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rowdyhughesy · 1 year

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Like father like son - Jack Hughes

“ you have chaos in your soul and lightning in your veins. You my dear were made for wild, magical things “

- erin matlock

word count: 1.2K

There's a lot of things you'd like to say in this moment, things you'd like to do as you watch him stand in front of the mirror. Lip tucked between his teeth and nervous features on his face. But you know that what you have to say won't make a difference so you stay silent. Newly painted fingernails twisting and turning the ring on your fingers, a habit you've developed since you got married.

It's not until familiar arms wrap around your shoulders, the hands grabbing yours to stop your anxious fiddling that you get out of your head. "Breath Sweets, I'm starting to think you're more nervous than he is." Jack chuckles pressing a soft kiss to the top of your head. Turning your head you lower your voice, scared that you're gonna make your son even more anxious if he hears your conversation.

"I'm just worried he's going to be disappointed." Jack gives you a lazy smile in return. Giving you a quick peck he walks over to your oldest grabbing the tie that lays discarded on the hotel bed.

It warms your heart, watching Jack walk over to Lake, bumping his shoulder against the teenagers in greeting. How they share small words between each other as he helps him with his tie.

It brings to back to Lakes first picture day in preschool. You’d styled his unruly curls -he got those from Jack- and he had whined about how the dress-shirt was itchy while Jack helped him tie his shoes for a solid 5 minutes.

“What do you think mom?” Lake does a twirl showing you his finished product. Dark green suit making him look more tan than he already is and the brown curls are falling in his eyes. You’d told him to get a haircut but he had been persistent in not ruining his precious flow. Faint freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks.

Blinking away the tears that are forming you stride over, tugging the tall boy close in a hug. “You look so handsome baby.” Is all you can muster up between the sniffles. Lake gives you his signature look when he thinks you’re embarrassing. It often comes out when you’re at his games screaming so loud you can hear it on the other side of the rink.

Jack feeling left out pulls both of you into a group hug. The three of you stay like that for a while, reminiscing back to when it were only the three of you for a solid 5 years. Back in your apartment in Newark, before you bought the house in Hoboken. Before the twins were born.

It was free days with no practice, games, school or work spent playing street hockey and eating breakfast for dinner. It was Lake scoring a goal on Luke for the first time at 5 and a big toothless smile as he jumps in Jacks arms screaming daddy did you see that?

Things weren’t as hectic but it’s all the chaos, road trips and early practices that brought you here and it’s all you could wish for.

This day is all about Lake.

A small knock on the door catches your attention. Giving Jack a look as to say I've got it you wrap your hand around the handle opening it. In the hallway stands your families. The twins Parker and Kaiden come barrelling in like the tornado they usually are as soon as the door opens. A laughing Luke following after along with Quinn who gives you an apologetic smile. "They couldn't wait any longer to see you guys I'm sorry."

“It’s fine Quinn.”

Kaiden seems to have found interest in pestering Lake per usual, babbling in his ear about how he’s better than him at hockey to which Lake only puts him in a headlock. Knuckles ruffling the blonde hair as Kaiden screams for Parker to save him.

Parker isn’t listening to his pleads though because he’s fully concentrated on watching something on Luke’s phone.

The pair of them more best friends than uncle and nephew. Jack believes it has something to do with the fact that both of them are the youngest out of three brothers. You think it’s because Luke is secretly Parker’s hero.

“Kai stop annoying him. Lake don’t give your brother knuckles he’ll go bald if you do that shit” Jack finally breaks Lake and Kaiden apart, having grown tired of their fighting. Kaiden stares at his dad astonished for a second before his head whips around glaring at his older brother.

“I’ll never get any girls if you make me bald asshole!”

“Kaiden language!”

Your knee is bouncing up and down in your seat, hand tightly holding onto Jack’s in a futile attempt to calm your nerves. Lake is biting his lip again but it’s pointless to say anything because he will continue doing it until his name is called.

You know he doesn’t anticipate being picked first overall, his numbers are even better than Jacks were during his draft year but Lake is a realist. Something he got from Jim, he knows he can be number one but there’s other players equally as good so he waits.

The start of the draft before the picks start going off has you even more anxious. Why is it taking so long?

When the spokesperson for the New York Islander steps up on the stage you grab Lake’s hand on instinct. Giving it reassuring squeeze as to say it’s okey. He squeezes right back. One hand running through his hair just as the man in a suit speaks up.

“The New York Islanders are proud to select as first overall from university of Michigan. Lake Hughes.” Before the announcer even has the chance to say the full name you and Jack are up on your feet cheering. Lake stands up with his eyes wide as if he can’t believe what just happened. Like he’s waiting for someone to wake him up.

You whisper how proud you are and how much you love him in your sons ear as he hugs you. Silent tears spilling from your eyes and you don’t even try to hide it because this is all he’s ever wanted and it happened.

Jack brings Lake into the tightest hug you’ve ever seen and that’s saying a lot since he’s always hugging your kids whenever he has the chance.

“I love you Lake. Now go up there and show them what being a Hughes means alright? I’m proud of you buddy.” Jack wipes away his tears when he thinks nobody’s looking but you all see it.

Lake walks down the stairs, shaking peoples hand with a toothy grin as he goes. Handing off his suit jacket when he reaches the stage and shakes more hands before the jersey is given to him.

Turning to Jack you find him already looking at you, glassy eyes and soft smile.

“You did that.” You tell him and he only shakes his head before kissing you.

“No baby, we did that. Together.” And it makes you giddy.

Yeah you did that, you made an awesome kid who loves hockey.

His skill set aren’t thanks to you though because you’re a lousy shot and fall on your ass most of the time when on the ice. The hockey? The hockey is all thanks to Jack.

#jack hughes imagine #jack hughes x reader #nhl imagine #dad!jack hughes imagine

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euphoniouspandemonium · 5 months

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Cotton Mendings — a WIP intro by yours truly

finally doing a proper introduction yayy!! who would have foreseen this .

stage: drafting (rip it's been so long and it's going soo slow)

tags: #wip: cotton mendings ; #aes: cotton mendings

genres: historical fiction, literary fiction

themes and tropes: idealisation and romanticisation of people, queer love and toxic queer relationships, friends to lovers, tenderness and love for the world, hope, grief, obsession, mythological and religious imagery, breaking out of other people's perceptions of you, relearning gentleness after having it beaten out of you, being loved as being known

warnings: emotional abuse and implied/mentioned physical abuse, character death and mentioned animal death, period-typical homophobia & transphobia (will add on)

pov: 3rd person past tense

setting: 1920s England

summary: Oscar ignites a relationship with an old friend – charismatic socialite Salvatore – whom he has had repressed love for for years. But despite everything their relationship is haunted by the death of Oscar's brother and a portrait simply called Percy, made by a German artist: a portrait of a red haired man who appears perfect and soft and yet incredibly, beautifully tragic. It makes Oscar question Salvatore and their relationship and wonder about the life and seemingly inherent sorrow of the subject, while Salvatore grows ever more enticed by ruthless, enigmatic Yvonne. Their separate obsessions grow and push them apart, while at the center of everything is Percy, devastatingly alive and spiteful, trapped in a narrative he did not create. Who is Percy, who is Salvatore, who is Oscar in rotation to them? Does he want to know at all?

characters, notes, excerpt & taglist under the cut <33

characters:

Oscar (he/him, bi): world's #1 most pathetic sad boy. romanticises everything to the point of self destruction. scared of acting on his desires but full of soooo much love. obsessive, incredibly sensitive, artistic, melancholy. also sooo autism.

Salvatore (he/him, bi): charismatic, intelligent, flamboyant, philosophical, hedonistic. he sees everything in a very realistic and nihilistic way. emotionally detached yet surprisingly protective and gentle with the people he loves.

Percy (he/him, bi, trans): babyboy !! baby!!!!!!!! full of so much life and love and poetry. he is very sweet and sarcastic and loves going on little adventures. mentally ill & physically disabled. he's suffered more than jesus but his wonder and whimsy are unmatched.

