#it's not very effective… a critical hit!! because i thought that made no sense. because i didn't know what the fuck it meant

[front-facing-pokemon]

#dustox #hi! if you're coming from the cascoon post's tags‚ you already know what's up. i just woke up and i need to take my meds but i have yet to #and i have to go to work in an hour and a half. yippeeee! anyway. i think there was a shadow dustox in pkmn colosseum? #either that or i remember it super vividly bc one of the guys in pyrite town had one. which i think might (also?) be the case #i remember pretty much every pokémon those guys in pyrite town had. bc as a kid i always went back to battle them #i would always go back to check to see if they were done fighting me. and when they wanted to fight me again i would always be surprised #every time. as a kid. i thought eventually they'd stop or something i didn't even know that i was effectively just grinding #but also i was really bad at catching shadow pokémon bc i didn't know anything about type matchups. i thought the whole #not very effective and supereffective things were just totally random. so i always thought it was so funny when it said #it's not very effective… a critical hit!! because i thought that made no sense. because i didn't know what the fuck it meant #luckily‚ now i do. my brain is very filled with pokémon knowledge……… #i'm gonna get off my tag-soapbox and take some meds. y'all remember to take yours‚ too‚ now

[that-ari-blogger]

Critical Role's Previous Cameraman

I put up a post the other day about critical role's new animated introduction and I couldn't help but notice a sudden spike in the analytical stuff that I don't really understand. A more tech orientated friend of mine informed me that this was a good thing, actually. So, I thought I might capitalise on that and examine the previous campaign's opening sequence through the same lens and do some more analysis.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

One notable thing about this song is when it starts. Exactly eleven seconds in. That's eleven seconds of wait before the final payoff. You catch glimpses of what's happening above, but nothing else.

And that is a key theme of this campaign. The unseen. The Mighty Nein was a party characterised by trauma, and a lot of the time, you don't see that, you only see glimpses. A flash of a fight they told you about, and the sensation of drowning.

But then we meet Fjord.

He's falling, and I'd like to point out the direction in which he is falling. You will notice the scars on his back, signifying he was probably in the process of running away, or was betrayed by someone, and he is falling towards those scars. Backwards. There is also a neat thing of falling away from the light, into the darkness, into the unknown. THis is someone out of control, leaning into the pain. And what is it that sees that?

There is a reason Uk'otoa's design looks so much like a leach. The creature is a parasite, it doesn't find someone strong to break down, it found someone weak, and at its mercy, and brought him under its control. What this shot does is highlight that creature's opportunistic nature, but it also associates it very clearly with the visual of that eye.

And it's that eye that carries through. When Fjord washes up on the beach, when he is finally safe, he carries with him a little piece of Uk'otoa, a little piece of that trauma.

It's also notable of that it is an eye. It's obvious, but it colours his vision, and changes how he views the world. Its effects aren't physical, but mental.

Beaureguard Lionet is a fighter. Not in the sense of class, because she isn't but in the sense of personality. Beau is a fighter in the sense that her first reaction to any problem is to punch it.

This transition is a wipe transition, but its important because of what it uses. It uses the opportunity to show off the uniforms of Beau's attackers, because otherwise the shadows of the rest of the shot make them hard to make out. These are wearing the same robes as her. Whoever they are, they are part of a team of some kind with her, they are people she should be able to trust, but look at how much damage they have done to her. Look at how heavily she is breathing. And look at what Beau does in response.

She fights back. This is how the animation gets across this character. She isn't complex, she doesn't need a great explanation, she doesn't have different sides to her, she just hits things until they stop being a problem.

I will also point out her eyes again. They are blue, not an unnatural eye colour, but they are the same blue as her robes, and the robes of those who are attacking her. Once again, the has warped the vision of its recipient, and in this case, it's creating a cycle of violence as all she knows how to do, is hit things.

We don't see Nott The Brave for a while in this animatic. We instead see, once again, the eyes. But I also want to point out that this was made before we knew about Veth. So we were just seeing the scared goblin.

This is as close as we get in this scene, and its Nott actively hiding from the light. The warmth scares her, and for good reason, its the same heat that we see emanating from her eyes. Once again, the trauma that has contaminated a character's vision is changing their reactions to the world.

And with that, I would like to talk about Jester, and I would like to do that in context.

The term "foil" in the context of a character was actually popularised by William Shakespear, who handily explained the metaphor for us.

"And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off."

Put in English, I shine brighter when you have something to compare me to. And this is what a foil character is, a character who brings about elements in other characters that can easily be missed, or who shows off by contrast their personalities.

Jester is one of the two characters in the Mighty Nein who is not a child of trauma, and her introduction shows that. She reacts to her life by laughing, and contrast that with everyone else. Fjord reaches for a sword, the item of his trauma; Beau tries to fight her trauma despite that approach clearly not working; and Nott hides from it, unable to reach out for help.

And it is notable that the first time we see an adult Jester, she looks normal (if a bit over cheerful), then is immediately contrasted with the rest of the Nein.

This not only shows just how different her demeanour is from the rest of the crew, but it shows her effect on them. She makes them all smile. Jester and Caduceus are very much support characters in the truest sense of the word. They support others. Jester shows genuine kindness towards everybody else, and it reflects onto them.

This shot is neat but not too special. Its a tracking shot on the hat of all things, because thats what important here, and it shows the traveling dynamic of the group. It's a tiny bit of tension in an otherwise calm scene, so the camera is steady, but speeds up slightly to match the movement of the object, then comes to a stop when it is caught. There is very little stress, but there is a sense of comradery.

Similarly, this shot establishes some stakes with a rising pan to show the scale of the threat and to show some more information, but it is hardly a monster, so the camera isn't really in a hurry.

Enter Caleb Widogast, born in fire. I don't think they could write a more thematic entrance if they tried. An abrupt cut shows the night, then it is entirely consumed by fire, only to reveal Caleb.

There is no motion here. The camera is stock still. This is the exact same thing with Ashton and FCG in the Bell's Hells. Caleb is disassociating from the heat in front of him, and there is a fascinating reason behind that. Caleb has two characters that need to be introduced to better understand him, the man, and Bren, the boy.

The flames consume the screen again, and then part to show a boy, staring at the screen, in horror. This is what you need to know about this character, this is a character forged in flames, born from the Ashes. Bren is dead, Caleb Widogast remains.

And this shot, with Caleb, Astrid and Eadwulf silhouetted against the fire, shows what kind of trauma we are talking about, and what effect it has. This is guilt, and in contrast with the rest of his party, this guilt is paralysing.

Yasha, however, is introduced in a calm way, in contrast to everything around her. The camera shows you a woman, meditating, and then pans backwards to reveal this:

This is a woman surrounded by bloodshed, who has made a concerted effort to look away from it, and to look to the Storm Lord for guidance. This is a woman looking for healing, in comparison to everyone else, but that looking doesn't change the fact that that trauma is still there.

The next few scenes are cool, but don't really add anything to this analysis and I only have a few more images I can show here, so I'm going to skip to Taliesin's characters.

Caduceus has two introductions. One is this shot, which is a cool action shot of him casting an epic spell and vanquishing a crowd of enemies. But instead of the incredibly animated (in the sense of exaggerated poses) nature of his companions, Caduceus clay is calm and collected. He is unquestionably the anchor of the group, and where Jester contrasts them emotionally, Caduceus does so on a philosophical level. Caduceus is a gardener of fungus.

Mushrooms and other fungi are recyclers, they grow on dead trees and creatures and give a forest new life. They clear out the debris and make way for new things to take hold. That's what Caduceus does for the Nein, he helps them get through their trauma so that Jester can help them improve and become better.

Caduceus's actual introduction is muted, and there's a point to that. He's not trying to be the main character, you don't need to understand his family life to understand him. You need to understand that can stand in a graveyard and see the light, that he is at peace with what has gone before him and helps people to get past it, and that his entire mission, to regrow the grove, isn't to bring back what is lost, but to help regrow something new in its place instead of the blight that lingers there.

Mollymauk is introduced as a weapon transformed into a grave. That is what this transition is and I think that's really important. Mollymauk is, very clearly, a repurposed soul. He isn't the first person to inhabit that shell, and he isn't the last. I also want to point out how this character is represented here, not with a heroic memory, but with a quiet moment or remenicing on times gone by. He is a shadow that haunts the Nein.

This is by far the simplest shot in the entire video, and that's because it isn't telling you anything. You bring your own emotions to the table here, you bring the memories to the grave, that's how grieving works.

Once again, there is more to this video, but I'm only allowed to put 30 images in a single post. So I leave you with a quote from Niel Gaiman.

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

DnD likewise, and all TTRPGs for that matter, are powerful because in them, with a little bit of help from friends, any monster, no matter how personal, can be defeated.

