only documented because of her brief connection with Lizbeth Borden. Or her career with McKee Rankin, the other non-Borden character in the play. Again, totally tangential to what the actual question was but GOD I just find it all so fascinating. Honestly, Lizbeth’s life after her acquittal was far more interesting than the murder trial itself).

11. You’re the only other person in this fandom can we be friends?

YES of course! Please! If we don’t become friends I have no choice but to continue screaming into the void (and sometimes screaming at my 1901 Australian Nance O’Neil antique postcard when I’m really losing my mind)!

#oops am i actively working on becoming a nance o’neil historian? #well shit what else should i use my degree and archive experience for #lizzie #lizzie the musical #lizzie borden #lizbeth borden #ask me things. please.

[blazehedgehog]

I kinda see what you're saying critique-wise, but I do think you're being a tad harsh. I'm an old FF7 fan, and fan of turn based rpg's as well, but most of the changes I'm privy too seem to make sense. I have yet to see that ending (I won't until I play it) but the new battle system, the art style, everything I've seen in trailer and demo feels... Familiar but new, and I take that as a positive. I already have FF7, just a graphics upgrade doesn't matter too much to me. I like getting more stuff.

I feel like I have been cautiously accepting of most of Final Fantasy VII Remake over time. I don’t love the changes they’ve made, but I haven’t ever, like, written the game off or anything. Even when it came to the battle system, while I wasn’t a fan of some of the decisions after playing the demo, I watched other people play it to gain further insight on what I might be missing.

To say I am being “a tad harsh” is to judge me on the standards of knee-jerk reactionary internet fan boys, when my opinion is a little more nuanced than that.

I have always tried to give this game the benefit of the doubt at every single possible step of this process despite vocalizing my distaste for every decision they’ve made so far because I am a crazy Final Fantasy VII mark. I am even considering breaking my normal rule of “Wait until a sale” to buy FF7 Remake when it comes out, because I’d like to write a review for it.

(Unfortunately, I have two reviews on the docket already, so I’m still mulling the decision over in my head.)

Here’s the deal: changes don’t have to bother me. It’s pretty much expected that, if they are remaking the game, there will be changes. There were changes to Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 when they remade them. It’s kind of what you do.

It’s just, like I said in this ask…

There’s nothing wrong with broadening your appeal, you just can’t sell off the soul of your product for it.

But then, what is the soul of Final Fantasy? I don’t know if I can answer that. A couple months ago, I stopped and looked back on the entire franchise and realized I only really like four Final Fantasy games out of a total of 15.

I have personally played FF1-9, played a demo and watched a complete Let’s Play of FF10, played a demo of FF13, on top of watching a complete Let’s Play of FF13-2, and over half of Lightning Returns. I also played a multiple different demos of FF15, including the one that’s just the opening 2-3 hours of the game.

To get deeper in to the weeds, I finished Final Fantasy 1 on the GBA and it instantly became my favorite Final Fantasy. I played about halfway through FF2, also on the GBA, before getting bored with its bland characters and clumsy battle system. A friend gave me his copy of FF3 on DS, and I played it for about an hour before deciding I wasn’t in the mood at the time. I have yet to be in the mood. 

I have finished FF4 on both SNES and DS. I have fond memories of the DS version despite the fact it is almost unfairly hard at points. I played the fan-translated version of FF5 on SNES up to the third map before deciding I didn’t care about any of the characters or the world – again, very by the books, though I suppose on some level it wrote some of those books.

I made it up to the final boss of Final Fantasy 6 on GBA just last year, fought it once and lost. Decided I was too unimpressed by the rest of the game to try it a second time. That was definitely a game whose zeitgeist outweighed the game’s actual quality. I did not hate it, but I definitely didn’t fall in love with it. I am an acquaintance at best.

I put 100+ hours in to Final Fantasy 7 from 1997-1999. I did nearly everything in that game, by myself, without a guide. I pushed most of my party to level 99, learned all their limit breaks, got all but one master materia, defeated all of the weapons, and even engineered a materia setup that let me cast Knights of the Round in an endless loop for zero MP. I destroyed that game front to back, inside and out.

I played Final Fantasy 8 up to around the start of the second disc (when you get the first “airship”), and could not tolerate the disjointed story or the awful characters any more than that. I’ve never looked back. I played Final Fantasy 9 up to the third disc via Blockbuster rentals, but at some point some gremlin decided to destroy the third disc, rendering the game unplayable on my machine. I enjoyed what I experienced, but I never saw how it ended.

I do not think of FFX fondly. Or anything related to FF13. Or FF15. That final FF15 demo feels like it has dialog written by a space alien failing to approximate earth language, and I got bored of it long before the demo itself ended. A friend has been nagging me for years to play FF12, and I have it on Switch now, but I haven’t had the time to start it.

Regardless, I have played a lot of Final Fantasy, and I only really like 1, 4, 7 and I guess 9. I have definitely wrestled with the idea that maybe Final Fantasy just isn’t for me as a series.

But at the same time: Final Fantasy almost WAS for me, at one point, and the fact that they keep straying further and further and further away from what I liked about the series means it’s valid for me to be bummed out about it. You’re welcome to like it for what it is, but it doesn’t mean I have to.

And Final Fantasy VII Remake definitely makes changes in line more with where modern Final Fantasy as a series has gone. That’s my whole problem.

#questions #final fantasy vii remake #ff7 #square-enix #final fantasy #Anonymous

[citialiin]

ZIGGY ✰ STARDUST

i jacked this from @cardinalrot​. thank you dad. tagging: @gothsic​ ; @blossomingbeelzebug​ ; @betelguide​ ; @thatcertainnight​ ; @prophesyed​ ; you, specifically, reading this.

