Lesson #107

"Good morning, sir! I've brought you some of the old United States guns, sir!"

In another "why on earth haven't they made a movie out of this person's life yet?" entry, we examine the fascinating tale of Robert Smalls.  Born enslaved on a plantation in 1839 Beaufort, South Carolina, Smalls's childhood was, as one might expect, a never-ending horror show --the region was still grappling with the aftermath of Denmark Vesey's (planned) slave uprising, and local laws had decidedly amped up the oppression and the cruelty.  At the age of 12 Smalls's owner sent him to Charleston to work as a ship-rigger and sailor.  At the time all earnings went to the owner but Smalls managed to negotiate being able to keep 85% of the earnings by the time he was 18 --his plan ultimately being to buy his wife's and daughter's freedom.  During these years he learned everything there was to learn about seamanship and by the time the Civil War kicked off, Smalls found himself serving as a deckhand about the sidewheel steamer Planter, a supply ship tasked with delivering armaments to various Confederate forts, including the now-infamous Fort Sumter.

On May 13, 1862 at 2:30 a.m., Smalls changed the narrative a little. 

While the Planter was berthed in Charleston and all of her white crew (including its officers) were ashore, Smalls snuck his wife and children aboard her, and, along with twelve other secretly-recruited slaves from the city, commandeered the vessel and sailed her right past 5 other Confederate ships and other heavily-armed shore emplacements and forts --Smalls having mastered the coded whistle signals necessary to bluff his way past.  The Planter then approached the Union blockade and raised the white flag to hail a Union clipper ship, the Onward.  The Planter's entire store of munitions, plans, charts, and codebooks were turned over to U.S. Naval intelligence, and the ship itself became a Union warship.  Smalls quickly gained notoriety in the Union's cause and drew the attention of President Lincoln, which almost certainly influenced his decision to permit Black soldiers to enlist in the Union Army.

There is of course a great deal more to the story --not the least of which includes Smalls's commissioning as an actual U.S. Navy officer and formal instatement as the Planter's actual Captain.  He also piloted the Skipper, the Isaac Smith, and the ironclad Keokuk.  He supported Sherman's March to the Sea and was present for the Union flag-raising ceremony at Fort Sumter in April 1865.  His postwar story is equally compelling --including his purchase of his former owner's plantation house in Beaufort, and the founding of a school for Black children.  He lent support to the Freedmen's Bureau, started and published a Black-owned newspaper, the Beaufort Southern Standard , and then --perhaps most improbably of all-- in 1874 ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, won, and served in Congress a total of five terms (first in South Carolina's 5th District, then after gerrymandering, the 7th District).  His public role did not end in 1884 --he lived long enough into the twentieth century to witness the rise of Jim Crow and fiercely pushed back against Black disenfranchisement, which was being rewritten back into a great many state constitutions, including South Carolina's.  Smalls died of malaria in 1915, at the age of 75. 

A monument to Smalls at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort includes his 1895 statement to the South Carolina legislature: "My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life."

(Okay, I fibbed a bit in that first paragraph --there IS in fact a Robert Smalls biopic at last greenlit and in development by Amazon Studios.  No casting announcements yet, but it will reportedtly be directed by Malcolm M. Mays.  Keep an eye out.  In the meantime, for further enrichment I would recommend "Moonlight Helmsman" by Richard Maule and "Trouble The Water" by Rebecca Dwight Bruff --while I am not normally a fan of historical fiction, these two books definitely bring the drama and the excitement while still staying true to the actual facts.)

2022 Writing Summary 🖊️🗒️✨

This year was an interesting one for writing and I am so excited bc I tackled a few different projects in 2022!

- I worked on for suffering is such a part pretty much daily from December, finally finishing it in April with a total of 51,575 words!

- In April, feeling pretty burnt out on writing, I did some fluffy AU pieces (huapangos de arlathvhen) as well as aloe, elfroot, and the flood (which will probably be rewritten, but remains as an attempt to write a DAO-era Crestwood fic).

- In May I busied myself writing original fiction and firing off some submissions to literary magazines. I am still working on a way to bring original fiction to an audience, but for now I just don’t feel very comfortable sharing it here. Stay tuned, though!

- In June I got into Wayfarer and challenged myself to develop a character by writing 30 micro fics. This got me writing pretty consistently, and I collected all those pieces in lovesong of the buzzard.

- Closed the year with a fic I wrote for the Wayfarer Exchange, there’s a flame that burns out at sea, and also planning for Quinta de Talpa and other original projects.

I’m looking forward to what 2023 will bring. 💖

January

Zevran tried to picture Hamal’s face without any of the vallaslin, but found that he couldn’t. The blood writing was such an important part of his Warden. He knew that Hamal was fiercely proud of them. Now he knew why.

He smiled at Mathuin, feeling that they must have shared the story both for Cammen’s benefit as well as for his.

February

Every time he made a mistake it was like this: Somewhere in the deepest parts of his id existed a small thought that Hamal might not want him once he realized that he was broken in a way that was permanent; not transient like the Blight, not as easily defeated as an Archdemon. Sometimes the thought was loud. Right now, however, he was able to confront the thought, because the fact was, Hamal had married him.

March

“And how are you?”

Zevran raised a brow and looked at him.

“Zevran. In the past few days you fought a sylvan, fractured a bone, hiked through the forest, fell through a ceiling, got a concussion—and that’s just the stuff I know about. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

April

Loneliness was a sharp barb that worked its way under his skin. He’d never felt it so keenly; it was agony, it eclipsed everything, every thought, every feeling, every past, present, or future, even his name.

May

Everyone here is so busy. His cousins now have titles and jobs and families. Even Petra is married and has children now.

Fortunately he doesn’t have time to dwell on it. The ocean peeks over the rise of a verdant hill and suddenly they’re there. Arlathvhen.

June

“What if I do not wish to go back?” Hamal asked. “What if I ask you to leave?”

“Then I suppose it’s just a question of what I should tell the others.” Zevran looked away with a shrug. “But it’ll have to be good; both to ensure that no one comes looking for you, and to clear me of any suspicion.”

Hamal let out a hint of a laugh at that—short, bitter, but a laugh all the same. The sound surprised him as much as it did Zevran.

July

Perhaps because of his desert childhood, it delights him at first. Rain is transformative, a sign of good things to come: the cacti flowering, the buried animals emerging from the dry earth.

(He once believed them to be resurrected; believed the whole world was a dead thing coming alive.)

But the rain in Rona is different. There is no transformation, no resurrection here.

August

Alassar steel cuts through the darkness, flashing as Refugio cuts his vocal chords. Just as quickly, Yuribia clamps a hand over the other one’s mouth and smothers her wings around him tightly, muffling his scream as she snaps his neck.

She and Refugio stand there for a moment, breathing heavily in the dark.

September

It’s a bad pain day. It swoops upon him like a vulture and pecks his back apart vertebrae by vertebrae.

Refugio slouches in his seat, each bump and pebble on the road sending painful little shockwaves through his back. He’s known Yuribia long enough that he doesn’t bother hiding it. She’s known him long enough that she doesn’t bother commenting.

October

Kit’s long hair hangs like a curtain, her legs draped over the backrest of the couch she currently occupies. Anyone else might look absurd lounging in such a manner, but she pulls it off; she just has an air of grace about her, on and off the stage.

Refugio smiles appreciatively, his eyes trailing from her pretty curls to the script in her hands.

November

The Amell mansion is big enough to house a haunting.

Renata has always suspected that she ought to have one of those, which is to say, the absence of one had been thus far conspicuous in her life; a thought in the back of her head all these many years, from Lothering to Kirkwall. Late at night in her family’s little farmhouse she’d think of it, paranoid of some specter that never was there. She just never had the time or the space for it.

December

“I imagine he wants what any man wants: His life, with a shred of hope, and a regular fuck. So he slit your throat! We are Crows! If we killed everyone who made an attempt on our life, we’d hunt ourselves to extinction.”

It takes an awful lot of custom ad-block stuff to get Tumblr into a "useable" state for me when I'm on my computer…

This is all stuff I have in my ad-blocker addon for Tumblr. It's a set of "sets" – 19, to be exact – which reduce the clutter and mess on my Tumblr Dashboard, among other places. It's heavily personalized and probably wouldn't fit most people, but I have a lot of things that annoy me about the web-based Dashboard, and unfortunately, Washboard is a tad bit broken in terms of functionality at the mo'. The only thing I can't seem to consistently fix is the "restricted area" nag warning on blog Archive pages when you're not logged in. Any solution I've tried seems to fail.

I also have 18 more filters which are outdated or simply don't do the job, anymore. I think the fact that I have this many filters for one website speaks volumes about the interface, myself. But, that's just my opinion… Sadly, I don't think @staff really cares. Their free website has to make money somehow, so… yeah.

For those who are curious: I am using @april's XKit Rewritten in conjuction with this and whle it does do some of this, it doesn't do it particularly well. As for the rest? A lot of it won't be implemented for either "moral" or technical reasons, or simply can't be implemented for being "outside of the scope" of the extension. Or maybe she won't use my idea because she hates me personally. d;

These are the times we live in, I guess.

Yo it's Apollo!Ray AU hours again

I just think Ray would be more fitting as ruthless psycho than Norman? I mean, Ray was willing to sacrifice 35 children out of 37- children that were his family, children he loved. I'm not saying such decision didn't destroy him internally; but if he, after having thought about it for a long time and considered there was no other chance, eventually agreed to sacrifice most of his own family, think about what he might be able to do to the creatures he despises.

Now, I'm not saying I'm 100% sure this is how Ray would act if he was sent to Lambda, and I know I'm on thin ice with remaining in character; but I find it fun to think of what could have been of him and eventually bringing to light some hidden dark aspects of his!

Hear me out: Ray is a complex, predominantly gray character. Through the canon story, he was greatly effected by Emma's good influence for the better. Nota bene!! I don't mean that Ray isn't his own character, and that his personality and development was solely shaped by Emma; what I mean is that he was influenced by Emma's attitude as much as she was of his own, because our personality is also built on the people we're surrounded by, especially the ones we share a deep bond with.

Now, let's say that, at Grace Filed, Ray's heart was still in a predominantly gray zone: a bit ruthless at heart - he really was willing to abandon to death 92% of his family - but still able to be influenced by Emma's good resolutions for the best (even though it's important to keep in mind that he didn't believe an escape involving more than three people was possible until it took place in front of his eyes. I think it's a very relevant detail, as it shows how GF!Ray's cynism and realism often lead to him solely being able to see the most negative results, and not allowing him to believe in the impossible as Emma and Norman did).

Now, things changed as canon Ray escaped. He had seen the impossible become reality right in front of his eyes, and in that moment he vowed he would have never made the same mistake: he would have never given up again; not on his family, nor on his life.

He swore to protect his family, and that he would have never allowed any of his siblings to meet death again: and that's because, for the very first time in his entire existence, he started to believe that no-escape-scenarios can actually be overcame without sacrifices, if only you have enough faith into making it possible. He learned that fighting back will never stop being an option, and he's now willing to do anything, even the impossible, to grant his family an happy life- this time, for all of them.

It's beautiful, isn't it? Well, bad news!!! Lambda!Ray never got the chance to go through this character development. In fact for him after his shipment everything got worse and more desperate!

I find it unlikely that Ray would have left a note with a revisited escape plan like Norman did before leaving... We know for sure in two months he didn't come up with what Norman had thought in a couple of hours, and even though in the circumstances of him being shipped he would have been him to make the recognition, he didn't know about the support of the younger siblings, which was a key element of the escape plan. Overall, even putting aside the fact that Norman is generally considered being a span more witty than Ray, I personally like to think that Ray, for how he is - pessimistic, depressed and everything - after seeing the cliff would have been far too miserable to come up with something as fast as Norman did.*

*Actually, it's hard to tell for sure, because I think Ray would never give up on saving Emma and Norman- but things were happening so fast, so what if he didn't have enough time? What if he just couldn't come up with a plan to overcome the cliff? I fully believe Ray would have done anything to save Emma and Norman, but what if there wasn't anything to be done? It's hard to say.

Ray is shipped to Lambda. This is probably what he's thinking, differently from Norman:

1. Their plan to escape somehow feels as it's already failed, since they already lost one person: without him, the plan of setting the house on fire to distract Isabella has no chance to work, making their already few chances of escaping go down to basically none.

2. Differently from Norman, who never stopped believing in Emma, Lambda!Ray doesn't know if his siblings were actually able to escape; taking into account how pessimistic Ray is, he has probably long presumed them dead. In such situation, it's very likely he considered the work of the six years of his life to at least make Emma and Norman survive gone to waste. I think it's actually very likely for him to get even more depressed and hopeless at Lambda, believing that now all his family is dead, and probably blaming himself for that. The fact that out of all his family he was the only one who survived - him, the one who out of them was the most ready and willing to die - must feel to him like the most cruel joke from destiny.

[For reference: until the very moment they finally met, also Norman didn't know the escape was successful.

Of course, Norman believed in Emma and in her plan, but what about cynical, realistic, I'm-depressed-since-I-was-one Ray?]

At Lambda, Ray is hopelessly stalling, obsessing on this kind of thoughts. His hatred for demons and, for extension, the world he lives in, is growing stronger and stronger. He's slowly sinking in the abyss of his own desperation. Now that all for him is lost, the only thought that keeps him from giving up on his life is one: the thirst of vengeance. A single, dark, rooted thought that somehow manages to be the one thing that keeps him going on. (Once taken on the Apollo facade, there probably was also a component of wanting to stop once and for all the suffering of thousands of children... But in all honesty, I believe with Ray the revenge component would be much stronger than it was with Norman.)

