Welcome to rambles and tangents
I have been building a LEGO museum!!
It’s amazing what all you can find when you have a bunch of LEGO sets all jumbled together in oversized totes.
But yes. In between the whole working overtime (at 2 jobs) and trying to take care of myself, I haven’t had much brain power to work on stories or anything. But putting LEGO pieces together is fun and almost therapeutic. I’m very proud of finishing a project for once.
Hey, y’all. Pardon my lack of posts; working overtime regularly really takes it out a person’s ability to think clearly outside of work. I started musing on things while I was doing dishes, and went off on a tangent of a genre I like: the Isekai story. So I figured maybe I should take y’all on my tangent with me. Prepare to see how I think too much. *submarine siren blaring* Dive, dive!
Perhaps it’s just my English Major training, but it’s good to start off with a definition of the term. So– “Isekai 異世界, transl. “different world” or “otherworld”) is a Japanese genre of portal fantasy and science fiction… that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world, such as a fantasy world, virtual world, another planet, or parallel world.” (From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isekai)
If it is difficult to imagine how this might look in a story, imagine the story of Alice in Wonderland (and its sequel Through the Looking Glass). Alice goes through a portal in both stories to wind up in another world, where the fantastic seems mundane and the mundane seems fantastic. Other examples are Dorothy and Toto being carried to Oz by a tornado, the Pevensie children going through an enchanted wardrobe into Narnia, and Peter Pan leading the children to Neverland. Essentially, the main character goes to a fantasy world.
Now, the trip to another world has been around in fantasy literature for years and years. From my personal experience, I know of several manga/anime from the 1980s and 90s that I remember reading/watching: Those Who Hunt Elves, Magic Knight Rayearth, From Far Away, Red River, Vision of Escaflowne, El-Hazard and Fushigi Yûgi. (From Far Away is one of my all-time favorite manga.) Spirited Away is another example, just from 2002. The .hack// series of video games and anime also take this idea and transform it into being transported into a video game (which has become a subgenre of isekai stories now.)
Right now, there seems to be a ton of manga/manhwa that is all about the isekai story. I generally categorize them into the following subgenres, with some examples that I like or have popular anime adaptations:
-Being summoned into another world (The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent, My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World, Different World Hospitality Meals, High School Prodigies Have it Easy Even in Another World)
-Being reincarnated into another world (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash, Crimson Karma, By the Grace of the Gods, The Otherworldly Travels of a Material Collector)
-Being reincarnated into a book/game as a pre-existing character (My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Who Made Me a Princess?, The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen Who Will Become the Source of Tragedy Will Devote Herself for the Sake of the People, I Raised a Black Dragon, Villains are Destined to Die, The Greatest Estate Developer)
-Getting stuck in a game as the protagonist’s character (Overlord, Land of Leadale, .hack//, Sword Art Online, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody)
-Dying and going back in time (My In-Laws are Obsessed with Me, The Villainess Lives Again, Untouchable Lady, The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway)
Please note: Not all of these will suit your taste. Some of them are much more psychological drama than others, and may touch on or revolve around controversial or sensitive topics. And to be honest, I’m not a fan of some of these; I mostly mentioned them because they’re relatively well-known. Also to be fair, not all of these are “legally” licensed? I may or may not have read fan translations online… *Looks away while sweating conspicuously*
“Isekai stories share many common tropes – for example, a powerful protagonist who is able to beat most people in the other world by fighting. This plot device typically allows the audience to learn about the new world at the same pace as the protagonist over the course of their quest or lifetime.” (From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isekai)
So a lot of “typical” Isekai stories have characters who are OP, or overpowered. They possess abilities (magical and/or physical based) that make them stronger than the other people around them. An example of this would be in Black Summoner, where Kelvin reincarnates with the super rare ability of summoner, and of course is the highest ranked summoner ever. In Another World with My Smartphone revolves around a character who has affinity with every magical type in addition to being able to look up things from his homeworld on his titular smartphone. By the Grace of the Gods has Ryoma with affinities for several magics and the childlike curiosity of exploring everything and learning new ways to use said magics. Some series have characters who begin normal(ish) but upon leveling up, receive huge power boosts that OP them. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, and Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers are examples of this. Even if the characters are not magically or physically proficient and could be characterized as “normal,” they can still have the memories of their former life on Earth to help move technology along, have regressed from the future and know the big events that will happen, or been a fan of the book/game they were transmigrated into and know the future of the story.
So. This is a very long-winded explanation. My English professors would have probably marked me down for taking so long. Having said that, it’s just become such a huge genre that it’s just everywhere in manga and manhwa currently. I’m very excited that there are two upcoming anime adaptations of manga I’ve read: My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World and I’m the Villainess, so I’m Taming the Last Boss. Sadly, there are so many good ones that I want to watch as anime, but it probably won’t happen.
Now, on to the whole musing part of this thing. I don’t want to just nerd out over my obsession; this is a former English major’s blog after all. A lot of this is just theoretical, as I haven’t done any actual research. Lol. And to be honest, it’s mostly from my own experience in daily life, but here goes:
We desire an escape from daily life. That’s what I think it comes down to. We have the whole get up, go to work or school, run errands, come home, eat and go to bed. That’s the regular pattern. There are of course variations on it, but I think the majority of people have what we might call “boring lives.” But we want more. We want something that deep in our soul screams to us, “This is why I am alive!” We were made for more than just lives that barely scratch the surface of living. And in the middle of our daily dullness, we see things that are wrong. Injustice of every sort. And I think lots of us feel helpless in the face of it. What can we actually do about it?
And isekai speaks to that. We have, in many stories, a normal person thrust into an un-normal situation. Even if characters become OP, the good stories always put the characters in situations that challenge them and force them to become a better person. They make enemies and allies. A typical story arc for many stories involves an OP character coming to a town that is being oppressed by greedy authorities or unbeatable monsters, then stepping in and saving people. It’s a story type that’s been popular in Western TV, like The Lone Ranger, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, and Supernatural. Other stories have long-running stories with political intrigue and rebellion, working on injustice from the ground up. So there is the type of story that speaks to our desire to be powerful enough to stand up for the weak and right the wrongs that we see around us.
Then there is the type of isekai story that is called “slice-of-life.” It could be someone just exploring different types of food in their new worlds and sharing their homeworld (often Japanese) cuisine. It could be someone using their knowledge of engineering or science to enrich the lives of the their new families. It could be someone who has experienced so much trauma or despair in their original life, and are now getting a chance to heal and learn hope. There are so many people who have been scarred by life, and seeing someone else heal and become whole, even in fiction, can be a way for us to heal ourselves. The beauty of slice-of-life stories is that it helps us re-appreciate our daily lives, even the mundane aspects. It romanticizes the small things, like doing laundry, or sharing a meal, or shopping.
Maybe this is all my own perspective. It’s so easy to get bogged down in everything everyday that is just… “everyday.” Like I mentioned, work, errand, meal, sleep. I want something more. Sometimes I just want to scream into the void and have something scream back at me. (Maybe that’s just my depression talking.) Isekai is scratching that itch, so to speak. It’s reminding me that life still exists and is ready for me to tackle.
But yeah. There’s a weird hybrid post for you, all nerdy, essay, existentialy, me. Eh.
I make no promise when I’ll post again. Life is weird. Catch you on the flip side.
Howdy, peeps, human and marshmallow alike. I’m back again with another post, this time to recommend another highly-liked-by-me webtoon, “The Villainess Lives Again.” It’s available on Tappytoon, with a subscription: https://www.tappytoon.com/en/comics/villainess-lives-again. The original novel was written by Mint, and the comic done by Peachberry.
So, this manga is not for those who want action-packed story, or comedy. It is a very serious story, and survivors of abuse may find it hard to read at some points. But for all that, it’s a story that is almost like watching a master-played chess game.
