Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here. I’m here to tell you all about the “The Demented Ferrets“.
As of right now, we have three members. Kreshenne, Ruka and myself (Kernook). So, let me tell you a little bit about what we do
Our members:
Kernook (Kern for short) – A little bit of everything, and the one who usually deals with the social media/community end of things.
Kreshenne (Kresh for short) – Streaming (will branch out later).
Ruka – Our official artist (art and blog posts).
Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here. The Demented Ferrets are finally coming to you today with gameplay of Resident Evil 2. This is a long play run-through of the Clair A/Leon B story.
Resident Evil 2 takes place about two months after the events at the mansion. The surviving S.T.A.R.S. members have done all they can, but the city can’t be saved. It’s come down with a bit of an infestation, and these buggers mean business. No exterminators are going to get rid of this viral mess.
Zombies have overtaken the city. Most of the residents are doomed to die in this hell, but if you’re lucky you’ll survive. You get to play as one of two characters.
The first is Leon Kennedy, a rookie police officer suffering his first day on the job. Today is just not a good day for him at all. The Second is Claire Redfield, a young woman in search of her older brother, Chris Redfield of the first game. To see the full game, you’ll have to play both of them.
I’ve done a proper review of the game, so if you want an in depth review, you should really check that out.
As a cursory overview though, if you’ve played a Resident Evil game before, then you know exactly what you’ll find here. There’s puzzle solving and item management galore. You’ll want to conserve ammo since the good bullets and weaponry will always be in short supply.
Zombies run rampant, along with several other monster types. Let’s not forget about our good old friend from hell, “Mr. X” himself.
Honestly, I absolutely love the original Resident Evil 2. It’s not just the horror, it’s the heart. To me that defining factor makes this version of the game the definitive Resident Evil 2 experience. If you call yourself a fan of this series at all, you should play this version at least once.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hello everyone, it’s Kernook here, and it’s time for my RWBY White Trailer analysis. This is not to be confused with my review of the trailer. That is a separate video.
To our patrons; thank you for supporting this content. For those of you who aren’t, and enjoy content like this, videos like these take time to produce, so if you like this content, please help to support it.
Before I begin, I just want to make it clear that this is not the first video production of my analysis series, and there is other content available. There was a lull in making these videos as they take time to make, and I was super slow with them for a larger number of reasons. That being said, the RWBY Red Trailer Analysis and the RWBY Red Trailer Review were completed some time ago, and these two blog posts each come with video content as well.
At the time though, admittedly, I was still figuring out my personal style at the time. Due to that, you’ll notice a lack in the quality of those older videos compared to the video that I have for you today.
In any case, after those two posts were complete, I slowly moved onto Weiss Schnee and the RWBY White Trailer Review. From this point on, I’m going to assume you have some insight into the RWBY series, and that you’ve watched at least the first volume.
If you haven’t done that, go watch the series. It is free on the Rooster Teeth website. As always, please support the official release.
You can either read the blog post or watch the video. I hope you enjoy this trailer analysis.
RWBY White Trailer Analysis
The video production of this particular blog post.
Previously, in my RWBY Red Trailer analysis, which can be found on this blog here, I stated that the RWBY series has a lot of themes embedded deeply into the subtext of the narrative. That despite the many flaws within the show, there rests a much deeper and compelling story than you’d find on the surface. Fan theories take on a life of their own, and perspectives on the show are as vast and deep as you can imagine.
Therefore this is only my take on the series. I don’t expect you to agree with everything I say, and I don’t consider my viewpoint to be the end-all, be-all interpretation of the show. This is only how I’ve interpreted the series, so please bear that in mind.
With the mindset that hindsight in the RWBY series really is of utmost importance, let’s go back and study all that the RWBY White Trailer has to offer when it comes to understanding Weiss Schnee. Before we do that, though, we must reflect upon a few lyrics found in the RWBY Red Trailer. It is absolutely paramount to do so, because all of the trailers build upon one-another for the greater narrative.
I’ve stated before that Ruby’s trailer is a simple view of the world. A nutshell, if you will. The lyrics that reference Weiss in the song Red Like Roses state this:
This is the first real interpretation we have of Weiss. Furthermore, this is a very apt description of the RWBY White Trailer and the themes of the RWBY series in regards to Weiss Schnee. Moreover, it allows us a lens upon which to view the RWBY White Trailer. You couldn’t get more obvious about that unless the creators beat you over the head with with the concept using Nora’s hammer, but I digress.
So, here we are then, in the RWBY White Trailer, and one such royal test is playing out in plain view. Weiss is on stage, and she’s about to sing a song, all while facing up against a rather formidable opponent in her memories. Her introductory character song is named “Mirror Mirror” which is more than a little fitting.
In my RWBY WhiteTrailer review, I mentioned the fact that the song almost breaks the fourth wall. That Weiss seems to be speaking to us, the viewers as if we were the mirror in question. When I said this, I was using the lyrics as a basis for this assessment. At the time of this trailer, we have no voice acting. The song composition and battle mechanics were all that we had to go on.
Using the ethos that the trailers help to train the viewer to really enjoy the RWBY series to the fullest, subtext is the foremost tool that a viewer can use to dig into Weiss this early on.
So, let’s dive into the lyrics of Mirror Mirror, and how they apply to the greater narrative properly. The song begins with a soft and gentle melody along with these lyrics.
Mirror, tell me something, Tell me who’s the loneliest of all?
The question is melancholic and gentle. At first, we can assume from this that Weiss is talking down to her reflection that stands upon the stage, her mirrored image. However, the lyrics then repeat and extrapolate further.
Mirror, tell me something, Tell me who’s the loneliest of all? Fear of what’s inside of me; Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?
By this point, the song has reached a sense of urgency both in musical composition, and lyrical narrative. It is now almost bombastic compared to how the song started. At this point Weiss is reflecting on a battle she once had to face down, likely in recent memory.
It is at this point that we can begin to dig deeper into the content. We can begin to think outside of the box. I’ve always taken this to mean that perhaps Weiss isn’t speaking to her reflection at all, but rather the audience that she sings to. We viewers can be seen as part of that audience she performs for. These questions are abstract, but she’s asking for an answer.
This is a constant theme all through Volume 1 for Weiss Schnee. She is a teenage girl, standing in a place between her dreams and expectations. Aspirations melting under the weight of what she knows to be cold hard reality. The two cannot stand as equals. She often demands answers from others to find out what the truth really is.
A few key examples would be in Volume 1. Firstly, when she asks Professor Port why she shouldn’t be the leader of her team. Secondly, when Weiss and Blake fight in sections of the show such as “The Stray” or the “Black and White” finale in Volume 1. Weiss prefaces all of her moral questions with opinions, but really validation is a secondary goal in most of these cases. She’s looking to find a deeper truth hidden beneath what she finds to be mere conjecture.
Weiss isn’t always successful in her search for answers, but the context here gives us good reason for why she so easily comes to accept both Blake’s existence as a Faunus, and Professor Port’s rebuttal about leadership. People often say that having Weiss so readily accepting Blake at the end of Volume 1 was poorly handled, but as we can see, the subtext was here from the start.
If we look at this song from the viewpoint that Weiss is singing to us directly, and that we are the metaphorical mirror in question, then we are seeing the real person buried deep beneath the Schnee family mask. What we expect of her as a Schnee cannot live up to the reality, because she has no desire to act and think in such a way to begin with.
The next part of the song contains haunting operatic vocals, and while this is wonderful for atmosphere, it adds a context for Weiss as a person. We can see the true struggle that Weiss has within herself. The singing here is as delicate as it is strong. A tone that fights with its own duality. This could be seen as a window into the moral questions that Weiss wants answers for. She’s an inquiring mind, she demands these answers, they’ve just never been given in a way she can truly accept. There has always been something missing for her.
Continuing on, we have even further proof of her unanswered questions. The next set of lyrics give us insight to this, and once again there is an urgency here. The lyrics go like this:
Mirror, mirror, what’s behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world, Why won’t you let me hide from me?
This, once again certainly reflects the struggles Weiss will face in Volume 1 surrounding her teammates, her academics, and her goals as a huntress. Her teammates and Professor Port will challenge her birthright given authority. Blake’s heritage as a Faunus will challenge the conjecture of the victim-hood Weiss carries around like a shield.
She sees the world in a way that terrifies her, it isn’t a safe place. She can’t trust it. She wants to, desperately so, but in these lyrics we see a terrified little girl screaming out at the world. A little girl that likely grew into what she became when Weiss decided to become a huntress. In this way, Weiss and Ruby are very similar.
While Ruby’s lyrics in Red Like Roses seems to compare herself with the world on a surface level, Weiss seems to use the lyrics in “Mirrior Mirrior” to pull that world inward. A reflection of it within herself that she cannot break free of. She is a product of her upbringing and she knows this. With an incredibly high intellect at her disposal, she can see the true nature of her own cruelty. She isn’t blind to it, and she even hates it. To a point, you may even say she hates herself.
However, to get rid of the qualities she dislikes about herself, would put her at risk too. She is more at peace with the things she doesn’t like about herself, than she is with the idea of letting them go.
She asks can a heart to to stone, after all? Can she hide from the darkest parts of herself?
That is the larger question, but for her narrative, the answer is no. She cannot be an unfeeling person, and despite herself, she isn’t a hateful person either.
She isn’t a bigot, even if it would be easier to simply hate Faunus. She distrusts them, but she doesn’t hate them. For her past and her upbringing it would be easier to see herself as superior because she is a Schnee. She knows there is no joy in that for her. There is no solace for a person who cannot find the greater good beyond the darkness of the world.
Weiss knows that, and it scares her.
Finally, we go back to the core question that Weiss has in the next set of lyrics. The selfsame question that began the whole song to begin with. We get one last repeat of the lyrics:
Mirror, mirror, tell me something, Who’s the loneliest of all?