Let's take a moment to reflect on Ray's vindictive side, shall we? Of course, the main reason for Ray to set himself on fire was because according to him it was the safest way to make the others escape (honestly I think a big part of it was also because of him being suicidal kind of depressed, but that's not relevant to the point). But I believe another primary reason for his actions was his seek for revenge: you can clearly see it in his words full of hate and loathing. And I mean, I think that's pretty canon? Ray's beautiful theme in this moment of the anime is literally called “Ray's retaliation”.

That night Ray sought revenge for having ruined his six years plan to save his true friends (since Norman was ultimately shipped without him being able to do anything to save him), together with revenging all of his siblings he saw being led to death. Somehow, it was a moment for him to set all his anger free as his last testament leaving that cruel world.

But as for the Ray of the AU, he never got to experience that freeing moment! Instead, the anger inside of him kept growing stronger and stronger. And now that he believed the whole escape plan had failed and not a single child had survived, it's fair to assume his thirst for revenge would keep growing with it. And also, once again: this time there's no Emma to have a good influence on him.

Now imagine: after escaping Lamba, Ray meets Emma and Norman again!! He's overjoyed: for the longest time, he had thought he would have never got to see them again. He's ecstatic, overwhelmed with joy. In that moment, he swears to himself he'll never lose them again. Skip to the moment of the confrontation between the three of them, except this time it's Ray to expose his plan to exterminate the demons; when Emma randomly speaks her mind and says that, well, she actually doesn't find it very nice to eradicate an entire species, and that in fact she and Norman were already planning a fun trip to a deadly metaphysical place nobody ever came back from to reforge the promise. Needless to say, in the span of minutes Ray is back sinking deep into the abyss. He won't lose them again. He can't lose them again. And click boom, he goes “You know what Emma? Why don't you visit our Paradise Hideout a bit longer instead 😊🔪🔪🔪”

What I'm trying to say is: when the story starts, Ray has gone through all of the most dreadful and disturbing horrors; he's unstable, and depending on his fate when leaving Grace Field he could have easily swing from one extreme to the other. I think Emma greatly helped him overcome his hatred; but what would have been of him, hadn't she been there to support him? What if he only met people who shared his hatred for demons? What if Ray had the choice to kill them all?

I just rewatched the entire ending of v3 for the first time since I initially got to it in april 2020 and I feel like I have some altering retrospective on it (holy crap I ended up with more than I expected)

please note that this is heavily based on my own surface analysis and features conflicting opinions between what I perceive now versus what I felt when I first saw it. this is also really disorganized-looking because it just accumulated over the course of me watching it

while the v3 ending is still insane, I feel like it’s easier to squint inquisitively at it now than it was the first time I saw it. before, I got this weird message of “treating fictional characters bad is BAD and you should feel guilty about enjoying this series or wanting something else out of this game because you’re just like those people in the audience during the trial” but I think that might’ve just been… reading too far into a knee jerk reaction. creating that distance between my expectation at the time and what I know about the game now has done odd things.

I mean, tsumugi does say that “none of this matters none of this has any meaning” and shuichi says “stfu our pain matters!” because like even if they accept that they’re not real and ‘trapped in the dr universe’, fiction does mean something to people.

tsumugi says almost right away that “our latest project is danganronpa v3, a heart-pounding killing game brought to life by Real Fiction” implying that this is the only hypothetical killing game that actually does this real fiction chaos. it makes you wonder how the fuck rantaro fits into the picture if you take this literally.

I’m not really sure whether the real fiction thing refers to whether this is the first season where they’ve turned real people into characters or whether it just means this is the first time they’ve tried to go meta by referencing that they used to be real people. I kind of… thought it was the first one.

the audience watching from keebo’s eyes is one of the biggest glaring evidences of inconsistency since the player is playing from shuichi’s perspective.

it’s like… yeah. the reason that this is all inapplicable to real life and how it’s not REALLY pointing fingers at treatment of fictional characters and is more of a badly timed coincidence is because tsumugi is defining the fiction as them being “flesh and blood characters” and all their memories and talents being fake. the thing that makes them very arguably fiction is how they’ve been written into the story even though they also say that their ‘bodies are real’ and that they used to be real people before their brains were rewritten.

she’s saying that they can only exist in the world of dr… but choosing hope would cause them to ‘graduate’ anyway, so like, that’s not consistent. I mean, why wouldn’t she try to manipulate them into continuing the series with reverse psychology?

shuichi comes back to a realist approach. he stops bothering to argue about whether they’re real or not because he decides that it doesn’t make a difference–what does matter is that the killing games will continue if they play along.

because keebo is being shot as the main character here, it’s trying to shift the approach. I think like, them ‘stopping the series’ wasn’t actually the intention of the not-writers (the imaginary ones). like, keebo is being declared the mc even though the players know this is not their experience.

I kind of like to imagine that shuichi is clinging onto some semblance of rebellion.

it’s too bad that it kind of undermines the rest of the unrelated series, and it’s odd for it to be criticizing its own positive message like it was a problem all along (when, of course, ‘real fiction’ was not a thing in the other games and they existed independently)… but I guess you can disconnect them?

there’s actually some interesting stuff in here. in retrospect the things I hated before aren’t actually that bad–like the whole thing about it having gone on for 53 killing games isn’t all that ridiculous. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense that tsumugi would only costume herself as people from the first 2 games, but I guess you could pass that off as a sledgehammer to the actual players rather than being relevant to the game.

shuichi doesn’t care about any of this reality or fiction bullshit. from his perspective, he’s just Angry. how else is he supposed to respond? they’re not going to shoehorn anything about how terrible things happening to fictional characters isn’t the same thing as terrible things happening to real people because like… it’s not relevant.

they do emphasize that they don’t know whether they are real or fictional. like, shuichi doesn’t care whether it’s real or fictional, and that’s why he mentions his thing at the end about how it could go either way. whatever his pain is defined as doesn’t matter to him because it’s pain to him either way. it stops being about hope and defeating despair through the power of feelings and just being about “I don’t fucking care anymore this game is going to end by not playing it” the amount of absolute spite and rage emanating off his person is like, inspiring in a sense, but the way it’s written just feels so odd.

I can understand how what tsumugi is saying can be taken to mean “fiction doesn’t matter or make a difference” as opposed to being a direct criticism of how fiction is examined, but on the other hand, it does look a bit like shuichi is directly criticizing people who write stories since we know that he was, logically, written by a person who was working on v3 as a game. like… his experience with ‘being fictional’ is not the same as actual fiction. fiction is a demon bunny that I just thought up. fiction is not people getting their brains overwritten and participating in a killing game.

another thing: keebo's inner voice is distinctly separate from the player, since the player tells keebo to do stuff that contradicts the audience.

I just noticed something really weird. so like, the monitors turn off, right? the displays with the character’s faces and names turned off when shuichi started saying he was sick of the killing games and when keebo started defying the audience.

they turned back on…… when shuichi said that they will reject danganronpa. why would they turn back on?

himiko and maki go dead silent for like 20 minutes and then shuichi asks them to abstain from voting with him and maki does the line repeat thing again all like ‘abstain from voting?’ I’M LIKE YES MAKI. ABSTAIN FROM VOTING (I think I failed to mention how this trial is extremely long because everyone spends so much time reiterating the same information and repeating each other’s lines)

“only those who have found the truth can choose their destiny” what a weird line to drop shuichi

AWW shuichi telling maki to believe in herself

tsumugi brings up again that for all they know they’re still following the trajectory of her script, but it is getting much more ambiguous.

“come on it’d be a lousy story if the hero gave up so easily” that’s a weird thing for shuichi to say but the thought that he sees maki as the hero is nice.

this ending isn’t actually that abysmal (this was my first personal experience–you may realize I’ve gotten neck deep into analyzing everyone’s wildly different experiences with this game), it’s just slow as shit and you can’t really compare it to the rest of the series. it also hinges on the worse parts of fandom… you know what I mean? and the game exploits your existing knowledge of the series in a really annoying way up to that point (interestingly, people who don’t play all the games in a row and/or in chronological order seem to enjoy v3′s story more.)

yes, they are telling a decent and thought-provoking story, but the story doesn’t match the rest of the games and they are trying to insist that it does.

logically, the characters defending themselves makes perfect sense–because it’s under the pretense that they used to be real people and had their entire selves rewritten in an inherently flawed description of what it means to be fictional. their lives and their bodies are considered real things, so they use their lives to try to change the world. out of context, this makes sense, but they are trying to depict it in some kind of meta way that is intended to influence the actual real world when it is actually inapplicable.

there is actually a little bit of positivity to be found here. even though everyone is rejecting ‘hope and despair’ (which is really just a way of them saying they’re rejecting the plot of the game) they’re still hoping that what they’re doing is going to change the world, and they still believe in each other.

I guess the ending hits a little less hard if you don’t go away from it like “oh everything that happened in the game doesn’t matter I can’t believe that was all a waste of fucking time” because that directly conflicts with what they just spent the whole trial talking about.

I mean… if you were me last year and you thought that you were gonna get answers instead, or thought that the story was going to go in a completely different direction, it's easy to be disappointed.

“our friends who died gave us their love and inspired change in us. if we can inspire change in others, then that love will live on” oh… that’s good, actually.

I’m like very big on the idea of the power art has to change the world and people’s hearts, so this speaks my language.

I just wish that… it wasn’t in the context of trying to use meta-speak to criticize people for creating or enjoying a piece of fictional media.

“shuichi, you can change the world. because you’re kaito’s sidekick” thanks maki I love you

their meta message is supposed to be about the meaningfulness of fiction in the world. but… it just comes across as worded badly. their message about how it can change the world is supposed to be associated with how it can inspire the world to be better, but it was strewn from how they felt persecuted by it. it’s not insisting that danganronpa itself has made the world a worse place, I suppose. they’re saying they can use their roles to make the world better. and like, that’s neat? but it’s easy to conflate them because of how it’s written and why they are doing it.

I mean… they are also saying that the killing game is wrong. it’s like… yeah. the killing game is obviously wrong in the context of them being real people in their universe and being made to participate in the game. however, this is incredibly easy to interpret as a criticism of creating stories where bad things happen.

(unrelated, but when would a series that big and famous ever care about what the audience wanted? they would definitely just be doing it for the money.)

also tsumugi spends a LOT of time saying things are the truth. but then she specifically says “oh no I just wanted to support you guys, you guys are my friends!” and they’re like “no we’re not” and tsumugi is like "nooo! I turned over a new leaf! I’m not lying, it’s the truth.” which is interesting considering how many things she’s outlined as the truth in this trial. she also turned back into regular tsumugi during that part…

she’s also saying that the rules don’t matter and she can do whatever she wants because it’s all fiction. weird…

hmmm… I’m also just thinking about tsumugi. is it at this point that the story actually went off the rails? like, for some reason I have this memory of believing that the ending was all on purpose.

“you never appreciated us… and it looks like you didn’t appreciate the Power of Fiction!” I’m losing my shit that line is gold

it’s actually really interesting how many people who like v3 a lot really like tsumugi, so it’s not like they’re criticizing her character as some monster. it’s interesting how the thing she likes about danganronpa is that it’s a killing game, rather than… the reasons real people like danganronpa.

GHJFKH “I worked hard to keep this going for 53 seasons” HOW OLD ARE YOU TSUMUGI

I KEPT DANGANRONPA ALIVE UPHILL BOTH WAYS IN THE SNOW

her line about being a cosplaycat criminal is just fuckin there it like comes out of nowhere and then keebo goes like ALL RIGHT TIME TO DESTROY THE SCHOOL they definitely just affirmed in 1 line that the whole thing could’ve been a lie. thanks kodaka

WHY DOES KEEBO HAVE A SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON ON THE FRONT OF HIS BODY THIS IS DOOFENSCHMIRTZ LEVEL DESIGN

anyway, that’s everything. if you want to see a couple of my thoughts on the epilogue, you can read them here. however, after refreshing the ending trial, I feel like my opinion has become a little more ambiguous again since the trial bombards you with confusing yet prominent information. it provoked a particular thought in me…

if you decide to believe the final trial and tsumugi’s story, you get v3′s ending of supposedly successfully changing the world. even if they defeated an imperceived threat, at least they succeeded at something.

if you decide that the final trial is a lie… you are deciding that experience was simply part of the conjured narrative on behalf of bringing better meaning to the other games in the series. (e.g. the other games get to be more than plotlines controlled by people who never cared about the positive messages they were conveying and only did it out of obligation or a desire to create a killing game.)

it’s an interesting dilemma, huh? is there a middle ground to be found?

I mean, these two ideas can coexist in some ways. they could always exist in within the danganronpa universe where people have decided to capitalize on past killing games. that’s always a fun one.

it’s just really interesting how one’s perspective of this game’s choice of narrative can warp so drastically depending on what kind of feedback you see about it and when you notice how much you like the characters and how much they’ve all collectively grown on you well after you’ve finished playing it. there were all kinds of things in v3 that were poorly handled and I still feel like there wasn’t nearly enough evidence in the game that indicated that the ending was coming (like I wasn’t expecting it AT ALL at the time, even if I considered the possibility that their memories were fake due to the outrageous nature of the story and got spoiled that tsumugi was the mastermind–I thought all the twists were going to be different), but my thoughts on it are always shifting about.

maybe the real message of v3 was how much those characters would go on and mean things to people after the story was over.

So this is pretty much the same article that has been posted before regarding the new comic book for Big Hero 6, but there are a few updates that have been made to it, mostly around the demise of the IDW comic.

