(no subject)

[tammaiya]

Now for the geeky post!

* I finished Mirage of Blaze book 40 about 3 weeks ago and kept meaning to post about it but never working through the inertia. I still find it difficult to really define my feelings. It's definitely NOT the happy ending I was hoping for-- even if Takaya and Naoe are at peace with the way things turn out, nobody really gets a happily ever after. Ayako particularly was in a depressing position; I never expected Shintarou to come back, but I guess I thought maybe she'd come to peace with that and find something else to live for rather than accept it and want to go on to her next life.

In some ways, the hardest part is that I can understand as an author why it had to end like that. So much crap happened that there wasn't really any way to reverse it that wouldn't have been an enormous cop-out, and in a sense that ending was inevitable from the moment Takaya joined the Red Whales, because the only way he could solve that contradition for himself was with the belief that life after death is for the purpose of accepting death. Takaya needed that validation. So if in the ending he were truly happy and at peace with himself, that necessarily meant he was at peace with true death and could die without regret.

On the other hand, as a reader who went through 40 volumes of having my soul stomped on, I wanted the biggest most cliche cop out happy ending KNOWN TO MAN, okay. I wanted Takaya and Naoe to live together with a pet kitten and invite all their friends and family over for get-togethers between lots of totally married sex. I wanted Yuzuru and Takaya to get their chance to be brothers and friends again. I wanted MEETING OF IN-LAWS. So while I can understand why the series had to end the way it did, I don't want to accept it and I don't have to like it. >( Especially since there was a good mechanism for a cop-out ending RIGHT THERE, with Buddha!Yuzuru offering to break and remake the world for Naoe so Takaya could be brought back, but Naoe had to be all noble and at peace with the world for the first time in his life. Still, it gives me a good opening to write alternate ending fic which would basically turn out to be "Yuzuru remakes the world so it goes AU from about book 5!" fic.

Not that I am doing this, because it would be epic and I have boybandX and I can't even write that right now. Cough. (But I may ONE DAY do this, because the damn thought won't leave my head and lazulisong and corialis keep shamelessly encouraging me.

... Crap, now I'm thinking about it.)

* Speaking of writing, insaneidiot is now friended by 199 journals. I feel like I ought to do something if it hits 200, but... well, for a start, what would I do that I don't already do? Like, probably the thing that the greatest majority would appreciate is more boyband!X, but I'm writing that ANYWAY.

Or I would be if my ability to write hadn't fled for the hills, that is, which would be the other problem; it's a little unrealistic to go around trying to think of something grand and spectacular for hitting the 200 mark when I'm TOTALLY UNPRODUCTIVE and really, it's just not going to happen.

Oh well.

(On that topic, you've probably all reached the conclusion by now that I am not doing Christmas fics this year, which is correct. The combination of insane busyness and writer's block is just not terribly conducive; I've barely written anything this year. In fact I still haven't finished LAST year's Christmas fics, SO. I might try to do something to make up for it at some point next year, however, depending.)

* After I finished Mirage of Blaze, I was a little lost for what to do with myself. Then I went on a BL manga binge, which somehow led to a  shoujo manga binge during which I read Koukou Debut (I'd read half of it before but didn't remember so went from the start), Perfect Girl Evolution, and most notably, all 130 available chapters of Skip Beat! in two days. Considering these chapters are like, 40 pages long? It was impressive. There wasn't a lot of sleep. In fact, there wasn't ANY sleep on Sunday night; I took a half hour nap before class and crawled my way through the day. I'm actually pretty impressed at my survival through that. Anyway, I love Skip Beat! with burning passion, enough to get through the inertia that's been plaguing me with watching things (seriously, I hadn't watched ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING, since mid August) to watch the anime, which is also shaping up to be awesome so far. I approve of the voice acting and pacing and animation. *thumbs up* But yeah, Skip Beat!, highly recommend, I want more manga right nooooow.

* Once I got somewhat back into the watching things groove, I also watched the first three episodes of Ryuusei no Kizuna. I am not entirely sold; I kind of like it, but maybe it's not just the kind of thing I'm looking for right now. Actually I suspect my hormones of playing a large role in this whole romance fest. But anyway, RnK. Not entirely sold on the themesong, the theme for Maou was heaps better and also heaps more suitable to the theme. Do like the acting. Not sure about the characters or the plot yet, though. I really need to watch more of it to form a more concrete impression, but I got distracted from it. I think I'll wait until I'm more in the mood for something along those lines. Or until I have my couches and big tv again. It's easier to feel motivated under those circumstances, really. XD

* Haven't watched Tales of the Abyss yet. I really want to, although of course it's not ALL awesomeness and some of what Becky has said about it makes me a little wary. Still, the overall verdict seems to be very much positive and I'm totally looking forward to it. I couldn't find a streamed version that wasn't TERRIBLE quality, though, and I'm no longer feeling the immediate NEED IT RIGHT NOW OMG urge I was feeling before. Also, I am wary that it will give me ideas for fics when I am incapable of doing anything about them, which is frustrating like nothing else. <<

