Terror

[Insert Faux-philosophical hurble durble Here]

[iod256]

29, m

[littleeyesofpallas]

Damn, I lost a huge first draft of this to internet flickers.  lacking patience to go back and do it word for word. no prolonged intro to this.  just gonna go with the short version…

Quincy technique Vollständig.  German adjective/adverb “Completely.”  Kanji [完聖体] “Perfect/Complete” and “Holy/Saint + Body.”  Specifically [聖体] is the term used for the Christian “Eucharist/Holy Communion/Body-of-Christ.”  Viz called this Vollsterndich, which is presumably the German Voll- for “Full,” Stern for “Star,” and Dich the pronoun “you.”  

This is because the katakana is [フォルシュテンディッヒ] pronounced “Fo-ru-shu-ta-n’-di-hhi,” and that “di-hhi” part there was a weird choice on Kubo’s part.  Mostly because it’s not actually very close to the German sound of -dig, or -dich at all.  He also does this with the word Licht:“Light” in a lot of Quincy terms related to Uryuu; I think he thinks it makes the uvular frictive sound /χ/ like the dach in dachshund, but that syllable he keeps trying to approximate is actually /ç/ and sounds more like a “-s” or “-sh” sound.

Anyway that hardly matters because Viz didn’t bother translating their German anyway, they wrote the ““translation”” in parenthesis as “Holy Form” which is an overly literal breakdown of [聖体]: “Eucharist/Holy Communion/Body-of-Christ.”

Also worth pointing out is that [完] is the kanji used to mark the end of a film, although that’s not exactly the style of film anymore; so it’s comparable to “The End” or “Finis” in that respect, and in the same regard can refer to “bringing the curtain down” as in a stage performance.

Before we even get to the specifics, all the Vollstandig start with the same kanji+kana [神の-]: “-of God.” So, having said that now, I’ll skip it as we tackle the individual names.  In 3 of the 6 names this is reflected in the suffix [- エル]:“-e-ru” which is (I assume) meant to borrow from the Hebrew [אֵל]:“-el” meaning “God,” present in the names of biblical archangels, like Ariel[אֲרִיאֵל‎]:“Lion (of) God,” Gabriel[גַּבְרִיאֵל‎]: “Hero (of) God,” and Raphael[רָפָאֵל‎]:“Healing (of) God.”

Quilge Opie’s [ビスキエル]:“Bi-si-ki-e-ru” is written with [-正義]: “Justice/Righteousness.”  Viz wrote the name out as Piskiel, which seems an odd choice.  It might have been an error on the translator’s part, mistaking the [ビ]:“bi” for [ピ]:“pi.”  But if they took it to be a reference to a specific thing, I have no clue as to what it would’ve been.  They correctly translate it as “God’s Justice.”

Robert Accutrone’s [グリマニエル]:“Gu-ri-ma-ni-e-ru” is written with [-歩み]:“Walking” but also “Pace/Step” and “Advancement/Progress.”  Viz called this Ghrimaniel (I have no idea why the felt the h belonged there) and translated it as “God’s Step,” but I feel like of all the ways to translate that, that was the least intuitive. Like Quilge his wings are blocky, although most others end up looking more naturally shaped. Between that and the fact that he uses a gun instead of a bow and arrow I feel like it was meant to the, "Progress/Advancement of God” like the progress of technology.

PePe Waccabrada’s [グドエロ]:“Gu-do-e-ro” is written with [性愛]:“eros/erotic.”  And the “ero” instead of “eru” here is a play on that, but phonetically it can still be pronounced as “-el.”  Viz translated this as “God’s Love” which is a good safe alternative to having to be overtly sexual in a book they intended to sell predominantly to children.

Äs Nödt’s [タタルフォラス]:“ta-ta-ru-fo-ra-su” is written [-怯え]:“scariness” or “being afraid/startled” or “trepidation.” It’s the first to abandon the “-el” suffix entirely.  Also, Viz called this Tatarforas, and translated it as “Fear of God” which is technically accurate, but it does not mean “to be afraid of god” it means “god’s fear.”  I can’t help but think Tartarus was the basis of this, but the “-fo-” in the middle throws that off.

