rionaleonhart | I'll Undoubtedly Realise I've Forgotten Something As Soon As I Hit Post.

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I'll Undoubtedly Realise I've Forgotten Something As Soon As I Hit Post.

I've been vaguely wondering whether to do a reflection on some of the media that most stuck with me in the 2010s, and then

owlmoose made an entry along those lines, which finally nudged me into actually getting it done. In alphabetical order, here are ten canons from the decade that I think I'm going to remember.

Note: this is media that I first experienced in the 2010s, rather than necessarily being media that was originally released in the 2010s. Community, Uncharted, Higurashi and Umineko technically originated in the decade before.

1. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. This one crept right under the wire for me. My mum received this book for Christmas this year. I'd never heard of it, but I opened it at a few random pages and genuinely started crying because it was so beautiful. It's sort of philosophical whimsy in the vein of Winnie-the-Pooh or The Little Prince, it's gorgeously illustrated, and I'd recommend it without hesitation if you enjoy those books. I was really surprised by how deeply it affected me. Friendship!

2. Community. Community didn't manage to keep up the same level of quality throughout its run, alas; it's definitely stronger at the beginning than it is by the end. But the beginning is so strong. I've said this before, but the first series of Community is the best series of television I've ever watched. Almost perfectly crafted. It's so funny, it's got so much heart, and the characters are delightful. (Well, apart from Pierce.)

3. Danganronpa series. The series that kicked off my collection of weird videogames about murder. An interesting twist on the murder mystery genre: rather than bringing the 'detective' in after the murder occurs, it lets you get to know all the killers and victims well before the murders actually start happening. And then you're emotionally invested in all of them, and it's terrible! But also it's great. Interesting mysteries; fun characters; weird, irreverent, comedic tone that keeps things from getting too dark, but still gives events enough emotional weight for them to feel like they matter. I crowed with laughter at the end of Danganronpa V3 because I was so delighted by the weird plot twists.

4. Final Fantasy XV. This game's a mess. The pacing's catastrophic. But it's heartfelt and gorgeous and fun to play, and it's got so many charming details, and at its core it's a story of intense friendship that I can't resist. I got so happily lost in this game. I've written so much fanfiction. I love these boys so much.

5. Higurashi: When They Cry (visual novels), instalment six: Tsumihoroboshi. I've played seven instalments of Higurashi and I enjoy the series a lot, but Tsumihoroboshi in particular is perfect. An incredible story about the power of friendship and the power of murder and the strange ways they intersect. Guilt! Paranoia! Being haunted by things you did in time loops you can't remember! Dramatic friendship speeches before hiding corpses together! Triumphant scenes of two friends fighting to the death and having a great time doing it! It's a bizarre, cathartic delight of a visual novel and I absolutely loved it.

6. The Last of Us. I remember my first encounter with this game: I watched

th_esaurus play through the opening, and I was so tense it physically hurt. An absorbing, incredibly done story of learning to care again after loss. Wonderful performances, great writing, fascinating worldbuilding. Ellie is one of my favourite characters of all time, and I'm both excited and nervous to see her again in Part II.

7. Life Is Strange 2. I love sibling relationships, I love stories about two people against the world, I love people suddenly being ripped out of their normal lives and thrown into overwhelming situations. I loved every moment I spent playing as Sean Diaz, this wary, sarcastic, loving, vulnerable kid, watching him struggle and suffer and push through that for the sake of his brother. He has no idea what he's doing, but he's trying so hard to do right by Daniel. I sobbed my heart out when I finished the game; I hadn't cried so hard at a work of fiction in eight years. I was thinking solidly about it for a fortnight afterwards.

8. Umineko: When They Cry (the visual novel series, rather than the anime). Umineko is a murder mystery, and a story about how we create our own realities, and the strangest, most beautiful love story I've ever experienced. The pacing is wildly variable (I struggled to push through the slow opening on my first attempt and dropped it until I was persuaded to give it another go by, of all things, a Simpsons meme), but I really think Umineko is something special. I played it while I was recovering from a bit of a psychological collapse, and I was surprised and delighted to learn that fiction could still affect me so deeply. Its message about having hope in hopeless situations came to me at a time when I needed it, too.

