#don’t know if it entirely worked thematically but it was a lot of fun and had some really cool editing choices and cinematography!
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To the anon who asked if I’d seen X last week, I’ve ticked it off my list! It was p good!
#don’t know if it entirely worked thematically but it was a lot of fun and had some really cool editing choices and cinematography!#I was home sick from work today and ended up watching four movies that were on my to watch list#the 1982 romcom Best Friends starring goldie hawn and burt lancaster#which was co-written by sam levinson’s dad and let me tell you#and based on his marriage to his first wife#and let me tell you#it explains a lot about sam levinson haha#(derogatory)#and then the 1949 Japanese film Late Spring#which was excellent#and Before Sunset#which I’d never seen before and liked a lot more than Before Sunrise
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Any fun Aang facts/ headcanons/ thoughts?
i don’t know if this is exactly fun but i think a lot about aang coping the first couple years after the end of the war. like i think on a spectrum of “the war is over and im so happy!!” to “suddenly thrust into a leadership position that is uniquely isolating and horrible,” aang perhaps isn’t struggling as much as the new firelord, but it’s a close thing.
i think katara would be the one who is happiest out of all of the gaang, since the war being over relieves this huge weight off her shoulders and she also gets to do the fulfilling work of rebuilding her tribe and finally being able to live up the potential she’s always imagined for herself, being able to preserve and pass on her heritage to a hopeful new generation. (that isn’t to say that she isn’t traveling the world with aang, trying to mitigate the damage caused by the war, but she would go back home as soon as possible. she needs to see gran gran!!!) there’s a sense of pride and satisfaction and joy to her role in this world that cannot be denied.
suki is in a similar position, where as the leader of the kyoshi warriors, her reunion with her sisters and their return to kyoshi island would be triumphant and joyous, and she gets to participate in the process of teaching a new generation of warriors, passing on her traditions and using her skillset to help people elsewhere. but then there’s also the lingering, nagging memory of being alone in a maximum security prison, and that trauma isn’t something one just gets over…
i see toph, more than anyone, spending the most time with zuko in the fire nation. she understands what it’s like to be alone, and she’d rather be with her family than her biological parents. i think she does visit them, but it doesn’t go well. toph may be incredibly sharp and mature for her age, but she is still just a kid, and the fact that her father will continue to reject her his entire life is a great wound, as much as she could flippantly deny it. but zuko understands what that’s like more than anyone, so being able to help him helps her through her own pain. even if zuko is a dick about it (although i think she stubbornly forces him to acknowledge her pain at some point instead of just outright dismissing her like he did on ember island), it’s a symbiotic relationship in its own way. i mean, he could definitely use a human lie detector.
sokka is like all over the place. i don’t know man he’s too complicated to sum up in one little paragraph. but yeah let’s just say the war ending doesn’t automatically Heal him and Solve his copious Issues. because it does solve some things but it also causes other problems. new problems even. but i already sort of talk about that here so let’s just move that for now.
and then of course zuko being crowned boy king of racist nation is like… not great. it works for thematic/symbolic/narrative reasons, of course, but realistically. it's a struggle! so, like i said, i think toph would stick by his side, and i think aang spends a lot of time in fire nation as well, and sokka as much as possible (NOT because he loves zuko, but because he thinks zuko is very stupid and he’s the world’s biggest control freak so if he doesn’t micromanage everything he’ll feel like it’s his fault if anything goes wrong). but iroh is…. not there. his best friend katara (i said what i said) is in the south pole or traveling the world or anywhere but Here. azula is. broken?? the world?? is broken?? and he (famously a fuck-up) is supposed to fix it???? poor kid.
anyway. this is all preamble to contextualize what can only be described as The Worst Puberty Anyone’s Ever Had. okay here’s a bonus fun headcanon: aang is born in october! i say this because he’s the most libra to ever do it (i don’t know shit about astrology but i do know that). so for the entire run of the show (from winter to summer) he is twelve years old. i don’t know if you’ve been around any twelve year old boys recently (not to brag, but i have), but they are Going Through It. and that’s the average twelve year old, not even including the shocking temporal displacement and being the sole survivor of a genocide and shouldering the burden of the whole fucking world and knowing that an entire country full of people want you dead.
the fact that aang maintains his childlike wonder and sweetness for the most part means that it’s going to hit him like a truck once the war ends and he finally has a chance to focus on himself. we see the early stages of puberty affecting him in terms of how he behaves around katara, the change between his book one kiddie crush and his book three confusion and intensity. but it’s more than just burgeoning sexuality. he wakes up, is informed that he’s been stuck in an iceberg for a century, that everyone he ever knew with the exception of appa and bumi are dead due to a genocide, and that it’s his responsibility to end the war. and the rest of the show is him trying to step into that duty and finally becoming the kind of person the world needs him to be. and now… it’s over.
on one hand, there’s that overwhelming sense of relief. he did it. he successfully prevented yet another genocide, stopped the war, and did it all without compromising his values. his new friends (his new family) are all alive and safe and now can rebuild the world together. they can rest and have fun and be kids. and that’s what aang is celebrating in the finale when he looks at all of them and smiles, when he hugs katara in acknowledgement of how far they’ve come. aang is incredibly strong and resilient, and it’s a strength that comes from a place of genuine love and understanding. he was taught good values as a kid, values that have guided him through the most unimaginable of tragedies. but he’s not perfect. no one is.
no one can prevent the oncoming swirl of hormones and trauma and second-guessing that is about to hit aang once it finally occurs to him that the purpose he has been fighting for ever since his entire life changed is now over, basically, and he has to figure out what it means to be alive outside of one sole, defining goal. as anne carson said in red doc>, “to live past the end of your myth is a perilous thing.” as jp sartre said in la nausée, “i outlive myself” (specifically, anny says it to roquentin). what is aang doing if not ouliving himself? had he lived a normal lifespan that hadn’t been disrupted by a spiritually imposed stasis, he probably would’ve been dead by now (long dead, if we can assume that his death in lok is by natural causes). and his myth, his grand destiny of stopping the war and once more carving out a space for his people in this brave new world? well, he did it. accomplished it with flying colors. now it’s over. now he is a perilous thing.
as i alluded to before, i think the only person who can really truly empathize with aang’s situation is sokka. sokka, too, has survived beyond any point he imagined. he has built his entire identity around being a shield, and now that the war is over, his ability to protect others from immediate threats and sacrifice himself for a cause has been ripped away from him. he now has to forge an identity beyond reducing himself to a soldier, in a fundamentally unfamiliar world. sokka was shaped by war, and yet he lived past it, past the end of his myth. aang’s world is now also unfamiliar, not solely because the war is over, but because the war is over and yet he is still alone. he did it, he saved the day, and yet what is his reward? he saved a lot of people, but none of his people. he can never go home again.
aang and sokka’s role as foils is something i want to write about more because i do find it truly fascinating, but in these terms i think we can also read their psychological states postwar as a sort of reciprocal dynamic. i’ve spoken in the past about how in a postwar reconstruction landscape, sokka would do a lot of the administrative work that aang cannot. not only because aang is literally twelve, but because aang cannot focus all his attention on this world when he is also its only real tether to the past. so sokka would make room for aang to focus on being the last airbender by sort of taking on the mantle of pseudo-avatar. solely in the most bureaucratic sense of the title, of course, but that would be the role that sustains and (somewhat) fulfills him after the war. and i think aang would be grateful for that, but he’d also be somewhat resentful?? not of sokka (aang is too emotionally mature for that, plus he respects sokka too much), but he’d definitely resent himself. think about how guilty and shameful he feels whenever he feels like he’s let the world down due to factors beyond his control. and so the fact that sokka is doing so much of what aang himself should be doing because he’s too busy being defined by his status as a genocide survivor… well, it might make him angry. he might lash out. and we’ve seen him frustrated, volatile, and emotionally confused. it’s not pretty.
i know that we all only want the best for aang and want him to be happy and thriving after the war because he’s such a perfect kid who deserves the world, but realistically, i do think there would be a period where he’s kind of hard to be around. not only because that’s just something that happens to all adorable baby boys once they turn thirteen (i, for one, learned this lesson extremely painfully), but because he’s dealing with a lot and the only person who even remotely understands what he’s going through is also the most emotionally repressed guy he knows.
throughout atla, he never allows himself a moment to just stop and feel, because the depth of his grief is actually scary and incredibly difficult to confront. but i think if he did ever allow himself to feel, he might never stop. he might, in fact, spend a month or so curled up in blankets in bed eating nothing but bean curd puffs and shutting out everyone but momo. i actually think that’s more realistic than him immediately entering a perfect relationship with katara and being highschool sweethearts and popping out three kids. and frankly, i think going through that kind of depression now that he no longer has any pressing responsibilities also happens to be something he’s earned. he’s been pushing down his grief, ignoring it, distracting himself from it, this whole time. it’s time he finally lets himself feel.
