#cryptid's thoughts

[cryptidafter]

Voyeurism in Playboyy

First off, I will preface this by saying I am by no means an expert on film and it’s been years since I’ve written an essay so - uh - take that as you will! 

One of the most fascinating elements of Playboyy to me is the overwhelming feeling of being observed. The most obvious way this is achieved is through the use of video. Characters are often recording themselves or other people and those clips are integral to the progression of major story arcs (Captain filming Keen without his consent, the clips of Nant used to investigate his disappearance, etc.) There’s this omnipresent gaze that can’t be hidden from. Someone, somewhere, is always watching. You could be recorded at any moment, your most intimate and personal moments put on display for an unseen audience, and you'd have no idea. 

TV screens also play into this sense of being watched. There are often TVs on in the background of scenes. Sometimes they’re being used (Captain showing the video he made with Zouey to the rest of the rugby team, another voyeuristic act) but oftentimes they’re simply showing static (Nont has many scenes like this as do Nont and Prom together). The TV acts as a sort of window into the outside world and, in this case, we're the outsiders looking in. These characters are performing for our entertainment and Playboyy doesn't let you forget that.

Mirrors are another way that Playboyy heightens this sense of being watched. These are often most utilized with Nont as well. Private moments are being “reflected” back both to the character and the viewer. It's a double dose of being looked at. Twice the attention and judgment.

However, what I really want to touch on are the characters’ sense of being observed by us (the audience) thanks to some really neat camera work and breaking of the fourth-wall. We're voyeurs in our own way, another element that Playboyy plays with and draws our attention to (no, I will not be getting into the overarching theme of being surveilled by society because I'd be here all day).

To start, so we’re all on the same page, some basic definitions of voyeurism and the fourth wall. 

Voyeurism can be described as “the practice of obtaining sexual gratification from observing others” which fits Playboyy in regards to cam work and the sharing of sexually explicit videos (often without the consent of all involved parties). However, the definition I’m most interested in is “the criminal act of surreptitiously viewing a person without their consent in a place where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy (such as a home or public bathroom) or of using a device (such as a camera) for the purpose of such viewing.” Merriam-Webster

For fourth wall breaks, this video summarizes things pretty well:

Okay, with that out of the way, I want to get into how Playboyy utilizes fourth wall breaks and specific camera angles to bring the audience directly into the story and heighten the sense of voyeurism. We are as much a part of the mystery as the characters. 

I won’t touch on every single instance of this in the series but a few of my favorite ones (thus far). 

In the beginning of episode 2, we have Prom welcoming us to the Playboyy Lounge. The reason I say “us” is because he is addressing the viewer. We aren’t tailing some nameless, faceless person off the street; Prom’s facing the camera and we’re put in the position of a patron. We are the ones participating, looking at the sex workers who are available, being given the rundown. I think it’s a really fun way of establishing the location and preparing us for what’s in store at Playboyy Lounge in the future. 

One of my absolute favorite scenes is in episode 6, where the university gang is talking about the best way to get all the suspects together, and the camera is hidden. It’s like the camera has been placed in a closet, left to capture whatever happens behind closed doors. We are given a glimpse into a private conversation that we should not be observing! 

And then, the university boys all turn to the hidden camera - to us - and Nont says this: 

Yes, he’s speaking to his friends but he’s also addressing the audience! We're riding along, anxiously awaiting what will be revealed next, passively watching as these characters go through difficult and terrible things. I think it’s a clever utilization of the fourth wall break that still ties into the show’s presentation overall (the characters, most specifically First, are often remarking about how their life isn’t a specific genre of movie or TV show. That’s another little fourth wall break in and of itself, but I digress). 

On to another altered perspective moment that had me screaming: the interrogation scene in episode 12. 

