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ashplayz · 10 months

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Hazbin hotel x Y/n (my aus) (revamped)

I've already posted a version of this but it was incomplete.

A lot of these are pretty long long

Characters included:

Charlie, Vaggie (separate) Alastor. Cherri bomb, angel dust. Husk, Nifty. Sir Pretentious, Vox, Katie Killjoy. And Rosie.

I will post the same thing for my Helluva boss x Y/n aus soon becase im considering taking requests for the characters im doing from each show but the requests I take will be for scenarios mainly and they have to generally fit into my aus.

Warnings:

Suggestive themes. Strong language Mentions of sexual assault, mentions of torture and murder. Ect..

Most Y/ns are female. (I don't typically write yandere content but with Vox it's implied that y/n is a bit of a yandere.)

Fem y/n x Charlie:

Charlie's parents showed up at the hotel to remind her that she was still obligated to marry a Royal even though her and leviathan didn't work out, they heard that she was into girls so they had her engaged to the princess of raff, Y/n Charlie was understandably upset because she was already in a happy relationship with Vaggie. To which her mother responded that it was unfitting for a Royal to marry a sinner. And also reminded her that what she was trying to achieve was to get sinners into heaven, which ment if she succeeded she'd end up all alone. Charlie is around 146 years old, Charlie's mother told her that the marriage wouldn't actually take place until she was 150 giving her 4 years to get to know Y/n as she would be moving into the hotel. Charlie had to break the news to Vaggie and Vaggie immediately developed a burning hatred towards Y/n. Once Y/n got to the hotel she admitted that she didn't want to marry charlie either and leveled that the only reason they were to wed was to produce an heir (for the sake of this there's a spell in hell that allows for two people of the same gender to birth a child) Y/n suggested that once an heir was produced they would split and share custody of the kid. Y/n encouraged charlie to continue her relationship with Vaggie as Y/n had no interest in falling in love anyways. However, Charlie thought it was wrong to pursue a relationship if she was technically engaged. And as for charlie's dream to get sinners into heaven Y/n was skeptical that something like that would even work she was also worried that sinners would use it to take advantage of charlie but nonetheless she still offered to help wich inevitably made charlie drawn to her, as it was rare in hell for anyone especially a Royal to be genuinely interested in helping someone else's cause. Who's to say where these two will land in about 4 years…

Fem Y/n x Vaggie:

Y/n came to the hotel claiming to be looking for 'redemption' but in reality she was just looking for a way into heaven so she could make them pay for exileing her, she was once an angel that fell. Vaggie could see right through her and didn't trust her therefore the two didn't really get along. However Vaggie was single and Y/n was a bit of a flirt. One day Vaggie and Alastor got into a fight and y/n stepped in before Vaggie could get hurt Y/n took a serious blow in the process. Vaggie yelled at y/n asking why she'd do something so stupid to which Y/n replied that it wasn't stupid to protect someone you feel for Vaggie thought that Y/n didn't actually mean that and that she was only messing with her however it wouldn't be long before Y/n's charm got to her…

Alastor x Fem Goishaia- Y/n:

You know how I mentioned that there's a spell that allows for two people of the same gender to produce an offspring in hell according to my au well in my au stolas and blitz accidentally used that spell and magically created a daughter (I will not go into any of the details surrounding that) Their daughter Y/n had a strange upbringing to say the least it was also very strained due to the fact that Blitz and stolas's relationship caused a bit of a scandal you can imagine the response people had to the two of them having something of a secret love child. She was also a weak spot particularly on stolas's part because Stella had no problem with using her against him so it wasn't long before she had a run in with striker.. The first chance Y/n got to leave once she was old enough she took it and she went to the pride ring. and it eventually led her to the hazbin hotel and well alastor. he soon found himself feeling a way for her that he never thought he'd feel about anyone. Maybe it was because of how clear it was that she held an impressive amount of power despite having the appearance of an imp. He didn't know where she really came from or how powerful she truly was yet Alastor found himself drawn to her but every attempt he made to get closer to her only ended in her repeatedly turning him down. As she thought he was only doing it to take advantage of who she was, but he was persistent and it didn't take her long to realize that he was genuinely interested in her despite not knowing who she was. As for how the two of them start dating he saved her from an exterminator. Despite the risk to him. Making her realize that he was someone she could trust.

Cherri bomb x fem blind overlord:

Cheri went to war with turf leaders and overlords often, Cheri had heard rumors that there was a new overlord in town and despite the fact that she was rumored to be blind she was actually one of the more powerful ones. Upon meeting y/n on the battlefield Cherri had to admit that Y/n was a powerful adversary and it wasn't long before Cherri wanted Y/n on her side. The interesting thing about Y/n is that she didn't seem to be blind considering how much of a skilled fighter she was. The pair became unlikely partners as they both shared a common foe, Sir Pretentious. Dare I even say the two became friends as they wound up in an awkward I save you you save me situation. Eventually they had to face the music of their feelings for each other and it left the two of them as an explosive power couple that no one wanted to cross. Eventually Cherri learned the truth behind y/ns alleged blindness, Y/n was blind but she had a 3rd eye. And due to the fact that Cherri also had one working eye there was no shortage of lame eye jokes from Cherri.

