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ckret2 · 4 months

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A leaked list of some of the exciting upcoming content from The Book of Bill:

The pyramids of Giza ranked from most to least sexy.

Winning lottery numbers. He does not say which game they're for.

Three pages of Bill practicing blackletter calligraphy so that he can write the fancy-looking "The Book of Bill" on the cover. (Meant to tear those pages out before submitting book to publisher.)

A section where he implies that all your headcanons about him are stupid. Yes, your headcanons specifically. If you compare your copy of the book to a friend's, these sections will have different text. He insults all headcanons equally, even the ones that contradict each other.

A long, rambling story about a funny thing that he saw at a party in the Nightmare Realm, but he keeps getting distracted gossiping about the embarrassing love affairs and crimes against reality the partygoers have committed. Not a single one of these characters has ever been mentioned before or ever will be again. He gets so distracted he never finishes the original funny story. He was clearly drunk when he wrote this section.

A pet care sheet on how to keep a pet axolotl. All of the information is extremely wrong.

Some of the other dimensions he's tried and failed to conquer. He keeps insisting that all the failures were somebody else's fault. It's extremely obvious that they're his fault.

A photograph of a vivisected elephant, for some reason.

A phone number written on a cocktail napkin that Bill insists would be really funny for all the readers to prank call. It leads to the desk phone of the director of the CIA.

Bill claims he definitely totally knew that Stan was disguised as Ford the whole time, he only played along to trick the Pines back, and then he quickly changes the topic.

A page of Bill's original poetry. It's all unintelligible symbols. It will take 27 years for somebody to crack the code. They're all gory but juvenile limericks.

A cocktail recipe. It will kill you.

Bill's original version of the portal blueprints that he copied to give Ford, with Bill's handwritten annotations. One part of the blueprints is labeled "component that will accidentally destroy the universe. REMEMBER NOT TO INCLUDE THIS COMPONENT IN SIXER'S COPY!!" He underlined this twice. If this page is compared to the portal blueprints in Journal 3, it's clear that Bill included that component in Ford's copy.

A personality quiz to help you meet your ideal sleep paralysis demon.

Bill's baby pictures. He looks exactly the same, except his bow tie and top hat are too big.

Bill reveals that he thought the llama symbol on the zodiac wheel referred to that farmer guy on the edge of town, and he was super confused to see Pacifica there.

Multiple pages scattered through the book about Bill's amazing powers, his brilliant and fun plans for our dimension, and all the cool favors he's willing and able to do for his friends and followers. All these pages end with a passive-aggressive aside about how somebody would have to be REALLY stupid to turn down an invitation to join Bill's crew, Stanford Pines—

A page labeled "My loyal servants and slaves!" filled with several hideous, oozing, nightmare-inducing Lovecraftian monsters, and one Mickey Mouse.

A self-portrait depicting Bill riding a rocket ship playing an electric guitar while rainbow lightning flashes all around him and money rains down from the sky.

A cynical, sneering tirade about how love is evolution's idiotic way of tricking primitive species into reproducing and how only simple-minded mortals who can't separate their true thoughts from their hormones fall for it. In the margins he's drawn a heart around the words "Bill Cipher +" a scribbled-out blot. The blot is completely unreadable. Despite this, the fandom will spend years debating the name underneath based on the size of the blot.

Extremely stupid "explanations" about various unsolved mysteries and crimes. In six years the world will discover one of them is accidentally correct and Alex Hirsch will get investigated by the FBI.

The book will be divided into four sections. Each section will begin with a big illuminated letter. In order, the four illuminated letters spell "F" "U" "C" "K".

#gravity falls #bill cipher #the book of bill

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leikeliscomet · 5 months

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“But We Love Martha Jones!” - The Doctor Who Fandom’s Selective Memory of Racism

Be aware that this article contains explicit examples of anti-black racism and misogynoir.

Chapter 2 - Utopia-ish

The constant nitpicking of Martha Jones for reasons white female companions could get away with was blatant anti-black racism. Let’s get that bit clear first and foremost. As a Black person in fandom, watching Black characters get torn apart while never being given the grace of their non-Black castmates is an experience that’s too common. Microaggressions are more subtle so the easiest way to shut down any mentions of racism is to accuse Black fans of making things up or telling us “Well it’s not like REAL racism”. Luckily Doctor Who Tumblr birthed the Martha Jones affirmative action and Aunt Jemima “memes” so I can cross both covert and overt racism off the list. As mentioned in extensive detail in the previous chapter, plus the various Martha Jones articles written before me, the treatment Martha experienced was racist. I don’t care if you personally didn’t like her. I don’t care that you missed Rose. I don��t care that Ten is your smol bean. Martha’s treatment was racist. Freema Agyeman’s treatment was racist. It might not have been everyone. It might not have been you personally. But it was there. The fandom can never be a safe space for POC, specifically Black people if this elephant in the room can’t be addressed over a decade after it arrived.

