clocking artemy in for his 'rescuing abandoned babies' shift at the plague house factory

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

whats UP hk fandom i am back with—“more picante takes?” WOW YES HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!

CONTENT WARNING FOR TONIGHTS PROGRAM: today we are discussing the hollow knight boss fight, and all that entails for all the characters involved. relatedly this post does not have anything nice to say about the pale king, so if you’re very protective of his character, you may want to skip it.

FURTHERMORE, i would like to iterate that this essay is working from a place of compassion for ghost, hollow, radiance, AND hornet, because every single one of them is miserable at this point in the game and doesn’t want the events of this boss fight to be happening at all. this post is not an appropriate place to dunk on ANY of them. if you want to do that, please do it elsewhere.

thanks for your understanding.

ALSO, AS USUAL: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of radiance and the moth tribe’s backstory is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

A while back @grimmradiance​ made a lovely essay about comparing and contrasting Hollow’s moveset in their Hollow Knight and Pure Vessel boss fights and using what can be gleaned from the differences to speculate about their psychology. (This essay is currently their pinned, but I’ll attach a link in a reblog.) It is extremely good, and it made me want to look at the Hollow Knight boss fight my own self through one of my own areas of expertise, meaning music!

As we are all well aware, Christopher Larkin's soundtrack to Hollow Knight rules ass. There are two specific ways in which it rules ass that are relevant to this essay: Leitmotif, and sound palette.

Quick rundown for folks who aren’t familiar with these terms: A leitmotif is a melody associated with a character or event or mood that's incorporated into songs in different ways based on what's happening in the story. Undertale is an example of a game with an incredibly strong use of leitmotif that’s really only possible because Toby Fox is both the composer and the game creator, so he can synchronize the subtleties of the writing with music and scene scripting too.

The phrase “sound palette” can have a lot of meanings, but in this case I’m using it to refer to specific instruments or groups of instruments that are associated with certain characters. If you’ve watched Steven Universe and seen interviews/production commentary by its composer team Aivi & Surasshu, you’ll hear them talking about part of their approach to scoring episodes being how each main character is represented by certain instruments: Steven with the triangle wave, Pearl with jazz piano, and so on.

Hollow Knight is a small team project rather than a one-person show, so Christopher Larkin can’t go quite AS over-the-top with leitmotif integration as Toby Fox can on simple virtue of Team Cherry having to communicate what they want to him. But Larkin is Hollow Knight's sound designer as well as its composer, so he folds leitmotif and character sound palette together with striking use of stems to create a very immersive and cinematic musical experience that enhances HK’s story and gameplay.

This brings us back to the track Sealed Vessel, which has EXTREMELY tight and cinematic sound design and uses leitmotif and sound palette to not just sock players in the feelings during a charged and dramatic boss fight, but also tell us a lot about what Hollow and Radiance are experiencing emotionally, especially with the gameplay in mind.

So, let’s play the soundtrack version of Sealed Vessel (and some other stuff) and talk about what’s going on in the game during it!

You may want to get out your copy of the OST or visit Christopher Larkin’s Bandcamp page so that you can listen along.

LEITMOTIF & SOUND PALETTE

Before we actually get into analyzing Sealed Vessel, let’s talk about the involved characters’ leitmotifs/sound palettes so we know what we’re listening for.

Both of these things are easiest to identify when characters have a distinct theme song. Ghost does not. However, the main theme of Hollow Knight (see: the title track, Hollow Knight) is used as a leitmotif for the vessels as a whole. Most pieces involved with a vessel character include this leitmotif somewhere. For instance, you can find this leitmotif and variations on it in Broken Vessel’s boss theme. The Vessel leitmotif is led by a cello solo here, so we can identify that the cello is the central part of Broken Vessel’s personal sound palette.

When the Vessel theme is associated with Ghost in specific, it tends to be performed by viola and/or piano, as it is on the title track and in other places like the opening cinematic.

Moving on to Hollow, their specific sound palette is established not in Sealed Vessel but in Pure Vessel, their pantheon boss theme. (Sealed Vessel was composed first, since the Godmaster DLC didn’t drop until over a year after HK’s initial release, meaning Pure Vessel was reverse-engineered/extrapolated from relevant parts of Sealed Vessel. But we’ll get into that later!)

The major instrumental fixtures in Pure Vessel are choir and tubular bells (i.e., those dramatic vertical fellas that sound like church bells or a carillon), with some soft background instrumentation: bass drum, woodwinds (appropriately led by flute in the main melody’s “falling motion” - flute is the centerpiece of TPK’s sound palette), strings, and high/mid brass. Hollow’s overall sound palette has a very Christian choir-esque sound (in the Pure Vessel theme this is very idealized and saintly: soft and slow and tragic) and the beginning of their leitmotif has a very distinctive climbing melody that mirrors their ascent from the Abyss. The Unbearable Vesselness Of Being leitmotif is absent from the Pure Vessel track.

Meanwhile, Radiance’s boss theme is a very fun expression of her character upon which Larkin evidently went ham. Her sound palette is expressed through full orchestra (plus choir and pipe organ) that has a special emphasis on the bass part of the brass section, which does not see much use in the HK soundtrack. Her leitmotif has also got cute and distinctive touches: It’s full of triplets to match her tiara-looking antennae, and also has a repeated “fluttery” pattern of background sixteenth notes as countermelody, often spiraling downwards.

The majority of the piece is loud and bombastic and in a minor key to play up the “resplendent and terrible” wrathful aspect of herself Radi is pushing during this section of gameplay, a very quintessentially moth intimidation tactic: Try to look as scary as possible to keep your enemies from messing with you, since you’re not built for fighting. These blasts of intensity from the brass section match Radiance’s strategy of Overwhelm You With Bullet Hell Spam To Make Up For Lack Of Battle Experience/Poor Aim. But in between said intensity spikes you can hear traces of softer instrumentation and major key, little glimpses of a gentle warmth we can otherwise only infer from her backstory and the implications of Moth Tribe lore.

0:00 - 0:41 - OPENING AMBIANCE

The Sealed Vessel track begins with the ambiance of the Black Egg Temple’s interior: The faint tones of the glowing seals we hear when we pass by them, the only light in a pitch-black world besides the floor lighting up under Ghost’s feet.

Then a slow string tremolo fades in, slowly growing louder. In the track new notes join the tremolo progressively, while in-game a violin joins the anticipatory chord every time you snap one of Hollow’s chains. Which, may I say: A+++++++ sound design!!!!!! Rules ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tremolo reaches a peak in dynamics - all three characters present are extremely tense - and then cuts off to allow for Hollow’s boss battle opening, i.e. Radiance screaming. Team Cherry kindly demarcates each phase of the battle with a Radi yell.

0:43 - 1:39 - PHASE 1: HOLLOW ON AUTOPILOT

Phase 1 opens immediately with Hollow’s leitmotif in bells, but with brass, piano, and percussion backing them up; grand and tragic. In the background the bass section of the orchestra's strings flutter in a repetitive pattern of 16th notes, i.e. Panicky Radi Noises. The violins harmonize with Hollow's leitmotif as it climbs, but then join the rest of the string section in fluttering 16th notes, transmuting what in Pure Vessel is the flute leading Hollow back down (8th notes) to a slightly louder “a” from the backseat.

In actual gameplay, the only attacks Hollow uses are their basic nail skills. Building on grimmradiance’s analysis of the window their attacks provide to their psychology, and pairing that with the Pure Vessel leitmotif booming over the metaphorical loudspeakers, we can tell that this is Hollow reacting automatically to a threat the way that their father trained them to. Their conscious mind might still be making dialup noises at Ghost’s sudden reappearance jumpscaring them with murky childhood guilt and trauma, but that’s only let muscle memory take over. Slash, parry, charge and thrust. Their time spent at bee bootcamp (which we can assume because Hornet was trained at the Hive and Hollow’s form while nail fighting is identical to hers on their shared moves) has served them well.

Radiance, meanwhile, has frozen completely for this combat phase, and contributes nothing here except the anxiety of the string section.

As the strings continue to go “a” the piano (Ghost) and woodwinds harmonize on something between Hollow’s personal leitmotif and the Vessel leitmotif in the backdrop.

However at around 1:29ish, the key changes, building into an overall color change for the Sealed Vessel piece.

1:39 - 2:15 - PHASE 2: SHE’S AS SCARED OF YOU AS YOU ARE OF HER

In actual gameplay, the part of Sealed Vessel used for phases 1 and 2 of the Hollow Knight fight is the Entirety of 0:43 - 2:15, possibly because there’s no easy transition spot like there is between phase 2 and phase 3. But the changes to Hollow’s moveset are clearly tied to this specific part of the piece.

Phase 2 is where Radiance pushes herself past her freeze response and starts trying to hit Ghost. Hollow gains two attacks here, which we can tell are Radi because they’re often accompanied by her crying (a softer and more abbreviated sound than her full scream): These two attacks are the Infection blob blast and the Light/Void pillar attack that hits for a full 2 masks damage (which appear to be Radi’s take on Hollow’s Pure Vessel-exclusive moves, their grabby tentacles & silver knife pillars respectively).

In the Sealed Vessel track, this part of the piece is almost entirely Radiance’s fluttering. The strings start by following the descending motion of Hollow’s leitmotif but in 16th notes, then ratchet up to start spiraling down again while straying further from Hollow’s leitmotif. This section ends in a back and forth between hard blasts in a one-two-(rest)-one-two-three pattern and gasps of fluttering between, with piano and low brass building behind it. Eventually the nervous fluttering of the strings becomes less frequent between the blasts: Radiance is inexperienced with fighting and very very afraid, but she’s also FUCKING PISSED and prepared to defend herself.

The OST version of the piece punctuates the break between the first half of the piece and the second with Radiance’s scream.

2:16 - 4:04 - PHASE 3: “I’M HELPING! :)” SAID HOLLOW; “HOLY SHIT PLEASE DON’T,” SAID LITERALLY EVERYONE

Phase 3 opens with Hollow stabbing themself repeatedly, a movement pattern they repeat throughout the phase. It is shocking the first time you see it, and never stops being horrible and sad no matter how many times you do this part of the fight.

Here, Hollow’s mind has finally come back online after their own freeze response, and they choose to destroy themself and bequeath the duty of sealing Radiance to Ghost. Even if they can’t be the one to make their father proud, they can still make sure their directive gets carried out.

Radiance knows exactly what they’re up to and why, and she reacts to this by completely losing her head and mashing buttons in a panic. This is something we see out of her at the ends of her boss fights too, where she’s feeling too threatened and afraid to do anything but spam optic blasts. In the Hollow Knight boss fight this manifests in two horrifying-looking but easy-to-avoid new attacks: The Infection blob sprinkler and the ragdoll.

Ghost does not react visibly because we're in gameplay, but their horror and grief at their sibling’s choice is echoed in the BGM. The Sealed Vessel piece goes soft and sad, with Ghost’s associated viola leading the bass strings in the Unbearable Vesselness of Being leitmotif. At 2:51 the violin comes in with Hollow’s leitmotif, and gradually the choir appears in the backdrop. The ensemble’s overall dynamics build in a slow crescendo, and at the very end of this segment the other instruments begin to join in.

This segment of the piece is also used in phase 4, which occurs if you don't have Hornet’s help or miss your cue to Dream Nail Hollow. Phase 3 ends when Hollow reaches 0 HP; in phase 4 they are for all purposes already dead. But Radiance manifests an extra 250 HP out of terrified, unadulterated FUCK YOU FUCK THIS!!! even though all she can do is get Hollow to fall on their face trying to slash and ragdoll them around. The BGM continues to play as Ghost absorbs Radiance from Hollow and Hollow’s body loses its shape and dissolves into liquid Void.

And there’s one other place in gameplay Sealed Vessel (Unbearable Vesselness of Being) is used: The Path of Pain, the completely evil kaizo-level obstacle course which presumably featured in Hollow’s childhood training, and behind which the Pale King has hidden his last and most terrible secret—that he had realized on some level that Hollow was a kid with feelings who loved him and wanted to make him proud, and condemned them to death despite it all by using them to imprison and torture Radiance as he’d always planned.

The OST version of Sealed Vessel includes the music for both normal ending cinematics, so we’ll be looking at them too.

4:05 - 4:35: ENDINGS 1/2: NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS

In the BGM for The Hollow Knight and Sealed Siblings endings, the Vessel leitmotif is played by violin, viola, and choir while the cellos and contrabasses—and then the brass bass section too—play a slower version of Radiance’s downward spiral. But once Ghost is pierced by the Black Egg’s chains and Radiance’s struggle to free herself ends in failure, the soprano and bass sections harmonize. The animation zooms out of the temple and the seal reforms. They are stuck together now until the end of Ghost’s life. Hooray.

The OST version of the track immediately segues into the BGM for Dream No More.

4:36 - 5:45: ENDING 3: THANKS, I HATE IT

Here, Hornet’s associated instrument, the violin, plays one long sustained note with a few notes of Ghost’s piano alongside as she wakes up.

TPK’s goddamn flute comes in at 5:00 with his leitmotif overpowering the backdrop Vessel leitmotif on piano while Hornet surveys the carnage: The temple has been destroyed, Radiance is dead, and what’s left of Ghost’s corpse is smeared across the floor. The Void may have taken umbrage with his horseshit and unceremoniously vored him, but the motherfucker still got what he wanted in the end; the Pale King has ended the Infection by completing his genocide of the moths, using the children he abused and abandoned as his proxies, and wasting two of their lives. Can I get a hearty THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the chat.

Given that Hornet herself is canonically unsure if bringing the fight to Radiance is really a just course of action, one can only imagine how she must feel when she sees the cost of that decision.

Our only real moment of catharsis is in this shit situation comes in at 5:13, where the flute gives way to a solo from Ghost’s associated viola, playing the Vessel leitmotif as the Siblings curl up and sink back into the mountain of their corpses. Goodnight, kiddos. You deserved better, and so did literally everyone involved in this whole stupid boss fight.

This is where the OST version of Sealed Vessel ends. Even without the gameplay and story context it slaps, but now that we’ve taken a look at how this 5:45 piece is wall to wall misery and fear on the part of literally every involved character, hopefully it will have even more impact!

Regarding canon!Techon, VoS!Techno, and anarchy

Someone told me the way Techno’s anarchy ideals were presented in Chapter 34 of Valley of Serenity (wherein he admitted “I can want anarchy to be the predominant reality because it benefits me the most while also understanding that it would not be the best thing for most other people”) were, to quote - “All wrong here. Have you watched any of the syndicate streams? Cuz its clear techno actually believes in anarchy and that it's good for people. I understand he's missing some of the development from post pogtopia to the syndicate due to this being canon divergent, but that doesn't change the fact he's always actually believed in his anarchist ideals.”

Now, while I hadn’t considered this specifically before writing the chapter, I had considered enough of the factors surrounding Techno’s characterization in both canon and Valley of Serenity to respond with this:

Ironically, Techno's lore streams are the only ones that I've consistently watched. He's literally the only person where I've watched every bit of lore he's streamed.

And I came to this mindset for Techno in this fic specifically because I believe the events after Nov 16 in canon, of the Butcher Army, the Community House debacle with Tommy betraying him, and Doomsday were huge influences in how much he believes in the good of anarchy for the common person. Remember, he was willing to retire and let go of the whole anarchy thing to live in peace for a while, after seeing the disaster that was Nov 16th. It's only after S2 he starts gathering up people to form the Syndicate, committing fully to his ideology. Before he was content to chill in the Arctic with Phil.

