#like just the owls part. character wise they are Way Different

[whoistrash]

Why change matters and how Amphibia did it better than The Owl House.

"Watching and Dreaming" made me cry a lot during its premiere. I was amazed and, I'd say, dazed by it. Then I forgot about it for a while. Now I finished re-watching Amphibia for the first time since TOH ended. My hype died down, and I have some thoughts. A lot, actually.

Amphibia's ending was incredibly painful and made me sob like a baby for two whole weeks the first time I watched it. That's because it was not only beautiful and heartbreaking, but truly GOOD. Brilliant, actually. I absolutely agree with a statement that any other ending would literally be a contradiction to the whole main plot, especially Anne's arc. The girls had to learn to let go in order to grow as individuals - the thing they had the biggest problem with. Saying goodbye was the only logical option, plot-wise. It still hurt like hell, though. Separating the multidimensional, against-all-odds relationships (especially my beloved spranne. Ouch, ouch, ouch). The Owl House does no such thing - everybody stays together. They live happily ever after.

Paradoxically, I think that it's the main reason why I'd choose "The Hardest Thing" over "Watching and Dreaming" every single time. I know we shouldn't really compare them in EVERY aspect, since TOH had way more things to deal with in the final episode, but the fact that Luz got to not only stay, but to freely travel between worlds as she pleases really took the whole "growing up and finding your true self no matter what the other people do/say about you" thing out the door. Luz from season one, episode one, and Luz from the finale are not really that different. Well, she certainly became more traumatised and depressed than before, but in terms of personal growth? Nope. Luz - from the very beginning - was cheerful, open, caring and very selfless, willing to literally help every stranger she met no matter how it would affect her. She had little to no boundaries, but, well, you can't argue that she was A GOOD, SELFLESS PERSON. Now, we could say that her arc here would be learning that sometimes you should put yourself before others, that you can't save everyone, that you can't trust every person you meet. And she learns it! She fucking does! She helps Philip not knowing who he will become, and then suffers from the consequences, because she helped the wrong person. And then it's all erased, when she saves Collector's life and meets Papa Titan (or whatever we call them).

I have so much to say about this. All of TOH's "villains" (Amity, Lilith, Hunter, The Collector) that were given a redemption arc literally get turned into lifeless, edgy trauma dumpsters, that suddenly loose all of their previous character, quirks and sass (well, maybe except for Lilith, she just started to express them differently, I think, but still, it was WAY too big of a change). I won't dwell on it (since many, many fans called it out already - as they should), and will focus on something different. The only one marked as irredeemable is Belos. Good. Okay. He's irredeemable, because he's a white, christian puritan who won't listen to anyone but himself. Also a genocidal maniac. That's the lesson for Luz here. "You can't save everyone. Some people are just straight up evil". And it's very, very true. But.

From all of the "villains" I mentioned before, Belos is the one that had the most reasons to, let's say, take a dark turn. Those reasons are what makes him irredeemable - he's just too convinced he's right, because, in his mind, he has evidence to prove it. But how do we learn about this? Maybe by seeing his part of the story? Maybe by learning about his brother and Evelyn, about their relationship? It couldn't be straight up awful, since Philip literally brought his brother back to life over and over again, he wanted his brother, or at least the picture of Caleb that satisfied him the most. There was more to it than only "you betrayed me and now I will hate you forever". Do we get to see any of that? No. Instead we get an all-knowing, all-doing being that literally choose Luz as "the one" for being kind and trusting, that convinces her that Belos is, indeed, a lost cause. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Luz, the person that on the literal episode two was told that there is no such thing as a "chosen one" and that she can't always hop into action to save everybody, because, it's, well, not always possible, DOES EXACTLY THAT in the finale by taking a bullet for The Collector, the, you know, very freshly redeemed and suddenly cute and funky villain, whom Luz trusts immediately. AND SHE IS REWARDED FOR IT BY BEING MADE THE CHOSEN ONE. BY A GOD-LIKE BEING THAT CLAIMS TO BE ALL-KNOWING AND CAN DECIDE WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS WRONG, BECAUSE OF PERSONAL (King) REASONS. Just like, you know... Belos? The irredeemable villain? And then Luz lets go of the moral dilemmas that's been keeping her up at night for the past months, makes up her mind, defeats the bad guy, learns nothing, and gets to stay in the Boiling Isles and on Earth. With her beautifully redeemed girlfriend and friends whom she kept secrets from and lied to out of fear of being ostracised (you see the pattern here, right?) for, again, months.

I love Amphibia. I love The Owl House. But Amphibia handles it's "villains", generally wronged characters and the whole change/no change thing way better. Well, maybe besides the Core - they got a bit wasted in my opinion. But still. Sasha. Grime. Marcy. Andrias. Anne herself. They learn and change. And more importantly, they face consequences and come to understand and accept them. There's no "chosen one" here. Anne gets the proposition because she's the first one to use the music box for good in literal millenia. A fact, plain and simple (not an opinion based on personal motivations), that makes sense plot-wise, and adds so, so much to Anne's arc. Because Anne from season one, episode one wouldn't care. The one from the finale cares very damn much. And that's the biggest difference.

Saying goodbye makes the message way stronger. The more I think about it, however, the more I'm starting to be afraid that there's no The Message in The Owl House to begin with. Luz learns very little, yet ends up with everything she ever wanted. There's no power behind it. The "find the right people and choose to trust them, not everyone will be your friend" and "some things are out of your control, some people are just bad" aspect is even weaker, as proven by basically the whole season 3. I will end it by my favorite quote from Amphibia, that I think about on daily basis. Have a good day, y'all.

"Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever. Sometimes, you have to let it go; but, of the things you let go, you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you."

#the owl house #amphibia #watching and dreaming #the hardest thing #luz noceda #philip wittebane #anne boonchuy #sprig plantar #toh critical #kinda? #i love this show too much to fully criticize it but i had to write this #it was cathartic

[cowboypossume]

Hailey Banks is autistic

not just because i am too and i relate to her

1. The first episode we LITERALLY get the whole "I'm adverse to new experiences so I just write them down instead!". To the nth degree too /pos. That's what causes the whole series to begin

a big Thing of autism is need for a routine -or at least an idea of what to expect- to the point changes to the plan can result in meltdowns or flat out avoidance (as we see with Hailey).

with the world ending, she starts to embrace the changes, but still doesn't necessarily Like all the new things.

i could be reading to much into it, but in the theme song we get things like "make a candle with my own ear wax???" and "eat an onion :/" where we see this aversion to not only trying but actually DOING new things, too. this is continued at several points in the show, too. she flat out says "i don't want to do that right now; let's find a different list item" NUMEROUS times. several of those scenes do come from her feelings for scott, sure, but i think that proves my point?

friendship for neurodivergent people is ,, complicated (we'll get there) so right now hailey has this steady, predicable pattern with her best friend. she doesn't want to ruin that, and thus we fall back into the "i don't want things to change" part of autism

2. Hailey and birds

special interests are a bit complicated, and this isn't the place to explain it, but in short its basically a Really Strong interest in something. it occurs to everyone, but people with autism are more likely to experience either stronger or more frequent :)

birds are DEFINITELY a special interest for hailey!

- half of her list items INVOLVE birds and thus almost every episode has some sort of a something with birds (frank, the red owl, petey, etc) - she has a party and the way she wants to have fun is build birdhouses with her peers - she adopts a flamingo. like. - her little birdhouse collection <33333

there's more but it's just silly and i love frank and petey so much and-

3. she has a really hard time understanding how to relate to her peers socially

ok, again there are so many better researched things than this so this is a BRIEF summary, but: autistic people just process the world differently. a lot of social cues go over their head because the world is processed Different.

so having hailey be a bit dense social-wise is so nice to see. especially because none of the characters penalize her or mock her for not getting it. instead they just, talk to her? like people?

examples off the top of my head about the miscommunication are - kristine wanting to have a date with scott and hailey tags along - becker flirts with hailey and hailey is like ":D wow ! what a silly billy !" (the 'i'm more of a ice cream girl if you catch my drift' / 'i still need to use this coupon????') - the rubic's cube episode where hailey doesn't understand scott's needs vrs her own and like ,, how those mesh together - that plotline where hailey admits that she doesn't have that many [female] friends (or any besides scott) because it's always been weird for her - part of what draws her to frank is that she's ALSO been labeled as weird and different, and she doesn't think that's a reason for isolation - at her birthday party she doesnt understand why people aren't having fun. because, for her, this is fun!! - that same said party was immeditaly followed with her admitting "this isn't fun for me; i would like to stop" when it comes to the truth or dare game.

there are a bunch more examples. again, this just for a general idea to show where this idea is coming from

4. [according to the wiki] "Hailey is quite determined for a kid her age"

afab austistic people go underdiagnosed for reasons like this!!!

things that can SO be autisic are marked off as "mature" because a lot of austsim is masking OR traits that appear one way in amab appear differently in afab.

this idea of "determination" can tie into the special interest thing as mentioned before, or why austsic people are often shown as "selfish": because they want something, and don't understand the social repercussion of saying no.

5. as i mentioned, the list thing.

as generally mentioned, autistic people want a semblance of what to expect from something. when they don't get that, those feelings can cope in other ways.

in this show, hailey makes a list.

instead of trying something new, she just thinks 'oh i'll do that later!' and then DOESNT! :3

these are small things and obviously a headcannon, but it means a a lot to mean

#hoi! #hailey's on it #hailey banks #headcannons #autistic #my analysis

[kiisaes]

Hey, i’d like to hear some of your bakudeku/katsudeku headcannons since i saw some and they’re so cute😭💞i love your art so much, it’s amazingg keep it up!!

ty !!! 🙏

I'll be honest I don't really have any headcanons off the top of my head. I have to think really hard about those I like but usually I can point at a preexisting one and go "haha yes I like this one" without thinking of it myself =v=

I think my biggest hc rn - and it's kind of controversial bc ik ppl have different opinions on it - is that deku is just flat out gay. like that's his sexuality, he only likes men. I used to hc him as bi and I campaigned pretty hard for it, and regarding fandom ships I still don't mind shipping him with girls. (tbh with fandom ships, I kind of just disregard a character's sexuality hc entirely bc I'm a multishipper who thinks crack ships are fucking great.)

