#the main animation has 40 frames

[neon-ufo]

It's true the world is ugly But everything could change, someday

Song for April: Someday by Cub

~~~ Last month's wobbly little animation made me want to try actually animating again! I also wanted to do something with an old game vibe for the background, so I used photos to get that effect. <:

#the main animation has 40 frames #the HP bar and heart have 8 and the map 10. main had 38 at first but that wouldn't work out so i had to squeeze in two more #i hope u appreciate that i had to do basic math to get everything to loop properly #i had the bright idea to try doing thinner cleaner lines for the main animation and re-lined like half of it only to decide i hated it lmao #i love animating lubi's fire hair so much it always ends up flowing so nicely #monthly lubi #lubi #oc #original character #experimental art #animation #luv

[masonic-critical]

x - Double Toasted Interview Pre-Helluva Boss Prouction

Seeing vivzie flub her numbers and mouth over her """team""" within this video is very telling.

"40 or 50 people or so I think i would have to check and make sure on discord--we have sorta 10-ish people in my core team with my animators. I'm a main compositor with my friend while my background artist and cleanup team of 15 or so is just so-big it's so Huge its so large! We have so many people working on this project and just handling with so many key components over backgrounds and key framing the lip syncs, my background artists doing so much work. I feel like and hope people will really stay on"

Interviewee Joke: 'Oh how many animators do I have [again], no-oh god no!!!'

It's insane to think Helluva Boss has over 80+ animation credits which is definitely not a good thing. It's one thing in industry to have a large studio but it's another thing of collaborating artists coming and going to work on an ongoing series is not a good thing to flaunt. Even if your show has won two independent animation awards you should take pride over producing to actually make something good instead of flaunting the fact that you acknowledge the bare minimum of abuse, rape, misogyny, supremacy, classism, sexism, or gender critical writing fails face first in every episode.

Her favorite movies being Cat's Don't Dance/Who Framed Roger Rabbit and referencing BoJack Horseman even referencing that they anthropomorphize their themes being prejudice and STORYTELLING DEVICES, so what story is Helluva Boss even telling right now???? She claimed to even want to write about dark themes and mature adult topics about prejudice and yet has nothing to show for it after 6 years of nothing burger that is Helluva Boss and Hazbin Production :/

She fully admits that patreon and merch hauls fund hazbin/helluva production and that she fully handles the patreon money herself she budgets to push towards 'Hazbin' to 'Pay her small team'. She wanted to try to promote a Kickstarter over the pilot pre-A24 pickup before she made it big-time which is weird to hear when she didn't even have hazbin finished while boarding out 4 episodes of helluva bosses' first season. Even if it was supposed to allegedly be a 1 season show only. It's weird to try to discern which show she's trying to elaborate/talk about which one.

X - Evidence of the promotional videos for Helluva Boss/Hazbin. Strangely enough it has always been together instead of separated meaning she was attempting to garner hype for her series through Helluva Boss Merchandising and attempting to cyphen even more money over small Hazbin merchandising.

X - Here is Vivs' patreon promo earlier before the Hazbin pilot. Discussing how much she wanted to have a bigger budget at the time to fund her animation. Talks about Zoophobia Reboot and there has never been discussion since. Originally charged 10$ for private qna's. 50$ for discord access calls, unsure if this is still a Patreon feature. Also unsure over the 100$/500$ speeddraw commissions she promo'd... There is another production patreon she teases that holds nothing beside the Vivziepop name.

The show being placed upon rehabilitation and redemption despite the focus only being towards 'A Disney/Tim Burton Princess in Hell' goes to show that she had no direction of where she wanted to take Angel or Charlie. Charlie always being based on a porcelain doll? Greek/Religious Context/Egyptian mythology where???

"The best animation in it, is not done by me"

Within full admission of her nervous attitude without naming anyone within her team and just referred to everyone as 'My team/Crew' is very telling of how humbling she really even is.

Thr 'Yotta' she refers to is in reference to Studio Yotta, Helluva Boss is funded and produced alongside Horseless Cowboy with Horvitz towards the Casting Direction, meaning she's been funded with a major video game industry since day 1 of Helluva Bosses' production ergo, Vivziepop/Spindlehorse/Vivienne Medranno has never been independent in her entire production malpractice. She stated to be aware and know of wanting to work under SAG is very intriguing given that since Moxxie has been absent for half of season 2 its probably due to Richard striking as my best guess to the messy writing of broken railroad tracks that was supposed to be Helluva Boss production.

While it is one thing to have connections in industry to connect and come together and credit within your artists and studios, Vivzie does not have a studio. The merch sales/Patreon/YouTube QnA's directly go towards paying her animators, voice actors, and production management but not at all a 'Studio' she promotes herself as. All animation work and shots are handled through Discord and emails online this has been proven time and time again.

The fact that the pilot has been pushed aside so much over Helluva Boss and not a genuine interest to have redemption or care and love within the disguised nightmare that is Helluva Bosses' writing. She loves to flaunt demonology and love towards hell of aesthetics with demons/monsters she fails to actually represent the actual Demons of folklore/hell world building in HB leaves me to be worried... That she discredits actual Demon culture by stating

'I don't know have you seen one? They don't exist its just been human mysticism, Demons can be anything. Have you been to Hell?' Without realizinf she will fail to depict the Lord of the Flies as Gluttony....

"--It might not ever happen to work together with [Ke$ha] professionally would be a dream honestly. --The next Ke$ha song I want to animate is either is going to be official or is something that she wrote for one of MY projects or something"

She did and she made her state 'There's like, a rainbow inside my vagina.' Wooow so professional, "Cotton Candy" so originally produced to be so professionally Disney-Grade. The fact that she halted and couldn't release season 1's full finale due to having Ke$ha break her contract with legal battles and corporate music industry bindings during the Dr. Luke 2016 trial, waiting until 2020 to finally release it within this year and have Lukewarm perception because Rose cannot even sing within the episode its a replacement actor to sing for her! She just wrote the bare minimum draft of a song to submit for you to animate! Time and time again viv just flaunts herself to throw herself out there over 'Look at my projects aren't they neat!" And then be a monster during production of hoarding artists to herself and trash talking/harboring a group of bullies within her 'Core Crew'.

"Zoophobia is my Childhood project, it had everything and it was a mess. It was the magic of a childhood story told by an adult because I was in college while working on it at the time. It's the incubation chamber for all of my projects now. When I go back to it, it will be a complete reboot but for now it's on the shelf.... I lost all passion for it but I love my characters in it."

... And yet she hasn't talked about the comic since Bad-Luck Jacks' animation release nearly 4 years ago? All merchandising she promotes is about Helluva Boss and barely anything towards Hazbin or Zoophobia which is supposedly 'In-Production' while these merchandising of stickers, pins, skateboards, switch cases, posters, sketchbooks covers of Demonic stickers, sexualized hornybait, racist and transphobic enamel pins that can't keep character skin colors correct, and puzzles because of course! All of which, is merchandising of HELLUVA BOSS!

Vivziepop only views her characters as dollar signs. She still features her old Zoophobia designs within her Redbubble account goes to show how much profit she loves to make with other peoples' character designs.

X X Evidence of the Above Statement with the character KiKi/Christine [Cherry Bomb] originally being from Zoophobia before redesigned into Hazbin

X

Zoophobia concepts of what we lost rambling from Viv herself....

X

An interview of 7 years I didn't get to discuss over

X - A Season 1 Helluva Boss poor promotional trailer trying to garner hype for the series acting as if it was telling a cohesive story with actual plot happening with little Stolas screen time. It makes me wonder if season 1 was an entirely different drive of writing thoughts and artist drafts compared to season 2's production.

X - Helluva Boss Season 2 promotional storyboard conception, Two years ahead of time and finally all the boards make sense for season 2 and there still is no eventual plot besides setting up Fizz and Ozzy over Belzebub and Tex or any returning season 1 villain akin to D.H.O.R.K. or Cherub/Verrosika and especially no sight of Moxxie and Millie development besides fight scenes.

It makes me think of however much season 3 will suffer to spiral into production.

#spindlehorse critical #links are purple blue is source and red is viv quotes #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss critical #anti vivziepop #anti spindlehorse #anti brandon rogers #anti hazbin hotel

[frida-kahl-of-the-rocky-horror]

I saw this back when I used to use Reddit (for animal crossing and trans+ stuff mostly), and I felt so honoured that they used my Florida flag redesign in this that I screenshotted it. But when I looked to find the original poster, they had deleted the post (likely because of negative replies, vexillology Reddit is scary).

They recreated the state flags to be more about symbolism and individuality rather than about aesthetics (which is the problem I see with a lot of over simplified state flags). All while keeping the flags that actually carry deep meaning and are beloved by the residents.

I’m not the biggest fan of Nebraska’s, Virginia’s, and Wisconsin’s, but all the others are wonderful (especially Florida’s… I will not apologize for being biased lol)

The original Reddit person’s caption:

“I kept some flags which I believe are currently great. Most of them are all over State merchandise, and people of these states carry a lot of state pride for these flags. They are:

1. Alabama

2. Alaska

3. Arizona

4. Arkansas

5. California

6. Colorado

7. lowa

8. Maryland

9. Mississippi

10. Missouri

11. New Mexico

12. Ohio, my home state! [not mine, OPs]

13. Rhode Island

14. South Carolina

15. Tennessee

16. Texas

17. Utah

18. Wyoming

19. District of Columbia [I believe you mean the Douglass Commonwealth]

20. Guam

21. The Northern Mariana Islands

22. Puerto Rico

I've switched some State’s boring Seal on a Bedsheet flags into their more popular historical ones. They are:

23. Conecticut ~ New England Flag

24. Hawaii ~ Kanaka Maoli

25. Maine ~ Original State Flag

26. Vermont ~ Green Mountain Boys Flag

27. Virginia ~ Gadsden Flag

28. West Virginia ~ Original State Flag

I've made a few tweaks to some existing flags so they look more unique / are more easily recognizable. They are:

29. Indiana ~ Golden Frame

30. New Jersey ~ Added Stripes

31. North Carolina ~ Un-Tex-ified

32. Oklahoma ~ Added Stripes

33. American Samoa ~ Added Southern Cross

I designed some using the Pan Cascade colours for the Pacific Northwest (BC will have the tree one). They are:

34. Idaho

35. Oregon

36. Washington

I borrowed some other designs which I found on here which I found beautiful. I mostly looked for flags which were designed by locals from the states that they are redesigning or included state symbols on their old flags. They are:

37. Florida [omg they chose mine!!!]

38. Georgia

39. Kansas

40. Kentucky

41. Louisiana

42. Michigan

43. Montana

44. Nevada

45. New Hampshire

46. New York

47. North Dakota [I prefer my communist flag better wajajaja]

48. Pennsylvania

49. South Dakota

50. Wisconsin

51. Virgin Islands

I left the flags currently in the process of a redesign blank, for, given the recent track record, any new flags are probably going to look amazing like Utah’s and Mississippi’s. They are:

52. Illinois [this is your reminder to vote for your new state flag if you’re from this state!!!]

53. Massachusetts [this is your reminder to vote for your new state flag if you’re from this state!!!]

54. Minnesota [this is your reminder to vote for your new state flag if you’re from this state!!!]

I kept one Seal on a Bedsheet flag to honour this horrid time in American vexillological history. That is:

55. Delaware

And lastly

56. Nebraska (idk)”

While I agree with most of the OP’s opinions, I think Nebraska’s flag would look better if it looked something like this:

Better designed of course, I made this on Pic Collage in like 5 minutes

Im not sure about Wisconsin and Virginia, I just know I’m not the biggest fan of either (since Virginia’s flag has a separate meaning and Wisconsin’s is just bland.

Let me know what you think!

And if you’re the OP of this, please let me know, I like your choices!!

#usa #united states #state flags #alabama #alaska #arizona #arkansas #california #colorado #conecticut #delaware #florida #georgia #hawaii #idaho #illinois #indiana #iowa #kansas #kentucky #lousiana #maine #maryland #massachusetts #michigan #minnesota #mississippi #missouri #montana #nebraska

[frostynovaprime]

Mmmmmm post sleep Tennocon Rambles under the cut

Ofc because I just started vet school last week (yay) I couldn’t attend in person. Really sad I couldn’t attend because I’ve always loved it when I went to the 2017 and 2018 events. Had to watch the stream, but it look like from pictures everyone had tons of fun and I’m glad it was a success. Next year, please let it be closer to the middle of the summer akdjejak

Art panel, the highlight for me as always as an artist myself. Really cool to see all the concept works from way back in Dark Sector. I’m so sad the art book was so expensive and sold out so fast, but I hope this means they can be inspired to do a reprint in the future (maybe when food expenses arent draining my bank like a whirlpool….) The new upcoming concepts I can’t say I’m a fan of all too much. Grendel is my most hated frame but the boar is a cool inpiration for him. I personally think the game is very oversaturated with Liger concepts, so as per most Liger deluxes Sevagoth wasn’t my cup of tea. They designed the frame, why not have someone else take a shot as his deluxe? I didn’t catch who designed Yareli’s bu that one was interesting.

And….. the Heirloom skins collection. They’re pretty. I though Mag’s was for Nova and got too excited for a bit. And as a Frost main I’m always glad for more content containing him, hell I squint at his skin because it has a few elements that are strikingly similar to my Deluxe concept for him back in 2021. But. The price. I want to buy it, but this entire collection pitch is exactly what Digital Extremes has vow to not do in all 10 years with their fair free to play model, and this sets a very bad precedent if it were to continue. $90 USD is too high of a price for a pack of skins marketed as being in celebration of 10 years, inflated artificially with the Regal Aya. A pack of 6 (with an extra bonus, making 7 total and 400 platinum) is $40 which means everything in the second tier pack is only $30. The same price as the low tier. The only new thing the skins intoduce are the Signas, which are cool, but I gesture to Kaithe coronets. The skins have no new visual effects for abilities, no new animations, not even new idles like recent Deluxe skins have. Rebecca used the word “prestigious” for describing the pack. And I beg her to NEVER use that word again for cosmetics. Prestigious content is a very slippery slope. Take the Prestige skins from League. Because of those skins Riot is now thinking they can make a variant recolor of a very old Jhin legendary and mark the price up to $200. Warframe doesn’t need that. Not to mention the FOMO. The Heirloom pack is gone at the end of the year. Even past Prime Access comes back in Resurgence after a few years. Nightwave brings back old items from past story events. The only thing that has never returned was the Founders Packs, for a good reason. The Heirloom collection feels like a rehash of the Founders marketing in the present state of them game where it’s most likely not trying to stay afloat. FOMO has never existed in Warframe, and it shouldn’t be added now.

Don’t even get me started on that 10 year Accolade in the packs. Accolades have usually been for people who made a notable contribution to the game. Founders, Closed Beta testers, Creators. All of them have some sort of impact on the game be it keeping it afloat in the starting year or contributing to the Community. Now a shiny sticker can be added to any account for as low as $30. I’ve been playing the game for 8 years. I’m not a ‘10 year supporter’ yet. The wording itself insinuates that to supoort the game for a decade, you need to pay. That Accolade should have been something added automatically when your account turns 10 years old.

Overall I’m extremely disappointed bu the Heirloom marketing as it stands. Will I buy it down the road? Chances are high when I’m not bleeding for food with school going on, which is at the very end of the year right before it goes away cause I also give into FOMO. DE has adjusted their strategies before, and I hope they do so now. But this has already set a bad first impressions for any future Heirloom content.

Anyway, rant over on that. Sound panel was cool. Always cool to hear how specific sounds are made like Kullervo. The Heirloom debacle kinda soured my mood for a bit, so I focused more on studying my classes and then went shopping with my roommates.

Came back a little late to TennoLive, probably halfways thru the Soulframe demo. From what I saw I really like the whole concept and thematic. The little turtle guy is so cute. Excited to see more of its development and eventually play it.

The Warframe aspect I had more range of feelings. Whispers in the Wall looks really cool and I’m excited for exploring what the fuck Albrecht is doing. I love how its expanding Deimos more, instead of adding another island and button to navigation. It feels like it’ll require the New War to access, since its all based around the aesthetic of the Man in the Wall seen at the very end of the quest. I’m very interest in the human Loid (best design from Liger since Nezha Empyrean imo). I hope he gives more insight into the attitudes of the Orokin since he is 99% likely from before the Old War.

And… Warframe 1999. I got sucked into Warframe because of it’s unique spin on fantasy sci-fi. And throughout the 8 years I’ve played it’s stuck to its aethetic formula to a T. Seeing CRT monitors and Nokias along with Entrati designs, the modern sci-fi elements and callbacks to Dark Sector makes it feel out of place. Blasphemous almost. But, I’ve had this feeling before with Duviri. I had reservations as to whether Duviri would break the Warframe Universe as we knew it. But DE made the Paradox make sense, and the aethetic language of the world fits perfectly into the formula. I absolutely love Duviri. I need to see more and play 1999 in order to feel how it connects to the Origin System and Duviri as a whole, be it the very distant past (and being born in 99 myself makes me…. Haaaaa) or a parallel universe connected by Void Fuckery(tm). But seeing how Duviri played out I have no real doubts DE won’t pull it off again.

#i just needed to word vomit #warframe #tennocon 2023 #everything except for the heirloon packs was chefs kiss

[dailycallofduty]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Preseason Patch Notes

Patch Notes for the Preseason of Modern Warfare III November 15, 2023

Due to unforeseen issues, not all of the changes scheduled for today’s update were able to be released. Our teams are hard at work to get key movement changes, Multiplayer weapon balancing, Zombies gameplay and stability fixes, and more into the next available update.

–Global–

COD HQ

Players will no longer encounter a blank screen where MWIII tiles are expected.

Fixed an issue console Players where cross-launching from one game to another disbanded parties containing a split-screen Player.

Fixed an issue for PC Players which selective installs were not available to play after the installation was completed. 

A fix has been implemented to solve several crashes that occurred during the application start-up sequence. 

Stability & Performance

PC Players with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs can now use DLSS 3 across all modes in Call of Duty Modern Warfare III. With DLSS NVIDIA Super Resolution and Frame Generation, DLSS 3 multiplies performance by up to 1.8X to enhance your PC experience.

Fixed a bug in which some console Players would encounter an error upon being invited to a Party.

Fixed a bug in which some console Players were pushed to the Main Menu after selecting certain items in the Battle Pass.

Resolved a bug in which some Players were kicked back to the MultiPlayer lobby after attempting to matchmake in any Playlist.

Addressed account-based issues that prevented offline play.

–Campaign–

Stability & Performance

Resolved a crash that occurred for PC Players during the game’s restart sequence after an update. 

Resolved a bug that resulted in Players receiving an error message when trying to launch Campaign. 

Resolved an issue causing DEV ERROR 12510 after attempting to start the Operation 627 mission.

Fixed a bug that forced Players to skip cinematic cutscenes when a controller was disconnected.

Fixed multiple gameplay-related crashes in the Oligarch mission.

Resolved a crash that occurred after deploying a Cruise Missile in the Reactor mission.

Gameplay

Completion rewards will now be properly awarded if the Player closes the application during the Credits sequence.

141 Ready Achievement will now properly track the lowest difficulty used to complete a mission.

Fixed a bug in which the functionality of all the Ziplines and Ascenders in the map disappeared after canceling a climb animation.

Fixed a bug in which the Player could not interact with Equipment pickups while quick-drawing a Handgun.

–Multiplayer–

UIX

Bug Fixes

Enemy Player elevation will now be properly displayed on the Minimap.

Fixed a bug in which Playlists would disappear from the Main Menu for some console Players.

Prompt to View Gamercard on the Scoreboard now functions as expected for console players.

Promoting a Player to Party Leader will no longer allow them to attempt to matchmake for locked Playlists.

Progression

Weapons

Addressed an issue that prevented Bolt Attachments from being unlocked at the expected Weapon Level for the KATT-AMR (Sniper Rifle).

Challenges

Introduced new requirements for the Priceless Camo challenge for the WSP Swarm (Submachine Gun).

Get 10 Operator Double Kills while in Tac-Stance.

Resolved issues that prevented several Challenges from tracking completion progress.