With this background I have three points of contention to make-

Firstly, something I've always found interesting about Techno's character is how his anarchy thing might clash with the people he cares about. More specifically, I always wondered "if Techno was forced to choose between upholding anarchy and Phil, who or what would he choose?" Post Season 2 Techno I'm unsure of, but given the limited amount of lore from Season 1 about Techno I'm going off of to build his character, I'm writing his character arc in this fic to be him coming to the realization that he cares more about his family's wellbeing more than he does anarchy or upholding his whole blood god thing. It's a realization that Techno would have needed to spend months with his family again, living with them, to make and have him commit to. Techno back in Nov 16 would have been unsure what he would have picked.

Secondly, we don't have confirmation about where Techno got his anarchist ideals from, which is important because motivation is important. We know at this point in canon he strongly believes in them for real, but we're not given backstory on why that it. There's hints and theories, some of which are far more plausible than others - I've chosen to set the root of his anarchy belief in what he says in this chapter - governments are the only ones strong enough to take him down as an organized group of power. Governments have tried to take him down and nearly succeeded - that's what the Butcher Army was. That event was what brought him out of retirement to turn L'Manberg into L'Hole. And Techno in canon is reinforced in the belief that anarchy's best for everyone because of what it did to Phil and Tommy. He sees how both of them were hurt by L'Manberg's system of power, something that once again Techno in this fic didn't experience. We don't know what's happened in his backstory to make him stand on his anarchy thing, but that also means we don't know how easily Pogtopia Techno would have been convinced to give up on it. He believes it, but why and how much? I've made my choice of interpretation in this fic precisely because we don't know, and his canon decision to go into retirement was what influenced my writing here. I genuinely believe if L'Manberg hadn't attacked in, but instead turned out to be a functioning government like they could have been, his anarchy spiel about bad government is for at least other people, if not himself, would have subsided. But that's not the sort of plot that runs a livestream, is it?

Thirdly - and this ties into point 2 - probably at some point in canon Techno's past government has wronged him and he's seen government repeatedly wrong other people, hence his beliefs that again, the Butcher Army and New L'Manberg under Tubbo only strengthened when it had the chance to subside them. You could even draw allusions back to his skyblock series and take the quote "If skyblock has told me anything, it is that if you have a problem, the answer is slavery" to mean that he's seen the governmentally structured system of skyblock drag its players into an endless, pointless competing grind whilst also committing mass slave-related atrocities, which would be one of the more plausible backstories for Techno and explain where his anarchy ideals might have developed. But we're still operating canon Techno under the rules of the Dream SMP, and the Dream SMP's world is very much not the world presented in Valley of Serenity.

See, my decision - very conscious, deliberate, developed decision - to worldbuild Valley of Serenity in a way that's more akin to a fantasy world in the midst of their equivalent of the Age of Exploration instead of modeling it off how the Dream SMP worlds has definitely also influenced the way I plan the character developments in this fic. Valley of Serenity's world has nations, economies, established ethnic groups and populations and cultures and systems and thousands of years worth of history. L'Manberg started out as a city-state with some surrounding farmland area that had its own history and a decently sized population before Wilbur got there. The Dream SMP canon, meanwhile, has none of that established. You could argue there were civilians on the sideline that just aren't named, or that the Twitch viewers are just civilian in this world because Wilbur did the whole election thing (something that becomes increasingly unlikely each time a new streamer canonizes their stream chat as something that is decidedly not a country's population), but there's no canonical establishment for any of that. I don't think there is any hidden population of nameless background people in the DSMP lore. The lore makes far more sense without it, even with all the "political" drama. It would explain how people keep forming and abandoning and destroying new countries every other week and just.. getting away with it, and how Dream is able to spend so much time obsessing over one child in exile if he really has a country he's supposed to be the shadowmaster of, and how the whole clusterfuck of the Quackity Karl Sapnap marriage is even possible.

In a world like that, it's plausible for Techno's anarchy to be defensible to him, and to the other members of the Syndicate. However, in Valley of Serenity's world, his anarchy view makes absolutely zero sense, given how government is basically a natural result of humans settlings down to farm in large groups together. Most of DSMP's people can decide to just quit and wander off to live alone for the rest of their lives, no problem, but in a world like VoS or the real world? They are very fucked and so stay in large groups, which then, as history shows, results in some authority being assigned to a group of people to administrate things once the group becomes large enough... and boom. Government, and the start of civilization.

The only way for Techno in Valley of Serenity's universe to plausibly believe in the government stuff, especially after all those talks he had with Wilbur about L'Manberg, would be for me to write him as a completely idiot who's utterly unaware of how governments actually work.

If there's one thing I hate it's writing Techno as an idiot. The same Techno who dominated MCM and Skyblock and prepared for weeks for battle against L'Manberg and managed to successfully build a hidden piston door concealing wither skulls and had the foresight to write a will with "instructions" for Phil because he knew the prison was likely a trap and who has enough battle strategy to defeat Dream and also know not to trust him and thought up contingency plans to escape the Butcher army with the totems and who regularly makes the most intelligent, witty, sarcastic and well-timed remarks with dialogue - Techno is not an idiot. He is far, far from it. In the DSMP universe his anarchy ideals would be defended. In VoS'? Absolutely not. And if Techno has any amount of sense at all in this universe, which he does, he knows it too. I made a choice when I wrote this fic's world the way I did, and I'm am committed to seeing the choice through. Part of the reason why I did it? It was because I wanted to explore the way events like L'Manberg and Pogtopia would have affected the characters in their beliefs and trauma in a realistic setting of war and rebellion and political battles, and DSMP's world was just not a good conduit for that. Places like Sanctuary and arcs like Tubbo's struggles back in L'Manberg wouldn't be able to exist if I didn't go down this route, note to mention how wrong it felt to me to write Wilbur's presidency heavily affecting him when the people he's presiding over is just his friends. Everything would have felt cheaper, faker, more simulated if it had been in a world with Minecraft and DSMP rules. I knew this would require some reinterpretation of certain characters' motivations, but it was worth it to me to give their recovery a sense of weight and realism I felt the DSMP world wouldn't have been able to deliver. (I'm not making any point on how realistic or "heavy" DSMP does its trauma - livestreaming is a vastly different medium than writing and some points here would need to be translated differently when applied to livestream, just as a good book doesn't always make a good movie).

Hence, combined with points 1 and 2, the differing characterization between canon Techno and here.

It's important to note that Techno, Phil, Tommy, and Wilbur are a family unit here in a way that's been completely disproven in canon. They have a backstory that ties them together. This has also definitely influenced Techno's priorities and nudged him towards the path of conscious realization about his anarchy thing here, though it's not a point because it doesn't factor too much into the relevant mentality of Techno's character in terms of how much he believes in the anarchy thing.

So yeah, I hope this clears up some stuff for you! Or that you understand at least why I made the decision with Techno's character.

there were definitely typos in this reply. no im not going back to reread and fix them.

I just read you 10 stories post and I never knew you wrote Once upon a play and inconveniences. For some reason I realy love Once Upon a Play since it is such a fun story! So I had a question, since I think that I can safely assume you won't finish any of your old work. How were all you old stories supposed to end? So inconvenieces, on the sands of time (which is also a good story but just never got that far), etc. And maybe even what happened with Aang and Zuko later in Once Upon a play, since being gay illegal was in the fire nation.

oh my god, i’m screaming that someone who read my old work found me. biting my fist and screaaaming. 

first of all, i’m glad you enjoyed them :) all those stories have big (huge, gargantuan, unavoidable!!!) issues but writing them brought me joy too. once upon a play especially was such a shitshow lmaoo, i was hammering out like 4000 word chapters a day and then doing the whole shitty “comment for an update thing” in the a/n. ew lol, anway :)

yes, it’s safe to assume i’ll never finish them. maybe i’ll adapt the concept for once upon a play and revamp it with more of an understanding of how ember island players was imperialist propaganda rather than just a cutesy fun play. something like: what might it mean for certain earth kingdom political figures, who perhaps were doing better under the fire nation (currying the fire nation’s favour by weakening the earth kingdom’s infrastructure), to leverage something outrageous like a play claiming the scion of the fire nation and the last airbender are in an illicit affair, and use it to weaken specifically zuko’s position back home and threaten to destabilize the peace. something along those lines.

i also quite like on the sands of time, but i’m iffy now on divorcing the characters from the world of atla and dropping them in some ahistoric middle eastern setting. i’d have to think long and hard on what kind of cultural and religious influences i want to include and what i want to ignore. it’s unlikely but if i was to work on any of them again, i’d pick those two. 

as for how they were going to finish (or at least what was planned next, because i did not used to entirely outline all my fics, i think that might be obvious on re-reading once upon a play especially lmaooo), some elements i wanted to explore in inconveniences was that toph and iroh had an existing friendship that aang and zuko didn't know about, big party at sokka and katara's house, shenanigans with jet at that party, zuko and jet finally ending their fling at some point. aang's central arc within that story was basically this (taken from an old zipped file in the depths of my google drive, i didn't even remember i had this anymore lol): aang is tired of the sheltered life has been forced to live under gyatso’s wing. dissatisfied with his life, he is convinced that the answer lies in the conventional teen life – in parties, girls and alcohol. almost everything he does throughout the course of the story is in an attempt to live life to the fullest, to find the key to making himself feel whole for the first time in his life. however, as the story progresses, aang realizes that the void in his life does not need alcohol or drugs or parties or girls to fill it. he realizes that the only thing lacking in his life may have been maturity on his part.

which is yaknow… some characterization? not  sure how i feel about it now, but at least, it's something lol.

as for zuko, he comes to realize the full extent of his disillusionment from life and considers that aang may be the key to fixing it once and for all. as the story progresses, zuko tries to find with jet the connection he feels with aang but is disappointed when he realizes that jet is nothing like the person he imagined him to be.

even though jet initially appears to only be a conventional villain, he is later fleshed out as we see that zuko is his safe zone, the only person with whom he relaxes. this connection, however, is negated by the fact that jet constantly does things to sabotage his relationship with zuko.

the thing about jet is interesting because it's more nuance than i gave him within the story in the first 8 chapters. i'm not convinced how well i would have been able to execute those layers of his characterization but yaknow, i guess it's nice to know i wasn't just trying to demonize him? i can promise you that i had no intention 11 years ago of extending even an ounce of that same nuance to the female characters, sadly.

anyway, the story was intended to wind down with aang being really reckless with his freedom, gyatso returning and aang needing to reckon with the fact that his actions have consequences (probably something to do with accidentally outing zuko since he treated his relationship with jet with a lot of disregard in the story, as far as i remember), and aang needing to repair his relationship with gyatso once he returns.

i'm iffy on the characterization of aang, looking back, but i won't say much on it coz it's a characterization, i guess? just not the one i'd go for if i was writing aang today.

as for on the sands of time, the next phase of the story would have been zuko realizing that azula is hot on their heels and separating from the group, realizing he cannot best azula on his own and so deciding to play double-agent with azula and string her along long enough to allow aang a chance of survival. azula and zuko would then chase them to the edge of the desert and gyatso dies before he can tell aang he is the avatar. to escape azula (and zuko), aang ends up bending both water and air. 

as per gyatso's instructions, aang, katara and sokka venture deeper into the desert and along the way run into suki and the kyoshi warriors (who guard the boundary deeper into the desert), jet and his pals (who guard a part of the desert with huge geoglyphs of animals in exchange for the spirits granting them reduced dependence on water and food) and also zuko as the blue spirit. as they progress through the desert, they are aided by two mysterious figures who seem to be aiding them (surprise, it’s zuko and azula because the ozai actually does want aang to end up at the spirit gathering, he just wants to engineer that arrival to exploit that spirit energy for... something?). 

end of the story, zuko and azula finally catch up, big fight between azula, zuko, the gaang, the freedom fighters and the spirits, and zuko almost dies. aang goes into the avatar state for the first time. and apparently, according to my bizzare notes, that's the end of volume 1 (?!!!). i literally forgot until this very moment that it was supposed to be a multi-volume story (lmao what). basically volume 1 was supposed to build this attraction between zuko and aang which comes to a head at the end of volume 1, when aang's distress at seeing zuko hurt activates the avatar state, and zuko nearly gets aang killed by revealing his hand to azula.

and then there's volume 2 (?! i still can't get over 12 year old me's ambition lmao). after the gaang and zuko flee from azula, both he and aang acknowledge their feelings for one another but iroh back in the white lotus is well aware that zuko is endangering the avatar because of his feelings and assigns someone else to protect the gaang.  zuko leaves without telling aang, but instead of recalling zuko back to the city where iroh is, he makes zuko stay in the same city where aang is. aang tracks him down and they run into each other constantly while aang masters earthbending, and tension builds between zuko and aang as they resist their feelings for one another. the major conflict of this volume is when iroh tries to assign someone else as aang's firebending teacher. shenanigans ensue, tension galore. meanwhile, azula moves in to attack the city and once again, zuko and the gaang run (definitely sensing some repetition here lmao).

and then i never outlined volume 3 because i was a moron - an adorably ambitious one, but alas, one lacking the discipline to write what i think was supposed to be a 150k+ saga (?!).

as for what comes after once upon a play, i can promise you i barely thought about what was going to happen next in that story, much less what would happen after it. 

anywho, i hope that answers your question :). it was nice to pull out my decade old notebook and realize i still had all these notes squirreled away somewhere lol. 

FE16 Golden Deer Liveblogging

Chapters 16-18. Just like the Lions route, until it isn’t. There’s also some Dimidue content here, but not enough for its own post.

Chapters 16 and 17 are virtually identical to those chapters for the Lions apart from which army you’re controlling. Ferdinand still shows up to die on the Great Bridge, with a generic taking the place of Lorenz. (Oh, and I’d forgotten to say last time that Ashe appears in Ailell. I read somewhere that he can be recruited somehow here, but I didn’t see it.) The big battle at Gronder Field is a fair bit easier with the Deer; the Lions are less mobile and I believe fewer in number, with the only thing that surprised me being Sylvain and Ingrid coming from behind with reinforcements a few turns in.

Keeping Dedue alive is fairly simple in Chapter 17 since you only have to defeat Edelgard and Dimitri to end the chapter, but I’m not entirely certain I got anything special out of it? In any case, I did so by rushing Edelgard’s lines as fast as possible to get close to taking her out before the Lions start moving. Once they move it looks like Dimitri and his two boyfriends’ AI is specifically trained on Byleth (...why?) unless that’s only because mine was about 30 levels below the rest of my army and cowering in a bush because I’m not using him. It’s therefore not too hard to leave a few units behind to rush Dimitri on his way north as soon as Edelgard is down.

Chapter 18 at first looks like it’s going to be a retread of the Lions’ Chapter 20, the showdown vs. the Death Knight in Fort Merceus, but then the plot happens and you’ve got a bunch of Almyran NPCs led by Nader backing you up while everyone other than Claude assaults the fort from a different starting location. Then the DK surprises everyone by retreating, turning it until a rout map unless you can kill him before he leaves. On that plot point, see below.

