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denimbex1986 · 9 months

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'Danny and Michael Philippou know how to fill up a room. Most debut film-makers are slightly tentative about being interviewed. How does this work? What attitude am I expected to strike? The raucous twins, sons of suburban Adelaide, require only a nudge to begin their clamorous duologue.

We’re talking about Talk to Me, their superb new horror film. It leans towards the teens-in-seance genre. But it’s grimmer than that suggests. And fresher. And odder. And has more to do with social media.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just wanted to try and modernise it a bit,” says Danny. “I feel that if the Ouija board were to work today then everybody would be doing it. There is this weird search for attention with social media. So that seems like a cool place to set it.”

Michael overlaps: “There are positives and negatives to social media. If you make a mistake with a drug or whatever, that isn’t forgotten. It is immortalised forever.”

They should know. The brothers are already famous as creators of the RackaRacka YouTube channel. Their horror spoofs and stunts have drawn them two billion views and almost seven million subscribers. (I think that’s a lot.) Their breakthrough came with Harry Potter vs Star Wars, whose inspiration requires no further explanation, a little less than a decade ago. By 2017 they were sufficiently prominent to figure on Australian Financial Review’s list of the 10 most influential people in Australian culture.

Michael’s earlier comment reveals an equivocal attitude to the online life. But they have contributed to us ending up in this place. Fair?

“We did a lot of crazy film-maker stuff,” he says. “There was a lot of violence. Maybe that can contribute to a kid wanting to see an R-rated film or whatever. But we were just trying to make something that was fun and engaging to watch.”

The Philippous are a publicist’s dream. Danny (hair usefully dyed blond) and Michael (conveniently unshaven) bark merrily as they finish each other’s sentences. They fire out so much energy I wouldn’t be surprised to hear no generator was required on set. We are still making sense of these new routes to fame. A century ago directors made up their own rules. Much of the generation that emerged in the 1960s had been to film school. Television commercials offered informal training to the next batch. Then pop videos. So are YouTube and TikTok the new film schools?

“We were lucky enough in that, before the YouTube stuff, we had crewed on films before,” says Michael. “They are not going to turn down someone working for free. I had worked in every department. So I knew how a film set ran. If we had just gone straight from YouTube to a film set, it would, I think, have been a bit of a slap in the face.”

The film community probably still has a prejudice about those who come from the YouTube world (as they once did against those who came from commercials or music videos). There is an expectation that everything will be tricksy, jokey, busily cut and generally hopped-up. That doesn’t describe Talk to Me. The film follows a group of young people whose experiments with an embalmed hand cause them to rub up against the unhappily deceased. There are jump scares in here, but the film is also at home to an impressive creeping unease. There is a parallel – unavoidable but not overstressed – with teenage attitudes to recreational drug use. It is creatively ambiguous about the final catastrophe.

“We just wanted the kids to be in over their heads,” says Danny. “It’s as if they have this home-made bong and they don’t really know what they’re messing with. The rules aren’t ironed out. But it is about being in over your head. There is no expert there.”

Michael interjects: “We were going to do it with a studio, and it was a guaranteed theatrical release. They were giving notes, and it was taking it in that other direction. We need creative control. If not, then it becomes someone else’s vision. So we took a role of the dice and did it independently.”

Danny and Michael have been at the entertainment business for more than a decade. They are knocking on 30. But one is, nonetheless, impressed by their assurance. That roll of the dice really paid off. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it triggered an old-fashioned bidding war. In the end the increasingly influential A24 – Oscar best-picture winner for Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once – grabbed the US rights. Reviews have been ecstatic. That must have been a satisfying experience.

“There was this weird hype around the film,” says Michael. “It was getting amped up for some reason. And I didn’t like that, because I’d rather people not go in expecting big things. And then we heard about all these distributors critics and directors that were going to be there.”

You know if a comedy is working because people laugh. You probably can also tell if a horror is working. Audience members rock back in their seats. They shriek. They gasp.

“The audience was so loud and so reactive,” says Danny adds. “It was alive. It was stressful.”

Michael says: “Every time someone would go off to the toilet the door would open and this light would shine on the whole crowd. Then they’d come back and the door would open again. Argh! This is taking them out of the movie! They’re going to hate it! It was just so stressful. Then the reviews came in and we heard all the reactions.”

Watching the Philippous speak gives us, perhaps, some insight into how they work on set. Their half of our conversation is a busy collaboration that moves at its own four-legged pace. They are bouncing notions to one another as if in a game of verbal squash. Of course, cinema has a long history of directing siblings. The Coens. The Dardennes. The Farrellys. The Maysleses. The Wachowskis. Why does that relationship work so well?

“Making a film is such a mammoth task,” says Michael. “It’s like a big symphony of all these different departments – visual, audio, script. If you have the same vision you can keep that united. Even if other people don’t see it, at least I know that Danny sees it.”

Danny adds: “We grew up together and we’ve made so much stuff together. We have a synchronised thing. Writing is different. I couldn’t write with Michael.”

His brother says: “I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat code.”

I wonder when they first realised they had become a phenomenon. It is hard to judge in that online world. A few thousand hits barely matters. Does half a million? When does that word “monetise” come into the conversation? It does seem as if Harry Potter vs Star Wars was the tipping point. The video is still there. Two blokes in suburban Australia pit lightsabres against magic wands. The fight-work and the effects are, considering their limited resources, genuinely extraordinary. Nobody watching that would be surprised to hear where the creators have ended up.

“It was literally that video on YouTube,” says Michael. “We went to bed and it was on 3,000 views. We woke up it was on 500,000 and, by the end of the day, it was at 1.5 million and we had 100,000 subscribers. We had put so much effort into stuff outside of YouTube that no one ever saw. We didn’t put so much effort into that. It was, like, three days’ work. We thought, What if we focus on that and see how it goes?”

Danny and Michael make it clear that they always saw the YouTube stuff as a way into film. This is where they wanted to be. And, despite their age and background, they have always loved the theatrical experience. Look where they have ended up. The distributors seem to have positioned Talk to Me as counterprogramming to the arrival, a week earlier, of Barbie and Oppenheimer. And the latest Mission: Impossible will also still be about.

“It’s horrifying,” says Danny with a broad grin. “I was, like, ‘Oh no, we’re going to get buried.’ I saw an article listing the top five films. It was our film and Oppenheimer. I thought, What the f**k are we doing next to a Christopher Nolan film? That is crazy. Everyone was ‘Barbieheimer, Barbieheimer!’ Is there no Talk-to-Meheimer?”

Just wait.'

#Talk To Me #Christopher Nolan #Oppenheimer #Barbenheimer #Mission Impossible #Danny Philippou #Michael Philippou #YouTube

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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Quite interesting what you expose about Queer baiting, I had thought that some media accidentally creates a fandom who is reading too much into it (some fandoms sometimes just cling to strays with their desperate need when there hardly is anything to read), but I seriously had my doubts about Supernatural and Sherlock. Mainly because it was kind of cruel on their parts when they eventually knew the kind of fandom they got as the years progressed. They went to conventions and they made exclusive fan interactions. I would think that the producer's, writers, directors and actors would take a least a bit of interest on the people who were the greatest contribution to their success.

Let's not kid ourselves, those numbers and sales of merchandise and the hype, can only be ignited and rallied by the really intense fans. Or at least that's what used to think. So of course it wouldn't be that much of a stretch of imagination that this "silly gay joke" was in fact a concealed slap in the face to the fans for wishing to see something they desired. Like spraying the fans with water like unruly cats needing to calm the duck down. I was a bit disappointed by Mark Gatiss, being gay and all, but of course, being gay doesn't automatically made you a political woke rebel with a discurse to change the world (I would know, being an old trans who wants nothing but to cisspass and live in the crowd irl)

I suppose that in the end, it's true that we are a meaningless number in the capitalistic industry of entreteiment, and that the old idea that the fandom has any kind of pull over their favorite shows is just a delusional idea.

But still, an unintentionally wrong doing, it's still a wrong doing. It means that representation still is a problem because the creators and powers that be, don't even acknowledge that people exist in the first place. They may be not evilly toying with us, but is worse when they don't even think we exist.

And when they do, like Netflix and most of his shows, it's just so poorly done for shock value and token representation that is often, just cringe worthy. Anyways, I would like your opinion on the bury your gays trope.

I mean, for while gays were dropping like flies on violent tv shows. Like dude, we are the new POC on a horror movie?. Gays died second lol. Example, the Chubby chick in The Walking Dead. Like literally seconds after saying she's a lesbian. She drops dead unexpectedly. And come on, even if its one of those "anyone can die type of show" that was... ridiculously dumb when they spend whole episodes bulling her story.

I agree that shows are bad at queer rep.

But I disagree that Sherlock was bad in this way. It did plenty of other things wrong (like Irene Adler), but it started out intending not to go for Johnlock, and it continued not to go for Johnlock.

I know that fans assumed TPTB were lying because they lied about other things, but they were still quite clear that canon Johnlock was not part of their plans.

Big media is often quite homophobic, but one point I want to drive home to fans is this:

Queer people who work in big media often have a different idea of representation than tumblr and ao3 types do.

Not always, but it's common. There is no reason Gatiss would necessarily want canon Johnlock or see it as a huge step forward for representation. Tumblr Sherlock fandom talked about it in terms that weren't really echoed by people outside of tumblr.

Looking at SPN, by the end, it only had a couple million viewers per episode. Sorting AO3 SPN fics by hits, the top one does have over a million hits, but the next few down have 400-500k. They quickly drop to the 200k hits range, and these are fics with multiple chapters where the same reader will have come back many times. The 2mil episode watchers are separate people watching the first run.

SPN has a particularly vociferous fandom and particularly shitty ratings, so yeah, some of the bigger fic is big enough you'd hope they'd care... But there are two things you're forgetting:

1. SPN had a fuckton of self-shipper fans and fans who just liked canon and did not care about fic. None of these fans wanted Destiel.

2. Network tv series make money off of advertisements, and advertisers still usually strongly prefer young men to older people or women.

It does not matter if SPN's writers wanted to be less sexist as long as advertisers pressure shows to deliver the male viewer numbers they want. But even if they did want to cater to the female audience they ended up with, that audience is not united in wanting Destiel.

(I do not think the writers made any attempt to be less sexist, and I think it’s fine to call them on that, btw. I’m just saying this separate advertiser issue exists also.)

Look through Dean's tags on Wattpad: you'll find a sea of fanfic about Dean/OFC or Dean/Female reader. Those were also die-hard fans, and they did not ship m/m. They also kept SPN afloat with their money.

I too want live action longform genre fiction with a decent budget and canon m/m.

But it's simplistic to think that SPN was just ignoring their fans and clueless.

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prettywarriors · 3 years

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Ok ill bite whats the worst mg series

alright, whats the worst magical girl series in your opinion?

Thanks you two for letting me do some yelling. The obvious guess would likely be one of the recent edgelord shows right? Magical Girl Site or something similar? But nay I say, for while MGS and Day Break Illusion and such and what not generally tell you what to expect right away. Don't like super violence and suffering? Watch something else is the clear message from the get go. One of the bait and switch series then like Madoka or maybe Yuki Yuna? For what faults they may or may not have, at least these series do something and are interesting, even if you're not huge on what goes down in the series. A parody then? They range from affectionate to banned in New Zealand but regardless of quality and their feelings for MGs, it's a parody. It's a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously (plus they're usually short so you can just forget about them forever).

So what makes a series terrible then, I am sure you are asking. IMO? Setting expectations for an interesting and enjoyable series, and then dashing them to hell.

Come with me below the cut, as I talk about Key Princess Story: Kagihime Eternal Alice Rondo!

Spoilers abound so if you care about those for a 15 year old series, click away.

Background: Kagihime was a 4 volume manga that ran from 2004-2006 that was picked up for a 13 episode anime adaptation near the end of its run. The manga is created by a pair (Kaishaku) who you may know for making Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto. Kannazuki no Miko, and Steel Angel Kurumi, and the anime had a script written by the same writer (Mamiko Ikeda) for Tenshi Ni Narumon who also did some script writing for Princess Tutu and Seven of Seven. The anime also had 6 character music videos which are fairly simple but a nice addition to the series for the main girls. Discotek has been publishing the anime in the states in recent years, and the manga was brought over by *squints at book spine* Dr Master Publications.

The Premise: Girls transform and enter weird outside of reality spaces to fight each other with giant keys to take each other’s stories to create a third Alice In Wonderland story.

Well, an off-brand Alice story written by Alternate L. Takion, rather than Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson, that while the series uses all the aesthetic hallmarks of the tradition Alice, the little we see of the in universe Alice story is clearly different. Which is fine, at the end of the day, it’s still about someone who loves the Alice stories and wishes there was more, and even makes his own fanfiction version. His? Oh yeah, while the girls do all the fighting, the main character is Aruto, a teen boy who loves Alice, and for reasons we don’t know till late game, can enter the liminal spaces that the ‘Alice Users’ fight in. He chases a girl who looks like the Alice he sees in his story, who is named Arisu, and gets roped into this fanfic battle royale. He is also the older brother of the very needy Kirihara, who also ends up being and Alice User. As does Kirihara’s bff Kisa. To round out the group of enemies-turned-friends-who-will-work-together-to-collect-the-Eternal-Alice-without-having-to-fight-eachother group is a young genius researcher Kirika who wants to know more about Aruto’s connection that allows him to enter the spaces where the girls fight.

Then there’s all the other girls, some of whom still have real importance to the story and some who have a few panels or 2 scenes total. But with a whole bunch of girls to design, the creators reached out to a whole lot of other people to have them create designs! Eventually the battle gets down to the last few girls, there’s a confrontation with the guy running the whole thing, and while the anime and manga vary quite a bit the whole time, in both version Aruto ends up with Kirihara. Oh and Arisu was created by Aruto’s super imagination powers.

The Promise: Here on is subjective, particularly with what I personally saw as potential from this series. because I need you to understand how much I want to like this series.

~Alice in Wonderland themed: I know some people aren’t alice fans and that’s fine you do you but as a big alice fan this is great. We have a few alice episodes and themed characters amongst series like CCS and MGRP, and even Alice themes in other series like Tweeny Witches and Alice 19th. But damn it I am down for Alice series.

~Giant Keyyyyyyyys: Yeah yeah Kingdom Hearts but these keys are much more staff like for a lot of the characters which ads and air of elegance rather than the KH ones that for me at least feel well designed for big ol props rather than actual weapons. We also get...

~Weapon variety: It counts as a key if it’s a thorn whip that can be shaped like a key right? How about a giant pocket knife? Crossbows can also be keys. Hush. And we have this variety because

~Guest Artists: For magical girl series where we have a variety of outfits designed by different people, we have Kagihime, Uta~Kata, and uhh I guess Magia Record? But that’s a mobile game with a hella number of characters and with how mobile game works I wouldn’t count it just because it’s less the intent of the series to have variety and more the nature of having lots of girls. (Precure doesn’t count because unless I missed a memo each season’s set is still by one designer). If a series isn’t about a team and therefore doesn’t need cohesion, bringing in other artists is a great way for variety and new looks.

~The long term goal: Fighting with other people who love the same piece of media you do in hopes of creating new material that will be viewed as official? That’s just fandom nowadays. But it’s a legitimate interesting concept, and opens up so many doors for a message for the series, be it ‘what you create is no less valuable than the canon work’ or ‘it’s hard to let go when something you love doesn’t have more to it but you can still love it for what it is’ or ‘bond with the people who like the thing you like ya idiot instead of fighting about it’. The concept is interesting and there are so many narrative ways you can take this.

~Gays: Between the anime and manga, we have at least 5 wlw. Is it a magical girl series without some gays? (side note- the manga had a short thing where the MC wears a girl’s uniform and is pretty comfortable in it and while there is no way this was the intent, between that and the emphasis on the stories that live in girls and how the fight zones have no men, I’m just saying, Trans girl Aruto.)

~Greater Fairy Tale Premise: We meet a Little Match Girl based MG who is obsessed with Andersen rather than the Alice books, and touch on a Sleeping Beauty character in the manga. The manga at least implies that classic stories and fairy tale authors uh. Live on in a liminal space as immortals with world warping powers within that world and there could be opportunities for other girls in the real world to fight for Little Mermaid 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The Good: Everything has positive points, no matter how bad it is.

~Character Designs: Some of those looks slap. As do most of their weapons.

~Backgrounds: I have a strong opinion on backgrounds in anime that can be easily boiled down to old watercolor backgrounds good, modern filtered photos as background bad, and as a 2006 series, this might not be Memole nice but they’re quite attractive.

~Splash Pages: Easily my favorite thing after the designs, each chapter’s title page for the manga just has a character standing in a setting. Which is not everyone’s thing I’m sure but it’s a nice simplistic way to let the characters breathe imo. Even if at least some of the settings were deffo traced. But that’s how backgrounds work to some extent? If I ever get to the Met again, I am tracking down this exact photo, but here is a likely candidate for an example.

~Different Versions: I do not understand the need to make an adaptation that tries to be a 1:1. Kagihime had the same ideas and characters and did some of the same beats but very much had a different finale story and a lot of changes in the middle (like the Alice cops in the manga). Again, not something everyone probably wants I’m sure, but I very appreciate this, especially since the Anime kept good pace with the number of Manga chapters (reading the manga again while watching the anime at 3.8x speed just now was very interesting to see the different interpretations of events in a different medium.)

The ‘Fine’: Yeah.

~Anime Visuals: Look 2006 was still early enough into digipaint that I will give it a total pass on these. The colors are too bright but in a very bland way, the lineart is nothing interesting, and the faces are. Iffy. But it’s not total garbage to look at (probably helped by backgrounds and character designs...) it just came out in an era where not enough people knew how to stylize things to account for the weakness of the tools of the time. (It was 4 years earlier but I feel Kagihime is the polar opposite of Chobits with its painfully bland color palette while still being just. Flat. Sorry for the drive by Chii.)

~Music?: There sure were songs. Obviously, they are nothing to me.

The Bad: CW for.... somehow all the big things to an extent.