but vibe wise, as well as putting canon into perspective, he just feels so gay to me. he screams comphet. he's got some vague internalized homophobia where he's totally supportive if u're gay, but HE'S not gay. and there's no way he can be even though he very well could be. like just think about it. he was really only so shy and nervous around girls bc he's literally never interacted with one casually before high school. and after he got close to 1A and could, you know, talk to women, he lost any deeper attraction in them. literally what happened with him and ochako. that's just how I feel anyway, but he won't admit his natural drift towards men (bkg) and his emotional hangups on men (bkg). he hangs out with men (bkg) way too much for him to have any serious interest in women imo

anyway this is just my take, you can hc deku as whatever sexuality you want!!! I still think bi deku has so much flavor like yass be the disaster bi u were meant to be!!! but gay deku just speaks more to me nowadays, I guess

ok upon thinking long and hard, I have come up with these silly hcs as well:

they are both bad at verbalizing their feelings. dk is overall horrible with emotions that pertain to himself so he just doesn't dwell on his very obvious crush on bkg. he just thinks that it's normal to be obsessed with another man. like lol hes been doing it since he was a baby. it's not anything more. he is NOT gay. straight men can appreciate everything about another man and more! just bestie things! and bkg has accepted in his heart that he is gay for dk but u are NOT going to hear him say it. sorry but that man does not know how to even start a convo about this. he'd probably want to, but knows he'd fuck it up and dk would miss the point. he'd probably just tell dk to fight him and then make out somewhere down the line bc it's easier and less embarrassing to him. little does he know, HE'S embarrassing and I hate him.

so u know the whole "bkg is an early bird and dk is a night owl" hc? and how it's technically canonically wrong? yeah. I'm obsessed with how wrong it is. bkg going to bed early and waking up late is so real of him. he just really fucking loves to sleep, and dk is the exact opposite. man goes to bed late and wakes up at 5 in the morning. he gets like 3 hours of sleep maximum and he's functioning perfectly. god I wish I were him

that one adhd vs autism meme but it's bkdk. u get to choose which ones which. maybe they're both

dk has dimples, one on each cheek! maybe bkg has one too. who knows

this is one I just thought of right now but it's like. part of the fandom bible that bkg can cook and dk cannot. however. I think dk can cook ok - fine enough to sustain himself - but bake REALLY WELL. bkg can cook bc he's "a natural" who can easily figure out exactly how to cook and spice foods. he doesnt need to follow a recipe to a T, he can just figure it out himself. dk can bake bc I'd imagine baking, with their meticulous recipe requirements, are easier to comprehend for him. he takes a shitton of notes on the daily, u can't tell me he'll eagerly read and jot down shit so his pastries turn out well. he'd prefer following step by step than winging it. does this make sense. words are hard

I always like drawing bkdk pretty close in height. ik lots of bkdks like a height difference but I prefer when rivals are pretty equal, and that includes how tall they are

dk's hands are coarser than bkg's, except around the palms, where bkg canonically has thick skin (so I'd assume there's some callouses there)

I like to think that bkg is good at basically anything, considering how he's a perfectionist. give him something to do and one week to do it, and he'll have a new skill under his belt. but there's a few things he can't do that trip him up so bad and make him so angry. like to me he definitely doesn't know how to whistle or roll his Rs. he just physically cannot. they're such pointless abilities but he hates how he can't do them. especially bc dk can definitely do both

dk keeps calling bkg "kacchan" bc it reminds him of a simpler time :') it makes him feel more connected to bkg than he initially is, and tacitly tells the class that he knows bkg best. also bc bkg never told him to stop so like ... why should he stop now. lol. and ALSO bc he's waiting to see how far he can go before bkg snaps. little does he know, bkg never snaps about "kacchan" bc that's dk's name for him. it reminds him that dk is always there, always calling out for him. and recently, it's a reassurance that he's still here, against all odds

ending this list with a classic but dk's favorite food is katsudon bc it reminds him of kacchan's name (KATSUdon vs KATSUki)

hope this is a good enough hc list anon!

#asks for becki #there are probably some really obvious ones im missing #bakudeku #bkdk #becki rambles about stuff

[mdhwrites]

Why Are Swap AUs So Easy For The Owl House and IMPOSSIBLE For Amphibia?

So first, I want to make this clear that this isn’t to knock anyone who likes Swap AUs for The Owl House. I’m actually making this blog because today I was kind of reminiscing about The Crow House, my own Swap AU and the best answer I have to the question of “What would my version of The Owl House look like.” They’re a lot of fun to consider because being in a different narrative role and the like would do to the story and world is a really interesting question. I will say that I have seen a lot of Swap AU art that is frustrating for this reason though as they feel a lot more like characters cosplaying each other, including personality, rather than actually exploring what they would be like in the other’s role.

I’ve also seen a lot less Amphibia Swap AU art... And I think there’s a good reason for that. See, with TOH, the narrative role IS also the character’s personality. Luz is the isekai’d protagonist who warms up to a mentor, changing them and the world she arrives in for the better (at least in concept). Eda is the grizzled mentor who will learn to be nicer by her student. King is just comic relief and then lore wise is important and so becomes incredibly wise to fit his expositional spot in the world. Amity is the love interest and brief rival. Hunter is that a second time but done worse and as a love interest to a less important character. The better the character is is usually dependent on how good the trope they’re pulling on, not because they themselves are really going to surprise you or stay consistent even. After all, once Eda becomes Mama Eda, she also loses a lot her snark and her criminal background because that’s no longer the trope she is despite that still having been part of her recent history. Or hell, the fact that once the curse is resolved in S1, it only is ever a plot device, including power up, for Eda’s character because its narrative role as a part of who Eda is and something that hurts her is no longer relevant to the writers.

That actually makes swapping people’s position in the plot less about what their personality does to the plot but how you justify them being in the role that the other was. You have to ENTIRELY change the show in order to make a Swap AU more drastic than that by things like having the swap with Luz be someone who doesn’t like magic and genuinely has no interest in this world so that they never connect with Eda. The person you swap with Amity needs to not be a love interest but a genuine rival who never connects with the other person. You effectively have to go with the edgy options for a lot of things and at that point you’re just kind of missing the whole retelling point of a Swap AU.

And of course there would be changes but more in dialogue and the like. This was something I struggled with with my Lumity stuff in The Crow House because I still wanted some of the highlights but with a spin by how I changed things with Amity (including in Covention actually being a real danger to Luz and that making her opt for a non-magical way to win the fight) but I was still worried about it coming off as too much like the show. Too much like things weren’t different because, well... So few characters acted particular to themselves and more to their tropes.

It’s like in Looking Glass Ruins where Amity goes “I do stupid things around you.” That is a GREAT line for Lumity’s archtype... But it’s not for Lumity specifically. Amity has actually done very few things that would be considered dumb and those that would be, she’s never faced consequences for. Even her parents or Boscha never actually get back at her for her actions against them and besides that? Usually it’s Luz who’s the fuck up but that’s just a part of her archtype. But the line fits the narrative role for where Lumity is at in their relationship, even if it hasn’t been earned, so the writers include it anyways because that’s just how the writing in TOH works.

And again: That makes a Swap AU INCREDIBLY easy. You want to say X character would act like this in this narrative role? You probably can find a moment that excuses it. I mean, we get like six different versions of Hunter in S2 because every appearance is effectively a different character than the last with MAYBE a little transitional moment like in Hunting Palisman. Like the writers did, you can just excuse a character acting a certain because they all meld together to become so similar and so functional eventually so... Why not?

This is the exact OPPOSITE of how Amphibia wrote its story though. The one I actually think is easiest to point out is ANYONE swapping with Sasha. Grime is a very strong person after all who ruled by force and fear. His soldiers were actually fairly loyal, even if they were unhappy. Anne at the start of the show isn’t the Heart yet so connecting the with the toads, who she’d find disgusting like she often found the Plantars early on, wouldn’t be possible for her. This is partially because she’s also lazy. Meanwhile, Marcy is socially awkward and somewhat absorbed in her own interests so she also wouldn’t be able to talk to the guards in a way that turned them to her side. Even if either did, they would have no control there. Grime would still be in charge: Period. They would just be the weird soldier and thus also have no power to do things like the escort Anne got or convince Grime to just raze Wartwood and instead be a bit sneaker and a bit more charismatic.

DRASTIC changes happen if ANYONE other than Sasha is the one in Toad Tower. Her manipulative side, her want for control, her willingness to hurt those around her if she thinks what she’s doing is better for them, or more fun sometimes especially early on, is what makes her such a dangerous villain. However, just as Anne was affected by Sasha, it’s really easy to imagine Marcy and Anne affected Sasha back and that’s why she’s able to connect with guards and their odd interests... At least until they’re wrapped around her finger. Her viewpoint as the girl who will make her friend’s lives better and never questioning that is a large part of her arc. Her personality had to be tested and SMASHED before she could become a better person, which is why she’s actually at her most confident in S2 because S1 was a setback. She needed rock bottom to realize her convictions were wrong.

Which just in general is a masterclass in how to write a manipulative villain, let alone one that thinks they’re in the right for all their decisions. Sasha is one of the best written characters I’ve ever SEEN and I’m still only halfway through S2 of Amphibia.

But even just Reunion shows how Anne’s malleability that made Sasha able to control her is also why she was able to become a better person that Wartwood could respect and trust. How much of that can be said about The Owl House? Amity ALWAYS feels more motivated by a crush, especially in S2, in her changes than any moral position she used to hold or a specific part of her that agreed with Luz’s outlooks besides “I also like Azura.” Eda literally makes no sense because in S2 we find out she adopted King which throws her entire first season personality out the window. Hunter feels like he restarts his arc three times because Luz, Amity and Willow all can connect to him on really basic levels that have more to do with backstory than they do with personality traits.

So in short... Amphibia’s still fucking awesome, I still want to finish it by the end of the month, but TOH does continue to be better for fanfiction in one way or another with the choices it makes.

#Amphiba #the owl house criticism #toh critical #Swap AU

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Gus Porter Appreciation Post

I have been wanting to do gull analysis of the important characters in The Owl house since like 2/3rds of the way through season 2. Now that the first season 3 special is right around the corner It feels like a good time to make posts and get views again.

Gus is a character I find particularly interesting. In season 1 and for part of season 2 Gus is there, but he is secondary comic relief, very token, and almost never seems to move or affect the plot. He slowly grows as a character with and develops arc’s though, and whats interesting to me is that unlike with characters like Luz/Eda/Willow I cannot really say when his character hit the turning point. I mean I know when his character had shifts, or started to focus more visibly on certain aspects of his character, a lot of the big moments his character goes through and core aspects that come to spotlight in episodes like “Through The Looking Glass” and “Labyrinth Runners” on re-watch actually start more subtle in the back ground of season 1 episodes.