Claude’s paralogue is technically the first new map I’ve seen on this route, although it’s really just the story map for the Sreng desert one used for skirmishes. It’s not completely awful to navigate once you realize that there’s a path of normal terrain circling the central structure, which was very helpful when trying to grab the loot from a bunch of thieves determined to commit suicide by dragon. The Wind Caller/Macuil wasn’t particularly worse than any other major monster boss I’ve yet encountered, and he was great for dropping little worldbuilding hints. It’s funny to me that the other house leaders’ paralogues target major military installations while Claude goes on a field trip to another country for information.

Character/Story observations

Let’s start with the Dimidue. The reason I say that I’m not sure that sparing Dedue accomplishes anything is that he retreats from battle and the post-chapter cutscenes play out as if this had happened anyway. Hilda describes Dimitri charging after Edelgard alone before collapsing and getting run through by Imperial soldiers. Claude then asks after Dimitri’s vassal whose fate was unknown - and then it cuts to Dedue alone, saying this: “Your Highness! Your ambitions are my own now! I...I will bring you Edelgard’s head... I swear it!” This is indeed the route where these two go full Quan/Finn, and although Dimitri’s offscreen end lacks the poignancy of Yied the results are no less tragic or less gay. And because Dimitri has no son to be fueled with righteous anger, Dedue has to carry within him not only Finn’s unbroken loyalty but Leif’s rage. I know he’ll be making a reappearance in a later chapter, too, so this isn’t the end for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the anons I’ve gotten on the subject were really about the chapter where you kill Edelgard.

I made a point to defeat Dedue first before rewinding time to see what would come of it, and actually I think that adds even more to where their relationship is/was on this route. In this version of events it’s left ambiguous who’s leading the mysterious Faerghus army until Dimitri appears on the battlefield, and apart from the bit about Cornelia’s coup right after the timeskip no explanation is given for why Dimitri is his one-eyed feral self. Unless the game says otherwise, I’m going to assume that events played out as they did in the Lions, with Dedue rescuing him from prison but needing to sacrifice himself and inadvertently leaving Dimitri to wander alone as a vagrant for five years. This Dimitri is as such violent, contemptuous, and obsessed with revenge, and when his allies die in battle his “mourning” quotes are nothing but ellipses (Sylvain), dismissive grunts (Mercedes), or their names (Felix, Ingrid). For Dedue, though, who protests that he can keep fighting after being defeated, Dimitri says this:  “Shut up and retreat. You must live, Dedue.” So I was right about how this storyline plays out; per his Gilbert support, Dedue has to have his prince command him to live for him to have not charged to his death alongside Dimitri. Also, way to have all that homoromantic co-dependence flow both ways to have even a feral, death-seeking Dimitri insist on Dedue’s survival while all his childhood friends (and Mercedes) are dying around him and he barely spares them a word.

Anyway...let’s talk about lighter things. Not many supports left for me to get; I finally finished off Catherine and Shamir’s line, and it is blatantly romantic down to marriage propositions. As a counterpoint Claude’s last support with Shamir is one of his more romantic and one of the few endings that sees him eventually abandon Almyra. Flayn/Manuela dances around prostitution - good thing Flayn is secretly hundreds of years old, right?

Monastery tidbits: an NPC soldier confirms that the Fódlan year begins with the Great Tree Moon - the April equivalent. This means that numbering the months to match up with the Gregorian calendar was solely so the player could give Byleth a real world birthday. So worth it. I’ve also noticed that there’s a line of minor quests for supplies and skirmishes in Part 2 that are the same across all routes, with the only difference coming from who’s handing them out. For Edelgard it’s Hubert and for Claude it’s Hilda, but for Dimitri it’s Gilbert as yet another thing Dedue misses out on by being dead by default.

In a rare bit of honesty that’s kind of hilarious, Claude admits that he’s using Byleth for their connection to the church, now as a means of smoothing over tensions within the Alliance.

I complained about how the Alliance’s presence and behavior at the Gronder Field rematch on the Lions route has little explanation, and unfortunately the way the Kingdom remnant is handled is only slightly better here. Claude’s forces don’t try allying with them first because their movements have been erratic, and then later because it’s foggy at Gronder...fog that doesn’t stick around for the map itself, thankfully. Dimitri may be feral and unable to be reasoned with, but what about Gilbert or Rodrigue? The rematch is a big marketing moment, but having the Kingdom and Alliance fight each other instead of unifying against the Empire feels like a contrivance either way.

One thing I think Three Houses does really well compared to earlier games is that there’s less of a sense of what I think of as arbitrary chorus characters: people aside from the leads who show up in most dialogue scenes for the protagonist(s) to play off, who get to be there because they have plot armor or are NPCs so they can’t die in battle and therefore don’t need to be written around. FE16 goes out of its way to include every character in your army at one point or another in story cutscenes, sometimes even in plot critical ways. For example, after Chapter 17 it’s Lysithea who provides the plot hook to bring Those Who Slither back into the story by sharing her traumatic past. Meanwhile in Chapter 18 it’s Hilda who comes up with the ruse of invading Fort Merceus disguised as Imperial soldiers...as well as a gag about dressing Claude in drag that’s mildly amusing but goes nowhere.

Oh, right...I need to talk about the DK, and Those Who Slither’s nukes. The DK retreats from Fort Merceus because his side has “javelins of light” that totally obliterate it in the same way that Arianrhod gets obliterated in Edelgard’s route. As this happens in a cutscene I assume the DK doesn’t die there if you defeat him, as he does in the Lions route. If it seems odd that I’m not dwelling on the fact that the enemy now has anachronistic nukes, it’s nothing compared to Claude, who takes the opportunity to have an extended discussion on racism. Lorenz takes him to task for allying with the Almyran general Nader, and Claude reveals his plan to solve racism with imperialism. As silly as that is, he’s still deft (and manipulative) enough not to do so by revealing his own heritage but rather by dragging Cyril into the spotlight as an example of an Almyran among their own forces. Cyril protests, but that’s just how Claude rolls.

Part of Claude’s big speech references the Officer’s Academy bringing together people from many different backgrounds, among them the princess of Brigid and a man of Duscur. You know, an Imperial hostage and the vassal/boyfriend of the mentally unstable crown prince of Faerghus, because those are completely normal circumstances for adding diversity to the student body. It’s also strange to me that he considers Duscur as outside Fódlan. Ethnically and culturally distinct from Faerghus, yes, but Fódlan is a continent with three independent political entities that also includes the peninsula on which Duscur rests. To use a real world comparison close to how I imagine the relations in question, this would be comparable to saying that the Basque people do not live in Europe because they are an ethnic group distinct from the people of France/Spain. I’m clearly putting more thought into this than the game does, but still.

My thoughts on the new show

It’s not really a proper review because how would I even do that, so here are my various thoughts, somewhat collected! (This is long as hell, fair warning.)

General thoughts:

Le Chevre and El Topo are definitely a couple. I’m so glad other people in the tag are seeing this too. My first inkling was when they were hugging each other after graduating, but it was Carmen’s comment that they only ever work together that really got me like “oh they’re gay.”

Speaking of gays, Dash Haber (Countess Cleo’s courier) is one. His voice is so gay-coded, I knew this one immediately. Not crazy about him being an antagonist (even among antagonists), but he amused me, so he’s good.

Even if they have the same names, these are different characters. The exceptions here being Carmen, the Chief, and possibly Julia. This isn’t a Tomb Raider: Legend case of putting characters in different situations and slightly changing their personalities, or even a Tomb Raider 2013 case of radically changing their personalities to coincide with their new paradigms. Chase, Zack, Ivy, and the rest are really entirely new characters that simply share their names with past characters. It’s almost as if the names are references to the past shows and games than ties to those characters.

For the most part, they even have different designs. Zack is certainly the most radical change, but even the most similar have some changes. Prof. Maelstrom isn’t nearly as stocky as his namesake, and while Dr. Saira Bellum has wild hair like Dr. Sara Bellum, it’s a strange shape as well as a strange color, and her skin is darker.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in the franchise, either. Minnie Series from Where on Earth is apparently a totally different character from Minnie Series from the original Where in Time game. Adventures in Math changed a lot of the characters’ designs and backstories: some, like Jacqueline Hyde, still had the same core, but others, like Jane Reaction, are so different they have to be considered different characters. And then there are all the different iterations of the Chief: old white guy, middle-aged white guy, middle-aged Black gal, hologram, presumably white guy shrouded in mystery...

I will say that as a result of this, I was disappointed with Zack and Ivy. Not because this Zack and Ivy are bad characters, but because Where on Earth Zack and Ivy are my favorite characters in the franchise after Carmen, and I was looking forward to getting to see them, or at least characters resembling them, again. But, it is what it is.

I get the Kim Possible comparisons, but they’re not where I’d jump first. There are similarities: both are action shows with deliciously OTT villains (though the VILE gang wish they were as effortlessly iconic as Drakken, Shego, and Señor Senior, Sr. and Jr.) and similar art styles, and Player/Wade is a fair comparison. But I have to say I’d never have thought of that comparison if I hadn’t seen it here on Tumblr, perhaps because KP was rooted in Kim and Ron’s daily lives (Sailor Moon-style), whereas CS is rooted in its overarching plot (Chuck-style).

I do agree with another comparison: Coach Brunt and Countess Cleo, and Eartha Brute and the Contessa. I saw a post in the tag earlier today that brought this up, and while I hadn’t thought of it - probably because the Where in the World show is one of the parts of canon I’m least familiar with - it seems legit to me. I had wondered why these two were seemingly born out of nowhere, when the other three had their names and likenesses drawn from Where on Earth characters. (Shadowsan seems to me to be based on Suhara’s design and, to some extent, personality, with Shadow Hawkins’ name.) The specific theory that post espouses, that it’s a legal issue, seems possible to me. Although the World villains did appear in other Carmen media, I know WGBH and WQED own the copyright to the show, though they licensed the franchise from Brøderbund. So I have no idea what the legal tangle is behind that show, and I imagine it’s very complicated.

Speaking of WGBH: I wonder if Zack and Ivy being from Boston is an incredibly subtle reference to its location there.

I have mixed feelings about the art style. It is great in still shots, but I found it a little hard to watch as animation for very long.

I don’t ship anything – yet. Julia’s clarification of “travel partner” is certainly ripe for shippy implications, but for me there’s really not much on a personality level to ship her and Carmen at this point. (Likewise Carmen and Ivy, or Carmen and Zack.) I could definitely get behind Julia having a crush on Carmen, the way I feel OG!Jules certainly does.

As to Gray... he was plainly asking Carmen out / hitting on her when he gave her his card. But even on the way to the date, she insisted she saw him as an older brother figure. Like with Julia, I could potentially get behind it in future, but I’d have to see it developed further. There’s also the matter of him trying to kill Carmen, which I’m not crazy about... Carmen’s forgiven him since he was under orders from VILE, and his mind-erase courtesy of Dr. Bellum has given him a fresh start, but it didn’t change who he fundamentally is as a person, and that person made the decision to join VILE and ultimately to agree to kill Carmen. But I’m not totally anti-Carmen/Gray at this point.

(In re Carmen’s sexuality: I have always felt strongly that all of Carmen’s previous incarnations were ace/aro, but this Carmen? The sapphics have claimed her, and I’m here for it. I’m fine with her being gay, bi, or pan. I’m fine with her being acespec and/or arospec, or not.)

I was surprised by the violence. Scenes of literal attempted murder would never have made it in previous shows or games! In fact, a lot of the melee combat wouldn’t have. The franchise hasn’t always been totally non-violent - Ivy whacked the occasional villain around on Earth, and ThinkQuick and Stolen Drums both required the player to destroy VILE robots, the former featuring robots with personalities - but I don’t think it’s ever been shown in such detail as the combat scenes in this series. I don’t have a problem with it, exactly, but it was a little jarring.

Things I didn’t like:

The educational moments were utterly didactic. I guess you could say the same about Earth, but I feel like it integrated the education into the plot better, and it certainly made the educational moments more fun by working jokes into them. Meanwhile, this show is taking the Stolen Drums approach of info-dumping for two minutes and then moving ahead with the actual plot with no attention to education thereafter. To go back to my favorite video game (I warned y’all), fucking Tomb Raider: Legend did a better job integrating education with action. And it’s not even supposed to be educational!

Stop trying to make “caper” happen. It’s not going to happen. It’s a perfectly good word to use from time to time, as it always has been in canon, but for “The ____ Caper” to be every episode title, and for it to be used at every opportunity in the script when “theft” or “heist” or another word could have been used just as easily gets annoying. The thesaurus: it exists. Also, it’s so overused that at a certain point I started thinking of the culinary garnish instead of a crime. (And I’ve never even eaten capers. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen them in person.)

I’m not crazy about the newly established genesis of Carmen’s name. Having her grow up with no name but “Black Sheep” makes me feel uncomfortable tbh, and while I like the significance of her choosing her own name, pulling it off a hat label seems cheap. And out of character for someone as thoughtful as Carmen.

Some of the villains seemed like real cultural stereotypes. Thankfully, it was not nearly as bad as Adventures in Math, or we’d literally have had Le Chevre saying, “Hon hon hon, baguettes!” but Shadowsan and Paper Star in particular made me uncomfortable as they felt like very stereotypical “Japanese” characters. The same could be said of Coach Brunt, who while not a stereotype of any marginalized group, was definitely a bit one-note. Coach Beiste, but evil and Texan.

Cross-language misspellings. Namely, Shadowsan and Le Chevre should be Shadow-san and Le Chèvre, should they not? The omission of accent marks has always been one of my major bugaboos, and while it’s not the first time the franchise has done it, it still annoys me. Shadow-san’s missing hyphen annoys me even more, since the hyphen indicates that other honorifics could be used, and in fact, it would (if I understand correctly) be more appropriate for his students to address him as Shadow-sama or Shadow-sensei while his peers call him Shadow-san.

I felt some real misogynistic undertones to Tigress. In a show that otherwise is quite female-forward, it irked me that of Carmen’s four classmates, only one is a girl - and she’s the one who becomes Carmen’s rival. And then for that to continue throughout the series, setting her up as the mean girl to Carmen’s good girl (in many ways, the Regina to Carmen’s Janis Ian), really bothered me. I certainly don’t think female characters have to be perfect, or expect perfect representation, but it feels like Tigress’ development just was not done mindfully, and instead they let themselves fall into misogynistic tropes. It’s not like you to pit women against each other, etc. etc.

The ages and timeline confused me. Carmen seems to be in her late teens or early twenties throughout the main part of the series (I saw a post that mentioned she says she’s 20), yet she was clearly still a preteen or young teen when she stole Cookie’s hard drive. Since Cookie’s delivery is an annual event, its information shouldn’t last Carmen those several years to grow up.

By a similar token, Player seems to be the same age in the flashbacks as in the present day. As a result, he seems a little older than Carmen to start, and a few years younger to conclude. It messes me up. Not least because, not gonna lie, I want to be sure it’s okay for me to be so gay for Carmen.

Things I liked:

The references to previous canon. Along with the aforementioned names, we have:

Rita Moreno’s cameo! (Please, please, God, give us another Rita cameo and cameos for the rest of the Earth cast next season.)

Mentions of punning names. This was delightfully lampshaded with Gray’s original codename of “Graham Crackle” and the subsequent drags from his classmates. And while most of the other characters didn’t get punning names, one of the two who did was Rita’s character, Cookie Booker, the bookkeeper - or, indeed, book-cooker.

The very meta plot point of Carmen getting her outfit by stealing it from Cookie, voiced by her previous incarnation’s voice actor.

