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quirkwizard · 7 months

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Keystone-Ranking My Hero's Academia's Arcs

To All my Friends and Followers, I am proud again to announce another double milestone. Not only have I reached over 10,000 total posts on this blog, but I have reach over 3,000 followers. Who would have guessed this little blog I made for fun would have made it this far? Because I am frankly flabbergasted that this blog has made it this point. I thank all of you for your support and truly wish that I can make this blog something worthy of your dedication. For this momentous milestone, I once again decided to do a massive project. This time, it will be ranking all the arcs of My Hero Academia.

So before I begin, let's cover some ground rules:

-What I will be considering an arc, as well as where it starts and ends, will be defined by the Wikia, making for a total of twenty one arcs.

-This will mainly be focusing on the manga. While I will mention the anime here and there, it will not play any major role in how I rank these arcs.

-This ranking will be relative to the rest of the series. So if I put an arc lower on the list, I'm not saying it's the worst manga as a medium has to offer, just not up to the standards of the series.

-This will be a series of pros and cons covering each of the series with some notes. This will involve a lot of generalizations and summarizations of points, as well as maybe skipping out on what I don't have much to say, but is the easiest way to get my thoughts across.

-This will be looking at the arcs without the context of later ones. I will review the arcs on their own and will only consider what has happened before in the story when that arc came out. That means that certain events will not "ruin" arcs retroactively, but can be held against the arc they happen in.

-The Final War Arc will not be covered here. Not only because that arc is not completed at the time or writing, but is far longer then any other arc in the story and has so much to cover with it, feeling like there are several arcs going on all at once. Even if it was done, I would still cover it on it's own.

Without further ado: the ranking of My Hero Academia's Arcs.

Stars and Stripes Arc: (0/10)

-This entire arc is built around Cathleen, a one note character that doesn't have any interesting traits or arc. She was never established before, even when she should matter to characters like All For One and is suddenly the most important hero currently active.

-My worst fears are confirmed that Tomura is nothing more than a meat puppet for All For One. All his unique traits and character is under lock and key for this entire arc, leaving us with a very bland villain that I have no interest in reading.

-The whole fight is a forgone conclusion. Tomura can't lose because he's the main antagonist who is next to unkillable and he can't get "New Order" because then he would be way too powerful to beat, robbing the arc of any tension it tries to have.

-The fight itself is not interesting, which is a problem when most of this is a fight. It's Tomura getting ragdolled over and over again while Stars and Stripes keeps using her Quirk in a lot of empty spectacle. No real cleaver plans, just slapping each other back and forth.

-All these factors together rob any emotional investment a reader may have had in the story. So in spite of it only being seven chapters long, it feels like a total slog to get through, simply waiting for canonical filler arc to be done with so we can move on.

-"New Order" is a slap in the face to the entire power system. It's such a vaguely defined ability with what it can actually apply with its rules. It felt more like Tomura was fighting a wizard from a whole other series, adding on to the various frustrations in this fight.

-The main consequences could have been replaced with a single chapter. Just have Tomura writhing in a cave over his body rejecting "All For One" and have Nezu analyze and pick up information on him from the footage of the PLF War. It would have been so simple.

-The actual consequences of this arc are minimal at best. You could honestly skip this arc and not really miss much in the grand story of the series. Again, making it feel like a filler arc. It makes this whole outing seem wholly pointless in the broader narrative.

=I've said my peace on this arc many times over. I struggle to think of anything good about it. It was a chore to read the first time and it took so much willpower to not turn this into another giant rant. I honestly hope I never have to go through or think about this arc again.

Tartarus Escapees Arc: (1/10)

+I like the idea of this arc. Having Izuku regress into his self-destructive tendencies and isolating himself is a really good way to go with his low point. And this is well conveyed in the art, both in and out of costume, which I just want to is really solid this arc.

+Uraraka's speech was certainly a highlight. It's a great moment in her own arc about understanding and wanting to truly save people and gives her the relevance she has so desperately needed. Ending it with the narration of everyone being a hero was a good bit.

+I liked a lot of the bits with Stain, especially his talk with Toshinori. Having Stain, the man who misunderstands All Might the most, gives him the peep talk he needs to get out of his funk.

-The reaval of "Fa Jin" was such a massive miss for me. Not only does it not add anything to Izuku's arsenal outside of hitting even harder, it undermines one of the most interesting fights the series has had thus far by overpowering his enemy rather than outthinking them.

-There is little lasting consequences for some of the characters. Endeavor is an abuser that made a serial killer and Hawks killed a villain in front of everyone. They both say they're getting work done and everyone kind of moves on from it without issue.

-The concept of Izuku cutting off everyone around him, while interesting, wasn't anywhere near fleshed out enough. It's only a single chapter of him on his own before he's saved by the rest of Class 1-A. Kind of makes the arc's name feel like a misnomer.

-Bakugou's apology feels rather hollow given the actual phrasing and the lack of any kind of real response for Izuku. This extends to All Might, but to a lesser degree. These two are the most responsible for Izuku self-destructive mentality and it is quickly brushed to the side.

=Another arc that I've talked about before, but none of the good parts of. I think it's well above something like the Stars and Stripes up, but it's lack of real payoff for so much that was set up really shoots this all the way to the bottom of the list.

Quirk Apprehension Test Arc: (1/10)

+Aizawa has a solid character introduction and effectively sets him up. What seems to be a lazy bum actually hides one of the most strict and dedicated heroes in the entire series. A seemingly rough, pragmatic disciplinarian with a secretly good heart underneath.

+Having Izuku need to work under Aizawa was such a good move for his first day. He really learns just how much of a problem his power is going to be and how much personal responsibility a hero has. It's a good splash of cold water to Izuku's relentless optimism.

+This is the arc where we get Izuku taking on the name Deku. Not only is the moment around it cute and gives us his official nickname, but I like how it starts the trend of Izuku redefining his life, taking the mocking nickname, and making it the name of a real hero.

-The arc is strictly business, for lack of a better phrase. We don't get much expansion on the characters we know about or understanding of the other characters or their powers in spite of the fact that this test would have been the perfect place to introduce them to us.

-All it really has going for it is the one moment of Izuku throwing the softball with his finger. The ultimate, emotional climax is a character flinging a ball really far. I know that sounds like I'm being facetious, but there isn't a lot else happening in the arc worth talking about.

-We do get the early main trio of Izuku, Iida, and Uraraka interacting, but there isn't enough to go off of to get a real sense of their dynamic and characters outside of the basic traits we already established. Maybe how they view each other as people, but that’s about it.

-While the threat of expulsions is threatening for the characters, it's pretty empty from a meta perspective. We know that if Izuku was expelled, the series would be over. The reveal of the test being a ploy does give Aizawa some character, but makes it feel a little pointless.

-In the end, I'm not entirely sure what the point of the arc was. At least, enough to make it its own standalone story. Sure, Izuku develops the finger flicks, but that could have been shuffled to one of the other two arcs after this one and it would be fine.

=An arc that's ultimately a victim of its length. If it was tied into the arc proceed or succeeding it, it would have been fine. On its own, it doesn't really offer much value. I still think it has its points, but not enough to reach past this lull in the series.

Remedial Course Arc: (2/10)

+The interaction between All Might and Endeavor was great. Yeah, a lot of people forget that happened this arc. Endeavor is uncertainty of what to do and turning to his rival is good in it's own right and works as a good springboard for Enji's arc going forward.

+The other character work was fine as well. Bakugou learning to be less of jerk to people as he learns to deal with a younger version of himself is nice. The Shoto, and to a lesser extent Inasa, stuff wasn't as prevalent, but I think it's a good steppingstone in his character.

+I like the one-off chapter with Aoyama and how he connects himself to Izuku and how much their Quirks can cause issues. Giving a minor character like this a one-off chapter like this is a good way to flesh out these characters without taking up too much time.

-Speaking of important stuff, this arc introduces the Quirk Singularity. For what turns out to be such an important idea, I don't think it does the best job building the groundwork. Like there wasn't enough set up to it before or in this arc for it to make sense.

-This arc is very much removed from the rest of the story. I wouldn't mind that but doesn't really give us much in its place. Outside of the few bits I mentioned before with Bakugou and Endeavor, it doesn't feel like it adds much else to the world or story.

-A lot of this arc is more comedic. If the comedy doesn't work with you, it's going to wear down on you fast. Outside of one or two bits, I found myself stone faced at a lot of the gags. Which is really odd because I do think Hori can do comedy, but it's not done well here.

-These two issues create this odd back and forth with the arc. The interesting moments are either small or side pieces while the actual meat of the story feels superfluous. So it can be frustrating to read through this when all the good feels so buried under everything.

-Which I think leads to the biggest sin of the arc: it's so forgettable. Out of all the arcs I went over, it's the least I remember about, not even long after rereading it. Despite having some pretty important moments, I just mentally gloss over it.

=This arc gets a lot of hate, and I get it. It does feel like a pretty low stakes arc where a lot of aspects can grate on people. I can't muster much bile for it, and I still think that there are some redeemable moments here, but certainly earning a spot this low on the list.

Joint Training Arc: (2/10)

+I really liked a lot of the new Quirks on display. I think a lot were pretty neat, or at least unique enough to be intriguing. Plus seeing some of the Quirks interact across both classes makes for some fun moments and dynamics between the various characters in play.

+I do like some of the minor pieces of character we do get. Tokoyami's flashback about controlling Dark shadow, Shoto using both halves of his power, a beat in Momo gaining confidence again, and Monoma's backstory reveal are all solid parts of this arc.

+Round 3 is a major highlight of this arc. A tense battle where it feels like each character is giving it their all with sheer power or clever planning. It feels like such a big battle that is constantly changing, ultimately ending in a surprising, but satisfying payoff of a draw.

-This arc is too long for its own good. Over twenty-four chapters of characters engaging in a consequence free training exercise where the plot isn't really developing outside of a handful of moments. It really wears down on you fast, especially week to week.

-As for these fights, I think a lot of them are pretty mediocre. Whether it be because of the low stakes, the lack of real emotional moments, or simply how the Quirks are used, I found it difficult to really invest in the fights. That is a big issue when most of the arc is fighting.

-Outside of Monoma and Juzo, there is very little in the way of meaningful development for Class 1-B in this arc. And if there was any point in developing these characters, this would be the time. It feels wasted, making the characters feel more like vessels for the powers.

-I really don't like the Round 4 fight. What comes across as Bakugou's big development rights hollow. Not only is the other side kneecapped to make Bakugou look better, but it doesn't really feel like Bakugou learned how to actually work with other people on this.

-To this day, I still have mixed feelings on the "Black Whip" reveal. I don't mind the concept of Izuku with multiple Quirks, but it wasn't built up enough to make this a worthwhile pay off. It seems more like Hori did this in because he ran out of ideas for what to do with Izuku.

=While I certainly don't think this is the worst arc, I can wholly understand why people are so frustrated with this arc as it was happening. There's very little in the way of plot or characters, so it ends up feeling like it drags out too long for its own good.

Provisional License Exam: (3/10)

+I like a lot of the world building in this arc. This whole rescue operation part of the test really shows just how important the non-fighting parts of hero work are, like how you act around civilians, which helpfully sets up how things are headed post All-Might.

+I liked Inasa. His design is great, his power is cool, and he has such a fun personality that you can't help but want to see him. His role is interesting as well, having Shoto's worry about being like his father externalized in someone who sees him only as Endeavor's son.

+I enjoy a lot of the development with the class. Things like the Super Moves, the dorms, and the bits spread throughout the arc does a lot to flesh them out. Obviously, the biggest bit is with Izuku and Bakugo, their battle showing how much them and their dynamic changed.

-The arc is not paced that well. This section is twenty-three chapters long, but it feels so much longer with how everything drags on and not a lot of interesting stuff is happening in them until the very end of the story, whether that be with the fights or the characters.

-The fights aren’t that amazing. It’s not that interesting to see 1-A fight a bunch of jobbers. And when they do fight more prevalent characters, I don’t feel engaged with it. A lot of the action are resolutions to the fights aren’t clever or have a lot the emotional impact they usually do.

-The new characters aren't that well developed, even as far as one-off characters go. Aside from Inasa, there's barely anything to go off of for them. It feels less like an expanded cast from all these schools and more like bloat that Hori didn't know what to do with.

-As much as I like Inasa, I think his whole thing with Shoto is kind of dumb. Like Inasa somehow carries this undying grudge against Shoto and his father because both of them look angry at him. And the resolution ends up being rushed in spite of the focus it gets.

-While I do praise Izuku vs Bakugou, I recognize that it's focused way too much on Bakugou. This feels like it should be doing something for both of them, but a lot of the attention in and out of story is on Bakugou, making it feel incomplete and diminishing Izuku's role.

=For all the buildup of these characters becoming heroes, them pulling it off seems… underwhelming. Which honestly feels like a good way to describe a lot of this arc. A lot of potential for something big and impactful that just didn't stick the landing.

UA Traitor Arc: (3/10)

+The traitor reveal was handled so well. The reveal and backstory were great and I think adds a lot to Aoyama's character. He wasn't an evil pawn, but a terrified kid who was forced into a deal outside his control, now horrified over the safety of himself and his family.

+The villains had some good moments. A lot of it is set up for next arc, but Toga and Spinner especially had the most interesting bits here, with Toga expressing her complicated past and feelings while Spinner is pushed into a role he never wanted for his friend.

+I enjoy the bit with Izuku and Urakara near the end of the arc. It honestly refreshing see these two connecting with each other again and what they talk about is solid stuff, trying to come to terms with their own conflicts feelings about wanting to save the villains.

-In spite of my liking of the reveal, it's far too late. Aoyama's actions as the traitor haven't been a factor pretty much since Kamino onward. So when this reveal comes, it doesn't have the emotional weight it feels like it needs, especially for such a minor character.

-There's very little fall out for Aoyama being the traitor. Besides how it's entirely beneficial for the heroes, no one else really reacts to it and there isn't any fallout. Not even Bakugou, the students most affected by it. It makes 1-A feel like a hive mind rather than their own people.

