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fireflysummers · 9 months

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Final Thoughts on GO S2

I'm probably gonna pull back on discussing S2, at least publicly, after this. I did actually like a lot of the season, but it's triggering some of my religious trauma and also the fandom is already stressing me out. So here, let's have some final thoughts.

First and foremost: I am not a Gaiman simp. I've read a decent amount of his work: comics, short stories, essays, and novels. Aside from Good Omens, I've liked Coraline and The Graveyard Book the best by far, whereas American Gods just. Did Not Connect with me, even though it's should have, given the stuff I tend to enjoy.

However. Regardless of whether I like a given work (or even like how he adapted it, a la parts of The Sandman TV series), he is a veteran writer who has proven that he does, actually, know how to write a story with consistent characters.

Beyond that, I do actually believe that he's trying to do right by Pratchett, and loves and respects the story and characters they created together. He's generally shown up as an ally to a variety of social causes, and directly and respectfully responds to fans on Tumblr. While no saint, I feel that there is cause to give the benefit of the doubt that things will resolve satisfyingly in S3, and that there is Intention about some of the things in S2.

This, of course, does not absolve it of being "bad," but even here I think we need to articulate better the different types of "bad" that people are reacting to. There seems to roughly be three camps here: 1) People who thought it was "bad" because of how it ended, with the breakup and a lot of unresolved plot threads; 2) People who thought it was "bad" because it struggled on a technical level with its set, lighting, directorial choices, editing, etc; 3) People who thought it was "bad" because they felt the characterization was significantly off and that the internal logic of the series had been violated.

With regards to Point One, the only solution is to Wait and See. Judgement should be reserved until the story is properly finished--easier said than done, especially considering the current media landscape, and the number of series or franchises that fail to live up to their promises.

Point Two isn't something I understand well enough to contribute meaningfully, except that I suspect the pandemic affected this aspect the most and am willing to give it a bit more mercy. That aside, I for the most part I don't find it bad so much as not as good as S1. Except for the parts with epilepsy warnings, surely there could've been a better way to do that.

Point Three... that's the stumbling block for me, and I find it interesting that most of the folks who struggle with this point in particular are long time fans of the book.

I trust that instinct.

There are two different directions to go from here. The first is the assumption that these problems are a result of ego, carelessness, or lack of skill from the showrunners/writers/director. It's cynical but not unjustified. The second is the belief that the breaks in lore or characterization were intentional, building towards a much grander conspiracy. Of course, even in this case I don't think it forgives the lack of signposting that would indicate that this is a choice rather than an accident. It just makes it feel clumsy and poorly constructed, a major risk on a show that hasn't had its third season confirmed.*

However, regardless, it still feels salvageable. I've enjoyed reading a lot of meta on all this, and I've pulled some things from others (particularly That Theory by @ariaste), but I don't really want to put forth a single, defined theory myself. Instead, here's some questions I've got, why those questions are important (to me, at least). Actual theorizing comes after, and anybody who snidely mentions Sherlock in the comments or tags is going to get auto-blocked. Like seriously, I'm aware that some stuff is a stretch, but it's fun??? To theorize????? And I'm here for me and my peace of mind rather than trying to argue a point.

*I have some suspicions here, particularly with Gaiman stating that the decision from Amazon would come much faster than The Sandman's second season (which was four months). I don't know enough though to say if that's actually significant.

Questions

Who the fuck is telling this story?

This is the most important piece, in my opinion. There's this assumption when reading books (or research papers, newspapers, etc...) that the narrator who is writing the words is a non-presence, Neutral and objective. That's not the case, and an important part of literature critique is figuring out who the narrator is, and what their goals are. Oftentimes, the narrator and the author are the same person, but with Pratchett's work, particularly on Good Omens and Discworld, the Narrator was its own unique character.

This is why people struggle adapting Discworld to live action--that medium requires a Reason for having a Narrator, and especially in the age of method acting that's often considered immersion-breaking. Good Omens worked so well because they not only kept the Narrator, but they made Her God.

This added some really interesting new dimensions, such as the scene where Crowley speaks to God about his fall and the destruction of humanity. He doesn't receive an answer, but we're watching from God's perspective, so we as the audience know that She's listening.

Another advantage of making God the Narrator is that it justifies all the goofy little asides we get into the lives of minor characters (i.e. Leslie the Mailman), without losing focus. It helps the world feel like it’s full of people, rather than characters and plot contrivances, and the theme that individual people and their choices are important. The Narrator is such a central character of Good Omens that without it, the story struggles to stay focused.

It also highlights a key difference in the writing styles of the two authors. Pratchett’s work tends to introduce four or five totally unique plot threads that feel completely disjointed until the last act (if not even later), when it turns into a Chekhov’s Firing Squad. Plot twists around secret identities and backstabbing and schemes are relatively rare, as the omniscient Narrator doesn’t lie about the intentions of people or their actions.

Gaiman’s writing is typically not like that, to my knowledge. He buries characters in misdirection and hints, and you never know the true identity or motives until all the chips are down. It’s a perfectly valid way to approach storytelling, but it makes it jarring to see it in S2. The lack of a Narrator is a huge reason why S2 doesn’t feel like Good Omens to some folks.

My gut feeling is that the decision to shift from the original Narrator was highly intentional. It helps to obscure the thoughts and intentions of people, and it also muddles the insights that we’re supposed to take away. (I would have loved hearing God monologue about what’s going on in Jim’s head. I think it’d do a lot to make him seem less.... obnoxiously stupid.)

More than that, it brings up a reasonable potential plot point of: Where did God go? Why isn’t She present in the story? Even in her early appearance in the Job flashback, she doesn’t sound like the narrator for last season. After the first part of her speech (which Gabriel later quotes), her tone turns casual and condescending, which might line up with her being a bit of an asshole, it doesn’t line up with the whole “dealer of a mysterious card game who is always smiling”).

Also, I don’t think it’s safe to assume that nobody is telling the story either. Just because they’re not making their presence known doesn’t mean they aren’t there, and in a story like Good Omens, that’s concerning.

Wait, where's Satan?

Another person I saw while scrolling the tags pointed out that Satan is nowhere to be seen this season. He's really only mentioned in reference to a bet God made in Job, but then Crowley is the one on the ground causing mischief. There's no Hail Satan among demons (like Hastur and Ligur did at the start of S1).

That's might be because the writers didn't want us to think it was important (a la Hastur), but that feels off. Given that Satan speaks directly through the radio to Crowley in S1, complimenting him on his work, it's safe to say that he was at least aware of and involved in the goings-on in Hell. The fact that he wasn't even an worry for Beelzebub in abandoning their post? Feels weird.

(Also if you know where that post is, I'll happy credit + link)

What is Maggie?

Look, I love cute lesbians in love as much as the next queer, but I don't like Maggie. I don’t think she’s a person. Contextually, she’s a plot device, but I agree with That Essay that she might be an actual Plot Device.

Her characterization is simple and relatively shallow—a bit of an airhead, ray of sunshine that’s supposed to remind you of Aziraphale. When she describes her past to Nina, it’s almost robotic (also, her story implies it was Mr. Fell who first rented to her ancestor, not Mr. Fell’s great-grandfather like Nina implied). Her emotions are over-dramatic and seem to be turned on and off at random (scenes with her crying to Aziraphale about her woes had my “manipulator” senses going off for some reason).

When asked about a song, she not only IDs the song, its singer, and its year, but how and on what it was distributed. (Honestly thought this would’ve been something interesting, because she’s been pretty ditzy so far, it’d be interesting if she had like... an insane memory for music history.) And then she’s the one that sets Aziraphale on his little investigation by giving him the transformed records, while also planting the seed about her love troubles with Nina. Later, her advice to Crowley is... not awful, but feels insincere and a bit too forward, given her own self-proclaimed lack of relationship experience.

I don’t know what she is (a demon, hastur with amnesia in disguise, a literal plot device inserted by the current storyteller, etc...), but there’s something not right with her.

(Also the joke of “who listens to records anymore, it’s so old fashioned” just doesn’t land, lots of people buy records, and I’m saying this as somebody who has worked at a record store before.)

What's going on with Aziraphale?

There’s something Off about Aziraphale, and it’s not his choices at the end of the season. That makes total sense if you read him as somebody with severe religious trauma getting dragged back into the abusive system because other people need him and he’s been promised the ability to change things.

But I do think something is happening to his memory. Nearly all the flashbacks are from Aziraphale’s point of view and retelling, which means that they’re less reliable than God’s version of events in the previous season. Many of them don’t make logistical sense (post-church scene in 1941), depict Crowley as meaner or more sinister than we know he is, or frame events... weirdly. The scene with him trying food for the first time feels Really Bad, especially when the series has previously established that he’s a) prim and proper and b) his interest in food is one of the beautiful things that connect him to humanity, not some kind of gluttonous sin. Also he turns down alcohol.

Their meet-cute at the start of the universe also doesn’t line up with their reactions to each other in Eden, or the fact that knowing each other Before has never come up or been hinted at anywhere ever. I don’t know what’s causing this to happen, only that Aziraphale repeatedly looks pensive when coming out of flashbacks, and Crowley is never there afterwards to corroborate said memories.

His actions also seem pretty inconsistent with what we know of him—i.e. I refuse to believe he would ever mistreat his books, even if they’re just old encyclopedias. Also, he feels a bit too...forceful in trying to get Nina and Maggie to fall in love? I mean, he didn’t exert that much direct influence on even Warlock, when he was actively hoping that the boy would turn out angelic rather than neutral.

I don’t think this removes his agency in that last decision, so much as explains how he was in such a vulnerable place at all. He still needs to apologize and fix things, because he messed up, and even if he hadn’t he still seriously hurt Crowley.

What's going on with Crowley?

There’s something Off about Crowley. The most obvious thing, of course, is his memories. At multiple points in the present day, characters state that they remember him or have met him before, only to be met with confusion. This is especially concerning given that he has a nigh photographic memory for faces (something mentioned in the book when he immediately IDs Mary Loquacious, 11 years after a 30 second conversation).

Overall, he seems to be better known by other supernatural entities this season, in ways that often tie him back to his angelic identity (i.e. saying they fought together in the war, Aziraphale stating he knew the angel he used to be, etc...). This doesn’t feel right, because S1 we see that Hell is largely apathetic towards his schemes, and definitely does not defer to him at any point in any capacity.

Then there’s the issue of his power level. It’s always been speculated that Crowley was a powerful angel prior to falling, when he mentions in S1 his involvement with star making, his seemingly unique ability to freeze time, and creating a pocket universe for Adam before the confrontation with Satan. He also has a tendency of breathing life into inanimate objects, like his plants or car. He also has the regular demonic skillset: miracles that can adjust physical appearance; the ability to change inanimate objects (like paintball guns into real guns); the ability to manifest clothing and similar items; and summon hellfire to his fingertips. This, plus the way he monologues to God with a degree of familiarity rather than reverence seems to indicate that he was Somebody Powerful and Important Before.

