Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

To a certain extent,  Doom  (1993) has always been about speed. And Quake   (1996). Players are timed and scored on how fast they can go. Now the technology and demand for a game that fits the practice has finally come about in the "widely marketable" Doom Eternal (2020). Videogames have never been developed for a larger speedrunning audience; Doom Eternal  was made for Twitch , and for speed, but was it made for speedrunning? Update, 1/4/2025: My focus has shifted to Metroidvania, which I've written multiple books on, since this post. To it, I've decided to release the entirety of my work on Metroidvania in one single place: " From Master's to PhD (and Beyond): My Entire Work on Metroidvania " (2025). This includes my master's thesis and early postgraduate work (re: "Mazes and Labyrinths"), my PhD (released in 2023), further essays released after my postgraduate work in my larger book series,  Sex Positivity . You can also ask me questions...

This review covers  Castlevania season three (2020) in its entirety. Spoilers ahead!  My blog is about horror, but also sex, metal and videogames ; this article explores some of those ideas in the show. Castlevania' s third season is so refreshingly competent that I hesitate to say anything bad about it. To be sure, I could complain. However, the overall experience is rock-solid—darkly funny, clever and brutal. There's even a healthy dose of sex,  despite my earlier fears . The wide cast features vampires, hunters, Judges, magicians, and craftsman. Bound up inside a larger conflict, the simple notion of good-versus-evil is abandoned for a more complex take. This drama is the heart of the show, its ace-in-the-hole. This isn't to say its other areas—the actors, action and artistry—don't merit tremendous praise. They do. However, it's how these interact that makes Castlevania  so rare: It's not a good videogame adaptation; it's an amazing  videogame ada...

Simply put, Castlevania season 3 (2020) is shaping up to be the best AAA videogame adaptation since sliced bread; or, as Trevor puts it, "better than sex." This second part may or may not be true, but it's an amazing show for a whole bevy of reasons. I'll say why that is in a future review. For now I wanted to briefly mention and discuss Trevor and Sypha's long-awaited sex scene. My blog is about horror, but also sex, metal and videogames , after all. Note: I was still in the middle of watching the show when I wrote this piece. For my thoughts on sex in the show as a whole, read my season three review . For a show that seemed allergic to sex in seasons one and two, it feels refreshing to see Trevor and Sypha getting it on. Episode one implies it; episode two confirms it. They lie in bed, the sheets thrown over their bodies. There's even a bit of slapstick thrown in, and cutesy dialogue between them. It seems fairly tame until you consider how little se...

I've spent the past several weeks preparing to launch my own art portfolio website, vanderwaardart.com . This website is now live. For this post, I wanted to explain my website—why I decided to get one, what's on it, and the style of my artwork featured there. Why The purpose of the website is autonomy—to grant me total control over my own content. I'm an erotic artist, which means my work is controlled. This regulation generally comes from others, and varies per site; each platform comes with its own restrictions and limitations, which can be incredibly frustrating to work under. Deviant Art limits traffic for "mature content," allowing nudity but having a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual acts. Apart from its own submission rules, Hentai Foundry encourages sexual acts, but has less of a demand for "safer" artwork. Twitter is much more content-tolerant, but lacks an ability to organize posted material; it also features its own mystifying ...