The story begins with the new Emperor Laurence sentencing his sister, Artezia, for the crime of poisoning his wife and son. He reveals, with witnesses, that she has been masterminding the downfall of the previous emperor and horrible events around the continent for years. So he orders for her tongue to be cut out and her arms and legs to be cut off, so she can no longer speak or write orders for people to suffer. This may seem like a drastic but fitting punishment to the reader, but it is quickly revealed that Artezia is innocent of the poisoning, and has only done these other horrible events in order to bring her brother to power as the Emperor.
The reader learns that she was raised to believe that she must do everything for her brother Laurence, in order to protect herself and her mother Millaira. Millaira was the previous emperor’s mistress, and Laurence was Artezia’s half-brother, born out of wedlock to the emperor and Millaira. Even though the son of the Emperor, Laurence was never in a position of authority, until Artezia was forced to put her prodigious intellect to mastermind schemes and manipulate people for years.
And when I say “prodigious intellect,” I mean it. Artezia is extremely smart and savvy to people’s reactions. Having grown up in a very abusive household (her mother is certifiably insane, I think, and the stereotypical idea of bipolar), Artezia knows how to stay low, flatter, and manipulate people in order to obtain her goals. I think she may be the smartest heroine I’ve seen so far in any manga/manhwa.
Where does the title “The Villainess Lives Again” come from? Artezia, having suffered the Emperor’s punishment and imprisonment, manages to cast a spell using ancient magic. Her intention is that a certain man (more on that in a few) will be returned to the past with his memories of the horrific future that Laurence has caused, so as to be able to change things. However, the spell goes wrong, and Artezia is sent back instead. Before the spell, the mutilated Artezia was begged by Grand Duke Cedric to help him overthrow Laurence, knowing that only more suffering would come. Artezia could do nothing other than cast the spell, willing to sacrifice her life, knowing that Cedric was a good man who had bowed to the villainess to beg for help. She vows to do whatever it takes in this new timeline to secure the throne for Cedric, and bring down the current Emperor and her family.
I know that this is a lot to take in. Sorry for that. But that will hopefully be a good intro for you, because this story is a LOT, but it is so GOOD. The author has done an excellent job of showing the audience how Artezia’s schemes are set up far in advance and how she uses her words to move people like chess pieces. There are also so many small details worked into the fabric of the story and art to show how she changes as a person through her interactions with Cedric and the people who become loyal to her. Artezia’s eating disorder is never directly addressed (at least as far I’ve read), but her lifetime of abuse is evident in her tendency to sacrifice her own well-being for what she considers important- she considers herself so insignificant that she’s willing to be beaten in order to provide a public excuse to part with her mother.
Another reason that Artezia wants to change the future is to save the life of Lisia. Lisia was a Saintess who helped the poor and ill in the previous timeline, and Artezia had forced her to marry Laurence to help him become Emperor. Laurence, being the piece of rotten trash that he is, had abused Lisia until she died. Artezia feels a great deal of guilt over this, compounded by the fact that Lisia had known about Artezia’s machinations, but had told Artezia on separate occasions that she didn’t blame Artezia. With so much guilt eating away at her, it’s understandable that Artezia would want to change the future.
I’ve probably given away spoilers that some people would have preferred to not get, but oh well. I hope this is a enough of a recommendation to encourage people to give this a go. It’s not for the easily-bored, or the faint of heart, but it is good.
Catch you on the flip side.
Howdy, all my non-existent readers. I apologize for the lack of posts over the last month. Losing my job, hunting for a new job, gaining a new job, then getting used to the new job, which includes getting used to waking up at 4:30 a.m. and hitting snooze until 5:00 a.m…. that all takes up a lot more time than you might think. So I have not sat down and watched an episode of “Murder, She Wrote” for quite a while. Instead, I was comfort-watching “The Great Muppet Caper” while going through paperwork, and started wondering why more people don’t seem to know this movie as much as some of the other Muppet movies.
“The Great Muppet Caper” was shot in 1980 and released in 1981, just after the final season of “The Muppet Show”. It has that visual quality to the film that makes it seem like a 70s film, rather than the more flashy 80s films. I don’t know how else to describe it besides that. For those who don’t know the plot, Lady Holliday (the fabulous Diana Rigg) is a high-fashion designer whose jewels have been stolen in broad daylight, making headlines all over the world. Kermit the Frog and Fozzie the Bear, “identical twin” crack investigative reporters, go to London to interview Lady Holliday, along with Gonzo the Whatever, who is the intrepid photographer. Miss Piggy is Lady Holliday’s new secretary, and is mistaken for Lady Holliday by Kermit, and romance ensues. Complicating the matter is Nicky Holliday, Lady Holliday’s irresponsible brother, who is teaming up with 3 of the Holliday models to steal the jewels. In typical Muppet fashion, there are plenty of hijinks, running gags, and songs.
So, first off, I must admit that this is one of my favorite movies, so I am biased. I’ve watched it repeatedly growing up, as I suspect anyone born after the 80s would do with movies they like. (I’ll probably get around to reviewing “The Cat from Outer Space” one of these days, too) Therefore, part of my “love” for this film is possibly just nostalgic. I’m not gonna try to say it’s a forgotten masterpiece, or a cult classic, or blah blah blah. I just really like it. And I’ll try to explain why.
When looking up reviews for this film, I found that it received decent reviews, but as per usual, the critics found issues. “Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded three out of four stars, particularly singling out Miss Piggy for her ‘fabulous personality, a genuine star quality.’ However, he felt the film suffers ‘from a case of the we-know-we’re-cute-so-we-can-get-by-with-anything disease. The disease manifests itself in the script that forever interrupts itself with jokes about the movie we’re watching…I expect the screenwriters to try to write a seamless story. Anybody can interrupt the action of a movie for gratuitous remarks such as these, but it’s a very cheap laugh’.” (Taken from the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Muppet_Caper)
I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Siskel, while acknowledging that he was the one with the actual job in this field, not me. The thing is, this interruption of the movie, with jokes about it being a movie, is very Muppet Show-esque. The Muppet Show’s premise was that it was simply a variety show where everything could and (often) did go wrong. So in the middle of skits and songs on the stage of the Muppet Theatre, there would often be things going wild and whacky, reminding the audience that the skits on the stage are only part of the whole show, and the off-stage events are just as entertaining. Examples? Gilda Radner tap-dancing while getting glued to the stage by Bunsen Honeydew’s glue. Muppets falling into holes on the stage floor. Peter Sellers and Muppets getting teleported all around the theatre. Fozzie trying to manage the theater’s stage after sending the stagehands home during the John Denver episode. And my goodness, of course the entirety of the “Stars of Stars Wars” episode! (If you don’t know about that episode, look it up on Disney+ immediately. I’ll wait.)
So, even with this frequent “wink, wink, nod, nod” with the audience, reminding them that they’re watching a movie, it doesn’t (for me at least) serve as a distraction. It becomes part of the story itself. Lady Holliday’s rant to Miss Piggy about her “irresponsible parasite” brother Nicky is an excellent example. She rants about how he is irresponsible, goes through money like water, never does his job, and always has a crooked bowtie. When Miss Piggy asks, “Why are you telling me all this?”, Lady Holliday gives my favorite line, “It’s plot exposition. It has to go somewhere.” The creators just skip over the longer option of working characterization of Nicky into the plot, and just gives you his whole backstory immediately, adding humor instead. (Side note, Diana Rigg and Charles Grodin are the absolute stars of this movie, who manage to make the absurdities of their characters seem believable in the plot.)
The same is true of the entire opening sequence, when Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo are in the hot air balloon, commenting on the opening credits by them in the air, and Gonzo wondering about plummeting to the ground, only to have Kermit tell him that “we need you for the movie.” This is shortly followed up by the opening number, with Kermit giving a short spiel to the audience about who their characters are in the movie and how great the movie will be. It basically introduces the audience to the zany world of the Muppets in the first 10 minutes. It just keeps going through the whole movie, like Peter Falk’s interpretation of Kermit’s life being shut down by Kermit telling him they’re making a movie there, and Miss Piggy being called out for overacting.
