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ajaxwrites · 3 years

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GENSHIN IMPACT FANFIC REC LIST II

(previous: part i)

Seaglass by Aevas

There was more to the contract than a gnosis and test of Liyue. It seemed like a simple deal five hundred years ago: so long as Morax never had a soulmate, the Tsaritsa would never harm Liyue and she would not get his gnosis. But the moment he gained a soulmate, all that belonged to him was forfeit. He thought the deal left Liyue safe—he'd lived thousands of years without a soulmate. The Tsaritsa would be dead and gone by the time she'd have a chance to collect.

Five hundred years later, Childe appears in Liyue, Zhongli gains a soulmate mark, and everything falls apart.

(The obligatory soulmate AU, featuring a Zhongli with PTSD, an oblivious Childe, and demon-worshipping cultists.)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: I CANNOT BELIEVE I SLEPT ON THIS FIC FOR SO LONG. Read it and I mean it! I admitted initially steered clear of this fic because I wasn’t comforted with a soulmate tartali fic pre-Osial but this fic is actually post-Ostial *facepalm* The writing is phenomenal and Aevas does some beautiful worldbuilding that you typically don’t see in Genshin Impact fics. I love the dynamic between Childe and Zhongli here and the angst is real. The author writes the two as very human characters who makes mistakes, etc. and notably Zhongli struggles with the concept of Childe as his soulmate (who understandably is upset by the rejection when he realizes). They get better though. Also very plotty. A+ writing.

it's a hard rock life for us by reptilianraven

“Ah, no need to worry about that,” Azhdaha waves a dismissive hand. “There is no real Kun Jun. He’s dead.”

A leaf blows past and plaps onto Aether’s face.

“You killed him???” Paimon screeches.

“No,” Azhdaha scrunches his eyebrows. “He was dead when I found him.”

“And you just decided to wear his corpse?” Aether says, leaf still on his face.

He shrugs. “It was free real estate.”

“Azhdaha...” Morax says, sounding vaguely pained.

Or the one where Historia Antiqua Chapter II: No Mere Stone goes a little bit different and Azhdaha gets more time.

He ultimately uses that time to bully Morax into confronting his immortal neuroses, to make Aether and Paimon suffer, and to figure out how to get that ginger boy Morax has his eye on to make a move already.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe, Past Azhdaha/Zhongli

Notes: Very lighthearted, humor-filled fic. Love how Azhdaha is so flippant. Interactions with Zhongli and Childe are pure gold.

if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes by moonlight_mist

Childe has a Weapon problem- specifically, that he can't keep one.

He's too reckless, too wild, and too keen on pushing his Weapon partners past their limits. He's just about ready to give up when he meets Zhongli, a Weapon who just might be the solution- so long as Childe can manage to keep his dick in his pants.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a Soul Eater AU with some college/university AU vibes (?) but you don’t really need to know much about the anime. It’s a cute AU and I love the premise. Light angst but otherwise, it’s a pretty semi-plotty fic. Easter egg Kaeya and Diluc though.

To Kill A God by IlluminanceinTales

In Snezhnaya, they call them sansis—lost souls that have no guidance but themselves. It’s an apt description, given that most of the time, wannabe-Archons have to go through dozens of tests with nothing as their reference, relying solely on their wit and strength and hoping it would be enough. At least, until they survive the end of the whole game—and they might not have to undergo a painful reincarnation which feels like a hundred bones being stitched together again.

On his seventh game, Childe Tartaglia reincarnates this time in the body of a young man.

Damn, he thinks, looking down at his thin body, his slightly calloused fingers. This won’t be good when facing the other Hydro Decisions.

In a world where an Archon's position is not chosen but fought for in games, Childe Tartaglia is a Hydro Decision who's poised to become the next Hydro Archon. Of course, that's only if he survives his seventh reincarnation. All would be so much easier if it weren't for a certain Geo Archon interfering with every possible chance he gets.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Think Hunger Games meet Political Intrigue meet Genshin Impact. Love the premise and world building that’s done. Features overprotective Zhongli and lots of Childe whump. Has one or two supplementary OCs that aren’t really important outside of plot device reasons. Warning for character death tho lmao.

Three's a Family by IlluminanceinTales

Childe finds a kid that looks just like him.

Of course Zhongli wants to keep him.

Or: How a harbinger and an archon accidentally become fathers. The kid is their wingman

Ships: Childe/Zhongli (?)

Notes: Your everyday cute AF kid fic. Fluffy as hell and super cute. Zhongli and Childe get domestic pretty quickly. Xiao gets dubbed a grandfather and begrudgingly plays along. Super wholesome.

in pitch dark i go walking in your landscape by snowbrigade

He glanced down at him, at the silvery scars peeking out from beneath his robe, and at his eyes, properly now. They were the bright blue of high quality noctilucous jade, but he could see it, an underlying darkness.

Zhongli wondered what his eyes betrayed about himself. --

Rex Lapis is dead. Zhongli, formerly known as triad leader Rex Lapis, is a detective investigating his own "death." Childe, also known as Tartaglia of the Fatui mafia, is undercover as an escort looking to kill Rex Lapis- until someone beats him to it, and he wants to know who. Goals intersecting, they form a partnership of ulterior motives.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: There’s like one scene that skews NSFW but otherwise surprisingly not explicit. Really fun AU. Like how the author addresses Childe’s reaction to being stuck with the undercover escort stuff and how the dynamic between the two develops. Pretty plotty so far.

Phantom Lines by iskendaris

“It’s a measure of one’s self, Mr Zhongli.” Childe says. “Maybe you don’t understand it since you work as a consultant, but as an ambassador from the Tsaritsa, as one who fights in her name— this is how I learn to know the measure of myself.” “I understand,” Zhongli says thoughtfully. “It is a warrior’s way, to test one’s strength against the incomparable. To find where one falls short. To find where one has risen to the challenge.”

In which Childe has insomnia, vandalizes public property and runs into a mysterious funeral consultant on his first night in Liyue.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: THE FEELS. I can only describe this as the fic where Zhongli pays Best Boyfriend Ever only to FUCK UP big time (via Gnosis deception). Poor, poor Childe. Look, he gave the boy feelings and then broke him. You can really feel Childe fall in love in this love. He also does mental swooning a lot lmao.

adventitious by Anonymous

It's said the Ley Lines remember all things that happen in this world, from the surface down to the deepest depths... But in the hidden corners where the Gods' gaze does not fall, there are those who dream of dreaming.

There's a dormant bud where Kaeya's eye once was. One day, it will bloom. (Never forget: memory is untrustworthy.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: I don’t even know where to start. This is very headcanony and lore-focused. Very much concentrated on Khaenri'ah. The implications of this story is grotesque to say the least (according to this fic, Visions are the literal eyes of the people of Khaenri'ah). Warnings for eye and body horror.

Without Those Dark Memories by StrangeDiamond

Diluc awakens in Stormterror’s Lair with no memories of the past five years. Kaeya is on the trail of a rogue alchemist, with a habit of testing his chemicals on unwilling human subjects. Now, in addition to capturing the criminal, Kaeya has to shake him down for an antidote . . . and deal with an amnesiac Diluc who acts exactly like he did before their brotherhood fell apart. (Standalone Fic.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: This is sort of a classic amnesia fic. I particularly really liked the way that Kaeya was written in this. I feel like the author did a really good job nailing his character and they have a way of capturing the subtle things.

Through the warmth, through the cold by strikedawn

“It’s you!” Paimon shouted with a twirl in mid-air.

“…Excuse me?"

They were drunk. Were they drunk? Was he drunk? Because Kaeya had the feeling his guests had been talking to him for a while now, but none of their words had made any sense whatsoever.

That was, until Venti stepped firmly in front of Kaeya’s desk and set his hands on the top, the better to lean over towards Kaeya and say: “For the end of the Windblume festival, Sir Kaeya Alberich, we’re going to auction a date with you.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Shortword, Kaeya gets auctioned off. Diluc makes impulsive (but good) decisions and scores himself a Date but displays an inability to do Date Planning. Venti deserves a pat on the back. Very sweet.

Hide and Seek by Kiri_Kaitou_Clover

Childe did not expect regaining his memories would bring him such frustration.

He makes the best of the situation by messing with one amber eyed consultant in anyway he can.

A reincarnated storm god wades through life in Liyue, all while screaming about one dragon god's incompetency at being human.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Features Childe as Osial’s very exasperated reincarnation, who gets the joy of discovering that his rival/enemy Morax is not only an idiot but also broke AF. He still falls in love anyway. Contains this golden line:

"Did... did that complete blockhead really use my money in order to get me a gift that basically says that he is proposing to me?!"

(Osial was screaming. When had the other god become like this?! Had he always been like this?!)

Getting that Bread by tzitzimeme

Concubine AU where Zhongli is Emperor, Xiao is an assassin sent to kill him while disguised as a woman in his imperial harem, and the only reason he doesn't actually do it is because he pities Zhongli for being so catastrophically stupid (also Xiao falls in love).

Ships: Zhongli/Xiao

Notes: Like Xiao says, Zhongli is an idiot. Fluff and humor filled. Xiao spends a good 95% of this exasperated by Zhongli’s bullshit.

prayers for a boy by Recluse

The only way to reconciliation is fierce combat!

Hm... Come to think of it, there will be a lot of interesting news to be heard the next time we gather for drinks. Filling in the blanks.

Ships: N/A

Notes: I...don’t really know where to begin with this? It’s exactly what the summary implies...but more? I was tempted to describe this as the fic where Zhongli puts his foot in his mouth but...that’s not exactly write? I feel like this was more of a character study. It explores the aftermath of the Osial Incident and how Zhongli and Childe reconnect. Platonically...though I guess it can be read romantically.

one kind of longing, two places of sorrow by lady_peony

Zhongli's hands rest behind his back, both gloved hands clasping one another. His fingers tighten around one another for the merest moment, before he relaxes his grip.

"There is a tradition in Liyue," Zhongli says, his back still to Childe standing behind him, "of inviting out a companion to a last meal before a farewell."

A pause.

"A tradition?" Childe echoes.

"Yes."

"With a companion?"

"Yes."

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The fic where neither of the two communicate about jackshit but go on a quiet, sad not-date before Childe leaves for Snezhnaya. Childe pulls (? on accident or on purpose, I can not tell) the equivalent of leaving the jacket in the car post-date to get date to call for the second date. Also, the author has a gift for like...writing angst...without writing angst? Like the whole fic is like brimming with everything that the characters aren’t saying but the thoughts aren’t necessarily written out BUT YOU KNOW THOSE DUMBFUCKS ARE JUST LIKE. BRIMMING WITH FEELS?

The People of Liyue by queer_occurrences

But Zhongli whispers, his low voice rooted in the back of Childe’s mind. “Changsun, the merchant, who is never too Mora-enthralled to turn away a needy child. There’s Tiantian—she will allow anyone to join the Adventurer’s Guild—she knows what it is to be desperate.”

Childe ducks away from them and hurries out over the bridge. It’s a warm, sunny day, the kind he would have complained about, whining about his delicate Snezhnayan skin. “It’ll burn, or worse, freckle. Would you still like me if I was freckled?”

Then Zhongli would say, “The people of Liyue will remember your sacrifice.” And he would wrinkle his nose.

Or: after it all goes down, Childe takes a walk.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The author has a way with perfectly balancing angst with humor in a way that makes you cackle. There’s a lot of feels in this one. Zhongli tries communicating--Childe runs away a lot. There’s a lot of love for Liyue in this one.

cold blooded, warm blooded, hearts all the same by reptilianraven

Teyvat Petting Zoo @tyvtpettingzoo

Well would you look at that! Zhongli, our resident spinytail iguana, has gotten quite cozy with Childe, our new (and very feisty) ginger ferret! Aren’t they adorable all cuddled together like this? 😍😍😍

[Attached image shows a brown spinytail iguana curled up against a ginger ferret. The iguana’s head is nuzzled under the snout of the ferret.]

At the Teyvat Petting Zoo, Zhongli and Childe fall in love.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: ...I promise I’m not weird. This is just super cute. Cross-species love affair? Childe the ferret is very besotted. The internet is confused and the zoo keepers are just done.

a geo archon's guide to the modern era by Erina

“Morax,” Xiao says after Zhongli finishes his retelling of the incident. “He thinks you’re a weirdo.”

“No, don’t say that,” Barbatos snickers. “You’ll give him hope that this is salvageable.” He lowers his voice. “Morax, he thinks you’re a boomer.”

(In which Zhongli hibernates for centuries and wakes up in the modern world)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This took me, I shit you not, FIVE SEPARATE ATTEMPTS to read. Not because it was bad but BECAUSE THE SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT WAS REAL. Like, omg, just reading about Zhongli’s introduction to modernity made me want to dig a hole and die. Super funny though. Do not read in public or you will look like a lunatic. Has a...parallel (?) fic in the same series called buy two get one archon free where Zhongli gets reversed isekai’d into an anime convention.

time flies like an arrow by Erina

He’s tired, tired of the unbreakable loop of watching his loved ones pass on, tired of getting attached only for the connection to be violently ripped away from him. He wonders if the real victors during the Archon War were those who perished, who died long before their godhood turned into a curse that chained them to the land that they were fighting for.

But that is not a problem for Childe to worry about. That is Zhongli’s burden to bear, delivered to him in a pretty package years ago in the form of a gnosis.

His very first contract.

(Zhongli and Childe, across many lifetimes)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a quiet fic. It’s this kind of slice-of-life fic colored by this overpowering sense of love and loss as Zhongli remains immortal and Childe dies and lives and dies and lives for hundreds of lifetimes, but always finds his way back to his geo archon. It’s so lovely but also unbearably sad.

Tartaglia’s Favorite Professor by GreyLiliy

The famed hitman Tartaglia of the Fatui Syndicate spends his days as the charming college student Childe. The two lives remain as separate as possible in order to maintain a flawless cover to keep the authorities off his back and to better serve the Tsaritsa.

However, new intel about a rival syndicate intersects his two lives in a way he could never have predicted.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Mafia AU meet College AU. Childe is somehow both a horny AF college student and murderous hitman. Zhongli gives off major DILF vibes. GreyLily somehow makes this work while also avoiding cringe. Highly recommended!

like a handprint on my heart by fallingintodivinity

“Strictly off-the-record,” Jean says, with a small smile, “I’m really happy to see you and Captain Kaeya getting along again, Master Diluc.”

“We’re not – we’re not getting along,” Diluc tells her, indignant. “We’re working together. Unwillingly, I might add.”

“Yes – oh, yes, of course.”

Diluc stares at Jean suspiciously. “Are you laughing at me?”

Jean clears her throat primly. “I would never.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Super, super cute! Sort of reads like a first date fic except genshin impact style? Writing style is very refreshing!

#genshin impact #genshin impact fanfic #fanfic rec #rec list #zhongli/childe #childe/zhongli #tartali #chili #diluc./kaeya #luckae #fanfiction #took a while but i have been steadily reading my way through the fandom #still not all my recs #but you can check my ao3 for what i'm reading lmao

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silentxxsoul · 2 years

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Feelings on the 5B premier now that I’ve had some time to think

Stupidly long and rambly, but this ep had a lot to unpack.

TLDR: I both loved and hated this episode.

I loved how they framed Eddie’s montage and sped it up to show the quick spiral.

I loved the I interactions with Chris and the important conversation about leaving the 118. It was long over due and I was surprised to actually see it outside of fanfic. Also, any time the kid gets to roast one of his dads is a win in my book.

I loved the evolution of BadCook!Eddie into Eddie-Who-Experiments and takes tips from his coworkers.

I loved how fucking awkward that dinner was. It was hilarious, honestly, and probably the most on brand interaction they could have produced.

I loved seeing the technophobe’s job being to basically tweet all day. And fighting with the printer. I felt that in my soul.

I loved the way they set up the “I’ve moved on” talk to follow up the “I’m still a firefighter” and then move into Eddie seeing the team happy and laughing while feeling isolated and leaving the bar.