Weiss can only wonder this, because loneliness itself is a burden that cannot be understated. The trials and tribulations of Remnant are not things that characters should face alone. Be it the Faunus plight, grief, homelessness, the Grimm themselves, or so many other factors, it really doesn’t matter. Those struggles are not solitary fights, and in solitude they tend to end badly.
Even in the real world, the mindset Weiss keeps before the events of Volume 1 is impossible to uphold. You cannot discover yourself as a person without discovering the ideologies that best suit your personal ethos. To expect someone to forge their own path alone, with very little help at all, forges an echo chamber of negative thoughts. This cultivates dangerous biases that have to way to be challenged.
Weiss is isolated due to the way she sees the world, and those circumstances are not simple or easy to navigate. Doing so alone, as she feel she has, only complicates the issue. Letting go of her stringent upbringing and narrow views would bring Weiss validation, and a sense of belonging.
We know this to be true, and see the reality of this come to fruition in her later volumes and character songs. However, for now that fruition has yet to happen, and the song ends on these final lyrics:
I‘m the loneliest of all.
This is a statement, not a question, not this time. This means that she is telling us what she knows to be fact. She is lonely, she doesn’t like the person she is becoming. She doesn’t want to be this way, and if there were a way to change herself, she would. This is evidenced by all of her key character progression in Volume 1.
These are hard won battles for Weiss, no different than her hard won battle with the knight that leaves a scar on her face. It never comes easily for her. She had to relinquish blood, sweat, and tears to reach that victory, and in volume 1, she will go through that turmoil again.
In order to shape herself into a better person once more, she has to. That is the path Weiss really wants to take. In the depth of these questions, she knows continuing on as she is won’t make her happy.
We have one final clue to all of this insight, and it is found within the quote at the beginning of the trailer. It says this:
It is here that we find that direct line of sorrowful ideology. Weiss stands her ground in every emotional and physical fight she gets into during volume 1, but here we see how she really feels. In this quote, we see that she never thought Blake’s ideologies regarding Faunus to be something pointless. She never really though Ruby to be a lesser person. Instead, it comes down to one simple concept.
To Weiss those fights are worth having. Anything that matters at all, is a thing that matters enough to fight for, and to fight hard enough to win. This is why she continues pressing Blake about Faunus. To Weiss, fighting the matter out helps her to understand. That she eventually stands down in these arguments proves that she begins to understand the heart and soul beneath the battles.
To both Ruby’s leadership and Blake’s heritage, Weiss accepts these outcomes because they fought so hard for it. That they too, sought validation they way she does. That they too, while emotionally wounded, needed someone to listen.
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Weiss chose to listen, and in turn she finds a place to belong.
She finds her implied commonalities, because her teammates are not so different from herself. In the early volumes of the RWBY series, it all really comes down to the heart of the matter. For Weiss her strongest content and progression really comes down to teammates most of all. When it comes to fighting for ideologies in Volume 1, they are her strongest allies and adversaries. In later volumes, Yang plays a much larger role her progression particularly in volumes 2 and 3, when Weiss begins to act more carefree, and starts to take every day as it comes, an ideology that Yang seems to teach her. All of this is buried within everything the RWBY White Trailer has to offer.
This is why I say that Weiss’s choice at the end of Volume 1 didn’t come out of left field. It wasn’t abrupt. It wasn’t mishandled. It had no need to be extrapolated upon, because it was all here from the start. The subtext speaks loudly, nothing has gone to waste when it comes to outlining Weiss and her future among her team.
At the end of her trailer, she sees a glimpse of her mirrored image, and what she is capable of. For us, the image is blurry, but Weiss probably sees it clearly. She will ask the world her questions, she will demand answers. She will forge a new path because of them, that isn’t a spoiler, that’s simply her determination as a person at play.
It isn’t that Weiss wants the answers to her questions to be satisfying, it’s that she wants to know the truth. She can handle the truth, if it’s honest. We see this in all of the volumes. This is a character trait that never leaves Weiss, not even as late as Volume 8. Once she knows enough to get by, she leaves the inconsequential details by the wayside.
In volume 1, this culminates in her two largest arguments. Blake is no longer in the White Fang, and does not support their violence. Ruby is doing her best as a leader. Those facts are the ones that matter. When Weiss states that she doesn’t care to get into the finer details, that is honesty too. In truth, she doesn’t need to know them right then and there.
The fight was worth having, the insight she gained was enough.
Weiss is many unflattering things in Volume 1, but she is also honest. Even if it is sometimes to the point of cruelty. That she expects this same sort of honesty offered in return is something I will dive into when I dig into the meat of Volumes properly.
For now, this is where I leave the trailer. There is more to speak upon regarding Weiss. Her contradictions and flaws linger deep in the subtext, but I need to dive deep into the volumes to explain that, and those are other videos. In my next analysis, I’ll be covering Blake’s trailer analysis, so I hope to see you there.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Looking back, the year of 2018 was a very strong year for anime. We had amazing contenders in the anime line-up every season, with plenty of content to choose from. From series like Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online to Cells at Work!and My Hero Academia Season 3, it was difficult to pick and choose what anime to watch that year. There were just so many solid choices to pick from that it was hard to go wrong.
One of the most notable anime of that year isA Place Further than the Universe. It’s also known in Japan as Sora yori mo Tōi Basho. The series was released in January of 2018 and finished around March of that same year. Written byJukki Hanada the series started off on a strong foot for that alone.
For those of you who may not know, Jukki Hanada also did the writing for such anime as Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl and the 2011 Steins;Gate series.
A Place Further than the Universe was directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, who is also known for his work on the design production and storyboard for Monster. That’s another anime I’ve reviewed on this blog, and find it to be one of the best classics that anime has to offer. As far as his directing skill is concerned, you may also know him from such anime as The Pet Girl of Sakurasouand No Game No Life.
I’m hesitant to say that A Place Further than the Universe ticked all the boxes for me. I deeply enjoyed it, but it would never make a top ten list for me. I’ll explain why near the end of the post. For now what you need to know is that the series is certainly noteworthy and you shouldn’t bypass it. If you like cute girls and slice-of-life series and you haven’t seen this anime, go watch it.
To me, this anime is required viewing, because it sets the baseline of what a serviceable anime really needs to be across the board. I think I just don’t hold the series to quite the same level of prestige because 2018 was such a strong year to begin with. It was an amazing year of anime, hands down.
If you doubt that, you were either under a rock that year, or you missed out on some really solid series someplace. Alright then, with that out of the way, onto the meat of this review.
The plot is simple enough, I suppose. Four girls, one big journey with a slice-of-life feel and a coat of cut girl paint. You have a character named Mari Tamaki. She’s a second-year high school student who wants to make the most out of her youth. The thing is, she’s a bit of a coward and she’s usually too afraid to step out of her shell.
One day, she meets Shirase Kobuchizawa, someone much more brave and with big ambitions. She’s been saving up to travel to Antarctica. It isn’t just a pipe dream. It’s a goal with emotions attached, since mother disappeared three years ago. These two characters are eventually joined by two other girls, Hinata Miyake and Yuzuki Shiraishi. These four eventually make their way to the Antarctic.
It’s a simple series, with simple elements. The plot itself isn’t contrived, thankfully. It isn’t bombastic and it isn’t flat out stupid. What is very nice about the show is that it has 13 episodes. That’s just long enough to tell this story in a fulfilling way. The series doesn’t overstay its welcome and it doesn’t draw out nonsense plot elements to the extreme.
Honestly, I’d say the series could have used a few more episodes, even if just one or two. It is a packed series from start to finish. That’s a good thing, a very good thing. You’ll probably be left wanting for more after the series concludes and I think another episode or two would have given it just a little more room to breathe. Honestly, even without extra content, this series stands as a hallmark of a great anime.
When you get the benefits of a fulfilling ending and you still crave more, that’s when you know the series goes on a top ten list someplace.It might not be in my top ten list for anything particularly, but to say this anime is anything less than steadfast is a direct injustice. I’ve watched a lot of series across many genres, and every single thing this series does, it does very well.
The pacing is where it should be for a series like this. It’s the sort that slowly builds, but it is also tightly packed with key character moments. That’s the main draw of this show after all. It isn’t about the adventure itself, but rather our four main protagonists and what it means to them. They need to work hard to get to the Antarctic.
This isn’t an adventure where they sit around on their hands doing nothing but giggling their way through the show. Although I would say it is about cute girls, they’re not always doing cute things. Sometimes they’re put to real work, and the trip is occasionally far from glamorous. There are scenes where they even acknowledge that the cramped spaces they’re shoved into could be problematic for them.
These girls are multi-layered and very compatible on screen together, but they know they can sometimes clash in ideology too. It isn’t heavy handed, but there’s a real down-to-earth mentality used in this show. Unlike a lot of the other slice-of-life series you may come across, there’s not a lot of mindless or useless fluff. The character moments always feel as though it has been planned to enrich the story. These girls are all very likable and that helps too.
As a general rule, the series wants the girls to be fun-loving and adventurous. We see this most of all. They’re not dimwitted, and they’re not trying to do something entirely idiotic. Honestly, I just can’t praise A place Further than the Universe enough for this aspect alone. The series really hit it out of the park with these characters.
We get the same compelling banter between them that you’d expect from high school girls, but you also get some real heart and soul out of them too. The series hones in upon their dreams, fears, aspirations and insecurities. Frankly it does a phenomenal job of letting viewers get to know each of the four girls. At the same time, the series isn’t interested in cramming contrived emotional stupidity in front of our faces… when there is an emotional outburst, it means something valuable and important to the wider story.
