#i just wanted to have fun with this one . let loose . no strict narrative just me going HHHHHNNGGGGGGG and exploding bc of these 2 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

en-whims · 1 year

Text

𝄞 FORTUNE'S FOOL | KIM SUNOO

[scan creds to ado2re]

the second instalment from the 'Narratives from the Walkman: a 90's love collective' series

genres: strangers to lovers to exes au; angst ANGST; pining; unrequited love | wc: 2.5k

tagging: @yenqa @yjjungwon

a/n: this chapter is told under sunoo's account.

[ 👤 ] SIDE A ; BOY 2 ㅡ KIM SUNOO

°❝ loving you's just getting harder and harder to do

cause my head says no but my phone keeps calling you

and you never pick up unless you've got nothing to do

but you say that you want me much as i want you ❞°

[ 🎧 ] SIDE B ; TRACK 2 ㅡ pacman by eaj

“I love you, Y/n. I really do. I hope we can at least try to work things out.” I say while tucking some loose strands behind her ear to help her get it out of her face. A tiny hope sparks within me, thinking the impossible, even when I know deep down that it’ll never happen.

My eyes lock with hers, searching for the answers that I don’t want to hear, but I know that I need. She gives me that charming smile, but I’m not quite sure if it’s even genuine.

Her flimsy arms hug my waist even tighter as she plants a quick kiss on my chin. Looking up at me, she whispers the improbable, “I love you too.”

Imagine the big, bright smile on my face when she finally said those words for the first time. But my breath hitches, ‘cause I know she doesn't.

I met her at their university’s library. She always sat at this particular table with her bookish friends even though the bell rang at lunchtime. She would just stay there, and sometimes I would wonder if this girl ever has a stomach, or does she even know hunger at all.

I would approach her daily, reminding her it’s either time for lunch or for the library to close. She came to know me as days went by since I was working there as a full-time librarian, and she always, always borrowed books.

But it was just a first-name basis then, and a brief exchange about the books she borrows.

I found her really intriguing, and I can’t help but wonder if she even has a life besides books and studying. So I befriended her, simply because I wanted to know her better, and I know she’s pretty something behind those classic books and round glasses.

I would always try asking her out to see a movie or just a casual stroll around the town’s park. It wasn’t easy at first, she would give excuses every single time until her friend nudged her, suggesting she should try to have some fun at the very least, and she obliged.

I know she only came with me that day because she doesn’t want to lose to her friends who think she isn’t capable of having fun. But she was a pro.

Despite her cold aura most of the time, she made me feel appreciated that day. She didn’t act like she was forced to be with me just to prove herself to her friends, instead, she let herself go and genuinely made the most of her time.

Catching feelings for her wasn’t unlikely to happen. After two months of hanging out together, who wouldn’t see such beauty within her? She’s down-to-earth, a great listener, prudent, and kind. And with or without her glasses on, she was still amazing.

“I wish I knew what other people really thought of me, don’t you?” she asked me over dinner one time.

“I guess so.” I smiled while munching on a meatball.

I love you, I love you, I’m in love with you so much it’s killing me. That was what I wanted to say, but I kept my mouth shut. “Has no one ever asked you out, yet? Romantically, I mean.”

“Nope.”

“Not even in your school?”

She snorted. “Trust me. I don’t attract guys; I scare them off.” She replied, and I only gave her a confused look. “Debates? I’m usually strict and opinionated in class. And believe me, if anyone even dares to ask me out, I’d turn them down right away.”

“Why is that?” I gradually dropped the spoon that was resting on my lips.

“Come on, Sunoo. You know I don’t have time for such things. And besides, what good will it do me? Better to waste my time on books than on boys.”

“You talk like some guy in your past gave you misery in the name of love. But yeah, I guess you’re right.” ㅡwas the only response I could say to her.

I walked her to her place, and she hugged me as soon as we got there. “You’re a good guy, Sunoo. Thank you for being around.” I let out a chuckle as I gently rubbed her head that was resting on my chest. “Goodnight, Y/n. See you at the library tomorrow.”

She went to school earlier the next day just to leave a pack of croissants on my table with a little note attached to it.

" I don’t have classes this afternoon. Our long tests were moved next week so… I was hoping if I could use my happy pill later? See you! "

I was planning to confess my feelings to her that afternoon even though I’m fully aware of the rejection I’ll get. I just want to put it out there ‘cause it kills me if I keep it in any longer.

We met outside the school. She wanted to stroll around the sidewalk until we got to her favorite bookshop, so she held my arm and swung it to and fro as we walked on the slightly wet concrete. It rained a bit quite a while ago so the road still exuded that fresh smell of the rain on a hot day.

“Hey, Y/n?” she stopped in her tracks and turned to me immediately. “I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”

“Can’t it wait later ‘til we get there?”

“No… I mean… there’s not many people out here and I think it’s better if I just say it… out here.” She pouted a little and started walking towards me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m totally fine.” She suddenly wrapped her arms around me while rubbing my back.

“You seem so tense. I’ll hug you while you say what you wanted to tell me so you’ll stay calm.”

I nodded in affirmation and let out a deep exhale.

“I love you, Y/n. I really do, more than a friend. I hope we can at least try to work things out.” I said to her while tucking her hair behind her ear to help her get it out of her face. A tiny hope sparked within me thinking the impossible when I know deep down, it’ll never happen. My eyes stared at hers in search of answers I don’t want to hear, but I know it’s what I need.

She gave me that charming smile, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was even genuine. Her flimsy arms hugged my waist even tighter as she planted a quick kiss on my chin. She looked up at me, and whispered the improbable, “I love you, too.”

Imagine the big, bright smile on my face when she finally said those words for the first time. But my breath hitched, because I suddenly remembered and because I know that she doesn’t.

I made her dinner that night.

She insisted on trying my own version of ravioli. It wasn’t much but my mother loved cooking, and she would let me experiment with my own recipe sometimes.

We ate at my terrace where I set a table with a romantic vibe to impress her, and it was worth it ‘cause she was sincerely impressed by my effort. I promised to take things slow since it’s her first time being in a relationship. At least that’s what she told me.

The doubt within me was still there though. But I thought if I give us a chance, things might change for real, and that she would actually love me the way I love her.

Weeks passed and things were still the same. Maybe progressing a little bit, but the same, nonetheless. Since that day on my terrace, she’d been everything lively and hyperactive.

Y/n started opening up to me more, and I felt nothing but pure glee. After all, we’re beginning to date, and knowing that we’re on the stage of getting comfortable with each other gave me so much excitement.

However, there’s this tinge of disappointment inside of me that I cannot hide no matter how hard I try.

I kept on asking myself if it’s going to be this way forever; if it’s going to remain lighthearted and fun, almost as if we’re only best friends on the go. She always opts to spend more time in the library, studying and shoving her nose onto thick pages of books and thesis papers.

I constantly tried my best to be patient, reminding myself that I fell for her because of her dedication to her studies. This library is her home, our home. This very place is the reason for the existence of our relationship. Her studiousness is something that I admire most, but nowadays, it makes me feel a little bit neglected.

I’m not the clingy and whiny type. I never am. And it isn’t because I fear the image of my masculinity will lose its might. Honestly, fuck that. The reason why I don’t cling to Y/n so much is because I think about her, her, her. About what would make her comfortable and uncomfortable, about what to give and not to give, about what to do and not do.

I’ve always taken things slowly as promised. But why does it seem like I’m the only one who wants this thing to move?

The next day was just supposed to be another day for the two of us. Uni, little café escapades, long walks, library dates… but my feet stopped walking on their own accord when Y/n’s sentence repeatedly rang inside my head during the walk home.

“Everything is temporary; this was merely one of those things.” She looked up at me while shaking her hands as if telling me that I know what she meant.

“What do you mean?”

“Duh, the... you walking me home, me coming over to your home for movie marathons and cuddles, you telling me you love me, me playing along.”

“Playing along? This was never a joke to me, Y/n.” I stopped in my tracks and looked at her from behind before she turned to look at me.

“I know.”

“Then why would you say that?”

See, the thing about the eyes is that they never lie.

Even if you’re the densest and insensitive person in the world, you’ll always notice the truest form of emotion in somebody’s eyes. And if there’s one thing that I know about Y/n, it’s that her eyes always speak what her mouth cannot say.

It was the very moment when I realized something that I should have a long time ago.

That all along, I was hopelessly wanting for something that she didn’t even want in the first place.

“I fell for you so bad, so hard, in the most genuine way and, god, does it hurt that you can’t see it.” I bit the inside of my cheek, keeping myself from breaking down in front of her.

“You keep saying that we’re friends but you look at me for a moment too long for that to be true. Tell me, Y/n,” My eyes searched for hers, even the slightest hint of regret from her words would do me good right now, but there was none. In the midst of brief silence, I stifled a sob.

“Tell me that you love me the same way I love you. I think I’m ridiculously in love with you and I don’t know what to do. Tell me, is it only me who feels this way?”

“Sunoo… I’m sorry, I…”

“You really didn’t care, not even a little bit?”

“I did. I just… I just don’t love you enough.”

“Just go, Y/n.” I turned my back to her and started walking away ‘til she grabbed my wrist, making me turn back.

“We can be friends, can’t we?” Those eyes; what are you doing, Y/n? “You don’t have to pretend that you care when you already have one foot out the door.”

“You need to find happiness without me, Sunoo. You can find someone better than me.”

“Don’t wish me the best, Y/n. You were my best everything.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Is that really all that you could say? Maybe you just don’t know what you’re saying-” I forced out a chuckle when all I really want to do right now is scream and bawl my eyes out.

“Sunoo.”