I feel like perhaps this movie encapsulates the Muppet Show the best. “A Muppet Movie” is about (supposedly) how the Muppets started. “Treasure Island,” “Christmas Carol” and “Wizard of Oz” are about retelling classic stories through the Muppets’ style of storytelling. “Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Muppets from Space” tell original stories that seem to remain in their respective worlds without trying to break the fourth wall. “Muppets” and “Muppets Most Wanted” focus on resurrecting the Muppets from the dust of nostalgia and showing how they can fit into today’s world. “The Great Muppet Caper” just parodies caper films and romance films relentlessly, reminding the audience that clearly this is a contrived plot, and they should just enjoy the absurdities.
Now, I am a dork, who grew up watching the likes of the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello, who constantly lampooned tropes and stereotypes. So this sort of movie, plus the whole mystery investigation angle, just falls directly into my wheelhouse. I admit that unashamedly. It’s become kind of that comfort food-style movie for me. And I needed that this past month. So, if you haven’t watched it, just give it a try. You might enjoy it, you might not. Depends on who you are.
I’ll try to get back to semi-regularly posting, if life calms down a little bit. Until then, catch you on the flip side.
Chapter 3
Cecilia looked at Kida in confusion. “What do you mean, the forest wants to play?”
“Do people not fear the forest anymore?”
“We avoid the forest because it’s easy to get lost. I don’t know if people fear it.”
Kida shook her head. “The forest is alive. You’ve heard of hamadryads, right? The spirits of trees?” Cecilia nodded, and Kida continued, “The forest is essentially one hamadryad, or a lot of hamadryads who think and act in tandem. They have reason to fear the two-leggers, and try to keep them out by getting the trespassers lost and eventually dead. They understand the two-leggers enough to know that they are superstitious and stay away from that which they fear. And that’s how Longorn Forest has survived this far.”
Cecilia rested her hands on her sword and dagger. “So what? We have to fight our way out?”
Kida sighed. “That’s why you got lost in the first place. Hamadryads, especially these ancient ones, are sensitive to emotions radiating off of people. They left me alone because they didn’t sense hostility from me; I just wanted to catch a couple rabbits for our supper. But my guess is that you came in here all ready to fight me because you thought I was breaking my promise, and they sensed it. They thought you were a threat, so they shifted the forest to get us lost in the depths. But we should probably hurry up so that the others don’t get lost here. That’ll just take forever to sort out.”
Cecilia gritted her teeth. “Then what do you suggest we do?”
Kida looked at Cecilia, and pointed to her own jaw. “If you keep gritting your teeth like that, you’ll just wear down your teeth and it’ll get hard to chew. Not to mention, you’ll have lots of jaw, neck and head pain. That won’t be good for you in the long run.”
“I don’t care!” Cecilia exploded, words rushing out like a torrent. “My entire life has been spent to kill you. My parents were so poor that they sold me to the priests to be raised as a weapon! I have no other purpose. If I can’t kill you, then I need to die so the blessing can pass on to the next Hero. And you just act like you’re on a vacation and everything is right in the world? That’s such a lie. You’re the main problem in the world, so why can’t you just kill me instead of acting like you’re my big sister?”
She finally stopped, her lips quivering as she sucked in air in deep pants. She watched as Kida rubbed the back of her neck.
Kida finally let out a deep breath, and said quietly, “I’m sorry, but I’m actually not the main problem in the world. I know you don’t believe me, but the Demon Lord is not the cause of the monsters appearing and killing people. It has been happening for… centuries, far longer than I’ve lived. The Saint and her party decided that in order to unite people into a cohesive force, they needed a concrete figure to put the blame on, rather than just random groups of monsters to attack and destroy. So… they decided to curse me. I didn’t volunteer for it. It was decided for me, much as your being the Hero. I never wanted to kill any of the Heroes, but they never listened to me. And I don’t want to kill you, or your Party members. And you can’t kill me, because I literally can’t be killed right now.”
“Wait, hold up a minute.” Cecilia held up her hand. “Before, you said that your sister and friends betrayed you. Now you’re saying the Saint and her party…”
“The Saint, Yasmin Adoré, was my bond sister. We grew up in the same orphanage, and formed a party with the First Hero’s party. They betrayed me, cursed me, etc. Can we move on from that?” Kida sighed. “I was trying to say I know a little bit of what you’re probably going through, but never mind. Regardless, let’s get back to the others.”
Kida handed the dead rabbits to Cecilia, who grabbed them on reflex. Kida then turned slowly in a circle, eyes closed and arms outstretched at her sides. She quietly spoke, each word weighed with magic, like invisible crystalline daggers. “North, south, east and west, hear my wish and help my quest. Arrow spin and point the way, guide my path without delay.”
The air immediately shimmered around Kida, then coalesced into a single point. A silver beam shot out from the point, like a thick thread, and went through the trees. Kida reached behind her and took Cecilia’s hand, and pulled her forward. They started walking through the trees, Kida holding one hand in front of her to hold the thread, and the other pulling Cecilia directly behind her.
Cecilia glanced around her as they walked. The trees constantly shifted, blurring together like wet paint on a rainy day. She could have sworn that she saw eyes peeking at her from between leaves, then she stumbled and almost fell, except for Kida’s hand holding her up.
“Eyes front, please,” Kida said tersely. “I need to focus on the spell.”
Cecilia bit back a retort, and instead focused on walking directly behind Kida. Long dead leaves crunched underfoot, and their feet sank into deep loam. Rather than the trees getting newer and sunlight being more abundant, they seemed to be going deeper into the ancient forest. Trees grew larger and closer together, holding each other up as they had collapsed from damage or age. The air grew more dark and more still.
Kida finally stopped and let out an angry sigh, and the silver thread vanished. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”
“What?” Cecilia asked quietly.
“The forest doesn’t want us to leave. And it seems worse than normal. Like it’s deliberately trying to take us to the heart of the forest. Typically, it would just get us lost and leave us alone. I’m getting tired and hungry and angry.”
“Didn’t you say they can sense emotions? Isn’t it better to–”
“Yes, I said that.” Kida’s voice was loud enough to echo through the trees. “I also was willing to leave the forest and not start a fire. But right now, I’m starting to rethink that.”
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then a creature stepped out of a nearby tree. It looked like a beautiful young woman, but made of flexible wood. Cecilia knew the tree to be a copper beech, so the hamadryad’s coppery hair flowing down to the ground made sense. But the face was expressionless and the eyes were simply the shape of eyes, with no pupils or emotion visible.
“What do you want?” Kida asked. Cecilia shivered slightly at her tone and aura.
The hamadryad raised a hand and pointed to its left. “Danger. Help.” The voice was barely audible, like someone trying to speak with a dry throat.
“You want my help?”
“Yes. You are friend.”
Kida cocked her head to the side. “Am I?”
“Few two-leggers friendly. You are. We remember you.”
Cecilia blinked in surprise, then was pulled forward as Kida walked in the direction the hamadryad was pointing in. “Wait, where are we–”
“If we do what it wants, then we can leave without burning the whole forest down and probably getting you killed in the process.” Kida marched over the protruding roots and finally stopped in a clearing. Sunlight poured down from above and reflected off of an enormous crystal protruding from the ground. The crystal was clearly magical; even Cecilia could tell that. Fragments had broken off of it and were almost covered in the tall grass. Colors swirled around the crystal’s surface: black, orange, brown, blue, scarlet, and white.
“I see,” Kida said. She let go of Cecilia’s hand, walked over to the crystal, and crouched down, inspecting the base. “The forest hasn’t been purified of miasma for a long time. A very long time, maybe a couple centuries. The crystal has only so much that it can absorb before it needs outside assistance.”
“Like purification from the Saint’s magic?”
“Yeah, or a similar tier-10 level magic. I can do it… but it’ll take a few minutes to cast.”
“Why would it take a few minutes? Can’t you just chant something like before?”
Kida sat down and looked up at Cecilia, squinting from the sunlight. “So… remembering you saying that you didn’t need to know about magic because you’re a swordswoman. Sit down and let me explain a couple things.”
