#but that’s in the second segment of the story.. the same story that i haven’t started LOL | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

5secondsofmoxley · 8 months

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Here it is guys. The bits and pieces of the hook fan fiction I wrote in a note on my phone. Spacing is very weird because of that. Also, I’ve been on tumblr for 7 years and still haven’t learned how to post right so bare with me 😂 The story needs work and hopefully I’ll get to that at some point. Maybe once I learn how to indent on tumblr 😂

He stuck his hand in the bag, grabbing another chip, acting like his attention was on his phone. He couldn’t help but to keep drifting his eyes up across the room.

There she sat, laughing at John Silver filming a bit for BTE. God, she’s gorgeous, he thought to himself. But he could never bring himself to speak to her. And he had plenty of opportunity.

She’s one of the friendliest people there, hell maybe even the friendliest person he’d ever met. She could make a wall talk back to her. It doesn’t help that she’s also super funny. Anytime she walks by him, or anyone for that matter, she always smiles and sometimes says hello. She always says hi to him though. That he knows for sure.

He hadn’t realized he’d been staring at her, until her eyes caught his. His hand froze in the chip bag, not knowing what to do. She made it harder for him when she gave him a small smile and a wave. His cheeks flushed in embarrassment, and he just barely got his hand up in greeting. Managing to give her a smile back, he quickly looked away, wondering how long she’d caught him staring.

“Danhausen thinks you should go over there.” Hook jumped in surprise, looking to his left and finding Danhausen munching on the same chips he had been snacking on.

Furrowing his brows, he titled his head and asked, “how long have you been there?”

Danhausen glanced down at the chips, and back to hook. “Since your third time staring at her. You got two minutes in before she caught you.” Danhausen shoved another chip in his mouth.

Hook quickly snatched the bag away from Danhausen, giving him his infamous glare. He couldn’t stop his cheeks from blushing further. “I was not staring. And don’t touch my chips”

“Danhausen thinks hook’s crushhausen likes him back.” Hook’s head snapped up to his friend in interest.

“Really? You think.” Hook paused for a second. “She’s not my crushhausen. I don’t have a crush on her.”

Danhausen smirked at him. “Sure you don’t. Don’t worry, Danhausen will not tell anyone. Or try to curse her. Maybe she can join hookhausen. The fans seem to love her. She can bring us more of the monies.”

Hook rolled his eyes. “We’re not asking her to join our team.”

“Then maybe she can join Team Taz. Danhausen thinks they could use a femalehausen to dominate the roster.”

Crushing the now empty chip bag in his hand, he looked up to his painted friend. “So maybe I have a crush on her.” He sighed. “Which is why I cannot be on a team with her. I can barely say hi when we pass each other. How I would be around her everyday?”

Danhausen looked at Hook confused. “But you are around her everyday.”

“Not like that. It’s different seeing each other in passing versus actually having to work directly with each other.” He couldn’t help himself but to glance her way again. He was disappointed to find her walking away with the dark order. His heart sped up when he caught her glance over her shoulder at him. He just barely caught the smile on her face as she looked away quickly.

When he heard his friend chuckle, he turned his attention back to Danhausen.

“Oh, you’ve got it bad.” Danhausen laughed.

Hook rolled his eyes, standing up from his seat. “C’mon. We’ve got a segment to get ready for.”

✨shortly later✨

Hood over his head, he bounced on the balls of his feet, punching the air in front of him. He rolled his neck back and forth, trying to get in the zone to head out to the ring. But it was hard for him to focus with his friend going on and on about plans to get hook with his “crushhausen.”

“What if I did curse her?” Danhausen asked, rubbing his hand on his chin.

Hook looked over at his friend, confused at the suggestion. Sighing, he asked, “and why exactly would you curse her?”

“Well, Danhausen wouldn’t fully curse her. Because you would get in the middle and save her. Since I cannot curse you, you would be unaffected and effectively save her. Surely, that’s a good conversation starter.” Danhausen lit up the more he thought about it.

“Aren’t you guys friends?” Hook asked, pulling his earbuds out, fully focusing on his friend.

“Yes.”

Hook stared up at the ceiling for a moment, completely annoyed. “Why would you try to curse her then?”

Danhausen froze for a moment. “Danhausen can figure out an explanation. Maybe I wanted the monies. Or maybe she-“

“Stop.” Hook interrupted. “You’re not cursing her. Or attempting to. And you’re not meddling.”

Danhausen’s face dropped. “But don’t you want to be with her?”

Hook went silent for a moment. Obviously, he thought to himself. But fearing the rejection he was sure he’d get, he figured he’d just settle for admiring her from afar. Before he could reply, a production team member came up to them.

“You guys are on in five. TK needs you at the tunnels.”

Squaring his shoulders, he put his game face on. Finally focusing back on the task at hand, he pushed his crush to the furthest depths of his mind. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t go very far when he and Danhausen ended up passing a certain girl on their way to the tunnels. She was just leaving, having spoken with Tony about her match later on.

Catching his eye, she smiled at him. “Have fun out there guys. The minute the tron showed you guys were up next, the crowd has been going nuts.”

“That’s good for us!” Danhausen exclaimed. “Fans that love us give us more monies.”

She giggled at that, putting a hand over her mouth to try to hold back some of the laughter. “It’s not all about the monies. You gotta have fun too.”

“Fun is good. Monies is better.” Danhausen said.

Her smiled widened at that. “Well, I gotta go talk to Kiera about our match later. I’ll catch you guys later.”

“Bye!” Danhausen said, nudging Hook to get him to speak up.

Hook glared at him before quickly turning back to her. “Later,” he mumbled, turning towards the face tunnel. If he hadn’t turned away so fast, he would’ve caught her blush and smile, before scurrying off.

✨after the show✨

“Everyone is going out after the show.” Hook’s hand froze in his luggage, Danhausen interrupting him from packing his things.

“You’re coming with Danhausen. It will be good team bonding.” Danhausen sat down next to Hook’s bag. Hook watched as his partner proceeded to reach into his bag, stealing from his chip stash. Hook rolled his eyes at that.

“Clearly, we don’t need team bonding if you’re comfortable enough to just reach into my bag. Maybe you should get your own stash.” He zipped up his backpack, then returned to packing up his suitcase.

“Okay, well if you don’t want to go for Danhausen, I know a different reason you’ll want to go.” Danhausen stood up from the bench, walking to the table across the room to grab a water bottle.

Hook’s head snapped up, following Danhausen’s movement. “She’s going?”

“Of course she’s going!” Danhausen explained. “You know better than anyone how outgoing she is.”

“What does that mean?” Hook zipped his suitcase up, putting on on the ground to get closer to his friend.

“Danhausen told you, she likes you.”

“You’re insane.” He rolled his eyes again, turning away from Danhausen to head to the door. Pulling it open, he was stopped in his tracks when he saw who was on the other side of the door.

“Hey,” she smiled at him, glancing down at his suitcase. “Did you wanna stop by the hotel first to drop off your stuff or head straight to the bar?”

Hook stared at her confused, then glanced over his shoulder to his friend. Seeing the look on Danhausen’s face, he knew his partner had something to do with this.

“Danhausen was just telling Hook about going out.” Danhausen walked up behind Hook, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Danhausen invited her to tag along in the car ride. She rode to the arena with Anna, who’s going straight to the hotel with her boyfriendhausen.”

“Do you mind me coming along? If it’s a bother, I can catch a ride with someone else. I know you don’t usually go out with everyone, I was kinda surprised when Danhausen said you were tonight.” Hook could tell she was nervous, as she started fidgeting with the handle of her suitcase.

“Nah, it’s fine.” He ran his hand through his hair before adding in, “Danhausen convinced me we needed team bonding. Didn’t really give me a choice in the matter of going out.” She giggled at that, and his heart skipped a beat at the sound.

“Well, I’m glad he convinced you. Tonight will be fun.” She smiled at him, tilting her head down the hall. “Let’s go!”

✨at the bar✨

How is she doing it? He wondered to himself. How is she having so much fun sober while I’m two drinks in and miserable. God, I need to smoke.

“What are you doing over here by yourself moping?” Danhausen interrupted his thoughts.

Hook sighed, twirling the glass in his hand to hear that satisfying clink of the ice. “I don’t like big groups like this. If the lads were here, it’d be a different story.”

“You know everyone here.”

“Yeah, but not like that. I’m not close with everyone. I keep to myself.”

“You like to party. Danhausen has seen you.”

“Yeah, when I’m with my friends.”

“Danhausen is your friend.”

Hook sighed, chugging the end of his drink. “Yes, you are. That’s about it.”

“She can be too. Put in the effort.”

“What would I even say to her?”

Danhausen turned to look at her, before turning back to his slumping friend. “Well, she just lost her third game of pool. Do you know how to play?”

Hook shrugged his shoulders, giving a slight nod.

“So, go offer her some help. Ask her if she’d like a partner.” Hook glanced her way, catching her pouting at Adam Cole taunting her for her defeat. He couldn’t help but find her pouting completely adorable.

“But-“ Hook started, being interrupted by Danhausen almost immediately.

“No buts. No thinking. Just go over there.” Danhausen pulled him out of his seat and shoved Hook in her direction.

Hook quickly caught his step, before heading over to her while trying to act casual. With all his effort, he couldn’t get his heart to slow down even the slightest bit.

“3-0! Undefeated bay bay!” Adam laughed, putting the pool stick down on the table.

“I told you I suck!” She said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I can’t even play 8 ball on iMessage.” Rolling her eyes, she glanced to her left and was surprised to find Hook approaching.

“Need a hand? I’m pretty good at pool. We could team?” Hook reached back, rubbing his neck anxiously.

She smiled at him, before turning to grin at Adam in victory. “Yeah, why don’t we have a nice game of two v two. You won’t be bragging by the end of that!”

Adam laughed, glancing down at his watch. Before he could say anything, Britt approached him. “Ready to get going? We got an early flight home tomorrow so I can make my appointments.”

“Aw, you’re lucky, Britt’s saving you from having your winning streak ended.”

Adam laughed at that. “Trust me, kid, you’d still lose even with a partner. Rain check for that game.” Adam wrapped his arm around Britt. “Night, guys.”

Hook and her watched as the couple walked away. He felt defeated as he watched his chance with her go out the door, no longer having a need to play pool.

“He was right, ya know.” His eyes snapped in her direction, finding her already looking back at him. “I’m really bad at pool. We would’ve lost.”

“So, maybe it’s good he’s leaving.” Hook leaned past her, grabbing the stick Adam had left on the table.

She tilted her head in confusion. “Are you going to kick my ass in pool now?”

He laughed at that. “No, I’m going to teach you how to play, so we can kick Adam’s ass next time.”

#aew #aew hook #all elite wrestling #send hook #aew hook imagine #aew fanfiction #aew one shot

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veil-over-miitopia · 1 year

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Breaking Down the Main Problems of Neksdor, And How I Would Go Around Fixing Them

Alright; It’s Monday evening. I have Touhou OST playing on one tab, and the Miitopia wiki on the other. Let’s rock.

NEKSDOR, the desert kingdom without a monarchy present and possessing a loose pun for a name. When compared to the more lively neighboring kingdom of Greenhorne, you can tell that the difference between them is like night and day, and, unfortunately, the list of contrasts are not stacking up in the favor of Neksdor-

Before we start with the rant, I wanna state that I get that second stages in Nintendo games usually tend to be much weaker than the first, and that they are almost always desert-themed, but here’s where the problems start to take root; these levels also bring in new mechanics and challenges in order to make them fun and engaging enough for the player, and can you name anything new that Neksdor brought to the table that helps it differentiate itself from Greenhorne? You’re right! Almost nothing!

And, besides, if it isn’t the lack of freshly baked goods, then it’s a whole other slew of issues that are weighing Neksdor’s potential down; the story is half-baked, the area map is bland even for a desert region (you know you’ve messed up when Genshin did better), the NPCs serve little to no purpose, and the inner workings of this supposed kingdom make absolutely no sense. All that, and I still haven’t touched upon the blatant bias against this evidently-Arab based kingdom’s residents. The general opinion the fandom has towards Neksdor is that it is the weakest of the four areas present within Disc 1 of the game, and I couldn’t help but agree.

So how would I, your everyday Nintendo fanbrat with way too much free time on her hands, would fare against a Megacorporation when it comes to writing a fictional desert kingdom? Would I somehow make it feel like the breath of fresh air it deserved to be? Or will I fall into the same orientalist shit-hole Nintendo found themselves in?