on a happier note, i like thinking about aang and suki getting closer after the war (or even being close offscreen during the show, like on ember island). i like to think that suki can act as a sort of cool big sister figure to aang, who has suffered just enough that she can empathize with his pain, but isn’t too close to the situation (like fellow genocide survivors katara and sokka, or genocide perperators’ direct descendants, like zuko) that she can still discuss it with him without bringing her own baggage into the fore. she’s very good at giving direct, no-bullshit advice in a nonetheless kind and compassionate way, and she’s also very good at joking around and knowing how to let loose and have fun in a way aang appreciates. she also really admires and highly values the role of the avatar in the world, and she also admires and cherishes aang as a person, so i think she could give him that kind of measured encouragement that aang really needs to hear.
obviously katara has done this for aang a lot in the past, and i’m not saying she wouldn’t also continue to be a shoulder for aang to lean on, because no matter how much he may try to push her away, she will always be there for him, but i think suki also sort of provides a necessary detachment where he isn’t bogged down by any romantic feelings for her and she isn’t bogged down by her own all too similar trauma the way katara is. suki has people to help her work through her own trauma (sokka, her sisters, etc.) so aang doesn’t need to reciprocate. she’s just happy to be there for her surrogate baby bro who needs her. she’ll serve the avatar in any way she can, whether by becoming a kyoshi warrior, by sacrificing herself to free his bison, or by just chilling with him in bed while he rants about his impossible situation and cries on her shoulder.
#TO LIVE PAST THE END OF YOUR MYTH IS A PERILOUS THING!!!!!!#EVERYONE CLAP AND CHEER FOR TO LIVE PAST THE END OF YOUR MYTH IS PERILOUS THING!!!!!#grow and decay#asks#postwargaang#aang#katara#suki#sokka#zuko#toph#aang&sokka#aang&suki#aang&katara#toph&zuko#FINALLY FINISHED WRITING THIS YAYYY#it's been my goal this past week to answer as many unfinished asks as i possibly can#i have so many drafts i just never bothered polishing up#like this one!#considered putting it under a cut but then i was like. nah#lmk if i should tho#in case youre like. on the fence abt reblogging it but would if it was somehow shorter#bc then i will#i like this one :)#spreading that aang depression aang & suki bffs agenda
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Finding Your Title
I am actually so lazy with naming my projects. I worked on a beloved project for 4+ years and the entire time I called it ‘Doc 2’. Which is fine, which works—you don’t need to know your title right off the bat, or even after you’re finished. However, if you’re looking for inspiration in how to actually name your project, this is what I do:
Method 1, write down every element, character, theme, motif, interesting draw of your project. I make a giant word cloud with concepts like: family, magic, witches, the ocean, love and loss, paranoia, MC’s name, small city, plants, etc. etc. etc. anything you can think of that’s relevant to your project, put it down. Then, start combining them.
Love and Paranoia, The Witch, The City by the Ocean, etc.
It’s a great way to generate a bunch of relevant titles at once, and has helped me come up with most of my title ideas.
Method 2, if you’ve already written a good chunk of your project you can read it over for those really memorable lines. The ones that hit hard, and probably end off chapters or punctuate thematic moments. Taking one of those lines and making it your title (if relevant) can make it stand out even more when your readers get to that point.
The truth behind titling is that if you’re hoping to get your project traditionally published, the title you choose likely won’t end up being the title of the published work—disappointing but it does take some of the pressure off to create the best, most noticeable title you can. Still, titling while you’re working on a project gives it some identity, and can be a lot of fun!
Good luck!
#writing#writers#writing tips#writing advice#writing inspiration#creative writing#writing community#books#film#filmmaking#screenwriting#novel writing#finding your title#title
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Nintendo-vember Level 2: Howard and Nester: How you are not supposed to pay tribute to a comic
Ahhhh, Nintendo Power. Published by Nintendo of America from 1988 till August of 2012, this magazine was part of the childhood of many Nintendo fans. A magazine that functioned as a gaming guide, advertisement for new games and just fun overall for people enthusiastic for Nintendo.
While we did not have Nintendo Power like that where I am from, we had a similar magazine called “Club Nintendo”, which ran from the 90s up till the early 2000s (2002 to be precise), after which it unfortunately got unceremoniously canceled. I had access to these issues thanks to relatives who enjoyed them a lot and honestly, I enjoyed them too. Very informative, highlighting many games and filled with some really fun comic stories here and there.
Now, Club Nintendo wasn’t entirely like Nintendo Power though. For example, among our comics in the magazine we did not have the subject of today’s post: Howard and Nester.
Now for those unaware who they are, a short explanation: Howard and Nester were the characters of a short series of comic strips from the very early days of Nintendo Power. Howard was an adult business man with a bow tie that Matt Smith may like, while Nester was a ten to eleven year old redhead NES player. In other words, he was a little shit.
Howard himself btw was based on Howard Phillips, initially a warehouse manager for Nintendo of America, who at a very young age (he was only in his 20s when he started working for Nintendo) joined the company and would play a major role in the marketing of the NES launch in America. He was also an avid videogamer of the “olden times” so to speak and was Nintendo of America’s spokesperson number uno. Liked by many within the industry, he did however eventually leave Nintendo in 1991 (at only 32 years old), to pursue careers in other companies. Which did not work out quite as well, according to Wikipedia. Though he is still hanging around, kicking, playing and working in the industry, for some german firm no one really knows about.
Man, he even looks kinda like the eleventh Doctor.
Anyway, back to the comic itself: The comic strips were essentially just meant as short, two page fillers ad would feature the caricature of Howard Phillips and Nester, the later supposed to represent Nintendo fanboys, finding themselves in environments related to a current videogame and dealing with whatever situation. Most of the time just ending in some comedic pratfall for a rather impatient Nester to suffer.
Then, after 25 strips, Howard, in relation to Howard Phillips leaving Nintendo, also left the comic, resulting in the thing ending and Nester going on some mini adventures on his own.
Now honestly, reading those strips I don’t think they are really bad. Howard as a character is rather supportive, there are small hints to games they thematically integrate in the comics here and there and some of the scenarios are kinda fun. Plus even the linework is okay for this sort of comic.
However, I genuinely think that Nester is a little bit of a shit. Especially in his first two strips.
He just comes off as smug and a bit of a know it all. Believing he is better than Howard, not grateful for any advice and trying to come off like he is an expert in the eyes of younger, impressionable kids.
Oh god, he is Dobson!
Though that may be what adds to the pratfalls he suffers then. In addition, I am a bit baffled by what games they supposedly star in or how some of the games they talk about are executed in comic.
I mean, the Ducktales comic for example has nothing to do with Ducktales really aside of the moon duck enemy thing kinda being in it (though that may have been related to Disney telling them not to use Scrooge)…
And then there is the fact, that a comic based on the Golgo 13 game was made.
You know, THE Golgo 13? The game based on the famous manga about an assassin for hire?
I mean, what next? A comic based on them in the setting of Home Sweet Home? Though that may have been cool.
It is just, I can see how the duo left some impression on early readers, but I can’t see how they could get quite the appeal, that back in 2008 Nintendo Power would release THIS comic, featuring a now adult Nester talking to his son about the good old days. A little manga-esque like tribute, some people enjoyed.
Not so much You know who though, who decided to draw instead THIS comic in order to “honor” the two and the style of the comic. And in doing so just ended up showing that he kinda never understood the character of Nester, nor the concept behind the original tribute in the first place.
So, why does the comic suck? Because it is just an excuse for Dobson to project his own shitty opinion about how Nintendo “dishonored” the origins of the characters he claims to love onto Nester. All while making also both characters accidentally come off as losers and creepy. Particularly Howard comes off as horrible in the comic. After all, based on the set up established via the first two panels, I can only assume that the guy kidnapped a ten year old boy against his will and put him into cryostasis. Separating him from his family and friends, only to thaw him up again twenty years later. And for what? To show him how far games have come since then?
I get that the comic is supposed to be a joke (though I see nothing in it that makes me laugh), but… well..
For that set up is rather unfortunate and feels more like it should be part of some existential horror story about someone finding themselves completely displaced in time and seeing, how their disappearance tore apart their loved ones. I for one rather ask myself, what happened to Nester’s parents? Were they accused of killing their son and send to prison? Did they commit suicide? Did Howard just kill them to get to Nester in the first place?
And the “motivation” to freeze him -I want to show you how games are played in the future- is just… that doesn’t even feel like a plan. I am genuinely at loss for words to explain the “logic” that Howard must have had and how none of that helps “the joke”.
Like look, the idea that Howard would e.g. pull out some magic item or machine to show Nester how in the future games are played and giving him a bit of a cultural shock only to return back to the present, feels like a set up that could have worked. But this is not the set up of this comic. This comic has Howard use an extreme measurement to achieve his goal, that comes just off as psychotic.
But hey, why bother elaborating on the ramifications of Howard having tortured a child like that (which feels like a great disservice to the real Howard Phillips), when there are games to play.