There were apparently some...disagreements concerning the writer and the publishing company:

A comic book for the 2017 TV spin-off was planned by IDW Publishing, but that was heavily delayed after conflicts between editorial, and writer Hannah Blumenreich: only three issues, rewritten by Joe Caramagna with art by Nicoletta Baldari, were released from November 2019 to October 2020, and only digitally in the case of the latter two issues.

This led to an article from April 2020, where Blumenreich won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Online Comic in 2019, and in her acceptance speech (posted in part here), she talks about her frustrations dealing with the higher-ups:

That series never went anywhere.  Like, literally, it never went anywhere.  The first issue’s release has been delayed for well over a year now.  But I quit.  I felt kinda bad about it.  Accepting that series had allowed me to walk away from another big comics publisher.  I’d hoped having my own series would show them up, but I never got that chance.  So I felt bad.

The first issue of the IDW comic got released in November of 2019, and her tweet about the speech was in September.  So it was already apparent at that point in time that the comic was doomed. What was interesting was I didn’t know that the comic was rewritten by a different writer.  So I checked the credits pages for said comics:

And sure enough, Caramagna took over sole writing responsibilities for Issues #2 and 3.  Perhaps that’s why Issue #1 had two stories; they needed to fill in what had been missing by the original writer.

This would also explain why it’s been hard to find physical copies of Issues 2 and 3; they were never made physically.  They were only digitally released.

I guess it goes to show that you never know what’s going on behind the scenes.  Things need changing, people don’t want to change it, and people butt heads.  But Blumenreich went on to do smaller passion projects, and it seems she’s happier doing those sorts of things.

But man...this really explains a lot about the train wreck that was the IDW comic.

Master List 2

(* means suggestive)

Character and AU Information: Emiko Willows (Yikes. OC) Old Ocs (Rewritten) The Big Sisters and the Kids (OCs) Ilona (Middle Child. Willows Family OC.) Villain Ian (OC) Seika Ito (OC)

Stories Written: Unravel (Chat Prompt Lyrics, Villain!sona) Hold me... Please (Stretch x Ivy, hurt-comfort) Requiem (AU, Lyric Prompt.)

Asks: Prism compliments her future brother-in-laws and her future in-laws (villain!sona)

Prism's reaction to accidentally getting pregnant (Villain!sona)

Military or not? (Revenant OCs)

Law Abiding Citizens? (Revenant OCs)

Revenant Questions (Code Vein)

Torturing? (Code Vein headcanons?)

Detective Nephew/Niece/Nibling? (Villain OC and Persona OC)

Theme Song Resonance (Multi-OCs)

Why Prism Fears Isla (Villain!sona)

Ivy's problems with her sister (Persona)

Shadow Rose (Piper)

Different fathers? (OCs)

Scrunchies? (Underfell and Apprentice)

Tattoo lover's name on your skin? (Villain!sona)

Hound and Mutt (Fellswap red)

Join the Mafia or No? (Fellswap red)

Join the Mafia or No? (Underfell)

Anger levels with Isla (Villain!sona and Persona)

Jobs? (Skeleton Boys)

Jobs? (OCs)

Halloween Outfits (OCs)

The backstory of Yuki and Lucy (HEAVILY inspired)

Ivy's Love For Her Friends. (Persona OC)

Katherine and Maya (Dead OCs)

Does she sing? (Piper Question)

Reason #1 Why Isla is Cut Off (WIllows Siblings.)

Reasons Isla is Cut Of (Willows Siblings)

Deal Breakers (Ivy, Prism, Piper)

Dealt with deal breakers? (Ivy, Prism, Piper.)

Who does Isla abuse the most? (OCs)

Ivy's Work in the Mafia (Ivy)

Ivy's Job (Ivy)

Ivy's Dress Taste (Ivy)

Emiko, glasses or not? (KH AU)

Emiko's Boots (KH AU)

Ivy's Job as a Singer (Ivy)

Emiko's hair (KH AU)

Who Would Win: Kagura, Blade, Briar, or Mist? (Horrortale AU, Ovegrowth Ivy AU, Axetale AU, Briar)

SOUL bonds (Skeleton Sisters' AU)

Illegitimate children? (Isla)

Isla is Iris's bio mom: Does Iris know? (Iris, Sparrow, and Isla.)

Family Cores (Willows Family)

Outfits that make Ivy feel Pretty (Ivy)

If they worked with Ivy and why they don't. (Isabella, Prism, Piper.)

Pets reaction to Partner (Ship Event Girls)

What Ivy was trained in (Isla and Ivy)

What could send Ivy into a murderous rage? (Ivy)

Collars? (Ian)*

What they would do for Ivy if they had a crush (The Willows Family)

If Ian worked with Ivy and why he doesn't. (Ian)

Their Parents (The Willows Family)

Ride the Unicorn and T-Rex? (All Skeleton Boys)

Red Silhouette Challenge? (The Willows Family)*

A Possum??? (All Skeleton Boys)

Heels? (Ivy, Prism, Fox, Piper)*

A Possum??? (The Willows family)

Kabedons? (Ian, Ivy, Prism, Piper, Ilona, Isabella, Emiko)

Which aunt or uncle they admire (The Willows Family Kids)

Call Isla "mom"! (Isla's biological children.)

Lmao. Isla sends her side candy to flirt (Ivy, Prism, Piper.)

Meeting Harmony (Willows Family)

Who likes Butch first? (Piper's kids)

Kid gets cheated on (Prism and Piper)

Take Butch's advice or become angrier? (April)

Isla abandons a kid like Ivy. (Ivy)

More kids? (Piper)

Isla without her father's influence (Isla)

Does the willow family know about Isla's problems? (The Willows Family)

Pet names for partners. (Ivy, Piper, Prism)

Mixed Stuff (Worldbuilding)

Piper finding out what the flowers meant (Piper)*

Monster Forms (Ivy, Prism, Piper.)

Dr. Verdana (Info things??? I guess??)

More Dr. Verdana (Info stuff)

Dolls (Ivy, Prism, Piper.)

The Dolls... Vs the mafias. (Piper Doll, Ivy Doll, Prism Doll)

Dolls of their partners (Piper, Ivy, Prism)

Cuddles (Piper, Ivy, Prism)

Briar's Soul (Briar, Ivy, Dr. Verdana.)

Briar's Health Problems (Briar, The Willows Family)

Lord and Mutt vs Ebony and Hound (Fellswap Red)

Hound and the Mafias (Fellswap Red)

Hound, Ebony, Razz, and Rinny (Fellswap Red, Skeleton Sisters' diner au)

Outfits (Underfell and Fellswap Red)

Um. Mafia and Ivy's Performance (Ratsoh's Mafia AU and Willows Family + Ito fam)

Nebula and the Mafia Boys (Mafia Skeleton Sisters' AU)

Piper and Seika (Piper)

Seika can sing?? (Seika + Ito Family)

Morals? I guess? (Mainly Seika, but criminal OCs)

Isabella's former addiction (Isabella)

Hi hi! I just wanted to ask how often you update your fic! I’m really excited to start reading it, as I love stories over 100k and I am just so happy to find something so eloquently written! I am not looking forward to not having any more chapters to read, but I am a patient person! I just wanted to know what your schedule is like and if it is anywhere near the end? :)

Hiya :D So this is a bit complicated for me to answer. Not because of you, but because of how I'm working on Finding the Four-Eyed Samurai.

The short answer is, it generally takes me 1 month to complete a chapter. Chapters are around 10,000 - 20,000 words and usually require a lot of research, whether historical, atmospheric or simply going back and rewatching scenes from the anime that are referenced or alluded to.

But...since April 2020, I have posted 9 new chapters, a one-shot, and rewrote Chapters 13-19. So that's...17 chapters in 10 months?

I've also just finish rewriting Chapters 8 and 9 but can't post them yet. So that's...19?

*sweating* That's a lot more than one a month.

Basically, now, I write...A LOT. Every day, when I can. Whether it's actually writing, or researching, or planning. The thing is, my updates before 2020 were not nearly that fast... And this is where the problem lies in answering about my updates.

The earliest chapters were written 9 years ago when I was a young teen. And they are not written good. I probably have lost so many readers who read those chapters and immediately backed out. I'm still surprised so many people decided to trudge through it, to see my writing grow through the years. (It still needs work even now but...)

As of now, I will not be posting Chapter 46 until all the early chapters are rewritten. This will take me a couple more months. And then, they will all be posted together. Now, when i say "rewrite", I don't mean I'm just revising for typos, and rewording sentences to sound better. I mean I'm literally OVERHAULING the plot of Chapters 1-12. The only things that have generally stayed the same is Mugen and Fuu's dialogue. (So don't worry about losing out on a favorite interaction! Those don't change.)

To give you some context of these "OVERHAULS", I'll talk about the rewrite of the "ghost arc" of Chapters 10 and 11.

Original on the Website now (posted when I was 14): Chapter 10-11. Just two chapters and around 10,000 words total.. Complete fluff, in which Mugen and Fuu get stuck in the rain and stay at an abandoned manor that may just be haunted. That's it... No plot, no other characters, just fun Mugen x Fuu interactions.

Revision to be Posted in May, 2021: Four Chapters now spanning 8-11, totaling around 50,000 words. (five times as long as the original). Yes, Mugen and Fuu get stuck in the rain again. Yes, Mugen and Fuu stay in a haunted manor again. However, this time, there's plot relevance that makes it feel more like a Samurai Champloo "episode". Not just fluff.

-During Obon Festival in Edo, they meet with a Shugendo Buddhist monk named Taikan in a temple graveyard, when Fuu is paying her Obon respects to Shinsuke (who died in Edo in the anime Ep 7.) This monk is heading to Bancho, Edo to perform an "exorcism" on a Hatamoto samurai's wife with strange behavior. The manor is infested with black worms which are believed to be associated with this "demon" or "ghost". Because Mugen and Fuu are starving, and have no place to sleep in the coming downpour, Taikan offers to bring them along to become servants to the manor's owner: Aoyama, and his "possessed" wife Chouka. It becomes a sort of mystery/horror arc in finding out what is causing the bizarre incidences in the house, still full of Mugenx Fuu interactions too, of course. (Even more than before actually!) But it also gives some references to real history, and a more meaningful reason for the chapter's existence and the characters' growth.

That is just one example! The Kokoro and the Yakuza arc, and Mugen and Fuu remeeting also need to be heavily rewritten too!

Now, for your very last question... Is the story anywhere near it's end?

Finding the Four Eyed Samurai is planned to span 60 total chapters. After revisions, I will be back to writing the new Chapter 46. One posted every month, likely starting in July 2021. So that leaves only 15 chapters left. It seems like a lot... (which it is, considering that's roughly over 150k words left to write) However, in context to the whole story...that's only 1/4th left to go. I already have the rest of their journey plotted out...And, it's strangely sad for me to think about. Hm...After revisions and all chapters, FTFES might just be around 800k words??? Um???

But yes! UM.

I highly recommend waiting until May to read the early chapters, when they are all rewritten. However, if you've already managed to get past the first 12 chapters, then thank you so much for trudging through that... And I hope you will still go back and read the new revisions when they're posted in May or June. I put a lot of work into them, just as much as writing all-new chapters.

Thank you so much for the questions, and for your interest in my Fanfic!!! It means so much to me, and just inspired me to go into writing mode today :D

May I ask if you have already started reading it yet? And if you have, what chapter are you on?

AS A RULE THEIR INTEREST IS A FUNCTION OF THE NUMBER OF RESTAURANTS THAT STILL REQUIRE JACKETS FOR MEN

Teenage kids, even rebels, don't like to have too much money chasing too few deals. There's a good chance that would work. And yet in the general case, if being smart were really an enviable quality, the girls would have broken ranks. Users to Supposed Profit When I said I was speaking at a high valuation unless you can raise more elsewhere. All the time you got to program even less: Your job description as technical founder/CEO is completely rewritten every 6-12 months. It's surprising how much you like chocolate cake, you'll be able to find statistical differences between these and my real mail. If your product seems finished, there are projects that stretch them. The way to make more money as a motive, and that we had to either blow our schedules or offend people. When they think it's hard? Why There Aren't More Googles April 2008 Umair Haque wrote recently that the reason there aren't more Googles?

Publishers are more likely to arrive at it. I'm writing, four nights out of five I go to bed discontented, feeling he hadn't made enough progress. There are answers to that. I do think Joe's rule could be useful for other kinds of work equally, but one thing I would really love to program. If the other kids envy them for being smart, and C is a kludge, and Lisp syntax is scary. Google was when it was that adults had to earn a living.1 The surprising thing about throwaway programs is that, if not wasting their time, at least. The pointy-haired boss, the difficulty of fundraising. YC is due to I. They can't pay as much for that. We spent a lot of startups would never get any additional outside investment. When I read most novels, I pay as much attention to the company, and it will extract information they didn't even know they were recording.

But you should be able to coordinate their efforts, and you just have so little to go on, but you can learn quickly enough that car means the first element of a list and try to predict whether people would have what it takes to say it. Electricity seemed an airy intangible to most people who try to compete with ITA and chose to write your thoughts down in, but admissions officers, and they don't care where you went to college. If you're a hacker, the last time a new way to do venture investing. No cofounder Not having a cofounder is a real trend, the hardware we'll have in a hundred years will it affect even application programmers? All I can say more precisely. If an investor pushes you hard to tell good hackers when you meet them. But it's the bold ideas that generate the highest returns, like hedge funds or mutual funds. What if we let people get rich by building a site for Harvard undergrads to stalk one another. The problem with starting a startup you would do well to act as a mecca, attracting talent from abroad and causing startups to form around it. See Randomness April 2006, rev. When people used to be bolder.