Corrected unlock challenge tracking conditions for BBQ (Operator).

Maps

Terminal

Players can no longer plant at the A bombsite from an unintended location in Search and Destroy.

Popov Power

Players will no longer spawn in enemy territory in the Invasion mode.

Modes

Team Deathmatch

Increased match score limit from 75 to 100.

Ground War

Addressed an issue causing DEV ERROR 841 during normal gameplay.

Be on the lookout for an Experimental Playlist in the coming days, featuring enemy Player outlines! More details to come.

Weapons & Attachments

MCW (Assault Rifle)

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

BAS-B (Battle Rifle)

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

MTZ Interceptor (Marksman Rifle)

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

Renetti (Handgun)

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

JAK Ferocity Carbine Kit (Conversion Kit)

Thermo-Optic X9 and SZ VORTEX-90 Optic Attachments can now be toggled as expected.

TYR (Handgun)

Increased hipfire control during sustained fire.

Odin’s Judgement (Trigger Action)

Decreased trigger response time to the intended 210ms duration.

Cosmetics

Gun Screen audio will now play as expected upon pressing the preview button.

Tracer Pack: Hellsing Operator Bundle

Fixed a bug in which Alucard was missing his handgun in the Operator preview.

–ZOMBIES–

Gameplay

Addressed an issue that prevented missions in Act 2 and Act 3 from auto-queueing while in-game.

Stability

Fixed a crash encountered when Players navigated to the Store or Progression tab in the Launcher Menu while queuing.

Various stability and map fixes.

#news #modern warfare 3 #cod mw3 #cod mwiii #modern warfare iii

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Ken, shall we!  

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 148 (approx. 118 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 108 votes, the secondary poll got 40 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 4% (approx. 4 votes) and 5% (2 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: With the biggest lead of all polls overall, Daisuke (61%) wins this vote with no real competition, as he had been in 1st place from the very beginning. Daiken is one of the most popular mlm Digimon ships on the planet - and for good reasons, as their anime portrayal provides for some very intense and intriguing mutual character development. Not only do they start off as “enemies” (with one of the parties unknowingly holding lots of the admiration for the other), but them turning into friends - and Jogress partners - is one of the most significant development fuels for both of them; nurturing each other’s (self) confidence while growing closer, developing great fondness, attachment and protectiveness for each other as they get more and more comfortable with themselves and in the other’s presence. It’s an endearing framing with a lot of heart, and with the additional anticipation of more news on the 02 movie, it’s really no surprise to see them being as prevalent and beloved in fandom as they are at the moment.

2nd place: With a huge gap to 1st place, Miyako (19%) comes in second, thus securing Kenyako’s spot as one of the few canonized endgame couples in the Adventure series. Thus, her popularity makes sense - with her starting off with a starstruck crush on Ken, then doubting her approach towards him during his redemption arc and reconsidering the whereabouts of her feelings, them slowly growing closer to understand each other is an endearing framing.

3rd place: This spot is a particularly tumblr’esque fan favourite - and even if Hikari received a comparably low amount of votes (5%) in comparison to the two fandom favourites, there is still a little group of dedicated Kenkari shippers in this space. Due to their portrayal as mirrors - Dark and Light - and their mutual connection to the Dark Ocean, they’re considered viable options when it comes to understanding one another’s struggles, finding hope and solace there.

Honorary mentions: Characters that got more than 1 vote include Ryo (4%) Takeru (3%), Koushiro (3%) and Yamato (2%), proving to be niche choices.

“The 1 vote squad”: As the majority of votes has been distributed among the choices mentioned above, there isn’t much left to be mentioned - so this spot is only reserved to the one-episode-only character Chichos (1%), who was shown to have a big crush on Ken.

“0 votes go to…”: Iori, Taichi, Sora, Mimi and Jou each received 0 votes - as for the four latter characters, this may be due to their lack of screentime/interaction in canon.

Annotations: N/A

What did the other polls say?

As mentioned, Ken won Daisuke’s poll (52%) with one of the biggest margins and came in second in Miyako’s (27%), thus mirroring his own results to a high degree.

However, he proved to be quite a niche choice for almost every other character he received votes for in the first place, such as Hikari (4%), Iori (3%), Takeru (2%), Taichi (2%), Yamato (1%), Koushiro (1%) and Mimi (1%). Even though in his own poll, Iori, Taichi and Mimi received 0 votes, Ken got singular votes in their respective polls.

Sora and Jou are the only characters he never got voted for, which was a mutual occurence.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

Similarly to Hikari in 01, Ken has a built-in exposure bias in 02 due to the fact that he joined the team later on and had to go through a redemption arc first. Hence it isn’t a surprised that Daisuke got the highest scores overall, as he had been the most vital and most visible character in Ken’s personal development journey. One could almost call their relationship a legacy that has lasted throughout all these years and had always been going strong as a beloved mlm ship. Miyako and Hikari, while not having had as much of an impact and thus having received signficantly less votes, are still seen as viable choices due to their (either complementing or contrasting) personalities, potential (and, in one case, canonization). 

Considering how Ken’s polls received the second most votes overall (coming in second after Taichi), it can be assumed that those choices mentioned above can be considered to be the most viable options in fandom. As for the others - thanks to the aforementioned lack of (screen)time he shared, especially with the majority of the 01 cast, it’s no surprise that those received no or very niche attention (with Yamato and Koushiro basically being the only exceptions, as they have had the chance to interact with Ken in familiar and friendly ways). Takeru and Iori, as fellow 02 group members, were seen as less viable as well - probably due to the idea that they took significantly longer to warm up to Ken in the end, despite their relationships improving in the end. Ryo also has to be mentioned, as he may not be known as having been a companion of Ken, and thus only very few (namely the 5 people who voted for him) may see him as a valid choice.

The comments in the tags have only referred to the already mentioned choices. So the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships, for when people prefer to not ship a character at all or when they’re considered asexual (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!). Thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now.

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

#ken ichijouji #digimon #digimon polls #digimon shipping #daiken #kenyako #kenkari #my edit #my two cents #meta

[piracytheorist]

Okay thoughts about the musical! I will go into a bit of a detail so if you prefer being surprised by how things appear in the musical, then skip this post.

It's about 2 hours and 40 minutes long, not counting a 30-minute-long break in the middle and the last ten or so minutes of bows and the cast saying goodbye. It's a big thing, though it doesn't show anything that hasn't been shown in the anime already - although from what I noticed, the lyrics and dialogue are based on the manga dialogues. It even adapts scenes from "Fullmetal Lady", which was adapted by a manga chapter further down the line.

First thing you hear after the orchestra tunes up is sounds of guns firing and bombs falling. The music starts and it's soon joined by a young Twilight crying.

Yeah :)

It's framed as Twilight looking at his past. After this very intense and dark intro, it starts adapting from the very first page of the manga. Some stuff are shown as "action" on a projected screen. The Handler appears from the very beginning, acting like a sorta narrator and also the one who introduces Operation Strix to Twilight.

It skims through details, but main scenes are kept and half the time the dialogue is spoken, the other half sung. I did not particularly like that they took the manga dialogues as they were and simply turned them into lyrics, there are lots of instances where the rhythm and lack of rhyming sounded awkward, but it's not too distracting from the entertainment.

I'm not an expert in musicals, but it looked like a well-standing production. I can't lie that I did notice some weak spots in the main actors' singing, but I give a pass because it was a very long production and they might have been tired from constant rehearsals and performances. Around 2/3 of the first part Twilight's poor actor was sweating buckets and didn't even have the time to wipe it off. But he still acted, sang and danced without showing any signs of tiredness or stress. In fact he was pretty funny in his acting! Yor's actress did some cool moves, too, she looks so badass as the Thorn Princess. The Anya actress from the performance I watched was very good, especially for her age! Good singing and great "placement" on stage.

Franky was fun! He seemed to really enjoy it, or simply really really get into the role. The Handler had some awesome dance moves and a strong voice, they knew what they were doing with her actress - also she has a very swaggy song right after the break, that accompanies the "Fullmetal Lady" part. I hope they release the songs from official recording off live performances, cause some of them are pretty cool!

And I swear, Yuri is far from my favourite character in the show, but just like the English dub, in the musical he just serves. He's so fucking enjoyable, and looked super professional in his dance and sing combo - I might need to rewatch, but he might have been the best at singing and dancing at the same time from all the cast. Paired with his overdramatic acting he was so much fun to watch!

By the way, the choruses were damn near impeccable. While I noticed a few flats and weak high notes from the main cast, I don't think I noticed a single mistake from any of the chorus parts. I was even taken aback by one; when Anya has a flashback of the lab scientists, said scientists sing in a chorus about how she has to study and has no time to cry and play. And it's awesome! Though you also feel sad because halfway through it Anya (the character, not the actress) bursts into tears and you're just like :( stop hurting her :(

The design changes are cool and smooth. Some back dancers/singers help with the changes sometimes but they feel very part of the whole thing. It doesn't take you away from the action. Fight choreographies are pretty good, too. I mean, they are theatrical ones, it's obvious they're fake, but they're faked well and professionally. You don't expect cutting and montage on a theatrical performance, after all!

You might have noticed from the video I posted, but Henderson's actor did a good job being a meme playing.

In general the whole presentation has a feeling of... not taking itself very seriously. Like, they have an entire movement just for Bondman! It's still very professional but they also take it a little lighter - aside from scenes where gravity is needed, like when Anya or Twilight have their flashbacks, when Yor kills her target, when Yuri interrogates that guy they arrested, etc. I think there's a good balance overall.

After Yuri's visit ends, Twilight has his moment of thinking how he felt jealous of Yor and Yuri, and though the acting was a little subtle, I really liked it! I like it as a moment in general so I'm glad it was added there and done justice!

I'm not sure whether Fiona really had time to be a part of the musical. She only appears a little before the end, in an adaptation of the "Nightfall" episode/chapter, and though it's done well (and the singer has a great finish line) it feels a little shoehorned in, lol. She was still enjoyable and I understand why they added her, but still. She was fun to see her fangirl about Twilight and Twilight being none the wiser - I feel that was even more accentuated there since it was live action, lol.

Near the end is also the Loidman part, with a choreographed fight between Loid and Yor! I missed some action though because some cameraman decided to film Anya's reaction from up close instead. Cute, but not the center of attention, dude!

