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fatehbaz · 10 months

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Mangroves. Estuaries. Shorelines where land meets water. Fluidity and porousness of boundaries. Imposition of imperial, colonial, European property law and the “fiction” of solid borders. Profit extraction from property, the “legal magic” of creating permanent borders, and the destruction of coastal forest-worlds.

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[T]his tropical coastal ecology is a site of continual refiguration: neither sea nor land, neither river nor sea, bearing neither salty nor fresh water [...]. The mangrove has been prone to confused definitions, [...] also a complex coastal ecosystem in itself. With these hybrid conditions of “belonging,” the mangrove lends itself to helping us think through the present-day schematic of Euro-American crises [...]. Its polymorphous personality as a sediment-carrier, land-builder, defender of numerous life forms [...] renders the mangrove a fascinating study in the biopolitics of selfhood. [...] The Sundarbans covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers of intertidal zones between parts of southwestern Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. The largest mangrove forest in the world [...]. As a landscape, the Sundarbans is marked by unfixity, since its intertidal nature places it between appearance and disappearance -- with islands being submerged overnight. [...] [T]heir porous quality does not allow for clear border-making. In reading [...] satellite image[ry] of the Sundarbans, produced by what is said to be “the most stable, best characterized Earth observation instrument ever placed in orbit,” we are met with the trembling instability of borders. [...] [H]ere the coastline becomes indiscernible as a single entity. The legal vexations of such amphibious and obtuse terrain become pronounced in sea-rights cases, wherein border-making becomes the necessity of tenure. Forming rulings over such zones lays legality prone to paradox. In the Blue Mud Bay case, heard by the High Court of Australia in 2008, a legal body was called upon to make a determination regarding the shifting geography of a mangrove coastal region. In the final ruling the aboriginal Yolgnu claimants were successful, with the court ruling that the column of tidal water lying above land should be regarded no differently from the land itself. Thus the court’s attempt to encompass Dholupuyngu cosmology and “aqueography” occasioned a legal magic transforming water flow into the fixity of “land.” [...] The mangrove line is, hence, one of sedimentary reclamation rather than clear political divisions of terra firma. In mangrove zones, human determinations become ghosts.

Text by: Natasha Ginwala and Vivian Ziherl. “Sensing Grounds: Mangroves, Unauthentic Belonging, Extra-Territoriality.” e-flux Journal Issue #45. May 2013.

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Traveling through Bengal in the eighteenth century, [...] [travelers] saw a highly sophisticated water-based economy -- the blessing of rivers [...]. The rivers were not just channels of water; they carried a thriving trade, transporting people and goods from one part of the delta to another. [...] Bengal’s essential character as a fluid landscape was changed during the colonial times through legal interventions that were aimed at stabilizing lands and waters, at creating permanent boundaries between them, and at privileging land over water, in a land of shifting river courses, inundated irrigation, and river-based life. Such a separation of land and water was made possible not just by physical constructions but first and foremost by engineering a legal framework. [...] BADA, which stands for the Bengal Alluvion and Diluvion Act, a law passed by the colonial British rulers in 1825 [...]. Nature here represents a borderless world, or at best one in which borders are not fixed lines on the ground demarcating a territory, but are negotiated spaces or zones. Such “liminal spaces” comprise “not [only] lines of separation but zones of interaction…transformation, transgression, and possibility” [...]. Current boundaries of land and water are as much products of history as nature and the colonial rule of Bengal played a key role in changing the ideas and valuations of both. [...] [R]ivers do not always flow along a certain route [...]. The laws that the colonial British brought to Bengal, however, were founded upon the thinking of land as being fixed in place. [...] To entrench the system, the Permanent Settlement of 1793 created zamindars (or landlords) “in perpetuity” -- meaning for good. The system was aimed at reducing the complexities of revenue collection due to erratically shifting lands and unpredictable harvests in a monsoon-dependent area [...]. From a riverine community, within a hundred years, Bengal was transformed into a land-based community.

Text by: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt. “Commodified Land, Dangerous Water: Colonial Perceptions of Riverine Bengal.” RCC Perspectives, no. 3, 17-22. 2014.

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[A]t the shore, where the boundary between land and water is so often muddied [...] terrestrial principles of Western private property regimes feel like fictions [...]. Shorelines, indeed, do much to trouble the neat boundaries, borders […] of the colonial imaginary […]. And so thinking about shallows necessitates attention to the multiplicity of water, and the ways that tides, rivers, storm clouds, tide pools, and aquifers converse with the ocean [...]. For Kanaka Maoli, the muliwai, or estuary, best theorizes shoreline dynamics: It is not only where land and water mix, but also where different kinds of waters mix. Sea and river water mingle together to produce the brackish conditions that tenderly support certain plant and aquatic lives. [...] As Philipp Schorch and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu explain, the muliwai ebbs and flows with the tide, changing shape and form daily and seasonally. In metaphorical terms, the muliwai is a location and state of dissonance [...], but it is not “a space in between,” rather, it is its own space, a territory unique in each circumstance, depending the size and strength or a recent hard rain. […] [T]he muliwai [...] as a conditional state [...] undoes territorial logics. [...] It is not a space of exception. Rather, it is where we are reminded that places are never fixed or pure or static. Chamorro poet Craig Santos Perez reminds us in his critique of US territorialism that “territorialities are shifting currents, not irreducible elements.” If fixity and containment limit, by design, how futures might be imagined beyond property, then the muliwai envisions decolonial spaces as ones of tenderness, care, and interdependence. [...] Because water has the potential to trouble the boundaries of humanness, it may furthermore push us to think through […] categorical differences […], to consider the colonial mechanisms that produced hierarchies of bodies to begin with [...].

Text by: Hi’ilei Julia Hobart. “On Oceanic Fugitivity.” Ways of Water series, Items, Social Science Research Council. Published online 29 September 2020.

#abolition #ecology #landscape #imperial #colonial

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 2 years

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Sonic Character Cultural Coding

Despite the fact that a good chunk of Sonic characters are anthropomorphized animals, a large amount of them have been given explicit or implicit coding that aligns with cultures that we see on Earth! I’ve found it hard to find a detailed list of it all online, so... I made one!

Disclaimers:

I am going to say: some of these may seem pretty obvious, but at the same time I’ve seen people miss them, so I’ll be including both the “obvious” and “obscure” coding.

If I accidentally said anything offensive, please let me know so I can correct it!

We are going to start with Sonic himself, and then do the rest in alphabetical order! Let’s go!

Sonic the Hedgehog (+bio fam) – Egyptian

We’re gonna start with Sonic the Hedgehog himself– who is very much coded as Black, specifically of Egyptian descent.

In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 1x50, “Robotnik’s Pyramid Scheme,” Robotnik goes back in time to try and prevent Sonic from ever existing by keeping his ancestors from meeting. Sonic goes back in time to stop him and we meet Masonic and Penelope who are Sonic’s great-great+ grandparents and live in ancient Egypt. Masonic is specifically designed to look almost exactly like Sonic.

Later in the episode they end up inside a pyramid and meet yet another ancestor of theirs, who is an enchanted mummy hedgehog. He gives Sonic a chaos emerald to kick Robotnik’s ass. He also looks exactly like Sonic.

And SPEAKING OF enchanted mummy hedgehogs! In the Sonic Underground episode 1x22, “Mummy Dearest,” Sonic is AGAIN explicitly given ancient egyptian ancestry, when he and his siblings find a book talking about their family history. They use the book to find directions to a magic scroll which is protected by one of their ancestors, Aman-Rapi, who is again very clearly from Ancient Egypt and looks like Sonic.

In this pic, they can be seen posing in front of a wall containing heiroglyphs, with a mummy behind them, Amon-Rapi is literally dressed as a pharaoh wearing a variation on a Khepresh, his name is obviously a play on Amun-Ra… yeah, they’re Egyptian. So, in two different adaptations Sonic has been given explicit African ancestry.

@ifirestone also pointed out to me that Sonic Adventure 2 has a lot of hedgehogs all over the pyramid locations, and @nonbinarycharmybee pointed out that his shoes are based off of Michael Jackson’s shoes in the music video for “Bad;” Jackson is a very celebrated African-American musician. And @killer-squirtle pointed out that his design is most likely based on an African Pygmy Hedgehog, which live in “west, central and east Africa.”

Then in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), there’s a scene where Sonic messes with his quillstyle and is seen experimenting with different styles. Before he settles on the mohawk (very much resembling his AoSTH-SatAM style), he tries out what looks like a Flat Top haircut and Natural Afro; in the latter, he specifically strikes a pose very reminiscent of the 60s Disco Era, which was suuuper associated with African-Americans.

Finally (so far), Sonic’s first english voice actor was Jaleel White for the first three television shows, who is Black; he set the standard for english!Sonic’s voice and what he should sound like. Sonic’s newest VA for Sonic Prime, Devon Mack, is also Black!

Edit 07/15/2022: @birdsareblooming noticed that in Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic is reading the Arabian Nights in Arabic, which is the official language of Egypt as well as several other African and Southwest Asian countries!

As we’ve established Sonic is Egyptian, I think we can also safely assume that his bio fam is as well– Sonia and Manic were in that Underground episode after all, and as Underground doesn’t seem to give them a father I think we can safely assume that the royal lineage is through Aleena. Metal Sonic is a robot but as he’s supposed to be near identical to Sonic, I think we can put Metal under the same coding (no pun intended).

Antoine Depardieu/D’Coolette the Coyote – French

Antoine is very very obviously coded as French, first in the SatAM television show he debuted in and then in the Archie comics. His original surname, Depardieu, is a French surname– I don’t believe D’Coolette is a real surname but it is supposed to sound French with the “d’[x]” structure.

Antoine speaks in an exaggerated French accent, which is spelled phonetically in the comics so that it can still come across. He often (at least in SatAM– I’m not as knowledgeable on Archie canon) needs help understanding English words and asks for translations or butchers pronunciation. He also uses the French phrases “qui” and “sacre bleu.” Unfortunately, in SatAM he also falls into the French Coward Stereotype, which seems to have begun in the 40s and shot into prominence in the United States in the early 2000s.

Babylon Rogues (Jet/Wave/Storm) – Iraqi

The Babylon Rogues are ABSOLUTELY Iraqi. How do we know this? They are literally called the Babylon Rogues.

In case u didn't know, Babylon was an ancient empire that was p powerful in the BC years. Its capitol town– named, you know, Babylon– was an independent city-state and for a while the largest city in the world. They also had one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon The city of Babylon, whose remains are now a world heritage site, is now what is currently Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq.

The Babylon Rogues are clearly named after the Babylonian empire. Their home base is also literally named the Babylon Garden, a reference to the Hanging Gardens. I’m not super knowledgeable on architecture, but the design of the Garden seems to be similar to the Umayyad or Abbasid architectural movements of Iraq.

This all very much codes the Rogues as being descendants of the Babylonian empire, ie: Iraqi.

Bark the Polar Bear – Russian

This is gonna be one of the shorter ones, but a 1996 interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, head of SEGA AM2, says that Bark is “a Polar Bear who lives in Russia.”

I don’t believe Bark is given any specific Russian coding following that, but it should be noted that that was the original intention.

Blaze the Cat – Southern Asian

Blaze’s concept designs can be pretty South Asian-coded first off; in the middle bottom row in the pic above, you can see her wearing Shalwar, (maybe shalwar kameez? it's hard to tell what kinda top she has) which is a popular Southern and Central Asian fashion.

Her final design includes a straight-up bindi– listed as such on the Sonic wiki. Bindi are a mark on the forehead worn by women in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and occasionally Islam (notably in Pakistan during Eid). While obviously anyone of any race can be of any religion, as the bindi originated in Southern Asia, it’s highly associated with that area and is worn by, well, a crapton of people in South and Southeast Asia, for both cultural and religious reasons.

Also, her kingdom: we don’t see it much in the games (in Rush Adventure, they’re mostly traveling through outlying islands and ruins), but we do see it in the IDW comics.

It seems very inspired by Mughal architecture, an Indo-Islamic style developed from Indian, Islamic, Iranian and Central Asian traditions.

In the mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, Blaze is given a costume for Lunar New Year, as is Silver (see Elise’s section for more Silver info). Lunar New Year is associated mainly with China, but is celebrated in several other Asian countries, including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

We also got THIS tweet from the official Sonic account in November 2020, showing her having tea in her palace. @penosh-wom pointed out to me that the patterns in the room are “VERY reminiscent of India,” and that the scenery outside looks very much like the Asian coast.

The caption is in Japanese, but translating it to English shows that the descriptive is literally “Indian summer with calm waves.” An Indian summer is a term for unusually long hot weather in autumn, but like. Come on.

With that, I would say Blaze is most likely Indian, though the coding is a little vague. She is at the very least Asian, likely South or Southeast.

Bunnie Rabbot – Southern American

Bunnie seems to be coded as coming from the Southern United States (or at least the Mobius equivalent); she has a Southern US accent, for instance, and similar to Antoine in written media it is spelled phonetically so that it continues to come across; using “ah” instead of “I,” often cutting off the “g” in words ending in “-ing,” etc. Many of her sayings– such as “oh my stars”– are distinctly Southern US as well. This was all established in her SatAM appearances and continued into the Archie comics.

Should be noted that also, very unfortunately, one early Archie comic had her say several things to reference support for the Confederacy as a way of tying into her Southern heritage. Thankfully, as far as I’m aware this has only appeared in this issue and has never occurred again.