~Fanservice: Look, I am fine with fanservice, especially for a series that’s, ya know, not targeted at kids, big Mai Hime fan here even if I would recommend skipping the panty thief episode. And honestly the series generally isn’t fanservicey, at least by the modern standards of having the camera choosing under the skirt rather than an over the shoulder shot like I’ve seen plenty in other shows. Even the sexier outfits like the rose whip dominatrix aren’t bad BUT. When the girls fight. One takes her phallic key and drives it into another girls chest between the boobs while the loser cries in pain and then her book comes out and when the victor rips out pages, the loser’s clothes also rip. It is very SuperS Amazon Trio assault metaphor-y. There’s also a bit of fanservice with the sister becauseeeee....

~Incest: If you read the premise up there, first wow good job because I’m sure not re-reading that, you might have noticed I said MC ends up with his sister. As someone who is a big mythology fan and watches plenty of anime, I have a decent tolerance for your obligatory ‘oh we’re siblings but actually cousins so our feelings are okay’ or whatever the fuck Citrus has going on I don’t know that series and I don’t vibe BUT. I have limits and boy did this series go beyond that because multiple episodes are dedicated to the sister being in love with the brother? And the brother returns her feelings but knows that they are wrong so he put everything he likes in his sister into his version of Alice who, of course, physically manifests as Arisu who he creates accidentally with his uh. Magic imagination powers. But again in both versions MC still ends up with his sister. Hey, at least the manga eventually said the boy was adopted when the sister was like, 3, so if nothing else no blood relations? The anime did not ad this. -_-

~Under Utilized Characters: Arisu’s gradual revelation that she has no childhood memories because she isn’t a real person is so interesting and they don’t do nothing with it but also? That’s the kind of thing I personally would love to dig into and Kagihime, while touching on this world shattering revelation, easily loops back to So Anyway She Should Fight For The Man and to hell with developing a life or personality outside of what has been written for her. The rest of the main 5 were 2 note characters which. Could be worse? The most interesting character ends up being the child genius who accidentally murdered her childhood bestie (and/or lover? depending on version) and her coming to terms with that (the friend is alive but the version changes how and why she thinks she’s dead). Then the villain has the motivation of ‘i lost my creativity and now have become an immortal living outside of normal space and am getting girls to fight each other because that’s like a story so I’m still relevant right?’. But shoutout to the anime for then taking death of the author literally. The numerous other girls are canon fodder outside of like. The manga version of the dead gf and the little match girl.

~Battle Royale: This is not a thing I have an issue with generally. Again, but Mai Hime fan, I need to read MGRP 11, BUT by not developing the non-main girls there is no emotional connection which makes them just canon fodder and that’s boring as sin for a royale system. The initial main character fights revolve so much around the MC guy being there that they fall flat, and the 2 or 3 final battles in both versions still feel without any stakes. Also for a royale thing most of the characters don’t actually die, which cool! Neat! Except when they do? Some nobodies and a somebody are murdered (at least in the manga) and the tone never feels like it’s supposed to be upping the stakes, it’s just. Some people are dead now. And do you want to guess which of the main characters died?

~Gays: Oh boy the best friend of the brother-complex sister is in love with her and (in the manga) dies. She does apparently get better for the last chapter but the death itself is only felt by the rest of the cast for a page or two before we go back to feeling sad big brother wants to kiss his mentally generated sister clone rather than his actual sister u_u. Bury your gays is nothing new, but I wonder if it was also intended to be justified because Guess Who Is Creepy and a bit Perverted? Oh look the lesbian keeps the used swimsuit of her beloved and manipulates events to get an indirect kiss and when she sees the sister trying to strange Arisu for a moment she decides to do it for the sister? It’s not good. You want bad gay rep in a magical girl series, well here ya go. We also had a nobody in the first(second?) episode whose story pages reveal her having a kiss with a girl, and then we also have the prodigy again and- in the manga- her. Uh. childhood lover who she thought she killed but the girl has been wiping her mind over and over so prodigy remembers ‘killing’ the friend and not the she’s alive so she can keep? fucking with her? Toxic!

~Sexual Content: But wait you say, you already covered fanservice! Ah but that is sexual content for titilation. This is sexual content for dramatic backstory! The red riding hood character was sexually assaulted, another character was manipulated into sex first as a teen and then more often to ‘get into the publishing industry’, and the same writer forces some aggressive kisses on the MC. None of it is gratuitous which is nice, but also, was it necessary? Not making a new point for this but read riding hood’s dog was also murdered so unnecessary animal death gets tossed on in there.

~Male Lead: You can have a male, non magical character as the main character surrounded by magical girls. This is not how to do it. If I can make a vicious and hopefully not understood reference, Aruto is basically Tate from the Mai Hime Manga. If you understood that, I am so sorry. If you didn’t, congrats! Don’t read the manga. Or do and send me asks about the iconic final page of the first volume (18+). Anyway, this dude is boring, everything revolves around him, BUT I’ll be generous and say at least this isn’t a harem series? It looks like it out of context but it’s just a triangle with a fun attached scientist and token lesbian.

~Premise: They didn’t make good use of it. The initial goals of ‘take other girls pages from their soul books because if we get enough we unlock a third alice book’ is good! And then we add the twist that that was never going to happen and either if we get all the pages we can grant a wish, or these fights are just happening for the amusement of and asshole. Either way, yeah okay I guess. But at no point do we ever achieve this forbidden wish granting book and the asshole just. Lives. Nothing happens to him. His peers don’t even dunk on him. The only real changes from the beginning and the end of the series are: the siblings are now chill with dating, and the scientist lady won’t turn into a child in magical spaces. Oh. Yeah.

~Why did we make this adult a child sometimes?: I think we know why. Stop trying to get those types of folks to watch your already meh series. I also could have sworn at points in the past looking up images for this series I’ve seen extra art for Yuuri the Thumbelina-y Alice User that seemed like it would fit alongside anything by POP. You know, the Moetan guy. If you don’t know, god I wish that were me.

Wrap Up: I have definitely forgotten some points and am well within my rights to ad to this whenever I remember more points but uh. Yeah.

Listen you want an alice themed battle royale with nice outfits? Rozen maiden is right there. Battle Royale magical girl series that’s good with fanservice? Mai Hime. Series with different outfits while being based on a classic story? Pretear.

Hope anyone who read all of this at least got what I was saying, even if they don’t agree with it. And thanks for reading because whoops.

#why do ya'll let me write so damn many words #thanks ya'll for letting me write so many words #kagihime eternal alice rondo #long post #text #not fashion #whoops 3k words

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sibyl-of-space · 3 years

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Final Fantasy IX ~ Melodies and Memories

"Jesters of the Moon"

There are a lot of very good video games in the world, but it takes some luck and circumstance outside of a game's control for one to reach me at just the right time(s) and place(s) in my life that it has a tangible impact on who I am -- who I want to be. One that carves out a space for itself in my soul that will never be removed or replaced.

I've just finished playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time, and there's no doubt in my mind that such is the case here.

(Continued below readmore.)

I drew this art last year, when I was mourning my attachment to an old favorite game that I just don't feel the same way about anymore: Majora's Mask. I wanted to draw something that captured my feelings about it, because sometimes art is the best way to talk about something when the words don't want to come.

Why is "Jesters of the Moon," the name of a random song in the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack, plastered in the middle of this Majora's Mask fanart? Especially considering I hadn't even played Final Fantasy IX yet when I drew this?

The reason is exactly that "luck and circumstance" that allowed me to fall so uniquely in love with the game.

"Mt. Gulug"

In 2008, someone on YouTube uploaded a Majora's Mask parody-slash-let's-play series called "Majora's Mask: The Things Which Were Taken Out." The series has since become unlisted and won't be linked here out of respect for the creator who probably doesn't want things they said and made in 2008 being spread all over the internet, but because of Unregistered Hypercam 2 reasons, the series inserted other background music over the video and didn't record the actual game audio.

I didn't recognize any of the music, but I watched these parody videos on repeat because in addition to being funny (...at the time, in my mind, at least), I really really loved the music. It got to the point where I would sometimes be playing Majora's Mask and get disappointed when I approached Goht and the Mt. Gulug theme wasn't playing in the background.

I had forgotten about these videos for a really long time in the interim, but I remembered them at some point when I was thinking about Majora's Mask and I found them again. The creator had cited the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack for virtually all of the background music used in the videos, and I realized that despite knowing literally nothing about the game, I had become really fond of - and weirdly nostalgic for - the songs from it that I now recognized.

So I looked up "Jesters of the Moon" and played it on repeat while I drew out my feelings in colored marker. A few months later, I realized that my backwards compatible PS3 can also play PS1 games, and eBay had FFIX for PS1 at a good price. I had nothing to lose by ordering it and seeing what the source of all that fantastic music was like.

"Vamo Alla Flamenco"

I started my playthrough knowing nothing about what to expect from the game. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game before and my overall JRPG experience has been mostly limited to Tales of, Persona, and more recently, mainline Shin Megami Tensei. The only things I knew about Final Fantasy were a) the Tidus laughing scene, and b) Sephiroth. IX seemed like it had vibes I would enjoy, but beyond that I knew nothing about what the experience would be. So I approached it with a "let's have fun and see how it goes" attitude, naming my party members the first silly thing that came to mind, ending up with "Swaggy," "OwO," "Bitchin," "Gunz," and "SWOOORD" to start with.

(For the record I do not regret those names whatsoever.)

I was immediately struck by how differently the game uses music in comparison to all of my previous JRPG experiences. This was not a game where the composer was given a list of theme songs that were slapped on top of a mostly completed game-- this was a game constructed with the soundtrack in mind as a part of the writing process.

The opening act plays almost like an opera (side note, yes I know one of the other FF's has a literal opera, I haven't played that one): you traverse the same locations from different perspectives as different characters, introducing the cast with lighthearted humor and dramatic irony out the wazoo. While you traverse the city as OwO, OwO's theme is playing in the background, coloring your perspective of the city and the narrative. When you switch to Gunz patrolling around the castle, Gunz's theme accompanies your movement and informs his character and mission. I am so accustomed to "location themes" being the norm in virtually all video games that experiencing character and/or narrative themes as BGM instead while I bumble around town changed my entire perspective on what music in games can do and be.

The operatic feeling is definitely intentional, because the game uses a play-within-a-game narrative device to hit you over the head with its themes in a way that is somehow poignant and artful while also being extremely blatant. That is a hard balance to strike, but it manages. The whole game is like that: it is completely straightforward and tells you exactly what it's about at heart, but it does it beautifully.

At any rate, I was enamored with this intro and had a very fun time, but I wasn't obsessed or anything and ended up putting it down. I spent several months on the first half of disk 1 with weeks passing between play sessions. I liked the game plenty, but life stuff happened and I decided to get obsessed with Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Ghost Trick for a while. No regrettis.

It was already clear, though, that FFIX was going to be special to me. My compositions for my team's game in the Global Game Jam in 2021 were directly inspired by FFIX's opera-like intro. I wrote two character themes for our game that would serve as background music when you play as the two protagonists, coloring your journey differently even when moving in the same spaces. I was intentionally trying to mimic the way music is used in FFIX as an exercise. The themes I wrote are definitely some of my strongest work so far.

(You can check out the game here if you want, I promise it is significantly shorter than Final Fantasy IX.)

"Melodies of Life"

Music caused me to pick up FFIX the first time, and music caused me to return to it. After months of not touching or really thinking about it, just earlier this week I was inspired to play it again, because - again - I listened to the right song at the right time.

I was again mourning the loss of something, in this case a friendship, for reasons I'm not going to share here. I had already heard the song "Melodies of Life" because it came up when I was looking up FFIX songs to reblog on Tumblr a few months ago, and I decided to listen to it again. Even without knowing the game context, the song itself really spoke to me in that moment: "a voice from the past, joining yours and mine, adding up the layers of harmony" - it kind of made me feel at peace with the fact that I had a lot of positive memories of that friendship and I could keep those at heart while also moving on in the present. ...I'm also a sucker for music metaphors, so there is that.

I was really moved by this song, cheesy as it is, and I was also definitely in the mood for a distraction. Picking up FFIX again felt like the best move.

It was, and my life is forever changed.

The game never stopped being beautiful and funny and touching, and the soundtrack never ceased to amaze. I recognized concepts I've seen in other games but never had I seen them used so artfully. I adored the fantasy world and non-human cast, I found myself enticed by random encounter for the first time because it made me feel like I had to struggle to survive a difficult journey. Music, gameplay, visuals, and story felt like one cohesive work of art for the entire duration.

Life circumstances got me to play the game again, but the game itself was so captivating and wonderful that I binged the entire rest of it - disks 2-4 - in less than a week. Everything else that the game had to say, it told me itself, in its own context, and I was ready to listen.

"You're Not Alone!"

This is going to make me sound like an emotionally-stunted twenty-something, but it has been years since a work of media has got me to have a really good cry. I used to cry playing games all the time as a kid but recently I'll find myself getting emotional, sure, often tearing up, but getting completely red-faced and snot-nosed because I physically cannot contain the emotions being evoked by a work? Years. I can't honestly tell you the last time it happened with certainty.

I feel like an emotional band-aid has been ripped off. I was f*cking sobbing during the entire duration of the "You're Not Alone!" sequence. It didn't matter that what was happening was obviously coming from a mile away, because the delivery was so raw and emotional and human!!! A whole game's worth of Swaggy punching first and asking questions later to save his friends, being Protag McProtag endangering himself for others in any and all circumstances, for the payoff of all of his friends forcing him to stop being such a primadonna and let them help him for once. It's true, too! He relies on them just as much as they rely on him! And the game doesn't just tell you this, no, it lets you try to solo all these fights and waits until you realize how boned you are until they come bail you out.

When Bitchin showed up with her "looks like you need a hand" I wanted to straight up yell at my tv. YES I DO!!! YES I DO NEED YOU BITCHIN!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! I half knew that SWOOORD was going to heal me before I got truly KO-ed but I had been unmercifully wiped in "unwinnable" battles before in this game, so I legit thought I might have to re-do that whole part of the game again, and I was so relieved and thankful when she showed up and healed me.

This moment exemplifies everything that I adore about this game. It doesn't just tell you its story. It shows it to you, it sings it to you, and it and lets you play it out and feel it for yourself.

"Game Over"

This song is all too familiar to me. Gizamaluke's Grotto was very unforgiving for a first-time Final Fantasy player, especially one who didn't happen to pick up Big on the way for a fourth party member early on.

I hadn't heard the piano part in a few months, though, because when I picked the game back up I started just mashing to reload before it got to that point any time we wiped. I didn't hear it again until the game was truly over, this time for good.

I let it play for a while. Not too long, because I have a CRT TV and didn't want "The End" to get burned in. But a while. Enough to meditate on what I'd just experienced, and how I was feeling about it.

There's so much more to say about the game, far more than I could put in a blog post. But I don't think I need to describe these thoughts in words. I can do what the game did, and use music, use art, use stories, use metaphors, and use symbols to communicate what I mean; and hope that someone else is able and willing to listen.

And although a written record of my thoughts likely won't be preserved for all that long, maybe the feelings and the memories will be, so long as they have been shared.

#personal #analyses #ffix

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kathyprior4200 · 3 years

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The Shadow Man - Dr. Facilier Backstory (Outline)

Dr. Facilier backstory outline: The Shadow Man

Chapter One: “Down in New Orleans”

Francois Keith Facilier (Dr. Facilier) was born June 4, 1880 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He had chocolate brown skin, a black mustache, gap in his teeth, black hair, violet eyes (that used to be dark brown) and a slender build. During much of his later life, he wore a black top hat with white crossbones on it with a purple feather sticking out from the brim. He wore a necklace with two alligator teeth on it, which is said to bring strength and wisdom. He wore a dark maroon tailcoat, a black coat with tails, dark pants and white shoes. He carried a purple globe cane he uses for show or a weapon. In his earlier years, he wore overalls, suspenders, and duller clothing worn by the poor.

David Facilier is his African American father. He has a black mustache, high cheekbones and short curly hair. His occupation is a chef at a small restaurant and a jazz musician. David would sometimes yell at Facilier in alcoholic fits of rage, beating him but not molesting him. Sometimes he would yell and beat his wife as well. He and his son were very distant. Facilier enjoyed theater and the easy life but David wanted him to “work hard like any man would.” During better moments, he and Facilier would explore the bayou where they lived and hunt alligators. David’s abuse and chiding toward his son came to an end when he was drafted for the war and was never seen again.

Clementine Duvalier is Facilier’s mother. She is African American and a prominent Voodoo Queen, a descendant of Marie Laveau. Clementine wanted her son to have a stable and comfortable future…she did her part in helping her community. Long before her son was born, she was a princess. At a young age, her estate was burned down by jealous criminals, forcing her to start over. She met David, fell in love and the poor family moved to a small house in the bayou, not too far from the city. Facilier loved eating jambalaya and gumbo and playing jazz instruments.

Clementine instilled a desire for wealth early on in Facilier. She told him that hard work was necessary and that the wealthy would never have to work hard. Both grew envious of the upper class, Facilier viewing it as unfair.

Chapter Two: “Voodoo, Hoodoo, They Do”

1880s age 1-5

Mama Odie is Facilier’s grandmother (not his mother like the original Princess and the Frog had planned). When Facilier was little, he and Mama Odie would practice magic for good and revered their ancestors and saints. Papa Legba was always called first in every ritual and Facilier was fascinated by Bondeye, the otherworldly serpent Creator. Facilier developed a connection to Met Kalfu and Baron Samedi. Mama Odie encouraged them to enjoy the modest life they had. For a time, in the 1880s, little Facilier did. He enjoyed the Mardi Gras festivals and loved learning about animals, reptiles and magic. He also had a pet snake like Mama Odie, developing a fondness for the animal who was as complex as he was.

Chapter Three: “A Tip of the Hat”

Late 1880s age 5-10

But the good times didn’t last long. Facilier was bullied at school for smelling like a swamp in addition to being black. He was separated from his white classmates, getting the short end of the stick in lots of things. He dreamed of being a master magician and musician, performing on stage for the masses. Facilier tried putting on magic shows for his friends, only to be ridiculed for it. Facilier’s father was alcoholic and would often push his son and his wife around during stressful times. Facilier’s mother would teach him French and the occult studies. He would also learn about magic, voodoo, hoodoo, reptiles, bugs and other fascinating topics. Facilier was not into sports, hard work, sex or other “masculine” interests as he got older.

