thinking about hamilton and burr together but not in a kissing way but in a you are so different on surface but are made of the same core way. they have the same sort of wants and hurt but they project it in such different ways.

Shigaraki’s Family

Shigaraki has to date fought against villains, won, and then taken something from them in his victory. This time however he’s not up against a villain but a bad hero. The lesson Shigaraki is going to learn from Endeavor is exactly as he says: you heroes hurt your own families just to help complete strangers. Family is more important. It’s also what makes him the opposite of Endeavor, Shigaraki always chooses his found family over his own ambitions, whereas Endeavor puts his ambitions to be a hero over his family. MORE UNDER THE CUT.

1. Shigaraki and Endeavor

There is actually a lot of connecting threads between Shigaraki and Endeavor’s characters. They are both characters who are considered inferior replacements to the previous king of both the hero and villain worlds, Shigaraki is called a worthless successor again and everybody prefers All Might to Endeavor. 

They are also characters who both believe they need to become stronger than anyone. Their quirks are partially incompatible with their bodies and they often hurt themselves going overboard using them and because of that they feel weak even when they are strong. Shigaraki in part - chooses to have Ujiko experiment on his body, even if it is an influenced choice. They both try to settle things with power first. 

However even in that they are different: Shigaraki was raised to believe by AFO that he owed AFO, continually made to feel unworthy for everything AFO had given him and had his ambition to be king of villains thrown on his shoulders. Endeavor decided to do those things all on his own from a position of relative financial security and safety within hero society. 

However, the way they treat the people closest to them is completely opposite. The League of VIllains that Shigaraki creates is again and again remarked upon as a place where people are allowed to be themselves. The league is a place of trust and acceptance. It’s remarked several times that the league genuinely trusts one another. 

Consider Shigaraki’s main personality traits, anti-social, awkward, immature. He’s modeled to act like a NEET and an overgrown manchild. He easily could have made no connection at all to the League of Villains. He could have stayed the person he was at the start of the story, someone willing to kill new recruits five minutes after meeting them. He could have even run things like AFO, choosing to either turn his followers into worshippers, or act entirely from the shadows controlling them like a puppeteer. 

My point being - Shigaraki is not the easiest person to get along with, or even understand, and yet he made a deliberate choice to get closer to the league. The league is this way because Shigaraki is this way. The league values people first, because Shigaraki puts people first. It’s who he is at the core of his being. Tenko played with the kids nobody else would play with, stood up to bullies, and wanted to be a hero even when his father told him no. That part of Shigaraki hasn’t changed. 

It’s Shigaraki himself who creates the healthy environment of the league. Somewhere along the way, Shigaraki began to consider them a family. Even if he’s not direct in stating it, or even as outwardly friendly as Twice about it. 

Shigaraki’s definition of family is made clear in his dreams and flashback. Family doesn’t reject you. Shigaraki in making the league his family sets out to do the opposite of what his father did, create a place where the people close to him are accepted for who they are and valued as individuals. They aren’t judged by their quirk, or even their contribution to the team. Giran is saved even after he stops being useful, Spinner’s quirk is so weak he can only cling to walls and yet he’s trusted as one of the top members. 

The way Shigaraki treats his own family - his allies is the exact opposite of Endeavor. He doesn’t try to control who they are, he doesn’t force them, but he does lead and they choose to follow. Even members who insist again and again that they don’t care about the other members of the league, and they’re not in it to help Shigaraki like Dabi are trusted. 

Compare this to Endeavor’s interactions with Hawks, someone who has been in Endeavor’s corner from the beginning and yet someone Endeavor absolutely refuses to trust or even understand a little bit. Shigaraki always gives Dabi free reign, Endeavor snaps at and threatens Hawks several times, getting angry in all of their interactions. 

If the League is somewhere where you are free to choose who you are, Endeavor creates an oppressive environment. Even if he is repentant about his past actions with Shoto, he still takes every oppurtunity he possibly can to mould Shoto into who he wants him to be. 

Even post redemption - Shouto has to be his heir, Shouto has to master his technique. Not only that but if Endeavor suddenly decides he wants to act more like father and son Shouto has to go along with that too. Endeavor’s view of the world is still self-centered. He’s the patriarch,he’s in a position of power, and he uses that to revolve everything around his own desires for other people. 

In Shigaraki’s words, Endeavor rejects who Shoto is.

Endeavor has status, prestige, and connections in the hero world and he uses that to get what he wants: Shoto working alongside him, Shoto learning from him, Shoto allowing him to pass on his technique flash fire. When Shoto is reluctant, Endeavor will put pressure on him, send him multiple messages, contact him when he’s not wanted. When Shoto doesn’t want to play father son with Endeavor, and only wants to apprentice to him in an official capacity Endeavor acts disappointed. 

Endeavor still views Shoto as the one he pours the most attention into because Shoto has the strongest quirk. Endeavor creates an oppressive environment, Shoto is not free, Shoto is not valued as an individual. 

The one good thing Endeavor does is back off with Natsuo and Fuyumi, and allow them to live in a house separate from him even though he personally wants to be with the rest of his family. However, his behavior towards Shoto for the most part hasn’t changed (which is you know the foiling, Endeavor did to Shoto what AFO did to Shigaraki). 

2. Family First

Endeavor’s ambitions will always be more important than his family. We see this in the choices he makes so far his arc. Let’s look at the last thing Endeavor remarked upon before the battle started. 

He regrets that Toya, a child he was responsible for died under his watch. We still don’t know the exact circumstances but considering the parallel with Shigaraki it’s very possible, Endeavor’s ambitions to be a hero were what directly hurt his own son. 

If Endeavor is repetant then family should come first before his ambitions correct: but here are the choices Endeavor makes this arc. 

Remember Endeavor is someone who literally tried to raise a child soldier, by forcing five year old Shoto into aggressive quirk training. He of all people should be sensitive to what exactly is wrong with the Hero Commission’s plans to use children and students as a backup against villains who will be using lethal force in a war zone to try to kill them. 

Not only that but he chooses this action without permission and without consent of the families of the children. Natsuo and Fuyumi have no idea what is happening to Shoto right now. 

In general, the heros choose actions again and again to put the people they should be responsible for into danger. When Midnight is being overwhelmed by villains rather than telling the children she’s supposed to be protecting to retreat from the monster capable of destroying cities she asks them to do something illegal.

Whereas, the league always makes the opposite choice this arc. They choose to protect one another in the tight knit family group. 

The league watches out for each other’s well being. 

Shigaraki’s first order was to bring his family to him. Gigantomachia would have made it to Shigaraki’s side already, if Shigaraki didn’t value the league so much that he protected them first over himself and instructed Gigantomachia to do so as well. 

The heroes right now are choosing again and again to sacrifice not only the individual, but the individuals they are personally responsible and let them go into danger for the sake of a victory. 

The villains are making the opposite choice. Shigaraki is personally responsible for the found family of the league as the leader, and the league’s every choice has always been to protect each other and put the safety of their allies first rather than sacrificing them for a cause. It’s even reflected in Twice’s final choice that leds to his death. He cares more about the league  to the point where he acknowledges he might be thrown out after all of this is over and still chooses to use his last act protecting them anyway. 

While yes, the heroes do make these sacrifices to protect innocent people. Innocent people also get hurt from these same heroes. Hawks was innocent, a disadvantaged child that the hero commission took advantage of. Shoto was innocent, but raising him up as a hero was more important than Shoto’s health and well being as a child. Heroes are supposedly making these sacrifices to protect innocents, and yet innocents still get hurt underneath the hero system that they’re giving everything to protect. 

That’s why the themes of friendship and even family resonate so well with the league of villains because we’ve seen them consistently choose each other over and over again. That is likely what Shigaraki is going to awaken to at the end of his fight with Endeavor, that he’s not doing this for ambition like Endeavor, or AFO, that he really is fighting against the whole world to protect his small family. 

Who is your favorite character - Alex or Yassen? And how do you feel this informs your characterization of one or both of them?

Thanks for this ask Valaks, just the type of meta I like!

I will say Yassen is my favourite hands down because I have a Type and Yassen’s character archetype hits all my guilty pleasures. Even before RR and all the delicious whump, Yassen already felt like a character with layers from what little we saw of him - a stone-cold professional but also one with a sense of humour; someone at the top of his field who also doesn’t particularly like his job or his employers and is just thinking of retirement; a hired killer who is purely, unabashedly in it for the money, no complex motives, no dithering over morals - yet he still had enough humanity to speak of love for a man fourteen years dead who had betrayed him, and have compassion and love for Alex who was thrown into the world of espionage far too young. That “I love you” at the end of Eagle Strike gets me every time ;_;

Then came RR: I really enjoy stories about agency (or lack thereof) and Yassen is a fascinating study of that, so a lot of my fic tends to place him in situations where he’s not entirely in control. Canon-wise, It’s easy to say that RR is the story of how he got whumped into being an assassin against his will and on some level that’s true - but he chose to join Malagosto; maybe at first he wanted to simply learn enough skills to survive, but by the time of his graduation assignment he was ready to kill, and it was only down to chance that he got cold feet at the last second. At the end of RR he consciously chose to become an assassin out of spite - (I have my own thoughts about how much sense that makes), but regardless, by that point I don’t think it’s fair to say that Yassen is purely a victim of circumstances with no agency of his own. By the time the main Alex Rider canon rolls around he’s done many unforgivable, irredeemable things under his own will.

...Having said that, I do still think that even as a fully-fledged Scorpia operative Yassen is still bound in a lot of ways, which is such a delightful contrast for me because of the way his lethality is emphasised. Here we’ve got Yassen, the most dangerous person in the room, capable of killing someone a hundred different ways without even needing a conventional weapon, but when we get a glimpse of his introspection in present-day Stormbreaker when faced with Alex, this is what we see:

“The two of them looked at each other, both of them trapped in different ways, on opposite sides of the glass.”

It’s tragic in a way that hits all my buttons - Yassen sacrifices all his morals, betrays his parents’ memory, turns his back on his own happiness (let’s not forget one of the last times when he felt pure happiness was when he decided not to complete his graduation assignment in New York and he felt like he won a battle against his own darker impulses) - and what does he get in return? A never-ending fight to prove himself the best at a profession he doesn’t even like, a lonely life destined for an premature ending, and all with Scorpia’s watchful, controlling eye in the background.

Oh dear god this reply is getting away from me. Um. I’ll leave the Eagle Strike meta for another day and just say that Yassen’s a character of very sharp contrasts - just look at the sheer range of his characterisations in fic and general fanon - and it’s interesting to poke at that. The aspect of his characterisation that rises to the forefront of each story can be completely different depending on his age, who he’s interacting with, the setting of the story, or even just what I’m in the mood to write. Canon-based AUs are particularly interesting for me just because there’s so much potential for the course of Yassen’s life - and the core of his personality - to shift completely if certain key events had changed; someday I still really want to write that MI6!Yassen fic...

Characterisation-wise I think I tend to focus on the contrast between how Yassen presents himself (controlled and graceful, deadly competence, dubious morals), with some sort of vulnerability below the surface, whether it’s something in the plot/setting (eg his precarious situation in Scorpia - I do adore your headcanon that he’s a tool Scorpia is slowly but surely trying to dispose of while wringing as much use out of him as they can), or an emotional weak spot (Alex).

Speaking of Alex, since this is already way too long, putting discussion of Alex below cut!

Alex, by contrast, I used to not be terribly interested in. Maybe it was because I was very young when I read the books, or maybe because of AH’s own writing which tends to focus more on the action and gadgets and plot than take time exploring the nuances in Alex’s characterisation. Compared to Yassen, Alex has several very strong key traits that tend to stay relatively constant when I write him: leans more to the serious side most of the time rather than pure unbridled chaos; smart mouth that he cannot and will not keep shut especially when some idiot is monologuing at him; independent and resourceful but somewhat impulsive; understimulated by “normal” life ever since Stormbreaker - which leads him into trouble, especially when combined with the fact that I do headcanon Alex as someone with a strong drive to do good and who refuses to turn a blind eye when there’s someone he can help or something he can make right.

Of course, since he’s fourteen, sometimes Alex’s intervention just makes things worse...

It’s only more recently thanks to the lovely writers and meta from the fandom that I started taking more of an interest in Alex - specifically, what happens as Alex gets older? I enjoy coming of age fic with Alex: those times where he suddenly realises he’s no longer a child spy, or the times he realises the moral views he held when he was fourteen are insufficient for navigating the murky world of intelligence - those situations where there’s no clear “bad guy”, or those times when strategic sacrifices need to be made...

I also very much enjoy adult Alex fics - just how does MI6 deal with an agent like Alex? Alex, who has a distrust of authority (MI6 in particular), who’s perfectly willing to disregard all mission parameters if he decides the circumstances call for it, who nevertheless is so effective that Jones makes the decision to keep using him - but will all of that backfire one day?

And what about Alex himself, working in intelligence without a patriotic bone in his body, with the black mark of Scorpia on his record? Alex who’s now an adult with adult coworkers and had hopes for finally fitting into a proper social circle again, only it turns out he still can’t connect with them and is as lonely as he was at fourteen? Alex, who keeps finding himself being compared to John and Ian Rider, the family that he had never really known yet condemned him to this life with no input from Alex himself?

Basically I think there’s bits and pieces of Alex’s characterisation I’m more interested in over others - and the main thing I find interesting about him is the circumstances he’s in: the government-sanctioned abuse and blackmail, the way he grows up a child in an adult’s world. So correspondingly my fic tends to focus on that rather than, say, light-hearted slice of life shenanigans around London or anything to do with Brooklands or family fic, although I’ll gladly read those from other writers! And since Yassen is my favourite over Alex, I think it would be rare indeed that I write an Alex-centric fic where Yassen doesn’t play a role at all.

AU Thursday: Tell Me Where To Find Shelter – Converting Alice's VTMB Stats To Fallout Ones

So! I'm on a kick of combining Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines and Fallout 4 into one universe, for the purposes of shipping my Sole Survivor!Victor with my Malkavian!Alice. And since the story takes place in the Fallout 4 nuclear apocalypse, we have to do a few things to get our Alice properly settled in this verse. One of them? Convert her Bloodlines character sheet into something that can fit with the Fallout 4 system!