I guess there is only one way to find out!

Before we begin, I need to state right off the bat that I am not Egyptian, so, unfortunately, I will be very, very inaccurate on a lot of things. Due to my lack of knowledge on the matter, I will be accepting of any and all constructive criticisms heading my way.

To make this easier for both myself and the readers, I will be slicing this post into a handful of segments. That way, I can detail each individual issue present while also giving ya’ll the freedom to scroll down to the issue that has weighed on your mind as well and see how I would handle it.

Lastly, I would also appreciate it if you guys told me how you would handle the Kingdom of Neksdor if it was in your hands; you know what they say, the more the merrier!

Now, let us begin with the big one;

1. The Problem with its Inspiration

Starting off strong here, aren’t we?

First, we have to look at Greenhorne for a quick moment; it is evidently more European-themed, first off, but you cannot exactly pinpoint the exact country it is supposed to be based on, if any. This is what makes GH more mystical and available to the players; it is ambiguous enough that they are free to make up their own headcanons and inspirations, and even make an original kingdom for themselves. I, myself, have decided that Greenhorne was Greek in origin- not really 100% accurate, but I am happy with how it turned out.

In that case, then what about Neksdor? You see, it really doesn’t take a genius to see that its inspiration is Ancient Egypt- and a very, very stereotypical version of it for that matter. Right off the bat, the criticism starts to construct itself before our very eyes; the lack of ambiguity mixed with the linear and honestly terrible storyline (which I will get to later on) makes the region boring and not open enough for anything to be left to our imagination.

It is rigid, yet also hollow. There’s so much yet so little going on for it as a level, and that is not mentioning how what we are able to see constitutes as a spit on the face of those who notice the blatant orientalism going on. How are we going to ever fix this disaster from the get-go, I wonder?

The answer? Nuke it all. Give Neksdor a fresh start, much like how Greenhorne and Realm of the Fey were created out of nothingness.

Now, in order to recreate Neksdor from scratch, we have to be a little more original; create new customs for it, a more fleshed out ruling system, and even rehashing the environment- all while leaving just enough for the imagination of the player and without abandoning the Arab-esque inspiration for it (this is not, and I repeat, NOT, encouraging the idea of putting every SWANA/MENA country in a blender, mind you; the general idea is to get creative over here, not, ahem, racist). I will be mostly focusing on the environment here, for I will be discussing the other two issues later down the line.

First thing’s first, we can still use the idea of pyramids as a resting place for the dead without exactly referencing the ancient kingdom, as it was also custom in other areas like Ancient Mesopotamia AND Mesoamerica (the more you know). We’ll be keeping this area for now, but the feel of it is subject to change, as Pyramids were usually a place of eternal rest for the deceased royals of old and not some spooky treasure trove full of riches and secrets. This will give this final dungeon a more serious vibe (as if the DL stealing your party members didn’t already do the job), as not only are you saving the living, but you’re also in the company of the long-deceased who wish to end this nightmare once and for all.

We start off our quest to fix a broken level with the furthest side of the map, right next to the Realm of the Fey; you see, most Arab countries had a lot more flora back then, and, even then, forests are no stranger to the modern Arab world; they’re a lot more plentiful than what the media suggests. To state that every Arab country out there has little to no plant-life save for oases is flat-out ignorant. What I am suggesting here is that, instead of a repetition of the sandy route we took when we entered Neksdor, we should have another map that serves as a well-earned good-bye from the desert kingdom; one that is full of greenery and lush trees. Fitting for a border between this level and the next (much like the Arid Frontier in GH), no?

I’d also wager that even the Wetland Bay deserves a bit of polish, because, to me, it appears like some river delta full of minerals that are suitable for farms. With the existence of the caverns below, I’d also imply that this river was much larger and deeper back then before it dried up for whatever reason; leaving behind remnants of the sea life that once thrived there long ago and have been re-awoken from their eternal slumber by the Dark Lord.

These suggested changes would provide more lore in regards to the spirits that exist within Miitopia and more mysticism surrounding Neksdor. We had GH’s internal politics and RotF’s knowledge of the mystical arts, so Neksdor should be the area that provides the most history out of the three. Expanding the map to be on the same level as Greenhorne’s and Realm of the Fey’s was another reason behind these plans.

I am not sure on whether I should replace the hieroglyph enemies or not- mainly because they are tied to a boss redesign I have been considering for quite some time now. Perhaps they could be given a rename and a bigger role in the story tied to said history of Neksdor and Miitopia as a whole, but I am also more than open to suggestions for when it comes to these lil’ buggers.

One last detail that needs to be addressed is the existence of the Minotaur in the caverns. Call me crazy, but this brings the Greek invasion of Egypt to mind, and, honestly, this is quite the stroke of genius on the developers’ part, so I will give them that. Believe it or not, there are Greco-Roman ruins littered across several Arab countries, and my country, Jordan, is almost full of them. In that case, I’ll keep the Minotaur, as it also serves its purpose of expanding upon Neksdor’s history.

2. The NPCs

Ah, shit.

My main gripe with the Neksdor NPCs is a really simple one- an issue that really doesn’t need much explanation, and that is that the majority of them are portrayed as the negative counterparts to the more European-based Greenhornite NPCs. They’re either “darker contrasts”, or just flat-out jerks- even without having to compare them to their nicer counterparts.

Aside from the Dancing Guide (who has her own set of issues), Rambling Old Man and Worried Explorer, the comparisons are as clear as sunlight; the Shady Merchant Father is encouraging his daughter’s bad behavior while the Worried Mother is doing her best to teach her son about politeness, the prickly couple are in need of a divorce- especially when compared to the love-struck Lovey-Dovey Couple, and the Desert Celebrity...honestly, I’ll give her a pass- her sass shines through even in the letters she sends us. She and the worried mayor need to be besties, I swear.

So, this leaves us with five NPCs total; the Dancing Guide, the Shady Salespeople, and the Prickly Pair (prickly....prickly like cacti-? Oh my goodness).

I will begin with the shady merchants- yeah, I do love their father-daughter dynamic, and, if you do look closely, you’ll notice that the father’s rescue animation is that of the Kind personality, which adds in a whole new level of depth to his character. So, if I love these roles so much, then what’s my big problem with them?

You see, it’s not much an issue with them as their own characters, but more of an issue with most stories that feature fictional Arab-esque countries in general; from Aladdin to even Cookie Run’s Yogurca, you are bound to find tropes that coincide with one another, and Miitopia is no stranger to that, alas. One of the tropes that are prevalent in these kinds of stories is, you guessed it, the “shady snake oil merchant”, who only exists to showcase how dangerous this new and strange world is to our “valiant and heroic (and probably white)“ heroes- one where not even the CITIZENS can be trusted, oh woe is us! Yeah...let’s shuck that shit out of the window.

So, without abandoning their eccentricity, shady nature, and familial bond, I’ll instead turn them into magicians or even trickster ironworkers; them being magicians would reflect the royal "clerics” that served the Pharaoh back then and attempted to one-up the prophet Moses’ miracles, and ironworkers would justify the existence of a weapons shop in-universe and why the teammates would bring back bananas instead of what they asked for (they more or less decided to do a little trolling when delivering the goods to the inn).

Despite the trope now being lifted, morality-wise, they’re still not good people; if they’re magicians, then they would boast about their own magic, and they would not be above scamming you if they were ironworkers. These job suggestions are not the best replacements, I’ll have to admit, but they’ll do for now.

Now unto the Prickly Couple- frankly speaking, they just needed more time in the oven. They’ll still bicker like the old couple they are, yes, but maybe a little more depth was what they needed all along. Like, come on, we don’t need another couple in media who do nothing but hate one another without any reason for even staying in the first place- it is fucking exhausting, even without the looming issue of racial stereotypes above us.

To showcase a quick example of what I had in mind, instead of the wife bickering even when her husband’s face was stolen, she’d probably break down mid-argument (i.e her way of trying to “keep things under control”) and get quieter. When the hero speaks to her again, she’ll be silent- save for a soft apology escaping her.

Upon rescuing her husband, she’ll probably be mad- but this time it’s over his safety. He’d be pissed over her still screaming at first, but, as the conversation goes on, the two will calm down. Yes, they have their issues- but what kind of marriage that exists that doesn’t? That doesn’t mean they have to hate each other. After Neksdor is saved, the two will still bicker, but over the more mundane things- with the wife ending the argument with a swift “Your energy will end your life the same way it started our marriage” with a nostalgic smile on her face (I am aromantic and autistic af- so idk if this came off as lovey or not).

Finally, unto the Dancing Guide- again, all she needed was a little more time. After saving her face, we can have her stretch her back and gleefully state how energy-taxing dancing can be, as it is an art form first and foremost. In spite of the pain, she still dances in order to show newcomers the beauty of Neksdor’s rich culture and welcome them to this vast and marvelous kingdom. I’d also rework her clothes a little in order for her to be a little more accurate to the belly dancers of today, and maybe have her visit the travelers’ hub every now and then.

Yes, Nilou from Genshin is one of my favorite characters, how can you tell?

3. The Monarchy- or Lack Thereof

(TW: Punishment directed towards kids, overly-strict parenting, internalized homophobia/transphobia, implications of collectivism and abuse)

This section will be split into two smaller parts; one to fill in the literal power void in Neksdor, and the other existing to flesh out our lil’ asshat Prince that we’re all familiar with.

Man oh man, do I have a lot to say about this one. In stories like these, it isn’t uncommon to see Arab-coded royals to be portrayed as generally incompetent or even malicious, especially when compared to the more Western-based monarchy - often portrayed as the good guys and good judges of character -.

I know, art reflects life, and most monarchies tend not to do jack shit for their countries- but, without the threat of me getting arrested creeping up outta nowhere, it’s the aforementioned comparison that gets to me. Let us be honest here; monarchs in general just fucking suck, not just the middle eastern ones we see on TV and video games. Wanna know why we all celebrated the Queen’s death a while ago? Come on, take a fucking guess, hon.

So to make sure whatever royalty that exists there still has this air of whimsical parody that the GH royal family possessed while also not resorting to orientalist themes, we have to establish the only known member of the royal family sans the prince- the Queen of Neksdor.

Honestly, if we’re gonna go with the route of making these roles contrast with one another, I can see that the queen is actually more competent than the king. The first scene where we meet here, we witness her giving a bunch of guards (those who were supposed to accompany the prince) a tongue lashing- reminding them of the evil threat that is imminent, and that they should be lucky that her son arrived safe and sound.

Not all is fun and games, however- I love girlbosses as much as the person next to me, but what I love even more is character depth. You see, she is quite uptight and is doing her best to make sure her kingdom is well-prepared against the Dark Lord’s fiends, so she is quite strict towards everyone- including her own son. Think Yellow Diamond from SU.

Right off the bat, the similarities between the Queen of Neksdor and the King of Greenhorne become visible; they appear to want nothing but the best for their children, but their methods and attitudes cause nothing but harm for their only known families. The king was more passive and nonchalant towards his daughter’s conflicting emotions of sorrow, nostalgia and even rage, whilst the queen promises to ground her son for making himself out to be an incompetent fool in front of their neighbors AND for unleashing a powerful jinni upon their people. As we chase down the genie, we see that she has locked the prince inside his room until she could cool her jets.

Here, we start to diverge towards the prince’s characterization and his goals. We see that he loves the princess, yes, but he loves his mother moreso and sees her as a guardian figure who is able to rescue him from the Dark Lord. The combined desires to marry the princess and appeasing his mother weighed on him so much that he was willing to take any opportunity to achieve either - or both - of these goals even if said chance (i.e jackass genie) appeared too good to be true. Aside from these two traits, we weren’t given much else...aside from his entitlement and apparent delusion of grandiose, but that is beside the point.

So how are we going to place these two puzzle pieces together in order for us to get the clearer picture? This next section...is going to be a lot heavier than I expected, so if the aforementioned list of TWs are too much, please skip this part and move on to the next or even close this post’s tab. I am a Miitopia fan and aspiring writer, yes, but I also know that not everyone is a-ok with such heavy themes. Just be safe, my fellow simple travelers; your comfort is of higher priority than a simple theory post.

We first dissect the reason as to why he wants this marriage so badly- he might just be attracted to the princess, yes, but he also laments on how is he ever going to explain all this to his mother; implying that he is afraid of her wrath or just generally disappointing her. It is obvious that the prince is not above lying to anyone, whether it is towards us or his supposed-to-be in-laws, but to his mom? He appears to be way too scared to even think about that, as if she is able to see right through his usual deceits or is just afraid of making her sad.