Yvonne (she/her, bi): hot evil woman❤️ ruthless, vicious and cold. her love is almost violent and repugnant. she only cares about few people but if they are in danger she knows no morality or law. also she's mischievous like a little cat <3

notes: Cotton Mendings is my passion project, my Magnum Opus, my baby. I have worked very hard on it and I've developed the character dynamics and symbolism sooooo much I could talk about them for hours. It all started with the song Angie by The Rolling Stones, but it has strayed very far from its original concept (actually Angie isn't even on the playlist — it is now completely a product of my obsession with The Smiths I'm afraid). It has helped me through so much and I will be very happy if people like it :] I love my horrible insane bisexuals. Why is everyone bisexual, you ask? well. I ❤️ bisexuals.

excerpt:

He thought again of Percy, of the way he glowed as if coated in honey and sunlight, the sweet smile on his face. What if Percy had spent his life failing at it, too? Trying to be the perfect picture of a beautiful boy. Turning hazy and translucent, like a ghost, from trying. And those few minutes with him, how the light extended and held Oscar too, how Percy was perfect and beautiful but couldn't possibly be only that. How they were both an image without a body.

(general) taglist: @ribelleribelle @talesofsorrowandofruin @writing-is-a-martial-art @alexwritesfiction @aether-wasteland-s @sculpture-in-a-period-drama @phantomnations @olimpias (ask to be added or removed)

#wip: cotton mendings #wip intro #writeblr #original writing #syd's writing

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cassiesdevblog · 1 year

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Rediscovering the ~Joy of Work~ in spite of capitalist BULLSHIT!!!!

Capitalism is deeply woven with my trauma. I felt its inevitable hand more and more with every passing year I went through school, and thanks to a terrifying, abusive stepdad obsessed with turning my autistic ass into a ~functioning member of society,~ home was not a respite from a world that demanded constant work, a world that silently chastised even a moment of rest Rest became my rebellion. For years, especially after finally escaping living with my stepdad, I spent every moment I could doing next to nothing, fearing anything that took effort, had stakes, or could affect the future at all. In my mind, work was overrated, and I would spend the next several years trying to reconcile that belief with my ambitions. I made some progress working on the games I wanted to make, but without fundamentally reshaping my relationship with work, I wasn't destined to get very far. And I didn't. I put out small projects sporadically for a few years, but my more ambitious ideas languished in snail-paced development

Things changed slowly for a while, and I gradually began figuring out habits that would help me work on cool games despite how much I hated work, but eventually, I'd make a sort of breakthrough

The Breakthrough!!!

About a month ago, I played the then-current build of @zombielesbean's upcoming game Grey Area. I'd seen on the Itch page that it'd been slated for March of this year at some point (it's March right now and it's definitely not coming out this month), and given how much more polish I felt the game needed, I felt like there would no way it was getting the polish it deserved in time for March. It's such a cool, weird, unique, unforgettable project, and it would have been a crime if it came out undercooked. I just had to do something about that, so I asked if I could have a copy of the project file so I could help out

I mean, realistically the game would have just come out later than expected to give it time for the polish it needed...

But regardless!! Alayna sent me the project file and off I went! In my mind, every second I spent working on the game would translate to a better final product on launch day, and that's all I really wanted. I began to understand every work of art I've ever loved as the fruits of a whole lot of labor. So many cool things only exist at all because someone wanted them to exist so bad they were willing to put in every last bit of work necessary to make it so. And that makes them cool, it makes them admirable, and it means the world is full of cool, inspiring, sickass art to experience

So, fuck capitalism, but work is alright sometimes

It's pretty fucking cool actually when it's not compulsory. It can be fulfilling, it can lead to absolute bangers, and, fuck, it can even be rewarding in its own right

Grey Area is gonna be a banger because the whole team, now including me, poured in the work necessary to make it so. In the month I've been working on it, it's tangibly improved astronomically, and it'll keep doing so till we're done, all thanks to the work we put in. Every second of work leads to a better, cooler game, and it's worth it because we really want it to exist

The inescapable forces of capitalism wanted me to go one way, and for years, I went in the exact opposite direction: still following capitalism's path, only in reverse, and it wasn't any better a path to take

Now? I'm making my own way

Thx for reading :)

#gamedev #greyarea

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demilypyro · 2 years

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Biggest success story of my transition is my hair ngl. I struggled a lot with my hair growing up, you'd think this white-ass country has never seen a natural curl before, it marked me as a foreigner, made me stand out in a crowd. This also meant very few people could tell me how to manage it. My dad, who I'd gotten them from, rigorously kept his hair short.

I always hated having short hair, so I'd let it grow out as a kid, but then it tangled so much it became unmanageable and ended up naturally becoming an afro, which I wasn't fond of. When it inevitably was cut short, I hid my head under a variety of hats. Was a big fan of caps as a kid. I wore a licensed pokemon hat into college. Only when I decided to transition did I have the drive and the will to learn to tame my curls.

So I spent over three years researching, experimenting, finding what worked and didn't, trying out different products and brushes and techniques. I ended up developing my own adjusted version of the "curly girl method", finally resulting in light, small, fluffy ringlets that form on their own when my hair is properly cared for. It's... delightful. It's exactly what kid me would have wanted. A big mess of cute, small curls. And this one aspect of my appearance that I was always sort of stuck with, that made me stand out, that made strangers eye me with suspicion and probe me with uncomfortable questions, finally feels like it's really mine, like it's a part of my identity.

Anyway this post is too long and I've embarrassed myself

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no-psi-nan · 10 months

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In my post-canon fic series, Akechi becomes friends with Kusuke in adulthood, often visiting his lab to hang out and play games and chat. (This happens well past what I've posted so far though lol)

Akechi is openly non-binary, and makes a bet with Kusuke over a game, like they usually do, for custom hormone replacement treatment as a prize. Akechi wins and Kusuke studies pharmaceuticals and stuff to make him a course of hormones that will give him more feminine features while still keeping a lot of his masculine features.

Anyways I ended up writing this character introspective moment between Akechi and Kusuke that I thought was neat:

Akechi's quarterly physical is a boring regular affair on the couch at Kusuke's lab. It's just a simple checkup to see how well Kusuke's custom blend of sex hormones was working to give Akechi the perfectly ambiguously gendered figure of his dreams.

But for Akechi, undressing - even just to the waist - is always a grand production.

Off comes his suit jacket, and he takes the time to hang it up neatly to avoid wrinkles.

Then he unhooks his suspenders from the back, pulling the straps forward to tie in a neat little bow to keep them out of the way without having to remove them entirely.

The way he unbuttons his dress shirt is always so prim and practiced too, each twist of his wrists at once mechanical and dramatic.

Akechi's bright gaze meets Kusuke's then.

"It used to be that I only considered mirrors to be utilitarian things," he says, "useful for ensuring that my clothes were tidy and my hair neat, or occasionally for a closer perspective on some blemish or bruise. But lately, whenever I catch sight of myself in the mirror, I smile, and it's this unintentional, unbidden outburst of joy – a wild thing that I would never have considered possible at such a mundane occurrence. Had I felt 'wrong' in my old body? Certainly not– I was reasonably satisfied with it at the time. But these latest developments have, in a sense, elevated my everyday experience, increased the background baseline of my mood. And for that, I am truly thankful, Kusuke. We both know that our gambling antes are farcical, more of an excuse to share in an experience than a true wager. And yet you've granted me such an enormous boon, at no little cost of your own. I have some idea of how much time you spent studying human biology and pharmaceuticals in order to prepare this treatment regimen for me. Time you could have perhaps better spent developing your own inventions and theorems. Yet you have been nothing but professional and attentive with me throughout these years. I would like to thank you wholeheartedly for everything."

And of course, Kusuke would have complicated feelings about his closest and practically only friend, so...

Kusuke looks away from Akechi to the other side of his couch, uselessly hiding his expression from someone who knows his emotions better than himself.

