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roxannarambles · 3 years

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Firewatch Review: Where There’s Smoke

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Mar 4, 2016.

Contains major, major spoilers including endgame. Do not read if you haven’t played!

When I first started into this game I thought it was a horrifically depressing introduction. It opens telling a tale of a man and a woman who fall in love and it’s a lovely story and then the woman falls ill from a rare hereditary disease and slowly gets worse and loses her career and the man loses the wife he knew and struggles to care for her and it’s fucking awful. Then the game opens with the man– you– taking up a summer job in a park near Yellowstone. He’s done this to get away and have some time to think about his life.

He works in a watchtower. Lone rangers station in these towers to watch the horizon for signs of fire. He has little to do but keep an eye out and sit alone in his station up there. His only company is his supervisor, in the nearest watchtower over, whom he speaks to via walkie-talkie. (these are the days before cell phones) Her name’s Delilah.

All I was really told about this game is that it involved exploration and was story-centric. And that’s an accurate description. And while it starts off with a rather depressing backstory, the main part of the game is not all bleak and bleary. It is a story about the interaction between Henry and Delilah. There is a mystery plot involved in the game as well; the game starts off with small park dramas and tasks to ease into things, then develops a mystery, which eventually gets rather intense. But entwined with this mystery story, always central and foremost, is the character-driven plot of these two.

The voice acting is fantastic, and the writing is excellent, so it carries well. Dialogue writing is certainly not everyone’s strength, but the writers here did a very good job. The two characters have excellent chemistry; it flows naturally and is very enjoyable. The quips and interactions are fed in small bits steadily throughout the game as you explore, providing an enjoyable regular stream of interactions. It’s a satisfying blend of exploration and conversation.

The game is atmospheric and beautiful to look at, and that’s not something to dismiss either. Those factors really do add something special to a game.

And here’s the thing. I fell in love. It was such a compelling story. And the characters felt so real. I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery and unable to stop. I found myself deeply emotionally invested in the characters and I truly cared about them. They were relatable human beings. And I loved Delilah. She was the light in the dark. The beacon in the middle of the loneliness. My lighthouse; my watchtower. Quippy, caring, flawed, human. I shared my troubles with her, and she listened.

Early on in the game, one of the conversation responses caused Henry to say something that annoyed Delilah and kinda offend her a little. I had accidentally overheard a phone conversation she was having (she left her walkie-talkie button depressed) and it sounded like kinda maybe she had been talking about me? So I asked her, were you talking about me? She was confused and surprised at the accusation and no, it had just been a conversation about work, and besides, was that really any of my business?

So the good mood killed, she stepped out for a while and I couldn’t talk to her anymore on the walkie-talkie. ‘Cause she was annoyed and didn’t feel like talking. And the thing is– I felt so bad. Like, I really felt sorry and wanted to apologize and felt I’d been a bad person for accusing her of that, and I wanted her to like me. And I didn’t want to be left alone. It was hauntingly quiet, unlike the rest of the game, when Delilah wasn’t there for company. I think this plot point was especially effective because it was in the middle of what had been at that point the deepest conversation we’d had so far, and we had been really bonding and sharing. But now I’d screwed it up.

Eventually Delilah forgave us for our rude question. And I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was. Heck, I thought I’d lost my chance and it would never be brought up again and I’d never have a chance to apologize, but she brought it up later. (She actually apologized for being so snappish over it, and said she knew what it was like to get too lost in your own head out there and start imagining things.) I felt so much better knowing we were cool again. It was that delicate part of a budding new friendship, you know, and I didn’t wanna mess it up. I really commend the game for including the callbacks to previous conversations. It enhanced the feeling of history between us and internal consistency throughout the story.

There have been many people online complaining about the way the game ultimately ended. In my humble opinion, those people are missing the point of the game. Indeed, with games like these, that have a somewhat open-ended conclusion (and there’s plenty of stories that fall into that category), how you interpret the ending and its meaning says a lot about the person who played the game. The whole point of an open-ended conclusion is for a person to think and draw conclusions, after all, but many people seem to fail to realize this.

One game that comes to mind is ‘Presentable Liberty,’ a game that you spend in a prison cell for the vast majority of the time, reading letters that are delivered to you. It had a very open-ended and nebulous ending. But that game made so many people think, and I think Firewatch makes you think a lot too.

I won’t lie, of course; I do somewhat understand where the critics are coming from. In some ways the ending did feel anti-climactic to me. It felt like it was possibly building up to something and that payoff never came. Yet … that experience in and of itself was fascinating to me.

Let me explain in detail. First of all, I reached the conclusion of the mystery plot. Plenty of people bitched about this online as well, but I loved the way it concluded. The plot was suggesting a very exciting but rather typical video-game story where a government conspiracy was uncovered that was studying human subjects (perhaps a psychological study of the effects of isolation in people), and Henry and Delilah were the subjects in these nefarious privacy-violating experiments. However, this “plot twist” of a secret government study ended up being a false twist. Instead, the story ended up in a less typical direction. As it turned out, the group of mysterious people behind all the spooky hijinks wasn’t that at all … it was one man. One lonely, desperate man living as a hermit with a tragic, awful secret he was hiding about an accident during his job as a fire watch. It was our fears and paranoia that had conjured up this imaginary, yet very real-feeling plot of conspiracy and subterfuge.

And I loved that. I loved that it was something driven by a simple lone man who was guilty and afraid. I loved that was the explanation, that it was something so prosaic rather than fantastic and fanciful. Like the best horror stories are about man as being the worst monster instead of werewolves and vampires, this showed the best mysteries were about human loneliness and desperation and guilt rather than complex conspiracies or extraordinary mojo. Indeed, you felt bad for the man who had been unintentionally tormenting us this whole time.*

After this conclusion to the mystery plot, hot on its heels– literally, because you were being chased by the spreading wildfire– was the conclusion of the Henry/Delilah plot. I was rushing out of there to rendezvous with a rescue helicopter so I could escape my post before fire consumed everything. They landed near Delilah’s watchtower, before I had made it to the rendezvous point– I’d been busy tracking down the ending to the mystery. She told me the helicopters would make another pass for when I got there, but … she might just leave now since the current copter was there.

“Wait for me,” I said into our walkie-talkie. I wanted to leave with her. Together. She was very reluctant when I begged this of her. But she finally relented that ok, ok, she’ll wait. I hollered I was on my way. I rushed as fast as I could.

I finally reached the spot– it was Delilah’s watch tower. The point in the distance I had always gazed upon but never had been to until now. But something didn’t feel right as Delilah was oddly silent on the walkie.

I entered the empty watch tower. I saw a small sign, “Pork Pond” attached to her wall and smiled faintly. I *knew* she had that sign. I put on the radio headset and called.

Delilah answered, in a tone that made it clear she knew I wouldn’t exactly be pleased to be listening to her voice over the radio waves yet again instead of seeing her standing there. She asked me not to be mad.

“I’m not mad, I’m just …”

“Disappointed?”

And yes. I was. That was it exactly.

It hurt. I genuinely felt sad and hurt that Delilah had left without me. It felt like she abandoned me. She stammered about having not want to meet me in the shadow of that poor dead child I had just learned about, but … it still hurt. After all we’d been through the least she could have done was waited. And you’ve no idea how much I had wanted to finally meet Delilah in person, dang.

But I pondered it after, and it made a lot of sense, her actions. She had been afraid to meet me in person, I think. It would have made the whole thing even more real, you know? If it was just over the walkies, fine. But … in person would have made it too real. Delilah was afraid of getting attached. Not just because she had had her heart broken by her long-term boyfriend and was afraid of getting close again to someone, but probably for more practical reasons too. Henry was still married, for Pete’s sake, and in a very complex situation with his sick wife. Any smart girl would want to avoid getting involved with a guy who’s still married. So her early departure and lukewarm response to me asking for her to come with me back to Boulder, well, it made sense.

As much as it had hurt for her to not wait, I understood and forgave her for it. In a way, I suppose, it may have made it easier for us both not to face the anguish of a relationship not working if we never saw each other in person to begin with. But … fuck. Had it been me, I would have wanted to see her in person anyway. I would have asked her to wait. At least for a goddamn hug.**

We spoke on the radio as I waited for the helicopter to swing back around to pick me up. We talked about our future plans. We both didn’t know what they would be. Delilah thought I should go back to my wife and do my best to make things right. Somehow.

And it ended once we were pulled into the helicopter.

People online whine that this ending was a 'cop out,’ not a real conclusion. I don’t believe that. I think the entire point was that feeling of uncertainty about the future and that missed chance at getting together with Delilah. Life is uncertain so often. We don’t know how to fix things, what to do, and what things mean. It’s our search for meaning that is so valuable. This game was a reflection of life experiences many can relate to. Not necessarily all the details– a wife that fell ill with premature dementia– but the general themes? Absolutely. This story is about people struggling to cope with loneliness, seeking to connect with others, struggling to deal with hardships in life, seeking purpose and meaning, seeking direction. And it does not provide solid answers at the very end, but that’s OK. It doesn’t have to. It’s OK if the players can provide some of the answers. Sometimes asking the questions is as valuable as providing the answers in a story.

And yeah, sometimes the guy doesn’t ‘get the girl.’ Sometimes relationships don’t work out. (Especially if the guy is still married and needs to deal with some shit before either staying with his wife or breaking up and pursuing something else.) That doesn’t mean our connection with Delilah that summer didn’t have meaning or purpose or value, just that … such things don’t always have a future as a long-term relationship.

I earnestly believe the ending to this game was fine as-is. I might even say it was a perfect ending. Although I admit I desperately wanted to meet Delilah at the very end***, I’m pretty sure my sense of diappointment and feeling of sorrow at not seeing her were kind of exactly the point of the story. All in all, it ended on a tone that was sad and nebulous, but not deeply depressing. There was still a sense of hope about things, and I think that’s important.

(Amusingly, much later I learned there is an option at the very end to NOT enter the rescue helicopter. It leaves without you if you wait long enough, implying suicide of your character Henry. Much darker option than the one I describe above. But again, in stories like these, it depends on player’s reactions, input, and interpretations too, and fortunately most do not have quite that bleak of an interpretation of the tale– and quite that bleak of a choice.)

So many of us sit alone in our own watchtowers, isolated, searching for any meaningful human connection we can come across. I think the themes of connection and isolation were masterfully explored in this game. You really fuckin’ felt it, you know?

And to me, it’s noble. That human beings stand in this intense loneliness but continue that search, and they sometimes find somebody. It may not always end well, but that doesn’t mean you should stop the search and that you won’t find another. Or even rekindle old flames.

Either way, you shouldn’t stop searching the horizon.

————–

Footnotes:

* That’s not to say the dude wasn’t guiltless in his actions. I think it was rather awful of him to just leave his poor kid’s body down in that hole instead of facing up to what had happened, going home, letting people and loved ones know what went on, etc. Also pretty stupid of the guy to pressure his son into doing that dangerous rock-climbing when the kid didn’t have the skills. But, ya know, you felt bad for him too.

** I should note, I have no idea if Henry should break up with his wife Julia (& tried things out with Delilah) or not. I had no opinion on it because who knows? Choices like that are friggin’ complex. Seriously.

*** And yes, I realize the game never had a model for her character anyway, so from a technical standpoint it would have been impossible, but it’s best to use in-story explanations for events, not technical explanations.

#firewatch #game reviews #mystuff #spoilers

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mrmallard · 3 years

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Top 10 Favorite Lyrics of 2020

This list might seem esoteric, but 2020 has been a turd on a plate and music has made me feel a lot better this year. Sometimes specific lyrics slap harder than the rest. It's lyrics like these that kept me going in 2020.

So here's a list of some of my favorite lyrics from the year and why I like them. These songs aren't necessarily from 2020, they just resonated with me this year.

I should warn you - this turned out to be an incredibly personal post for me. I touch on lyrics that I view as possibly pertaining to the trans experience, and whether that's a viewpoint I'm qualified to talk on. If that's a particularly touchy subject for you, I recommend proceeding with caution. I also mention abuse in one entry, and how it affects me years later.

I really cannot stress enough how personal this post got, so keep that in mind if you decide to continue reading.

10: "Kiss me goodnight / like a good friend might" - Sara Bareilles, 1000 Times

All cards on the table, I'm in love with a good friend of mine. TL;DR, that's probably why this lyric speaks to me.

That's a bit reductive, so here's why I love it so much - this lyric is sodden with yearning, even without taking my circumstances into account. The entire song is about living with an unrequited love, and this expression of that just hits me in the chest like a sack of bricks.

The reason I love this lyric so much is because of how soft and vulnerable it is. It's an amazing cooldown after how passionate the chorus is, and it feels like the most earnest, genuine expression of this feeling ever.

This lyric sums up that feeling when you're with someone you really like, and you're hoping - praying - that they'll close the distance with an affectionate action. Maybe you want them to play with your hair. Maybe you want to feel their hand linger on yours for a moment. Maybe it's late, and you're tired and a little drunk, and in that moment that you make it to bed for the night, it would make your heart feel indescribably whole if they leant down and gave you a chaste, affectionate kiss on the cheek. Nothing more - just that simple act of contact, an affirmation of affection.

This is a good song about yearning, and this is the lyric that really sums it all up.

9: "Called my friend in New York / 3,000 miles away / halfway through her metamorphosis / nothing I could say" - The Mountain Goats, From TG&Y

This is the first of multiple Mountain Goats entries. I'm gonna go into a bit of a tangent about them later on, but for now I want to focus on the lyric.

From TG&Y is a song about wasting away in a town that's taking you down with it. It has lyrics about huffing spray paint and vomiting blood, and John Darnielle sings about holding on to your dreams until there's nothing left to hold on to. It's an incredibly bleak song, and it's one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs because of that - it sums up an unhappiness in me that I've felt for over a decade.

This lyric is a moment of respite. After the soul-crushing day that the protagonist has had, they call up someone dear to them. The situation reads as awkward to me - clearly there's a lot of affection for this friend and the process she's going through, but it's hard to bring up. Their awkwardness is another misfortune, but it comes from a good place.

My take is that the protagonist's friend is a trans woman, and the protagonist can't find the right words to say about it. It's awkwardness born of distance, not of ignorance, and it's another side effect of the town he lives in. But he loves her, and in the midst of his rapidly declining life in this shithole town, it's such a blessing to hear her voice. If only he knew what to say to her.

8: "And the funny thing about it is / despite how much time I spend hating it / it never says a bad thing about me" - Tim Minchin, Not Perfect

I got into Tim Minchin this year. I like his moody, melancholy songs like this the most, though I also like his songs about religion. This is my second favourite song of his, behind White Wine in the Sun.

Between all the bluster of his sillier songs, he has this incredibly sensible song about the life we live. From the world we live on, to the brain we ultimately reside in, it's a look from the outside in through to the inside out and it makes some incredibly pertinent points about the human condition.

The "it" in question is about his body. It's not in its best shape ever, and he often tries to fill it up with wine - which is in itself a multifaceted lyric, being a silly jab at himself as well as a deeper statement about his wellbeing.

But his observation about the brain rejecting the body as opposed to vice versa is what really stuck with me.

My takeaway was that our body is essentially a stupid meat suit that obeys the will of the brain. And when it doesn't match the self-image of the brain, we resent it. Our body is an extension of ourselves, and it's incredibly upsetting when our idealised image of ourselves isn't reflected in the body we reside in - and that leads us to self-harm. That's super fucked up.

I adore this lyric for highlighting the relationship between the physical and mental self. It makes me want to better myself more than a thousand PSAs ever did, because it makes a pertinent point about what I'm damaging. It's me, but it can't fight back when I want to hurt it.

7: "Her body's a difficult sister / and she loves her" - The Weakerthans, Exiles Among You

As I was writing the first draft of this list, something came to a head. I feel like I have to explain where I'm coming from for this lyric, especially after the last two lyrics, so please bear with me.

I perceive this lyric to be about a trans woman. "Her body's a difficult sister" scans as potentially trans to me, and I find it heartening that despite the difficulty her body poses at times, the main character loves herself. It ties into Not Perfect in that regard, which was the catalyst that resulted in the way I view this lyric.

While it can potentially be viewed through a cis or a trans lens, the trans lens speaks to me more. And that's what I want to talk about.

Between this lyric and From TG&Y, I'm worried about how I sound when I'm talking about trans people. This lyric is arguably the biggest stretch in favour of a trans viewpoint, and the context of the lyric can be considered to deal with dysphoria due to that - and as someone who is known as a cis man, as opposed to a trans person, I'm worried that my viewpoint is off-base to the point of being harmful to individual trans people and the trans community as a whole.

I want to be as transparent and respectful as possible about my interpretation of song lyrics through a trans lens. My intentions are good, but I feel the need to explain myself when I haven't had a lived trans experience. That in itself is a valid enough reason to discard how I'm approaching this, but I want to make my feelings known.

