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saintsenara · 1 month

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I know you responded with a meme, but if you're able I'd love to hear your thoughts on harry/hermione 👀

fine. i'll scream into a pillow periodically and get through this...

obviously, i don't actually find the concept of harmony sincerely upsetting - people shipping things is never that deep, and because, as i've said before, i subscribe to the principle that any pairing is possible if you just have enough nerve. i've been recommended some harmony fics by people who are fonder of the ship, and while i've not found them immediately compelling, i do appreciate that there are plenty of people who disagree.

but my feelings are basically the same for harmony as they are for dramione: that it's never done interestingly.

harmony is - like all hermione pairings except [broadly] romione - a breeding ground for fanon!hermione, who is perfect and flawless and so clever she can solve millennia-old mysteries in afternoon. i hate this version of the character because i find her boring - it's just standard self-insert stuff, which is fine but not something i have any interest in reading. i similarly dislike the version of harry who appears in these stories, who ends up - like all men in hermione pairings except [broadly] ron - being either this impossibly sophisticated and suave intellectual with the body of a greek god or a doormat who's happy to shut the fuck up forever and do whatever she says.

[i also hate - obviously, since he's my king - the way harmony stories are often even more egregious than dramione ones in writing ron as a cruel and violent misogynist who is ontologically indistinct from your average death eater. and i think it somewhat proves my point that neither of these ships work particularly well that this character assassination has to take place in order to make them plausible...]

and i think the flattening of harry and hermione's personalities within most harmony is the main thing which keeps the ship from being interesting. because - while i certainly don't go in for the common anti-harmony argument that harry actively dislikes hermione - it's undeniable that there is a lot about the two of them which wouldn't be conducive to a harmonious [lol] relationship.

their communication styles - hermione works through problems by debating them, harry prefers not to be challenged - are the obvious one. their ways of expressing affection - hermione shows people she cares about them by nagging them and meddling in their lives, harry very much does not - are another. they have extremely different views about authority, they decompress in different ways [harry is someone who clearly needs to keep physically active to clear his head, hermione is much more of a homebody], and harry's impulsiveness is a poor match for hermione's fondness for planning.

they are also similar in ways which would cause them to butt heads. both have a tendency towards obsessiveness, which they rely in canon on ron pulling them out of. both have a significant capacity for cruelty and extremely black-and-white moral codes - harry has a tendency towards forming judgements on people and situations based on whether they are people he likes or things he benefits from [i.e. how he's appalled by dobby's treatment because his masters are the malfoys, but doesn't give a shit about kreacher's because his abusive master is sirius], while hermione tends to regard any rule-breaking she does as justified even if she'd regard it as outrageous from anyone else [i.e. her fury over harry appearing to use felix felicis to improve's ron's performance at quidditch when she herself confunded cormac mclaggen to get him onto the team...]. both have a tendency towards giving people the silent treatment when they're angry. both are incredibly stubborn...

and so on.

obviously, they also have positive qualities in common too - a shared loyalty, for one - but it always seems to me that the standard move in harmony is for authors to completely ignore these conflicting traits, either really over-egging what makes harry and hermione compatible platonically in the books or just inventing similarities [especially intellectual ones] to justify the pairing. whereas i would much prefer to see just how difficult it would be for harry and hermione to fall and sustain being in love with each other, and i've never seen that done compellingly.

but the conflict i'd love to see explored in harmony fics most of all, but which never seems to be acknowledged by fans of the pairing, is that [despite the fanon slander that ron is the person who behaves poorly towards her] harry is often horrible to hermione and hermione is often scared of harry.

this is at its most profound after ron leaves the horcrux hunt in deathly hallows, but we see several times throughout canon that - if ron isn't there to mediate between them - harry often treats hermione in a way which can be considered downright cruel. if she criticises him in a way he considers unjustifiable, he tends to side with other people against her [ron in prisoner of azkaban over the firebolt; ginny in half-blood prince over snape's textbook]. if she tries to reason with him he often beats her down with the force of his emotions [i.e. when she tries to get him to think about whether his vision of sirius in the department of mysteries might be a trick] or his convictions [i.e. when he lures her into near-death by being certain that nagini is really bathilda bagshot], and she often ends up having to soothe or appease him when he's the one who's screamed at her.

hermione is also scared more generally of harry's experiences - she's by far the least amenable of the trio to talking about voldemort [even though she says his name earlier than ron does] - and mission, which puts up a barrier between them which will be difficult to bring down post-war. i think there's something which could be really interesting there - the most interesting dynamic in hinny, after all, is when harry and ginny's tendency to not actually be honest with each other is explored - but unfortunately at the minute that sort of character work is drowning in a sea of "ron is so stupid and harry and i just love talking about classic literature, come darling, put on your leather trousers and let us solve world hunger; i look like emma watson" nonsense.

dull!

#asks answered #asenora's opinions on ships #harry potter #hermione granger #i'm not tagging the ship for obvious reasons...

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voidedjoy · 10 months

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#𝑽𝑶𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑫𝑱𝑶𝒀 :

an independantˎ privateˎ & highly selective 18+ portrayal of DR. HENRY MILLER from the FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S fangame trilogy ˎ DAYSHIFT AT FREDDY'S. Voided by Willow ! (est. July 8, 2023 .) Minors ˎ please don't interact. Non RP blogs welcome; you can stay for the memes and art just don't touch my rp stuff. Follows back from @feralreason. Please read rules before interacting (under the cut). This blog is low priority.

𝟏. This blog is mutuals only. If I have chosen to follow you, it means I think our muses could have neat interactions together. I will not follow back everyone who follows me. Please do not take it personally!

I am cool with personals/non rp blogs following me, and interaction via anons or chit-chat ooc (as long as you are not a minor). I do not do M!.A/magic an.ons though, and will block liberally if I feel like it (of course, I extend you the same courtesy).

𝟐. I am over the age of 25 so would prefer to interact with those 21+ but definitely 18+. So please do not interact with me if you're a minor. I do not do ERP/NSFW here.

𝟑. Typical roleplay etiquette: please do not meta game, godmod, don't take what my character does as a personal attack. All that good stuff. Literally feel free to drop a thread, or send me starters, or plot, or don't. Format or write as much, or as little is as comfy. You never need to explain. I promise, in spite of my anxiety, I try to be chill. I just ask you to be chill and offer me the same in return.

Speaking of, I often silently drop threads and start new ones because my brain be Like That™. But you can always reach out if you wanna continue.

𝟒. My Henry is pretty canon compilate other than some headcanons to expand him a bit, but my Dave/William is not so that may or may not impact things (you can read @ feralreason if curious). Also this blog is NOT spoiler free since it's kind of impossible to write him without spoiling key moments from the games.

Furthermore, while we do not know his and wife, Martha's, canon relationship, I personally subscribe to them both being mutually in love with each other. If that is something which makes you uncomfortable, this blog is not for you.

𝟓. Obligatory "this is an evil muse blog" disclaimer: Henry is a ruthless serial killer, and canonically abusive. He WILL say or think horrible things about your muse, and likely try to do horrible things to them. By RPing with me, you agree that you understand this and that what Henry says or does does not reflect me OOC.

𝟔. DNI stuff: the usual; no proshi.ppers, no bigotry or discourse. If you are a singlemuse blog for the fandom, Jo.jo's Biza.rre Adve.nture, please do not interact. If you are a multi, please tag your posts.

𝟕. This blog likely won't have formatting or icons other than small text and maybe some colour. Please let me know if that bothers you! The BG art on my theme is by lega.cyjacks. The PSD I use is Alone by ku.rocom.mission.

#✧ ¦ 𝚃𝙰𝙿𝙴𝚂. › pinned.

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sk1fanfiction · 3 years

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the many faces of tom riddle, part 1

-no hate (this is merely my humble opinion) but i strongly dislike tom hughes as tom riddle, and here’s why-

FULL DISCLAIMER THAT THIS IS JUST MY OPINION OF A CHARACTER WHO DOESN’T HAVE THE STRONGEST CANON CHARACTERIZATION, AND THUS ALL THIS IS BASED ON MY CONCEPTUALIZATION.

Just personally, this fancast induces a lot of cognitive dissonance for me, but this is the first time I’ve been able to sit down and articulate properly why it always throws me for a loop.

Now, does he fit the visual/aesthetic archetype?

Yes. I understand completely why people like this fancast. We know that he is studious, intellectual, and (at the time people generally fancast him for) involved in the criminal underground, and he more-or-less fits the physical description.

And, to be clear, it’s not that I don’t think Tom Hughes could play Tom Riddle, it’s that I don’t think the character he plays in the fancasts is a close enough approximation of Tom Riddle.

For me, herein lies the issue.

Tom Riddle’s character is all about the emotions bubbling under the surface. He’s a disaster waiting to happen -- he’s angry, he’s lonely, he wants revenge, he feels empty and hopeless and desperate, he’s irrational...

Not sure what movie/show the Tom Hughes clips come from, but the character he plays isn’t that at all. the character he plays is very self-possessed, poised, self-aware. Reflective. Remorseful (there are clips of him crying when/after he shoots someone). Introspective.

That, to me, is not Tom Riddle at all.

Yes, he does deal with moral conflict, but it’s never at the forefront of his mind. It’s not something he’s constantly grappling with. He doesn’t really... brood in this Hamlet-esque way.

Tom doesn’t think. Sure, he plans, he ruminates, he rationalizes a posteriori. But he’s very unaware of himself (in fact, it’s one of his fatal flaws). It’s not that he doesn’t have emotions; just that his internal state is a mystery most of the time.

He doesn’t connect with his own emotions; he is completely estranged from them. Tom cannot tell you whether he is happy or sad (not just because of his pride). He keeps his emotions and moral compass (which are highly uncomfortable things), in a locked little box, swallows the key, and disregards them. And yet, this character connects so deeply with his emotions that even the audience can see exactly what he’s going through.

(There’s an openness -- an ease of vulnerability -- that Tom Riddle doesn’t have)

The thing about Tom, is that he hates himself just as much as he hates everyone around him. Creating Horcruxes to save himself from death is not an act of self-love, or even narcissism to the extreme; instead, forcibly ripping your own soul seven times is the most literally and metaphorically self-destructive thing a person could possibly do.

"Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction —"

If we go all the way back to Book 1, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, you’ll remember that the eponymous material (first described in the Epic of Gilgamesh) is capable of producing the Elixir of Life, a magical substance that makes its drinker immortal, as long as you have a steady supply. Not only that, but according to the beliefs of historical alchemists (such as Nicholas Flamel), it was capable of curing any disease. In the alchemical tradition, it symbolized perfection, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss.

If all Tom Riddle was concerned about was prolonging his life, this is the obvious (and better) option.

Here’s the alchemical symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone. Looks kind of like the Deathly Hallows symbol, right? It represents the interplay of the (at the time, believed) four elements of matter -- a sort of periodic table, if you will.

The mature Philosopher’s Stone was believed to be a red stone (for making gold), and the immature one a white stone (for making silver). Rubeus Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore, anyone??

"So he's made himself impossible to kill by murdering other people?" said Harry. "Why couldn't he make a Sorcerer's Stone, or steal one, if he was so interested in immortality?"

And Dumbledore responds:

"But there are several reasons why, I think, a Sorcerer's Stone would appeal less than Horcruxes to Lord Voldemort.”

"While the Elixir of Life does indeed extend life, it must be drunk regularly, for all eternity, if the drinker is to maintain the immortality. Therefore, Voldemort would be entirely dependent on the Elixir, and if it ran out, or was contaminated, or if the Stone was stolen, he would die just like any other man. Voldemort likes to operate alone, remember. I believe that he would have found the thought of being dependent, even on the Elixir, intolerable...”

And while, yes, he did try to steal it rather than make it, I am sure that in the time it took Tom to make all of his Horcruxes, he could have learned enough alchemy to produce it for himself (or wheedled the information out of Nicholas Flamel). While Dumbledore hypothesizes that it’s because Tom hates feeling dependent, this must be irony, because he spends the first book as a literal parasite, the next three as a virtually helpless creature, and the remainder still reliant on his Horcruxes.

"Well, you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature."

But, like me, Dumbledore is making guesses at Tom Riddle’s internal state, and in this case, I think, he’s made an oversight. Horcruxes make him equally as dependent as the Philosopher’s Stone would have. It’s been established in canon that you cannot make yourself immortal without help; either you rely on the continued existence of your Horcruxes or your supply of the Elixir.

And while the Elixir represents the positive aspects of eternal life, like renewal, rebirth, and the cyclical nature of the universe (see above the ouroboros of Cleopatra the Alchemist, one of the four women who knew how to make the philosopher's stone), a Horcrux is antithetical to life. It represents disorder, and once the creator of Horcruxes dies, they are unable to move on from Limbo -- shut out of the cycle. Harry describes Tom’s mangled soul as looking like a flayed and mutilated baby -- permanently immature and stagnant.

This theme of destruction is furthered by the Golden Trio’s discussion on how to reverse the process:

Ron: "Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?"

Hermione: "Yes, but it would be excruciatingly painful."

Harry: "Why? How do you do it?"

Hermione: "Remorse. You've got to really feel what you've done. There’s a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can’t see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"

With this in mind, we can surmise that Tom is either (a) impatient, which we know he is not (b) there was some deeper reason for favouring Horcruxes -- so, yes, I believe that either metaphorically or literally, this was self-harming behaviour.

He takes on the name of Lord Voldemort because he hates himself, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He hates the Muggle part of himself so much that he’s willing to tear apart his entire being.

"Voldemort, is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter..."

If that isn’t renouncement of himself, I don’t know what is. He was clearly not born Voldemort.