Chapter Four: “Greenbacks”

Early 1890s Pre teens

Facilier grew up. His mother couldn’t take it anymore. Tired of being stuck in her measly low paying secretary job, she longed for the wealth she once had. After Mama Odie said “wealth isn’t what you need,” she sought the aid of the Petro Loa instead. (The Rada Loa were there to help humanity while the “darker” Loa made deals and granted people wishes with costs involved). The Loa granted her with resources to start her own business. She formed a parlor where she read people’s fortunes and provided various curses and remedies. People flocked to her store, anxious to buy the Voodoo Queen’s wares. But now, she was only using her status as a Voodoo Queen for her own benefits. Not even David messed around with her anymore, calling her a “stubborn freak.” Her shadow became a twisted serpent, reflecting her true desires. David thought of her pursuit in the “forbidden arts” as “nonsense” and grew more distant from both of them. David revered the saints and respected cultural voodoo and hoodoo but did not approve of his wife doing fortune telling, hexes and “mumbo jumbo.”

Clementine grew hungrier for money and influence…even going as far as sleeping with clients in exchange for heaps of jewelry. One by one, she made others’ lives miserable, creating bad luck and scamming people for her enjoyment. Every day, she would stare at herself in the mirror, obsessed with her good looks. She soon wanted Facilier to appear “businesslike” and more “upper class.” She slapped Facilier whenever he misbehaved or made a mistake. Facilier was nothing more than a business assistant to her…another relationship gone.

Of course, Facilier’s mother taught Facilier the tricks of her trade, until he became as manipulative as her… at only age eleven. Soon enough though, a terrible price was paid. Clementine fell gravely ill, her face shriveled up like a raisin, her hair straggly like dry grass. The price to pay for her extravagance was her own life. She soon died and Facilier kept her crowned shrunken head in his emporium ever since. Although his mother had been stern with him after her gradual change, he still missed her at times. He endured his father’s harsh complaints and beatings for several years…the family still struggled financially. Facilier continued school, almost dropping out before finally graduating high school.

Chapter Five: “Love Is A Magical Mystery”

Late 1890s Teenage years

Dr. Facilier loved going to the Blue Bayou Restaurant and Antoine’s Restaurant. Gumbo and jambalaya are his favorite foods. In his teen years at age 18, (1898) Facilier met a beautiful black woman (Frieda), had sex (1900) and got married. The relationship was short lived. The woman soon pursued wealthier men of both black and white races. Dr. Facilier was fuming and the couple divorced. It was still heartbreaking for Facilier to see his former girlfriend leave him for “someone more financially stable.”

Chapter Six: “Do What I Wanna Do”

1900s Young adulthood

Dr. Facilier had been pushed around and envious of the rich for too long. Any well-off individual who did not ignore him, treated him with disrespect. He may as well have been an invisible sick person. He took matters into his own hands by making a deal with the Petro Loa (Baron Samedi and Met Kalfu). His eyes turn their signature violet color. The Loa grant him with dark magical powers and new occult knowledge. But Facilier has to rely on his friends from the other side and people agreeing to his deals to have access to his powers. He mostly relies on his powers of persuasion instead. Dr. Facilier’s shadow had a life of its own, becoming his sinister sidekick and revealing his inner intentions. But Dr. Facilier would have to pay with his soul if he didn’t properly pay back the Petro Loa.

Mama Odie warned him not to go down the dark path, saying that hard work is necessary for success. She also disapproved of him using Voodoo and Hoodoo in the stereotypical evil way portrayed in the media. But Dr. Facilier scoffed and laughed it off, calling her an “old senile mambo.” Mama Odie warned him that she would fight him if he tried to harm New Orleans. His grandmother stayed at her boat home in a tree in the bayou, content to be herself and help others in nature. She decides to let Facilier learn his lesson.

Mama Odie presents Facilier with Tarot cards as she reads his past, present and future. The Fool for the past, the Magician for the present and Judgement for the future. The Death card, upside down also appears. Facilier looks at the card images of him being bullied as a little kid, reaching for a bag of gold coins and finally being surrounded by wooden faces and shadows. Facilier fails to notice the Bondeye serpent pulling him into the underworld, a foreshadowing of his death, should he choose the selfish path. Mama Odie looks on somberly as he leaves, knowing it would be the last time she would see him again.

Chapter Seven: “The Shadow Man”

1900s to 1926

For many years afterward, Dr. Facilier uses the money his mother made to start his own emporium as a bokor. He scams people, reads tarot cards, provides remedies and makes shady deals that are beneficial to him. He relies on his powers of persuasion to carry out his bidding. He uses a pink powder for magic and illusions. Facilier’s father is drafted into the war and is never heard from again.

Dr. Facilier used to work with Eli “Big Daddy” La Bouff before he got rich and distant. They would drink wine, dance and talk. Big Daddy was a jovial and friendly man, even offering to help Dr. Facilier with his small business (Dr. Facilier had lied and claimed he was a show performer instead of a dark dealer). Big Daddy was one of the only acquaintances that Dr. Facilier had. When Big Daddy became the wealthiest most powerful man in New Orleans, Dr. Facilier grew envious of him. Year after year, Big Daddy would beat Dr. Facilier at the Mardi Gras parade performances for five years. Dr. Facilier holds him in contempt for his wealth, especially when he doesn’t give him any more of his money. Big Daddy said to him, “Take that shady business of yours somewhere else,” after finding out about it, both not meeting again. Dr. Facilier even tried to flirt with Charlotte’s mother in pursuit of lust and wealth, but she knew better and shoved him aside.

Dr. Facilier likes wine and dancing with women, flirting and manipulating them. Like many, he enjoyed performing and immersing himself into music and festivities during the Roaring Twenties. Several times, he planned to steal money from wealthy women but they turned him away after getting suspicious. In his spare time, he likes singing, dancing, smoking, cooking and playing jazz instruments like the saxophone.

Dr. Facilier’s affiliations with the shadows earned him the Shadow Man name. He still struggled financially, wanting to seize Big Daddy’s fortune. The people of New Orleans soon feared Dr. Facilier, calling him a “sneaky snake in the grass.” Dr. Facilier is even willing to kill people if he can get what he wants. He lives in constant fear that he won’t be able to repay his “friends on the other side.”

Chapter Eight: “Friends On the Other Side”

1926

The events of Princess and the Frog take place in 1926, Tiana is 19 and Facilier is 46. Tiana was born 1907 and Facilier was born 1880. Mama Odie was born in 1729 and is 197!

Facilier first strikes a deal with a man who wishes to grow hair on his bald head. He makes it so the man grows hair all over his body, frightening himself and those around him. Facilier witnesses just how much wealth is owned by Eli “Big Daddy” La Bouff, making him envious. He and his shadow look on in disgust, trying to figure out a way to make themselves wealthy like him. Facilier follows Big daddy and his daughter Charlotte into a café, where they discuss the arrival of the foreign Prince Naveen. Facilier eavesdrops on their conversation and plans to use Charlotte and Naveen’s union to seize the La Bouff fortune.

Facilier takes Prince Naveen and his overworked valet Lawrence into a parlor to strike deals. He offers Naveen freedom and money while offering Lawrence the chance to live the life of a prince. He reads their tarot cards. The deal is set with a handshake. Naveen is turned into a frog and Lawrence becomes Facilier’s accomplice, turning into an exact copy of Naveen through a talisman. Lawrence would marry Charlotte while Dr. Facilier would murder Big Daddy with a voodoo doll. The villains would split the sum, 60-40, Lawrence getting the smaller amount. Facilier planned on becoming the most powerful man in New Orleans.

Naveen escape from a jar and meets princess Tiana. Lawrence has second thoughts on being a part of Facilier’s plan, He discards the talisman but Facilier catches it and warns him that he cannot risk it being destroyed. The blood runs out of the talisman and Lawrence’s disguise fades. Facilier is reduced to asking his “friends on the other side” for help. Facilier offers them the souls of the New Orleans citizens once he takes over. Facilier is given a team of shadow demons to capture Naveen.

Facilier laments of his life being in danger, becoming frustrated with delays in the plan. The demons return with Naveen and Lawrence steals back the blood to put in the talisman. A disguised Lawrence and Charlotte are about to be pronounced husband and wife on the wedding night. Facilier holds a voodoo doll of Big Daddy, intending on stabbing it in the heart. Naveen escapes again and grabs the talisman, giving it to his firefly friend Ray. Facilier and the shadows chase after him. Ray hands the talisman to Tiana and fights off the shadows. Facilier swats Ray away and crushes him under his shoe.

Facilier corners Tiana but she threatens to destroy the talisman. Facilier attempts to strike a steal by turning Tiana into a human and creating an illusion of her dream restaurant. He offers her the restaurant in exchange for the talisman but Tiana declines. He then references her deceased father but this backfires of Facilier. Tiana realizes that her father had what he needed in love and never lost sight of what was truly important. Declaring she’ll do the same, Tiana declines.

Tiana almost destroys the talisman but Facilier’s shadow catches it and hands it back to Facilier. He turns her back into a frog and taunts her that she’ll spend the rest of her life as a slimy little frog. Tiana grins and tells him that frogs are covered in mucus. She regains the talisman by grabbing it with her elastic frog tongue and destroys it. Facilier frantically tries to recollect the pieces as his “friends from the other side” arrive at the cemetery. They announce their intentions to collect his soul for his failure to repay them. He tried to persuade them to give him more time and he had Naveen. Facilier tries to escape but they grab hold of his shadow, dragging Facilier as well. Facilier is dragged screaming into the Voodoo spirit world for eternity, leaving behind a tombstone with his terrified face engraved on it.

Alternate Timelines:

Disney Descendants

Dr. Facilier appears alongside his daughter Celia. In the Isle of the Lost, he is the headmaster of the villain school Dragon Hall. Freddie and Celia are his daughters, their mother remains unnamed.

Once Upon A Time

Dr. Facilier tricks Tiana and revives Naveen, only to send him to an unreachable place. He searches for a ruby necklace and magically retrieves it from inside an alligator.

“Almost There” Twisted Tale book by Elizabeth Lim, Liz Braswell or Jen Calonita.

Will likely follow the premise “What if Tiana made a deal with Dr. Facilier?”

“Chilled: Fiends on the Other Side” book by Vera Strange

Jamal, an African American boy has lived in his twin brother Malik’s shadow all his life. Malik has a fan club, and always gets chosen in science class and gym class. Jamal feels invisible…not even his parents seem to notice him. He doesn’t even enjoy his jambalaya and ice cream. One day, Malik gets a trumpet from his grandmother and Jamal gets a skull necklace with beads and feathers. She leaves him a message that the skull necklace would protect him from the shadows. Jamal misses the bus and hides from Corton and his gang of bullies behind a dumpster. He soon runs into Dr. Facilier who offers him a chance to be popular. The red eyes from the skull glow in warning, but Jamal feels compelled to walk into the emporium. Dr. Facilier presents Jamal with a tarot card showing him proudly holding a trophy. Jamal fails to notice the image of his brother cowering in the shadows. Jamal runs to leave, the voodoo dolls watching him.

Dr. Facilier torments Jamal with tarot cards, nightmares and shadows coming after him, even Jamal’s own shadow. Jamal’s grandmother appears in a dark dream, chiding him of his choice. A tarot card reading “Death” appears by his feet. The shadow man arrives to his house one night and demands the necklace in order for him to get his wish. Jamal considers offering something else valuable. With sinking guilt, Jamal steals his brother’s trumpet and gives it to Dr. Facilier. The villain laughs and vanishes.

The next morning, Jamal finds that his parents don’t remember Malik. He looks and sees pictures of himself being successful at school, instead of his brother. He is class president and has fans asking him to sign yearbooks. He soon finds out that Malik was turned into a shadow, unnoticed by anyone except him and his skater friend Riley. Malik is furious at his brother for stealing his trumpet and being so foolish. Riley says that her grandmother has the same necklace that Jamal has. She leads the group into the bayou swamp where her grandmother lives. But Dr. Facilier sends his dolls and shadows after them. They nearly get eaten by possessed alligators when Riley’s grandmother throws dust to break the spell and save them. In the house, Riley’s grandmother reveals the same necklace that Jamal has. She reveals that Dr. Facilier used to be part of a magical order with her that used magic for good. But then he became fascinated by dark magic and soon tried to stop them. His dark magic killed Jamal’s grandmother, who had hidden under dark veils and wanted to protect her children.

The dolls burst into the room. Riley and her grandmother hold them off with magic as Jamal and Malik flee. A hurricane forms above them. They enter a clearing and soon are face to face with the shadow man. Dr. Facilier’s shadow arrives and strangles the shadowy Malik. Jamal begs him to let him go but Dr. Facilier demands him to hand over the necklace. Jamal realizes, too late, that Riley and Malik had been his true friends all along. Riley’s grandmother warns that Dr. Facilier will be unstoppable if he gets the necklace. Riley steps in to help with her staff but the dolls pin her down.

Jamal realizes that if he breaks the necklace, Dr. Facilier will lose his soul. Dr. Facilier then says that if he dies, then Malik will vanish forever, as he is the only one who can reverse the curse. Malik is about to get eaten by Dr. Facilier’s shadow. Feeling pity for his brother, Jamal gives him the necklace in defeat. Dr. Facilier grins and grows taller in power, eyes red. Jamal then demands that he release Malik…only for him to become a shadow as well. Dr. Facilier laughs, saying that he didn’t promise Jamal that he would save him. A hurricane devastates New Orleans and Dr. Facilier briefly becomes a mayor, doing martial law. He is able to make decisions and plans to take over New Orleans. Jamal and Malik remain unnoticed by their parents who live a life without their children. The brothers begin to fade as Dr. Facilier laughs and says, “Now you know what it’s like to lurk in the shadows…forever!”

Hazbin Hotel AU (Fan made)

While being tormented in the Voodoo Spirit World of Guinee, the spirits decide to further humiliate him by sending him to Hell. While there, he becomes a snake demon and a shadow slave to his younger cousin, who so happens to be the infamous Radio Demon.

Similarities:

Both lived in New Orleans in the 1920s

Both grew up with poor upbringings and both despised the elite

Both Dr. Facilier and Alastor enjoy jambalaya, jazz, music, singing, dancing and manipulating people.

Both are affiliated with dark magic, Voodoo, Baron Samedi and Met Kalfu.

Both wear red and black.

Both are willing to kill people to get their way

Both are good at deal-making and being charming.

Both men grew up with abusive/neglectful parents and experienced bullying and racism.

Both have French heritage.

Both have friends on the other side.

Both of them have staffs.

Both of them have wise old grandmothers who are affiliated/related to Marie Laveau: Mama Odie for Facilier and Odette Duvalier for Alastor.

If the two had met, they would either be good friends or good rivals. (Hazbin AU) Perhaps they both would’ve made deals to benefit themselves. Dr. Facilier would likely trick his younger cousin into giving him money and doing his will…until losing the bet of life in 1926. Alastor would’ve happily broadcast his cousin’s death on the radio afterwards at age 30.

Differences:

Facilier remarks to Alastor, “Where’s your last name?” but Alastor smugly replies, “Where’s your first name?”

Dr. Facilier was born June 4 1880 while Alastor was born January 24 1896. Alastor is around 15 years younger than Dr. Facilier.

Dr. Facilier was the first to use dark Voodoo magic but Alastor surpassed him in the afterlife. Dr. Facilier was born first and died first before Alastor.

Dr. Facilier could have access to magic only from the Loa, while Alastor couldn’t use magic until after his death. (Though he still prayed/revered the Loa).

The Loa serve as Dr. Facilier’s lackeys and demand that he give them souls. The dark Loa also instruct Alastor to sacrifice humans for them.

Dr. Facilier was born to his black parents. Meanwhile, Alastor had a French Creole mother and a white Christian father. Alastor has medium brown skin, making him multi-racial.

Dr. Facilier is associated with snakes, being a “snake in the grass.” However, Alastor became a deer demon due to being shot in the head and taking on deer-like traits. While Facilier liked hunting gators, Alastor hunted deer in the woods.

Dr. Facilier lived in the bayou while Alastor mainly explored the woods.

Dr. Facilier’s father didn’t molest his son, nor was he killed by him, unlike Alastor.

Unlike Facilier’s mother who became neglectful and greedy over time, Alastor’s mother remained loving and faithful to him.

Dr. Facilier’s mother died of the Loa curse while Alastor’s mother died of the Spanish Flu.

Dr. Facilier wasn’t drafted for the war, while Alastor was.

Dr. Facilier became a bokor while Alastor became a radio host and serial killer.

Dr. Facilier died in 1926 after being dragged into the spirit world. Alastor died in 1933 after being mauled by dogs and being shot in the head after running from police. Dr. Facilier died at age 46 while Alastor died in his thirties.

Dr. Facilier’s romantic relationships remain unknown. Alastor was mocked for his racial heritage and for not being interested in girls and masculine things. He was asexual, liking Mimzy as an affectionate friend and nothing more.

Alastor appears to be the more redeemable and popular character in comparison. It’s no wonder Dr. Facilier is currently stuck in Alastor’s shadow!

#drfacilier #disney #princess and the frog #hazbinhotel #alastor #voodoo #hoodoo

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atiny-piratequeen · 4 years

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Hello everyone. I’m here to get a bit serious, but I don’t apologize for my tone in this.

Truth be told, I’m vibrating in pure rage at this, but I’ll do my best to formulate what I have to say in a mature manner. I will also lead off by saying, in the event that any of you happen to follow the link to report the work or tell the op to take it down, please remain respectful and keep your tones mature. I’m not keen on the idea of mobbing someone and bullying them (even though I feel very hurt and wronged), and I am only posting this link here for us to one) politely and maturely tell the plagiarizer to take down my work and two) hopefully locate the authors of the other stolen works.

Today, thanks to a followertiny-I won’t name bc idk if you feel comfortable with that-informed me of my work (Specifically, 1:28am, the Jongho Jacob’s Ladder piece I posted a month or so ago) being reposted onto Wattpad.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I do NOT allow reposting of my works ANYWHERE.

All of my necessary accounts I post to have links available to them that are easily accessible either in my bio or my masterlist. If I had any update in this, you all would know.