Or rather, complain about, because that is the only thing Nester does, starting from his shock at seeing Link now having blond hair.
Which is stupid as shit. I am sorry, but considering the kid had been on ice since the late 80s according to this comic, I think his first reaction to seeing game graphics from around 2008 would be “holy shit” as a result of a cultural shock. Not the fact that Link now has blond hair.
Also, way to prove how Nester is only a phony Nintendo fanboy, because he calls Pit by the name of Kid Icarus
See, little trivia bit here: The tendency of calling little Pit (btw, one of my favorite characters in the Nintendo canon ever since I played Uprising. I love that little shota) Kid Icarus, came mostly because of the awful Captain N: The Game Master cartoon from 1989, which named him by his game title. All while the game was a stable of the NES library since 1987 and Pit’s name was a stable in its freaking manual
Look for yourself: Page 7.
Also, getting riled up over Mario not being from Brooklyn when that was NEVER a point in the actual games anyway or Link’s hair color?
Hm, doesn’t that sound familiar…
Look, I am not much a fan of Nester based on the strips I saw, but it would be obvious even to Helen Keller, that Nester here is not himself. He is a stand in for Dobson and his shitty opinions on how Nintendo “betrayed” the old NES fans by making Mario and Co more marketable and ignore their “true and honest” origins. The “real” Nester based on the strips comes off to me more like someone who would freaking geek out at seeing his favorite game characters being these detailed, cartoony badasses fighting equally great villains.
After all, playing as Link who can ride on a horse and fights a giant sized pig demon? Mario throwing planets at Bowser? Mario and Link duking it out with other heroes? Seeing Pit and Palutena in Smash Bros Brawl? Which btw came out in January of 2008, so Nester complaining about not seeing Pit- oh I am sorry “Kid Icarus” would be inaccurate too.
The point I am trying to make is, that if you grew up with the bare minimum presentation some NES games had, you would be gushing over anything “modern”
Heck, considering the sort of stuff Nester played or was into in the comics, he would likely drop the Wii once he learnt about stuff like God of War, Ratchet and Clank and other “badass” and “cool” games other consoles can offer.
But no. Nester is simply overwhelmed with the concept of 3D and “realism”. Though lets be real here, I think realism in videogames is an oxymoron, independent of what console we talk about. I mean, what is e.g. “realistic” about Mario, Sonic, God of War, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil etc? I know at least half a class of biologists who cry each time a new Resident Evil scientist comes off with a new variant of the virus.
Anyway, he is so overwhelmed, he simply just wants to go back to the old days and the game he used (or rather “use”. Btw, great job at even failing at simple past tense) to play.
Only loving the Nintendo Wii once Nester tells him about the online shop and that he can play on it the same shlock he already likely has memorized before Howard put him into cryostasis and as such deprived him of a proper childhood.
Meaning that Howards “plan” to show Nester the future of gaming failed, because instead of embracing the new while also loving the old, he simply rejects the former and embraces the later even more tightly, putting it on a pedestal the same way Dobson does.
Which frankly, is one of the aspects I find the most annoying about Dobson in general when it comes to Nintendo. I get it. He grew up with the NES and I admit, the console had some really great games that build the corner stones of many franchises and the Nintendo empire.
But, and you can crucify me for saying that, by modern day standards (or heck, even standards set up by the follow up console, the SNES) the NES era was kinda bad and many games, even a lot of the classics, can’t stand the test of time as much anymore than they once did.
Before you burn me on the stake, let me explain: I myself grew up with the SNES and GameBoy as my first consoles, so I never played the NES games, even though I was aware of them through Club Nintendo. Only in recent years, thanks to the NES mini and some game collections I downloaded on the PS4, I got to play some of the classic games. And frankly, I think a lot of them suck in some regard. Like the technical limitations of the time, the at times unfair programming to make certain games extra hard and how quick you can actually get through the game once you know what to do, make some games a bit of an underwhelming experience.
Granted, unlike Dobson I will admit, that my opinion is very biased. Coming from my own love of the SNES, as well as decades of playing other games too, including sequels to many of these starter games that managed to polish up things in term of gameplay and presentation. And there is no denying, that there have still been many great games on the console by Nintendo itself, but also third party publishers such as Capcom, Squaresoft, Enix or Konami.
Kirby, Mario Bros 3, Megaman 3 up to 6, Ducktales, Castlevania 3, Contra, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Earthbound are at least some titles that come to my mind.
But it was also the console that gave us stuff like the LJN published videogames, got a shit ton of unnecessary equipment like the Power Glove, established the term “Nintendo Hard” and frankly, I find myself unable to genuinely play the NES Zelda games or Kid Icarus without feeling them quite underwhelming and a bit flawed. So bottom line, I think it was important, I think good stuff came out of it, but it was only the first steps into the right direction. The NES learnt how to walk, so the Switch could run.
Dobson meanwhile worships the era like it was the greatest thing ever, never topped and shoves his opinion into Nester’s mouth. Resulting in the strip’s entire message boiling down essentially to the following:
The past was greater than what we have now and is the only thing I love. Oh, and fuck you for making me try new things.
Which is ironic, coming from the person who among other things would claim that such a behavior is toxic years later. Going onto rants how Kylo Ren is such a nostalgic nerd and criticism of “toxic fans” when he ranted about Star Wars – The Last Jedi and that critics of it are all Nazis. Even though Kylo is the one saying “let the past die”.
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There is also just the fact, that the comic obviously misses the idea behind the original Howard and Nester tribute comic from Nintendo Power.
Like sure, the comic in the magazine was flawed. The manga inspired art work wasn’t that great and Nester felt like he grew up into the sort of young adult who made videos on youtube in the late 2008s, trying to emulate the AVGN by reviewing old NES games and acting like he is hardcore for enjoying “The Wizard”. All while being in reality more of a dork, especially in the eyes of a son that actually comes off as way older than he likely should be if Nester is only in his late twenties or early thirties.
But I think that was kind of the point. Making Nester more a caricature of the “gaming nerd” of the time period, while also indirectly playing a decent tribute to the old days and showing Nester having gotten older, though not necessarily wiser. But considering his kid seems to be doing okay, I doubt he is that terrible of a dad.
Which begs the question though, what is it about the comic that pissed Dobson off that much? The “manga” style? Granted, I think they could have gone more with a style akin to what the original comics had, which is the only thing Dobson has going for his page, that I can actually appreciate. But it could have been worse.
Is it the idea of Nester actually changing as a person, growing up? I mean, considering how allergic Dobson was often times to the idea of change (except when it was related to dumb reboots that may piss off republican strawmen in his head), I could actually believe that.
But if that was what pissed him off and his idea was to make a comic doing a tribute to these two the “right way”, Dobson failed miserably. Because all he did was make Howard come off like a psychopath for freezing up a kid to show him some games and Nester like a moron who can’t appreciate positive change in the media he consumes. All because Dobson was rather focused to vent his own frustration about Nintendo through their mouths, rather than respectfully draw a story with them. Something he even admitted
The artwork may be decent here, but the writing is a failed assignment.
The most ridiculous thing about that being, that either some time later or before, Dobson made a way better comic starring NEster, that actually gets the vibe of the original
And before someone claims I can only complain and not bring some alternative to the table how to execute the comic, here is what I may have done:
Start the comic as Howard and Nester in the Back to The Future NES game, supposedly having just finished it. Only for Nester to end up playing with the controls of the DeLorean and in doing so transporting him and Howard into the future. Materializing in 2008, they then learn about the actual positive things happening to videogames ever since , though Howard may also learn to some degree about the bad stuff whe he reads up an article titled “Rise and Fall of videogames” or something related to Jack Thompson). Have Nester for example geek out about Smash Bros, question what a Pikachu is, hitting himself in the head accidentally with a Wii Remote, but overall try to also give a positive message to it all.
Like Nester befriending bunch of kids via Wii playing. The comic then ending with the two travelling back to 1988, Nester all pumped up about the prospect how great videogames will turn out in the future -perhaps also being a bit impatient at the prospect to wait 20 years to play Smash Bros Brawl again- while Howard muses about the things yet to come. The final panel perhaps being set in 2008 with an older Nester looking over a little brother who befriended by accident his younger self, challenging the younger one to a rematch he had “lost” in the past.
I know, sounds corny as fuck, but it at least would nullify the entire “I kidnapped you and froze you up” implications of the original comic by Dobson.
Now, unlike Dobson, I do not intend to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the readers, so I want to end this post on a sweeter note by informing you about the following:
When Nintendo Power eventually ended on issue 285 in December of 2012, someone at the editorial team must have remembered Howard and Nester, because they decided to have this little two page comic in it.