#rants #literary analysis #character analysis #literature analysis #what's so special about...? #critical role #critical role campaign 2 #the mighty nein #mighty nein #caduceus clay #cr caduceus #fjord stone #fjord cr #beauregard lionett #cr beauregard #nott the brave #cr nott the brave #veth brenatto #veth the brave #mollymauk #yasha #caduceus #beauregard #nott #jester lavorre #beau #jester critical role #caleb widogast #caleb critical role #yasha nydoorin

[prettysweetprettysweet]

while i understand why some viewers would be puzzled by Achi's quietness, reserved energy, and the way he nearly always lets Karan take the lead - which might make it seem like he isn't invested in the relationship - for me that is actually an element I really like because it makes certain moments hit a lot harder.

the way I've been interpreting it is that Achi's critical insecurity and lack of self-worth is still deeply rooted and trying to keep him stuck in his default closed off/blend into your environment behavior model. that is certainly not going to go away overnight, but the more he interacts with Karan in this new romantic relationship context, the more opportunity Karan has to start chipping away at the barrier that keeps Achi from letting himself feel comfortable in a state of being loved. and it seems like a challenge that Karan is more than happy to take on, because you can see how giddy he gets when he's able to get a full-bodied positive reaction out of Achi. like when Karan said, cheezily and with an air of ridiculousness, that he had opened the bottle for Achi so Achi wouldn't wear himself out.

like Karan is RELISHING having elicited this wide, full-faced smile out of Achi.

we also saw Achi being treated like an object of beauty as Karan poses him for photos. he's being handled preciously by Karan, and for me this read as 'aaaaaahhhhhh my heart is racing i cant breathe, i've never felt like this before, i love this feeling.' It's a quiet and inward-facing response, but it has a huge amount of significance in regards to Achi's self-image. He is realizing through all of Karan's careful and loving gestures and affectionate gazes that he is beautiful in Karan's eyes - and he's starting to believe it himself, helping him build the confidence to begin responding fully to Karan and extending himself in turn.

We can estimate that Achi has probably never been comfortable with photo taking because he is so self-conscious about his body, and it takes the first half of the date for him to loosen up. but later on when Karan asks Achi if he would be interested in being photographed even more to fill the time before dinner, Achi agrees readily and with a smile, because he has become that comfortable in Karan's company. and Karan, again, is delighted at this slow but steady change in Achi's receptiveness to being loved and adored.

It does seem like Achi isn't vocalizing his feelings nearly as much as Karan. But remember - most of Karan's deepest, most intense romantic pinings have occurred in his thoughts and not out loud, because he's very concerned with Achi's comfort and doesn't want to scare or overwhelm him. Karan is open with his body language and more than comfortable offering signs of his care and affection, a stark contrast to Achi.

Achi, on the other hand, hasn't quite let himself believe that he's worthy of Karan's love and instead seems to think that Karan has made a horrible mistake. This is changing, and we are starting to see how Achi is slowly letting himself believe that this is real and that Karan knows who he is and is in love with him, the real him - and this naturally leads Achi to start viewing himself as a lovable person.

But one side effect of Achi having spent so long doubting Karan's affection for him is that he seems to have tried to squash any hope he might have inside him that anything good could happen to him, that he could really have a claim to Karan and Karan a claim to him. This is an act of self-preservation, in case Karan 'comes to his senses' and realizes that Achi is actually boring, unremarkable, and unworthy of being cared for by anyone.

So when Achi starts to let hope seep in, it really is precious. in episode 7, he expresses genuine fear about revealing his mindreading to Karan - because the outcome could likely be that Karan will be put off and not want to be around Achi anymore. he and Karan had reached a point of promise and new beginnings (love! hope!), and Achi doesn't want to risk losing Karan as a lover.

Achi also had a moment of real vulnerability this episode, when he tells Tanaka that Karan's support has been a source of motivation for him to continue striving for self-growth. Achi's eyes are welling with emotion, and Karan definitely wasn't expecting an admission like this from Achi.

Achi is visibly having a rough time in the meeting with Tanaka, and reacts with a look of panic when Tanaka asks what would happen if he and Karan broke up, as well as when Karan offered to resign.

Achi had allowed himself to feel hope at the prospect of having Karan be a part of his life, and is starting to panic as complications threaten their ability to start laying a foundation for their relationship in earnest. He's racking his brain for ways to help Karan, covering his eyes as he builds himself up to look at Karan's sales number like its a horror film, and checking in with him/worrying about Karan non-stop.

Favorite moment of the episode: Karan being as explicit as he's ever been about his romantic aspirations ("No obstacles can come between our love now") and Achi looking like he feels like the most special boy in the universe, UNDENIABLY very excited to hear it but also embarrassed - and Karan is so tickled to have gotten that reaction from him.

The episode ends with Achi singing along with the song in Karan's head and being adorably playful when Karan brings him candy. I feel like Achi is a stray cat that Karan is trying to tame, except in this case Achi's feral quality is his insecurity hindering outward expression and Karan is 'taming' him by providing him the comfort and safety to be himself. Every time Karan wins a moment of Achi allowing his true feelings and personality to shine through, I think of someone being like 'mom, the cat I've been trying to win over - he's coming up to sniff my hand now!'

Something to be excited about in next week's episode based on the preview: they have clearly broken through the physical affection barrier. Ecstatic hugs, heads in laps, holding hands in bed, piggy back rides...Achi is going to further permit himself to feel and want things and indulge those wants, and also give Karan affection in return, showing that he is just as happy to be with Karan as Karan is to be with him, and just as invested in the future of their love story. While its been a journey mixed with slow and subtle growth, I really do love and appreciate how the narrative is allowing Achi the time and space to transform how he views himself and how that translates to his relationship with Karan.

more thoughts here

#cherry magic #cherry magic th #cherry magic thailand #yo mismo #karanachi #tay tawan #new thitipoom

[sokkastyles]

How do you feel about the live action so far? Personally, I like some of the changes they made but I miss Katara’s whole character and I don’t think Ozai’s characterization works very well.

I'm enjoying it as an adaptation. There are also things that disappoint me about it as an adaptation, but I still think I am enjoying it as an adaptation more than i would have if I had just watched it as if were an original story, with no knowledge of the original series. It lacks a lot of the things that made the original series stand out. It kind of pains me to say it, because they tried, they really did. They tried with the bending, and a lot of it is impressive and clearly inspired by the original. But it still is not as impressive as the original. Part of that is because of the fact that it's not new, part of it is the change in medium. Part of it is just that the magic isn't there.

I keep thinking about, for example, Aang's fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, the LA does a great job. They clearly thought everything out. Gordon is great. The martial arts moves are nicely choreographed and clearly inspired by the original. The effects are nice. But Aang still doesn't feel like an airbender the way he did in the original. A large part of this is that they are working with real people and a more realistic medium. The actors just can't be as naturally dynamic as animated characters. Every airbending move Aang does has to be done with special effects and deliberate shots and there's just so much work that needs to go into it that a lot of the casual airbending Aang does in the original is gone. And this isn't so much a criticism because I recognize that this has to come with the change of medium. But, as I said, it does diminish some of the magic of the original. The same reason we don't get, for example, Zuko blowing smoke through his nostrils. The side effect is that he doesn't feel as connected to his element.

I'm a big fan of animation as an art form, and the things I mentioned about the original ATLA? That is animation as an art form at its essence. We get a sense of who a character is just by their stance, or how they move, and the artist uses their medium to convey it without words. The actors do a lot to try and make up for it, but you're still inevitably going to lose something in the translation.

See my previous post for my thoughts about Ozai based on the first four episodes I've seen. Katara is another sore point for me. She feels like such a non-character here, there's nothing really memorable about her. She's not offensive, but she's not anything special, either, and it is a shame since she's such an iconic character for the series as a whole. I'm not here for discourse about how she needs to be more feminine or more angry or more etc. etc. etc. But what they've given us is just so bland that if I didn't already know the character I probably would think nothing of her at all.

As an original story, the live action series seems to lack direction. As I said, if I hadn't watched the original show I would probably have gotten bored by now because of having no real sense of who a lot of these characters are or where they are going or what the stakes of this story are.

I'm mostly enjoying the show as an adaptation that can bring me some new perspectives on these characters, the way I would a fanfic that has its hit or miss moments. Then I can take those things and add them to my own fanfics and metas and thoughts about these characters and this world.