“-not aware of what you’re truly feeling and you’re just getting it mixed up because you’re not used to it? I mean, Y/n, there is a chance for us-”

“Sunoo! You never get what you want. Haven’t you learned that by now?” It was at that moment when I knew I couldn’t take it anymore, so I let myself go.

“I’m sorry, please don’t cry, I- I’m sorry. I really am.”

“I thought you were happy, I’m sorry, Y/n.”

“You were the best boyfriend to me, Sunoo. Trust me when I say that you are. But maybe… somebody else deserves it better than I do. Someone who will truly love you.”

The next morning, I went to meet up with my friends whom I haven’t seen since I was dating Y/n. Daniel, the youngest among us, showed up from behind me and swung an arm around my shoulder.

“Woah, Sunoo. You look like you’ve been through hell and back.”

“I haven’t stopped crying since Thursday. It’s pathetic.”

Geonu, the other friend, looked up from his phone and muttered while pushing his glasses back up. “It’s Y/n, isn’t it?”

“Why does it hurt so much? Why do I feel like she’s broken my soul?”

“You’ve got it bad, bro. You know what, I suck at comforting but maybe I can just contact a chic for you.”

Sounds of laughter suddenly erupted from the corner, gradually getting louder as it gets closer to us. When we looked to see what it was, I bit my bottom lip, writhing in agitation.

Y/n and her friends walked past us and to my surprise, she smiled at me. Daniel quickly thwarted and pulled me out of the scene to redeem myself from the sudden anxiety.

Truth is, I don’t hate Y/n for what she did. I was just disappointed. Not entirely with her, but mostly with myself. I knew what I was getting myself into and despite being fully aware of it, I still pushed things thinking maybe it’d work. I presumed her feelings were genuine enough that I overlooked the half of it.

Maybe one day we’ll meet again when we’re different people. Maybe, just maybe, by then, she’ll love me, and we’ll be better for each other. I’ll just continue loving her from afar. Maybe I’ll move on soon when I’m ready, too. For now, I’ll try to tame and heal my broken heart.

After all, nothing is more painful than losing someone who was never even mine to begin with ㅡ

#enhypen fluff #enhypen sunoo #kim sunoo #enhypen imagines #enhypen drabbles #enhypen scenarios #enhypen blurbs #enhypen timestamps #enhypen angst #enhypen sunoo drabbles #enhypen sunoo scenarios #enhypen sunoo imagines #enhypen sunoo fluff #enhypen sunoo angst #sunoo fluff #sunoo angst #sunoo scenarios #sunoo imagines #sunoo fanfic

24 notes · View notes

itsthenovelteafactor · 3 years

Text

Vanya and the Phantom

I asked and y’all answered (special thanks to @schizoidwire and @the-aro-ace-arrow-ace and all the people who responded to my earlier post for encouraging me!), so it is time for how The Phantom of the Opera song introduction can be read as a look into Vanya’s self-narrative and also foreshadows future events in a really subtle and interesting way.

I’m channeling my inner Elliot and going into full conspiracy mode. This is gonna be a long one, y’all.

Part One: In Which I Expose Myself as a Former Theater Kid

So, for those who aren’t familiar with The Phantom of the Opera, it was originally a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux back in 1909. In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber rewrote it as a musical. For purposes of my analysis here, I am just going to be discussing the musical because 1) the score used in the opening scene is from it and 2) I’ve never read the book. (If anyone out there has read the book and wants to weigh in, please do!)

It’s a very aesthetic show, and draws on a lot of gothic themes and imagery. The plot follows an opera house, and specifically a young chorus girl named Christine Daaé. I’m not going to explain the whole show plot in detail because wikipedia exists, but I will do a quick overview here and point out some things as they relate to things I’ll be discussing later. Also there will be a test after and it will NOT be multiple choice.

The show begins when the opera house is sold to new owners who 1) just want to make money and 2) do not respect the opera house’s resident ghost (who isn’t really a ghost, but we’ll get to that later.) When the Phantom makes his presence known, and freaks out the resident prima donna singer (who will be relevant later) Carlotta, who says she won’t sing under these conditions. It is then that Christine appears. She’s quiet and humble and has always lived in the background, but is incredibly talented. The woman who runs the chorus (also owner of the opera house’s resident braincell) suggests Christine sing the part. She does, and is amazing. Everyone is blown away, and she’s catapulted into instant fame and success.

We later learn that Christine has been studying under the Phantom, who appears to her in mirrors. She calls him the Angel of Music, and thinks that he was sent to teach her by her recently deceased father. He isn’t. He’s actually pretty malicious, and is obsessed with Christine, wants to control her voice, and doesn’t like her dating anyone. Which is a bit awkward when her childhood friend shows up and promptly falls in love with her.

Anyways, Carlotta is jealous of the attention Christine has been getting and threatens to leave prompting the new owners to cut Christine from the program. The Phantom doesn’t like it at all, sends a bunch of letters, things escalate, people are murdered, and the whole first act ends with the chandelier falling from the ceiling and crashing onto the stage (which is done with really cool effects, oftentimes beginning the show hanging over the audience. It’s a BIG MOMENT and one of the most iconic ones from the show. This will also be relevant later.)

Act two takes place a few months later, wherein no one has seen the Phantom. Shock of all shocks, though, he’s not dead. He’s been writing an opera and he wants Christine to star in it. More stuff happens, you learn the backstory of the Phantom (which is pretty sad, ngl, but in no way makes him less of a creep) and the story ends with the Phantom kidnapping Christine and giving her an ultimatum: stay with him forever, or he kills Raoul (aka childhood friend/romantic interest guy). She agrees to stay with him and he’s so moved by her compassion that he lets them both go and disappears forever.

Part Two: Casting the Characters

That’s interesting, Rosie (note sarcasm) but you said this was about The Umbrella Academy? I did, in fact. So, we meet Vanya when she’s playing a medley of songs from The Phantom of the Opera. Since it’s primarily the melodies and not one of the orchestral pieces from her performance later (I don’t think), we can assume she’s just playing it for herself (which is nice! good on you, Vanya).

Maybe she’s never seen the play and just likes the score, but for purposes here, let’s assume she’s familiar with it.

You can tell a lot about a person by the stories they connect with (for example, I like TUA because I like fun sibling dynamics, found family, music, and being sad). And I think that it makes sense that The Phantom of the Opera would be a story that resonates with Vanya. The overlooked chorus girl finds power in music, and, after years in the background, is finally given a chance to show how special she is.

So, yeah. I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that Vanya sees herself as Christine. There are some discrepancies, sure, but this is Vanya’s self-narrative, which we learn pretty much immediately is unreliable. (Love her, but it’s true.) And if Vanya is Christine, then we can try and tap into her perspective to look at some other characters.

Anyways remember Carlotta (the prima donna opera singer who always got the spotlight and tried to destroy everything good that happened to Christine because she felt threatened that someone might be as good/better than her whose entire personality and role in the story I just summarized, rendering my plot recap useless)? Carlotta is how Vanya views Allison. (Kind of all her siblings, but her relationship with Allison is the most important here.)

Think about the scene in the cabin?

“You couldn’t risk me threatening your place in the house! You couldn’t handle the fact that Dad might find me special!” - Vanya, having a mental breakdown.

This always struck me as an interesting accusation to throw, since prior to this moment, I don’t think there was any indication that Allison had ever felt threatened by Vanya. She excluded her, sure, and wasn’t super friendly at times, but the idea that Allison has been pulling strings to keep Vanya out of her spotlight is new. But that is exactly the role Carlotta plays in Phantom.

Fun fact! At one point in the musical, the Phantom enchants Carlotta so that she loses her voice right before coming on stage.

Part Three: The Phantom of the Opera is there

So based on everything I’ve said so far, the most straightforward reading is then, that Leonard Peabody/Harold Jenkins (who for purposes here I’ll call Leonard) is the stand in for the Phantom, which works... really well. Both in helping to understand Vanya and also because it foreshadows the twist of season one in a really cool way.

So, the Phantom appears to Christine first not as an enemy, but as a friend and teacher, who encourages her to be more confident in her abilities. He trains her to develop her singing ability. While the teacher-student dynamic is actually inverted initially with Vanya and Leonard, from the get go, he is showering her with compliments, encouraging her to be confident in her abilities, and, at least on the surface, supporting her in a way she hasn’t been supported before (he’s a trash human but an expert manipulator).

But, in the play, the Phantom is also very possessive over Christine and her power (er, I mean voice). He also is perfectly willing to kill and/or hurt people who he views as standing in the way of Christine and her success (see the aforementioned Carlotta incident). Which is exactly what Leonard does to Vanya. He kills the first chair violinist to help her get it, and orchestrates a whole master plan to get her to reveal her powers on his terms.

Even the part where he starts “training” her to use her powers kind of resembles the second act of the play. The Phantom wrote a play for Christine and she’s going to star in it, whether she wants to or not.

(One could even make the argument of the parallels between Christine believing the Phantom was sent by her father to teach her and Leonard showing up because of his revenge scheme against Vanya’s father, but I honestly don’t have much support for that.)

Part Three: Two Conflicting Narratives

So, as you might’ve noticed, I sort of have two different threads of analysis going on right now. 1) The Phantom of the Opera parallel is part of Vanya’s self-narrative and in it she mischaracterizes Allison, making her more suspicious of her motivations and 2) Leonard Peabody is clearly the Phantom and doesn’t bother being subtle about it. I hope that I’ve been convincing (or at least intriguing) for you to get to this point, because here is where they come together.

