#but yeah I think it's about what they represent but also I think it's about the two of them and their personal relationship specifically

[bastart13]

Hey, so a few years back you stated that to start drawing you replicated the styles of works you liked. How did you go about replicating the styles. I’m currently trying to create ocs that fit into a style similar to Clone High and Total Drama, whilst not being a carbon copy of existing characters.

Also, would it be easier to use 2d or 3d shapes.

You're quite lucky because Total Drama is an incredibly varied style, so there's a lot more flexibility to making OCs in the style without being carbon copies! To study styles, I tend to draw from reference, collecting how they draw head shapes/hands/different facial features/bodies, etc. in different sections to see what variety exists. Here, I've done bodies, heads, and faces, but I recommend creating sketch piles of whatever style elements you can think of.

(Total Drama/Clone High is one of the flattest styles possible. It's incredibly 2D and geometric, focusing on shapes rather than anatomy.)

You can really see this if you try to break down the characters into their basic shapes. Everything can be broken down into a single shape that are overlapped to form the body. By tracing over the existing characters, I can figure out what shapes they use for each character.

The head shapes are nearly always flat on top, with any sort of curve to represent the face shape, and a flat triangle-ish shape for the neck. Depending on how definied the jaw is, there can be a line spearating the head and neck, or not. The ears are always a quarter-circle shape.

The faces are then quite high up on the face and condensed. The eyes and nose don't usually overlap but they're very close together. The mouth is never directly below the nose, placed closer to one eye than the other.

Then, to put this into practice, I try to turn three of my OCs into the TD style. Trying to caricaturise existing characters helps you connect how certain features look in the new style.

I start with the basic shapes, then add the hair/clothes details.

So yeah, just a bunch of tracing/drawing from reference, and then trying to put it in practice, going back to references when you're uncertain.

#total drama #art style #clone high #art ref #tutorial #art

[melrosing]

is there evidence other than the Weirwood dream that Jaime will wield Widow's Wail?

the weirwood dream is a very strong hint but in this particular instance I think the most conspicuous evidence comes from outside the text itself lmao..... in fact two really stupid ass sources that I would never usually credit for anything but in THIS case....

gurm's livejournal suvudu cage matches for Jaime

yes im serious. for the uninitiated, grrm wrote a series of fanfic in which Jaime fights a variety of fantasy characters for a pan fandom bracket suvudu cage match series, u may have heard of the one in which Jaime slaughters Hermione Granger bc i for one will never stop talking about it. anyway it's not mentioned in that one, but in this journal entry (where Jaime fights a trial of seven), grrm equips Jaime with widow's wail.

now literally why would he do that if Jaime won't one day wield WW. there are plenty of other swords he could have given him. why not Oathkeeper, the blade that has actually passed through his hand?? but grrm didn't even have to mention what sword it was in the first place, he doesn't when Jaime attacks Hermione lol. so it seems to me that grrm is treating Jaime wielding WW as a foregone conclusion.

the fuckin show

Jaime wields widow's wail in the show. like in grrm's blog, his suddenly taking up the sword goes entirely unremarked upon (like does anyone mention this at any point whatsoever), so functionally there was no need to give Jaime the sword. it is nothing more than a visual easter egg, and the writers don't even seem to know what they want you to think when you notice it.

however they did understand at some point in the making of the series that the two swords were meant to represent something big. the first episode of S4 literally opens to an extended sequence of Tywin overseeing the making of oathkeeper and widow's wail, with music playing in the background etc etc.... like the episode is literally CALLED Two Swords. I could juuust about say ok sure write off the opening scene as a symbolic moment in which the Lannisters melt down the Stark legacy, but that doesn't explain why they'd also name the episode Two Swords. I think like everything else the writers knew this meant something once but didn't know how to follow through and didn't care to. there's a weirdly similar example in their using the (abridged) Maggy the Frog prophecy as the prologue to their opening episode of S5, where once again you are given the impression that something of great import is being conveyed that will have huge implications for the rest of the story.... but no when it comes to Tommen's death, Dany's arrival, Cersei's demise etc, it isn't even mentioned.

so, needless to say. they do this. the show is a really bad source for most asoiaf analysis, but you can induce the odd detail even despite poor execution, and sometimes (as in this case) because of poor execution. there was no need to charge these swords with import if you're only going to stick one of them in the character's hand as an unremarked upon easter egg.

so in summary yeah if the actual symbolism within the text isn't enough, I think grrm's blog and that show are bizarrely effective sources

#ask #jaime lannister #asoiaf #i heard a podcast ep last week where they theorised that maybe sandor would wield it #and i had to like bite down on my jaime stan gatekeeper impulses but honestly SCREAM like HOW do u come to that conclusion and miss all thi

[iamnmbr3]

Hello again :). Do you feel like Draco was underutilized as a character? There are several aspects about him that are never explored in depth.