But in S2, his skills are significantly expanded upon. The miracle he and Aziraphale summon sets off alarms in heaven and hell, and it’s powerful enough to mask Gabriel from the Archangels. He summons a miniature sun to rain fire on Job, which is way bigger and flashier than anything we’ve seen him summon in S1. (If he needs fire, he alters the course of a dropping bomb, without creating one himself.)

Yet he’s able to cloak his presence so well he goes wholly unnoticed in heaven, or in front of heavenly agents on earth (i.e. the Job flashback). Muriel can’t clock him as a demon, or even as another supernatural being, despite their auras usually being pretty significant, such Aziraphale immediately sensing the archangels when they arrive. He’s able to interfere with files that Muriel claimed required clearance (although I feel like that might just be a snark about Obeying Without Thinking? I would really need a Narrator to know.)

I might be misremembering, but I don’t think we’ve seen angels or demons transmogrify living beings before either. In the book, Crowley brings Aziraphale’s dove back to life after the failed magic show, and occasionally sinks ducks, but he doesn’t alter them? Not even Adam demonstrates that skill in S1. But he has no trouble turning Job’s children into lizards, however temporarily. Boy that would’ve been convenient during the flood. Or when the guard stopped then from getting to the air strip.

I don’t have any real issues with his characterization in the present day parts of S2, but there’s something weird happening with Crowley.

Where's all the people?

I really like a lot of the new characters, but how were there only like, 2.5 new humans named in the present day? Flashbacks don’t count bc the humans are all dead and can’t affect the story.

As much as I like Nina, she and Maggie don’t drive the story beyond being an occasional and awkwardly inserted plot contrivance? Both are actively robbed of their agency at several points, forced into situations that they could not have avoided or escaped. I’m not really sure what growth they’re expected to experience other than deciding not to date each other after everything. I literally can’t tell you anything about Nina other than that she remembers her regular’s orders, runs a coffee shop, and has a textbook abusive partner we never see. The only meaningful interactions they have are between those two, or in conversation with Aziraphale and Crowley.

Compare that to S1, where Anathema gets hit by Aziraphale and Crowley, but her primary relationships are with Newt, Adam, and Agnes Nutter (I think that counts as a relationship). We know that she’s got a wealthy family back in Puerto Rico, and that she was literally raised to save the world, and that she isn’t happy under all that pressure. Newt on the other hand is connected to not just Anathema, but Shadwell and Madame Tracy. He never even directly interacts with Aziraphale and Crowley. We know about his hobbies, his struggle to hold down a job, and his almost supernatural ability to destroy any electronics he touches. I don’t necessarily like how their relationship came together, but they were both very, very well fleshed out characters with unique backstories and goals. They weren’t just... waiting around to give Aziraphale and Crowley a new questline.

And while there’s no requirement to include a large cast of human characters that are exerting influence over the story, the lack of it is another aspect that makes this season feel not like Good Omens.

Also, it's just. Really weird to me that the events of S1 aren't really referenced at all? Like, Adam isn't mentioned, nor is Warlock. I don't expect them to keep track of the humans they met on the airfield for 20 minutes, but none of it is ever specifically referenced as far as I can tell, beyond Crowley threatening Gabriel. Like, I get that it's been a few years, but the pair caused a big enough disturbance that you'd expect some kind of ripples in their supernatural communities.

Promised by the Narrative (Obvious Chekhov's guns that I will be legitimately upset over if they do not go off)

A sincere apology from Aziraphale to Crowley that doesn't come with the expectation that Crowley will come back to him, but because he deserves an apology, even if the choices Aziraphale made were done with good intentions. Aziraphale does not expect forgiveness, and is shocked when Crowley grants it without hesitation.

A clear declaration of love from Aziraphale, which can't be rationalized away by either of them.

An "I'm Sorry" dance between Aziraphale and Crowley, but with greater sincerity and gravity. The most important piece is that they end up dancing together, which signifies a mutual apology and dedication to come together.

Since kissing is on the table, I expect an actual joyful, mutual kiss between these two assholes.

A shared cottage in South Downs.

Predictions/Theories (just some fun thoughts I've had)

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he didn't make himself not the antichrist, but accidentally crowned his human dad the King of Hell. Nobody knows this, because Adam doesn't have a good measure for "normal" supernatural situations, and Mr. Young because he's so "normal" that he explains away all the magical bullshit that's started going down.

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he erased Satan altogether. However, this left a vacuum in both power and reality. The defection of both Gabriel and Beelzebub only widens that crack. In an attempt to Fix things, reality is warping the story. Crowley has become leagues more powerful between S1 and S2, as the narrative is trying to force him into the role of his previous boss. Aziraphale is unknowingly being pulled into a similar version on the Other Side, perhaps to replace Gabriel or perhaps to replace God herself, who has been fairly absent in all this. The alterations to their memories or past have come about to keep the narrative running smoothly.

When the Metatron asks Nina whether anybody has ever asked for death, he was actually referring to Death, the sole remaining rider of the apocalypse.

If Maggie is indeed a Plot Device, it would be a fascinating exploration of Free Will to see her become aware of this (cue existential crisis), and then fall in love with Nina on her own terms, rather than because she was written that way.

Hastur will be back. Somehow.

The reason why S2 focuses so much on the supernatural characters is because S3 will be about how the events in S1 have changed the political landscape of heaven and hell. Angels are questioning their roles, demons are yearning for something more. It's scaring upper administration, and then the two most reliable folks in employment run away to alpha centauri. Recruiting Aziraphale and getting him back in line prevents him from becoming a martyr, control the range of his influence. The series reasserts its theme of choice and agency by highlighting that Aziraphale and Crowley aren't that special, they've just had the chance to live and grow, and that the others have free will too, if they want it.

The reason why they wanted to separate Aziraphale and Crowley, is not to get Aziraphale on his own, but to get Crowley on his own. He literally stopped time and made a pocket universe in front of Satan last season. He's powerful and dangerous and somebody wants to see that reigned in.

Wishlist (stuff I desperately want to see)

Crowley getting an audience with God and an opportunity to ask his questions, only to refuse to do so because he's found his own Answers and he no longer needs hers

Aziraphale and Crowley growing more into their book incarnations. Aziraphale becomes confident in his sense of morality, which he developed the hard way through millennia on earth besides humanity. He slowly learns what it means to be loved, unconditionally, but also is better at asserting and maintaining his boundaries. Crowley, still anxious and unwinding, works through his fear of abandonment, providing him opportunities to be kind and gentle and nurturing--all traits that he's aggressively hid since being a demon.

Hand holding. I know that Gaiman was referring to Ineffable Bureaucracy, but I still feel like we'd benefit from meaningful hand holding, especially since that got cut from the adaptation of the book.

Shifted focus away from the supernatural shenanigans, and back onto the humans that actually drive the story.

Cameos from S1 characters (if not a more substantial appearance).

The Four Other Riders of the Apocalypse.

Cursed Thoughts (why I shouldn't be allowed a social platform)

Ineffable Bureaucracy turns up in season 3 because Beelzebub got Gabriel pregnant somehow.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens s2 #good omens meta #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens 2 theory #good omens 2 analysis #long post #text

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pascalcampion · 11 months

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L’Autoroute du Soleil, by Baru.

This graphic novel was published in 1995.

At the time, I hadn’t yet read a graphic novel like this.

Black and white, it was long too. Over 400 pages. It felt real.

I had known of Baru’s work for a while by then. He had done a book or a series, I can’t remember called “Quequette Blues” I think it was published in a magazine like A suivre or Pilote. I wasn’t interested in it. I was probably too young then to connect to stories that felt SO MUCH like real life.

But when L’Autoroute du Soleil came out, it felt like I knew the characters in the book.

Not only that, but it felt like this was a story that could’ve really happened.

Put back in the context of the time, most of the stories in graphic novel form I was exposed to were either super hero comics or stuff like Tintin and Asterix( I mean, not JUST that but mostly that). The OTHER type of comic form I would see in stores was adult only stuff.

So when I found L’autoroute du Soleil, it was a shock. It felt like a movie on paper.

Everything about it worked. The graphic nature of the characters, They were not pretty. Not all of them. Some were down right ugly, just like in real life.

People coming in and out of the story. Having an impact then disappearing, like a person you meet on the train and is gone at the next stop. I grew up in the south of France and when the main characters stop for a while in the South, I thought I could hear the cicadas and feel the heat of long summer days

The staging, editing, the rhythm of the story felt like it was shot with a camera. The story itself was a very urbane, believable story with (almost) believable human reactions. There was just enough “extra” to make you want to read more. The night shots felt moody and real and the sequences where the characters relax on the beach feel breezy, sunny and fun. I wasn’t used to author who were so comfortable in light sequences as well as moody, tense moments.

It was the beginning of an era where I could see graphic novels as a full art. Not for kids, not for bizarre stories that no one would read or care for, but for very mature, skillfully crafted movies on paper. This book didn’t have color and I didn’t even notice. It was that engrossing.

I re read the book a few weeks ago and I am STILL completely involved in the story.

I feel these stories are more common today.

I find similar real life feelings in some mangas. There are some American Graphic Novel artist that have been going down that road as well and I love it.

Baru has done other amazing books since then.

He did one about a boxer a little later that I find absolutely amazing as well.

I believe he is still active and whenever I get a chance to find some of his work, I’ll read it.

#Baru #L’autoroute du Soleil

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whispangleblogger · 7 months

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I am not somebody that hops onto the "comic discourse" a lot. I usually prefer to talk things through with my friends and share opinions in private.

But since Tangle more or less got ignored so far i take the chance and talk a bit about her appearance in 64

She jumps in as a supportive character towards Whisper and helps her to prevent another breakdown. While yes, there was a scene in Urban Warfare that did the exact same thing, i feel like with issue 64 we finally see how strong of an impact this support actually has on the page. (I talk a bit more about Urban Warfare further down this post.) I don't even dare and call this bait (Edit: Not my words btw. i saw this used in another heated post. I personally never felt baited in any form. If anything, the girls relationship is one big highlight in these comics.) because it simply isn't. Here is a character that cares for her partner and also is uncomfortable with the whole situation to begin with. She has to decide where her priorities lie. Her reaction is to be expected to be focused on a trembling Whisper and all i can say is i'm glad we finally have a good depiction of that.

