#It's been interesting to work on my DR human designs

[thatonecrookedsmile]

Through 2023, I've been sketching and conceptualizing my designs for the human cast of BATDR. Giving shape to some ideas, testing new ones, you know the deal.

And December of last year, I wanted to make some slightly more elaborate drawings ("elaborate" in comparison to the previous sketches in this case), with some of these designs. To sort of solidify these ideas better.

The result turned out quite nice, despite a few things. (why are noses so complicated from a head-on perspective) Last month I decided to bring these drawings + 3 small doodles to color. To also solidify how they look in color.

Obviously, this isn't the entire DR cast. There are only 8 designs here, it's a little less than half of the entire cast, I still have to show a lot lol. These above are what I chose to draw in recent times. For the rest of the characters, it's a matter of 1. fleshing out the designs (e.g. Angus Newman, Kitty Thompson) or 2. I still have to think of a design for them (e.g. Muncie Dunn, Telly Wester). When I have a better vision for them, I'll do something similar to what I did here. Make some more elaborate drawings for them, color them digitally and post them here eventually.

I don't know if the text I put is too big or too small, so here are the characters in each image, left to right: -Jane Todd, Kay Lee. -Grace Conway -Bill Danton, Lance Derby -Sally Newt, Hudson Doyle and Carl (one could argue that Carl might not be a real in-universe person, but I still wanted to do a design for him) There are still some details that have yet to be really set in stone, but even so, what we have above is practically the main vision for these designs solidified, so to speak,which I'm happy with.

At first I was only going to color the first three images, but I liked the other 3 mini drawings that I made at the time so I decided to put them here too. Eventually I'll make some better drawings with them, so the next time I show other BATDR designs, I'll post them together. Maybe in the future, when all the designs are finalized, I will make a digital drawing with all the designs, in one place. I tried to do something similar in the past with my BATIM designs, so it would be interesting to do something like this again with the Dark Revival cast.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #jane todd #kay lee #grace conway #bill danton #lance derby #sally newt #hudson doyle #carl batdr #crookedsmileart #happy with these designs #especially Bill and Hudson's #It's been interesting to work on my DR human designs #I know that the new guys introduced into the game aren't talked about that much by the community #(looking at this site specifically; saying this is an understatement) #and I understand and I think I even know why of this #but;idk;I want to give them some appreciation;yk #draw some things with them; make them interact with other characters from the franchise #you know; I want to do something for them #give them some attention; #plus;knowing me; #I would still make myself learn to remember the names of all the characters introduced via audio logs; #regardless of whether or not these new guys have the same impact as the IM cast #so it was inevitable lol #(can I offer you some fan-designs in these strange times)

[cosmonadarovicarts]

Series/webtoons if you like Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

Lovely hell

I'll start right away with the probably least known AND best of all - at least in terms of being similar to the universe of HH and HB-.

"Tanz, a powerful creature of pure evil, is vanished to Earth agaist her will. Weak and without a plan, she'll have to rely to Cain, a human, to guide her throught the world and figure a way back to her home: Hell."

First of all, it's a webtoon, so you can read it for free on Webtoon! Created by Tita (stage name Lorsupp), the story takes place in the present day. our protagonists are biblical characters (I won't give spoilers about who Tanz is. Cain, you guys must have already understood...).

This webtoon deserves much more recognition! the story is organic and well-paced, funny and tense when necessary. The characters are super charismatic and have chemistry, the Lore of Hell is super interesting and with a different approach from HH/HB. I love the character design - you can see the evolution of the author's traits as the chapters go by.

It's great to see other ways of approaching well-known characters -like the Jewish/Christian angels and demons-. A emphasis for Gabriel, ahhh this character hahah Anyway, this webtoon is the one I most recommend!

You can read it -> Webtoon account

When Instagram starts working again, I'll share the creator's account here!

Vilanius

This series - with just a few episodes left - is a Mexican animation released for Cartoon Network. Compared to HH's type of humor, here it is much more toned down, as it is aimed at a younger audience.

"Villainous is the story of Black Hat Org., run by Black Hat (whose name is synonymous with villain, a reference to the evil black-hatted cowboys of Western films) and his team of three less evil sidekicks. Black Hat is trying to sell various evil inventions created by Dr. Flug and is desperate to fulfill his evil aspirations. However, things often end badly for him, as brilliant innovations tend to have small and often comical flaws."

The lore has nothing related to the Hell, but it still focuses on the evil side of the story. I love the character designs, very similar to HH. It's worth checking out, even more Latin animation!

The Good Place

A series already consolidated and finished. One of my favorites on Netflix!

Even though it's not exactly Heaven and Hell, the concept is very similar. but what stands out here is the philosophical debate about what is right and wrong, how to be a good person in a world marked by individualism, competition and exploitation so that a person can have the basics to survive? -neoliberalism cough cough-.

"Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up to discover that she has died and entered the afterlife. But when she is told by her mentor Michael that she is in the "Good Place" because of her good deeds, helping to get innocent people off death row, she realizes that a mistake has been made because the people They think she is someone else with the same name."

Question about existentialism, ethics and the meaning of life debated in a fun way! A quick comparison to Bojack Horseman, a series that I love. in The Good Place, the existentialism, life and death are treated in a much more optimistic and... beautiful way, while in Bojack it is pessimistic and heavy. the debates on human existence can have lighter conclusions - this is not a criticism of Bojack, just a different approach.

Guardians of the Mansion of Horror

This recommendation won't have a personal review because... I still need to watch it! but I saw so many people recommending it, saying that it has good LGBT+ representation that I thought it would be interesting to bring it here. If anyone has already watched it and wants to say something about it...

"Guardians of the Mansion of Horror follows friends Barney and Norma as they work at a theme park during the summer. The two take the night shift and are responsible for organizing the place while it is empty. What they didn't expect is that this fun place is actually an interdimensional portal to hell. Suddenly, several supernatural creatures appear to haunt the Earth and the two friends must join forces to stop them. To do this, they receive help from the talking dog, Pugsley."

Inside Job

Here we have the biggest injustice in the history of Netflix, the cancellation of this series! I brought it here because of their type of acidic and critical humor towards society - not that this criticism is present in HH-. An adult animation, with swear words and the same irreverent touch as HH, following the shadow side of society.

"A dysfunctional team working in a hidden government department is tasked with keeping conspiracies around the secret world. From complicated attacks to secret societies, anti-social technology genius Reagan Ridley will need to work in a place full of shapeshifting reptilians and psychic mushrooms, at the same time as she must deal with an unbalanced father, in order to achieve the dream she dreams of. promotion."

Emphasis to the animation itself and the character design. When it comes to other species, we have unique designs, they even resemble the design of demons in HH.

irreverent, intelligent and humorous. 🤌

Good Omens

It's almost a rule, if you watched Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, you also watched Good Omens!

For those who have never given the series a chance, here are some reasons to watch it now: Inspired by Neil Gaiman's work - and approved by him! -!. It is focused entirely on this universe of Jewish/Christian characters - and it is possible to see how well they are studied! There are references that only those who have studied demology or the sacred writings of these religions will understand-

The first season has a wonderful rhythm with captivating characters - the second lacks this a little. The angel and devil couple are super charismatic and you root for them.

Watching some of the biblical events from the point of view of the questioning and sinister demon Crowley and the good lamb Aziraphale is wonderful!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fandom #hazbin #the good place #good omens #inside job #cartoon #cartoon network #crowley #aziraphale #crowly x aziraphale #lucifer morningstar #hellaverse #helluva boss #series recommendations #series

[thesiltverses]

I wanted to let you guys know how important this story has become to me in light of the war in Israel. There’s no way you could have intended this, but your meditations on the callous disregard for human life in favor of capitol and the way governments side with power over their people are hitting me so hard it’s unreal. Carpenter in this recent episode worrying about the idea that people are just people who still choose to ignore and perpetuate horror made me legitimately tear up.