Princess Elise (+Soleanna, possibly Silver) – Italian

Soleanna as a country is incredibly inspired by the city of Venice, Italy, to the point where Silver’s original name was Venice. The city is known for being built on 118 small islands connected by canals and bridges, with it often being called the “floating city.”

The amount of canals and bridges in Soleanna is definitely an intentional reference, as well as the very Venetian Architecture of the buildings.

Now, Silver– While it’s unclear if Silver is from his timeline’s Soleanna, he does have a bit of Italian coding as well!

Firstly, his original design was literally named Venice. (design in the pic, bottom left.) And there’s one other little detail– in Sonic and the Black Knight, when you play as Silver (Sir Galahad), his sword looks a LOT like a Cinquedea– an Italian dagger.

Silver being Italian is a bit less certain than the rest of Soleanna, though– the original name and dagger are the only implications and he hasn’t had much since. In Sonic Forces: Speed Battle he is given a Lunar New Year outfit, which could imply he is of Asian descent (see: Blaze); of course he could be mixed, or simply celebrating with Blaze (who also had a Lunar New Year outfit release at the same time). So while Silver isn’t certain, I will say the inclusion of the Cinquedea interested me enough to note him here.

Espio the Chameleon – Japanese

Espio is definitely coded as Japanese throughout his appearances. Firstly, and most obviously, his special interest in being a Ninja; ninjas were mercenaries or covert agents in feudal Japan, incredibly skilled in martial arts and ninjutsu, and they were often used as spies or bodyguards. Japanese legend would also often associate the ninja with invisibility, a major part of Espio’s powerset. Espio’s favor for the shuriken stars as a weapon also tie into this, as well as the fact that in the Japanese script he uses the old-fashioned formal pronouns “ware” and “onushi.”

That’s not all, though, of course: Espio has been stated in the Sonic City character profiles to be “a lover of traditional ways,” specifically referencing his ability to play the shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument. He is seen playing this instrument in the Chaotix’s Sonic Heroes Team Blast.

@nonbinarycharmybee also pointed out that in THIS official artwork from Sonic Channel in 2021, Espio is seen writing with an ink brush used in Japanese calligraphy.

Gold the Tenrec – Indian

Gold is specifically stated by creator Evan Stanley to be from “whatever the Sonic World equivalent” of India is. This is shown in her design as well: her outfit consists of a brown sari, which is a very popular and traditional style in India, as well as nearby Southern Asian countries.

Knuckles the Echidna (+Clan) – Jamaican + Mesoamerican

Oooh Knuckles is interesting, strap in everyone!

According to Sonic Advance 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Knuckles was originally intended to speak with a Jamaican accent. As well as this, the green/yellow/red color scheme of his shoes was intended to reference the Rastafari flag, Rastafarianism being a religion developed in Jamaica. This heritage can also be seen reflected in his dreadlocks– his quill-style is referred to as such in many canon places. In real life, dreadlocks are a Black hairstyle; the 2011 official census of Jamaica listed 92.1% of the population as Black, and dreadlocks are often associated with the Rastafari movement, as Rastas regard them as a symbol of strength and it emerged as a traditional religious style in the 1940s.

This isn’t the only coding Knuckles gets, though; he is known to be descended from the Knuckles Clan, which are heavily inspired by Mesoamerican cultures.

The Sonic Adventure team traveled through Central and South America to get inspiration for Knuckles’s clan’s culture, which can be seen in basically every aspect of the Clan lore. For instance, clothing worn by the echidnas is very similar to the traditional styles of the Aztecs and Mayas. This includes the decorative feathers seen on Pachacamac and the filmverse!Clan, as feathers were popular and prized materials in pre-colonial Mesoamerca.

Their architecture is almost identical to the step-pyramid temples of the Aztecs, Mayas and Toltecs. The same architecture and clothing style can also be seen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), with most of the echidna warriors seen with spears, including baby Knuckles. Throwing spears were used extensively in pre-colonial Mesoamerican battles.

There is also a large serpent that lives near the Mystic Ruins of the Clan, likely a reference to the Aztecs’ Quetzalcoatl and the Mayas’ Kukulkan.

Also, most obviously, the names: Pachacamac is named after a Peruvian archeological site, which itself was named after the Ichma creator god Pacha Kamaq. Tikal, meanwhile, was named after the archeological ruins of a Maya city, consisting of multiple pyramids.

As a sidenote, it should be noted that Ken Penders’ echidnas in the Archie Comics were definitely supposed to be English: @thankskenpenders laid it out very well in this post, but they were written to come from “Mobius’s equivalent of England,” named after the earliest name for Great Britain, and he wrote the species to be “seafaring colonizers.” Penders did write this before the release of Sonic Adventure, but obviously after Knuckles’s initial release with Jamaican-coding, so can we call this whitewashing? I don’t know enough to speak on the subject, but with the reset of Archie comics and its later cancellation, and the games’ Knuckles Clan being represented in several other mediums (such as Sonic X, Sonic the Comic, etc.) I think we can safely say that the Mesoamerican coding is a bit more canon.

Lupe the Wolf (+pack) – Indigenous American

Lupe the Wolf first appeared in the second season of Sonic SatAM, and from her first appearance was incredibly indigenous-coded, as was her wolf pack. This coding continued through the Archie comics. This will mostly focus on the SatAM coding, as Archie pulled from that and, once again, I don’t know a ton about Archie!Canon, but SatAM is pretty damn obvious with its coding.

Lupe’s pack is described as being a native tribe to the Great Unknown region, who live in “harmony with nature.” Their land was captured and culture destroyed by the invading Robotnik, with the survivors retreating into their civilization’s ruins. In order to keep themselves safe, they set up inscriptions near their cave threatening to curse anyone who wanted to come in; Lupe later readily admits this to Sonic, Sally and Antoine, the latter of whom was scared shitless by the idea of getting cursed.

So, for starters, Indigenous American culture is, in general, built a lot upon a reverence for nature, believing that humans are not masters of nature but merely a part of it and acting accordingly. The capture of their land is obviously intended to be reminiscent of American colonization by the Europeans, which was devastating to the Native tribes, with entire cultures and languages being wiped out and Indigenous people still facing serious oppression in modern times.

Much like the Knuckles Clan, the Wolf Pack’s ruins are reminiscent of many indigenous archeological sites, such as Mesa Verde, which is also built into a cliffside. The brief glimpse we have of the Wolf Pack’s pre-colonized land also shows them living in huts reminiscent of many indigenous tribes.

The room Lupe gives exposition in also has them all sitting around a smoking fire pit; many indigenous cultures will gather around fires for meetings and discussions.

Lastly, many people (mainly white people) hold the superstition that Indigenous people have the ability to curse them; just think about how much the “this place is haunted because it was built on a Native burial ground” trope is used. The “Magical Native American” trope tends to say that Natives are magical because of their closeness with nature and “lack of civilization.” This very much falls into the Noble Savage trope, making them appear exotic or inhuman to outsiders and trivializes their connection to the natural world.

SatAM does a pretty decent job subverting this trope, with Lupe very clearly stating there is no curse and they use it to make small-minded intruders keep out; this shifts the ridiculousness of the situation onto the non-Native-coded characters.

Sonic: Ant! Forget the curse. There is no stupid curse! Lupe: He's right, Antoine. We use the threat of a curse to keep out intruders. Antoine: No curses? Oh. Phew and phew again. I am so happy to hear that.

- SatAM S2e10, “Cry of the Wolf”

There have been a few other instances of Indigenous-coding with Sonicverse characters, unfortunately not all of them represented as well. The inhabitants of Speedster Island in the Sonic Underground episode “Head Games” are just as indigenous-coded in their appearance, the episode very much falls into the “Native people need the outsiders to come save them” stereotype, as well as the “Native people mistake outsiders for gods” stereotype. The Gogobas in Sonic Boom are also given indigenous-coding with their chief’s headgear, village huts, and jokes made referencing the “cursed burial grounds” trope and them replacing the captured indigenous children in the parody of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Gogobas are not exactly shown in a positive light, though to be fair, neither is anyone in the show; specifically, the Gogobas’ “tradition” is to guilt trip everyone into doing what they want.

For other indigenous coding in major characters, see Knuckles and Rotor sections.

Marine the Raccoon (+Coconut Crew) – Australian

Marine is very obviously coded as Australian; throughout all of her dialogue, she uses Australian slang, most obviously calling her friends “mate.” She also uses the exclamation “strewth,” which is used often in Australia and Aotearoa. Other slang includes “sheila” (woman), “no drama” (no worries) and “ya mug” (friendly insult, usually for a gullible person). The other koalas on her island, who raised her, also use the same language.

Marine is also given pigtails shaped like boomerangs, a tool heavily associated with Australia, specifically Aboriginal Australian hunting. Koalas are also a species that is native to Australia– I believe only Australia but I can’t be sure.

I don’t know enough about the coding of their architecture/etc to say if they’re coded as generally Australian or Aboriginal specifically, though I will say they definitely seem to be native to islands, which may imply they are of a Polynesian tribe near Australia or Aotearoa, such as Māori or Tahitian people.

Should be noted though that Marine appears to be adopted; she was raised by the Coconut Crew, who are all koalas. She does have some serious tanuki coding that may additionally code her as Japanese; for more, see Tails’s section.

Mina Mongoose – Chinese

As far as I’m aware, Mina’s Chinese-coding isn’t super explicit. However, she is seen wearing a red qipao for formal occasions, designed by Jeff Axer.

The qipao, also known as a cheongsam, is a traditional Chinese dress inspired by the Manchu people (founders of the Qing Dynasty). In modern times, the cheongsam is very popular for festivities such as weddings and holidays (especially Lunar New Year), as well as school and work uniforms.

Mina’s qipao is also specifically given a green dragon design very reminiscent of the Chinese dragon as well as many other Asian dragon species. She also is given ornamental earrings and hair pieces that are very clearly inspired by Chinese fashion.

Nocturnus Clan + Voxai Aliens – Roman/Greek

Honestly, these clans seem to have coding in name only– they both have specific cultures of their own, with the Voxai architecture specifically being based mainly on the rock and plants of their home planet, and the Nocturnus clan being very futuristic. But it is interesting to note!

The Nocturnus clan army ranks are very similar to Imperial Roman ones, with titles such as hastatus and praetorian. Ix being called the “Imperator” is also a Latin word from which the word “Emperor” is derived, and referred to an army commander. Ix’s Gizoid prefects are also named Scylla and Charyb, a reference to Scylla and Charybdis, two sea monsters in Greek mythology which appeared in the Odyssey. The historian character Nestor the Wise is named after King Nestor of Gerenia, also from the Odyssey as well as the Iliad.

The Voxai names are also derived from Greek and Roman mythology: their name likely comes from the Latin noun “vox,” which refers to a voice and would reference the aliens’ telepathic powers. Most of the named Voxai are given Greek names as well: Thebes is an important city in Greek mythology, Croesus was the last king of Lydia, and Riadne, Leucosia and Ligaia are names of mythological Sirens.

Rotor the Walrus – Inuk

Rotor is not given any specific cultural coding in SatAM or Pre-Super Genesis Wave Archie; however, in Post-SGW Archie, he and his family are given Inuit coding.

In the post-SGW comics, Rotor is from Artika, a region covered in snow and ice, and we see that the residents live in igluit, traditional homes for inuit in the Central Arctic Canadian area, and the Qaanaaq in Greenland.

Rotor’s community also has an enemy named Akhlut the Orca– in Inuit mythology, the akh’lut is a wolf-orca creature that is known to be aggressive towards humans.

Surge the Tenrec – Japanese

Surge is a relatively new character to the IDW Comics, so we still have more time to learn about her past/potential culture; for the most part, at this point, her coding comes mainly in her appearance. Surge was designed by Mauro Fonseca and Evan Stanley, with Fonseca listing Japanese delinquents, specifically sukeban, as one of the inspirations for her design.

Sukeban are Japanese delinquent girls, the word usually referring to either an entire gang or the leader herself; they were gangs in the 60s-70s, and now the term tends to refer mainly to fashion inspired by them. Many “common signifiers” of this trend are bright hair and modified school uniforms (cut, decorated, etc).

Many fictional Japanese delinquents share design similarities with Surge, such as “excessive piercings and jewellery” and spiked hair.

Tails the Fox – Japanese(?) / Kitsune

I put a question mark here because Tails’s coding isn’t specifically on Japanese culture, but on a very specific aspect of its mythology. Tails is very clearly based upon a Kitsune.

Kitsune are mythological foxes with the ability to shapeshift; they have been portrayed in different myths as tricksters and/or guardians. The kitsune are noted for having multiple tails; they are said grow a tail every hundred years, growing up to nine tails. When they reach a thousand years of age, instead of growing a new tail, they ascend to the heavens. The kitsune are notable for their shapeshifting and ability to create illusions.

Tails’s second tail is clearly a reference to the kitsune legend, but while he relies more on technology than magic, there are some suspicious magical incidents around Tails; in Sonic Battle, his attack consists of summoning a giant hand to hit you with. @birdsareblooming pointed out to me that in Sonic: Lost World, when Tails stops pretending to be roboticized, his eye color literally shifts from gray to blue, possibly as a reference to the shapeshifting.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), the illusion power is referenced with Tails’s “Miles Multiplier,” which he uses to summon holographic copies of himself and others.