#atla live action

[ari-kari]

I’ve had some difficult irl experiences this past month that have really shaken my sense of self-worth - which is already getting put through the wringer as it is, with all the therapy. I was gonna vent about it here, but listing my insecurities like that made me feel like I was reinforcing The Old Ways, and I’m trying to avoid that as much as possible. so instead I’m just gonna type up some reminders for myself that are 100% true, but that I sometimes elect to forget. long-ish mental health post ahead

(also I just now realized that this will be incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t have a basic understanding of attachment theory, but oh well. its my party and I’ll wax therapeutic if I want to)

1. It is not my fault that I have an anxious attachment style. Full stop. These thought patterns have been present since I was very young, and reside at the core of who I am. While I strive for effective communication in all of my relationships, the feelings themselves should not be moralized. I cannot help the way my brain responds to intimacy with others; it is involuntary.

2. In the same breath, attachment styles are not permanent or prescriptive. With hard work, an insecurely-attached person (yes, even me) can move towards security with time. I am not a label, nor am I permanently broken. I am a fully-developed human being.

3. Here’s a big one - I do not harbor sole responsibility for the dysfunction in my relationships, especially when I am partnered with avoidant individuals. “Protest behavior” remains unacceptable to me, and I will choose a different path for myself whenever possible. But when I am feeling “needy” in my relationships, it is because my needs are not being met - plain and simple. And - critically important - when I have dated secure individuals in the past, my symptoms have dropped to zero. My attachment system was pacified, and I was free to focus on loving my partner and myself without the daily hits to my self-esteem.

4. I am a strong, fiercely-independent human being - and this is not an empty affirmation. I have endured horrendous trauma with level-headed fortitude. I am gifted at solving complex problems without the assistance of others, and have accomplished many important things in my life despite numerous hardships. The pain I feel when my intimacy needs go unmet is NOT a reflection of my character. And even if I wish I could change this part of me sometimes, it does not single-handedly define my worth.

5. I will love the right person one day. I will find someone with whom I have the freedom to heal, and who will return my affections gladly and without hesitation. And when I do, I’ll struggle to remember why I spent so much time whittling away at myself to fit into situations that weren’t meant for me. I will be able to respect the people I once loved for who they are - while simultaneously accepting that they are not right for me, just as I am not right for them.

And finally, because it needs to be said:

6. I love myself. I think I’m really cool. And in my heart of hearts, I know I’m gonna find what I’m looking for someday. It just won’t be with them 🤷

thanks for reading <3

#the difficult experiences in question: Hot Local Singles In My Area #(jk just the one) #I want to mooooooove so bad #personal #mental health #long post

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0019

This week has certainly been an unexpected journey.

As I thought, including Damage Numbers has allowed me to do all kinds of playtesting and bug hunting; I simply didn’t expect to find the bugs that I found. Which, to be fair, I don’t expect to find most of the bugs that I find.

Adding damage numbers was pretty much as easy as I expected it to be. It’s more or less a particle system—not the built-in particle system that the GameMaker engine has, but functionally very similar—that spawns a bit of text showing how much damage the target took. The text rises slightly by decreasing it’s position on the Y axis, with its movement on the X axis randomized. A simple dropshadow effect for readability, and voila! Damage Numbers.

Now, the system isn’t perfect. Right now, as you saw above, walls produce damage numbers because they also run the damage handling code necessary to make the bullets destroy themselves upon impact which is extremely crucial in a game with this many bullets flying around the screen. Otherwise there could easily be some serious memory issues, and that would be Bad. Also, GameMaker isn’t exactly the greatest with scaling most fonts, so it looks a bit blurry. You’ve probably noticed this issue on the Game Over screen. But, like pretty much all visual elements currently in the build, It’s Good Enough For Now.

The best part is that the code already supports rescaling the damage number when you get a Critical Hit.

The size is dependent on your Overcrit rather than the actual raw damage, to be clear. If my base damage is 500 or something ridiculous, it will show the damage number at the exact same size as if it was only 1.

But I mentioned bugs, did I not? And oh boy, were there some bugs that I found.

First of all, the Overcrit system resulted in unintentional exponential damage output, not linear. This is a problem because it means that there was literally no way to make a character build in this game that would be anywhere near as good as increasing your Critical Hit Chance to over 200%. While I could simply limit your Critical Hit Chance, that feels against the spirit of letting players create procedurally generated absolute nonsense character builds and bullet hell nightmares to slaughter enemies with.

I also discovered a strange problem when shooting the walls. If you happen to hit two objects simultaneously, they both run the damage code on the same bullet, which makes sense. What I had not realized is that if, for example, I increased the damage of the bullet because of a Critical Hit, then whichever object the engine has run the code second will already be taking the Critical Hit Damage and could possible crit again.

Both of these problems had the same solution: a temporary variable in the bullet that stores the base damage of the bullet. The Critical Hit uses this number to achieve linear grown instead of repeatedly doubling or tripling the base damage, and at the end of the script I reset the damage back to the base damage, so the second object gets a clean bullet to work with.

Easy.

I also discovered another respawn bug, in that I was not properly resetting the player’s Critical Multiplier, so every time you died and respawned, your Critical Hits got stronger. This is not what I would call intended behavior, so I quickly fixed that too. Perhaps this was the source of the peculiar bug that I thought I saw last week that made enemies suddenly die? I may never know for sure.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

Special thanks to my Tier 3 Patrons, Haelerin and Christos Kempf!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

#devlog #indie dev #game development #indie game #game dev #video games #rbh

[sinterblackwell]

Hi! I read your tags on the aro!LQG post and I wanna talk about it a little if you don't mind? (Disclaimer I'm rlly awkward so if anything sounds rude pls know I don't mean it to be.)

Okay so I feel like when Madam Meiyin talked about SQQ's fated person LQG did think that it was him, because I'm pretty sure no one else knew LBH was still alive by then (cmiiw)? To be fair the traits could be used to describe LQG which is hilarious so it's probably deliberate for comedic effect. When I read about LQG getting more aggravated by Madam Meiyin's prediction, I deadass thought he was just baffled like "why is this random demon telling that I'm SQQ's soulmate??? this is definitely bullshit we shouldn't continue listen to her." and so the rest is history hahah. I had thought it was really funny for LQG to be self-conscious about the prediction and so unhappy about it.

Anyway yeah that's it. Sorry for bothering you I just want to talk :')

first things first, you didn’t bother me at all!! this ask actually made me smile because i don’t engage a lot with the svsss fandom…or just any fandom in general, in discussions so i was happy to see someone reach out to me to just get to talk. second of all, i did a reread of that scene purely to see from a better pov than i did when i first read it and it truly is something.

**what is even more something is how much i write, hence why i put this “keep reading” sign.

hopefully any of it is salvageable :’)

the laughable thing about all this is that i genuinely feel like sqq regarding that scene in that … it just did not occur to me that lqg could possibly have been who madam meiyin was talking about. there was not a single brain-cell that considered lqg was thinking along those lines as you said where he was like “what the hell, is this stranger insinuating i’m sqq’s soulmate?”. while sqq didn’t consider any guys at all, in my case, i think i was very biased bc of how much i love bingqiu that any other character who may have an infatuation with our mc just wasn’t in the cards for me.

reading your own interpretation of that scene, i feel dumb now because it just seems so obvious. i said in my tags of that post you mentioned that that prediction can go both ways and madam meiyin’s words can apply to both lqg & lbh, i think.

“Your fated person has very little interest in others,” Madam Meiyin went on. “But once they find someone, their devotion is absolute.”

“A first-class beauty, peerless among all humans.” Madam Meiyin said with certainty.

i would also say this one below but i’m not too sure, since if we’re applying it to lbh, that “first meeting” would have been when he met sj!sqq, not sy!sqq so idk if the lines are just blurred there.

“Your first meeting was unhappy, and there might even have been loathing involved,” said Madam Meiyin. “But after a critical moment, that all began to change, and thoroughly so.”

but i can definitely understand now why the fandom are so rattled when it comes to lqg and his feelings for sqq, whatever they are. it now makes me curious to see fics that explore that, but i’ve also just been very wary of reading any svsss fic that isn’t centered around bingqiu as the main pairing😅

thank you for giving me your thoughts on that scene!! it honestly makes a lot of sense in reflection, and i feel like it definitely hits hard because whoever this “fated soulmate” this madam was talking about was, for both lqg & lbh, it reveals a certain depth in the impact that sqq has had on these two characters that they just end up sort of blurring the lines in this prediction.

which makes what happens during those years where lbh held onto sqq’s corpse and lqg constantly chased after him so much more heavy to think about…..

#❣️ #liu qingge #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #svsss #asks

[canmom]

assorted manga comments

Berserk is back! I imagine that will inspire some complicated feelings for Kouji Mori, but I’m glad he has the means to continue his friend’s life’s work. It is something I very much want to do for Fall - I can’t become a translator like her, although I am now making progress in Japanese, but I wish to try and keep alive her love of languages and attitude towards life. If any of my friends left an unfinished work, and I thought they’d trust me to finish it, I would want to do the same.