Potential beef with Neville. It must be horrifying to attend school at the same time as the nephew of the witch who tortured your parents! But besides that moment in book 5 where Draco made fun of the Longbottoms, I don't think there was any hint of antagonism. Even Draco was shocked at how angry Neville was so I don't think he fully understood himself.

Nothing with Sirius and Draco. I wish there was something about how Draco felt about his cousin. Draco was hardly explored as a member of the Black family. I mean Draco is related to Harry's godfather and there's just nothing interesting to chew on.

Hello! Yes - especially in the last book. Contrary to what JKR thinks he did get a redemption arc but I would've loved to see more scenes with him and see that developed more. We needed a final conversation between him and Harry and Harry returning his wand.

I also agree that his relationship with Neville should have been developed more. I think it's fascinating that in book 4 Draco doesn't seem to know much about what happened to Neville's parents or his own familial connection to that crime. That would be an amazing thing to explore especially as Draco later gets to meet Bellatrix and also begins changing his attitudes and becoming increasingly horrified by the reality of being a Death Eater and what his family's views really represent.

I think it's super interesting that in book 7 when Neville mentions people who are supportive of the Carrows' regime and enjoy using Unforgivables he singles out Crabbe and Goyle but leaves Draco's name off that list - something that is especially notable given that Neville certainly did not have a good relationship with Draco in school and thus has lots of reasons to dislike and distrust him due their personal relationship as well as the fact that Draco is related to one of the people who victimized Neville's parents. It hints at the possibility that Neville witnessed some of Draco's reluctance and change of heart first hand. It would've been something really interesting to explore.

And yeah Draco's connection to Sirius would've been interesting to explore too.

#Draco Malfoy #Harry Potter #asks #send me asks anytime! :) I always love hearing from people #And ya'll raise fascinating points #Neville Longbottom

[commsroom]

Hello. It occurred to me recently that Hera is the only character of the main cast who is not named for an engineer/physicist/mathematician. Do u think this has any significance regarding her role on the team and her character, or not really?

(Also, the wiki says she's probably named for the Greek goddess Hera which has interesting connotations if it's true. There was also a NASA probe called Hera at some point I'm pretty sure, but I don't know which is the more likely namesake. I just enjoy the names in W359 because I am a physics student and it's fun to hear character names in all my classes.)

hi! i think the answer is kind of... yes and no? like, gabriel urbina has said his process of naming characters is first to choose a category to pick surnames from, to narrow down the options (so, in this case, famous scientists), and then to find given names that he thinks sound good with those surnames. so i don't think symbolism is the purpose, and i don't think it needs to be. but hera, obviously... doesn't have a last name. and so the way she was named (both in and out of universe) is different, and i think that does represent something.

first: hera is the mother program of the hephaestus. the hera of greek mythology is the mother of hephaestus and cast him out of the sky. the allusions are obviously intentional. (as are other mythology names in the show, but that's another topic.) second: a lot of real world things relating to space are named for mythology, and clearly cutter agrees that's how it should be done. but also: goddard's AIs share the same naming scheme with their spacecrafts. hera, rhea, eris, enlil, perseus, hyperion vs. hephaestus, hermes, tiamat, urania, valkyrie, sol. in one sense, this marks them as company property, people who are treated as equivalent to technology.

but, third: from a writing perspective, gabriel urbina has also said he only started getting a sense of who hera was when he started writing for michaela swee in the second episode; there's such a difference in how she's written just between those first two scripts. you can even see in the first recording script that her name was stylized HERA, as if it stood for something, like a much more standard AI character might have been named. which goes so far against what her name actually ended up representing that it retroactively becomes an in-universe microaggression.

and so, fourth: despite all of that, the real thing that makes hera's name stand apart is that it's a chosen name. it's offered to her, but not the way a name is given - it's a bribe, with the understanding it can be taken away from her. rachel says she can see what else is available if hera "has a problem with the etymology or any of the allusions," which is kind of interesting. but hera chooses to be hera. i don't think it's a stretch to say she has a deadname and a chosen name: that she has to introduce herself every time in a way that amounts to "i prefer to be called hera" and that her name is treated as optional and conditional, a reward for good behavior. if hera wanted to take a middle or last name, she would be choosing those, too.

i think ultimately names in wolf 359 are less about categorization and/or symbolism and more about identity. names are symbols that represent and contain the people who claim them. how people are referred to, when, and by whom - as well as how people refer to themselves by name as an act of self-determination, a reclamation of identity, or in defiance - is all central to the themes of the show. and, from that perspective, i think how hera is named (and what her name means to her, how she has had to construct and fight for parts of her identity that others are given as a default assumption) is significant, but i don't think it really sets her apart from the others when their names are treated in similar ways thematically.