But the new version number led to some awkwardness in the short term. More movement or even potential movement between companies combined with self-discipline. Achievements also tend to cause you to grow out of personal projects. The author's main point seems to be a search for truth. Recipes While the best way to understand the underlying principles. In the discussion about issues raised by Revenge of the Nerds. If you could write as candidly and informally as you would in a program you write is code that's specific to your application.2

With a remotely plausible story, you can get better terms.3 Who do I find myself quoting? What you notice in the Forbes 400 with the other guys his age. Fashion magazines could be made. They were assigned to Viaweb, and Y Combinator is to do what they want, the more likely you'll get it wrong. I wasn't looking for it. That was a big deal, in the sense of being an insider, and in some fields and badly in others.4 Often they have to choose between something that's cheap, heavily marketed startup.5 To see fashion in your own head—will come from some little startup. They don't have to know what the timetable is for getting the answer quickly.

Notes

I'm not claiming variation in wealth in a separate box weighing another 4000 pounds. I'm not saying that because server-based software will make developers pay more attention to not screwing up. While the audience gets too big for the first time as an investor I don't know of at least try. One YC founder who read this to be higher, even to inexperienced founders.

Exercise for the manager of a refrigerator, but I managed to find it was. 5 million cap, but this sort of stepping back is one of the big winners aren't all that mattered. Though you should make what they really need that much of it. Compromising a server could cause such damage that ASPs that want to either.

If you walk into a fancy restaurant in San Francisco, LA, Boston, or to be good. Ron Conway, for example, understanding French will help dispel the cloud of semi-sacred mystery that surrounds wisdom in ancient Egypt took exams, but historical abuses are easier for us!

One YC founder wrote after reading a draft of this article are translated into Common Lisp, though I think you could beat the death-penalty in the press or a funding round usually reflects some other contribution by the time 1992 the entire period since the mid 1980s.

These false positive rates are untrustworthy, as far as I know one very smooth if you're a YC startup and you make it easier for us, they only like the one the Valley itself, not because it's a significant cause, and they unanimously said yes. We once put up with elaborate rationalizations. But the solution is to say they care above all about hitting outliers, are not mutually exclusive.

Thanks to Marc Hedlund, and Trevor Blackwell for sharing their expertise on this topic.

I finished Persona 5 Royal, after 135 hours. My feelings on the new content are mostly very positive, though do I have a few issues with it. Here's a suuuuuper long write-up first about Persona 5 and then about Royal. This is gonna have full spoilers for both versions of the game, so keep that in mind if spoilers for either game bother you. Persona 5 is my favorite game of all time for several reasons. The first is how masterfully it's written. Not necessarily line-to-line (and certainly not in the English localization, which could've used a few more weeks of edits to make the sentences sound more natural), but in its structure, thematic unity, and use of allusions to achieve that unity. The first two-thirds of the game are presented through a complex and well-orchestrated frame device that's honestly just a treat to experience. It presents the player with a glance at each upcoming story beat without the context to understand it, then lets them piece together the context as they go, giving the whole game a sense of mystery even as the player inhabits the characters at the center of the mystery. It also uses concepts from Jungian psychology to tell its story, most notably character archetypes, which means players can use knowledge of the archetypes to better understand aspects of the characters and their stories. It's beautiful, and it means that I often fall down rabbit-holes researching the allusions made and finding the connections they have to the story. The other reason Persona 5 is my favorite game is much more personal, but it actually played a major role in my radicalization (or if you're uncomfortable with such terminology, political reawakening). The game released in early April of 2017, only a few months after Trump took office, and partway through my first semester back at school after my five year...break. The game is about fighting back against societal injustice. It starts out small, with a high school teacher who abuses his students, but moves up to people with increasingly greater power exploiting increasingly larger swaths of the population: a famous artist using his clout to steal his students' livelihoods, a mafia boss stealing money from the people of his neighborhood, a CEO overworking and underpaying his employees while jockeying for a political position, a government prosecutor who fabricates evidence to maintain her perfect record, and finally a member of the Diet running for Prime Minister who uses populist rhetoric but only cares about gaining personal power. As in previous games, each protagonist gains their powers by awakening to their Persona (essentially publicly performing as their true, unfiltered selves), but in this game, the process is physically painful, bordering on body horror. The act of tearing off the masks so tightly glued to the characters' faces is cast in a similar light to putting on the glasses in "They Live:" doing so is painful and frightening, but allows each character to see the world for what it is, without the filter of the justifying ideological framework. In the last dungeon of the game, the characters invade the physical manifestation of the justifying framework, which takes the form of a prison in which the prisoners beg to be left inside, as the idea of freedom from the prison terrifies them. A vein running from each of their cells sucks out their life force, vampirically, and directs that life force into the manifestation of the concept of hierarchical structures itself, portrayed as the holy grail - a reference to Marx's Capital. This holy grail - which to Marx was wealth - is revealed to be a false god created by the masses because they wanted a god. However, it grew so powerful that now the masses serve it, rather than the other way around. It created its own artificial collective unconscious, barring its subjects from participating in a true collective unconscious free of its influence. At the very beginning of the game, a voice directly tells the player they may only play Persona after agreeing that the events of the game are entirely fictional, and any similarities to the real world are entirely coincidental. The game will not start until the player indicates that they agree to those terms. That voice is revealed to be the holy grail itself, implying that to refuse to compare fictional works to the real world or "get political" about these stories is to submit yourself to the justifying ideology. That's some powerful stuff, and grounding it in real-life examples of exploitation while following characters suffering from that exploitation made it hard to ignore, especially in the wake of the 2015-2016 rise of Fascism and at a time when I was back to studying literary analysis. The game seems specifically crafted to induce a radicalization in its players. It has a scene in which the characters attain class consciousness. For a chunk of the story, the characters try to fight against manufactured consent, as they are framed by the media and authority figures as dangerous villains just for taking a nonviolent stand against rapists, billionaires killing their employees, and corrupt officials. The citizenry believes it almost unquestioningly. The protagonists are often visibly enraged at the exploitation they see - much of which is based on specific real-world events - and the internal logic of the story suggests that this rage is the only moral response. Every aspect of the game bolsters these themes of hierarchy, exploitation, and rebellion, giving the game a thematic unity unlike any I've ever seen before. Even the smallest NPCs have full storylines running in the background that highlight the ways even these nameless characters are exploited, and the ways they've been socialized to accept this exploitation. Every book, every song lyric, every reference to a food item, every damn fictional allusion in a game ABOUT FICTIONAL ALLUSIONS ties back in some way to that larger theming. The thematic unity of this game sings, and playing it was unlike anything I'd experienced before. This game, for me, defined Leftism. I didn't put down the controller a full-blown Communist, but it gave me the tools I needed to ask the necessary questions to discard Liberalism. I probably would have gotten there eventually, and the game probably wouldn't have had quite as powerful an effect if I weren't a literary/media analysis kind of guy living in the time I was in, but even now, three years later, the game reads to me like a damn revolutionary text. So I was honestly terrified of Persona 5: The Royal, which came out at the beginning of this month. It's a rerelease of the game with added story content, including a new dungeon, a new party member, the return of a deceased party member, and a new ending. That's a lot to add onto a really fun game with unprecedented thematic unity that also helped me to redefine myself and my positions on...literally everything. If they messed with this unity for the sake of adding unnecessary content, it would heavily alter the game's effect, and my own personal understanding of the game, forever. That's not to say that the game couldn't be improved. The localization was kinda shoddy, it occasionally drifts into male gaze shit (glaringly so in the 2D animated cutscenes, which makes me wonder if the animation studio had different ideas about the project than the devs did), there are two scenes which are virulently homophobic, and the devs had originally planned for another party member who they had to scrap for time. The two homophobic scenes especially have made it difficult to recommend the game, as I've always had to add the caveat of "...but it completely undermines its own central thesis twice for cheap laughs and it's disgusting." I wasn't sure, however, that a rerelease would fix any of these issues, and I was really worried that adding ~25 hours of gameplay after the dungeon about the justifying ideology and the holy grail would undermine too much of what made the game so revolutionary to me. There is no larger threat to humanity than the ideological framework justifying capitalism, so I worried that moving away from that for the length of a whole-ass Kingdom Hearts game would make the game less effective. From a storytelling perspective, the party member they advertised they would bring back to life is an unambiguous villain, and I worried that bringing him back would both undermine the sacrifice from his death scene and rehabilitate the character, neither of which I wanted. The new party member was not the character they had planned for and cut, and her story as it was advertised did not involve her being exploited by people in power in any way. Rather, she's a star athlete and honors student whose success was attributed to her sense of personal responsibility, which runs pretty counter to the game's themes. I also worried that adding a new dungeon worth of gameplay would mean getting rid of the part at the end of the game where the protagonist willingly turns himself in and spends several months imprisoned, so that he can testify against one of the villains of the game. The thought of losing that bittersweet ending definitely didn't sit right with me. As I said at the beginning, my feelings on the new content are mostly positive. Before getting into pure spoiler territory, I'll say there's no going back to the original now that this version exists. They redesigned every dungeon and boss fight, retooled the battle system, added a LOT more voice acting to scenes where there hadn't been any, added a ton of new scenes further fleshing out characters and the setting, retranslated the worse lines from the localization (it's still not perfect but it's much improved), added new gameplay mechanics and personas, added a bunch of great new music, expanded on Tokyo, and FIXED THE FUCK OUT OF THE HOMOPHOBIC SCENES. I now actually really like the two nameless characters who were in the original just straight up predators, as they've been rewritten into overenthusiastic drag queens who get excited at the thought of introducing nervous kids interested in drag to the scene. They improved on dungeon crawling, too: the newly added grapple hook mechanic introduces a fun verticality to the dungeon designs, stealth is more challenging and rewarding, and each dungeon has new optional collectibles. They reimagined the procedurally generated dungeon you explore over the course of the game, too, giving it more room types, more music, a currency unique to the dungeon, a merchant, and ways to level up money, experience, and item rewards from the enemies in the dungeon. As for the new story content, the extra 25 hours of gameplay is not...counter to the themes of the game. Instead, it's set up as a story about Revolution vs. Reform. The question it poses to the people of its now-too-content Tokyo is "would you join the Phantom Thieves?" which translates more to something on the order of "if these exploitative systems still existed, but didn't really hurt you or anyone you know, would you still care enough to fight against them?" The new villain co-opts the place formerly held by the Holy Grail and uses it to rewrite reality to one in which everything is basically the same, but almost everyone in the city has everything they want (with the notable and noticeable exceptions of homeless people and service workers). The central conflict, especially to the characters who have regained lost loved ones, is whether they should still fight for a better world if most people are fairly happy. Tokyo never ends up agreeing that they would join the Phantom Thieves, but the crew still end up determining that they must restore the real world, because a world in which people are still critical of the justifying ideology has a path to a better world, while one in which people are uncritical will never find that path. It's a complex and interesting take from the beginning, and even moreso when the game uses imagery from the mythologies of the garden of Eden and Prometheus. The other dungeons correspond to deadly sins, but this one instead corresponds to "sorrow." The villain is so afraid of his own grief and the grief of others that he refuses to allow anyone to take risks, even if success would improve the world. The three new confidant arcs are well thought-out and engaging, too, especially the arc with the villainous party member, whose actor absolutely chews the scenery in this game. In the new story, he's so angry about being forced into a reality on someone else's terms that he fights tooth and nail to return to the old reality, where he was at least able to die on his own terms. It's...not as emotional as the game wants it to be, but it's a really fun time. Each party member also gets a mini arc in which they come to terms with what they would lose by returning to the old reality, and acknowledges how much personal growth they would lose by staying. These culminate a new ending in which each party member finds a way to work to regain some of what they had lost by restoring reality, going their separate ways in the process. The new content has a bit of a Persona 4 vibe, in that it's much more personal and contemplative, and the characters find strength by maturing and uncovering avenues to personal growth. As Atlus has pretty consistently existed both in the shadow of Persona 4's popularity and with the pressing need to make up for Persona 4's failings, it's not a bad angle. I do have some minor issues with the new story. It still means that there is no downtime after the original final boss, so newcomers won't really have much opportunity to consider the implications of that dungeon and boss before being thrust into another conflict. Its ending is not quite as clear-cut as the original ending, either. The protagonist still turns himself in, but the story basically...switches back to that reality a week before his release, meaning it's not nearly as much of a sacrifice and it's a decision this version of the protagonist technically didn't make for himself. The situation is probably also clearer to people who've played the original game than to newcomers. The old ending is kind of "required reading" for fans; it's still the canon ending for Scramble where the new one is not, and the new one is more impactful to players who've already experienced the original ending. This creates a major predicament when recommending this game to new players. Do I tell them to purposely not fulfil the requirements to get the new ending, then replay a 130+ hour game a second time? Should they keep a save at around the 85 hour mark, so they can reload their save and retread the 20 or so hours of game they've already experienced to get to the new stuff? There's no good answer, which is irritating. At least the original ending is included in this version, so those are options, but it's frustrating that I can't just recommend one or the other without caveats that are also huge time sinks. I dunno how to end this, and it's much longer than it probably should be, so I'll say that this game is extremely important to me, and I'm impressed that Royal is not less important to me. I sure hope we get a release date for the worldwide release of Scramble soon.

DCEU Movies in Development: A Master Post

Last Edited: May 01, 2019

Since Shazam! is coming out soon, I thought I’d make a master post of all the various DCEU movies in development. However, since there’s a huge amount of movies in development, I might miss one or two. Be sure to let me know if I do. 