On paper, you’d assume Martha’s rep was good because “at least she wasn’t a Black stereotype”. Some fans praised her for having a present father, not speaking MLE and not being from the ends. This goes into respectability politics but the fandom’s weirdness about Black Brits and class is not the point of this article. The point is the revisionist history of how Martha was really treated and to do that it helps to know what Black tropes are. The Mammy trope is a Black woman whose main purpose is to serve her white counterparts and during slavery, she mainly cared for the slave owners' children. She is usually fat, dark skin and asexual, not as a representation of those things but as a statement of how if she isn’t used for sexual exploitation like the Jezebel (the promiscuous, reckless, sexualised Black woman), she has no sexual value at all. Her value is serving the needs of others only. Martha doesn’t fit this trope in theory but in practice, she fulfils the sub-categories of this trope both in show and fandom: the disposable Black (girl)friend trope. She is used as Ten’s emotional punching bag before he’s ready for Donna and then Rose again. She had to endure edgy moody S3 Ten so no one else had to. She’s the excuse people use to deflect any critical analysis of how race was handled in RTD1. She’s the fandom’s excuse to deflect from their own racial biases. Racism? No way! Everybody loves Martha Jones! What do you mean?

Some parts of the fandom have tried to mend things by suggesting Martha be paired with other doctors or romantically shipping her with other characters a bit better than Mickey Smith. But does this hold up? As much as I’m a big fan NineMartha as a concept and as someone who honestly saw one-off characters like Riley Vashtee from 42 or Tallulah from Daleks in Manhattan having way more romantic chemistry with Martha than Mickey ever did, simply re-shipping Martha isn’t enough. Doctor Who’s racism isn't exclusive to one doctor, one series or one era and new Martha pairings suggest the issue was “right person, wrong doctor” instead of what the issue actually was: racism. Moffat and Chibnall’s eras weren’t full of golden Black representation either so I doubt the Martha issue would’ve magically disappeared under those two. From Nine’s hostility to Mickey, to Twelve’s hostility to Danny Pink to Thirteen handing a South Asian Spymaster to the Nazis and Eleven only travelling with POC in comics most fans haven’t heard of and being besties with Churchill, simply putting Martha with another Doctor isn’t the serve fans think it is. Even RoseMartha seems like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. If it's not enough for Martha to be compared to Rose, put down in favour of Rose, told she isn’t Rose and told she's worse than Rose in fandom and in show over and over and over, she has to be shipped with Rose too. Martha’s a great character… as long as you can tie her to Rose… again. Even in my own article I have to talk about Rose because Rose is centred in what was supposed to be Martha’s story. A doctor-to-be Black girl from London with a hectic family meets a Time Lord and gets abducted by space rhino police at work in one day. Her main conflict isn’t balancing work and time traveller life, or fighting to get her family back together, or seeing what’s out there in the universe - it's that she isn’t “Rose” enough. The Mammy and her sons’ main thing in common is simple; how well they serve and centre the white characters. In attempts to mend Martha’s treatment she is still only valued in relation to white characters. She should’ve been with Eleven because he would’ve fucked a Black woman. Or maybe Dilfy Twelve. Or a sapphic romance with another female companion who she saw twice or doesn’t actually know. Or maybe Ten in an alternate universe where he supports #nubianqueens. None of this is done to explore sexuality or romance with Black women and is definitely not to centre Black lesbianism and bisexuality. It’s Mammy with a dash of Jezebel. It's adding romantic and sexual value on top of physical and emotional value like a crappy meal deal.

I’m tired of Black women being treated as extensions of white women both in media and in real life. I’m tired of our value being determined by how well we serve white people emotionally, physically, platonically and sexually. And I'm even more tired of white feminism especially in this fandom. It would be so easy to label this article as anti-Rose, anti-Ten or anti-Tenrose to invalidate my whole racial analysis because it's the easy way out. I’ll admit I like both characters individually but not the ship but this isn’t something I decided on since birth - it's my conclusion as a Black fan in a predominantly white fandom, watching a predominantly white show, watching the first companion of my race be told she isn’t good enough compared to the white characters, and that the hatred of her is justified for the greater good of its popular white ship. Black fans can never have this conversation without being told we’re “pitting women against each other” and that Martha and Rose hugged once in S4 so everything's hunky dory. Martha’s happy that Ten found Rose again so what’s the problem? It sends a clear message that Black women’s pain will never matter a much as white women’s feelings. “Rose is amazing! Martha’s amazing! Stop pitting women against women!” but who was pit against who in the first place? These faux girl power posts fail to acknowledge the overlap of race and gender which separates the treatment of Black and white women. It fails to acknowledge Martha’s hate was rooted in anti-black racism. It fails to acknowledge the anti-Rose pushback was in response to how the show and fandom convinced us Rose was the untouchable bar this Black woman failed to meet. It fails to acknowledge Freema Agyeman the actress was targeted not just her character. It fails because the female empowerment rhetoric that leaves the Black ones at the bottom of the pile only “empowers” women of a certain demographic.