How this ties to my suggested characterization of the queen is a lot more messed up than how I initially planned it to be. The core cause behind the prince’s obsession with marriage is that he is afraid of his mother. He loves her, but he’s also terrified of her- of disappointing her, of lowering his status in her eyes. He is an asshole towards everyone, but, as they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree- and while the queen may not be a liar, per se, her son may have picked up that trait under her care in order to dampen the blow of her anger.

He may only want the perfect wedding in his mother’s eyes, but...does he really want the princess? Is he in love with her as her own person? Or is he just enamored with the idea of a picture-perfect royal marriage?

Once darkness falls upon Neksdor and the queen is out guarding the pyramid with the guards, we’ll finally be able to enter the prince’s room within the royal palace. There, we see that the prince is in a sad, broken state on his bed; not wanting to talk to the traveler and even asking them if they’ve come here to wreck any more of his possessions. No matter how respond, he’s not gonna do much, for he believes he’s already caused enough trouble as is.

As we explore the room, we manage to find a stack of perfectly-sealed wedding invitations, a really old picture of the princess, an image of him and his mother, and...a bunch of old shoujo comics, with the main protagonist being highlighted and the word “me!!” written next to her as she is in a loving embrace with her own beloved prince; I’ll leave the implications of this to the viewer, because it is by selecting this item that we finally warrant an actual reaction from the prince.

As we unlock more dialogue options, he drops several sentences alluding to lingering self-esteem issues and questions about his identity; is he really ready to inherit the throne after his mother? Will he ever escape her eyes? Or will he see them in the masses of his own people? Just before we leave, he parts with us with one of the last keys needed to enter the pyramid and his own apology- on how badly he treated you and your last party -. He then states that he cannot bear his face to anyone- not to the royal family of Greenhorne, and not even to his mom. He wishes for you the best of luck on your adventure as you leave the room, and, once you look back, you see that he’s locked the doors yet again.

After saving the faces all over Neksdor, we are finally able to actually enter the pyramid. There, we meet the queen, who urges us that this is no place to fool around...right before a boss fight get activated, and we show her that we’re more than able to defeat the evil force threatening the kingdom.

Once we have proven ourselves to be hardened warriors capable of smiting the foe awaiting us at the top of the pyramid, she gives us the pass to go further- heck, she even accompanies us as an additional party member much like the fab fairies, with her abilities being those of the Princess (or Vampire, for beautiful foreshadowing) job.

As we venture deeper into the pyramid, the queen explains the relations Neksdor has with both its neighboring nations, and how her royal family is responsible not just for keeping political relations afloat and stable, but also making sure incidents like the Dark Lord’s attack don’t ever occur. She gives us the excuse that she’s only harsh to her prince so he could harden himself and learn that the world is a cruel place-

This is when the hero interrupts her. Yes, there are trials and tribulations awaiting her son, but it’s not all gloom and doom out there. She tries to state that it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, either, but she’s then given this revelation on a silver platter:

If the world really is as horrible as she sees it, then why does she bother? Why the hell is she even trying in the first place? What’s stopping her from giving up?

If nothing but pain and horror awaits for him, then what’s going to help him push forwards? What is helping you, oh Queen of Neksdor?

The story of the prince and his mother not only is a glimpse at the issue of collectivism and family honor that, unfortunately, is still plaguing Arab homes to this day, but it could be a message to both kids and parents alike-

Kiddos, if you are in a restrictive, harmful and unfair environment, please do not be afraid to reach out and call for help- there are people who are more than willing to assist you, and the world is a kinder place than what we would assume.

Parents, even if you mean well, just note that actions speak louder than words, and the gate for an apology is closing with each passing day; your children will only remember how you’ve shattered their ambitions time and time again because you apparently hated them, and how nothing they wanted would ever appease you.

4. The Story is Half-Baked

Before I start, yes, the story present in GH is as tropey as it gets- it is whatever you get from a stock fairytale, that I admit, but, despite the corniness present, it also left us with a lot of open doors- questions that are only up to us to answer. As an example, why was there supposed to be a wedding between the two future monarchs of the two kingdoms? What exactly happened between the royal trio while we went out to get the calming fruit? Why was the CF so necessary to break up the fight?

With Neksdor, on the other hand, what we saw was what we got; a greedy genie and...that is really all. No open questions, no branched out storylines, no nothing. We’ve been dealt with what we got; nothing but sand on a plate and boiling vegetable oil in a wine glass. I am no Gordon Ramsay, mind you, but I think we all deserved a better meal than that.

So, combined with every one of the points above, I guess we can finally redirect our attention and ire towards the big boi himself, the Genie.

The genie is...missed potential. Not just for his characterization, but also the worldbuilding of Miitopia, the species that exist, his relationship with the other spirits that we know of, and how his powers actually work. This time, we will take some real-world inspiration and look at the most primordial form of genies we can get; the jinni.

When thinking about Jinni helping humans out, the story of Prophet Solomon (PBUH) - aka the King Solomon - comes to mind, as he had the ability to speak with animals and jinni, as well as being able to have demons and div under his control. Upon his death, he was still giving off the illusion of him standing up thanks to his staff keeping balance; an illusion that even tricked jinni back then - for they, too, are unaware of “Al-ghaib”/The Unseen -. Once his cane gave in thanks to a small creature, the truth of his death was finally visible to them.

So, where can we head with this knowledge? Perhaps the genie in-game had a sort of connection to the royal family of Neksdor back in the day, and perhaps attempted to deceive said royalty on occasion (not only reflecting the tale of Solomon and the Ifrit, but their general trickster natures as a whole). Ultimately, he might have been a jolly ol’ uncle figure to the ancient Neksdorian family, who also offered the people knowledge of the domain of magic.

I’d also wager that the genie possessed mastery of dark arts that are synonymous with the Dark Lord/Curse, as the cloud he resides on shares a similar color to that of the curse/Darker Lord. In the world of Miitopia, we see elemental, light, and dark magic utilized by a variety of jobs available to us, and the genie is no stranger to them, evidently, as he is able to teleport and use the powers of the wind to his aid in-canon. Jinni are so powerful it is stupid, so one can only imagine the genie at his full potential.

Dark powers coming from creatures who are normally invisible to the human eye...perhaps, the Dark Curse, in their human form, sought out a way to get rid of the face that they so despised- any way, even if it meant seeking out knowledge from the unknown.

Yes, it’s true; people can commune with demons and djinn, but not only is that considered a great form of sin, but even the methods of summoning one are outright blasphemous, as it all indicates that you have abandoned your faith in God and have resorted to disbelief. By ridding themselves of the face they hated so much by using otherworldly arts, they have barred themselves from the gates of Heaven, and were left a withering husk of the mii they once were.

Upon learning that the royal genie was suspected of creating a cursed soul and letting it run loose, he would be condemned by the Great Sage and be eternally trapped within this lamp- just like how he was summoned by using his name, so shall his name be the glue that binds him to this accursed object for all time.

Before we skip to the modern days, I have to mention one of the outing events that we are able to select, as it is crucial for setting up the genie’s goals and justifying his rage towards the kingdom. In the museum, the dialogue exchanged between two party members reveals to us that the artwork depicting the genie being sealed into his lamp was painted over 100 years ago, but the people “didn’t appreciate it at the time”.

The question of the Great Sage’s actual age being placed aside for now, 100 years is enough for the whole world to turn upside-down, and that’s not even thinking about the implication that it must have been even longer, considering how the painting wasn’t appreciated during the time period it was created in.

Imagine being trapped in this tiny artifact for who knows how long, only to be released over a CENTURY later by the descendant of the family who you considered your own- a descendant who doesn’t even know your name. Of course you would be mad- beyond livid, even; not only has history erased your existence in its entirety, but everyone you knew and loved were just...gone. Deader than the autumn leaves he was familiar with that are so full of melancholy.

Just by looking at this little twerp - a parody of the great monarchs he once served -, he knew that this kingdom was not worthy of all the achievements of their predecessors. He laughs - a pathetic attempt at blocking out the surrealism of all that is around him from making him howl from horror and sorrow -, and immediately talks the prince down; telling him that he and the rest of his pathetic kin have no idea of what’s coming for them, and that it is time for him to retrieve what is rightfully his...

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fullscoreshenanigans · 1 year

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WHERE are you reading the light novels ohmigoodness

In addition to sound dramas and links I mentioned in this post, @1000sunnygo has graciously compiled what I believe is the most extensive master list of TPN material in the English-speaking fandom: https://1000sunnygo.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-promised-neverland-masterlist.html

Love the symmetry of these covers.

I already touched on what can be found in A Letter from Norman, and Sunny already outlined what can be found in the fourth one, so I’ll just briefly go over the second and even more briefly touch on the third since I haven’t read it in its entirety yet. (gotta savor the content 👌😩)

☆ The second light novel, Moms’ Song of Remembrance, released in January 2019, is split into two stories:

1. “The Starry Sky and Leslie’s List” (translated by c72684 here)

Isabella remembers helping Leslie with a list of goals he set out to accomplish before leaving Grace Field two days before he’s shipped out. It’s book-ended by segments set on January 15, 2046, where Isabella briefly chats with Phil, reflects on her relationship with Ray, and finds new purpose now that her children have proven she was wrong about escape being impossible.

(It’s roughly 52 pages in Word at 12 point Times New Roman font single spaced if one is wondering about the time commitment.)

2. “Searching for the Skies of Freedom” (translated by @standreamy and 14thNeah; many thanks!) (It’s roughly 64 pages in Word using the aforementioned standard)

This was eventually turned into chapter 181.2 that features Krone during her first month of training to be a sister candidate where she reunites with her elder sister Cecile. The gist of the story is kept the same, however, the novel also:

Confirms sister candidates have the electronic chip surgery the day they arrive at HQ.

Expands upon the training sister candidates go through, specifically incorporating scenes of self-defense training and one on medical training. It’s also noted that cooking is not a priority for sisters during their first regiment of training; that’s only if they retrain to become one of the kitchen staff, which is one path of retraining they can take in the event they can’t secure a sister position at one of the plants. Others are teachers, child caretakers, and doctors/surgeons. (The better to keep them stratified and make it more difficult to fight the system.)

Has more scenes between Krone and Cecile.

Briefly looks into Grandma’s thoughts during the panel where she holds the embroidery with the map of HQ on it as a trophy.

Briefly features the scene in chapter 23/S1e07 where Smee gives Krone the Minerva pen.

☆ The third light novel, Records of Comrades, released in October 2020, is split into a prologue and three stories:

1. “Two Paths”: A story about Yugo and Lucas’ time at Glory Bell. 2. “Two Wills”: The story of Nigel and Gillian’s first few days at Goldy Pond. Nigel’s sister, Lala, and Gillian’s sister, Emilia, who are both briefly shown in chapter 77 are featured in here.

3. “Two Destinies”: The story of how Sonju and Mujika first met. Legravalima, Leuvis, and Yverk also appear in here.

(The document I have is 133 pages in Word at 14 point Verdana font single spaced.)

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mariacallous · 2 months

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A decision by US House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) chair Mike Turner to sound the alarm over space-based Russian military research was far more extraordinary than previously reported.

A WIRED review of an internal messaging system used by the United States Congress shows that HPSCI rarely sends members invites to review classified documents and has not—in at least 15 years—alarmed lawmakers by announcing an “urgent” threat against the United States.

The Dear Colleague system is widely used by congressional committees and lawmakers individually to circulate internal memos, invites, and other announcements. This week, WIRED obtained all messages sent House-wide by HPSCI since 2009. Copies of Dear Colleague messages sent since then are backed up by the system. The source of the messages was granted anonymity because their disclosure was not authorized.

The messages reveal that only on a handful of occasions has HPSCI sent letters informing members of classified documents available for review. Of those, none had previously demanded “urgent” attention.

The urgency with which Turner and other HPSCI members characterized the disclosure—only later revealed to concern Russian military research—has been downplayed by fellow lawmakers and Biden administration officials. As a result, criticism has fallen on Turner over the announcement, which generated a slew of provocative headlines and gave life to vague concerns by US officials over the protection of classified sources and methods.

A Washington Post headline that remains visible to users on Google wildly declares: “U.S. officials say Russia has deployed a nuclear weapon in space.” Covering the story for CNN, national security reporter Jim Sciutto was far more tempered, telling TV viewers: “This is something that Russia is experimenting with, looking into designing. This is not a clear and present danger.”