Nont and Captain are executing their half-baked torture plan and the camera is positioned above, lurking. We’re hiding up in the rafters, watching some very illegal activity going on that - again - we are not supposed to be seeing. We're a captive audience to some truly awful behavior but, hey, we shouldn't be here right? We've chosen to follow the story because we want to know what happens. We're voyeurs! There are also moments where the camera is low to the ground and nearest to a column, giving the illusion that we’re hiding. I just really love how these angles add so much extra tension! 

The final fourth wall break I want to touch on is the rooftop party in episode 6 (you know, the one we sneakily listened to the planning for?). The uni boys (+Nont lol) do a toast and we’re included! They’re looking directly into the camera and raising their cups to us - we, the audience, are in on the plan and now we’re explicitly being invited to see how it unfolds.

There are more instances (and flavors) of voyeurism and fourth wall breaking but I don’t want this post to get crazy long. (Reiterating that I’m not a professional lol).

I really appreciate all that Playboyy does, not only narratively but stylistically. Each choice that’s made feels deliberate and enhances the story. 

#cryptid's thoughts #playboyy #playboyy the series #playboyy meta #bl meta #bl series #thai bl #analysis

[arggghhhsstuff]

forever obsessed with percy being weird. off-putting. strange even. a cryptid maybe. an urban legend if I may. my boy is the son of one of the oldest, most powerful gods, has been in FBI's records since the age of twelve, fought and won two wars against immortal beings, went to hell and back. I think he's allowed to be a little odd.

#percy jackson #cryptid percy jackson #<- there are only 3 fics under this tag on ao3 it's making me so sad #because i have THOUGHTS and HEADCANONS and IDEAS but i don't know how to write #demigods being less humans than they are in canon is a favorite headcanon of mine #they get to be WEIRD and SCARY and POWERFUL #!!!! #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #pjo #pjo hoo toa #demigods #percy jackson fandom #percy jackson tv show #pjo show #yeah

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

posting this with absolutely no context

#am i a cryptid now? i log on like once in a blue moon to post cringe and then leave again #ace attorney #apollo justice #tikki #random stuff #my stuff #ooookay okay okay okay. anyone reading the tags can have a LITTLE context‚ as a treat #so. sitting on my ao3 currently is an unfinished fic with exactly this premise #i want to finish it so bad. it haunts me every day. people leave such nice comments and everything #but i just have no motivation. trust me i've tried #i thought that perhaps drawing it might finally kick my brain back into gear #i'm so sorry readers i'm sorry i WILL finish it i promise it's not abandoned #it was so much fuuuuun #tikki are you seeing this. cringefail author who keeps playing video games instead of writing lmao #anyway goodbye friends i am gone again. logging off once more

[sapphicseasapphire]

My most recent project! I have SO many thoughts about this au, so stay tuned because I will definitely be making more content for this! Do you have a favorite?

#my art #fanart #the legend of zelda #chain as cryptids au #I FINISHED IT #SO many thoughts #cryptid hyrule #cryptid warriors #cryptid wind #cryptid wild #cryptid four #cryptid legend #cryptid sky #cryptid twilight #cryptid time #links meet au

[gonnahaveabigtalklater]

the world of Disco Elysium is bleak and unyielding and this is reflected in the artwork. each character, in their headshot portrait, faces the viewer directly. their expressions are neutral, exhausted, unsmiling. sure klaasje has a faint humorless smirk, and evrart a wide smug grin, but both are obviously carefully-chosen armor against the soul-crushing grind of Late-Stage Capitalism.

not trant though! he's doing a cutesy little over-the-shoulder glamor pose and he is Legitimately Thrilled to be talking to you. this man did NOT understand the genre of the game at ALL.