#hi!! always happy to hear from you #sorry i always think i'm going to keep it short and then i. don't. i don't know if this even answers your question. #but i can imagine it's funny to hear these names in that context and. be thinking about wolf 359 characters. #also obviously minkowski is also. in some ways denied her name. but it represents a different experience and a different aspect of identity #anyway. it feels like such a no-brainer but i kind of love the way urbina says he names characters because like. #yeah i guess that is how most people are named. they have a last name and then someone decides what first name would go with it. #that is true. #wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #asks

[57sfinest]

i wanted to look at the symbolism of the ocean in disco elysium because it features so prominently in the setting. insulinde being an isola comprised of islands, martinaise as a port town financially anchored by its ocean trade. the divisions brought by water that we see in the geography: how the canal separates the working district of martinaise from the even poorer, commerce-less village-- how the river esperance separates the worst ghettos of revachol and jamrock from the more rebuilt and financially stable districts-- how, for example, lilienne looks across the bay of revachol to the wealthy district of la delta, a poignant moment of separation between someone desperately poor and the towers of wealth built out of the ruins of revachol. we see water, and often the sea specifically, acting as a divider in various contexts. 

the ocean of time and distance that separates dora and harry, that separates klaasje from oranje:

then, further into the idea of the ocean as representative of time: in various contexts i see the ocean as representing the past. memory residing under the waves, and each of us living above water-- in the present-- but often still helpless to the tides when we’re not careful. to me this is cemented by the implication that the pale is commonly theorized as an *outer ocean* (juxtaposed with harry’s introspective skill, inland empire!!): the pale is the past, and if the pale is seen as an outer ocean, then right there is a tangible connection between the two. memory and the past as an ocean, dangerous if you don’t respect its power, but ultimately navigable. there is frequent reference made to the fact that the bombed ruins of martinaise are sinking or lost into the ocean, lost to the past, now only memory. 

and harry, who is living in the past and being consumed by nostalgia like a rot, drives his car into the ocean. harry’s badge, which is conflated with his identity in the aftermath of his amnesia, was underwater before he pulled it from the car: until he got it, his entire identity was lost with his memory in the past. klaasje’s documents, too, presumed lost to the ocean, a loss of who she was or claimed to be (until you meet the phasmid). lilienne’s husband was lost to the waves, and in the same lines she’ll dismiss your concerns-- he’s in the past now, she’s really not too upset. the cleaning lady, abandoned by the world, who has only her own memories for company in her sea-beaten room. in the context of ruby’s near-suicide in the shack, how inland specifies how the “waves had calmed” as she put the gun away: ruby distancing herself from the past that she thinks is chasing her to form a better plan. the working-class husband, who, had his corpse fallen through the boardwalk into the ocean, would have been lost to the past, living only in the memory of billie and their daughters.

for me, the final dream had some of the heaviest but most subtle inclusions of the ocean symbolism. it’s brought on by looking into the ocean around the seafort and takes place under the ocean somewhere. even before the dream, dora is alluded to in the context of the sea. she moved across the ocean and now, to him, she’s lost under it. she’s trapped in his memory.

where we see things half-submerged or partially oceanic, we see a bridge between the past and the present being represented. something partially lost to the past but still with a foot in the here and now. harry’s half-sunken car, in part a representation of his career: part of his past, yes, but still very much in his present. one of the primary spiritual practices we hear of is the volta do mar: originally a palefarer’s practice to keep them grounded in an onslaught by the past, and its meaning is *return from the sea*. when harry tries to turn back time, he wants to go back to a time when the sun had not yet sunk into the sea-- when the light in his life didn’t reside solely in the past.

also in this context, something that really struck me was how harry will sometimes think of himself in the context of the sea. first is the sea monster thought, brought about by the broken plaza: him as a creature submerged in the past, terrorizing the present. and seafaring brought up to represent a kind of compromise between living in the present and acknowledging the draw of nostalgia. even joyce in her limited knowledge of harry compares him to a “half-submerged ruin”. and when harry is prompted into introspection by the dros predicament, inland empire becomes the *inland sea*.

and i really want to make a final, individual point of this. the whirling-in-rags music is sea power’s song “fire escape in the sea”. there is an explicit reference made to the song by shivers as well, and i think the choice of this song is very intentional. the whirling-in-rags is where harry forgot his whole life, the whole world, and it’s where he wakes up and begins to piece it all back together. the whirling-in-rags is harry’s fire escape in the sea. his bridge between his past and his present, his last-ditch attempt at escape from the tortures of his subconscious. 

(this is by no means exhaustive, there are a lot of other moments where the sea comes in, but i included the moments that spoke to me most. you’re welcome to add your own!)

#disco elysium #disco elysium meta #gen meta #hdb meta #kiwipost #i'm gonna see if i can go on mobile and edit the alt text in #if not i may rb with dialogue descriptions #anyway yeah. maybe this is nothing but it means something to ME. to me. #joyce and lilienne are the two people we see with boats #coincidentally the two who seem to have made peace with the past that led them here to this point in their lives. #also on the significance of it being a dockworkers' union in particular that we deal with. #it doesn't mean nothing. i swear there's something here #i also want to think about what it means for harry to be compared to several types of bird #in a context where the ocean represents the past #he's got the name of a hawk. his heraldic bird could be a cockatoo but also he can be compared to a seagull. #he destroys the stuffed skua. his old partner was jean-heron. #much to consider there. #will need to ruminate on that for a while.

