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nobody-wants-ice-cream · 4 years

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Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 1, We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals.

Some context before the cut: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!

We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals

The story opens with a random scene. I know why this is important now, but for a first time viewer this is a strange Russian show with no subtitles. Sin for the fact that this opening scene could drive away audiences when they could have opened with Pogo’s monologue or the sudden birth scene. +1

Sudden birth. I know that this is what starts the whole series, but not once do these assholes discuss the implications of sudden birth. That shit is traumatic and must have induced a lot of trauma in the mothers. Sinning for trauma. +1

The russian ladies all help this poor girl. Teamwork and togetherness gets a sin off. -1

How did they get her swimsuit off enough for her to give birth without just taking the whole thing off? Did one woman happen to have a pair of scissors on her so they could cut the crotch? Because one piece suits are not that flexible downstairs. They didn’t take it off her, it’s still covering her. Sinning for lack of realism or explanation. +1

This narration should have happened much sooner. +1

Buying children. Literally buying children. And he gets seven so he buys them wholesale. Seven sins because Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick that bought seven children. +7

One sin off for the soundtrack now. All the songs used in this show are bops! -1

Ellen Page starts playing the Lindsey Stirling Phantom of the Opera piece on the lowest string when the piece starts on a high note. One sin for lack of musicality. +1

Minus one sin for Ellen Page’s vibrato. Not many people pretending to play the violin get that so accurate. That or this was the talented body double. Either way one sin off for musicality. -1

“Please send more food” Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. He didn’t feed Luther enough, so who knows what he did to the ones he didn’t like as much. +7

Also, Luther has presumably spent four years in this base on the moon. Did he hit his head every morning? You would think that he would learn to duck. +1

One sin off for the moon plant. -1

I’m taking 10 sins off for the special effects of this entire series. -10

That car transition between Diego’s and Allison’s entrances was out of place. I know it’s meant to show that Allison is far away from the action. But did we really need that? It’s not shown when transitioning from the red carpet to Klaus in rehab. +1

What is keeping the lawnchair that Luther has on the moon down? It looks lightweight. Does he have it nailed to the moon? Is there now a lawnchair on the moon forever? +1

Tom Hopper is an excellent actor. He nailed the “just got the news that my father is dead” without saying a single word. -1

Diego doesn’t bother to untie the family he saves. He caused property damage and severely injured the thugs that broke in. No wonder Patch has a problem with him being a vigilante. +1

“Allison, will you wear Valentino to the funeral” +1

One sin off because Robert Sheehan has already won my heart as Klaus and he hasn’t said a single word yet. And for the little jig he does when he gets the drugs. Interesting choice, but I like it. I could be biased because I’ve watched the series already, but I don’t care. One sin off for Robert Sheehan. -1

Why was Vanya allowed to be playing to this empty theatre with spotlights on her? Does she have an arrangement with maintenance? Is that why the orchestra isn’t set up? +1

One sin off for the Hargreeves mansion. The set designers did an amazing job.-1

Creepy shrine portrait of Five is creepy and somehow manages to not look like Aidan Gallager. This could be a stylistic choice to show that Reggie didn’t care about Five, in which case, another sin for child abuse. +1

Creepy statue of Ben is creepy. And it doesn’t look like Justin Min or Ethan Hwang. Who is this statue honoring? +1

It has been stated that Ben’s death broke up the academy. Yet, the other four assholes stuck around for one more portrait after his death? +1

Vanya doesn’t close the doors behind her when she walks into the mansion. +1

Diego’s outfit is central to introducing his character. However, it is dumb as hell and he probably stabbed himself with the knives in the harness multiple times. Especially the ones on his back. +1

Diego is a dick to Vanya at their father's funeral. I know Reggie was a jackass, but Jesus Christ, Diego. Have some tact. I know this is meant to show that Diego doesn’t have any tact, but this is such a severe line. +1

In the first shot of Reggie’s bedroom there are 6 freaking lamps. What is he, Bella Swan? And later, there are three more. +1

David Castaneda really brings Diego to life with his interaction with Luther in Reggie's bedroom. -1

I know I already took sins off for the special effects, but Pogo deserves another two off. Special Effects team, you did good. -2

“How long has it been since Five dissapered” is the most obvious bit of exposition/foreshadowing. To the point where it reads lazy. Another option would be Vanya asking “How long has it been since” and trailing off from there. Pogo knows what happened. This is a crucial reveal, let the audience wait for it a bit. +1

One sin off for Vanya being a good sister to Five. Fluffernutter sandwiches and leaving the lights on is heartwarming. -1

Props to these child actors for being able to portray the way Reggie treats them and how that affects their emotions in the scene where they wanted to say goodnight to Reggie. -1

However, Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. I will keep sinning this. +7

After Reggie shuns and ignores his children, Luther’s hand on Ben’s shoulder is a subtle way to show that Luther and Ben were sort of close, which is what an excerpt from Vanya’s book implies in the comics. Good job directors or actors for making that choice! -1

Robert Sheehan in the office scene. This is where we meet Klaus as an audience for the first time with dialogue, and he fucking nails it. -1

“Thank God he’s not our real father so we couldn’t inherit those cold dead eyes! Ahh! Number Threee-” The delivery on that line is excellent. -1

Klaus’s dangly necklace that looks kind of like dog tags foreshadowing the real dog tags he wears later on in the show. -1

No way in hell Klaus’s skimpy outfit provided enough concealment for that massive box. In fact, in the shots we do see of his back, we should have seen the outline of the box. +1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is as obsessed with lamps as he is with collecting children. His office is full of them! +1

“Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom” “Like in the shower” “Yes, absolutely” Allison and Luther have some good interactions. This is where they really act like siblings making fun of another sibling. -1