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬

FULL NAME.     [ redacted ] * NICKNAME.     ziggy  GENDER.     agender (he/him or they/them) / typically presents as a “man” for simplicity’s sake and also because he doesn’t care enough to think about it for more than 4 seconds HEIGHT.     5′10″ AGE.     26 (earth years) ZODIAC.     ??? (he wasn’t born under our stars ... so .......) SPOKEN LANGUAGES.     any/all (he doesn’t really know them, though, he uses an internal translator)

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬

HAIR COLOR.     bright red, seemingly unnatural -- but it’s natural EYE COLOR.     left pale blue, right black SKIN TONE.     very, very, very pale BODY TYPE.     skinny. very skinny/slender/svelte.  willowy and tall and bony.  good for looking waifish on magazine covers but bad for lifting even vaguely heavy objects. VOICE.     posh, nasally, low, the slightest bit condescending.  speaks with an english accent despite not being english, let alone human.  drawls his vowels and enunciates his letters.  his voice is strangely clear and bright when he sings, unlike his somewhat unpleasant speaking tone, and he tends to sing in higher pitches than his speaking voice. DOMINANT HAND.     ambidextrous -- but he can only play the guitar left handed POSTURE.     very straight and proper, holds his head high and his shoulders square.  uncertain if it’s height alone or if he really is looking down upon you.   SCARS.     small incision in the back of his neck where the translator was placed. barely there and usually covered by a collar or his hair, anyways. TATTOOS.      none BIRTHMARKS.     a large yellow disc on his forehead, rimmed with a slightly darker yellow/bronze with the slightest hint of a chromatic shift affect due to reflecting/light catching pigment in skin cells.  this isn’t unique to him, however, as every member of his race has it. has the tiniest hint of a freckle above his lip, on the left side, and he hates it and wishes he could nuke it off his face.  both of these are usually covered, anyways. MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S).     the circular mark, his unusual eyes, his sharp features, his bright hair. everything about him is weird and outlandish and strange, but it helps him maintain a striking, marketable image.  

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝

PLACE OF BIRTH.     far away.  HOMETOWN.    faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away. SIBLINGS.    [ grabs the steering wheel and veers straight into worldbuilding headcanon territory ] the society he comes from is no longer sexually dimorphic and typically doesn’t reproduce the natural way.  having evolved far beyond such icky things, they use genetic samples from large swaths of the population to make consistent batches of new individuals -- the genetic samples are screened for defects and aberrations and sort of tossed together into a genome salad, and out comes however many individuals they need to fill in gaps in the population.  there’s a lot of consistency in his species due to this: everyone has reddish hair, everyone has heterochromia, everyone is about the same height, etc.  so technically, he’s related to everyone in his “batch.” PARENTS.   he wouldn’t ever know -- a lot of people, probably

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞

OCCUPATION.    rockstar -- cultural icon -- celebrity -- musician -- singer -- model -- jerk CURRENT RESIDENCE.    london, LA, NYC, but he’s constantly moving and tours quite often CLOSE FRIENDS.    few and far in between -- he’s friends with his drummer who is named priscilla but usually goes by the stage name WEIRD, as well as siddharth, his bassist, who goes by sid in his personal life but GILLY on stage.  they were the first two humans to encounter him and taught him everything he knows, from how to tie his shoes (aliens wear boots, and you should know this) to the C major scale -- because they are among the few humans who know his secret, he views them as his closest and dearest friends.  his stardom isolates him from them, just a little -- he likes the spotlight but they don’t mind just being “the drummer” and “the bassist.”  they don’t quite have the star power that he does.  his manager  -- tama ahinariki, some guy from new zealand who seemed to bumble his way into becoming in charge of one of the most successful musicians of the decade -- also knows he’s an alien, but they tend to be more business partners than close friends.  tama is more interested in the money side of things whereas priscilla and sid are only interested in the music.  ziggy has stock in the music, money, and his personal brand.  

via rp, he’s made some friends with other characters! a few. very few.  RELATIONSHIP STATUS.    single -- he intends to stay that way.  he gets all the action he could ever need from his legion of devoted fans and groupies.  even in situations where he’s romantically involved and emotionally invested, he would never consider himself exclusive or monogamous.   a lot of tabloids make rumors that he’s involved with cardinal copia, fellow rock icon, but he tends to be sneaky at hiding any time they spent together.  it’s hard to keep things private when you’re both massively popular public figures, though. he goes out of his way to be sure no one knows about his predilection for spending time with thomas, because the last thing an awkward alien in disguise needs is a lot of public attention because people think you’re dating a celebrity (who they don’t know is also an alien). he hangs around annie a lot, too, but this is extra extra under wraps, because annie has a stalker named jonathan who may or may not go apeshit and try to tear his head off or something if he finds out.   FINANCIAL STATUS.    filthy rich. should be guillotined.   DRIVER’S LICENSE.    doesn’t have one. he has some paperwork, somewhere, with a “real” name and all that, but he has no idea where it is and lets his manager deal with that stuff. CRIMINAL RECORD.    none ! clean slate.  that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do illegal things, though.  he just doesn’t get caught.   VICES.    smoking, drinking, la cocaina, sex, impulsive spendng, rockstar stuff.  