The harassment Martha experienced was swept under the rug of “stan wars” but it was so much deeper than that. I’m not saying Martha stans are angels but there was no “Great Stan War” because the sides were never even. At the end of the day no amount of “Martha’s better than Rose” tweets will ever compare to the fact that Martha hate was rooted in misogynoir. Rose was and still is considered the greatest companion of nuwho, whilst Martha is constantly erased and undervalued. Rose’s video views and hashtags have always been bigger than Martha’s. Amy and Clara came after Martha but still surpassed her in popularity and got plenty of fan edits of “The Girl Who Waited” and “The Impossible Girl” whilst Martha was conveniently skipped in the companion lineup. The fandom’s bias still shines clearly in favour of Rose over Martha. Rose’s jealousy towards other women is justifiable and just the ups and downs of a 19-year-old whilst Martha’s is entitled bitterness. Rose’s flaws are compelling character moments and depth, Martha’s are “holding her back from being a good companion”. Hell, even Donna calling out Ten’s BS was entertaining accountability whilst Martha was just the angry Black woman. Fans will weaponise Rose’s working-class roots to imply a pro-Martha bias, failing to acknowledge the working-class to poor background of the average Black Brit, the anti-blackness middle-class Black people are not spared from, the many working-class Black characters of the show like Mickey, Bill, Rigsy and Ryan or how most fans don’t consider Martha middle class because she doesn’t fit the white British cultural stereotypes. You can't be the most loved and hated at the same time. The hard truth is Billie Piper wasn’t racially abused by Martha stans but Freema was absolutely racially abused by Rose’s and the effects of this are still around. Go into Martha Jones tags today and you’ll see snarky posts of how Ten could never love another companion like Rose. Even when Freema bravely shared her experiences of literal racism, fans were quick to yell “But I wanted Ten and Rose though” as a justification for years of misogynoir. Again, we need to address the elephant in the room instead of covering our eyes and ears to act like it’s not there. A Black character and actress was collateral damage in order for a popular white ship to rise and whilst I’m not an anti, I as a Black Doctor Who fan, I’ll never be a supporter. At the end of the day, only one of these actresses is still carrying the burden of misogynoir over 10 years since RTD1 ended. A lonely walk across the Earth yet again.

<- Chapter 1 Chapter 3 ->

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alienkitty259 · 1 month

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So I looked up the meaning of dol characters names

Briar: thorny bush of roses, brambles, thorny rose, a thorny patch, or shrub, small tree,

Bailey: berry clearing, bailiff, city fortification, or stick rod, law enforcer,

Remy: oarsman or rower

Landry: ruler, powerful ruler, or land, fatherland,

Harper: someone who plays the harp, harpist, minstrel, pleasant, or brave, harp player,

Niki: people of victory, victory, or goodness

Darryl: darling, beloved, from Arielle, or dear

Wren: small bird, ruler, or small brown songbird

Jordan: to go down, descending, or to flow down

Ivory: white as elephant tusks or pale white

Leighton: leek town, herb garden, leek garden, meadow settlement, or meadow town, from the town by the meadow,

Gwylan: seagull

Morgan: sea born, sea song, sea circle, sea chief, sea protector, sea defender, or sailor, captain, great circle,

Mickey: who resembles god, who is like god, or enthusiastic

Zephyr: west wind, wandering girl, or breezy

Sirris: bright or burning

Charlie: free man, valiant, free, or strong

Avery: ruler of the elves, wise, ruling with elf wisdom, or counselor

Doren: gift, adventurer, a stranger, or one who has been exiled

Quinn: wise, sense, reason, intelligent, or descendants of conn

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shiftythrifting · 10 months

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Some finds I came across in PA this last weekend

The crucifixion ala seashells

A wooden elephant puppet I wish I had space for

A very unique copy of scarface

One traumatized Peppa Pig

Concernly disproportionate mickey mouse

An Ernest that still haunts my dreams

And a bootleg Pikachu beanie baby I did end up buying.