Anyway, these new chapters don’t really move things forward too much, but they do show that Mori et al. can hit the same incredible visual complexity that they were under Miura. Not surprising because I’m sure they were drawing a lot of the manga even before Miura died. I just hope that they’re getting to work at a reasonable pace, because one person dying of likely overwork is already far, far too many.

I started reading Fire Punch, the earlier manga by Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto. I also read his one-shot Goodbye, Eri. It’s very interesting seeing multiple works by the same author like this: you get a sense of what motifs they find especially interesting, which in Fujimoto’s case seems to be getting dommed by a girl who’s obsessed with movies, and characters with healing factors.

Fire Punch is a big step up in grimdark compared to Chainsaw Man - it’s rare to go a chapter without at least one of attempted (sometimes actual) rape, slavery or dismemberment. It is an amoral world where human life has become very cheap and those with power are unafraid to treat people entirely instrumentally - where people with superpowers are common but likely to be used as human batteries or sources of meat. In many ways it reminds me of the earlier chapters of Berserk, but there is a certain harsh dryness to it, in contrast to Berserk’s shōjo-influenced emphasis on emotion; characters state their desires and intentions plainly, and it focuses often on characters who treat violence dispassionately. It doesn’t yet have the dash of humour that came in with Chainsaw Man, and its action compositions haven’t quite reached the same unbelievable level, but you can see the ingredients of Chainsaw Man.

I think Fujimoto is a very interesting author; he has a deep fascination with the structures of domination and cruelty, but also a very interesting eye towards narrative structure and especially cinema. Much like the film nerd guy in Paprika, characters will talk about filmmaking in ways that will be reflected in the design of the comic itself. Both Fire Punch and Goodbye Eri feature the device of a movie-obsessed character wanting to make someone’s life into a movie by filming everything that happens; in Fire Punch she’s much more determined to direct and edit, while Eri is more of a critic bringing out the art in the main character, and it does some fun things blurring the lines of what’s ‘real’.

The visual style of all three of these manga - especially Goodbye Eri with its motion blur, and most of the panels diegetically being shot from the POV of a camera - also makes heavy reference to cinema. Fujimoto’s ‘camera’ is very cinematic: he’s very good at drawing faces in perspective from a variety of angles, which allows quite subtle body language to be conveyed. And he loves his huge special effects panels of a huge building getting smashed to pieces. But despite this, his drawings of characters - typically with minimal shading - tend to feel like they have an appealing simplicity with the very even, neat lines. He has a particular way of drawing eyes which is very characteristic, I think. I should do some studies of it. His fire effects in Fire Punch meanwhile are absolutely fantastic - incredible use of value and texture in a black and white medium.

Made in Abyss also updated - plus we have a continuation of the anime to look forward to soon so that’s exciting. It’s the start of a new arc, which seems to mean a really massive update of something like 90 pages, which bring a bunch of new characters, including a really big girl which is fun... the new guys seem surprisingly sympathetic at first glance, which means Tsukishi probably has something really horrifying waiting round the corner. That man can do some crazy things with tone and rounded shapes - the sense of depth in some of his backgrounds! The MCs are getting really close to the bottom of the Abyss, so I imagine some of those long running plot arcs might come to a head - if not in this arc then maybe in the next. Honestly I’m kind of looking forward of the anime treating the previous arc just because there were so many characters to keep track of, so a second run through would probably be good lmao.

And... It’s not manga, but also read a few pages of Finder by Carla Speed McNeill. I really want to get a physical copy, but oof, £40 per collected volume is a lot of money. I think this is definitely a series I want to be able to fully concentrate on, so expect detailed commentary on that later haha...

#manga #berserk #fire punch #goodbye eri #made in abyss

[variousqueerthings]

okok final thoughts about the movie after all that:

1. pleased to have watched it, despite my laundry list of criticisms

2. I didn’t think any of it was comedic in the gallows humour sense I assume it was going for. that may be an effect of ageing, but then, mash 1974- is frequently excellent at this, including and especially in its first seasons 

3. read that there was a subplot that happened after the movie has ho-jon getting conscripted by the south korean army (after which in the film we never see him again, and I think that was the most “oh, this isn’t my hawkeye” moment actually, because he kinda just goes “dammit” and then it cuts to something else, and that’s it), in which he’s killed and his body comes through the 4077th, and I think that would have been better in the context of what I think the movie wanted to do?

4. I do get a bit lost in the movie’s intentions, I confess. is it war is hell and so we become worse people? is it surreal antics in the face of serious conflict? is it related to the military really? is it that this is just what it was like? none of it really... slots into place for me, because there’s a bits that dispute every one of these, and mainly I guess I just don’t see what apparently a bunch of reviewers saw

5. the roger ebert review at the time: “There is something about war that inspires practical jokes and the heroes ... are inspired and utterly heartless ... We laugh,  ... because it is so true to the unadmitted sadist in all of us. There is perhaps nothing so exquisite as achieving ... sweet mental revenge against someone we hate with particular dedication. And it is the flat-out, poker-faced hatred in "M*A*S*H" that makes it work. ... We laugh, that we may not cry ... We can take the unusually high gore-level in "M*A*S*H" because it is originally part of the movie's logic. If the surgeons didn't have to face the daily list of maimed and mutilated bodies, none of the rest of their lives would make any sense ... One of the reasons "M*A*S*H" is so funny is that it's so desperate.”

6. I get confused about how a lot of the reviews discussed it in the context of war, when for me I felt like the Korean war was almost totally absent (in practicality as well as in feeling), apart from the occasional nuisance it caused the characters. maybe for its time it was very gory/very real/very desperate, but I don’t see it today -- the imdb also states that “the staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war,” and I was just there wondering... what war? horrific to whom? and it’s not like war films in which war is very present hadn’t been made before this, but perhaps just not in really in America. the very idea of challenging the American military logic even a little may have been a breath of fresh air?

7. altman called the book racist and pretty terrible, but apparently the movie doesn’t deviate much from it, which is... interesting

8. I can see why this was a hit when it came out. I just feel such a visceral shudder at it watching it now, that it’s hard to even judge it on the merits of the time in which it came out

9. on that note, I am once again fascinated by the intentions going into the show. the pilot episode especially certainly has more movie DNA in it than the rest, but the casting immediately created different tensions, especially of course alan alda, but also wayne rogers, larry linville, and of course loretta swit. the fact that they’re setting up recurring characters also gives them more of a depth -- you know that things will happen and shift and change, whereas in the movie the point is the aimless drift from thing to thing

10. actually the aimless drifting + loudspeaker interludes were my favourite parts of the film -- my least favourite thing (structurally, otherwise it would be the misogyny) is the football match at the end, which was... odd. dull. if there was an absence of war before that, it totally disappeared for a substantial amount of runtime to just show this flipping football thing happening

11. how many of the hijinks from the movie/book were in the show -- I’m going to make a separate post for that

#im watching movies #im watching mash (1970)

[urrone]

20 fanfic questions

Tagged by @swaps55 (thank yooooou)

Tagging: do you wanna do it? man just do it. have fun. go ham.

How many works do you have on AO3?

26

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

216,983

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently? It's mostly Dragon Age and Mass Effect, but I've also written hockey rpf, popslash (which is not included in the works count or the word count), Supernatural, SPN RPF, LotR, the Hunger Games, and Julie and the Phantoms.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What Remains - SPN, Dean goes missing, Sam tries to find him

Shape I'm In - hockey RPF, Tyler takes a hard hit during a game, Jamie gets in a fight, this is the aftermath

Never Lived a Time Better Spent in Love - hockey RPF, Sid/Geno many years down the line, adopt a baby together

Actually, Plenty - SPN, a coda to What Remains set 15 years after that story

Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same - SPN, Sam rescues Dean from hell, things change for them after that

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always, I've had people comment about the fact that I'm still responding to comments on fifteen year old fic. If you're going to read and take the time to comment, I'm gonna say thank you. Plus, community is the best part of fandom, how can you have community if you're not talking?

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh it's for sure lathbora viran which is the only story I've written that I had to tag "no happy ending." Although honestly swaps would probably say that For a Single Yesterday was also pretty fuckin' angsty. But Kaidan finds peace, my poor inquisitor absolutely did not.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably my Julie and the Phantoms fic, gravity, though I did absolutely take people through the ringer first.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

When I first got into hockey I ended up on the anon hate list for a hot minute because it was obvious from the first fic I posted that I didn't know anything about hockey because, well, I didn't. I'd never watched it before I got involved in the fandom. So it was valid criticism even if it was mean spirited.