"No problem," he says. "It's fun."

"You want more," Akechi states simply, no judgment in his tone.

Kusuke frowns.

It's true.

As much as he enjoys Akechi's company, and the time they spend fiddling with Kusuke's machines and playing crazy little games for mostly meaningless antes, there's something missing.

Kusuke doesn't know what it is, but he feels it in his chest when Akechi bounces into his lab like he's in his own home. He feels it when Akechi whips up a bizarre new treat as if his lab was a kitchen and offers Kusuke a bite right out of his fingers. He feels it when Akechi stays the night, snoring away on the couch while Kusuke silently writes journal papers and grant proposals.

Akechi's gaze is kind enough to hurt.

Anyways from here I wrote a fic where they settle into a friends-with-benefits kind of relationship but because Kusuke is still a big weirdo no matter how much he's calmed down, the resulting fic is extremely unhinged.

(The full fic is rated E and easy to find, but mind the tags, it's truly the wildest thing I've posted so far lol)

But I figured some people might enjoy reading the premise so here it is <3 This lore was actually explained previously in an Aikechi mini-comic but I think most people missed the punchlines so hopefully this is a clearer version of Nopsi's Trans Enby Akechi Lore!

#akechi touma #saiki kusuke #kusuke saiki #saiki kuusuke #<-why he gotta have so many tags #tousuke #nopsi fic #fli(psi)deverse

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rainbowrocketquotes · 10 months

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💔 for Cyrus?

okay i have a few but i'll only go into detail on the one that irks me the most, because if I didn't limit myself, it'd be a whole charcater analysis.

edit: i've accidentally written an argumentative essay. whoops.

Before we start I want to really quickly iterate that I am not a psychologist. I also highly encourage debate on any of my intepretations, so if you feel like there's a point to be made against this one, please feel free to send a counterargument!

There is a difference between Cyrus not liking or caring about people, and Cyrus being fully antisocial, which is a personality disorder. The way people portray Cyrus bugs me often because a lot of fic writers give him Antisocial Personality Disorder, and I do not mesh with that at all.

I got into a big argument with someone on this before, where the main argument was me being insensitive, and I am not trying to be. I'm trying to be informational.

One of the main symptoms of ASPD is hostility and cruelty. Cyrus isn't actually very hostile. His main showcase of hostility is when you attempt to stop something he's spent years of hard work moving towards. In my mind, that's a pretty expected reaction. Think about it, if your entire life you were working towards something like curing a disease, for example, and when you were on the verge of breakthrough, a 10 year old kid came along and wrecked your lab? You're probably not going to be like "Ah, I see. This is fine, you are a child." You're going to be rightfully angry.

Another main symptom is impulse issues and lack of self-restraint. Cyrus doesn't have that. He's actually really calm and collected, and his entire thing is that he's ominously calm throughout times of disaster. He's highly intelligent and calculated. He doesn't make very many impulse decisions.

It's not a good argument if I don't discuss the other side of the debate, so I can think of a few reasons why people think Cyrus is antisocial, and some arguments against them.

1. Cyrus is described on his Bulbapedia page as "asocial".

Asocial ≠ ASPD. Asocial is an aversion to social interaction, not a disregard for others and human life.

2. Cyrus wants to create a world entirely for himself, and doesn't care what happens to other people.

While I don't have a concrete argument here, I do know that personally, I would have wanted the same thing before I learned the coping mechanisms to accept that the people that forged me into a wreck don't define me today. Cyrus most likely never had access to the resources necessary to develop coping mechanisms. He doesn't want to hurt all of these people, but instead sees it as a necessary step in finding comfort in himself, albeit in a messed up way.

3. Cyrus manipulates his team for the end goal of only helping himself.

This isn't in doubt. He's definitley psychologically disturbed, but the manipulation is a product of his environment. He rarely interacted with people as a child, so the majority of his interaction came from his family, who were, as we already discussed, not the best. He most likely learned this behavior from his parents. Also, he's not the only villain who lies to his team to benefit himself. They're all manipulative liars in their own rite, so using it as an argument doesn't really mean much to me.

I think it's good to remember that many people with disorders like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), PTSD, and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are misdiagnosed as having ASPD.

I personally think that Cyrus has a combonation of mental problems that elevate each other to extremes. In my eyes, it presents this way because the adults in his life didn't care enough to help him learn the coping mechanisms he needed to combat the adverse symptoms.

I see him having Depression and C-PTSD due to issues with his family during his childhood. I think there's one mention of his parents in the entire series, where they're described as being consistently dissapointed in him and uncaring, which is enough for it to be mentioned on his wiki as a keystone in his past, and a turning point to why he is the way he is. From this, I think I can safely assume gamefreak is referring to, if not alluding to emotional abuse, which during key years of a person's brain development, can have lasting consequences on a person, such as the symptoms of C-PTSD, anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, loss of sense of self, and admittedly, ASPD. I personally don't see him having Anxiety as the level of social ability he displays seems adequate enough that he wouldn't qualify for a diagnosis.

I do also see him having ASD, as it's commonly overlooked for children who have advanced intellectual ability at young ages, yet delayed social and emotional development. As someone with ASD, my actual medical charts, above ASD, say "Delayed social and emotional development", as they are, to my understanding, 99% of the time a package deal.

To conclude, my biggest Cyrus pet peeve is when authors give him antisocial personality disorder.

NOTE: While I'm not anti self-diagnosis, diagnosing yourself or strangers on the internet, let alone using information from strangers on the internet, is a bad idea. Please don't do it in the replies to this post. This is purely about a fictional character, and if you think that any of this applies to you, talk to your therapist before you make any hard statements regarding your psyche.

#//400 special #.ooc #tw mental illness #tw mental disorders #tw abuse #cyrus #team galactic boss cyrus #pokemon cyrus #galactic boss cyrus #.hc

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gale-in-space · 1 year

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Here's the thing about AI generated images.

AI generated images rely on other artists' work. That's not a secret; the datasets that are fed into the AI consist of works created by human artists, the goal of which is to synthesize new images that "replicate" the artists' styles. This is art theft, as the works are used without the consent of the artist and marketed off as original works by the AI user.

Art relies on technique and skill. Great art is often the product of years of the cliched blood, sweat, and tears. It takes time and deliberate repetition to develop a mastery over anatomy, color theory, values, etc. Simply punching in a few prompts or supplying an AI generator isn't creating art - it is generating an image that is, again, attempting to replicate *real artists' styles,* living or dead.

AI "artists" will put actual artists out of work. I've seen it happen already. It starts with something as seemingly harmless as creating a AI portrait of some selfies you've gathered (I'm seeing this phenomenon all over Facebook) to industries using AI to generate promo "art" of whatever it is they're trying to showcase, to worse yet, corporations like the Mouse generating movies and TV shows via AI because real artists are just too expensive. And that's the whole point. Humans are expensive because they have to eat, whereas computers don't. The art industry will be forever upended because of AI, and if something doesn't happen in a legal sense to protect us, we're all going to get the boot.

That being said, art does not just belong to the bourgeoisie. I've seen it argued that art is a luxury, and that only the upper middle class and beyond can afford to commission artists; the advent of AI art, they claim, will make art more accessible to those who simply cannot afford it. I've not heard a more flagrant lie this entire year. I can count numerous artists that I know and have seen who are advertising their art for less than the minimum wage per hour spent on a piece. Meanwhile, people are spending their money on... checkmarks? Useless blue checkmarks?? Not to be all "maybe you should stop buying so many lattes so you can afford to buy a house" (because that's just objectively nonsense), but something doesn't add up here. The main takeaway here is this: most people on here can afford a $20 drawing; they just don't want to.

No one is "gatekeeping" art. Literally nothing is stopping you from picking up a pencil/pen/paintbrush/etc and learning. "But learning art is expensive!" No it's not. My friends and I all started out with Crayola crayons and No. 2 Pencils and scraps of homework assignments or school notebook paper. I remember when *printer paper* was a luxury to me, something I couldn't wait to get my hands on because it was crisp white and lineless. Yes, special art tools like charcoals and pastels can be expensive. But you don't need that to make art.