#thrifting #shiftythrifting #submission #I have one of these in red lmao #pikachu #beanie babies #bootleg #seashells glued to shit #trypophobia #seasus #seashells glued to jesus #dolls #long post

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adventurelandia · 1 year

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Mickey's Elephant (1936)

#my gif #Mickey's Elephant #1936 #1930s #gif #gifs #pluto #devil #vintage #disney #vintage disney #disney gif #animation #cartoons #film #movie

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houseofmouselove100 · 10 months

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House of Mouse - Mickey And Minnie's Big Vacation - The Pink Elephants!

youtube

The pink elephants were the guests of the house of mouse when minnie and mickey went on vacation

Now everyone knew what Timothy and Dumbo felt when the Pink Elephants appeared

I thought hercules would be strong lifting all those elephants

winnie the pooh does not like anyone to eat his honey

Poor goofy ursula squashed him

Good thing Timothy got rid of those Elephants

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strawberryeuphie · 11 months

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anybaby wanna go to disney world with me?

imagine… we wake up in our resort room just before sunrise. we cuddle in our blankets with our pacifiers and watch disney cartoons on the television as the sun comes up, then we get ready to have our adventure for the day!

we start by brushing our teeth with our favorite flavored toothpaste, put on plenty of sunscreen, then pick out our cutest, most magical outfits. you can choose to wear mickey ears or a princess tiara! before anything else, though, we need to have breakfast. would you like mickey waffles or oatmeal? what flavor of juice should we get? eggs scrambled or fried? you pick!

after our meal, we pack up our disney-themed backpacks with sippy cups full of water (have to stay hydrated on an adventure!), autograph books, and other must-haves, and then it's time to set out! we head to the monorail and go on our way to magic kingdom. the day is sunny and blue-skied when we arrive. we walk down main street, admiring cinderella's castle and stopping in stores! we each pick out a new plushie to come on our adventure with us. what would your dream disney stuffed animal be?

we ride plenty of baby-friendly rides and attractions — it's a small world, mad tea party, peter pan's flight, dumbo the flying elephant, the many adventures of winnie the pooh, prince charming's regal carousel, the jungle cruise, the journey of the little mermaid, the laugh floor from monster's inc, enchanted tales with belle, and of course, the walt disney world railroad train!

we meet some of our favorite characters along the way — we get plenty of hugs from them, our photos taken with them, and even get their autographs! what character would you most want to meet? we get to watch all the characters in a parade on main street, too, and we get a front row place to stand!

before we know it, it's time for lunch. we're skipping nap time, so we need something really delicious to keep us going... surprise! we have reservations to cinderella's royal table! how exciting is that?! we get to eat in the castle and meet all the princesses, too! we get special cups of juice with glowing buzz lightyear and tinkerbell straws.

after we finish lunch, we decide we're feeling extra brave, and want to go on a roller coaster like the seven dwarves mine train or space mountain. don't worry, we'll hold hands the whole time!

we have all sorts of fun the rest of the day and get plenty of souvenirs from the gift shops. we end the night with a special dessert-before-dinner as we watch the wishes fireworks together. would you like ice cream from the parlor or a pastry from the bakery?

when we get back to the resort, we're super tired. it was a long adventure for little ones, after all. but, we have a bubble bath and get all squeaky clean anyway, brush our teeth, and finish the night being told a disney bedtime story on the television cuddled up with our brand new plushies.

it was a magical day!

#euphie posts #age regression #agere #agere imagine #age dreaming #agedre #agedre imagine

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callsigndragon · 1 year

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Imagine this (Rooster short imagine)

You’ve been fake dating Rooster for the past months. Your idiotic ex has been giving you shit for a while now, and Bradley, trying to help you, suggests it. It’s been going well so far, your ex hasn’t shown up in a few weeks, and it almost feels like they're not coming back anymore.

Things between you and him have... changed. There’s this flirty tone in the relationship that wasn’t there before. There’s something there, the elephant in the room, that none of you want to address. You just let it pass. It’s not real. You’re just confused.

One day, you walk out of your job, happy to have finished the day. You walk without paying attention to anyone else but your phone, but somehow you feel like someone is following. You peek over your shoulder, checking if someone is behind you. You see a figure, dressed in dark clothes, hoodie on, whose face is impossible to see. Could it be your ex?

A fear runs down your spine, and you take a turn, hoping that the figure doesn’t follow you. But they do, and you get more and more scared. Your mind yells at you to call for help, but instead of calling the cops, you call him. You call Rooster. He’s walking out of Top Gun, chatting with the others, when his phone rings.

“Hey, I just got out of work,” he says, smiling after seeing your name pop up on his screen.

“I think my ex is here.” You mumble, trying not to raise your voice so the person behind you doesn’t hear you calling for help.

“Where are you?” That’s the only thing he asks. He stops in his tracks, the rest of the team doing the exact same, watching Rooster’s worried expression.

You give him the address, and he tells you he’s going to be there as soon as possible. Rooster tells you not to hang up, keep talking to him until he gets to you.

“Roos, is everything okay?” Jake asks, placing a hand on Rooster’s shoulder.

“Someone is following y/n,” he responds, looking at his squad. “We need to go get them.”

