#mostly trying to mix his anime look with his live action look

[bugwardclown]

playing around with bug's child/teen design for a fic because i'm a visual learner

#buggy #one piece #alex.png #mostly trying to mix his anime look with his live action look #might post more l8r

[artemish]

Sous chef | opla!Sanji x fem!Reader

word count: 2.1k

genre/tags: Sanji x reader; first-person pov; fluff; pining (but is it mutual??); angst; hurt/comfort; friends to lovers

warnings: mild ptsd; mild trauma

summary: A restless night at sea turns into one of revelations, as the reader finds that the depths of the ocean are much like a certain chef’s heart…

a/n: Hello opla girlies! First time fanfic writer here!!

I am ever the lurker on this website, but something inside me changed when I started watching One Piece, and now I’m down bad for this crew (specifically for the hot cook)

So I thought I’d give it a shot, write a bit of fanfic and see where it goes! I’ve finished the live action and currently watching the anime, so my interpretation of Sanji is quite mixed, however I tried to stay closer to opla!Sanji. I’ve also left this open ended cos I might write more (who knows hehehe)

Shoutout to @honnelander for inspiring me to write again ☺️ (please read her go fish! series if you haven’t!! It’s great!!)

𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰!

(。･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

Sanji often stayed up late during those long nights at sea, prepping for the next day's meals, making notes of what had been used and taking stock of the ingredients that were left.

It was almost obsessive at times, desperate even.

He ignored everyone’s concern for him to just take it easy and go to sleep, even Nami’s, and refused to give us an explanation.

He would count every last bean, every last grain of rice or drop of water that he could, and he had tried many times but failed to make an accurate record (mostly because Luffy would lessen the supplies significantly).

I hadn’t really understood his habit, until one night, when the waves were particularly rough and I was disturbed from my sleep.

Usually, rough waters didn’t bother me too much, but I was already quite restless that night and had only truly been half asleep.

My mind was a blazing mess from all the thoughts that had been looping endlessly through it.

Thoughts of him.

I sat up on the futon. My hair draped in a tangled mess around my face and over my shoulders.

I looked across at Nami, her back facing towards me, breathing deeply as she slept.

I envied her ease.

I hauled myself out of the bed and straightened the silk nightgown I was wearing. I slipped on the woven shawl I had laid out over my blanket and made my way down the corridor, towards the kitchen.

The waves had picked up their brutality and began to batter the ship quite hard, so that it swayed violently from side to side.

Gripping the sides of the walls and trying to match the sway, I wondered how everyone could sleep so peacefully.

The ship moaned and croaked as it continued to sway.

I stumbled into the kitchen just as it crashed against the starboard side hard, pushing the ship port.

The force took me by surprise, causing me to lose my grip of the wall and my footing.

I tumbled through the doorway, and slammed hard against the stack of barrels in the corner.

The momentum of the ship turned once more. Lurching towards the right again, I slid off the barrel and slammed face first onto the ground.

“Ah shit!” I yelped. All traces of sleep had officially left me.

“Luffy, that better not be you,” came a brash voice from the darkness, “and if it is, you best be walking out that door right now.”

“Ack, Sanji?”

In the dull light, I saw the concerned face of the cook instantly pop around the counter.

“Y/n! Gods, are you alright?”

He moved swiftly to where I was laying and gently lifted me up.

“You're alright now, love. C’mon up. That’s it, easy”

He swung my arm around his neck and held my waist tightly as he led me to the bench seating on the other side of the kitchen counter.

Despite the daze I was in, I still felt my heart quicken, at his firm grip on my waist and at the ease with which he picked me up.

“Sanji, what are you doing up?” I whispered, not because I was trying to be quiet, but because the knock had left me completely winded.

He sat me down and wrapped my shawl around me tightly, rubbing my shoulders as he did, and kneeled down in front of me.

“Are you okay? Look at my fingers, how many do you see? Are you cut anywhere, y/n? Do you have a concussion? Do you want some water, tea? What do you need, I’ll get it for you, anything you nee-”

“Sanji,” I said, holding my hand firmly on his mouth to keep him quiet, “I’m alright.”

I squeezed his shoulder, as I saw a sigh of relief wash over his face. “You really got to stop treating me like some princess you know.”

“Madam, you are the loveliest person to ever grace this ship. I would hate it if I couldn’t bask in your beauty everyday.”

“You’re laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you?” But I could feel my stomach fluttering at his words.

He grinned, “madam, someone as lovely as you deserves to hear it said often.”

I shoved his shoulder. “Shut up!”

He laughed. He looked so soft in the light of the lantern.

“You didn’t answer my question by the way.”

“What question?” he asked, as he got up to sit next to me.

“Why are you awake?”

He turned his face away from me and shifted uneasily on the bench. “Why does it matter?”

“Sanji, why are you awake, really? What is it that you’re not telling us? You know I’ve lost track of how many times Luffy’s found you asleep in here because you’ve been up doing… well, whatever you do. What’s going on?”

He let out a deep sigh as he turned back around to face me, looking at me through the flop of blonde hair that covered half his face. He bit his lip hard and dropped his head, defeated it would seem.

The ship continued to sway and croak and groan, as the silence between us grew.

He looked small, afraid. I reached out to hold his hands and he took them eagerly, squeezing them tightly as he did.

“You all know about what happened to me and Zeff,” he said finally, “and I appreciate the kind words and empathy you’ve all given me, but you could never really understand what that was like, being out there. Waiting to die. The scorching, unrelenting sun in the day that made my skin flake off. The icy air of night that felt like daggers, prodding at my burnt flesh. Being hollowed out from the inside, from the hunger, until the numbness set in and I thought I’d melt into that shitty rock. Even being as careful as I was, as precise, I still didn’t have nearly enough food to survive, and it really was only by fate or luck, a real miracle actually, that we were rescued.

I guess I haven’t shook that feeling yet, that fear. It was easier to distract myself in the restaurant, you know, being surrounded by food and all, but here it’s different here. I-I just want be sure, I want to know that we’re good, at all times, because I don’t want any of you to go through what I did. It’s shit, yeah I know, but I’d rather not sleep then let any of you go through that.”

Again, the silence between us was palpable.

I felt like I’d been punched.

He breathed heavily, as if trying to catch his breath and I knew then that this was something he had kept buried deep within himself because the true nature of his fear was so horrific, so raw, who could ever understand it?

None of us had been out there with him, even though we would all do the same for each other.

But our sentiments were just words.

He had lived it.

The silence grew stifling.

I knew he would do anything to protect us from that fate.

“Sanji”

“You-you can’t tell the others. They don’t need to know, yeah? I’m happy as long as they’re fed with no complaints.”

“But Sanji-”

“Y/n, please don’t tell them.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

The mess of thoughts in my mind was growing.

He held my hands tighter and used them to pull himself towards me. His thumbs made circular motions on my palms.

I heard my heart pounding in my ears and I stupidly hoped he couldn’t hear it.

“Darling, I am a ball of dough in your hands. You can knead me and form me any way you’d like, and I’ll give you no resistance.”

“Pfft” I giggled and so did he.

At this, I felt like we were both at ease again.

I always admired his way of keeping things light.

“No, but, if you’d allow me, madam, to be serious,” he straightened up a bit then, “I suppose I was hoping that you’d find me in here. I was hoping that I could tell just you. You’ve got a way about you that everyone just finds trustworthy. I don’t know but there’s, there’s something about you...” He trailed off and laughed before he could finish, and I could see a faint blush of pink on his cheeks. “Sorry I-I ugh, I’m a bit sleep deprived. I’m just glad you’re here.”

I had never seen this side of him (or any side of him for that matter) though I knew it existed. Somewhere under the flirtatious, playboy persona he put out, I knew there was a genuine sweetness. I just wished I was more awake to really enjoy it.

Once the pain I was in wore off, my whole body felt heavy, like it was being pulled down with the full force of gravity, and the sway of the ship was less violent and more like the gentle rock of a cradle.

“You know, you don’t have to pretend with me.” I swept his bangs out of his eyes and kept my hand cupped around the side of his face. I hadn’t realised how blue his eyes were until now.

Even in the dull light, I could see every shade of blue there was swirling in them, like the ocean’s raging swell on a moonlit night. I saw the sleep in his eyes weighing him down too.

“You know this is the most words I’ve heard out of your mouth since I got here.”

He grinned sleepily, “well I’ve just been trying to find the right time to talk to you, my swan.”

I could feel my cheeks burn and I hoped he didn’t see the blush come over them.

“I didn’t think the right time would be 3am, me face planted and bruised in the kitchen, but here we are.”

“You are alright now, yeah?”

“Of course,” I scoffed, “I’m just sleepy. You look sleepy too.”

As if on cue, he yawned and leaned back on the bench.

“Yeah,” he said, “it’s super late. And Luffy wanted everyone to have a big breakfast tomorrow, you know with eggs, bacon, croissants, etc. Breakfast service is always the most important. But I just…” his voice trailed off again, but there was a hint of frustration this time.

“You just can’t sleep, like you cannot.”

“Yeah.”

“I get it,” I said, and I did, “the memories, they come back; more vividly, more real at night. It’s like it’s better to be awake than asleep. Like sleep causes you to relive the pain. Every moment, everything.”

“Y/n,” he said with concern in his voice, “what caused you pain, my love?”

My love.

Those words rang in my ears for some time, even now. Did he mean it?, I thought, maybe he feels the same?

Was all that flirting genuine or was he just being nice?

Was he just being Sanji?

It had been such a long, revealing night, but that stuck out to me and I couldn’t shake it.

He had been so open about his fears, not even the captain knew what he was telling me, I was sure of it.

So then, I kept thinking, why me?