Vanya has this parallel going, but she doesn’t see Leonard as the Phantom. In the beginning at least, he’s her Raoul. If I had to guess, I’d say Reginald Hargreeves is the Phantom in Vanya’s self-narrative (says he’ll train her but wants to manipulate her and keep her locked away for himself, strict teacher who doesn’t really care about her well being, wearing a mask to appear more normal/human... she wouldn’t exactly be wrong). Leonard, on the other hand, is Vanya’s supporter. He validates her, and believes in her, and taker her side when Carlotta and the opera house owners (er, the rest of the Hargreeves children) gang up on her and conspire to keep her out.

This is all building to, of course, the final confrontation. The Phantom says Christine has to pick one or the other. When Allison comes to talk to Vanya, Vanya feels as if she’s been given an ultimatum and lashes out.

And that’s where everything (including this parallel) starts to crumble.

(I honestly don’t know a lot about the other characters and how they fit in. I suppose we could have Five = Raoul if we ignore romance plot and focus on the childhood friend that hasn’t been seen in a while angle? And maybe also Pogo = Madame Giry. Vanya doesn’t really have any friends to be Meg.)

Part Four: It’s All About the Moon

So that is kind of the gist of The Phantom of the Opera as a window into Vanya’s self-narrative theory, but there are a couple of other loosely related ideas I thought I might as well bring up since this thing is already ridiculously long.

Remember how I mentioned the chandelier is like, THE scene from The Phantom of the Opera back in part one, and said it’d be relevant later? Bringing that back now, because I’m going to pull a Luther and connect everything to the moon.

So, to get the obvious out of the way, the moon exploding and the chandelier coming crashing to the stage are similar because something falls, breaks into a bunch of pieces, destroys a bunch of stuff, and creates a powerful and memorable image to close off before an act/season break (the next installment of which begins with a time jump).

Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that The Phantom of the Opera is told out of order. The opening scene shows a grown up Raoul at an auction for the items left behind after the opera house closes, and it switches to the past as the remains of the chandelier rise upwards to the ceiling, Phantom’s theme swelling (it’s a really cool moment, tbh). Following the prologue of The Umbrella Academy, we switch to the present with two images: Vanya alone on the stage, and then Luther alone on the moon. Which has a kind of symmetry that might mean nothing, but is still kind of cool.

(Also the item that Raoul buys from the auction is a music box with a monkey crashing symbols on top of it. Which might mean nothing.)

Part Five: How is she STILL talking about this? (AKA Conclusion)

To be honest, this is more a very tangled “things I noticed and thought were interesting” discussion than a formal essay with any clear thesis. While there is a chance that this was all coincidental and I’ve gone full Pepe Sylvia, the music selection in The Umbrella Academy is one of the things that they seem to be really deliberate about.

I would love to chat with anyone about this theory, so feel free to reach out in the notes or message me! My inbox is always open. Much love, and thank you for reading, if you got this far! ❤️

70 notes · View notes

adhd-wifi · 4 years

Text

MDZS and the Legends of Hou Yi

So just for fun, I wanted to talk about how much the tales of Hou Yi, a famous figure in Chinese legends, is referrenced in the story of MDZS. I’m pretty confident that MXTX is quite the fan of this particular story. (Note: There are multiple versions of this tale, and I went with the one that had most ties with MDZS, which, coincidentally, happened to be the version I personally grew up with, with one or two minor differences.)

This post took me 6 hours.

The Legend:

Back when the world was still new, there were ten brilliant suns in the sky, children of the Heavenly Sun Emperor Di Jun. They took turns illuminating the sky, bringing light and warmth to the mortal world below. However, the ten suns were still children, and despite their father’s strict instructions of only allowing one of them into the skies at a time, they all went out together one day to play together.

The mortal world suffered from their game, the blinding light and unbearable heat killing crops and livestock and causing the people immense suffering. Seeing this suffering, the great immortal archer Hou Yi climbed to the top of a great mountain, armed with exactly ten arrows in his quiver, and spoke one final warning to the suns, asking that they return home peacefully. But when they did not heed his warning, Hou Yi drew his divine bow, letting loose nine arrows made of dragon bone towards the heavens. One by one, nine suns were struck, each of them falling dead to the Earth as blood red crows bearing three legs. With one arrow left in his quiver, however, Hou Yi chose to spare the last sun so the world would not fall into icy darkness. The last sun promised to behave, fearful of the archer who shot down his brothers. The mortal world declared Hou Yi a hero and their saviour.

Di Jun, however, was furious at the deaths of nine of his children, and so he cast Hou Yi and his wife, Chang'E, from the heavens, stripping them of their immortality.

Seeking a way to return them to the heavens and relieve the feelings of grief felt by his dear wife, Hou Yi sought out the help of Xi Wang Mu, Mother Queen of the West, who was known for having created the Elixir of Immortality. Xi Wang Mu took pity on Hou Yi, and also recognized his heroic deeds in shooting down the suns despite knowing there were consequences, and thus, she gave him her last bottle of Elixir. She warned him, however, that the elixir was too strong for any single mortal, and it must be shared between him and his wife.

Overjoyed, Hou Yi returned home, hiding the elixir in hopes of surprising his wife with it. He told her that the 15th day of the Eight Lunar Month would be a special day, for he planned to share the elixir with her on that day, and ascend back to the heavens together under the light of the beautiful full moon.

However, others had heard of the elixir the famous fallen hero had managed to obtain. Greedy with the thought of ascending to immortality themselves, they stalked Hou Yi home and overheard what he told his wife. So they planned an ambush on the promised night, when Hou Yi left to go hunting for a special feast. They attacked Hou Yi under the moonlight, killing him and then raiding their home. They tried to force Chang’E to give them what they wanted, but Chang’E refused to give it up to her husband’s killers. To ensure they never got their hands on it, Chang’E drank the entire elixir. True to Xi Wang Mu’s words, it was too strong for one person, and she was immediately cast into the skies, forced to leave her husband behind without even saying goodbye. She then decided to live on the moon, the closest she could to the Earth, where her husband was, her only companion the Jade Rabbit of the Moon.

References to the Legend in Mo Dao Zu Shi:

The Wen Sect & the Ten Suns

The Wen Sect represent the Ten Suns, who enjoyed their lives and did what they wanted at the expense of others

Though we don’t meet all of them, there are exactly ten named (sort of) characters bearing the name Wen

Wen Mao

Wen RuoHan

Wen Chao

Wen Xu

Wen ZhuLiu

Wen Qing

Wen Ning

Granny Wen

Uncle Four

Wen Yuan

Note: While not explicitly stated, Granny Wen & Uncle Four were only ever considered part of the sect, so it’s fair to assume that they were in fact surnamed Wen

Out of those ten Wen Sect members, only one was alive by the end of the story, Wen Yuan (Wen Ning was technically dead)

The Wen Sect as a whole is said to be bad at archery, and they were furious upon losing an archery competition where missing a shot disqualifies them (Hou Yi only had ten arrows, at first planning to shoot them all down, and couldn't afford to miss a shot or the world could've been left with more than one sun)

The indoctrination can be seen as a metaphor for the suns playing and exerting their power harmfully over the mortal world

The Wen Sect primarily resorted to burning and fire, the element most associated with the sun

The name of QiShan Wen’s residence is 不夜天城 (bù yè tiān chéng), (overly) literally translated, “No Night Sky Palace”, AKA Nightless City. With the Ten Suns in the sky, night could not fall

Wang LingJiao took the shooting of a sun-like kite as justification for her accusations of the Jiang Sect going against the Wen Sect

It was specifically the child of the Wen Sect Leader, Wen Chao, that led the attack on Lotus Pier, like how the Ten Suns were the children of the actual Sun Emperor

Also on a narrative note, both the Ten Suns and Wen Chao had larger roles in the overall story compared to their fathers, despite their fathers playing key roles as well

The first Wen Sect member to take Wei WuXian’s side, which ultimately led to Wei WuXian & Jiang Cheng surviving the massacre of Jiang Sect, was Wen Ning, the only notably skilled archer of the Wen Sect

On a similar note, Wei WuXian, who was the considered a hero and major player in the fall of the Wen Sect, was also the winner of the archery competition

This means two skilled archers were heavily responsible for the Wens losing the war in the long run, albeit somewhat indirectly

The Sunshot Campaign is literally named the Sunshot Campaign and was in fact directly and explicitly referencing the legend of a great hero shooting down the sun in canon (meaning the story of Hou Yi exists as a legend or fairytale in MDZS canon, nice!)

Wei WuXian, who is the Hou Yi of MDZS and a hero in the war against the Wens, is represented by a crow in official promos for the animation, and when the suns were shot down, they turned into red crows with three legs (this one could be pure coincidence since crows are also just seen as symbols of death in general and he controls the dead)

The Golden Core, The Yin Tiger Seal, and the Elixir of Immortality

Since golden cores are seen as necessary to cultivate, and cultivation leads to immortality, they are what represent the elixir in MDZS

Wen ZhuLiu, a Wen Sect member, having the ability to destroy golden cores could be seen as referencing how Di Jun took away Hou Yi and Chang’E’s immortality in retaliation for shooting down the suns

Jiang Cheng into going up a mountain to meet BaoShan Sanren to restore his golden core is similar to how Hou Yi sought out Xi Wang Mu to restore their immortality

On a related note, MDZS’s version of Xi Wang Mu is both BaoShan Sanren and Wen Qing combined, BaoShan Sanren playing the role of the immortal figure to give the golden core, and Wen Qing taking on her identity while being the one to actually give it through the experimental surgery

After getting the elixir however, it became more similar to the Yin Tiger Seal instead, being sought after by hostile people who were willing to kill Wei WuXian for it, all for personal reasons (Fuck you Jin Sect)

Wei WuXian hiding the golden core transfer from Jiang Cheng can be seen as similar to how Hou Yi initially hid the elixir from Chang’E, though Hou Yi always planned to tell her about it unlike Wei WuXian

In an alternate version of the tale, Chang’E was suspicious of Hou Yi’s secrecy with the elixir after subconsciously blaming him for their immortality taken away (Hou Yi may or may not have told her about his task, depending on what version of this alternate version you read), thus peeking inside the hidden box while he was away on a hunt. When he returned, she panicked over betraying his trust and drank the whole thing. This alternate version can be seen as similar to how Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure whether to trust Wei WuXian or not after the events of the Sunshot Campaign, and his inability to trust his “former” brother heavily contributed to their separation. I mean if Wei WuXian & Hou Yi had just talked to their loved ones in these versions of their stories they would’ve had a little less problems but what’s an ancient Chinese dramatic tale without miscommunication am I right?

