Everyone's A Critic

[Robert Rosequill]

Turns out I'm pretty free this week, so I'm going to put my reviews up as well. I'm going to focus on four things: the character, the scene, how they fit into the category, and my personal interest in the character. First up:


THE BEAST WITH A SECRET

Black Jasmine
More hot pies!

The Character
Black Jasmine is a larger-than-normal young ratmaid, an innocent hostage that's trying her best to convince her captives to let her go so she can bake them some pillow puffs. Even though she's terrified, she still confidently tries to win over their affection to escape. She also has a distinct voice, a sort of nervous tick as well as a cutesy manner of speaking, like "rope is yucky". It's nice, although the fact that she is a teenager speaking like this implies maybe she's not completely right in the head?

Oh, and she's a xenomorph.

The Scene
The app is a wonderfully classic horror movie scene. I could see the shots in my head, from the blood dripping onto the terrified stoat's shoulder, to the female stoat holding the candle as she waits in fear for the horrible end coming soon. It's delightfully chilling.

The only problem with the scene however is it keeps Black Jasmine hidden in the shadows, doing all of these horrible things "off-camera" and implied. It keeps the exact nature of her killing a secret, which is hard for me to decide whether I like it or not.

The Category
The previous qualm might be explained as the "secret" the category talks about. Perhaps the exact nature of how she manages to murderize a clan of thieves IS the secret, and we have to wait and see what it is. Unfortunately, the how she kills them is, at least to me, much less interesting than the split-personality

Personal Interest
I love the scene itself. Again, I think it's an impressively written bit of horror, but it's Black Jasmine herself that irks me. I don't like the idea of a member of the cast 'hulking out' with supernatural powers and taking out entire groups of beasts. And, personally, I just don't really enjoy this character archetype outside of B-horror.


Thrayjen
Everybeast's fun uncle

The Character
Thrayjen is a sweetheart, a reformed vermin who is now Unky Thrayjen to some way-too-adorbable hedgehog dibbuns. He's a beast who's running from something that's really hard to run from: his past. But the effort is there, and it is admirable. It makes me want to root for him. Don't worry Thrayjen, you'll be ok! I hope!

The Scene
The scene is great, because it plays with the reader's emotions. The whole time reading it, I was afraid Thrayjen would suddenly turn and become the vermin we expect and do something horrible to the hedgehogs, but it never happens. And we breath a sigh of relief. Nan is a great addition to the scene, because she brings to our attention that yes, Thrayjen is hiding something, but she forgives him and isn't worried about it. This in turn helps me as the reader forgive him and not worry about it either. Whatever it is, it's in the past. But perhaps the best sentence of the entire app is the last one, where Thrayjen makes sure to lock the door. Whatever he's running from, it just might catch up.

The Category
Thrayjen's definately a beast with a secret, and the best thing about this secret is we have no idea what it is. Thrayjen isn't too keen on letting anyone know, either.

Personal Interest
I'm completely hooked on not only the character, but the secret. What did he bury? Money? A skull? An E.T. cartridge? Why bury it in this nice hoglady's yard? Is it dangerous? Who knows! I certainly want to know.


Nokki Avaartin
I ain't the guy, no sir, not this bar fly.

The Character
Nokki's an honest beast, trying to live an honest life away from the life. But alas, there it is, the itch he needs to scratch. This family beast needs his fix, and he's willing to risk it all for one last go. Or five. We don't know just how much he's willing to risk. And will he regret it?

The Scene
An incognito trip to the tavern for shady work is a nice set up, and the comedy throughout sells it. I loved reading old Nokki overthinking every move and making himself all the more suspicious, but what really makes it gold is that nobeast cared after all. Turns out his reputation doesn't precede him after all.

The Category
It's a nice twist that the secret he's keeping is from his family rather than the audience, but unfortunately, how long will that secret last in the arena?

Personal Interest
It wasn't until the second reading that I realized I loved the writing and scene more than I liked Nokki himself. I certainly wouldn't mind him making it into the contest, but more for the author than Nokki. He was unfortunately too afraid of letting beasts know who he was, including us.

Overall
For me, it's really no contest that Thrayjen gets my vote. I love his character and app, while the other two were unfortunately a one-sided appreciation for the apps themselves. But aside from that, Thrayjen also took full advantage of the category and had the most intriguing secret, because it was a secret from me, and I don't like that (Read: I love that).