If you look on Tails’s desktop, you can also see something entitled “Kitsune” is running– @khamomile-kitty has informed me that it says Arms.Kitsune as a reference to Tyson Hesse’s early parody comic, Hedgehog the Sonic. You can see the file on the bottom left of his screen, though this isn’t a great pic lol.

There’s also the fact he shares many parallels with Infinite, who has the regular kitsune powers of illusion. Jackals are also very close on the family tree to foxes.

Another interesting thing is Marine– her being Blaze’s dimension’s Tails is interesting, as she is likely not a raccoon but a tanuki. She looks much more similar to a real tanuki, and in mythology tanuki and kitsune tend to be enemies with similar powersets. Speaking of Tanuki– Tails is also the first to be suspicious of Dodon Pa, a canon tanuki. He says specifically, “There’s something about this Tanuki I just don’t trust.”

Is he a kitsune in canon or is this just a reference to Japanese mythology? Pre-SGW Archie Comics gives Tails regular fox parents, so his tail seems to be a canon mutation there. However, every other canon has Tails completely oblivious to his past, seeming to not know his parents and likely having been abandoned. In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, for example, he has no memory of his parents and just says he’s “been alone for a long time” and is confused at the fact not everyone has two tails. So honestly, it’s completely unknown whether he’s a canon kitsune or simply coded.

Whisper the Wolf – Japanese

Whisper’s coding is very specific: her mask and her eyes. Whisper’s mask was chosen from a character customization option in Sonic Forces, and was specifically inspired by Japanese Kabuki masks. (Kabuki is a traditional Japanese dance-drama form known for its elaborate costuming, makeup, and masks.)

Whisper’s eyes being almost always closed is partially inspired by traditional depictions of kitsunes with “those iconic squinty-closed eyes.” (See Tails’s section for more kitsune information.) Sega of Japan approved her design as wolves serve the same roles as kitsune in older Japanese folklore.

Vector the Crocodile – Black American

Vector has had quite a bit of black coding over the years, in both positive and negative ways.

Vector is given an appearance shared with/stereotypical of a lot of Black American musicians, particularly in the rapper and hip-hop categories– specifically, his gold chain jewelry, leather clothing, and wireless headphones, esp their positioning in his models. As Vector is a musician, they definitely chose this specific musican-attire for him for a reason. Also, right now, his current English voice actor is Keith Silverstein, a black man.

A lot of Vector’s personality could be read as stereotypical, and at the same time those personality traits could be seen as inverted depending on the source material: he could fall into the “bossy overconfident” stereotype, or that could be seen as subverted due to the fact he is actually competent at his job. He could fall into the “money-hungry” and/or “always poor” trope, or this trait could be seen as relatable due to all of us hating landlords and rent with a passion. He could be “will do anything for money” or he could be presented as someone with strong morals who will always do what is right.

In some media he is seen as hotheaded and aggressive (”Angry Black Man”), while in others he keeps a cool head in times of danger and takes care of his team. You could see him as a “massive flirt” or as just someone who happens to be head-over-heels in love with Vanilla. Hell, his loud music interest could be seen as joking about Black music being “too loud,” or it could be seen as him, you know, just enjoying music!

All this depends on the medium. I don’t feel educated enough on the subject to make a call as to whether he’s a positive or negative stereotype overall, though I think I can say with certainty that Penders’ writing of him in the Archie comics was racist as hell. As @thankskenpenders explained in her article, “Vector was the jive-talking comic relief character. He was obnoxious, he was dim-witted, he was crude, he’d randomly bring up rap music. One time he started singing ‘Dem Bones’ to himself while held captive by the Dark Legion. He was also extremely misogynistic.” Thank God Penders is out...

Master Zik the Zeti – Chinese

Zik’s appearance and characterization are based upon early Chinese poets, who are given a lot of respect in their society, as Zik is given respect among the Zeti.

Zik can definitely fall into the Inscrutable Oriental trope, with his “reserved and stoic” personality. He is also part of the Old Master trope (though he is a villainous rather than heroic character, as is traditional), which tends to intersect with the Magical Asian trope in martial arts stories, most famously in America in The Karate Kid; this inspiration can be seen in most of Zik’s calm dialogue and past as Zavok’s mentor, and the emphasis on his position as a powerful master. His hair is likely a reference to the stereotypical Fu Manchu moustache, and his entrance music is stylized after traditional Chinese music.

Zik also spends his semi-retirement in the garden he tends; this could potentially be a reference to Chinese gardens, which are very important in Chinese literature and philosophy. His game profile also mentions he likes to water his Bonsai tree; while the Bonsai is Japanese, it is derived from traditional Chinese penjing art.

#sonic squad #sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic meta #meta #mine #cultural coding #coding

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rose-reveries · 4 months

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⚠️BEWARE THE EPISODE 4 PJO SPOILERS⚠️

Episode 4: The things I like, the things I don’t, the things I miss but I’m okay with them not being there

The things I liked about the new episode:

I liked the conversation at the beginning in the train. Very reminiscent of the book where we get to learn a little bit more about Annabeth and how she arrived at camp. I found it interesting how here we changed it from Annabeth’s father always resenting her birth to Annabeth’s father considering her “a gift” until her step-mother came along. I don’t mind this change at all and all in all still makes sense as to why Annabeth ran away when she was 7.

“But at least with gods you know the rules” okay Miss Chase your autism is showing (/j)

The flow from seeing the centaurs (which is something I believe only Percy saw in the books) to letting this be how Grover opens up about Pan and why he wants to be a searcher was a nice little combination of scenes to save time. We still understand how Grover feels about humans and their mistreatment of nature but it’s just in a slightly different way than the books and I’m okay with that change.

The BANTER between the trio was SO good this episode. You can really feel the bonds between these characters (especially Percy and Annabeth) forming this episode.

The pacing in this episode finally started to feel a little bit better than the first 3 episodes. I actually do think the change in how they meet Echidna helps with this because it prolongs the hunt whereas in the book the Echidna and Chimera scene IS quite short and fast. Meeting Echidna on the train, having them run and try to heal Percy, Percy gets worse, Percy sacrifices himself to let the other two get away, fight scene, he falls into the river, etc. Just way better pacing than like, for example, episode one where Alecto literally just flies at him and without moving he stabs her and she dies 💀

Okay, my FAVORITE new thing about the episode does have to be making the Arch a temple to Athena. If the gods still rule but have adapted to the west it makes total sense that they still have temples but they’re just modern American landmarks. Super cool and I loved this change.

Also, rather than Annabeth and Grover just heading down in the elevator before learning there’s a monster, I do like Percy stepping in and sacrificing himself to let them get away. It shows his loyalty to his friends, and how he would rather fight a monster than let them die without reason.

Since the Arch is a temple and Athena had to give Echidna permission to enter, and she did so due to Annabeth’s impertinence, this REALLY helps with the shows current message of heroes and monsters and what those terms mean, but also just how the gods are like BAD. I think it’ll help make Luke’s reasoning for turning on the gods make SO much sense for new audience members.

Percy and Annabeth banter?? ADORABLE

TOTALLY CALLED THE WATER REACHING OUT TO REACH PERCY LMAO. I know RR said he had Percy jump into the river because he didn’t realize how far it was from the arch so this is like sort of a retcon but yea, it works. Percy can manipulate water we learned this with how he pushed Nancy into the fountain.

Things I didn’t:

I think Echidna breaking into the train ✨magically✨ was eh. She could have simply just been on the train like how in the book she was just simply in the elevator.

Speaking of Echidna, it would’ve been so cool to see a snake lady :’). They did it with Medusa and Alecto but I guess they spent their whole budget on that because no snake lady to be seen.

I know the Mist would be hiding it from mortals… but even in the book Grover is like wearing pants and a hat. If they spent less cgi on Grover they could’ve animated some other stuff I’m sure.

The choice to keep depicting Kronos as this wraith instead of a voice from a pit is interesting?? We are already not setting up for Kronos reveal (like there was no Kronos exposition in the museum in episode one which I though was weird). Also I’d say that they’re doing this because they want new audience members to believe Hades is the BBG or something, but if they wanted us to think that why not mention the Helm of Darkness? The Helm would definitely help allude to this wraith figure we see I think. Or show us the hellhound. I don’t know. Weird. I think there is a lot of missing information that is IMPORTANT to the story that shouldn’t have been left out.

Things I miss but it’s fine they’re not there

The trio just never lost their stuff, huh? Like…the bus didn’t explode. They didn’t have to return a poodle for money to a train to Denver. I understand this was all probably cut for time and money sake.

Wish we took the time in the arch for Annabeth to talk about wanting to be an architect.

In conclusion, I liked this episode and I am enjoying the series. But this means that the Lightning Thief Musical is still the most book accurate adaptation of Percy Jackson and that makes me lol

#percy series #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv spoilers #pjo tv #pjo tv show #pjo spoilers #pjo series

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theliterarywolf · 27 days

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I wanna fucking know what they smoked at the pitch meeting though."We could make a movie about black wizards." -Oh yes sounds nice. "We could have heavy influences from different cultural..." -And we're gonna make it about secret magic group consisting of black wizards policing white people, and play it serious, not a single joke no satire. "What?" -And we're gonna call it /The American Society of Magical Negroes/ "Oh fuck off I quit. What the fuck." -GREENLIT!

Anonymous said: That movie sounds like it belongs in a category with that gay movie "bros"? the one where the producer was majorly butthurt, and literally no gay person outside of the middle of California would be able to relate to (I think it was Cali) We're missing one more shitty movie to fulfil the trinity.

To anon 1: But anooon, your first mistake was assuming that most Hollywood studios would actually allow someone with legitimate creativity and a passion for storytelling into the pitch-meeting in the first place.

You know, rather than a bunch of overpaid CEOs and investors who think hashtags are the same thing as genuine audience desire (lest we forget how Sony was tricked into releasing Morbius TWICE)

To anon 2: I could have sworn that Bros was made to cater to New York gays rather than West Hollywood gays... I mean, the point of the matter is that the producer went into making a movie with the smallest portion of his potential audience in mind and had the gall to be upset that it bombed.

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all-mirth-no-matter · 2 years

Text

Time After Time | Chapter Two

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader, Tommy Shelby x Original Female Character

Summary: As you settle into your new reality, a monumental historical moment comes and goes, and you meet a mysterious man with familiar eyes.

Warning: language, war mention, smoking, drinking mention, prostitution mention

ao3 Link | Catch up on tumblr here

Chapter Two: Magic Man

Cold late night so long ago, when I was not so strong, you know. A pretty man came to me, never seen eyes so blue. Even though I could not run away it seemed, we’d seen each other in our dreams. It seemed like he knew me, he looked right through me, yeah. — Magic Man, Heart

For the first few years of your life, you’d found your mother’s fortune telling claim fascinating. And obviously you had no reason to disbelieve your mother when she said such things.

Your first doubt came on the playground after a particularly mean bully heard you repeat her words, and then mocked you ferociously.

After that, you didn’t repeat your mother’s words again, the moment obviously scarring you whether you realized it at the time or not. Luckily, your parents moved right after that incident so you didn’t have to deal with the bully again, but the effect remained and in a twist of pessimism, turned you into quite the skeptic.

Due to your father’s job in the American military, you were what they considered a military brat, moving around with your parents every handful of years. Your father met your mother in Birmingham, where they got pregnant and married within the year, in that order. London was where you spent the majority of your really early years, adopting the accent of the people around you and your mother. And even after all the moving around, you managed to keep your accent.

Eventually, by the time your father left for his first deployment since your birth, you and your mother settled in America. Between your father’s deployments over your elementary and middle school years, you’d move around the country some more until your accent took on a mind of its own. While you still had the basic London posh, it flattened with the influences of the American southern, northeastern, and mid-western dialects that you heard over the years. By the time you moved out west, you’d fully adopted the slang and phrasing of American youth.

As your family moved over the years, your skepticism of your mother’s fortune teller claim grew exponentially. You became obsessed with debunking the pseudoscience, learning the secrets of body language and other verbal and physical mannerisms.

To this day, such knowledge helped you understand body language and clues to when people were lying to you.

And even after being transported back a century, you were beginning to realize that people in 1918 weren’t that different from those in 2018.

Especially when it came to young women in love.

Ada had screeched so loud you thought your ear drums were going to burst as she ran into the family room and shoved a newspaper in your face.

“It’s over! It’s over! It’s finally over!”

“Ada, what in the world are you going on about?” You chuckled slightly as you tried to grab the parchment from the girl’s hands.

In the last month, you’d learned that Ada was actually just a couple years younger than you. But there were a lot of ways you felt much older than her and often felt yourself reverting to treating her like a younger sister. You didn’t know if it was the time difference or intellect gap, but you definitely knew that Ada wasn’t stupid — she was quick witted and studious when she wanted to be. But she was immature and often times a little bratty when she wasn’t getting her way. In a lot of ways, she reminded you of yourself as a teenager. Aside from Polly, you seemed to be the only person to call her out when she was getting a little too bad. And even though she’d be angry with you, she always came back around. You quickly diagnosed that she was just a kid who’d been given too much freedom and craved discipline, even if she fought it every step of the way.

“You’ll cut the poor girl’s eye if you keep waving that thing,” Polly shouted, walking into the room and rolling her eyes at her niece as she poured herself some tea.

