#so.. is the implication that during the intro at the very start that was.....?

[ajdrawshq]

im sorry....... and thank you....... . ......

#KINGDOM HEARTS FANS. PLAY THIS GAME. U HAVE NOOOOOO IDEA #isat #isat spoilers #ohhhhhhhhh my god #like. i knew. i knew bc i saw spoilers and sif isnt exactly subtle when it comes to ...... certain dialogue quirks #so.. is the implication that during the intro at the very start that was.....? #and i already know how start again fits into this...... #man. #theres two hats now!! :] #well. thats it. im never playing another video game again bc what the hell could ever top this

[rayshippouuchiha]

Great! You watched it so that means I don’t have to hold back! Mwahahaha you activated my hidden trapcard 😈

Jk jk but anyway LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR RIGHT??

Like, first they HAD to reinvent the whole Bible Genesis story to make him as freaking sympathetic as possible. I mean, a little dreamer whose ideas were dismissed? Who falls in love with a woman because he admired her “fierce independence”, then freaking gifts humanity in general and Eve in particular with FREE WILL? (I have so many headcanons about them btw; Adam being the way he is I think he and Lilith wanted Eve to have the chance to make decisions regarding her own body, relationship, and future that a life under Adam’s thumb as heaven had inteded would’ve denied her. I think they were very good friends once upon a time., and it kills me that we never see Eve again. Did she blame them for being kicked out of Eden? Or was she grateful to them? I’d love to know, I hope we see her next time). That’s all so freaking good already as a backstory, but then they add this:

At this moment my mind just, imploded with the implications. He gifted humanity with free will presumably because, as a joyous dreamer, he had firmly believed that they would create wonderful things and bring about a better world if they were allowed to think for themselves, but gradually over hundreds and thousands of years seeing only the absolute worst that humanity had to offer he seems to think that it was a mistake, and that’s so sad 🥺 He never got to see the good that came from his actions and became depressed as a consequence, probably blaming himself a bit for every ill-action and sin committed.

I was already primed to love him after that backstory right? But then they imply that he’s a neglectful, distant father to Charlie and she is such a good, pure girl that I started thinking maybe I was wrong to start liking him, maybe there was something off about him that the intro had left out since it was Charlie telling her parent’s story. But then we meet him and he’s just:

A cute, awkward little man? One who clearly loves his family to death if the ring still on his finger (after SEVEN FREAKING YEARS OF ABSCENCE, dear god) and the multiple, gigantic family portraits strewn about his room say anything?

Also, he seems like 2 steps away from an anxiety attack at any given time, especially when asked to speak over the phone. He just like me fr fr

And that, along with the fact that he says “this is the first time she’s called you in YEARS”, and that he seems so freaking happy and excited at even the insinuation that she wants to spend time with him,

Leads me to believe that his absence from Charlie’s life was caused by a mutual misunderstanding born of a similar thought process (namely “what if I’m bothering them? What if they think I’m annoying by calling when I don’t need anything? I should wait until I have a good reason to call, or until they call me”) or willfully by someone (Lilith does seem to take Charlie away from her father awfully quick during that one flashback, right? It’s not just me?). I mean, ^that’s not the face of a father who wants to stay away from his daughter because she reminds him of her mom, or even the face of a father who stayed away on purpose for some time and is now willing to reconnect. That looks more to me like the face of someone who has been eagerly awaiting even a single hint that he’s wanted before daring to appear before his daughter, and has now finally been given that chance after a long time and is ECSTATIC. And even then, it seems that even through his self-deprecation and depression he does do his best to reach out, at least more frequently than Charlie does (he called her 5 months ago, she hadn’t called in years, etc etc).

And then he gets to the hotel and he’s so small and cute and awkward and good with animals and I thought I couldn’t love him any more than I already did but I COULD. HOW DID THEY MAKE A CHARACTER SO APPEALING TO ME SPECIFICALLY THIS IS UNFAIR

Which leads me to my other big headcanon: I firmly believe Lucifer tried to get to know sinners in the beginning, and that he tried some kind of “redeem sinners” effort at some point, just like Charlie’s doing - Perhaps for hundreds of years. But he failed, time and time again, until his dreams were absolutely crushed and he ended up giving up on them for good. I mean, those lines:

“You invite people in and offer them everything and they just bring violence and chaos to your doorstep. It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned you are. They’re always gonna disappoint you!”

“Sinners are violent psychopaths hellbent on causing as much pain and destruction as they can. There’s really no point in trying”

^They all sound not like something he’s saying to rub it in Charlie’s face that he was right (which would be cruel and out of character for someone who seems to love his daughter so much), but more like a cautionary tale coming from a deeply ingrained experience, or like things he’s repeatedly told himself before.

And then during More Than Anything he says this:

“You didn’t know that when I tried this all before *gestures around him with his arms as if gesturing towards the hotel as a whole* my dreams were too hard to defend”

That just cemented that belief for me.

On another note, MORE THAN ANYTHING IS SO FREAKING GOOD?? I CRY EVERY TIME GODDAMMIT AFTER THAT SONG I WENT FROM “AW I LOVE THIS LITTLE MAN” TO “I’D DIE FOR HIM, IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO HIM I’LL KILL EVERYONE IN THE ROOM AND THEN MYSELF”. HE’S JUST So- asfgctrdhfdg

AND I HAVEN!T EVEN TALKED ABOUT HOW BADASS HE IS FIGHTING ADAM OR HOW CUTE AND SWEET HE WAS COMFORTING CHARLIE DURING THE FINALE LOOK AT HIMMM

Or about Radioapple (aka DuckieDeer lol), the ship that has had me in a fucking chokehold since I watched episode 5. There are so many things I love about it that I’d need like 3 whole pages to explain but for now have all this absolutely fantastic fanart instead ❤️

Once again thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Btw any thoughts on Radioapple?

Oh oh Lucifer is such an interesting character and he absolutely makes me eager to see and learn more about the verse and the finer points of what is/has happened in it.

Personally, RadioDust grabbed me by the heart more than anything, since Alastor is my favorite with Angel Dust as a close second, but I do hands down see the appeal of Radioapple.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin lucifer #RayRambles

[minecraftrelatedrandomness]

okay so apparently the post i made at 4am last night about the denholm family legacy and corresponding mental health implications blew up and now i'm receiving all sorts of screaming (/pos) in the tags. on a Related note, i've been brainrotting about p!scott's character intro sequence so much and now i Need to yell about all this somewhere or i'm gonna cry.

"Okay (×7), what do I need? Big day. BIG day. Okay. Okay, um, let's get the spyglass Dad got me and… Mum got me the new journal [to] write down all my discoveries."

the fact that the journal p!scott was using as a diary was meant for THIS. THIS was what it was meant to be used for. i would just like to point this out to y'all.

the EXPECTATIONS from the very start. good god it's so offhand of a comment but i am Stuck here. the Expectation of following in your family's footsteps. it's not just "do what We did" but also "do what you are Supposed to do".

"What else do I need? Ehm… outfit, check… oh, food! Um, Mum said… there we go, she'd made me five mutton wraps, okay, this will- I'm a little bit hungry… no, I shouldn't, I gotta save this; this has got to do me for a while until I can, like, find my own things. Ehm, what else do I need to take? It's Initiation Day, so everything starts here."

i don't have much of a comment on this. i really don't. only thing i can probably say is my headcanon of p!scott learning to cook from his mother.

"Um… the sword. Right. This is a family heirloom; it's served all the other Herons well, it'll serve me well, I'll definitely- I'm gonna discover so many things, I'm gonna make everyone proud, just like I was… born to do. Just like I was meant to do, 'cause I'm a Heron and that's- it's all I've ever been, and it's all I'm… was ever gonna be."

god the RESIGNATION. just. the resignation of having so much pressure put on you that it can crush rocks without using a machine. there's no way out of Being in the heron faction and doing what herons are Supposed to do. we see in the vods it's not that you Don't enjoy exploring and discovering things, but Man, would you prefer to do it on your own terms?

(what was going through your head when your brother turned up on the isles again, after you thought star dead and mourned star for a year? when star decided to join a Different faction from you and go against all you both have been taught?)

(you called the nightingales stars "new family" during the dipper quest. it's undeniable that you still love your brother and we all know that, but do you feel abandoned in that star has left you to join a new faction and have stars own life? do you feel that being in different factions means you Shouldn't have a place in stars life anymore, though you refuse to let your actions show it? do you envy star for having escaped the toxic environment where you both grew up in? that while you were born and saddled with all the expectations, star shouldn't have had to worry as much because your parents put all their eggs in a single basket, i.e. you?)

and the sword. the sword being a physical Reminder of all the baggage that comes with being raised by Internationally Famous parents who Expect you to do the same or risk their disappointment… something you either can't imagine or would rather not imagine?

"Ehm, hm… well, I'm- I guess this is everything. (sigh) Here we go. It's the life I always wanted, or at least, the life that I was given."

ohhhhh god the implication of being told this is the life you are Supposed to aspire to. and going along with it because you were raised to believe this is the life you Should have and internalizing it because you can barely even Imagine an alternative.

even when you ask yourself, "do you Really want to live like this?", do you hesitate to answer? it is just a yes/no question but does your answer Always have a "but" after it? because going against what you've been taught growing up is Not An Option For You, at least in your mind?

oh to think when someone asks, "how do you Live like this?", the response in your heart is "you don't." because in a toxic household, there is only survival and you Build Your Bed on surviving based on what you have been taught. because you can barely fathom a life where this Isn't the case.

"Alright, I'm gonna be late. Look out, world, Scott Denholm, #1 Heron, ready for action!"

this sounds like an assurance of confidence, yeah, but who Are you trying to convince? are you telling the world, or are you telling yourself? with all that you have already said, one might wonder which is truly the case.

(also, when cc!scott said that his character had "anxiety" from trying to live up to the expectations, was this supposed to mean "anxiety (emotion)" or "anxiety (disorder)"? because while the first one is very obvious, i would not be surprised if the second one happens to be the case as well.)

in summary: p!acho is a walking embodiment of trauma and drops it in Moments across many livestreams so you don't forget. p!scott is Also a walking embodiment of trauma but drops it in the first three minutes of the series and Never speaks of it again.

#pirates smp analysis #scurvyblr #smajor1995 #pirates smp #isleposting #my post #cw mental health #pirates smp theory #long post #pirates smp headcanon #denholm bros #aqua's mcytblr resources

[joonie-berry]

Pomefiore

Fairest One and the Poison Palace

Intro | Rose Maze | Lion's Den | Witch’s Lake-house | Desert Manor | Death’s Mansion | Dragon’s Castle | Alternate Dialog and scenes

This and the next chapter, book, level whatever you wanna call ‘em. Can only start when Yuu has a specific relationship rank with previous characters. So like this one, Kalim and Jamil are needed since Ace and Deuce’s relationship rank is pretty automatic. Kalim is pretty easy as you gained points with him during The Desert Manor plot line. It’s Jamil that Yuu has to work with and even then rest of the points can only be gained during this story.

Yuu and Grim have been staying over in the Rose Maze, with Ace and Deuce after Leona decided he didn’t wanna see them for a while. During their stay they see the effects of their actions (I’m writing the good/spare all ending first) Riddle has calmed down and taken a step back on the whole rules are queen and the law is the correct way to live approach, (Every now and then he relapses). Yuu also notices that Riddle is stressed about something but refuses to tell anyone. Yuu starts to worry that he’ll go full tyrant again, eventually Riddle seeks some help and advice.

Riddle goes on to talk about how the Leaders of each territory must meet with each other for an event that’s to happen, (It’s to talk about the “missing” prisoner) but with everything that been happening, in the Rose Maze, Lion’s Den, Witch’s Lakehouse, and the Desert Manor, he fears that their home will be eradicated but the last three main territories. Yuu offers to investigate The Poison Palace as they wanted to see if the palace had anything to help their situation.

Riddle demands that Yuu takes two of his card Soldiers, which end up being Ace and Deuce. As they arrive in the Poison Palace they soon realize that it’s practically new looking despite it being a really old territory. This is where Yuu gets their first glimpse of one of the staff members.

A man with bi-color split hair. Black and white. Wore a pelt of similar colors to his hair, and he was speaking to an equally beautiful man. If Yuu didn’t know any better they would have fell head or heels for them and maybe would have ruin their chances of survival.

Sadly Ace, Deuce, Yuu, and Grim’s hiding spot was found out, and they were “Captured” by a very…strange blonde man. He was oddly cheerful yet had the eyes of a predator and he had a French accent. He went on about how he’s been watching Yuu, and understood why the elders (Staff members) need such a beautiful soul to achieve godhood. He snatched Yuu up, and nearly killed Grim when he attacked. He glared grim down and basically challenged him. Grim didn’t like the implication of the threat because he also hated the fact that Rook held Yuu far too tight to the hunter’s chest.

Rook actually is the most dangerous in this, for his set of skills. He’s quite fast, he seems to always know where Yuu or others are, and he’s quite skilled with a bow. I’d advise you to never run into Rook.

Epel is the only safe haven in the Poison Palace. Yuu and the gang meet Epel while they are running from Rook. He allowed them to hide in his room. This was the start of a new friendship. Like I said before Epel serves as a safe haven, and a saving point.