Tangle has the right to approach Whisper in ways i think no other character is able to, she earned it and it pretty much shows on this page. Softly taking down Whisper's mask and checking on her, the body language in these panels is chefs kiss. She's truly a bouncy girl, but it's good to see her being serious every now and then, i feel like it's a side of her that people usually tend to ignore. (And i really don't know why that is.) Evan Stanley does always an amazing job if it comes to showing Tangle in a different light or how she cares about her friends and loved ones. In regards about the current arc and even the last one, i feel like this post is a good chance to add my personal take to it as well, since it's been on my mind for a good while now. I feel like 64 finally makes a step into the right direction again.

To elaborate a little on that, i wasn't really a big fan of Urban Warfare, simply for the fact that it's pacing is all over the place. There were a lot of things that needed to be covered, to name a few: - new team building - Whisper's trauma - Lanolin introduced as a new character - a LOT of other teams jumping into the scene - the city itself all squeezed into a 5 book arc. One more book compared to a mini series that usually gives full focus to a set of chosen characters.

To make this clear, there are also good things in Urban Warfare as well but thanks to the fact how rushed the whole story felt in it's core it's a bit hard to enjoy the good bits as well...

Misadventures still deals with the same pacing problem and i believe that is where the real issue lies. As a reader/collector of the books and longtime fan of them, all i can say is:

I wish the comics would get their old, well cared, time for details back. Yes, a story like the Metal Virus was a long run but in the end it was a fantastic read. Mini arcs like Trial by Fire (Still one of my favorites), that focus on other things instead of the usual action, are also very important for character development and add a lot of depth to them. Endless Summer is a great example for such addition as well. These books provide insight into character interaction we usually don't see otherwise. Of course i have no idea how much SEGA is involved into everything if it comes to general decisions like how long one arc is supposed to last and when the next one should start.

(The next part is based on my personal taste, this has nothing to do with the general narrative of the books. I just want to share my thoughts about this since i really don't write them down a lot.)

As a little side note, i feel like Lanolin is a great character so far. Her stubborn and rule book like demeanor as a leader is refreshing to say the least. She also seems to be really close to how her creator ABT imagines her to be and i really appreciate that. But i can't help it and feel like her team dynamic with Tangle and Whisper comes of as rather… rocky ? On a combat level of things it works really good but on a friendship level it's somehow lacking atm. There is this boss and coworker relationship going on that feels more like real work. Obviously though she's new and needs more time to get better established. I guess we will see how this plays out in the future. I'm all in for a good or funny team dynamic but i also can't help it and feel like she works better as an addition to Jewel, running the restoration, the navigator typ that sends intel via com instead of a field combatant. Even if she proved she's good at close combat as well during her encounter with Whisper in 64. That being said, i am all open for surprises and more character development on her part. This is really just a "now" opinion and can easily change over time. I like the sheep, i really do.

#IDW Sonic #Whisper the Wolf #Tangle the Lemur #Whispangle #Just some thoughts i wanted to get out of my head #long opinion posts always take forever to write - language barrier demands extra brain juice - cries in german #Thanks to my friends SomethingSonicRelated - Honeydew - DillyWolf and ScurvyPiratehog for looking over this post #providing some additions as well #64 was a good read overall #the Whispangle moment was soft and needed #not adding more details about the issue in general since i still try to keep the theme of the blog as it's focus.#I think the post speaks for itself :>#There are still moments i hold really high and dear to me from the last arc #best example's probably my pinned post heh <3

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arceespinkgun · 10 days

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I'd love to hear your opinions on IDW Rodimus. I personally thought he was one of the better characters in that comic, but I have not read the Marvel comics so I have no point of comparison.

Just to clarify: I hate this character as he is in MTMTE and Lost Light. Not Rodimus as he appeared in IDW before those series. I'm not familiar with all his appearances, but his origin story seemed pretty strong to me. What I'm about to say isn't the fault of the character, it's the fault of the writer, James Roberts, who I resent for throwing out all the characterization that came from other writers before him in this and many other instances.

I don't really know what to say. Rodimus is a monster. I can't recount every horrible thing he did, there's too many. A few egregious ones are:

Punishing Rewind for having a snuff film collection, but then telling him to project a record of Fortress Maximus being tortured onto a wall to trigger Maximus during a hostage situation, then telling Swerve to shoot Fortress Maximus after Swerve repeatedly protested. Swerve said he was a bad shot, that Maximus was too close to Rung, that Maximus was already calm... Rodimus had so many chances to reconsider.

When Red Alert attempted suicide, Rodimus lied to Rung about it. You know, Red Alert's therapist? And not only did he lie about that, but he called this person who'd just tried to take his own life a bunch of ableist slurs. And Rodimus smeared him like this to cover his own ass and hide what Red Alert had found.

Bringing Overlord onto the ship because his ego is so fragile it couldn't handle Prowl calling him a wimp, then lying repeatedly about it, including during Overlord rampaging around killing the crew.

When Ultra Magnus is presumed dead and Drift is exiled by Rodimus, one issue after they're gone, Rodimus goes to Rung and Cyclonus and is basically like, you two are the new Ultra Magnus and Drift, really showing how disposable everyone is to him.

Rodimus's treatment of Drift in general was especially gross. Please keep in-mind that Rodimus is the captain, so he had direct power over him. Rodimus got possessive and impatient any time Drift was doing anything other than attending directly to Rodimus, including calling him some horrible, undisclosed thing, and threatening to have the law changed specifically in order to punish Drift for his Decepticon past (this is during peace time). He claimed to Thunderclash that he'd "rehabilitated" Drift. He had Drift take the blame for Overlord, kicked Drift out of the Autobots, and didn't intervene when Drift was assaulted for this. And we learn that Drift only hadn't told the crew the truth about Overlord in the first place because he'd felt "beholden" to Rodimus. The way Rodimus treated Drift almost felt to me like Drift was his courtesan or something, along with the racist tropes that implies... it's really bad. EDIT: oh, and it was even worse because Rodimus exiled Drift right after Drift had his legs torn off by Overlord, and because when Rodimus eventually did confess to bringing Overlord on board, he didn't look for Drift or even send him a message.

Now I know what fans might say. But he came clean/apologized/grew so it's an arc! But that's not the case. As I've reread most of MTMTE just now, I saw that this character is basically written as a complete monster until about issue 18, and then suddenly starts behaving heroically and saying the right things after no growth at all. It's not an arc, it reads like JRo just reconsidered this guy's entire characterization, but you can't do that! You have to commit! Plus, I do not really care that Rodimus did better eventually, because "making amends" should have included stepping down as the first act. No, there absolutely should not have been a vote over his captaincy. He should have been removed or better yet, removed himself. (Also, what kind of a sadistic choice was that vote? Because if Rodimus had been voted out, that would have meant Megatron would've been sole captain of the Lost Light, and there was no vote over that! That was just unilaterally decided by Optimus Prime!)

A really great example of how Rodimus doesn't really grow or change genuinely is issue #36. In that issue, he and other crew members go back in time, and Rodimus keeps trying to find a way to prevent Trailbreaker's death. He shows a lot of concern for him. But this comes out of nowhere. As I've just reread a large chunk of MTMTE, I can tell you that Rodimus and Trailbreaker had no connection whatsoever before this. And again, none of this is the character's fault. This is the writer's fault. Because Rodimus doesn't actually grow, I wouldn't blame people from being like, "Well, I prefer to think of Rodimus as the version who behaves better and says the right things." But that would be the reader's choice, not something the writer or series should be credited for.

When it comes to Rodimus in the Marvel comics, what sort of things did he do that made him a flawed, complex character? Hiring a bounty hunter to take out Galvatron, which went poorly, but the intention was to try and keep people safe. Giving in to being goaded by Galvatron and losing his cool, but he gets talked down by Arcee. As Hot Rod, he was especially impulsive, and make mistakes like getting bored and going for a drive when he was supposed to be keeping watch at a diplomatic summit, which gave the Decepticons an opportunity to attack... but he then tried to redeem himself as soon as possible by immediately going one-on-one with their leader and putting himself at great risk. This basically applies to any of Rodimus's or Hot Rod's errors in judgment. He always tried to address them ASAP, and often they were made with good intentions (in one of the annuals, he disobeyed orders because he thought Kup was being hurt, for example), not to cover his own ass or spite people.

I also want to mention Rodimus from the 80s cartoon as well. He is known for saying absolutely deranged things and being so depressed, he took any opportunity to be rid of the mantle of leadership.

But the thing about this is that his actual actions were still almost always for others' benefit. I think that's the other biggest thing that JRo ignored.

#my analysis #transformers idw #Rodimus Prime #transformers g1 #transformers marvel #negative #rant

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sanjisluvbot · 1 year

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ISEKAI BNHA X BLACK FEM READER

Masterlist

Imagine really living in a world with super powers? Going to school to learn all you can about using your quirk to help people. Fighting villains who threaten the peace and false sanctuary of the world.

You spent hours day dreaming about it and reading comic books. That’s how it should stay, imagine living in THIS universe and people had super powers… funny but not funny haha funny absolutely terrifying.

“ You know what I like this Y/N, I feel like you’re really going to make this into something wonderful for the spring news paper ”

“ Thank you Mrs. Montgomery, I think the student body will enjoy a fun story about becoming a super hero or vigilante considering all the new books and movies coming out when this is published.”

She smiled at you and sent you off your way, the school was now partially empty and the creative writing club was spending time after school to put together the first edition of the newspaper.

You had an entire week of Christmas break to write and let your creativity flow free. The snow fell as you made your way home and it gave you a child like joy, so you made a wish.

If there is a high power somewhere in the universe, I want my story to come alive this Christmas so I have something wonderful to publish on the newspaper.

After arriving home and eating dinner you decided to develop your characters. Research was important for making well written characters so you spent the next few hours writing and reading about different powers and superhero’s across the multi verse. You stumbled upon a series that sparked your inspiration like no other.

My Hero Academia

In this series 80% of the world is born with super powers that they call quirks, and they have high schools specifically meant to create future hero’s. The main character reminded you of yourself, born without powers but way more ambitious than anyone else.

Y/N are you coming?

Huh where?

Your eyes opened, when did you fall asleep? I was just watching the newest episode of My Hero and-

“ Y/N are you dressed we’re going to training soon!”

“ Yeah be right there”

Mother sounds weird, and what training is she talking about?

Taking a look around this wasn’t your room at all, it was like you were in a customized hotel suite with everything personalized to your liking. Looking at your clothes you were in some kind of costume as well. You weren’t home and nothing was making sense, was that even your mother calling you just now? You grabbed your phone and headed to the door clasping onto the knob without opening. Voices could be heard outside it sounded like there was a bunch of people in front of your door.