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

SEXUAL ORIENTATION.   bisexual. PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE.     submissive  |  dominant  |  switch  | top |  bottom | verse. this doesn’t really come up in rp because i dont write nsfw. the way i view it is that he’s lazy and would rather you take care of him than the other way around LIBIDO.    pretty high, but it’s difficult for him to have as much sex as he might prefer because, uh, he has, uh, alien..............parts...........and stuff ..... like ....... some parts down there look different ....... so he’s stuck having sex with usually in the dark, under sheets, and he has to zip his pants up really quick afterwards. maybe it’s a little bit hilarious and i just think it’s funny idk LOVE LANGUAGE.    selflessness (which is big, for him, king of all douchebags and lord selfish dickhead the third), rambling to you about his day, physical affection, gifts, letting you see him without make up, opening up to you about his life before earth.  he might play you music, sing to you or write you songs if he’s feeling particularly sappy.  this is stuff reserved for people that he finds himself incredibly romantically/emotionally attached to, though, not the people he has one night stands with.  and he almost never forms any sort of lasting attachment to the people he sleeps with casually. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES.    he tends to fall for people who challenge him in some way, who aren’t easily beguiled by his status and physical looks, but who aren’t outright mean to him.  that being said, he is very vain, and he loves being showered in compliments, praise or attention.  he matches well with people who can put up with his antics and moodiness and odd behavior.  he likes the idea of being someone’s muse or someone’s idol, so he finds himself drawn to other creative types.  he has the most intimate/special connections with other nonhuman beings, especially other aliens, cuz he feels like they Get him and he wouldn’t be really giving himself in his fullest form if he had to still play pretend that he was a human being.  for whatever reason he goes apeshit for goth guys/dudes with black hair who wear a lot of black.  he really doesn’t like people who are too much like him, because HE’S HIM, and you’re YOU, and he really wants it to stay that way.  GET OUT OF MY DRESSING ROOM

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG.   there’s a whole album about him .......... theres a song called “ziggy stardust” .......  HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.    singing, music, writing -- he lives for that shid.  he likes art in all forms, so he reads, watches movies, looks at paintings -- he has a lot of human culture to catch up on, and he loves all of it, from any time period and any culture.  he also likes buying things, shopping, looking nice, gossip.  he tends to be a party animal (party alien?) and often indulges in more hedonistic fun. LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED.    his brain is not structured like a human brain. also, head empty.  no thoughts. FEARS.    being perceived as ugly or untalented, being outed as an alien, being rejected for being an alien, becoming a nobody, losing his social status, becoming a conformist, becoming “outdated” or “uncool” SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.    somehow sky high and on the floor at the same time. he usually thinks he can do anything and he’s pretty perfect, but that may just be from a solid few years of repeating that to himself and empty praise given by people who are just crazy obsessed with him -- he built his confidence level on a very shaky foundation, so it’s easy to start making him doubt himself and panic if you know what to criticize him on VULNERABILITIES.    a lot of things, and im sick of typing

* pay me 100000 USD to unlock my LEVEL 20 ZIGGY STARDUST LORE pack now with NAMING/TITLE INFORMATION, HOME PLANET CLIMATE/WEATHER PATTERNS and PAST OCCUPATION/EDUCATION information.  includes a piece of gum i found on the floor.

#ooc #meme #I'm so close 2 being done with finals just like one more week i turn in terrible project after terrible project #i am typing this as i wait for a group member to send me the first five pages of our cumulative 10 page essay. i hate him. i hate him. #why is he taking so long. i need to write this thing. #but after that i will go back to what i need to do ... #i run this account like a shitty ship careening into rocks #but i will go down with it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #KEEP YOUR 'LECTRIC EYE ON ME ; queue

[thedeaditeslayer]

Living with the Cult Legacy of Evil Dead.

Here’ s a recent interview with Ellen Sandweiss by Den of Geek that discusess The Evil Dead, current cinema, and feminism.

We chat with Ellen Sandweiss, who played Ash Williams' damned sister in The Evil Dead, about a horror legacy nearly 40 years on.

Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead franchise seems to have had at least nine bloody lives. First was the original 1981 movie that propelled lead actor Bruce Campbell and director Sam Raimi to cult cinema stardom, and then there were the sequels (The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness), the 2013 remake, and even a cable TV show via Ash vs Evil Dead. These low budget efforts, originally labeled as “video nasties” in the UK, became a refuge for film aficionados to revel in macabre humor, bad puns, and practical disembowelment effects that rivaled Tom Savini’s best work.

Less lauded though is the coven of women in the original feature that Campbell’s Ash battles to the death and beyond. In The Evil Dead, Ash drives to the remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), a few friends, and his sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) for their spring break. Cheryl’s character is the first to notice something awry upon their arrival, the first to suffer at the hands of the demonic entity in the now (in)famous tree rape scene, and the first to be seized by the demonic entity’s possession.

It is really Cheryl’s character on which so much of the narrative’s propulsive force hinges. As a result, she exercises her acting chomps adroitly. Whether frantically attempting to convince her brother and friends that “it was the woods themselves! They’re alive!” or cautiously traversing the dark forest with the whites of her bulging eyes, Sandweiss showcases both Cheryl’s humanity and her intense fear. When she embraces her possession, pus-filled and pawing at hapless Ash, she recalls the witch from Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind,” which details a lonely, twelve-fingered evil. “A woman like that is not a woman, quite.”

Sandweiss also was the first non-Campbell actor to reprise a role in the series when she appeared in Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2. Den of Geek spoke with Sandweiss about her acting career, her work with Campbell and Raimi, TimesUp, and if the tree scene would be shot the same way in 2019 as it was almost 40 years ago in the backwoods of Tennessee.

What got you interested in acting? What led to your getting the part of Cheryl in The Evil Dead?

I acted in school plays and local theatre starting in middle school. I come from a very artsy family and was involved in music and dance as well. Then I went to high school in suburban Detroit with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and was in plays with them. They had been making super 8 movies since they were in their early teens, so I was often in those movies as a teenager. I then went to college at the University of Michigan where I majored in theatre, and during one summer, we made “Within the Woods,” a short film that Bruce and Sam made to garner interest and money from investors in order to make their first feature film, Book of the Dead, which then became The Evil Dead. Once they had raised the funds, I took a semester off college in ’79 to 80 and we shot the film in Tennessee.

What was your experience like on the set of The Evil Dead? Do you have a favorite memory of shooting the original?

My experience making The Evil Dead was mixed. Of course it was exhilarating at age 20 to be off making a feature film, and the “boys” [Raimi, Campbell, and producer Rob Tapert] were a lot of fun. But the budget was tiny, and it wasn’t a union film, so the conditions were harsh and everyone on the set was very inexperienced. We were all in our early 20s and for many it was our first experience making a feature film. At the Tennessee cabin where we shot most of the film, we had no electricity, no plumbing and no running water—need I say more?

