#i don't have a lot of worldbuilding yet but i'm thinking it has more to do with education than gender or sex
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I just saw Dune Part 2 (2024) with some friends so here are some Thoughts i guess
I feel like on the whole these movies are trying to either downplay or cut out a lot of the misogyny/sexism in the book, although Herbert's view of gender roles is so pervasive in the book that it's hard to change without completely changing the worldbuilding (the Bene Gesserit especially) and/or certain characters and getting second-order effects that weaken or change the main plot. But they did a good job at least making it much less in-your-face and offensive than in the book. One of Chani's lines is about how "men and women are equal" in the Fremen, and while I don't really think that's supported by how the movie depicts Fremen I can see and respect where they're coming from
It's still a very male-dominated movie, but it's honestly pretty faithful to the book, and like--what are you gonna do? It's Dune. You can't exactly just genderbend Paul and get the same story, at least not when the Bene Gesserit are still what they are
wait now i'm thinking about an AU where the Kwisatz Haderach turns out to be a trans man. ideally you'd get both the canon critiques of white savior mythos/the Messiah trope and a deconstruction of the sexism and strict gender roles of the society of the Dune universe. also ideally you'd get a whole bunch of other queer characters in the same AU. you could also do an AU where the Kwisatz Haderach/a potential Kwisatz Haderach turns out to be a trans woman, or even nonbinary, but i feel like those would make for very different stories cuz AGAB/ASAB seems to matter like A Lot in the Dune universe
the movies did manage to completely get rid of the homophobic parts of the Harkonnens' characterization though. i did like that
although it was still using disability/deformity as shorthand for Ugly Evil Guy which :/
but enough about the Problematic Elements(TM) let's talk about the actual story
Chani was a lot more politically and generally assertive in the movie than I remember her being in the book, although it's been A While and she was also very much a Main Character who had thoughts and opinions and importance outside of the male characters she was affiliated with (as much as anyone can escape the political black hole that is Muad'dib but) AND! she actively advocated for Fremen self-governance in the beginning! although she didn't keep it up cuz she got sucked into the Paul black hole. this may have happened in the book it has been like two years since i read the first book and it was very disjointed reading cuz College(TM). I also liked the ending part, where it was implied that Chani was leaving, on her own, because she was angry with Paul, which implies More Character Development. (Also they didn't seem to do the Fremen polygamy/concubines thing in the movie, which was a good call, i feel like that part of the book was maybe informed by anti-Arab racism)
Jessica was incredible, of course. Love me a good ruthless woman. Her main character trait/motivation was definitely Paul's Mother but her main personality trait seems to be incredible ruthlessness. there is no madonna/whore complex to be found here no sir
(i may be wrong about that part but eh)
And of course the Harkonnen Blood reveal. the story definitely sets up Atreides as The Good Guys (fair, just, merciful, looking out for and caring about the people under their rule) and the Harkonnens as The Bad Guys (cruel, unjust, power-hungry and traitorous), which makes the reveal that Jessica and Paul have Harkonnen blood an incredible symbol of Paul's corruption arc. He goes from "I must do anything possible to avoid the holy war" (the Atreides way) to "CONQUER ARRAKIS AND ELIMINATE ANYONE WHO STANDS IN MY WAY" (the Harkonnen way) over the course of...technically years, in the book, although that wasn't super well communicated in the movie I feel--in the movie it was only months, cuz Alia hadn't been born yet by the end. And right before we see the worst of it we end up learning that Jessica, his mother, was a daughter of Baron Harkonnen. Jesus fuck.
there's definitely some Not Great elements about using ancestors/blood to determine morality but still
princess irulan was introduced! as an independent character and actor in her own right oh my god! although she still falls prey to the sexism infusing the original material
the dune books (at least the first two) are in this weird state where there are very strict and specific roles/walks of life that female characters are allowed in (domestic/family life and religion) and men dominate Everything Else and nobody every questions that, not to mention the whole thing about how apparently even the very female religion/psychic field is supposed to be dominated eventually by This One Man who can do it better than all the women, and yet all of the female characters are well-developed and feel like people. ykno aside from the complete lack of protest in being shoved into a sexist role
anyways irulan got more development than i remember from the books, i loved that, and that we got her POV too. these movies are really working to uplift and spotlight the female perspectives that were often somewhat sidelined in the books and i love that
also stilgar's (blind?) faith REALLY came through which i liked
overall, yeah, the movie was great. it's very faithful to the spirit of Dune while addressing some of its flaws/datedness--it understands what its message is and what it's saying, and the way it's constructed really hammers home the critiques of imperialism and racism the original was built on
I think this is gonna end up a trilogy, based on only the first book, and it very much seems like the third (and final?) movie is going to specifically focus on the war against the Great Houses after the Emperor falls, which iirc was kinda glossed over in the book/between Dune and Dune: Messiah. I can't wait to see what they do with it
#dune#dune part two#dune part 2#dune part two spoilers#dune part 2 spoilers#dune 2 spoilers#dune 2#also that one poster where it's paul and chani walking forward with the sun to their backs and chani is VISIBLY IN FRONT OF PAUL#frank herbert could never
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Art practice by trying some other artist's styles that I'm a huge fan of!
From Top Left to Bottom Right:
@ghostishere0 - the original reason I started this doodle, as I wanted to draw a "shepherd lovers squad" and their OC (who I don't know the name of F) was the perfect fit for it.
@luminesparkz - the best interpretation of Pom pikmin. If I were Mr. Nitendo, I would make them the official comic creator along with the manga comics.
@marblyso - If I was a little more unhinged and made a shrine to Erma Shepherd, it would be mostly marblyso's art of her, it's my absolute favorite Erma depiction <3
@rexscanonwife - another OC that I don't know the name of, but she makes such a cute pair with Shepherd and has such cute art that why not, let Shepherd have multiple canon wives at this point.
@citruscrisp - I think this is secretly Alph in an alternate universe where he makes comics about himself, because citrus has Alph's character SPOT ON, and also loves to put that boy in a situation (which I am happy for, I enjoy seeing that boy in a situation)
@daisythecomic - oooaaaaaaaaaa they look like little mice people they look so soft and sweet I love them so muuuuuuuuuccchhhhhhhhh
@louie-posting - I can't not include actual Louie Pikmin on this list.
@kiwilittle - the soft, the sweet, the one who makes the best family style art, really making me wish I was an inch tall so I could go to holidays with the olimar family, also their wife design is so cute that if Olimar didn't already get it I would shoot my shot for her m a a m
@pikbugz - really nails the soft aesthetic that makes pikmin such a calming series, and their coloring style is so soft and good that it gives me the ratatouille nostalgia flashback moment.
@splitster - more than just the wraith au guy, they are the one who makes incredible and funny comics; I've seen so many fics with the rescue corps where I can pick up that yes, this trait came from a splitster comic, and that's a GOOD thing. Made me actually LIKE Dingo, the nerve.
@diesaur - I can't do diesaur's incredible, unique art justice, they are amazing at using geometrics and have the best charlie (his little teefs...)
@solluxander - Cars, one of my favorite pikmin Ocs I've ever seen! Collin deserves a slightly unhinged sentient fluffball boyfriend, and I always love seeing the new ways Cars will interact with him.
@sillypikmin - all hail the best pikposter, who I'm still convinced is an actual leafling living on actual pnf-404, literally every time I have a bad day I look at drawings of Moss and feel better.
@eggpathy - thank goodness they came back to give us old man yaoi. I keep their drawing of olimar kissing the pikmin good night on my phone and look at it before I go to sleep and so far I have yet to have a single nightmare.
@the-knife-consumer - the only person I trust with Louittany, toxic yuri my beloved, I just adore their beasty brittany design so so much, I wish I could have a small brittany to live in my house...
anyway they have the best headcanons for our beloved blorbo hamster people
@natibranch - there's a voice line of Louie going "wa-ha!" in this really cute sing-song voice and every time I see any art by natibranch I hear that sound in my head as a little burst of serotonin, they just nail that exact feeling so so well.
@pikked-min - Another of my favorite Pikmin OCs, Yuva! A really interesting and unique character concept with a lot of thought put into the worldbuilding, followed by a strong unusual personality that had me looking at the pikmin world through a new perspective entirely. Please, someone, give them some sunglasses. Read the fic it's so good
@ssserf - artistic and deep while still somehow looking like official nintendo tm art, genuinely the best at the pikmin proportions, how could I resist trying my hand at the classic amazing beautiful Brittany Fruit Sweater moment, literally SO iconic
@kashi-pon - while I was working on the part of this that was just kashi's various highlife dresses there was a part of me that wanted to dedicate the rest of the space to paying homage to the joke comic of Louie lifting his skirt to show Olimar that he's wearing shorts, except this dress....well......