Angel Dust x non binary Y/n (they/them pronouns:

Y/n was working for an organization similar to

I. M. P except instead of performing hits on the living world. They killed people that were already in hell seeing as they had access to blessed weapons. Usually they would only target lower class demons. But an anonymous client paid quite a bit of money in advance for the agency to perform a hit on Valentino, and said there was more money where that came from if they successfully took him out. And so the agency sent their most well trained agents for this job, Y/n. Once Y/n made it to the pride ring they decided the best corce of action would be to pose as someone who wanted to fuck Val in order to get close enough to preform the hit as distasteful as that was. One day they slipped away from val in order to scope the parimitar of his club when they got bummed into by none other than angel dust. He was most definitely high and not thinking clearly. He insisted that Y/n dance with him. They tried to resist but there was something about him that made them drawn to him. And so they danced and afterwards Angel woke up in his room dazed and confused, he had a fuzzy memory of a mysterious stranger he danced with and the thought of whoever it was gave him butterflies. Y/n would be lying if they said they hadn't thought about angel dust since their dance. He made them feel something they'd never felt before something her training went against. It didn't take long for Y/n to find out what Valentino did to angel dust. And it made their blood boil.. So much so that they compromised the mission by blindly going in for the kill and they weren't unscathed by this considering Val was pretty powerful but in the end they stood over his mangled body victorious, covered in both his and their own blood.. Y/n went to the person that they couldn't get out of their head.. Angel dust. y/n snuck past everyone in the hotel which wasn't a problem for them due to their training although they did hear someone get irritated about the blood they had left behind.. Y/n made it to angels room and knocked on the door. Angel opened it and felt his blood run cold as he saw that same mysterious stranger that he hadn't been able to get out of his head since that night, standing there covered in blood and badly hurt. They dropped a pair of broken and bloodied sunglasses in front of him that he soon recognized to be Val's.. The two shared a heart to heart as he patched them up. Y/n said they never felt anything for anyone before until they met him and angel had to admit that he'd have a hard time forgetting them after everything.. So y/n decided to quit her job with the agency as now they had a purpose. Angel dust felt a wave of emotions at once but most of all was relieved that he was now free from Valentino.. It wasn't long before Y/n was able to find a new job, with the client that hired her to kill Valentino no less, Vox. It didn't come as a surprise to them that Val hurt everyone he came into contact with, well not anymore.. It didn't take long for angel dust and Y/n to start a happy and healthy relationship as they both looked forward and left their rather ugly pasts behind them..

Husk x Fem hellhound Y/n:

Y/n was born in hell and grew up in one of those hellhound ofanages as her parents couldn't be bothered with her. Most people only adopted hellhounds for work purposes but Y/n was weak compared to other hellhounds so she was never adopted. And was kicked out onto the streets once she aged out. Y/n did a lot of things that she wasn't particularly proud of in order to make ends meet. But eventually she heard about the hazbin hotel and how they eventually let you live there rent free if you played nice. Being hell born she knew getting into heaven through 'redemption' wasn't in the cards for her but she was out of options. She was surprised to be welcomed into the hotel so warmly as she never knew that sort of kindness from anyone really. She immediately felt drawn to husk as he was nowhere near as overbearing as Charlie or as threatening as Vaggie could come off, or as inappropriate as angel dust or as overwhelmingly energetic as Nifty. Or as shifty as Alastor. Husk was her as they would say 'just right' so she amed to be his friend. Husk however said he didn't have any friends and that he didn't want any either however it wasn't long before the two of them would stay up for hours in the lobby just talking because to him she was also his 'just right ' compared to everyone else in the damned hotel. Husk was usually always drunk but he was usually a high functioning drunk and Y/n was used to people drinking a lot but whenever Y/n noticed he was drinking an unhealthy amount she would call him out on it. Y/n was pretty chill but she wasn't afraid to call people out on their shit. And to the surprise of many within the hotel, he actually listened to her. She was the first person he opened up to about his past and his pains and how he claimed to have lost the ability to feel any positive emotions without drowning his sorrows in cheap booze. And let's just say he was the first to catch feelings for her but he thought she could never love a grumpy old drunk like him but he found that if he made the effort he'd prove himself wrong..

Nifty x non binary retired turf war leader:

Y/n wound up in hell a long time ago when they were pretty young and much like Cherri Bomb they clawed their way to the top and became an overlord because that's just what you did if it didn't want to be stepped on in hell. But she never liked it. Years passed and they longed for a way out but never expected to find one. That is until they heard about the hazbin hotel, now Y/n didn't really know if redemption was possible for them after everything they did in their time as an overlord but she knew they had to try.. Y/n was mostly calm and collected while nifty was more on the chaotic side but despite how much of an unlikely pair the two seemed the two actually became friends. Nifty took an interest in Y/n's past as an overlord and asked her a ton of questions. The two got along surprisingly well. And eventually made a pact promising that if it was possible to get into heaven they would do it together and not get separated. Over time the two's bond became more than just friends. And would face whatever that entailed together..

sir pretentious x fem turf war leader y/n:

