#and i think it's an interesting motif

[blairwld]

There’s only one Serena Van der Woodsen. Yeah, no, not tonight

#the writers seeing a blonde girl joining the cast: #it's free real estate #serena van der woodsen #gossip girl #made this while looking for scenes for the edit #i wasn't going to post it. but i ended up using none of these lol #i didn't include them. but mini blair and serena get an honorable mention #and i think it's an interesting motif #serena arriving to the party saying 'everyone here knows me' #and then two girls pretend to be her. and nobody can tell it's not her #they know her but nobody sees her #and the progression on serena taking jenny admiring her as a compliment #vs serena looking at ivy 'you're serena van der woodsen''that doesn't mean what you think it means' #plus now the insecurity that she can be replaced and she doesn't know what to do outside her role as the golden girl #jenny humphrey #juliet sharp #ivy dickens #lola rhodes #i am rambling

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Up High!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #'I'm going to truncate this episode' -> immediately draws a second comic about Xue Yang's arm getting ripped off #This was the original no.88 and i think i COULD have merged them but I rather reflect then fully re-do it. #The crushed up candy in XY's hand makes me miserable and melancholic. So I need to make it funny. #The callousness at the candy is so interesting to me. I think on some level he understands why #but he's equally disgusted by Xue Yang's actions at this point #WWX in general has *no* tolerance for twisted affections. 'Don't care if you fell in love. Get Better Asshole.' #Kind of a consistent motif in how he reacts to other peoples feelings of affection #maybe his own too? Later in this episode and ep4 we see him very conflicted about his own affections #god maybe he earnestly doesn't really understand affection in any form. This....this makes sense. #not even going to get into the yumeng sibling drama. That's prob the most affection he allows and even then....its a mess.

[shadeswift99]

Immediate observation about Limited Life: People are being a lot less wary about early deaths than they have in any series before. The combination of more lives to lose, keep inventory being turned on, and especially less immediate consequence to lives lost is resulting in players treating these early sessions much more like a regular SMP than like hardcore mode.

The catch is, it’s a delayed consequence, not a nonexistent one. I think in the later episodes we’re going to see a lot of people wishing they’d played it safer as their time ticks into the red.

#limited life #limlife #I'll admit my first reaction was not liking the change #I really like the high stakes feel of hardcore and I like the way thinking about survival brings people together when everyone's still green #but maybe we'll get a more interesting late game this way #and I do loooove a good taking time for granted motif #the scramble to win just a few more minutes of survival in the end is going to be delicious

[thingthatgoes-butch-inthenight]

Cannot stress enough that idc abt corrupt priests, I care abt *corrupting* a priest. Getting that sweet innocent man to give in to his desires and whimper and beg for me? ......Yes plz

#to be clear i am not nor was i raised xtian or near any branch of xtianity. i just think there's some interesting dynamics to be exploited #plus the themes and motifs get shoved in my face via media constantly. this is my damages payment #heirophilia #priest kink

[alpacacare-archive]

Not to post knight papyrus on main or anything but

#huh #deltarune #papyrus #undertale #knight papyrus #please dont come for me i saw people getting VIOLENT over knight papyrus i want no part of that #i just think this is neat #i dont like theorizing and dying on theory hills (if you don't count dadster? id kill for that guy) but i do like the idea of #papyrus playing a larger role in this story #because his character fits the narrative and i also love him. a lot. #but please dont like. start fights in the notes. ill call your parents if you dont behave #its not that deep #anyway #when i played chapter 2 for the first time and saw this line i immediately thought GASTER cus pea brain and also one of his motifs #is the word interesting #but honestly i like this possibility much more #deltarune analysis #?