A woman who told bedtime stories to her kid about her uncle on the moon forgets that said uncle has been on the moon and judges him when he doesn’t know about her divorce.+1

“Rumor thing” Way to be specific, Luther. +1

Allison’s expression at the family meeting when she takes a sip of her drink. Emmy Raver-Lampman is what makes this character likeable. -1

Reginald Hargreeves was a dick to his children. The whole favorite spot thing? Yeah that. Golden child abuse victim. +7

Sir Reginald playing tennis with Hitler line. -1

Luther accuses his siblings of killing their father. Have some tact man, not at the funeral. This makes sense for the character and his circumstances, but I am still sinning it because Luther doesn’t think he did anything wrong. +1

I feel kind of bad for Luther after his siblings leave the room. Great acting on Tom Hopper’s part. -1

How did Allison get into the bank? +1

Luther straight up throws this man out of a building! That guy is 100% dead. And then he admonishes Five for being a killer later! +1

“Guns are for sissies, real men throw knives!” is a line that would only be spoken by a twelve year old that has never faced the judgement of people he isn’t related to. Also, Diego practiced this line in front of a mirror. +1

But that throw was badass, so... -1

Also, how did Klaus, Diego, Five, and Ben get into the bank as well? We only see Luther enter. And presumably Five teleported in. So were the rest already in there? +1

Five manages to jump faster than a bullet here, but in episode two he’s a lot slower when jumping from one side of the table to the other. You could make the argument that the table is in the way, but there was a human being and a bullet in the way here. +1

“Woah! That’s one badass stapler!” This is the first sin off because Aidan Gallagher can act, and it will not be the last. For all his grumpy 58 year old man, he also manages to shine while playing a young version of said grumpy 58 year old man. You would think that one or the other would be a little weak, but no he nails both performances. -1

But, how did Five switch the gun and the stapler? And why do we never see him do this again with more useful items like a briefcase or one of the machine guns used by the local commission hires? Can he only switch items with a similar mass? How does this power work? +1

Luther is the one that tells Ben that there's more guys in the vault to kill. Not Klaus who could have been like “a ghost said there's more guys in the vault”. What exactly did Klaus do on missions? He isn’t shown helping the hostages or fighting in any way. +1

“I didn’t sign up for this.” yeah Ben, like it’s a summer camp and not your abusive father buying you as an infant and then forcing you to kill people. +1

Kenny’s mom appearance. Also, the woman mixes leopard print leggings, a black dress, a square pattern cardigan, and a hat with stripes and a pom-pom. +1

“Can we go home now” Ethan Hwang had great delivery on that line. -1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his children. He forces 6 of them to kill, and then makes it seem like it’s all fun and games to the one he isolates. +7

When did they get coats and scarves? Did Reggie bring them coats and scarves while coming down to address the crowd? +1

Also, Reggie was on the roof of a different building with vanya! What did the kids do while they were waiting for him? Stand around and look pretty? Not likely, Ben was covered in blood. +1

Also, when did Ben have time to clean up? He is significantly less bloody in the scene where Reggie talks to the press. Yet his mask, uniform, and a bit of his jaw still have blood. This suggests he had time to wipe down. What kind of magic wipes are these that soak up and remove blood quickly and where can I get them? +1

The way the children wear their scarves show their personality. Luther has it done properly, Diego has his flapping around, Allison and Klaus have tied it fashionably, Five has it done well, but not as proper, and Ben has it done like Luthers. Well done costume people or actors who made that character choice. -1

The entire scene when Klaus attempts to summon Reggie from the afterlife. -4

I forgot that Klaus actually calls him Reggie in this scene. I thought it was just a fandom thing lmao. -1

How did Klaus clean up the ashes without leaving evidence on the bar? Did he vacuum it? +1

The cutesy fighting posters are a great set design choice. -1

Allison had her trauma tattoo refreshed at some point. It’s faded on Klaus, but on her it’s perfectly visible and stark. I’m sinning because they don’t show or tell why Allison might want to do this. +1

Also, that guitar Klaus was cuddling in a later scene, was just in the kitchen for some reason. Why? +1

Five and Ben are not part of the I Think We’re Alone Now dance party. I know it’s for plot, but come on! They don’t even have another dance party later to make up for this. +1

Diego and Vanya totally saw each other when Diego went to close the door between the foyer and the living area. +1

Luther and Vanya’s dance moves. No hate on either though because I dance like them if it isn’t swing or any other partnered dance +1

Diego, Klaus, and Allison’s dance moves. -1

Also, the song is heard all the way in the kitchen. There is no soundproofing in this mansion. +1

Luther punching down the airplane is funny. -1

David Castaneda doing those amazing dance moves in character. -1

Oh hello Five. Nice of you to show up and kickstart the plot into being something other than washed up superheroes are really sad and abused. +1

“Daddy!” -1

Why were Five’s powers affecting random objects? +1

Klaus is the only one with self preservation. “I vote for running” +1

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me” is a great line because Klaus can see the dead. However, the dead don’t show up in massive portals, otherwise something like that would have happened when we see Dave in The Day That Wasn’t. +1

Five asks for an exact date and then Vanya gives him “the 24th” real specific, Vanya +1

Five doesn’t close the fridge properly because that doesn’t matter in the apocalypse -1

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time” “That makes no sense” “well it would if you were smarter” the mark of someone being smart is being able to explain concepts like this in layman's terms. If Five were as smart as he said he was, then he could have been able to come up with an analogy. That or the showmakers have no clue what they’re talking about and wrote a bunch of science-y bullshit to make Five sound smart. +1

Diego was ready to throw hands with Five, someone who looks thirteen and was thirteen until Five explained otherwise. +1

“Dolores kept saying the equations were off” so in other words, Five knew that his equations were off, but he still risked it. +1