WangXian and Hou Yi & Chang’E

Both Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi share aspects of Hou Yi and Chang’E’s individual sides of their stories in MDZS

Lan WangJi, like Chang’E, wasn’t present during his loved one’s confrontation with the Wen Sect (”the Suns”)

Lan WangJi is also associated with the moon in some official art and his robes are always white and resemble “mourning robes”. This ties into Chang’E being the goddess of the moon and being known to wear white, some believing she does so in mourning the loss of her husband who remained on Earth

In contrast, Wei WuXian is more associated with the sun narratively, having fought the Wen Sect during a major turning point in his life, then lived as family with the Wen Remnants and always having something red in his otherwise dark outfits (his ribbon). This ties in with Hou Yi’s involvement with the Ten Suns in general

Side note: Lan WangJi wore clothing that was more typical of a non-combatant (long, flowy hanfu-looking robes), like Chang’E, who was a dancer never saw the battlefield. Wei WuXian tended to wear clothes more typical of an active combatant (pre-Yiling Patriarch at least) with narrow sleeves and trousers, similar to the portrayals of traditional archers such as Hou Yi. He no longer wears such attire in Mo XuanYu’s body. (CQL not counted for this point)

WangXian’s representative animal is the rabbit, specifically the two rabbits Wei WuXian gifted Lan WangJi. Chang’E’s main (sometimes only) companion on the moon is the Jade Rabbit

On a related note, the Lan Sect is the one that keeps the rabbits, and the Lan Sect happens to be the Sect most associated with jade ornaments, even though the other sects have them as well

Like Chang’E, Wei WuXian was unwilling to give his assailants the Yin Tiger Seal, choosing instead to ensure they could never have it, but by destroying the seal (”drinking the elixir”) he ended up being separated from his loved ones in the mortal world, in his case by dying

Also, part of his decision to do this was driven by the grief of losing someone he loved, though in his case it was Jiang YanLi instead of his future husband

In an alternate version of the tale where Hou Yi survived the ambush, or the version where Chang’E betrays his trust, Hou Yi becomes violent and cruel, going from a worshipped hero to a hated tyrant. This alternate version can relate to both Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi. Wei WuXian was a hero of the Sunshot Campaign, but became hated after the war was over (though he did so by sticking to his personal morals). Lan WangJi turned against his sect and the cultivation world despite his reputation as a righteous man because he feared losing the man he loved, then upon losing Wei WuXian he lost himself in his grief, especially notable in his drunken rampage where he branded himself with the Wen branding iron

Also related to the alternate versions in which Hou Yi lived, like Hou Yi, Lan WangJi was left on the mortal surface without his love, who had gone to a non-mortal plane of existence and was unable to even communicate with him

Hou Yi and Chang’E, post-separation, are sometimes associated with the concept of Yin-Yang, representing the “opposites” of Earth and Heaven respectively, connected by love. WangXian is similar, having started as opposing personality types with shared ideals, then their relationship became that of love by the end of the story. (WangXian is also more visually representative of Yin-Yang, with their black and white clothing respectively)

Welp this got so long LMAO. Anyways this was still really fun to do, especially since I personally really like this story, since it was one of the stories I was told growing up (it’s not my favourite exactly, tiny-baby-me got mad at the Jade Emperor a lot, but one of them). Hope this was just as fun to read lol.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mdzs meta #hou yi #chang'e #chinese legends #chinese things #my metas #my posts #my ramblings #btw i said jade emperor in the last point because growing up i heard the version where the sun emperor was the jade emperor instead #i found out about di jun several years later

138 notes · View notes

skeletorific · 4 years

Note

man i just wanna throw this out there and i think you'll catch it, how do you think some of the ancestors would take an invite to a human thing like a party or a ceremony? like if it was prefaced with 'compared to troll events there's a strict no one dies policy and a be human-style nice to people you don't particularly like or care for rule as well' idk if even the first ship crew would come along, and tbh i wouldn't really fault them because it's new and spoopy and they're dead after all

Ok, so you have thrown it, and I have caught it. I am unsure if I caught it in the direction you threw it, but I have caught SOMETHING and it is something I love dearly.

So, this question: I had to think for a moment. What scenario results in every single ancestor being in the same locale, in such a capacity that they are forced to interact, not only with each other, but with humans, to the point that not only can they not kill anyone but there is literally no point in killing each other?

....

....OH WAIT EARTH C-

So yeah, everyone say thank you paradox space. There had to be at least one dream bubble out there from a timeline where the alphas got yoinked into sburb as their Alternian selves by mistake right?

So, let’s assume they’ve had a few months to settle in, adjust to modern life. Troll kingdom has issued an ultimatum to the more....chaotic Ancestors in terms of the rearranged hemospectrum. They will, to quote Karkat, “FUCKING DEAL WITH IT”. Not an easy pill to swallow for a few of them, but then, a few millenia in the dream bubbles has forcibly mellowed them quite a bit and eventually its just more trouble than its worth.

I have a lot of thoughts on this timeline (ancestors get apartments are you kidding me, the potential), but let’s return to the question at hand.

The invitation makes the rounds through a lot of ghost communities, but a particularly bold human approaches the Ancestors themselves with an invite to one of the bigger ragers being thrown in the human kingdom. The celebration of the return of the gods is always a blowout, and this year promises to be especially so, with something between a gala and a block party planned to be pitched.

So here’s why they all show up, and here’s what they do:

The Handmaid is an odd duck. Sure, there’s a certain morose pleasure in watching the cosmic plans of the man who abused her from childhood fall apart because of a handful of chump kids, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy to be back here with these assholes, and it doesn’t mean she’s looking to build a social life. She’s perfectly happy to spend the rest of her days haunting the abandoned house she found on the outskirts of the carapace kingdom and terrorize any local teens that stick their noses where they aren’t wanted. When the uni student turns up with a flyer she cusses them out but good and sends them on their way with a couple of threats to life and limb.

And then shows up anyways.

Not to socialize, mind, just to watch. From the rafters probably. Snickering at all the drama going down, dropping spiders in Makara’s drink and stealing Dualscar’s watch when he’s not looking. And maybe see if Condy gets drunk enough to want a rematch. Laws be damned. Now THIS is a party.

The Signless’s entire crew is a bit of a chain pull. The Disciple wants to go extremely badly, so of course she manages to purrsuade The Signless to come with her. The Psiionic doesn’t want to go period but he’ll be damned if he’s letting Vantas out of his sight into an unguarded area. The Dolorosa wanted to go this whole time and is the one who got Leijon all riled up about it in the first place, but pretends she’s just doing it to keep an eye on Vantas and Captor.

Once there, they’re not exactly social butterflies, but compared to the others they’re practically savants. Leijon prowls on the edges of crowds, listening for snatches of information, and enjoys constructing narratives in her own mind about the relationships between all of them. Vantas finds himself pulled into a lot of conversations just to explain his life’s work (and, to his chagrin, to destabilize a few myths he’s accrued over the centuries). He tries to keep a level head but after a few beers though he’s hotly debating politics with three or four Kankri ghosts and has to be dragged away by Captor, who’s been following him and Leijon like a kid following their parent at a family reunion. Maryam disappeared hours ago and doesn’t get back home late, looking a little bit smug but tight-lipped about her evening. All four of them avoid the other Ancestors like the plague.

Neophyte Redglare of all of them has probably adjusted the best to this new life. Unlike the others, she’s actually gotten some friends that weren’t a part of the dream bubbles, and would happily spend most of the evening chattering with them. Still, for reasons we’ll get into it later, she spends most of it babysitting Makara and doing a bit of pitch-flirting with everyone’s favorite pir8.

Speaking of the Marquise Mindfang Spineret, like the Handmaid she protested loudly she was too cool for this party and then showed up anyways. Still, its not like she’s there to socialize. Most of what she does is spot the people who look like they might be heading off to bigger and more illegal things outside the party and without a word installing herself as part of their social circle. She invites Nitram, but her matesprit is a little occupied with an old enemy. That’s fine, she appreciates a score to settle, but its not fun if someone isn’t paying attention to her antics. Fortunately, Pyrope is happy to oblige her, and Dualscar is a delightful enough lackey while he’s still sober enough to handle it (so, for about five minutes). All told, an entert8ning evening indeed ;;;)

Executor Darkleer shows up for roughly ten minutes, near the very end, and does what he’s done at most social gatherings since they left the dream bubbles: stand awkwardly in the corner, stare at Leijon, and wonder if they’re still cool. Are they still cool? Probably? Right? But who’s to say. He absconds early to go work on his personal projects and probably punch something.

