Listen, the sheer amount of "I'm so sorry for my husband rn (but I still stand by him)" radiating off of Qrow and Glynda in this tiny interaction.

Like, I get that the homoerotic tension between Qrow and Ironwood or even Qrow and Winter kind of takes center stage, but lord. The vibes are strong.

Hi there! Just want to first say how I enjoy reading your stories and I think your Tav and Gortash dynamic is really cool 🥰. I'm also having gortash brainrot and I've been thinking, Would you mind sharing us your headcannon or just general thoughts on how you think Gortash reacts to his own failure or Tav's failure? (such as their plans falling apart or things not going well for them, or making a mistake etc)

Dear Gortash Brainrot Anon,

Thank you so much, hearing people enjoy my fic really warms my cold, icy heart 🖤. This is a really interesting ask because, so far in the fic, things are going pretty well in terms of the plan to stabilize rulership of the Gate.

In terms of his own failure, I think Gortash's immediate reaction is to pivot to new plans and keep working. He doesn't tolerate failure, not from others but especially not from himself, so he wants to fix the problem asap. If he makes the correct move from there, then it was never really failure, just a step towards further power. Bane's Censure for Impatience tells us that great works do not happen overnight. He won't stop until the problem is solved. His deal with Tav to let her destroy the Absolute in exchange for legitimizing his hero narrative and rulership claim is an example of this! He's loathe to admit failure and would tell anyone it was all part of the plan. Internally, he's not as cool and collected as this course of action would suggest, I hc him as true Banite and therefore, just like any other, his hubris is cut down by fear of Bane and what awaits him in Banehold should he fail Him. Fear motivates him, spurs him onwards: fear of Bane, fear of failure, fear of returning to the nothing he once was, fear that his parents were right about him. This is between him and his god, and I imagine he'd perform ritual punishment on himself for his perceived failures in the eyes of Bane. As for Tav, it depends on the nature of her failure. Anything very minor he'd just use as an excuse to suggest or use Admonition Four as part of their flirtations. Probably humiliate Tav a bit but in a way that is fun for both of them and not serious. For bigger things, he retains his instinct to pivot and fix the issue, so he'd either begin giving Tav direct instruction or just take it off her to do himself. He'd use his own methods, which are considerably more violent and oppressive than the power games of politeness that Tav likes to play. If he saw the failure as Tav's fault he'd be incredibly nasty about it, call her every name in the book, hit her where it hurts by suggesting she is Grand Duke in name only and there just for his pleasure. This isn't just because he's a bastard but because he knows this will motivate her to prove him wrong. If he saw the failure as someone else's fault, well, there'd be some flimsy excuses on the execution docket that day. Hope this answered your question!

Yours Under The Black Hand, 🤚 Crystal

oh nooo ep 35 utterly rekindled my Emberose flame. Anyway it works so well as a messy polycule, just really adds this extra layer to the dynamic. These boys have no communication! Half their mental health tips to each other is suppression! Such a fantastic ‘it’s Complicated’ ship. Emerich is so clearly desperate for approval. He wants to be appreciated and shows how much he cares by his inventions. But that often means he withdraws from them to work on a project. It’s a gift, he’s doing it for them, but he also just gets sucked in. And then there’s the periods where nobody sees him for days, locked in his workroom. And eventually Beef busts down the door and finds a sleep deprived mess ignoring hunger and injuries and exhaustion because he wants to get this project right for them. Because that is how he shows he cares. Fumbling, awkward words of affection too of course, he’s blunt on it albeit often coming off strange. He seems pretty free with hugs, occasionally a kiss if he remembers, though obviously he’s some type of ace. But for the most part Emerich goes for dragging his special interest to them and excitedly showing it off. He’ll ramble about other things that catch his interest too, old sports movies, SciFi tiktoks of water skiing feats, but mostly it’s the inventions he designs specifically with his partners in mind. It’s his way of showing love, and hoping to be given gratitude and acknowledgment in return. Emerich calls them partners in that vague way where nobody can tell if he means in the romantic or professional sense. Montrose calls them associates though. Not even friends. He’ll retain his air of smug separation no matter what, refusing to ever close the emotional distance, like he doesn’t quite give weight to the other’s feelings. He flirts, sure, often even. But it’s almost in that way bards do, pure dripping charisma, where you can’t tell how genuine it is. Emerich doesn’t clock it half the time, but when he does turns pink and tries to flirt back disastrously. Which is why Montrose does it; because it’s amusing. Beef tends to reciprocate in a more grounded, genuine way, but sometimes he’s just irked by how insincere it comes off. Random bursts of short arguments aren’t uncommon given the different ways they define their relationship. Because the mask never comes off even when they’re literally making out. Maybe it can’t. Montrose is eight layers of act so deep not he even knows his true self. But he does care, even if he refuses to acknowledge it. He tells himself his worry is pure pragmatism since they’re his associates. Frankly none of us know what’s going on in his head, but at the very least he doesn’t seem to treat reality as anything more than a game or a roleplay. Montrose maintains that suave detachment, acting like it’s a one night stand even though they’ve been living together for years.

Beef doesn’t. He makes his affections clear, upfront. Not that he’s the only one who’s willing to be emotionally vulnerable; Beef clearly has trust issues and suppresses his trauma. But simultaneously, he’s upfront with the fact he thinks they’re in a relationship. He cares openly and deeply. They’re both so reckless in a way that drives Beef insane with worry. Montrose just throws himself into risky situations, and Emerich never takes care of himself. And Beef wants to take that hit for them, his first instinct is to protect, and so often he feels guilty. Which he suppresses. And frankly he’s irritated by it, that they’re putting themselves and him through that pain. He’s tired of having to carry Emerich to their bed just to wake in the middle of the night and find him gone, the glow of the workstation seeping beneath the door. He’s tired of Montrose never dropping his literal or metaphorical mask, never admitting if he really cares or not, catching his hand whenever Beef tries to gently peel away the mask and force them to be truly face to face. Beef is the emotional glue that holds it all together and it’s exhausting sometimes. He wants to be clear in his affections and intentions, but Montrose refuses to admit anything and Emerich keeps withdrawing. He wants to call them his significant others but feels like he can’t because of how the other two treat the relationship. 

It’s just…complicated

im a pacifist, but... (Claude von Riegan FE3H)

copied over from twitter - written circa 3H, prior to starting 3Hopes

kinda love that Claude is like "I'm as close as you get to a pacifist route, I like to avoid bloodshed" and his right hand man can kill you six ways from Sunday and left hand lady has a giant axe and can KO u in one hit and his named retainer is a war hero and –

not to get into it but imho this is actually a pretty accurate way of how “pacifism” tends to operate. Claude is the ideological focus but the pragmatic approach demands violence. and there's something to look into re: how Hilda, Lorenz, Judith and Nader carry violence in his stead

I think people get into this when they assess Claude bouncing his ideology off Edelgard's violence because that's essentially it - it doesn't mean Claude facilitates this violence, but of course a pacifist angle doesn't exist without something to oppose. so they work in tandem.

Claude deals in violence too, though I think he manages to avoid too much of it - but the necessary violence doesn't go away, and I'm interested in how it then becomes the responsibility of those in his immediate vicinity. some would call that cowardice. and they do!

on the flipside they could call it a sort of moral integrity that's difficult and must be protected. Claude distancing himself from the violence keeps Claude afloat, and they need Claude to keep his clear leadership. so protecting his integrity by violence is... good, then?

in any case I just love the dynamic of compassionate scheming diplomatic leader sitting at the centre of like five murder machines all willing to throw their lives on the line to protect his vision of peace whew yeah that's the good shit

and the best bit is that Claude is under no illusions, so if you consider that Claude always offers an out, and never wants bloodshed, and sees the inherent value of all people, then you gotta wonder whether he's withering away every time someone dies for his cause. aha! eek!

tis a moral conundrum, no?! he needs to empower people to fight for him even if he's morally opposed to the subsequent fighting. Claude doesn't deal in cognitive dissonance so you can rest assured that the violence he inspires is just as internalised as the violence he commits.

how do you sleep at night when you believe whole-heartedly that violence isn't the answer but have to choose that answer anyway? all the lords say "it's necessary" but the other two seem more inclined to say "and it's right" (whether they believe it fully or not) - Claude doesn't

also interesting to me that Lorenz prefers to avoid bloodshed and Hilda just hasn't really thought about it, because I think both of them need that guidance from Claude to avoid falling into that "necessary righteous violence" angle that war-faring Fodlan has BUT IN DOING SO…

they become frightfully powerful allies for Claude that are capable of all the violence, and also, all the sacrifice. so proximity to Claude's pacifist outlook bolsters your willingness to die for Claude, if you wanna look at it that way. damn LMAO that's rough buddy

Claude inspires you to live! and in doing so inspires you to! uh! die. for him, this time. whew. lucky Claude spent most of his upbringing fortifying himself mentally otherwise this spiritual predicament might just kill a guy's spirit haha hee hoo

and I haven't even started on Byleth, where Claude dumps the task of violence AND leadership. he doesn't feel good about it though. and the cool thing there is that Byleth is arguably not into the idea of needless death either, and is OP enough to handle it... which Claude knows.