[lonelysa1lor]

Ad Astra Per Aspera

‘through suffering look to the stars’

The translation changes a bit depending on where you look but it mostly stays the same. When you are struggling to believe you can achieve something great, look to the stars.

I think about the implications of it being in one of the first pages of Journal 3 alot. Ford writing down a phrase that means You can do great things. And if you're ever in any doubt, gaze up.

I wonder if Stanley, struggling with the portals machinery and calculations, believing he wasn't smart enough to bring his family back. Wondering whether Ford was even alive, whether he'd even be able to get the portal to work, looked up and stared at a gateway to the stars. And got back to work.

#oh also Mabel being a literal shooting star. something that fell from the sky and onto the earth #the middle ground between the two. #Yeah I'm thinking about this too much so what #its a stangst hour gang #yeah yeah yeah Ford and Stan representing Sea and Sky yeah yeah yesh #I wonder if Stan ever stargazed and talked to Ford while looking at the constellations #gravity falls #stanley pines #stan pines #grunkle stan #stanford pines #mentioned atleast #stangst #stan twins

[suncaptor]

people sanctimoniously trying to explain US politics looking down or spreading vitriol towards anti-Biden people like you're not going to convince people upset about a genocide during an election year of a sitting president that they're just too stupid or evil to partake in harm reduction the way you want them to and advocate for the president arming Israel actively lmao.

#do you really see it as greater harm reduction of declaring unconditional support towards a president currently supporting a genocide. #like do you think it's some great coincidence that the primaries full of people voting uncommitted is impacting his (albeit slight and not #enough) changes made. like yeah the Democrat party is eating itself alive yeah Trump would be even more supportive to Israel #but don't you think even any slight impact on the very real CURRENT situation is the like. correct focus. does it just not matter or. #this isn't about fucking disillusionment and it's not about not being pragmatic for fuck's sake do you think I wanted to vote for Biden in #2020. I was fucking devastated to. and while I do think it was perhaps better give how I'm sure Trump would have acted I mean he also is #kind of a laughing stock of the world lmao. #Personally I hope that they both drop dead ASAP but can't bank on that :/ #i mean i am also fucking upset about the fact the option's are between Biden and someone else who's running claiming Biden didn't defend #Israel enough or whatever lmao. but that I can't change. send repeated emails about what will make me vote for people who represent me? #while they ignore me and refuse to change at all ? yeah well i can do that. #incoherents #us politics

[compacflt]

I have an anecdote about when I worked for a company and a co-worker left to work in a different state on military aircraft. He had to get a TS clearance and because we had worked for several years together he asked if I would be okay with being interviewed for his clearance. I said sure and an interviewer w the gov, arranged to come to my place of work and conduct the interview there. I was asked questions about him like how well did I know him, and whatever answer I gave led to more specific questions like if I answered a question about knowing his wife, they would ask if I thought his marriage sounded secure etc.

This memory of that experience was on my mind while I read your story and I wondered who Iceman would choose for his TS clearance interviews (and who the gov would choose for him) and what would they say? I feel like their "secret" would be uncovered in even a low level clearance (years later I had to submit names for a low level Public Trust clearance for my job) It was so embarrassing because I did not have many friends I was comfortable submitting for that as I kept my work and home life very separate.

Anyway, that is my "cool story, bro"

Thank you for such a great and well researched story!

this is indeed a cool story bro and touches on what is literally my story’s fatal flaw, which is: Yeah, a shitload of people would’ve known about it. I am going to hijack your question to talk about that, so my apologies, though i will get around to your question by the end. This is gonna be a really long post. I have a lot to say and a lot of ground to cover.

So I wanna start out by talking about the structure of this story and its core conflict, because while I’d like to say this story is rooted in an accurate depiction of the US military, obviously that’s not true; it’s rooted in the dynamic of the story that i wanted to tell, which is the story of a guy coming to realize the truth behind a Big Lie—him passing as straight. And that’s a pretty universal story, but it’s made more specific by the fact that a) the guy canonically wants to be the best in an institution that enforces the Big Lie and b) the guy canonically is so successful because he follows the rules/orders of that institution. So, for character growth, to put it simply, the guy (Ice) has to come to the conclusion that the Big Lie is a lie by himself. He can’t be told/ordered that the Big Lie is a lie, otherwise he hasn’t grown out of “just following orders.” (I’ll get to the Big Lie in a second. I made charts and story structure graphs below.)