Polly poured another cup for you, which made your heart swell at the gesture. The older woman had quickly become your favorite, even if you still weren’t completely sure where you stood with her. Unlike Ada, Polly had been much harder to read over the last month. There were moments where you felt like you were beginning to see through some of the cracks, especially nights when she’d had a bit too much whiskey. But you could still feel a little chill every now and then, like she still didn’t completely trust you.

Still, you couldn’t help but admire the hell out of her. She was strong and confident and didn’t let anyone push her down. You hadn’t expected to meet a woman like Polly in this day in age. You tried to imagine what a 21st century Polly would be like — stunning power suits, CEO of Fortune 500 companies, and a stare that would make billionaires fold. And on top of running the organization, she seemed to be the glue to hold the family together while the men were away. She took care of Ada and Ada’s youngest brother, Finn, while also spending good chunks of her weeks checking in on Ada’s sister-in-law and her children. You made sure to be extra diligent and thoughtful when working for Polly because every time the woman praised you, you felt like you’d cracked a little dent into her resolve and you were just dying to win her over. It was a little bit sad, you knew in retrospect, in comparison to the gravity of the actual important thing going on in your life at the moment (being stuck in time and all).

“But it’s over!” Ada continued to shout. “Look!”

She finally stopped moving the newspaper and slammed it onto the table between you and Polly, jumping as you both began to read the headline.

11 November 1918.

THE WAR IS OVER

Germany Signs Our Terms & Fighting Stopped at 11 O’Clock Today.

The article continued, including an official statement by Prime Minister of the armistice being signed that morning and hostilities to cease on all fronts today. You only pulled your eyes away from the paper when you felt Polly staring at you. Your eyes flicked to meet hers, swallowing hard as her face was unreadable.

“Y/N you were right!” Ada shouted, still unable to contain her happiness. “You said November and you were right!”

“It was a guess,” you squeaked out shakily.

Polly hummed in consideration. “Lucky guess, eh?”

“Yeah,” you nodded.

There was a commotion outside, happy cheers and shouts as people began collecting their newspapers and the word began to spread.

“I should probably go check on Harry,” you said, trying to calmly place a marker in the book from that week before closing it. You could feel your hand shaking, so you clenched it before rising from your seat, eager to make an escape from Polly’s burning gaze. “I imagine people are going to want to celebrate.”

Polly nodded before grabbing the book and rising from her seat as well. Ada was still dancing around you, pulling you in for a hug as she stopped you at the door.

“Freddie’s coming home,” she whispered as she hugged you tightly. You’d still been the only person who knew about her sweetheart, and for a moment you forgot about your own panic as your heart swelled for your friend and you hugged her back. She pulled away and wiped her tears before jumping up again. “And my pain in the ass brothers! They’re all coming back — I can’t wait!”

——

There was a shift in the air after the news broke of the war ending. The whole town of Small Heath seemed to be rushing around you as they prepared for the soldiers to return. On top of the excitement of loved ones retiring home, there was a thickness of tension it seemed over the controversy of job security for women in the factories and shops around town.

Even Polly seemed increasingly distracted as she prepared for the return of her nephews. A plus for you, seeing as it made her seemingly forget about your eerie prediction. Instead, it felt like she was leaning on you even more than before. So much so that she was even asking you to review additional books that fell just outside of the bookmaker organization.

Your role was still a secret and Polly urged you to ask only the questions you absolutely needed to know.

“Just look for discrepancies in patterns and names, that’s all. Make sure the numbers add up and alert me when they don’t. Understood?” Polly had instructed sharply.

You had nodded, slightly kicking yourself for accidentally getting mixed up in something that you were sure was going to bite you in the ass later. You recognized a few names in the ledger: Harry, your landlord, a few shop owners, and even a copper or two. But you did as you were told and kept everything to yourself, appreciating Polly trying to keep you in the dark as much as possible. Even if it wasn’t necessarily her intention to look out for your safety as much as it was the safety of her organization from outsiders like yourself. Either way, the less you knew the better.

And over that next month you’d gotten better at keeping your head down and mouth filtered. You still got funny looks from the patrons at the bar, but you felt you were blending in decently. And as word spread of your friendship with Ada, that seemed to keep people from trying to know too much about you.

Tensions rose further when the official date was announced on the soldier’s arrival home. Harry anticipated a huge crowd for that week and instructed you to give free drinks to the men who fought. You didn’t bother to ask how you were going to know who fought and who didn’t.

Ada grew giddier every day to the point of you wanting to smack her. You were happy for your friend, really you were. But god, you could only take so much excitement over Freddie.

This was, however, the most you’d ever heard her talk about her brothers. Ada nor Polly hadn’t spoken about them much over the last couple months, just small comments about the way they’d run something in the shop or handle a situation they were facing. You desperately wanted to ask about Ada’s mother and father, since it seemed like Polly was the only older adult in the household and had been for some time. She hadn’t included a father in her list of family members in the war, so you had to assume that he was either dead or not around anymore. But every time you felt close enough to ask, you chickened out, worried that the question would be reciprocated and you had done everything you could to keep Ada from asking personal questions about you so far.

The day finally arrived and it felt like the entire town was preparing to rush the train station and welcome their boys home. You thought with all the commotion you could hang back, maybe stake out at the bar in anticipation for the eventual crowd.

But Ada was having none of that. She wanted to get all dolled up and insisted that you get ready together. You didn’t have many clothes, though you’d been able to afford a couple more outfits since starting your side job. Ada picked your dress and continued her hair as you got changed.

“You should really think about cutting your hair like mine,” she’d babbled. “Only older women have long hair these days.”

“Nuh uh. I spent way too long getting my hair to this point,” you countered, picking up your hair to bring it over your shoulder.

Ever since you bought your first hair straightener and curler in middle school, you’d managed to absolutely annihilate your hair’s health. After you finally wised up, you spent the last decade trying to reverse the damage you’d done, starting with chopping it all off. Now it had grown back, long and healthy and you’d spent a great deal of time learning how to best maintain it and accepting it for what it naturally was.

You knew she was right though — long hair for young women was not at all in fashion. You anticipated that the hair was only going to get shorter as the 20s began, and part of you was still hoping that you wouldn’t stick around here long enough to see those days. But either way, you weren’t about to make a rash decision like cutting off over a foot of hair just to fit in.

“Will you tie this thing in the back? I can never reach it.” You were still huffing, secretly missing zippers and cursing garters, when Ada gasped slightly.

“Is this real?”

The soft weight of her fingers against your back made you realize what she meant - your tattoo.

Shaped in a circle, a tree sat between your shoulder blades against your spine, the roots at the bottom of the tree rounding up just enough to touch the edge of the branches. In the empty spaces to the left and right of the trunk was a sun and moon. You’d thought of the idea in a dream one night, and woke up the next morning unable to get it out of your head until you drew it up and gave it to the tattoo artist on your 18th birthday. The tree of life in a never ending circle of life and death, day and night, sky and earth, beginning and end.

“Oh,” you shrugged, trying to stay nonchalant about it. You knew that tattoos were older than the times of today, but you still hadn’t figured out the verdict on women with tattoos. Usually your hair covered the inked image, so you hadn’t had anyone call you out on it… until now. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Pol, look at this,” Ada called when her aunt had walked past the open door.

The older woman was running around the apartment, “What is it, Ada? I’m trying to get Finn to put his bloody socks on.”

You groaned as Ada pulled you by the strings she was supposed to be tying toward her aunt. “Y/N has a tattoo. Neat, huh?”

“It’s just a tree,” you tried to urge again, resisting the attention as you tried to turn out of Ada’s hold. “I’ll tie this thing myself.”

“She’s right,” Polly said sternly, and you were slightly surprised that she wasn’t questioning you about it as well. Instead she smacked Ada on the butt with Finn’s socks and gave a two minute warning before they were set to leave.

Ada dropped the topic when she went back to fixing her hair, leaving you to also finish getting ready. You took the quiet moment to slow your heart rate and concentrated on staring at yourself in the mirror.

You definitely didn’t look like the other young women in the town. Your eye brows were too thick, your hair was too long and wildly curly, your body was too muscular, and your skin was too young. Even Ada looked older than she was, and she didn’t have the hardship that fell upon most women working in factories or with children. You wondered how long it would take for your skin to catch up to the damage of living in the early 1900s.

But right now, you actually smiled at your reflection for the first time since you arrived in this place. Ada had put a touch of powder on your face and borrowed Polly’s lipstick. Your lips had a natural fullness and darkness to them, so you only allowed her to put a little on. You didn’t need anyone asking if you were a prostitute again - you really felt like you’d properly go off on the next person who did. And though your hair was simple, you’d managed to relax most of the curls today and pulled pieces of it back similar to a style you’d worn at a holiday party a few years ago, using a couple of Ada’s pins.

All in all, you thought you looked pretty decent. The confirmed squeal that left Ada when you spun for her added to your confidence, and you let her grip your arm tightly as Polly yelled for them to go.

With the energy of the town, it was hard not to succumb to the excitement of the situation. Even if there was no one there for you to welcome home, you were happy for Ada and Polly and everyone else who surrounded you. Women on all sides of you stood on their toes to see over the sea of people, tears pooling in their eyes already in anticipation.

“Don’t forget,” Ada whispered next to you as men began to filter out of the trains. “Not a word of you-know-who.”

You rolled your eyes. “I know, Ada. You’ve told me a thousand times — not even to Polly, I know. Your secret is safe with me.”

She squeezed your arm again and you smiled, knowing she needed to hear the extra confirmation.

You held your smile as you rose your head back to watch the soldiers. You remembered the way your father had held his chin up and shoulders back when he returned from his own deployments, only dropping his stance when you ran up to hug him.

That wasn’t the case as you took in the current scene. You began to realize that most of these men — nay, boys — had most likely been volunteers. They hadn’t started out as soldiers or gone to train the same way your father and the military of your day had. These were tired boys, physically and mentally exhausted. You tried to imagine what most of them must have looked like nearly four years ago when they left for the war, feeling your heart clench at the idea of most of these men having been teenagers or in their early twenties at the time. And the things they must have been through since then… You watched as most found their family members and melted into their embraces.

Polly and Ada had managed to push their way forward as groups of crowds began to disperse after their reunions. Both women patiently waited quietly as Finn bounced in his place at the excitement around him. Ada’s sister-in-law, Martha, had caught up to them, her kids running wild around them in the frenzy of it all.

Raising your eyes back to the train doors, they locked with the man’s stepping off. Even from your spot and with the shadow of the cap on his head, you could see that his eyes were pale blue, piercing, as his eyes met yours and held the gaze. You’d seen guys with light blue eyes before, but none had the intensity and brilliance of the irises that met yours now. They made you think of frozen ponds and snowflakes that made the hair on your neck and arms rise.

A vision danced through your mind of those same eyes, surrounded by mud and blood. A flash — just a second — but the sight of it sent a shiver up your spine that ended where you felt the lingered touch of Ada’s fingers against your tattoo, and suddenly the ink felt like it was on fire.

The combination of his icy stare and the burn on your back caused you to finally pull your eyes away from the soldier’s, your breath leaving your lungs as if a rope had been cut and you found yourself free falling.

“Y/N!” Ada called next to you. “I see them! Oh Pol, look! There they are!”

But you couldn’t catch your breath, suddenly feeling claustrophobic.

“Go, Ada,” you pushed her forward weakly. “Find your family. I’ll meet up with you later, ya?”

You didn’t wait for her to reply, but the sound of her squeal as she greeted someone confirmed that she was well distracted.

The people around you grew blurry as you hurried out of the train station. On the street, you felt the wind fly back into your lungs as you gulped for fresh air.

What the hell had that been? You hadn’t felt that way since the moment you’d been pulled into time. Over the last couple months you’d done everything to try to avoid what had happened to you, unable to fully accept the ludicrous idea of time travel and still not properly convinced that this wasn’t some kind of super intense fever dream. It’d grown easier to acclimate to your surroundings after starting work and befriending Ada. But now it felt like everything had caught up to you and suddenly tears were pouring down your cheeks.

You had to get out of there, so you began to walk back into town.

On the walk, you tried to think about your mother. For the most part, she was just a normal mom. But when she began talking about her gift, her predictions, you’d been too angry to even bother listening. And when you did, when you finally started to ask questions to get to the bottom of it, she’d been so cryptic. Eventually, when she’d finally taken the last of your pushing, she’d break down and cry, muttering apology after apology.

At the time, you thought the apologies were related to your father. After years of crying prophecy, your father had died in combat. The rational side of you knew that it had all been out of anyone’s control, but every time your mom started talking about predictions, you couldn’t help but wonder why she hadn’t warned your dad. You’d nearly lost your voice screaming about that very subject.

But now you began to wonder if she knew this was going to happen to you all along.

The thought was crazy, of course. Just as crazy as time travel, you reasoned to yourself. You needed more answers, but you didn’t even know where to start.

By the time you got back, the sun had set well into the night and your mind couldn’t take another thought. All you could think about was your feet, which in this moment were burning from the long walk. You wondered how cold the water in the Cut would be, walking down to the water’s edge and peering into the black depths.

A splash in front of you caused you to jump in shock. “Shit!” you shouted, mostly out of surprise and slightly from how cold the water was. Probably a good idea not to put your feet in.

“Oi! Someone down there?” a deep male voice called out from the bridge above you.

You looked into the water in time to see the items that’d been thrown were shiny and round before the depth and darkness consumed it.

“You almost took me out,” you quipped as you heard the sound of the individual’s footsteps approach from the crux of the bridge.