I guess this is all surmised by the "yet you participate in society! curious!" comic where just because Claude doesn't like a thing doesn't mean he won't utilise every aspect of that thing because that's the resourceful, productive thing to do when faced with unbelievable odds.

addition: this is coming up a lot in the early chapters of Golden Wildfire where Claude is forced to not only respond with violence but facilitate violence among the unwilling Alliance as retaliation to impending war, which is a little moral paradox that really shows how difficult it is to match up ideals and practice.

similarly, I’m keen to get into the idea that an anti-war outlook is also just tactically sound from where Claude stands in the world, regardless of how he might feel about it. of course an Empire will see war as their tactically sound option, whereas an Alliance cant afford that sort of behaviour. it’s an interesting and ongoing exploration of the strength of moral imperative vs. tactics, and where they intersect, falter, thrive, etc.

really chuffed about this and figure I’ll have more to say about it when we reach the end - but it’s early days! Shez is a fascinating addition to this as the ‘merc that needs violence to thrive’ and I’m primed and ready for more intrigue to come.

okay let's try this again, this time with my brain plugged in

overall, story-wise I admire the devs' efficiency of storytelling in introducing new groups of characters, giving you a peek at the relationship dynamics between them and what makes them interesting, and then immediately proceeding to 'and now it's time for you to kill them, because you are running an RPG dungeon for hapless adventurers to dive into.' Several groups here feel like they could be the protagonists of a shorter game in their own right. sorry I killed you guys but you know how it is.

Mechanically... not gonna get too deep into the game's overall systems at this point, but I think they did a pretty solid job of making each new story encounter an interesting challenge with something new to deal with. Once I sorted out the whole 'you don't have enough good key pages to outfit the entire library, you've gotta shuffle them around a lot or you're playing on hard mode' thing, nothing has felt ridiculously hard when I first unlocked it, but very few fights have felt all that easy either. (The 'nothing has felt ridiculously hard' part may change soon though, because somebody thought it was a good idea to fight the Red Mist again. goddamn it Angela, I just did that last game. At least dig up the Backward Clock for me to fall back on if you're gonna pull this shit.)

I'm not gonna go into every single reception, but hitting some of the highlights...

Streetlight: Probably the first group I felt really bad about murdering? Sorry Lulu. (Okay these early ones are gonna be kind of short, lbr they have a lot less going on than later stuff.)

Zwei: Whoops felt bad again. This time it was ameliorated by getting Walter's key page and going 'wait you're gonna just... let me do that? Is this actually okay?'

Carnival: is the point that made me stop and go 'oh man these devs know how to do some weird transhumanism stuff,' and that basically doesn't let up for the rest of the game. On the other hand this is also the point where I kinda sighed and started finding all the endless industrial uses for dead humans a bit on-the-nose.

Dawn: well I can see no way that killing these guys could go poorly, not like one of them will have a days/weeks-long breakdown and turn into a swarm of flaming cherubs that kill tens of thousands of people or something haha. Yuna deserved more/cooler mechanics. Solo Fixer who carries her gear around in a guitar case or something and shows up like 'hey I just beat up some crazy stuff by myself.' make Yuna cooler you cowards.

Gaze: Gaze Office is cool as hell. I love them. Love their fucking C memory management joke names. (Which are apparently also Korean puns or something.) Love their weird rainbow camera heads. Too bad that they're kinda mechanically trash. They were one of the easiest fights for me, and I've never found much use for... anything they do, really.

Kurokumo: thus begins the era of Slashing Builds. this era has not yet actually ended for me.

Bremen: I actually felt a bit bad for these guys too. I mean sure they're murderers but they seem so earnest about it, and they did get their heads messed with by supernatural forces. But also why didn't you losers give me blunt power abilities. You should really take after Sayo more. I'm sure she's a fine role model.

Love Town: [banging pots and pans together] LOVE TOWN LOVE TOWN LOVE TOWN. listen the entire story here is so absurdly horrible and over the top that it's almost funny, but I feel like if you're gonna get invested in these games you've gotta be capable of looking at 'so they all spent millennia locked in a train and unable to die until the few who still retained some of their sanity sewed their bodies together into Flesh Amalgam Creatures to fight off their zombified comrades' and pumping your fist instead of pointing out that that all seems like a bit much. Tomerry was an interesting fight but at the same time, never wanna do that again. Some of my well-meaning friends warned me to gird my stomach for this section, unaware of just how much body horror media I've consumed over the years.

Sweepers: On one hand? I kinda came out of this liking the Sweepers themselves, despite everything. Aw, they're just a big happy family, makin' their way in the world. just, Their Way just happens to involve a lot of meathooks and, uh, liquefying people to make special goo or something? On the other hand fuck this fight. Even now that I've beaten it several times, I still hate it. This begins the pattern of 'nothing that is happening here, mechanically, is moral or just.'

Shi: okay look I don't have much to say about Shi itself. this is a basically-unrelated sidebar. You know how Yujin's key page gives you that broken speed die? I am cursed so that every single big attack targets it, and always with a really high speed so I can't intercept. A boss has some once-per-fight attack that's like '8-21 damage, on hit: stagger the target, apply 5 Fragile next round'? it's gonna target Yujin's broken die, with a speed of like 6-7, every single time. My friends assure me that this isn't intentional and I'm just very unlucky, but I'm this close to retiring the page and ripping the good parts off to use elsewhere. I've seriously lost four or five big fights over Yujin suddenly getting ripped in half three rounds in, or getting smacked with a 'if this hits anybody you automatically lose the fight' attack, with no ability to defend.

8 o'clock Circus: fuck this fight. Oswald isn't in it, but I appreciate his whole deal though. Like, he's not a good guy. I'm not even sure I like him. But it takes some skill to be an interesting fucked up clown in 2023, and he manages it.

Smiling Faces: I love how even after you read their books, there's no real explanation of what their deal is. at this point the game's just like 'look, they're weird old folks who chop people up or something and like to take fat bong rips, you can probably name a dozen explanations for all of this at this point.' The fight itself is an absolute pain thanks to Deep Drag, but your reward is... being able to hit enemies with Deep Drag. I don't like smoke builds as much as most people, it seems, but I'll concede that when they do work they're great. And, I mean, I still put a smoker on most teams up until fairly recently.

Crying Children: sometimes a fight is just too fucking long. I'm sorry Phil "the big sad baby" McFixer, but if you want me to get invested in your personal character arc you've gotta limit your boss fight to like five phases tops. (Angela is exempt from this of course.)

WARP Crew: see the Love Town bullet above, but also I felt pretty bad about killing these guys too. Sorry Lesti. Also I find it very funny that part of the reason behind the VIP seats is to make sure that anybody with really expensive combat augs is not waiting for them inside the train after spending about two millennia losing their goddamn mind.

Blue Reverb/Church of Gears: I really expected this fight to be harder but let's be real I haven't seen the last of this asshole.

Cane: I'm just here for Nemo, babey.

R Corp: hhhhh. For one thing, this fight is a fucking slog, and it opens up with possibly the hardest act of its three. For another, you're gonna make me kill Myo? Really? On the upside: Rabbit-based titles for everyone. I haven't beaten this reception yet since I only tried it once so far and went in unprepared for some of the tomfoolery, but I still got within about two hits of winning, so I'm confident I'll get it next time.

Night Awls/Udjat/Kim/Dong-hwan: yesssss give me your stuff. I could've gone without having to fight the Udjat though.

I started the month strong by cracking, buying the last two books, and finishing Sierra Simone's Thornchapel series (here are my final thoughts), and then mostly spent the rest of the month on ARCs (see below) and a pretty diverse array of romances. All in all a great month!

Bed Me, Baron by Felicity Niven (releases September 7th)

I haven't had this much fun reading a historical romance in a long time. It's one of those romances that start off relatively light and frivolous (and there's an immediate "teach me" moment), but by the end, it really packs an emotional punch. For my full analysis on friends-to-lovers and the daddy of it all, here's my review.

Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez (releases September 5th)

I'm not one to read romances with magic in them, but Angelina wrote wrote this deeply cultural and spiritual take on magic and superstition and intertwined it with the romance masterfully. Here's my full review.

The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy (releases September 26th)

This book felt particularly special to me because the heroine is a first-generation immigrant and retains both her family's Palestinian culture and that classic can-do American spirit. The cultural rep as well as the feminist legal themes are compelling reasons for why we should be reading and writing more historical romances set later in the Victorian era. Here's my review.

It Had to Be a Duke by Vivienne Lorret (releases November 28th)

Adorable, hysterical, full review coming in a couple months, but here are my reactions.

What Was Meant To Be by Heather Guerre

Small-town romance done right. This one really hit on an emotional level; Rain has been under her father's thumb her entire adult life and was never given the resources and support she needed as someone with autism. As a result, she finds herself coerced into marry Wes, a guy in rural Wisconsin she's never met, so Wes can get the property he needs for his resort (basically a dowry :/). What follows is heartbreaking and uplifting at once: Rain begins to exercise her independence and she and Wes slowly come around to an tentative understanding. This is a book where fucking leads to feelings and there are some great sex scenes in this one. Rain is the dominant one in their sexual relationship, and Wes is 100% here for it... a Good Boy, if you will. It's a soft domme vibe but effective and very natural in my opinion, and I would love to read more of this dynamic in romance novels.

Knockout by Sarah MacLean

I knocked this one out in a day (here are my final thoughts). Plotwise my favorite in the Hell's Belles series (a series of mysterious targeted explosions? come on), and the romance between Imogen and Tommy was a perfectly done Grumpy/Sunshine. Also, if you weren't imagining Detective Inspector William 'The Duke' Wellington while reading Tommy Peck, you were reading it wrong.

Rules of Engagement by Christina Dodd

If there's one thing Christina Dodd excels at, it's writing a bitchy hero in that early 2000s kind of way. Kerrich has a little St. Vincent in him; his biggest issue (apart from his trauma from accidentally mooning the King of England after he fell off a trellis because he saw a girl naked) is that alllll his servants find him so hot they can't help but proposition him, so he decides to find the ugliest governess, procure a child, and become "respectable" thanks to a blackmail threat. Also, he does unironically wear a monocle and I'm here for it. Pamela is the kind of pragmatic heroine I love: she's willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, but when push comes to shove, she feels very little shame in seeking pleasure.

The Prize by Julie Garwood

If you find yourself missing the Lillian-Westcliff dynamic but perhaps want to see it play out in a medieval setting, then this is your book! Royce is a hypercompetent Norman lord, and Nicholaa (yes there's an extra 'a' there) is, as the blurb perfectly puts it, a "resourceful, rebellious and utterly naive" Saxon lady. In the grand theme of Westcliff, there was definitely some conversation about how it was "unlike" Royce to do some not-entirely-consensual stuff during the deflowering scene, to which I say no, it really was... in character. Man was on the brink.

But if that's your jam, then you'll probably enjoy this one.

Redhawk Reunion series by Robin Covington

I found a new favorite Harlequin Desire series this month! The Redhawk Reunion series is about three siblings of Native American descent who were removed from their parents' home by CPS without cause and separated (I strongly urge everyone to look into Indian Adoption Project, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and Haaland v. Brackeen to learn more because it used to be upsettingly common due to government policy). Adam, the hero of the first book, hires PI Tess to find his long-lost siblings and they fall into a FWB situation with a side of secret REVENGE. The second book involves Adam's sister Sarina, who accidentally marries his business partner Justin in Vegas, and they too end up in a FWB situation except, well, as a married (for convenience) couple. As far as Harlequin Desires go, both are top-notch and deliver exactly what you want from this imprint.

Also, I believe the next book is supposed to be about Adam and Sarina's brother Roan and the President of the United States' daughter, whose portrait he's supposed to be painting and I'm VERY excited for that.

ok im gonna start w the Kalim cards i have because his dorm groovy is one of my faves and i wanna talk about why i love it

✨Art Critique Time✨

I'm actually gonna start off with this one!!! Even though it's not the glitziest, I still really love it!

(dog pic for spacing)

Whether or not the thumbnail accurately portrays the Vibe of the whole card is important to me, and he looks really cute here, so this is successful!! The composition of the whole card is also really nice; you can easily tell what position he's sitting in, and it's colorful but not overwhelming. Kalim's hand occupies the second vertical dividing line if you visualize it by the rule of thirds, drawing clear and simple attention, and just above it is a coconut water whose saturation and value blend really smoothly into the background— Jamil is framing Kalim; his person is almost an extension of the plates of food on the left, and even though Kalim is actively receiving the coconut water from him, he's looking straight at the camera, not at Jamil. It starts off a cute pic of Kalim eating, and the more you look at it, the more you realize just how much Kalim is being spoiled.

The dorm card!! Un-groovied is really solid in a similar way to the above: the expression on his face, the triangular composition, and upwards angling all suggest power. However, when you look closer at it, you can make out just how relaxed he looks: the scepter leaning against the chair, his foot propped up on the arm, and the looseness of his hold on the cup are not the main focus of the piece. This might have been the artists' attempt to retain Kalim's personality while still maintaining the grandiose vibe of all the dorm un-groovies, in which case, the execution was not great, but I like it for that exact reason— he looks powerful and majestic, but he's still Kalim :)

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVE CARD ARTS!!!

Kalim fits into the sweeping circular frame of the fountain so nicely that the composition has a dynamic feel while still portraying the subjects as fairly static, and the contrast of Kalim with the water makes it very clear what's happening in the picture.

(dogy for spacing. this is from a time when i gave her a crumb of an oatmeal cream pie and her ass who never gets out of bed stood like this for an hour)

The thumbnail makes it really clear what kind of image this is too!! I love the gentle purple shadows, I think they make the whole picture pop while still being subtle and beautiful. You can also tell from Kalim's hair and accessories that he's wet, so it doesn't feel like the artist is forcing you to look for the water droplets. Looking closer at the picture, you can examine the petals, the Magical Pen, the water details, and the reflections in the jewelry, and they're all woven seamlessly into the composition. It's just so beautiful; I could look at it forever💜

This one next!! Mixed feelings on this one!! This is the type of composition I really like; the foreshortening is executed decently enough for how dramatic it is, and the cooking supplies swirling around him are fun. The thumbnail image is great; he looks cute and very clear:

I can't say I like the colors of the full piece, though—Kalim's saturation does not pop out from the background, and the sharpest value contrast is found in, like, the apple and the lettuce, which still look kind of dull. I literally just noticed there was a cutting board by his side while I was making this post. Um. Anyway, while Kalim's legs are darker than his torso, giving his figure some depth, they kinda blend right into the floor, leaving the viewer's eyes to pick out exactly how he's standing. IDK this card has wasted potential.

aaaaaand ya boy hit the image limit so i'm gonna reblog with more!

A few weeks ago Animal Collective returned with a new single called "Soul Capturer", which follows on the heels of their 22 minute recently released single "Defeat". In typical AnCo fashion both of these new songs have been live staples throughout their recent run of live shows in support of their terrific 2022 LP, Time Skiffs, before being officially released, and they'll both appear on the band's upcoming 12 LP, Isn't It Now?. In an inspired departure from the dreamy, glacial pacing of "Defeat", "Soul Capturer" springs to life right out of the gates with jubilant guitar chords and a sparse, floor-tom heavy tribal rhythm straight from the Feels playbook before slowly progressing into the jammier territory that TS teased in spades. The music retains so much of what's made AnCo such a singular force, but it's never been presented quite like this.

Tare takes the lead here, providing his unorthodox approach to melody with the lighter touch that he's opted for throughout most of their last few records, but even without the explosive dynamics his voice still has that unmistakable, overwhelmingly expressive flavor (and, as always, the harmonies from Panda Bear just hit like ecstasy). The last minute finds the band receding into a drifting ambient fog that maintains the momentum but puts their textural ingenuity on full display before tastefully fading out. Like "Defeat", "Soul Capturer" draws from different eras in the band's history, resulting in a song that congeals into something fresh, but the results here are snappier and more immediate. TS and their severely underrated 2020 EP, Bridge to Quiet, presented a creatively rejuvenated AnCo, and thankfully IIN? is shaping up to continue that streak with aplomb.