Vil becomes an obstacle when he finally realizes that Yuu and the rest of the gang are there. He only realizes that they are there when he is monologuing to a fair skin boy with the pretty raven hair, and Ace made a very stupid comment that Vil overheard. This caused the group to be separated during the chase. Yuu, and Grim managed to avoid being caught by Vil, while Ace, Deuce, and Epel, were further chased by Vil. Yuu and Grim investigated the cell with the fair skinned boy with the pretty raven hair. Yuu helped him escape the glass coffin. He introduced himself as Neige. Yuu explained their situation to Neige and in return Neige explained his.

Neige told Yuu about why he was locked away in the glass cage. Vil obsessed with perfection, and hated the fact that he was getting popular in their district, so Vil kidnapped and was preparing to torture him, until Yuu and her gang showed up.

After that, Yuu, Grim, and Neige met up with Ace, Deuce, and Epel which led Rook to them. Rook ended up shooting and injuring Grim, and Ace. Yuu in fear had Neige take Grim and had Epel and Deuce hold onto Ace. They left, leaving Yuu alone with Rook which could be one of those battles that you're forced to lose (But it’s not impossible to win). Either way Jamil and Kalim showed up when the Rookie squad didn’t report back to any of them. They help defeat and convince Rook that this wasn’t the right thing for beauty.

Vil heard of the betrayal of not only Epel, but of his right hand man, Rook which infuriated him and caused him to start a battle with Yuu, Kalim and Jamil. After the battle, Yuu spoke and hugged Vil, telling him that he was perfect the way he was. Which obviously made him quite emotional but he didn’t want to show it. Which allowed Yuu to gain his charm some Poison Apple Earrings.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland au #twst au #Haunting Grounds au #Rule of Rose Au #Twisted Grounds au #Rule of Wonderland au #Pomefiore #twst pomefiore

[h0rsemn]

Preamble

I originally intended for this to be a response to a different post however my thoughts just wound up going to how much I dislike ASG3's story for being one of the worst conclusions I've ever waited an unreasonably long time for. So yeah let's just get into it.

Early Game: The introduction to the problems

ASG3 is... An ending to a trilogy. I wish I could leave it at that but I have things to say about this game's story. Firstly the themes surrounding GV the theme of GV's arc is that of living guilt and learning to move on past that and I think this theme is set up rather well because at the literal end of the intro stage GV just got out of being Godzilla (kinda, he's a dog now) and we with he have found out that GV's time as Godzilla+ Sumeragi stealing his electricity to power all of Japan has led to dragon aids floating in the air and turning everyone into dragons. So GVs eternal guilt complex is at least set up rather well it's just not explored as deeply as I'd hoped, the early game (GV and Kirin sealing up the victims of Dragon aids) is fine we get a whole montage of GV contemplating that this whole mess is his fault and Kirin telling him no that's whatever it's's good setup the problem almost instantly starts at the mid-game (Atems pull up) and almost instantly the guilt complex loses focus which you could consider fair since GV's guilt complex seems to have come from the dragons fucking shit up but as the late game reveals that is not at all the case.

Late game: The problems

Starting straight with the true nature of GV'S guilt complex it is the manifestation of his every failure from falling to save Joule in the first game all the way until now. Now that's a lot to unpack but we are at the near end of this game and good lord we are far too late to unpack it at this point and it shows. For starters we only delve into this in full *during the duo boss fights and nowhere else* but even then even then at the absolute most it vaguely brings shit up just vaguely and GV can't even say anything about it the poor bastard, Kirin has to come in and save him from the ghosts of Christmas past while at the same time saying that the ghosts may have a point so it doesn't do anything in the end. Even worse is that the absolute *most* that occurs is the game framing GV as a thoughtless murder hobo and not elaborating at all. Once all is said and done GV's inner monologue right after his him still doubting every action he has ever taken so that whole segment is just frankly rather pointless AND THEN THE ENDING MAKES IT EXTRA POINTLESS

The ending: Peak Garbage

Gunvolt 3's ending is to put it frankly PEAK GARBAGE, half those problems are Morbus and how he just pulls up out of nowhere and is too goddamn powerful for there to be a final boss that could possibly top him in terms of stakes and the other half is very sadly how they handle Gunvolt. To start he's been possessed by Morb and Kirin has to fight him leading to one of two possible endings the bad and true endings. The bad ending it's just GV killing himself and Kirin crying about it that's about it and the true ending is Morbvolt getting all sealed up, Morb telling GV that he's gonna nuke the planet to death and that the only thing he can do is turn himself into a baby about it and so he does that. The bad ending is fine I guess I don't have any real thoughts about it other than it at least being a culmination of GV's guilt complex that he's been dealing with the whole game (have fun with those implications). The true ending on the other hand is the worst thing ever and it's not because GV being a baby now makes no sense or is stupid and contrived(it is rather contrived tbf), it makes perfect sense despite Morb pulling up from out of nowhere and that make it worse because BABYVOLT IS A CULMINATION OF ***NOTHING*** IF THEY JUST HAD GUNVOLT KILL HIMSELF AND LEFT IT AT THAT THE GAMES STORY WOULD HAVE AT LEAST BEEN MEDIOCRE BUT NO THEY HAD TO WRITE ONE OF THE WORST CONCLUSIONS OF ALL TIME THAT CAME FROM FUCKING NOWHERE, JUST BEFORE GUNVOLT BECOMES BABY HE CONTEMPLATES "man if only I could redo my whole life" WHICH BRO HAS NEVER ONCE THOUGHT ABOUT IN HIS WHOLE LIFE AND IT INDIRECTLY AND GOES AGAINST THE THEME OF LEARNING TO LIVE WITH AND MOVING FORWARD WITH LIFE PAST YOUR GUILT HOMIE DIDN'T LEARN SHIT ABOUT LIVING WITH REGRETS OR MOVING ON FROM THEM HE JUST TURNED INTO A BABY ABOUT IT AND LEFT WITH ZERO ELABORATION NONE, NADDA, NULL. HE'S A BABY NOW LIVE WITH IT, ON YEAH BTW ENJOY YOUR NEW PROTAG BYE.

#azure striker gunvolt #gunvolt #long post

[amplifyme]

@randomfoggytiger

Let's talk about Walk Slowly. This episode wrecks me. Every single time.

Vincent's walk as he carries Cathy's body back to her apartment; and his vigil until dawn forces him to go.

And that's where the tears start for me. I often think about the Classic fans who never watched S3 and all they missed out on in just this single episode. They never got to see Vincent kiss his Catherine good-bye, or experience with her loved ones the grief they shared over her death, or hear Vincent's eulogy. Oh well, their loss.

Vincent finally seeking out Father, and Father knowing Vincent's grief and guiding him through it... wow. Vincent's fight with the Other, Catherine's necklace, remembering her words, shocking Father to death with the revelation. Joe and Jen and the FUNERAL-- all the people Above and Below.

Yes, yes, yes! Nothing to add here.

DIANA. DIANA, DIANA, DIANA. I love her. I never would have imagined her so serious-- for some reason, I read her voice as fast talking, higher pitched-- a far cry from measured and deliberate.

She's very deliberate and very introspective. As I told you before, she lives in her head. And I think she has the type of personality that once she figures out you're okay and she decides she likes you, there would be times you wouldn't be able to shut her up. She just generally plays things really close to the vest. She doesn't like to give any part of herself away until she feels like you've earned it.

I adore that Diana "met" Catherine first, and really connected with her through her little doll. (I also noticed that she seems to get flashes or insights by touching objects... hmmmmm.)

Though I liked her from the get-go, this scene in C's apartment sealed the deal for me. From the second she shoved the cop out the door, shut off the lights, and just stood in the dark soaking everything up, I was hooked. "I bet you had a name, didn't you?" Oh, my sweet Diana, I adore you.

She absolutely gets insights and impressions by touching things. She's a touch-sensitive empath, just like Vincent.

Did you notice the parallels between her stepping out onto the balcony for the first time and how it mirrored the shot of Cathy doing the same in the intro the first two seasons?

Mark took me by surprise, wonder how long he's going to be around.

Not as long as he'd like to be. The boy's got some stiff competition coming his way. 😉

Her interrogation of both Joe and Elliot was spectacular.

Really gives you a nice insight into how she works and her ability to cut through the BS and get down to business. Loved her asking Elliot to at least tell her whether she's looking for a dead man or not, cuz she hates wasting her time. The implication being that Elliot might've located and taken care of Vincent already. And her unrelenting questioning of Joe and the whole "Who makes you jealous?" tact. She's very good at what she does, which goes a long way in explaining why she gets to pick and choose the cases she takes on.

Oh, and another thing I just thought of. Elliot definitely knows about Vincent, and lies to Diana when she asks him. He's still keeping Cathy's secrets, even after her death.

Diana observing everyone, marking their pictures with question marks (and Father with the most.)

This was cut out in editing but during the funeral she notices Elliot exchanging looks with Father (remembering each other from when Father was locked up at Paracelsus' and Elliot first heard Vincent's name) and that's why he has three question marks on his photo instead of just one.

The children hugging Vincent while the others are at the funeral....

How heartbreaking was that?? He needed to allow himself the comfort the kids so wanted to give him. And they needed to grieve too. Read the script when you have the time. It was originally written quite differently, but I love the quiet simplicity of this better.

I had to watch Vincent's eulogy several times before I could actually pay attention to what he was saying. I was too busy picking out all the familiar faces at the funeral. I finally closed my eyes and just listened. Perlman delivered, and then some.

There was a moment when the way was still new, and I was afraid to hope. You put your hand on mine. Nothing had ever felt like that to me... like your touch. I wanted to weep. You turned and looked at me, your eyes were filled with dancing light. And I was bathed in your warmth. And I believed in that moment that even for me, all things were possible. In that moment... in your light... I felt what it is to be beautiful. How many lives were touched by you? How many lives were transformed by your courage to give... and to love? How many became beautiful in your light? Oh, we promised, always, to share the truth, always. But, Catherine, there was a truth beyond anything... beyond everything I had ever known, ever dreamed. It was the truth of all you gave, of all you sacrificed, for me. The truth of your love humbled me, silenced me. And the truth I could never share with you was the truth of how deeply I loved you. I will remember. I will remember every moment, every word, every look, every touch. Our love lives. It will live forever. Nothing will destroy us. Love does not die. You're safe. You're safe now. Sleep, my love. 😭😭😭

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's close with something a bit more shallow. This is my favorite Vincent outfit EVER. The leather, military-like vest is perfection. And it beautifully foreshadows the battle he's about to wage.

#beauty and the beast 1987 #season 3 #walk slowly #discussion

[madeofcc]

OCTOBER UPDATE 🎃

Hellow everyone 👻

Finally, October is here and the spooky season that belongs to it ! Simblreen is turning slowly but surely in spooky mode and I already love to see some great content on my dash. As usual, this is a little post about what's going to happen during this month on this page. You'll find more info about Another Side in the blog update part.

Feel free to read or ignore this but always take very good care of you ♥

Also, thanks a lot to all of you for being here and remember, you're not alone ... This season in particular 👀

Life update : A hell lot happened in a month. I usually love September but this one was probably one of the hardest month of my life. To be short, after 6 months of full implication and hard work, I got fired after a burn out at work. I'm also living with my ex for almost a year now and it has become harder and harder to feel good living together. To be honest, I spend my nights crying these days so I'm fully commited to my sims story this month in order to have some kind of escape. Anyway, I guess that's all, sorry for being that negative this month, I'll get better don't worry. Here comes the blog update anyway :) More fun inside this one.

Blog update : Another Side is starting tomorrow 🎃

I'm soooo happy to see the little hype around this story and I can tell you that it's the one I've been putting so more efforts into it for now. The chapters are a bit longer than usually, I'm really trying to create the best cinematic experience for you dear readers. I made a little poll this week to check your desire about this story and the posting around it. So far, those who voted mainly voted for half a chapter a day so I guess that's what I'll do, but I reserve myself the right to post the entire chapter if it's a short one (like 2 parts).

The intro is already here in 2 parts, Chapter 1 will be called "Yuki" and will be 4 parts long. Tomorrow, October 1st, I'll post 2 parts of this chapter, the first one dropping at midnight (Paris time) and the other one a little bit later during the day. I'll make a timezone reblog and you'll get part 3 and 4 Sunday. Not all chapters will include 4 parts so I can't already tell you how many chapters there will be nor how many parts they will include. For now, the only thing I can tell you is that I'm trying to write it like a serie and so far, ep 1 to 3 include 7 chapters each so ... This should give you an idea. It should also go through October and November I think. Maybe a bit more if the story is longer than planned.

About Simblreen, I'm super excited for the event but I'm still thinking whether or not participating fully this year. For now I still have to fix my topaz clean on Photoshop (everything is installed correctly but nothing appears on Photoshop anymore, it worked fine 2 days ago U_U) but if I have the time I'd love to share some presents ! So far, I'm thinking of some CAS spooky backgrounds and also a new set of horror posters. Expect at least some new posters (who said A24 HORROR ?!) and if I have the time (and energy), some CAS backgrounds then.

About DH, don't worry my loves, Destiny and all should be back for some edits around the end of the year but the story will be officially back in 2023 for a full DH year 😍 I've planned a lot, including a casting call so be prepared !