The two started off as overlords fighting for territory. Y/n was certainly a powerful adversary and put Pretentious on his ass more than once, y/n was mysterious most people didn't know much about her most didn't even know what she looked like under her hood. But one thing led to another during a battle and he wound up seeing her without her hood and immediately fell pretty hard. (I like pairing opposites together as you saw with the husk x hellhound y/n so y/n in this story is a mouse for that purpose mainly but also because it represents how she used to be 'pray' before she died) Pretentious's mashie ended up blowing up during their battle and left y/n out cold. Whenever they fought y/n obviously could have done a lot worse to him but chose not to, so if it had been him she would have spared him anyways seeing it as unfair to take advantage of an opponent when they are too vulnerable to fight. Sir Pretentious agreed with this and therefore wouldn't hurt her when she was out anyways but he couldn't deny the fact that he was starstruck by her beauty and strength. So he patched her up and their rivalry came to a bit of a pause. It was clear that she didn't exactly trust him but she did respect him more than she previously had. Eventually he tried asking her out but to no avail. He learned that she had been hurt by men..badly before she died, therefore she couldn't trust anyone. He became determined to prove himself to her. His persistence as annoying as it could be actually won her over as she stopped seeing him as a threat. And he was happy to take their relationship slow. He despite everything was a gentleman and she found that charming. She knew that if other overlords found out about their relationship it was highly possible for them to use it against them so she proposed that they pretend to still be enemies in the public eye, although now that they were dating he was quite worried about hurting her but she had no problem with putting him on his ass like she used to. There are many incidents where behind closed doors he would cry over hurting her in battle and that just made her love him even more.

Katie killJoy x fem fallen angel:

(Okay so I have seen a fanfiction on her with a fallen angel before so I guess you could say its inspired but it was really toxic and I hate toxic relationships so I made this as wholesome as I can see for her character even if it's unrealistic) Katie was following a news story, and when there was a break Tom pointed out something falling from the sky upon looking hard enough they could see it was a person.. Well an angel more specifically. They immediately shifted their focus to that and upon getting to the scene they learned that it was in fact a fallen angel. She had to be taken to the hospital before she could answer any questions. Once she woke up Katie and Tom were showing microphones in her face asking her questions. She got very uncomfortable because of Tom, and Katie soon learned the twisted truth behind heaven. Heaven was more corrupt than most of hell, one of the members of hells high council tried to rape Y/n and she was cast out of heaven for trying to tell people what he did. Katie swiftly got rid of Tom, she may be a bicth but she takes that sort of thing very seriously. Not that Tom would do something like that but he does make some jokes and remarks that make him come across as a pervert. Katie was drawn to Y/n in a strange way.. She saw Y/n as a light that threatened to go out if not protected. Usually she would have been behind putting out someone's light but she just couldn't bring herself to with Y/n.. Katie tried to be less of a bicth towards y/n however she did still come across as a little mean. However y/n wasn't fazed by that seeing as before she died she dealt with worse coming from a less than ideal family. So due to the fact she could put up with Katie meant the two became pretty close. As Katie would say 'I don't touch the gays' maybe she was reflecting her own surprised sexually a bit. It became evident pretty quickly that Y/n had a dark side that she couldn't really control. As when triggered her eyes turned red and she became a completely different person, violent and unpredictable but never towards her. Katie found this very hot. Although y/n had no recollection of what she did once she loses control and that freaks her out. Katie had too much pride to admit to herself that she actually liked Y/n. And Y/n was very oblivious. Tom tried his best to get the pair together without getting killed by Katie in the process, he could tell how much she cared by how protective she was over Y/n. Katie never thought she would feel that for anyone..

Vox x Fem overlord y/n:

Y/n was almost exactly like alastor in the sense of power and personality. If she wanted something she would get it, and that something happened to be Vox. Y/n came across as a patient level-headed person but her blood boiled for the way Valentino treated Vox when they were supposed to be partners. So when Vox walked in on y/n torturing Val he had to admit he felt a bit of fear, something that was rare for him. He was more or less not afraid of Val even when subjected to his abuse but he knew Val was dangerous and powerful.. So to see Y/n overpower him so easily without so much as a scratch on her it certainly wasn't very comforting. Y/n wasn't ashamed to be open about her feelings towards vox. Y/n had a lot of potential to be a yandere considering she could always get what she wanted. But she wouldn't hurt vox despite him knowing she could if she wanted to. she had the power to interfere with his online connection. And she's a bit of an nuisance sometimes, changing his passwords with a snap of her finger. Vox found her to be annoying at best because of her influence over him but truth be told she was a total upgrade from Val and well she was pretty hot. Their relationship wasn't exactly defined. But he didn't hate her so that was a start. She could be a bit of a dick sometimes though..