I love how it all sets up him nearing rock bottom. Him lashing out at Bobby is a direct parallel from S3 with Buck, and I’m interested in seeing if they follow up with some heart to heart with him. I mean, he really went from Bobby hugging him and helping him/being a mentor to that at the end of the episode. Eddie is seriously going through it and lashing out, and I wonder if Bobby doesn’t tip off Buck next week or brings it up to him and Hen after they briefly touched on it at the station with Bucks “I had dinner with him…”

I really wanted them to address Eddies trauma and so far it looks like they’re really putting effort into it. You can really see how they’re setting up his breakdown and I appreciate the work they’ve all put in to this.

Now—I hated the cheating story line. I love the idea of Buck self sabotaging and destructing, and he’s clearly in distress after everything’s been compounding all year, and I want them to address it. I want them to show the parallel of both Eddie and Buck dealing with their demons, but I just hate how they’re doing it. It’s a fine trope, but it’s over played and I seriously, seriously hate cheating arcs.

And it feels a little like character assassination for the sake of plot rather than character development (or character devolving I guess), because much like Buck chasing after Taylor in 5A it’s going against everything that they’ve built up. It would be different if I had any hope that the writers/show runners would actually address it, but I don’t. I’d love to be surprised and will absolutely admit I was wrong if they address all of it, but I mean, they never touched Bobby and Athena arguing before he was shot in S4 and that was kind of a big argument to have! Like I’m not hallucinating right, Bobby really called into question if they should even be married and they never circled back??

There are dozens of other ways to showcase his own downward spiral (seriously just go to Ao3) and most are a more nuanced or in-depth way to do it, I feel like. Or maybe I’m too biased because of how badly I hate the cheating arcs. I’m really trying to be objective here but I just can’t see how this was the way to go.

Not to mention having Hen go from “don’t tell her”, as if she didn’t learn from her own past, to “honesty is the best policy” left me with whiplash. Do they not consider past character actions before giving them dialog?? Honest question here.

I’m still interested in seeing Lucy’s character develop. I wanted them as a BROTP because I wanted someone for him to be able to relate too (reckless, impulsive, etc.) but also be able to confide in since there’s still a wall between him and Eddie, he’s missing his sister, Chim, and Jee, and he says he loves Taylor but he feels like he’s settling (not to mention he’s never really opened up to her on screen, at all). Or at the very least have her be an antagonist for him to deal with, maybe someone to challenge how he thinks and acts and makes him reevaluate his life perspective.

I don’t know, I just—I really wanted there to be one instance where hot chick and hot dude don’t mouth fuck within the first half of the first episode that they meet. It was clear there was chemistry from the moment they met on the call and I had hoped it was more admiration for skill and the job, but I was wrong. It’s just frustrating because the default is always m/w with chemistry must cross the line of intimacy (yes it was a kiss, but the comments from Arielle’s interview about them being flirty this season makes me believe there’s more to come). But even if they were going to go the route of Buck and Lucy doing something together, did it seriously have to be within the first 10 minutes? I honestly wouldn’t have cared if they developed her into a LI because the chemistry was incredibly evident. I know that my hope for Buddie is likely a pipe dream because we can’t have nice things, so I will always root for Buck to be happy but this whole interaction has me so disappointed for now.

And I get it—Buck turns to physical intimacy when he feels out of his depth or unanchored. I do, I promise, but it’s just disappointing and frustrating from a fan standpoint to see it play out that way. Maybe they turn it around as the season goes on, but my expectations are on the floor with Fox. Which, don’t get me wrong I want them too—I just don’t expect it. I might be a little jaded.

(And have been since they fucked up Pitch)

So I guess I’m 80/20 on the ep, because I enjoyed a lot of it. I especially loved seeing Bobby and Athena back together in multiple scenes and I loved him interacting with May and Harry as brief as it was. Plus, Athena talking to him about filling those empty spots was *chefs kiss*, and everything Bobby needed to hear.

Even Hen coming to terms with Jonah replacing Chim for now was nice to see. I think their little talk was much needed and am glad they had it instead of multiple episodes of them with weird tension because they can’t trust each other.

I also need more of Eddie and Linda and May at the center.

Which, actually, reminds me of another part of the episode that really annoyed me. I get it that Eddie jumped in and stepped on some toes, but the fact that Josh didn’t have that same energy with Claudette—a habitual toe stepper with May—pissed me off to no end! Especially considering May came to him about her and he still did nothing!

Either way I’m still excited for where this goes, and I can’t wait to have my heart ripped out next week with Maddie and Chimneys storyline. I’ve missed them so much this season and can’t wait for them to be back.

#911 spoilers #911 fox #the thought thesis no one asked for but I had to get out of my head anyway #feel free to ignore my rambling #and I’m not kidding there’s a lot of word dumping in this #but I’m tired and annoyed from the real world so my fingers slipped 😂#anyway here’s to Madney next week 🥳

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jbrentonparker · 3 years

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Plotting Method #7: Stream of Consciousness

Okay. Full disclosure. This is how I plot, and it’s a mess--but a lot of fun, in my opinion; and if you have a lot of thoughts all at once that aren’t necessarily coming out in a logical order, it may be the method for you.

This method doesn’t really have coherent steps, because it’s just based on the natural flow of your own thoughts.

Where to Start

Start with whatever you have. For the examples here, I’m going to make something up as a I go along, exactly as I would if I were doing this in real life.

Maybe you have an idea for a character, or a scene, or a concept. Start there by just writing it down. I write it as if I’m talking to myself, in full sentences, but may you’ll do bullet points, or a mind map, or some other method.

EXAMPLE: “Story idea: a story where a guy is on the run from death. Death is looking for him for some reason, and he’s trying not to be found.”

Expanding Upon the Idea

Okay, so now you have... something. And you don’t really know where to go with it. So start asking yourself questions, and try to answer them. They don’t have to be good answers, and you don’t have to use any of what you write. You’re just brainstorming until something clicks.

EXAMPLE: “So why is death after him??? Maybe he was supposed to die but found a way not to? May he was sick, knew he was dying, and somehow found a way to hide from Death (who is like an actual being in this world). Or maybe he died in some accident and made a deal with Death to get a little more time, and now Death is here to collect after the time runs out, but in the meantime the guy has found out a way to hide from Death? I think I like the first idea better though.”

Bouncing Around

One thing that is nice about this method is that you don’t need to work chronologically. You can bounce around as ideas come to you, and then go back and rework what you’ve come up with so far to fit in with the new ideas.

EXAMPLES: “I have this image in my head of a scene where the guy has finally been caught by Death, and is standing in like this... in-between, limbo world or something. Death is all pleased he’s finally caught up with the guy, but then the guy whips out this item, like a coin, that buys his way out of death. And maybe that’s how he does it, there are these special coins that can “buy” your freedom from death, and he has some way of finding them, over and over again, and always has at least one when Death shows up to collect the next time. And maybe he keeps dying over and over again in ridiculous ways, like eagles dropping turtles on his head and having sinkholes open up under his feet, as Death keeps trying to take him by surprise.”

Give Yourself a Goal

Once you have something to work off, start asking yourself questions about the conflict, climax, character goals, etc etc. Start working on getting your plot some direction, goals, and structure.

EXAMPLE: “So I know the conflict is this guy running from and outwitting Death, but what’s the climax? Where does that lead? Maybe he has to work WITH Death for some reason? Maybe he meets someone who needs to die by the end of the story? I feel like I want the main character to have to die in the end, but he has accepted it, and is ready to let it happen. Oh, maybe he meets someone who is going to die for some untimely reason, like they weren’t supposed to, and he has to give that person his coin to save them? Like, maybe he meets this woman, and while he’s in Limbo with Death, handing over his coin and getting out of dying for the millionth time, Death suddenly feels... like, a disturbance in the force. Something has happened that wasn’t supposed to, someone’s fate has been changed. Maybe Death pulls out this hourglass and sees that someone’s hourglass has suddenly lost a huge amount of sand at once--not supposed to happen. Death go,es there, bring MC for some reason? MC meets the woman, maybe she’s a Queen or leader of a group or country, and someone is planning to assassinate her. Death has a lot of work to do obviously, but can’t have this kind of reality-altering nonsense going on, so partly out of spite, he tells the MC to fix whatever has gone wrong and protect this woman, and he (Death) will stop trying to kill MC all the time. So then it becomes this political intrigue thing.”

Inevitable Changes

Do you see what happened up there in my example? Originally, I’d started out with an idea that the main conflict was between the Main Character (MC) and Death, and that the main antagonist was, more or less, Death. But now I have this completely different main antagonist, some shadowy assassin, and Death and my MC are forced to become allies. Things change as you work and come up with new ideas--and sometimes, you might follow a thread of an idea to the end, and find out it doesn’t work after all. You may have to throw it out and start over, possibly more than once. But it also helps you avoid plot holes later, by working through them in the planning stages.

Keeping Track of it All

The biggest challenge with this method is ending up with twenty pages of rambling plot, half of which you changed or didn’t use or is just you asking yourself questions.

How I combat this is by liberal use of my word processor’s highlighter. Once I feel like I’ve hit on something I’ll use, I’ll highlight it in the document, usually according to some kind of color-coded system (e.g. yellow for plot points, orange for actual scene ideas, blue for character ideas/background/development, green for lines of dialogue I’ve just thought of, etc).

Then, once I’ve plotted out as much as I can, I’ll go back through the document, pull those highlighted bits, and put them all in their own document--et viola, I have an outline.

The beauty of this method is it allows you to plot as minimally or extensively as you like. You can use it just to get a general sense of your overall plot, or keep drilling down until you end up with a chapter-by-chapter outline.

________________________________________________________________

If more structured plotting methods feel too restrictive or cookie-cutter, this could be a good alternative. If you’re transitioning from pantser to planner, it could be a good method to ease yourself into the new writing style. If you struggle with writing yourself into plot holes, this method could allow you to pursue plot threads in more depth before you write them, allowing you to spot pitfalls earlier on and avoid them later. Or if you find yourself just coming up with too many ideas all at once and struggle to get the first ones written down without forgetting the later ones, this method could allow you to just get all those ideas down and worry about stringing them together later.

#story plotting #plot ideas #plot #plot methods #plotting methods #writing tips #writing ideas #story structure #how to plot a story

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deans-haunted-baby · 3 years

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The Ones Left Behind

Alrighty time for some truth bombs. I’ve had almost a week to absorb the end of Supernatural and season 15 as a whole. And I think this is the moment where I need to throw in my two cents. For all intents and purposes I won’t go in-depth into 15x20 seeing as that conversation will just open up a whole other can of worms and I don’t need that headache. I have my reasons for being less than indifferent with how the Winchesters’ story concluded. So I won’t go there.

Instead I’ll be focusing all my energies on the unsatisfying conclusions of 4 particular characters. Two of which were main cast members (one that was on the show 12 years and one 4 years) while the other two (played by the same dude) were brought back after a decade long hiatus for a much-anticipated comeback only to be wasted and mangled unfairly by Dabb and his hack horde of a writing staff. Call this a follow up to my last post. If I sound bitter I am because these people don’t have a single clue on how to helm these characters, their relationships or their storylines 😠 Nor do they deserve them.

And yes I’m well aware of Kevin Tran, Rowena, Ketch and several others who got the shaft on this show. Those could be future posts for another time.

But I cannot stress this enough; ADAM MILLIGAN, JACK KLINE, MICHAEL AND CASTIEL ALL DESERVED FUCKING BETTER. There is no arguing these facts, none whatsoever. Not one of these characters deserved that exit to be the final chapter in their story. I won’t do an entire analysis of each character’s arc and role in the show as I’ve already done that in my rant about 15x19. But I will highlight how much season 15 royally screwed over these characters and tossed them aside like trash; as if none of them were ever part of/contributed anything to Sam and Dean’s history/world building of Supernatural’s universe.

*WARNING* This is going to get heated.

Before I dive into the heart of these issues I want to state this is not a “shipping post”. I don’t ship anyone on Supernatural, hopefully this blog has been pretty self-explanatory. So I have no arguments/opinions in those areas. I’ve been a fan of this series for 15 years because of the characters, the familial bonds and relationships formed between characters throughout its run. And I’m well-aware that the Winchesters are the lead protagonists of the show, no need to remind me. These are purely my own thoughts based what I’ve obtained from show canon. Let me just say I can’t get over just how much these writers contradicted and ignored what they put forth in the journeys of these four individuals. its a real headscratcher.

You mean to tell me that after TWELVE DAMN YEARS of Castiel being a rebellious warrior angel, searching for his own identity and meaning in life; making that promise to Kelly Kline about raising Jack as his own/risking his life for him. After sacrificing himself for his son a year ago, acknowledging he was satisfied with his role as a father which restored his faith; that it was all because of/for Dean Winchester?

You mean to tell me that after Michael, THE PRINCE OF HEAVEN and PROTECTOR OF HUMANITY, was locked away in a cage with a human whom he emotionally bonded with for thousands of years (10 years our time); who was abandoned, betrayed and manipulated by his neglectful/abusive father. After choosing free will and aligning himself with TFW for humanity’s sake, just sided with the Earth’s destruction because his little brother called him names?

You mean to tell me that Jack, A THREE YEAR OLD CHILD, who’s barely just beginning his life and spent his entire duration on the show wanting to be normal and not wanting to be special. Connecting and being integrated with humans; a child who’s biggest fear was outliving everyone he ever loved. Is suddenly ready to walk away from his family, his home and his teddy bear; to give up being a kid forever and run the universe?

You mean to tell me that Adam, SUPERNATURAL’S MOST INNOCENT CHARACTER and FORGOTTEN THIRD-WINCHESTER BROTHER, after being eaten by ghouls; pulled away from his mother out of Heaven, manipulated by angels, trapped in Hell for thousands of years because Sam and Dean left him there to rot. After coming back and helping his neglectful siblings save the world only to be ripped away from his best friend and THE ONLY OTHER PERSON who gave a damn about him; is sentenced to a life of loneliness, homelessness and turmoil until he dies and ends up in Hell where he’ll mostly be tortured and turned into a demon?

NO. I DO NOT AND WILL NEVER ACCEPT THIS BULLSHIT!

Season 15 not only manages to contradict itself where these characters are concerned (while assassinating them before the final curtain). But the writers deliberately discarded them before giving us that *sarcasm inserted* epic solo-Winchester conclusion. Regardless of how you feel about Adam, Castiel, Jack or Michael, ALL OF THESE CHARACTERS are connected Sam and Dean’s story and part of Supernatural. And when you throw them away like they mean nothing, you’re essentially throwing away a part of the show’s history. You’re ignoring 15 years worth of story building.

As I said I’m not going to go into 15x20 for reasons, it doesn’t offend me as much as what was done before that finale. Because I think those other show exits really affect 15x20 even worse than people realize. You want to know why, I’ll explain.

Lets start off with Castiel and Jack, OH BOY! We know where they end up; running Heaven and the Earth together which is all fine and dandy. I love my Dadstiel father/son duo being an endgame family unit. But here in lies the problem, we never saw it. Not even a cameo. And technically their onscreen storyline ends at 15x18 and 15x19 which is an ugly, anti-climatic bookend to an incredibly deep relationship that had 4 years of development. First you have Castiel who completely forgets why he made that deal with the Empty to begin with. HIS FUCKING SON. Not to mention it wasn’t about true happiness it was about giving himself permission to be happy; there is a difference. And then you have Jack wandering around next episode, vacuuming up power cause suddenly he’s a machine now, acting like he doesn’t give a shit over losing his dad to an entity HE’S BEEN DREADING ABOUT FOR A FUCKING YEAR.

Towards the end of season 15 I noticed neither of these characters were acting like themselves. Their motivations, their personalities and strong ties to one another had mysteriously dissolved. Castiel became less concerned about the danger his son was facing after 15x15 (what the hell was that in 15x17?) and more about speaking when spoken to by either Sam or Dean. Does he know how Dean truly feels about Jack; proclaiming the child is “not family”? I doubt the in-character version of him would let Jack leave with Dean after that insult. Castiel’s not even worried whether or not his son is alive or safe before he makes the big confession later. And for some reason Jack (who’d become heavily suicidal) was more concerned with clinging to the Winchesters, willing to die for them, instead focusing on himself and the one person who’s shown him nothing but unconditional love and given him strength since birth. Both of these characters are canonically depressed and suffer from low self-esteem that was never resolved which makes me furious.