Now Fallout as a whole uses the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system to stat up characters – everyone has the seven core attributes of Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, ranked from 1 to 10. How Perks and Skills are handled varies from game to game, but in Fallout 4 we have a Perk "tree" of sorts that is linked to your special stats – each stat has various perks that can be accessed as you level it up, and those perks often have levels of their own (for example, the "Locksmith" perk is available at Perception 4, and it has 4 levels, allowing you to pick harder and harder locks, and eventually stopping your bobby pins from breaking). You earn XP doing various things in the world (completing quests gives the most, but you also earn plenty from just crafting stuff, building things in settlements, finding new locations, being charismatic, and killing enemies) to level up, and at each level up, you earn a "Perk Point," where you can choose a new Perk (so long as you have the appropriate stats), upgrade an existing Perk (again, as long as you meet requirements), or even just boost the seven core raw stats (opening up more Perks).

Bloodlines, on the other hand, uses a variation on the standard World of Darkness TTRPG character sheet, where characters have nine Attributes (the raw power of the character, subdivided into three categories – Physical has Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina; Social has Charisma, Manipulation, and Appearance; and Mental has Perception, Intelligence, Wits) and twelve Abilities (learned skills, also subdivided into three categories – Talents has Brawl, Dodge, Intimidation, and Subterfuge; Skills has Firearms, Melee, Security, Stealth; and Knowledges has Computers, Finance, Investigation, and Scholarship). Attributes are ranked 1 to 5; Abilities 0 to 5. These combine to form Feats, which cover things like how good you are at various kinds of combat, if you're good at sneaking around and lockpicking, if you're good at persuading or seducing people, etc. There's also three Disciplines each clan gets as magical abilities – Malkavians have Auspex (see auras, get bonuses to certain stats), Obfuscate (turn invisible), and Dementation (inflict debilitating mental effects on others). You don't level up, but just earn straight XP for each quest you complete, which is spent on increasing Attributes, Abilities, or Disciplines at increasing costs.

Okay, so how do we bash these together into something that makes sense for Alice? Well, let's start by looking at her Attributes, Abilities, and Feats from Bloodlines. Since she's supposed to have gone through the whole game by the time she meets Victor, we'll use her stats from the end of my playthrough. We'll also use the "raw" stats – that is, not boosted by special items she picked up through the course of the game. That gives us:

Attributes:

Physical: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4

Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 1, Appearance 2

Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Abilities:

Talents: Brawl 3, Dodge 3, Intimidation 1, Subterfuge 0

Skills: Firearms 5, Melee 5, Security 4, Stealth 4

Knowledges: Computers 5, Finance 3, Investigation 2, Scholarship 5

Feats:

Combat: Unarmed 7, Melee 9, Ranged 9, Defense 6

Covert: Lockpicking 8, Sneaking 8, Hacking 8, Inspection 8, Research 9

Public: Haggle 4, Intimidate 5, Persuasion 8, Seduction 2

Soak: Bashing 4, Lethal 0, Aggravated 0

So there's a couple of Attributes that can be immediately slotted into the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system – Strength, Charisma, Perception, and Intelligence appear in both. However, we can't just put in the raw numbers – remember, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats rank from 1 to 10, while WoD Attributes only rank from 1 to 5. In order to get a more accurate picture, we'll need to double Alice's Bloodlines stats in those four categories (so Strength goes from 4 in the Bloodlines stats to 8 in the Fallout 4 ones). As for the stats that don't have an immediate match:

Dexterity covers the same sort of stuff Agility does, so Alice's score in the former can be transferred to the latter

Similarly, Stamina can map onto Endurance

Manipulation is used mainly for the "haggle" feat in Bloodlines – this is probably best covered by the "Cap Collector" perk in Fallout 4, which similarly improves vendor prices

Appearance, like the above, is used for the "seduction" feat in Bloodlines – that's best translated into the "Black Widow/Ladykiller" perk (since Alice is cis-female, "Black Widow" would be used for her)

Wits, to continue the trend, is used for upping defense in combat and the "hacking" feat – seems like it would grant one the "Hacker" perk in response

Luck has no direct counterpart in the Bloodlines Attributes – but given that the Bloodlines Fledgling starts out lucky enough to survive their illegal embrace, and generally ends lucky enough to become a powerful player in Los Angeles vampire politics, or powerful enough to strike out on their own without a faction's help (as Alice did), I think it's safe to assume it's high!

So let's say that, as of her appearance in "Tell Me Where To Find Shelter," Alice's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are:

Strength: 8

Perception: 8

Endurance: 8

Charisma: 6

Intelligence: 8

Agility: 8

Luck: 10

Yes, this is not something you could get in the character creator at the beginning of the game – but this is Alice after the end of Bloodlines, I think we can assume she's leveled up quite a bit! And yes, I'm giving her Luck 10 because – well, let's face it, she survived a LOT of shit and got REALLY powerful REALLY fast. Safe to assume Luck is currently on her side!

So we've got her S.P.E.C.I.A.L. – now, what about Perks? Well, from the Bloodlines Attributes that didn't map onto anything in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. categories, we already have three: "Black Widow" (makes it easier to charm and kill men); "Cap Collector" (makes prices more favorable in buying and selling with vendors); and "Hacker" (allows you to hack terminals). Looking at her Bloodlines Feats seems to be the best way to determine which other Perks she should have, since they're what she knows combined with her raw base power. By category:

Combat: Alice is really good at both melee and ranged (aka gun) combat, with decent unarmed and defense. Making things slightly more difficult, though, is that Fallout 4 has different perks for different kinds of guns. Making things slightly easier is the fact that I played Alice as primarily a melee build – she knows how to use guns, and I certainly made good use of them in certain fights, but she and I both felt more comfortable with a good sledgehammer or sword. Give her "Iron Fist" for her potential as a good unarmed combatant, the strongest version of "Big Leagues" for her ability with a good melee weapon, and "Steady Aim" for her gunplay. "Gunslinger" covers non-automatic pistols, which I believe are the kind I ended up using most often for her; "Rifleman" covers things like rifles and shotguns – and she was using that Dragon's Breath shotgun a LOT in her final boss fights, so pop those on for her too!

Covert: Alice is great at lockpicking, sneaking, hacking, finding things (though admittedly this is artificially bumped due to her being a Malkavian), and looking things up. We've already determined she'd have the "Hacker" trait, so we can now assume she has it at the highest level. She also gets "Locksmith" at the highest level. "Sneak" – well, this is an interesting one, as she's good at it, but she also has the Obfuscate ability, which I used a LOT, so. . . We'll give it to her at Rank 2 for now. "Fortune Finder" and "Scrounger" both feel appropriate as well, as does "Awareness" for figuring out what people are weak to (this overlaps with her ability to see auras using Auspex – think of it as her version of V.A.T.S.!).

Public: Alice is okay at haggling and intimidating, surprisingly good at persuading, and pretty crap at seducing. We've given her "Black Widow" as it's the only perk Appearance was good for that I could see, but we'll keep it at the lowest level as seduction isn't really her style. (She's just pretty enough to distract people!) The same applies to "Cap Collector." Weirdly enough, her base Charisma stat locks her out of stuff like "Intimidation" and "Wasteland Whisperer" – but she's also been staked in a basement for about as long as Victor's been frozen, so probably she needs time to come to grip with the post-apocalyptic world! Rather than any specific Charisma-based perk, she's probably just got a background higher chance of winning speech checks.

Soak: This is an interesting category, because this one primarily relies on the armor you have. However, having good Stamina helps defend against Bashing, which is bullet and blunt melee weapon damage. Alice has a bit of that, so a level or two in "Toughness" seems appropriate.

In addition, I think she should have "Strong Back" (being a video game character with an invisible inventory that allows her to carry a decent amount of stuff; there are some pretty strict limits, though, so I'd only give her level one); "Lifegiver" (vampires and video game characters are both harder to kill than normal humans, and vampires DO auto-mend themselves in the original game); "Night Person" (. . .she's a vampire); and "Aquagirl" (again, vampire – no need to breathe!). So the final stats and perks would be:

Strength: 8 – Perks "Iron Fist" (Rank 1), "Big Leagues" (Rank 5), "Strong Back" (Rank 1), "Steady Aim" (Rank 2)

Perception: 8 – Perks "Rifleman" (Rank 2), "Awareness" (Rank 1), "Locksmith" (Rank 4), "Night Person" (Rank 3)

Endurance: 8 – Perks "Toughness" (Rank 2), "Lifegiver" (Rank 3), "Aquagirl" (Rank 1)

Charisma: 6 – Perks "Cap Collector" (Rank 1), "Black Widow" (Rank 1)

Intelligence: 8 – Perks "Hacker" (Rank 4)

Agility: 8 – Perks "Gunslinger" (Rank 2), "Sneak" (Rank 2)

Luck: 10 – Perks "Fortune Finder" (Rank 3), "Scrounger" (Rank 3)

That just leaves Alice's Discplines, which – being magical effects – are kind of hard to quantify in Fallout 4's soft sci-fi setting. However:

Auspex is pretty much covered by the "Awareness" perk – Alice never leveled it far, and as I stated, seeing the auras of various creatures to determine what they are is not that dissimilar from V.A.T.S.

Obfuscate is the ability to turn invisible to the human eye – Alice mastered this. We can treat this as if Alice always has a Stealth Boy on her, but she has to be above a certain HP threshold to use it, and it gradually drains HP as it’s used.

Dementation is the ability to inflict various hallucinations and delusions on people – Alice was always iffy about this, but got as good as "Vision of Death," which can actually kill a single person from fear. Lesser effects can temporarily distract a person with uncontrollable laughing or crying, or inflict hallucinations on a group that decreases their combat abilities. It also gives you special dialogue options to get people to do what you want, which is the one effect I think I could put into the game. We'd need to code up a special Perk for the other stuff!

And that about does it! How I think my endgame Malkavian!Alice would look under the Fallout 4 stats! Whew, that took longer than I thought. . . (And I still want to go ahead and steal a certain "Bloodsucker" Perk from Fallout 76. . . "Cannibal" just doesn't really fit with Alice's physiology.)

Review Response, Dec 22 - 28, 2019

“28″, but I’ll be including the reviews that came in this morning. Because hey.

And... there are a lot. The most this year.

Legacy Prologue - Kalos

1) That first part DEFINITELY reminded me of the XY chapter, except Y is being the Hikikomori (shut-in) and X is trying to drag her out... It’s a good role-reversal!

I also wanted it to be like the time in XY where Y found out what happened to her mother and she got super depressed. Except this time, X tries to do something about it. Finally.

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Legacy #008

1) LOVED IT!

Thank you!

2) Poor moon. I loved this chapter

Hey, it’s you! <3 Thank you kindly.

3) WoW cool chapter. So blue confessionele next chapter hopefully? Lol have been waiting on that for the entire story so Lets hope its the case

Haven’t we all. ... Except for those that don’t like this pairing...

4) It’s nice to see platinum trying to help blue move things was a good chapter with nice interactions with the juniors and seniors all under the same roof

It’s like a big Dex Holder family! ... But not too big, since there are far too many of them nowadays! And despite Platinum not really wanting to get involved, she helps out anyways, as “foretold” by the Headcanon Chronology!

5) While Moon really should rest, the idea of her getting that Spirit of Vengeance team you posted about on your Tumblr sounds way too awesome. ...Also Umbreon bias since it's my first (and only) shiny, but yeah.

Poor Blue - it really is probably only going to hurt her the longer she keeps it in. Wonder how that is going to play out, since I guess Platinum's now put things in motion. I think the first scene in this chapter is the one I enjoyed the most.

Damn, for Moon's Pokemon to die like that...that's gotta be traumatizing. I have to admire that determination though, even though she's shaping up to be a revenge-obsessed character from what I see.

Awesome chapter as always and can't wait for the next one!

Hehe. Spirit of Vengeance. The amount of curse in that team would be quite terrifying. Hehehe... ... Only shiny, you say? Aww...

Platinum has gotten the ball rolling despite not really wanting to. MVP of the confession? Hehe... Sisterly bonds, indeed. Now, will it work out in favor for Blue??

Moon can’t be filled with a lust for vengeance if none of her friends and Pokemon have perished. And so now she rises from her agony with ice cold determination for blood to be spilled for the blood that had been shed. ... Or does that saying go the other way around? Heh. Regardless. She’s pissed, has a bow, lethal poison, and soon to be a team packed with ghosts (and Dark types).

Thank you as always! And you won’t have to wait long~!

6) Eh lucky really isnt my cup of tea but the way you write stories is pretty awesome keep up the good work!

I could tell by the anon ID you picked. To each their own. And thank you!

7) Awww blue being so shy hahahaha. Its like the roles have reversed since the first time they met thats so cute! Anyway Great story as usual

Hehe. Timid Blue~! It’s new and very cute, isn’t it? And thank you.

8) Hey man Great story looking forward to the next chapter

Thank you. It’s coming very soon.

9) Wow this is A really underrated story I really like how you keep most characters so in character!

Still underrated... in comparison to my previous stuff. But that’s to be expected, I guess. And thank you.

10) Well Colour me surprised ! A Pokemon story thats not forcing crack pairings! Anyway Where is green in this story?

Heh. Crack pairings... Only once in a solar eclipse. And... who? Heh. He’s in Kalos and thus off screen.

11) Wtf did moons Pokemon just die? Great story but damn thats fucking dark

Yes they perished in the fire. “Die, insect” and all. ... And one of them was an insect! Heh. Ahem. ... Dark? That’s not dark. Have you seen the stuff I did in SA and Destiny? Heh...

12) I mean I kinda like the story but isnt specialshipping canon? Also this is really really dark

No, it’s not canon. What is canon is that Yellow has a crush on Red. What’s also canon is that Red is uncomfortable with the idea. And of course he is. He thought she was a guy the whole time and then suddenly found out all at once that she was a girl and had a crush on him. His response is not going to be positive. And again, this is not dark. ... Though I guess that depends on your sensitivity.