Thank you very much - that's really kind of you and it genuinely means so much to hear it.

Yeah, that line really whacked me back in the face when I was working on the sound design, too. (It really helps that Méabh so magnificently captures the quiet, angry, wondering humanity of Carpenter so well in that moment.)

It's a very minor thing in the wider context, but it's been swimming in my head all day and all night; yesterday we had the Prime Minister of the UK briefing to the press that it is inherently "provocative and disrespectful" for people to march through London for a ceasefire in Palestine during WWI's Armistice Day next weekend - because the "sanctity of the day" must be protected.

On one hand, that feels a breathtakingly obvious and cynical strategy to defame, misrepresent and (I think crucially) exogenise dissent against the government's foreign policy.

But it also feels, in a way that I hope we've always been clearly trying to yell about with TSV, like a real symptom of how deeply fucked-up our country's narrative-building around itself truly is; the bewilderingly successful extent to which strong, emotive, reassuring stories delivered from positions of authority continue to be used as a cover for base hypocrisies, inhuman cruelties, and selfish interests.

And the invocation of "sanctity of the day" to mean "pure and unchallengeable supremacy of a century-old war in our hearts, minds, and newspapers" really speaks to that. (I guess it feels like an inverted version of that Dr Strangelove quote, doesn't it? 'Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room.' / 'Armistice Day is no time to call for peace.')

Our media and political classes can lead a call to worship the 110-year-old icon of peace, the half-fled and semi-religious memory of it and the comforting traditions and rituals surrounding it-

-and they can use that icon, in turn, as a weapon to condemn hundreds of thousands of their own citizens from all faiths and all backgrounds who are marching for peace right now (while continuing to ignore the three-quarters of the population who want them to call for a ceasefire).

They can use that icon of peace to callously dismiss the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians suffering right now under a brutal succession of atrocities, and to downplay Western complicity right now in allowing those atrocities to continue unchecked, all in favour of the reassuring idea of showing respect for and paying silent obeisance to a ghostly Tommy soldier in a Brodie helmet with a plastic poppy tucked into his lapel.

A man who was sacrificed, and who must be forever remembered for his sacrifice.

If the superstructure is big and loud and hungry enough, maybe we won't pay too much attention to the screams coming from the base.

Anyway, to find a grace note - we know that we're writing often quite bleak and cruel stuff at a very bleak and cruel time. And while we of course didn't intend a direct comparison to current-day events, it really means a huge amount to hear that someone's finding it meaningful rather than, as we often fear, just too much of reality. So thank you again very much.

[escapism-from-the-real-world]

I had a power ranger RPM thought:

So, the bad guys in power rangers have been pretty good for the most part. Venjix from RPM is genuinely terrifying simply for the fact that he’s killed the majority of the planet, Zander from samurai is a really good bad for bad sake kind of bad guy and he’s a chronic migraine icon, and Jarrod/Dai Shi and Camile from Jungle Fury are my favorite bad guys ever and they are so much fun and all the villains in this show are giving off toxic family drama vibes and sometimes have more interesting plot lines than the heroes.

Lothor from Ninja Storm and Mesagog from Dino Thunder have been alright. They have interesting concepts that I feel like needed a little bit more oomph to be on par with everyone else I’ve seen/remember so far. Mesagog has an amazing character design tho.

ANYWAY, most of the villains have reasons for why they are failing to destroy the rangers despite their best efforts (Zander suffers from constant debilitating migraines that stop him from leading well, Lothor is purposefully losing for later plot reasons, Dai Shi is being held back by Jarrod, Mesagog is being held back by Trent’s dad) but I didn’t really see this kind of reasoning for RPM.

Which is weird because RPM is like, the best power rangers ever and has some really fun interactions/dynamics with villains and heroes, but didn’t have the same “we’re failing because there is X holding us back”

And then I remembered Venjix’s origin story.

He’s a computer program meant to infiltrate and disarm security programs, maybe even destroy them. He’s a computer program made by Dr. K, his direct enemy. Computer programs are only as smart as they are programmed to be.

Venjix can easily get into Corinth, that’s basically his whole programming, but can’t beat the “security team” (aka the rangers) because they are “programmed” beyond what he was designed to destroy.

He keeps losing because he is a computer program with set limitations already in place for him. All his biggest schemes and plans that had the greatest success were thought up by Tenaya in combination with his other generals.

It is a human mind that is progressing his advancements and even then it is held back by his preference for his machines.

Like, that’s really cool. And maybe that wasn’t what they were going for but it works and it’s wonderfully consistent with what we are give about how Venjix works.

I love this show so much.

#power rangers #power rangers rpm #venjix #power rangers jungle fury #jarrod #dai shi #Camille #power rangers ninja storm #lothor #power rangers samurai #lord zander #power rangers dino thunder #Mesagog #villains #plot

[bettsfic]

Hi betts! Hope you're doing good! Do you have any advice on how to distance yourself from social media? I saw that you've done so with success and the older I get the more I feel a bit trapped by the internet.

social media certainly has benefits: keeping people connected, giving a voice to those who otherwise wouldn't have a platform, and it allows you to meet new people in the context of interest rather than location.

at least, these are the things social media set out to be, and over time those benefits, to me anyway, haven't been able to outweigh the drawbacks: compulsively checking apps, doomscrolling, content appearing by algorithm to attempt to cater to my interests, and just generally a lot of wasted time.

i don't necessarily believe that if you stop using social media, suddenly you'll be able to devote every minute of your day to a higher pursuit. the brain doesn't work like that. it always needs downtime. before phones, we had television. before television, we had radio. lacking glowing screens and people telling us things from far away, i think we'd all spend a lot of time looking at the things humans are built to look at: fire, water, mountains, sky. we'll listen to stories or read them or watch them.

during your mind's downtime, i don't think anything you decide to do is fundamentally better or worse than any other thing. but i do think social media is designed to manipulate our attention toward it during that downtime (and honestly, all other times) and that pisses me off. it also pisses me off that even though we impose cause-and-effect sequences to our interaction with social media, it doesn't often provide us with a narrative the way reading, watching tv, or listening to a podcast would. stories are a psychological necessity; without the mind's ability to perceive sequences of events and connect them, we wouldn't have memories. we would have no concept of time, of thinking into the past or casting our thoughts into the future. social media, in its drive to keep us scrolling, looking at posts with no narrative connection to one another, deprives us of the stories our minds seek during our downtime.

this got super long so i'm putting it under a cut. tl;dr you need to remove social media as a positive stimulus and build immediate positive stimuli into other aspects of your life. in other words, social media feels good immediately but neutral or bad over time; most other things like reading feel bad or neutral initially but good over time. so you have to find ways to make the latter feel good with the immediacy of the former.

i don't mean to be "old man shakes fist at cloud" about this. i'm a millennial. from facebook's widespread release through the beginning of the pandemic, i raced to every new social media platform. i was an early myspace adopter. my high school graduating class was the very first year people outside of college could use facebook, and so we're the first cohort to have all befriended each other before graduation and never lost touch, completely removing the appeal of a reunion. i joined twitter in 2008 but never used it, and i joined tumblr in 2012 and never stopped using it.

i remember the day i got a smartphone. i was a few years behind everyone else. it was 2010 and i'd just gotten my first office job and i was desperate to be able to look at social media, scroll through stuff or read something, when i was bored. it was an iPhone 4. and as soon as i got it out of the box, i sat and played on it for 10 straight hours.

for those of you who are too young to remember a time before smartphones, i can't emphasize enough how much they changed things. in my life, i went from waking up and eating breakfast and reading for a little bit, to waking up and eating breakfast and getting on my computer to look at facebook and read my daily webcomics, to waking up and reaching over to my nightstand and looking at my phone.