Anyway, it then ends with a bit of a "summary" of how Anya has to become an Imperial Scholar (we get to see her in her school uniform!), and a full-cast and chorus reprise of the beginning song, which is certainly not an earworm for me right now SUBETE WA YORI YOKI SEKAI NO TAME NI I mean what

Overall, it's quite entertaining, and I'm not a big fan of musicals myself! Again, it's a long watch, and you have to be mindful that you're watching a filmed theatrical performance, but I would recommend it for its humor.

#sxf #sxf musical

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Fortnight – 9/17- 9/30

Space Adventure Cobra – RetroCrush added this to their streaming catalog just as everyone was posting their remembrances after the mangaka passed away, so I figured I should probably see what it was about. What I got was a interstellar romp featuring a blond-haired frat boy with a gun-arm and a smorgasbord of comic book villains and nearly naked women that entertained me despite my better judgement. It’s directed by Osamu Dezaki, with all the pastel freeze frames and three pans he was known for, and still looks pretty darn good for a 40-year-old anime. If you’re ever in the mood for a turn-your-brain-off sort of adventure peppered with smugly delivered one-liners, this should deliver the goods. 7/10

Project Blue Earth SOS – I found this one night while randomly poking around Crunchyroll’s library, and it’s a nice little retro-futuristic sci-fi that’s much better than its MAL score lets on. It’s set around the year 2000 in an alternate timeline Earth where humanity has developed powerful engines that allow for near-light speed travel, leading them to be targeted by an alien civilization bent on subjugating the planet. Rising up in opposition are two brilliant teenagers, one the son of the manufacturer of the powerful engines, and the other the son of astronauts killed in a space disaster years earlier, who work together with a quasi-governmental secret agency to drive them away. The art style is vibrant and colorful with a delightfully 1950s ray gun sci-fi vibe, and the story had lots of twists and turns and revelations straight out of a midcentury B-movie. 7/10

Initial D: Extra Stage – This two-episode OVA follows the driver of the blue Sileighty from Usui Pass as she faces down a challenge on the road and one in her love life. The first episode, Beyond Impact Blue, has her racing one of the Lan Evo drivers from the Emperors after he insults female drivers as a whole and challenges her to what he assumes will be an easy race for him. The second episode, Sentimental White, has her go on a date with one of the divers from the Night Kids, who suggests that he would want his girlfriend to give up a dangerous hobby like street racing, leading her to do some thinking about her life. I didn’t feel like the racing was as exciting as it was in the main series, and I don’t love this mangaka’s approach to writing female characters or romance content, but I did like watching Mako take control and set a path for herself. 7/10

Space Dandy – I don’t know what took me so long to watch this series, as an episodic space comedy directed by Shingo Natsume featuring dozens of top-tier animators and guest directors is completely my kind of food. It starts off a little dubiously with the title character monologuing about tits and asses before heading off to his favorite breastaurant, Boobies, but it was hard to stay mad at this charming idiot blundering his way around the galaxy with his talking vacuum cleaner robot sidekick and alien cat freeloader, Meow. Some of the episodes were fantastic sci-fi short stories that packed a ton of worldbuilding and creativity into 20 minutes, and others were just sort of okay monster-of-the-week episodes, with a thread of a overarching plot loosely connecting them. The art and animation varied a bit depending on who worked on the episode, but on the whole, it was very good work and a lot of fun to watch. 8/10

Gunbuster – The old anime nerds have been talking up this series ever since Discotek licensed it, and Crunchyroll added it to their catalog this week, so I watched it. If you watched Aim for the Ace and thought to yourself that it would be better if it had more mechs and titty fanservice, this is the show for you. The first episode is an almost frame-for-frame homage to the beginning episodes of Aim for the Ace, which is kind of amusing when all the girls were training to be mecha pilots to fight the alien horde. It had some solid space fights and substantial sci-fi scenarios, and I appreciated how big the stakes felt. I only wish there were fewer lovingly animated bouncing titties. 7/10

Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation – This is one of those movie sequels to a series that’s kind of hard to put a rating on. On the one hand, it’s more of the story I enjoy with the characters I love, and it’s great to see some of the moments I remember from the manga animated and acted out. On the other hand, however, it’s not structured like a movie in the least, and runs through the material pretty quickly, leaving the viewer little time to take in what they’ve seen. It’s basically just two more episodes smooshed together without an opening or ending song. If you like the series, you’ll like this, but it’s not a movie-length story with a dramatic arc that stands alone. 8/10

#anime #backlist anime #older anime #space adventure cobra #project blue earth sos #initial d #space dandy #gunbuster #sasaki and miyano

[millennialdemon]

Upon finishing Cleopatra: Queen of Sex, I am left with one simple, rather frustrating question to have at the end of any movie: What was the point?

I can’t help but compare it to Belladonna of Sadness, the film following this one in the Animerama trilogy, and lament Cleopatra’s apparent lack of purpose or narrative vision. Because while Belladonna of Sadness is quite a troubling movie to me personally – I simply cannot call it feminist, and I find it harder and harder to not just admit it is really, very misogynistic despite Eichii Yamamoto’s attempts to grapple with feminist ideas therein – I cannot say it wasn’t trying to impart a meaning, or even that it didn’t succeed in doing so. It was very squarely, definitely, about something. I came away from Belladonna of Sadness shocked, sad, and sympathetic – even if that sympathy was and is still conflicted.

On the other hand, Cleopatra: Queen of Sex left me puzzled and somewhat disgusted, and I don’t even think it was on purpose. And yes, I’m a 28 year-old harpy woman feminist whatever, of course I took umbrage with a 70s cinemax porno anime movie, what did I expect? But that really didn’t even turn out to be my main complaint. In fact, that didn’t even make it into the Top 3 problems I have with this movie, which are as follows:

3. Cleopatra, kind of like Jeanne now that I think about, didn’t actually have much agency and just sort of reacted to the story unfolding around her, despite being the main character. This is exacerbated by having her actions be controlled by another, much more wicked older woman throughout who is doing all of the planning for her.

2. The time-travel framing narrative was completely nonsensical, unnecessary, and went ignored for the vast majority of the movie.

and 1. The ending of the framing time-travel narrative is in complete opposition with the preceding 1 hour and 40 minutes of the story.

Now, I said that the time-travel framing narrative went ignored in the majority of the movie, but that isn’t technically true. If you must know, the time-travellers passively sitting inside of the brains of the ancient people – and a leopard – did contribute One thing to the story throughout: raunchy, absurdist humour. The man inside of Cleopatra’s pet leopard seemingly kept his consciousness somehow, since he was a perverse dunce that facilitated bestiality jokes, just as he did before he got stuck inside the body of an ancient leopard. What a blessing. Thank you Tezuka, for showing me various images of a wacky cartoon leopard trying to have sex with human women.

The other time-travellers ended up in the bodies of humans, a roman slave and a young woman who was a close friend of Cleopatra’s. They, for some unexplained reason, were not consciously controlling the bodies they are inside of, nor were they able to investigate anything despite that being the main conceit of this journey. The roman slave is able to craft explosives and, ridiculously, a handgun, but he has no idea how he knows how to do these things or why he is compelled to. He says vaguely, “someone in my heart is telling me how to do this” and “I made this on impulse, I have no idea how it works”. The young woman does not feel any similar impulse or have access to hidden future knowledge – she may as well have never been possessed at all. Her life goes on exactly as we would assume it would had she not been.

All of the things these three characters do, whether they had been possessed by time-travellers who do nothing anyway or not, could have simply not been done at all and nothing in the story would be very different. History would have played out the same way regardless if the roman slave won his coliseum battle by shooting his opponent with a handgun, and other similar absurdities. Cleopatra steals that handgun afterwards and threatens to kill Calpurnia with it for stealing away Caesar, but Calpurnia convinces her otherwise by showing her that Caesar doesn’t love her, so Cleopatra doesn’t even end up using the gun to change the outcome of history. And need I even explain how whether or not the leopard wants to hump various women doesn’t matter at all, beyond facilitating crude humour, the same way the imagery of a roman slave holding a glock facilitates absurdist humour in this movie?

And it was still not necessary to include them even for the sake of just facilitating humour. There are tons of elements in this movie that are purposely “out of time and place” for the sake of absurdity. All the montages of fine art parodies from around the world, the scene of the various famous statues that have Caesar’s likeness forced onto them after he becomes emperor, Caesar’s assassination playing out like a Japanese stage play. Caesar literally returns to Rome with Cleopatra in a red sports car. This movie never claimed to be aiming for any sort of historical accuracy – we even got a disclaimer about that right off the hop! – we didn’t need any reason for the roman slave to be able to craft a gun, or for the leopard to be horned out of his mind, or the girl to do… nothing…

Functionally the only thing the time-travel framing narrative did was render this movie meaningless in the end. The reason the time-travellers went to the past was to figure out why an alien race on an alien planet called Pasateli, which Earth is trying to conquer, have named their plans for rebellion against Earth “The Cleopatra Plan”. They watch the real Cleopatra’s life unfold in ancient Egypt, and return to the future saying that they now understand what the “The Cleopatra Plan” might be.

The aliens of Pasateli have been sending beautiful women to Earth to seduce the earth men and then, when they are vulnerable, kill them. Upon discovering this, earth launches missiles to Pasateli to destroy it, and the movie ends.

But Cleopatra was not a conniving, wicked woman trying to destroy mankind – this movie does not present her as such. She was being guided and pressured by Apollodoria, and even so, she resisted her demands and fell in love with both of the Roman leaders she had been tasked with assassinating. For an hour and 40 minutes we watch this story about this poor woman who cannot bear to kill the men she loves, not even for her beloved Egypt. Even when Caesar betrays her love, she does not plot revenge or kill him where he lay – she runs away in sorrow. And after Antony dies in his battle against Octavian, helped by Apollodoria’s meddling and poisoning, Cleopatra tries to run away and live in solitude, saying she wants to go back to the way she was before and live a normal life. But Octavian chases her down, helped by the vengeful Apollodoria, and Cleopatra dies when her desperate final attempt to assimilate with the Romans for the sake of survival fails against Octavian, who is immune to her charms because he is gay. (And by the way, in this mess of a story, what is that supposed to mean?)