I do not consent to ANYONE taking my work off of their designated sites. Hell, my timestamps aren't even on my ao3 account. (I consider them little lovely gifts for my tumblrtiny followers so I haven’t really posted any of them there for that reason, though I may in the future). I do not use FF, Wattpad, and most of my works are too long for me to post to my Twt. I wouldn’t put them on YT or anywhere else.

I’ve been writing fics for over a decade, the first thing I posted was a rinky dink pokemon fic as a literal elementary school kid in like ‘07, ‘08 on fucking Quizilla. That site doesn’t even exist anymore. Even then, I have never stolen or plagiarized anyone's work. I do nothing here but try and boost up my fellow writers, but this? Stealing? This isn’t it.

What’s worse, is it not just my Jongho fic affected. This person has not only stolen my work, but the works of other writers to tack on together for their ‘daddy’ story or whatever, some of the writers not even being Atiny, as Admin Cy of KSC has pointed out to me, they’ve even stolen works from Army writer, since one of their stolen Yeosang pieces refers to him as ‘Jungkook’, but a few sentences down, he’s back to being Yeosang. There are also at least two works as part of this person’s stolen collection that are stolen from @ateezlust ,as well as them stealing from OTHER writers on OTHER sites as well

If you have all the energy to take and edit and steal people’s work, I highly suggest looking into making some of your own.

There is nothing wrong with being inspired. I’m inspired by the writers and media around me when I write. But taking someone’s work, covering it up to pretend like it’s yours, changing the original author’s words here and there to try and tailor it for you...that disgusts me.

I don’t care how ‘bad’ you think your writing is. How much you talk yourself down and say you’ll never be as good as the ‘popular’ authors, you keep trying. You work hard. You adapt over time. What we aren’t gonna do, is take someone else’s hard work and claim it as your own because you can’t be assed to better yourself. That’s what we won’t do.

It is well known here that I personally sometimes stay up to ungodly hours of the morning to make my content for you all. So this really...disgusts me on so many more levels. My content, and the content of other creators is not here for you to steal and put on your fridge and say it’s your own. Most of us put these things here for free. The least you can do is respect us as creators and our work.

I’ve issued a full DMCA takedown of the stolen work and Admin Cy is working hard behind the scenes to find the other authors of the other stolen works bc of course, like with most shameless reposters, they usually steal more than one. I take this very seriously and just so everyone is clear;

Plagiarism is illegal. It is punishable by law.

Just because my work is not fully original and it does use idols or whoever I decide to write a fic about, does not omit it from the fact that legal action can and will be taken. As the writer, I own the copyrights to my own work and if I find my shit on your blog, you bet your ass I’m gonna have it shut down.

Share works, support them, be inspired by them, but do NOT go and fucking slap us creators in the face like this by stealing our shit, especially when you try to pass this off as your own.

If you are reading this, and have someone else's work reposted somewhere else, I implore you to take it down, apologize to the person you stole it from (whether they caught wind or not, you owe them that much for stealing in the first place) and reevaluate yourself. Better yourself as a person and then try the writing thing again. Your own work this time.

And those of you who may scoff at this, think you can't be caught, think somehow in your mind that you stealing peoples work for your own selfish benefit is okay...unfollow me. Leave and dont come back. All of my works, dont touch them. I dont need likes or reblogs or comments from someone who would so carelessly put aside a content creator's feelings and ignore the fact that we all say this to people, writers and artists alike to NOT repost our hard work.

Idk where you're from in the world, its 2020, the concept of "reposting is stealing" /"dont repost my work" is not foreign or some niche thing. We have artists and authors who post it in their bios and everything telling you not to repost bc they're tired of it. You have NO excuse for this behavior and if you condone this behavior and see nothing wrong with these actions, I ask you leave my blog(s) and dont come back. I do not tolerate this at all, not for myself or others.

Thank you.

-Fie, Atiny-PirateQueen/Flora-Jimin

#fie vents #plagiarism #*deep exhale* well that ruined my morning #long post #fanfiction #i do appreciate if you all can reblog this maybe

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a34trgv2 · 3 years

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Can We Stop Calling Art Trash Already? -.-

There seems to be this knee-jerk reaction from people to call something they did not like "trash." Every time I hear someone use that word to describe, well, ANY form of entertainment media, I instantly eye roll and think "This person clearly has no respect for people in the entertainment industry." You'd think after Lily Orchird's infamous Steven Universe video was torn to shreds, people online would be much wiser with what they say and how they say it. Evidently that's not the case and now I'm going to explain why using words like "trash" or "garbage" in criticism is NOT constructive.

When someone says "This film was absolute garbage!" here's what they're actually saying: this project that over a hundred or so people who spent months or years making sure it all came together in an entertaining package is 100% wasted material that is best thrown in a garbage can and sent off to the nearest landfill. Doesn't sound good, does it? You see, calling a movie you didn't care for trash is the equivalent to slapping the filmmakers in the face. Your probably thinking "I can say what ever I want." Just because you can, that doesn't mean you should.

If you think people don't get their feeling hurt online, you're need to rethink that shallow mindset pronto. Calling someone's work trash doesn't tell them you didn't care for the product; that tells them they spent months or years they're never getting back on something that they're told is just better off thrown in the garbage. At best, they'd be annoyed and block you, but worst case scenario they take that personally and don't make anything ever again.

You know what comes to mind whenever I see the comment "This is trash?" That scene from Matilda in which Matilda's father, Harry, calls Moby Dick trash and then proceeds to tear it apart (and it was a library book, no less). I know not everyone is like Harry Wormwood, but he's the embodiment of the common person behind that distasteful comment.

Here are some better terms to describe bad art:

Unengaging

Dull

Confusing

Poorly written

Boring

Lousy

Lame

Underwhelming

Mediocre

Disappointing

Forgettable

Frustrating

Messy

Sloppy

Disjointed

All of these terms are far more acceptable and valid responses to art that don't throw the creator under the bus. I don't know (nor do I wanna know) who thought it was acceptable to call an artist's are trash, but when I said that about my sister's art project when we were kids, her feeling got hurt and I rightfully got in trouble. Be better than that and stop using trash/garbage when describing art you don't like -.-

#reblog #share #like #follow #criticism #film #steven universe #trash #garbage #-.-#rant #Matilda

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endysgirl · 4 years

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Sailor Mars Birthday Tribute

I am so late on posting this but I just did not have time to edit. For Mars I wanted to talk about her 90s anime version and her much better manga version.

Let me start by laying my bias wide open. I never liked Sailor Mars. As a kid I thought she was unnecessarily mean. She was and still is my least favorite, besides ChibiMoon. She’s beautiful, and her powers and attacks are awesome. As for how she fits into the overall scheme of things, I have major issues with how the anime portrayed her compared to how Naoko intentioned her. Frankly, I can’t help but view 90s anime Rei as an imposter and I’ll explain why...

Ok, first let’s talk about 90’s anime-Rei. We know she’s very hard working, goes to an elite girls’s Catholic school and wants to be an independent career woman when she grows up. Yet, for some reason (*cough*patriarchy) she sees Mamoru in season one and thinks he’s perfect so she’s gotta have him. She embarrasses herself going all boy crazy over him (he literally steps on her head and just walks away) and he seems like a typical clueless dude who doesn’t realize she *likes* him. I relate hardcore to Mamoru here. She’s so thirsty and he is so not. Then fast forward to after Endymion gets taken and Rei slaps Usagi calling her a coward. It’s meant to be some great emotional scene that some fans latch on to. Yet, it’s not Rei’s slap that motivates Usagi. It just hurts her. Go watch it again (epi35); it’s the voice of Mask from her memory, gently and patiently encouraging her, as always, that she is strong and can fight that spurs Moon into action. We’ve seen over and over that Usagi responds to patient encouragement over violence, just like when she does when she faces the baddest villains. Yet, the 90s anime always has Rei cutting her down. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just the patriarchy at work, trying to convince young girls that the boy or girl who’s mean to you really does care about you. It’s toxic and just plain stupid.

Now, am I saying 90s anime Rei doesn’t really care about Usagi? No. Not at all. She’s her Senshi and they share the same heart and the same dream to protect those they love together. Of course she loves Usagi. My issue is how the 90s anime portrays that dynamic. It’s spreading toxicity within female friendships and trying to sell it as genuine. I also understand that Mars’s fiery personality is what a lot of her fans love about her. I’m not saying that’s bad either, even if it’s an inaccurate representation of the character Naoko created. Apparently, it was Ikuhara that wanted the anime to change her cold and aloof personality to “fiery”. To perpetuate the patriarchal tropes I’ve mentioned, the anime tried to paint her as Usagi’s bff of the group, usurping Minako’s place. In the manga, Minako is the Leader of the Senshi and the one closest to Usagi in personality and in her role as the Leader of Serenity’s guards. Yet the anime is constantly trying to make Mars the one that is extra special to Usagi. Case in point, at the end of Stars the first voice we hear address Eternal Moon after she defeats Galaxia is Rei but in the manga, Usagi is drawn hugging Minako first. These little moments bother me, probably a little too much.

Then there’s the love triangle they tried to created with her and Mamoru. Fucking kill me. The love triangle garbage is just typical, patriarchal tropism within the storyline that has no place in the SM story in regards to Mars. Let’s make two friends like the same dude bc that’s drama that people have been conditioned to enjoy. It’s lame as far as I’m concerned. Let’s take a moment to remember the random, stupid and pointless scene in the curry episode where ChibiUsa and Mamoru run into Rei and after a moment of awkwardness they decide to go find Usagi together. Tell me that’s not the patriarchy trying to validate one woman’s place by using another woman as comparison instead of letting her stand on her own. 😒 And they’re trying to backtrack on the whole Rei liking Mamoru episode. This isn’t Rei’s fault obviously, I’m just using this scene to explicate why I don’t like the dynamic the anime created, and why that makes Mars a difficult one for me to get excited about.

There’s no way you can convince me that Mars’s bitchiness wasn’t a direct result of a “male perspective” (as Naoko called it). The idea that female bffs bully each other and cat fight all the time is ludicrous. As a 32yo woman (and lifelong Moonie) with a tight circle of girlfriends, there isn’t a single one of us who would tolerate such toxicity from the other, even at 14yo. It just isn’t realistic, unless it’s a bad relationship. I’ll give the anime credit for getting one thing right - her bravery. In both the manga and the anime, Mars is fearless. She charges into battle and gives it her all. She doesn’t let any doubt get in her way. She does not hesitate or dwell on self-doubt. And that alone is reason enough to love her.

Now, let’s discuss Manga-Rei. Because Adult-Moonie-Me LOVES manga-Mars. She actually appears in Codename Sailor V outside the arcade. She says the atmosphere is “disquieting” and leaves. In the manga, she’s very quiet and reserved. There is no bickering or cat fighting between her and Usagi. She’s also probably the most objectively beautiful of the Inners. She’s suppose to be “slender”, with long black hair and brown eyes which are sometimes seen as purple. When Usagi first sees her on the bus, she thinks she’s soooo beautiful. And another time, when they’re at the beach/pool, guys keep buying Rei drinks but she’s not flirting or giving them any attention, bc she is not boy crazy. Sis is enjoying those drinks tho.

Her awakening in the manga is very similar to the anime with the exception that’s she sees a premonition of Usagi and Jadeite that makes her go find the bus. Like the other Senshi, she is drawn to Usagi.

In her manga profile, her dislikes are television, modern society (the anime has her immersed in pop culture, going so far as to make her write her own songs and dance at the school festival), canned asparagus and men. It’s implied that she doesn’t like men or care for them bc of her father. He never had time for her and she doesn’t have a good relationship with him. Plus in a short story, she has a guy she likes but he chooses to follow her father’s footsteps into politics. So she kisses him and is like, boy, bye. ✌🏽 She considers men emotionally weak, untrustworthy and is generally disinterested in them, even if they’re buying her drinks and fawning over her. Same, Sis.

She is described as beautiful and “reserved”, but “scary” when she’s angry. She so beautiful that when Mamoru’s underclassman, Asanuma, sees her, he thinks she would be the perfect girlfriend for Mamoru (who Asanuma thinks is perfect) and that she should be Mamoru’s ideal type. He’s really surprised that Usagi is so *ordinary*.

Rei has strong precognition and has an affinity to fire. Ironically, there is nothing in Shintoism about fire reading, so that must just be a shoutout to the Greek influence on the manga. I love her psychic abilities in both the anime and the manga. Random fun fact: Naoko worked at a Shinto temple for a while before or maybe during college.

Mars is one of the only Senshi, like Michiru, who can use an item as an attack in her civilian and Senshi form. Her “ofuda” (Shinto talismans) are powerful enough to disperse evil and make regular people faint (remember anime epi w/Unazuki’s mouth getting sealed and in the manga/crystal she accidentally “purifies” Usagi, causing her to faint). Mikos (shrine maidens) are known to use archery attacks, so civilian Rei was already proficient in archery before awakening as Mars. Also, just like Jupiter’s earrings stay on her when she transforms, Mars is always wearing a pendant and when she transforms, it attaches at the waist to her fuku.

Mars also, uniquely, has her own guardians: the Crows, Phobos and Deimos. In the anime, the crows never take human form as they do in the manga. In the Dead Moon arc, Jupiter and Mercury power up by speaking with their inner consciousness. But Mars powers up by speaking with the human forms of her crows. This is a great moment in the manga bc Phobos and Deimos basically tell Rei that’s it’s ok to not want or desire men and marriage. She is the asexual goddess everyone overlooks and I love this aspect to her personality. The Crows are the ones to give her the Mars Crystal which is her starseed. We also find out here that Mars pledged a vow of Chastity to Serenity in the SilMill. They don’t explain the reasons behind the vow, but considering Rei’s spirituality and serious conservatism, it’s understandable. Also, while Phobos and Deimos are named after the moons on Mars, in the Stars Arc it’s revealed that they’re from the Coronis and were acquainted with Sailor Lead Crow.

For the most part, Rei in the manga seems more boring than Rei in the 90s anime, but personally, I don’t think so. Reading the manga in middle school and seeing a female not *give*a*fuck* about marriage was awesome to me. She’s also kinder and she has far more respect for Usagi. She’s extremely popular at her school and has her own fan club. She carries herself with a certain dignity that reminds me of Michiru. She’s second in command after Venus. And let me end this by saying that Crystal gave Rei justice, and for that I am happy.

Happy Birthday, Mars! 🔥 🌙 ⭐️

P. S. Check out Allison Yarrow’s book “90’s Bitch: Media, Culture and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality” for more detailed analysis on how women in the 90s who wanted to have a home and a career got turned into the bitchy boss, bitchy girlfriend or bitchy best friend to subvert their quest for gender equality. I think Rei is the perfect example of this narrative. Especially when you consider men changed her nature in the anime from what her female creator intended for her. Also, check out the podcast on it https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unladylike/id1333193523?i=1000432317654 (podcast name: Unladylike episode 45. how to free the 90s Bitch)

Thanks for reading all this you wonderful Moonies!!!

#sailor mars #sailormars #rei hino #hino rei #90s bitch #bitchification #sailor moon #sailor senshi #sailor moon fan writing #hottest senshi #mahou shoujo #magical girl #pretty soldier sailor moon #rei #raye #anime #90s anime #manga

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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My Five Most Influential

Someone asked: Who are the most influential writers in your life?

Good question.

The broad answer is that one gets influenced many different ways by many different sources. I enjoy poetry and song lyrics because they find ways of conveying the strongest emotional content in the most concise manner, music brings a sense of dramatic rhythm and fulfillment, the visual arts suggest ways of subtly adding many insights to a single strong idea, etc., etc., and of course, etc. (and that is also an example of a creative influence in my work).

But…to boil it down to those whom I most consciously made an effort to emulate, we find ourselves facing five creators that primed the pump.

This is not to say others whom I began following after them didn’t wield a lot of influence (thanx, Ernie, Bert, Jack, Bob, and Hank!) but these are the foundation of everything I’ve done in my career.

(And to those who notice a lack of diversity, I know, I know…but to be honest I have to acknowledge the truth, and the truth is for whatever reason, by chance or by choice, by fate or by fortune, these five dominated my sensibilities. I trust that I’ve grown and expanded my horizons since then, but they’re the hand I got dealt.)

. . .

Carl Barks

I loved ducks as a kid and my grandmother and aunt would always bring me a passel of duck-related comics when they came to visit.

There were some Daffy Duck comics mixed in there but while I know I looked at and enjoyed them, none of them stick in my mind like the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories of Carl Barks.

Typically my grandmother would read these comics to me and I’d imprint the dialog and captions in my brain, replaying them as I looked at the pictures over and over again.

Barks never wrote down to his audience, and his stories covered a vast array of genres, everything from straight domestic comedy to oddball adventures to screwy crime stories.

Donald and his nephews encountered dinosaurs more than once (another big favorite of mine), and Uncle Scrooge setting out to explore the asteroid belt in order to find a new home for his fabulous money bin was another tale I loved literally to pieces, but A Christmas For Shacktown remains my all time favorite graphic novel.

I’ll concede there are better graphic novels, but none of them warm my heart the way that Christmas story does.

Barks showed it’s possible to combine heart (not to be confused with sentimentality or =yuch!= schmaltz), vivid characters, and strong, intricate narrative. His plots where typically filled with unexpected twists and turns but his characters were always deeply involved in them, not just along for the ride.

He’s one of the greatest storytellers in the 20th century, and his work remains timeless enough to last for several centuries to come.

. . .

Ray Bradbury

The first Ray Bradbury story I remember encountering was “Switch On The Night” in its 1955 edition, read to my kindergarten class towards the end of the school year.

This would place the event sometime in the spring of 1959.

“Switch On The Night” captivated me because it was the first story I’d ever heard that showed what could be seen in the dark that couldn’t be seen in the day.

Even as a child, it made me realize the night wasn’t scary, but contained wonders and insights we miss in the harsh glare of day.

I don’t recall if the kindergarten teacher told us the name of the author, and if she did it didn’t stick, but boy howdy, the story sure did! Did it open the doors of the night for me, or was I already inclined to be a night person and it simply confirmed that as a valid identity?

I dunno, but I’m typing this right now at 12:24am.

And the thoughts Bradbury planted in little Buzzy boy’s brain stayed and grew and flowered, as you can read in my poem, “The Magic Hours Of The Night”.