“Do we have time for it?”
“We’ll make time, so there’s less chance of the spell messing up because you do something. Okay, so tier-1 to tier-3 are basic elemental spells. They use the elemental spirits of fire, water, wind, earth, to manipulate the magic around them into offense or defense. Yeah? If you’re sufficiently advanced in magic, you can use these spells simply by saying the element and the effect. Higher tier magics require concentration, sufficient magic power in yourself, and words that shape the spell. I use rhyming stanzas because they’re easy for me to remember. Other people might like more impressive sounding spells, but that’s them. Regardless, the higher the tier is, the more magic is required and the more dangerous it becomes if it breaks. I’ve seen plenty of explosions and deaths because the mage lost control.”
“Same here.”
“Okay, good to know. Now, the highest tiers often require objects. Think of them like ingredients in something you’re cooking. The words and magic are parts of the whole. Successful healing is successful because the patient’s body is like ingredients used to repair the wound. Teleportation magic requires locations and objects at the locations. Ummm, purification, for instance. It requires somewhere for the miasma to go. That’s one reason it’s difficult to do, because where do you put the poisonous element that causes animals to go berserk, humans to die, and vegetation to mutate? The Saint has an innate purification magic that only the Saint has ever been able to do. So she can take the miasma into her own body, and purify it there. Anyone else has to be able to put the miasma in something that can contain it.”
“Can you just put it in the pieces of crystal that are lying on the ground?” Cecilia said, as Kida paused for breath.
“I’m gonna have to, but there’s a chance that there’s going to be crystal shards flying around. And a chance that the crystal itself may shatter. If I …use Common to speak the spell, I think it might be too powerful at once. That’s the tricky thing about higher-tier magic. Using another language can give some distance between the magic and the activation, but you still need to choose the words carefully in order to create the magic properly.” Kida scratched her head furiously. “I know that you won’t want to, but if the forest allows you, could you go get Lycert for me? I mean, you can bring all of them, but Lycert can create a barrier around the clearing while I do the magic, try to limit the damage.”
Cecilia thought for a couple minutes, then slowly nodded. “Yes. I may not trust you fully, but so far you’ve kept your word. Although I’m pretty sure that location spell wasn’t tier-1.”
Cecilia stood up as Kida grinned sheepishly. “That is true. It was tier-8.”
“But you did it to help us, so I’ll go out on a limb and do it for now. Provided the forest is okay with it.”
The hamadryad, who had been standing by silently, pointed ahead of Cecilia. The trees blurred and shifted, then there was an abrupt short passage to the land outside the Forest. At a distance, they could see Lycert, Macdougall and X, still lounging in the positions they had been when Cecilia charged into the forest.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t get lost without me.”
Kida nodded as Cecilia walked away. The hamadryad walked over to Kida, and Kida looked up at it, and said, “I know the forest is important, but I wish you could have waited.”
“Yasmin has abandoned the forest,” the hamadryad said, her tone and voice as impassive as ever. “You are the only one who still remembers us.”
“Yeah, I know. And you’re probably the only one who remembers me.” Kida turned her gaze back towards the Hero’s Party coming through the trees. “I just wish I could travel with them for a while longer. It was nice to not be alone for a while.”
Cecilia walked ahead of the others to say, “Hey, they say I entered the forest just a minute ago. Haven’t we been in here for at least an hour?”
Kida shrugged. “The forest has a way of twisting space and time. And affecting one’s perception. I thought they seemed really relaxed when I said I was going in the forest.”
“So what, you cast magic on them or something?” Cecilia demanded from the hamadryad.
“Purification is necessary for our continued existence. The minds of a few two-leggers are simple to manipulate.”
Kida winced and hastily interjected, “Look, we’re here now. So let’s just do this and be on our way. Earth shift.”
The ground around her rippled and moved the crystal fragments to be in a circle around the big crystal, separated by a few centimeters of space. Knowing now what she did about tiered magic, Cecilia could appreciate how easily Kida could use basic level magic without chanting a spell like Lycert did.
Kida stood up and engaged in a technical conversation with Lycert about strengths and diameters of the barrier. The Hero’s Party were instructed to stand just outside the clearing, while Lycert murmured words in another language to construct a shimmering golden sphere to cover the entire clearing. Kida looked around in approval, then gave him a thumbs-up before turning back to the crystal. She let out a raspberry, then started speaking in a different language, one that sounded a little familiar to Cecilia, but different all the same.
“Are we really going to let her do this?” Macdougall murmured.
“A little late to be asking, don’t you think?” Cecilia asked.
“I wasn’t given a chance to say anything earlier, with everyone else yammering away.”
Lycert didn’t look away from Kida. “The language sounds like one from the Northern lands, but I’m guessing it must be an ancient form of it? I can’t really understand it at all.”
Cecilia turned her attention back to Kida, who had finished speaking. The colors inside the crystal swirled frantically around, then appeared to shoot into Kida. Then Kida appeared to… shrink? She was getting smaller.
“Lycert, what’s going on?” Cecilia demanded.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a spell like that. She shouldn’t be… wait. What? Who is that?”
Cecilia looked at him in alarm, and saw him slide down to the ground, and then realized that Macdougall and X were also collapsing in slow motion, their eyes closed. Then she looked back at the shield spell, and saw a large crystal amongst some trees, and a person standing there, covered in white light. Who was that? She knew, somewhere, who that was.
“Cecilia, please don’t fight. It’ll be okay, I promise. I won’t hurt you.”
Who was saying this? Why?
Then there was nothing but blackness.
Cecilia woke up and stretched, feeling rested and content. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but it had been a nice nap. The sun was high in the afternoon sky, and the grass in the plains had been surprisingly comfortable.
“Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty,” Macdougall teased. “If we hurry, we might get to Alexandria in time to enter at dawn for some fresh caught breakfast.”
“What’s the rush?” Lycert asked. “It’s not like we’re in a hurry or anything.”
“I want something besides jerky and bread,” X said, brushing grass off of her clothes.
“Me too,” Macdougall said. “Besides, we can send word to the Capital sooner from there. I understand they’ve got a communication crystal at the church. Maybe they’ll even tell the town elders to throw a party for us. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Cecilia got to her feet and pulled on her bag. “Well, let’s get going then. I want to tell the Church that we’ve defeated the Demon Lord.”
Macdougall started leading the group westward, laughing as he said, “I can’t wait to see the faces on those nobles in Lord Thornton’s group. Remember? They were making bets that we wouldn’t even be able to get to the cursed plains before monsters felled us.”
The hamadryad watched from the safety of the Longorn Forest, watched the Hero’s Party walk away and to a well-deserved rest. She stepped into a nearby tree, and out of another, into the clearing where the crystal now shone pure white. The air was cleaner, and the trees looked more whole and less sickly.
A young woman sat on the ground, wearing clothes too large for her. Her body had shrunk to that of a young teenager, and her once-silver hair had turned black from the absorbed miasma. She looked up at the hamadryad with a somber expression.
“They’ve left,” the hamadryad said. “I heard them mention Alexandria.”
“All right,” Kida said. She raised a shaky hand to push hair out of her face, then frowned. “Ignite.”
Flames erupted from the ends of her hair, devouring the black strands until they reached a length by her ears, then died out. Kida then ran her hands through her now-short hair, breaking off the sizzled ends. “Even if they come looking for me, they probably won’t recognize me now, right?”
“You knew that entering the forest in the first place could lead to something like this.” The hamadryad tilted her head to the side. “Why then do you grieve this parting?”
“Humans have something called emotions, and that makes things messy.” Kida leaned her head back against the crystal. “I could also have killed the Hero’s Party, but that would be… wrong. And tragic. They didn’t deserve that. I’ve seen enough people die because of my sister.”
“What will you do now? You can stay here, if you so desire.”
She shook her head. “I’d prefer a place with a bed. Lycert told me that they have Adventurer’s Guilds, and it’s become a lot more organized than in my day. So I think I might look into that. Where’s the nearest big city, outside of Alexandria?”