Y/n: "I changed all your passwords, good luck trying to solve em" (y/n says teasingly)

Vox: "What do you want from me!?" (He exclaims irritability)

Y/n:..."What are you willing to do?~" 😘

Rosie x fem exterminator y/n:

The exterminators were even more brutal than last clence and this time they were going after a lot of the overlords. And while they could hold their own pretty well some weren't as lucky as others. Rosie was pretty powerful but everyone had their limits. The exterminator closed in on Rosie; it had overpowered her as she was already wounded from the fight. Rosie gave it a fearful yet daring look. Rosie: "Well then. Get it over with" She challenged but to her surprise the thing had frozen. And started.. glitching..? Well it glitches enough to reveal the person behind it..a girl with beautiful eyes who was clearly trying to stop herself from killing her. And the resistance was clearly causing unimaginable pain, as tears of blood stained into the girl's skin. And the screams of pain the girl let out filled rosies entire being with dread.. there was a blinding light and the next thing this girl laid unconscious on the floor no longer the corrupted creature she was a moment ago. Rosie didn't exactly understand what just happened but nonetheless she patched the girl up. When the girl woke up she told Rosie her name. She said that she had defied the gods and as a punishment they turned her into an exterminator to mindlessly do their bidding. Rosie asked why Y/n would bother to save her despite the obvious agony trying to break free of heaven's hold. To which Y/n responded "I will not spill the blood of someone as beautiful as you" Rosie blushed at this, not used to such sincerity. Y/n was worried they'd send someone to drag her back to heaven but Rosie vowed to protect her.

End <3

Helluva boss version coming soon..

#hazbin hotel #x y/n #x reader

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yeowninefive · 5 months

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My 2023 Art Retrospective (Part 1)

Before we continue--yes, this is just part one. I will warn you upfront--this is going to be a wall of text, and so will the next part. With my 2022 retrospective I did try to condense things down, but I wasn't anywhere near as successful for this year.

I originally didn't want to write a retrospective because in terms of general performance/productivity, I felt there wasn't much to discuss. Looking back on my 2022 retrospective, my big story there was how I made a *big* leap over 2021 in productivity, and raised my profile/art skills quite a bit, with 2022 seeing some of my most popular art, period. 2023, all things considered, seemed like it was 2022 again, like one of those videogame sequels that's mainly just more of the same. But the more I really consider the following, 2023 honestly was like if I took whatever strides I made in 2022 and strapped a rocket (assume 2022 is a car for this analogy to work). I think going into the nuances as to why I feel this way is important, and with 2023 marking my online art identity having existing for over a decade by this point, I think that milestone itself is also worth more than a cursory acknowledgement.

Like last year, I'll first start this retrospective by looking back on my my art goals outlined for 2023, when I made my retrospective by 2022's end.

Fanart: Much like 2022, I think I came close on having at least one fanart posted each month, but my OC projects (The Clock Robin Caper; and an upcoming OC project I started development on, but eventually decided to withhold for 2024) took priority, the fanart became more secondary. Regardless, the fanart output was still at least twice as much from 2022, and they included some of my most-popular pieces to date. The popularity of Not Paying for That/The House Special (the Pizza Tower/SpongeBob crossover) in particular was arguably a case of being at the right place at the right time with an appealing/funny concept--it's to date the only art I've had on tumblr pass 100 notes in less than two days. The (relative) popularity of that work (as well as the popularity of Petals to the Metal [Princess Daisy fanart] on Twitter) are probably the most encouraging works of this year, where the interest they receive does give me hope I can still make more of a name for myself as a artist(/animator) in the current landscape (or hellscape, take your pick) of online creators.

So now I'm in something of an odd pickle in terms of where my angle with fanart goes in 2024. Of course, I would like to make even more fanart of things I like or at least have a vested interest in, but I recognize that the fanart I've generally made has typically been some sort of unique concept (either being something I used to theme my OCs around, or some sort of crossover/mashup of ideas that I like). The fanart also tends to be among my more "technical" works I put added emphasis on details/development, instead of quicker/simpler items like doodles or sketches. I feel like I'd have to change my approach/production process for fanart if I wanted to get more of it out there in the upcoming new year.

Animation: This is where I'd say this was a step back, though I hope with the new circumstances/what I've learned, it does lead to bigger, more, and better things into the future. While I made three animations, it was only two original animations (with a third being a WIP of the existing two), and one of the animations didn't even feature any character animation. Nonetheless, I am admittedly pretty proud that two of them were honestly put together pretty quick (produced out of the interest of a then-viral Barbie Special Month commercial from the 1970s) and I feel they fit the aesthetic/direction of the source material moderately well.

If nothing else, I can at least say that one of the animations (Complimentary Doll) marked my return to trying to animate in CSP, which I had abandoned due to limited features (I had PRO, so I was limited in framerates); while the other (Waiting for Free Stuff) was animated in OpenToonz, which I do think I grew more comfortable to using as time went on (learning keyboard shortcuts and taking a more "modular" approach with using multiple levels for animating different parts of the animation). I fully believe I could had gotten Waiting for Free Stuff finished even earlier if I didn't use OpenToonz' raster layers for the entire animation (which was very limited to use, even with using multiple levels), instead of vectors layers.

Between being able to get an upgrade to CSP EX (Ver. 1--copies of which are still being sold in certain areas), becoming more accustomed to OpenToonz, and getting a new drawing tablet; I'm hoping to really expand my animation ventures. In particular, I'm hoping that I'm able to get back into producing animations with colors and producing more animated stuff in general--which in general, I foresee being easier with CSP instead of OpenToonz. (I still want to keep learning OpenToonz nonetheless, since it's UI/setup is still arguably more tailored for an animation workflow compared to CSP.)

