#featuretag

[by-ethan-fox]

So I saw Gundam Seed FREEDOM...

... and honestly it defies analysis.

I will avoid spoilers for major plot elements in this write-up.

I'm a huge Gundam fan. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed my work for a long time, as I frequently bring it up, even in entirely inapplicable situations.

But even though I've been a fan since the late 90s, I'd never had a chance to see any of it in the cinema - so when AllTheAnime organised a special short run of the movie for UK theatres, I jumped at the chance.

What I saw surprised me.

To clarify, I'm not one of those Gundam fans who hates SEED. Sure, I love the UC, but I'm not gonna lie, Wing was my genesis within the fandom so I'm as likely to watch G-Gundam as 08th MS Team, though I do lean towards the grittier side of the franchise, with War in the Pocket being my favourite entry.

But most relevant to this is that while I enjoyed SEED, I've always been critical of Destiny for some really bizarre plotting that, frankly, kinda left the CE timeline in a mess. Like many fans, with the show having been off the air for nearly two decades, I gave up on the idea the movie might exist literally years ago.

With all that out of the way...

The movie does exist. Finally. And is it good? Bad?

The weird thing is I don't know what to say, and that's weird for a writer.

It's awesome. It's terrible. It's goofy. It's clever. It's idiotic. It's bizarre.

But it's over 2 hours long and, honestly, I was never bored, which I guess is a success?

Perhaps most surprisingly, the movie expends ZERO ENERGY on helping you if you haven't seen the near-100-episodes of CE anime which came before this. Like, if you haven't seen SEED and or Destiny, you are just utterly fucked. The show wheels characters and plot-beats from the prior material in-and-out in a manner I could best call aggressive. I last watched Destiny about ~7 years ago, and I'm a self-admitted Gundam nerd; but even I had to look up a few things on my phone afterwards.

Then, fan-service. Of both kinds. All sorts of things get pulled out of cold storage for the movie... But it works. Though that also stands as a testament to how this is, in the truest sense, a 2004 anime throwback. I actually heard some people in the cinema groaning at some of the Gainax Bouncing going on; but then given the jiggly silhouette in EVERY OPENING TO SEED, frankly it would've been stranger if it had been absent.

I think the movie has loads of problems. Even by CE standards, some of the storytelling was really goofy and dare-I-say-it, "cringe". It recycles probably too much and certainly doesn't stand on its own as a piece of media (though that's not so much a failing as a clear, conscious choice).

Also... It has that "anime movie" thing where the plot feels a bit filler. The first time you have this new guy on the scene with shock-white hair, being all edgelord as he talks about war and destiny and fencing or some other weird metaphor you kinda see the entire movie unfurl before you. If you're a longtime anime fan this isn't so much your first rodeo as your daily commute.

From there, the story takes numerous predictable turns, dips liberally into melodrama, sets up some great Mobile Suit fights, with relatively few surprises (note, however, I'm not saying "no surprises", as there are some, and also, I'm not suggesting it's tedious).

And yet...

It's fun.

It's really, really fun.

That's the crux of all this. That's what really matters. And honestly, when that new theme comes out of the speakers, sounding in perfect key with the types of music that ran through SEED's run, and Kira's onscreen, and he's locking onto a dozen targets and beams are spamming everywhere and everything's exploding in that weird pink way that things in SEED explode...

Have you ever tried to play a videogame from the 90s that you haven't played in years? And do you know how touch-and-go that is?

Gundam Seed FREEDOM is, if I'm to compare it to anything, like that.

But thankfully, it's one of the times when your memories might have been optimistic, but they're not wrong. That game may be a bit crude, a bit rough around the edges, and have more boob and ass jiggle than you recall... But it's good. So good that you find yourself sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of your console, grinning like an absolute loon, until it's 2am and you can no longer feel your feet.

If you have fond memories of the SEED era of the Gundam franchise, don't miss it.

[fantasticworldoffanfics]

#DeAged!

Fandom: TeenWolf

Just a particular tag that I’ve been crazy about…

note: This is just a post focusing on one particular tag, not a particular ship. Concludes both Peter/Stiles [PH/SS] or Derek/Stiles [DH/SS], and will be labeled respectively. Please enjoy.