[somnimagus]

old yosuke/yusuke outfit swap doodles i did simply because their names are one vowel apart

+ swapped all of p4 and p5's clothes for fun after! it's kinda interesting to see how much clothes affect a character's vibe.

when i originally posted these some people pointed out ryoji/ryuji and the makotos, so i did a quick doodle of them too. quality dropped a bit on this one though

#persona 4 #persona 5 #and just a smidge of #persona 3 #fan art #my doodles #i do like that ryoji gets skull motifs if he switches with ryuji - grim reaper at your door with a lead pipe #i also think about the ysukes switching styles and interests but not personalities.. yosuke drawing chie bad on purpose. yusuke grooves #old stuff repost queue

[merlinmerlot]

if i had a nickle for every time i became enamored with the deceptive rogue elf x uses-humor-as-a-coping-mechanism-for-his-self-loathing ship, i would have two nickles. which isn't a lot,

#bloodweave #zevistair #bg3 #da:o #art #honestly theyre not That similiar (astarion n zev r similar in backstory and goal motifs but personality wise theyre fairly different) #(and gale n alistair its just. vibes. they both make me laugh and theyre both kind of corny smile) #but i think the joke is funny. so #i'm just sooo nostaglic for da rn. #i could play the best written most interesting fantasy rpg on the planet and id still b going hm.... maybe i should replay dao

[carlyraejepsans]

Do you enjoy underfell? I thought you disliked aus /genq

i don't dislike the concept of AUs itself, I'm just not a fan of like... the subculture that spawned around them in the UT fandom specifically and how it eventually took over almost all canon content (especially when it limits itself to the bros)

i like aus visually! i am an artist at heart after all. it's just that, if I'm going to care about them as stories and not just fun design ideas, my bar is uhh almost impossibly high the further you move from canon lolol.

#uf being one of those! the story is centered on certain characters (mainly asgore) behaving very ooc #so as a stickler for canon I don't have much interest in it #but there is a very clear visual idea and motif in the redesigns that ties every character together very efficiently #and also fucks like a rabid rhino #so i can appreciate its visual/aesthetic aspects instead #i mean you can't understate the impact that good *artists* specifically had on the proliferation of aus back in the day #good writing is almost inseverable from good characterization because dialogues and characterization ARE an integral part #of what makes writing good. while good art (as much as it too is tied to its own conventions) is free-er from the bounds of accuracy #as was as being easier & faster to consume. writing has to be read first. you can just look at a piece of art and go ''wow that looks sick'' #without thinking about logical details/accuracy #you can show a pic of sans to an artist who's never touched the game and they might draw you the most gorgeous piece of art you've ever seen #it's significantly harder to do for writing #swap aus are a fun design challenge to see how you'd incorporate different aspects of some characters visual signatures into another #it's a game of translation of sorts. but if you want to treat it like a story well... the matter becomes a lot more complicated #answered asks #au tag

[chiropteracupola]

And now my fur has turned to skin / And I've been quickly ushered in / To a world that I confess I do not know / But I still dream of running careless through the snow...

[a bisclavret for @mortiscausa’s ’march to camelot,’ for the prompt ‘monstrous’]

#em draws stuff #march to camelot #arthurian things #arthuriana #bisclavret #in which em takes a side on whether or not bisclavret is arthurian (I know there are Less Debated arthurian werewolves but this is My Guy) #drew most of this while at a thesis presentation on medieval werewolves so Truly What Else Was There For Me To Do #this went through an interesting phase of looking Exactly like the arizona green tea label :] #don't like this quite as much as the first two but it's better than the last one I think #two-thirds! two-thirds! says guy writing this post on march sixth #yes I Will put the same clouds in all of these pieces it is FUN if you do it repeatedly it is a MOTIF #caption lyrics from 'furr' by blitzen trapper...

[raayllum]

You think I've done awful things, and I have. But I'm not evil. It's me. You know me. I'm still the same person.

I actually think these lines / scene from Claudia is one of her most interesting in the entire show, so let's talk about it, beat by beat.

You think I've done some awful things, and I have.