Democratic representative Seth Moulton, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, lambasted Turner during the same CNN segment, labeling him an “intelligence leaker.” Moulton added that two years had passed since he’d first been briefed on the Russian research. “I haven’t had a problem keeping it a secret,” he said.

WIRED reported on Friday that sources on Capitol Hill had begun accusing Turner and his Democratic counterpart on HPSCI, Jim Himes, of issuing the disclosure to influence a vote happening simultaneously to reauthorize a controversial surveillance program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Turner and Himes, after both signing the “Dear Colleague” message the night before, failed to appear at a Rules Committee hearing on Wednesday just as news of the Russian threat went viral.

House speaker Mike Johnson abruptly canceled the vote shortly after, under what sources describe as intense pressure from Turner.

HSCPI spokesperson Jeff Naft—who did not respond to an inquiry prior to WIRED’s story on Friday—later refuted the allegation, calling the implication of ties between the surveillance vote and the Russian intel “way off base.”

The spokesperson said it was a screenshot of HPSCI’s Dear Colleague letter—posted by reporters online less than a day after it was sent—that forced Turner to issue a press release about the supposed Russian threat.

Turner’s press release notably went further than HPSCI’s letter, pressing US president Joe Biden to personally “declassify all information” concerning the threat. The next day, Turner issued a second statement declaring he’d worked closely “with the Biden administration” before notifying Congress. Naft, the HPSCI spokesperson, clarified by email that Turner had worked with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the language describing the threat contained in the Dear Colleague letter. (Naft stressed Turner had “NEVER” stated he’d cooperated with the White House.)

Turner’s second statement added that HPSCI had voted 23–1 to make the disclosure. According to the committee’s own rules, a vote is not required to bring classified material to the attention of the chairmen and ranking members of other committees; only House-wide alerts require a vote. It is unclear which HPSCI member voted against the disclosure, as no official roll call was taken.

A senior congressional source tells WIRED the Dear Colleague letter was always destined to cause panic. It is widely understood that the letters are not a secure form of communication and are often disclosed to reporters and others working off the Hill.

Only four times in the past decade and a half, according to WIRED’s review of the system, has HPSCI used a Dear Colleague letter to draw attention to classified material—outside of routine budgetary concerns.

The first such message is dated March 2009 and pertains to two classified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports. The subject of the reports is undeclared. A second letter was issued by HPSCI and signed by former congressperson Devin Nunes on January 10, 2017, informing members of a classified report on “Russian activities and intentions in the recent US election.”

Neither letter is marked urgent.

A third letter informing members about the option to review classified material is dated February 24, 2010; however, it makes clear the material was made available at the request of the intelligence community (IC). It is one of numerous letters in which HPSCI is seen lobbying on the spy agencies’ behalf—in this case, to support a renewal of the 9/11-era USA PATRIOT Act, today defunct due to a lack of support in Congress.

A plurality of HPSCI’s Dear Colleague letters are aimed at whipping support for bills that reauthorize or advance US spy powers. Others urge lawmakers to vote against legislation that would enhance Americans’ privacy protections. One such letter reads simply: “Don’t Handcuff the FBI and Intelligence Community.”

Six other letters are invitations to classified briefings held by intelligence agencies. HPSCI routinely acts as a mediator between the agencies and members of Congress, arranging briefings and other events on the intelligence community’s behalf.

HPSCI sent an additional three Dear Colleagues letters the morning after its “urgent” warning about Russia went out: Each asked members to support various amendments to a FISA bill during an upcoming vote that HPSCI’s chair was, simultaneously, working to get called off.

Sources told WIRED that Johnson’s decision to delay the vote on FISA came amid a sudden threat by Turner to kill the bill the moment it got to the floor. Turner was motivated to stop the bill’s progress at any cost, they said, due to the growing odds of a rival committee passing amendments of their own—to dramatically curtail the FBI’s domestic surveillance abilities.

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huntersapprentice · 1 year

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GROWLS

hi, so uhm, yeah, here’s the VeggieTales episode tier list I said I would do

putting my thoughts under the read more if y’all wanna read that

So like I did with my Silly Song tier list, I’m going to go in order of bottom to top. I’ll try to be a little more organized about it this time.

Yellow-green is, as the image says, just episodes I haven’t seen in full or at all. I will say though, I want to see The League of Incredible Vegetables really badly. Also Celery Night Fever. I’ve heard that episodes pretty good.

NOW! Let’s go on to what I have seen.

YELLOW:

So these are the episodes that I went like “Oh these were okay... whatever” and then barely ever touched them again. Yes, the second movie’s on there, and I saw it once. It was alright, I liked bits of it, but it didn't stick with me enough. That’s also how I feel about Merry Larry a bit. I gladly took the Bob and Mr. Lunt dynamic in this episode, but I wouldn’t go back and see the entire thing again just for it.

With Moe and the Big Exit, it was just kinda iffy to me. Fine on first watch, but I don’t entirely feel like revisiting it again. Duke and the Great Pie War just didn’t grip me all that much, but the part where Otis gets shot from a slingshot was really funny.

Fennel Frontier and Big River Rescue I did watch more than once, but then not much. Mr. Spork(Bob’s character in Fennel Frontier) gulping down an entire half of a sandwich like it was nothing was kinda the highlight for me. I think out of the rest of the group, I revisit Gideon: Tuba Warrior a bit more, but not by all that much.

YELLOW ORANGE:

OKAY, the more or less general enjoyment category! Some of them I don’t revisit all that often, but I like them more and am more willing to go back and watch them again. So I only just watched It’s a Meaning Life, and this was only a day after watching the original It’s a Wonderful Life, so maybe I’m biased in the way that this episode was an immediate pallet cleanser from that. It was a pretty cute episode, plus it introduced sexyman Larry.

I haven’t revisited the End of Silliness? as a full, but everything about the ending scene just stuck with me since the first time I saw it. I liked Penniless Princess a bit more than I expected to, which was also the same deal with Pistachio; which I extra appreciate for having Bob go from not really understanding the Countertop redesign until he sees Qwerty and starts crying. I felt that.

Sheerluck Holmes was fun, especially the “Call On Us“ reprise. I love that part. Dave and the Giant Pickle I don’t revisit often, but again, a single musical number in it is what grips me the most in it: I really fucking love “Big Things, Too.“ The Little House That Stood honestly got this placement just because of Good Egg of Gooseville. (assuming that’s what the segment’s called) Whole episode is alright, but Bob is Humpty Dumpty, who’s literally cracking from work stress. Plus, he and Junior(as Baby Bear) hug near the end of the segment and it’s really sweet. Also, it reminded me of the Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater episode of Mother Goose, so that’s really cool.

I like Josh and the Big Wall. It’s really cool, but I don’t watch it often. It’s a very once-in-a-while episode that I’d need to have some overwhelming reason to watch. I’m not super attached to Lyle the Kindly Viking, but I like it. It’s cute to watch Archibald try real hard to make a fancy and sophisticated episode. They do both a Hamlet spoof about the last eggs in the kingdom and a story about vikings in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. It’s just a fun episode.

Speaking of fun, here’s a fun fact: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie was the first home media thing I owned of VT. I saw it in bits before on youtube, but yeah. Jonah’s cool. I like that the ending of the movie itself is just the gang going “The main character didn’t learn anything! What kinda story is that?“ and then Mr. Lunt has to go and tell them “The point is that you learned from the fact that he didn’t learn, dumbass. Learn media literacy“ and then they have one last big musical number for the fuck of it. Oh yeah, and there’s also a celebrity guest song for the credits which oddly enough gives me a lot of nostalgia for the credits of the first Spongebob movie. Actually this whole movie always kinda reminds me of Spongebob Squarepants Movie for really no reason other than there’s nonhumans going somewhere at the behest of a higher figure and there’s the ocean at some point. They’re both the first movies of their respective series. Oh yeah, and the characters being snagged away and almost getting killed once they get to said destination. Cool stuff.

LarryBoy and the Bad Apple has the Bad Apple. Oh yeah, Bob also stomps on the ground in a fit of annoyance and then stands there in shame for the next minute while Larry and Archibald talk about the lesson, which has to be up there in the top most huntercore things he’s ever done. I enjoy watching Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen from time to time. It’s definitely different from the usual VT style, aside from this episode being the first time that a unique character was created to be main character for the episode (out of Penniless Princess, Saint Nick, and Beauty and the Beet, as some examples). I think it’s a nice change of tone, especially since The Rumor Weed was kind of the same way.

The Toy that Saved Christmas is also another once in a while watch. Mr. Nezzer is up to some business schemes again by basically selling weaponry to children. A toy with a buzz-saw. I’m assuming it’s meant to be commentary on the thing of “violent toys” being sold to children, but in a vacuum, it’s funny that Mr. Nezzer’s just selling buzz-saws in dolls just to make the toy look cool and no one calls him out on this aspect at all. “I can excuse a safety hazard, but I draw the line at promoting rampant consumerism”. This episode is also just fun, especially seeing it tailored with the VT Christmas Spectacular bit. Mr. Nezzer also tries to kill Bob, Junior, and Larry indirectly again for being meddling kids.

Finally, here’s Where’s God When I’m Scared, first episode of the show. It’s good. I’m partial to “Tales of the Crisper,“ but I also enjoy the Daniel retelling. Favorite thing in it though has to be the “God is Bigger than the Bogeyman“ number, if mainly for the first half of the first half of the song. Yes, mainly because of Bob. Small factoid, because my first proper exposure to this series was through “x being that and so for y minutes” compilations on youtube, the “what are you gonna do?“ clip has been burned into my subconscious, so I’m a bit more attached to the number because of that.

ORANGE:

King George and the Ducky is good. Being the episode after the Rumor Weed and Esther, it’s back to the good ol’ countertop in this one. So Larry’s the king, The World is His, and he really wants a kid’s rubber duck. To get it from him, he sends him to the Pie War, hoping it maybe gets rid of him so that he can have the duck to himself. Oh yeah, Jimmy and Jerry are hosts... for like eight minutes before Bob tells them off for being bad at it. This and Madame Blueberry are episodes I’ll just put on casually to have in the background.

Madame Blueberry is also pretty good for being in my radius of “episodes I’m a little more partial to". I did go and seek out Madame Bovary at my college’s library because of it, just to see how much (aside from time setting) they changed from the book. The answer is a lot. So yeah, it’s a good episode to just lounge through. Now for A Snoodle’s Tale. So this the first episode animated by a different animation group. Having thought on it for a bit now, I think DKP’s model style for VeggieTales is just really cute, especially B-- Also, I just love the Snoodle creatures.

The Ballad of Little Joe has the jailhouse reprise of “Oh Little Joe“ and “Belly Button“, so that automatically puts it high on the tier list. And the countertop banter. Always love the countertop banter. Larry’s “a WESTERN, BAHB“ and Bob’s “yahoo“ have to be up there on a list of favorite things the VT characters have ever uttered. LARRYBOY AND THE RUMOR WEED is really great and cool. “I’m the Rumor Weed“ is one of my favorite songs from the series. I don’t watch it often, but when I do, I remember that they literally let Larry get the shit beaten out of him. OH I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THIS. Larry being so legitimately relieved to see that he didn’t die from plummeting into the ground, and fucking Alfred just goes “Yes, isn’t it lovely? :3“ Also on the top tier for one of my favorite interactions in this show.

Finally, it’s Are You My Neighbor? time. So I’m kinda in a similar place with this one like I am with Where’s God When I’m Scared, as in I’m way more partial to the original story content than I am in the bible retelling bit. I do like the parable bit, but I just like the story of Junior getting whisked away by two spacemen (Bob and Larry) so he can help them save an entire ship of people from a meteor made of popcorn a lot more. So this is Jimmy and Jerry’s introduction episode, and in the end, they end up saving the day because Junior figures their hungry asses could probably eat the incoming meteor. They did. They dance and have a musical number, and that’s how Junior learns that you shouldn’t be dismissive of someone just because they’re different than you. The set-up of the episode was that Junior didn’t feel like inviting a kid to his birthday party. Just thought I should mention that.

RED:

LET’S GO, RED ZONE!