* What I DID watch, and love the hell out of, was Coffee Prince. It was really weird for me watching a K-drama at first-- trying to figure out what all the forms of address meant, the simple fact that I couldn't understand the language and that the tone and rhythm were all so different to Japanese, the cultural differences and phrasing differences-- which I was subconsciously comparing to Japan rather than Australia, since the drama form is such a similar media but then is really different in certain other ways. But it was so, SO satisfying and I'm really glad I sat down and watched it. Talk about OTPs, you guys, I could not stop grinning and making cooing noises throughout the last, like, four episodes or so. *goo* Plus, the makeouts were seriously hot. You don't often get that out of dramas. In fact, you sometimes don't even get a single kiss, let alone hot makeouts and obvious chemistry. A++++! I went through the whole thing really rather quickly, considering it was like 17 hours long.

Only, okay, that's kind of a lie, because the file naming was completely messed up and I accidentally watched episode 10 instead of episode 7 without realising until like halfway (and even halfway I thought it was ep 8). And then I had to know what happened next, and I managed to piece together what happened in the eps I missed, so I still haven't seen 7-9. Whooooooops.

Anyway, in conclusion, I love both Eun Chan and Han Kyul to pieces and I super OTP fangirl them. <3333

Also, this reminded me of my desire to start learning other Asian languages after I finish my degree. Primarily, Mandarin and Korean. *contemplates this fact*

* One thing I have not watched and was not intending to watch because Robin Hood was physically painful to watch by about episode three is MERLIN. I first heard of it when someone recced fic on my flist that, out of curiosity, I read and was totally charmed by. Then suddenly MERLIN was everywhere, and I became increasingly more enamoured of the fic but still not totally sold on the idea of watching it (like, I manage Smallville fandom just fine without needing to put myself through the pain of actually WATCHING it)... but then I found this, and article both hilarious and also fairly convincingly in favour of the dark side: http://community.livejournal.com/merlinbbc/55898.html 

For srs, dudes are made of awesome.

On the opposite end of the scale, however, I've been reading SGA fic again and finally gave up trying to avoid spoilers for S5 since I'm so lazy about WATCHING the damn thing. And fic continues to be awesome, but I am if anything less inclined to watch if my only reward is going to be that love triangle mess and Ronon being mean to Rodney. I like Ronon. I like team. I don't want Ronon being a douche and having canon mess with the fanon of super team bonds yay. D:

* On the gaming front, you can really tell it's coming up on Christmas, because there has been an absolutely INSANE explosion of new and shiny looking games coming out lately, especially for DS. My PSP has been a little on hold recently, initially because stupid Squeenix haven't sent me the PSP case I spent my member points on like THREE WEEKS ago (did they give up in the face of my non-kanjified name or what? there's certainly nothing wrong with my address, I get stuff sent here all the time!) but also just because there's SO MUCH on the DS lately. Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Labyrinthe of Forgotten Time is super cute and it takes a bit more to win me over with mysterious dungeon games, generally, but I really like it. The Dragon Ball game is kind of addictive. Haven't played the Soul Eater game, but it looks good. There's also a game called Avalon Code which is apparently made by a team involved in the remakes of FFIII and IV, although not made by Squeenix. It looks super cute; I've only really watched the opening, but could be fun. There's also Valkyrie Profile DS, which is another game that's not a genre I'm usually that into but Square have managed to sell to me-- I've never played any of the VP games before, I wasn't that excited by seeing it on the SE website, but when I saw the promo for it at TGS I thought it looked kind of awesome and was worth trying out. I was playing the opening on the train yesterday, and I have to say, so far I really enjoy it. Strategy RPGs are usually not my thing, although I've been known to play them on occasion depending on the content, but I actually found the battle at the beginning heaps of fun.

Then, of course, CHRONO TRIGGER DS (!!!!! yes it deserves the exclamation marks) is coming out next Thursday (Omg, Chrono Trigger. <3) and Chocobo Fables 2 (or rather Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon: Majyo to Shoujo to Itsutsu no Yuusha) comes out next month, two days before my birthday. As for the PSP, Final Fantasy Dissidia, which I sway to and fro on but am tipping more towards "in favour" with the TGS promo video, comes out on Christmas Eve. So, lots to keep me busy. Too much, one might say, sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the sheer possibility. (But they're all so AWESOME!)

And on that note, I am done. Phew.

Comments

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

I hatehatehate the ending of MoB. I don't even care about the natural flow of the story; that wasn't the ending I wanted.

Especially since there was a good mechanism for a cop-out ending RIGHT THERE, with Buddha!Yuzuru offering to break and remake the world for Naoe so Takaya could be brought back, but Naoe had to be all noble and at peace with the world for the first time in his life.

What?! Okay, the spoilers I read either didn't mention that, or I'd forgotten them in the attempt, long ago, to blot book 40 out from my memory. Naoe is such an idiot. ;_; And in conclusion, if you ever have any free time, I will be enthusiastic about pestering you into writing the true ending. Including kittens.