Warning very long post underneath

Things with Gus that could have been done better

Okay first lets address some of the weakness’s of Gus’s character. I want to get those out of the way so that I can spend more time speaking his praises. Up top I call him 3 things “Secondary comic relief” “token” and “unimportant plot wise”. I stand by all three being true (at least for a lot of the series) and all three can be problems with his character. For the “secondary comic relief” one... King is out main source of comic relief. King is voiced by Alex Hirsch, who many fan’s recognize as the creator and voice actor for many Gravity Falls characters. He is a very funny man. King himself is also a funny character, because he sees himself as big and ferocious, has a large personality, and all of this is wrapped up into a like 2.5 ft tall fluffy little dog body. Gus’s first ever job in the show was to come assist Luz on adventures and mishaps where she would be away from Eda and King. Unlike King though Gus does not have a large personality, and with his a main trait being “Self-proclaimed “Human Expert”, when actually everything he says is wrong” he just never seemed as funny. Also King despite being mostly comic relief had lore and backstory from the beginning, taught Luz about demons and life with Eda, and was able to come up with clever ways to help defeat foe’s. Gus... shares his food, and can do basic distracting.

I called him “token”. that is a word that I know gets thrown around a lot, and there is some argument as to when it is appropriate and what it means. So let me give the definition I learned for “token”: One or a few characters that are different from the main cast in a noticeable way, and are added in mainly to give the illusion of this show/book/game being inclusive.” You know how in 90′s and early 2000′s shows about super hero’s/crime fighting a team will have that one (or maybe two if its a big team) female character because otherwise the show writers can be accused being sexist “don’t you think girls can be hero’s too”? Plus without her they will have more trouble doing cliche romance tropes. Or how about in Christmas specials you always have at least one who is briefly stated or shown to be Jewish, because of course the show runners know that Christianity isn’t the only religion, and Christmas is not the only holiday. Gus would qualify as a token character for two reasons. One is that he is one of the only few boys at Hexside who is learning magic, and is also important enough to have a name. The score for that I believe is Girls 11, Boys 5. Of those 5 Jerbo and Barkus were intended to be one off characters and while we saw them again they got no focus and virtually no development (Barkus is in a hexsis holdum club, Jerbo flew for that jerk professors flyer derby team that one time). Edric only shows up spuraticaly and rarely is shown at school. Mattholomule also rarely shows up, and when he does it is to be a parallel foil to Gus (more on him and that later). So Gus is our only frequently occurring boy to actively bee seen trying to become a witch.

Secondly he can count as a token Black character. The Owl house has prioritized  including 3D characters of different sexuality, and learning types. Its disability representation has also gained positive notice and appreciation by its audiance as well. But is does have some problems and struggles in race. I will start by saying that I am white, and as such I do not notice as many things as a POC would when it comes to racial inclusion, and my word should always come second to a POC’s when talking about this. But even I can notice that Amity’s character seemed completely thought out and written with fluid direction when Dana and the crew were still throwing Mabel, Webby, Star, Anne, every other off-beat, family carton, female protagonist of the last 10 years, and multiple popular teen cliche’s all against the wall to see what stuck as character for Luz. Even I can note the racism on giving Luz a new White Mom when she already had a Latina Mom. Then treating White Mom as her main/better/more fun mom, because Latino Mom tells tries to change Luz (get her to tone down her more destructive behavior while at school) but White Mom lets Luz do whatever she wants, up to and including praising her for crime. And even I can notice how Gus got way way less screen time and focus than characters who had lighter skin than him. Now here I want the opinion of POC fans: in season 2 Dana and the crew added 3 more POC characters (Raine, Darwin, and Darius), brought back 2 existing characters (Katya and Mattholomule) and, admittedly more towards the end of the season 2, gave Gus and Skara more focus. Did this feel to you like Dana and the Crew noticing and correcting an issue, or did it feel more like the damage control?

Gus’s plot relevance in episodes is kinda self explanatory. In 1B he does not even participate in shenanigans and mishaps that Luz,Willow, and Amity do. He is the group cheerleader. Which would be fine if they let him do all the cool tricks, acrobatics, and full on routines cheerleaders do. Combining his illusion powers with all of that would have been really awesome. But instead of doing any of that they just gave him two small flags that he waved back in fourth from the stands. That was his whole cheer routine, and most of his 1B character... Okay now I am finally done with writing out the flaws/problems with his character, remember I do love this character, and can move on with praises.

Gus’s magic abilities

Gus’s learning trope is that he the “stressed out gifted kid”. He is a protege magician when it comes to Illusion magic, and have even skipped 2 grades. Okay We do not know that much about how different grades work at Hexisde (it’s an all grade school) since Luz our main character see’s the school for the first time at 14. Given that Luz enrolls during a Summer semester I am guessing that Hexisde is a year round school (how do grade levels work at those? I do not know) that does like 4 three week breaks during each season. But I am going to guess that Elementary level kids learn about the different coven tracks and opportunity’s in them, middle school kids pick their track and learn the basics/early lessons, then High school kids perfect their magic and take more advanced lessons. We have never heard Lilith or Raine or any of the Blights mention Colleges, so maybe its not a thing on the isles and kids only leave when coven recruiters come and take them away...

Gus again skipped two grades and “Labyrinth Runners” implies he does it pretty young, he looks like 9 or 10 in his flashback of his first week in advanced classes. If Willow’s powers came late, could Gus have developed Illusion powers early? We also see that he wasn’t then and still is not now in complete control of his powers. My guess is that when Perry and Bump saw what Gus was capable of they moved him up those grades because they believed the best thing for Gus was to get help from an experienced illusion professor who could help him learn more control and mastery of his powers. We can see how great the Illusion professor is in “Labyrinth Runners”, and how much she cares about Gus.

In season 1 Gus mostly sticks to what seems like advanced basics. He could sentences in the air, and make copies of himself, and he was amazing at it. He was not doing one letter at a time, or even one word at a time, he could magic whole sentences into the air at once with great theatrics. His can make multiple copies at once. His copies still remain fully functional when he is away from them, and they can all talk. For clones made by a child, they are very advanced copies. In “Looking Glass Ruins“ Gus makes an illusion large enough to cover a small grave yard, and then In “Labyrinth Runners” his school. In that episode he also pockets a powerful magnifier glass that lets him peer into foes heads and call fourth bad memories. This gives Gus a way to cause actual damage to Belos in “King’s Tide”.... But Gus may have been hit some recoil on that.

This brings me to another part of Gus’s character that I love: He gets progressively stronger through out the show, but he never reaches the ceiling of his potential. He can give his copies more advanced mobility and speaking skills, But when he does they are less likely to do what he wants. See the that only pretended to take notes for him when he skipped, and the one that he made when he wanted to interview himself who promptly told him “I would rather die than reveal my secrets”. He is not able to make large illusions in season 1, and in season 2 they tire him and he still loses control if they go over a certain size. He learns to use the magnifier glass quickly, but he can only us it on an already subdued opponent and using it may pose danger to him in the process. Gus has all the potential to become a mater illusionist, and the dreams and ambition to become even more. But all of this will be one day in the future. For now he is a kid who needs to keep studying and practicing so he can get better, smarter, and wiser.  This brings me to my next point about Gus

Relatable Fears

First off let’s look at the pressure Gus puts on himself. He loves to brag about getting to skip two grades. He can be a show off with his magic, and when mentioning that his dad wants him to become a master illusionist he laughs says “That’s easy”, and declares that he will become this powerful and new figure in relational politics and end a long standing feud between the boiling Isle residents and the Giraffe’s.

When tries to help Willow deal with a pixie infestation with an illusion and it doesn’t help at all, and she gets hurt anyway, He goes through a huge existential crisis and starts wondering openly questioning if the illusion track is even worth studying. Some bullies trick him into helping them clear a way to the graveyard for them, before revealing they do not want to be his friends and do not care about his feeling’s or opinions. Gus blames himself for all of this. Who was he kidding thinking Bria actually cared? Well it’s not his fault. HE thought Bria cared because she did a really good job of putting on a show of acting like she cared. Its pretty high key hinted that he does this all the time at Glandis and that’s how she keeps her three “friends” and probably others under her thumb. Heck its low key hinted that she got Mattholomule in so much trouble that his parents took him out of Glandis at least in part to get him away from her and the members of their group. Gus isn’t stupid, Bria is just a skilled manipulator.

After Bria Gus and the cast, unfortunately meet, Adrian Graye Venworth. Gus see’s through his first illusion and saves Edric and the other kids from being tricked into getting sigiled. But Later Gray and a member of the Emperor’s Coven trick Gus into almost going with them by casting an illusion to make the Coven Scout look like Willow. Hunter See’s through the Illusion and grabs Gus yelling that it is a trick. Gus is devastated that he could not tell the difference between his best friend and an illusion and concludes that he must be stupid and have something seriously wrong with him. A few things that I will point out here (and I am so glad Hunter points out to Gus in the episode). Gus is not at fault at all. The coven guard pretending to be Willow fooling him? They showed up when Gus was in danger, scared, and desperate to find help so of course he feels a wave of relief at Willow. Hunter saw through it because he has rained himself to never drop his guard (he has had to) But Gus has no reason to distrust Willow. Even if he was fooled it was never a fair fight. Gus is a gifted kid, but he is still only a 12 year old kid, and is still learning. The Emperor’s coven is made up of all the most ambitious students and highest scores AFTER they graduated school, past tons of vigorous recruitment tests, and devoted their lives to nothing but improving their magic and serving the Emperor. Adrian is a Coven head, a.k.a the top ranking Illusionist on The Titian. Him and all he guards are older and have both more training and experience than Gus. They were able to fool Bump and the Hexside teachers too, and none of them are fools. Gus’s only problem is the pressure he puts on himself.

To go a bit deeper into Gus’s fears, we see him began to work through his fears in season 2 but I think his arc with fear and overcoming it actually starts in season 1′s ‘Enchanting Grom Fight”. Remember at the end of it when Willow and Gus are helping with the clean up and that peace of Grom morphs into their fears. We see that Willow is afraid of ladybugs (???) and that Gus is afraid of clowns. Now Clowns are a pretty common, it would be enough to assume Gus is scared of their big red grins, yellow teeth, or giant stomping feet. But in “Through the Looking Glass Ruins” through that Illusions are not able to help solve his friend’s issues like Gus hopped he loses faith in them and himself. Then h starts calling Illusions “party tricks” and himself a “clown”. Which descends to “Stupid”, “Fool”, and “Kidding himself” in “Labyrinth Runners”. You add all this together and it equals Gus not being scared of clowns because of creepy make-up, oversized cloths, or how in-your-face some clowns are. We only see the clown image Grom used on Gus from the back but I am gonna gus its front looked kinda similar to Gus himself. “Clown” is the bad name Gus calls himself when he gets angry/scared/or frustrated at his own mistakes. Gus is scared that maybe he is destined to be a clown. Maybe his dad, teachers, friends, and himself are all fooling themselves when they call him someone special, and maybe everything he is good at is just stupid, unimportant, party tricks.

