Blog Archive

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

'In Another World With 100 Waifus' read and edited for the 41st time:

First off, congratulations to Stetson and Grambling for their first invitation to the Dance.  I've timed things perfectly, finishing my reread right when March Madness begins.  No downtime in my life, that's for sure.

Chapter 59 had two more edits.  I changed the word 'between' to 'over' for greater clarity, and 'Muslims' to 'Moors' for greater parallelism.  It doesn't make sense to talk about Mongols, Muslims and Turks -- Mongols and Turks were also Muslim.  So what I needed was to specify the second group of Muslims into a more granular tribe like I had the first and third groups, and Moor turned out to be what I was looking for.  Chapter 59 is the newest chapter so it makes sense that there's still some slapdash wording in need of improvement.  But now it's fixed.  Now the entire book is fixed.  People can read the new and improved '100 Waifus' now, knowing that all problems have been ironed out, and only smooth sailing awaits them:

https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-1.html

https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-2.html

https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-3.html

https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/03/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-4.html

https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/05/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-7.html

The nature of the edits this time were twofold -- the name gallery and a couple sentences were changed to reflect my new knowledge stemming from playing Irotoridori no Sekai and FF7 Rebirth since the previous edition -- and a few minor errors or poor phrasings were fixed that had been overlooked up until now.  Every possible way to improve the book has been utilized.  I haven't experienced any new art since Irotoridori and Rebirth, so '100 Waifus' is absolutely totally up to date, and by reading the paperback version of the book I was able to more easily catch all the remaining errors in need of correction.  In other words the book is as perfect as I can make it.  I thought that was true of the 40th edition, but it's now definitely true of the 41st.

Unlike the previous editions, I didn't come away from this book thinking 'waifu x didn't get enough screen time, I should add in another scene with her.'  Waifus x, y, and z all got enough screen time to make whatever points they needed to make.  Why they liked Christopher, why Christopher liked them, it's all there in the book already.  Even Levy got her day in the sun.

This book is basically the combination of three things -- intimacy, name galleries, and creating utopia.  Reading the intimate portions in paperback is even more immersive and erotic than before.  Those portions completely floored me.  I was amazed at their power considering this was the 41st time (and only a month since the last time), it was more emotional than ever before.  For people who think making love, expressing or showing affection is boring or belittling, I can only extend my pity for your desiccated soul.  It's in fact the best thing in life, and it's no wonder that the writing that conveys it is the best writing in the world.

The name galleries were a chore this time.  There were so very many names, so often coming back to back with nothing else inbetween.  But I admit doing my homework paid off.  By paying close attention to the names I was able to identify areas for improvement and improve the book thereby.  In addition I was able to improve the fictional character hall of fame, a related but separate permapost, changing over 30 names for the better.  So I'm glad even for this part of the book.

As for describing and building the perfect society and creed from the ground up, the book pulled this off perfectly.  Chapter 4, Chapter 15, Chapter 40, Chapters 44-46, Chapter 52, Chapter 58, Chapter 59.  Each of them gave an amazing and unbeatable argument for why Christopher's world and worldview is superior to modernity.  Of course this argument, this pleading, can be found everywhere, across the entire book, but it's more pronounced and persuasive in those sections.  The arguments are irrefutable.  They cannot be made any better, nor can there be any utopia better than Eden's.  As Cute says, 'This is the place to build a home.  This is the place to start a family.'

To paraphrase Haruka Haruno, "this book is the best at everything!"  It has the best and most physical, emotional and spiritual bonding, the best and most names, and the best philosophy and most persuasive arguments for people to adopt said philosophy.

I come away from this book in awe that it exists and that I was able to write it.  There is nothing else like it in this world.  Just to be clear about what just happened -- I reread '100 Waifus' for the 41st time, a month after reading it for the 40th time, instead of a) playing a new great visual novel, b) playing more of the best video game of all time, FF7 Rebirth, c) playing an all new video game which is also surely great, Unicorn Overlord, d) rewatching my 4th favorite anime, Pretty Cure.  A book, mere words on paper, for the 41st time, beat anime, visual novels and video games.