Nester, drawn in the classic style, as a way more well adjusted adult than in the 2008 comic, reminiscing about the magazine that he owes his existence and had brought him many hours of joy. His son helping him accept that it may be over for the magazine, but that the enjoyment will never 100% go away. Even adding a little framed bow tie in the background of the last panel, symbolizing that in hindsight Nester likely came to appreciate Howard as more than just an annoying mentor sort of figure. All before heading out to play a new Mario game with his son. Leaving the past behind but close, while embracing the future.
A comic, that in my opinion hits on the sweet “bittersweet” spot of such things as Fullmetal Alchemist or Amphibia. Giving the “story” a proper wrap up and assuring people that it is over, but that the characters themselves in a way are -unlike Dobbear- never gone.
And if you want to read all the strips of Howard and NEster, here is a link to the archive I found for this post.
Level 2 is done. Time for some bonus round and then the next level soon. Cause now we are really going deep into his whinning over the superiority of the old Nintendo canon
#nintendo#howard and nester#nintendo-vember#andrew dobson#tom preston#video games#nes#comic#webcomics#so you are a cartoonist#syac#so you are andrew dobson#howard & nester#nintendo power#youtube#Youtube
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Book Review 67 – Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney
This is a book I’ve been vaguely aware of for a while, without really knowing anything about it beyond that it was getting a lot of positive buzz, but it got a WFA best novel nomination and that provided the impetus I needed to finally give reading it a try. And, well, I’ll be honest – this was a slog for me. If it had been half the size it would very likely be one of my favourite works of the year; as is the best way I can describe the reading experience is ‘slowly drowning in cotton candy’.
The book stars Miscellaneous ‘Lannie’ Stones, younger daughter of a declining noble house which has provided executioners and assassins to the royal family of Lariat since its founding, and generally but not lately provided necromancers as well. Lannie is the hope of the family, a necromantic prodigy (if one with a profoundly inconvenient allergy to violence that requires her isolation from the rest of the family and her raising by a bound revanent nanny and the dubiously trustworthy ghost of an ancestor). As the story opens, her parents have both died, and she’s been forced to write to her terror of an elder sister to come home as their debts are called due. She comes home with an enscrolled and deeply unwilling fiancee abducted during her studies. This, surprisingly, only takes up the first small chunk of the book, followed by a timeskip, the introduction of Lannie’s niece born in the interim, the elder sister dealing with the consequences of her seven-year campaign of bloody vengeance against the foreign court which murdered their parents, and the beginning of the actual plot.
I really did want to enjoy this book, and on the page-to-page level it was often somewhere between charming and delightful. But there were just so many pages, and so very little happening on most of them. After the timeskip the book spends something like 500 pages just leisurely meandering, stopping whenever anything catches its interest to spend half a page or three enthusiastically describing it. At a certain point the exuberant narration and playful vocabulary stop feeling delightful and start feeling like the author is somehow being paid by the word.
This is made all the odder by the fact that around the 80% mark the book suddenly realizes its got a bunch of problems to resolve and switches into an entirely different gear, rushing through revelations and resolutions like it’s on a deadline. Which apparently it was? The book ends with what feels like less of a sequel hook and more like a final hundred pages were chopped off the finished product by a longsuffering editor pushed past the brink.
So, the lion’s share of the book is interested less in plot than character dynamics and cute slice of moments. It’s very much a found family sort of narrative, delivered in an incredibly blunt fashion. Which definitely works for a lot of people, I’m sure, but everyone was so obviously written to be endearing and charming and fell into love of various sorts with each other so instantly it just left me cold, and more a bit bored.
This is a book with footnotes, and among those it feels pretty middle of the pack? Not doing anything particularly impressive with them, and they don’t have a real character or voice different from the rest of the book, but they’re a fun enough way to infodump a bunch of Stones family history (particularly all the ways different members have died).
Thematically...look, I’m aware this is entirely a personal pet peeve not shared by any particular audience, but the fact that Lannie’s whole life from infancy is being chosen as the beloved priestess of a goddess of death for one specific purpose, and that this is portrayed as an entirely benevolent, positive, and uplifting thing to have done at basically all points that it’s discussed just sets me on edge. There’s nothing really badly done about it, I’m just a contrary maltheist by nature and the book did basically nothing to allay that.
Generally – I don’t know, I’m not opposed to 700 page books (I’d be an utter hypocrite if I was. Almost certainly still am regardless), but I feel like being that long is a failing the book then has to justify? It should be obliged to do something with the length, if it’s going to demand so much of my time to wade through it. This didn’t really feel like it did.
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12/18 - 12/31/2023
The chapter I’m working on right now begins Part 2, and is Kira's. I’m trying to figure out how much of this act is meant to be told from Kira’s POV and how much belongs in Rose’s chapter, instead. Which is challenging because 1) Rose’s chapter is seven chapters from now, and phew, that’s asking a lot of me to know what info would be thematically relevant here vs. much later! And because 2) Kira is entirely tertiary to the situation, and there may be little of it that DOES make sense for him to narrate.
Which would suggest, well, there’s your answer, B3! But then I’m like, isn’t that Kira’s whole post-TYBW situation? What with the being stitched together with Dead Guy souls and being kinda sorta a dead guy himself. Maybe should be narrating everything because he’s tertiary to everything, perhaps including his own mind/body, and because none of it makes sense for him to narrate. Which I’m into conceptually; mechanically, I’m like, uh, okay, how do I… how would you like me to make that work.
Rather than see that puzzle to its end, I ended up writing my HitsuHina Gift Exchange fic + a string of scenes from Hisagi’s chapter, the latter of which are really embarrassing but make me happy.
The planner I bought last year had little boxes each week where you were supposed to write your highlights for the week. I dutifully filled these out, except when I was out of the country and points in June, because it was a very ??? month. These were often very pathetic, because this was a stressful, exhausting, sometimes depressing year and I am a burnt husk of a human being, but writing fanfic featured in these highlights 11 separate times! <3 (To add to that count, talking to people on Tumblr about writing/Bleach featured twice, and Hitsugaya and Hinamori also both featured (specifically, going back through our Hitsugaya tag and spending a full hour scheduling birthday reblogs; and my condor!Tobiume commission ToT <3333).
Next year I anticipate will be even more stressful, because I have a lot of deadlines I need to meet and they are not things that spark joy; but my time will be a bit more in my own hands, so I’m hoping to balance that out by asserting more regular time to do things that DO spark joy, and to, uh, heal a bit.
I wrote in the tags of a reblog post that my writerly hopes and dreams for 2024 were to finally write my Dieselsexual Akon/Hisagi and, ambitiously, to finish both Parts 2 and 3 of this WIP. I don’t know if I’ll finish Part 3, but Part 2, for sure! My other goal for 2024 is to find ways to make posting fanfic more fun for me, because that part feels very not fun. I’ve done some brainstorming about it, to start that off.
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Peace and Love on the Planet Earth Analysis
The entire song is allllll about juxtaposition
youtube
Homeworld gems VS the Crystal Gems, Peridot's integration
The sci-fi setting on Homeworld greatly juxtaposes the simplicity of earth, which is the point of the song. The gems on Homeworld are not used to taking breaks, mostly because they physically don’t need to and because of their utilitarian culture. This is why Peridot is so confused when the crystal gems stop working despite not being done, just to stare at the sky and listen to the ambient noises of the countryside, and she's equally as confused about the concept of making music ("What is the point? You're not 'making' anything" "Interest without meaning? Solutions without problems?").
The song follows a call-and-response format which Steven initiates to help Peridot learn about music. This is meant to parallel how she integrates into Earth and the crystal gems, and how Steven welcomes her to the family. He later helps her harmonize with him, paralleling an 'invitation' to the family. Music is an essential part of the show, so it makes sense that this call and response would be used to introduce a new character to the family, as Steven invites her to express herself through singing and even writing her own little verse. We see the crystal gems sing together for fun all the time.
Another thing worth noting is that, after Peridot sings her verse, the crystal gems take turns singing the chorus of the song. Peridot is the one to finish the song, with that last “Is there anything that’s worth more than peace and love on the planet Earth?” She has finally been integrated into the crystal gems. The end of this song marks a new era in her character development.
The juxtaposition between simplicity and complexity
The song starts with the C major scale, then the entire song is in C major. These are the first 2 scales and keys that a beginner would learn when starting an instrument. This is because they are deemed as the easiest to start with (Peridot: "That's exceedingly simple"). However, the song itself is actually pretty difficult and challenging to play on the ukulele even if it doesn't really sound like it. This would especially be the case for a beginner, let alone Peridot, who literally just learned about the concept of music. This is the first technical juxtaposition present in the song.
The instrumentation is also very simple, being just a single ukulele at first. Later on, as Peridot and the crystal gems join in, it gets a little bit of a deeper texture as it adds a layer of bass in the background. This is meant to mirror the storyline and messages of the show getting more complex and layered, as the viewers along with Steven become aware of more characters and situations.