When Chuck killed Jack at the end of season 14, this devastated Castiel in the first half of season 15. He actually got to grieve that loss throughout the episodes and deal with his anger over it, allowing the audience to anticipate the day they’d be reunited one last time. This part of Castiel’s S15 arc also ironically mirrors Jack’s S13 arc of mourning Castiel’s death until resurrecting him. And when this son finally returned to his father, who got to rescue him, it was such a poignant moment between the two. It was a cathartic payoff after witnessing Castiel in so much pain over Jack. There was so much building up between that Dadstiel reunion in 15x11 and the Empty’s pact in 14x08; this was suppose to be a tragic yet pivotal plot-point in both Jack and Castiel’s stories. And with SPN wrapping up we all expected something BIG. Yet somehow the writers retconned the whole thing by making it all about Dean, which is such a gross disservice to these characters and 4 years of storytelling.

For instance, since 15x18 was Castiel’s exit episode, why wasn’t he allowed to hug his son or Sam goodbye one last time? Why didn’t he have more of a focal role instead of standing around majority of the episode with barely any dialogue as so much precious air time was wasted on frivolous things? Why didn’t he get one last badass fight scene with someone like Death instead of being choked out and tossed around like a powerless mortal? Why did the group need to be split up to begin with when it served no purpose either than that *ugh* moment? Why wasn’t Jack allowed to call Castiel “dad” once before the show ended? He deserved to hear his son address him as dad!

AND WHY THE HELL COULDN’T JACK FEEL CASTIEL’S DEATH THE MOMENT IT HAPPENED?

The show already established to the audience the significant cosmic bond these two characters shared since before Jack was even born. It was so powerful it boosted Castiel’s grace. Jack could remember who Castiel was from the womb and that he’d protected his mother. Not to mention HE FUCKING RESURRECTED CASTIEL OUT OF THE EMPTY ONCE WITHOUT GOD’S POWER. You’re telling me Jack couldn’t feel his dad being taken away forever despite how far apart they were? No, he’d feel it in his heart. Had we’d been given a scene like that at the end of 15x18 (something of substance) with actual grief shown in 15x19 maybe the episode would’ve faired better for them.

That said it wasn’t, because Jack was treated the exact same way in his final exit. Hardly any lines and just a bunch of scenes of him standing/walking around until that pathetic reveal at the lake. HE DOESN’T EVEN GET TO INTERACT WITH JAKE ABEL’S MICHAEL/ADAM which would’ve been a great follow-up to the AU!Michael storyline in seasons 13 and 14. I swear these directors didn’t give Alex and Misha any motivation during their last three episodes and it’s evident in their hollow performances. But why would they when the scripts are basically telling their characters to quickly fuck off so the brothers can have their final outing. Jack doesn’t even behave like himself after he becomes the new God. His personality is apathetic, cold, alien, stiff and way too mature for the 3 year old child so closely connected to his family/the human world. In that moment I saw Alex Calvert not Jack Kline. It’s bad enough he doesn’t get a meaningful farewell but again Castiel, HIS DAD, is a complete afterthought to this kid 🥶

And that’s what we’re left with. Forever. A frigid, hollow ending to one of Supernatural’s most healthy, touching, family dynamics. It makes you wonder what was even the point. I can’t even fully enjoy the fact that its canon Jack and Castiel are together fixing Heaven because of what the show presented onscreen as their last hurrah. It’s not sitting right and it makes 15x20 even less appealing to me.

Moving onto Michael and Adam. Get ready for this. I could rant forever about how dirty my boys were done by this show. How they were discarded in the SPN series finale recap etc. just as they were FOR THE LAST TEN FUCKING YEARS. Was there even a plan going on here or was this just everyone making things up as it went? Their ending is the most unsatisfying and cruel thing because its INCOMPLETE. There is no real closure or resolution with them thanks to the monstrosity that was 15x19. AND NO ONE CARES ENOUGH ABOUT THEM TO GIVE A SHIT.

Much as I’ve enjoyed this show for many years, it NEVER deserved Jake Abel, his talent or his time. I keep seeing so many anti posts about Dean Winchester’s final fate in Supernatural and all I can think about is “try being an Adam Milligan fan for the last decade”. I’ve had to watch this boy go through hell with nothing to show for it either than years of memes. ridicule and the show’s mockery in forgetting him. Actually he’s the ONLY CHARACTER in this series you’re encouraged not to remember 😡 Also quick question: why give us this really interesting and healthy relationship between an archangel and its vessel if nothing was ever going to become of it?

At this point I don’t know why Adam or the idea of him was even introduced way back in season 4 let alone revisited in season 5. Because the only thing I see when I look at this character now is SAD WASTED POTENTIAL. Storylines never explored. Relationships that never got off the ground. Backstory we never got to see (like for instance his past with John Winchester and his time in the cage). A character’s birthright (Men of Letters) that was never actualized. AND the unexplained factor that Adam could look directly at Michael’s true form without his eyes burning out (making him a special case). And the thing is he could’ve been a really great character, both him and Michael. They could’ve easily reached popular status just like Castiel given the chance since Jake is a freaking acting-powerhouse. We were given a taste in 15x08 just how awesome these characters could be and how they could’ve contributed so much to the story and its core group. But unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.

Michael will never redeem himself after years of scrutiny and being made out to be some kind of unhinged monster. This show constantly enjoyed pounding into our brains how fearsome Michael was. Warned us via Lucifer (LUCIFER, PEOPLE!) that he wasn’t rational, compassionate and didn’t care about anything except war, death and destruction. And that he was incapable of feelings and emotions. This is how Supernatural saw Heaven’s Prince and guardian of the Earth. Christ, they actually did a two-year storyline about an evil Michael from the AU world who enjoyed torturing and killing while trying to destroy the universe. I want to know WHAT THE HELL THIS SHOW’S WRITERS HAD AGINST THESE CHARACTERS? Why they felt the need to bring back Jake Abel, AFTER A DECADE OF FANS WANTING THIS, if it was simply to piss all over his characters one last time before the show wrapped. This is absolutely unprofessional and childish; the fact that Jake is taking this bullshit in stride makes it all the more shameful 😡

We could’ve learned so much more about Michael’s past and his present relationship with Adam. These characters didn’t need to sit in the cage for a decade they could’ve easily been incorporated back into the show as far as season 8 or 10! And been an asset to the Darkness storyline in season 11.There were characters and storylines introduced that served no purpose. Why did we need to keep seeing characters like Charlie Bradbury or (as much as I like him) Crowley or Garth (love him too) or Lucifer or Abaddon or the Wayward sisters? I would’ve much preferred having Adam and Michael around and got to know them instead; especially after 15x08. I would’ve wanted to see what their dynamic with TFW could’ve become had they been long-time allies. Did John ever tell Mary about Adam’s existence? I’d like to see what her reaction would’ve been like had the Winchesters remembered him during that damn 300th episode. I guess that’s another loose end untied.

But because of what Supernatural did to these two characters, it forever taints Sam and Dean. I don’t think Dabb or purist fans realize this. But when new viewers come into this show about two brothers preaching important things like “saving people”, “family first” or “family don’t end in blood” they’re going to see how badly the main protagonists treated their innocent half brother. How Castiel and Jack were treated. They’re going to see the heroes of the story abandoning this kid in Hell forever with no intention of EVER rescuing him. And that’s why their final appearance leaves such a bad taste going into 15x20. Cause as much as Dabb and co didn’t give a shit about Adam and Michael they also didn’t give a rat’s ass about protecting Sam and Dean’s integrity. That’ll be a stain they can’t undo.

So through all of it, we’re stuck with the abomination that is 15x19 aka the eye-soar to an unfinished/unpolished story of two horribly disregarded characters. Michael gets the pleasure of being character assassinated right before he’s stupidly killed off instead of going out a hero or becoming the next God (as it was his birthright and the setup was there in the narrative). And Adam gets killed off-screen, OUT OF HIS OWN DAMN BODY, then brought back by Jack only to live a miserable, isolated existence since his brothers have nothing to do with him (the dog and car are more important); his best friend is dead, he has no job or money or a fucking home and he’s legally dead! Really what is there left for him besides the brutal fate awaiting in Hell when he dies?

SERIOUSLY THEY COULDN’T GIVE US ONE SCENE WHERE THE WINCHESTERS CHECKED IN ON ADAM TO MAKE SURE HE WAS SAFE?! 🤬 His last scene pretty much sums up this shit for what it is. Tragic. I feel like crying for this poor sweet boy.

Congratulations Dabb, BL and co for giving us these much deserved broken story arcs of characters you destroyed and made OOC before leaving the airways. You did your show’s protagonists justice by doing this *sarcasm inserted* after 15 years of being onscreen. I doubt these idiotic decisions are going to age well in the long run. They certainly don’t look good on the Winchesters. Anyway that’s my hot take for the day.

ALL THESE ACTORS AND THEIR CHARACTERS DESERVED BETTER.

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harddrivetrash · 4 years

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Methods for Creating Robust RPG Characters From an Actor’s Perspective

I know I don’t post a lot at all, but I’m trying to be better about that. So instead of empty promises and some Assassin’s Creed screenshots, here’s some Real Content! This one’s for all you RPG’ers who might want some advice on character writing. Hope you enjoy it.

For context, I am an actor in Northern California with professional training and seven years of theatre experience. I’m in college currently pursuing a theatre degree. I have been running rpgs for about a year now, and I am the forever game master (GM) for my gaming group. With that in mind, know that the suggestions in this article come from a place of strong knowledge and love for the art of theatre, and from personal experiences, both onstage and at the gaming table. I have a lot of particular thoughts regarding aesthetic philosophy, specifically as it relates to acting and theatre art, but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum.

1. Start With Your Gameplay Vision

This method focuses on the player’s gameplay preferences first and builds the personality to accommodate that. What do you want this character to be like in a social situation? Do you want a suave talker who can charm his way into trouble and then bluff his way right out of it? Or do you want to be the quiet, brooding type who lets her allies talk things out whilst backing them up by looking intimidating? Similarly, consider how you want to approach combat. Whether you’re a guns-a-blazin’ type player or a stealthy assassin doesn’t matter; the most important part is making that concrete decision and then creating a reason for it.

For example, if you want your character to be a gunslinging, animal-taming bard, decide why they fight that way. Why do they like guns, and how did they learn to shoot? When did they discover their love of animals, and when did they practice the skills which enabled them to tame creatures? With each additional answer, keep adding to the backstory and make sure that everything you add to it stays consistent with its ability to facilitate your gameplay preferences.Keep asking and answering these kinds of introspective questions about your character until you feel comfortable with that creation.

I recommend this method for beginning players and game masters because it allows one to write up a character based on something you’re already excited about. I’ve found that this method works especially well for Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s a perfectly effective method for other, more role-play focused games like Call of Cthulhu or Vampire: the Masquerade.

The beauty of creating a character this way is the simplicity; the player only needs to consider whether or not every added detail to the character’s personality and backstory is consistent with their desired playstyle. There is no need to worry (too much) about the lore of the game world. The biggest drawback, however, is that this method encourages players to think about actual play in a much more meta-minded manner, as opposed to focusing primarily on immersion and role-play, especially for new players. You might find that you or your players will only play this character so far as to create an opportunity to roll dice. This is totally okay, by the way; there is nothing wrong with hungering for a good dice roll. It’s just something to keep in mind.

2. Find an Environmental Anchor

You may find the previous method to be too basic or meta or for whatever reason not your desired method for character creation; that’s fine! Sometimes when you start a new character, you don’t have the slightest idea about what you want to do in combat or maybe you don’t want to build a character based on class or combat role. No matter what, this method is totally focused on immersion into the game world and nothing else.

First, speak to your GM about the setting and theme of the game. Try to get as much information as you can about the world and its lore, and then pick something you like as an anchor. For example, if there is a rugged mountain range in a high fantasy setting that you like the concept of, consider making a connection to it with the information you have; is your character from there? Do they want to go there? Did something happen to them whilst travelling through the mountains? Whatever it is, define a clear connection to that place (assuming it works with your game master’s world and lore, of course) and then work from there, asking “why” and “how” along the way to smooth out those rougher details.

Environmental anchors don’t even need to be related to the geography, either! For example, if you’re playing a sci-fi setting where your character lives on a colonial planet, find out what that culture is like. Why is there a colony? What government funded the development of this colony? How do people feel about their leaders and what do they do about those feelings? Acquire any and all information about the people and their culture as you can (assuming your GM shares that with you) and then consider how you want your character to exist in that context. If it’s a religious society, define whether or not your character is religious and how they feel about religion. Do they follow the same religion as everyone else? How has religion affected them in the past? These kinds of questions help you to define how your character acts and feels in the context of the game world without focusing on the different aspects of gameplay or game balance. You’ll definitely find your fighting style along the way, don’t worry.

The biggest downside to using this method as a player is that you need to bug your GM a lot. Chances are they’ll be more than happy to help, especially if they’ve built the entire game world from scratch. But remember, depending on the person, you might not get a lot of information because it’s all an elaborate secret, or they might just not have that information available for you. However, the silver lining is that in asking your game master specific questions about the world, their creative wheels start to turn as they ponder these questions. I’ve found that this usually leads to the GM creating a far more robust and detailed land than they would have done otherwise. In any case, be kind and patient with your questions.

3. Define Personality Traits

Maybe you’re an experienced player and want to try a different method of character creation, or maybe you’re a new player who wants to focus on role-playing a particular archetype, but you have yet to define their more nuanced personality traits. This method is perfect for building a personality, and then writing your backstory to accommodate that.

Like the other two methods listed here, the most important thing is to decide on a concrete center for your character concept, regardless of what it is. If you want to play a character who is a brave and honorable warrior, start with that. Why do they value bravery and honor? Was it ingrained in them during childhood or did they learn those values later in life? Just those two questions can give you a lot of creative room with which to work. Keep asking questions about the reasons for your character’s attitudes and the way they react in different situations.

I personally use this method a lot in conjunction with finding an environmental anchor. You don’t have to, but if you choose not to create a character who is tightly tied to the game world in some way, you run the risk of creating a character in a contextual vacuum. I’ll expand more on this idea at a later date, but the key thing to remember is that people, and by extension characters, do not exist in a vacuum. There is always a social and an environmental context which affects how your character develops. Once you’ve used this method to come up with a good personality for your character, be sure to work with your GM to implement them into their game world as smoothly as possible before play begins.

4. Assist Your Players

This one is for all the game masters out there. I find that it is incredibly helpful and important to assist players in character creation, especially if they are struggling. Asking your players questions and providing suggestions which they themselves may not have thought of goes a long way in helping them develop a character with some real depth. In my experience, this collaboration also helps immensely with prompting players to create more intriguing backstories.

Communication is incredibly important (again, I plan to elaborate on this subject in a future post) and as a GM, character creation goes a lot smoother when you inform your players about the setting as soon as possible. Keep them updated as things change in your planning so they can change their ideas in time, if need be.

The biggest pitfall with this method for both players and game masters is the risk of allowing the player's creation to become the GM's creation. Too many suggestions for backstory plot points or personality traits can smother the player's creativity and lead them to play a character which actually isn't their own creation, and they might not be happy about that.

Personally, I like giving my players as much agency as possible, so i tend to keep my suggestions to a minimum and focus on asking my players questions about their character. However, if your players enjoy taking your suggestions and everyone's having fun, you don't need to worry.

One Last Thing…

Remember that your character, especially if you’re a player, is your vessel through whom you may freely express yourself. Stay true to whatever your vision is and create something that you actually enjoy, even if it takes a little bit more time than you’d expect. Playing tabletop games is about having fun and sharing a narrative experience. Don’t worry too much about if your character is “right” or “interesting enough” or “different enough” from your own real personality; that stuff doesn’t matter. As long as you’re all having fun, you’re doing it right.

Be kind to each other and stay healthy.

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starblazerm31 · 4 years

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Apprentice April Asks #1 Azalea/Imalia

Here are my answers to my Apprentice April Asks #1. Thanks so very much to @leis-main-blog and @verysoftthings for sending me asks! I honestly wasn’t expecting it. ^^; I tend to write books about these two, so I made a separate post.

1. The Basics. What is your character's name? How old are they? How tall are they? Skin color? Eye color? Hair color? Gender identification?