The next time I encountered Ray Bradbury’s writing was in grammar school, certainly no later than junior high. I was already interested in science fiction by that point, and had read “The Pedestrian” in one of my school English books (we weren’t taught the story in class; the teacher skipped over it for whatever reason but I read it anyway then re-read it and read it again and again).

Anthony Boucher’s ubiquitous 2-volume A Treasury Of Great Science Fiction was in my grammar school library and in it was Bradbury’s “Pillar Of Fire” (which I would later learn was one of his alternate Martian Chronicles and a crossover with Fahrenheit 451) and in that story he offered up a veritable laundry list of outré and outlandish fiction to be tracked down and read, authors to dig up and devour.

Oh, man, I was hooked.

So of course I began looking for all the stories and writers Bradbury listed in his short story but I also began looking for Bradbury’s own work and before you could say, “Mom, can I get a subscription to the Science Fiction Book Club?” I’d read The Golden Apples Of The Sun and A Medicine For Melancholy and R is For Rocket never once dreaming that at some point in the future the roadmap Ray plopped down in my lap would eventually lead to us being co-workers (separate projects, but the same studio at the same time) and friends.

There is a beautiful yet deceptive simplicity to Ray’s work, and even though he wrote his own book on writing (The Zen Of Writing) that has lots of good insights and professional tricks & tips, he himself wasn’t able to explain how he did it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good Ray Bradbury parody.

I’ve seen parodies that clearly are intended to evoke Ray Bradbury, but only in the same way a clumsy older relative might evoke Michael Jackson with a spasmodic movement one vaguely recognizes as a failed attempt at a moonwalk.

But, lordie, don’t think we didn’t try to emulate him, and while none of us fanboys ever came close, I think a lot of us did learn that less is more, that the right word carries more impact than a dozen paragraphs, and that there’s magic in even the most ordinary of things.

And of course I discovered the film and TV adaptations of his work, and in discovering them I also discovered that there are some things that just can’t be translated from one media to another, and that the light, effortless appeal of Ray’s work on the page (paper or pixel) can at best be recaptured with a good audio book reader but even the best dramatic adaptions -- even those by Ray himself -- are cold dead iron butterflies compared to the light and lively creatures flying about.

So eventually I stopped trying to write like him, and instead picked up the valuable lessons of mood and emotion making an impact on a story even if the plot didn’t make much logical sense.

Decades later I would become a fan of opera, and would learn the philosophy of all opera lovers: Opera doesn’t have to make logical sense, it just has to make emotional sense.

Ray Bradbury, opera meister.

. . .

H.P. Lovecraft

As noted above, Bradbury’s “Pillar Of Fire” tipped me to numerous other writers, first and foremost of which turned out to be Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

Okay, before we get any further into this, let’s acknowledge the woolly mammoth in the room: H.P. Lovecraft was a colossal asshat racist.

He was a lot of other terrible things, too, but racist is far and ahead of the rest of the pack.

It’s a disillusioning thing to find people one admired as a youngster or a teen later prove to have not just quirks and eccentricities and personal flaws, but genuinely destructive, harmful, and offensive characters.

I’ve posted on that before, too.

How I wish it were possible to retroactively scale back that hurtfulness, to make them more empathetic, less egregiously offensive (in the military sense of the word), but that ain’t so.

We have to acknowledge evil when we see it, and we have to call it out, and we have to shun it.

Which is hard when one of its practitioners provides a major influence in our creative lives.

Here’s what I liked about Lovecraft as a kid: He was the complete opposite of Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury’s instinctive genius was in finding the right word, the simple word that conveyed great impact on the story, drawing the reader into the most fantastic situations by making them seem more familiar on a visceral level.

Lovecraft achieved the exact opposite effect by finding the most arcane, bedizened, baroque, florid, grandiloquent, overwrought, rococo verbiage possible and slapping the reader repeatedly in the face with it.

If Bradbury made the unreal real, Lovecraft made the weird even more weirder.

And let’s give this devil his due: The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror are two masterpieces of horror and serve as the bridge between Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King, not to mention his creation of Cthulhu and other ancient entities existing beyond the ken of human knowledge…

…oh, wait, that’s where the story simultaneously gets messy yet provides a convenient escape hatch for fans.

While Lovecraft created Cthulhu, he did not create the Cthulhu Mythos.

That was primarily the invention August Derleth, a writer / editor / agent and H.P. Lovecraft’s #1 fanboy.

Lovecraft had some loosely related ideas in his stories and several themes he revisited repeatedly (in addition to racism).

He also had a circle of fellow writers -- including such heavy hitters as Robert “Psycho” Bloch and Robert E. “Conan” Howard -- who picked up on his ideas and, as way of a tribute, incorporated them in some of their stories.

Derleth took all this and Lovecraft’s unfinished manuscripts and short ideas he jotted down and turned it into a whole post-mortem industry, linking all of Lovecraft and other writers’ tales.

And he did a damn fine job of it, too.

So much so that the Cthulhu Mythos has taken on a life of its own, and pretty much anybody can play in that cosmic sandbox now (including Big Steve King and a ton of Japanese anime) and so Lovecraft’s works have an enormous influence on pop culture…

,,,but Howard hizzowndamsef can be -- and is -- cancelled.

Derleth and various biographers downplayed Lovecraft’s virulent racism for decades, and I don’t think Ray Bradbury was ever aware of the scope and tenor of Lovecraft’s bigotry when he name checked him in “Pillar Of Fire” and other stories.

In a similar vein Bradbury didn’t know -- because thanks again to overly protective literary executors, nobody knew -- just how big a racist asshat Walt Whitman was, either. It is one thing to call shenanigans on a Bill Cosby or a Harvey Weinstein or a Donald Trump because their egregious behaviors were noted long before they were held accountable, but quite another to do so on a creator who died while hiding their most awful behavior from thousands if not millions of fans who felt inspired and uplifted by their work.

It’s one thing to call out a contemporary bigot and not support them by not buying their work, it’s quite another when their bigotry has been shielded from view and fair minded, decent people have used their work to draw inspiration into their own creativity.

Of course, I had no way of knowing all this when I was in junior high and seriously began tracking down Lovecraft’s work.

He possessed a flair of the horrific and unearthly that to this day is hard to match (but easier to parody). He was a tremendous influence on my early writing (truth be told, I zigzagged between Bradbury’s stark simplicity and Lovecraft’s overarching verbosity, giving my early oeuvre a rather schizophrenic style) and the ideas he sparked still reverberate to this day.

If only he hadn’t been such a giant %#@&ing asshat racist …

. . .

Harlan Ellison

In a way, I’m glad neither Harlan nor his widow Susan are alive to read this.

I cherished Harlan as a friend and greatly admired his qualities as a writer.

But damn, by his own admission he should have been thrown in prison for aggravated assault on numerous occasions (he was courts martialed three times while in the Army).

We’re not talking about arguments that spiraled out of control until a few wild punches were thrown, we’re talking about Harlan by his own admission stalking and ambushing people, knocking them unconscious or causing grievous bodily harm.

We’re talking about sexual abuse and humiliation.

We’re talking about incidents he admitted to which if true put people in life threatening situations.

And yet ironically, in a certain sense Harlan (a bona fide Army Ranger, BTW) was like the U.S. Marine Corps: You’d never have a greater friend or a worse enemy.

I became dimly aware of Harlan in the late 1960s as I started diving deeper into literary sci-fi, transitioning from monster kid fandom to digests and paperbacks. Harlan first caught my attention with his macho prose (years later a similar style also drew me to Charles Bukowski) in stories like “Along the Scenic Route” (a.k.a. “Dogfight on 101”) in which Los Angelinos engaged in Mad Max motor mayhem but soon it became apparent the macho posturing was just a patina, that the heart and soul of much of the work reflected great sensitivity and often profound melancholy (ditto Bukowski).

Harlan was a fighter, and again by his own admission, he acknowledged in his later years that he was not a fighter because his cause was just, but rather sought out just causes because he knew he would be fighting regardless of his position, yet possessed a strong enough moral compass to point himself in the direction of a worthy enemy…

…most of the time.

He hurt and offended a large number of innocent and some not-so-innocent-but-certainly-not-evil people.

He also helped and encouraged a large number of others, people who had no idea who he was, people who had no way of adequately reciprocating his kindness and generosity.

He defended a lot of defenseless people.

He also mistakenly defended a lot of terrible people.

If someone tells me Harlan was a monster, I’ll agree: Monstre sacré.

What made his writing sacred was that no matter how outlandish the situation, Harlan dredged up from the depths emotions so strong as to be frightening in their depiction.

Skilled enough not to lose sight of humanity, outlandish enough to conjure up ideas and emotions most people would shy away from, Harlan hit adolescent Buzzy boy like an incendiary grenade.

Unlike my first three literary influences, Harlan was and remained active in the fannish circles where I was circulating at the time. He regularly wrote letters and columns for various fanzines, including a few I subscribed to.

In a literary sense he stood, naked and unashamed, in full view of the world, and that willingness to go beyond mundane sensibilities is what made his work so compelling.

He certainly fired me up as an adolescent writer, and proved an amalgam of Bradbury and Lovecraft that got my creative juices flowing in a coherent direction.

I don’t think I ever consciously tried to imitate him in my writing, but I sure learned from him, both in how to charge a story with emotion and how to fight for what’s right regardless of the blow back.

I loved him as a friend.

But, damn, Harlan…you could act so ugly...

. . .

H. Allen Smith

Who?

Most of you have never heard of H. Allen Smith, and that’s a damn shame.

I’d never heard of him either until I stumbled across a coverless remaindered copy of Poor H. Allen Smith’s Almanac in a Dollar General Store bin in Tennessee in the late 1960s (it was a memorable shopping expedition: I also purchased Thomas Heggen’s Mister Roberts and Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady [pen name of June Margaret O'Grady Skinner]).

Reading Smith’s editorial comments (in addition to his own essays and fiction he edited numerous humor anthologies) I realized I’d found a kindred soul.

Smith had a very conversational tone as a writer; his prose seemed off the cuff and unstructured, but he slyly used that style to hide the very peculiar (and often perverse) path he led readers down.

He sounded / read like a garrulous guy at the bar, one with a huge number of charming, witty (and delightfully inebriated) friends in addition to his own bottomless well of tall tales, pointed observations, and rude jokes.

Of all the writers mentioned above, that style is the one I most consciously tried to emulate, and one I seem to have been able to find my own voice in (several people have told me I write the same way I talk, a rarity among writers).

Smith was hilarious whether wearing an editor’s visor or a freelancer’s fool’s cap. If you know who H. L. Mencken was, think of Smith as a benign, better tempered version of that infamous curmudgeon (and if you don’t know, hie thee hence to Google and find out).

Compared to my other four influences, Smith didn’t need to add the fantastic to his fiction: The real world was weird and wacky and whimsical enough.

A newspaper man turned best selling author, Smith became among the most popular humorists of the 1940s-50s-60s…

…and then he died and everybody forgot him.

Part of the reason they forgot is that he wrote about things that no longer seem relevant (TV cowboys of the early television era, f’r instance, in Mr. Zip) or are today looked upon askance (and with justifiable reason; the ethnic humor in many of his anthologies may not have been intended as mean spirited, but it sure doesn’t read as a celebration of other cultures, viz his succinct account of an argument following a traffic accident between two native Honolulu cabbies rendered in pidgin: “Wassamatta you?” “’Wassmatta me’?!?!? Wassamatta you ‘Wassamatta me’? You wassamatta!”).

I’m sure I picked up a great many faults from Smith, but Smith also had the virtue of being willing and able to learn and to make an effort to be a better person today than he was yesterday, and better still tomorrow.

I’ve certainly tried applying that to my life.

Smith’s style was also invoked -- consciously or not -- by other writers and editors, notably Richard E. Geis, the editor of the legendary sci-fi semi-prozone, Science Fiction Review (among other titles). Smith died before I could meet him, but while I never met Dick Geis face to face we were pen pals for over 40 years.

Geis certainly sharpened specific aspects of my writing style, but the real underlying structure came from H. Allen Smith.

Smith’s work is hard to find today (in no small part because whenever I encounter one in the wild I snap it up) but I urge you to give him a try.

Just brace yourself for things we might consider incorrect today.

. . .

So there’s my top five.

With the exception of Carl Barks and Ray Bradbury, none of them are without serious flaw or blemish (though Smith seems like a decent enough sort despite his fondness for X-rated and ethnic humor).

In my defense as an impressionable child / teen, I was not aware of these flaws and blemishes when I first encountered their writing (primarily because in many cases efforts were made to hide or downplay those aspects).

The positive things I gleaned from them are not negated by the negative personal information that came out later.

I can, for the most part re the more problematic of them, appreciate their work while not endorsing their behavior.

Ellison can only be described in extremes, but his fire and passion -- when directed in a positive direction -- served as a torch to light new paths (his two original anthologies, Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, pretty much blew the doors off old school sci-fi and belatedly dragged the genre kicking and screaming into the 20th century).

Lovecraft I can effectively ignore while finding entertainment value in the Cthulhu Mythos.

But I must acknowledge this isn’t the same for everyone.

For example, as innocuous as I find H. Allen Smith, if a woman or a member of a minority group said, “I found this in particular to be offensive” I’d probably have to say, yeah, you’re right.

But I can still admire the way he did it, even if I can no longer fully support what he did.

. . .

By the time I reached high school, I’d acquired enough savvy to regard to literary finds a bit more dispassionately, appreciating what they did without trying to literally absorb it into my own writing.

I discovered for myself the Beat generation of writers and poets, the underground cartoonists of the late 60s and 70s, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. LeGuin, and a host of others, some already alluded to.

Some, such as the Beats and Bukowski, I could enjoy for their warts and all honest self-reflection.

Yes, they were terrible people, but they knew they were terrible people, and they also knew there had to be something better, and while they may never have found the nirvana they sought, they at least sent back accurate reports of where they were in their journeys of exploration.

By my late teens, I’d become aware enough of human foibles and weaknesses -- every human’s foibles and weaknesses, including my own -- to be very, very cautious in regarding an individual as admirable.

While I will never accept creativity as an excuse for bad behavior, if a creator is honest enough and self-introspective enough to recognize and acknowledge their own failings, it goes a long way towards my being willing to enjoy their work without feeling I’m endorsing them as individuals.

It’s not my place to pass judgment or exoneration on others bad behavior.

It is my place to see that I don’t emulate others’ bad behavior.

Every creator is connected to their art, even if it’s by-the-numbers for-hire hack work.

Every creator puts something of themselves into the final product.

And every member of the audience must decide for themselves if that renders the final product too toxic to be enjoyed.

#how this writer's mind works #writing #Carl Barks #Ray Bradbury #HP Lovecraft #Harlan Ellison #H Allen Smith #influences

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sammyhale · 5 years

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J2 VegasCon 2019 Main Panel

*Reminder: Full answers/more context in vids and gifs <3

J2 jump onstage as fans wave pink hearts from the crowd <3

Jensen: Whenever we come out and do one of those jumps, I always wonder if today’s the day one of us blows a hip.

Jensen’s microphone keeps making a high pitched sound lol.

They ask how many first-timers are there. Jensen: Okay, well, I’d like to remind you we’ve been on this show for fourteen years, doing these for thirteen and a half. Where were you???

Jared: We are five days into our final hiatus. Jensen: Five days into our hiatus beard!

Jensen won’t shave for a few months.

J2 whispering and Jensen cracking up :P

Jensen reveals that Jared is wearing a party patch (they help with hangovers). Jared puts his leg on Jensen’s lap and rolls up his pant leg to show the patch lol.

J2 gave the crew party patches at the s14 wrap party.

Fan asks if they believe in the supernatural in real-life. Jensen doesn’t not believe in ghosts. First to think there’s a logical explanation. But he’s certainly open to the availability that that 1% could be supernatural. Even though he’s never experienced it in real life.

Jensen explains the difference between unnatural and supernatural. Unnatural = Jared. Supernatural = us

Norton fixes Jared’s rolled up pants which turns a little dirty, naturally :P

Fan: Which supporting actors have gone on that have had great careers that you’re still close with? The guest star Jared connects with the most is the girl who played Ruby in season 4 ;) Jensen says they knew Sterling K. Brown was a star when he was on spn, that the Force was strong with him. It’s no surprise he’s had the success that he’s had. Also: Well we’re close to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, even though he hasn’t really done much since spn. He’s still cool.

J2 ran into Felicia Day yesterday and talked about her daughter aww

Jared watched “Wendigo” recently, named a couple of guest stars (assuming Alden Ehrenreich was one of them ;))

A fan apparently rushed the stage, emotional/screaming and upset about wanting an autograph. Some fans tweeted that she has autism. Fans tweeted that J2, Clif, and Creation handled the situation well. At one point J2 left the stage to help defuse the situation. When they came back out after Jared shouted out: “Our member of the family is having a hard time. We all have had hard times.” He wants us all to be kind. The boys are completely fine. (Some details)

Fan: So after the show, will you continue to shave? Boys: Up here not down there... lol

Jensen: We were talking about Jared’s Viking braids.

Jensen teased about Jared shaving his head like Borja did yesterday for charity. They said they’d have Misha do it lol.

Answering sincerely, they acknowledge their look will change a bit, to have their own identities. Jensen: “Dean is the best imaginary friend I’ve ever had in my life. He’ll be a part of me for the rest of my life. But I don’t have to look like him for the rest of my life.”

Also: “It all depends on what our wives want us to look like.” lol

Jared wants to go bowlegged. Asks Jensen how it is, to which he replies “airy.”

Jensen hopes their relationships with cast and crew will last a lifetime and that is what, quote, “fuels us up.”

J2 are signed to do cons past s15 and won’t end for a while :)

What is Jared most looking forward to after the show? Getting to know our kids, our wives, and ourselves. Also not shaving!

Jared: I’m excited to be a dad. Spend more time with the kiddos. Is also excited for the boring.

Jensen’s never known his wife and kids without the show. It’s been a constant. It’s going to be interesting to see where life goes. He’s excited for the opportunity to spend more time with his kids, wife, and friends. To not get on an airplane.

Jensen: I'm looking forward to but have been happy to have professional opportunities go by these past 14 years in order to tell this story.

Has anything impacted you (professionally) like SPN has impacted us? Jared says he isn’t sure. Even when “off” we can’t remove our “wigs” like Borja (lol) We’re still working! Always!