This line, along with others from Viren (his "I had to" is another form of justification, and what's to justify if you done nothing 'wrong' or nothing to be blamed for?), i.e. "In the name of love, you will perform acts so unforgivable, you will never forgive yourself" as well as Claudia's explanation in 4x01 ("I had to do things... I never imagined I would be able to do" with tears in her eyes) and Terry's assertion ("I've seen you do a lot of awful things, dark magic things") is like... while Claudia still doesn't see the error, I'm willing to bet, with the bulk of her actions (elves and dragons are still clearly not wholly people to her), she's still done things that she considers awful. Things that crossed her previous moral lines, beginning, I'd bet, with the deer in 2x09, and that which only escalated from there.

Claudia still thinks she's a good person (which we will get to in a second, believe me) but she doesn't think she's squeaky clean. She knows, just as Viren knows (and just as Callum knows/believes) that she's done genuinely awful, terrible things.

A character feeling bad about doing something, or a character recognizing that something they've done is terrible ("It's horrific, Viren" "We have no other choice"), is not a get off scot free card in this show, and it never has been. Not for Claudia, and not for anyone else.

While Claudia has been manipulated by Aaravos, everything she's done is of her free will, and without lying to herself about the exact nature of them (even if there's still plenty she's in denial of like the plague, but I digress).

Claudia is like 5 different cognitive dissonances in a trenchcoat, but she's not stupid, either.

But I'm not evil. It's me.

This to me shows the mask slipping the post, because if there wasn't even a hint of possibility at being evil, you would feel no need to declare otherwise. I forget where I've said this before but Claudia cares (esp in arc 1, less so in arc 2 but it's not nonexistent) about being a good person. It's kinda like how Viren doesn't really care if he's good or not, but he wants to be important (matter). Bonus points for Claudia's hypocrisy/shields being worn down over time ("She kidnapped you and Prince Ezran, how can she be good?" -> attempting to do the exact same thing an episode later). She's cracking, but desperately trying to convince them (for mostly manipulation reasons) and herself (genuinely) that she's not, that instead...

You know me. I'm still the same person. I am.

TDP has always been very interested in identity, most notably for characters like Callum, Rayla, and Soren in arc 1, but it's fun to see it be expanded and interrogated further by looping Claudia in during arc 2. S5 and arc 2 places a lot of emphasis in particular on the idea of knowing yourself ("That's not my name. I am Elmer") or knowing others ("She's not the elf, she's Rayla") / preserving your sense of self in the face of change or hard circumstances ("But violence tests us" "Callum, you're the 'destiny is a book you write yourself' guy").

Claudia highlights this twofold. She asks the boys to know her, despite how much time and bad blood has gone by. She appeals to the many years of friendship they had in contrast to their few months turned years of being foes. It's barking up the wrong tree (Callum's Spellbook asserts that even as of s2/s3, "I feel like I don't know who she is anymore" on his end) but I am actually inclined to believe her.

This may be a misread, simply because from S1 but especially S2 onwards I always figured Claudia would end up precisely where she is now, so I don't know if it's the consistency influencing my judgement call possibly clouding more intense changes (she refused to use Harrow against the boys in 2x02, to a degree) but... I don't think almost anything Claudia does in S5 is something she wouldn't have done the bulk of in S1, other than threatening the boys, and she's done that multiple times by the time the end of S2 and S3 rolls around, most notably towards Ezran.

She's still the same person, but her circumstances and therefore her responses have gotten steadily, consistently worse. But this has always lived inside her. She's the same person (but worse), they know her and see her more clearly than they ever did before, and both of those things are precisely the problem.