@diamondwerewolf - the reason we got louie in a little bunny outfit anyway, and thus why we got kashi's dress version. you single-handedly turned Louie into a tumblr sexyman, how could you
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I've been thinking a lot about DCU stuff and Ace Attorney thoughts got mixed in by accident, because it's got a lot of the same themed, colorful character designs and silly pun names. So, of course, I started immediately daydreaming about a DCU-style Superhero AU for Ace Attorney. (I often do not fully control what I think about.)
And then I was like, "I think I just finally have to play Ace Attorney at this point, before I get stuck in a weird daydream loop because I don't know enough about the plot to worldbuild properly. I will let this be the final push to just start these games."
Based on my extremely limited knowledge (I have only actually played 2 episodes of the first game), here are my Superhero AU thoughts so far. I don't like 1-1 character role match-ups in general when I fuse worlds, so none of these AA characters are fully aligned with any particular DCU character.
Phoenix Wright would make a good speedster, I think. This is partially because of the spiky hair, but also because there's a terrible irony to being the fastest man in the world who keeps being too late to stop certain tragedies. It also suits the way he's apparently never properly prepared for anything but also quickly manages to pull through. He's probably still a defense attorney in his civilian identity. (In accordance with later games, he has to stop being a superhero for several years when he's framed for a crime.)
Besides Phoenix's mentor Mia, who is also both a superhero and a lawyer, ordinary civilian Larry Butz is the only person who initially knows that Phoenix has superpowers. He honestly hasn't told anyone Phoenix's secret identity! But Larry also somehow gets into more scrapes and "damsel in distress" situations than Lois Lane and he's not even an investigative reporter.
Mia Fey, Maya Fey, and Pearl Fey have a Shazam situation, I think, in which they transform into a "Mystic Champion" magically empowered by the ghosts of their ancestors. Like a Shazam & Danny Phantom fusion. Mia Fey was the first in her family to become a publicly known superhero. A lot of people don't know that it's not the original Mystic Champion (same face and same superpowered form as Mia, which breaks Phoenix's heart a little every time) until Maya or Pearl transforms back into a regular girl after the fight is over.
I think Miles Edgeworth is a Batman type hero, but one still partially ensnared by Manfred von Karma, who is his Ra's al Ghul. (This makes Franziska into Talia, but there is definitely nothing romantic there.) Maybe he does have superpowers of some kind, maybe not, and he could still potentially be a prosecutor. He doesn't have a Brucie persona, though. Phoenix is not impressed by Edgeworth's harsh and even cruel approach to vigilante work. (Steel Samurai was Miles' Gray Ghost or Zorro hero inspiration, I'm guessing.)
Gumshoe is Miles' Commissioner Gordon figure and doesn't know his secret identity yet. He's either going to learn in the middle of a really bad situation or he's just going to straight-up figure it out himself one day and scare the hell out of Miles.
I'm still thinking about characters like Kristoph and Klavier Gavin, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright, but I don't know enough about them to fully flesh these thoughts out yet. I think the Gavins would make good Kryptonian equivalents (a cold and calculating Superman and a rockstar Supergirl), Apollo might make a good Wonder Girl equivalent (his bracelet becomes a Lasso of Truth) as the lost son of an Amazon, and Trucy would obviously be fun as a Zatanna type of hero.
#tossawary ace attorney#aa superhero au#long post#spoilers#phoenix wright#mia fey#maya fey#pearl fey#miles edgeworth#manfred von karma#franziska von karma#dick gumshoe#larry butz#kristoph gavin#klavier gavin#apollo justice#trucy wright#tossawary dc
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Possibly odd question, I'm trying to prepare to write my undergraduate thesis next year and I'm going to do it on creating battle AIs. Is there any chance I could possibly ask about how the battle system AI in 'in stars and time' works? Totally okay if not or if you're busy!
I'm just especially interested in the design decisions that go behind how especially smaller games handle enemies and creat fun/well weighted battles :D
(all the screencaps will be in JPN because I am currently working on the JPN version ok!!!)
i would love to talk about battle AI and this definitely didn't turn into a "this is how I think about random enemies for In Stars and Time which you should wishlist and play the demo of" just deal with it ok
ok so first I gotta explain how RPGMaker's AI works.
You can give skills to enemies, and you can tell them 1. Conditions, aka when to do a certain skill (always? only on certain turns? only if under a certain state? only if under 50%HP?) and 2. Ratings, aka how high that skill is on the action list.
So for example, this is a Paper Tristesse's attack patterns:
Paper Tristesse's [Paper] attack (which attacks only one target) is set to Always, so they'll always have the possibility to do this attack. [Paper (All)] (which targets the whole party) will be activated only if Tristesse's HP is under 50%, and [Does Something] (which actually just... gives a line of dialogue and nothing else) also always has the possibility to happen. BUT those Rating numbers are different- the higher the number, the more likely that skill is to be activated. So [Paper] happens pretty often, [Paper (All)] less often, and only if Tristesse's HP is under 50%, and [Does Something] is even less likely to happen than both of those.
Paper Tristesse doesn't have a whole lot of attacks, because it's easier for the player so they can keep track of what attacks the enemy has, and it's easier for me. So I don't have. To figure out a whole damn complicated AI when this works great (some other enemies have very long lists of patterns but they're spoilers ok!!!)
(sidenote: [Does Something] is here to give a tiny bit of worldbuilding (how does the Tristesse act?) and to make the enemy skip a turn, giving the player some room to breathe and plan. So sometimes instead of attacking Tristesse goes "(Tristesse is distracted.)" I'm being so nice to players)
This simple pattern of 3 attacks is used by enemies that my producer calls "Goomba enemies", which are random encounters that are supposed to be very simple and not time intensive for the player! For the demo, Tristesse enemies are Goombas, and the triplets (seen below)/Rancoeur+Amertume encounters are made to be slightly harder and ask you to think a lil bit.
(oooh what's the difference between those three lil ladies?????)
The way I'm thinking about random enemies is, they should all teach the player something. Basic Tristesse enemies are here to teach you about the basics of Rock Paper Scissors and have pretty low stakes (just one weak enemy to focus on! Not a lot of attacks to keep track of!), the triplets are here to teach you that HEY WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE THREE SEEMINGLY IDENTICAL ENEMIES DO YOU GET WHAT YOU SHOULD LOOK AT YET (it's their hands, because they do different hand signs depending on their RPS type), and Rancoeur+Amertume are here to teach you about enemies with different goals/patterns (Rancoeur buffs, Amertume attacks), and also that enemies can buff themselves, and also about player priorities to a certain extent- which one to focus on first??? And learning those things are useful against bosses and midbosses!
tldr: rpgmaker's AI is pretty simple and so my enemy AI is also pretty simple but it works well so it's perfect. for me ✨
#in stars and time#tutorial#reference#game dev#indie game#ask tag#game development#this has been A WEEK so thank you for your patience#long post#usual 'i hope that helped' disclaimer
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I found This is About a Stuffed Bird bc of you and its one of my favorite fics ever. Do you by chance have more suggestions?
hermitcraft/mcyt fic recs? :0 let's go!!
i get a lot of my fic recs from other friends since i don't really go out and search on my own all too much for this fandom. but there are lots of great works out here! i will be listing out some of my favorites :3 mostly hc but a couple general mcyt ones that i think are an excellent read no matter what. all of the fics i'm listing will be genfic without ships!
also i just realized a lot of my bookmarks are grian-centric which is funny i guess because i am admittedly quite picky about content of my other favorites and grian just tends to have the most content in the fanbase. hope that'll be alright
(i hope some of my friends and mutuals don't mind me tagging them for their works)
hermitcraft longfics:
the last days of the free angel of carrows by @theminecraftbee - loved stuffed bird? here's another great longfic by second! this one is about joe and cleo in an urban fantasy mystery setting. again, second writes our beloved hermits into an captivating au!
leaping and hopping on a moonshadow by @lunarblazes - a fantasy au by luna my beloved! pearl suddenly gains magical powers and goes on a quest to find her long-lost friend grian who might know what's happening to her. she meets a lot of familiar faces along the way!