Jensen said he and Misha will need vocal therapy after the show to get their voices back to normal. Jensen: I tried to emulate JDM as Dean’s father by speaking with this gravelly voice. I didn’t know I’d been doing this for 15 seasons. I’m a lot older than he was when he played my dad. Jared: Yeah, no kidding!!

Fan: How do demons deposit sulfur? Jensen: *runs around the stage, making farting noises*

What’s on their bucket lists? And the weirdest thing on there? The fan has an accent that J2 both attempt. Jared says (about the accent): “It’s beautiful and I’m jealous of people who speak better than me, which is everyone.”

We have learned Jared doesn’t have a bucket list. Then he says he would love to go on a helicopter ride. He’s never done it before and it’s the small things. Jensen is unimpressed.

Jared: “What I meant to say was...have a...pet...koala...bear...” Jensen: JUST STOP.

Jensen says, “I want to watch my children grow up.”

Jared says he can watch his children grow up from the helicopter. Jensen quips, “That’s called helicopter parenting.”

Jared shakes the fan’s hand and asks where her accent is from, repeating that it’s beautiful. She says, “Yorkshire.” He goes, “no YOU’RE sure.” LOL

The dad jokes are strong today.

For the final season, this is the first year J2 have said to the writers and producers that they would like to be part of the creative process in the direction and the story of s15. J2 have been invited to the storyboarding with the creators in LA for the final season and definitely want to give their input. They don’t know if they’ll listen, and J2 are prepared for that, but nobody’s lived with Sam and Dean longer than they have. They would love to give input that the show and characters deserve. <3

Jensen: “No one knows these characters more than Jared and I.”

Jared: As a fan of the show, I'd like to offer my input.

Jensen says they watch the episodes in order to give themselves critical feedback. They don’t read comments on social media re: feedback.

It’s hard for them to watch themselves as just an audience. Including other TV shows like GOT and This Is Us.

J2 both loved “Death's Door” then realized we weren't in it much. Jensen: Are we weighing it down? Jared: We're critical of ourselves

Fan: Jensen, you were amazing last night [at the concert]. Jared: Oh, if you think he was amazing last night... :P

Fan asks if Jensen really played piano on Dark Angel and any memories from the show? It was a little of both Jensen and a pro (close-ups are not him playing). It was a VERY difficult song to learn how to play, Chopin he thinks. He has to think hard to dig up funny stories.

When Jessica Alba gets in the boxing ring (with him) she lined up the punch and hit him RIGHT in the nose. (One of the MANY reasons it’s “so jacked up”) He was too young to say “cut! That hurt!” Realizes he doesn’t do that now, either lol.

Another episode he gets slapped, but the actress wasn’t getting the timing for the fake slap right. She was petite so he assumed it wouldn’t be too bad... But he had a WELT on his face. Whole crew went “oof.”

“Scoobynatural” question for the final scene, how many takes? A small crowd had gathered outside across the street. They’re 20 yards away and can’t hear the regular dialogue. But Jensen knew they would get that last line, and he was embarrassed to say the line because those people wouldn’t know the context.

Jared: They’re so old they’re animating themselves to be on camera! lol

A fan said she lost her favorite beanie in the Bellagio fountain and was asking on recommendations to get a new one.

Jared gave his beanie to the fan aww. Then Jensen told Jared that he lost his favorite watch, and Jared immediately took off his watch and gave it to Jensen. Jensen cuddles Jared. Jared then tells Jensen he lost his favorite pair of underwear LOL

Last question: Fan wants to know where Jensen and Jared went during the “French Mistake” episode. Jensen says they were at a con. Jared says VegasCon! Or maybe it was Balthazar. But Jensen prefers to think they just didn’t show up for work because “they’re asshole actors.”

Hugs, standing ovation for the boys, J2 give each other and the fans some love before taking off :) (photo credit: x)

Info via: Fangasm, Sarah, #spnlv, #spnvegas

#j2 #jared padalecki #jensen ackles #spnlv #vegascon #panel sum #long post #shpost

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androgynousblackbox · 4 years

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“Rebecca Sugar is a nazi apologist because she wanted to redeem the diamonds”

Okay, honesty hour. I am fucking sick of that shitty as fuck argument, and you want to know why? The people who use it pretend to tell me that Sugar makes nazi apoligism every time she “cuddle up” the diamonds (meaning, not killing them and forcing them to repair part of their many fucks ups, so then we can bring war and even more genocide over the gems who want to keep the order of the diamonds and the ones who don’t, instead of letting them live their lives in peace) and makes them more than one dimensional baddies who are perpetually bad all the time. There is no malice in that, apparently, it’s just ignorance, but is still very bad, you see, because. My problem with that is the following:

THAT IS NOT WHAT APOLOGISM IS, YOU DISINGENOUS MOTHERFUCKERS. HAVE ANY OF YOU EVEN SO MUCH KNOWS THE MEANING OF THE WORDS YOU SAY.

An apologist, according to dictionary, is “a person who argues in favor of something unpopular. ... The word apologist comes from the Greek word apologia, meaning "speaking in defense." Not all apologists are bad news; some just defend an unpopular idea.” The Webster dictionary say “one who speaks or writes in defense of someone or something.” Pretend to say that Sugar is speaking in favour of the Diamonds’s way of doing things is a bold faced lie and a disgusting one at that, that when told by people who were told by others this is the case and never bothered to make any research to see if it was true makes them look lazy, but when comes from people who have seen at least one season from finish to end? It’s downright incredible how much you completely missed the fucking point. And this is a children’s cartoon, it’s not that subtle at all. The entire show relies on the premise that the Diamonds’s order was fucked up, not only for the gems that were lower class (like Ruby), not even just for the ones who were higher class (like Sapphire), not even just for the servants (all the Pearls), but even for the Diamonds themselves (Pink’s abuse). Almost every single conflict on the show (the corruption of gems, Pink’s abusive tendencies, Spinel, Steven’s poor mental health, Pearl’s trauma, the hiding of the Off Colors, Lar’s death, Bismuth’s poofing, the entire gem war, etc, etc) is there to tell just how fucked up the gem system really is and how is not working to make the gems happy. Since day one the show is beating you over the head with how all of this is bad and how our good guys rebel against that. Literally the only thing they didn’t do was have Steven turn to the camera and say on a Sonic fashion: remember, kids! Fascist regimes are bad for you! If you see someone promoting fascism, that is no bueno! You would have to put a big effort into not seeing that. A lot of effort. And when the entire series ended, what they did? They destroyed that entire system from the top to the bottom. They changed everything so now gems are free to do what they please without being scared of being shattered. They forced the Diamonds to bring back the gems they harmed. They brought peace to the entire universe so now no one has to fight to be themselves, where they can be themselves, even if that themselves is not the same person they were expected to be their entire lives. This show looked at what the Diamonds were doing and spat all over that, said “this is bullshit” and, not content with that, they did everything they could so no one would have to live that way anymore. What part of any of that is meant to be fascist apologism again? You want to know what an actual fascit apology would have looked like? It would have started with our protagonist being dissastified with the way things are done in Earth and finding it all kinds of wrong because it lacked order, discipline, a clear authority. There would be this lingering longing for such a thing until we finally meet personally the Diamonds and everything looks perfect on every single way: all the gems are just oh so happy to serve, the Diamonds are oh so wise, never making a single mistake ever and everyone is glad to have find them, to be under them and offer themselves up for whatever they want, because this is how were meant to be from the start. That would have been fascist apologism because this system would have been presented as perfect, the Diamonds would have been these perfects beings who are just so magnifique, so benevolent and totally worthy to rule over everyone ever. A narrative where we would have to accept that everything is better when the Diamonds are put above everyone, where the creator is really doing their damnest to defend fascism, like an actual apologist. That show? That show doesn’t fucking exist. That is not at all what happens in Steven Universe. I don’t why that was the specific way in which many people have just decided to slap on it and call it “criticism”, but I hope someone else sees this and realize just how full of shit that claim is. Words have meanings. You can’t just ignore that just because it sounds bad enough for you. Do not go accusing people of defending fascism when they like a show where they actually tear fascism appart. Do not go lying about a story you didn’t like or don’t even know just to make it seem like some moral achievement you alone reached. There are problems on the show and unfortunate implications, like in any piece of media, that we could maybe talk about, but nazi/fascist apologism isn’t one of them and you all look ridiculous pushing it so hard.

#nazi mention #steven universe #antis dni #su crits dni

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relatablepicturesofpatrickgill · 6 years

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I’m sorry if this is cynical, but I’d really like your input on it (as an experience polygon vid/pat stream viewer): Do you think Pat is pushing the after hours streaming stuff because Polygon is ending? Or, at least, to try and maintain the ‘funny video/personality’ fans? I’ve noticed a lot of other polygon vid personalities are doing similar things, and main polygon video content keeps slowing down and changing, presumably in compliance w/ vox media strategy? Have you noticed too?

First of all real bold of you sending this to a Pat fanblog where all I do is make dumbass shitposts and post cat clips, as if I know a single goddamn thing about anything, but since you asked I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. (I’m not mad about being asked btw I just really find it funny you’d send it here of all places lmao). Disclaimer time: I am not in any way affiliated with Polygon or Vox Media nor do I know how they operate behind the scenes.

Do I personally think Polygon is ending and that Pat streams because of that? Short answer, no. However, I believe Polygon’s necessary (yes, I said necessary) and inevitable (yes, INEVITABLE) change in content is due to a lot of deeper issues people might not know about, which I’ve gathered from research and being an idiot whomst has watched Youtube for 10+ years. Let me just say, the last year or so has pretty much been the “Everybody Knows Shits Fucked” song on repeat until we die so this is going to be a long ass post. Buckle up kiddos we’re warp speeding into this fuckfest together.

Youtube Advertiser Boycott And The Algorithms

Every social media website employs the use of algorithms to decide how content gets sorted, and Youtube isn’t any different. That’s why Youtubers constantly ask you to “like, comment and subscribe” because it helps their content get noticed through Youtube’s internal system – such as search priority, the trending section, your homepage and your recommended tab, as well as the recommended sidebar on individual videos. As for content, one of the more effective models was to find a niche and cater to it, something Polygon did by creating Monster Factory and similar humored series alongside their serious content.

And for a while, it worked. Except things change.

Before we get any further I highly suggest you read this article written by Julia Alexander about the complicated history of Youtube’s monetization system, but I’ll try to give a quick summary. Something controversial will happen on Youtube, causing brands to pull their business from the platform until they can get more security on what types of videos their ads play on, then Youtube refines the system to give brands more control. Rinse and repeat. The new system results in a massive amount of videos being demonetized, causing creators to lose revenue and viewer engagement and then request appeals to have their content reviewed by humans, which in turn improves the algorithm. Those most negatively affected by the system must diversify their payments either through Patreon, Twitch, merch, etc, or in worst case scenarios, give up on their dreams of being a Youtuber.

youtube

Youtube has a lot of incentive to keep creators updated on changes, so when users ask, “hey, can we know what’s going on with the website?” Youtube responds with an informative, “absolutely not. Die.” The userbase, as a result, is forced to run their own investigations. Nerd City published a video revealing another algorithm (one just as prone to mistakes) assigns all videos with an MPAA-style rating to make it easier for businesses to decide what sort of content they’re comfortable advertising on. This rating – hidden from both the uploader and their audience – Cannot. Be. Appealed. Good fucking system am I right!!! (Also, please watch the video if you get the chance, it brings up some points about machine learning and how the system negatively affects marginalized creators).

One more thing, do you remember what I said earlier about how a video gets popular on Youtube’s internal system? Well, creators have reason to believe a higher rating attributes to view suppression – meaning their videos might end up exempt from the things I listed. This makes it so much harder for a channel to grow their userbase outside of an already established audience. If you’re following along you might be able to tell where I’m going with this, but if not…

What Does This Have To Do With Video Games Polygon?

Once again, I do not know any of the behind the scenes Polygon lore and a lot of this is guesswork on my part. I’d imagine as a branch of Vox Media, Polygon would have a higher priority getting any potentially demonetized videos appealed than smaller, independent channels do. However, when your own website is reporting the system responsible for sorting and rating videos goes deeper than just demonetization, with a full MPAA-style ranking that’s been shown to suppress the growth of certain content not deemed advertiser friendly, such as excessive profanity and sexually suggestive content, which turns out is a subset of the niche your channel has developed – that’s a problem.

This isn’t me being critical of their content or saying what they make is bad (considering I’m a fan of it as well), this is an objective look at the reality of a rapidly changing platform. Unfortunately, the biggest flags in my head for Polygon happen to be the Jackbox series and… Monster Factory. There’s absolutely no way some of those videos are getting a kid-friendly rating, and it’s possible the bot is slapping some of them with a mature rating – the worst one where enough of those could potentially affect the rating of the entire channel. Griffin, in one of the Spore MF videos, emphatically yells, “come fuck this” to the heavens; lo and behold, a few years later Youtube finally does.

Of course, this is just one of a few different problems Polygon is facing. The Mcelroys left to focus on their own businesses, taking some of their fans with them. Other fans who mainly want the video game news might end up unsubscribing if too many videos irrelevant to their interests are posted. Some series, while perfectly funny in their own right, have trouble breaking out and appealing to a wider audience.

Polygone But Not Forgotten?

I’ll try to put it as softly as I can: almost all creators on Youtube have to reevaluate the content they put out and how it fits into Youtube’s ad-friendly guidelines if they want to continue receiving ad revenue and viewer engagement from the site. This is not just a Polygon specific problem, and as a news channel they benefit a lot more by working within the new parameters. Polygon’s primary priority should be their video game website, where I go to read all the articles that aren’t about video games, as ad revenue is probably more stable and allows them more room for sillier content. As for their channel, the “horny niche” appeal doesn’t have as much of a place anymore. Well, on Youtube at least.

Twitch, however, seems like a better home for Polygon’s familiar borderline type of humor. On a stream Pat said, as the live video producer, he’s responsible for getting their channel partnered which will come with some very important benefits, such as the ability to subscribe. I’d assume creating content for Youtube takes priority over this, and there’s also the fact that Pat is just one person and needs to balance this with other things like “having a life” and “eating??? Perhaps???” (maybe even A Vegetable). By the way, to answer one of your other questions, it’s normal for creators to have projects outside of their work and build their own personal brand, like Pat’s Twitch channel, Brian’s Youtube channel, Simone’s author account and everyone’s countless podcasts. It’s not recommended to rely solely on Youtube for your income, even before the ad boycotts, so if you can diversify your content then do so.

Listen, I know this is disappointing and I know it’s not the answer people want. Youtube’s new system isn’t going away and the video team needs to accommodate for these changes or otherwise Perish. I believe in Polygon’s ability to deliver informative, humorous and accessible content, they just need the time to do it. As an audience, a way to offer support during this difficult time is to just be as understanding and patient as possible, and give the content they put out a chance if you can.

Now I am not an expert on any of this, but if you have any questions or comments you can send them to my main @malarcana and I’ll try to answer them. Thanks for reading!

#polygon #nerd city #julia alexander #gillbox #long post #i cant stop thinking about being referred to as 'an experienced pat stream viewer'#i should have a button with that on it #My Legacy #also julia is leaving polygon now where do i get my youtube news from #i cant look stuff up myself im too lazy #x

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blossom765 · 5 years

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I Don’t really like My Hero Acadamia

I can already hear the angry screaming. Let me just put this out there. I’m not attacking anyone who likes the show. I’m just stating my opinion because well that’s one of the functions of social media. Notice how i said i don’t like my hero acadmia. I’m not saying you shouldn’t like it, i’m just saying why i don’t like it. With that said, if you like the show and don’t want to get angry feel free to move along but, if you’re like me and don’t like the show feel free to stay. Now I've only seen season 1 and 2 and a little of 3. I’m not going to see the rest on the slight chance that i might like it. So with all that out of the way, let’s get into why i hate my hero academia.

My hero academia follows the story of Deku who became the world's greatest hero ( kind of a spoiler since he says that literally at the start of each episode). He was one of the minority who didn't have a quirk (superpower) in a world where most of the population has a power (useful or not). He's given a power by his hero All Might due mostly to luck (and a little to the creator either being to lazy or cowardly to think of something a little more interesting). Being a hero is also an occupation. And the show goes on to introduce it's characters and follows how they learn to be heroes in school UA and fight bad guys.Now, let's get into why My hero academia is a boring generic show that is been for some reason over hyped

---Opening

I don't know why but, many people think that spoiling the show's ending of Deku becoming the world's greatest hero is somehow an interesting way to start a series. It might be different but that doesn't mean it's good. I'm sure the audience will obviously assume that the heroes will win but, spoiling the ending is not how you're going to make the viewer feel engaged. Let's take avatar the last airbender for example ( I don't usually like to compare shows but I just want to show how one show did showing their protagonist's destiny correctly and how the other didn't. In atla, Katara tells us about Aang and how he's the avatar and, the main thing, how she believes he can save the world even though he has a lot to learn. This tells us that he has flaws, how he has to work hard and the main thing how they believe he can win. They don't tell you the story of how he saved the world. You follow him on his journey to do it. A biography show often fails because you don't get the same vibe as being in the journey, interacting with the world, and being with the characters and seeing them as more like actual people instead of characters. You sacrifice that when you take the route of a story that just tells someone autobiography. By doing that, the viewer just feels like their just watching a story instead of engaging in it. A story's main function is to put the audience into a different world instead of showing a world. There's a difference. A good story can either force to engage in the story or it can fall flat on it's face and my hero academia has leaned towards the latter.WORLD-- So, the majority of the global population has quirks (which is probably just a way to make the something sound different without taking too much of a risk) and has shown, only through Deku though, that the minority, people who don't have powers are looked down upon. Most heroes are greedy and don't actually care much about saving lives and are just there for Fame and money. I don't have much to say about this other than predictable and lazy. It feels like the creator didn't spend longer than a few minutes creating this world. This is what I mean by generic. It's like the creator went people like superheros and magic and high school stories so I'll combine those. These might have been good ideas if the creator had brainstormed a little longer but he didn't so what we end up with is the epitome of generic.Speaking of ideas that could have been useful.