THAT IS NOT TRUE. Gus’s is a great friend and his support has done a lot for Willow, Luz, King, Mattholomule, and Hunter. He has been a real light and the dark for them all. While his illusions have limits, he starts finding knew things he can do with them throughout the season as he improves (and we thankfully say god bye to the Gus the uninspiring cheerleader and the two tiny flags that all he does is flick back and forth). Gus’s own magic feets even hit Heroic status on at least three occasions “Through the Looking Glass Ruins”, “Labyrinth Runners”, and “Kings Tide” where if not for him things would have gone much worse and potentially innocent lives could have been ruined or lost. Gus can, is, and will be great witch. He just needs to take some time, and come into it in his own way.

Gus’s development into a more empathetic friend and his growth and maturity through out the show.

Just a small heads up most of this will be about Gus’s relationships with other males. I know, I know Willow and Luz are his best friends. I am not trying to undervalue his relationships with them, they are great friends and very important to him. The reason I am not talking much about them is that his friendships with them start from their first meeting and remain really consent throughout the show. There is never really any change. They are all friends, Willow and Luz know he is younger by a couple years but they do not treat him any different for it. Gus loves this and is super protective of both of them, trying to jump on or “Gus chomp” any big kid who calls one of the Trio “losers’ or tries to give them a hard time.

Let’s start with the first time we see Gus in his element. Gus’s time as the President of the Human Appreciation Society (a school based club he started). This was Gus at his absolute worst, most jerkish, and it got him nothing. Gus says in the episode that he created the club because being the youngest kid in his grade he was always overlooked and wanted to create a place where that would not happen to anyone. When he says that it is the only time that he is either kidding himself or just being stupid. Because Gus is a tyrannical leader that and overlooks every other person there. No really he is. Gus calls himself “The President” but also made himself a crown, like he’s the king. He has a huge list of rules that he made himself and that no one else is allowed even comment on. He is the only person allowed to touch the objects, He is the only one allowed to make decisions (he legit see’s the group wanting to vote as anarchy), and judging by his reaction to Matty dumping out his backpack Gus may even be the only one who is usually allowed to bring in artifacts. Gus made himself a place where he would get to be in charge of kids older than him and they would have to listen to what he says. Well later in the show we see that Bigger Kids used to take advantage of Gus’s trust and trick him into doing their work for him. These are his worst memories.So seeing that I can see why Gus would want a place like the H.A.S., but that is an explanation for his behavior and not a excuses. He is acting like his old bullies and it is getting him nowhere. The bigger kids in his club must stay because they are interested in learning more about human culture, because they do not seem to care for or like Gus. When Mattholomule challenges him for leadership two kids support him and one just proclaims himself “an undecided voter”; none of them back Gus. When Bump kicks Gus out of the club none of the kids care or ever speak to him again.

Losing the club was painful for Gus in the short term because it was a club he cared about (and it led to 1b Gus and his boring obsession with two tiny flags. They really could not have also given him a horn, some lights, or put the flags on a baton), but after the way he had acted I cannot say he did not deserve to lose it, and he did grow from this. His relationship with King is the first one to show his growth. In “Really Small problems” Luz gets the day off from school and decides to take King to the carnival. While there she runs into Willow and Gus and asks King if they can join them. Gus is really condescending to King here, but King agrees to let them join for Luz. Willow and Gus do not listen to what King wants to do, gradually take more of Luz’s attention, and eventually fully exclude King. This drives King so crazy that he buys a potion to make Gus and Willow temporarily disappear. Which of course he bought from a con artist, its actually a scam that gets everybody in trouble, and King has to apologize and explain his loneliness to the other kids. He tried to make peace with Gus and Willow by offering them both pieces of broken friendship necklaces which they both take. Gus thanks King saying that he has always wanted “A jagged piece of cheap metal”. Willow gets on to Gus, I guess believing he is still being condescending, but I do think Gus was checking himself. Two episodes later when everyone is getting excited about Grom Gus gets to be the announcer and he goes to King to ask if he would like to be his assistant. When King gets stage fright Gus finds him and helps him through it in a much more tactful and friendly way. Gus is 3-4 years older than King, so to King Gus is a big kid. When King confessed the way Willow and Gus made him feel, I think this was the first time Gus was able to see his former bullies in his own actions. He did not like it and he makes steps in later episodes to be more friendly to King and treat him like one of the group.

Now Let’s go to Mattholomule. Gus was a jerk to the other members of his club, but when Mattholomule does his whole “scared and lonely new kid who just wants friends act (which I know was not completely an act)” Gus believes it and really does seem genuine in wanting to be Mattholomule’s friend afterwards. When Mattholomule turn on them and sends Luz to the detention pit, Gus goes to save her, and Mattholomule gets literally dragged along in the crossfire. Gus could have left Mattholomule to rot down there. There is a few options as to maybe why. Maybe Gus feels responsible since he kinda started this whole mess. Maybe since Mattholomule has the most experience with dentition pits Gus and Luz thought they could need him in the escape. What ever reason Gus shows genuine kindness in recusing Mattholomule as well as Luz. That is not an act that Gus gets repaid back to him right away. As soon as they get out and Bump see’s what they did to the pit, he tries to blame Luz. Gus takes all the blame, part of which should got to Matty, but Matty only speaks up when he see’s that he still has the opportunity to steal Gus’s club. Just to be clear on Mattholomule as H.A.S.P: He is a jerk, he will be just as tyrannical as Gus was, and like Gus the club made him no friends, no more popular, and any power he thinks the title gives him is in his head. Gus has to leave and become better.

But in “Through the Looking Glass Ruins” we get more back story on Mattholomule. We meet his old crew (whom his brother does not seem to like him hanging out with anymore) and see that they are all better than him at magic and hear how his lack of polished skill led to other kids making Glandis very difficult for him. Mattholomule essentially dealt with the same issues as Gus but on the opposite end. Mattholomule tries his best to keep Gus away from the other kids, and Gus thinks this is just him being mean. Only to find out to late that these other kids are just using them both. Because Gus was once kind to Matholomule, something that try as he might Matty has apparently not been able to stop thinking about or being grateful for, Matty goes back to help him. After watching Gus defend the graveyard from his old crew Matty finally makes the right choice for the right reason (reasons other than power or dept) and offers to help fix it up. Then, at hearing the illusion history may have to be hidden away, Matty suggests that he and Gus can build it a stronger defense system. Gus has a new friend now (who may one day also become more than a friend, they do share interests and passions) and has renewed faith in both that illusion magic matters, and that people aren’t all bad, and are capable of changing for the better.

These lessons all come to play during Gus’s relationship with Hunter. Gus does not really like Hunter when they first meet. Hunter or “Caleb Jasper BloodWilliams” is a strange, rude mouthed, big kid, who Gus has not seen before, but getting Willow’s flyer derby team approved suddenly depends on him... It turns out “Caleb” is really Hunter, a.k.a the Golden Guard, and he is here to trick them into the roughest coven of them all. Yes Hunter regrets it and goes back to save them (actually he may have done it more for their palisman than them, but he still helped them). He did the right thing, only after lying to them, scamming them, and putting all of them in danger. Gus is not obligated to forgive Hunter or try and be his friend the next time meet. When they meet again Gus half expects Hunter to try and pull the same crap, until he learns that Hunter is on the run. Then he offers him help and a listening ear. Gus did this because he knows that Hunter is not 100% bad, feels empathy for how alone/confused/scared Hunter is, and he knows people can change for the better. Gus has come along way from the bratty, vindictive, kid he sometimes acted like in season 1a. To him these basic acts of kindness do not seem like much, but to Hunter, who is going through so much, they mean the world. It’s because of Gus’s influence that Hunter finds the courage to come out of hiding and publicly supports the rebel side. This indirectly helps lead to all 6 kids (I included King) being together on the day of Unity and able to help each other against Belos.

Gus Porter All and All

Gus is a really great, well thought out character. He is in the background more than some others, and I wish the show had brought him to the forefront more (I do believe that if the show had run longer we would have gotten more of him and Matty protecting the graveyard, Matty introducing him to his favorite book series, and Gus meeting Steve. Grrr). But even when Gus is stuck in the background he still has some really interesting arc’s going on and you miss out if you just dismiss him. I also appropriate Gus getting to do important things and be a hero from the background, he reminds me of Codename: Kids next Door’s numbah 5 in that respect. She mostly stayed out of the spotlight by choice, but was indisputably the backbone of her team. Gus’s journey through school and the insecurities that he deals with remind me a lot of myself when I was younger as well as friends I had back then. I am willing to bet a lot of kids in school can relate to Gus and I like how so much of his feelings and situation are shown to us instead of told. Its nice that kids can see him, and have him to help learn to not doubt or be so hard on them selves, You are special, the right people will see you as such. IF the voices in your head call you names, then tell them to shut up because they do not know.

#the owl house #Gus Porter #augustus porter #willow park #luz noceda #mattholomule #Toh Hunter #hunter wittebane #Hunter deamonne #King Clawthorne #TOH Bria #The Human apreciation society #Perry Porter #Adrian Graye Venworth #Adrian Graye #Head Witch Graye #Something Ventured something framed #Belos #The collector #TOH #Really Small Problems #Enchanting Grom Fight #Through the Looking Glass Graveyard #labyrinth runners #King's tide #The illusion track #Gustholomule #hexside #the hexside gang #Dana Terrace

[likeabxrdinflight]

I feel like a lot of people didn't really give The Owl House its due credit until season two brought in a lot of really plot-heavy, story driven elements and I really think that's a shame.

Not that serialized storytelling with a set plot is a bad thing. it's absolutely not. but the plot of The Owl House was really basic fantasy fare. For as much as the show acted like it was deconstructing those fantasy tropes, it really kinda...wasn't. Girl gets stuck in magic fantasy world and has to defeat the big bad emperor (who is a pretty basic villain tbh y'all have just been overexposed to redeemable villains lately) with the help of her quirky group of friends and hey wouldn't you know it, the primary morality play of the story has something to do with love, what a. what a shock. I have never seen a fantasy story do any of this before.

I'm just saying, the story structure itself really isn't that deep. it's a kids fantasy show and that's okay. that is not why The Owl House was good, and that is not why it stood out.

what made The Owl House unique were two main things, I think. One was the setting- the story may not have been a massive deconstruction of fantasy tropes, but the Boiling Isles as a setting absolutely was. Most magical fantasy worlds, especially those made for children, tend to be ethereal, colorful places with an air of whimsy and fun. Think places like Wonderland, Neverland, parts of the Harry Potter universe (I bring that up because TOH made jabs at it, fuck jkr). Even more seriously toned stories tend to have some of these elements- Lord of the Rings is a good example of a fantasy that can get quite dark but still has some classic fantasy world whimsy to it- the Shire is still a beloved setting for a reason.