Undead Unluck ch.160 thoughts

[Right in the Unfeels]

This is gonna be another busy week, but I’ve landed myself a day off, so before things get busy, I’m gonna try to knock out both of my reviews in one go

With this chapter, we’ve concluded the Unfeel arc, at least barring the falling action that we may get next week. I expect that it will either resolve Gina and Sean’s breach of Fuuko’s trust, establish Phil’s dynamics with the rest of the Union members individually (specifically Nico, probably) or elaborate on how Unfeel has changed between loops, if not all three (Tozuka does love to do plot points in sets of three as we’ve determined)

We see the Entruster does in fact shapeshift to match the needs of the user, not incorporating material from its environment as I suggested last week. Honestly that seems like a pretty understandable tradeoff; a powerful and utilitarian yet seemingly fragile automaton that basically costs a person to activate. It’s cruel, as everything else in UU, but you receive probably the most convenient and versatile power available

I did consider from the elevator scene that the aliens were weak to shear stress (though I didn’t know the term), since the door hit it from both sides, I just didn’t think about it beyond that point. I think I would have liked just a little more analysis of why it works, maybe cus of the shape or make-up of the shell, but we got a demonstration of the weakness and the payoff, and that’s really all we need for something that’s not central to the story

Phil recreates his sacrifice from Loop 100, breaking his body to help his friends, but this brings up the question of if he’s willing to go so far because Unfeel erases his fear and inhibition or because he is in fact afraid of losing those he cares about. I’m inclined to think the former logistically, but I think that may have only been the case in the previous loop, and the latter in this one. I don’t have much to base that on, but until Tozuka elaborates on the specifics of Unfeel, I choose to believe that Phil has managed to retain autonomy that he didn’t have before and can act on the fact that he cares about his friends instead of just doing what he’s told or acting solely based on logic

When Phil was helping to cool the railgun in the battle against Sun, you may recall that I suggested Gina’s presence would be helpful for maintaining the railgun without needing to use Phil; I maintain that is the case, but it never occurred to me that Gina could use Unchange to maintain Phil too! I guess because I thought at least his torso was biological, so now that we know his whole body is artificial, it makes perfect sense that Gina can use Unchange on Phil and Entruster

Once again, we get a lot of excellent two-page spreads, but easily the best in the chapter is the rainbow over the crew as they emerge safely from the pod. Phil’s mom and Sean crying with joy, Nico and Creed sharing a smoke, Gina holding up Phil’s smile, and Fuuko and Phil giving each other a thumbs up. It seems like Phil is just copying Fuuko, but the fact that he keeps doing it even after Gina lets go of his hand is so sweet and cute

In some ways, this arc went exactly as I thought it would in the broadest strokes, but in the specifics I was pretty much wrong about the whole thing. Sean didn’t drift off into space, Nico didn’t interact much if at all with Phil, we didn’t get a comparison between this and Phil’s last loop, and Creed...might as well not have been here

Actually, that’s an interesting little lesson in story utility. The decision to bring Creed on the mission was a part of the meeting between Fuuko, Nico and Billy, a moment that was meant to illustrate the different perspectives of the group and the coming together of the old Union, new Union and Under in a sense. Gina was left out because of the events of the previous arc, so Creed’s inclusion was a logical one, but it’s clear from this chapter that Gina was always meant to be on the mission and Creed’s involvement was only meant to give her an obstacle to overcome along the way. This obstacle necessitated that Gina join forces with Sean, which allowed him an extra moment or two of development both in his abilities and character. Even though Creed didn’t contribute anything directly, his presence facilitated both Sean and Gina’s character moments without feeling like he was necessarily out of place. To maximize this type of storytelling tool, though, it would have been nice to have one such moment for Creed himself, maybe with some kind of change to Undecrease or a moment with Creed calling out Gina and Sean for insubordination; he’s a military leader, it would have made perfect sense for him to be the one to be most offended by their actions. Creed calling into question Fuuko’s leadership abilities after that moment could have also been used to reinforce Nico and Billy’s decision to elect her leader of the mission and her role as leader of the Union as a whole. They needed to coordinate Gina’s Unchange to dock anyway, that little bit of extra tension putting pressure on Sean to help would have gone a really long way without adding much padding to the arc

Not to harp on what could have been for too much longer, but since Gina was the one to help Phil in the climax, I think it would have been good for her to have had some kind of interaction with him earlier. Whether it was feeling sympathy because she lost her grandmother and didn’t want Phil to lose his mother or because she noticed the change from him losing his emotions to Unfeel and not wanting Phil’s world to change, some kind of emotional anchor to connect the two of them would, again, have served the story extremely well

Please do not take these notes as an indication that I don’t like this chapter or arc. I felt the exact level of joy and catharsis that I’ve come to expect from Tozuka’s work, I just saw some holes both in the setup and payoff that I personally would have liked filled. I understand that the weekly format’s speed and page limitations are likely contributing factors to this, I just think it’s also useful to keep track of these sorts of things if for no other reason than that I can learn lessons from it for my own writings in the future

As I said earlier, I expect we’ll have some falling action next week to wrap up this arc and transition into the next, so if we’re lucky, a couple of these minor issues will be addressed there, but even if they’re not, this arc accomplished the one thing it really needed to: endearing us to Phil. That’s all it wanted to do, and it did it with flying colors

We are left on a bittersweet note knowing that he’s lost his emotions as his mother feared, so hopefully next week will resolve that if nothing else

See y’all then!

S Plays 'Golden Wildfire' - Part 5

Chapter 8 - What Makes a King

There's not a whole lot of differentiation here between battles and content, so it's just one big post here.

Oh? Fun; there are no side battles or anything here, just fighting Almyra.

Hm. Claude: "That doesn't change the fact that messing up now could mean the end of the Alliance. All because of my miscalculation."

Getting very worried at how uncertain Claude is in his own abilities . . . because it would have been a compelling trait in Houses, now it just makes me nervous.

Judith to Erwin: "You can drop the traitorous villain act. I know you've done more for the Alliance than anyone else."

Erwin to Judith: "You give me far too much credit. All that has ever mattered to me is ensuring the well-being of the commonfolk in my territory. Not the Alliance itself."

Tiana and His Majesty: The Origins? Alliance Soldier: "I heard a story once about the daughter of a certain noble falling in love with an Almyran prince who had snuck into Fódlan. She abandoned her home and returned to Almyra with him to become his queen. Or so the story goes. It's terribly romantic, don't you think? Though I doubt it's true."

Mercenary: "We were initially supposed to defend the Great Bridge of Myrddin. But then our employer told us to go fight Almyra instead. You wanna know who our employer is? It's Erwin, the head of House Gloucester."

Alliance General: "Viscount Nilsson is tasked with a special duty within Leicester. Which is why he's traditionally been overlooked when it comes to supplying military aid to the Alliance. But this time the viscount reached out to the Alliance leader of his own accord and sent us to help. After all, House Nilsson can't fulfill its duty to the Alliance if Almyra invades Fódlan." I don't know what any of this means but that only makes me curious.

Nader growing tired of Shahid's shit and debating jumping ship. Good for him.

Claude is very clearly not happy about this fight gjdflkgj my baby

Okay is it just me or is this battle DIFFICULT?

Changing the difficulty from difficult to easy for my GW playthrough to save myself the headaches and time; AG remains on normal.

:(((((((((((((((((((( Clauuuddee :(((((((((((((((((((((((

Well, yeah, he sent Shahid over a cliff. He told Shez killing him was his burden to bear, and referred to him as his brother right before he let the arrow fly. I'm really glad I watched it with the JP voices because it just Hit. My heart hurts for him :(

"You know, I thought a guy like me would be impervious to this king of thing. Looks like I don't know myself as well as I thought. But now that I know, I won't make the same mistake again."

And this folks is the scene that does in his character, apparently.

Claude: "It turns out Almyra isn't as unified as many believe." Yeah no fucking shit it's the size of Fódlan and apparently one kingdom.

Nader: "You see, I sere the king of Almyra directly, as a retainer I was never obligated--or inclined--to obey Prince Shahid." that just makes me love Claude and Nader's dynamic more to be honestfgdlkjgdf

Holst and Nader are friends once more in this timeline. Cute.

ARE YOU TRYING TO FUCKING TELL ME RAPHAEL WAS THE FIRST TO PIECE TOGETHER THAT CLAUDE'S ALMYRAN?????????????????

It doesn't go anywhere by the way. Claude breezes past it.

Nah now hold on are they ALSO trying to tell me that Holst is enough of an idiot to actually eat bad mushrooms not once, but TWICE?

Arval: "[Claude] harbors many secret ambitions. I wouldn't expect him to back away from this war any time soon."

Uh-huh. Okay.

And that's the end of part one!

