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returquoise · 2 months

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ATLALA, aka Avatar the Last Airbender Live Action

Sooooo, I finished the first season and had thoughts (just like everyone else lol). First context, non-spoilery thoughts, and then spoilers under the cut, yadda-yadda.

Why context? Because for a lot of people OG ATLA was their childhood, and they have super strong feelings about it and about any adaptation that exists. I'm not one of those people.

The first time I watched OG ATLA I was over 20 years old, which means I was an adult and had adult viewpoints about the story – worldbuilding, character writing, etc. It was never the hallowed most perfect show ever for me. It was and still is a fucking good show with some amazing writing and worldbuilding but I did have some gripes.

So when ATLALA was announced I remained neutral – I've seen the movie that shall not be named and din't really like it but shitty adaptations have always existed. When we started getting photos and trailers and news pieces, I was feeling pretty positive about the visuals, but neither news pieces or trailers actually tell you shit about what the writing or worldbuilding is like. However, I was about 70% optimistic.

Because what indications I did get about visuals, writing etc, were very reminiscent of another adaptation that had come out recently, about a series that was actually a bit more important to me on an emotional than ATLA. I'm talking about One Piece, and OPLA which came out last August. I've been a fan of that for 10 years longer than ATLA, and while they did a lot of changes, the spirit of the story was there.

So I copied my optimism and good feelings from that, going into ATLALA.

Now, the thoughts.

Visuals are pretty good. There are moments when I can tell they left some visuals out due to trickiness/budget (the "is Zuko's ship real?" review after the premiere). Some things look fake or plasticy, some stuff is too clean. Bending looks a lot better than in the movie that shall not be named.

Writing has issues. Some of it is very expositiony which makes it wooden and the shots uninteresting (there were so many badly framed shots with characters just awkwardly standing and talking). There are some lovely bits of dialogue that gave me feelings, but those moments were in the minority. And some writing choices were also quite childish, even for an adaptation of a kids' cartoon, so I'm a bit confused about the intended age demographic – except there are some really violent bits in there, which leave me even more confused.

Pacing was either frantic or okay-ish. The writers clearly had trouble paring down the OG series, and then ended up cramming stuff together. I could keep up with it (knowing what certain characters roughly meant for the plot, even if they were at a different place and time), but I'm not quite sure if someone uninitiated in the OG series could. The last 2 episodes had probably the best pacing and even then there were some things that made me go "hmmm."

Some actors have issues emoting – main and extras. I agree that the Gaang has lost some of their flaws compared to the OG series. Maybe some of them will make more of an appearance in season two when everyone's more experienced at acting? Especially considering that they'll likely have stuff more spaced out there – there are some episodes I'm pretty sure they'll outright skip, just based on the choices in this season. But we'll see. There were some fun and interesting bonding moments between different characters.

Sokka, Zuko, and Suki were the standouts from the younger cast. Suki is considerably different from the OG but it was acted and written well, and is an interesting choice. Sokka's quips, while not as numerous as in the OG, were fun. Physical comedy is obviously more toned down because real bodies can't do the same shit as cartoons. More about his arc choices later. Zuko was a bit toned down from the OG but IMO also the closest to it. And as someone who's almost finished with a Zuko AU fanfic, I was positively cackling due to the fact that some of the choices made for the character are similar to something I've done in my fic.

As for the rest of the main kids, there'll be more in the spoiler bits, BUT, they're different, and feel less experienced in acting. They're not bad but some choices were definitely different than in the show and they offer interesting opportunities. We'll see how they pan out, but be prepared for some speculation from me.

Fight scenes sometimes had IMO slow moments in the choreo, and they could have been better. Some were excellent, some a bit ehhh.

On the whole, I think this is about 7 out of 10. Some moments were 8 out of 10. It's a passable adaptation

Spoilery thoughts waaaay down.

Whoo boy. Where to start here?

Let's start with the cramming. As far as I can tell from my notes, the episodes are roughly divided like so:

EP1: 3,5 and bits (Boy in the Iceberg, Avatar Returns, Southern Air Temple, half of the Storm, bits of Avatar and the Fire Lord)

EP2: 1 and bits (Warriors of Kyoshi, part of Waterbending Scroll)

EP3: 3 halves (King of Omashu, Jet, Northern Air Temple)

EP4: 1, 4 halves and bits (King of Omashu, Jet, Northern Air Temple, Cave of Two Lovers, half of Winter Solstice P1, bits of the Avatar Day,)

EP5: 2 halves and pieces of 3 (half of Winter Solstice P1, half of Bato of the Water Tribe, part of Southern Raiders, part of the Library, part of Siege of the North) AND timeskip mention of the Great Divide and the pirates from Waterbending Scroll

EP6: 2, two halves and bits (Winter Solstice P2, Blue Spirit, half of Bato of the Water Tribe half of the Storm, part of Siege of the North)

EP7: 2 (Waterbending Master, Siege of the North)

EP8: 2 and pieces (Siege of the North, Return to Omashu, bits of Northern Air Temple, part of the Library)

Waterbending Scroll is a bit of throughline because you see moments of training in pretty much all of the episodes.

Episode 1 was very full, and felt rushed at times. There were a few places where they could have shortened some parts (like the earthbender spy scene at the start) to give more time for other stuff. Biggest gripes are the convenience of timing – Aang going off to clear his head only for everyone to die that very night. HOWEVER, me and my friends talked about it being likely Spirit shenanigans going "fuck, Air Nomads are gonna die now, we need to deepfreeze the Avatar for storage." We also concluded that the sudden current of Sokka and Katara finding Aang was either physics we don't understand, or Spirit shenanigans. Also the thing about all the Air Nomads coming over for the Great Comet festival? And then having so few of them on screen? Sorry, but I ain't buying it. Having such a sparse population in one temple I could have bought (with caveats) but adding in the gathering, nah.

Episode 2, Sokka-Suki was beautiful. I think it works even with the removed downplaying of girls capabilities (this change also brought some other stuff to Sokka I absolutely adored in later episodes but I'll talk about that when I start ranting about the characters). This was pretty close to the OG episode in many ways and I really don't have other problems with it, besides the somewhat childish end discussion about hope and shit with Aang and Suki's mom (Suki having a badass mom is fun). Manifesting Avatars and being able to talk to them only at their shrines will be an interesting take on stuff. Because that will affect some stuff on later seasons and I'm not sure how.

(And considering how scared Aang is of the Avatar State this early on, we might end up skipping the Avatar State in the next season. At least partially. Because we did get a lot of info now.)

That's a very full itinerary and it was hardest to follow at eps 3-4 because there were so many things going on. Jet's and the Mechanist's conflicting storylines made for an interesting drama (though, again, hard to follow) and gave Sokka and Katara something to do – which they didn't really have in the OG Omashu episode, which was what Aang was mostly dealing with here. In my opinion these two episodes didn't get a proper handling, because they're one of the few instances were we get people from the Earth Kingdom doing questionable shit, but we don't really discuss it. And while everyone know marketing is a mistake (it makes no one happy), considering that this series was trying to sell itself as a more mature take, that feeling is left kinda lacking in regards to Jet and the Mechanist. I do appreciate Bumi being fucking bitter, like Yass, you go king, as well as the bit with the Earth Kingdom soldiers speaking of grief and mistreating Iroh. That complexity is what was left lacking with Jet and the Mechanist, and how Katara and Sokka dealt with that emotionally. Also loved Zuko getting hit by a broom and Iroh taking the fall for him. The Zuko-Zhao alliance was an interesting angle to take (after messing it up pfft) and establishing early that Azula is a master infiltrator? I liked that move, also the fact that there are Fire Nation rebels. Although I fucking loved the quick fake marriage.

5 and 6, despite being about as full if not fuller, were weaven together really well in my opinion. My biggest gripe with that two episode storyline was how the Fire Sage Shyu-Aang team-up was done – not that it was any better in the OG to be fair but it is more jarring in live action. I just about died at the 41st twist because holy shit that's an amazing angst take and I appreciate it so much. And while we do get Aang planting an acorn, it feels like a really small moment and I think the Hei Bai issue should have got a bit more attention as the episode was resolved. Koh was fucking terrifying and the appearance of Wan Shi Tong – and in the last two episodes the appearance of the celestial objects calendar machine, as well as the fact that Zhao got his dirt on Tui and La from a Fire Sage – leads me to believe we won't be getting the Library episode next season.

(The only way I can see Return to Omashu happening is if it's remixed with Imprisoned which was totally left out of this season, or we get the important info aka neutral Jing info all from the Swamp, or from a letter Bumi sent. I personally think Return to Omashu-Imprisoned remix is more likely, just so we can prep Teo and the Mechanist for the Day of the Black Sun which we saw flashing by on the celestial objects machine just before we finally got the confirmation that Sozin's Comet is still a thing. Although The Avatar State could also be remixed into this in a sort of "yes, Earth Kingdom needs to free Bumi etc but I can't do it in Avatar State, we need to be smart.")

Episodes 7 and 8 were pretty chill in pacing issues. I thought Yue was a bit too quick in warming up to Sokka but considering how it was explained I can accept it. Also, the fact that Tui and La are intelligent enough to not be fish 24/7/365 is a change that makes sense although the whole Ice Moon (is it the local Halloween?) thing was very out of left field. Women joining the fight was a wild update and definitely more of a modern take than an early 2000s take. Do I have other thoughts? Sure, but I don't want to write bajillion essays and I just want a general overview in one post.

Zuko is, like I said, a standout. Absolutely love his conspiracy board, and as someone who writes a fic with a more scholarly inclined Zuko, I loved him being able to draw, being the foremost Avatar expert in the world (you can't tell me there can be more than one or two people out there who know more than Zuko at this point, look at his research), and having opinions about calligraphy brushes. Ugh, my heart. There's some absolutely wonderful acting happening and he does action really well. Is he a bit less explosive than in the OG? Sure, but one must remember, that adaptations are just licensed fanfics. His abuse background is in the performance, and my biggest question is the Agni Kai. There was a certain desperation in his face, so he must have wanted to make an impression on Ozai, and maybe felt a bit more like he had the right to it – as this show made it clear he had been invited in the War Council and did not needle his way in. Also the 41st twist oh holy smokes I just about screamed. His flaw is still anger and trouble thinking plans through.