-In fact, a lot of this arc relies on the reader still being invested in the arc, Aoyama as a character, and there being this powerful bond between whole of the class. There's a lot riding on the emotional core which hasn't been set up as well throughout the rest of the story.

-There are some residual frustrations from the Dark Hero Arc. In spite of all the major moves the last arc did, there is barely any follow up on most or anything with the characters taking a break. We're skipping all that for more training and getting right to the next plot point.

-The villain stuff was good but did suffer from some clunkiness. I didn't really feel like it told us anything new and what it did add felt confusing at points. Did you know that Tomura and Spinner were best friends? I didn't know Tomura liked the guy.

=So I feel like I'm one of the few people that actually like how Aoyama was handed, which elevates the arc above a lot of the later parts, but I still think it's mire by the same issues of this part of the story. It had its moments, but that's all it really had to offer.

Final Exam Arc: (4/10)

+I think the idea of the arc is pretty strong. Not only do we get to see more of the teachers in action, but it’s a cool watching the students go up against the worst opponents possible, with each one needing to overcome some kind of weakness in order to nab the win.

+The fight with Deku, Bakugou and All Might was good. It's their low point, with the two literally and metaphorically trying to overcome All Might, and only able to do so by learning from each other, effectively pushing the both of them forward in their own development together.

+The Momo, Shoto, and Aizawa fight was pretty good. While not as well established in the manga, I do like the confidence issues between the two and how it ties into their leadership abilities. Again, it's a good example of the two learning and growing from each other.

+The ending scene at the mall was well handled. It's such a great one eighty from the tone and really raises the tension. Then there's the set up with Izuku and Tomura's clashing ideals, ending with Tomura truly realizing his goal. All around good stuff.

-The structure of this arc is a mess. All the fights are happening simultaneously and there is constant cutting back and forth between them. This means that all the fights struggle to build up any momentum before quickly cutting away at the most jarring of times.

-On that note, the fights aren't that impressive barring the two I mentioned before. They don't really have anything to offer in either story or spectacle. It's a bunch of pretty basic fights where we are given focus to some of the blandest characters in the series. -While this arc is built around the students going against their worst opponents, there isn't a lot of interesting growth or dynamics. Of all the side characters, we got Mineta and Koda, who aren't that engaging to read about, nor are they developed in engaging ways.

-In spite of the greater focus on character and having tangible threat of loss, this still suffers from a lot of school arcs suffer from. An educational setting like this doesn't have much tension to it. All we really have are the fights, which aren't that good.

=Yeah, this is quite the rough patch between a lot of stellar arcs. I hoped that it was merely a victim of placement, and it had its good points, but that arc is such a mess that it's hard to get much out of it. Not the worst, but not one that I am eager to revisit.

MLA Arc: (4/10)

+The MLA is an interesting concept. A political cult wanting to give power back by letting people use their Quirks without oversight. There's a lot of interesting perspectives for that topic, both in and out of the MLA, for why people may or may not want this to happen.

+Tomura is easily the MVP of the arc. His speech to Garaki was good, but his backstory with the highlight. Seeing the sheer lengths that the world, his family, and All For One poisoned Tenko into this being of pure hatred was equal parts engaging and tragic.

+Toga's backstory was good as well. While I have my issues with how nebulous Quirk Therapy is, that ultimately doesn't detract from it. It sets up the ideas of love and it's the expression and repression that prevail in her character and their importance going forward.

+I like Re-Destro in this arc. He parallels Tomura as a rage-fueled heir to a criminal legend, but contrasts it by being someone who is totally in control of his feelings and power, as well as being successful as running the empire that was left behind by Destro.

-This arc introduces Awakenings. I have never liked this concept, even when it is first revealed. It felt more like a lazy way to give characters power ups when it was convenient. This was especially the case with Toga, even if it fits with her whole love theme.

-The MLA Executives aren't interesting villains. They're one note obstacles to the LOV. I get not every character will get focus, but you think the heads of this massive group of would be given some depth, especially with a basis of the MLA has so many angles to cover.

-The barely functional LOV somehow beating and taking over the biggest group of villains in the country is such a massive leap in threat and scale. For them to survive the fight, let alone totally dominate, feels like Hori needed to hand them the win for the story.

-Following that, this is where a lot of the rushed pacing. It seems as though that the story and characters are trying to rush the story as fast as possible to get it to the point where it needs to be rather than taking its time to make sure all of the steps are set up beforehand.

=I know this arc is a fandom darling, but I really don't care for a majority of it. For me, it's few strong moments to hold up this ultimately weak arc. Especially since it's where a lot of the flaws of the later half of My Hero Academia came to the forefront for me.

Battle Trial Arc: (5/10)

+The arc does a good job of establishing the weight of heroics in the world. While Aizawa laid the foundation, showing how the students failed in the trial in their own ways shows just how much pressure that goes into hero work. The recap of all the flaws and mishandling of the training exercise is really neat.

+This does a great job of showing off Izuku's value as a fighter and as a character. In spite of having the strongest Quirk around, his brain is his most valuable weapon, able to plan around somehow who vastly outclasses him. His vocal declaration of Deku being the name of the hero is such a simple yet powerful moment for him.

+In fact, that fight itself is super neat. Izuku has a limited ace in the hole, but Bakugou has a massive advantage in skill and a psychological edge. Meanwhile Uraraka has to deal with the villainous Iida. It makes for a fun dynamic in the fight on how everyone plays off each other in personality and powers.

+All the character establishment is well handled, something hard for any series. We get a solid mix up of the dynamic between Izuku and Bakugou, good understanding of Iida and Uraraka while having foundational moments for Shoto and Momo. Plus, Ojiro and Hagakure had a cute little moment in there as well.

-None of that is extended to any of the other characters. Again, with all of these characters together, it would have been a really good chance to establish more about them as an ensemble cast. Even if it was only in minor ways like the previous examples it would have helped a lot going forward and made them feel less like cut outs.

-By extension, we only got the one fight out of the arc. Look, I'm not asking Hori to make five extra chapters here. All I'm saying is that I think that it would have been a good chance to get a better showing of the characters’ abilities and personalities by having them fight and bounce off each other before moving forward.

-Look, I know I keep harping on the art, but its flaws become a lot more apparent when trying to do action scenes. It can make certain motions seem a lot more awkward than cool. Again, this may just be hindsight, but it was pretty distracting coming back to read this seeing how much the art hindered the experience.

-The structure of this arc is so bizarre in how it's laid out. The actual order of the panels seems like things are happening oddly or even out of order. Seriously, go back and read the lead up to Izuku confronting Bakugou at the end. It's janky as all get out. This is not helped by the pretty sloppy artwork with the characters.

=The first real fight of the series and it goes off with a bang. I do think this fight is a highlight of the early series, delivering powerful emotional moments and unique dynamic, both in combat and character. Though the series is still green and the early flaws of the series being the most prevalent here really holds it back.

PLF War Arc: (5/10)

+Izuku has some of his strongest character work here. Push to the brink, he regresses back to that totally destructive mindset and constant doubt of his early series version. And having the arc resolve with him having empathy for Tomura after everything he did is just great. No issue with how he was handled this time around.

In fact, I think a lot of the character stuff is pretty strong. Bakugou gets a nice moment by saving Izuku, Enji has to go through some of the harshest development when faced with Tomura and Dabi, and Uraraka is confronted with the most moral complexities of villains. And hey, the arc actually got me to like Miruko.

+The rest of the villains were solid as well. I really like the stuff with Hawks and Double. It works as a nice microcosm of a lot of the conflicts about heroes and the world's inability to understand villains and their issues. Toga's growth and confrontation Uraraka over understanding hero’s savings villains is all around good.

+The Dabi reveal was amazing. What was such a predictable plot point was turned into this amazing reveal, doing a total one eighty and Dabi's character for me. You take this melancholy loser and make it so he dances and reveals in all the suffering he is causing Endeavor. It's great to see it pay off in such a bombastic and impactful way.

-This arc continues the unfortunate trend of Tomura's power creep. His already insane level of power has skyrocketed without any sort of in between. And Tomura getting possesed is one of the dumbest things to happen in the story, robbing Tomura of all his character and agency in favor of someone else stealing his spotlight.

-Not everything is great on the heroes' side. Midnight's death is one a terribly handled aspect of the story, made even worse by Gran Torino somehow surviving and is the only notably causality on the hero's side. And while I get it's supposed to be Kirishima's moment, having Mina set up and undermine like that feels mean spirited.

-Some of the villains in this were let down. All of the relevant MLA members get off screened. I get they aren't the most important, but you think there could be someone more. Then there are the High Ends. You introduce a squad as dangerous as Hood, have them be an issue with one hero, and then kill them all. What was even the point?

-Aside from the Dabi reveal, all the other ones fall flat. Mr. Compress' backstory is here and gone. Oboro is a literal who that requires supplementary material to know who he even is. Mirio comes back with little fanfare and contributes next to nothing in his fight. And Best Jeanist's return raises so many questions, and not in a good way.

=I get this arc is super popular, but for me, it's one of extreme highs and extreme lows. When it's good, it's really good, but when it's bad, it's pretty awful. It's like for every positive, there's an equal negative in the same field. I ultimately believe that the good outweighs the bad, but not enough to make me rank it any higher.

USJ Arc (6/10)

+This arc goes zero to one hundred real quick and it's great. We go from low stakes practice to everything going wrong. The villains are attacking, the adults are out of commission, and All Might is nowhere around. It does a really good job of making this tension situation with real danger, making the pays off that more powerful.

+This is where we get more from the UA characters, doing a surprisingly good job of characterizing a lot of them in spite of having such a short time span, giving a lot of their characters their own moment to show off. Same with the teachers, with us getting more layers to the teachers, like Aizawa genuine care of the students.

+This is where a lot of Izuku's major character traits come about, really show off how much of natural leader he is and just he proficient he is in planning. What's more is the self-image and self-destructive issues come to light, such as giving up the president spot and when he tries to save All Might, adding a lot more to his own character.

+All Might is handled really well in this arc. Not only does it give us a deeper glimpse into his character, but just how he's handled thematically. It goes a good job of showing All Might's power with how he and how hopeless things are without him yet gives us a reminder that power is fading and is one a time limit.

+This may just be hindsight, but I like Tomura for this arc. He's the big bad but is almost constantly undermined and humiliated at every other turn, both physically and ideologically. It's a subversion that's hilarious in the moment but does set him up well for further development and helps parallel him with Izuku's own growth.

-Again, a lot of the early series flaws are present here. It legitimately feels like there are panels missing from the pages or that the panels are really awkwardly structured, such as a having a big moment in a tiny panel or panels not flowing well from one to another. It can make it a very jarring read and takes a lot from the experience.

-Man, for being the climatic fight of the arc, the actual battle with the Nomu and All Might feels super underwhelming. It may just be that the anime spoiled me, but it lacks a lot of impact a fight like this needs, the art doesn't convey the action, and is over pretty quickly. It makes the ending feel pretty flaccid, especially for the first big arc.

-While the main players of the villains’ side are cool, it does feel like a lot of minions leave some to be desired. Seriously, outside of Izuku's group, it doesn't feel like any of the students are under real threat from the horde of minions. It can make it seem like a lot of initial villains were pretty empty outside of the three heavy hitters.

=A big arc that finally expands the world and threats outside the school. Which it does a pretty fine job of. It's not exactly the same high of the anime, but it isn't too bad either. I think it works best when you see it as the punctuation to set up for the greater story. Now that it's done, we can start moving on to the real meat.

Endeavor Agency Arc: (6/10)

+I like the opening chapter about interviews. Besides the fact that most of the gags land and how I've really wanted to see the kids learn stuff like this, I really like the world building behind Super Moves. That they aren't just aces in the hole for a hero, they are a means of brand recognition that help solidify a hero's image.

+The Christmas part was just plain cute. I'm all for the characters doing non-plot stuff like this and I like a lot of the gags with it. All the different gifts people get, the background gag of Mina trying to dress Bakugou, and Eri getting all the holidays mixed up. It's a fun little break that doesn't mess up the plot or pacing too much.

+The family drama was well handled. I think it's interesting how Hori handled the family dynamics of the Todorokis. He gave each of the members their own perspective on a complicated situation, but doesn't invalidate any of them, nor does he try to quickly redeem Enji or say that any one of the family members needs to accept him.

+In fact, Enji is great this arc. Besides the small ways he is humanized on a more personal level and the natural dynamics he has with the characters, it does a great job by trying to separate the ideas of atonement and forgiveness in the arc and what the two really mean, something I believe is key to understanding Endeavor's story.

+The pacing of the arc is near perfect. Everything gets the attention it needs in the time it needs and nothing feels like wasted time or out of place. It goes a great job of setting up the next arc with Hawks' spying and Tomura's growth without detracting from the current plot.

-For an arc called the Endeavor Agency, there isn't a lot of time spent at the agency. The trio isn't learning about being heroes or having their characters really bounce off each other, whether it with their Quirks or overall personalities, skipping right to the end of it. It feels like a lot more could have been done with these three together.

-There are some worrying trends that come with this arc. Like how instead of getting anything with the agency, everything was frustratingly skipped over in a time jump. Then Izuku learns how to use "Black Whip" way too fast, mastering this wild power in a week. It contributes a lot to the rushed feelings of the later arcs.

-Ending is super lame. His design is middling, his power isn't that great, and his whole motivation is just worse Stain. I wouldn't harp on him as much if he were a bit villain, but Hori could have done more with him considering his importance to this arc. Heck, Starchild was more interesting and he's barely in this story.

=An arc that is often lost and forgotten by being sandwiched between two larger, series defining arcs. Which is a real shame because I think it offers quite a bit with all the drama doing on with the Todorokis and the levity of the early chapters. All around a pretty solid arc and does a lot to set up the next big arc well.