If I didn’t mean something more, then why me?

While I was mulling all this over, I hadn’t noticed that I was leaning on his shoulder until he pulled me into a hug, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly, so that my face rested on his chest.

The slit in his poet shirt revealed his tanned skin underneath.

I boldly moved my hand up his chest and traced his freckles with my fingers.

He played with my hair.

Friends definitely didn’t do this.

“Let’s not talk about that now,” I whispered, “just close your eyes, okay? And Sanji?”

“Yes?”

“If you need a sous chef tomorrow morning, I’ll be there.”

I felt his soft laugh hum in his chest.

“Thank you, y/n. I’ll take you up on that.”

He buried his face in my hair as he continued to hug me and I felt his whole body relax.

In one night, the chef had shown me that there were more layers to this cake of a personality he had than I had fully anticipated, and all of them were deliciously sweet.

Delectable even.

And confusing.

As we slipped further into sleep, we had also unknowingly laid ourselves out on the bench, still tangled in each other's embrace, and sharing my shawl for warmth.

An embrace that was a little too close for friends.

— — — — —

“We’re just friends, Nami,” I hissed, trying to restrain myself from yelling in her ear, “there’s nothing there! He-we- we’re just friends! There are no feelings, we are JUST friends.”

She found us in the morning and woke me up, leaving Sanji still asleep.

I flapped around our room, growling out my protests as I did, but it was no use.

She just sat there.

Just sat there.

Arms folded and tapping her toes.

With a huge smirk plastered across her face.

“Yeah, I bet you are.”

#opla sanji #opla sanji x fem!reader #opla sanji x reader #opla sanji x y/n #sanji x reader #sanji x y/n #opla x reader #first person pov #vinsmoke sanji #sanji vinsmoke #sanji fanfic #sanji fanfiction #opla #one piece sanji #one piece #one piece fanfiction #one piece fanfic #actually down on my knees for this man 🙈🙇🏽‍♀️

[5-pp-man]

another tierlist because ppl actually liked that first one;

the crème de la crop;

the first 2 eps i thought it was fine, but it didnt really captivate me as much as id hoped. but then ep 3 changed everything for me. i started to think "how could living armour work logically? everything so far has been edible, so this must be too, right?" i actually managed to think of the exact thing that this series did. that really made me realise the worldbuilding in this was something unique, and it only got better and better with each episode. its really managed to captivate me and i look forward to "delicious donderdag" every week :)

ANIME ORIGINAL LETS GOOOO absolutely bonkers show that almost slipped by me because it initially tried to fool its audience into thinking it was a regular dramatic military show. it still is but theres also a giant robot who plays by saturday morning cartoon giant robot rules. if that sounds like tonal whiplash to you, trust me, it is. and its amazing. have i mentioned how homoerotic this one is as well? yeah. originally a tier below this one, but immediately after finishing this post i watched the newest ep. i had to make an exception and edit the list because ep 9 changes everything. i havent been gobsmacked by a show this hard in a while.

(return of the) show(s) that execute their own premise very well;

i havent read the manga for yubisaki to renren so i cant compare, but the quality of this adaptation has been very consistent. you need a little sweet romance every once in a while :) this is one of those series where the characters really grew on me the longer it went on. im always a fan of mixing realistic struggles with romance and this one has been doing it well so far

adaptations that are ok (i read the manga for both of these);

i've been a mashle fan since before s1 aired. and the anime has some good changes and additions here and there! but its not very consistent in terms of quality, it does that shonen thing where the animation quality suddenly spikes for certain action sequences, but it also frequently had a lot of scenes where they recycle shots a lot and nothing interesting happens on the screen for a considerable amount of time. still! its a fine adaptation. and yeah the op for this. blew tf up lmao? very strange to see happen in real time

i actually rlly like the manga for this one. i read the whole thing up until vol.6 before the season started (all that was available back then) and it made me cry multiple times throughout. i was sort of missing that connection with the show, though some of the later episodes still hit. its mostly to do with the animation quality, which isnt that great unfortunately. the voice actors are knocking it out of the park though

wghere am i;

is this show good? i. uh. will you hate me if i say yes...? objectively, i know its not that good. especially in the animation department. but if you like other Umatani shows, you'll like this one. it's got the same brand of goofy reactionary humour mixed with gimmicky tacky characters and crazy stupid plot twists. ive been faithfully watching this one each week and I'm afraid i've become very invested. overscientific indeed

bro you fell off...;

i was so beyond excited for this one. i replayed the op a million times, watched each preview, rewatched multiple episodes. and then. ep 5 happened. and i started to realise. oh this show kind of sucks doesnt it? the pacing of the first ep was great, but the rest? way too fast. it became clear with ep 6 that theyre trying to do a double cour show with half the length, which is why they started hauling ass plot-wise. now. i was an arajin apologist for the longest time. but at that point i honestly started to loathe him. even when he stepped up, his praise still felt sort of unearned. and to top it all off, shindou's motivation sucked so he felt like a lousy antagonist. ep6 was better than 5, but it really made me lose my enthusiasm and hope for the series. and right as we were talking about them probably not having time for a filler ep, ep7 happened. feels like a waste of time to do an ep like that when you've still got a whole 2nd arc to go through. but who am i

it started off pretty good honestly. but then chris went to the hospital and it kind of just dwindled from there. this season does so much with characters that have not even been properly introduced like how am i supposed to care about these people if i barely know who they are. the stuff with finn and leo respectively was good though. but the lore dump? lord help me. also vijay just kind of. exists to be there in the background huh? i would not call him a main character they never give him any attention. wendy had another ep again and he didnt get shit. again. also i think finn was stupid as fuck for not listening to lala but again. who am i. i know we cant destroy high card because we need a show but. cmon man.

i am severely behind on these;

reason why im behind is because most of the eps are a bit heavy so i kept. not watching them. its starting to get rlly interesting though so i'm def gonna catch up this is one of those robo-racism shows so i have to really watch out to see where its going. dont want another marginal service situation...

sorry this is just. a little too boring for me. its charming, sure. but i think this wouldve worked better as something with an 11 min timeslot instead of 23 min. theres just a bit too mu- or well, too little for me to rlly get into this. i think reading it would be more fun for me personally

#dungeon meshi #yubisaki to renren #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #30 sai made doutei dato mahoutsukai ni nareru rashii #gekkan mousou kagaku #bucchigiri?! #high card #metallic rouge #kyuujitsu no warumono san #delicious in dungeon #a sign of affection #brave bang bravern! #bang brave bang bravern #cherry magic! #delusional monthly magazine #bucchigiri #mr villain's day off #i did the review a bit later into the season this time around. so my thoughts are more in order and ive already dropped a few things #theres also 1 more category this time #also if youre curious; i ended up finishing everything from last season except for the 2 series in the couldve been better category #i finished a bunch of them way later though but shhh. im also planning on finishing the last 2 at some point. esp since ke is getting a s2 #like wtf. who couldve seen that coming. #tedpost #tedtalks #tedlists

[spiderdreamer-blog]

Tarzan (1999)

It's hard to define sometimes where the end of the Disney Renaissance period from the late 80s through the 90s is. After the release of The Lion King, the 2D animated features steadily made less money and critical acclaim became more mixed. There was a sea change occurring thanks to more competition from companies like DreamWorks and Warner Bros., as well as the advent of the computer. For me, the dividing line is 1999's Tarzan, mostly because it's after this point that we get to what I and others call the 2000-2004 "experimental" age with films like The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, and Treasure Planet. But Tarzan has much in common with those films, representing a step away from the Broadway musical traditions and into a new, intriguing arena of animation storytelling. It's genuinely one of my favorite Disney films to revisit, and I hope this review helps explain why.

The story takes Edgar Rice Burroughs' initial novel Tarzan of the Apes as a guideline more than an actual adaptation, namely ditching concerns about nobility wealth inheritance and unflattering black African caricatures (the spinoff TV series would deal with the latter in trying to be, uh, less problematic about such). We pick up with Ye Olde Dramatically Convenient Boat Wreckage in a truly commanding opening sequence set to Phil Collins' anthemic Two Worlds. Tarzan's unnamed parents land in Africa and are put in parallel to gorillas Kala (Glenn Close, at the time coming off a very different performance for Disney as live action Cruella De Vil) and Kerchak (Lance Henriksen). Tragedy strikes for both families, and where one loses his parents, another gains a son. But Tarzan (Alex D. Linz as a child, Tony Goldwyn as an adult) grows up knowing he is "different", desperate to prove himself as an ape and belong. He seems to find an equilibrium, becoming best friends with Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) and Tantor (Wayne Knight at his most nebbishy), and even managing to vanquish Sabor, but then strangers arrive. Strangers who look like him, in the form of British scientist Archimedes Porter (Nigel Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (Minnie Driver), and their guide Clayton (BRIAN BLESSED). Now things steadily grow more complicated as Tarzan wishes to learn all he can about these outsiders and himself, but what might it cost?

One of the first, most notable things about the film to me is its complexity in the writing and characterization. Looking back, the Renaissance can have a problem in terms of male leads being love interests who don't get as much focus or slightly bland focus-tested "likable". This isn't true for ALL of them; the Beast has many layers to his personality, while Simba and Quasimodo are great, imo, because they have more baggage tying them down and thus more to rise above for true heroism. Nor does it make most of them bad characters. But it was notable enough, as was the tendency for them to be overshadowed by the villains or sidekicks, for co-directors Kevin Lima/Chris Buck and writers Tab Murphy/Bob Tzudiker/Noni White to slightly...course-correct.