Recall by @redwinterroses - hey, i was the artist for this one! :D mumbo goes missing, so grian and scar search for him. they find that grumbot has been up to some... things along the way. the fic isn't finished but i think the chapters red put out is worth a read if you don't mind leaving off on a cliffhanger because it really is super interesting
dramaturgy by wormcity - a universe where gem and pearl join in a season 7 that was never finished. mumbo became the mayor, but the turf war went so very wrong afterwards. admittedly i have not finished reading this yet because ummm short on time xD but it's super interesting with a lot of layers of drama(turgy hahaha)!
hermitcraft short fics/oneshots:
for trying. by @autistic-evil-xisuma - a stuffed bird universe oneshot of x and xisuma during their lab days. great if you want to be sad over the doomed brothers again :D
the wheels on the bus by sparxwrites - a hilarious post-s8 oneshot about grian being a little shit towards the watchers. one of the first fics i've read from this fandom and i still love it
a body is an object by ruffboi - grian is a mimic, and pearl's arrival in s8 shakes him up. she hasn't seen him in a while and is quite upset to learn that the grian she knew died a long time ago. a great read for familial connections and conflict of friendships!
Goatman and the Rift by TheDepressedCanary - doc's eldritch powers start acting up when the rift appears. what shenanigans will ensue?
other mcyt fics/crossovers:
late at night, when the stars don't look quite right by @lunarblazes - an excellent empires s1 and hermitcraft crossover longfic, where grian lands into the server and is discovered by pearl! very great worldbuilding and relationships, i especially love the dynamic between gri and pearl and pearl and gem :D
every new discovery is just a reminder by amaranthinecanicular - grian begins pulling alternate versions of the hermits from the life series into the server. he does save a lot of them, but at what cost? it does end on a cliffhanger but this is genuinely one of the most captivating oneshots i've ever read... argghhh
The Fair and the Brave and the Good by @slashmagpie - an afterlife smp longfic centered around the shelby, scott, and sausage. i have never watched afterlife smp before in my LIFE and this is still one of my favorite pieces of literature ever. the characters and worldbuilding is impeccable and perfect if you like something dark with themes of hope and renewal.
Two Can Keep a Secret (If One of Them is Red) by anonymous secretmcblog - a 3L oneshot! ren suspects grian has stockholm syndrome with his pact to stay with scar, but his expectations are wrong. a truly excellent read and one of them first fics i've read! i still go back to reread it from time to time
dog at the door by fluffy_papaya & iamsolarflare - a longfic where doc and ren take a trip on a van on their way to s8. ren, however, is not quite himself, and doc has to learn to befriend the red king.
devil town is colder in the summertime by @bananasofthorns - a oneshot from a 100hsmp/life series d&d au! team BEST ventures into a cursed evil fucked up forest. uh oh.
Interview with the Aftermath by @ranchersrevenge (wanderlasts) - the last life contestants are invited for an interview. the responses vary greatly.
stars, smoke, and stolen car keys by wormcity - a 100hsmp modern au oneshot where grian, scar, and joel go on a hike. it doesn't go quite as they expected.
the beehive state by amaranthinecanicular - a dsmp oneshot after wilbur moves to utah. tommy visits him, and the two reconnect. i have to say i stopped following dsmp a long time ago but this fic made me BAWL. i don't even think you need to know any of the characters that well to really enjoy just how amazing the writing itself is
Can't Go Back (This Time) by @duckmumbo (musicaltvbooks) - soup group goes end raiding and accientally finds themselves in afterlife smp. nothing goes wrong, surely! also admittedly i havent finished reading this either but roy i swear i will. this is a great read nevertheless and the soup group dynamic is impeccable!
TommyInnit's unbeatable method of avoiding sudden death by eneliii - on the train of dsmp fics, this is the superhero au longfic that inspired my own hc superhero au, vdhau. it's a lot of funny shenanigans with tommy and his friends. the fic does take a dark turn at the end, but that can be skipped entirely (as said by eneli herself) if you just want the wholesome aspects.
if you don't mind a little self promo, here are some of my fics!
it takes two to play (the game of mutual secrecy) - the aforementioned hermitcraft hero au. this installment is centered around xisuma and evil x as brothers resolving their issues through hero work and solving the mystery of welsknight's disappearance :D there are other works that are set in the same universe if you're interested for more!
how to form the ultimate besties dynamic: an unreliable tutorial by hypnotizd - a oneshot! hypno is a warlock who goes treasure hunting under the sea. he meets a guardian who later becomes his unlikely friend.
smoke and mirrors, the hunt perseveres - grian's arrival in empires s2 unwittingly brings the watchers' suspicions with him. cue jimmy freaking out and a lot of shenanigans.
ballad of etho’s lab - my newest installment! a oneshot about etho's storied life as the redstone god.
i'm also currently working on the sequel to the game of mutual secrecy and a new (well not exactly new since i made concept art for it) au called private detective gem tasey! these will likely be released sometime late january or february. have fun with these fic recs! i haven't been reading as much lately but i hope ill be able to find more if anyone else asks in the future. cheers!
edit: the fics are out! here they are!
hiding in plain sight (the meaning of trust) - sequel to the hermitcraft hero au! it follows an escaped lab rat trying to acquaint themselves with human society while avoiding suspicion and making friends with familiar faces from tgms ;D
private detective gem tasey: a rotten mystery in london - a hermitcraft detective au where gem gets hired for a case that spirals completely into drama and politics!
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I've been seeing a lot of Trigun posts around and ngl it's got me interested in the show! What's your recommendation for what to start with first? Like reading the manga first or starting with Stampede?
I actually really recommend MY experience, which was Trigun 1998 -> Trigun Stampede -> Trigun & Trigun Maximum manga
I'll explain why under the cut :) But tl;dr the order is
Very Little Lore Explained -> Some Lore Explained -> All Lore Explained And Woven Beautifully Into The Themes
Trigun 1998
the Trigun 1998 anime was made before the manga was finished, so some major plot points towards the end are very different because they were at least partially improvised. There is also very very little worldbuilding lore revealed in the 1998 anime-- but when they did touch on it, it really piqued my interest!
I'd imagine the 1998 anime might be a bit disappointing to watch after Stampede or the manga, when you're aware of all the cool characters and worldbuilding you're missing out on. Going into 1998 blind, I just felt vaguely confused yet emotionally compelled & willing to accept it because YeeHaw Space Cowboy, yknow?
Stampede
Trigun Stampede was made after the completion of the manga, and was clearly more than excited to dig into the worldbuilding and villain buildup that the original anime missed out on. But as I've said it ends up so tightly paced that it's missing the weight 1998's slower pacing could lend to the Average Human Lives around Vash.
It will offer you much more worldbuilding and some very strong character introductions, which I think are good lead-ups for meeting the characters in their Fullest Forms in the manga.
The Manga
Now, the animes are gonna leave you with a lot of questions. About character motivations and Plants, mostly. You'll feel the themes were well-delivered, but have the distinct feeling that they could be stronger. They're also going to leave you wanting more time to spend with these charming, lovable characters.
I am delighted to say that the manga delivers everything you could possibly be left wanting for after the animes BEAUTIFULLY, AND THEN SOME!!!!!!! I've been devouring it at a record pace and it has yet to disappoint. The themes and their spectacular deliveries are changing my brain chemistry. I'm absorbing it into my soul.
Please Please Please even if you dont like either anime, read the manga anyway. Especially if you don't like either anime because you feel they don't deliver on their philosophical musings adequately. Because the manga DOES deliver. So much. Please I'm begging. It's so good it's so fucking good
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Worldbuilding and Writing Fiction are two separate skills.
Someone reblogged one of my shitposts yesterday (the one about intimidating myself out of worldbuilding) expressing confusion in the tags about how anyone could be intimidated out of writing through worldbuilding too much.
This was kind of baffling to me, because I think I've seen it 50-60 times now, especially with new, ambitious writers who are starting off with deep fantasy or science fiction projects. When you talk to them, they've often sunk months or even years of worldbuilding into the project, but when you ask how far they've come on the fiction side of things, they usually have writer's block, haven't started writing the story, or say they're not ready yet. 'I'm starting soon' is a common refrain. 'I just have a little bit more left to do.'