We never lose out on that wider narrative either, nor the unpredictability of the adventure they’ve embarked upon. There are obviously a few small layers of drama, but it’s perfectly fitted for the story at hand. The series focuses deeply upon forged friendship, and facing tragedy.
As I said above, Shirase’s mother went missing three years prior to when the series actually starts. That’s a plot point that adds a layer of emotional gravity and uneasy tension to the journey. Also, the fact that they’ve got some measure of adult oversight and supervision means that the story is believable for these four high school students.
They travel with the Civilian Antarctic Observation Team, so as an adult watching this series, you’re not going to be raising an eyebrow. There’s no need to sit there wondering how in the hell these four girls are going to pull this trip off without suspending disbelief. It is a very believable story with a very steadfast component of grounded and logical plot elements.
You’re going to get an ending to this short series that’s about as complete as you could hope to expect for a 13 episode runtime. The plot ties up nicely, what isn’t addressed doesn’t need to be, and there’s a satisfaction to the ending. That entire final episode leaves you feeling justified for having enjoyed the show. There’s no need to point at the manga and say “finish the story there” although, there is a manga too and it is worth the read as well.
I’ve not said one single bad thing about this series, because there’s nothing bad to say about it. The visuals are solid, the soundtrack works well, the story leaves you fulfilled. So, you may be wondering if I’ve lost my mind. You may be wondering why, in spite of the fact I praise so highly, that it wouldn’t sit on my own personal top lists for anime?
It’s not groundbreaking, that’s why. I wouldn’t have it on my list, because it didn’t knock me out of my seat the way others in the genre have. I was thoroughly entertained, but I can’t say that I was surprised or taken aback by this anime in any meaningful way. I’ve seen a lot of shows like this, or similar to it. I’ve seen the basic idea of a journey like this one a billion times over.
While the characters are a home run out of the park, you’ve still seen these archetypes before a billion times over too. Honestly, I expect anime like this one to have strong characters, because if it didn’t, it would be a failure of a series. The characters are what matter, they’re what make the story being told amazing. If you watch animated series like this enough of the time, you come to hold a baseline expectation of what that sort of anime should be.
Let me be absolutely clear; A place Further than the Universe is everything an anime like this should be. It ticks all of the boxes in a way that any anime fan should demand of a high quality slice-of-life series. That’s exactly what this series promises.
It promises high quality animation and sound design. It promises to be exactly what it advertises its story to be. It upholds that standard throughout its runtime, and never once do you feel stolen from as far as a quality experience is concerned. However, although it holds the high quality standard, I personally don’t feel it surpasses the standard.
Maybe I’m just a jerk, but I expect a high standard of grounded, down to earth slice-of-life series. This one touches upon and continues to uphold that high standard baseline of quality anime. You’re just not going to find anything new here or something that challenges your notions of what a series like this one should be like. To me, it’s not a revolutionary series, if you’d think of it that way… and my top ten lists, those ones have to rip me right out of my seat and knock me down.
To me a top ten list is the best of the best. A Place Further than the Universe doesn’t quite match that. However, it would likely sit someplace on a top twenty which is far from an insult. Trust me, watch as many anime as I have, and so long as the anime makes the top fifty it’s a damn good show… two decades of anime watching does that to a person, honestly speaking.
So, there you have it. Watch this show if you haven’t already. A Place Further than the Universe sets the baseline of what we should all be expecting from our slice-of-life anime series. Quality characters, interesting visuals, a great story and one that wraps up nicely at that.
If you want to see another review of this series, from someone other than myself, perhaps check this one out written by NEFARIOUS REVIEWS. I thought it was a good review of the anime, maybe you will too.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
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Hey all, it’s Kern here. Kresh and I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV on our live streams. This is part 2 of our level grinds, joined by our friends for havoc and good time. Lots of laughter in this live stream.
In this particular stream we continue where we last left off. Before the stream, Kresh picked up a tank job and got it to the same level we ended off at. We want to be sure to stay around the same basic exp and level range if we can. From now on Kresh is playing a tank and I’m still playing a healer.
We finally escaped the low level zone of Gridania and the shrouds of forests that surround it… for now at least. We do 3 of the story related dungeons this time around and amass a few levels while we’re at it.
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Kresh and Kern’s brand new disaster through Eorzea: Final Fantasy XIV part 2: A Misadventure Reborn
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After a few story line related missions we entered Sastasha, a level 15 dungeon that keeps the training wheels on more or less. It’s pirate themed. I was massively under geared at the time, since due to the streamlined leveling process I thought I’d hit 20 before we entered and I’d be allowed to equip the gear I’d purchased to prepare for that.
Almost immediately after that, it was time for The Tam-Tara Deepcroft a level 16 dungeon all about a subterranean crypt used as a resting place for rulers and nobles of Eorzea. Outside of a few rusty pulls, it goes fairly well enough.
Once we escaped that, we did more story missions. Before we knew it, were ready for the aptly named quest “Copper Hell” and therefore entered the next instance, Copperbell Mines. This is a level 17 dungeon that has been made much easier since the enemies have been weakened and the developers made the area easier. I still personally hate it though.
All in all, it was a good live stream and we put a nice dent into the three hours we played. We didn’t get to do more gaming over the weekend because Kresh went away on holiday, but once she returns we’ll be back with more misadventures for sure. See you next time.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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A Lull in the Sea, also known in Japan as Nagi no Asukara is a twenty-six episode anime that depicts two very separate sets of people. The ones that live on land, and the ones that live below it, deep in the sea. Released in October of 2013, this series is nearly pushing a decade old now. in spite of the age of the series, the show has a lot of charm.
Before younger anime fans crinkle their noses at me, trust me, this is an anime that can stand the test of time. Even by today’s standards, the anime looks and sounds wonderful. At least for a slice-of-life anime, it remains in my memory as perhaps one of the most compelling shows of its time. I return to it often enough because of the solid characters and the universe the story is set in.
That’s odd for me, considering that it is a slice-of-life series typically aren’t the types of anime that I settle into to re-watch often. Deep down at its core, this is a compelling series worth your time.
This anime boasts stunning visuals, and it can be praised for its somewhat curious plot. Neither of these elements falter even in the slightest. In a world where humanity once lived under the sea before adapting to live on land, the series follows four students that still live underwater. These days, they need to adapt to their new school on land, and that’s something they don’t always do well with.
Navigating these elements are central to the plot of these two communities coming together. The basic setup allows these characters to face emotional and cultural conflicts that surround their new scholastic environment. Some issues are large, some are small, but they’re all interesting to ponder.
For example, being too dry can agitate the skin of the characters that live under water. They need to take time to get themselves wet in saltwater to keep that agitation from happening. They’re looked down on for this, and those that live on land aren’t quite sure what to do about the sea dwelling people. The conflicts are brief, but very well done.
There’s a distinct emphasis on climate change too, and this shakes things up quite a bit later in the series. You’d think that might be a bit of a narrative problem, but it’s far from that. The climate change angle is neither preachy or ham-fisted, suiting the overall plot and character dynamics rather nicely over all.
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The main focus is clearly on the character relationships, just like many slice-of-life series. Honestly, that’s where things take a turn for the strange and somewhat melodramatic. Unrequited love is a core theme of the series, for interesting better and for annoying worst.
It’s hard to root for some of the couples on occasion, but thankfully it does tend to be rare. There are moments that after a while it all begins to feel a bit dragged out. That being said, generally these romantically inclined and tension filled scenes don’t often overstay their welcome. Even when they do, I’d say this is a minor nitpick at best for me.
I tend to find that A Lull in the Sea plays to other strengths, and more than makes up for any romantic goofiness that might fall flat. It will ask interesting questions about the passage of time, and what it means to disrespect the ways of nature. It’s neither too heavy for a slice-of-life, nor too dull as some of these types of shows can be.
With the story itself being cleanly and very concisely split into two distinct arcs, A Lull in the Sea adequately fills a weekend of binge watching without an issue at all. If you enjoy the slice-of-life genre, this is one I’d say you should try to watch just once and see if you like it too.
If you want to watch the series, you can do it for free over on Crunchyroll at the time of this post. If you want a proper in-depth review, particularly of the first 13 episodes,you can check out this postwritten byLesley Aeschliman
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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A Centaur’s Life, is also known as Centaur’s Worries or Sentōru no Nayami. The manga came out for this series back in 2011 and it is still ongoing in 2022. The twelve episode anime was released back in July of 2017 and finished in September of that same year.
Now, to be quite honest with you, this anime is a bit strange. The manga it’s based on is a bit strange too. During the time it was all the rage, releasing with other series of its type; monster/animal girls became a somewhat common trope. The series acted as a curiosity of sorts, earning viewers because of it’s rather odd nature.
That being said, the series is primarily focused upon slice-of-life elements. Set in a world where all people are hybrids of various sorts of fictional creatures such as centaurs, it follows the everyday life of Hime, a… well you guessed it, a centaur. She’s a high school student and the series follows her and the lives of her classmates. In general the general themes of the show covers problems and challenges that Hime and people of other hybrid races like her might face day-to-day.
A Centaur’s Life also contains mildly placed hints at a possible romance between the main character and one of her female friends. Personally, I could take or leave that aspect, it’s cute I guess… but it’s not something I was invested in.
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The other major component of the plot revolves around the political reality of this world, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Now, you might think that the political intrigue will heavily influence the main character’s life in some sort of darker way, but from what we get in the anime that just isn’t the case.
The series boasts a few rather totalitarian themes about forced equality between various mythical races. There’s a tone of extremely harsh penalties of for any discrimination… and while the series isn’t too heavily focused upon it, it does come up enough to be jarring. Even what seems to be children’s books have a weird political bent to them. As though something like democracy is little more than a fairy-tale.
Add onto this that in the twelve episodes, the pacing continues to be slow and unhurried, and the tone feels off somehow. In a way, it’s almost as if the series forgot that it was supposed to be a slice-of-life… but I digress.