9. Uncharted series. Even though the gameplay isn't necessarily my thing, I adore these games. The first one hadn't entirely found its feet, but then they established themselves as a gorgeous, fun series of shooty tourism simulators, where you run around and climb pretty buildings and listen to the characters bantering. As with Danganronpa or When They Cry, there's emotional weight, but the tone's also frequently a lot of fun. I love fictional suffering, but I can struggle when it's completely straight-faced all the time; it's good to be able to laugh as well.

10. Your Name. This is my favourite film in the entire world and crashes straight through my heart every time I watch it. I've never seen anything that impacts me quite like Your Name does. I'm always afraid to revisit it because I'm thinking 'what if I don't love it as much as I remember?'; I always end up loving it more. The most visually and emotionally beautiful film I've ever seen.

This is probably going to be my last entry before 2020, so a happy new year to you all! I'm glad we're all here.

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Happy new year! (And Merry Christmas!).

I was going to say I'll have a bash at this, but the difficulty is that so many of the things I think of turns into "wait, I got into this before 2010". So, uh, I guess we'll make it in the last 15 years or so or something instead, for me.

1. Warchild Series – Karin Lowachee. My absolute favourite series of books. From a writing standpoint, I love Karin's little terms of phrase, I enjoy the story, I like how psychologically messed up many of our protagonists are (for different reasons). I love the "mosaic narrative" as the author has called it before - it's a continuing storyline, but each book shifts viewpoints. Getting outsider views on previous protagonists is the best. The author now has a Patreon and is writing 2 more stories set in the universe (one book from the POV of a previous protagonist, and another from the POV of the brother of a different previous protagonist), but I can't afford the Patreon so I'm twiddling my fingers until they're published and then I will be happy! Definitely one of the authors who has most influenced my writing style, too. I wrote about Warchild as part of my dissertation at university, and Karin offered me an email interview (I was active on her forums and mentioned I was going to write about it), which helped me greatly and I put in as an appendix. That’s always really cool.

2. Damnation Memoriae Series – Laura Giebfried. I'm putting this one down because it absolutely consumed me when I was reading it a few years ago, which really surprised me. I've never wanted an alternate ending for something so much in my life, haha. It's frequently a frustrating read (the relationship, in the non-romantic sense, between the protagonist and his uncle drives me crazy - communicate!! A lot of things would be solved if either of you could communicate!!), but not in a terrible sense. I'm sure some people might dislike some of the aspects of mental health it explores (it's not always aware of how it sounds, I think), but I think some other aspects are done rather well on that subject.

3. Danny Phantom Series - This might actually be stretching my 15 year goal -cough- but this is the most consumed I've been with a series in terms of getting really into the fandom and fic writing, so I have to put it down - an indicator of a sustained interest early on for me is how much fanfic I wrote. Also quite important as I don't typically like American cartoons, and I'm pretty sure I was in an PSSH, I AM BETTER THAN CARTOONS phase when I watched this, and still enjoyed it. So that's saying something.

4. Heavy Rain - Another one we'll go on from the sheer amount of fanfic I wrote/ideas I still have written in books. I still have a multi page chart I wrote down listing all the chapters in order, their times, a brief summary of what happened in it and which of the main characters were present to help me keep it all straight for writing fanfic. Heavy Rain isn't a perfect game. Nobody has to say that. But it has some interesting concepts, even if it doesn't necessarily hit them all, and it tries some unusual things. It's also the fandom where I produced what I think is my favourite piece of my own writing, in Cycles (https://archiveofourown.org/works/404665) - big spoilers if you don't know the game!