Ergo, Tarzan himself is very much the main focus here. There's only one major sequence that he's not really involved with, and even when he's not onscreen, the other characters are as intrigued by his contradictions as the audience. (Insert your own Poochie jokes here, though obviously it doesn't come CLOSE to that) We truly feel his anxiety about fitting in, and the lengths he goes to are intensely relatable even at their most self-damning.

The other characters, too, feel richer and more lived-in than many of the standard types. Kala is a mother figure, one who tries to make Tarzan feel like he belongs, but is deeply scared of losing him. Kerchak is possibly my favorite character in the film because of how much you have to read into his actions because he holds so much back emotionally until the very end. Even then, he comes off as a more realistic harsh father figure than a caricature, and we can always understand where he's coming from. Jane is one of the best Disney love interests, meanwhile, feeling like a modern romantic comedy heroine with a lot of drive and initiative, as well as being just genuinely nerdy, which you don't often see even today. Clayton manages a nice two-step of seeming like an obvious bad guy but playing things down the middle until he gets what he wants. Even the comic relief gets good moments, such as Professor Porter gently supporting the romance or Tantor standing up for himself at a critical juncture.

Of course, what helps here is that said characters have some of the most beautiful environments and animation backing them up in Disney history. The African jungle is depicting as a kind of painterly, hyper-real fantasy, with impossible tree shapes and vines that bloom in the sunlight. And the then-revolutionary Deep Canvas CGI process allows Tarzan to soar through them, the camera spinning and rotating with each movement. The design sensibility is "classical" Disney to a large degree, but with slightly longer faces or larger eyes to add expressiveness. The California, Parisian, and Florida animation teams all clearly busted their asses to make this come to life. And Glen Keane's work with the Paris studio on Tarzan might be the best of his legendary career in terms of the variety of movements and subtleties in expressions. So too goes the rest of the supervising animators: Ken Duncan makes Jane truly lovable and wholly distinct from the likes of his Meg or Amelia; Randy Haycock gives Clayton a macho swagger that feels entirely his own rather than feeling like a Gaston ripoff; Bruce Smith combines remarkable anatomy work and microexpressions with Kerchak; Russ Edmonds' Kala is warm and motherly while never letting you entirely forget she's a gorilla; Dave Burgess makes Porter funny with his slightly squat, short shapes; and Mike Surrey and Sergio Pablos make for an excellent duo on Terk and Tantor in terms of contrasting their size, as well as the latter giving nervous-nelly body language to such a huge character. That's harder than it looks.

The aural end is just as good. Much hay and memery has been made of Phil Collins going ridiculously hard on the storytelling songs, which I fully support. But it really is true that they add so much here and take the burden off the characters in terms of singing save for the improvisational scat number "Trashin' The Camp". I'm partial to "Strangers Like Me" in terms of the earnest yearning and connections that Tarzan makes over the course of it. And of course the various versions of "Two Worlds" are essentially the mission statement of the film, complete with absolutely bitchin' percussion. Mark Mancina's accompanying score is also excellent, sounding like a fusion between The Lion King (which he produced/arranged for both the film and Broadway show) and his action movie work on projects like Speed or Bad Boys. Particularly great is the cue that plays when Tarzan defeats Sabor and builds up to his classic yell, which milks the heroic triumph for all its worth.

The voice cast is also excellent top to bottom. Goldwyn has a deeper timbre than many Disney male leads, less of an ingenue, and this adds to the stormier emotions; we truly feel his pain on lines like "Why didn't you tell me there were creatures that look like me?" But he's not TOO grim, thankfully, and gets some good subtly funny moments such as sounding out monkey noises in a conversation that Jane only hears one half of. Close is properly maternal, of course, getting her best showings in emotional one-on-ones with both Linz and Goldwyn as they hash out their relationship. Henriksen, like the animation, wisely underplays Kerchak and lets the emotion come out through his gruff, gravel-pit voice rather than obviously signaling things. Driver is hilarious and winning as Jane, getting some of the best laughs and most sweetly tender bits of the proceedings. It's all the more impressive when you consider she played Lady Eboshi in the Princess Mononoke dub the same year, which is the utter opposite of this performance. BRIAN BLESSED doesn't do a lot of his patented BRIAN BLESSED yelling outside of some choice bits at the end, but he makes a meal of Clayton regardless as a charismatic asshole, and I like how he plays a climactic bit of manipulation in particular. Hawthorne gets a much better showing here than his previous Disney voice role as Fflewddur Flam in The Black Cauldron, daffily sweet and humorous in equal measure, while O'Donnell and Knight are familiar vocally but use that to inform their characterizations rather than distract.

I think what I like most about this movie is that it feels incredibly well-rounded. Some Disney movies from this period might have a great villain or sidekicks but a weaker protagonist in Hercules or strong protagonists/villains but a weaker supporting cast as in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (Then you have Pocahontas, which sucks on ALL ends!) In Tarzan, everything feels of a piece, and nobody jars against the tone or mood. Combine that with the dizzying highs of the animation and truly excellent emotional beats, and you've got a real winner that stands the test of time in my eyes.

#disney animated canon #tarzan #disney's tarzan #reviews #analysis

[lady-of-endless]

Hello! I hope you're doing well. May I please request a romantic matchup for One Piece?

My pronouns are she/her and I prefer men.

Personality: Leo, INFJ, 1w9, HP house Ravenclaw. Making an effort to understand myself and others is important to me, so that leads to long periods of pondering my actions, as well as others’. I love having me time, though I enjoy being with those close to me from time to time. I'm very supportive, encouraging, reserved, clumsy, easily flustered, athletic, conscientious, witty and sarcastic. Though I unintentionally come across as intimidating, I'm rather gentle and caring. I'm pretty stoic and some misinterpret it as being emotionless (I honestly just want the best for everyone). I rarely lose my cool. I’m adventurous and have completed a dream of mine–living/working in a country that doesn’t speak my native language. I actively search for things to be thankful for to remind myself that there's a lot of beauty in the world, and I'm glad to experience it. I adore challenging myself both intellectually and physically. I am happiest when seeking out information, reason, and understanding. I’m really kinda superstitious…

I work as a foreign language teacher, so my job requires me to have patience, be understanding, be able to think on my feet, and be creative. I'm incredibly determind, which helps push me through difficult days. I strongly encourage those I teach to speak their minds and have open discussions.

My love languages are definitely acts of service and words of affirmation. I don't dislike physical affection when it's from my s/o, but I don't tend to seek it out. Quality time is fine, especially when we're just doing our own thing but sitting near each other. I will always appreciate gifts but hate feeling like I owe others.

Likes and Dislikes: I love discussing topcs that revolve around enigmas. It's not as important to have others agree with me as it is to explore the unknown with them. I like practicing the languages I know, biology, demonology, genealogy, reading, museums, Victorian history, singing, alternative rock and metal music, and exploring my surroundings. Cats and rodents are top tier pets. A large portion of what I read/watch relates to the occult. I dislike storms, large bodies of water, and people who always turn disagreements into arguments.

Hobbies: Writing horror stories, DnD, reading, singing, listening to music, playing the piano, dancing, watching horror movies, drawing, and yoga. As an avid horror fan, animated movies are for sure a guilty pleasure of mine.

Appearance: long wavy auburn hair and my eyes are more of a honey brown. I always wear round glasses. I'm pale with freckles on my cheeks and nose. 5’9, lean, more of an hourglass shape and have a bit of muscle. I mostly wear black and white, but also lilac :) My asthetic is a mix between grunge and dark academia.

I hope this wasn't too painfully long! 💜💜

Author's Note: Thank you for your request! Please dont apologize for the long description, it's helpful and very enjoyable. Hope you'll like it!

I ship you with... Mihawk!

(lovely gif is not mine, please show appreciation to the OP)

- Your ambitious personality draws him in, thinking of how beneficial is to collaborate with someone as ambitious and capable as him. Not to mention your ability to not lose your cool.

- He's feelings go from doubt, to fascination, to respect and then to attraction. He also takes time to understand himself and his feelings so it will definitely be a slow burn.

- He likes that you take time to ponder and then act. Whenever he sees you deep in thought he can't help it but wonder what's going on in that pretty mind of yours.

- Please be a little sarcastic with him too, he'll secretly like that.

- The fact that you try to find the beautiful things in life is something that he wants to learn from you but won't admit. You'll see him try though.

- Unintentionally intimidating looking? You two would look like such a power couple, oh my. Also your grunge and dark academia aesthetic goes so damn well with his aesthetic.

- He thinks that you are a magnificent woman. As days go on and he discovers more about you, you slowly become his muse.

- Because he knows just how determined, analytical and creative you are, he'll probably propose you to come with him to Cross Guild meetings. You'll be a fine addition and a great advisor. (this also gets him the chance to show you off)

- I think that even some of your likes and hobbies will perfectly match his. So perfectly that Mihawk is a bit doubtful at first. He's a bit confused, he always thought that his likes were a bit well, unique.

- Will love to spend a late night talking with you about enigmas and the occult over a glass of wine.

- He will ask you if you could play the piano for him after he had a long day. You may not notice but he looks the most enamoured when you're playing the piano for him.

- Oh and expect reading dates. He takes pride in his library so that's where you two would spend most of the time together.

- He takes note of your dislikes. During stormy weather, Mihawk will invite you next to him to keep you warm. He will start reading to you so that you'll hear his voice instead of the wind and the thunders from outside. He hates it when disagreements turn into arguments as well, so expect him to always come to you and discuss calmly whatever disagreement you two might have.

- Dear, to me you sound like the perfect match for Mihawk, I have nothing else to say.

#one piece #mihawk #one piece mihawk #one piece matchup #one piece matchups #dracule mihawk #mihawk x reader #one piece x reader #one piece x you

[eponastory]

Let's talk about Ozai in the Netflix Adaptation vs The Original

Let's go with the OG for right now...