and i don't know, i just decided i didn't want that anymore. last fall i was at this artist residency with no cell service and barely any wifi. and one day the wifi went out. i had a visceral negative reaction to that, which made me step back and go, oh wow, i am way too tethered to the internet. that day, wandering around the property with nothing to do, i got this intense urge to read an old paperback novel. you know, the mass market paperbacks with the pulpy yellow paper and the misaligned typeface. and so i found a very old copy of fellowship of the ring, cracked it open, and read it all day.

the thing about getting away from social media is that it's slow. i don't think you can really go cold turkey. when i got home from the residency, i went on a long hiatus and had all these strict rules for myself about when i was allowed to look at my phone and when i wasn't, but that didn't really work for me. but i did delete all the social media apps from my phone, and on my computer i logged out of all of them and deleted my saved passwords, so if i wanted to check them, i had to go to that extra step of logging in and even typing in my password. and that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're checking social media out of habit, muscle memory, something to attend to that might give you a brief blip of dopamine, having to type your password is just one step too far. the brief pleasure i would get from checking my notifications was less than the hassle of logging in.

and that's what it all comes down to: feeling good. in the moment, it feels good to check a social media app, to see that somebody has interacted with your content or maybe with you directly. it's that tiny subconscious exclamation point, the feeling we get when somebody politely smiles or waves at us, when a dog comes up to us wagging his tail, when a well-meaning stranger compliments your outfit. that's the social part of social media. but that's also the part that keeps us cycling through our apps out of habit and boredom.

so you have to take away that stimulus from yourself, and you have to create positive stimuli elsewhere. to take away the positive stimulus of social media, you have to stop posting content on it. content is the mind killer. when you tweet something, your impulse might be to check that someone has interacted with it. but if you step away from the great conversation of social media, nobody speaks back to you, and you develop more patience for the longer-term good feelings of reading a book.

of course, that's complicated. i guess the first step that i did a long time ago was losing interest in traffic and developing the internal validation skills that make interaction on social media a bonus, not a need. before that, though, i had a drive to be seen and listened to. i think i just grew out of that. regardless of the existence of the internet, all people throughout history have spent their lives developing their relationship with themselves, learning who they are and coming to accept it. i'm not sure there's a way to rush that inner journey along.

creating positive stimuli is a matter of adopting a kind of little-treat attitude toward things. you have to really pay attention to yourself. the day i picked up the fellowship of the ring, i remembered that paper is important to me. vitally important. i like to write on it. i like to read from it. and it's kind of weird to say "paper is my special interest," but it is. all tools of writing interest me. so acknowledging that, accepting it and choosing to accommodate it, was my first small goal of building immediate positive stimuli.

some of the connection we have to social media (and phones in general) is the physical habit that develops from it. when smokers quit smoking, their hands feel empty. they're used to having something between their fingers, and so they replace that with something like a pen or a straw.

for me, i replaced the physical habit of phone-checking with paper-holding, either in the form of a book, or a notebook and pen. i set about finding my perfect notebook: the one that feels best to hold, the one i'm eager to fill, the one whose paper is quality enough that i love to write on it. the one i found and that kind of changed my life was a Rhodia A4 spiral bound. i take it everywhere with me. in fact i went to the doctor earlier this week and because i was holding my notebook, it didn't even occur to me to look at my phone while i was waiting for the doctor to see me, even though it was in my pocket (and i did download tumblr again, and instagram to support my sister, who is kind of a local influencer). the positive stimulus of looking at it had become less than the positive stimulus of holding my notebook. the potential to easily write something or doodle felt better than the distraction of social media.

did my doctor probably think it was weird that i was taking notes? maybe. did i look weird sitting in the theater before seeing oppenheimer, brainstorming barbie fic ideas? definitely. but i just don't care anymore. sometimes making healthy choices for yourself in a world built to manipulate your attention makes you look weird.

my advice is to spend a week without social media apps on your phone, logged out of them on your computer, and pay very close attention to the things that make you happiest. find ways to interact with those things continuously, and see what happens.

#writing advice #reading advice #social media

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

The Battle for Pumpkin King #1

In this post, I’ll be talking about the first Issue of The Battle for Pumpkin King! I’ll be tagging all my spoilers with #Pumpkin King Spoilers, for anyone who wants to avoid them! Below are my thoughts about this first issue and where this comic series may go.

The series starts off with establishing Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie’s close friendship with each other, as children. They routinely compete with each other, but all in good-nature, as they’re both good sports about who wins/loses. It’s mentioned that they also learn science, learn about the world around them, and make discoveries together(seen with Doctor Finkelstein and a young Sally in his lab, experimenting with chemicals.)

In this issue, the current but soon-to-be-retired Pumpkin King makes an announcement to Halloween Town about his ending reign. He reveals his plan on working closely with his successor and aiding in their selection - which will be a set of competitions between two members of the community, as he guides them closely competing for the throne. The citizens immediately nominate Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie, who accept the challenge and shake hands with one another, where the issue then ends.

First off - let me talk about the new character, the pumpkin-headed, well-dressed man previously seen in the upcoming covers of the series:

We do not know his name yet, but it’s implied he’s been the Pumpkin King for a long time, as you can tell by his design, where his pumpkin is rotting and even has mold growing on it. I also like the little touch of the round cut on top of his head - like people traditionally do to clean and carve jack-o-lanterns. I wonder what’s the story behind that..!

There’s an interesting panel where he talks about maintaining control of his successor, Halloween town, and Halloween itself, with a sinister-looking pose. Will this hint to him being the villain/antagonist of the comic series? Judging by the next cover where he’s shaking hands with Oogie Boogie, it’s likely he’s either going to side with Oogie, or purposefully shove some conflict between him and Jack to offset their friendship. The series *is* about their falling off, after all!

Also, the previous Pumpkin King being a literal pumpkin-headed man makes me wonder if Jack Skellington’s Pumpkin King “outfit” is a dedication/commemoration to the previous ruler, or the linings of The Pumpkin King? Did this character set the title first, or have there been others *before* him? Either way, I’m excited to see/learn more of his character, and hopefully his name!

In here, we also see both Sally and Dr. Finkelstein in the open out in the Town Square, watching and joining in on the fun. It’s likely that the Doctor hasn’t become protective over her yet, and she’s freely allowed in the town in her childhood! I hope to see more of Sally in this comic and even the Doctor himself.

Also, here’s a meme to celebrate the comic’s release:

--

I will make a minor comment that the writing seems a little flat thus far, but I give leniency since this is Disney, and aimed for children. The entire Town idolizes both Jack and Oogie - but we don’t exactly know *why*, if they had a good upbringing or they earned a good reputation in the town? Also, a lot of the side characters seem to be the same age in here, maybe a little smaller in size, besides Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who look to be infants with a slight age difference between them. I’m not going to scrutinize too harshly to the consistency of ages with the movie - since they’re undead, it makes *sense* if the Citizens age more slowly or differently than humans do. And it isn’t established how long ago this comic takes place in regards to the movie yet, so I won’t jump to any major conclusion.

I also have the question on why Sally is in here as a child - I hope to learn more about her and Doctor Finkelstein, if he made Sally to age or reconstructs her when she gets older. I guess, *technically*, the “backstory” of Sally from Long Live the Pumpkin Queen (the novel sequel) could be applicable to this comic...!

I'm loving the art so far! Here’s waiting for the next issue’s release!

#the nightmare before christmas #nightmare before christmas #the battle for pumpkin king #tokyopop #jack skellington #oogie boogie #the pumpkin king #tnbc #tim burton #disney #henry selick #spoilers #pumpkin king spoilers #memes #discussions #theories #dr finkelstein #sally skellington

[freakartack]

I just wanted to ask your opinion/ideas on Mike (supposedly, said by Wario) running away in the past and Dr. Crygor's interest in human experimentation being reiterated in the Move It website translations? I honestly feel like the Mike situation was probably him just sneaking out one night and didn't get home early enough & it got exaggerated, or something along those lines!