But also, Five knew his equations were off, but he was so desperate to see his family that he risked it anyway. -1

Nations Gazette paper has articles that look like they’re actually about the headline. -1

“What part of the future do you not understand.” -1

Aidan Gallagher’s delivery in that scene really set the tone for his character. Impressive. -1

Five decides to dress in the full on school boy getup. Complete with the tie and the blazer when those items aren’t necessary. +1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page are two kick ass actors. They play off each other surprisingly well. -1

“You mean like what happened to Ben” “Was it bad?” What happened to Ben? This remains a sin until they explain it. +1

“May the darkness within you find peace in the light” that sounds really bad. What a horrible thing to have on your statue. +1

Jordan Claire Robbins’s performance of Grace -1

Luther and Diego are so emo that they don't need umbrellas. You’re in The Umbrella Academy! This had to be a personal choice to not carry one. +1

Klaus’s face when Luther dumps out the ashes. -1

The camera cuts to Five when Diego says that Mom gave them actual names. -1

The fight between Luther and Diego is stupid. +1

Klaus and Five fight over who is going to protect who. +1

“Stop it!” “Hit him! Hit him!” -1

The detail on Ben’s statue. It shows his toe and knee have been touched many times by people who presumably miss him and love him. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch, which makes Klaus’s face 10x funnier once you remember that Ben was probably there too. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch and beheads it, suggesting that Luther had something to do with Ben’s death. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch. +1

Klaus puts his cigarette out in reggie’s ashes. -1

Reggie narration +1

Reggie is a dick to his kids +7

The stupid, bright green jumpsuits +6

What is the point of this exercise? How does running up the stairs make them better heroes? +1

Young Diego either practiced “That’s not fair, Five’s cheating” or his stutter is only there when the plot calls for it. +1

Child Abuse tattoos +12

The fact that Vanya feels left out because she didn’t get a child abuse tattoo. Reggie, you fucked up these kids real bad. +2

We think that Reggie is comforting Luther after he got a child abuse tattoo, but no, he’s actually just attaching monitors to his head. +1

Reginald Hargreeves likes to watch young children sleep. +7

Vanya foreshadowing. Her monitor showing more activity then the cut to her taking one of the pills is brilliant. -1

Vanya still doesn’t close the academy door behind her when she leaves. +1

“An entire square block, 42 bedrooms 19 bathrooms” Five are you a real-estate agent now? +1

“Dad hated children too, but he had plenty of us!” Klaus would be excellent at cinema sins. Seven more for child abuse +7

What are the rules to Five’s jumps? We only really see him jump to places he can see unless he is time traveling or in the instance where he jumps to the car. Speaking of, the car had the keys in it. Reggie, are you trying to get it stolen +1

Diego is a dick to Allison about her divorce. +1

Klaus and Diego’s interactions make me happy. -1

The Klaus theme is a wonderful piece of music. -1

Robert Sheehan making David Castaneda laugh. -1

We get our first glimpse of Luther’s arm here. It’s super weird and vague and only teases the reveal. This is where the ape reveal should have been for the audience and where it would have made sense. Doing the reveal in a later episode is weird. +1

Five doesn’t know how to break correctly, which contradicts “I know how to do everything” +1

Something I just noticed, Five completed the uniform not only with the tie and blazer, but with the hair gel too. +1

The towing guy chooses to sit next to Five at an empty counter. +1

Five looks so offended when Agnes refers to him as “the kid” -1

The creepy smile Five pulls in an attempt to look innocent doesn’t make Agnes scream in terror. Seriously Aidan Gallagher, what the fuck was that that was absoulutely terrifying. +1

Five attempts to relate to a man that looks the age that he should be, but it ends up exceedingly awkward because Five looks 13. +1

The tow truck driver helps him out, but how was Five going to pay for his coffee? We don’t see him with money. Was he just going to jump out to the car? +1

Five never gets his cup of coffee :( +1

“Istanbul was Constantinople/ Now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople”. This whole scene is great. Five plays with them like he did in the bank scene which shows that even if he did age, he didn’t do it around people so he doesn’t have maturity. -1

Five stabs a guy with a mop and kills him. -1

Five stabs a guy in the crotch with a pencil, then uses the same pencil to stab him in the eye. In between he throws a plate at another guy. This is badass. -1

Five jumps in a way that actually does make two of the idiots shoot each other. Which means that technically, Patch was right. -1

Five kills a man with his bare hands. -1

But he stops to put his fucking tie back on. +1

And yet after all that, the goriest thing is when Five pulls the tracker out of his arm. Props to the makeup department and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skill for making that look so real. -1

Five should be way sweatier when he walks out of Griddys. Unless he moped that up with some napkins? What are these super absorbent napkins and where can I buy them? +1

Agnes should be far more traumatized. And definitely shouldn’t have survived that. +1

Diego is emo with the monocle. +1

Luther flashback narration. +1

Klaus, thankfully interrupts this. -1

“Number 6 “Ben” (deceased)” -1

We can see Ben depending on if it’s Klaus or Diego talking. -1

The vigilante mask Diego wears +1

Five jumpscare in Vanya’s apartment. +1

“Rapists can climb” yes Five. Continue with the criminals that can climb. Including you. +1

This whole scene is the best ending to an episode in the entire season. -1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page play off each other with subtle expressions. This acting talent is amazing. -2

“The world ends in eight days and I have no idea how to stop it” “I’ll put on a pot of coffee” roll credits. I love this ending for many reasons. It’s a total mic drop moment. -2

Overall review:

While actively looking for nitpicky things, I got to see the first in a whole new light. Both the great parts and terrible parts stood out in a way that they didn’t when I wasn’t looking for them. Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Ellen Page were the stand out actors in this episode. All three contributed something significant that didn’t heavily rely on the script writers.