So, Ozai was never really shown fully onscreen until the end of Book Two. Which was a really great move on the writers part. We had only seen bits an pieces of him, mostly told through Zuko and Iroh, but we had an idea he was bad. We knew from the beginning that Ozai was a power hungry monarch with grand delusions of himself and of course wanting to continue the legacy that was handed down to him. His ideal of achieving peace was war and terror. Everyone under one superior rule.

As a kid, that is scary.

Come Book Three we get Ozai in all his maniacal glory, wonderfully voiced by the legendary Mark Hamill. Now, being someone who grew up with Star Wars (having been inducted into the Rebellion at age 4) and the Batman Animated series (inducted at age 8) I grew up hearing that man's voice, so I know it well.

But yes, Ozai was very well handled in the Original show.

Now...

On to Netflix.

Well, here's where I have mixed feelings.

There is no mystery to him, but I get why they took this approach. If they went with the mystery, it would be a shot for shot rehash and that's not what the show runners were trying to do. It does give us a more personal dynamic between Ozai and Iroh, which I had always been curious about. But there is more to it.

Here, we get a more manipulative, egotistical Ozai. He is manipulating his children against each other to see who comes out on top. We don't really see that in the Original. We get hints that it's happening, but here, it's shoved in our faces and it's brutal. You can already see Azula cracking from this and it's handled much better (in my opinion). I don't want to see the same thing we got with Game of Thrones (I'm talking about Dany going all mad queen all of a sudden). I want to see the strings being pulled. This actually cements Ozai as an even worse father than in the OG.

To be fair, I'm also looking at this from the point of view as a parent (or something of the sort. I can't have children, but I have a niece that is the next best thing). It's funny how as you get older you start to see things from a different point of view.

Anyway, Daniel Dae Kim does an excellent job at this portrayal of everyone's most hated Fatherlord. Although, I think in the OG Ozai is around my current age, if not a little older. Daniel is definitely a good few years older than I am, *checks notes* Yeah, he's two decades older than me.

And

His workout routine.

Anyway, moving past my lustful eyes.

Okay, back to character analysis... (get your mind out of the gutter, Story, you've got shit to write) Ozai in the live action is probably one of the better performances. I mean, you can actually see a little bit of conflict in the character when it comes to Zuko. Ultimately, narcissism wins out.

I'll probably write about Azula next.

#ramblings of a 35 year old woman #look its not my fault that i have eyes that like what they see in an older man #ill stop talking now #ozai is a horrible father #ozai #avatar the last airbenber netflix #avatar the last airbender #zuko #atla azula

[jessicas-pi]

this AU all started because a mutual started liveblogging lesser-known classic lit.

and then i started reading said classic lit.

and because i have permanent Rebels brainrot, i thought, "hmm. it's giving kanera."

So.

Fair warning, this AU is only like 65% thought out, and I haven't even finished The Shuttle HOWEVER I am very close sooo. I'll just outline the basic character bits and come back and give more details once i have more thoughts.

Also, I just want to add: this is not just a Rebels/The Shuttle crossover AU. This is a Rebels/The Shuttle crossover, BUT with plenty of The Secret Garden mixed in, and maybe a touch of The Little Princess? (Which, btw, were all written by Frances Hodgson Burnett!)

ANYWAY!

Hera as the Betty Vanderpoel (The Shuttle) character, a rich American heiress who is going to England to cause problems for someone. I haven't quite figured out who that someone is, or if the reason she's going to cause problems for them is that they married her sister and then proceeded to emotionally abuse her and separate her from her family, and if so, who the sister would be, but quite frankly that can all be worked out later. Hera Is Here And No One Can Stop Her.

Kanan as the Mount Dunstan (The Shuttle) character, an English nobleman. Due to the actions of his (now dead) father and brother, his reputation is basically worthless. Also, he's raising Ezra, for reasons to be explained. (He's trying his best to Be A Dad but He's Struggling.) Due to Bad Circumstances, Kanan is low on money but refuses to consider marrying a rich American heiress to pay for rebuilding his estate. Side note, he is madly in love with a rich American heiress.

Zeb as Kedgers (The Shuttle)/Ben Weatherstaff (The Secret Garden), a gardener at the English estate that Hera has crashed and is fixing up nicely. He's friendly to her but bristly when it comes to kids.

Okadiah as the Penzance (The Shuttle) character, a mentor and friend of Kanan's and also a total Kanera shipper. Also, the cool grandpa for Ezra and Sabine. And speaking of the kids:

(Here's the part where I gotta explain more because this is where we get into Multiple Crossover Territory.)

Sabine as a Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden)-inspired character, a ten-year-old American girl who is stubborn and rude and never listens to anyone. Her parents decide they have no choice but to send her to an English boarding school to teach her, if not manners, then at least how to not be a feral dirt gremlin. Being old friends of the Syndullas, they entrust her to Hera's care for the oversea voyage. This is a mistake. Sabine wheedles and begs and finally gets Hera to let her skip out on boarding school and come along to the estate.

Ezra is a Colin (The Secret Garden) sort of character, but also Sara Crewe (The Little Princess) too. He's an orphan who went to a boarding school, and lived pretty well, until he was nine and his mysterious benefactor disappeared, at which point he had to work there, and he's sad and miserable. Kanan, looking over his lousy-and-now-dead brother's bookkeeping to figure out just how many debts the guy had, discovered payments to a boarding school, investigated, and found out about Ezra. Given his brother's life, Kanan knows it's not too far fetched to consider that maybe this kid is his nephew, so he takes him in and brings him to his estate, but Ezra (age eleven--he's slightly older than Sabine here, instead of being younger than her) is sickly due to his awful life at the boarding school. He mostly stays inside, and it's only rumored that he even exists; no one sees him. He only goes outside to work in the hidden garden Kanan gave to him. Sabine, who is still very much a feral dirt gremlin, is intrigued by this rumored kid, and because she's bored, she sneaks onto Kanan's estate and finds him and befriends him. (Also, Ezra is also a Dickon (The Secret Garden) character, because he's really good at befriending wild animals.)

I wish I had more to say about Kanan and Hera and their plot, but I think first I have to figure out why she's going to England and I can form her plot around that. Because I need a villain here to really shake things up. Maul is kinda my go-to villain but I don't think he quite has Nigel Anstruther's specific type of rancid vibes. Also, maybe I'm missing someone obvious, but I'm just totally stuck on what SW character Rosalie could be. Suggestions are welcome for any of those things!

That's all for now but it's likely I'll think of more later!

#this might turn into a doodle or two eventually? #jessica's writing nonsense #rebels au #i am fully aware of how weird and niche this nonsense is btw. i take no pride in it. it is simply The Brainrot.

[forgotten-or-unknown-truestories]

Why The Prince of Egypt is an underrated genius film.

The Prince of Egypt has been praised for years mostly because of the story, the animation, and the fact that you don't have to be a Christian to love it.

However, this film is one of the most underrated genius films in movie history. Why? Because it pulled off something not many films can.

Those being....

1. Realizing their is innocent mixed in with guilt.

2. Having sympathy for the innocent that are mixed in with the guilty.

3. Not feeling like a terrible person for it.

Let me explain the best I can.

The film starts with the Hebrews suffering in their Egyptian bondage and crying out to their for deliverance. Then showing the Egyptians slater the Hebrew children. So not only are Egyptians abusing them, but also inflicted on them a pain that most couldn't do to their worst enemy. Yet, the Egyptian do and without remorse.

Later in the film, Moses returns to Rameses demanding the Hebrews free. However, because of Rameses's pride, he refuses igniting God's wrath on the Egyptians.

Now this is where the film shows it's true genius. The plague scene is without a doubt one of, if not the, most powerful scene in the film.

At first, the film gives the impression that the Egyptians are finally facing the consequences for their terrible treatment of the Hebrews. That we should be glad this is happening.

However that soon changes because of several moments in the scene.

The first time is when the plague of flies appears....

We see the Egyptians soldiers running and trying to get away, but if you look close at the beginning you notice something.

Rameses's son standing next to him, and then shows the small boy holding onto his father in fear...

The second time is when the plague of frogs appears....

We see an Egyptian mother holding her small baby, to protect it from the nightmare and pain that is about to happen.

The third time is when the plague of raining fire appears...

We see, once again, an Egyptian mother protecting her child as the child looks in terror at what he is seeing.

The fourth time is when the plague of boils appears....

We see two Egyptians, a teen girl and male child, watch in horror as people scream in agony from excruciating boils.

The last time is the plague of death appears...

We see many Egyptian children lose their lives, even Rameses own son, simply because they were the first born. Also those two Egyptian mothers are only protecting one child that means both of those children also died in the last plague.

Then once the angel of death is gone we hear every Egyptian cry in heartbreak and agony at the realization of their loss.

Why are these moments so moving?

During these plagues which for the Egyptians is nothing but pain, suffering, and horror the film reminds you of something that being...

Just because a nation does wrong, doesn't mean the whole nation is guilty. Who was not guilty in this nation?

The children of Egypt...

The plagues of Egypt did not only effect Pharaoh and adult Egyptians. No, it was everyone in Egypt. That means that every Egyptian child went through...

Having no water for days because it was blood, had frogs invest everything they had, itch uncontrollable from lice, having flies cover them, having no food because of diseased animals, suffer in agony with infected boils, seeing fire/hail rain from the sky, lose all their food from locust, live in frightening darkness for days, and some even lost their lives.

The film also reminds you that its okay to feel bad for these children, because even Moses says they are innocent. He even breaks down because of Egypt's suffering.