Azula (her bangs in the flashback crack me up, was that her emo phase?) is more obviously affected by Ozai's games in this. I know OG Azula has loads of fans and there are loads of deep dives into her character and abuse and etc, but this is actually the first time her writing has made it obvious to me. She's still cold and calculating, but she's affected by more things and that makes her into a more approachable character for me. I know many fans got this from the OG portrayal so I know this is a me thing.

Sokka is another standout. I saw an interview where the actor was like "I tried to interject and ad lib humour where I could" and I appreciate it, because a lot of them made me cackle. There was some really good humour there. As for his arc and conflict; I think it's really interesting that he tries to live up to his dad's image of a warrior, and doing it very much out of duty. It isn't so much that he wants to be a warrior, but he wants to be good enough and I think that came through wonderfully. He can be a warrior, but it ain't his passion. It also offers very interesting bonding possibilities and parallels with Zuko. My heart broke at that ice-dodging scene in episode 5, as well as his heart-to-heart with Katara in episode 4 (fucking SIBLING LOVE TRIUMPHS). Also absolutely loved the fact that he supported Katara being a warrior in the North. His flaws in the OG are self-esteem issues (nailed here), and a certain level of arrogance, that affected his attitude towards girls at times. The latter has been removed but considering it only lasted until episode 4 in the OG series anyway, I don't see it as a terribly big deal. We can still get his "it'll totally work out this way" arrogant moment at pretty much any point in the story in the future.

Katara has trouble emoting. I don't know how much experience her actor has with acting, but I hope she gets better with practice. There are some very nice bonding moments she has with Sokka and Aang that bring emotion out, but she's very stone faced a lot of the time. One could read it as a symptom of seeing her mother being literally burned alive but that depends on how her arc is written in future seasons, and how it's acted. I really like the parallel with Sokka, of him trying to be a warrior out of duty, while Katara wants to be that and has trouble getting the opportunity to do so. This came out really well in episode 4. The fact that she was made a fucking commander of sorts at North was amazing moment of proving to her that she can be, that she is, a warrior. I'm kinda sad her temper has been left out of the writing, because with her being a self-taught water bender (which I'm okay with because we see her practising every fucking episode) there's a threat of her sliding into so-called Mary Sue territory. Hopefully Toph's inclusion brings her temper out next season. She's also missing some of her naiveté, although having a crush on the first good looking outsider (with fucking mirrored shots) just like her brother is hilarious.

Aang is... to mature. He gets a lot of really good and morally and ethically right speeches, and while he expresses that he's scared and doesn't know what he's doing, it still feels too mature. He also doesn't have that many dumbass child moments (what was that episode he just went "oops" in, that was funny and felt childlike, and then there was the water fight he had with Katara). It could be because we're going through stuff so fast but it'll be hard to fix later. I kinda like how his connection with Katara is being the last of their kind and loss – and then the small really good acting in ep7 when Katara says stewed sea prunes taste like home, and you can just see him go "oh, there's still someplace she can belong to, unlike me." I loved his calligraphy brush discussion with Zuko, because there was the beginnings of a bond there. As a friend said, it's nice they removed the Disney princess like love at first sight thing from the OG. If this turns into a romance (I have thoughts on that... later) I feel like it has a better chance to grow organically. No, I never shipped Kataang, please refer to the context part of this post.

Suki had a fun isolated, but curious, and socially awkward vibe to her. She's obviously different from the OG, but it's a fun and interesting difference, as the most characterisation we ever got for her was badass. Yue was interesting, more assertive and playful, which I liked. I also liked the fact that she had obvious duties and was expected to be the next chief. Even if the Northern Water Tribe sexism was kept, this felt like it added some dimension to it. June flirting with Iroh was hilarious, enough said. Mai and Ty Lee are blanks of wood. Their writing, and the direction they were given was horrible, and they're a prime example of that awkward standing and bad framing issue I mentioned way earlier. Ty Lee could have at least been bending herself into a pretzel, and Mai could have been using a knife to dig stuff from under her nails or something. I hope they get better writing and direction in the future.

Iroh was honestly pretty enjoyable. There were some moments of skilled evasive answering, but I was left missing him saying that Zuko was like a son to him. They do have really good chemistry though and you can see the care between the characters. I hated the long monologue at the end of episode 6, that felt very much beneath whatever target audience they were aiming for, and failed show not tell. Not perfect but can improve. Also, that one part where they played Leaves on the Vine, I almost died.

Ozai being a manipulative, abusive game addict is different but offers him some agency and motivation besides megalomania, which I appreciate. He had a peculiar expression when he burned Zuko, and that smells like hidden lore to me.

That's probably every character I feel like addressing at this point. However, I did mention romance in Aang's section, and I have to agree with the other whispers on the net. The fucking scarf scene. At this point, it's more likely for this show to be Zutara than Kataang IMO. BUT before people go and blow up about it, some points; cartoons offer more leeway in visual age differences, I feel like they would need to extend ATLALA plot line to last several years (instead of like, 9 months it's in the OG) to make it visually make sense. The Fortuneteller (as well as Katara's obsession with love?), and Aang's love at first sight have all been written out. Cave of Two Lovers was used for sibling love on the first season, and we ain't visiting that location again, not with how efficiently we did pretty much all of the Omashu stuff this season. Most of the Kataang iconic moments have been left out deliberately. Does this mean we'll get Zutara? Of course not, but due to the scarf scene, as well as that rivals thing they have going (we literally have two fights between Zuko and Katara this season, and the water sprout she used to thwart his fireball in episode one, and if that isn't a traditional beginning of a rivalry, nothing is), it's certainly more likely at this point than Kataang.

But we'll see, just like with everything else. It's an okay start, it's far from perfect, but it does offer new viewpoints that I find fascinating.

What's in the future.

I already explained my Return to Omashu-Imprisoned-Avatar State mash-up idea above, and that we'll likely miss the Library. I also think Avatar Day will be left out. I do however think, that we'll get the Deserter next season. We also need a way for Aang to learn about the Comet coming again and if Library is out (and probably also the Desert), best chances are IMO the Swamp or the Fortuneteller (remixing those two together is also possible). Or maybe Yeong Yeong has spies and they tell him about the Comet and he tells the Gaang. I also think they'll be foreshadowing/setting up White Lotus a bit more than we got in the OG.

I don't quite have my thought together enough to make any other guesses, but we will get Toph, Ba Sing Se, and Azula's Mean Girls Squad, but no clue yet how they'll be remixed. Season 2 has a much clearer timeline structure, whereas season 1 had a lot of episodic stuff that doesn't timeline wise offer too many roadblocks for remixes, as we saw with what they did with Omashu.

I think that's about everything I can think off. If you have comments, please be nice. This was mostly rambling, and tin foil hat baiting.

#avatar the last Airbender live action #avatar the last airbender #atlala #natla #netflix avatar the last airbender #review #thoughts #spoilers #non-spoilers #I'm sad people prefer the term natla to atlala #I'll keep calling it atlala for funsies #season 2 speculation #character analysis

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botboots · 1 year

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capture [megatron, cybertronian!reader]

hi! so sorry for the lack of activity, been super busy getting ready for finals! wanted to post something though, so heres a small draft i started a while ago to try and write more gore/angst stuff, trying to push myself a bit more :) might not be the best thing ive written, but i think its alright enough to post - lmk if you want a part 2!

warnings: blood, gore, torture, death word count: 1.1k (GN, cybertronian!reader) continued under the cut

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The soft creaking of chains is the only sound that fills the barren room. You hang your helm, energon loss and a weary processor debilitating you, limbs heavy with thoughts clouded by fatigue. Lidded optics gaze down to the drying spilled fuel that covered both the floor and your frame. You take a ragged in-vent and close your optics, trying desperately to keep yourself from shaking.

Don’t make them think you’re weak. The others just need a little more time.

A faint mechanical fwoosh greets your audials, and a soft purple light is cast through the open door for a brief moment before being blocked out by a large, spiked shadow. You don’t even make an attempt to look up as heavy footsteps, followed by a lighter pair, make their way to the center of the room where you hang. The chains that secure your arms above you chime against one another as you shift, grimacing at the twinge under your shoulder plating.

“How is our prisoner today, Knockout?”

The cherry red medic slowly waves a scanner over your frame, clear disgust setting onto his faceplates at your state - or more so the state of your finish, ever the most important thing on his processor. Your gaze narrows at the mech while he waits for the scan to process. You had never known of a cybertronian who could be so unapologetically self-absorbed.

Knockout hums and skims over the data pad, tone annoyingly peppy when he answers, “Besides some minor energon loss, I believe they’re capable of taking another session or two before their… expiration, my liege.”

“Good.” Megatron replies lowly, “You’re dismissed.”

As soon as you hear the door close, sharp digits grab your chin. The servo lifts your helm so that you look straight into the warlords blazing red optics. “You only have so much time before my patience runs thin, Autobot.” he threatens, “Where is your base?”

You return his gaze with steeled optics, “Doesn’ matter how many times you beat me,” your voice is littered with faint static as you speak, “‘m never tellin’ you.” Megatron glares at you, opening his intake to disregard your words; but before he can speak you raise your helm and spit at him, a small glob of energon splattering onto his chassis. His optics widen, a hilarious mix of disgust and anger shaping his features - in any other situation, you would’ve laughed.

His narrow optics flit to you before raising a digit and swiping the blue substance from his frame. He flicks it away, and your vision suddenly spins when his fist slams into the side of your helm. Your frame shudders and you grit your denta, trying to let the sharp pain roll off you.

“If you’d like to play dirty,” Megatron snarls into your audial, “then I would be more than happy to accommodate.”

Energon drips from your intake. You feel as if you had been thrown into a spiked pit, scratches and dents littering your frame. Megatron circles you, running a clawed digit along your form. The sound of screeching metal-on-metal makes you cringe, and you try to ignore the flaring pain it leaves in its wake over your already battered plating.

He drops his servo from your frame, moving in front of you to raise your helm once more. He says nothing, only glaring. You return his gaze, exhaustion clear, but he doesn’t miss the glint of challenge in your optics. Megatron isn’t an idiot - he knows your type, and he knows you meant what you said.

The warlord snarls, “If you refuse to tell me the location of your base,” he raises his servo. “Then I will at least take the opportunity to thin your ranks!” Panic floods you right before he swings down, claws ripping through your chassis; bright, blue energon splattering onto both of your frames.

You wail - hot, white pain overtaking your thoughts. You thrash and kick out, sending Megatron stumbling away from you - but all of your attention is locked onto the excruciating pain taking hold of your body. Optics blown wide, you can’t help but stare as energon spills from the four, deep gashes carved into your chassis.