While of course, this does NOT excuse ANY of his actions, I find it vastly implausible that the likes of Malfoy, Mulciber, Carrow, etc... would have been welcoming in any way, shape or form to an assumed ‘Mudblood’ in scruffy secondhand robes from a London orphanage, and as such, indoctrinated him into his fanatic belief in blood-purity via antagonizing him.

(Imagine Hermione, but poor and without parents, in the 1930s/40s. She would not have been treated well in Slytherin, either.)

Children are more vicious than you think. And while Tom probably gave as good as he got at Wool’s Orphanage (and was possibly an active aggressor himself), Hogwarts wouldn’t have been a level playing-field. (I’ll talk a bit about this and the significance of the Gaunt Ring in Part 2).

In other terms, I think Tom was bullied for having dubious origins. That’s often the swiftest way to radicalize someone, and would have left Tom with a crippling sense of self-hatred that I don’t think he would have even picked up from the orphanage.

(And it’s possibly this early experience with relational aggression that results in his constant need to be on the offensive/defensive, distrust of others, and fear of vulnerability. To me, this is an archetypal response of someone who was a past victim of bullying.)

Why else would an extremely powerful half-blood subscribe so strongly to those beliefs? (Rather than discriminating via amount of raw power or something -- because what Tom is immensely proud of when Dumbledore meets him is his ability, not his parentage). But I digress.

Now, Tom Riddle is never, ever quietly menacing like this. The mask is either completely on or completely off. We never see this character angry. Tom Riddle, when the mask slips off, is fury incarnate. Anger is the one emotion he doesn’t find weak; the one emotion he’s completely and utterly honest with.

Besides, that brings me to my next point. Tom’s not quite so austere. In fact, he’s quite witty, and often quite pleased with himself.

Just look at the difference in their body language. Tom has much more fluidity (he’s circling Harry, the head-tilt, the eyebrows move and he smiles a bit) than the other character, who has so much tension. Yes, they’re both menacing, but in completely different ways. Tom is comfortable with his actions, no matter how shitty they are. This other guy doesn’t like doing what he’s doing, but he’s going to do it, anyway.

Contrasted with the above, Tom’s unawareness of himself is such that we end up with a character who has a bizarre mix of extreme self-hatred and high self-esteem -- he always believes he is in the right -- in this case, doing Salazar Slytherin’s noble work -- while going to extreme, self-destructive lengths, such as tearing himself in half at the mere age of sixteen.

So, sorry... I kind of get the appeal, but... I don’t like the fancast.

(More unpopular opinions coming at 5:30 PM EDT tomorrow!)

#tom riddle #the many faces of #tom marvolo riddle #character analysis #character study #tom hughes #unpopular opinion #i am so getting cancelled #look i spent actual time trying to get those two gifs on the same line but it just wasn't happening #they line up if you make your window narrower #tw: mention of self-harm

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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 3 years

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*Cackling* Now rank your ot3's!

*long sigh*

SECTION 1:

Yes, there are sections, this is a list of 20 things. I like to be organized. These ones I seek out. I like them. I actively enjoy them on purpose.

1. Roloceit: My BOYS. Are these my 3 favorites? perhaps. You can't prove anything (you sure can, just look at my goddamn Ao3). Something about the dynamics here is just...so good for me? The combination of fluff/angst/multi-talented braincells is wonderful. I need these three to watch a documentary and tear it to absolute pieces. Also they would be so good at...actually having methods of supporting each other??? I love them.

2. Analogince: in the same vein, the SNARK. THE SASS. THE GROUPCHAT THAT WE ALL KNOW EXISTS THAT IS SOO OVERLOADED WITH SALT THAT IT'S A DEHYDRATION RISK. Also healthy communication??? supportive signifs??? good shit

3. Anxcietmus: The Dark Sides™. Again, I think these three just get each other. That means great fluff and great angst possibilities ABOUND and especially when it comes to being a menace in the rest of the mindscape. Yes. Good. Have fun.

4. Intruloceit: Someone please make this nerd take a fucking break for once. The chaos of leading what you THINK is a stuck-up buttoned-up nerd only to feel such an odd mixture of pride and mortal terror at discovering a TRUE mad scientist. Yes. Logan deserves to go ape-shit. Let him.

5. Analoceit: Did someone ask for some amused gay judgement? You got the whole scale here, Distinguished, Functional, and Disaster. They don't need the group chat because they can do it with just a look. Perfect. Wonderful.

6. Intruloxiety: slightly less snark, which is why it's ranked lower, but I don't think it would be any less supportive. Between the three of them I think they'd have a conversation about boundaries right up front and constantly be checking in with each other. Which is good!! Please do this!!

7. Loroyality (am i making up some of these names as I go? yes): The Light Sides™! The reason this is ranked lower is because I think they've got some in-canon struggles that would take some time and effort (from errybody) to sort out before I would consider this relationship healthy, but after that? Forget it. We vomiting sushine and rainbows and our teeth hurt from how sweet they are. I have faith in them.

8. Royaliceit: *sniff sniff* did someone say ANGST??? This is the only one I put up here that I mainly look for to get angst because BOY HOWDY. Especially post-POF? Roman you poor thing why do I project so strongly onto you, my god. This is a MESS and they need to do WORK to FIX IT but it's all about the misunderstanding and the healing and oh my god please someone tell Roman his worth is not based on how well his work is received please. Also if you're like me and you subscribe to the headcanon that the last time Patton and Janus agreed on something it was to stay in the closet as long as possible...*choo choo bitches angst town here we come*

SECTION 2:

These ones I don't actively seek out but you know?? For a headcanon post? They seem pretty chill. Haven't devoted a lot of brainpower to 'em, just think they're neat.

9. Moloceit (my keyboard is so confused you guys): Now THIS. THIS is the obnoxious trio of philosophy majors that ALWAYS hog the good library table. Someone will say ONE GODDAMN thing and they'll be talking about ontology and subjectivity for hours. It's impossible to tell whether or not they're being serious when they do it. As a most-definitely-not-a-philosophy-student, no. I mean, yes but no.

10. Anaroceit: you know those fucking divas that strut into the mall like they own the goddamn place? These bastards. They are the Heathers (except actually decent people) and you will not get between them and their purchases. If you come after one of them the other will overprotective the fuck out of them and rip you to shreds. You might be worried sometimes that they're hurting each other but they do actually talk about their boundaries. solid 7/10.

11. Analogicality: (whoa, we're halfway there...): These three just seem like they'd be super domestic. Not that it wouldn't also be adorable, but just kinda...routine? Virgil doesn't like new shit, Logan likes a schedule, and Patton enjoys doing things together in 'traditions.' Some spice but they're all fairly level-headed so...the most they get is screaming out songs with the windows down (WHOA LIVIN' ON A PRAYER)

12: Intrulogicality: You know those scenarios where you got Person A who runs headlong into crazy bullshit, Person B who likes to pretend they're not as into the crazy bullshit as Person A but is, and Person C who gets dragged into shit? There you go.

13: Anxmoceit: I think once they all sat down and had a conversation they might actually be decent??? But I can't stop seeing Patton and Janus coparenting Virgil so it stays platonic in my head. (listen i don't kinkshame but i am aroace, that does limit me a bit when it comes to this bag of nonsense)

14. Intrumoceit: Again, LONG conversation, but it's better to have one crazy dumbass whom you both love but please stop giving up heart attacks every two seconds bb we can't deal with these palpitations. I think this would require SO much work on Patton's end to make this healthy that I can't see it very clearly.

15. Intrumoxiety: This one I put down here because while Janus isn't the best at being straightforward (or straight) he DOES understand himself enough to actually have a productive conversation when he has to. I think Virgil would be too caught up between the dynamic of Patton and Remus for it to be healthy for him, especially at the beginning. It would end up dumping too much of the conflict resolution into his court and uh...no. No thanks. Do I think they COULD make it work? Yes, of course, but I wouldn't seek it out.

16. Anaroyality: Uhhh yeah they exist. Y'all gotta do some work to establish good boundaries but yeah, I think you could do it. Have a makeup day where everybody just fucks shit UP at a Sephora or an Ulta and try crazy looks on each other. You could do it. I believe in you.

SECTION 3:

These are the ones I will actively avoid, more often than not. If they're not handled carefully--which is not the responsibility of other creators, I take full blame, this is just how I personally interpret them--they can squick me out. The ones with Roman and Remus are down here, and as a disclaimer, this isn't because I view poly relationships where not all parties are dating each other as inherently inferior, not at all. I just think that within a relationship where both Roman and Remus are dating the same person, that has the potential to go REAL bad REAL quick.

17. Intrulogince: Do I want to see Roman and Remus playfully competing to win the favor of our favorite nerd? yes. Do I think it would end up aggravating the rivalry they already had to really bad places? Also yes. Either with Roman backing off and internalizing the idea that he's not good enough or by exploding on both of them. It's a bad time. No. That being said, I have seen things where Logan is just spoiled by incredible things made in the Imagination and those are very sweet. a good time.

18. Intruprinxiety (that looks so weird when it's spelled out, oh my god it sounded so much better in my head): Again, exacerbating a pre-existing rivalry, oh dear me, and this time poor Virgil's caught in the middle? a mess. There is also the potential for them to be childhood friends to lovers which would be very sweet but the overlap with all of their combined histories are...a lot of baggage. Like so much.

19. Intruroceit: The only way I can see this happening is Roman's inadequacy issues and abandonment issues going THROUGH THE FUCKING ROOF and it would force Remus into being a pseudo-therapist for them and Janus your habit of messing with Roman needs to gtfo right the fuck now.

20. Intruroyality: is anyone surprised that this one is my least favorite? Between the squicks I get from Patton as a character, the relationship between Patton and both of the twins in canon, and how much baggage Roman and Remus have...no. Absolutely not. I have horrible memories of some very toxic relationships that I can absolutely see here and no.

*phew* that was a long one. you're welcome.

EDIT: thank you @shinekittenace for names seriously this post is a mess

#dragonbabbles #sanders sides #i do have opinions on the matter

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doomonfilm · 3 years

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Ranking : Gus Van Sant (1952-present)

I was somewhat familiar with Gus Van Sant prior into taking the deep dive through his catalog, but he was certainly a man that I thought I had a handle on. I knew he had more than a few amazing films under his belt, but the recent years had not been kind to him (see the shot taken at him in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). I knew that he was from the Pacific Northwest (Oregon specifically), and his coming of age in an area that embraces weirdos and outsiders had an impact on him as a human and as a creator. I knew that films like Milk and Good Will Hunting had taken Van Sant to the highest heights, while the collective panning of films like Psycho and Last Days served as valleys in a career full of glorious peaks.

What I came to discover, however, was a man with genuine creative integrity, and lots of it. I found a director who understood his characters and actors on a human level, and shared them with viewers in ways that helped rich connections develop. I saw a director who was not afraid to make those that society often considers outcasts the emotionally rich and important centers of his narratives. I watched Gus Van Sant present, explore, develop and refine his style over deeply independent and infamously studio-driven projects, giving all experiences as much care and attention as he was able. I saw films I was familiar with find placement behind films I was new to, I discovered that his recent creative years have not been as kind to him as the first two-thirds of his career, and I can see that there still may be a bit of a smolder left in his creative fire.

Ranking directors is a labor of love, but by no means do I consider myself the definitive professional on film canon. I enjoyed all of the Gus Van Sant films I watched on some level, and as always, for those brave enough to interact, I’d be curious to see where you would make adjustments to the list. But enough introduction talk, let’s get into what you folks came for!

17. Restless (2011) There are things about Restless that I want to love without judgement. First and foremost, Mia Wasikowska is an absolute treasure who shines in this performance from the earlier portion of her career. The portrayal of Hiroshi is one of the more subtle, substanced and interesting ways of using a ghost within the film framework. As minor a thing as it may be to the casual moviegoer, some of this film’s technical aspects are astounding, specifically the costuming and the lighting choices. Where the film distracts me, and therefore drops in these rankings, is where it takes the YA approach to the romantic drama, with a healthy dose of manic pixie dream girl energy thrown in for good measure. When it comes to displaying romance on-screen, be it teenage or otherwise, there are no expectations, even for a director with a distinct style. Where my issues arise are in the way that death is handled in this film… while I do understand that not every film has to be a distinct statement for a director (especially a film written by another individual), Gus Van Sant had already established a very mature approach to the subject of death, and the way that death and the manic pixie dream girl aspects are intertwined feels more on the amateur side than I am comfortable with for a Gus Van Sant film. Maybe giving the impossibly troubled young man a muse with an expiration date as his way to find the best version of himself is a stroke of genius that provides a gateway for deep commentary on the concept of the manic pixie dream girl, but the film is so approachable and not the type to bare teeth (be it satirically or otherwise) that I doubt there is any subtext to its intention. For that reason, this film finds itself on the bottom half of the Van Sant canon.

16. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018) After the critical and box office disappointment that was The Sea of Trees, director Gus Van Sant had quite the hill to climb with his next film, and with his adaptation of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, it seemed he was able to right those respective ships. Strangely, the film failed to connect with me, and as far as I can tell, it seems to be the victim of an “all sizzle, no steak” scenario. The film is certainly a showcase of a very diverse cast, and based on both the flashback-based and group therapy approach to the story, there are a wealth of opportunities to create memorable moments. Unfortunately, and perhaps due to an oversight on my end, I failed to find enough substance during my viewing of the film to prop up the parade of moments. What it felt like I was left with, sadly, was a Simple Jack-level approach to conveying a paraplegic-centered story, which undercut the fact that the film is actually telling the true story of cartoonist, artist and musician John Callahan. That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have it’s positive aspects, such as the John Callahan illustrations and the animated versions of his work, but those positive aspects feel sparse in comparison to how much the film relishes in what feels like Oscar bait. If nothing else, see this film for Jonah Hill, because it took me much longer than it should have to recognize him, partly due to his impressive weight loss and partly due to how dedicated he is to achieving the film’s period look.