Melody & lyrics
The melody itself is pretty simple and repetitive. This is done to help Peridot understand the concept of music and be able to repeat the melody easily. Steven says it himself; “If it’s a pattern, then just repeat after me”. Later on, he encourages her to write something herself, which, not only does she do, but the melody is different to what Steven has been singing to her. This mirrors her development, as she goes from not knowing anything about the Earth to being fully integrated into and living on it("What do you know about the Earth?" "Apparently more than you, you clod!!!").
Life and death and love and birth ↑ and peace and war on the planet earth ↓. The notes go up, then down. There is a lot of jumping between lower and higher notes present in the song. This juxtaposition is very technical, but it’s meant to mirror the thematic juxtapositions on Steven Universe: Homeworld vs aErth, simplicity vs complexity, as well as the juxtapositions mentioned in the lyrics.
The lyrics are pretty self explanatory. They are clear and total antithetical concepts, like life, love, birth ≠ death, and peace ≠ war. This, and all the above mentioned, mirror the juxtapositions of Earth, how nature is so simple and so complex at the same time and how many opposing concepts coexist and take place at the same time.
Conclusion
Once again, we are reminded of the juxtaposition of Homeworld vs Earth. This juxtaposition is meant to highlight to the viewer how things on Earth can exist and contradict each other for literally no reason other than to exist. This is a common theme in the show. The intention of the creators is to make the audience think about the things they take for granted every day living on Earth, and to appreciate its sheer beauty.
It is also meant to be a criticism to utilitarianism, I'm not saying this randomly, it's a common theme in the show, hence the exaggerated use of it by Homeworld. The slice-of-life aspect of the show, which was largely (and falsely) deemed as 'filler content', is meant to be a showcase of doing things for the sake of doing things, which forms a direct contrast with Homeworld and Homeworld gems and develops the relationships between the crystal gems as a family.
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I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?
Hi!! I see that you have already reblogged my IDW1 Optimus-focused reading guide, so I assume that you read that and still felt like it was too much. I'd do anything to spread the OP love, so I will try! But before that, please forgive me for rambling a bit.
That guide is not the entirety of IDW1, I tried to cut as much as possible, and I want to reiterate that I consider Barber's Optimus the definitive take on IDW1 Optimus. To the point that I like all other stuff with him only in because I read them through Barber's characterization which serves to give them depth in retrospective. And it does this because Barber's writes Optimus with the intention of consolidating all the other writer's takes on him (which were uh... a mess). It's a very contextual reading, a conversation, there's more to get from it if you know the background. So I would ask you to reconsider giving it a try, skip the crossovers if you want. I'll redo the reading guide with links to download/read online if you want.
That being said, I understand that sounds like "read these bad comics in the hopes you will like this one other comic" and the point is to have fun, not to do homework. So in that case I'll say to just read exrid/Optimus Prime and the JRo stuff (but we'll come back to teh later)
See, the exrid/OP is a whole story, so recommeding individual issues doesn't make much sense to me, it would be like recommending one episode of an anime or one chapter of a book, it would entirely lack context and lost much of it's meaning, especially because Optimus is a main character whose actions cannot be taken out from the rest of the plot. My favorite moments require build up, like when Optimus annexes the Earth to the council of worlds, that doesn't hit the same if you didn't read all the previous issues where Optimus was trying to remove all Cybertronian influence from Earth and the series of events that led to him changing his mind and think such a fucking move was a good idea.
And I've talked about this before, but while Mtmt/LL has its biggest strenght in character dynamics and out-of-screen build up, exRID/OP has it in thematic consistensy and narrative cohesion. All parts of it and there to make a point that feeds the whole, character's perspectives feed each other and the biggest pay-off comes at the very end. Also, Optimus Prime is a story about him as a character as much as it is about him as a symbol, so seeing the effects he has on other people is important.
I suppose you could read exRID starting from post Dark Cybertron as it basically becomes a different story and the first part doesn't feature Optimus (except in issues 6, 10, 19) I would not recommend this as there are still a lot of links between the two and you would miss a chunk of Arcee's story (who is the one other character on which the whole thing falls upon). But you could. Don't skip Combiner Wars tho.
Other than that here are some hightlights:
The Death of Optimus Prime: This is the one that works best as a single issue, as it is a one-shot. It sets up phase 2 so definitively read it.
JRo's stuff: That is Chaos Theory, Mtmte #9-11, Mtmte #36 and Spotlight: Orion Pax. Now, JRo's OP is certainly the one that is more likeable, but I don't necessarily think that it's good. JRo kinda wants to have Optimus be more morally grey but always reels back and portrays him as the ultimate good seemingly without considering the implications of a lot of the stuff he does. But still, Chaos Theory is the backbone of phase 2, they are fun reads and it introduces a lot of backstory and aspects of his personality that will be important.
Punishment: As this is a mini series, it's good to read on its own. It's still set in the broader context of exRID, but at least it's a complete story and a compelling one! Lots of Optimus brooding, but not in an annoying way.
Optimus Prime #1-6: Okay, so if you don't want to read all of exrid/OP or are testing the waters before commiting to it. This arc deals with Optimus trying to get people to accept Earth as part of the Council of Worlds and risking war for it, contrasted with events of his past. This may be the easiest arc to read on its own, but I also think it does a great job of building Optimus character. It's also a great example of the narrative not shying away from Optimus doing bad things, stupid things and having anger issues (and also the cop thing), while also retaining the core of his character as someone who genuinely wants to do good and getting into his head to make sense of his actions (not justify them). This is something that I feel only Barber gets right. Also Zeta Prime is there and he's the most important character that barely shows up.
Autocracy: Ok, ok, listen... this may or may not be the most disliked series in IDW1 and while I think it has a worse reputation than it deserves, I still wouldn't call it good. While its more honest abotu what being a cop entails than Chaos Theory and is willing to have OP be unsavory, that aspect doesn't really go anywhere and it fails to make OP an enganging character whose actions make sense. But it still has the backstory of how Orion became Optimus and a friend likes it, so hey, maybe you will too. Also the aforementioned flashbacks of OP 1-6 feel to me that they are written in direct response to Autocracy and try to explain how that is the same character than the one in Chaos Theory. I'm actually working on meta about that (anon, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten). So for all that Barber is trying to recontextualize and reconciliate all the other takes on Optimus, this is the most obvious one and Autocracy is not that long. So it may be worth checking out.
Sorry for rambling again, I hope you find this useful!! Feel free to ask for links or any other questions!
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(As many or as few as you like 💜)
🍄, 🧭, ♻️,🤔,🛠️
An ask game for writers to procrastinate working on you WIP(s)
2. 🍄 Decriscribe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”
Child + Demon Summoning Ritual = Found Family???
(The question marks are a very important part of the equation, trust me.)
It’s for the same fic mentioned in this ask.
4. 🧭 An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?
A Far Cry From Eden had several alternate titles I considered, including The Fall of Eve, and Far From Eden.
8. ♻️ A scrapped idea for your current WIP
I already mentioned how Exorcist!Vaggie knocked a chapter off of my Survey fic, so to avoid repeats I’m gonna pick another fic.
I decided to change the setting in an UH3 smut fic because there were too many different elements going on all at once.
That entire fic is actually going to be based on a scene I had to scrap from Bloodlust and Butterflies. It was in the 2020 precursor fic, Tempting Entertainment, but I chose not to include it in the rewrite because it didn’t seem thematically appropriate.
They were going to be in an elevator, for no real reason besides the fact that that’s where they were in the old fic.
The more I was writing though, the more I realized that I wasn’t doing anything with that setting, and it was just taking away from the things I actually wanted to focus on.
9. 🤔 What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?
I typically get at least a few sentences down when I have an idea in my head, so I might have to rack my brain a bit to find something I haven’t started.
Oh, you know what? I’ve got a whole lineup of Women of Eden fics planned that I haven’t started yet. I’ll tell you one of those.
I want to tell the story of Lilith, Eve, and Charlie.
Eve is not just a mother, but the first mother. Eve and Lilith will have known each other for eons by the time Lilith considers becoming a mother, herself, and I imagine that Eve would be Lilith’s go-to confidant on all things motherhood.
I think Eve would become somewhat of an Aunt-figure to Charlie, and I’d love to explore the dynamic between all three of them.
There’s also a somewhat somber note in that, as far as Eve knows, she will never see her children again. She views all of the Sinners as her children in a way, because they’re all her descendants. She loves them, and she has mourned every year since the exterminations began.
But, they aren’t the children she raised, they aren’t the children she remembers.
There’s going to be some sadness there – some jealousy, even – when Eve sees Lilith and Charlie. I want to write it.
11. 🛠 Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?
About 3/4 of the way through my answer for this, I realized it had turned into a vent, so I’m gonna put it below the cut in case people don’t wanna read it.
No one, including @10moonymhrivertam is obligated to read this.
Thanks so much for the ask, Moony. Don’t let the vent fool you, I did genuinely enjoy answering these. I had a lot of fun answering the other 4 prompts, and I think I needed an opportunity to vent.