The film reminds us that children shouldn't suffer because of the actions of adults and leaders of a country.

The film was able to remind us that having sympathy certain people in a nation doesn't always mean we support the whole nation.

That it's okay to realize that innocent shouldn't suffer with guilty just because they happen to be born on the wrong side.

Even reminding us that the pain of losing a child should not be suffered by anyone. Even the very people who once caused that pain on others. It's a pain you can only understand once you suffer it, and the Egyptians did, but it's still heart breaking.

The fact that this film pulled off such a hard thing is amazing. Prince of Egypt is without a doubt the most underrated animated film of all time. It's better than any Disney movie.

It's an underrated genius movie.

#prince of egypt #poeedit #christian #christianity #plagues of egypt #christian movie #bible #God

[canmom]

Animation Night 128: Beep Boop

Hi friends, it’s Animation Night.

Tonight we have the exciting occasion of: finally hitting another power of 2! A phenomenon not seen since Animation Night 64, when we watched Macross. Who knows if we’ll ever see another! I’m going to have to fill another 128 nights, and while we’re still not out of material, that’s a lot of nights...

Since powers of 2 are especially computer-y, it only seems fitting that we focus on the subject of computers. So let’s roll back the clock and have a look at some representations of ~the digital world~ in animation!

So, computers. I’ve already done the early history of 3D CGI animation back on Animation Night 75, which means we’re gonna take a slightly different tack on this one.

In less than a century, computers have been introduced to the world and integrated themselves so universally it’s hard to imagine life without them. Even as recently as the 80s, when they got small enough to have one in your house, these computers were still pretty novel.

And how do humans deal with a strange new technology that defies comprehension in terms of the familiar? Well, we anthropomorphise it! So that has led to the curious little genre of stories set ‘inside’ a computer system, imagining as comprising a little world where programs are little people...

TRON (1982)

Let’s start with the film Tron (1982). No, just one ‘o’, not the weird pejorative for a trans somethingawful user.

Tron is... well, really the main reason it’s remembered is the technical side so let’s dive right in. Primarily a composite of live action and extremely complex rotoscoped backlight animation, this film also features some of the earliest CGI sequences in film. But it’s also a narrative about computers, imagining a computer program hero fighting in the world implied by the vector-display games of the era. But I’m mostly going to talk about how it’s made because it’s one of those ‘once in film history’ type of productions, similar to A Scanner Darkly (Animation Night 120), which proved so ludicrously labour-intensive that nobody felt like doing it again. Let’s dig in...

The impetus came when a guy called Steven Lisberger saw video of Pong (the game) in 1976, which led him down a path to take an interest in this new-fangled computer animation being toyed with at MIT. Lisberger was a big tech enthusiast, and hoped to bring the idea of computers to a wider audience beyond its ‘clique-like’ users at the time. The concept of a hero throwing discs was one of the earliest elements, used by Lisberger to promote his studio; the rest of the script built around it.

The film was originally planned to just use traditional animation. News of the project caught the attention of computer scientist Alan Kay, who became technical advisor for a set of CG sequences - not to mention the inspiration for the film’s scientist character. Gradually, the concept evolved from animation, to animation bracketed by live action, to finally live action composited into animated scenes.

Lisberger’s growing gang shopped around for a studio willing to take on such a complex project; eventually they found Disney, who funded a test reel to try out the new techniques - mixing live action, backlight and CG. Despite funding the film, Disney’s insular animation department were unwilling to get involved in animation on behalf of an outsider, so the 2D animation went to Taiwanese studio Wang Film Productions, an outsourcing oriented studio that took on vast amounts of work from Western companies like Disney and Hanna-Barbera. The CG, meanwhile, went to the tiny CG graphics industry; Wikipedia writes:

Disney turned to the four leading computer graphics firms of the day: Information International, Inc. of Culver City, California, who owned the Super Foonly F-1 (the fastest PDP-10 ever made and the only one of its kind); MAGI of Elmsford, New York; Robert Abel and Associates of California; and Digital Effects of New York City.[7]Bill Kovacs worked on the film while working for Robert Abel before going on to found Wavefront Technologies. The work was not a collaboration, resulting in very different styles used by the firms. 

This was a time when a production computer in the film industry might have as little as 2MB RAM. To handle this, they’d use some of the same techniques as PS2 era games, such as aggressive fog effects. And there was no digital compositing or even just printing onto film: to get CG onto film, they would render a frame, point a camera at it, and take a photo as in stop motion animation. Crazy shit.

Alongside this was an equally elaborate effort to produce all the backlight effects for all the glowing lines. This involved an absolute ton of manually-painted traveling mattes, with a dozen or more passes to expose each coloured glowing element photographed in sequence onto the film. There’s very little traditional animation so much as very elaborate rotoscoping, but it was an astonishing work of compositing. Here, I’ll let Wikipedia explain what they did...

In this process, live-action scenes inside the computer world were filmed in black-and-white on an entirely black set, placed in an enlarger for blow-ups and transferred to large format Kodalith high-contrast film. These negatives were then used to make Kodalith sheets with a reverse (positive) image. Clear cels were laid over each sheet and all portions of the figure except the areas that were exposed for the later camera passes were manually blacked out. Next the Kodalith sheets and cel overlays were placed over a light box while a VistaVision camera mounted above it made separate passes and different color filters. A typical shot normally required 12 passes, but some sequences, like the interior of the electronic tank, could need as many as 50 passes. About 300 matte paintings were made for the film, each photographed onto a large piece of Ektachrome film before colors were added by gelatin filters in a similar procedure as in the Kodaliths. The mattes, rotoscopic and CGI were then combined and composed together to give them a "technological" appearance.[16][24]

The result is honestly... kind of weird looking; the actors are all very monochrome, and the CG shots lack the grain and atmospheric glows of the intercut live action shots. As animation, it’s kind of stop-start and since every shot was so expensive, they tend to go by very fast. But that only makes it more interesting, to see a time before we had invented all the techniques we take for granted in modern animation tools and compositing....

Then of course there’s a soundtrack by none other than legendary trans synth composer Wendy Carlos. Because computers, you see. It’s interesting to think actually - just like the elaborate backlight animation, this is portraying a ‘digital world’ via analogue electronic means.

OK, so that’s how it’s made, what’s Tron actually about? It all revolves around a computer company called ENCOM, basically IBM I guess? It follows the Manichaeist struggle between two programmers: the good hacker Kevin Flynn, and the evil Ed Dillinger who plagiarised his arcade games and booted him from the company. Flynn gets uploaded into the computer world, where he meets his security program Tron, who’s battling Dillinger’s evil AI, the ‘Master Control Program’.

As little as this has to do with how computers work, there are some fun little touches; e.g. the reason the programs take on the likenesses of real humans is justified by the amounts of information already being stored by computer companies. But yeah, mostly it’s a pretty generic good guy vs bad guy sort of script. This was very much a tech demo sort of film, although its imagery has been subsequently enshrined as part of the ~80s~ canon; in fact, it was one of the first films to have a modern nostalgiacore sequel with Tron Legacy in 2010. The lightcycle game devised for the film is quite fun actually - there’s an open source version called Armagetron Advanced which was still in development as recently as Dec 2020. But mostly it’s historically important. And I haven’t seen it, so I’d like to remedy that.

ReBoot (1994)

The next major entry in the ‘what if the programs were like, little people’ genre was ReBoot, the first full CG tv series evar, created by the Canadian Mainframe Entertainment. The idea dates back to 1984 - not long after Tron - originating with a group of British guys called John Grace, Ian Pearson, Gavin Blair and Phil Mitchell. They started experimenting with CG characters pretty soon, in this music video whose animation was done by Pearson and Blair...

...which was one of the first music videos to be ever shown on MTV in 1987, consisting of footage of the band texture mapped into a big rectangle in a CG scene, plus a bunch of digitally matted colour effects. (big shoutouts to @shimakaze-revivalism​ who was first to show me this!)

For a TV series, though, they needed mooorrrreee poooowweeerrr...... more complex rigs with more polygons and better shading models, which came in the form of Softimage|3D, and work began in 1990, with episodes in 1991. In this world, the computer world is entirely sealed off from any humans outside - in fact, they live in fear of the user, who will slaughter the denizens of the computer any time they play a game. The story mainly follows an action hero called Bob who fights to preserve the city of Mainframe against various villains, all named random computer words like Hexadecimal and Megabyte.

From the outset it faced a censorious Board of Standards & Practices for the US’s ABC network, which seems to have caused a great deal of resentment for the creators; nevertheless the show was a success and gradually started to introduce longer-form stories as the target age group shifted up. The later seasons sound like they went the sort of wild places a long-running cartoon does, with characters aged up by video game time acceleration and an ever-growing cast; as such it earned a pretty devoted fandom who eagerly await the day the creator might decide to resolve the final cliffhanger.

There’s so much of it I could never possibly show more than a sampling, but I would at least like to take a look in to see what the deal is.

Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

There is no possible way I could cover a theme like this without a mention of Lain. The main character of this iconic experimental anime, designed by Yoshitoshi ABe (known as well for Haibane Renmei [Animation Night 106]) has become something of the mascot of a certain species of alienated internet dork. We all love lain.

Lain is... a little complicated to explain, though. The plot summary on Wikipedia throws out a lot of names and concepts which make it hard to get the gist, and the show itself is slow, oblique and requires you to pay attention. But basically it is about an autistic plural girl who becomes God via the internet.

So we have Lain Iwakura. She’s a student at junior high, with little interest in technology, despite her high tech dad. This is the 90s: personal computers are increasingly widespread, but Usenet has only just begun to give way to the Web, and it’s still very novel. Nobody could really imagine what this sort of complex connection would do to the world; it is this context that forms the basis for the original cyberpunk, such as Ghost in the Shell a few years earlier.