Frequent utterances of “Where in the world is...” or “Where on Earth is...”

Tigress’ name, a reference to an Earth episode where Carmen faces a new rival. I don’t know if the Duchess plotline was also a deliberate reference to this episode, or a subconscious one, but it’s so similar that I can’t think it was total coincidence.

I’m thinking “the cleaners” are a reference to the Ick brothers, the janitors from World and USA 3.0.

Carmen is ginger. I have a significant bias for redheads. (I dye my hair red and am only half-joking when I call myself transginger as well as transgender. Heaven on Earth-era Belinda Carlisle is one of my major style rolemodels.) Carmen suddenly being auburn for the first time just makes her even more endearing to me than one would have thought possible. Plus, Ivy and Zack both being redheads? Iconic.

Carmen is also gorgeous. Now, unlike some of you, I have never previously been gay for Carmen; she’s always been more of a big sister figure to me. Instead, as a kid, I was gay for TV!Jacqueline Hyde, Ann Tikwittee, and Ivy, in that chronological order. But the moment I saw this Carmen with her hair up in the trailer, I was a goner. And in her cocktail dress at the charity auction, or her black catsuit at the end of episode 9? I thirst. There were several other points as well where I was just like, “Oh my god, she’s so pretty.” Yes, darlings, I am very gay.

That choker. Most fashionable thing Carmen’s ever worn. Fight me. We love a stylish queen.

Player has a fidget spinner. And it’s only seen briefly, which to me says it’s an everyday part of his life, not something they threw in to try to seem cool... Which in turn allows me to point to something and headcanon that Player is autistic. He’s also known mostly by a username, and spends most of his time working on his special interest, and doesn’t seem to be one for socializing in traditional ways. We love an autistic prince. (Also, this makes him in some ways a male version of my girl Futaba from Persona 5. Again, iconic.)

(To be clear, especially since it wasn’t in my little self-introduction the other day, I’m self-diagnosed on the autism spectrum. So well-written characters being autistic is really fun for me.)

Player is from Niagara Falls, near where I live (I’m on the outer edges of the Buffalo/Niagara Falls MSA), while Zack and Ivy are from Boston, where I’m moving next month. Totally personal to me, but I’m so delighted. Now, granted, Player is on the Ontario side of the Falls rather than the New York side, but still. (Hell, who can blame him for not living in Niagara Falls, NY? It’s a hellhole.)

The VILE leaders stay iconic. Countess Cleo’s crush on Zack in his “Duke” guise is hilarious and adorable, and Dr. Bellum’s obsession with cat videos? Legends only.

Paper Star is generally fantastic. It’s actually too bad for me she’s a villain, because I find her super likeable. Her tendency to hum/sing to herself is also really endearing, and she’s another one who’s easy to headcanon as neurodivergent. I really hope we get more of her, and more of her outside combat and the daily business of villainery, because she’s easily my favorite of the VILE crew.

Tigress is also awesome. Yeah, the female character bias is real, but she’s def my second-favorite, which amplifies my annoyance at the aforementioned misogyny. To be honest, though, part of it may be that she’s basically Amanda Evert, my girlfriend from - you guessed it, folks! - Tomb Raider: Legend, with purple lipstick.

Zack and Ivy met Carmen while casing a donut shop. This is so delightfully silly, and I adore it. Like, who the fuck robs a donut shop of all things? I feel like it could’ve been a reference to them being fat, maybe one that was meant to be developed further but ended up on the cutting room floor? On that note...

The fat positivity is real. Zack and Ivy are still able to move around and are even somewhat athletic; the Countess crushes on Zack; and nothing negative is said about their weight (except the potential implications of the donut shop). I love this.

Carmen and Jules’ conversation. As I said above, it’s not enough for me to start shipping them, but I love that Carmen casually addresses her as Jules rather than Julia. It’s so much like when people I don’t know well call me Soph instead of Sophie, which I always love because it connotes that closeness. Moreover, since Julia’s previous incarnation / namesake was almost always called Jules, and was Carmen’s former detective partner, I feel like there’s an implication that Carmen coined that nickname and it became her primary moniker. It’s just so good, and shipping or no shipping, I really hope we get more interactions between them next season.

The voices are good... mostly. Maelstrom is definitely the one I was most impressed with, as his voice has a lot of character while still being easy to understand. Liam O’Brien was doing a great Tim Curry impression there, but much less egregiously campy and therefore more believable. Sharon Muthu was also fantastic as Dr. Bellum - not as fantastic as WOEICS!Sara’s voice actor (Candi Milo?), but then, who could be? And Kari Wahlgren’s performance as Tigress was snarly perfection.

Gina Rodriguez is a big departure from Carmen’s typically low-pitched voice, but she’s perfectly fine. I never sat up and went, “Wow, what a performance!” but I can’t find any fault with it either. Finn Wolfhard as Player is obviously cross-promotional stunt casting, but surprisingly, it’s also perfect casting.

On the minus side... Zack and Ivy. Part of it is that their accents are so ridiculous that it’s distracting (see above Tim Curry comment). Part of it is that, at least to my ears, the accents aren’t believable - I thought they were supposed to be from Brooklyn until they mentioned Boston. I actually don’t fault the VAs for this, as they both have moments where I got the sense they’d be capable VAs for the characters (and I know Abby Trott is talented as I loved her in Tales of Berseria and Nier: Automata), but rather the voice director(s) who pushed them toward those performances. I feel like if the direction had been different, I’d have liked Zack and Ivy a lot more.

That plot twist. I truly never saw it coming. I suspected that Coach Brunt was not, in fact, the one who found Carmen, but I’d actually thought it might have been Prof. Maelstrom. The extent of Shadowsan’s revelations was a big surprise to me. Kudos to the writers for pulling that off.

Conclusion:

It’s not the series I expected. It’s not the series I hoped for. But it is one that I enjoyed, both on its own merits and for revitalizing the franchise. As I said last night, it is a hell of a feeling to have new Carmen content in 2019 (that’s actually getting attention), and for it to be really good content is a relief.

If anyone else wants to share their thoughts, either one-on-one or with the rest of the community (as it were), please do! I’d love to talk more about this series and this franchise and the thieving queen of my heart, Ms. Carmen Sandiego.

Class Feature Friday: Martyred Bloodline/Retribution Variant (Sorcerer Bloodline; Wildblooded Variant)

Death can have a major impact on our lives. For most, it’s personal, with loved ones passing away, leaving behind their friends and family. However, for those individuals who have touched many lives across their own, the impact can be far greater, particularly due to the causes that often go hand in hand with affecting so many people.

Sometimes, in realms of magic and sorcery, that impact has lingering effects beyond the emotional ones. These spiritual echos may unlock arcane power within a following generation, either directly within that martyr’s descendants, or perhaps a descendant of one connected closely to them.

While many who’s death induce future sorcerous bloodlines die valiantly for their beliefs, such as a paladin leading a charge against the forces of evil, or an unlikely hero distracting a foe to help innocents escape, there are also those who are martyred wrongfully. Heretics executed for their beliefs, or passionate people killed for loving or expressing themselves in a certain way. The latter group often give rise to a different form of this power, one powered by righteous (or perhaps not so righteous) vengeance.

Unlike other bloodlines, this one really doesn’t have a biological component other than being passed down by those who have it or carry it. However, if the bloodline manifests any physical marks, they likely take the form of scars or poorly-healed wounds, particularly in areas that the original martyr was wounded during their death, similar to the stigmata of Christian (and to a lesser extent, other faiths). A retribution sorcerer whose ancestor was executed by beheading, for example, might have a scar running around their neck, and might even manifest an illusion of their head separating from their body when casting their magic.

The powers of these sorcerers, as we shall soon see, are focused very much on allowing the caster to endure great suffering, and indeed inducing said suffering in themselves in order to benefit others.

 The spells associated with this bloodline allow the caster to endure much, bless others with energy and fervor to overcome, ward beings against detection or mental assault, and finally, leave all around them in awe of the sacrifice they represent.

The techniques also allow them to endure much more, and even briefly ignore and recover quickly from effects that affect the body. Additionally, they prove capable of inspiring others to follow them.

Both versions of this bloodline have an arcana that turns pain and bodily harm into power, though in different ways. The primary bloodline surges with arcane potency as they are harmed, causing their magic to deal more damage, last longer, or be more effective, depending on the spell. Retribution sorcerers however, find that surge of power adding to their spells, allowing them to add metamagical effects to spell using less arcane energy.

Willing to risk their lives, these sorcerers can sacrifice their vitality to increase the impact of the harm they dish out, bolster their resilience against effects, or push themselves harder when acting, though these benefits are fleeting.

Shouting with righteous fury, they can also inspire themselves and allies to fight harder.

Where the bloodline splits again, the main bloodline allows the mage to sacrifice their own vitality to invest it in an ally, allowing them to fight on for longer.

Meanwhile, the retribution variant demands blood for blood, allowing the caster to set up a sympathetic connection to a foe that just harmed them, causing the harm they caused the sorcerer to be visited back upon them.

By weakening themselves in one regard, these mystics can bolster themselves in another aspect, though they must heal that damage to their body normally.

The most powerful martyred sorcerers become avatars of their ancestor’s duty. They become immune to necromantic killing spells, as well as attempts to raise them as undead. Furthermore, their soul yearns to return to life to continue their work, costing half as much to bring them back from beyond the grave.

While I wouldn’t call them a tank by any means, this sorcerer bloodline can be fully expected to take a lot of hits, so if you want to subvert the “squishy caster” assumption, this bloodline may be up your alley. The core bloodline focuses on buffing and providing temp hp to allies, while the wildblooded variant is more all about punishing foes for attacking, but both benefit heavily from having a dedicated healer, as well as multiple ways to endure and defend. Like all sorcerers, I recommend a balanced spell selection, but leaning on party buffs and various defensive feedback-damage spells certainly does fall in line with the theme here.

 Playing a martyred or retribution sorcerer often means coming up with two character concepts, the player character, and the figure in their heritage that is the cause of their bloodline. You can go as detailed or as vague as you like, or let the GM come up with it. Your character might not even know who their ancestor is.

Additionally, the nature of this bloodline often means that these sorcerers have some relationship with local religions, with some looking upon the mage as a scion of a noble hero, or perhaps a reminder of an enemy of the faith. Keep that in mind when building them.

  Though much of their race has degenerated into the various Dark Folk races, there are a few caligni bloodlines left, living in secrecy from the owbs. They say that each caligni is descended from the last few heroes of their people before the owbs fully took control, each one dying valiantly in combat with the shadowy manipulators.

 Though diminutive in size, the familiar automaton Stalking Wrath harbors great fury. In life a mage that dared to study the forbidden school of divination (considered blasphemous by the fate-worshipping culture of the day), he was put to death for his views, though his insight was deemed valuable enough to preserve in lesser form, creating his current weasel-like state. Now, sensing one of his descendants thrumming with the echoes of his fury, he has escaped to seek them out.

 Bearing the spear wound that slew her, a woman has appeared claiming to be Saint Nevera incarnate, a hero-warrior that was later put to death for the then-crime of impersonating the male-dominated role of knight. The clergy decries her as a blasphemous charlatan, in part out of disbelief of her claim, but also to preserve their campaign of subtly watering down her legend over generations to be a mere footnote in history, rather than the rallying cry of equality.

oh, shit, people actually asked me to follow up on Preaching The Good Word of A Functional Alignment System, okay

i hope you people know what you’re unleashing here

(whole thing prompted by this right here, notably including the tag #unpopular opinion: the definition of lawful and chaotic has been thoroughly twisted over the years since od&d)

So some of you (the ones who didn’t request this) might be wondering: “Alterz, why would you want to go back to the old alignment method? If people generally agree on the new alignment definitions then why confuse things by trying to change them? Is this just some old system nostalgia?”

Well 1) I’m too young by far for old system nostalgia but more importantly 2) people don’t? agree????? on the alignments???????

And that’s a problem, because the whole point of the alignments is to give some rough guidelines on how any given character is likely to act. It should be inarguable. The very fact that people can have arguments over what an alignment is means that the system has failed.

If you look in the alignment section on the more recent D&D editions, they literally have to go into detail on each alignment to explain what each one means. Worse still, for a system theoretically set up as a gradient, the different alignments are basically buckets and it gets really confusing if a character doesn’t neatly fit into one of those buckets.

Some examples from characters I have actually played: a mercenary who I labeled as neutral because I could make equally compelling arguments for why he should be lawful neutral, chaotic neutral, neutral good, and neutral evil. A hermit who at any given time was chaotic neutral or neutral good, but could never reliably be described as chaotic good.

Under the system I’m about to provide you, the mercenary is inarguably chaotic neutral and the hermit is unambiguously lawful good. End of sentence, all cleared up.

There’s two main issues, as far as I can tell. The first is that the terms lawful and chaotic are, well, unclear. That’s why, for example, the argument in the post that spawned this is premised on following the rules. But this ends up getting just... incredibly ridiculous, because like... okay if my character was perfectly law abiding in their original culture but then keeps getting afoul of the laws in the place the campaign takes place because of culture clash, are they lawful or chaotic? I have repeatedly seen characters who follow no laws at all be classed as lawful because “they follow a code/their own code”.

But that doesn’t reliably tell us what a character of any given alignment is likely to do. If you have a lawful character faced with a situation regarding breaking a specific law, the argument over their behavior shouldn’t be dependent on whether that character is lawful by the standards of society vs lawful by their own code vs lawful by foreign standards.

The other issue is the good vs evil axis, in its entirety, because we’re told that alignments are something the characters choose and no person thinks to themselves “I choose to be evil.” And then you end up with whole arguments about “this character thinks they’re purging the world of evil and doing a good thing, but they’re acting evil, but they’re doing it for a good cause, are they good aligned or evil aligned???”

And ultimately when you put these two together, the issue boils down to this: under the modern interpretation of the alignment system, Good and Evil are what you are, and Lawful or Chaotic are how you do it. So a character Is Good, and either follows rules or doesn’t. Or a character Is Evil, and either does so within the rules or outside them.

(Note how what lawful or chaotic mean are different based on whether the character is good or evil, rather than being their own independent axis.)

But if we go back to the old, like really old iterations of D&D, it wasn’t like that, and it made a bit more sense, because:

Lawful and Chaotic were What You Are, and Good or Evil was How You Do It. What does that mean? I’m going to just directly quote from the old Basic handbook, published in 1983. This is so old that Lawful and Good were almost synonymous (same for Chaotic and Evil), so I’m going to cut out the stuff that confuses the issue and just quote the parts that define Law and Chaos. On page 55 of the Player’s Handbook, it provides the following:

Law (or Lawful) is the belief that everything should follow an order... [Lawful creatures] will try to obey laws as long as such laws are fair and just.

If a choice must be made between the benefit of a group or an individual, a Lawful character will usually choose the group. Sometimes individual freedoms must be given up for the good of the group. [...]

Chaos (or Chaotic) is the opposite of Law. It is the belief that life is random... Everything happens by accident... It is not important to keep promises, and lying and telling the truth are both useful.

To a Chaotic creature, the individual is the most important of all things. Selfishness is the normal way of life, and the group is not important. [...]

Neutrality (or Neutral) is the belief that the world is a balance between Law and Chaos... The individual is important, but so is the group; the two sides must work together...

Basically, a spectrum with individualistic ideals at one end and communistic ideals at the other. That’s it, it’s that simple. Do you act in the interests of the many, or the interests of the individual?