#disco elysium #trant heidelstam #I thought this man was gonna be either evil or a cryptid for sure when I first met him #I was like 'nobody in this universe is actually happy so this smiling man is Up To Something' #turned out what he was Up To was infodumping and lowkey trying to dad everyone he meets. #sorry mr heidelstam sorry for thinking you were the Insulindian Phasmid in disguise (I still think that would have been cool though)

[naffeclipse]

During the brainstorming phase of Cryptid Sightings (so so long ago,) one concept I was fiddling with was demonic cryptids couldn't enter sunlight. They simply can't exist in such brightness due to their nature, except for, of course, Eclipse aka Sun while possessing a vessel. I even had a scene in mind of Moon cornering some poor sucker cryptid at the crack of dawn after said cryptid threatened/harmed Y/N. The cryptid taunted Moon by saying how he couldn't get them now—they were in the sunlight.

And Moon smiled wide, black goo seeping from between the faceplate's teeth as he stepped into the morning brightness, the vessel shifting to bright yellows and reds, and now bearing a terrible grin of ink and teeth.

"Oh, but I can, friend."

#whoop he tears off the cryptid's head #rip that guy but sun is just build different #anyways it ended up not working out due to many reasons but it was a cool scene that always stuck with me despite it not being canon #<<< says canon when talking about my very far removed fanfic au #yeah anyways thought process lore ig #cryptid sightings

[randomvoices]

Sex? No, I'd rather [unintelligible noise that worms into your brain and festers in your thoughts, consuming your every waking hour until it is all you can think about and it's driving you mad]

#ace #asexuality #asexual #ace jokes #cryptidcore #eldritchcore #Ace cryptid #aspec #spilled thoughts #acespec

[ace-bucket]

Bucky using his prosthetic arm to reflect light onto the wall for Alpine to chase

#just wholesome bucky and alpine thoughts :) #bucky barnes #alpine the cat #marvel #cryptid speaks

[wackarat]

I saw your post that you want to draw guts! Perfect, I give you a magical permission and excuse to draw guts ✨✨✨

~same person that gave you a magical permission and excuse to draw gunslinger

lmao the permission anon strikes again and i must answer

#i did it #tw: blood #tw: dead body #I have a hc now that any extra bodies that havent decomposed get sent to the medics #gives less work for pauling #tf2 #medic looking like a cryptid per usual #team fortress 2 #tf2 engineer #medic tf2 #heheh guts #tf2 fanart #team fortress fanart #i love lighting in this smm #while looking at ref i noticed the mounted medigun is the quick-fix #it was interesting so i thought y’all should know #it makes me wonder if the orhers get mounted too

[leonsleftbicep]

Quirks i’ve noticed Sleep Token Members have

mind you, this is things i’ve just noticed from from the concert videos i have caught out of no where

Vessel

big stomps

flaps arms and hands when hes dancing

scrunches his face in photos with flash

squeezes himself with an arm to calm himself

II

broad stance

almost always wears vans

right eye is slower to open the his left (hes just super sleepy)

III

flicks his hands

brushes his hand over his head trying to “smooth back his hair”

pants are always regular length and never tall length just so socks are on display

head bangs like his hair is out

thumb holes in long sleeves (hes just like me for real)

loosy goosy dance moves

looks like he would punch you if you acted wrong to someone hes close to

IV

hood up almost always

40 year old dance moves

palms not painted purposfully

sassy/saucy body movements

adjusts the soft mask A LOT

props up guitar with his right thigh during the summoning solo

i feel i missed a couple but thats okay!

(i do indeed know that some of these are for technical reasons and such but i just notice them and want to write them down)

#sleep token #the duck has thoughts #sleep token band #the brain duck #sleepy cryptid boys #sleep token ii #sleep token iii #sleep token iv #sleep token vessel

[phoenixcatch7]

In the possessed doll au, Bruce is definitely a creepy kid.

This is, after all, a haunted au.

He looks like a 'murdered victorian child' kid. Even before he watched his parents die.

Like, very big pale blue eyes. Significantly more striking /pos as a smiling adult than a perpetually blank faced unblinking child. He looks like he knows how you die. Pale skin, ink black hair traditionally styled, big dark lashes to frame those uncanny eyes. Just the hint of eye bags.