So starting off the “episodes that drive Hunter nuts” category, here’s God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! I know people rag on this episode for... everything about the visuals, but being entirely honest; the weird animation is kinda why I like this episode so much. Aside from that, this episode is just so different from the entire catalogue in a way I can’t really put my finger on. This episode doesn’t even have a Silly Song in it. Not even as a creative choice like how the LarryBoy episodes don’t have them(aside from League of Incredible Vegetables), but because the creators didn’t think anyone actually expected more after the first one. So the feeling could be chalked up to “duh, this is the second episode after all, so they were kinda experimenting with this one.“

There are so many face close-ups in this one, and I mean A LOT. Pa gets up in the audience’s face twice while addressing an entirely different person... for dramatic effect I guess. Bob gets up in the audience’s to ask a fucking math question. Junior’s dad has one. Junior has three close-up shots; again, dramatic effect I think. Scallion 1 has one during his attempt to scam people. In the Gilligan’s Island spoof, Bob and Larry get one as they scream in terror because their boat is about to crash into a fucking rock. Bob then has another on for dramatic effect. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the first story is based on The Grapes of Wrath, by which I mean only based on the title, because I’m pretty sure the book isn’t about two old people and their two kids bullying a random five year old for no reason other than they don’t know its a bad thing to do that until said five year old’s dad intervenes and tells them to stop.

Then there’s the Gilligan’s Island spoof where Larry accidentally crashes the boat that he and Bob were just navigating out to who knows where with Archibald, Lovey(Archibald’s wife), and Junior’s dad. He daydreams about saving whales, but then the boat crashes into the rock, and everyone’s mad at Larry for it. Bob tells him off in the moment while they’re in their hammocks. Larry takes this as Bob and the others not liking him anymore and that they’d be better off without him, so he flees during the night. The day after, everyone else realizes that they shouldn’t have reacted that way to Larry and then seek him out to apologize to him. They do that and then they reconcile. A palm tree comes out and sings about forgiveness. Junior’s dad comes out with an entire helicopter made of bamboo, and the gang all make it back home. Long story short, I think God Wants Me to Forgive Them is pretty cool.

I’ll try to be a little more concise with this next one, but I’m not making any promises when I get to The Star of Christmas. I really like Larryboy and the Fib from Outer Space. The first LarryBoy episode and it’s about Junior lying about breaking his dad’s plate because a little alien freak creature encouraged him to. Larry almost gets eaten in this one, by the alien freak creature, who grew really big because of Junior’s fibbing. The scene where Alfred is trying to solve who can stop is also another scene that’s been etched into my mind.

*cracks my knuckles*

Okay, it’s British time. So starting off with An Easter Carol; It’s an alright episode, plot-wise. It’s a Christmas Carol, but about Easter, and the main conflict centers around our Ebenezer Scrooge, played by Mr. Nezzer, who wants to build an Easter theme park over the local church because he wants to appease his grandma’s wish about the true meaning of Easter. It also has a heist B-plot where the two motherfuckers from the prior installment of this British AU try to steal the plans for the theme park so that Ebenezer doesn’t tear down the church. There’s a super long monologue song about his plans, a super short one about his grandma(as a vision) chewing him out for completely misunderstanding what she meant, then another normal-sized one where an angel sings about Jesus and his resurrection. There’s also a big explosion climax near the end. It rains plastic eggs from said explosion.

I think this sits in the same camp as GWMTFT where I don’t really mind the story much as I’m just paying attention to literally everything else. Oh yeah, this was the last episode done in-house by Big Idea’s animation department. I know what you might be asking: if I’m not that into the story, why is it ranked so high? BECAUSE ITS LIKE GWMTFT IN THE WAY THAT EVERYTHING ELSE IS CHAOS. Animation-wise and visually, this episode looks really good, but I love the expression work in this episode. I love that the heist subplot is even a thing because it’s probably the most seemingly unnecessary thing to have added to this Easter version of A Christmas Carol, except its not (to me). There’s no reason there needed to be a factory explosion, except to add salt on the wound to the consequences of Ebenezer’s actions, I suppose. But I’m so glad the factory explosion exists anyway. Also I just really love the semi-song the grandma does to chew out Ebenezer. I really enjoy high energy music. Also Cavis(Bob) says “y...your eggs“ as it’s raining eggs and it’s inexplicably the funniest thing in the movie to me. Love this episode.

But there’s one I love more.

THAT’S RIGHT FUCKERS, STAR OF CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!! So I don’t know how obvious it is that Cavis Appythart is my favorite character Bob has done ever. He literally steals from an artifact from the local church and tries to lie to the face of his show partner that its not stealing. Then he’s accidentally complicit in burning down the theatre that Ebenezer Nezzer let him and Millward(Larry) use to put on the Mario play. Oh yeah, this is meant to be a Gilbert and Sullivan spoof too. So Cavis really really wants to make a play that will “teach London to love” because the city is a mess. Millward just goes along with it because yeah. Pa’s character, Seymour, is contracted to just stick light-bulbs all over the place. He also has a sick rocket car. I should mention that the general British AU story is set in the late 19th century. Cavis tries to get the Prince of England to come to the show but he doesn’t want to after learning that the church is presenting an artifact he’s really interested in, which was kind Cavis’s fault for revealing to Archibald’s character, a journalist. So then after getting refused, he gets the bright idea to go steal the artifact to put it in his show. This leads to wacky hijinks, arson, and then Cavis and Millward are arrested.

They meet an old guy in jail who chews Cavis out for trying to spectacle London into not being so mean anymore. Through this, he ends up realizing that love is about what you do for others and so on. The the two are then let out by the Reverend and his son, but they sacrificed the Christmas pageant in order to do it because... they walked the whole way over. All is not lost though, because Seymour shows up in his sick car and then lends it to Millward so they get rocketed all the way to the church. They do the pageant and everything’s la-di-da from there, except for Ebenezer finding out about the church and making Millward and Cavis work in the egg factory to pay off the debt (SET UP!!!). Anyhways, they thought the stole the star artifact at first, but it turns out they stole an entirely different thing, so now everything’s la-di-da. But then Cavis remembers the guy in jail who set him straight, and decides to go give him some cookies and a hot liquid I couldn’t identify. The episode then ends. So yeah, there’s a reason why I call this the sister episode to King George and the Ducky. Guys who acted selfishly in some way or another get told off by an old man for what they did, and then commit an act of giving to make up to it to the person they wronged. It’s Bob and Larry’s trans wrongs episodes, if I may put it that way. The trans part has nothing to do with anything, I just like putting it that way.

So my Bob bias plays big part in why I’m so attached to this episode. I think he should get to be a piece of shit at the risk of falling hard on his face due to his own folly more often, which I guess happens in the VTShow more often but whatever. Also, I love the background music of this episode and I wish that there was a way I could just have it on its own. The only place it really plays is in the credits and the menu screens. The background music in VT in general is so good sometimes. Uhm. Yeah. Cavis Appythart babygirl moments. I like this episode.

WOOW. That’s the end of it. Congrats for making it down here! Here’s a cookie 🍪 And thanks for reading this

#veggietales #so erhm. I started this in late october I think. the writing part I mean #it's not that it took me two months to write about my thoughts on episodes of a children's show #I just kept procrastinating on it in between weeks #you know how it is

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saaraofthesand · 1 year

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My Thoughts on The Sun and The Star.

I’ve organized my thoughts into some lists. Enjoy.

I polled my followers and they said they wanted this so you can’t get mad at me.

I must first emphasize that at 20 years old, I’m hardly this book’s target audience. I am fully aware of that.

Second, this book is fine. It’s not bad, it’s not insulting to queer people, but it’s also not the most interesting work of fiction I’ve ever read.

Third, I never finished the Trials of Apollo. I don’t think it hugely affected my reading experience with this one as I’d read all 10 of the other books and could use context clues for anything I didn’t know about. But I thought I should mention it.

Fourth, a lot of my problems with this book have also been present in all of Rick Riordan’s books post-pjo. So, these aren’t new.

Fifth, I went into this book with basically zero expectations. I’m not active in the pjo fandom (this is an anime blog), so I wasn’t seeing the book hyped up or anything. Before this, I’d basically only talked about it with my family and friends. I also don’t really read pjo fanfics. I have because I’ve gotten curious before, but I haven’t read enough to know about general fanon interpretations of characters.

Okay,

Nico has been my favorite PJO character since I was a kid (yes I grew up gay with abandonment issues shut up), so I was excited for this book.

The queerness is well done. There isn’t any “othering” of Nico, Will, or their relationship due to their queerness.

We got Italian! Nico moments, which I’ve been wanting more of since forever, so I’m happy about that. They did an okay job rounding out Will’s character. And Nico and Will’s relationship got a lot of good exposition (even if I felt that they were unrealistically mature about it). Nico’s experiences with homophobia felt very real.

Okay, now on to my critics:

Without a doubt my biggest criticism of this book is that it is very clearly fanservice. It doesn’t exist because it has a story to tell. It exists because fans wanted more Nico and Will content.

I didn’t like that the book was written from third person. I had this same critic of the Heroes of Olympus books. Rick Riordan’s strength has always been first person POVs, starting with the original PJO series. I feel like the funny chapter names, the breaking of the fourth wall, the sidebars, etc. are the reason that Rick’s prose stands out. A first person perspective is the reason the books are as funny as they are. And this book lacked that spark.

The choice to write from third person is part of what contributes to the fanfiction-esque writing style of this book. As someone who both reads and writes fanfiction, I can tell you that almost all fanfics are written from third person. This is because, for the most part, the characters you’re writing are not your own. First person is way too intimate a POV for that type of writing, and it’s why most fanfic authors don’t use it. That’s what I feel like is happening here. Oshiro is writing characters that aren’t theirs, and that means they can’t bring the intimacy of a first person POV or even a more intimate third person POV.

The book is also very on the nose with its themes and ideas. Generally, this is fine in this type of literature. This is a piece of middle-grade fiction. The target audience is middle schoolers. But also, middle schoolers can pick up on subtext. They’re young, not illiterate. There was far too much telling when they were already showing.

A good example is the title of the book. It’s very clear that “The Sun” is Will and “The Star” is Nico. I assumed that before I even opened the book. That imagery is incredibly obvious, so the authors don’t need to state it in the text. But… they do. Bob refers to Will and Nico as “My sun and star.” It was one of the moments in the book that really made me cringe.

The book has major pacing issues and is too long. I felt like it was going on forever. There were full scenes and segments that I think could’ve been cut without affecting the plot.

This book really put on display that even though Will and Nico work as boyfriends, they don’t work as partners. This contrasts Percy and Annabeth, who do work really well together since they were partners first. But Nico and Will are so bad at working together that their quest dynamic isn’t fun.

Generally, I don’t love the characterization in this book.

Nico and Will are supposed to be on this dark, dangerous quest. One so horrible no one would ever want to undertake it. It’s the House of Hades (Nyx’s Version). Except it really isn’t. It felt like they wanted to make it more psychological than the previous books, but they also weren’t totally willing to commit to everything that would entail.

Despite all the fluff in the book, it takes itself just a little too seriously. Nico and Will are 15-16. I feel like they could have had more fun with it while still tackling darker themes. Again, I know Riordan is capable of this because *gestures at the original PJO books*

Nico and Will have this weirdly mature outlook on their relationship that doesn’t fit their ages.

We don’t get PJO-esque jokes until 80% of the way through the book (yes, I kept track). There’s the “Travel Brochure” joke and the “Saturday Sundae” joke during the Nyx confrontation. Both of which invoked the feeling of reading the original Percy Jackson books. I got really excited.

Immediately after those jokes this became one of the cringiest books I’ve ever read. And I do not care to elaborate on that because I’m just happy that the book is over at this point.

Lastly, I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I read it, so now, you have to too. “‘Will, he said it has to be both of us,’ said Nico. Will hesitated at first, but an epiphany dawned in him, and his eyes went wide. ‘Together,’ he said.” After reading this, I immediately recoiled in disgust and went “UGH!” And there are multiple lines like this in the book. Absolutely horrible -7563/10. Rick, never allow another sentence like that into one of your books again. This isn’t YA. You can’t be throwing lines like that at me out of nowhere.

In conclusion:

I’ve seen people saying the criticisms of this book are the result of homophobia and… y’all no they aren’t. Most of the people I’ve seen criticizing the book are queer, including me! I’m tired of this idea that queer people just have to appreciate whatever representation they’re given without having any criticisms about it because at least it’s something. No! If Nico and Will were a straight couple, I’d still have the exact same critics of this book. I’m gay and it’s my godgiven right to dislike books that focus on gay people if the stories aren’t good.