You barely feel his servo grab your helm and violently shove it upwards, trying to force the last of your attention on him.

“You should have taken your chance.” He sneers, sharp denta glinting as his gaze bore into yours.

You can’t look back. Not with any real meaning behind it. The only thing you can process is the pure, unfiltered agony taking over your frame. It was spark-splitting, and you can do nothing but wallow in it as Megatron makes his way towards the exit; leaving you heaving as you bleed onto the floor from the chains that suspend you.

Not moments later, you feel the ship rumble. Blaster fire can be heard behind the door, and you feel a sliver of hope grow in your spark. Even if they can’t save you, at least you won’t spend your last moments alone on a Decepticon warship. However an explosion jolts your frame, twisting you at a particularly painful angle; you cry out, venting labored as you try to re-focus on the sounds outside - anything but lingering on the torment of your wounds.

The gunfire dies down, and you hear a shout. Their voice wasn’t familiar, but you didn’t particularly care at this point - as long as you were given a chance at escape, you couldn’t give less of a scrap about what faction, or lack of, the bot saving you aligned with.

The door slides open. With strained effort, you lift your helm just enough to see who it is. You tense up in apprehension - this isn’t anyone you know. They were slightly blurred to you, but from what you can make out their frame is silver and blue with two red stripes on the top of their helm, and comparatively smaller than most of your comrades. Whoever it is, they seem to freeze as soon as they lay their optics on your mangled, energon covered form.

You probably looked dead.

The bot runs out, and for a moment fear seizes you at the prospect that they thought you were already gone, and decided that a sparkless Autobot wasn’t worth their while. You try to call out, but you only irritate your wounds - your chassis throbs as your voice fizzles out into static. All you can manage is a whine as you curl in on yourself; only managing to lift your knees a few inches upwards.

Your venting stutters. Tears well up in your optics. Your frame begins to shake.

You were going to die here.

#this isnt technically meg x reader but idk what else to tag it as lmao #still working on requests!#transformers #transformers x reader #transformers fanfiction #tf x reader #tfp x reader #megatron #megatron x reader #transformers prime #cybertronian reader #transformers x cybertronian reader

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sssusuki · 4 months

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All-in Analysis

I haven't done one of these in awhile so give me a moment to collect myself because. did u know i love women.

With that out of the way I believe it's appropriate to begin. All-in is Hyuna's round as well as her introduction, and already have many of us been proven wrong. In the discord we have been theorizing that maybe Hyuna was a brave, yet quiet type. Or a mature type, and yet this has all been wrong to an extent. She is wild and bold, contrasting the ideas we had, but she is still mature to an extent. Especially if you look into the video to which I have done and will explain now because I'm delusional.

This begins with her wanted poster as well as a shot of the outside world. It's a desert with minimal flora or fauna as the wanted poster glides through the air. These first few shots also give us information on how this rebellion kidnaps rich alien's and takes everything they have. They also revealed, though not verbally, they have a base. While this was quietly mentioned at the end of Mizisua, it is more prevalent here as humans are here in numbers as Hyuna begins to perform on her little stage.

One of the biggest things we see first is Hyuna's prosthetic. Which, while it was foreshadowed in her full body when Till's round first released, it seems to have gone through some updates as it is no longer thin and brittle but a strong metal that looks just as big as if she had her normal leg. It also seems important to note that they are filming some video as shown by the details in this part as they show off our beloved Mizi. This would indicate that they have some degree of power if they have the ability to not only have the equipment necessary to film a video, but also have the power to make stuff like this: propaganda basically. Now, we finally see how Mizi and it's clear she has been put through the wringer. She is wearing much more practical clothing now as well as more modest which I believe should be mentioned. Alongside this there is a frame where we meet this blonde boy. Though he is unnamed for now I found it utterly fascinating that Hyuna trusts him to the extent she does and he looks quite similar to Luka. There also seems to be a little kid on the left poking their head out.

Now to the big parts. It seems the rebellion has been planning on storming Alien Stage for awhile, and only now during Luka's round was it possible which, I'm going to get to that later. Besides this, these few frames aren't much to give information on other than that the rebellion is not only quite popular, but it's also violent. To what extent? To what they are bombing? I don't know, it's all fictional dude.

Another important thing to note is that Hyuna is bringing along Mizi to all of this, which is a bit odd if taken into literal consideration. However, I'm going to touch on this later because I think it has some very interesting theories.

After this we cut back to her making the video again where she is doing a strip tease as her blonde friend goads her on and reacts to it. There is a poster of World War in the back that you can see for a few seconds that I found quite fascinating. So, while the aliens consider them a minimal threat, they already want a world war.

Finally, we get to our first real Hyuna lore. Here she sits in Anakt Garden, leg still intact with a boy who looks just like her and Luka who is licking the sleeve of his shirt. Now the way Hyuna has this handled could be taken a few different ways. She is holding Luka's head to push him away or she is holding his head so he stays close. Considering Hyuna's quite affection nature thus far I am led to believe it is the latter but one can never be sure and it's interesting that despite all of this, Luka is led to such extremes with his affection and emotions.

We get back to Hyuna, fully grown. We have two shots here. Her in this space station of sorts that I can only assume is a gateway between worlds and specifically the one with Alien Stage. And then it cuts back to another where she is singing on that stage, entertaining the humans in her group. I find it a little funny how this mimics Alien Stage in a way. Here is where her blonde friend breaks through the window and attacks the aliens as Hyuna rushes past with Mizi and we finally see Luka again. This time, he is older, smiling, and Hyuna looks enraged for the first time. She isn't smiling or laughing, but her face is oddly neutral. A rarity we have come to see in this round. We see Hyuna continuing to sing, but as she does she remembers Luka, and suddenly her whole air of confidence and strength is shattered. She is scared, if not terrified of the boy. Why? He kissed her and then killed her brother the morning after? Perhaps there is something more. However this also confirms that Luka got his purple fingers from blunt force trauma.

Finally we cut back to Hyuna now, and she is being apprehended by the aliens as she gazes back at Luka. Like he is bidding her goodbye into the afterlife with her brother. Mizi then gets up and looks back at her. Cinematically? This is perfect. Hyuna thinks she has hit rock bottom and suddenly Mizi rises from the ground like a Phoenix with her hair. Remember how I talked about it being weird for Hyuna to bring along Mizi? Well, this could be because not only does she know the Alien Stage quite well, but also that if they are planning on breaking another one out (Till maybe) they would need someone familiar. Mizi was going to be nothing more than a pawn until this moment where she grabs the gun, gets shot at, and her hair is cut. Mizi has transformed, and not just physically. She shoots at the aliens as Hyuna looks at her, Luka haunting her in the background. Then, she walks forward, away from Luka, and to Mizi. She is more important than Hyuna thought. The two escape through the elevator as Mizi once again regains a little bit of sanity and screams as they get shot at. Mizi has unknowingly given Hyuna confidence and strength again after coming face to face with Luka. Here they finally get to the Alien Stage opening and Hyuna gives Mizi a kiss. A thank you.

Finally, we see Till hitting the board as it does him and Ivan's round. A grim reminder of what is coming next. I could go into what I am thinking for that round but for now I am focusing on All-in and Hyuna.

Finally, I have to say Hyuna is a great character. She is brave and bold, albeit a bit wild. Yet she is caring and compassionate with the people around her. She is a bit flirtatious but it comes from a place of platonic affection, and finally, she isn't someone indestructible. She is still scared at the end of it all, especially to Luka. We have yet to see how they will play out but I am certainly excited for them to come face to face if Hyuna is scared— no, terrified, by a photo and Luka, if theories are a little correct, makes a song wholly talking about her (Ruler of my Heart). Okay I'm blasting byeere

#alien stage #vivinos #alnst #cygnus writes #a swan writes #🦢 writes #swan speaks #hyuna #mizi #hyuka

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hypnoneghoul · 4 months

Text

Christmas Ghouls 4/10

WC: 1035

Relationship: Dewdrop & Aether

Tags: Fluff, gift giving

Notes: For Katie @respite-ghoul <3

Read under the cut or on AO3.

Dewdrop sighed, stretching out as he was slowly waking up. It was pleasantly warm all around, something he didn’t have a chance to feel that often with his element causing him to always be hot. He snuggled further into that nice warmth, tightening his arms where they were wrapped around Aether with a purr, rubbing his cheek all over his mate’s chest.

The quintessence ghoul grumbled quietly and squirmed a bit himself, waking up, as he lovingly crashed Dewdrop’s small body to his much bigger frame. “Mmm… g’mornin’, firefly.”

“Mornin’,” Dewdrop mumbled into Aether’s skin, muffled by his pecs.

“Merry Christmas,” he added, making the fire ghoul groan.

“You know I hate it,” Dewdrop admitted. Again.

“I know,” Aether chuckled and leaned down to place a little kiss between his mate’s ivory horns, “but you know I love it, and guess what?”

“What?”

“I also love you, and Christmas is about spending time with your loved ones.” The bigger ghoul stretched and sat up against the headboard of their bed, scoffing at Dewdrop’s pretentious eye roll.

“You could at least call it Yule or something,” he purred, nosing at Aether’s belly now that he’d shifted, “we're literally demons from hell serving the Devil.”

“It’s cute.” The fire ghoul was opening his mouth to argue again, but before he could– “And there’s presents.”

Dewdrop perked up at that. He wasn’t greedy, but little gifts and trinkets from his mates were important and cherished by him as tokens of their love for him. Something he still couldn’t believe sometimes.

“You got me something?” his eyes lit up.

“Of course I did,” Aether smiled kindly. He tangled his fingers in Dewdrop’s golden hair, cupping the back of his head as he brought the ghoul to rest his head on his thigh. He pulled a loud purr from him when he started scratching lightly at his scalp. “Like every damn year since we got summoned.”

“You didn–”

“I didn’t have to, yeah, I know,” Aether cut him off. “You telling me that is also something that happens every damn year since we got summoned. And yet you always get me something too.”

“Got me there,” Dewdrop sighed, thankful that he was facing away from Aether at the moment. He couldn’t see his blush that way, but they knew each other too well for that. Aether could picture it perfectly in his mind.

“Come on, everyone knows you're a softie. Don’t gotta hide. Especially not from me.”