There is only one book in the world that can do that, and it's this one right here.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Rhett and Fuu dumped:

I saw an opportunity in Chapter 53 to improve my fictional character hall of fame within '100 Waifus,' not just in my permapost, so I took it.  Serenoa was added back into the book in place of Rhett Butler, while Shinku was added to the book for the first time in place of Fuu from Samurai Champloo.

Serenoa and Shinku have proven their worth previously and don't need to be talked up again.  But the reason they could be fitted in is because Rhett and Fuu have no particular connection to any waifu, so weren't required.  But they couldn't stand on their own merits, either.  Rhett is too much of a historical character, i.e., a real life person, so he never really belonged in a fictional character hall of fame.  In addition his main claim to fame is realizing far too late that he fell in love with a bad woman and leaving her only after she'd wrecked his whole life.  That's not exactly a sterling quality in a man.

Fuu on the other hand has two sins -- her name isn't unique, whereas Shinku's name is.  More unique names and thus less confusion in the book is always better.  Her other sin is that more was done to her than by her.  She's kidnapped more often than any other character in fiction.  Mainly she just stands around and watches as Mugen and Jin fight.  I'd much rather have the beautiful and loving Shinku, and the franchise inclusion of Irotoridori no Sekai, than the least interesting character in Champloo.

Because the Fuu name no longer doubled up I was able to cut an unnecessary sentence in Chapter 34, which is also a big gain.  Another edit I did recently is to cut out any mention of Final Fantasy children among the 8th borns, since it wasn't actually accurate (there was only one FF kid among the 8th borns, out of six FF mothers, hardly a trend).

All minor edits but they add up.  I'm now at Chapter 54 of my '100 Waifus' reread and I have to admit this 41st editing session was as necessary as any previous one.  I've actually edited more this time than some of the previous times.  I really jumped the gun thinking I was done.  Only six more chapters to go, though, so surely now the editing is done. . .

As for my wonderful fictional characters permapost, Serenoa and Shinku were already there, so this time I just subtracted two characters without adding anyone new, for a new grand total of 1110.  I expect I'll have two replacements ready once I've played Unicorn Overlord, though.  Barring that there's also the Eiyuuden Chronicle game coming out next month.  One way or the other I'll get that number back to 1112.

On the Russian front, the Nazi Jewish Dictator Zelensky (who has suspended elections, traces Ukraine's historical basis back to the S.S. collaborators with Nazi Germany and claims to be honoring, upholding and carrying through their legacy while dedicating statues to them, waving their flags around, and putting their symbols on his infantry and armor, and yet himself is a Jew the Ukrainian Nazis would have been the first to gas, making himself a clown on top of a genocidal monster), ordered the indiscriminate cluster round shelling of the Russian city of Belgorod, killing 11 civilians and wounding 90 more.  These are the very cluster rounds Zelensky promised not to use on civilian city centers to Biden, and Biden assured us in speech after speech would never be used like this.  Remember that?  One more provable lie from Ukraine and the Democrats.

Obviously Zelensky was enraged that Putin had a free and fair election with overwhelming turnout (75% or so) and overwhelming support for his re-election among that turnout (88% or so).  It was the most decisive electoral victory for Putin in his history of running for office.  It also mocked Zelensky's claim that it was impossible to hold an election in wartime, his lame excuse for why he has the right to become eternal dictator of Ukraine.  (Somehow America held elections during the Civil War and World War II, and yet we nod along and say it's totally reasonable that Ukraine can't hold elections.)  Among the newly liberated regions Putin had even higher support, from 88% in Kherson region to 96% in Donetsk People's Republic region.  (The region Putin is currently trying to fully liberate).  This proves beyond all question that these regions always wanted to be part of Russia and are happy with Putin's policies and want to see them continue into the future.  Anyone who believed in the principle of self-determination, when looking at these overwhelming election results, would favor Russia against Ukraine in this war.  And I remind you both the American Revolutionary War and the Mexican War were fought by the U.S. on the basis of self-determination trumping territorial integrity.  Without that principle the U.S. would not exist.  So basically you cannot be a patriotic American and side with Ukraine in this war.  Perhaps you could be a British loyalist, i.e., a traitor like Benedict Arnold, or a proponent of the Mexican dictator Santa Anna, but you cannot be an American patriot.