Lain herself comprises three different alters, something never spelled out fully explicitly: the shy ‘real world’ Lain “玲音” (reiin), the ambitious and determined internet delver Lain “レイン” (rein), and the aggressively ‘evil’ Lain (Ｌａｉｎ) who harms herself those around her.

Not that what’s around her is necessarily ‘real’ in any truly objective sense; the world of the digitally connected Wired starts to bleed into the real world through some psychic somethingorother involving the Earth’s magnetic field, and the show is always very partial in its viewpoint, preferring to hint rather than really explain anything outright. Lain gradually comes to realise she is not just some random schoolgirl but a kind of omnipotent being that dwells within the Wired all according the complicated plan of an engineer Masami Eiri who uploaded himself into the wired; she finds she can rewrite memories and shape the world as she pleases but this power just isolates her even more.

Along the way we take all sorts of turns, throwing out a plethora of allusions to scientific, occult and UFO conspiracy ideas. Hell, rather than the web, which was in its infancy, the writers looked to a now-obscure hypertext experiment called Project Xanadu. But they’re as likely to throw out a reference to an injoke among LISP programmers. You just have to kind of let it wash over you.

This experimental attitude infects the whole style of the series, making it unique even within anime of the time: its visuals rely on stark compositions of blown-out white highlights and muted greys; its animation is generally very reserved, which does not lessen the impact of striking images like Lain’s room becoming an increasingly alien nest of computers, or the strange partial manifestations of users in the Wired, or indeed the impressive body horror animated by Takahiro Kishida at the finale. Lain’s round face, accentuated by a tiny hairclip, lidded eyes and muted affect captured a certain something that makes her instantly recognisable.

And for that matter the music and sound design is iconic, whether the voice reciting “PRESENT DAY/PRESENT TIME hahahahaha”, the distorted synthesised voice giving the name of the episode, or the fascinating and inspired choice of a song by obscure British Band Bôa for the intro...

Its creators were certainly full of some fascinating ambitions. Notably producer Yasuyuki Ueda declared it a ‘cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values Japan adopted after WWII’ and later said he found himself disappointed that the Americans didn’t come to a different interpretation of the story.

As for director Ryūtarō Nakamura, he worked his way up through the industry since the 70s, notably working under Osamu Dezaki on works like Ashita no Joe 2 and Space Adventure Cobra - perhaps it’s no wonder then that Lain features creative layouts and puts a lot of its narrative in the storyboard. He would go on to direct an episode of GitS:SAC, as well as a well-loved adaptation of the light novel Kino’s Journey, a gentle story which follows a girl on a talking motorbike passing through a series of societies - and working to adapt a Masamune Shirow work with another surreal supernatural story, Ghost Hound, in 2007-8.

And most of the main figures behind Lain - ABe, Ueda and writer Chiaki J. Konaka - would come together again in a cyberpunk dystopian work, Texhnolyze, in 2003, this time at Madhouse. I don’t know a great deal about it, but I’d like to look into it at some point (if not on Animation Night, since it’s a full two cours).

You could easily write dissertations on Lain (I’m sure people have!), but also the chance that anyone in my audience has not seen it is probably pretty much zero lol. But, you know, it’s Lain! I can’t not talk about Lain!

Moving on, here’s another curiosity from the same era which @mogsk​ sent my way - a 3D animation that attempts to explain how the internet protocol works with physical metaphors, casting various parts of the IP stack as little robot guys. This was animated by Ericsson Medialab, which seems to be... a Swedish telecoms company? It’s cute.

Now, let’s roll the clock forward a few decades. Nowadays, the internet is completely ubiquitous. If you’re anything like me you are almost never not using it for something in every waking moment. But that doesn’t mean technology isn’t making something new and scary; in fact it’s making a lot that’s new and scary, whether environmentally devastating ponzi scheme cancers like cryptocurrency, or the current push by big tech companies to reach the apotheosis of the logic of the social media feed by eliminating human artists from CONTENT CREATION.

So, I thought I’d throw in a look at a largely unacknowledged show that I’ve found kind of interesting from the current year.

Pantheon adapts a collection of Ken Liu stories about a near-future world where uploading has been achieved by a big tech company; it’s similar in some respects to Lain in that it sees students drawn into a world of computer conspiracy. What struck me when I started watching it is how surprisingly well observed the computer stuff is; whether it’s a recognisable 4chan /x/ or a discussion of parallel programming, it’s plugged into the tech world, including its current transhumanist imaginary, in a surprisingly solid way.

The story of the first episode follows a socially isolated and bullied girl at a swanky high tech college who discovers evidence that her deceased dad is actually somehow alive, but only able to communicate in emoji... and a depressed, highly mathematically adept boy whose parents are pushing him very hard to pursue tech who catches wind of the conspiracy. Clearly something big is afoot, and whatever it is, it involves human uploads. I’ve heard a lot of good things, and this seems like the night to introduce it to you guys before I watch more...

Visually, it’s a curiosity: heavily influenced by anime in both visual design and low framerate animation style, and with plenty of solid technical drawing from unusual perspectives, but somehow not quite hitting the notes of timing and motion that give that ‘anime character’. So another note in the general trend of studios around the world turning to anime for inspiration, following in the footsteps of shows like Castlevania.

The main studio credited is Titmouse, although looking at the credits of the first episode, it looks like a great deal of animation was carried out at the Korean studio DR Movie - the same studio that’s currently holding up half the anime industry judging by how often it’s credited. I’d really like to find out more about the exact production process, just for how it fits in to the general debate over how anime’s production process influences the resulting animation.

It clearly owes a lot to Lain, although its approach so far isn’t quite so wildly experimental. And it achieves a strong level of tension already, capturing that uniquely hostile and demanding vibe of the tech world very precisely.

I think that should be plenty. So to summarise, the plan is to watch Tron, and then excerpts from ReBoot, Lain and Pantheon, hopefully enough to get a sense of the vibe and whet your appetite for more. (It’s always tough to know how to handle long pieces of TV animation!)

Animation Night is back to its old timeslot of 7pm UK time, about 30 minutes from this post! I hope you’ll come join me for a dive into visions of the information superhighway, past and present~

#animation night

[bravevolunteer]

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒; 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒

𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋: fox... unsurprisingly— beyond using the mask as a scare tactic, foxy was genuinely his favorite animatronic ( and if i'm self-indulgent, couuulddd have been inspired by him, but- ) and he's always like the animal itself. was probably also that kid who thought wolves were cool as hell ngl HGFHDHG

𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑: i don't even think he knows this but he'd like before the storm irises and bat flowers ( emo ass )

𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓: firewood, gasoline, the air after it rains

𝐂𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐄: he's not that picky honestly— will not hesitate to drink black if need be/he just cannot be bothered to do anything else, but he'll usually have it with a simple milk and sugar. will also sometimes just get straight up espresso shots.

𝐓𝐄𝐀: doesn't really drink tea, if he does he'd probably go for something spiced, like a cinnamon type. maybe with honey because it reminds him of what his mom would make when he got sick but that's embarrassing JHDFGHJKK

𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊: ... he was probably an energy drink guy ESPECIALLY in his teens, okay battery acid

𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄: again, not picky— he can stomach pretty much anything: beers, shots, mixed drinks, whatever. he can sometimes be put off by the smell of whiskeys, but he can stomach it fine, with that said he was for sure a fireball guy lmao

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃: ... so i've already talked about how he doesn't have the BEST diet, it's a good day if he cooks himself a real meal period. definitely gets a lot of takeout, but also he's content if he makes himself a good sandwich... any meals that remind him of better times when he was a kid is when he has a preference for homecooked

𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐓: ... this might be more of a snack but of course my instinct is to say popcorn. it's a comfort after horrible shifts when he can still eat okay HGFKGF he's also a cookie guy i think, cupcakes and ice cream Not Allowed

𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: when he's younger? for sure his stupid "tank tops" aka shirts with the sleeves he cut off himself— he thought he looked cool. into adulthood he does keep a leather jacket that he really likes. bonus: he ALSO likes his piercings and a couple rings as accessories

𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐎𝐑 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃: left handed, tried to train himself to be ambidextrous as a kid because he got frustrated over smudging paper and failed ( pov william, probably Could teach himself if he hasn't already, finds this really funny )

𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐎𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: mostly neat! it's not perfect or anything and can be a little scrawly but it's very readable

𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐘 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄: messy... always had a pretty messy room as a kid / teenager, and while he DOES try to put some effort in occasionally.... he is depressed AND lives alone ( in complete isolation post scooping ), he doesn't really have much motivating him to keep his place clean. if he's living with someone, he will try more, but old habits die hard

𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: the thing about this is it's assuming he has a schedule like a normal person LMAO— he does struggle with the drive to do so making that already the first factor to handle. when he doesn't work night shifts, he'd usually shower at night. when he does, his regular system will be get home, either pass out or Sit And Deal With That, and THEN shower bc ew gross yucky restaurant.... so that would make it more like afternoon i guess!

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄: quality time and acts of service— he is so prone to isolation and self sabotage that allowing himself to spend that meaningful time with someone is not only what he needs and won't let himself have, but a display of how much he cares for that person. michael's never been good at verbal communication, so he will tend to show his love through actions: doing things for others, defending/protecting them, helping instead of hurting. as for receiving? of course all options good but he is especially deprived of words of affirmation and physical touch ( though this very much hinges on comfort levels )

𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: no— he has with struggled concepts related to fate and inherent qualities, but that's more in the personal sense, he's not interested in the idea of love at first sight. has everything to do with the fact that the idea of someone seeing the worst parts of him and loving him anyway appeals to him.