But what about disabled artists? What about them? They'll continue to make their art as they've always done and not through cheating the system. I have an Essential Tremor (amongst other issues that I don't feel like shouting from the mountaintops), and it can be quite obstructive to how I do art sometimes (trying to hold a pencil to paper is quite a feat for me, but I still do it). I've come to own my shaky lines - because my disability, no matter how damning it may feel sometimes, will never prevent me from trying to make art as long as I live. Other artists with more debilitating conditions than me make do just fine - from artists born without hands, to a man named Paul Smith with cerebral palsy who would "draw" using one finger on a vintage typewriter - it is a thing that happens. We persevere. To claim that AI generators are a tool for the disabled to create art is to spit in the face of actual disabled artists. We deserve better than this mockery.

#ai art #ai art discourse #okay to rb #don't clown on this post istg #this didn't turn into a 'thinkpiece' after all because I don't have the bandwidth but take it

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chibivesicle · 1 year

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If you could fix Trigun Stampede or write an alternate version of it that stays truer and more faithful to the 98 anime and the manga, not just visually but emotionally, philosophical and symbolically, how would you? Given how your in depth analyses and in general reading it to filth, I would love to know how you would fix it or rewrite it!

Hello and thanks for the question!

Sorry for the slow response, I've been busy and distracted by other shiny objects (Kekkai Sensen) to get back to this. I still haven't had time to really answer another ask but I hope to get to it in a week or so. As far as Trigun Stampede, I felt it had issues in the following areas: 1.) Technical skill surpassed all other aspects of the production. They put all their eggs in making it look very good. Which it does. I found out from the Sakuracon panel, that they spent two years working on animating the faces. Kudos for that level of work but if you write a poor story it doesn't matter how emotional they look. 2.) Paradoxical pacing. Twelve episodes were not enough to capture the original Trigun manga nor '98 anime. The '98 anime added establishing content to extend the limited manga chapters which helped to give the viewers Meryl as their entry point. It also had great pacing. Intro, build up, tension and resolution either in each episode or in two part episodes.

3.) Total emphasis of style over substance. This was the the worst part of it. They assumed making things look pretty would suffice and did not write individual episodes well or the full twelve. And since they were only working with twelve the story did not have time to just be and let us enter the world because of the paradoxical pacing. 4.) Generic character designs for the contemporary eye. In their attempt to make the characters look more 'normal' they lost the unique style of Yasuhiro Nightow's original designs. His characters are exceptionally stylized in a distinct way and they completely redid them. We also know that other studios can adapt his characters much more like in the original work both with the '98 anime and Kekkai Sensen. Madhouse and Bones anime-stylized the characters a bit for anime but not by that much compared to what Orange did. Milly is still large and clumsy in the anime, while Vash is super contorted at times. Wolfwood is still angular and Meryl still has that soft short stature. In KS, Klaus is still a giant gentleman, Leo is still dodging chaos, Chain is cool and distant, K. K. still has her confident stride, and Steven's posture is still terrible. I can watch the '98 anime and Kekkai Sensen and know that these characters were designed by Nightow. Looking at Stampede, I cannot tell by looking at them.

5.) Weak characters. Another point the Sakuracon panel noted was that the creative team spent five years developing Stampede. I can't help but feel like they wasted their energy. They came up with all this lore and information for their own version of No Mans Land - and then never tied it together. Studio Orange got lost in the weeds and never really figured out what they wanted to make or say. They also relied on characters info dumping and blatantly telling us what they are doing. That is not how Trigun or Kekkai Sensen work as stories. It is up to you to figure out what the characters are doing, why they are doing it and how to interpret their actions.

The characters were unclear in their motivations, there was no intro, mystery or payoff. After twelve episodes in, we still don't know what Rem told Vash that he has his technical pacifist philosophy. We know she told them that she loved them and she was happy to know them and that they should take care of each other. But why was Rem with Project Seeds? Why did she believe all life was sacred? Why was your ticket to the future blank?

Vash was far to passive but never said why and was not a gunslinger. Which was pretty much key to his skill and why he was infamous. Even before the July incident he was an excellent gunslinger and Western drifter. Wolfwood was meh, his natural people skills from the manga were completely gone. He was not only a trained killer but he was a natural people person and tried to be compassionate when possible. Meryl was two years older than in the manga/'98 anime and far less experienced. Yes, she was smart and by the book but so weak. Roberto was useless. He did not serve the plot. How would I have done Stampede? 1.) Trigun Maximum emphasis. Incorporate more of the manga into the anime, but cutting out some of the wandering chapters which did not serve the plot other than for some hard to follow action scenes. They lifted some elements from Maximum, but parts I was never a fan of e.g. the late introduction of the fact that Wolfwood was likely in his early 20s but will be debated until the end since his own backstories and timelines in the manga are inconsistent. My point is that Wolfwood's timeline is a hot mess.

Instead, they could have streamlined some of the fuzzy hand waving science and odd timelines for characters like Wolfwood and Livio. What they did was lean in hard to the rapidly aging aspect of things so as far as I can tell, Wolfwood is like 13 in Stampede?

They added in Elendira the Crimsonnail but made her a child who manifests nails from the air. Um, sure. If she is a she at all or genderless or nonbinary. The point is, she is not an adult trans woman with excellent fashion taste.

Added in the missing civilians from the original work. As others have commented, Stampede is a very empty world. There are no normal people. The entire point was that there were lots of normal people living their lives on the planet. They are completely absent. There are barely any civilians to protect since they aren't there. The design of the cities and towns for this were also weak. Yes, they needed plants, but most of the cities grew around the ships and dwarfed them. December was a full city with a downtown, high rise buildings and public transit. Stampede is just a weird tribute to Dune or something like that.

There was the potential to take the original anime, add in the key points of Maximum and it would have been an awesome anime.

2.) Had a clear story line for all twelve episodes and then for each individual episode. The storytelling for Stampede was an utter disaster. The terrible pacing, the inability to show characters through their actions, their lack of rational thoughts from time to time. The bad science; e.g. a town with only windmills but no solar panels. No knowledge of plants and photosynthesis? What the hell were these people eating? Apparently, they came up with worm related lore in their brainstorming sessions, but if you DON'T put that in the actual anime, we won't know that.

Too many things were like "Oh wow, look perfect timing! Always!" Dude, no. Part of the original was how timing wasn't perfect and characters slogged around for months trying to reconnect.

I think Vash being a little more upfront about his rationale to try to avoid violence would help and if he did it with his gun like in the originals. It makes his skill even better and more appreciated and highlights how he does not shoot to kill. Even though this series started with the backstory with him and Knives, Rem's moral code was not outlined. Thus, we don't know why Vash does what he does due to Rem and her influence on him.

Wolfwood was terrible, lacking all of his charm, personable attitude and willingness to sacrifice and be critical. He just comes off as a dick. Honestly, all they needed to do was make him more friendly and call out Vash for faking it like in the original. Meryl would have been better like her original with more experience and Milly as her junior. Nightow writes excellent female characters who aren't uwu/waifu types. They are women who are competent, have strengths and flaws and hopes and dreams. They are not there for you to dream about them fawning over you and acting on your every beck and call. Instead, they likely could kill you. Or at least really hurt you. They are not sexualized, nor fan service. They are just women and the men are just men. I'm not saying they aren't attractive - Meryl is still cute, Milly is dapper, Chain is curvy, K. K. is fashionable. But that isn't the defining aspect of their characters.

3.) Kept the character designs closer to the originals. In a saturated media landscape where so many anime look the same and generic, the style of the original would have stood out. Keep that lanky angular style of the original. Have those dramatic poses which showed so much about each character. I mean, they could have updated them and ditched the '90s eyes through chunky hair bit. Also, by changing Wolfwood from being a priest/preacher much of his internal moral conflict is lost. Along with the jokes which were classics by this point. With so many people not knowing the original, the jokes would have been unknown and fresh to newer viewers.