You opened it and were met face to face with the meanest mug. “ Bakugo?”

“ Let’s go you’ve been locked away since last night I was gonna barge in and drag you out myself ”

“ What? ”

“ Are you thick let’s go ” he angrily grabbed your hand and all but dragged you down the hall as the others followed. Everything looked exactly how it did in the show, you were amazed was this some type of Lucid dream?

“ Why do you look like that?”

“ Huh? I look like what”

“ Like you’ve never been here should I get you medicine or something ” Bakugo’s kindness surprised you a great deal be was standoffish even with his friends for the most part.

“ Bakugo why-”

“ Again with Bakugo? What happened to Tsuki?” He whispered turning away from you with a reddened ears.

Oh?

“ Yeah my fault… Tsuki”

When you were all at the training arena it was as if using a quirk was second nature to you. You felt like you were truly super human, like you were finally alive. The second part of training you were paired off into teams, you were paired with Bakugo which gives you the chance to figure out the extent of your relationship.

Walking down the hall together yiu we’re thinking of a way to bring anything up without giving away the fact that you really have no clue what is going on when you noticed him looking over his shoulder every few second.

“ What are you looking at?”

You looked over your shoulder to find no one just the regular UA halls. Turning to him he was starring at you intensely, was he angry? He licked his lips and placed his hands on your hips pulling you close.

Okay now I get it.

“ You looked great earlier, I told you training with me would help. Can I get my promised reward?”

“ Reward?” Your hands felt clammy and your cheeks were hot. What did he want as a reward..

“ yes, a kiss? I missed you yesterday you started acting strange when everyone was watching a movie.”

“ O-oh yeah no don’t worry I’m fine must’ve been a headache Yanno?” He smiled softly and his hands wondered further making you Yelp.

You were now inches apart and your hands glided to his face. You’ve kissed people before but something about these red eyes made you so nervous. You closed your eyes and connected, his lips were so soft why did everything just feel right here.

“ Sorry to interrupt you two but the arena is waiting”

To be continued possibly

I was inspired by another story I’m working on and I think a regular Isekai to step away from the Yandere for a bit !

#my hero acedamia #bnha x black!reader #bakugou katsuki #mha bakugou #mha imagines #mha bakugo x reader #bakugo x black reader #x black fem reader #x black reader

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jezmmart · 1 month

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Chamomile Comic Trivia #31

#159 - Notice

It's Sam! I wish I had written down more about my decision to add her, although at this point I'm fairly sure I wasn't certain she was going to become a main character - in fact it was RIGHT around the week this posted that I began work on the first proper cover art for the series which of course did not include her.

Her design was based off this old one-off pin-up girl art from 2017, technically making her the first ever major Chamomile Comic character to exist, sort of.

She was named after Sam Lloyd, likely known for his portrayal of Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs. The news of his death had recently broken and I had just recently begun listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, the Scrubs rewatch podcast, as my go-to background entertainment when colouring the comic specifically each week. It still is now, albeit intermittently since they don't always produce an episode each week and I no longer have a backlog to catch up on. Now granted, I don't love the podcast as much as I used to - can be a bit cringey at times as these two hollywood actors chat about utterly unrelatable anecdotes from their lives - but it's overall been enjoyable and it'll be weird to find something new to accompany my colouring if it does come to an end or stops being enjoyable once they permanently pivot into... whatever they plan to do after they run out of Scrubs episodes. It's been part of my colouring process for the comic for longer than it hasn't been now, haha. So... yeah it felt right to honour that connection to my comic with Sam's name, on top of the fact that Scrubs is just straight-up one of my favourite TV shows and Ted was always a character that gave me big laughs.

Of course... I realised after that I'd introduced yet another character to the comic ending in "-a"! ...But whatever, it's a common thing. Not so long ago I had 5 co-workers simultaneously whose names also ended in -a, lol.

The decision to have had her always be around simply came from not having any strong ideas to introduce her and preferring the idea that at least some of the cast already knew her. The gag's been done before, but I thought it'd be extra funny to introduce her with a scene in which she is specifically announcing her departure from being a regular face in Cammie's life, which typically would mean the same for the audience in most works with actually established characters.

Final little bonus note - in panel 1, Cammie once again is entering with a handful of steaming coffee.

#160 - Official

I didn't really mean for it to be so small it's barely legible at web size, but the little sign on the panic alarm button behind the till says "Real emergencies only Cammie!", in reference to #50.

#161 - Before

All that Scrubs talk regarding Sam is kinda fitting, because they did the "this character was always here!" gag there too. For their one, they edited her in on various memorable shots and pretended the main character didn't notice her being present, here I obviously extended the frame on the end of several punchline panels from previous comics.

Here's a gif that shows the original panels compared to the new ones, showing both the new and old art isolated as well so you can see exactly what I drew to extend the older panels which naturally weren't drawn originally knowing that I would one day be extending them!

The second of the three Sam flashbacks is just a nice little bridging one, but it did take me a while to decide for sure which way around I wanted the first and third flashback panel. For the first: while there's been a little bit of mild bad language in the comic once the seal was broken here, Sam's "bitch" is the first time such language has appeared so it amused me to place it in a scene that has already happened long ago just barely outside of the audience's perspective. For the third: the joke is of course that the reveal of Sam's additional dialogue is particularly adding nothing to the scene whatsoever - like, as if Cammie making a fool of herself would even be remark-worthy at this point. I felt both these two goofs had a good punch to them in their own way so yeah, I remember being conflicted over whether I had chosen the funniest possible flow of these three gags.

Of course, the final joke of this one, in case it wasn't obvious (I could see it being subtle for some), is that Mimi's whole running gag is she's a side character who also has existed in the comic for long before her first on-screen appearance, yet Cammie never remembers her.

#162 - New

The art and dialogue structure of the first two panels here is identical to #160. I think it being a time-saver on my workload for the week was definitely a factor - for whatever reason I needed it at the time - but I also remember going for something with that choice beyond just that... But I can't for the life of me remember what. I don't think the parallel between the two comics adds anything reading them back now.

Anyway here's Newt! I really thought at the time that he was going to be as significant an addition as Sam, and I did come up with the idea of introducing a regular male character at the time I chose to bring Sam in, with Sam's introduction - and exit - being an amusing way to introduce a surprise new character.

...Then I proceeded to never really get any super strong story ideas for him lol. More detail on that in a second. I haven't forgotten him though, frustrates me that he keeps getting sidelined!

#163 - Training

Standard behind-the-scenes retail frustration humour here. I can neither confirm nor deny how much is based on my current employment. A little detail of authenticity/flavour is that they're watching a DVD intended for widescreen on an old non-widescreen TV that's clearly been in their staff room for at least a decade. Such was the case for my painful training videos too! (It's all online now as of a few years into when I started, so some progress has been made I guess).

#164 - Huh

It's not made clear yet, but the new status quo that Sam is a receptionist at a primary school is established here - the coloured hanging letter signage on the wall that is too perspective'd to read says "WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL".

I chose this as a job for her based simply on the fact that my Mum has often worked in school offices for most of my life. She wasn't a receptionist but it was the sort of job where I have some... vague enough memories of the "behind-the-scenes" enough to draw something along those lines when I needed to show Sam at work.

Getting back to Newt, obviously the goof here is that Cammie is just being a sore loser about her friend leaving and Newt is about the most cool-sounding interesting person you could imagine meeting. Unfortunately that involved specifically coming up with fun sounding stuff that are not super common to do or know people that do, so despite the super interesting combo of cave-diving, stand-up and polyamory these are all things I feel like I'd have to do thorough research on to represent in the actual comic accurately... which is something I'd like to do but, time is finite and I have so much pre-existing experience with being a silly nonsense person. Would you believe it, there's another character in the comic for whom that experience lends itself very well!!

Speaking of whom, the first appearance of the bell on the door in Repeat 1 Records was only a month after Cammie got the job. She works fast!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

#jezmm #chamomile comic trivia #art insight

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amigac0debasic13 · 4 months

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hey guys. Do u even care about what I have to say. Thats right baby. It’s a mini rant. Young Garmadon edition and the horrors of white boy Star Wars core.

Okay so. Erm.? I don’t like garmadons child design in the show. This guy is way too twink coded as a young adult for me and that’s wrong. He’s a beast. And also))??? Lots of paragraphs on Wu depression. Thats the synopsis now look below for further horro r

Hello??? Dang man tatooine is calling ???? IM. SORRY THAT WAS MEAN. I’ve always felt like the spinjitzu bro books did a better job with his design, but brunette just isn’t it. Black hair. Right now. Make it naturally white but also make him fucjing stupid so he dyes it with Ink because he doesn’t want whit4 hair cause he’s DUMB.

Look alive. Make him wear a ponytail and give him the black dyed hair COWARDS.

Anyways that parts over. Now I’m going to talk about my issues with how people draw him in his human form a lot.

I feel like the twinkification is real. All human designs I’ve found of Garmadon that don’t use legos ambiguous yellow color are pasty white and this madness must STOP!!! I think if u wanna make him a cracker it’s ok. It’s fine. But it is a little boring seeing the same designs scatter my Garmadon picture wall(/J I DONT HABE THA)

‘And also while I’m at it, I’m gonna be real and say that any design for wu in the series is pretty good. Still mad he looks like a normal guy. TBH. Many fan designs give him more dragon like traits, and I think that’s so cool, but I’ve always had a specific idea I’ve never seen executed personally. I think Wu would chop his horns off if he had them permanently out.

Wu clearly isn’t a fan of just showing off his dragon or Oni traits. He straight up doesn’t do it, even as a kid (he should honestly be shown with those traits cause he really doesn’t give a fuck as a child) and I believe that his tormented old man position (see the many drawings and tweets from the shows authors and writers) he wouldn’t exactly be drawn to having his traits on display. The completely reasonable solution? Scar himself permanently by wacking them off with a blade. Sounds like something he’d do in young adult hood. His horns being out insinuates he can’t just shapeshift to make them go away, so erm!! Pretty smart solution ngl!!!

‘’Now it’s time for Wu trauma oooooooo!!!!! Oh my god part of his soul is GONE????

In one of the spinjitzu bro books Wus soul is forced into a little puppet. At the end of the book, the puppet is still alive and moving. When the ninja ask to see a puppet show before Wu recounts this, he has a physical reaction.

so. Wu is having a great time. Also, in one of the comics (forgot the name and I can’t for the LIFE OF ME remember where I read this) he confronts. Basically the embodiment of his fears. Basically he doesn’t want to become like his SHIT father who is literally god. leave him ALONE.