And I think most of us could agree that those ideals, of community vs the individual, are ones that people hold onto Very Strongly. It makes more sense to me that these ideals are the ones that would make a character’s core. And it has nothing to do with literal human laws. Laws can be wrong, laws can be in the interests of individuals rather than communities. Lawful isn’t following the laws, it’s saying there should be an order, that Truth and Justice and Morals should be immutable and existing things. Chaotic, meanwhile, isn’t a failure to be lawful: it’s saying that there is only as much Truth or Justice or Morality in the world as we make there be.

And then Good or Evil as methodology makes a lot of sense. Watch:

Lawful Good says that the good of the many outweighs the needs of the few, and therefore I, the LG person speaking, will sacrifice my best interests for the good of the community.

Lawful Evil says that the good of the many outweighs the needs of the few, and therefore certain people can quite reasonably be sacrificed for the good of the community, because those few people don’t matter as much.

Lawful Neutral sits somewhere in between, not necessarily harming others but not sacrificing oneself either.

Chaotic Good says that the rights of the individual matter the most, regardless of the desires of the many, and therefore I, the CG person speaking, will fight for all individuals to have their own individual rights.

Chaotic Evil says that the rights of the individual matter the most, regardless of the desires of the many, and therefore I, the CE person speaking, am going to do what I want for me because there’s nothing wrong with being selfish and looking out for yourself first.

Chaotic Neutral, again, sits somewhere in between.

Neutral on the Law/Chaos spectrum, as mentioned, says the rights of the individual shouldn’t be completely sacrificed in favor of the greater whole, or vice versa. Neutral Good tries to balance these by compromising for everyone’s sakes, while Neutral Evil is more ruthless in balancing these things.

So there you go. Everything has a nice simple spectrum, from community oriented to individualistic and from compassionate to ruthless. Any character in any of those alignments can say they believe they’re doing what’s best and right, and all of them will be telling the truth, whether they’re being selfish or self-sacrificing. Characters who “follow their own code” because they believe there’s only as much justice as we put into the world are Chaotic, characters who follow their own code because they believe there’s a Right Way Things Should Be that other people have forgotten or ignored are Lawful. And it’s very easy to slip up and down the Good/Evil spectrum because you’re following an ideal that you believe is Right, and how you treat others in the pursuit of that ideal can easily go to extremes (how many stories about that have we seen? Well-Intentioned Extremist trope, anyone?)

Bringing this back to my original point re: Steve Rogers, he’s absolutely Lawful Good. He believes that there is a Right and Good way that things should be, he will absolutely sacrifice himself to make that way be reality for others, and if your petty human-level rules and regulations get in the way of doing What Is Right then he’s not going to follow them because following The Law is more important that following the law.

ANYWAY THAT’S HOW YOU FIX A THE ALIGNMENT SYSTEM, PLEASE STOP WITH THE CURRENT INTERPRETATIONS POST-HASTE, HALLELUJAH AMEN.

Why Love, Simon is so Meaningful

I don't talk about this much anymore, but seeing Love, Simon has bubbled it all up. Growing up in this culture was really difficult, in a way that non-gays really don't have a frame to understand; it stole a lot of my life from me. Love, Simon left out some of the toughest parts--the ever-present evil people like Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and Matthew Shepard's killers making every day that much harder--but there's a wider culture that just made everything extremely difficult. Love, Simon does an exceptional job of showing those things, in a way that's easy for a non-gay audience to understand. There are parts of life that I'll never be able to experience because the wider culture took it away from me. It was somewhere around 2nd grade that I realized the world was hostile towards normal people for no good reason--it wasn't a particular news story, or something that happened to me. It was just something present in everything at all times. Some of it is tangible--hearing "that's so gay," or "fag" as an insult, or hearing classmates brag about beating up the one out gay kid--while other stuff is more abstract, like the complete absence of people like me on the screen. Or worse, (later) the token representations of people like me that were either poorly written, the butt of jokes, or just irrelevant props. There are more gay characters today, but often it's still superficial--or in the case of companies like Bioware, disrespectful and offensive "representation" as a money making strategy. Love, Simon was written from a place of respect, and showed the same due care as any film, and that means everything to me. At that time, I closed myself off. I became a "turtle"--I hid both from my toxic family and the anti-gay world behind the locked door of my bedroom. After school I had Star Trek, Legos, and videogames, alone. I stepped away from my friendships in 2nd grade--I didn't stop talking with classmates, I just didn't let them get close; I didn't hang out after school; I kept those relationships superficial. I didn't get the option to be a mall rat. I didn't go see movies with other kids. I didn't get to hang out at the arcade. I didn't have friends to go on bike rides with. I didn't have an SNES player 2 outside of my sister. I was afraid that if I had friends, they'd catch me checking out another guy and either attack me, or out me. I tried to convince myself that I was "alone but not lonely," but I wasn't. The only thing that kept me going was the belief that if I worked hard, I could get away from the toxic family and the toxic culture, making my own life. Struggling to find work in my 20's really killed that one hope that kept me alive. Can you imagine how isolating that is for an 8 year old to know the world hates them, with no where to turn to for safety? To know that there's no one in the world that they can ever trust? I was terrified: there was no way to know who was an enemy. People who otherwise pass as nice can still be homophobic; they pretend to be good people, but even that sweet teacher could be a fatal liability. Complain about the slurs and risk the real, well-meaning teacher telling my parents; at around 14 I became aware of groups like NARTH and Exodus International and was terrified that I could be forced into one of those torture camps. When I finally wanted to take baby steps out of my bubble, I didn't really have the social skills to do it. I remember a classmate in 8th grade who tried to be my friend, but I no longer knew how how to go from daily chatting, to actually hanging out away from school. I never got to have a best friend, and I was terrified of going to school dances, so I didn't--not that there'd have been a reason to, there was no way to find a dance partner anyway. One of the most obvious differences between Simon in Love, Simon and me is that I never did go to any high school parties--I was never invited, and I probably would have been afraid to go if I had been.  Smart camp was certainly a lot better--it was an oasis in many ways. I had friends--who are still important to me today--and I was able to go to the dances; mostly, I played cards with my friends because it wasn't just a dance. But even that didn't offer me a reprieve from the toxic culture around me. Friends kept pushing me to dance with girls, and it was too dangerous to say why I didn't want to. I completely embarrassed myself when they setup a dance for me, after being pressured to name a crush. In my last year at camp, a girl asked me to dance. I had said no--after repeating that about a dozen times, I left to take cover in the movie room. She followed and kept asking; when everyone stared at me from the disruption, I left, again. I had nowhere else to go, since we weren't allowed to go back to the dorms until later, so I actually hid in the bathroom. I don't think I can convey how frustrating that is--I literally hid in the bathroom because it was too dangerous to say, "please stop, I'm gay." (Needless to say, the bathroom scene after the dance in Love, Simon really hit home.) That story doesn't even end there. She must have asked an instructor for help because he came in a few minutes later to badger me, too. I was backed in a corner with no place to escape, and the authority figure, the one who's job was to protect me, insisted that I should dance with her. I was practically dragged out onto the dance floor, powerless, disgusted, and terrified. Knowing my safety was on the line, I became her default dance partner for a couple weeks. Until she asked for a kiss. I was "lucky" that I only had to say no once before she moved on. Meanwhile, there was a guy in my group who, thanks to the benefit of hindsight, I know was interested--I missed it at the time, and lost the only opportunity I had for any kind of dating life in my teen years. Love, Simon really nailed the little things that convey that being out isn't safe. It's still hard today, but I don't want to be in that position again. I don't want to be the kid hiding in the bathroom at the dance--but sometimes, he's still present. When people defend Billy Graham's evil life. When (mostly) Christians complain that we've "gone too far" with "that whole equality thing." When gay couples are still assaulted today. (https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/anti-lgbtq-attacks-leave-four-victims-injured-new-york-city-n676941) After Pulse. When gay people can still be fired without cause. When gay people can be turned down for renting or buying a home so long as the owner doesn't say why. I don't think I'll ever not be anxious when I come out, even in places that I know are relatively safe. Love, Simon gives me hope that there really is a different future ahead. Seeing a character experience these struggles without making it disaster-porn was refreshing. Seeing him able to experience life, when that was denied to me, is incredible. Seeing a mainstream movie with such an authentic, honest representation of someone like me is unimaginably meaningful. This movie showed the universal aspects of the gay experience, without resorting to tropes and trivialization; without getting too caught up in any niche subsets. I needed this movie 20 years ago. This movie truly could have changed my life if it had existed then. And even in this block of text, I still don't think I've conveyed just how important Love, Simon is to me.

SECRET RADIO | 10.19.20

Secret Radio | 10.19.20 |  Hear it here.

1. Melome Clement & Tout Puissant Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - “Gnon Nu To Min Lin”

One thing that consistently amazes me about this TP music is that it’s like listening to classic oldies

I just read that Melome Clement died right at the end of 2012. I hope that means he lived a long life. 

2. Fela Ransome Kuti & His Koola Lobitos - “Wa Dele”

Absolutely awesome footage of Fela Kuti, some from before and after the period of this song. Hell, it opens with a shot of him hugging Ginger Baker. He’s clearly a massively charismatic guy. There’s great footage of the horn players too, and tons of amazing dancing, both onstage and (I think?) backstage. There is also one very bad moment in the footage that is super jarring… but I think on balance the footage gives a huge dose of color to an already colorful song — I know I fell in love with this song long before I saw these shots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVYqMQ5PKXM

3. Panbers - “Haai”

One side effect of running a music magazine was that music would be sent to us, solicited, unsolicited or otherwise — and I loved it. Part of why I started writing about music was that I loved getting CDs in my literal mailbox. One set that arrived at Eleven before I got there was a beautifully made collection called “Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk 1970-1978.” It wasn’t the kind of thing I was listening to, or for, at the time, but it made a certain impression. Now I’m amazed at how Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, France and Benin were pumping out great music in 1978 that all seems like they were part of the same scene… but they couldn’t have been. Right? Italians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Estonians, Peruvians — just great music being made all over the planet at the same time. Wow.  

4. La Femme - “Welcome America”

This band seems to me like a more modern version of the band Little Rabbits from the ‘90s-‘00s, whose music I totally love. I really like the spoken style of some French pop — like the lyrics aren’t being sung, they’re being announced. I get the impression that this is an indie sort of band in modern French music but not crossed over into the French pop stratosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KomjRIqlF7g

A Town Called Panic! soundtrack

If you haven’t seen this movie, we highly recommend it. Don’t even look it up, just pop it in at the top of your queue. It’s really weird and completely rewarding.

5. Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - “Initials B.B.”

This is one of the foxiest songs ever recorded, in my opinion. I mean, she’s beautiful and he’s beautiful for SURE, but also it’s written into the chords and arrangements. It’s so royal.

For the eye makeup if nothing else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOYtC1n5bE

Paige adds:

I should note, Chris and Christine when I dedicated this to Bridget, I was only thinking of the chorus “initials, initials, initials, B. B.” Immediately when it started playing, I realized I’d completely forgotten there were verses and that I have no idea what they’re saying. But considering it’s Serge and Bardot, there’s a high chance it might be a song for grown ups. So just the B.B. part is for Bridget.

6. Betti-Betti - “Guikolo” 

From Bridget to Brigitte Bardot to another B.B.: Betti-Betti. I love the character and timbre of her voice, and the way the horn hits anticipate the beat — everything seems to be out ahead of the beat, it’s amazing. And this is only a hunch, but I think she does the amazing mouth drumming in the middle of the song. If anyone knows whether that’s actually her doing it, I would love to know. I feel like it happens in several of her songs. It just knocks me out every time.

7. Guided By Voices - “Hot Freaks”

This song will always be deep in the heart of my Seattle self. I feel like this is the moment that Guided By Voices became ineluctable. 

8. Techniques Band - “And I Love Her”

So languid, so strangely refracted. 

9. L’Oeil - “Bernadette”

 This song comes from a collection called “Wizzz: French Psychorama (1966-1971), Vol. 1.” Everyone sounds so locked in together on the groove, the vocals can go off on their own TV comedy scene. I want to know more about this band. 

10. William Onyeabor - “Tomorrow” 

The rhythm of this song grows so gradually that you don’t even feel it growing ever more complex until the backing vocals start to wind around each other in an ascending ladder of harmony. Meanwhile, the lead vocal just keeps expressing an absolute truth about life: No one knows tomorrow.

11. Marie Lafôret - “A Demain My Darling”

Lijadu Sisters - “Sunshine”

This is such a pretty song in the verses… but then it opens up into an extended instrumental passage built around this perfect little guitar phrase. I assume great hip hop songs have been built around this sample, but I haven’t heard em yet. In headphones the instruments are being slowly panned around the room in different directions, which is pretty great as well.

12. T P Orchestre Poly Rythmo - “A O O Ida”

When I’m digging around for T.P. tracks I haven’t heard, sometimes a song really lands. I make a note, come back to it a few times, realize I’m into it, cue it up and realize that I should have recognized the song from its place on a comp or something I’ve already heard. But they sound so different from copy to copy! The version of “A O O Ida” here is from a recording of the 1976 original pressing. The version I knew but didn’t even recognize is on Analog Africa’s excellent “The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk.” At first I thought they were entirely different takes, but they’re not — just really different EQs and mastering. I love all of Analog Africa’s remasters on all of their amazing, amazing compilations, but in this case I prefer the version here. It sounds so sharp and wild. 

13. Teddy Afro - “Mar eske Tuwaf (Fikir Eske Meqabir)”

Teddy Afro must be the biggest entertainer in all of Ethiopia, and he is internationally revered as well. I first heard his music as background music in Ethiopian restaurants, but as I’ve come to explore more music around the world, I find his songs’ production to be really fascinating. He kind of floats over the top of a giant cumulus cloud of orchestral music and telling stories. In this case, he’s relating the story of Seble and Bezabih, the heroes of a famous Ethiopian story called “Love Until the Grave” that I gather doesn’t end well.

14. Salah Ragab - “Black Butterfly”

Josh Weinstein told us about Salah Ragab, and this song makes me feel like I’m living in a cartoon. 

15. Giant Sand - “Temptation of Egg”

In Seattle I went to see Grandaddy at the Crocodile, opening for a band I’d heard of but never seen so figured I’d check out. Giant Sand was touring on this album, “Chore of Enchantment,” and I’d never seen anyone play both keys and maracas AND guitar while singing and somehow seem like he was barely doing anything at all. I got the CD but it didn’t seem like the same thing… until the day after I met Paige, when we found ourselves at my place and I pulled out this album. It unfurled like a genie from a bottle.

16. Blonde Redhead - “En Particuleur”

Blonde Redhead was for a long time my absolute favorite band to see live. I think the first time was at Under the Rail, and literally the second she first screamed I burst into surprised tears. The twins looked like one angel and one devil. John Goodmanson worked with them before he worked with Harvey Danger and I was honestly in awe of them. They were also my path into Serge Gainsbourg, for which I will always be thankful.

17. Michel Polnareff - “La Tribù (Hippy Jeeeh!)”

It’s amazing how many layers of reverb this recording is soaking in, which helps keep it super spaced out, along with that synth sound firing straight up out of the atmosphere.

18. Fabio - “Lindo Sonho Delirante”

Another find via Now/Again Records. The original cover for the single featured a photo of Fabio with his arms outstretched, enwrapped in text. The breathless, almost torn quality of the backing vocals is trés classique. Also, another great example of mouth drumming.