Anonymous17 has announced a new EP: “Hand Held With Rough Edges”

Six songs that explore a wide variety of genres, while retaining a catchy and approachable twist.

May 2023 - Anonymous17 is not your average teenager from the Chicago area. She is a gifted and highly creative music maker who loves to use her artistry to connect with the world. Having been making music for a little over three years now, Anonymous17 is incredibly prolific. To date, she has recorded an impressive 27 songs, a feat that most artists take years to accomplish. Her upcoming EP, “Hand Held With Rough Edges,” is a new milestone in the artist’s career, which has taken off on a very positive path in recent times.

Thanks to a fortuitous encounter, the artist was able to start a fruitful collaboration with co-producer Chip Altholz. The latter realized she had so much potential upon hearing her sing a Pat Benatar cover during an impromptu garage performance. This became the start of a remarkable musical partnership. Chip and Anonymous17 were able to immediately hit it off musically due to their shared passion for music and their compatibility as creators. It can be tough to come up with new ideas and keep the inspiration flowing when you’re stuck on your own. However, amazing things can happen when great minds join forces. This is exactly why Anonymous17's collaborative partnership with Chip Altholz has been a major turning point in her music career. Both are highly skilled and creative in their own right, and they were able to mesh their individual talents seamlessly. 

"Hand Held With Rough Edges" perfectly exemplifies Anonymous17’s natural penchant for songwriting and a unique voice that draws people in. On the other hand, Chip takes the opportunity to showcase an uncommon ear for production, knowing exactly how to bring out the best in each song. Together, the two have created a wonderful EP that is greater than the sum of the parts. 

The sentence "Hand Held With Rough Edges" evokes a sense of ruggedness, toughness, and a certain rawness that can be both exciting and intimidating. It suggests something that has a unique and compelling character that draws you in. It could be interpreted as a metaphor for a person or situation that is unconventional but ultimately rewarding. There is certainly an element of rawness to the songs on this EP. However, these six tracks offer a smooth, groovy, and dynamic sound with many influences. The opening track, “Love Light Peace Harmony,” is a collaboration with Sofia Hall, which features an 80s twist. “Love Work Dance” has a more modern sound, with an arrangement that dives into hypnotic vocal layers and syncopated drum machine beats. “Help” is perhaps one of the most heartfelt songs on the EP, showcasing vulnerability and emotion through a breathtaking vocal performance. The roomy synth tones and the big, reverberating drums make for a cinematic twist. “Together Forever” is perhaps the highlight of the EP in terms of appeal. The song is inherently catchy, and the bass line pulsates with groove and melody. The fifth track, “I Love U,” shows yet another side of this release by focusing on a more experimental and introspective sound. The track falls somewhere in between a modern R&B song and a rock ballad from yesteryear. The flavor is exceptional, and this is a perfect addition to a vibrant EP that never ceases to surprise the listener. The last track, “Feel The Power,” concludes the musical journey. The song showcases the singer’s soulful and emotional voice while combining funky bass lines with lush textures to add spice to the mix. Although there are only six tracks, the EP almost feels like a full-length album in that it allows so many influences to converge into something that’s fiercely unique.

In conclusion, "Hand Held With Rough Edges" is a testament to the power of teamwork, and the magic happens when everything falls into place..and it rarely does! This release is highly recommended to fans of artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Doja Cat, only to mention a few.

Learn more and connect:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2veFVv1mtW46qgLMM3gL7S?referral=labelaffiliate&utm_source=1011lwJQT5qM&utm_medium=Indie_Distrokid&utm_campaign=labelaffiliate

The pretenders mystery achievement

#THE PRETENDERS MYSTERY ACHIEVEMENT FULL#

The ultimate Pretenders song and the prime example of Hynde’s flair for a winning melody and a catchy pop hook, “Brass in Pocket” became the first new number one of the 1980s and launched the band to almost overnight fame. Hynde’s bold and seductive vocal flipped rock’s traditional male posturing, with her dynamic band providing wonderfully assured backing. Yes, it’s one of those ubiquitous songs so familiar that you probably wouldn’t choose to play it at home very often, but when it comes on the radio or you inadvertently catch the video on the telly or YouTube, you can’t resist its funky swagger. There’s a beautiful melody, chiming riffs aplenty from Billy Bremner and characteristically warm vocals from Hynde, who celebrates her own resilience on a song that was a hit single in 1982. “Back on the Chain Gang” is both a moving elegy for Honeyman-Scott and a defiant statement from Hynde that, after the guitarist’s death and the departure of Pete Farndon in 1982 (he left the band before his death), The Pretenders were by no means finished. Mystery Achievement by Cover 5 San Diego Cover 5 Band 1.3K views 3 years ago Middle of the Road (2007 Remaster) The Pretenders 969K views 7 years ago 104 Take It Easy Rock YouTube Music Updated. Digital Sheet Music for Mystery Achievement by Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders scored for Piano/Vocal/Chords id:393703. The identity of the subject of Hynde’s love and devotion is never made clear, but pop doesn’t come much more perfect or evocative than this, with her achingly tender vocal and Honeyman-Scott’s tremendous soloing – a sublime hybrid of Duane Eddy and Roy Orbison – elevating the song to classic status.Ģ) “Back on the Chain Gang” ( Learning to Crawl, 1984) This is pure, basic, rootsy rock’n’roll at its best, with new guitarist Robbie McIntosh immediately putting his own mark on The Pretenders’ sound – and yes, that’s Hynde blowing up a storm on harmonica on the outro.Ĭoming hard on the heels of their debut single, a lovely cover of the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing”, The Pretenders retained that record’s sixties vibe for follow-up hit “Kid”. There’s at least a handful of classics on the album, none more so than “Middle of the Road”, on which Hynde touches upon the trappings of fame and the passage of time while resolutely facing up to the demands of motherhood. The Pretenders’ third record and their first without Farndon and Honeyman-Scott was much better than anyone had a right to expect. The real mystery about this song may be what, exactly, is a Cuban Slide? However, four decades on, the track remains a stunning achievement.ĥ) “Middle of the Road” ( Learning to Crawl, 1984) Mystery Achievement Pretenders Track 12 on Pretenders Produced by Chris Thomas Release Date JanuView All Credits 1 Mystery Achievement Lyrics Oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Mystery achievement Don't. Grab your guitar, ukulele or piano and jam along in.

#THE PRETENDERS MYSTERY ACHIEVEMENT FULL#

6) “Mystery Achievement” ( Pretenders, 1980)īringing the debut album to a barnstorming close is the mighty “Mystery Achievement”, a full-on, bass-driven rocker with trademark tremolo vocals from Hynde, powerhouse drumming from Chambers, and Honeyman-Scott demonstrating the full range of his virtuosity. Chords for The Pretenders - Mystery Achievement.: A, Cm, D, G.

Deadlock key

#Deadlock key how to

Maybe people think about diverse boards as being made up of people with different sexes, ethnic backgrounds, or institutional affiliations. There are a lot of ways to try to measure diversity. What are the differences in action between an “aligned” board and a “diverse” board? Is there a preference in the context of providing a firm the proper guidance? Indeed, only 2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are fired on average every year, a number other research suggests would be an order of magnitude higher if no CEO were entrenched. It is trickier to identify examples of this kind of entrenchment in practice, because you can never be sure whether the CEO of a struggling firm is kept in place because they are entrenched or because they actually have a lot of potential, and the firm’s underperformance was just unlucky.īut with models and data we can try to gauge whether entrenchment is a serious problem in aggregate, even absent definite examples. But one of our main points is that entrenchment can be the result of something more innocent but not necessarily more benign: disagreement among the directors. Often, we are concerned about entrenchment due to cronyism or corruption, some of which is discovered after the fact. More seriously, there are different kinds of entrenchment. I have some ideas about which CEOs are entrenched, but none I want to advertise lest they take revenge and I end up in a trench myself. What are some examples of CEO entrenchment? Why would directors keep a bad CEO in place? For example, keeping a bad CEO in place today could make it easier to put your preferred candidate in place if she comes along in the future. The reason is that they anticipate that they could disagree in the future, and today’s decisions can influence future ones. We found that even directors who don’t disagree today can be deadlocked. To do so, my coauthors, Jason Donaldson and Nadya Malenko, and I developed the first model of a group of heterogeneous directors making decisions dynamically. I wanted to understand how deadlock could arise without disagreement about what to do. Uber was a salient example of this mechanism: in the summer of 2017 the board was so deadlocked that it stayed without a CEO for months, even though it seemed like everyone agreed that any alternative would have been better than no CEO at all! According to the New York Times, it was deadlock on the board that led one frontrunner for the job, Meg Whitman, to withdraw her name from consideration, saying, “It was becoming clear that the board was still too fractured to make progress on the issues that were important to me.” For example, we show that a deadlocked board doesn’t put in place a new CEO, even if all directors agree that having a new one is better than retaining the incumbent. Naturally, if directors disagree about what the right thing to do is, then the board could struggle to do the right thing, or even define what that is.īut, strikingly, sometimes boards struggle to make decisions-they are deadlocked-even when directors agree on a course of action. When people disagree about what policy is best-whether to launch a stimulus package, whether to raise the debt ceiling, whether to remove Civil War monuments-political deadlock can ensue.ĭeadlock also arises in corporations, when boards of directors are tasked with doing the best thing for the firm. What aspect of deadlock does your research focus on? In this Q & A, Piacentino explains that when boards hit a deadlock, it can ultimately allow CEOs to become entrenched, and offers a new view on the role of shareholders in corporate governance. According to Piacentino, there is significant nuance to the issue of board deadlock, as sometimes board members are indecisive even when there is agreement on a course of action.