Lille Barro’s [ジリエル]:“ji-ri-e-ru” is written with [裁き]:“Judgement.”  Viz confusingly decides to call this “Divine Judgement,” abandoning the “God’s…” format they’ve been going with, although the translation is still technically accurate.  They transliterate the name as Ziliel, which is technically not wrong, but feels like an odd choice.  The Japanese kana S-set [サ・シ・ス・セ・ソ]: “Sa, Shi, Su, Se, So” is the basis of the diacritical Z-set [ザ・ジ・ズ・ゼ・ゾ]:“Za, Ji, Zu, Ze, Zo.”  But as a weird quirk of how Japanese has historically been romanized, both [ゾ] and [ヂ] (diacritic of [チ]:“chi,” which is part of the T-set) are typically transliterated as “Ji.”

and finally, Askin Nakk Le Vaar’s [ハスハイン]:“ha-su-ha-i-n’” written with [-毒見]:“Food Taster (for poison).”  Viz called it Hasshein, which seems to try and follow a vaguely German phonological spelling, but I don’t think it means anything.  And translated as “God’s Taster” which is accurate but sounds a little silly.  

I forgot that Gerard Valkyrie’s Vollstandig got named at one point.  Pronounced [アシュトニグ]:“A-shu-to-ni-gu” and written with [権能]:“Authority” or “Power.”  Viz called this Ashtonig, “God’s Power.”  There’s not a lot to say about that.

We also saw Bambietta, Candice, and Mask all use theirs in combat, seemingly just amplifying or otherwise facilitating their Schrift powers.  We saw Bazz-B’s goofy little glowstick wings a few times, but it wasn’t clear if they served any real purpose in relation to his Heat powers.  Otherwise we saw NaNaNa, Meninas, Liltotto, and Giselle all summon their wings and halo at least once, but never really saw them in action.  This means both YHWACH and Uryuu as The A, Juugram, Pernida, Cang Du, BG9, Driscoll, Berenice, Jerome, Gremmy, Nianzol, Loyd and Royd, and technically Shaz and Guenael all were without a Vollstandig.  It’s a shame since, even if there wasn’t likely to be a full set of developed second stage powers, it would’ve at least been cool to see everyone’s unique wing designs.

Not really a conclusion or take away from this. It was just brought to my attention that although I did a series of posts on the Schrift themselves: [A-E] [F-K] [L-Q] [R-V] [V-Z] the Vollstandig represented a gap in my Bleach posts, so I figured that warranted at least a quick rectifying.

[cardboard-crack]

[markrosewater]

I've seen you field the question a fair amount of times recently and you state market research supports the that most players like humanoid PW characters more. I don't doubt the notion, but isn't it an unnecessary slight to a seemingly-vocal subset of fans to not make a crazier, fantasy-monster PW once in a while? Throw us a bone (please)! I know these things take time and you might already be on it, but I also know some fans would be over the moon for an odd monster smart enough to be a PW.

We make crazy fantasy monsters all the time and occasionally even make them legendary creatures so they can be things like commanders. If players want to bond with crazy fantasy monsters, we have you covered.

Planeswalkers are our story conduit. Things that we can make main characters in our stories, not just in the trading card game, but through other expressions like the Netflix series. We have a limited number of slots, so we need to be careful with how we use that resource.

And note we have two Dragon planeswalkers, a hybrid Dryad/Treefolk planeswalker, a Golem planeswalker, a Demon planeswalker, a Minotaur planeswalker, a Merfolk planeswalker, a Goblin planeswalker, a Gorgon planeswalker, an Elf planeswalker, a Vampire planeswalker, a Werewolf planeswalker, a Leonin planeswalker, a Vedalken planeswalker, a Kor planeswalker, a Moonfolk planeswalker, a Cyborg planeswalker, a Satyr planeswalker, a Devil planeswalker and whatever the hell Ashiok is.

We’re not shying away from doing crazy fantasy things, but yes we lean towards humanoids because that’s what best fills the function of what we need planeswalkers to do.

