diary-of-a-mad-man

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

The Roles of the RVT members in Pokemon Horizons

One of the things that I love about Horizons is how the members of the Rising Volt Tacklers are all unique in their role/occuptation. Each member seems to subvert the expectations or stereotypes associated with their position:

Friede is officially the leader and pilot of the Rising Volt Tacklers. Ironically, it's the other members of the group who take charge of him, if you will. For instance, Mollie and Orla counteract his eccentric personality with their sensibility and level-headedness. Also, the other members are quick to correct Friede when he forgets to tell Liko important information. An example of this is when Mollie scolds him for keeping Liko in the dark about the group's intentions in episode two. Although Friede is in charge, the real authority on the airship is the support and knowledge that comes from his friends. Each crew member (apart from the protags) plays a crucial role in the ship's functionality. This is proven further in episode 13 when Orla reveals that she engineered the Brave Asagi on behalf of Friede's wishes. To add, the ship was originally Ludlow's fishing boat, so the ownership goes back to him. By saying this, I don't mean that Friede has no power by himself. However, his leadership is very much scaffolded by his connections to Orla, Murdock, Mollie, Ludlow and Dot.

The other RVT members also subvert the expectations of their retrospective roles. Orla takes on the traditionally male role as both a mechanic and the engineer of the Brave Asagi. Meanwhile, as a male character, Murdock has a more domestic role of cooking. I feel like this was done intentionally to show that the RVTs are all outsiders to some extent. In Mollie's case, she is a nurse joy who took the different path of travelling and caring for wild pokemon. Ludlow, despite his old age, is still eager to travel alongside the others. Even Friede, the head of the group, is unconventional. In episode 12, Liko's mum points out that he does not look like a Pokemon professor. In response, he says "I don't mind. I feel better like this." (according to the subtitles). I've said this in the past, but I think that the reason Friede does not want to be called a professor is because he does not want to be boxed in by that label. He is not just a professor- he is a battler, pilot, friend and Dad. He is an individual in his own right.

One of the things I'm looking forward to seeing the most in Horizons is Liko, Roy and Dot finding their own sense of identity. With how the story has progressed so far, I would love to see how the adult characters continue to influence their development. Speaking of the younger cast members, Liko Roy and Dot are already unique in their own ways. Liko is taking over from a male protagonist after 25 years. Similarly, Roy is the second protagonist, filling in for what has so often been a female sidekick in past seasons. Arguably, he has a much bigger role than a sidekick (being a mc) but he is still the second major character after Liko. In Dot's case, she breaks the binaries between introversion and extraversion through her dual personality. As Nidothing, she wears a facade of confidence and excitement. However, underneath the costume, she is reclusive and hates social interaction. She represents the human condition, imo. Irl, a lot of people come across as more confident than they actually are. This is symbolised through the extreme example of Dot and her personality as Nidothing. (Or that's how I like to think about it).

Overall, the Rising Volt Tacklers are all unique in their own ways. One of the biggest themes in the new anime seems to be overturning common character tropes and stereotypes, and exploring new 'horizons'.

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

when your broke ass needs to take on odd-jobs to get money for your flying pirate ship

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Rockruff found a comfortable spot to take a nap <3

(If you wanna see the inspiration for this keep reading <3)

This adorable photo I saw on Twitter was the reason I drew this <3

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Maybe it’s because I didn’t really watch much of the og pokemon as a kid but I absolutely adore Pokemon Horizons. Please create this silly found family and solve pokemon mysteries and travel.

Or I’m just captivated by animated Pokemon battles and mysteries.

I love mysteries in shows so much

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

I get such a visceral response everytime I get a spam college email that uses my nickname. It’s not even a nickname I use often anymore. Like who told you this, who is informed you of this and why are you using it you fiends. I’m not going to your random ass Christian college in bumfuck nowhere. Informal my ass, use my name if you’re going to send these emails

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

I have made the realization that as I’m enby and aroace I am both the artsy gremlin gf and the gamer tech bf in those videos, peak equilibrium

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

cue that audio thats like 'i cant stop thinking about those tragic little gay men, they consume my every waking thought' cause yeah

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

AUDITIONS ARE NOW OPEN!