Entrance Exam Arc: (7/10)

+If I was rating solely on chapters, Chapter 1 would get a perfect ten. It does such a good job of setting up the world, the characters, the themes, the tone, and the conflicts in the amount of time it has. It's such an amazing foundation for everything going forward. It's honestly impressive all the leg work it does this early on.

+The exam is set up really well. Having there be Hero Points and the Level Zero robots was a smart way for Izuku to have his cake and eat it. He still gets to have his moment of heroic sacrifice, but it was that noble spirit was what got him that spot in the first place. Him finally getting in is such as powerful emotional moment as well.

+The whole reveal of "One For All" is such a good endpoint and hook for the series going forward. Izuku may have been gifted the greatest power in the world, but now has to deal with some of the most dangerous drawbacks in the whole series to limit it, still keeping the stakes giving him plenty of room to develop his power.

+The arc does emotional moments really well. All Might telling Izuku he can be a hero, Izuku triumphantly standing on top of the trash pile, to him rushing to the forefront to save Uraraka. Again, in spite such a limited amount of panel time, it makes each moment feel so much bigger and more impactful then it has any right to be.

+On that note, it does a great job of endearing and connecting you to characters. Izuku's position as an underdog is immediately sympathetic, as is All Might's unenviable role as the top hero. Which I think is a real achievement given how early we're into the manga and how hard it can be to establish characters in the beginning.

-As for the rest of it, most of it's just Izuku training and doing the exam. That's it. It's not terrible and it really goes to show Izuku's dedication to being a hero, but it's not something to really write home about. This could simply be that the first chapter was that good, but it's not as exciting going forward.

-Some of the early art is kind of rough. This could just be because I'm more used to the cleaner style of the later chapters, but it comes across as rather jagged for a lot of the characters. This doesn't feel like a intentional style choice, more of a series finding its footing and with the art style and designs needing refinement.

-This extends to the major players of this arc. Again, benefit of hindsight, but it they seem more like exaggerated versions of themselves. All Might comes across as a lot more callous, and even with the worst version of himself, Bakugou telling Izuku to jump off a roof seems really out of character for him.

=Ah, back in the days that My Hero Academia was the little manga that could. First impressions are equal parts important and difficult, so it really is an accomplishment that the arc is as well put together as it is. It all works as a great foundation for the story. With such a strong start, it's no surprise that it got pick up for more chapters.

Pro Hero Arc: (7/10)

+While the last few arcs did some leg work, the Pro Hero Arc did a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Enji's character. It takes this one note antagonist and actually makes him the underdog hero while still acknowledging all the bad stuff he did. It's honestly impressive how well this was pulled off given its starting point.

+The fight of Hood was great. Not only does it involve two of the most visually interesting and versatile fighters we've had thus far, giving a lot of ways to mix up the fight, but it manages to pull out some really strong emotional moments. This mixed with the pitch perfect pacing, and stellar art makes for an enjoyable experience.

+Hawks is such an enjoyable addition to the cast. Not only does he have an amazing design and power, but he’s also such a fun personality to hang around with. What seems like a total slacker, goofball is one of the most perceptive and skill heroes around. You're just interested in seeing what he does and how he bounces off Enji.

+And then it all gets flipped upside down by the end of the arc. Hawks was a kid raised to be a hero and is now going to infiltrate the League. Not only does this raise a lot of intrigue for the upcoming story, but it feels like such a massive upset from what we've seen of Hawks and the hero world as whole to have this happen.

+The out of battle stuff was nice as well. Besides Izuku getting his first fan in Kota, the fall out of the Todoroki's was well handled. In spite of his attempts at redemption, Enji's still hurt people and they aren't going to forgive him. It would have been so easy for quick forgiveness, but this makes Enji and Shoto's story all the stronger.

+The flash backs we got at the end with Izuku were pretty cool. It's interesting to see All For One in his younger years and how his empire camp to be. In the frightening world of Quirks with desperate people, his power to give and take power made him a king. It's a unique way to put him in power while still fitting within the world building.

-The other pro heroes have… neat designs. Look, for an arc that's supposed to be about the top heroes of Japan, there is shockingly little shown outside of Hawks and Endeavor. While they are the main characters, you couldn't have thrown a bone to the other characters? Maybe even revealed their Quirks or show off their personalities?

-Hood isn't that amazing of a villain. He's certainly a physical threat, but the fact that he's an intelligent Nomu doesn't really factor much into his character. He wants to fight, but that doesn't really give us much to work from. It feels like Enji is fighting some reflection or contrast and just something he needs to set on fire.

=Yeah, this was surprisingly good. The fact that Hori was able to turn around Enji’s to this degree is really impressive, but I do think that there is a lot more going on with the arc. It’s a good break from the main cast to flesh out the world and develops a lot of interesting ideas and plot points with the introduction of Hawks.

Culture Festival Arc: (8/10)

+Gentle and La Brava are great. They're so wonderful and different from everyone else. Their status as total jokes, both in and out of the series, betrays the fact that both are competent in their own ways and have a lot of care for one another. They're good set up for the later humanization of the villains of the series.

+I like the fight between Gentle and Izuku. Gentle's power is so cool to see in action and leads to an interesting fight dynamic. He isn't stronger than Izuku, but he's so tricky to deal with that it gives him an edge. It feels less like a brawl and more of the two trying to outfox each other, making it more distinct from other fights.

+This works as a good breather and much needed break from the more dower tone for the last few arcs, making for a comforting read. On that note, this is hands down the funniest arc in the whole series. Gentle and La Brava alone would qualify this arc for it, but a lot of the students have some good gags sprinkled throughout.

+I like a lot of the character bits we get. Not only does this arc actually develop Jiro and Eri, but it ties well into some of the general themes of the series. With how everyone is battered after the raid. It shows the kind of pressure that heroes go through and the importance of other kinds of heroics like Jiro's music.

+Not only does the arc establish the point of heroes saving people without fighting in Eri and Jiro's storyline, but the humanization of villains I mentioned before. La Brava and Gentle are both sad victims of circumstance who found strength outside the system in each other. It's affectively a microcosm of the major villains of the story.

-As much as I like this arc, I can admit it goes through kind of a whiplash plot and tone wise. Going from the Shie Hassaikai Arc to this is still pretty jarring to have everything stop and be light on both. I still like it, but I sometimes get the feeling of looking at my watch and wondering when things will be moving forward.

-There really should have been more exploration of the students. If you're going to do a plot light arc based around the school, it would have been a great time to see more of the students. If not from Class 1-B, who are major focuses of the next arc, then at least some of the lesser seen students could have had something going on.

=Probably one of my more controversial picks. I know this arc gets dogged on a lot by the fans, but I think that is wholly underserved. I thought it had a lot of value, even beyond its lighthearted story. And hey, I'm fine with taking breaks from the plot if I believe what's happening is worthwhile, and I certainly think it's worthwhile.

Sports Festival Arc: (8/10)

+In spite the low stakes of sport events, the arc manages to keep the tension up and mix things up with all the strategy and powers at play. Sure, running an obstacle course or doing a cavalry race isn't that cool on paper, but actively fighting against a horde of another students all with their own powers keeps it interesting.

+This arc really shows off some of Izuku's finest qualities. It was interesting seeing Izuku try and plan his way around the events given his huge disadvantages and amazingly shows off his character. Everything from his planning abilities, his skill in leading other people, and his genuine desire to save other people.

+Shoto was certainly the dark horse of the arc. While set up to be important early on, I don't think anyone could have predicted just how well his character and back story was done. That backstory really starts to delve into the darker themes of the story with his father, one of the top heroes, being an abuser that used his kids as tools.

+Of course, the Shoto vs Izuku fight is amazing. There is no contesting this. This is one of Izuku's most defining moments, effectively throwing away at chance at winning just to save Shoto. It ends in an emotional climax of Shoto regaining his power and Izuku losing, making for an subversion that makes sense and is satisfying. +The other side character work is done well, giving us more layers to them. Like hints of Iida's more vengeful side, Uraraka having this frightening amount of drive, and Bakugou showing some real respect to other people. It helps to subvert and expand on the characters, all while delving into more of their motivations and goals.

+This character work extends into more world building, especially with the new side characters. Shinso do a lot to build up the unfair the world can be in regard to Quirks while Mei introduces other aspects of the school and heroism as a whole. And this is all while they're both still fun characters to read about in their own ways.

-As for what happens in the rest of arc… it's pretty good. If you remove the highlight moments, most of the arc doesn't stand out as much in terms of what actually happens in it. I don't think it's bad by any means, but it's not something as amazing or exciting as the few highs of this arc and tends to skew a lot of people's perspectives.

-This extends to the other fights as well. Outside of the one standout I mentioned before, there isn't anything that spectacular to me brings up some frustrations like how Izuku was saved from Shinso by a Deus Ex Machina. Heck, the impetus of Momo's whole character arc is relegated to a single cartoonish panel summarizing the fight.

=I know this is a fandom darling and I feel a lot of that comes from the anime adaptation. To me, when looking at the manga, it's an arc of some extreme highs, but was above average to good with the rest of it. Certainly not my favorite but still a good arc.

Forest Training Camp Arc: (9/10)

+As someone who really likes to explore the mechanics of Quirks and hero work, I enjoy the various ways these Quirks can be trained and evolved and what kind of roles and pressures they would have to handle. Sure, cooking isn't something we really think about with heroes, but it makes sense to know that for disaster work.

+It's really satisfying to see Tomura use all the lessons he's used thus far, putting aside his short-sighted schemes in favor of a more thought out goal with a plan to turn the narrative against the heroes and capturing Bakugou. That mix with the inherent threats of the villains makes the League seem like a serious contender.

+A lot of the villains are pretty good. They don't have a lot of depth right now, but they don't really need to for the purposes they serve. They are all established enough in their own ways that they are interesting to see and makes you want to know more about them, leaving things open for use to learn more about them later.

+I like a lot of the minor stuff we got with the students. A lot of the pre battle antics are good at fleshing them out, but they really start to shine in the second half of the arc. Whether it be as active players in the arc, like Tokoyami and Shoji, or setting up for their own stories, like with Uraraka and Aoyama, it's all good stuff to read.

+Izuku vs Muscular fight is great. There's some real tension with Kota being threatened, we see Izuku being more emotionally and physically broken than any other point in the series. Only for him to overcome it with one of the most emotional panels in the series. The Million Percent Smash being such a perfect punctuation with the whole battle.

+I appreciate the arc ending on such a dower note. In spite everyone's efforts, the villains won. They kidnaped Bakugou, a huge portion of the students are in critical condition, and there is a potential mole within the walls of UA. It works as an affective low point for the next arc to build off of for the story.

+And in spite of the dark tone, the arc still manages to be really funny, like all the small interactions between characters, like Shoto subtlety throwing shade at Bakugou. And I standby that Izuku suddenly getting punched in the nuts is still one of the funniest moments in the entire series. I will die on this hill.

+This arc hits a perfect balance of pacing. The first half of the story is full of fun antics and lighter moments between the characters while the latter half is full of highly emotional action with a new gallery of rogues. And when it hits the ground, it hits hard and fast, never letting up on the fights and intrigue with the characters.

=While not as groundbreaking as some of the higher ups, I still hold this arc in a special place. Everything from the characters, to the fights, to the emotional beats are all handled so well that I often consider it the best of arc of the series. Even if you twist my arm, the only fault it has is that I simply like the other arcs more than it.

Stain Arc: (9/10)

+The art style drastically improves this arc. While I certainly saw a leap in quality once we got to the Sports Festival, the manga really starts to hit its stride once we reach Stain. The characters have more detail to them, the backgrounds pop a lot more, and the paneling is handled a lot better, making for a stronger experience.

+I like a lot of stuff with hero names and internships. Agian, it's a quick and easy way to help us understand and endear ourselves to the character while still developing the bigger ones, such as Iida's uncertainty as a hero after his brother’s injury or Bakugou trying to learn more about the social nuances of being a hero.

+The Full Cowl was such a good idea. The bone breaking was a neat gimmick to start with, but ultimately unsustainable concept. This offers a good side grade that still fits within the power. It gives Izuku far less power but grants him more control and a way to measure his progress throughout the series.

+Tomura and Izuku get some much-needed development. This arc sees them both growing beyond their world view when faced with an outside force, with Stain acting as their reality check. It sets up how the two will grow opposites throughout the series and further reinforcing the two parallels of our two main leads.

+Shoto and Iida get some time to break out of their original shells. While it's nice to see Shoto being far less cold to people, Iida going on a revenge quest is such a drastic yet believable turn for him. Having his righteous vengeance turn on its head and how such a thing would only sully the family name is all great stuff to read.

+Stain is such a great villain. He commands every single scene he's in and always remains a real threat in spite of his lackluster ability. Though the real meat is how much he's able to challenge the world and characters we see. The man has an iron clad code, one that makes he ready to lift up or deconstruct anyone he comes across.

+The fight with Stain is great. Stain is outgunned and outnumbered, but never outmatched, having much greater skill and what amounts to a one hit KO. That mixed with the closed off arena gives him a massive advantage. It's such a uniquely balanced fight and leads to a lot of interesting back and forth, yet still makes Stain a real threat.

+It feels like there were some real consequences to this arc. Stain wasn't some one-off villain, he changed everything, inspiring more villains and building up for the next big arc. Then there are hints to All For One, the who harmed All Might, being behind everything. It builds up a lot of intrigue for the rest of the story.

=Yeah, there is a good reason everyone talks about this arc. While Stain is the standout figure of this part, I do think it does a disservice to the rest of the arc to only bring up him. It's able to balance so much so well with how each of the characters grow and all meet up in fight. So yeah, it's well worth all the hype it gets.

Hideout Raid Arc: (10/10)

+This handles a lot of the aftermath of Forest Camp Arc well. All the students emotionally handling things and the teachers dealing with the fallout being well done. Giving Izuku a very real threat of damage to his body if he keeps pushing himself too far, set up some real stakes for his training and any future battles he has.