The main reason for this - I feel - is that worldbuilding and writing are two different skills. Someone who spends 5 years worldbuilding has learned how to get really good at worldbuilding, but that doesn't mean anything about how good their writing will be. Many folks think worldbuilding will automatically make a story better, but sometimes worldbuilding can become unwieldy and stressful, especially in the case of a) entirely new worlds / secondary world fantasy, or b) complex worldbuilding. Definitely not talking about contemporary romance here, lol. (Though no shade to that, I've had a lot of fun worldbuilding for those stories too).
Going from worldbuilding to writing is launching into an entirely new space. If you find writing new stories easy, that won't be a problem for you, in fact you may not even have realised they're too different skills before now.
If you find writing new stories intimidating, sometimes having hundreds or thousands of things about your world to try and constantly remember can feel overwhelming and mess with the executive function needed to start a chapter.
In some cases, worldbuilding can make it much easier to start a story. But it really depends on what you're needing to do. If you're just writing a contemporary story where you need to research two characters and two jobs, you're generally going to be just fine.
If on the other hand, you have the equivalent of a 500 page Wiki behind-the-scenes, it can feel overwhelming very quickly.
New writers fall into this trap the most, I feel. They become accustomed to what worldbuilding feels like, and they hedge on writing the actual fiction, because they just have more experience worldbuilding and keep waiting for their confidence in worldbuilding to become 'confidence in starting the story.' It doesn't work that way. They're different skills.
They might even be better at worldbuilding than writing! But that just means - if they really want to be a writer - that writing is the skill they really need to work on the most. That can be a comfort zone issue too. It can also be a 'only about 5-10% of all this work will ever appear in the story' issue, where folks want to share the worldbuilding more than the characters or plot, and therefore are just not inspired to work on their story. It can be a 'I want this story to be as good as my worldbuilding' issue. It can be a 'I find the worldbuilding part easy' issue. There are lots of reasons people stall out in worldbuilding and then feel intimidated to write the actual story.
This can also happen with established writers who become aware that the more they know about their world, the more they don't know about their world. It can start to feel like - if you write 10 articles for yourself, you end up with 100 more to write. If you write those 100 articles, you have another 300 to write. Worldbuilding never ends. Worldbuilding can be endless, and if you're an immersive writer, you can get lost very easily in the details, or in not knowing what details are critical and what details aren't. (A hint here is that you'll figure that out really fast when you start writing).
Stalling in worldbuilding can be a lot of things, it can tell you that there's something broken in the world, something broken in the story, it can tell you more about your insecurities, it can tell you how good you are at one skill and where you might need practice in another. It's super informative!
But, generally speaking, the advice I tend to give to many new writers is to try not to let your worldbuilding period last too long. Ideally, put a timer on it and see how it feels to start writing your story once the timer has gone off (3 months, 6 months, 3 weeks, put it in your phone or in your calendar, and start the first chapter, or some random scene, once that time is up).
If, after that period of time lapses, you still aren't ready to start your story, something bigger might be going on. It's an opportunity to dig deeper into the situation. And sometimes just ask yourself if you're using the idea of a novel as an excuse to do what you love most: Worldbuilding. If that's the case, there are other jobs you can parlay a solid worldbuilding ability into. It doesn't have to lead to novels. :)
But yeah it's super super common for many writers to stall out between worldbuilding and writing, and to feel overwhelmed by their own worldbuilding.
New writers get affected by it the most based on observation and hanging around writing forums, and the advice that gets asked quite often specifically on 'when do I go from worldbuilding to writing the story,' but established writers experience it too, because as Gene Wolfe once said to Neil Gaiman: "You never learn how to write a novel, Neil. You just learn how to write the novel you are on."
#on writing#on worldbuilding#dodgy advice#worldbuilding and writing are two different skills#and writing one novel in one world#doesn't necessarily teach you how to write another novel in another world#likewise worldbuilding doesn't teach you how to write the novel that will follow#it just gives you a lot of meat for the structure itself#some folks don't notice a difference and never realise they're different skills#some people just notice that worldbuilding makes things easier#and for the rest of us it can definitely be a mixed bag
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On creating a wiki for your worldbuilding
Do you have a lot of lore to keep track of? Whether you're an author, a Game Master, or simply someone who really really likes worldbuilding, this post is for you.
Here's a quick overview of what I'll be talking about:
Platforms people use to create personal wikis
Formats and organization systems you may find useful when creating your own wiki
A brief look at the actual content you might put in your wiki (I'm planning a more in-depth post on that later with more images and demos)
And because this is gonna be a long'un, I'm putting a read-more here! I'll also make downloadable epub and PDF versions of this post available for free on my Ko-Fi at some point in the future.
(I'm also planning to reblog with a list of links later on, but I want this initial post shows up in search)
Also now that you're here, I'm going to say this isn't, like, super comprehensive or anything. I'm just talking about stuff I know a little about or have experience with. Please feel free to reblog with additions and/or corrections as needed!
What is a wiki?
According to Wikipedia, "a wiki is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser."
In this case, you'll likely be the sole person making updates to your wiki. The web browser part is optional these days as well, as you'll soon see.
Platforms for creating wikis
Websites for creating worldbuilding wikis
WorldAnvil
This one is actually designed for people who want to create big worldbuilding wikis.
Pros: Worldbuilding prompts! Those are great. It's got a pretty comprehensive set of article types too.
Cons: Kind of expensive to upgrade for features like making your wiki private, and it does NOT work well with adblock turned on, so if you don't want to pay for a membership you'll get inundated with ads. I'm not a huge fan of the interface in general and a lot of it isn't intuitive, but I like what they're doing so I support them anyway.
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Tiddlywiki/Tiddlyhost.com.
In addition to having a cat as its icon and also a silly name, each 'article' you create with this is called a 'tiddler' which makes me think of Chuck Tingle. I haven't used it much myself yet, but I did make an account and it seems pretty neat.
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Miraheze
A community-hosted wiki platform that runs on MediaWiki (which is what Wikipedia runs off of).
Pros: It's not Fandom.com.
Cons: You have to request a wiki and can't just make it yourself, as far as I can tell. I haven't actually looked into this one as much.
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Neocities
An option for if you want to go super oldschool and create a website using only basic html and hyperlinks (without the handy shortcuts of bbcode or Markdown). Monthly cost is $5 usd if you want to have more space and your own domain.
Pros: 100% control over your content.
Cons: Doesn't support PHP databases for wiki software, and can be fairly labour-intensive to update if you break a link or something.
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Fandom.com
Unfortunately, this one is the top result you'll get when you look up how to make your own wiki. I'm only including it here to tell you to stay as far away from it as possible!!
Its staff are known to ban wiki creators from their own wikis and a bunch of other nonsense that I'm not getting into here.
Programs and apps/web apps for creating worldbuilding wikis
Obsidian.md
My personal favourite. I'm planning to make a whole post about how I use it in the near future as part of this article series.
It's a markdown-based application that you can get on just about any platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, etc) which is great. Obsidian is really easy to pick up and use and also has great themes and community plugins!
Best thing is, it's FREE and you only have to pay if you use their publishing service, which... I don't, so.
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Notion
I've heard this one is pretty good too. Idk if it costs anything. It's another "second brain" style app (might be markdown also?) and I think it might do more than Obsidian, but I haven't checked it out much myself.
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Microsoft Word/Google Docs etc.
...Or just about any word processor that lets you create internal hyperlinks. Word may work best due to the collapsible headings so it doesn't get too unwieldy, but *shrug* whatever floats your boat.
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Excel/Google Sheets etc.
Or, again, any spreadsheet creator that lets you create internal hyperlinks.
I'd recommend having some basic spreadsheet knowledge before doing this. It could get complicated. Before I started using Obsidian, I was using Sheets to keep track of my glossary, notes about characters, and plot ideas.
Types of formatting & organization systems
There are as many organization systems as there are people who want to organize their stuff. Everybody needs something a little different! I find the ones that work best for me are systems that have a lot of customization options.
Here are a couple I know of.
Johnny Decimal
This system is absurdly simple in its concept and yet so versatile. From their website (it's just johnnydecimal dot com but I'll link it in a reblog later):
Take everything you need to organise and sort it in to, at most, ten large buckets.
Make sure the buckets are unambiguously different.
Put a label on each bucket.
Their website has a better explanation than I can give in this post, but I'll sum up the appeal of this system as quoted from their site: "There's only one place anything can ever be."
Usefully, part of this method is creating a directory for the rest of the system.