With the From the Archives fanfic completed, we here at the podfic project are now seeking voice actors for the remaining cast! Open roles are Jimmy, Martyn, Doc, fWhip, Tango, Lizzie, Joel, and Etho! If you are interested in voicing any of these characters, please consider sending in an application!

Auditions will be open for two weeks, from today (August 6) through August 20! You can apply for as many of the available characters as you want!

APPLY HERE!

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Alright I have a 6 and half hour playlist of sea shanties and bard tavern like tunes. Therefore I will be assigning said songs to the pirate smp memebers, this list will update and change with the story. I accept opinions and thoughts for those changes

Current List

Pirate SMP Sea Shanty List

Herons

ZombieCleo - All for me Grog

Olivesleepy -

OwengeJuice - The Last Shanty

SoupforEloise -

Smajor - Farewell Wanderlust

Watermunch -

Kestrels

Scar - The Flying Dutchman

Oli - Leave Her Johnny

Guqqie - Under a Violet Moon

Kyle -

Sausage - A Drop of Nelson’s Blood

Martyn - Bones in the Ocean

Kites

Aimsey - You and Me and the Devil Makes Three

Krow -

Reddoons - Drunken Salior

Bekyamon -

Tubbo -

Puffy - Captain Crow

Nightingale

Willowmvp -

Acho - Inkpot Gods

Graecie -

Roscumber -

DarkEyebrows -

Apokuna -

Oli’s Wife - Jolene (kisstrels lmao)

Songs I definitely want to add but I don’t know where yet;

Loreley, Savage Daughter, Touch the Sky, The Horror and The Wild, Teir Abhaile Riu, Santiana, Fish in the Sea

Playlist Link

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

I have just read the latest volume (4) and learned that it’s the last one.. WHYYYYY THERES SUCH A GOOD SET UP 😭😭😭 THE VIBES THE CREATIVTY THE STORY THE CHARACTERS im in pain

Why is there no ‘can’t stop cursing you’ content this manga slaps, there’s only 3 volumes right now but they’re each so interesting story wise. I love my weird biology teacher and his son as they stop murderers.

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Hey, we need to talk about the way Batfamily fans write Cass using ASL, because a lot of it is really fucking ableist

But Cass can't speak, of course she needs to sign!

Not true! There is nothing physically wrong with Cass's vocal chords or mouth, there's nothing in her brain stopping her from making sounds, and she is not an elective mute. She actually learns to speak individual words really quickly after she puts herself into an environment where that's a useful skill. Basil teaches her to quote huge chunks of Shakespeare in Nu52, and that's easier for her than forming simple sentences. That would definitely not be the case if she had any physical limitations on her speech.

Cass's disability is that she was not taught any language, and so she is having to grok the entire concept of language from the ground up. Grammar and syntax; tonality; how to combine words to convey more complex ideas; how putting two words next to one another can change their meaning; how to break down a whole idea into the individual parts needed to turn it into words; the fact that people's words might not line up with their tone and body language so you have to pay attention to both; how to tell if someone wants a response or is stating a fact; how to work out meaning from context if a word is new or someone has an unfamiliar accent; how to know if someone is using a new word or if they actually just have an unfamilar accent and all the ways words can be bent and changed before they become something new; the fact that two words can use the same sounds but have the same meaning; the fact that there can be two different words that mean the same thing. This is all stuff she didn't learn as a baby, and not knowing it would be just as much an impediment to learning ASL as learning English (for accent, swap out things like having limited movement in their hands, or having learned slightly different forms of the same sign, using a lot of home-signs etc, it's the same concept in a different medium).

There is no language on earth Cass wouldn't have these problems with. ASL is not any kind of shortcut.

But she reads body language, and ASL is kind of like body language right?