For the last few years, I've been thinking more and more about the trans experience. I don't necessarily have an issue presenting in the way that I do, being AMAB, but I'm empathetic towards the challenges faced by trans people. One potential reason is because I was bullied from the start of school through to the end, so I empathize strongly with people and groups who are othered for their intrinsic personal identities - but I think it goes deeper than that in this case.

When I see something positive about the trans community in particular, I get a sense of emotional fulfillment that I don't really get from anything else. Gender euphoria sounds like bliss, for example - the fact that it exists and that people feel it makes me feel incredibly happy. I'm empathetic for and supportive of gay, bi and ace people, among other gender identities and sexualities, but I don't necessarily feel the same emotional swell for those experiences as I do for the trans experience. And without going into detail, one of those things should stand out from the others.

Viewing trans people in these lyrics make said lyrics much more emotionally resonant to me. There's something about the trans experience that I resonate strongly with, and it significantly strengthens my emotional investment in music that I already enjoyed beforehand.

The fear I have about viewing these lyrics through a trans lens is that I'm worried it looks like I'm fetishizing transgender people, or I'm misappropriating the trans experience for my music headcanons. That's not my intention. I haven't identified as anything other than cis my whole life, but when the cards line up like this, it unlocks a deeper appreciation of the song in question. It means a lot to me when that happens, and that can mean any number of things - but it definitely comes from a sincere place of care within myself.

That's why "her body's a difficult sister / and she loves her" means so much to me within that context, and it's a more in-depth perception on why From TG&Y's lyric grips me the way it does as well. I know it went off track from the song itself, but I felt a need to explain myself and I hope that my viewpoint is viewed in good faith.

6: "I still hear trains at night / when the wind is right" - The Weakerthans, This Is A Fire Door Never Leave Open

This lyric reminds me of abuse in a very applicable way to myself. There are times when I've remembered awful things that happened to me, even if I hadn't thought of them in years.

The Weakerthans are good at writing these lyrics that can go either way. I think about the character Lori from Night in the Woods when I hear this lyric, who lives by a train track - as far as she gets from that place, there'll be nights where the wind outside will remind her of the trains that passed by her house.

But in real life, there'll be nights after years of happy, content cohabitation with someone else, someone who puts your mind miles away from the worst moments of your life - where a trace of what you experienced will come back to you. No warning - the conditions in your life were just right to bring that memory back.

It continues to be one of my favorite lyrics, years after I first heard it, because it hits so close to home.

5: "I guess I have to hope that today the sun will shine / and maybe tomorrow, you'll be mine" - The Weepies, They're In Love, Where Am I

Another good yearning song. I spent a lot of 2020 yearning, and songs like 1000 Times and They're In Love, Where Am I really helped me through it.

The thing about the Weepies is that their lyrics can either be extremely blunt or extremely roundabout and kinda silly, and both extremes hit that button in my brain that makes me go "happey : )". This is more on the blunt side, being on one of their shorter songs. But every lyric in this song counts, and every lyric lands.

The reason why I picked this one is because of how well it sells the bittersweet nature of the song. The person you love is out of your reach, and it's hard to ignore that, but you might as well be thankful that things aren't worse. And maybe tomorrow will be different, and all your wildest dreams will come true. Even though they definitely won't, it's a nice thought.

The lyric speaks for itself. It's efficient, it ties the whole song together, and it's as gorgeous-sounding as the rest of the song. Excellent lyric.

4: "Maybe there's a season when I'll taste that wine / a thimble at a time / a thimbleful of wine" - The Weepies, Hummingbird

Reading these lyrics at face value doesn't always have the same impact as they do when you're hearing them in a song, and I've been trying to keep my picks to lyrics that scan both ways. But I've covered some heavy subject material in this post, so despite this one not necessarily scanning that well, I'm going to talk about it because it makes me incredibly happy and it lets me take a load off.

As I listened to this last verse for the first time, I was mostly soaking in the ambience of the song. A lot of the song is made up of these vignettes and platitudes, and while it's very pretty in its own right, I had trouble following it. But it's a gorgeous song, and I decided to tune in for the last verse and enjoy it as much as possible before it ends.

"Maybe there's a season when I'll taste that wine" - okay, I can relate to that. For all the hard work you put into something, you don't necessarily get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. But maybe one day you might get a chance to do so. Beautiful.

"A thimble at a time" conjures up an incredibly specific, sweet and kind of silly image. But before you can snark about it, the song follows up on what it just said - "a thimble full of wine".

It's like it read my mind. It knows it's a very precious image, and it takes full advantage to address exactly what it just said. I love it so much - it's such a cute lyric in an already gorgeous song.

3: "I just wish I was a toothbrush or a solder gun / make me something someone else can use" - The Weakerthans, Utilities

This is a lyric that's maintained its hold on me over the years. It captures a relatable sense of ennui and despair - I'm not doing anything for anyone now, so I wish I was an inanimate tool that could be of service to someone.

Nothing else really needs to be said. It's a classic in my books for a reason.

2: "And then you're singing in Dutch to me / and I recognize the song / it seems so old and so fragile / I haven't heard it in so long" - The Mountain Goats, Minnesota

This is the lyric that got me into older Mountain Goats songs. The entire narrative of the song is gorgeous, but it's this line that really broke through to me and it continues to be a favorite of mine.

The way I imagine the song going is that after spreading the seeds around his house, the narrator wakes up from a heat induced haze with his head in the lap of his partner. And she's singing in Dutch to him, and he recognises the song - as the song goes.

It's such a nice image to me. Waking up with your head in someone's lap, having that surreal moment as you're looking up at them where they're singing in a language you aren't familiar with, but recognising the song. That shit is picturesque. It's beautiful.

This really is the cream of the crop when it comes to Mountain Goats lyrics. It appeals to this broader romantic ideal in me, in a way that gets me every time. One reason why I like the Weepies so much is because their song lyrics make me feel like this one does.

1: "Make it through this year / if it kills you outright." - The Mountain Goats, Exegetic Chains

I'm ending on this note because the song and the lyric are perfect to end on.

Songs from Pierre Chuvin was a Mountain Goats release from early 2020 recorded in the style of John's older music. It was recorded on accoustic guitar, through an old boombox that imparts a nostalgic grain to the sound, and songs like Aulon Raid sounded like they were written in the 90's era of the Mountain Goats. Songs from Pierre Chuvin is, by all means, one of the most faithful throwback projects I think I've ever seen.

And Exegetic Chains is the crown jewel of the album, at least of the songs I've heard. Not just because of how it sounds, or how it's structured like some of my favorite Mountain Goats songs - but because it takes homage to heart as the last track on the album.

John references other songs, but the most recognisable reference is in the chorus - a dark reprisal of This Year. "I'm gonna make it through this year if it kills me", a loud, bombastic rallying call to yourself or a mantra to keep yourself alive through another year of hardship - becoming "make it through this year, if it kills you outright", a downcast plea calling out in a time where death is inevitable.

This is my favorite song lyric of 2020 because this song lyric is a reflection of 2020. It's the dark reprisal of This Year that we needed, that really says it all. I'd love to end on a happier lyric, but I can't stress how perfect I think this lyric is. This is a reprise that I sincerely think will stand the test of time.

#sara bareilles #the mountain goats #tim minchin #the weakerthans #the weepies #dysphoria tw #abuse tw #top 10

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mediaeval-muse · 3 years

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Book Review

A House of Rage and Sorrow. By Sangu Mandanna. New York: Sky Pony Press, 2019.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: YA sci fi/fantasy

Part of a Series? Yes, The Celestial Trilogy #2

Summary: Esmae once wanted nothing more than to help her golden brother win the crown of Kali but that dream died with her best friend. Alexi broke her heart, and she vowed to destroy him for it. And with her sentient warship Titania beside her, how can she possibly fail? As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. Past lives threaten the present. Old enemies claim their due. And Esmae cannot outrun the ghosts and the questions that haunt her. What really happened to her father? What was the third boon her mother asked of Amba? For in the shadows, lurking in wait, are secrets that will swallow her whole. The House of Rey is at war. And the entire galaxy will bleed before the end.

***Full review under the cut.***

***Minor spoilers in the Character section.***

Content/Trigger Warnings: violence, blood

Overview: I really, really loved the first book in this trilogy, so I was somewhat disappointed when the sequel failed to live up to my expectations. Most of the things I loved about A Spark of White Fire were absent from A House of Rage and Sorrow: the gods were more withdrawn, there are no prophecies to avert, Esmae has chosen a side so there is no longer the view that both sides have merits (at least, not in Esmae’s mind). But by far, the things that most prevented me from loving this book was the pacing and chaotic plot structure, which I will explain in more detail below. Thus, this book only gets a 2 star rating from me.

Writing: Mandanna’s prose in A House of Rage and Sorrow is fairly similar to that of A Spark of White Fire. It’s fairly straightforward, without many flourishes or complex imagery, which can be good or bad, depending on your preference. However, because of the quick pacing in A House of Rage and Sorrow, Mandanna’s prose felt more sparse than before; because we whip through events so quickly, there is little time to establish the mood or feeling of a new location, or little time devoted to making Esmae’s emotions feel tangible. Instead, we get quick notes like “the hall is lined with bookcases” or “the ground is covered in snow.” I wanted a little more grandeur, especially in celestial places, and I wanted Esmae’s emotions to resonate a little more with the reader.

There is also a major change in that we are given Titania’s POV for several chapters in A House of Rage and Sorrow. While the idea is an interesting one, I ultimately didn’t think Titania’s perspective added much to the story. Everything Titania related could have been done from Esmae’s POV, and Titania herself didn’t have a strong enough personal arc to make me feel invested in her story apart from Esmae. I think it could have worked if Titania was doing more on the side, participating in events without Esmae’s knowledge, but for me, it seemed like this POV was included just for variety, not for any real plot or storytelling purpose.

Plot: It’s hard to describe the plot of this book other than “Esmae plans to make her brother suffer” because, at least for me, the structure felt somewhat chaotic. Events didn’t really build on each other until the last quarter or so towards the end, and the combination of a lot of twists without much foreshadowing or groundwork made the shocking parts of the story feel unearned. So much seemed to come out of nowhere that the story didn’t feel suspenseful; it was just one shocking thing after another, some of which seemed to be inserted for convenience rather than purposeful storytelling.

Also, because the pace moves so fast, there is a lot more focus on events than characterization, which made the plot feel empty because there wasn’t a lot of time to explore the emotional impacts of any given reveal. For example, Esmae doesn’t seem to grapple that much with Max’s secret identity, and nothing was shown to us that would have foreshadowed that reveal anyway (at least, I don’t think there was).

Moreover, a lot of things seemed to happen off-page and characters would tell us about them later, rather than the reader experiencing things through Esmae’s POV as they happened. As a reader, I felt like I was expected to absorb the significance of these events, but because I didn’t really see them, I didn’t quite feel like I could connect with them emotionally. For example, the stuff about Esmae’s father comes out of nowhere and happens off-page. The only reason we know about it is because Titania and Kirrin tell us (and other characters) about what happened. Also, there is a section where Esmae relates an encounter where she almost dies, but the suspense is taken out of the story because it’s told in a kind of flashback, so we already know that things turn out ok.

Overall, I would have liked a slower pace and more groundwork to be laid so that when the twists come, they are at least foreshadowed in some way. I also would have liked plot points to build on each other more clearly throughout the book, building up to the finale rather than the story floundering before finding its feet during the last quarter.

Characters: Most of the characters are the same as in A Spark of White Fire, but their motivations and emotions are little more unclear. Esmae is perhaps the most changed of all, going from conflicted in the first book to single-minded in this one. I can understand that to an extent, and I think a story about how grief and obsession with revenge can be the basis of an interesting story; however, I felt like Esmae didn’t emotionally progress in any way, and her arc felt somewhat static.

Sibylla, Esmae’s bodyguard, gets a lot more screen time in this book, and though I liked her as a character, I also think her arc could have been stronger. Sibylla’s journey was more about learning to accept and embrace good things in her life, and I think it could have been a nice counter-point to Esmae’s story, if the two arcs mirrored each other a little more.

The gods also had a little more personal drama in this book, and I really wish more was done to foreground Amba’s emotional journey. Amba is largely absent because she has to guard the prison where a great beast lives, so we don’t get to see her emotionally develop until the surprise twist with her towards the end. I would have liked to see Amba interact more with Esmae and for Mandanna to show us how the relationship between the two changes the way Amba feels about her godhood (or, at least, why Esmae is more important to Amba than her celestial family).

Other recurring characters had potential, but ultimately fell flat for me because of pacing. Max could have had a more interesting arc if his secret identity was foreshadowed more. Alexi’s regret could have been more potent (I almost wish the second POV was Alexi’s and not Titania’s) and his offer at the end of the book had been foreshadowed, rather than coming out of nowhere. The stuff with Esmae’s mother could have been foreshadowed more. Ultimately, everything moved too fast and characters felt like they were acting in service to a twisty plot more than fulfilling a personal arc.

TL;DR: A House of Rage and Sorrow suffered from poor pacing, flattened characterizations, and a chaotic plot structure. Because so much of what I loved about the first book was absent in the second, I ultimately felt disappointed, but I am looking forward to the final installment in the trilogy.

#book reviews

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they-handed-me-the-moon · 5 years

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Okay, so I went to see a screening of the first episode of Good Omens last night and Neil Gaiman was there to answer some questions, and it was. Very amazing to be there.

Unfortunately the interviewer wasn’t great, but there were still fantastic moments and lots of details I hadn’t heard before, so I’ve put the highlights of the conversation with Gaiman under the cut. Major disclaimer here, though: I didn’t record any of the conversation and didn’t take notes during the panel. I wrote down all the interesting bits I could remember immediately after, but none of this is Gaiman’s own phrasing unless I specify otherwise, and its entirely possible that I’ve accidentally fudged some of the details.

There’s here that I’d consider a spoiler, but in case anyone is being particularly careful I’ve separated anything that could be seen as sort of vaguely spoiler-y.

Anyhow, here goes:

Okay, my absolute favorite story that I hadn’t heard before was when Gaiman was talking about the audition process. Apparently when they started searching, all the audition tapes were horribly, horribly, horribly (I clearly remember his triple emphasis here) wrong, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. And then ... Nina Sosanya auditioned for the part of Mary Loquacious. Now, apparently Good Omens has been her absolute favorite book since she was quite young, and she rereads it every year. And according to Gaimen, she just *got it* in a way no one else had. Apparently everyone else, knowing that they were auditioning for a role in a comedic show, was pitching themselves as comic actors. What Nina got, with her understanding of the book, was that the humor doesn’t come from the characters being funny in a making-jokes-and-pulling-faces sort of way. The comedy comes from the circumstances, from the storytelling (whether that’s narration or editing, camera angles, etc), and from characters being completely ridiculous with utter sincerity. Nina, he said, played the role straight and trusted that the comedy would be constructed through and around that. And seeing her act made it click in his mind, to the point that he then told casting directors to look for applicants who played their roles like Nina played hers. So basically what I’m saying is that Nina Sosanya personally saved Good Omens with the power of good acting and being a fan. (I’m tagging @shaxpere just for this, because I feel like you’ll have the appropriate level of appreciation).

Continuing the theme of comic acting not being right for Good Omens, he mentioned that he and Terry were approached through the years by multiple comedic duos who tried to pitch themselves as Aziraphale and Crowley, and they always turned them down without a thought.

I think he also said something about taking the characters seriously even as they and their circumstances are ridiculous, because they aren’t just trying to make the audience laugh, they want them to be invested in the characters. I may be getting things a bit mixed here; but he definitely said something along the lines of wanting the audience to be genuinely emotionally invested in these characters.

He then went on to say that instead of going the comedic duo route, they instead went and got the “premier Welsh actor” (that is one phrase I’m quite sure he used) of his generation and the “premier Scottish actor” of his generation.

From there he went into talking about Aziraphale and Crowley. Regarding their on-screen chemistry, he said: “the chemistry wasn’t instant. During the read-through it was a little awkward at first; they were tripping over each other a bit. But after only about twenty minutes in they started to find their characters and how they exist in relation to each other, and it was like watching them learn to dance.” (Again, I’m very much paraphrasing, but he definitely used the learning to dance phrase).