#Deadlock key how to

Finance professor Giorgia Piacentino’s recently published article “Deadlock on the Board” explores the problems that arise for firms when boards disagree on how to proceed with company policy.

Forza horizon 5 xbox

Forza horizon 5 xbox 1080p#

Forza horizon 5 xbox full#

Forza horizon 5 xbox series#

That leads us onto the other aspect of FH5 on Xbox One that emphasises quality - the 30fps target frame-rate barely budges. In fact, Playground deploys what it calls 'DRS Plus', dropping back fidelity on cube-map reflections and shadow updates before lowering resolution. Dynamic resolution scaling to 810p is there (DRS being a first for Forza titles as far as I'm aware) but it's a tool of last resort as opposed to a core element of the visual make-up.

Forza horizon 5 xbox 1080p#

It also helps that the developer has retained 1080p resolution and 4x MSAA anti-aliasing: Forza titles have always looked pristine in this regard and FH5 is no exception. Because it's content complete, because the key features are all included and because the result has been tailored by Playground to mask as many of the limitations as possible, it's still a worthy sequel. In fact, most of my initial play-testing was on the base Xbox One, simply because I wanted to see how Playground did it. It's not so much of an issue in closed-circuit racing but it's in the open world that the limitations of the console start to bite.

Forza horizon 5 xbox full#

Actual in-world detail takes a significant hit with level of detail transitions more evident - barrelling over the open world at high speed, the pop-in is obvious and sometimes it seems that the 2D 'imposters' for world detail never get to transition to full 3D, and if they do, shading seems minimal. The ground has far fewer layers to it compared to the other consoles, looking rather flat at slow speeds (it's far less noticeable in the thick of gameplay, however). Closer to the player, that's where the cuts are more evident. Far-off detail is still rendered to an impressive degree, and as it's a persistent aspect of the scene's visual make-up, it has to be - it sells the scale of the open world.

Forza horizon 5 xbox series#

Probably the most noticeable difference at the core system level is foliage lighting: Playground developed a new system to simulate how light passes through vegetation and it's present on all systems, except Xbox One.Ī key aspect of Forza Horizon 5's visual appeal is its sheer density and its massive vistas, something Xbox One cannot hope to deliver to the same level of fidelity as its Series counterparts. The brand new surfel-based global illumination system - that's there too. It's of a much higher resolution on Series X, but it's still there on Xbox One - with an added post-process pass to eliminate low res artefacts. Proper volumetric lighting is added, for example. The core technologies developed for Forza Horizon 5 look phenomenal on Series X but almost all of them are present in a lower precision form on the base Xbox One. Essentially and perhaps not surprisingly, it's all about scalability. The set-up I saw is testament to the time and effort Playground has put into ensuring a decent experience for every console. Watch on YouTube Everything you need to know about how Forza Horizon 5 scales across every Xbox One and Xbox Series console. Xbox One X? I didn't see that but I needn't have worried, it's a fitting send-off for the Microsoft's first 4K console. From there, moving from left to right, I could see how each console delivered the scene: Xbox Series X quality and performance, Series S equivalents, then finally, the base Xbox One. Using one controller and a network of Xbox consoles, I was able to see the demanding jungle stage of the intro drive playing out in real-time across five of the six iterations of the game, with the debug camera used to zero in on the various rendering techniques Playground had developed for the game. Quite how Playground would deliver this was always the crucial question and it was very satisfying to visit the studio a few weeks back to see exactly how it was done, my tour kicking off with a look at a remarkable cross-platform comparison system the studio developed. Admittedly, we were sceptical about its chances but Playground Games was always optimistic - and having put every version through its paces, the studio has delivered. However, this is a cross-gen release: somehow, Forza Horizon 5 has to run on last-gen machines and still live up to the expectations of quality expected from a first-party studio production. We called it an Xbox Series X masterpiece and that isn't hyperbole - Playground Games has delivered a phenomenal game and a sensational audio-visual experience for its flagship console.

Niki Nihachu & Barbara Kean

Gonna drop something controversial real quick.

Niki Nihachu is the most tragic character on the Dream SMP – and I don’t mean in the sense of her having a tragic story (though she is up there), but in the sense that she is tragically mishandled.

I want to start out by saying that this essay is by no means an attack on the content creator Niki Nihachu or her abilities as a performer. She is frequently one of the strongest actors on the SMP and I have no idea how much of her character writing was within her power. How much of it was improv, how much pre-planned, how much something she genuinely wanted to do and how much stuff she just stumbled into or – in the worst-case scenario – was forced upon her. I don’t know.

The Dream SMP is not very transparent when it comes to their creative process. As such I can only judge it as a discerning viewer and English major dropout, who retained some half-remembered stuff about narratology.

So, a few weeks ago, I tumbled on here that Niki’s character journey reminded me a lot of the character Barbara Kean from the hit TV-show Gotham. Then I got an ask asking me to elaborate. This is the elaboration.

Barbara Kean

So, a quick crash course for people who haven’t seen Gotham (the greatest comic book show on Television, seriously, what are you doing with your life?!): Barbara Kean was a major female character throughout all five seasons of Gotham – and not once during those five seasons did the writers ever figure out what they wanted to do with her.

Every 10-12 episodes or so, Barbara’s role shifted completely. She started out as cop-protagonist Jim Gordon’s girlfriend at home and moral compass, then became part of a bisexual love triangle, then a hard-drinking jealous party girl with a backstory as repressed, lonely rich kid, before being kidnapped by a serial killer and ultimately making her perfect metamorphosis into the psychotic ex-girlfriend trope.

And that was Season 1.

Since then, she became the pseudo-Harley Quinn to the pseudo-Joker, a whip-wielding dominatrix, the obligatory female member in a supervillain squad, some sort of information broker, a mafia kingpin, the leader of a girl-power posse and – my favourite – the reincarnated wife of an ancient immortal who also controls all of Gotham and transferred that control over to her before that plot-point was dropped harder than a half-dead Oswald Cobblepot of the Gotham piers.

Also, she’s Batgirl’s mom.

In short, it’s a mess – but that’s what makes Gotham kinda fun.

Character Cohesion

Now, obviously, Niki’s character journey has not been quite as extreme. But it falls into the same traps, I find. Namely, that there’s just a distinct lack of character cohesion or character continuity.

Now, character cohesion or character continuity doesn’t mean that the arcs these characters undertake can’t be explained in a logical way. Barbara’s character journey is logical in the sense that you can explain it all with in-universe logic – but it’s not logical from a narratological sense now, is it?

Character Cohesion basically means that a character’s journey is reflected in their personal conflict – their Want vs. Need. Their arc is the natural continuation of what was set-up in previous sequences. Everything falls into a whole with Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution – we set up the character’s Want, their Want and Need are conflicting, the Want vs. Need is resolved. Ideally this coincides with the plot beats of the large conflict surrounding the cast.

When you look at Barbara in Season 1 of Gotham, you’re not thinking “This one right here – she’s the reincarnated wife of Ra’s Al Ghul”. Because why would you? There was no set-up; it’s not part of what her character was about in this moment – or any moment before that concept was introduced. It’s not needed for her character conflict (or any thematic conflicts for that matter).

It’s quite transparently just something that is affixed to her so that she has something until the writers come up with the next at which that first thing will dropped, underdeveloped.

Niki in Season 1

Niki follows the same route, unfortunately. She’s set-up as the resistance in L’Manburg, allies herself with Eret and HBomb until – oops – it doesn’t end mattering, because that entire side of the “plot” is completely underdeveloped. Just be a damsel until Wilbur can swoop in and save you, Niki.