Mickey offers his car, as it’s the fastest. “You stay on the line with them. I’ll drive.”

But luck isn’t on your side, and your phone dies after a few minutes. Reuben has to stop Bradley from throwing the phone out the window in desperation. Him, along with Jake, Mickey, and Javy, offered to go with Rooster and help them.

You, being near your home, decide that maybe making a run for it is a good idea. You run, feeling your lungs about to explode, but fearing that stopping would only lead to the creep behind you catching up with you.

It only takes you a few minutes to get to your home, and once you’re about to introduce the key in the keyhole, you hear the wheels of a wire screeching as it stops right in front of your house.

Feeling straight out of a movie, Rooster walks out the car and runs in your direction, hugging you with all his strength, checking that you’re okay, and asking over and over again if you’re hurt.

He takes the keys from your hand, and gives them to Javy. “Go check if there’s someone inside.”

The guys nod, and you feel bad for them, but before you can protest, Rooster is all over you again. “Oh my god, I was so scared. You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m okay, Roos. I’m so sorry, I should have called the cops, you didn’t have to come all the way here…”

“What do you mean?” Rooster, never moving his hands from your shoulders, steps back so he can look you in the eye.

“This... is fake, and I know you had to play the part because you were in front of the guys. I’m sorry for that,” you mumble, feeling bad for worrying him.

“Wait, you think this is…” Rooster raises his hand from your body, like the contact with your skin burns him. “Fuck you.”

“What?”

“Fuck you for thinking this is fake. I’ve never been more scared in my life than these last five minutes, and you think this is fake?”

You blink, words unable to leave your mouth, stuck in the tip of your tongue. It’s not fake? Does he have the same feelings that torture you every single day? The feeling that leaves you sleepless at night and daydreaming all day? “It’s… not fake?”

“Of course it is not!” He sighs, wiping a hand down his face. “It stopped being fake a while ago.”

“I’m sorry, Roos… I-I thought–”

Javy and the other guys walk out, interrupting your conversation. “It’s empty. You can get in.”

Rooster nods, mumbling a quick goodbye before getting in the car with the rest and driving back to the base.

Dear god, you fucked up so bad.

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bloomeng · 9 months

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“Genshin character designs are bad.”

You really can’t navigate through the Genshin fandom without hearing this take. It’s stale at this point, but it’s…. also true. Except that’s usually not what people are actually saying. The true question up for debate: Are Genshin character designs ugly?

It irks me because there is validity to the original statement, and yet the conversation immediately moves into the territory of strictly opinion, leaving the true discussion never to be had.

So I’m having it… with myself…. in the form of a long post, because actually I find Genshin an interesting character design case study.

Before I really get into it I must address the elephant in the room; are Genshin’s character designs colorist?

Yes. Moving on.

Okay, okay, I’ll address it a little, Genshin has a problem with colorism. It’s a fiercely debated topic and honestly it’s one of the only real valid discussions I see around Genshin’s designs. That being said, I have nothing new to add to the conversation. If you don’t know why, sorry I’m not qualified to answer that, but you’re in luck because tons of qualified people have explained it across all platforms.

What I am partially equipped to talk about is character design. I’m no expert but I have taken a few formal classes on the subject, so I do have some insight to share. Character design at its core is usually quantified by how much of a character’s personality can be clearly determined from sight alone and how recognizable their silhouette is (though I’m not gonna touch on that today). Now there’s a lot of factors that go into both, but the fundamental thing that contributes to both is something known as shape language.

Shape has meaning. What that meaning is often depends on culture factors that determine your associations, but the Western simplification of shape is that circles are good-natured, rectangles/ squares are reliable, and triangles are energized. (these are my own personal words for them, there are countless ways to go about describing these associations) Shapes are then combined with each other to create more complex associations, and so on and so forth. It’s impossible to create a character without evoking some form of shape language, because art at its core is just shapes. The classic example are the round shapes seen in Mickey Mouse, though often times it’s far more subtle, like how Barbie has soft, round lines in her hair and face, but her hourglass figure is comprised of triangles to tell you she’s sexy, but the soft curves say she’s sweet not sexual— and it quickly gets very complicated. Basically character designs are rarely comprised of one shape alone, and when combined the “vibes” they evoke become complex.

So what does this have to do with Genshin? Genshin has poor shape language. The most obvious example of this are the faces. Genshin has same face syndrome, which I partially contribute to budget constraints with the models seeing as they reuse them over and over. Though it also has a lot to do with Genshin’s need for their characters to be conventionally attractive. Everyone must be beautiful and, as the current trend in anime artstyles dictates, not look a day over 12. The only thing that changes is the eye shape, but even then, it really doesn’t. There’s diversity between the male and female models, but calling it diversity seems generous, because they are practically the same. All the viewer has to go on to differentiate between faces are the expressions (and color but we’ll get there), which are also limited by the models.