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

The smuttiest thing I've ever written is a PWP threesome for the Oilers boys called Hold You Down. I enjoy reading smut but as a noted ace I feel awkward as fuck about writing it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Yes. Crazy is such a subjective word, but I've written the hockey dudes into the Pacific Rim world and I fixed the shit about the Pac Rim world that never really made sense. I had a much more in depth story plotted out but I lost steam on writing RPF.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I've ever been told?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, but that fic is no longer online.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Twice. I had fun both times but prefer to set my own pace through a fic.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't really have an all time to write, they're all my favorites.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I still feel very guilty about a popslash WIP that I know will never be finished.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Pretty prose.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I try to avoid writing action sequences because I have no idea how to make them sound cool.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If I can have a native speaker assist, yes. If I have to run it through google translate, absolutely not.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I was writing extra scenes into the Princess Bride when I was 12 years old.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Idk, they're all my children. I love them all equally. I think in general I'm most proud of the Julie and the Phantoms fic, because I just really feel like I nailed the thesis of it, because I had a thesis, and it wasn't just "a meets b and they fall in love." (Which isn't a diss, this is what I usually write, that fic was just different.) But yeah, they're all my favorite. YOU tell ME which your favorite is.

#fic meme #meme #on writing

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

for a second I thought maybe the collabs are because (aside from him probably wanting them) he didn't nearly have enough time to do his own things but that doesn't make sense because

pretty sure a lot of those songs were already made, he just needed to sing them and create/learn the choreography &

yes they're all English and created by other people (not a criticism just an observation) but those could've still been solo songs? Like them being English singles doesn't mean they needed to be collabs

I'm not sure why I had that original thought lol.

I think maybe it's the label's influence (the American label). something to do with the marketing and introducing him to different audiences in America. Plus It's not like JK would be opposed to working with different artists he finds cool.

I am hesitant about his album though. The tracks might not all be collabs but at this point I don't think any of the songs are gonna feel like him at least the him prior to chapter 2. And I think they'll all be English (which isn't necessarily a bad thing because English songs can be meaningful, but I don't think they'll go for that. Hope I'm wrong)

I would've said differently before I discovered 3D and Seven were part of the album, but now I think this is the case.

They want his name out there and known across America as much as possible before military and before he'll literally be absent for almost 2 years.

But then that makes the whole thing so confusing!!

Well, collabs have the obvious advantage of getting fans of the other artists to listen to Jungkook's songs as well, and possibly becoming fans. I think it also helps Western audiences accept Jungkook, since he's already been "accepted" and "vouched for" by American artists. It gives him more credibility? If it was just Jungkook, maybe his solos would be regarded as side projects, and maybe his streams and records would be seen as the BTS fever effect. But with popular artists credited to his songs, I think that confers Jungkook a certain degree of legitimacy, and maybe shows he's interested in reaching a broader audience and in really building a name and career for himself. I can see the pros of the collabs. At the same time, those can quickly become cons if Jungkook just becomes the dude who only does collabs and can't succeed on his own. So far, all of his solos that charted well and had radio play have been collabs - L&R, Seven and 3D. Now that people know who he is he definitely needs to establish himself solo.

Regardless, he did a poor job choosing the collabs. It's obvious that the alternate version of 3D's better than the main one, and the reason why 3D isn't doing nearly as well as Seven is that, apart from Seven being his anticipated solo debut and having a trendier, and I'd say more tasteful, sound, even Armys didn't like Jack Harlow. The fandom itself isn't responding very well to the song. The MV was lackluster compared to Seven, which had made every Army's Y/N fantasy come true, and if the first song about sex shocks people, the second one is just more of the same. Worst of all though is probably Jack's feature. The lyrics are terrible and sexist, he's not a particularly liked rapper, many fans (like me) are only streaming the solo version and the solo and alternate versions doesn't even combine on Spotify. The way Big Hit lets BTS collab with problematic or not very well respected artists is insane. It's like they'll take anyone and don't even bother understanding what fans want. There are tons of respected, liked and very popular artists that would love to work with BTS and they chose Jack Harlow? They could've fucking asked Cardi B (who is problematic too but generally well liked), and she probably would've said yes. They could've brought back Megan.

The thing is that I don't think Jungkook even knows or understands that Jack Harlow ain't shit. He likes him, but not that many people seem to, which actually surprised me because I thought he was a big name. It's Big Hit's job to at least inform Jungkook of that or suggest other artists. With Latto the problem (aside from the racists tweets that I either misinterpreted or everyone chose to ignore) was more that no one knew who she was and he helped her career more than she helped his. However, since she's an up and coming rapper, it's a much more interesting feature, introducing him to a more specific type of audience and also showing that he's serious about music because he noticed her talent and chose to work with her even if she's less known.

The point is, people loved Seven, including Army, and mostly liked Latto, but the response to 3D has been very lackluster, and Jack is a big reason why. I wonder if Bad Decisions wouldn't have done better with different people, even if the song is Benny Blanco's.

I also think the 3D MV was a huge mistake. I saw someone on Reddit say Jack Harlow's parts give Blurred Lines and it tracks. I watched the MV yesterday and even Jungkook's parts aren't great though. The choreography is poorly shot and Jungkook's dancing doesn't look that good, the dance practice video is miles better. After Seven, which was a huge production, with a beautiful, famous actress and Jungkook being the goofy lover boy, the 3D MV is so low effort. It killed the hype for the song. And Jack dominates the track too much, it's ridiculous. I like the alternate version quite a bit, but Big Hit and Jungkook need to be smarter. I think Jungkook lacks self-confidence and is too humble to realize he's better on his own. He still has this mentality of "the more the merrier, I'll take anything", when he should've listened to the alternate version and realized the feature needed to, at least, be shorter.

As for collabs in other artists' tracks, those are an easy way of having more songs and getting his name out there, since he doesn't need to look for the songs or perform them. He just does a bit of work in the recording booth and that's it. Hybe doesn't even need to promote the songs much either, since that falls more on the main artist. However, again, it's not just about having more songs and exposure. His image matters, the kind of discography he cultivates matters. He needs to be choosier. He can't just take anyone, which at this point feels like what he's doing. It gives less "I'm a pop star" and more "I'm just a nobody from Korea who will take anyone who will help me and isn't big enough to attract more high profile names". I don't know how to express that in a non cruel way. This is really the vibe I'm starting to get, despite Jungkook carrying all of those songs and being so big already.

I don't know what to expect of his album, but 3D didn't help build up anticipation for it. I don't even know if 3D will debut on the top 10 of the Hot 100 and Army is way less excited about Golden now. At least Seven is still going strong. I remember when Seven dropped. 3D only had a week's notice which didn't help, but when Seven dropped the timeline was insane. The horniness was off the charts. The explicit version, as cheesy as it was, had everyone grabbing their hair. When 3D dropped, the reaction was much smaller, and a lot more negative. Visuals matter a lot, and 3D didn't have them. Jungkook also showed everything with Seven, so flashing his abs and talking about sex isn't going to shock people anymore.

Anyway, it's a shame, because I like the solo version of 3D a lot, the choreo is much better than Seven, the performance is better too, and I love Jungkook's vocals so much in the alternate version. I pray he does that high note live. I don't even mind the lyrics. 3D needed a much better MV and no Jack Harlow. I won't even complain about Latto anymore, since, in comparison, she fit Seven better, had less screen time and lines, and helped the song be better, and not worse, received. Maybe I'm biased because I only know what's happening in kpop spaces, but...

Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the rant...

#ask #bts #jungkook #text #thanks for the ask! #I went off #I was being so positive about 3d is asks too and now I'm the one slandering it

[hardestgrove]

A thought I had for how to use Billy in season 4 if you wanted to have him around for the Hawkins plotline.

For starters— Max is still vecna’d. There’s enough shittiness in her life without Billy’s death to make her a target so I’m not gonna worry about juggling changes to this.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that Billy was in the same grade as Steve because the gym scenes read to me as PE class and not basketball practice (how the hell could Billy join mid/late season? etc) and PE is not usually a multi grade affair. So he’s working somewhere in Hawkins, say a mechanic shop or a record store. If you’re adamant he’s still in school then he’s on the basketball team with Lucas and Jason. I will admit this is more juicy narratively.

I’m aggressively ignoring how fucked up Billy’s body would be and how long it would take to get through physical therapy and how he’d likely be impaired for life by his injures because it’s television and the rule of god  in television writing that everyone knows, is when someone is injured — even critically — it heals in time for the next season and they’re as mobile and strong as the plot demands.

