chase-ingjackson

[chase-ingjackson]

i miss vhs tapes and cds i miss feeding my computers and tvs yummy treats. now theyre eating nothing. theyre being born without mouths

[chase-ingjackson]

(Tapestry and Impyrium spoilers) A main theme of The Tapestry and Impyrium series is the perseverance of humanity, but I think our compassion is also a big theme. Because like, Max McDaniels, badass demonslayer who regularly gets overtaken by the spirit of a war goddess and goes on killing sprees, is a fucking paragon of compassion. The instant he realizes that Nix and Valya aren’t evil, he accepts that his worldview is flawed and offers to make them tea as an apology. He renovates the fuck out of the farmhouse and stays to help take care of the kids, then becomes a gladiator so they can stay safe. He babysits the goslings without complaint. He nearly gets eaten because he feels bad for the haglings. When one of his closest friends gets possessed and almost kills him he reminds everyone that he needs “our help, not our anger.” He buries the clones that spend two books trying to kill him. Even in Impyrium, when he’s a god-king who supposedly has no time for little mortals, he’s so eager to help a kid he momentarily forgets that he will literally die if he returns to the mortal world.

And then you have terrifying badass William Cooper, who’s always nice to the hags, reassures frightened kids, and ends up being such a loving person - and Sigga Fenn, who buys Hazel tickets to the soccer game and lets Hob have a few minutes before she has to carry out her orders. Some of the most dangerous trained killers in these books are also full of kindness and humor, and yet it doesn’t make them any less intimidating when they need to be.

And then you have Miss Boon, who obviously approaches things from a very academic, emotional viewpoint, and I think sometimes that almost makes her seem weaker compared to the others, but it actually ends up saving the whole damn show. When Max goes full wrath godmode in the Workshop, William fucking Cooper of all people just accepts death, and Miss Boon basically goes fuck that, he’s my student and he needs help, and it’s his friends reaching out to him and reminding him that they love him and are there for him that allows Max to regain some control. Compassion saves the fucking day.

Idk it’s just?? To have books that get so dark and violent and yet in which compassion and kindness is such a pervasive, monumental thing is really cool??

[chase-ingjackson]

I just finished Impyrium by Henry H Neff and I’m gonna talk about it because I have a lot of feelings so spoiler warning

Keep reading

[chase-ingjackson]

okay it’s been a while since i’ve read it so idk how it holds up but the tapestry series by henry h. neff was literally insane like. they truly said yes i am going to write about a boy who goes to magic school BUT he’s actually a reincarnation of the hound of culann he was born to be a soldier he’s in possession of a spear that drives him to bloodlust even towards his family and friends and he HATES it but the fate of the world has been placed on his shoulders to save them he must become what hates. his best friend david is the most powerful magician in the world he’s fighting alongside him they’re sharing the burden but on opposite ends and it’s the very thing that drives them away from each other, the very thing that causes them to not understand each other anymore. he loves julie but he can’t have her cause she’s a representation of a normal life that’s just not possible for him. in scáthach he finds the only person who could possibly understand him and so he loves her and starts to think maybe some sense of love and normalcy is possible for him, and then she dies. he fights and fights and it’s the very thing that causes him to lose everything he had to fight for BUT STILL he fights until the bitter end. until finally they win and the only relief left for him is to join his love in death. all this and they are just barely teenagers. and then. AND THEN. neff writes a spin-off that says despite it all, despite how hard these children fought for a better world, what they did and who they were has become twisted and used as a tool for empire and oppression. there are still children and they are still fighting. he never even finished that series. the only ending that ever came for those kids was war and suffering and death. all this and they just put it in a middle grade series for unsuspecting tweens to read and be changed forever

[chase-ingjackson]

To understand why I’m so in love with The Red Winter’s hardcover release, you’ve got to understand:

I was an elementary-schooler when the first book came out and chose it on my birthday as the book that would enter our school’s library in my name

I forgot about it. My sister discovered it, and the second book was out. I started reading again.

The third book came out. Huge cliffhanger ending. We thought the series had to end in the next book. So many people had died. One of the main characters was clearly not going to survive the end of the series.

The fourth book came out. Nope, it definitely did not end the series. My sister and I were obsessed. No one else was. Nobody else had heard of it.

And then we waited. It was supposed to come out October 2013. Nothing. In November, we hear an announcement—new release date, September 23, 2014. We wait. September passes. Nothing. October passes. Nothing.

Finally, November 2014: the final book will be published as an e-book only.

That was a let-down, it’s true. But mostly, we were stoked to finally read the book and it ripped our hearts out. Hands down, one of the best endings to a series that I’ve read.

That was over seven years ago. He published another book, but it didn’t seem to take off and when no sequels were published, I got the impression that maybe the publishers had dropped him (I rescind that assumption: Neff is pretty good about posting the state of things on his blog, so I’m assuming if that was formal, we’d get an announcement). Suffice to say, I never thought we’d see a printed version. (I may have made vague plans to illegally print it and bind it myself sometime in the future).

Then my sister texts me out of the blue and says there’s hardcover copies on Amazon. I race to see, and there are so very few copies available, and almost no second-hand copies. Come to find out, the reason there are so few is because the book is print-on-demand. The publisher reverted print rights to the author, allowing him to finally print the last book of the series.

but there was more. See, the e-books have distinct covers. The print versions are very detailed, far more detailed than is common on book covers, so the e-books simplify the design and make it more favorable to a small-screen icon. I didn’t know that at the time, though. All I knew was that after four book covers I ADORED, we were getting this:

One of these things is not like the others.

So when I heard the news about a print version of the last book, I was super excited to have a physical copy, but not so optimistic about the last cover.

BUT.