5. Town of Salem. Can I list Town of Salem? Well, it’s media, not just stories, isn’t it? With 626 hours of this game logged on Steam, and several hundred hours before I decided to move over to the Steam version, it is definitely my most played game of the decade. I love social deduction games – the need to read what’s going on, be aware of how roles work, what roles are in the game, keep track of a lot of information on the fly, and, when evil, the ability to lie competently and how to use classes against the opposing side. (I will forever be sad about the role changes to spy as it was “too powerful for town”. I loved being an evil with a spy. Just throw around a lot of false accusations and watch the chaos unfold, since most spies would immediately out themselves, start looking suspicious as hell, get some townies killed, then get themselves hung for looking so bad. You just have to strategise.)

6. Return of the Obra Dinn - I only got this one for Christmas, but it’s freshly haunting me. This might be one you’d like actually. You play as an insurance inspector investigating a ship that has drifted back to port in the early 1800s without its crew, armed with a strange device that allows you to travel back to the moment of a person’s death when you see their body (a bit like Ghost Trick, but very different tone). You hear dialogue and see it subtitled across a black screen, then you get thrown into a black and white diorama that is frozen at that person’s time of death. You can wander around the frozen scene, inspecting who is there, what people are doing, what is going on. The events of the game are presented in anachronic order and you have to slowly piece together the larger plot, and along the way the fates of the 60 people on board: matching the name to a face in the ship’s sketches, what happened to them, and, if applicable, who or what killed them so the insurance company knows what to pay out. I was smug whenever I could narrow someone down based on accent or alphabet in the subtitles, haha. (Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILolesm8kFY)

7. Erased - This one really did consume me, too. I love Erased – I love time travel, I love some of the themes, I love the interlacing of the past and present narrative. I wish it had been longer so I would have had more to watch, but what it does is so good that it’s probably perfect as is.

8. Blackwell Series – Surprisingly affecting series, with the quality noticeably rising each game (compare Legacy to Epiphany – you can argue the series itself charts Wadjet Eye’s growth). Rosangela and Joey are one of my favourite character combinations, and I love seeing that progression on screen (and that Rosa’s relationship with Joey is totally different to Lauren’s, which is totally different to Patricia’s). I love all the backstory elements in the early games. Epiphany is genuinely heart-breaking all the way through. And as a point and click gamer since I’ve been a small child, it’s heartening to see companies still reproducing this now very niche genre – Wadjet Eye is a dev I always keep my eye on now, along with a few others that actually make these sort of games.

9. Curse Workers Series by Holly Black – I love, love, love the world building in this series. The way curse working has affected the world (and our protagonists family, for that matter), the delving into how conmen work and how this permeates much of the main characters interactions. The plot does some very clever things. I adore urban fantasy (the next one on my list is also urban fantasy!), and this series has one of the best introductions to a protagonist that I’ve seen in a book (by page 8: wakes up near naked on a roof > relatedly gets in trouble/bad luck > “Don’t be too sympathetic. I killed a girl when I was fourteen.” Okay, book, you’ve got my attention.) You would really like this series, I hope you get a chance to pick it up – it’s a complete trilogy, the first book is White Cat, followed by Red Glove and Black Heart.

10. Lexicon by Max Barry. I’ve posted the beginning to this book here before – one of the most engrossing and confusing openings to a story that I’ve ever seen. I’m putting it here as it really did stick with me for quite a while after I read it a few years ago. It explores the power of language, the ability to persuade people to do as you ask, and prevent others from doing the same. The book follows 2 different protagonists in 2 different time frames, one set of chapters is in the present timeframe of the narrative while the other set is exploring a different character in the past. It’s just fascinating to see how things get to the point that we see in that opening chapter and because of the structure of the book it’s very rewarding to see changes in the characters and how and why these happen. Only by the end of the book will there be a clear idea of what is actually going on.

-timydamonkey

This was so cool to read! I love that the author of the Warchild series offered you an interview. ('how psychologically messed up many of our protagonists are (for different reasons)': also extremely promising.)

I don't have time to read Cycles right now, unfortunately, but I took a look at it, and the first scene is fantastic. I'll try to find a moment to read the rest at some point!

Ooh, Return of the Obra Dinn sounds interesting! Again, I can't watch the trailer at the moment (I'm on holiday with friends), but I'll try to come back to it.

Erased is so good! So good!

Happy New Year!