And I think that's all ! As usual, thank you so much for reading this and for being here. You all are a daily strenght you don't even know 😊

Take very good care of you, enjoy a looooot this spooky season as much as I do (only for the medias part, otherwise, please October be nicer than September who was hell !) and always remember that you're not alone ♥

#October Update #Monthly update #DH edit #lots happened lately #I feel soooo tired #like emotionnaly drowned #anyway #thank god there's horror movies and shows this month #yes I do love to solve my problems watching scary things #it's actually making my problem look so small compared to some movie plot

[placegrenette]

A Summary (with Commentary) of Ninety One’s June 2022 Appearance on the Zamandas Podcast

If you follow Ninety One you know that our translators over at @qpoptranslations are awesome, but few in number and overworked. The “overworked” part came into play after the guys announced their split from Juz Entertainment this past spring and suddenly went into PR overdrive: there was this interview and also this interview and new songs and Space episodes and behind-the-scenes videos and many, many Instagram stories, and pretty much none of this new content had English subtitles: whoever was doing the subbing during the Juz era either didn’t follow the guys to their new company or has been assigned to other duties. So when Ninety One appeared on the Zamandas podcast show, and I saw that it was two hours and the timestamps included references to Bloody January, the Mad Men drug arrests, the Kazakh language, and the financial aftermath of the Juz split, I was simultaneously elated and gloomy. Elated that they were talking about these topics, and gloomy that I was in no position to demand the hours’ worth of work it would take to translate the interview.

However: the hard-working Zamandas folks, whoever they are, threw me a lifeline, in the form of Russian and Kazakh subs. So I have machine-translated said subs (Google Translate for the Russian subs, Yandex Translate for the Kazakh subs), done my best to match subtitle with speaker, and compiled the whole thing into a spreadsheet, which you can see here. What follows is a summary—not a translation, since I can’t present a machine translation as definitive, especially given that I’m not in a position to check for accuracy. (Please do send me any and all corrections.) But I can at least give you the gist of what they said.

Strap in! This is going to be long, since I will also be adding commentary, some of it valuable, some of it snark for my own entertainment. I’ll put timestamps in throughout so you can cross-reference. Headers are excerpts from Google Translate’s take on the original (Russian) timestamps listing, which is below the video on the YouTube page.

Intro (0:00)  /  The culture of saying hello (0:16)  / Cancellation of concerts in Turkistan (3:08)

We begin with our hosts, Kana Beisekyev (hereafter KB) and Yerzhan Aldabergenov (hereafter YA), greeting Ninety One. I can give you no context whatsoever on KB and YA, except that the former is a documentarian and filmmaker of some experience; for example, in 2016 he uploaded a short film about a young Kazakh man who migrated to New York and now works for the NYPD. This interview is not the most recent thing he’s released involving Ninety One but we’ll get there. Here’s the channel description of the Zamandas podcast:

ZAMANDAS podcast is an author’s podcast by Kana Beisekeev. A platform where we discuss topics that are very interesting to us. We take one step further and continue to study modern culture and those who create it. Turn on. We are with you. All the same young, noisy, lively and completely different.

It continues to fascinate me how “young, lively, noisy” Ninety One continues to meet the criterion of “completely different” when, one, they’re rapidly becoming so mainstream the Guardian feels it necessary to include them in photo essays about Kazakhstan, and two, they’re so firmly within globalized pop traditions.

Anyway. The introduction leads to a more abstract discussion of how greeting habits in Kazakhstan have changed over time, which I do not have the cultural background to put into context, so let’s see what the guys are wearing:

Bala and ZaQ are appropriately casual, Alem is slightly overdressed but looking all the better for it, and I eagerly anticipate the day when Ace’s present or future girlfriend convinces him to burn these jeans.

We’re ready to start the interview proper (~2:04). KB (who’s in the white shirt and jeans in the picture above, YA is wearing the shorts) wonders if they should start in Kazakh or Russian. Language balancing and the social and political implications thereof will be a topic of this interview and I am HERE FOR IT. “Let’s start in Kazakh!” YA decides, and then Bala says “Annyeong hasaeyo” and throws hearts at the camera, because Bala, and everyone cracks up.

The first big topic of conversation (~3:00) is the canceled Turkistan concert, which was supposed to have taken place later in the week. Turkistan is a city in south-central Kazakhstan, not far from Shymkent, with a population of about 220,000, and I don’t think Ninety One has ever performed there. ZaQ (who is going to do most of the talking this interview) explains that the concert was supposed to be accompanied by “a meeting with young people in the library,” not necessarily a fan meeting, but it all got scrapped when the local akimat (roughly, city council)* claimed to be getting lots of complaints about Ninety One’s bad influence. It’s basically the issues of the 2016 tour all over again. So it makes sense that they would go on to discuss the 2016 tour.

National hate, threats and cancellation of concerts in 2016 (4:55)  /  At what point did the hate disappear? (11:00)

There’s not a lot of new information here, though there are details I hadn’t heard before. ZaQ says that Yerbolat Bedelkhan was getting threatening phone calls from people at “the ministry” (~5:13), and I’m not sure what ministry, or what level of government, he’s referring to. The guys report seeing people take bribes to protest them, which they’ve mentioned before, and that in Semey their car was chased; in Shymkent they actually hired armed security guards. I don’t love the 91 movie for its relentless glumness, but I don’t think its portrayal of Ninety One as harassed, defensive, and anxious that year is off the mark.

The timestamps indicate that they’re going to talk about the threats and harassment going away, but they actually don’t seem to; possibly because the threats and harassment haven’t entirely gone away, although this was filmed before the problems with the summer tour in Atyrau and Shymkent. Instead KB compliments the guys: “Thanks to you, Kazakh-language music has reached an incredible level” (11:38). Which is very sweet but unenlightening.

One of the drawbacks of having me as your unreliable narrator is that I don’t know what’s being left unsaid about the Kazakh entertainment industry and the reality of touring in a country where a lot of the economy is deliberately opaque. I’ve speculated on the Q-pop Discord that Yerbolat Bedelkhan has connections that Ninety One lost when they went independent, hence a revival of the touring headaches. Or it could be a matter of their being asked to pay bribes and not paying them, of their not being able to pay the usual bribes, since the quasi-fall of the Nazarbayev family in January disrupted the set bribe-paying ecosystem. Or all this speculation is way off the mark. Y’all look at me skeptically and let’s move on.

The problem of the Kazakh language (14:44)  /  Did you have to dye your hair? (16:51)  /  How Korea strengthened itself as a nation (19:00)

This section is mostly ZaQ talking, although Bala contributes an anecdote about watching Kazakh-language performers on TV once, over his mother’s shoulder, and being unimpressed. ZaQ explains that, as a teenager wanting to be creative and in entertainment, he basically saw his options as going abroad, or giving up on the “creative” part. What Yerbolat Bedelkhan offered was the opportunity to make music closer to the way he wanted to make it, while remaining at home and performing in Kazakh. He makes it sound as if “Kazakh-language content, but modern pop” was not only baked into the whole concept of Ninety One from the start (which I believe) but also shared and articulatable by the members at the time (which I have a slightly harder time believing, given that Bala was a teenager and Ace had been back from Korea a year and a half at most).

ZaQ then goes on to talk about how “we” (I assume he means the group) originally assumed that Kazakh-language performers seemed stuck in a rut because there was something in the language itself, but that wasn’t the case. It was just that, prior to Boss Yerbolat, no one had actively tried to put together a modern pop infrastructure (based on Korean idol pop) for a Kazakh-language group before.

(This discussion is briefly derailed when Ace sneezes at about 15:30, which would not be worth derailing for if he did not sound like an indignant Pomeranian while sneezing. It’s very cute, and KB can’t resist the temptation to tease him about it. I wouldn’t either, clearly. Ace’s expression afterwards is that of a guy who really wishes people would stop pointing out that he has the weirdest sneeze in Central Asia.)

Anyway. ZaQ is not mincing words: “After coloring your hair and getting a tattoo, your nationality doesn’t change. This is stupid.” There’s some discussion of concealing one’s musical guilty pleasures (Justin Beiber, for KB) and then ZaQ goes on to discuss Korean soft power through pop (I’ve slightly edited the translation here):

What Koreans have achieved as a nation is to properly support each other. Develop your culture, country, and consciousness through a product, ideologically. That is, not to hide aggressively, but to show off your beauty and present yourself as attractive. Thanks to the support of the state and the population, Korea is now recognized on a global scale. Now, everywhere you look, this culture is present. Our young people want to learn Korean, go there and feel that atmosphere—see the people of the place, see the idols, and so on. Wants to be a part of that. It’s the same with American culture.

Ace chimes in that demand for Kazakh-language performers was originally assumed to be nonexistent (using the passive voice here because, again, I’m not sure who would actually be making these decisions) and Ninety One proved the assumption wrong. (Earlier ZaQ named Eaglez as one of two pillars of Ninety One’s success, Boss Yerbolat being the other.) Ace then makes an interesting statement (~21:34): “We, of course, do not need such big money as foreigners, but the very fact that all the money will remain in the country and go back to creativity.” Which makes me wonder, given that they were talking about going to the United States last year and now they don’t seem to be, whether they’ve been doing some recalculations about how much they want a global fanbase versus focusing on their operations within Kazakhstan.

Creating your own brand (22:54)  /  Yerbolat Bedelkhan made the group inaccessible (24:33)  /  How did the band leave the producer? (27:33)  /  Did the group make money at all? (29:09)

An anecdote from ZaQ: Ninety One shared a bill with Yigor Creed, who is clearly influenced by global pop trends but performs in Russian, and half the audience left when Ninety One, the warmup act, left, prompting someone at Samsung to say, “We should send our advertising dollars to these guys.” (Bless you, Samsung executive.) Ace is then mostly in charge of explaining that they’re eschewing harmful advertising, such as with cigarettes or alcohol products. You are free to snark at the fact that Ninety One now has an ad campaign going with McDonald’s, though I think the whole context of fast food is still different in Kazakhstan.

There’s a discussion about how Boss Yerbolat imposed restrictions on social media that the guys have since lifted on themselves. (Thank goodness; I doubt that Juz-era ZaQ would have been allowed to dote so openly on his wife, but watching him do it has been an unabashed pleasure.) Then at 27:33 KB gets to the big question: “What situation did you leave [Juz] with?” “Win-win,” replies Alem, and ZaQ agrees.

They don’t go into detail, but: they don’t have exclusive rights to the Juz-era songs, they have to split revenue from those 50-50. But they were able to take their stage names and social media accounts. KB wants to know, of the money they made for Juz, how much did they get to leave with? Ace replies: “We never had the money we left behind.” ZaQ explains (seemingly choosing his words carefully) that they essentially were given an alllowance. There’s some discussion of their not being able to afford to buy their own places to live, and that they’re all still renting. Ace then defends the Juz arrangement, in part because it allowed Boss Yerbolat to financially support the group (as opposed to the individual members) in a way that would not have been available otherwise to a Kazakh-language group. His putting the money back into production, Ace implies, helped get Ninety One where it is now, so the guys have no regrets. I will point out here that the explanation I’ve heard of AZ’s departure in 2020 was that he was cash-strapped and didn’t see a bright short-term financial future for himself at Juz, so I’m not sure this gratitude was universally shared at the time. Also clearly if the Juz arrangement had been completely satisfactory the guys wouldn’t be independent now. But it makes sense for them to present a public narrative of appreciation for Boss Yerbolat’s efforts.

Two meta observations now: one, the pattern’s going to hold where ZaQ does most of the talking, especially about the group’s overarching philosophy; Bala occasionally shares personal anecdotes; Alem chimes in judiciously and seems largely relaxed; and Ace does the talking when the subject is more about matters financial or corporate. Two, up to this point the subs have been almost exclusively in Kazakh (meaning the speaking is in Russian) except when Ace is talking, and my ear still isn’t good enough to distinguish between Kazakh and Russian (especially since I think even when the guys are speaking Kazakh they use a lot of Russian loan words) but it comes off as if everyone’s speaking Russian except him, and this language-switching is unremarkable.

Ace says (~32:24), “In theory, over time, when we become world artists, the price of our one song will cost at least 10 million dollars.” I am back to my question of how they’re balancing the local/global focus. Meanwhile Alem and Bala are sharing a water bottle, if you needed evidence of how comfortable the dudes are with each other.

How ZAQ got to Zhas Otan (36:28)

The discussion of how they were organized under Juz gives way to the question of state support: Ace is talking (again) about the early difficulties, and KB interjects (at ~35:51): “Have you never worked with the state?” Unfortunately here the subs get very muddled: Ace and ZaQ talk at the same time several times, and Bala talks a couple times without being clearly subbed. ZaQ’s Zhas Otan duties come up in this context; I think he’s saying that he committed to Zhas Otan to have a platform to argue for a greater infrastructure for performers outside the toi business. It’s not clear how much success he had. The only other point I want to highlight in this section is ZaQ’s saying that the music entertainment is mostly informal—“Cash at the wedding”—and the implications are twofold: one, that the Kazakhstani state doesn’t get to collect taxes on musicians’ earnings, and two, that it’s hard for the music industry to grow when it’s mostly informal and illegitimate. ZaQ’s being upfront about Ninety One’s revenue in the Elle interview might be related to this, though that’s my speculation.

Lack of culture in concerts Irina Kairatovna, Shiza, Nurik Smit (41:45)

At 42:06 KB announces that Irina Kairatovna is his and YB’s favorite band and he expects them on the show someday. This was apparently not idle talk, as Aldik appeared on the podcast in early September (and that conversation has Russian subs, and I do intend to feed them to a machine translator at some point, but one thorough interview at a time). This leads to a discussion of a then-recent IK/Shiza concert (Shiza was a guest in early August) in which there was apparently drinking and disrespect to the Kazakhstani flag. I don’t have the details (or the right context: in the American music industry their offensive behavior would probably be considered pretty tame), but it apparently pissed enough people off that I’ve heard speculation that the real reason for Ninety One’s tour troubles this summer was local officials associating them with those hooligans. Anyway, I appreciate KB and YA being willing to raise the subject; one of the benefits of following Q-pop is that fewer topics seem to be off limits in media interactions, hence interviews like this one being a lot more interesting.