In general, the show pieces together a school life story that jumps the shark. A Centaur’s Life is riddled with cases of extreme propaganda, hard pressed security details, and a world that almost seems dystopian despite the slice-of-life tone the series works so hard to convey. It truly gives viewers an unsettling feeling that something very nasty is going on under the surface that the show refuses to truly address deeply.
That being said, A Centaur’s Lifeisn’t awful… it just don’t know what it seems to want to be as a series. Perhaps the manga is better, but I haven’t read it and I really don’t plan to. The show itself has a few elements I wish had been explored further, and I’m not entirely sure that it would ever make a top ten list of mine, or anyone that I know. It’s not among the worst I’ve seen, but certainly cannot stand as one of the best.
The last episode especially fell flat upon its face, containing absolutely no substance to speak of. To say it was unsatisfying is an understatement, but let’s be honest a lot of anime have that problem. This is certainly one where they want you to go and read the manga, and anime like that become a pet peeve of mine.
A Centaur’s Life had a lot of original and bold ideas, but I’d say that’s the largest problem it had. There were just too many to focus on one aspect, and therefore it all became wasted potential.
Is it worth a watch? Yeah, actually it’s worth streaming it at least once. The experience is worthwhile, because the series does display a few interesting qualities. Does it belong on your prized anime shelf? Probably not, and truth be told if it hasn’t been forgotten about by the masses already it will be in a few more years. It just can’t live up to the test of time.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here, back with another character spotlight. Today I’ll be talking about Taiyang Xiao Long. This analysis content was voted on by our small Patreon community.
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For the first two volumes Taiyang Xiao Long is a non-character. We don’t know anything about the man. Then volume three hits and we get our first glimpse of him through Ruby’s monologue. This monologue is as deprecating as it is full of love. Ruby stands over her mother’s grave, Taiyang has wandered off someplace. Ruby mentions Yang has learned a lot of her combat style from their father, and finally he returns. We get a glimpse of him in the distance.
This is the first and last time that Taiyang will be referenced heavily as a man that is both deeply loving and terribly flawed to the point of no return. The next time we see him, he will display these traits, and you’ll either have to take him or leave him.
Honestly, I’ve always been rather conflicted in my views of Taiyang. The series paints him in a very distinct, often unflattering view. Honestly, it’s all very intentional when taken into view with the wider contexts of the show. To be honest though, I find it difficult not to take a separate set of issues with him as a character. My personal problems with him aren’t the ones that the series likes to wag a finger at.
The man has problems that aren’t addressed, but damn-well should be. This isn’t bad writing, the characters pointedly ignore or avoid his failings, and this leads to even larger problems.
Frankly, his bad habits have passed onto his daughters. To get into why, we need to look at what Taiyang is to Yang and Ruby. Namely he’s their father. He’s not a huntsman in their eyes, he’s just their dad.
We can see that’s how he wants to be viewed, and really, that’s all he’s got going for him these days. He may be a teacher at Signal, but we never see him teach or even mention his own abilities as an instructor.
The RWBY series has a very odd way of dealing with parents and parenting styles. This holds doubly true for the wider ethos of the hunting profession. Among parents and parental figures who take up the trade themselves, it can be a mixed bag. There is no stranger character as a huntsman than Taiyang Xiao Long himself. He is an enigma at best, a contradiction to everything a huntsman is at worst.
When it comes to the themes showcased within the wider narrative, Taiyang is the one of the most inconsistent characters when it comes to word and deed. Honestly that’s a very hard thing to do considering that he’s also internally consistent as a character.
Yeah, you read that correctly…
It isn’t that he’s a poorly written character, but rather that he’s just a guy that’s a hypocrite. He isn’t cut out to be a father and he knows it. I’m hesitant to call him a bad father, because I do think he does try to be a good one. However, I do think he has a toxic parenting style that lends itself to doing more harm than good, more often than not.
The key takeaway is that he knows he’s failed he daughters, you can see it in the way he acts. So, who is Taiyang Xiao Long, really? What do we know indisputably?
We know he’s the father of both Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. We also know he’s a teammate (or perhaps more aptly put former teammate of the now defunct team STRQ). We know he has a somewhat messy relationship past, and we know that he allows his daughters to find trouble more often than not. That’s about it with this guy, right?
Or is it?
I say it isn’t… I know it isn’t… and I can prove it.
Fandom Perspective
Generally there’s a few ways to look at Taiyang, and it largely depends on how you see him as a character. I’ve said this before in my blog post about how I handle RWBY analysis content, which can be found here, but to paraphrase, many things impact the way we view something within a given show. RWBY as a series is no different.
Before I begin, do keep in mind that Taiyang can be viewed differently based on your own personal moral values, and what you personally deem important. You may see Taiyang in a different light than I do, and that’s perfectly okay.
Due to this detail, in fandom some depictions of Taiyang are much more flattering than others.
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Some people think he’s entirely useless both as a man and a father. Others believe he’s done the best with what he’s been given, and they feel bad for him. Another demographic tends to blame the writing in RWBY for his lack of strong and positive paternal role. No matter how you view him though, there’s no question Taiyang is a troubled man, just like Qrow.
He’s just harder to point the finger at, because generally Taiyang can be pretty likable when compared to other fathers in the show. Then again, there’s not a lot of strong competition in the fatherly line-up. Jacques is an unquestionable asshole any way you slice it, and Ghira is hit-and-miss depending on what angle you’re using to analyze him.
However, given the way Yang and Ruby were put into danger as children and that none of their key memories seem to include him, the harsher views placed upon Taiyang might not be a completely unfair assessment.
More importantly though, unlike other characters, we can’t look at the world through Taiyang’s lens. The guy doesn’t have one, or rather what he does have just isn’t logical or even realistic. He’s a man trapped in his own bubble, and that’s probably why Ruby and Yang act the way they do in the early parts of the show.
Don’t believe me?
Well, we just don’t see him interacting with a world outside of his home. Where other characters can display a core ethos regarding the world around them, Taiyang can’t do that. He’s stuck at home, and the scenes in which he is talking with others have an uncomfortable feel to them. To be honest, it just shows just how out of touch he is with characters and the world in which he lives. In the context of the wider series, he’s a nonsensical hermit at best..
Sadly, that nonsense becomes his ethos.
This is the scene that truly showcases how much of a hypercritical jerk Taiyang really is capable of turning into. When it least suits the situation, he acts out of turn. Yang and Taiyang end up having a petty fight similar to what we see back in volume 1 content. If you watch this scene and it feels like the same sort of bickering you’d hear from Yang and Ruby in volume 1, it should… that’s exactly the sort of stupidity it really is.
Within the scene, Bartholomew Oobleck and Peter Port are visiting him. They’re laughing it up, having a good time, and then Yang comes down the stairs. They talk about the Branwen twins in a less than favorable light, but up until that point Taiyang was acting up just as much as the other two… then the scene takes a sharp turn.
Word for word, Oobleck says this: “The Branwen twins have always been interesting to say the least.”
Then Professor Peter Port says this: “That sure didn’t seem to stop young Tai.”
From there Taiyang scolds them for saying that in front of his daughter. Peter rebuttals by saying that if Yang can fight monsters and train to be a huntress, she can handle the conversation going on around her. The truth is she can. She was handling the conversation just fine. I wouldn’t take an issue with Taiyang scolding them, but then Taiyang’s next comments are so damn insensitive and flat out idiotic that I wondered if volume 1 Weiss just manifested into his body out of the ass end of nowhere.
Read these lines and you’ll see what I mean.
Word for word, Taiyang say this: “Adult or not, you’ve still got a long way to go before you’re ready for the real world.”
That’s what Taiyang says when Yang says that she can be directly spoken to, like… funny that, an adult. Yang is university age, she’s not a child. She’s lost an arm to combat, and nearly lost her life once before that. If Raven hadn’t saved her in Volume 2, Yang would be dead. She’s lost friends, she’s seen hell at this point, and Ruby has gone off with the surviving members of JNPR.
Yet, Taiyang thinks that Yang is unready to live in the real world? The real world cut off her arm. The real world and the ramifications of being a huntress has been in front of her, and it has been for her entire life. Qrow’s drinking, her mother leaving her, Summer Rose is no longer with them, and Yang has faced near death experiences left and right since childhood.
Let’s be honest here guys, if she’s not ready for the harsh lessons of the real world by the time she goes off to Beacon Academy, what were the last seventeen years of her life really for? Moreover, why let a child go to Beacon Academy to face those dangers if she’s not ready for the adult realities that will inevitably bring?
Yang rightfully calls him out saying this: “Oh my god, does every father figure have the same three condescending phrases?”
Then Taiyang makes a jackass of himself: “Yeah, but we only use them when we mean it! If you honestly think that you’re ready to go out there on your own… Ha, well I guess you lost some brain cells along with that arm.”
Seriously, if that doesn’t feel like the early insult laden fights from the first volume, I don’t know what else would. Let’s be honest, that’s not only the wrong reaction to have, it’s a childish one for an adult man. His words and actions are so far from “okay” that everyone else in the room is taken aback by that statement.
Now to be fair to him, Yang eventually laughs it off. Still the fact she even has to laugh it off after the look she gives him prior, it really speaks volumes. That was a bridge too far for Taiyang, and it’s not okay. You don’t talk to your kid like that, not when she’s suffering from PTSD.
The hypocrisy is so prominent here, it’s a little disgusting. Peter can’t make a small joke at Tai’s expense, but Taiyang can say something like that to his own kid?
Sorry, no… hard no from me… no dice on that one… let’s just assume Peter crossed a line for Taiyang emotionally for a second. Even if so, you just don’t take that out on your kid. That’s vitriolic at best, and it is just a little emotionally abusive to say that to someone who just lost an arm in a fight for her life and the lives of her friends.