+I like a lot of minor moments between the students. Things like the debate at the beginning of whether or not to save Bakugou helps flesh out the class a lot. Then the bit of Momo and Iida keeping their friends from rushing in are good moments for them while still establishing just how big of a threat All For One is.

+And this is the arc where I think Bakugou clicked for me. We got hints of his depth before, but this is where it comes together. It gives us such an interesting peek into his headspace, like the view we got of his home life and getting his perspective on the concept of heroism and how it ties into winning for him.

+All For One's reveal was handled so well. The shadowy man we've heard so much about comes out with a devastating attack, destroying any opposition and horrifying the nearby students. It's nothing truly groundbreaking, but It's all presented so well that it elevates so much in the eyes of the reader as an impossible threat.

+The All For One vs All Might fight is one of the highest, if not the highest peaks in the series. What else could I possibly say? The beats are simple, but the execution is nigh perfect. The back and forth of the two, the reveal of Small Might, the second wind of power, All Might learning from Izuku, and the United States of Smash. All amazing.

+And while many people remember the main fight, I think the aftermath is just as good. The conflict between Izuku, Inko, and Toshinori is so natural and gripping, with Inko wanting to protect Izuku in spite of his dreams and this in turn hardening's Toshinori to the resolve of his new mission of training Izuku.

+Said aftermath sets up some many interesting and exciting plot points. The fall out of All For One's capture, All Might needing to deal with his life after being a hero, Izuku having to bear the weight of "One For All", Bakugou feeling guilt over All Might losing his spot, and the still immature Tomura now being out on his own.

+The tone is really well handled here. It gets pretty grim, but it doesn't get so dark that it takes you out of the experience and hits all the hopeful moments just right. And again, the comedy is oddly strong here. All Might opening his big entrance with a pizza delivery line and the rescue gang trying clothes on in a thrift store.

=Now, I don't need to tell you why this is good. What you may be asking is why it's not at the top. While I do think that All Might vs All For One is amazing and a good chunk of the arc, but there's still the rest of it. Again, it's some good stuff that gets overshadow a lot, but it's another case of something so amazing elevating the rest of the arc.

Shie Hassaikai Arc: (10/10)

+Not only is this arc unique from all the other arcs thus far, giving us our first real look at the hero world, the arc is great technically as well. It's always keeping up my interest and doesn't drag on at any point. The art is really good, especially with the character designs. Everything is as long as it needs to be, and nothing feels awkward.

+I really like how Izuku is handled here. He has been defined by his self-image issues but tackling that as All Might's successor is interesting. It does everything in its power to make you question if he was worthy, yet is always showing you his merits, namely his relentless will to help people no matter the threat may be.

+Sir Nighteye and Mirio are both good characters as well. They do work to contrast's Izuku own feelings and his role but are still enjoyable characters in their own right. Mirio as a hard-working hero with a good heart and Sir Nighteye as a fatalistic naysayer are both great in their own ways.

+In fact, a lot of the side characters are good in it. Kirishima gets a lot of good development, Tamaki is fun to read as the shy dork he is, Rock Lock presents a unique perspective on hero students, and Fat Gum is Fat Gum. Even with the more minor characters, they stand out enough to be interesting in spite of their lack of panel time.

+To me, this is the arc where Tomura really hits his stride as a villain. Without any proper support, he grows into the leader needs to be the League. Not only does this lead to some of his best moments and sets up his story but adds some much needed layers to the burgeoning villain, showing some real care for his teammates.

+Overhaul is such a great villain. Not only is he a massive threat in power, resources, and overall abilities, he acts as a good foil not only to Izuku, but to Tomura as well while still being his own character. His plan and goal are so unique for the setting, yet offer a frightening endgame, effectively controlling the supply and demand of Quirks.

+By extension, I think this does a lot to characterize the rest of the villains. Obviously, Twice and Toga get the bulk of it, building them up as people beyond their gimmicks, but the rest of the League gets their own moments to shine. This extends to the yakuza minions, who I think are my favorite ensemble of villains in the series.

+This arc ends on such a great note. Sir Nighteye's death crushes the heroes' side in spite the reconciliation. Meanwhile, Tomura gets out like champ, getting revenge on Overhaul and leaving with a dangerous weapon in his hands. It's a good way to start the slow shift of the dynamic between heroes and villains going forward.

=So while this doesn't think this hits the same highs as the Hideout Raid, I think it does accomplish more with its scope. It has a lot more to juggle in comparison to the Hideout Raid and pulls it off with flying colors. It obviously doesn't hit the same peaks, but holds as consistently level of quality, making me prefer it.

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queerstake · 4 months

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As a queer drawn to the faith and trying to deal with the messiness of entering into everything, I've been trying hard to read more of the Book of Mormon because I only have a very vague understanding of it's Whole Deal, but executive dysfunction, ADHD, and honestly, a million other excuses are making it very difficult. Are there any good resources for walking through the fundamentals? Childish but I feel like I'm disappointing the Lord if I'm not more on top of this.

Hi anon! I totally get it and yes, I can think of a few ideas!

If you're looking for ways to understand the BoM (or even just general doctrine) from more of a bird's eye view:

I hope you don't find this silly, but when I was a kid, the church published an illustrated children's version of the BoM that's obviously way quicker to flip through. It might be harder for you to find those exact editions I read as a kid if you don't have ready access to a church library, BUT I found this!! It's (almost) the ENTIRE BoM illustrated and summarized and it's online!

Looks like they put out videos too that summarize the BoM beginning to end. Here's a link to the video series. I haven't seen these, so I can't vouch for them, but they might be helpful! Similarly, there's a BoM in 60 seconds video you might find helpful.

If you'd benefit from a schedule, the church is currently studying the BoM in sunday school! The past few years, we've been using a study guide called Come Follow Me with weekly assigned reading chapters. I've actually been working on posts about CFM as they relate to queer mormon theology, but I haven't had much posted yet since I've been having a rocky start to 2024. As things improve, I'll be able to hopefully even establish a schedule on this blog!

I'm not sure if missionary lessons is something you're interested in at this point, and it's definitely not something you ever need to do, but the missionary lessons themselves are a pretty good doctrine intro if you're looking for just Mormonism 101 in a digestible way. The missionaries teach out a book called Preach My Gospel, which is available right here. You'll be interested in the lessons, which are found in Chapter 3. If you just scroll down, you'll see some of the links are labeled Lesson instead of Chapter--just click on those bad boys. And if you have any doctrinal questions, I'm always MORE than happy to talk about the church! You'll probably get a faster answer DMing me personally at @logans-mormon-blog, but I'll always answer asks here as soon as time permits.

If you're looking for easier ways to finish the BoM from beginning to end:

The BoM on tape. The church has an audiobook version available on the Gospel Library app and other audio apps like Spotify.

The Reader's Edition. If you can get your hand on a reader's edition, a lot of people find this is an easier way to plow through the BoM. What's special about this one is that it's formatted not like scripture but like prose, and it really does change the reading experience!

I don't know if this helps any, but I struggle with some of the same issues as you and I'm always bitterly disappointed when I'm not able to move mountains. If I had my way, I'd be the most well-read scriptorian of all time and this blog would be updated constantly. But life often doesn't shake out that way. I spend way more time than I want to with my brain entirely burned out of my head. So you're not alone, if that's any comfort. I think God gets it--he made our brains, after all, and knows how hard it is to wrestle with. It's easier said than done, but don't beat yourself up. God loves the both of us and he's the most perfectly patient person who's ever lived. He's not frustrated or disappointed with our efforts. Religion exists, in my opinion, to help improve and enrich our lives, not make them more challenging OR even to make them perfect if we only could just run fast enough. I too wish I could be more diligent and on it, but shit happens, right? And we're not on earth to be perfect, we're here to be happy and to learn. When Joseph Smith was translating the BoM, God told him "Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end." D&C 10:4. We're doing our damndest, and that's all God even wants from us.

If anyone else has more resource ideas, please let us know!

-Logan

#queerstake #tumblrstake #lds #mormon

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eerna · 6 months

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Out of curiousity, what was it about genshin that you hated? I'm not very far through it and now I'm curious what to expect from the story and you have good takes usually (Like aside from the gatcha system, which I stay safe from the clutches of by only engaging with genshin through my friend streaming it sometimes)

Sorry if this is kicking a hornet's nest, in which case no pressure to answer, but I would genuinely like to hear your thoughts on it

Thanks! That's ok, I am always up for some hornet's nest kicking :3 (note: this user never posts any of her opinions in main tags because she wants to avoid kicking hornet's nests as much as possible)

OK I will be a bit short and vague on it bc there's a Lot to cover and idk which parts exactly interest you. In any case it needs a keep reading

Yeah, I never paid a single coin for Genshin, all of my investment was done through time and braincells. The story is the same in every region you go to. You arrive, you wanna talk to the Archon, there is a problem caused by the baddies, you solve the problem, you talk to the Archon, the baddies take the Archon's thingie, you meet your sibling, the sibling goes away. This wouldn't be a bad formula, there's lots of wiggle room for fun yearly adventures, but the dialogue and the characters make it unbearably boring. The dialogue is just everyone talking in circles, repeating the same thing over and over again, broken up by meaningless conversation choices. You can't skip it, which is stupid because the MOMENT the conversation ends PAIMON JUST SUMMARIZES WHAT WAS SAID AND HOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL ABOUT IT. After a while your sanity starts slipping. You can't even hang onto interesting personalities, because everyone in that game is an anime stereotype meant for fanservice depending on your type. My fav is the magical pirate woman with a big sword who has a lawful ruler gf!!! OF COURSE my fav is THE MAGICAL PIRATE WOMAN WITH A BIG SWORD WHO HAS A LAWFUL RULER GF because that's the type of shit I enjoy in better media so I am automatically more willing to like these cardboard cutouts. It's like the game is allergic to stopping and digging deeper into its themes or messages, everything is to be taken at face value, it honestly feels like a preschool TV show with jiggle physics. I know a lot of people say the game lore is super cool, but honestly it just reads like typical anime fantasy without any rhyme or reason behind it to me. What I DO like about the lore is the certain ideas behind the regions and the way nature (and the elements) are interwoven through the map. Exploration is 1000000% the best part of the game, the music accompanying the areas is beautiful and the views are very pretty. Honestly, the best time I've had with the game is when my friends and I would run around the map, talking aimlessly about whatever was happening in our lives, the one veteran showing us newbies cool spots or farming grounds.

All in all, hope you do have fun with it, but I honestly can't say it is a good game.

#eernask #eernanon #eernask talk genshin

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year

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Hi Ms Raven! I just wanted to ask what're your thoughts on the new twst manga chapter?? Personally, I'm not the biggest fan, but give credit where credit is due; the art is gorgeous and I love the Leona's characterization. I still have gripe with the MC change and I still feel it was unnecessary, I feel Yuuken would've been the same in the role if he wasn't replaced by Yuuka. I can't help but think that the MC change was for self insert purposes than anything else 💀

I believe I went over my initial impression of the Episode of Savanaclaw’s first chapter in this post. To summarize: pretty art (especially the eyelashes) and nice visual storytelling that expands on what the visual novel format of the game laid out as groundwork. (However, if I had one minor qualm with the artwork, it’s that I don’t believe the mangaka’s style necessarily suits TWST in all scenarios; for example, sometimes the characters make expressions that, while beautiful, make them appear like completely different characters for like a single panel.) Overall, I thought the chapter was pretty good, if not a tad bit long due to all of the exposition and recap we had to go through again.

One element that I didn’t really discuss in that reaction post was our new Yuu, Yuuka Hirasaka. This is largely because I personally don’t have an vested interest in the Yuus 💦 and quite honestly, the introduction of another one (which replaces a previous one) made me equal parts excited and disappointed. I don’t have anything against a new character, but I’m disappointed that no manga!Yuu will ever receive a fully realized character arc; each one will (assumedly) be cut short to make way for a new Yuu, which means I can never see myself getting invested in one of them (since I know they’ll just go away at the end of the episode). It just doesn’t feel satisfying to me, and I’m moderately concerned about how reintroducing the Yuu and the episodes leading up to the current point in the plot will work for future episodes which get continuously lengthier, more complex, and build on the relationships established in previous episodes.

Yuuka is also just at a point where it’s too early for me to judge whether I like her or not (though I know many are excited at the prospect of a Yuu that is a “strong independent woman that takes no one’s shit”; this seems to be the popular fandom interpretation of her). I’ll reserve my judgment for now; I want to see more of how she interacts with the characters and the world first.

I understand that everyone may have their own reservations about Yuuka (and it’s totally fine if you find yourself not enjoying her), but let’s be careful not to point fingers about it 😅 For all we know, the changing of Yuus per episode could be a very deliberate and story-driven move (a la the popular “time loop” theory). We can’t make assumptions about the intent behind it, especially when we don’t yet have the context of the entire main story being completed.

Additionally, while it may be validating for the (largely) female fanbase that self inserts to have its representation in a female Yuu in official TWST media, I don’t think the change was just to appease a demographic. It may be such that it opens up interesting avenues for engagement with Leona (who, canonically, “respects women”). As I’ve stated in a previous post though, I don’t think the change will be that big, but it could expand more on Leona’s character by demonstrating how exactly he interacts with women whom he supposedly “respects”. We’ve only really had vague information and fandom speculation on this point, and I, for one, welcome any and all new lore 😌

Yuuka offers a slightly different perspective than Yuuken because of little details like this, and that is one advantage of changing the lenses through which we view the story every episode. Again, not everyone will be happy with the direction of the manga, but let’s try to look at the positives ^^ Lots of Yuus also means lots of possibilities, yeah?

#Leona Kingscholar #twst #twisted wonderland #twst manga #twisted wonderland manga #Yuuka Hirasaka #Hirasaka Yuuka #disney twisted wonderland #question #notes from the writing raven #spoilers #advice #Yuuken Enma #Enma Yuuken

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aceofwhump · 5 months

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Your answer to that summarized all of my thoughts perfectly, Ace! I started planning for what was going to be my first whumptober this year because I finally had the time and then gave up because it was just too difficult and I ended up lacking the motivation for it in the end.