Backgrounds/environments: Overall, I say this was a step up over 2022. There's still a fair amount of basic environments here and there; but I think there were much less non-environments overall. Fittingly enough, I highly credit my Clock Robin Caper project for the improvement in this area--since I was producing "film stills" representing different "scenes," I made an effort to present most of the characters in multiple different environments; using photos references for most of the settings in question and even going the "extra mile" in adding small details that most people wouldn't even notice. I'd in this regard, Frames 04-09 were my highlights in environment design this year.

The mixed media artwork I did in the spring, where I incorporated my Commodities OCs in photos I took during my trip to Canada, also helped in this regard. That was a fun project that, as I alluded to earlier, I'm honestly not quite finished with. There are other photos I took that I'm hoping to use; but they were shelved to make way for the Clock Robin Caper and the other untitled upcoming OC project. Going into 2024, I hope to try and create at least a few "pure" landscape works, akin to my earlier artwork; though of course I want to properly measure where my current art skills lay with environment design. By the same coin, I'm still open to doing remakes of my previous art (which was sadly a no-show for this year).

Comics/stories: I had nothing to offer on this front for 2022, and I said I wanted this to be my art priority for 2023. I'd argue I delivered and then some--although I think the development process certainly could had been managed better. A core element of my The Clock Robin Caper project was to develop the mystery/story across each of the frame, without much--if any--explicit dialogue said by the characters. (Though I did also regularly include descriptions to at least give some basic explanations as to what was happening and what was the importance of each character in the scene.)

I'd say without a doubt, the Clock Robin Caper is inarguably the most elaborate art project I've done, since I went through a bunch of story ideas/concepts in finalizing it (which is partially why it took so long to finish), in addition to the addition multiple OCs from others' creators that were included (deciding who to use for each frame and figuring out how to draw them--a little over half of the OCs I was drawing for the first time) and the aforementioned environments I developed for each frame. I was also able to get two other comics, with the newspaper-styled short comic "The Thought That Counts" and the longer-form, multi-page comic "The Story of Ronda" (both concerning Ronda and Aero, go figure).

I still have a bunch of story ideas that I'd like to adapt, but much like the fanart, I think I'd have to change my strategy if I wanted to get more comics/stories produced in an adequate matter. I think I still have issues with how I manage my time, which also played a role in The Clock Robin Caper being drawn out longer than it arguably needed to be. It's why I ended up shelving my aforementioned in-development art project --which I actually teased within one my 2023 artworks-- for 2024. Some of the artwork I've made for it was actually completed and has been finished for months, and in other circumstances, I probably would had published it by this point. But with this one, I'm aiming to have most of the artwork completed first, so I can publish it on a consistent/regular schedule.

Art trades/collaborations: Truth be told, this is largely a beat-for-beat replay of last year--wanted to do trades/collabs, but I was busy with my art projects. I did at least respond to at least one OC draw request, and joined in on some viral art redraw memes--which while not quite within this topic realm, was at least some self-imposed challenges I was willing to take on, and were pretty fun to do. By the same coin, there's not much if any movement towards me being open to art commissions (either for fun or for commerce).

By this point, I think this has gotten long enough that I'm splitting this up into two parts. Here is a link to the second part. A sincere thanks to anyone who has stuck around to read the whole thing (so far), and have a Happy New Year's Eve/New Year's Day and a wonderful 2024.

#2023 #2023 year in review #art retrospective #long post #art retrospective part 1

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absynthe--minded · 2 years

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In your opinion, what qualifies as a "good" book-to-film adaptation? Does it need to follow every detail and beat in the book to the letter, or is it more important to capture the heart of the characters and the greater themes of the story at the cost of changes to the source material?

(I'm largely referring to LOTR here, but you could apply this to any other example you see fit)

so the thing about LotR specifically, and about the Legendarium as a whole, that makes it different from other properties, is how intricate it is. this is a multi-millennial epic spanning tens of thousands of years, and everything that happens in it happens at specific times for specific reasons. @monstrousgourmandizingcats pointed out to me that the Rings of Power were forged at a very specific time in Númenorean history as well as elvish history - this was before Númenor was the colonizing superpower that it was at the end of the Second Age, so doing something like smacking Isildur into the middle of this drama makes no sense whatsoever. the amount of depth that's present in the worldbuilding is intense compared to basically any other fandom I've been in, and the level of consistency is remarkably high, even in terms of the drafts (there is a definitive canon imo, and adhering to that is difficult but worth doing)

my frustrations with Amazon's show are mostly stemming from the fact that the things it's doing - condensing the timeline, mashing all the characters together, mixing heraldry and familial sigils, deciding that for some reason the Harfoots are now proto-Hobbits rather than a Hobbit ethnic group - are fucking with that established world. Instead of taking the story as it was already given, and filling in the gaps and dramatizing what was already written, this is being treated like "the novel Tolkien never wrote", but that's the problem. he did write it, everything that's being covered in this series that they didn't invent was already written down, and the things that were left out were tiny details, not massive gaps.