Ninety One’s response to “Hey, what do y’all think of that time that your bros acted the fools onstage?” comes in two parts. First up (at ~43:23) is Ace, who wants it very clear that such shenanigans Do Not Happen at Ninety One concerts, because they take their job very seriously, sound check, stage presentation, the whole kit and kaboodle, they are professionals. At one point KB tries to get a word in edgewise but no, this is important. By the way, Ace delivers this speech in Kazakh despite Bala’s having used Russian just a moment ago; I think the subbers started losing patience with him at this point, since future Ace speeches will not be nearly as thoroughly subbed.

Part 2, starting at roughly ~46:49, goes to ZaQ, who is in charge of explaining that presentation varies with genre; he doesn’t quite say that IK and Shiza should be given a pass because hip-hop uses different signifiers than other types of music, but that’s my read of his implication. It adds up to “We wouldn’t do that, but we understand why they did.” It would have made sense for Ninety One, with their various sponsorship deals (InDriver, McDonald’s, Samsung, etc.) to try and present themselves as more wholesome and responsible than those troublemakers, and to some degree they do, but we know the Ninety One/IK brofest is alive and well (given that all four members of Ninety One plus Nurs Bazarbay showed up to Mark’s wedding celebration) so this definitely doesn’t seem like a full distancing. Keep this in mind when we get to the Mad Men discussion later.

Somehow this leads to ZaQ talking about how Ninety One was a postmodern group, and Alem and Bala start smiling fondly. “We are now metamodern,” says Bala, in the tone of someone who has heard ZaQ talk about being metamodern approximately 6,000 times and is okay with that. It’s very cute, and also somewhat incomprehensible (as it was when he talked about metamodernism for Nurzhan Yerikuly’s podcast roundtable, and that interview still doesn’t have subs of any kind, sadly). The Eaglez who publishes an English-language version of What ZaQ Talks About When He Talks About Metamodernism will have my eternal gratitude.

Ninety One has become a social phenomenon (49:44)  /  How the group saved people’s lives (53:36)

The “social phenomenon” description is from ZaQ, who talks about the group having transitioned from just-a-pop-group to pop-group-doing-commentary-on-Kazakhness, without, unfortunately, explaining how that happened (or how much of it was Boss Yerbolat’s initiative and how much belonged to the members themselves). ZaQ points out that there were “seven treasures” of Kazakh culture in the “Men Emes” video, although they were stretching the definition of Kazakh cultural treasure by having a Ford Mustang stand in for a horse (which my beloved blogger-source @qforqazaq​ absolutely called at the time, by the way).

(As I was typing this, I was wondering, but what treasure was in AZ’s final segment? And then learned that one of the seven treasures is, I kid you not, HOT CHICKS. Really: “сұлу әйел,” if you want to play along at home. I did a search and came up with this article: “A beautiful woman is a beauty in every country, but whether she is beautiful or not, she is the fortress behind the man, the blessing of his fire.” Et cetera. So the next time you get annoyed that Ninety One are not necessarily doing the greatest job of recognizing women as equals along Western lines, keep in mind they’ve got this idea of paying tribute to and incorporating old Kazakh culture, and old Kazakh culture apparently came with a hearty dose of woman-as-possession.)

Anyway. ZaQ closes out by talking about a modern Kazakh identity (if you would like more on that point) and talks about the problems highlighted in the “Bari Biled” video, including the problem of youth suicide. That leads to them talking about how Eaglez have reached out to the group and talked about feeling helped; one Eaglez (who’s shown briefly onscreen, I’m not sure of his name but he’s also in the recent tour behind-the-scenes videos) even went so far as to join their staff. Alem chimes in talking about Eaglez getting bullied (I think?) and says, “Everyone should love themselves first,” which is a very Alem thing to say.

Self-expression through appearance (59:50)  /  Ninety One - Freemasons? (1:08:19)

YA starts telling a story of a group that inspired him, apparently: Tokio Hotel. Man, the Tokio Hotel phenomenon is just so underappreciated and underexplained in the States; I would be very appreciative of a Tokio Hotel deep dive. (They’re releasing a new single this month! And it’s a collab with Daði Freyr!) Bala and ZaQ grin in recognition; Alem says he learned to sing Tokio Hotel songs to become better friends with girls at school. Ace either missed the Tokio Hotel phenomenon or is still smarting about the sneeze jokes.

KB talks about dressing differently as a teenager (at ~58:32 there’s a cute moment where Bala has to teach him how to say “doorag”) and Alem talks about how in 2015 Ninety One had to psych themselves up for going out looking like, well, Ninety One. ZaQ gets in an Abay quote and then (starting at ~01:04:54) has a monologue about how dressing differently isn’t breaking any laws, Kazakhstan has enough problems, why are guys carrying knives around? There’s some subs dropping out here, but Ace makes the point that Ninety One’s outfits are a kind of uniform, like a doctor’s coat, and both Ace and ZaQ separately suggest that Ninety One acts as a kind of easily visible scapegoat for those not wanting to face deeper issues of uncivil society.

~01:08:50: Bala’s talking. When he was about 18 (meaning, within six months of Ninety One’s debut), he saw a video condemning Ninety One for being “like that” (it’s not clear what “that” is. Effeminate? Satanic?) and the gap between his own ethical values and the read the video-maker took of his work depressed him. Now I want to go back in time and hug Early-2016!Bala. Ace then explains—and I’m reaching slightly here, because the subs drop out again—how the “Aiyptama” video featured graffiti on set, and it really was just the set designers trying to create a certain look with no ulterior motives, but somehow the stars got interpreted as Satanic symbols and the whole thing was absurd.

Then there’s a detour about… Freemasonry? ZaQ tells KB and YA that Alikhan Bukeikhanov, one of the founders of Alash, was a Freemason. Also that the world is full of secret cults. Does that imply that Ninety One should have been more sympathetic to viewers worried that their set design was proof of a secret Satanist cult? Conspiracy theories for me but not for thee? Let’s move on, we’re about to get to something important.

Mad Men and drugs (1:15:29)  /  What is Q-pop? (1:20:35)  /  Did you drink? (1:23:45)

KB brings up the Mad Men arrests. (For those who need the recap, Ruslan Hwang, the head of Mad Men’s company, and Moora were accused of manufacturing and dealing illegal drugs, and have been sentenced; Moora’s lawyer has alleged that the investigation was conducted improperly and the defendants were coerced and threatened; Khay was sentenced separately for possession without distribution.) The guys’ reactions are interesting, especially in contrast to their treatment of the IK controversy earlier. Alem says, “I think they are on a bad path,” while looking around warily, and Bala says something along the lines about not being close to Mad Men because they were a bunch of Russian speakers, as if Ninety One never speaks Russian, I think my jury-rigged subs-to-translation process may have let us down there. For what it’s worth, the guys say they initially couldn’t believe the charges but do now, and I don’t know how much of that is sincere and how much is that it’s not in their interest to try and look into Moora’s lawyer’s argument. To be clear: I don’t think this is entirely dissembling; I don’t remember a lot of Ninety One / Mad Men interaction when both groups were active, and Boss Yerbolat may have regarded Ruslan Hwang as an annoying upstart. But it is some serious don’t-bring-that-to-us distancing.

There’s some discussion of Ninety One getting potential negative association with everyone under the Q-pop umbrella (which Mad Men clearly was) and the guys talk about how offended they are when someone accuses them of using drugs. So KB just asks outright (at ~1:23:38): have y’all ever used drugs? “No,” ZaQ says decisively, and the set goes quiet for a second before KB says, “Thank God.” And then Ace says that welllllllll sometimes the guys drink in secret but that’s normal and Alem admits to smoking but not where vulnerable Eaglez can witness it. I appreciate the dudes’ honesty, even if it does make them look a teeny bit hypocritical here.

(Also, I’ll admit that if you’d ask me to predict the vocalist who’s also a secret smoker, I would’ve picked Ace. I’m not yet covinced he doesn’t smoke, given how frequently he’s coughing in the background of Instalives and other videos.)

The influence of the band on listeners (1:26:49)

We get another Bala anecdote (~1:25:43). Let me go ahead and quote the translation of the Kazah subs directly: “As soon as we started to dye our hair and wear earrings, those who in life blushed and felt like a woman, began to come out openly… They did make-up and started doing it every day. They probably have their own feminine whims.” Y’all can freely object that this is not the greatest way to talk about either gay fans or gender-nonconforming ones, assuming the subs-to-translation process is right (which, again: don’t assume that). Regardless, I can’t tell from Bala’s body language whether he thinks this is a good or a bad thing, but he is volunteering the information. Alem ends up talking about people who have felt empowered to pursue new projects after listening to Ninety One. “At times like these, you understand why you’re working for all of this,” says Bala. So… I think they’re okay with the gay fans. Or at least doing a poor job of disavowing them. Ace points out that their lyrics in “Why’m” and “Men Emes” were designed to be empowering.

Yeah, says KB, but did you really have to dye your hair and all that? Here comes an interesting anecdote: apparently after Boss Yerbolat had assembled the group (possibly even before Ace had joined, when Alem, Bala, AZ, and ZaQ were still KTI Boys) he gave them a choice of models: One Direction and Big Bang. The guys voted unhesitatingly for Big Bang, and hence “Aiyptama” was the debut song. Good choice, KTI Boys! And now I’m going to spend the rest of the day wondering what “Umytpa,” the other possible debut song, would sound like if One Direction had sung it.

Also: at 1:31:20 we have Bala voguing badly.

Formation of the Kazakh language through music (1:32:52) /  A request to the musicians who returned after the start of the war (1:39:02)

More ZaQ now, talking about how he listened to American and Russian rap first and was later thrilled to discover Kazakh rap. At ~01:33:55 he talks very enthusiastically about Kazakh rappers beefing with each other. We really are going to need the Kazakhstani equivalent of, say, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. KB teases them about not mumbling like Skriptonit. Soon after this there’s an unfortunate gap in the subs, but I think ZaQ is explaining how Ace and Bala helping him out with lyric writing, possibly (I’m speculating) contributing an emphasis on sound as much as meaning.

ZaQ then talks about the potential opportunities for Kazakhstani artists who were working in Russia but returned to Kazakhstan after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yeah, he says, there’s not as much money to be made, but you have a chance to break Kazakhstan on the world stage, and spread the Kazakh language! Language affects consciousness! Look at what the Koreans and Japanese have been able to do for their respective languages! This prompts Ace to talk about how his consciousness expanded once he learned Korean, after a year and a half training with SM. (That must’ve been a rough year and a half.)

Importance of language (1:40:29)

Starting at ~1:44:19 we get one of the great pleasures (or hazards, depending on your point of view) of following Ninety One, and that is ZaQ Getting Super Philosophical About Language. It seems wrongheaded to do this at the distance of a translation of a translation, but here goes: basically, to master a language is to absorb the way of thinking of the speaker. (At one point he claims not to have mastered Russian, and KB’s like, dude you have mastered Russian far more than most Russians.) Spreading the Kazakh language is thus inextricable from strengthening Kazakh identity. There’s a potential anticolonialist element here, in that to learn Kazakh, from its relatively low place of sociopolitical power, is different from learning Russian, but I don’t think ZaQ is going so far as to make an anti-Russian statement.

Alem and Bala chime in along the way, leaving YA sheepishly saying something about never having expected to be so impressed by Ninety One. Ace apparently tells a joke involving the Korean language and the word “Hyundai”; the subbers refuse to sub it. KB talks about going to Mongolia and feeling like he needed to make excuses for his poor Kazakh.

Are you going to fight? (1:54:50)  / January events (1:56:15)

We’re now getting to the section that inspired me to start this quixiotic translating effort in the first place. Ace points out that the Ukrainians are also very attached to their language, to the point of sacrificing their lives for it. KB then notes that artists are fighting in Ukraine, and there’s some discussion about whether the guys would sign up for the military if Kazakhstan was invaded, and they’re all so grimly matter-of-fact about it that I’m tempted to conclude that “okay, we’re next” was a going concern in Kazakhstan as of June, and is possibly still now. ZaQ says that there was a related internal conversation about going out to the front lines back in January, when “the front lines” were seemingly around the corner. So, yes, we are going to talk about Ninety One’s experiences of Bloody January.

Or, rather, Ninety One is going to talk about their experiences of Bloody January, and the subbers are going to hang back and let a lot go untranslated. In particular, there’s a big gap at ~01:57:56, after Alem describes seeing a crowd of people on Abay Avenue (I think?) destroy a Kaspi (ATM? bank branch?). What they seem to be describing, if you don’t mind taking my interpretation with even more salt than usual, is that initially they were fired up to join whatever protests were going on, only to be discouraged when things got violent and inexplicable. I say this cautiously; I’m not convinced that “I was absolutely going to join the anti-government, fed-up-with-everything protests before they got violent and inexplicable” is a mainstream sentiment in present-day Kazakhstan. Ace says he was very angry when the Internet was turned off country-wide. As well he should have been!

KB asks the group if they think anything’s changed since the January protests. Their responses are interestingly not uniform: ZaQ and Alem talk about people tasting freedom and finding a new spirit, whereas Ace says, “Well, gas is 65 tenge now,” and I might be overinterpreting but I think that’s his way of saying no, not really.