The child cast also really stood out to me. All seven of them had very limited screen time (I am counting Gallagher playing a child version of his character in this assessment) and they absolutely made the best of it. Out of all of them, Ethan Hwang stood out to me because of his overall great delivery. I hope that we see him play Ben in a more in-depth way in season 2.

Don’t get it twisted, I genuinely like this series and I think that it tells a great story. I just think it’s fun to nitpick and look deeper. After over analyzing everything else, it’s time to get back to basics. Especially because the season 2 trailer could drop any day now.

Total: 82 sins

Sentence: Tennis with Hitler and Sir Reginald.

#The Umbrella Academy #all in good fun #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #Allison Hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #i worked really hard on this

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sickaede · 6 years

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Art and Writing Q & A

Ok so my askbox has gotten crazy amounts of people asking me questions about my art, writing, etc. and I figured instead of replying individually (since most are anons) I would just throw up a Q & A to get everyone’s questions all at once. As an added bonus, since I am terrible with explaining things in writing I made a little time-lapse to show the art process as well. Hopefully this satisfies everyone’s questions, but if something you wanted to know was not answered here feel free to send me an ask, they are always welcome!

The video is at the bottom of the Q/A, click read more and scroll down to see it please!

Questions about comissions, other social media, etc. Q: Do you take commissions? A: Yes! All my comission info can be found on webiste commissions page. If you’d like to donate as well, I also have a Ko-Fi page, and offer (optional) doodle rewards for donors. Q: You don’t post on tumblr frequently anymore, are there other websites I can find your art on? A: Yes! I don’t post as frequently as I used to anywhere anymore due to my projects taking up the majority of my time, HOWEVER...there are other wesites I post on. TMVIX.NET - My website will remain the most up-to-date with all recent art, writing, videos, projects, etc. Twitter - I like to post doodles, WIPs, and updates on my twitter as much as possible. NSFW Twitter - The good shit. 👌 🌶️ 🔥 I rarely post here, and it is a private account, but no need to ask just click the follow button and I will accept ASAP. Deviantart - Again, rarely post here it’s mostly reposts from tumblr, but it is where the majority of my original content (OC’s, and stuff of that nature) is posted. Questions about my art process. Q: What programs do you use for your art? A: Paint Tool Sai for almost everything, Photoshop CS4 for editing and transparency.

Q: What brushes do you use, and what are your brush settings? A: I pretty much only use the Brush tool, Pen tool, Marker tool, and Watercolor tool for drawing, painting, etc. Here are screenshots of their settings. (The size varies, I chage it a lot.)

Q: What canvas size do you use when you draw? A: As much as SAI and my computer hate me for it, I typically draw on a 4,000x4,000PX canvas. Once I finish my artwork I shrink it down to 50%-75%, this helps get rid of small mistakes in the piece. Q: Do you use a tablet, if so what kind? A: Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. I use a Wacom Intuos USB Graphics Tablet - 8.5" x 5.3" Q: What kind of pens, markers, paper, etc. do you use on traditional work? A: My art classes have beaten brand loyalty into me, so I am spoiled with the types of pens, markers, pencils, etc. I use. Graphite pencils - Ticonderoga Colored pencils - Prismacolor Markers - Prismacolor Inking pens - Faber Castell Paper - I don’t have a specific brand I draw on, but I like drawing on big paper, usually A2 or A3. Q: How long does a digital drawing usually take. A: Its dependent on how complex and how I'm feeling when I'm drawing it but on average (cutting out time I spend doing other things).

Simple drawings/doodles take me about an hour a pop or less.

Flat colored and shaded drawings with line art usually take me about 2-3 hours.

Paintings and other complex art usually takes 5-6 hours or more.

Comics can take anywhere from 3-7 hours depending on how much detail goes into them.

Q: How long does a traditional drawing usually take? A: Again, depending on complexity about 5-10 hours. Colored pencils are a difficult medium to get right and blending is very touch-and go. Markers usually take a bit less time. Don’t even get me started on graphite and painting... Q: How do you make your line art so clean? A: Erasing/cleaning as you go instead of doing it all at the end usually helps me a bit...and I keep SAI’s stabalizer on S2 most of the time, but if there is a long line I need to make I crank it up to S7. If you want to see the exact process you can watch the video at the bottom of this post.

Q: How do you do your shading? A: I do multiple types of shading, painted, cell, gradient, etc. but the most popular seems to be the painted so I will assume you mean that.

You can watch the video below to see how it's done exactly, but to explain it simply I paint with white on a layer of solid color above my coloring layer, set it to multiply, and bam. Shading.

Q: How you do highlights, lowlights, etc.? A: Those are a bit trickier, and I didn't show them in the video but I will do my best to explain.

I like to treat lowlights like cell shading for the most part, think of them as a place where the darkest shadows would fall. Don't get carried away, lowlights are supposed to be subtle, and extenuate the depth of where those shadows fall. I use multiply for this shading layer too, and typically use a darker shade of the same color I did for the base shading.

Highlights are easier, just think of where the light falling would be the brightest on your piece. I like to do more than one set of highlights - usually two or three - but make sure if you do multiple sets to make the secondary highlights smaller and subtler than the primary ones or you will end up with a big shiny blob. I also typically use a brighter color than the one I used for shading (for example if purple is the shading color try pastel pink or orange for the highlight color) or sometimes I just use white. I switch between the 'screen' and 'overlay' blending options for them.

Q: What fonts do you use for your art, comics, etc.? A: Honestly, I usually just write out my own text, my handwriting is terrible but it's easier than opening photoshop and hunting for a good font... When I do use fonts, I HATE the factory ones for the most part, so I use stuff from Dafont.com.