TAGGED BY: @moondevours TAGGING: steal from me i am so tired

#forgot i started this and then let it sit in my drafts for over a week LFHGHDFK #somehow he both has to make every answer so much more complicated than it should be AND is not really that picky about a lot of stuff? #idk if that's due to not really being much of a material person or being a Mess GHDFHFGF #some of these were so on the spot. the handedness one was Just me going 'yeah that's funny write it down' #⁂ ･ﾟ: none of us belong‚ everything i do is wrong‚ and soon there will be nobody left around ➛ headcanons

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)”

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was not JUST the best-animated movie of 2018 or the best movie of 2018, it was the best Spider-Man film period! I was thrilled at it getting a sequel but was slightly worried it won't live up to the first one. Is Across the Spider-Verse a worthy sequel or one universe that should've been closed?

Firstly, let's get the obvious out of the way. The animation is SPECTACULAR! The animation and art style changing depending on what universe the characters are in or even what universe the characters are from was a great creative choice. The way the characters move, the vibrancy and the colours of the world are so gorgeous and beautifully crafted. The action scenes are thrilling and exciting while also being well-choreographed. The soundtrack is still phenomenal here as well, with a special mention of Spider-Gwen's theme.

In terms of story, Spider-Gwen has a bigger focus this time. We get more exploration of her backstory and her struggles, such as loneliness and guilt. Her character arc is one of the great highlights of this film. Miles Morales is still of course the main focus as well and has his struggles too. He is starting to experience the "Spider-Man" problem of balancing his own life with the responsibility of Spider-man. The sequel continues his arc of trying to become his own hero and it is still very compelling. The chemistry between both Miles and Gwen is strong with their relationship being one of the things I enjoyed. Spider-Man 2099 returns from the post-credit of the previous film to a major role in this entry. I like that he is the one Spider-Man who doesn't joke like the others as it furthers the contrast between him and Miles. The way he is animated feels more inhuman as well which makes him significantly frightening.

He isn't the main villain though, that comes to a character called The Spot. He is a very interesting villain as he comes off as very goofy and silly. His origin is also a bit ridiculous. Despite all that, the directors managed to make him come off as very threatening with how they used his abilities. It is impressive that made a lame-looking character be that menacing. The returning voice cast such as Shameik Moore as Miles, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen, Brian Tyree Henry as Jeff, Luna Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker is still great here.  Oscar Isaac also returns as Spider-Man 2099 and he is awesome. In terms of the new voice cast, Jason Schwartzman is terrific as The Spot with how he portrays both the silly and serious side of the antagonist. Karan Soni is funny as Spider-Man India and Daniel Kaluuya is quite cool as Spider-Punk. Despite the multiverse theme, the information dumps never become too much. They are written in an understandable way that the audience can still digest. The humour is still genuinely funny and there wasn't a joke that didn't land.

In terms of issues, I do find the second act a little bit too long. The second act is mostly about the family drama of Miles Morales and it does go on for quite a while. It doesn't help that the importance of this drama doesn't come into play in this film but most likely the next one, so it doesn't even have a proper payoff. Additionally, the sound mixing can be a bit off. It is sometimes a little difficult to hear dialogue during scenes with loud music or action. This is especially noticeable in the beginning with the drums feeling way more loud than the dialogue. This is also very clearly a part 1 film. It ends at a point where it feels like it is about to enter the final act but it just ends before it does. If the aim was to make me desperate for the next movie then it succeeded!

Overall, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a very worthy sequel that builds upon everything that made the first great. The multiverse is such an overdone thing but this film still somehow makes it feel fresh! If the final movie in this trilogy is as good in quality as both this and the first movie, we might have one of the best trilogies in cinema history! The 3rd film can't come soon enough because I am dying to watch it!

For more reviews like this visit:

https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

#movies #films #Movie Reviews #Film Review #spider-man #spider-man into the spider-verse #spider-man across the spider-verse #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #MCU #sony #sony spiderman #Miles Morales #gwen stacy #spider woman #spider gwen

[elikellyhall]

I think this is the story for "Oliver, Walter and Bullseye" I was looking for in a while.

It's like if this was a Disney film, introducing especially Oliver himself, which is the blue robot.

Story: In a town called “Machine-Tropolis”, and inside a tall hospital building, a blue human-like robot was built and woken up by the full moon shining on him. When the robot woke up, the robot builders and their boss, Sig want to make him feel welcome. The blue robot was starting to feel scared about what the world is like. Sig gave the robot a name, “Oliverando Positive the Robot”, and he himself agreed. He went out of the hospital and tries to look for guidance. Oliver had brief looks around places on his way to sit down somewhere, like a library, and a few markets. Soon, he meets his two brothers and some prince and princess characters. Oliver was a bit interested, but still scared about what the world’s like. The other two robots (Which are his brothers) introduced them as “Walter” and “Byron”, AKA “Bullseye”. Walter decided to call the robot, “Oliver”. The gang take Oliver through the magic tunnel that the town has that allows to go to the real world, where many other toons live. A business boss named “Dylan” has massive hatred for Walter and Bullseye, since his right hand was replaced with a silver mechanical hand, and his goal is to kill them, and even his brother when he finds out, so Oliver, Bullseye, Walter, and the others do whatever they can to keep each other safe and have fun, even if Dylan has big ways to kill the three robots, while Walter and Bullseye themselves try to help Oliver for the world around him.

The composer would be David Newman and Hans Zimmer, with simple compsoing with some orchestral moments, but mostly life relaxing music.

It would be animated by one of the outside animation studios of Disney, and mixing it with live-action.

It would also gain a sequel called "Oliver, Walter and Bullseye: Workers at Machine-Tropolis" (Somewhere would release in the mid-2000s)

The runtime would be 72 minutes long, with the last 7 minutes being the ending credits.

This would be an interesting custom story for Disney. 😊

Official Disney characters based on stories (C) Disney in adaptation.

#disney #disney princess #beauty and the beast #pinocchio disney #alice in wonderland disney #sleeping beauty #the little mermaid #snow white #aladdin #robots #robot characters #fanfiction

[cantuscorvi]

Lilu & Raummmm //anudda one

send me a pair and I’ll tell you what I think it would be like if they had a child. @nvrcmplt

Name: Camio Lily Gender: agender (they/them)

General Appearance:

Dark and intense with deep red eyes and pale skin, Camio takes after Lilu in their beautiful hair and colour palette, but the facial features are similar to Raum’s, most notably that beak-like nose and intense browline. They are strikingly androgynous, but leaning a little more to the masculine side, no curves present on their body. Although they will often change appearance to denote their mood, it is always recognisably them due to these features. They like to wear black on black with the occasional red or gold.

Personality:

Calm, quiet and cold, Camio’s personality is like a snowfall at night. They are a strong believer that actions speak louder than words, and don’t talk very much themselves unless it’s something they truly mean. Their first impression is a broody and intimidating one – they seem dismissive and rude, always looking down their nose at you. But spend a little longer, and look a little closer with them, and inside you will find things you don’t expect.

Special Talents:

Demon of dreams and nightmares. Camio manipulates the living through their sleep. They can make you fall asleep with just a whispered word or a touch. They could give you euphoric dreams or terrible nightmares depending on their whim, and all of it will feel terribly real in the moment. They gain sustenance from your fears and ambitions while you’re trapped inside their dream world. Shapeshift. Can create any form out of their body and frequently changes their appearance to suit their mood. Moves back and forth between masculine, feminine, animal, human, monster, and anything in-between to express themselves and their emotions. Silent allure. Thanks to their demonic nature (and especially Lilu’s genetics), humans and creatures alike are naturally drawn to them, especially their voice – although they see it as more of a side-effect than an ability. As such, they speak very little.

Who they like better:

Like? Neither. Camio emancipated themselves as soon as possible from their parents because they can’t stand being around Raum & Lilu’s intense personalities for too long, especially when they are together. However, they feel a strong sense of physical and mental comfort towards both of them – when they are alone, and mostly when they are not talking. There is definitely a feeling of kinship and belonging in their presence.

Who they take after more:

They try their best not to take after either of them, always seeing the fault in their parents, but they failed pretty badly. They have that fear of being open from Raum, and his arrogant veneer, especially when having a disagreement. From Lilu, they inherited the traitorous heart that wants what it wants – Camio craves love just like him.

Personal Headcanon:

Somewhere on the asexual spectrum – although they have inherited some allure from Lilu, they do not find much interest in sexual behaviour alone. Instead they really crave emotional bonds and connections. Still, they can be quite physically affectionate with those people they are close to. Likes to hold hands and touch foreheads. Thanks to their mixed powerful bloodline, they need to feed a lot to maintain themselves. Camio is creating dreams and eating them almost every night. Helps Lilu out with the plants and really enjoys doing so. They have a natural affinity for the quiet hobby.

#nvrcmplt #ask #( meme ; response ) #( vivat crescat floreat ; raum & lilu ) #raum & lilu having two GNC kids is so 👌👌 #i fell in love with camio while i made them #imagining venus and camio being siblings is so fun to me dfkjhgkdfjg #i hope u like 'em tala

[lizz-blizt]

Ok so, having just watched the trailer for the little mermaid live action, my thoughts are mixed. Mostly confusion and apprehension. But maybe it'll come out good. Or at least comprehensible.

Good Thoughts

The design of Ariel's tail is really pretty. Like holy gods of water I love the colors they put on it and it looks like it'd be a great cosplay. I think they took some inspo from the stage adaptations for it.

Ariel is a black girl with red hair. Something I really like as an aesthetic choice on real people.

Ursula seems to be a plus-sized woman. I'm glad they kept that.