Little Boy Blues    [PH/SS] 

Author: Bam4Me

Summary: Stiles is tiny and cute, pack is protective, that's all you need in life.

A Small Surprise    [DH/SS]

Author: InnerCinema

Summary: The toddler comes to a stop in front of Derek, raising his arms and demanding in the most commanding tone: “You carry me!” (aka. 5 times toddler!Stiles adores Derek who is a good guardian - gee I suck at summaries tonight!)

Preserving Innocence    [PH/SS] 

Author: Mysenia

Summary: Peter has literally been handed his doom in the very real, tiny body of one 5 year old Stiles Stilinski.

Baby One More Time     [DH/SS]

Author: Castielific

Summary: Stiles is turned into a three years old. The Sheriff forces Derek to "babysit". Neither Stiles nor Derek are happy about that, but it could be worse. Maybe. Well, the jury is still out on that one.

What’s My Age Again?     [DH/SS]

Author: Armygirl0604

Summary: “Did it occur to you,” Scott said through gritted teeth as he dug his phone out of his pocket and stared at his best friend’s unconscious form, “that I’m the one who has to explain all of this to your dad?” He tapped the first button on his speed dial and waited for his mom’s voice. “Hey mom,” he said when she’d answered, “do we still have any of my old clothes from, like, I don’t know…maybe kindergarten?”

Once Upon A Baby      [DH/SS]

Author: frozenorange

Summary: When Isaac comes home with Stiles who has been turned into a toddler, Derek takes care of him while trying to understand what happened to his mate.

In The Age Of Stiles    [DH/SS]

Author: Olsies

Summary: Stiles accidentally deages himself. Hilarity ensues.OR Derek took Stiles up stairs for a bath, where Stiles proceeded to splash water everywhere.“Stiles! Stop that!” “Stiles! Stop that,” Stiles mocked, splashing more water at Derek.“I mean it!” “You’re not the alpha anymore, Scott is!” Stiles shouted. Derek sighed.

Finding Home     [DH/SS]

Author: captaintinymite (augopher)

Summary: To teach them a lesson, a pair of mischievous pixies hit Derek and Stiles with a spell that makes them six years old again. Neither of them remembers anything about their lives beyond that age. What happens when the pair of them become immediate friends and declare that when they grow up they will get married? Will they remember anything when the spell wears off?

Where Clouds Roll By     [DH/SS]

Author: ohanotherday

Summary: Derek gets de-aged, physically *and* mentally, and immediately gravitates towards Stiles instead of his pack. Why? Because he can sense that everyone else (Scott, Erica, Boyd, Isaac, etc.) is a werewolf (or were-something, in Jackson's case), and his family taught him not to trust unfamiliar weres when he was on his own. He can also sense that Allison's a Hunter or connected to them somehow, (maybe she smells like wolfsbane? w/e). So Stiles ends up having to take care of him until he's back to normal. In the meantime, bb!Derek gets very protective of Stiles, and adorable shenanigans ensue.

sidenote: DeAged!Derek, not DeAged!Stiles

[by-ethan-fox]

Hi Score Girl, and the importance of knowing your audience

Just started watching Hi Score Girl after a recommendation from a friend, who insisted that I check it out after a conversation about some of the nerdier aspects of fighting games.

(yeah I know, I’m late to the party)

Anyway, I wanted to point out something that impressed me about episode 1. Obviously one of notable things about it is how it uses real videogames, instead of lookalike stand-ins, but what impressed me was how the writing really speaks to the audience.

The bits of the episode about “Guile-turtling” or “Jank-throws” (which I think in the west we tend to call “Tick throws”) were interesting, but I think you’d find those pretty fast if you just googled for anything above beginner-level SFII. I was more interested in something else...

At one point in the episode, Ono (the “girl” in the title) has won 29 games of SFII in the arcade in a row, and the main character plays against her. That screenshot, above, is the character select.

Note how all of the characters are greyed out except Ryu, Zangief and Guile. Zangief and Guile are being selected, so they are in-colour by default. However, the other characters normally appear in-colour on this screen. So what’s going on?