The only other story about a Big Lie I can think of off the top of my head right now is Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen, which is about a Black woman in Chicago trying to pass as both white and straight. It’s a great book and I’ll try not to spoil it, you should really read it for yourself, but the terminology I’m going to use in this post comes from an analysis of it, so just to bring you up to speed—Clare, the woman trying to pass as white, is recognized by a friend, another Black-but-passing woman, Irene, who is shocked that Clare has abandoned her heritage (the truth of her, that is) and married a hyper-racist white man who doesn’t even know that she’s Black. So the book sets up a dynamic of the Big Lie that I’ve outlined here (hopefully it makes sense):

I built on this dynamic for my fic. Ice is both a “dupe” and a “passing figure,” in that he believes the lie that he is straight and also passes for straight—but it’s also more complicated than that because he’s not actually straight (getting to that). Mav is an “in-group clairvoyant” and can recognize Ice as passing because he is also straight-passing. The Navy are a bunch of “dupes.” But…what is Slider, for instance, or your question’s hypothetical government official who, yes, will 100% find out because people always find out?

In comes my ginormous-and-overly-wordy WWGATTAI Plot and Character Dynamic Summary Graph. You don’t really have to read it all, the only important bits for this discussion are the leftmost column (“plot”) and the green quadrant (“out-group clairvoyants”).

To summarize—people who know the truth can’t actually act on it, because for Ice’s character growth to make sense, he has to come to the truth himself. This forecloses the possibility of any outwardly homophobic action (by which I mean someone like a govt official or one of my lame OCs actually challenging him on his illegal relationship) in the plot, because for 90% of the story Ice is so fragile that he would probably just cave immediately and double down on the internalized homophobia. So, for plot purposes, everyone—including Mav, as it happens—has to sort of tiptoe around Ice’s obvious not-straightness and give him an unreasonable amount of grace so he can figure it out for himself. 

And therein lies the fatal flaw of this story. It is, like, not conceptually viable. Of course people would find out, of course the government would interrogate him about it, of course he’d have to confront the truth much sooner than TWENTY-FIVE years after he first starts messing around with Mav.  Which literally breaks my heart because I didn’t realize it was a fundamentally busted story until long after I had finished writing the base plot & couldn’t fix the overarching problems 😭 The thing is, it had to be this way, because there is at least a thirty-year gap between TG86 and TGM22, and TGM is obviously the emotional climax of the series and my story had to match that. So—fanfic and its canon constraints, everyone. 

But also… I can explain away these logical inconsistencies with story structure & character dynamic graphs to make the story make sense, sure, but it doesn’t change the truth of the matter, which is that… I hadn’t ever really thought about things like security clearances, and therefore wrote around them because I didn’t even know to consider them. And I know there are a bunch of other details in this story that betray my immaturity (anytime I talk about alcohol, for instance—I still am not legal to drink in this stupid country & have only cheap bad experiences to draw on; THE HOUSE—if i could rewrite this story from the beginning they would not have bought a fucking house together, what was I thinking???) and the lack of thought about the real-life logistics and consequences of secrecy is one of them. 

And it’s exactly what I mean when I say “I look at this story and all I see are its flaws,” which is why I wanted to write this post & get it on record. I have just enough life experience to read my own writing and know that it’s fundamentally unconvincing, and not enough life experience to know how to fix it. :(

But, to answer your original question, you’ve got me brainstorming a scene where Ice is asking Slider to be his character witness & Slider’s like “Look bro do you want me to lie to the federal government under oath for you because I will” and Ice has to be like “Legally I cannot ask that of you but”

#in case you couldnt tell it really bothers me #idk what the age range of the ppl who read my fics is but i knoooow there are #some parts of this story where you read it and you go #yeah a little kid wrote that #if you asked me what a 401k is with a gun to my head i could not tell you #so the fact that people care about my opinions on these like really grown up adult problems is #literally like the highest compliment ever #but i feel bad that i don’t have the life experience to give a convincing answer & i apologize for that #ive grown up so much & so quickly working on this project both as a writer and as a person & so thankful for that #but it also means that i look back on even recent work & say WTF LITTLE KID ALERT #so #sorry i turned your question into a fiction lecture #but lol that’s like the one thing i actually AM a little bit qualified to talk about #and your question represents like the fundamental fatal flaw of the story i have spent literally 100s of hours on #so I wanted to talk about it #thank you for the ask <3333333 #my birthday is in a couple days so just thinking about getting older lol #edts notes #top gun #top gun maverick #icemav #tom iceman kazansky #asks #hope to one day put this energy into like a job or sumn

[belovedblabber]

I want to make a post about how smart Gideon is but am bad at making posts rn. But I’ll get to it because I feel like defending my darling girl. She’s smart! She’s so smart she’s just thrown into a situation in GtN where she is not given the tools she needs to understand everything going on around her!