13) hey sorry for not leaving A review for so long but I still really like the story lol!

Hey, you’re back. ... Then... who’s the anon with the v2 of your ID?

14) I love your writing style!

Thank you!

15) I somehow found Pearl smacking Black across the face to wake him up funnier than it should’ve been. Haha

I wonder if Blue really will confess to Red today. If so, I wonder how the opportunity would present itself.

Its quite sad that Hau, Lillie, and two of Moon’s Pokemon died. I guess this is where Moon’s overhaul comes in. I cant wait to see Moon’s viciousness unleashed when she inevitably meets the guys responsible for all that.

I look forward to more!

Hehe. Black always getting smacked around in my stories, literally and figuratively.

Will Blue truly confess on that day (which is a day before the stuff in Alola happens), or will she fail again due to anxiety? And will it end well for her??

Moon’s overhaul is happening now, yes. For that, she’ll have to go to Galar too. And I don’t know sh*t about that region, so... that’ll be difficult. Hehe. And much later in the story when she meets her foe... oho, Rage Unleashed Moon!

16) Moon and Lillie sure get burned really bad. Also, what about the kid with the malasadas? Hopefully, Blue will confessed to Red soon...

The local boy with the malasada had the same fate as Lillie. Two stretchers with a body on top, with the white blankets pulled all the way up.

17) I figured that now would be the best time to give a review for one of your works. therefore, I should review my personal favourite.

I been a consistent and long-time reader for numerous years now without ever leaving a review. I simply didn't have an account until recently just so I can give my thoughts on some of the series that you make.

Regarding Legacy as a whole, it truely showcases your ability to take the wide variety of dexholders and thiee different personalities and place them in situations that would absolutely never occur in the actual story. I have always loved the way you portray each individual character, improving thier teama and strategies and having genuine character growth. Although Sun and Moon are my uncontested favourite characters so far, I adore the way you use Platinum B in your stories, giving her a genuine personality and character traits.

You also generate a wide range of different and creative settings for each of the characters to go through. Legacy is the perfect example of this in terms of one truely coherent story setting. by using the opportunity of the highest stakes that these dexholders may ever face, you use the opportunity to explore all of the aspects of each character amazingly and how they would face this danger.

Since Sun and Moon are my favourite characters, the wait for this chapter absolutely killed me. Although it sucks that due to the lack of reviews for these characters I will get few opportunties to read your way of presenting the characters What I am trying to say is that the way you write your characters makes them feel REAL. I genuinely believe that these are the actual characters as they personalties are replicated and refined to perfection The way both Sun and Moon react in this chapter is exactly the way I would have expected them to. Being a Deliveryshipping day 1, seeing even the slightest interactions in any media, especially in your stories always brings joy to me. I have regulary reread most of your works such as Special Chronicals and Distinct Events becuase each story is chapter is amazing in its own right.

Your amazing work has inspired me to possibly start my own project one day. I am sorry for the stress that you have gone through this year and the issues with the Discord. It will get better this year. Seeing as you use reviews to indicate the popularity of a particular series, I had to write this review so that this series can get the update it deserves so that we can all see how this fantastic story ends. Thank your for all of the amazing work you have done.

Whoa, hello. Haven’t gotten a review this long since a certain someone stopped with Destiny reviews back in July.

Accounts aren’t necessary for the reviews. Guest reviews exist! And if you use the same anon ID, I’d know it’s you. But thank you for going through the effort! It’s much appreciated!

Aww, thank you very much! <3 And while I don’t know about Sun, but Moon is going to be in the spotlight quite a lot, so enjoy it! Since Platinum is my uncontested favorite, she gets plenty of development in my stories, with new character bonds, teams, battling style, etc. And unlike in DPPt, she actually gets to do things against the enemy.

Of the three major stories I’ve written (SA, Destiny, Legacy), Legacy has the lowest stakes. But I think it’s also the most personal, which I guess means it’s much more important for individual Dex Holders. Well, we’ll see as time passes. And yes, these are kind of things that would never happen in the actual arcs, so the Dex Holders get to be stress-tested. How would they react given their personalities, tics, relationships, etc, in a realistic situation?

Oh. ... Ahem. Sorry for making you wait 7 months. Ehehe... And while it’s true that Sun and Moon currently have the lowest “viewership”, that changes as time passes. Like Black and White in SA and X and Y in Destiny. As the “meh” torch is passed down to Sword and Shield, Sun and Moon might rise in popularity, thus increasing the chances of them appearing in my stories.

I don’t really know if this was how Sun would react though. But I also don’t know how he would’ve actually reacted, so this might not be outside the possibility range. I kind of had him act like Black, really, but without being as sweet... or loud. Well, there will be more Sun & Moon interactions for you to enjoy in the upcoming chapters, so... there you go!

You should start your own project! Go for it! And eh, Discord. Sh*t happens. I wouldn’t call that stress. Anyways. Yes, I use the review count as an indicator of how many people have finished the chapter. Of course, there are plenty of people who read the chapter to the end without reviewing, and the number of people who review after reading tends to fluctuate. But if there is a trend, that indicates a trend in viewership as well. And that is what I look at. Hence the charts. And yes. We’d all like to see how the story ends. Me included. Keep up with the reviews and we’ll all see it by 2021.

And thank you so much for the review and the... sweet talking. Hehe <3

18) Just found this story and am enjoying it thoroughly. Big fan of your Blue characterization as well, I used to enjoy shipping Red with Yellow, but recently, I've come to enjoy Blue with Red.

A small nitpick - Did none of the juniors comment on Red and Blue sleeping in the same room/bed while they stayed in Red's house in the last two chapters? I would assume the female juniors already know Blue likes Red and so won't say anything unnecessary, but I guess the guys are a little more tactful than we give them credit for?

Looking forward to me. Cheers.

Red with Blue works very well. And it’s cute! Hehe... ... biased.

Heh. The girls... already know, since the girls who are in the house were Platinum, White, and Y, and they already know of Blue’s crush and all that. So White and Y would just snicker at the fact that Red and Blue are sleeping on the same bed, while Platinum would just smile. As for the boys... Diamond might notice something if he spent more time talking to Red and Blue before and after. But I doubt Pearl or Black would notice anything odd. They’d probably just assume that Red and Blue are sharing the bed because a ton of guests were sleeping in the living room, so there were no other options.

Of course, all that’s assuming that the juniors know that Red and Blue are sleeping on the same bed. I don’t recall having Red and Blue give them a tour of the house, so as far as the juniors know, there might be another bed upstairs. ... Though a house tour is generally the first thing you do, but... heh. Ambiguity. No one knows for sure.

And I look forward to seeing more reviews from you!

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Well well. Would you look at THAT. Way above the average now. So... looks like I’ll have to keep my word and update Legacy again before this year ends in 3 days. Heh. Of course, I did notice a few things but... well... whatever.

18. That’s the most reviews I’ve gotten in a chapter in all of 2019. Or 2018. ... And vast majority of 2017 (Legacy Prologue - Kanto was in January 2017). If this kind of thing happened much more frequently, I would be updating Legacy like once every two weeks, instead of 3~4 times in a year.

But, there you have it! New record in almost 3 years. As a result... Legacy update in 3 days.

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DE #031

1) Sun and moon are so cute. I love them

Support the new...ish pairing!

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And with that, DE #031 is no longer in the top 4 least reviewed. Yay!

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SC #017

1) Awesome story.

Thank you.

2) Well that was...brutal alright. Thugs deserved it though. I'm mildly surprised no one died, but I think that's more because I'm used to seeing that from your old "doom hammer" chapters.

I admit the Santa part was an amusing touch, and I guess that explains why you needed to release this by the end of the year. Heh, Blue's gadgets are useful as always and very effective - that's a nice disguise. That action scene was awesome and easily the best scene in this chapter. The situation aside...it was nice to see Red be a hero even without his Pokemon.

You were right - this is an enjoyable chapter and I like this "brutal Red" experiment. Can't wait for the next chapter!

Heh. The doom hammer is for serious stories. Not comical ones. So no one dies in the hands of Santa Claus. This time.

Ahem. Well, there’s the inspiration for the chapter, and the reason behind the line of “Or Santa will go jolly on your naughty asses with a candy cane axe”. Hehe. Cheers, everyone, Santa has come to town!

And the duo of Red and Blue becomes much stronger. Mercenary Red with technological support!

Hehe. Much more serious brutal Red (instead of comical) to come up later as the experimentation continues. Ohoho!

3) holy crud, santa beating up a gang is greatest thing ever

Yep. Santa going to town on their naughty asses with a candy cane bat. What’s not to love?

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And with that, the latest SC chapter is now in the top 4 least reviewed. For now?

... Looks like the “A Day at Work” chapters are failing miserably, since they’re at 1 and 3 reviews respectively. So... I guess I won’t be doing that again.

And with this, the longest review response post of 2019 has come to an end.

The Archon’s Review of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a modern fantasy role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Activision. You play the role of a newly sired vampire in 21st century L.A. Your sire is executed on the orders of Sebastian LaCroix, Prince of Los Angeles, and you are then forced to do LaCroix’s chores. Thus begins an adventure through the seediest parts of Los Angeles as you attempt to recover a mysterious sarcophagus, fight off the attentions of the violent Sabbat, and decide where their loyalties lie. Oh! Also, don’t murder too many “innocent” humans, or you’ll turn into a monster or something.

Man, I wish this game got at least half the love it deserved from... well, from everybody. Or rather, I wish it had received more love from Activision and the public, and less from Troika. After all, it was Troika’s excessive design scope, combined with Activision’s apparent indifference and callous deadlines that made this game far less than it could have been. It’s been more or less left to fans to improve and even in some ways “complete” the game after its release.

All that said, however, the game as released is quite good, especially in the writing department. The story has you navigating vampire society, completing various missions for the clandestine Camarilla organization (not to be confused with Kaiser Wilhelm II’s circle of advisors headed by Otto von Bismarck), and more specifically Prince LaCroix, and has you eventually picking a side in a decades-spanning conflict between the rebellious Anarchs, and the Camarilla itself. The world is rich and enveloping, with characters that feel like real people even if you only speak to them for a little bit.

Before I go into greater detail about the story and writing, let’s talk about the mechanics of play, which are... ehhh-but-kinda-okay??? I’ll talk about your vampiric abilities first. Basically, as you increase in power, you’ll acquire greater powers as you attain higher levels in “disciplines”. Each vampire clan has a set of three disciplines at its disposal, ranging from superhuman strength and speed, to invisibility and extra-sensory perception, to literal magicks and the ability to afflict other people with madness. As you level up and put character points into those disciplines, either you get new powers, or the power of the discipline itself becomes greater. For example, more points in Thaumaturgy (otherwise known as Literal Blood Magick) gets you additional spells to cast, while putting additional points into Potence (otherwise known as Swoleness) makes the affect of the discipline greater when used. All of that, that being the character progression and the gradual increase in power over the course of the game, that all works pretty well. You can actually feel your character’s increasing power over the course of the game.

(Pictured: Me trying not to get wrecked by a surprise boss. Punching it worked well enough.)

However, I will criticize a couple of things. First, when selecting disciplines to use, the default is using the mouse wheel, which is fine, I suppose, when selecting guns in a first-person shooter. But when trying to sift through ~7 abilities, each of which does different things, it can be something of a bugbear. I died at least a couple of times when I was trying to select the spell that makes nearby enemies barf their blood vessels out, and I accidentally selected the power that makes everything glowy for a bit. I only found out that you could (presumably) assign disciplines to the number keys very late in the game.

Second, combat difficulty can be a bit wobbly. Against human opponents, the difficulty depends almost entirely on whether the enemies have high-powered automatic guns. If yes, then it becomes a game of getting the enemies to come at you one-by-one for strategic beatings. If no, then feel free to run right into the middle of them and beat on all of them. Make sure to save one human for feeding though! Feeding regenerates your health and powers your blood gauge, which acts as a sort of mana bar for your disciplines. And since you can feed freely in combat areas, there’s no reason not to kill every human enemy except one, then get all your health and blood back from them.

(Omnomnomnom...)

Against other vampires, however, it’s a different story. Most vampire battles are boss battles, so it makes sense for them to be difficult. But the battles against regular vampires can also be nightmares if you’re not careful, and even if you are. Here, you have to be a bit more conservative with your disciplines, because for some reason, the game prevents you from committing diablerie (which I feel perfectly entitled to), so you can’t get your blood or health back from them. One thing I would recommend when fighting other vampires: use edged weapons. Even if your edged weapon and your blunt weapon or gun supposedly do exactly the same damage, even counting lethality ratings, you always want to use edged weapons against vamps. For some reason, edged weapons always do more damage to vampires, and stagger them more often.

(Fighting this motherfucker was... unpleasant, but it taught me that even if my punching stat was higher than my weapon stat, I should just use an edged weapon anyway.)

Let us get back to the writing, which is the game’s strongest point. VtM:B has extremely good writing, like, possibly the best out of any game I’ve ever reviewed on this blog. First off, I want to talk about the characterization. Even the minor characters get personality injected through them in every line. Every character feels like a real person, and I found myself relating more to them than to people in real life. Even when a character has aspects of a racial stereotype, the layering of their personality traits and motivations made them into composite humans whom I could get behind. The reason I mention racial stereotypes specifically is because of one character in particular: Fat Larry. He’s an overweight black man who sports an afro, wears a basketball jersey, speaks in jive, and deals in illegal goods. When I first encountered this character, my first thought was “Ohhh, nooooo.” partly because A) the obvious caricature, and B) I knew I’d have to talk about him. However, after talking to him, it became readily apparent that his character extended beyond the stereotype. He’s aware of his weight problem, and to quote “[He] don’t give a fuck”. He has a hand in running a large corporation, and has interactions with people from the local street gangs, all the way up to the Chinese Mafia. He likes steak. As for selling illicit goods; well, most shopkeepers seem to be selling the same kind of illegal goods, that is to say, guns. This pattern holds true for many other characters who seem flat at first, but then, as you dig just a little, they flesh themselves out until you have a wonderful tapestry of colorful characters.