I think there was the assumption that the vague, abstract ideas would be fun and help and allow people to get creative but they really, really didn't! I don't want to have to spend time wracking my brain for ideas when you're already stretched for time to get everything done as it is. I mean, come on, polaroid, scented candle, playing cards??? What on earth are we supposed to do with that?

On the other hand, When the prompts are too specific it just really limits what you can make and it's not only a case of are there even any examples of that out there but is it something I want to gif? Like okay, if I thought hard enough or did a bit of research, I could maybe think up one or two examples for a prompt but it may not be from a show or actor I even like. Gif making takes a lot of time and energy, so do I want to waste time giffing something I don't even enjoy just to complete the challenge? With a prompt like stabbed there's so much you can do with that. Or even something like oxygen mask, I can think of a tonne of examples. Like give us "sweat(y)" rather than something super specific like "sweat drenched sheets",. because you might as well be giving us "sweat drenched yellow t-shirt with a purple unicycling tabby cat simultaneously juggling and eating a 3 cheese pepperoni pizza on the front."

And the dialogue prompts are always a struggle, the fact we had 31 of those for whumptober made things so difficult. I mean "I'm not as stupid as you think I am," that's just so specific! If we have to have those there needs to be less of them, or they should just stick to words like "stay" or "breathe" where we can use that as part of a larger dialogue. Making it more specific like "stay with me," "please stay," just makes it harder.

Also, the distinct lack of care and comfort prompts is always so saddening. The comfort is just as important as the hurt itself to me. Give me things like hair stroking, carried, held etc. or hell, just comfort in general as a prompt on it's own.

And as you said, less whumper based prompts! There are other ways for a character to hurt without involving a whumper! Sick, fever, withdrawal, whatever. And I'd like more emotional based prompts too, because I've always preferred that over physical whump anyway!

I get it's going to be difficult to cater to everyone's wants and needs but I'd just love for things to be made a little easier is all.

Yes yes yes!!! Exactly!!! All of that!!! 👏👏👏

Oh my, you have no idea what a relief it is to know I'm not the only with these feelings! That I'm not the only gifmaker having trouble with those kinds of prompts, who wants more comfort and whumper less tropes! Thank you. God I'm glad I'm not alone. They're just so hard to think of examples that it feels like I spend 90% of my prep time finding scenes and then frantically trying to make the actual gifs just before it's time to post. Which is the fun part! The making is the fun part! And this takes away all the fun of it.

I am so seriously beginning to think I need to make a gif making prompt month challenge thing. It seems like a lot of us are on the same page lately and it'd be so nice to have a challenge designed for gifmaking specifically.

#mod replies #ask #whump gifmaking

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 3 months

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Long post about personal history that's come up in my life this week. Trigger warning for a bunch of shit, sexual harassment and misogyny. This one is really just for me, writing it down makes me feel better and posting it makes me feel better. I actually won this one, and it's a good thing, but there are so many years of history that I had to write some shit down to keep it all straight.

I did some proper cancel culture last weekend. Genuine, textbook cancel culture. The kind of thing you hear about on podcasts. The kind of thing you may literally be able to hear about on a podcast soon – I mean not “you” as in anyone reading this unless you happen to subscribe to any of the small local MMA-focused bro podcasts to which he might take the story – but still, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about this getting out there. It had all the tenants of cancel culture: bringing back some shit from more than ten years ago, deciding a vague non-apology isn’t good enough, applying our own subjective view of morality even to something that was technically legally okay. I’ve been oscillating for a week between feeling terrible because of all the shit this brought back, and actually quite enjoying the fact that I got to win this time, for once. And then feeling bad about that, because that’s what they say about us, isn’t it? That people are perpetrating cancel culture just because it feels good to have an outlet for their anger and they want someone to suffer, not because it’s the best thing for the affected community. The former is actually a bit true in this case, but by coincidence, it’s also the best thing for the affected community. I have swallowed my anger so many times in the last twenty years because I was trying to do what’s right, in a rare instance where what feels best is also the best thing to do, can I be allowed to enjoy it?

It's not just that, weirdly a number of interconnected things have come up at the same time in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been reading through some of my old stuff. I have everything written down. I have a Word document on my hard drive that’s nearly 2,000 pages long, and chronicles my experience in the sport of wrestling from 2006 to 2018 (I’ve got stuff from 2004-2006 and 2018-2020 written in other places). It’s mostly just me writing the stories of what happened, but it also includes pictures, and copy-pasting of email chains and other documents so they wouldn’t get lost. I didn’t write it at the time because I thought it would ever matter, it just made me feel better to know I had all these thoughts and stories written down (in case this blog has not already made it clear that I am a person who feels better if everything is written down). But this week had made me glad I did it, because some questions have come up about timelines and what really happened all those years ago, and I’m able to pull up not just notes I wrote at the time, but copies of emails with exact dates. Other people can’t rewrite history if I already wrote it.

Even before the cancel culture last weekend, I’d found myself reading through those old journals the previous week, because I felt like I was being asked to accept a version of history that didn’t feel right, and I wanted to check who was wrong. I even clicked through this blog to find some more recent history, because I remembered I’d written a couple of posts in the summer of 2021 where I’d tried to summarize some of the issues that seem so insular to the sport world. One after my best friend’s birthday party, which was the first significant social thing I did after lockdowns, and one during the Tokyo Olympics, when the gymnast Simone Biles had just pulled out of the tournament due to mental health issues, and it sparked this big discussion about mental health in sports.

I’ve got an update to some of those. My old teammate that I mentioned at the end, who won in Rio and was about to compete in Tokyo, lost her only match there. Everyone in the country, as I’d suspected, immediately started talking about how she was always overrated. She spent a few more years doing occasional competitions that slowly tapered off, and just this month, formally announced her retirement. She had her retirement event in her hometown, which is of course my hometown, and I went to it last night (well, I went to the social thing afterward, I couldn’t bring myself to do the actual ceremony with that level of polite company), and I didn’t drink even though it was at a bar, and she was very drunk and gave me a hug and told me how happy she was that I’m still around after all these years since we trained together as teenagers, and it was lovely. In other updates from that post, my other former teammate and long-term to whom I gave the nickname Nikolai in there, refused to attend the event because he’s decided he’s “not a fan” of hers (for vaguely-to-overtly misogynistic reasons), and has been telling our teenage male athletes that Andrew Tate’s all right actually and people are too quick to dismiss thinkers like that. I recently made a different post that referenced a longtime friend of mine who recently got into Andrew Tate, and I just want people to know that those are not the same person. That’s happened more than once.

I wrote about this girl whom I named Josie in that post, which is weird, because I barely knew who Josie Long was in August 2021. I’d seen her on a few panel shows and liked her a lot, but hadn’t actually gotten into her stand-up or anything. I think I’d just recently happened to come across an article about how Josie Long, that woman I really liked from that one Catsdown episode, started comedy very young and was an immediate prodigy but also faced backlash that was difficult to deal with when so young, I was writing a post in which I was giving privacy-protecting nicknames to people I know and wanted one for the girl I knew who had way too much talent way too young and it overwhelmed her, and I went with that.

Anyway, I wrote about this teenage girl from my team who got exploited by terrible abusive coaches from other teams and driven out of the sport, only to come back years later, older and wiser and much much more jaded. I think I only vaguely referenced the fact that, to be fair, she didn’t exactly have a perfect experience on my own team. Due to her experience with an adult man here.

For the privacy-protecting purposes of this post, I’m going to call him Louis, entirely because I just read an article about that new-ish Louis CK documentary, so that’s the name that comes to mind when I think about men who do horrible sex things that they defend with “but it wasn’t technically illegal”.

I’ve known Louis at least a bit since 2005, when I joined our local wrestling club, and he was an occasional member, though he was a couple of years old and a lot bigger than me so we stuck to different sides of the practice room and I didn’t really know him. I first properly met him at the 2007 National Championships, when I was one of the only two girls on our team, both girls were 16, and we shared a hotel room. He and his brother knocked on our door, and my friend/female teammate let them in, even though we barely knew them, beyond the fact that they were competing at this tournament for the same team as us and in the age group above ours. They were both drunk. Louis offered me a beer and I declined, because despite my problems with alcohol as an adult, I never drank underage. He offered my female friend a beer and she took it, but drank very slowly. Throughout the night, he kept encouraging her to drink faster, clearly trying to get her drunk.

He then sat down on the chair in our hotel room and we made awkward conversation, and I don’t remember all of it, but I definitely remember when he started complaining about how we had it easier because the female divisions had fewer people than the male divisions (due to the sport being overwhelmingly male-dominated in 2007 – it’s still male-dominated today, but was much, much more so then), so we didn’t have to win as many matches to get a medal. He then expanded into saying there’s no point to women’s wrestling anyway because girls aren’t as tough so their matches aren’t as competitive or interesting to watch, and he told my friend she should stop competing because it’ll hurt her chances of getting a boyfriend. Eventually he and his brother got up and just left (I was too naïve to understand at the time that clearly what happened was they were hoping we’d sleep with them – or more accurately, Louis was hoping my very conventionally attractive friend would sleep with him and his brother was presumably there to distract me – and eventually my friend made it clear that she wanted to just go to bed so they gave up). I didn’t say a word the whole night. I just sat on my hotel bed, furious, feeling like anything I could say would be speaking out of turn, and no matter how angry I was, I had to be good and keep my mouth shut.

But I didn’t just forget what had happened. Just after that tournament, our club started to change significantly. Basically a new coach took it over and pissed most people off so much that they quit, so it became much smaller and more structured. It also started to have a more clear designation for its small core of the most competitive athletes, and that core included both Louis and I, so he was no longer someone I occasionally saw across a practice room, he was someone I encountered directly at practice five nights a week.

I hated him quietly, as every time I saw him I remember how he made me feel in that hotel room. Then after practice, I’d complain to my friend about him – my male best friend, who’s a wonderful person and my current roommate, we’ve been friends for all these years. But I remember, in 2007, him telling me I needed to try to get over my grudge. So Louis got drunk in a hotel room at a stressful tournament and said some dumb shit to a girl he wanted to impress. He’s my teammate, I need to stop holding onto these things forever. One time I did a drill with Louis and accidentally hit his chin and made his tongue bleed. I genuinely didn’t do it on purpose, but also, I didn’t apologize. My friend called me incredibly petty for that, which I probably was.

Eventually, that one night in the hotel faded into us just being teammates. There was enough other shit going on at the club for that one thing to not seem like such a big deal by comparison. We were all so consumed by this pressure cooker situation, in which Louis and I often were on the same side – us and the rest of the athletes vs. a horrible abusive coach – that I did sort of let it go. We went through some shit together. He was the coach’s golden boy, one of our most successful competitive athletes. For nationals in 2008, our coach forced him to cut nearly 15 kilos to avoid a guy he couldn’t beat at the higher weight class because a gold medal could get funding for our team, and he almost put himself in the hospital with the effort to make the weight. I remember he disappeared before my eyes, showing up to practice smaller and smaller every night until there was barely any of him left. At the tournament, he did make the weight, but lost to an inferior athlete because he was so physically depleted from the weight cut. I wasn’t there, but I heard from friends who were that after he lost his match, our coach yelled at him in front of everyone for not trying hard enough, and he was later seen crying in the hallway. Some dumb shit he’d said a year before didn’t seem to matter so much after that.

Not all my memories of back when Louis and I were teenage teammates involve him getting smaller. For example, there was the day that my best friend missed a week of practice for university midterms, came back, did a match with Louis, and still won. The coach berated Louis in front of the whole team for not being good enough, as he’d lost to a guy who hadn’t even been training all week. The next week, I worked with Louis in a warm-up drill, I put a hand on his bicep for the drill, and immediately thought – what the fuck? I touched this same bicep four days ago, and I did not feel like this. How did this double in size over a weekend? Of course, a month later he went to the coach to admit that in his desperation to avoid losing to my friend in practice anymore, he’d been taking some “all natural supplements” that he was a bit worried might come up if he got selected for drug testing at competitions. Our coach took one look at the supplements, said those are fucking steroids, and then the entire team got a lecture followed by extra workouts as collective punishment for the dumb decision by this one guy. Also, this incident triggered a massive email chain of coaches debating what to do, leading a meeting of all the coaches in the city to debate the dumb decision made by this one guy, and I have copies of that email chain, even though I shouldn’t know about that, because even at the age of 17, I had my ways of accessing things I wasn’t supposed to (basically I had a guy bootleg a coaches’ meeting for me).

We all graduated high school. Our horrible coach left town in 2009. My best friend and I took over in sort of assistant coaching roles at first, moving into being the main people running the club by 2012. Louis spent several years bouncing from room to room; he’d go train with bigger teams in other cities, then come home and train in our room for a while, then go off somewhere else. We heard rumours of him pissing people off on another team because he’d become a hardcore Christian and whenever he made a mistake, he’d say “Only God can judge me.” But he also won some national medals and got on the international team a couple of times, he beat up some top athletes and started branching into MMA, he was undeniably talented. I would never have called him a good friend, but we got along okay when he was in town.

For the 2012-2013 season, he ended up living back at home, and training with our team fulltime. He was 24 by then. I was 22, and was coaching with my best friend. And the girl I called Josie, one of the only two girls in the first generation of athletes I ever coaches (the sport was still pretty fucking male-dominated by 2012), this blindingly talented prodigy athlete who looked up to me and who I’d do anything for, was 15. Well, she was fifteen until one day in July 2012, when she turned sixteen, and on that exact day, Louis decided to ask her out on a date. He’d been talking to her a lot in the few months before her birthday, and asked her out right on that day. Technically legal.