Something that I do think is sad here is that Oshiro’s name is now on this substandard book forever. They’re a new author, and they don’t deserve that. Rick Riordan will be fine if this book isn’t received well, but Oshiro is less likely to be. That upsets me deeply as a queer writer myself. That sucks. I hate that. Go check out their books instead of this one tbh.

#okay you can yell at me now #the sun and the star #pjo #criticism #sarah reads

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dragonprincequotesimadeup · 1 year

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Question and answers from the Offical Q&A's in The Dragon Prince Discord Server: Series Questions

Q: "How many seasons are there going to be of the dragon prince? It is a really good story.”

AE: The Dragon Prince saga = seven seasons!

Q: “I wanted to know if this season of the dragon prince was more like ground work to set up other seasons?”

JR: Season 4 does pull forward many of the plotlines and questions from the first three seasons, but it also lays new ground that Seasons 5, 6, and 7 are being built upon. After the Battle of the Storm Spire, the world of Xadia has had some large changes! Humans and elves are having more contact with one another, in some cases even living in the same city or getting married. That doesn’t wipe out all those years of war and mistrust, so there is much to unpack for our gang, as well as Xadia at large. Book Four: Earth is about both playing out where we were headed as well as pointing the story in new directions for the future.

AE: Season 4 = Earth = “ground work” haha

Q: "Why calling the Season "Mystery of Aavaros" instead of "Where is Aavaros?" or - will we see a lot more of him in he next season? Biggest disappointment of the whole season, that the most interesting character had not even 5 minutes of screen time (and you know, the fans want him!). Especially after advertising so much with him."

SJ: “Mystery of Aaravos” isn’t the name of Season 4! Instead, it’s the name of the larger story we’ll be telling over the course of Seasons 4, 5, 6, and 7. This means two things: One, you’ll continue to see the “Mystery of Aaravos” logo and subtitle used for future seasons. And, two, you definitely haven’t seen the last of Aaravos. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to not only properly discover what exactly is so mysterious about the Midnight Star, but also enjoy a lot more screen time with your favorite Startouch elf. (With that said: Can we all just agree those five minutes were absolutely murderous? His verbal smackdown, heretofore known as the Aara-roast, was just [claudia emoji].)

Q: "Love the new season but now i can’t wait [for] it to continue. Is Season 5 in [the] works already?”

SJ: We’re so glad to hear that you enjoyed Season 4 of The Dragon Prince! (And, like you, we can’t wait to dig deeper into the “Mystery of Aaravos” and for you to see how that story unravels.) To answer your question, though: Yes! Seasons 5 is currently in development—as are Seasons 6 and 7. We’ve been working on this set of seasons for some time now, which means the gap between Season 4 and Season 5 will be much shorter than the gap between Season 3 and Season 4. In fact, we’re looking to release Season 5 later next year!

Q: "Honest question, which of the writers had the obsession with fart jokes this season, and why was an entire scene dedicated to Terry’s farts intercut with the scene of Viren having a panic attack? Many viewers including myself felt those jokes were in rather poor taste, especially with previous statements of the series supposedly being more mature in terms of tone and story elements”

AE: So, first, I will offer a learning, and then an explanation. First, the learning: I think we went too far with fart jokes this season! To be clear, we have done jokes like this in the past, but Episode 402 (“Fallen Stars”) had too many too close. I think that threw a segment of our audience and made them feel the show was too young. In retrospect, I would have gotten rid of some and toned some down. But, second, an explanation: The exchanges between Claudia and Terry in front of Viren were sort of MEANT to be awkward and cringe. Claudia is trying to show off her new boyfriend, and how great their relationship is—and she's excitedly sharing lots of inside jokes with her dad because of how proud she is, also because she's just happy to have him back. Like the fact that they call their high fives a “high four-and-a-half,” and then asks: “Isn’t that hilarious?” "The petrichor exchange was supposed to be an example of Claudia oversharing, so it was supposed to be wildly inappropriate, which it was, and make Viren uncomfortable, which is did. But, explanation aside, our goal was never to make our fans uncomfortable. I think we missed the mark in this case because obviously there's been a strong reaction. So, lesson learned. We're keeping an eye on things for future seasons and will pull back anywhere we think goes too far again.

Q: "will the following seasons have a more mature tone? while s4 definitely had its dark moments the overall tone of the season didn't feel any more mature than before, and arguably quite the opposite more often than not (many moments which i personally think should've been handled more seriously ended up with jokes inbetween). i wonder if this will be the case for the remaining seasons or if there will be a "full commitment" to darker stuff at some point. like maybe by the end of the series?"

AE: We see now how, for some people, some of this season’s jokes may seem to contradict the more mature tone of the story, and we own that. But the truth is there is always going to be a balance. The show will go deeper and darker with each new season, but there will always be humor as well. Certainly, we don’t want that humor to step on or overshadow emotional moments, and we are as mindful of that as we can be (and will be even more mindful moving forward)… but sometimes Soren, being Soren, is going to say something silly during a deep moment and that’s just who he is! In addition to tackling more serious subjects, that’s also what The Dragon Prince is. And that playfulness isn’t going to change or go away, no matter how high the stakes may get.

Q: "the lack of subtitles for amaya’s sign language is intentional? i know gren does the interpretation most of the time, but there are several scenes (especially during seasons 2-3) in which amaya is alone. it’s a way to make a statement about the general public not knowing sign language?"

SJ: We wanted all of Amaya’s scenes to feel very intimate, but also authentic for the audience who may or may not know ASL, so we made an intentional choice to not subtitle her lines unless a translator (like Gren) was present.

#the dragon prince #tdp #dragon prince

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starshine-hockey-girl · 2 years

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I would love Teddy and Tyler and #14. Also, I loved the new Bliss and Lex story. It showed such a playful side of them. Something we needed after the drama with Chad.

Here you go....

youtube

Monday, November 18, 2018

Teddy stretched and took a break from her work. She walked in and paused to smell the bouquet of flowers Tyler had sent that morning. She re-read the card again “Road trips are no fun anymore. I miss my Pretty One.” She smiled and sent him a selfie with the caption, “I miss my Sweet One. See you Wednesday night.”

She then pulled up the video her father had sent. It was Tyler doing a “What’s in the box” segment with Paul Bissonette. She laughed as Tyler nervously laughed and wiggled around in anticipation of what would be in the box. At one point in the video, they reset the box and Bissonette filled the time with chatter. “You look great, by the way. Any girlfriend?” he asked. Tyler responded, “No”. Teddy blinked and swallowed hard. “We’ll throw your instagram and twitter handles underneath” Bissonette added as Tyler’s instagram and twitter handles appeared on the screen. The video then continued but Teddy didn’t hear a word of it.

“Any girlfriend?” with the swift reply of “No” resounded in her head. She looked at the video paused on Tyler’s smiling face.

“No girlfriend?” she said to herself again, “No girlfriend?” In three days, Tyler’s family would fly in from Toronto. She would meet them for the first time before they came over to her parent’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. “No fucking girlfriend?” she fumed.

As if sensing his name being taken in vain, Tyler initiated a Facetime call with Teddy.

Tyler: Pretty One!!

Teddy: Pretty One, my ass

Tyler: What’s wrong?

Teddy: Nothing- just watching your segment of “What’s in the Box?” with Biz. It’s very informative

Tyler: Informative? How is it informative? You know that a big wuss when it comes to animals

Teddy: No, I just found that you don’t have a girlfriend. Silly me for thinking that you do.

Tyler: What?

Teddy: Did you or did you not tell Biz in this segment that you didn’t have a girlfriend when he asked you?

Tyler: Yes. No. I don't know.

Tyler struggled to remember the segment. It was a blur to him now. Did Biz ask him about a girlfriend? Then it came back to him. He asked when they were setting up the second item. He had said no.

Tyler: Pretty One

Teddy: Yes or No, Tyler?

Tyler: Yes, I said it but that was months ago.

Teddy: It was after we fucked

Tyler: I know- I remember it well.

Teddy: You had said “I love you” already. Granted it was mid-fuck but still you said it.

Tyler: I know. I filmed the segment months ago, Teddy. I wouldn’t answer the question the same today.

Teddy: How would you answer it now?

Tyler: I would say “Haven’t you been following my instagram? I have the most beautiful girlfriend on the planet. She is gorgeous and smart. Quite frankly, I am not sure what she is doing with a schlub like me.”

Teddy: It hurt my feelings to hear what you said and it made me mad.

Tyler: I could tell. I am sorry that your fei gs were hurt. Are you still mad?

Teddy: Not with you being sweet like that

Tyler: Seriously, I don’t know why I answered his question like that. Maybe I was too afraid?

Teddy: Afraid of what?

Tyler: Afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep you.

Teddy: Well, look at you - keeping me

Tyler: Have I? Kept you?

Teddy: Not getting rid of me anytime soon, Sweet One.

Tyler: Good, I never want to lose you.

Teddy: Can you say the words?

Tyler: Who do I want?

Teddy: Me and only me

Tyler: Why do I want you Teddy?

Teddy: Because you love me

Tyler: Yes, because I love you. You and only you

Teddy: I am your girlfriend, right?

Tyler: You are my everything, Pretty One.

Teddy: I love you, Tyler

Tyler: We’re good now?

Teddy: Yes, we are.

Tyler: Whew, you had me sweating there.

#magical mystery ride

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leandra-winchester · 2 years

Text

So, I’ve started writing a new fic, but this time Buddie is only going to be the background ship. The main ship is Ana/Taylor, actually, and I’m quite excited to write this as I haven’t written any femslash in aaaages.

Here’s a teaser:

~*~

“Hi Taylor,” Ana said, putting on a smile to keep the conversation casual at first. “It’s Ana.”

There was a pause. Then, “Ana Flores?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Now that’s a surprise,” Taylor replied, a faintest trace of a chuckle in her voice, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Ana hesitated for a second, pressing her eyes shut as her other hand went to rub over her temples. “Um… I was just scrolling through my contacts and saw your name. So I thought why not call and say ‘hello’ and ask how you’ve been.”

It wasn’t something Ana usually would have done. Maybe with an old friend, but her and Taylor’s only connection had been through their respective boyfriends. They had gotten along well the two or three times they met, but Ana was usually friendly with a lot of people, easily and swiftly.

Taylor, on the other end of the line, however, didn’t seem put off. “I’ve been great. Working hard lately. There’s a new segment for a current affairs broadcast that I’m in charge of. It’s less live reporting and more investigative journalism. So… dream come true, pretty much. How about you?”

“Uh, oh well, same old,” Ana answered a little awkwardly, “I’m still vice principal at the same school. Working up to eventually climb the ladder.”

“Hey, that’s great. I remember you told me the current principal was going to retire in a few years?”

“Yeah, he’s still got two years left,” Ana replied, although talking about her job really wasn’t what was on the forefront of her mind. She had to change the topic and ease her way into what she actually called about. “So I’m doing great. I’m enjoying the single life.” It was another white lie, but justifiable in the context. “How about you? You and Buck still going strong?”

There was an unmistakable snort on the other end of the line. “Yeah. No. We broke up about half a year ago,” Taylor said, and Ana breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God.”

“What was that?”

“Uh, I mean…” She felt sheepish and quite nervous, but there was no way around it now. “Listen,” she started as she got up from her couch and started pacing her living room, “I didn’t really call you just to catch up. I… um… I saw something earlier.”

“Oh? You mean like a news story?”

Ana had to chuckle at that. “Um, no. Well, news to me, in any case, and maybe to you, too?”

“Okay?” Taylor said slowly, sounding intrigued.

“Dios, I don’t know how to say this,” Ana sighed and heard another faint chuckle from Taylor.

“Just spill the beans. It can’t be that bad.”

Ana stood still, taking one, two deep breaths, and decided to finally rip the bandaid off. “I saw Eddie and Buck today. They… were kissing.”

#my fanfic #buddie #taylor kelly #ana flores #what would their ship name be?#tana?#taylorana #911

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my-current-obsession · 1 year

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I recently decided to give Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly a try. As I generally do when I get into something, I binged it. Now I’m about halfway through overall (as in I’ve seen roughly 50% of EVERYTHING - scenes and short stories in general, and endings). Here are a few misc. thoughts. Beware spoilers if you haven’t played or finished the game yourself!