The Summoner is in peak form. Like Vantas, he has plenty of questions coming his way, and while no Nitram has ever been arrogant, he’s at least a little indulgent about some, shall we say, popular headcanons that have popped up since then. He’s slamming beers to cover up the usual low level of social anxiety (a battlefield he can handle, but a soiree is another matter altogether), and its working. He’s flirting a storm through the ballroom, something Serket is probably going to give him repercussions for. Its also making him a little, uh....confrontational, shall we say. So when he spot an old, clowny foe, well...

Oh, The Grand Highblood.

He didn’t want to come. Full stop. Picked the wriggler with the flyer up by the back of their shirt and turned them around. Damn lucky he didn’t just throw them out. He wasn’t going to show up at this meaningless little heretical shindig, bump shoulders with strangers and be bored out of his motherfucking skull to boot. The only reason he got dragged in is Peixes didn’t give him a lot of other options. So here he is. Standing like a grim spectre of everyone’s demise, sullenly scowling at anyone who approaches and snarling at anyone who opens their protein chute in his direction.

For about five minutes.

What can I say, clowns love parties. A couple of faygos later (if you think Condy didn’t come prepared you’re crazy) and this brawny ass goat is getting turnt out of his mind on the dancefloor. Nobody knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing with his body but its definitely deeply explicit and more than a little alarming. Still, it suits the environment, and there’s this unaccountable field of manic energy that just sort of erupts around him, escalating the party wherever he goes. Redglare has to babysit him (because Peixes, Serket and Ampora sure won’t, and who the fuck knows where Zahhak is), and even still he ends up with a busted keg dangling from one of his horns. He is feeding off of this motherfucking rhapsody tonight, fellas, and the grisly bastard has more than a few sick bars in him.

Orphaner Dualscar is decidedly less enthused. Nothing quite like being a failed romantic footnote in the only surviving account of your life to kill your rep as an intimidating pirate. He’s not adjusting well to modern life, and mostly spends the night in the corner with a solo cup, scowling at any and all. For a while he joins Serket in her activities but eventually is too soused to really participate, and she ditches him. Which is starting to become a recurring trend. He spends the rest of the night trying to seduce someone, literally, anyone, just get him out of this fucking stupid party, he’s so FUCKIN LONELY GOG-

up to you if it actually works or not.

Meanwhile, Her (Formerly) Imperial Condescension.....look, Peixes can’t stay away from a party. Even a lame-ass one for guppies 3>8(. I mean, the no killing thing is REALLY fucking cramping her style, but to be frank its more trouble than its worth. Most of them just come back as ghosts and try to bonk you back. Annoying is what it is. So, fine, she agrees, no culling.

Doesn’t mean the party can’t at least be interesting, and that’s damn well what she brought Makara to do for her. Works like a charm, too, Makara might be a grumpy basshole but he knows how to cut loose when he wants to. She’s chanting him through chugging an entire keg on his own with a small crowd of people when she spots a familiar pair of impossibly wide horns. Ohhh shit, get the grubcorn-.....wait, is that Megido in the rafters?!

No trolls or humans were (fatally) harmed in the making of this evening’s closing act, but suffice to say the building wasn’t so lucky. Two reenactments of the more legendary battles in Alternian history (which is saying something) was more than the palace could handle. In the end they were separated and sent to dry out in separate cells, Dave using his time powers to keep a handle on the The Handmaid.

Suffice to say it’ll be a while before any of them get another invitation.

98 notes · View notes

godstiel-coded · 3 years

Text

#SPNreimagined

A Fic Challenge!

Okay so I've had this idea for a Long while now and I wanted to have this post in honor of Dean's Birthday! So on Jan 24th of 2021, I proudly present the SPN Reimagined fic challenge!

These "Rules" are Not overly strict but if you choose to skip some, it'd be cool to know which you do and do not follow. The biggest priority is having fun!

So what you're gonna do is take an episode of Supernatural and strip it does to Dialogue Only. You can use the subtitles or the script, doesn't matter, just get it down so allllll you have is dialogue, with no names or actions.

That's the backbone of your fic. You must use every line, exception being to remove triggering, uncomfortable, or discriminatory ones.

However, Anyone can say the lines! I encourage you to pull all your favorite characters, in the episode or not, and let them join the fun.

To make this feasible, you can put as much as you need of filler between the Script Dialogue, including Dialogue that Isn't from the Script!

So if you are only doing this with your favorite episodes you basically know everything, here is some guidelines

use all of the Dialogue from the target episode

The dialogue can be reattributed to any character

You can edit the dialogue to suit names, nicknames, pronouns, and accents but you are encouraged to keep it recognisable when looking

Italic or bold the script dialogue lines so they aren't Entirely lost!

Post with the tag #SPNreimagined so I can keep up, you can also tag me!

You do Not need to remain Team Free Will-Centric, SPN can be about Wayward Sisters now!! Have a blast!

All other aspects of canon are your playground

AU friendly!

The Script Dialogue must go in the same order it did originally, but you can add as much between lines as you like

If you do an entire season or more, I reccomend that the fics corresponding to certain episodes make sense in that order, flash back/forward and such are fine as long as it works narratively!

Now if you want to make this more difficult you could add on extra constraints, like only using the characters in that episode, sticking to canonverse, or anything else that would keep your attention!

This challenge is intentionally very loose because the intent is not to gain any specific bragging rights but rather to see all of the lovely things coming from the same starting point! This is a perfect time for Rufusbobbynatural and other side characters to shine, or even just to give you extra motivation to finally write that self indulgent fix it fic!

If you somehow manage to do this for every episode in order I have no prize for you but you'd definitely deserve it!

I may edit this post and flesh out the idea further! Please don't hesitate to tag me or reblog with your thoughts!

#SPNreimagined #destiel #supernatural #hellers #wayward sisters

2 notes · View notes

ladyloveandjustice · 5 years

Text

Winter 2019 Anime Overview

I enjoyed every single one of the five anime I watched this season: Dororo, My Roommate is a Cat, Mob Psycho 100 II, The Promised Neverland and Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

So here are my reviews! I’ve cut back on the anime overview a lot, so these are shorter reviews than usual (though not quite as short at I’d like. someday I’ll be able to restrain myself)

Since I liked all of the shows, these aren’t in a strict worst-to-best order or anything, but the ones I found most impressive ARE nearer to the bottom. So let’s dig into last season’s anime.

My Roommate is a Cat

Premise: An antisocial writer in his early 20s adopts a cat and they both get their worlds expanded as they bond.

My take: Much like the kitty it centers on, this show is super cute, sweet and fluffy. If you’re a cat-lover and want to bask in some kitty adorableness, I encourage you to check it out. At first, I was afraid the main character Subaru’s grumpy misanthropy might be too much- I could certainly empathize with being socially isolated and avoiding people, but the way he was just rude toward others was grating. Fortunately, his character development is swift, so he quickly went from misanthrope to anxious-introverted-mess-who-awkwardly-muddles-through-social-interaction-for-the-sake-of-his-kitty, which I found EXTREMELY relatable. Subaru is coping with the loss of his parents and the fact he took them for granted while they were alive as well, so there are quite a few heart-string tugging moments.

The show’s central gimmick is that events will be told from Subaru’s point of view and then we’ll get his kitty Haru’s side of things. Yep, the cat narrates part of the show, which is how I knew I was in it for good. And Haru’s a very good cat! She’s adorable without being cloying, and at least realistic in how most of her thoughts revolve around food. Seeing her warm up to her hopeless human is just as sweet as seeing Subaru warm up to her. As a former stray cat, she has a rough backstory, so if even a restrained depiction of kitty death is too much for you, look out for that part. This show isn’t afraid to bring the feels, but it keeps things positive overall. Subaru’s friends are supportive and help a new pet owner out, and we even get a cute doggie in the mix. Overall, if you want a relaxing, nice watch with a simple, sweet story, you could do a lot worse than My Roommate is a Cat.

Dororo (Episodes 1-12)

Premise: Thanks to his father making a deal with demons, Hyakkimaru has to wander Japan and fight monsters to get his body parts back. He meets up with a young thief named Dororo.

My take: Dororo is a very loose adaptation of the 1960′s manga by Osamu Tezuka, who’s known as the godfather of manga. I was familiar with Dororo thanks to watching the live action movie for an article when I worked at epicstream (it must not have left an impression bc I remember very little) so I was curious to check this out. I ended up reading the manga too, and overall, I find it pretty impressive as an adaptation. It does a lot to make a really dated and incomplete-feeling manga more palatable and cohesive for a modern audience. Maybe I’ll do a full post expanding on those thoughts sometime, because the changes really are worth examining.

Dororo is definitely not for everyone- it’s a grim, dark show with lots of death and destruction.The story is especially not kind to women, who tend to die or be demons. The exceptions to this (such as a lady demon actually being presented as sympathetic) are mainly anime-original. Actually, while the anime eschews the original manga’s cartoon-y, jokey tone to be more serious, it actually has a much lower body count and more hopeful tone than the original, a contrast I find pretty interesting. But “more hopeful” is still not very hopeful. The story has pretty strong anti-war undertones and criticism of how authority exploits people, and there’s a lot of “these are the horrors of war” scenes and even a scene where Dororo witnesses a woman engaging in unhappy, reluctant sex work.

The premise of the story, a guy made up of mostly prosthetics on a quest to get his body parts and senses back, is also a dicey one in how it treats disability. The anime does at least make updates to the manga that lend the story a little more complexity on that front. In the manga Hyakkimaru can basically hear and speak through telepathy already and he’s portrayed as simply joyous whenever he gets a body part or sense back, despite not having a practical need for them.

The anime wisely jettisons the telepathy thing, meaning that Dororo and Hyakkimaru have some difficulty communicating, something that adds an interesting layer to the story. It means we find out about Hyakkimaru’s personality in bits and pieces alongside Dororo, going on a journey of discovery with him. And Hyakkimaru getting senses back is treated in a more realistic mixed-bag way- when he gets his hearing back, for instance, he has difficulty adjusting to it and experience serious sensory overload. It’s not really clear how he feels about a lot of things, much less the changes he’s going through.