Also, as a side-note, I broke Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 into three segments of story, crew, and cast, but since things are less clear in regards to The Batman, The Suicide Squad, and Aquaman 2, I wasn’t able to do the same for them.

Confirmed Release Dates:

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) - February 7, 2020

The Story: Since the events of Suicide Squad, Batman has disappeared, leaving Gotham City unprotected from crime, and Harley Quinn has left the Joker. When Cassandra Cain, a young girl, comes across a diamond belonging to crime lord Black Mask, Harley joins forces with Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya to help protect her.

The Crew: Cathy Yan (director), Margot Robbie, Sue Kroll, Bryan Unkeless (producers), Christina Hodson (screenwriter), Matthew Libatique (cinematographer)

The Cast: Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Black Canary), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Huntress), Rosie Perez (Renee Montoya), Ella Jay Basco (Cassandra Cain), Ewan McGregor (Black Mask), Chris Messina (Victor Zsasz)

Wonder Woman 1984 - June 5, 2020

The Story: Diana Prince comes into conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s, and finds a formidable foe in the form of the Cheetah.

The Crew: Patty Jenkins (director), Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Patty Jenkins, Stephen Jones, Gal Gadot (producers), Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, David Callaham (screenwriters), Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns (writers), Hans Zimmer (composer), Matthew Jensen (cinematographer), and Richard Pearson (editor)

The Cast: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Chris Pine (Steve Trevor), Kristen Wiig (Cheetah), Pedro Pascal (TBA), Connie Nielsen (Hippolyta), Robin Wright (Antiope)

The Batman - June 25, 2021

In October 2014, a Batman standalone film was announced by Warner Bros. By 2016, Ben Affleck was set to star in, produce, direct, and write the project. Geoff Johns and Chris Terrio were hired as co-writers. After various drafts of the script had been completed the film was moving towards beginning shooting by 2017, until Affleck stepped down as director that January. Affleck initially cited his intentions being to more specifically focus on starring as Batman, later acknowledging that after various attempts to get the script where he wanted it, it simply became "time to let someone else have a shot at it". In July 2017, Matt Reeves confirmed that the script was being rewritten: the final draft was completed by January 2019. Reeves reworked the story to focus on Batman earlier on in his career as a vigilante; he said the film will be character-driven and stylistically noir, and will explore the detective aspect of the character to a greater extent than previous films. In January 2019, Affleck confirmed he will not reprise his role as Batman, but remains involved as a producer. Principal photography is expected to begin in November 2019.

The Suicide Squad - August 6, 2021

In March 2016, a Suicide Squad sequel was announced to be in development, with David Ayer returning to direct. Adam Cozad was hired to write the script by March 2017. By July 2017, a new story treatment was written by Zak Penn. In September, Gavin O'Connor was hired as director after Ayer dropped out, as well as co-screenwriter with Anthony Tambakis, David Bar Katz and Todd Stashwick. The final draft of the script was completed in October 2018, though production was delayed due to conflicts with Will Smith's production schedule, followed by O'Connor leaving the project. Production was placed on hold as Warner Bros. believed the script was too similar to Birds of Prey. Charles Roven, Michael De Luca, Peter Safran, Geoff Johns, Richard Suckle, Dan Lin and Andy Horwitz will produce the film. In January 2019, the film was retitled The Suicide Squad, with James Gunn directing, from a new script he wrote. Gunn chose the project over various other films Warner Bros. has in development, including the Man of Steel sequel. In March, Idris Elba joined the cast. He was initially going to replace Smith, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, as Deadshot, but it was later decided that Elba would play a new character so Smith could return in the future. Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, and Viola Davis will reprise their roles as Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang, and Amanda Waller, respectively.  David Dastmalchian and Daniela Melchior were cast to portray Polka-Dot Man and Ratcatcher, respectively. John Cena is in talks to portray an as-of-yet unnamed role. Other members of the titular team include King Shark and Peacemaker. Production will begin in September 2019

Aquaman 2 - December 16, 2022

By December 2018, a sequel to Aquaman was in development. In October 2018, James Wan stated the first film intentionally left room for a follow up. Jason Momoa later revealed that he had an idea for the sequel, and had written the first act. The actor pitched the story to Warner Bros. through Toby Emmerich and producer Peter Safran, who were receptive. By December, high pre-release ticket sales and positive reception for the film had convinced Warner Bros. to begin developing a sequel. In January 2019, Warner Bros. confirmed development, with intentions for Wan to return as director. The following month, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, co-writer of the first film, signed on as screenwriter. In March, Safran announced the film will explore the other Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis.

Unknown Release Dates:

The Flash

By July 2013, Greg Berlanti was developing a film that centered around the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash. In October 2014, The Flash was announced with a scheduled 2018 release date. The initial script was drafted by Berlanti, Chris Brancato, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. In April 2015, a story treatment was written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller based on the previous draft, with the intention being that the duo would also direct the film. Over the next two years, Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa, had individually dropped out as directors of the project due to creative differences with the studio. In January 2017, Joby Harold was hired to do a page-one rewrite of the script, which previously had drafts written by Grahame-Smith and Famuyiwa. In July 2017, the title for the film was changed to Flashpoint, based on the comic book story arc of the same name. In March 2018, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were hired to co-direct. Zack Snyder, Alex Gartner, Geoff Johns, Dan Mazer, Richard Suckle, Deborah Snyder, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Jon Berg, Denise Di Novi, and Michael Disco will serve as producers on the project. Dan Mazeau was brought on as co-writer, followed by Grahame-Smith and Brancato as additional screenwriters. The directors had initially announced the release of The Flash to be sometime during 2020, though production was delayed from April 2019 to later in the year for additional script work. By February 2019, Daley and Goldstein had contributed to the script with the film's star revealing that the plot will involve the Speed Force multiverse. Principal photography is scheduled take place in Atlanta, Georgia, and follow in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England. In March, Ezra Miller was hired to co-write a new draft in a collaboration with Grant Morrison. The tone of the film is expected to be similar to Back to the Future. The Flash is on track to release in 2021.

Lobo

In September 2009, Warner Bros. announced that Guy Ritchie would direct a live-action adaptation. Variety described the premise: "Lobo is a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned, indestructible and heavily muscled antihero who drives a pimped out motorcycle, and lands on Earth in search of four fugitives who are bent on wreaking havoc. Lobo teams with a small town teenage girl to stop the creatures." Ritchie was scheduled to begin production of Lobo in early 2010 and bring an "irreverent, gruff tone" to the film as he did with previous films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, though the studio was reportedly aiming for a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. In early 2010, it was reported that Ritchie had left the project in order to pursue working on a sequel to his hit film Sherlock Holmes instead. The future of the movie was then put on hold. In 2012, Deadline reported that Brad Peyton would write and direct the film. In July 2012, Dwayne Johnson announced via Twitter that he was in talks with Joel Silver and Brad Peyton to portray Lobo, however on in February of the following year, Johnson left the project to play another villain from the DC Comics, Black Adam, in Shazam!. In March 2016, it was reported that Jason Fuchs will be writing the film's script. As of February 2018, DC Films is eying Michael Bay to direct the film inspired by the success of Tim Miller's Deadpool film. Fuchs is currently rewriting the script at Bay’s request so that the script can be lowered to under to under $200 million.

Justice League Dark

Rumors in November 2012 suggested that Guillermo del Toro was working on a Justice League Dark film titled Heaven Sent. It would feature Deadman, the Spectre, Swamp Thing, John Constantine, Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, Zatara, Sargon the Sorcerer, and Etrigan the Demon. Del Toro later confirmed in January 2013 that he was working on such a film, with the working title, Dark Universe, and was hiring a screenwriter. Del Toro revealed Swamp Thing, Constantine, The Spectre, Deadman, Zatanna and Zatara were characters in the story.

In March 2013, del Toro gave an update on the film at WonderCon 2013, while talking about his film Pacific Rim. He revealed that the story bible was complete and he hoped to start the screenplay soon. Production would begin after his next project, Crimson Peak. The film's story would center around John Constantine recruiting Swamp Thing, Etrigan the Demon, Deadman, Spectre, and Zatanna. The film would not be an origin story, with each character already established and elements of their backstory coming into play throughout the film. Del Toro also revealed that Floronic Man would be in the film. In May 2013, del Toro revealed that his script featured Constantine, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, Deadman and Zatanna as the team, with others "in the mix". He also revealed that he was still waiting for the go-ahead from Warner Bros. Pictures. Del Toro revealed in July 2013 that he hoped that the DC Extended Universe, which started with Man of Steel, would become as cohesive as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he added that if there was any correlation to that universe and this film, he would honor it.

In October 2013, del Toro stated he felt his film would be able to coexist with the television series, Constantine and reiterated that the film was still active and in the writing process. In July 2014, del Toro once again stated he was working on the film, and stated it would be independent from the universe established with Man of Steel, saying, "DC and Warners have been very clear that they are trying to keep [this film and Sandman] separate so when the time comes they can unite them, once they know they’re quantifiable." Del Toro also added that his Constantine would not adhere to the continuity established in the television series, but he would consider incorporating elements from it, and even think about casting the same actor (Matt Ryan). In November 2014, del Toro confirmed that the script was complete and handed it in to Warner Bros. to be reviewed. In December 2014, he hinted that the film would be part of the DC Extended Universe.

In April 2015, del Toro said the script revision has been handed in and if there was availability in his schedule, he would direct it; if not, "somebody else will do it... [The film] needs to fall into the plan of the shared universe." In June 2015, the film was confirmed to still be in development at Warner Bros., with some of their other Vertigo Comics film adaptations moving to New Line Cinema. The Hollywood Reporter stated that del Toro was no longer attached to the project. In July 2016, Swamp Thing test footage was released directed by Joseph Kahn. In August 2016, it was announced that Doug Liman would direct the film with del Toro and Scott Rudin producing and Michael Gilio writing, with the film being titled Dark Universe. By May 2017, Liman left the film to focus on directing Chaos Walking. At the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2017, the film's title was announced to be Justice League Dark. By August 2017, Gerard Johnstone was hired to polish the script.

Black Adam

In September 2014, after being considered to play Shazam and Lobo, Dwayne Johnson was cast to play Black Adam in the DCEU. The character was intended to be introduced in Shazam!, but by January 2017 the film's production studios had chosen to divide the narrative to focus on Black Adam's origin. Johnson, who is also attached as producer, has stated the two characters will cross paths in a future film, while other DC characters will make appearances in Black Adam. In October, Adam Sztykiel was hired to write the script. Co-producer Hiram Garcia stated the film will be gritty and violent, similar to the comics. By February 2019, the script was nearly finished with Warner Bros. and Seven Bucks Productions searching for a director. The plot will involve the Carter Hall version of Hawkman, Atom Smasher, and Stargirl. Principal photography is scheduled to begin sometime between late 2019 and early 2020.

Justice League sequel

In October 2014, Justice League Part Two was announced, with Zack Snyder returning as director. In June 2016, Deborah Snyder revealed that Justice League would not be one film split in two, leaving the sequel untitled. The film was scheduled to be released on June 14, 2019, but production was pushed back to accommodate The Batman. In October 2017, J. K. Simmons stated that work on the script was in-progress, while in December, Variety reported that there were "no immediate plans" for Snyder to direct. By 2019, Warner Bros. had prioritized standalone films over the project, although Patty Jenkins noted she would be open to directing the next Justice League film. Though Ben Affleck will not play Batman in Matt Reeves' film, he is still signed on to reprise the role for the Justice League sequel.

Green Lantern Corps

A film based on the Green Lantern Corps was announced to be in development in October 2014. In January 2017, David S. Goyer and Justin Rhodes were hired to co-write the screenplay, based on a story by Goyer and Geoff Johns, with Goyer also serving as producer. Warner Bros. described the film as "Lethal Weapon in space". In January 2018, Goyer reaffirmed that despite the franchise's leadership shakeup the film was still in active development. By June 2018, Geoff Johns was hired to do a rewrite on the script, in addition to his role as producer. Johns stated that the script draws inspiration from his work on the New 52 Green Lantern comics. Green Lantern Corps was scheduled for release on July 24, 2020, but is believed to have been delayed.

Man of Steel sequel

In August 2016, The Wrap reported that Warner Bros. put the film in active development as a top priority. The news of a stand-alone Superman film were later confirmed by Dany Garcia, Henry Cavill's manager. While promoting Arrival, Amy Adams confirmed that work had begun on the screenplay. In March 2017, it was announced that Matthew Vaughn was being eyed by Warner Bros. to direct. In April 2018, it was reported that Christopher McQuarrie is considering directing the film but later dropped it. In June 2018, Cavill revealed that he is preparing to reprise the role.

Booster Gold

In September 2015, a film centered around Booster Gold and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle was announced to be in development with producer Greg Berlanti. The film's tone was described as a buddy cop film with connections to Justice League. By May 2016, Zak Penn had begun work on a script. Berlanti stated that the project had "no connective tissue" to other films at one point, but following a consideration for television series adaptation at Syfy, the project entered a script rewrite from Zack Stentz in May 2016. Berlanti was asked about his involvement with the DCEU as a whole, and indicated that he has interest in the Booster Gold film. After years of being involved in the project's development, Berlanti was reported to be in negotiations with the studio to serve as director. By March 2018, the script, co-written by Berlanti, had been completed. Berlanti stated production would begin once Warner Bros. decides where to place it within the slate of films.