The hamadryad pointed to her right, and the trees blurred and moved again, revealing hills and a town in the distance. It then reached into a tree, and pulled out a bag, a little bigger than a man’s fist. “Two-leggers have sometimes become lost and died in here. We kept the shiny objects, in case you ever returned. We know that two-leggers desire these.”
“Thank you.” Kida opened the pouch and saw some coins and jewelry, mostly rings and a random bracelet. “I can use this. I’ll get out of your way now, if you don’t mind.”
The hamadryad watched impassively as Kida made her way out of the forest.
~end chapter 3~
I want to hope.
In spite of everything going wrong.
In spite of drowning in the darkness.
In spite of being shattered by the shouting.
My heart is cracked and fragmented, splintering into thousands of pieces.
My mind is clouded by exhaustion and warring with shadows.
My lungs are screaming for clean air above the soot-choked clouds.
I want to be able to stand without falling back down immediately.
I want to be able to accept the grace extended to me without cringing in shame.
My eyes long to see light without squinting through a gray fog.
I want to hope without fearing the letdown, the mistakes, the crashing and burning.
I want to hope.
Hi, all. Some life things are preventing me from sitting down and watching the next episode of “Murder, She Wrote.” So I’m gonna just enjoy gushing about one of my favorite Webtoons, called, “The Greatest Estate Developer” by Lee hyunmin and Kim Hyunsoo.
On the official page for the Webtoon, https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/the-greatest-estate-developer/list?title_no=3596, here is the official synopsis for the series:
“When civil engineering student Suho Kim falls asleep reading a fantasy novel, he wakes up as a character in the book! Suho is now in the body of Lloyd Frontera, a lazy noble who loves to drink, and whose family is in a mountain of debt. Using his engineering knowledge, Suho designs inventions to avert the terrible future that lies in wait for him. With the help of a giant hamster, a knight, and the world’s magic, can Suho dig his new family out of debt and build a better future?”
There are sadly only 18 episodes available as of writing this post, but there is so much that is packed into every episode. There are hilarious plot points, such as my personal favorite of Lloyd’s magic scanning eyes, and his interactions with the computer-like system of earning points by doing good deeds. His interactions with Javier are both funny and enlightening, as Javier was meant to be the main character of the fantasy novel. Javier starts out with a very, very negative view of Lloyd, as before Suho’s appearance, Lloyd was scum. But now that Suho has become Lloyd, he’s actively working on redeeming himself and doing the necessary hard work to get the Frontera family out of debt. It’s hard at first, considering that everyone sees Lloyd as scum, but eventually people start warming up to him. I don’t want to spoil everything for you, but it’s satisfying to watch.
As mentioned in the official synopsis, Suho was a civil engineering student in South Korea. We occasionally get flashbacks to his life there, such as his backbreaking hard work on construction sites, and his grief over his father’s death. His interactions with Lloyd’s parents are colored by his grief at how he couldn’t prevent his father’s death, and his rage at the unfair life he led before. And this leads to what could possibly start some interesting conversations about justice and mercy. **SPOILERS** in next paragraph.
As Suho knows about the events of the fantasy novel, he knows that Sir Neumann, a knight with the Frontera Barony, had conspired to defraud Sir Frontera and con him out of a great deal of money, and plans to betray them soon. Because of this knowledge, Suho/Lloyd manipulates things a little bit to expose his wicked doings. Suho also knows that Sir Frontera is a kind man, and would extend mercy to Neumann, so he manipulates things further in order to exile Neumann from the barony and save the Fronteras. This topic also comes up later in interactions with another character, but I’m not going to talk about that one, so as to save story surprises for any further readers. But Suho is tired, essentially, of the story trope of extending mercy to someone, the villain taking advantage of that, and having to fight them again. So Suho takes advantage of knowing the future actions of people and changes things to save people, reasoning that mercy is useless when people won’t change their actions. I would like to believe that perhaps in the future, they’ll meet people who will change with mercy, so Suho can use his knowledge of the novel to help them. But, I’m not sure. The story seems very bleak when these events happen. So I think I know what the authors are saying, but I don’t know for sure.
Anyway, I’m totally recommending this story. It’s funny and action-packed, playing with tropes and ideas normally found in modern fantasy comics. And from the deeper elements seen so far, I think it’s going to be pretty introspective into modern justice and societal constructions. 10/10. Give it a try!
Trigger warning: for those who might be sensitive, there is an instance that can be classified as self-harm.
Chapter 2
The group hadn’t exited the plains by sunset. Cecilia called a halt, but was disappointed to realize that the grass would prevent them from lighting a fire and cooking supper. She comforted herself with the idea that they didn’t have any wood to burn anyway.
Kida squatted down and touched the ground. “Earth shift,” she said clearly.
The ground in a large circle around her suddenly moved. Like a ripple spreading outward, the grass moved and left only packed dirt behind. She then stepped into the dirt circle and plopped down, letting out a contented sigh.
“What was that?” Cecilia demanded. “I don’t think that was tier-1.”
“Yes, it was. Just ask Lycert.”
“Tier-1 is like basic offensive magic!”
Kida sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Not really. Magic is tiered upon how much power is used. The same amount of power that would have been used in an earth offensive spell was simply spread out and dispersed in the ground here to give us a place to sleep. Don’t you even know that much?”
“I’m a swordswoman, not a sorcerer!” Cecilia plopped down on the ground across from Kida and glared at her. “I don’t need to learn magic.”
“Oh boy,” Kida muttered. “Things have really gone to pot.”
“Kida’s telling the truth, though,” Lycert said. “That really was tier-1.”
“Whatever.” Cecilia was tired and fighting a headache. She rummaged in her bag for some jerky.
Kida shrugged. She touched the ground again and quietly said, “Earth shift.” Some of the dirt quickly pulled up and formed a large cup. “Rock harden.” With a crackling noise, the dirt became stone. “Water create.” Water abruptly formed in the air above the cup and dropped down into it. Kida smiled and drank deeply. “All tier-1.”
Lycert gaped at her. Macdougall scratched his head, X presumably looked on, and Cecilia scowled. “Can you make yourself a meal too?” she asked snarkily.
“Magic isn’t omnipotent, dear Hero. I’ve seen more heroes die from that misunderstanding than not. You’d do well to learn that.”
“I don’t need lessons from the bloodthirsty Demon Lord.”
“I’ve never drank blood. You have to properly drain it out of the animals you eat in order to avoid that. Learned that early on in my life.”
“You’ve just got an answer for everything, don’t you?” Cecilia snapped. Her headache was worsening, and so was her temper.
“Lycert, your leader appears to have a bad headache. Why don’t you heal it so she can sleep better?”
“Heal a headache?” Lycert asked, a baffled look on his face. “You can use magic for something that small?”
“Don’t listen to her,” Cecilia snapped. “You’ll just get in trouble.”
“Fine then. Shall I just stab myself through the heart to satisfy you?” Kida asked, standing up. “If I just kill myself here, will that make you happy? Then you can go back and report that the super-scary Demon Lord is dead, and deal with the aftermath.”
“Now hold on,” Macdougall started.
Kida ignored him, snatched up his dagger, and shoved it into her chest. Various noises of concern and surprise ensued. Then they all realized that Kida was still standing upright, the dagger still sticking out, and blood very slowly dripping onto the ground.
“What in the world…” Lycert whispered.
Kida took a deep breath, and yanked the dagger out. Blood splattered down onto the dirt. In the twilight, they could still see the wound in her chest slowly close. “Do you get it now?” she asked in a shaky breath. “I can’t die. I was only able to break part of the curse. That’s why I’m travelling with you, to find the rest of the cure. If I seem overly cheerful, it’s because 500 years of isolation have left me deeply grateful for human interaction. I’m sorry for having bothered you so much, Lady Hero. I didn’t ask for this, so stop acting like I did.”
The group let out a collective deep breath. Kida whispered something, and light glowed along the dagger she still held. She then flipped it with her fingers, so she was holding the blade, and offered it back to Macdougall. “Sorry for taking it without permission.”