I don't think this is a good adaptation because I don't think that it's going to make for a very intelligible story, to pick and choose and mix and match. I don't think whatever's onscreen will be Tolkien, it will be Amazon's very expensive badly-written AU fanfic The Rings of Power. There might be a couple of fan-favorite moments but I highly doubt they'll actually mean anything, I can tell exactly how much respect they have for the tiny details from just the Vanity Fair article. tbh at this point I even have problems with the Jackson adaptation, but that's for another ask, if people want to know what they are.

but that's not really the question you asked, sorry; I'll do my best to answer that now. 'what makes a good adaptation' varies from source material to source material, and I think it's a ridiculously difficult job that many people fail at, because there's not a one-size-fits-all approach.

despite that, I can try and come to a conclusion about what I like based on the adaptations that I think succeed at what they're doing, and I'm gonna pick four of my favorites - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), The Phantom of the Opera (1989), and Stardust (2005).

(more below the cut, tagged 'longpost')

all of these are vastly different from one another, take unique approaches to the source material, and have wildly varying relationships with the concept of book-accuracy.

LWW includes absolutely everything from the book (easy, as it's a very short children's book) and even adds in a full rendition of the big battle at the end that is skipped over in text as well as some additional scenes to provide character development or heightened tension. the place where I think it's goofiest and fails the most is the White Witch Sled Chase that culminates in the four Pevensies washing themselves downstream to escape the wolves, but that's a short action scene that nonetheless provides Peter the chance to showcase his capabilities as a leader and keeps the stakes and tension high. In this case, a good adaptation follows the plot accurately, includes relevant character details, preserves the order of events, and builds on existing dynamics in the cast to make the story compelling for those familiar with it, extrapolating motivation and conflict from stated events. It's a lot like gapfiller fanfic in that way, it's sticking to the canon but enhancing it when something feels lacking.

PotO89 is barely an adaptation of the original Leroux novel - Christine Daaé is now Christine Day, Raoul is now Richard, the Persian is a Scotland Yard investigator, and Erik is now cursed by the Devil in a 100% literal Faustian bargain and his 'mask' is crafted from the skin of his victims. There's far more blood and gore, a campy vibe that lets Robert Englund ham it up, and a Final Girl confrontation with the killer in the modern day that involves Christine destroying Erik's music. Why, then, would I call this a good adaptation? Because it preserves the gothic horror of the original novel, it maintains the strong and fiercely independent characterization of its heroine who in the book calls herself the mistress of her own actions, and it leans hard into the romantic tension between the two leads. It preserves the feeling and the emotional themes of the original novel (except Erik's redemption, but that's because this is a slasher movie) while also never forgetting that it's a horror film, and because it never forgets it's a horror film the tension between Christine and Erik exists more or less as it did in the original text. I certainly haven't found a more accurate take on that relationship. The core issue here is that Leroux's original novel isn't particularly cinematic - it rambles, it gets bogged down in the middle, there are side characters who get forgotten halfway through the book. In this case, trying to accurately adapt the story would fail, because it doesn't work as a cinematic experience, so the best approach is preserving the vibes instead of trying to remember every single detail.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a return to the example set by LWW - a great deal of the dialogue is taken right from the Dickens book, and while it cuts out certain scenes that emphasize the needs of the poor it doesn't ever shy away from the fact that Scrooge is fucking over people who need help and compassion, it makes up for that in other places. Also, the songs help explore the feelings of the characters and establish moods quickly and effectively. Unlike LWW, it makes several removals from the source material, and unlike PotO89 it's trying to adapt the book it's based on rather than preserve emotional experiences, but it threads the needle very deftly by never losing sight of what the important parts of the story are, and spending time with them. On top of that, the actors (both human and Muppet) throw themselves into the roles, really selling them and setting the emotional scene immediately, which means that even though it moves at a brisk pace the story doesn't feel rushed or lacking. The lesson here is 'if you can't adapt the story in full, find the parts that work best, and make those really shine'.

Stardust is based on a work by @neil-gaiman (who is almost certainly not going to reblog this but one can hope, you know?) and it's somewhere between Carol and PotO89 in terms of accuracy. It's telling a story that's technically the same as the book - a boy named Tristan (or Tristran) crosses over a wall into Faerie to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he's got a crush on, and the star turns out to be a woman, and then they fall in love - but the major difference is tone. The original Stardust is a somewhat absurdist fairy story with an intricate plot and complicated structure that relies heavily upon fairy tale logic and reader awareness of common tropes, and the film is a romantic comedy fantasy story more in the vein of The Princess Bride. The reason I like movie!Stardust so much, despite the adaptation changing many things (including the climax of the story) is because the process of moving from print to screen involves an awareness of the change in medium. A book, or a graphic novel, or both in this case, can rely on wordplay and whimsy and dense nonsensical playing around with language and prophecy, and a film that's not an arthouse experimental piece can't really do that, it has to have a satisfying narrative for the audience to watch. So movie!Stardust is aware of this, and leans hard into that preservation-of-vibes thing I mentioned while also drawing heavily from TPB, the archetypal and iconic self-aware romcom fantasy. Just as the original work was a meta examination of folklore and written stories, the adaptation is a meta examination of filmed stories. The lesson, then, is 'sometimes change is good, if the changes are made for a reason'.