Next he talked about going out for a meal with some big deal writer fellow (I *think* it was Richard Curtis, the script writer of Love Actually) and Richard asked: “okay, so David and Michael have never acted together, but now that you’ve worked with them you can tell me: which one is actually the better actor?” And gosh of everything that was said that night I wish I could have an exact recording of Gaiman’s answer to that question, because it’s not exactly new, but I’ve heard it more from Tennant and Sheen than Gaiman directly, and the way he said it just made me very happy. But the gist of it was that he genuinely cannot answer that, because when it comes to this show you can’t separate them enough to pit them against one another. He compared them to a film or tv duo, I’ve forgotten who, but one of those pairs that are just impossible to think of apart from one another; it’s never just ‘x’ or just ‘y’, it’s always ‘x and y’. That’s what Tennant and Sheen are as Aziraphale and Crowley, he said. He said they make each other better when they’re acting together, and that, essentially, it’s less like they’re not doing two individual acting jobs but rather are creating a single thing together.

He talked a little more specifically about Sheen’s process of finding his character, and said that for Sheen his breakthrough with Aziraphale was approaching it from the perspective of Aziraphale being an angel and therefore a being of love. Sheen has said that before, but its worth adding than Gaimen then went on to say: “He loves Crowley, he loves books, he loves food, he loves wine, he just loves things”—and I may have misremembered that list a bit, but Crowley was %100 the first thing on it.

Oh, and fun fact: I’ve heard several people talk about how they love the radio adaptation of Good Omens but really feel that it’s missing something without the narrator. Turns out you’re not the only ones: apparently it was listening to the radio drama that convinced Gaiman that there had to be a the narrator in the show.

I imagine he’s said this before, but I haven’t heard it: apparently Good Omens was born in part from Gaimen reading some of Douglas Adams’s work, thinking, “I could write that sort of humor,” and then sitting down and writing that first portion of Good Omens that he sent to Terry Pratchett.

Speaking of Pratchett he mentioned how he really made this show for him several times, and that’s not new I just :,)

He talked about two deleted scenes I hadn’t heard about! They were initially supposed to be the scenes introducing Aziraphale and Crowley. I sort of missed the context of Crowley’s scene, but I think it was him messing with the phone lines? Which he apparently did by, um, recruiting a bunch of rats. Which implies that, a). He can talk with rats? Like there’s a bit of a conversation in the scene that they seem to understand. And b). he can either control rats or has some sort of business arrangement with them. Personally I lean towards the latter. So yeah. I don’t have any particular thoughts about this but it does raise Questions.

Aziraphales’s scene was him on the phone doing something book related (I believe he was negotiating a deal/trying to find a rare book, possibly Agnes Nutter’s prophecies) while doing helpful little miracles like keeping a pram from tipping over or something. Ultimately I don’t really miss either of those scenes, especially since the Crowley one had a bit of dialogue I’m happy to be without, but the Aziraphale scene in particular sounds solid, especially if he’s being snippy on the phone while absently doing pleasant little miracles.

Kinda-sorta-vaguely-spoilery-stuff:

The panel began with the interviewer saying something about how closely the first episode sticks to the book (that’s it that’s the whole spoiler; like I said these aren’t really spoilers) to which Gaiman said something like, “Well, I guess that’s what happens when the author writes the show and is also the showrunner who decides whether to approve the script.”

The first few minutes of the show are a tribute to Douglas Adams, and specifically to the film or tv adaptation (I forget which) of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I’m not going to explain what Gaiman meant by that because a). you can piece it together when you watch, and b). I’ve never seen either adaptation so I’m not actually sure what he meant.

#okay that's it!#there were some other things i really enjoyed #but this is already very long #and the rest was either general stuff about writing and stories #or things i've already heard elsewhere #that he didn't add anything new to #anyway i'm not gonna tag this #because i just remembered he's here on tumblr #and while i can't imagine he'd read this if he came across it #i really don't want to tempt fate with the chance #of him reading me extensively misquoting him

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samwise-though · 5 years

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Sabrina’s Top Ten

This is a little bit (a lot bit) out of my blog’s wheelhouse, but I ask you guys to bear with me! For one of my seminars, I have to do a Top Ten project, in which I talk about ten different things relating to Pop culture, music and/or theory. So, if you don’t want to read this, that’s fine! I’m putting the bulk of the post under the cut!! This is basically just me commenting on how weird pop culture is, and fangirling about Taylor Swift.

(Sorry Dr. Burke, you’re absolutely going to have to read about Taylor Swift, and I am realizing that after Adorno I’m incredibly cynical about popular culture now)

#1: Taylor Swift: Archive, Collecting and Identity

I think as I began this year, there was this feeling of necessity to blast off with the song “22” from @taylorswift’s album Red. All the way back in 2012 little fifteen-year-old Sabrina knew that when she turned 22, she would be playing that song All. Day. Long.

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Here’s the thing though: while yes, I did listen to “22” more than any of the other songs on Red that day, I also spent a lot of time listening to the rest of the album as well. I came to the realization that I could identify with the album better than ever. There was something so profound about the way @taylorswift captured that moment in time, in her life, and have it still remain so relatable. I spent a long time considering this, but it wasn’t until I encountered Jean Baudrillard’s The System of Objects that I really began to find a way in which to understand what was happening for me (and undoubtedly many others, considering Swift’s success). In chapter two: “A Marginal System: Collecting” Baudrillard references Maurice Rheims’ ideas of collecting for children, “For children, collecting is a rudimentary way of mastering the outside world, of arranging, classifying and manipulating”. Ultimately, collecting is a way in which we learn to form identity - and what is an album, if not literally a collection of music that in and of itself acts as an ultimate tool of identity construction? I’ve been listening to @taylorswift’s music since her official 2006 debut. That is a lot of time spent self-identifying with a musician and her music. Constructing even part of your identity from something that is a collection that is very much a large part of someone else’s identity is such a weird concept. Why do we do that?

Even more interesting though, is the fact that Taylor has said on multiple occasions, that her albums are like diary entries (not to mention the great number of other people drawing that particular comparison). Thus making each album that she has released up until this point a small archive, collecting and ordering that point in time. Either way, @taylorswift continues to find success in creating archival collections that are reflective or refractive of her own identity.

With the release of Lover and the inclusion of her diary entries as an addition to the deluxe versions of the record, it follows in the history of including controlled snippets of her life in the physical copies of her albums. From the first five albums, she included secret coded messages within the lyrics of each of the songs. In 1989, Taylor included copies of polaroids with lyrics written across the bottom of them, each numbered - so you knew you got certain ones, and not others. As well, starting from 1989 @taylorswift has also included voice memo recordings from her writing and recording sessions, so that fans can have a better understanding of her creative process.

All of these details add to the personal feeling that @taylorswift‘s albums seem to emanate. This feeling is only magnified through the additions of the diary entries in Lover (deluxe). Each album is a carefully constructed archive of @taylorswift‘s life, that her fans then go on to add to their own ‘Taylor Swift collections’ and continue to alter their identities through the new piece of the collection that she has created.

#2: The Reproducibility of Childhood

If there is anything in recent memory that should be considered with Benjamin and mass-reproducibility in mind, Disney and the company’s capitalizing on re-making all of their old animated films should be discussed.

They did this really clever marketing tactic in which they pretty much re-do the original trailer they released for the original movie, shot-for-shot with the new film footage:

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I will admit it didn’t work quite as well with the 2015 version of Cinderella, in which they altered a greater amount of the story, as compared to The Beauty and the Beast. Obviously, the trailer that has found the most success thus far with this tactic, was the most recent release of The Lion King.

What is the most intriguing thing is that Disney is embracing the past iterations of the movie, basically just repackaging the old story in (for most of the movies) live-action acting rather than animation and selling the audience very nearly the same exact thing. And not only are they very blatantly reselling the masses the same thing, but they are also saying, with these side-by-side trailer comparisons that “hey, look, we're doing this thing exactly the same way” and without question, we buy into it because it is familiar and feels of childhood. Having read Adorno’s Culture Industry Reconsidered, I feel as though we should really be taking a moment to question why we are allowing Disney to amass so much capital from movies that we have already seen. By drawing on our cultural memory of these movies that were so fundamental to many children in Western society growing up, Disney is literally monetizing our childhood memories. It is just as Adorno says, “The culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality.”

While these movies get a shiny new paint job, it is still blatantly the old and familiar.

But I guess Disney has always been about capitalizing on memory.

#3: The ‘Classics’ and Aura

I have spent a lot of time over the past year, shaping my identity. I made a lot of life-changing decisions, one of which was to go to grad school. It was not a quick decision, and it more or less happened over the span of a year, during an English course I took. The class was a lecture on Victorian and Edwardian literature. I found myself really fascinated by the Victorian novels that we started the class with. When we got to Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles I was a goner.

I fell in love with Hardy’s story and my love for the Victorian and 19th-century studies only solidified further throughout the semester. However, my entire experience at the university has been plagued with serious imposter syndrome. Thoughts of how “I don’t belong here,” and that “I don’t really know what I am talking about” were the soundtrack playing in my head every single day. I was always worrying that I had grossly misunderstood the texts we were studying, my interpretations were wrong, and that I would make myself look like a fool. All of these feelings, when analyzed at a later time, were all rooted in the idea that we were studying ”The Classics,” narratives that were part of the Western Literature Canon. How could I possibly understand literature that was considered “Great”?

There is a constructed aura around the literary canon that is also extended to the place in which that canon is taught. A very elitist feeling that has been cultivated since the beginning of higher education. For me, when making the decision to continue my university education by taking the leap to apply for Grad schools, this aura only grew - to the point in which it almost feels that it will be impossible for me to get into a graduate program. It feels as though Graduate programs are meant for a specific group of people - and somehow I am evaluating myself to not fit into that group.

But what exactly is it that still continues to be such a fundamental influence over the population that University is considered elite, and those narratives should be the ones to makeup Western Literary Canon? Is the legacy of Colonialism still so etched into our ideas that we literally still believe that the novels that a bunch of white dudes agreed were good are the be-all-and-end-all of good literature?

What’s bothersome about this is, I didn’t get to start asking those sorts of questions, and experiencing a wider array of literature until I reached my upper-level seminar courses, for my honours degree.

Courses that you cannot take unless you are a part of the honours program.

Ironic isn’t it? The elitist aura can only be questioned from well within the elitist institution.

#4: The Avengers: [Streaming]Game

Marvel’s first cycle has now come to an end with Avengers: Endgame. It’s odd to think just how emotionally attached the fans (myself included) have become to the superheroes that, many of which will not be returning after this installment in the Avengers franchise.

(Loki Gif included because bae deserved better - and a TV show that I have to pay for absolutely does not make up for it)

Marvel is now going to capitalize on certain character deaths (see above), by giving them TV series and prequel movies to help entice the masses that have been so invested in their stories up to this point in the cinematic universe. The problem is, though, any character receiving a show, it will only be aired on the Disney + streaming service.

The Disney + streaming service comes long after Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming services have already established themselves. The issue that arises out of this system of individual streaming platforms, is that subscribers have to either subscribe to every new platform that arises or else to pick an choose which content they are willing to not have access to. It's a ridiculous system, and it will make it nearly impossible to have conversations with those around you because it should be a safe assumption at this point - ad if not now, certainly in the near future, that no, they probably haven’t watched it, because they don’t have access to it.

This is obviously just a new way to control the products that companies produce. But it also brings to mind Benjamin and his ideas regarding mass production (”Work of Art”). Has the aura of the film been diminished because of the sort of re-producibility that come out of easy access (watching it any time you want), or, has there been a new mutated aura created for these films and tv shows because of the lack of access people may have to multiple platforms?

I guess we got what we wanted, easier way to access the tv shows and the movies we love, but at the cost of having to choose where we are willing to spend our money. It's a very Adornian thought, in that we wanted something, it was produced to the best possible economic value for the companies creating them, and then we continue to buy into the product.

#5: Sparknotes and Memes

If you have a twitter account, and like literature, you should really check out SparkNotes’ twitter account.

They have become more and more popular over the last few years due to their use of the relatable internet language we know as memes. They, of course, are not the first company to engage with their users in such a way, many companies have been using social media to brand themselves in a very personable (and personified) way.

By doing this, they are making themselves appear more accessible to today’s youth, who are primarily influenced by what they see and interact with on the internet.

There is something less sinister about SparkNotes utilizing the internet and memes to direct themselves to the younger audience - they are after all an educational aid group in which they are providing texts in more manageable and understandable terms.

Other companies, however, like fast-food restaurants who utilize social media as though they are an individual rather than a company... That is quite a bit more insidious.

#6: Concert Movies

I want to return to music once again. But not in the traditional sense. I want to discuss concert movies.

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There is something so weird about concert movies! They seem to exist in a separate space from actually attending a concert with live music and listening to the album. There is something very artificial in the sense that most of the time it feels very engineered, because of camera cuts and camera changes, and the difference in going from a front-row perspective to the camera shot cutting away to a wide shot so that the stadium is in full view. But then it also fulfils its purpose as “live music”. There is this sense in which it feels like you can’t look away, in case you miss something, even though you can pause it!

It is a heavily controlled, or perhaps, curated experience. Realistically, there are so many different cameras that are recording the same moments, that in post-production they are able to choose the best possible moments to cut together to provide to the viewers (I avoid the word audience here, because there is, in fact, a physical audience that we as viewers of the movie, are separated from).

I looked into the history of concert movies, and a quick google search led me to Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii a concert movie in which Pink Floyd played a short set of songs to no audience and recorded it.

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Which is an odd concept, especially when you think about how it inspired other artists to film concerts.

That they played.

To no one.

I could see with Pink Floyd it being more of an artistic venture, but more recent concert movies like: Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, Reputation Stadium Tour and Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids all are more framed as giving the viewers the opportunity to experience the show, but still having them remain apart from it. Some of these concert movies feel as though they were produced to allow those who did not have the opportunity to attend the show in person the chance to experience what that might have been like, others are made with the intent to give the viewer a little bit more of the backstage/behind the scenes experience. What all of them have in common, however, is the opportunity for the artists to profit once again off of the shows that they have already played.

Whatever the purpose is behind the movies being produced, they all are this weird experience of not-actually-being-there and knowing exactly what it would have been like to have attended.

#7: Instagram: Curating the Self (Definitely inspired by Sophia’s Presentation)

The Instagrams of popular artists are heavily curated to really emphasize their brands (”that’s very on-brand for you”), and who they are trying to portray themselves as. I feel as though no one really does this better than @taylorswift.

Shortly before she released reputation she wiped her Insta clean and started sharing gifs of different parts of a snake - a motif that she fully embraced for that particular era in her career. It was a practice she embraced again, leading up to the release of the first single of Lover. While she didn’t wipe her Instagram clean again, she did lead up to the release with little hints and teaser images that were all very inspired by the colour scheme and feel of the new album:

If you look at any artist’s Insta account you will find at least some of this curatorial work.

This brings us once again, back to the class on collecting, archiving and how collecting plays into identity construction. Each artist is curating their identity that they want to show the world (not unlike the discussion that we had involving Lana Del Rey and the front that she presents to the world, instead of her true self).

The work that goes into the Instagram account is mirrored in every public appearance, every show they play, and every interview they give. It is an odd concept when considering it in regards to the artist, but it becomes even weirder when we consider it in terms of just everyday people. We curate our lives on social media platforms to present ourselves in the best way possible. And we don’t have millions of people watching us while we do. Perhaps the hope is that the ideal that we portray could someday be reached, and that's why we continue to collect the images and videos to construct the ideal identity for ourselves.

While my life certainly isn’t very glamorous, I definitely do at least some curatorial work on my own Insta.

#8: Nostalgic Television

There has been a resurgence in the love of some older series like Friends and Gilmore Girls through the access to the full series on streaming platforms. Some of these shows have not aged very well (see: a good deal of Friends’ jokes), but the love for them continues anyway.

Recently, tv shows such as those named above, have been branded as “nostalgic television” and has been slated to be psychologically beneficial to help with anxiety.

But why do we remain so attached to TV shows such as these? Well, supposedly, just like the way we are drawn to watching the remakes of Disney’s movies as I mentioned earlier, it reminds us of our childhoods:

Will Meyerhofer, a New York-based psychotherapist and author, says watching our favourite old shows can be a useful tool for dealing with anxiety and mild depression.

"For my clients, these old shows are like the food they grew up with. 'The Brady Bunch' or 'The Facts of Life' or 'The Jeffersons' is like that beloved baloney sandwich on Wonder Bread with just enough mayo the way mom used to make,” he told TODAY.

A recent Facebook post on The Mighty health community got hundreds of responses to the question: "What TV show from your childhood would you want to marathon-watch on a bad flare day?" The answers ranged from "The Waltons" to "Barney Miller."

That's because television from yesteryear can make us feel safe and secure in a world that feels increasingly chaotic.

“In therapy terms, it's an instant — and for the most part healthy — regression in the service of the ego,” Meyerhofer said, adding that he unwinds with old episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

We long for a time when we felt safer, less stressed and when we were able to really enjoy the things we liked. TV shows that we watched as we were growing up provide us with the nostalgic fulfillment that we need to feel happy - even if it is just for the length of a thirty-minute Friends episode.

