Trabia Garden

Embarrassingly, I can't stop listening to 'Theme of King JJ', the song that JJ skates to in Yuri on Ice. At first I just went 'oh, my God, this is the most hilariously arrogant thing I've ever heard, I must listen to it fully to get a better idea of the ridiculous lyrics,' and by now I actually dance along to it while I listen. I LOOK IN THE MIRROR, THE KING LOOKS BACK AT ME. I'M BRAVE ENOUGH TO FIGHT THE ENEMIES.

Then again, I've been nostalgically listening to a lot of Linkin Park lately, so this might actually be an improvement.

(I typed this and then went back to dramatically mouthing along to 'Leave Out All the Rest', whoops. SAVE ME, KING JJ.)

In honour of my terrible taste in music, I've titled this entry with a line that could plausibly come from either 'Theme of King JJ' or a particularly angst-fraught Linkin Park song (it's the former).


I've been replaying Uncharted 4: A Thief's End recently. I like it more than the first Uncharted, but I definitely love the second and third games more, which is a shame; I'd have liked the series to end on a higher note (although most of my issues with A Thief's End are very subjective, so I imagine it was a good ending for many players). I'm going to grump about Sam under the cut, so you may not want to click if you're a Sam fan.


( Grumbling about Sam. Uncharted 4 spoilers. )


OKAY, COMPLAINING OVER. Here are some great things in Uncharted 4 to balance it out:

- The opening credits are gooooorgeous. You can see them over here. No spoilers for Uncharted 4; they're a beautiful look back at the previous games in the series.

- 'A Normal Life' is possibly my favourite Uncharted chapter ever. I exclaimed aloud in delight multiple times.

- Sometimes, if you put Nate in front of a mirror and zoom in on it, he'll check to make sure nobody's looking and then do finger-guns at himself.

- Nate and Elena have a combat move where Nate lifts Elena up so she can kick the enemy in the face.

- The environments are so, so pretty.

- At one point, you blow up a door with dynamite and Nate goes 'Take that, door!'

I don't want to think about politics right now (I may never forgive my country, but at least my city's all right, I suppose), so instead I'm going to talk about THE BOOKENING, in which I desperately try to read a load of recent genre fiction on the slim chance I get a relevant job interview. There are worse tasks.


THE BOOKENING TITLE #1: This Savage Song, VE Schwab. A world in which violence creates monsters! Crime spawns terrible creatures that will slash you up or drink your blood or eat your soul! And then one of the monsters disguises himself as a human so he can attend school. There's more going on than that, obviously, but I really enjoy how silly the plot sounds when you cut it down.

The first few chapters focus on slowly bringing you into the world, which is interesting, but it really picks up when the monster actually starts school. I hugely enjoyed watching August try to fit in; characters being thrown suddenly into a completely new world is always fun. Colin seemed a potentially fun character, so I'm sad he was barely in this at all. Leo is terrifying. I enjoyed Kate's fury at her own vulnerability, and it was interesting to see August's desire to be a better person collide with her desire to be a worse person.


THE BOOKENING TITLE #2: Divergent, Veronica Roth. I find this a slightly less believable young adult dystopia than the world of The Hunger Games, largely because I'm convinced the Dauntless faction would have died out within a few generations. Why would anyone ever willingly join the faction that demands that you constantly risk your life for no reason? Go and join the faction that picks apples and is nice to people, for goodness' sake. And the Dauntless faction is in the habit of whittling down its recruits and allowing ONLY THE BEST to join, which further reduces its numbers, and then, as mentioned, it makes its members pointlessly risk their lives. This is not the way to maintain a healthy membership, Dauntless.

Divergent's Tris felt at points like a copy of Katniss from The Hunger Games to me, and I find it interesting that Kate from This Savage Song didn't, given that all three of them fall into a distinct 'unpersonable female YA protagonist' character type. I suppose Kate's vulnerabilities run closer to the surface, and she's also more actively cruel because she's trying to hide her caring side. Katniss isn't trying to hide that she cares; she's genuinely not very good at caring, although she's not incapable of it, and I get a similar impression from Tris. Deliberate callous action versus unconscious callous inaction.

This was an interesting diversion, but I don't think I'll be picking up the other books in the series. Diversiont.