15. The Sea of Trees (2015) Death is no stranger in the films of Gus Van Sant, but I don’t feel that it would be bold to state The Sea of Trees deals with death in the most direct manner. For those that subscribe to grief having stages, this film accounts for all of them in some way, shape or form during the course of the narrative as we watch Arthur Brennan fall apart and rediscover himself in the wake of losing Joan Brennan, his wife. Placing the film in Aokigahara (aka the "Japanese suicide forest") not only gives the film a sense of natural beauty, but a foreboding sense of dread and despair as well. The core cast is as strong as any found in a Van Sant film, with Matthew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe and Naomi Watts all turning in solid performances. Sadly, the film falters in one very core aspect : sympathy for the protagonist. I found myself feeling very bad for Joan Brennan as I watched her arc, and despite knowing nothing about Watanabe’s character portrayal of Takumi Nakamura, I found myself sympathetic to him based solely on what he was emoting. Arthur Brennan, however, is interesting in all the wrong ways… he is extremely cold and purposefully flat when introduced, the moments we share with the Brennans only seem to show Arthur finding joy at the expense of Joan’s pride, his view of the loss of his wife (and his world view in general) seem to be extremely self-centered, and when he does show heroic attributes they are rooted solely in self-preservation. Perhaps if Van Sant had not already made such eloquent reflections on death via The Death Trilogy and Paranoid Park, The Sea of Trees could have been seen in a different light, but when you set such a high bar for your work, returning to stereotypical storytelling can feel flat and uninspired.

14. Last Days (2005) Last Days is a film with a weird energy and aura surrounding it… in some ways, it feels like the most performative film not only of the Death Trilogy, but out of the entire Gus Van Sant catalog. At the risk of using too negative an adjective, it also feels the most exploitive, though neither of these observations are necessarily meant to be a knock against the film. The Death Trilogy could not help but be exploitive at its root, as each film was inspired by an infamous death event, and with Michael Pitt’s Blake meant to be an avatar for Kurt Cobain, it would be simple to take the film at face value for some sort of glamourized and idealized fictional retelling of his tragic final moments, not to mention a few stylistic nods to iconic Cobain-related imagery. What that viewer would be missing, in my opinion, is a film looking to make some familiar points on outsider culture (specifically alternative rock and roll counterculture and addict culture) minus all the glamour and shine. While Blake’s house is grand, it’s decrepit and in a state of disrepair… despite it being isolated, expected and unexpected guests arrive constantly, not to mention an intrusive ringing phone that connects Blake to outworld obligations… Blake has a number of people living with him, but he almost never interacts with them. Michael Pitt is done up to look so similar to Kurt Cobain that much of the narrative background is implied, and what we are left with is the Death Trilogy style implemented and fused onto a loose leaf narrative with just enough structure to let the supporting actors have isolated memorable moments while we watch Pitt’s Blake decay in the ways that many of us Cobain fans ruminated on in the wake of his sudden and tragic death at the height of his tortured popularity.

13. Gerry (2002) At the risk of sounding cliché, Gerry may be the most fascinating film in Gus Van Sant’s canon. It marks a clear and definitive break in convention from a director that seemingly never cared too much for convention anyway. Multiple aspects of this film make it extremely unique : both characters referring to one another by the same name (though Gerry eventually evolves into an all-purpose non-specific descriptor), a seemingly absent narrative, a shared goal between the characters literally referred to as “the thing” in order to purposely keep viewers in the dark and, perhaps most importantly, a deliberately methodical pacing that pushes even seasoned film lovers to the limits of their patience. The film is beautiful, and that is a fact that cannot be denied… the painterly shot compositions of our characters in the isolated desert, the unfathomably long tracking shots that pull us deeper off the beaten path and the sonic stillness (due to a largely absent score that is replaced with the sounds of nature) either commit you fully to the experiment or come off as massively pretentious. To view the film through that secondary lens, however, is to miss the point of it all. Once it is understood that Gerry marked the entry point for Gus Van Sant’s Death Trilogy, you began to realize that Van Sant, in tandem with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, are giving us an understanding of how we should view the trilogy, and how open-minded we should be in processing what is given to us, like some early high-concept version of what Quentin Dupieux would later go on to master in a more abstract manner.

12. Mala Noche (1985) It’s fitting that this was a feature-length debut from a driven and working director, as it has a very distinct look and feel to it that immediately lets you know you’re dealing with an innate storyteller and someone who has spent time observing the human condition. In terms of visual and narrative balance, Gus Van Sant utilizes what feels like a mix of John Cassavetes and Jack Kerouac, respectively. Van Sant’s use of titles in the film is striking, specifically in terms of the handwritten opening credits and the Dr. Pepper ad copy used to subtitle the Spanish language dialogue. Focusing so heavily on immigration and homosexuality in 1985 is a bold choice, especially as neither group had yet to benefit (even if only minimally) from the onset of politically correct culture policing. While the film was more than likely shot in black and white due to budgetary constraints, the infusion of somewhat modern elements (for the time) gives it a youthful and forward-thinking energy. Having a film of this nature lean so heavily on multilingual and multicultural elements is refreshing, and even more impactful when examined under the boorish and (at times) tone deaf application that humanizes these elements. For all of these aspects of the film, however, when examined at the pure narrative foundation, what we find is a story about how love can blind us from the reality we inhabit, and how we often choose to ignore the obvious when romance and romanticism enters the picture.

11. Psycho (1998) Of all the films in the Van Sant catalog, perhaps the bravest, boldest and most baffling entry is his nearly shot for shot remake of the iconic Alfred Hitchcock thriller and cinematic game changer Psycho. Remakes were certainly not a new or unheard of practice at the time of the Van Sant Psycho release, but most directors opt to put significant twists or updates into their retelling of most remakes, and most films chosen do not hold the lofty stature and position that Psycho does when it comes to remakes. Van Sant’s approach not only made viewers keenly aware of just how direct the homage was, but in some places, modern touches were added in very subtle ways to make the movie more palatable for modern audiences, including more salacious references to sexuality, sound design choices in both the diegetic and symbolic realm, and even an update or two to iconic scenes meant to make us much more uneasy with the Vince Vaughn portrayal of Norman Bates. The actors cast were all famous and respected enough to keep the film’s timeless feeling in-tact, even if the remake could be taken as its own weird and warped project. Personally, I’ve always loved this remake, and taken it as an experiment on the highest commercial level, and a signal to all that Van Sant (at the time) was done with the traditional approach to filmmaking and concepting.

10. Paranoid Park (2007) While many movies centered around skateboarding spend their time and design budget trying to make the outsider nature of the practice look “cool”, Paranoid Park spends its time making sure that the isolation, deep focus and rebellious attitude that come with skateboarding were more authentic than they were appealing. High school is already a very taxing and polarizing section of juvenile development, and based on your perception at the time, the weight that the world unloads on you can feel wholly unbearable. Perhaps this is what makes Paranoid Park such a tense film… that natural teenage angst is already imprinted into the film (and amplified due to the casting of relative unknowns), but Gus Van Sant’s signature use of alternative film stocks, obscure soundtrack and expressive, layered sound design but you square in Alex’s head from the opening moments. As the narrative unfolds, we realize that Alex is not only dealing with standard-issue teen stress, but has unwillingly found himself involved in the type of events that change an individual’s world. This film plays well as the first film post-Death Trilogy, as it deals with the gravity of mortality head-on much like the aforementioned three films, but does so from an adaptive stance rather than one based on true events. If you’re a fan of skater flicks, movies with strong teen acting, or little-known Gus Van Sant gems, then Paranoid Park is a gem waiting for discovery.

9. Finding Forrester (2000) Gus Van Sant has always had a way with stories that dive below the surface of the human experience and condition, so it makes sense that his attempt at a New York-based movie about people living in “the hood” would cover an array of topics with masterful subtlety, specifically the topics of race relations, generational gaps and the blurry line between education and exploitation. The casting on this film is extremely strong… then newcomer Rob Brown gives a riveting and dynamic lead performance, it’d be harder to cast a more perfect curmudgeon than Sean Connery, and appearances by F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes and a Matt Damon cameo all stand out. Speaking of Damon, Finding Forrester shares a similar energy to Good Will Hunting, but the proximity of release ultimately held Finding Forrester from finding its proper audience (no pun intended). I wish I had more to say about this film outside of my personal feelings and connections to the story (which I will save for a dedicated deep dive in the future), but Finding Forrester is one of those films that has no trouble speaking for itself.

8. Promised Land (2012) As of the point that this blog post was created, this film stands as the last of the great Van Sant creations. There is something about the Gus Van Sant approach to filmmaking that works best with “salt of the Earth” types, and with Promised Land being centered around the practice of fracking, much of that down-home nature is immediately baked into the story. Speaking of the story, the film was co-written by the characters who ended up being the protagonist and antagonist of the picture, respectfully, which created an electric main dynamic that served as the spine for many other strong dynamics present in the film. In terms of the cinematography, much of Van Sant’s bold approaches and stylistic shifts are absent, save for a few beautiful bird’s eye view perspective shots that give you a real idea of what rural America looks like. Van Sant is no stranger to stacked casts, but he gets some truly top notch names to take part in this affair, and true to the clout behind these names, the performances are as stellar as they are believable and natural. The film also touched a nerve with the actual oil industry due to some of its comments on fracking, despite it not having the reach or success of other Van Sant films. While possibly an indicator that Van Sant would be making a stylistic shift, Promised Land still manages to capture what makes Van Sant his best self in terms of not only presenting real people, but topical and important situations.

7. Milk (2008) Gus Van Sant is clearly no stranger to having representation for the gay community in his films, so it makes sense that one of the hallmark films in his canon would center around gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. Much like JFK crystalized Oliver Stone, or Spike Lee was raised to another echelon by Malcolm X, Van Sant found a second round of Academy Award-level validation via this biopic while solidifying himself as a creative who could go back and forth effortlessly between big budget studio films and independent projects. With Sean Penn giving one of his signature chameleon-like performances and leading the pack, this Van Sant production is filled with tons of burgeoning talent who have since gone on to make names for themselves in the industry, including the likes of Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alison Pill and others, plus a standout performance from Josh Brolin (who also depicted George W. Bush in the same year for the aforementioned Stone). While it may not be the most technically marveling film of Van Sant’s career, it is clearly one of his most important, and the way that it handles the messages it intends to share is as confident as it is even-keeled, which is important for a film that could have easily become a soapbox for espousing personal beliefs and political agendas.

6. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) This Gus Van Sant adaptation of the famed author Tom Robbins novel shares the same creative energy of films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Natural Born Killers, Harold and Maude and so on in the sense that it is a very expressive film with a very specific idea it is looking to present. Where the aforementioned films explored ideas of free love taken to the extreme, the toxicity of media, love without judgement and so on (respectively), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues puts femininity and identity outside of the male gaze squarely in its crosshairs. Uma Thurman takes on the role of Sissy with wide-eyed zeal, floating through a series of hitchhiker-based adventures until her reluctant visit to the Rubber Road Ranch helps her find the missing piece of her puzzle. Seeing a bizarre, star-studded tale of a woman finding her agency sounds like it would work on the surface, but from what I could find, the film failed to make a connection with audiences and is considered a commercial and critical failure (which is probably why it was the toughest film to track down on this list). That being said, I’m a sucker for films that catch a bad rap, especially when the combination of such a unique director and visionary author are the foundation of it, because it makes me curious about why I find connection where others did not… who knows, maybe it was those extremely distracting rubber thumbs (the only real knock I can make on the film), or maybe the Tom Robbins style is tough to transfer from page to screen, but for my money’s worth, I can see the vision.

5. My Own Private Idaho (1991) Somewhere within the intersection of films like Midnight Cowboy and Fight Club lies My Own Private Idaho, an extremely personal and nuanced film that covers many topics with depth and an ease that comes with wisdom and experience. For example, when it comes to views on identity, we get two rich narratives that could easily both be their own film : Mike (portrayed by River Phoenix) is going through a crisis of identity based on a sordid history with his mother and absentee father that makes his search for love transform into a life of hustling as a way to find momentary intimacy; meanwhile, Keanu Reeves (who plays Scott) is an entitled young man awaiting an inheritance that decides to spend the time until it happens “slumming” with those many would consider the outcasts of society, much like the “tourists” spoken of by Edward Norton’s narrator in Fight Club. The struggle with masculinity in the face of homosexuality is all over this film, from its multiple male on male connections to the very toxic manner that the core group interacts with one another, when they are not grieving or putting their livelihood in danger via petty crimes. In terms of Van Sant style, the film is one of his most innovative (outside of the film holding the top spot) in terms of looks, with its unique range of colorful title cards, the pinhole vision that Mike uses on his road, or even the standout magazine rack sequence. The film is also a perfect follow-up to Drugstore Cowboy, and could easily double feature with it to this day. As someone not wholly familiar with Shakespeare’s Henry plays, I did not catch that My Own Private Idaho was an adaptation, so I will not only have to revisit it with that familiarity in tow, but I will have to take a look into James Franco’s re-cut, My Own Private River, as well.