A lesser-known fact in the original Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (perhaps some of the other versions of SF too, I’m not quite certain where in the series it stopped happening - I suspect it was Street Fighter Alpha 2 but don’t quote me on that) is that if you play and lose, when you continue, you can switch character. However, when you do this, the original character will turn grey on the character-select. Characters also turn grey if you play against them as the CPU and beat them.

Follow this to its logical conclusion, and you can see how it works. Let’s say you and I both sit down to play SFII. I pick Zangief, you pick Ken. When I defeat you, and you continue, Ken will be grey on the selection screen. Let’s say you try Chun-Li, but if I beat you, when we go back to the selection screen, Chun Li and Ken will both be grey. Let’s say, then, that you play as every other character (all seven), and after the seventh, you decide you’ve had enough.

When I continue playing, the game would have the entire set of characters in grey; so it would instead put me up against the boss characters (the “four devas”; Boxer, Claw, Sagat and Dictator) - because I’ve already beaten all the others. The game doesn’t care if those other characters were being played as the CPU or a human opponent; you progress through the game regardless.

This may seem like a very small detail, and in truth, it’s so minor as to be a footnote... But the writer of this show (perhaps the manga from which it derives) included it in its representation of Street Fighter II - because, I suspect, that the writer knows their audience and really wanted this kind of thing to be authentic.

Yes, I’m a fighting game nerd, and yeah, I’m interested to see where this show goes. I’m not the biggest fan of CGI-heavy anime usually, but I’m going to give this one a pass and see how it pans out!

[by-ethan-fox]

Keep going.

I know this is a bit self-indulgent, but screw it, I want to talk about it and in turn, share a bit of advice about the value of persistence.

I had something amazing happen today, for the very first time. At a live event, someone came up to my table, and said,

“Oh! You’re Ethan Fox! I remember you from <name of event> a few years ago!”

We had a brief conversation about what had happened since, and then he said:

“I’m actually here because I liked your first book! Is that the second one?”

He then bought the second book and said that he wanted it signed, to go with his copy of the first one.

Just want to contextualise this a bit.

I started writing The Scissors and the Sword during a difficult period in my life in 2014. Back when I was writing it, I honestly had no idea how it would turn out, but guided by what, looking back, resembled “desperation” a bit too much, I kept going, because it was the story I wanted to tell, and I chose to believe that if I worked hard enough on it, others would come to like that story too.

I lost my job around that time, and went through a period of joblessness when the writing was the only reason I got up in the morning. I didn’t know how things were going to work out, but I told myself that even though most other things were out of my control, the book was the one thing which was entirely mine, and would fail/succeed purely based on my own work. There was something strangely comforting in that.

In 2015, I published the first version of the book, and like most indie authors, I wasn’t a success out-of-the-gate. I didn’t get into books to get rich, but at the same time, self-publishing isn’t free, and I wanted to try and get to the point where, at least, the books would return as much as they cost me to make.

This wasn’t always easy. In truth, there were many times that I considered simply giving up.

But I persisted. I didn’t know if it was smart, or wise, but I did so regardless. Much of that is thanks to the your help (yep, you - reading this right now - hi); the support of my followers and supporters. Some of it is due to the comments I received from readers, who remind me they’re (patiently) waiting for the next chapter of the World of Orochi series.

Even so, many months passed before I managed to garner enough reviews to be properly indexed on Amazon, and years passed before I started to passively see sales of my books in the store (still only a handful per month, but the point is that they happen, whereas in 2015 months could go by without a single sale).

I started The City and the Dead three separate times. I threw away so much material; I really struggled to get started. I don’t even know why I tried a third time, or what sparked the final plan, but I managed, somehow. Again, thanks go out to you guys for this, for your constant encouragement.

It was only in 2018, honestly, that things started to pick up. The City and the Dead was released, and I briefly jumped up the author ranks on Amazon. Reviews started coming in for both books. I sold a bunch of copies of both around the release of City, and I even sold out of books at the Tokonatsu festival.