RIP Mutsumi Inomata:

Died suddenly of undisclosed causes at age 63, while in the midst of her work.  In other words, another victim of the vaccine.  Nobody used to die like this, and now everybody is dying like this.  Twenty years early, with no warning, and never any cause attributed.  This is the fabled character designer for the 'Tales of X' franchise, who has churned out almost solely fifty great characters, many the pinnacle of human beauty, like Sophie and Cheria.  She also worked on many other less famous and important franchises, and collaborated on the designs of many more Tales characters.

Character designs alone don't make a story.  A good plot, gameplay, music, setting, voice acting, etc. are also necessary.  But without those character designs no one would have even tried the Tales series, and afterwards nobody would have remembered the games because a striking character design is what stays with you years after, long after all the rest has faded away.  Tales couldn't have existed without Mutsumi Inomata, and I tremble to think what will become of the series now.  She died way too soon.

Thanks, Pfizer.  Oh, and thank you so much, Dr. Fauci, for designing the Covid-19 virus in the first place in the Wuhan lab, just for fun, just to see how contagious and deadly you could make it, out of scientific curiosity.  You have laid waste to the world and gotten away with it scot free, as one of the highest paid and most honored men in U.S. history, all while you held puppy torture experiments on the public dime.  There is a special place in hell waiting for you.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Barret > Yang:

I've gained a lot of respect for Barret over the course of FF7 Remake and Rebirth.  He's a genuinely good guy who cares about and looks after his 'crew,' which includes Wedge, Biggs, Jessie, Tifa and Cloud.  He also took good care of Marlene and tried his best to help Dyne.  Before then he was good to his wife, and made the right decision in trying to avenge his destroyed town by destroying Shinra.  It takes a lot of courage to lead a terrorist group against a gigantic government and accept that everyone will vilify you even though you're in the right.  He does more with one arm than most people with two could ever dream of.  I assume he'll continue being cool in game 3.

He's a little on the dull side, often the butt of jokes, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a good guy and a good friend.  He even encouraged Cloud to confess to whoever he loves, because you never know when they might permanently disappear and you'll regret it if you don't seize the day (like what tragically happened to his wife).  That was great advice, as it turned out, because Aerith died soon after.  For a black man he isn't bad looking.  I dig his shades.

When I compare that to Yang, a bald dude with a mustache, I have to admit Barret is better looking.  And when I compare Yang's minor character status, a guy you get for a few hours in FF4 before he ends up heroically dying and leaving the party (only not really dying but whatever), to Barret's monumental characterization over the course of three 100+ hour games plus movies and other spinoffs. . .it's not even close.  Yang isn't even a blip on the map compared to how much we know and love Barret.

Furthermore, it would make Tifa happy to have a child named Barret, one of her closest friends, so at that point giving her such a son in '100 Waifus' is undeniably the right decision.  Therefore I've edited '100 Waifus' to make it so.  There's a complication, though.  I need Yang as one of Tifa's children for the sake of the plot, so in '100 Waifus' not Yang, but Serenoa is replaced as one of Tifa's kids with Barret.  In my fictional character hall of fame I can properly replace Yang though and keep Serenoa.  With Barret's inclusion and Serenoa's exclusion I had to edit the scene in Chapter 55 a little, so it now reads (change in bold):

  Tifa watched over her children approvingly as they practiced her path of the monk. Cloud and Zack had been swordsmen, so she had left them be. Eiko and Tina were summoners, so she had left them be. Barret had been, well, Barret, so she had left him be. Sabin, Yang, Galuf and Snow were martial artists, so she had drilled them, and drilled them, and drilled them, to an inch of their lives, down the path of the monk.

I think it's apropos to make a joke at Barret's expense since the game constantly does too, so it feels more 'Barret' this way than any other.