The Owl House, however, played around with this idea a lot by making the Boiling Isles much more of a horror setting. And that was what was fun about it- they took a classic fantasy plot and laid it on top of this horrifying, hellish world. The characters are literally living on the corpse of one of the main characters' undead father the entire time. Everything is dangerous- the magic school has a detention that tries to eat you, Luz is constantly getting scammed and tricked, the wise old mentor is a cranky middle aged woman who turns into a demon owl, hell, even half the food is completely inedible. This world is inherently dangerous to Luz in some ways, above and beyond Belos' influence.

The other thing that sets this show apart are the characters and their relationships to each others. Luz first thinks of Eda as a potential "wise old mentor" in the veins of Gandalf- she ends up finding a complicated woman with her own difficult past who becomes more of a mother to her than a teacher. The cute animal sidekick starts off as a megalomaniac and turns out to actually be the son of a god who just wants to play catch. The three leads are weird, outcasts of their worlds who find community and companionship in each other. Most of the side characters fall into this basic theme too- Lilith is a history nerd hiding behind her coven head persona, Raine is a secret rebel and a bard with stage fright, Amity doesn't fit in with her family's expectations, Willow was bullied for being "half-a-witch", Gus is obsessed with humans and younger than his peers, Hunter was an abused kid hiding a love for wild magic, even Camila was a secret nerd. That was always the heart of the show, that was what made it good and different from other fantasy stories.

And none of that would have been nearly as apparent without the groundwork season one laid. Yes, season one was more episodic. Yes the tone was much lighter compared to later seasons. Yes some of the adventures were a bit goofy. But they were the foundation the show was built one. They were the reason you cared about saving this world once the plot started kicking in. The show didn't "get good" in season two, it was already good. Season two is full of plot contrivances and conveniences that get the characters from point A to point B, and season three is even worse (though Disney shoulders a lot of blame for that).

But take an episode like Hollow Mind, for example. The lead up to how Luz and Hunter end up in Belos' mind is not well written. It's rushed, it comes out of nowhere, and frankly it's an extremely convenient plot device to get us to the big Belos-is-Phillip reveal. There is nothing clever in the actual plot of that episode.

And nobody cares. I don't care, because that episode is still really good. Why is it good? Because of the characters. Because we care about Luz. We care about Luz's impact on this setting, because we love Luz, we love the friends she's made, we love the way she cares about them. And we love the Boiling Isles- we love this weird, creepy demon realm, and so we care when Belos reveals that he's a witch hunter out to destroy it. We've come to care about Hunter too, after seeing him bond with Willow and Gus at Hexside, so we care about him finding out the truth about Belos. So it didn't matter that the plot points were contrived and convenient- the character writing was so strong that it overrode all that.

But again, none of that would have hit as hard without the foundation that season one laid. This show was special because of season one, not despite it. Season one is not the weak link, it is an essential part of the show's core DNA, because it is there that we fully explore this setting and really get to know and love our characters and their bonds with each other. Season one is the heart of this show, and without it, the whole thing would have fallen flat.

#*bangs pots and pans together* PLOT HEAVY EPISODES ARE NOT NECESSARILY BETTER THAN CHARACTER DRIVEN ONES #stop calling world and character building episodes 'filler' they are NOT #slander season one or die by my sword #the owl house

[cloudyswritings]

Daemon AU headcanons

(Uni has been kicking my ass, hopefully I’ll be back to posting and answering asks semi regularly, either way this is what it says on the tin. My headcanons about characters from different media and what their daemons would be)

Percy Jackson: His daemon is andromeda, she settles as a snowy albatross on his 16th birthday. The events of Tartarus and specifically meeting misery traumatically resettles her and she becomes a black mamba. The two of them end up going to therapy to deal with that after the events of Blood of Olympus. Andromeda is wise and somewhat detached, her moods are generally the opposite of whatever Percy is feeling at the moment, the two sorta synched up after resettling and neither of them are happy about it, they really valued each other’s differences.

Annabeth: Her daemon is a termite queen named Stella, they settled very early, probably only a few weeks after they ran away for the first time. I just really like the idea of subverting expectations(most people would probably give her an owl or snake daemon, while also still have a connection to architecture). Stella is brash, excitable, and oddly enough impatient. Annabeth keeps her in a small glass container that she has on her necklace.

Taylor Hebert: Her daemon is Amun, as a kid he generally took the form of owls, hence Taylor’s nickname, but started taking smaller forms until the locker in which he settled as a golden scarab. After the events of gold morning and the two of them blending together with QA he finally settled in the form he should have taken, a pharaoh eagle owl, albeit one whose wing feathers look more like those Horus is depicted with than his own species. That sort of distortion is common among daemons of people who’ve gone mad or had extremely bad mental health issues.

Hawkeye pierce(what can I say I’m a sucker for older shows): His daemon is a Russian blue cat named Elliona. She’s flighty, irritable but always down for a prank and is more than willing to harass frank burns at any given moment. She’s not especially helpful during surgery though. As the war drags on she starts going gray and chewing parts of her hair off in stress, mimicking Hawkeyes decline in mental health.

I might do a part to to this if people are interested and I actually have free time soon.

#headcanon #Percy #percy jackson #annabeth chase #MASH #hawkeye #hawkeye pierce #Taylor #taylor hebert #Worm #Daemon AU #His dark materials

[jamismejamiam]

Knack oc redesign :^]]

Her first design wasn't bad I just wanted her to look more unique and fit my style and aesthetic more, this design definitely reads more as different from knack but a similar type of creature/species(? Idk how to put it) I thought the owl theme was really cute, so I leaned pretty heavily into it, and I think it looks good! It probably doesn't make sense universe wise, but it's cute, so idc lol. This design gets her personality across a little better with the darker colors and sharp face

She's a little taller than medium knack(5'4) so she's about 5'7 pretty average height, she can't absorb relics the same way knack can due to her being a different type of relic golem than him, she's still made out of relics and uses the same sort of magnetic core to keep her pieces to together but she has more custom parts made her body than knack who's just made of basic relic shapes. To me, the knack and the ancient civilization are sorta Greek themed which is why I gave her the owl theme I think because it reminds me of Artemis. In general, I tried to give her a guardian vibe

I guess I should also include her old design in the post because it's a redesign :^]

I still think the old design is super cute but she looks a bit too cute for how bitchy her personality actually is, because she's from the ancient civilization she's still sorta warming up to modern society and humans. She comes off as pretty mean and blunt but it's just how she talks, she does care about people (alot more than she'd ever admit) but believes tough love definitely

Uhhh yeah! I'll definitely draw more of her when I feel like drawing again and I especially wanna draw her interacting with other characters because I have such bad brain rot about them all <3

I really wanna just rant about her for hours so I guess if anyone wants to ask anything about her I'd be ecstatic to answer! :^]]

#knack #knack oc #oc redesign #oc art

[avatarofwar]

i saw you talk about wolf a few times from sekiro and was wondering if you'd want to share more of your thoughts on him or sekiro as a whole, the game really interests me compared to other dark souls games so i wanted to ask

sorry for the late reply but oh boy do I have thoughts abt wolf. trying not to spoil the game, so I'm gonna refrain from talking about the story. might go into just restating known things about the game, but I'd much rather play it safe and not spoil the story

before going to that. the game is very much different from dark souls (setting wise, while taking place in a fictional country it is in a historical setting. I cannot comment on the setting properly bc I don't know much about the time period, however), most notably in the combat (primarily shifting from a dodge-centric playstyle to a parry-centric playstyle (significantly easier than dark souls/elden ring parrying, however), with dodges having significantly shorter i-frames and being very unreliable for dodging attacks). it's very different but something I really enjoy, even if I'm not as good as I am at typical soulsborne combat. it's really fun when you get the hang of it, and while I might not be The Best at it (which is mostly bc of how different it is from soulsborne games, so ofc I'm not as good at is as I am at the other fromsoft games I've played), it's something I can still enjoy

a huge thing about sekiro is the difference in how the story is told. in soulsborne games the story is something you have to figure out; progressing through the main path doesn't give you enough to piece everything together if you don't read any lore. with sekiro, however, the story is significantly more obvious, on account of the playable character having unique ties to the world and its characters, rather than going the soulsborne route of being one of many people (wording hard, but the chosen undead for example is no one special, just one of many undead trying to link the flame). it's a very different method of storytelling, but is still something really good. for as much as I adore having to actively hunt down lore and story in soulsborne games, it's also great experiencing story through natural game progression

wolf is also canonically disabled (loses his left arm at the start of the game) and has a really fucking cool prosthetic that is a whole part of the combat system (even though I personally keep forgetting to use it). so good for him. he deserves a prosthetic that can have deadly weaponry attached to it. like a mini-flamethrower. he deserves a mini-flamethrower, as a treat.

putting the wolf thoughts beneath a read more because this is getting long and I might spoil some stuff (mostly relationship with another character, I'll try to refrain from story spoilers. also spoilers in general, but there might be some), and he has definitely become a blorbo (additionally, content warning for abuse)

first of all. wolf makes me want to throw myself off a cliff and I mean this in the most positive way ever. he is great and I love him but man he needs so much fucking therapy and he doesn't even realise it (therapy probably doesn't exist in that time period, but besides the point). he is very much traumatised and has been heavily shaped by it and doesn't even know it.

prior to the events of the game (I forgot how long ago it was) he was orphaned by war and got taken in by owl, a shinobi and also a piece of fucking garbage. owl raises wolf to be a shinobi under the iron code, with the number one rule being loyalty to his father (owl), with his master (kuro, the divine heir) a close second (and also to give his life for his master if necessary. which is also a whole other thing to get into).

owl is very explicitly abusive. he raises wolf as a tool rather than a person, and that upbringing severely affects wolf as a character - he is an incredibly capable shinobi, but lacks any skills other than that; he does not know how to be a proper person, he is a loyal wolf, but he does not know how to be anything other than that. hell, without spoiling too much about the context, there is a cutscene in which owl actively attempts to guilt trip wolf, going as far as using fake tears (saying anything specific is very spoilery. this isn't even the only horrid thing he's done, but I'm trying to refrain from too many spoilers).

wolf canonically does not value himself without anyone to serve (we see this at the beginning of the game, as events prior to the start of the game not yet known about leads him to believe he has no one to serve, and thus no purpose, so he isolates himself from the world in a well for 3 years). while he does have compassion for others (most notable example being concern over victims of dragonrot), he starts off the game driven primarily by duty. he is loyal to a fault, willing to do anything for kuro, but also valuing his service to kuro more than himself (cannot remember the exact wording, but when kuro expresses concern for how many times wolf has died for him, wolf states that it does not matter as it was in service to him).

there's also the fact that wolf canonically eats uncooked rice and genuinely doesn't know - as a fully grown adult - you are supposed to cook it, which is... genuinely something awful if you truly think about it and what more it implies about his upbringing especially considering it's one of the most basic things you could learn how to make (just... says a lot about owl if you seriously think about it).

he is a loyal wolf, but he doesn't know how to be more than that. he doesn't know how to just... exist for himself, to be his own person separate of his duty and he doesn't even recognise just how fucked up it is, because how could he, when he was shaped into this as a child, when his own father wanted him to be nothing more than a tool to use.