“Mhm…” the fire ghoul hummed and silence fell, interrupted only by his gentle purring. They didn’t have to get up yet, or at all, and it was a nice morning, perfect to spend lounging in bed. Aether seemed to agree, continuing to absentmindedly run his fingers through Dewdrop’s hair and give him scritches now and then.

It’s been either five minutes or five hours before someone spoke or moved again.

“Gotta let me up, firefly, I need to piss,” Aether laughed when his movement caused Dewdrop to whine and grumble. “I’ll be back in a second.”

Extremely reluctant, but he let him go. The fire ghoul sprawled himself out in the, now empty, nest like a starfish, waiting for Aether to disappear in the bathroom. Once he did and the door has been shut, Dewdrop jumped up, running to dig through his stuff for the hidden gift he had prepared for Aether. He dug out the little red box and threw himself back onto the bed to settle and act unbothered before Aether would come back out.

A little ball of anxiety settled in Dewdrop’s chest as he waited, like every time he was to gift someone something. There was always so many doubts, was it stupid, would they like it, was it enough, would it–

“Ah, you are a softie, I knew you had something for me, too,” Aether beamed, a big smile splitting his face, fangs on full display. He crawled back into their nest and settled on his knees before Dewdrop.

“Shut up already,” he spat, but he smiled himself, trying his best to hide behind a curtain of hair. It was incredible that something like gift giving still made Dewdrop shy.

At last, the fire ghoul extended a hand with the little box. Aether took it and gently opened it, unwrapping the mysterious item from a thin paper. Once it was out and laid out on his palm his grin only grew.

“One of your bracelets snapped recently,” Dewdrop started explaining, “and I wanted to get you a new one because I know how much you love them, but it’d be pretty boring, so… so I melted my necklace and made it into that.”

Aether froze.

“You… you what?” Did Dewdrop really melt his beloved inverted pentagram to turn it into a simple bracelet for Aether?

“Yeah,” he confirmed simply, shrugging. “I wanted you to have something that was like… like a part of me.”

“Oh, firefly,” Aether sighed, cupping Dewdrop’s cheek and pulling him in for a deep kiss. They got lost in it for a moment, before the bigger ghoul pulled away, just enough to speak, to mumble into his mate’s lips. “We’re such a disgustingly perfect couple, you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

Aether giggled and moved back, diving under the bed to dig out a small bag. He all but shoved it into Dewdrop’s hands, barely containing himself from bursting into laughter. The fire ghoul was a bit confused, but peaked into the bag.

When he made out what was inside, he was the one to start laughing.

“No fucking way,” he giggled, putting the bag aside to face plant into Aether’s chest.

“Yeah. Come on, get it out,” Aether encouraged, patting his head.

Dewdrop took it out, running the silver chain between his fingers. “You’re impossible.”

“I melted it with my magic,” the quintessence ghoul confirmed Dewdrop’s suspicion. He could feel him in the necklace. “If it works alright you should always feel me with you.”

“Great, now you’re gonna be even more annoying,” Dewdrop deadpanned but Aether could see the glistening in his eyes. He shook his head and heaved out a sigh, “Merry Christmas, Aeth.”

“I love you, too, firefly.”

#hypnone writes #the band ghost #nameless ghouls #dewdrop ghoul #aether ghoul #dewther

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bots-and-cons · 2 months

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Hiii! I haven't been requesting anything from you for ages! But here I am with angst request.

Basically how would Wheeljack, Breakdown and Predaking react to their favorite teenage human, who always was seen as that ball of sunshine always smiled or laughed whenever they were near them, or kept them cheered up after failed missions. Just to see that readed slowly starts to lose that shining personality fading into the quiet, low self-esteem shadow of themself, no more laughs and cheering up yk. And just one day never coming to base and finding out from Kids that the reader just permanently moved out far away from Jasper Nevada without any explaination with no saying goodbyes, or answering any calls.

You're always allowed to just simply not write that request if it's too uncomfortable for you.

Don't force yourself into writing that request fast take your time! And I hope you have a nice day or afternoon or night!

Baiii.｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

A/N: Nice to have you back :D I decided to do HCs for this, since it’s always the easier way and I just felt like it fit this better than scenarios, because of the longer time frame. Also, platonic since you asked for the reader to be a teenager. This ended up kinda angsty, but I’m not really surprised given what you asked for. Sorry I cut out Breakdown, seems to have become a bad habit of mine lately

~Predaking~

•Predaking was very protective of you from the very beginning, because you showed him kindness even when he wasn’t quite sentient yet and ever since he transformed for the first time too

•Also he doesn’t really have any actual hatred for humans

•Sure he thinks they’re inferior and weak, but that’s more like pity than hatred

•Anyway, that doesn’t really apply to you, because he actually knows you, so you’re like a whole different thing from the rest of humanity

•You were always so bright and even when your light started to dim, you were still always kind to him and the others

•You started getting quieter and visibly less joyful

•Predaking of course took note of this, because all he’s ever known you to be is a happy, bright, joyful person, so the change is pretty drastic in the end

•It happens gradually, you start talking less and less, and when you did, you always seemed tired and not really interested

•Predaking doesn’t really know what to do about it, because his emotional skills are not very well developed yet, you can’t really learn that kind of stuff from a database after all

•He thought maybe he should let you be, because he didn’t want to make you feel worse

•Eventually you started coming to the Nemesis less and less, before you finally stopped all together

•Predaking tried to get in contact with you after he didn’t hear from you for a week, he asked Soundwave to locate you

•He refused, because he had more important things to do apparently, so Preadaking wasn’t really left with many choices with how to get in contact with you

•Actually he was left with just one, he decided to go to where you lived

•He just landed in the middle of the street and looked in your window

•There were no curtains and he could see that the room was totally empty

•You were gone, you’d left and he had no idea where you’d gone

•Predaking tried but he could never find you, you were gone and there was this odd emptiness in his chest

•He’d lost his best and only friend and he now regretted that he never said anything to you when he noticed you deteriorating

~Wheeljack~

•Jackie didn’t really notice it at the time, but you were going downhill at a steady pace

•When he started thinking back on it after you left, he had seen you getting worse, but there had been so many things going on he hadn’t really had time for you

•Ever since he met you, you had always been so happy and it seemed like nothing could get you down

•But eventually the fear got to be too much, you were so tired of being scared of the decepticons all the time

•You started to wither away, but you never talked to anyone about it, Jackie was very regretful he didn’t notice

•You stopped going to school and barely ever left your home

•Your parents noticed this, they thought you were getting bullied or something, so they decided a move to another town would be best

•You didn’t fight them on it, you had no reason to

•You wanted to get away from the autobots, because if you weren’t with them, the decepticons would have no reason to target you

•It’s not like you hated them, not at all, Jackie was a great friend and it sucked you had to leave them behind, but you couldn’t live like that anymore

•The constant terror was killing you, you were so stressed and exhausted, and you had to get away from it

•You never told Jackie that you would be moving away, you couldn’t, you didn’t want to, because you knew he would try to change your mind

•You left and the bots found out when the kids heard about it in school

•Jackie did want to go find you and talk to you about it, but in the end he didn’t want to trample on what you had decided

•There must have been a reason you didn’t want him to know where you were going, why you left, but he could never figure it out

#transformers #tfp #transformers prime #autobots #wheeljack #decepticons #predaking #tfp headcanons #reader insert #platonic transformers x reader

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helpitsaskingmequestions · 1 year

Text

Continuing the process of niche petty nitpicks of Wheel of TIme there were some narrative choices for the 7 Ajah that make them (imo) uncertain in a way that I think could have been smoothed out in a way to make more narrative sense in terms of motivation, size and narrative framing.

Reds -

The Reds at least have a clear purpose in and out of the narrative as Aes Sedai that hunt male channelers & an antagonistic force against Moraine (Blue) and Rand (Male channeler). They’re problems largely come in how the text largely frames them as Narrative Heels but for Pevara & to some extent Teslyn and Silviana, all of whom are introduced fairly late. Even then, the Reds are largely characterised as 90s misandrists,n keeping with Alanna’s framing of the Reds as ‘hating men’ because that's what should define a group of women, how they relate to men. Then comes the size of the Reds - it’s been noted that there are less people who can channel being discovered, in part due to the Vileness and the culling of men who can channel by the Reds (and also Cansaune) yet the Reds are the largest Ajah. That the Reds have the strongest numbers is imo a very blunt object solution to 1) making the Blue’s more like an underdog and 2) have a large ground for Black Ajah.

Changes that I think would have made the Reds more palatable from a worldbuild perspective

Expand the purpose - the show did this, effectively making the Reds magic cops, which provides a more concrete cause for Reds to devote themselves to - hunting wayward Aes Sedai, men who can channel and Dark Friends. It would also help explain why there are so many Black Ajah in the Red - what better way to hide from the cops than to Be the cops?

Let them have Warders - there was no reason for them not to have warders, female or male or otherwise.

Shrink their size - have the Reds be in the middle of the pack in terms of numbers, or else have them have a high casualty/fail rate that can be explained by difficult weaves & Black Ajah sisters etc. There is no logical reason for them to be that big.

I mean ⅕ of all Aes Sedai Robert?

Don’t define them by ‘hating men’. Robert I am in your walls

Non-antagonist Reds early on - whether Pevara or Teslyn, just some calmer Reds, who do genuinely want to Hunt Dark-friends. Use the Wonder Girls time in the White Tower not just as a box tick, explore the Ajahs more.

Show - on page - what a male channel who succumbed to the Taint looks like. The books give (imo) hints describing the Breaking but its not seen on page & I feel that this concrete example of why male channellers are cut off from the Source, why the Reds hunt them, and why people fear Rand/male channelers would be important considering we get a lot of on page stuff (Logain, Thom re his nephew) about the pain of gentling male channelers

Browns

Ah the Browns. Clean direct purpose. Narrative letting them fulfil that function. Ajah of Verin, the Best Character in Wheel of Time (no arguments to be taken on this point. I am simply Correct). I find very little to be changed with the Browns, though I do think that there should have been an exploratory division if this is the Ajah of knowledge.

Also not entirely certain why the White/Grey/see Ajah colours post is separate from the Brown beyond the fact RJ was a physics major

Best Ajah - should have had an Indiana Jones Brown/Orange sister finding Age of Legends stuff

That the Browns get warders makes the fact the Reds, a physical division actively fighting people, not having Warders more insane. Robert WHY

Should have schools/ travelling schools as well

Why no Browns in Rand’s nerd school Robert?