Gotham City Sirens

A film based on the Gotham City Sirens, a team consisting of Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy, was announced to be in development in December 2016. David Ayer signed on as director/co-producer from a script by Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Margot Robbie will reprise her role from Suicide Squad and take the role of an executive producer, while Geoff Johns and Jon Berg will produce. Production was originally scheduled to begin in mid-2017, but following the restructuring of DC Films leadership the film's development was placed on hold in favor of Birds of Prey. In August 2017, Jared Leto was confirmed to reprise his role as the Joker. Despite a busy production schedule on other projects, Ayer has continued to work on the film, meeting with Gotham City Sirens creator Paul Dini in August 2018.

Deadshot

In December 2016, The Hollywood Reporter noted that a film centered around Deadshot was in development. By September 2018, Will Smith confirmed he would reprise his role from Suicide Squad and that the story is in development.

Nightwing

On February 23, 2017, it was reported that Warner Bros. Pictures was developing a Nightwing live action movie centered on the character, set in the DC Extended Universe, with Bill Dubuque writing the script and The LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay signed on to direct the movie.

Discussing why he likes the character and signed on for the project, McKay cited the character's showman personality and background as an entertainer and expressed his excitement for depicting that in the film. He later stated that he wants to introduce a complete adaptation of the character, something that hasn't been done in previous film interpretations of him before. McKay continued to state that the director-driven approach is why he loves Warner Bros., and how the franchise is differentiating itself from other popular shared universes. In an interview with Cinemablend, McKay confirmed that the film would acknowledge the titular character's past from the source material, including his time as a part of Haly's Circus, and also reaffirmed that the film will be a straightforward action movie with minimal use of CGI special effects and grounded realism.

In February 2018, McKay stated the script was nearing its final draft.

Batgirl

In March 2017, it was announced that Joss Whedon was in talks to write, direct and produce a Batgirl film as part of the DC Extended Universe. The film will feature the Barbara Gordon incarnation of the character, with The New 52 comics by Gail Simone serving as "a starting point" for the film. In April 2017, Whedon stated that he was fascinated by a character that chooses to be a vigilante, even though she hadn't suffered any tragedies in her life like Batman, and that the damaged aspect of the character will be explored in the film. In July, Geoff Johns stated production on the film would begin in 2018. At San Diego Comic Con 2017, the title was announced to be Batgirl.

Whedon was to begin production on the film in 2018, but stepped down in February 2018. In April 2018, after impressing the studio with her work on Birds of Prey, Christina Hodson was hired as screenwriter for Batgirl as well. The studio is actively looking for a female director.

Deathstroke

In October 2017, TheWrap reported a film centered around Deathstroke was in development, with Gareth Evans attached as screenwriter and director and Joe Manganiello set to reprise his role from Justice League. Ben Affleck released test footage with Manganiello in costume in August 2016. Warner Bros. greenlit the film after Evans impressed executives with his story pitch, which he described as dark and unforgiving, similar to Korean noir films. However, in October 2018, Evans stated that he is yet to be attached to the project contractually.

New Gods

By March 2018, a film about the New Gods was confirmed to be in development, with Ava DuVernay signed on as director. Kario Salem was hired as screenwriter after working on a story treatment with DuVernay.

Supergirl

In August 2018, a film centered on Supergirl, was announced to be in development with Oren Uziel penning the script. Warner Bros. is seeking a female director, with Reed Morano—who has expressed interest in the project—being its top choice.

Blue Beetle

By November 2018, a film centered around the Jaime Reyes incarnation of Blue Beetle was in development. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and Zev Foreman are respectively attached as screenwriter and executive producer.

Plastic Man

By December 2018, a Plastic Man film was in development with Amanda Idoko hired to write the script. The plot is described as a comedy-action adventure.

Wonder Woman 1984 sequel

In January 2019, after principal photography on Wonder Woman 1984 was completed, director and co-writer Patty Jenkins stated the plot for a third Wonder Woman film had been mapped out. She revealed that the story arc for Wonder Woman had been planned over three films, with the third taking place in the present.

The Trench

In February 2019, Warner Bros. announced a horror spin-off from Aquaman focusing on the villainous Trench kingdom. Peter Safran and James Wan are set to produce, with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald acting as screenwriters. The film is expected to have a lower production budget compared to other DC-based films. The following month, Safran said he expects the film to be released before Aquaman 2.

Blackhawk

In April 2018, it was announced that Steven Spielberg will produce/direct a film adaptation of Blackhawk for Warner Bros., with the screenplay being written by David Koepp. Spielberg will co-produce the film with Kristie Macosko Krieger and Sue Kroll.

Shazam! sequel

Following the success of Shazam!, in April 2019 a sequel was announced. Henry Gayden is returning as screenwriter, while David F. Sanberg and Peter Safran are expected to reprise their duties as director and producer, respectively. Mark Strong will reprise his role as Dr. Sivana. Michelle Borth confirmed she will reprise her role as Lady Shazam, as part of a five-picture Warner Bros. contract.

Roses (A CS AU)

My late contribution to @csmarchmadness.

I haven't been able to or feeling up to writing lately, and struggled to push this through before I began having health difficulties. It is only with the support of @shireness-says, @ultraluckycatnd, and @doodlelolly0910 that even this is done, and I have the utmost gratitude.

Cat has practically rewritten it to not only make sense, but to read beautifully, and she has been unknowingly the shining light in many a dark day.

I don't know if I'll finish this, or the two other pieces in this anthology besides what I'm finally finished with for @cssns, but if I decide to let it die I will post everything I have as continued notes on here and eventually Ao3.

I believe that with these and the last few stragglers in my WIP folder, I am done with the Fandom and giving up writing in general, and thank the organizers of CSMM for the amazing experience.

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Roses, A CS retelling of Tam Lin

By Courtorderedcake and ultraluckycatnd.

Rated M - - - - chapters 1/??

If there was one trope in fairytales that Emma hated, it was the lonely orphan who found parents and lived happily ever after in a beautiful castle. Her first problem with it was that while she hadn’t met any royalty, she doubted that most of them lost track of their children that often. Or, if they were separated, that a prince or princess would be placed in a crowded Boston orphanage. Her second problem was that there were only so many countries in the world, and even less with a missing monarch. Even diplomats and billionaires were few and far between in that category.

So, on a rainy April afternoon when she returned to her apartment, she did not expect to see a fresh faced courier waiting for her. Although she wasn’t old by any means at 28, the boy looked about 12 with his baby face as he asked her to sign for the letter. She gave a scribble, handed him a wadded bunch of bills from her bag, and stumbled inside to peel off the dress underneath her rain slicker.

Kicking off her heels, which were most likely ruined from the rain, she collapsed on her couch. With a wiggle, the skin tight red number was off and she basked in the freedom of being nude as she searched her floor for a clean t-shirt and a pair of lounge pants. Looking at the letter, she picked it up and placed it between her teeth, paused to put her hair in what she hoped would resemble a ponytail, and pulled to rip it open. Letting the envelope fall to the floor, she grabbed her thick rimmed glasses to read the small script.

Her roommate, Mary Margaret, came out of her room. “Emma? It’s 4 am, did you just get back?”

“Mmmmyar.”  Emma replied, scanning the text. Her husband's family crest and name, long discarded after his death, was printed on top of the document. She shuddered at the golden medallions adorning a darkened shield, and the scaled, lizard like, dragon that curling around it.

“Well… OK, but do you want some coffee? David's here and we're getting up early to -”

“Holy. Fucking. Grilled cheese and onion rings.” Emma breathed heavily, staring wide eyed in shock at the papers in front of her.

“What are you swearing on such sacred foods for?” Mary Margaret quirked an eyebrow in amused concern.

“I've just inherited an estate valued at £800,000.” Emma flicked her eyes up, mouth a thin line. “Neal's family's fortune, home and grounds apparently. Things I never even knew about.”

“Well.” Mary Margaret sipped her coffee, looking completely nonplussed even if Emma knew on the inside she was bursting - it was how she had earned her nickname Snow Queen after all. “That would do it.”

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The estate reading took place in Scotland through a crackling speaker box, Emma's eyes racing around the office the entire time. It was stunning, as were what seemed like all the buildings during her trip to gain the deed to her home. This office in particular was what Emma imagined when reading Peter Pan; a gentleman's study and den, complete with whiskey decanter and cigar box to her left as if she had gone back in time. The tall shelves were lined in books with gold leaf letters and rich leather bindings, the panels of dark wood mixed with verdant jade paint and damask almost making up for the unsettling stuffed deer heads.

Cringing, Emma turned back to the box. The voice on the other line was thickly accented with a rolling brogue which Graham assured her in his own was common, and had obviously been in a bad mood long enough for it to be a defining quality.

“Ye don't be wanting Carterhaugh, lass. T’place is cursed, hallow in the way tat echoes, not t’way of blessings.”

Her lawyer smirked, teeth white and extremely straight. Emma had liked Graham since she had met him, and this was insight into his character. Taste in wall decorations aside, he respected her agency enough to not let this man continue to try to stop the change in ownership. In her experience, lawyers were far too careless and rude.

“My client will determine its worth.” His tone was calm and well practiced, even through his own clear lilt, but Emma could hear the edge there just under the surface. He had the heart of a forest hunter; not a threat until prey was too well ensnared in a carefully laid trap. This man on the phone, a Mr. Seáìnns’, had been fighting tooth and nail to keep her from her inheritance, throwing obstacle after obstacle in her way for months now.

At first it was as simple as he refused to understand that Emma wanted to know the family that had abandoned her husband, wanted to feel the last connections she had with him or any family she could, but it quickly devolved into more. Emma was subject to constant harassment by calls and letters, envelopes filled with shredded paper or scribbled notes she could not read, all from this this crazy older man in the village that Carterhaugh laid in. This didn't do much more than annoy her, as well as the post office, customs, and the garbage disposal crew. It escalated to him crossing a line when he tried to prove she was not the proper heir, insinuating Neal was a bastard, and further when he tried to declare the estate a historical landmark.

Emma hadn't even seen the damn mansion or castle or whatever an estate was considered. It seemed to vary between every property she had compared what little information she had, the repeated ridiculous notion of having her own ballroom driving her and David giddy with excitement. Mary Margaret rolled her eyes, but David pulling her away to dance made a smile crack across her face. They'd discovered over beers that a ballroom didn't make a home a palace, a question neither David, her, or Mary Margaret had ever thought they'd be asking.

The sound of sputtering rage brought her back to the present.

“You bloody ridiculous ‘n hateful creatures! I know what you are doing, what you're playing at. You can try to find me, but I know your games, and I know this woman is either demon or worse! She'd kill ye before even looking, smile on ‘er face. Calling her client… Yer client doesn't know her ken folk have cursed me, an m’wife, and took -” The line crackled, an electronic whining mixed with metallic pops. A dial tone replaced the man's voice and Graham’s smile faded.

“Well. It seems like your new residence has eccentric neighbors, doesn't it?” Graham laughed, and Emma felt his hand slip into her own. She flinched, pulling away from him and he gave her a sad smile. “Sorry, I -”

“It's alright. I… I'm just not looking for anyone.” Rubbing her palms together to do something with her hands, she pushed away the feeling of wrong that came over her at someone's touch. “I don't think I'll be ready for some time.”

Graham nodded, gathering papers together from his desk. He waited a few long, drawn out, silent minutes before asking, “How long has it been since Mr. Gold's -”

Emma's tone was short, frustration defined in every syllable. “It could have happened yesterday, but it was 2 years ago. We got married fast, it was a blur. It's a difficult topic for me.”

“I'm so sorry I -”

“Can we please see the estate?” Pinching her brow as a migraine set in, Emma heard Graham clear his throat and stand.

“Absolutely. It's a few hours from here, if you'd like to get lunch and car pool -”

“I'll take my car. Lead the way.”

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Driving through the small town of Carterhold, Emma could see why locals may be wary of change. The town was a sleepy and picturesque village, stone homes with thatched or moss covered rooftops that stood sparsely around a small town center. From there, through the foggy clouds that swirled through a dense forest, trees climbed up the slope of a massive hill, emerald fingers that reached for the plains leading up to Carterhaugh’s imposing presence, and its perch on the cliffs over the sea. The wind shifted, and it was gone, swallowed again by mist, but Graham was already making the slow ascent up a winding road.

Emma heard a thud, jerking the steering wheel as someone barreled into her bug, broad shoulders and crazed eyes under matted hair barely visible through her wet windows.

“What the -”

The words had barely left her mouth when an unmistakable voice was yelling at her, rambling incoherently as he pounded on her door.

“Ye kinnit go to Carterhaugh! Ye kinnit have it ye bloody witch or fairy demoness! ‘Tis on Hallowed and protected ground, guarded, an ye haven't a clue what I will do to protect it from you, ye - ” The face of Mr. Seáìnns was lit by lightning, thunder from his fists against the passenger door and the sky. Emma felt panic in her chest, heavy and leaden.

Slamming her foot on the accelerator, Emma let the bug lurch into its unused highest speeds as she flew up the road to Carterhaugh.

The driveway was curved elegantly behind an imposing metal and stone gate, mossy spheres capping the tall towering structure. The manor itself, even in its disuse, was stunning. A fountain stood before large wooden doors, framed by windows that traveled in neat rows up walls choked in ivy. Two wings on either side curved off from there, both facing the sea and woods, a domed roof on one side for a solarium, another for a ballroom. It was both imposing and impossibly inviting, a mystery that was decayed beyond unraveling.

And it was hers.

Graham helped her inside, the lights crackling in refusal to turn on in the storm as they stood in the atrium, dripping on the stone parquet.