19. Os Bongos - “Lena”

*A great find own my quest to find Muxima! I love the guitar tone on this.

20. Avolonto Honore et l’Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - “Avi Yaman Houé”

Avolonto Honore belongs to that first group of four — plus of course T.P. Orchestre — from the original “Legends of Benin” that basically makes him a saint in our book. He’s definitely one of the most amazing-looking players among them. This track they’re working is a super deep groove… and then when the horns come in, they sound surprisingly like Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol.” I believe that is Papillon on the guitar as well, another top favorite musician ever.

21. Yuri Morozov - “Neizyasnimoe”

Johnny Fantastic is probably the person we know who knows the most about Russian history and culture. Also American presidents. He is who I want to talk Russian psych and underground music with. So far, I’ve mainly found cool stuff from Estonia, which is plenty exciting, but I feel like there must be a whole Muscovite weird-rock scene that we just haven’t met yet. What do you think, Johnny?

22. Flavien Berger - “La Fête Noire”

Via roundabout paths, this one gets totted up in Julian’s column. Thanks, Julian. This was one of the first batches of songs that Paige heard of French music made after the ’70s, and it clearly stuck. Sometimes she sings along with the ending, which is my favorite. One translated lyric that sticks out is “I leave the comings and goings of the souls / On the other side of the diving board”

Hailu Mergia - “Embuwa Bey Lamitu”

We have been so glad to have “Wede Harer Guzo” in our collection. Every track is a pleasure. Great for working creatively alongside.

23. Ram Jong Vak - “Twist (Dance Twist)”

More Cambodian pop wizardry.

24. Rocky Horror International - “Alltid Lys Hos Frankenstein”

I tried to convince Paige, when we were leaving our art castle on Cherokee, that we couldn’t have Halloween that year, because we were going to be way too busy. She agreed — and then got us tickets for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the weekend before, which isn’t technically Halloween… and thank god! It was my first live Rocky, and I may not’ve ever done it if I didn’t do it then. Truly a singular experience, there’s nothing like it no matter how hard people try.

Paige adds: The church of Rocky! 

25.  Arsenal - “Bolero”

Still just reading about this track. One guy wrote in on a track, asking, “Is there any place in Russia where I can still buy this music? I have been searching all over the western planets, but no success so far.” Which made my whole existence feel different. The western planets? How far do you have to go to find a copy of this record?!

Blog Post #1

       Based off of the movie “The Breakfast Club” I think I can relate to the character Andrew Clark. We live in a world where every young person is expected to have their life together by college. We’re expected to be successful in life and I think the majority of it is pushed by our parents/guardians. Throughout watching the movie breakfast club I can relate to this character trying to be the best he could be. Life is spontaneous and most of the time that doesn’t go how we would like it to go. Then again, I’m still trying to get my life all sorted out in terms of future plans and goals. In the film, I feel like all of the kids in detention were just trying to live their lives but then got caught up in the rules and now I have to put a hold on their daily plans.

       Now as for experiences that the character has endured, I feel very relatable to the fact that Andrew is pushed by his parents to do good in life. Most adults figure that by college we are supposed to already have a jumpstart on our future; meanwhile we are still curious to explore other possible careers. I feel like he is often misunderstood as well. Everyone has this image or premade judgement as soon as they see him, when in reality he doesn’t want to be that. I think everybody struggles with how others see them. 

       With the several movies provided, there are three common themes that can be seen in each of them. The first one is the depiction of Sexuality and Promiscuity as themes. Nowadays anything that involves romance or sex will be accepted by the general public. People see it as normal, yet exciting to watch, yet they often get the depiction of those themes incorrect. For example, the highly critiqued “Fifty Shades of Grey” Is an inaccurate depiction of an every day relationship obviously. Yet the only reason why they still make movies like that is because it interests people due to the fact that it is not like reality. The movie “Mean Girls” gives a depiction of high school girls that is very straight forward and bold... They can be seen to control everyone with their ability to use their body image as a tool. In the movie “The Breakfast Club”, Claire Standish is seen as someone who cares about their body image and ‘love’ life more than the general public I think. Everyone thinks that she goes on from person to person without a care in the world. That’s the great thing about movies sometimes as it can create an atmosphere that is unlikely to occur in the everyday lives of almost everyone around us. Yet the only reason why they still make movies like that is because it interests people due to the fact that it is not like reality. That’s the great thing about movies sometimes as it can create an atmosphere that is unlikely to occur in the every day lives of almost everyone around us. That is also the downside to media such as movies and songs. I think that this method of drawing in more sales and profit is long. Sure, it will make a tremendous amount of profit for the producers and actors, but in the long run it will slowly degrade our younger generation to have that be acceptable when happening at younger ages. 

       The attempt to fit in has also been a common theme between movies. In the movie “Mid90s” and “KIDS”, it can be seen to have the younger generation attempt to fit in and act older than they really are… I think most of it is just trying to act grown up and cool, but for the majority of it, it would be that they want to be accepted by everyone else.

       The term “Bro” Culture in my opinion is a term that describes the need to be the alpha “bro” in the group of “bros”. This is another common theme that has been portrayed in the provided list of movies. I would assume that it is a sign of dominance in the group. My personal experiences with the “bro culture” were indeed mostly in high school. Not to single anyone out, but I feel like most of the football players were super into how they presented themselves to the rest of the school. They always wanted to act the toughest and roughest even when they weren't in a football game. I think that hyper-masculinity was a serious issue because we were only in high school. There is no need to prove your worth in high school because we’re still teenagers so nobody really cares. I think this is an issue because it completes the self-confidence of people who might not be that aggressive so to speak with their ego. I can put others down for not being “like them”. I think that the two main characters of “The Breakfast Club” (Andrew Clark and John Bender) have the so-called hyper-masculinity. they are so caught up in how their outward appearance will be looked at by their peers. Whether it’s in maintaining a good image as an athlete or being known as the bad one in the school. That goes along with “Mid90s”; the kids want to be deemed as tough and mature for their age, meanwhile they are just kids.

I know “The Office” was not part of the list but I find this gif suitable

       Soundtracks play a big role in the production value of movies. They set the tone for the movie/shows and help carry the story out in an additive manner. I think for the movie “The Breakfast Club” could have gone in a more ‘rebellious’ route. I think that these songs would make a perfect substitution to the soundtrack already provided for the movie:

Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart

KISS - Detroit Rock City

Ratt - Round and Round

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock ‘N Roll

Aerosmith - Angel

Pink Floyd - Breathe

Van Halen - Runnin’ With The Devil

Queen - Another One Bites The Dust

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

AC/DC - Hells Bells

       Okay, so you’re probably now wondering why I chose all rock songs... Well back then, every teenager was a rebel, and since everyone was in detention, these songs can compliment the shenanigans that occur in the movie. From playing “Detroit Rock City” when the kids are running around the halls, to “Breathe” when they’re lighting one up in the library. Then you have a song like “Angel” to play after Allison gets her hair and makeup done and her and Andrew meet shortly after. These songs I think fit to compliment the scenes in the movies and help give more energy into the already rambunctious kids.

Hi! Could you organize DTL MC's level of maturity in each suitor's route? Thank you!

Ooh, this is a tough one! 

What’s considered “mature” is going to vary based on cultural and societal norms– even age groups! I’m sure there are quite a lot of young people who believe wholeheartedly that they are mature, meanwhile their parents are like ‘lol, sit your ass down and do your homework.’

And I’m sure that the parents parents are looking at them like ‘wth did I do wrong?’

So since you asked me, let’s do it like this. We’re going to need to consider two specific things: 

First, we’ll define what “we” are. We are the avatar, otherwise known as the main character (MC). But what is an avatar? Well, avatar has a lot of definitions, from religious to scientific, but the one that immersion games mean are the second and third definitions:

2. An embodiment or personification, as of a principle, attitude, or view of life. 

3. An image (moving or fixed) that represents a person in a virtual reality environment or in cyberspace

Since the avatar is supposed to be the player, the quick and easy answer to your question is: whatever the person playing personally defines maturity as.

However, otome games are “on rails.” This meaning changes depending on the type of game you play, but in the otome sense, “on rails” means that you can make certain choices, but those choices are pre-defined. You can select what you like, but only from the choices given to you.

So this means that any given MC is of two minds: the character created by the company and its avatar who controls it. 

The MC is going to say and do things, and get into situations, that you, as a real life person may never encounter, agree with, or respond to the way the character does. 

Because you’re real, and the character is designed to have enough personality, so that the game is broad enough to be entertaining, for as many (hopefully paying, since it’s a business) people to be interested in.

And now, the second thing: how do I personally define maturity when it comes to DtL’s MC?

For me, someone who is mature acts their age and doesn’t wait for other people to deus ex machina their problems away. They recognize that there are things they can do, and things that they need help with– and aren’t afraid to ask for help. 

One of the worst things you can do for yourself is know that you need help and not try to reach out. There is always, always going to be someone out there who can help you. And, believe it or not, someone who has been in whatever situation you’re facing. 

The world is just too big for there not to be– the math is against you. Whatever you may be facing, there is someone who has gone through either exactly that, or something similar enough that the nuances are just that– nuances.

Do not be afraid to reach out. 

And that’s what I like most about DtL’s MC. She, by and large, isn’t afraid to secure a solid foundation for her emotional well-being. If you can’t help yourself, you cannot help anyone.

Another big thing for me: street smarts. There are so many different types of intelligence, but one thing everyone must learn in some form or another, is what is known as street smarts. 

Street smarts is a potent mix of common sense and all of the information you have gained living your life and interacting with as many different people as possible. You can life experience and learn to apply it to different situations to ensure your emotional, physical and mental survival. You’re able to use this resourcefulness to protect, uplift and inspire others as everyday life presents you with different situations. 

And DtL’s MC has it in spades.

Except for when they wrote Katsura’s route, because seriously wtf!?

They took a really great MC and smacked her with the derp stick. Katsura’s route can be called Home Sitting Simulator. Or Dog Watching 3000. The only other thing you do is constantly…constantly whine about how you think Katsura is in love with some lady because she’s so pretty.

Okay, and? You have to realize that what you find attractive in someone else, no matter how strongly you feel about it, that doesn’t mean that others share your view point.

MC spends a large portion of Katsura’s route hardcore projecting her conclusions that Random Lady is beautiful onto Katsura, who hasn’t given the lady a second glance.

The disconnect between the MC and the avatar is almost unbearable. We know that Katsura isn’t interested in the lady, because we’re reading it. Katsura himself expresses no interest in the lady and even goes out of his way to show that he’s interested in you, the MC. But the MC won’t acknowledge it for the longest time and that’s not fun to read at length.

I thought the writers took a promising adult MC with a college degree and tried to make her into a lovesick teenager who can’t navigate a romantic connection with another person. Until the plot decided that she can…but only after having Random Lady give MC her blessing.

This character existed solely to grant MC her Go Ahead and Frick Frack Him card. You don’t need another person’s sanction. He’s a single adult. Ask him.

Saito’s MC is pretty good. She’s very grounded. She says that she doesn’t want someone else to protect her, not because there’s something inherently wrong with being protected, but because she wants to reciprocate. She wants to be a contributing factor in the relationship, rather than lay back and let Saito save the day all the time.

Saito, being who he is, wants to keep the trope-dynamic of him protecting her, bu she b\pushes back– she learns self-defense. She’s honest, forthright and humble.

Depending on which ending you pick, she either gets shitfaced drunk or is very depressed. But still, I can see where she’s coming from. Saito in his His Affection route is the same as MC in Keiki’s His Affection route. Which is to say: you want to smack the both of them in the back of their heads.

Given that Saito’s MC’s depression, I don’t think that it reflects too much on her general maturity. She’s going through something. I still think she’s pretty good.

Speaking of Keiki’s MC, she was fine right up until she stretched out Keiki’s heartbreak by deciding for him what he’d like. Ugh. Just . UGH. I like that she didn’t push him into new experiences and allowed him to feel his way through living a dual life, by being respectful and kind.

Hijikata’s MC adapted to a level of independence that she wasn’t used to, as he’s very dedicated to his work and is interested in a woman who can handle things on her own.

It turns out that Hijikata is unexpectedly old-fashioned with some of his views and progressive with others. He wants an independent woman, but lectures her about safety when it comes to letting men into her room. His MC is able to steer their conversations in a way that gets Hijikata to think before he speaks, and she never feels afraid to speak up.

I do think she whined a little too much when he says that he wants to break up with her (because he was being threatened by Kyo). 

If someone says that they want to break up with you out of nowhere:

Get track shoes

Put your feet into the track shoes

Lace the ever-living fuck out of the track shoes

Break the sound barrier while you run away from them

That is one of the reddest red flags that ever dared to be the color red. Don’t wait around for the reason. Fucking run.

Kyo’s MC is kind of tricky. Kyo’s route is a never-ending wild ride that touches on the games origin in a way that no other route does, and you’re being threatened and attacked, so you’re never really in a situation where you get to just be normal, with no worries.

I think Kyo’s MC handled the situation the absolute best she could, given the circumstances.

Haru’s MC I worry about. Of all of the available suitors, we know that Hijikata is typically called on to torture people and we know that Okita kills a man right in front of you. We also know that Okita nearly killed a man in the act of torturing him.

Keiki orders people, who specifically came there to kill him, to be killed by at least one other person, while you’re there.

And we can safely assume that Saito, in his capacity as a samurai and a captain, has in all likelihood killed someone.

And although it is kind of weird to talk about, outside of Keiki, lethal force is part of their job.

Haru, on the other hand, has no choice. He is literally forced to kill others, lest he be killed. But Haru himself talks of it in two different ways: with absolutely no emotion, or smugly in an ironic fashion.

As a yandere, there is really no way for this MC to be with him where she wouldn’t cause some type of damage to herself. Somewhere along the way, she would be sacrificing some part of her emotional well-being to accommodate him in some way and the same is true for Okita’s MC, as he is also a yandere.

We can see this when Kirisato tries to get it on while on the job and MC is at first trying to get him to stop, but then gives in when it starts to turn her on. We see it again in Okita’s route where she takes him at his word that she should never cry or else the relationship is over.

Sakamoto’s route is almost like the writers trying to apologize for Katsura’s route, as once again we have an MC and suitor who very clearly like each other and yet they can’t seem to figure out how to get into a relationship.

Sakamoto’s MC is very comforting and kind and , similar to Keiki’s MC, allows him to feel safe in expressing his feelings, as Sakamoto tends to bottle up everything. 

Takasugi decides to be a creeper and threaten MC (writers, STAHP), which understandably scares her, but she risks her life to get Sakamoto vital information, showing that when it comes down to it, she has no problem throwing her hat into the ring to defend those she cares about.

Overall, I think the most mature MCs are Sakamoto’s, Kyo’s and Saito’s MCs, given that they experience difficult situations with as much cunning and tact as can be expected of a character with their stats. 

Particularly Kyo’s MC, who faced one difficult situation after another and didn’t fold, to the point where the writers had to make up a Mary Sue-esque handicap of having her be clumsy for no reason other than to keep her from being too good.

As the avatar, we’re living in the modern world both in the game and in real life. We are more likely to have a similar reaction to the MC when she balks at some of the old fashioned ideas that the suitors have in the game– because to us, they are old fashioned…it’s just that to the suitors, their ideas are inline with what is modern for them, since they are in their own present day worlds. Although Hijikata did get a little grandpa-y with the room thing. I feel like the other suitors would have raised their eyebrows a little bit a him, if they heard that.