Alfred in any timeline has a spine of steel, but there must have been at least once when he was woken up in the night to a tiny shape staring unblinkingly deep into his eyes and thought 'I am going to die'. Normal kids are absolutely terrifying to wake up to, as any parent will attest, but imagine being an ex military spy now butler living alone on the most cursed land you've ever imagined, taking care of the only kid after your employers, his parents were brutally murdered, and suddenly you jolt awake in the middle of the night to see two enormous eyes less than a foot from your face, two engorged dots for pupils, staring, still as stone into your very soul.

Bruce, hushed because it's bedtime: Mr Alfred I threw up :(.

Alfred, trying to calm his thundering heart and not reflexively shoot his ward, dizzy from the sudden adrenaline from deep sleep rush, not letting himself freak out in front of the boy:.............................. Oh dear. That's not good.

Bruce, still not blinking or looking away: :(((

Wayne manor is a setting from a murder mystery at night, and it's not Bruce but Alfred that's the main character.

Perhaps, he thinks, it was always going to end this way. Not because of fate, but because the characters of the play would not know themselves to act otherwise.

@puppetmaster13u may I present?

#Batman with the justice league: *goth so dark its almost comic relief* *logical and pragmatic strategist* *creepy but a normal enough dude* #Batman in Gotham: *supernatural murder mystery slash horror game only missing the zombies* *triple edged daggers* *fear gas smog* #Ooh I hadn't thought much of the villains but let's really lean into the haunted aesthetic for Halloween #batman #possessed doll au #cryptid batfam #cryptid batman #.... Honestly you don't really need to change the villains much #It's like that Shazam/cap marvel post. Uwu strong man with the league and fighting off eldritch horrors bent on enslaving humanity at home

[cryptidafter]

Back at it again saying that I don't think NHS had friends or close relationships with any of his peers (which is why JGY's betrayal probably cut even deeper; he's the one person I think NHS developed a bond with besides NMJ).

The fact that none of the sect heirs in NHS's generation have close ties is a clear illustration of how much war colored any connection they could've had and why it's a sign of new beginnings that the junior quartet have the friendship that they do.

#cryptid's thoughts #I know people want everyone to be besties but that just wasn't the case #even 3zun - the one example we have of close friends during the war - end up how they do because of how unstable everything is #I've been trying to get better at identifying why I don't vibe with certain tropes

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompts in Memes 7

#batman au #batman #prompts #dc #dcu #cryptid batman #cryptid batfam #cryptid batfamily #memes #meme #“So are we going to talk on how we've all become inhuman creatures or” #“No we're not going to talk about it now finish your food Jays about to scare the shit out of people again” #Alfred is a half-fae #But all the family gives off fae-vibes in their civilian identity #Jason deserves to be a dullahan #Let him remove his head and pull a Shakespeare #Tim is like a Grim or a Banshee to the gothamites #Also I think it's hilarious when the league are oblivious to what's happening in Gotham #And oblivious to the whole batfamily despite Bruce mentioning children once a blue moon #The league thought he was talking about the teams or civilians not whatever the fuck these things are #Bruce: Wow this is a surprisingly peaceful undercover mission #Bruce: . . . #Bruce: Something is happening back home isn't it

[spellboundcities]

Here's what I've been up to btw

#see if you can find all the silly things i put in here :) #the map was open i thought of hornets i proceeded to go ham #local cryptid draws #marble hornets #marble hornets fanart #animation #multi animator project #pmv #jay merrick #tim wright #mh tim wright #mh jay #with hints of #mh hoody #the hooded man #mh jam #if you close your eyes just a little #i love them so #opaline yellowjackets #its small but it's fun!

[letsmcfreackingloseit]

And for the holidays I give you memes! Memes everywhere!

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful time, but if not, I at least hope these silly doodles brought you a little joy!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet today, so to round this of: These doodles are based off of the fanfic Apex Polarity, which is written by the lovely @naffeclipse and Eclipse' design is based off of @themeeplord 's fantastic design!