Not true, also pretty abelist! Just as the sounds which make up spoken language are essentially arbitrary (there's no objective reason why the sound "gud" should mean good, English speakers just all agree it does) so most of the signs in ASL are arbitrary! There's no reason for

to mean good. ASL users just all agree that it does. Cass knowing body language would not help her any more with ASL than it would with English, and if anything, it might make it harder, because sign uses the whole body and therefore changes the way people use body language so unless she saw a lot of ASL users as a child (and there's no particular reason to think she did), she would have to adjust what she knows about body language to account for those differences!

But she signs in the comics!

Nope! She uses hand gestures to communicate sometimes, but that's not signing. Pointing at food and miming eating to convey hunger is not sign. Pretending to punch someone and pulling it at the last second to convey you could hurt them but won't (Cass's actual first communication with Bruce in the comics) isn't signing. I've done the point and mime thing in countries where I didn't speak the language, that does not mean I knew that country's native sign language!

But she learns ballet, that's like a physical language, so sign is the same thing!

Nope! Also low key kinda abelist. Dance is a method of communication, but it isn't a full language. There's almost no grammar or sentence structure, the vocabulary is extremely limited, and also you can just make up new dance moves or use moves from different styles of dance together and still convey your meaning (you cannot just make random gestures or use BSL and expect ASL users to understand you, because they're full complex languages). Cass vibes with dance pretty hard, but that's precisely because it isn't a language, it doesn't require any of the skills she struggles with in order to communicate emotion.

But ASL isn't like a real language, it's not as complex or nuanced as spoken English so it would be easier for her to learn

That is so fucking gross I don't even want to have this conversation with you. Go and sit in the timeout box and think about what you've just said, and then commit to doing better.

But I just think that once she learned it, she'd like using ASL because [it's very expressive/she's used to her world being very quiet/she can use it on stealth missions more easily/etc]

Valid, understandable, have a lovely day

But I'm writing an AU were she uses ASL because her backstory is too comic-book-y to fit in no-capes AUs but I didn't want to erase her communication difficulties so I've written her as having a different disability

Cool. Send me a link when you're done.

But what if I write her using makatong?

(For context, makatong is a form of sign developed for people who have intellectual or phsyical disabilities that affect language use, which uses more descriptive signs which require less precise hand possitioning than other sign languages, and which has very simple grammar, making it easier to learn than ASL). Yes this would be easier for her, because it's intended for people with similar difficulties to hers, but since her difficulties stem purely from a lack of experience which can be (and are, in canon) overcome with practise, it would be kind of needlessly limiting compared to her just starting out with very simple spoken language, and wouldn't give her as many chances to develop those language learning skills. Makatong is also not mutually intelligable with any other sign language, so she couldn't easily transition from that to ASL once she got used to signing, she'd have to start learning it from scratch.

But I HC her as deaf

There is 0 comics evidence to support that, but it's a headcanon, so who cares. You do you. Have fun.

But learning sign language would be better than learning to speak anyway because it's a universal language!

That is not even slightly how it work. Go read the wikipedia article on sign languages around the world or something. Do some research.

TL:DR; Cass does not use ASL in the comics, and nothing about her disability or sign languages in general would make learning ASL easier or more convinent for her than spoken English. That does't mean writing her signing is inherently bad, but you should examine your reasons for doing it to ensure you're not just perpetuating ableist stereotypes about the language.

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Why is there no ‘can’t stop cursing you’ content this manga slaps, there’s only 3 volumes right now but they’re each so interesting story wise. I love my weird biology teacher and his son as they stop murderers.

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Pixel Art by Ryan Haight

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Hand study gao hang 5x6 feet Acrylic on raw canvas 2023

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

favorite part of gotham knights is how Tim is always two steps away from going full mad scientist and everyone else is doing their best to stop him

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

Once again spreading my Tim Drake Wyvern agenda

Tim’s gonna need to think of a new identity soon or he’s gonna get stuck with something like sleuth

[diary-of-a-mad-man]

I don’t know who but this is someone’s limited life timer