The least mature would have to be Katsura’s and Keiki’s MC. If Keiki’s MC didn’t do what she did in his His Affection, she would have been fine, but she knew that he had been doing everything except literally move mountains. I have no idea why they chose to write her that way at the very end when she was the complete opposite.

Writing Oppression

(Want more? Check out my Writing tag!)

Hope you’re not sick of the Stormblood-induced rants yet, because here’s another one.

I’m sure there’s many Domans, Xaela, and Ala Mhigans getting ready to get back at those darn Garleans and settle into their newly liberated homes. So I’m sure a lot of the player stories that come out of Stormblood will be surrounding that: themes of oppression, of returning home with new experiences, the idea of institutionalised power and how it can be wielded, and so on.

Well, maybe, anyway.

To preface this, my demographic is not what you might call “disenfranchised”. None of the places I’ve lived in or visited are particularly rife with genuine oppression--which I suspect will change when my North Korean visa finally gets approved and America hits its third year of a Cheeto Benito presidency (ooh, spicy political commentary!)--so I’ll admit that I’m approaching this topic more in theory and from logical examination than from experience. 

I’ve definitely consumed media wherein oppression is depicted however, and more often than not such things end up depicted more cartoonishly than anything else. You know, really weird and unintuitive racial slurs, mustache-twirling commissars, goose stepping secret police, and so on. 

I’d like to avoid that. Oppression in fiction can be a fascinating topic and an environment that provides for a lot of intrigue.

And if you’re worried that this post is going to contain some ol’ SJW bullshit then, well, it’s not.

So if you’re looking to approach the topic of Garlemald’s occupation in your storyline, you may want to read further.

1). Internalisation is a genuine factor to consider.

In short, when you get told something often enough, you’ll probably start believing it regardless of whether or not you cognitively recognise it as false.

For a historical example, a “colonial mentality” is a form of internalised oppression where the colonised people feel themselves to be inferior to their imperialist colonisers. The nuances are complex--thoughts can range from “Well they managed to take over half the world and we didn’t so we must be worse people” or “our economy is so much better now with our new overlords”, and so on--but the principle is relatively simple. This sort of thing happened a lot with the spread of the Spanish Empire and the rule of the conquistadors, particularly with places like the Philippines.

It happens a lot in marketing too: women are told they’re not thin and beautiful enough, men are told they’re not manly and successful enough, and both of these things lead to self-esteem issues. Same mechanism, for the most part.

Weirdly enough, this is something I almost never see portrayed in fiction with oppressed societies. It’s a kind of society-level Stockholm Syndrome. Certainly there will be Domans or Ala Mhigans or Xaela who truly believe that they are inferior to Garleans and that Garlemald is something to aspire to, and breaking such an internalisation takes a lot of work, simply because the information is everywhere.

So when you’re considering why oppressed citizenry might side with their oppressors, consider internalisation. Consider the effect of seeing and hearing “Be grateful to your conquerors for they are better and wiser” day in, day out.

2). Bigotry and intelligence are not mutually exclusive.

Or to put it another way: people can genuinely believe racist shit regardless of their status, upbringing, or intellect.

Let’s write a character, Garlic McGarlemald the Garlean. For all intents and purposes he is kind, fair, and intelligent. He’s a university professor, donates to the poor, loves his wife and children, and also sincerely believes that all Xaela are savage horsefuckers who cut off their enemy’s heads in order to consume their soul.

Wait, what?

One of the pitfalls of writing an oppressive or racist society is the depiction. A lot of these stories depict all oppressive racists as universally dumb, drooling ignoramuses who spend all day teaching their children to play “Lynch the Minority” and “Spell the Slur”. And, well, okay, there are certainly people like that. 

But in a truly oppressive society, the dumb racists are not the dangerous ones: the really dangerous ones are people like Garlic McGarlemald who is, for the most part, an ordinary person perfectly capable of critical thinking, yet still inexplicably believes in this shit for reasons no party can really rationalise.

And if that doesn’t seem logical in the slightest, it’s not. But it’s certainly realistic.

People do actually believe in stuff like that. You had scientists in the 19th century seeking “natural, evolutionary” reasons as to why other races were inferior to whites. You had logicians, biologists, and anthropologists huddling around and wondering why whites were so much awesome-er than all those other dirtfarmer races. It was something that was just believed. Maybe it was because it was a cultural cornerstone or it was merely a result of internalisation, but people who by all rights could be considered intelligent and capable believed that stuff.

And while we’re on the subject...

“But my bigot character doesn’t really believe in that stuff, of course he’s smart enough to know that’s all bollocks,” you might say. Garlic McGarlemald is just under social pressure to pretend he believes this stuff, that’s all!

Well, that’s not really valid. For one, from a writing perspective, that kind of argument is a total cop-out; it’s a lazy way to keep your character “clean” for fear of being controversial. For two, lip service has absolutely zero value in this context: unless Garlic McGarlemald is actually willing to take action, he’s still a bigot. A passive and well-meaning bigot, perhaps, but still a bigot. Not only is he a bigot, but he is a hypocrite too, because he refuses to jeopardise the racist and bigoted system that he himself benefits from. 

And this is where the “with us or against us” mentality sort of comes from: if your character is part of the oppressors, then he/she is an oppressor unless they’re actively working against it. Being passively racist is still racist, so sayeth the oppressed, because institutionalised power is still power.

3). Prejudice can have layers.

Consider the “double jeopardy hypothesis” which proposes that, for example, a Asian-American woman is not only subject to racism and sexism, but to the combined effects of both simultaneously. And if she falls into the LBTQ camp (or however many letters that camp seems to have these days), then she’s going through triple jeopardy because heterosexism piles on like a big smelly heterosexist frog.

I say that it’s a hypothesis (and from a scientific standpoint it still is) but this isn’t particularly beyond the stretch of logic.

Let’s say your Xaela meets Garlic McGarlemald. Now obviously, Garlic McGarlemald hates your Xaela. But he doesn’t hate your Xaela just because your Xaela is a Xaela: Mr. Garlic hates your Xaela because they talk funny, dress in rags, have a weird pagan religion and because they’re bisexual. 

Would Garlic McGarlemald hate a Garlean who was the same thing? Well, we don’t know. But the point I’m trying to make here is that an oppressive society will use everything, and I mean everything it can weaponise against the people they’re trying to oppress.

To go further, Garleans might dislike that Domans speak a weird language, they also hate Domans because they eat raw fish (barbarians!), force their children to kneel on bamboo mats (monsters!), and refuse to export Mother 3 to the United States, in addition to taking eight years to finish a new Persona game (complete heathens, I say!). 

See what I mean?

 4). People who belong to the oppressor group can have nice qualities.

If you’ll harken back to my intro paragraph, I don’t like it when oppressors are depicted as universally revolting mustache-twirling Nazis with no redeeming qualities.

Like I said, Garlic McGarlemald can be considered a nice guy, excepting the racism. People who are among the oppressors in an oppressive society aren’t universally bad. After all, for a lot of them it’s not particularly their fault that they were raised in a society that encouraged such bigotry. And internalisation happens with things like racism too: even when they become educated, they seek new reasons to justify their bigotry because it’s all they were raised to know. 

There is a nauseating amount of self-righteousness that comes with depicting all racists and bigots as unrepentant monsters who hit so many branches of the stupid tree that they’re in danger of accidentally swallowing their own extra chromosome. 

So don’t do that. If you’re going to write your oppressors, at least write some of them as mostly well-meaning.

5). Avoid tokenism.

Or, to put it in a more wordy way: either judge every group within your story as a group, or judge every group within your story as individuals.

Let’s say that Garlic McGarlemald is actually not a nice man, and he drinks alcohol and beats his wife.

Edgy, isn’t it?

Now, when being written by a not-so-good writer, Garlic McGarlemald won’t place any stigma upon his group, because he is part of the oppressive Garleans. It’s not that all Garleans are drunken wifebeaters, it’s just that Garlic McGarlemald specifically has that problem.

Meanwhile, Xaela Xaelason accidentally trips and breaks a bottle, therefore all Xaela are clumsy!

No. That can’t fly. And the reason why that can’t fly is because it very quickly descends into becoming preachy.

This happens a lot with poorly written fantasy novels: there is a single named character who is gay or has dark skin, and that single character ends up representing the author’s entire views on gays or black people.

So when you’re writing something like an oppressive society, multiple characters are important. You have to be willing to do the work to portray each side--oppressors and the oppressed--as having complex people who aren’t easily categorised. 

Don’t insert a Token Doman or a Token Good Garlean or a Token Evil Xaela and then use that character to make blanket statements within your story. Because that’s just lazy writing.

6). Oppression is hard to escape.

Whether you’re one of the oppressors attempting to open your worldview or you’re one of the oppressed trying not to fall down the same slippery slope, oppression isn’t an easy thing to “win” against.

There’s no magic argument or book that suddenly allows one to instantly widen their acceptance of race, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, etc. Similarly, there is no Garden of Eden free of prejudice.

If you’re planning to tackle oppression as a theme, be prepared to be conscious of it, for as long as the theme is relevant. You can’t have Xaela Xaelason make it to the land of his people and decide that Prejudice Doesn’t Exist. No, Xaela Xaelason would be judged based on the fact that he was born in a city and doesn’t know any Xaela customs or traditions. He’d be judged for not staunchly supporting the tribal religion. He’s among other Xaela, and there will be prejudice there, too.

It’s a double-sided magnet, and it has some powerful pull. Be aware of that.

Don’t Let Blockbusters Keep You From Seeing Indie Movies This Month

A24 Great Point Media/Paladin Film Amazon Studios

Snag a ticket to "Lean on Pete," "Where Is Kyra?" or "You Were Never Really Here" before the blockbuster deluge.

Now that blockbusters ― namely reboots and franchise fare ― have graduated from summer escapism to year-round fixtures, April is no longer a safe space at the multiplex. The month that once birthed “Field of Dreams,” “The Matrix,” “Election” and “Mean Girls” now belongs to the “Fast and the Furious” vehicles, Marvel and “Clash of the Titans.”

To see “A Quiet Place” rumble into theaters last weekend was to witness a small miracle. Heralding John Krasinski’s directing talents and notching an august $50 million opening, the post-apocalyptic creature feature is the sort of studio product meant to warm jaded cinephiles’ hearts: a high-concept crowd-pleaser that manages to be fresh andwhip-smart ― an increasingly rare sight in the year of our big-budget Lord 2018. “A Quiet Place” boasts the highest-grossing April debut for an original film in history, as well as the heftiest intake for an original live-action release since “Happy Death Day” last October.

The rest of April’s wide releases are, well, less thrilling. Oversized beasts are stampeding Dwayne Johnson and Naomie Harris, “Isle of Dogs” barks its way into more corners of the country, Shia LaBeouf flaunts short shorts in the otherwise staid “Borg vs McEnroe,” Amy Schumer stars in a feminist “Shallow Hal,” we finally get a sequel to ... “Super Troopers” (?), “Truth or Dare” turns its titular pastime into something deadly (Tyler Posey doesn’t take his shirt off in the trailer; skip it), and the Avengers threaten to put more superheroes on one screen than a VH1 Divas telecast.

Those movies will flood multiplexes in the coming weeks, ushering us toward the blockbuster domination that is May, June and July. Meanwhile, three worthwhile underdogs opened opposite “A Quiet Place,” shouldering the month’s indie marketplace. “Lean on Pete,” “Where Is Kyra?” and “You Were Never Really Here” are hardly light fare, but isn’t there some adage about bleak movies being the perfect way to escape April showers? No? You’ll want to invent one after seeing this trio.

We talked to the filmmakers responsible for these gems. If you don’t live near a theater where the movies are playing, add them to a list of rainy-day streaming options for later in the year, when you find yourself wondering who among us requested yet another Robin Hood retelling.

“Lean on Pete”

For fans of “Boyhood,” “The 400 Blows” and “The Black Stallion”

Written and directed by Andrew Haigh Starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel, Amy Seimetz and Steve Zahn

A24

Lean on Pete is a racehorse whose cantankerous trainer (Steve Buscemi) describes him as a “piece of shit” ― catnip for our protagonist, Charley (Charlie Plummer), a motherless 15-year-old working the stables for $25 a day, partly as a respite from his aloneness and partly to gird his father’s (Travis Fimmel) limited income. Gentle Charley can’t stomach the thought of Pete being carted off to Mexico, where aged steeds are slaughtered once they are no longer moneymakers. So, in the dark of night, this spindly boy absconds with his beloved horse (an expert listener), trekking through the Oregon desert toward a broader horizon.

On paper, it’s a quintessential coming-of-age tale. But in practice, writer and director Andrew Haigh sees “Lean on Pete” as the events that occur before Charley comes of age. And he’s right: Charley doesn’t yet have the means ― the familial support, the peers, the finances ― to determine his place in the world. The only thing that steadies him is a tender heart. “Until he finds somewhere to have a base, in order to grow, he can’t even deal with ideas of identity or who he’s going to be or what kind of man he wants to be,” Haigh said. “And also, I suppose, in all of my films, I can’t help but want to show a different version of masculinity.”

Haigh is the master of compassionate relationship dramas, having explored a one-night stand in “Weekend,” a long-term marriage in “45 Years,” a group of gay friends on HBO’s “Looking,” and, now, a teenager and his equestrian companion in “Lean on Pete,” based on the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin. It’s Charley’s desperate need to be kind, and to receive kindness from others, that grounds this particular relationship and separates him from the average teen boy. Whereas most kids his age are striving to master schoolyard politics or sibling rivalry, Charley is trying to conquer the oppressive ugliness of the world around him, hoping that relatives in nearby Wyoming will provide the stability he lacks.

“What do you do in your life if you don’t have support from your loved ones?” Haigh said. “Or you don’t have support from the society around you? It felt like it was something more important, almost, than just questions of identity. It was about something like, how do you survive in the world if you don’t have a framework?”

Charley’s journey makes for a magnificent travelogue in which none of the travel is glamorous. With a parting shot that evokes “The 400 Blows,” this is one of the year’s best movies to date. Another recent release, “Ready Player One,” centered on an orphan in an ugly world, but its virtual-reality bedlam lacked humanity. “Lean on Pete” more than makes up for it, sending its hero ― Plummer’s performance is a wonder; a true star is born ― on an expedition through the great Northwestern outdoors that ends with an introspective discovery. Bring tissues; you’ll need a bunch.

“Where Is Kyra?”

For fans of “Klute,” “99 Homes” and Gena Rowlands movies

Written by Darci Picoult • Directed by Andrew Dosunmu Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Kiefer Sutherland, Suzanne Shepherd and Sam Robards

Great Point Media/Paladin Film

“Some people say it almost feels like a horror film,” Darci Picoult, the writer of “Where Is Kyra?,” said. “It becomes this terrorizing psychological deterioration.”

Those horror trappings are evident in Picoult’s sparse script, but they’re largely owed to Andrew Dosunmu’s shadowy direction. Working with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (“Selma,” “Arrival”), Dosunmu shades Michelle Pfeiffer’s titular Brooklynite with fuzzy grays and anesthetized blues. Laid off from her job and cashing her late mother’s pension checks for income, Kyra is often framed from a distance, the atrophy she’s facing as she nears senior citizenship foregrounded to reveal a genre of poverty rarely explored in popular culture.