4. Elephant (2003) Based solely on the nature and definition of a trilogy, a second film can make or break things. Gerry and Last Days share similarities in how quiet and isolated they are, so it makes sense that Elephant, part two of Van Sant’s Death Trilogy, would in many ways be the meat of the trilogy sandwich in terms of style and thematic substance. Elephant operates on several distinct levels based on Van Sant’s observations of the world going into the new millennium, as the film allowed him a foundation for both experimentation and examination by proxy. While the long takes and vast amount of distance traveled during said takes was present in all three films of the trilogy, Van Sant made a concentrated effort to make the shots look and feel similar to that of video games like the later Grand Theft Auto entries, hence a number of the shots being positionally locked during travel (often times a few feet behind the character at the center of that moment’s focus). There are ramp-downs of the frame rate to punctuate certain moments, and quite often the camera is thrown on a tripod and allowed to take in the array of high schoolers living their standard life. It is this mundane world-building aspect that not only gives the viewer a rapid but deep look into a handful of character’s lives, but it gives you a sense of the school’s social hierarchy while forcing you to reflect on where you once stood within it. Per the film’s clever title, the elephant in the room eventually appears in the form of Eric and Alex, the pair of school shooters meant to reflect the Columbine Massacre perpetrators. While school shootings weren’t an unknown phenomenon going into the 2000’s, Elephant became prophetic in its vision by releasing right before the numbers started rising at an alarming rate on these incidents. In that sense, Elephant holds the dual distinction of not only being one of Van Sant’s best films, but one of his most important. I will soon be looking into the 1989 Elephant film as well.

3. Drugstore Cowboy (1989) The power of Drugstore Cowboy as a modern-day narrative tragedy about the epidemic of prescription drugs, the dark allure of crime and the oddball way that broken people find solace in one another is immediately evident to anyone who has had the pleasure to see Gus Van Sant’s studio directorial debut. Where the film really stands out however, in my opinion, is the way that Van Sant is able to achieve his major studio look while deeply applying a very artistic and personal aesthetic to the cinematography and editing. The traditional looks are interspersed with the use of different film stocks, subtle blends of animation and flashes of stylistic edits that were almost certainly an inspiration for Darren Aronofsky’s “hip-hop editing” style. Add to this an incredibly intuitive and expressive core cast driven by the chemistry between Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch (and a very early Heather Graham supporting appearance), plus a strong appearance by the always memorable Max Perlich, a fiery James Remar performance and an iconic cameo from William S. Burroughs. The jazz-influenced score not only makes key scenes livelier, but it is a symbolic statement on the drug use depicted in the film, while simultaneously playing counter to the soundtrack choices. Period, point-blank, Drugstore Cowboy is the kind of film that surely put the world on notice, and was a clear signal of the magnificent work that would follow.

2. Good Will Hunting (1997) If held up to the standards of what people consider to be good (or even classic) film, Good Will Hunting more than holds up to scrutiny. Visually there are a small handful of flourishes, and having Elliot Smith’s music accompany Will’s painful but enlightening journey has only become more of a bittersweet sting as the years go by. In terms of performances, everyone brought their A+ game to the table, be it the leading performances of Matt Damon, Robin Williams or Stellan Skarsgård, the supporting performances of Ben Affleck or Minnie Driver, or even the engaging nature of Cole Hauser and repeat scene stealer Casey Affleck. After a flurry of dedicated fandom viewings in the years following this film’s release, a very long period away from the film where I had leagues of personal growth, and a revisitation for this set of rankings, what I have discovered is that Good Will Hunting presents a wish fulfillment fantasy that was nearly incapable of being a reality in the pre-internet age for anyone other than a character like Will : an undiscovered genius with a degree from the school of hard knocks. In a world where people often wish they had the correct answer to every question, the looks and personality to be a social magnet, and the ability to back up any tough talk with stone hands, Will Hunting stood as an idealized example you wished you could peel off the screen and have some beers with. As the internet has invaded our lives, however, most everyone has turned into a keyboard version of Will Hunting, looking for fights online when not having briefly intimate Google sessions to flex our supposed knowledge. Much like Will, many people find that the knowledge minus the wisdom of worldly experience and vulnerability leaves you a shell of a person filled to the eyeballs with regret, and perhaps that is why this film only gets better as the years go by, and remains among the best of the Van Sant creations.

1. To Die For (1995) For the longest time, I avoided To Die For simply because I was not a fan of Nicole Kidman… the vast majority of her roles held no interest to me prior to To Die For (it took Eyes Wide Shut for me to really start paying attention to her), and because she was so key to the film, there was never a sense of urgency about seeing it. As time went by, however, I started to hear rumblings that To Die For may have been a bit ahead of its time, to the point that technology and social practices have caught up to some of the ideas presented in the film. I finally watched it for this ranking set, and man, I really missed the boat on this one. Plain and simple, this film is pure genius on every level. The presentation starts off documentary-esque, which not only allows for expedited distribution of backstory information, but immediately gives you an idea for the personalities of our key characters. Kidman’s portrayal of Suzanne stood as the textbook example for what has become commonly known as sociopathy, with her blind desire for fame and respect leading to a wake of human destruction. In terms of narrative pacing, the film proceeds like a match dropped at the endpoint of a long gasoline trail, slowly drifting towards the eventually point that everything blows up and damage must be assessed while blame and accountability must be handled, resulting in a truly powerful ending more than deserving of the heavy lifting that precedes it. The 24-hour news cycle was on the horizon in 1995, daytime talk shows and MTv’s The Real World had not shifted into the reality TV landscape that we know today, and while a few high profile cases such as the Menendez Brothers and Pamela Smart trial (the loose inspiration for this film) had happened, the bombshell and watershed trail that was the O.J. Simpson murder case was hot on the heels of To Die For’s release (the same month, actually). Stylistically, the film also bears striking resemblance to an updated version of Sunset Boulevard, be it knowingly or not. Long story short, the best films not only comment on the times in which they are created, but gain relevance as time passes, and To Die For handled both of these things phenomenally.

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krabmeat · 3 years

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Okay I do have work in the morning but I have time to rant a bit and maybe read some of your oc works depends on how long this takes. It does get long, btw

Alright so quick TW for fire, trauma, mild mania mention, death of family, and weapon mentions

Way before the SMP and everything Charrish was just part of a regular old family of skeleton half-breeds. Their mother was an Overworld skeleton, and their father was a Wither Skeleton. Charrish had a brother, more Overworld than Wither, and Charrish was the opposite. Now, their father was often away fighting as a guard for the nearby Nether Fortress. Because of this, their mother had to raise two rapidly growing children on her own. (For reference of growth speed, Charrish turns out to be 9'10) And so over time their mother decended into something of a mute madness. She repeated the same tasks on the daily and never did anything else, trapped in a mental loop.

One day, Charrish was out gathering materials to get them through the summer spent in the Overworld with their mother's family. But while they were out, a rogue Ghast fireball struck their home, starting a raging fire only fueled by the environment. The ceiling collapsed just as Charrish returned. They ran into the flames in an attempt to save what family they had left, but instead they got pinned beneath a burning board, mother and brother already dead.

Charrish was the only survivor, but they were burned to no end. Every inch of their body was a rough charcoal texture and was flaking at the touch, and what used to be grayish bone turned what resembles Wither Skeleton black. The entire community thought they wouldn't make it, that the burns and injuries were too bad and they were better off on their own to die in peace. Not to mention the other skeletons their age making up names, Charred being one of them. It made them feel ostracized, and even more alone than they already were. But they took on the title, eventually changing it up a bit to Charrish. Later on, they'll forget what their name before even was. When they tell the tale, they'll say "My name before this was not who I am. Becoming Charrish was my destiny, my purpose. It always has been. I know it."

Miraculously, they survived the burn. And decided to attempt and do something no Wither Skeleton had done before, take up permanent residence in the Overworld. Even spending the summer was risky, and they were often kept ib hot temperatures. But going through all the seasons up there was seen as impossible. Then again, them surviving was supposed to be impossible, as well.

Before they left, they received a gift along with a note. The note was from their father, telling them about how he had always believed in them. Charrish didn't believe a word of it, but did take the gift. It was the first sword their father had ever trained with; a sturdy stone one without enchantments but the power of Withering embedded deep in its cracks. That was all Charrish had to take up to the Overworld. Oh, and the name of the weapon? IT was carved into its hilt centuries before then. Famine. The first of many, which I'll get to in a second.

In childhood, they were good friends with Techno. They grew up together. But he moved to the Overworld long before Charrish did, and they drifted apart. So seeing him again was certainly a trip. Charrish showed up when everyone was in mourning over the first loss of Wilbur. The remaining members of SBI took them in first, mostly because of their relationship with Techno. And the rest just fell into place from there.

The iron daggers they carry share the name Conquest, and their Netherite axe is named War. Famine, Conquest, and War. And as for powers, the only real power comes from when they eventually discover they can harness the abilities of the Wither itself. It hurts like Hell, but they can fly, shoot beams of light that explode upon contact, and all that cool Wither shit.

Some extra lore: (I have a Slides presentation for this that I'm reading off of)

They can't stand fire after what happened, but they have an immunity to it

They can't return to the Nether for too long, both because of memories and because they've adapted to living in the Overworld

They can't remember the names of their family and they also can't remember how they forgot. Charrish and Ghostbur narrowed it down to either repression or memory loss from blunt force trauma (they did it with the help of Phil, too)

They hate serious injuries and try to either hide them or walk them off because of how they were treated when everyone thought they would die

Charrish is always very aware because the last time they weren't, their mother and brother died

When they die in canon, they turn into a pile of bones that slowly get reconstructed and put back together as they respawn

"Chat" are the souls once in the Soul Sand from the Nether that their house was built on trapped in their hollow ribcage, and others are more souls claimed by Famine in battle (those would be the subscribers ahdks)

Anyway yeah. That's about the gist. If you have any questions for whatever reason go ahead and ask I don't mind and I could probably answer it. But yeah:) have a good day homie!! And I do want to hear more about Krab Meat!

- Ink

oooh, charrish sounds really cool! with the way charrish was treated in the nether, does that imply that maybe they hate serious injuries because they were treated so poorly since everyone thought charrish was gonna die from their injuries? i think its really cool of charrish to really own their name! also, you said that they "tell the tale", to who do they tell it to? the names for their weapons are super cool! i feel like they really fit the vibe of the nether especially Famine since there isnt much food in the nether! since they showed up during the grievance of wils death, how did charrish react to seeing technos secret room filled wall to wall with wither skeletons? were they angry? afraid? not bothered, even?

ill make sure to tell you about c!krabs sometime! just not now though cause you deserve to have the spotlight :]

#krabs kommunicating #tw brother mention #tw death #tw fire #tw trauma #tw mild insanity #tw weapons #tw war mention #tw famine mention #INK MY BELOVEDDD

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theentiregdtime · 5 years

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So I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately about how Mac deserves so much better than Dennis, and if he ends up with Dennis, it will basically be an act of kindness and self-assured destruction. To be fair, that’s somewhat true- I mean, that’s the whole point of the first episode of Season 13. Even though their lives are considerably better without Dennis, the rest of the gang will still choose him time and time again and deal with the consequences, because they’re all codependent to some extent (although you could argue Dennis is actually the most codependent of all of them). But they’re all pieces of shit, they’re all terrible people who deserve nothing, including Mac (I mean, we love them, but they’re just terrible). Mac is not some pure little angel baby who has done everything right and is the light to Dennis darkness or whatever. No one ever wants to talk about how often Mac breaks Dennis’ heart. Granted, everything I’m about to cite may be due to his obliviousness, ignorance, and inner turmoil... but the same is true for the way Dennis treats Mac. It’s a double standard (more below the cut because this got long). 🐸☕️

In the early seasons, Dennis is clearly more confident with his sexuality and more capable of expressing emotions. In general, he’s a much more real and honest person, and he’s not hiding behind a fabricated version of himself like he is now. Now, that may have been because his character wasn’t completely solidified at the time, but either way, it’s still canon. Time and time again, everyone (including Mac) shut Dennis down when sexuality or emotions were brought up. Every time he had big, loud, genuine feelings, the gang got confused and wrote him off and acted like he was being a total weirdo. Mac has historically been very in-your-face about his condemnation of gay relationships as well, and every time, Dennis has reacted by dismissing him or punishing him in one way or another. Hearing that shit over and over again has obviously been pretty tiring for Dennis, especially if you subscribe to the Season 5 theory (if you do, ouch, it’s not fucking fun to be messing around with someone who’s ashamed of you and thinks they’re committing a sin)- and that’s only the extent of it we see onscreen. What we don’t see is how many times Mac has rebuked gay relationships all throughout his friendship with Dennis, in high school and when Dennis was in college and basically their entire lives. As long as Dennis has known Mac, he’s reiterated over and over again that being gay is a sin, and it continues to drive Dennis further and further back into himself (whether you argue that he’s bisexual or gay, he clearly isn’t straight, yet he’s devolved into flat out stating that he is in the most recent season). Mac repeatedly retreats to women he cares nothing for rather than being with Dennis because it’s a safety net (and yes, I’ll give you that Dennis does this, too). Then Mac suddenly whips back around and is out and confident and openly calls himself gay at every given opportunity- and that has to be a punch to the gut. The way he felt about Dennis, how much he loved him, was never enough to make him comfortable in his sexuality. In Goes To Hell, Mac’s coming out is partially a love confession for Dennis as well, which is made quite clear when they’re drowning- then he takes it back at the end. But he comes out over a goddamn lottery ticket and stays out. That has to sting. (Not only does it sting, but it means Dennis actually has to deal with his feelings, but that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not opening right now).