So if you're like me and tend to shove things wherever only to lose track of it later, this is a great system—especially when used in conjunction with the Zettelkasten Method (see below).
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Zettelkasten Method
Originally devised as an extensive paper-based knowledge management system, Zettelkasten is meant to easily add new entries to a knowledge base while giving each one a unique ID for easy 'linking.'
The creator of this method said 'it is not important where you place the note, as long as you can link to it.'
As with the Johnny Decimal system, I can't explain it super succinctly (nor can the website, if I'm being honest), so I'll include a link in a future reblog for a video that gave me an excellent run-down of the basics.
Setting up your own system
An organization system is only useful if you can actually, y'know, use it.
It can be fun to set up a super-detailed organization system with predetermined categories for everything, but is it easy for you to use? How will you navigate it?
Making decisions
There will be a lot of decisions to make as you set up your system. The only set-in-stone rule I follow is... don't set anything in stone. It's okay if you decide something that doesn't work later on.
Figuring out your categories
My advice: go fairly broad. You can always sub-categorize. I'm going to go over my own wikis for Athenaeum and Rocket Boosters in detail in a later post, but here are the starting top-level categories I'd recommend for worldbuilders:
A meta category for notes about your database, templates, and any relevant research you've done.
Characters, including main characters, minor characters, and important figures
Worldbuilding
In the last category, which is the main reason for the existence of my wiki, I might have:
Culture
History
Locations
Organizations
Lore (if relevant)
Technology
Transportation
I'll go over the nuances of these 'main' subcategories in that future post I mentioned. In other words, the stuff that actually goes in those categories!
Determining the importance and relevance of worldbuilding elements
You'll need to figure out whether a topic is complex enough to deserve its own entry, or if it should be a sub-heading under another entry. It's okay if you decide on both! I have short subheadings under some entries that amount to "see [link to main entry on that topic]."
I've also decided to expand subheadings into their own topics, and I've removed topics as their own entry and shoved them under subheadings. I do this a lot, in fact! So it's okay if you don't know.
Templates
Will you be creating several of one type of entry?
Individual character profiles
Towns and cities
Factions
(to name a few)
It might be handy to figure out the basic types of information you'll need about each of those things and create a template for them.
A character template might have spaces for the basics, such as name, role, age, and so on.
Some characters will have a lot more information, and some might have even less than what your template dictates! And that's fine.
A word of warning about using system-creation as procrastination
Creating a wiki can be a daunting task. You might decide it's not for you, and that's okay. But you might also decide to go headlong into the process and work on every minute detail, and that is also okay, but.
But.
Beware of using your wiki as an excuse to procrastinate your actual writing/session preparation. Yes, use it to keep track of all the lore you've injected into your manuscript/campaign/whatever, just make sure it stays in its place as a companion to your main project rather than becoming your main project.
How formal should your entries be?
Honestly this one's entirely up to you. I have a mix. Some entries are written like Wikipedia entries with a thorough explanation of the topic with proper punctuation and formatting, while others are simply bullet-point lists of thoughts and ideas that I can return to at a later date.
What methods do you use to keep track of your lore and worldbuilding? Let me know in a reblog or comment!
And please make sure to check the notes. I'll be reblogging with links, and then reblogging that reblog to make sure they're, y'know, actually visible in the notes.
#wiki#worldbuilding#writing advice#writeblr#writeblr community#resource#worldbuilding wiki#obsidian#zettelkasten#resource by keyboardandquill
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I've been struggling...so...hard...to maintain motivation with the biopunk WIP, which is approaching its 6th anniversary of Being In My Brain. I'm forever cycling back to "okay but what if your worldbuilding is boring and no one cares about the story you have to tell in this world and it sucks"
but right now i'm just...rereading it. and I wanted to share some of the worldbuilding concepts okay
tl;dr: the setting is The Future, post-apocalyptic, but the previous ("our") civilization and the immediate aftermath is an almost mythological past, an age of heroes and prophets, but people KNOW there was Real History, but everything that far back is kinda fuzzy and debatable.
this book is supposed to seriously fuck with your head in terms of the divide between sci-fi and fantasy and the divide between "science/knowledge" and "religion/myth."
The worldbuilding is DEEPLY steeped in spirituality, folklore, and religion, sacredness and the afterlife and other spiritual concepts like that are very REAL to the characters, and i'm trying to deal with it Very Respectfully and make it clear that these people are not superstitious or stupid.
(Everyone is also kind of a "mutt" spiritually/religiously which is super funny. The vibe is like, there are a lot of people who aren't super serious about religion but they are super serious about ghosts being real and if a priest is no help they'll go find a shaman.)
One of the main characters is non-binary. The philosophy and spirituality of gender in this world is discussed and it's neat. This character is also an archetypal Trickster in every sense and I won't say much more yet but they're probably my favorite character I've ever written AAAAAAAAA
i'm working so, so hard to express characters' understanding of "sci-fi stuff" like technology and scientific concepts in language that culturally makes sense to them, and it is SO fun. especially when I get to express science fiction stuff in "mythological" terminology
e.g. genetic engineering: "They unwound and read the scrolls within living cells. Mortals learned the forbidden language of Life." Like DNA is described as an arcane/magical "language" (The Inmost Language or the language of Life) but nothing said about it is exactly wrong. at one point the main character meets a character with unnaturally golden hair created by genetic engineering and MC is thinking "the institute scribes did that. wrote gold gold shiny gold shiny bright gold in her cells to tell her hair to do that." this book is FULL of stuff like this
There's a major religion centered around a prophet that heard the voices of the dead and wrote down their teachings.
If you're not paying attention, you will get bitchslapped by the reveal that this is literally what happened: there was a vault, think "nuclear waste warning messages," where recordings containing important information for future humans were stored, and someone found it and shared the information with others. stuff like "wash your hands to stop disease from spreading" and "don't be racist" kinda got turned into religious teachings that occasionally seem weird, even backward.
There is another big one where it's like "there was a prophecy that civilization would perish in rising water..." and it's like okay, this myth is Noah's flood. NO BITCH IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE. But also yes.
Wolves have kinda migrated into being a mythological animal that symbolizes death. One character knows they really existed and can't stop themselves from correcting other people about it but everyone else just thinks it's funny that they think wolves are real
there's a people group in this story that is...I guess "indigenous-coded" is the right word? and a lot of the worldbuilding surrounding their culture will fuck with your head so good because you, as the reader, are a cultural outsider and your understanding of their culture changes but is never 100% accurate
e.g. this culture has a taboo surrounding personal names where in all but the most intimate relationships and interactions you call others by descriptive 'nicknames' based on what you observe about the person, what you want them to know that you notice, etc. There is a TON of cultural meaning in WHAT you decide to call someone and it can be a power play or something that gives the other person a lot of information about your intentions. But basically the full "meaning" of the taboo and when it's appropriate/normal to use a personal name is never exactly clarified. But for a while as a reader you're just taking the piss because there's a scene where a character dramatically "reveals" his "real" name and it's very serious and emotional at the time but as the story goes on and you know more, it becomes clear that he was just fucking lying
i'm putting so much effort into streamlining how characters word things, making slang roll off the tongue and SOUND and feel natural and intuitive, making the technologies feel as normal as any technology we have around us.
like. most lighting is bioluminescent. But I'm not gonna point out bioluminescent lighting because who walks into a room and notices that the lights are electric. what you would notice is old electric bulbs with spiderwebs on them vs. new LED lights, and that's richer and more detail-laden stuff.
and after SO much hard work the descriptions feel so lush and rich and crunchy. I'm making it sound all Complex. It's fun. It's REALLY fun. there are zombies.
I've worldbuilt the most random things. I've invented a bunch of bioengineered cat breeds for this book. I made up a sport where goats race up a wooden pyramid and try to stay on top for the longest period and wrote a kentucky derby style narration for it. I designed a bobbit worm themed dress. not to mention. all the elaborate names for female criminals such as Gory Gertrude.
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Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:
--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!
--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.
Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.
--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.
I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.
--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.
I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.
--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.
Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:
MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993?
YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.
Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.
More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.
In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.