Dororo himself is the heart of the show, really, and I find him to be really endearing and engaging as a character. His boundless energy and chattiness balance out the aloof Hyakkimaru, but he never gets overbearing or obnoxious. He’s been through a lot himself, and has a good heart. One thing worth keeping an eye out going forward is how Dororo’s gender will be handled. Dororo is afab, but in the original manga very vehemently lets everyone know he’s a boy. The anime also lets you know Dororo’s afab halfway through, but hasn’t really done much otherwise in exploring Dororo’s gender identity. I do think it’s unlikely we’ll get a handling of it as bad as the manga’s final chapters (Manga Hyakkimaru had a lot of strong, intrusive opinions about what Dororo “really” is that I think his anime version is unlikely to have based on his restrained characterization so far), but who knows.

Overall, Dororo is a nicely animated and well put-together dark action series so far. I’m not sure I would have ended up watching it if I wasn’t so interested in examining it as an adaptation, but the ride’s been pretty okay and worthwhile.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Premise: Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya are the top students at their prestigious school, and heads of the student council. They also have a crush on each other, but both are too full of pride (and nerves) to make the first move, so they come up with schemes to trick the other into confessing. Hijinks ensue.

My take: Kaguya-sama is a wildly funny rom-com about two idiot smart kids who don’t know how to say how they feel. It’s mostly a really good time. There’s a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The characters are a lot of fun, especially Kaguya’s friend Chica, who is pure chaos in human form and has some of the best lines in the show. The animation and direction of the show are also impressive and lavish, elevating already good gags into greatness. The finale also does that thing where it’s all suddenly surprisingly emotional and hits you really hard with all the feels, showing a little depth and true friendship among all the characters involved.

However,there are a few “yikes” moments, and the most uncomfortable one and likely the biggest deal breaker was the “Kaguya gets sick” arc, which happens roughly the last half of episode 9 and the start of 10. In it, we’re treated to tropes that are both really tired and really uncomfortable, like Kaguya being sick and her friend, for some reason???, tacitly encouraging Miyuki to take advantage of her in her weakened state. Miyuki does not, but Kaguya pulls him into bed and he falls asleep due to sleep deprivation (which is admittedly relatable) and when they wake up she believes for a time he did assault her and throws shit at him, at which point he whines about being villainized even though he “held back”.

During the next episode, Kaguya is ~secretly kind of upset he didn’t assault her because doesn’t he find her appealing~, a trope that really needs to die bc the myth girls “really want to be assaulted” is dangerous. There were a couple okay moments in the whole thing, like Miyuki deciding he should have shut the whole thing down more firmly and apologizing for an infraction, and since Miyuki didn’t cross a significant line it doesn’t ruin their relationship or make them impossible to root for or anything, but the whole thing is tired and gross and unnecessary and not all that funny. I was able to handle it because I got warned ahead of time, but it was a chore of an arc, so here’s my warning.

The Promised Neverland

Premise: Emma and her friends Ray and Norman are orphans being raised in the happy, idyllic Grace Field House. They’re never been outside it though, and there’s a wall they’re never supposed to approach. When Emma discovers the truth behind the orphanage, a tense thriller begins.

My take: I was looking forward to this one based on word of mouth, and mostly it doesn’t disappoint! The writing hooked me enough that I’ve picked up the manga to continue the story. This a rich story. It’s an intense game of cat and mouse between genius kids and unscrupulous adults where the stakes are super high. Emma and her friends pull out all the stops to outwit and escape the ones holding them captive, and the twists and turns of the narrative are delivered well. There’s also some social commentary buried under its horror to add some bite. This essay goes into how it comments on forced societal gender roles, for instance.

A thrilling plot can only shine thanks to its characters, and Emma is great protagonist. Her determination to save her family and unpredictable nature make her fun to follow. She’s a rare and refreshing example of a female shonen protag, and she sells that power of friendship stuff pretty well when she has the brains and skills to back it up. The three main kids balance each other well, with Ray’s cynicism and pragmatism contrasting Emma’s stubborn idealism, and Norman stands in the middle as someone who’s inclined to think like Ray but WANTS to be more like Emma. Despite the many conflicts and differences between them, these kids are ride and die, and the show does a good job selling their familial-friendship. A lot of the moments between them are truly heartwrenching.

The story has a big glaring flaw, though, and that’s Sister Krone and the racism regarding her. It’s not my lane, so please read Jackson P. Brown’s essay here for more info. The anime not only replicates the problem with her design but makes things arguably worse than the manga by making her personality a caricature as well. The anime portrays Krone as far more unhinged and exaggerated than her vindictive but more controlled and canny manga counterpart, even adding this weird thing where she rants at and beats up a doll. This review on episode 8 talks about the author feels the anime failed with sister Krone and his feelings on Krone as a black character well, it’s definitely worth a read.

While I have those issues with the anime’s choices, I was impressed with how the last few episodes were directed. They hit it out of the park, leaving me breathless, emotional and wanting more. Thanks to that, I’m now reading an enthralling adventure manga! This anime was definitely flawed but I can’t deny I’m interested in seeing how the second season will shake out.

Mob Psycho 100 II

Premise: Season 2 continues to tale of Mob, a ridiculously powerful psychic middle schooler. He’s in the employ of Reigen, a con-artist who has fooled many (Mob included) into thinking he has legitimate psychic abilities.

My take: Holy wow. Mob Psycho’s first season had some incredible animation, atmosphere and direction, but season two fires on all cylinders. I’m glad I caught up in time to experience the show with everyone else these last few weeks, because it was always a treat- a visual feast full of heartpumping action and lots of sincere emotion.

Mob Psycho is an animation extravaganza, with some sequences that wouldn’t feel out of place in a high budget movie, dripping with atmosphere, artistry and aplomb. But the story and characters are really solid too and it has some nice themes and messages at its core. Mob is one of the goodest good boys in all of anime and he grows a lot throughout this season. At the core of the show is the idea that no one is worthless and also no one is more “special” than anyone else, that having power doesn’t give you the right to put yourself above others, that no person is inherently superior or inferior to any other, that even if you’re born with some super talent, you still need to try to improve yourself, value other people and the things they can do that you can’t and work hard to live a balanced life. Being powerful or born with a talent doesn’t mean you have the answers or know better-so it’s all about striving to make good, compassionate choices and taking control of your own life.

There’s a lot of stories that pay lip service to themes like these without really doing much to back it up, but this show sells it with an earnestness that few manage. Mob is a quiet and gentle boy, and you genuinely believe it when he says he doesn’t like fighting or using his powers on other people, and when he breaks down in tears because for all his power he can’t figure out how to set someone on the right path this time, your heart aches. The fact that Mob actually has difficulty coming up with the right answers and will sometimes gets overwhelmed by emotion and loses control, but keeps striving for honest communication, makes his approach come off as a lot more believable than the typical shonen-hero-converting-bad-guys-with-a-confident-friendship-speech bit.

The character relationships in the show are also good stuff, particularly the relationship between Mob and Reigen, which develops a lot this season with Reigen having to grapple with how yeah, he’s been kinda terrible and dishonest, especially with this kid he cares about and there’s a point where people have enough of it. There’s a lot of nice growth there.

All together, Mob Psycho is just Good with capital G. I do wish there were more girls in it, and there is a dark skinned character who’s caricature-ish in his design (he barely shows up in this season iirc), but otherwise it’s a quality rec and breathtaking example of the truly transcendent heights anime can reach.

#winter 2019 anime #anime overview #Mob Psycho 100 #my roommate is a cat #the promised neverland #dororo #kaguya sama love is war #kaguya sama: love is war #kaguya sama wa kokurasetai #my reviews

63 notes · View notes

fleursetrebellion · 6 years

Text

Why Breath of the Wild Doesn’t Have A Companion Character

Among Legend of Zelda games there’s a rift between two types of games in the series: those with companion characters and those without. And I think there’s an interesting topic to discuss in why some have them, and why some choose not to have them. To really get to the heart of this though, it’s important to recognize what the design of Zelda was originally made to do, and how that changed over time.

In the original Legend of Zelda, the game was explicitly made to be a game about freely exploring a mysterious world and uncovering surprising things around every corner. In some sense, the original design was intended to be the purest possible form and experience of an adventure. That adventurousness goes into every part of the game’s design. You’re never guided, you make your own path. You’re never pushed, you do only what you want to. And the game never stops keeping its secrets, you must uncover them yourself. There’s never a point at which the world is no longer mysterious. They even included a feature where the second time you play through the game, it shuffles around the map so that it maintains its secrets and you can give it a second try. But a big factor here is that players were explicitly meant to choose what they want to do next, not to be told. The game directs you, but only with hints and very subtle suggestions.

In this sense, having a companion with you simply doesn’t solve any problems. The companion character could be neat at best, but even still they would be an unnecessary element which keeps you from getting to the best part of the game: discovery. At worst they might even spoil secrets that you wanted to find yourself, or push you towards things that you didn’t want to do.

When it came time for the next proper sequel, A Link to the Past, some things had changed. The game started directing players more. Some secrets were given away, though most still needed to be uncovered. But the biggest change was that parts of the game started to push you through its critical path, always nudging you towards the next dungeon. There were lots of reasons for this, I believe biggest of all was that aLttP introduced a huge increase in scale, which made it harder for players to self-direct in such a big world. But to accomplish this they introduced the first step towards a companion character.