There will be songs

Confusion/Bad Thoughts

Ariel and Queen Selina (who I will be talking about later) are the ONLY black people in the listed cast so far. That's a big issue if one of the selling points of your movie is having black mermaids. It just makes the ones you do have stand out and seem like tokenism

Scuttle (the male presenting seagul) is being played by Awkafina. Why? If she was gonna play anybody why have it be the seagul and not another mermaid? Is she trying to launch a career as a voice actor for movies? If so, great. If not, then why?

Who the hell is Queen Selina? She can't be Ariel's mom, that lady died when Ariel and her sisters were young guppies. Is she the grandma? Wouldn't be an odd choice as some monarchies do keep the queen mother around but then she wouldn't be listed as 'Queen'

If Queen Selina is Ariel's mom, why is she here? As a backstory reason for why Triton doesn't like humans? If that's the case then I actually applaud this choice since that answers a question without having to watch the prequel movie to get the answer. Also, did they change her name because they didn't want the confusion/incest jokes that came when they named her Athena?

The implication that Selina is Ariel's mom carries the implication that she's alive and at least semi present in the story. That pisses me off. I grew up with Triton as one of the ONLY examples of a single father in fiction and goddammit he was trying his best!!!! I want kids to grow up with a good example of being a single father because single dads exist and alot of them are FUCKING GREAT!!!! I don't want that to be taken away!

Ursula is being played by Melissa McCarthy. I haven't kept up with her career but last I checked wasn't she a comedy actor? Are they gonna make Ursula have comic moments? Won't that undermine her as a villain since Melissa's comedy is based on her messing up or miscomprhending the situation. I hope she has the range to be sinister and calculating like Ursula is.

Who are gonna be playing Ariel's sisters? I know it's still early but I wonder who will be playing them?

One scene in the animated movie has Ariel wearing nothing but a seashell bra until she gets her sail dress. I hope they if not cut that out or only shoot from like upper back and above. Thats an awkward part i feel they can cut out.

Almost the entire trailer is in the dark. Even when they show a thriving coral reef. The ocean is not that dark. Especially in the coral reef area, which is known for being bright. Goddammit stop shooting everything so dark!!!!! When I go to the movies I wanna be able to SEE THE MOVIE!!!!

I don't like the shade of red they seem to be going with for Ariel's hair. Make it a brighter shade, it'll look good trust me.

Pay your VFX artists better disney and let them do their work in peace. You'll get a better movie that way.

Link to the trailer:

https://youtu.be/0-wPm99PF9U

#disney #little mermaid #therell probably be more to this #live action #little mermaid 2023 #ariel #im a disney adult #im also sick of these live action movies #i want gabriela to make a cameo #they do know that mermaid wear little to no clothing right #i dont think they thought this through #i hope its worth my time to watch it #i want this movie to be good so bad

[moonlightrpg]

basic of system and scenario

i am still getting the ideas of the system, but i want something heroic, story based and that has a guard system for combat, basically you get a defensive bonus to where you are looking and a new system for casting magic that uses material components descriptors instead of specific items

the rest is basically a bunch of things i like of other systems that will need play testing that i can't do, like this goal oriented rewards and 4 action points like dc20

for the scenario i started with the idea that i wanted morally neutral capitalists that acted like capitalists and did a good boss fight, so i made the capitalist combat power scale with how much money they had. the actual magic system is that offered mortal work to a god increases their power and can actually born new gods and the lack of offerings can kill gods, it could be offerings by burning them or willingly trade with them and mortals can get powers from gods thru job contracts.

the gods themselves have rules to not act too much into the mortal world and yada yada yada, but some go out of their ways to get power thru coercing mortals to trade with them to unfair amounts.

druids in my scenario are solarpunk but medieval and can contruction bend or nature bend, so they balance nature and civilization to live. they mostly live in small cities very in sync with their surroundings and sometimes get into war with other cities because they aren't in sync with nature. they have a big city state that is a giant diverse city, with druids from all over the world, they have construction styles from all over the world and a very complex ecosystem.

i want a lot of copies from Pointy Hat because his ideas are so cool, so like the fantasmas, liches, all of that i would like to try on the scenario, specially the vigils, and something like demigods like Percy Jackson.

the character creation, i thought about separating the utility out of combat from the classes, so reading, animals, cooking, arcana, history, should all be other stuff instead of something your class gives you, so the fighter can be a lock picker and your barbarian can know history. so outside that i thought about a skill buying system for the ancestry, so you can mix and match everything from every race, i want something like race HRT like those trans comics, that's cool even if it would be a pain to run, so its probably be a supplement, instead of subclasses i want a specialization system like Numenera, so you have one thing your character is really good at doing and only you can do.

i think that's it, i will make random posts going deeper into each one of those things and i would really like to talk so give your feedback. :D

#ttrpg #percy jackon and the olympians #indie rpg #pjo series #for fun #rpg #dc20 #craft #writing

[violetren]

Live action ATLA reaction for episode 3.

Better than episode one (practically a freebie) but not quite as good as episode two. Mostly because they tried to shove 3 different episode plots from the animation into 1 and as a result dropped the quality of all 3 concepts.

I mostly liked the Azula introduction. It showed us straight away that she is a manipulator who tries to emulate and impress her father, and it showed us Ozai being a shit dad (and made us 3 for 3 on episodes of the firelord NOT sitting on his throne, but at least this time it made sense).

I say mostly because I have mixed feelings about the little fire nation anti-war group. Its not that I think its impossible that there would be anti-war sentiment in the fire nation, or that it would all be getting quietly stamped out to maintain the status quo (and to encourage everyone else to stay in their lane). It's just the whole set up felt hollow as fuck. Like one dude threw around some revolutionary jargon and then the WHOLE group went to get slaughtered just because they found 1 (one) sympathetic person in the palace and didn't do any checks on her? They somehow managed to grow to that size in the Fire Nation Capital furthest from the fighting and closest to the propaganda machine but fell into that trap so easily? Idk, seeing an anti-war protest group mess up that badly and get stamped out so thoroughly and immediately in todays climate felt icky.

I think a scene of under cover Azula holding the hand of 1 (one) (singular) grieving and scared person assuring them that their pain is unfair that they deserve revenge for all the loved ones the war has cost them and that their plan to kill the Firelord is just. Have person thank Azula for being there, maybe have them give her a token of the dead loved one she reminds them off, and then having Azula give directions into a trap literally anywhere other than the throne room would have been much more effective. Don't let them reach Ozai, just see his silohuette through a door way, and then see it joined by Azula actually in the door way and smirking, hear the shriek of betrayal became screams as they get burned by guards. Watch Azula burn the trinket. Then have the Azula and Ozai convo. Or take it a step further with the trap, have the would be assassin burst into a meeting or a party, make them look like a deranged traitor and make their execution public as a threat to any dissenters.

A face and story would have been far more effective than the activism group caricature that we got is all I am trying to say.

However the cardboard cut out activism group didn't bother me nearly as much as Azula doing archery. I don't think I even fully appreciated Mai and Ty-Lee being introed because I was just so thrown by Azula engaging in a form of non-bending combat, and being beyond proficient in it. One of the core distinctions between Azula and Zuko is that she is the fire bending prodigy with blue flames, while he is an average fire bender who got good at swords because he was never going to be able to beat Azula at bending while living in the palace. Why is miss-fire-bending-is-everything doing archery!?

MOVING ON THOUGH.

We rejoin the la:gaang and have to deal with the fact that the show is trying to do The King of Omashu (book 1 episode 5), Jet (book 1 episode 10), and The Northern Air Temple (book 1 episode 17) all at once. But the extravagance doesn't end there! We also get some Zuko and Iroh action that low key seems to be setting up a situation in which Zuko is alone a la Zuko Alone (book 2 episode 7) and Iroh in jail a la The Headband (book 3 episode 2).

Normally I would have faith that Iroh could ditch the guards and escape alone, but frankly la:Iroh doesn't inspire the same steadfast confidence as his animated counter part. But I guess we'll see next episode.

Now all things considered they could have done a much MUCH worse job rolling all of these episode concepts into one, but a piece of media having room to be worse isn't quite the same as it being good.

Once again the pacing was trash, and the dialogue writing was less than stellar. Nothing got time to rise, or breathe, or bake, or whatever metaphor you want for giving the audience time to meditate on an idea and get invested in seeing the story resolve it.

My biggest annoyance with jumbling all of these character introes and plots into one place is that they split the characters up to have one focus on each element of the story, which meant that the others didn't get to have the character growth that they had in their parts of the original episode, or the growth that was related to the specific places those episodes were set it, as is the case with Aang.

Seeing refugees living in the northern air temple and coming to accept their presence even if it meant the space wasn't being used as his people would have used it was huge for Aang, and this episode can't achieve anything close to it because they put Teo and his dad in Omashu.

They try to distract from weaknesses like the one outlined above with spectacle. In episode 2 it was Kyoshi coming to rain hell. In episode 3, it's Aang and Zuko having a slap stick comedy market chase scene. Which just becomes another case of them trying to zany comedy when they need the convenient cover, while trying to downplay and ignore it the other 95% of the time. It isn't as strong as a showing as Kyoshi wrecking fire nation soldiers.

Over all I'm sure it would be a moderately entertaining but not standout episode of TV for anyone who hasn't seen the cartoon. It does hit a speed bump in that it very obviously isn't treating those people as its target audience what with how it baits the cabbage guy yelling the line one before committing later, and the manner in which it chooses to reveal Jet and his crew members.

The energy is low-key "you should be thanking me for ordering take out instead of getting mad I didn't clean the kitchen."

#chirping wren #live action atla critical #live action atla spoilers