#9: Screen TIme

Something I noticed when I was watching Reputation Stadium Tour... for research... there was very few people who were actually just watching the show. There were many screens visible in the crowd at all times.

Something that has become very prevalent in concert culture, is that you don’t actually experience the concert first hand, you view it through your phone screen, as you record.

It is something that I have noticed myself doing, and have set the limitation of only allowing myself to record two songs out of the entire concert.

By viewing the concert through the recording, the actual experience of the concert is altered, and even though you are standing there in the room, you are participating at a distance, rather than being involved in the moment.

The need to record and to photograph, I would argue, comes out of the feeling of necessity to archive and sort every memory that we have. Concerts are special occasions and we don’t want to forget them - and if we don’t have a video or photo, did it really happen? We need to archive every moment so that we can go back to it later and remember how great it was.

But how great was it really if you were staring at your phone screen the entire time?

#10: The Rise of KPop in Canada and the US

There seems to have been a shift lately in Western popular culture in which Kpop (Korean Popular Music) is now being considered more mainstream.

Groups like BTS have found success on Western pop charts, their collaboration with Halsey, Boy with Luv, peaked at #10 on Billboard’s hot 100. Other Korean groups like Blackpink and Twice are also making a name for themselves on Western pop music charts.

What is interesting is that Kpop doesn’t really follow the same frame that most of the Western pop does. A lot of Kpop seems to be more dance-influenced, thus influencing the music stylistically and opening a lot more interesting opportunities for music videos.

Kpop is something different and separate from what Western Pop is comfortable with, and what influence it will have on the framework of the norm will be very interesting to see. I do wonder what Joshua Clover would have to say about Kpop groups and their involvement in popular music, and whether or not he would classify them in with the “Abject, feminized, and inauthentic: *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears...[who] dominate the list of best first-week sales”(103). There is, after all, something about the rhythm-based and often synthesized melodies that are prominent in Kpop that feels like a call-back to boy bands and pop stars of the late 90′s and early 00′s

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Well, that is it for my top ten! If you made it to the end, and are not my Prof [who does have to read it all the way to the end - Hi Dr. Burke! You made it! ] Thanks for reading!!

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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I hate Xemnas/Isa. It feels fucking gross and fetishy. I hate how there’s still parts of the fandom that still potrays Isa as his sociopathic counterpart, Saix. Even though, he did fucked up shit, he was a victim because of Xehanort. Plenty of people complained about the fandom treating Lea as if he still acted like murder assassin Axel, but the same doesn’t extend to Isa 🙄.

Why Axel Had a Good Redemption and Saïx Did NOT Have a Good Redemption

Xemnas/Isa? Eww. Yeah, it is really sad. I talked to someone a while ago who said that they always thought the Saïx/Axel friendship was totally pointless and just an excuse to give Axel more “drama” in Days. They also said Isa was a jerk in BBS and didn’t even know why Lea was friends with him. Their understanding was that Saïx was a jerk because he was a grown-up version of Isa, not a Xehanort-possessed version. They had no idea why he was even in the epilogue. They thought Lea had a good redemption, but they thought Isa had no right to eat ice cream with his “abuse victims”.

And sadly, I could understand why they came to that conclusion since the writing was just so bad. But while they hated Isa, I obviously feel the exact opposite. I think for a lot of people, the entire concept of Saïx simply went right over their head. And KH3 certainly did nothing to help, so that misunderstanding still persists. But it’s really not that hard to see where they were going with Isa originally. His character got treated SO unfairly.

Also, it’s funny you mention this. Just the other day someone got really mad at me on Reddit for “bashing” Isa’s character. I made a post not long after KH3 released criticizing the way Saïx’s arc was handled, just to see the general fandom opinion on it. Occasionally I will still get responses on that topic. This particular person said they had NO problems with Isa’s arc, and the only reason people criticize Lea and Isa being apprentices is because our “headcanon fanfiction” didn’t come true. They also said I was “sickening” because I said that I got the impression that Axel’s feelings for Isa were romantic. I just had “shipping goggles” on and was trying to “fetishize” a platonic friendship. And that’s obviously why I had issues with the way KH3 was written. People are stupid.

I actually saw that response about “fanfiction” a lot. Honestly, I think it’s a form of denial from some fans who know that there are valid criticisms to be had over the writing, but simply don’t want to admit it to themselves. They are emotionally invested in the idea that the story is perfect, and do not take kindly to criticism. When I brought up obvious plot holes, like why Xemnas never bothered to punish Axel or Saïx, even though he knew they were plotting against him, they would just dismiss it. “You can’t read too much into Organization politics”. I mean, come on. Really? 🤨

One person insisted that Nomura had NO CLUE where he was going with Lea and Isa’s story when BBS showed them trying to sneak into the castle. He insisted that Nomura made everything up as he went along, and therefore I had no right to be upset that this mystery girl was never mentioned or hinted at previously.

This particular commenter about Isa was extremely vitriolic and insulting in their reply, which I also saw a lot. It’s amusing, really. If what I was saying was SO outlandish, I doubt it would have caused so many people to get that angry or defensive. This person thought I was being unfair to Isa by saying he didn’t have a good redemption. They were furious that I said Axel had the same basic personality as Lea. “Axel was just as sociopathic as Saïx was.” How could I think Axel had a good redemption, but not Saïx!?

“So, Axel, what were you like when you were human?”

Xion glanced up at Axel, too, eager to see his reaction.

“Me…?” At a loss, he shrugged. “I dunno. Same guy, more or less.”

This is the quote I was referring to when I said Lea and Axel have the same basic personality. After this exchange, Roxas wondered what he was like before he became a Nobody, and I noticed how it showed the sky in the background—the sky for Sora, that is. I really appreciated how Days was full of small details like this. They’re subtle but they tell you a lot.

Obviously I know that Axel is a lot different from Lea. One is an innocent and cheerful teenage boy who spent his time eating ice cream and playing with frisbees. And the other is a jaded and nihilistic assassin who spent his time collecting hearts and plotting to overthrow Xemnas.

Day 118: You Changed, Not Me

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It’s a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don’t feel like it anymore. It’s strange, but I’m content with just missing what’s gone. I’m not the one who changed. You did.

But deep down, Axel still thought of himself as more or less the same guy. He didn’t feel the same way about Saïx, though.

Day 356: Unforeseen Events

What were you really after, Lea? We joined the Organization at the same time, and formulated our plan. At this point, it’s just an idle fantasy. Everything changed. You, and me.

And Saïx actually agrees with Axel, at least on that matter. Unlike Axel, he doesn’t think he’s more or less the same guy he used to be.

“That’s enough.” Saïx turned his head, giving Axel a sidelong look over his shoulder. “Traitor.”

Axel scowled darkly.

“I’m going. You know, don’t you, that you won’t stop me except by force? And even if you tried, you would fail.” Saïx went on his way. Memories informed him that he hated this kind of thing.

After all, it doesn’t say that Saïx remembers hating conflict, the way it does when Axel remembers the past. It says that his memories “informed him” that he hated conflict. As if he’s learning this fact about himself for the first time through his memories.

This commenter also said that I couldn’t take the novels into account because they “aren’t canon”. Even though they introduced canon concepts before the games did. The KH2 novel references Nobodies having hearts, for instance. The novels were carefully written to be completely consistent with canon. Besides, the author was one of the main scenario writers for Days. I’m pretty sure she had a perfect grasp of what Saïx’s character was all about.

A smile played at the corners of Axel’s mouth. “The three of us, we’re inseparable. You’re my best friends.”

Roxas felt a grin come to his face. “Yeah… I guess we are.”

“Hee-hee.” It was Xion, awake—still lying down but laughing. “Thanks, Axel. You’re so sweet.”

Axel sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Axel has experienced severe trauma, and certainly has changed a great deal. But the difference is how they act when they are exposed to characters who have hearts: Roxas and Xion. Unlike Saïx, Axel is completely open to befriending them. He enjoys how pure and innocent they are. The more Axel hangs out with them, the more he starts acting the same way he did as a human. He starts reconnecting with his old self again—his true self. Xion calls him “sweet”.

Xion had expected as much. Saïx never answered her questions.

Then Xigbar poked his face between them. “There you go again, Saïx. Why’re you so mean to our Poppet?”

Saïx pointedly ignored him.

Xigbar always talks to me, at least, thought Xion.

He’s so much nicer than Saïx. I like him.

This made me laugh. Xion actually complained about how much nicer Xigbar is compared to Saïx, who is completely cold to her at all times. He never tries to connect with her, and always dehumanizes her. In fact, it’s constantly implied that he doesn’t even have the capacity to see the humanity in her.

Axel: “Friends need to lean on each other every now and then. Ain’t that right, Roxas?”

Xion: “We’re friends… Axel…does that mean you and I are friends, too?”

Axel: “Well, if you’re friends with Roxas, then yeah, of course you’re my friend.”

Xion: “Thank you… Roxas, Axel!”

Axel: “Just eat your ice cream.”

Axel was the one Roxas and Xion always leaned on for emotional support. And they always came to him when they had a problem, or were looking for answers about the human heart.

Saïx: “Look at you, Roxas. Up in arms over a nobody.”

Roxas: “We’re all Nobodies!”

Saïx: “Settle down. Xion’s failings won’t affect your standing with us. You’ve nothing to worry about.”

Roxas: “Won’t affect my– What is WRONG with you? Look, I’ll do my mission–later.”

But the story clearly wanted to demonstrate that there was something seriously wrong with Saïx. He is inhumanly cold, more than any other Nobody.

Day 119: Hearts and Emotion

Watching that foolish beast flail about only deepens my disdain for humans and their incessant need to be pinned down by feelings. We became Nobodies precisely to avoid the shackles of emotion. It was only later that we realized the scale of that loss: that some things simply cannot be done without a heart. Nonetheless, I see nary a pleasant thing about it.

Xaldin gave up his heart willingly, due to his disdain for emotions. He later realized that he needed a heart do do certain things, which are never specified. But he’s very unhappy about it. He doesn’t want to deal with love and emotions. His general attitude towards love is the same as when he was a human.

Roxas: “Nah, it’s just… This is gonna sound stupid. Do you know what love is?”

Axel: “‘Scuse me?”

Roxas: “I found out about love on today’s mission–that it’s something powerful.”

Axel: “That’s true. It is. But I’ll never get to experience it.”

Unlike Xaldin, Axel always had a desire for love, even as a Nobody. That’s why he wanted to complete Kingdom Hearts so badly. He wanted his heart back. He hated his condition and called himself “broken”. He wanted to experience love. Before they were Nobodies, Dilan was a cold and uncaring person, while Lea was a warm and caring person. Even without hearts, they are very different people.

All of it disgusted him. Saïx looked up at the skyscrapers, tracking Axel’s presence. He wanted a heart more than anything. But what could he do to get one? Here he was, yearning for a heart so badly, while Axel had managed to gain one without doing anything at all.

Saïx wants the exact same thing as Axel, though. Unlike Xaldin, he desperately yearns for a heart, more than anything. He hates his condition just as much as Axel does.

Day 276: Behind the Truth

Saïx would laugh at people with no hearts calling one another friends, but that doesn’t make it not so.

Yet Saïx in particular is singled out as being quick to scoff at the idea of friendship and love. They never talk this way about any of the other Organization members. Not even Xemnas. Both Lea and Isa were comparable characters in BBS. They were nothing like Dilan.

Day 352: What I Must Do

I love Roxas and Axel. I’m sure Saïx would scoff at that. Call it a trick of my artificial memories. But the time I spent on that clock tower was real.

They were both innocent, kind-hearted boys. When exposed to characters who had hearts, you would expect them to have a similar degree of openness, allowing them to nurture new hearts. But they don’t. At all.

Roxas: “You had me worried.”

Axel: “Worried? Well, that’s a neat trick, considering you haven’t got a heart to feel with.”

Roxas: “W-wait here. I’ll go buy us some ice cream!”

For the entirety of Days, Roxas and Xion’s friendship with Axel runs parallel to his and Saïx’s, showing how they are polar opposites. Roxas was worried about Axel. Afterwards, they talk and eat ice cream as they watch the sunset. Axel tells Roxas he hasn’t reported in yet because he’s still sorting out his feelings.

Saïx: “Why didn’t you report in?”

Axel: “Oh, good to see you, too. You’re welcome, thanks for the kind words.”

The next day is ~Day 72 Change~. Axel could tell that Saïx wasn’t worried about him like Roxas was. He viewed him as a tool, instead of as a friend.

He took a deep breath and said, “Because we’re friends.”

Why was it so blisteringly awkward to say that out loud? Still, words only meant something if you gave them voice.

And he couldn’t come up with a better answer anyway.

“Friends…?”

“Yeah. Friends. People who eat ice cream together or laugh at stupid stuff that doesn’t make sense… Like those kids we just saw.”

When Axel hangs out with Roxas, he shows him what friends do together.

“It’s cold…..” Isa mumbled, nibbling at the ice cream.“Whaddya mean, it’s ice cream so of course it is, got it memorized?”“…..moreover, it’s salty.”“But sweet!”As Lea went on, Isa smiled just a bit. It’s rare to see Isa smile. But, well, friendship means eating ice cream together, talking about stupid things, and laughing like this.

And it’s so important because he used to do the exact same things with Isa. At one point, his relationship with Isa was just like his relationship with Roxas and Xion.

“Most kids spend the time just messing around with their friends. They put off the homework until the end and then help one another finish it.”

He was apparently speaking from personal experience. Was Axel referring to his own memories of summer vacation as a human?

Axel was speaking from experience about summer vacation. It’s fair to assume he also spent his summer vacations with Isa. I can definitely see Lea acting like Hayner and putting off his homework until the last minute. And Isa would have been more like Olette, helping him finish it.

Day 224: Xion

Even if neither of us should exist, that doesn’t invalidate the bonds we form. Next break we get, I told her we’d all go to the beach. I hope we get the chance. Our little summer vacation. I know if we can get together and laugh about stupid stuff, this nagging doubt will go away.

This is why the beach ending of KH3 was so important. Everyone wanted to go. Even Hayner, Pence, and Olette never got to go to the beach during that same summer vacation. I am sure that beach ending was planned all the way back with 358/2 Days. Isa being there was significant. If Axel was speaking from personal experience, I’m sure Lea and Isa also went to the beach together as kids.

Saïx: “Hmph. What took you?”

Axel: “It’s my vacation. I can take all the time I want. Since when do I have to check in with you?”

Saïx: “You’re letting yourself get too attached to them.”

Axel: “Yes, sir, whatever you say.”

Saïx: “You’ve changed.”

But summer vacation means nothing to Saïx. When Axel finally tells Roxas and Xion they are his best friends and inseparable, it is immediately after he tells Saïx to shut his mouth. Their relationships run parallel even in KH2. Roxas had no memories of Axel. But after they fought, Roxas felt a connection with him again. Because of their connection, Axel kidnaps Kairi just to see him again. Saïx, on the other hand, has all of Isa’s memories of Lea, but he spends the whole game trying to hunt Axel down to kill him. Their relationships are always polar opposites.

Axel: “Well, I think you can be inseparable even if you’re apart.”

Roxas: “Really?”

Axel: “Sure, if you feel really close to each other. If you’re best friends.”

Roxas: “What’s it like having a best friend, Axel?”

Axel: “Couldn’t tell ya. I don’t have one.”

The main recurring theme of Axel and Saïx’s relationship in Days was that Axel really missed the past. The old Isa was a person very similar to Roxas and Xion.

Axel: “But you know, we’ll still have each other…even if things change and we can’t do this anymore.”

That’s exactly what spurred this whole conversation on to begin with. Things have changed between him and his former best friend. Lea and Isa used to be inseparable. But Saïx doesn’t care about Axel at all.

Axel: “As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?”

Axel thought that as long as he still had memories of the old Isa, they’d never have to be apart. Or at least, that’s the only comfort he can really give himself at this point. He didn’t know how else to cope with his loss.

Day 150: Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can’t bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it’s our pasts, because that’s all we have to remember the pain of losing something.

Despite how awful Saïx is, Axel considered his memories of the past too precious to lose. He didn’t want to forget the pain of losing something.

“ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

—Alfred Lord Tennyson

Being a rather philosophical person, I think this is how he viewed his relationship with Isa. And this is why I think Axel had a satisfying redemption. He remembered what having a heart was like.

Lea: “I want everybody I meet to remember me. Inside people’s memories, I can live forever.”

All he wanted was the ability to experience love again. And through his own pure intentions and openness to love, he grew a new heart. He sacrificed himself trying to do good, and was rewarded with a glorious rebirth. He was the exact same person he always was, deep down. He just needed some help remembering his true nature.