Gideon so often gets done so dirty by a lot of slices of the fandom in terms of painting her as like, dumb muscle etc. when there is SO much more to her character. And I can’t help but think that a lot of the time there’s  an element of people being weird about butch women in terms of that treatment. And even more so and intersecting with that, I feel like racism, conscious or otherwise, undeniably plays a role in this treatment of her in many instances. It’s not my place to speak further on that (and I’m sure people who are much more qualified to talk about this have been talking about it and probably getting largely ignored a lot of the time), but it’s a thought that’s popped up for me and has been knocking around my head a lot lately 

#there is one particular scene where she reads ‘dulcinea’s’ expression is pretending to be one thing but actually being a look of #‘animal cunning’ or something to that effect #and I love it #I WILL talk about this at some point #and like yes joking about her being distracted by hot ladies in canaan house is all well and good #but I think a lot of times things turn into people calling her dumb #which really reduces her character #and does such a disservice to her #and it feels like in so many cases yeah that is very much tied in with perceptions of butches #and women of color #and butches of color #etc. #the locked tomb #gideon nav #gideon nav/kiriona my beloved you're currently my fave female character in the series today #it changes at any given time fghjk #but i always love her #also i realized 'qualified to talk about it' is weird wording but brain is tired and i am blanking on a better word to represent what i mean

[un-pearable]

oh yeah saw blue beetle last night and one million thumbs up. going into having heard it’s very tokusatsu and comic booky made it one million times better. goofy and stupid in fun ways. i’m so glad we’ve looped back around to comic book movies being like comic books: confusing chronologically and catered to fans willing to put up with wildly specific nonsense. also heck of a great job making a movie about gentrification and colonization out of the chaos of blue beetle lore and corporate blandification i genuinely had fun

#like it’s not the BEST done story about gentrification and colonization. but it’s a very interesting attempt at doing one in the dc universe #also ADORED how they did ted’s old tech i love love love that it was chronologically accurate and cheesy in the best way #of COURSE his tech is outdated he was a superhero TWENTY-THIRTY YEARS AGO!! #when mcu stuff went back in time they just retconned it to be cool futuristic sci-fi stuff too. i ADORE the idea that a) there WERE #superheroes in the last and b) time still passes! them being there shaped the world and influences the superheroes we have now!! #and SO glad to see DC finally capitalizing on their legacy heroes <- the one thing that stands them out from marvel #yeah this was a mediocre movie to the average fan. i think comic book movies should be. fuck blockbuster everyone movies #cbms should be wildly specific and about characters no one’s ever heard of to tell fun stories with them #also love the minimal level of integration with the rest of the dc movie verse #jaime went to gotham university and there was that one name drop of bruce wayne in an ad but SO happy no obnoxious cameos. #this is just another corner of the universe! it’s a coherent WORLD but that doesn’t mean the same individuals need to show up everywhere. #loved it. i know it’s not a great movie but i had so much fun from the moment i saw the intro talking about actual lore #it was 100x improved by what i already knew about jaime reyes and i know that’s a bad thing for non-aware viewers but fuck it. stop catering #to the audience that refuses to read comic books or put up with their tropes. cater to the people who are already here and love it #thank youuuuuuuuuuuu <3 also give people from the cultures superheroes represent more money to tell those superheroes stories . it’s great

[shopcat]

i'd like the rest of your opinion on jet if that's ok i like hearing peoples thoughts on him :)

SORRY i didn't see this okayyy hrm i can do that but i'll stick it under a cut. My rambles.

w the disclaimer that this really is just my opinion which means what my mind has scrambled up with without any prodding at it or outside interference (and i don't really read about or interact w content w jet and never really DID just as a btw) but basically: the way this show frames characters is very deliberate and going beyond the initial projection of who you're "meant" to see them as can be difficult sometimes (not just for this show, i mean in general wrt media analysis), esp when there's nothing else to like... cushion that.

for example iroh is obviously a fan favourite and i love him as a person who loves zuko (in both interps of that sentence), and their dynamic is really important (particularly + the standpoint of iroh being his brother's brother and what that means) but he was also you know, a revered general who lead a years long siege in support of the colonial regime...? this is kind of a mirror of what i'm getting at in that the show doesn't WANT you to or even feels the need to particularly dwell on that, even if his active hand in the war and then the subsequent movement to dismantle it firsthand is significant, because if people dwelt on it they... REALLY wouldn't like him as much on a much larger scale and he wouldn't be the same character anyways. i actually think it's a disservice to say the show doesn't at alllll address this bc i think it's obviously a huge part of who his character is next to zuko even though obviously the children's show is not going to be able to handle colonialism or genocide in a way that doesn't in some way feel flattened obv. anyway.

this is essentially why it took me such a while to warm up to jet even though he is a pretty cookie cutter "look beyond what you see" guy bc i couldn't really DO IT other than holding obviously a lot of sympathy for him and knowing he is deliberately presented as a certain kind of quote unquote extreme product of the fire nation's tyranny, much like hama is as another popular example, even if in real life it would actually be a pretty normal reaction and that hating your oppressors obviously doesn't make you evil. my autistic ass (SORRY) simply has to imagine a world where he can eventually go "i shouldn't have tried to kill an entire village of innocent people My bad" and it's easier to think about it wrt he is also you know, like 16? and obviously a victim. i've mentioned before i struggle with moral scrupulosity and what i consider to be "right" which does affect the things i like in context as well, and jet falls pretty squarely on morally pretty dark, esp in comparison to the other antagonists on the show, but that doesn't make him a villain obv. other than that the show itself presents him as an antagonist meant to cause conflict, and you're meant to sit with what it means to see people driven to such extremes bc they feel they have no choice, but you're not necessarily meant to like him i don't think, especially when you initially meet him. he really comes off as like a Cool Guy who's all charm who uses it to get his way which can feel kind of slimey i s'pose.