Azalea Larinya Nevra. 30, female. 5'6"; medium skin tone; eyes blue with gold around the pupils; hair aqua to coral ombre; medium length

Imalia Vilyana Gabriev. 36, female. 5'10"; fair skin tone; eyes crimson; hair brown with burgundy ends; very long (art by @carowhitewolf)

2. Love Interest. Who does your character love? What attracted them to that particular LI?

Julian/Lucio (different universes).

Julian - she loved how kind he was, and she adored his bumbling. She was compelled to help him because his cause was right. He couldn't be guilty, he was too much of a good man. She really wanted to help him with his own inner demons as well because he didn't deserve to suffer, even at his own hand. That glorious chest didn't help either, lol.

Lucio - she thought he was overall adorable. Yeah, he was hot as hell, but it was his personality that got her heart thumping. He really was brave and skilled, and she had a feeling that not many others had appreciated it much. Yeah, he had done some horrendous things; but Azalea could see the actual changes happening in him and she knew that he had hope.

Asra. She had known Asra since she was 15 and he was 8. They had a good 20 year friendship and she knew him very well. She fell for him when that friendship veil lifted after the events of The Arcana story and she finally really noticed how beautiful he was. "He's smart, kind, talented, awesome...AND hot?! THE WHOLE PACKAGE?! I'm such an idiot..."

3. Familiar. Does your character have a familiar? How did they meet?

Corva, a white raven. She met Corva when Malak led her to an alley where Corva was lying on the ground with a broken wing. Azalea nursed Corva back to health, and Corva refused to ever leave. (image c. Mike Yip)

Balthazaar, a phoenix. Balthazaar was one of the phoenixes in the magical menagerie at the University of Prakra. He was ornery, and the handlers had a hard time with him. Imalia liked how stubborn he was and over time developed a rapport and closeness with him. The university allowed her to claim him as her familiar and take him home. (image c. Kiss Clip Art)

4. Hobbies. What kinds of things does your character like to do for fun?

Parquor. She loves running around, slipping up buildings, jumping over rooftops and sliding down poles. XD She's a very high-energy person and parquor keeps her healthy and mentally sharp. She also enjoys writing. She will write on just about anything that has her attention at the moment. Magical theory is one of her favorite subjects, but she does enjoy writing fiction.

Her hobby...is harassing bandits. She gets perverse joy out of robbing robbers blind. If she can find the original owners of things that were stolen...awesome. If not...hey, this is an ancient Drakrian fertility statue! I'm gonna put this on my shelf at home. Oh, and leaving off-color messages in ancient languages in ruins. "Here I sit all broken-hearted..."

5. Hidden talents. Is there something neat that your character can do? Tie a cherry stem into a knot with their tongue? Say any word backwards perfectly?

Azalea is kinda like Sherlock Holmes. She can look at a person and form their entire story in her mind. She never uses it against someone; she just uses it to be more friendly. But if you're annoying her and won't go away...she will scare you with what she has figured out about you.

Imalia secretly loves to sing and isn't terrible at it. She's one of those people who will sing in the bath, and if someone mentions it, she acts like it didn't happen.

6. Magical talents. Is there a specific type of magic that your character excels at? Any magic they aren't so great at? Or do they actually shy away from magic altogether?

Lightning. She's good at conducting the currents and utilizing its explosive capabilities. She also uses lightning as a personal shield while in battle. She is also really good at enchanting things; like her hair. She makes enchanted dreamcatchers that actually catch nightmares. Both Julian and Lucio appreciate this ability. (Lucio's dreamcatcher needs to be cleansed more often than Julian's)

Fire and Darkness. Imalia is in tune with fire and is extremely good at using it to its fullest potential; absolute destruction. As for the darkness...that will be explained in number 12.

7. Interaction. How does your character typically interact with people?

She is very polite, but not overly so. She tries to come off as someone you can actually have a conversation with. Sometimes if she's feeling nervous, she will go into overly-polite mode, but if the vibe starts to feel calmer, she will loosen up. She is very energetic and sometimes hyper with her friends.

She is ingratiating and very proper until you piss her off. Then you get things like "Why don't you get a horse, move up to the mountains, and don't bother anybody? You have the personality of a dead moth." (RIP Don Rickles) With friends, she's very laid back and frank with what she says.

8. Romance. What is something that your character and their LI love to do together? How do they show affection?

Azalea x Julian - They LOVE to read together. They have spent hours cuddled up together over a good book. Azalea shows Julian affection with gentle touches, kisses, and koala hugs. (she really loves how tall he is) She also makes sure he eats and gets plenty of rest. More than once, she has brought him dinner to his clinic while he was working late.

Azalea x Lucio - They love to spar. They are so different in fighting style that sparring really helps them improve their skills. Also, the prize at the end for the winner is quite nice. ^_~ Azalea shows Lucio affection by listening to him and holding him. She also likes to try to out kiss him. He reaches for her hand, she spins away and plants two on his cheek instead.

Imalia and Asra love to travel the Magical Realms together. They get into really long and in-depth conversations about the things they see and experiment with how their willpower affects the realm around them. Imalia shows affection by constant words of praise and sneaky touches and kisses. The more she can surprise him, the better. She also keeps a hefty supply of Lapsang Souchong tea at her estate for him and loves giving him little trinkets and things she has found on her travels.

9. Travel. Does your character like to travel outside of Vesuvia? How often? For how long? What kinds of things do they do away from home?

Yes. She loves to see more of the world and meet new people and see different cultures. She will travel maybe once every year or two. When traveling, she will typically stay away for 1-2 months. She loves adventure, but she does love her home more. Azalea loves to learn new types of magic or new methods of spellcasting from different cultures. She finds that certain techniques make her own magic stronger.

Definitely. She herself is originally from the northern hemisphere, so travel isn't something new to her. She gets wanderlust sometimes and has to get out into the world. She will be gone typically for six months when she decides to travel. She has been gone for three years before. She HAS to investigate old ruins wherever she goes. Who knows that treasures or knowledge lay inside? She must find out!

10. WTF. Has anything just...weird ever happened to your character? Something that made them stop and go "What just happened?!"

She was trying to brew a potion that would allow the drinker to become a mermaid for a short while. She ended up spilling it on a plant before it was done. The plant sprouted tiny muscular hairy legs and arms, stood up, walked to the window, shook its fist at her, and jumped out. Turns out she had forgotten a key ingredient in the early stages of brewing the potion. Mazelinka made fun of her for a solid week.

One time, she and a rival mage were about to have a battle. Right before they were to begin, this strange fellow wearing a sentient red cape fell from the sky and landed in between them. He promptly stood to his feet, apologized for the intrusion, and left. (Yes...I do mean Doctor Strange fell from the sky)

11. Crime. Has your character ever been arrested? If so, what did they do? Have they ever helped stop a crime?

She has never been arrested, however, she is guilty of petty larceny. It's not something she does often...just when some jerk needs to be taught a lesson. They always get their stuff back, but she will make sure they are thoroughly inconvenienced. She has stopped another thief before. The thief took the purse of an elderly individual who was trying to buy food. Azalea scaled up to the rooftops and cut the thief off, holding him down until the guards caught up and arrested him. She gave the money back to its owner.

Yep. She's been arrested plenty of times. Usually for assault and/or destruction of property. Hey, that jerk deserved to have his carriage set on fire. She has stopped several assassination attempts on her cousin, Queen Dreen Suval of Seiruun. She has also stopped dark plots at the Magical University in Prakra.

12. Secrets. What is a secret your character has? Are they in line for the throne in a far off land? Was there this one time at band camp...? Are they secretly involved in an assassin's guild?

Azalea secretly writes smut. She loves it. And her actual hair color is gray. The aqua-coral is an enchantment.

Imalia actually is in line for the throne of Seiruun; second in line, to be exact. But she HATES this. It's why she continues to live in Vesuvia rather than her home country. Imalia is also no longer entirely human. During an adventure that went terribly wrong, she summoned the Lord of Nightmares while inside the Magical Realms. (The Lord of Nightmares or "Lon" is an eldritch goddess) Lon then proceeded to implant herself inside Imalia. Lon is a being of pure darkness and nightmare, so Imalia has control over darkness when she taps into Lon's power. Through some creative wording, the contract between the two of them allows Imalia to use Lon's power and form when she needs to; however, Imalia is forever plagued by terrible nightmares that not even Azalea's dreamcatchers can stop. The dreamcatchers just catch on fire.

13. Overcompensation. Is there something that your character just HAS to do better than anyone else? Or are they just that dang good without trying? If they see someone else showing off, what is their kneejerk reaction?

She's actually quite humble. If she sees someone showing off, she really just concerns herself with their safety. "Please don't be careless and die, please!" But she IS gifted. Her magic is insanely strong, she just doesn't like to make a big deal out of it. She gets embarrassed.

She is the best in the room, and you'd better damn well know it. Unless she respects you. Then she will tone it down. But if she sees a showoff...she's got to mess with them. She's got to show them that they aren't all that and a bag of chips.

14. Fight Club. Is your character a good fighter? What kind of skills do they have?

She's pretty decent. Her attack magic is awesome, but her physical fighting mainly relies on how quick and squirmy she is. Her punches hurt, but they don't incapacitate.

She can fight pretty damn well. Her father made sure of it after most of her family was killed by assassins (it does sometimes really suck to be royalty). She is a heavy hitter and her intent is to end a fight with one strike. It doesn't always work, but hey...second, third, maybe fourth time is the charm. Or maybe you should just blow it the hell up.

15. The Arts. Is your character a creative type? What kinds of things can they create? Can they act? Street perform?

She is. Like mentioned earlier, she writes and makes dreamcatchers; she also gets into stage acting with Julian (when he's her LI). She's not a solo performer though. She has to be in a troupe or else she gets massive stage fright.

She can draw very well, almost photo-realistically. She mainly uses this skill for documentation when she's studying something. But every great once in a while she will draw a political cartoon making fun of some noble. Once she drew a penis on the face of one of Lucio's statues. He snapped back "I'd never put something that small in my mouth!" She retorted by drawing a full body penis on a different statue. It got misinterpreted by many townspeople as "Hey, look! Lucio is a dick!!"

16. Goofy. Is your character a clown? Do they like to make people laugh?

She does. She doesn't see herself as funny, but when she slips in something humorous into whatever she's talking about it usually takes whoever is listening by surprise. Spit your drink kind of humor.

YES. She has such a strange way of speaking sometimes that you can't help but snort at the things she says. Yes, it is entirely on purpose. She loves to crack jokes and has a self-deprecating sense of humor at times. She will also be hilariously over-confident as well.

17. Language. Is your character multilingual? How many languages do they speak? Do they have an accent? Is it sexy? Is it silly? Do they have the multilingual lisp?

No. She only speaks her native language.

Yes. Imalia speaks ten different languages. In her normal language, she doesn't have a multilingual lisp; but in about four of her other languages, she does. It drives her nuts, but she just can't seem to fix it.

18. Embarrassment. What is something really embarrassing that your character has done/said?

Azalea can't remember this, because it's part of the memories she lost. But Imalia remembers. One time she was going to meet one of the magisters of the Magical University of Prakra to see if she would be accepted. She spent weeks preparing how to introduce herself. On the day of, she mentioned how excited she was to meet Magister Asshole. Imalia blinked and said, "It's pronounced Ah-shole."

One time she said something quite rude about Lucio in front of Azalea (when Lucio is Azalea's LI). Azalea proceeded to tear her a new rectum, claiming that for someone so smart, she was incredibly closed-minded.

19. Memory. Has your character gotten any of their memory back? If so, what? Did it change them?

No. She insists that she doesn't want her memories back because she likes who she is now. She gets the important information from Asra and Imalia...her parents’ and aunt's names, what they were like, and how they died. That's all she feels that she needs.

*looks at me* "I'm exempt from this question. I'm your OC, not your MC." *walks out*

20. Family. Talk about your character's family. Who were they?

Her mother (Etoile) and father (Galen) were traveling merchants. Her mother was the one with magical talent. Her mother's sister (Sylvaine) owned the shop and taught Azalea most about magic. When Azalea was 13, her parents were robbed and killed by bandits just outside of Vesuvia. She lived with Sylvaine until she died of pneumonia when Azalea was 20.

Imalia's father was Vitalric Gabriev and her mother was Narsial Trevallan. When Imalia was 14, her father's family (the Sairuun royal family) were murdered by assassins sent by a rival country. Only Vitalric (and Narsial), Imalia, Vitalric's older brother Rhemun and his daughter Dreen survived. Rhemun and Dreen remained in Seiruun to run the place while Vitalric and his family moved to Vesuvia as a failsafe in case there were other assassination attempts. Vitalric started studying to become a doctor, while Narsial started grooming Imalia to wed into a noble family. Narsial was extremely abusive. Long story short, King Rhemun died of a hunting injury, and both of Imalia's parents died in the Red Plague.

#apprenticeapril #azalea nevra #imalia gabriev #the arcana asks #fan apprentice

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muchymozzarella · 5 years

Text

Ranking the Overwatch Cinematic Shorts (so far)

I’m gonna be ranking each short based on storytelling quality (since, let’s be real, all the animation is amazing) and the way it affected me personally, as well as the relevance of each short to their primary character or characters.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Junkertown: The Plan

I’m not putting this in my main list because it was animated differently from the rest, and mainly for a map rather than characters, even if it did a little bit of storytelling. However, the expressions in this were amazing, as was the comedy writing. Still an excellent piece, though I’m not putting it in my main rankings.

Doomfist Origin Story

Though technically counting among all the other origin stories, because this was fully animated, I felt it needed mentioning. This 2D style is fantastic, exciting, and Sahr Ngaujah’s Doomfist has me in CHILLS every time I watch it. I’d rank it mid-high on my list if it were being ranked, but since it doesn’t count among the cinematic shorts, I’m excluding it. I need this anime in my life, tho.

NOW FOR THE MAIN RANKINGS!

#11 - Reunion

Reunion was... disappointing. It was still beautifully animated, still exciting and fun, but as a character piece it felt more like a vehicle for Ashe and Echo than any real story. McCree wasn’t given the attention or character depth they gave him in his comic, or even in the Retribution.

Still good, but the most disappointing of the lot.

#10 - Overwatch Cinematic Trailer

The OG! The first look that made us excited about Overwatch. It does what it needs to well, but being one of Overwatch’s earliest works, it has a lot of outdated elements, such as the subtle changes in Tracer and Widow’s design, and the more flat portrayals of characters that were much nuanced later on.

Still excellent, though, and a good way of portraying what Overwatch was meant to be as a game, as a concept, and as its own universe.

#9 - Shooting Star

Now this was an excellent character piece. I dearly appreciated the look it gave us into D.Va’s real personality underneath all the propaganda/media persona, and her anxieties and pressures and fears. It, however, didn’t affect me very much on first viewing, especially in comparison to the rest, and it isn’t the most memorable to me, so it’s lower on the list. Still quality, though.

#8 - Rise and Shine

This would be higher on the list, but I wasn’t affected until maybe my third or fourth viewing. Something about the way the emotions played out seemed not to develop as well as the rest. However, this is still an emotional, touching, and surprisingly LONG short about Mei, and it really delves into her character and drive, while also giving us significant backstory on Overwatch’s role and situation in-universe. The music was lovely, and Mei as a character is just amazing, and so very compelling. Elise Zhang did a wonderful job, especially since she sometimes struggles with English, especially a fully English piece like this. And it is GORGEOUS. All of them are, but this one in particular captured something great in the lighting and setting.

#7 - Infiltration

Now this is where I’m starting to have trouble picking between titles :P This one grappled with #6 for the higher spot, but I’m putting this here because the other one’s thematically stronger. This one, however, was about everything you’d want in a short. It’s exciting, it’s got deep and interesting, moving plot, it has multiple characters but shows us exactly what Sombra is about and gives her such PERSONALITY. The animation is great, the storytelling is great, and it plays out the way the best superhero animated series from the 90s and early 2000s played out. One of my favourites. But still not as high on the list as the next ones.

#6 - Hero

I think what made this so impressive and memorable was actually the soundtrack. The mood was set so perfectly in this short alone, but also it was thematically stronger from start to finish with the idea that old heroes could still be heroes, and that new ones could arise as a result of the old ones. It was exciting, the action was excellent, and the world of Dorado just pops.

But definitely the music. Who could forget that guitar at the end?