Lucas over the course of his like year+ dating Max has gotten a better sense of the Vibes in the Hargrove-Mayfield home and either knows or suspects that Billy is being abused by his dad. Him and Billy have a tense relationship that is slowly crawling towards tolerable solely because of exposure to each other because of Max/Sports. For Lucas the knowledge that Billy is being abused makes him conflicted. He doesn’t like the idea of ANYONE being hurt like that but Billy has also been dogshit to him so he doesn’t know how to feel about this. Because like, Fuck Billy right? The question “how much of our beef is because of your dad hurting you?” colors all their interactions for him now. There’s no clear stance or message or anything about how Lucas should or does feel about Billy, knowing he’s abused doesn’t make him instantly forgive him. We just know that it’s strain and he’s conflicted.

Billy is friends with Eddie from the start of the season. It’s a 60k weed deals to besties situation. Met because Eddie’s a dealer and Billy works at the record shop to they see each other around and when your drug deal becomes an Event because you two can’t shut up about Dio then congrats you’re just friends now. Billy is IMMEDIATELY invested in the Eddie manhunt plotline and doesn’t need to be convinced he’s innocent. Probably says something like “Munson couldn’t win a fight against a 5yo like fuck he’d kill a chick”. Might’ve even been someone Eddie turned to when he fled the trailer. Was definitely there when they found him. Billy also very early on pits himself against Jason, starting off a a Whole Thing there.

Billy and Jason are narrative foils. Jason seems like a nice guy, a bit of a jerk jock but hey, he’s 18. But over the course of the season we see him devolve into his worst self and it’s frankly shocking. Billy comes off as an abrasive asshole but we’ve seen with the s3 flashbacks, his constant internal battle against his possession, and his saving Eleven that he’s actually a good dude at heart. The similarities and differences between him and Jason are made more apparent over the season and are a highlighted part of their arcs.

Billy along with Lucas are originally more focused on the Jason-Eddie plotline. But Billy INSTANTLY focuses on the Max plotline the SECOND he finds out she’s about to be the next victim, even more so than Lucas who’s thinking more logically. Like, full blown meltdown, throwing things, hitting stuff, screaming, season 2 Billy wrecking shop in the Byers house levels of unhinged. Some combo of people manage to calm him down to the point he’s at least not an active detriment. Likely some combo of Max, Steve and Robin since I don’t feature others being very effective lol. But it’s extremely jarring for everyone, including Max, because it really does go a long way to show them how much Billy really does care about her. Which isn’t all ways obvious because of his bullshit.

Around here my thoughts on this get a little more fuzzy. the two most obvious ways to use him at this point are that he’s glued to Max’s side and is part of this timeline’s dear billy grave scene. Lots of sibling emotional shit, likely some with Lucas too as they’re the most invested in Max. Also maybe some bonding with Steve since Steve’s a good guy and can see Billy’s a wreck worrying for Max which sets them up to like, Actually Be Friends. I can also see him being put on Eddie/Jason duty. Basically being pitted against the basketball team and all that to slow them down and make sure Eddie’s safe because we all know that Billy could deliver a smackdown on Jason on every level. This plays well into the Billy/Jason foils idea. Having Billy somehow at the townhall when Jason’s trying to incite a lynch mob would be a genuinely epic showdown I would pay to see. Also having Billy pitted against Jason and the team gives us an opportunity to see Billy using all his rage and toxicity and bad behavior in a more constructive way. Like he can really unload onto these guys because what they’re doing is blatantly fucked up and it would likely be a bit cathartic for him. Billy’s likely been trying to choke down all his rage and violence to “be a better person” but now he’s getting to use it for a good cause instead of just hurting the people around him. You could also likely mix these two up and move him between the two plotlines as needed. Though I admit I find it hard to see him leaving Max’s side but maybe she convinced him to help Eddie who knows.

The whole season is filled with the unspoken tension between Billy and Lucas and while that tension has been wearing down with more speed than ever given their mutual love and fear for Max it’s still there and it’s still looming over every scene they’re in together. When we get to the final mission more likely than not Billy refuses to leave Max’s side and doesn’t join the attack on Vecna.Which yeah is bonkers because Billy??? Not in a Fight??? Seems fake. But I stand by this because he’s nothing if not an overly extreme emotional fucko. If she’s going to let herself be bait you KNOW he’s not leaving her. He just cannot do it. So it’s him and Lucas out here being tense as fuck. Billy having to listen to Max talk about the ugliest shit she’s thought about him as she lures Vecna and we get to see how it effects him. Knowing Dacre, there is a single perfect tear™.

When Jason shows up Lucas still gets to have his “i wanted to be just like you except not bc jfc you’re insane” moment but instead of it being Lucas and Jason fighting, it’s Billy and Jason. Because the culmination of the 2 season journey of squashing the Billy-Lucas beef is that Billy takes on the same role that Steve had when it was Billy rocking up acting psycho. Lucas being brave enough to say that shit while having a gun pointed at him cements a lot of things for Billy. Because however you portray Billy or what kinda dude you think he is, he’s had months to work on his shit AND I always stand by the concept that his long term issues with Lucas would always be more around the fact that Lucas is dating Max and to Billy, all men are dangerous. It’s his responsibility to look after Max and her dating just fucking sets him off. To him the threat of a new Neil is ever present, any man could secretly be a Neil and if Max ever got hurt by a Neil and he couldn’t stop it he’d fucking implode. But right here at this moment he’s getting his wake up call that Not All Men Are Neil and that Lucas is good person who loves his sister.

So Billy puts himself between Lucas and the gun and it’s the second time Billy’s put himself between Lucas as a threat but it’s the first time it’s explicitly for Lucas. Which understandably is A Lot for Lucas. These two don’t get on, Billy terrorized him, threatened him and tried to hurt him. They’ve basically only tolerated each other because they’re in each other’s spheres because of the Upside Down nonsense and Max (and basketball if Billy’s in school). Even with a better idea of what Billy’s life actually looks like Lucas has still not been a real fan and has been very conflicted about how much he feels it really matters to him. But now Billy’s taking on a dude who’s got a loaded gun pointed at them, physically shielding Lucas from possibly being shot and going to town on him to keep Lucas safe. So uh, it goes a long way to heal the rift. A bonus is that since Billy is fighting Jason instead you can have Lucas focus on Max and the walkman isn’t necessarily destroyed. Depends on how much drama you want for the finale.

If you keep Eddie dying Billy goes off the rails with grief. If Max and Eddie get got-- Literally no words. You’d be lucky if he didn’t wrap his car around a pole. Literally the only two people he cared about and who cared about him are dead or effectively so and they were the two who he was “in charge” of protecting. It’s ugly. If both are alive he and Eddie talk about being roommates since Eddie’s trailer is gone and shit. Billy makes a smart ass remark to Max and Lucas that’s basically his way of saying he’s cool with them as a couple and with Lucas. Probably has a scene with Lucas where they explicitly talk about the squashing of the beef. Also I want some Billy-El interactions because I just think they’re neat.

okay WOW this is WAY LONGER THAN I’D THOUGHT IT BE. why under estimate my length? i’ve literally been doing this for years lol but YES this is a very rough first draft/brainstorm of how you could’ve written an arc for Billy in season 4 if the desire was to have him in the Hawkins plot and not say the Russia one.

#s4 concepts #billy hargrove #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #eddie munson #train.txt #fic ideas

[haveyoumetmythief]

Feeling a way about how LO handles agency specifically in relation to sexuality.

Like... I know there have been criticisms of the inclusion of the original sexual assault plotline that I go back and forth on, but overall found meaningful and well-constructed. It felt realistic and relatable and thought through, especially as we saw the fallout and lingering effects.

That being said.. At some point the narrative shifted to "lol she's so hot and everyone hits on her all of the time" and we go from persephone having panic attacks to her just kinda rolling her eyes like "what are you gonna do?" Playing it off like it's a joke. Because the narrative uses it as a joke. This whole new thing with her and Ares is a perfect example of people wanting to fuck her just getting shoe horned into the story in case we, what? Forget she's the prettiest hottest babe? Like even having Eris making comments about her chest size, it's just... Ugh.

And especially with the continuation of the Apollo plot line, it's made very clear that it's an ongoing problem and trauma. So for her to get her magical girl sailor moon makeover, and it's this EXTREMELY booby dress that's basically an excuse to draw her almost-naked, have her be "unhinged kween" with her detachment and bees just feels weird. We're supposed to believe she's at her most powerful, powerful enough to defeat Kronos, but she's putting in like half the effort she did when turning Minthe into a plant and looks half as cool. The fact that her "goddess blessed with wrath, protecting her new rhelm" look seems to be based entirely around cleavage is so aggravating, because I cannot imagine that feeling anything but unsafe. Unless she did some insane therapy in the ten fucking years we missed, it makes no sense to jump from "I can't kiss without getting nervous" to "I am naked and forty stories tall"

#lore olympus critical

[numetalpuppygirl]

It would be disingenuous of me to call this a “review” of “Viva Las Vengeance” by Panic! at the Disco bc basically I just want to tear it to shreds but either way I will talk about it now. Sorry.