(Ah, Fat Larry. I will never forget you.)

One more major writing point I want to talk about is the game’s use of horror elements. The game as a whole can best be described as a sort of RPG with heavy leanings of horror. However, when the game decides to use these elements, they are used to interesting, if not great, effect. The first such instance takes place in a haunted hotel, which is basically a homage to The Shining (one in a looong series of classics I have yet to check out). There are no enemies to fight, but goddamn if I didn’t have my weapon drawn the entire time. The sound effects and scare timing are perfect, and while the visual effects are a bit dated, they get the job done. I especially liked the whispering, indistinct at first, but increasing in clarity as you trek through the level until it sounds like someone’s whispering directly into your open earhole. Unnerving. The second horror-type location is a venerable house, opulent and imperial. Except this one was inhabited not by festering abominations, but by regular people driven to madness by the owner of the manor, an old-school psychologist who’s lived for centuries due to his vampirism. This guy loooved his insane asylums and it shows; the level plays like a combination of a haunted house and a haunted asylum; and I was never sure if an inmate was going to stand still and mutter or if they were gonna attack me. The audio logs kept on archaic recording devices further added to the atmosphere, detailing owner’s descent into paranoia as the voices that plagued him increased in volume and number. Next, we have zombie plagues! Zombies actually appear twice in the game, and both times they’re used to convey a sense that you are surrounded on all sides, as they spawn from areas you thought were cleared out, and have a nasty habit of appearing just around corners. The first time you encounter them is in the home of a blasphemous preacher who is... over-enamoured with disease and pestilence. Context and previous experience convey the idea that these zombies were formerly people, and that this preacherman’s sickness has touched far more people than expected. The second time zombies are encountered is in the basement of a deadly-decadent family mansion, and in this instance, there’s a sense that you are right in the middle of enemy territory, except the enemy wants to moan loudly at you and grab and eat you. Whereas in the first zombie-quest, you were trying to fight your way through the hordes to a definite end, in the second zombie-quest, it feels much more like you’re trying to escape a fucked situation, even though you’re again trying to get to a definite end. The last instance of horror is one wherein, again, there are no enemies, but there are still scares aplenty. It takes place in an abandoned hospital, and while the happenings seem to be spectral, in the end, it turns out that it’s all being caused by a cannibalistic vampire, who happens to have a quest for you. The end of the hospital is gruesome, and trek there is filled with tight corridors and gory killings observed too far away to do anything about. Oh! I almost forgot to talk about body horror. Yes, there are a couple of levels that indulge in quite gruesome body horror, once in a cliffside manor, and again in a sewer system. The sounds the afflicted enemies make as they announce themselves is far more horrifying than their actual assault, and when you learn that these monstrosities were once human, your sense of revulsion will tinge with pity and additional horror.

(There are also werewolves, which are unkillable and grant the player the additional horror of being chased and hunted down. Good stuff, that.)

So the game knows how and when to use horror elements, but on the other side of its lawn of atmosphere is a gritty, seedy weed-field that pervades the entire setting. Apparently, Los Angeles is going through some shit at the time the story takes place, with gun-hustlers on every street corner, cops shooting to kill for any given offense, and sex work being the industry of choice among young white ladies with bob-cuts. Everybody’s dressed to the 90′s. And worst of all, there seems to be a massive homeless problem that hasn’t even been remotely addressed. It’s not just always night, but it’s always gloomy to boot. One half-expects the Punisher or a similar personage to pop out of the plasterwork and start waxing philosophical about the inherent degeneracy of humankind of some such rot. But make no mistake, the atmosphere thus conveyed is not an unwelcome one; indeed,  the gloomy, gritty feel of the game enhances the experience and really lets you feel the oppressiveness of the “something in the air” that the other vampires go on about without giving you a mechanical indicator. You’re clued in organically that something isn’t right by the low state of the general populace and of the city itself.

(Of course, the sex workers are there to provide the player with a way to non-suspiciously feed. I mean, it’s probably fine; I paid them after all, so it’s fine, right? Right?)

Of course, there some points about the game that may turn some people off from a sensitivities standpoint, and such concerns not without merit. First off, there’s the aforementioned ethnic and racial stereotyping, which for some people can’t be fixed even by all the characterization in the world. And it doesn’t just hit black people. Oh, you haven’t heard? Los Angeles has a Chinatown. In addition, a lot of the female NPCs, and even a female player, are clad in, by default, skimpy dress; and I’m not even talking about the sex workers. A more nuanced weirdbad thing occurs in the system by which certain victims give you more blood than others. Basically, while rats only give you a little blood and humans a lot, this makes sense. What makes less sense is that homeless people give less blood than upper class people when fed upon. Certain characters imply, or even outright state that the quality of a person’s blood is directly tied to the kind of life they’ve led. A PhD is worth more blood than a regular dude, who’s worth more than a homeless person. Attaching objective worth to a person’s standard of living is classist, if nothing else, and the implications made me uncomfortable. However, I think this comes from the source material, White Wolf’s Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game, so I don’t think we can blame the game devs for this one specifically.

So do I like VtM:B? Yes, I should think so. Even if the gameplay’s a little janky at times, and the game world’s a bit gloomy, I liked the strength of writing and fleshed-out characters quite a lot. Will I play it again? Well, let’s just say that this is one of the few games I managed to finish in time for a review (for obvious reasons), and I already started another playthrough. For your information, I started with a Tremere, and in the second run, I’m trying out a Nosferatu.

(I should note that yes, this is exactly how all white people dance. Also note the lack of a band in the background. Yep.)

An Alternate Character Interpretation for Alignments

Alignments are nearly as old as D&D and might be the most contentious topic associated with them (for people who actually PLAY THE GAME, sit down Satanism), acting as a constant source of arguments both online and in real life! There have been a ton of riffs on the idea from video games to other table top games to D&D homebrew, and a lot of them are interesting in their own right. There's nothing wrong with those systems, and indeed, they can often feel more appropriate to a specific setting than the standard D&D good/evil and law/chaos axis. D&D is your game to control!

That being said, D&D wouldn't be the same without a lot of its old systems, and playing with these sorts of constraints can lead to fun and interesting gameplay. So, why not riff on the old system and see if we can come up with an interesting mixture of old and new. I call it...

THE MORAL COMPASS

When creating a character using The Moral Compass, you should first determine five things about the character:

Their Oath, corresponding with the Lawful side of the law/chaos axis, should be some sort of self-imposed restriction. Examples include "always follow the law of the land", "never turn down an invitation to  duel", or "never disobey an order from a superior officer".

Their Whim, corresponding with the Chaotic side of the law/chaos axis, should be some sort of natural short-term impulse. Examples include "stop and smell the roses", "try to make people happy", or "value shiny objects".

Their Conscience, corresponding with the Good side of the good/evil axis, should be something you consider to be a 'good tendency'. No need to systematize it! Use your best judgement and be honest. Examples include "protect my family", "be as fair as possible", "be merciful to the helpless".

Their Temptation, corresponding with the Evil side of the good/evil axis, should be something you consider to be an 'evil tendency'. Like above, use your best judgement! Examples include "torturing people is OK when they deserve it", "all elves are bastards", and "stealing isn't wrong".

Their Goal, corresponding with general neutrality, should be a rational medium-term or long-term objective. Examples include "become rich", "sire a family", and "avenge my father's death".

When you've determined all 5 for a character, choose 2 of them (or just their Goal) as the character's focus, which determines their alignment, as well as their character's behavior. All five are important to the character, but one or two are the most important!

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT

So, how is this different from just choosing an alignment on the chart?

Well, first of all, it helps contextualize the morality in terms of in-game behavior. So, your elf isn't Lawful Evil because you wanted to play an evil character but one that isn't THAT evil, she's evil because she's a loyal soldier who swore an Oath to defend the forests of elvenkind, but is evil because she has a Temptation to use lethal violence against those she suspects of disloyalty. Is this something only this system could develop? Hell no! People come up with this stuff all the time without any systematic help. What this system does is synergize in-game behavior with mechanics. It provides real meaning to the words 'Lawful' and 'Evil'.

Second of all, it allows for more natural alignment transitions (especially if they are magically compelled). So, a goblin-slaying paladin wouldn't suddenly become a goblin-lover if they switched from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil, they'd just be a goblin-killing a-hole.

Third of all, it creates characters that feel flawed or redeemable. Maybe that murderous thug has a soft spot for his fellow thugs? Maybe that otherwise decent paladin is highly distrustful of halfings? This doesn't mean the thug is secretly good or the paladin is secretly evil-- they are just three dimensional characters simply by filling out the five categories.

Finally, it puts to bed the idea of thinking in grandiose terms of the struggle of the forces of Good versus the forces of Evil, at least for humanoids. It's possible that two traditional Lawful Good paladins could fight each-other, if they both had something they were defending. Similarly, it would make the cooperation of good and evil characters a lot more plausible-- they simply are pursuing similar goals and can each use all the help they can get.

FUN THINGS TO DO WITH THIS MECHANIC

So, now that you have it, what can you do with it?

Inherently Evil Creatures like Fiends or some Undead can lack Consciences (and their Whim/Oath if they are Devils or Demons respectively). This could lead to creatures that feel truly heartless-- creating a distinction between everyday evil (bandits, raiders) and Ultimate Evil. You can do similar stuff with creatures of pure Good, Law, or Chaos-- they are elementally aligned with a certain alignment. This can lead to cosmic entities that literally can't comprehend certain types of behavior, like a demon that is confused by a paladin's nobility, while a mortal criminal may think it to be simple naivete.

Fun With Alignment-Switching was something I mentioned before, but it bears repeating. Now, players that have their alignment switched no longer have to feel like their character has been eroded. It can similarly provide inspiration to players who want to change alignments mid-game. Magic items that impose an alignment shift voluntarily can provide new roleplaying opportunities for players, giving them a chance to explore elements of their characters that were mostly left ignored.

Fewer Alignment Based Arguments are less of a fun thing and more a bad thing to be avoided. Here, Chaotic Neutral actually corresponds to behaviors the player has to write down beforehand instead of acting as a catch-all for being allow to act like a random number generator. Similarly, evil characters can be tolerated if they have temptations that don't cross the wrong lines (those lines are up to you).

TL;DR

Assign actual character traits to each point of the alignment compass (as well as the center), and it will enable more natural character play and less arguments about the exact definition of Chaotic Neutral!

RULES:  List five tropes applicable to your character, then tag others to do the same.(Tropes Wiki)  REPOST! DO NOT REBLOG.

Tagged by: No one; a friend linked it to me. Tagging:  YOU.

Badass Bookworm: The Avatar isn't on Robin's level of intelligence or tactical ingenuity, but they do read in their spare time, and while naïve, are far from stupid. By the end of each game, the Avatar will have bested in combat great generals, dangerous criminals, royalty, hulking monsters, shape shifters, reanimated soldiers, seasoned veterans, and depending on the route Garon's dragon form ("Birthright"), a slime monster, an empowered Takumi ("Conquest") and finally their true father, a dragon-god-king ("Revelation").

Badass Princess: The Female Avatar, as she's a part of the Nohrian royalty (and even though she was adopted from Hoshido, she was of royalty there too) and is far from helpless. Also, her initial class is called Nohr Princess.

Blade on a Stick: While the Avatar can't use lances by default without re-classing, it's revealed in the female Avatar's support with Shiro that she's skilled enough with a lance to give him a run for his money. Considering everything the Avatar knows about fighting comes from Xander, a Paladin, it's not surprising.

Blithe Spirit: The Avatar doesn't particularly care if others perceive them as weird when they help out—and thanks to their optimism and social ignorance, they often do come across as such. It's especially notable in Revelation, where they shock everyone by choosing neither side to make their own.

Bond Villain Stupidity: Invoked late in Conquest when they have Ryoma at their mercy. The Avatar tells Garon they should spare him to extend his suffering, although the real reason is because they actually don't want to kill him.

Character Development: All routes give the Avatar different development due to the circumstances in question. To wit:

In Birthright, they grow more and more furious over the atrocities committed by Nohr, but at the same time, becomes all the more resolute in their idealistic beliefs. By the end of the route, they still remain firmly believing in their idealism, but they're much stronger mentally from where they started.

In Conquest, they join Nohr with the noble - if somewhat naive - intention of changing Nohr from within, believing that the war can end quickly if they change Garon for the better. Sadly, it doesn't work out, and the Avatar soon realizes that the only way to save the continent from ruination while changing Nohr from the inside would be to go along with the plan to invade Hoshido. By the time the route reaches its climax, they go from a Wide-Eyed Idealist into somebody who reluctantly cast aside their own ideals in order to change the world for the better. It's to the point that when confronted by a possessed Takumi, the Avatar doesn't even bother to justify their actions and instead accepts Takumi's rage without a second thought.

In Revelation, they get a mix of their Birthright and Conquest development. They are no longer naïve to the happenings of the world and become confident in themselves, but are still kindhearted and optimistic to a fault.

Cultured Badass: The male Avatar isn't just a skilled warrior. He can play the piano, likes poetry, is well-versed in philosophy, and is even said to learn how to sing if he marries Azura. [ I apply this trope to the Female Avatar as well ]

Deadpan Snarker:  The Avatar dishes out their fair share of snark throughout the story.

Azura: Avatar! We have trouble! Nohrian forces are approaching! Avatar: Seriously? We haven't even been here five minutes...

Girly Bruiser: The Female Avatar comes across as this. She's as battle-hardened as her male counterpart, but her female-specific support with characters like Caeldori show that she enjoys girly things like romance novels.

Good Is Not Dumb: As nice and naïve as they are, the Avatar is not stupid. They clearly don't buy Garon's claims that he wasn't trying to kill them with the exploding sword on Conquest, and on Birthright they'll actually list the event as one of the reasons for their defection. In Revelation, they aren't fooled by Anthony's deception, pretend to go along with it and effectively out-gambit him, and later correctly deduce Scarlet's killer based off something only they would know.