And it’s more than just Mac’s religion and his fight against gay relationships. It’s instances like the one in Beats Boggs. For a moment, Dennis quite visibly gets his hopes up that Mac might be kind to him, might ask him to stay because he cares about him and enjoys his company because he’s his best friend and doesn’t want him to go. And then he doesn’t- he just marks him out of the competition. Dennis’ face clearly screams why did I expect anything more? This is not an isolated incident. In both Beats Boggs and DDL, all it would have taken for Dennis to stay would have been Mac asking him to- but he never does. All Dennis ever needs is one good reason to stay, and Mac never gives him one, reassuring Dennis over and over again that he doesn’t care if he stays or goes, doesn’t need him, which has to hurt. Mac is often comfortable writing Dennis off immediately. He never fights for him. If Dennis leaves, then he leaves, and Mac adapts. In Tends Bar, after knowing him basically his entire life, Mac still thinks Dennis doesn’t have feelings! He sees Dennis on such a surface level sometimes, actually believes the front he puts up, but doesn’t see what’s underneath, doesn’t see the real Dennis. Everything in Dennis is clearly constantly begging for Mac to just see him and really know him. Dennis knows Mac better than he knows himself and Mac... sometimes doesn’t really know Dennis at all. Dennis basically has to kick and scream and shove it in Mac’s face for him to actually comprehend what he’s saying, thinking, or feeling.

And Dennis doesn’t want to have to be loud- he’s not ready to be loud. He wants Mac to look at him and just know what he’s feeling, because he should, because they’ve known each other forever and they’re best friends. But Mac is more or less incapable of noticing anything Dennis doesn’t clearly state. When Dennis snaps and goes against the character of himself he’s constantly playing, Mac is confused and surprised by it- just as much as Charlie and Dee are and even complete strangers are. Dealing with Mac can be like dealing with a dog at times. He loves Dennis unconditionally but doesn’t always know why, he’s adaptable and moves on a thousand times faster than Dennis can (Dennis honestly can’t- there could be a thousand people out there for Mac, but there is no one else for Dennis), he’s easily distracted and confused and hardly ever sees past the surface (he doesn’t even understand why his own actions frustrate Dennis sometimes, even when it’s pretty obvious as to why), he can be perfectly carefree and happy while Dennis is going through hell, he’s impossible to talk to a lot of the time and he pretty much doesn’t see Dennis on a deeper level than anyone else does, despite knowing him and loving him for so many years. But Dennis continues to want Mac’s approval and reassurance and love, very clearly thrives off of it, and this isn’t a goddamn power play or some sort of dominance/ego trip bullshit. I see that as part of the “Mac deserves better”’ argument so often and it’s not the case. Sure, Dennis has an image of himself, and sure, he cares about his reputation, but that’s not why he wants and needs Mac’s approval. He needs it because it makes him feel validated and happy and safe.

So yes, Mac could easily do better than Dennis, but he probably doesn’t deserve it. That’s the whole point of the show- these people are together because no one else wants to be friends with them. They stay together because they’re pieces of shit and all they have is each other. Mac is not an innocent, pure baby who’s been trampled on by Dennis the entire goddamn time. They’re both awful, they’ve both hurt one another over and over and over again, and they’re both terrible at recognizing Dennis’ feelings. If Dennis works overtime to stifle them and Mac can’t see past the charade, then how are his emotions ever supposed to come into the light? How are they going to move past that if Mac can’t see below the surface, if Dennis has to scream it aloud just to get him to understand? One can only hope they figure that out.

And if they do, it won’t be Mac staying with Dennis as an act of kindness and generosity, it won’t be Mac refusing to do better because he’s blindly in love, it won’t be Mac having a thousand options but choosing Dennis anyways. It isn’t any of that. People so consistently want to pretend that’s the case and none of that is true- and even if it is, then the reverse is also true.

They both deserve better and they both deserve nothing, simultaneously. They’ve both broken each other’s hearts time and time again, they’re both equally as awful, and yeah- maybe Dennis needs Mac more than Mac needs Dennis, but that’s just another example of what’s made Dennis so insecure and desperate. This is not some light vs darkness, manipulative, unevenly balanced relationship dynamic as people so often want to portray it. It’s just two shitty people (and let me reiterate, I absolutely love them) who should probably be in jail, who are so emotionally damaged and repressed and fragile, who don’t ever get the timing or the words quite right and who are always so close to figuring it out yet so far away. But they’re going to figure it out, and when they do, when they can finally be honest for the first time in forever, they’re going to deserve to be so happy. Sometimes two awful people deserve each other and sometimes that’s perfect. No one is going to be settling. No one is going to be surrendering. No one is going to deserve better. They deserve exactly as much as each other and nothing more.

#i just started typing and it got out of control #come and get me y'all #also just wanna say i like charmac but don't pretend it's so much purer #they're ALL terrible to each other y'all just wanna woobify mac and charlie and act like dennis is the goddamn devil #newsflash asshole they are all the devil #iasip #dennis reynolds #mac mcdonald #macdennis #just me rambling

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and-all-that-szasz · 4 years

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So I tend to cycle through the fandoms I'm a part of, focusing on primarily one or two at a time, and recently I've been back on my bull**** with My Hero Academia. I know this seems like a bit of a non sequitur, but I also love science. I love the real stuff, what cool new things are happening in the world, and learning how and why things happen from the microscopic to the macroscopic. I love the fake stuff too though, trying to apply rules of logic and biology and physics to fantasy worlds and mechanisms and tropes. The whole "humans are space orcs" tag? One of my very favorite things. To bring it back to topic, so too is the theoretical science of Quirk biology in MHA. It's crazy and fun to think about, especially with the various headcanons of what a 'quirk factor' is and how it would or would not physically manifest, whether individuals do or do not regularly develop adaptations for the more harmful aspects of their Quirk, and the endless speculation of Quirk genetics and the inner workings of canon Quirks. It's all awesome! And just like most people in this fandom (I assume, haha), every so often it's fun to think about what Quirk *you* would have, and how it would manifest or you would go about discovering it. Some people subscribe to the idea that if you have a Quirk, you can kind of just feel it, and can pull on that power to make it manifest or scope out the edges of it. Others say that the existence of 'invisible' Quirks, or people that have a Quirk but dont know what it is because the criteria that would cause it to activate have never been met, mean that clearly that's at least not always the case. (I have a whole side vent about whether people with invisible Quirks are discriminated against the same as Quirkless individuals or not, and if not, then how is that even remotely fair and why didnt Izuku ever just claim to have an invisible one, but of course would that even really change anything in his school situation...)

ANYWAY. All of this to say, I've been thinking myself in loops lately fantasizing about Quirk abilities and then remembering that the Quirk doesnt really have anything to do with the appearance, temperament, or likes and dislikes of the individual at all. Which then led back into pondering on how someone could possibly discover their Quirk (going with the idea that a person doesnt inherently know everything about it) with the neverending possibilities and combinations that a Quirk could have, compounded by whatever limitations or activation criteria it may have. Or what about the ones that make you invulnerable to something that would normally kill you? Say you developed a Quirk that allowed you to breathe underwater. How on earth would discover that? Who goes around and in the interest of having to test every possibility, decides to trust and inhale a lungful of water?? I suppose for most, the search is narrowed down a bit since most children's Quirks are a derivative of one or both of their parents'. But that's not always the case! Because remember, this is a *genetic* thing. You can have Quirks or Quirk components that skip generations, Quirks that mutate into something similar, true, but so fundamentally different in a critical way that nobody ever thinks to try it, or rare but not impossible, a Quirk that is completely different and new from either parent. And heaven help any poor kid that is orphaned young enough to not know their parents/their parents' Quirks (this is kinda shaky, because I know that detailed paperwork is generally kept about the biological parents of any orphaned child, in some shape or form. This could still be a problem if a child is abandoned discreetly/unofficially, or that paperwork is lost somehow)

Tldr: Quirks are weird and wonderful, and I like to think about them. The process of discovering your Quirk could be more complicated than initially thought.

So that was really long and offered little in the way of openings for discussion (which is what I hope for most), so if nothing else, feel free to comment what you think a cool Quirk would be! Could be one you want for yourself, one that you think would be just neat, or even one that you think is thought provoking, strange, scary, subversive, complex, etc!

#my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha #bnha quirks

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aro-aizawa · 6 years

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BHAF Survey

okay so, since i’m rewriting this fic now would be a perfect opportunity to get you guys’ input on what you think needs to be improved in the fic. there are a huge number of parts of the fic that i’m constantly unsure about and wondering if i should retcon out of it, or should be adjusted. things that potentially should be included earlier, or not. and what better way to do that other than a survey?

i would use one of those online survey sites to do it but at the same time, i wouldn’t really be free to explain a few points. so! im gonna do this in the form of this post with links to separate strawpoll questions. the draw back is that i can’t get accurate things like “if x then why did you feel that, write below”. which....kinda sucks so i guess if you wanna complete that then send me an ask or message or hmu on my discord or smth. i can’t really figure out a better way? if you know one then let me know. anyways, if you guys could answer the questions then i would much appreciate it! it’ll be below the cut to spare people’s dashes because the explanations will be long. apologies in advance to mobile users.

you also don’t technically have to read the explanation if you want to get through this quick (i won’t blame you i ramble a lot) but for the most accurate response, please do. but keep in mind, that i will be needing honest answers. don’t worry about sparing my feelings of you’re worried about that. i am willing to improve on anything, but first of all i need to be told what’s wrong and where i can improve. you will not offend me unless you directly insult me. criticism will never be an insult to me.

1) Should Izuku’s panic attacks be removed, occur less frequently, or only occur under specific circumstances (i.e. not the incident that occurs in chapter 11)?

Explanations: The main reason I ask this is in reference to the panic attack that Izuku has chapter eleven. I’ve always been sort of weary about it, concerned that it breaks up the flow of everything and comes practically out of nowhere. I had a few reasons for putting it in, but first and foremost it was me projecting on Izuku. I mean it’s no secret that I do that a lot, especially with me writing in my dissociation problems too. But I tend to get panic attacks a lot when I’m pressed in a huge crowd of people. I had a huge one at a busy London convention that had me shaken throughout the rest of the day, and severely wrecked my Saturday. It’s still fresh in my mind nine months later. I can’t watch that scene without feeling some form of high discomfort. So, naturally, when writing that chapter, I put it in. It’s not an ominous “what traumatic event happened for him to have that?”, sorry if I lead you to believe that.

The second reason I put it in, was actually a character moment. Right now, Uraraka and Iida have only been friends with Izuku for just a couple of days, and Izuku is quick to shrug off their concerns. And with Izuku being the kind of person who wouldn’t ask for help even if he was bleeding out, he’d probably push all his problems out of sight, so that the people closest to him don’t find out. If Uraraka and Iida don’t know about Izuku’s panic attacks, then they wouldn’t know to be concerned. So, Izuku has a panic attack right in front of them, making it impossible for him to hide them (although if he was careful he could write it off as a fluke).

BUT, that being said, I’m unsure that it was really the right time for that? I mean, as I said, they’ve only been friends for two days, which doesn’t really give Izuku any comfort in pretending to be well put together. And I’m not...really a fan of the fics that have everyone instantly adoring Izuku either. But rereading bhaf, it sort of feels...that’s how I’m writing it? I dunno man. So I’m split. Hence why I’m asking people.

2) Is the story’s tone too angsty or with lack of levity?

Explanation: Okay, for starters, I cannot for the life of me read the tone of my own writing unless I wanted it to have a specific tone. I know for a fact, that I’m good at writing moments of panic and sadness, I’ve written a lot of it over the years so that’s what I’m good at. But, there is always such thing as too much. I don’t want bhaf to be a 60k word sad-fest. That’s not what I want. Sure, angst is probably a key factor, but this story is meant to be about healing and moving on from hurt. Not just in the physical way, but mentally and emotionally. Right now, it’s gonna have some angst in it. None of the characters are close enough to outright reach out for help with their problems, Izuku especially, but that’ll probably change in the future.

My concerns are primarily with the parts where Izuku, Iida and Uraraka interact. Or how Izuku interacts with his classmates. So far, at least to me, it feels like...there’s way too much angst? Or there’s not very many moments of levity? But the thing is I’m not good at writing fluff. I’m not good at writing bonding moments, purely because of personal experiences, and my shitty memory not being able to remember how I befriended all but two of my friends (including the many friends that I’ve fallen out with/lost contact with - at least 12 over the years).

I know that inexperience isn’t an excuse, don’t take this explanation as one. I’m just explaining why there hasn’t been a pause to improve their relationship. If people think that it needs more levity, I am completely willing to go back and write a chapter that has Izuku bonding with Uraraka and Iida along with Izuku bonding with the rest of 1-A, that occurs just before USJ. I’ll push that back another couple of weeks in the canon if necessary. And considering that...let me know if you’d like to see that I have a couple of ideas already.

3) Is there any issues that you have with my characterisations?

Explanation: It’s been a while since I’ve been worried about how I characterise the characters. It used to be a big issue for me for the first few years of writing before I figured out that the key way to get over it is to stop worrying and just write. And usually I wouldn’t worry. I’m pretty confident in writing most everyone in the mha universe and there’s only ever a few that I’m worried about.

In particular, I’m the most concerned with Izuku.

Now, with Izuku I’m worried that I’m making him too weak. Because we all know that in canon, our boy is so strong mentally and physically. He endures so much, and it’s very rare to see him stumble and give up on anything. It’s one of the key reasons that I love him as a character so much, he inspires me often to get my shit together and just persevere. And rereading and going back through canon, I can’t help but feel like the bhaf version of Izuku is barely a shadow of canon. Which, is natural, there’s gotta be some canon divergence since this is an AU. But there are limits, and I’m concerned that my characterisation is lacking too much of that strength.

4) Do you have any other issues with anything in BHAF?

Explanation: Okay, so this is probably an unfair question to ask, I’m basically asking you to comment. But!! I know that I have missed a few areas that need to be improved in the fic, so if you feel that there’s a weak point in the fic, then let me know and what you think would improve it. If it fits in with my plan, then I would be more than happy to. In fact, some of my favourite changes to my future plans have come from comments people have made on my fic. It inspires me so much to hear actual feedback from people.