So. Uhm. In conclusion. Whirlwind (wus canon nickname) and Softie (Garmadons canon nickname) need to get their shit together <33333333

#ninjago #lego ninjago #my rants #rant post #wu ninjago #ninjago garmadon #lord garmadon #young garmadon #very specific tag but ok #who made that #young wu #THERES ANOTHER???

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evelhak · 4 months

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🔹2023 Wrap Up🔹

I've never really done an end of the year type of post, but I got inspired somehow. Maybe because this year has been in many ways slower and filled with rest more than any other year in my life so far (which is a good thing), but I started looking back, wondering if I'd really done "anything" this year, and I can see there's still a decent amount of things I've accomplished that are meaningful to me. So, this is almost diary type self-reflection. But I'll post it because I would like to see other people do this type of thing too. ✨

This is mostly work and hobbies related.

Original writing published

Rummuttaja (Drummer)

My third published novel and the first book in my first fantasy series. I'll talk about it more in its own post but it's about an island where people can control earthquakes with music, and musically gifted children are brought up as heroes to be. I spent about half of 2023 editing this book and I'm probably more proud of it than anything else I've published.

Sydäntekniikkaa (Heart Techniques)

A short story, or a novella, with a spin on the innocent girl meets heartless boy trope. Discusses politics, environment, prejudice, ignorance and disability in a fantastical setting. It was published in a steampunk anthology Rautasilmä ja muita steampunk-kertomuksia (Iron eye and other steampunk stories) with three other stories. Here's a drawing of my main character.

A book review I wrote on Sankareita ja shakkinappuloita (Heroes and chess pieces) by Heidi Torn, appeared in a Finnish SFF magazine Kosmoskynä. I very rarely make time to help with this magazine I've subscribed to for many years, so I'm glad I did. The book was about Greek gods in modern day Finland, so as a Percy Jackson fan I was obviously intrigued.

Original works written

2023 wasn't the most active writing year since I spent so much time editing, but I managed to write

about a half of a fantastical murder mystery in a ballet school told from the perspective of seven students with very different views on the school and the people in it

a short story about a magical doll maker student attempting to manipulate another guy to be less full of himself

Editing work

I've just started as one of three editors for a magic school story anthology. It is my first time so I'm learning from the other two who are more experienced and actually have their university degrees in Finnish language which I don't. I was asked along as more of the magic school expert since most of my published work so far is set in them. We are only just starting to go through the submissions since the deadline was the end of the year, so I haven't done much yet but I really love helping other people make the most of their writing, so I'm very excited. ✨

Fan fiction

Words published: 225 239

Words written: 263 315

Not including a few 100 word drabbles, and fake chats which are actually from past fics anyway just in visual form.

My fics were mostly KagaKuro, as they usually are, but I also wrote one AoMomo. My plans for 2024 have more diverse focus characters, though!

Illustration/Graphic design

I got more work for cover design than before this year. I'm still such a newbie on this, but I'm fairly happy with many of them, and I've discovered such passion for this art. Only writing books is more satisfying than getting to be the one to bring out the book's core in a visual form. And some of the authors have really loved the covers and felt like I got them, which of course feels amazing. I always wanted to do my own covers but now that I get to do other people's too I just want to do it more and more.

Drawings/Paintings

This was definitely a KnB heavy year! Which I enjoyed a lot. I didn't do that many original things but I was really happy to get back to traditional art after several years now that I think my digital art skills have improved to pretty much the same level.

Comics

I didn't really complete anything but in June I got about half way through this KagaKuro comic (with female Kuroko) based on my own fic Kuroko's Fairytale.

This is definitely one of the things I want to finish the most in 2024! I felt so high drawing it. It was such a strange experience because female Kuroko was not supposed to be a thing for me... (it was supposed to be just one funky fic that happens in a dream, never to be revisited again, because my brain is so much work it beats itself up about even the most minuscule changes I might like to make on existing characters, like, my brain just has no chill about fiction, everything is death serious, it's fucking annoying even to me) But. BUT. B U T. When I was drawing this comic. Oh. My. God. I have no words for how good it felt. Like, I obviously knew you can experience love on behalf of fictional characters (hello, shipping) but I had never before experienced gender euphoria on behalf of a fictional character. There's no other way to describe it, girl Kuroko absolutely destroyed me in the best of ways. So she's here to stay, I can't push her back anymore.

Anyway, have a sneak peek. I still struggle a lot with consistent anatomy as I have my whole life, but there are a few frames I love already, my favourite probably being the one which is also my icon.

Not that I'm not also in love with stupid prince Kagami, but I was never fighting that so it's a little different.

Books read

Not an especially good reading year in quantity. In quality it was, though. I don't think there was one book that I disliked. My problem these days is that every time I try to take time to read a book, about a half an hour into it my brain goes like... You know what? You could be working on your own writing. But it's also very important for a writer to read, so I have to retrain my brain to stop feeling like it's wasting time when I read.

Total: 29 (or 35 if you count KnB as two volumes each since it's double edition)

New books: 17

Rereads: 12(/18)

Several of these are books I did covers for, and I started a KnB reread to check for ideas I haven't covered in my fics yet, so if you take these "business" reads out of the equation, I didn't read that much for just pleasure. That's something I want to improve in 2024.

The most memorable book was probably The Song of Achilles (a damn difficult read since I saw so many of my own relationships patterns in Patroclus to a painful detail, ugh. And yeah Achilles definitely reminded me of some specific people too. Kind of destroyed all my blissful surrealist separation with this story and made me disillusioned with it, but in the end it might have been good for me).

Fics read

Ok, this is downright shameful to me. I read so little. But go give some love to these fics I've read which were obviously made with love.

Reap What You Sow (one-sided (??) AoMomo) by @vespersposts

summer drabble (Kagami) by cempasuchil_03

Noodle Kiss (KagaKuro) by @myndless88

The Art of Self-Pillage (Haizaki, OC) by @lylakoi

Let's Have a War (Kise, Kasamatsu, OC) by @lylakoi

Tastes of Cinnamon (KagaKuro) by @lilypheria

Nail art

A new hobby for me! I hadn't even owned nail polish before. And couldn't stand long nails either. I have no clue what inspired this, to be honest. I'm very new to it, but here are my favourites.

The text print on blue nails was definitely the most me, but I think I particularly enjoy prints in general. I made the star ones for Christmas.

I bet I've forgotten something obvious but this post is pretty long already and it looks like a pretty good summary. Definitely helped me sort out my thoughts on what I want to do in 2024 and what priorities I should have.

Good luck to everyone on all your future plans. ✨💙

#end of year wrap up #writing #art #knb #books #fics #personal

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kestalsblog · 11 months

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iCarly Season 3 Episode 3

I can't even complain about anything in the episode - I'm so happy for the Creddie. 😭

Last episode had some tonal issues - like the Pearl breakup being super light/comical and then suddenly played like it was this huge grievous thing.

I'm not too invested in the subplots, though the wedding dress one had some funny moments here and there. (Also, was the Tinsley person just a one-episode girl? She won't be with Harper again?)

Mostly, I'm just ecstatic to see Carly and Freddie have a discussion about their feelings from years ago, and I think it was important that the writers make both sides of their stories at the Italian dinner sympathetic. For the first time, I wasn't blindly siding with Freddie for being strung along, but felt I understood Carly too - especially since she was a kid when this all happened. Her friendzoning him because she was "uncomfortable" felt really authentic, and I remember doing the same thing to people when I was younger.

The confession scene and Freddie breathless to kiss Carly really brought a tear to my eye, stupid as that may be. I used to be a Seddie shipper, but that relationship holds no appeal to the sweet, mature one developing between Carly and Freddie at this point. EDIT: reading now too that the second kiss was improvised, and that makes it even more special.

Great season so far!

Additional points: I feel the season is doing a better job with its jokes overall. Like Freddie tripping in the chicken suit was so stupid, but also naturally funny and true to his character. Also, Carly's outfits this episode were so cute. Lastly, it's kind of funny how some of the photographed memories were, if you remember the old series, clearly not photographed by anyone. Like they are just shots from episodes, but no character was taking the photos then.

#icarly reboot #icarly review #spoilers #icarly spoilers #creddie #my thoughts

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clonememesfrikyeah · 2 years

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GUYS WHAT THE FUCK

I was reading the new Obi-Wan comic series that came out this year and- JeSUS CHRIST WHAT THE ACTUAL NAME OF FUCK DID I JUST LAY EYES UPON

⚠️TW: bones, descriptions and depictions of death, some fucked up type shit and all around horror and despair.⚠️

So the plot of this comic is obi-wan is on Tatooien reflecting about the past and this one was coming to terms with all the death caused by the war. The flash back is about when him and Anakin were sent to look for a natborn commander named Mekedrix who went missing after the republic lost the temple of Edit on Devaron and was suspected to have gone rogue and created, for lack of a better term, a terrorist group set on just killing literally everything. And oh boy did they. So when Obi-wan and Anakin get to where the base is suspected to be they confirm that yeah that’s their guy who created a rogue group dedicated to annihilating all life and their base is an ancient sith temple that’s legit oozing so much evil out of its walls that it latched onto and corrupted this traumatized non-force wielding officer. Ok so now that you get the plot, on the the real point.

THE REAL POINT IS THAT THIS MAN WENT SO CRAZY MAD OBSESSED WITH DEATH HE MADE A SWORD OUT OF BONES. AND NOT JUST ANY BONES. THE BONES OF A CLONE. BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THEY WERE THE PERFECT KILLING MACHINES AS THEY WERE MADE, BORN, LIVED AND DIED FOR THE SAKE OF DEATH. WHAT THE FUCK.

And it’s just- A LOT to process. But I feel like they just brushed over the fact that this guy was out here doing some really fucked up, sick phyco shit in favor of making Anakin and Obi-wand story sadder than it already was. Like yeah this guy was traumatized and corrupted by the dark side but I feel like he didn’t deserve the sympathy or the spotlight he got. At the end they really focused on how sad his corruption and death was, especially since he had been a good friend of Obi-wan and Anakin.

But I feel It should have focused on the horrors he committed against the platoons of clones he slaughtered for the sake of killing. Like, if you look at those slides up above the base is just littered with dead troopers, he’s legit wearing their armor in some sick gesture of admiration. But I will give the writers this; even though the main focus in the Obi-Wan comics is obviously obi-wan, they did a good job at subtly highlighting the fact that the clones were indeed slaves to the republic, forced to carry out all its dirty biddings. And the way it’s highlighted is horrific and terrifying. In life the clones were created to be weapons, used to kill, abuse by the world around them. And even in death they were defiled and disrespected like that. Mekedric made a weapon out of them, used it to kill innocents and their own brothers, used them literally down to the bone, used them as a stepping stool to obtain power and fear over others. And the only acknowledgment that kind of horror got was Anakin, filled with fury and disgust, what was his name. What had been the name of the trooper Mekederic has murdered, torn apart, reconstructed into something unrecognizable and was now holding their remains in his hand as a trophy. To which Mekedric reply’s that they were just as good as droids, they had no names, they were just things too him. That trooper had just been another nameless casualty cast aside without a second thought. And the thing is, Anakin and Obi-wan probably never said a damn word about any of it to Rex or Cody. Those troopers would have no closure, no one who mourned them, no clone would ever know the horrors that their brothers had been subjugated to. Because of this most clones would go on to never realize how trapped they were, how much they were being used, the extent of the abuse, and how nearly every natborn felt about them. They were just tools in the eyes of the republic; literal living weapons that could be mistreated however seen fit.