Good Is Not Soft: They're no pushover, either. Before the route split, they stand their ground against Garon and, with their dragon powers, intimidate Hans into talking about his assassination attempt, and afterwards they prove they're willing to resort to threats if it can get the job done — even on the lighter route, Birthright.

Hurting Hero: During Conquest, the Avatar's supports with Azura reveal them to be this. To elaborate, they have recurring nightmares over the Hoshidans that have died as a result of their choice, and is having a crisis of morality over just how far the ends justify the means, even believing that they're going to Hell for what they've done. This doesn't stop them from pressing on, however.

Informed Deformity: If Peri is in the Hot Springs with a Female Avatar, she will comment that the latter's body is covered in scars - enough to make her giddy - though this isn't reflected by her character model. Of course, it's possible that they've just faded too much to see outside of very close inspection.

Innocently Insensitive: The Avatar was raised away from the world, and while kind-hearted, occasionally makes a comment or question that seems normal to them, but insults the other person.

Lethal Chef: Per the series' tradition with its Player Characters, the Avatar can't cook at all. They manage to burn tea in their supports with Jakob, and are implied to produce food that tastes like steel (they were taught to cook by Gunter, who can't cook either). This trait is a bit inconsistent with the female Avatar, who reveals herself to be a fairly skilled baker in her Support conversations with Dwyer.

Living Emotional Crutch: It's strongly implied that they are this for several characters.

Nice Guy:

Caeldori: You always put the needs of others before your own. Even when dangerous, you choose mercy, compassion, and kindness over all else.

No Social Skills: The Avatar is a fairly forward individual who sees nothing wrong with behavior others would label "unconventional", such as shouting in a public area. This can be chalked up to their reclusive childhood not giving them the chance to develop normal social skills. Despite this, they still manage to get along with people well enough.

Oblivious to Love: The male Avatar has around half a dozen ladies that can potentially be crushing on him, but he never notices until they flat-out tell him. Camilla and Rhajat drop some very obvious hints about being into him, Hinoka and Felicia have liked him for some time, and Sakura and Azura are implied to fall for him after meeting him for the first time. His failure to notice is Justified given his isolated upbringing and lack of real social interaction.  [ I apply this trope to the Female Avatar as well ]

The Pollyanna: Rain or shine, the Avatar is a perpetual optimist and is rarely in a bad mood. This trait endures throughout Birthright and Revelation (though in the latter, it gets somewhat tempered, due to the dire situation at hand since Anankos was seeking to destroy humanity), but gets utterly crushed in Conquest.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Azura's Blue. The Avatar isn't exactly hot-headed, but they do tend to make decisions based off their hearts instead of their heads, as well as being openly emotive.

Royalty Superpower: As a descendant of the First Dragons, and in fact the direct child of Anankos, they are able to use Dragon Vein, which will be inherited by any child they become a parent of.

Shared Family Quirks: Orochi states in her support with Ryoma that Mikoto was very fond of sweets just like the Avatar. The Avatar also inherits Anankos's apologetic attitude. Several characters such as Fuga note how the Avatar has the same personalty as their adopted father Sumeragi.

She-Fu: This normally-female trope actually applies to both genders. The Avatar might be the most acrobatic lord in the series; their fighting style incorporates many flips, graceful spins, jumping sword strikes, and rolls.

Skilled, but Naïve: The Avatar is well-known to be naïve despite their skill, as Rinkah and several others refer to them as "that sheltered Nohrian prince(ss)".

Spock Speak: The Female Avatar speaks formally at all times.

Strategy Versus Tactics: Unlike Robin, the Avatar is good with the latter but not the former. While their charisma makes them an excellent leader in skirmishes and the Male Avatar's support with Shiro show he's good at discerning an immediate opponent's strengths and weaknesses, both genders lack the vision to handle large-scale battles. Their supports with Leo in particular showcases this difference, with the Avatar being upset at their inability to command large forces and Leo upset as his inability to command small ones.

Survivor's Guilt: Never outright stated, but it's implied they suffer from this, due to Sumeragi and Mikoto dying to protect them. Their supports with characters like Kaze and Yukimura have them apologizing for surviving Garon's ambush when Sumeragi did not—something they had no control over—they often express doubt over their own worthiness, and they downright panic if they're ever forced to leave allies behind. Depending on the route, they may have to watch even more of their loved ones sacrifice themselves for them, and express a great deal of anguish over that as well.

Sweet Tooth: Several of their supports include them handing candy to the other person, implying they love sweets and keep some on them at all times. Jakob also mentions making some for them in his supports with Effie.

Trying Not to Cry: In late Conquest, when Ryoma kills himself in front of them, they hit a point where they need to walk away and verbally remind themselves that crying now would ruin their facade as Garon's obedient, cold hearted child. It doesn't work, and they shed several chapters' worth of Tears of Remorse.

Unstoppable Rage:It doesn't happen often, but when the Avatar gets pissed, they get pissed. Their mindless, grief-driven rampage in Chapter 5 is perhaps the best example of this, followed up by their Paralogue with their child Kana after seeing them attacked.

In Conquest, when Iago tells the Avatar about all the things he has done under the king's orders to ruin their life in their pre-fight conversation in Ch 26, the Avatar straight up says they will kill him.

Warrior Therapist: The Avatar is always willing to lend an ear to the troubles of their comrades, and will do whatever they can to help.

Weak, but Skilled: While the Avatar is no slouch in battle, and is arguably one of the best fighters in the army, they are far from the strongest, finding themselves bested by more powerful opponents like King Garon, Xander on Birthright or Anankos in Revelation in straight-up single combat. Rather, their greatest strengths are their intelligence and analytical ability; their charisma; their determination; the Yato; and their bonds with the many people that are or grow loyal to them, especially the royal siblings. Their fighting style seems to reflect this trope as well—lots of flips, spins and twists that lack power, but are very fast and hard to dodge.

Wide-Eyed Idealist: The Avatar has a rather hopeful, idealistic view of the world. Depending on what route is chosen, it may or may not be broken by what happens next.

Xander: Mark my words, Avatar... One day an act of kindness may be the death of you. Avatar: Perhaps, but if I'm kind, I will die without regrets.

Competition, Insecurity and Scientific Method

I’ve noticed a pattern lately. At the risk of over-fitting, let me share what I think, so I can learn from your experiences as well.

Competition has been showcased as the cornerstone of human progress. “We are getting better every day because we compete with each other”, has become the golden mantra that guides policy making, relationships at work, even family ties at times! I don’t want to go into how this idea has been used to justify unfair business practices, justify neoliberal economic policies (with a completely circular argument!), ignore the privileges that govern so much of our lives and ultimately gives rise to a false notion of “free will”!

I wish to talk about something more insidious. Possibly, even try and make sense of why the world seems broken, why relationships seem fake and why it is so difficult to find true love! _ _

I believe that competition is a facade. The real evil is a deep sense of insecurity that goes unnoticed. Hiding behind this facade are all sorts of unsorted issues that, over the years, shape into a complex entangled mess of falsehoods which can be impossible to get rid of without a focused effort.

Let’s start with some personality traits. A typical insecure person described by your psychology textbook would be someone with a “lack of confidence”, “lack of protection” which is what it most certainly is. However, people have deception as a survival skill. We won that fight with the gang of wolves because we could convince them that we were stronger! We practice deception from an early age. The way animals engage in a “fight-play” routine, we hone our deception skills. Over the years, we get really good at it. We acquire such excellent deception skills that we are able to deceive ourselves! Insecurity is often not dealt with inspection/introspection, it is given a lethal dose of deception. Such insecure people exhibit high confidence, a fake sense of superiority and an attitude that gives them “that edge” that’s so palpable in company boardrooms. They are the ones that “get things done” (but, they never do these things! They don’t know how to!)

Such insecure people who have learned to deceive themselves come with a myriads of unhealthy traits. This fake sense of superiority’s first victim is the willingness to try out new things. Kids don’t care what they look like, how rich or poor they are, how tall they are, the color of their skin - and they know how to participate even when they are sure to fail. That’s how all of us took our first steps! We failed again and again (with a lot of people watching!) We are talking about people who don’t try new things because they might fail. They would demean, insult and try self-deception to get out of knowing about something new because that’s easier than facing failure.

There’s a thing about science - it doesn’t care about our societal status! Science can tell even the most influential person that they are wrong. The people we are talking about then, do not have a scientific method. They might be scientists, scholars, doctors and engineers but, they are scared of science! These are people who are most gullible when it comes to “ancient wisdom”. These are people who would tell you that “science does not have all the answers” to justify a scientifically incorrect view that they hold close to heart. Since these are people who are all about authority, they find it difficult to defy authority. Deliver an authoritative judgement about an issue and they would take it to their graves. These are personality worshipers, they follow ideologies over methods. For them science comes in 2 flavors - “my science” and “their science”. One is wrong and the other is right. These are people who have a “right way to drink alcohol”, “authentic recipes”, “correct grammar”, “the best workout”, “traditional is better” approach to life!

Another classic identification is the victim game. Such people find victims for their wits, sarcasm, wisdom and knowledge (Think about it! Victim of knowledge!). They thrive in groups that they can control and they always have a victim who is miserable. When the tables turn, things become ugly! The are always on the lookout for issues with others around them and they try their best to expose them. While they try their best to hide their own insecurities, they use all their social intellect to identify others’ insecurities and use them against their victims. They are usually very good at the insecurities game because they swim in it more often than others. A good way to know this is to compare their behavior in a group versus when they are alone with you (alone is generally a lot nicer and very likeable).

Such people often have very magnetic personalities. Abusive relationships have this character as well. It often becomes impossible to leave the tormentor because they are so good to you at times! So good that you love them! When these people are not around, we terribly miss them. Remember, they are very good at reading insecurities!

These people are easy to spot online as well - #onlyWayToLive #beLikeMe #alwaysTheBest and sometimes, #worstPlaceOnEarth #cantHearThisCrappyMusic #whyAreAllPeopleSoStupid (notice the “all or nothing” feeling there? You should read more about it!)

Well, that said, what’s the solution? Should there be a large scale LSD-in-water-supply project to repair the world? I can offer my insights about my own battle with insecurities, anxiety and depression. The solution depends on which side of the facade you are (I’ve been on both and its not fun at all!).

Let’s start with when you are a victim.

Victim cheat code:

Be aware of yourself

Look for signs like limited social interaction, limited participation in social activities

Follow the scientific method religiously (see, what I did there :D )

Don’t take yourself too seriously (check out Dudeism!)

If you feel things are going out of hand, avoid or confront the people in your life who you think might need help in dealing with their insecurities and anxiety (let experts handle it though).

A good question to ask is - “Can I be completely honest around this person?” If the answer is “No”, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

Things are a lot more complicated when the facade has caged you inside a growing mass of insecurities.

Be honest! Avoid even white lies (no they are not required to live in the world!)

Be sincere in your judgement of yourself. Be open about failure, about being wrong.

Turn that competition inward. Compete with your own self and start by attempting to fail without feeling miserable about it.

Talk about mental health with your friends and family. Depression and anxiety affects us all on some level.

Putting yourself in others’ shoes is a great technique to still “get things done” while being nice to others. Try it as often as you can.

Talk about your insecurities (even the most private ones!) Talking about things engages your prefrontal cortex (the region of your brain that makes you human) and eases the fears and anxiety that your amygdala (the reptilian brain) is constructing.

Try to be more mindful. Meditation is great (try to learn it the right way and avoid mixing it with religion/spirituality - see the next point)

Try to be more flexible and open to new ideas and changes in life. “Ancient wisdom” belongs in the ancient times.

Recruiting for an Online Legends of the Five Rings Game

Game days Sundays 10am Pacific/ 1pm Eastern (run times about 4-5 hours)

Game Start Date 3/4/18

Rokugan is a place of mystery and wonder, inspired by the lore of legends from Feudal Japan and other lands of the far East.  A magical world controlled by the Samurai caste, This a land of magic where dragons, kami, and oni exists.  This land has danger that lurks in the dark, ninja are a feared myth, and region of the world seeps with an evil essence.  This is the Legend of the Five Rings.  Players take the roles of protagonists destined to leave their marks in the land.          I am looking for mature players willing to emerse themselves in a setting where western philosophy and ideologies are foreign.  This is a game that the wrong words or action could cost a person the lives of their spouse, children and selves.  Here honor is one of the most important aspects of life, and a person has to concern themselves with not only their personal honor but more importantly the honor of their family.  Unlike many role-playing games combat and politics are very lethal.  Do you have the ability to actually "role-play" in a world who places import on ideals that are not the norms of your real lives?         This weekly game requires players who can commit to regular on time play.  They must be respectful of everyone who participates at all time both in game and outside of the game.  Bullying and discrimination will not be tolerated.  If you love to role play, are mature, can dedicate your time and energy to create an epic campaign and have an interest in Eastern Feudal mythology, they may be a great fit for you.

         The game I am going to be running is called Legends of The Five Rings 4th edition.  This is a mystical fantasy game set in a world that draws greatly from the Feudal Japan era, as well as several other Far Eastern civilizations around the same period.  The game includes magic, non-human creatures, the spirit realm, etc.          In this game the players character creation will differ greatly from the Rifts campaign. The first step is for the players to choose a party Great Clan.  Players will have to make characters from said Clan, although 1 player will be allowed to create a “ronin” character who is being paid by the Great Clan (although be warned; playing a ronin in this world will be much more difficult than those who are vassals of the Clan).  The group must have one character play a Shugenja samurai and one character be a Courtier samurai of the Great Clan; the both will require another player to create a character who will be their yojimbo (bodyguard) that is a total of 2 who will be bushi characters.  The other players will have more diversity although only one other player may create either a shugenja or courtier (if they desire to do).  The class professions will be limited by the Great Clan that has been chosen as well as limit any possible Minor Clan allied to the Great Clan.  Great Clans also have major families which each player will be limited in choosing for their characters.