5) When did you first find bhaf?

6) How did you first find bhaf?

Explanation: Might as well ask this. I’ve been curious to how the hell I managed to trick 874 people to subscribe to this fic over the past eleven months. But either way, whether you started when the first chapter went up, or joined after chapter 13, or however you found this fic, I love and appreciate you so much. Thank you.

7) Which do you prefer, long chapters infrequently or shorter chapters more frequently?

Explanation: Personally, I like to write as much into a chapter as I can without going overboard. I like having long scenes and I like having at least two important points in a chapter, so it’s inevitable that I would eventually have long chapters as I have. But, I’m always more concerned with what you as readers feel. I always want to update as soon as, but I would always get so unsatisfied with chapters shorter than 5k words. So, I guess I’m curious?

and that’s it!! thanks for answering!!! you’re helping me out a lot!!

#bleeding hearts are fatal #pls help me out!

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occupyvenus · 6 years

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Great post - "about why Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly thought about" and I think your really nailed a lot of the key factors, especially how the San/San people like Sansa, are more likely book readers and can accept the Jonsa ship maturely. There is definitely a pathological hatred of Sansa that drives the fanaticism against her being with Jon. You really captured a lot of the thinking (if you can call it thinking!) on a tv forum I've been following for about a year. People literally (1/2)

will dream up any reason to keep Sansa away from Jon. There is essentially a subculture that allows the Jon/Ary@ ship and the Jon/D@ny ship to coexist. Even kind of support each other. Dany might die and then Arya and Jon will raise the Targcest baby together. Pretty crazy stuff. Anyway thanks for writing so clearly on this topic. (2/2)

First of all … that was supposed to say FOUGHT ABOUT!!! NOT THOUGHT ABOUT!!! WHY JONSA OF ALL SHIPS IS SO BITTERLY FOUGHT ABOUT!!!

I lower my head in shame, while contemplating my bad habit of never proof-reading the stuff I write. But as the previous anon so correctly pointed out my spelling isn’t exactly top-notch. Most of the time it’s honestly p r e t t y bad. If words sound somewhat similar, by stupid brain assumes they’re interchangeable. Seven hells.

Though I think this - Sansa being regarded as a side character or at best, the least important main character - also explains why Jonsa isn’t seen as a possibility by the general fandom, not just the radical antis. People look at the infamous original outline, believing that Sansa never gained any real importance as a character since then, like she was just allowed to tag along with the “real” key five (Arya, Bran, Dany, Jon and Tyrion). She was supposed to marry Joffrey and die at some point and the crazy folks think she’ll not even survive but also get THE MALE LOVE-INTEREST? I suppose, to people who don’t realize (or don’t want to admit) that Sansa was “upgraded” to key-status (GRRM always includes her when talking about the most important characters nowadays), any serious theory that claims she could be Jon’s grand love interest sounds as implausible as if it was … idk, Arianne or Brienne or whoever. Those two are great and all, but Jon Snow is on an entirely different level when it comes to significance to the narrative. Why would he of all people end up with some puny side-character? Shouldn’t that “honor” go to one of the real heroines? Makes sense. It’s not just the people who actively hate on Sansa, but also those who simply don’t care much about her character.

I guess you call this hypothesis “Why Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly FOUGHT about and/or not taken seriously”.

I’m honestly not an expert on what’s going on between the other camps (ie the general attitude between J0nry and J0nerys shippers), but according to my experience these two subgroups (together with the Sansa/P€tyr shippers) make up the majority of devoted jonsa-haters and put forth the most obsessed ones as well. If I remember correctly, a few years back before canon!jonsa gained so much momentum those two groups weren’t getting along nicely either. There was a lot of bickering about who’s more important (Ary@ is grrm’s fav!, D@ny has dragons and all, so shut your piehole!), mixed up with some shipping wank and as far as I can tell (as I said, I have a very limited perspective on this. I don’t really interact with either group), that has gotten a bit better since Sansa entered the stage as another key female character. What do people say? The enemy of my enemy …

I don’t think that shipping is super important to asoiaf, I care about the story first and was pretty indifferent to it before I jumped on board the Jonsa ship, but I do think that we’ll get one “main” romance between two “main” characters. It would simply make sense to me, Grrm was never shy about including romantic love in his works, even if it was never the main focus. Now, this will more likely than not end in tragedy, but since asoiaf can be read as a coming of age story for at least 5 of the key six, and settling down with a spouse and a couple of kids is one common way to end such a story, maybe that will belong to the “sweet” part of the bittersweet ending. Idk, anything’s possible. (Btw, I don’t count Sansa and Tyrion’s marriage as a “romance” for obvious reasons.) If you don’t subscribe to the idiotic assumption that Jon and D@ny are the “real” real main characters and assume that all six are of equal importance … why is shipping either of them (other than the biological siblings, perhaps, that would be a bit weird even by grrm standards), less legit than the other? (Of course, if you do subscribe to this assumption, there probably only exists one “legitimate” pairing in your opinion. In which case, no argument about this could ever be solved until finding a common denominator to this question of principle, so why even bother…)

If one of the male characters can be seen as the “romantic lead” it would be Jon (grrm even sorta confirmed this in his “fake” -lol- medusa interview), simply because Bran is just a kid and Tyrion, well some people will accuse me of ableism, but I don’t get any “romantic lead” vibes from him. Not because he’s a dwarf, because he’s the only “grownup” of the key six. So everyone can keep any accusations to themselves. I also don’t think that Grrm will stride away from hetero-love, to be honest. HE COULD. But I don’t think he will. That leaves us with the three possibilities mentioned above: Jon and one of the leading ladies. I think it’s rather inevitable that that will happen.

But when it comes to the ladies … things simply aren’t as clear. They’re all similar of age, neither of them is closely related to Jon (at least, not THAT closely related), they could all work. I obviously don’t like J0nerys, but I can totally understand why so many people believe in it. I would maybe even ship J0nrya a bit, if it wasn’t almost impossible to find shippers who don’t hate on Sansa/Jonsa. And I would never call either of those groups “delusional” because it basically comes down to personal preference and a couple of other factors, most notably how you judge the future projective of these three characters.

I also hate the assumption that J0nerys is the only pairing with solid foreshadowing in the books. I read the books a few times, all j0nerys meta I could find, plenty of J0nrya ones and, well, I don’t have to talk about all the jonsa-metas I’ve consumed xD. Trying to remain as unbiased as possible, there’s an almost equal amount of foreshadowing for all of them. I simply came to the conclusion that Sansa is the most likely candidate because a) I’m pretty sure D@ny will go dark and there will be a targbowl of sorts. She could just as easily be a love interest, as she could be an adversary. b) The age-gap between Ary@ and Jon is a bit too big for my liking. Especially at their current canon age. Also I love them siblings so much. And c) Sansa’s upgrade and the drastic change in her narrative must have a reason. Martin liking the idea of tormented pseudo-incest, and the reveal of Jon’s parentage making such a relationship “proper” but deciding to emphasize the brotherly bond between Jon and Ary@ and “using” Sansa’s character as the love interest instead simply makes sense to me.

But I only came to this conclusion because I consider Sansa to be of equal importance. It’s more or less a precondition of even consider Jonsa, even more so to ship it in a canon kind of way.

Now, to put an end to this little rant and get back to the original topic, D@ny and Ary@ stans regularly accuse Sansa of “stealing their narrative” or at least “Sansa-stans want her to have it all”, so it’s no surprise that they a) don’t want her to be key player and b) subsequently don’t want her / can’t see her ending up with Jon. There are a few very great posts out there dealing with the issue why Sansa is hated so much, but I think it comes down to (to get off topic one more time, because it’s my speciality)

Misogyny. Feminine characters always attract a lot of unwarranted hate (female characters and general, but at least on tumblr … one can undeniably see a certain trend), more so the ones who don’t take off their clothes. There’s this really nice post going around that as a female character you either have to a) be a sex object or b) act like a man. I would link to it if only I could find it. I’m not going to add much to this, it has been talked about many times.

You can’t live vicariously through her. Sansa’s narrative often is … very frustrating. Nobody “wants to be Sansa”. People want to be the rebellious, fighting girl who doesn’t take any shit, they want to be the mother of dragons who goes around the world freeing slaves, they want to be Jon kicking some White Walker ass, they want to be the future three-eyed-raven (though Bran is seriously underappreciated by the fandom), they want to be a smart ass know it all, like Tyrion. They don’t want to be the girl stuck in situations she has almost no means of escaping. The sad truth to this is though, most people, if they found themselves in the same situation, “would be Sansa”. Most people aren’t active heros who fight against the unjust system all the time, most people aren’t geniuses, or brave enough to put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of other all the time. I actually fell in love with Sansa’s character because of that. (Though I have to admit myself, I was rather indifferent to her character for partially those exact reasons myself). It’s refreshing and a honest take on human nature to have a heroine who mostly has to resort to endurance and passive resistance. Mostly, not always. I don’t subscribe to “Sansa is weak and useless” weekly. Don’t get me wrong. She’s awesome and badass in her right, it’s just a bit harder to notice and appreciate. In this aspect she’s probably the most “realistic” character of the key six and people don’t like to read the truth about themselves. They wanna read about what they want to and could be.

People are projecting. HARD. I spent a lot of time wondering why Sansa gets so much shit for her “evil deeds and traits”, in a series where people kill other people, shove children out of windows, burn people alive, rape a slave prostitute, and so on and so forth. And you know what? It’s easier to “forgive” those things because they are so absolutely horrendous. All these things are so far removed from our everyday reality (for most people at least), that it severs our emotional connection to it. Don’t get me wrong, we can still judge their behaviour, we can still emphasize with the victims, but we have no personal experience to connect to. But Sansa’s “villainous characteristics” (especially those of s1/agot)? An ignorant, privileged white girl who is mean to her little sister for being different, is caught up in some naive classicism, does stupid shit because she has a crush on some asshole everyone else could sniff out a mile away and always has to be so fucking perfect all the time. NOW THAT IS A “BAD GUY” WE KNOW! That’s a “villain” we all encountered in real life. To put this in different terms: I’ve never been pushed out a window for witnessing a incestous relationship between two people of high social standing (nor has anyone close to me), but have I felt victimized by my sister being the pretty, perfect girl, while I was the loud, unruly, unattractive tomboy? Yeeeeeeeeeeees. Have I ever actually lived through the experience of my elder sister getting nicer gifts than me, because “I would just break them”? Yeeeeeeeeeeeesss again. I grew out of it after elementary school, of course (okay, to be completely honest here, I might have still struggled with it during puberty, but thank god that’s also behind me). This also works the other way around: I have never been in the situation of “having” to push a kid out of a window, because it witnessed my incestous relationship and I, my sister-lover and our three children would lose their heads if he told anyone. I’ve never had slave master nail 163 children to crosses to piss me off. Idk, man. I have no idea what I would do. I never had to deal with shit like this. Who am I to judge? But then people look at the “mean” things Sansa did and go I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER. (though they probably did at some point in their life).

Since this is tumblr, I have to note something: I don’t think this applies to everyone who dislikes Jonsa. I don’t think that everyone who dislikes Jonsa also dislikes Sansa. I’m not even saying that everyone dislikes Sansa for the reasons listed above. Before you accuse me of any of this, make sure you didn’t fall victim to a logical fallacy. I had enough of those lately. Those are just a few of my personal observations and conclusions, that I think, apply to quite a few people. If your reasonings and opinions are completely different, great, I’m not arguing, just don’t give me any shit about it.

So to draw some final conclusion for this long ass post: Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly fought about and/or not taken seriously, because a) Sansa attracts a lot of hate for several reasons, b) Sansa is considered to be too unimportant to be the “romantic lead” kind of main character grand love interest.

Shipping Jonsa is not “delusional” if you a) consider all three lead ladies to be of equal significance and b) don’t dislike Sansa. (Though since this is Tumblr, I might point it out one more time: This does not mean that anyone this applies to also ships Jonsa. This does not mean that this doesn’t also apply to people who don’t ship Jonsa. This does not mean that only people who stan Sansa hard ship Jonsa - I myself actually started shipping it because I staned Jon so much and I need my baby to be happy. Some people who fulfill both a) and b) might still believe that Jonsa shipper are “delusional” simply because it’s the common narrative of a big portion of the fandom.)

… Now that I think about this, the entire question could have been answered with the last paragraph alone, but you know how we do, go big or go home.

#caitnan #jonsa #anti-jonerys #shipping of got #meta #kind of #sansa stark #sansa hate #long post #really long post

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rielity · 6 years

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get to know the author?

I was tagged by @yaoyoroses despite me being totally MIA from tumblr and fandom in general recently, thank you!!!

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

I’m snowdrops on ao3 - I was having a bleach phase and had an obsession with the thirteenth division of the gotei 13 when i created my ao3 account. the snowdrop is the thirteenth division’s insignia! it signifies hope.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

bookmarks: red strings (dgm, lavilena + yullen, reincarnation au, 9.2k words)

subscriptions: wandering spirits online (bleach x sao x log horizon, vr mmorpg au, 4k words, abandoned multichap) || the fic with the next highest number of subscriptions is red strings, which is a oneshot. in fact, i only write oneshots, with the exception of a couple of story collections, so why i have fic subscriptions at all is a true mystery.

kudos: herding cats (bnha, todobaku, neighbours au, 1.5k words)

hits: red strings (dgm, lavilena + yullen, reincarnation au, 9.2k words)

i’d like to point out here that this is probably not an accurate representation of the quality of my fics because red strings has been up on ao3 since 2014, and some of my newer fics have much higher pick-up rates relative to time elapsed

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

yato for my main (dgm) pseud, osamu for my hq pseud, sj13 for my kpop pseud and placeholders for the rest.