As the man grew closer, the light from his burning cigarette lit up his face enough for you to immediately recognize the same eyes you’d met at the station just that evening.

“Apologies,” he said, the cigarette still between his lips as he stopped, and you could tell by his own body language that he’d recognized you as well. “Wasn’t expecting anyone to be out here at this hour.”

For a moment, you were completely aware of your own vulnerability, standing under the bridge of the river in darkness was stupid. And the fact that you didn’t feel at all in danger with the man in front of you made you feel even stupider.

“You were at the train station,” he continued when you remained silent.

As if inside your thoughts, he moved closer to the street light so you could get a better view of him. And whether he’d meant to do it or not, it prompted you to move out of the shadow of the bridge and into the light as well.

When you did, you both were able to properly appraise each other. This time when you looked at him, you avoided his eyes at an attempt to not get sucked in again.

The man was handsome — really handsome. Dark hair was styled almost like an undercut, short on the sides nearly to the root with a drastic start of thick, longer hair half-hazard-like at the top and draped across his forehead. The square jaw of his face sunk at the cheeks then rose into cheek bones sharp enough to cut glass. The bags under his eyes were a touch purple and his skin was surprisingly pale for what you imagined a soldier’s skin to look like, a hint of freckles littered his nose and cheeks. He was wearing what you’d call a white henley, the buttons at the top undone and wrinkled like he’d been lying down moments before, with a thick black coat draped over his shoulders that reached his shins.

You realized you’d been staring for some time when your eyes finally reached back up to his own to find him also appraising you as well. Which made you feel weirdly self conscious — not in the way you typically felt since you’d been here, like he could tell you were different — but in a normal way. In the normal way that you’d feel self conscious running into a boy you fancied without checking the mirror before leaving the house. It made you feel both silly and uneasy, as you couldn’t possibly imagine what hours of walking in the winter had done to your nicely tamed hair and make up. A similar chill from earlier crawled up your back and you shook the feeling away, telling yourself you couldn’t possibly care about what this stranger had to think about the way you looked, and finally cleared your throat to formally address him.

“I was,” you answered outright. Your eyes shifted back to the water before you took a guess at what had just happened here. “And you were throwing some medals into the river, yeah?”

The man narrowed his eyes as he took a long drag of his cigarette. “What if I was? The fish can ‘ave em.”

“Don’t think the fish’ll have much use for them,” you retorted, the corner of your mouth rising despite yourself.

He breathed out of his nose in what you took to be amusement before shrugging. “Seems we have that in common, then.”

Another moment passed between the two of you as he held your gaze. He finally came to the end of his cigarette and you took that as your sign to leave, despite the pit in your gut that begged you to stay. But the reasonable side of you won, and you decided that you needed to go home.

“I’ll leave you to your fish,” you nodded, giving him a tight-lipped half-smile before you began to walk forward, feeling your breath catch as you passed by him.

“You a whore?” he asked, his tone as even as it’d been just a moment before.

The better of you slipped.

You forgot the character you were supposed to be playing and 21st century you slipped from your mask as you turned to face the random stranger.

“What the hell is wrong with you people, eh?” you began, taking the one step you needed to close the gap between the two of you, causing him to straighten himself at your sudden approach. “Why do you people assume every unaccompanied woman walking around is a damn prostitute? And what right do you all have using the first five fucking minutes of introductions to ask? No, I’m not a whore! But that doesn’t mean I don’t support a woman’s choice to sell her services to men who will pay if it means making enough to survive in this God awful existence!”

While originally taken aback by your sudden shift in manner, the muscles in the man’s face began to relax until a short chuckle left his lungs. “So, you aren’t a whore, but you respect ‘em, is that it?”

You huffed, rolling your eyes at what he took away from your rant.

“Everyone sells part of themselves for something eventually,” you replied, your voice calmer as he rose his brow. “Sometimes it’s a woman laying on her back for a man. Sometimes it’s a man crawling through the mud for a King.”

You weren’t sure what made you chose those words exactly, could have been the visions or the weird instinctive feeling you had about this man that made you speak in such a bold, unfiltered manner.

The stranger straightened at your words, obviously hitting a nerve as his face hardened again and he took a step closer to you. You didn’t know if he was expecting you to back away or flinch, but you dug your heel down as he moved just an inch from your face.

You should have been scared, but all you could do was hold his icy glare as he peered down at you.

“You should go home,” he finally said, his voice sounding slightly deeper and softer to your ears as his eyes flickered down to your lips. “The next man you meet alone, under a bridge, at night, might not be as accepting to your ideologies as I am.” Your eyes followed his lead and moved down his own face until they fell to his lips. He licked them before continuing, “If he says you’re a whore, he might treat you like one in spite of your pretty words.”

You swallowed at his threat that sent another chill down your body. Not one of fear, but desire. How wrong was it of you to be turned on right now?

You took a step back, pulling out of his orbit before you did something that you weren’t sure you’d be able to stop.

“I appreciate the advice,” you said with embarrassingly little strength as you wrapped your arms around yourself, suddenly feeling the effects of the chilly night and the weight of the days events.

He exhaled out of his nose as he watched you before shrugging off his jacket, then offered it to you. Surprised and slightly suspicious, you hesitated before reaching out and accepting it. A strange, kind gesture after the harshness of his last words were a paradox, but the cold and those damn eyes got the better of you as you finally wrapped it around your smaller frame.

You walked backwards, your eyes meeting his again and the vision from early flashed — icy blue eyes under mud and blood.

“Welcome home, soldier.”

>> next chapter << chapter masterlist

#peaky blinders #tommy shelby #thomas shelby #tommy shelby x reader #thomas shelby x reader #tommy shelby x oc #thomas shelby x oc #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinder fanfic #fanfic #mine #time after time

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lorenfinch · 11 months

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Introduction

Hello! Very recently I found out about the existence of writeblr, and since I am currently working on a book series and trying to get the word out about it I thought I'd make a sideblog for it!

My name is Loren, and my full pen name is Loren Finch. I'm 24 at the time of writing this (though my birthday is less than a month away), I like to primarily use he/they, though I still go by she/her in some places due to not entirely being out and still experimenting with my pronouns. I am a mixed, queer, autistic/adhd, transmasc, aroace author who enjoys all things fantasy, gothic, and supernatural.

I am also an artist and you may find some of my character art here! My main blog is @circuslollipop and my art sideblog is @circuslollipopart! You can also find me on twitter @/circuslollipop and on insta @/circuslollipopart!!

I would love to meet and befriend fellow writers and seek out some beta readers in the future once I'm ready for it!

My current writing project was actually inspired by another writing idea I had! That project was moreso about faeries in a steampunk-inspired city, until I had a few worldbuilding ideas on how to integrate vampires into the setting. Then I came up with a couple characters and an entirely new setting, and found that I wanted to write about them instead!

For the time being. Perhaps when this monster of a project is all done, I can go back to that other idea! Or, idk, something about sapphic werecoyotes in an Old West-inspired town.

MY WIP

Currently, I am working on a new adult dark fantasy book series, with an aim for 5 books total. I would comp this as GRISHAVERSE x HELL FOLLOWED WITH US x THE WITCHER.

The Everdark. A vast expanse of forest and mountains where the sun cannot touch, where monsters roam wild and where magic permeates the very soil. To most mortals, the Everdark is a death sentence, but one young man hopes to make it a sanctuary. Renwick had always held a fascination for vampires, and now that he’s been turned into one, he revels at the chance to finally leave behind who he once was—scared and meek with no friends, shunned by his fellows who insisted he was a wretched little girl. Yet instead of the grand castles, billowing capes, and candlelit ballroom dances of his dreams, Renwick finds himself thrust in the middle of a conflict between vampires and monster hunters that threatens to turn deadly. With his new home and fellow vampires on the line, Renwick must uncover the secrets lurking in the fog, all while searching for his enigmatic uncle and grappling with the mysterious circumstances of his own transformation.

This series will feature vampires, undead creatures, elves, magic, a trans autistic MC, many queer characters, and an eventual MLM romance. The setting is inspired by mainly 19th century Europe with some medieval/renaissance era elements, and North American natural landscapes. Currently, I have just started drafting the first book! I am a plotter by nature, and have completed outlining book 1, and have mapped out where the rest of the series will go.

TAGS

ART: #character art

CHARACTERS: #ch: [insert character name]

TIPS: #ref

INSPIRATION: #inspo

I'll also add anything I see fit!

TAGLIST

@/angie-j-kay || @/digitalsatyr23 || @/sam-glade || @/worldsfromhoney

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writeblr community #writing community #writers on tumblr #queer writers

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anim-ttrpgs · 9 months

Note

what kind of lore is Eureka working with, gimme the rundown

Well, as mentioned in a previous post, Eureka is essentially half setting-agnostic, with the intention of being able to run anything from the present day all the way back to the mid-1800s. It could do zombie apocalypse, 1930s Noir, Wild West, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Cthulhu modules, Delta Green modules, SCP Foundation, Monster of the Week modules, etc.

But the other half is where the basis for supernatural player characters comes from. This half is actually heavily based on the lore of my own horror-comedy literary work, working-titled American Vampire, which follows eventful ‘life’ of an eight-hundred-year-old vampire named Yvette as she navigates life in the 1990s and 21st century after nearly a hundred years in hibernation, and finally, finally accepts and embraces her own vampirism. The lore and tone are so similar that Eureka could almost be called an American Vampire TTRPG. (But it cant be called that, the name American Vampire has already been taken by another literary work.)

Here is the lore that Eureka and American Vampire share:

the background of this lore is a normal, everyday contemporary setting. The ‘real world’, not some other planet or completely alternate universe.

There are real supernatural creatures and people, but there is no ‘masquerade’. No worldwide global conspiracy/pact binds supernatural creatures to secrecy.

There is no secret worldwide vampire government or even a vampire community, supernatural creatures cant even usually pick each other out in a crowd.

Despite there being no worldwide agreement to keep all of this a secret, belief in vampires or ghosts or werewolves or anything of the sort is still widely considered baseless superstition. This is partially because actual supernatural creatures are so incredibly rare that 95% of people will never meet one in their lifetime, and even a supernatural person may never meet another of their kind. In American Vampire there’s canonically only, like, about one-hundred vampires in the entire United States. Also, on an individual level, the vast majority of supernatural people have a pretty serious incentive to keep their own identity a secret because they, like, eat people. If they admitted that to the world then at best they would get arrested.

The other reason the existence of supernatural monsters remains widely unknown is because people who do encounter this kind of thing tend to rationalize it and find normal explanations for it. If you saw somebody with huge fangs in real life, you’d probably assume that they got them surgically done instead of assuming they’re a real vampire. In fact, Yvette in American Vampire is “out” to the world by the mid-2010s. She does almost nothing to hide her vampirism, and is even a mid-level career streamer, all with the “gimmick” that she claims to be a real vampire. People tend to think she’s just acting, or that she’s just completely delusional. Many other supernatural creatures live similar lives, working normal jobs, wearing a hat to cover up their horns or sunglasses to hide their weird eyes, and only revealing their true nature to very close friends, if anyone at all.

Monsters are magical and rarely adhere to modern scientific understanding. And most importantly, they have magical weaknesses. The most interesting thing about a monster is usually their weaknesses, and the most interesting, challenging, and fun thing about playing a monster in Eureka is trying to work around those weaknesses while keeping one’s true nature a secret, even from the other party members and their players.

Supernatural player characters in Eureka must be hidden from everyone except for the player that is playing them and the game master. You aren’t supposed to tell anyone else at the table. There are gameplay consequences for if a monster gets discovered, even by other monsters, and it usually involves a lot of Composure damage. (Composure is like an emotional HP system in Eureka, and you lose points of composure from extreme fear and/or stress. It is NOT, however, a sanity system.)

This Composure damage also affects other monsters because, like I said above, monsters eat normal people, but 99% of a monster’s friends are also going to be normal people. You may never even consider eating your buddies, but this guy would chow down on them without a second thought, he’s got to go!

Of course, you could play Eureka without this monster character lore, especially if you wanted to use it for, say, a completely contemporary murder mystery on a train where none of the mystery solvers are secretly vampires, and Eureka works perfectly fine for that, its core gameplay is designed to be able to totally stand on its own, but we have found that the possibility of any party member being something horrible in disguise can really spice up just about any mystery.

Last minute note in case it wasn’t clear: The party members that are secretly monsters are not usually opposed to the main goals of the party, they aren’t secret villains, they’re protagonists just like everybody else, and they want to solve this mystery just as badly. They just have to do it with the added risk that somebody might notice they don’t cast a shadow.

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skippyv20 · 1 year

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Snare plan

From Quora

12 April 2023

How do you to move on and up from a Toronto chef to a Kensington Palace prince?

Sobbing from left eye, prostrate on the floor “ I’ ll leave you if you don’t immediately tell the world I’m your girlfriend.” So despite his fear and loathing of the media, he chose the path of publicity. Over abandonment by a man- eater.

World wide opinion is growing that Meghan organised her OWN online harassment club to pressure Harry to cave into her engagement plans.

Here’s how the plan goes… April 25 2015 Meghan meets Harry at the opening of Soho House Istanbul. Meghan admits she “did her homework and scoured Harry’s Instagram feed. “

Meghan 35 says in Vanity Fair she met 32 year old Harry in 2016 and was secretly dating for about 6 months, (about April 2016 ) after chatting on Instagram.