        To determine the Great Clan for Campaign B (if that campaign type is picked) we will have a closed vote of rating most to least favorite of the choices.  The Clans to rate and choose from: • Crane • Dragon • Lion • Phoenix            The list provide via email should list the clan you think you would like to play the most first, then the second, third and finally the last choice.  Each will be given points based on where the clan was placed on your list. 1. 20 pts 2. 10 pts 3. 5 pts 4. 0 pts The first step in creating your character begins with the player answering a requisite 40 questions about the character they will be playing and choosing the characters astrological sign (Chinese).  It is best that players read the setting and the rules before beginning to work on a character concept.  Player will email the gm at [email protected] I will correspond via email to players.  Players will fill out a fillable PDF character sheet and send to the gm, after their character concept has been approved. The character creation system is pointed based.  Starting Attributes called Rings (and Traits) begin at 2 (this is average, each statistic has a normal range of 1-5; 1 is poor/ noticeably below average) and 3 is noticeably above average, a 4 is what gifted individuals would have while a 5 is the human maximum possessed by a relatively small amount of people) but the players choice of family and profession will adjust their Traits and possible a Ring.  The profession will provide each player with stating skills, Honor Rating, and equipment (called an outfit).  Players will have an opportunity to take some advantages/ disadvantages (which provides extra points; limited) and points to modify their character.  All choices will be subject to GM approval.  Other Campaign types will have different restrictions see below. This game like all games is not for everyone, and the role-playing will require each player to more than likely step out of their rpg comfort zone, at least if they have never played a game that puts so much emphases on Honor, Bushido, and the Celestial Order (more of the clan and families than the character).  The combat is severely dangerous where one fight could mean the end of your character no matter what their experience.  Failure may also prove to be fatal depending on the situation, the clan, the lord, etc.  Won’t to try something new?  Let me know and you will be able to begin to learn more about this world and prepare for the clan and character each of you will make. The Great Clans: • The Crab Clan have steadfastly defended the Emerald Empire (Rokugan) from the evil hordes of Shadowland.  Unfortunately, this duty has left them little time for courtly activities, thus making them the most blunt and uncouth of the Great Clans.  While their courage and honor are never questioned, the other Clans often point to the fact that the evil aura of the Shadowlands lingers on everything it touches, and they wonder how many Crab samurai have gained what the Phoenix Call “the Shadowlands Taint.” • When it came time for Hantei I (the first Emperor of Rokugan) to wed, all the Clans offered up their most beautiful daughters for consideration.  It was the daughter of Doji, form the Crane Clan, that he chose.  Ever since that day, every Emperor has chosen a bride from the Crane Clan.  That is how the dynasty of Doji has maintained its hold on the Imperial Court:  every Emperor has a Crane he calls “Mother.”  Also, every Emperor has attended a Crane fencing school.  The Kakita School is the most prestigious in the Empire, its students legendary for their prowess and courage.  Ultimately, however, the Crane are seen by the other Clans as poser and sycophants for their relationship with the Emperor. • Since the earliest days of the Hantei dynasty, Togashi and his Clan have remained secreted away in the high mountains of Rokugan.  Practicing their strange meditations in privacy, the Dragon Clan are the most misunderstood samurai in the Empire.  Their spellcasters are fluent in the ways of war, and their samurai are familiar with the ways of sorcery.  The strangest of their Clan- the ise zumi- shave all hair from their bodies and cover their skin with detailed tattoos.  Always enigmatic, the Dragon Clan are sometimes seen as aloof and bizarre by the other Clans. • If the Crane are the “left hand” of the Emperor, then the Lion are his right hand.   The Lion Clan has always maintained a reverence for the Emperor, a devotion unparalleled anywhere in Rokugan.  The samurai of the Lion Clan are some of the most brilliant tacticians the Empire has ever known, commanding small armies against large ones with legendary success.  However, some would say that Lion Clan clings too tightly to tradition, and their unquestioning loyalty to the Emperor has caused much strife between them and the other Clans – especially their chief rival, the Crane. • The word “shugenja” has many meaning in Rokugan: holy man, prophet, sorcerer, priest.  The most powerful shugenja in the Empire, without any doubt, belong to the Phoenix Clan.  The scribe who stood by the Emperor and wrote down his conversation with Shinsei was Phoenix, and he brought back all the details and verbal nuances of that conversation to his Clan.  No other Clan has a more fundamental understanding of the Old Religion of Rokugan and the “new way” of Shinsei.  It was the Phoenix who melded the two into the current belief taught across the Empire.  However, in their study of the sublime, the Phoenix samurai have suffered.  Days spent in contemplative meditation and reading ancient texts are days unspent learning the finer aspects of swordplay and battle. • If there are secrets to be known, a Scorpion somewhere knows them.  They are masters of double-dealing and subterfuge.  Many say that the Scorpion Clan is only a front for a family of ninja, but no evidence has ever been procured to prove that claim.  Over the thousand years of Hantei’s reign, the Scorpion have proven to be valuable allies to every Clan.  Theirs is a Clan of spies and information peddlers.  Once you strike a deal with a Scorpion, however, you can never clear yourself of the debt. • Just after Hantei took the Throne, he turned to his sister Shinjo and asked her to ride into the outlands of the Empire to seek allies and look for possible dangers.  Shinjo left with a small band of followers and was not heard from again for eight hundred years.  Two hundred years ago, the Clan of the Unicorn returned with wealth undreamed of, fabulous treasures of foreign make, and their most valuable prize:  the war-horses of the west.  The Unicorn Clan also brought with it many strange customs and beliefs, making them strangers to the people of Rokugan.  Their ignorance of the delicate etiquette of Rokugan has made them appear to be “barbaric” and “uncivilized” at times, but their mighty horses and valiant samurai (all trained in what the Lion call “barbarian tricks”) have made them valuable allies to any who would take them.

Players will vote on five different campaign types:  I will describe each version briefly (along with brief introductory info about the campaign if chosen) and players should email along with the Clan votes.  Like voting on the Clan players should list the campaign types from most favorite to least favorite.  The highest over all points will determine the type of campaign the party will play.  The rank and points for your choices are as follows: • First Choice 40 points • Second Choice 20 points • Third Choice 10 points • Final Choice 0 points Emerald Magistrates (Campaign A): Serving the Emperor and the Emerald Champion it the protection of the Empire.  Magistrate adventures cover a wide gamut of material.  Emerald Magistrates are responsible for dealing with many types of crimes, as well as for collecting Imperial taxes, and are well suited for adventures built around mystery, investigation, and intrigue.  However, they also deal with bandits, lawlessness, blasphemy, and Shadowlands incursions, allowing for a variety of action-oriented adventures. This game will allow the players to create characters from any Great Clan, the players do not have to be from the same Great Clan as Emerald Magistrates are recruited from the Great Clans of the Empire to serve the needs of the Emperor.  Players can make characters that are not a part of the Great Clans, but their position will be less than the Greater Clan members and it will be more difficult for them to increase their Status throughout the campaign. Players can expect to begin the game working as yuriki (assistants) to a magistrate.  Actions in the campaign will determine if they will advance in status in the future.  The game setting will usually be in a neutral province. Clan Magistrates (Campaign B): As above in most ways except the players will be limited to one specific Great Clan, which will also limit the parities choice to creating characters from that Specific Great Clan (although one character may be from an allied Minor Clan and another character can be an appropriate Ronin).  Most of the group should be characters from the Great Clan, the non-Great Clan member choice will be rare and limited. Players can expect to begin the game working as yuriki to a Clan Magistrate (Not an Emerald Magistrate).  Clan Magistrates have a Clan Lord whom they are in service too, while the player will begin in service to a magistrate.  The game setting will be within the borders of their clan.

Shadowlands Campaign (Campaign C): A Shadowlands campaign is an exercise in action and horror, throwing the PCs into the struggle against the forces of Jigoku.  Most players will be restricted to creating characters from the Crab Clan although up to two players can create characters who have been assigned to the Crab Land to make penance for mistakes or Ronin. This type of campaign throws the characters into a relentless struggle against the most foul and terrifying enemies of the Empire.  The campaign may address themes of horror, mystery and romance. Game setting will be within the Crab Clan province and may include incursions beyond the Great Wall (Kaiu Wall) of the Empire into the Shadowlands themselves.

Ronin Campaign: In this campaign the entire party consist of Ronin characters.  These characters begin the game without a master and must settle for getting any work their can as “swords for hire.” Ronin are not looked at as a respectable profession especially in the eyes of the Samurai Caste. Setting somewhere in Rokugan.  The players have banded together for mutual support (or other reasons) and to hopefully make it easier to get hired for missions that a lone ronin would not be able to accomplish on their own.  Expect to fill used and at the whim of your employers as you try to make a name for yourselves or find a new liege lord to serve to become a true samurai one again.   This campaign can have a variety of themes including all those listed above in the other campaign.  The largest limit is the fact that all characters must be Ronin (although there are several different types of Ronin backgrounds the players can choose from).  Characters will have a lot more freedom of choice in this campaign as “Wave Men.”  Yet, these characters have no clan protecting and providing for them.  The disadvantages of being a ronin are very severe yet the advantage of freedom is an aspect other samurai never truly experience.

The 1st Scheduled game will be dedicated for character creation only all players who have been invited to the game must make this scheduled game or their player slot will be opened for another character to participate.  In order to get an invite to the game interested players will need to read the threads below and  correspond with the GM. Thank you for reading, Cassie

Okay, so I really love Yut, because of his design and character traits and stuff, but I really hate him too because he ruins a lot of lives, but in general, he's such a great antagonist in your stories. I know you've got some long stories going on, but is it okay to write a fic where Reaper finally snaps because Yut wants him to kill McCree and the wraith destroys the Omnic? I just want to see Reaper being done with all this shit Yut puts everyone through, especially Genji.

-wipes a tear away- My OverwatchVillain OC....getting hated and loved. He's all grown up now! I'malways surprised when I get prompts with Yut  but I can provide c:Gave a bonus teaser at the end of a character that will be joiningteam Talon in the chapter after next one in the long fic > u >just a tiny teaser...For anon! Title: Pass the Pointof No ReturnRating: PG-13Relationship: Reaper and Yut havinga clash

Yut always knew and Yut always had a contingency plan in place for any perceived problem that could arise.Despite that, Reaper knew that it was impossible for even the omnicto plan for every second of his life and have something in place to dispel an attack.

There were points where he wasvulnerable.

Reaper leaned against the wall in therec room, his posture tense, paying only half a mind to the Talonagents quietly talking around him. His attention was focused on thetick of the old clock on the wall. It would be four hours until hewas expected to go on a mission against Overwatch, a mission in whichhe had been told to make sure McCree was brought in dead or Reaperhimself was to be consider a liability. The sort  f mission thatReaper knew Yut was sending him on just to entertain his own cruelfancies, as usual, but also to “test” Reaper's sense of“humanity.” The thought of it all made Reaper's handsclench and his shoulders hunch. Never in all the world had a moredespicable piece of hardware than Yut been crafted.

Today though, Reaper was going to makesure the bastard was put down like he should have been years ago.

The minute hand on the clock seemedto be ticking slower and slower with each click and all the while,Reaper felt his nerves grow. His mind was abuzz with whisperedworries, that no matter how well he planned this, Yut would stillknow somehow. He always knew. Another part of him though was pushingthose thoughts down. It was all a part of the persona Yut builtaround himself, that idea that he was omniscient like some sort ofgod.

Mind tricks, after all, were Yut'sforte. Reaper knew the moment he let any sort of apprehension or fearsink its claws into him was the moment he would hesitate for thesingle second that would throw everything into disarray. Yut didn'tknow anything of what was to come. He had to believe that.The clock finally hit theappointed time and Reaper pushed himself off the wall where he hadbeen brooding and moved swiftly into the hallway. No one spared him asecond glance, they never did. To anyone in the base, he seemed to begetting ready for his mission. He paused for a moment , pressing tothe side of a corridor, just out of sight as a battalion of troopsmoved by with Widowmaker in the lead. Picking up the rear of thegroup was the hunched figure of their newest “recruit”. Yut's“prodigy” as it were, his little assassin stolen from the Shimada and his loyal student.

That was two individuals far from Yutwhen he was brought down and the two most likely to interfere withthis whole plot of treachery Reaper was about to enact. No one neededto get hurt, no one but Yut. Reaper didn't try to hide his presence as he entered the room, that wasn't part of the plan. Eventhough the fallen monk didn't know everything, he was more than alittle sensitive to even the tiniest noise, even a breath was enoughto have the omnic aware of an intruder within his vicinity. Thiswhole plot hinged on playing Yut at his own game of deception,approaching as an ally and revealing his hand only at the lastpossible moment.