Q: How do you clean your traditional art and digitalize it? A: I don’t do much traditional anymore, but I actually made an in-depth tutorial awhile back about it and I still use the same method. It can be found here.

Q: What are your inspirations for your art? A: My friends are my biggest inspiration, I am lucky enough to know a lot of talented artists that always inspire and encourage me to improve and keep drawing what I love.

Questions about my writing process.

Q:Can you give some writing tips? (There we a lot of these.) A: Well, i’m not sure what you mean specifically but I will do my best! Sorry this is a bit long-winded, but hopefully it will be helpful.

The most helpful thing you can do for your writing is to read other people’s work, of course that does not mean you need to copy their writing style...however, seeing the way other people put words together is very helpful to get out of your own head. It is easy to get stuck in a sort of ‘writing loop’ and end up writing similar things over and over again in different contexts. Taking a look at other’s view on things can help get you out of that loop.

Make sure you change up your wording! It’s easy to end up using the same descriptive terminology over and over again without meaning to. What I like to do when I write is to just get a big chunk done without worrying about grammar, repetition, etc. Then when I finish I go back and look over it, change up the words to sound fresh and different, and fix any grammar mistakes. Don’t be afraid to look up synonyms for stuff too if you can’t think of a different word, it isn’t a crime. Getting someone else's opinion on your writing after you’ve finished is also helpful! Proof readers are the best way to help you see your work in the eyes of your readers and make it exciting and interesting to them.

Get in the mood of the scene you are trying to set, be descriptive in what your characters are feeling and seeing. Often times people forget that even in simply scenes there is a whole world around your character that the reader cannot see. It’s your job as the writer to describe that world, so that the reader can see it in their head as clearly as you did when you were writing it. Listening to music while I'm writing really helps me with this, for example if you are writing an action scene listen to some high energy music. Get pumped up for that fight scene!

Build your world, even if it's not an original work. Fanfiction authors tend to forget that despite their fandom’s world being pre-built, it’s still YOUR writing! Leave hints, foreshadow, throw in some background characters to fill up your world and make it unique. Make your readers think about how the world around your characters work, what might happen next, etc.

Keep the rules and timeline of your world consistent and understandable. Yes, I know, it sounds boring, but it’s very helpful to make your writing sound more interesting and easy to comprehend. Is there magic in your story, how does that magic work, can everyone use it, are there different types? Apply simple rules like this to your world that apply consistently throughout your writing. Your readers will thank you for it.

Do your research, yes again, boring I know. It's easy to project yourself and how you view the world on your own characters, making their personalities similar or identical. Think about how someone in their circumstances would act, if they’ve been through a traumatic experience how might that affect the way things work in their head? The way they interact with others and the world around them? Make sure to diversify your cast, not everyone in the world is alike, and your characters shouldn’t be either.

Give yourself time, formulate ideas on how your storyline will connect and where it will go. You don’t have to crank out an entire book in a day, think everything over before you go through like a whirlwind and post stuff that you may not like. However, don’t take forever either. (I tend to do this a lot...) Overthinking your story can also hurt, don’t fret over every single tiny little detail. Making a timeframe for yourself and sticking to it can be helpful to keeping yourself on track and posting chapters regularly.

Lastly, never get discouraged. This goes for both artists and writers. Just because you aren’t entirely happy with how your art or writing looks or sounds at the moment, or you see someone doing it better than you does not mean you should give up. Use those that you look up to as inspiration to improve your own work. Keep going, keep practicing, you will get better! Keep doing what you love doing.

Q: What has your experience been with writing? A: I will try to keep this shorter than the last one, but here goes...

I honestly don’t have that much experience with writing, but I've always enjoyed it. I’ve been writing about my OC’s for MUCH, MUCH longer than I've been writing fics, in fact I can’t remember a time when I didn’t make up little stories for my various characters. Pretty much every drawing you see of mine has some storyline behind it. However, my fanfiction writing was more recent, I didn’t write anything fan-related until a few years ago, and I didn’t post any of it until I put OSR up. The majority of my experience comes from original content, role playing, etc. but I am so happy to be writing fics that people enjoy and hope to continue and eventually adapt OSR into a comic.

Q: Do you have original stories, can we read any of them? A: Yes, and no. I do have original stories, but I have not published them anywhere and they are still very much works in progress. Eventually I would love to share them with everyone, but it won’t be for a long time. For now, I hope you can enjoy the small amount of content I post about my OCs, and I will keep everyone updated when I do decide to share my own personal stories.

Enjoy the video, hope this helped! ✨

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#Sick's shit #Q & A #Ask #Art process #art #writing #writing process #???#Idk what to tag #Archive

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myaekingheart · 7 years

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So I was watching youtube videos of former Disney cast members' embarrassing or horrifying work stories and it got me thinking about my own embarrassing or horrifying experiences not as a Disney cast member but as a Disney cosplayer because let me tell you, the weird interactions are not confined solely to the official friends of Disney characters. I've got a couple doozies myself that I now feel like sharing so I'm gonna put them all under the cut in case you wanna read them or in case you don't and don't want a potentially long post clogging up your dash.

Mmkay so the first horrible experience I had cosplaying was not exactly with a character interaction but just with the environment and my own experiences. I was at Tampa Bay Comic Con 2014 as Violet from The Incredibles and I was having a great time, it was a cool con even though I had to travel kind of far for it. I got a picture with this really cool Bucky/Winter Soldier cosplayer and he had an adorable little daughter dressed as Batgirl who hopped into one of the other pictures who seemed really delighted to see Violet and everything. Things seemed to be going pretty well until my morale plummetted significantly. I hadn't really eaten much that day and my heels were killing me and I just overall felt really sick and sweaty. Needless to say, things kept getting worse up until the point where I nearly threw up in a trash can and had to basically stumble to the bathroom to nearly vomit and change out of my costume. I never did actually throw up but I certainly felt like I was going to and it was awful. My best friend, who was with me, and I ended up sitting outside together waiting for my parents to come pick us up (which took, like, an hour) and I went through nearly an entire pack of Tic Tacs trying to calm my stomach down. Probably the worst convention experience I've ever faced, truthfully.