And as a bonus, you will find an alteration and a bunch of Yeti slogans/puns under the cut:

and if you're wondering why I made so many gd yeti puns, it was for michael's mug. You gotta have some fitting and funny slogan for all mugs. Btw If any of you know some good yeti slogans and/or puns, please call me, I've been struggling.

Michael; local cryptid believer, but not cryptid enjoyer

Vanessa; POLAR BEARS

Eclipse; I'm having the best time of my life! :D

Y/n; I'm having A TIME :')

#apex polarity #polar!y/n #polar!vanessa #polar!michael #polar!eclipse #orca!eclipse #dca #dca au #OK! Here comes the obligatory extra thoughts section- from top to bottom order- GO!!! #BEHOLD!: is the will smith meme- but it's also kind of a reference to the “BEHOLD- a man!” joke but- you know- in reverse :P #also if you wondering why Y/n is kind of T-posing- it's the 'I have too many layers of clothes so I'm sort of T-posing' pose #I love drawing them like that XD #and also I'm giving them a little sass- you know- as a treat 💅❇️ #NDA: I love michael. He's been through shit and is trying so hard to keep everyone safe- #and for that I want to give him a break and a hug :') #POLAR BEARS: I know and you know and SHE knows *nods knowingly* polar bears XD #Me and the bad bitch: this fits so well with polar!y/n but it would be an even better fit for hare!y/n XD #my pronouns: Sorry Y/n- eclipse will like you no matter the gender- so you're stuck! Good luck! XD #Yeti puns: OK so Michael knows sirens exists right? #So I was thinking that he's probably a cryptid believer- but not so much a cryptid enjoyer #So I was trying to make a mug slogan that was kind of both #but that was HARD- so in the end I picked just a pure and very simple yeti pun for his mug #the 'Yeti? Not on my watch!' ties back to michael believeing in cryptids- but not liking them #so yes- my headcanon is he will send cryptids to Uno hell if possible #at 'yeti spagetti!' I was grasping at straws- NOTHING RHYMES WITH YETI EXCEPT SPAGETTI!! Also yes- #spagetti is misspelled and I'm going to keep misspelling it because why tf is there an H in the word spagetti? NAY I SAY!! *GASP* ok done! #again I hope all of you are doing well in these times #and I'm sorry for being so late in saying this naff (got caught up in the holiday prep)- but I hope you're feeling better now! Ik how #stressful it can be around the holidays- but I hope this cheered you up and that you'll get to relax after chirstmas! #NOW I NEED TO STOP BECAUSE I'VE REACHED THE TAG LIMIT- happy holidays everyone and hope you have a good one!

[literallyjusttoa]

Left this abandoned in the drafts (which is a bit ironic) but it's a spin on this post, where instead of Apollo just being locked in some room on Olympus somewhere, he's bound to the ruins of an abandoned Ancient Greek city. Maybe somewhere near Delphi, maybe Troy, idk.

#trials of apollo #toa apollo #lester papadopoulos #sunny speaks #would this count as another au? idk #apollart #I got this Idea after learning about ancient Thera (which I can't believe I didn't know about before) #It was kind of the Ancient Greek equivalent to Pompeii? Except the volcanic eruption was MUCH more catastrophic #but because the eruption was so big the people on the island had warning signs for like a decade before it happened #So we have ruins that have been perfectly preserved but there are no bodies #Bc all the people were able to evacuate before the disaster #I mean there aren't even animal corpses at these sites they got everyone out #Fun fact this is also considered to be a large reason why Minoan civilization ended up falling apart #ANYWAYS all that aside I heard “abandoned ruins that have been perfectly preserved in ash” and immediately thought “Hmmmm yes ... suffering #Though to be clear I would not put Apollo in the ruins of ancient Thera (Tho the thought of him being the local cryptid of Santorini is fun #But you know what other city was burned to the ground? Heeheehee