Yellow

Much like the Brown, a wonderfully defined Ajah, with a clear purpose in and out of universe.

Let them be nicer to Nynaeve

Black Yellows should have been allowed to go full Dr Moreau

Imagine fresh monsters

Green

The Green Ajah - the Battle Ajah. imo Robert Jordan’s favourite Ajah considering 2 out of 3 of the Wondergirls chose the Green (even though Egg should have been Ajahless its fine I’m calm so Calm) and the Green get to ‘love men’ because as the narrative has made clear, how these groups of women from this administrative magical institution feel about Men is what is important. Also a fun experiment - check to see what colours get positive associations in the books - generally it’s blue, green and white (listed as Lan’s favourite colours for instance). The Greens are also an unfortunate victim of the Gender Stuff in WoT- the Battle Ajah don’t get weapons, but they can have lots of Men who can have weapons. Because they Love Men.

Changes

Let them have weapons Robert ffs

Active preparation for the Last Battle; should have the third most number of advisors/relationships in nations as Greys(Purples) and Blues.

Why are they ignoring the Borderlands? This is their Job

I think the show made a good case for the Greens and the Reds going to nab Logain

So why are the Greens more allied with the Blues than the Reds - other than Author Caveat

Elayne and Egwene shouldn’t have been Green. Neither should Cadsuane.

More Black sisters in the Green - if the Green are going to be fighting in the last battle it should be chock full of enemy agents

Blue

What do the Blue do? They Hunt After Causes - but what does the Mean? No Really what does it mean, apart from being Vague and because RJ couldn’t say ‘they’re the Good ajah’ even though they only ‘like men’. Other than their complete lack of purpose, the Blues get a good history, a good selection of the Good/Great (Moraine) to the bad (Sheriam). The Show made a good change in making the Blue’s the spies of the White Tower, giving them a quasi opposing ideological approach to the head-first reds, and making the Alliance of Greens and Blues make more sense considering how much they would need to work together.

If Egg must have an Ajah she should have been Blue

The fact that blues removed the 2 Red Amyrlin’s, there should have been more arguments amongst the Ajah’s about how justified they were/the justice of that

Lean into the Reds being Cops and Blues being spies/activist/journalists/internal affairs with a habit of exposing/attempting to expose other sister’s misbehaviour

Have Blue sisters attempting to uncover the Vileness in a way that actually sets it up as a mystery to be solved, not another plot thread among thousands

I have a Bee in my Bonnet about the Vileness if you couldn’t tell

Make the Blues less of an protagonist situation - oh they have the second smallest numbers But the Most Amyrlins and a lot of influence because they’re the opposite of the Reds

Grey/Purple Ajah

They have purpose If only the narrative would let them fulfil that purpose. Instead Elaida is a Red so political advisors can be any colour so why?

Also why are they always bad at their jobs

Should have been the largest Ajah change my mind

White/Grey Ajah

I understand they have a purpose

I just don’t understand why/how it is different to the Brown’s search for knowledge

They’re apparently philosophers as well so it's not a STE(M) v Arts situation

Why Robert

You didn’t have the Seven Ajahs have the Seven colours why are they Here?

Because Alviarin being White and the Head Black was a fun twist?

You did that colour twist with Lanfear already

What this Ajah needed was a major character who wasn’t Black

Like Give Rand an advisor who is this Ajah during his spiral

Or Give Egg some prominent sisters of this Ajah?

Have their theoretical magic that they do have an impact

Or give them the prophecies / religious theorisation - aka a reason for them to be in this story at all

Black Ajah

There is no Black Ajah what are you talking about

#wheel of time #wot #the white tower #the seven ajahs #more whinging I guess #for reference the Alana quote defining the Ajahs in how they relate to men is in book 2 or 3 #when the wonder girl are assigned kitchen punishment

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bloodydeanwinchester · 27 days

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hi jenna gif questions for u 💜 what's your favorite part of making gifs? what's the most valuable thing/tip/trick you've learned? what's some of your favorite gif sets you've made?

hi ida!!!! sorry i took a couple days to answer this i wanted to wait until i had some time to think about it before i answer! i loooove these questions tho so thank you so much for sending them 💜💜

my favorite part about making gifs is probably coloring and like...that moment when i get the gif to look exactly how i want it to. i like to play around with coloring and try a lot of different things with it and that can be so fun! i think over the last like 6-8 months my coloring has really improved a lot and i've been having a lot of fun learning new ways to do things! but i actually had a really hard time coming up with an answer for this question because i mostly enjoy the entire process! the only part that i don't really enjoy is picking out the frames for each gif. i always start with way too many and then i have to cut stuff out and i hate that part. also it's reaaally hard sometimes to not end up with like 20 gifs cause there's so much i want to include!!!

okay im gonna cheat on this one and give a few things i've learned since i started that have been sooooo valuable to me. first is the importance of having a good quality download to start with. i think my gifs got significantly better when i finally downloaded all of the episodes in 1080p instead of using the screen recording on netflix like i had been before. second sharpening is so important! i did not do any sharpening on my first gifs i made! sharpening makes the gifs loook sooo sharp and crisp and pretty. third and kind of similar to sharpening was learning/figuring out how to use the camera raw filter. there's sooooo much you can do with camera raw filter (coloring sharpening lightening). and finally one thing i learned that i think made my coloring look significantly better was to try not to lighten the gif too much and/or to figure out ways to lighten darker gifs without it messing up the background too much (sometimes when they're lightened too much it will like pixelate the background and it looks awful)

and finally (in order of when they were made from oldest to newest) here are links to some of my favorite gifsets:

Bloody Dean Throughout the Seasons Set - this one actually came out really good considering the fact that it was made only a month after i first started making gifs! if i remember correctly it's the first set that i ever used sharpening on.

6x20 F+TM King Set - this one is a favorite mostly just because i love the song so much and tmwwbk is one of my favorite episodes. i think some of my favorite sets to make are the ones that i add lyrics to.

2022 Nov 5th Set - i was really happy with how this one came out! it's so hard to get gifs from episodes over different seasons to look the same! and this one had gifs from 12 different seasons! also i think this was the first set i ever made that got over 1000 notes which i remember being really excited about!

Laughing Dean Set - this one is a favorite purely based on the content of the set. it feels like injecting serotonin every time i look at it<3

1x12 Faith Set - another one based on the content of the set. i just love this episode so much.

Season 9 Dean Set - i LOVE the coloring in this set! and season 9 dean is so beloved to me. he is just so beautiful and bloody and sad.

2023 Cas Day Set - another f+tm lyric set! i love the space overlay that i added and the blue-pink of the coloring so much!

4x18 Destiel Every Episode Set - i loooove this scene so much! this gif series has by far been more popular than any of the other gifs that i post and this set is definitely the most popular in the series. no other set has ever even come close to getting 4k notes like this one did. also i really like the purple coloring a lot<3

#thank you so much for the questions ida ily<333 #jenna.ask #gif making things

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gffa · 2 years

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Hey! I was nervous about the Kenobi show after BoBF had its issues midway through the season. As someone who enjoys the prequels and cares about the characters, do you think the new show holds up? Did you enjoy it without too many caveats?

Hi! I will preface this with that, what any given person wants from and gets out of Star Wars is going to be different from the next, and I'm sure there are plenty of people with perfectly understandable dislikes about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show. But, for me, as someone who is heavily invested in the character arcs of the show and the thematic elements, this show knocked it out of the park. There's some plot stuff I could probably quibble with, but I will happily take plot quibbles as a side dish on a massive delivery of character work, like I am over the moon for what this series delivered for me. The weaknesses I've felt in the live action shows for the past couple of years aren’t present here, for example the increasing overreliance on cameos--individually, I enjoyed every single one of the cameos in the live action shows! I don't know which of them I would even cut, because I loved those appearances, but s2 of The Mandalorian and TBOBF both started to feel like they were less coherent storylines that were able to stand on their own, and more like half a puzzle that wasn't going to be assembled for years, if ever. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show does not fall into this same trap--all the recognizable characters are ones that make sense for the show. The thematic parallels are excellent, both in the "echo and rhyme" sense of being nods to other Star Wars stories, as well as being thematically coherent within its own storyline. It's a complete, resolved story within the time frame its set in, the character work is exquisite and the center of the show. The new characters fit into the story thematically and are important because of how the entire story fits together by the end, they're lovely characters in and of themselves, but how they're woven into or parallel alongside the main characters' own arcs was really good for me. If you're here for the Obi-Wan character relationships and his emotional arc, I think you'll love it. And if you're a prequels fan, this series is a love letter to those movies, it is laser focused on how the events of them matter and this show is the aftermath of it. I enjoyed it whole-heartedly and pretty much without caveat. Maybe others will feel differently, I freely admit that I'm super invested in the characters that were the heart of this series, you could break canon to pieces so long as you delivered on the spirit of Lucas' themes (well, I exaggerate, but you know what I mean) and I felt this series absolutely did that.

#obi wan kenobi #meta

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michellemisfit · 7 months

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A few months ago I casually said that the @gallacrafts Cinnamon Stargazer Lilies must be in my Top 10 Most Ridiculous Bakes I’ve ever done, which led to @tsuga-of-mars asking what else is on that list… oooooh, dangerous request my dude! hahahaha

It’s taken a while because I had to get together the photographs and make decision (wow am I bad at making decisions!!! haha) but here you are…

My Top 10 Most Ridiculous/Favourite Bakes

So when I first started baking in like… 2010? I figured that if I bake cake batter directly in the mixing bowl I could make ball cakes… so that led to some exciting ball shaped fun. This was also at the same time as I realised that if you bring people ridiculously over the top cakes for their birthday, it makes them really happy… who knew?