4.) Made the series 24 episodes with 12 per season. This really would have helped the series out big time. Instead of the oft critiqued terrible pacing, do what so many other series do now; split up what used to be a single season into two parts. It would have allowed for more downtime, lingering shots, characterization through interactions with the normal people. Vash playing with children. Eating donuts. Pancakes. Wolfwood giving up his food. Meryl writing reports and trying to be emotionally distant. Milly helping Wolfwood in a fight. Many of the micro-moments of characters were lost, but these help us to understand them and how they will react through very basic set up. Madhouse did not have a blockbuster budget for Trigun but it didn't matter when they set the tone up right.

They had too many blink and you will miss it moments. The this is not a problem with manga since you look at each panel individually. The original anime allowed for much better establishing shots as well as lingering on things to make it clear what that thing was. Kuroneko-sama is obvious in all the episodes, in the OP and ED and nyas (she has an entire track of 'nya' on the second donuts OST). Well, I would have made sure she does that in Stampede. I don't want it to be some sort of cryptid moment in the corner of the screen. Especially, since Kuroneko-sama still appears in the KS extras even bonding with Steven. Oh, yeah, and all the time in the KS anime; on the street in Hellsalem's Lot. Crossing the street in HL. With a monster jar stuck on her head that crashes into Leo. In the ED of B3 & Beyond.

Sure, Studio Orange put Sonic in there but the level of Kuroneko-sama in KS is much higher than KS in Stampede.

A longer series would have also allowed for more of the humor to come through. Trigun has ample slapstick/zany/situational humor that was lost in Stampede. Stampede took itself too seriously. Due to that, they never could turn off the serious mode. But even tough situations elicit humor. In the manga, Wolfwood explains how he doesn't die to Vash more or less but lays down to sleep. Vash then has a full on panic and Wolfwood is beyond pissed - since he's just trying to sleep. Even when Wolfwood is about to die, he cracks a joke with Vash in the manga.

Nightow clearly has a dark and sarcastic sense of humor at times. That could have come through in it and it was lost - to be serious. It is natural for people to crack jokes in absolutely terrible situations and Nightow loves to do this. If the Kekkai Sensen anime took out all of the sarcastic/dry/quips of the cast it would be so terrible. That is what happened to Stampede. They went full on serious sci-fi but forgot about the plot, characters and motivations.

5.) Included the strong religious undertone. Correctly. Much of the Christian and Buddhist themes were lost in Stampede. Why does Vash cling to an impossible ideal/moral code? The role of suffering and turning that other cheek. The creepy accurate angel designs for the plants. How Vash and Knives were of a virgin birth of angelic beings with one falling from grace. The oodles of Catholic guilt that trapped Wolfwood and Vash. But trapped Wolfwood more. Why do people have different lines they can and cannot cross? What is right? What is justice?

All we got in Stampede were crosses mixed with a zia (perhaps) and concept art of the Eye of Michael where all the women are hotties. This goes 100% against the modesty of the original and the lack of fan service. Nightow does not draw his characters to be hot nor does he want to put in relationships - especially with Trigun. Kekkai Sensen has only one known relationship, K. K. and her husband. Which is great, but we aren't there to examine their relationship. Instead, K. K.'s family motivate her to do her job and protect them.

I should really wrap this up as it has gotten far too long. However, what happened with Stampede is Studio Orange likely got so into making their mark on the series and giving it a new angle that they lost track of how to make it work. What story makes sense? How do you depict your characters? What type of pacing do you use for a twelve episode show which may or may not get more episodes?

If it really were in development for five years, I can't help but think Covid-19 really messed up some of their work and why things ended up disjointed. Or they had too many people involved or too much input and tried to include it all. Whatever actually happened, they needed a tighter linear story and consistent vision. Which they lacked.

#ask #answered ask #trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun maximum #studio madhouse #studio orange #yasuhiro nightow #what i would do

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nicohverse · 10 months

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Entropic Float's One Year Anniversary!

One year ago today- On July 7th, 2022- I released the 300k+ word long visual novel Entropic Float: This World Will Decay and Disappear, at no cost on itch and steam.

(Madeline by @unluckyerror404 on Artfight)

It was a labor of love- I worked on it for just over a year and a half, and my life changed a lot during that time. I got a job related to my degree, then proceeded to crash and burn when it turned out that I couldn't actually manage that job alongside my chronic conditions. Working on Entropic Float was the only thing during that time that really made me happy at all, so it's no surprise I ended up quitting for my health shortly after release...

Since I released Entropic Float, lots of things have happened. I've seen it referred to on reddit as 'the queerest game I've ever played'. I've received wonderful fanart. People have come to me saying that the game helped them realize they were physically disabled. My good friend, the vtuber FreyaFukunaga, played through the entire game on stream. There have of course been bad reviews too, negative feedback- No game can be for everyone, and Entropic Float is a game for some rather specific people. I've taken into account critiques made in good faith, and made efforts to improve these things where possible in updates to the game, and even moreso in the way they will be structured in Entropic Float 2: Land Of The Witch.

But before we talk about Entropic Float 2, which I'm sure you've all been waiting for information on, let me put some concerns to rest. I have, by no means, been doing nothing all this time. EF2 is coming along, though not in ways that are easy to share. Still, have a look-

Admittedly, it's a bit ugly without all the extra buttons, text, and more that will accompany this frame- It's just one small piece of the GUI I've been building. Entropic Float 2 is a big shift in style from the first game- For one, I'm no longer using Koikatsu for talksprites or environments. For another, it's going to be a point and click adventure game (Though the final release will include a 'kinetic novel version' option for those who prefer to play VNs on auto-advance!). You can see it, right? The menu buttons along the right edge, an inventory with tabs you can cycle in the bottom right corner, some information about the current state of the game in the empty space on the left...However, besides EF2, there have been other things I'm working on, and I'll admit to having some trouble finding a good workflow. During EF's development, it was simple enough- In my free time, I did those things which made me money (commissions, convention prep) and when those were done I worked on Entropic Float and did very little else. This workflow can no longer apply, because in the interim year, I've been building my small business, Nico's Fan Niche, on etsy. There are some pieces of Entropic Float merch available there! But the point is, now it seems there is always 'something to do which can make me money', as designing new products has a direct impact on my life now.

Besides the store, I'm also involved in other gamedev projects- I continue to be support staff on Heart Fragment, and am the primary artist of an RPG with a few friends of mine, yet to be formally announced. To top it all off, I do still have a day job. I work 30 hours a week (sometimes up to 39) with a studio called Small Victories. It's a wonderful and fulfilling position that gives me the space I need for personal projects, but that's still 30+ hours of the week not spent on those projects.

(Sharma by Quartoch on Artfight)

Finally- Entropic Float 2 is a loftier game than Entropic Float was. When I started EF, it was just for fun, to play with ren'py, and was never supposed to be as long as it ended up being. EF2 is a followup game. It needs to be bigger, better, and the pressure is on. For this reason, I decided to postpone making the game's art until after July- After Artfight 2023. My username there is nhitori if you want an attack from me! Each year, Artfight represents a huge burst of improvement for me and my artistic abilities. A talksprite drawn in June and a talksprite drawn in August would by nature be very obviously different in quality. I've been writing, outlining, working on GUI, but there hasn't been anything worth sharing on here yet.

Even so, I am very happy to announce- You should be able to expect the Entropic Float 2 Demo, and its Kickstarter, in November 2023!

Enter the Pine Creek Anomaly to discover exactly what happened in the small, Appalachian town several years ago- And why, so suddenly, the Anomaly started to invite outsiders in, after flying under the radar all this time. Kanatsune Ame returns to be guided by the player as he searches for the answers within a new cast of characters; Some familiar faces, some made more familiar after a mention in the Anomalous Clocktower, and some he's never met before at all.