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

I have regular commenters depending on the fic I’m writing - for haikyuu it’s @aritzen @ennotanafuta @chamomilea @puffandhuff @sapphyrelily; for bnha it’s the tdbk server. but favourite commenters? anyone who comments and leaves encouragement for me to keep going, especially when I’m struggling with writing and myself, is a favourite for me! I also know who my regular readers are, and I’m always grateful for them even if they don’t leave comments!

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

here are some of the stories that have haunted me for a long time after i first read them, sorted by fandom:

bnha:

make my body say (monoshin, E, 7.3k words)

whatever it takes (todobaku, E, fake dating au, 20k words)

dgm:

staples of vocabulary (laviyuu, T, 33.5k words)

haikyuu:

city in the rearview (kuroyaku, G, 1.2k words)

lightning, unbidden (tsukinoya, G, soulmate au, 2.3k words)

midnight railway (kuroyaku, T, 4.6k words)

young, scrappy and hungry (ennonoya, G, 466 words)

parallel circuits (miyas, G, 833 words)

but his brother, sleep (miyas, T, 2k words)

finishing line. (kuroyaku, G, manga spoilers, 1.2k words)

rain, interrupted (oifuta, T, 13.9k words)

quicksilver lullabies (noyaken, M, 8.5k words)

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

33 subscriptions (most of which are complete/from old fandoms that I no longer read) and 541 bookmarks across all pseuds

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

I mostly write canon universe, but in terms of au it’s definitely college au

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

33 subscribers, 393 bookmarks. i’ve been casually tracking the increase in stats here on this twitter thread.

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

friends with benefits with feelings au, probably? though I don’t really care if people judge me for what I’m writing, so I guess it’s my own personal hesitance that’s stopping me from actually writing it.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

one thing that I learnt from creative writing class is that I suck at writing visual descriptions, so I wanna work on that. I also want to be better at replying comments!!!

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

i’m destined for rarepair hell

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

78, 39 of which were published this year....--- wait WHAT

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

do you mean stories i half-started, or story ideas, or stories i’ve actually completed, or

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I write them down on my phone, but more often than not they remain in that state lol

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

nope, and I’m not sure I’d be able to. I’m incredibly picky and individualistic when I’m writing.

16. How did you discover AO3?

Gunny told me that lots of writers were posting fic on ao3 too, besides ffn, so I looked it up and started hanging around

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

obviously not

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

what, no

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

hmm there are fic writers who made me want to write like them - themorninglark, asofthaven, carafin, among others - and also book authors - tolkien, cassandra clare, neil gaiman.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

keep writing. a little every day builds up to a lot in a year.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

it... depends on the story. I’ve plotted every single one of my Timeless AU fics thus far, as well as my longer fics, but for shorter fics I tend to let the story go where it wants to

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

mmm I got flamed on one of my crossover fics when I was starting out on ffn, but it was only the one time. I was rly young back then so I shall not reveal what I did lmao

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

smut, and physical scenes in general. writing them makes me uncomfortable

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

kacchako zine and supposedly hqss, except i haven’t started on hqss

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

,,,looks at the story ideas and plots spilling out of my pockets, you see nothing

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

not now, because i’m way too busy with rl responsibilities to commit to writing

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

yes yes Y E S just look here, this is how a decade of writing looks like

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

as of 13 dec 2017:

molten gold (ennonoya, G, manga spoilers, 791 words)

the weight of you (laviyuu, NR, 1k words)

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

my oldest works - the ones from my ffn that should never see the light of tumbr day

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

better, more daring, more experimental, and with yet more to learn

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

knowing the concept or the mood that i want to achieve (like plotting, but not really)

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

actually achieving/coming close to achieving that concept/mood (nearly impossible) & everything else, especially not falling back into cliches of my own writing

33. Why do you write?

because who else would write these stories for these ships if not me???

tagging: @ennotanafuta @directorennoshita @sapphyrelily @aritzen

#tumblr tagged #thanks for the tag!#writing with snowdrops #long post

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ciaossu-imagines · 7 years

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One of my strongest headcanons for Chikusa is that he’s actually an avid reader. He doesn’t much care for televison but reads quite frequently - it’s one of those canons I just can’t let go off, a soulcanon almost! So, in honor of that headcanon (which you will tear away from my cold, dead fingers), I chose this meme to do for him! I hope you enjoy!

Does your character know how to read? If yes, who taught them? If not, why?

Back when he was still just a test subject for his family, Chikusa learned to read from another, older test subject, the closest he really had to a ‘big brother’ like figure. The older boy would tell him elaborate stories and read him the books he could manage to lay his hands on. He taught Chikusa the basics of reading and Chikusa taught himself a little bit more after he, Mukuro, and Ken escaped. However, it wasn’t really until they were imprisoned and Chikusa found himself in a building with a library and a lot of down-time that he really put a lot of effort into learning to read and write better and really grew to love reading.

Do they enjoy reading for themselves?

Chikusa definitely enjoys reading for himself and himself only, actually. It’s the ultimate form of escapism to him. If the book is good and the story engaging enough, Chikusa can tune out reality and live in the book until he finishes it, devouring it and ignoring all the turmoil and grime of the real world.

Is reading aloud easy for them? Do they read to others?

Chikusa will not read aloud. He doesn’t like to talk overly much to begin with and finds it hard to read aloud. He always reads faster than he talks and often finishes reading the page before he finishes saying the first paragraph and gets too eager to go onto the next page, stammering and stumbling over words, which annoys him to hear. He flat out refuses to read aloud, not that he gets asked much anyway.

Favorite book?

Chikusa doesn’t really think he’s read enough books to really have a favourite. Each new book either becomes his favourite or trash, one way or the other. He loves so many books, loves so many fictional worlds, that he can’t narrow it down to just one or even three or four.

What sort of stories do they enjoy?

Anything. Chikusa will literally read anything because that’s often what he’s forced to do. All the books he reads are ones he finds or ones that are easy enough for him to simply take, used books or lost books, old books or dime-store trash novels. However, Chikusa really does enjoy horror novels or fantasy novels since they tend to keep the story progressing quickly and the action moving along enough for him to steadily stay engrossed in it. That’s not to say there hasn’t been any drama or romance books that have done that, no true crime or essays that haven’t grabbed him. He really will try anything, with a fair shot. He’s not overly into poetry though, save for the occasional Bukowski or Atwood, Kaufman, Ginsberg, maybe some Rilke or Poe very rarely.

Do they themselves write?

Chikusa doesn’t. He can and he would enjoy doing so but everything he writes is by hand and his handwriting is not the best. His hands also cramp easily. On top of that, he lives with very little, if any privacy, and he hates the thought of trying to write something only to have the others find it, read it, and ridicule it.

Magazines? Books? Blogs? Do they subscribe to anything?

Chikusa cannot afford to subscribe to anything. If he had a choice, he’d really like Google Books or Kindle, some app he could buy cheap books from and read them on his phone or a tablet if he had one. He’d also be intrigued by Texture, provided any of the magazines interested him - he likes Rolling Stone and Mad, along with Playboy and magazines of it’s ilk. What can he say? He’s a growing boy.

Do they have a blog? if they had one, what would they blog about?

Again, because of his living situation and lack of finances, Chikusa doesn’t own a computer to blog on. He’d really enjoy having a blog though and would likely have a twitter that’s full of just stupid things the others did summed up in 140 characters or less. He’d really like tumblr too and would have a little writing blog on the side, along with a main blog he used mainly just to reblog things he liked or to write posts about the stupid stuff others do that simply can’t be summed up in 140 characters.

Did they read all the books they own?

The answer is definitely a yes, but mainly because he owns so few books. As said above, any book he has is one that was easily stolen or was discarded and there really aren’t that many books that he’s found that fit one of the two categories. If he had the opportunity and the finances to though, Chikusa would still really read everything he owned. He would be the type of person to limit himself to only buying one or two books and not buying any more until he’d finished them and any other books in the series if either book was actually part of a series.

Which book(s) would they most likely recommend to others?

Chikusa really enjoyed The Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. He was lucky enough to find used copies of all of them in a little, understaffed used book store that he was able to nick out of their small ‘classics’ section. He also is a pretty big Stephen King fan and enjoys most of his novels, though It and The Shining tie as his favourite King novels. He thinks King gets it, he really does - everything’s more terrifying when it’s happening to children, isn’t it? And everything’s more terrifying when you are a child. He also really likes King’s short stories, of which The Body is his favourite. He loved the Harry Potter series - it became the first real series to grab him and keep him and he definitely made sure to be near a store the day after each new book was released so he could steal himself a copy.

Did they get read to as a child? If yes, whom by?

As said above, Chikusa was read to, albeit infrequently, as a child and it’s what really first sparked any interest in reading. Had he not had that friend reading him stories, introducing him to a way to temporarily escape from an awful situation, Chikusa wouldn’t care about books or reading and would wander through life completely illiterate.

Are they a literature snob?

No. Chikusa isn’t able to be picky enough to be a literary snob. He figures that a book’s a book and books are good inherently. If he finds a book to be boring or badly written, he simply stops reading it and takes it to a used book store in Namimori that accepts trade-in’s, allowing him to get another book he might enjoy better, though that’s something he does rarely. Most often he can find something to like in most books.

Do they feel a certain book influenced their life?

No. Rather, it’s a culmination of all the books that have shaped him, influenced him, as he’ll be influenced, shaped and changed by all the books he’ll read in the future.

Do they think their memoir would make for interesting read?

While Chikusa wouldn’t enjoy writing a memoir, since literature is an escape from his past and the difficulties in his life, he figures it would probably sell well enough if he ever did. He’d have to pass it off as fiction though - no one would ever believe it had really happened as it seems so impossibly far-fetched, even to someone who lived through it.

Do they have a favorite author/blogger?

As said above, Stephen King is definitely among his favourites, as is Lovecraft. He really enjoys S.E. Hinton as well, especially The Outsiders. He loves J.K. Rowling only for her Harry Potter series - he hated her adult novel and found it boring, something that disappointed him greatly.

#happy reborn day #Reborn! Day #KHR Day #R!0311 #memes #headcanons #chikusa kakimoto

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supervillainproject · 5 years

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pauldeckerus · 6 years

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Lightroom Sucks: An Open Letter to Adobe

“Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself, could life ever be sane again?” You’d be forgiven for thinking The Smiths were singing about wedding photographers mid-summer running around the streets in a naked hysteria after they’ve just installed the latest Lightroom update.

Adobe, I hope you read this because it seems like for too long now you’ve ignored the issues and released update after update that actually made things worse, NOT better!

This open letter is not a plea for you to up your game — it’s a demand. You owe it to all the subscribers that have shown great loyalty to you for such a long time.

“Ooh look I have 6 weddings in the queue, I’m a little stressed and wedding season is taking its toll, but it’s OK as I have three days solid booked out to make a dent in things. Ok, I’ll just load up Lightroom…” And this is where a whole world of frustration, irritation and wanting to walk into traffic begins. For while we may have time finally to catch up on some editing, Lightroom generally decides to throw a spanner or ten in the works!

Now I want to get one thing very straight here, Lightroom is a wonderful piece of software… when it works properly. It’s revolutionized the way wedding photographers process work, making it easier and more convenient.

Why oh why then does Adobe continue to release updates that seem to make it almost unusable at times? At best these days my experience of using it is sub-par, a whole catalog of issues are present at all times, and of course, I’m not the only one who has this experience. So Adobe for the love of God will you PLEASE sort it out!

I hear time and time again from people involved in their beta testing that Lightroom needs to be rebuilt rather than updated and that Adobe is aware of ‘bugs’ and trying to resolve them. Well, quite frankly, that isn’t good enough! How many hundreds of thousands of wedding photographers use Lightroom and pay their subscription to CC? It’s impossible to know, but MORE than enough to warrant Adobe giving us more back — a hell of a lot more.

There’s also a stark warning here for Adobe: you rest on your laurels and eventually someone else will release something and everyone will jump ship. You only have to see how many people have switched to Sony from Canon or Nikon to understand that brand loyalty doesn’t mean anything if something shinier, better, and more appealing comes along. It will happen one day to you too, Adobe, if you continue to be so complacent and not give us the software we want and deserve.

Minimum System Requirements

I’m going to list some of the issues I face using Adobe Lightroom in a moment and then a load that other photographers have also shared with me. Firstly though I want to examine what the recommended system specifications by Adobe are because it makes for surprising reading!

Source: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/system-requirements.html

So a minimum 4GB RAM and 12GB recommended. Yes, that’s right: a MINIMUM of 4GB RAM. So what Adobe is saying is that you CAN run Lightroom on a machine with as little as 4GB of RAM, really?

12GB is the recommended… how old are these specs? I think that’s one of the things that irks me about Adobe’s approach to their software packages. If they said ‘hey it’s a minimum of 16GB RAM but we’d recommend 32GB’ it would help us make informed decisions when spending $2,500 on our editing machines.

If you use Lightroom as your main memory-intensive application then you could easily be lulled into thinking that a cheaper spec machine with less RAM is fine, when it really wouldn’t be. Adobe do you really think Lightroom CC can run fine on a machine with 4GB of RAM? Erm, no!

I Have Issues

I tried to write down all the issues I face using Lightroom, some will no doubt have slipped my mind, but I think the list in itself is pretty comprehensive and includes the following:

– Flicking between images even with Smart Previews enabled takes too long, there’s a pause while it renders. Ok, this is one everyone pretty much has, but it seems to be getting worse!