Then, today, someone approached me in person to say that they liked book 1 so much that they’ve come to buy a signed copy of the second one.

That took four years of work; four years of coming home from my day job and sitting down at my writing desk for hours in the evenings and weekends. Sometimes being up at 4am, coffee’d up to the eyeballs as I was trying to “ok” a bunch of changes from my editor quickly enough to get the book ready for typesetting. Four years of, at times, living on bulk-buy noodles and thrifty ingredients to pay for graphic design work, or editing work.

In this time, when summed up, I’ve sold quite a few books. I can say, with no shred of a lie, that I have fans on four continents, and it would be wrong of me to suggest that their contribution isn’t meaningful - in fact, it means the world to me.

Plus, I’m still not breaking even on the books. That target is still on the horizon.

However, I’m sure all of you can appreciate how it felt when this happened in person for the very first time.

And I’m not lying when I say that it made it all worthwhile.

So authors, I want to say to you all, if I give you one piece of advice, it’s this: 

Persist.

Don’t break yourself, don’t keep going blindly. Work smart, not just hard. Even so, only give up if the situation arises where you’ve reached your absolute limit and there’s nowhere else to go. If there’s even one more thing you can try, try it. If there’s something else you can do, do it. As long as there’s a chance you can make it, and you’re prepared to put in the work, always, always persist.

This is as much advice to my future self as it is to everyone else. These moments come rarely, but as someone who is celebrating one right now, I can say that they are worth the effort.

Keep writing. Keep reading. Keep dreaming.

But above all, persist.

[by-ethan-fox]

K/DA is the most cyberpunk thing I’ve ever seen in real life

People can say what they want about League. I’m not a fan, particularly. Plus there have been those recent stories about the internal working culture at Riot.

Still, the recent K/DA music video makes me think about something.

In ~1997, I watched Macross Plus.

Those of you who haven’t seen it, all you need to know is that a key player in the story is a character called Sharon Apple, who is a virtual pop-star - who I believe in the dub is even referred to as a “virtuaroid idol”.

I saw this OVA on VHS, and at the time, this concept blew my mind. Like, it made perfect sense; the idea that you could create a computer-generated idol singer - because let’s face it, a great deal of pop music culture is kinda “fake” anyway, or certainly back then it was - vapid, commercial, with singers, bands and groups who were essentially created by producers and made into a brand. Doing that with a computer, instead of with people, seemed like it would be something that would happen in the future.

Given, in more recent times, we’ve seen Miku, we’ve seen the Splatoon acts, we’ve seen Kizuna Ai.

Back in the 90s, I was a big fan of anime, but also cyberpunk and science fiction in general. I loved stuff with the “future-noir” aesthetic, such as Blade Runner - a movie which starts with a scene in which the main character, a detective, buys food from a street vendor in an American city, drenched in neon lights shaped like Kanji characters.

Consider it like this. Imagine you could tell someone from the 90s that in 2018, the billboard world chart will be topped by an idol group who are four fictional characters, from a complex e-sports themed videogame. They will sing in a combination of English and Korean, with strong western and eastern visual elements in their video. Given, their voices belong to real people, but so did Sharon Apple’s in Macross Plus (spoilers, I guess!).

It’s the most cyberpunk thing I’ve ever seen. Going past the aesthetics, consider this: The band is a corporate tool. It has been created by an entertainment company, and precision-engineered to cater to elements of their audience, as well as attract new players. It’s based heavily off existing ideas, repackaged with high-definition, ultra-confident characters who move with robotic precision amid a technicolor clash of cultures. It could only be more cyberpunk if they were 3D holograms.

The group is Joi. The real-world equivalent. It exists to extend the virtual, fantastical personas of these characters and give them more of a presence in the real world, blurring the perceived border between real and fictitious.

I’m not saying it’s bad! Far from it. I actually think the song is very catchy, and I have no idea whether the whole thing was formed out of cynicism or some genuine desire to make something interesting (as always with these things, it’s probably a bit of both).

It’s yet another example of something of which I loved the idea in science fiction when I was a kid that we’re actually starting to see become science fact today. 

We’re living in the future and I freaking love it.