nicholasandriani

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It's my 12 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

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Introducing “Lu and Monie Glow Up” - Writing a New Animated Series About Found Families, Neurodivergence, and Living Artfully

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Reclaiming the Frame: Female-Led Comics and the Rise of Heroine-Centered Narratives

In the vibrant and evolving world of comics, the resolutely necessary emergence and increasing prominence of female-led and female identifying leads as engineers of stories represent a powerful shift in both cultural narrative and representational equity. For decades, comics served as a playground for hypermasculine ideals and objectified femininity, offering little room for female agency beyond…

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Creating Between Coasts: Being an Artist-Scholar in Kansas City

When people think of cultural hubs, they often look to the bright lights of New York, the creative sprawl of Los Angeles, or the indie corners of Chicago. But tucked here in the heartland, Kansas City pulses with a creative energy that is both fierce and quietly radical. Being an artist and researcher here means working at the intersection of tradition and innovation—and doing so against the…

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My process and an Essay on New Poem: fortitudine vincimus

Draft 1: 02/16/2025 “This year blossoming A-Bomb Dropping aplomb Plum-plum-plum A hum-hum-hum-hum And we’re done. Kicked teeth, once mine I lie floorside and planar A Lying smile In a room with a view Of the teeth, once new For sale Never used Dreams? Rearing foil reflections On floor, mine carpet bombs yesteryear’s Napalm A fortnight still not with song NOr sonic…

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Reality is Dead, Long Live Reality!

On Art, Education, and the Current State of Everything MARCH 3, 2025 By Nicholas Andriani I woke up today with a question rattling in my head like a loose screw in the machinery of modern life: What does it mean to create in an era of collapsing reality? Everywhere I turn, the fractures are widening. The things we once called truth, fact, or even just a shared reality are dissolving under the…

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A Writer’s Credo Free Printable

A Writer’s Credo: Embrace the blank page: See it not as an empty space, but as a canvas ripe with potential.  Write with honesty: Let your authentic voice shine through, even when it’s uncomfortable.  Read voraciously: Immerse yourself in the works of others to learn and be inspired.  Observe the world: Pay attention to the details of everyday life, they are the seeds of great…

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The Current State of Games for Learning: Engaging Education Through Play

In recent years, the intersection of gaming and education has sparked a fascinating conversation around how play can enhance learning outcomes. Games for learning, or “serious games,” are not just entertainment anymore—they are becoming powerful tools in classrooms, corporate training, and even personal development. As the demand for engaging, personalized, and adaptive learning grows, game-based…

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Exposition is Not an Info Dump, Don’t Stop the Fun Train

Puppet Show as exposition on Dark Crystal. Genius, genius! Take a cure from game design. Make a thematic trailer or tutorial or the Jurassic park ride with the animation to set the scene. Doing expositional in a fanciful way, this is the key. Drama stops for exposition “Can input this down in a way that’s the character asking or question, or that attests to what the character wants” Never…

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Story Theme(s) and the 4E’s of the Writer’s Craft

Most ancient tragedy had at its heart the contradiction between two morally justifiable positions. Aristotle begins defining tragedy as “imitation of actions of great import”; the actions themselves are motivated by a conflict of ideas. A few of examples: Agamemnon & Iphigenia: Agamemnon is forced to chose between his duties as a king and a field marshal of all Greek armies and his duties as a…

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open.spotify.com/episode/0JicMOqn4ZT5nrhuCesREv Letting go

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Japanese Myths in Dungeons & Dragons

D&D is if anything a playground for brewing cocktails of legendary stories. Stories steeped in a broth of human experiences that penetrate the greater depths of our psyches. I don’t know about you, but that’s half the incentive — to try on new ways of being, seeing, and moving through the world. I’ve long had an interest in researching the East Asian aspects of D&D and took a moment during…

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Join the Pokémon Mythology Project!

Join the Pokémon Mythology Project!

Welcome, Pokémon Fans! Are you passionate about Pokémon and fascinated by the rich lore and mythology that underpin these amazing creatures? We’re embarking on an exciting project to explore the connections between real-world myths and Pokémon, and we need your help! What I’m Looking For: We want to hear from YOU! Whether you’re a seasoned Pokémon Master or a new Trainer, your insights and…

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Translating the Hyakunin Isshu: Day 15/100 Emperor Koko

Translating the Hyakunin Isshu: Day 15/100 Emperor Koko

Hello and welcome back to our 100-day journey the legendary Hyakunin Isshu. I’ve missed our ruminations over the stickiness of translation, our wrestling with the ambiguity of localization. In case you missed the last entry, here’s Day 14 of Translating the Hyakunin Isshu and you can catch up on the rest of my project on Translating the Hyakunin Isshu here. I’m excited to return our attention…

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Cultural Practices: Pai Sho - The Game

I'm honestly a little embarrassed it took me this long to get to this topic! As always, credit goes to @atla-lore-archive for saving all the neat ATLA tidbits and concept art from the old Nick website.

Pai Sho (牌數), meaning "several game pieces" in Chinese, takes inspiration from a few different table games:

Its most obvious influence is the German game Sternhalma, known in the English-speaking world as Chinese Checkers. Like Chinese Checkers, the game is played on a circular board.

The lines on the board and the circular tiles are reminiscent of Xiàng​qí (象棋), known in the English-speaking world as Chinese Chess. The pieces often being positioned on the intersection of lines is also very similar to Chinese Chess.

The game's four player limit and visually creative tiles are reminiscent of Mahjong (麻将), China's most famous tile game. In particular, the iconic white lotus tile appears to draw heavily from the classic Mahjong one-dot tile.

Finally, the name Pai Sho was likely inspired by Pai Gow (牌九), meaning "nine game pieces" in Cantonese--- which is both a domino game and a style of poker.

Just like ATLA's animals, it seems that Pai Sho is a fusion of different real life sources. In the next posts, I'll be covering the symbolism and cultural significance behind each Pai Sho tile shown in ATLA.

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

https://ko-fi.com/atlaculture

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(via 10 MORE Games Inspired by Japanese Mythology and Folklore)

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The Prodigal Son Returns: Prince Zuko, the Blue Spirit, and the Parable of Identity. Assessing the Rhetorics Avatar: The Last Airbender as a Media Theorist

Zuko’s role as the Blue Spirit in the popular animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” serves as a poignant parable about identity, sacrifice, and redemption. As a prince of the Fire Nation and son of Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko’s life is defined by his familial ties and his duty to the Fire Nation. However, his struggle to reconcile his loyalty to his family with his own moral compass drives him to…