And while I respond to questions like this all the time making it seem like a large pool of players wants non-humanoid planeswalkers, our data actually shows it’s a very tiny percentage.

So they don’t work all that well for how we need to use them and statistically speaking they’re unpopular. We still just made Wrenn and Six. We’re not saying we’ll never do weirder stuff, but it’s something that has to come organically out of a need we have rather than just doing something to say we did it.

And trust me, I know the message that most people don’t want the thing you want is frustrating to hear, but I’m trying to use this blog to be honest with all of you and explain business realities. Most players want something, we’ll make it. Some players want something, we’ll do it where we can. A few players want something, we’ll fit it in if we find a place where it makes sense, but we’re not going to force it. That’s how a multi-million dollar brand works. I’m just being brutally straight-forward.

[iod256]

Demon - just a guy with wings 

Minotaur - just a guy with a bull head 

Gorgon - just a woman with hair tendril Merfolk - just a woman with scales

Werewolf - just a woman who is a woman 66.6% of the time

Dryad - a woman attached to a tree

Cyborg - a guy with a metal arm (most of the time he’s covered up)

Elf - a woman with pointy ears

etc.

That's all most of these “special cases” amount to. "Just a guy with X". And since most of these characters are token with no real established backstory or whatever, would it be so hard to go "Hey, here's a demon leviathan planeswalker. Have fun and stop bothering us." That’s already a character as deep as the vast majority of characters introduced in WAR (and many characters introduced previously that you’ve done nothing with).

[markrosewater]

I think there's a more fundamental issue in why people got angry about Mowu. People are used to Wizards "breaking rules" in gameplay, because that's how the game has always worked. But when you break the fundamental laws of physics of the multiverse, it's interpreted as you simply having lied to us the whole time, with all the maliciousness that phrase implies

I think sometimes it’s important to step back and ask yourself “Am I looking to find maliciousness?” Because what exactly is our motive to be malicious here? We’ve set up the metaphysics of the multiverse to create a cool and interesting property. One of the conscious decisions we made was to set up defaults rather than constants. This is how things normally work, but each planeswalker interacts differently with the environment. The nature of the universe has exceptions.

Why would we do that? It’s not to somehow lie to our players. It’s because it’s a much more interesting world if planeswalking works slightly differently for each planeswalkers. It allows for better character building and better storytelling.

There are defaults, so you the audience can get a general sense of how it works, but the idea that you think you understand the rules and then find exceptions goes to the very DNA of the game. The story and mechanics of the game want to feel interconnected.

Learning Yanggu travels with Mowu is not meant to be some betrayal, but rather a hint that other weird possibilities exist in the multiverse. That means every time we meet a new planeswalker, you get to go, “Hmm, what can they do?”

So please, the next time you want to see ill intent in art/entertainment (or life really), ask yourself why they might be doing this and if it’s possible that rather than try to harm you, they’re actually trying to create a better experience for you.

[mr-muppetface]

Lord almighty, OP’s is the exact mindset that leads people to nitpick “plot holes” and demand perfect consistency in their stories.

[iod256]

This is such a holier-than-thou comment that adds nothing to the discourse that I wonder why you even posted it.

Stories set up rules. Writers do this so later, when they break those rules, the reader is caught offguard. This, however, needs to be done carefully and judiciously as you can easily break suspension of disbelief and dramatic tension when you do it too much or go a step too far.

With the framework you’ve established, namely the whole “ That’s a you problem. If you can’t engage with fantasies that aren’t perfectly consistent “ thing, then I could say “The Great Overlord Xenu descended on Ravnica just as Bolas had become a god and smote him with his super hydron cannons” and you would just have to accept it and keep reading.

The way Magic’s story’s been written, there hasn’t been a single year where they don’t contradict something or need to retcon something in so long. If the rules of the setting are constantly being broken for “coolness” then there are no rules, and that makes the setting less believable. Nobody is asking for perfect consistency, since that’s nigh impossible with a long-running story, but it’d be neat if more thought went into things than “Oh, that’d be a cool thing to happen”.

