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I would give Thomas Bulfinch's "Mythology" and Edith Hamilton's "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" a try, though the latter has Heracles-Bashing. It casts him as a big, dumb, brute, even though he demonstrated cleverness on many occasions.

Playstation Rules, XBox drools! :-P

Well, I did say I was a child again.

If we're talking about Civ games, I'd be remiss not to mention Christopher Tin's excellent work on the themes for IV and VI. Baba Yetu won a Grammy, and is also one of my all-time favorite pieces of music to relax to. Sogno di Volare... isn't that good. But it's good.

But that's not the idea I settled on.

-Phobos

The music for 4X games has to really build character for the game involved, since there's not a huge amount of pre-prepared story a lot of the time. Here are a few of my favourites from the wonderful world of turn-based strategy:-

Shoshone Peace Theme (Civilization V: Brave New World)
This is an emotional piece, recalling the experiences of the Trail Of Tears and the genocide committed against all of America's indigenous civilizations whilst still sounding absolutely majestic. It also makes a great companion piece to...

America Industrial/Modern Theme (Civilization 6)
Civ 6 is unique in 4X games for having music that actually shifts and becomes more complex as you advance through the game. This track is from the midpoint in the game, and is based (as are all the America tracks) on the parlor song "Hard Times Come Again No More". This is a triumphal piece of music, full of hope and optimism and sounding like the OST of the greatest Western you've never seen. For something meant to represent the United States, that's a good indicator that things've gone right.

Across The Drift (Riftborn Theme, Endless Space 2)
It has to be said that the historical 4X games have it quite a lot easier than fantasy or sci-fi ones - there's already a culture and body of work upon which the music can draw, rather than obliging the composer to come up with one or imply one exists. This theme for the transdimensional time-manipulating Riftborn sells their cold, ordered, but compassionate nature really well - the ticking metronomes and clocks in the background is a great touch.

More later, if you want.

But I didn't give you permission to use Lola, so that's off the cards. =]

Study and planning will be necessary, so it will not be soon, but rest assured the challenge will be met.

-Phobos

Other YotD standouts:

Molten Crater

Cloud Spires

Charmed Ridge

Wobbles the Clown
The Notary
Doktor Trollenfisch
Gabrielle
---
If you're going to do Terrible Things to anyone, do them to the Notary. No-one will give a toss, except to laugh.

I'm very tempted to write it myself. I wrote a little fanfiction for Disney's Robin Hood when I was a kid, but it never went very far, because I always thought the movie tied itself up very nicely and it didn't really invite addition. But this is the perfect opening for a really fascinating (and historically relevant) story! I have a lot of writing projects right now and I recently got a job so I might not have time, but in the event that I do, keep an eye out for the beginnings of Robin Hood fanfic by yours truly? If Huinesoron is okay with it, of course. After all, he was the one who did the research and picked it all apart.

I also love the fact that you picked this apart so thoroughly. It's a fascinating question: I knew from a young age that this version of Marian had a claim to the throne that potentially put her on John's radar as a rival, but I'd never stopped to think whether or not it fit with the historical facts.

And I'm really glad other people still think about this movie. It's definitely my favorite version of Robin Hood and probably my favorite Disney film and I think it's very underrated. (And I rather hope they don't remake it as a live-action flick. For one thing, it would really just be a somewhat more realistic animated movie, and I don't think it needs any updates or additions.)

I'm glad you enjoyed reading this.

A lot of the overtones you noticed (like the structure of the final thought) weren't things I set out to do when writing, so yay for accidentally doing cool stuff?

And Peregrin's stream of consciousness being logic-focused is a character trait of his, mainly arising from his being a theoretical physicist/mathematician from a cross between a monastery and a university. It sounds like I might need to work on better ways to represent his thought process, though, since it certainly isn't as systematic as a computer or clock (it's the usual jumping to possibilities and pruning out things that look like they wouldn't work).

- Tomash

I'm generally speaking the retro-gaming guy around here. So it's my job to point out all the classics. By which I mean, the ones you shouldn't avoid because they're actually good. I'll try to avoid pointing out anything I assume you all already know about (No, I'm not putting Fallout anything on the list, although I did get both the originals and a few of the new ones, and they are on sale). So... here goes.