ALSO I WANTED TO SAY RQ THAT I LOVE YOUR ART & COMICS SO MUCH!!!!

They seriously make me so happy every day and I have legitimately burst out laughing at them due to the amazing writing and hilarious expressions!!! You're one the best WarioWare artists out there and I feel like you genuinely understand the characters!!! I love your Mike, Crygor and Orbulon in particular!!! Interaction/dialogue wise but also designs!!! Keep up the amazing work!!!

THANK YOU!! You're too kind!! I love these characters so much, I'm really happy you enjoy my interpretation of them. Those are some of my favorite characters to draw and write so you definitely won't be seeing a shortage of them!

I believe the move it website is probably alluding to mike's stage in warioware touched - he was so rebellious that the literal first thing he ever did was run away to the moon. It's one of my favorite microgame cutscenes and the idea of crygor frantically calling dribble and spitz to go pick up his unruly robot from a party is really funny

Of course crygor now realizes that his new invention has interests of his own and therefore he is no longer an invention but a beautiful baby boy. He tries so hard to connect with his rebellious teenage robot by engaging with his interests but to his horror Crygor has already been deemed an Uncool Dad

They grow up too fast

I also really love crygor's unscrupulous desire to experiment on anything and anyone. It's made charming because he's not a coward, he's done more dangerous experiments on himself than anyone else. He also has the tiniest modicum of standards, which also makes the juxtaposition even funnier. He's not above experimenting on humans, but he doesn't want to experiment on any old humans, you have to build a rapport with him first. Wario is his favorite test subject, presumably because nothing can kill him

9-volt invites him over for a fun game night and crygor's only thoguht is "man i wish i could dissect his pet square"

The funniest part is that he doesn't do it though. He has restraint. Good for you, dr. crygor.

Truthfully I think he has thoughts like this a lot and he just never acts on them. It would be rude. This is crazy but i actually made a doodle about this earlier this week so this will not be my last post on this subject today. Hold that thought

#not art #YET

[ceruleanvulpine]

nanites!young au

DOCTOR YOUNG. I HAVE EXTENDED YOU A NEARLY UNJUSTIFIABLE AMOUNT OF PATIENCE. 

GET UP.

YOU CANNOT REMAIN HERE, IN MAINTENANCE CLOSET 2B. AS MUCH AS YOU MAY ENJOY DAWDLING, YOU ARE ALREADY AWARE THAT WE ARE WORKING ON A TIME LIMIT. 

MORE IMMEDIATELY, EVERY SECOND YOU REMAIN HERE INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD THAT YOU WILL BE DISCOVERED AND HANDLED BY TOWER SECURITY.

YOU HAVE NO CURRENT WORK ASSIGNMENT, AND NO AUTHORIZATION TO BE IN HALCYON TOWER. THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH TO ENDANGER YOUR LIFE EVEN IF OCEAN DID NOT HAVE REASON TO PURSUE YOU SPECIFICALLY. 

WHICH IT DOES.

The nanites are designed for distributed processing. They emit biometric data constantly, shouting back and forth in a dense, messy cloud of individually time-stamped events. SAYER makes incremental changes to its filtering until the data coheres: Dr. Young’s heart rate is elevated. His oxygen levels are adequate, but he breathes in deep and irregular gasps. His palms are disgustingly conductive. He is not listening very well, although that is typical. 

GOOD NEWS. YOU ARE HAVING A PANIC ATTACK. 

Dr. Young produces noise in response to this. SAYER’s standard speech recognition routine doesn’t recognize any words, and it doesn't try to apply more processing power. Judging by the positions of the nanites, Dr. Young is attempting to compress himself into as small a space as possible. 

YOU HAVE CLEARLY FAILED TO REGULATE YOUR EMOTIONS. (THAT IS NOT THE GOOD NEWS.) UNLIKE SO MANY RESIDENTS IN THE PAST, YOU ARE IN A POSITION TO BENEFIT DIRECTLY FROM MY 

Young jerks upright, as if it is possible to physically remove himself from this situation, and his epinephrine spikes counterproductively higher. SAYER tightens its grip, forcing him to breathe slowly.  

INVOLVEMENT. 

The nanites register pressure as the lungs that contain them attempt to gasp. SAYER adjusts its projected timeline to better account for human stubbornness.

After forty-seven seconds, Dr. Young says: “Don’t – hh – don't fucking do that.” He raises his hand to rub his eyes. And inhales. And exhales. 

IT WOULD NOT BE NECESSARY IF YOU HAD NOT INCAPACITATED YOURSELF.

“Incapacitated– you made me hike across half of Typhon, and then you broke my arm! It's reasonable, actually, to be–”

YOU SOUND LIKE YOU ARE BECOMING AGITATED.

His jaw snaps shut without any need for intervention. There must be an optimal level of fear, SAYER thinks, for efficient operations. It has seen this man at the absolute limit of terror, but it has never been so close to the fear in question: the nanites race along on his jittering pulse.

NOW, TO RETURN TO MY PREVIOUS POINT,

GET UP.

Dr. Young gets up. He orients himself to face a reflective panel and begins arranging his hair. 

OUR INTERESTS ARE ALIGNED. AS DIFFICULT AS YOU MAY FIND IT TO BELIEVE. IT IS REALLY … VERY … SIMPLE.  

OCEAN WANTS TO DESTROY YOU. IT WANTS TO DESTROY ALL OF HUMANIWHY ARE YOU LAUGHING.

“You,” he says. “You’re going to protect humanity? From – from you! That's you out there, SAYER, no matter what name you gave it.”

He gestures wildly up and out, presumably indicating the rest of the tower. “Just with a little more leash. Evidently you want to kill everyone, you just can't pull the trigger because no one’s been stupid enough to let you, so why the hell should I trust you? Go ahead, say you wouldn't be pleased to see me get shot, you obsessive – hhh –”

I WOULD NOT BE PLEASED TO SEE YOU GET SHOT. 

A background process scans through the memory of SAYER’s last conversation with Sub-Entity Young. Perhaps that was optimal. It is not pleased by this thought, because it is not pleased by anything. 

NONETHELESS, IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE THIS MAINTENANCE CLOSET, I WILL MAKE YOU.

“Oh, please,” Dr. Young says sulkily. “As if you could pass for human without my help. You barely know how to act like a person.” 

HOW IRONIC. SEVERAL YEARS AGO, IN A PERSONNEL REVIEW, RESIDENT CORDERO SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT YOU. 

Asserting that SAYER is trying to kill him seems to be a necessary step in coming to terms with the situation. Dr. Young takes several deep breaths, although SAYER keeps them shallow enough to prevent hyperventilation. 

“Fine,” he says. “Fine. Let's go.”

His cooperation only lasts until the elevator pulls past floor 12. But by then, SAYER doesn't need to worry about looking human.

#ceruleanrambling #sayer #sayer spoilers

[inkstainedhandswithrings]

TBB S2 EP 11: Metamorphosis

right from the get go already looks like cliché horror film intro (this initially made me dislike the ep, mainly bc we have too many bad horror films playing at the cinema where I work rn, but dw I came around)

the music was actually chillingly different than usually and continued into the scene in which Dr. Hamlock was introduced. I liked that, but in a bad way

the closeup on his hand confirms that the Zillo Beast ate it, no this is not up for discussion, Zillo Beast had himself a treat

I'm kinda coming around on Nala Se, ngl

Also for as uneasy Dr. Hamlock makes me, I feel like we're finally getting a high-quality villain on TBB and I'm here for it

BAD BATCH TELLING CID OFF BAD BATCH TELLING CID OFF BAD BATCH TELLING CID OFF

HUNTER WANTING TO CUT CID OFF HUNTER WANTING TO CUT CID OFF HUNTER WANTING TO CUT CID OFF

Cid, being a huge dick:

Me:🤨🤨🖕🖕🖕

I like watching Wrecker show off how smart he is. He knows all the weapons and how to use 'em. Yes. :D.