#tdp claudia #dragons liveblogs #5x09 #analysis series #eye motif #the dragon prince #tdp #tag ramble #reminds me of callum's assertion that 'not everything's changed' i.e. he's still as devoted to rayla as he always has been #since arguably 2x03 but i could argue for earlier #or even rayla and ezran and soren of like #by and large in arc 2 they are the same ppl they used ot be #but things are getting worse. so most of them are getting worse. and i think that's really interesting #negative character development/circumstance my beloved #altho rayla is getting better. For Now #one day i'll write a thing just about the claudia + viren eye motif properly

[demonzoro]

i am once again wishing that reiju was written in a more interesting way in fics. i think she wld be fucked up in the way of "every day i tightrope a line of protecting my brother against a family that wld gladly revoke my favored position" and "am i my brother's keeper". contradictions in contradictions. unable to empathise/incapable of excising her sympathy. equal parts wondrous and revolted by the depth of human emotion that sanji feels. the only one in her family that takes after both her parents' will - her father's soldier and her mother's daughter. yeah sure you could write her as tepid and simply dust your hands off after damning her for her compliance in the abuse cycle but what if we made her interesting.

#[grips you by the shoulders] SHE CLD BE SO INTERESTING.... #in an ideal world i wld've loved for reiju to disappear from the story completely #as in she makes it that she is no longer beholden to anyone #not anyone's soldier not anyone's sister not anyone's daughter #i am not looking at this from a chara arc centered around sanji #i think it wld be most fitting for reiju to suddenly be removed from the constant balancing act #smthng smthng butterly motifs ... smthng smthng a poison master that's been stewing in poison for her whole life #oh shit the themes have got m— [line is cut] #vinsmoke reiju

[puppyeared]

i feel like. theres designing a character with certain themes and motifs in mind, and then theres making a gijinka for the water bottle on my nightstand

#me when im the only person on the bus wearing a mask: i should make a furry plaguesona #its hard to explain bc. most of the time i try NOT to give my characters a 'strong' theme like making their whole design around #one thing like apples or even broad stuff like baking or cottagecore.. idk if its partly for flexibility or because i cant imagine them #making it their whole personality. not bc i find it cringe or overblown but more like ive learned to associate design with character depth #i had a cutesy uwu persona for most of highschool because i thought it would make me more. likeable? easy to remember? since #memorable character designs are easy to recognize. and one way of doing that is simplifying it with a theme or symbol so you form an #association. but since im a real person its exhausting keeping up that appearance all the time and denying myself things when they dont #fit my 'aesthetic' or 'theme.' i think ive grown past that bc i just collect stuff because i think it looks cool and dont let myself dwell #on how it might 'fit' with my image. but i cant help feeling bad doing it to my own characters bc it feels like im making them too one #dimensional. despite knowing that theyre not real and design alone doesnt reflect depth i cant help feeling like its wrong #despite that i love seeing motifs because it feels like it reflects the characters soul and paradoxically gives them depth. it makes them #interesting to look at too and honestly its pretty fun combining things that fall under a similar category when designing #i struggle find a balance between those two things #actually this reminds me of noelles christmas theme.. i dont remember her saying anything abt liking christmas despite a lot of #her design and character tying back to it. it makes me wonder if she would have feelings about that or doesnt think abt it too hard #or if its like a matching family shirts situation and shes just going along with it?? #maybe i should just do whatever i want with my character designs since theyre not real and im thinking abt it too hard #although. this probably has something to do with deep seated identity issues huh #yapping #oc talk #oc

[cycle-hit]

i watched the entirety of the silence of the lambs for this comparison. and the answer is i think i was insane for seeing hannibal lecter's mask design in mahiru's but THE HOLES ARE THERE. AND IT SEEMS LIKE FUUTA MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN THE ONE TO GET THE "MOUTH PART BEING OPEN" BIT OF IT WHICH IS INTERESTING. SINCE HANNIBAL'S MASK IS A REPURPOSED GOALTENDER MASK,,,LIKE THE ONES IN SPORTS,,,plus to add to mahiru sharing the mask theres another species of goaltender mask called

yamanaka not put cannibalism motifs in every character challenge (IMPOSSIBLE). no but seriously i go hog wild for how every character in milgram somehow has a cannibalism motif in one way or another. i fuckign LOVE cannibalism motifs

#HRRRFFF HRRRGGHHH IM NORMAL. #should i main tag this. #uhhhhh. i dont know how many milgram fans share my niche horror movie fixation but yeah sure fuck it #milgram #mahiru shiina #little guy posting #very possible im just delusional for this but nonetheless it is REALLY interesting if both mahiru and fuuta share hannibal lecter's mask bu #different parts of it. like sure the cannibalism motifs yeah but also. silence of the lambs was a very interesting watch when it came to #thinking about both of their characters in relation to it

[blobbei-art]

Haven't drawn anything so have these Bedman designs I did a while ago!