That was all he wanted to say to me?

But just as Saïx started walking away, he caught a barely audible murmur—

“You’ve changed.”

He listened to Saïx’s receding footsteps, and his gaze dropped to his own feet.

“You sure I’m the one who changed?” he said under his breath.

The entire point of Axel and Saïx’s relationship is that Isa has changed. When Saïx interrogates Axel about the Chamber of Waking, it even zooms in on the moon, just like it did when Xemnas was giving his speech about conquering the heart. It’s similar to how the backdrop of the sky is shown when Roxas wonders who he used to be. This happens on ~Day 117 Secrets~. There’s a subtle message being sent: Saïx is exactly like Xemnas. But the reason is still a secret—and that secret is connected to Xemans’ speech and the Chamber of Waking.

If Saïx was saying that, he probably meant it. Axel stared at the stubborn set of his shoulders.

Both of them had changed.

“Wonder which one of us is more different now,” Axel said under his breath.

Just for an instant, he saw a twitch in Saïx’s shoulders. But he wasn’t about to hold his breath for more. Axel showed himself out.

Axel has changed, too. And now he’s changing yet again, to be more like how he was as a human. His progression is natural and gradual, though.

Oh, I am. And I’m sick of it. I’m even desperate enough to ask you if there’s another way.

The words nearly escaped him, but Saïx was already walking toward the Grey Area. The set of his shoulders told him plainly what the answer would be.

Axel realized how great the rift was between how he remembered their past and what he saw now.

It’s really not comparable to how much Saïx has changed. He is simply not the same person that Isa was. There is no continuity of personality there. They are NOTHING alike.

Saïx: “True, we don’t have hearts. But we remember what it was like. That’s what makes us special.”

Goofy: “Whaddaya mean?”

Saïx: “We know very well how to injure a heart.”

Like Axel, Saïx also remembers what having a heart was like, at least intellectually. Because of this, he knows how to injure a heart.

Saïx: “We have to set things right. There is simply too much on the line…Lea.”

And he is very good at it. Like when he used Axel’s true name. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew how important the past was to Axel, and he tried to exploit it for everything it was worth.

Saïx: “Is she that important to you?”

Sora: “Yeah. More than anything.”

Saïx: “Show me how important.”

After Axel began to grow a heart, Saïx would have had the perfect opportunity to grow one again, too. They were best friends and Axel clearly wanted nothing more than to emotionally connect with him again. But Saïx never reciprocates. All he does is use Axel’s newfound feelings against him.

This is a big reason why Saïx’s sudden epiphany in KH3 made no sense. There was something very unique about his condition that was never disclosed. It’s never explained why he was so cold to everyone, especially Axel. He was like that for a long time, too. Long before Roxas and Xion ever joined the Organization. So jealousy does not explain his drastic personality change in the slightest.

Saïx: “I passed on the message as you so desired. I told the young Sora to keep defeating the Heartless.”

Xemnas: “Good. Not only have you the power to inflict pain, you also have the power to plant seeds of doubt in one’s receptive heart.”

Xemnas even commended Saïx on his ability to plant seeds of doubt in a receptive heart. Wasn’t there someone else who had that ability?

Ventus has loved Terra like a real brother ever since he let him keep his old wooden Keyblade. It seems we have found a loose thread at which we can tug to unravel Ventus’s heart. The first step is to get Terra alone; then we need to plant the seeds of doubt in Ventus. Let him carry his faint light as he chases his brother into the darkness.

Oh, yeah! Master Xehanort was also really good at that…When he learned how much Ventus loved Terra, he exploited that fact to plant seeds of doubt in his heart.

Bottom line: Isa changed into Xehanort. This is why I do NOT think Saïx/Isa had a satisfying redemption. The story never acknowledged that he was Xehanort the entire time, nor did they take any measures to restore Isa. Axel was definitely not as sociopathic as Saïx was. Not even close. But Isa deserved to be associated with his Nobody’s actions far less than Axel. Isa’s situation was more like Terra’s situation. The difference is the story went to great lengths to differentiate Terra from Xehanort/Xemnas. Terra's old personality made a triumphant return and he had a heartfelt reunion with his friends.

Isa was not afforded the same consideration. I responded to the angry commenter that the STORY was unfair to Isa, not me. I’m not bashing him. I simply thought he deserved much better. I said it was unfair that he had to atone for what Saïx did to Roxas and Xion in the first place. In KH3D, Master Xehanort returns and he is able to transfer his consciousness into any of his vessels on a whim. It should have been impossible for Saïx to have a change of heart regarding way he treated Axel, Roxas, and Xion. The Seekers of Darkness are fully Xehanort at this point. I asked why Saïx even had enough agency to atone, since the whole point of a vessel is that they aren’t supposed to have free will. That’s the entire meaning behind the Recusant’s Sigil. And…they never replied.

#kh #kh meta #kh theories #anti-kh3 #kh saix #kh axel #kh xemnas #kh xehanort #kh lea #kh isa #kingdom hearts meta

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) Review

"We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope!"

Disney has a lot riding on this film. As the first stand-alone Star Wars movie, it needs to work as a solo outing, but also as a part of a greater whole. From the first moments, it's clear this isn't a normal Star Wars film: gone is the familiar yellow crawl and the opening music. Yet there is so much connective tissue that makes it flow perfectly into the rest of the series that it works on several levels. But it isn't perfect.

First the good. Our main characters are all likable, although some could benefit from a bit more backstory. I found myself emotionally invested in the characters at least, and that goes to show how well written and acted they are. The stand outs for me are Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, a reprogrammed Imperial droid, who basically steals every scene he's in, and Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe, a blind non-Jedi force user who personified what the force is all about. Of course, the film wouldn't have worked without Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), who basically held everything together as the plot raced by. Although the first act is a bit jumbled and the characters introduced very quickly, things never feel rushed. Jyn is given the bulk of the character development, and it's impressive how much I ended up rooting for her to succeed in her quest to fulfill her own personal destiny.

Then there is Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) who is kind of the heroic lead, but with an edge that I don't think Star Wars has really tackled before. Actually, every character has an edge to them, and that darker element when boiled down to the basics touched on the motivations of every character throughout the movie. The Rebellion is a reaction to the Empire, a deep and desperate fear of an Empire who will destroy an entire planet if it gets out of line.

This fear forces several characters to cross ethical lines that are common in real life war, but are generally glossed over in fantasy. The more kid-friendly main sequence movies never really address the often intangible lines people have to cross in war. Who is really a monster is often a matter of perspective, especially when the victors end up writing history books. Because the film isn't afraid to have our Rebel characters make dark choices, it isn't always easy to like our heroes, even though it made for compelling drama to watch them struggle with those choices.

There is more than just drama and character, though. The special effects are fantastic (well about 90% of them are). The numerous references to the rest of the franchise are almost all on point except for a couple of minor unnecessary ones. My favorites involved minor characters, including the leaders of the X-Wing squadrons that lead the attack on the Death Star in A New Hope, and some of the Rebel leaders like Mon Mothma.

The only major flaw I can think of centers around the choice to use a character from the original film played by an actor that died nearly twenty years ago. The use of CGI to replicate the character isn't quite up to the level of photo-realism and it made the performance feel off. Thankfully the same cannot be said for a certain major villain's return which I won't detail here, except to say it is probably the best use of the character I've ever seen.

Rogue One is darker than The Empire Strikes Back. It is impactful to the universe, beautifully made, and wonderfully realized as an immediate prequel to the original Star Wars. It stands alone as the tale of how the Rebellion stole the plans to the first Death Star. It isn't what I thought it would be, and because of that I'm a bit conflicted about it, but I imagine those conflicts will be put aside when I see it again.

For now I'll say this is a well made film that feels like Star Wars, and had more than enough to tide me over until next year when Episode VIII comes out. I think Disney's gamble is going to pay off.

J.D. Balthazar is a confirmed nerd who loves most things sci-fi or fantasy-related.

#Star Wars #Rogue One #Jyn Erso #Cassian Andor #Darth Vader #Star Wars Reviews #Doux Reviews #Movie Reviews #something from the archive

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wordsinwinters · 6 years

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I'm super excited for tomorrow. I do have a question for you though because I love your prose and the pace of each chapter. What are your recommendations for improving as a writer in those areas of writing?

My response is below the cut (for length).

First, thank you! I’m excited to post tomorrow and I’m incredibly flattered by your kindness 💕

Although my writing isn’t where I’d like it to be yet, the best lessons I’ve ever learned and have tried to apply most are these:

Be radically specific.

The more details you add, the more precise your imagery becomes.

Write, “The tabby cat swatted two matching ruby brooches off the kitchen island, then leapt off unbothered,” rather than, “The cat knocked some jewelry off the counter, then jumped down.

Use concrete details.

Make things physical and specific. Rather than explain things with vague cosmic metaphors, tie them to reality in a way that allows readers to feel them.

Write, “The man had proved himself so untrustworthy with that filthy letter, she wouldn’t be surprised if, in brushing his hair from his collar, she found snakes coiled within those stupid, lying, ridiculous loose curls,” rather than, “The man was so untrustworthy, she wished God would strike him down with bolts of lightning.”(That example also works to show how you can bleed a character’s voice into a third-person narrative, given the descriptor words.)

Avoid middle distance; don’t use cliches.

There are an infinite number of ways to describe anything. If you use one that your readers have already heard, they’ll gloss over it and your meaning will be lost.

Write, “After their late night confessional three weeks ago, she felt as though lilac vines had been planted in her belly. There, with a shower of sunlight, they had taken root and begun to climb through her body. Today, more than ever, she felt them tickling a calm excitement under her skin. A faithful anticipation, she thought.” This is super long and flowery (pun intended), but it’s also more sensory and in-depth than something like, “After their late night confessional a while ago, she felt as though she was walking on air / could fly / was on cloud nine / etc.”

Use active voice; avoid passive.

This avoids awkwardness while shortening unnecessarily long sentences.Write, “The teacher handed the student their paper,” rather than “The paper was given to the student by the teacher.”

Beware of “being” verbs; get rid of as many as possible (when appropriate).

Write, “This often eliminates filler words,” rather than, “This is often helpful to eliminate words that are just fillers.”

Revise. Radically.

A first draft is rarely well written, no matter the writer.If a scene isn’t working out– scrap it. Start over.Don’t get attached to anything longer than a phrase. Sometimes, as writers, we cling to whole passages of our work despite knowing it needs to be rewritten.A writer’s best work cannot exist without evolution. It emerges, and does so over cycles of editing, true effort, and time.

Read the work aloud.

This helps defamiliarize it a bit and place you in a reader’s shoes. If it’s messy to say aloud, it may be frustrating to read.

As for pacing… that’s probably one of my biggest writing insecurities, so I’m glad you think it has worked well! I tend to use the same pattern for each chapter:

Open with scene setting.

If readers can’t see where they are, they’ll have a harder time grounding the rest of what they’re reading.

Address as many senses as early as possible.

Sight isn’t often enough to keep readers immersed in the scene.

Tell them what to smell, hear, taste, feel (physically), and sense (emotionally).

These things don’t need to be written immediately, but it usually helps to introduce them within the first half; still, remember to keep them threaded throughout the rest of the way too.

Every scene should have a goal related to the following:

Moving the plot forward.

Revealing new information about a character.

Developing a character.

Developing the story’s themes/motifs.

To keep readers invested, end the chapter on new information.

This can turn into a dramatic cliffhanger if that information is threatening/critical to your characters.

As one last suggestion:

Take everything I’ve written here with a grain of salt: Brevity isn’t my strong suit. For that, I’m certain readers skip over many passages of my writing when it gets too flowery.

There are as many writing styles as there are writers. Mine certainly isn’t the best, so pick the good traits and feel free to ditch the rest.

And read! Reading is perhaps the quickest path to improve your writing.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions.

- Jane

P.S. I also wrote some other writing tips here. (They probably overlap, though.)

#asks #writing advice #(am I qualified to give any? lmao probably not but here we go)#long post

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groundramon · 6 years

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Homph I finished tri and I wrote down my thoughts as I was watching because I had too many funny shitposts and nobody to share them with bc charlie hasn’t watched tri yet

PS i wont be reblogging tri spoilers (besides MINOR stuff like, digivolutions of already confirmed digivolution lines or non-spoilery shitposts, but I’ll try to tag shitposts as #tri spoilers anyways [digivolutions specific to tri ill tag as well but not ones that were already basically confirmed]) for a while so ur safe here! I’m just gonna like everything/most things because then I can rb em to hisyaryumon lmao (also u should check out hisyaryumon....its me n charlie’s digimon blog)

EP 1:

- ok. alright. ok. good. they’re dealing with kari’s emotions now instead of just. nothing. ok. alright. cool. Still dont like how obscure/”artsy” they’re being with it, this is digimon not kagerou project, but ok.

- Also. I stand by tk and kari being one of the few good straight ships in digimon. just saying.

- kari: this is my fault... me: god damn it shut up you little brat also me: god relatable ALSO me: ill take whatever display of emotions i can get

- I love how nobody believes tai is dead like. They’re upset and worried but they’re also like “nah. he cant be. that fucking asshole just left us in our time of need” (actually only matt is the last one)

- Gabumon i would die for you also im crying and I think that’s the first time tri managed to make me fucking CRY

EP 2:

- I had thoughts but then the 02 kids happened and I entered another plane of reality. I don’t feel real right now

- the only one I can remember is evil!gennai being a dumbass and being like “SUFFER AND SQUIRM YOU PATHETIC HUMANS AS YOU FIGHT OVER THE LAST SEAT” 1. humans are KNOWN for their ability to care for others you dumb obvious fuck and 2. is. is the entire tube going? because that tube can fit too people if they squish. This isn’t a joke I’m serious it can.

- oh yeah also when i saw whomstever the fuck his name is (adult guy who i love but fuck names) and he was all bloodied i was like “its a cold day in hell when i see blood in digimon” (I think there was blood in an earlier ep but shh idc)

EP 3:

- didn’t nishijima start off as a fucking life coach to these kids. What the fuck he was supposed to help them find a career not emotionally scar them by bloodily dying in front of one of them

- im realizing that the reason hackmon was always in his cloak, in the shadows, standing still is that they cannot animate him in any normal position for the life of him. I drew him with better anatomy when i was 14 and didn’t have a tablet. No seriously, look:

I didn’t say it wasn’t bad, you guys are just underestimating how bad the anatomy on this poor creature is. Why cant ppl draw dracomon or hackmon correctly imma cry

- ordinemon has the best reaction faces

the best part about these two screenshots is that they literally cut one to the other, first the first one to the second one and then it cuts back to the first one. They were really proud of these stupid ass expressions.

- I started overcoming my dissociation shock from the second episode and my hypercritical mind was analyzing the shit out of everything that happened (it is Not happy) but then evil!gennai called kari and evil goddess and idk if he’s exaggerating to make her feel bad or if she’s literally a fucking god of chaos and destruction and either way im like

she did kinda like. Watch wizardmon die, watch tai die, watch gatomon get absorbed. The dark ocean is just a metaphor for depression and honestly if 02 wasn’t all over the fucking place I think Kari would’ve had some pretty decent development in it. Actually you know what, I’m using that as an angle to approach Tri at now, wish me luck bc i might actually give it more leeway now

EP 4:

- I’m not dissociating but I forgot to say anything again and I already forgot what happened

- Cant believe mei is fucking dead

EP 5:

- I like to imagine that Tai got there like a few minutes ago, but he was like “well damn guess yall figured it out without me. alright ill just. see if I need to do anything” and then meicoomon was Still Bad so he waited for when she struck just to make the most badass entrance possible. Fucking extra ass bitch

- I forgot to write anything again but uhhh I wasn’t satisfied so anyways lets just get into the Juicy Details

Originally I was actually planning to be kinder to Tri than I expected. Was very invested during it. ‘Round the end of the last ep I realized hmmm no this isn’t working out. Where are the 02 kids. You should’ve brought them in to save the day. That would’ve been SO cool and SO fun. Fucking cowards.

god I’m kinda tired so I’m going to address a couple things I still had problems with, note that this isn’t everything it’s just everything I felt comfortable yelling about without rewatching past eps. Like I forgot nishijima was all bloodied and presumably died in the last part until they brought it up and I was like “????” ALSO DID THE LADY WHO WAS HIS PARTNER OR W/E KILL HERSELF WITH THE GUN SHE FOUND, I JUST REALIZED LITERALLY AS I WAS TYPING THIS THAT SHE FOUND A GUN AND THEN I THINK IT CUT TO BLACK AND I’M

DID SHE FUCKING KILL HERSELF WHAT THE FUCK

anyways my problems:

1. They did joe. really dirty. I’ll write a more proper rant on this sometime later (mostly bc charlie is MUCH better at talking about joe than I am) but basically I can tell you that his character development in the movies squandered his OG character development. He’s basically an entirely different person. Like Tri joe isn’t bad, besides being largely neglected (yes he has a whole half a movie to himself, no that doesn’t make up for it all), its just...not OG joe. He’s a fine character just not the same character, and its NOT fine when you put the two together.