Totally agree with your thoughts on FFXV and The Last of Us. TLoU is such a beautifully done story.

They're such different canons - The Last of Us is so perfectly crafted, FFXV is such a wreck - and yet they both hit me straight in the heart, and that's a lot more important than technical competence.

they both hit me straight in the heart, and that's a lot more important than technical competence.

100% agreed.

Happy New Year! It's been a strange decade. And I am so glad you are here too.

(Also, several of the fandoms that have impacted my life the most this year have been ones I've followed you into, like you're some kind of vidjagaem will-o'-the-wisp. So, I thank you, and possibly Arthur Morgan thanks you, and Hank Anderson absolutely does not.)

I am indescribably delighted to be described as a 'vidjagaem will-o'-the-wisp'. It's what I've always aspired to! And I've hugely enjoyed watching your adventures with those vidjagaems. (Sorry, Hank.)

Oh, the Mackesy book looks very interesting, thank you for mentioning it! And a happy new year to you as well.

I hope you enjoy the book, if you end up checking it out! It's ridiculously pretty.

Happy New Year! I hope you have a comfortable end to the year and a wonderful 2020.

I'm dying to get all your thoughts on FFXV and spill all of my own one day. So, you know. That's coming.

Thank you so much! I am extremely excited to hear your thoughts on FFXV. It's deeply imperfect, but I love it so much I don't care.

This is super cool. I love reading about the things that had such impacts on my loved ones lives. I'm even familiar with some of them! Which is stupendous!

I never really got in to Community, though it has Joel McHale and he can pretty much do no wrong for me. Have you ever watched Parks and Rec? It's probably the only "sitcom" esque show that I legit fell in love with. I've cried, I've laughed, and I've watched every episode at least three or four times. It's resonate and powerful and guhhh. It's beautiful. It's sort of got the opposite issue of what you describe for Community-- the first season is weak and kind of... off... and it got lightly retooled (and much, much better written) starting with the first episode of S2 and from there it became one of the most empowering shows I've ever seen. Uh, yeah. So if you haven't had a chance to see if I highly recommend it (it's on Hulu now, I believe)

I need to get back to Danganronpa. I only played the first one, though I also have the second. I liked it! Though I think I might have liked the Zero Escape series a little more.

Oh, I forgot to mention! I bought Life is Strange 2 last week, pretty much entirely because of your love for it. I've avoided all your spoiler talk, but your overwhelming affection for it is contagious, and I felt like I gotta see what the hype's about.

I'm glad you enjoyed this entry! I had a great time rambling about all these things I love.

I did watch the first episode of Parks and Rec once, but I couldn't get into it; maybe I'd have liked it more if I'd come in at a later point! I've definitely heard before that it gets a lot better if you stick with it.

I hope you enjoy Danganronpa 2, if you get around to it! It's my personal favourite in the series.

I am also ecstatic that you've obtained Life Is Strange 2! I really, really hope you enjoy it. I'd love to hear how you get on with it!

If you ever decide to try Parks and Rec again (some of the best written and likable romantic relationships on TV and soooo many awesome female friendships which I'm down for like woah) I'd recommend maybe watching the first episode really quick (if only because it introduces a few plot points which literally last for all the series) and then skip straight to the first episode of S2. I think that's the one with the gay penguin wedding, and at that point I was already pretty hooked haha.

I will eventually! My backlog is crazy. I see myself going through Life is Strange before hitting Danganronpa, but I also have Before the Storm which I bought last year and... yeah, haven't touched haha. I'm the worst with game backlogs.

I did watch the first episode of Parks and Rec once, but I couldn't get into it; maybe I'd have liked it more if I'd come in at a later point! I've definitely heard before that it gets a lot better if you stick with it.

I need to address this because Parks and Rec is one of my absolute favourite shows of all time: don't bother with the first season; it was heavily retooled after that. Skip to 2x01. By the last few episodes of the second season, the show hits its stride and is just spectacular up until the very final episode.

Here is a random scene without context that will hopefully help convince you.

Edited 2019-12-31 20:03 (UTC)

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