I wanted to design an outfit for him he could be wearing if he lived and was awake like Delilah. The intention is that he would resemble his bed and wear comfy clothes he could sleep in. The jacket contrasts this, maybe it was an expensive item he saved up for.

The top ref sheet came from frustration I wanted to get rid of by experimenting with art style/stylisation.

#guilty gear #bedman #character design #actually i have the game now its interesting to learn #i think the closed eye motif is so much cooler than the dreamcatcher #it fits so well with adding spikes to his design bc bed is spiky as hell! #also make him a rectangle to be bed shaped #he needed to be a mixture of nerd sleepy and cool #maybe ill turn the top one into a 3d model #fanart #my art #art

[laniemae]

thinking a lot about static and tv imagery/ distortion in magic and meme

These scenes are right at the very end of magic and at the very beginning of meme. It’s like these two MVs blend into one with this. Like the image of Amane staring blankly at the screen and mikoto picking up some sort of camera are so similar it’s uncanny. I have a lot of theories on what static/glitching could mean in regards to all prisoners who have it, but amane and mikoto have so similar motifs of tv imagery it’s uncanny.

Hell we’ve even got a straight up tv and static on the album cover for magic! I’ve already covered my theories on the tv imagery in meme but the more I think about it it’s also very present in Amane’s stuff as well and extremely similar in terms of aesthetic.

The tv static imagery also continues into double with the “glitching” scenes having parts where it gets very static-y like in meme, but at an even higher intensity. With Amane it’s less noticeable but there is an old tv reminiscent of the one in the magic album cover in the part with the cat if that’s anything.

There’s also to mention how at the very end, it directly parallels magic with very similar colours and lighting, but without the static distortion.

I’m gonna talk about it a lot more in a future post about this but basically I somewhat interpret tv glitching and stuff as a sign of disassociation between fantasy and reality, and in magic she was looking at the screen of her perfect mindscape. And in the purge march she’s fully aware of what happened. But maybe not entirely, as she’s still in her band uniform from the mindscape.

with mikoto I still have to think more about this and I do still believe it may do with him being stalked or something, as he directly interacts with the camera multiple times. But it’s still interesting to think about.

#milgram #Milgram theory #amane momose #mikoto kayano #gonna make an analysis on glitching in MVs and what it could mean #But as I noticed here Amane and mikoto have very similar static themes #Compared to like mahiru and fuuta who have more regular glitching #It’s interesting thinking about recurring motifs in the MVs and what they could mean for everyone #Like someone suggested that water could be symbolic of some sort of toxic love or whatever #Also noticed how Haruka also has this type of static in akaaa which I talked about in a reblog

[divinekangaroo]

Movies/books which seared me:

hana-bi

melancholia

the aunt (patrick white)

never let me go (ishiguro)

#they all have a thing about boredom as an existential state even more than grief #dkw to call it but something about mundanity being profound and the profound being mundane #and in a way they are all horror stories too but it's the horror of individual existence within a context #and strange beauty #five minute question-answer these were the ones that floated up first so im gonna assume they're the right answers #i think for me there's a point where media has to become separate from its sense of its own cleverness #PB is interesting because there's a huge layer of revelling in its cleverness but then there's a huge layer of stuff they must have #-realised almost *no one* would parse; they never ever talk about it in interviews either #hana-bi is also a cop/gangster-*type* movie which uses genre motifs to look at grief and subverts #the grief is unbelievable and understated despite very contrived devices it doesn't *feel* like it's rolling in its own cleverness