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ben-talks-art · 5 months

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Really interesting premise I kinda want to see more of: "Women who can see a person's true nature"

I was thinking about this after hearing the story of this one girl who was struggling to keep friendship with all her guy friends because she found out many of them were only hanging out with her cause they wanted to date her.

This is a different take on the mind-reading premise that many stories like to do that I feel has good potential for social commentary and storytelling options.

The idea would be a female character having the ability to read someone's emotions, or feelings, or ulterior motives, and use this as an opportunity to show how the world looks at women, and what it feels like to be the woman being looked at like that.

A few examples of this premise can be seen in Cassandra Cain's Batgirl, who has the ability to read people through their body language and she gets to see how Superboy looks at her when she's at the beach.

In Mousou Telepathy, the main lead can read people's minds and accidentally finds out the boy that sits next to her in class has some rather specific thoughts about her.

In the manga "First Love Zombie" (which isn't exactly a good series, btw, but I needed examples to make this point 🤷), the main female character has the power to see who someone's first love is, and to many boys around her, that first love was her, and she felt so overwhelmed by the way people looked and lusted after her even at an early age that she decided to hide she was a girl to feel safe and comfortable.

In "Two Weeks And Counting," the female lead has a power that lets her see people as bugs whenever they hold some sort of "ill will" towards her.

Usually manifesting when they want to harm her or take advantage of her, which ends up happening so much that she eventually struggles to find normal-looking people anywhere she looks.

Basically, I think this type of premise can lead to some good stories and good messages as well as some good breakdown of the objectification of women in the eyes of many, but people usually don't focus on that that much when they use it in a story.

It's usually used to make a female character go "Oh! So many men are dangerous, but that one specific guy is decent and will treat her well!" when I would actually like to see a person learning about how a woman is being seen and had to reflect on it.

Reflect on why they're looked at like that, what they can do to be better, what they can do to help them out, what the people who look at women like that look like when they act like that, and so on...

I think there's really good potential here to tackle some heavy but important themes if this were to be tackled by someone who truly knows how to talk about this subject.

(Edit)

Screw it, I'm gonna try doing it myself. Just wrote a script for a future chapter of my comic tackling this idea. Hopefully it turns out as good as I hoped for once I get there 🙏

#story ideas #Hatsukoi Zombie #batgirl #cassandra cain #Two Weeks And Counting #Mousou Telepathy #what if women could read minds?

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jenyifer · 6 months

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Dangerous romance 7/10 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Lists I’d Put It In: So much potential, Sports, Slice of Life

Review: There is a lot of things I like about dangerous romance but the cons makes it so that I’d likely not watch it again.

Pros the actors main and side were fan fucking tastic. Perth can be so intimidating bratty sexy and on the other hand just a sweet little puppy. I love how funny he made Kang just adding flare. Chimon baby of OffGun of course I watched this show mainly for him. Sailom is basically a hop skip and jump away from Wave from the gifted Sassy Smart Secertly extremely caring and gushy. I’m hoping Chimon’s roles always involve sass it’s his signature. GIVE PAPANG AND PEPPER A BIGGER BL ROLE AND VIEWJUNE ALL OF MY MONEY. MarcPawin really surprised me as well I wasn’t expecting much because I just watched my gear your gown. The grandma was precious. Euro and JJ were great comic relief I wish there had been more of them. I wish there was more I made a post before this 12th ep saying how I’d fix the series in detail. So I’m gonna boil it down here. The ships should have been more interlocked with eachother. The editing made the show boring. Why did we have so many flashbacks and lingering shots. I love a pretty scene but they took so long and we needed extra interlocking scenes for all the ships. Ugh I can see how this show would have been great with just a few changes which makes it so frustrating. Anyways more about the ships after the break

First Perth and Chimon are not at fault for this I’m talking about editing and story. I adore KangSailom they had good potential but it felt like it got every trope imaginable enemies to lovers, poor boy rich boy, long standing unexplainable secret crush from childhood, tutor student, redemption arc, misunderstanding. AND YET IT FELT WEAK BECAUSE OF THE EDITING AND LACK OF OTHER CHARACTERS INTERACTION UNTIL THE VERY END.

Meanwhile audiences kept getting tiny precious glimpses of WONDERFUL side ships.

GuyNawa Idiot Sport boy for Idiot Sport boy with injury, enemies to lovers (really fully enemies), long standing crush was so incredibly beautiful and effective. I probably won’t have liked their plot too if it had been drawn out because I would have been missing the other side characters but what we got for them was perfect I’d rewatch their scenes again. I was much more impressed by MarcPawin this time I hope they get another series their kiss was thru the roof. They give me strong Sports Anime vibes made me miss Haikyuu.

Saifah and Name had the most potential to be a 10/10 ship. Papang and Pepper definitely need their flowers because the show didn’t give them a lot to work with. Their characters and storylines should have been worked in from the beginning. I wanted to want to cry for Saifah when he was taken away. I wanted to want Name to stay safe as he tried to protect Sailom and Saifah. But I felt like it was so rushed. We barely got to see what these characters had. But everything we did was leaning towards greatness a big brother who has done wrong in the past to get by trying to do ANYTHING for his brother even tho he’s in over his head and a bit of an idiot and mafia guy who sees his highschool friend again falls in love but is offered shit choices all around to his enviable conclusion and redemption. If only we had gotten them sooner and worked into Sailom’s plot more. I’m telling you it would have been stunning. I can see the vision.

I really love Pimfah. She is… a great female character. I talked about it already but great lesbian energy. I wish I had more. I wish Pimfah could have been worked more smoothly into Kang’s storyline after he decided to go after Sailom. The student teacher was precious. She is going to make a great teacher. I wish we got a spin off of what happens in London. But sadly the ship just didn’t have enough screen time.

I might rewatch the GuyNawa scenes again but the rest is probably a skip.

Bonus: Strangest kiss in the bathroom award goes to….

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infinitedungas · 2 years

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rewatching sandman already because god is it a good adaptation and i can’t stop thinking about it so i’m going to have a VERY long ramble about it here we go

some of the changes made were necessary in order to streamline the story for a ten-episode structure, like expanding the role of the corinthian to give this season a slightly more focused antagonist, or having lyta be more of a companion to rose and accompany her on her journey. the latter worked especially well for me - the comic is wonderful but if lyta’s story had been adapted as-is it would have felt really disordered. some things, like editing out lyta’s superhero backstory or having johanna constantine in the modern day, were likely due to licensing and copyright of existing characters, but the way they worked around that still paid off in a way that didn’t leave the story wanting.

some changes weren’t necessary but are a marked improvement anyway. i loved that ethel cripps got a little more airtime. replacing brute and glob with gault then giving them room to grow was a nice emotional payoff. lucifer taking choronzon’s place to fight dream ramped up the stakes that little bit further and for a moment it really does look like he’s going to get torn to shreds. john dee choosing to keep rosemary safe was (i think) a wise change from her death in the comic and a necessary moment to show that underneath everything, he’s still capable of empathy.

basically what i’m getting at is they knew what to leave in and what to take out. that’s so rare to see in adaptations these days, i think. it plays close to the source material for the most part but they weren’t so precious about it as to insist on a beat-for-beat recreation. i was worried they’d cut hob’s role down, or even cut him entirely, but they spent just the right amount of time with him for that little side story to have the necessary impact. “dream of a thousand cats” and “calliope”, in less capable hands, could so easily have been cut for runtime or squeezed into the main run of episodes; but the showrunners recognised that while they have something important to lend to the worldbuilding, the main narrative would have felt bloated if they’d been squashed in there. so they get their own separate little bonus episode, which is where stories like those belong, and it’s a wonderful addendum to the series proper.

also can we talk about casting? spot on. tom sturridge gives the exact flavour of lanky mopey soaking wet emo man i wanted to see in dream “stupid stubborn git” of the endless. kirby howell-baptiste absolutely nails death’s big-hearted no-nonsense sisterly charm and is pure serotonin to watch. vivienne acheampong brings a kindness and sort of pastoral air to lucienne and her long-suffering devotion to dream. mason alexander park was born to play desire and you can tell they’re having the time of their life doing it. razane jamal and kyo ra play off each other really nicely as rose and lyta, especially with their expanded on-screen friendship. stephen fry has always been fiddler’s green in my mind’s eye and it was lovely to see him come to life. boyd holbrook’s cocktail of affable and insidious is great for the corinthian. and gwendoline christie as lucifer???? hello????? not to be gay but hello?????

TL;DR the sandman is a story (or more accurately a sprawling collection of stories) that is one of my all-time faves and it makes me so happy to see something i love adapted so well and i’m excited to see what they do with the rest of the comic.

#sandman #sandman netflix #long post #ANYWAY SANDMAN IS GREAT PLS WATCH AND/OR READ IT #i missed tumblr. i cant have these sorts of rambles on twitter #obviously there are a couple of things i don't love #but none of them are huge #and some of them already existed in the comic and just didn't change in adaptation

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uomo-accattivante · 2 years

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At this point in its history, Marvel isn’t known for tinkering with its proven superhero formula. And yet “Moon Knight,” the studio’s current Disney+ series, has taken some unexpected chances.

Its debut episode introduced Steven Grant, a maladroit museum gift-shop clerk with a dodgy British accent, played by Oscar Isaac. Isaac also plays Marc Spector, a grizzled American mercenary who shares the same body with Grant — and who is also Moon Knight, the crime-fighting avatar of an ancient Egyptian deity.

As the story of “Moon Knight” has revealed, Spector has had dissociative identity disorder, or D.I.D., since childhood, and Grant is an alternate identity he created to shield himself from trauma and abuse.

“Moon Knight” was a risk for Isaac, too, even though his résumé already includes some of the biggest fantasy franchises Hollywood has produced. While he has made a whole career of projects that are many orders of magnitude smaller — performing “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” for the Public Theater and starring in intimate dramas like “The Card Counter” and “Scenes From a Marriage” — he has also been featured in film series like “Star Wars” and “X-Men.” Those blockbusters elevated Isaac to greater levels of recognition, but the grueling work they require and lack of input they typically allow made him hesitant when Marvel sought him for “Moon Knight.”