Okay, but now she has a big moment with Tommy and Tubbo just after the pit-scene. “We’ll figure something out”, she says. “We need L’Manburg back”. This is all before the backdrop of Wilbur completely giving in to his role as a villain and Techno’s apparent “betrayal”.

So, now, surely, Niki is gonna affect change in Pogtopia and will have some influence on either Tommy or Wilbur, the two people she’s closest to. What’s this? Her biggest contribution is holding a birthday party where Quackity convinces Wilbur to hold off on his TNT-plan? And after that … she’s just gonna be part of the Pogtopia-masses?

Now, I like Wilbur’s writing and Season 1 generally, but when it comes to Niki (and Eret) something went terribly wrong. Both of them provided many a set-up – none of which were taken advantage of, unfortunately.

And, just to be clear, I’m not putting the blame on Niki here (or at least not most of it). Season 1 was pretty firmly in Wilbur’s hand … and Season 2 was a train wreck.

Niki in Season 2

Niki is – for the most part of Season 2 – a nothing character. She has no real conflict, no character beats, no arc. This is because through some unfortunate writing decisions, Season 2 is pretty squarely focused on a specific set of characters – and even fewer of those characters are granted a fully explored, completed character arc.

It all culminates in her Doomsday villain arc – a moment that can be logically explained from both an in-character perspective and a meta-perspective, but unfortunately, it’s not justified from a technical writing point of view.

Niki burning down the L’Mantree is her “Ra’s Al Ghul’s reincarnated wife”-moment. It’s a big statement that put her character on the map for a large part of the audience again. It was a striking visual. It could not be ignored.

Most of that was because it was a stark departure from her characterization in Season 1. Now, such a departure doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The problem comes in when

a.) The full potential of the character in their previous narrative role had not yet been fully or even partly exhausted

b.) It cuts into an on-going character arc and drastically changes its course

c.) It’s not foreshadowed or developed properly.

And most of those are true for Niki’s character. She was not necessarily underdeveloped but underexplored in Season 1 and had no consistent storyline going on in Season 2. She was a witness to Tommy’s trial, but that was never worked into an on-going storyline for her. No matter how much we retroactively pretend like this turn to villainy, this breakdown, was brewing deep inside of her – there was no foreshadowing.

The reason, why I said it’s understandable from a meta-perspective, is that the content creator Niki Nihachu had a self-admittedly hard time getting her foot in in Season 2 – because Season 2, for as much love as I will heap upon Tommy’s and Dream’s storyline, was a pretty messy.

So, the villain arc was not well foreshadowed and Niki’s turn was developed, but what happened after she was in it?

Niki in Season 3

Well, unfortunately that problem of an inconsistent storyline never really went away for her. In the beginning of Season 3, she hatched her wagons with Jack Manifold, which was a pretty big tonal shift – from darkly tragic to cartoonish villainy.

But as Jack kept developing his character in that lane and following up on big plot development with corresponding character moments, Niki again just … vanished. She then changed gears again, joining the Syndicate – a great idea if only the Syndicate actually streamed together and developed a storyline and group cohesion.

As it stands right now, Niki’s character exists in the negative space of the fandom imaginations. We are given some scraps and good character moments – her sleeping in a jail cell, “I started baking again”, her secret city – but those moments never coalesce into a full-fledged storyline.

Her character’s journey is still as fragmented and underexplored as it ever was. I really hope that – with Wilbur’s revival and the new character conflict that seems to arise from that for her – she manages to finally get the foot in and get the storyline and dynamic arc she deserves.

Asano/F!Darling: Unconventional Methods (VI)

TW: Noncon/dubcon, unhealthy power dynamic, unhealthy relationship, abuse of authority, spanking

____ didn't mind Asano's smaller outside assignments that much, especially compared to that first lesson. She knew when they would come since he only ever sent them during her breaks or outside of work hours, and having time to write a response was less stressful than being put on the spot and having to look at him. Still...Asano's questions and requests were enough to make her squirm in her seat even when they weren't sexual.

"How many partners have you had, including the ex-boyfriend you mentioned? Were you sexually active with them as well?"

"Have you always lived on your own? Do you ever feel a desire to live with someone or feel intense loneliness at home?"

"Have you ever had a near-death experience?"

"Send a photo of the toy you mentioned using. Describe its function and how often you use it each week."

"Was your family life turbulent growing up?"

"Have you ever been struck during a sexual encounter (eg. Slapping, spanking, scratching) or experienced pain (eg. hair-pulling, biting)? If so, describe the action and how you responded to it."

That last one made her feel especially worried. She'd never done anything rougher than maybe getting her hair pulled and being called a cute little slut by her ex whenever he'd talk dirty to her. And compared to Asano, a black belt who famously defeated his teacher on his third day of class, her ex wasn't much of a fighter.

____ sighed and tried to focus on the papers she was supposed to be grading in 1A's classroom while the instructor taught the students. Principal Asano was just trying to make her uncomfortable by asking her, and probably by making her wonder if he really was planning on hurting her like that during one of his lessons. Speaking of which...it had been one week since her third lesson. The last two weren't as sexual as the first, but they were just as stressful. The second lesson was almost like a regular lecture, aside from the fact that she'd been completely nude the entire time. Asano had given her a small stack of education and psychology textbooks for her to annotate and study in his office while he watched her. Any time she moved the book up or hunched over the small table he'd provided for her to hide her breasts, he'd told her to sit up straight and she reluctantly obeyed.

The third lesson had involved her "shadowing" him while he did his own work; thankfully she got to keep her clothes on for this one, but she spent the entire time in his lap. Occasionally his hands would wander between her thighs to ghost against her panties, and eventually she noticed how he was subtly rocking his hips every so often while a slight bulge nudged her backside. It didn't seem to faze him in the slightest though; whenever he'd show her one of the documents he was working on or made a phonecall, his voice didn't seem tense or strained at all while she sat in his lap.

She understood why he needed to make her so uncomfortable, and he'd patiently explained to her more than once that her personal inexperience was why so many of these lessons were sexual--you're least comfortable when trying something new. But it still felt so wrong to do things like this, even if her boss explicitly said it was okay. Is that why she didn't want to ask any of her coworkers for advice or whether they thought this was an appropriate teaching method? Asano hadn't ever said to keep it secret, after all. Still...she'd have to admit that she and Asano had done all of these things together--on campus, in his office! Even if it was to make her a better teacher--and even if the other faculty members believed that--she could never look them in the eye ever again. ____'s face flushed with heat and she hurriedly made her way down the hall to Asano's office; maybe after this lesson she could ask him if she should discuss his program with any of the other teachers.

____ knocked at Asano's door and waited for him to reply. "Come in." Immediately she stepped inside, closed the door, and locked it from the inside; now that she'd had multiple lessons in his office, she had learned the routine for the start of his lessons. Asano was at his desk and peering at the documents in his hand. "Sit." He hadn't even looked up from his papers.

____ eagerly walked to the chair in front of his desk and sat with her legs crossed. "Um, sir," she began, "Before we start, I wanted to--"

"We've already started today's lesson," Asano interrupted, his voice soft but firm and commanding as ever. "Once we've finished, you can talk to me about your concerns."

____ pressed her lips together in a line and tried not to sound too bothered by him dismissing her so quickly. "What will today's lesson involve?" She prayed over and over in her mind: nothing sexual, nothing sexual, nothing sexual...

Asano finally glanced up from his papers to look her over, and ____ tried her best not to meet his gaze. "I want to see how well you've studied the books I lent to you," he said. "Nothing too exhaustive, just a cursory review with an oral quiz." He moved his seat back and rested his arms on either side of the chair. "Put yourself on my lap, facing down on your stomach."

____ hesitantly rose up and moved around the desk to lay down the way Asano had ordered. The arms of the chair pushed against her chest and upper thighs, but not enough to be anything more than mildly cumbersome. She flinched slightly when she felt his hand move to pull up the bottom of her skirt and expose her rear end to the cool air of his office. "S-sir?"

Asano moved one hand to rest over her back while the other cupped the soft flesh of her backside. "For every question you're unable to answer, you'll get a penalty." He squeezed her ass gently and felt ____ squirm as he toyed with her. "I'll guide you to a proper answer until you manage to discover it for yourself. First: Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is not a theory applied to most schools in Japan. Tell me why you think that is."