I could say a lot more about his relationships with other characters (that are actually good people) and how it just. makes me lose my mind, but this post is almost 1k words. so, simply put, kuro genuinely caring about him makes me so fucking emotional, especially bc of owl; his father might be horrible and an abuser, he might not know how to be more than he was raised, but at the very least he can serve someone who actively cares about him and his wellbeing.

#THERE IS SO MUCH TO DISSECT ABT HIS CHARACTER AND HOW HEAVILY IT WAS AFFECTED BY HIS UPBRINGING #I've seen a handful of people call him boring bc he doesn't say much and isn't that expressive emotionally and none of them are valid #I'm gonna explode those people with my mind powers. he isn't boring you just don't understand how to analyse characters #I need need need to get this man to some fucking therapy he so desperately needs it and doesn't even know it #if there ever was a fromsoft character most in need of therapy poll he would sweep and if he didn't I'd explode people with my mind powers #also I realise now a lot of my thoughts abt the game are just. restating known parts abt the game. I apologise for not being more specific #if you wanted to know my thoughts abt the story specifically. oops. I AM sorry but I do want to play it safe #I also do really appreciate how it was like. the (or at least one of?) first game in this time period made by a japanese company #which is part of why there are some things I do not know how to comment on bc I am very much a white canadian #also has a small poison swamp location. might be a plus for some people. I personally don't mind most poison swamps too much though #and ngl I kinda miss the iconic large poison swamp you have to traverse. it could be really fun being able to grapple #did I mention his prosthetic has a fucking grapple built in? well it does and it's really fun for movement.

[electricrogue]

A, F, K, U, and V for the ask :)

Thank you for the ask! :)

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

I have one OTP the o stands for one and it's Teslen basically xD. Other than that? Eda/Raine from The Owl House and Crowley/Aziraphale from Good Omens (though they're... you know... not talking at the moment xD) as far as romantic ones go. Friendship wise I just watched The Marvels and I got hit hard with Kamala, Carol and Monica (yes the fanfic part helped but I was there ok I feel her so much with this).

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

14 years and a half with Sanctuary apparently xD (God I'm old :)))

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

I'll go with favorite development arc and the first one that comes to mind is Cordelia from American Horror Story (Coven and Apocalypse and yes Apocalypse was a shit show plot wise but I still loved her in that one so yeah xD). Still, the way she went from basically a wallflower to the Supreme who tricked the Antichrist just to get her girlfriend back from hell? Yeah. I stan.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

I hate the different thing because I can't do both sides of Teslen for the record xD. But fine. Girls it is.

Helen Magnus from Sanctuary. And it's a very long list as to why but basically Amanda needed something in which she was in charge ok? And I don't mean SGA in charge because that was more like a desk job if anything else. Helen is that, and way more. She's badass, no-nonsense, has a very big heart (too big in some cases but I don't want to talk about that), super smart, can hold her own in combat and does it in heels... I think that pretty much covers it xD.

Eda from The Owl House. Because I lowkey want her to adopt me if that's a valid answer (I mean I would also want Helen to adopt me but I'd maybe also want Helen to do other things to me or at least let me watch while she does them to Nikola and adoption would make that weird so yeah). No but serious answer? I fell for Eda the second she said that thing with Us weirdos have to stick together and yeah. She may be basically a wine aunt but she's also a mother hen (owl? literally actually xD) and she can talk as much as she wants about eating kids and all but she's too kind to actually do it. And she went from burning a school down to actually running the place (of course I don't have details on that fuck Disney but yeah).

Cassandra Cillian from The Librarians. I always said that from all the characters I've known she's the most like me (minus the brain tumor thank God and minus the magic unfortunately). But she has this quote about how she was basically a super smart kid but she didn't want that to be the only thing she was, and yeah. I felt that.

V - Which character do you relate to most?

I actually answered that above with Cassandra but yeah xD. I still stand by that :P

#ask game

[nat-without-a-g]

When I was little I was really into reading and books and stuff, right? And around 4th to 5th grade, I got into Percy Jackson and the Olympians (I can not tell you when I started it but I know Son of Neptune was out when I was in 4th and I had to wait for House of Hades. The cliffhanger….). Anyways. I was a kid who struggled in a lot of subjects but exceeded in a lot of other stuff, so I really wanted to be known as smart. I really liked the concept of the Athena cabin and a lot of Annabeth’s character lowkey because of it. This is not going where you think it’s going.

So, I got really into Greek myths as well, I started reading about the mythology and how different things were supposed to have happened and where Rick was inaccurate. I was really good at memorizing every single aspect of the things I was interested in and consumed myths like it was candy— Learned about the more depressing or bloody aspects of the stories early on and worked backwards from there tbh. Because I liked the “smart person” and “wise” stuff, I went heck yeah I’d be a child of Athena and never looked back, that got doubled when I realized Minerva was in-part the goddess of crafts (mostly weaving), because I loved art. This is still not going where you might think it’s going.

Athena has a plethora of things in the world associated with her, right? Since she was negatively associated with spiders and snakes, I faked being afraid of both of them so my friends would agree with me on the child of Athena front (it’s really easy to fake being afraid tbh. I once pretended I was afraid of palm trees and my entire family believed that was real for years). I clung onto how my hair used to be blond, I checked my eyes for any signs of gray (they are hazel, almost the opposite of gray), and I was motivated to go out of my way to make people think I was smart (at least I was a “joy to have in the classroom”). We’re still not there yet I’m so sorry

Now. Owls. BIG sign of Athena. For some reason I never got obsessed with olives, but I was Big into Owls and everything about them. Cited them as my favorite bird for years, went out of my way to learn owl facts, saved pictures of them, all that good stuff. Because of that, I also got Really into any brand that included an owl in its logo, which wasn’t actually a lot (hi Duolingo). I was warned about the dangers of the internet a million times and didn’t get a phone until I was in middle school, so I didn’t google things often, most the information I got was from books and stuff (I barely knew looking things up any time I wanted was an OPTION even AFTER i got a phone)… So at some point in my life when I was in this mindset, every so often (very frequently if I remember right) we’d drive either past or through a city. And every time I could, I pointed out the Hooters sign and go “Can We Eat There?” And no one ever explained why they kept saying no. When we moved I actually said to my mom that I was disappointed I never got to eat there the last time we passed it.

See, I have to clarify because if I tell this story to people who don’t know this, the first assumption will be that I wanted to eat there because I was gay (because I am gay and am very vocal about it) and wanted to be a womanizer for an hour on a Tuesday. No, I just thought the restaurant was based entirely around owls and I liked owls because I wanted to be a child of Athena and I wanted to be a child of Athena because I valued intellect over all else.

I have still never been inside a Hooters.

… Oh my God i was surprised when I found out it wasn’t a country owl-themed fast food restaurant.

#Nat Lore #long post #fun fact my current campus’s old logo was an owl #i swear that’s not why I chose to go there

[wromwood]

4, 12, and 25 for the artist asks?

4. Fav character/subject that’s a bitch to draw

That's a good question. And honestly, a bit hard to answer? Like, if a character isn't easy for me to draw, I just eventually stop drawing them. (That's partly why a character from my thesis project was phased out of the eventual comic blog.)

I think the most appropriate character for this, though, is Dirk, but only back when his anthro form used colored lineart.

Just look at all those colored lines. I had to make sure they were on different layers, that they were all in the correct order, that the coloring wasn't interfering with them.... ugh, it was a NIGHTMARE. But the anthro form was necessary in conveying emotion/body language that his sword form just couldn't. The anthro form itself also has a deeper meaning in the context of how Dirk approaches playtime and how he's kind of a hypocrite in some ways regarding that.

So I switched to black lineart and never looked back!

12. Easiest part of body to draw

Uhhhhhh.... definitely not hands? I'm not actually a visual artist, so nothing about drawing really feels easy to me, they're just a pile of varying degrees of difficulty. I guess faces from that easy angle shown above are the easiest to draw.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

That's a good question... My art style's biggest source of inspiration (Steven Universe) is the most obvious comparison, so I don't get too many others. To be honest, not many people tell me what my art looks like to them. They just think it's cute.

A few other suggestions I've gotten are OK KO, The Owl House, and Gravity Falls. I actually haven't seen Owl House (yet), but I am a fan of OK KO and Gravity Falls. Love em so much. However, I can't say I was "inspired" by them, art-wise. Unlike Steven Universe, I've never turned to either of those shows for ideas on how to draw a character, nor have I tried to draw anything from those shows. (I also think it's telling that my art style has been exclusively compared to shows that people often mistakenly write off as "CalArts style" cartoons)

Actually, if anybody reading this can think of something ELSE that my art style reminds them of, please let me know!

Thanks for asking! :3

#this is me #ask meme #chiropteracupola

[namelessmewmew]

[Image ID: Shown is a very rough simple drawing of an anthro demon character with Super Mario rainbow power effect applied to them. There are various blocks of text visible. First is "what a guy that watched the owl house finale and the [new] super mario bros movie back to back looks like". Second is "its 1:30am as I make this". Third is "feeling very emotion at the same time, also rainbow power, prepare for incomprehensible rambling.". END ID]

Large rambling wall of text ahead, that also has 10 million typos and errors.