#5 Alive

So they, uh... straight up MURDERED SOMEBODY???

Seriously though, this short, despite having the action and excitement of both Infiltration and Hero, rises above because of how it revealed the stakes of Overwatch. It revealed that they weren’t afraid to go there, to show the othering of sentient people with the omnic rights protests led by an omnic religious leader mirroring past tensions between an oppressed group and a majority, and to show someone who is both a major religious figure AND a political figurehead being straight up assassinated for the goals of a shadow organisation.

This was an action-packed, exciting, visual treat with a terrifying and skilful villain who was a real threat, but above all else, it showed us that Overwatch wasn’t going to baby its audience.

#4 - Recall

Winston is such an excellent character, let me just say. As far as we, the audience, are concerned, he is Overwatch - at least, the new form of it, and the best form of it - and the way this short presents his desire to see the world be better, mixing in some deep universe lore and more action showing the threat that Talon is, this short is one of the most important just in terms of Overwatch’s story. It’s got action, it’s got some surprisingly effective humour, and it centres on a great character and his wants and decisions.

NOW WE’RE IN THE HOME STRETCH - AKA THE PLACE WHERE I COULD NOT DECIDE WHERE TO PUT THESE TITLES.

BUT I HAD TO RANK THEM. SO HERE THEY ARE. BUT ASSUME THEY ARE ALL EQUALLY AMAZING BECAUSE THESE ARE THE THREE BEST OVERWATCH CINEMATIC SHORTS SO FAR.

# 3 - The Last Bastion

This was a masterpiece. Without dialogue, it conveyed emotion, it was a feast for the eyes, the music and sound design were on point, and it was honestly just... amazing. Really, it was perfect. The only reason it’s #3 is because #2 and #1 hit me harder in the emotions on first, second, third, and subsequent hundred viewings. But this short about a PTSD-ridden robot and their path to healing is just... beautiful. Heartwrenchingly beautiful, sweet without being saccharine, and way more real than we expected a short about a singing robot and their bird best friend to be about.

If you were ever to teach a masterclass in short form animated storytelling? You’d use this as an example. That’s why it won an award for Best Writing in Film & Video.

#2 - Dragons

God, this was hard. This was actually my favourite of ALL the cinematics, in fact, it STILL IS MY FAVOURITE. It’s the first thing I show people to get them hyped for Overwatch, when they still haven’t checked it out. It’s just amazing. The storytelling is masterful and exciting, and the way it tells two intertwined stories is both stylistically amazing and beautifully plotted out.

It’s a visual treat, with excellent music, and the narration by Papa Shimada really sets the tone. The action is great, the characters are great - it’s all just great, and gets my heart pumping every time. And the art for the children’s story? Utterly amazing.

And the only reason it doesn’t get top billing is because the last of these just makes me cry every single time I watch it, without fail. It just... it’s too much, guys.

#1 - Honor and Glory

Dammit. I hate this. I love it. The timeless themes, the mix of old epic warriors and sci-fi battles, the perfect line that bookends the start and finish of this short. THE MUSIC, HOLY SHIT. Every time I watch this, I cry. It’s never failed me. It’s just so earnest and painful, and brings to tears even the most stoic people.

It has the emotions of The Last Bastion and the same themes of old battles, but has this added tinge of tragedy with a character who is just so... worn down, that seeing him in the prime of his life just makes it even more tragic.

This is my #1, top Cinematic Short out of Overwatch. And I need to watch it a thousandth time, because I’m still not over it.

#overwatch #cinematic shorts #ranking #list

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leta-the-strange · 5 years

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Spoiler-free COG feelings/essay/thoughts before I see the movie. Spoiler-free because the movie isn’t out here til the end of the week but obviously, I’ve picked up info from trailers and interviews and things like that so sort of common knowledge stuff but I guess if you’ve avoided all the promos for the year I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you now so don’t read until after you’ve seen it if that’s the case (again, I only know basic info).

I have a lot of feelings that I’ve been sitting on for a while because frankly, large parts of the Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter fandom terrify me. It’s why in my nineteen years (okay, thirteen years – I had to learn how to read) I’ve distanced myself from engaging in the fandom too much and when I do, I try and stick to as safe, neutral content as possible.

But I’m going to write a little bit a lot (my anxiety’s poppin off the charts right now) not to antagonise anyone or personally offend people just to get this pent up crap off my chest before I see the movie.

I have Māori and Pākehā parentage. Although I am proud to be a Māori girl and I’m definitely not white-passing, I do acknowledge that out of my family, I was born with the lightest skin and being a lighter-skinned/mixed poc among my family and friends has made me recognise my privilege. That isn’t to say I haven’t experienced lifelong struggles with racism, bullying and discrimination but I will never experience the same micro-aggressions and experiences that they have. Although, I do have light-skinned privileges and I don’t ever want to take away the struggles of my family that I won’t experience on the same level, growing up looking a little different opened me up a lot of feelings of invalidation within my own culture. When I experienced racism as a child, I was also met with disdain for being upset about it when I wanted to talk about it. This was when I was a child and I didn’t understand lighter skinned privilege or the animosity from some of my own people. I am far more educated now, but during that confusing time I, like most children, turned to literature (which in turn is what helped me make sense of the world).

I’ve gotten a little off track – this isn’t overly important to what I’m writing about, but it is introducing my opinion as coming from a woman of colour who has experienced racism and horrible bullying, but I always feel the need to clarify my position as a lighter skinned poc before giving my opinion based on those experiences.

Obviously from my content, I love Leta Lestrange. Perhaps it started out as a matter of representation, but I feel like over the past year, I have become intrigued with her for a number of reasons. She’s striking me as a Sirius, Regulus and Andromeda Black type character. Different to her family and caught in a struggle of light and dark (magic, not skin colour). Loves magical creatures. I haven’t seen it yet but it seems like she is one of the centre point characters of the film. She seems to be connected to many of the main characters in one way or another and has always striked me as the most intriguing.

I really do hope I am wrong but the ‘other’ love interest’s in the Harry Potter universe are usually treated terribly. They experience character assassination to further the development of the canon/new interest.

I really hope this film doesn’t do the whole blow out a woc character to make the white, self-insert, classically beautiful, ‘im not like other girls’ character shine brighter.

Before everyone comes for me, I wouldn’t say I’m a Tina ‘anti’ whatever that is. There’s no like extreme hatred at all! I would say I don’t like Tina as a character, or Queenie for that matter. Not yet anyway. The new trailer gives me hope that this movie might win me over finally. It doesn’t need to be upsetting or offensive to anyone. There are lots of people out there with favourite and not-so-favourite characters. A lot of people dislike Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, even Harry…and there are people who have those characters as their favourite.

There are a lot of reasons I don’t like Tina and Queenie. I may address them in a different post if being vague upsets people more than going in-depth but at this point, I am trying to stay as unconfrontational as possible but I have seen people get extremely furious when they don’t deem your reason for disliking them to be ‘good enough’ so if not saying exactly what I find uncomfortable about them is not as preferable as telling people then I can write it up as respectfully as possible if I’m treated the same way. All I’ll say is that I think Tina is a good person, but, in my opinion, not a great character. Queenie is the opposite. I would not like Queenie as a person but I have to admit, she’s a good character. But I’ll hold the rest of my opinions until after the second film.

Honestly, the film adaptions leave some of my favourite book characters to be desired. Maybe if FB was a novel, I’d like Tina but I really dislike her in the movies. I have seen people blow up when this is said. I try to understand the outrage. I think one of the reasons I dislike Tina is one of the reasons why people love her. She is, at this point and in my opinion (which is ONLY an opinion), a self-insert character. Any Newt x Reader fanfiction can easily read as a Newtina fanfiction and vice versa. I know. Because I’m a FB fanfiction writer myself and tried to write her. Sometimes when you attach yourself to a character so much, it can feel personally offensive when someone says something as harmless such as they don’t like then. I don’t experience this as often. Every Reader/OC fanfiction is, perhaps unintentionally, but nearly always aimed at a white person in description. In actuality, nearly every character in literature is, intentionally or not, described with textbook white features or assumed white by the fandom/readers/watchers.

I know people are going to hate this opinion because I’ve seen people jump down other people’s throats when this gets brought up. I do believe, whether it is conscious or not, Leta not being white COULD, subconsciously, be a factor as to why she is so inherently hated. I’ve seen more hate for Leta than any other character – even the antagonist! I hate what they did to Lavender Brown, book and movie wise, but even she, being as over exaggeratedly unlikable as a romantic plot device, received and still receives far less fandom hate than Cho Chang (who was also eventually written to be ‘jealous, hysterical, unlikeable’, etc, etc – I don’t agree btw I love, understand and appreciate Cho and Lavender) who was smart, talented, kind, traumatised, and until it was no longer convenient to the main characters romance for her to be ‘likeable’ anymore.

I wish I could enjoy going through the Leta tag but often, her and Newt can’t even be in a scene or photo together and people lose their minds with anger and hate. Literally, the comments on any scene/photo they are in are all along the lines of ‘stay away from newt!/poor tina/urgh, don’t flirt leta/leta WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’. Sorry, to break it to you guys but it isn’t a love triangle. It’s a love conga line. The only person getting in the way of ‘Newtina’ is Newt. Instagram is even worse. By worse, I mean horrible beyond belief. The better comments are the ones are the ones merely (though still grossly) comparing her to Tina and how much they dislike her, the other ones are wishes that she’ll get killed or join Grindelwald. It’s literally not even hidden the fact they wish either of these things happen so Newtina can happen faster. I’m not a Newtina shipper at all (Yet. Again, this might change if the films improve) but this would be one of the worst ways to further your ship. That is literally not going to change the fact that Newt’s still in love with her (you can have feelings for two people at the same time. The filmmakers confirmed - in fact, one of the first things about the new movie that they confirmed - that Newt is ‘absolutely still in love with her’), it just makes her conveniently unattainable. I do have a feeling that Leta might die and if it happens, it better not be because she’s unwillingly in the way of a ‘love triangle’ that people have forced these three characters into. If Newtina is going to happen in a way that isn’t awful, rushed and horrible, it will be slow-burn and it’s in own time AFTER Newt has healed and properly fixed things with Leta. You can’t be best friends and in love with someone for 15+ years and fall out of love with them immediately after they die, turn bad and settle for a woman you met for like two days and collectively spent maybe ten hours with. It might be a Ron/Hermione situation where it’s slow and eventual. That’s the only way I could possibly get on board and I think it could be done tastefully if they don’t resort to lazy writing. I do have my fingers crossed I’ll start to like the Goldsteins before this happens and I can enjoy it as much as everyone else does.

To be honest, after seeing the trailers, I see only two endings for Leta (and I hate them BOTH):

She joins Grindelwald: If this is the plot twist, it’s the shittiest plot twist ever. Pretty much 90% of the fans since seeing the first film have assumed/liked to believe she’s pure evil. Probably the characters themselves all assume she’s evil from her last name. I was worried the whole ‘haha, I was on Grindelwald’s side all along!’ situation was going to happen. We know JK hates Slytherins. My ‘Leta joins Grindelwald’ theory would be that she has always been on the good side – or trying to be – and after YEARS of oppression and discrimination and being distrusted by maybe the central characters in this film no matter how hard she tries AND maybe finally realising that Newt isn’t going to ever forgive her she just snaps and goes all ‘f*ck you guys then’ (I wouldn’t blame her tbh). HOWEVER, I doubt this. In a trailer, you literally see Leta THROW a fucking spell STANDING BY HERSELF (what u doin bby?) at Grindelwald. Trust me, if this was Tina it would have been all everyone was talking about but of course the fandom was all ‘yeah, see, she’s in the same frame as Grindelwald SHE’S EVIL’. One of the trailers is literally titled Leta vs. Grindelwald. Everything in the trailers/promos points to Queenie joining Grindelwald but *shrugs, I guess*.

Leta dies: I get this may seem the preferable way to appease the Leta haters and the Leta lovers especially if she dies after redeeming herself or heroically or whatever but urgh, no. I know everyone’s like ‘DoNt MAKe ThIS AbOUT RaCe’ when the woc character inevitably is killed but I’m sorry. To have been able to sit in a theatre as a little girl and see Leta Lestrange in the wizarding world would have blown my tiny mind. Honestly, as an older teen seeing Zoe Kravitz in that little photo frame in Newt’s case in the first film was iconic enough for me. After growing up being made to believe I was ‘unattractive’ because of how I looked, seeing total dreamboats like Callum Turner and Eddie Redmayne’s characters being all heart-eyes over Leta is, like...wow! And I do have an uncomfortable truth for people who want Leta to die. That would possibly be the WORST thing to happen for the Newtina thing (would pretty much be the last nail in the coffin for me ever coming around to it). I’ve seen it happen in my family when someone you love dies. Your feelings for them essentially FREEZE. You can’t fall out of love with someone who is dead. That’s of course not to say that you don’t love again and just as much as the first time. But it takes time (LOTS of it) and there’s a little part of your heart that’s like…permanently sealed off. I don’t even like Newtina yet and I’m hoping for the sake of the Newtina fans that Leta doesn’t die because freakin’ yikes. Just let them heal and connect and be besties again goddammit, its POSSIBLE (and bet your ass I’ll write it my god damn self to prove it if they don’t).

I know these are highly unpopular opinions and I HOPE that I am wrong, and they do her character justice and don’t discard her via death or the dark side.

In summary, I suppose my biggest struggle with Leta’s character is definitely the overwhelming fandom hate which I still can’t quite comprehend. I really want to believe it isn’t a race thing. Though, I have seen horrible posts about Leta, mean comments on nearly every Leta promo, Zoe Kravitz literally being called a c*nt in the comments of a Leta post on tumblr, a lot of fanfictions having her be primarily evil, selfish, manipulative, in some a rapist even, ugly, cruel, etc. But honestly, she’s literally not interfering in Newt having a relationship with anyone at all??? She’s literally been villainised because her friend can’t get over her (getting Snily nostalgia). But buggered if I’ve been able to find next to anything of that calibre about Jacob’s fiancée (literally a Queenie doppelganger) who left him, like, the day he met Queenie. I get that it was a deleted scene for those non-hardcore fans, but Leta-hate was literally kicked off by a picture in a photo frame and a comment made by a, in my opinion, kind of not-nearly-as-infallible-as-people-think character that barely knows Newt breaking into his head non-consensually (after being repeatedly told not to) who had an agenda to hook him up with her sister. Sooo…*shrugs*.

Even I personally have tried to keep out of the fandom debates, but I wrote a Leta and Newt story (still ongoing) that I stopped for a while because the kind of disgusting comments I was receiving about people hating the pairing. Which, I get. You don’t like a pairing, that’s cool? Why are you going and seeking out a piece about them and then taking the time to leave a comment? Whenever I start to read a story about Leta being this horrific monster of a person and being torn apart and compared and occasionally borderline racist, I just…click out? I know it’s only a small patch of weeds in what is likely a garden of roses, but I have never come across such an insecure fandom for a literal canon ship. If the relationship was that pure and strong, you wouldn’t feel the need to kill or villainise the (non-existent) ‘threat’. I just hope the writers feel the same way. You can write healthy closures and strong women of colour characters without casting them aside for plot development/man pain/stereotypical Caucasian romance/plot device, etc... I’m going to go into the theatre at the end of the week slightly optimistic to be fair but I’m also fully expecting to be disappointed but honestly, Leta could avada kedavra every character and she’s still going to be my favourite, I don’t make the rules.

#fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald #leta lestrange #not going to put this in any other character tags bc my anxiety is poppin #ive also been avoiding the leta tags because im trying to keep focused on not spoiling anything but its hard as hell #pls dont spoil it for me in the comments if you decide to comment

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rorykillmore · 6 years

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what drew you to villanelle as a character and what would you like to do with her on denny?

villanelle is a fucking

piece of work

as much as i yell about her being TERRIBLE, she’s certainly not one-dimensional by any means -- she has a lot of very complicated emotional layers and even a history indicative of some formative trauma, and i always appreciate nuance in a character of course, but

honestly the thing that is really compelling about her to me is that she’s written like... in a way female antagonists rarely get to be written? she’s not an ice queen and she’s not quite femme fatale-y, she’s not even on any kind of vengeance arc, she’s just! charismatic and cheerfully violent and a total fucking ASSHOLE with negative two morals and yet they still have so much fun with her. she’s quippy and delightful and actively fun to watch even when you’re like “oh my god villanelle you’re horrible”

basically she’s allowed to be a lot of things male antagonists are quite frequently, which is really part of what makes killing eve unique and enjoyable

but while i’m comparing her to male antagonists, i’m gonna draw the line at her relationship with eve herself because that’s another thing that i like about how villanelle is written. her relationship with eve is not really... predatory the way it would be if this was a show being written with a guy in her place. it’s obsessive and unhealthy, sure, but it’s on strangely... equal footing. villanelle can’t really manipulate eve because eve is so constantly aware of her bullshit and willing to call it out, etc. they’re nothing if not honest with each other. it’s a disaster of a f/f ship but it being so well written and avoiding a lot of trope-y gross abusive implications is another reason i enjoy both her and eve as characters

i also am just kind of drawn to the idea of rping her because i’d like to balance out my roster a bit with a more unapologetic villain? and villanelle, she may be complicated, but she does truly ENJOY what she does. she’s not super interested in stuff like redemption.

speaking of which, if i apped her on denny she’d probably just want to find someone to work for, first and foremost! she’s good at her job and she wants to do it. she doesn’t really care who she does it for, although she has a bit of a tendency to... disobey orders and go off the rails when she feels like it, which definitely isn’t ideal for some potential employers. which is why i think she’d be so fun with jack and peter! they’re a little more chaotic by nature. she’d probably be pretty content to just kill people for them and otherwise hang out, at least for awhile

i’d have to figure out a way to translate her work as an assassin into rp because obviously i wouldn’t... have her killing off people’s characters all over the place, but “villanelle gets tasked with killing someone and they somehow get away” gets a bit too repetitive after the first once or twice too, and it’s a bit unrealistic given how good and thorough she is with what she does. so i’d probably have to regulate her to mostly taking out npcs, but doing it in a way where people can still get involved, where those deaths still affect things or prompt people to investigate or whatever.

ooh, maybe i could do a longer plot where she’s tasked to kill someone but like... has to get information from them first, or something that makes it much more gradual and open ended, because that could be REALLY interesting

whether or not it coincides with that idea, it might be fun to play with her developing a bit of a fixation/infatuation with someone else too?? probably not anything as strongly as she feels for eve but something to like... well, “entertain her” sounds callous, but she kind of is,

playing with villanelle + more complex relationships with other characters in general would just be fun

idk i’ve only been tossing around the possibility of apping her so far, not committing to it, so i haven’t really thought out anything too in depth BUT those are some thoughts!

#thanks storm!!#she would... definitely promise to be a trip and a half #cuts dennys lvad wire #numinousbones

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kinetic-elaboration · 7 years

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February 10: Thoughts on 4x02 Heavy Lies the Crown

I sat down to write my reaction to 4x02 and wrote basically a novel because I have no self-control. I talk so big about being barely invested in the source material anymore and then this happens. I cannot be trusted.

I wrote this before I saw any fandom reactions at all so it’s really just my unfiltered and uninfluenced thoughts.

Tl;dr version:

Team Jaha all the way

Loved the Arkadia stuff especially the Clarke and Jaha stuff and Clarke’s speech

Intrigued by the possibility of waiting out the radiation in the Ark

Interested to see Bryan develop, worried about Miller/Bryan

Legit thought Bellarke were going to kiss when they were saying goodbye

I would have voted with Miller and Monty but I also think that Bellamy’s final decision was the only possible outcome morally and narratively and that for this reason that whole story line was meh for me

A+ Monty characterization

Why does no one care that the Arkadia government has been decimated? This is some grade A nonsense.

...Jasper

I'm probably going to nit pick a lot and sound like I didn't like, but overall I actually really did. I'm never going to stop being nostalgic for what the show could have been, but I think it's doing the best it can to come back from the mess of S3.

I'm going to organize my thoughts by storyline this time since, I don’t have definite negatives and definite positives like last week.

POLIS

I have made the tentative decision to avoid absolutely as much as possible all content beyond the actual episodes themselves—that includes preview scenes and bts stuff released before the show airs, as well as interviews, Twitter statements, etc. (I will watch the trailers because I just love trailers in general but that's it.) I have a variety of personal-preference reasons for doing so but I think the opening of this episode really solidifies my episodes-only position. Because such a fucking meal was made about the glowing butterflies, and what did we get? Literally, no one lied: we did see a glowing butterfly, very first thing. But everything that glowing butterflies are associated with (associations the people doing the teasing are very well aware of)--including early S1, the glowing forest, the beauty of the Earth, a sense of calm, etc.--was missing. We get the exact opposite instead: mutilation, death, blood, loss, grief. Wow. I was not impressed. In fact, I felt very cheated. I guess one central reason I'm cutting extras out of my viewing experience is because I feel that most of them are designed to create this reaction, designed to tease and trick on the one hand, or just to outright spoil on the other. They decrease my enjoyment of the show and make me feel like I'm being fucked with for sport.

Not to make too big a deal out of it though, because I feel like my language is harsher than my emotions... Anyway I didn't like the intro is what I'm saying. I don't want to say too much because this is a larger point about the episode but one I'm not sure is fair on my part but...it felt a little too...on the nose? Rote? Like a very simple story was told very quickly and unsubtly: we know Ilian has issues because ALIE had him kill his whole family like it doesn't get shorter and simpler than that. And considering I have nothing but negative associations with ALIE, I'm a little...don't subject me to this please.

I'll reserve most of my judgment because he's barely been introduced but so far Ilian is boring and I don't care about him. Next.

Also boring: Trishanakru (sp?). Again, I know it's early, but what I got out of this episode was that, for all they spend so much fucking time on the Grounders, the PTB really do not have very many ideas for them. Because so far the total variation of the clans has been in degree of warlike qualities (average: Trikru; high: Azgeda; low: Flokru). If we hadn't been told Ilian and dead guy were part of a new clan about twenty times I would have just straight up assumed they were Trikru because they're pretty much impossible to distinguish. And I know, I'm being unfair because it's only been one episode but like...I'd always been under the impression there were real and obvious differences among the 12 clans? If there aren't I literally never have to see any other clans I mean it's bad enough I have to be subjected to those ugly white Azgeda tattoos or the Undergrad Common Room aesthetic of Luna's people.

Kane and Abby: everything's going along in just exactly the way I'd expect with them, which means that my interest level is pretty low tbh. I have a very calm sort of appreciation for them, but no particular thoughts or high emotions. Nothing wrong with two attractive people in bed. But like...the main plot point of their relationship was about Abby deciding what to do with Jake's ring and considering I've already thought about that in a fandom context repeatedly and in more depth—without even being a hardcore Kabby shipper—I was a little underwhelmed by it here. Also actually a little disappointed that she ultimately took it off. Like I know why she had to but I also thought that Kane's earlier statement about Jake being a part of her was his acceptance that she would continue to wear it, and I thought there was something rather nice about that—because Jake was his friend too, and what's really wrong with someone whose spouse is dead simultaneously remembering the deceased and having a relationship with someone else? IDK. I guess...it was all fine but not very deep.

Octavia: I have to say I'm kind of surprised by Octavia so far because I was under the impression that she would immediately cut ties with everyone and have a totally separate story line. So that she's still hanging out, at least in body if not spirit, with Kabby and that she hasn't been, like, universally shunned or even officially banished or whatever is just.. I'm not sure what to make of it. What I mean is: does no one but Bryan care that she assassinated the Chancellor? (Also tbt that time she had a big fit about Bellamy attempting to assassinate the Chancellor lol how times have changed.) I'm personally pretty ready to forget literally everything from S3 in a lot of ways but realistically stuff that happened mere days ago in the show should probably be addressed and it's just really weird to me that there's been next to no consequence for her. Also I don't think the show has any idea what to do with O now (which is also why I have an eye-rolly reaction to 'Lincoln died to further O's story line' arguments because IMO almost the opposite happened: Lincoln died and O's story fell apart.) Anyway I don't care about her.

I am STILL BOTHERED by the fact that O got a tattoo in the S2-S3 hiatus but we only got the barest hints of it in S3 and are only getting full views of it now, a season later. And no one's ever mentioned it. I mean maybe this is my Conservative view of tattoos but imo inking your skin is like kinda a big deal and even if you don't think it is in the here and now... tats are a Grounder thing, a permanent alteration of your body that only Grounders do...so it feels like her getting one is sort of a big deal within this society and I would have liked to see it, if not on screen, at least...like a plot point? Or honestly why the fuck even do it. Like literally why subject to Marie to additional make up, why take on the added burden of continuity checks about her tattoo, if it's not even remotely important to your story??

Speaking of tattoos, I forgot to say this before, but if literally everyone has tattoos (and pretty much every Grounder we've ever encountered has had tattoos, whether they're warriors or not, as far as I can tell), how does it help a Spy not to have them? I mean...if there's only one person hanging out with no tats...would you not automatically suspect that person of spying?? Also it kinda looked like Echo did have a tattoo in that fight scene with Roan, a black one on her arm, but it was hard to tell. Coulda been her shirt I dunno.

AKA the world building on this show leaves a lot to be desired but what's new.

These people are shit at keeping secrets for real.

ARKADIA

I'm intrigued by this idea that they could hide out in the Ark itself during the radiation—for a lot of reasons. I fucking love the Ark, first of all. It's an idea I hadn't previously thought of or seen anyone else think of so it's actually surprising to me, and creative, and unexpected, unlike a lot of the rest of the show at this point. It's way better than going into space, which is tragic in its comic ridiculousness. It makes a nice full circle. I think there's something O.Henry sad about it in a way too because if that's the solution they use...they'll live, but they'll never see the outside again. They're creating another Mt. Weather in a way (and I think they semi-know it: "If there's another Mt. Weather out there, the Grounders will know")--and we know how that worked out for them. (I think the lesson from Mt. Weather, honestly, is that if you can't evolve you don't get to live.) Then of course there's the lifeboat problem which, personally, at this point, is getting a little boring. But I definitely caught Raven saying at the end that only "a hundred" of them would fit without the water machine, so that's either significant or bad story telling.

Also finally my boy Monty coming back into the genius fold. I'm still a little...wary of how they're developing Monty because I remain dissatisfied with his post-Mt. Weather story but what can you do. Promising so far at least.

I literally stopped the video and laughed when I saw the Bellamy/Miller/Bryan scene because of Bryan's gratuitous shirtlessness. Like...I know the implication is not that Bellamy walked in on anything because Bryan was in pajamas and Miller was dressed but it was still fucking hilarious to me anyway because I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old and always will. (More on them below.)

TEAM JAHA all the way. Okay, I've been thinking a little more about him and... I think it's important to differentiate between liking a character as a character and liking a character in universe. By liking a character in-universe I mean 'if X were a real person, I would like him. I agree with his choices, his sense of morality, and he has an agreeable personality.' Sometimes I dislike Jaha in-universe; I think he was objectively wrong in S2 when he chose the City of Light over getting Our Heroes out of Mt. Weather. But it also isn't important to me to like a character in-universe. Plenty of characters do bad or wrong things and if everyone always did the right thing, there'd be no conflict and no story. What I can't stand is characters who don't make sense as characters and I've been, as I said, uncertain about Jaha. I don't think the show's done him any favors by separating him from so much of the cast for so long (aside from Murphy, has he had any extended interaction with any major cast member since S1? This isn't a real question. The answer is no.) He has often just been not as entertaining as other characters because of this. And I think he's on a long arc, starting all the way back in mid-S1. Combine these things—a long arc that requires a long attention span to understand, developed slowly and in separation from most of the rest of the main cast and main events—and you have a good recipe for a widely-disliked character. I don't dislike him, but I've been frustrated by him, and uncertain how to separate in-universe frustration from badly-drawn-character frustration. BUT I increasingly think that Jaha is an excellently drawn character, probably one of the more consistent on the entire show (certainly way more consistent than Kane lol), and I'm really enjoying seeing him, the real him, again. Jaha is sounding a lot more like his S1 self. And bringing him together with Clarke is A+. More of this please. More philosophical conversations about leadership I can get behind. I love that he used to be an engineer. I love that he's unflappable—never defending himself, never self-flagellating for others' sick pleasure. I love the hair (or...lack of hair). I love the lines he's given, like the 'no leader sets out wanting to lie to their people' one. (I stg if that line doesn't make its way into fandom lore I will riot. I need recompense for every single Clarke "I bear their burdens" gifset I've ever seen.) Just...yes, more Jaha, good stuff.

I like Clarke's new/old outfit and shorter hair but I don't like that little pouf on the top. That must go. I also like, tentatively (it's always tentatively with me and Clarke because if I were to rewatch 2x16 tomorrow I'd insta-hate her again so), where Clarke is going. I like that she's still pragmatic and a little ruthless but that this is mixed in with that old idealism of hers. I do think she's becoming more of her old S1 self, while still taking into account her other experiences and how she's grown and changed. So...yeah I don't feel I have much in terms of analysis on her after having only seen this episode once, but I'm encouraged.

I know I literally just said mere hours before watching this episode that the show had abandoned the relationship between Clarke and Raven but then what do you know, a pleasant surprise: they are interacting again. I liked it. I will always want more because they're one of my favorite relationships on the show but this was so good. I like seeing Raven challenge Clarke and Clarke actually take it into account. I like the tension between them. I like seeing Raven owning her own department. And I liked the tension with Jaha because it's consistent with her general character, very hard nosed and unforgiving.

...There's a part of me that wants to ship Monty/Raven but it's just so hard to ship, in-universe, Monty or Jasper with pretty much any other character because they're so much younger. I know the show doesn't treat them like they're younger and at this point pretty much every delinquent (except Bellamy) is in the "rough contemporaries" category but... Raven is still 19 or almost 19 and Monty is still 15 maaaaybe 16, and that's a big gap, it just is. It makes me semi-uncomfortable. Especially because, even though I think difference in life experience matters more than difference in calendar age, I still think Monty and Jasper were introduced as like the little brothers of the group and it's hard for me to break out of this conception of them.

I know we didn't really see anything new with Jasper in this episode, like that wasn't in trailers or whatever (I didn't see the shower scene clip before I watched 4x02 so I that was semi-new to me), but... I still love him. He is definitely incredibly damaged and it's still fairly remarkable to me that literally no one seems to recognize that he is sick—but I have no problem watching incredibly damaged characters so I am having a good old gay time with his story. Just don't let it end in death. As always, I love any reference to him and Monty being stoner dorks and the high five did not disappoint when given greater context. Actually it got better. And I'm glad he has a spear-scar still, although—and I have no idea how spears or scars work so maybe it was realistic—I wish it had been bigger/more obvious.

I'm pretty angry that my characterizations of Jasper and Monty re: their sexualities are backwards in the angst story and almost everything else I've written of them. Dammit fandom, letting your gay!Monty headcanon seep into my brain. I have no problem with seeing Monty as gay, but there was never actually any indication that he was and, more importantly, there was indication that he's into girls going all the way back to the pilot ("Note to self: next time save the girl," and, from mid-S1: "Are you kidding me? That was there for the taking."). Anyway, it's fine; sexualities are there to be messed with in fic. More importantly, bi!Jasper becomes increasingly canon for me every day. Monty's all "I am hella uncomfortable with your nudity" and there's Jasper like "I give no fucks anymore, I'm enjoying my slow suicide and I'm going to do whatever, wanna hug???? We can get high later and whatever happens happens!"

Fuck, Jasper's taste in music is bad though. IMO. As with the Violent Femmes song in 3x01, I get that the lyrics work well and I get why this song was chosen, but I just thought both songs were obnoxious to listen to. UGH. Where's my Joy Division.

I definitely thought, when Clarke was saying goodbye to the road trippers, that she and Bellamy were going to affectionately kiss goodbye. Like, obviously I didn't think this in the intellectual sense. I just had this sudden flash of feeling: this is where the goodbye kiss goes. And then when it didn't I had to sit back and think—all this happened in a handful of seconds obviously—oh yeah, they're not established yet. That's how easy and natural their chemistry is. It's really refreshing.