First of all, the video. Before the song even starts, the actor playing the TV host has to remark on how popular and cool the band (if you can even call it that) is, which I’m sure is meant to be ironic to some degree but is not broadcasted as irony anywhere close to clearly enough for it to come across as anything but ego.

But don’t worry, that’s not the most annoying part of the video. The most annoying part is that Brendon has already done this concept before! And better, too! Remember “Hey Look Ma, I Made It”? The hit from Pray For The Wicked that was at least not as terrible as “High Hopes”? That video had a very similar premise, except the puppet work in that video made for a silly enough visual for the gags to land, and the “dark twist” at the end was far more effective. Not that the dark twists in these videos are actually dark, or necessary, or entertaining, or good, but still! This video is not without its merits but the effects are just not as compelling and Brendon’s acting performance is no more than adequate.

Speaking more on that twist, the central concept behind this song is also just wholly lifted from PFTW, with Vegas now as the backdrop instead of LA. For those who are blissfully unaware: basically the idea here is that being famous is hard, actually, and though it may have its glamorous perks, there’s a lot of unseen suffering that can take its toll on those who have to bear it. I’m not entirely unsympathetic to this sentiment, the entertainment industry is brutal and abusive and that deserves to be talked about. Needless to say, however, Brendon Urie is not the person I want to do it, for multiple reasons. First, he’s a dick. Second, part of the reason he’s a dick is because he has such a big ego (a la the above referenced post), and that ego comes across in his performance. Some performers can pull off hiding their ego, but not Urie, and it’s hard to buy that this guy is having such a bad time of things when he’s so clearly smugly looking to the camera going “yeah, this is where i belong”. Third, there’s a romanticizing of the horrors of the industry that is present in all of his most recent work. These songs read as love letters to, not criticisms of, the places that they are about. Additionally, maybe I missed some Brendon lore or something, but why is he singing about Vegas now? I thought he was Mr. LA Boy? “LA Devotee”? “Dying in LA”? Hello? Is anyone out there? Vegas isn’t even much of a music town, at least not the way LA is. Remember how everyone was grumbling about the Grammy’s being held in Vegas this year?

That’s a lot of talk about the video, I know, so how about the song? Right before listening, I saw some of the jokes we’re cracking about Brendon ripping off I Don’t Know How But They Found Me, and I can see why that’s the case. This song has a similar sort of indie pop rock sound to that band (and frankly, it is very funny to imagine that when Brendon runs out of ideas he has to default to copying his more creative and likeable former bandmates). With that said, if I hadn’t seen those jokes, I doubt I would have immediately made that connection. I wouldn’t necessarily put something like that past him, but I somewhat doubt that Brendon had IDKHOW on his mind when making this song. The truth is that Panic and IDKHOW share more dna than some people may like to admit, and so with this lean back towards rock that Panic is doing here, it makes sense that there would be some resemblance. But why is Panic leaning back towards rock in the first place?

This is just my speculation, but I get the impression that Brendon Urie is a fearful man. I think that he really really likes being a famous musician, and now that he has achieved pop appeal, he wants to hold on to that. At the same time, I imagine he wants to have favor from the critical audience as well, and the pure pop move of 2018 was a big blow to his reputation in that regard. Critics didn’t hate the album, but they didn’t love it either, nor do I expect retrospect to be kind to it either, and it firmly established Urie as a sellout. Thus, I think that with “Viva Las Vengeance”, Brendon is trying to find the sweet spot where he gets to be a pop star and a respected musician at the same time, all while maintaining the pretense that Panic! at the Disco is a Real Band That Exists. This is a nearly impossible task, but I’ll give him credit: he seems to be managing it about as well as anyone could be expected to.

For the sake of analyzing the track, let’s take the premise of a romanticized view of the ups and downs of fame at face value. How well does it do with that concept? The first verse, which serves to set the scene of tumultuous Vegas life, starts out pretty fine and then ruins it right at the end. I don’t know what it’s like to live in Vegas (thank fuck) but this has some perfectly decent lyricism: “Pyramid of ones, kids with loaded guns/Plugged on a power strip/I’m already dead, woodstock in the shed/I’m so out of it”; this is acceptable figurative language, even if I’m not always 100% sure what’s being referred to. However, I HAVE to point out the last two lines: “Stepped on every chord, fell on every sword/Yes, excalibur”; fuck right off with that. What does Excalibur have to do with anything in this song?? I get that it’s meant to relate to the line about swords, but the swords are entirely metaphorical and not materially important to the topic of the song in any way. I acknowledge that this is a nitpick but it makes me so mad, I just had to mention it.

The chorus is lackluster, not really what I would expect for a comeback single from a band as flashy as P!ATD. Maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I always hate when songs suddenly drop a random girl character (”She said ‘Viva Las Vengeance’“) and then don’t elaborate on who she’s supposed to be or what she’s supposed to represent. Like the Excalibur line, it’s just lazy. There’s also the elephant in the room, which is that “Viva Las Vengeance” is a really stupid phrase and honestly not that clever of a pun. I kinda have to give that one a pass, though, because 1. I really do like puns and 2. it feels like it was inevitable that someone was gonna write a song with that title eventually, and at least now we’ve gotten it out of the way.

That solo sounds like ass, why are the piano and guitar layered like that? It’s also just plain boring, repeating the already-terrible-and-unoriginal main riff a couple of times and doing nothing to build on it. But hey, at least it’s short. Then there’s that weird quiet lull moment where the instruments drop out and Brendon sings the first half of the chorus (which is just the same thing twice anyway, but whatever). I don’t know why that’s there, either. It doesn’t add anything or seem to fit with the rest of the content of the song. The only purpose it has that I can think of is to tee up that big final chorus that follows it. And that’s a perfectly legitimate purpose for a piece of a song to have! Without something like that preceding the big final chorus, it would have far less overall punch. The problem is that directly before that, the bridge already brought us to a quiet moment, with the repetition of the phrase “to nowhere” slowly trailing off, which also wasn’t great, but still makes the quiet half-chorus redundant.

Overall, what we’ve been delivered here is a song that sets a misguided goal for itself and then struggles to meet that goal, a comeback track that feels lacking in fanfare, and a piece of art that manages to be derivative both of a variety of cultural trends and of the artist’s own previous works (including the ones that already sucked). Brendon Urie continues to prove himself to be pure ego and superficial talent, with little ambition or soul to back those up. I was disappointed to see in the description that the band will be going on tour with MARINA and Jake Wesley Rogers, two artists who are far better and more deserving of the level of recognition that Panic receives. All I can say is that I hope this will not be indicative of what the rest of the summer holds for us.

#long post #i also have thoughts about how people perceive new panic music through a lens attached not just to the band's past but also to the #band's former peers #but i will spare u all 🙏 for now #*char noises* #talking pop

[fersrsbizniz]

The next episode is called “Double Jeopardy”.

I remember nothing but I see Blackarachnia and I’m all in. She was one of my favorites, too, and I can’t wait to see why and how she will be a favorite again!

*Note: this was in my drafts for a minute, but since the new news is out regarding the movie, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to continue on. I’m having fun at least.

Opening song, guitar riffs, sound effects, etc…

They’re cold 🥶 and something about that is adorable and I don’t know why. I mean, it makes sense. Their insides are machinery that can very much freeze up, but it’s just…awwww, they’re cold!

I’m also thinking about how harsh I’ve been regarding the Maximals (and here I thought I’d been going easy). I rewatched a few episodes before touching on this one (yeah yeah, I just started and have two more seasons after this one, but it’s the principle of the thing) and they are just some serious newbies, aren’t they? Like they have “training” because their world (that to be fair I know absolutely nothing about other than it is robot planet off in the distant ether that is no time or budget to touch on right now) seems like it needs at least some for whatever reason, precaution? idk, but these are just some space nerds with only a few of them having any sort of combat experience and a batch of half-formed Maximals in stasis pods who had the misfortune of just being those unlucky bitches to come across the ship everyone is losing it about.

No wonder it’s a shitshow out there in battles. Honestly, Optimus, I should buy you a drink or something. I’m sure being commander of what might have been some maybe minor scuffles running into jackass supreme really made you want to renegotiate your contract at some point. If you could, that is.

And now it makes sense as to why they have little “teenage” Cheetor over there. Or however old he is supposed to be.