Macdougall cautiously took it, looked it over, and whistled. “Cleaned, sharpened and polished. That’s some spell.”
“I’ll teach it to you tomorrow, if you want. For now, good night.” Kida lay down at the edge of the dirt circle, her back to the group. Lycert glanced back and forth between her and Cecilia, then settled back and chewed on some jerky and hard bread.
In the morning, they resumed their journey. They continued their awkward silence as they continued through the tall grass. Lycert was almost bursting with questions for Kida, but the blank expression on her face made him decide to keep his mouth shut.
Towards midday, they could see the plains turn to rolling hills on the horizon, which had steppes of crops scattered here and there. Two men stood in the grass, and soon saw the Hero’s Party. They shouted in glee and ran forward toward the Party.
“Is it true?” the younger man demanded as soon as they were within hearing distance. “Are the plains back because you’ve defeated the Demon Lord?”
“Yes, apparently so,” Cecilia said. She looked ill at ease, but the two men were too excited to realize.
“This is so wonderful!” The younger man was almost jumping up and down in his joy. “We can finally plant some real crops, and get some money, and maybe grow some new crops–”
“Titus, calm down,” the older man said. “My apologies for my son, Heroes. As the mayor’s son, he’s often worried about the state of our village.”
“No need for apologies, Mayor Kinston,” Lycert said. “This is truly a time to rejoice. Young Titus is simply expressing it.”
“Thank you. Will you all join us for lunch? It’s not much, but it’s the least we can do.”
“Absolutely,” Kida said cheerfully. “I am starving.” When she noticed the curious look from the mayor, she added, “My name is Kida. From the Northlands, though you can probably tell that by my hair. I was a prisoner of the Demon Lord, but the Hero and her Party saved me in time.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” the mayor said. “We’re glad you’re safe. Come and eat all you want. Titus, run ahead and ask your mother to find some clothes for Miss Kida, or at least some shoes.”
“Sure thing!” Titus headed off in a fast, loping run.
“Thank you for your kindness. I really am grateful.”
Lycert snuck a look over at Cecilia, and winced. The Hero looked akin to a kettle about to boil over. He nudged Macdougall, and his brother put his hand on Cecilia’s shoulder and whispered to her. Cecilia let out a long breath and cracked her neck and swung her arms loosely. “Mayor,” she said, “please lead the way.”
The town of Dunbourgh welcomed the Hero’s Party as best they could. They were one of the aforementioned small farming towns that tried to survive in spite of their proximity to the Demon Lord’s Tower. Even though the food was mostly potatoes and hard bread, the warm sentiments behind the meal were apparent. The mayor’s wife had scrounged up a pair of sandals and old leggings that required a belt. But Kida had accepted them with profuse thanks, and then proceeded to ingratiate herself with the mayor’s family by talking and listening all throughout the party. Cecilia felt deep shame all the way until they left the next morning. It all felt too unreal to her. How could this be the Demon Lord? And how could they report to the Saint that the Demon Lord was vanquished, when said Demon Lord was a temporary member of their party??
As they left the town, continuing east and north, Kida marched alongside the party without missing a beat. During mealtimes, she abstained from food, and simply summoned water to drink.
Lycert finally asked her about it a day later, as they were reaching the edge of the steppes. She shrugged and replied, “I won’t die, even without food. I’m hungry, yeah, but there’s no point in eating your provisions. I think we’ll get close to hunting areas tomorrow, so I can go get us some meat. That sound good?”
Macdougall overheard this, and started discussing the finer points of hunting deer with Kira, determined to prove his method was better. Lycert backed out once they began talking about which method would cause less bloodshed and finer meat, as his stomach was not ready for such talk.
Lycert picked up his step so he was walking next to Cecilia, who was leading the group with a grim look on her face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Cecilia glared at him. “Seriously? Am I the only one who doesn’t like the fact that we’re traveling with the ex-Demon Lord??”
Lycert laughed sheepishly. “She’s not a bad person, I don’t think…”
Cecilia groaned, but Lycert interrupted hastily. “Just hear me out. Maybe I am, like my brother says, naive and dense about anything outside of magic. But I have always, always wanted to ask questions. There’s so much I want to know about. But ever since I was sent to the College of Magicks when I was ten, I was strictly told, ‘Don’t ask questions. Don’t wonder. Don’t learn anything more than absolutely necessary. Your duty is to kill the Demon Lord, so learn these spells by heart and nothing else.’ I got used to it, but I’ve always wanted more. Part of me always thought it was unfair. And here is Kida. Yes, we’re told that she’s evil and deserves death. But every time I talk with her, the more I feel like there’s so much we’ve never been told. She answers my questions, and if she doesn’t know for sure, we discuss it and come to a sort of idea. She’s encouraging me to look beyond the little box I’ve been confined to. And the more I think, the more I feel like something is missing or wrong with what I’ve been taught. I can’t just think of her as evil.”
“Maybe that’s why they tell us to not think too much. Ever think of that?” Cecilia rubbed her forehead. “The more we think, the more we think there is, and we get off the path we’re supposed to be on. All of this just rubs me the wrong way. We should have either killed her or been killed by her, so the next Hero’s Party can be trained from our mistakes and try again in the future.”
“I’ve never been too excited about dying, to be honest,” Lycert mumbled.
“Well, me neither, but if that’s what’s required…”
“Maybe just talk with her?” Lycert suggested. “She’s surprisingly easy to talk to and willing to answer questions, if you’re not deliberately trying to antagonize her.”
Cecilia gave him her best withering glare, then turned her face back front. Their next mealtime was lunch, and they had finally taken steps out of the steppes and into more rocky terrain. A few minutes walk to the north was the beginning of the Longorn Forest, which stretched through the Andis Mountain Pass. If they walked for one day to the west, they would arrive at the coastal town of Alexandria, which housed the largest and oldest library in the known world. If they went east and then north, it would be three weeks travel until they reached the capital city of Stanton, which housed the Saint’s Cathedral and the headquarters of the Sacred Church. It was where the Hero’s Party had always started their journey. It would be faster to go through the Longorn Forest, instead of around, but it was notorious for misleading travelers who had no local guide.
They called a halt, and they quietly chewed on jerky and hard bread again. Cecilia was so tired of this meal. They were very close to Alexandria, whereas it would be two and a half days east to the next village. And Alexandria was a coastal town, so they would have seafood dishes. Her mouth watered at the thought of it.
“Question,” Kida abruptly said. “Why don’t they give you guys horses to ride? Or something so you don’t have to walk so much? It seems like that would be more efficient.”
“Horses are reserved for the nobles,” Macdougall said. “Even if we’re the Hero’s Party, we’re all commoners. Can you imagine nobles giving horses to us, considering that most people thought we wouldn’t make it back alive?”
“Seriously?” Kida gaped at him. “They thought you were going to die, and were going to save money? They couldn’t even loan donkeys or something like that?”
Macdougall shrugged. “None except the first Heroes ever went mounted. And right after the Demon’s War, any available animals were needed for farming to recover from the war’s effects. So it kind of became tradition for the Hero’s Party to go on foot.”
Kida shook her head and sighed quietly. “I really don’t understand people sometimes.”
“Yeah, well, you’re the Demon Lord,” Cecilia said. Lycert shot her a look that said to behave, but she ignored him. “You said you used to be human, but how long ago was that? And what proof do we actually have of that?”
“That’s a fair point,” Kida said, nodding. “I don’t really have any proof on hand. You’ve seen me bleed and then heal immediately, which is something that normal humans don’t do. So if you ask me to prove it, I can’t right now. Will you accept a rain check?”
Cecilia made a noncommittal noise. “How did you even become nonhuman in the first place?”
Kida blew out a long breath, blowing a strand of tangled hair away from her face. “It’s a very long and painful story, but… suffice to say, I was betrayed by my bond sister and people I had thought were friends. They saw no more use for me in their plans. So…” she scratched the bridge of her nose. “They decided that rather than die trying to kill me, because even as a human, I was powerful, that they would put together a binding and transforming spell. And thus the Demon Lord of legends was born.”