All of the above illiterates one thing. Taiyang never learned how to grow up. When characters like Sun, Ren and Jaune can act more like grown men than the actual father in the series, you need to take a few steps back and understand that this is all very intentional.
Taiyang is a troubled soul, he’s lost a great deal, and unlike Jaune Arc’s loss of Pyrrha Nikos, Taiyang’s loss of Summer Rose didn’t forge him into a better man than he was….
It downright crippled him.
Again though, I’m not saying Taiyang is an inherently bad man. Far from it. He’s not awful, he’s just not aware of himself or the wider world. He’s out of touch with what it means to be a family man, a father, and a person respectful of his own daughter’s limitations. He doesn’t know how to be more than he is… a man that has anger management issues much like his daughter, and a man that doesn’t learn from his mistakes… unlike Yang and Ruby who continue to learn from their own.
This is also what I mean by Yang and Ruby also keep and showcase his failings. Where he hasn’t grown from his troubles and tribulations, they obviously do. In Volume 4, Yang’s come a long way from the Yellow Trailer version of herself that grabbed Junior’s crotch. She’s mellowing by the day at this point, due in large part to her teammates. Ruby’s not the sort of person that babbles inconsistent nonsense so much anymore, like she did when facing Weiss down in Volume 1.
This scene when viewed in the context of the wider show just proves his lack of responsibility, and the responsibility he hypocritically expects from his children. Particularly, since if he actually feels that Yang is still a child, he never should have allowed Yang to wander to a bandit camp on another continent all by herself. If he doesn’t actually feel that way, why say something not only entirely insensitive, but also factually untrue?
Based on the events of the series as they’ve been portrayed by everyone, including himself, the hypocrisy here shows in spades.
This is where we get into the core problem of Taiyang Xiao Long. He’s a loving father who just doesn’t know how to be a parent. Unlike the Schnee family patriarch, Jacques could have likely been a wonderful father if he just gave a rat’s ass to be one. Taiyang never really grew up and simply can’t be a wonderful father, because at the end of the day, he’s still immature himself.
That is the core takeaway of this man. Taiyang doesn’t know how to be a father, and he never really learned at all. He ended up muddling his way through life without important lessons being learned the first time… which is why so many mistakes repeat over and over for his daughters.
Taiyang Xiao Long and Questionable Parenting
While even troubled characters such as Qrow and Raven seem to keep tabs on Yang and Ruby, Taiyang simply doesn’t. At the very end of the fourth volume, he sends Yang on her way to go meet with her bandit of a mother, Raven. That is a questionable detail, given just how dangerous the world of Remnant truly is. While Qrow at least follows Ruby’s rebuilt team, Taiyang stays behind… and this is a large theme with Taiyang in general… emotionally, he’s never really there when he’s needed.
Raven at least saves Yang during the train incident in volume 2, and she doesn’t flat out lie to Yang or skirt the details in any scene with her daughter. She is always honest with Yang, though she is also sometimes cruel about that honesty. Meanwhile, Taiyang can be cruel as shown by the scene above, but his dishonesty puts Yang and Ruby in danger as small children. Lies of omission are dangerous ones in the RWBY series, and they always end with something bad happening.
Refusing to talk about Raven until he absolutely must is a key problem for Taiyang.
The central flashback scene in which Yang describes the danger, it’s Qrow that shows up to save them in the flashback. She was able to sneak out with Ruby after Taiyang left the house. She says Ruby was a toddler at the time. Qrow saved the day, thankfully, or else they’d both be dead. This sort of inaction from Taiyang continues even when Taiyang becomes a fully realized character in the show.
Taiyang doesn’t leave with Yang at the end of volume 4. In volume 8, Taiyang just stands there and looks at the television screen when it cuts off, standing there and hoping Ruby comes back online. Frankly, the series makes one firm and clear depiction of Taiyang throughout the series.
Taiyang is not an active father, he’s largely inactive until he’s forced to act at all. Raven is absentee physically, but it’s Taiyang who is absentee emotionally. He may have put a roof over their heads, but he didn’t raise his daughters…
Let me be clear: he tried to, perhaps, the glimpses are there. Yet, to be honest, his failings are also clear in the lack of regard characters keep for him in general.
Yang can blow up bars in her character trailer, Ruby can pick a fight with thugs in the first episode of volume 1, but Taiyang is nowhere to be found in those incidents. His daughters can pointedly find trouble and danger as little girls, but all we know from Taiyang is that he wouldn’t tell Yang anything about her past.
He won’t talk about Raven until volume 4, when he has no other choice. Truth be told, it’s not the conversation Yang really needs to hear. Even that falls onto Raven’s shoulders. Taiyang isn’t the one to impart crucial details about the dangers of working with Ozpin.
I *would* call it bad writing, if we didn’t have such a clear and pointed view of the other family figures being referenced in the early volumes. Ruby discusses how Qrow trained her. Yang makes mention that Summer Rose was a lot like a “Super Mom”, but where’s Taiyang in those references? While Raven and Qrow both get rescue moments to save Yang, and Summer Rose is praised for being an influential figure, Taiyang doesn’t get anything like that.
He has no clear and pointed memorable mention of which to speak of. He has no moment to really stand out as a good father to them. By the time we get one, it’s already clouded over by the way he hasn’t been mentioned, and the ass he makes of himself.
Meanwhile, a drunk Uncle Qrow is regarded in a better light than their own father. While smashing up the campus with Winter Schnee, Ruby cheers for his actions. We really do need to question why… and that’s not to say Qrow doesn’t get a wake-up call as Ruby grows up. He gets a hard one by Ruby Rose standards in volume 6, but Taiyang never faces any repercussions like that.
Like Qrow, he really should have gotten the firm wake-up call, but for him it never comes. I really cannot let Taiyang slide on that one point.
The continued danger his daughters face, aren’t things he has any firm or direct dealings with. The times he has the opportunity, he fails to live up to it. Even just seeing him make a mad dash for the door in volume 8 before the screen cuts off would have been better than the way he just sits there. At this point he continues to prove he’s entirely useless to anything and everything.
The Belladonna parents get their moment to redeem themselves along with the Faunus of Menagerie. We get mentions of Glynda Goodwitch putting the city back together. From Taiyang, we have nothing of value to the greater society or to his own family. He’s no help to Vale, and he’s no help to his children. He’s not even any help to the family dog.
As a father who already lost people he loves, he now risks once again to lose the family he cares about. This time, his own flesh and blood, his daughters. Once again, he doesn’t do anything. With all of this being said, the series gives us a very clear cut view of Taiyang.
He’s no true huntsman, and deep down, he’s not the father he wishes he could have been. All that’s left is a lonely man, in a lonely, empty house…
He doesn’t have anything to show for all of his efforts, and we have to wonder how hard he really tried in the first place. How you choose to see those efforts are in your hands, and the series intends it that way.
As for me, I find it hard to have any real empathy for Taiyang. I do think he tries his best, but even Qrow stands as a stronger paternal influence to these girls, and that holds true from the very start of volume 1.
Taiyang has been absentee in a way worse than Raven could ever be in my eyes. He’s basically the male version of Willow Schnee, but without any outside oppressor, only himself to blame. He has no gumption to even attempt to do anything when faced with the difficult realities in front of him…
I’m not saying Willow is much better, but at least she knows well enough to know where Weiss really belongs. It’s not in that damned mansion, and Willow knows it. While Taiyang clings so hard he risks to lose everything, Willow knows when to let go.
Taiyang’s daughters habitually wander off, early and often. They get into danger, also early and often. Much like Ozpin allows trouble to take place within the school, Taiyang allows it to happen within the home. Otherwise it wouldn’t keep happening every time his back is turned or his daughters win the argument.
I think that alone says a lot about Taiyang.
When the other absentee parents, either emotionally or physically get a moment of redemption, he doesn’t. Qrow learns to follow Ruby’s lead. Willow learns how to make amends. The Belladonna’s are said to be reforming the White Fang. Raven learns to put faith in her daughter, because Yang is stronger emotionally than Raven will ever be.
What does Taiyang get?
Nothing… he gets nothing except for his own solitude. A man sitting in a dark room, all by himself, with his head in his hands… little more than a showcase of his failings.
Time will tell if Taiyang will ever get a redemption arc as a father, but for now, he’s pretty bottom of the barrel as far as RWBY parents are concerned. It seems to me, that’s exactly how the series wants it.
In my opinion, Taiyang is the foil to Willow. Both of them are emotionally absent to their children. One has lost herself due to an oppressor that terrorized her home, while the other is oppressed due to the failings and misgivings he simply couldn’t find the courage to correct.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey guys, gals and others, it’s Kern here. I don’t know about you, but I’m eagerly awaiting the RWBY Ice Queendom series that’s said to be coming out in 2022. We don’t have an official release date yet, but I can honestly say that I’m excited to see how the anime compares with the core material of the RWBY show we’ve all come to know and love.
I’ve been waiting to make a blog post about this, even though I wanted to for a while now. I didn’t want to be seen as hype chasing though, as this blog is small and even though riding the hype wave is a good way to get readers, it’s also not my style to do that.
Besides that, at first, I had a lot of conflicted thoughts about the show and what it might turn out to be. Therefore, I just wanted to sit and collect my thoughts. It can be really easy to become over excited or overly critical of new content before it releases, and I wanted to be impartial in my thoughts of this new impending series.
First of all, if you haven’t seen the trailer for RWBY Ice Queendom, you should do that first so that you know what I’m talking about.
Watched it at least once? Okay cool, so by now you’ve likely figured out that this is a upcoming Japanese animated series (anime) that’s being co-created by Rooster Teeth Productions(who also serves as producers for the show) and Studio SHAFT. This new anime is set to be released in 2022. That being said, we have no firm release date yet.