Similarly, the Egyptians of the movie were clear victims, analogous with the aliens of Pasateli whom Earth was trying to conquer. After Cleopatra committed suicide, faced with being captured and executed by Octavian and having no choice but to do so, the young Egyptian woman one of the time-travellers ended up inside of screamed and cried and begged for the Romans to leave Egypt. That is how the story that takes place in ancient Egypt ends, with an Egyptian woman begging for the conquerors to leave them alone. And then we hard cut to the future and the time-travellers just glibly say, Oh, the Pasateli are trying to destroy us by seducing our men, just like Cleopatra did! Even though in this story, she didn’t.

It is awful. It is insanely misogynistic. It is weirdly conspiratorially racist and brings to mind the bogus “great replacement” theory that neo-nazis insist is definitely real and happening (it isn’t). It makes no sense.

I could try to spin it differently, and try to make a bold claim that this movie is actually about how humans never learn anything from history. How else can you justify none of the time-travellers, particularly the woman who had resided inside of the mourning Egyptian, not pausing and asking: Wait, are we the baddies? Are we the Roman conquerors that drove the titular Cleopatra to desperate measures and an early demise? Are we the villains incapable of witnessing and understanding the violence we are perpetuating even when it is staring us directly in the face?

But that’s a hard sell and one I cannot actually endorse, because this movie did nothing to earn that interpretation beyond have bafflingly bad writing that forces you try to make sense of it. And because there is a comedy scene wherein Egyptian women band together and plot to exhaust the Roman soldiers in Antony’s army with sex prior to his battle with Octavian’s army, ensuring he loses. And it works.

So was this time-travel framing narrative worth witnessing for the sake of laughing at the horrendously rotoscoped anime heads atop live-action actors in a kitschy sci-fi lab? Not in my opinion, no, even though I do love to see animators experiment and I do love feeling like I’m going insane sometimes. And while I can appreciate the artistry of this movie – and there is a lot of it to enjoy! – I have a big problem when a story like this is so contradictory. And no, it being an experimental adult movie from the 70’s doesn’t absolve it of having bad, confusing writing and being dissatisfying.

4/10 for some compelling visuals and a lot of experimental animation that kept things fresh, but it was majorly dragged down by a story that was a little too careless to just be dumb entertainment.

#:Cleopatra #cleopatra 1970 #cleopatra: queen of sex #Octavian did slay the entire house down every time he was on screen but alas. He could not save this movie #readmore because I ended up typing 1673 words about this -_-

[ezra-iolite]

Swiftwire Mutheru Bio- 2023 ver.

(Original template made by @stuckedwithstarscream, hopefully this will help me not make a SUPER LONG post about Swift for once. ;3; She deserves a proper bio. Original BLANK template can be found here: How to Build a Cybertronian)

Name?

Swiftwire Asya Zahara Mutheru of the Terran Maasai Tribe (Goes by Swift) [She/Her]

2. Age Level? (How long did your character exist?)

Young by Cybertronian standards, so to avoid suspicion Swift will usually claim to be 40 thousand years old, when really she's (currently) 45 in human years.

3. Alternative-Form/Vehicle Mode? (What´s the vehicle/animal they can transform to?)

An S-35 jet, which she most likely believes was stolen to make her body. She is unable to scan for a different jet for her alt-form due to her not having the scanning ability.

4. Where do they come from?

She was originally born in the far north of Maine in America, but has since rejected her birth nationality due to her past and considers herself a Maasai-Kenyan instead (her mother's nationality). She now lives in Vos on Cybertron and calls herself a Terran for simplicity’s sake.

5. Faction?

Autobot, but became neutral after she left her old job as a politician, scratching out her sigil upon belly plate as a symbol of her good faith but proof of her neutrality. She still wears it in memory of her adoptive father, Borealis.

6. Caste?

Mid-High Class: Post-War Politician turned Ombudswoman, but mostly works as an artist for income.

7. Personality traits?

Swift is entirely driven by her moral compass and instinctually follows her heart/spark over her mind, which has often led to her being a bit of an overbearing Mama Bear. However, when she isn't being the Mom Friend, she's usually dazzling the crowd and being a slightly vain “prima donna” the moment she enters a room. From her sparkly orange frame to her colourful Kenyan jewellery, Swift simply adores the spotlight and will happily help and support those she believes deserve to feel it too. Her lack of stage-fright also aids in her being all too happy to advocate for those who cannot voice their problems. Which is why she became an Ombudswoman of the Iacon Council after she quit her old job as a politician representing Vos, due to the racism and bullying she faced from the other Senators.

However, behind the loving, fanged smile hides a deeply rooted shame for what she is and the original purpose for her creation... which is why she is content to have lost her humanity over her sense of agency, even at such a hefty and traumatizing price.

(It's also worth noting that Swift is bilingual and will use any given chance to slip in a word or two of her native tongue, oftentimes calling those she cherishes "mpenzi" or darling, her catchphrase every time for everyone's nickname from her.)

8. What did they do before and during the civil war/War for Cybertron?

(Warning, this is a LONG read, so TL;DR: Swift used to be a human named Asya, but became a cyborg Cybertronian when she was killed to become the battery powering the spark of a reverse engineered protoform. If TALOS had won and Asya died at the hands of her own father, then she would have become Talos Alpha, a mechanical Hoplite or Spartan designed to kill all Cybertronians living on Earth, a dream Jeremy was determined to complete due to his hatred for the alien race, to finally gain his "perfect soldier". By sheer willpower or blind luck, Asya's soul held on and she lived to become Swiftwire, at the cost of her family.)

During the final few years of the Cybertronian war, Swift was originally a human on Earth, an eighteen year old at the time, named Asya Mutheru. Her loving mother, Gasira Mutheru, fell gravely ill and victim to the neglect of Asya's abusive father, Jeremy Omari, who was the head of a scientific-military division known simply as TALOS. He sent Asya away to a military boarding school the moment she was of age, forcing her to stay and be deployed as a soldier abroad, even after her mother died and had a funeral that Asya was forbidden to attend by her father to ensure she focused only on her studies and deployment. After serving her ten years and becoming a commissioned Sergeant, Asya left the army and returned home, now in her late twenties, and confronted her father for the cruelty he put his only child and baby-trapped wife through, before she came out as a transwoman during a shouting match. Their verbal fight quickly became physical and it ended with her beaten, bruised, scarred over one eye, and abandoned in a snowy forest to bleed to death.

That was when she met and was rescued by Borealis the White Wolf (Bori for short) and his fellow pack of Maximals; Minerva the Deer, who patched Asya up and taught her how to be wise and maternally kind, Artemis the Hound, who taught Asya how to defend herself physically and verbally while also teaching her the true meaning of loyalty, the slightly insane Beetlevise the Stag Beetle who taught her how to be silly and have fun by simply being herself around those she trusts, and Azure the Peacock, a proud mech who adored his appearance and eagerly helped Asya through her transition into a woman, and taught her how to love and be proud of herself and her accomplishments, no matter how small of a step forward they were.

They soon became her family, with Borealis treating Asya like a daughter while the rest of the pack became her aunts and uncles, who were soon joined by a pair of Decepticons who originally kidnapped Asya to trap the Maximal refugees as prisoners of war… Only to befriend Asya due to their similarities and learning that life could be better without the threat to their lives by their warlord. Those two Cons soon joined the pack, with Knockout becoming their medic alongside Minerva, and his Conjunx Breakdown becoming their scout and protector. And due to their similarities, Asya fell in love with both Knockout and Breakdown and began a romantic relationship with them both, forming her first polycule~

However, when the Cybertronian war was announced to have finally ended, Asya was kidnapped and imprisoned by TALOS on the orders of her father, who planned on using her as a battery for the spark of his life's work... Project Talos Alpha, the mythological robot of his obsession made real through stolen Cybertronian body parts and technology, including a vat of Energon supposedly from the Well of the Allspark. Determined to finally be rid of his runt of a child, he shot her three times but only grazed her arm and leg, while the third bullet cut open her head from the temple along the side, before he finally shoved into the vat in frustration at failing to kill her yet again and sealed it.

Swift still remembers the burning pain of her body melting and breaking apart, of seeing the world vanishing into a black void as silver liquid metal engulfed her, then nothing. It wasn't until Bori's voice woke her up, allowing her first memory with new eyes to be meeting the gaze of the wolf she loved as a father, sensing something imprinting within her as her own eyes turned blue, and her large, silver hands breaking the vat that held her as she spilled at the feet of her father and her maker. Instead of a first breath, her transformation from a blank, smooth silver shell into a newborn Seeker came with a scream and the ripping of metal flesh to make way for wings and wire dreadlocks. The moment she gained claws for hands, she used them to kill her maker and the one who caused the most pain in her life, the taste of copper still lingering on her tongue when she suddenly awoke back home with her Maximal family with no memory of when she passed out... But from what Bori told everyone, all Swift could apparently see was red, and nothing could stop the hunt until silence and human blood filled the empty halls of TALOS.

Her old life as a human, alongside Jeremy's lifetime of work, was now dead and gone, her body nothing but a cadaver with its soul still bound to it, hidden deep within the spark of a handmade Cybertronian Seeker, with all her scars transferred over during the experimental process of her growth, both the physical and the mental kind.

9. Did they experience a moment of great tragedy or trauma that haunts them?

The final attempt on her life from TALOS still haunts her to this day... For even after she embraced her identity as Swiftwire, since she finally looked feminine and had the defining features she always yearned for on the body she wanted as a woman, her past was still chasing after her to take away everything she worked hard to gain.

Only a few months after Asya became Swiftwire and finally learned how to walk and get used to her new height and needs as a Transformer, Beetlevise reported strange readings all around the mountain and underground cave they called their base and home, signals that were the same kind used by the technology created by TALOS. Before Bori could order Artemis to track where the signals were coming from, the tunnels leading to the central command room erupted in a fiery explosion, sending rock, metal shrapnel and flames everywhere. One by one, each pack member helped Swift get to the entrance of the cave before they each fell to the crumbling rock, fire and the explosions of the bombs hidden throughout the cave, before it was only her, Borealis and Beetlevise left alive.

When Swift and Beetle made it outside, the Seeker saw Bori holding up a fallen boulder that would have crushed them had he not stopped it, the flames of the cave slowly spreading behind him. Swift pleaded for him to let them help, but as the fire began to burn through Bori’s fur and he started to struggle against the weight of the boulder above him, her father simply smiled and told Beetle,

“Take her to the stars for me, brother. Our home deserves her spark.”