Clarke's speech at the end was very interesting. Honestly... I know why it had to be her, narratively speaking, but I kinda wish in a way it had been Bellamy. Because I like his speeches more. But it wouldn't make sense so this isn't a criticism. I liked that she was responding to Jasper and Raven and Jaha all at once. (And I especially liked the call back to Jasper, the sort of delayed convo, survive versus live versus thrive.) I thought it was an interesting moment too because not only did it call back to the Ark government's season 1 decisions, but it also called back to Bellamy's early decisions on the ground. I'm thinking in particular to how he used the threat of the Grounders to inspire the camp to work and build a wall—and listen to him, of course. He instinctively harnessed the threat and used it to power the forming of the community. He was even willing to lie to keep it together: to let everyone believe Wells had been killed by a Grounder, even when Bellamy knew better. And that's what Clarke's doing, she's giving a version of the truth to the people to inspire them and to get them to work. I wonder if Bellamy sees this parallel too.

It's been 9 days since Clarke pulled the lever and now not only does Arkadia not have a council but it doesn't even have a chancellor and no one cares. NO ONE CARES. All of their government is totally gone, not just Pike but Kane and Abby (the prior de facto leaders), Sinclair (the head of a major department)...Jaha is around but he's clearly disgraced and powerless...who is running the show??? By which I mean, lol Clarke obviously. But why?? How? From where does her authority with non-delinquents derive? It's just this really weird hole in the story line imo because she's a child who 99% of the people have never met (okay arguments can be made about S2 but imo she was more Grounder-liaison than Arkadia head of state) and there's just... no...explanation...of how the community survives on the day-to-day. Except for the scene where Jasper oversees the party, which I guess, fair enough, is probably what would happen. This is all the more frustrating for me because the idea of a leaderless lawless community coming together was a major initial theme/plot of the very first episodes, and I've been missing it ever since, and here's another opportunity to engage in those themes and questions again and instead it's like...don't look over here at this humongous plot hole!!! Don't look!!

FARM STATION

I'm so tense about Miller/Bryan because in my opinion it makes sense to keep them alive and keep them together but with this show who ever freaking knows. They're the only long-term couple on the show, and the only m/m couple the show has ever had; their story's barely been told; Bryan couldn't stand on his own at this point and I feel like the pr nightmare of killing another queer kid just isn't worth it... But there have been plenty of other nonsense deaths on this show and I don't trust it. So. Anyway. I'm tense but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. I like that we're seeing more of who Bryan is. I like that they're not forgetting where he came from or what his experiences are. I like that he's a little hard and a little on edge and a little dangerous because I think that's a good sort of person for Miller and it's more interesting. I like that they addressed his sudden change of heart last season because, while I'm not bothered really by everyone's easy forgiveness of him (I think it made narrative sense if not in-universe sense—not ideal but I can live with it), I do think that they organized that episode around the surprise of his about-face, without really explaining why he made the decision he did. Because that decision making process occurred off-screen in order to keep the surprise. I mean obviously it was pretty clear he did it For Love but I'm nevertheless glad they're discussing it.

I'm a little confused as to how Miller/Bryan ended though... I asked my mom (before I watched) if they broke up and she said no and I agree that on its face that does not look like a break up. It looks like a fight. If I were Miller or Bryan I would view it as a fight not an ending. BUT. This show doesn't really do relationship arcs, so much as it does relationship plot points here and there and you have to fill in the rest. I think. I guess it's hard to tell given how few relationships there have been, as opposed to hook ups or more informal romances, but that's sort of my feeling. A developing theory. So I guess I mean I wouldn't put it past the show to just act, next time we see one or both of them, like it's obvious they're not together anymore. I hope that's not how it goes down but I'm floating the possibility.

I asked my mom about M/H content too, so I could brace myself, and she said that, had she not known they were together, she would not have guessed based on 4x02. I agree and that makes me happy. The less of that the better. Also...while obviously I know that there's more to a relationship than just kissing or fucking, and that it's a bit silly to say "well I couldn't tell they were a couple because they didn't kiss in this episode..."—that in fact is not what I'm saying. Or what my mom was saying. My point is more that, if a couple has a basis for being a couple, like any sort of compatibility at all, you'll see it all the time, not just when they're on a date or in bed together. But what is the basis for the M/H relationship? There's nothing there to remind you why they're together when they're not...literally together...because it's random!! Because we know nothing of their common likes or interests, nothing of their way of interacting, nothing of what they like about each other, nothing about what makes them compatible—nothing! They're two names drawn out of a hat! Like the moment I thought that Bellarke would kiss even though they're not a couple...that could never happen with M/H because they have no substance! AT ALL! You can think they're cute as much as you fucking like but that doesn't give this story line any weight and I will continue to judge it harshly and bitterly until my contrary heart stops beating.

As to the actual Farm Station story line... the eternal small tragedy of high expectations I guess. I was...underwhelmed but I don't know why. I wanted to like it. I was looking forward to it. And I can't quite pinpoint what didn't do it for me in the narrative. But it seemed a little off.

One possibility is that it just didn't go into the details I most like. I am desperate for more info about the Ark, so if we're going to go to Farm Station, let's fucking go to Farm Station. Let's take a tour. Let's see Monty's bedroom. Let's take the space weed from behind the wall idc. Let's let Bryan and Monty interact even more than they did. Let's reminisce about the past. Realistically and objectively, I know that's not the focus of the show or the episode and I did get several small details of the sort I love and I shouldn't complain. I'm not complaining exactly. I'm just saying this might be a source of my personal disappointment.

Another possibility: the alleged Big Moral Decision of the Week was an easy one. Too easy. I feel a bit weird saying this because I actually came to the opposite conclusion of the majority, and not only did I come down on the Miller + Monty side of the debate (the first and so far only time they have agreed on anything in case anyone was keeping track of the State of their Relationship), but it was an incredibly obvious and easy decision for me morally speaking. Which is sort of a separate problem but I'll get to that in a minute.

However, what I really mean by it was too easy is that the actual conclusion, to save the immediate victims at the expense of later people, was literally the only place the narrative could go. Which meant that the conclusion wasn't a surprise, and the tension leading up to the conclusion was lacking. Bellamy as a character, regardless of what one thinks of the 3a massacre, cannot handle more immediate deaths on his hands, in terms of casual viewer reactions and after all of this consistent narrative shaming. He just can't be seen standing over dead bodies, literally or just-off-screen, right now in the story. So obviously he's going to save the slaves. Also it's only 2 episodes in and there's no way they can come home with the magical mystical life saving machinery this early. It's too easy. Not that one problem can't be solved and then followed by ten more new problems but that's not how this show operates. It piles on the problems, resolves some mid-season, and the rest at the very end. The only moment of actual surprise I felt was when I saw them walk out with the thing, but even then I recognized in about 0.2 seconds that it was a fake out—of the audience and of the Grounders themselves. When the seemingly deep debate is about a non-issue it loses all of its sense of importance and becomes essentially a waste of episode time instead of the center of the episode.

So that being said... I know it's a hard argument to make to say simultaneously that the conclusion of the narrative is obvious and that I came to an equally obvious opposite conclusion. And I also know that something can be obvious and still narratively tense/morally gray/difficult to watch/otherwise captivating (for example: destroying Mt. Weather in 2x16). BUT. I think there is a disconnect between how obvious it was and how obvious it was supposed to be. I think the intention was for it to be a reasonable-people-can-disagree sort of thing. I think it was supposed to cause internal conflict in the viewer and its conclusion was meant to anger at least some of the audience. But that's not how it worked out for me. Perhaps this will sound callous, but I really did not care about the enslaved Sky People. I have no idea who these people are. I don’t even get what they're doing there, like what the purpose of them for Azgeda is. I'm sure they used the word 'slave' not just to be accurate but to immediately bring up certain associations in the viewers' minds; it's a really charged term for good reason. And obviously, intellectually, I know slavery is bad, and Azgeda is bad, and these are Sky People, and Bryan et. al. know them, and that girl is really small and sad looking. But none of this resonated for me emotionally. Maybe I'm dead inside. But it felt an awful lot like being told instead of being shown. I cared about the Mt. Weather people, because I knew some of them well after an entire season and because I'd been mediating on the tragic impossibility of their situation in general for roughly as long. Their deaths were narratively and in-universe inevitable, even heavily foreshadowed, but it still hurt to see. These people? They matter less to me than saving all the characters I already know, people who may have to be sacrificed later in order to protect these Unknowns now. It's no contest. This is obviously very much a question of perspective—Harper made a good point in saying it's like them at Mt. Weather, because Jaha then wanted to do essentially what Miller and Monty wanted to do in 4x02, which is to say sacrifice a few of his own to save the many, and I thought that Jaha was objectively wrong in that instance. (Part of that is that the narrative later proved him wrong: almost all of his merry band of cultists died on the journey to the CoL. But even up front, the idea of sacrificing the main characters is untenable within the story, so he was automatically wrong.) But it's the narrative's job to shape the perspective, and it has a lot of power to make an issue morally gray or clear black and white. I don't think the narrative did its job in this instance.

I'm still not sure I'm doing a good job explaining (or defending) my lack of emotional response here. Basically, I felt like the Farm Station story, like the intro with Ilian, and like the Kabby stuff as well, was paint-by-numbers. It was 'okay let's get this done, one two three, all the bases touched, story complete.' Rote. It didn't have the nuance of the show at its best, like the last episodes of Season 2 or even the Clarke and Jaha convo in this very episode.

I did like the scene where Monty confronts his father's killer, first because of Bryan's line about this being "Monty's kill" because it speaks to how he lived for four months during the S2-S3 hiatus and that interests me, but also because I thought that scene was spot on for how I see Monty. He is ruthless in a lot of ways but he's not a hands-dirty type. He doesn't hesitate in his moral judgments and as far as we know he doesn't have much of any regrets (I've been annoyed at him not reacting enough to Mt. Weather—maybe he really isn't plagued by guilt about it at all—an interesting possibility but one I still think should be on screen a little). He's very sure of himself. But he's barely even held a firearm (like once in S2 and then a little in S3), I'm pretty sure his only one-on-one kill is his own mother...and that's pretty unusual on this show. (Clarke, Bellamy, Jasper, Octavia, Miller, and Harper, and I'm going to have to assume Bryan, have all killed, sometimes with their bare hands, and/or were consistently using firearms going back to S1.) I definitely would have been surprised to see him axe that Ice Nation fellow in the face. But I also would have been shocked to see Monty show him mercy. I thought that the route they went, having him sentence the man to death without ever touching him, was such a good choice, a powerful moment for real without being out of character.

I feel like I haven't said much of anything about Bellamy....again, wonderful. He is such a great leader with these kids. I think he really walks the line between military-style leader and just straight up Dad. (And yes I thought he was adorable with the small child at the end.) It might be more subtle than last episode, but I still think groundwork is being laid for Bellamy to fully come into his own as a leader, to the same extent that Clarke already (BIZARRELY AND PREMATURELY) has, if not more. Basically what I'm saying is Blake for Chancellor 2018.

I have long headcanoned that Farm Station crashed in Pennsylvania. It's cold and snowy enough to be "Ice Nation" territory; close enough to be reached within a day by Rover, as we saw in 3x01 (and here? IDK how long this episode was supposed to cover but it looked like a pretty short period to me); but far enough away that Pike, Hannah, Bryan, et. al. could easily be lost for 3-4 months without running into our heroes in Virginia. I still think this is a plausible theory but man, those mountains do not look passably Pennsylvanian to me. Not that I'm a Pennsylvanian mountain expert. And not that they shot in Pennsylvania honestly. Anyway my headcanon remains.

I thought the moment with Clarke meeting Riley again was really sweet. It somehow helped more than the Bryan stuff at the Station itself to remind me that these are Sky People—not just poor mistreated human beings but poor mistreated friends and neighbors. Also again this is my favorite society so seeing some more unexpected connections among them was cool. I do hope we see Riley again, not because I care about him yet, but because it's annoying to see someone obviously foregrounded as a New Character to Watch only for them to disappear. Like with Mel in season 2. Ruined expectations are really annoying and not to be confused with "being realistic" or "being shocking."

#the 100 #the 100 spoilers #s4 reactions #clarke griffin #raven reyes #thelonious jaha #monty green #jasper jordan #nathan miller #bryan #bryan the 100 #bellamy blake #spoiler alert grounders boring #occasional shit talking even though i liked a lot of it #the year 2017 #2017: fandom thoughts #2017: the 100 s4

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kbrown78 · 6 years

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My Thoughts: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I keep trying to look for a more adult Harry Potter, and I keep getting disappointed. While this book was good, it still wasn't what I expected. That may be in part my fault because I hyped it up in my mind so much. I felt that the story was lacking though and everything expect Nona wasn't given nearly enough development. Nona is taken in and trained by assassin nuns at a convent, which sounded so cool, but there isn't really any training and I wasn't invested in any of the conflict in the book, and there weren't that many.

Characters: I liked the protagonist Nona. She comes from a poor background, and is always an outcast. She knows what it's like to not have anyone in your corner, but instead of being bitter about it that propels her to treasure her friends and protect those that can't protect themselves. When in prison, she refuses to escape without her friend, and at the convent she bonds with the other girls because she proves her abilities and devotion. Also she has a lot of anger directed toward those that abuse their character, but she isn't stupid. She's actually kind of clever and inquisitive, which helps her a few times in the story. She does have her cute moments too, particularly with Sister Apple. So while she is a fighter, she has a very human and emotional side to her which makes her likable. Aside from Nona, there weren't that many side characters that stood out. Abbess Glass is a bit mysterious with a shrouded past, but she won't back down to anyone. Also she's in charge of the convent, but she admits that she uses the prophecy as tool rather than actually believing in it. She could be an interesting character but I just didn't feel attached to her. Sister Apple is the one in charge of poison studies, and her personality fits that very well. She can be very sweet but that helps cover her shady side so it's easy for her to blindside someone and render them useless (or dead). Sister Wheel was the only other teacher that stood out, but not in a good way. She seemed to show no other purpose other than be mean to Nona, which didn't help move the narrative in anyway so she was kind of a waste of space. There's also two of Nona's friend that got some depth. First is Clera, who hates the nobility and views the world as a game that needs to be one by any means necessary. This is important for her narrative and her dynamic with Nona, which I will elaborate on in the Relationships section. Second is Arabella. She comes from a noble family but unlike Clera, she embraces the convent and rarely brings up her own family. At first she comes off as a bit cold and above everything, mostly due to everyone being in awe that she's “the chosen one,” but once Arabella warms up to Nona, they appear to be kind of similar, aside from their backgrounds which is complete opposite. While there are villains, they aren't really nuanced or they aren't present for very long, usually a combination. Basically don't like any of the nobility because they all come off as corrupt. Nona was a great character but the rest very much felt like side characters.

Relationships: So as I emphasized in the previous section, friendship is very important to Nona. Clera is the first one to take in Nona at the convent, and Nona always feels that sense of friendship with her, but others start to point out to Nona that Clera might not feel the same sense of devotion. Even as Nona becomes suspicious of Clera, she doesn't stop treating her as a friend. It turns out that Clera betrays Nona not once, but twice. Despite this, and to Clera's surprise, Nona still won't abandon Clera and believes there is good in her. For a violent assassin, Nona is pretty pure. Arabella is a different story. Nona doesn't like her at first, and she's sure that Arabella doesn't like her. After Nona goes through the Shield Trials (which further cements Hessa and Nona's friendship because Hessa is the only one that will stand up for Nona), Arabella makes it clear that Nona has earned her respect and the two even take their names together. They continue to grow closer and to the point they either one will fight to protect the other. Nona also let's it slip that she has a crush on Arabella and Apple and one the boys at the fighting pits. So hints of romance, but nothing further, and another cute moment of Nona's.

World Building: I get that over doing world building in the first book can really way a book down, but I still like to get a sense of the world, especially in the book that first introduces the world. For the first quarter of the book, I did get a solid sense of the world. There was a guide at the beginning that helped make clear some things, like the four tribes and their “abilities.” There was a certain sense of bleakness in a corrupt world, the main character coming from absolute poverty, and the spreading ice. Then there was the convent and it's different classes and levels, which was explained more in the guide than the actual book. There are also different religions that were briefly discussed, but only enough so that I understood the basic differences between each. After Nona enters the convent though, I don't really have any clear sense of the world, whether it's the history, geography, or politics. It's just kind of there. There are the ship hearts that keep being mentioned, and even once it's explained why they're important, I don't really care because it was just glossed over. For me the world building was way too underdeveloped, to the point where it could be a little confusing at times.