Yut stood with his back to him, at easeas watching the screen flicker and move faster than any human mindcould perceive. The omnic didn't even bother to turn around toaddress Reaper when he spoke, his  voice a soothing, calm almost kindsounding hum.“I thought you had a mission to go on?” Heasked idly.“I do but you didn't give all the details, didyou?” Reaper responded, crossing his arms. “Oh? Whatdetails do you think I left out?” Yut asked, now turning around,head tilted curiously.Reaper kept his arms crossed andposture lacked, cocking his head to the side, “What is the realpoint of having us go after McCree? The man is a drunk. Barelyfunctional. Yet you have us chasing him when we got bigger targetslike Jack Morrison or the Overwatch to be concerning ourselves with.Doesn't make sense tactically,”

“He is part of Overwatch and what yousay may be true, humans, Reaper, are emotional creatures. Some peoplemay not be useful, but they mean a lot to so many. McCree is afulcrum in their group, one who holds them together,” The omnicfolded his hands together, his tone chiding, “Are you finding itdifficult to kill him? My word, you've grown so very soft. First withGenji, now with McCree,”He was being mocked and Reaper felthis shoulders tense but he didn't drop his arms from where they werecrossed overh is chest, staring down the wretched bastard before him,“What you said can be true of anyone in Overwatch. They are allclose,”“Ah, that is true! A little close-knit family,”Yut chuckled, “Something we are lacking in Talon, aren't we? We allseem to not trust each other so fully!”The monk turnedaway, back to the console and reached to idly press a few keys, “Butreally your concerns matter not Reaper. You have your orders and youhave an American stereotype to put in the ground or are you going tobail on this one like you did with the cyborg?”Yut onlyglanced a bit over his shoulder, watching Reaper as the mercenaryshifted, dropping his arms to his side and turning towards the door,“Genji was different,”“Different because you developedmisplaced feelings for him. I think you should realize that riskingyour life to protect others is foolish,” Yut drawled, turning backto his work, “Martyr are over-rated. It is better to live as the wise man than die the foolish hero,”

“Let go of your humanity,” Reaperdrawled, his tone bitter as he quoted what Yut said more often thennot as he made his way to the door, “How about you try and findsome for a change,”The words caused Yut to begin to turn, almost curious at the sudden lash back. As he did, Reaper was alreadyturning away from the door, shotgun in hand and firing off a barrageof bullets. The fallen monk managed to avoid a few but two shotsconnected, one in the right shoulder and the other into his torso.For a human, the second shot would have been lethal but an omnic hadno organs or critical systems that would bleed out from such hits. Ifanything, all it did was cripple Yut. That was not to saythat made it any easier to kill him. The monk didn't botherto speak, fury crackling in his form as he gathered up energy abouthim, electricity crackling at his finger tips ready to be unleashedas Reaper already threw himself forward into a roll, barely dodgingthe arch of lighting that lashed out where he had been before. Theomnic, wounded as he was, simply began to levitate, already moving onthe attack.“I can't say this is surprising,” Yut finallysaid as he launched another attack at Reaper, “I expected you to bethe rebel of the group, the one who couldn't let go of the past.Unable to commit again to any cause just like in Blackwatch,”Reaperducked behind cover as he tossed his used up shotguns away andsummoned up a pair of new ones. He didn't respond to Yut's words,knowing that the bastard was trying to get him to make a mistake andget him to slip up. He was looking to exploit every weakness he couldto put Reaper down.

The mercenary wasn't about to let Yuthave a chance to try. He rolled out and opened fire, Yut shifting back to avoid the shots as he sent energy towards thewraith. Reaper pushed forward, ignoring the singes of energy againsthis skin, burning lizard away and leaving burned wounds. He chargedforward even as the clip emptied and threw the empty guns forward.The weight was enough to send Yut off balance, the fallen monkletting out a sibilant guttural sound that only a machine couldproduce before Reaper had tackled him against the wall, a gun pressedto his temples.“You talk too much,” Reaper snarled.Yutlaughed. The bastard just laughed in his face as if this wholesituation was amusing to him, his posture slack and with no hint thathe even cared that he was about to die. He lifted a hand only forReaper to slam the hand not holding a gun against it , digging talonsinto wiring and metal, feeling satisfied as it shrieked andcrumpled. Yut jolted but that did nothing to cause him toshow any hint of fear. The omnic only tilted his head, staring atReaper, “I talk too much, but you hesitate too much,” He returnedidly, “and you might kill me now, blow me away, but you aren'tgoing to stop me. I don't leave my plans simply in my ownhands,”Reaper growled, leaning in, “Still doesn't changethe fact watching you die is going to give me insurmountablejoy,”“I know,” Yut chuckled and tilted his head, as ifleaning into the gun as he spoke again, “I leave what happens nextin your hands,”The gun went off and the bullet tore throughhis head, destroying the delicate processors that stored the datathat had convulsed into the monster known as Amartya Yut. The body jolted as the lights flickered off and the whole body fell to thefloor with a soft groan. Reaper stood panting some over the body,feeling the tremors of fatigue and the slight burn of his wounds.Yut's last words though were cryptic, as if he wasn'tspeaking to-The hiss of the door closing behind him hadReaper whirling about, weapons raised only for his entire body tostiffen, both guns falling from his hands as he stood there, cursinghimself for once more playing the fool. The twin blades werethrough his chest and into his very core already, black ichor oozingout as whatever poison was tipped on the blades was starting to undohis form. A carefully prepared assassin that knew what was about tohappen.

Yut always knew, didn't he? Always knewand prepared.The young woman at the end of the blades movedto lean beside him, wrapping an arm about Reaper's waist as she easedhim to the floor even as he wheezed and started to come apart. Shechuckled softly as she reached to place an armored finger against hismask, trailing the digit down over the white mask, shushing himsoftly, “Don't speak,” she whispered, “You can sleep easy,Reaper. My master said it would eventually fall to me to finish hiswork, to wipe out this world. I’ve prepared. I know I can do it,” Even if he wanted to speak,Reaper couldn't his throat filling with that same black ichor as heclutched at her. She left the weapons buried in his body as shebrought up another hand to cup his head as his world began to growblack.The last words he heard were a horrific promise as shechuckled, tilting her head, “Don't worry... I'll send chichi to yousoon in hell. He’ll want to be with you so terribly he’ll die quickly for me I bet,” she giggled, trembling a bit as if the thought excited her before she shushed herself loudly, her tone becoming chiding, “Be patient. Be patient. That is what master alwayssaid. Must be patient. But yes, I'll send chichi and everyone else to keep you company soon,”

Then she began to laugh, as all pretense of kindness left her and she let Reaper hit the floor hard, gripping her weapons digging into him even as life bled out of him.

Yut was dead but now, there was no oneto hold the chain of the apprentice he had taken, the secret weaponof the Shimada clan that had been forged for one purpose in life and stolen into Talon’s care to craft into a true demon.“Bastard...” the word was a final curse as he went slackin the embrace of the monster that held him.

Yut always knew. Yut always prepared.

It was never that easy to terminate hiswill.

What’s Better Than This? Guys Being Dudes

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The End of the Movie

Despite being a child of the 90s I consider myself a super fan when it comes to 80s movies. Every month my local Alamo Drafthouse movie theater holds viewings for older movies and I always try to make at least once a month. Last month it was Nick Castle’s The Last Starfighter.

The first 80s movie I remember falling in love with was the Spielberg classic Stand by Me. Stand by Me was a coming-of-age story about a group of friends who go in search of a rumored dead body. Along the way they meet a host of characters and challenges that send them on individual journeys of self-discovery.

Even back then I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to another childhood-best-friends coming-of-age movie I’d seen: Now and Then. Now and Then was billed to me as Stand by Me, but for Girls. Instead of a group of boy friends going on an epic journal of self-discovery to find a dead body, the audience was treated to snapshots of summer spent with a group of girls who just wanted to buy a treehouse together and maybe put a disturbed spirit or two to rest, too.

Both films share themes that are integral to all coming-of-age films, most importantly growth and independence. At the end of Now and Then once the girls have secured enough money to buy their treehouse Samantha comments that “The tree house was supposed to bring us more independence. But what the summer actually brought was independence from each other.” The idea is sweet and profound, made even more so by the opening reunion between the friends, now all grown-up, and the promise they make to each other at the end to visit together more often.

The end of Stand by Me is noticeably different. After our brave heroes overcome trials and the perils of pubertal self-discovery and find the dead body, the adventure, and summer, are over. A flashforward narrated by Gordie tells us that the boys drifted apart with age. Teddy and Vern became passing figures in Gordie’s life. He remained close with Chris through college until he went off to university—then died breaking up a fight at a restaurant. This prompts Gordie to write the famously heartstring-pulling line: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.”

I remember casually asking my dad at the end of Now and Then why the boys didn’t stay together like the girls. His response? “They’re boys.” Like that explained everything. At the time, it actually kind of did. There was a reason the men in the movies I saw didn’t hug or talk about their feelings like the women did. In fact, attempts at intimacy or emotional connection between male characters were either played for laughs or shown as a cautionary tale.

“They’re boys” was the simple answer to a complex problem, but like most moviegoers, I was content to leave it at that.

But now that I’m older I have to ask why? Why are boys expected to sever ties with the people they care about when they grow older? What kind of Wormer Brothers-level havoc does puberty wreak on boys that it seemingly spares girls?

The answer is a lot less mystical than dead bodies or resurrected spirit.

Dude, Where’s My Emotional Intimacy?

Gordie’s line about never having friends like the ones he had when he was twelve isn’t isolated fiction. Boys tend to form closer bonds with other boys in childhood and almost seem to “lose” the ability to later. Sociologist Lisa Wade theorizes that around the ages of fifteen and sixteen teenage boys start learning what it means to “be a real man,” and the feminine-coded traits of friendship do not fall into that ideal.

In her book Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection psychologist Niobe Way followed boys of varying ages over four years to chronicle their views on friendship. Wade highlights a particularly devastating part of her research in which a 15-year-old boy named Justin was asked to describe his feelings towards his best friend at two different parts of his life:

[My best friend and I] love each other… that’s it… you have this thing that is deep, so deep, it’s within you, you can’t explain it. It’s just a thing that you know that person is that person… I guess in life, sometimes two people can really, really understand each other and really have a trust, respect and love for each other.

By his senior year, however, this is what he had to say about friendship:

[My friend and I] we mostly joke around. It’s not like really anything serious or whatever… I don’t talk to nobody about serious stuff… I don’t talk to nobody. I don’t share my feelings really. Not that kind of person or whatever… It’s just something that I don’t do.

Niobe’s interviews with boys are both eye-opening and heartbreaking. At one point she interviewed a freshman named Jason who touted the merits of friendship as having someone to turn to. Three years later she asked Jason if he had any close friends and he “said no and immediately [added] that while he nothing against gay people, he himself [was] not gay.”

Despite popular belief, men actually desire (and need) emotional intimacy just as much as women do. In fact, not having those emotional connections contribute greatly to men’s health problems.

So if men want it, and the lack of it might actually kill them, why can’t they have it?

Heterosexual men are taught that the romantic and sexual relationships they have with women are the only acceptable source of intimacy and closeness they’re allowed to have. That’s often why straight men feel the need to caveat any positive, slightly friendly interaction with another male with “No homo.” Popular belief is that if a guy is showing affection to a person he must want to date or have sex with that person. Hence the word bromance. Know what the female equivalent of a bromance is? A friendship.

Friendship between men is such a delicate walk between ‘just-guys-being-dudes’ and ‘full-on-homo’ that its become almost regulated. Telegraph’s Chris Moss posted a handy guide titled “A fine bromance: the 12 rules of male friendship” that featured such ‘rules’ as this:

Never openly verbalise that you value the friendship. Most men avoid literalness. There’s something vulgar about declaring “how important you are to me”. But there is also a kind of mysticism in never quite affirming that this might just be the second, or even the, central love in your life. Sometimes stating the obvious makes the obvious deteriorate or vanish. So respect the given; you can always weep openly at a friend’s funeral.

Even with the wink-wink-nudge-nudge aspect, it is still depressing to think that men have to edit their feelings in an effort to not make the people they care about uncomfortable. The other day on Twitter a virtual (female) stranger told me she loved me. In line at the checkout at Walgreens, I overheard a man say to his (male) companion “That’s a nice shirt, man. No homo.”

The restrictive range of what’s considered “acceptable” emotions men are allowed to feel are just some of the ways the patriarchy takes a toll on men, and it has real-life harmful effects. Misogyny and homophobia are core driving factors to this epidemic, and what’s worse is that it’s become normalized. One way society is both chronicles and reinforces these unwritten rules of masculinity? Movies.

It’s important to remember that things haven’t always been this way for men. Silver screen blockbusters show us that at some point in time a fella could hug another fella after a shootout without  anyone feeling the need to qualify it with a “No homo.”

So where did it all begin to turn?

Blow Your Wig

Because platonic intimacy between men wasn’t vilified in early years, depictions of strong bonds between men were actively depicted in cinema. In fact, the first same-sex kiss on screen in the 1927 silent film Wings was an entirely platonic kiss between two male infantrymen (Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen).

Audiences didn’t so much as bat an eye at the kiss. It went on to become a critical success and won the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture.

Another early 20th-century film that highlighted male friendships was the bad boy classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Let’s be honest here for a second, folks: James Dean wasn’t that great of an actor, he was just handsome (don’t @ me). That mug put butts in the seats for his performance as Jim Stark, the film’s troubled teenage protagonist just trying to make it. Aside from James Dean’s bad boy good looks the most memorable aspect of the film is Jim’s friendship with even more troubled outcast Plato (Sal Mineo). Jim’s feelings toward Plato take on a paternal tone, helping them both make up for something they lack. For Plato, it’s a stable, loving family. For Jim, it’s a sense of what it means to be a real man. Unusual as their dynamic was people were touched by love and care they shared. That’s further complicated when you look a little harder, but that’s a conversation for another time.

What’s Your Damage?

The 1980s and 1990s gave rise to the timeless buddies trope. Buddy comedies were defined by their “odd couple” approach to hyper-masculine films. Movies like 1988’s Midnight Run took the tried and true formula and flips it on its head, but still stays true to the hyper-masculine-odd-couple trope.

The most popular of this genre is the buddy cop film. The Lethal Weapon franchise (1987) is often credited with starting the movement in films, and sure enough, helped define other films in the genre. You take one by-the-book veteran cop, mix in a younger, more hair-trigger partner, throw in a few explosions and shootouts for maximum masculinity, and bam, you’ve got yourself a buddy cop film.

Because the men themselves were in a profession defined by its hard-shelled masculine nature the characters were allowed—in small doses—a degree of intimacy between one another. You wouldn’t catch Martin cathartically kissing Robert Thelma & Louise-style after one of their many near-death experiences, but the average heterosexual man wouldn’t feel too weirded out over an affectionate clap on the back or mildly fond poses in marketing materials.

The late 80s and early 90s also gave birth to a peculiar kind of cinematic take on male friendships I like to call Feelings Are Gay and Bad.

Unlike the buddy movies of the same decade, these films wielded homoeroticism like an Aesop’s Fable in 35mm. Rather than depict male friendships as the begrudged act of two hardened, red-blooded American males, these films opted to show brutal, all-consuming homoerotic unholy unions that eventually came to screeching—and often deadly—halt. A character who placed his love and care with another man would come to rue it by the film’s end or would learn a valuable lesson about vulnerability.