In addition I made another edit in Chapter 44, fixing a grammatical error of a present-tense 'show' into a past-tense 'showed.'  I know, huge deal, right?  But I want the book to be perfect and this 41st edition is dedicated to achieving that task.

I'm up to Chapter 48 now.  It's good to know that rereading this book for the 41st time wasn't a waste and I found genuinely important ways to improve it as a result, but wading through these long lists of names sure has been a slog.  If it weren't the 41st time I'm sure I'd feel better about them, but man.  I can understand anyone's decision to just scroll through them and get back to the narrative.

The March Madness bracket is settled and there are lots of Texas teams for me to cheer for, including #1 seed Houston.  I expect good things from the coming weeks.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Kasumi > Elfman, Uriko > Cana:

Elfman is included in '100 Waifus' because he's Mirajane and Lisanna's brother, not on merit.  Likewise Cana is included because she's Lucy's friend, not on merit.  Elfman is too simpleminded and overgrown looking to take seriously, whereas Cana is a drunk and a slut who I can hardly approve of no matter how good looking she is or how good her voice actress is.

In their place I can add Kasumi from Dead or Alive and Uriko from Bloody Roar.  (Fighting games are getting their day in the sun recently.)  Kasumi is gorgeous and has a cool fighting style, but what puts her over the top is the good characterization she received in the movie, where she was the protagonist.  I learned about who she actually is and liked her throughout that movie.  The only reason she hadn't been included before is I already had two Kasumi's in the story and didn't want a third confusing people.

Uriko I've mentioned many times before, but she's an extremely cute girl from Bloody Roar, and has quite an effective and fun fighting style.  Her quick, smooth combos that derive from Chinese martial arts are nigh unstoppable if you play her right.  After Kenji I enjoyed playing her the most, and now that Kenji is included it's only fair that she is too.

I've wanted to include all these characters in my fictional character hall of fame for a long time now, but the needs of the plot never allowed them.  They'd always get shouldered out for some reason or other.  But now that there's no plot getting in the way I've found a way to include every prospect who was denied or kicked out in the past.  All the worthy are in, and without having to expand my hall of fame by a single name.  Splitting the hall of fame from the book has been such a rewarding decision.

I'm now up to Chapter 37 of my '100 Waifus' reread and still no need for edits.  Now that I can change my fictional character hall of fame without changing my book it looks like this 41st edition really can be the last.

Kenji > Mikleo, Micaiah > Dezel:

When it comes to great fictional characters, character design is king.  If your character is cool enough looking hardly anything else matters.  That first impression captivates you and keeps it a memorable bolt of lightning for the rest of your life.  This can be said of both Kenji from Bloody Roar (also known as Bakuryu, the Mole), and Micaiah from Fire Emblem.  Kenji is so cool looking in his black ninja outfit and red scarf, and Micaiah is so beautiful and saintly looking in her red dress and blue scarf, that you can't forget or ignore them no matter how much you try.

Furthermore, Kenji is a deadly effective warrior, combining wily and maneuverable tactics as a human and absolute speed and fury in his beast form.  I loved playing Bakuryu in Bloody Roar II, even moreso than Uriko (which is why Kenji is in my hall of fame but Uriko isn't).  By all rights he's also a nice, good guy, friends with other heroes and heroines like Yugo the Wolf and Uriko the Half-beast.  So there's only good things to say about him.

Compare that to Mikleo, who is good looking and strong, sure, but is also a kind of boring personality, who seems to only have two states -- 1) agree and go along with whatever Sorey says, or 2) nag Sorey about something stupid that doesn't matter.  He doesn't seem to have any existence outside of Sorey.

The reason Mikleo is in '100 Waifus' while Kenji isn't is not merit.  The reason is Mikleo is related to Rose, a waifu, stemming from the same Tales game, whilst Kenji isn't related to anyone.  Also Mikleo was a unique name but Kenji was a repeat name, and I wanted as few repeat names as possible to avoid confusion.  These considerations don't apply in the new fictional character hall of fame.