The poor quality of the shape language continues into the bodies, seeing as the only thing that really changes is the height, not a lot of room for show casing contrast. (Also body diversity is just a good thing to have for the sake of having body diversity.) Visual contrast is one of the key things good shape language should deliver. It’s within this contrast that the viewer will have the opportunity to compare and thus make these associations. One character design may tell you things based on previous knowledge but it’s like an experiment without a control group.

Then we get to the character’s outfits and hairstyles. While it’s true there is a fair amount of diversity in clothing, the shape language continues to falter. Genshin characters have so much going on constantly in their designs that it seems like that should provide plenty of opportunities to showcase personality. Unfortunately what ultimately happens is that the details compete amongst themselves so much that they overshadow any sort of unified message they might have had about who this character is. Basically there’s too many different shapes. They don’t create a pattern and therefore don’t form any strong associations. You can have a good design with a lot of details but they should communicate a pattern together. A design is not good simply because it has a lot of detail. I will say there are definitely times where the clothing and hair do actually come through to tell me stuff about the character, but overall this over designing tends to be a detriment.

Genshin’s hair while in different styles usually relies on the same type of pointy strands and blunt edges.

(these characters were randomly selected to prove my point that you can quite literally pick any character in genshin and they will have at least one of these two components)

On their own pointy strands might tell us something, but considering every character has them, the pattern within a single character is rendered moot. “If everyone’s super, no one is.” Of course how they choose to wear their hair does speak to the character but its effect is limited when the structure of the hair is fundamentally the same. And then when you consider that the styling of many of these hairstyles doesn’t actually say a whole lot, it becomes obvious that Genshin is more concerned with creating hair that stands out. The problem is that details, asymmetry for example, normally tell us about the character, but considering so many hairstyles utilize asymmetry, it looses its meaning. Overall I will say I think Genshin is more of a 50/50 toss up on whether or not the hair suits the character.

I want to take a moment to point out a couple hair style designs in Genshin I think are really lovely and work very well.

And now I would like to do the same with some outfits.

(honorable mention to Bennett for being over accessorized in a way that actually tells you about his personality (goggles, a scar, bandaids, work gloves, utility belt), to Barbara for somehow mashing the concept of a nun and an idol together, to Klee for her childish whimsy and finally to Scaramoche for the sheer amount of subtle character growth motifs fit into all three of his outfits (the cultural stuff is really cool too))

Genshin I will say does a great job of creating and repeatedly using the elemental imagery as well as Khaneira’ah’s star. I also appreciate that every Archon has that ombre hair shift that glows during their burst. Makes them feel unique.

I think Genshin shines the brightest when they successfully incorporate cultural elements into their designs however, the only nation that does this with any sort of consistency is Inazuma. Inazuma’s aesthetic is so instantly recognizable. No one dresses exactly the same, but there are common through lines in the shoes, the style of the armor, and patterns in the clothes. (The design aesthetic is so strong that even after Scara got a Sumeru makeover he managed to keep elements that were clearly identifiable as Inazuman) Every other nation falls short in this department. I will give credit to the knights as there is some level of consistency in their designs, mostly in the metallic detailing; not quite a uniform but there is some commonality. Liyue does have cultural influence that definitely shows but it suffers from an overall lack of consistency in aesthetic, and doesn’t lean into its Chinese inspiration the same way Inazuma does. Mondstadt on the other hand is just vaguely European, but also half the time not even.

And then there’s Sumeru. I distinctly remember looking at the full Sumeru cast the first time and thinking that none of the them looked like they came from the same place. (It’s almost as if Sumeru is based on a bunch of separate countries that are culturally very different.) Pretty much no character has any real ties to any any real culture, but instead they just sorta grab vague elements. And at its worse just leans into orientalism (Nilou and Dori). I think personality wise the designs do a fairly stable job of saying at least something about their characters (Dehya and Kaveh). The designs do well individually but between the vague references and inconsistencies they falter. (I will say Cyno’s whole design being a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh is both hilarious, charming, and also mildly appropriative.)

On the topic of appropriation I think it’s important to note that Inazuma suffers from this too. While I absolutely love the way a lot of Japanese elements were integrated, outfits like Yae Miko’s shrine maiden garb bring forth this sexualization of cultural dress that I’m not particularly fond of. But then again you can also critique Rosaria’s sexy nun design for the same thing.

I also want to touch on something briefly because it’s important to note, but it’s a separate, much bigger conversation; Genshin, like anime, falls into a trap of catering their style to lolicon and shotacon enjoyers. It’s the reason all the characters look so young, why all the age discourse exists, why they refuse to confirm ages, and why all the children with the toddler model have some weird age work around. I don’t like it. It’s gross.