thinking about jet in regards to ZUKO is what helped me wrap my brain around him as a whole and soften to his like, harshness i guess bc i think they're good foils for each other. i think without making him necessarily fangless to do it that they're a really interesting duo and i honestly love that he came back to deliberately become an antagonistic figure to zuko as well (even that both "sides" just happened to meet him 😭 like what are actually the chances lol) and that prior to it they were working side by side even for a short time. i honestly wish the show was longer than it was bc i wish he hadn't figured out iroh was a firebender as quickly as he did, or at least hadn't assumed zuko was also one, bc i think it would've been really really interesting to see the behind the scenes conflict of them being friends and working together and jet forming some sort of relationship with zuko and iroh, and THEN finding out they're who he considers inherently immoral and an enemy even though he knows he and zuko are very similar/agree/he trusts them, and what that would mean for him. the initial "he'd just freak out and accuse them of betraying their trust and the same fight happens anyway" would be a natural conclusion but i can also see it NOT happening, bc while jet is an incredibly complex interesting character i think him coming to terms with certain things and shifting his mindset would have been fulfilling for ME at least.

i know that a character doesn't have to "redeem" themselves to be worthy and that moral pureness is not exclusive to being a Good Character and i like plenty of morally grey characters trust me etc etc but i just tend to want to... enjoy engaging characters who reflect my own values enough that it's justifiable WITHIN THE CONTEXT of the rest of whatever's going on in/the relationships of the other characters which is essentially why... he's fine and i like him but he's not my favourite. and what i mean by that is like as in, i love team avatar and i don't think they themselves would be friends with jet entirely as is, but if he was in another setting or situation or show or what the hell ever i honestly wouldn't care as much. i also think it's sort of strange to be like "ha ha you don't like the character who killed/wanted to kill kids" as if that's not like totally normal to be uncomfortable with 😭 anyway. other than all that i really like how he's a retro cool anime character transplanted into the show and i like his dumb mouth grass thing and i think he could've been a cool ally and wish they'd have leant more into his connection and closeness to the freedom fighters esp in ba sing se. i also think the angle that he's somehow kissed everyone in team avatar barring the littles is really fucking funny and they would gossip about him if it wasn't so like, tragic... also i don't think he died i think he can run real fast.

OH edit: one last thing i'll tack on to like the beginning of my own thought process re: the cushioning characters are afforded we see i think actually nothing of jets backstory other than what he says and nothing ELSE of his goal in life other than like, staying alive + keeping his fighters safe + what they stood for and fighting the fire nation. and while that's all like definitely plenty to establish his character it's why i couldn't come around to him as quickly bc i didn't really see the point when regardless of everything i've said i pretty much don't think he WOULD want to "redeem" himself or change as a character in any way and he's kind of just some guy to me so i didn't really want to put the effort in myself. i don't fault anyone who does ofc.

#asks #I SAID A WHOLE LOT AND A WHOLE LITTLE ‼️‼️ #basically yeah i also struggled to like i did empathise sympathise whatever the word is w him as a character and figure and what he #represented narratively we see the way the fn affected people throughout the show it's like the whole. point of it all really #but then i would see fans of his being just rude little cuuuunts or asserting that azula didn't deserve anything and being crazy fandom #misogynist abojt her bc i guess they're like the top two Should we redeem these characters ? #and it just made me mad and will still make me mad #i've said before i give all the love ppl give jet to azula and that's still true #but now thst actually makes me think i think THEM meeting post agni kai in a world where he didn't die would be interesting .. #two guys that exist just to give zuko grey hair at 17 #also to be honest like thinking about him this much is a little head scratching to my Strange mind bc he's like a side character to me 😭 #so like of course his arc is incomplete and everything he was never meant to really have one he's just aiding in other peoples #but i guess u could argue any number of them are minor/side characters or w/e and i guess that's a lame way to look at things bc he's still #a plenty established character #ANYWAY FUCK. he's fine. #War ended with jet he's cool

[magnusthepuppet]

i cant even say anything about the new episodes because i can barely form coherent thoughts right now. talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, never been done before—

#SPOILERS FOR THE NEW EPISODES IN THE TAGS !!!! DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED THEM IM SO SERIOUS !!!! #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ok so what? what did i just watch? #the most beautiful shit i’ve ever seen? #yeah #i think so #first of all #man anne and mary did not disappoint #murder wives fr #that whole episode was so insane and i loved it #not everyone thinking ed was gonna keep the bunny (stede bunnet) and it getting killed off immediately #gives me the vibes of that one the last of us clip #ed saying you wear fine things well ???? #SHUT UP. THE WAY I CRIED #also the fact that the moon wasn’t full when they kissed representing how they were still healing and taking things slow #stede fr thought he was gonna get some that night i swear #can we talk about how i’m starting to like izzy #THE NOTE??? HELLO???? #i’m so fucking glad they’re healing #let’s appreciate fang/kevin too #he’s been a real one from the beginning of the season #stede bonnet #ed teach #blackbonnet #izzy hands #anne bonny #mary read

[ufolvr]

Man a show can be like, to my face, "you're not supposed to like these characters they're all monsters and they deserve what happened to them" which is true and I see it and I know it but my hyperempathetitc gay ass is still like. Ok. I am going to be attracted to at least one of them, though.