Instead of high grounding, try to understand where your fellow fan is coming from.

[3smuth]

So Mark has expressed his thoughts on storytelling at least a couple times in his articles, since his background is in writing and his degree is in communications. The one that stands out as most relevant here is his Communication Theory article that covered the the three important elements of storytelling: Comfort, Surprise, and Completion. Obviously your focus is on the first.

So what I’m hearing from you is that Mowu (apparently among other things) has made you feel so deeply uncomfortable with Magic’s setting that you can no longer enjoy the story. Similarly, we can assume that Magic’s creative team made a decision like this because they didn’t expect it to make much (if any) of its fans that uncomfortable. So why the discrepancy?

It appears you have a very high demand for consistency in your stories, that small changes - and yes, Mowu is a small change - make you deeply uncomfortable. It’s clear that Magic’s creative team is only becoming more willing to allow small changes like this for the sake of cool things. That is, they’ve determined that most of their audience is willing to accept less Comfort in exchange for more Surprise. But of course there’s a very small minority - like yourself - who can’t.

If your argument is that Mowu is going to cause Magic’s long-running story to completely unravel and collapse under its own weight, you’re wrong - they’ve got a brilliant creative team and even on their bad days, they do better than all that. If your argument is that small changes like this are going to make you, individually, enjoy the stories less, you may be right. Not because there’s something wrong with you, but because your unusually high demand for consistency makes you not a part of the audience they’re working to appeal to. But that doesn’t make them wrong either: choosing to serve you less so they can serve a larger audience more is not malice, it’s the nature of writing for an audience. When someone says “that’s a you problem”, that’s what they mean.

Now, you obviously care about Magic and I’m not just saying it isn’t for you anymore, though I would definitely encourage you to seek out some other stories that deliver more on the Comfort and less on Surprise, and rely less on Magic to fulfill that need for you if it’s clear that it won’t be doing that. I would also encourage you to figure out why you, individually, demand such a high degree of Comfort from your stories, and perhaps figure out a way to enjoy Magic stories even if they don’t provide that. And if all that fails, yeah, consider taking a break from Magic stories. Stories exist to entertain us, and you don’t sound entertained. They’re going to continue writing these stories to entertain lots of people, and if your only hope going forward is that they will entertain all of those people less for the chance of entertaining you, personally, more, perhaps a little distance would be a good thing.

[iod256]

No, dude. You didn’t read anything I said. 

You’re all so busy focusing on this one particular example: “Mowu,” that you miss the underlying root of this person’s complaint. It’s not that a dog can jump dimensions, it’s that Magic has absolutely abysmal fidelity to its own lore. This isn’t one instance, it’s many instances every single year where they retcon, contradict or make up new rules for the sake of one new story or set. 

I really don’t feel like getting into a discussion where I just type stuff I’ve already typed, so here you go: https://cynicscapeblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/reign-of-terror-battle-for-zendikar/

https://cynicscapeblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/reign-of-terror-oath-of-the-gatewatch/

https://cynicscapeblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/26/acts-of-terroristic-reign-of-terror-magic-the-gathering-and-war-of-the-spark/

Don’t worry, they’re all written by me.

[markrosewater]

I think there's a more fundamental issue in why people got angry about Mowu. People are used to Wizards "breaking rules" in gameplay, because that's how the game has always worked. But when you break the fundamental laws of physics of the multiverse, it's interpreted as you simply having lied to us the whole time, with all the maliciousness that phrase implies

I think sometimes it’s important to step back and ask yourself “Am I looking to find maliciousness?” Because what exactly is our motive to be malicious here? We’ve set up the metaphysics of the multiverse to create a cool and interesting property. One of the conscious decisions we made was to set up defaults rather than constants. This is how things normally work, but each planeswalker interacts differently with the environment. The nature of the universe has exceptions.

Why would we do that? It’s not to somehow lie to our players. It’s because it’s a much more interesting world if planeswalking works slightly differently for each planeswalkers. It allows for better character building and better storytelling.