Even though Kida was looking down, Cecilia saw a look of pain flash across her face. It caused a twinge of guilt to Cecilia, as she had to wonder if Kida was telling the truth. No, she thought rebelliously. It doesn’t matter if it was the truth or not. The fact remains that the Demon Lord is our enemy.
“Well then,” Cecilia said. “You said something before about seeing us on our journey. What was that about? Did you have some demons spying on us?”
“No. It’s part of the curse, built into the Crown. When another Hero’s Party starts out on their journey, the curse allows me to see them from when they receive the Church’s blessing to when they arrive in the Demon Lord’s throne room.”
X demanded abruptly, “So you saw us even when we used the privy??”
An awkward silence fell over the group, both at the question and that X had said it, when she rarely ever said anything.
“Ummmm, I was going to pretend that I hadn’t been able to see it,” Kida said, looking down at the dirt. “But… um…”
“Let’s just change the subject,” Lycert said with a nervous chuckle. “So you saw us fighting all of the demons and monsters that came after us, and the towns we went through?”
“Yes. And by the time that you had started on your journey, I had finally figured out how to break the curse. From there, I waited until you arrived at the Tower and cleared out the traps so you could reach the top faster. I’m sorry if that ruined some of the experience for you, but I figured you should come at full strength in case… things went wrong.”
“What does that mean?” Cecilia demanded.
Kida looked sheepish. “There was a chance that the spell could backfire and I would literally become the Demon Lord, losing my mind and sense of self. Or that it would separate me from the curse, but the curse as an actual Demon Lord in an incorporeal form would then attack you. So…” she saw the outraged looks on their faces. “It really happened with the best possible outcome, so I’m thankful for that.”
Rising to her feet, Cecilia shouted, “You didn’t know what would happen? You were just guessing? And we were the pawns in your experiment?”
“Well, yes.” Kida kept a calm look on her face. “All magic experimentation is like that. Even the spells that people use everyday originally were just experiments that someone failed at. It was simply a powerful enough curse that it took me like… 498 years to figure out.”
Cecilia took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then turned around. “I’m going for a short walk so I don’t kill something. I’ll be back later.”
As she stalked off, Lycert looked at Kida. “I understand your honesty to a point, but I don’t think she appreciates it.”
Kida shrugged. “Well, what am I supposed to do? Lie to her to make her feel better? That’s how this whole situation started.”
Cecilia came back to the group after about half an hour, and found Macdougall and X lounging against rocks and cleaning their equipment, while Lycert dozed with his hood pulled forward over his face.
Cecilia looked around and then demanded, “Where is the Demon Lord?”
“Kida went to look for some meat,” Lycert pointed towards the trees, not stirring otherwise. “She said she’ll be back soon.”
“And you believed her?” Cecilia shrieked, then took off at a run for the trees. She plunged into the underbrush recklessly, stopping only when she almost tripped over a tree root. Pausing and forcing herself to inhale and exhale deeply, she then looked around better. There was nothing in sight but trees, dirt, grass, and miscellaneous plants she couldn’t identify.
This was so dumb. You should have known better than to enter Longorn Forest on your own. You’ll probably end up lost and starving to death, and everyone else will do the same trying to find me. That’s probably what the Demon Lord wanted in the first place. She just wants to kill us!
“What’re you doing here?”
Cecilia yelped as she jumped from hearing Kida’s voice. She spun around to see Kida coming past a bush, with two rabbits slung over her shoulder.
“There you are!” Cecilia blustered. “What do you think you were doing, leaving by yourself?”
“I wanted some meat. I said I’d be back soon. Did you not talk to the group?”
“Why in the name of Eotharp Fangslayer should I believe the word of the Demon Lord?”
Kida sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’m on my way back anyway. Are you coming or not?” She started to walk past Cecilia, then stopped. “Interesting.”
“Now what?” Cecilia asked with a sigh, turning around.
She saw that the area where she had come from, which had been trees and plants, was an imposing granite face. Looking around, they were still in a forested area, but the trees were larger and older than the ones from before. The air was thicker and more stifling.
“What did you do?” Cecilia asked.
“I didn’t do anything.” A dangerous smile spread across Kida’s face. “It would appear that the forest wants to play with us.”
~End chapter 2~
Hey, all. A short blog post this week, recommending the Webtoon comic “My Giant Nerd Boyfriend.”
It’s a slice-of-life webcomic about the artist/author Fishball (pseudonym) and her boyfriend Mickey. The whole original premise was just chronicling funny things that happened between the short Fishball and her tall boyfriend Mickey. Some episodes are simply “what-if” scenarios, such as “What if we were a short guy and a tall girl?” Or “what if our dog was human and we were his pet dogs?” Goofy concepts like that.
At the time of this blog, there are 693 comics, available to read at Webtoons.com or on the app. And I wholeheartedly recommend this webcomic.
Many of them are chuckle-worthy. Many are gutbusting hilarious. There are plenty of food, nerdy and cultural references (they live in Malaysia).
But many of them are sobering. Fishball made the decision to chronicle her life. She recounts arguments and struggles they’ve had together. We can read about their individual struggles with depression, abandonment issues, trust issues, aging granparents and loss of family members. Many times while reading, I began to feel my heart breaking. So there is that warning for those who simply want laughs.
But I think that is part of the genius of this webcomic. Fishball doesn’t shy away from the sad things in her life. As she draws about her life, we see their lives together change little by little. They eventually move to a bigger apartment, get a dog named Biscuit (the real-life photos of him are ADORABLE), and interact with people. We see how they grow closer even though life is tough and tries to push them apart. And Fishball acknowledges that things are tough, even as she tries to give hope to her readers. And we love her for it.
10/10 recommend. Give it a shot.
https://m.webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/my-giant-nerd-boyfriend/list?title_no=958
See you on the flip side, peeps!
Howdy, y’all. Welcome back to another overexplained review of “Murder, She Wrote,” this time season 6, episode 3, “The Grand Old Lady.” This is another bookend episode, where we unfortunately see Jessica Fletcher only at the beginning and the end of the episode. And apparently, this is one that people dislike, as the plot is confusing and blah, blah. I’mma just review it according to what I think. I’m not gonna go beat-by-beat reviewing, like I did for the last episode, as I have much more to nitpick about the episode. Anyhoo…
This story is supposedly told by JB of the legendary mystery writer, Lady Abigail Austin, who had once been involved in a real-life mystery. It took place “A couple years after the war ended,” which to be fair, it was never mentioned by JB which war ended. By 1989, when the episode had aired, the USA had been involved in the Korean War and the Vietnam War; so we’re left to gather clues from the episode that it was just after World War II, which ended in 1945, so this might have taken place in 1947 or thereabouts. It’s fairly obvious to anyone who knows about clothing (or like in my case, knows about clothing simply from having watched a lot of movies 🙂 ) that it takes place in the 1940s. Speaking of clothing, I adore Lady Austin’s green embroidered robe and her earrings that she wears during most of the episode. You can see the robe in the picture above, but not really the earrings without squinting. I am all about the cool clothes made between 1900 and 2000.
To try to summarize the episode is almost like herding cats. Lady Austin and a radio show magnate, Mr. Chancellor, are on a huge ship, the Queen Mary that is almost arriving in New York. A guy named Peter Daniken, a Dutch wine merchant, is stabbed and collapses by Lady Austin and Chancellor. A newspaper crossword puzzle maker, Christopher McGinn, manages to get assigned to write about this case, because his father, Detective McGinn, is assigned the case while the ship is quarantined for the investigation. Chancellor is a major egomaniac who tries to solve the case while eavesdropping like a semi-pro, but because he is a giant jerk, eventually embarrasses himself. Lady Austin convinces young McGinn to assist her, because she is a mystery writer and he is a super smart detective, although unofficially because he can’t join the police because he has been classified as 4F (probably due to his glasses). Due to plot points with a telegram, a counterfeit $5 bill plate, chess games, and a lot of suspects, we find that the victim Daniken is actually an ex-Gestapo officer named Kreitzman, who was smuggling said counterfeit $5 plate into the States. After red herrings and side plots, young McGinn solves the case.