I’m of two minds for this upcoming show. The first is that I’m excited. I love RWBY, and I particularly love the early volumes before the show got too big for its own narrative footing. Getting a chance to reexamine this series with a fresh coat of paint will be something spectacular, I’m sure. There’s a lot of moments that you’ll notice look very self-same, and I’m sure that they’ll want to cover some of those key plot points anew, just as many series tend to do.
This isn’t a reboot, mind you. It won’t be purely the same cannon, either. It is being called “canon adjacent”. To my understanding of what I can pick up via social media and chit-chat among the fandom, RWBY Ice Queendom will stand someplace in the middle of pure canon and an alternate universe. I think that suits the situation just fine.
I know a lot of people are a little edgy about it, I was too at first. However, in truth I think that theRWBY series is at its strongest when it isn’t crammed into tight fitting boxes, or perfectly fitting labels.
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Personally, I feel that allowing the RWBY universe to have some sort of fluidity, and being more open with what is and isn’t canon lends to this series and its strengths. It also mitigates some of its worst weaknesses as well.
For example, if the Faunus plight is handled with a better hand here, we gain quite a bit. If we have a chance to see it better addressed, and with more nuance offered when it comes to the opinions of Faunus have in general, then that’s a win across the entirety of all the series within RWBY as a material. There’s nothing to lose from that.
Literally, we only have the opportunity to gain here unless a garbage fire well and truly occurs, which I doubt it will. If the Faunus plight is done worse or just as sub-par in some places than the show we’ve already got, well, we’re still where we were before… the fandom will pick up the slack just as we always have.
However, if it is done better, then we have something better to contextualize the RWBY universe with. We may end up with more avenues to explore regarding this, paving the way for new fan fiction angles and fan art alike.
We’ve only go gain with this fluid mind set, and unlike written material, this show will be much more easy to access for viewers who may hate the idea of reading. Therefore the RWBY fan base who don’t read the books in the wider universe will have more material to enjoy as well. The same goes for the games. We’re not all gamers, so the canon material found there may be lost to some people. This show can serve as a deeper gateway into wider lore, and we should see that as a bonus, not a loss.
The end of the trailer though, that’s what interests me. When Weiss sees herself at the end, it brings to mind the callback of her original trailer we had from all the way back before Volume 1 aired. It really excites me to think we may have deeper extrapolations of characters and their metaphors on our hands here.
If there is little else though, this new series can and will breathe new life into the fandom. We desperately need that most of all. For those of us that have been around since the earliest days, enjoying the RWBY series for all that it has to offer, even the most die-hard fan can agree that not everything is perfect. There was always a little something lacking across the volumes here and there. At the end of the day, love it or hate it, RWBY Ice Queendom will provide fans of RWBY a new bone to chew. That alone is worth giving it a try in my opinion. As someone who likes to dive deep with the RWBY universe, this is what excites me the most.
All we have to do is wait for it to come out.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Okay everyone, this is one weird anime, but it merits a discussion because it is your standard harem anime, but it’s not standard in the way it will subvert a few expectations.
A Bridge to the Starry Skies began as an adult visual novel in October of 2010. In April of 2011 an anime based on the series started releasing. Written media for the series came out in June of 2011, and ran until February 2012, with two manga volumes released during that time.
I say all of that so that you know where this anime hailed from, because it’s important to know where it all started; harem related material. Now, this is about the anime, not the visual novel or the written media it’s based upon.
That being said, this anime follows one distinct rationale; don’t judge any anime at first glance. Upon the first impression, viewers will get the implication that this is going to be an incestuous romance between two brothers. That’s the way it feels early on, and knee-jerk reactions being what they are, it’s easy to fall into the mindset that a sibling romance is what you’ll find here… news flash though, you won’t.
In truth though, A Bridge to the Starry Skies isn’t about that at all. Actually, subverting my expectations is one of the reasons that I watched this series back when it came out in 2011. I was told it wasn’t about incestuous romance, and I wanted to find out for myself. I was dubious of course, but my friend turned out to be right. Actually this anime isn’t half bad, not even for a harem.
The main plot is this; Kazuma Hoshino is a high school student. His younger brother, Ayumu is very ill. They both move move to Yamabiko to seek a better living due to Ayumu’s asthma (more on this later). While settling into their new surroundings the brothers become acquainted with several locals, many of them female. Romance, slice-of-life, and hilarity ensues.
A little light on the plot there, right? Well, that’s because it is.
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Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi or also known as A Bridge to the Starry Skies feels like your general run-of-the-mill harem anime. If you’re a fan of that trope, you know the drill. A bunch of cute girls clutter the screen, and generally speaking one male lead attracts all of the attention. Also, generally speaking, harem anime don’t tend to have any firm or clear romantic ending. There can be multiple reasons for this, but notably it’s because you want the audience to be able to pick the relationship they want to root for.
A bridge to Starry Skies is an interesting type of harem anime. It follows a lot of the same tropes, such as the male lead falling all over the place, which leads him to kiss a girl in the first episode. Yet, it’s also strangely unique as well, but for those reasons you’d actually have to watch the show. All in all, it has a lot of heart, but it’s also messy as hell.
Is it more focused on romance, or the family related plot lines having to do with a very ill little brother? I can’t say really, because the show doesn’t quite seem sure what it wants to be about. All the way onto the last episode, the series doesn’t have a tight narrative, and it lacks a lot of focus on its themes… that said that last episode, holy merciful crap. Seriously, talk about a shocker ending, worth the watch for that alone, I’d say.
Now, I know what you’re thinking if you’ve visited this blog for any length of time. I’m an anime fan that demands a decently driven plot, and I generally hate harem, so why in the hell would I be talking about this show? It doesn’t tend to tick any of the boxes I like in anime. Well, yeah, you’d be right. Typically I’d absolutely hate a show like this… but I like this particular one.
Sure, it doesn’t have a strong plot to praise. The illness the little brother has is vague at best. The romance is about what you’d generally expect. The main character’s stupidity and contrived notion of what a harem is stands firmly at the forefront of the show… that’s true too.
So, why did I like it?
Frankly, this series took my expectations for what a harem anime was and it cast it aside. This series reaches beyond what a huge number of non-harem fans (and likely a huge number of those that are) and kicks those expectations right out of the way… because as I said, there’s a lot of heart here. There are moments that will hit you, draw you in and make you care.
While the plot is weak as hell and I’d never defend it, the characters themselves aren’t half bad. Between that and the decent art style, it isn’t an awful anime to look at. It’s crisp, it’s clean, and you notice that right from the first episode we can see a great care was taken to its production value. The series doesn’t ever hit an all-time-low.
if you’re looking for an unusual harem anime, you might like this one.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Author’s Note: Well, here we are, the long awaited chapter one. This is a serial fiction, and chapters will be posted once a week until series completion. There are precursors to this series, and if you haven’t read them, that’s where you should begin; start here.
Genres (so far within the totality of the universe): Romance, Slice-of-Life, Drama, Fantasy. Tags (so far within the totality of the universe): F/F, M/F, Mature Sensual Content, Mild Fantasy Violence.
Totality Rating: This serialized content is “Mature” due to romantic overtures between adult women and use of hard language (cursing/swearing). No severe warnings currently apply to this fiction. Warnings will be added on an as needed basis.
Thank you to our official artist, Ruka. She provided the artwork for Blair. More concept artwork and other details have been provided to patron members, who also receive chapters early. If you enjoy our efforts, please consider supporting this fiction.
Blair often dreamed of that wedding when she closed her eyes. In the haze of sleep, she was swept away to that effervescent celebration she so heavily envied. She could expertly replay the events hosted by the Cadfan kingdom to the north. It was like magic to recall that night so fondly, and she wanted a union like that for herself.
It had been a splendorous night. She enjoyed the feast and danced all night long. Her body rocked to the ceremonial drums that pulsed amidst waves of flowing embers. That was the moment that an Advar and a Cadfan had joined together beneath the full moon sky. Sweat covered the bodies of the practitioners calling upon their own elements, the Advar among them paying tribute to the momentous occasion.
She remembered offering her own element of shadow to the festivities. Penumbra casting a silhouette, even where the fires flickered the brightest. The places that shadow normally couldn’t prevail found their existence in that utmost important ritual. Nightfall ebbed into the gray skies of morning that way, amidst the snowy northern reaches of Basa.
That night, she had watched her cousin become wed in the Cadfan ceremonial way, and joined herself to that Cadfan woman under Advar ritual. Her cousin, consort to a warrior queen… who would have guessed?
Blair never would have.
To her surprise though, that was not the detail clinging to her mind. It was not the thing she dreamed of most. No, that honor went to the touch of a dainty hand in hers, and that small squeeze. Affectionate, if withdrawn. It was within that single moment, on that very night, she knew…
She had found a suitor of her own. The queen’s younger sister, no less…
That had been a special moment. As the sun caressed the sky and the ceremony came to a close, life as she knew it had changed for Blair. It had been such a small thing, but it had meant the world to her. A weekend spent with that acerbic woman called to Blair’s own desires and designs, and Valda was all that she could hope for.
She was stunning in her beauty, crimson hair a shocking hue, viridian eyes like gemstones. With a tongue lashing out intellect like a whip, it was hard not to take notice of her. Valda was small stature, lacking in pure physique. She had a desire for simple finery, an exquisite taste for food and drink. For all of that, she was neither cowed by the Arvad surrounding her, and hardly intimidated by Blair’s tenacity. She would willingly bicker at every turn, and yet, she was softer for the moments partaken in observation.