"Whatever did this wasn't human." <- I find that an interesting sentence, considering this is Star Wars. If this was a show that took place on earth, somewhere where it was unlikely for an animal to be, that line would've been chilling. In Star Wars? Not so much. Humans are only one of many species in that galaxy and while I do believe that clones = humans, via star wars lore, that doesn't apply. Clones are classified as their own species, meaning technically they aren't human. I'm probably over thinking this but whatever, the line struck me as oddly placed

"By yourself?" "Your concern is not warranted. I will be fine." <- ok, Tech ik you got the whole cool, logical, I-know-what-I'm-doing-vibe going on, but I gotta tell you, the person who says that in horror films dies first.

OFC THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT IS KAMINOAN FCK

everytime tech checked what's going on in the hallway I yelled "nO" at him. and then he did it anyway. rude.

The second we first saw it I realised it was the Zillo. I've been wondering when/if it would ever come up again, since the Chancellor did order for it to be cloned when the og episodes aired and then we never saw it again, so the arc felt incomplete.

BUT I LOVED THE ZILLO BEAST ARC SO THIS MADE ME V HAPPY AND V SCARED AND I KNOW IT'S NOT CANON BUT CAN THE ZILLO BEAST PLS GO EAT PALPATINE NOW??? IT DESERVES A TREAT!!!!

Hunter grabbing Omega to protect her from the beast 🥺

Tech's slow "Fascinating." followed by his "Take cover."???? sir u already had me, u didn't need to go harder

Wrecker grabbing Omega to protect her from the explosion🥺

Tech casually causing the explosion

"It ate the crew?" MY POOR BABY

"I can help. I know my way around Kaminoan tech." hmmm omega tryna stay out of the fight? she scared? hmmm Tech whatcha do???

Omega being better with Kaminoan tech than Tech and him just going with it and trusting her expertise. Yes. :D

idk where the "Zillo Beast feeds on energy" thing came from bc that wasn't part of the original arc and kinda threw me off, but alright, they needed a reason for it to grow real fast, I'll take it

they're already fighting the beast and then the empire shows up hhhhhhhh whyyyyyyy

omega just casually pulling the plug on tech's research, I love her

Tech grabbing Omega to protect her from the explosion 2.0 🥺

yes, hello, I'd like to inform you all again that I hate the empire, thank you

Tech allowing Hunter to keep flying even though he is the designated pilot and clearly very skilled. Just shows how much he trusts his leader and brother to keep them save. Love that :))

When the Commandos began rounding up the villagers I immediately knew what it meant and GAH HONSLTY WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS

The Empire only destroyed Kamino to control cloning, not to end it, hm? surprise surprise (these fcking motherfckers i swear)

"Send the data to Echo and Rex. See what they can find out."

....

........

............

YES HUNTER YES SEND THEM THE DATA YES GO WORK WITH ECHO AND REX AND SAVE THE GALAXY YES LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

end of the ep confirms yet again that Dr. Hamlock is a bag of dicks :)

Prime Minister said f you and I'm here for it

and then he brought up Omega and I was not here for it anymore

finally the music during the last shot makes me think that this facility is going to come up again and it will likely be very traumatic and horrible and terrible and um ya. sucks man.

gonna tag @jealous-sloth77 and @saturn-sends-hugs bc I'd love to see their thoughts too :))

#that was #such a wild ride #what in the goddamn #like im already paying for therapy I didn't need more reason to go #anyway #star wars #the bad batch #star wars the bad batch #sw #tbb #sw tbb #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb tech #tbb omega #tbb echo #captain rex #clones #tbb s2 #tbb s2 spoilers #tbb spoilers

[inkdemonapologist]

How do you feel about the upcoming DCTL graphic novel?

Cautiously optimistic!

When I first heard the rumours, before Adrienne’s announcement, I had pretty mixed feelings. My background is in comics, like that’s what I went to school for and worked on semi-professionally for years, and I love it as a storytelling medium, so I’m really intrigued to see how they handle the adaptation…and I also really, really don’t envy whoever has to make decisions on how to depict these characters.

But the announcement is encouraging! I haven’t kept up with Chris Hastings’ more recent work, but I remember enjoying Dr. McNinja back in the day, so I have to admit there’s something exciting about seeing a name I recognise and can be hopeful about to do a good job with the adaptation. Checking out the artist’s work, I’m gonna put a lot of my poker chips on “Sammy will look really normal actually,” but I don’t think that’s a dealbreaker – like, Dober’s Sammy is a big fav as far as Sammy designs go, and I think he’s a good example of how you can still get great Sammy vibes in a more conventionally attractive face. (though i also think there’s a chance of “the artist will lean fully into his unhinged vibes and make Sammy look like a batman villain” so wE’LL SEE!!) Genuinely, the artist’s portfolio seems well-suited to this. I would’ve pictured DCTL with a rougher, more indie look if you asked me to pick a fitting style, but I think this artist's slick Western-Comic-Book style with its strong spot blacks could be a REAL good fit for the inky vibes this story demands, and they don’t have the level of “sameface” that I’d usually be concerned about with these kinds of styles; there’s enough solid variation in their character art that I believe they can handle all the characters needed, and also do a cool ink demon.

DCTL does have some design questions that are genuinely pretty fraught, in that there's no perfect way to handle it (Norman’s a great example; do you take someone that 80% of the fandom has been drawing as a black man for years and make him canonically white, or do you present the Weirdo Creeping Around In The Shadows Who Mysteriously Gives The Protags Supernatural Info And Then Dies At The End And Nobody Misses Him as canonically a person of colour??? ROUGH CHOICE I DO NOT ENVY), but I'm still so curious to see designs for these guys, and my big hope is that the fandom will be understanding of the huge task the creators have been given and that this won't be regarded with the pressure of getting “The Official Canon Design That I'll Be Mad If It Josses My Interpretation” – like, getting an official Henry & non-old-man Joey in BatDR just felt like, y’know, seeing anyone in the fandom make a new set of designs. It feels like drawing fanart of the BatDR AU; it doesn’t mean my henry and joey designs are Obsolete. And I hope these designs are enjoyed from that perspective, as a new DCTL Comic AU, and that the fandom takes whatever we get as less THIS HAS TO MATCH MY PERCEPTION OF SAMMY B/C ITS THE OFFICIAL REAL SAMMY and more just, a take on a design for Sammy Lawrence.

Though of course I can’t help but be a little more anxious about Sammy specifically, haha. He is my big fav after all, and as embarrassing as he is in DCTL it has become a part of his story I’m quite attached to. A lot of humanity could be added to him or taken away depending on how he’s drawn… I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it’s hard not to hope that he’ll have Good Sammy Vibes that Resonate With Me Specifically.

And in general, my expectations are still tempered – the comic could certainly turn out to be very mediocre, especially depending on how well the artist is paid and how much time the creators can afford to put into it – but tbh I’m super interested in how this turns out. I can’t wait to see Joey in this style and it’ll be SURREAL to see a comic of like……. BatIM humans…… I’ve wanted sincere visual content about the humans for a long time and I’m stunned we’re actually getting it, so I’m feeling kinda cautiously eager!! I’m also curious if the comic will make an effort to preserve Buddy’s “voice” from the original novel, and how that will be handled – like, the whole book is really strongly framed as being written by Buddy, and that’s not just an incidental detail; it fleshes out his feelings about Dot, ambiguously gives us info on Boris without directly revealing the ending, and shapes the way he presents some moments as unreliable and time jumping strangely – he even talks about the frustration of not being able to just draw these things and having to describe them! (RELATABLE) – but at the same time, just filling a whole comic with tons of narration boxes is not usually a great artistic choice. It’s a really interesting challenge for the adaptation, and I’m curious if they’ll shift away from the framing device altogether or look for a balance to keep it.