(But I hope to dig into this question more)
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ok i've decided i want to infodump about vee and nova a little after all! because uhh not only am i impatient because autism but i also. want to dip my toes into talking about this. just days ago i was still terrified but now i am Tentatively Brave... if i can talk about it here casually like this then i should be able to write a more formal summary later some other time
i've tagged this post appropriately (at least i think i have, feel free to suggest if i should add more) but also a heads up here too before i keep talking that while i'm not going into graphic detail on anything there are STRONG themes of organized sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of animals, and grooming! (there are no disturbing visuals in this post, just text)
IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS POST THAT'S OKAY I STILL LOVE U
takes a deep breath alright so the deal with these two. back all the way in 2021, i decided i wanted to make "vent ocs" as in i just wanted some concrete/consistent designs i could use in vent art drawings that weren't a direct reflection of what i envision myself to look like or whatever. i was going through a lot in 2021, in december 2020 i had just gotten my first big repressed memory back and my life was in a whirlwind of change and heavily increased PTSD and DID symptoms, so i was using art a lot as an outlet. in the end i settled on this drawing, based on the design taste i would have had as a young person (god the quality is so old now LOL i've improved a lot but anyway)
i was intending for these two to be just visual designs and nothing more than that but i got attached and actually ended up giving them a whole storyline and everything, which is something i admittedly hadn't done in a long time up to that point so that's cool.
the reason i preface explaining the premise of the storyline with this is because i think it's important to acknowledge that these two are intrinsically tied with my real life and the feelings i experience as a CSA/OA survivor. not because i think someone has to go through awful things to write or draw about them necessarily, but because i am passionate about expressing myself. it's important for me to be seen in some way, to be heard after years of silence. it is not safe for me mentally to share the exact details of my abuse online rn (and please don't ask for them!) but i also don't want these two to be removed from the message that i survived something and this is me making art about that in an abstracted and magical way with a fictional universe that brings me a lot of comfort. i hope this makes sense lol
oh and also with that in mind if you think for even a second any of this is a weird sex thing for me or some shit please stop reading this post and go do something else with your time. this is my trauma expression and i don't need to be compared to the people i was abused by when i was a literal toddler thank you!
AANYWAY so! premise! gonna be point blank with it! vee (not her original name but shh) is born as a normal 100% human girl, aka without the eevee ears and tail. she is groomed from a very young age (like, toddler age) and eventually abducted by her groomers which happen to be members of... well right now it's team rocket because i haven't spent the time to worldbuild a new villainous pokemon organization yet. roll with me here. she is taken to a remote facility out in the middle of fucking nowhere and is never returned to her previous life or family.
Why? well i'm glad you asked! the org is running a bunch of different experiments in this facility and one of them happens to be trying to enable humans reproducing with pokemon. this doubles as both a money thing and a power thing. they seek out a child as the victim of these horrible experiments because children are easily malleable. way easier to control a child than an adult who already has a firm identity/self.
vee is the child they chose. surgery is forcibly done on her to give her working eevee ears and tail, and also like, fuck with her body chemistry and stuff. she's biologically part eevee now. yes this is bullshit pokemon magic science LMAO but she is kept in this facility and chronically sexually abused for a few years by pairing her with various mons and trying to get eggs to happen.
the experiment isn't working though so they hypothesize that giving her a dedicated partner, especially of the same evolutionary line, would help, and they raise nova from birth as an eevee to take on that role. eventually the two of them are paired together. despite the acts they are forced to commit on each other and the abuse they endure, they actually become inseparable very quickly cause like. they don't have anyone else. and also they just genuinely care about each other. additionally at this point nova has evolved into an espeon and has telepathic powers, so him and vee can communicate linguistically with each other, so you know that helps
generally my current focus of this story is in the early years, when vee is 12 and younger, before they start realizing that shit is fucked up and they need to escape (up until that hypothetical point they have been successfully groomed into believing everything happening to them was not abuse/was normal). i have left out a metric fuckton of detail here just to get across the basic premise. i am constantly exploring vee's psyche, nova's psyche, it's like an in depth exploration of the mind of an abused child in horrific circumstances and god it's cathartic. i love these two so fucking much
btw i guess this art has more context now huh haha after i infodumped off the plot to my sister they looked at this art again and was like. OHHH THIS IS EVEN MORE OMINOUS AND HARD TO LOOK AT WITH CONTEXT. AND I WAS LIKE YEAH!!!! YOU SEE THE VISION!!! THE SYMBOLISM!! ETC!!!!
uh yeah if you read this far thank you and i just wanna say i've been building up the courage to talk about these two for GENUINELY two years, it has been over 2 full years since that initial drawing, and i am nervous and jittery posting this but i do not want to die without having shared my work with the world and i'm willing to take the risks to get my voice out there. so you reading it is very much appreciated ur like my first step into being more confident as a survivor lol
oh and fwiw despite these guys being so correlated with my trauma it's not offensive to make headcanons or ask me questions about them or compliment darker art of them however you want, in fact i love that shit!! please i've been holding these guys back for two years i have so much to say that hasn't been said. as much as i am nervous i am EXCITED
#sa tw#mind control tw#csa tw#oa tw#abuse tw#this post is a bit of a mess sorry!#this is why im sort of “drafting” my summary as a stream of consciousness infodump#i need to tackle having the confidence talking about this first#just get it out no matter how messy#and THEN i can clean it up and present it in an artistically pleasing way#kiki was here#kiki.txt#vee & nova
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February Reading Recap
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. I didn't find a whole lot new in this book, as far as thinking through questions of how to deal with art made by people who have done things or hold opinions that one finds morally reprehensible, but it was a well-written and thoughtful probing of the subject nonetheless. I really appreciated the fact that Dederer was comfortable (or, if not comfortable then at least accepting) of coming to a place with no easy answers. rea
Stars of Chaos: vol. 1 by Priest. I'm not sucked into this one yet, but I am intrigued by it enough that I'm going to keep reading. I haven't hooked into the main relationship, and it hasn't had the same level of delightful banter (at least, as yet) that I have enjoyed in other Priest novels I've read, but I do have volume 2 sitting on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading it.
System Collapse by Martha Wells. I find that I've liked the early Murderbot books a lot more than the later ones, and this one unfortunately continued that trend. I don't think the series has overstayed its welcome for me yet - I'll probably continue to read it, at least for now - but I find myself losing interest.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. I said I was going to reread it and I did! And it didn't blow me away in quite the same way I remember it doing when I read it the first time around several years ago, but I still really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it enough this time around (and was still compelled enough by the worldbuilding, which I do remember being a big part of what stood out to me), that I plan to reread the rest of the series as well. But while, again, it didn't blow me away the way I remember, I would say that I generally recommend it, particularly as a fantasy that is doing some things different.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Manhua): vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I am only and specifically reading the volumes of the manhua that have Yi City in it, so I'm pretty much exclusively assessing this based on my Yi City feelings. And while overall I feel like the art style isn't working for me in a way that is impacting my ability to really get into it there was at least one panel that really conveyed something and made me Feel Things, so it gets credit for that. I am enjoying the experience of doing Yi City in a whole new format, though, that's enjoyable for the sheer "getting to do Yi City, again, but in a different medium this time" reason.
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinker. I read this book for a book club I'm in and I found it rather too didactic and the ending a little too pat. The family dynamics were strongly written and I sort of feel like Pinker could've written a stronger book that was just about a family without the part about New and Suspect Technology. I wouldn't even say that I necessarily disagree with the points I think she's making in this book, but I would say that it went a little too hard and a little too obviously on making those points.
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. I liked this one and particularly as of the last...idk, five pages or so, I'm so on board for what comes next. I am promised that it gets even weirder and given that it was already fairly weird...I'm fascinated by the worldbuilding here, and the conceit of the Enlightenment-style contrasted with the future setting is a fun one. I'm looking forward to more.
Ring by Koji Suzuki. I was neither scared by this book (though perhaps I was ruined by knowing the whole thing more or less beat for beat) and did not particularly enjoy the experience of reading it, and then the part where Sadako was revealed to be...genderweird? somehow? unclear to me what the author was going for exactly, sort of tanked it for me. I probably will not be reading the rest of the series unless I get truly desperate for horror to read.
Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler. I don't know that I'd say this was the highest quality fantasy I've read recently but it might be the new-to-me one I've liked the best in a while. It was a lot of fun, very fast-moving, and I was intrigued enough by the entire set-up that I pretty much immediately put the second book on hold at the library after finishing this one. Maybe it's just been too long since I read a new-to-me fantasy book that really grabbed me, but I liked this one rather a lot and even if it was maybe more "fun" than "good" I'm still calling that enough to give this one a loose recommendation.