Writing: There's a lot that I want to talk about with the writing. First, there is the shifting time line. There's one in the present and one in the future, but you don't realize it's in the future until Nona and Arabella take the name Cage and Thorn, the names of the two nuns int the future time line. While it was interesting to have that, I don't think it was necessary because I didn't think that there was any big reveal or plot twist, and it didn't really contribute to the story line. I admit I think it's hard to do multiple time lines because they have to connect but each one needs to have an independent narrative with it's own twists and turns, which wasn't the case for this. Second there's the chosen one thing, and I'll admit, I don't really have an issue with the chosen trope. Yes, it's done a lot and I would like some variation, which is weird that I admit that because I didn't like the chosen one narrative in this story. People at first think Nona is the chosen one, and are mad about it, then Arabella shows up and people believe she's the chosen one and are happy because she fits their image of the chosen one. Then Abbess Glass confesses to Nona she doesn't believe there is a chosen one. Then it's revealed that Zole is actually the chosen one. While I didn't think that the chosen one narrative worked for this particular book, maybe overall as a series it will, but there were too many twists with this and for some reason I didn't like the exact words “chosen one” being used. This does work from an analytically stand point because it demonstrates how easy it is to manipulate prophecies and faith, and how fickle people are. I also didn't like that nothing was really done to make use of the chosen one trope, except to make Nona a target for nobles, which was kind of pathetic. I mean she's a child, do you really have nothing better to do. Maybe after Game of Thrones I've lost my taste for grim dark fantasy.

Dislike: I didn't like any of the antagonists because they lacked any depth. I found the world building to be a little lack, and the magic system was really obscure. It was just one of those systems where as long as you have the blood, you can will things into place. Also at the climax, I liked that Clera's betrayal was revealed and it made sense, but during the actual battle with Raymal Tacsis, I didn't feel that the stakes were high at all because I knew how things were going to end, so I wasn't invested in the fight at all. There also points were I felt like Nona wasn't the focus of the story, she was just a blank tool moving the story forward, and I never liked those scenes because Nona was one of my favorite, if not my only favorite, part of the story. I also mentioned at the beginning how this was a disappointment because I thought it would be a more adult Harry Potter. Much like how people use Tolkein's world building, people like the aesthetic of magic school without putting in the actual work and development. In Harry Potter, the classes were important and helped the kids solve numerous problems, and I got a sense of what they were learning. In this the classes were there, and I won't say that they're unimportant, but they don't tie into the narrative as well and I have no idea what they're like. I mean they're a big part of Nona's life right now, but they're just glossed over. Disappointing.

Final Thoughts: This book wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I did love that the majority of characters were female, but most of them I wasn't interested in. I did really like Nona, but as of right now I'm not sure if Nona is enough to carry the story forward so I'm not sure if I'll continue the series. Maybe if I hear that there's more political intrigue and the world and characters get more developed, but for now I have other books that take priority on my TBR pile.

#my thoughts #book review #red sister #mark lawrence

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ciarawilkinsonmedia · 7 years

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Hanna (Wright, US 2011) My thoughts and analysis.

This will be a new feature on my blog to coincide with my Film Language module. For my required film viewing from each week I will comprise a short review, a in depth analysis of a section as well as a general analysis of themes, characters or techniques I find in the film.

Film: Hanna

Director: Joe Wright

Writers: Seth Lochead, David Farr

Producer: Marty Adelstein

Director of Photography: Alwin Külcher

Editor: Paul Tothill

Brief summary: ‘A sixteen-year-old girl who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives’ (Imdbcom, 2017)

Review: When watching films I tend to put them into 3 categories; films I love and instantly fall in love with, films I did not enjoy and then the space in between. Hanna falls into the later, I did enjoy this film but it is a film I am somewhat indifferent to. It doesn't stand out in a way other films do to me. The plot for most part of the film seems unclear to me, the audience lacks a lot of information where it can help build tension it left me spending the film asking a lot of questions. While some of these questions to get resolved a lot is still left unclear at the end of the film.

I really like the cinematography in this film, especially the chase sequence towards the beginning go the film as Hanna escapes the research facility. I love the lighting and the framing and how well edited it is to the music. In terms of technical aspects its easily my favourite part of the film. However I don’t actually like this sequence as part of the film, personally it felt a bit weird and jarring, also it seemed almost unrealistic and briefly took me out of the film.

Overal I did enjoy this film the story and characters were interested and the action scenes where incredibly exciting and well done. However it is a film which I doubt I will remember and doesn't stand out to me as much as other films.

In depth analysis (First 15 minutes):

These where thought and analysis I thought of when watching the film, it will contain strong spoilers for the first 15 minutes of the film.

The quick cuts of her shooting the deer make it more effective. It’s very sudden and jarring after the long panning establishing shots, representing the shock the dear felt. Also most shots till this point were wide however this short sequence closes ups or medium shots. The pace of these shots fasten rapidly with quicker camera movement and cuts. They start to slow down as the dear loses energy before collapsing.

The fight scene mirrors this same technique, longer, wider shots represent a slower, calmer pace. Then as she attacks we are met again with quicker cuts and closer shots adding a sense of urgency. I like the shot that follows after as the camera is panning up and around, moving away from Hanna you see her lying defeated next to the deer. She has now been shown in my interpretation to be weak at times. It could be foreshadowing for later.

The cabin is stark in contrast to the bright white of the snowy scenery. It’s lit more softly, the orange glow representing the fireplace. The homely atmosphere makes it appear safer.

You see a strange and uncertain dynamic between the two characters. The male is referred to as ‘papa’, meaning he is either her father or maybe a father figure in her life and he is assumed to be her caretaker. This seems weird as he attacked her and pull the heavy deer carcus. He scolds her on ‘not being ready’ when he attacked her earlier, so you can assumed he is giving her combat training. Him reading to her portrays a more typical father-daughter dynamic and works in contrast to his earlier actions.

The shots of Hanna looking through the book of fairy-tails and longly looking at the photos of the women, who can be assumed to be her mother due to some physical similarities, make her seem more child like then she has been shown. It begins to create sympathy for her.

The sequence that follows may be some hidden exposition; you see a shot of a women resembling the women in the photograph being to fade as a gun shot is heard it cuts to Hanna still holding the photos. Each shot after cuts to a close up of the photos until it cuts to Hanna shooting at deer antler. This could be a hint to the fate of the women. Either hinting at a past event or foreshadowing future. Meaning she may been killed by Hanna’s ‘Papa’ or maybe even will be killed by Hanna.

This is then followed by what seems to be a montage of Hanna reciting what seems to be fake information about her that she may need to tell someone. This implies that there is information about herself she needs to hide.

The shot of Hanna seeing the plane shows how it off she is from the modern world, it originally seems to scare her as she screams, the running in saying how it sounds beautiful like thunder shows she in unfamiliar with it. All she knows is where she lives, hunting and training.

We then get some idea of Hanna’s purpose and why she is being trained in combat completely cut off from the world. She is shown a device and if she flips the switch then it alerts someone to their location. Once it’s done there is no going back and she won’t stop till one of them is dead.

The story of Laiki could represents this, when Hanna wishes it could be read differently so she doesn’t die it could mirror her feelings and how she may wish her story would change.

The conversation where Hanna’s ‘Papa’ asks her to hunt shows the distance between them, the camera has to shift focus between them showing the distance between them.

The use of music builds up tension as goes to flick the switch with it building up then cutting when she flips it. Then there is a match cut with the audio, the beeping of the device continues as it cuts to a women bedroom but the beeping her alarm.

When Hanna’s ‘Papa’ returns you can see hints that Hanna is scared, especially as she lays her head on his lap almost for comfort.

We then find out that his name is Eric and has links to the US Government and that is hiding from them. We find out that the women in the photograph was being ‘developed’ by him. We are still unsure on how it all directly links to Hanna. The camera panning round the meeting table shows they seem to be going round in circles and can’t stay on track.

We get the instruction from Eric to Hanna as he urgently reminds her of information. When she says she will see him there he looks unsure and says nothing. Meaning he has little faith they will both survive.

General Analysis- Child like innocence.

One thing I was drawn to is how the film approaches and represents innocence and venerability through Hanna. The first shot of the film show her as ruthless and strong, it doesn't portray any innocence and makes her seem older. Yet will then switch to her reading fairy tails and asking her father to change the ending of a story so it has a happy ending. This portrays her as childlike and innocence, the hints of a fear she showed before beginning her mission resting her head on her fathers lap looking for comfort contrasts how she is portrayed in the beginning.

A interesting scene is when he is in the research facility and talking to the women pretending to be Marissa, she burst into tears and holds on to her. She is shown to be scared like a small defenceless child it is then immediately flipped on its head as she kills her and escapes not being afraid to kill anyone who gets in her way. You suddenly begin to wonder if that is all she is, and how true the childlike imagery shown earlier is. It could have been a device by the filmmakers to make this scene more shocking.

Through the film you see more of Hanna’s character, as she sees more of the world she becomes more childlike in ways. Especially her friendship with Sophie, when she first meets her and her family it something like she has never seen. As she travels with them she learns about family and friendship. We are only really reminded of her violent ruthless way when the people hunting her down track her. She leaves her friend begging her not to follow her. She ends up wounding and killing some of her attackers, the look of fear on Sophie’s face when she does follow and sees reminds the audience that this is not normal for a child her age. That Hanna isn't as innocent as she should be.

In the final act of the film you see that shift continually, she is amazed and star struck by the winder of the Grimms house. Being able to hear music and see dancing only to immediately have that taken away and her having to act. Her last conversation with Eric shows both sides of her innocence. You see her upset and angry at Eric for lying to her about her birth and his relationship to her. You see Eric trying to reason with her like a parent would do to a child who can’t understand the situation. As well as these hints to her childlike nature you see her attack him.

The last shot of the film completely mirrors the first with Hanna killing the deer. It brings us back to our first thoughts of her lack of innocence and he look at it again with the development from the film.

To me Hanna is not a clear cut character, as to mirror reality there are no lines for people to fall on either sides. In many ways she is far from innocent, brought up to be a ruthless killing machine she is far from a child. In other she is a child who still has a lot to learn about the world and will rely of others to help her learn her way around the world and fins what path to go down.

References: Imdbcom. (2017). IMDb. Retrieved 30 September, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Hanna, 23:55 15/01/2017, Channel 4, 120 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/05A38F31 (Accessed 25 Sept 2017)

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comiconverse · 7 years

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Game Review: Reigns

Reigns is a simple to play strategy game with hidden depths, available now on PC, Mac, Android and iOS mobile devices. Alan Stock dons his crown and wonders how he’ll die this time, with this review for ComiConverse.

Game Review: Reigns

Turns out, being a king isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I had visions of being a loved and respected leader of my people. I would bring peace and prosperity to my kingdom. I’d slap my naysayers in chains, defend my borders valiantly and enjoy huge feasts next to my beautiful queen, as I nodded sagely to advice from my helpful advisors.

Dead again. Credit: Devolver Digital.

Yet here I am in my death throes, being torn limb from limb by savage dogs; my starving citizens broke into the castle and have ended my reign. And this is only my most recent failure. My son’s assassinated me, the church has burned me at the stake, my general has deposed me, enemy armies have stormed my castle, I’ve been banished with not a penny to my name by the cut-throat merchant’s guild. I’ve been impaled by traps in a secret dungeon, murdered by my queen’s treacherous brother, my kingdom’s been ravaged by plague, and to top it off the Devil himself has my number. And it’ll all happen again, a hundred times over. Welcome to Reigns.

The Church gets angered if you take actions such as taking a lover or researching scientific improvements. Credit: Devolver Digital.

You rule a Middle Ages kingdom and the gameplay is incredibly straightforward. Your advisors and citizens come to you with problems, and you choose to say yes or no to them – on mobile devices by swiping left or right. Just like some certain “dating” apps. Almost every choice in the game is tackled in this way – it’s a simple and elegant control method that keeps things moving quickly.

Your objective is to stay in power as long as possible and juggle the four “pillars” of your kingdom – Religion, Citizens, Military and Wealth. Each decision that you make fills or decreases these bars by different amounts. If one gets full or empties completely, your reign ends – usually in a brutal fashion. Each decision marks a year of your life and if you’re doing really well, you might occasionally live long enough to die of old age, but that’s a rarity. It’s perfectly possible to die just a few years into your current reign if you make the wrong choices.

On each death, you see your progress on a timeline where you can scroll back through all your previous failures. Credit: Devolver Digital.

But not to worry, after death you simply assume control of a new young monarch, carrying on where you last left off but with all the pillars reset. This cycle repeats until the timeline eventually ends. So what’s the point? Well, you have a lot of achievements to aim for. Reigns is presented as a shuffled deck of cards, with each choice reflecting a card randomly being dealt from the pile. After certain pre-set events, or significant choices that you make, you’ll unlock new sets of cards to shuffle into the deck. These contain new advisors and events which affect your kingdom. So over time, plotlines start to develop, shuffled amongst the normal juggling of your kingdom’s pillars.

The game tracks how many cards, advisors and achievements you have unlocked, giving you direction in what you might be missing out on. Credit: Devolver Digital.

An intriguing overarching quest-line also emerges. Your constant reincarnation is the result of a curse from the Devil, but apparently there is a way to beat him – but you’ll have to discover this for yourself. The achievements and quests are cleverly sprinkled through the game giving you a big hook to keep playing. Meanwhile, although you can’t predict the difficult choices that you’ll have to make, you get better at anticipating the consequences of your decisions, able to juggle those pillars for longer. You also get long term bonuses which last over multiple lifespans, for example investing wealth in a barn to protect against starvation. Some events or decisions lock a pillar in place, fill or drain it constantly over time, changing your strategy. Over the course of the timeline, if played right, your power will gradually grow as you get access to these bonuses, and advisors with useful abilities – giving you a better chance of achieving those overarching goals.

Going on ventures such as Crusades (which constantly increases your wealth but lowers your population) can be used strategically to allow you to make choices you can’t usually afford to take. Credit: Devolver Digital.

Reigns has a quirky, amusing style – through its angular, colourful art and sharp writing which often puts a smile on your face. There’s healthy doses of wit and dark humour in your advisors and your unfortunate circumstances. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it still retains a good atmosphere with music and sound effects which keep the dark and medieval ambience.

The game’s initial veneer of simplicity and repetition belies its hidden depths. It’s addictive and because each of your reigns will last no more than perhaps 15 minutes, and usually just a few, it’s perfect for mobile to dip in and out of at your leisure. However I often found myself still sitting an hour after booting it up for a quick go, getting engrossed in its ongoing mysteries. Indeed I’ve been through the whole timeline (which stretches to colonial times) three times now, a trail of hundreds of dead kings in my wake, and I’ve still not seen everything the game has to offer, although I’ve come close to reaching the final goal.

There’s even a form of combat in Reigns, where you make dialogue choices which can be used defensively or to activate special attacks which you learn over time. This becomes important in the labyrinthine dungeon which is vital to the main quest. Credit: Devolver Digital.

Reigns does have a few issues which become more apparent over long play sessions (although the game isn’t really intended to be played that way). The randomness of the cards and events can get frustrating, and often you’ll be thrown situations there’s no way you could have got out of or prepared for. The unpredictability to the consequences to some of your choices can be annoying (until you’ve seen them enough to know the ramifications), but does add spice. The overarching quests and plot-lines can be a little too arcane, sometimes requiring you to make specific choices during events that will only appear every few hundred years.

Some consequences only make themselves known after many years or even generations. Start a war in one reign and you may live to regret it in another – or maybe you sacrifice wealth in another reign to build constructions to aid you in later attempts. The nice thing about the game is that all of your choices feel significant. Credit: Devolver Digital.

But overall Reigns is a great piece of game design and especially something original and different on mobile devices. It’s a showcase of how you can add depth, strategy and layers to a very basic idea with only simple controls, and how randomness can be fun, if there are ways for the player to control and manage it. I may hate the sight of my advisors with their constant problems, and my reign is always doomed to failure, but I keep coming back for more.

The post Game Review: Reigns appeared first on ComiConverse.

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