-Baldur's Gate - Actually, don't buy this. Well, don't buy it on Steam. Baldur's Gate is a classic, and it's the game that earned BioWare its name. However, the version on Steam is the "enhanced edition" which has garnered mixed reviews because it apparently alters the writing. As of this time, there is no good way to buy the original Baldur's Gate from Steam or GoG. Pirate it, or grab a secondhand DVD copy (which is what I did: they're pretty affordable).

-Planescape: Torment - This time around, the people who did the Enhanced Edition did good. So you can buy this on Steam or whatever, nice and easy. Apparently they caught on that a game that is beloved and revered, largely for its writing, doesn't need alteration on that front.

Planescape: Torment, like Baldur's Gate, is an oldschool CRPG-type game. It's an I-hope-you-like-text sort of game, so be warned. But if you do like text, the writing is well known for its strength. Also, notably, this is one of the rare old CRPGs which you can apparently get through without ever using combat. So... that's a thing.

If you liked Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, or Fallout: New Vegas, you should probably know that Obsidian Entertainment and InXile were both formed by ex-Black Isle Studios developers, who worked on this game, Fallout, and the aforementioned Baldur's Gate. So... yeah.

-id software woooo - TL;DR, Thoth loves id software. Go buy Doom, DOOM, Quake, or whatever. Then go download a modern sourceport, and if you bought Quake 1 or 2 look up how to enable the soundtrack.

-Eidos - Basically, every single Eidos game is dirt cheap right now. That means all the Tomb Raiders, all the Just Cause games, and so on. Go go go go go.

-Looking Glass Studios - Yes, these are in the Eidos category, but they get their own listing. Because Looking Glass Studios deserves it.

Looking Glass Studios, for the uninitiated, is one of the most influential developers of the 1990s, and a pioneer of 3D games. Not all of their games are available on Steam, but their Thief series, a pioneer of first person stealth, is. As is System Shock 2, which really should need no introduction. And speaking of looking glass, $1 can also get you...

-Deus Ex - widely considered one of the best PC games ever released. It's a bit fiddly to get running on modern systems, so to recap what I had to do:

1. Select OpenGL as the renderer, no matter if the game tells you it's "unsupported". The game lies.
2. Open the game's folder on Steam, open the file DeusEx.ini in the "System" folder, and under the section "[Engine.Engine]", add a line that says "FrameRateLimit=60"

Yeah, it's a pain. But the game is good.

-Another World - A great adventure game-ey thing. But you may have to look at a walkthrough once or twice, and you will die. A lot.

-X-COM - Any of them.

-Xenonauts - It's classic X-COM with a fresh coat of paint.

-Civilization - Every Civ game is brilliant. Pick your favorite, but Civ IV is the cheapest one right now (7.50 for the full game with all expansions).

-Frozen Synapse - not a classic, but a dang good game. There's a demo, so you can try before you buy.

-FTL - Another non-classic, but it's the archetypical roguelike and if you don't own it already you should go buy it.

-Strife: An obscure Doom-engine FPS, it had RPG elements before it was cool, had an overworld you could freely explore, an actual story and quests and stuff, and was generally both fascinating and ahead of its time. The Steam version is updated for modern systems, with nicer graphics, better controls (I think), and a ton of content that was left on the cutting room floor in the original release. It's fun.

That's it for now. I'll probably think of something as soon as I post this, but whatever.

(I have the office to myself for at least an hour this morning, whee!)

I like this theory, and I totally want to see that sequel.

As for under-aged-ness, if I'm not completely off-base, girls used to be considered women as soon as they got their menses (and could therefore start having babies), and 11 is a pretty common age for that to happen. While that seems terribly young to a modern eye, we're talking about a time when people lived to about 35 on average, IIRC. Being considered of age at about one-quarter to one-third of your expected life span isn't that outrageous.

Of course, as the average life span has increased, the age of maturity has been pushed back accordingly.

~Neshomeh

They weren't around in 2015. But Time Shenanigans are archetypical of the PPC, so sure, they're totally there.

If you want ideas for what terrible things can happen to them... Nah. Not giving them. I wanna see what you come up with.

I do have a job for Alex Dives. Haven't actually started writing that story yet, but it is a major plot point in the series. He'd be perfect for that.

As for the rest, we'll see what we can do.