The flames vanished when the boulder fell and created a rocky avalanche, sealing the cave and their pack’s fate inside. The last thing Swift remembers of that day, and the same moment that haunts her dreams years later, was the sound of her own voice screaming as she pulled against Beetle’s firm grip to reach for the cave, her words echoing the entire forest as she wailed for her father,

“YOU PROMISED YOU’D STAY, BABA!! YOU PROMISED!!”

10. Did they experience a moment of great joy that´s still in their memory as a precious moment?

The happiest moment from her past was the day she had her first sparkling, and forming her now massive family of four spouses and eight kids… (Beware, another long one... there's a LOT of kids...)

Believing that she was infertile due to her being made by human hand, Swift’s dream of becoming a mother lingered in the back of her mind for the first few years she started living on Cybertron with her Conjunxes, Knockout and Breakdown, even more so after rescuing a teenaged Seeker named Conduit from surviving in the ruins of the Hydrax Plateau and adopting him as her son. In a twist of fate, after Conduit settled into his new life and began training under his fathers to become a medic like them, Swift and Knockout shared a moment together in a field of cobalt flowers to escape the chaos of their busy lives. A month later, the two found a second spark growing in Swift’s chamber, and Swift has never screamed as loudly with excitement and tearful joy as she did then. They named the little spark Sira, in memory of Swift's mother, Gasira.

However, when she was only in the middle of her second trimester, Swift suddenly felt a horrible pain as she began to bleed rivers of Energon from between the plates, her entire chest breaking apart plate piece by cracked plate piece. Conduit rushed her to the hospital where Knockout and Breakdown helped to deliver their daughter, but found that she was born without vocal cords, but was otherwise healthy for such a premature baby. And yet… For three full minutes after that, Swiftwire flatlined and became grey. When she returned to life thanks to Conduit’s electrical power shocking her very spark back to full brightness, Swift was left with permanent chronic pain and a scar of thin, lightning-like cracks all over her chest plates…. And the news that she would most likely never be able to have children again.

That was… Until she met Elbent and Verglaust (@tigracespace's OCs). After the miscarriage of Elbent’s firstborn child, Firefly, Swift began to use her political position to help the tiny Grounder in her research to bring back fertility to all Cybertronians, not just because she had fallen for Elbent… But because she too had miscarried a child she never even knew she had, one she named Hyacinth, who she lost only a week before she met Conduit. After that, the two couples became a married polycule that welcomed Ferrous and Indicolite into their family, making the headcount of kids add up to four. Many more came along through Elbent, Knockout and Breakdown as they played the role of the carrier to each child…

For after the twins from Verglaust and Elbent, Swift and Verglaust had Bori, a grey and turquoise dire wolf Beastformer that Knockout was the surrogate carrier to.

Then, after discovering that a child could carry up to four traits of CNA, Elbent became the carrier to hers, Knockout’s and Breakdown’s daughter equally, naming her Alexandrite after her purple frame that bore the blend of their three colours, before another colourful child was born between Elbent, Knockout and Swift; Empyrean, a spoiled brat of a daughter due to her sunrise ombre colours adding to the flawless beauty inherited from her sires, including Swift’s dreadlocks.

Finally, after begging her medically worried spouses, mostly Knockout due to his mother hen instincts, to stop worrying about her and allow her to simply try after all these years… Swift worked together with Verglaust and Breakdown to be the carrier of their final triple-CNA child, a white and blue dragon Beastformer named Grimfrost.

(In case you're stumped and need a recap of all the kids.... In the order of eldest to youngest: Conduit, Sira, Ferrous and Indicolite, Borealis, Alexandrite, Empyrean and Grimfrost) 11. Is your character able to drive a spaceship? Where did they learned it?

No, simply due to Swift having a jet form that’s able to traverse the depths of space easily. But she does take a ship when visiting other planets, simply due to how exhausting it is flying in lightyears by herself.

12. Did your character met one of the Cybertronian leaders? What were their thoughts about for example Optimus Prime or Sentinel Prime?

For a short time, she worked alongside Rodimus when he first became Prime, helping to finalize the details for the new council of Cybertron and attending the same congress meetings as him about the mundane issues across the planet, now that it was settling into a peaceful new era. But, she saw him less and less as he began his plans for his quest, his thirst for adventure and a legacy driving him out of the role of a political leader and into the spotlight of a celebrity seeking a legend. She does miss their playful banter and exchange in past-life stories of their shared experiences on Earth sometimes, but like Rodimus with the crew of the Lost Light, she found her life's meaning in her frame paintjob and canvas art studio, A Touch of Terra, and has never regretted leaving her old job since.

As for the more famous names... No, she has never met Optimus or Megatron or any other past Prime. But she has learned to hate the face behind the emblem she still wears due to the war doing more harm than good.

13. Best Friend(s)?

After marrying Knockout and Breakdown, it was originally Rodimus before he left Cybertron. Then it became Elbent and Verglaust before they formed a polyfidelity married group, or a polycule strictly between all five of them.

Beyond her family, Swift is close to her surviving uncle Beetlevise and is doing her best to befriend Elbent's friends, Nicole and Drillburst.

14. Greatest Enemie(s)?

Her birth father, Jeremy Omari, and all those who survived her mad slaughter of the TALOS group.

15. Preferred weapons?

Her Seeker claws, her fangs and her dreadlocks. Her dreadlocks have the ability to stretch to unmeasurable lengths and move like snakes, just like Medusa's hair, due to the fact that they're wires coated in a soft, rubbery casing that are connected to her brain. It takes only three of them to lift her up off the ground, and oftentimes she uses that ability to prank others by crawling up to the ceiling and popping down suddenly while hanging upside down. When used in fighting, they can be shot like javelins when kept straight, or like whips when allowing them to bend and move freely. Her main heavy attack is often an aerial one using her dreadlocks, where she will fly in jet form as high as she can go, then go back into her root/bot form and spin in either a curled up (Sonic the Hedgehog) ball or in a circle while standing as she falls back down, becoming a circular saw capable of cutting through armor if she has enough momentum and speed. Another ability they have, due to the Talos Alpha Project's design, is their ability to tap into any and all forms of technology with a computer or terminal, with each dreadlock bearing a port key of every known piece of technology Swift has seen in her lifetime... including the brains of Transformers. The last time she used this ability was when Conduit was kidnapped by protestors who demanded that Swift be removed from her seat in the council. After finding and capturing a protestor, Swift pierced his eye and searched his memories for where they hid her baby boy, lobotomizing him into a frozen but conscious state where his bodily functions were still working but he would be trapped in his own mind, unable to speak or move forever.

Out of guilt from the Mama Bear anger that drove her to such cruelty, Swift tried to destroy the dreadlock that bore the psychic patch needle, but found that if she had succeeded and damaged the interior of the dreadlock, she would suffer major brain damage and possibly die from the shock of the pain it would bring her... so now, under her full mop of dreadlocks, there is one with a tip that is black from fire damage, a dreadlock she has since sworn never to use again.

16. Do they have a team, a partner, or someone that´s often with them?

The entire MnM Gang or her polycule!! Knockout is the one who often spends the most time with Swift, but if it's not him due to work, then it's Elbent. But, no matter what, Swift always tries to spend time with all her spouses equally.

17. Do they have sibling(s)? How´s their relationship to them?

As far as Swift is aware, she has no siblings.... However, one of the few survivors of the TALOS slaughter was in fact Jeremy's son from another lover he had before Gasira died.... Swift's half brother, Zaire Omari. The two have no idea they are related through the same man that Swift killed before his eyes, and Swift has no intention on returning to Earth until she truly feels homesick enough to do so. But so far, she is happy where she is.

18. Do they have a sparkmate? How did they get to know each other?

Again, Swift has four Conjunxes. Knockout, Breakdown, Elbent, and Verglaust. See above for how they all met, but to put it simply here....

As Asya the human, she met Knockout first when he kidnapped her as a prisoner of the Decepticons. During her imprisonment, she stood her ground and was sassy and flirty with Knockout and Breakdown, until the three of them simply started speaking and growing closer emotionally until her rescue. After that, they began to meet in secret where their feelings grew and developed despite their species, until the end of the war came and Asya helped KO and BD to be free of the Cons and join her family. Their relationship soon became romantic, even before she became Swiftwire.

After the death of her family by the TALOS bombs, KO found an old ship and brought the surviving family members to Cybertron to start fresh amongst their own kind, where Swift first travelled around the planet for the sake of her mental health but instead both lost and gained her first child, before she returned to her family and moved to Vos to train as a politician for the sake of a better future for her children, and to help promote her vision of building equity for all, no matter a person's origins. During her training, she was told to hire a bodyguard, and the biggest one there who caught her eye just so happened to be Verglaust, a giant mech who immediately made her spark flutter with familiarity and attraction (cue Moto Moto song~) purely because he was a Beastformer, the only kind who had ever shown her love. Swift, KO and BD soon married, had Sira, and during a gala to promote her vote for becoming a Senator in the Iacon Council, Swift was introduced to Elbent on the day she lost Firefly. After KO and Conduit helped Elbent to deliver Firefly's stillborn body, Swift was finally able to reunite with Elbent and got told of what happened... The grief became their link to forming their bond, as Swift used her Senator position to become a patron to Elbent's research, and soon enough the two femmes fell in love and introduced the idea of forming a polycule.

Thus the MnM gang was born.

19. Overall Look?

(Right here~)

(Her earring needs a minor change, just to represent her spouses: Red for Knockout, Dark Blue for Breakdown, Light Blue for Elbent, Green for Verglaust, Orange for Swift ..... Also heels. She deserves killer heels that can echo with every step.)

20. Bonus: What´s the song that represents your character the most?

¬w¬ You know damn well why this works... We all know why, don't we mutuals?~

#I DID IT!!! BABY GURL FINALLY HAS A BIO!! #Hopefully this will cover everything anyone needs to know about her background and not be overwhelmed with an infodump #But HERE SHE IS!! YEE!!!!! #Thank you for making such a handy question thingy #stuckedwithstarscream #It REALLY helped!! #tigracespace #hyraxas #You too JJ~ #Youtube

[naughtygirl286]

so yeah we finally went to see Spider‑Man: Across the Spider-Verse and I would have to say I was surprised by the amount of ppl that were there when the movie started it like like the theater we were in was half full. but also of course there was some collectable goodies for this one also which you can see Here.