These other two stories are interaction-based and the second is far worse than the first. This first one was fairly recent, this past September, where I attended a con (again, with my best friend) as my all-time fave, Rapunzel from Tangled. The catalyst in this story is, ironically, the hair. The wig I was wearing I was at the time was my pride and joy, my 13ft long loose Rapunzel wig. This wig was a main goal of mine in my cosplay endeavors for ages so I was super pumped to have finally created it and worn it to a convention (even if it did get INCREDIBLY messy). So anyways, my best friend and I were walking around the convention, taking some pictures outside, you know, just having fun, and as we're outside in the courtyard of the hotel the convention was being held in, this family with three adorable small children comes over and asks if their kids can get a picture with Rapunzel. Of course I said yes and I jumped right into character to interact with them for a bit and get the pictures and stuff. The one little girl, who was most excited to see me, ran over and hugged me and she was just so super happy and it made me happy to see her so happy. However, this is also where the story turns. I had my hair in a small pile right beside myself and as the interaction was ending, I asked the two little girls if I could get a big princess hug before they left because that's what I do when I'm a princess. I turn on the charm and go full Magic Kingdom. Well, the little girl who was most excited leans over to give me a hug but then as she goes to walk away back to her family, she trips on the hair and faceplants into the ground. If it hadn't been for her hands, she would've got a mouth full of concrete and a bloody nose. I panicked and reached out to help her up but she got back onto her feet on her own...only to trip on the hair AGAIN. I paste a smile on my face and lean over to try and help her up again but inside I'm secretly DYING like oh my god how can I possibly live with myself knowing this little girl has now nearly hurt herself just from hugging her favorite princess??? How is she going to feel watching Tangled or meeting Rapunzel in the parks now after this??? Aaaahhhhhhh x_x She ended up being okay and the family wasn't angry or anything, thank god, but I still felt terrible. My best friend got the entire thing on video, too, so I can relive it whenever I want haha The interaction itself wasn't horrible, though, and I like seeing video clips of me interacting in character with small children so I can figure out what I like and what I don't like from a subjective point of view, the tripping part is just what gets me every time because I just felt SO BAD.

This last one is probably the worst just because it is, what I consider, the creepiest and most out of line out of every cosplay experience I've had. So, because I cosplay a lot of Disney characters, I consider it the closest I can get to being an actual Disney cast member and official friend of the characters and therefore I like to uphold Disney's policy of character integrity. I will never tell a child at a convention that I am not the real Rapunzel or the real Ariel or the real Belle or Alice or what-have-you unless they know I'm not really them and I know they know because if a small child sees her favorite princess at a convention and runs up to her for a hug and a picture, you've gotta make that moment the most magical it can possibly be because for all you know, this kid might not get to go to Disney a lot to meet the real Rapunzel or Ariel or Belle or Alice. I tend to be way more lax with this with the adults because, let's face it, if an adult is at a convention nonetheless cosplaying, they know the deal and it's not a problem. However, that doesn't mean I'm standing around giving out personal information like my real name or something to these people. I'll hand out my cosplay pseudonym, of course, so people can find me on facebook if they like my stuff or whatever but I will never be so stupid as to give strangers my real name when I'm in costume. It's just a personal policy of mine that I refuse to abolish. That's where the story comes in. I was at another convention as Violet and things were going really well, my dad was with me this time which is always fun because we both like to nerd out together but at the same time, he is my personal designated body guard and that is always a necessity when I'm Violet. More than anyone else (except maybe Ariel-- I've never actually attended a con as her before so we'll see what happens when that ship sails), Violet is always the one character who gets a lot of questionable stares or murmured comments as if you don't think I know about that dark portion of the internet that houses all The Incredibles porn. Believe me, I've seen your comics of Violet sucking her dad's dick. No, I don't enjoy the incest. Enjoy what you want in your own spare time but don't think I'm going to indulge in your fantasies like that. Because Violet is such an underdog sex figure in some communities, though, cosplaying her can get a little nerve-wracking because you never know whose going to be checking out your ass in that spandex or trying to score with you. My guard is always up tenfold when I'm Violet like invisible forcefields everywhere, people. But anyways, I was at a convention as Violet one time and I mean, things were going well so far, I was getting pictures with a lot of really cool cosplayers and we were complimenting each other's costumes and everything and it was overall jsut this really positive environment at first. Then this one guy came over to get a picture with me and I was a little wary at first because he seemed a little...off. I wasn't sure if he was just a little mentally disabled or if something else was going on but this made my dad very on edge. But anyways, so we get the picture, it's all fine and well, but then this kid starts trying to drum up a conversation with me and insistently asking for my name-- my real name. As stated above, I have a very strict character integrity policy when it comes to cosplaying so this was kind of a test of my moral strength. Even though this guy was an adult or at least a teenager, I still didn't feel comfortable answering this question so I tried to throw him off with in-character excuses like "I can't really say. My identity is my most valuable possession, after all" and stuff like that but THIS KID WOULD NOT GIVE UP. He was like hardcore desperate for a name so I finally just sighed and was like "Okay, fine, it's Violet" and then kind of just hustled away with my dad who then went on to talk to me after the con about how he didn't like that interaction and something about being on guard and safety and stuff like that, which are all things I already know but I was still grateful he was lecturing me about them and even more, that he was there and prepared to jump the guy if he tried something. I still kind of shudder when I think about it, though. I mean, obviously the situation could've been way worse but at the same time, it was a stressful experience that I really didn't enjoy having to go through. Listen, if you're at a convention and you see a cool cosplayer, respect some boundaries. Get a picture with them if you like but don't ask them for their real name because chances are they might not be comfortable giving that out. Instead, compliment their work and ask them if they have a cosplay page you can follow or something instead. That way, if they have a cosplay pseudonym they'd prefer to be known by in the cosplay community, they can give you that instead rather than you hounding them for their real name and trying to score. That's not okay and we don't like it regardless of how much spandex we do or do not have on our body. So to anyone reading this, let this be a lesson to you.