Being quirkless--

Deku is introduced as an underdog. He's bullied and treated like dirt because he has no powers but, if you thought he was going to be an inspiration to people who are born at a disadvantage in life you get to feel a slap of disappointment. He's ambushed by some glob villain and is rescued by his idol All Might which leads to him inheriting All Might's power. This effectively destroys a narrative that could have been different and inspiring. Instead of being a bad ass hero who has claimed the ladder and even surpassed people who were were already lucky with a quirk maybe a version of batman ( this show is already just a copy of shows and tropes so why couldn't they have actually copied something to make the show interesting) we are stuck with a protagonist who's success could only start if he's like everyone else. What makes this that much more stupid is that Deku is sub textually a disabled person. Someone who's at a disadvantage in life and born different from others and is bullied because of this difference. People with disabilities irl relate to this as they have had to go through life differently than people who weren't disabled. And it's not like no disabled character in a show has succeeded before. Take Toph for example. She's blind but is still talented and a respected bender also using her disability to her advantage by using seismic sense. Instead of doing something something that smart and creative, the creator decided to just make Deku not disabled, as if that's something possible for millions of people. It's not just disability, he can also be seen at a disadvantage because of his race. Obviously being quirkless isn't seen as a race but take the U.S. when African Americans were still seen as second class citizens. They were treated horribly for being black and people in power either treated them like that or they looked the other way when that happened ( Deku is bullied and treated like dirt because he was born quirkless and none of his idiot teachers seem to give a damn about his whole class bullying him). African Americans were always at a disadvantage, from living in poverty to segregation (Deku was at a complete disadvantage especially in the hero industry and wasn't even treated like a human being). So could African Americans suddenly change their race to White to get better lives? No. They had to protest and fight back against injustice to improve their lives. Deku doesn't get something this close to fighting against injustice and as someone who's aiming to be a hero, that's not a good sign. So, the only way that you can succeed is by changing your biology. Great my hero academia, great job.

All Might--

yeah yeah he's the greatest hero in the world and his powers are just boiled down to really strong punches. He's introduced as a symbol of hope, peace, and justice probably because heroes and authority figures were incompetent before and after he showed. But, he's got a secret, he used to be quirkless but then he got a quick and he's actually got a very shrimpy body and he thinks if that gets out then people will lose faith in him being the thing that solves their problems. But that doesn’t even make any sense.. Like I guess it's a problem that his powers are depleting but did nobody think that this guy just can't go on forever? Are the heroes that unreliable to them? I just don't get it.

Hero industry--

Nearly all the heroes are greedy assholes who don't understand how important their job is. They are obsessed with fame and fortune and this gets to the point where todoroki's father abuses his wife and children because he's obsessed with one of them surpassing All Might. Like I get that some of them are assholes but the majority? Seriously? That few people put their lives at risk just to save other lives. They even put their loved ones at risk by not masking their identities like All Might’s master who had to send her son away because being with her was too dangerous. This might have been a point where more heroes should have realized the magnitude of their job the dangers they the people they know in and maybe secret identities are useful because they keep the people they care about out of harm's way. I find it very unlikely that all might master was the only one who had this problem but, since the Creator is the lazy kind of creator, no hero in the world goes through this problem and the majority of heroes are insufferable assholes.

Characters--

Deku- I haven't mentioned what a bland character he is. I'm all for perseverance and kindness but those aren't the only things that make a character. It's also their personality. Deku is just a good goody, no nuance, just that. You might be thinking that a nuance might come out of no where except it's actually weird that he isn't more of a grey area. He was bullied since he was young and given no hope of success. And the people who bullied him were all people who had quirks. That past should have an impact on him. A good example of a relatable and believable protagonist is Judy from Zootopia. Deku and her have lot in common. They're both hard working and perseverant and they reached their dreams despite their obstacles ( except Judy actually had to work through the obstacles instead of somehow changing the fact that she's a rabbit). But, one of the biggest differences is that Judy's incident with Gidean the fox wasn't forgotten or treated as a joke. She carried that into her adult life and when she met Nick she was suspicious but she worked through that. Deku is not given a journey that important. His past of being horribly bullied is written as a joke and doesn't have as serious of an impact as it should have. All we get is a protagonist that is only capable of doing good for everyone and that is just boring and unrealistic.

Bakugou- Now the biggest thing I don't understand is why we're rooting for the guy? Why is he working as a hero? Why is he not an antogonist? Even a secondary antagonist? Even as a child Bakugou was already an asshole that should have been arrested. He beats up another kid and Deku and it looked like he used more than punches: fucking explosions. Now they probably weren't that big but, they're still explosions and extremely dangerous and likely left severe marks and burns on the kids and nobody has arrested this crazy child yet. Going into middle school now. He's still a scum bag who is so egocentric, so crazy that he threatens Deku if he signs up for UA. He literally uses his explosion power right on his desk inches near Deku (and his idiot teacher does nothing) and threatens to blow his arm off when he puts his hand on his shoulder while it’s smoking. And tells him to jump off the roof and hope he gets born with a quirk in his next life and that is treated as a gag. I wish I was joking but apparently bullying is just that funny. You might think that it's just Deku trying to use humor to deal with this but show treats this like a joke too. With that suicide remark ending with a joke to Deku actually still friends with this asshole. I don't care if they're childhood friends he is fucking nuts and Deku has no reason to want to stay friends with him because all he has done is make his life miserable. I’ve been picked on before and it hurt so i can promise you that Bakugou not being made to suffer severe consequences and Deku wanting to be friends with him is just ridiculous unless Deku has a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe actually treat him as what he is: a bully. Have him go through consequences or have Deku prove him wrong that he can become a hero even if he’s quirkless, like Judy did with Gidean. I forgave Gidean because Judy proved him wrong and he also grew up and knew that what he did was wrong but, we don’t get anything that smart or realistic, we get a bully who supposed to be treated as a good guy by the narrative. And this guy is going to be a hero. Yeah, Bakugou. The guy that wanted to beat the shit out of two kids when he was a kid, that told his childhood friend to go kill himself, that brutally attacked Deku in the first exercise that all might planned for them not because he was playing the role of villain but because he has a gigantic ego and he was angry. Who in God's name would ever trust the job of protecting life to him? He's not even doing it to protect people. He's just the younger version of todoroki's dad who just wants fame. He's an asshole. And when an asshole like him isn't made to suffer through the consequences, your whole pack of characters fail because they're just that: characters. You failed in the task of making them feel like people.

Uraraka-- The hetero normative love interest. Now i’m not saying this as a shipper or anything. I don’t ship anyone in this show. I’m saying this as a viewer who is just so bored of the cute nice girl x nice guy protagonist trope. Only reason Deku has a crush on her is because she’s cute and she’s the only girl that didn’t treat him like dirt and the only reason Uraraka likes him is because he nice and... inspiring, i guess. She’s teased that she likes him by Aoyama because apparently a boy and girl can’t just be good friends that admire (not romantic) each other as impressive people, they have to be in love. This causes her to get extremely flustered because i guess she’s never been teased like that but, whatever and goes on to future episodes with her being nervous around Deku. Soooooo, another cliché. I can’t realy say much about this because i don’t really expect much from shonen (and even shoujo) anime in terms of romance. So let’s move on to why she wants to be a hero. She wants it for the money to help her parents out with expenses. Sure she seems grounded and realistic and all that except there’s one massive flaw in that. When you work a job, especially a dangerous job, that you don’t enjoy it starts to drain the life out of you. Are heroes really the only occupation that are allowed to use powers. Like 80% of the GLOBAL population has quirks and you’re telling me they haven’t properly integrated quriks into the world. Take atla for example. In avatar, bending was a way of life, it made the world move and there were just as benders as there were non-benders. And you expect me to believe that with 80% of the population having a quirk, nobody decided that they might be useful, maybe help the economy. Anything,use your imagination. You might say that more jobs using quirks would put quirkless people at a disadvantage but, the thing is that they are already treated like dirt. And that could have lead to a whole new story, with a quirkless people demanding better treatment ( sorta like legend of korra with non-benders being oppressed by benders) maybe even taking inspiration from Deku who should have been the first hero without a quirk. Uraraka’s character is just a whole minefield. That’s all i can say.

Todoroki-- He’s the cliché cold cool guy. But, that cliché actually has some grounds. He and his mother ware abused by his father so, it makes sense that he’s like that. But, instead of maybe working towards something that makes more sense like i don’t know working in family services, fighting for laws to make heroes face consequences for their crimes, anything that would fir his character. He’s an abuse victim but, he working to become a hero and also working under his father as a sort of intern. Yeah... wait what? He wants to become his father’s occupation, which i’m not that mad at because he still has dreams, i guess, but he’s working with his abusive father and the childhood abuse is to be forgotten. He could have one of my favorites if they had taken his past remotely seriously and not just assumed that it’s okay to forget about abuse,work with the abuser, as long as the abuse victim is still a little angry. Like seriously creator, that is all kinds of fucked up. On a side note about Todoroki’s mom, who exactly sold her to todoroki’s dad. She calls her mom to tell her what she’s going through but, how would that make sense if her parents agreed to sell her. Did only relatives have a say in this and the parents consent doesn’t fucking matter? Like how does that make sense?

Mineta-- He’s a pervert who wants to be a hero to be popular with girls. All i can say is..WHY IS THIS PIG A GOOD GUY? If anything he’s just going to be a rapist not a hero. His sexual harassment is right up your face and you’re supposed to root for this guy. I’ve never liked fanservice because it’s insulting to so many different people on so many different levels (women are sex objects, gay people are bait, men are all disgusting and no body will care) but there comes a time when it gets ridiculous and wondering “where are the police?” and “where are the laws against rape and sexual harassment?”.For God’s sake, he tried to peep in the girls’ bath in front of everyone, nobody doing much to stop him, and the teacher suspected this, and what does he do?, he posts a kid as guard instead of expelling the pig. When your teacher, who’s also a hero, does not get obviously sexually harassing pig, you should already be asking yourself a lot of questions.

Asui-- She’s apparently a cinnamon role.You can sum up her character to that. I’m sorry but, i don’t understand everyone’s obsession with her. Sure, she’s cute and all that and she got some screen time in the internship episode but, being a cinnamon role is just that. It’s not important enough. If she had some more qualities, maybe a backstory, and if we know more about her resolve and dreams, maybe why she wants to be a hero then i guess her cuteness might have been icing on the cake but, it just falls flat because there’s just not much to talk about.

The rest of the characters are just pretty boring and i can’t really find much to say about them but i think you get my point on how i feel about them.

Narrative---

I’ve already said that the story follows how these kids become heroes. And now i’m going to say how boring that is. The story can be summed up to learning their future occupation and fighting some bad guys. I have no problem with the narrative itself, it’s just maybe they should have put more story into it other than learning how to become heroes. How about we see more stories about the characters, anything that doesn’t have to do studying to be a hero. Take atla for example. We know aang is working to learn the elements and defeat the fire lord but, how that differs from my hero is that the story often deviates from the plot allowing even more stories in, stories that some people will enjoy and other stories that other people will enjoy. We know the world is at war and we know aang is the avatar and what he’s working towards but, the show doesn’t dwell on that too much. It’s the right mix of new stories and interesting ideas while also having the main goal in mind. It might not be a good idea to compare my hero to atla but, i just want to show how one show showed it’s goal correctly and a how one didn’t. My hero falls towards the latter. The show can be summed up to studying to be a hero which doesn’t open the opportunities for more people to enjoy different stories.

I’m going to end with this. This show does not have anything to differentiate it from other superhero shows or give it depth. There a fuck ton of superhero shows out there and Tiger and Bunny was one of them that was different and did well. It gave it’s characters depth, put more stories in that weren’t summed up to just fighting bad guys, and it did something different by putting ads on heroes. My hero academia isn’t different. It’s genericand does nothing to sepereate itself from other shows. All I can say is that it’s cliché after cliché after cliché..

The End-

#my hero academia #my hero academia review #unpopular opinion

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ghouliday-music · 5 years

Text

To Save Those Who Can’t Be Saved Chapter 6

Beginning

<– Previous

So I’d uploaded this to my AO3 account some time ago, but I was so self-conscious about the quality of this chapter that I was too anxious to post it to Tumblr immediately. And then I sort of forgot to do it at all. I apologize for that, but without further ado I present the sixth chapter of “To Save Those Who Can’t Be Saved.”

To Save Those Who Can’t Be Saved

AO3

Work Summary: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara go back to Waterfall to solve the mystery of the lone statue sitting deserted in its halls. Along the way, they uncover more questions than answers, and find themselves forced to face their greatest faults and failures.

Chapter 6: Something Weird in Waterfall

Chapter Summary: In which a chat with Undyne and assistance from Alphys brings up the discussion of vanishing acts, and what started out as a mere mystery snowballs into something more serious.

Rating: T

Warnings: Food mention

Characters: Frisk, Asriel, Chara, Alphys, Undyne, Asgore, Toriel

“You burn down your house once, and no one ever lets you live it down,” Undyne said as she sat at the dinner table, her arms crossed and face set in a glower.

Alphys reached over to pat her hand, which caused Undyne’s face to soften. Chara knew that expression; they had seen Asgore and Toriel regard each other in that way before their plan had ruined everything. “Uh, well, it was kind of memorable?” Alphys gave Undyne a small smile.

Frisk giggled, their face aglow with undiluted mischief. “It was.”

Undyne turned to face them and pointed a finger toward them in exaggerated accusation. “I wouldn’t say anything if I was you, punk! I wasn’t the one in charge of the stove!”

Not that it would have mattered, Chara knew. They had the vaguest hint of a memory of Frisk’s hand hovering indecisively over a knob on the oven, the smell of gas, fire, and burning dry noodles, and a blue and scaly hand all but slapping theirs away. It was one of the events of which Frisk could never alter the outcome, no matter how much they tried. If they visited Undyne on Papyrus’s request, her house would become victim to her cooking lesson.

“I promise I trust you not to repeat the mistake,” Asgore said as he ushered Asriel out of the kitchen and to the table. “However, you are both guests, and it would be rude to make you assist in making a meal.”

“It ain’t like you’re making us scrub the floors, big guy!” Undyne tried to put Asgore in a headlock of friendship, despite the fact that he was more than a few heads taller than her.

Asgore staggered slightly from the gesture, but stayed on his feet. An impressive feat. Despite that, he stood there and let her noogie his hair, nearly knocking the crown off his head and looking unsure of what to do in response.

“And, uh, helping out would be the least we could do for inviting us over for dinner,” Alphys said as she tapped her claws against the table.

“Not to mention that it’s a tradition of bonding and teamwork!” Undyne bellowed this with as much enthusiasm as when her favorite ship in her favorite anime had been confirmed.

“That is very true,” Asgore said as he gently freed himself from the headlock and took a seat, “but you have both done so much for myself and the Kingdom of Monsters. Undyne, you have served us all well as head of the Royal Guard, and you continue to aid as head of the New Royal Guard.”

Not that hard to do, in Chara’s opinion; monsters always were better behaved than humans.

Asgore turned to Alphys. “And Alphys, your work as Royal Scientist saved lives of monsters we thought could not be helped, and your current project will certainly help future monsters with accessing knowledge. And that is not even mentioning your assistance with my social media.”

Alphys chuckled weakly, her scales starting to tinge themselves red. “N–no need to thank me.”

Considering that all Asgore ever really posted were updates along the lines of “Perfect weather for a game of catch,” “The birdsong in my garden is quite lovely this morning,” or the perennial favorite of meme creators, “Nice day today!” Chara was inclined to agree with Alphys.

They still favorited all his posts.

“Speaking of helping,” Frisk jumped in, shifting closer to the edge of their seat, “Azzy, Chara, and I were wondering if you could help us.”

Chara reached over to grab their cup of tea. Whatever Undyne’s and Alphys’s responses were, they wanted to brace themself, and one such as them could not brace themself without a sip of chocolate tea.

“Of course we’ll help, punks!” Undyne’s fist met table surface with a thud so loud Chara could feel the impact in their chest. They became very glad they had picked up their teacup, as everyone else’s drinks had sloshed over their cups’ sides and into the saucers in which they nestled. She gave everyone at the table as apologetic a smile she could muster before continuing, “So, let’s hear that question!”

Frisk nodded and leaned forward. “Has anything weird happened in Waterfall?”

In retrospect, Chara should not have been surprised. The strange monster child’s appearance, disappearance, and reset-proof memories had been weighing on them, as was the current failure of locating them. However, Chara had still been slightly expecting them to have asked the question about the statue first. Chara glanced at Asriel and saw that he was staring at them with a shocked expression.

Undyne snorted. “Kid, you’re going to have to be a he–” her gaze flickered toward Asgore–“heck of a lot more specific. I could tell you all about the time everyone was terrified of a strange echoing noise coming from some out of the way corner of the place, only for me to find it was just Napstablook playing their tunes a little too loud.”

Frisk’s mouth turned up in a small smile, but their intense trepidation and curiosity returned swiftly. “Well, something weird happened when we went to Waterfall a few days ago. I saw this strange kid. They looked kind of like Munsta, but they were all gray and white. Like, no color to them at all. And they had these big pupil-less eyes. And they were missing a spike on the back of their head.”

Undyne blinked and exchanged a look with Alphys.

“They were panicking, and I don’t think they heard what I was saying very well.” Frisk set their teacup back down before wrapping their fingers around the edges of their seat. “They wanted me to forget them. But when I turned around for three seconds, they disappeared.”

“That must have concerned you quite a lot,” Asgore said. He looked very much like he wanted to give them a hug, but dared not for fear that he would do more harm than good.

“Y–Yeah!” Alphys fiddled with her glasses in a vain but commendable attempt to keep them from sliding halfway down her nose.

Undyne crossed her arms, and she frowned at her teacup as if it had been personally responsible for Frisk’s fright. “Yeah, that sounds weird all right,” she said. She looked up and smiled, although with how tense she looked she seemed more like she was baring her fangs at them. “I haven’t heard anything about missing children, but I’ll keep my eye out for them! And have a word with them about not scaring my bestie!”

Frisk shook their head so fast Chara idly wondered if it had given them a headache. “I don’t think they meant to scare me.” They spoke so quickly Chara had barely been able to understand them. “You don’t have to say anything to them.”

Undyne opened her mouth, and Chara could see Asriel tense.

Fortunately, Frisk jumped in, perhaps sensing that Undyne might not necessarily change her mind. “We have another question about Waterfall we’ve been wanting to ask you, too.” They nodded over at Asriel.