– Preset not showing as being applied until I make a change. It just shows the straight-out-of-camera version until I change the exposure or crop/rotate and then BINGO, there’s the preset. This is an intermittent issue, sometimes it’s there, sometimes not… however, when it’s there it affects several hundred photos at a time. It’s a confusing and irritating problem. It seems to occur if I edit for a few hours, like Lightroom is tired and can’t be arsed anymore, keen to get home for its dinner and watch The Walking Dead.

– Trying to crop or rotate anything involves a lag similar to my 3-year-old when I ask him to do pretty much anything. This is a new issue (in LR, not with my 3-year-old — that’s always been there with him), and it’s very annoying, Adobe!

– In full-screen mode the left menu panel used to pop out when you hovered over it, it no longer does this, except last Tuesday when it DID, only to revert back to not doing so by Wednesday morning. Apart from that delightful Tuesday, I have to click to open it and click to close it again.

– Then there’s the curious issue for whenever a new update is available, my current version either suddenly runs super sloooooow or stops working altogether, forcing me to update to the latest one. Now I’m not suggesting Adobe is somehow sending a sneaky patch to break my existing version so I HAVE to update, but if they are it’s REALLY annoying and happens so often it’s hard to not feel a little suspicious about.

– Let’s not forget the issue where you are using a catalog and wish to open a different one, which results in the first catalog successfully closing, but Lightroom just sitting there and not responding until you either force quit (or sometimes actually have to switch off the machine as it won’t force quit), or after several minutes it finally decides to respond again and open the new catalogue.

– Photoshop opens weird about 75% of the time. So if you’re like me and like to add an extra bit of sharpening to portraits or clone out bird poop from the fence where the couple is standing etc, you’ll Command E to open Photoshop. It’s great you can open PS from LR, edit, save and it appears back in LR as a .tiff. Bravo Adobe, that is one nifty function! Except when it opens like this three-quarters of the time.

Apologies for the portrait, clearly not keeping it real at this point of the wedding – this was just the only time I remembered to screen shot the issue

I haven’t cropped anything from the PS window here, that’s how it opens most of the time. To make it usable I have had to click ‘view’ and then ‘full screen with menu bar’ so many times recently that I’m starting to get RSI (and RAGE) from it.

Incidentally, if anyone else is suffering the same issue, I found a quick way to make it display correctly. I stumbled upon by pure accident as I tried to ALT+TAB back to Lightroom. My RSI finger completely unaware of what it should be doing pressed the desk instead of the ALT key by mistake, thus showing me that pressing TAB alone changes the view mode and makes it normal again… hallelujah!

There are other issues too. It’s slow. It lags a lot. If you import images to a new catalog you have to close LR after it’s imported them and reopen again or it runs slower than me in a school sports day father’s 100-meter race. Oh, and don’t forget to close the histogram as having a tiny graph at the top of your screen makes LR wheeze with pain at the pure exertion of displaying it.

While all these things might not seem much, they impact my day to day work, it’s an inconvenience I could do without, and as I’m paying regularly for the use of this software I’d damn well like it to work properly! It costs me time and frustrates the living daylights out of me.

System of a Down(beat Photographer)

I appreciate I don’t have a monster of a machine, but it is actually a higher spec than Adobe recommends. So going on their information, supplied in order for us to make informed purchases, I shouldn’t be having any issues, certainly not from a machine performance point-of-view anyway.

Problems in the Community

I asked the Facebook community that I run (please join us on there if you aren’t already a member) what issues people were facing and what spec machines they were using because as with most things in life, you worry that it’s maybe just you. It turns out I’m not alone!

Rob Georgeson [Intel Core i5 / 16GB RAM / 1GB NVIDIA Graphics Card / 120GB SSD HD]: “My pc definitely seems to be working harder just to do basic editing. It used to be a breeze but now I can hear the fans running at full speed trying to get my computer to chill the f**k out”.

Andrew Bowness & Esther Wild [Windows 10 / Intel i7-6700 @ 3.4ghz / 16GB RAM / SSD / 6GB Nvidia Graphics Card, Mac OS High Sierra (10.13.6) / Intel Core i5 / 8GB RAM / Radeon Pro 2048 Graphics Card] also are having the same issue, Andrew’s being so bad ‘I put music on to drown it out.’ Esther also has issues with it hanging and getting the spinning wheel of doom.

Michael Newington Gray & Paul Marbrook [Mac OS High Sierra / Intel Core i7 / 16GB RAM / AMD Radeon R9 Graphics Card, MAC OS High Sierra / Intel Core i5 / 24GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GT Graphics Card]: When flicking between images in Develop module the images aren’t loading / going sharp until I zoom in and out.

Oli Kelly [Windows 10 / Intel Core i5 / 8GB RAM / GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card]: When I’m doing brush work it can lag out so badly and make the mouse skip over the image like it’s buffering. When flicking through images it can pixelate the original raw for sometimes 10 seconds until it remembers what I have done to the image and then shows my edit.

Denver Aubrey [Mac OS High Sierra / Intel Core i5 / 24GB RAM / AMD Radeon R9 Graphics Card]: Everything seems to lag despite massive amounts of ram and a decent spec iMac. Drag a slider, let go, wait for half a second or a whole second and then see the effect. Maybe. Just updated LR CC classic today to the latest version. Now LR opens for about 2 mins and then unexpectedly quits.

Ally Hedayati [Mac OS High Sierra / Intel Core i7 / 20GB RAM / AMD Radeon HD 1024MB Graphics Card]: When I want to do some external editing in PS from LR, PS revets it to SRGB – making a black and white image colour for instance. Even though I have “turn to SRGB” unticked.

Jade Eleanor Evans [Mac OS High Sierra / Macbook Pro 15″ 2017 / Intel Core i7 / 16GB RAM / Radeon Pro 560 4GB Graphics Card]: Too slow, not sure what on earth it’s doing but I have one of the new macs (2017) and it gets so hot it actually leaves red marks on my legs when I have it on my lap. Even when its used on a desk it still gets hot and the fans sound louder than my hair dryer! Also for some unknown reason when I export and choose ‘resize to fit, longe edge’ I type in whatever for the long edge and that ends up being the shorter edge… No-one has any idea why it does this! So if I type in 2048 for the long edge (I mostly shoot landscape), they export at 3072 x 2048 making the shorter edge 2048 (yes I am definitely clicking ‘long edge’ not ‘shorter edge),

Jamie Ousby [Mac OS Sierra / Intel Core i7 / 16GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GT Graphics Card]: Lightroom doesn’t export some exposure changes for around 10 x images when exporting a wedding of 800+ images. Go to the image in question and adjust the exposure slider up and it accepts it. Switch to full screen to take a look and it shows the correct exposure for a split second and then flashes back to the “as shot” exposure. No matter what I do when exporting this image it will not accept the exposure setting.

A bride on her wedding day still traumatised after installing a new Lightroom update the day before. Image by Andrew Billington

What is your current relationship with Lightroom?

The Other Side of the Coin

Not everyone we spoke to experienced issues with Lightroom. In fact, some found it to work perfectly. Their specs were similar to those above with one large exception – their memory ranged between 32GB and 64GB RAM. So is this the solution?

Adobe, we’d love for you to clarify just what is going on here. Is it just you’ve told us incorrect information when stating the software should run perfectly on 12GB RAM (hell, it should still run ok on 4GB according to your minimum specifications)? Or, as I’ve been told many times by your beta testers, is the software inherently broken and does it need rebuilding from the ground up? If that’s the case, is this going to happen, and if so when?

Yours Sincerely

I did consider signing off this open letter with ‘yours faithfully’, but to be completely honest I’m only faithful to you because there aren’t any serious alternatives on the market at the moment. Yes, Capture One can do a similar job, but from what I’ve heard it’s not quite enough to make the leap over.

So I’ll stick with you until something better comes along… or you buck up your ideas enough to actually make this more than a marriage of necessity. Over to you, Adobe!

About the author: Andy Hudson is the co-founder of Photographers Keeping it Real, a website, award, and podcast for documentary wedding photographers. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors. You can find more content by Hudson and connect with him on his website and Facebook group. This article was also published here.

Image credits: Header illustration based on photo by Mwangi Gatheca

from Photography News http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PetaPixel/~3/2CnQC6wObGA/

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spynotebook · 7 years

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Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Star Wars with an anthology of short stories from forty different characters’ points of view is both a delightful surprise and a no-brainer.

One of the greatest appeals of the Star Wars universe is its breadth, best typified by the iconic status of the cantina scene. Mystery Science Theater 3000 head writer Elliott Kalan has written about how that scene is both Luke and the audience’s gateway into the wider galaxy. That scene alone spawned an oft-parodied trait in the Star Wars community common to both the Lucas Story Group and its fandom: an insatiable desire to expand the universe by exploring the stories of every last extra. (Just look at Willrow Hood.)

In fact, Lucasfilm has done this kind of anthology before: the old Extended Universe (or Legends, as it is officially known and nobody I know calls it) had a five book strong Tales From the … series, which told the stories of background characters from the Tonnika Sisters to the Rancor Keeper to Boba Fett. ( … a lot of Boba Fett.) But when Lucasfilm wiped the slate clean in 2014 to streamline the canon before the sequel trilogy got underway, all of these stories fell by the wayside. While the new canon has started to canonize some of the Extended Universe’s greatest hits—such as Admiral Thrawn—this is the first time it’s tackled a Tales From the…-style collection.

The “From a Certain Point of View: A Star Wars 40th Anniversary Celebration” at New York Comic-Con was, frankly, a stunner, featuring nineteen (!) of the forty-three contributing authors. Presented in groups of three (or “flights,” as moderator, contributor, and Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo put it) with some color commentary and entertainment from veteran Star Wars audiobook narrator Marc Thompson in between rotations, each author got enough time and attention to highlight not only their short story, but their unique view on the Star Wars universe.

It was well-paced and delightful: Charles Soule pitched a story about Jabba the Hutt coming up with the whole Han in Carbonite as wall decor idea, Delilah S. Dawson said the word “cloaca” far too early in the morning, and I cheered and clapped and held back some tears when E. K. Johnston shared that her story in the anthology was the first thing she wrote after Carrie Fisher died.

But the biggest thing I took away from this panel was an honest appreciation for how this anthology foregrounds emotional labor in the Star Wars universe.

When asked what she would have written if she hadn’t written her Admiral Motti piece, Mallory Ortberg outlined an impossible conversation between Mon Mothma and Aunt Beru about who exactly does the dishes in the Alliance. Ortberg, as the current Dear Prudence, is no stranger to elevating and valuing emotional labor in interpersonal relationships, and Meg Cabot explicitly picked up that theme when discussing her story, “Beru Whitesun Lars.”

After informing the audience that she’d written plenty of Star Wars fanfiction in her time (one of us! one of us!), Cabot laid out exactly why she’d always loved Aunt Beru and always felt so dissatisfied with her death and subsequent neglect. According to Cabot, Aunt Beru is where Luke gets his compassion from, the same compassion that leads him to set off to rescue Leia in A New Hope and throw away his lightsaber in Return of the Jedi. She wanted to write a story giving Aunt Beru, who is basically just handed a baby at the end of The Revenge of the Sith, her agency back, explaining that Beru’s talents could have taken her very different places in the galaxy but that she compassionately chose to raise Luke. And that choice informed everything Luke grew up to be.

I think Star Wars fans often think of this kind of thing when it comes to Leia—not only is Leia so thoroughly Bail Organa’s daughter, but we’ve got more details on Breha then we do on Beru—but not when it comes to Luke. It’s something that I, someone who shouts regularly about Shmi Skywalker getting brutally underserved as a character, am guilty of. Because the original trilogy is so steeped in Luke’s relationship with his biological father and Bail figures prominently in the prequels, his foster aunt and uncle fall (literally) by the wayside.

An anthology like this is an opportunity to canonically elevate and recognize the importance of these bit characters we are otherwise encouraged to throw away. Aunt Beru, Cabot argues, is the most important character in the whole saga.

While emotional labor and caretaking are often exclusively assigned to women in both our galaxy and the one far, far, away, I was also intrigued to see this theme crop up in Claudia Gray’s discussion of her story, “Master and Apprentice,” wherein Obi-Wan consults with Qui-Gon’s force ghost during A New Hope. Their conversation inevitably turns to the matter of Anakin, and Gray told the audience that she wanted to talk about the ways in which the structure of the Jedi Order failed Anakin in ways that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, raised from infancy by the Order, couldn’t understand. While she wanted to emphasize that Anakin’s downfall was a choice of his own making, she also ended up showing how a lack of comprehension regarding emotional labor—or how to adapt what you know about that subject for a padawan from a nontraditional background—contributed to Anakin’s struggles.

I have, at last estimate, 27,000 feelings about Anakin Skywalker—I may have stopped and bawled at a booth featuring a print of Vader haunted by Padmé’s face—so to see something like how the Order failed Anakin canonized made me feel … not vindicated, but seen. Fans have been having these conversations for years; seeing those conversations approached thoughtfully by writers making sure to add to the galaxy rather than just rehash it is a beautiful symbiosis.

Star Wars (like so many big genre properties) is known for its dead mothers or mother figures, and we can’t undo the decades where they weren’t paid much thought. But we can highlight them now and elevate the contribution that they made in the first place. Giving the caretakers, both good and bad, of the Star Wars universe a voice is a great start.

[40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars From a Certain Point of View]

(images: Del Rey, Lucasfilm/Disney)

Clare McBride was raised on the Internet by a Nintendo 64 and reruns of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which is as good of an explanation as any. She is a contributing editor at the Hugo Award-winning Lady Business and SYFY Fangrrls. Find her at Twitter @omnivoreal.

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