Ball cakes led on to foot and a half tall cakes consisting of stacked round cakes, ball cakes, and half ball cakes. For that is how you assemble a droid…. This is all very early in my cake making journey, before I’d really learnt about how important it is to fully cool cakes before stacking and decorating them. y’know, that stuff that keeps them from melting and sliding lol

And then for a minute I got really into chocolate, and clearly developed a dislike for crockery, deciding to make chocolate doilies and chocolate bowls, to serve my chocolate mousse in and on. Fuck plates! LOL This was also when I made Ruth the most indulgent chocolate cake covered in all manners of chocolate decorations, including spelling her name in chocolate lol

And then our friends got married and asked me whether I would make their wedding cake, because they loved my baking. Hell, yeah! Both their sets of parents are quite traditional, so while they did come to the wedding and the party afterwards, they said from the start they would only stick around for about an hour. So I thought it would be fun to have a traditional looking three tier wedding cake, for when the parents were at the party. And then when they left and it got cut, each tier turned out to be rainbow coloured! Oh, and the cake toppers are the brides made out of FIMO, in their wedding outfits, which I sourced for them, so I had the inside knowledge on that. Those little FIMO ladies have lived on their mantel piece for 11 years, which is how long they’ve been married <3

Most of my cakes have been inspired by Ruth’s birthday, and wanting to create something new and exciting every year! Ruth loves Afternoon Tea, and I thought it would be fun to create a traditional tea… entirely out of cake! Think this was the first time where the baking started with a full page of notes beforehand. Always a good sign… lol those cucumber sandwiches are cake, by the way. The clotted cream, jam, and sugar bowl, lid, and spoon are made of icing. The jam cookies… are just cookies haha

Then for about a minute and a half I got into mirror glaze. I watched too many YouTube video and thought it looked really cool. However I veeery quickly got over it due to a) it not actually being very difficult at all, so the challenge went out of it pretty quick, and b) how insanely wasteful it is. Not a big fan. What I was a big fan of was that 30th birthday surprise I did for my work colleague. Got into work at 6am to set it all up. Those balloons are sewn to her chair, by the way. And I’m pretty sure she still found confetti in her desk phone and drawers a week later hahaha

And then the farm tradition of Sorry You’re Leaving cakes started, two of which will be on every Top Mys Baking list, always. I learned how to make sugar glass so we could have a greenhouse in the middle of the vegetable beds with a cat on it, a sugar glass pond with ducks, and a sugar glass “stone” path. I free hand made a goat out of icing (with sugar glass horns) and an alpaca, a pig in mud, some bees to go on some flowers, a ton of vegetables, a growing frame… there was a LOT of stuff on this cake, and it was all awesome!

And then a year later another dear friend left the farm and I wasn’t sure how to top the previous cake… But hey! What’s better than one cake? Yes! TWO cakes lol So we have the large animal yard on one cake and the duck pond with its double fenced vegetation boarder on the other cake. This time a lot of work went into finding shop bought candy that would have the right look and texture, such as waver biscuits for animal stables, Daim bars for bark planks (for goat mountain), mikado for pond fences, twirls for wooden sleepers for raised beds, fudge for brick walls and so on, and so forth. I also free hand made cats, ducks, a turkey, goats, and marshmallow sheep FROM HELL!!! Sorry, those didn’t come out right… hahaha

In 2017 I was diagnosed with MS, like four days before my birthday party. And I didn’t really want to celebrate, I didn’t want to spend an entire day having to tell people about my diagnosis and answering questions about MS and listening to platitudes. And then Ruth asked me if there was anything I would like? We were both massively into All the Other Ghosts at the time (a Glee AU and one of the best stories I’ve ever read) and I said that what I wanted as a AtoG party and to not tell anyone about my diagnosis until after. So that’s what happened. And it was amazing! Which then started the annual tradition of over the top themed birthday parties I threw for myself and all my friends. We had a Shadowhunters one. We had a BBC Merlin one. However the Dragon one is still one of my favourites, as it was the first time I managed to make even the sandwiches themed!!! Hahaha Also those brownies are well up there with the best stuff I’ve ever come up with. Look how cute they are!!!! And my darling friend Sonja couldn’t make it to the party, but send me the Toothless cardboard pop up in her absence <3

And then, as I think many of you know, I got really into cookie decorating and sending decorated parcels of cookies to my friends and family during the pandemic. And that has definitely continued. Every birthday now has decorated cookies. I sent a huge bunch to my friend when she got engaged. I sent a box to my niece in Switzerland for her birthday. @f-f-podcast sent cookies out to our patrons for Christmas last year. Below is just a small selection of a truly insane number of cookies I have iced over the years!!

Wow. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post… congrats! Hope you enjoyed the baking madness. If you’ve not had enough yet you can see more by hitting the ‘Mys in the Kitchen’ tag. Enjoy!

#Mys in the kitchen #baking #cookie decorating #Star Wars #wedding cakes #birthday cakes #🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️#tw: food

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laurzzz · 1 year

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Question, how would you advise a beginner to animate? Like, tips and tricks qwq

Hmmm... Idrk if I'm qualified to be answering questions like these considering I've never taken art or animation classes but I'll try to give a list of some personal takeaways I've had from my journey in teaching myself to being an animator.

It's going to be a bit of a long read so I'll keep it under the cut for those interested!

Here are a few things I learned in my ongoing learning experience as a self-taught animator:

The 12 Principles of Animation - I'm going to start using a bit of technical terms here so I suggest you first study this video to understand my ramblings below!

Break things down one by one - this was one of the struggles I've had when I first started animating. I wanted to make smooth and completely extravagant animations without planning what I wanted to animate into pieces. You really ought to break down body parts, starting off with the limbs that are dominantly leading the main body first (for example torso and legs) before adding the arms and other appendages that are often dragged along by the main body. Here's an example of a study I did months ago showcasing what I mean! (Though it's not the smoothest I've ever made, but it's the only study animation I have readily available lmao). This doesn't have to be for animations alone though, it can be for animatics as well. Make sure you're doing them step by step, starting with rough storyboards to sketching then moving up to lining the backgrounds and characters and adding effects last to not overwhelm yourself.

Pacing - I loved it when I had that epiphany moment after first realizing this. Be it if you're trying to make smooth animations or trying to tell stories with simple animatics like I do— pacing will always be a key and important principle in animation. You can make the smoothest looking animations with only 8fps (as opposed to industry standards of 24fps) if you know how to pace your frames, and you can tell the most impactful stories with only a few shots if you know how long or how short a scene should stay on screen.

Other Principles - ofc pacing isn't the only principle we have in animation that serve significant purposes as well. There are many others as well as linked in the first bullet of this list!

References and Studying - I don't think I need to elaborate further on this. Even animators need references they ought to study to make their creations more life-like!

Animation Program - this advice is not for everyone. Simply because some people can work with any animation program, but I can't. I struggle with programs that don't feel "intuitive" to me, so if you're anything like that I suggest finding a program you're most comfortable with in order to focus on the animating part more than the technical stuff.

Simplicity - another major struggle I had in the past. I used to animate with a semi-realistic artstyle. Not that it's bad or wrong to do so, I'm sure as hell there's tons of people out there who have semi-realistic animation art styles and are rocking it. But for beginners, it's best to keep your style simple, this is so you can focus on worrying about how you can apply the animation principles you're learning without getting too overwhelmed with the amount of details you have to add with each frame. You can develop a more complicated style later on as you progress!

Continue - ofc no one ever gets better just by learning for a day and completely stopping. Rome wasn't built in a day, take your time in accompanying yourself through this journey and soon enough you'll be looking back at the already long path you've taken.

Aaand that's it! I might one day look back at this list and go "Aw tf you telling this person right now, that ain't right" because I've learned some new things as well but this is the best that my present skills and knowledge can give you. Do keep in mind I've only been animating for 2 years and I am just as much as a beginner as you are, in a sense, but I like sharing what I know so I hope this helped a bit even if I'm probably not qualified to be sharing this at all LMAO

Good luck on your animator's journey! It's gonna be one hell of a struggle at the start but there'll be some wonderful payoffs once you start to greatly improve! :}

#food

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drill-teeth-art · 1 year

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I had a few gripes about some episodes/things that I felt could've been done better. Can I ask for your critiques?

Welcome to Otto's Critique corner. Here are my guidelines for discussing critique with me for everyone's reference.

Repeat after me.

It's okay if we disagree on the flaws of Earthspark. Other people will have different opinions and preferences. Just because someone disagrees with me doesn't make them a bad person. (This is something I spent some time learning and understanding when I was younger, so I always like to add it as one of my rules.)

We will not use this critique space as a platform to be rude to others. We may point out flaws in others' arguments and note where we disagree, but this is a space of discussion and not harassment.

If we feel too worked up by the topics, we will step back. We are responsible for our mental health and emotions. We are capable of stopping ourselves from lashing out at others, so we will be mindful of our emotions.

Onto the main critiques under the cut. Feel free to ask me to expand on certain things as you like.

More of a technical writing issue, but I think the action scenes are written ineffectively. They all feel very slow paced. It comes across as when characters are not in frame, they aren't doing anything. It takes way too long to accomplish things for this reason that would resolve the conflict faster. The characters also actively choose to not do the obvious solution for plot reasons. So for people who write action scenes and such, this is stuff to watch out for. Your characters can do things when they're not in frame, you just have to imply it well enough. Writing conflict is more believable when you write in reasons why they can't do an easier solution. Like the terrans and Bumblebee literally could have gone to get Optimus and Megatron before going back to get Grimlock. If I remember right, one of the characters even suggested it. But they just didn't do it. The obvious plot patch is to have their radios be broken or Optimus and Megatron don't answer and they don't want to leave Grimlock alone too long. But that isn't addressed, and that can read very frustrating to the viewer that the characters ignore the obvious solutions.

Onto the thematic critiques. Now to be fair, this story is incomplete as of now. I try to avoid fully critiquing something that lacks it's full context, but here are my thoughts on what I see so far. To begin, I am a fan of nuanced writing. I love villain redemptions done well and hero corruptions written well. It's important to show that people can change for the better and that good intentions don't justify certain actions. These are pretty easy to mess up writing though, and since I think it's such an important thing to write well, I tend to be harsher critiquing it. Again, it is okay if you disagree with my analysis or agree but want to add a point or agree with most but want to point out a detail I missed or even my own bias. Discussion is good.