Another brief mention because it’s its own conversation; the female characters in Genshin are often over sexualized. Their clothes are skin tight, they almost always have weird random cut-outs, their skirts and dresses are designed to show off their breasts and asses, and all of their designs are high fem regardless of their personality. Give a female character baggy pants Genshin I dare you. Dori doesn’t count, she’s a toddler model in just a bra. I don’t have a problem with a female character being hot, but when that’s the only requirement…. it’s tiring. The classic female character design video game debate…. yah.

I think my overarching issue with Genshin’s clothing design is it says nothing about whose these people are. What jobs do they do? What do these accessories say about them personally? Take Yanfei. She’s a lawyer, yet nothing about her outfit speaks to that in the slightest. I remember the first time I sat down and looked at all the playable characters with a friend of mine. I didn’t play at the time and we thought it would be fun to see if I could guess their personalities. As you can imagine I did pretty poorly, and that’s because these designs just don’t suggest a whole lot.

And then we get to color.

Color is probably the most complicated part of art let alone character design. I feel as though we all have some familiarity with the concept of color coding in character design. The classic red/blue character foils. Color often suggests specific traits similar to the way shape language does, except unlike shape language color coding doesn’t always apply. You can’t just assign a character a color and call it coding, the character has to physically have that color on them in some significant manner. For example Naruto is clearly an orange coded character. He appears in the color throughout the series, but I couldn’t classify Eren Yeager as a green coded character even if it suited his personality (which it doesn’t) because it’s a uniform everyone wears. Attack on Titan does not evoke color coding the way Naruto does, so it’s not applicable.

With Genshin color is complicated. Genshin does have an established color pattern for all the elements, but not every character wears the color of their element. Now normally I would say just having a color pattern for the elements wouldn’t be enough to justify character color coding (since it would fall back into the uniform category), but in Genshin their visions connect to their personalities, so therefore the color of the elements is connected to them. For some the color coding is very obvious (Kaeya & Diluc) and for others it’s practically nonexistent (Yun Jin & Heizou). In all honestly I don’t know what to make of this other than Genshin is inconsistent in their elemental color coding but always consistent in their high saturation. Because color is complicated and a weaker area of mine it is equally likely that I’m missing something or that Genshin isn’t coding anything and it’s all pure aesthetics.

Which brings me to my final point; aesthetics. Hoyo as a company cares that you spend money. That is the number one goal at the end of the day. That’s why all their characters are conventionally attractive, why their art style is the way it is, why their shape language suffers, and why their outfits are overly detailed. It’s all about aesthetics. As a brand Genshin cares less about their story and more about how pretty their characters look, because if their characters are pretty then you’ll spend money. It’s not like Hoyo designed characters with bad shape language because they were ignorant. They knew exactly what they were doing when they sculpted every last visually pleasing strand of pointy hair.

Which brings me back to the real question that people were actually arguing over in the first place; are Genshin characters ugly?

I can’t answer that question. I mean they weren’t designed to be ugly, but if they don’t appeal to your taste, then to you they are ugly. But it’s more important to understand that “bad” and “ugly” are not the same. Genshin character designs are bad by professional standards but that doesn’t mean you can’t like them. Genshin designs can be both bad and likable, bad and pretty, bad and cute. Those are two vastly different things. It’s the same way people adore cult classic movies. They’re not good in the eyes of a critic, otherwise they wouldn’t be niche. They’re cult classics because people like them. Personal taste is just that. Personal.

But the most important question of all; do I like the Genshin Impact character designs?

I didn’t use to but I gotta say, they’ve grown on me.

#genshin #genshin impact #long post #it’s an essay #i wrote an essay #character design #tagging the characters i look at specifically #in a positive light #yoimiya #venti #ayaka #zhongli #itto #yun jin #xin yan #tighnari #sorry about any potential typos #i have no beta reader #so it’s just me and my notoriously bad reputation for not spotting mistakes

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kannibaleherzen · 1 year

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I have Disneyland on my mind, so I wrote some headcannons about Dano characters and their favorite attractions at the Disneyland Resort! No surprises, SFW fluff. All these guys under the cut. ♡

I made the graphic on my phone so it sucks.

Additions of Burt Fabelman and Louis Ives are also included! ♡♡♡♡♡

Dwayne Hoover: He wants to be a pilot, and in fact can be at Disneyland! He absolutely loves and will fight to get the pilot position every time at Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run. Dwayne has tried and once successfully gotten your ride crew to activate Chewy mode. If cast would let him, he could pilot both positions alone, but they can't and won't. Dwayne also always gets excited about Soarin' Around the World. He is mesmerized by the indoor portion of the queue with all the pilots on the walls and reads them every time.