As Isaac, 43, explained in a video interview last week, the pleasure of “Moon Knight” was getting to explore the title character in a way that felt right to him, even if his approach did not always fit the Marvel mold.

Whether Moon Knight moves on to his own movie or a superteam like the Avengers “doesn’t matter so much,” Isaac said from the offices of the production company that he and his wife, the writer-director Elvira Lind, operate in Brooklyn.

“It’s a new character that we’re taking a chance on,” he said. “The nature of the story is this investigation, this slow-reveal mystery.”

“If it goes somewhere else, that’s great,” he added. “I’m glad it’s not just an advertisement for synergy.”

Ahead of the “Moon Knight” finale on Wednesday, Isaac spoke about the making of the series, of which he is also an executive producer. He also spoke about the unexpected oscillations of his career and about working for Disney while the company weathers a political firestorm. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Do you get two paychecks for playing two roles on “Moon Knight”?

I should, man. It’s funny because that’s what I was apprehensive about: I didn’t want it to feel like this masturbatory thing. When I started off, I was very adamant that I didn’t want to do the gimmicky, switching back and forth, Jekyll and Hyde part of it. I really segregated Marc and Steven, even asked if we could shoot them on different days. Just do it through reflections and don’t ask me to put on a different hat.

Some actors say they accept immediately when Marvel comes calling, but you didn’t. Why not?

I wasn’t, at that point, super eager to jump into a big production. I wanted to fall in love with acting again. I was a bit tired. I’ve got two young kids, and I was ready to take a step back, do smaller films that weren’t as big of a commitment. When this came, my immediate sense was, ugh, this is bad timing.

As a comics fan, did you feel like you were getting a B- or C-list character foisted on you?

Yeah, they’re pretty much down to the dregs. Although people said that for Iron Man, too — then it changes cinema forever and what an amazing performance that was. Part of the attraction was its obscurity, to be honest.

What were your inspirations for how you play Steven Grant?

It’s an homage to the things I love, like Peter Sellers and the British “Office” and “Stath Lets Flats” and Karl Pilkington. I was also watching “Love on the Spectrum” — these people are going on these dates, who are autistic, who are feeling all the same things that we all would feel, but they haven’t developed these masks to hide it all. It’s all out there in the open. There was something I found so moving about that. I started doing the character at home, and my kids were asking me to do him all the time

You spoke of feeling burned out on big-budget projects. When did you start experiencing that?

Toward the middle to end of the run on “Star Wars.” The commitment of time was such a long one, and the windows of availability were very specific. I started to get hungry for those character studies and working with those great directors.

You had worked professionally as an actor for several years and had some prominent theater roles. But did you find that big-budget films gave you some breakthrough opportunities?

There were a few supporting performances that gave me the opportunity to do really different characters on these big stages, like “Robin Hood” and “Sucker Punch.” What was fun was that nobody had any idea who I was. I played the King of England in “Robin Hood,” and nobody had a problem with that. Now that I’m more known, suddenly it’s like, can he play English? Should he play English? In this age, we know everything about everybody, and of course people have a problem with suspension of disbelief.

So as a Juilliard alumnus and a veteran Shakespeare performer, you didn’t think these types of films were somehow beneath you?

No, I didn’t feel like that. I wanted to make a living as an actor. I didn’t have the luxury of ethics; I didn’t have the luxury of integrity. [Laughs.] I felt like I could bring my point of view to whatever came my way. Early on, I was like, “If I had the one shot, I could prove …” And then I would get a chance, it would come and it would go, and I would realize, Oh! I guess I need another shot now. After a while, it was clear the only thing you can control is your craft and staying curious, and exercising that craft in whatever comes your way that you think is good.

Did starring in “Inside Llewyn Davis” feel like one of those opportunities for you?

That was completely life-altering in every single way. That was my first lead role. It was a Coen brothers movie. I played music. I still can’t believe that happened. I wanted it so badly and just worked my ass off beforehand. It was the serendipity of the moment that I did what I intended to do and the Coens took the risk on someone relatively unknown.

Was it strange that it led to even more fantasy franchise roles? Like, this is what they think of me?

I’ve been doing it long enough to know that there’s no “they” — it’s just people trying to make movies, whether they’re on a huge scale or a small scale. J.J. [Abrams] wanted to meet me [for “The Force Awakens”] while I was still shooting “A Most Violent Year.” I remember because Albert Brooks [his co-star on “A Most Violent Year”] left me a really funny message pretending to be J.J. before I went to go meet J.J. You take a leap of faith. And sure, had I not done that, perhaps I would have been available for some other thing that would have come my way. But no one ever knows.

You got an earlier shot at comic-book adaptations with “X-Men: Apocalypse.” It wasn’t well received, though I think it gets a bad rap. Is that a role you’ve disowned?

No, I don’t disown it. I know exactly what I went in there wanting to do and the reasons why. There were these amazing actors involved that I really wanted to work with, [James] McAvoy and [Michael] Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. I collected X-Men growing up, and I loved Apocalypse, I just found him such a freaky, weird character. And then you get there and you’re like, Oh my God, I’ve got all these prosthetics on. I’ve got a suit on. I can’t move. I can’t see anybody. All these actors I wanted to work with — I can’t even see who they are. I still think back to that time with fondness. I wish it would have been a better film and that they would have taken care of the character a little better, but those are the risks.

Would you count your time making “Dune” with Denis Villeneuve as one of your typical franchise film experiences?

Denis was the reason to do that. When he came to me, he actually didn’t have a role in mind for me yet. He was like, “I’m doing ‘Dune,’ are you interested? What role is interesting to you?” We decided it was Leto. It was challenging to be a very specific sound in a big symphony.

And you knew, going in, that it’s a character with a limited life span?

Yes, that was part of the attraction.

Was “Star Wars” your closest frame of reference when Marvel sought you for “Moon Knight”? Was that what made you wary?

They are such big, huge films. As fun as they can be, you’re outputting a lot of energy and then you leave and you’re just exhausted. That was part of the fear. I didn’t anticipate how much creative flexibility there was going to be — how much energy it gave me back.

How so?

Once Mohamed [Diab, a director on “Moon Knight”] and I started talking about what it could be if we could put our lens on it, we were like, it’s way more important that we’re true to D.I.D. than to some kind of comic-book back story. When you do the research on what causes D.I.D., it’s not like one thing. It’s not, you watched something horrible happen and suddenly you break out into all these different personalities. It’s from sustained trauma and abuse over time. This is a survival mechanism that clicks into place for someone who’s experiencing that. That they’re able to fracture their mind to survive it is kind of astounding.

For much of the series, Marc and Steven would interact in discreet ways, like talking to each other in a mirror’s reflection. How did you handle the sequences we saw in last week’s episode, where the two were often standing side-by-side?

I had my brother, Michael [the actor Michael Benjamin Hernandez], who is a great actor and shares my DNA, stand in as my alter. Other times, it was a huge challenge technically as sometimes, especially in the wide shots, I’d have to act with no one and remember the blocking I had done as the other character and respond to the lines being fed to me in an earpiece I wore.

Was D.I.D. a subject you knew about before making “Moon Knight”?

I didn’t. I had just done “The Card Counter,” which was all about trauma and living with P.T.S.D. I had been doing some research into that, and there was something that felt organic about seeing what’s on the other end of the spectrum.

Does “Moon Knight” speak to why stories about alternate identities and multiverses are becoming increasingly popular?

We live in a post-reality world. Things used to feel a lot clearer, and now they’re not. Nothing can be true or authentic anymore, and I think that’s being reflected in a lot of our popular culture.

You’re a prominent ambassador of Disney’s brand at a time when the company is experiencing conservative backlash and political retribution for its opposition to Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, which its critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” Is this something you feel a personal investment in, and does that backlash affect you individually?

No, I’m not experiencing that. I’m not on social media, so luckily, if that is coming my way, I’m ignorant of it. But everything has a political undercurrent at the moment. Disney was forced to take a stand, and I’m glad that they took the right stand there. Sometimes silence or neutrality is just not going to work. It’s astounding to watch a vindictive politician try to own the libs. I grew up in Florida, and I recognize how dysfunctional the state is. But it’s an interesting time where everything is parsed, and if Disney is going to own so much of the entertainment industry, they’ve got to expect to come up against some tough decisions.

Are these the kinds of considerations you’re going to have to make now whenever you work for a major studio?

I’d rather not. [Laughs.] That’s going to require me to do a whole lot of research beforehand that I’d rather not do. I’d rather spend that time figuring out a good character.

There has to be some conscientiousness about it, but at the same time, you’re also trying to make a living and you’re trying to live in the world. I just want to make good stuff and hopefully try to do it in a responsible way.

###

#oscar isaac #moon knight #marvel #mohamed diab #disney #star wars #dune #inside llewyn davis #x men: apocalypse #michael hernandez #mike hernandez #the card counter #a most violent year #robin hood #new york times

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snurtle · 1 year

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idk if you're still doing these but i'd love if you do a character opinion bingo on orihime and/or renji. i saw your bleach red au art a few months ago when i was reading ahead before the anime premiere and i've been Rotating It In My Mind ever since, i just love your take on both characters

First off, this is just such a nice comment! :D So nice, in fact, that I drew a doodle for it. I'm always surprised when other people engage with my silly AUs. Rotate away! Let's play in this space together! I've actually got a couple of short scene comics in the works for RED that will probably be done around January if I'm being honest with myself. (I’m busy, I’m slow, and comics take a long time!)

Originally, I wasn’t going to do the rest of the bingo memes that I still have asks for- (sorry!!!) it’s been a while and it felt like the general Vibe of things had moved on, but you’ve shot a friendly arrow into my ass about it so PERHAPS I will!

I’m choosing to just do Orihime for this, because I ended up writing an Essay and Renji... I don’t know if I’m coherent enough about Renji to do a bingo on him without breaking down into garbled eldritch signs and scratched pictograms on cave walls. Orihime is the safer choice. Less of a cognito hazard. More legible. So under the cut she goes! I hope this suffices for you anon.

[Edit: 5/6/2023 cut removed by request for record keeping! <3 ]

LADIES AND GENTLESNAILS WE HAVE OUR FIRST BINGO!