And Chrono Trigger is a good enough game to deserve four exclamation marks? It must be a thing of excellence. ♥

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like, I mean, I know Takaya was happy and a peace and stuff and Naoe was doing what he would have wished and is relatively happy and at peace and all that too, but DUDE, gimme my goddamn happy ending. :/ The only reason I did not destroy Tokyo in Godzilla-sized rage is that I had the memorial book, which has a bunch of AU short stories all set at various points while Takaya is 17, and the first one is clearly AU from fairly early and has Takaya and Naoe being together being total woobies over kittens (there is no sex because Takaya has a cold and is like, NOT IN THE MOOD, NAOE, DON'T MOLEST SICK PEOPLE at him, but there is plenty of sappiness). Then the other ones are like, aww, it's girly crush!Takaya and charming but secretly unhinged!Naoe! How I have missed you! Molestation is now 100% rape-flashback free! XDDDD

Five exclamation marks, in fact! It is one of the most prominent games of my childhood-- originally came out on SNES, was remade for PS with an anime opening, and now is being remade for DS with a new optional dungeon and some other stuff, along with slight changes to utilise the dual screens system. I'm really excited, I LOVE that game.

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

Heh, I did have some concerns about you destroying Tokyo ala Godzilla, or an equivalent to that, if/when you found out about the ending. And that was back when you were in Oz (for such would be the wrath of a faithful MoB fan).

I suppose if the memorial book is full of such worthy material as that, I could...pretend that the ending never happened, and just think of the kittens and sappiness? That last book didn't happen; the series just...went on permanent hiatus. Yes. The earlier on in the series versions of Takaya and Naoe were my favourites, really. Before the oh-no-Naoe-died!Takaya state.

A five-exclamation-mark-worthy game, huh. I'll have to look out for that. ^^ (XD Whenever I see multiple exclamation marks, it almost never fails to remind me of Maskerade...)

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

There are things I like about their later incarnations, but their earlier selves are my favourite. For a number of reasons-- one is that I liked 17 year old semi-jailbait Takaya. XD It was funny whenever Naoe was like "NO YOU CANNOT DRINK >(" at him. Also, Takaya was a lot more volatile before Naoe's death, and I missed his rough-edged brattiness. Plus, and I am a horrible person, I found myself thinking at times wistfully about when they were less secure in themselves and their relationship with each other. I'm so mean. XD But probably the peak of my favourite incarnations would have been about book 11, when Takaya was halfway between 17 year old boy and Kagetora and made of possessive crazy. It is the time I think back on with most fondness. Girly crush!Takaya is a close second, however. (I would just like to admit, right now, that my very large Naoe/Takaya playlist is mentally annotated by book number because generally songs apply to specific phases of their relationship. Yes, I am THAT MUCH of a geek.)

Ahem, I may have chosen the number of exclamation marks deliberately for that very reason. *g*

Huge Fan!

[doremi-paris18.livejournal.com]

Excuse me, there was a novel based on the scene in one of the mirage of blaze art books with Naoe and Takaya playing with the kittens??? If you don't mind, please tell me where i can read up on that or any touching moments with them in those AU short stories before Naoe was shot ?

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

The keyword for this icon is, WHOO!

It doubles as a useful dragon quest icon and as a general geeky YAY \o/ icon! :D

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

The thought is definitely there, percolating in my mind. I think it'll exist eventually, though I need to finish BB!X first and work out a lot of details... it'll be one of those ideas where I'll end up spamming people endlessly for soundboarding, I can tell. XD (In fact I already have been when I first conceived of the idea.)

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, NO. Basically, she lost her body way back in the early 30s and was hanging out as a ghost since then inhabiting Takaya's body up until the last fight, where she was cohabiting with Kousaka. To use exorcism powers you need a physical form, so Kousaka got her to kanshou into his body during the fight against Oda. She was hurt badly during-- in the ending she's in the hospital in a critical condition, and Chiaki says that she said if she dies she's not going to kanshou again. She accepted at some point earlier that Shintarou was never going to come back. SO YEAH. NOT SO MUCH WITH THE HAPPY ENDING. *headdesk*

I did not know Naoe was given that choice

Yeaaaaaah. Basically Yuzuru spent like 10 volumes hating on Naoe a lot, but when Takaya died he was happy and after Yuzuru said, "you made Takaya smile. If you want, I'll use my power for you-- I could remake the world." Stupid nobility. *kicks rocks*

It seems this is quite a popular idea, which does not surprise me in the least. I'll have to put a mental sticky note on that one.

[doremi-paris18.livejournal.com]

Really?? I had know ideal Yuzuru could feel hatered towards anyone. I've watched on the episodes and ova's read as much of the translations of the novel bits and pieces and it was never mention. What caused this? Did Naoe ended up confessing what he was with Takaya/Kagetora to Yuzuru. And one more thing i did not know Naoe was given a choice to remake the world and could be with Takaya again :/

[amarissia.livejournal.com]

I want a cop-out ending too. Wait, Yuzuru offered to remake the world to give Takaya back and Naoe said no? WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH NAOE?

*twitches* Oh yes, the Memorial book thing, we needs that translated too, precious. (Sorry, I go into Gollum-mode when I talk about MoB.) *shuffles awkwardly away*