THE BOOKENING TITLE #3: Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth, Christopher Golden. This was fun! I used to read the official tie-in novels for Doctor Who, and they varied wildly in quality. I was a bit apprehensive about this, but it's clearly been written with a real fondness for the Uncharted games and characters. Nate and Sully sound like themselves! There's vicarious sightseeing! There were even sections where I could see how they would translate to a puzzle sequence in one of the games. Fortunately, there were no sections that would translate to a twenty-minute shootout with four waves of enemies.

I enjoyed getting confirmation that Nate unthinkingly flirts with people out of habit.

My biggest complaint: no Elena. I can understand why Elena wasn't there, given that, you know, the book is set before Nate and Elena meet, but I still missed her. I liked Jada (it would have been nice to see some sort of reference to her in Uncharted 4), but the absence of Elena was heavy on my heart. This was also my problem with Golden Abyss. Stupid Nate, having a life and doing things before he met the best character in the series.


A Song of Ice and Fire is not part of THE BOOKENING (it's actually a large part of the reason I need THE BOOKENING; I've spent most of my leisure reading time recently on this vast series, so I need to catch up on other things), but I've now finished part one of A Storm of Swords, and Jaime and Brienne going through adversity together and slowly learning not to loathe each other is my new favourite thing. Enemies working together almost invariably delights me in fiction, particularly if it results in some sort of grudging fondness or respect. (My other major complaint about The Fourth Labyrinth: it had a touch of this, but not nearly enough!)


Further entries on THE BOOKENING are probably to come! I've just started The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and I'm already enjoying it a lot.


Historical fact of the day: the Duke of Wellington had an enormous nude statue of Napoleon in his house. I'm so happy to know this.

I don't often post audience participation entries these days, simply because there's not much of an audience left to participate; Livejournal and Dreamwidth are very quiet places! But I'm fretting about various things at the moment (nothing insurmountable, things are probably going to be fine), and I could do with a distraction, so it's worth a try:

Ask any fictional character you think I might be able to manage a question, and I'll reply in-character as them with an answer (or possibly reply as myself going 'WHAT THE HELL, I CAN'T DO THIS'). Feel free to ask either as yourself or as another character.

You may, if you wish, ask multiple questions (perhaps of multiple characters) or attempt to engage the characters in extended conversation. I've attempted to answer as real people in the past, but I'm specifying fictional characters this time, I'm afraid!

(Alternatively, or in addition: name a canon you know I have at some point enjoyed, and I'll dig up and post an extract from the unfinished fanfiction I've almost certainly got lying around.)

Feel free to comment even if we haven't talked in six years! If you're not sure of my fandoms (I have approximately a billion fandoms), my tag list should give you an idea. Although for some reason I have a 'buffy' tag? Don't ask for Buffy; I've seen about four episodes and you'll be disappointed.


To avoid duplicates on the 'unfinished fanfiction' question, below are links to the different versions of this entry (and the list of fandoms I've thus far posted snippets for in each one):

Livejournal: The Mentalist, My Little Pony, Harry Potter
Dreamwidth: The Last of Us, Uncharted, Top Gear, Assassin's Creed, The World Ends With You, Dangan Ronpa, Ghost Trick, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Prison Break

Started Assassin's Creed II!

Desmond has suddenly developed a personality! This is a bit disconcerting. It's especially disconcerting because the personality he's developed is specifically the personality of Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games. I thought a couple of times during Assassin's Creed that Desmond's voice sounded familiar, but it didn't really click that it was Nolan North until he started reeling off Nateisms. Don't say things Nate would say in Nate's voice in a game with Uncharted-esque climbing everywhere! How am I supposed to know what I'm playing?

A thousand thumbs up to the concept of the Bleeding Effect. I'm fascinated by the idea that people who use the Animus extensively start to take on a little too much of the person they're 'being'. Evidently Desmond's been using it on the side to relive the memories of Nathan Drake.

(Sudden thought: was it weird for Desmond to live through Ezio's night with Cristina at the beginning of the game?)

I was a bit uneasy with Assassin's Creed II at first. I missed Altaïr, and I didn't seem able to jump so far, and all the little changes bothered me. The interface was different! Synchronisation didn't recover over time! (This is terrible because it means I'm less willing to take risks, making parkour slightly less fluid and fun. My approach in the first game was STRAIGHT UP ONTO THE ROOFTOPS, HURTLE ALL OVER THE CITY, WHO CARES IF YOU OCCASIONALLY MISJUDGE A JUMP AND PLOUGH FACE-FIRST INTO THE STREET.) Lucy suddenly looked like a real person instead of a robot with laser eyes! (I realise that this isn't technically a bad thing, but somehow Lucy's creepy eyes had become an integral part of her character for me.)