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I'm not going to reblog Neil Gaiman's thing about how S2's episodes "don't have any fat on them" but I DO have some (spoilery) reactions to that below the cut-
OK so I already did another post here where I gave my impressions of the writing- but Gaiman mentioning this actually reminded me of something that I didn't put in there at all but kind of wish I had.
Because honestly, I don't think that the episodes not having any fat on them is a good thing.
Here's the thing- Good Omens, the book and the first season of the TV show, is a bunch of set pieces that loosely come together into a plot. The TV show less so, maybe- there's more of an effort to create a narrative- but fundamentally it's a bunch of ridiculous stuff all strung together to create the Apocalypse. (Like, there's a reason why book fans were so upset when the Four Other Horsemen of the Apocalypse didn't show up in the show- they did literally nothing for the plot but they were absolutely hilarious.)
So far, in the first 2 episodes of S2, I have to agree with Gaiman that there's no fat on them. And I think that's one of the things that kind of threw me. EVERYTHING that has happened thus far has felt like it's something that's probably going to lead to something else, like it's connective tissue for the upcoming story that will presumably make more sense later- and while there's plenty of entertainment and humor and sweetness, it's all to the point. You have to be paying attention, you have to take everything seriously (even if it's something that by rights feels inherently unserious) because it could matter later.
In S1, you didn't have to think too carefully about why a telemarketer is being eaten by maggots or even why there's still a witchfinder in the 21st century (for the show) because fundamentally it doesn't REALLY matter. Something will all come together at the end and in the meantime you can just enjoy it in the spirit in which it's given, which is of course an insane one. Each scene is just fun on its own. (I think this is in some ways truer in the book than the show- there were a lot of these scenes that I don't think worked on the show- but that was more about the execution than the concept.)
The fat in S1 was the good part, really. The plot wasn't all that important- it was all the moments along the way.
The closest thing to fat (to continue to use the metaphor) in S2, so far, is the minisode. It's the only thing where it doesn't necessarily feel like you'll be tested on it later. And it's also easily the best part of those episodes! You can just watch it and take all the ridiculousness for granted because it doesn't really matter. It's there to draw out the characters, it's there to give the world more color, and it's there to entertain.
Not that S2 isn't also there to entertain- it very much is, but it doesn't really have time to. It can be silly and random in the way that the book and S1 are, but instead of those being random throwaway moments (like Newt blacking out all of Dorking in the book- which signifies that his tech-unsavviness may be relevant to the plot later but is really mostly just there to entertain because it's so out-there), they are intrinsically tied into whatever the plot will turn out to be. That's really clear, even though we don't actually know yet exactly what the plot is going to be! The leanness of the plot is immediately evident.
I think, so far, that the main negative consequence is that it makes it so much harder to suspend disbelief. When you have a ridiculous moment in a throwaway scene, that's worldbuilding- it shows that this is the kind of world where ridiculous things happen, and then when a particular ridiculous moment ends up being important to the plot, that's fine because it's part of a whole constellation of ridiculous things in this ridiculous world- they've already deconstructed our sense of disbelief. When all you're getting is plot, when something a bit crazy happens you're like "oh, hang on, that doesn't make sense, that's a bit farfetched."
I think that that's one of the things that, so far, is giving "fanfic vibes" to the first two episodes. Maggie and Nina get locked into the cafe? In their first episode?! When we know that they're going to get together?!?! That's ridiculous. In the book and to a lesser degree S1, where like five other ridiculous things would have already happened that aren't heavily signaled to be important to the plot (Gabriel doesn't count because we know he's important to the plot too), this would just be one more ridiculous thing. In S2, it feels like something we need to suspend disbelief for because we haven't really had it suspended for us yet.
Everything I write about Good Omens here is going to come down to John Finnemore in the end because I can't help myself lol, but honestly, my first thought was "well he's really into plotting, so maybe this is part of that." But- he's also done nine and a bit seasons of a sketch show. While he was writing this he was also writing a season of JFSP (the sublime S9) where there was very minimal plot but everything was propelled by character building sketches, very much in the spirit of Good Omens. He knows exactly the power of random ridiculous moments to build the world and explain its ludicrousness. When him being a writer was announced, I saw so many people say "he's definitely got a bonkers enough brain to do this" except that it turns out that, while true, his bonkers sketch-writing brain doesn't really have a lot to do here.
That, plus the fact that I'd be really surprised from everything that I've heard over the last 2ish years if Gaiman wasn't the first and final voice behind everything written for this season, leads me to the conclusion that the issue might just be that S2 may be, as a group effort, over-plotted for its length. There's little room to breathe and live in the world. There are barely any humans, and as such there's not much time to remember that the story is set in a world where humans matter, which, as I pointed out in my previous post, is something that was really important in Good Omens the book and S1. It just doesn't have any fat.
Now- I should be clear- as I said with the other post, it is way too early to tell if GO2 is good or not, because all of the stuff in E1-2 was clearly building up to other things that haven't happened yet. I actually think S2 probably will be good. The above may not be "issues" per se. But I do think that talking about the original Good Omens like the "fat" is the problem kind of misses the point of why so many people liked it- and leaves GO2 with a pretty big burden to overcome in order to convince viewers that it is a continuation of the same world and same story they loved in S1.
#good omens#good omens 2#good omens s2#good omens season 2#good omens spoilers#good omens 2 spoilers#gos2 spoilers#go2 spoilers#john finnemore#john finnemore's souvenir programme#jfsp s9#because I can't help myself
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OC Questionnaire
I was tagged by @stargazer-sims, @drawing-way-outside-the-lines, @bool-prop, and @happy-lemon. Hehehehehe now I get to do more than one! 😈
Aiden Ayy 👽
Name: Aiden Ayy
Nickname: He was definitely that kid who tried to nickname himself and then got frustrated when nothing stuck. Despite his best childhood efforts, Aiden has no nicknames. 😭
Gender: Male
Star sign: Gemini ♊
Height: 5'8"
Orientation: Pansexual
Nationality/Ethnicity: 100% Sixamite
Favorite Fruit: On Earth, pineapple. On Sixam, grarglefroot. It's basically a pineapple except blue.
Favorite Season: Spring.
Favorite Flower: I think I answered this before in a different post with some wild ass flower that looks like it belongs on an alien planet which is great worldbuilding and all but I literally forgot what it was so let's go with basic bitch roses. 😅
Favorite Scent: Cinnamon.
Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: Aiden is up for any of these as long as they're spiked. He hasn't yet learned that not everyone does that all the time and that it makes you look like you have a problem if you do.
Average Hours of Sleep: Aiden doesn't actually need sleep! He meditates to restore his brain power but sleep isn't necessary for him. He's a lot like D&D elves in that way. He can choose to sleep if he wants to, though, because dreams are fun and he looks cute when he's eepy. 🥺
Dogs or Cats: Yes. Any animal at all, really. Aiden is fascinated with them.
Dream Trip: Sixam. Poor baby wants to go home. 😭
Number of Blankets: "I'm worried what you just heard was 'give me a lot of blankets'. What I said was 'give me all the blankets you have.' Do you understand?"
Random Fact: Aiden is based on a Sim I created in the Sims 2 when I was 18 for a Bachelorette Challenge. It was, predictably, a disaster, and the poor baby kept having mental breakdowns. I decided it was because he was new to Earth and the stress of all the unfamiliarity wore heavily on him, but it was definitely because I didn't know how to cheat needs at the time. He got a visit from the invisible psychiatrist more than once, you know? It became a character trait! Aiden, the nervous alien who just wants love. 👽💚
Roman Gallan 🧜♂️
Name: Roman Gallan
Nickname: "Hey Asshole". Guess who gave him that one. Go on, guess. (It was his little sister)
Gender: Male
Star sign: Leo ♌
Height: 5'11"
Orientation: Gay
Nationality/Ethnicity: Icthyan
Favorite Fruit: He's super fond of this obscure Earth fruit called a "lemon". He eats them whole, peel and all. Somebody please teach him not to do this. 😐
Favorite Season: Summer
Favorite Flower: Any and all wildflowers.
Favorite Scent: Cedar. Beating the moth accusations for sure.
Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: Coffee. He likes it bitter and strong enough to crawl out of the cup under its own power.
Average Hours of Sleep: 5 or 6. He should probably sleep more but it's kind of hard when the distorted whispers of the primordial god that created your planet are emanating from your eye sockets. Most Icthyans learn to accept it as kind of a cursed ASMR, but Roman tends to sleep light anyway.