2. THEY DID THE 02 KIDS EVEN DIRTIER IM SO BITTER sorry you nostalgia-blind, money-hungry fucks at bandai, but the 02 cast is PART OF THE ADVENTURES UNIVERSE. The only people who hate 02 are ones who like the characters but hate the mess of the storyline at the end, or are completely irrational and elitist about their love of the digimon series and would greatly re-evaluate their opinions if they watched the original series and 02 back to back. They couldn’t even show them in some kind of group montage at the end??? Standing in the background when they call Mei??? Why couldn’t they call mei from a home phone also, but that’s a less important problem idc that much. It was a cute scene besides the lack of 02 characters. Whatever. AND THE PROBLEM IS LIKE kari and tk? This entire time??? Were like “oh they disappeared. oops” instead of being frantically searching for their lost friends??? Like i get tk and kari probably have fucking ptsd and can’t express any emotions because they watched important people die in front of their eyes at an incredibly young age but also 1. they didn’t address the ramifications of ptsd, so fuck that theory/excuse and 2. THAT??? WOULD ONLY MAKE THEM LOOK HARDER??? and put on a brave face as they look, but inside they’re so scared and so worried. Not just “oh sweet, they were found/saved, theyre in the hospital but that’s fine” like WHAT theyre fucking assholes if that’s what they’d canonically do lmao. God I am SO bitter over the ENTIRE thing with the 02 kids, it would’ve been BETTER if they were deleted from the fucking canon entirely. Would I have still been bitter? Yes. But at least I wouldn’t be madder at TK and Kari too.

3. I stand 100% by the notion that Digimon is not and will never be cut out to be an adults’ franchise. It wasn’t designed for adults, and it can’t be skewered towards adults. These particular characters were designed for kids to relate to and find entertaining. They do not work when placed into an adult setting. Like, can you imagine a character like Ed from FMA going to the Digimon world? I guess in a way that’s just Marcus but like. Just imagine the FMA cast in Digimon Adventure. It doesn’t work. Digimon Tri is basically that except real. Also Data Squad was darker than Adventure so my joke doesn’t even work.

I guess my primary point is that Tri isn’t mature enough of a setup for an adult audience. It puts a focus on being “complex” and “philosophical” instead of working within Digimon’s constraints and making something good and adult out of that. Like! Digimon is a fucking TOY COMMERCIAL. Don’t give me messages about the futility of human life. I want bad puns and emotional characters. That’s what Digimon has ALWAYS been, and ideally always will be. Tri could’ve made itself more mature by dealing with the ramifications of the Digital World’s events, how it affected the kids psychologically and dealing with healing old scars. It would’ve been a more mature take on a story we loved and would use things we loved about the story already - the fact that it took so much time exploring characters’ emotions and was surprisingly mature for the time - to make itself better. You need to take the aspects that drew adults to the show and amplify them, not just slap on a complex story and unfunny dialogue and be like “oh this is fine, right?”

It’s not that Digimon can’t exist as an adult property, its just that if it repeats what Tri did, it’s got no merit and in my eyes the franchise is dead. If it survives I guess I’ll be happy that people can still enjoy it but I find it unsustainable and unsatisfying to fans of the older series. Tri is just a fuckfest of highly specific nostalgia that tries too hard to appeal to old fans without capturing what made the original series so magical, and in part thats because the original series WASN’T FOR ADULTS. I don’t know about the Digimon Story games, bc they’re T-rated so perhaps they’re a better take on an adult Digimon story than Tri? But you either need to make your own characters and lore specifically for an adult-oriented Digimon season, or perish. Also, please make it a series and not a group of movies. Getting four eps every 6-9 months was hell.

I stand by saying Appmon is a more faithful Digimon season than Tri to Digimon’s original spirit. I believe it holds more potential for success than Tri and better embodies the spirit of the older Digimon seasons. It’s dumb, its corny, it has horrible puns, but I LOVE it because it also has a deep dark story and emotional moments. If you dislike Tri and you agree with things I said that make it unlikeable, I highly recommend giving Appmon a chance - if you watch a few episodes and think “oh yeah, I guess this is decent” you’re going to like it. It’s everything Digimon has always been and hopefully always will be, just with a different concept. And hopefully the end of the series doesn’t leave a sour taste in my mouth and I have to redact this statement haha since I’m not done with it yet, but I’ve heard good things about it so I’m hoping not so.

Overall, if you watch Tri, don’t get your hopes up. It resolves everything okay-ish but it’s a pretty forgettable anime on its own and simply doesn’t work as part of the Digimon franchise.

I am, however, pretty interested in what evil!gennai said at the end about Diaboromon and Daemon. It raises interesting questions about the timeline too. We know Daemon is in the dark ocean, so perhaps that’s a hint at a future project? (They did confirm a future project btw, in conjunction with tri being over) But what about Diaboromon? I dont believe that Our War Game (I think thats what its called?) took place after Tri, based on the outfits and ages and stuff, but I also don’t remember the movies that well. Could Diaboromon still be out there too? It’s interesting.

However, because of the lackluster performance of Tri, I don’t have my hopes up and I really hope that this “next project” goes in a different direction. Although I guess if they include the 02 kids, I’ll be somewhat less salty...

Side note, did they ever explain why the gennais went evil? Like ? That’s a pretty important thing. The gennais helped SAVE the human world in 02. And I get that apparently Tri is ignoring 02′s ending but still. It’s shitty, because Gennai was still a good guy in the original too (and also they cant just keep is younger look and act like 02 never happened) MAYBE its something I missed but I dont think so. God there’s just. So much wrong with Tri. I’m very displeased and very bitter and I wanna get back to Appmon asap.

It’s got good moments, its got bad moments, I dont know, I don’t care. There’s nothing wrong with you if you like it, there’s nothing wrong with you if you don’t, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you flip flop and are split like me. I just wish Tri fulfilled its potential instead of becoming a boring mess.

#stormy speaks #digimon

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bunny-wan-kenobi · 6 years

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Bunny Fic Recs: The Top Ten Strikes Back!

My friends think my fanfic-reading habits are hilarious and bizarre--and I tend to agree. I read stories in very distinct and obsessive phases, like if I’m in a Star Trek phase I literally cannot bring myself to read a story from a different fandom. Can’t do it--that’s just how it is. My fic-craving phases (there’s no way to put this that won’t make it sound like a drug habit) can be as short as 2 weeks (sorry @ginny-of-course) and as long as 5 months (aka my last Star Wars phase).

This means any fic rec summary will reflect my fandom phases of that year, which is kind of a fun way to see all the twists and turns my journey took me and the characters I discovered (and rediscovered). So, in no particular order, here’s the top ten fanfics I read this year!

1. Bargaining by proantagonist (Thor): Faced with an eternity without his brother, Loki strikes a bargain to change the past. Post TDW. (Complete)

This story is AMAZING. Not only does it contain some of the best characterizations of Thor, Loki, and Odin that I’ve read, it deftly examines their relationships in all their complexity and contradictions. The relationship between Thor and Loki is captured beautifully and simultaneously heartwarming and tragic. The way Loki grows over time and learns trial by trial is especially rewarding so that every big choice he makes had me fist-pumping in pride because the story builds up these twists so well. Every single detail matters, and this story gave me so many things I never knew I wanted from a Thor story. I thought I had the fic figured out, and then the ending completely shocked me in the best possible way. I cried so many times reading this story, and its insight into Loki’s headspace and the dysfunction of family relationships is remarkable.

2. too wise to peaceable woo by theMightyPen (LOTR): Most marriages in Gondor are matters of convenience, especially among the nobility. But Dol Amroth is a different sort of place, with a different sort of royal family. Sometimes, Lothiriel is not convinced this is a good thing.(or, how in Middle Earth the too southern, too dark, too outspoken daughter of Imrahil ended up married to Éomer, son of Éomund) (WIP)

I could write an essay about everything I love about this story. Not only does it make a compelling, lovable heroine out of a character I had not given much to previously (Lothiriel), but it tackles race, class, and inter-cultural issues in Middle Earth with incredible nuance and emotional depth. The slow-burn love story at its center is developed organically and complements the exploration of family and friend relationships and world-building for Rohan culture. I appreciate so many intentional elements--like the friendship between Eowyn and Lothiriel, the complex politics of countries still recovering from war, and a woman of color coming into her own as a leader. The Rohan the author paints is a breathing place vivid in detail, and even the OCs are easy to love and root for. A truly wonderful love story woven into an intricate cultural landscape, this fic puts me on the edge of my seat waiting for updates.

3. The Gentlest Schism by SanwichesYumYum (GOT): Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth. The war is over. Some of them hadn’t thought that they would outlive it. And yet... (WIP but ends at a satisfactory point)

This is a rare story that goes against your expectations and makes you linger in the disappointments and losses along with the characters. The premise is heartbreaking, and becomes even more tragic as you keep reading, but at the same time, it’s a beautiful testament to the resilience of love and the importance of family. I love the community the author cultivates on Tarth, the unexpected characters they weave in, and how this little island becomes an entire functional and complex world of its own. The second half of the fic gets a little repetitive occasionally and there is some explicit content, but it’s a really compelling read and one of my favorite Jaime/Brienne stories.

4. The Days and Steps series by CatKing_Catkin (Thor): Even after everything, Thor holds out hope that his brother can be redeemed. Now that he's away from the Chitauri, his mind is fully his own again. Not that he's home, even as a prisoner, maybe he can start to remember what it's like to have a family and a place to belong. Maybe he can even come to truly understand the other worlds as something other than a conqueror. (Complete)

After reading the last story in this series, I wept like a baby. These stories trace Loki’s excruciatingly slow healing process in such a realistic and moving way that the ending feels so, so earned. Again, it’s the family dynamics that shine here, in particular, a family actually processing and dealing with the ways they’ve hurt each other and the mistakes they’ve made. The realizations strike deep and the characterizations are rich so you become fully invested in this family’s journey.

5. Captains and Pawns by sian22 (LOTR): "The board is set and the pieces are moving." So Gandalf said, but what unseen hand made them move? How far back did the game start and with what unexpected results? The Lords of Gondor and Rohan find Saruman will use them for his own end and both the Steward's sons and Rohan's Prince and Lady must find their way. A tale from Faramir's birth until the fateful kiss. (Complete)

If you’re a Faramir fan, this story is for you. It’s a fascinating character-driven story that fleshes out a lot of the subtext in the events before and during the War of the Ring. It moves the narrative from Gondor to Rohan and we follow Faramir, Eowyn, and Eomer from childhood to adulthood, reminding us of the cost of war and also deepening your love for these characters.

6. Ad Infinitum by Stormontheocean (Dragon Age): After a bus accident, Liz wakes up in Haven, stuck in the fictional world of Dragon Age. How does a modern girl get by when she can't speak the language, and her expansive knowledge of the Blight and Kirkwall, but limited knowledge of Inquisition would only make her look more suspicious? Fake being deaf and mute, and hope not to get caught before she can find proof of her origin. But the best laid plans never work out as expected... (WIP)

Okay, I’m usually wary of self-insert fics, but this one put ALL my doubts to rest. It works. It really does, and it manages to make the OC main character (the stumbling block of many a writer) a completely three-dimensional and lovable addition to an existing universe. The first big plot turn of the story made me so unbelievably gleeful and excited that I won’t spoil it here but let me say--the story does not turn out in the way you expect. Even the slow-burn romance is believably developed, and this story cemented my love for Bull’s Chargers. A stand-out AU fic that is just plain enjoyable to read.

7. Jacob and Esau Say Their Goodbyes by LadyCharity (Thor): After Svartalfheim, Loki is still alive. In the end, it changes nothing.In which Thor hurts, Loki loves, and Jane learns how to lie. (Complete)

Let me emphasize that this was a near-impossible choice to make. I love every single one of LadyCharity’s Thor fics, but I decided to go with the one I think excels at every level. It’s emotionally devastating, poignant, and with brilliant characterization. I appreciate how succinct, poetic, and introspective the author’s prose is, and she just gets these characters and their relationships. Shout-out for her great development for Jane as well, who all too often gets overlooked in fanfic.

8. A Wreath of Thorns by LadyNormaOfTheWesterlands (GOT): In the aftermath of the Battle of the Bastards and the destruction of the Great Sept in King's Landing, new allegiances are forged and family ties will be tested, as two Queens dance around a blood-dripping throne and a new King rises in the North. The day of reckoning is getting closer, for princes and commoners, for friend and foe, while cold winds bring the longest of winters, and, with it, an enemy who doesn't respond to honour, nor love. Post-Season 6. (WIP)

There’s a lot to love in this understated story, which captures the POV of multiple GOT characters as events hurtle towards an inevitable culmination. It’s an introspective story, almost meditative in nature, and everyone is perfectly IC. It’s tragic, inspiring, and ultimately a great tribute to these characters.

9. The Native by StarTrekFanWriter (Star Trek): The relationship that started it all - Sarek/Amanda. How a logical guy like Sarek fell for a human, and why he would defy his people to marry her. Sybock & Spock will be featured. (Complete)

The beginning of 2017 was my introduction to Sarek/Amanda fic, and this was one of the standouts. I’m a sucker for stories that navigate the cultural differences, tensions, and development of interracial relationships, and this one does a great job immersing you in Vulcan culture. Amanda is also a really wonderful character, strong, empathetic, intelligent and you can definitely see why she and Sarek are so well-matched.

10. The Abduction of Eomer, King of Rohan and House of Sun by Lialathuveri (LOTR) (Complete)

Okay I kinda cheated here but I honestly could not choose between these. I like them for completely different reasons: The first fic is a hilarious series of misadventures that bring Lothiriel and Eomer together and the second is a much more serious development of a love story after an arranged marriage. The world-building in both stories is well-realized, and Lothiriel is simply a delightful character that I will read in ANY iteration.

More Bunny Fic Recs:

My Top 10

The Next Top 10

Game of Thrones

Merlin

Makorra

LOTR/The Hobbit

Captain Swan

Star Wars: Romance One-shots

Star Wars: Gen One-shots

Star Wars: PT Multi-Chapter Fics

Star Wars: OT Multi-Chapter Fics

#fic recs #thor #loki #got #lord of the rings #dragon age #jaime x brienne #star trek #bunny posts

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ravel-puzzlewell · 7 years

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sense of community in tabletop rpgs

I was talking today with a friend about how cool the sense of community was in recent shadowrun crpgs, and I remembered how much I loved doing communities when I was running tabletop games, so I decided to write down the principles I used, mostly out of nostalgia, but maybe it’ll give someone ideas.

Communities are a great way to make players emotionally invested and do it *stealthily*, without them seeming it coming, so when you do a sneak attack of feels, it hits them hardest. The easiest way to establish the sense of community in your game, of course, requires your party to have a homebase where they return each time after an adventure. There are ways to manage it without homebase, but lets see the easiest route at first.

Homebase. It’s better to make homebase somehow interesting, to give it a distinguishing feature that immediately sticks out when you think of this place. It’s an advice not just for homebases, but for making locations in general. It can be geographical, like a city on the hills near a volcano, or cultural, like a city of demons exiled from hell, or even purely decorative, like a city that is covered in cacti. Cactus all over the place! It’s important to not overload players with these features and lore for them, though. Even if you’ve written 20 pages of deep intricate history and politics and cultural background for the place, don’t just pour it on players in one go. Ease it out on them gradually, otherwise it all will blur together into a confused mess. When I establish new location, I make sure to give players no more than three features, which could be all explained with ONE string of logic and theme. Frex, a town was built on the slopes of a volcano by demons exiled from hell, because they wanted an environment closest to their lava-filled motherland. They also brought a special sort of cactus from hell, because it reminds them of home. The unifying theme there is Nostalgia for Hell.

Center of community. Next thing to establish is the social circle that the party will be interested in participating. The thing is, it’s gotta be hugely beneficial for them or the penalties for not engaging in that circle should be substantial. It’s because normally players will not go out of their way to engage like that socially without you basically forcing them.

For example, in one campaign that social circle was a guild of bounty hunters. Location-wise, it was a big tavern run by a druid and a former monster hunter who had a pet basilisk. So this tavern was decorated by the statues of various cool monsters, who were actually real monsters turned to stone. It was basically a hub for mercenary crews to get contracts. Players had to get involved, because otherwise they’ll get no quests.