#read the last one if anything #because it's honestly SUPER IMPORTANT #cospaly #ramblings

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junker-town · 6 years

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Tom Brady made a website for his TB Times cartoons, and they’re *maybe* starting to make sense?

The plot thickens.

The dots might not be actually connecting, but they are starting to appear in a pattern that might someday yield a picture.

Yes, folks, that’s right: Tom Brady released another edition of the TB Times yesterday. We missed a week when New England lost to the Dolphins, but on Sunday, the Patriots beat the Steelers thanks to an overruled touchdown and the fact that no one in the National Football League has any idea what a catch is.

A post shared by Tom Brady (@tombrady) on Dec 17, 2017 at 4:24pm PST

I’m still pretty confused, but we are starting to see some common themes and characters within these comics that might eventually make some narrative sense. In the meantime, Brady, his Social Media Guy (S.M.G.), and the artist who draws these cartoons (D.K.), unveiled the website tbtimes.org, because these people seem determined to ruin my life. I’ll have more on that at the end of this post, but let’s analyze this week’s images (yes, there are two!) first.

We have to start with the missed one from the Dolphin’s loss last week:

For the first time ever, Brady, S.M.G. and D.K. released the comic that would’ve run last week had Jay Cutler and the Dolphins not smoked the Patriots in Miami. It once again features fidget spinners, and was slightly different from the one I drew last week at 1 a.m. as an embarrassed Patriots fan.

What do we know from this picture? A few things.

Brady and Croc have tracked down the Dolphins’ fidget spinner ring.

It turns out that Croc’s dreadlocks from the original Dolphins comic were a disguise. I am not sure what the disguise is supposed to be. But he can be seen here removing it after he and Brady wrestle the South Beach Spinners briefcase away from the Dolphin.

They then run to a secret lair, which still seems to be underwater, and open the briefcase.

I laughed at the time, but NESN Patriots reporter Doug Kyed was right when he sent me this text last week, the ramps of the Dolphins stadium really do look like fidget spinners.

Now let’s look at this week’s comic:

This is a riff on the movie Zoolander. Ben Stiller, AKA Ben Steeler, is doing his signature modeling move “blue steel,” which sort of makes sense in a word association-type way, given that Ben Roethlisberger is the quarterback of the Steelers. Brady says, “Steeler...so hot right now...” which is from this scene:

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The turtle is back from the first Dolphins comic, but the grouper with pink hair isn’t. So is the Narwhal, who first rescued Brady in the comic that ran after the game against the Bucs, when he killed pirate skeletons with lasers.

Speaking of lasers, the plans inside the Dolphins’ briefcase appear to be for some sort of giant, inter-galactic laser.

Oh my god, do you think that because I’ve been imagining that the social media room underneath a TB12 workout facility looks like a lair, they drew a lair?

Sorry, I know this isn’t about me.

Is that guy wearing a lab coat by the picture of Ben Steeler Gronk?

Yes, because in the comic after the Houston win, Gronk showed up wearing that same lab coat. He’s also wearing glasses and says, “the computer data is telling me...”

Get it? It’s funny because Gronk is not generally seen as a rocket scientist. They were in space then. Now they’re underwater. Or possibly underground.

Bill Hader is back from the Bills comic. So is Billy Crystal, who appears on the front page of the TB Times that Hader is reading.

Hader is still wearing the outfit that I couldn’t place based on researching his IMDB catalogue.

The finger game (where you’re allowed to punch your friends if you get them to look at your hand as you do the A-OK symbol) appears again. It first showed up in the comic that ran after the Bills game. This time, you can see Billy Crystal’s hand doing that sign on the back of the TB Times.

QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS, A DESCENT INTO MADNESS

I’m still having trouble figuring out how the Jets, Broncos, Chargers, Saints, and Atlanta comics play into all this.

Who is Croc?

What is Croc?

Why is Croc?

Why is the TB Times team taking all these dude actors from bro movies when I was in high school and putting them into comics? We’ve got Chuck Norris in here, too. These read like Millennial fan fic from 2007.

When I lived in Boston in 2014, I noticed all the guys in their early 20s had lines from Wedding Crashers, Zoolander, Old School, etc. in their Tinder profiles. I wrote an article about it. Maybe that’s relevant here. Maybe it isn’t.

Why are we sometimes in space and sometimes underwater?

And why, in the underwater lair, is there a football with planetary rings around it?

Interesting theory from Twitter, c/o Robbie Vogel: “The alligator steals the top secret docs from the Dolphins and we find out they’re in possession of Steelers-themed military schematics - are we to assume this means the Dolphins know how to beat the steelers? Cuz it kinda makes sense, the last two times the Steelers and fins played (last year and 2013) the fish won.”

Will the show from the Bills comic, Bill’s Got Talent, come back?

Is the key that Croc was holding the key to winning the Super Bowl?

Are answers to this whole thing contingent on the Pats winning the Super Bowl?

If it is, and the Patriots don’t, and we never get answers, will I die?

TBTIMES.ORG

The plot thickens. Usually these comics just get posted to Instagram and Facebook, but on Sunday, Tom Brady, S.M.G., and D.K. unveiled an entire website devoted to it. It’s TBTimes.org, so I guess it’s a non-profit? There’s not much here yet, but let’s dive in anyway.