-Phobos

Technically speaking, agents Ix, Lorson, and Farilan weren't in the PPC before mid-2015, there's that detail for you—but if for whatever reason you need more characters, feel free to ruin them. I'll probably be sitting quite gleefully to the sidelines with popcorn.

Hello, all. As many of you know, I have put out the call a couple of times over the years for people to loan me their characters for Catastrophe Theory. Well, I'm back to writing it again, and I find I am running out of characters. Not really sure what happened to all of them, yet, but I'm sure we'll find out.

So, if you want to see me do some terrible things to your characters (just ask the Hippie Sequoia, if you don't believe me), sign them up today! (Technically, they needed to be part of the PPC before mid-2015 for this to work, but I won't tell if you don't.)


Some context, for those who need it.

Catastrophe Theory is an apocalyptic future timeline. Nothing good happens to anyone there. This is the future that happens if the Sues win. You can find the main story at the link below, and supplementary stories linked at the bottom of that one.

Catastrophe Theory:The End Is Nigh - Warnings for violence, blood, and gore.

-Phobos

Historically speaking, I mean.

...

Does Disney just have a thing for underage princesses? I mean, thinking about it, Elsa waits a while after her parents' death to take the throne; if that means she wasn't yet of the age of majority, then Anna is still under it; I'd guess she's a good two years younger than her sister.

Good flippin' grief.

(PS: As second in line to the throne, Marian is also a rightful Disney Princess.)

hS

Ad the issue of Eleanor being eleven shouldn't be a problem. After all, Disney's Snow White was only fourteen when she ran off with her prince to get married!

*cough*

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day.

No, there's not a live-action film you don't know about... I'm talking about the classic children's movie with the talking foxes and hissing snake. Oh yes.

Not too long ago, I realised that it was possible to pin Robin Hood down to a very specific point in time. The film ends with King Richard's return, but that's the thing - Richard the Lionheart only visited England twice: once when he was crowned in 1189, and once after being ransomed out of captivity in 1194. He may have also popped back over the Channel during his wars in France in late '94, but after that he never returned.

Since the setting of Robin Hood is very clearly one where Richard has been away for some time, we can pin the film rather precisely to spring 1194. Richard was freed from captivity in February, and we know he was back out to the wars before the year was out. This fits with the visuals, too - the trees of Sherwood are green, but there's no sign of summer fruits or autumn fall.

1194 was also the height of Prince John's power under Richard - because his brother was in prison! In fact, while the brothers' mother was working to collect enough gold to ransom her elder son, John actually offered his captors money to keep Richard in prison. It certainly explains why he didn't want to hear about him, doesn't it?

Now that we've got that settled, here's the thing that really puzzled me: Maid Marian. Normally, she is a noble lady who knew Robin in his childhood, but this film takes things a step further:

Klucky: Believe me, someday soon, your uncle, King Richard, will have an outlaw for an in-law.

Wait, what?! Marian is Richard's niece? That puts her in a tiny category of historical figures: she has to be either the child of one of Richard's siblings, or one of his wife's.

We can narrow that down further by eliminating Queen Berengaria's family entirely: the queen was from Navarre, down between Spain and France, and didn't even visit England until after Richard's death. Since we know Marian knew Robin when she was younger (and since she doesn't have a Spanish accent), we have to assume that she's of the Royal Family of England.

So who could she be? Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine had eight children in total, but the list can be whittled down very easily:

-William, Count of Poitiers, died age 3. She can't be his daughter.
-Henry the Young King died in 1183, childless, at age 28.
-Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, died in 1189, around the time of Richard's ascension. She had five children who survived to adulthood, but four of them were boys, and the fifth (another Matilda) was married off by Richard in 1189.
-Obviously she can't be Richard's daughter, not that he had any.
-Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, died in 1186, but left behind three children. We'll come back to these.
-Eleanor, Queen of Castile, had a whole host of children... with her husband, the king of Castille. Most of them died young, and the daughters who didn't ended up married to Spanish and French kings.
-Joan, Queen of Sicily, had one daughter (also called Joan), but she wasn't actually born until 1198. No.
-John... well, she could be Bad Prince John's daughter, but I feel like that would probably have come up in the film? Maybe?

Okay, so let's go back to Geoffrey. As stated, he had three children, though one (another Matilda) died before 1189. The youngest child was a son, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, but the eldest was a daughter... Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany.