Activities. Make sure your community has interesting activities, and I don’t mean that one festival fair that you did in a “filler episode.” Repeated structured interactions with NPCs are the key to players emotionally engaging and feeling like this place is a “home.” In my bounty hunters guild, there were ranks for the crews to climb to get better contracts with bigger rewards. You got points for how fast you did the quest, how many monsters you killed, how successful you were, and so on. So when the players were getting there to get reward for quests, they were enthusiastically describing all cool shit they did to get more points, and other crews were chiming in and that’s how the community was engaged. There were also auctions, where crews would bet for special high-reward contracts, and other stuff that players could engage with.

Don’t let these interactions to turn into an automatized script, make them roleplay it. By that I mean don’t let them just go “I walk into a tavern and ask for quest”. Make different little scenes every time. Party walks into a bounty hunting guild and here are the Skullsuckers in a brawl with Fluffbums. Are players gonna try to stop them or get in into the brawl? Don’t let them ignore it either. If they do nothing, they get hit with a flying beer cask, the chandelier falls, etc. It gives your community life, a bit of new flavor to each interaction. It also helps with the pacing, because if you run players at high speed of long action->5 minutes of shopping and rest -> long action again, they’re gonna be exhausted.

Sub-groups. In best case scenario you should be able to separate the community into little groups, kind of sub-factions. In bounty hunters guild it happened naturally, by the virtue of mercenaries already running in crews. Then you should give them some personal flavors - at first, one flavor per group, like mass effect races, - and establish some relationship between each other. Keep it real simple at first. These are Skullsuckers, they like to suck skulls. These are Fluffbums, they have fluffy bums. Skullsuckers are feudng with Fluffbums, because Fluffbums sometimes sit on skulls that Skullsuckers leave all over the place, and Skullsuckers hate it, because sucking skulls covered in fur is gross.

After first couple interactions you could see who your players are most interested in and then develop these groups with more details. Don’t do it before you’re sure these details will actually come up, because if you give every Skullsucker an intricate backstory, but your players are stubbornly hanging out with Fluffbums, it’s gonna be waste of time and effort and you’ll feel mad at players for not appreciating your ~art.~

Politics and drama. Your groups should infuse your activities with emotional stakes. Skullsuckers got your party’s contract and laughed in their face! Fluffbums provided them with tips and tricks to handle a particular monster! Two small groups united to out-bet the snobbish trust-fund palandins! I think this is pretty easy to do if you have a handle of your groups and your activities, you just gotta watch who your players like or hate and play the situations up to give them narratives in a framework of these activities.

NPCs. Last, but not least level is inter-personal relationships between players and NPCs. All players want the spotlight, but they usually don’t give it to each other. It’s basically a troop of several divas, all craving for attention. So you give your player an NPC who’s genuinely interested in their character as a person and wants to hear all cool stuff that happened to them.

Yeah, that caring what player has to say is SUPER effective in getting them emotionally invested in NPC. It’s actually scarily effective, one time I had a player who wanted to romance a talking garden gnome bc of that, which I certainly didn’t plan for.

Don’t push it though, start casual, don’t try to jump into soul-searching conversations right away. And instead of trying to design NPC to “seduce” a specific player, it’s better to get an idea for interesting NPC and let one of the players to take a bait. When you see who’s interested, you can develop it from here, and it will feel much more natural for the player, because from their perspective it was *their* choice to engage.

In the first evening of my party in the bounty hunters guild, they were getting picked on as rookies - standard practice in this type of environment. There was a particularly sharp-tongued leader of the rival group who was making fun of the party. I kept an eye on which of my players takes the bait - responds to him the most, - saw that it’s the cleric, and had them have a little short banter. Next time the party is in the guild and bragging about what dangers they bested for points, that guy is making witty comments again, but more directly addressing the cleric. Third time, they talk in private, still half-bragging half-mocking, but with more detailed emotions described. Like, the cleric says that they killed the red dragon and the rival is genuinely impressed. He tries to hide it, jokes that “well if you incompetent rookies managed to kill him, it was probably the weakest dragon in a world!,” but the player can tell he really thinks it’s cool. That’s it - next time the part is in town, the cleric is going to deliberately seek out the rival. Then it progresses naturally in “slowburn, enemies to friends to lovers, 75k” format. It’s important to keep your NPCs reactive to what players are doing. If players are late from contract, on their way back they meet that rival’s group, because he was worried and went to help, and so on.

You know your player is hooked when after something important or cool happens, they go “I can’t wait to tell it to NPC!” Then you can arrange your dramatic payoff, like raising the stakes or making a hard decision. In bounty hunters campaign, the main quest of this party revolved around some sort of invasion from another dimension that was prophesied for specific time, because stars will align or some shit. Then in like 4 days before that date, the rival’s group gets in trouble on their contract - captured by devils or whatnot. Theoretically, the party has just barely enough time to go save them and get back in time for invasion, but it’s a huge risk. Do they leave the rival to die or try to save him and risk the fate of the whole world? The drama! The emotions! The nerves! The tension! Players yell at me and each other!

They go and save him, of course, and then they race back, but they don’t have to to prepare and rest fully, so they are desperate and think they’re going to lose. And then the entire guild shows up to help them, because the saved rival told them what happens and they all like our party. Even Skullsuckers are there! I cannot overstate how important moments like these feel for the players - after doing lots of little side-quests and regulating conflicts and establishing relationships, when this investment pays off, it’s cathartic. It’s moments like this when you make your players feel that everything they did mattered. Especially if they are at the low point and facing terrible odds, so that pay off is not decorative, but functional. Riding that wave, you can make any cheesy speech from guild leader about being a family and belonging and I guarantee you at least one player gonna tear up. It still was a hard fight for a party, but it was a very different emotional context. The party now felt like they had their backs covered, like they are part of the bigger whole, and that’s what a sense of community is ultimately about.

#the mercenary crew wasnt actually called Skullsuckers in my real campaign #but it should have been #dnd #meta #dungeons and dragons

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aeroknot · 7 years

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@yellowflasher said: tell me abt this show bc i have been thinking of watching it

ahhhhh!! i’m so glad you asked me to talk about this show!! haha

as usual I’m a fucking insufferable, over-talkative spaz!!!

ummmmm ok!! it’s kinda like... Jessica Jones mixed with Tombstone mixed with Grimm?? and X-files as far as Monster of the Week and agents who pine for each other goes? & i’ve seen peeps compare it to Supernatural but I never watched that so... SHRUG.

so the premise is that our wonderfully complex anti-hero chick wynonna earp returns to her hometown of Purgatory (somewhere in the U.S. near Canada; I personally think Montana because it’s the most western state bordering Canada (in the first ep Wynonna asks a fellow bus passenger “your first time out west?”) that’s not Washington or Idaho, bc neither of those seem like its setting esp. since Idaho is just a sliver of the whole border, tho it could be North Dakota or Minnesota I guess?-- EH it’s kind of not been touched on as far as I know and anyway it doesn’t matter shut up aero just---). she is the great-great grandaughter of wyatt earp, the righteous 19th century wild west u.s. marshal raining down hellfire on USDA grade A Assholes. but then he’s cursed!! and his kills are actually cursed in hellfire!! even if they’re killed, they resurrect from hell the next time a new heir turns 27 if not all of them have been defeated, and they’re demons trapped within the borders of Purgatory (har har go figure), or in the show’s terms, also called Revenants. earp had a renown 77 kills, and the only way to break the curse is for his heirs to hunt down and shoot all 77 kills before the heir dies-- the heirs have the power to wield his mystical gun Peacemaker which sends Revenants back to hell. wynonna is our fantastically loveable resistant heroine because she was never meant to be the heir-- her older sister, the firstborn, was supposed to be, but shit went down (which got her ostracized and locked up in psychological institutions) and now she is the heir. and I’ll move on from synopsis to opinions because I don’t want to start spoiling anything and the show should just speak for itself!

reasons I’ve enjoyed it!!!:

Wynonna Fucking Earp. early on I described her as a “slightly perkier” Jessica Jones. That was wrong-- in the SLIGHTEST part. she is a WAY WAY PERKIER Jessica Jones. and I fucking cannot get enough of it. Like... Dark-haired leather-jacket-wearing harrowed-past-having orphaned-and-outcasted-as-children anti-heroes are mostly typically supposed to be deadpan, snarky, grumpy, sexily standoffish, and often secretive and hard to read, and only rarely invested in others. And she is that, often, yet SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. She is: GOOFY!! CRASS!! EMBARRASSING!! PLAYFUL!!!! She smiles a lot!!! She celebrates victories! She cracks jokes! She expresses her desires upfront and unabashedly, and without games! She is emotionally vulnerable with loved ones and friends and grows even more in this throughout! She actually asks people for support and comfort!! & She busts balls endearingly! She’s courageous and helpful! She’s brash and brazen--and yeah, this gets her scolded by others, but rarely does it feel like she’s punished for her impulsive heroics by her writers, as I often feel (male) writers of female heroes (or usually side-heroes) tend to do (probably she’s not punished because mostly women are writing this story, gee isn’t that weird? hah). There’s consequences, yeah, but it usually works out and she’s still the hero ultimately. She’s basically the plucky hero wrapped in anti-hero fodder, and I have completely fallen for her. She makes me laugh so much with her dialogue and makes me feel represented with how WEIRD she ultimately gets to be. Plus, she is emotionally vulnerable almost every episode, and her sister even succinctly chides her with “for a lone wolf, you sure are needy.”

getting to that, HER SISTER!!! Waverly is amazeballs. I think she even used the term amazeballs in an episode, recently-- she’s that amazeballs. She’s still growing a lot, but she’s definitely quintessential underdog baby sister, and I’m here for it, because she’s also reinforced as an integral part of the story and gets her own romance even before Wynonna and it’s so wonderful. Waverly constantly has a new skill or tidbit of information up her sleeve-- she’s inventive, thorough, super super damn nerdy, and also social and kind and popular. Plus, she’s with Nicole Haught (and I just cannot get over the playfulness of some of these names in the story, lmao) and they’re just fantastic together and I’m so happy to see them together every time. So far it’s good lesbian content. My face honest to god always cracks into a smile when they’re together. also um!! i want her entire wardrobe!!

The Earp Sisters are just... Their sisterhood is so rich and complex and SATISFYING. Like I actually feel like I’m watching REAL SISTERS. They are gross and raunchy with each other, and I laugh so hard. They are sweet and supportive to each other and I cry. They are competitive and jealous and conflicted with each other, and I’m relieved to see this-- to see all these layers to them. It’s great writing and acting for a sister bond and I’m just excited to see sisterhood being such an integral theme for a t.v. show.

the SYFY effects are sometimes silly but I still enjoy it. the ENTIRE CONCEPT is actually pretty silly and sometimes goes cheesy, even, but I still am endeared by its approach just the same. The storyline itself is... often confusing me, and I LIKE that, believe it or not. I don’t mean “confusing” as in the plot doesn’t make sense-- it does-- I mean “confusing” in the sense that it’s, hm, how should I say... I guess kind of disjointed? There’s always a Random Revelation thrown in suddenly, or weird Twist that literally had NO foreshadowing, and often it seems like the story progresses with big chunks of time in between episodes which can be hard to place and pace the action and relationship developments... Usually I’d probably nitpick all this, but actually, it keeps me very transfixed because usually I can completely predict what will happen next due to a show’s use of foreshadowing, but this show often completely bypasses such a dance with the audience, and though I sometimes question if that’s effective storytelling, I honestly think I’m really starting to respect this method, and so I want to stick around for it. I could probably go into way more detail with this, but then I might start spoiling things, so I’ll leave it at that. Someone who constantly predicts the “reveals” in a show, even at an episode-by-episode pace, gives this a seal of approval!! Nothing “revealed” is particularly earthshattering and it’s often given away in such a matter-of-fact tone, but it propels the story in interesting ways without a ton of hoopla in trying to ever pull one over its audience, and I like and respect that. They’re like “oh fuck! This weird idea we had is A Thing now. Let’s explore that more together, viewers!!”

(I will say some of the deaths are not as effective as I think they could be because of the above evaluation of the approach to plot/pacing/twists/reveals, but I’m still interested in those choices. brings me to a legit critique tho: they should uh... stop killing so many Cool Women right after immediately introducing them. It’s starting to worry me. :\ but also...? I’m trusting? I think? still? anywho!)

I’m a Tombstone-loving Fuck and Doc Holliday is one of my favorite real-person enigmas of history and this Doc Holliday incarnation is supremely gratifying. He is consistently entertaining and intriguing!

I was initially all in for Holliday and THEN FUCKING DEPUTY MARSHAL XAVIER DOLLS CAME FOR MY WHOLE HEART. Go! Look at his special eyes! Look at his HEART EYES at my DAUGHTER WYNONNA. He has my whole approval. I’ll buy the ring for him. I’ll plan the proposal. DO IT.

-- ok aside from my shipping bullshittery also Dolls is just. An amazing guy. I love him. He’s a boss in so many senses of the word, and he constantly surprises me. I feel like he’s... A Capital-A Adult? You know? He’s mature, and methodical, and clever, and talented, and confident. It’s funny to me that he’s called “the stick in the mud” and yet through small tidbits we see he’s really not (he can be playful or perverted, too), he’s just Grown. A Man. Focused, with an Agenda and a Goal. It’s lovely to see him come out of his shell a bit and be cheeky and then at the end of S1 just like... OPENLY ADORE the people he’s around. But it’s also a breath of fresh air somehow to see An Adult Man. I don’t know, maybe it’s what the actors bring, too, because both Doc and Dolls really just strike me as assured individuals, each of them just really secure in their sense of identity, which makes them GREAT foils to Wynonna, and it’s just fabulous, really. I like adulthood being given this reverence and care. It makes someone like me, hedging out of her twenties, feel a little bit more like there’s still a space in media and storytelling for people over 35. lmao. (and admittedly 35 is still fucking young, but Hollywood would have us believe it’s time to go out to pasture at this age)

and on that note DOC HOLLIDAY AND DOLLS TOGETHER. I JUST. *clenches fist* THEY’RE SO GREAT. AND WITH WYNONNA I JUST. It IS A LOVE TRIANGLE, in the barest evaluation, yes. And I prefer Dolls with Wynonna, yes, and usually I, yes, Fucking Can’t Stand Triangles, but the way these writers are approaching this has me fucking bowing down to them. I am really enjoying the way they’re taking this so far. I laughed to myself the other day because the realization suddenly dawned on me like “oh.... Fucking Anciently Old Immortal Pale Guy + Mystically Endowed Outcast Brunette Girl + Man of Color With a Secretive Monster Backstory” is fucking..... Twilight. This is Twilight. If it had a Wild West spin and was written, you know, WELL, and the characters were a thousand times more interesting. Is Emily Andras trying to come for Stephanie Meyers? MAYHAPS.

I’m gonna give some rapid fire thoughts to wind down: GREAT MUSIC SELECTIONS, fun shootouts!!, LESBIANS!!! <33333, mostly interesting villains, good cinematography, action!, mystery!, HUMOR!!! THAT DIALOGUE!!!! WRITE ALL MY LIFE AND INTERACTIONS W/ OTHERS W.EARP WRITERS!!

I could go on and on which is in my fucking nature I’m so goddamn sorry look at this pit you’ve opened but ultimately my answer is: It is so fucking fun. It is a Delight! A DELIGHT I TELL YOU. I get joy from this; I laugh, I’m entertained, my brain thinks hard but not too hard, the characters have infiltrated my heart so damn quickly. DELIGHT. I’m so sad I’ve caught up but also I fucking bought a Season Pass on Amazon prime for s2 so even though I don’t live with cable anymore, I’MMA BE ON THIS.

#aero replies #aero is INSUFFERABLY TALKATIVE i'm SORRY #wynonna earp #wynonna earp opinions #i am consumed with delight and affection for this show and its characters #yellowflasher #i am excite #aero opinion time

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musingcompany · 7 years

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Underneath the cut you’ll find #52 archetypes from A-Z!! If you don’t know what an archetype is, you can read about it here and under the cut.

Why use archetypes as a character building tool?

Knowing the archetype may assist you in fleshing out your character and in building a complete world.

Many writers shy away from using “character types”. They fear they will be writing a stock character – one that lacks originality, depth and complexity. My argument is that there is a lot to be learned about from studying archetypes and that you can make your archetype original by placing him/her in an unexpected role.

Every story has a hero. A hero is an archetype. Is every hero in every story unoriginal? Hell no.

Q: Why should I use archetypes?