His ears twitched and he moved as if to point at his own chest. “Oh! Uh, we were wondering if any of you knew anything about the Waterfall statue?” His grin was quite wide and forced. Asgore frowned at seeing it, or perhaps from the question, but Alphys and Undyne did not outwardly react beyond confusion.

“That statue’s always been there!” Undyne said, shrugging. “That’s why it was perfect for the puzzle I made!”

“And, uh, no one knows who exactly made it?” Alphys giggled, sounding embarrassed, and gave a shrug that looked almost painful from how tense it was. “I remember digging through some old reports, and, well, nothing useful came up?” She fixed her glasses again, the gesture almost as much a nervous tic as it was to see more clearly. “But I remember coming across some old articles and interviews and stuff about it while uploading files to the database. I–I’m sure some other volunteers came across things like that too.” She fixed the collar of her T-shirt, a bright pink baggy garment depicting a catlike humanoid with something written in Japanese with a cheerful, garishly colored print. “I’ll see if I can send over some of the most helpful.”

Frisk grinned. “Thanks, Alphys! You’re the best!”

Chara nodded. “Thank you for your assistance.” They hid their amusement as Alphys’s scales, from face to tail, started to tinge red as she grew flustered at the genuine expressions of gratitude.

“You got that right!” Undyne patted Alphys’s shoulder with all the heartiness that she could muster, which was more than anyone else that Chara knew. And then she leaned over and planted an enthusiastic kiss upon her cheek.

If Alphys had been blushing before, then she had taken it to the next level. Her scales grew from red-tinged to completely scarlet, and she was babbling with an expression between anxious and blissful. She was truly the textbook example of love-struck.

A giggle broke out, and suddenly Undyne was mock-glaring across the table. “What are you laughing at, punk?”

Frisk raised their hand over their mouth, eyes shining from how cute they had found the scene. “Nothing.”

Undyne grinned and pretended to roll up sleeves she did not have. “Well, I guess I can beat you up for nothing, then!”

“Please do not beat up my children,” Asgore muttered, right as Frisk burst up from their chair and sprinted away, followed by a blue blur giving off Undyne’s trademark “Fuhuhu!” laugh. “And please do not run in the house.”

His request went unheard by the two main culprits.

True to her word, Alphys had sent over several digital documents to their phones the moment she could. So rather than spend their Monday night playing a video game together, or just discussing the events of school, Chara and their siblings spent it cozied up in Chara’s room, reading through each article.

Chara let their eyes skim the text. It was, truthfully, quite dull. The authors used a multitude of long and eloquent words to impart the fact that they had nothing new to report regarding the subject matter. Everything they had to say, Chara and their siblings had already learned. The statue had been made and placed a great deal of time before the exodus to New Home; the few outlying monsters that had settled elsewhere claimed to have no idea of its creator’s identity or motives; it played music when the “rain” pouring on its head was partially diverted onto the structures surrounding its base.

They glanced at Asriel. He looked bored as well, but his brow was creased and his upper left fang worried at his lower lip. He was determined to get through this, despite the boredom.

And Frisk?

Frisk was continuously highlighting and defining words, still struggling through the first text they’d volunteered to read.

Chara felt a wave of pity for them. While Chara’s talents in reading, arithmetic, and other such subjects had made their life before falling underground miserable, it at least had come in handy for the times they had needed to research. Frisk did not have the same skillsets, however. While reading old textbooks borrowed from Alphys had been instrumental in Frisk getting the idea for how to restore their siblings’ souls and original forms, Chara had helped define the longer words and simplify what they read. Now, without that assistance, they struggled.

But if there was one thing Chara knew about their sibling, it was that they were stubborn, more stubborn than they could ever hope to be. Even if Chara had offered to help them, they would refuse it to prove that they could do it themself. They had sunk their teeth into this challenge, and now they would refuse to let go.

It was a trait that Chara both envied and feared.

Before Chara could continue reading their own article, a soft rapping on the door caught their attention. They looked to see Toriel looking into the room, an expression of tentative concern on her face.

“I apologize for interrupting,” she said in a voice both apologetic and firm, “but I just wished to let you know that bedtime is in half an hour.”

Asriel glanced at the clock that sat perfectly on the center of Chara’s bedside table. “Huh,” he said, and stretched. Chara almost winced as they heard the popping of vertebrae that accompanied the motion. “I guess we lost track of time there.”

“Indeed,” Toriel laughed and shook her head with a gentle fondness. “You have been at those articles for hours. Have you been taking breaks to move around?”

Chara was sure the silence emanating from all three of them answered her question better than any words.

Her kindly expression melted into one of motherly sternness. “Perhaps you ought to take a break for the night and do so?” She shook her head and stepped back into the hallway.

“We shall, Mother.” Chara made a point of putting their own cellphone into its sleep mode and standing up.

As Toriel moved away, Chara realized that while Asriel was standing and stretching with his phone now resting on Chara’s desk, Frisk had made no moves to get off the carpeted floor, their fingernail still tapping away at the screen.

“Frisk, Mother said it is time to put the research away and act as if we are not Sans.” Chara made sure their voice was stern.

Frisk said nothing.

Asriel stopped stretching and poked Frisk’s shoulder. “Frisk?”

The moment his claw prodded their skin, Frisk twitched in surprise, their phone landing some feet away. On their behalf, Chara felt grateful that the carpet was thick enough to protect it against damage.

“Azzy, what’d you do that for?” Frisk scowled at him, and Chara could see him take a step back, his concerned expression now one of guilt.

“Did you not hear Mother when she told us to stand up and move?” Frisk’s gaze moved away from Asriel, who gave them a weak, guilty smile of gratitude.

Frisk frowned and dug the heel of their palm below their eyesocket. “Mom was here?”

Asriel tilted his head, looking for all the world like a curious hound, if hounds had white fur and the barest hint of budding horns. “Uh, yeah? She just left, actually.”

Still, Frisk blinked between the two of them as if concerned that they were playing some kind of prank on them, or maybe concerned that they were hallucinating mothers where there were none. Finally, they sighed and stood up, picking the phone up as they went. But as they paced around the room at a rate so slow Chara had seen faster snails, they made no effort to darken their phone screen. Instead, they read as they paced.

Well, Chara could not fault them for following Toriel’s instruction to the letter, if not the spirit.

Asriel left the room, saying something about going to water the plants in his room, leaving Chara with Frisk. And Chara found themself in the strange predicament of not knowing what to say to them.

While most memories from their and Frisk’s true resets were faded, between the two they had managed to put together enough to know that Chara was not the quietest of people. Even before the events that allowed them to regain full consciousness, Frisk had recalled having the occasional thought that had not belonged to them.

And when they did recover their full consciousness, they had not been a passive spectator, but rather a constant narrator to Frisk’s travels through the Underground. There had hardly been a moment that they did not have a comment to impart, or a pun to tell. It was not as if they could go elsewhere and do something else, after all.

But a realization that had struck them not long ago, combined with the stress of the situation, had left them nothing to say to their sibling. To the person to whom they owed their current existence, and the one who might very well be the one to take it away.

Chara’s attention was caught again as Frisk paused in the middle of their pacing, their finger hovering over their phone’s screen. They stared at whatever passage had caught their attention, holding the phone as if it held the answers to all of their problems.

“I assume you found something?” Chara asked. They would be lying if they, too, had had their interest peaked at the thought of the possibility of something new coming to light. It would certainly alleviate the boredom of reading dry texts that repeated the same information to them ad nauseum.

Frisk did not reply, instead staring at the phrase at the screen, the corners of their mouth lifting farther up into a disbelieving smile. Chara could almost swear that they were starting to vibrate in place like a Temmie upon seeing Temmie flakes.

Yes, it was time to get their brother.

They left Frisk in their room and went to Asriel’s, just next door. They rapped on the doorframe before clasping their hands behind their back and waiting for the response.

Chara heard the sound of a book closing, a soft but solid thunk. “Uh, yeah? You can come in.”

Invitation received, Chara entered Asriel’s room. A leaf from his Chinese evergreen tickled their skin as they passed the doorway; they noted that Asriel would need to trim it soon.

“Hey, Chara. What’s up?” Asriel slid a small journal into a drawer of his desk before turning it around.

Chara inclined their head. “I am sorry for interrupting you, Asriel, but I think Frisk has found something interesting.”

Asriel’s eyes almost turned a brighter shade of red as he perked up in his seat. “Gosh, really?”

As if on cue, Frisk’s voice bled through the walls. “Chara, Azzy? Where are you?”

Chara shook their head. “We are in Asriel’s room.”

Their reply received a flurry of excited footsteps in reply, followed by Frisk barging into Asriel’s room. As they dashed inside, a leaf that protruded from the evergreen plant snagged on their body and tore off the stem. It fluttered the ground, twisting and turning as if protesting its fate.

Frisk did not seem to notice. They were waving their phone in Chara’s face as they all but danced on the spot, chanting, “Look! Look! Look!”

Chara turned their gaze from the white blur that was the phone screen to their sibling’s face. “I would, if you held the phone still.”

Frisk decided to forgo that, and thrust the phone into Chara’s hands instead. Their finger obscured part of their vision as Frisk pointed at a few paragraphs at the top of the screen.

“These, here.” They tapped rapidly on the text, highlighting the word “the” and bringing up the options menu.

Chara tapped the blank space to the side of the text to dismiss said menu. “Thank you,” they said, biting back the sarcastic retort that was their first impulse.

As Chara began to read the text, they heard Asriel’s chair wobble as he left it to read over their shoulder. Asriel would not have missed out on much from skipping this file, however; asfar as Chara could tell, it was the tail end of an interview with a resident of Waterfall.

They felt their spirits dampen. At first glance, it did not seem to confirm anything they did not know about the statue.

“Uh, it’s great you finished the text, Frisk, but what did you find?” Asriel sounded slightly crestfallen.

“Did you get to the conclusion yet?” Frisk’s eyebrows rose higher than they had already been raised.

Chara scrolled down slightly on the text until a good part of the next paragraph had been revealed.

As they skimmed the text, Asriel read the words aloud. “‘The researchers could gather no more information from the interviewee, as they had disappeared with the utmost speed while they were distracted.’” His furrowed brow lifted and he met Frisk’s gaze with wide eyes. “Disappeared?”

Frisk nodded. “Like that kid in Waterfall!”

Chara suddenly felt the lateness of the evening weighing down on them. However, they would not leave their brother to let them down on his own.

“Frisk, we do not know for sure that the ‘disappearing’ the interviewee did was the same as the disappearing the child did.” Chara rubbed the heel of their palm into their cheekbone, trying to wipe away the sudden onset of exhaustion. “We do not know that Sans is the only monster with ‘shortcuts,’ after all.”

Frisk frowned, and then turned to Asriel. “Is he?”

Asriel shrugged. “I’ve never seen anyone else with that ability. What monster did they interview?”

Frisk’s eyes darted to the side as they seemingly thought back. “Uh, some sort of clam monster.”

Asriel hummed as he cast his thoughts back into what he knew of the Underground’s residents. “There’s no clam monster who lives in Waterfall. Hotland and New Home, yes, but never in Waterfall.”

Frisk shrugged. “Maybe one used to live there before?”

Asriel shrugged. “No, not one.”

And if Asriel was confident that there were no clam monsters who lived in Waterfall, past or present, then Chara believed him.

Frisk seemed convinced, as they wrinkled their nose in confusion. “Maybe they’re like that strange disappearing kid. Someone can’t be in trouble without people remembering!”

Chara shook their head. “We do not even know if this clam monster in the interview is in distress. Does the interview say they were?”

Frisk hesitated. “Not that I remember.”

“And, uh, even if this clam monster was like the kid you met,” Asriel continued, fidgeting and not meeting their eyes, “what exactly would this do to help them?”

Frisk huffed, raking their fingers down their hair. “I don’t know, but apparently no one’s even been able to find out who they are. If there are other monsters who can disappear…” They shook their head. “I don’t know. But we can’t just sit here and hope that someone else will help them.”

Well, Chara should have seen this coming. Frisk had felt responsibility for helping everyone, especially monsters, from the moment they realized there were two potential siblings they felt needed saving.

And while last time Frisk had proven capable of helping restore their lost bodies and souls, that was no guarantee that they would be able to do anything about the missing kid, or any other missing monsters out in the Underground.

But if Chara told Frisk this outright, they would not listen. Therefore, they had to lead them to their own conclusion.

“So then, if you are so determined that you alone can save them, then what is your plan?” There were no books with helpful information for them to turn to this time. Nothing on magic or soul theory could help them here, especially not without Chara or Asriel absorbing seven human souls to gain the necessary power to put it into practice.

The question brought Frisk to a halt. They averted their gaze, staring out the window over Asriel’s bed, a soft glow from a magical crystal streetlamp faintly visible through the curtains. “I don’t know yet.” Despite the softness of the voice, they sounded no less swayed out of their conviction. “But I have to try.” They bit their bottom lip. “Perhaps we could go down to Waterfall again and see if we can find the kid again, or another of these disappearing monsters?”

Chara let an eyebrow raise. “Even if there are more of these monsters as you theorize, how would you find them? You found the child by chance, not design, both times.”

Frisk shrugged. They still were looking at anything but them or Asriel. “I don’t know.”

“And if you could convince Mother could take you back down there, it would not be for months. Between our classes at school, her career, upcoming events you shall be required at… Obligations that require your undivided attention. Let those whose job it is to track down monsters in distress handle this. The child is certainly not going to be aided sooner by your neglect of the rest of the kingdom.”

Frisk hunched their shoulders and stared at their feet, and for a moment Chara braced themself for a bitter rebuttal.

Then Toriel came back into the room. “Is everything all right?” she asked, whatever she’d had to say before taking back burner.

Frisk turned around, the frustration wiping from their features like water off of a pane of glass. “Yeah, Mom, everything’s fine!”

It was almost as if seeing themself or Asriel put on a cheerful façade. Chara would have been impressed, had they not experience with hiding their own emotions for the sake of their family, and knowledge that Asriel did the same.

Toriel did not seem convinced, but she did not seem inclined to press the matter. “It is about the time that you should all prepare for bedtime,” she said, her gaze still panning across all her children as if searching for clues for what had happened before her entrance.

Finally, she convinced herself that all was well and left the doorway.

“Are you really all right?” The way that Asriel squinted at them as he asked his question made Chara think that he didn’t think so.

Frisk turned and smiled at him. “I guess so.” They gave Asriel and Chara a short wave. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Yes, Chara expected so. And maybe next time, they would press their own questions about how far Frisk was willing to go to give everyone a happy ending they deemed fit.

“Good night, then.” Asriel returned the wave as Frisk took back their phone from Chara. With his face creased with concern, he looked like he was uncertain whether or not to leave the conversation for another day or to continue hounding them until they realized that they were not responsible for solving everyone’s woes.

Frisk turned, and for the first time noticed the leaf on the ground.

“Oh, what happened to your plant?” They picked up the leaf, turning it over in their fingers. “Is it sick?”

“No, not really.” Asriel shrugged.

Chara tilted their head as they regarded Frisk’s reactions, wishing that, like their brother, they had many resets’ worth of learning to read familiar people as if all their thoughts were laid out on a blackboard in front of them. “It merely had a mishap with a body moving at great speed.”

Frisk shoulder’s hunch as they realized the events at which they were hinting. “Oh, I’m sorry, Azzy. I shouldn’t have run in here like that.”

Asriel shrugged. “You don’t have to apologize, Frisk. I really should’ve trimmed it back a few days ago. Guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow.”

Frisk still looked guilty as they let it fall into the waste bin beside Asriel’s desk. After one last good night to both their siblings, Frisk left the room, glancing at their phone screen.

“What about you, Chara?” Asriel asked once the door to Frisk’s room clicked shut. “Are you okay?”

Chara nodded. “I expect I shall be.”

Asriel frowned and clasped his hands together, looking like the world’s most worried therapist. “That isn’t all right now.”

They never could hide their concerns from their brother.

Asriel lifted a hand to scratch at his ear before returning to holding his own hand. “Listen, uh, I know you’re kind of upset at Frisk for something. Well, something different than this whole Waterfall thing.” He laughed, sounding more anxious than amused. Chara was sure he caught the wince they hid, because he stopped the moment they stifled the impulse. “But, well, you could always tell me. Or tell Frisk. Just don’t bottle stuff up like you always do and beat yourself up about it.”

Quite the words for him to say. He always buried the feelings that he deemed not “soft” enough, emotions like anger, and jealousy, and bitterness. Emotions that reminded him of himself in the past, when he had lost his soul.

Emotions he had to fear now, thanks to Chara.

They had let Asriel deal enough with their own issues.

And perhaps they would not confront Frisk with their own issues, their own insecurities and doubts. It would be hypocritical for them to confront their sibling about flaws that ended up making multitudes of monsters happy, when their own failings had brought them to misery.

Instead, they shrugged. “I shall think about it.”

Asriel frowned, and Chara knew he knew that their mind had already been set on its course. But he allowed them to leave with a sorrowful good night.

As Chara went to change into their sleepwear, they could not help but wonder what they could do to stop their family worrying over them for no reason.

“Chara, wake up, please.”

The soft, but urgent voice, and the gentle shaking of their shoulder woke Chara from their slumber. They peeled open their eyelids, which felt swollen from drowsiness, and saw a pale blur in the darkness.

“Mother?” They sat up, gently lifting back a corner of their blankets in preparation to get out of their bed. “What is wrong?” There had to be something important for Toriel to wake them during what could only be the middle of the night, or the early hours before dawn.

Indeed, in the dark room where the only light filtered in from the hallway, she looked on the verge of panic. “Chara, have you seen Frisk?”

Chara felt themself tense. “Not since bedtime last night.” They caught movement from the corner of their eye, and glanced out to the hallway to see Asriel, framed by the open door. He was holding his wrist as if that was the only thing keeping him tethered to calmness, and staring at Chara as if they were his only hope of being saved.

Toriel’s face grew more drawn and tense. Chara did not need her to say anything to know what was the matter.

Frisk had gone.

#useless reptile writes #to save those who can't be saved #dreemurr siblings #food mention cw #frisk #asriel #chara #dreemurr family #toriel #alphys #undyne #alphyne #undertale fanfiction

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