Hahaha, yeahhhh… I’m struggling with writing in general, lol. There’s some specifics about pacing and plots in a few fics and of course, not knowing Australian slang is a hurdle in writing dialogue for Cherri – specifically 1980’s Australian slang; like, how do I even find that?? – but my main problem is just…
I can’t seem to write. I’ve been burnt out and distracted since Husk’s chapter. I’ve had a busy week this week, and haven’t actually written anything at all.
Cherri’s chapter is currently all just dialogue that I wrote a while back, which is something I tend to do when I get an idea for a fic. I write some dialogue or some exposition that was rattling around in my brain and I fill in the rest later.
Well, it’s later. And I’m making fake tumblr dash posts, hyperspecific polls, and playing ask games.
#fanby answers#10moonymhrivertam#hazbin hotel#fanby: woe#fanby: uh3#fanby: uhverse#fanby: survey says#fanby: you can’t solve all your problems by summoning a demon#ask game#and they were mutuals#uh: niffty#uh: eve#uh: lilith#uh: charlie#uh: cherri bomb
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Its my city now ive been thinking about oc dynamics for the other brothers. I decided toto recycle some old fandom ocs from my preteen years bc its both funny and thematically appropriate.
The only new ones are like wendy and suzi. Suzi is sorta not new but so completely revamped and wasn’t ever really developed anyways.
I have to figure out like actual names for two bc they’ve only gone by nicknames. I also thought it would be fun to have more cartoonish/surreal characters instead of just regular people.
Kitti (nickname)- when i made her, she originally was a Boy Scout and kinda based off of spongebob. Now ive changed her to like a big sister like character except she really ISN’T. She’s the younger sister of twins, neither the brain or muscle behind their duo. She’s sweet, dense, and a stickler for order. She’s a mycologist and likes to hang out in the woods. She is dating oso im still working on their dynamic but theyre definitely childhood friends who find each other again in adulthood oso confuses her for her twin sister and is like: whoa, so you decided to become a girl!! Thats so cool can i see ur boobs since we’re old friends?? She meets oso thru totty who shes friends with bc theyre both girls.
Wendy - basically a small, loud little henchman or hypeman. She’s so so small in height and so round. She looks like a shark, has very pointy teeth, beady lil teeth, and is very scary except her voice is really adorable. She is karamatsu’s biggest fucking fan, and hyped him up as much as he does to the point where sometimes he’s embarrassed. I think she’s weird and funny bc she has a rich inner world completely detached from him that she never tells him about except for concerning bits and pieces. So far theyre my favorite bc i drew her telling kara when hes not there she goes to nurtitionland and hangs out with talking carrots. Kara absolutely adores her and tries to explain her appeal constantly but everyone side eyes him.
Sindri - I haven’t really figured it out yet bc Sindri was an oc i used to really adore. I remember having like a really lavish and dramatic backstory for him that was super serious but i kinda don’t wanna do all of that anymore but dont wanna erase all of it either. Slowly rebuilding him. I ship him w choro tho
Esaias- another recycled but kinda loved oc. He was like one of my least favorites but I had developed him a loooot. Almost all of his original characterization and background are the same, so he grew up in a paramilitary Christian cult ran by his step father and mother that only consisted of his immediate family. His childhood sucked but you wouldn’t know it bc he was the blacksheep, and thoroughly ignored but a lot of the family politics bc hes considered the illegitimate eldest. He’s actually really normal and nice and in Japan for grad school and to train under Fighting Yowai. He makes Ichi really nervous bc he’s like a normie or something but he also is really strange. They have a really funny dynamic to me but eventually hes kinda like a security blanket ichi carries and he is there basically like “damn bitch you live like this? Thats so cool can you teach me?”
Suzi - she didn’t have a very thick background, I made her when I was like literally 12 and didn’t like her very much to the point where her entire narrative was that i killed off her sister. Which is funny bc i love her now and so I killed her off too. She’s a ghost! Like a sadako/okiku type of ghost. Looks very scary and only jyushi can see her and at first he’s terrified of her but it’s really actually lighthearted and silly. His brothers are all weirded out by jyushi’s new imaginary friend but they are a loveydovey couple even tho shes dead and he aint.
And then tottys still mine
Oh i forgot nom (another nickname)
I ship her with nyaa. She’s a tsundere who is obsessed with looking cool, she’s the older twin sister of kitti and she is the biggest softie ever. Literally the brain and the brawn, she’s in love w nyaa and is a crybaby. She’s really moody too, friends with ichi and kara. She wants to be goth and alt so bad but shes just shein. The tallest of my ocs. She can only handle the responsibility of taking care of Kitti, so she cant cook or clean (kitti must) but she does everything else. She’s a drop out fashion student, and a cringefail girl. The only one who can make kitti, who comes across as a big sister character be a whiny baby. I ship her with nyaa bc i think itd be funny
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so there's this old actionbutton review of prototype (that has apparently been removed from the actual website, which i guess is fine b/c on reflection the review overall isn't super good) that has a part that i think about a lot.
Prototype is clearly a game that was originally meant to be a challenging action game that took the concept of super-powered main characters out of the ego-trip where you simply explode in ever greater fireballs the entire universe, like a Final Fantasy character in a platformer, and into the realm of the thoroughbred racer. A realm where the power is a tool that must be used carefully, because there’s so much of it, that there’s too much of it. Restraint is what we play video games for, in a sense. We restrain ourselves from making the wrong choices. We take pleasure in our sense of timing. We enjoy learning and growing and doing and, above all, not doing (the same thing over and over, due to failure).
b/c like... yeah that's the thing with power? power invites complications; that's kind of what power is: the ability to affect change at greater magnitudes, which invariably means a reduction in your fidelity of control. unintended side-effects and all that. but the entire concept of the 'power fantasy' is about not having the drawbacks of power, & that's what video games are all about, so it makes sense that that doesn't really come up that much in games. leveling up is just Good, it makes you better at things, because if it made you worse gamers would find that to be bad design, etc
this also comes up constantly in progression fantasies. unsurprisingly!! b/c their thematic content is entirely the power fantasy, so of course getting more powerful is an unalloyed good.
there's another prose chunk in a similar vein i think about a lot that's from a wizard of earthsea, near the beginning: duny (as a kid, before he's named ged) has his island raided by barbarians and they're gonna burn down the town and kill everybody.
He had worked all night at the forge-bellows, pushing and pulling the two long sleeves of goathide that fed the fire with a blast of air. Now his arms so ached and trembled from that work that he could not hold out the spear he had chosen. He did not see how he could fight or be of any good to himself or the villagers. It rankled at his heart that he should die, spitted on a Kargish lance, while still a boy: that he should go into the dark land without ever having known his own name, his true name as a man. He looked down at his thin arms, wet with cold fog-dew, and raged at his weakness, for he knew his strength. There was power in him, if he knew how to use it, and he sought among all the spells he knew for some device that might give him and his companions an advantage, or at least a chance. But need alone is not enough to set power free: there must be knowledge.
(incidentally i think reading progression fantasies has made me a worse reader. they're frequently so wordy and yet nothing happens, and the writing never really says anything or has specific sentences that capture the mind, and so i've gotten into this really bad habit of skim-reading through them snatching out nouns and verbs. so now when i go back to reading prose that's actually, you know, good, i still end up skimming it and missing out on relevant details, since relevant details actually matter in real stories, instead of just being wordcount padding.)
anyway the rest of a wizard of earthsea is basically all about the relationship between knowledge and power and what responsibility comes with that.
i guess this is yet another post all about how i really don't like the thematic simplicity of all the progression fantasy but boy have i been thinking about that a lot as i've been writing other stuff. fun fact, 'goblin cave', my royalroad story, and 'blinded by the summer sun', the tmnt porn i've been writing, have basically the same themes b/c they're both actually about the blunt nature of power + the problem of needing power to exist in the world vs. the grotesque nature of people who seek only power. b/c as you can see by all the above that is kind of a thing i've been thinking about a lot recently. it's just one of them has turtle porn.
i mean i'm fairly sure i've mentioned it here also but they're very heavily influenced by dead zones of the imagination, which i would recommend everybody read. it's only like 20 pages.
To be more precise: violence may well be the only form of human action by which it is possible to have relatively predictable effects on the actions of a person about whom you understand nothing. Pretty much any other way one might try to influence another’s actions, one at least has to have some idea who they think they are, who they think you are, what they might want out of the situation, and what their aversions and proclivities are. Hit them over the head hard enough and all of this becomes irrelevant.
It is true that the effects one can have by disabling or killing someone are very limited, but they are real enough—and critically, it is possible to know in advance exactly what they will be. Any alternative form of action cannot, without some sort of appeal to shared meanings or understandings, have any predictable effects at all.
[...]