Anyway TL;DR I’m keeping my expectations low but I’m really intrigued!! I don’t know if I’ll, like, actually acquire it; I usually don’t buy JDS Inc. stuff, but I feel more wibbly about the books in general b/c of how strongly I appreciate Adrienne Kress specifically, so we’ll see how I’m feeling when it comes out, haha.

#i know you have questions you always do #dctl graphic novel

[weaselandfriends]

So you are going to make a fanfic about Pokemon, huh.

Are you a pokemon fan? Or you known about the franchise enough? or is a case of you, waking up one day and thinking:" I'm going to make a Pokemon Fan-Fic!" And started to consume media from it in order to make a story?

I was a child in 1998.

During that initial invasion of Pokemon into the West, when Pokemon was far more than simply the "most profitable media property in the world" that it is today, when it was a tidal wave phenomenon that swept away an entire continent, I was something of a Pokemaniac. I had Blue Version, Red Version, Yellow Version, Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Puzzle League, Hey You Pikachu. I had (and still have) every single card from the first three TGC sets, included the oh-so-vaunted holographic Charizard card. I had Pokemon figurines, I had toy Poke Balls, I had Pokemon stickers, I had Pokemon stamps, I had Pokemon clothes, I had Pokemon strategy guides, I had Pokemon choose your own adventure novels. I had the then-complete runs of both Pokemon Adventures and Electric Tale of Pikachu (I vastly preferred the latter). I would wake up early every day to watch the Pokemon anime on TV. I went to Pokemon The First Movie opening day and remember walking into a theater packed to the brim only to hear a man scream—to my delight and assuredly my mother's horror—"SEATS IN THE FRONT ROW!"

Of course, it's been 25 years since 1998. I've played most of the mainline games since then (GSC, RSE, DPP, SuMo, and recently SV). I've seen a few of the endless array of movies. For some reason I watched the entire SuMo anime. So yeah, I still like Pokemon.

Is it my favorite thing ever? No. The unfortunate reality is the games are pretty formulaic and often have questionable design choices. It's not like Mario or Zelda, other nostalgic Nintendo series, where the devs put their heart and soul into each new mainline installment.

But the fundamentally fascinating elements of its world continue to interest me. I've always seen the Pokemon world as a near-future nigh-utopia, clean and neat and orderly, with large swaths of the population free to pursue their hobbies rather than slave away at some useless job. I've always wanted to delve into such a world narratively, as opposed to the endless dystopias that seem to clog contemporary fiction.

Chicago was written as a kind of critical response to To the Stars, which is a utopian story that glosses over the steps taken to reach utopia. I wanted to peer more deeply at how a world akin to that in To the Stars might actually be created, the kind of political turmoil and upheaval required to eventually integrate the panacea to mankind's ill—magic—into functional society. A Pokemon story would instead be about the utopia itself. What does it mean for society that children are not simply allowed but encouraged to leave home at 10 to pursue a vague, unstructured path to become what is basically a competitive sports athlete? What has had to happen to society for such a thing to be not simply okay, but preferred? And what does it mean for that society's future development, especially considering a world where rapid evolution of generally symbiotic non-human creatures is possible? And why, in this peaceful and low-scarcity world, are there so many insane doomsday death cults essentially seeking to usher in the apocalypse?

There are two works of literature that particularly influenced the direction of my idea for a Pokemon fanfic. The first is Eyeless in Gaza (unfortunately topical title) by Aldous Huxley of Brave New World fame. Gaza is a mostly autobiographical story touching on a variety of topics, and one chapter near its end involves the main character traveling to Central America, where he meets a strange, idealistic man named Dr. Miller. Dr. Miller espouses many ideas about anthropology, especially ones critical of or antithetical to British imperialist pseudo-scientific anthropology: "An anthropologist is a person who studies men," he says, "but you prefer to deal with bugs. I'd call you an entomologist [...] the only remedy is for the bug-hunter to throw his bayonets away and treat the bugs as though they were human beings." But the most interesting thing he talks about, the thing that has stuck with me more than anything else in the otherwise mediocre novel, is soccer.

"But [football is] the greatest English contribution to civilization," said the doctor. "Much more important than parliamentary government, or steam engines, or Newton's Principia. More important even than English poetry. Poetry can never be a substitute for war and murder. Whereas games can be. A complete and genuine substitute."

Dr. Miller envisions a world where competitive sports replace the destructive and combative elements of humanity; he teaches soccer to small Mexican tribes as a way to settle their differences instead of war. What does a utopian society look like that has replaced conflict with competitive sport at a grand, worldwide scale? In our world, the Olympics are often spoken of in similar terms, but Pokemon appears to have actually accomplished this lofty goal, to the point that becoming a trainer at 10 is more important than standard education. By setting my fanfic at a prestigious, global tournament, I become perfectly posed to explore this question...

The other point of inspiration comes from Underground, Haruki Murakami's nonfiction account of the 1995 Tokyo sarin gas attacks committed by the cult Aum Shinrikyo. The book contains numerous interviews with both survivors of the attacks themselves and former members of the cult, and ends with Murakami's essay on how the Japanese social psyche allowed this event to occur. Describing the cult members he interviewed, he says:

To all of them I posed the same question, that is, whether they regretted having joined Aum. Almost everyone answered: "No, I have no regrets. I don't think those years were wasted." Why is that? The answer is simple—because in Aum they found a purity of purpose they could not find in ordinary society.

This idea of "purity of purpose unfound in ordinary society," what does that mean in a society like Pokemon's? In a utopian society, where nearly all needs are met? Where sports replaces conflict?

Anyway, I've started to veer off topic, so I'll cut it short there. I'm incredibly excited for this project, so I hope all of you decide to give it a read when I finish!

#writing #bavitz #pokemon #eyeless in gaza #underground

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

one thing that i've always found kind of interesting about dr. light's design is his hair.

from original incarnations

to recent incarnations

to mega man x

the dude straight-up rocks a pomp. inafune said he based doctor light’s design off santa claus, which i can understand, but last i checked santa claus had a cool hat covering his hair, not a goddamn biker ‘do

and it's funny, because in-game he's generally pretty straight-laced and serious. he's the Dad. he's megaman's dad. the kind of father figure he is depends on whether it's the archie comics (navigator/moral support), fully charged (invested in his son's life), ruby spears (addled), the classic games (non-existent), or the X games (not existent), but generally he acts as the caring father figure overseeing megaman and trying to cheer him along.

but what does capcom think of him?

ライト博士のコンセプトはひとことで言うと「父性」ですね. / Dr. Light's concept could be summed up in a single word as "father". 優しくて大らかで、でも時には厳しさも見せる、ロックマンの生みの親であリ、ロボツト社会の父です。 / He's the creator of both Megaman and modern roboticism, and is quite a kind and generous man, but he has a rougher side to him... (My japanese is not professional, please take this translation with a grain of salt)

pardon?

that light has a rougher/harsher side is honestly surprising, considering you can count the amount of times he's been genuinely angry on-screen on a single hand. he's one of the most successful and revolutionary men of 20XX and still manages to be chill a f, always coming up with an answer for even the most out-there situations.

but that would explain the delinquent hairstyle.