Then there’s some discussion of the ruling government possibly leaning on Ninety One to fall in line? Specifically, the subs have KB saying (at ~2:02:14), “I know that you have contacted many influencers and said that you need to support the president now.” I don’t know, Toqaev seems to be doing fine, or at least there don’t seem to be many alternatives to him, I don’t know why Ninety One would need to be shilling for him, unless it’s necessary to keep the McDonald’s and InDriver and Samsung deals. Maybe this has something to do with Bolat Nazarbayev’s rumored former iron grip on the entertainment industry? I’m at a loss.

Skriptonit album with Ninety One (2:04:06)  /  Kana’s Ninety One documentary (2:09:19)

From here on out it’s mostly KB talking. First he compares them to Batyrkhan Shukenov, in their expand-knowledge-of-Kazakhstan-through-pop-music efforts, which is a heckuva compliment, and then he wants them to collaborate with Skriptonit (which, no evidence of that yet, but ZaQ and Bala have since hung out with Jah Khalib, I’m still chuffed about that). And then it’s time for the outro. “I have great respect and love for you,” KB says. Awww. Bala throws hearts in response. There’s some brief discussion of KB’s documentary career, and, hey, did you know that one of those documentaries is about the Kazakh language itself? And has Ninety One in it? And HAS ENGLISH SUBS?!!!??! Y’all don’t even need me! You can just go ahead and watch the damn thing! I haven’t yet; I’ve been saving it as my treat for getting through this summary.

So what have we learned? To be frank, it’s not so much that this information is new (though I do appreciate the extra detail on the split with Juz) as that it reinforces narratives already in place: the nastiness of 2016, hair-dying still being so outré that podcasters committed to talking to the “young, noisy, lively” keep needing to point it out, ZaQ’s commitment to promoting Kazakh identity in a modern setting, the group being sympathetic to and touched by the stories of Eaglez (including, maybe, the gay and/or gender-non-conforming ones), and language being a tool in support of Kazakhness. Also Alem being open-hearted, Bala flirting with the camera, ZaQ waxing philosophical, and Ace taking the most down-to-earth view of things. There are quite a few things I’d wished they’d tackled at greater length, especially around the possible emerging theme of Ninety One giving the Kazakhstani government a lot more than they’re getting in return.

We have also learned that doing an end-run around normal translation processes might work, even if the person doing the running is woefully ignorant of both the languages being translated. So again, feel free to glance through my compilation of the subs and machine translations to English, and let me know where I interpreted wrongly, and especially let me know if I’m wrong enough often enough that doing something like this again in future (with this interview with ZaQ last year, for example, which seems to be subbed) is a bad idea.

* there was some debate on this point among my Kazakh-knowledgeable sources but basically akimat = city council, akim = mayor.

#ninety one #come find me eaglez #adventures in machine translation #thank your translators

[mxdnxghtraven]

So, Who Dis?

Hey! Name's Phoenix, I'm 19 and use he/they pronouns. I'm currently in college studying photography with the intention to work with/for non-profits and human rights orgs to tell the stories of people who have been harmed by the system in one way or another via photography. Photos describe stories far better than words, and I love leaning into that in my work.

So, why am I writing then?

This has been my coping mechanism and one of my primary creative outlets since high school! Most of my work from that time was primarily poetry, but I dabbled in my fair share of short stories. Istrucpolis is one of my brainchildren from that time. I started it during my senior year!

Current Projects (as of February/March 2024)

I'm permanently swimming in WIPs (*sigh*), but I love working on multiple projects at once, so here are all of my current brainchildren :) I've started drafting stories aimed for an 18+ audience so minors get out LMAO

Istrucpolis: Dystopian post-apocalypse city but if it was elven, because why not. Debating if I will continue this one (discontinued).

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IMPORTANT: Book sneak peek/intro

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Power & Inequality: A series of standalones inspired by songs, academic discussions I participate in, and my work in my internship. Making use of my background in song analysis, human rights/social justice, storytelling, and documentation. Continuing this throughout the summer and beyond as inspiration comes to me.

Take Back What's Yours - Includes song link

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Cozy: A series of standalones that I wrote on a whim either while sick or very tired. Enjoy my emotional half-delirious ramblings.

Cozy III (idk why tumblr is acting up)

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Flight: A deep dive into the life of one very angsty trans-man, Aaron.

Needy (18+ age gate, connected to Flight)

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Little Things: A several-post series that is based on true events. Also a deep dive, but Silas instead! Poor gay boy is in for quite the journey.

Hurt (it's doing it again vdfbfdb)

#writing #writeblr #fiction writing #shortstories #stories #fiction writer #human rights #activism #social justice

[joesanimationblog]

Final Animatic & Feedback

I struggled to edit my animatic to fit with the sound as much as I had liked but was pretty happy with the outcome, I liked the narrative but felt the ending needed changing and wanted to tweak the opening sequence to fit music better.

Feedback

My tutorial was very useful, It addressed a staging error/ line break during the 360 shot at around 0:15 where the frog ends up facing the wrong direction. My thoughts on the ending and intro needing changes were confirmed, the final shot was said to be clunky which I agree with and in finding an issue with the pacing early on the discussion helped form an idea of how to resolve the issues with the end, the fireflies are very briefly shown, so having them fly around to the music as an introduction would be a good way to kick off the animation and give more of an introduction to the characters. I could use the fireflies for the ending to form the heart as the sketch I had done of the heart shaped composition had some major perspective issues which meant it wouldn't work in that format. Using fireflies as a magical transition was my plan at the start but without enough time it just seemed random, so having them appear more significantly both at the start and end would provide some much needed narrative context and closure.

I got some advice I didn't agree with fully surrounding the frogs designs and the use of hats... This being that frogs dont wear hats and it feels unusually unrealistic for my animation, as well as the point at the end where they pause in space and gravity just stops.

that said I do agree that my characters need more work and I plan to redesign them with better headwear which feels more grounded in the world. As for the issue with gravity, I wanted this to be a moment of suspended disbelief, I wanted them to float in space and for time to stop in a romantic way. I agree that them not returning to earth is a bit frustrating as what comes up must come down but I want them to come down in a way which resolves the narrative and exits the fantastical world, going back to a grounded reality. Using a transition where the stars change to fireflies and move around in the heart shape would be a pretty good way to reintroduce the magic firefly implication from the start, I can think of three ways I can take this:

Having them float back down slowly with a heart shaped swarm of fireflies moving to the music

Having the starts transition to fireflies and then it be a reflection, having a camera pan up to reveal that they are just two frogs enjoying the universe

and finally, having them both plummet towards the earth at high speed.

Jokes aside, out of the first two, I'm not sure which I prefer, and if I choose to continue this project, it will give me more time to draft up new ideas.

My group crit was also useful, there were areas during the falling of the frogs where my animatic lacked clarity, which I agree with and hopefully given more time I can clean up the rougher parts.

People seemed to like the designs and setting, although the part were they bounce up into the air had some design issues, the mushroom they bounce on were unclear so if I develop this project further I will be sure to give them enough detail and colour to make it clear.

I didn't get knocked for having bad music which is genuinely something which terrified me putting myself out there and writing/composing myself for the first time.

Yaqi said she got the magical fireflies implication which was pretty useful as I thought it was totally lost, but it made me take the idea a lot more seriously.

The editing was also pointed out to be a bit off, I was very aware of this and plan to crisp up the relationship between sound and motion if I develop it further and actually animate this project clean.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was one of the more interesting projects I have worked on as it isn't like something I have done before. I enjoyed it and am happy with the amount and quality of work I achieved. This was a project where I really felt the improvements I'm making as an artist and animator, the dynamic shots were something which I have tried and failed at in the past. I am happy with my progress.

#OpticalSound #Vimeo #Reflection #Practice 1

[fermented-writers-block]

The Royal Purple, Music Boxes, and Babies (Yes, it makes sense in context by the end)

Note: The hyperlinks are NOT necessary reading for understanding, but they do help provide deeper context for a fuller experience. And of course, TLDR at the end.

The way Amphibia uses purple is, in a word, utterly strange to say the least.

Despite being the bearer of blue Heart as the main character of a show with so much focus on the RGB color triad, the most prominent and frequently used color throughout Anne's designs - even the earliest known concept art of her current incarnation - is purple to an almost obscene degree. In fact, after breaking down the most prominent colors of each of Anne’s distinct designs from the show in the linked spreadsheet, blue ironically is THE least used color - only second to orange due to Matt Braly specifically pointing out the flame/lotus symbol on Anne’s S3 shirt.

In Bizarre Bazaar, Valeriana's eyes and teeth briefly glow purple in a manner suspiciously reminiscent of the trio's own glowing eye moments, which has a whole host of huge implications that are themselves eclipsed even further by purple’s subtle connection to the music box itself.

During the pivotal scene of the girls bring transported to Amphibia as well as Anne's arrival in the original opening, for just a single frame each, there is a color overlay beginning with purple, then followed by the RGB triad in that order. Interestingly, the cleaned rough animation for both shots have neither the additional subtle distortion or effects present, indicating the overlays and conspicuous use of purple were deliberately chosen for those scenes.

Deepening this connection with interdimensional portals, not only does Dr. Frakes' machine - which can replicate the box's ability to make portals without three distinct RGB gem energies at that - fascinatingly revolves around an extremely vibrant and light purple, but Andrias' drone flies out of a subtly but distinctly shaded purple portal in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment from Froggy Little Christmas.

Heck, both True Colors and the S3 intro have another set of blink-and-you-miss-it moments that directly connects purple and the box as a fourth highlight to the three RGB colors. And just like the classic saying "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action," the city/castle of Newtopia, Andrias' throne, and the box's pedestal each have a very clear distinction in purple color - or lack thereof - between when the box powered Amphibia's empire 1000 years ago, and when Andrias restarted the imperial engines once again in True Colors.

Taking all of this into consideration, it brings to mind purple being most well known for the color's symbolic association with royalty, and how that could apply to the world of Amphibia. Historically speaking, the real life association mainly came from the extremely expensive process needed to extract enough purple dye from thousands upon thousands of a rare sea snail.

But in regards to the hypothetical start of "The Royal Purple" in Amphibia, I propose it came from the aforementioned output of purple from the box at least a millennia ago under Andrias/' ancestors' "ownership," and it's the very concept of "ownership" that I would like to focus on here down below the cut.

Especially since lining up the few characters who could technically lay claim to being the box's keeper actually establishes a full gradient of purples...

Obviously, for Andrias and Valeriana's inclusion, the former's narration of his flashback in True Colors suggests he held the position of keeping watch over the box when it got stolen by his friends. Meanwhile, the latter has an unclear but close connection to the box from her appearance in The Second Temple, displaying an ability to summon the box with a mere finger wave as well as claiming to be the box's rightful guardian (though it's hard to gauge how much of that was true or just part of her test for Anne).

But with Darcy's inclusion, looking closer at their armor in normal lighting (not the secret chamber's sickly lighting or in shadow) interestingly reveals it to be made of several shades of very dark purples, so dark they could be mistaken for brown or dark grey. In contrast, directly comparing the armor to the Core's old mechanical body further reveals the latter to actually be made of blacks, greys, and browns only, whereas the armor's slight purple coloration sticks out like a sore thumb.

Now, as for why Darcy/Marcy got the purple treatment instead of the Core's original body, I think our best answer lies with looking at Anne's potential claim to being the box's keeper. I already went into great detail on the idea in my last theory post, but to summarize, for most of S1 and S2, the box was treated as essentially Anne's possession by the narrative, not to mention being well established as what was supposed to be her "13th birthday present."

That, and the Wit temple' introduction suggests the box was originally supposed to be with the Bearer of Wit - perhaps in a case of "knowing' how to use it best" - yet Anne, Bearer of Heart, is the one who holds onto the box this time around. Not to mention that the way the temples are themed suggests Wit was once supposed to go with frogs while Heart went with salamanders. In other words, the potential swap between Heart and Wit in terms of being the "KEEPER OF THE BOX" could explain where both Anne and Marcy/Darcy's connection to purple comes from.

Of course, this brings us to three key questions: Why is purple connected to the music box? What does it mean/why purple of all things in an RGB color triad dominated show? And why a potential switch between Heart and Wit?

Starting with the first question, I believe the connection between purple and the music box may be hinted at with a certain lowkey scene many have forgotten about from Dating Season.

Sprig: "Hey, purple ones."

Ivy: "Oh yeah, those are babies. I read that they're purple so the moms can find them if they get lost."

It's easy to accept Ivy's response from her informative, offhandedly casual tone, but in real life, fireflies simply cannot glow purple, they glow more as a warning to predators or attract mates, and baby fireflies are larvae and don't even have wings to fly with in the first place. Add in the distinct whooshing in the background when they fly directly across the shot, and it just screams "Notice me!"

Overall, this scene seems to be deliberately correlating being purple with helping moms find their babies, and it's easy to see how it likely is a metaphor of some kind with a future connection to the mysterious Mother of Olms, but for how it connects to the box, consider the meaning of the idea behind a music box. When you think about it, a music box is symbolically very ill fitting as the central tool for interdimensional imperialism, but fits very well with a narrative centered around growing up.

Traditionally, music boxes are heavily associated with childhood/nostalgia and can be used to preserve momentos picked up over one's life. They play songs often filled with sentimental value from our past, and most of all, music boxes are often passed down from older generations to newer ones.

Like, for example, a mother passing down a music box for her child(ren?) to keep, with perhaps a lullaby that helped them sleep through the night as a baby.

The exact specifics of the metaphor about purple, the box, the Mother of Olms, and whoever the intended recipient was may differ from what I've proposed above, but so far, I expect something similar will likely reveal itself later down the line.