I’d like to preface this by saying Orihime was not one of my favorite characters the first time I read Bleach. What can I say? We are all a series of nesting dolls, and the things we relate to change as we add layers to our hearts. With age, experience, and another read, she is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite characters in anything period. I have a lot of feelings about her, and a lot of them are “oh god why did you get married so young” and “while I understand where this narrative train is heading I want to get off!!!” So like any good AU fantasizer... complicated! :D

So let’s just take the bullets in order, shall we?

they are soooooo cool looking:

Orihime (circa Soul Society Arc to a vague point somewhere in the Arrancar Arc) has a very unique facial structure! She’s got a large forehead and downturned eyes that make her seem a little mournful even when she’s smiling brightly. Honestly, it’s a VERY neat bit of character storytelling through design, and while I could never beef with an artist for style creep, I’m sad that her unique features seemed to even out and become more standardized as the manga grew loooooooonger and Kubo aged everyone up.

Beyond that, my girl is ADORABLE and I like her slightly off kilter fashion choices; they really speak to someone who both

- had few/strange/ill-equipped adult influences in her life to guide her early clothing choices

- has to tailor her own clothes to fit a body out of place.

It’s just.. I could just go on forever about this! Orihime’s design isn’t complicated, but it’s informative, and that’s not something I can take for granted in a visual medium. The choices Kubo made in those areas of her design give us a window into her personality.. Which is to say, a lonely, grieving teenager who’s had to teach herself to Person while hanging onto the razor wire of societal expectation and threat. (not unlike our other protagonists, no? Ha. Our poor Karakura kids.) You can tell something is a little off about her. Her hair is wrong, her face is wrong, her clothes are...wrong. Ish, if not skillfully amended. Like she’s not doing great at camouflaging, but she’s existing in the shadow of the benefit of the doubt and that will just have to do before her star really starts to shine.

wasted potential:

“I reject your version of reality and substitute my own!” -Orihime at some point, probably.

That’s insane. That’s mindbreakingly, hand-twirlingly eye poppingly FUN. In a world full of near misses, sword skill expositions, and by-the-skin-of-your-teeth victories and losses, ONE imaginative girl can just go. “Uh. Y’know, I don’t like this very much. Nope. Nope nope nope.” And the world reorganizes itself to fit the shape of that NOPE. Her ability to reject the consequences of actions and events she wasn’t even there to witness is just.. Game breaking. But ultimately, those powers are the expression of a personality, and the personality belongs to a person who... really doesn’t care much about power at all- at least, not for its own sake. Orihime is a healer, a time bender, a bastion, a judge who can interact with the binary of the universe at large-- aaand that’s never really expanded on.

Everyone who sees her Do Her Thing universally goes “what in the bugfuck is this” because it Just Does Not Compute. It’s not supposed to be possible! And conveniently, no one ever has to dig into that because Orihime does less on-screen exploration of her abilities and more just... Yaknow. Standard heal-y forcefield-y stuff. Occasionally, resurrect-y stuff. Which is fine I guess because it serves the story’s focus, but for a person who is name twinsies with [VEGA]:

> Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun"

HMMMMMMM. The sun, you say? The sun, which serves an important symbolic role in Bleach, The Sun, and The Moon, and -The next most important STAR in the sky- HUH?? HUH???? YOU’RE TELLING ME THESE CELESTIAL SYMBOLS CAN TRIO? IN THIS ECONOMY?

and the mythological figure of “the daughter of the king of heaven”

Orihime (織姫, "Weaving Princess"), daughter of the Tentei (天帝, "Sky King", or the universe itself) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata]

🤔🤔🤔🤔

I JUST FEEL LIKE THIS MERITS. YOU KNOW. SOME EXPLORATION. BECAUSE THAT’S NOT NORMAL. THAT KIND OF THEMATIC WEIGHT ISN’T NORMAL TO JUST DROP ON A CHARACTER THAT ISN’T GOING TO EXAMINE THE GUN CHEKOV GAVE THEM. AND IT’S JUST A LITANY OF “HUH. SOMETHIN AIN’T RIGHT WITH THAT GIRL.” AND THEN THE SERIES ENDS??? WHAT’S UP WITH THAT

they’re deeper than they seem:

Okay look this is a pet headcanon of mine, but I think Orihime isn’t actually a Fullbringer in the normal sense. Rather, I think she classes closer to Ywhach, Gerard Valkyrie, Ukitake, and Aura as in “bearer of [a] legacy of the Soul King.” As in a significant chunk to full-organ, or some kind of convoluted lineage/heir thing. It’s the only thing I can think of that makes Her THING make sense to me, unless her personality, her attachments, and the influence of Whatever Hollow Nyoomed by her in utero just... lined up perfectly to create a cosmic loophole big enough to string the Milky Way through. Which would also be cool! I love dark horses yanking the rug out from underneath “places where the cool powers are SUPPOSED to come from.” And we see that Nel, the Hollow most closely associated with Orihime, has healing powers via her ... uh. vomit, so it’s not as if there isn’t precedent for a healing-ish factor to come out of Hollow power, but STILL.

(I’m also not touching the whole ‘The Hyogoku and/or Ichigo gave them powers part of canon. I recognize it. I also think it’s intentional obfuscation of where her powers ACTUALLY come from because Bleach isn’t afraid to give characters conflicting sources of information.)

And also, Uh. I feel like this bingo square may have been referring to personality, perhaps, in which case I suppose I could have been talking about Orihime’s rampant trust issues. She feels so intensely the weight of mutual burden that the moments where she’s open about her problems are vanishingly rare, and then covered up by jokes, minimized. Sometimes- sometimes often- she performs cheerfulness like a thank-you card in exchange for that burden of care. (It’s expected. It’s all she can do. Isn’t it?) IIiii COULD talk about guilt, and envy simmering below the surface, or an aversion to conflict that is 75% moral pacifism, 25% fear (sometimes. percentages are as wiggly as hearts.). And all of that being under the hood of someone who looks like she’s daydreaming mid conversation, when she’s actually clocking 95mph on the Advanced Interpersonal Risk Calculus Highway.

Or I could keep yelling about cool powers, because I think I’ve said this all before?

Unfortunately, Orihime’s proximity to Ichigo’s sun (especially in a romantic context) means that her fine details are sometimes blown out or overlooked in favor of making sure everyone knows that here’s a SEXY FEMALE TITS BIG ONES (urahara), but she’s also classical, she’s a moral center, she’s so powerful and tragic and accepts so much sacrifice so gracefully as is her duty and speaking of duty she gets married right out of highschool and has a kid almost immediately ayoo--

And yk. Some of those things are endemic to shounen manga, or are just kind of common in portrayals of Women Who Elevate Those Around Them (much like Masaki, or Kanae). It’s not like those things are inherently bad. But I don’t have to like them either. Weird Girls becoming Mature Women(tm) is something that will never interest me and actively repels me on most days because of the rote, tired way I’ve seen it written. I like messy women and disaster people and complicated, unusual lives. You can be happy without even the semblance of Destined Nuclear Family normalcy and frankly, I’m less interested in Punks And Weirdos becoming well-adjusted and accepted than I am in Punks and Weirdos clawing out a space for themselves and everyone being very uncomfortable but unable to coerce them otherwise. (This is a power fantasy.)

So while I’m (shrugs) on Orihime’s fairytale ending in canon, it’s not my bag, it gives me the heeby jeebies, and I don’t really want to work within the framework of that ending for my fan stuff!

I like them enough to project my own issues onto them:

Ah, to fear and envy those who can excel in the system designed around you all as if it’s as natural to them as breathing. Ahhh, to feel like the one bright blue piece in the milk puzzle. (Also, if anyone was going to get some of that good ol’ fashioned MORAL SCRUPULOSITY PANIC, it’s going to be Orihime. It has to be her.)

they got done DIRTY by fans:

Must I recite the old magic once again? The ancient curses? The shipping wars of yore? Those ancient battlegrounds of “girl-ed power” and “to be feminine is to err?” Nay, I wish it not upon anyone. The only dirt upon Orihime’s name was that of conflict between humans, for how could anyone say that another person’s work made in joy was wrong? I refuse to deride the work of my fellow fans... u_u ✨ ✨

(Which is to say in normal talk, what I hate most about Orihime Fan Zones isn’t any of the art or fic or headcanons people have of her! How could I possibly hate that? It’s just how much damn controversy she stirred up by existing in perceived conflict to Rukia. Waugh!)

i’m mentally ill about them:

And I’m not even done yet!! If you’re still reading this, brava!

they work better as part of a dynamic:

This is a funny one. Orihime is actually one of a few characters that I think would stand perfectly well on her own- she’s not a bit character, she doesn’t really rely on any gimmicks for her place in the story- her personality is well-faceted and we’ve seen plenty of her internal workings. But the thing is, Orihime’s weirdness is more vibrant when she has someone next to her who has a more rigid sense of propriety. The same is true in the opposite scenario, in which, instead of a straight man to her comedy routine, she has a co conspirator to hype up her shenanigans.

they’ve never done anything wrong in their life <33:

This is derogatory.

I want to see Orihime fuck up, BAD. The bad things around her happen TO her, pretty much universally. Even her social flaws are both relatable and normal and don’t really cause any conflict that isn’t internal and localized to herself. If someone rallies her or rags ON her in a way she can’t relate to, she flinches or stonewalls. She’s harmless. I would like to see her bite. Or . Step on a bug. Or snap at someone. I’d like to see that fear response cause something to break, irreparably. SOMETHING. PLEASE!!! PLEASE.... But no one really blames her for anything, even avoidance. No one really beefs with her on anything besides propriety, that I remember. Her fighting is a silent resistance. Unfortunately I think this response puts me on a psychic wavelength with Ulquiorra, and now I’m going to go wander the desert about this while I try to recover. (Wait, was that slap she gave him the only time we see her snap?)

Which is mostly just to say, she’s a perfectly nice normal girl, and she’s lovely, but anything I write with her is probably going to explore the consequences of severe avoidance and silence, rather than the virtues of them. Because in a story about ghosts and supernatural powers, I don’t really need my gals to be blameless, and I like to think about how people deal with guilt when it’s actually warranted, rather than self inflicted. Ideally, I’d also like it to be more severe than a slap, but you know.

And that’s a bingo!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for coming to my mental illness ted talk about my 1# ANGEL ORIHIME INOUE, MS. STAR ABOVE THE WELL OF TRUTH, BEST GIRL 10,000 HOURS PLAYED!

Please remember that I treat all my favorite characters like chew toys, I enjoy shredding them, and don’t forget to grab your belongings on the way out! Thank you again for the nice comment and bout of motivation anon~

#The final word count on this is close to 2000 #EEP...#character opinion bingo #bleach #long post #orihime inoue #Renji is just going to have to get his own post if I do one for him at all #im so sorry but also i'm not and also i'm SO flattered if you read this whole damn thing #woo!#bleach red au #im tagging it under the au because of reasons (i will not elaborate)

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