And following shortly after the EF2 Demo and Kickstarter- There's one backer reward that will be fulfilled right away. Releasing in December 2023, right away for backers, just in time for the holidays if you just want to purchase it on its own (For only 5 USD- But if you played Entropic Float because it was free, and you really can't spare the money for any reason, do reach out to me.)

">It's been such a long time... But I've finally found You." (Box by Vanitasium on Artfight)

Quite a while after the stabilization of the Anomalous Clocktower, but not yet when you join Ame in the Pine Creek Anomaly- A voice calls out to you. A voice that is familiar, the voice which spoke directly to you throughout the first game. Informing you of the endings you've acquired. Warning you of what's ahead. Asking if you'd like to bring about the miracle. You never would have imagined that voice belonged to somebody. But it seems... She's gathered a new collection of stories for you. Fragments of those you've met before. Histories you couldn't see at the time, updates from the year since you left them behind. If you can read these stories and become more powerful again, like you did in the Clocktower, then maybe, just maybe... You and Her can meet face to face.

The Letters To A Beloved Ghost DLC for the first game will be arriving in December 2023! Along with the DLC, you'll also be able to install the 'Anachrono Mode' for Entropic Float. This mode replaces koikatsu talksprites with drawn talksprites in any cases where those have been added for DLC content. As the characters may be dressed in different clothing in these talksprites, and there may not be exact analogues for every expression, and the environments will remain koikatsu-style in most if not all places- It promises to be a bit anachronistic. But if the talksprites exist, may as well give you the option to use them!

One last thing- I'll be tabling in the Artist's Colony at Connecticon 2023, though I haven't got a table number yet. I also may be tabling at FANEXPO Boston 2023 (Unconfirmed), and Otakuthon 2023 (Waitlisted, but I'll still be attending as a guest if I don't get a table.) So if any fans reading this wanted to come say hello- There's a few opportunities. I might even have something for you, if you come by my table.

With that, the anniversary update is finished. That's all I've got for you right now- But there's a lot to look forward to! Thank you, as always, for reading, for playing, for being here with me on my gamedev journey.

#visual novel #indie games #gamedev #vndev #indie gamedev #entropic float #nicohverse

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sugurushimura · 23 days

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May I ask why you headcanon Midou as a trans woman? I always headcanonned Higuchi as trans out of all the Yotsubas (FtM though, not MtF) and I'd really like to hear your reasoning!

oh man, this is one of those headcanons that i've had for so long that it's kind of just cemented itself in my brain... the idea was actually my boyfriend @teethrotter's first, so what initially sparked it lies in his mind alone. i'm not sure if he even told me anything specifically other than "hey, i think it'd be neat if mido was a trans woman" so we tried it out for a while and it just stuck... i'm not sure when exactly that was, maybe 2016 or 2017? over 5 years for sure.

by this point, it's not even a decision i actively make, i just see mido and she registers immediately as a woman with my brain. seeing her he/him'd in canon feels wrong... although i am obviously not arguing that trans mido is even vaguely implied, she's just such a minor character that headcanoning her as a closeted trans woman doesn't change literally anything.

the headcanon does play into my own interpretation of mido pretty heavily, and it works well with how i perceive her canon personality. imo, mido is someone who is very resigned with her life. she was born into a high-status family that placed a lot of weight on her shoulders wrt being a Good Member Of Society. she went to an elite college, got a law degree, and went on to become a bigwig at the yotsuba group. she clearly excels at her job, but according to htr, she actually hates the division she works in. she's well-liked amongst her colleagues -- better than any of them except ooi, in fact -- but in turn seems to like very few of them. her social skills are quite good, but she seems... disengaged, to say the least, at the model party.

pretty much every facet of mido's life, except her fencing hobby, is spent doing things she hates and interacting with people that she dislikes. and yet she shows absolutely no signs that she's interested in changing it -- hell, she doesn't even bother speaking out against the kira murders, which seem to weigh on her conscience. of course, there's a real threat of death if she does that, but it isn't as if she simply abstains from the meetings; she's an incredibly active participant!

all this plays into the greater feeling that mido is resigned to her own misery even when she really doesn't have to be. i think she developed this tendency mainly because of her family, but eventually it became such a habit that to change now feels to her like she'd have wasted all that pain and effort. sunk-cost fallacy, you know? at times, too, i think she's prone to romanticizing her own pain in a sort of "oh, woe is me, i'm such a dutiful son and such a productive member of society, look at how much i've sacrificed for the sake of the status quo, how tragic am i..."

her gender identity, too, is a reflection of that. gender is such a fundamental part of how we perceive ourselves and others; i think it ties everything together to have mido, who is really and truly a woman, lock it up inside herself and just go along with the way she was raised to present because, even despite the misery it causes her, it would be troublesome to change it all now and would damage the image she's spent so long cultivating. besides, if she changed this now, that would open a lot of doors. what else about her life would she be happier if she changed?

my own experiences with gender are somewhat similar. there was a time when i was younger where i realized that i was a trans man, but thought it would be too much of a hassle to come out and completely change who i am publicly. i had more or less resigned myself to living the rest of my life that way, and it was only thanks to my boyfriend's encouragement that i changed my mind. i'm very glad i did, and it's probably no coincidence that i also imagined myself getting a business degree at that point in my life...

i love mido and i'd like for her to reach self-actualization, at least to some extent. in most lighthearted AUs, i default to writing her as out of the closet and fully transitioned -- albeit still working a job she hates. it's also very important to me that she comes out to shimura after the kira case. after being put through such a stressful situation and realizing that she really could have been killed (...oops), i think she realizes that, at the end of the day, she needs someone else to know. it might as well be shimura, who shows her so readily that he's been wrestling with the horror of their situation more frantically than any of them, who still shows compassion after everything they've done.

also, mido has the trans haircut. you know, the ambiguous "it's just short enough that mom won't say anything" look.

(as an aside, i think i've heard trans man higuchi brought up before! not for several years, though, and only briefly, unless i'm forgetting something. although it personally isn't a headcanon that i share, he's such an envious person and focuses his own identity so intensely on other men that i could see it being written in a very compelling way. the whole "i want him AND i want to be him" thing, however in denial he is about it, is very real... i would love to see that concept explored more! i am probably not the person to do it, though.)

#thank you for the ask i love talking about mido #some of these points are pretty similar to what i was talking with fox about in the comments of her lovely higuchi-mido hostility fic #which everyone should check out btw #asks #Shingo Mido #<- this tag hurts me but. well. canon dictates #anonymous

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thesparkwhowalks · 2 months

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OK, I wrote a whole-ass blog post about this for work last year (to celebrate Power Rangers' 30th anniversary) but that's tied to my real name and employer so here's the anonymyized, me-centric version: I am very much the person that I am today thanks to this woman:

That is Margaret Loesch. Buckle up, this one's a long-ass history lesson.

To start, we have to go all the way back to 1978. Japanese film studio Toei partnered with Marvel to create Spiderman, an adaptation of Marvel's de-facto mascot. To say it departed from the source material is an understatement: hip young motorcyclist Takuya Yamashiro gains spider powers and a giant, kaiju fighting robot from a dying alien and protects Japan from the invading Professor Monster and his Iron Cross Army.

It came out the same year as an American live action Spider-Man TV show. The Japanese one was a hit, the American one flopped. Moreover, Stan fucking Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, preferred the Japanese one. So the Marvel/Toei partnership continued. They co-produced three seasons of Toei's Sentai series, renamed Super Sentai thanks to the addition of giant robots. And Stan Lee liked that too, and pitched an American adaptation to TV networks. Well, he and his second in command at Marvel Productions: Margaret Loesch.

There were no takers. It just wasn't what the Saturday Morning TV market was looking for. So Stan and Margaret started working on their next big pitch: an X-Men cartoon! The team had gone from an also-ran to Marvel Comics' top seller in the previous decade, so it made sense to them to bring it to TV screens alongside the likes of Spider-Man and The Hulk.