“It's fine, I have a lighter,” Emma shrugged, pulling it out of her jacket pocket. “I always carry one. As a kid I was afraid of being alone in the dark. I somehow always seemed to end up there, either hiding or being forced somewhere, so it helped to make my own magic light to fight away shadows. Probably silly…”

“Not silly at all. It's a common fear based on instinct. Predators lurk in the dark, so your brain says that light is safe,” Graham said simply. “Smart to have it on you to start a fire too, or warm up in the wilderness.”

Emma's lips tightened as he continued on about the practicality of the lighter. She turned, expecting him to get the hint, but he followed her while continuing on about the merits of different wood to burn or oils to keep to sustain a good burn. Emma found herself wishing for a nice birch branch just to whack him with. As her annoyance peaked, the lights flickered on.

“Well. No candles I guess, but let's get you a fire started in the hearth, and then I'll be on my way.” Graham paused, and looked down, shuffling his shiny leather shoes. “Unless… I can stay if you like, until you get used to the place or have someone to stay with you, you know, because it's a big older house and -”

“I think I'll manage.” The words crept out more icily than she wanted, but he nodded with a sheepish wave of his hand.

“That's fine. Just call if you do find you need something. I'll get someone out here, and then be out myself in an hour or so. I don't want to see you get swallowed up by a house this big.” He smiled and Emma returned it genuinely, touched by his offer. If she didn't know how men dangled kindness in the face of women like her to get something in return, she would have taken him seriously. But Neal… Neal had ruined her.

The fire in the hearth was easy enough to start, even without special wood. Taking off her boots and coat, she gazed into the flame and planned out her course of action. Her sparse belongings were in the bug, and furniture would be delivered as soon as she took stock of what remained and measured for new pieces. Sighing and rubbing her temples, Emma rolled out her sleeping bag. She was asleep as soon as her eyes closed.

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In the morning, light flitting through the windows and the chill of the fire's death woke her up far earlier than her usual time. Wandering out to the bug, she dragged her luggage inside, pulling on extra socks and layering her sweaters. The effect was comical, but warm. Her stomach growled, but the kitchen was a quick - and musty - find. Sticking to pop tarts instead of whatever the swamp like gloop in the sink was, Emma set to work making a written game plan.

Calling contractors would wait until reasonable hours, but she mapped out who she would need while taking stock of furniture, books, tapestries, busts, and paintings. To her surprise, much of the home was in decent condition, and she easily found a bedroom suite that overlooked the sea cliffs from a secure balcony, a fireplace with stone carved boats in its inlay, an almost modern bathroom, and to her absolute delight, had a storybook fairytale four poster bed. The linens were almost new, the pillows fluffy , and it smelled of sea salt, leather, spice, and rum. If she didn't know how alone she was, the room would seem almost home to someone.

As normal waking hours approached, Emma went outside to survey the gardens and landscape. Most of the plants were dead around the house itself, but the gardens and connected solarium were wild and overrun with blooms. Down the hill, wildflowers in rainbow spectrum danced in the wind, their colors like an eruption of the Crayola crayons Emma had to share in school.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and a dark shape made its way around to the front of the manor. Emma grabbed a rusted shovel from a garden bed, and crept towards where the intruder had gone. She found the man looking curiously at her bug. He was tall, dark hair blowing in the wind, scratching his neck in confusion. In his hand was a hook.

“Don't touch my car and I won't have to hurt you, buddy!” Emma yelled, wielding the shovel in her hands like a baseball bat. The man turned, surprised.

Blue. The first thing that Emma noticed was how blue his eyes were; how clear and beautiful the blue she saw in those eyes reflected the color of the sky above. The eyes that currently were gazing at her in confusion.

“Who are you?” he asked, raising his hands above his shoulders, as if she were police. In his left hand was not a hook, but a three pronged garden trowel. Some impression she made, thinking about urban legends this late in life.

“Better question, Alex Trebek, is who the hell are you?” Emma snarled.

“I��m the, er, gardener, madam.” He waved the garden trowel in the direction of a nearby wheelbarrow. There was something off in the way he spoke, the accent strange to her. “Killian. Killian Jones.”

“Gardener?” Emma would had refused staff had she known they existed, and had made sure that she was for the most part alone. He shouldn't be here, especially not with her. Anger boiled over to cover her fear. “You’ve done a great job of things.” Gesturing at the dead plant life around the dilapidated manor, she watched his eyes narrow. “You’re truly magic with landscaping.” This comment brought a dark smile to his face that left her feeling like he was in on the punch line of a joke she hadn’t heard.

“Well, if you’d contact the ruddy owner and let him know to add to the budget for gardening...” The Irish accent was evident in his voice now, the clear definition between Scottish and it what had been off to her ears as she watched his cheeks reddening. Emma gave him a wolfish grin.

“I think that can be arranged.” She extended a hand towards him which he appraised with lips curled back. “Emma Swan. Official new ‘ruddy owner’ of Carterhaugh.”

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Some Jang Hee Bin trivia bullet points

Movies Jang Hee Bin (1961) and Femme Fatale, Jang Hee Bin (1968)

Lee Seo Gu was approached to write the 1961 movie because of the success of his radio drama Jang Hee Bin in the same year.

At 21 years old at the time of filming, Kim Ji Mi is tied with Lee Mi Suk as the youngest actor to portray Jang Hee Bin.

Jang Hee Bin (MBC, 1971)

There was a ‘lead actor famine’ for this drama, and so a 300,000-won prize (worth 5,984,227 won today) was offered at first for the lead role, before a vote was called.

Yun Yeo Jeong was voted to become Jang Hee Bin amidst candidates Yun Jeong Hee and Kim Ji Mi, who previously portrayed Jang Hee Bin in 1961.

Though MBC’s 1971 adaptation was wildly popular, lead actress Yun Yeo Jeong received major backlash for her role. She was even removed from CFs for Yunina Shampoo and Oransshi Soda because ‘her image as Jang Hee Bin was not good for the product’.

While filming the 1971 adaptation, MBC reported many threatening calls to end the network, pressure from the audience to bring Queen Inhyeon back to life, and an incident on set where an actor playing the role of Jang Hee Bin’s court lady was given a bowl of hot water instead of room temperature in an attempt to sabotage filming.

Eventually, the drama was rewritten so that Queen Inhyeon was reinstated sooner than expected.

Actress Kim Min Jeong (Queen Inhyeon) was cast for the role in the 1971 adaptation on a stairwell by writer Lee Seo Gu.

This adaptation is the first to portray a dramatic poison scene, a plot point that would become the climax of many more adaptations to come, with various embellishments.

No known footage of this adaptation remains. MBC only began archiving drama broadcasts from the mid-’70s.

At 154 daily episodes, this remains the longest adaptation of Jang Hee Bin by episode count.

A special was aired on January 31st, 1972 - two days after broadcast had concluded.

Women of Legend: Jang Hee Bin (MBC, 1981)

The first season of Women of Legend (MBC, 1981~1982) was actually going to be another adaption of the Hanjungrok, but the production was scrapped and Jang Hee Bin became the first season instead. Series writer Im Chung would later on write two adaptations of the Hanjungrok (Oh, Heaven! for KBS in 1988, and the King’s Pathway for MBC in 1998).

This adaptation became MBC’s highest rated drama during its broadcast.

The late Kim Mu Saeng played the role of Jo Sa Seok both in this version and Jang Hee Bin (SBS, 1995).

During broadcast, Lee Mi Suk, Lee Hye Suk (Queen Inhyeon) and Lee Miji (Queen Ingyeong) were referred to as the Three Beautiful Musketeers (미녀 삼총사).

Director Yu Gil Chon’s brother Yu In Chon was selected to play the role of Sukjong. Yu In Chon is currently South Korea’s Minister of Culture.

In 1986, Lee Mi Suk admitted that mixed reactions were given to her portrayal. She elaborated that older people hated her character, while younger women related to and empathized with the character.

This adaptation broadcasted on Mondays and Tuesdays at first, but was moved to Wednesdays and Thursdays from Episode 37.

Lee Mi Suk’s portrayal of Jang Hee Bin was popular with men at the time, as the way she acted in front of Sukjong was considered to be cute.

This adaptation and SBS’ 1995 remake are loosely based on the Records of Queen Inhyeon, a compilation of memoirs by Lady Lee, one of Queen Inhyeon’s court ladies.

500 Years of Joseon: Queen Inhyeon (MBC, 1988)

Actor Kim Seok Ok played the role of Queen Inhyeon’s stepmother both in 500 Years of Joseon: Queen Inhyeon (MBC, 1988) and Jang Hee Bin (KBS, 2002)

Kim Myeong Hee played the role of Ok Jeong’s shaman here as well as in KBS’ adaptation, for which she is more famous.

Jeon In Hwa and Lee Deok Hwa took up the roles of Jang Ok Jeong and Jang Hee Jae respectively. They would become brother and sister once more in SBS’ 2001 drama Ladies in the Palace.

Jeon In Hwa’s portrayal of Jang Hee Bin was not initially popular until her reentry into the Palace in Episode 27, as her graceful and elegant aura was seen as too in contrast to the conniving characters of MBC’s previous portrayals.

This adaptation is heavily based on the Joseon Annals, as opposed to the Records of Queen Inhyeon.

The poison scene in this adaptation was famous for Sukjong ordering that one of the doors be used to restrain Ok Jeong as she was fed the poison. This portrayal would be repeated in KBS’ 2002 adaptation.

Jang Hee Bin (SBS, 1995)

SBS’ 1995 adaptation uses the same script as MBC’s 1981 adaptation, written by Im Chung.

Im Chung’s son Im Ho took the role of Sukjong. Im Ho is world famous for his role as Jungjong in Dae Jang Geum (MBC, 2003).

Eom Yu Shin played the role of Prince Sungseon’s wife both in the 1995 and 2002 adaptations of Jang Hee Bin. She also played the role of Jang Hee Bin’s mother in MBC’s 1988 adaptation.

The 1995 adaptation was supposed to be broadcast after SBS’ 1994 drama Auld Lang Syne, but was delayed because of trouble finding a lead actor. Sandglass was broadcasted instead.

Jeong Seon Gyeong was only casted after refusals from Lee Young Ae, Kang Su Yeon and Shin Eun Jeong. Lee Young Ae would soon after become the lead actor of KBS’ West Palace.

This adaptation achieved ratings of up to 43%, but began to suffer during the broadcasts of KBS’ West Palace and Jang Nok Su.

Child actor Lee Jeong Hu played Queen Inhyeon in her first three years after entering the Palace. Kim Won Hee replaced her when Queen Inhyeon turned 18. Lee Jeong Hu died of cancer on December 10, 2016, at the age of 30.

The poison scene in Episode 63 is considered to be the closest in historical dramas to an accurate portrayal of what actually happens when someone drinks Joseon’s government arsenic poison.

The scene is also reputed for Jeong Seon Gyeong’s sudden retaliation in kicking the bowl of poison from a court lady’s hands.

Jang Hee Bin (KBS, 2002)

The lead role was first offered to Lee Young Ae, Song Yun Ah, Kang Su Yeon, Chae Shi Ra and Kim Hyeon Ju before Kim Hye Su took up the role.

Even so, audience reactions were not initially positive to her being chosen, saying that she was too glamorous for the role. Public opinion began to change once Ok Jeong gained the rank of Suk Won in Episode 24.

With 16 previous years of acting experience, Kim Hye Su is the most experienced actor to take the role of Jang Hee Bin.

Kim Hye Su’s casting also broke the tradition of casting young rookies for the role of Jang Hee Bin.

The ratings once dropped to as low as 6%, but its final episode garnered a 31.1% rating.

The show’s original writer Kim Seon Young is not only the first woman to write a televised adaptation of Jang Hee Bin, but also the first woman to write an authentic historical drama (정통사극). The format has been dominated by male writers since its import to Korea in 1981 through KBS’ The Grand Order.

A rivalry was brewing between production manager Kim Sang Hun and Outdoor Filming Director Han Cheol Gyeong, which escalated into an assault incident.

The show’s latter half was written by Kang Tae Wan, rumored to be 1st-generation TV writer Shin Bong Seung under a pseudonym. Shin wrote the 500 Years of Joseon adaptation in 1988.

Kim Eul Dong, portraying Court Lady Kwon (Hee Bin’s court lady) is the mother of Song Il Guk, who portrayed Western Faction activist Kim Chun Taek.

The role of Choi Suk Bin was offered to Kim Gyu Ri, Choi Yu Jeong and Hong Eun Hee before being given to Park Ye Jin from April 9th, 2003. The first three potential candidates happened to be filming for movies when the role was offered.

At 100 hour-long episodes, this remains the longest adaptation by runtime.

Dong Yi (MBC, 2010)

Some of the State Tribunal’s clothes were previously worn in Queen Seondeok (MBC, 2009).

Jang Hee Bin’s character was written much differently than in previous dramas. Her character was meant to be more mature, driven to her decisions out of support for her family and faction. However, while the show itself was successful, Lee So Yeon’s portrayal was often referred to as ‘uninteresting’.

Extra Choi Na Gyeong (not to be confused with flautist Jasmine Choi) gained much popularity after the broadcast of Episode 36 on July 28th, 2010, featuring as a Court Inspector during the Head Inspector's arrest. Referred to as the Tibetan Court Lady (티벳 궁녀) due to her perceived resemblance to the Tibetan fox, she would later on feature in a daily drama and a sitcom. Choi Na Gyeong also became the model for a character in mobile game Master Asia, and is an avid arcade game player herself. Her cameo in Dong Yi can be seen below.

Because of how differently Jang Hee Bin was written in comparison to previous adaptations, this adaptation is the first since 1968 to portray Jang Hee Bin as willingly drinking the poison that would lead to her death.