Despite technically being an otome, this game is definitely a plot first, romance second title. To the point that on a first run the game is on rails towards what it calls the “best ending” and your choices actually DON’T matter, apart from a one-off choice that leads to an immediate bad ending. Kagiha’s ending MIGHT be an exception - according to a guide it SHOULD be possible immediately, but every other ending requires seeing a DIFFERENT ending that you can’t get until AFTER getting the “best ending” So at minimum for most routes you have to have seen at least two plot-related endings first.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing and I DO really like the actual story and how everything comes together. That said the actual “romance” routes are INCREDIBLY short which is a tad disappointing. If you include the short stories locked to each character (which are necessary for getting their endings) they’re probably like 2 hours long max. That’s not a ton of time to develop the relationship between the guy and MC and resolve it happily. The game mostly gets by on having every guy (except maybe Hikage, who is an outlier for several reasons) established in the story as having feelings for Ai/Beniyuri, which at least makes the potential for a relationship obvious. I still would have liked more buildup for each relationship though.

Something neat this game has done though is separating some of the characters into two distinct “routes” based on their fantasy mansion versions and reality after the good ending. There is a tragic Yamato ending and a very sweet and happy Takuya ending, and it definitely seems that same distinction will be made for Karasuba/Aki and Monshiro/Kazuya.

For most of the game I was not a big fan of Karasuba (for two main reasons - one, he is WAY too flirty/forward, and two he is just kind of an asshole), but he has grown on me a little thanks to the ending and “real world” segments. I appreciate that he was trying to get Ai to face the past and move on... although his reason for doing so wasn’t exactly heroic. Not sure how to describe it beyond saying it’s the opposite of the “cool motive, still murder” meme. What he was actually doing/saying was RIGHT and it is healthier for Ai to confront her trauma and move on, but he was only so insistent on it because she was using her lingering feelings for Natsuki as a shield to keep from acknowledging him (or any other potential romantic partner).

The way he and Yamato/Takuya represented two exactly different sides of the issue - one saying to face it and move on, the other just as stuck in the past and steeped in guilt as Ai - was done really well IMO. I haven’t actually seen any romance route other than Yamato/Takuya yet, but at least in his case I really love how they essentially are drawn together because of that shared trauma/inability to move on, and depending on which ending you get either they help lift the other up or outright drag the other down with them. I’m planning on doing Karasuba/Aki next because I want to see how his route expands on his desire to see Ai move forward, presumably in good AND bad ways.

Hikage (and Usagi, who seems to be connected to him) is the only lingering mystery in the story. After The Reveal I like him a little less as a character but I’m WAY more intrigued about his route. I need to know why he is the way he is and what exactly he was trying to accomplish, since the best ending left that a mystery. My only concern is that since his route will ALSO have an entirely separate plot, he’ll be even more sparse on romance compared to the others. We’ll see.

The shooting minigame is superfluous and only exists to give you an in-game currency to spend on unlocking short stories. IMO they should have made short stories only unlockable after making certain choices and/or seeing specific scenes (which is how some of them unlock anyway...). That would also serve the purpose of making the short stories feel a bit more connected to the story proper instead of existing separately in a nebulous time period during the plot.

Overall I’m really enjoying this game although I maintain that it doesn’t balance plot and romance well. If you want a game that is more about the romance/relationship, probably skip this. If you want a plot-focused game with romance as the secondary goal... play Even if Tempest. Or play Collar x Malice or Taisho x Alice for peak stories with a good balance of romance/plot. If you want more after playing THOSE gems... then I’d recommend this!

#psychedelica of the black butterfly #otome #mco plays

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hopeymchope · 2 years

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any DR characters you would swap deaths?

You mean trade out people who are dead for people who are alive, I assume? Or do you mean, like, trading out how and when characters die with other dead characters? I’m assuming it’s the first one. My answer kind of depends on the day you ask. Sometimes I have less, sometimes I have more.

And on some days, I don’t want to change anything, because I sincerely worry about whether changes will disrupt the larger narrative, the themes — maybe even things I haven’t yet picked up on in the writing. It definitely feels risky to mess with someone else’s story sometimes, but... I know we all have the urge anyway, right?

So. Right now, on May 27, 2022, this is how I’m feeling:

DR1:

The person I’d most like to save is Sakura, but I don’t want to mess up the fourth trial or lose Asahina’s intense actions in that chapter. And I don’t think there’s another character that makes sense in that exact scenario. So I guess I have to leave her where she is, sadly. I also considered trying to save Fujisaki (and subsequently erase the fandom question of whether Chihiro was posthumously misgendered) by swapping some deaths around. Alas, I couldn’t make that work without completely rewriting the surrounding narrative.

I finally landed on this: We trade Kiyotaka for Hagakure. Because: 1) I don’t think Hagakure has ever gotten to shine as brightly or be as fleshed-out as the other survivors. 2) I never cared for the “Kiyondo” thing in DR1 Chapter 3 and would be happy to drop it. 3) I think there’s a lot more to explore about Taka once he is so close with/emotionally invested in a criminal. It’s got to change his entire worldview, and I want to see how that unfolds. As to the “How,” I already mentioned that we drop the “Chiyondo” persona that gets Ishimaru so fixated on Alter Ego. And in turn, we make Hagakure desperately want a piece of that A.I. because he knows he can leverage its predicative algorithms to enhance his fortune-telling and make a crapload more money (or, worst-case scenario, he can just sell the damn A.I. for a big profit). Naturally, this isn’t something that Hifumi would take kindly to.

DR2:

To start, I’ll trade Mahuri for Akane. Will this necessitate Akane being made a part of the Hiyoko/Mahiru/Mikan/Sato friend squad? Probably, but I think that’s acceptable. This does mean that Akane will lose some of her more interesting moments of characterization... but I mean, that kind of thing happens inevitably to the characters who go down early. For the moment, I’m thinking that Mahiru is more likely to lead to fun/interesting interactions than the thinly drawn Akane did.

Give Ibuki's death to Hiyoko (the idea of Mikan purposefully targeting Hiyoko is just more compelling than it being a random act, for obvious reasons.) This also gives a chance to use my idea about giving Hiyoko the “Truth Telling” Despair Disease as a way to try and redeem her a bit... but I guess that’s me getting into more of a rewrite than just a simple death-change.

I know I said (in that post about a theoretical Hiyoko’s redemption) that I’d take the Despair Disease away from Akane because I didn’t see the value in her “coward’s disease.” In retrospect, I should’ve remembered what @jadyjads once said about how those segments speak to her character. I’m on-board with the majority of what she said there. Now, sure, the point is kind of moot if I’ve already killed Akane off, but even with that being the case, I think her fourth and fifth FTEs hit a lot of the same themes home. So I’d want to expand on those slightly to help make up for the loss of her Chapter 3 material.

Second death in Chapter 3? Nekomaru. Just have him be in the hospital in chapter 3 instead of off-screen. Maybe he awakens only near the end of Daily Life and, when he wanders out to explore the island, stumbles right into the club and sees Hiyoko’s hanging. Then it'll be interesting to see Mikan sneak up and take out someone markedly bigger and stronger than her just using the element of surprise. That’ll help obfuscate the fact that she was the culprit a little more. In addition, “Mechamaru” was one of many ways that the game foreshadowed its eventual endgame reveal little too much IMO. So, although we’re losing some elements from the narrative by removing his presence during Chapter 4, we can at least reduce the number of obvious clues in doing so.

This ALSO lets us keep Ibuki around longer, which I think is worthwhile as it gives a chance to better appreciate her surprising depth/intelligence. Furthermore, I always felt that Gundham's choice to kill in Chapter 4 was kinda whitewashed by having it be a character who we hadn't seen much for a while AND was turned into a robot. We need to appreciate the full impact of his decision a little more, y'know? They make it seem like it’s kinda heroic of him and Nekomaru to choose this path, but at the end of the day, Gundham still legit killed somebody; let’s not sugarcoat it overmuch. It’s a gray-shaded act at best. This does mean he’ll have to actually knock Ibuki unconscious rather than just using a switch to power Nidai off, but I think we can easily work with that.

(...I also think that Ibuki and Gundham meeting in the tower room and instantly deciding to have a one-on-one battle is both weirdly in-character for them and also inherently funnier than the Gundham/Mechamaru showdown.)

DRV3:

Obviously, I don’t kill Kaede at the start. In fact, I think I’ll do the inverse. We start the game as the low-self-esteem boy protagonist and HE gets framed and dies, so we’re quickly tossed into Kaede’s perspective on events. We don’t want to lose Kaede’s guilt over attempting to kill the mastermind, exactly... so we have to leave that in and just have Shuichi seemingly cause a different, “accidental” death. He only realizes what happened during the trial itself, so he gradually helps Kaede realize the truth (much like Kaede did for him in the canon version).

Other than the identity/personality of our hero(ine) being different, I think it’s probably good to keep the events largely the same from here. Most of the noteworthy narrative changes will be confined to the FTEs with the characters, I wager. But in the main storyline, it’ll be fun to see Kaede gradually warm to Kaito as he continuously encourages her and brings her and Maki into a workout group, with both of the women eventually accepting that his intentions are legitimately pure. I can see Kaede not just sitting there and watching while Kaito learns how to work the crossbow from Maki — she’s going to get in there and ask questions about what the point is, even if she can’t get a straight answer. And I’m positive that Kaede will be even harsher towards Kokichi than Shuichi was — really taking him to task with how he’s endangering everybody whenever he dicks around and intentionally drags out the trials.

#asks #anon #danganronpa #danganronpa au #dr1 spoilers #dr2 spoilers #drv3 spoilers

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the-anonymous-apocalypse · 1 year

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New Segment: No Context Rants

I haven’t done anything all day. Seriously. I’m off work today and all I’ve done is play a little Minecraft and stare at my novel. I feel so dissapointed but not at myself, odd isn’t it.

Anyway, the novel is currently called Behold the Omega but it doesn’t really fit the plot so I’m entertaining some ideas.

So far i have: The Dead King, Death’s Majesty, and The Dying Prince.

The main pov for the entire thing is very tragic and I love it because lets be honest...no one likes a happy story. The little context that i will say is the pov is dying but they can’t die so it’s weird and all so complicating you should just read the book when it comes out.

It’s supposedly a trilogy (Or that’s the goal) and that is the first book. The next two i’m already work shopping ideas so like book 2 would be something along the lines of:

His Bleeding Soul, Bloodborne, or A Bloody Crown

So far very dark and ominous right? Good that’s what i’m going for.

A Bloody Crown is very relevant to the second book’s pov, but idk i think i can do better. Maybe combining His Bleeding Soul with A Bloody Crown? His Bleeding Crown? Ooooh...okay I like that.

Now the third book is of the 3rd prince (didn’t mention these were all different people did I?). anyways, the 3rd prince is a bit more light so i’m really having a hard time with titles

I have: Sunbeam, Light in the Dark, Sunlight’s Wings

Sunbeam is the nickname that the first two princes call the 3rd prince so i think its really cute and wholesome despite the melancholy and slightly saddening end this book is destined to have. Light in the Dark is weak but it fits and Sunlight’s Wings is sort of relevant but not at the same time and it’s giving me a headache.

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whynotsableye · 1 year

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How I would do Kingdom Hearts 4

Okay so we know I love Kingdom Hearts and we know kingdom hearts isn’t exactly the best video game series as far as quality goes(it’s still like my fave tho idc if they’re bad). But I have a way kingdom hearts 4 would be modern, true to the originals, and also just cool as fuck.

Firstly the story would be told Birth By Sleep style letting you choose between Sora, Riku, and Kairi as your player character. Now this would not end up like BBS were they have the same planets and very similar boss fights no no. We have some planets that all of them go to yes but we also have planets exclusive to each character. I imagine something like Encanto could make a cool world for them to meet up in with a shorter story line and a place they could talk to each other and safely make plans.

Next up is the Modernization section where I would bring in a modified version of the command system from BBS and DDD. Then add a second attack button. Light attack and Heavy attack. Combos now exist between them and new ones in the abilities section for new cool finishers and a more controlled less button mashing feel to the combat(of course you can just the light attack or heavy attack sting combos if you like the old feel.

But having the game made for next gen consoles and not the PSP the worlds and story lines could be so much more expansive than the ones in BBS. We could have treasure planet, Moana, Lilo and Stitch and a bunch of other beloved or less represented Disney worlds.

We could also see some of disneys other-non original IPs but I wouldn’t put in more than a few. Big hero 6 and the Pixar worlds in KH3 shows they’re willing to pull works from studio collars at least. I would love to see worlds for some of the classic summons or Links from the other games.