Could you have anticipated, at that time, the kind of cult following that film would have especially with both the remake and TV show?

I could never have anticipated the eventual cult status of the film. When we made The Evil Dead, there was no video rental, no streaming, etc. So films, if they were distributed at all, would end up either at a first-run theater or at a B-movie theater or drive-in, which was where our film landed. Honestly, when we were shooting the film, I thought (and hoped) it would never actually be seen. Then, after a few years, it was released and then it disappeared. I forgot about it and went on with school, then graduate school in arts administration, followed by management jobs in non-profits.

It was when video rentals were born, a few years later, that people started becoming interested in Evil Dead, followed by multiple releases on VHS, then DVD, laser disc, Blu-ray, etc. I didn’t actually realize it had a cult following until around 2001 when my teenaged daughter’s geeky friends started talking about it and ED t-shirts were appearing at local film and comic memorabilia shops. Then we had a 20-year reunion screening, and it was after that that the other two actresses and I started making convention appearances as “Ladies of the Evil Dead.”

What was it like revisiting Cheryl as a character when you did two episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead?

Revisiting Cheryl in Ash vs the Evil Dead was a hoot! At that point they had a big budget, union rules and lots of experience under their belts, so it was a lot more comfortable. It was fun acting again with Bruce, whom I’ve remained friends with all these years, and of course it was wonderful getting to see New Zealand, where we shot the episodes.

Do you think the tree scene from Evil Dead would be filmed in the same way today as it was done then?

Yes, I’m sure that the tree scene would be done differently if it was filmed today. First, I’m not sure that it would be characterized as a “tree rape,” as Sam has since said he regrets that it ended up that way. I think it would have gone back to what was originally intentioned in the script: trees coming to life and attacking Cheryl, which would also satisfy today’s more feminist audiences (and actresses!). And I’m sure that CGI would be used instead of the reverse-filming, or whatever it’s called, to show vines wrapping around me.

What is it like coming back 35 years later on the show and actually exploring a sibling dynamic?

It was great fun to do Ash vs Evil Dead all these years later and visit the earlier lives of Cheryl and Ash in their family home. In the original film, I believe there was only one line referring to their relationship (“it’s your sister Cheryl!”), and if you missed that you were probably wondering what this weird morose girl was doing on a party weekend with these two college couples! In Ash vs. ED, fighting with Bruce took sibling rivalry to a new level—I loved taunting him and I always enjoy filming a good fight scene. Of course he was the star, so he had to win in the end, but I did enjoy my final words, emanating from my decapitated head on the ground: “Not again....” We actually played around with some other final words—I thought, “Mom always liked you best” would be funny, but nobody seemed to agree with me!

Many people are saying that the horror genre is having a renaissance with hits like Us and Hereditary. What do you think it is about horror that has audiences continually returning to it?

I admittedly am not a horror expert by any stretch of the imagination. I normally don’t watch horror films, but I did watch Us because I love everything Jordan Peele does. I liked it because for the most part it didn’t focus only on blood and guts—there were actually well-formed characters and a message. I think that certain people will always want to explore their dark side, and horror films allow them to do that in a safe space. I also think some people simply like the adrenalin rush they get from being scared.

In the past few years, there's been a lot of discussion around the representation of women on screen. A lot of this conversation seems to be fueled by #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. What’s been your impression of the shifts being made in Hollywood?

I love the shifts being made and hope that they continue to shift even more. Everything about the women’s movement, MeToo, TimesUp, etc. can only make our choices in entertainment better. My daughter is an actress, and I like the improvement of the roles that are available to her. Of course we need more female producers, writers, and directors, and I wish that was happening a little more quickly.

What films have been most exciting to you as an audience member in the past few years?

I’m such a film enthusiast that I really can’t name specific films. But in general, I’m drawn mostly to indie films that make me think, laugh, and cry, and films that cast women in interesting roles.

Do you have any new roles or projects coming up that you can speak about?

No, I’m pretty much retired at this point, although sometimes I will come out of the closet and do a play. Mostly I’m having fun watching the acting careers of my daughter Jessy Hodges and her husband Beck Bennett blossom!

#Ellen Sandweiss #The Evil Dead #Evil Dead

[deltastorm101]

G-Force: A review of one of my childhood games

Wow. To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought this review would ever see the light of day - I always said that I couldn’t write it, not for this game, because I know it way too well, am too biased and too emotionally attached to it. It was hard but here we are!

Time for game 👏 review 👏!

Warning: Spoilers. You know the tea, I won’t straight-up tell you everything from start to finish but it’s nice to have played it yourself (it’s on Steam!). Or go watch a let’s play or two. Or look at screenshots.

There is a major spoiler at the end but there will be an extra warning beforehand.

How do I even start this? I love this game to death and beyond. I basically grew up with it, it was one of the two games my childhood gaming life consisted of (the other one being Bolt - you know, the superpower dog), so there is no way this will be objectively or neutrally written. (As if anything else I wrote is xD)

And: it still runs, surprisingly! Admittedly, I did have some problems with the CD version when I updated to Windows 10 some years ago but the Steam version runs like a freshly refuelled Ferrari.

So, some context, in case you have not played it or watched any gameplay clips: In this game, which came out 2009 based on the movie with the same name, you play as Darwin, who’s an armed guinea pig, and you fight against household appliances, who have come to life and sure know how to defend themselves. The special force you fight amongst is approved and commissioned by the government, yet you cannot be seen by the humans/security personnel patrolling the place(s). It’s your goal to stop the appliances from forming a gigantic entity threatening to destroy mankind and the world it populates, together with four other rodents you’ll mostly hear over radio and only occasionally see and/or interact with. You with me? Good. Then let’s start.