October 28th 2016 news breaks about the “ secret” relationship.

The next day, the pair publicly celebrates on October 29th 2016 when she and Harry attend Soho House Toronto Halloween Apocalypse themed party with Eugenie and Jack.

Someone “leaks” info and photos to the press.

Such a narrow window through which to manoeuvre and organise Harry , but just one week later, he issues a public statement Nov 8th 2016 about Meghan, his new American “actress” girlfriend and media intrusion. Using his Kensington Palace Press Release he complains about nightly legal battles to keep stories out of papers.

A quote “ It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that” etc. and so on. A FEW Months???

( The UK Sun Wednesday 2 November has a front page busty photo of Meghan in her red low cleavage Deal Or No Deal dress, titled Princess Pushy. Nothing racist, just sexy photos.)

So, from October 28 to November 7, barely a week, how is such a media storm raised without prior assistance? ( Reminiscent of Megs lowering the limo windows at HMTQs Jubilee to wave ‘look at me ‘ to the media.)

December 2016 they publicly shop together for a Christmas tree at London’ s Pines and Needles store, and a few days later attend a play in London’s West End.

Meghan goes to Toronto Invictus Games with Markus Anderson and then attends wheelchair tennis with Harry 25 September 2017 happily waving to the media.

Magically , the engagement is announced on 27 Nov 2017 along with an announcement that 6 months later there would be a Windsor wedding on 19 May 2018 .

So her first consideration was how long does it take to land a big fish after he took the first risky bite, and how to fast -track the process.

Totally proficient with manipulating her own on -line Tig fan club, she sets up her own remote shark tank of anti-Megs orientated trolls. They help back in her plan of getting young Haz rage up every time he reads a critical comment about his “movie star “girlfriend. What a crisis for struggling Harry.

It has been revealed Achewell Foundation contributes to these on -line social media groups today, with the hope of influencing more accolades, tributes and awards for the pair.

Meanwhile 2023 , the world has grown bored with, and tired of watching when the reptiles will engorge on the other and who will be left

Love it! Thank you 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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princesssarisa · 1 month

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In Cinderella Tales From Around the World, I've now read all the tales from the United States and Canada. Most of these variants are Native American; some scholars think the archetype of Cinderella spread to these tribes from French Canadian settlers, but the indigenous people made it their own. There are also some US and Canadian variants from non-indigenous sources, which the book follows with two similar versions from the West Indies.

*The first Native American variant in this book is an Ojibwe version. The heroine is abused by her stepmother and two stepsisters, but a manitou (spirit) gives her fine clothes and a magical box in which to secretly store them. Some time later, the stepmother sends her to fetch water, and along the way the girl meets her grandmother, who warns her that she'll hear music, but not to look back in its direction – if she succeeds in not looking back, she'll become more beautiful than ever. She does, so one of the stepsisters sets out to the same place to gain new beauty too, but she ignores the grandmother's warning, looks back, and turns ugly. Some time after this, a dance takes place, the heroine attends wearing the dress the manitou gave her, and the chief's son falls in love with her and marries her. But after she gives birth to a son, the stepmother sticks a magic pin in her that turns her into an elk, and one of the stepsisters takes her place. Yet as in similar European variants, every day the elk comes back to nurse her baby, and eventually her husband finds her and pulls out the pin, restoring her to human form. He then has the stepmother and stepsisters executed.

*Another variant, from the Mi'kmaq and Algonquin peoples, is one I grew up with: it's been adapted into two picture books, The Rough-Face Girl and Sootface, and as "The Indian Cinderella" in an episode of the cartoon series Adventures from the Book of Virtues. The heroine lives with her father and her two cruel older sisters, who destroy her beauty by burning her with hot coals, singing off her hair and leaving her face covered with scars. Meanwhile, near their village lives a great, mystical chief or warrior who is invisible, or who can make himself invisible. Every girl in the village wants to marry him, including the two sisters, and they all dress in their finest to go and meet him. But the Invisible One will only marry a maiden who can see him, so his (visible) sister meets each one of them, and tests them by asking what his sled-strap and bowstring are made of. All the maidens, including the heroines' sisters, tell lies and are sent away. But the heroine dresses herself in improvised clothes and goes too, despite all her neighbors jeering at how ugly and shabby she looks. When the Invisible One's sister asks the usual question, she replies that his sled-strap is the rainbow and his bowstring is the Milky Way. This is the true answer. The sister then bathes her, which makes her hair grow back and heals her burn scars to reveal her natural beauty, and she marries the Invisible One.

**There's also a Huron variant on this story, with long additional episodes where suitors court the two older sisters, but they disdain the men, set near-impossible tasks for them, and when they succeed, finally say they'll marry them only when they've finished embroidering fabrics for the wedding. They force their younger sister to do the embroidery for them, but every night, like Penelope in The Odyssey, they undo some of it. Eventually, however, a great invisible chief comes to call, and the older sisters lie that they can see him but describe him inaccurately, while the youngest sister describes his true, otherworldly appearance and becomes his bride.

*The Zuñi tribe has a variant called The Turkey Girl, which stands apart from most others by having a sad ending. The heroine is a poor orphan, who either lives alone or with abusive sisters depending on the version, and earns her living by herding turkeys. One day a sacred dance is held and she longs to attend, so her turkeys magically wash her and dress her in finery and jewelry. But they warn her to come back before sunset to lead them home and feed them. The girl promises to do so, but at the dance she enjoys herself so much that she doesn't bother to go home in time. She comes back after dark to find that all the turkeys have fled into the wild, abandoning her to loneliness and poverty. This tale seems to be an allegory, warning poor people whose fortunes improve not to forget their old friends or be ungrateful to those who helped them.

*The book also includes retellings of Perrault's Cendrillon from Canada, the Southern US (written in slave dialect), the Bahamas, and Martinique. They're not different enough from from Perrault's version to warrant descriptions, but it's interesting to see the story told with each of these places' local flavors and dialects.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

#cinderella #fairy tale #variations #cinderella tales from around the world #heidi ann heiner #native american #ojibwe #mi'kmaq #algonquin #zuni #french canadian #southern usa #african american #the west indies #the bahamas #martinique

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dothedogmusic · 1 month

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Shocked & saddened to hear news of the passing of one of THE legends of American ska Greg Lee. Greg was one of the vocalists for the incredible Californian combo Hepcat who very much inspired & were leaders of the fantastic US West Coast authentic ska & reggae scene across the last 3 & a half decades. I first heard the band after stumbling across their debut “Nigel” vinyl single on a trip to London in 1990 & instantly became an avid fan of their wonderful old school sound. I loved all their 4 subsequent album releases & I was blown away when I finally got to see them live in London in the late 90’s. Such a tight band who were full of dance inducing magic! Along with fellow vocalist Alex Desert, Greg was very much the focal point of this incredible combo with his super soulful voice, slick dance moves & even slicker fashion sense. He was a warm & friendly soul too who will be sorely missed by all who had the good fortune to meet him. My best wishes go out to all his family & many friends. RIP Greg x

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hydrolunamens · 9 months

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Aim for My Mouth

The implicit shenanigans of S2E4 of Good Omens

The first viewing of The Hitchhiker (Nazi Zombie Flesheaters) confused me. I didn’t understand why the events of 1941 were unfolding the way they were - surely Crowley could find more whiskey to peddle? surely Mrs. H wouldn’t accept an understudy magician as a replacement for bootleg booze?? surely Aziraphale could have helped Crowley in some useful way rather than this silly stage performance??? (Also, zombies, really?)

But after viewing it several more times (yes I know I’m obsessed) this has become my favorite episode. It has a whole lot of what my nasty little heart desires from the Aziraphale/Crowley relationship, by which I mean a whole lot of implicit sexiness. I love the juxtaposition of this adorable story about our favorite ethereal/occult partners against the ridiculous zombie element - the zombies balance the tone so this does not feel exactly like a Richard Curtis film. Because if not for the exploits of hell and the undead, this episode would be more obviously the point in the romantic comedy where the main characters show the audience how good their chemistry is, making you itch to see them get together in the end.

The first thing to realize is that after Crowley rescues Aziraphale from the Nazis in the church, everything else that happens has been expressly planned out by Crowley in order to take Aziraphale on an amazing date, bespoke entirely to the angel’s whims and desires. One imagines Aziraphale has expressed disappointment at not being enough of a conjurer to visit the professional magic shop, so Crowley plots out this whole scenario to give the Angel the chance to actually perform, presenting the opportunity through a thin layer of “coincidence.” Sucks to be the magician who gets arrested for desertion, but the humans were probably going to do that sooner or later anyway, right? Why not simply fix it so it happens on the night Crowley knows he will meet up with Aziraphale? Chalk another one up for hell with that move too… which is another thing Crowley has to layer over this evening.

So at the theater the Angel is offered another temptation he simply can’t resist (and it’s not selfish at all! he’s helping his friend, not indulging in a fantasy, dontcha know) and now our beings are really dancing. This is where the sexiness ramps up… if you don’t count that moment in the car where Aziraphale asks Crowley if there’s anything he can do to return his favor, a line which is delivered like the flimsy setup of a scene in an adult film after the repairman fixes the housewife’s washing machine.

They go back to the shop, where they get to engage in a bit of roleplay and Crowley especially gets to live out a voyeur scenario while he watches Aziraphale perform. This voyeurism is humorously echoed by the zombies watching them too… again, if it weren’t for these zombies, we might go into insulin shock from how sweetly sexy this plot is. While Aziraphale shows off to Crowley, we learn another motive for why Crowley chose this particular activity for their big date night - he’s going to make Aziraphale forget all about this loser Professor Hoffman. Who got you on the west end stage, Angel? That’s right, your demon husband, not the mortal you were spending too much time with a decade ago.

Crowley starts letting his guard down in the shop scene, though he still has to put on a performance of his own as a “lonely American G.I.” to stay comfortable while he praises Aziraphale’s tricks. At least he can take off his glasses. He is really lavishing Aziraphale with words of affirmation (if Crowley’s love language is acts of service, Aziraphale’s is words of affirmation), and then he finally gets to suggest the big treat - visiting the exclusive magic shop, which he absolutely knows is just over the road as he sniffs and glances out the window. Like he’s asking his partner if he’s sure there’s nothing more in a box of chocolates in which he’s hidden a ring - which now as I’m writing it out, there’s definitely a point being made about a ring being used against them in this story.

Anyway, we get to the magic shop, and Aziraphale is absolutely giddy, to the point where he’s making sexy sounds over sets of rings (more rings!) and Crowley is basking in it. Throughout the whole scene, a snake statuette is sitting on the display case… forgive my absolutely filthy mind, but is this rising snake statue not a perfect symbol of the attraction Crowley is feeling right now?

Then Aziraphale finds the gun trick. Not only is shooting a gun a metaphor for dangerous sex, but we get a glimpse into Aziraphale’s hedonistic desires to try everything this world has to offer and Crowley’s lack of experience with explicit violence. This mutual surprise lights up their chemistry even brighter - Aziraphale couldn’t let himself be attracted to Crowley if Crowley actually hurt people (though he’s hanging onto that idea until Crowley finally tells him he’s never shot a gun) and Crowley wouldn’t be so interested in Aziraphale if he wasn’t just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing. (This also really screams to me that Aziraphale has probably had sex but Crowley has not, another dynamic I especially adore, but anyway)

Crowley did not expect the involvement of firearms in this grand gesture date, but he cannot resist Aziraphale’s enthusiasm, and agrees to do it as long as they stay safe. Which of course, they won’t. Though Crowley had taken some care to make sure this looks above board to both heaven and hell, this entire night is a wildly risky display of the partnership between him and Aziraphale.

When they actually get to the stage, the dramatic tension builds and builds - you can hear it especially in the music. Is it because they’re about to get caught? Yes, but damn if it doesn’t also feel a bit like the tension that builds before… release. I feel like there are a few lines that highlight the idea that this stage performance is a sex analogue. “Aim for my mouth but shoot past my ear” is both an innocent instruction and utterly debauched, and Crowley asking “I squeeze this bit here, do I not?” has the same double entendre feeling. Mrs. H shouting “Get on with it already!” feels like the Greek chorus of Good Omens fandom crying-screaming-throwing up over our desire to see these two smash. They are also the most human we’ve ever seen them in this scene, because their miracles have been blocked - and you know what humans get up to, right?

So Crowley aims, shows a lot of hesitation, they mouth things to each other, Aziraphale encourages him, and boom! Crowley shoots perfectly somehow (just good luck or proof of the special mojo he and Aziraphale have when they work together? Unclear) and everyone is elated, especially Crowley and Aziraphale. They did it! No paperwork! They can shoot at each other til kingdom come! Send out the sexy girls so these soldiers don’t notice they just watched two man-shaped beings smash!

Alas, we only get the briefest of afterglows as they’re hanging out (snuggling) backstage. Hell tramples in and spoils their moment, reminds them there are severe consequences to sexy little stage performances together, and Crowley is nearly ripped apart from Aziraphale forever - something Aziraphale is constantly anxious about anyway. Hell doesn’t send rude notes, you know. He’s always afraid of what hell will do to Crowley. Aziraphale perfectly performs the sleight of hand that saves them somehow (again, is it luck? Or is it their special powerful love magic?) and they get to retreat back to the safety of the bookshop.