Perhaps it might even connect to the purple of Darcy's armor, as because among the various salamander species, only the axolotl, olm, and siren retain their external gills - which all other salamanders absorb when they mature. In layman terms, they are neotenic species, keeping traits from a juvenile form into their adult forms, which may thus connect to how the horns of Darcy's helmet bear a resemblance to a salamander's external gills.

As such, Darcy having the symbolism of neotenic traits and purple built into their design could resonate with the association of baby (juvenile) "fireflies" and purple, and build even more into the Core as the big antagonist of a show about change - what with designing armor for its host that thematically could represent never growing up through the external gills.

Well, that, and there's also potentially Olivia's comment about Yunan's purple flower from the mossman being "a friendship offering" connecting to the purple inked 'BFFS!!♥' on the girls' photos, and the overall weirdness of Hop Pop's berry rhymes from Wally and Anne. Both are a lot more vague with regards as to what purple truly means compared to the scene of purple fireflies and don't have as much a presence as Darcy's armor, but I still find it intriguing nonetheless.

Moving on to the second question, while there has yet to be a dive into the color's symbolism in the show compared to red, green, and blue being connected to Strength, Wit, and Heart, there is a potential inspiration behind all of these secret purple shenanigans that may bear fruit in future theorizing.

Throughout various interviews and posts, Matt has cited several works specifically as huge inspirations for Amphibia, ranging from Magic Knight Rayearth to Chrono Trigger like @gocrazygostupidtohtheories has helpfully compiled. Particularly, I would like to focus his citation of The Legend of Zelda series with special thanks to @acornwizard-follows for informing me about the following detail.

Obviously, the Legend of Zelda series has a HUGE influence on Amphibia from the Triforce's powers to the traditional temples of the games, but the Legend of Zelda fandom I suspect holds another piece of the puzzle with the infamous "Tetraforce Theory." To summarize its most relevant points, the theory posits that there is a secret fourth piece of the Triforce (with many differing interpretations), and a large component is that said fourth correlates with the color purple next to the other pieces' red, green, and blue.

Notably, the theory got its start with November 1998's Ocarina of Time and held a large presence in the fandom during the 2000s, where the specification of purple came from Four Swords and The Minish Cap - released in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Although the theory lost considerable ground in the early 2010s and was widely ridiculed even during its heyday, the theory's fandom prominence in the 2000s and the specific dates listed are key here, as Matt Braly himself was born in November 1988. In other words, Ocarina of Time released just a few weeks after his tenth birthday, and the theory would have started losing a lot of steam when he would have been twenty two years old at minimum.

Aka a formative twelve year time gap during Matt's childhood and life, in which he could have potentially dived deep and long enough into the Zelda fandom for the theory to take root in his mind.

In short, considering that the color tetrad of purple, red, green, and blue is practically non-existent throughout the rest of fiction in comparison, Amphibia's secret color tetrad would make far more sense if Matt was influenced by a strong childhood history with the Tetraforce Theory, rather than Amphibia's writing, character/prop design, and other production teams just happening to collaboratively create something eerily similar to a now very obscure and disbelieved Zelda fan theory.

Finally, to answer the last question, we must first look at @thesugarcookieday's theory that the keeper of the box was originally supposed to be the Bearer of Wit back when the box and temples were created. In my post expanding upon their theory, I lightly touched on the idea that Andrias' ancestors merely found the music box and used it in a different manner than originally intended, and I can't help but suspect the change lies with the text for the first and last temple trials.

I find it fascinating the way, when you think about it, the first trial's message is open to various interpretations as the introduction to any who comes to the temple to recharge the stones - including those who have likely failed the temple's trials. Where the first trial could be solved through either brute force or enough smarts, and where the second trial mainly requires a second person to weigh down both green tiles, the third trial can only be solved through having the humility to lose.

And, by extension, being able to let go of the temple's cheating if one progresses far enough through their flipwart game.

After all, while the first trial's message likely was meant to address potential Wit Bearers and indicate the responsibility the one who completes the temple will inherit over the box, the detail that "wisdom" actually refers to humility wouldn't be seen or learned by those that lose the final trial. By sheer virtue of statistics, it's practically guaranteed there were at least some sore, arrogant losers that got incredibly pissed off at being denied the temple's validation of their intelligence.

Such folks would be likely to misinterpret the first trial's message as saying the box "actually" belongs to whoever is 'THE SMARTEST,' all the while thinking viewing themselves as 'THE SMARTEST' and thus the most deserving. They would think something along the lines of "Superior intellect inherently determines the box's keeper, NOT whoever is the Wit Bearer," and the temple's cheating in a game of flipwart would come off as an outright denial of what they "deserve."

Or, rather, what Andrias' ancestors might have thought they "deserved."

His ancestors could have thus declared themselves the 'rightful' keepers of the box, perhaps even donning themselves in the box's majestic purples as they rose into a position of leadership. From there, the Core could have been created as a way to preserve the rulers' intelligence and thus hold on to their self-assumed possession of the box.

Heck, rather than letting it fall into "less intelligent" or much more benevolent hands, it wouldn't surprise me if the Core was also a way to effectively absorb the intelligence of other geniuses cultivated under Andrias' ancestors' rule to maintain the status quo. Perhaps that's even how the original association of frogs with Wit and salamanders with Heart got swapped around by the present day.

And above all else, it would explain why the most emphasized reason behind the Core wanting Marcy as a host was that she was the only one to beat King Andrias at flipwart, and why Marcy's armor is so distinctly purple.

Overall, with everything up to this point in mind, the idea of the box having been misused for a long time could thus potentially lead us to solving why Anne could have become the keeper of the box, and what effects it could have on her.

In their post, @borkthemork floated the possibility that Valeriana and her order may have been looking for ONE specific Heart Bearer, "wanting to find within Anne not only kindness and initiative, but responsibility" as they put it.

Together, these details seem to paint a picture of an attempt to break the cycle of the box's misuse and correct things. Of seeing how placing such focus on the trait of Wit specifically as 'knowing best how to use the box' backfired immensely. Of trying to find someone more empathetic, more caring, more responsible to take over the box's duties instead of a line of arrogant geniuses.

Of potentially falling into the exact same trap as the original creators of emphasizing one particular trait over the others, essentially just swapping out whoever has a turn on the pedestal rather than truly balancing things out.

@borkthemork, @pyroclastic727, and @sonofrose have explored before how the temples' lessons are incredibly ill fitting for their respective member of the trio, and Anne's in particular seems to be setting up her possibly developing a problem with taking too much responsibility onto herself, either to her own expense or taking over others' responsibilities even if they don't want or need her to.

Whether the switch between Heart and Wit was decided by a higher entity like the Mother of Olms, or by the pink frog/Valeriana and her order to break the ongoing cycle of the box being used for wrong, the specifics would NOT matter in the slightest.

Even if my theory that Escape to Amphibia may lead to the start of Anne struggling with a need to take responsibility in Commander Anne for the rest of S3B to address doesn't bear fruit, this would be a moral responsibility she would likely feel obligated to shoulder - and probably simultaneously be overwhelmed by and hard to her talk out of.

After all, Anne is the kind of person who mainly and stubbornly acts based on what she feels is right rather than necessarily thinking her actions all the way through. And there's how the idea of being the box's keeper can be easily extrapolated into thinking the keeper knows how best to use the box's power/that they are the one who should be using its power.

Don't get me wrong, Anne has grown considerably as a character and from her old bad habits, and I do believe she could be a good keeper of the box with help, but with the current situation and the implied struggle of Escape to Amphibia, her particular experiences could easily cause her to develop new bad habits accidentally, like taking up the responsibility of protecting her friends and family to a potentially extreme degree beyond her old protectiveness over Marcy.

Add these ideas together, and that would provide Anne an incredibly enticing temptation plus a metaphorical blindfold to how she could unintentionally misuse the box/that she shouldn't be doing it all on her own, let alone that maybe the one who swapped her with Marcy may have made an understandable but flawed overcorrection.

In @borkthemork's post I linked to earlier, they also brought up the odd and very specific order in which one needs to progress through the temples, and I suspect that it may be foreshadowing how keepership of the box potentially started with Marcy as the Wit Bearer, then moved to Anne the Heart Bearer, before it will finally wind up with none other than Sasha the Strength Bearer.

Temporarily for that last part, that is.

Some of you may have noticed already, but I've refrained from discussing where Sasha/the Bearer of Strength could fit in all of this so far. Honestly, I struggled for a long time to really think about what position she could fill next to the gravitas of Marcy and Anne's swap, but thanks to Bork's comments, it finally clicked for me.

As we all know, Sasha had basically hit rock bottom in Turning Point with True Colors' shock to her system, and the thing about hitting rock bottom in fiction is that it often leads into more or less having nowhere to go but up in character development. On the other hand like well outlined up above, Anne is in a place where she is very vulnerable to falling, and where it would be difficult to pick herself up back into the light on her own.

With other narratives about the theme of change, the climax would likely have something like Anne being confronted with her past mistakes, owning up to them, and ultimately being framed as having definitively moved past that chapter of her life with no way for her to ever slip back into or be tempted by. That's the kind of finality and permanence that works very thematically well as a conclusion to a story arc about overcoming a bad habit or trait, but is effectively impossible to achieve as change in reality is messy and HARD.

Heck, in a sense, this kind of approach was already "tackled" in The Second Temple - which we've well established is most definitely not the end of Anne's story. In essence, such irreversible finality would be ill fitting with the level of nuance and complexity present in Amphibia's approach to change, especially compared to Anne stumbling and eventually needing an extra pair of hands would fit both the main themes of change and friendship.

The first communicates the point that Anne has permanently changed for good, while the latter has the narrative challenge her to prove how well she can maintain her changes.

As such, the box's shifting keepership would present a well-suited challenge on responsibility and change for Anne to face and regress over, and for the box to later move to Sasha since she ironically would not want to be in control of such an important artifact as she is now, but would likely be able to step up to the plate as needed and recognize how much of a temptation it would be for her.

A balanced relationship ought to give equal focus to wit, heart, and strength rather than raising one above the others. And where Reunion's opening flashback established Anne as its viewpoint protagonist and True Colors the same with Marcy, it would make sense if the S3 season finale has Sasha be the focal character instead.

Anne going overboard with taking too much responsibility and making others' burdens her own would be like a mirror of Sasha's old issues with needing to be in control all the time. And between Anne possibly taking it upon herself to try and restore the trio's friendship as her responsibility, and the chance for her to fall back into old habits/long for the old times back when the three of them didn't have all this trauma or mess between them, that same issue of responsibility could very well become a mirror of Marcy's old issue of trying to maintain her friendship's status quo to where she missed the warts growing in the trio's dynamics.

After all, such reflections of Sasha and Marcy's flaws would allow them to metaphorically confront and reflect upon their past flaws/how easy it would be for them to slip back into old habits, and to draw upon their similar experiences to be guiding extra hands to help Anne confront her own issues.

TLDR: Overall, with Amphibia’s hidden purple and the color’s secret connection to the music box, it seems to me that it could prove to be an intersecting point of the girls' friendship this coming season half.

The music box is what brought them to Amphibia in the first place, indirectly exposed them to the flaws each of them had and unintentionally mutually exacerbated, and marks a massive change in themselves and their lives. Its purple symbolism seems to be hinting towards a message on nostalgia and childhood friendships, perhaps connecting to both the positive and the negative ways one can hold onto the past while moving into the future, and to how the different traits of wit, heart, and strength work on their own VS in tandem with one another.

And if Anne is revealed to have been chosen to be the current keeper of the box only for the duty to eventually fall to Sasha at the end, then chances are that Sasha will decide to split control between the three of them equally so they can truly start patching things between them in a healthy manner...

THREE STARS BURNING BRIGHT

COME FROM BEYOND TO EXPEL THE NIGHT

SHOULD THEY FIGHT OR EMBRACE THE FALL

THEIR CHOICE WILL DETERMINE ALL

#amphibia #amphibia theory #amphibia speculation #amphibia meta #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #king andrias #the core #darcy #amphibia darcy #very lengthy post #purple be wack as heck

[that-damn-girl]

(1) Daze of Pollen

(Work in Progress - 1 of 8; Slow updates)

Daze of Pollen Materlist

Pairing: (cis)fem!Reader x Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers x Sam Wilson

Words: 1800+

Warnings: None except language?

Summary:  Bucky, Steve, Sam and you are in the safe house post mission when a retrieved Hydra device activates, releasing a kind of pollen you don’t know of, but the effects of which are soon discovered.

A/N: To all my horny bitches out there, I’m sorry the first chapter isn’t smutty. I didn’t plan on keeping the entire first chapter as the intro but it just...happened. Also, This is my submission for @buckyssoul​​ ‘s Rae Hit 1k Marvel Writing Challenge. I’m sorry for the delay. Hope you like it!

It is a strange concept, really. We don't always get what we want. But  if we do, it's when we least expect it, in the most strangest of ways as well.

Call it your good luck, fate, destiny, a simple mere coincidence, or whatever. You were grateful for that night in the safe house regardless. For the first and the last time, you could say that you were thankful for a little Hydra contraption.

It all started during a peaceful dinner. You and your group of friends were relaxing after a successful mission, treating yourselves with any and all comfort food available in the safe house. The mission was anticipated to be much harder than usual; the only reason why Bucky and Sam had asked you and Steve to accompany them. Quite unexpectedly, the mission went smoothly and it seemed there was no need for the extra help they had requested. But considering the mission consisted of scoping out an abandoned Hydra base, being overly cautious was preferred than being overconfident. One never knew the levels of villainy Hydra truly possessed.