See, the game opens with the sequence of Zelda contacting you with her telepathy, and she directs you into the castle where you save her. But after that point Zelda no longer was poised to direct you through your journey. Enter Sahasrahla. This guy was an old man, like the ones who gave you cryptic hints in the first game. Except this time he outright guides you towards dungeons and tells you where the next objective is. His function was pretty limited, so he didn’t chime in much but he did was occasionally contact you through telepathy. Pretty hands-off, but it’s already a step towards a Companion Character. So to put it simply, they introduced Sahasrahla because they needed to tell you what you can do in the world. Otherwise you might not even know that there’s a dungeon to go find.

Anyway, the next main Zelda game after aLttP was Ocarina of Time, and that’s where we got the most iconic companion character of all. The reason for introducing a companion was complicated. It was an N64 game, and every designer at Nintendo was so excited to try out 3d game mechanics. But the shift towards 3d introduced all kinds of technical issues. Spaces became harder to navigate, game worlds became more costly to create, and most of all cameras became very hard to program. Ocarina of Time famously solved this camera issue with Z-Targeting. But it wouldn’t be Nintendo if they left that as “good enough”.

Maybe you’ve noticed but Nintendo has this habit, almost an obsession, of tying up loose strings. Anything done in one part of a game’s design must connect back to all other parts of the design, including the narrative design. They couldn’t just let you Z-target, they had to tie that into the game’s narrative design as well. So they came up with one narrative-friendly solution for all of the technical problems of the 3d world all at once: Navi.

How does Navi solve camera controls? Navi is Z-targeting! How does Navi make 3d spaces easier to navigate? Navi can chime in with hints and direct you towards doors! And how does she solve the problem that 3d game worlds are costly to create? Well, if the world is smaller, Navi can stick with the player and always let them know where the next objective is, driving players along the main path so they never stray too far and discover just how little is actually in this 3d world. (At least compared to aLttP.) And it worked amazingly! Ocarina of Time quickly became the classic we all know and love. Some other neat tricks that Navi has is that she can help make story moments more interesting by speaking for Link when he has to remain silent, which lent to the new more cinematic tone of the game. She could even give a sense of larger scale to the world with bits of lore, though let’s face it they weren’t really all that great most of the time.

And then moving into Majora’s Mask we saw something... weird. Majora’s Mask was developed in a hurry, and they didn’t completely have time to rework any ideas from scratch. So when the game abandoned the cinematic style of OoT, favoring a much more classic open-exploration style of play, they still didn’t really have the time to come up with a new Navi. So, even though Majora’s Mask is much more similar to aLttP in structure than OoT, Navi stayed. Or rather, her concept stayed under a different name.

But the N64 is done. The GameCube is announced and the new tech is amazing. The best console specs in that generation, as it would turn out. That meant fewer limits on the world size, the tech for 3d cameras had time to mature, and Nintendo learned how to communicate space in 3d. So we saw the first even return-to-form for a Zelda game. Mostly it was a return to the style of aLttP, but we even saw one interesting feature return from the original Legend of Zelda. That is, in Wind Waker, the world was organized as a grid of spaces.

It was kind of a brilliant piece of design. In the first Legend of Zelda you could never see beyond the edge of the screen, each time the screen scrolled over was a new chance to surprise. But even still, they were able to make sure you could still navigate the world without getting too lost by making the world... kind of small. I mean, no doubt it was full of interesting content, but there weren’t actually that many screens in the original Zelda’s world. And that made it easier for players to recognize landmarks, remember all of the things they wanted to come back to, and remember paths through the world. And in Wind Waker they found a way to replicate that sense of exploring a limited set of spaces on a grid. Except this time the grid was a massive ocean, and each screen was the size of an entire island. You never got confused exploring the ocean because there are only a few really important islands to go to. And you never got confused exploring an island because you can see the whole thing at once!

And that isn’t the only return to form. Wind Waker favored open exploration over the linear epic storylines of OoT. It cut down on Z-targeting and allowed for more free navigation and puzzle-solving even if there were enemies around. And, back to the topic at hand, it didn’t have a companion character. At least, it sort of didn’t. The King of Red Lions acted as this sort of Sahasrahla-like character (complete with telepathy). He would direct you to certain island (annoyingly locking you into an island once at the beginning) but he could never tell you how to explore each island. He was pretty hands-off. And there were certainly more cinematic moments in the game which featured companion characters, like Makar, Medli, and Zelda at the end. But it was never anything on the scale of OoT.

With Twilight Princess there isn’t much to talk about besides the fact that, for reasons that I can’t really explain, Nintendo chose to return to Ocarina of Time’s style of play. Not that this was a bad thing, OoT and TP are both classics, but it seems strange that they would return to OoT’s style having made almost no improvements at all. The companion and the strict guided-ness of TP got slightly more overbearing than OoT, but it wasn’t so much as to ruin the experience. And the story and characters were good enough to make us be okay with it. (Seriously, who doesn’t love Midna?)

And then... Skyward Sword. There’s a lot to unpack here.

First, the game wanted to use motion controls, you can’t fault it for that. I think most of us wanted to try out a motion control Zelda, even though it kind of seemed like nobody could do the sword thing properly. And in classic Nintendo style they started tying up loose strings. The motion controls become a character. Thus Fi joins the roster!

Second, Skyward Sword was made by a new director for the series mainline games. Maybe it was that Hidemaro Fujibayashi wanted to continue following in line with the Ocarina of Time style of play, or maybe it was that Nintendo wasn’t confident letting him go Wild on his first game (hah hah). But he pushed towards this more directed structure. More directed even than Twilight Princess was.

And with these two things together, Fi came out as... Well, she was the motion controls (a feature that wasn’t well-received) and she also heavily directed the player more than any other Zelda game (also not well-received). And the result was that she become a frustrating, hand-holding, symbol of whatever feature the player personally didn’t like in the game. I mean personally I like Fi. I think she’s cute, and her final scene made me cry. And I mean, (unpopular opinion) the motion controls were kinda fun. But there’s no doubt that she’s overwhelmingly hated.

And then we come to Breath of the Wild, the truest Return To Form in the series. The design is almost exactly, point for point, the same as the design of the first Zelda game. Except this time, we’re fully leveraging the power of 3d graphics. You can see distant objectives, which helps you self-direct. The world is broken up into recognizable regions, so no worry about getting lost. And the concept that you only have to do what you want to do is turned up to 11. The only things that the game forces you to do are learn how to play, and beat the final boss. Every path you take is a path you choose.

So given all of that background... of course there’s no companion character in BotW. Why would it need one?

#Legend of Zelda #Game Design #Navi #Fi #Midna #King of Red Lions #Sahasrahla #Tatl and Tael

9 notes · View notes

anathema-game · 6 years

Photo

Twist of Fate: Anathema is a visual novel by Meishali and Merriweather, and is currently under development. Each week, we talk a bit about our experiences as newbie gamedevs, as well as the game’s general feel and features.

ENTRY #11: Today, we lay down 27 trivia facts (with nice pictures) about the game and its developers. Get ready!

If you haven’t read what the game is about yet, you can check it out here!

Let’s get to business.

Meishali here. I thought this week giving random trivia regarding the game would be pretty fun. Are you ready? Here we go.

1) As said in a previous journal, Andrea and Oswyn were originally nicknamed “Blackass” and “Pierogi” respectively. The Black Feline icon was already established, and Merriweather, being Polish, found it fun to give Oswyn something tied to her culture.

2) Oswyn’s considered names were: Mathias, Isaac, and Lawrence

3) Andrea’s considered names were: Hakim, Lorenzo and Dante

4) Weirdly enough, MC (Main Character)’s default name was adopted as “Imane” immediately. Merriweather chose it.

5) Both Andrea and Oswyn’s were originally swole, and both wielded axes. Interesting.

6) Both were also military men, but we did our best to separate them overtime, resulting in Andrea becoming more of a “rogue” type of character.

7) Nadia and Fidan, the MC’s maids, were the first support characters to be designed for the game other than the main trio.

8) Nadia and Fidan are married, and very, very much in love.

9) Nadia’s loose, fun-loving behavior compared to Fidan’s strict ways is misleading: Nadia is actually the head of the manservants, and is very dedicated to her job.

10) Originally, House Para and House Theodoridis were not supposed to rivals, but simply be preparing a coup against a mad king. The game’s setting was much more “tactical” and “military” in a way. The Runereader was there to determine who would be the rightful king, still, according to the tablet of Surma.

11) The Ashen Lands, a rival country of Mana (where the story takes place) had been codenamed “Dicksmoke” for nearly a year as we were struggling to find a name for it with Merriweather.

12) Rheagan Farall, coming from the Ashen Lands, was originally named ‘Lord Petros’. Meishali, being very French, couldn’t let it slide, as it was too similar to a farting sound in their original language.

13) Meishali and Merriweather met playing Final Fantasy XIV Online, through a common acquaintance who knew they’d just get along together talking about horrible dating sims and murderous people.

14) Oswyn and Andrea both have physical feline traits, according to their houses’ respective emblems, the Lion and the Black Panther. To name one, they both have long canines. Oswyn is often heard roaring, and Andrea seen lounging in trees.

15) Lord Farall is Andrea’s uncle by alliance, having married the sister of one of his parents.

16) Lord Farall assured most of Andrea’s education after his parents’ death, twelve years before the story's beginning.

17) The original prototype of the game title involved a stylized version of the “compass”, one of the Kingdom’s oldest Emblems. It depicts the sun, the moon, the lion and the panther, as well as the white rose constellation, to symbolize unity between Para, Theodoridis and Whiteleaf — Andrea, Oswyn, and the Main Character.