There are defaults, so you the audience can get a general sense of how it works, but the idea that you think you understand the rules and then find exceptions goes to the very DNA of the game. The story and mechanics of the game want to feel interconnected.

Learning Yanggu travels with Mowu is not meant to be some betrayal, but rather a hint that other weird possibilities exist in the multiverse. That means every time we meet a new planeswalker, you get to go, “Hmm, what can they do?”

So please, the next time you want to see ill intent in art/entertainment (or life really), ask yourself why they might be doing this and if it’s possible that rather than try to harm you, they’re actually trying to create a better experience for you.

[mr-muppetface]

Lord almighty, OP’s is the exact mindset that leads people to nitpick “plot holes” and demand perfect consistency in their stories.

[iod256]

This is such a holier-than-thou comment that adds nothing to the discourse that I wonder why you even posted it.

Stories set up rules. Writers do this so later, when they break those rules, the reader is caught offguard. This, however, needs to be done carefully and judiciously as you can easily break suspension of disbelief and dramatic tension when you do it too much or go a step too far.

With the framework you’ve established, namely the whole “ That’s a you problem. If you can’t engage with fantasies that aren’t perfectly consistent “ thing, then I could say “The Great Overlord Xenu descended on Ravnica just as Bolas had become a god and smote him with his super hydron cannons” and you would just have to accept it and keep reading.

The way Magic’s story’s been written, there hasn’t been a single year where they don’t contradict something or need to retcon something in so long. If the rules of the setting are constantly being broken for “coolness” then there are no rules, and that makes the setting less believable. Nobody is asking for perfect consistency, since that’s nigh impossible with a long-running story, but it’d be neat if more thought went into things than “Oh, that’d be a cool thing to happen”.

Instead of high grounding, try to understand where your fellow fan is coming from.

[markrosewater]

I think there's a more fundamental issue in why people got angry about Mowu. People are used to Wizards "breaking rules" in gameplay, because that's how the game has always worked. But when you break the fundamental laws of physics of the multiverse, it's interpreted as you simply having lied to us the whole time, with all the maliciousness that phrase implies

I think sometimes it’s important to step back and ask yourself “Am I looking to find maliciousness?” Because what exactly is our motive to be malicious here? We’ve set up the metaphysics of the multiverse to create a cool and interesting property. One of the conscious decisions we made was to set up defaults rather than constants. This is how things normally work, but each planeswalker interacts differently with the environment. The nature of the universe has exceptions.

Why would we do that? It’s not to somehow lie to our players. It’s because it’s a much more interesting world if planeswalking works slightly differently for each planeswalkers. It allows for better character building and better storytelling.

There are defaults, so you the audience can get a general sense of how it works, but the idea that you think you understand the rules and then find exceptions goes to the very DNA of the game. The story and mechanics of the game want to feel interconnected.

Learning Yanggu travels with Mowu is not meant to be some betrayal, but rather a hint that other weird possibilities exist in the multiverse. That means every time we meet a new planeswalker, you get to go, “Hmm, what can they do?”

So please, the next time you want to see ill intent in art/entertainment (or life really), ask yourself why they might be doing this and if it’s possible that rather than try to harm you, they’re actually trying to create a better experience for you.

[iod256]

You’re paying too much attention to the specific example and not the root of the problem  You guys play fast and loose with the lore. People want things to be constant because it means “Okay, this is how the universe works.” Obviously writers only establish those baselines so they can break them later to tell dramatic stories, but the issue here is you’ve been doing that too many times in too rapid a succession. It’s like we can’t get through ONE set without a retcon or some contradiction. Just today I see on wizards’ twitter that apparently Yawgmoth created Phyrexia and Urza has the reputation of a hero? These things couldn’t be further from the truth.

[markrosewater]

Inquiring Minds Want To Know - Co-operative Magic

If there was a fully cooperative way to play Magic, what features would you want it to have?

[iod256]

Didn’t you guys already do an amazing job of that with the Theros events where a team of players fought the Hydra, Xenagod and the minotaur horde? That was pretty fun.

I guess more of those would be fun.