But then I accepted a challenge to a race, and I sprinted over the rooftops of Florence as the sun slowly set and gorgeous music played in the background, and it was all so beautiful I could have cried.

The race took me five attempts. I didn't even care.

Assassin's Creed II is a better game than the first; you can see that a mile off. (Another unusual thing about videogames as a medium, to continue with the theme from my last entry: sequels are typically expected to be better than the original, as developers become more familiar with the latest hardware and learn what works and what doesn't. Also, of course, if a game was successful enough to get a sequel, the sequel is likely to have a higher budget.) The missions are more varied, the cutscenes more interesting. The soundtrack! The setting! Half the time, I get distracted from climbing by how magnificent the architecture is.

I still miss Altaïr, though. He doesn't interest me that much as a character, and yet somehow I ended up becoming weirdly fond of him.

I have yet to get a strong impression of Ezio, but it amuses me that he'll both beat up unfaithful men and accept requests to deliver love letters to married women. He's a complicated young man.

I doubt anyone remembers this, but I am working my way through a self-imposed challenge ('write a ficlet for each letter of the alphabet, each concerning two characters whose names begin with that letter') at a hilariously glacial pace. Previous instalments are here and here. I was joking when I said I'd have these finished in 2015; now I'm starting to wonder whether that prediction might have been a bit too optimistic.

Here are five more ficlets! I've only actually managed four more letters, but it's five ficlets because for some reason I wrote two for J. Fandoms represented are Uncharted, Tangled, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Free!, The Mentalist, Red Dead Redemption and Community.


( Same-letter alphabet ficsnippets: E, F, H, J and, er, J. )


According to the emerging pattern, I'll probably be posting the next instalment a year from now. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these!

Happy Valentine's Day! Or 'happy Left Behind release day', more pertinently. Having played through the entirety of Left Behind in two sittings, I can say with confidence that anyone who's played The Last of Us needs to get their hands on it immediately if not sooner.

Naughty Dog have put out a set of adorable-stroke-slightly-messed-up Valentine's Day illustrations for Jak and Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us (warning: that link contains big The Last of Us spoilers, and playing The Last of Us unspoiled is highly, highly recommended). They're all pretty delightful, but the above Nate-and-Sully one is my favourite. I love Nate's devious little face.

Beneath the cut, I talk about Left Behind. If you have not yet played Left Behind (or watched it, if you're futuresoon), you are not allowed to read this. There are also spoilers for the main game of The Last of Us.


( Spoilers for The Last of Us: Left Behind. )


I think by this point, considering Jak and Daxter and Uncharted and The Last of Us and those ridiculous Valentine's illustrations, Naughty Dog has firmly established itself in my heart as my all-time favourite videogame developer. I will follow you to the ends of the earth, guys, or at least to the PS4.

A few days ago, I glanced out of the window and saw a man on the roof of the building opposite and for an instant was genuinely terrified because I thought he was a sniper.

It's possible I've been playing too much Uncharted.


Rewatching Tangled in the middle of an Uncharted replay is a slightly bizarre experience, because Flynn Rider is basically Nathan Drake (although Flynn has the somewhat contradictory qualities of being slightly less moral and slightly less murderous).

Flynn's relationship with Rapunzel is even cuter than I remembered it. That's another thing he has in common with Nate, come to think of it: they're each one half of a pairing I 'ship, even though those pairings contradict my usual tastes by being both canon and surprisingly functional.

Works of fanfiction I almost certainly shouldn't write: Nathan Drake is the one to escort Rapunzel from her tower. Possibly the reason I shouldn't write this is 'it'd just be Tangled'.


Having finished my replay of the Uncharted series, I began replaying The Last of Us and immediately discovered that going straight from one to the other is a terrible idea. In Uncharted, the 'stealth kill' button and the 'punch' button are the same button; Nate will go for stealth if the enemy hasn't noticed him yet. In The Last of Us, you have to grab someone with a different button before you can perform a stealth kill. This, as you can probably imagine, has resulted more than once in Joel very very carefully sneaking up on someone and then PUNCHING HIM LOUDLY IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD.