She said yes. At first they tried to keep the relationship a secret, though they were very bad at it, and for a while there was this awkward situation where everyone could see they were together but we had to pretend we didn’t. I was so worried about her, and I finally took her aside to ask about it. She admitted that she had been together with Louis since her sixteenth birthday, but they were very happy together, and even if people thought the age group was weird, they just didn’t understand. I was horrified, but I also knew she was the most stubborn teenager I’d ever met, and if I told her “I want to stop you from dating your boyfriend,” that would just upset her. I was a role model to her. Old enough to seem like an adult to her and be expected to act like one, too fucking young to know what to do.

We brought it to the coaches, and for the second time in five years, all the coaches on my team had to have a fucking meeting about the fucking behaviour of this fucking guy. It turned out that her parents were already aware, and they did not like it, but they also knew that if they tried to forbid her from seeing Louis, she’d just run away and move in with him. So they allowed it, because they had no choice.

As coaches, we said there wasn’t much else we could do. We had a duty to inform her parents, but they already knew. It wasn’t against the law. Our team, at the time, didn’t technically have rules against it (that has been fixed many times over since then, I have personally written bylaws and a code of conduct to make sure no one gets away with this again, but we didn’t have it then), so we had no grounds to kick him out. All that came out of it was one of the other coaches had a stern talk with Louis about how this meant he was not allowed to take on a coaching role in any capacity. Because where we are, the age of consent is 16, unless the older person is in a position of power, in which case it’s 18. But he was just another athlete on the team, not a coach, so technically no position of power.

They were together for eight months. After eight months, she broke up with him, to the relief of myself and the other coaches. I didn’t initially hear a lot about the breakup, just that it had happened. But a few weeks later, she asked to speak to me in private after practice. She told me that Louis had been texting her and calling her, saying horrible emotionally abusive things (ranging from calling her horrible vulgar names and threatening to hurt her, to begging her to take him back and threatening to hurt himself). She’d told him she wanted no contact with him – besides having to see him at practice but she didn’t want to interact with him there – and she’d blocked him. He’d kept calling from other numbers. One night, he showed up at her house late at night. She lived in a very rural area, and that could have been dangerous if her parents hadn’t been home, as there would be no one nearby and he’s a lot bigger than her and a trained fighter. Luckily her parents were there, and they threated to call the cops, and luckily that got him to leave. But after that, her mother started attending every practice with her. Her mother would sit on the sidelines to watch practice, and if she had to go to the bathroom or something, her mother would go with her. To make sure she was never alone at practice, and Louis would never get the chance to corner her somewhere.

She told me all this in private, and I was horrified. I had just become a proper coach of this club, was trying to gather up the ashes of the dumpster fire it had been and mould them into what I wanted, and I was running a team where a teenage girl could not feel safe while stepping into a hallway by herself. I told her that I would protect her privacy, but I also needed to protect her safety, and asked if I could have permission to share this with the other coaches. She said yes, she wanted them to know, because she felt scared, but didn’t feel comfortable telling them herself, she only felt comfortable coming to me.

So I went to the other coaches, told them everything, said we need to kick this guy out. There were four main people running the team at the time: me, my best friend, and two older guys. My friend and I wanted to get rid of him, the older guys said we have to consider the many complicating factors in this situation. He hasn’t technically done anything illegal. We had a whole email exchange to discuss this, and of course I still have copies of the emails in my journals, so here’s a quote from one of the older guys’ emails: “The sport of wrestling and the dynamic in wrestling rooms have changed significantly with the inclusion of women. The inclusion and co-mingling has enhanced the sport in many ways, but has also brought other challenges that come from men and women sharing space. Relationships (intimate ones) are inevitable.” This was in 2013. Women were fairly new to the sport when I started, in 2004. They were not so new to the sport by 2013 that it’s reasonable to say sexual harassment happens because this is what happens when you try some risky experiment like co-mingling men and women (I mean, obviously that wouldn’t be a reasonable thing to say in 2004 either). And the coach who said that was one of the good ones. One of the nice members of the old boys club. I saw him last night at the social event, we hugged and had a nice catch-up. Because he’s better than most. But I do have his email from 2013 still saved on my computer.

The club was run by consensus then, and we were locked two vs. two (my friend and I wanted him out, the other two didn’t), so we compromised. My best friend had a “serious talk” with Louis, in which he said that Louis is not allowed to ever contact that girl again – and he’s also not allowed to try anything with any other girls on the team – or else he’ll be kicked out for good. Louis apologized (to my friend), said he knew he’d gone too far when he showed up at her house, he just did it because he was so upset about her “throwing away a good relationship”, but wouldn’t do that again, he was done with it. I didn’t like it, but we all moved on.

Until a couple of months later, when I heard from another high school kid that he’d been messaging her again, from a different number since she had his blocked, asking for another chance. And he’d been talking to the high school boys about it, which is also inappropriate, talking to some teenagers about his efforts to get another teenager to fuck him. Oh, and he’d asked a different high school girl out on a date, and she’d declined. And he’d made a comment to the teenage boy about a thirteen-year-old girl on the team being attractive, and asked if she was single, though apparently he “assumed she was older” and backed off when told how young she was.

The teenage boy told my friend and I all this during a road trip to a tournament, and even showed us his message chain with Louis, which all backed up what he’d said. I remember sitting in the truck, reading the messages, seeing red. I could barely breathe I was so angry. I said this has to be it. He had his warning, he broke it. My friend said he agreed with me, but we have to bring it back to the other coaches for discussion before we can do anything.

That’s what we were planning to do. But we got back from the tournament late at night, and practice was early the next morning. My friend got called into work, so I ran that practice alone. Louis showed up. Being in the room with him made me furious. I ran the whole practice professionally, and pretty much ignored him. I should have just gone home and sent another message to the email chain, the proper way to deal with things. But I couldn’t help. After practice, I went to him outside the change room and said I’d heard he’d been in contact with her again.

Louis turned around and got right in my face, and instantly said, “You can fuck off with that.” I told him he’d already been warned and he’d never be allowed back in the room again. He started yelling, said it’s not my business and to stay out of it. I said it is my business and I will personally make sure he never, ever comes near a girl on my team again. He told me to go fuck myself a couple more times, looked like he was going to hit me, didn’t hit me, went into the change room and closed to door.

I went home and sent the email. The two older coaches still didn’t want to kick him out permanently. We went back and forth a bit. I was so fucking angry that I couldn’t personally participate in the email chain much, I’d have ended up saying something I’d regret. I mostly just edited emails written by friend, which were professional and respectable, because that’s been our dynamic from the start. I’m angry and hold grudges and can’t let go when I hate someone, he’s professional and respectable and diplomatic and actually gets us somewhere. We work together for a common goal. He once gave me a pen for my birthday with my nickname “loose cannon” engraved on it.

The decision was for my friend to have another talk with Louis, another warning. But this one a lot harsher. He did that, and while he didn’t technically kick Louis out, he did make it very fucking clear that Louis wasn’t wanted. Clear enough so he finally got the message. Louis didn’t came back to our practices after that.

That’s not the last we’ve heard about him or anything. He went back to moving around, trained in some other rooms. We heard a few rumours, with varying degrees of reliability (though at least a couple from very reliable sources so are probably true), of him getting in trouble in other rooms for issues related to making the female athletes uncomfortable. He kept competing off and on until about 2016. I think he even made the national team again in 2015. His face was sure on enough of the national organization’s promo materials for a while. He wore their uniform. I saw him get interviewed about his success stories. I also saw him get beat up at a couple of tournaments, and I enjoyed that. I was in rooms with him when we attended the same events, but I had no more direct contact with him.

In 2021, the girl he’d dated moved back to town. We talked to her about all the shit that went down when she was a teenager, and her view on it was basically “I didn’t realize at the time because I was too young to see who was exploiting me, but I get now that you two were trying to protect me and you were right about it all.” She said she now sees that Louis was a predator all along, not just for the way he harassed her after the breakup, but for dating someone so young in the first place. She used the word “pedophile” to describe him, and said she hopes we never, ever let him back in the room again. We assured her that we never would. We’d restructured the team a lot since 2013, we’d written up codes of conduct and formal power structures so we could just bar people if we wanted to, no need to convince some old men to agree with us first. She said that was good. She said he abused her when she was young and we should never let him back.

That’s where things were in those posts I wrote in 2021, and rereading them reminded me that in one of them, I wrote that I would never, ever let him into my practice room. But when I wrote that, I didn’t expect it to ever actually be an issue. I hadn’t even seen him in person in years.

Last weekend – as in, early March 2024 – he walked into our practice room. I wasn’t there, as I haven’t been in the practice room in months, as I’ve been taking a step back from the sport to decide what I want to do, which is a whole other thing. But my best friend was there, running the practice. And he lives with me now, so of course he came home and told me about it. How Louis just walked into the room, and almost no one even recognized him, because it’s been so long and the people have changed over. Only a couple of people remembered him. No one there knew the full story.

My friend didn’t want to make a scene and kick him out publicly, so he just let Louis stay and do the practice. After practice, Louis went to my friend and said he knows he did some fucked up stuff ten years ago, but he’s sorry for that and he’s changed now – he even has a wife and kids now and he’s a different person – and he appreciates my friend being willing to put the past behind us and let him train there again. My friend didn’t say much, because he wasn’t willing to put anything behind us, but also didn’t want to make any official decisions in the moment.

He messaged the coaches’ group chat, not to ask for permission this time (he now has the power to just kick a guy out unilaterally if he wants to), but to find out what people think. Those two older guys from 2013 are long gone from our coaching staff (last night was the first time I saw that older guy in years, and we did have a nice catch-up), it’s now a lot of younger and more progressive people. The coaches all agreed that he shouldn’t be allowed back.

It’s not as simple as just being about us, though. Our club now trains in an MMA gym, we rent space from the gym owner five times a week for our practices. It turns out that Louis had actually gone to the gym’s owner/MMA coach to try to get a deal where he could teach some MMA in exchange for a free place to train, and to try competing in MMA again. The fact that our club was also there was just a bonus to him.

We wrote an email to the gym owner (by which I mean, I wrote an email and we put my friend’s name on it because he’s the respectable face), outlining our history with Louis and explaining that because of this history, we don’t want him at our wrestling practices. Of course we can’t stop him from getting involved in the gym, but we need to draw clear boundaries around our own time, and want him to be aware of the issue.

I was worried we’d have a fight on our hands, because that MMA gym owner is not the world’s greatest champion of feminism (that is and understatement, but no need to get into all that right now). But to our surprise, he came down on our side. He said he has women in his MMA program, and he wouldn’t want to risk alienating them by having this guy back. So he met up with Louis on Sunday, and said that actually, the deal’s off, and Louis needs to find somewhere else to train.

When confronted with the stuff from his past, Louis replied that he did do it, so the facts are not in dispute. However, Louis re-iterated that nothing he did was illegal (so he hasn’t changed that much), and apparently, used the phrase “Only God can judge me”, which is just wildly inaccurate. You can’t do that. You can opt into being judged by God, you can’t opt out of being judged by everyone else.

Then, Louis told the gym owner that my friend can’t be trusted as a source on this, because he slept with me at a tournament once, and he was my coach, so he also doesn’t have clean hands on the issue of a dicey past of sleeping with athletes. Which is an incredible thing to say. Fucking incredible. Because that was a real rumour, I remember when it went around. I just did not think that in 2024, I would have to be having the argument again about whether I had sex in a hotel room in Saskatchewan in 2008. It should not matter whether I had sex in a hotel room in Saskatchewan in 2008.

Having said that, I would just like to be clear: I didn’t have sex in a hotel room in Saskatchewan in 2008. What happened in 2008 was I was the only girl on a team with a horrible abusive coach (by then, my female teammate who’d go on win the Olympics had moved away to a much bigger team, my female teammate who’d been at nationals with me the year before and Louis tried to get drunk there had quit the sport, no other girls had joined), but it also meant a huge amount to me to think of that team as my family and my community and my identity. When the national championships came around, and they were halfway across the country, we all booked out own flights, but the coach booked a room for him and another room for the male athletes to share. He told me I’d have to book a room by myself because a girl couldn’t room with the boys.

I got – I’ll admit – disproportionately upset. I’d been excluded my whole life before joining the sport, I got so deeply immersed in the sport because it was the first place I felt like I was included, and I was pretty sensitive to feeling excluded again. I asked him why I couldn’t room with my male teammates. There were three of them and one of me, and we were all between the ages of 15 and 17 (I was 17). What was going to happen? We’re not going to have sex in a room with four people in it (to be honest, since then I’ve gotten older and learned that people have sex in hotel rooms at tournaments that have for people in them all the time, but I didn’t know that then).

My best friend was twenty years old at the time. He’s three years older than me, he’d been out of high school for a few years, while I was in my last year of high school. He and I went to high school together, and after he graduated, he came back to coach my high school team. So he and I were teammates at the local club, but I also had school practices a couple of times a week, where my friend was technically my coach. Though those practices were mainly just collaborative things where we’d train together for a couple of hours and go home.

My friend was too old to compete at those national championships – and anyway he’d quit competing after high school – but he was flying out there anyway because I desperately didn’t want to have our actual coach in my corners there, so he said he’d come along and sit in my corners instead. He also didn’t have his room booked by the club, since he wasn’t an official coach of our club and he wasn’t going as a competitive athlete. So our coach told him to book his own room too.

At this point, we learned that the tournament’s host hotel, where the club coach had booked himself and the male athletes, had filled up anyway. We found a cheaper hotel nearby, and went to book separate rooms. But I thought this was stupid. One thing I loved about tournaments was traveling together, feeling like part of a group, socializing. Also, I thought it wasn’t fair that the boys each only had to pay for a fraction of a room cost, while I’d have to pay for an entire room to myself. So I asked the coach if I could room with my friend. He said no, because I was a girl and he was a boy, and also he was my coach, and it’s against the constitution and the code of conduct.

I then went home, went online, and downloaded the constitution, bylaws, codes of ethics, and codes of conduct from both our provincial and national sporting organizations. I read through every single page of every single document, which came to nearly 200 pages, because that’s the kind of 17-year-old I was. I read through every single one just so I could truthfully say I had checked, and there is nothing in any of them that says men and women are not allowed to room together at a tournament.