If I'm talking about LotR or another Tolkien adaptation, I want an approach closer to LWW05. I want the gapfiller fanfic, I want the text to be treated as an authority to be contradicted only at great need. And Amazon's, uh. Not doing that.

#replies #anon replies #longpost #tolkien

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aj-anime-blog · 3 years

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To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts - Review!

First review here we go!!

So, after being completely and utterly obsessed with Jujutsu Kaisen and AOT season 4, I decided to check out MAPPA studios and watch a bunch of stuff from their roster. My so-called "MAPPA binge" included this strange and unknown piece: Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e, or in English, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. An adaption of a manga originally released in Bessatsu Shounen (you might recognize this as the magazine that released Attack on Titan!), it looked pretty promising. I do have to admit that I didn't read a page of this anime's manga, though the art style on it looks gorgeous!!

The concept behind the show: A war has torn two halves of a nation apart, split into the North and the South. The Northerners, who were previously greatly outnumbered in battle, created a half-human, half-beast species known as "Incarnates" because of their God-like abilities. But the Incarnates begin having some issues when their beast forms take over their bodies, turning them into monsters. When the war ends, our protagonist, Hugh Hank, an Incarnate and previous captain of the Incarnate squad, swears to kill all of his mutating Incarnate buddies before they can destroy the world.

This review will not contain spoilers until the labeled "Spoiler" section at the bottom.

In general, what do I think?: 4/10, this show kinda sucked. Ouch! I hate being that blunt! Especially on my first review here! But To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (let's call it TTASB from here on out!) had glaring flaws that, while it did hold up as a show, made it uninteresting and hard to love. Not only were the characters mediocre and boring, but the show seemed to contradict itself and its own opinion of the Incarnates all the time! Are they bloodthirsty monsters that need to be killed? Are they misunderstood humans who should be given peace? I don't know! Our main characters don't seem to either! Other than the "war bad" motif that gets shoved down your throat from episode one, the show felt stagnant in what it was trying to make the audience feel.

I hate being so cynical about it, though, because it does still earn those 4 points! Even though a lot of it falls flat, as a whole, it's still an ok show! Hank and Schaal have good concepts and their dilemmas are interesting in certain parts when the writers manage to nail pits and pieces of their development! The fight scenes were cool and I think that the concept for the world was neat! And the show does have a pretty cool title. Let's be honest, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts sounds super metal.

So what about those characters?: 5/10! Hugh Hank and Schaal are our two main protags for the show, and they both have pretty interesting concepts! Hank is an Incarnate, he used to be the leader of the other Incarnates, and he made a vow with them that when they lost their minds, he would kill them himself. Schaal is the daughter of one of these Incarnates that fought under Hank. Interesting, right?! How could these two opposing characters get along with one another?

TTASB tries to give the two of them a sort of grumpy-old-mentor-teaches-a-cheery-youngster relationship (which, admittedly, is one of my favorite tropes) and manages to forget everything good about having this kind of relationship. To start, it feels like Schaal has next to no reason to be tolerating Hank, and vice versa. She follows him around because *insert some excuse about understanding the Incarnates?* and Hank lets her because *insert I really don't know*. It really feels like Schaal doesn't need to be there, and she's just a plot device to move along Hank's character development.

Then, the two of them never really interact in ways that really moved me. It never felt like they made a deeper connection that meant something to the plot. They interacted, sure. They spoke about their issues, yeah. But it never felt like Hank needed Schaal, or that Schaal was emotionally tied to Hank, until the show spoonfed it to you that they were.

In the end, neither of their developments felt compelling or interesting. There were a few scenes that maybe, if you squinted, hinted towards them growing as people, but for a 12 episode anime, it was very menial. It also felt like said scenes were fairly forced, with their development not really leading them to the point that they ended up at. Again, TTASB has a bit of an issue with contradicting itself.

The villain was so meh. He has a motive, yeah. It's pretty lame. He's not compelling at all. Nothing about him is interesting or kept me hooked on him. The show probably could've existed without him, to be entirely honest. I don't really have much else to say about him! I just did not really care about him at all.

The best characters in the show are hands-down the supporting cast of Incarnates. Each one has fairly interesting motivations, and even though they're only given an episode or so to tell their stories, they feel the most genuine. My biggest qualm with them is that the show doesn't build their connection to Hugh Hank at all, so when he gets emotional over them, you're kind of like "uhhh u know this guy??". More about this down in our spoilers section, as I'll go over a scene where this is prominent.

So characters were meh, but what about the story itself?: 4/10, just as meh. Again, very interesting! Lots of potential! But it fell flat where it mattered. To be clear, just before we dig deeper: the 12 episodes of TTASB isn't the entire story. It's clearly intended to be continued, though, as of writing this, I haven't been able to dig up any news about a potential season 2.