When you go to the site, ominous music plays. Then all the characters from previous comics appear. We’ve got Brady as a centaur from the Broncos comic. We also have the Jets’ hot tub salesman, the Falcons’ falcon, the Panthers’ cat, the Rams’ ram, the turtle, Gronk with his lab coat on after the Buffalo game...

WAIT. OH MY GOD. I’M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE GRONK WAS IN A LAB COAT LAST YEAR. Not only does he appear in the Houston comic, and now the Steelers comic, wearing his coat, he was wearing it in the comic that ran after the Patriots beat the Bills in 2016!!!!

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Posted by Tom Brady on Sunday, October 30, 2016

The TB Times might be more calculated than I realized. When I started analyzing these a few weeks ago, I hypothesized that S.M.G., D.K., and Tom Brady had no idea what they were doing. I thought there was a good chance this started as a way to mess with indoctrinated Patriots fans who never question anything Tom Brady, prince and savior, does. I wondered if they’ve found themselves in slightly too deep, now that so many people (myself included) are so invested.

But maybe this has actually been planned out for two years.

Anyway, the rest of the gang is on tbtimes.org, too, but there’s a new guy — Peter Pan (or a leprechaun? I can’t tell) ripping his shirt open. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ve seen him yet. He hasn’t been in any comics last year or this year. The closest thing we’ve got to Peter Pan is Brady walking the plank when the narwhal saves him.

When you click on the button in the upper left-hand corner that looks like the logo on a Lacoste polo, the Croc changes (if it turns out that this is all just a way of announcing a that Lacoste is Brady’s new sponsor, I will riot in the streets of Foxboro).

First, Croc changes into his fidget spinner disguise:

Then he becomes a slow cooker, briefly, (hah, get it? Croc Pot? *walks slowly into the ocean*):

Then he lets out a mighty roar:

If you click on the Panther (which someone on Twitter called “a fat cat” in a message to me, and which I can’t stop laughing about), this pops up:

It’s the version of the TB Times that would’ve come out on October 1, had the Patriots not lost to the Panthers. It’s actually fairly disgusting, and also might be my favorite edition yet.

In this comic, the Panther eats Tom Brady. Brady not only has a huge cell phone with him as he sits in the cat’s stomach, but also gets reception in there, so he’s able to call previous Patriots player Vince Wilfork. Vince is wearing the RIBS hat he wears in the commercial he did for Kingston Charcoal commercial (fun fact: I love Vince and that hat so much that I bought one from the Kingston website, I’m wearing it as I write this).

Vince then feeds the panther so many ribs that the Panther forms a hairball in his stomach and throws up Tom Brady so hard that he shoots him into space.

FINALLY! AN ANSWER FOR WHY WE WERE IN SPACE WHEN THEY PLAYED HOUSTON! IT’S ALL STARTING TO COME TOGETHER!!!!!

Wait, except that it isn’t. The Patriots beat the Texans a week before they played the Panthers. The week after this would’ve come out, the Patriots played the Bucs, but that cartoon doesn’t take place in space.

I’m about three paragraphs away from lighting my computer on fire and drop-kicking it out of my window.

But first, check out this cryptic message in the HTML code of the website (yeah, I went there, and yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking, the walls of my apartment are not covered with string and pictures of various species of crocodiles, why do you ask?):

They spell Croc “Krock” in that line of code I’ve highlighted. Maybe Croc is Robert Kraft. Krock. Hmmm...

When you click the console button under the Inspect Element tab, you see this:

It reads:

Hey! Tom Brady here.

Boy, I sure do love playing football. But there’s nothing quite like writing a healthy block of JavaScript.

Anyway, nice to see someone found this site and decided to inspect element.

You won’t find any more secrets here, though...yet.

Go Pats!

Well, damn. This feels like the closest thing to a personalized message I’m going to get. I wonder if they knew I’d inspect element. I doubt Brady wrote this, but it really does read like the gosh-darn-y way he talks.

You better believe that I’ll be checking this religiously as we head into the playoffs.

The fact that S.M.G., D.K., and Tom Brady are releasing previously unseen versions of the comics (from last week’s Dolphins game, and now this) makes me think several things:

Maybe these guys DO know what they’re doing and they need all of the panels in order for the story to come together at the end of the year. So far, characters and narratives just keep reappearing haphazardly, but I have learned to never doubt Tom Brady when he’s trying to execute a plan. It usually works out.

Maybe they were so cocky going into this season that they didn’t think they’d lose a single game and would therefore be able to release these only when they won. Maybe they need this website to ensure all the comics get published.

Alternatively, this could be a very charming version of a midlife crisis. Or perhaps a sign that Tom Brady is starting his own media company once his career playing football is over. If that is true (SB Nation, don’t read this), I would like to know if they’re looking for an editor in chief. Or, hell, even a blogger. I emailed [email protected] to ask about it. I’ve emailed this address before, but I’ve never heard back, so I’m not holding my breath.

On a more serious note, I have to say that I think this is all kind of wonderful. Brady doesn’t have to do any of this, but it’s a fun element to an otherwise pretty garbage NFL season. And not only for Patriots fans — I’ve received a number of emails and tweets saying that people hate New England but love this strange and bizarre story that’s playing out online.

it’s smart, actually, for a QB of a team everyone hates to get a little funky. People might actually want the Patriots to win, if only for this silly reason.

In case you’re worried that the process of figuring out these trippy and frustratingly puzzling pictures is having psychotropic effects on me, don’t be. Here, for proof, is a video I took of myself while I researched the JavaScript of a football player’s fake newspaper’s website and Googled “inter-galactic lasers football”:

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Except at the end, instead of turning around and saying, “I need a map,” I just do this:

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