The attention to detail is one of the most important things why I think this game has such a distinct and unique style, which becomes clear in, for example, the amount of hidden off-track routes. It’s not open world or anything, but you’re pretty often offered an alternative way to finish a task, and not just for something like a collectible. I called this “diversity in linearity”. One way in, one way out, but a whole lot to explore in between – more than in other games which are similar in style. I also love how the game makes the player trace back to something familiar, for example having the entry area as the finishing area, and making it interesting by hiding a mechanic there you can only uncover and use as soon as you’ve acquired it between areas and then return.

The level design in general is a big plus - the levels are inventive and colourful and just so nicely made. You can see and feel the love and heart that was poured into the futuristic and cool looking environments, floors, rooms and grounds, and the enormous variety of the different appliances’ attacks you have to fight against and adjust to is amazing.

The amount of hidden collectibles you can get is refreshing. There are SaberSense chips (the currency), there are silver data discs (the weapon upgrades). And that’s it.

There are also golden discs to get new weapons but you kind of get them automatically as the story progresses, so I excluded them here.

Regarding the fact that such an awful lot of games these days seem to need SO many unrewarding and useless collectible items, it feels so good to have an upgrade system actually worth and worthwhile to use and take advantage of. You find upgrades which are hidden in the world. You buy them with currency at vending kiosks. Period. We need to let older games teach us how to do it, apparently.

Very clear audio- and visual clues and cues always help you find your way through puzzles, which does make it less challenging as soon as you figured out what to look out for, but it also makes it more fun in a way. Not everything has to be a challenge, and if you’re playing this game while being older than 13 you are most likely just in it for exactly this - the fun. Of course, this game is intended for younger players like I was when I first played it, which might be one of the reasons it’s so colourful and always wants to really make sure you get the controls and master them well before it throws some more difficult stuff at you. There’s a ‘weapon’ solely for the purpose of scanning enemies and the environment to find out weak points and gather information, so even if you were to leave and then come back to the game, there’s a high chance of immediately finding your way back into it, even if you forgot some stuff.

On the subject of weapons, simple remark: I like the equipment and its system. There are eight weapons in total, five of them for pure shooting combat, which you acquire as the game progresses. You can choose from them in three slots and change them at any time. Melee attacks are done via some kind of electro-shocking whip, which can also be used to open boxes. Agility is achieved by a backpack-sized jetpack, allowing you to reach high ledges, bridge over pits and traps or run faster right from the beginning of the game.

Cool system, easy to understand and explainable in four sentences. And my god, are the guns nicely designed.

The game reusing audio clips (music, not dialogue) makes a nice touch too - one could argue “why didn’t the devs compose enough for every level yaddayadda” but I feel like recognizing certain songs makes you feel like... returning home or seeing an old friend or something. (Oh wow, why so poetic today? This is a review, get it together.)

So, about combat and enemy difficulty: these days, being older and really knowing this game’s ins and outs pretty well by now, none of the enemies is a real challenge anymore. Though when I first played it, I remember being SO UNRATIONALLY AFRAID of that CD player when I first battled it and discovered that it was... a real pain in the ass. xD Whenever I encountered it later in the game I rAN AWAY like mad and placed myself somewhere high where I was safe and could observe everything, to finish it off safely and without suffering heart attacks. (Yes, I might have been a little too young for it, but what can I say... if I liked something, I got into it. Really into it. Heh.)

Same goes for soda coolers, by the way. And paper shredders, if I can’t destroy them. And water coolers. And torches. They can all go f-

Yes, I’m fine. Yes, I’ll become a major soon. Uh. Moving on...

Okaaay, let’s list some “negative” points too, I guess, to not have it be a completely unobjective essay of praise...

Of course, the game being from 2009, the graphics and audio quality can’t be the best anymore, but that’s just called progress. You get used to it after some time – however, the audio frequency of the characters speaking over radio always has and always will grate on my ears... which might be because I’m used to clear and crisp sounding audio in newer games nowadays, which, again, can’t be compared to this game anymore and should be treated as technological progress, just like the graphics.

(Major spoiler warning here. Read on at your own risk.)

The very last level/chapter falls kind of flat. Mooch (the fly that’s able to get Darwin through locked doors and stuff) is a nice mechanic, and sometimes crucial to important story elements, but he’s a side character, and finishing the game with him leading an entire level has felt weird then and still feels weird today.

I need to mention the differences to the movie. Which isn’t a positive aspect nor a negative one - the game is an action game, while the movie combines action with comedy. The movie wouldn’t work as the game and the game wouldn’t work as the movie, simple as that. The fact that Ben takes up such a different role plays into that as well. In the game he just acted as the (human) background big boss who told everyone what to do, while he was a much more developed character in the movie. Which is fine now that I think about it - he wouldn’t have fitted as well into the game’s plot and storyline anyway. Same with the role of a different character I won’t name here because I consider it too big of a spoiler :P

The story in general could be described as... nice. But as I said, narrative or character development isn’t the focus of the game and therefore not its strongest suit.

So. G-Force.

I loved it then and I still love it to this day. This “review” is my homage to a game that is very near and dear to my heart... I hope I could do it justice.

#g force #games #g-force #disney #stefs game review

[alternativewinxcontinuity]

Winx Alt Con Season 02 Recap:

Previously: Season 01, Weeks 9.2, 10/11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Week 19: Episode 216 - HalloWinx

During the first few days of the week, Bloom video calls her parents on Earth, and introduces them to Daphne.

Vanessa and Mike are as welcoming towards the older fairy as Bloom had hoped, and Daphne almost starts crying with relief when she considers how lucky it had been that her protective spells had brought Bloom and the Earth couple together.

While on the call, the couple tell Bloom that Mitzy has invited her to a Halloween party. The Rest of the Winx, and their pixies, who had been hanging out off screen from the call, immediately crowd around and ask for details.

As soon as Vanessa mentions 'costumes' Stella is pulling an art book from her carry space, flipping through until she finds a section labelled 'Bewitching Winx' showing it to Bloom and Vanessa, asking if they'd be appropriate for the party.