I went back to the coach and told him this, and he went off on me, telling me I was being disrespectful by bringing this up and I need to just do as I’m told an stop being difficult. So I told him that he had come up here from a bigger team and ruined my wrestling club, that he made practices miserable and was engaging in unsafe practices. And then he yelled at me some more. All this took place in the hallway outside the practice room, while several people were trapped inside, not able to walk past us in the middle of that. I told him it was his fault another teammate of mine had left town, which was only partly true (but it was partly true). He accused me of just wanting to stay in that hotel room so I could have sex with my friend, and I said if staying in a hotel room together is proof that people are going to have sex with each other, then what about the many times that he had stayed in hotel rooms with the teenage boys that he coaches. He said that’s different, and I said we can’t know that for sure because some people are gay, and he said he has a wife and a kid on the way so obviously he’s not gay (fun fact, a few months later I was invited to that kid’s baby shower for some fucking reason, and for some even stranger reason I went, one of the most awkward afternoons of my life, there were seven women there including Louis’ mother, and yesterday at the 2024 national championships my old coach was there coaching his daughter whose baby shower I went to, she’s now 16, a girl from my team beat her in her first match, time is fucking weird). And I said sometimes gay men have wives and kids, and that’s not the point it’s about the principle, and he said I don’t understand what wrestling is, and I said he’d ruined my team again, and eventually we went home. I think that was what originally got me that “loose cannon” nickname.

Anyway, my friend and I ended up booking separate rooms at that separate hotel. But that hotel was still full of coaches, athletes, and refs who were in town for the tournament. So my friend said that, to be on the safe side, we should make sure we never go into each other’s rooms, even though it’s totally normal at tournaments for teammates to hang out in each other’s hotel rooms. The night before I competed I started panicking because I was afraid of not doing well enough, and my friend sat with me in the hallway to comfort me, just o make absolutely sure that no one could say they saw either of us go into the same hotel room. Because we didn’t want rumours. (Amazingly, he and I now live together in a two-bedroom house and manage to not have sex with each other every single night, because actually, introducing a woman into a situation does not always mean everything will just immediately be reduced to being about sex.)

And yet, later on, we were told that my club coach had been going around telling people that, even though we’d claimed to have booked separate rooms, my friend and I had secretly slept in the same room and had sex during that tournament. Which is such a stupid fucking rumour, because, I mean it shouldn’t matter, but I really didn’t. Not just with him, I didn’t with anyone. I didn’t even know until I was older that basically everyone else was using tournament hotels as a way to hook up with people from other teams and/or their own teams, I am probably the only person I know who hasn’t ever done that at a tournament. And it’s fine, I’m glad everyone’s having a good time, it’s just really not a thing I did.

And yet. And yet, in the Year of Our Lord 2024, I am finding myself contending with the accusation that I had sex in a hotel room in Saskatchewan in 2008. Because Louis was our coach’s golden boy then, so of course our coach told him this rumour, probably immediately after making it up. And apparently, Louis has been holding onto it for half my lifetime, just to throw it back at us to try to defend himself in a “Well it’s not like anyone has clean hands way” when we tried to cancel him. And I’m so fucking angry at him, and I hate him so much.

But the thing is, we won this time. The gym owner repeated this conversation to my friend, my friend told him the situation, the gym owner said yeah, Louis’ behaviour in their conversation came off as weird and aggressive, and he doesn’t want that guy around. So he messaged Louis to say he’s not welcome at the gym at all – not just in our practices, but in the MMA or any other part of the gym. Louis sent my friend some long and angry text messages about betrayal and shit like that, and how he slept with me in 2008 so there are no clean hands, and only God can judge him. But it didn’t matter, because he’s been banned, and that’s it. We won this time.

I think this might be my first time committing such a clear-cut case of cancel culture. I’ve gotten rid of people before, but doing it over something from ten years ago feels particularly cancel culture-ish. And God, I am such a huge fucking fan of cancel culture. I am so very grateful for cancel culture. I feel so much for all the teenage girls who might not have been traumatized if we’d had a little more cancel culture ten or fifteen years ago. But we have it now, and it’s something. For this Louis, at least. The actual Louis CK recently won a Grammy.

As if he tried to bring up a rumour about me from 2008. If he really wants to start dragging up ancient history, I could pull out all those emails from the time when our team's entire staff had to have a meeting because my friend beat him so badly that he started taking steroids. This is why it pays to write shit down and save everything.

It does feel good, I can’t pretend it doesn’t. And then I feel like that person that the anti-cancel culture people think I am, just a bitter feminist using cancel culture to take out my anger on men, to punish them because I’ve been hurt before and enjoying seeing them hurt. But all that is just incidental to the fact that this is, genuinely, the best thing for the team. He said in those texts this week that the relationship was legal, that the apology was for harassing her post-breakup, but he made it clear the he still thinks dating the 16-year-old was fine. It’s not safe to have a guy who thinks that around our teenage girls. And now we have the power to stop him. And I’ve spent so much of my life not having any power and now I’m 33 and I could do this one thing. I could write an email and put my friend’s name on it and send it to a gym owner, and in doing so, get a guy banned.

There is a genuine chance that he goes on a local MMA bro podcast to complain about cancel culture after this. And I know he's just going to go to a different gym and do the same shit there. But not here, at least.

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momett · 9 months

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can u drop lore on ur recent neocities post??? not for any reason other than i read that and then went "what the hell happened and why"

this post by my friend is a really good summarization of the whole. Fuckening. but i'll summarize my involvement as well because its wild.

(fun fact, that video within the article was made by another friend based on a meltdown this user had on my profile! those screenshots are 100% real)

so, i made a blog post in late 2022 about my struggles with mental health. and sometime after posting it i made a status on my page that said something along the lines of "reminder that it's okay to have complex feelings about your mental health." because, i firmly believe that.

the user in question finds my status, assumes its about her for reasons only known to whichever higher power you believe in (because at this point i was only vaguely aware of who they were) and makes it their goal to have the most one-sided argument with me in the history of neocities.

they post status after status about how i must hate myself, speculated that i must be carrying a lot of internalized ableism to even dare make such a comment, and how much this person loves their delusions and psychosis. (note: at this point i haven't even said what about my mental health i struggle with. the blog post that sparked this was mostly about depression and anxiety as it related to my autism.)

i then got accused by her of being a pedo and incest apologist because i was in the same discord server as somebody who wrote some fanfiction that i frankly found reprehensible. (note 2: that fic writer is a fucking radfem now so. uh)

pretty much everything else is covered in the post by devils, i just wanted to finally post my story because i've been pretty quiet about it in an attempt to just distance myself from this person.

#mailbox #Anonymous #neocities #corpsetrait #i'd tag more of their usernames if i remembered any. lol #i retell this like its really funny haha but she did also stalk me for like a week over this #and made me afraid to even touch neocities for a while. so

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nirvanai · 1 year

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aini spoilers ahead, but I got thinking about my “OK, so who actually programmed Tama then?” headcanons again and wanted to share them! To summarize, I have four main theories:

Pewter did program Tama and the game lies

Pewter didn’t, but someone else at ABIS did.

Tama’s AI was self-actualizing/”self-programmed”

Someone outside of ABIS programmed her.

And to expand on them a little, I’ll put the rest under a cut.

So, to start with 1: Pewter did program Tama. Honestly, I think this is actually the least likely theory here, for one main reason: Uchikoshi may mislead or be vague in his twitter replies, but he doesn’t lie about things. So between Tama herself stating that Pewter didn’t program her, and (iirc, correct me if im wrong!) Uchikoshi re-stating that, I really don’t think it’s likely. But I included it here just for completion’s sake, because why not.

For theory 2: Honestly, I also consider this one relatively unlikely, for the simple reason that Pewter is still at ABIS. Think about it this way: if they already had an engineer working for them who was fully capable of programming an additional AI-Ball and presumably then overseeing the Psync machine system, why would the government risk letting Pewter out of jail? Boss may have a lot of blackmail, but even then I find it hard to imagine the government risking such a major scandal unless Pewter was genuinely irreplaceable. And Boss’s dialogue in-game supports this, so I strongly doubt ABIS has another engineer of his level just sitting around in the background.

Theory 3 is one that I actually do think is a possibility. Laid out most simply, it’s the suggestion that Pewter may have thrown together some core basics to her programming etc, but her actual personality was something she developed on her own to suit her and Ryuki’s needs. Given the fact that the Wadjet system does seem to have some level of “sentience” with how it protected Aiba, its not outside of the realm of possibility to consider Tama having “grown” a sentience on her own.

Theory 4 feels unlikely for the same reasons as theory 2- not only would it render Pewter irrelevant, but that also would mean that more people outside of ABIS both know about the AI-balls, and would be capable of making them. The one strand of evidence in this theory’s favor would be the fact that Tearer seemingly knew about the AI-balls when meeting up with Ryuki, however it’s also possible that could’ve been the result of leaked confidential info.

And then, the secret 5th theory that is almost entirely a crack one but also has enough canonical possibility that I genuinely can’t ignore it: Tama was a real person who’s consciousness was transferred to the wadjet system somehow, to become Tama the AI.

Now, I thought of this one as a joke at first, but the thing is: multiple times in the game, Tama will make jokes and references to stuff that has Ryuki questioning her being an AI. Stuff like talking about her family, just a handful of weird tidbits that stuck out in my brain. It’s like 99% likely that they’re intended to be just that: weird jokes from the funny AI girl, but it’s still plausible enough that I had to add it to this post.

And honestly, as wild as that would be, I do genuinely think it’d be a very interesting possibility to explore? I love the idea of Ryuki and Tama working together to learn more about where she came from, and the ensuing horror and mysteries that could come about as a result.

Regardless, I do hope that this is something future materials will explore a little more, tbh. I don’t expect it to be high on the list of mysteries to solve, but I’d enjoy learning a little more about it.

#tama #tama aitsf #tama aini #nirvanai #aini #nirvana initiative #ai nirvana initiative #nirvana initiative spoilers #nirvanai spoilers #aini spoilers #aitsf spoilers #this has been bouncing around in my head of late #and i wanted to share a few random thoughts #don't mind me overthinking random throwaway lines again #but also if i'm onto something with one of these i'll be so excited-#(i do not expect to be onto anything lmao but who knows anything can happen)

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dorianepin · 1 year

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eff one fandom (as in actual everyday sports fandom at large and not just teens online) is so fascinating sometimes because i think just the fact of it being a relatively "highbrow"/gatekeepy sport peddled for white europeans makes it so......... i don't know how to say this in a normal way but there are certainly nuances to how bigotry surfaces across mainstream sports products that i am occasionally made to reckon with when consuming it specifically. like why does it feel so lame at times to even acknowledge the existence of racism when it will always be vaguely or unintentionally misunderstood or regarded as plainly excusable... hm

i don't have time to formulate thoughts about literally anything these days (hopefully i will be normal next week. maybe. i don't know i'm tired) but i briefly reflected on a convo i had with h about sports culture earlier while brushing my teeth and it's so... occasionally fascinating to think about the conversations we have re: hockey's lack of "politicization" because in the end the more you try to rationalize systems of male violence it just becomes like is it better or worse when we insist that it's all a microcosm of real life and men are universally like this in practice anyway. or... i think it's weird for me sometimes because hockey as a cultural product, and then nhl players specifically as lionized figures and secondary actors in mainstream north american sports media, cannot be summarized by singular frameworks of recognition, and while there is an incredible amount of power and absolution present in the existence of a Successful Hockey Player from a purely cultural standpoint so much of that gets in a way tested when considered in the broader context of major league hierarchies and "marketability" disparities. but then it's also like.... ugh. [vaguely waves hand around at some dynamic triangulation of: Growing up even mildly good as a hockey player in canada inflates your ego by the time you're 13 years old x nhl players are literally the biggest losers in all major league sports in north america and the fact that there's any handwringing at all over tkachuk talking to shaq on an nba panel is fucking sad, man x even if you're an ahl scrub you can easily meet the My Dream NYC BF comp range everyone made fun of op on twitter for]

i didn't even think i was going to write a whole post about this lol sorry. i have more to say about the "morality" of a winning team but all of that is functionally useless so i will stop talking. only ambiguously related i have a team that i mildly prefer to win the cup but i do find myself returning back to my pessimism over the d*ly presser and how remarkably revealing the entire report procedure has been and what it says that ** will still get his cup day when all is said and done

#it's time to stop posting....................

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rainy-circle · 1 year

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I had said that I had a post about my Feelings about the Zora TOTK quest brewing. (just to be careful, if you haven't finished the Sidon of the Zora quest don't read this haha.)To summarize it's basically:

- yes it is a bit of a bummer that Sidon is canonically married now, thus making the planned ending of my own fic (and many many other's fics, I'm sure) no longer canon-compliant, but I also very quickly realized that being canon-compliant has never stopped me before, and it won't stop me from writing my own extremely self-indulgent fic that I am writing because no one else will.

- I think Yona's design and voice are very cute! I am... a little annoyed, on a writing level, that she and her attendants are said to come "from another domain" and that she's "childhood friends" with Sidon when the existence of such a place was not even vaguely hinted at in Breath. It does open some very interesting doorways though (where is this other domain? is it in a neighbouring country????? what in the world is Hyrule's international relationships like??? is there someone in a neighboring country who's like 'Aw man Hyrule's going through another apocalypse, my imported cheeses are gonna take FOREVER now :c'), so I imagine my brain will eventually start coming up with headcanons for it. Maybe.

- (Honestly this is me being very biased, but I personally think they could've done the exact same plotline for Sidon's little quest without having to introduce new characters. Like I feel like you could've had Dorephan tell his son that he needs to confront his fear of loss and it would've worked the same, maybe even better, than Yona telling him that but it's fine, I liked it well enough as is. By the way, Nintendo, stop sneaking looks at my notes. Something very similar is going to be happening in the later chapters of Sunshine Serenade.)