#i wont be talking about it much but god. house of usher huh. #i may be the only man out there who got something insane in the brain after watching ep 2. idk man my heart just broke. #like yes he sucks but oh man that was so horrid. what was that. im so sorry. also the kiss at his final moments broke me a little too #im just so used to liking characters who r even worse somehow. like i look at these fuckers and im like Yeah man sorry youll Never be frieza #📡 incoming transmission 📡 #me looking at prospero and his 2 partners like wow im sorry i know what youre supposed to represent but im too poly and youre too pretty #ps i mean empathy in the autism way dont loon at me im not blogging off some high horse here. if u think its compassion oh brother.

[woohooincoffin]

Solas says I know a place and takes you to the middle of a swamp where he insults your culture, religious beliefs, and then dumps you.

#yeah im still thinking about this and its the next day #he might be telling the truth about the Vallaslin but my inquisitor did not let him remove it #I’ve played her as very proud to be dalish and believes in elven gods so it would be out of character even if solas says something else #maybe that’s what it represented then but it is not what it is now and she chooses to move forward #about the breakup … this is not the first time a man takes me on a date and dumps me 😭😭 but hey um wtf #honestly my lavellan does love him and is hurt but she has to be so many things to so many different people #there’s bigger things at stake and bigger problem to deal with at this time than whatever he's hiding or lying about #im pretty sure he was going to say something else not about the vallaslin #but his fear is dying alone becasue i saw it in the fade and yet !!!! he pushes everyone away he picks fights with everyone no matter whos #in the party he didnt come to the wicked grace game he never opens up beyond what he has seen in the fade. he is a fixed point #i wanna shake him by the shoulders and YELL WHATA RE YOU DOING you could have it all someone who loves you and a wonderf #a wonderful found family. he is kind and gentle but he is also so full of ANGER and he is so set on things being as he sees them. #Cole cant change because to Solas cole is always a spirit. the dalish are misguided and YOU Lavellan are just different YOURE special #the meaning of the vallaslin cant change because to him it represents slavery and it is in stone to him. things dont change with time they #are fixed. like things in the fade it what it was preserved. he is trying to hold on to a past that doesnt exist that has moved forward. #Solas says you cant change yourself by wishing. but i would say wishing for change is THE required prerequisite for change. a little though #a little idea a little wish that something was different better. but to #why cant you move forward Solas what the fuck are you holding onto so intesely #OKAY WHATEVER IM DONE WITH THIS ESSAY IM OVER IT ITS FINE ITS SO FINE

[fellhellion]

This is literally nothing that I wasn’t trying to draw connection between in that one web weave post but god. Perceiving the threads connecting these characters.

Gwen for whom fatherhood and authority figure was conflated into one man, a man who at first chooses the role of authority over father. Miguel who fulfils the role of authority figure after this / “I tried to wear [this mask] the way you would want me to. And I didn’t!” <- paraphrased. Miguel who protects Gwen from her father’s choice to prioritise his role as an authority, only to fail to uphold the responsibility he has to her as an adult and mentor by reasserting his power as an authority, grappling for control over himself and how helpless he feels. Gwen’s father knowing what is asked of him as an authority is inherently incompatible with what is asked of him as a father, and upon reflection, unreservedly choosing fatherhood.

#there’s a whole different conversation to be had about how Miguel’s conception of fatherhood and authority figures intersects w this #+ his personal relationship to fatherhood w Gabriella (howeverrrrrr complicated that is) AS WELL AS analysing the power dynamics within the #nuclear family unit and how power traditionally operates and is taught to operate through fathers #the roles they occupy #is this ANYTHING lmao <- is literally just me saying what I was thinking in that web weave #tunes talks spiderverse #‘tunes what do u think of dad figure to Gwen miguel?’ OH BOY. do I think about what this relationship gestures at in the direction of that #idea or more so what we understand about Gwen’s relationship w her father in the brief snippets we have of her relationship w miguel #also. father IS a role of authority. I’m just using authority figure in terms of like. trying to describe other power dynamics abshdhjd #words fail me 😔 #but yeah to expand on Miguel a little more THE ENTIRE CONFLATION IN HIS LIFE BETWEEN FATHERHOOD AND AUTHORITY FIGURE #your father who helps maintains the surveillance state AND who has the familial authority to hurt you #who demands respect BECAUSE he occupies the role of father and your role as a child is to comply #killing George O’Hara w my bare hands for the look at me boy comments and what they represent