Crowley has a bit of a jealous boyfriend moment where he tells Aziraphale to cut the magic act he learned from Prof Hoff (it still feels a little overly mean to me, but jealous boyfriends do be saying shit like that) and they talk to each other more intimately and directly than we usually see them talk. Of course, because it’s pillow talk. These two just had sex and got away with it. Let Aziraphale do his apology dance in the morning. They’ll always have this night.

#good omens #good omens season two #good omens spoilers #good omens speculation #aziraphale #crowley #the hitchhiker #nazi zombie flesheaters minisode #double entendres all the way down

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aquaburst3 · 5 months

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The Masquerade Event came and went on the ENG server. Just a couple weeks ago, I seen plenty of takes where OP rolls their eyes at people who say that Rollo is "problematic" thanks to who he's based on or him being "racist". (Which makes no sense, because fae aren't real.) Sorry, but I have to play devil's advocate. To be quite honest, I agree with some of the sentiment behind that, I just think some people aren't articulating their points well.

The issue some people have with Rollo isn't that he's based on a villain so therefore he's problematic and anyone who likes him must be sent to the Shadow Realm. All of them are. Hating Rollo based on that would be fucking stupid. The issue people have is how the game glorified Frollo by honouring the school after him and handled Rollo as a character, despite who he's based on.

For the former, again, yes, some of the Great Seven did some messed up shit in their movies. Hell, Jafar has that creepy Jabba the Hutt style captive princess scene with Jasmine, despite the fact that she was a minor. I'm a huge Jamil fan. What sets Frollo apart from them is that he's based strictly in reality. You will never meet a Hades, Ursula or Jafar in real life. They are fanatical villains with magical powers or objects. However, there are thousands of people like Frollo in real life, especially in the west. Plus, Frollo is on a whole other level compared to the Great Seven. All of the Great Seven have good traits, so you can see an argument for how they might be seen as heroes of their stories. Frollo has ZERO redeeming qualities. This is the same guy who killed a lady and wanted to drown a newborn baby for being disabled in the first scene he was in, lusted after an underaged girl and wanted to genocide all of the Romani in Paris! So there's no in universe explanation for how that would come to be.

Christianity is one of the most popular religions in the west, so everything tied to it cares much more weight here. A lot of people have religious trauma. There is a very real issue of residential schools, especially in the US and Canada, where indigenous/native american people were abused which were ALWAYS Christian. Basing the school on a fictional figure with that much real life baggage is in poor taste. While I know Christianity is a minor religion in Japan, hence why Christian elements are often added to Japanese media due to it being "exotic" to them much like how westerners view the Greek Pantheon, the game is being distributed internationally, so the developers should've considered these things and handled that topic much more respectfully and reconsidered some of their decisions.

One may argue that Gaston and Cruella are the same way, since they are realistic villains as well. But guess what? They don't have a dorm let alone a whole fucking school honoured after them!

Honestly, I think it would've been FAR better if the game made Rollo like the staff where he's based on Frollo, but honoured the school after Mother Gothel instead. Hell, you could've done a plot twist where all of the stuff in the town is based on Tangled, and then Rollo pulls the flower shit inspired by Hunchback of Notre Dame. That would've been so cool!

That leads to that second thing—how Rollo was handled. For one, he's a woobified version of Frollo. A woobie, for those of you who don't know, is an older fandom term used to describe bland pretty characters with a tragic backstory that the author expects you to feel sorry for them and get away with everything. Oh, boy. Does he fit that definition in spades. He's pretty bland. His only real standout personality traits are that he hates magic and the fae, prideful, traditional and possibly athletic. That's it. He has a sad backstory where his brother died in a fire after his magic got out of control. Fine, that's cliche, but it works. Hell, it's kinda clever in a sense where it's inspired by the Hunchback of Notre Dame off-broadway musical. Characters like Idia point out the hypocrisy in Rollo's ideology and that he is really doing this thanks to his own guilt for his brother's death, which is a good thing. The problem is, outside of him being boring as a character, that despite wanting to suck out all of the magic in the world, he got away with it scott free, and his only form of "punishment" was living with the guilt of knowing everyone thinking that he was some sort of hero...despite Malleus wanting revenge on him five minutes earlier. (I don't get it either.) I think a lot of this problem plays into a reoccurring one the game has a whole—the character stagnation and Yana's utter unwillingness to let them face any consequences for their actions.

It's not even with the one shot villains. You see this play out all the time with the main cast. All of the OB gang get a slap on the wrist for their actions. Everyone instantly forgives them, including people like Kalim and Ruggie who were almost MURDERED. (Kalim I kinda get, because he's a ball of sunshine and is deep in denial about a lot of things. But Ruggie? You think he would be at least upset at Leona for almost Thanos Snapping his ass.) It's not even just for OBs either. Malleus faced zero consequences or is even properly called out for his actions during the second Halloween event or deciding to tag along, despite damn well knowing it would make Jamil's life harder and that he couldn't refuse him.

So in that sense, the way that Rollo got away scott free is super annoying, but not surprising. It happens all the time with the main boys, so why not him? Hell, the same thing happens with with Honest Fellow.

However, this problem hampers the writing on all fronts. Unless you are writing a flat arc, characters need to change and grow, especially in a coming of age story like TWST should be. So instead of learning and growing like real people, every single character in the TWST cast always remain the same and never face any repercussions for their actions. It's asinine, since they realistically would, even if they are based on villains. Hell, you think it would make it even more so, since they are based on villains and would be more revengeful and not merciful.

The game should've punished Rollo for his actions. I don't think he needs to fall to his death into a lake of fire like his original counterpart, but him being expelled or everyone at his school hating him after learning the truth and him being stripped off all of his titles would've been nice!

Don't get me wrong. Rollo isn't bad as a concept. Hell, I'm even adding a version of him to my own fic, so saying that you can never add a character like that to a story would be super hypocritical of me. It's certainly cool if you enjoy him as a character, even if I don't jell with him personally. Just that the way that Yana could've handled Rollo and the other Hunchback of Notre Dame elements in a much more respectful manner and nixed basing the school on Frollo himself.

#aqua rambles #twst critical #twst negative #twisted wonderland

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dasenergi-diary · 5 months

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@persepinesascent asked, "And there are other books?"

These are all of the books I have written that are currently available:

Governments Around the World Discover the evolution of governments everywhere! This social studies book explores the past, present, and possible futures of governments around the world. Across the world, local, state, and national governments work to protect and serve their citizens. This teacher-approved book provides students with opportunities to understand the ins and outs of government, including how governments from different countries can work together. The book covers the structure and history of each type of government in an easy-to-follow way. With a glossary and index, essential discussion questions, and other engaging features, this book brings the intricacies of government to life for students.

The Middle East Explore the beautiful land and ancient history of the Middle East! This social studies book describes the rich art, science, and culture of the land where Africa, Asia, and Europe meet. Known as a cradle of civilization, the Middle East is famous for its natural resources and fascinating past. This teacher-approved book offers students opportunities to understand life in the Middle East, including the history of indigenous peoples in the region. The book incorporates the geography, history, economics, and civics of the Middle East in an easy-to-follow way. With a glossary and index, key discussion questions, and other useful tools, this book brings the wonders of the Middle East to life for students.

The Southwest Dive into the fascinating culture of the southwestern United States! This social studies book describes how the Southwest embraces its rich American Indian, Spanish, and Mexican heritages. From ancient pueblos to the Old West to today, the Southwest is a region steeped in history and culture. This teacher-approved book gives students the chance to explore the lives of people from the Southwest, including the diverse history of native peoples in the region. The book covers the geography, history, economics, and civics of the midwestern United States in an easy-to-follow way. With a glossary and index, key discussion questions, and other useful features, this book brings the beauty of the Southwest to life for students.

The Mississippi and Other U.S. Waterways Explore the amazing life of one of the world’s busiest waterways! This social studies book tells the story of the Mississippi River and other important U.S. waterways. The Mississippi River has flowed for millions of years, and today it provides people with food, water, and transportation. This teacher-approved book offers students the chance to dive into the rich history of U.S. rivers, including the history of native peoples along riverbanks. The book covers the geography, history, economics, and civics of the Mississippi Valley in an easy-to-follow way. With a glossary and index, essential discussion questions, and other useful features, this book gives students a thoughtful inside look at major U.S. rivers and waterways.

Untold Stories Untold Stories is a series that uses fascinating tales about real people and events to boost literacy skills, empower students, and promote representation. The Untold Stories series describes ordinary people doing extraordinary things, all while promoting representation and culturally responsive learning.

Rewrite the Stars Suppressed memories from childhood. You have always known you were different. You are not alone. There are others like you. A healer. A prophet. A mystic. A martyr. God. The world is changing and you are changing with it. This is called evolution. Los Angeles-based Performance Artist, Das Energi (David Scott Coleman), brings his art to the page in this spiritual tour-de-force of stylistically postmodern storytelling. Across multiple narratives, Das Energi taps into the anxiety of our time to create a world of magical realism that won't seem like fiction. "David Scott is taking risks in this collection of poetry and prose, giving us characters and concepts, we haven't experienced before." —Steven Reigns, author of "Inheritance".

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george-weasleys-girl · 2 years

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North Star Series

Chapter 15 - Tales from Across the Pond

Warnings: brief mention of someone getting high, a few curse words

Summary: Y/N regales the group with stories about attending Ilvermorny and living as a magical person in the United States

Start Here:

~•~

Once a week, Y/N's little circle of friends would join her and George in the common room to pepper their American friend with questions about growing up in the United States and life at Ilvermorny. George was always ambivalent about those evenings. He was happy that she'd made friends, especially with his siblings. Ginny, in particular.

However, he also loved having her all to himself. He knew it was selfish, but as her departure date loomed ever closer, he wanted to share her less and less.

~•~

"Is the rumor true that a muggle got through the protections around Ilvermorny?" Ron asked on one such evening.

"Oh, you mean Todd? Yep. Happened in the early 80s. Several frat boys were camping in the woods nearby and got stoned out of their minds. One of them, Todd, wandered off because he thought he saw Bigfoot. Probably did, Sasquatches suck at stealth. Anyway, the guy goes chasing after him and ended up on the school grounds."

"How'd he breach the protections and not get detected?" Hermione queried.

"We still don't know for certain." Y/N shrugged. "Best guess is it had something to do with how wasted he was at the time. A couple of our resident ghosts found him stumbling around in the wee hours of the morning and alerted the Headmaster."

"Nothing cool like that ever happens here," Ron complained. "All we get here is repeating episodes of death, mayhem and destruction. No offense, Harry."

"Uh, none taken, Ron."

"How can you think it's cool that a muggle could've exposed our world?" Hermione challenged.

"But he didn't," argued Ron.

"But he could have. What would've happened if the ghosts hadn't found him and he made it back to camp and told everybody?"

"He was high as a kite, Hermione. Everybody would've just thought he'd hallucinated the whole thing." Ron said, triggering an argument.

Y/N and George shared a knowing look, while trying and failing to suppress their giggles.

"What?" Hermione and Ron asked at the same time.

"Nothing," replied Y/N.

"Inside joke," George added.

~•~

"What do you mean magic is out in the open around muggles in some places?" Ginny asked.

"We have a few cities where the rules about keeping the magical world secret are mere suggestions. But, they're places where muggles already expect odd things to happen."

"Ooh!" Ginny exclaimed. "Which ones?"

"Well, there's Salem, of course, and Savannah, Georgia and there's Taos, New Mexico out west. Then, there's the big one, New Orleans. Anybody who's been there, including muggles, will tell you that place oozes magic."

"Your best friend's from there, yeah?" George asked.

"Yep. Callie's muggleborn and the first witch in her family's history. When she got the invitation from Ilvermorny, her whole family was just like, 'Huh. Well, that explains some things.' "

"They weren't surprised at all?" Harry asked.

"No, not really. It was just another Thursday in The Big Easy."

"You make it sound like muggles see magic there all the time." Hermione said.

"That's because they do, they just don't know they do. Instead of having a separate, hidden shopping location for witches and wizards, like Diagon Alley or Hogsmede, magical shopkeepers in New Orleans are out in the open next to muggle businesses, and open to both us and muggles.

Hermione's eyebrows scrunched together. "That's just asking for trouble in my opinion."

"Maybe," Y/N continued. "The thing about this particular city is that has a long history of ghosts, vampires, witchcraft and other things that go bump in the night. It was the home of the notorious Marie Lauveau, The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Hell, voodoo is still widely practiced there today.

People go to New Orleans expecting weird shit to happen and when it does, they feel satisfied they've had the full experience. Few bother to scratch the surface of what's really going on."

"Damn." Fred marveled. "I really need to go there one day."

"We'll all go." George said, giving a Y/N big grin. "You can be our guide."

Y/N smiled back and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'd love that."

~•~

"A senior prank? At Ilvermorny? Are you serious?" Hermione looked like her head might explode at any moment.

"Yeah," Fred chimed in. "And pranks are not only allowed, they're expected. It's a shame George and I can't go there next year. It would be legendary."

"What sort of pranks do the seniors do?" Ginny asked.

Y/N grinned. "Every year the graduating class stages a UFO sighting. That's why the U.S. has so many of them. Throughout the year, different things are tested, so there'll be lots of little sightings that culminate into the big one. It's draws all sorts paranormal investigators and is usually in the muggle news for a couple of weeks. We go all out."

"That's so cool," Ginny said. "Please, please, please keep me updated on everything."