A few abortive attempts, including a couple of backdoor pilots on Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, were made. The most famous was the "Pryde of the X-Men" TV special (executive producer: Margaret Loesch) that the company self-produced and aired sometimes with their syndicated Marvel Action Universe block.

Still, no takers. It would prove to be Loesch's last big project with Marvel, as she was offered a new job as the head of the brand-new Fox Kids network.

One of her first acts in office was commissioning the creation of an X-Men animated series. Not only did she genuinely see the potential in what she'd spent so many years developing, Marvel's nascent partnership with Toy Biz meant the X-Men were already a hit on toy store shelves.

The show was a hit (hence the revival starting next week) and the network's programming kept expanding. Haim Saban, whose company had been hired to produce XTAS, pitched her an idea he'd been working on since the mid-80s: an American adaptation of Toei's Super Sentai TV series.

Needless to say, Loesch saw the value in that too and took a chance on the idea. The result was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which was in nearly constant production for thirty full years.

Batman: Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and The Tick all debuted during her tenure at Fox Kids. I don't know that I've ever seen it articulated this way, but the woman clearly believed that superheroes could be profitable again (the Smurfs/Snorks style kinda ruled the roost in children's programming at the end of the 80s) if they were done properly. And she was right.

My love of Batman, The X-Men, and the Power Rangers are the result of this woman's choices in shaping my childhood. Though she's not going to get any official credit, it's pretty appropriate that X-Men '97 is set to debut in Women's History Month because the original show was the leading edge of a wave of boy's action television that defined the childhoods of millions of millennials and it was put on the air by a woman.

#power rangers #super sentai #spider-man #x-men #fox kids #margaret loesch #90s #90s cartoons #mighty morphin power rangers #pop culture #pop culture history #90s trash checking in

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catofadifferentcolor · 2 years

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Terrible Fic Ideas #6: GOT SI, but make it Lysa Arryn

Look: I don't usually like self-inserts. Usually, I find them to be utterly unsympathetic at best and without understanding of their context at worst. That being said, I've read two quite well-written and believable SI in the Game of Thrones fandom that I quite enjoy, The Prancing Stag, which has a modern LGBT+ man replace Renly Baratheon during the events of the first book, and Down a Rabbit Hole to Westeros, which has the SI replace young Selyse Florent.

Naturally, I tried to come up with how I would do the same, and came up with replacing Lysa Arryn when she was a young girl.

Just imagine:

Rather than a true self-insert, I see this more of a modern girl in Westeros, with a casual fan of the books and show waking up in 5-year-old Lysa Tully's body immediately following the death of her mother in a wave of minor illness that swept through the Riverlands. The keyword here is casual: the SI has read the books, seen the show, and spent more time reading the fic than one can count, but couldn't, say, state with any certainty the exact timeline or even the exact backgrounds of more than the most prominent of characters. Moreover, the book canon and show canon and various fanon ideas have all twisted together in her mind that young Lysa (as I shall call her moving forward) couldn't differentiate between them if she tried.

So, we have a middle-aged modern woman waking up as 5-year-old Lysa Tully. Once she finally resigns herself to the fact that, yes, this seems to be happening, she figures that absolutely nothing she can do can alter the events leading up to the rebellion, but she can put herself in a position as future wife of the future Hand of the King to 1) be a trusted advisor to the the Hand of the King, whose opinions will be valued, and 2) to not kill the Hand of the King via poison.

So, yes, there's the passing nod to the whole list of achievements Caroline Bingley gives in Pride and Prejudice, but Lysa will always be outshone in these - except perhaps in reading and foreign languages - by Caitlyn, and honestly doesn't need to give more than a passing nod because if the situation plays out like it does in the books, Jon Arryn will have no choice to marry her, be she the most graceful of medieval fantasy women or the most wild of hoydens.

Instead, SI Lysa takes the view that, if she can't be pretty or accomplished, she can at least be useful. But being a modern woman with a modern understanding of how things works, her usefulness is rather limited by her medieval setting. I.e., she may understand the concept of a blast furnace, or a pendulum clock, or a cotton gin, but without coke, or machining gears, or even a steady supply of cotton, those concepts have limited usefulness.

But SI Lysa has the benefit of knowing the most useful invention of all: the scientific method, from which all else follows.

And so, quiet, self-contained, unlovely Lysa Tully sets out to develop, from a young age, the fields of botany, genetics, agricultural science, and pharmacology. She sets up a garden and takes careful notes. She repeats Mendel's studies of pea plants and John Bennet Lawes' experiments with fertilizers and, as best as possible, Robert Hooke's observations through microscopes - taking excellent notes throughout. As she gets older, she makes improvements to the distillation process simply to try to make better medicines from the herbs she has available. And, through the simple desire not to potentially die in childbirth, teams up with every midwife in the kingdom to develop the obstetrical forceps. This has a consequence of making the Riverlands, for the first time in history, as agriculturally productive as the Reach as these developments start to catch on - and its population somewhat healthier. (And, as a consequence of distillation, introduces spirits to Westeros, and makes her family rich via trade as well increased taxes.)

Because I am an engineer by training, I have perhaps concentrated on the science side rather more than the plot - but there is plot, and probably less science than I would hope, because there are quite a lot of things needed before a true scientific and industrial revolution can begin. Many scientific breakthroughs have been held up by the lack of accurate enough methods of measuring the experiments, and this generation and the next is basically getting the ball rolling.

But plot.

First, Lysa encourages her father to remarry after the death of her mother - it is, after all, the best way to build alliances in this age, and if Hoster Tully remarries within the Riverlands it could shore up support he definitely seems to lack in the books. (Maybe a Frey, maybe the sister or cousin of Walder's current wife, something that ties this house to the Tullys.) This also has the side effect of giving his children more parental supervision than they seem to have had, perhaps having a moderating effect on Caitlyn's temperament.

By the simple expedient of paying attention to baby Edmure, Lysa gets a duckling who follows after her in scientific endeavors - some work of his own in ag science, but maybe he takes an interest in telescopes after seeing her work in microscopy and becomes the first link in the chain that figures out Westeros' insane Milankovitch cycles and thus gets a handle on its winters.

Plus, Littlefinger never gets the toehold he needs to set his plans in motion. He's still in the background, scheming, but without near as much success as access to a Great House and Small Council would give them.

The rebellion is where my plot bunny runs out - it obviously happens, perhaps even exactly as before, but with one major change: the introduction of forceps allow Queen Rhaella to come out alive from her final childbed, and she is able to escape with Viserys and baby Daenerys to Essos before Stannis can take Dragonstone.

But from there, who knows? Maybe after spending a decade in Targaryen Westeros she decides that Robert is just the king the kingdom needs and works to mitigate his failings (and Cersei's problematic tendencies) with her husband, perhaps drawing in young Renly (claiming the boy needs a mother figure) and Stannis (by giving him the validation Robert never has).

Perhaps she lets Ned know she knows the truth of Jon Snow offers to foster him, with the intention of raising him to be something like the Lord of Moat Cailin (if Robert turns out to be a decent king with management) or seeing him on the Iron Throne (if Robert can't change his ways).

Honestly, everything after the Rebellion gets really fuzzy. The only thing I know for sure is that without having had to take moon tea too late, Lysa is at least able to give Jon Arryn healthy heirs, so that when he inevitably dies she's in a strong position to be the Vale's Queen of Thorns.... Which would be an interesting idea for a title, if I could think of what the Vale equivalent might be.

And that's all I really have: a lot of science, a smattering of plot, and some strong feelings on the realistic changes that even an educated modern person could make on a medieval society.

As always, feel free to adopt the bunny, but link to me if anything ever comes of it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #got #self insert #lysa arryn #robert's rebellion #technological advancements #house tully #medieval women #jon arryn #lysa tully #science as plot

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cindersalad · 4 months

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It's time for the usual end of the year thoughts post on this blog. Horay!