Bloom laughs, saying they'd be perfect, and telling Vanessa to 'please RSVP me for plus 5?' Kiko Jumps into her lap, 'plus six.' (off screen the pixies protest, until Flora reminds them that normal Earth Humans can't see them anyway.)

Daphne leans over Stella's shoulder and looks over the designs, considers for a moment, then offers to teach Stella how to imbue the costume wings with a flight and sensory spells so they'd work almost like the Winx's real wings.

After Mike and Vanessa say their goodbyes, the Winx settle down for 'class' with Daphne.

 Bloom sees Mirta later that day and extends an invite, but Mirta turns it down when she finds out the day, blushing as she explains she and Lucy have a day out planned before exams start.

Bloom wishes her friend good luck with her date (“it's not a date date!”), but before she can leave to check on Stella, who is determined to make the 'costumes' herself (“no one else will do it right!”) Jolly stops her with a dire warning, of deceit, and three women.

Bloom feels a chill go down her spine, thinking automatically off the Trix, but Jolly shakes her head when Bloom asks if that's who she means. Jolly tells Bloom to beware of the masks people wear, as a cruel trick awaits her and her friends.

Unsure what else to do, Bloom thanks the Pixie of Fortune Telling for her advice, and heads off to find her friends.

After talking it over, the group comes to the conclusion that Jolly may have meant the party they're planning to attend, where people will be wearing masks.

 After letting Faragonda know they're going, and confirming what time their first exam is the next day, (having arranged the trip with her earlier in the week,) the Winx, Kiko, and the pixies head off to Earth, via Stella's staff powered teleport.

They arrive around midday at Bloom's home, where she introduces everyone to her parents.

The girls help add a few final touches to the house for trick-or-treaters before getting dressed.

All of the girls are pleased with their outfits and the fit, Kiko shows off his matching vest and cape, while the pixies change into animal inspired outfits, made mostly of soft fluffy looking clothes, and ears on headbands.

The pixies decided to do something fun just for them since Mike and Vanessa are the only adults that can see them on Earth.

The girls fly from Bloom's to the mansion where the party is being held, testing out the enchantments on their false wings, which hold up amazingly well throughout the flight. Kiko seems a little worried in his place in Bloom's arms, but she puts that down to him not liking the extreme height.

As they fly, the girls talk about the somewhat uncomfortable feel of Earth, the way it feels drained of magic. Bloom admits she didn't notice before she met Stella, but she's fairly certain it's always been that way, and that tonight, it actually felt less drained somehow, than last time she'd been back on Earth, which Stella and Flora agree with.

They girls wonder if drained feeling has anything to do with the disappearance of Earth's fairies, but they arrive at their destination before they can get too invested in the topic.

 When they see the gloomy nature of the woods they'll have to pass through to get to the house, the girls rethink their landing point, but decide to make the trek so they aren't seen landing by the other guests. Stella changes her Ring into its staff form, and conjures a soft protective light to it's ornamental disc, using it to light the area.

The girls don some basic outer robes to keep their costumes clean on the walk up to the house, and Bloom keeps hold of Kiko while the pixies flit around. Bloom tells Kiko to stay with her until they get inside so he doesn't dirty his costume. Kiko nods in agreement, and Musa turns her head to find the source of the strange sounds that creep from the woods.

Between her, and Tecna, they confirm it's coming from speakers.

Aisha reminds everyone to be on their guard concerning Jolly's warning, but to try to have fun.

Flora giggles and asks 'what if solving this mystery is the fun?' Stella takes the set up to deliver a subtle jab at Mitzy, 'well, if what Bloom's says about the hostess is true? It probably will be.'

The girls giggle as they begin to navigate the path to the front door. As the girls pass through some of the narrower parts of the path, they form a single line, with Flora at the rear. As she passes a black cat on a short post it turns its head and greats her with a monotone 'hello Flora.'

She calls the girls back to her as she turns to find the cat gone.

When they ask her what's wrong, she tells them about the talking cat, which had greeted her by name .

Musa checks for the sound of movement, but can't catch anything that sounds like a cat.

The group would put it down to electronics, but the fact the cat had known Flora's name was concerning.

Adding it to the list of things they had to figure out, the group continue on, finally spotting lights through the trees. As they enter into the jack-o-lantern littered ground surrounding the mansion itself, murmuring from the trees catches Musa's attention. She focuses in in time to hear someone female sounding say something about a 'bone white mask'.

She whips her head around to see someone tall and lanky with long dark hair and a pale dress move further into the woods. Quietly she lets the others know what she's seen.

Tecna declares that 'that's it' and pulls a container out of her carry space, opening it, she presents the girls with small decals to place on the area just behind their ears. She tells them it's a project she's been working on to improve their communications long distance, with out the standard bulk. The Decals include a pink flower, an orange star, a blue love heart, a red music note, a green drop shape, and a purple triangle.

The girls apply them and do a quick test, confirming they can quietly radio each other. Kiko makes a sad noise when he realises he doesn't get one, then stroke his fur in a sad way that seems to say 'that's okay, it probably wouldn't have stuck in my fur anyway :( '.

Bloom tells him he'll just have to stick close to her, which brightens his mood.

('Alright, now let's get in there, we just vanquished Satan, we can handle some high-schoolers with no magic.'

'...who's 'Satan'?'

'Darkar, I was talking about Darkar... it's an Earth based cultural reference, I'm sorry, I'll explain it later.')

The Winx finally mount the front steps and knock on the door. It creaks open to reveal no one for a second before a jack-o-lantern in a jest hat drops down. A loud rip and thump sound out as Stella uses the butt of her staff to smack it away.

A maid appears in the doorway looking very annoyed.

