Ashley Rondeaux

We often talk about queer people having to hide their sexuality, their true selves to fit in with heterosexual society, to keep themselves safe, and to avoid judgement from others.

Pretty unoriginal idea, right? Everyone’s done one of these before, so this will probably be just like every other list out there.

Where better to start with the strangest, most brilliant man I can think of: Yoko Taro. 

Dreams are a weird thing. Regardless of your own personal creativity, the mind is curious, it’s interesting to think we may never fully comprehend it. Humans have studied and theorised about why we have dreams and what they mean for as long as we have had intelligence. A dream is a vision, a message from God, your soul wandering, a reflection of your unconscious mind. Every culture or religion has their own explanation. Oneirologists study the science of dreams and brain activity during sleep, yet aren’t particularly close to discovering the purpose of dreams. While the progress made is fascinating,…

Content Warning: Mentions of sexual assault, violence A couple weeks back I saw a trending tweet on the subject of Berserk. It pertained to the gore and shocking imagery seen in the manga, and that fans of it were ‘sick’ for enjoying it. They gave an example of one of the panels, where the demon Wyald and his band of ‘Black Dog Knights’ are riding by with mutilated nude corpses of women impaled on their spears.   It sounds horrible, and that’s because it is. It’s especially worse having read the chapter beforehand, where you visually see Wyald, and his gang…

Now, you may be wondering. What is this image doing in an article about ‘serious themes’? Well, my friend, I’m here to tell you.  Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a hack-and-slash action game developed and released by PlatinumGames in 2013, as a spin-off from the very popular Metal Gear series. It follows the cyborg Raiden in the far-off year of 2018, where cyborg soldiers are used around the world by Private Military Companies (PMCs) and massive Metal Gears (giant unmanned machines of death), and other robotic weapons are as commonplace as any other vehicle of war. Wow, what a world…

Here we are with another recipe article, this time veering away from Korean recipes like my past two (which can be found here and here respectively.) Today I’ll be showing you how to cook a staple meal in my family (with my mother’s permission, it’s not quite a family secret) over the past 30 years, a vegetable curry with tomato rice. It’s incredibly simple but packed with wonderful flavours and beautiful colours.  While we used cauliflower and potatoes this time, any vegetables can be used following this recipe, such as courgettes, spinach, okra, and so on.  These amounts of ingredients…

Writing can be difficult, no matter which genre, topic, or form. It can come more naturally to some than others, but you can always improve through practice and feedback. Everyone’s writing style will be individual and unique to themselves, but there’s absolutely no shame in borrowing techniques and taking inspiration from other writers. While I’m no Tolkien, I thought I might like to give some pointers that helped me to any practising writers.   Today I want to discuss creative writing in particular, and a very specific element. Worldbuilding is an essential factor in any fictional story you’re writing, as it  allows your reader to…

You hear the term ‘Souls’ in gaming and a few things come to mind. Dark Souls probably comes first, then Bloodborne, maybe Demon’s Souls, etc etc. With three weeks passing since the release of Elden Ring, it’s certainly the latest hot topic in gaming as well. For those not in the know, Souls games are typically those that have a much higher difficulty than other action RPGs and are characterised by a few common traits. Those are usually a series of checkpoints as you progress, where resting allows you to level up your character as well as resetting all enemies…

Minor Spoilers Ahead: Up to the end of Stormveil Castle  It’s finally here. The long-awaited, critically acclaimed masterpiece from Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Elden Ring arrived worldwide on the 25th of February, and the hype hasn’t slowed down since. Within 24 hours of the game launching, I had 13 hours played already. I hadn’t been so excited for a game in a long time, and it’s the first time in a while that I haven’t been somewhat disappointed by a game’s release.   One of the most attractive features was the so-called expanded co-op, allowing much more freedom and…