Oh, you were about to discover the truth in that statement just fine.

Bucky sat across from you on the dining table, Sam to your right. The duo played catch with a balled sheet of paper, their half eaten meals abandoned on the table. You and Steve conversed with them while enjoying your respective sandwiches.

It was true that Steve had given up his Captain America mantle to Sam, a man just as deserving of the title, but hadn't completely retired. He didn't get out on the field anymore, but used his excellent strategic skills in planning the missions sometimes, especially if it included Hydra. 

All of you would have been enroute to the Compound had Rhodey and Scott not hogged the quinjet. None of you minded though. With the four of you together, it was very much like a quiet night in with close friends. Unbeknown to you, it wasn't going to be particularly quiet much longer.

"Does it smell funny to anybody else here?" Bucky asked, pausing midway while rocking his chair. Squinting his eyes, he glanced around himself to locate the source of the smell, a deep frown etched onto his features.

Steve took a tentative whiff, you and Sam doing the same. "No pal, I don't smell anything."

"It's…" Bucky closed his eyes, taking in deep inhales. "It's faint but it's there. I'm sure of it." 

You and Sam glanced at each other, a raised eyebrow followed by a shrug. Suddenly Bucky sat up with a start, his gaze fixating on a corner of the room. Following his line of sight, you found the hard black stacked containers with the Shield logo which held the Hydra files and devices you had retrieved from the base earlier in the mission. 

"It's coming from there, I think." Bucky stood up and reached the stacked containers in only a few long strides. Before any of you could stop him, he lifted the cover to inspect its contents. 

Immediately a puff of bright yellow powder-like substance was released from the inside, as if a smoke bomb had been triggered. Bucky coughed as the coloured dust hit his senses. It didn't take long for the particles to dissipate in the air. Soon the clean air around you was shrouded with the yellow dust, leaving all of you a coughing mess.

"What is it?" You wondered, one hand waving in front of your face to get rid of the dust while the other protectively covered your nose. It was no use though. It was everywhere, the particles so fine they slithered through the gaps between your fingers. You could do nothing but inhale it as you coughed helplessly. The particles stuck to the insides of your mouth. You couldn't feel them on your tongue or the roof of your mouth, but the dryness that followed was a sure shot indication. The tangy scent of it overwhelmed your senses, making you wonder how could you have missed it.

"Look inside the container, Bucky. See what released it." Sam instructed with broken words in between the coughs.

"Fucking Hydra," Steve muttered under his breath.

Following Sam's orders, Bucky peeked inside and pulled out a wooden cube. It was small enough to be grasped in his palm. One of its faces had the ugly red symbol of Hydra painted on it. The cube was heavily cracked along the sides. Had Bucky not held onto it firmly, it would have fallen apart right then. 

Sam, you and Steve drifted closer to Bucky as the yellow dust gradually dissipated into nothing - or rather as the most of it was already inhaled by you all. The cube appeared to hold some carvings in a language you supposed was Russian. 

"I...don't...understand…" Bucky's fingers drifted across the letters as he tried to make sense of it. "Fuck!" With widened eyes, Bucky retraced the words, confirming what he had read. Throwing the cube across the room, he started pacing the room, his head hidden behind his palms. 

"Come on, man, you're scaring me." Steve said, approaching his friend.

"You should be!" Bucky yelled, all his frustrations coming out on the wrong person. He loudly groaned, rubbing his forehead, "I'm sorry. It's just that…"

"What is it, Bucky?" You asked.

Bucky looked at you, his gaze sweeping over your form. He bit his lip, an almost remorseful look coming over in his eyes. In a much softer voice, he said, "I don't know how to explain it. I don't know where to start."

"Do you know what the yellow dust we all inhaled was?" Sam asked. 

Bucky replied after a long pause. "It was a sort of pollen which Hydra had engineered." 

"Hydra modified...pollen?" You asked. The idea sounded as bizarre to you as snow in the Sahara. "What?"

"No- Well, um, yes," Bucky took a deep breath before he started explaining. "Hydra could never replicate the super soldier serum they used on me. But they needed more super soldiers. It hardly ever happened that anybody else would succeed in recreating those serums so that Hydra could steal. They decided that if they couldn't transform using the serums, they would...breed super soldiers. That's when Project Growth started. These pollen were engineered to assist in it." 

"How did the pollen assist Project Growth?" You asked, confusion dripping from your voice.

Bucky glanced at you but quickly diverted his gaze, unable to keep the eye contact. "Project Growth was about using super soldiers like me and those four others to... impregnate willing women. Conception with super soldiers is harder than usual for some reason. So they came up with this pollen to aid the process. It's an aphrodisiac. They called it sex pollen, because well, it increases one's sexl drive... by a lot. So much so that it might be fatal if the person exposed to it doesn't, you know, climax."

"What? Are we gonna want to fuck like rabbits then? Become Hydra's breeding bitches?" Sam asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

"The experiments were never successful. They did it a couple of times and it never resulted in a pregnancy. This box," Bucky gestured to the broken cube lying on the floor, "I don't know how or when but it got activated somehow." He shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea if the pollen inside it was a sample of those failed experiments or if that of a new one. Either way, we don't have long before the effects would start showing."

There was a lull in the room, the implications of what Bucky said sitting heavy on everyone's minds.

"We can keep ourselves locked in our separate rooms until it wears off to...get ourselves off." Steve's cheeks were tinged a deep shade of red as he proposed the idea.

"It's not that easy. Trust me, I've been through it." Bucky looked at Steve. "It's something about needing another person's touch; a sense of intimacy. No matter what you do on your own, it won't ever be enough. It would send you in a daze of lust, where the only thing you could focus on would be to anyhow satiate yourselves. You would desperately want another person to touch you, no matter who or what gender. You'd need them to touch you." He glanced at each one of you. "I'm sorry, but it's going to be nasty."

"So what you're saying is, it's basically fuck or die?" Sam said.

"When you put it that way…" Bucky tried to think of a better phrase but finding none, he replied, "-Well, yes."

"I don't know what to say," You crossed your hands in front of your chest. To say that you were shocked was a massive understatement. You couldn't even begin to believe that any of it was true.

Unconsciously, your gaze drifted over each of the men in the room. They all stood with a hard look on their handsome faces, lost deep in thought. You weren't sure if it was you or the pollen due to which you felt yourself get wet, your panties gradually dampening and sticking to your form. 

Truth be told, you had always wondered what being with these men would feel like, what fucking them would be like. Would Sam choke you in a sensual manner with those bulging arms of his? Would Bucky keep you pinned to the bed with his thick thighs? What would gripping America's Ass feel like when Steve would be pumping his length into you?

You bit your lip, your mind conjuring up a train of lewd images. You wondered if it all would come true that night. Though you had considered them insanely attractive since the day you had met them, you never dared to act upon any of your desires with either of them. They were your close friends, and you'd be damned if you'd destroy it for a night of pleasure.

Now though, you had no other option but to fuck them if you valued your life. On any other day you would have laughed boisterously had anyone suggested such a thing, but it was your reality right then. 

You realized it didn't have to be a necessarily bad thing though

Huffing dramatically, you stood straighter, hands falling by your sides. With a newfound confidence, you asked, "Well then, what are we waiting for?"

"What?" Steve asked, dumbfounded. 

"At one point or the other, we would eventually go crawling to someone. I don't think we'd be in control of ourselves if it would make us that desperate. Avoiding the inevitable makes no sense. It's better to start it while we are still able to make conscious decisions and consent to being with each other. At least I'd prefer that."

The men looked at each other, a silent conversation happening amongst them. Bucky asked, "Are you sure, Y/N?" 

You smiled. "I am, Bucky. If it's gonna be this way, then I'm glad it's the three of you. Are you guys sure though?"

Bucky glanced at Sam and Steve before smirking, "You bet we are, babydoll."

You walked closer to Bucky, standing on the tip of your toes as your arms curved around his neck, excitement thrumming through your veins. "Let's get this show started then."

Chapter 2

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#bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #sam wilson x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes #bucky #steve rogers #sam wilson #bucky barnes x you #steve rogers x you #sam wilson x you #bucky barnes x y/n #steve rogers x y/n #sam wilson x y/n #sex pollen

[comicaurora]

How much have your characters evolved since their original versions? What were their original versions like? Are there any characteristics or arcs that you had to toss for narrative purposes but still miss?

Oh my god. Dare I plumb the embarrassing depths of everyone's earliest drafts?

Reminder that I started playing with this concept when I was eleven. Everyone started off very generic, because at the time I was just having fun playing out the tropes I liked. I had a lot of edgier concepts, too, more vent stuff - and a lot of unexamined tropes from the broader space of fantasy I later decided were boring, gross or broadly unnecessary. I think exploring that would boil down to "character was edgy and flat, now they are not" which doesn't sound very interesting.

However, it is interesting to me how the characters have changed since I started releasing the comic. I expected things to change during the drafting and development process - I was more blindsided by the organic development as I wrote the actual thing.

Kendal's character has remained fairly consistent, though he's gotten more serious in the eleven days he's been alive - a reasonable reaction to all the everything, I think. The part I wasn't originally planning was the exploration of his complete lack of self-awareness in the most literal sense. "Self-sacrificing hero type" is one thing, but he really doesn't think of himself as having value beyond what he can do for other people. I don't wanna spoil, but I'm positively giddy at how that arc is shaping up in the stuff I'm currently boarding. After that, we're in uncharted waters.

Alinua started off totally chill, took a major dive into Dark And Sad territory when I first came up with the concept of the chimeric plague, and is now in a strangely liminal space where her general personality is relentlessly positive but she's floating on this bottomless abyss of eldritch horror. I had plans for how I was going to explore that, but what surprised me was her caution about it. It makes sense - she's had a life of her own for a week and a half, she's not going to want to jeopardize it by diving headfirst into the full implications of her power and existence. She feels like this situation is far too fragile, which means while a lot of the reveals are happening faster than I expected (my original plan had the "Life's Vessel" reveal way down the line) she's playing it pretty close to the chest.

Erin hasn't actually changed that much, but his narrative pacing has shifted somewhat. The void dragon is a textbook Superpowered Evil Side, but since I can't risk overusing it, it's more of a back-pocket thing that only rears its head rarely. His arc is less about it than I originally expected. As we build up to it I think I'll be able to play with it more, but pacing it out has been tricky.

Falst has changed simultaneously a lot and very little. His basic concept has remained consistent from the first draft onward. He's cranky, confrontational, angsty, fiercely loyal but too emotionally constipated to express it, all my favorites. Writing him is like putting together an ice cream sundae. No matter what I add, I'm gonna get something I like out of it. If anything, the only surprise is I haven't leveraged the angst much yet. After his intro mini-arc we've been pretty solidly in the fluff zone as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes I worry I'm being too nice to these guys…

Tess hasn't changed, but her role in the story has. I'm still mulling over some directions for that. I originally hadn't worked out 100% of how this arc was going to wrap up, and looping Tess into it (with the storm connection) was a comparatively late addition.

The Dragon is a really basic character, so he hasn't really changed, but The Collector has shifted from one villain archetype to another. In my original version, she was a very stock coldly-calculating-type evil sorcerer. She was also a guy, although that's much less relevant. Broadly, the big change was giving her an actual personality. Unfortunately, since she's waaaaaay outside of our heroes' current challenge rating, it might be a while before I can loop her back in, but when I do, I think she'll have some interesting dynamics I didn't anticipate.

Dainix is still changing for me. I've had his core character for ages, but his personality has been slipping around like whoa. Earliest draft had him much angrier overall, middle draft made him a generic-enough paragon even I was finding him boring, and before I'd boarded his intro I'd slipped into a weird little middle ground where he was lacking any overarching themes. Eventually what I hit on was weirdly simple, but has been working so far: Dainix is emotional in a way the other characters aren't. He doesn't suppress or sanitize his feelings, he's the character who visibly and audibly reacts whenever he's feeling a certain way. And I definitely didn't realize that "completely honest" was such a rare character trait in my cast! I need to get him and Falst in a room together asap, the conflict is going to be incredible.

#aurora #asks

[morgan1413]

alcithan similarities <3

okay so I'm probably clogging this tag up a bit recently but I'm new to this ship and so it's been on my mind a lot 😁. I've decided to compile a list of the similarities between Alcina and Ethan, simply because I don't think it's mentioned enough how much they have in common as well as being two very different people at the same time. Feel free to use these as part of a fic or headcanon or add your own if you can think of any, that was partly my intention with making this post 😊. But with that being said, let's get into the list...

they both:

- are of a similar age (Ethan is 37 and Alcina is 44, if you disregard how long she lived after she stopped aging)

- have incredible, near instantaneous regenerative abilities achieved through infection by the mold

- keep a personal and detailed diary of their daily events and activities

- have a daughter or daughters who they are fiercely loyal to and protective over, and would resort to desperate measures in order to save

- (similar to above) are extremely protective of those they care about, but incredibly vindictive to those who seek to harm them or their loved ones

- can often be very naïve about the people they love and trust, resulting in bad outcomes (Ethan believing that Mia was just a babysitter and Alcina believing that Miranda was a mother figure who cared for her)

- can lose their temper very easily after dealing with emotional distress (Alcina after her phone call with Miranda and Ethan after he learns he truth about the flask)

- have a love for collecting and reading various kinds of books (all the bookshelves in Ethan's house and Alcina's library)

- have an appreciation for classical and jazz music (the music playing in the intro, as well as the sheet music and instruments seen in Castle Dimitrescu as well as the implication that Alcina is "Miss D" from "Miss D and the Pallboys")

- enjoy tasting classic, local wines (Ethan during the intro and Castle Dimitrescu in general)

- can play the piano to an advanced degree (Iron Insignia Key puzzle in the Opera Hall)

- have adept drawing/painting skills (Ethan's diary and Alcina's atelier (workshop))

(P.S. this is just an idea for the time being, but I'm seriously considering writing my own Alcithan fanfic, no promises but if I find the time and energy between work then I'll start coming up with ideas 💖)

#alcithan #alcina dimitrescu x ethan winters #lady dimitrescu x ethan winters

[dirtycoolcatconfessions]

Did derek take the money from a separate kickstarter to make the cool cat coronavirus movie? I feel like i heard that before but i dont remember the details

Derek funded the Cool Cat Fights Coronavirus “film” through a separate kickstarter back in November 2020, which raised $7,785 out of a goal of $400.