There’s also Archenemy.

[markrosewater]

Inquiring Minds Want To Know - Planes to Visit in the Future

In today’s information gathering, I’m interested to hear what planes you want to visit in an upcoming Standard-legal set. Here’s how I would like you to respond. Please list, in order, your favorites from one up to five. You can list less than five, but please restrict yourself to five answers. Number 1 should be the plane you most want to see us visit in the future. 

If you’re interested you may also tell me why you want to return to that plane. You can list any known plane including ones we’ve never visited before. I need names of existing planes though and not “wild west plane”. 

Here’s an example:

1. Innistrad - It’s my favorite plane

2. Fiora - I love Conspiracy and would like to see Fiora in a Standard-legal set.

3. Tarkir - Go back, but there better be clans.

4. Rath - I don’t know how you’d do it, but I’d love it.

5. Alara - More Esper please.

I would love to get a lot of data, so please pass this along to your Magic friends to answer as well.

Please number your answers as the data will be weighted. I will count them in the order listed if you don’t number them. Please don’t list the same plane more than once. 

[iod256]

1. Theros - It’s far away from the plot, and I enjoy self-contained stories with character who can actually die. Also, I don’t think Magic has ever achieved such a perfect union of flavor and gameplay.

2. New Phyrexia - I’d like to see modern game design ethos applied to the Phyrexians again.

3. Tarkir - I have a strong desire to see how you guys bring back the clans, because they were very popular while the dragons... not so much. 

4. Alara - I did not get to experience Alara while it was happening, but I very much enjoy the colored artifacts of Esper.

[markrosewater]

“Tales from the Pit” #1825

[vadous]

Daytona’s voice

We keep up with Daytona, the raging perv

Go to: Iota’s voice

Go to: Daytona stage

Go to: Acura’s voice

Keep reading

[vadous]

Gunvolt 2 Pantera voice (part 1)

I resume the voice-only posts for those who don’t want to read through all of the stages’ re-translations

Go to: Part 2

Go to: Tenjian’s voice

Go to: Belladen 3 (GV)

Go to: Belladen 3 (Acura)

Keep reading

[markrosewater]

I loved Eldritch Moon. I felt it was the successfully unnerving Eldrazi I kind of wanted from BFZ. Did WoTC learn anything from Eldritch Moon on how to effectively portray the Eldrazi the next time?

Yeah, show very little of them. Less is more with the Eldrazi.

[iod256]

Kinda insane how nobody realized the creatures based on HP Lovecraft’s works shouldn’t be turned into mindless kaiju (BFZ block) or Phyrexia-lite (Innistrad). What made the Eldrazi unique in Magic was that they were very true to Lovecraft’s mythos (see: Dreamstone Hedron’s flavor text), while playing differently than anything else Magic had done.

You guys stripped away a lot of their flavor and mechanical identity in order to populate a block full of them. This burned me on following the story and made me stop playing since the gameplay wasn’t stellar either...

[vadous]

Gunvolt 2 GV Event stage

YO! The dance king’s come!

Go to: Tenjian Stage (GV)

Go to: Belladen 1 (GV)

Keep reading

[vadous]

Gunvolt 2 GV’s voice

Here are all of the voice samples by GV (during boss battles with him, DLC included)

Go to: GV’s op stage

Go to: Acura’s voice

Go to: Prayer (Acura)

Go to: Pantera’s voice (part 2)

Keep reading

[vadous]

Tenjian’s voice

Last of the G7 bosses is Tenjian

Go to: Aggressor stage

Go to: Gibril’s voice

Go to: Asroc’s voice (part 2)

Go to: Tenjian stage (GV)

Go to: Tenjian stage (Acura)

Go to: Pantera’s voice (part 1)

Keep reading

[vadous]

Teseo’s voice

First GV2 in-batlte voices posts is about the hacker and Internet slang-lover Teseo! 

BTW, in his original text he doesn’t use tags, the localization team added those up out of the blue

Go to: Aggressor stage

Go to: Teseo stage

Go to: Nimrod voice

Keep reading