(The other problem with going straight from Uncharted to The Last of Us: I'm very aware of my moral obligation to write fanfiction in which forty-year-old Sully and fifteen-year-old Nate team up with Joel and Ellie, but I'm not sure I'd be able to do the concept justice.)

I played The Last of Us on Easy on my first run-through, but this time I thought I'd be daring and edge it up to Normal. It's interesting that Normal forces you to play in a completely different way, particularly around Clickers. On Easy, you can push Clickers off you if you have a shiv, so being spotted by one isn't the end of the world; if there's only one Clicker around, you can usually get away with brute-forcing your way through. On Normal, getting grabbed by a Clicker is an instant kill (unless you take a million drugs), so stealth becomes really important.

(Bill's footsteps when you're sneaking through the graveyard full of Clickers are the most hilarious thing, incidentally. You're sneaking through as quietly as possible because you're dead if your clothes so much as rustle, and Bill's running around you in circles going THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD.)

I also didn't use the bow at all on my first playthrough. THE BOW IS INCREDIBLE. IT'S THE BEST WEAPON BY FAR.

The thing that has not changed on this playthrough is how wonderful Ellie is. She brings so much charm to the bleak world of the game. 'Left Behind', the prequel DLC in which I believe you get to play as her, is coming out in about a fortnight. I'm simultaneously excited and terrified.

More of The Last of Us! I'm in the school, I think.

I've started saying 'Ellie?' aloud when I'm not sure where Ellie's got to. Ellie, of course, cannot hear me because she is a videogame character, but I can't stop myself. I just want to keep an eye on her.

There was a terrible bit where she opened a gate and then waited by it and wouldn't follow me until I went through it. I went to investigate a building first and she just stayed back there by the gate where I couldn't make sure she was safe! I got so nervous!

(Later, I watched th_esaurus play through the same part. Turns out that Ellie goes into the house with you if you haven't opened the gate first, and then there's a weird blowing noise and OH NO, IS IT A ZOMBIE? NO, IT'S JUST ELLIE TRYING TO TEACH HERSELF TO WHISTLE AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT, bless her. I was quite sorry to have missed it.)

I had to smile when Ellie started humming to herself while we were wandering around. The first time she really captured my heart was probably when we went into the museum; Tess stayed on high alert, clutching her gun, but Ellie went around looking at all the displays. I forgot about searching for supplies and just watched her for a while. Her curiosity is incredibly endearing.

I love it when AI companions in games are a real pleasure and comfort to have around. Companions like Ellie and Tess, like Elena in Uncharted, like your horse in Red Dead Redemption (levels of emotional attachment may vary, I suppose; there are probably people who'll just grab the most convenient horse and don't really have one they think of as 'theirs', but I loved my horse). You sometimes have to protect your companions in The Last of Us (whereas in Uncharted I'm fairly certain your allies can't be harmed in shootouts), but they never feel like a burden.

(Speaking of protecting your companions: in Uncharted, you simply can't crouch in the same place as a partner. In The Last of Us, if you and Ellie hide against the same wall, Joel will try to sort of shield her with his body. It is the loveliest thing.)


The SA Let's Play forum paywall has come down, if any Dangan Ronpa readers on my flist haven't yet snapped and bought an account! Here's the ongoing translation of the second game (and here's the completed translation of the first, if anyone new wants to dive in). Both threads have links to all the actual updates in the first post, so you don't have to read the discussion between updates; reading the discussion is, in fact, strongly discouraged. I have found recent developments very distressing.

Finished replaying Kingdom Hearts Re:coded!

It's not clear when Data-Sora realised he was a digital replica of the real Sora, which bothers me a bit. You'd think that would be quite a big revelation. Sora takes a lot in his stride, but surely you would need at least a moment to sort through your thoughts after discovering that you and your friends and your home are actually just data inside a computer.

(Data-Riku seems to have been fully aware of the situation from the start, which is just as well, because Riku would definitely have been upset by having that revelation suddenly dropped on him. I suspect that, whereas Data-Sora is unshakeably sure that the people of the datascape matter, Data-Riku has trouble believing his own existence is of any real value. He still values Data-Sora, though. EXPLAIN THAT, RIKU.)

Here's the text of one of my favourite scenes in Re:coded:


( A rather lovely exchange between Sora and Riku, post-Hollow Bastion. )


I've been ungenerous to Re:coded, I think. The plot may be a bit nothingy and the camera may be infuriating, but it has some of my favourite character interaction in the entire series, and I really love its take on Castle Oblivion.