____ shifted in her seat. Were all the questions going to be this open-ended? "Ah...L-let me see," she murmured. It was difficult to think straight when you were upside down and your boss was groping your ass. "Well, Gardner's theory is...u-um, it comes from a Western perspective of intelligence? Kunugigaoka's teaching methods are based heavily off of, of collectivism and group efforts being important. So it may not be applicable here?"

Asano pursed his lips. "Is collectivism solely an Eastern value? Not to mention, you're forgetting one of the cornerstones of our teaching methods is behaviorism--a concept theorized in Europe and the United States."

"Oh. That's true," ____ admitted. "I'm sorry, Asano-sa--"

A sudden smack against her ass startled her followed by a stinging pain made her tear up immediately. She'd never been hit this hard before, and she immediately felt a lump in her throat as she started to cry. "Apologize by considering a better answer," Asano said coldly. "Think carefully about how Gardner's theory contrasts with different policies and standards in Japan."

____ sniffled and cried as he had spoken, and continued to after he'd told her to try again. 'I...u-um, let me...I...A-Asano-san, I..." She tried to think about the question, she really did. "I've never been spanked before, th-this really hurts..."

Asano gently rubbed the place he'd struck her and she let out a small whine; even him comforting her hurt. "It's a new experience, and an effective one," he said. "You're more likely to remember and retain what I say with a physical trigger." He squeezed her ass and felt her squirm again. "Try again."

____ bit the inside of her cheek and tried to ignore the sting and the heat coming from her skin. "Um. Gardner's theories...they imply that each type of intelligence is...a student with one strength does better with a different type of learning method, and a student with a different one would do better with an-another one," she rambled. "But school exams only test the ability to retain a-and apply information. A...a student with high kinetic intelligence, they might struggle on a written exam be-because it tests a different set of skills. R-right?" She looked up at Asano as best as she could for a sign that she had given the right answer.

Asano smiled and tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. "A much better answer," he confirmed. "A school setting emphasizes and values different types of intelligence over others, and so does society as a whole." Asano squeezed and played with her upper thigh, and ____ felt his fingers coming closer and closer to between her legs until he was pressing against her clothed slit. "At Kunugigaoka however, I've tried to incorporate the needs of students who aren't gifted with the natural intelligence that exams cover. Even if a student's resistant to conventional teaching and study methods, I've found that a forceful approach can work through that rigidity." He smirked and felt ____ squeeze her thighs around his hand as a he played with her clit. "Next question."

____ tried to gather her thoughts as best as she could while being toyed with over Asano's knee. Shouldn't she be answering these questions while NOT being so distracted? How is she supposed to give a proper response when he's touching her and groping her like this? "S-sir, I understand the purpose of being spanked--um, struck? Learning with a physical trigger. But it's distracting me and I can't focus on what I've studied..."

Asano nodded and slipped some of his fingers past her underwear, pulling them down to press directly against her cunt. She gasped through her nose and felt a wave of shame after she felt her body clench around his fingertips. "That's the point," Asano explained patiently. "If you've studied properly then you should be able to recall information easily, even under stress." He could feel a small bit of lubrication around her entrance making it easier to slip the tip of his middle finger inside. "You did study, didn't you?"

"Y-yes," ____ insisted. "I just didn't think it would be this...ah, this..." She trailed off and whimpered at the feeling of his finger rubbing against a sensitive spot; she didn't even realize that she had started to rock her hips back and forth in time with his hand. "Sir, please!"

Asano narrowed his eyes at ____ as he continued to play with her with one hand. He knew she wasn't experienced with this kind of stimulation, but that wasn't any excuse to act so childishly. "Please? Please do what? I can't stop just because you're uncomfortable, you know that. Now, for the next question. The study conducted on adolescents aged 12 and 13 is referenced often in chapter 3 of the textbook on memory I sent you. The two students in the study failed to keep up with the lessons during the experiment and suffered nervous breakdowns from the strain of the coursework. Why do the authors frame this as something positive?"

____ tried to remember the article he was asking about, but her thoughts were clouded and scattered as she felt a creeping feeling of pleasure and tension in her core. What was that article about? Not memory, that was the one in chapter 2...No, it was about the correlation between classroom size, curriculum density, and...and short class periods? "Ah...The students who had breakdowns," she started, not even sure of what she was trying to say. "The authors theorized it was b-because the intensity of the material being covered and the short--ooh...short class periods. U-um, the teaching method focused on parallel thinking and had them all studying multiple things at the same t-time, and the two students couldn't take...couldn't take it anymore..."

____ let out a frustrated groan and tried to move her hips away from Asano's hand. "Please, I can't," she insisted. "I can't do both at the same time, I can't think when you--"

Asano pulled her hips back into place and quickly covered her mouth with one hand before slapping her ass again. She screamed and started to sob against the palm keeping her somewhat quiet. "You aren't answering the question, you're re-stating it," he said irritably. "Not only that, but you're interrupting the lesson by moving away like that." He raised his hand again and ____ instinctively tried to move out of the way and tried to reach up and block him from hitting her; his eyes darkened and in one swift movement, he pushed her over against the desk and gripped her wrists behind her back while keeping his other hand on her mouth.

"You've disrupted my lesson twice now," he said icily. "If you're so eager to act like an unruly child and throw a tantrum, I'm more than happy to put it on hold to correct this." He dug his nails into the flesh of her wrists and she screamed again. "I'm going to let go of your wrists, and you're going to keep your hands on this desk until I tell you to put then behind your back. Do you understand?"

____ clenched her fists and tried her best to nod while her head was turned to the side against his desk while she continued to cry. This already hurt so much, and she couldn't imagine what he'd do if she tried to run out of the room or fight back. "Mm...Mhh-mm." She sniffled and choked back some of her sobs to try and respond. Asano, true to his word, let go of her wrists and she immediately placed them on the edge of the desk. Her knuckles lightened as she gripped the wood as hard as possible, and the ache of her hands distracted her from the sting of her lower thighs and the strain on her neck and upper body being pressed against his desk.

After a few seconds, she felt his hand take one of her wrists; a strip of cloth was in his hand, and she felt it brush against her own skin. "Behind your back," he ordered. ____ complied and put her hands together again. She felt the silk of Asano's tie wrap around her and tighten until it was firmly keeping her wrists bound. He took her by the crook of her arm and moved his other hand to let her breathe more easily through her nose while he kept her mouth covered. "Back in the chair."

Soon she was back in his lap, though this time her hands were in an uncomfortable raised position thanks to his necktie. "Obviously you're not able to continue with the quiz I had in mind today," Asano said, sighing in disappointment. "Still, I'm not going to cut our lesson short just because of your outburst." ____ felt a few more tears well up at just how upset and disappointed he sounded in her. She didn't want to be a brat. She didn't want to disrupt his lesson, but she just couldn't think straight. "Instead, we'll be reviewing something much more elementary to match your attitude." Her heart sank as she felt his hand rest on the curve of her ass again. "The two of us are going to count. I think that ten should be high enough."

____ caught a glimpse of his hand as he raised it up and bit her lower lip to try and steel herself before he spanked her again. The harsh slap of skin against skin followed by a new rush of aching pain left her sobbing pathetically underneath him. His voice was soft and eerily cheery as he brushed a few fingers over where he'd hit her. "One."

Slap. "Two."

Slap. "Three."

____ heard the rush of blood roaring in her ears until she could hear nothing else, not even the spankings or her own crying. It sounded so far away, just like Asano's voice. "Four...five..."

The breaks in between each spanking grew longer and longer, and Asano could hear her wails become less and less loud and obnoxious until they died down to short whimpers after each slap. Her lips were slightly parted behind his hand, but she wasn't pouting and wincing anymore; it seemed that she'd spent all of her energy and her tantrum had finally subsided. He peered down at her slightly-tilted head and noted the glazed-over look in her visibly reddened eyes as she stared off into space. Dissociation was a common side effect when it came to his students, a clear sign that they were at their limit and--even better--their minds were much easier to mould now that their subconscious was preoccupied elsewhere. For ____ in particular, it was a key step in training her. Right now she had learned she couldn't resist him, and with the right positive and negative reinforcement she'd learn to love his guiding hand.

"Six." Smack.

"Mm..."

"Seven." Smack.

"Mmm."

An impulsive part of him, specifically the part responsible for the slight tent in his pants as he watched her stare blankly and become more and more compliant and complacent with each strike. She clearly wasn't cut out to teach, not with how well she fit in his lap and how satisfying it was to hear her soft moans. He imagined how much better it would be to see her transition from resistant and defiant, to blank and defeated, and finally to eager and adoring once he'd finally finished grooming her into his ideal "protégé."

"Eight...Nine...Ten."