Makes a story feel fully developed. We expect to see the hero and villain (both archetypes) and adding further archetypes can help your world to feel full, complex and real. It contributes to identifiability. People will feel they know someone “just like that”. Assists with writing believable group dynamics. You want real group dynamics, take a handful of archetypes and throw them in a room together and let them duke it out. The conflict between archetypes creates tremendous dramatic tension. Archetypes perform essential functions that may be necessary for your story. You may need a character to point your hero in the right direction, or in the wrong direction. You may need a character to offer advice, provide wisdom or specialised knowledge. You may need a character to push the hero into facing his fears. You may need a character to be the voice of temptation, or faith, or logic or purity. All these voices stem from archetypes. It’s a grounding force. When we see/read an archetype, though he may look a particular way, the audience is grounded in knowing who they are on some deep, unexplainable way. John Truby, storytelling guru and Author of The Anatomy of a Story states:

“Using archetypes as a basis for your characters can give them the appearance of weight very quickly because each type expresses a fundamental pattern that the audience recognises, and this same pattern is reflected both within the character and through interaction in the larger society.” (source).

Artist: Sensitive, Withdrawn, Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, Temperamental, Romantic and Visionary, full of passion, creativity and intensity, spontaneous, loving, loves to impact change, trouble controlling emotions, takes things to extremes, unaware of boundaries

Beast: physically unattractive but with humanity or physically attractive but without humanity, a representation of the primitive past of man

Boss: The Leader of the pack, the “go to” person, the solver of problems, may be overbearing and controlling, competitive, stubborn, aggressive, status seeking, can be chronically rude

Career Criminal: commits crime with high stakes, smart, suspicious, may be highly skilled, plans carefully, may move often, can be charming, feels like an outcast, creates his own morality

Child: can be young in age or in spirit, loves adventures, seeking play and playmates, potential, innocence, rebirth, salvation, believes in good vs. evil

Clown/Joker: Uses humour to cope and avoid tough emotions/intimacy, Serves as a happy distraction, makes others happy by joking around/diffusing the tension, may be sad inwardly- does not show this to outsiders, thinks he is helping people by relieving stress. (Note: a more pure form of this archetype is the Jester – always lighthearted and joking but he/she is always pure of heart and truly caring for others like Kramer in Seinfeld.)

Do-er/Achiever: Focus is on success, often has experienced success, often building a track record, great ability and ambition, at times cannot see the bigger picture and loses out on love/family/living at the moment due to single-mindedness. Organised, driven and often needs to be seen as a winner. Rarely stands still.

Emotionally Sick: Mentally disabled, dependent, sometimes the focal point of the family, can create chaos, draining on others

Enabler: Maintains group balance by rescuing the irresponsible one and smoothing things over. Often faces a dilemma: if he/she does not bail the irresponsible one out of a bad/dangerous situation, the irresponsible one could do serious harm to self or others. May be contributing to the irresponsible behaviour by continuing to rescue and cover up- but believe that they are simply being helpful.

Father: Source of authority and protection, powerful, strict, often inducing fear, protects loved ones fiercely, wants to win, can be an activist, very physical, motivated by survival, can be career focused, sometimes fails to think things through

Feminist: the female cause is her cause. Masculine side is just as strong as her feminine side, intuitive, instinctual, task oriented, can be seen as cold, self-sufficient and goal oriented, can be boastful

Femme Fatale: Seductive, charming, loves being in control, loves the thrill of the chase, often provokes jealousy, has star quality, fashion conscious

Flamboyant/Show Off: Extrovert. Likes to be the centre of attention, extreme need to display intelligence, talent or body, often deeply insecure, overcompensating for a deep need to be loved/connection, can be dramatic and easily upset, flaky

Fool: still a little boy or girl inside, seeks to play/find a playmate, wandering off in confusion and faulty directions, creates chaos for others, cares for children, takes risks, avoids commitments and responsibility, fears boredom, loves freedom, can be charming

Gender Bender: Feels they were born in the wrong body, may try to correct the issue, may have two identities (one male, one female), does not act for sexual thrill, can be loyal, appreciates loyalty, seeking their place in society

Girly Girl: Innocent, Feminine, focused on all things girl, beauty, can be extremely naive, helpless or dependent, idealistic and coy, nurturing, passive, difficulty expressing anger or dealing with conflict, boosts men’s egos, may doubt own adequacy, flirtatious

God or Goddess: All powerful, source of magic, can provoke fear, awe, humility, the great mother, or Mother Earth

Guy’s Guy: masculine in an exaggerated way, rugged, tough, fearful of weakness, adventurous and aggressive, worldly, sexually experienced, ambitious, need to win, risk taker, may have rocky relationships with women

Imposter/Pretender: take advantage of situations, intelligent, verbal, delights in deceiving people, looking for the weakness to exploit it, may make a career out of deception, makes his own rules, rationalises his life choices

Investigator/thinker – Withdrawn, Intense, Cerebral, Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated, Can become obsessed/highly focused on a goal. Finding what is hidden/unknown brings creative joy.

Irresponsible /Drug Addict-Alcoholic – avoids commitment, dedicated to the moment, to his freedom, fears being chained down to a schedule, can turn to drugs and alcohol, lives life on her own terms, discounts societal rules, selfish, narcissistic, creates chaos by acting on own desires, destabilizes the group

Journeyman/Hero: Journeys on quest, Champion, defender, rescuer, travels on journey to realize his/her destiny, can lose sight of all but his journey, often reluctant to go on journey, to be a fully realized hero he must face his greatest fears and flaws

King: Ruler, Sees the big picture (often avoiding the details), cares for the whole village, can be authoritative, lacking emotion, can be an addict, craves self-esteem and self-respect, confident, strategist, needs a kingdom, can be controlling, fear-provoking, stoic, unable to express emotions

Know-It-All/Reformer: superior attitude, can be self-absorbed, tries to come across as having it all together but often just seems silly, full of it, low self-esteem, need to be seen as an expert, may try to change others or situation

Loner – isolates, struggles to connect with others / socially inept, avoids conflict, invested in his rich inner world only, fears the world, usually intelligent, reliable and loyal trusted few, can have large imagination, feels alien to others

Lover/Love Interest: Romantic, sincere, dedicated to object of his/her affection, often poetic or artistic, often the symbol of home base or security, believes in the hero, the person the hero can vent to

Loyalist: Strong ability to support others, bonds and stays, can lack self-worth, doubts abilities, tends to isolate when not with specific loved ones, big-hearted, can get behind a cause

Magician or Shaman: Offers an elixir, explains the mysteries of life, may provoke fear in others, spiritual, powerful, often loves to be alone/dislikes the spotlight

Maiden: innocence, desire, purity, often searches to be rescued, inexperienced and naive, often self-confident, playful, takes risks, may want to party and have fun, can be sexy and child-like

Manipulator: charming, intelligent, ability to read the needs of others and use the information, sly, deceitful, crafty, may appear attractive at first or on the surface, ability to pull others in, can play the role of the backstabber

Mentor: advisor, expert, intelligent and wise, wants to be in hero’s life, cares for hero, can be positive or negative force in hero’s life, can be a competitive relationship with the mentor struggling to let go

Mother: Source of nurturing and comfort, calming, center of the hearth, offers guidance, can be over-controlling and worrisome, sense of duty to help others is strong, can be needy, a martyr and passive aggressive

Narcissist – self-absorbed, inability to see the needs of others, draws the attention back to himself, often a show off, low self-esteem, lacks empathy for others, needs to be admired, will express his grandiose sense of self, often politicians or religious leaders due to ready, admiring audience

Nemesis/Challenger: a friendly troublemaker, has a surface-friendly relationship with the hero but his main goal is to mess up the hero’s life, often jealous, the nemesis loves to hate the hero, in fact it’s part of his life’s purpose

Observer: watches all but often quiet. Usually a deep thinker and when he/she does speak, it is something of importance, insight or gravity. Will withhold judgment until all of the evidence is in. Can be fiercely loyal to hero or to his tribe. Has trouble letting loose and having fun.

Peacemaker: Tries to be the force of peace, dislikes conflict, Easygoing, Self-Effacing, Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

Perfectionist/Conformist: needs precision, pressures others to reach for the best, hard on themselves/others, can be rigid, purposeful finds it painful to live outside society’s expectations, cares deeply what others think, anxious, can be a team player, finds meaning and stability in rules/regulations

Pessimist/Depressive: glass half empty point of view, pulls others down, self-absorbed, Debbie downer, will offer disapproval, why try attitude, will take no risks, spreads doubt, defeat, confusion

Psychopath – no conscience, amoral, inability to feel or care for others, no sense of guilt or consequences, can be source of fear, easily bored, motivated by money, impulsive, irresponsible, no sense of belonging, no strong emotions, rationalises his behaviour

Queen: Ruler, willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good, can be stoic, has masculine qualities, can be the bringer of harsh truth, stands up for beliefs, protective, loyal, wants to keep order, strong, can be boastful

Rage-Filled: goes from irritated to fury quickly, violent, can’t control temper, dislikes most people, often self-loathing, loyal. Ironically when calm can be loving, likes to laugh and be passionate.

The Reformer: Rational, Idealistic, Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and often a Perfectionist

The Robot/Intellectual – Hides in their knowledge, intelligence trumps feelings, may struggle socially, low communication skills, high abilities, strength can lie in their objectivity

Scapegoat – the one to blame when things are going wrong, the person who acts out in a dysfunctional family, he often suffering the shortcomings of others often the one that receives all the negative attention. (The acting out teen sent to therapy who deals with drunk father nightly – but he is seen as the sick one) Can be rebellious, perhaps antisocial, ‘juvenile delinquents.’

Scaredy Cat/Fearful: worrier, anxious, brings fear/panic to others, hides from life and new experiences, the member of the group who will bring up what might go wrong in any scenario

Trickster: trouble maker, liar, rascal agent that pushes us toward change, self-absorbed, can be entertaining or charming

Troubled Teen – hates rules, defies authority, can be depressed, self-centered and angry, loyal to fellow criminals, feels above the law, vulnerable (cults and drugs)

Upside Down Hero/Anti-Hero – motivated by base or lower nature drives. Driven by the pursuit for power, sex, money, control. Need to fill his/her appetite is big and often all that matters. Can be selfish, anti-social, power-hungry, and materialistic. An Anti-hero is useful in storytelling, by examining the dark side of an anti-hero the audience may be able to explore/come to terms with their own shadow side.

Warrior Hero: takes action, takes on causes, fights for what he believes, single-minded, leads the pack, craves blood and battle, most in touch with his rage/anger as primary emotions, takes risks to compensate for loneliness, doesn’t expect to live long

Wild One/Flamboyant/Rebel: Cares little what others think, walks to the beat of their own drum, often likes to shock/display their different/offbeat world view, against the grain of society

Wise Old Man/Woman: sage, guidance, keeper of profound knowledge, wisdom, has “seen it all”

Wizard/Psychic: eccentric, possesses knowledge about hidden secrets of the earth, often sought out when a transformation is needed. The Psychic may possess knowledge of other worlds or of the future

Woman’s Man: loves women above all else, women love him and are drawn to his inspirational, passionate qualities, smooth talker motivated by love and belonging yet may have trouble committing, searching for impossible ideal, can be irresponsible/flighty, sensual and erotic, can be seen as a dreamer, chivalrous and gentle, driven by experiences

Vampire: Uses people for his/her needs. Passionate, sometimes romantic, experiences life in a heightened way, strong emotions, self-absorbed, can be dominating and secretive

Victim: “poor me” mentality, believes they will always suffer, looks for evidence that life is working against them

Zombie/Monster: half human or not human at all, provokes fear, panic, sometimes has human qualities/elements

#syd did that #archetypes #archetype #character development #character help #character ideas #masterlist #masterlists #rp #rph

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theadmiringbog · 4 years

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Fifteen Principles of Persuasive Writing 1. Listen to people. The importance of thinking about your audience might be the most salient point I can make.

12. Facts aren’t magic. Facts won’t convince people. People hear what they want to hear, and even the best, most perfect facts in the world will not change that. Indeed, we are capable of labeling anything we don’t want to hear as “fake news.” We take in facts selectively, sometimes unconsciously. I promise you, we all do it, regardless of our education or political beliefs. On their own, facts might not be as persuasive as you would like them to be. A startling one, though, can be the basis for a great essay or paper.

15. Prune ruthlessly. Most people use too many words. Trim, trim, trim. Many excellent books have been written on writing techniques, including four of my favorites, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, Draft No. 4 by John McPhee, and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

To write well, read omnivorously. Those who read constantly tend to write coherently.

What’s the deal with like and as? When you have a clause with a verb in it use as: Winston tastes good, as a cigarette should. When you have a clause with no verb use like: Winston tastes like a good cigarette.

That taught me an important and sad lesson about the truth: no one agrees what it is, but you have to do your best to get the details right.

No job is worthless if you can mine even one useful skill that will help you later.

The advice that you simply follow your bliss isn’t always realistic and needs to be paired with an understanding of what the world will actually pay you to do.

Interviews with executives as well as official materials and press releases were always larded with words intended to obscure reality. Companies rarely told reporters that they had laid off people, lost money, been caught misrepresenting their numbers, or been sued for something despicable.

Before considering logic, structure, and spelling, an editor should think about the overall truth and authenticity of a piece of writing. Get the name of any unidentified source. Does the writer have any history with that source? Does the writer know any of the people being quoted? Does the writer have any possible conflicts of interest—an investment in the company being written about, a relative who works there? Research the writer to be sure you know about anything that might make you hesitate to publish the work.

After you meet with someone you’re trying to influence in some way, always send a follow-up note thanking the person for taking the time to talk, and use the email as a way to take the conversation even further.

It has to be a surprising idea or a surprising person writing. If you don’t have either, it’s not worth running.

Wherever you are, in school or at work, learn from the people around you. There are a variety of approaches to thinking and editing. All have something to offer. Mimic your smartest, most creative colleagues.

I remember when I wanted to hire the opinion editor of the Guardian. Without knowing much about him, Andy was opposed, partly because he made too much money. But I thought it was more than that. “Andy, you have to get over your aversion to men,” I said. “It’s not his fault.” He just raised his eyebrows. “We have enough men.”

Allen knew what story he had to tell, which is the first and most important step in figuring out what to write.

Think about their personal, singular experiences in the context of those issues. No one cares what a high school student thinks about the path to peace in the Middle East.

You must always have a clear reason to be telling the story you are telling, along with some expertise in that matter. Whether you feel confident or not, write with authority. Lay out your credentials. People are attracted to those who demonstrate knowledge on a topic.

But don’t think that because you grew up in a suburb and have led a seemingly uneventful life that you have nothing to say. Oppression and pain and isolation are not necessary components of successful stories. Your real story is what is needed.

There are classic story forms. I learned one of the simplest and most effective in a television writing course: Get your character up a tree. Then get him down, in 30 minutes. Done.

Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;

Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;

Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;

Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

These are the four most common mistakes I see when I am editing:

•People try to cover too much ground in short pieces, and their writing ends up being too general and sweeping. It is so comprehensive that it says nothing. So: Focus on one or two big ideas and get to your point quickly.

•They write in generalities that end up numbing the reader. So: Be specific. Use details that illuminate.

•They write complicated sentences that are hard to follow, or they just go on and on. So: Prune!

•Finally, people use so much jargon that their work is unintelligible to anyone outside their field. Not matter how complex, ideas can be made coherent to the general reader. So: Kill the jargon.

George Lakoff, for many years a professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (2004), argues that Republicans have been much smarter than Democrats about marketing and reaching people through their moral values. Lakoff believes Democrats have suffered for their conviction that facts are the route to persuasion, a point of view embodied in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Progressives, he says, need to make their messages positive, reinforce what they are saying, and avoid helping those with whom they disagree.

Always say what you believe, directly. Whatever the issue or argument at hand, remember that the word not generally ensures you will repeat your opponent’s argument and make it more likely to stick in the brains of your listeners.

I was emotionally primed to become someone who did not believe that we all make our own lives through our own skill and hard work. To be a liberal.

What Experts Find Persuasive

Give someone something. If you can figure out what people desire and make sure they get it, they’ll be much more likely to give you what you want. Even a small gift makes people more likely to do what you want them to do. People like to get presents, and they want to reciprocate. That’s

Just ask. Lots of us hate to ask for anything, so we just don’t do it. That’s a big mistake. Asking doesn’t hurt. Studies show that people underestimate the odds that someone will say yes to a direct request.

Be humble. When you qualify what you’re saying, you are admitting that you might not know all that can be known. This is like saying you are willing to listen. If you say, “That could be true,” it’s easier for your listeners to agree with you. Think about the words you use when you need to lessen antagonism because you’re writing for an audience with viewpoints different from yours.

Create friction to reduce bad habits, and eliminate friction to introduce good ones.

We all take the easiest path. That’s not lazy, it’s just human nature. Anything that makes a choice even slightly easier draws people. We eat grapes at parties because we can pop them so easily into our mouths, and cookies at buffets rather than big messy slices of pie. Frictionless.

If you want to persuade someone to stop doing something, make it hard for them to do it, not easy.

#Writing to Persuade #books

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