I don't really mind if animes aren't completely original, as long as they're fun, but TTASB didn't really do that. A lot of the episodes felt boring and reused like it was a watered-down copy-paste of other material. Some episodes were repetitive and seemed to be trying to hammer in the same themes, only to be later contradicted by other episodes. TTASB will spend a few episodes showing you how misunderstood and sweet the Incarnates are and then have an episode where an Incarnate murders a bunch of people. I would love it if it was, in any way, shape, or form, sarcastic, but it is not. TTASB just thinks it can get away with the blatant disregarding of its own morals. It only ends up feeling disconnecting and frustrating.

It follows an almost monster-of-the-week style format for introducing the Incarnates, which does them a bit of a disservice, in my opinion. I really would have liked it if there was a bit more overlap between the Incarnates and their stories! We know that they're all very close (or, at least, the show tells us that they are without really showing us) so seeing them interact with one another outside of their respective episode would've been fun!

The story tries to be darker and grimier than it actually is. I didn't end up caring much for the nation itself and much of the politics that the show tried to utilize felt boring and, again, watered-down. It felt like the show wanted to make it a political drama about war and human rights and only ended up shying away from what makes those genres impactful. Again, this isn't to say that TTASB's story is bad, it's just not as good as it could've been.

But it's MAPPA, so the art has to be good, right?: Yeah! Art was cool! Nothing golden, like MAPPA's newer stuff, but a solid 7/10! The fight scenes were nice, and even though a lot of them felt redundant to watch, they were still smooth! I have some qualms about a few of the Incarnates' beast forms (especially Hank's) looking like they belong back in 2001, but they still looked cool nonetheless.

I don't really have much to say on this front! Nothing really blew me away, but I never looked at the screen and winced away.

Ok and finally, pacing!: 4/10. 12 episode animes always have tricky pacing to them. I like to think about the show being pretty much only 5 hours long, which isn't that much time to cram in as much story and plot as they might want to. Overall, TTASB actually had pretty decent pacing, with a long enough build-up that led to a final showdown. If you ask me, I do think there was a pacing problem in the second half, as it felt far too stretched out, but that could've just been my perception of it.

My biggest issue with pacing loops back to the characters again. They're never really given time to explore or build up relationships. Especially not Hank and his prior team of Incarnates. I think that there should've been more screen time dedicated to their time in the army, to better explain the emotional distress that he's going through as he's forced to hunt them down. Instead, TTASB relies on a throwaway line or scene to deliver this emotional blow, and it nearly always falls flat.

Music!!!!: 6/10, The soundtrack in this anime really wasn't memorable and I don't remember much from it. Whoops!

I did like the opening a bit! It was done by Mafumafu, who I think has done a Pokemon intro song? Either way, it was energetic and fit the theme of the show well! The ending is also a bop, now that I'm thinking about it! It manages to be nostalgic and sad without being too slow! So good music on both fronts!!

OK, now we're in spoiler territory! Be warned!

I don't have too much to say regarding spoilers. Nothing in the show really feels important enough that I have to mention it under a spoiler tag. A few small notes, I suppose.

The show treats Hank like the more important character but then throws him away in his "death" to focus on Schaal, which was a very frustrating episode. Schaal felt so bland and useless in it, even when she faced her father again. Bringing him back to life felt like a sad excuse to force her into character development. I did like it when she found the courage to shoot him, but I also thought that it wasn't really as emotional as the show wanted it to be.

Hank's connection with Schaal, particularly in the second half, feels completely unnatural and forced. When she gets kidnapped, he has some sort of mental breakdown over her and it, if anything, felt creepy. It was undeserved and was forced down your throat rather than built.

Beatrice was the best character in the show and I think that if they stuck to ideas like hers (misunderstood creatures who just want to go back to their old lives), the story would have been much better. Instead, you switch to characters like the Gargoyle Incarnate, who just goes on a murder spree, and it ruins a lot of the development that Beatrice brought to the table.

& our deep deep look at one part: Forgive me if I get this screwed up a bit, it's been a weekish since I finished the show and my brain dumped out all details of it already.

Hugh Hank goes to the mountains and fights the Garmr Incarnate, Rex (Roy? I'm a bit confused on his name), in an epic show-down. Obviously, at the end of it, Hank wins, killing Rex. Now, if you're like me, you sat there for most of the fight going "who tf is Rex and why is this battle important?" and only at the very END, when he's dying, do you see a clip that you might remember from the very beginning of the anime, with Rex talking about Schaal. You go "oohhh I know who he is!" but you wished that you remembered this ten minutes ago when the fight started because it would've been so much more impactful. The show didn't remind you of this scene. It didn't tell you that Rex was this same person that you already met. It expected you to remember, and I didn't. This scene sums up a lot of the character problems with the show, where even if something does have emotional weight, the show doesn't act on it.

Now we're done!: Sorry if this was harsh, but that's my full review on To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts! I'd love to hear if you agree with me or think that I'm totally wrong! If you've read the manga, tell me if it's better or worth a read! And thanks for reading!

(The crossed-out "Hugh"s are all of the times that I got Hank's name wrong! I'm not super great with character names, but I always take it as a bad sign when I screw up the name. )

#anime #mappa #studio mappa #to the abandoned sacred beasts #to the abandoned sacred beasts anime #review #anime review

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