THIS IS THE COVER THEY RELEASED.

for the love of all that is good. how did we deserve this masterpiece? 

It’s just—the previous cover focused on the plot baddie, and it was technically accurate and matched the ongoing theme of the title-relevant figure and all that. But it was also just…wrong for the book? Astaroth had to be taken down to end the book, fine, but so much of the last book feels like an elegy, and it’s about Max. It’s in the title. The tapestry of his life that we saw in book one. This cover feels so much more right, and I never thought we’d get it. I never thought we’d get the printed version, and I certainly never anticipated just how right this cover could feel.

anyways, I’m off to re-read this flawed, amazing series again and get my heart ripped out.

[chase-ingjackson]

assorted drawings for a kids book series that nobody reads anymore

[chase-ingjackson]

Max and David’s configured room from the Tapestry Series (by Henry Neff)

I’ve been kind of obsessed with this room since I read about it ~15 years ago. Here’s my take (modeled + rendered in Blender).

Additional Jargony Blender Notes Below

Bookshelves are a geonodes setup based around an accumulate field

Balcony and staircase are also geonodes instanced along a curve. I originally made them for other projects

Beds and curtains are a (kind of lazy) cloth sim.

For the curtains I used a grid with an armature pulling it shut

Pillows and comforters are blocks with pressure in the sim

The fade in effect is a transparent bsdf mixed proportional to view distance (w/ some other constants)

The chairs were sculpted in Zbrush a while back for a different project

In the gif, the constellations are curves with a staggered build modifier and follow path constraint. They’re in a 10 second loop that I rendered alone and composited into the room. Tumblr only shows the first part of the loop.

1st image has plants and some texture stuff painted in at the end for aesthetic

[chase-ingjackson]

[chase-ingjackson]

thick thighs??? oh you mean noise cancelling headphones

[chase-ingjackson]

the name "theresa" is so funny like. theres a what

[chase-ingjackson]

This is canon 😭😭😭

[chase-ingjackson]

Dandelions have a symbiotic relationship with little kids who make wishes

[chase-ingjackson]

A few reasons I like and dislike the the new Percy Jackson show (and why I think the musical is better) - initial reaction

To start, I think this new PJO show is a million times better than that dumpster fire of a movie (though I love logan lerman <3). I like that it is quite faithful to the overall arcs and major plot lines of the book. I love the diversity and high caliber of actors (though I def have some Viria-art inspired character images in my head that are god-tier). I love some of the characterizations/portrayals, especially when it comes to making the character more complex (I really appreciate TV Sally for being a real person with complex emotion, though of course book Sally is my fav). And I love that it's so high budget and hgihly-anticipated (great marketing) that it is bringing this beloved story to a greater audience, especially the younger generation and older generation (as parents/grandparents) than those of us who grew up with the series.

I can boil down all of my dislikes of this show into one overarching but very essential part of the show: I don't like that it is a drama. The characters are way too serious and too every-other-moment-we-need-an-instense-heart-to-heart. What I think this show should have been is a comedy adventure with drama/melodrama sprinkled in. In the books, it's all about the banter. And the TV show does some good one-liners, but it's always so serious. I think the best part of the book is that the characters can stay light-hearted and fun despite the horrors and terrors they face. In the show, the gods spoon feed the trio most of the answers, so when they do have a good realization (SPOILER: e.g. Kronos being the orchestrating force) it kind of comes out of nowhere. TV Annabeth is so serious (I know in the first book she is her most serious, but not to this degree) and a lot of the moments when she has time to use her smarts are gone or approached differently. Percy, too. He's not just self-sacrificing (which they really lean into in the show) but he's also incredibly smart and silly. In the books he's kind of a surface-level himbo with great critical thinking, but in the show he's kind of left in the dark and doesn't get opportunities to make his own plans (also, he doesn't seem to know how to control his power (by the 7th episode); whereas in the book he def did at this point. Then there are just dumb changes to make the show more "serious" like not mentioning that cell phones attract monsters or that monsters just smell demigods and not have a 6th sense for them. I'm finding that by trying to change these small details to make it something more exciting or interesting, it's distancing us existing fans by not letting us relate to the small details that really don't matter. For the cellphones, they still use Iris messages rather than getting a payphone or something, so that's kind of a plot hole in the show that is answered by the book.

Anyways, those are my main takeaways. Now, when I say "the musical" I refer to The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical by Joe Tracz and Rick Rokicki which first premiered in 2014 but got revamped and redebued in 2017 (which is when it came into my life). I got to see it live in Toronto in 2019 with my middle school best friend, but have been an avid listener of the soundtrack since 2017 (the day it came out on streaming platforms).

The musical in my eyes is a nearly-perfect adaptation of the book. It's soo funny - def the action comedy I'm after, but does have the meaningful emotional moments (ballads, which are essential in musicals). The show itself if the full package; however, even just listening to the soundtrack gives you the whole gist. Here's a link to hte soundtrack on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFwX6FWeUFQ&list=PL0hK1fYMaqXbtZ0Fhm48TYcLJl7ikNX7Q&ab_channel=TheLightningThief%3AOriginalCastAlbum

Anyways, I want to hear more thoughts and pls tell me what you think of the show (and the musical!!)

#hoo #pjo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #the lightning thief #the lightning thief musical #percy jackson musical #grover underwood #pjo tv series #pjo tv show #pjofandom #sally jackson #review

[chase-ingjackson]

They are soul mates, walking through life together. I almost cried during the opening scene of the movie.

[chase-ingjackson]

Watched the new Miraculous movie recently so you get THEM- Enjoy😭❤️🖤

[chase-ingjackson]

I just finished Impyrium by Henry H Neff and I’m gonna talk about it because I have a lot of feelings so spoiler warning

Keep reading

[chase-ingjackson]