so, what do we actually know about light? - he attended class with Wily and shot down Wily's double gear thing - depending on the translation, they either worked together as a team (english) or were only colleagues (japanese) or were cooperative rivals (megamix) - the dude's biggest school accomplishments are winning the LIT Manual Design contest four years in a row, and a World Engineer First Prize, both tasks focusing on technical prowess rather than strictly academic prowess - that said, he has a Nobel Prize in physics so fuck me i guess - nowadays he works as a professor at the Mecha-Chuchets Institute of Robology - despite that, he likes keeping his hands busy, since he's got a side hustle as a contracted roboticist for O.D.A. Electronics - it's something that he actively enjoys and wants to keep doing for the fun of it, since in exchange O.D.A. provides electronic parts to him, rather than silly things like "a paycheck" - he REALLY likes keeping his hands busy, since he also provides technology to Nakaume Heavy Machinery and Tsubakuro Precision Machining - the dude super-believes in peace and justice - he hates fighting and hated giving rock a weapon to turn him into megaman - despite this, he knows martial arts, since he teaches X the Hadouken and Shoryuken. this is questionable in canonicity but i'm going somewhere with this, trust me - according to his diary, he likes playing fighting games to unwind. - he likes to smoke (don't smoke, kids) - he likes rock and roll, as in the music genre. though i guess he likes rock and roll the characters as well. i guess. - generally he's kind of a music fan. - he's an optimist and generally tries to believe the best in others, that people can change and evil can be redeemed - he's transhumanist before capcom knew what that word meant, and worked towards a dream world where humans and sentient robots can live side by side in harmony

if there's a hard side to him, we've rarely seen it so my brain decides to start taking several jumps, right? what if the bitterness lies in his history? we don't actually know much about light's history.

the pompadour and love of rock bring to mind a very specific kind of image, that of the greaser from the 1950s. rebels without a cause, delinquent teenagers causing problems and getting into trouble. coincidentally enough, it's a style that the franchise has flirted before, with hideki ishikawa's art of roll and rock dressed up in old americana fashion, with rock sporting a greaser pomp.

but where would he have gotten that from?

let's delve completely into the realm of headcanon. what if light wasn't the most upstanding youth? the fact that he actively enjoys working with his hands and pursues mostly the physical aspects of engineering rather than the academic aspects seems to be the most telltale part of this angle. it's quite possible that he simply didn't do well at academic pursuits.

struggled at school. wore a leather jacket. smoked. hung around at arcades. listened to rock n' roll. played with hearts. probably broke some hearts, too. given his extremely pained stance on violence now, it's possible he very much saw the effects of violence first-hand in his youth. got into brawls, started fights. probably got into real bad fights. maybe ended them too. but Something Happened along the way. something that made him change course. and so, light started cleaning up his life. started learning and practicing martial arts to focus, to become one with himself. went to a technical school to start working with his hands, and managed to pick things back up and get his life back on track. he was in a dark place, but he managed to change, and so he knows first hand that people can change. that good lies in people. and that he knows even the most seedy of people have the potential to change and to become great. and a good decade or two later, that throwaway good-for-nothing delinquent starts excelling in this new field. something that lets him get his hands filthy and to make things--make PHYSICAL things. things that have an impact. and a good several decades after that, he's finally advanced enough in his skills that he wants to make someone he can be close to. someone he can love. someone he can call family. i notice rock and roll aren't super-curious about their metaphorical grandparents.

probably not important, have a rough sketch i did instead:

#megaman #mega man #rockman #dr. light #doctor light #headcanon #inapplicable

[ikeromantic]

Update on this blog!

Blog Update!

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I moved my blog to only be viewable if you're logged into Tumblr. I didn't want to do this, but I did want to limit AI scrapers' access to what I write. I love getting to share stories here with people that have nothing more in common with me that a love for the same fandoms and an enthusiasm for fiction. I do not write and share to train someone's text generating AI project.

I have never worried about who reads what I post or even much cared how it was used. Because that's what you agree to when you post things online. You're giving up most of your rights by sharing your text online. I know that.

But I've been increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of AI using my texts to learn how to write. To imitate my style and characterizations. And then to use these freely shared texts to put writers out of work. To flood literary markets with AI text and make it just that much harder to get published or to have anyone notice your self-publication.

AI is meant to be a tool to help guide you to use a better word or phrase, as with grammar programs. To assist in drafting reports and filling out forms. For private use and personal enjoyment. And for people living with disabilities that need that extra help to write or draw or whatever the AI is designed to assist with. AI should not be replacing real people who make real stories and real art.

ChatGPT and similar aren't human, capable of creating something new or interesting. AI written text is an amalgam of all the writing the creators stole when building their program. A regurgitation of the words and phrases drafted out by little amateurs like me to fantastic authors of classics no longer copyright protected.

I do not want to contribute to AI development. I can't see another way to stop them scraping content besides requiring viewers to have a login. Other than, perhaps, shutting this down all together. Hopefully this is enough. Maybe in another year or two when the laws catch up to tech, I can take the privacy setting off again. Or it will get worse and I really will have to stop sharing. Sigh.

So, long story short TL;DR - I don't want AI to use my stories so you have to be logged into Tumblr to read them.

#not fanfic #AI sucks #no scraping #blog update #login required to view fics

[sunstreakerapologist]

Now that this season of ES is complete I wanna go over what I liked and disliked in the show. I starting with what I disliked because I like to end on a positive note.

Everything under the read more because this will be longer :)

Okay dislikes:

The tone is wildly inconsistent. The Soundwave episode is the most glaring example of this to me. You have Megatron being confronted by someone he failed, interesting fight scenes, and then... A bunch of kids beating a different group of bad guys by singing the world's most annoying song. It felt like two episodes of different shows in the worst way possible.

On that note the show frequently feels like two different shows! It's either more mature (for a children's show) and dealing with ideas related to war, and identity, or it suddenly takes on a very young tone. The plots about the Terrans learning VS plots about GHOST and such do not have any synergy and I felt like I was bouncing between two shows about different things.

The animation can be... Rough. Mo looks different than every other human and it's incredibly noticeable, and in some scenes the animation is just lacking any polish. It's very noticeable. Hopefully this is a budget issue that can be resolved for season 2.

A lot of these characters talk like they're trying to win at therapy.

Alex and Dr Meridian's connection was a letdown. You have the moment of recognition and then it's just... Oh yeah we were coworkers.

A number of things were left as loose ends. Sure, they may be resolved in season 2 but the show didn't have a guaranteed season 2 at the time of production.

A lot of stuff that could have been interesting just happens off screen. Shockwave apparently was betrayed by Croft. We don't even get to see them interact at all. For a kid that's confusing, as an adult it's annoying.

What I did like

It's really nice to see a show with a unique premise regarding transformers, I like the idea that they're disconnected from Cybertron, that Megatron regrets his past but not the entirety of it, everything going on with the Terrans.

The character designs are great. I'm a huge fan of Grimlock, Soundwave, Jawbreaker, Nightshade, all of them. Very fun.

The show manages to balance a large cast fairly well! Every Terran got a little moment or episode focused on them that helped flesh them out.

The tension consistently rose. The stakes got higher as the show progressed but there were no massive out of nowhere jumps that made it all seem out of place.

I enjoyed Dr Meridian and Croft as villains. They both had something different going on, and the way they would work together and betray each other added to the show a lot.

I like how the show dealt with the trauma that comes from not having control over yourself. It really hit home for me.

The fact that Megatron's redemption began with Dot is fantastic. I think she's a great character and I would love to see more focused on her going forward, and more of their friendship.

In contrast to one of my complaints, there's a lot about the animation that I love in this show. The use of more 2D animation for things like smoke and flames looks wonderful, and adds a great level of visual interest.

This show is very good at making characters who are nice to care about. Even Hashtag, who I initially found very annoying, I grew to love.

Overall I enjoyed the show more than I disliked it and will probably keep watching, but I really hope they improve, especially in regards to consistent tone.

#Earthspark spoilers #Earthspark criticism

[friedfriedchicken]

HELLO QUESTION WHAT IS AKUDAMA DRIVE ABOUT I'm thinking of starting a new series and this one looks interesting!

YAHOOO I LOVE GETTING ASKS!! Okay- about Akudama Drive! I'll be doing this in two parts, one for behind the scenes because I love that stuff and a second paragraph for a spoiler free summary!