'Sorry, a few too many years of self-defence training,' Stella tries to laugh it off, but the maid dismisses her, turning to Bloom to ask who she is and what she wants. Bloom tells the maid her name, and hands over her invitation. The maid frowns but allows the group in, showing them to the main room. Tecna makes several comments concerning the house's structural integrity, or lack there of.

In the main room, the girls see plenty of people in costumes, but no sign of Mitzy. The girls consider mingling, but a few seconds later, their hostess arrives at the top of a staircase. She descends 'gracefully' as music plays, and she talks about how expensive her dress is.

The Winx try not to snort as Stella whispers 'that is the wrong way to glitter,' in reference to Mitzy's outfit. They're fairies, their normal outfits were 85%+ glitter, they knew how to glitter.

As Mitzy's slow walk down the stairs reaches two thirds of the way, the music begins to skip, and the hostess rushes down the last few steps to berate the boy in charge of the music table.

She tells him to leave and never show his face again.

The Winx watch as he gets up, and makes his way to the front door, tears in his eyes. Musa goes after him, to make sure he's okay. She offers some words of encouragement as she escorts him down the path, a hastily conjured lantern in hand, and by the time they reach the exit he seems like he'll be just fine.

As he heads off, a short man in a red and blue outfit arrives, he tells her he's there to deliver some cakes to Mitzy's party. Musa offers to take him up to the house, but he says he has other deliveries, and just hands her a box before leaving.

Musa opens it as she walks, floating the lantern with her magic, she picks up one of the pumpkin shaped cakes and raises it to take a quick nibble.

'I wouldn't eat it,' a monotone voice says, and Musa sees the shape of a cat in the corner of her eye, but she has to catch the box before it falls from her startled grasp. When she finally turns to check, there's no sign of any cat. Musa drops the cake back in the box, and casts several of the food inspection spells Stella and Aisha had shared with the group.

The cakes weren't poisonous, but they apparently tasted terrible.

Musa contacts the others as she walks to tell them about the cat and the cakes, the others let her know she hasn't missed much, Mitzy has been throwing a mild tantrum about everyone ruining her party.

Listening to the girls, she misses three figures lumbering around moaning about maggots in faces.

Just as she reaches the house, they tell her to hurry up, because Mitzy has just turned on them about their 'lame ass robes'.

Musa makes it through the door, and shoves the cake box into the maid's hands, just in time to drop her robe with the other Winx.

The other guests stare in shock at the group's witch inspired darkly-cute-and-fun fairy outfits. Even Kiko works his dashing cape and vest.

The other guests crowd around and ask about the costumes, the girls remain vague, and when asked how they'd made their wings, Flora replies with 'it's a secret.'

Because it was a secret.

And a fabric that didn't exist on Earth.

Mitzy shoves her way forward, cake box in hand, offering the Winx some cakes. Bloom looks up from a chat with one of the other girls about her skirt, and tells Mitzy to 'pick out a good one for me.'

When the scowling Mitzy opens the box, the small pumpkin cakes jump up, glowing, they begin to circle around Mitzy, who freaks out and dashes from the room. Most of the guests follow her, trying to beat the floating cakes away.

The Winx laugh amongst themselves, and when Musa asks if anyone had recorded that, Tecna lets out an affirmative hum, and 'fixes' a lock of her hair, drawing Musa's attention to the large bow in Tecna's hair, where the music fairy can see a small ladybug just peeking out. The same kind of ladybug Tecna's micro camera's are typically disguised as.

Looking around with new eyes, she spots a few more of the little bugs.

Tecna remarks nonchalantly how it's 'amazing what one can do when others are distracted by tantrums,' and the girls have another laugh. (Bloom told her friends about Mitzy, they know exactly what kind of person she is.)

Mitzy reappears a short time later, no sign of floating cakes. The party gets back to its boring baseline of everyone standing around, barely talking, and no one dancing. The group splits up to mingle, and look for any sign of the conspiracy Jolly had hinted at.

Tecna notes a large crack on one wall, which seems to originate from behind a photo. When Digit notices it's a picture of three women, it strikes enough of a chord for Tecna to comm the others. When Tecna describes the three faceless women in the picture, Musa mentions that it sounds like the 'bone white mask' figure from the woods outside.

In an upstairs room, Aisha finds another crack-sprouting-picture, a news paper clipping with a picture of the mansion they're in. It talks about the 'Silent Villa', and how no renovators would go near it, because the house aged 50 years a just weeks whenever some one tried to refurbish the house. Millions of dollars had been lost trying to fix the place up.

'So, haunted house, or part of the trap?' the girls wonder amongst themselves.

Bloom is pulled away from the investigation though, when the maid arrives to tell her Mitzy has fallen sick, and is asking for Bloom.

Mizty claims to have seen 'them', flailing about in her bed as she tells Bloom the backstory of the house.

Of three sisters who'd lived there with their younger sister, until the youngest was killed when someone tried to destroy the house.

One of the other guests shows them a newspaper article about it, and tells them how, to seek revenge, the three sisters made a deal with powerful witches.

The Winx share a look over the alleged magic contract that had taken place roughly 100 years ago, during a time when the only suspected magical on the planet would have been the Fairy Godmother that Daphne had been trying to send Bloom to during the second siege of Domino.

Stella says 'these sisters must be pretty ugly if they're breaking mirrors' but manages to refrain from adding 'are you sure it wasn't your face that cracked the mirror Mitzy?' Because Bloom doesn't need her to be that level of petty right now.

When Mitzy starts begging Bloom to help her, since Bloom is 'the only one who can help' her, Bloom listens to her heightened instincts, and while out loud she is kind and compassionate to Mitzy, inside, she calls bullshit.

Bloom and the Winx move into the hall, and Bloom begins signing to her friends, who read the hand signals with ease. Tecna and Stella lag behind, while the others move downstairs to listen to the other guests as they wail to Bloom, going on about how all the glass on the pictures and mirrors broke at once.