A gentleness beneath it all…
Dreams were fickle things, although Blair was loath to admit that. When she awoke to a cold bed, inevitably colder thoughts drifted the hours by. Reaching out to the darkness surrounding her, she began to draw into the air, almost as though she was drawing upon a canvas. Tendrils of white void began slicing beyond the very darkness itself, beyond the living realm.
The image was so clear to her mind’s eye. She followed the patterns, traced it out. The spectacle took form in front of her, until the door to her room opened and the light from the outdoors banished her drawing back into the shadows… erased entirely.
Finally, the door closed, casting the room back into darkness. The sounds of footfalls permeated the air as the well-meaning intruder rounded the corner. The thick velvet drapes were drawn shut against the open window, cool air flowed in, the light stayed out. Even amid what had to be daylight, it was as dark as pitch, just the way she liked it. She rolled her eyes as her father made himself comfortable in a chair resting within a corner of the room.
“Good, you’re awake,” the man chuckled softly, voice full of warmth. At his side there were two small orbs of midnight, one nestled upon each of his shoulders.
“I’ve been awake for a while now,” she said, watching as a small flame came to life. It settled upon a candle to light the room dimly. “I couldn’t sleep…”
The only light that came sparked from the dark corner, a small flicker of that flame moved until a shadowed face came into view against it. The man lit his cigarette, perching it there between his lips. Meanwhile, one of the small orbs darted to her. The tiny little orb was one of her baby brothers. He began bouncing around in the air curiously, as if to inspect her. The baby Arvad still lacked meaningful physicality, no more than a wisp of essence.
Until he had a physical vessel, he was incapable of feeling pain. He could do no more than observe the world around him. That made for endless trouble, particularly for those who couldn’t understand him. She caught him, cupping her brother in her palms. “What do you think you’re doing? Stop that and go back to Dad,” Blair grumbled dryly, opening her palms.
Instead of heeding her request, her brother darted around her head once more. She swatted at him just to get the point across, although it didn’t do much good. He continued to float around haphazardly, trying to keep her attention.
“He’s a playful youth,” Blagden said to her. “A talkative little one, too.”
Blair nodded at that. “Have you named them yet?”
“We thought it wise to wait a little. Your mother and I are still getting to know them after all…”
Blagden merely took in the sight with a pride only a father could. If he were honest with himself, so many of his children returned to the elements soon after adulthood. Unable to find their value and usefulness, they returned to the shadows from which they were born. It was the natural order for them, the way things ought to be. Still, he would be entirely remiss if he didn’t wish for a child he felt worthy enough to take his place one day.
Firmly, he felt it within him and he looked upon his finest protege. His daughter, Blair. She would be a wise choice. The first that lacked a particular ruthlessness, and the first to wish for the position out of belonging instead of greed… but, she had much to learn before she could do that.
“By the way,” he began, drawing deeply from his cigarette. “We leave in three hours for the final leg of the journey to reach Vamon Coast. The way I see it, we can continue the shortcut upon the Black Causeway, exiting off northeast once we reach the Vamon Valley. It shouldn’t take too long.”
“Perfect, just what I need right now,” Blair said unhappily. She sat up in her small cot with a groan, stretching languidly. “More rain and the reeking scent of sulfur… what time is it?”
“Noonday… or thereabouts,” the Arvad man said to her. His voice was deep and warm. “Look lively now, you know what awaits us the very moment that we get there. Well, assuming it isn’t too late of course.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice. I want to see Valda the moment we arrive if that’s at all possible…” Blair said to him. Her thoughts were already upon the small pup sleeping in the basket in the corner. A gift she intended to offer the moment that nuptials were arranged. “Furthermore, I do not intend to leave without Valda at my side. I will make the fight for her if I must, you should know that upfront. Honestly, we should have left earlier..”
“I’m sure you will,” he said, sighing softly. “We would have left earlier, but your mother decided to frolic amid the town. I cannot seem to find her anywhere.
“Did you try the seamstress?”
“That was the first place I checked,” he muttered in return.
“And just where is it that you believe I’ve wandered off to?” A womanly tone asked both of them, causing father and daughter alike to startle at the words. A hand shoved the thick drapes aside, leaning in through the open window. “I was shopping for goods, not gallivanting around… get up Blair, the innkeeper wishes to speak with you about something important.”
The Aasa were a tender folk, placidity was a trait favored often among them. They were also keen, known for brilliance and ingenuity. Yet, they were also somewhat strange people, at least by Blair’s understanding of them. They had been born from the whims of three elemental graces, that of Light, of Land, and the mortal man turned elemental, Advar himself. The Aasa were not kindred spirits to her… not as an entirety.
Aasa were shifters of animal kind, able to blend into the wilds they called home… but to Blair’s recollections, those old ways had been sacrificed. The Aasa had cast them aside. The Cadfan were to blame for that. There was once a time, long ago, when Cadfan and Aasa lived side-by-side. A time now sullied and spat upon, by the mortals of this world.
The Aasa could shift to animalistic nature, like the fauna surrounding them. The Cadfan could commune with that nature directly. Controlling the mortal beasts of the lands was their utmost ability, but such a power came with the awful reality of using the Aasa for tools of their primal desire for war and conquest.
These days, the Aasa hated the Cadfan for years of mistreatment. The Cadfan saw the Aasa as little more than cowards, and beneath them besides. After all, the Cadfan believed that if they could tame down the creatures that walked this mortal realm, why not be able to tame and control the Aasa as well? To them it was a simple fact that they were the greater race among them.
The Aasa disagreed.
“So, let me get this straight. You want me to take Kiki along with me on my travels?” Blair asked curiously, surprised by the request. “That’s an odd thing to ask of an Advar, one like me especially.”
The innkeeper nodded, setting down a large wash basin in front of him. He had bedding to wash, one of his many daily chores. “My daughter spends all day cooped up within the shed concocting nonsense unless you happen to be around. She’s taken a liking to you, for what little that’s worth. Ever since her uncle left to wander, Kiki keeps the hunger to see the world as well. She’ll leave for greener pastures one day, Blair. I’d rather she did that with those I can trust.”
“I assume that you want me to take her to him,” Blair said passively. “You should know, he isn’t within Vamon anymore. Last I saw him, he was settled with a small Aasa village in the north.”
“So say his letters,” the man said with a nod. He spent his time running the sopping wet cloth heavily against the uneven bumps of metal, releasing the impurities from the cloth. The clear water in the basin turned murky, just like his thoughts upon the matter. “I can only give her the same fate that I have now. The daughter of an innkeeper doesn’t have much to look forward to, not in these parts.”
Blair considered that, sitting upon the hillside with a loaf of freshly baked bread in hand. She watched the large dogs that made their home upon the hillside. They meandered along with the shepherds and the sheep. The elderly man among the livestock paid no mind to them. She wondered what sort of animal he could shift into, there was no way to tell just by looking at him.
The flowing markings upon his skin did nothing to tell what he could shift into.. Only that he could at all. Ancient coloration against skin tone aside, in this form he was merely human looking. There was no other hint to his nature. If someone was lucky enough to decipher the markings, they might have a clue, but Blair was not so skilled.
Blair took a bite of her meal, washing it down with water. She looked away from the shepherd and back to the man at her side. The innkeeper’s request seemed so odd to her. She knew of the man’s brother in passing, but not enough to know the bond of the family. “It isn’t as if your brother’s inn to the north is any different from your own… aside from passing Advar like myself, I doubt he sees much in the way of business these days.”
“We’re simple men who settled with simple women, he and I. These days, that’s fine for us, but Kiki isn’t so easy to please. She’s a restless one, and I will be honest. I just don’t believe these small outpost villages suit her whims. She would be happier in a large city someplace, I’d say.”
Blair sighed softly, she could already feel the headache brewing. “You believe handing her to the Arvad guarantees that she’ll be given the opportunity to settle someplace else?”
“Once she’s ready. Perhaps she’ll be taken in-hand by one of your own kind once she comes of age… she may distinctly prefer that, for all that I know… Kiki is a strange girl that way.”
“Thankfully for us, enough of you are strange that way. Otherwise, we Arvad would be out of luck… but the Arvad life can also be a life of hardship too,” she said to him. “A life on the road is a life that lacks luxury.”
“She’ll have no harder a life than the one she already lives here. The truth is, she has little in the way of options for her future. I can hardly make ends meet some days,” he replied. “I’m a poor man Blair. The girl rarely listens to me these days, but she admires you.”
“Why not leave for greener pastures yourself?” Blair asked him then. “You could simply pack up and move.”
“This is my home, and it’s all that I know.”
“Hmm, she would do better with those of Land’s influence, or perhaps those of Light… the Arvad they cultivated are temperate minds, and they’re highly favored. They keep many mortal oddities among them. It wouldn’t seem so out of place for an Aasa to walk among the gentle Arvad nomads.”
“I don’t know them, and they don’t pass by this area often. They’re not known to come this far into the inhospitable wilderness. I wouldn’t entrust my daughter’s safety to those I hardly know, to me she’s still just a child. That’s why I’m asking you to do me this favor… I do know of you…”
Blair raised a black eyebrow, curious and skeptical. A favor begot one in return. This man had nothing to offer, and nothing that she particularly wanted. “I’m not one to take a plea for help. It sounds as though you don’t want me to drop her somewhere, but to be her keeper… I’m not so interested in that.”
“I’m not asking this with the intent to send her away for good. The opposite is true,” he said, licking his lips thoughtfully. “I’d hope on your next pass through, she’d choose to stay put.”
“If she doesn’t?”
“Then at least I see my daughter on the occasions you stop here to rest. I thought you enjoyed spending time with Kiki. Is looking after her upon the road truly that too great a burden to you?”
“If I found her a burden, I’d chase her from my sight,” Blair said, rolling her eyes as she continued to eat her meal. It had little to do with the young teenager. She could keep the girl safe. That she knew, but even so. The man had obviously lost his mind. “She’d be ridiculed for traveling with us, we shadow folk aren’t well-liked.”