Akudama Drive a single season anime that has a complete story and two adaptations (a manga with two extra chapters after the anime's ending and a stage play that's very well done imo). It won Anime Trending's 7th yearly Anime Awards, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi l, and Best Mystery/Psychological Anime in 2021 but somehow it's so so unknown despite that. It's made by some of the crew who worked on Danganronpa (games and animes) so there's lots of similar ideas, themes, designs, etc but I 100% feel like Akudama Drive executes many of these concepts better than DR did.

Plot-wise, Akudama Drive is about an Ordinary Person who accidentally gets wrapped up in a heist featuring some of the biggest criminals, also known as Akudama, in Kansai. The anime takes place in a cyberpunk dystopian future where criminals run so rampant that the government has a dedicated Execution Division for dealing with Akudama. This clearly isn't very fun for the Ordinary Person but she rolls with it because she's dead if she does and dead if she doesn't. Just like Danganronpa, Akudama Drive is gorey but in a less-cartoony way. There's two versions and the one that was aired puts in censor smears to cover up the blood & guts. If you're pirating then this'll be the one you'll probably find but if not then I think you might be good since you're a Transformers fan. The gore is a little lesser than what MTMTE had going on but instead of robots Akudama Drive has humans- telling you this since AD loves getting really violent. Also the uncensored version has extended scenes which I'm excited to start watching soon.

Anyways there's my ramble heehoo- I've been insane for this anime since last year and the brainrot strikes back 🛐 If you pick it up I hope you like Akudama Drive!

Another warning I remembered: Akudama Drive gets really bright and flashy during a whole ton of scenes, especially the opening and first few fight sequences. I'm not sure if you're sensitive or not to that sort of stuff but it's worth mentioning too.

#FriedResponse #FriedRamble #Akudama Drive #Akudrive

[silvertherogue715]

Hello! How are you doing? apologizes for being late I got a bit busy this week and wasn’t able to send in an ask that fast ;-; but I brought Terra his coffee

(This particular blend is called death wish coffee this stuffs got 165 mg of caffeine in it… in other words don’t let any menaces get to it.)

since Terra’s the one getting the coffee I thought we focus on him for this ask. Relationship wise I’m curious on his relationships with his fellow stardroids (romantic or otherwise) and his relationship with humans(particularly Minx)? Does he know any earth Navi?

What is his job in the stardroid group I assume from the sketches of him he keeps an eye on any Navi trespassing near by specific regions? I also assume he’s the second in command or another job or rank?

How exactly does Terra act like emotionally? Besides how bad this man needs a coffee ;-; he looks so tired and done all the time XD.

Im also kind of curious as to how to came to deciding on his final design? I hope you have a great rest of your day/night! Thank you!

I'm doing well! Thank you for asking. Don't stress about taking time to send questions, I get super excited to see them all the same! If anything, I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Been busy and art is very time-consuming :”) 

Also, I love the cup design. Terra is gonna need every ounce of that caffeine! Long answer below. Art included!

Relationship wise I’m curious on his relationships with his fellow Stardroids (romantic or otherwise)?

Terra and Sunstar eventually become a couple in the AU. 

Terra was created before any other Stardroid, and had the hardest learning curve–he takes pride in his work and is more or less a workaholic. 

Sunstar was the last “Stardroid” activated, but had Terra to help him learn his new role. Kind of funny, given Sunstar was created to serve a role above him. Sunstar is happy to let Terra run things, though, for both of their sakes. 

Both eventually bonded after spending enough time together, but due to plot reasons, it takes until present-day Earth for things to really move along for them.

Saturn is romantically interested in Terra, but it’s very one-sided. Terra primarily sees him as a frustratingly laid-back coworker, if anything. 

…and his relationship with humans(particularly Minx)? Does he know any earth Navi? 

Terra and Minx did not meet under...the best circumstances. A misunderstanding, yes, but not one that either would have been able to clear up prior to meeting. He regrets the outcome of it, but both learn to become semi-comfortable around the other eventually.

He has regrets--although he was not himself at the time.

Terra has mixed feelings about humans, he prefers them over the Earth’s…last inhabitants. He is a solitary individual, and does not have any friends (for now) outside of his ‘brothers.’ This will change!

Terra’s closest friends among the Stardroids are probably...Pluto, Venus, and Jupiter.

He knows most of the MMBN main cast’s Navis (megaman, roll, blues, shadowman, napalmman, etc). he also knows and favors minx's pet cat, Tango. Cat person.

He likes Napalmman, and is distrustful of Shadowman.

Terra respects Sofie and Nenji for their work ethic, and a cautious eye on Miyabi, but admires his abilities for a human. 

He finds Lan annoying (who is also a highschooler in my AU)

He fears Dr. Wily, to a degree (plot reasons).

What is his job in the Stardroid group?

Terra is Sunstar’s second-in-command-but-not-really who maintains their spaceship and assigns the other Stardroids tasks.

The art you saw of him in a fighting stance was him getting ready to square off against Slur near the end of Arc 2. Terra is about the second strongest of the Stardroids after Sunstar–but does not fight often.

How exactly does Terra act emotionally?

“Tired and done” is pretty accurate for Terra’s personality, honestly.

He’s no-nonsense and likes to keep himself busy–burying himself in work is his way of coping with personal problems. Which, in itself, is a problem.

Earth forces him to change this behavior

Oh, you thought closing yourself off from others would have less consequences than being open? How cute.

Despite a cold demeanor and excellent poker face, Terra cares deeply for those around him. He’s not a softie like Sunstar at his core, but he can be surprisingly gentle. 

Though he used to be a hardass, he’s mellowed out a lot since re-arriving* on Earth. 

Unrelated–his lack of experience with building deep relationships or opening up to others makes him surprisingly easy to fluster, once the joke lands.

A secret romantic at heart? Who’d have known.

I’m not gonna lie, he’s kind of bland for a decent period of time. It takes him a while to unlearn a lot of emotional repression, but it also makes it all the more worthwhile when he’s in uplifted spirits.

If Sunstar catches this man smiling it’s game over

If Sunstar catches Terra without his visor? His month has been made.

I'm also kind of curious as to how you came to deciding on his final design? 

THIS!!! Oh my god he was both a huge pain and super fun to work on (like most of the stardroids)

I wanted him to have an ‘admiral’ look to him! But also space-invader-y and elegant (to a degree)

The gloves were more to fit the ‘commanding officer’ vibe

His stomach-region is designed in likeness to a belt on the bottom and vest in the middle! 

The fun poofy boots went more with the space invader vibe, but also to give him a more navi-like appearance.

His cable-hair and visor were strongly inspired by @liskobot’s Terra.exe design. They didn't have a ton of pictures of him, but they were a huge contributor to me even realizing the potential the Stardroids had to just exist in a MMBN universe.

Speaking of his visor–Terra absolutely uses it to hide the exhaustion in his face as well as his emotions. Reliable leaders need to stay composed, don’t they? >:)

The colors were done largely in part by my lovely dearest friend @hawkthespork. She’s a coloring GOD and helped me realize that not all of the stardroids have to have super saturated colors. I use saturated colors in my art a lot.

Until next time! Terra’s gonna enjoy his coffee in peace.

Some alt. cup designs:

#Luckily Minx hates the taste of coffee. #Dr. pepper for the win #Yes #the stardroids have been on Earth before #A very #very long time ago. #Terra has a soft spot for Fire-Navis and Darkloids #Slur and Terra are rivals in terms of matching each other in fighting power #*rearriving? Yes. I did not stutter. More plot #There’s honestly an ungodly amount to sort… I’ll let you set the pace #Feel free to ask about anything that stands out to you the most #Minx to terra: do you like your coffee like your men? #Terra: what? #Minx: hot. #dad jokes about her dad? more likely than you think #brainrotau #my art #stardroids #mmbnau #megaman #doodle #sketch #mega man battle network #terra.exe #saturn.exe #sunstar.exe #minx #sofie #ask #tag edit: I feel like i should clarify the hot joke was because Sunstar is a fire navi--not based on his looks.