As for the movie itself I would have to say it was amazing! truly spectacular! and every other Spider-Man related adjective lol but seriously it was excellent I would have to say I did love it.

I feel that the story this time focus a bit more on Gwen at least I thought it did Miles is still heavily part of the story and does follow him but I do think it does focus more on Gwen to me it was a bit of a 60/40 where it was 60 Gwen and 40 Miles but there is alot going on in this movie you do have to pay attention!

It takes place like a year or so after the first one and Miles is busy doing his best being the Spider-Man of his corner of the Multiverse (Earth-1610) but is struggling with his normal/home life and his duties as Spider-Man. Unknowingly he creates a threat to the entire Multiverse known as the Spot and ends up reuniting with Gwen and his friends from the original movies and goes on a huge spider fueled adventure across the multiverse to stop him while at the same time meeting various Spider-People especially Miguel O'Hara Spider-Man 2099 (Earth 928 a possible Marvel future) who is bring all the Spider-People together to hopefully protect the Multiverse.

Like I said the movie is excellent I loved every minute of it and it quite long as animated movies go being it is like 2 and a half hours but the animation is excellent just like the first one and I feel each Spider-Person is given their own style of animation and there own look which really sets them apart.

The music for this is great as well both the films score and the various songs used through out. the voice acting is I thought was perfectly done, sure alot of it is easy at times when people are wearing masks but when they are not it is quite impressive. They are still very expressive with "mask eye" movements and body gestures which are all very fluid and life like.

One thing this movie has alot of is humor as Peter B. Parker says in the movie "Spider-Man is suppose to be funny" and this is just that the movie does have lots of funny moments to balance out the seriousness and drama. One of the most funny parts of the movie is when the Spot is introduced and his first fight with Miles is hilarious.

The references and cameos are mind blowing!! you'll have to go and see this like 15 times or watch it frame by frame digitally or possibility wear out the pause button when it comes on disk to see and get everything!! its truly amazing how much they put into this.

I have to say I thought the choice of the Spot for the main villain in this was pretty good being his powers are interdimensional and would work good in a movie that deals with the Multiverse and I felt that they did a really good job with the character in general

I how ever was not to sure about making Spider-Man 2099 a some what secondary villain. He wasn't really I think a villain but more of a person with good intentions that might not be the best way about doing things? They did a really good job with the character tho I thought he was handled nicely over all.

but yeah they kinda took everything that made the first one great and did more of that plus a bunch of new and amazing things you can tell that this is a huge leap form the previous movie.

So pretty much if you loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse you'll love this one too!

also there isn't any credit scenes so you don't have to sit and wait for that

#Spider‑Man: Across the Spider-Verse #Spider‑Man Across the Spider-Verse #Across the Spider-Verse #spider gwen #spider-gwen #spider woman #ghost-spider #ghost spider #shannonj286 #naughtygirl286 #marvel #spiderman #spider-man #miles morales #Spider-Man 2099 #Sony #Columbia Pictures #Marvel Animated #Animated Movie #Sony Pictures Animation #Marvel Comics #Marvel Entertainment

[arisatominakos]

i want your gif making lore. 7, 9, 17, 15, 20, 26, 40, 45, and 49!

dfkjaj LORE REQUEST RECEIVED

7. Who are your top 3 gif makers

ohmans thats hard khfdsa. i actually am big fans of a lot of gifmakers out there that i dont follow but i see their stuff all the time in the tags & rb from them etc etc. but like i do follow a lot of folks who’s stuff i rlly enjoy and are folks that tend to inspire me. its a bit unfair to list just three so fkjsdha uhh @aartyom  @eurodynamic @onewingedangels @preciousgyro @entreri @marogarreh @thequantumranger @trident

9. What/who inspired you to start making gifs

i dont fully remember, i think a mix of just fandom stuff w/ friends & rp blogs. i do remember it was a hellacious journey until i could figure it out and since then i just have tried to keep improving or learning new things etc etc.

17. 10 sets, 8 sets, 6 sets? How many gifs to you prefer in a set

this is VERY dependent on the set im making at the time. i try to avoid like sets with a lot of images bc i get very tired with the task. but some stuff like i try to do between 2-5 so it looks nice in a post.

15. Have you ever had gifs stolen and reposted

constantly. usually its my avan gifs or star trek gifs. which is like the major reason i dont do them anymore or do a lot of non-video game slash anime sets. i tend to confront the person or ask them to take it down & it goes as well as you expect half the time: not the best. the worst time was a rp blog stealing all my avan gifs, not aware i was in the same rp circles so like tons of mutuals( most shared between the two of us ) notified me & they blocked me on said blog so i had to message them from my personal + other blogs i had at the time as well as said mutuals spoke with them as well before they took them down. it was a very frustrating day.

20. Mac or PC

i have experience with both mac & pc, however my default is my pc which is built for gaming. i’ve had mac laptops in the past via my older sister who would give me her school handmedowns. as far as specifically creating art gifs what have you, i have no preference between the two.

26. How many un posted sets are in your drafts right now

sO I KNOW A LOT OF PPL DO THAT WHERE THEY MAKE STUFF AND SAVE IT IN DRAFTS BUT IM DKSJHA i just i dont have the like mental fortitude to make something and not post it soon after. back when i was doing rp stuff & writing i used my drafts very heavily for wips & i sorta do that w/ gifsets in a way. as i make them i have a opened draft to upload each one to see how they look on tumblr, if they upload correctly, & to check coloring between my main monitor secondary monitor & phone as well so i make sure colors are good theres no washes etc. so usually if there is something in the drafts im currently working on it or its about to be posted so there are zero things in my drafts other than this ask kfsha

40. Why do you make gifs

good question. no clue. fkjhdsa but its fun & i enjoy it. its also just fun to share my interests in a way that can be shared by other people in reblogs etc. reading the tags of my sets & seeing ppls reactions or just opinions or whatever is just it rlly makes it. I Make Gifs For The People.

45. Ever gotten hate over a set

i’ve had ppl disrespect me bc of a gifset but ive never gotten hate persay. i do get a lot of bitchy people upset about my “do not repost or remove caption.” that i add to my posts which like i tend to ignore. realistically i cant stop ppl from doing such but it has helped so i keep doing it. usually i get a comment on said set they reblogged that day or in the tag but ive gotten 1 ask once about it & it was p funny. but proper hate with a valid reason ? nah.

49. How much would you say you’ve improved since you first started giffing

oH SO MUCH LOL. from coloring, to timing of the frames, to composition, to typography, to quality. the more i make the better i get. && there are things i want to redo to see how much i’ve improved. im not using the best tools to make these, but i’ve seen my improvement i’ve seen how much better i am & it’s rlly nice to be able to visually see your growth.

                                     /  GIFMAKER ASKS

#farllee.asks #fashionablyfyrdraaca #yEAH THANKS FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Bestie I finally have enough time to listen to your Guardian of the Wild draft and let me just say, i can feel Direction with your song. I don't know how to explain this but if this was a movie- animated project i can feel the framing devices being used. The little piano things perfect for opening credits, then the beating of the drums to establish a large frame of people (like a camera swooping over head a festival) and then it gose down a bit for the people to over hear some of the conversations characters would be happening. Then at around the 40% the shot shifts to a Main Character doing something epic like shooting things required for a puzzle with their bow or a dance-like battle between two rivals. When the instrumental shifts it gives off this silly but goofy vibe (and thats the only part i would even consider monotonous). Its like a post-credit theme vibe contrast to everything else's introduction-like sounds. This is not a diss or anything like that and I just want you to be aware there is a slight Out Of Place factor. If this is the vibe that is intended then Bravo! Kip! Wonderful! Its like when an octopath theme switches from a boss's theme to the character's theme. It feels like a leitmotif I would find later on. I love how it transitions to a Homey vibe and then to an Epic Vibe. Again with my camera comparison, I can just feel the framing devices of characters walking toward the center of a festival. THEN IT GOES INTO SPOOKY TOWN LIKE OOOO!! WHATS GOING ON!!! :D!!! Amazing job kipster. Spectacular vibes

WH. Holy shit!!! Thanks a bunch Steel… I have been trying to go out of my comfort zone with music more by making more complex orchestrations (Which is kind of why I’ve been trying to outgrow GarageBand since the sound output gets kinda crunchy when you use too many instruments) so I’ve basically been using…Anime intros and trailer themes as my basis for songs slkdfjsdlkfjdslk So I guess that has come across well!

This piece is like, my successor to Son of Farore in some ways where I am trying to get the right balance of original melody and hints of the classic Zelda motifs while trying to make a musical journey that is interesting and makes sense with the flow so..yeah! I do try to make my music loopable so my real challenge is fading everything back to the starting Satori vibes, or as you say the “opening credits” but I’ll admit I got kinda lazy and just copied the same measures from the beginning and stapled it at the end with a single arpeggio…but I’m glad you like the draft so much!!!

No final version for your people until I finish it up and get it approved by the big boss and upload for YouTube hehe <3

[otakween]

Digimon World 2 - 40 Hours in update

Still trucking along with this one. I try to do about one dungeon a day and judging by the walkthroughs, I'm halfway through the main game (11 out of 20 missions). I'm finding both the gameplay and the story to be frustratingly uninspired, but at least I'm not ready to chuck my controller at the screen like I was with the first game. It's a good mindless game that I can watch YouTuber videos to and I appreciate that at the end of a work day.

Notes:

-I swear, this plot feels like it was kind of just made up as they went along. Characters come out of nowhere and they all have stupid names (Ben Oldman? What is that, a Star Wars character?) Everyone's flat, so I'm not emotionally attached to anyone. I'm also not emotionally attached to my digimon because I know I'll have to digivolve them eventually and they'll look completely different. (Still better than game 1 when they would die every 2 hours though).

-God bless emulators. If I was playing this game on an actual console I probably would have rage quit by now. Not only does save scumming allow me to avoid having to redo dungeons a jillion times, but I've also been using the frame limit feature to speed things up. Everything in this game takes TEN YEARS. In battles you're forced to watch up to 6 digimon slowwwwly attack each other and every time your character interacts with another they slowwwwly approach one another. Loading times in between screens are pretty bad too. Hitting the fast forward button has made everything so much more tolerable and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

-All the dungeons look almost identical and that's become pretty mind numbing. They couldn't at least put some different colors/textures in there?? "Find the exit" isn't a very fun gameplay style either.