“I like you…”
“We pay you for goods and services, what isn’t to like?” Blair questioned. “Outposts tolerate us because without us, you’d starve. The same isn’t true for the Aasa in the cities who have no value for the Arvad passing by… least of all an Arvad like myself. You’re just lucky that I find your daughter favorable to me, or else I’d have declined the notion outright.”
The man sighed at length, deflating so heavily that Blair almost felt bad for him. Almost, but not quite. More than anything, she found him pitiable at the very least.
“Just take her with you, Blair. Promise me that you will…”
A promise was a promise, even if she did feel a little dubious about it. If she had thought Kiki entirely useless, she wouldn’t have made the agreement, but she knew the girl had her own skills. Preparing to leave, she thought about how best to use the girl’s skills to her advantage.
Gathering supplies was the least of Blair’s concerns. The routine came second nature. It was the same as taking great care of the creatures tainted by the element of shadow. She could have done it blindfolded. Preparing to leave took days on occasion, just as the journey itself could take even longer.
Vamon wasn’t too far away now, and she felt the clock ticking. Still, it was better to keep busy than to restlessly worry about a possible proposal decline. She needed a distraction, and found it amidst the chores needing to be completed.
An aircraft slowly passed by, a young teenage girl pedaling the contraption with great effort.
She began circling around before she slowed her speed, coming in for a landing. The Aasa were a wise and industrious people, gizmos and gadgets aplenty to compliment their forest dwelling nature. They deeply respected the lands, and found ways to aid in protecting it. Aircraft was a new industry, but a monumental one.
The impish Aasa teenager lifted the set of shaded goggles from her face. She was easily excitable, always curious. “So, what do you think? Do you like it?”
“I don’t dislike it, but you won’t be able to take it with you,” Blair replied. She was hardly interested in a machine meant to soar. That was meant for birds, not people. “You’ll have to leave that with your father if you intend to join us.”
“Aw, you’re no fun, Blair.”
“If you were meant to fly, you’d have been born with wings.”
“You’re just a big party-pooper. Even my parents say so. The shadow-folk are always so grumpy. That’s what Mom says,” the girl said, untying the two lines of rope. They were fastened to the seat, to keep her safe. She hopped off of her newest flying machine with a grin. “I want to see everything from up high.”
“Not even we Arvad fly, Kiki…”
“Not even just one?”
“Never that I’ve heard of,” Blair said, pouring a bucket of water into a nearby trough. With one hand resting upon her father’s beloved steed that came to get a drink, she took a brush to his coat with the other. “Obviously, with the aid of great winged beasts we could fly, if we so wished. None of us can fly upon our own merits though.”
“Have you ever flown on one?”
No… I haven’t, and I won’t unless I must. I was born to walk the lands, not soar above them,” Blair told her. “Why do you want to follow us around so badly, anyway? This is a nice little village, and it’s where you belong. Your family resides here.”
“Dad said that I could go with you to see Vamon,” Kiki replied. “I’ve never been to a big city before. I’m old enough to go now, aren’t I? I am thirteen now, after all.”
“Yet compared to the vastness of the world, you’re still a baby,” Blair said as she watched Kiki collect her belongings from the back of the flying machine. It was a good thing the girl wouldn’t have to carry her bag by her own power, or she would tire quickly. “I doubt you’d be very impressed. Vamon isn’t a large city at all.”
“It isn’t?” Kiki asked, sounding disappointed. She nearly stumbled with her heavy rucksack before Blair caught her, holding her upright. “I thought you were going because the princess you really like has a castle there. She does, doesn’t she?”
“No, Vamon is only a farming and fishing town for the northern kingdoms. It isn’t as big as a major city,” Blair said. Then she took hold of the girl’s belongings, placing them beside her own. “It is rather large and prosperous, but it remains mostly rural settlements for cultivation. Sorry to darken your day with sour news, but theBirendra Citadel is just that. It isn’t a large castle by royal standards.”
“It has to be way bigger than this place at least,” Kiki replied with a small shrug. She settled down beside a gigantic black lion, plucking leaves out of his furry mane before picking up a small wolf pup of the same color. “Our farm is really small. We get most of our food from the traders.”
Blair rolled her eyes, the girl had her there. The small outpost villages were nothing compared to a town. The innkeeper here was a friend of the family. Blair could recall when Kiki had been little more than a diaper clad baby, sucking upon her thumb. She had come a long way since then. The Aasa people weren’t known to go on great pilgrimages often, they were not the wandering sort. Once they settled, they stayed, but Kiki was a wild youth.
There were exceptions to every rule, after all, and Kiki was a great many of them. She wanted to be a voyager of the lands, to leave and see them. Perhaps the diminutive teenager was much more of a kinfolk to the Arvad in that way, mortal soul or not. The mortals were inclined from time-to-time, if rarely so.
Even so, Blair still didn’t think it wise to take the girl along. She had agreed because more hands among them meant more work done, and Kiki would be an asset, not a hindrance. “Vamon is a quiet place, generally speaking,” Blair spoke idly as she cared for the horses and oxen. “The Aasa’s very own Colm Citadel rests there too, to be exact. All of the Vamon Coast rests upon neutral grounds…”
“Do you think I can see it?”
“As we pass by, but you wouldn’t be permitted inside… never mind that for now. Be mindful of that wolf pup, Kiki.” Blair said then, grabbing the small creature by the scruff of his neck. She gently placed him back in the basket he belonged in. “He’s a gift for Valda, I don’t want him bonding with anyone.”
“Oh, okay…” The girl nodded emphatically before she paused. Brown eyes blinked slowly, narrowing curiously. “Hmm, Blair, what’s a-”
“A very tall tower,” Blair interrupted. “It isn’t their primary residence. Merely a property royal families keep to please the Grace of Light. Each one overlooks the lands they keep in Vamon… those lands are protected by light-aligned Advar, Kiki. Every prominent ruler is expected to keep a residence there.”
The girl nodded, she had heard a little bit about Vamon from the travelers passing by. She had always been curious about it, but so few of them would talk to her. Blair did, the shadow Advar always told her stories when they stopped here. For the lonely teenager on the hillside, that meant the world to her. “I don’t understand why that’s a rule Grace of Light has. The Cadfan have never liked us, and the animals they command are all super mean. Why do we have to have a… what was it again?”
“Citadel, Kiki… Citadel…”
The girl nodded. “Yeah, that. Why do we all have one?”
“Grace of Light demands it, her desire is for peace and prosperity for all. Her elemental fountain rests there which is why it remains so peaceful and the land there never dries or becomes inhospitable. That’s why there are no beasts tainted by Light’s element. She wishes for visitation by all who walk upon Basa’s soil and she doesn’t cast hardship onto others. No one is allowed to wage war on her lands, that is absolutely forbidden…” Blair said, sighing then.
“But we always fight and that never changes.”
“That’s because you mortals don’t live long enough to see how useless conquest truly is.”
“Conquest my butt, he was just mean. Get this, the last time a Cadfan passed me by in the forest, his bear actually tried to eat me and chased me right up a tree!” Kiki complained, letting out an annoyed huff as she crossed her arms over her chest. “He thought it was funny too… stupid Cadfan… those guys living by the volcanoes are such big jerks.”
“It serves you right for wandering around outside the village… I don’t mind if you come along, but mean spirited Cadfan would be the least of your worries. There are all kinds of animals out there. There are monsters too,” Blair said to her softly. “Twisted mutations of the flora and fauna gone berserk by elemental influence aren’t to be ignored.”
“They don’t scare me,” Kiki said to her. She had absolutely no fear of the tainted creatures the Advar almost always kept beside them. She liked Blair’s animals most of all though, particularly the overgrown shadowy lions. They tended to follow their master around and laze in the sun. “Yours are all really cool, the cubs aren’t little anymore though.”
“They’ll grow larger, that male will too. These ones are pacified by the influence of those around them. We’re kin in a way, these creatures and I. The same isn’t true for the creatures tainted by other elements. If they had been twisted by any other element, we’d all be in very grave danger. These creatures aren’t like the Advar, Kiki… those stories the travelers tell, they speak the truth.”
“My dad says they’re lying, though.”
Blair shook her head. “Your father was born and raised here, same as you. He doesn’t know much at all. Mortals were not made to withstand elemental essence. This is true for all of Basa, creatures great and small. Even Aasa and Cadfan can be twisted and tainted by the elements in unnatural ways if they manage to piss off one of the graces. This is why mortals should never wander to an elemental fountain uninvited. Even we Advar are not permitted to wander to the fountains outside of our nature, not without express invitation…”
“What about that Grace of Light person?” Kiki asked. “They say she’s super nice.”
“Grace of Light… she’s different, an outlier among them. She is the only element that welcomes all beings without question, and without retaliation. We would become grotesque monsters ourselves if we were to encroach upon a fountain without the ruling power’s blessing. Grace of Light is merely of the mind to greet everyone…”
Kiki’s curiosity aside, the fact of the matter didn’t sit so well with Blair. She felt a sense of entanglement when it came to the way their ruling bodies operated. She didn’t care for it. The beings and their fountains weren’t godlike in the truest sense, merely spurned elemental powers seeking praise they hardly deserved.
“Have you ever met her?”
“Hmm?” Blair asked, being pulled away from her thoughts, casting her gaze to Kiki.
“That girl… Grace of Light. Have you met her?”
“I have met all of them once or twice. When called upon, we must answer,” Blair said to her. “That’s just the way it goes… more importantly, if you’re going to be staying among us, you need to earn your way. You need to find a job to assist, you’re good with your hands. Go over to the wagons and find my mother. She’ll put you to work.”
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The Demented Ferrets 