Okay, so let me tackle these two side plots one at a time. The first one concerns Army nurse on furlough, Eleanor Cantrell (Joan McMurtrey), and eyepatch-ed Army Major Daniel McGuire (Gordon Thomson). We find out most of the way through the episode that Daniel had been in hospital in Europe, apparently recovering from injuries during the war, and Eleanor was his nurse. They fell in love, even though Daniel was married, but Daniel was sent home, and Eleanor followed even though she couldn’t really afford the trip. Chancellor (Robert Vaughn) suspects them, as he had seen them arguing over a filled envelope, and thought that the plate was in it. The envelope had actually been full of $600, because Daniel felt responsible for Eleanor taking the trip, and tried to repay her for the ticket. There’s more to Chancellor’s theory, but it’s a moot point, because they’re proven innocent. As red herrings, they’re not really great, because it’s obvious that they’re in love with each other and not guilty. As story elements, they’re not too bad, in my opinion. Because the episode is written as a sort of reminiscing over how WWII affected people, we see the whole “forbidden love with a married man” scenario told through somewhat sympathetic people. Eleanor is polite to Lady Austin (June Havoc)’s questioning, instead of getting upset like most people might be, and Daniel leaps overboard to try to apprehend a fleeing suspect (and that was a long leap overboard, with the height of the ship!). And we wind up with a happy ending for them, as we find that Daniel’s wife had left him for a lumberjack, so they’re free to be together. So they add to the flavor of post-WWII, in a sense.
The second side plot, so to speak, concerns Henri and Paul Viscard (Dane Clark and Mark Lindsay Chapman). Henri is in a wheelchair, and his son, Paul, had decided last minute to accompany his father on the trip because his father wasn’t feeling good. They really are suspects only because Paul boarded after Daniken/Kreitzman (Wolf Muser), leading to the idea that he was following D/K. As plot points, I think they are really great. Young McGinn (Gary Kroeger) questions them a second time, and their story lends so much to the main plot of this episode. These guys are basically victims of the war. Henri says that he was crippled, his other son was killed by the Nazis, and Paul was forced to become a killer before he had ever had a chance to fall in love. Henri was nervous around the police mostly because he was hiding morphine (an illegal contraband) in his wheelchair to help with his chronic pain, and because he had lied about being a wealthy banker going to visit his daughter who had married a GI, when he really was almost broke and just wanted to go to America to live out the last little bit of his life in peace. And although this conversation with them may seem to be just wrapping up the red herring plot, it actually provides a lot for the actual solution. Paul had recognized Daniken/Kreitzman, and knew that he was responsible for the death of Henri’s other son, so that was why he had actually boarded at the last minute. And since Henri said that Paul knew how to kill, and so that lends to the fact that Paul killed the ex-Nazi.
So… now that I’ve tackled the side plots(ish), let’s focus on the main thing. As a murder mystery, this episode isn’t the best. There are too many detectives lurking about for anyone to really feel an attachment to. We see Christopher McGinn as a young man who apparently has JB Fletcher-level of sleuthing. We see Lady Austin as an older lady writer who apparently has JB Fletcher-level of imagination. But the problem is that they don’t necessarily work together as detectives. Setting aside Chancellor as the conniving detective trying to steal credit, and Detective McGinn as the exposition revealer, McGinn and Lady Austin are supposed to be the main detectives. And yet… I think that they would have worked so much better as the detective in their own separate episodes. Lady Austin admires McGinn’s previous work in detecting and his crossword puzzles, and that’s why she wants to work with him. He didn’t really want to work with her in the first place, but humors her by listening to her ideas and letting her bounce ideas off of her. And this is what irritates me. She figures out a solution to the crime that is difficult to prove, as she thinks Bishop is the murderer, and he died after trying to jump overboard and swim to shore. McGinn knows that her solution is wrong, but doesn’t tell her when she’s presenting her idea to the police, because he “doesn’t want to hurt her feelings.” Granted, it wouldn’t be nice to say this in front of all these people, but he’s like, “Let’s pander this old lady by letting her believe that her solution is right, instead of respecting her enough by telling her the truth.” And MSW rarely ever does this pandering to the elderly person. JB is supposedly a little elderly, although she probably is only supposed to be in her 50s? And with the other people around her age or later in the episodes up until now, they have shown respect to these characters in almost every instance I can think of. McGinn not telling Lady Austin the truth seems to smack MSW tradition in the face by doing this. Granted, Lady Austin is no JB Fletcher, as she is more theatrical and less down-to-earth. Their personalities are very different, but it still rankles me. And then the whole instance of Lady Austin looking up at Christopher after he agrees with her solution and saying, “You made this old woman feel young again”? I don’t think these characters actually spent enough time together to make this feel earned, plus this line is cliche as all get out.
That all being ranted, the hiding place of the counterfeit $5 plate is actually pretty good, if a little unbelievable for such a hurried hiding place. But then, since Kreitzman was an ex-Nazi, maybe this was something he was used to? I dunno.
Some last notes from my notebook:
I like that Lady Austin turns down Chancellor’s offer to write for his radio show by saying “I know nothing about… radio.” The pause and the look on her face implies that she’s dissing his show without being open about it.
After guy dead, Chancellor- “Who is he, Captain?” “Not who is he, but who was he. He’s dead.” *side eye* Really, Captain? It’s a little early for the bad jokes. He literally just died.
McGinn hears that Lady Abigail Austin is there. !!! Bugs out of the meeting he just barged into. Huge fan.
Lady Austin is my brain on too much coffee when she gets going. How in the world is she an honorary constable with Scotland Yard???
This ship’s Captain apparently has forgotten all about the “Loose lips sink ships” slogan. I agree that Chancellor is insufferable, but still.
The barman has a better British accent than all the other “Brits” combined. He has like 3 lines!
Chancellor unveils his solution to the crime like he is narrating a radio play. Nice characterization.
The garden JB is narrating from is absolutely gorgeous. But I refuse to believe that it’s her garden in Cabot Cove. If it is, this show has been cheating us.
Final Scores:
Plot: 7/10. Not bad when you consider how the plot all ties together with the murder and the smuggling. But it’s not the best, because of all the time spent on the lovers and Chancellor’s conniving.
Guest Stars: 9/10. All of the actors did a good job with their material, doing a good job of bringing these characters to life. But I have to knock a point because of their accents.
General Enjoyability: 7/10. When viewed as a story about people right after WWII, I think it’s good, if not the best. When viewed as a murder mystery, I feel like it gets too sidetracked in various ways to be effective. If they had instead spent less time on something and showed even a cut of McGinn looking at Chancellor’s room number where the audience could actually see the number, I think even that would have helped both the solveability and the enjoyability.
Solveability: 6/10. Again, while McGinn deliberately asks Chancellor about him leaving his room unlocked, thus providing a clue to the audience, we don’t see the room number very well. The barometer was not featured at all before in the episode that we saw. That’s a clue that could have been worked in by someone using it to check the weather forecast or whatever. There were so many chess clues that my brain couldn’t keep up, and immediately started accepting Lady Austin’s theory of it being Bishop rather than focusing on the strategy “Mate in Seven.” It’s like the clues were all there, but not in a way that helped the viewer see them.
Use of JB Fletcher: 6/10. She appeared at the beginning and end. She was narrating something that happened to someone she admired. But this is where my brain got stuck- apparently McGinn never wrote about the murder. JB never met any of the people involved in this case. While she may have read about the event in like archives and things, how does JB know that Paul Viscard was the real killer? How does she know where the plate was hidden? It doesn’t make sense to me, and I’m going to call out the writers for when they do something like this.
All right. So that’s it for this week’s post. I should hopefully be back next week with something, so catch you on the flip side.
Random English Major Thoughts