The short just dropped for those who donated to the Kickstarter but seeing as he merely just posted it as a link to an unlisted YouTube video anyone can view it so long as they click the link found here.

That being said, there’s still the matter of the Cool Cat Stops a School Shooting Indiegogo fundraiser. This fundraiser started back in March 2018, and at the time raised I believe well over $12,000. During the course of this, Derek promised several things, such as a part played by YouTuber Mumkey Jones after they made a video asking for a role, which caused an influx of people to start donating.  If I remember correctly, Derek got into a fight with Mumkey Jones or something along those lines and removed all mentions of including him from the page, despite a large quantity of the donations being caused by his fans wanting to see him appear in the movie. Of course, in the end, Derek did not meet his asking goal of $25,000 and decided that he simply did not have enough money to make Cool Cat Stops a School Shooting, but kept the money anyway, as Indiegogo allows the donated money to go to the campaign creator whether or not they reach their funding goal, though they must promise to fulfill the various perks that they promised for the donations. Instead, a few months later, Derek silently edited the Indiegogo campaign to instead be for “Cool Cat Stranger Danger”, which is what he would make with the money instead, being a newly made Stranger Danger awareness/cooking(?) short featuring Cool Cat. At that point, most of the donors were furious, and Derek was forced to give out refunds to many of them, leaving him with $6,976 from the campaign. But it gets even worse, as apparently Derek Savage is allergic to creating new content, so after a year of radio silence, in July 2019, he quietly changed the campaign page yet again to be for a “new” short, “Cool Cat’s Crazy Dream,” and released the video on YouTube the same month. 

So this is what he spent that $6,976 from the School Shooting Campaign on, right?

Wrong. According to Jason Johnson, Cool Cat’s original actor, who had recently at the time gotten into a fight with Derek Savage for appearing to do an interview about Cool Cat without Derek’s permission and had since been essentially fired from his role, pretty much all of the scenes, including the advertised “celebrity cameos” that take up the majority of the short, literally all of this footage was taken from back in 2012, filmed during the Hollywood Parade short, and Derek simply dubbed over Cool Cat with his own horrible impression. So the implication that he managed to spend $6,976 on fucking lozenges for doing that awful voice is laughable at best.

And that’s not to mention his previous campaign before that on Kickstarter, Cool Cat Loves You. This campaign happened back in April 2017, and raised $2,724 out of his asking price of $1,000. Cool Cat Loves You advertised itself to be an “Anti-Bullying, Kids’ Gun Safety Film.” If that sounds familiar, that’s because what he wasn’t too upfront about was the fact that he was planning on just filming a few more new scenes and sloppily pasting them onto the already-existing Cool Cat Saves the Kids. The campaign mentioned adding new songs, along with new celebrity cameos and seven new scenes that Derek had already storyboarded. In the end, this title ended up being released in July 2018 as “Cool Cat Kids Superhero.”

Again, the amount of “new” content that was filmed is a bit suspect. First of all, the film was only about 10 minutes longer than the original Cool Cat Saves the Kids, bringing it up to an 88 minute runtime, and secondly, many of these “new scenes” that padded out the runtime I believe were filmed years earlier, likely back in mid-2014, when they were filming the additional scenes for Cool Cat Saves the Kids that weren’t in the 3 original shorts that were combined to make Cool Cat Saves the Kids. I say this because there is one “new” scene where you can clearly see the date is July 21, 2014, along with the fact that in the new scenes involving Butch the Bully and Maria they don’t look any older, despite supposedly being filmed nearly 4 years later (along with the fact that during the previously mentioned interview with Jason Johnson, Cool Cat’s original actor, stated that Derek had told him previously that he couldn’t use Maria’s actress anymore because, and I quote, “she has tits now”). The main content in this that I can presume is actually new is the addition of a new intro scene that lasts about 5 minutes, where Cool Cat “sings” Cool Cat Rap Master, a new “song” that is a poorly made rap that lasts about a minute and 20 seconds that’s “rapped” by Derek in his normal voice, despite being supposedly sung by Cool Cat, that doesn’t even make any attempt to rhyme. After singing, Cool Cat yells at Derek for putting a water bottle in the trash and not recycling, and then Cool Cat and Derek ride a motorcycle around for like literally 2 whole minutes, before the original opening from Cool Cat Saves the Kids plays. Aside from the like single new scene and the extra footage padding recorded 4 years prior, one of the only differences in the film is that Momma Cat has been re-dubbed by Cynthia Rothrock, a martial-artist turned actress who hasn’t seemed to have a major role in quite a while.

So again, the content delivered from this Kickstarter that raised $2,724 out of its asking price of $1,000 is pretty lackluster at best, and I doubt that it all went towards making one new scene and hiring a D-list actress to record like 20 lines.

And remember, he later wound up with an additional $6,976 from his School Shooting Campaign that has seemingly went entirely unspent given his exclusive use of recycled footage for the project. 

That combined with the fact that he raised an additional $7,785 for Cool Cat Fights Coronavirus means that, if you assume that he spent the $1,000 he asked for as the goal for Cool Cat Loves You, leaving him with $1,724 from that project, he has assumedly raised roughly $16,485 from these fundraisers.

Not to mention, though it is the first “new” Cool Cat content that Derek’s posted in a while, Cool Cat Fights Coronavirus is only 17 minutes long, not including the credits, and most of it is, again, lackluster and low-budget at best. Considering Derek was only asking for $400 for the Coronavirus Kickstarter, we can assume that that’s how much he was willing to spend on it. Even if we’re generous, he would still most likely have well over $10,000 that has went largely undelivered. 

tl;dr: Pretty much every one of Derek Savage’s fundraisers have had him repeatedly overexaggerate, underdeliver, and even outright lie to those who donate, and the majority of the money donated most likely rarely ever goes to anything other than paying his bills. At best, his fundraisers are simply a very bad investment of money, even for people who would like to see more Cool Cat, and at worst he’s outright scamming people.

#mod cool cat #cool cat #cool cat saves the kids #ask #anonymous #long #there's also some suspect activity going on with his previous kickstarters even beforehand #not to mention his vast array of unfinished/unreleased projects #but i'll probably save that for another day #this is all just speculation of course but it doesn't look too good for derek #also i spent like an hour writing this please don't let my efforts be in vain #this is my derek savage callout post

[hunxi-guilai]

1/3 This might be stupid, but I'm a westerner and I don't know much about chinese culture, especially in regards to how narratives are constructed including audience + societal expectation (like in western media, for example, how if there's a high-angled shot then we're looking down on the character, and the implications of that thereof...)

hi there! not a stupid question at all -- I get to indulge in revisiting the stuff I learned during that hot second I thought I might become a film and media studies major!

So the effect I think you’re talking about, anon, is the Kuleshov effect -- in which the context of a shot affects the viewer’s reception/interpretation of it. The example I saw in class was that of an actor with a pretty blank expression, but when juxtaposed with 1) a bowl of soup, 2) a girl in a coffin, and 3) a reclining lady, audience members interpreted the expression alternately as hunger, sorrow, and desire.

The catch? It was the same expression each time.

I hesitate to assign any sort of filmmaking tendency towards storytelling difference due national contexts (although they definitely exist, that’s for sure) -- film studies is a fascinating and exceedingly complex field, partially for how global it is. Your average intro to film course will usually feature a great deal of Hollywood (classical Hollywood as a cinematic style is incredibly influential and a lil mindbending to study), but a good prof will also talk about the various influences the French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, Soviet montage, Japanese New Wave (and so on and so forth) have on contemporary cinema today. Filmmakers are constantly borrowing techniques and innovating stylistically off of other filmmakers’ work, regardless of national context. There's a language that is close to universal hidden in audio-visual storytelling that, once you start investigating, is an endless pool of discovery.

Which is a very roundabout way of saying that I don’t know if there’s a quintessentially ‘Chinese’ form of filmic storytelling at play here, but the juxtaposition of flashbacks in episode 39 and 50 are definitely interesting to look at!

I was just re-listening to the Yi City Arc in the audiodrama the other day and noticed that they handled the distribution of past-narrative differently from the show. In CQL, Empathy with A-Qing only gets us as far as Song Lan’s death at the hands of Xiao Xingchen, whereas in the audiodrama, Wei Wuxian sees all the way up to A-Qing’s death at the hands of Xue Yang. CQL can’t show A-Qing’s death onscreen because the show has to hedge its bets around necromancy and resurrection, but for the showrunners to move Xiao Xingchen’s death out of A-Qing’s flashback and into Xue Yang’s is definitely a deliberate choice that serves to develop Xue Yang’s character and his relationship with Xiao Xingchen more.

In the audiodrama, Xiao Xingchen’s death is filtered through the perspective of A-Qing, so it’s A-Qing’s grief that is foregrounded -- A-Qing becomes the primary voice who mourns Xiao Xingchen. In CQL, that role is given to Xue Yang -- immediately following Xiao Xingchen’s death, we’re given front-row seats to Xue Yang’s increasing panic and eventual despair as Xiao Xingchen fails to come back to life. CQL humanizes Xue Yang in a way that is less present in the audiodrama -- by giving Xue Yang ownership of that flashback, we see that Xue Yang did love Xiao Xingchen in his own way. I also think that it’s pretty significant that the last we see of Xiao Xingchen from Xue Yang’s perspective is his unfailing kindness -- haloed in angelic light, laying a piece of candy, unasked for, on Xue Yang’s bed.

That being said, the true last moment we see of Xiao Xingchen is of him and Song Lan walking away, side-by-side:

which I think pretty much encapsulates the difference between the Xue Yang - Xiao Xingchen relationship and the Song Lan - Xiao Xingchen relationship. Xue Yang, abandoned early, a child forsaken by society and cultivational norms, loves Xiao Xingchen for the unquestioning forgiveness and kindness Xiao Xingchen offers to everyone he meets. Song Lan, lonely wanderer, follower of a dusty and righteous way, loves Xiao Xingchen for walking the same path that he does.

The flashback to bb!Meng Yao in episode 50 is a little harder to place, because it doesn’t seem to ‘belong’ to anyone in the scene, per se -- by all rights, it should be a Jin Guangyao flashback but he’s a little, uh, occupied at the moment (dead. dead is the word I’m looking for). Which suggests that this flashback is a little more omniscient, or extra-diegetic in some manner -- it’s the voice of God (or the showrunners) drawing our attention to the parallels between Jin Guangyao’s hat and bb!Meng Yao’s hat.

I think the element that draws these two moments together across time and space is the movement, specifically, of brushing dust off of a hat. It’s a gesture of care that links Meng Shi and Nie Huaisang in this moment:

Again, CQL’s creative decisions in storytelling here are tantalizingly suggestive -- in the audiodrama, we get an extensive backstory dump from one of the ghosts in Guanyin Temple, courtesy of resident empath Wei Wuxian. We find out a lot about Meng Yao’s young adulthood, society’s horrible treatment of Meng Shi, the myriad insults he endures from a young age, his deep-set desire for social advancement and approval to achieve some kind of recompense for the abuse inflicted upon his mother. But for CQL to elide all of that, to leave Jin Guangyao’s childhood suffering vague and only ever discussed in dialogue and never portrayed immediately onscreen, feels part and parcel of the ongoing themes of narrative and legacy -- who tells your story, and what parts of your story do they tell?

(who was Meng Shi, and what will we ever remember of her, aside from the fact that she was a victim of Jin Guangshan?)

So for Nie Huaisang to pick up Jin Guangyao’s hat from the dust and debris of Guanyin Temple and dust it off as well is a subtle callback to the relationship between Nie Huaisang and Meng Yao in the early episodes, when Meng Yao unhesitatingly puts himself between Nie Huaisang and danger, when Nie Huaisang runs to his elder brother and tries to beg for clemency on Meng Yao’s behalf. It’s hard for me to believe that Nie Huaisang didn’t care for Jin Guangyao deeply -- I think it’s precisely that former relationship of friendship and trust that makes Jin Guangyao’s betrayal that much more vicious and treacherous and unforgivable in Nie Huaisang’s eyes. I don’t think this flashback ‘belongs’ to Nie Huaisang, necessarily speaking -- to me, this is more of a narrative-level reminder to us, the audience, that Jin Guangyao is more than the villainy we see from him in the last three episodes of the show; that Jin Guangyao, once, was loved as well.

#ask and ye shall receive #Jin Guangyao #Nie Huaisang #Xue Yang #Xiao Xingchen #ep 39 #ep 50 #songxiao #'fool and a scholar' is such a mood anon I'm right there with you