Micaiah is an impossibly good girl, the host of a benevolent goddess, the savior of her country, the general of a liberation army, with magic that altruistically sacrifices her own health to heal that of others (showing the core of her personality), and eventually a holy relic that comes to the aid of an entirely different world and saves them too.  Micaiah is the most powerful engage in Fire Emblem Engage due to her mass teleport ability (the key to all the difficult stages in the game.)  The only reason I left her out of '100 Waifus' is I didn't want to say her source work, Radiant Dawn, was a great game, since it was really annoyingly hard.  There was no rewind function in the Fire Emblems back then, but the stages were just as slanted against you, so I had to keep repeating the same stages over and over and over.  Especially since Micaiah's forces were the weakest in the story, I had to repeat the stage most often when she was at the center of the action.  Since '100 Waifus' is as much about introducing people to great franchises as great characters, I steered clear of endorsing a game I didn't much enjoy myself.  But Micaiah herself is pure radiant light.  And this is a fictional character hall of fame, not a franchise hall of fame, so now I can say what's in my heart.  Besides, by including Mist, I already included the Radiant games, so at this point adding Micaiah is cost-free.

Dezel, on the other hand, was in '100 Waifus' due to his close relation to Rose, a waifu.  It wouldn't make sense for Rose to be deprived of her partner Dezel so he was a mandatory decision.  But now that we're talking about merit instead of who would serve best as part of a family, he doesn't measure up.  Dezel has a dumb hat that obscures his eyes (the windows to the soul, half of all beauty starts there) and shark teeth that look disturbing on a human being.  He's opposed to Rose and Sorey's romance which counts against him (who would oppose such a lovely couple?), plus he dies early in the game so there isn't much to say about him.  Micaiah in contrast is the main character of her entire game and an additional side character in another.

As a side benefit this puts the Final Fantasy character count ahead of the 'Tales of X' character count, which is proper because FF is the better series.  Not by much, but then again FF isn't ahead of the Tales character count by much either, so everything checks out.

My reread of '100 Waifus' rolls on, slowly but surely.  I'm now at Chapter 34, still free and clear of any necessary changes.  March Madness is almost here.

Friday, March 15, 2024

4 new fictional character entries:

Because nobody wants to have villainous children, it's difficult to name children after mass murderers, flaming skeletons or world destroyers, despite the fact that they were super cool memorable characters.  That was a limitation in '100 Waifus,' but it isn't one for a pure merit based fictional character hall of fame.  As such, I've added Makoto (Shishio), Sephiroth, Sub-Zero and Scorpion into my wonderful fictional characters permapost.

To make room I took out four characters who were basically serving as affirmative action placeholders for the sake of their parent franchise getting recognized.  This is an important job in '100 Waifus,' but not necessary for a fictional character hall of fame which is solely focused on fictional characters, not franchises.  Botan from Kitakubu, Rio from Omoi, Omoware, Ren from Strobe Edge and Haruki from Sakura, Saku.

Three of the four losers are forgettable male leads from Io Sakisaka shoujo manga.  They can't fire beams from their hands or dual wield swords, so what are they worth, really?  All they can do is seduce high school girls.  Sub-Zero can freeze people and Scorpion can shoot wires from his hands.  I know who I respect more.

As for Botan she actually does have superpowers, but they're wasted on her because she exists in a comedy world without any fighting.  So she doesn't get to use them for any praiseworthy purpose.  In the end she just comes off as a macho girl who strangely likes beating up bears.  Honestly Sakura was the best girl in the Kitakubu series, not Botan, but I didn't want any additional Sakura's in '100 Waifus' when there were already six (six is confusing enough), so I chose Botan solely for her unique name.  Now that I'm not worried about having to make compromises like that, I can ax Botan and put in a dark god like Sephiroth or a survival of the fittest advocate like Shishio.  People who made a huge impact on fictional character history and still reverberate down to this day.

I've reached Chapter 28 of my '100 Waifus' reread and as expected I haven't found any more need for edits.  But we'll see, there's still a lot of book to go.