Lucas: This sweet boy is into Fantasyland. The traditional King Arthur's Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and Snow White's Enchanted Wish. He could spend all day in Fantasyland if you let him. In the evening, he loves getting a good spot for fireworks that start at 9:00. About 40 minutes before, he wades through the crowd to get a churro for you two to share when it starts. It takes forever to even get the churro, so you two always cherish that moment.

Pierre Bezukhov: A Fantasyland man as well. Alice in Wonderland, Mad Tea Party, then Matterhorn Bobsleds in that order before anything else in the park. Unlike Calvin who uses connections, Pierre is a member of Club 33, and will take you to the 1901 Lounge at the Carthay Circle instead because he thinks it's classier and the drinks are better there. Once sufficiently drunk and fed, he loves to go watch Mickey's PhilharMagic.

Jay: Rise of the Resistance isn't just a ride, it's a full experience. Jay will wait however long it takes to get through the queue and on. He loves the scene with the Stormtroopers and hopes one day he can recruit more ALF members to have a big enough fleet like that to save more animals. When it's over, he always takes time to chat with cast members about the cats that live back there. How are they? When do they get food left for them? When were they spayed or neutered? And so forth.

Percy Dolarhyde: In typical fashion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The best part to him is the hill climb with explosions. Percy won't admit it, but he also has a soft spot for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. His favorite part is looking up and behind to catch a glimpse of the old Country Bears Jamboree that used to occupy the space.

Calvin Weir-Fields: You will be dragged to Pirates of the Caribbean by him. He wants the redhead! It's no surprise he does the same right after for Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin. Calvin loves the queue spot where he can knock on Jessica Rabbit's door and say Walt sent him. Once done there, he must go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Because in the end, you go to hell. He uses connections to get into Club 33 for a romantic dinner after putting up with him.

Alex Jones: Cars Land. Just... All of it. The first time he sets foot, he is in love. Why wouldn't he be? The themeing of Radiator Springs is perfect! Alex loves doing finger guns and shouts Lightning McQueen's "Ka'chow!" for the photo on Radiator Springs Racers. When on Luigi's Rocking Roadsters, he loves the circles at the end of the song and puts his arms up (as is the custom). He always needs a pic with Mater.

Eli Sunday: The higher the ride, the closer to God. Eli is pretty traditional when it comes to rides, and loves the Pixar Pal Around. He does not go in the regular gondola, but the swinging one. He is just a touch crazy after all. Eli also likes the Disneyland Railroad, but scoffs at the dinosaur scene between Tomorrowland and Mainstreet U.S.A. believing they've never existed.

Hank Thompson: He's just so excited about everything. Hank absolutely must go to Adventureland first to ride Indiana Jones Adventure. A Spielberg movie brought to life! He always hopes to get the driver's seat because it's the best. Hank never looks into the eyes of Mara! After is a trip on Jungle Cruise, and always laughs at the skipper's jokes. He loves getting bao from the Tropical Hideaway. When visiting DCA, he must go on Grizzly River Run and say hi to Francisco the cat who lives near the queue.

Timothy Klitz: Klitz just wants to cuddle with you anywhere and everywhere. It's a Small World is the best for doing so. A good 15 minute boat ride with an albeit slightly grating song is good enough. He loves The Haunted Mansion for the same reason. Any slow, dark ride where you can feed each other popcorn is best. To get in and out of the park, he enjoys taking the Monorail from Downtown Disney.

Edward Nashton: You ever see an impossibly high score on a game? Higher than the cast members who work the ride, Edward is the champ! Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters is where it's at for Eddie! He gets so immersed in it that he forgets there's a photo and he always looks so determined, hunched over reaching out with the blaster in hand. He also goes crazy competitive on Toy Story: Midway Mania and always gets the tippiest of top scores to your amazement.

Joby Taylor: First, you need to beg, plead, and bribe him to even set foot on property. They serve alcohol is the line that gets him. Joby is so not into the no smoking unless outside security, but can stand it for a day. Just for you. Beer in hand, you force him in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! He downs the beer, gets on, then once your ride plays Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf, he is hooked.

Burt Fabelman: He worked for GE! Keeping to the time period, he adores the Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland. He feels so proud of what he does now and what the future holds. He has to see the show first! Tomorrowland is where he feels happiest (People Mover!), but also is down for a round in the Enchanted Tiki Room, and Mark Twain's River Boat, too.

Louis Ives: A bit of a traditionalist. He adores the fact the carousel horses are authentic antiques. Any time Mary Poppins and Burt are on it as well, he gets giddy and will watch and wave at them! Louis adores Storybook Land, even if it's filled with the youngest of guests. When it comes to dining, Louis somehow always manages to score a coveted reservation to the Blue Bayou. Every. Single. Trip. He won't share his secret on how he does it, but if you had to guess, he knows a cast member.

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