- I'm going to change very little about Sunshine Serenade, though I may have the characters mention Yona and this mysterious "other domain" from time to time. The interpretation I'm personally going with is that the engagement between Sidon and Yona is a political one meant to officially unite the two domains. I find it VERYYYY interesting that despite the two of them being engaged that no one mentions an actual proposal. Which could lead to interesting DRAMA for all Sidon ships, I'm just saying. (I'm not going to go the political drama route in this fic personally, but you know. The possibility is there.)

- in summary, I was bummed for a couple days and thought about throwing everything out a window, but it's fine now, and there are a lot of things about the Zora quest line I do really like. Absolutely LOVE that King Dorephan had a bit of a bigger role to play this time around. Loved seeing all my beloved NPCs again.

Obviously, Tears has taken over my life a little bit so I haven't been writing all that much but uhhhh. Hopefully. Maybe soon. ish. I'll finish chapter 2. A year and however many months later. Hopefully I don't let it go to two years but hey. Whhhhhooooo knows amirite.

#i'm sorry i'm the slowest writer on earth #at first i said this wasn't going to be 'much of a post' but i ended up rambling more than i thought #whoops

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thisisasupergoodidea · 4 months

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my personal writing project masterlist 2024

finally doing the thing i said i would do in january... at the end of february

here are all of my current works in progress for original stories (AKA not including fanfics), most of which i would consider 'active' in some way or another. ive labeled them by their project names since i havent locked in official names for any of them yet

the cyan arrows and lines denote the relationships between projects (basically, there are two major worlds and then three unconnected stories with their own settings) which ill go into detail about as i summarize each project

but this post is about to get pretty damn long so... here is the complimentary 'read more' cut

👇

the projects MAGIC, ANGER, and ROOM all take place in the same world. the events of MAGIC and ANGER occur simultaneously, while the events of ROOM occur centuries in the future

MAGIC: Rogelio lives a perfectly normal, happy, peaceful life as the protector of the tiny town of Kaluss. Well, peaceful except for that bitter bastard of a mage who's set up a lair nearby and is very determined to make all of their lives hell. Just what is that guy's deal? When an incident with a necklace- sorry, an amulet- proves to be Rogelio's tipping point, he makes it his personal mission to pry and poke and disrupt the guy's plans as often as he can. But as he learns more about magic and preoccupies himself with the source of the mage's issues, he also starts to feel like he's drifting further away from the place he calls home, distancing himself from the people he protects- people who consider magic a danger and a curse. So is he really doing what's best for Kaluss, or is he satiating his own hunger for novelty? ...If only that damn magic guy would just agree to cooperate, Rogelio would be having a much easier time restoring peace in town AND peace of mind. If only.

MAGIC will be two to three books long, OR one beefy book depending on whether or not i can learn to be more concise 🫠. the events of ANGER begin to unfold in what will potentially be the second MAGIC book, just in a different place. but the characters from both stories will definitely cross paths in a significant way

ANGER: A very long time ago, a woman who'd faced cruelty and hardship her entire life died giving birth to twins, the products of wretched experimentation. She used her final breath not to name them but to declare them her curse upon the world. The twins grew up as cold and cruel as the land around them, raised by the same tyrants that kept their mother poor and sickly, until the day came that one was slain by the other in a deadly game. While the name of the victim has since been stricken from history, the name of the victor shall forever be remembered, for she is Aniguma the First Cursed. All lived in fear and awe of her bloodlust; her most devoted following called themselves Anguians, and with their loyalty she razed her hometown so thoroughly that it remains to this day a prideful trophy of her conquest, rebuilt in her name: Angur. She would eventually give birth to two children; one would eventually die at the hands of the other. Thusly would this pattern of betrayal and death continue to curse their bloodline, salting the land with cruelty and hardship for generations. This story follows Aniguma's present day descendants, Zennet and Axtrom, who had the unusual fortune of being separated at a young age and raised in much less tumultuous circumstances. But despite their estrangement, both of them have unwittingly dedicated their lives to the same cause: to be the last of their cursed lineage. They must plan their every move meticulously as they fight against the very blood in their veins… or succumb to their destiny.

then, centuries after the events of MAGIC and ANGER conclude, as the advancements of their world start to resemble our modern one, project ROOM unfolds. besides perhaps a vague reference or two, the events of ROOM are entirely unrelated to the other projects that take place in this world. in other words, its not a sequel, its just its own story occurring much later on.

ROOM: The leatherworker Hwaith has taken up part-time adventuring in the hopes of beating his sworn enemy Kolroasa- an ambitious student of magic- at his own game: recovering great and powerful artifacts of long dead mages. The prestige that comes with finding these rare lost items is certainly alluring; what compels them even more is the dread of losing even one of these deeply valuable artifacts to the other. So Hwaith and Kolroasa each gather a small team to accompany them to a location rumored to be the final resting place of an especially secretive mage: a secluded manor nestled in the spires of an imposing, icy mountain. The two teams race to be the first to claim whatever research or technology was left behind in the final years of the infamous Ocheveyn's life. But they will soon discover that what waits for them at the heart of the manor is infinitely more terrifying than the threat they pose to each other.

with that, we exit this world and enter the next one. the magic that governs the next world is less ambitious, but more... colorful

👇

the projects STONE, BELL, and RIFT all take place in this world. STONE is technically a prequel to BELL, though it precedes BELL by a few centuries, acts as a standalone, and only shares one (pretty significant) character. the events of BELL and RIFT occur simultaneously, though im undecided if any (except one) of the characters in RIFT will ever interact with the characters in BELL

STONE: Having uprooted his old life to start fresh in a place where his past doesn't matter, Rin arrives at a remote and desolate quarry operation with nothing but the bag on his back and the hat on his head, in search of work as a tailor. He would be the last to ever arrive. As he slowly establishes himself among the dejected and isolated people of the quarry town, he finds renewed joy in getting to know them all, becoming invested in their well-being, their pasts, and then… their legacies. A resident's sudden passing motivates Rin to start collecting any note, journal entry, memo and scrap paper that the other residents are willing to give him. He painstakingly pieces together the entries in chronological order to serve as an account (titled The Sorrowstone Account) of their individual experiences. And, all the while, the whole town becomes increasingly aware of something otherworldly lurking just beyond the desert horizon. Rin pushes himself harder and harder to finish what will be the only proof that they existed- and that it meant something- in the face of encroaching inevitability.

a few centuries later, long after the old horrors have been forgotten and new people and cities and borders have established themselves, the events of BELL unfold

this one is going to be the most difficult one for me to summarize. its really more suited to be a tabletop campaign, or a webcomic thousands of pages long. theres too many characters and too much going on. the plot spans decades. but ill do my best. sorry in advance for it being especially messy

BELL: Four people's lives collide, bonded by witnessing two soul harvesters- only thought of as creatures of myth, of fiction, until now- locked in a destructive battle in the heart of their city. One of these four, Zochio, is accidentally injured by one of the harvesters during the fight; the wound gets corrupted, and she eventually develops powers of death herself, believing that it is her destiny to use these powers to save the world from a threat that she can now see looming in the sky far above them. With her old friend Immudya and her new acquaintances Caforleh and Vim Vedmet, and with the penitent guidance of the harvester that wounded her as well, she hatches a plot to get the attention of that looming threat. Meanwhile, as news of the harvesters reaches every corner of the country, a dormant death cult begins to make moves again, hoping to contact one of the harvesters to clarify some ancient prophecy. The children of these cultists- who have formed their own death cult against their parents' wishes- sneak out of town to find one of their elders, Ranneigl. Thus begins a series of shenanigans for them all. But since one of those kids is Immudya's little brother, this eventually introduces the main four to the death cult, and the cult to a harvester. They work together to demystify the prophecy that foretold the harvester's return, learning that this entity is not alone on this world. There are more of its kind, and even more of all other kinds as well, brought here by that thing in the sky to farm the world for life energy. This particular harvester, one of purple hue to which they give the name Kymoyef, actually shares Zochio's ambition of putting an end to the callous destruction and excessive harvesting of souls. But in order to do that, it must first amass enough energy and rally enough of its siblings to be a presence worth noticing. They spend many long years on this plan, with Zochio's group endeavoring to gain power among their people and Kymoyef gaining its own strength in numbers by any means necessary. Some of them become less and less enthused about the methods used to achieve their goals. They had vowed to save the world together, after all. How did they manage to convince themselves that making it vastly shittier was a vital step in the process?? But it's far too late to absolve themselves now, when the finish line is so close. Otherwise, there will have been no point to the decades- no, centuries of misery and death, of isolation and careful planning, of hiding in the shadow of a looming something praying that it doesn't see you until you're ready for it. Finally, after centuries, the end is almost ready to begin.

meanwhile, the events of RIFT are occuring as well, though untethered from linear time. RIFT takes place almost exclusively in a deep wound left upon the earth by a shameful manmade catastrophe that caused the land to split open and swallow the cities along the fault line. the rift remains an open maw leading to a pocket dimension where time is broken, and the cities trapped within it wallow in their stagnation

RIFT: Three lives, tragically interrupted: Wayrain, Cadmor, and Fuithrel vanish into a pocket of reality where time and space dont quite connect anymore; where the light lives mostly in your eyes and so the landscape is tinted in the color you most strongly resonate; where the only path you can take is your own and the only way to reach that elusive destination is one step at a time, or not at all. The three of them come to awareness in three separate places, their introductions to this wayward land equally as off-putting as their surroundings. But they learn to navigate through their individual journeys through trial and error- sometimes alone, sometimes with the help of fellow travelers on the arduous road. Wayrain takes well to traveling, he discovers; he's romanticized his escapism all his life and now finally gets to live it. Cadmor, needing direction and guidance and something to do with his guilt, accepts a guard role much like his previous one back on the surface. Fuithrel only wants to know she is safe, to know she can stop running, but the path calls for her again and again. She will heed it every time. Along the way, the three of them continue to cross paths whether they like it or not and will come to understand exactly how their lives intertwine- both here AND before their fall. They also encounter plenty of danger on every road: a man who seeks to crack them open and drain them of their light, a spreading corruption that consumes people like the void if they so much as touch it, and their own doubts conspiring to knock them off their stride... But perhaps the journey will set them free before the ground can swallow them up again.

like i said, BELL and RIFT do take place simultaneously but theyre also pretty much isolated incidents. lots of isolation going on across all of my projects, lol. anyway now ill talk about the three standalones

👇

the projects DEMON, TUBES, and FIRE have no attachments to each other, nor to any other project i have going on. TUBES is based on a prompt someone gave me that im slowly chipping away at, and the other two are inspired by a couple of vivid dreams i had years ago. these are still in the very early development stages because ive been focusing more on other projects, which is why my summaries for these seem more like prompts rather than plots

DEMON: Iudus Fern, a man who was already questioning the strength of his faith, has not been to church in weeks- but he invites his friend Valerissa to his home in secret to recount to her the events that have transpired during his absence. At first, he seems unsure and ashamed of himself. But with her reassurance he reveals that he had the old wounds of temptation torn open once again when he was visited by a demon late one evening. An honest-to-God demon, one that towered over him with claws and hooves and wings and an imposing... impressive... irresistible allure. He was convinced that the demon had claimed his soul that night, despite no words or bargains being exchanged as confirmation. No, that came a week later when the demon returned to make a demand of him. As Fern listened, it occured to him that this demon intended to use him to set itself free from the shackles of hell. But the process was not yet complete, and Fern found that he... didn't mind the thought of more visits from his new acquaintance. So he allowed himself the pleasure of its company again and again; meanwhile, his Sunday attendance only continued to dwindle, and people began to worry and talk. Through this act of confession to Valerissa, Fern will decide once and for all if the weight of his deeds were worth it; if the faith of a demon can make men divine; and if he has brought heaven or hell on earth upon himself for having the courage to not only face, but also love, his demons.

TUBES: Katie works a monotonous but well-paying job at a logistics facility where the only thing she does all day is sit around monitoring and keeping records of whatever comes through the pneumatic tubes at her workstation. The entire multiple story building, in fact, operates almost exclusively on a tangled, maze-like pneumatics system that looks like it was designed to piss off the most amount of people possible. Any employee she's ever talked to barely knows how it works; they're all just told to trust the system- and hey, she won't complain. Not when there's plenty of other working conditions to complain about. So every day she slogs through capsule after capsule containing everything from the mundane to the bizarre, drinks stale water from the break room's old-ass pipes, then takes the underground train back to her shitty capsule apartment where she has recurring work-related nightmares. On a day that seems the same as any other, something weird but innocuous enough passes through Katie's workstation. Mistakenly delivered to the wrong part of the building, perhaps. She still sends it on its way, thinking nothing of it. Not knowing that someone in the building will do anything to get it back. She unwillingly gets roped into tracking down whatever the hell they're looking for before it gets lost forever in the bowels of the system, stumbling into some horrific truths along the way, turning her weekend overtime into a waking nightmare beyond anything she could have dreamt up.

FIRE: A young woman, who has lost her memories and dreams only of vibrant petals swirling in orange and yellow, wanders cold and alone in the woods for some time. She begins to encounter outcasts and drifters all suffering magical curses- dubbed 'the nameless ones' by the rest of society for the thing they all have in common, their inability to recall even their own names- and realizes she is one of them in the worst possible way: One particularly dreary evening, she is taken in to a warm home by a kind old couple only for the night to end in flames, exploding forth from her own body. She's forced to flee from civilization for fear of it happening again. Thus, with no one but fellow pariahs to turn to, she sets out to understand this affliction and trace it back to its beginning in the hope of regaining who she was before it all.

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and thats everything!! thanks for your time and interest whoevers reading this, even if you just skimmed or whatever. i rarely talk about my writing outside of a vague post here or there because its hard for me to explain my thoughts, especially irl. so getting to infodump felt nice. i dont even care that it took like 14 hours 🫠

#the process of making word lasagna #i talk about life n stuff #my writing

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