Tbh, makes me more critical of Megatron, though. Clearly, you can plan things and past performance has been a little embarrassing for you. I don’t want you to win, but come on, you’ve got the upper hand in a lot of this.

Okay, back to the episode…

And here we see a good application of that Predacon upper hand.

“Our strategic disadvantage is considerable”

“Work with it!” *promptly gets shot in the back*

I’m dying with that timing.

Omfg, I had to rewatch but Dinobot fell as if he got hit before he got hit with anything. Oh good old cgi…

Now the race continues with Optimus and Waspinator, while Dinobot gets a good shot in.

Yeah, no. Like I know they lose it, but it really was clear from the start they weren’t going to save this one. While Optimus and Dinobot are possibly the two most prepared for such a fight, there’s too many shenanigans (and they already got Tigatron) going on.

OH WAIT! Is this the one where they find out the place is…?

Oh it IS. I DO remember some of this.

Lol, Cheetor’s “Well, I never” hand gesture when Optimus plays at not trusting Rattrap.

I think that this is a pretty good example of how Optimus has some special bonds with everyone, and how some of it is off screen growth. Being able to pull this off with Rattrap means he could trust him not to just lose it by putting on a show, and be savvy enough to pull off looking like he is angry while still getting things done. In turn Rattrap is actually participating in something he very much would not have been inclined to do in the first few episodes, when he flat out would disrespect Optimus’ orders. Now look at him, getting ready to go into the enemy’s lair. Well, territory, but the lair is going to have info they need.

I know I’m also going to be reacting to this now with a better memory, and knowing the end game, but I do want everyone to know as a child I was SCANDALIZED at Rattrap’s mid-episode choice.

“Everything we could desire”???? Well, just telegraph what you wanted there, buddy. I’m so glad she has a mind of her own because, like, for real, Tarantulas is striking me a blend of “mad scientist” (something I’m all for mind you) and a variant of a certain type of individual who would perhaps use a jar and collectible figure in a very non-wholesome way. Which is concerning.

Really, though, she is pretty awesome. Dunno if you needed the chest area to be so pronounced, but hey, she looks cool as a whole, so that’s my complaint for the day. Let’s just watch her…do whatever that was. Checking out her abilities? Being a little weirdo? Idk but she did that.

Megatron may be calling him thirsty here but there are also a lot of other things he could be saying with that. I’m going to keep with my interpretation. Tarantulas is not being subtle in the slightest.

Ouch…low blow Rhinox. Dinobot might not be right but he was trying to help…in his destructive-no chill way. At any rate, I love the whole drama in this scene.

Terrorsaur being full of himself and easy to manipulate, as per usual

Hahahahaha…yeah he wanted someone pretty to look at. Was that why I didn’t like him? No, probably something more substantial. I feel you on that sigh though Blackarachnia

On the Maximal side of things, They’re talking about getting Rattrap, while I’m here nursing a budding feeling for a certain pair up. During a basic perusal I found some fandom shipping material—as one inevitably does—and admit that a particular ship that I never would have thought too hard about is growing on me like ivy…or perhaps more like a burr throwing flower. Is there much to go on here? Of course not. But Dinobot agreeing with Optimus, and the growing respect he has for him IS growing the interest necessary to delve further.

Oh I’m in the toils that is a fixation. I feel it.

In other news Dinobot is saying Rattrap needs to be brought to justice which is just so…Maximal of him if it weren’t a blatant suggestion to have him killed after he’s been interrogated.

See Megatron, these are the smarts I expect from you. Is it really your ego holding you down that badly? The answer is yes. Yeeeeesss.

There’s not too much to say about this other than this is the episode when I was younger that solidified my like for Rattrap (once I realized what was going on), and it is once again confirming that he is just a bad ass and I love it. He’s the reason that they are able to stop the whole internal spying thing, and does it with the style of my favorite class in any rpg.

And he even has a wrist blade. That’s cool and you all know it.

AND he shoots Tarantulas before he becomes a bigger issue. Smart. Sure it’s more of a knock out than anything lethal, but it’s the thought that counts.

Here comes the big fight, and I will say, I feel highly energized by it. Also, count me as torn between amused and logistically concerned about Rattrap being accurate when hitting Optimus. Guy had his reasons—but it could have screwed them over.

Cue the moment where Blackarachnia was almost unfazed by being shot multiple times, and Cheetor actually hit her a few times, again not lethally.

Huh, that makes me wonder…who is the most accurate shot in this show as a whole?

Then cue Dinobot head butting Terrorsaur (who I stg just said “oh no”), Megatron’s ultimatum, and Rattrap showing his true Maximal colors.

Cool move Rattrap, cool moves Dinobot. Like no joke, in that short amount of time they both did more damage than in half of a regular old shoot out.

And yaaay handshakes and jokes!!!

Be honest, though, Rattrap. You hit him a little on purpose (I don’t want to take away my previous praise for your aiming abilities so I’m just going to go with that).

And with that the episode is over. That was fun!

Also, Blackarachnia just like, fucks off and I love the audacity of it. Yeah, she’s a fave.

#beast wars #beast wars rewatch

[cooltrainerashton]

Music Industry Musing: “Breaking News”

Hello, readers!

Back in the day (circa 2011), before I was my authentic self and had any sense of knowing who I was, I wrote music reviews on my old Tumblr account (still exists but choosing not to link it here). I’m sad to say I didn’t continue it, as I didn’t think I could sustain it. Had I, I might’ve found more success as a writer, but I digress.

I thought it would be fun to return to this, but with less of a haughty “Look at how smart I think I am” mentality and take a more mature, curious approach to different aspects of the music industry I find fascinating and share those musings with all of you.

My introductory post for this is regarding Michael Jackson’s promotional single “Breaking News” from his 2010 posthumous album “Michael”. I knew of the song but never looked into it. And I have to say - this song is catchy! I’ve probably listened to it 50 times, and I didn’t know about all the controversy the song had until I researched it further.

Apparently, there are many out there who believe Jackson didn’t record this and was actually an artist who impersonates him by the name of Jason Malachi, and it’s resulted not only in litigation from the Jackson Family Estate but also led to it being taken off music streaming platforms.

It almost didn’t surprise me when I discovered that, as I listened to it a few times and had the thought of enjoying the difference in sound for what we usually hear from Michael. However, once I read up on the song, it made sense why it sounded different.

In fact, after listening to it 50 times, I realized that, despite how much of a bop it is, it really isn’t that original. Several realizations came to mind from my listening session, and it’s so hard not to think about the unoriginality when you lay it all out in front of you.

-”Breaking News” takes lyrical inspiration from Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me” and certainly isn’t the first song to take a shot at the media -The song’s bassline borrows from Michael Jackson’s 2001 hit single “You Rock My World”, but the percussion on each are different -The song features background music effects reminiscent of Gwen Stefani’s 2005 hit single “Hollaback Girl”. -The aesthetic he-he-hes are reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s iconic 1983 single, “Billie Jean”. -Some vocals are also reminiscent of Lady Gaga’s 2011 single “Judas”.

There may be others, but it begs many questions from Epic Records in terms of the song’s legitimacy. Is this song a bop? Absolutely! Will I want to use it as inspiration for a plot point? Definitely! But does it borrow heavily from other sources, even if it’s imagined from Michael’s perspective? Ouch, yeah, it’s hard not to see.

But, criticism from a non-important consumer aside, the legitimacy was also brought into question because of Epic’s decision to put out the song, despite overwhelming sentiment that the singer on the track wasn’t Jackson. It’s a valid theory - in some ways, despite their voice not being quite as unique as Jackson’s, it’s sung in his style, and the singer also has a somewhat fuller or stronger voice.

If there’s any room to suggest that it’s in the realm of possibility that they (allegedly) had Malachi record it in an effort to pass it on as Jackson’s, what was their reasoning?

-Was it because they knew they would get less revenue from it if it didn’t have Jackson’s name attached? -Did they love the song or think it would strategically help them in some way? -Was Malachi convinced to do this as a favor for their helping launch or further developing his career?

We may never know, but, to me, this feels like a missed opportunity. They very easily could’ve released EPs for Jackson’s songs (especially since there were other songs whose authenticity was also questioned), or they could’ve put together a tribute compilation. If Malachi had recorded it under the guise that it wasn’t Jackson but sung in his style, this would’ve been better leveraged for Epic’s and Malachi’s reputations. But money talks, and that could’ve been the sole reason they needed to try to pull a fast one on Jackson’s fans. And, given all the hoopla in the media over the last 11+ years, it’s hard to say what the real story is between Malachi’s and Sony’s recanted statements.

Now that I’m done rambling, what do y’all think?

#breakingnews michaeljackson epic sony musicindustry jasonmalachi cooltrainerashton popmusic legalbattle music opinion