In Reservoir Dogs the audience watches as Mr. White lovingly cradles a wounded and terrified Mr. Orange in his arms. In between horrifying, blood-soaked scenes in the present we’re privy to Mr. Orange’s secret: he’s an undercover cop working to bust White’s crime ring from the inside. Blissfully ignorant, White soothes and protects him. He even goes so far as to pull a gun on the man in charge for threatening to kill him. After the infamous Mexican stand-off, White crawls over to Orange’s body as the police close in, only to be told Orange is actually a cop. The movie closes in on White’s anguish as the police surround them.

Kathryn Bigelow’s  Point Break (1991) introduced the world to Special Agent Johnny Utah (birth name Heterosexual McManlyman), former football star and current by-the-book FBI agent who goes undercover in a group of adrenaline junkie surfers and becomes dude-smitten with their charismatic leader, Bodhi. The explosions, killer surfing scenes, and the fact that Special Agent Johnny Utahis a former Rose-bowl winner and current gun-wielding badass makes it okay for male audience members to laugh at lines like “We gonna jump or jerk off?”

Nick Schager of The Daily Beast referred to Point Break as “A Homoerotic Classic.” Whether Point Break is a cautionary tale about getting too close or an intentionally subversive homoerotic film a female director remains a hotly contested.

The film adaption of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (1994) and David Fincher’s take on the Chuck Palahniuk classic Fight Club (1996) both use their source materials’ explicit homoeroticism to make the story darker and grittier. In Fight Club’s case, this was used in conjunction with what many feminists consider a critique of hypermasculinity, made with the intent to draw straight men to watch and leave rattled. For Interview with the Vampire, while Anne Rice’s intent was clear, some parts had to be altered considerably for consumption.

During this decade films of this kind also started to utilize the Deranged Homosexual trope. Poor, unfortunate heterosexual men would offer their friendship and find themselves in the grips another, obsessed and subtextually sexual man. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), another novel-to-film adaptation, takes the time to build up the dynamic between Tom and Dickie from budding friendship to growing obsession until Dickie’s ultimate death at Tom’s hands.

The 80s and 90s weren’t the purgatories of male friendships, though. For every Cable Guy(1996) there was a Sandlot (1993) after all. Still, the trend in media portrayals of male intimacy in films during this era set a particular tone that went virtually unchallenged until the following decade.

Isn’t It Bromantic?

The 2000s were the start of the “exclusively comedy” buddy films. In contrast with buddy films of the 80s that were action films that sometimes featured comedy, the male friendship movies of the 2000s were comedies that sometimes featured action.

The 2000s also saw a rise in the use of the term bromance or bromantic comedy to describe close male friendships. Even the word bromance evokes a mocking callback to romance, self-deprecatingly lampshading the connotations of two men being emotionally intimate. ‘Bromance’ takes the idea that men are emotionally illiterate and incapable of showing care without sexual or romantic inclinations and applies it homosocial relationships. In other words, the word ‘bromance’ pretty much plays itself. So started the attempt to strike a balance between “Fuck yeah, friendship!” and dudebro-ish mocking.

And mock they did. It was as if the homosocially-propelled films of this decade were constantly at war with their desire to show the close bonds men can foster with each other, and their need to assure the men watching it that yes, they know how “gay” the idea sounds.

I call this the “No Homo!™” movement.

When The 40-Year-Old Virgin premiered in 2005 it marketed itself as a raunchy, stupid, over-the-top sex comedy for men. Steve Carell plays Andy Stitzer, the eponymous forty-year-old virgin. After it’s revealed to his friends that he’s never had sex he’s put on a quest to lose his virginity as quickly as possible. This devolves into a series of cheap laughs, dubious sexual situations and, of course, rampant transphobia and homophobia.

The movie focuses on Andy’s quest (spoiler alert: the real loss of virginity was the self-discovery he had along the way!) but the B-plot belongs to two of his friends/bullies: Seth Rogen’s Cal and Paul Rudd’s David. The two spend most of the money bickering and insulting each other by making jabs at who’s “gayest” (“You wanna know how I know you’re gay? You like Coldplay.”) The jokes are cheap and unfunny but are sure-fire ways to get a chuckle out of your standard insecure bro-type.

At the end of the film after Jay apologizes to Andy for pressuring him into losing his virginity the two hug and embrace. In a call back to Cal and David’s game Haziz, their manage, comments snidely:

Haziz: Do you know how I know you guys are gay? You’re holding each other ever so gently.

This allows the film to reassure the audience that despite the lovey-dovey shit that’s just happened this is still a dude film.

Some praised The 40-Year-Old Virgin for “deconstructing the bromance formula,” but when compared to other films in its decade we can see its done nothing of the sort.

After the commercial success of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, we were treated to another Apatow-Rogen bromance film with Superbad (2007). Superbad brought Jonah Hill and Michael Cera together as Seth and Evan (named after writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg), two high school seniors desperate to lose their virginity before college. Despite the classic pitfalls—Seth Rogen himself later said jokes in the movie were “blatantly homophobic”—the movie handled the friendship between Seth and Evan with surprising care. During a quiet scene, Seth (drunkenly) confronts Evan about rooming with their mutual friend in college. Evan apologizes and admits he’s afraid to live alone. The two make up and say they love each other, then wonder aloud why they’ve never said they loved each other before.

Evan: I love you. It’s like, why can’t we say that every day? Why can’t we say it more often?

Seth: I just love you. I just wanna go on the rooftops and scream “I love my best friend Evan.”

Sure, they’re drunk and it’s comedic, but the comedy is more about their drunkenness than their love for each other.

At the end of the film the two friends meet up with their respective love interests at a mall and go their separate ways. This reminded me of the end of Stand by Me (and that is the first and last time you’ll hear me compare Stephen King and Rob Reiner to Seth Rogen and Greg Mottola): boys with a fierce bond drifting apart as evidence of their maturity and growth. As if the moment they spent telling each other they loved one another the night before was meaningless.

Seth Rogen, you sonofabitch.

Riding off the rise of Seth Rogen’s bromance comedies came I Love You, Man (2009) which tried to brand itself as the “bromance” movie. The movie set out to answer one question: Why don’t men have friends? The answer was a resounding “Uhhh?”

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) goes in search of a best guy friend after realizing he has no one to be his best man at his upcoming wedding. After going on a misfortune of “friend dates” he runs into and befriends smooth con man Sydney Fife (Jason Segal). I Love You, Man starts off as Feelings Are Gay and Bad and ends up a lukewarm reunion that skirts clumsily around the subject of real emotion like Jason Segal on a moped.

The only reason I rip on I Love You, Man is because it truly could have been groundbreaking. At the time it was considered groundbreaking because for once the premise of the movie was about male friendship. Not friendship plus virginity and booze, just friendship. It went even further to prove its progressive cred by introducing Paul’s But-Not-Too-Gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) as a shining example of sports-and-meat-loving masculinity. Still, despite its failure to truly commit, I Love You, Man managed to make a bromance film that didn’t rely heavily on sex and slapstick to validate itself as a “guy’s” movie.

Other notable bromance films of this decade like Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), and The Hangover (2009) also used similar tactics of highlighting friendship and neutralizing the discomfort of seeing intimate male friendships via homophobic language, slapstick comedy, objectification, and more. The self-deprecating overcompensation that defined the movies of his decade was a reflection and reinforcer of America’s evolving feelings towards male intimacy. It was no longer “Don’t be intimate with your male friends” but “Don’t be too intimate with your male friends.”

Men Have Feelings, Too (And That’s Okay)

Things began to subtly shift for bromance movies in the 2010s. Slapstick and Seth Rogen still reign supreme, but now there was a softer and more forgiving edge to it all. Conversations on hypermasculinity and homophobia were propelled into the mainstream to start a national dialogue. The idea of what it means to be a man and what masculinity really means started to change as did their portrayals in film.

“Your average dudebro” is the very demographic that needs to see these kinds of relationships normalized in the first place.

You could argue that Seth Rogen is the kind of bro comedies. He’s produced such nerdboy-testosterone, weed-filled slapsticks as Pineapple Express, Superbad, This is the End, and Game Over, Man! Whether as an actor, director, producer, or writer, Seth Rogen’s name has become synonymous with the kind of obnoxious bro-rock marketing execs don’t even consider women a demographic for.

But I would argue that much of the normalization of intimate male friendships comes from your average Seth Rogen film. Most of the time these are “dumb fun” comedies. That’s not to say other films by other people don’t portray male friendships just as well, but while movies like Magic Mike XXL (2015) are heartwarming examples of the kind of power platonic male intimacy can have they’re not as likely to be watched by your average dudebro. “Your average dudebro” is the very demographic that needs to see these kinds of relationships normalized in the first place.

The 2011 comedy-drama 50/50 cast Seth Rogen as Kyle Hirons, a man watching his best friend Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) undergo chemotherapy. Even though he doesn’t possess the necessary bedside manner he plants himself as Adam’s rock (and wingman) through his treatment. When Adam’s girlfriend cheats on him he angrily confronts her to defend his honor.

The film is at times tone-deaf and crude as any movie starring Seth Rogen and directed by Jonathan Levine is wont to be, but the message at its core is sweet and powerful.

In the controversial Netflix film The Interview (2014), Seth Rogen balances crude humor and James Franco-ness with an almost careful tenderness between the two male leads. During the penultimate scene where Dave and Aaron are preparing to walk to their deaths in order to save North Korea, the two share a quiet, intimate moment together discussing Dave’s hypothetical biography.

Dave: As the two best friends stared into each other in the eyes, they knew that this might be the end of a long road. But they also knew how much they meant to each other. And even though neither one could say it out loud, they were both thinking…

Aaron and Dave: [whispers] I love you.

What shocked me about this scene wasn’t just that two men had said they loved each other in an action-comedy, it was that the scene was played straight. No jokes, no thrown in “No homo!” It didn’t make up for the rest of the film, but it furthered my appreciation for Seth Rogen.

Another unexpected gem in the same vein are the 21 Jump Street movies, specifically its sequel 22 Jump Street. In 22 Jump Street we’re re-introduced to Jenko and Schmidt, who are assigned to go undercover at a college to find out what student has been dealing the drug WHY-PHY. Jenko gets close to a suspect in the investigation–the popular, athletic Rooster–and starts to blow off Schmidt, much to the latter’s dismay.

While Schmidt does spend a not insignificant portion of the film playing a comical version of a scorned lover for audiences to point and laugh it, you can’t knock 22 for trying to tackle a virtually undiscussed issue in male friendships: jealousy. This is pleasantly resolved near the end of the film with Jenko assures Schmidt that he lifts him up—while they’re dangling from a helicopter, but still.

There are plenty of other films from the 2010s that truly flip the script on your standard movie bromance (Due Date [2010], The Green Hornet [2011], and even This is the End [2013] if you’re in the camp of thinking they did rape jokes the right way) but I’d like to wrap up with one that’s dear to me: Seth Rogen’s Neighbors (2014).

On premise alone Neighbors sounds like your run-of-the-mill ignorant bro comedy. Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) get into a prank war with the Delta Psi Beta fraternity that’s moved next door, headed by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete (Dave Franco). The humor is slapstick and borders on gross at times but is absent the casual bigotry that early Rogen/Goldberg films weren’t shy about including. Of note is Pete and Teddy’s relationship. It’s revealed that Pete slept with Teddy’s girlfriend, and even though this causes bad blood between the two Teddy still sacrifices himself when the police show up to spare Pete’s bright future.

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), though, by far takes the cake for the best of the two. It opens on the old Delta Psi brothers assisting Pete’s boyfriend Darren in a Jason Mraz-inspired proposal. Having peaked in college, Teddy lives on Pete and his boyfriend’s couch. This comes to an end after the proposal and the two friends having a falling out, prompting Teddy to leave in search of a place to feel wanted. When crashing with the Radners doesn’t work out he moves on to a struggling sorority.

The decision to make Pete bisexual (or gay) was a conscious one suggested by writer Evan Goldberg and reporter asking director Nicholas Stoller why he’s never had gay characters in his films.

At the end of the film, Teddy and Pete make up in time for Teddy to plan and be the best man at his wedding. Before walking Pete down the aisle Teddy stops to give him a pep talk:

Teddy: You all right? You seem really nervous.

Pete: I’m having a little bit of a meltdown.

Teddy: Just remember, man, Darren loves you more than anyone in the entire world- Darren cherishes his friendship with you. Darren can’t imagine his life without you. And Darren is proud to call you his best friend.

Pete: You’re not talking about Darren, are you?

Teddy: No, not really.

The humor stays intact and without the expense of losing intimacy. Teddy is even allowed to tear up with pride and happiness for his best friend in full view of the camera before the scene is over.

And you still get a poop joke.

A movie that utilizes Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, and Dave Franco and a plethora and copy-and-paste frat bros to chastise against using misogynistic slurs (“Don’t call them hoes. That’s not cool anymore.”) and normalize gay love is a feat in and of itself. You could argue that the movie tries a little too hard to seem progressive and open-minded (at one point Teddy helps the sorority throw a Feminist Icon Party that features three different Hillary Clinton costumes) but the effort is genuine and appreciated. The film doesn’t equate masculinity with misogyny and homophobia. It allows their funny frat bros to show vulnerability and care for one another in a way that promotes laughter but doesn’t mock.

The expected bro humor isn’t sacrificed in favor of these progressive elements either. There are women in bikinis, babies holding sex toys, and unnecessary dick and poop comedy. All the elements that define a sleazy bro comedy but without the sleaze.

These movies are important to show that men being vulnerable and caring about one another doesn’t have to be something shameful, or something that comes with rules, or something that should be laughed at. Looking back on the up-and-down progression of these portrayals is at times hilarious, but are mostly sobering and sad. We should promote and support portrayals intimate male friendships in media to normalize the concept of platonic male intimacy.

So, straight men, go. Re-watch Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle or The Shawshank Redemption and consider telling a friend they’re important to you. You might never have friends like the ones you had when you were twelve but it’s never too late to find that kind of bond again.