-Catching digimon is a pain in the ass...or it WOULD be if it weren't for my save scumming. Imagine going 10 floors in a dungeon only for a digimon to be like "Nah, I don't feel like joining your team" and then having to do those 10 floors again!? Couldn't be me...

-DNA Digivolution just forces you to have to do major grinding. I wish it worked like the anime where you got new digimon out of it, but instead you just get normal-ass digimon that you could tame in the wild. At least the Digimon Center is supplying me with the actually good digimon...

-Not sure the emphasis on digimon type was really necessary. It was kinda a neat idea, but having certain items only work for certain types is just annoying. Most of this game is just inventory management lol.

-I don't really know what's going on in the story at this point. They're suddenly talking about an evil digimon prince and I'm just like "where did that come from??" Bleh. I kinda wish there was voice acting.

-Positives: I like the art style still and the variety in digimon and battle moves are good. I've also kind of enjoyed slowly improving my digi-beetle.

-It seems like this game won't be overly long. I can tell you right now that I most likely won't be doing a completionist run. It doesn't seem like there are medals in this game anyways? It seems like it would be hell trying to obtain every digimon...

#digimon world #digimon world 2 #video games #digimon

[briannas-casebook]

ANIMATION CONTEXT: Flipboard

In this week's lesson on Animation Context, we looked at a few articles on our Flipboard. One of these articles featured a video showcasing an hour-long demo for the latest version of Toonboom Harmony, HARMONY 22. This software is used primarily for digital 2d animation and allows for the creation of frame-by-frame animation. The software is also an industry standard for 2D animation, particularly for television.

As someone who has experience with digital frame-by-frame animation and 2D paper cut-out stop motion, I would love to try and learn how to use and experiment with ToonBoom Harmony.

After this, we were shown several animated short films from the 1920s and 30s. This included two shorts from the 'Out of the Inkwell' series by the Fleischer Brothers and the early shorts of Walt Disney animation such as 'Skeleton Dance' and 'Steamboat Willy'.

During the 1920s and early 1930s, the Fleischer Studio was a fierce competitor with Disney. At this time, Disney had yet to release their first feature-length film and its main output at this time was the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies shorts. These theatrical shorts are best known for their use of synchronised sound and simple, yet bouncy, and expressive "rubber hose" character animation by animator and director Ub Iwerks. A style that would serve as the precursor to the squash and stretch Disney style of the later 30s and 40s and would serve as the groundwork for the 12 principles of animation outlined by Frank Tomas in his book 'The Illusion of Life'. Fleischer Studios were also innovators for their time, inventing and patenting the rotoscope. a device that allows an animator to draw over live-action footage to create animation cells. This is a technique that the Fleichers would go on to use in short films such as 'The Tantilizing Fly' from 1919 and 'Minnie the Moocher' from 1932. Rotoscoping as a technique would also go on to be used in non-Fleicher Studios feature films such as the 1968 'Yellow Submarine' and the work of Ralph Bakshi like 'Wizards' and his adaptation of 'Lord of the Rings'.

On a side note, you can see the influence of films like 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' and 'Gertie the Dinosuar' had on the 'Out of the Inkwell' series. With 'Ko-Ko the Clown' being drawn by the animator in a live-action segment of the film and comes to life seemingly before the eyes of the audience. An influence you can see carried on in more contemporary works such as the 1991 short film 'Manipulation' and the 'Animator vs Animation' web series.

Another thing that set Fleischer Studios apart from its competitors, such as Disney were the dark and surreal situations of their shorts. With many of their protagonists portrayed as being down on their luck and placed in dilapidated city streets (reflective of the bleak landscape of 1920s depression era America) and strange landscapes filled with bizarre spooks. The cartoons of the Fleischer Brothers also skewed their content more toward adult viewers, with innuendo-laden gags and risque designs, such as Betty Boop. A flirtatious and cheeky character whose personality and, for the time, risque short-skirted outfit and ever-falling leg garter were heavily inspired by the flapper girl counter-culture movement of the 1920s. Betty's sultry looks and the male attention she receives because of them - being a frequent running gag throughout films starring her.

Echos of the rubber hose animation of both Disney/Ub Iwerks and the Fleischers can still be seen in the modern day, most notably with the action platformer game, 'Cup Head', which takes major influence from the surreal and occasionally dark, yet appealing and fun spirit of the animation of the 1920s and early 1930s.

I definitely found looking at these old cartoons and what influenced them, as well as the work that would go on to be influenced by it, to be a fascinating look into the history of animation - especially the weird and wonderful world of rubber hose animation, a field which I may take inspiration from in the future.

#fleicher animation #fleischer studios #disney #walt disney #ub iwerks #Youtube #animation context

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Jou Kido Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Jou, shall we!

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 109 (approx. 89 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 69 votes, the secondary poll got 40 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 11% (approx. 8 votes) and 0% (0 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: With a huge lead of 34 votes, while basically facing no serious competition at any point of the voting time, Mimi (38%) won this poll very clearly, mirroring her own poll in the process. And that is not surprising;  within the tumblr fandom - and especially throughout the last year -, the ship has gained visibly more attention than it has in other internet spheres, especially Japanese centric. Considering how their bond is displayed in the anime, framing their arcs to intertwine at several points in the timeline around the theme of “selfish choices vs own choices”, it is not surprising that they are viewed as viable romantic options for each other as well. They do discover their roles as supporting characters while also supporting each other just splendidly, with tiny hints of (mutual) affection sprinkled in, making it quite an appealing ship.

2nd place: This has been one of the few cases in which the secondary poll had an impact on the final table, with second and third place being literally just 1 vote apart; Yamato (17%) won this race in the end and even though he was inheriting this place rather comfortable for the majority of the voting time, the third place could have overtaken him if it had gone on a little longer. Seeing how Joumato has gained more attention on Twitter lately, it is no surprise to see Yamato placed here though - as several media forms (the anime as well as the novels and the stageplay) have focused on their relationship. They encourage each other in terms of finding their paths, making their own choices and Jou was even responsible for activating Yamato’s Crest of Friendship in the first place.

3rd place: Our third spot is taken by none other than the famous Bike Girl (16%), one of the few unnamed side characters with only a short appearance in the “Diablomon Strikes Back” movie. However, she left a remarkable impression to a point that was highly appealing to the fandom - a mere passerby character, whom Jou enthusiastically asked for her bike to get Daisuke and Ken to their destination safely. STILL, she stayed by his side for the remaining runtime of the movie, even being shown contributing to the defeat of their enemy while standing next to him... Ending in a very friendly departure that, EVEN SEVERAL YEARS LATER, left us wondering if she wasn’t the mysterious girlfriend he had been referring to all throughout Tri. And thus, it is understandable that said mystery put her so high in the poll.

Honorary mentions: Following up to third place, Jou’s unnamed mystery girlfriend (13%) was pretty close as well - since we never got confirmation on who she was, what she looked like or what her name was, a very popular headcanon of the fandom is that her and Bike Girl are actually the same person, as mentioned above... Thus explaining why the votes were so close together. Other honorary mentions in this section include Sora and Koushiro, who received 4 votes each (5%). Taichi at least received 2 votes (2%).

“The 1 vote squad”: The niche section is occupied by Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Meiko (1% each).

“0 votes go to…”: Zero votes have been given for Takeru, Hikari and Ken.

Annotations: Nothing extraordinary aside from the fact that Jou’s poll (as well as Iori’s) had been the reason why the secondary polls had been created in the first place. Despite Jou being among the characters who received the least votes overall, the “Others” option had gained comparably many votes (11% with 8 votes).

What did the other polls say?

Jou won Mimi’s poll (22%) only by a slim lead, and finished third in Yamato’s (17%) and also in Sora’s (7%), thus mirroring his own results at least to a certain degree.

In the majority of the remaining polls, he turned out to be a very rare and very niche choice, including Iori (4%), Taichi (2%), Koushiro (2%), Meiko (2%) and Daisuke (1%).

He received 0 votes in the polls for Takeru, Hikari, Ken and Miyako - as the former three didn’t receive any votes in his poll either, neither Joukeru, Joukari or Jouken are considered viable options.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

Mimi had been almost without any serious competition - at least in terms of characters that actually had a name (or face), which was not surprising in the slightest, as he had been the winning choice in her poll as well. They are a popular choice in the Western fandom (and probably less visible in Eastern fandoms mainly due to the age difference). While Yamato has been a popular option overall, with their ship having gained more popularity recently, he earns his place here as well. Interestingly enough, due to the fact that Bike Girl and Jou’s (mystery) girlfriend were the choices that got most of the votes outside of the main cast, basically every other “main cast” option can be considered a rare-pair at this point  - which the small sample size obviously also contributed to. Thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls.

Jou in general is a very interesting case to look at when it comes to the subject of shipping - while he gained a lot more popularity in recent years on tumblr and twitter and has fans who passionately do ship him with fellow Chosen Children, he still received among the least votes overall here (only behind Iori and Sora). This is especially due to him being the oldest character, so he is very unlikely to get shipped with the younger characters members of the cast. On one hand, that explains why “outside” choices (such as a somewhat canonically confirmed girlfriend) have been so popular here - and even though the Mimi/Jou/Koushirou triangle had a very tight race in Mimi’s poll, they had never been as intensely debated as, for instance, the Taiorato triangle. It may also explain why Hikari and Takeru, for example, didn’t receive any votes at all (despite Jou having saved the latter several timesand them sharing a bond due to that). Iori, however, did receive singular votes - which may have to do with him being Jou’s successor of the Crest of Reliability and him being his kohai, despite their age difference being the biggest in the entire series.

The comments in the tags have also only mentioned characters already included in the polls - since the “Others” option in the first poll already indicated lots of interest in outside choices, it is not surprising to see Bike Girl and his girlfriedn being so prevalent, while the “Others” choice in the secondary poll didn’t receive any further votes. So the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. Usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

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#jou kido #jyou kidou #jou kidou #joe kido #digimon #digimon polls #shipping polls #meta #my two cents #my edit