Wreck it Ralph could be a fun video game world to feel like the Tron segments from 2. Another take on Toy Story. Maybe the incredibles?

Maybe even a fell Final Fantasy World? That would be cool

There’s so much untapped and unexplored in the Disney and Pixar media I would hate for KH4 to just be like Frozen 2 and the other sequels they haven’t done yet in KH. I mean I have nothing against the sequel worlds-some of them would be cool- but I want forgotten or very loved titles. Give me black cauldron, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, or sword in the stone. And give me some newer but still well loved and unseen in kingdom hearts movies like Raya and the last dragon or Zootopia (for all the furries)

Anyway. There’s so much potential. I just don’t want to see it fall down

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utterrandomnesswithlulu · 1 year

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Currently Reading: Eragon, Part Two

Welcome back to part two of our Currently Reading series. We are checking out Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, and it’s April’s Book of the Month. However, I have a sinking suspicion that this will extend into May, but I have no problems with that.

Note from the author: This will have multiple parts, as I am doing this in segments as I read. I’m hoping to do one for every book in the Inheritance series.

If you haven’t read the first part of Currently Reading, please go check that out before continuing. Otherwise, spoilers ahead.

HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS

Previously, we left off with Eragon (our main protagonist) and Garrow (Eragon’s Uncle) speaking with the trader Merlock, who not only informed them that the stone Eragon found in The Spine was hollow, but the likelihood of it being created by magic was high. We also heard the story of King Galbatorix starting his life as a fresh out-of-training Dragon Rider to him, stealing the throne and ruling the Broddring Empire for years from the village’s storyteller, Brom. A story that can get Brom killed.

Eragon returns home that evening and decides to test the stone. He bangs on it with a hammer and produces a sound hollow yet pure, like a bell ringing. As he does this, he realizes that nothing he does damages the stone’s surface. It remains pristine, not even a chip. Nothing dents its sapphire surface, however, the stone seemingly emits a squeak. Brushing the sound off (he thought it was a mouse), he wonders if he was meant to have the stone because of its mysterious and almost magical background. Thinking heavily about this, he decides to go to bed.

The squeaking is back, but this time louder, definitely not a mouse. Groping blindly in the dark, he realizes that the stone is the source of the sound. He attempts to go back to sleep but is awoken a short while later because now the stone to physically moving, rocking back and forth on his shelf. Tired of the misfortune and headaches the stone has brought to him, he gets up with the intention of burying the nuisance of a stone, but before he could do anything, the stone rolls off the shelf and cracks open against the floor. As pieces of stone fall away, Eragon realizes what he’s looking at, that the stone was not in fact a stone, but an egg and now he was staring at something seemingly impossible. A baby dragon.

Not only is this newborn dragon the length of Eragon’s forearm (approximately 20 to 30.5 cm or 7 to 12 in), but it is also the exact same color that the stone was. The dragon starts exploring its surroundings a bit, bumping into furniture and the like. Eragon decides to touch the dragon and receives a shock that stuns him and travels up his arm. Something interesting happens too, not just from the shock he got from touching the dragon, but it felt like something also brushed against his mind. When he recovers from this, a silver shiny oval is now in the palm of his hand. When he touched the dragon for a second time, he doesn’t get shocked and feeds the hungry dragon. After eating, the dragon curls up on Eragon and he has thoughts about becoming a Dragon Rider, but he knows the risk. He could become powerful and even famous, however, he knew that the Empire would track him down to the ends of Alagaësia and even torture and kill his family. He also decides that he’s going to keep the dragon and has to find a way to tell Garrow about it.

The next morning, Eragon wakes early and takes the dragon to the edge of the forest with the intention of re-homing the dragon. Can’t exactly keep a dragon a secret from the people you’re living with now, can you? After making sure the dragon’s secured, fed, and understands that it has to stay put in its new makeshift tent (using a mental connection that he now has…like what?), he returns home to the farm. When he’s able to return to the dragon that evening, he finds that it has stayed in place, and has even managed to hunt for itself (too bad for some birds). Eragon gives the dragon a tour of its new home in the forest, talking the entire time. Like earlier when Eragon told the dragon to remain in the forest, he’s pretty positive that somehow the dragon can understand him. He’s worried about leaving the dragon by itself overnight, only to have that worry mean little when he comes back to see the dragon fine and happy to see him.

In the first week, the dragon nearly doubles in size, and Eragon has to build a new shelter for it. It doesn’t take long for it to even outgrow that. Eragon allows the dragon to roam, knowing that the small wildlife around the tent wouldn’t be enough to sustain it. However, he’s careful to warn the dragon about people who may venture into the forest with the same mental connection as earlier. As the dragon grows and ages, that connection becomes stronger and stronger. Eragon starts to worry that as the dragon becomes larger that the signs of it dwelling in the forest become more and more evident (large claw prints and dung piles being left everywhere, kinda hard to hide). He’s also worried about its growth rate, more specifically when dragons hit certain milestones (like breathing fire) as well as how he’s going to tell Garrow and Roran about the dragon. Eragon ends up in the village and speaks with Brom about dragons and their Riders.

DRAGON TALES

A bit of background on Brom. He moved to Carvahall nearly fifteen years ago and became the local storyteller.

Eragon arrives at Brom’s pretty much unannounced, and unfazed, Brom invites Eragon in. After sitting down, Eragon asks about the significance of the Dragon Riders and their dragons. Brom calls the dragons the “true inhabitants” of Alagaësia, and they were there long before the arrival of the elves. Now Eragon wants to know more about the elves (he’s very curious about the world Brom tells him). Brom is obviously annoyed at Eragon’s constant interruptions, but answers nonetheless, telling Eragon that the elves arrived in Alagaësia in silver boats from their home, Alalëa. Brom tells Eragon that the elves are a powerful race, both magically and physically, and one of the elves that arrived hunted a dragon for sport. Enraged, the dragons began hunting the elves, and a war broke out between the elves and dragons until one day an elf named Eragon found a dragon egg. Our Eragon is named after the founder and the first Dragon Rider. He believed that raising a dragon would foster a friendship and end the war between them. When the dragon became older, his name was Bid’Daum, Eragon and Bid’Daum were able to forge a treaty and effectively end the war. The creation of the Dragon Riders was a way to maintain a peaceful relationship between the two species. However, they were moved to Vroengard and there they grew to be the powerful force that the stories tell about.

Now Eragon is not out of questions. Far from it, in fact. Brom answers various questions about dragons,. Size: they can get pretty massive. Growth: they mature and breathe fire at six months. Age expectancy: they are immortal as long as their Rider doesn’t die, and according to Brom they cannot listen to thoughts (hmm?). After the barrage of questions, Brom starts becoming suspicious. So Eragon skirts around the questions Brom starts asking, such as where did he hear this information (Eragon said he heard it from a trader, but he doesn’t remember his name, convenient). Eragon asks about the Riders next. Apparently, they can live long lives, have muscular bodies and minds, and can develop pointy ears (but not as pointy as a true-born elf, especially if they’re human Riders). Eragon asks about names for dragons, and Brom notes some famous ones, including Saphira. Eragon thanks Brom for his time and leaves in a hurry.

As Eragon is heading home with his cousin, Roran, he finds out that Roran received a job offer from a miller. Eragon is upset to hear that Roran intends to take the job because he wishes to have a stable life before proposing to Katrina, Sloan’s daughter. And obviously, he needs money to do that. While this makes sense to Eragon, he is still not happy about it and thinks that Garrow won’t take it well too.

Eragon confides in the dragon and finds that it’s a good listener. At this time, he decides that the dragon needs a name (can’t keep calling it “the dragon” forever). He lists off the names that Brom gave him, but none of them seems to suit the dragon. Until Eragon realizes that the dragon is a she, and settles on Saphira.

GROWING PAINS

That evening, Roran lets Garrow know his plans on taking the job with the miller. They expect the worse, but Garrow turns that expectation on its head. He lets them know that he’s expected to leave in two weeks. Eragon feels bummed and left out in all of this. He continues to confide in Saphira, and she’s much bigger now, so large in fact, that Eragon can now sit comfortably in a hollow space on her back. In turn, Eragon teaches her new phrases and words, and Saphira teaches him how a dragon typically thinks and behaves. Their relationship continues to grow the more time they spend together.

Eragon finally decides to tell Roran about Saphira the day he’s leaving for his new job. When he reaches his room, though, Roran is packing a stone that was gifted to him by Eragon. However, something stops Roran from packing it up and he puts it back. Eragon now is incredibly unhappy about the change happening in his life and decides against telling Roran about Saphira.

Roran is setting off to the village the next morning. Garrow gives Roran a parting gift, money that he’s been saving for Roran for a day such as this. He also gives Roran and Eragon parting words, basically surmising here: be respectful, honest, but independent as they grow into adults. Words you can live by.

Eragon leaves with Roran to the village, and they meet Dempston, the owner of the mill at Horst’s smithery. Horst pulls Eragon aside to tell him about hooded strangers in Carvahall asking about Eragon’s blue stone. Horst promises Eragon that no one has said anything, but he’s worried that Sloan (you know, the jerk of a butcher that doesn’t like Eragon at all) will say something to the ominous strangers. Horst offers some advice, ditch the stone, but a bit too late since the stone burst into several pieces, becoming a beautiful blue dragon. Of course, Eragon doesn’t tell Horst this but instead says his goodbyes to Roran and heads home. Or so he wants people to think. Eragon ends up doubling back and sneaks over to Sloan’s butcher shop only to see him talking to those strangers he was warned about already. The strangers seem to thank Sloan and head back outside. Eragon attempts to get a better look at these people, only for them to spot him. Frozen by fear, he finds himself powerless as they approach him. Brom saves the day, and the strangers “hiss” at the interruption from Brom and walk away. Brom asks Eragon why he looks sick and Eragon shrugs the question away, but Brom continues to stonewall Eragon. Drilling him about the nonexistent trader that knew so much about the Dragon Riders and dragons, but once again, Eragon avoids the questions. Attempting to make his getaway, Eragon drops his gloves, Brom picks them up for him, but as he hands them to Eragon, Brom grabs his wrist to reveal the silver mark on his palm. Jerking away from Brom, Eragon hurries away while Brom just whistles merrily.

As Eragon hurries home, he mentally connects with Saphira to let her know what’s going on. Unfortunately, she doesn’t take it well at all and I mean not at all. She freaks out massively, and in an attempt to calm her, Eragon climbs onto her back, which seemed like a decent idea at the time. However, Saphira literally launches herself into the air with Eragon clinging to her back. She gains some major altitude and gets so high, in fact, that frost starts accumulating on Eragon. Eragon’s desperate at this point, doing anything to get Saphira’s attention, but she’s hearing none of it. Saphira has effectively shut Eragon out of her mind completely. Instead, Eragon is resigned to holding on for dear life and attempting to not throw up.

Saphira doesn’t stop until nightfall and lands in a small clearing somewhere in the mountains. Eragon’s in rough shape from the unexpected flight. He’s frozen, his muscles are cramped, but that wasn’t the worse of it. The skin from the inside of his thighs had been stripped because of Saphira’s scales. And flying was supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, Saphira is still freaking out because of the “murderers” she calls them and absolutely refuses to take him back. This worries Eragon because Garrow is still at home, and he worries that the strangers might get to Garrow before they can. He has no choice but to go to sleep because Saphira is still adamant about remaining where they are. Saphira, distressed about the events, curls up with Eragon, and allowing the warmth from her to warm Eragon up, she even sweetly covers him with her wing, creating a small blue tent for him.

ERAGON, PART 3

We are now at the tail end of chapter 10 of Eragon. I know, why are we leaving off at a cliffhanger? But that’s seven chapters further than where I left off previously. There’s a lot going on right now.

The dragon now has a name, Saphira, and she grows at an exponential rate. Here are the most unnerving questions that I have as a reader: Who are these strangers asking questions about the stone, and how much do they really know? And from the hiss, are they human, or something else entirely? Brom also knows so much more than he’s letting on, and his nonchalant attitude toward the silver marking on Eragon’s palm seems troubling. And is Garrow safe, especially because Saphira took off so unexpectedly and Eragon literally had no time to warn him.

So, that’s where we are leaving it, for now, there will be a part three. Hopefully, you guys enjoy this part. What do you think so far about Eragon? Obviously, if you’ve read further than chapter ten, please no spoilers.

#christopher paolini #paolini #currently reading #reading #ya fantasy #ya #young adult #novel #series #eragon #part two #part 2

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