Thematically, I think Earthspark shies away from confronting it's own major themes too much. Earthspark has heavy themes around oppression, alienation, trauma of the past haunting the present, and discovering that many people treat others they don't understand cruelly and choose not to understand them. These are very heavy themes, and (assuming the best intentions) I think the writers aren't bold enough about them. As a smaller in world example, Robby encounters his old friend who has biases against Transformers and repeats harmful talking points. Robby doesn't really say all that much about it, choosing to just take his terran siblings and leave. Now, this writing choice I don't have a huge issue with. It's not one person's responsibility to do the educating to someone about their bias. I would have personally liked to see the writers let Robby get angrier, but I don't mind the "I don't have the energy to explain this to you and it's not my job" approach in this instance. Later Robby's friend fixes the graffiti on the bridge to not be a hateful message. Now, it is nice of that character to do that, but I'm frustrated that we saw no substantial confrontation and education. We as the viewers were not shown that this character was more directly confronted with their own biases, and that's somewhat of a pattern that is frustrating. Megatron at the memorial park after the terrans reenact his war memories in front of him doesn't get mad at them or explain to them that war and trauma isn't a laughing matter. At least he doesn't explain it explicitly which I would like to see. But this happens a lot. Megatron expresses to Optimus he doesn't like the devices GHOST is building that control Transformers' mode they're allowed to be in. Optimus sort of vaguely says they have to do this for the greater good, and the topic is dropped. Robby walks away from his friend without explaining why it's cruel to buy into anti Transformers rhetoric. The topic is dropped and suddenly the other kid has a change of heart. Nightshade and a nonbinary person have a discussion about gender that I personally really hoped would go deeper. The topic is dropped as the scene changes after a few sentences.

I feel like the way the writers aren't diving into their themes more is frustrating. It comes off kind of insulting to me. And I am sure that isn't the writers' intentions. And again, I don't think Earthspark is an all bad series or that others shouldn't enjoy it. I know good representation is a huge struggle, and I'm actually really happy to see Nightshade as nonbinary rep even though I also wish they explored more with them. It's just frustrating to see the writing shy away from getting into the representation they're boasting so much that I can't even tell what they're trying to say about their own themes.

(Please no huge spelling and grammar errors fingers crossed.)

#ask #otto thoughts #transformers #transformers earthspark #tf earthspark #earthspark #earthspark spoilers

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gritsandbrits · 7 months

Text

Something i wrote in the heat of the night: A ttte x self insert drabble

This morning I'm getting ready for the day. The sketchbook I bought it out of walmart some time ago sits on my shelf begging for attention.

Growing up I loved to draw,but too many times I was made fun of for drawing. I didn't even make a B above art class I took in high school. My poses would be awkward and clumsy like a disney movie protagonist. My stuff barely got noted on all my socials. What was the point of making anything if it just gets overshadowed by better artists? Writing was a no go either. Who'd want to read any of my crappy fanfics? So I stopped posting.

I stop brushing, quickly grab my bag and leave the room. Hmph who cares if I don't draw anymore. At least I wouldn't get mad fun of or be forced to look at my own work.

As I walk by the train yards I hear a loud whistle, and see one of the Scottish Twins pull up beside me (separated by fences but fairly close to maintain a healthy volume).

"Oi! I want to speak to you for a second!" Donald shouts as he wheezed hot smoke in anger.

"Did I do something wrong?" I ask. This was the first time Donald was mad at me.

"What day is this?" Donald said.

"It's the twenty-eighth," I say.

"And how long is that from the ninth?"

I pause for a bit to calculate the time frame. That would've been nineteen days ago. What was so important about the ninth that had gotten Donald so upset?

"What number is September?"

"The ninth month. Why? Did I forget something?"

Donals coughs in irritation and waits for me to draw my own conclusions. After a minute I gasped as I realized what he meant.

"Crap! I forgot all about Nine-Nine!" I say. Nine-Nine was Donald Day. It was something the fandom did for all the engines numbered one through twelve: make content based on the month and matching date. I had mentioned on my blog that I would give him something. Mostly to make up for the other times I missed celebrating the other engines.

"Uhmm..."

"THREE WEEKS! And you haven't stopped by once, not even to say thank you!"

I flinched. "I'm sorry I busy with work and my appointments-"

"Ya say you REMEMBER to celebrate me Day, ya post bout how you will make somethin' for me yet ya still forgotten!" The engine huffed crossly.

"Well I was busy! I just forgot about it, I'm sorry."

"This aint the first time either lass! Ya say you'll do something for Duck on his day, then didn' show up. You made nothing for Toby and Percy on their days - poor Percy's still peeved about it by the way," he added.

"But I did something for James," I reply quickly. "I let him speak on my blog!"

"Only for what a couple of hours then went right back to posting the regular as if nothing's happen. You didn't give him anything physical much less meaningful!" Donald exclaimed.

I try to say something but he cuts in. "You do this every time. You say you'll celebrate whatever engines day then forget all about it! It's almost like you do it on purpose!"

His words struck bolts into my hearts. The pain finally sunk in, and I lower my head in shame. "I'm sorry," I whisper.

"Lassie we don't expect grand gestures or even a trophy. What we want is your acknowledgement but it seems you don't do that."

It takes me a minute to find my voice. I try to look inward for answers but my soul produces a static noise.

"I don't know I guess I don't.. Draw a lot. My art isn't good," I say. Donald sniffed at my pathetic tone of voice

"Really? You have artists who use - what that program? MS Paint. Yeah MS Paint! Or whatever they can get on hand and create a lot of things. You mean you don't make anything because you're afraid? Not even a doodle?"

"You are so wrapped up in ya own self, ya don't let anyone else in. Why is that?"

Donald stares at me for long minutes. The weight of his words settles in, as if he expects me to be crushed by the weight of my actions. I don't blame him. I promised him and the others and broke those promises. There was no defending that.

Finally after long damning minutes Donald wheezed a sigh of satisfied relent.

"Look Grits everyone is busy look at me! But that's not an excuse to ignore everyone! It's not even a good excuse to deny your own self."

I stood quietly taking it all in. He was right. I've been holding off my own skills and myself and using work to justify pushing everyone away. No excuses.

"All we are asking is for you to draw just ONE thing. Anything it don't have to be Picasso or some renaissance paintin'. Just one scribble of us would be fine," pleaded Donald.

"I'll try," I uttered meekly. Donald smiled.

"You're a great kid, but there's more to life than being afraid all the time.. If you don't take any risks or let anyone else in, then it wouldn't BE a life would it?"

I shook my head in agreement. "No it really wouldn't. Thank you Don. I needed that drag."

Donald starts to back up. "Remember grits just one doodle! I'm keeping track on it you hear?!"

"I will!" I shout back as I wave him goodbye.

After seeing go I think about his speech then decide to go back to my house. Perhaps I need that sketchbook more than it needs me.

#ttte #ttte donald #gb asks #fanfiction #drabble #art #self insert #si x canon #platonic self ship

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maskspurpose · 5 months

Note

for superhero fic: 2, 8 (besides wtei), 9 for fine reunion: 7 for tori, 20, 22 and 13, 21 in general

Oh my god hiiii who are you <3 Putting these under a cut bc of how much I wrote LMAO

Superhero AU

2: How did you get the idea to write this?

WataEi week on twitter had a list of prompts and one of them included hero/villain au which made me think about how those are like... complicated and interesting roles for wataru and eichi respectively since theyve both played the protagonist and antagonist and how this could be an AU where you can explore that and another theme (masks) in a really fun way. It kinda like. appeared in my head fully formed especially bc superhero comics are a past special interest i've come back to a couple of times now.

8: Which character is gonna have the biggest storyline?

I meant to follow the broad strokes of ES1 main story and just retell it in this new framing device or rather like... see where it goes from there, so it would probably end up being Tori or Hokuto depending on where the dice of my focus falls. In a version of the story I was thinking about doing a type of monster of the week format similar to how many magical girl shows do it where the monster in question is like... the manifestation of the Mental Issues someone is having so I think in that version a lot of them have the potential to get a day in the spotlight.

Thinking about it some more though I really enjoy the worldbuilding I did for Yuzuru so. Honestly he's also a big candidate. It just feeds really well into a lot of the stuff that's happening.

9: Is there anything in the fic you're not so excited about writing?

I got extremely stuck on the worldbuilding and overarching plot and how to make it work without it being boring (bc of how much of it is retelling the main story) and also just... making the kinda complex morality stuff I wanna highlight work in a kinda cartoony setting?

The other thing is smaller but Wataru alternates pronouns depending on their identity in this story (at least in Eichi's POV) and keeping that straight is a headache and a half for me tbh.

fine reunion

7: What are your plans for Tori?

Okay so the setup of this fic is, essentially, what if EP:Link bad end where fine ends up disbanding, which means... you kind of have to imagine Tori's development re: the rest of fine as being stuck in that specific point in time? The last selfish thing he asked for didn't come true, so what does that mean... in this case it means he's suspicious of Wataru and passively pissed despite being aware that it's not fully justified.

I think at the same time he's grown more independent. He's grown up in a lot of ways that we can also see in ES2 and I think has become a lot more savvy and aware of unsavory business practices both by his own family and others. I think out of fine he's the one who seems like he's changed the most simply by virtue of being the one who had the most growing up to do. I think he's both become a bit more like Eichi in the roles he fills and a lot less like Eichi in how he does it? And where it all goes... we shall see!

20: Give a vague description of something that will happen without revealing too much

fine reunion album tour. four people with pent up emotional issues. in one bus and/or hotel room.

22: Will this fic include more angst or more fluff?

The reason I'm like willing to write it is because ultimately I want to lean towards fluff? I think there's ways to do this that get angsty really quickly and my original concept for it was leaning into that but ultimately I wanna focus on like... the fact that yes if fine split up these characters would stay the same in some ways but just how much personal growth is up to you as a person and imo one of the now most important things abt fine which is that they are together as a unit because they like each other and want to be.

There's still gonna be some angst and some topics are unavoidable just bc it will touch on like. idk a large part of the premise is that Eichi is doing the whole reunion bc he's doing an early retirement as an idol because of his health (no acute reasons and more of a precaution but it's still. yknow) and that Wataru left after EP:Link to become an actor. So there's issues.

General Questions:

13: Is there any unwritten/unpublished fics you haven't mentioned you're gonna do?

No promises but I still want to write something about Wataru and Keito working together on a script for Dramatica and what that would entail. I also wanna do a 5+1-ish (4+1?) thing/series about Wataru kissing the other eccentrics or something.

Part of me wants to one day do a collaboration on something with my boyfriend but we'd have to figure out the mechanics and I haven't brought it up to him yet, soooo 🤫🤫🤫

21: Is there any unwritten fic that you don't know if you ever will write?

Originally I was going to do a proper sequel to the Watareichi fic I wrote that's been shrinking in scope for a variety of reasons (less interest in writing wtrei as anything but exes, dissatisfaction with the fic it'd be a sequel to). There's a longer version of the Wataru & HiMERU drabble I wrote that'll never be done because uuuuuuh I really don't care for HiMERU anymore.