"Oh, don't worry, I will." Y/N smiled. "George and Fred have already made me promise to keep them in the loop or else."

Next Chapter:

@milivanili99

@slytherclaw1978

#george weasley #george weasley x fem!reader #george weasley x reader #george weasley x y/n #george weasley fic #fred weasley x platonic #ginny weasley x platonic

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clonewarsarchives · 2 years

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CREATING CLONES (#107, FEB 2009)

A veteran of the Star Wars prequels, respected animation director Rob Coleman was a natural choice when George Lucas needed an animation supervisor to work on his ambitious new TV show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars! Although he has since moved on from Lucasfilm animation, he still found time to look back on his groundbreaking work on the show. Words: Jonathan Wilkins

When did you first get involved in Star Wars: The Clone Wars?

I worked very closely with George Lucas on the prequel films and we had conversations about setting up an animation division while we were shooting Revenge of the Sith. That was around 2003.

I didn’t officially become involved until I completed all the animation on Revenge of the Sith. I started talking to Gail Currey, who I’d worked with at ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] and who was putting together Lucasfilm Animation at that point. She and George invited me to come aboard and help set it up. My first job in May 2005 was to fly over to Singapore to hold a presentation to help attract talent in order to build the studio there.

What are the day-to-day challenges of an animation consultant?

Dave Filoni, the series’ supervising director, and Catherine Winder, our launch producer, had both worked in animation before but had not worked in the Star Wars universe. George Lucas asked me to meet with them and immerse them in the world of Star Wars. The role of animation consultant came out of that early working relationship with Dave Filoni.

Dave is a very talented storyboard artist, and he’d come from doing the 2-D animated Avatar: The Last Airbender, but he’d not worked in computer graphics before, and he’d not worked with Star Wars characters. He is a huge Star Wars fan, as the world now knows, but we crafted the role of animation consultant so that I would be able to give input, and critique all animation coming in from our overseas studios. The day to day work was to review the animation and give feedback on the performances. I also worked with Dave to find the right balance of time spent on the animation. For me, that first year, 2005, was tough. We were trying to find the right movement for these characters. George talked about a stylized East-meets-West anime influence, but animated for a North American audience. As an animation consultant, I worked very closely with Dave to craft what that ultimately ended up being the look.

Was Thunderbirds ever an influence?

I’m a big fan of Thunderbirds and I’ve actually got some Gerry Anderson stuff here in my home studio, but it wasn’t really. I think once people started seeing the images they made an instant connection to Anderson’s Supermarionation style, but what Dave Filoni and the art directors were doing in the early days was trying to capture a stylized version of Ralph McQuarrie’s inspirational concept paintings for the original Star Wars trilogy. As we stylized the animation it became more like Supermarionation with more articulated faces, but it wasn’t something that we pinned up on the board [as an idea].

Was it easier to make a fully animated show as opposed to integrating CGI into live action footage?

It wasn’t easier, because we were building a studio from scratch in Singapore and teaching a very green, but very talented, group of people who had never worked at this level before.

I’d helped build the animation teams at ILM for years and it’s a long process. Once we had those established, actually doing the movies was easier because I had people who understood what it was to work at that level. Initially the TV series was harder because not only was I trying to immerse them in the world of Star Wars, I was training them on how to actually animate to the level I wanted.

It is easier animating something that exists only in an animated world, because you can control all the physics and how characters move, as opposed to a live-action and animation combination where you have to be true to the physics and the weight of the human characters. When we were working on Yoda fighting or walking, we were always thinking about gravity, and what does his cloth look like, and what does his skin look like? It had to be photo-realistic. On a stylized animation show like The Clone Wars, those problems just aren’t there.

How did you make sure the show felt like Star Wars?

George Lucas remains very involved and he was extremely involved in the early days, working with Dave Filoni, the writers, and the various episodic directors in describing to us what he was looking for. I was always coaching directors to go and look at the original Star Wars movie, so they had an idea of the kind of framing and cutting that George likes. What Dave and Henry Gilroy tried to do in the early days was to recapture that 1977 feel, so—and this is the fun part—there was a lot of homework going back and looking at the old movies and really studying them from a stylistic and directing-choice point of view. We looked at camera choices, cutting choices. George uses a certain kind of lens and there is a certain kind of cutting that he does. Once you become well-versed in that, you can make him very happy. I’d worked side by side with him for so many years that I had an advantage over the other episodic directors. I already knew how to communicate with George. I was very fluent in George Lucas, let’s put it that way!

So you knew what to expect?

Yes. But I was also trying to find a balance. This is Dave Filoni’s show. Being asked to be the animation consultant and directing some episodes helped to move the series along. I went over and taught classes in Singapore. I ended up doing the Downfall of a Droid and Duel of the Droids episodes, which were the very first two shows to come out of Singapore. They wanted me to help shepherd them along, which I was happy to do. They are probably the roughest shows that we did, because they were the first two out of the gate. I’ve directed three more since then and they are much stronger because the team had more experience and more familiarity with the characters and the cameras than they did in those two episodes.

Is there anything you would change about them?

There is so much I would change! The hardest thing to do as a director is to say, “That’s good enough.” If you don’t start approving work, and you don’t have a vision of what you want the show to look like, it will never be finished! I think where I was successful with George was that I was always able to step into the river and say, “That’s good enough.” The river keeps flowing past you, and you’ll see better work coming later on, but you have to stick with what you did before. There are certainly shots in those episodes that I would love to have back, but I don’t regret it because we had to deliver the show.

The show is animated in about a fifth of the time of a feature film, so we didn’t get the subtlety and fidelity in the faces and lip-synching in those earlier shows. Later episodes are far better, because I was able to spend time and really hone the team’s awareness of what was important in the face. In those earlier episodes it was all hands on deck!

How is an episode put together?

Dave Filoni is the supervising director. He works directly with George Lucas and the writers to create an overall plan for all of the episodes each season. He’s there at the beginning with the producer. It usually takes a couple of days to a week, and they plan out in very rough form what will happen.

They come up with episode synopses which are about a paragraph long for each episode, and describe what happens to the heroes, what the problems are, and what gets solved.

The writing team divides up the episodes between them and they start writing. Once the first drafts come in, Dave and George read them and make notes and decisions. Then they start choosing episodes that are actually going to be made. That’s when an episodic director gets involved. They’d call the director in and say, “Rob we’ve got an R2-D2 show coming up”—in my case it was a two parter—“and here’s an early draft”.

The director gives notes, as a fresh pair of eyes to the story. Then in maybe a few days or a week a shooting draft is ready. At that point, the episodic director works with the storyboard artists, doing storyboards on paper or computer, or in my case going straight to 3-D computer graphics to map out what the scenes are going to look like. You spend maybe six weeks mapping out the whole show, so you have a version of the show done in storyboards or in computer animatics that describes visually what the show’s going to look like.

There might be a still image of Anakin standing, and I would record people in the studio for temp dialogue and work with editor Jason Tucker to cut it all together, so it’s to length, but nothing’s animated at that stage, and nothing’s got color. It’s usually just black and white or gray. I’d present that to George, and then he would give me notes. I’d do a revision on that and present it for a final look. Then George would sign off on it.

As an episodic director you “package up the show.” This means you make shot-by-shot directing notes on what you want to see happening. You might say Anakin walks onto the bridge of the Twilight. Ahsoka’s sitting there with Artoo, and turns to him and says the line. You give director points, like “Anakin’s angry at this point because he’s just come from such-and-such a place and he’s irritated by this or that.” When the animators get it in Singapore they understand, because otherwise it could be animated completely out of context. Animators might get five shots in a row, but they may not know what’s come before so it’s very important as a director that you tell them. Normally an episodic director would then leave that process and go onto the next show, but I then critiqued not only the animation coming in for my show, but also for the other four episodic directors.

Were there any examples where it was completely off and they had to start again?

Yes, of course. That was the biggest challenge. It was something I had to get used to. I’d spent 12 years at ILM with my animation crew down the hallway. I could walk into their offices and talk to them at anytime. Now I was in a situation where my animators were on the far side of the Pacific Ocean and I had to wait hours to talk to them because of the time difference! Although they all spoke English beautifully, there were occasionally communication issues. To be fair to them, I was used to working with some of the most experienced animators in the world and had a shorthand with them. Now I was dealing with some very talented up-and-coming people, but they didn’t have the vocabulary that I was used to. I had to fly over there a few times, and then we got better and better. You’ll see as the season goes on, the animation really improves—but that was a learning process for me.

Your episodes feature Ron Perlman as Gha Nachkt—what was he like to work with?

I never got to meet him! Dave Filoni gets all the fun working with the actors. As the supervising director, he directs all the voice talent for all of the shows and it’s all done in Los Angeles. I’m holding the fort critiquing all the animation coming in from overseas, and he’s down in L.A. meeting Ron Perlman! Dave did get me an autograph though! Ron did a great job in the show. I didn’t meet many of the voice talent for Star Wars. I never got to meet Andy Secombe, who did the voice of Watto. I never met Brian Blessed who played Boss Nass, so it’s not totally out of the norm. I did get to spend so much time with Frank Oz, who played Yoda, that he’s become a friend of mine, so that’s an added bonus of being the animation director!

What are your favorite scenes from the show?

I really like the writing on those shows, and to be able to see Artoo becoming a tougher little guy was a lot of fun for me. I would say the scene - with him fighting with the other droid was a favorite. It was fun to figure out how to shoot that and what was going to happen there. The writers had outlined the entire fight, but as a director you get to pick all the angles, which was fun. The assassin droids coming to life in the hold of the ship was really fun to direct, and to invent how we saw the IG-88s jumping around. We’d only ever seen them standing still in The Empire Strikes Back, so to get them to jump and leap an. spin their heads around was a highlight for me.

How did you come up with that extreme style of complicated movements?

I was trying to go with the opposite of what the character looked like. If you have a toy or you saw it in the movies, he’s just standing there not doing anything. He just looks so rigid, and I thought from an animator’s point of view “Let’s take that rigidity and just throw it away!” Let’s really surprise the fans, so that when these thing leap up they’re actually much more flexible than their “Tin Man” appearance would allude to. What I was able to do is make it into a vertical fight. I didn’t want to just have a fight on the ground; we’ve seen that so many times. I had this set that had been already outlined in the script where it was described as this big warehouse with shelves upon shelves of droid parts. I went up to the Home Depot store and walked around the aisles. I was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool to look up and see those droids jumping and leaping from side to side?” So that’s how that started. I thought that was just a neat image.

There’s some very creative lighting schemes, such as the sequence where Anakin awakens in the medical bay.

That was harder in the early days when we were doing those droid episodes. Andrew Harris was the Lighting Supervisor for those. All of the color and ideas for the lighting comes through the art department, which Dave Filoni supervises. I can’t recall exactly who did the concept paintings for those early shows, but they did some beautiful work. I inherited such beautiful paintings from those guys that I did very few tweaks from a directorial point of view. I really loved what they were doing artistically. The paintings had come with that bleached-out art direction, and I relied heavily on Andrew to pull that off with the Singapore crew.

It’s quite surprising to see that sort of detail in an animated show.

You’ve touched on something that was very important to George, Dave, and myself. I keep using the word “shoot” when I talk about making the show because we kept talking about it that way. We thought about it as shooting it with real cameras. This is still an animated world that exists in our imaginations, but we used cinematic tricks that we would use if it were a live-action film. We see lens-flares and exposures as if you’re in a dark room and shooting up to a bright window so that everything goes into silhouette. George loves that kind of stuff. So we used the language of real film and applied it to the show

What kind of scenes do you prefer working on? Big action sequences, like space battles, or mailer, character-based scenes?

I don’t actually have a preference. I think every episode or movie has to have a balance. I tended to spend most of my brain power on the quieter character-based scenes, because it was imperative that the animated characters came up to the same level as the real actors. But it was certainly fun to work on the opening space battle in Revenge of the Sith.

These TV shows have a lot of action because of the audience we’re going for, but it’s a real blend. There’s a Mace Windu episode that I directed that’s coming up later in the season, and that was a real combination of action and character. I’m really proud of that episode. It turns out that they liked it enough to make it the season finale. We were really doing well by the time we got to that show. It’s a real blend of big action sequences and smaller character pieces.

I think a strong director is someone who is able to play to people’s strengths, because not everybody is good at both of those kinds of scenes. There were specific animators I would give action work to, and other animators I would give acting to, and there’s a smaller group who can handle both.

How many episodes did you direct?

I did three more episodes after the two we’ve talked about. Two of them will be seen in this first season and one of them has been moved to the second season. I’m proud of the droid ones, but there are better ones coming! They do have guest director spots that come up every once and a while, and I would certainly be keen to direct another one. It’s all to do with timing and schedule.

SELECTED CREDITS

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005) (animation director)

Signs (2002) (animation supervisor)

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002) (animation director)

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999) (animation director)

Men in Black (1997) (animation supervisor)

Dragonheart (1996) (supervising character animator)

Star Trek Generations (1994) (computer effects artist)

The Mask (1994) (computer graphics animator)

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (animation coordinator) (22 episodes, 1987-1988)

SPOTTING COLEMAN?

Coleman Trebor one of the many Jedi slain by Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones, is named after Rob Coleman. The man has cameos in

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005) Opera house patron

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999) Podrace spectator in Jabba’s private box

#Rob Coleman #i107 #insider #crew #the clone wars #guest directors #<-(1 of 3)#detailed insights about the process of making an episode!

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