Picoult wrote “Where Is Kyra?” in 2013, surveying the aftereffects of the late 2000s’ economic crisis. She first set the movie in Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy that same summer. But Picoult and Dosunmu, who also collaborated on the Nigerian drama “Mother of George,” relocated the backdrop to New York, where the glaring disparity between haves and have-nots underscores everyday economic strife. What is a middle-aged woman to do when she finds herself unemployed and undesirable, reduced to placing advertisements on vehicles’ windshields and being turned down for gigs at fast-food restaurants in favor of younger candidates?

“I always envisioned Kyra being someone who, if you will, had a life that had promise, someone who believed things were going to work out,” Picoult said. “And then, when they don’t, it becomes even more disparaging because she’s holding on, hoping for something better that doesn’t happen.“

Pfeiffer, who made something of a comeback last year with “mother!” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” has found one of the richest roles of her career, looking more desperate with each rejection and more weathered with each dignity-shattering wakeup. Kyra’s corner of the world struggles to blossom into anything sunnier; farther and farther she drifts down the rabbit hole of anguish, Pfeiffer’s oceanic eyes absorbing every psychic bruise.

“You Were Never Really Here”

For fans of “Taxi Driver,” “Good Time” and “Drive”

Written and directed by Lynne Ramsay Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Frank Pando, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola and Alex Manette

Amazon Studios

“You Were Never Really Here” demands to be seen twice: once to absorb its ethereal grime, and another to peek more clearly into its protagonist’s fractured mind. As Joe, a contract killer (and PTSD-addled war veteran) paid to extricate young girls from corruption, Joaquin Phoenix dances with the camera, angling through the New York streets, slipping between past and present, reality and hallucination. Joe is purposefully elusive, a design that is at once frustrating and hypnotic.

“I thought I was making an action movie, but it also became a character study,” Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, who adapted Jonathan Ames’ novella of the same name, said. “I think I just gravitated to the inner workings of the character.”

Those inner workings are bleak: At home, where he cares for his ailing mother (Judith Roberts), Joe sometimes covers his head with a plastic bag, wondering what would happen if he finally ended it all. Outside, he seems as likely to take a gun to his own head as he does to avenge the brutes holding innocent preteens hostage. But that’s familiar territory for Ramsay, who treats grief and death as leitmotifs (her other credits include “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “Morvern Callar” and “Ratcatcher”). What makes “You Were Never Really Here” powerful is its ability to place us next to Joe, psychologically and physically, as he flits between avenger and avoider. Think Travis Bickle with a splash of the adrenaline-pumping “Good Time.” The movie telegraphs a woozy paranoia, aided by another stirring score from Jonny Greenwood, who composed the music for “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and last year’s “Phantom Thread.”

For Phoenix, the role encouraged a certain visceral improvisation. “We would make decisions in the moment, and sometimes there are things I’m reacting to in the moment,” he said. “There are times when other actors didn’t know what was going to happen because we didn’t know what was going to happen in that moment. And I think I probably like that way of working in general, but I think it was probably really applicable to that character and this experience.”

You won't find that in "Rampage."

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BEFORE YOU GO

Matthew Jacobs

Entertainment Reporter, HuffPost

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MoviesSteve BuscemiJoaquin PhoenixAndrew HaighCharlie Plummer

Reference source : Don’t Let Blockbusters Keep You From Seeing Indie Movies This Month

A sexual predators best friend is the jewish princess that tells you to look away.

The Mayim Bialik crisis of being a actress in a feminist role for a NYT column.

By Michael Bench , MEP ,GCERT

The New York Times didn't see the conflict of letting an actress name the culture sphere of media entertainment Harvey Weinstein's world. It’s a sense of secrecy even the Weinstein company is moving away from. If not remorsefully, at least putting reputation distance between one brother and the other. The accusations of Harvey Weinstein raping, fondling and harassing women should get no less than direct attack. Secrecy is not a one person strategy.

No sooner do we have another jewish criminal in the likes of Bernie Madoff of Hollywood, there's an actress using her celebrity status to tell us all about 'being a Feminist". What is it with Jews? When they're on fire, they add more fuel. It's not enough to be American for them. They have to be in the center of the American pie and script their sons to hop on the kitchen counter to screw that pie. Congratulations to Harvey Weinstein. On the kitchen island, trying to screw baked goods; metaphorically.

This article is a response to Mayim Bialiks column named " Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinsteins World". She covers having body shame, being a puppet of her parents wishes of her femininity, of being a nontraditional female who altered her semitic honker and her chin. This is how she concludes her spew :" .. If , Like me, you aren't a perfect 10, know there are people out there who will find you stunning, irresistible and worth of attention , respect and love. The best part is you don't have to go to a hotel room or casting couch to find them."  It’s a high school president speech she never got to deliver. The whole column. Is it really about being a Feminist?

Is it "Mayim gets to play Feminist in want of a pivotal op ed role". The praxis and politics of being a Feminist are largely unlike who would want to become an actress in the first place.  I won't talk for anyone but me though. I welcome allied critics on my coattails.  Being a perfect 10 is an everyone thing. You can't be me Bialik, nor can anyone else be John Malkovich either. I'm perfect 10 me and that’s what a Feminist should be saying.

Its not enough to "just raise alarm on unacceptable behavior". The secrecy was real, Bialik!  The Manhattan Attorney General was taking payments from Weinstein! What part of the deliberate concealment of sexual harassment would you like to really cover? An outspoken Feminist directing heat toward City and State politicians? Do you have the preparatory materials ready for this column? No. No you don't Mayim. You're an actress using your celebrity to write whatever you damn well feel like about you. If the media isn't Jew owned, the ease by which this article made it to publish is certainly suspicious at least.

In the process you norm women to continue to be insecure about their bodies, that modern feminism is a fame of acting not being; and plenty of people have woken up to the misogyny and racism earlier than the casts of shows hiding in well paid characters.

Do you see primetime sitcoms taking the knee with NFL players? Hollywood and newyork's subordination of the human spirit make better villains than the screen; its not good.

If a headline is the most attention grabbing advertisement of the op-ed, surely Mayim has better taste in phrasing. Or have all her thoughts been written for her as well? Maybe this article is just Mayim Bialiks casting couch photographer delivering jew protecting self elation.  No, lets recap the article: When I was a young twelve year old actress I concerned myself about looks. I wondered if having Christina Applegates tits would make me more marketable? How relatable is body insecurity and the physical self objectification of a employee to be a tv superstar for the term Feminist? The newest member of the Big Bang theory is a short on delivering a mega opus here . In want of confronting Weinstein, she actually empowers his influence AFTER his fat lady should have sang.

Way to go, Bialik!  From blossom to crusty dry burdock. When I chose to respond it was about making sure she understood the title was very counterproductive to ever identifying

"feminist". I then read the article. It was all Mayim's experience as an actress. Where's the active Feminist part?  Are Jenji Kohan and Jill Soloway supposed to make females feel better about themselves?   Celebrity actors pick up many roles but whether they deliver is nearly insignificant to a block buster and the first full take on film. Meanwhile actresses that shut their face for fame are now coming forward twenty years later. Twenty years abetting. Should females take a lesson from actresses? No.

When A Hollywood Mogul calls himself 'powerful', he isn't. He might be wealthy and he might be well known. The term power is a threat. It’s the treat to leverage what you want with what he wants. The Term power means retaliation if you report what is wrong. How or why is not important. A mogul that uses the phrase " you have no idea how powerful I am" is not powerful for he needs female actresses to use, not love for the sense of his dominance. Married or not; well hung or not. It all comes down to mistaking sexual relevance for a management task.  If the moguls wife is part of a stale relationship, its up to him to divorce. Harassment and rape are certainly the main topic here. Is it the moguls inadequacy? Whats the motivation? I suspect the real problem is that he's always been the act. He started with getting the role of a lifetime , maybe writing the role of a lifetime and wandered over to nonsense of thinking the real world was just the furniture of his roles. His pet sound stage. Well, it isn't.

So where Bialik got hung up on talking about herself and her physical modifications I will briefly put some points on the board for Masculinity and equality Feminism.

Ladies. If you know the sexual harassment is happening .. don't stand their looking confused. Protect yourself. Its your job. Its your job to self and your self is not an act.  When Harvey Weinstein says " Don't Embarrass me" You yell " Mr Weinstein, Your two inch cock is not welcome near my body ! Put that away! This job meeting is over!!! If he takes out his dick, take a picture of it and send it to your NYPD. TEXT: I can identify weinstein because his poker stick is staring at me".  Text it to Governor Cuomo and the actors guild too, New York City is too much a cesspool to rely on local politics. If it comes to rape, well.. a broken glass will keep your assailant at the scene. bleeding out. Don't look stupid and dumbfounded here. He's trying to rape you, stab him per number of times necessary to stop it.  Rip out an eye , whatever.  Some of the weaktits reading the article will gloss by this. It really is that serious. VIOLENCE IS THE ANSWER TO BEING ATTACKED. Clearly all hiring must be done on paper and in groups of people capable to be witness.

The most damning thing about Bialik’s lousy address of Weinstein is she calls the public naïve . She labels our culture as that which excuses men for assaulting or abusing women. If there were a culture like that , I would not want to be part of it. Is it our culture or is it only conservatives and hollywood wahabism sects wanting to norm this affect?

I disagree Mayim Bialik; If actresses and noobie simps looking for their camera time are naïve , they are of an sexist media subculture. "You are part of that subculture, Mayim. If that’s a problem to you, be sure to address it but don't generalize or over normalize the lousy people in  your industry as a norm of working Americans."

Generalizing. Its what actors do to float a character they've been typecast for.  I don't appreciate a rapist and harasser being given ownership of the world in your title, Bialik. So if she happens to be jewish, mind that. It wasn't an elite move.  I don't especially like she would steal the stage for Feminism and then stumble backwards in skimpy heels of female sympathizing. Its about confronting the criminal, fool! Get on it.

Michael Bench is an Author and health activist addressing the necessity of OSHA and CDC to ban haute couture since 2007

Why People Play Games

There are many reasons why people play games and here I am, sharing my own opinion on why people play games. Do take notes that these are just my personal opinions. If you are interested in the facts, please click on the links to read the full articles. 

Premise 1: People will always yearn for sense of belonging

We as humans are social creature by nature, having needs of the feeling need to belong, this is actually how we as human able to survive till now. The 1998 book, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, written by William Glasser - an American psychiatrist, one of the choice theory states that:  

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. - William Glasser

Reference: http://www.wglasser.com/the-glasser-approach/choice-theory

As we wake up every morning, we din’t say such things like “Let’s achieve love and belonging today!”. Instead, we say something like “I wonder is Cherry up? Maybe I should give her call for having lunch together.” and “Let’s hit the bazaar with my classmates.” We do such things is because we need relationships, social connections, to give and receive affection and to feel part of a group.

Another theory proposed by Abraham Maslow on 1943, from paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" Psychological Review, he mentioned that after physiological needs like sleep food and safety needs, need of belonging are ranked third on his hierarchy. Because as humans, we need to belong. To one another, to our friends and families, to our culture and country, to our world.

Reference: https://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html

When does humans starts showing the sign of need of belonging? Well, the answer would be ever since human begin to exist. Because of this, mankind was able to survive until now. From hunting food to delegating community jobs, building shelters to helping each other, sense of belonging was showed in these actions to ensure the survival. 

If you think from development perspective, ever since infanthood we have already show the sign of the importance of belonging. When we are all babies, we rely on our parents to give us food, shelter and love so we can grow healthily. Throughout these actions it has giving us as the babies some instinct of belonging to our parents and unconsciously our parents will also looking out of us. Spending times together makes “being together” feels good and it triggered the feeling of happiness and love which we seek out in life by finding friends and partner, build a family and also joining the community. 

But why do we do all these? Mainly it was because being needed by someone will give more meaning to our life and increase our desire of surviving. Besides, belonging to a or multiple groups will be able to boost our self esteem. Especially when the group is going well, it will generate feelings of being love, needed and wanted which will makes us feel valuable and treasured by being in the group.

A positive self image and healthy self esteem is based on approval, acceptance and recognition from others; - Abraham Maslow

Besides, being in groups also give us a sense of identity. Example when people ask me, who am I. I will answer them, “I am a student” or “I am a Chinese” and so on. It can be related to religion, race, profession and much more.

Reference: http://www.saywhydoi.com/belonging-why-do-we-need-a-sense-of-belonging/

Premise 2: Games provide player with sense of belonging

You must be thinking that I am joking about this, but no. By playing games was able to deliver the feeling of belonging but how you asked, following are the examples. 

For online games, most of them are always required to play with another human player and some required a number of players to team up in order to complete the task. So, players will always need to form a semi-permanent team or permanent team in order to play some certain games or they can just join guild, where is a place where players gathered. 

While playing the game and communicating with the other players, they were able to develop close relationship. As a team or guild member, players can be very highly supportive when they get to know each other overtime, which will increase the experience of feeling belong, valued and needed as a member. 

Now, online games are not just that, many online game has become the back bone of eSports world. Fans buy tickets to watch their favorite players play live in front of them and cheer to support them, cosplayers put on their favorite character’s costume and gather together and let the photographer take photos of them. 

For brands and fans, eSports offers something that most traditional sports cannot—nearly unprecedented access to star players. This mostly occurs online, where players routinely interact with fans via social media or with YouTube videos. - E.J. Schultz

The sense of belonging and feeling needed are very strong when it on eSports event and people cannot stop loving it. 

Meanwhile in Japan, Romance Simulation Games a.k.a. Otome Games are really popular among the ladies, especially with married ladies. In Otome games,  the usual objective is to fall in love. Player can have multiple boyfriends at one time and decide on the interaction with boyfriends that decided the fate of the game.

One of the many reasons on why this genre of games are so popular are Japanese ladies are being afraid of having judge by the society because of having an affair, so by playing Otome games that offer virtual relationship will be able to fulfill the need of belonging to the ladies. 

Each character have their own story which give them some depth. So some people can find a character more attractive than real man. -Ai Aizawa

The first simulation game that focus romance was appeared on 1994, it was called “Angelique” by Koei Co. and made for Super Nintendo. After that, successor games such as Messiah’s “The Maiden of Albarea” launched in 1997 and E3 Staff’s “Graduation M” in 1998 further diversified the genre by adding in elements of fantasy, history, and adventure. Otome games are so popular nowadays, produced on most gaming system like Playstation, Nintendo DS, PSP, PS VITA and smart phones. This market makes $135 million per year and with the popularity of Otome games raising, Japanese game retailer even designate a shelf purely for “games targeted at women”.

Reference: http://adage.com/article/news/e-sports/308447/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/this-is-what-esports-will-be-like-in-2016-435 

http://www.netaddiction.co.nz/whygames.html 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00229.x/full 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0263276409103132

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/my-sensual-journey-into-japans-90-million-fake-anime-boyfriend-market

https://sites.duke.edu/unsuitable/otome-games/

https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/10155211829673690/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2M4ICwmhxU

Conclusion:  To attain the sense of belonging, people will play games.

If the above is true then the following could be helpful when developing video games in the future as an artist:

have good character and environment design and drawing skills.

knowledge of  shading/lighting technique.

play games and look out there and see what other artists are doing.  

*Do take notes that these are just my personal opinions. *