Bloom takes charge, ordering everyone into groups, she gets them to search the cupboards for salt and iron, acting like she's preparing them for a battle against the supernatural. (Of course, Bloom bases her preparations on her 'knowledge of the supernatural' which she'd picked up from her childhood fascination with fairies, and not on her actual Alfea learned knowledge of warding.)

Mean while, Stella and Tecna have slipped 'out'.

Only when they reappear, does Bloom tell everyone to stay inside while she and her friends take a look around outside.

Through the fog they see movement, lanky figures by the tree line, Musa and Flora reach out with their powers. Getting a sense of what they are facing.

'Stilts and costumes,' Flora confirms, before Bloom gives the go ahead. Flora brings the wood of the stilts back to life, and Musa snatches up the sounds of three screams before they can go anywhere.

The costumes slip up and off the trio of human girls, leaving them looking terrified, bound from the knees down by wood, and unable to make a sound as their costumes seem to come to life, swaying in the air.

The Winx 'react' like frightened teenagers, running for the only opening the trio wouldn't have blocked off.

The three wraith costumes drift to the ground, and glide along behind them, moving in awkward swaying motions that would be impossible for any human to mimic, let alone one on stilts.

They move into the cemetery where lights float above the grave stones.

While Flora says 'we're surrounded' she adds a signed 'humans' to her warning. They'd expected as much.

When she hears the comments around them, Musa signs to Stella and Aisha.

Echoing groans begin to sound through the graveyard as the lights from the 'floating' pumpkins rise from their grinning shells, the fog thickening on the ground until no one can see their own feet.

The 'three sisters' slither into the clearing amongst the tombstones, circling around the Winx as they continue their diatribe about maggots and faces and bone white masks.

Bloom calls out to the others, telling them to be brave, they can handle this, that they defeated that demon army, and the witches, and the embodiment of evil itself, a few angry ghosts will be nothing.

Around them, the guests in on the prank are getting worried, Bloom's 'pep talk' making them realise that something is not right.

They notice how far above them the lantern lights are just as 'the fourth sister' steps into the clearing.

Bloom steps forward, while the other Winx strain to keep in character, and begins trying to negotiate with 'the fourth sister', who just moans until the other three suddenly seem to notice her presence. The turn, and swoop across the clearing, leaving trails in the thick fog that covers the ground.

'Sister' they begin chanting, swirling tighter and tighter around her, and higher and higher above. From the shadows of the forest dark creatures seem to emerge, half hidden by the fog and gloom, half seen, half imagined nightmares.

The fourth sister begins to scream, batting the others away as the girl beneath the mask realises it's not her minions beneath the sheets. The fog roils, and the others guests add their screams, as the dense vapour peels back to reveal every surface, and quite a few guests, covered in a variety of insects up to the waist.

Mitzy tears off the costume, ripping things in her haste to free herself from the confines. She takes off running for the house, her guests not far behind her.

The Winx are silent for a moment, until laughter from the air above them causes their poker faces to crack. The insects swarm back into hiding, and the monsters on the edge of sight vanish. The fog takes a little longer to ebb back into a light, atmospheric haze, but Musa shutters the sounds instantly.

The pixies ditch the heavy costumes on the ground, and Mirta and Lucy float down far enough to be seen through what remains of the mist, Kiko held securely in Mirta's arms.

Chuckling, Lucy admits that the Winx are alright, for a bunch of fairies. Mirta drops to the ground completely and thanks the girls for thinking of her. Tecna shrugs and brushes it off, saying they needed the help, and Mirta had once told them about how she and Lucy had always planned to pull of a Nightmare Prank like this, it was the only logical conclusion.

Bloom apologises for interrupting their date, but the duo brush her off, saying this was plenty of fun, and a great way to spend the night.

'It was, indeed, very amusing,' comes a monotone voice, and the group turn to find the black cat sitting on a gravestone.

Bloom asks after the cat's identity, but it merely shrugs, and says only that it is 'a passing mischief maker who happens to be a fan of the way you girls... turn tables, shall we say.'

In less than a blink the cat is gone.

In the quite that descends, Stella clicks her tongue, and asks if anyone wants to head back to the party. Lucy tries to decline, saying she and Mirta aren't dressed, but as soon as Bloom retrieves her rabbit, Stella snaps her fingers, casting an outfit changing spell.

Mirta and Lucy's clothes are changed to outfits similar to the Winx's, though Lucy sports what Bloom has told her is considered a 'witch's hat' on Earth, rather than wings like Mirta and the rest.

('what, you thought I didn't plan for them just in case? Please, I have an outfit for Diaspro too.')

On the way back to the house, Tecna does some quick research on Earth's internet (which is slow and terrible and just let her fix it! please?) and finds out that the three sisters had been real, but there had been no fourth, and the house had only swapped hands a few times, with almost no attempts at renovations.

The group makes their way up to the house where they find a bunch of scared teenagers (the trio in the costumes had been released remotely by Flora and rushed for the house alongside their co-conspirators.)

Bloom tells everyone that, Mitzy had woken the three sisters who had actually lived in the house, the trio had been aggravated by what Mitzy had done, but also infected by her version of events, and forced to play out Mitzy's falsehood.

Bloom goes on to tell everyone that the situation has been handled, and that Mitzy not need worry about those three sisters again.

'Also, two more of my friends showed up after all, that's okay right?'

Between Tecna, Stella and Musa, the party has lights and good music in no time. The Winx, Mirta, Lucy, Kiko and the unseen pixies all making themselves at home on the dance floor. Slowly, the other guests unfolded from their frightened huddle and joined the girls.

 The group manages to get a few hours of sleep back at Bloom's house, and gratefully eat breakfast cooked by Vanessa, she and her husband wishing all the girls luck on their exams before they teleport back to Alfea, Bloom promising to see her parents in a week, once exams were over and done with.

#Winx #Winx Club #Winx Alt Con #Winx Alternative Continuity #Winx Alt Con Season 02 Recap #Winx Alt Con Week 19