Title:  Dude

massive spoilers for The Owl House Finale and for the Super Mario Bros Movie!! [Also probably 1239348 typos]Super Mario Bros Movie rambling:As a guy that cares way more about Mario lore then any human being should, I have thoughts about what this movie did lore wise [some negative, some positive] [as in I care about what a Goombrat is, or that I like to pretend the koopalings are bowsers adopted kids].My first gaming experience ever was new super mario bros on a friends wii when I was 5, the first game I owned was also new super mario bros wii when I was 6. I still distinctly remember saving up to get both Super Mario Galaxy 1 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 when I was 6-7 [My favourite games of all time!]. Mario is just something that means just an unexplainable amount to me. [as well for other reasons that are a bit personal for a 2amish ramble]Good things I liked: [in no particular order]Things like giving mario and luigi a family [so they feel less like they just popped out of the ground, also again i care to much about lore and this gives alot of lore and fanart ideas], making peach not be the one that needs saving this time [and making her very capable with fighting!], just the fact their was a luma in this movie at all [I love lumas!], peach making a super mario galaxy reference in the fire flower meadow scene?, super mario galaxy music partially in the credits, bowser not knowing what the spinyes are called cause they are alot less well known than a koopa or a goomba, rainbow road appearance! [its my favourite mario kart track], just the design of the mushroom kingdom as a whole! its my favourite ver of it I have seen, king boo appearance at the wedding! [hes my mario kart main but they made him look very weird], bowsers really cool combination airship/castle!, just the wide range of mario enemies - hammer bros - slegdehammer bros - spiky shell koopas! - and so forth, the blue shell but it has wings like its older versions!, the Mario Kart 8 anti-gravity!, the bonzai bill!, mario and luigi using the rainbow power together to depend bowser!, cat mario!!!!, Pauline cameo!, I recognized so many objects and some areas/levels [sand kingdom, new super mario bros canon, the 1-1 scene reaction near the beginning and so on], toads personality, the music as a whole [it was mostly just mario music that existed already but arranged differently so I don't think they could of messed that up, I also loved take me on.]Bad things I didn't like: [in no particular order]There was alot less luigi than I expected, crisp rat as mario of course [as a queer mario fan], basically the fact that they combined an origin story with tiny bits of super mario odyssey. [I understand it slightly as odyssey is the most recent big mario game and I can't imagine them not making this movie a origin story but still it confuses me greatly, like the marriage plot, the sand kingdom, the lochlady dress but then the rest is its own thing.], some of the humour  aka the predictable illumination humour that felt very out of place in a mario related thing [like the aggressive dog or mario getting throw around, he feels alot more like a generic male movie protag than mario honestly, though glad they kept the persistence part of his character.], where was my son bowser junior??? or did I just miss him??, kooplaings??? [though I read somewhere that apparently the piano bowser plays has ludwigs name on it??], I never like it when evil characters are described as psycho, The penguins also mattered alot less than I thought, I both hate and love donkey kong's and marios dynamic it feels a bit generic but its also fun to have them as frenemies, I thought their would be more yoshi but still glad they made an appearance.  I don't want their to be sequel really but that post credit scene hits at something, idk what though,the pacing felt completely off - some things that I felt should of been shorter were longer and so on, maybe it's cause I haven't never experiences a mario story that's less than 2 hours. Their are some things [like the actor choices and the illumination humour/ slight genericness to the characters personalities] that were obviously for people that aren't really mario fans, but this movie really had alot of things that only like big mario fans would notice and appreciate and I was not expecting that at all. Also again wasn't expecting so much game mario music. Thought it would be the original 1-1 and that's it.The Owl House finale rambling:The Owl House is a more recent love of mine than Super Mario but it's still something that means alot to me, Of course part being with how queer it is and particularly the first big thing I have encountered with multiple nonbinary characters [Raine, Masha and The Collector!] gives me hope as a nonbinary person that yes stories with numerous trans/nonbinary characters [ that respects them] can reach television and if snubbed near the end can still reach a ending. [instead of just stop completely without an ending] As well as it's the first time I ever seen an nonbinary or bisexual flag in a mainstream cartoon on television. All these things are things I thought I would have to wait years for something like to be possible. I'm glad the owl house happened but I will miss it dearly. It is and was a big inspiration for me to create media and stories that are just queer as hell.Good things I liked: [in no particular order]This episode felt like it had better pacing and flow than previous and I wasn't left feeling like things were happening to quickly or slowly, the collector getting redeemed [win for the he/theys (lighthearted)], luz getting a cool powered form and finally killing belos with eda, king and raine! [another win for the enbys (lighthearted again)], seeing king's dad!, I am just so so so glad we were able to get a timeskip.[I love timeskips!!!!! I love seeing the characters happy after the story!], so many cools bits of animation in this ep - which makes sense as its the finale of the series as a whole, the bye with everyone at the end - legit started sopping my eyes out, just all the moments between luz, eda and king.Bad things I didn't like: [in no particular order]Only bad things I have to say is that the full force of angry towards Disney for cancelling this and forcing the team to cram the last bit of the story into three episodes is really starting to settle within me [I was feeling it before but now that it is setting in thats its over, oooo boy.] 2 rats causing issues, huh?

#Nameless Creates #TOH Spoilers #Super Mario Bros Movie Spoilers #Spoilers #The Owl House Spoilers #The Owl House Finale Spoilers #TOH Finale Spoilers #ask to tag #Super Mario Spoilers

[mdhwrites]

Arcane Episode 1 Review: A Playground Indeed

I have a LOT to talk about with this because Arcane is an amazing beast even in just its first episode so I’m splitting it up into parts so if you want to skip something, look for the bold text.

1. A Distinction to Be Made (Preamble in how I see this show)

2. Welcome to The Playground (Overall impression and tone)

3. A Crew to Run With (Side Characters)

4. Our Champions (Main Characters)

5. The Personality of Animation

A Distinction to Be Made

So I often worry with shows I’ve heard literally nothing bad that the hype is going to get to me. I’ll be primed to be harsh on it because my brain is hoping to see what other people see in it. It’s just a problem with my brain.

This was not one of those times because this series is already living up to its reputation... Though I’ll actually be critical first in saying that that’s not surprising. I don’t know if this is commonly true for Netflix series but a lot of people are going to judge this against Saturday Morning cartoons or normal broadcast stuff.

That opening sequence with Vander, Vi and Powder tells you this isn’t the same case. It is a confident choice to start so somber, to build pure atmosphere for the sort of hell that used to be this place to contrast it later against the struggling but surviving Lanes that we see later. It’s also one you’d NEVER get out of pretty much anything for broadcast television and dripping with enough money in five minutes to fund probably an entire episode of something like Amphibia.

It is prestige television like something like the Walking Dead so I’m going to try and not compare it to other things like The Owl House, Danny Phantom, etc. like that. It clearly is meant to be hard serialized, more serious, more impressive, etc. like that. I also don’t say this to knock it but it’s an important distinction versus a lot of its peers... Because it’s animated.

Anyone who comes to Arcane wanting a fun, PG-13 animated show is possibly going to be turned away just like those who hear it’s animated but serious might get turned away too. Luckily for me, I’m here for both sides so this pilot was FUCKING AWESOME.

Welcome to the Playground

Now I did compare it to prestige television but I want to start with the fact that unlike your Game of Thrones or Walking Deads, this first episode’s title lives up to it. This is a blast, in more ways than one. The overall energy, after the dreariness of the beginning, is a mix of excitement, tension and energy which is EXACTLY what it should be for an episode introducing us to young criminals trying to stretch their wings and find their place.

I’m trying to stick to this part being overall impression though so I won’t get into too many specifics. Part of what sells all of this though is the breath through the world of Piltover and the Lanes. The dynamic is nothing new but the episode is happy to really showcase each part’s different wonders as well as their dangers, despite how little time we get in Piltover. It makes the contrasts all the stronger and the threats all the more real.

But it never abandons wonder to wallow. This is what allows it to frankly keep up a positive feeling throughout the first episode. That things will workout, even as set backs and issues come up. This was just one bad job after all. What’s the worst that can happen?

Which I know enough to have had a rock forming in my stomach as the show began making it clearer and clearer that there was never a way for this job to go right. Even without light spoilers though, you can tell. It is curdling the sweet, warm milk that it’s trying to lull you to sleep with. That for as tough as Vi is, as capable her crew and how dominant Vander is over his domain, things are turning.

But the show is wise enough to wait. It has things to introduce after all like:

A Crew to Run With

So I won’t actually get into Vi and Powder yet, despite knowing them to be the main characters. Frankly, I think the fact that I can make this section at all though is a VERY good thing. The fact that this isn’t going to be just one line for these guys is even better.

Vi’s two friends are great. They feel like a play on the big dumb guy and small smart guy but they don’t play it entirely straight. The larger guy isn’t just a fat joke like one might expect or a liability because of his weight. Instead, they acknowledge the fact that vikings had very similar builds so while there’s a small touch of him just obliterating a cupcake, you know he puts in the work to at least mostly work it off. He is also the muscle and strength of the crew, alongside the heart. He appears to probably be about as capable as Vi in a fight but not nearly as ruthless. He frankly doesn’t seem to have the stomach to go quite as hard as Vi, nor the drive needed to be the leader, though the caution to be a great advisor.

The rogue of their party has his charm too. Not as good in a fight but more squirrely and scrappy. He’s also got more skills than the others, things that make him more invaluable and that has gone STRAIGHT to his head. He doesn’t see his fuck ups after all or his weaknesses because he always is justified on the team because he’s the one who can actually work the gadgets they need. He does need one proper kick in the ass to get his head on straight but he’s young and pride and ego are all too common for kids.

Vander might have one of the best introductions I’ve ever seen. “Don’t threaten the one who poors the drinks” is such a great line and honestly, the whole exchange is incredible. He is never actually nice to the traders beyond asking if they need anything but the VA does an incredible job delivering threats and joking barbs in such a way that it takes a while for you to realize just how upset he is with these two. When he says “You’ll get used to it” is when the sweetness drops as he makes it clear that this is how it works. You either leave or... get used to it.

It only gets more interesting though as we see him with the kids and especially Vi. You can see the contrast of the man who lived a life that led to him wearing iron gauntlets and beating an enforcer’s face in and the change required for him to now have a family and run the lanes as its boss. He’s not exactly a criminal lord but he can’t live by our sort of morality. The sort of morality that says one blown up building is enough to start a crusade, but he also can’t be so cutthroat as to sell out his own kind, especially his own kin.

A lot of others get good moments, like us learning Ekko is inventive and smart, or just the incredible impression that the villain leaves in his limited time, but nothing I can say too much of at the moment. I do love the fact that even accidental information does push the villain to show sympathy... But only with veiled sympathy. It’s a good way to show the act he might put up to get people to be loyal to him but also the wheels within wheels that he’s turning so as to be ready for whatever is to come.

Our Champions

Just the one shot of them overlooking the Lanes would tell you that these are your main characters: Powder and Vi. Even if you don’t know they’re Legends, you could tell these two and their relationship is going to be a major part of this, though the theme song does spoil that some too, at least once the timeskip that is to come happens.

The two simply have both too distinct of designs and too much importance to each other while not having any of the death flags someone like Vander might (though to its credit, I actually don’t know if Vander is about to bite it and the show hasn’t been too blunt on if that will or won’t happen.) With that said, anyone who thought Powder was the innocent set up to die... I wouldn’t blame them.