18) The color Red is exclusively tied to house Para, the color Green to house Theodoridis. Purple, blue, white and golds are considered “neutral” colors in the setting. Most of the characters of the cast are color-coded accordingly; a single glance is enough to know their true allegiances on a meta standpoint.

19) Téthys N’gozi de Lagardère and Sylvio of Laneare, support characters, were designed after originally faceless NPCs named “Noblewoman in Blue” and “Nobleman in Cream”. Meishali was trying things out for placeholder sprites, but we overall decided to keep the two designs, and started creating more side characters as a result.

20) Despite having two older brothers who are professional and proficient programmers and web app developers— and in spite of one of them being particularly pushy for Meishali to follow studies in that environment over the past few years... Meishali had never programmed prior to starting Twist of Fate: Anathema.

21) Merriweather was the one to introduce wyverns in the story, and they were exclusive to Oswyn’s character; in a way, they still are.

22) Anathema was originally a low fantasy game set in a nameless, renaissance-like era. (I guess we also screwed that up.)

23) Oswyn was originally color-coded blue instead of green. It was quickly changed for Green when MC was introduced as color-coded turquoise/sky blue.

24) If Oswyn and Andrea have visually been developed first, it was because we originally wanted MC to be customizable in all sorts of ways upon character creation. The project being already ambitious as is, we eventually decided against it, and instead, made her the girl she is now; a fixed design.

25) The trio are all mixed characters. Something Meishali insisted upon, as mixed people representation barely exists in pop culture. It often comes with its own set of narrative.

26) It was decided very early in development that Oswyn would be the “prince” and Andrea the “opportunistic underdog” — to balance it out, Andrea was given the favors of the court, and Oswyn a stellar military background, as well as the throne by divine rights.

27) The first lines we wrote about Andrea and Oswyn, respectively, is, I quote: “he’s apparently excellent at murder” and “also excellent at murder”. The characters are still equally violent in hindsight, but now, there’s a narrative to it.

Phew. That’s a lot to take in. I hope you guys were interested? What would you like to see, and hear more of? Furnishing the blog is always difficult, as there’s a lot to do outside of it, but we are looking forward to hearing your questions, and suggestions.

Take care everyone!

#dev's weekly blog #Visual novel #indie game #indie vn

25 notes · View notes

inhumansforever · 7 years

Photo

Karnak #6 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

The Flaw of All Things comes to its existential conclusion, by the creative team of Warren Ellis, Roland Boschi and Dan Brown. Full recap and review following the jump.

Acted on the behest of the secret spy organization, Shield, Karnak has ventured out to track down a young new Inhuman named Adam Roderick who has been abducted by a shadowy terrorist organization. In his pursuit of Adam, Karnak discovered that the young Inhuman had manifested incredible reality-warping powers. Adam had made himself into a god, his former abductors becoming his loyal acolytes. Adam’s powers enable him to grant onto his followers everything they wanted, a sense of purpose and utter contentment. Yet Karnak knew that all that Adam created was illusion; the reality that Adam crafted was artificial and inauthentic, his followers were made cattle stripped of their humanity. To this extent, Karnak has deemed Adam an effrontery to the fabric of truth; and he has pledged himself to destroy Adam and put an end to this existential threat.

In the previous issue, Karnak had interrogated one of Adam’s acolytes, a powerful being known as The Painter. In this interrogation, The Painter was able to hone in on Karnak’s insecurities, highlighting that the false sense of meaning provided by Adam is truly no better nor worse than the abject nihilism entailed in Karnak’s philosophy. Karnak didn’t take kindly to this challenge and slammed his fist down with such precise magnitude that it caused the Painter’s body to explode in a gory torrent. Karnak claimed that the acolyte was a human improvised explosive device, but Shield sub-director, Coulson, remained unconvinced. Indeed it was becoming clear to Coulson that this mission has caused Karnak to become increasingly unhinged.

Karnak explains to Coulson what makes Adam such a threat. Adam can see what people want and need and give it to them; and in so doing taking from them of something essential, making them less than human, turing them into monstrous slaves. Coulson asks what it is that leaves Karnak immune to Adam’s powers and the reply is that it is his own selflessness and want for nothing that protects him.

Coulson’s agents have identified Adam’s whereabouts, retrofitting a teleportation device to send Karnak to him. Karnak arrives at a darkened cavern and is immediately attacked by a host of giant monstrous spiders. These spiders are the remnants of Adam’s followers, transformed into mindless creatures.

Karnak makes short work of these spiders, destroying them with a series of fault-finding kung fu chops and kicks. Karnak then ventures further into the cavern, eventually finding Adam sitting alone in large room.

Rather than fighting, Adam merely asked Karnak why he should take such exception to what he has done, why is it a bad thing? He offers people purpose and contentment, the solace of meaning. What is wrong with that? Karnak notes that these dutiful followers have been transformed into spiders, yet Adam retorts that the life of a spider is actually quite rewarding and structured. He has made them simple and this simplicity has taken away their pain.

Karnak’s objection that it is all antithetical of truth. He states that he helps people become free by accepting the absolute truth that they are nothing, they are meaningless. It is harsh and it is painful, but it is the truth and is ultimately liberating. To be a happy prisoner or be painfully free, these are the two poles from which Karnak and Adam argue.

In the midst of their discussion, Adam probes Karnak, seeking out his own flaw, determining how he can give Karnak what he wants and hence make him a slave. Karnak may claim he has no wants, but of course this isn’t true. Adam can see into Karnak’s mind and he can see that Karnak is not as egoless as he says and indeed possesses deeply seated feelings of anger and inadequacy. His being denied Terrigenesis as a child appears to be at the root of his anguish.

Honing in on this pain and weakness, Adam offers to fix him, make him feel whole. He will give Karnak what he wants and make him like him, cherish him as a god and become his slave. Boschi and Browns art really cut loose in this scene, offering an haunting image of what it might be like to accept Adam’s godhood...

Karnak is clearly shaken, but retains his wits in time to dodge Adam’s enchantment. Adam’s probing of Karnak has gone both ways and now Karnak is also able to ascertain Adam’s weakness, the flaw in his godlike powers. He swings with a keenly placed jab, striking Adam in the temple and destroying the area of Adam’s neurological structure that control and enables his powers.

A second blow renders Adam a near vegetable, effectively resetting his neurological functioning to that of an infant.

The narrative leaps forward to Karnak returning Adam to his parents’ care, promising them that Adam will be able to rehabilitate (it’s anyone’s guess whether or not Karnak is telling them the truth). In return, Karnak asks for his payment. This harkens back to the first issue in which Karnak agrees to rescue Mr. and Mrs. Roderick’s son in exchange for a simple request: that they offer to him the singular that enables them to see the world as a kind and meaningful place.

Mr. Roderick had thought the matter over and hands to Karnak a photograph of his family. It’s a picture that was taken on a day in which they told their son that anything was possible, that he is loved unconditionally and could be whatever he wanted to be. He gives this photograph to Karnak as a gesture of letting go of that kind, gentle sentiment.

Karnak receives his payment with cold detachment and makes his leave.

A final scene shows Karnak kneeling before the great stone in his Tower of Wisdom. He has placed the photograph of Adam’s family at the foot of the stone. Alone and unseen, Karnak allows himself to give into his sorrow and covers his face. And it is here that the series ends.

In announcing the completion of the final script for his Karnak tale, writer Warren Ellis dryly referred to the whole matter as “just bad readings of philosophy, punching, and a character study of an absolute trashfire of a human being. But I like to think it was worth it.”

Well, it has been certainly worth it, there has been a lot of punching and Karnak himself is indeed something of a trash-fire… I agree with it all except for the ‘bad readings in philosophy.’

I’m by no stretch an expert on the works of Nietzsche, or Kierkegaard, Baudrillard nor Sjöstedt-H. Yet I know the material well enough understand Ellis was not merely name-dropping the theories for the purposes of a pretentious backdrop for violent action. Ellis uses the theories but doesn’t resort to longwinded exposition or esoteric references; it’s not pedantic. It’s accessible, straight forward and unapologetically weird.

Karnak and Adam’s battle is essentially a question: is it better to believe in a higher power and in so doing become trapped and blinded, be rendered as sheep (or in this case spiders); or is it better to deny this higher power, to be free of it and embrace the harsh truth of meaninglessness? This question is posed, but an answer is not really given. Karnak talks like he knows what’s what, that he is without flaw. Yet it is made abundantly clear that he is quite flawed; that he is a sad and angry little man who is intent on enforcing his misery on everyone around him.

Adam was indeed a threat… his godlike powers could have rendered all mankind into mindlessly content followers. And Karnak is something of a threat as well. His strict adherence to nihilism is cruel and dogmatic. He and Adam are two sides of the same coin… I don’t want to buy what either of them are selling.

Karnak is by no means someone I would want to hang out with; I don’t agree with his philosophy and he’s a rather miserable bastard. And yet he is just hugely fun to read about. And the general tenner of this newer version of Karnak has been picked up by the other creators including Karnak in their tales. Both Al Ewing and Charles Soule have done terrific work in running with the version of Karnak Ellis and company have created. And it’s ended up making Karnak one of the most interesting and fun to read about characters in the entire Inhumans pantheon. I can’t wait to see what Mathew Rosenberg does with Karnak in the upcoming Secret Warriors series. The prospect of Karnak interacting with the likes of Kamala Khan and Lunella Lafayette fills me fearful excitement.

The whole series has been a bizarre, thought-provoking, thoroughly unsettling and tremendously fun read. It’s unequivocally recommended. Five out of Five Lockjaws.

#Karnak #Warren Ellis #Roland Boschi #Dan Brown #spoilers #review

14 notes · View notes