As long as one remains within the domain of theory, then, I would argue that simplification can be a form of intelligence. The problems arise when the violence is no longer metaphorical. Here let me turn from imaginary cops to real ones. A former LAPD officer turned sociologist (Cooper 1991), observed that the overwhelming majority of those beaten by police turn out not to be guilty of any crime. “Cops don’t beat up burglars,” he observed. The reason, he explained, is simple: the one thing most guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to “define the situation.” If what I’ve been saying is true, then this is just what we’d expect. The police truncheon is precisely the point where the state’s bureaucratic imperative for imposing simple administrative schema, and its monopoly of coercive force, come together. It only makes sense then that bureaucratic violence should consist first and foremost of attacks on those who insist on alternative schemas or interpretations. At the same time, if one accepts Piaget’s (1936) famous definition of mature intelligence as the ability to coordinate between multiple perspectives (or possible perspectives) one can see, here, precisely how bureaucratic power, at the moment it turns to violence, becomes literally a form of infantile stupidity.
and so on. that's power, baby! the power to define a situation and stop anybody else from objecting to your framing. by killing them!
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Kishotenketsu & You, Part 2
Did I make this entirely for the title rhyme? No, but it was a factor. Because I’m in the refreshing mood, this is worth a post as well. We’re getting back to some anime fun next few days. Got Jojolands, and the OP Academy panels coming up. Kishotenketsu...naturally you can’t have a part 2 without a first so why write the same things twice? If you don’t want a second essay, it’s a four part story structure with mega deep roots in Asian writing. The Act structure, it works for that and Kiku/Yamato share names with their respective parts. Leaving off with the play wrapping up, the Rakugo narrator...that’s arguably leaving with only three out of four parts completed. Which is no problem! The next island serving as the final is just on brand. One Piece just does use this structure like this, but Wano does use its theatrical themes to be a little meta. It’s lowkey very similar in function to a school play as a penultimate saga in a slice-of-life series. Falls under the wonderfully weird umbrella of “pulling an Utena” as well.
So what are we doing today? Looking at how the structure applies to individual Acts of Wano then ruminating on just how well it does to Egghead at this juncture. So for a reminder, try it for yourself and compare: Part 1 is an introduction. Part 2 develops. Part 3 subverts. Part 4 draws out the point through the way 3 ultimately tied back to 1 all along.
Act 1:
Ki - Curtains open through Hawkins’s tarot game and the Crane Returns a Favor re-enactment.
Sho - Okobore, Bakura, back to Okobore & up to Oden Castle.
Ten - Kiku & Kin know each other? The Yama or big climax being the samurai leaping forward in time. Different tone because now we’re back to our main plot that was already established.
Ketsu - Luffy isn’t ready to fight Kaido, he jeopardized the plan by not waiting for the right time.
Act 2:
Ki - Curtains open through the first “wheel” of pairing off Straw Hats and local buddies.
Sho - Those wider Wano stories fleshing out. Yasu’s execution will be the climax of this and it’ll wrap up as the story focuses more on Udon.
Ten - The capture of Udon, an unplanned detour. The big twist here would actually be learning Kiku’s little secret at the climax.
Ketsu - Wrapping up reaping the benefits of all these stories. Enma, the added reinforcements from Udon, etc.
Act 3:
Ki -Curtains open through the flashback. Easy peasy.
Sho - Kanjuro the Traitor and getting in position. Meeting Yamato. Akazaya v. Kaido. All the way up to around when Luffy/Kiku fall.
Ten - Subtle but we do shift from here into the full mainline shonen part of the arc. Wrapping up fights. The Yama is Luffy’s awakening.
Kestu - The short after the battle segment until the curtains close.
Egghead:
Now, Egghead probably won’t be as long as Wano so Act 2 is probably our best comparison. It’s longer than Zou but doesn’t feel like it has enough steam to stretch past a Punk Hazard or a Fishman Island. And obviously it’s hard to do this with a still-unfolding arc. Still, I feel like we see an existing trick. Act 1, Kiku’s introduction is bounded by mirrored chapter titles. [The Crane/Luffytaro] Returns the Favor. Egghead? [Luffy’s/The Genius’s] Dream. I don’t think that perfectly marks ki giving way to sho, but it’s somewhere around there. We’ll get more entrenched in the battle, the cutaway stories mature but they don’t dominate like we see right now. Wherever sho starts, it ends with 1078 as we’ll pull away revealing the traitor.
Like we said yesterday, what remains to be seen is the nature of this extended break from our main cast. Six chapters is a lot already and I feel like we have at least two more. One more for Sabo’s story and Vivi/Marco’s groups still lack an update. Maybe we could do all that in one? Marco sorta has a precedent for playing us in so yeah I guess you could say...tie off Sabo’s in one while also showing how Vivi got up in the sky with Wapol (Hey, isn’t that thematically a little like starting her adventure like the next step of the crew’s without her?) and then 1086 starts with Marco leading back into Egghead. That’s theoretically all you’d need. But it could go longer, and we stay away for another round of Tales from the New World that spiral into all being shaped by the Incident at Egghead Island.
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Title: By Nightfall
Author: Deborah Eisenstein
Rating: 3/5 stars
Clouds are good writing prompts
Clouds are good writing prompts! Who would have thought? (Well, I guess plenty of people.) In By Nightfall, clouds are used to good effect as a sort of minor deus ex machina. Which is fun, and also happens to work in thematic/structural terms because, well, clouds are one of those things about which you can't know everything -- they look very different depending on the angle from which you're viewing them, and when one is so close to the sky, it's (literally) difficult to know where one ends and the rest of the atmosphere begins. This is not especially consequential for the book except in its use of the "foreshadowing at night" device, but it's cute.
More importantly, the clouds function thematically as an archetypical breakdown of the kind of view that the narrator -- and the narrator's grandmother -- relies on (for different reasons), especially given that the disruptive forces are not actually of cloud origin. The disruption itself is the very cause of the friction between the two main characters, which is fine, but at this point, the clouds are no longer really relevant -- it could just as easily be any other disruptive force, or many of them -- and it's a little weird to find them reappearing at the end in a manner that feels almost gratuitous. I mean, there's nothing wrong with gratuitous, and here it's tied to the construction of this very strange, almost solipsistic view of the world that the narrator chooses to impose over everything else. So it's good in that it fits the thematic and character stuff, bad because it's yet another friction between things.
Oh, and let's talk about these characters, shall we?
I think there's something about the type of character the narrator is that I didn't quite buy -- how self-consciously "postmodern" he is, but how insecure and immature at the same time. The postmodernism is endlessly cute and jokey and clever, but often so cute and clever that it runs away from any real emotional weight or point, which is very much not the purpose of fiction -- at least, not as I understand it -- and so you get a sense of this guy who's sort of a show-off, but also a guy with little going for him except for the ever-shifting, ever-tenuous layers of "meta" upon "meta" upon "meta" that can be this grandiose, grandiloquent special snowflake all the time.
I guess it's hard for me to believe that, were I in this guy's position, I would use these same resources. Instead, I'd probably be focused entirely on the inescapable emotional dimension of the situation, that this was, for real, my grandmother, that I was suddenly in her fucking world, that I knew nothing about her or her world because I'd never given a shit before. It would be full of disgusting psychological moments like:
I keep telling myself to enjoy this. This is perfect! I've told myself so many times that this is perfect, this is what I wanted! It is perfect! But I still feel the deep, inexorable horror of my new self, even though I keep telling myself that it is perfect.
Which, I don't know, maybe does not mean a whole lot on its own, but sounds like something a person really in this situation might think, maybe? The guy's internal monologue is endlessly self-deprecating, and always a bit pompous and tinged with self-conscious irony, but also seems entirely focused on these highbrow, intellectual, "witty" ("meta") reframings of everything he sees and hears, and it's just not that interesting to me. The character is fun to read about, and his behavior is interesting, but his thinking is endlessly ironic and self-conscious, and so you never really get under the surface. It's a version of solipsism-as-egoism that I've never been able to buy -- this intense discomfort with one's self, but this unshakeable sense that all of one's horrible self is unique, special, and therefore necessary. Kind of unsatisfying.
The only real bright spot in this guy's pretty dull characterization is the way he grapples with his brother and his father -- the characters who do not interact with the weird world of his grandmother and her stories, and whose responses to that world seem (as far as they're shown to us) to be pretty reserved, matter-of-fact. Of course, their response is also simply "I hate that my father's a bastard," and I find that response less interesting than I should. (What does it mean? I don't know.) But there is a sense of real, grounded emotion attached to this, insofar as it's just that the guy is horribly upset that his father's a bastard, and doesn't care much about his "ability" to express it, or how well he does so.
This is a fascinating moment, because at the heart of it -- like all "cultural critique" I've ever seen -- is an almost complete lack of interest in engagement, in helping people, in acting on personal responsibility, in anything but the special snowflake's declaration of their specialness. The characters in this book can't stand one another, of course, because of the endless frictions of class and status and outlook between the cultured intellectual and the philistine (because "cultured" and "philistine" are more or less terms that mean almost nothing), and they can't stand one another because the characters feel the tug of the surface of life, the truism-haunted surface of class and status and outlook that characterizes these people -- and yet at the same time they want to know what this weird old woman's stories have to say.