Powder is not bad but she suffers from writing that happens a lot with younger characters. Because she is less skilled and able than the rest, the episode centers a LOOOOT of what’s happening with her around that conflict. Pretty much all of the dialogue with her is about how she has a lot of growing left to do before she’s on par with those older than her. It could get a little tedious but I found it mostly fine but that has to do a lot more with Vi and Powder together than Powder by herself.

Not to say Powder doesn’t do right by herself regardless. Her inventiveness is well documented, her frustrations with those inventions but also her love for them is too. One can easily note that when she talks about them not working, she doesn’t discard them or even stop making them. It implies that she blames herself, not her tools which is VERY dangerous for an inventor that young because it means one of the biggest hurdles to learning is gone already. It effectively guarantees that she’ll only get better because she’s ready to get better.

She contrasts well as a more innocent figure though because while she’s willing to effectively make a grenade, it’s only when push comes to shove. It’s not her first instinct and you could absolutely imagine a different timeline where she grows up in a place less violent and so her gadgets wouldn’t be geared towards violence. It’s also just good to show that it does take time in this world for the innocence in someone to be crushed. That it’s not so cruel and scary so as to make someone like her unable to function.

It does cause a bit of a manic pixie feeling from her but it’s reigned in well by the lack of energy she has. She’s still mostly quiet as someone who doesn’t fight or isn’t ready for danger needs to be ready to hide. Again, she contrasts well with almost every other character we see.

This is especially true with Vi. Vi doesn’t talk a lot without a point. She definitely has gang leader energy to her and not in a bad way. She is working to be like her adopted father someday where she’s ready to run everything. This is both in her gruff attitude and her fists... But also in the kindness she’s learned from Vander.

She has a well of kindness and wisdom that is beyond her years. Frankly, it’s easy to see why the other kids look up to her and it’s not just because she can kick ass. She has a confidence that is infectious so when she says she believes you’re ready, you think it too. She’s also able to connect and make her point clear, whether it be through kindness to her sister or roughness to the dumbass on her team.

She really does save the wallowing that could be with Powder. The fact that the two are genuinely open to each other stops a misunderstanding plot and let it actually lead to a really sweet moment about bad days that just hit so well. But... This isn’t her only side. The other side I connect all too well with as someone who got told he was mature for his age.

An anger. This belief that if you are more mature, so smart and so talented, that you ought to be better. Ought to be somewhere other than where you are. You shouldn’t have to deal with fools or scraps or watch the popular kids get to break the rules that always feel so suffocating to you. That anger is starting to form in Vi and it could easily get out of control.

It actually makes a fun parallel to the angry enforcer who gets in Vander’s face. That man very much so looks at the people here, people he sees as skirting the rules and hurting others, and wants an excuse to do something about it. Meanwhile, Vi sees the topsiders ignoring their plight, feigned ignorance making them as culpable to their problems as if they were punching them in the face themselves and wants to do something about it. Wants to release that anger somehow. She doesn’t have the tools or smarts to do it yet though, which makes her sister’s potential all the scarier.

The Personality of Animation

The last thing I want to touch on is just the fact that the animation for this is SO GOOD. This is absolutely one of those shows where you could turn off the volume and still get much of the point of what’s going on. The expressions are incredible, from the big ticket emotions to subtle acting moments that would be hard for even the best actors to pull off and that is not easy for an animator to replicate. Just body language is incredibly on point though, like how Vi sits when Vander wants to talk. Literally the way she sits just screams “I know what you’re going to say so get it over with” because she doesn’t want this talk and thinks it’s going to be pointless because she’s a dumb tweenager who thinks she’s got the world figured out.

In general, EVERYTHING is dripping with personality like this. No two people do something in quite the same way. There is so much care and attention to detail that you really only get with movie animation nowadays, and not even every movie, even from big studios. Not all of them are paying this much attention. A lot of the personality I got the characters came from design and actions and what you can just read on their face and it’s just really impressive.

The fact that it’s BEAUTIFUL while doing this is just the cherry on top. It’s also more grounded and more adult than most kid’s shows in its writing and animation without losing the fun of animation. Honestly, and I know some might disagree with me on this, I’d love it if people took this as a sign that you don’t have to be boring in order to be more adult when it comes to animation. I see trailers for shows like “Fired on Mars” and sure, it looks like it could be fun... But it also LOOKS boring as hell. Like yep, I sure have seen this sort of stiff adult animation a bunch of times.

The fact that Arcane is so ALIVE with its animation is a just a fucking treat, though part of that is absolutely because Riot has the money to back this thing up. They’re not making these as cash grabs so they’re going to make sure that if everything else fails, the animation doesn’t.

And man... They’ve had well over a decade to refine these characters, regions, world, concepts, etc. and I’m really happy that despite their genre of games not demanding it, they don’t seem to have been sitting on their hands. You can tell this is the sort of project that can only be realized so well by having both confidence and polish that takes just a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of time.

And frankly, I feel a bit bad that I hadn’t given it my own time sooner. Hopefully it keeps ticking on as strongly as this first forty minutes.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#Arcane #Episode Reviews #Welcome to the Playground

[movie-robotnik-positivity]

Screenwriter of the Sonic movies, Pat Casey, was recently a part of “The GHZ Podcast”, where he answered some questions and gave good insight into the production of the sequel. 

The video contains spoilers. Here are some of the highlights:

(12:59-14:21) A previous draft of the film had Angel Island, before they settled on just the Labyrinth Zone temple. Knuckles was going to take Robotnik to the island, which was slowly falling apart without the Master Emerald, to show him why he needed the gemstone.

(14:49-15:40) SEGA didn’t like the idea of using the Master Emerald to turn Super, since that’s not how it works in the games...but the team feared that, by making the story about collecting the Chaos Emeralds, people would call the movie an Avengers ripoff. The backstory with the Chaos Emeralds being part of the Master Emerald was created as a compromise.

(23:06-24:00) Crazy Carl was in several drafts, they just couldn’t make room for him. He was meant to appear when Sonic runs around Green Hills, to show he has a friendly relationship with some of the townspeople. Jojo was also going to interact with Tails.

(36:15-36:52) SEGA is very aprehensive about the movies exploring Sonic’s powers and where they came from, so they can’t be too explicit about that. However, Pat Casey feels that as these movies become more successful, SEGA will continue loosening the reigns on some stuff.

(39:42-40:56) Originally, they wanted to do a “Rocky III” ending with Sonic and Knuckles starting a friendly rematch to see who’s truly stronger, cutting to credits right as the fight starts.

(43:10-44:03) Popularity aside, they chose Shadow because he’s a good match for Sonic, very different personality-wise. Unlike with Knuckles, the “power of friendship” wouldn’t work with Shadow, and Sonic has never had to deal with someone as emotionally damaged (except Robotnik, who he dealt with by murdering him)

(45:58-46:15) The film was going to end with Knuckles leaving Earth to guard the Master Emerald alone...but they thought that was way too sad of an ending for the character.

(47:50-48:16) While Longclaw killing all the echidnas is certainly possible, it’s not downright confirmed that’s what happened to them. “Do we know for a fact that Longclaw is even dead?”

(48:35-49:43) They were going to show what Knuckles got into after losing his tribe. There was going to be a sequence based on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Conan the Barbarian”, with Knuckles getting captured and thrown into the fighting pits.

(51:11-51:34) They talked about showing a little flashback of Robotnik’s childhood, his time spent on an orphanage ran by nuns. It was deemed too pointless to include, sadly.

(51:50-53:12) Pat Casey loves Rouge the Bat and says she makes for a great movie character, charming yet seemingly untrustworthy, but with a heart of gold. He also agrees that the movies need more female anthros like Amy and Rouge.

(54:56- 56:05) The first Owl Temple was originally in an Ice Cap Zone inspired planet rather than Siberia, but they thought a human bar would be less restrictive than designing an alien cantina. Sonic and Tails were going to stumble upon a Big the Cat skeleton in the snow

(57:11-59:35) They don’t want to use a Sonic character in a way that’s not respectful or satisfying like some comic book movies do. That’s part of why the first movie only had Tails on the post-credits scene, and why the scrapped lizard warrior wasn’t a pre-established character.

(1:02:17-1:02:46) Pat Casey agrees the film needed more Sonic music. He admits that, had he been able to, he would have picked something other than “Downtown Funk” for the dance sequence.

(1:06:31-1:06:55) They were explicitly told not to name the planets, that mobius line in the novelization was probably just the writer having fun. However, he thinks they originally had the word “mobius” thrown around somewhere to serve as an easter egg for fans.

#sonic movie #sonic 2 #sonic movie 2 #pat casey #this took so long to write

[astrolavas]

do you think hunter will get redeemed for sure? cause i'm scared he'll die or stay as he is but i want him to be redeemed

i mean YEAH, i feel like that's a given

cuz from the way hunter's narrative character arc has been set up, it's just... sth that's gotta happen imo. he needs the freedom to choose his own path/be himself and to find people that won't make him worthless, which is something he cannot do while under belos' control. so i feel like getting out of belos' control will count as a form of redemption already, so like. yeahxkjsk

now, i'm not sure what his full redemption arc will look like exactly, cuz like... there's a whole buncha possibilities and variables depending on how even the general story will go lol, but i am sure it'll be. rough.

i feel like at first hunter's still gotta get a little worse before he gets better cuz, well, one can say he hit the rock bottom already, but.......... imo he's probably about to prove us all wrong and dig even deeper, into an even rockier bottom LMAO i mean, dealing with such deep trauma and doubts and conditioning cannot be instantaneous, he's definitely gonna need time

what'll his redemption endgame look like? no idea tbh, it can be ANYTHING (again, depending on how the story will go). joining "the good guys" and becoming a part of the owl gang? i know i'd like that. being taken in/mentored by someone else (like, raine or even lilith or someone completely different)? sure, a possibility. going off somewhere, on his own journey? maybe. exploring the human world?? hell, why not. just kinda being in the middle of everything, as a sort-of anti-hero? maybeee. doing sth coven/empire-related, but on his own terms? possibly. doing something COMPLETELY different that's just so OUT there? THAT'S ALSO POSSIBLE.

but not getting redeemed/developed at all, or full-on dying? like, it's a disney show for kids, and also so far the owl house crew hasn't disappointed us writing-wise; they're all good writers. so...... yeah, there's just no way an abused kid isn't gonna get a happy ending. even if there is lots of angst, the angst can't go on forever without a point or a satisfying conclusion

so not sure WHAT happens, or HOW it happens, or how it ENDS, but i feel like we can be assured good stuff will happen (eventually)

#yea lol #toh #hunter #nicole answers #Anonymous #tldr; it'll be rough but most likely worth it oof #my toh talk #hunter toh