That said, I started Days after finishing my Re:coded playthrough (because apparently I'm replaying all my Kingdom Hearts games? I swear I don't just play videogames all day, even if my recent entries really make it sound like I do) and was startled by how strong my emotional reaction was right from the beginning. Re:coded is fun enough, but I'm not particularly invested in it, whereas I care intensely about Days.

(ROXAS'S ADORABLE DIARY. All games should have the protagonist keep an adorable diary. See also Uncharted 2, in which Nate's journal slowly fills up with both puzzle hints and incredibly silly doodles.)


A thought: where was Kairi in Re:coded? We never meet a Data-Kairi, and I think the real Kairi is mentioned a grand total of once. Poor Kairi; she does get a bit neglected. Riku plays a significant role in Chain of Memories and Re:coded and Dream Drop Distance, but Kairi seems to be almost entirely absent from the spin-off games, and she's unconscious for most of the original Kingdom Hearts. Maybe she'll finally get a larger role in Kingdom Hearts III? She's not one of my favourite Kingdom Hearts characters, but maybe that would change if we actually got to know her.

This Revolutionary Girl Utena AMV to 'Brick by Boring Brick' is perhaps the best fanvid I've ever seen. I'd never heard the song before, but it works so well. Major (if confusing) spoilers for the entire Utena anime. I get a bit teary every time I watch it.

(I've realised that I have a big, big weakness for female characters who belong in Gryffindor. Utena, Yuna, Korra, Lightning, Elena Fisher, Donna Noble: all favourites of mine, all - in very different ways - Gryffindors. I'm not guaranteed to adore a Gryffindor girl, but it certainly helps. Not sure what to do with that knowledge. Write a giant Hogwarts AU?)


I'd love to be able to say that this second fortnight-long posting hiatus in a row was because I was having a second lovely holiday, but in fact it's because I've done almost nothing but work since I got back. The curse of the freelancer: you never have the right amount of employment. 'Too much work' is preferable to 'no work', but surely there must be some sort of balance between the two extremes?

I did find time for something non-work-related yesterday, though: I've had a replay of Final Fantasy XII saved just before the final area on my memory card for ages, so I decided to play through the ending. (The PS3, it turns out, has ruined PS2 graphics for me. I was really aware of the pixellation at the edges of the character models. I'd never noticed that before.)

Regarding the ending itself: it made so much more sense this time! The first time I saw the ending, I had absolutely no idea where Balthier and Fran had gone or what they were trying to achieve by endangering themselves. I was aware that they were doing something awesome, but I did not know what that awesome thing was. Now that I know, it is a lot more awesome!

I've also realised that I really, really love Larsa. I wish I'd been that centred and good-hearted and intelligent when I was twelve. Frankly, I could do with being that centred and good-hearted and intelligent now.

Final Fantasy XII is fairly far down in my personal ranking of the Final Fantasy games, I have to admit, despite scoring high on actual gameplay. This is in part because the plot is even more incoherent than I generally expect from a Final Fantasy (possibly this is just because there are great swathes of gameplay between cutscenes and by the time I reach the next scene I've forgotten what happened before), but it's mostly because the party never really felt like a group to me. They were always Balthier-and-Fran, Vaan-and-Penelo, Ashe-and-Basch: three duos (or even two duos and two individuals; Ashe and Basch seemed to stand apart entirely at times), not one... sixio. Sextet. WHATEVER THE WORD IS, THEY DIDN'T FEEL LIKE ONE. At the end, Vaan says to Ashe, 'You'll make it; you've got good friends,' which struck me as odd because they never actually felt like a group of friends to me. I think that's a great shame.

The other problem with XII is that Larsa is not a permanent party member. This is simply not acceptable. I was thinking recently about what I would do if I had the power to replace any one party member from each Final Fantasy game with any one non-party member; I would definitely replace Vaan with Larsa. (I'd also swap Beatrix in on Final Fantasy IX, incidentally. Possibly in Amarant's place. What would you do?)


Oh, hey, the Olympics are almost over! Better share the best fact I've learnt in a while: during the torch relay for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, at the Sydney changeover, a student ran along the route with a fake torch consisting of a pair of flaming underpants in a plum pudding can on top of a chair leg. He managed to hand it to the mayor of Sydney and escape before the deception was noticed.