Eleanor is very nearly a perfect fit for Marian.
-Her father died when she was two, leaving her to be raised by her uncle Richard.
-John hated her. She actually had a better claim to the throne of England than he did; in fact on Richard's death she was legitimately second in line, after her 12 year old younger brother. John ended up imprisoning her in 1202 for the rest of her life, a further 39 years. (They left that bit out...!)
-She was out of the country for a time prior to Richard's return, but came back before he did. Specifically, she was sent to Austria to marry Duke Leopold's son, but turned back when the duke died. This would definitely fit with the plot of the film, which has Robin going on about how much she's grown.
-She never (historically) married, despite being described by Wikipedia as 'the most marriagable princess' due to her status. Richard tried to marry her off in 1195, and again in 1198, but it never worked - perhaps because of her secret former-outlaw husband?
-Her name literally has 'Maid' in it.

There are only two real problems with this theory, both of them easily solvable.
-Her name is wrong. Conveniently, in most versions of the Robin Hood tale, Marian spends some time in a convent - and in most convents, the nuns change their names. The most common new name, in fact, is some variant on Mary... say, for instance, Marian?
-Er... Eleanor was about 11 in 1194 (Wikipedia gives her birthdate as 1182-84). That makes Robin Hood super skeevy. And yet... she was being proffered for arranged marriages by 1190, and actually sent to formalise them by 1193. Clearly King Richard had no problem marrying her off at such a young age.

Which does leave the question: if she was such a valuable commodity, why would Richard marry Marian/Eleanor off to some minor outlaw nobleman? The answer, surely, is plain: Arthur of Brittany was a little boy, and Marian was the only other person who could stand in the way of John's claim to the throne. She was still a child... but Robin wasn't, and he had just proven that he could stand up to John. He may not have been the successor Richard wanted, but he was a darn sight better than the alternative.

(I now want to see a sequel about Prince Consort Robin's fight to secure his wife's throne against Bad King John... I can't be the only one, right? :D)

hS, oo-de-lally

Chapter 6

The moment with the song at the start of this chapter is really sweet. I like the fact that the agents clearly show their affection for the various canons, without descending into fangirling of the sort shown by even Jay and Acacia. It fits their characters nicely.

I also like how Nikki's feelings for Sergio come across, particularly in her conversation with Homura. It helps that she's right in what she says, of course.

... and then the plot - the real plot, the one about 'what in the worlds is going on with Sergio' - kicks into high gear. In true traditional fashion, I have little to say about this part, because I'm too busy reading it. ^_^ I absolutely love the way you framed the middle of this chapter, though. And the ending... gulp!

Favourite line:

[Time wasn’t supposed to elapse in your world afterward in relation to the PPC’s standard time. Or something. Multidimensional physics are kinda confusing.]

“… I’m still trying to understand that I’m a fictional character whose life is written by someone else, actually,” Homura admitted.

“Well, as of now, nobody is writing us,” Nikki reassured her.

“You sure, Nikki?” Sergio asked. “Maybe that 14 year-old idiot who wrote me back in 2006 is still at it.”

This sort of thing perfectly bottles all four characters and their relations to each other. It's brilliant.

hS

I don't think you can go wrong with the ones of the Atlus games.

The musics from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games are always suited to the scenes they're played in, going from epic to dramatic to sad to fluff to epic godslaying... Rock was never so awesome before. And acid jazz for Persona 5. All of it coming mainly from composer Shoji Meguro (guesss it's no cance they decided to create dancing game spin-offs of Persona 3, 4 and 5.

And to name an individual track, Magus' Battle Theme from Chrono Trigger is juuust what the doctor ordered.

(This review is offered as part of my new standing pledge, in response to this post of yours. Aura was actually written by Kaitlyn - I've passed your comments on - but I'll take it anyway. :))

I'm going to jump right in and say it: I love the framing of a story by way of clock maintenance. It does a good job of keeping the writing contained, while also telling us a little about Peregrin. Metaphorically, it also casts Peregrin as a 'clockwork' figure himself: his stream of consciousness comes over as even more structured and logic-focussed than it perhaps already would. The repeated "Yes... yes." in his final thought takes on overtones of a tick... tick... tick. It's good use of the frame to enhance the narrative.

hS