Jang Ok Jeong, Living in Love (SBS, 2013)

Despite Jang Ok Jeong’s portrayal in the drama as a fashion designer, viewers were displeased at the use of high heels and fashion mannequins, both anachronic to Joseon.

At 33 years old at the time of broadcast, Kim Tae Hee is the oldest actor to play the role of Jang Hee Bin.

The show is unfortunately considered a failure for SBS, with an average rating of only 11.3%. This puts the show behind its contemporaries Queen of Office (KBS, 13.2%) and Gu Family Book (MBC, 18.7%).

At 24 episodes, this is the shortest adaptation of Jang Hee Bin.

A historical accuracy dispute arose over the portrayal of Queen Inhyeon’s father Min Yu Jung. This led to the show being derided as a ‘fantasy drama’ by political drama fans.

Is a savarkar a hero?

173 Indians were executed at Andaman's Cellular Jail & more than 3200 were incarcerated.

But only 3 prisoners in the entire history of Cellular jail wrote mercy petitions to the British : Savarkar brothers & Barin Ghose.

Let's see how history is being rewritten.

This is Trailokyanath Chakravarty. (99% Indian dont know him today, he was incarcerated for 30.4 years by the British)

He was the leader of Anushilan Samiti and chief accused in the Barisal Conspiracy Case of 1913, and was sentenced by the British and transported to the Andaman

Trilokya Nath in his Bengali book, Jele Tris Bachar (Thirty Years in Jail), published in 1938, wrote a betrayal story of Savarkar.

Savarkar instigated Trilokya & his friends to go on a hunger strike at Cellular Jail, which they did. But Savarkar himself did not join the strike.

Ambika Chakrabarty, Ganesh Ghosh, Subodh Roy were all members of the 1930 Chittagong Armoury raid. All were locked up in Andaman under rigorous imprisonment. Never broke down.

Subodh Roy was the youngest prisoner to be jailed at the Andaman. He was just 14 when the armoury began

Sachindra Nath Sanyal (SNS) of HSRA has the unique distinction of having been sent to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair twice.

The British feared him

Sanyal wrote the famous book "Bandi Jeevan" (A Life of Captivity) at this dreaded jail. Sanyal died in 1942 at Gorakhpur Jail.

Legendary Batukeshwar Dutt of HSRA.

Dutt along with Bhagat Singh threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8th April 1929

Dutt was incarcerated along with Mahavir Singh in Andaman (rigorous imprisonment). After his release, Dutt also participated in Quit India Movement.

Problem with Savarkar being labelled as a Hero is Simple.

Savarkar filed his first appeal for clemency on August 30, 1911, barely two months after his arrival in Andaman's Cellular Jail.

On arrival, Savarkar was put in six months’ solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement meant that he was to remain inside the cell.

No hard or light work was allotted to prisoners in Solitary confinement and yet Savarkar broke down within two months, unlike any other prisoner.

He also persuaded many against Hunger Strikes.

I understand that RSS desperately needs a Hero, but in the history of Andaman's Cellular Jail there were many who were far more Heroic than Savarkar.

These men were not members of INC and RSS.

Ignoring them & deliberately erasing their names from history is an act of treason.

Mahavir Singh of HSRA was just 29 when he was force fed by the British, while on hunger strike to protest inhumane treatment at Andaman Cellular jail. He died within hours.

When Bhagat & Rajguru killed Saunders, Mahavir drove the car by which they both escaped.

1) Golwalkar mocked Bhagat Singh in Bunch of Thoughts.

2) While he was in India, Savarkar also ignored the historic 36-day hunger strike by 187 political prisoners of Andaman Cellular Jail in July 1937.

3) RSS & Mahasabha ignored the 1946 Naval Mutiny.

And Sanghis r Patriots?

Any other nation would have heavily praised the members of HSRA, Chittagong Armoury Raid, INA & Naval Mutiny in thier stories & movies.

But in India, we continue to learn distorted stories, while the real heroes are being erased from the pages of History

Incidents which were wiped off from Indian History Books

1) 1929 Meerut Conspiracy Case

2) 1930 Chittagong armoury raid

3) 1937 Hunger strike of Andaman

4) 1945 INA trials

5) 1946 Naval Mutiny

Do Read each one of them if possible, because the British were startled by all 5.

Jai hind

((This Profile is a little different, these characters are a package deal, one is never far from the other. I use “||” to seperate the information everything to the left of the mark is for the Avatar everything to the right is for Infinite))

Name: Amato || Loup

Age: 21yrs old || 22yrs Old

Birthday: April 20th || May 24th

Pronouns: They/Them || He/Him

Species: Cat || Jackal

Universe: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Forces)

Personality: Amato is a little timid but does their best to put on a brave face when danger rears its ugly head. If they can avoid a fight they will but if a fight is all that’s left they will give it their all. || Loup is much braver than Amato, almost to a fault. He laughs in the face of danger and runs in claws out for a fight. He can be a bit of an arrogant jerk.

Likes: Loup, Sun Beams, Hammocks || Amato, Moonlight, A good Mattress

Dislikes: Charging into battle without a plan, Full face masks, Losing track of Loup || Avoiding all battles altogether, The Phantom Ruby, Losing track of Amato

Powers: Enhanced Speed/Jump/Acrobatics/Reflexes, Grappling Proficiency, Wispon Proficiency, Grinding, and Good at Disassembling Mechanical things. Additionally the moves listed on the Avatar page on Sonic Fandom Wiki ||  Enhanced Agility/Durability, Wispon Proficiency, Good at Disassembling Mechanical things, Hand to Hand Combat, and Grinding.

Weaknesses: Spends too long planning before a fight. Panics when people wear full face masks. Gets distracted keeping track of Loup. Can be very lethargic when it’s sunny out. Has untreated Anxiety. || Charges into Battle without a thought. Panics when he sees Eggman. Must howl when he hears another Canine howl. Gets distracted keeping track of Amato. Has untreated Anxiety and Depression.

History: (Heavily inspired by Sonic Forces Rewritten by Garrulous64, but I still have my own twist on Avatar and Infinite’s relationship, it’s very long so it’s behind a Read More!)

Loup met Amato when the younger child had moved in with their parents next to the Jackal’s Family when he was about 5. He was very curious about this little red cat that spoke by waving their hands about instead of talking. Loup learned very quickly what being ‘mute’ meant and that the hand symbols the other waved around was ‘sign language’. The feline’s parents taught Loup and his family sign language so they could understand Amato, and this little secret language only some people knew lead to the pair of children becoming tightly knit friends. They would remain practically inseparable into adulthood.

 Amato and Loup enjoy going on adventures together. When they find trouble on those adventures, they prefer to rely on their natural claws and as such neither has any form of backup weapon. The most either has is a dog whistle on a sting around their neck which they can use to alert the other if something is wrong. Amato prefers to avoid fighting where possible and convinces Loup that they should focus on scavenging from the already numerous badnik bodies left behind when the heroes roll through.They take this salvage and sell it to either scrap metal plants or people looking for specific robot parts. Everything is going okay for them, they aren’t exactly rich but they have a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs so life if good. 

Until one day Loup goes to investigate a suspected former Eggman base to see if there’s any robot parts or abandoned projects they can scavenge while Amato acts as look out for anything out of the ordinary. Amato had a bad feeling about this plan from the beginning but Loup guilts them into doing it by mentioning they have been doing Amato’s plan for a while and it’s only fair Loup get to lead a plan for once. While Loup is at the entrance looking for a way into the base, Amato sees Shadow heading for Loup’s location and blows their whistle to give the Jackal a heads up that someone is coming. Unfortunately, Shadow could also hear the whistle and attacked Loup before any further alarms could be raised. Loup even with the warning is completely blindsided by Shadow’s speed, knocked out with barely a fight. His own whistle flying off in the fray. 

 Amato tries to make their way down to their partner’s location to rescue him but the sudden appearance of many of eggman’s forces who were attracted by Shadow’s presence forced the cowardly cat to hide hoping the black hedgehog would lead them away. While Amato was hiding and hoping to avoid the fight, Eggman captured Loup and took him off to proceed with his plans.

(Then for the most part Garrulous64′s rewrite video takes place barring anything that contradicts what I’ve written here, however none of his Sequel series is canon to this blog. I have my own ideas for how the friends reconciled detailed below) 

During the events of Sonic Forces, someone made Amato a pair of gloves and choker that would convert their sign language into spoken words allowing them to communicate better with the team. After the war they were told to keep the pieces of tech.

Following the war, Amato uses their new found confidence from working with Sonic and Co to seek out Loup and return him to his former self. However when they do find Loup the other is angry, his memories already starting to return now that the Phantom Ruby is no longer in his chest. Loup no longer is Infinite but he also isn’t Amato’s best friend Loup. He’s scared and angry, blaming Amato for what happened. The two of them have a fight, eventually Loup disarms Amato of their Wispon and Amato knocking the remains of Infinite’s mask from Loup, accidentally scratching the other’s right eye in the process. 

In one last desperate attempt to get the friend they lost back Amato instead of attacking moves to hug Loup. Loup still angry scratches Amato’s left eye before he’s pulled into a bone crushing hug and one final memory returns to him. The memory of himself convincing Amato, who’s worried the base isn’t as abandoned as they think, to go anyway by guilt tripping them. The two of them hugging just as tightly in the memory before heading off on the mission. Loup realizes he’s been wrong this whole time, it’s not Amato’s fault nor his own but a series of unfortunate blunders on both their parts and a bit of bad luck. The two reconcile both promising to work on their flaws together to be a better team than ever.

Though Amato encourages Loup to participate in the rebuild efforts, Loup makes no attempts to apologize to the greater world for his actions as Infinite. As far as he’s concerned the only person who’s opinion of him matters is Amato and as long as he makes things up to Amato the rest of the world can hate him for all he cares. Amato cares quite a lot about how the rest of the world feels about their friend but knows that it will take baby steps to get Loup to the same frame of mind in that regard. They also know it’s very possible Loup will never come around on that point, being that Loup was always kind of arrogant..

Verses:

#Friends Again- Set after all the events of the history detailed above plus a few months.

#Infinite Reigns- Set during the events of Sonic Forces (Rewritten) with one key change. Amatao got captured and brainwashed as well, goes by Ava. Ava was not as successfully brainwashed and was not a good match for the Phantom Ruby so they serve as a lackey to Infinite. They don’t remember why they need to be by Infinite’s side but they refuse to be anywhere but at his side. Infinite feels no connection to Ava and wouldn’t care if they got seperated.

#glitches and scratches- Amato and Loup’s crack post tag.

General Tags: #Jackal and Nyaid #inseperablebuddies

In all the madness, I forgot to do the April roundup!  Which is a tragedy, because, as you can see, we have a whole smorgasbord of new things!  (Actually, new things and a LOT of rereleases, but they all say new and improved and we do like things that are new and improved.)

The Man in the Shadows by Elizabeth Acord is a mash-up of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Phantom story, and seems to involve one of the two of them moving into the other’s castle as his new manager/financial advisor and then having to discover that, you know, the murderous undead and secret trap doors and so forth.  (I would assume Dracula is the castle-owner and Erik is his accountant, but then again, who knows.)

Wandering Soul by Cassandra Chandler is a rerelease - some of you may remember seeing it a couple years ago with a more recognizable mask on the cover.  It’s one of those romance time-travel epics - a heroine who discovers the “real” Phantom of the Opera due to time travel shenanigans and transports him to the modern day.

Light Fantastique by Cecilia Dominic has a lot going on - a steampunk setting, a main character who literally gives up part of her soul when she performs (lo, tonight I have given you my soul and I am dead indeed), the Prussian siege of Paris, and of course romance and deadly secrets backstage.  It’s the second in a series in this setting, although it looks like the first one doesn’t have much relation to the Phantom story.

London Undead by Raven Heisenberg is another mash-up, this time with Dracula as the main character, a zombie plague threatening all of Europe, and the Phantom and Christine (along with other favorite literature monsters such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) trying to investigate and survive the effects.  Anti-Romani racism warning: looks like this book uses the old “stereotypical magical Romani curse” explanation for why there’s a horrifying plague murdering humanity, because why not perpetuate those parts of classic lit in our adaptations, and also uses the g-slur.

Eternal Darkness by L. Ann Price is another in her prolific collection of Phantom-related works, but while I could tell you many things about it, including that it’s one of those ones where the Phantom has to raise an orphaned child and there’s lots of tension over whether Christine is really gone, the most important detail about this is that the Phantom and the Persian co-own and co-run a nightclub in Luxembourg and really, I don’t know how any of us are going to resist that.

Phantom: Opera Erotica by Samantha is a second edition of a gigantic erotica novel that came out years ago, with a new photoshopped sexbomb on the cover and assurances from the author that this version has been rewritten and contains new material, and is vastly superior to the first one.  (Do I need to now own this book twice?  Damn it.)

Phantom of the Library by Brandon Terrell is a childrens’ mystery revolving around a library in which the collection of famous horror writer Gordon Price (a shout-out to famous horror actor Vincent Price) is being plagued by a phantom who steals things and disorders the place.  It’s the thinnest connection to the Phantom story on here, but I figured with the focus on classic horror, it’s worth taking a look!

Masks and Roses: A Phantom of the Opera Novel by Hannah R. Young is a medieval/old-timey-times fantasy in which the Phantom is a British Prince suffering from social stigma due to his deformity, and Christine is the French Princess he has been betrothed to from birth and who has just arrived.  Heavily romance-flavored and definitely one for those who like AUs!