Dogs or Cats: Cats.
Dream Trip: It says here in my notes that he's always wanted to visit Uranu--ROMAN, SERIOUSLY?!
Number of Blankets: Roman's a hot sleeper, so no blankets for him, thanks.
Random Fact: Like all Icthyans, Roman is amphibious. He has lungs and can breathe on dry land like any Earth Sim, but he's also able to breathe underwater for an extended period of time.
I think everybody and their dog has done this one by now considering ol' Professional Crastinator Laura's stellar time management skills. 🙄 Let's throw a few names out, though. @miss-may-i, @treason-and-plot, @llamabees, @bellakenobi, @kimmiessimmies, @rebelangelsims, @moyokeansimblr, @id-element0. As always, ignore if you've already done it or just don't want to.
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JUSt needed to tell you that thinking about "Profile in Quicksilver" got me through the day 💕💕💕
I also love how you incorporate worldbuilding details seamlessly into the narrative without being overwhelming! I love reading Gale & Draxum talking! Do u have any religion/traditions/custom headcanons that didn't show up in the fic (yet)?
thank you so much for writing!!!
Thank you! I do try to avoid lore dumps, even if they can be interesting at times. Ideally, people won't realize they're being lore dumped on. It's like, in a dance when you transition to a different blocking, ideally the audience shouldn't even notice you're transitioning, it should just feel like part of the choreography.
And OH FUCKING BOY DO I. Thinking about the background of the Hidden City and the Yokai as a whole has been so much fun. Making it fit with the lore we see in the show and the actual history of New York City has been so much fun-like, it's not that there happens to be a giant monster city under NYC, NYC became NYC because there was a giant monster city already there. And that's why NYC is Like That. Why are all the dark armor pieces in New York? Because that's where most magic is now, magical beings were driven out from everywhere else.
As far as religion, I've been keeping them pretty secular? Mostly because that's just an aspect I don't feel really jives with TMNT. I have a scene later on where Leo and Mikey attend church with April and her parents, but it's more out of curiosity than any real desire to take up religion. They see it as more of a cool cultural thing that an actual system of beliefs. One of the main things I can remember right now is Leo bitching about the smell of incense.
In the background, I think of the Yokai as following a lot of pagan religions. These people haven't been directly colonized or conquered (or more accurately, were ethnically cleansed instead of being colonized or conquered) so Christianity and Islam are much less common. Probably the same with some other religions that spread due to conquest, but I'm not...entirely sure what those religions would be. (Hellenism? Zoroastrianism? Taoism? Do those fit? I'm singling out Abrahamic religions because those are the most common currently) Also Christianity and Islam are pretty young religions. I haven't made a definite timeline, but I'm leaning towards most Yokai communities being established more than 2000 years ago. Leo mentioned in the Christmas chapter that there were a lot of bright reds and lights down in the Hidden City-pretty much everyone has a winter solstice holiday, so officially they're celebrating the solstice instead of any one religious holiday, and everyone's kind of free to celebrate however they want. Not a lot goes down in December, actually. Schools have most of the month off, a lot of workplaces cut their hours or just straight shut up for a few weeks, most people are partying and spending time with family. It's basically like their summer vacation.
Oh! One thing I will probably work in at some point, but the last of the Yokai migrations happened during WW1. The few remaining exclaves in the human world (like the one in Chongqing, where Tigerclaw was living) basically went "fuck it" and packed up shop, even in places where there was no fighting. It was the nail that drove home that they couldn't exist alongside humans, that even if they weren't warring with the humans themselves they would still get roped into human conflicts, and eventually they would be killed off.
And the thing is, up until recently, the Hidden City was still rather closed off from the human world, despite living underneath NYC. You have to get government approval to go topside, so most people were living their entire lives underground without ever stepping foot in NYC proper. It was really with the invention of television and then the internet that bridged the gap from the Yokai's side, and both those things took a lot longer for the Yokai to adopt. So a lot of human stuff that happened from the 1910s to around 1970s-1980s era didn't get a lot of attention down there.
Like. They know WWII happened. Objectively. By that I mean they knew shit was going down, so the Heads pulled down just about everyone who worked up top and they all just bunkered down for several years until they realized the war was over. It was an annoyance for most of them, a period of time where they couldn't get certain products or had their business disrupted because somewhere in their chain was a guy who worked at a human company and he can't do that now. They were able to read about what happened afterwards and knew vaguely of all the genocides, but most of them didn't look into it very hard. Just more humans bent on killing each other, what else was new? Most of them will still refer to WW1 as 'The Great War.'
And I thought of this scene before October, and I feel like I probably shouldn't use it now due to how politically charged it is, but originally I wanted to include a scene where someone mentions Israel and Josh is really confused because the last time he was living aboveground that area was controlled by the Ottomans and was officially part of Syria. Maybe independent Jerusalem, but why would it be Israel? Bella has to pull him aside and explain. He knew about the Holocaust, but he had no knowledge of Mandatory Palestine or the Nakba. The entire time she's talking and his eyes are just bugging out.
On the plus side, India is no longer under British rule, so he was probably pretty happy to find that out?
I had like several other things I rambled about and deleted because they were going entirely off the rails, I might post those at another time. I've thought about this world way too much and I've written far too little down. (also sorry it took so long to respond! I knew I'd go crazy and wanted to get the chapter done first, and the chapter took longer than I expected lol)
#doth asks#i both love and hate info-dumping worldbuilding stuff like i feel like i'm just total stream of consciousness sometimes
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Further Hazbin Hotel lore/worldbuilding : Tech demons/ Vox-like demons
A/N This is hella disorganised because I'm just kinda rambling my thoughts on stuff so yeah. I was reading back on stuff I wrote and just thunk a really fucked up thought about Vox. Idk how to label this properly - I'll say it's crossed haha.
In Hazbin Hotel, there don't seem to be any demons who are much like Vox (what I refer to as tech demons). This could be because they just haven't been shown - which fair enough.
BUT. What if it's something else?
What if the reason why there aren't any/ many tech demons in hell is because they end up getting chopped up and sold for parts to places like Voxtek or to Carmine's weapon industry?
I mean, think about it.
With the progression of things like social media and how often people use devices in society, you'd think that there would way more demons who are like Vox. So like, why aren't there?
Also, there would be a lot of money in that. Hell is ever changing, and people want to get ahead and protect themselves in whatever way they can, so of course, everyone's going to be fighting to try to keep up to stay alive.
I was looking back at stuff, and this ask really stuck out to me and now i have an extra fucked up headcanon to boot. I mentioned that Vox can't be upgraded in some regards (at least in my headcanon here), and that pisses him off. I say it has angst potential. BUT.
What if the reason why tech demons like himself don't exist/ keep getting torn up is also because he specifically CALLS for them to be destroyed?
Vox doesn't want to be replaced by some newer, shinier model. He's from the 50's, and there are certain things about himself he will never be able to fully adapt in some ways.
There's surely going to be/ has been demons like Vox who are far more recent who are just as or even more capable. So where are they? Why has he stayed the only dominant technology based overlord when there would be demons falling into hell after things in the living world have surely allowed for demons who are higher tech than he could ever be?
I think it's because he is so insecure and deranged about this that he not only has his company purchase dismembered tech demons for his work but actually calls for people to actually kill them.
I'm talking straight up advertises everywhere how much his people will pay for tech demons for experimentation upon them so that he doesn't have competition.
I can also see him having full groups of people working to find them as they show up in hell. He would be terrified of being replaced by someone new. Someone better than he is. So he wants any demons who are technology based/AI-like in any way to be killed as soon as possible so they don't have any time to form a presence at all.
So yeah, now I'm thinking about Vox personally seeing to it that demons like him - who would logically understand him and be able to connect with him in ways other demons cannot - are put down and him getting a sadistic as fuck power trip off of it like: "you're supposed to be better then me yet you're getting fucking killed fucking loser LMAO"
I can see him sitting his broadcast room after hours watching footage of that shit happening and laughing like it's prime entertainment.
Maybe he'd even broadcast it as such himself.
#i had already somewhat thought passively about this in the past for dealbreaker. atlas is also a tech demon and yeah i thought#what if he has to hide that shit so people wouldnt try harm him bc like where tf are the tech demons at??#but yeah 💀#now we have vox watching tech demon torture for enjoyment#vox#vox headcanons#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel vox#hazbin hotel dealbreaker#hh dealbreaker
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