She's rich and mean, but somehow still a "cultural elite," and the most significant thing about that is that she knows the truths of that status, and then tells those truths with a kind of red-hot integrity that fries the skin right off of everything these characters feel like "life is." She is, in other words, something of a truth-teller, and what's more -- and this is key -- she is not a cultural truth-teller; her "truths" are not the pillars of the culture she is part of. They're too weird, too strange, too much like "fairy tales" (which, as we all know, are not a part of the "great books" and "classics" beloved of the "cultured" characters here).
(Did you know: the Western literary canon is actually . . . ? The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. A complete coincidence that the boy who took the SATs and went to a good school would have read it.)
One of the (many) things this narrator is particularly uninterested in is doing the work of bridging the gap between himself and his relatives. It's like he thinks "I will notice these idiots won't like me because I'm all about how much smarter I am than them," and then that's it, he's done with the thing! There's no actual connection made, no working together to make the thing work, and no attempt to even create the thing. Maybe he doesn't have enough time to do this kind of work, but for some reason it feels like this is always the case -- that when it comes to his relatives, he simply refuses to make the effort.
"I try to focus on the knotwork, and how this family will never understand, and how it is my only salvation to sit here, at this moment, and compose a poem." Fine. That's a character choice, I guess.
"This family doesn't care about what I do. I just do my thing, then. I'm aloof. I'm disaffected. In any case, I don't have time for that kind of thing. I do my thing, then, with the utmost care and control." Fine. That's a character choice too.
But this is not a realistic character choice, is it? At no point in the book is there a realistic character choice. The guy's grandmother is someone who has a whole life outside of the impoverished and miserable suburban scene in which these guys live, and she's also a storyteller. If he's going to learn anything from her, well, one would imagine she's going to have something to say about how she tells her stories. But she does not. She doesn't have time. She will make the minimum effort. She will be a bit "abrasive," but she will not tell him anything he
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Raven Cycle Characters as Things My Friends and I have Said because I find these really Fun to Make
"'Is he going to tight rope walk?' (Blue about Noah starting a stunt)
'No, he's going to jump' (Ronan, who dared Noah)"
"I never said I was literate" – Ronan avoiding school work
"Fuck around until we get more information" – Declan, so far out of his depth, trying to get his brothers help after the leyline goes quiet
"You go to Home Depot, buy a sledgehammer. Game Stop is open whenever you want" - Ronan
"We don't abide by American height standards" – Blue
"That's the cover story for him just being a dumbass" – Gansey putting Ronan on blast
"Ah, good politics, directing problems away from yourself" – Adam, sarcastically
"The average American lives and dies in that time" – Henry with the fun facts as he listens to Gansey talk about Glendower
"Are you power tripping over [other] students?" – Ronan at Adam
"When trickle down economics fails again" – Blue
"I'm waiting for my God to tell me what it is" – Ronan
"[sh]e kinda sounds like a dick" – Someone at Jordan about Hennessey
"'I'm 5'2!' (Blue)
'Well than you're not average height then!' (Ronan)" (I don’t recall how tall she actually is)
"Sir, how long is your lifespan?" – Mr. Gray right before making it a lot shorter
"Any historical event is a hundred times better if there are Neopets" – Henry when he gets bored during one of Gansey’s lectures
"They do that by just existing" - Henry about Ronan doing war crimes
"There's half a braincell between us and it's not smart" – Ronan and Noah when left alone together
“You just snap your fingers and BAM you have a baby. That’s your son now” – Ronan dreaming up Chainsaw
“I’ll give you my credentials! Um… I don’t have any” – Adam coming clean about his past to the Crying Club
“I got my eyes taken this year” - Adam
“I’m free range though” - Ronan
“That man could seduce a nation” – I feel like there’s a general consensus that Adam’s like extrememky pretty. Therefore this is about him
“You know about the moon, that’s pretty impressive” – Gansey trying to flirt with Blue
“Any’o’y’all’eed” - Adam
“The whatchamafucko” - Ronan
“My depression is [birds]” – Ronan (trust me when I say birds is infinitely better than the original)
“Oh, boy! Opium!” – Kavinsky
“If god says you sinned and you are going to hell, reply with ‘nuh-uh’” – Hennessey’s advice to Ronan
“There’s nothing thematic about a spleen!” – I don’t know who says it, probably Gansey just before he learns about the actual extent if the dreamed up incriminating evidence
“Get up, c’mon get down with the ‘tism” – Gansey trying to be hip with the kids
“I’ll be his mom” – Gansey or Adam at their newest stray
“Whimsical slut era?” – Literally Henry’s entire adult life
“Join our [psychic] hotline” (sultry voice) - Orla
(everyone in unison) "NO" – the rest of the women at 300 fox way
“Aren’t we all fruit lambs in the eyes of Christ?” – Hennessey trying to bond with Ronan over his religion at some point
“Your character has whatever hair color and proper nouns?” – about Blue
“I just looked down and then it was there. I bet that’s how Jackie Kennedy felt” – Ronan after dreaming up incriminating evidence
“It’s not lying if i’m genuinely not thinking” – Hennessey
“my medical opinion, not good” – Just feels like something Hennessey would say
#the raven cycle#trc#noah czerny#blue sargent#ronan lynch#adam parrish#declan lynch#mr gray#jordan hennessy#emphasis on both the jordan and the hennessey#dreamer triology#by proxy i suppose
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Earthbound Hearts - Alex Nonymous
Read: 23/12/2022
Rating: 5/5
Rep: asexual lesbian main character, autistic sapphic main character, f/f relationship, trans girl side character
CW: negative self talk, implied autistic meltdown from pov of autistic character, accidental outing (not of a main character and only to one other person)
Review:
This book follows two girls, Skye and Sadie, childhood pen pals who despite falling for each other have solely communicated through email their entire lives. Now in their last year of high school, Skye manages to convince Sadie to come outside and meet her face to face for the first time, upon which Skye finds out that there was a very good reason why Sadie had until then spent most of her life indoors.
This book can be described as a love letter to stimming and other ways that autistic people authentically express themselves. Sadie is autistic. It isn't her autism that leads her to stay hidden away from the world, it's what comes of her being made to feel like she absolutely has to mask and keep all her autistic traits hidden. Throughout the book she grows in confidence and comfort in being herself, and the final line of the book had me smiling really really hard. Also there's a certain line that Sadie says near the end that upon reading it I had to stop and stare at my ceiling for a bit because I felt it so hard.
Skye was also a really great character! She's driven, curious, academically successful due largely to the hard work she puts in towards achieving her goals, and she's rather unpopular with her teachers due to her unwillingness to be talked down to or treated like she's inferior. I had a lot of fun reading from her perspective!
One of the most significant side characters is Skye's best friend Isaac. Isaac is a trans girl and the only person she's come out to at all is Skye. Nobody else knows that Isaac is trans, and she evidently hasn't chosen a new name yet and is at the point of the book is uncertain as to whether or not she's even going to. This is my first time seeing a character like Isaac and I really hope it's not the last. Trans people are under no obligation to tell everyone immediately, or change our names, or do anything if we don't want to or aren't ready to. At any given moment there are loads of real trans people out there who are in the same kind of in-between stage that Isaac is in, and they deserve to be acknowledged as well as the trans people who have everything figured out including a new publicly usable gender-matching name. There's room for all of us.
Aside from her gender, Isaac is just a great character. She's the go-to leader of her and Skye's friendship group for very good reason.
Also, Isaac being in this in-between stage in her transition is thematically resonant with the rest of the book. The group are in their last year of high school, they're about to start applying to universities, their friendship group may or may not survive graduation, and the relationship between Skye and Sadie is developing and changing rapidly. The whole book feels like a snapshot in the lives of the characters as they're just starting to become the people they're going to be, and I really loved that!
I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for queer contemporary with fantasy elements or who are looking for more autistic rep in the books they pick up
I received an early copy of this book prior to its publication in return for some feedback. Details may be different in the published version.
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it's been a looong time since I properly played MTG, and even when I did I rarely worked with planeswalkers, so I'm not entirely sure this is a proper ability, but: for Scar's + ability, perhaps look through the deck for any land card and play it on the battlefield, even if you've already played a land that turn. I feel like it makes a lot of sense thematically, given his terraforming skill and his propensity for creating massive landmarks in a ridiculously short amount of time. Furthermore, since it seems established that he would be green(?) it makes him pretty dang useful for the heavy-hitter beast decks that are so fun with green. Lots and lots of mana = lots and lots of terrifying creatures very quickly.
I think scar having land acceleration fits him! however I think maybe placing the land would have to be placing it tapped, given balancing? other than that yeah that sounds like a good ability that I think fits him flavor-wise.
i don’t know if I have any strong thoughts about his other abilities, though… maybe something eventually based on what lands are on the battlefield? IDK
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