I have this whole AU i plotted out at some point where Wataru and Mama have a unit together bc I thought it'd be funny for a unit swap prompt but ultimately that's probably never going to happen.

IDK I have WIPs from fandoms I'm no longer in does that count?

#enstars /#ask meme #thank you for the questions <333

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merrock · 1 year

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Hi mods! This might be an odd ask, but I was wondering if you had any tips for writers who want to be able to knock their replies in one go? I always tell myself that I'm going to do as many as I can, but I always find myself getting distracted or not doing as many as I had planned. I just wanted to see if any of you guys (or other members) had any ideas on how to just sit down and write, essentially. (As silly as that may seem!)

Hi there, anon!

Not an odd ask at all, and I hope that I can help you out! I do sort of want to preface this by saying that what works for one writer might not work for someone else, and we as admins never want to tell someone exactly how to do their replies (minus the stuff in the rules, obviously everyone knows that!), so what you said about others chiming in, please feel free to do so!

I'm going to put this under a cut, since my answer is probably going to be pretty long, and I don't want to drive everyone crazy on dash, but if anyone wants my honest advice on writing and replies and insight as to how we, as admins, do ours, feel free to read on!

I think that setting and frame of mind is one of the first things to take into consideration when getting into the groove of writing. Are you in the mood for it? If you're not, it's probably not going to happen, or at least not well. Take a break and come back later! What kind of stimuli do you have around you, and is that helping or hurting? Some days I need music in the background to zone into what I'm writing, other days I like to pop in a feel good movie or one of my favorite TV shows (the other day I did some serious writing while watching The Little Mermaid TV show, for example, but also I can't watch something I've never seen before and write replies, it just... doesn't work).

Now, here's a huge lesson that I have learned. Don't worry about constantly completely catching up, it's really not that important. Is it a good feeling to look through your activity and drafts and realize that you owe nothing and everything is done? Yeah, absolutely! And if you can get to that point, sure, why not! But... don't put that pressure on yourself. I used to, and it leads to a lot of burn out and being disappointed in yourself, and for what? A hobby that you should love doing, instead! So if you're not caught up, if you have drafts you didn't get to, remind yourself: they are going to be there the next time that you log in.

As an aside, spoiler alert: as admins, we will never ask you to be caught up on replies, like... ever. When we say that you need to be active to do something (new character, big plot, etc.) we do not mean 100% caught up on replies, but we do mean steady with replies. The reason we say this is being caught up once after doing replies that are very old is concerning, vs. being active to where none of your replies are older than a week or so (if that makes sense).

Lindsey and I have similar but different approaches to replies! Unless they are strained for time, Lindsey normally logs in and does every reply that they drafted up until a point. Like, say that it's 10AM on a Thursday when they draft, and they log in at 8PM that night to do replies... they will do everything in their drafts, normally for their first four characters, with the second four being done the next time they're on. But if they are busy and don't have as much time, they do the three-reply method to make sure that all of their characters get some replies out, and just do the three oldest replies on each character. (If you have anything to add, feel free, co-mod!)

Personally, my goal is always to keep all of my characters equally active, so I do replies in small batches of time (Sunday night's replies, then Monday's daytime replies, then Monday night's replies, etc.). This helps me gauge where I am, and allows me to keep all of my characters on the same page. If I've gone through Cage, Nari and Rafael before I stop, then the next time I log in, I pick up with Stelly. I do have days, admittedly, where I log in and just do all of Cage's, all of Nari's, etc. until I'm done, but only when I know I either don't owe a lot or am in one of those moods where I just never want to stop writing, you know? Oh, also if I want to change things up, sometimes I start with Josh first, just for the hell of it, and work backwards. The order doesn't matter so much as every character being active.

Now, do you have to do replies like that? Nah, no way! Just because our methods work for us does not mean that they will work for you, or have to! But I think some of the key, important takeaways to help avoid burn out and keep all of your characters active are to do your oldest stuff first (it's literally just going to keep getting older, more outdated and more dusty if you only respond to the same stuff over and over, trust me), pick up where you left off when you stop, and be flexible on how you do replies depending on your needs that day! You'll thank yourself.

As for the distraction part, like I said above, I cannot watch new TV shows/movies that I haven't seen before, because my brain just... will not focus. I am also incredibly bad about picking up my phone and opening a game and just... bye, you know? (It's always coloring apps, if you're wondering.) So, I know you mentioned working straight through, but don't be afraid to give yourself little break when you need it. Playlists help me a lot, too! Depending on my mood or what I'm writing, I try to have a playlist that I can put on to make me happy or put me in a good mood. Each of my characters have playlists, too. (I know a lot of you guys probably have them, too.)

... this is probably long-winded as heck, and you're like, "why did I ask, I got nothing out of this," but. I tried, so let's sum it all up before I press pause and go watch some football.

TLDR version: set small goals for yourself & then continue on when/if you have time after those goals are met, create an environment for yourself with no distractions and things that put you in the writing mood, please never pressure yourself to be caught up but rather just be consistent and steady with all of your activity, find a method that works best for you but also be flexible for your needs on any one day, and remember to have fun with writing! xx

#answered

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quinnfebrey · 2 years

Note

Please I want ALL your thoughts from your initial stick season listen

omg okay it’s insanely long so i’m putting it under a read more but here you go!! a little bit of personal stuff a little bit of song parallels and just a lotta thoughts

also as a side note for anyone, azlyrics is way more accurate than genius

and above the cut i’ll just put my current top 5: she calls me back, strawberry wine, all my love, come over, orange juice

all my love:

ahh tears on song 1 ok so it’s like that

i needed this in late 2019/early 2020

no winter coat could keep out the cold of your atmosphere / and at the end of it all i just hope that your scars heal / we’d shake the frame of your car, now i know your name but not who you are / it’s okay, there ain’t a drop of bad blood / it’s still out here, you got all my love / i looked so confident babe i swear i was scared to death /

such a good song for having maybe a rough ending w someone but then getting older and realizing it was just the situation, had nothing to do with them, and being able to think abt them fondly

all my love & strawberry wine r holding hands <3

she calls me back:

oh the production picks upppp

the pre chorus FUCKS

if only i could wake you up / if only i could fall asleep /

two parallel lines / - it’s like that artist’s drawing of different lines to represent different relationships??? like an x for a one night stand, a something like -o- for losing someone and then finding therm again. but parallel?? i’m gonna puke !

this is so :)))))) me and my childhood best friend in another universe!! could’ve had it All, but i guess it wasn’t in the cards for us this time. i think we deserved to have things work out but that’s ok. should i send this to her? no def not

there was heaven in your eyes / i was not baptized / - this is so me projecting but i’m not christian and she is/it was v important to her mom so that Hits

also there’s something to be said for being a kid and loving someone so much that it almost feels reverent. i always just felt so lucky to be around her and spend time with her and sometimes it was good and made me feel special that she wanted to be my best friend & sometimes it was bad and just made me feel unworthy

lost for a long time, two parallel lines / everything’s alright when she calls me back /

come over:

i’m in the business of losing your interesting and i turn a profit each time we speak /

the guitar tab line is gorgeous

but i promise you, darling, with the view in the morning, you won't ever go back /

this is a song for the kids in school that were friends Everyone and therefore they were also friends with No One

somebody i’m gonna be somebody people want / - i hope so!!

new perspective:

oh oh oh

first of all this song fucks

second of all i’m Sure this is a song he meant is a continuation of cape elizabeth

glue myself shut + new perspective

you and all your new perspective / i stared at your packed bags and asked what the hell you were meaning

wish i could shut it in a closet / all of your old clothes are still in the hall of my building

and drag you back down / + and if i glued myself shut you’d find your way in

this song is making me v emotional i think i’d be a wreck if i grew up in a small town

everywhere everything:

slow build but mmfff

we didn’t know that the sun was collapsing til the seas rose and the buildings came crashing /

ahhhh

you ever have smth end bc neither of you paid enough attention to making sure the problems didn’t take over bc you didn’t expect there to be any problems and then suddenly there were So Many and it was just Over

and so now you will forever over compromise by finding problems that don’t exist just to make sure you have a solution so it never happens again

hozier vibes

orange juice:

intro tab reminds me of caves

mmm no thoughts

ahhh the bridge okay okay i have thoughts and they’re giving maine

you said ‘my heart has changed and my soul has changed’ / are we all just crows to you now? / are we all just pulling you down? / we’re just glad you could visit /

(now that you made your change was your soul rediscovered was your heart rearranged? / are you still taking pills in the morning, and did you lose that longing now for a walk through an ocean town / and i hope that we make you proud / cause this towns just an ocean now)

not to be a swiffer but this song is in the dorothea/ttds universe 😪

strawberry wine:

ok well one of my fav songs is called strawberry sunscreen so i kinda hoped this would be happy but i’m crying lol

will try to keep this brief but in high school and for a time after i had a really complicated relationship w a girl who struggled w really intense mental illness. but we met & got involved Before any of it. we started off best friends so it really caught us off guard because we were so young and didn’t understand how serious the diagnosis was until it Was

remember telling me that you thought you were cursed /

pretty sure she used that exact word once 🙃 as you can imagine it took a toll on me & i didn’t handle it well and obviously it took a major toll on her & she didn’t handle it well either

light a cigarette i’ll watch it as it burns / all the time we used to have / those things i miss but know are never coming back /

yeah

but!! go from this into all my love n it’s ok :’)

growing sideways:

i have been listening to this song on tiktok for monthsssss

why is pain so damn impatient? / but i ignore things and i move sideways / i know there are worse ways to stay alive / if the engine works perfect on empty i guess i’ll drive /

hm. that might be me. like. right now. 🥴 time for self reflection?? later tho 😗🤙🏽

halloween:

Not To Be A Swiffer But noah would have fit as a collab on coney island so much better than that dude wow

too much to say rn and also my head is empty

the lyrics are teleporting me back to high school agghh

homesick:

oh she fucks in the chorus

the lyrics are so strong and so is the production

i’m so glad i Don’t relate to this song at all bc if i did i’d probably have a fucking panic attack

still:

i have this fun talent where i can make any song about my dead mother so 🤙🏽 that’s all i have to say

the view between villages:

this gonna be a grower for me but when it hits it’s gonna Hit

great closing track to the album, couldn’t have picked a better one

production wise such a banger i need this song while i’m driving the stretch right after you cross the oregon border into california

lyrics wise reminds me of homesick in that i think the lyrics are gorgeous but i just can’t relate

#asks

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