Hey, hello. ❤ I hope you're having a fantastic day, or that it'll get better if it's not a good day! It's the last week of the year, another Christmas has gone by ('thankfully', whispers I, a very Grinch-y person), and I'm sitting here thinking about my year. And what a year. It has been a roller coaster, and on the personal level I got probably the most full year I've had in the latest, what, six years? I'm learning to kind of manage my anxiety, I'm learning to ask for help when I can't (which is probably the biggest thing)... I got a job, too, finally! It'll start the first days of next year, which will reduce a lot my free time, but I've never been happier. I feel useful.

But scrolling through my blog I also fully realized that this has probably been the least productive year in terms of drawings. I think I've posted only 11 drawings, not even one per month, and in general I think I've spent... months? not even touching a drawing supply. It was probably for the best: I really needed to fix some stuff. To finish some of the things I started, too. But, man, did I miss drawing. I think it's one of the biggest voids I had this year, together with just... telling stories. Any story, in any format. I miss drawing comics, I miss writing stories, I just miss it.

Next year it will be a whole new story. With the job starting and a lot of other big changes already in plan, if this year seemed to me full I can't even imagine how I'll feel next year, but for some reason I feel having a lot less free time will make me use that little window a lot better of having an entire free day. I want to return drawing much more frequently, I want to return telling stories! It probably won't be immediate, but I have a lot of sketched illustrations that I want to continue, and my itch for taking the pencil daily is returning stronger than ever. I want to post more often, my sketches as well, despite always feeling so insecure about them. Perhaps some processes, too? And I want to return to write. I have so many stories in my mind, and a lot would work very well as fanfictions - I wanted to draw most of them, but I suddenly realized that I could very well write them too. Nothing stops me from adapting parts of those fanfics into fancomics in the future, anyway! Writing entire stories in my second language won't be easy (and at least one of the fanfics I have in mind will probably be in Italian and I'll have to see if to translate it), but I roleplay a lot in English, so I feel pretty confident. >:)

I don't know what I'll manage to do next year, I'm not setting any real goal in terms of productivity here, but... man, I really wish I can start an original comic this time. Humbert's story and Avi's story are both really well darn developed, but going from notes to an actual flashed out story is a step that has been too big for me for now. But with all I accomplished this year, maybe the step is becoming more and more doable. ❤

Anyway, I've kept you here long enough. ❤ I'm not sure how much stuff I'll actually manage to make, but a year is longer than we think! Everything I'll do, you'll receive updates here, so worry not! Thank you so much for sticking with me all this time despite the very few updates, of all your patience and support, comments and messages. You're the best! ❤ I hope you'll have a fantastic day, and that your future will be golden and full of good things. Take care, and I will see you next year! ❤

#talking

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plastic-summer · 6 months

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my current album ranking, and why

i think some of this will be pretty controversial, so i've done my best to explain. what i'll also say is that i genuinely believe that every album of hers is truly brilliant in every way, but i simply prefer some over others and that comes down to personal feelings. yours may well be different.

10. evermore.

ouch. sorry. i can hear the pained screams from here. i really do apologise. here's the thing about me: i'm a big pop girlie. like, almost exclusively. i love pop music for its energy and passion and power. i know evermore has at least the latter two in its own way, but i can't mesh with it. i have tried, and i continue to try. basically, when folklore came out, i was a little feral for more taylor, but i knew it wasn't for me. that meant my reaction to evermore at first listen was "really? again?" i'm so sorry. i really am.

favourite song: closure.

least favourite song: it's time to go.

9. taylor swift (debut).

i think it's pretty common to have this one so low, and for me it's roughly the same reason as everyone else. one, i'm not a big country fan. i like it, but it's not really what i like, and that's the way of things. it's a very good country album, but i can't force myself to be a big country fan, even for taylor. second, she just became a better artist as her lyrics, production and voice matured and developed. this happens with virtually every artist and it's great to see. i don't have anything really critical to say about debut, just that it is not as good as a lot of the rest of her catalogue.

favourite song: a perfectly good heart.

least favourite song: cold as you (sorry).

8. fearless.

i did not like pretty much all of the fearless vault. i'm sorry. i just didn't. i could see exactly why they didn't get onto the original album, which doesn't happen anywhere near as much with the other vaults. just to get that out the way, because a vault shouldn't judge the album.

this was one of the very first cds i ever owned. i thought it was the coolest thing ever. her face on the cover is scribbled all over, because i was six when i got it. okay? forgive me. it gives the album a lot of nostaligia factor, and i do genuinely love it, but for some tracks i feel like nostaligia is all they have going for them. the rerecord really helped this, but ... yeah. it's just not as good as her other stuff.

favourite song: fifteen.

least favourite song: bye bye baby.

7. folklore.

put your pitchforks away. it's a good album, a great album if i'm honest. i understand the hype wholeheartedly. i don't think it's overrated. it's just not for me. i wanted to be a folklore girl, i really did, but it just didn't work out between us. the thing that makes it better than evermore at least for me is the fact that the songs are a lot more varied in production - not to say all the evermore songs sound the same, but i find the production of it to be a lot safer in several ways. i'm just not an indie girl and i've come to accept that.

favourite song: seven.

least favourite song: hoax.

6. speak now.

this is another one i've spent so much time with, mainly because i just LOVE the concepts and aesthetics of this album. it's just gorgeous. but it's not my favourite. i do really like it, much more than i used to in recent years, but again, i'm a pop girlie through and through. i don't have a lot to say really, it's pretty middle of the road for me. i think the best thing about it is how well and clearly emotions are shown in it, which is just so so brilliant, especially seeing as she was so young when she wrote it. some of her best work lyrically is in speak now for sure.

favourite song: speak now.

least favourite song: innocent.

5. red.

okay, i love red. i love red so much. this was the album that made me a swiftie. i don't know how many people agree with this, but when i think of red i don't think of autumn, i think of being younger and things being simpler, i think of late summer. my favourite taylor swift song (which has been so since the first time i heard it) is on this album. the lyricism (which, shockingly, exists in songs other than all too well!) and the emotion is to me at one of its peaks for taylor. the likes of we are never ever getting back together, 22, and i knew you were trouble will be fossilised, like them or not. it's just so quintessentially taylor in every way and deserves so much love beyond atwtmv.

favourite song: treacherous.

least favourite song: not picking one. no way.

4. lover.

this one moves sooo much for me and is actually my most played album of hers which is pretty crazy. i'll never relate to it probably, but it's just too underrated. it's gorgeous and it screams summer and dancing and being so mindlessly happy you can't think of anything else, but still holds close to it that painful relatability taylor songs are so special for. i just love it so much, i couldn't put it into words. go appreciate lover more! i'm also an unironic unapologetic me! stan. it's great, you're just boring.

favourite song: i think he knows.

least favourite song: it's nice to have a friend.

3. midnights.

i'm a firm believer in the idea that her "best" album is a different question to "your favourite" album because they're affected by different things. THIS is her best album. i don't care what you say. it has it all. narrative? gorgeous and cohesive yet tasteful. production? thematically on point, cohesive but never derivative. lyrics? every emotion, every experience, packed into 13 songs. wow wow wow. she did that, released it, and got on with her life. most artists could only dream of releasing midnights. and then the 3am edition??? even more of the same. we don't deserve it, i fear.

favourite song: question...?

least favourite song: glitch.

2. 1989.

as i listen to the rerecord more and more, this will definitely go up at some point. this is just sonically, lyrically, vocally, conceptually pop perfection. there is not one bad song on this album. there isn't even a song below an 8/10 on this album. it's just amazing and beautiful in every way. no notes.

favourite song: i wish you would.

1. reputation.

REPUTATION !!!! i can't say enough about the beauty that is reputation. i don't even know where to start. it's too good. it's the perfect revenge album, the perfect comebacl album and the perfect love album. i still live in 2017 with how this album gets me. perfection, everywhere.

favourite song: call it what you want but also all of them at once.

#taylor swift #swifties #taylorstans #music talk #rankings

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